We had a very melancholy journey in our rattling dirty vehicle, in which my poor companion threw herself back, insensible to every thing but her despair. "O! my father, my father! I have destroyed his happiness, and shall shorten his days. My sweet-my engaging child! Shall I never see her more? O! if I could but blot out all the five last years of my life!" were the incoherent expressions of her anguish, which it seemed to relieve her bursting heart to utter. At last we stopped at a forlorn looking house, in a little dull street leading out of Holborn. The miserable being dismissed the coach, and after staying a few minutes in the passage to dry her eyes, and recompose as well as she could her agitated countenance, went up stairs. Here was sitting in a small comfortless apartment a young man, whose sour irritated countenance and forlorn dress, were a picture both of inward and of external wretched ness. "How could you think of coming home in a hackney-coach, this fine day?" was the ungracious welcome he gave to his wife. "Indeed," said she, "I was too unwell to be able to walk home." "Stuff!" said he, " you were well enough in the morning; and what is to make you worse now? and how, pray, do you think I am to find money to support all your whims and extravagances? and where are the things I told you to get for me?" "I am very sorry," said the poor woman, sinking into a chair, "but I quite forgot them." * Here a fresh burst of anger and abuse burst from the gentleman,-gentleman shall I call him!-but, happily for his wife, spying me in the folds of her shawl, he stopped short in his invectives, and snatching me away, exclaimed, "To-day's paper, I see; how did you come by it?" "I cannot guess," said his wife, "I did not till this instant know I had it: surely I have not taken any thing else by mistake!"-shaking her shawl, and turning as pale as ashes, as if recollecting that, if she had, she had not character enough to vindicate her innocence. Her companion, who did not seem to care for any of her distresses, applied himself immediately to me, and I afforded both him and his wife a short respite from his ill humour ;— a very short one, for with a tremendous oath, that made me absolutely start from his hands, he exclaimed, "I am the most unfortunate fellow in the world! I see there will be a general promotion on the King's death, and if I had not been obliged to sell my commission, I should now have got my majority! But nothing ever prospered with me!-Nothing ever turned out lucky for me.-I never had any friends, never could get on as other men do. But you, Madam, you have been my ruin: I have not known a day's happiness since the hour I first saw you." "I can say truly," said his wife, lifting up her eyes, in which I hoped there was more of repentance than of resentment, "I can say truly, we are more than quits: what should I have been but for you?" What would I have given at that moment for a voice to have told these guilty creatures, instead of recriminating on each other, to look honestly into their own hearts: for in their own hearts they would find their true seducers. "O," said I to myself, "if the thoughtless beauty I saw at breakfast this morning could witness the scene which is now before me, what a lesson would it be to her!" While I was engaged in these reflections, an untidy dirty girl brought in an uninviting repast, and seeing me on the floor, took me up, and brought me down stairs, into what I suppose was called a parlour, where her master and mistress were sitting. At the moment I was brought in they were at high words: the lady had the superiority over her husband in voice and fluency, but which had the better argument I could not discover; for the husband declared he would not stay to be stunned to death by her noise, but would go where he could have good company and good humour. Saying this, he took me and his hat, and marched off to a neighbouring ale-house. Imagine me, compassionate reader, in this new scene: imagine what I must have felt in a place where there were above thirty of the most horrible looking fellows you can suppose sitting round a table. On that table I was thrown, and one of them taking me up, said, "Why, what's here? the Morning Post, indeed! Let me tell you, my friends, there is not a more wicked aristocratical paper in all the world than that same Morning Post. The Pope's bull is a fool to it. Here, give us the Black Dwarf and the Republican! That's the only good stuff for honest men!" "That it is," said a little dirty cobler, who might have been the Black Dwarf himself: " for my part, next to kings and lords, I thinks magistrates the biggest rogues in the land. When I and Dr Watson gets into Parliament, we'll see and make a change among 'em: a poor man can hardly go about his business now, for their ineddling." And he said true enough, for the chief business of the present company appeared to be the passing forged notes, and picking pockets; and I must say I was very thankful when I found myself tossed into a distant corner of the room. Here I lay a long time out of sight, (would I could also have been out of hearing!) till some of the party went off at midnight to go prowling among their usual haunts. Some lingered to a late hour in the morning. I was first spied, after it became broad day, by a little boy, who seized upon me as lawful plunder, and tore me up to make the tail of his kite. I cannot say that I entirely enjoyed this deliberate dissection at the time, but I was afterwards amply repaid for the temporary pain it caused me, when I VOL. VII. found myself once more in my native element, the air. Mounting into the sky, I thought no more of the earth and all its busy scenes, but giving a loose to delight, danced about to the great admiration of a crowd of children which was assembled in Moorfields to see me. At one time I went up so very high, that I could tell philosophers some things they little dream of, if I did not think it better for them to be still groping in the dark. At last stretching myself out as far as I could, the better to examine the crystallization of some hailstones which was going on in a neighbouring cloud, the string that fastened me to the kite gave way, and I found myself, without the least power to assist myself, utterly abandoned to the inercy of the wind. Where I went, and what I saw, I cannot explain, for I was hurled about with too much rapidity, and was too much frightened, to be able to attend to the objects around me. At length I found myself caught fast by something, and perceived I had got entangled in one of the top branches of a tree in St James's Park. Here any body that has the curiosity may see me, by climbing the thirteenth tree on the left hand side as he enters into the Park from Spring Gardens. All I have to request is, that no busy hands will attempt to disturb me; for I am now enjoying that rus in urbe which most men so much desire, and which they so seldom obtain; never, certainly, in the same perfection in which I enjoy it. I am free from all fear of molestation from living creatures, the very crows being scared away from my tree by seeing me in it. I look down from my high but peaceful station on the busy crowds below, and enjoy what with truth may be called a bird's eye view of this noble city. The glory of the heavens is also open to me, and I would not exchange my observatory for that of Greenwich. The morning breeze and the glow of the mid-day sun are equally agreeable to my sensations, and I dread nothing but a shower of rain. The only person who has bestowed any notice on me since I have been an inhabitant of the tree on which I am perched, is a young man who frequently sits in an upper window of one of those houses that look into the Park, and whom, by the shape of his 3 н head, for I know something of cranioscopy, I judge to be of a kindred spirit with my own. He probably sees something congenial in my appearance, and we find means, accordingly, of communicating with each other; and it is to him, gentle reader, that you are now indebted for this history of the Morning Post. HISTORICAL NOTICE ON THE VEHM, DLE AGES. OUR attention was lately attracted, by the account given in the last (47th) Number of the Quarterly Review, to what is there called the Holy Vehm, or Bloody League; and as our reading has made us a little acquainted with this famous tribunal, we mean to lay before our readers the information concerning it we possess. The description given of it in the work from which the passage of the review is quoted, is unsupported by authorities, and looks more like a piece of romance, than of real history. Nothing is, however, more certain, than that there existed in Germany, from the beginning of the thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century, a number of courts of justice known by the name of Vehm, or Frey-Gerichte, and that the members of these tribunals, united into a formidable league, made themselves, in the fourteenth century, terrible to all Germany. Their origin is involved in doubt and obscurity. The most general opinion is, † that they are as old as the time of Charlemagne, and were derived from the itinerant justices or commissioners, (missis per tempora discurrentibus) which that sovereign dispatched yearly to administer justice through his Saxon dominions. In the conquered dukedom of Lower Saxony, including what is now called Westphalia, he had reserved to himself the right of punishing heresy, sacrilege, witchcraft, secret assassina tion, and some other offences, which he declared could not be compensated, like other crimes among the Saxons, by paying a sum of money. It is an historical fact, that he, or his deputy, the Duke of Saxony, sent certain persons yearly through this country to administer justice, and to redress any grievances the conquered people might have against the officers of Charlemagne. These judges were called Send, or Frey-grafen, and to assist them in the execution of their office, two or more of the most trust-worthy, and distinguished inhabitants of each mation of crimes, to testify against district, were appointed to give inforcriminals, and to assist in bringing them to justice. They were called Schöppen, or assessors, and to preserve them from revenge, they were never publicly known. The Vehm-gericht under this name before the thirteenth is not regularly mentioned in history century. The first on record was held in 1211, and then spoken of as a well known thing. And it is chiefly from some points of resemblance between it and these courts of Charlemagne, that it is supposed to be derived from them. For example, the Vehm, or Frey-grafen, were appointed, like the justices, by the Emperor, or some Prince to whom he had conceded the privilege. They administered justice in his name, and subsequent Empecourts to Charlemagne. The Schöprors attributed the origin of these pen had in both the same name, were in the same manner unknown, and the crimes taken cognizance of by the Vehm were principally those which Charlemagne had reserved to himself the right of punishing. The reason assigned for the Vehm Gericht not being mentioned in history under this name before the thirteenth century, is, that it had always before formed part of the regular administration of justice, and was no more noticed than many of the other institutions of that early period. Then, however, Henry the Lion fell under the ban of the empire, and his territories were divided among several princes. Much confusion ensued, which augmented the power of the Vehm, and made it remarkably conspicuous. During his government, it passed, as a customary thing, unobserved, like the daily rising of the sun. Under his successors, however, its extraordinary power made it be regarded as something anomalous like a comet, or an eclipse, and it was recorded with every mark of wonder. Other authors, however, ascribe a very different origin to the Vehm. Spittler, in his Geschichte des Furstenthums Hannover, says it was an invention of the magistrates of towns, and particularly intended for the discovery and punishment of theft. There is, however, one circumstance conneeted with it, which, as it is unaccounted for, disposes us to believe that it had an origin different from both these. It is certain that it was first known in Westphalia among the half christianized Saxons, and it always continued to be a rule, that individuals could only be made Schöppen in the province of Westphalia, which was known under the symbolical name of the red earth.* This single fact tempts us to suppose, that this tribunal had its origin in some superstition of our Saxon ancestors, which has not, to our knowledge, been preserved. Whatever might have been the origin of these courts, they always acted in the name and authority of the Emperor of Germany. He alone ap pointed the Stuhlherren, or presidents, who were generally Princes, both spiritual and temporal, though some few Counts, or Grafen, were included. These again elected the Frey-grafen in their respective districts, but they could only make the election on the red earth. The Frey-grafen were the judges possessing power over life: they pronounced sentence, and issued those summonses to appear before them, which, to the guilty, were probably more terrible than death. Originally the Duke of Lower Saxony is supposed to have had alone the power of electing the Frey-grufen; but after the fall of Henry the Lion, it was acquired by the different petty Sovereigns. The Archbishop of Cologne possessed it through the whole of Westphalia, and thus many of the Frey-grafen were elected by him. The third class of persons composing these courts were called Freyshoppen, and they were elected by the Frey-grafen also on the red earth, and with the knowledge of the Stuhlherren. They must be born in mar Mæser. riage, be of good reputation, and never accused of a crime. They were also known by the name of Wissenden, or initiated. The number of Frey-grafen is not known, but it is supposed, that in the fourteenth century, the Schöppen amounted to one hundred thousand. They knew one another by means of a secret sign, like the Free-masons, which remains undiscovered to this day. It is supposed to have consisted in four words, the initials of which, S. S. G. G. were engraved on their daggers. The Schöppen were the executioners, and they were bound by an oath to spare no persons who had incurred the condemnation of the Vehm, though they might be parents, friends, or relations. If any of them even hinted to a friend that he was in danger, by saying, "there is as good bread to be eaten elsewhere as here," the rest of the Schöppen were bound by their oath to hang the traitors seven feet higher than they hung any other persons. They had no right to reason or deliberate after a sentence was promulgated, but were required to pay the most rigid obedience, so that they might be compelled to hang a man they deemed honest and respectable. When a Schöppe found himself too weak to master a condemned person, he followed him till he obtained the assistance of other Schöppen, and the criminal was then hung with a withy to a tree on the road side. The gallows is always considered as the property of the State, and as the Schöppen held their office by virtue of autho rity from the Emperor, they used a tree as a gallows, to shew they were not the servants, nor limited by the territories of any of the petty Sovereigns of Germany. If they were resisted in their office, and their opponent was slain, the murdered body was then bound to a tree, and a knife stuck by it, pointed out that it was a victim of the Frey-gerichte. The proceedings of the Frey-grafen were not without an appearance of justice. Sentence was never passed without hearing the accused, unless he was contumacious, though it seems frequently to have been the case, that an accusation had to be answered as soon as made. After a person had been three times summoned, and had * Moser. neglected or refused to obey, he was outlawed, and every schöppe might put him to death. The summonses were chiefly directed to persons of rank; the common people were more summarily dealt with. The sittings of these courts were both secret and public; what passed in the former is involved in impenetrable obscurity, the latter were held in the open air, and all the inhabitants of the town or district in which it was held were required to be present. When individuals were summoned before the Freygrafen, the manner of proceeding does not appear so well known. Writers of novels have described the schöppen, wrapped up in their long cloaks, meeting the accused at some place where two roads crossed, and conducting him in secret to some desolate spot, where he found his unknown judges veiled in all the horrors of mystery. The historians, however, have preserved no record of such terrific scenes, and we shall transcribe from them what they have recorded. The following is Spittler's account of the manner of proceeding, but it is obviously taken from an early part of their history, and seems intended to support his view of their origin. "When theft, or any other crime, had been frequently committed, it was resolved to detect and seize the criminals. The magistrates spoke in secret with the schöppen or wissenden, and a vehm-gericht was ordered for the next day. "Before day-break the gates of the city were shut, the bells rung an alarm three times, and on this signal, the whole magistracy and all the citizens were obliged to repair to a certain spot. While the magistrates solemnly placed themselves in an appointed situation, the schöppen or wissenden mixed with the people, and inquired and examined into the character of every one. They remembered what they had heard of individuals, they knew each man's occupation, and this, with all that they could collect, was reported to the secretary of the court. The wissenden seated themselves to form the court, under the guidance of the vehm-graf, and the secretary laid all the information he had received before the magistrates, who examined it before submitting it to the vehm. The persons from whom any thing had been stolen were now required to name the thief, or swear that he was unknown to them. "If any person was named he was called forward, and must confess the deed or purify himself by an oath. If he was accused a second time, his own oath was not sufficient, but he must bring seven other men to swear to his innocence. If he were a third time accused, he must submit to the fiery ordeal. Usually at the left side of the judges pieces of iron were kept heated red hot, the hand of the accused was washed with cold water, and he was obliged to carry the red hot iron a certain distance. This decided his guilt or innocence. "The last trace of a vehm-gericht being held, is found in the middle of the sixteenth century, which is thus described by the famous Franz Algermann, in his Life of Julius Duke of Wolfenbüttle. "When the vehmgericht is to be formed, all the inhabitants of the district, above twelve years of age, must assemble on some known heath or open place, and seat themselves on the earth. Tables are placed in the middle, at which the prince, his councillors, and ministers, assemble. The secret judges then announce the crimes and the criminals, and walking round strike the latter on the legs with a white staff. Whoever is conscious of guilt is permitted to get up, and to depart from the country in a day and a night. He may even submit to be twice struck. Is he struck the third time, however, the executioner is ready, a priest administers the sacrament, and the accused is hung at the next tree. To be once or twice struck was considered as a paternal warning, and a hint to improve." "The last time such a court was held was about 1570. The place was near Zelle, and the Duke of Lüneburg was present." In other places the proceeding seems to have been milder." In the country," says Venturini," when the schöppen knew a man of bad reputation, or who was suspected of any crime, they caused a particular signal to be made at his door in the night; or at feasts, the jug and the glass never reached his lips. This was a sign that Handbuch der Varterländischen Ge schichte. |