Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

saw

-the remainder again being in cipher, except the conjunctions and other words, from which nothing of the meaning could be conjectured.

As to this matter, it still is remark able, that persons who showed in general no trace of any mysterious power of foresight, obtained for the moment in his company the presentiment, through means of sensible signs, of sions certain events of disease and death taking place at the same time, but locally distant. But no such gift has descended to any of his children or grandchildren. For the most part they have rather been sturdy people, full of the enjoyment of life, and resting only on the actual.

This leads me to recall them with gratitude, for much kindness which I received from them in my youth. Thus, for instance, we were employed and amused in very many ways when we visited the second daughter, married to a drug-dealer, Melbert, whose house and warehouse lay in the market, in the midst of the liveliest and most crowded part of the town. There we could look very pleasantly from the windows at the crowd and crush, in which we feared to lose ourselves. And although at first, among the many different articles in the warehouse, only liquorice, and the small brown stamped cakes made from it, had any great interest for us, yet we gradually became acquainted with the profusion of objects which pass in and out in such a business. This aunt was the liveliest of that generation of the family. While my mother, in her earlier years, liked to be nicely dressed, and engaged in some pretty female work, or in reading a book; the other went about the neighbourhood to take charge of neglected children, to attend to them, comb them, and carry them about, which, indeed, she had practised for a good while with me. At a time of public solemnities, or at coronations, she could not be kept at home. Even as a little child she had grasped at the coins scattered on such occasions. And it used to be related, that once when she had got together a good share, and looked at them complacently in the palm of her hand, some one had struck them away, and so she had lost at once the well-won spoils. She took also much pride in the fact, that standing on a stone-post while

the Emperor Charles VII. was going by, at a moment when all the people were silent, she cried into the coach an eager Vivat! and so caused him to take off his hat to her, and even to thank her graciously for this bold compliment. In her house, too, every thing about her was in movement, joyous and brisk, and we children were indebted to her for many a pleasant hour.

A second aunt was in a more quiet state, but also one suited to her cha racter as the wife of the minister Stork, incumbent of St Catharine's Church. He lived, suitably to his disposition and employment, much alone, and possessed a fine library. Here I first became acquainted with Homer, and that in a prose translation, as it is found in the seventh part of Herr Von Loen's new collection of the most remarkable travels, under the title, Homer's Description of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Troy, which is ornamented with engravings in the theatrical French taste. These designs corrupted my imagination in such a degree, that for a long time I could represent to myself the Homeric heroes only under the like forms. The incidents themselves unspeakably delighted me. Only as to the work itself, I had much complaint to make that it gives us no account of the capture of Troy, and ends so abruptly with the death of Hector. My uncle, to whom I expressed this reproach, referred me to Virgil, who then completely satisfied my demand.

It will be taken for granted, that we children had, among our other lessons, a continued and progressive instruction in religion. But the Church Protestantism imparted to us was properly nothing but a kind of dry morality. Of lively exposition there was no thought; and the doctrine suited neither the understanding nor heart. Thus, there were many kinds of dissent from the Established Church. There arose the Separatists, the Pietists, the Moravians, the Quiet-in-the Land, and others, however named or characterised, who all, however, had only the one purpose of approaching the Deity, especially through Christ, more nearly than seemed to them possible under the form of the Established religion.

The boy heard these opinions and propensities unceasingly spoken of; for the clergy as well as the laity divided

themselves into the for and against.
Those more or less dissenting were al-
ways the minority; but their mode of
thinking was attractive by originality,
heartiness, steadiness, and indepen-
dence. Many stories were told of
their virtues and the expression of
them. There was especially much
talk of the answer of a pious tinman
to one of his own trade, who tried to
shame him by the question - who
then, in truth, was his confessor.
With cheerfulness and confidence in
his good cause, the other answered
I have a very distinguished one, no
meaner than the confessor of King
David.

This and the like might easily make an impression on the boy, and excite a similar disposition in him. In short, he fell upon the thought of directly approaching the great God of Nature, the Creator and Preserver of heaven

and earth, whose earlier displays of wrath had long been effaced from memory by the beauty of the world, and the manifold blessings which are bestowed on us in it. But the way to accomplish his purpose was very peculiar.

The boy had, in the main, confined himself to the first article of belief. The God who stands in immediate union with nature, and owns and loves it as his work this seemed to him the true God, who no doubt can enter into a closer relation with man, as with every thing else, and will care for him as well as for the movement of the stars, for days and seasons, for plants and animals. Some passages of the gospel said this expressly. The boy could not assign a form to this being, he therefore sought him in his works; and, in the true Old-Testament manner, would raise an altar to him. Natural productions were figuratively to represent the world. Over these a flame was to burn, and dignify the heart of man aspiring towards his Maker. Now the best ores and specimens were taken out of the cabinet of natural objects which he possessed, and which had been accidentally increased; but how to range and pile up those was the next difficulty. His father had a handsome red-lackered gold-flowered music-desk, in the shape of a four-sided pyramid, with different stages, which was very convenient for

quartetts, although it had latterly been but little used. The boy possessed himself of this, and built up in steps the representatives of nature, one above another, so that the whole looked agreeable, and at the same time expressive enough; so, at an early sunrise, the first adoration was to be performed - only the young priest had not settled with himself how he was to produce a flame which should give at the same time a pleasant smell. At last the thought struck him of combining the two, as he had some pastils of incense, which, if not with a flame, yet with a glimmer, diffused the most agreeable fragrance. Nay, this gentle burning and exhalation appeared to express what passes in the heart still better than an open flame. The sun had long risen, but neighbouring houses concealed the roofs. east; at last it appeared above the Immediately a burning-glass was taken up, and by means of it the pastils were lighted, which stood upon the summit in a handsome china basin. All succeeded according to the wish, and the devotion was complete. The altar remained as a peculiar ornament of the room which had been granted to him in the new house. Every one saw in it only a well-decorated collection of natural objects, but the boy knew better what he did not tell; he longed for the repetition of that solemnity. Unhappily when the most suitable sun rose, the china cup was not at hand. He placed the pastils immediately upon the top of the music-desk; then they were lighted, and the devotion was so great that the priest did not observe what damage his offering caused, until it was too late, for the pastils bad burned mercilessly into the red lacker and the fine golden flowers; and, as if it were an evil spirit that had disappeared, they left behind their black indelible footsteps. This threw the young priest into the most extreme perplexity; he was able, indeed, to hide the mischief by the largest and showiest pieces of ore, but he had lost the spirit for new offerings. And this accident might almost be regarded as a hint and warning how dangerous it always is to try to draw near to God by such proceedings.

WHIG AND TORY FINANCE.

AMONG the many subjects of pressing importance and painful interest, which the present state of the empire forces on our attention, there is none which is of more serious national concern than the state of the public finances. It is of the more importance that the subject should be carefully considered and duly pondered, by all persons capable of forming a rational opinion on the existing state of affairs, that it is one which never, till a crisis arrives, attracts the general notice of the people. If, indeed, a suspension of the dividends to the public creditor, or of the regular pay to the army and navy, were to occur, the public terror would know no bounds; and one-half of all persons of property in the empire would soon be ruined by the universal pressure that would take place upon all persons connected with either agricultural or manufacturing engagements. But, till such a calamity occurs, the bulk of the people take very little interest in the financial concerns of the nation; and, when they are roused on the subject, it is generally for no other object but to clamour for a reduction of taxation, or oppose the imposition of any new assessment. General systematic views for the regulation of financial concerns are never embraced by the majority of the people, either in private or public affairs; and the system of living from hand to mouth, unhappily so common in domestic concerns, speedily proves fatal to the financial affairs of any old state, in which the popular voice is rendered paramount in the legislature.

Among the evils which have been brought upon the country by the Reform Bill, and the consequent substitution of the vacillation of multitudinous for the steadiness of patrician rule, it is perhaps the greatest; because it is certainly the most irremediable, that all attempts, even at foresight, or a prospective system in our financial concerns, has been abandoned -that no administration ever thinks of doing more than getting through the session of parliament with as little clamour as possible-and that the imposition of any new taxes, unless under the pressure of some instant national danger, which strikes the senses of

all, is a thing which, by universal consent, is never to be thought of. Future ages will probably concur in the conclusion, that the imprudent and uncalled for remission of taxation, and the wide breaches effected in the Sinking Fund, from 1815 to 1830, are the greatest stain upon the Tory administrations of Great Britain; and that, if a more manly and far-seeing system of financial policy had been adopted, the burden of the debt, and the pecuniary embarrassments of the state, would by this time have almost entirely disappeared. But, disastrous and inexpedient as were the prodigious and uncalled for reductions in indirect taxes which they made, their system of finance was wisdom itself, compared to that which has been adopted by their successors; and, as the nation has now enjoyed four-and-twenty years of profound peace, of which fifteen were passed under Conservative, or semiConservative, and nine under Liberal administrations, all classes have had ample materials on which to form an opinion, both as to the probability of the debt ever being materially diminished under the present system of popular government, and of the political party whom they have to thank for the present hopeless financial situation of the country.

It is no easy task even for those most experienced in these matters, to state accurately, upon a retrospect of a considerable part of a century, what progress has been made in the reduction of the debt in every particular year; because so many financial operations take place, by which the stock is apparently affected, and so much translation of the debt is made from an unfunded to a funded state, that the ordinary financial tables, if not examined by a person accurately acquainted with the details, are often more calculated to mislead than to inform. There is one test, however, which, after the lapse of considerable periods, affords a certain criterion by which to judge of the progress which has been made either in diminishing or augmenting the public debt. This is by comparing the sum total of the funded and unfunded debt at the commencement and termination of two different periods; for, whatever juggles statesmen may engage in to deceive either the public or themselves from year to year, they can by no possible contrivance exhibit a diminution of the debt and its charges of all kinds at the termination of a period, as compared with its commencement, unless a real reduction has taken place. In order to apply these principles, and bring out in an accurate manner our present financial state, and the manner in which it has been effected by nine years of Whig administration, we shall plunge at once in medias res, and exhibit a statement of the amount and charges of the public debt at the close of the war, the resignation of the

[blocks in formation]

Tory Government in 1830, and at the present time. The results will probably surprise many persons who are not accustomed to look to the vast influence which an unforeseeing system of financial policy produces in a course of years upon the national fortunes ; but their accuracy may be fully relied on, as they are all taken either from Porter's Official Parliamentary Tables, or from the Finance accounts for the year 1838, lately presented to Parliament.

The state of the Public Debt on 1st January 1816, being the commencement of the year after the battle of Waterloo, was as follows :

L.816,311,940 48,510,501

L.864,822,441

The existing Public Debt on the 1st of January 1831, two months after the Duke of Wellington resigned office, was as follows:

[blocks in formation]

The charges of the Public Debt at these two periods exhibit

a still more gratifying result.

[blocks in formation]

L.4,488,716

Interest of funded debt on 1st January 1831,

Reduction of charges of public debt effected in fifteen years of

Tory administrations,

The state of the Sinking Fund at these different periods was as follows :

On 1st January 1816,

On 1st January 1831,

Thus it appears, that during fifteen years, the Conservative party, with all their faults of omission and commission, and they were not few, and almost all rose from one cause, viz. the desire to obtain present popularity at the expense of the ultimate interests of the state, had succeeded in effecting a very great diminution in the public burdens. They had paid off no less than eighty millions of the debt; they had reduced its annual charges by nearly four millions five hundred thousand, and they left a real sinking

[blocks in formation]

* Porter's Parl. Tables, I. 1, 6: Pebrex's Statis, Tables, 33 and 4.

NO. CCLXXXVIII, VOL, XLVI.

21

even then, the short-sighted popular clamour for reduction of taxation had come to break in upon the regular and systematic action of a powerful Government.*

We have said that the Conservative Governments are much to blame for the manner in which they yielded to the popular clamour for a reduction of taxation, and particularly for their immense repeal of the indirect taxes, great part of which, without being any sensible burden upon industry, contributed in a most powerful manner to uphold the public credit, and the removal of which, without benefitting any one but the dealers in the articles taxed, crippled in the most serious manner the operation of the SinkingFund, and prevented the three per cents from rising to par, which would at once have enabled the Government to reduce the interest upon it to two and a half per cent. and thereby saved the nation several millions annually for ever. But that their financial operations, upon the whole, notwithstanding this culpable concession to public clamour and delusion, were conducted with wisdom, and directed to great and durable objects, is decisively proved by the fact, that they were enabled to maintain the public credit so high as to effect the vast reduction in the public burdens which was occasioned by paying off the five and the four per cents. The first of these financial operations, which took place in 1818, effected a diminution of seventeen hundred thousand a year on the interest of the debt; the second, which took place in 1824, produced a saving of three hundred and fifty thousand. Between the two, above two millions sterling a year was saved to the nation

in the interest of debt-an astonishing reduction, more especially when it is considered that it could apply only to two kinds of stock, which, taken together, did not amount to two hundred millions of the public debt. And the fact of Government having been able to effect so great a diminution of the public burdens, by the reduction of interest, afforded the clearest possible demonstration of the wisdom with which, so far as they went, their general financial measures were conducted; for it was solely by sustaining the public credit so effectually, as maintained the funds at a high level, that these great financial benefits were obtained to the nation.

The merit of the Tory Administration, in effecting this great diminution in the public debt, was the greater, that two most important circumstances, duringalmost the whole of their career, contributed most powerfully to cripple the financial resources of the state, and disable the nation from bearing the burdens indispensable for a prudent and effective system of financial administration.

The first of these was the extreme public distress occasioned for several years after the close of the war, by the combination of unusually bad seasons, with the great diminution of general employment, arising from the termination of the vast expenditure and boundless demand for labour occasioned by the war. The seasons of 1816 and 1817, it is well known, were the coldest and most rainy that had been experienced for half a century; and at the very moment that nature was thus denying her usual return to the agricultural labour of man, the transition took place from a state of war to that of peace--the national expenditure sud

* Sums applied to the reduction of debt, being the real sums of income over expenditure, from 1816 to 1831.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][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][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ElőzőTovább »