Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

or marked their disapproval or approval of a certain person as a conjugal partner.

In the following instance a testator must have had as much dislike to Scotchmen as Dr. Johnson had:

"The principle of reproduction stands | propensity of a person rushing into wedlock, next in importance to its elder-born correlative, self-preservation, and is equally a fundamental law of existence. It is the blessing which tempered with mercy the justice of expulsion from paradise. It was impressed upon the human creation by a beneficent Providence to multiply the images of himself, and thus to promote his own glory and the happiness of his creatures. Not man alone, but the whole animal and vegetable kingdom are under an imperious necessity to obey its mandates. From the lord of the forest to the monster of the deep-from the subtlety of the serpent to the innocence of the dove-from the celastic embrace of the mountain-kalmia to the descending fructification of the lily of the plain, all Nature bows submissively to this primeval law. Even the flowers which perfume the air with their fragrance, and decorate the forests and fields with their hues, are but curtains to the nuptial bed.' The principles of morality, the policy of the nation, the doctrines of the common law, the law of Nature and the law of God, unite in condemning as void the condition attempted to be imposed by this testator upon his widow."

[ocr errors]

Testators even venture to touch feminine attire; for we find Mr. James Robbins, whose will was proved in London in October, 1864, declaring "that, in the event of my dear wife not complying with my request to wear a widow's cap after my decease, and in the event of her marrying again, that then, and in both cases, the annuity which shall be payable out of my estate shall be twenty pounds per annum, and not thirty pounds." As there was no definite time mentioned for the widow's cap to be worn, it is probable that Mrs. Robbins found it easy to comply with the letter of the request in her husband's will, and yet indulge her own taste in the matter. In contradistinction to this was the will of Mr. Edward Concanen, who died in 1868, in which he says: "And I do hereby bind my said wife that she do not after my decease offend artistic taste, or blazon the sacred feelings of her sweet and gentle nature, by the exhibition of a widow's cap."

Testators are not permitted to restrain a first marriage. As an old writer says: "The law tolerates the restraint of a second marriage, but abhors any restraint of a first marriage."

Still, a certain restraint is permitted as to a person, a place, or age. If a legacy be given to a person in case that he marries with the consent of certain persons named, and if after majority he marries, such legacy will be paid even if he marries without con

sent.

This condition is only attached to a legacy by way of an idle threat, or in terrorem, as the legal phrase is, for the law will not favor such a restraint, for through whim, caprice, or some other motive, the required consent might not be given, and in this way the person would generally be restrained from marry. ing. There is this distinction, however, that in case the legacy be given over to another when the condition is broken, that other shall have the legacy, if the person to whom it was first given marries without consent. In this way testators have availed themselves of the opportunity, in bestowing their bounty by means of a will, to restrain the too eager

In the case of Perrin vs. Lyon in the ninth volume of "East's Reports," one J. P. devised real and personal estates to trustees to pay thereout an annuity to his wife for life, and out of the residue to pay sufficient for the maintenance, education, and support of his only daughter, until she should attain the age of twenty-one years or marry, and when she should attain the age of twenty-one or marry, then to her absolutely: but in case his daughter should die under age and unmarried, then the estates to go to his wife for life; with a proviso that if either his wife or daughter should marry a Scotchman, then his wife or daughter so marrying should forfeit all benefit under his will; and the estates given to her should descend to such person or persons as would be entitled under his will in case his wife and daughter were dead.

The daughter having married a Scotchman, and died leaving a son, it was decided such son could not inherit the property, as the mother having broken the condition, she obtained no rights to the property.

In another case a testator declared, if either Jane or Mary married into the families of Prudence or Resignation, and had a son, then he gave all his estate to such son; but if they did not so marry, then the estate was to go to A. Jane and Mary married, but were not prudent or resigned enough to marry into the aforesaid families, and A. claimed the estate; but the court held that during the lives of Jane and Mary the claim could not be determined, for one of them might afterward satisfy the condition (Randal vs. Payne, 1 Brown Ch. C., 55).

In a case in New York State before Chancellor Walworth, Bayeaux vs. Bayeaux, reported in the eighth volume of "Paige's Reports," a testator in the fourth clause of his will provides:

"I charge upon my children in every possible case, and under all circumstances, never to make a matrimonial engagement, or bind themselves to any individuals by promise of marriage, without full parental approbation and consent, as it regards the favored individual.

And while I consider it unjust as well as unwise for any parent to coerce or to attempt forcibly to induce a child to marry an object it cannot love, so do I also deem it without any possible excuse on the part of the child to marry without the full consent of the parents. And in the event of disobedience on the part of my child in this respect, my wish, desire, and intention is to cut that child off from any participation of the benefits arising from any property I may leave at my decease, of every kind and description what

ever."

This was declared ineffectual by the chancellor, who said that he could not form any opinion as to what disposition the testator intended to make of his property, and that the will must have been drawn by some person equally ignorant of legal language and legal principles.

The singularity of a testator's mind is no. where so well evinced as in the conditions that may be annexed to a bequest. An example of this kind was given in the case of the his torian Hume, who left in his will a conditional legacy to his old friend Mr. John Home, of Kilduff (who disliked port, and who contended that "Home" was the correct spelling of his own name and Hume's). To him he left "ten dozen of my old claret at his choice, and one single bottle of that other liquor called port. I also leave him six dozen of port, provided that he attests under his hand, signed John Hume, that he has himself alone finished that bottle at two sittings. By this concession he will at once terminate the only two differences that ever arose between us concerning temporal affairs."

Some evince their religious antipathy, as in the case of the will of Hon. Araminta Monck Ridley, proved in April, 1869:

"If any or either of my said children, either in my lifetime, or at any time after my decease, shall become or shall marry a Roman Catholic, or shall join or enter any ritualistic brotherhood or sisterhood, then or in any of the said cases, the several provisions, whether original, substitutive, or accruing, hereby made for the benefit of such child or children, shall cease and determine, and become absolutely void."

The chagrin of a spirit sorely vexed with the disappointments of life, or troubled with the shallow pretenses of the world, or bur. dened with the thoughts of its own failure, finds expression in the following curious document penned by an Earl of Pembroke, who lived during the political turmoils of the seventeenth century. The will is filed in Doctors' Commons, in London, and is prob ably as unique a document of the kind as was ever filed. It is as follows:

"I, Philip, V. Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, being as I am assured of unsound health, but of sound memory, as I well remem ber me that five years ago I did give my vote for the dispatching of old Canterbury, neither have I forgotten that I did see my king upon the scaffold; yet as it is said that death doth even now pursue me, and moreover as it is yet further said that it is my practice to yield under coercion, I now make my last will and testament.

"Imprimis: As for my soul, I do confess I have often heard men speak of the soul, but what may be these same souls, or what their destination, God knoweth; for myself, I know not. Men have likewise talked to me of another world which I have never visited; nor do I know even an inch of the ground that leadeth thereto. When the king was reigning, I did make my son wear a surplice, being desirous that he should become a bishop; and, for myself, I did follow the religion of my master; then came the Scotch who made me a

Presbyterian, but, since the time of Cromwell, I have become an Independent. These are, methinks, the three principal religions of the kingdom. If any one of the three can save a soul, I desire they will return it to him who gave it to me.

"Item: I give my body, for it is plain I cannot keep it, as you see the chirurgeons are tearing it to pieces. Bury me, therefore: I hold lauds and churches enough for that. Above all, put not my body beneath the church-porch, for I am, after all, a man of

birth, and I would not that I should be interred there where Colonel Pride was born.

"Item: I will have no monument, for then I must needs have an epitaph, and verses over my carcass. During my life I had enough of these.

"Item: I desire that my dogs may be shared among all the members of the Council of State. With regard to them, I have been all things to all men; sometimes went I with the peers, sometimes with the commons. I hope, therefore, they will not suffer my poor curs to

want.

"Item: I give my two best saddle-horses to the Earl of Denbigh, whose legs, methinks, must soon begin to fail him. As regards my other horses, I bequeath them to Lord Fairfax that, when Cromwell and his council take away his commission, he may still have some horse to command.

"Item: I give all my wild beasts to the Earl of Salisbury, being very sure that he will preserve them, seeing that he refused the king a doe out of his park.

"Item: I bequeath my chaplain to the Earl of Stamford, seeing he has never had one in his employ, having never known any other than his son, my Lord Grey, who, being at the same time spiritual and carnal, will engender more than one monster.

"Item: I give nothing to my Lord Saye, and I do make him this legacy willingly, because I know that he will faithfully distribute it unto the poor.

"Item: Seeing that I do menace a certain Henry Mildmay, but did not thrash him, I do leave the sum of fifty pounds sterling to the lackey that shall pay unto him my debt.

"Item: I should have given to the author of the libel on women entitled News of the Exchange,' threepence, to invent a yet more scurrilous mode of maligning; but, seeing that he insulteth and slandereth I know not how many honest persons, I commit the office of paying him to the same lackey who undertaketh the arrears of Henry Mildmay. He will teach him to distinguish between honorable women and disreputable.

"Item: I give to the Lieutenant-General Cromwell one of my words, the which he must want, seeing that he hath never kept any of his own.

"Item: I give to the wealthy citizens of London, and likewise to the Presbyterians and nobility, notice to look to their skins, for, by order of the state, the garrison of Whitehall has provided itself with poniards, and useth dark lanterns in the place of candles.

"Item: I give up the ghost."

Probably the most ambitious and the most extraordinary scheme ever devised by will was that of Peter Thellusson, reported in the fourth volume of "Vesey's Reports." Mr. Thellusson was of Swiss parentage, had settled in England at an early age, and, on a foundation of ten thousand pounds, raised the princely fortune that threatened, in its ascending greatness, the liberty of the kingdom. In his will, made in 1797, he left all his property in trust to be accumulated during the lifetime of his three sons, of their children, and any grandchildren of his sons who might be living at his decease. During the lives of all these, and the survivor of them, the estate was to be kept in trust, and its income invested in landed property, and on the death of the last survivor to be divided into three equal parts, to be given to the eldest male descendant of each of his

three sons; if the descendants of two were dead, then to the sole living descendant. The property sought to be accumulated was six hundred thousand pounds, an immense fortune at that day.

The trusts of this will attracted wide and anxious attention on all sides. No similar instance had been known of a testator forgetting the claims of kindred, the demands of charity, or the ties of friendship, to build up a mighty fortune to found a family that should bear his name to distant posterity. The children brought an action to declare the trusts invalid. The most eminent counsel of the time were engaged; the public looked on, while the case went through the courts, with deep interest; for, if a man of considerable wealth could, under legal rules, thus tie up his property for generations, a large and enormous part of the capital of the country would be rendered unproductive. If the accumulation went on for seventy-five years, as was quite possible, it was calculated that the fund would amount to twenty-nine million pounds, a fortune larger than any known in Europe at that time.

Lord Loughborough, before whom the case was tried, endeavored to declare such an accumulation void; but, under the law as it then stood, he was compelled to support the trusts, and declared them valid. But so great did he think the danger of permitting a man to suspend the alienation of his property, and order its accumulation, that he introduced, in 1800, an act forbidding accumulation longer than twenty-one years, or during the life of the maker of the will.

The fears of the public have not been realized, for the expense of litigation, the fees of court, the commissions, etc., have been so heavy that, as is usual in such cases, when large estates get into the grist-mill of the lawyers, they are ground exceedingly fine; and, in 1835, the property had but slightly increased in value.

The will of General Kosciusko was brought before the United States Supreme Court in 1852, and is interesting as bringing up some incidents connected with our Revolutionary struggle, and the eminent persons who participated in it. It is reported in Fourteenth Howard, 350. Kosciusko made four willsone in the United States, in 1798; the second at Paris, in 1806; and the last two in 1816 and 1817, while sojourning in Switzerland.

He came here in 1776, and joined our army as a volunteer, and participated in the various events of the Revolution, and at its close he retired with the rank of brigadiergeneral, poorer than when he came, and a creditor of our government for his military. pay. He left, to participate in the heroic struggle of his native land, and in 1799 Congress passed an act allowing him interest from 1793, on his military certificate (by which he became entitled to $12,499.63), to 1798. This sum was placed for his account under the management of Jefferson, to whom he wrote that he willed it to be used toward the purchase of young negroes who were to be educated and emancipated. This was the disposition made by his will of 1798. In the third will, of 1816, made in Switzerland, there was the usual clause revoking his two pre

vious wills; and, of course, the disposition of this fund invested here failed. By a clause in the last will, of 1817, he used these words: "Je légue mes effets, ma voiture et mon cheval y compris à Madame et à Monsieur Zavier Zeltner, les hommes ci-dessus." It was claimed that under this clause, by the use of the term "mes effets," all his personal property, wherever situated, went to the persons named as residuary legatees; while, on the other hand, it was claimed that such an expression, being limited by the words that followed, was to be taken as meaning such effects as he had then about his person, and that, therefore, as to the fund in the United States, he died intestate, and the descendants of his sisters were entitled to it. This last was the decision of the court, Justice Wayne delivering the opinion of the court. It was decided that as to this fund, which now amounted to a considerable sum, he died intestate, and, being for upward of fifteen years before his death domiciled in France, the distribution of it should take place in accordance with the law of that country.

The privilege of being allowed to speak one's mind to posterity is one that cannot be easily given up, even if a person has no worldy goods to dispose of. It gives to a man a sense of importance when he can enter his thoughts, his wishes, or his opinions, in a document that is invested, in point of law, and by long-observed custom, with a certain attention and solemnity. The will of Daniel Martinett, an officer of the East Company's service, illustrates this very well. Dying very poor, this singular fellow bequeathed his debts to the Governor of Bengal, who generously accepted the equivocal legacy. We hardly know whether to admire more the sang-froid of the testator, or the bonhomie of the legatee.

The wills of some persons often have a didactic character, especially of those whose position in life entitled them to speak with influence and impressiveness. The will of Saladin is an example of this kind, who ordered, first, that considerable sums should be distributed to Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, in order that the priests of the three religions might implore the mercy of God for him; next, he commanded that the shirt or tunic he should be wearing at the time of his death should be carried on the end of a spear throughout the whole camp, and at the head of his army, and that the soldier who bore it should pause at intervals and say aloud: "Behold all that remains of the Sultan Saladin!"

JOHN PROFFATT.

HER PRISON.

(A LOVER'S CONCEIT.)

Y
And clasp it, evermore;
They fear no winds, no wintry time-
May guards the enchanted door.

My heart's her prison; roses climb

The windows, roses, why embrace,

With arms of fragrance bound? From every window looks her faceWe roses wreathe it round.

JOHN JAMES PIATT.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

O UR

UR readers will find elsewhere in this number of the JOURNAL Mrs. Howland's reply to our comments on her proposition for the establishment of science-schools by the government. We give a place to the article because the subject is an important one; but we deny altogether the claim set up by Mrs. Howland that she has a right to be heard through our columns in defense of her proposition. We are under no obligations to give persons space for the defense or the ventilation of their theories. Any errors of fact that we may make we are in duty bound to correct; but this JOURNAL is a medium only for the publicity of such opinions or such arguments as we may elect to give to the public. No one is justified in claiming access to our columns as a right, excepting for the correction of an error injurious to him. If we were under obligations to give place to the arguments of everbody who differed from us, we should have to multiply the size of the JOURNAL many fold.

From the earliest times poets and philosophers have busied themselves in imagining Utopian societies, in which wise and paternal rulers have administered just laws, enforced moral living, trained the public taste, and controlled unruly impulses. Nothing is easier than to imagine what government ought to do to bring about general security and felicity, and almost everybody is quite sure he has just the panacea that will secure the desired ends. It is moral education, says one; it is the building of churches, thinks another; it is scientific training, urges a third; it is æsthetic culture, say some; it is a wise looking after affairs generally, affirm the rest; and each advocate draws a very charming picture of the happy results of his special device. We also have a hobby. We think that industrial or technical schools would be highly beneficial, would act directly upon production, which is the source of all wealth, would elevate labor, would confer power and happiness upon the great mass of the people. But convinced of this as we are-we cannot now enter upon arguments as to the merit of our plan-we have no idea of running to Albany or to Washington to ask the government to carry it out. We reflect that technical education ought to grow out of the inclinations and intelligence of the people, and not be thrust upon them by an external force; and, for other reasons often given, we do not believe that Congress or the Legislature ought to attempt any such scheme.

Delightful as the Utopian pictures are that people persist in imagining the state competent to bring about, it is clear to

those who study the facts of the past that these dreams of the poets cannot be realized. If power were always wise, always just, always master of the situation, it is easy to see how it could interfere in affairs to great advantage. The very ideal of a perfect government is an authority somewhere that can suppress evil, regulate disorders, and advance all the interests of society. It is this ideal that certain dreamers are seeking; but so long as human nature is what it is, every attempt on the part of rulers to bring this ideal about will fail-just as they have always failed, sweeping the tide of civilization from rather than toward the desired goal.

This has not been because men are wicked, but because the task is beyond human power. It was the opinion of Mr. Buckle that the mistaken zeal of good rulers has wrought more mischief in the world than the evil designs of bad men. The interests of society form wonderfully intricate and complicated machinery, each part dependent upon and interlocked with all other parts, and no skill that ever yet guided the affairs of a country has interfered to adjust this machinery without throwing it out of balance and harmony. In the whole long history of the world just to the extent that the state has stepped beyond the simple functions of a police, to that extent has it disturbed and obstructed the working of the social machinery. Trade and commerce have not been protected by the devices of government to protect them; literature, science, and the arts, have flourished best in the end when free from the august patronage of the state, however much they may have seemed to have temporarily gained thereby.

energies of the people than by governmental fostering; and that even while state educa tion is in itself harmless, it establishes a precedent of governmental interposition by which innumerable other offices are forced upon the state, to the detriment of the general welfare.

THE disposition in some quarters to laugh at Mr. Grant White's article in the last Gal axy seems to us unfair. One may be amused at finding a certain form of mental aberration dignified by a high-sounding Greek word, but Mr. Grant confesses that he would have preferred to "heterophemy" a simpler phrase had he been able to find one. Perhaps some of our readers are ignorant of the article in question, and are wondering what "heterophemy" can mean. Mr. White, in a preced ing article, while writing something about metric measures, had casually mentioned that "two gills make one pint," whereupon a general laugh went up. The article entitled

66

'Heterophemy" is the reply to his critics, in which the learned writer asserts that he knows as well as anybody else how many gills make a pint, and that his error is to be described as "heterophemy," that is, an ac tion of the brain which takes place without the volition of the individual, a form of what physiological psychologists call unconscious cerebration. Mr. White's explanation of this phenomenon is as follows:

"The blunder which I committed and which I have in mind is the blunder of the world at large, the daily mental aberration of the human race. That error consists in thinking one thing and speaking or writing an other. There is no inaccuracy of information, no confusion of thought, no forgetting, even for a moment. The speaker or writer has perfect knowledge, thinks clearly, remembers exactly, and yet utters precisely what he does not mean. Everybody must have noticed this more or less in others and in himself, and yet so very strange a mode of mental action has passed thus far, I believe, without any remark whatever. It is of course more commonly manifested in speech than in writing; but it is very frequent in the latter; and to it is due the fact (for it is a fact) that writers often fail to correct errors of statement when they read their own proofs; the reason being that they read one thing from the eyes outward, and think another. The proof of the article throws the writer by association into the same vein of thought and temper of mind in which he was when he wrote it, and the error that he unconsciously made when he wrote passes undetected before his eyes. Just so an accountant, if he makes an error, is likely to repeat it on going over his calculation; for which reason he reverses or in some way changes his procedure. Hence it is that the services of a good professional indi-proof-reader are indispensable when accu

It is upon these broad principles that we rest our opposition to state interposition. We do not deny that science-schools, art-schools, music-schools, industrial schools, are all admirable things. We can conceive of hundreds of other admirable things. We can, indeed, indulge like other people in glowing dreams of political millenniums. All arguments that go to show what choice results will flow from the judicious administration of power are very captivating, plausible, and to some people entirely convincing; but our distrusts are derived from the study of historical facts, from the practical working of schemes to confer benefit by arbitrary dicta, and hence we hold steadfastly to the idea that altogether the best ideal of the state is that which permits the largest possible vidual freedom-which simply guarantees to each citizen every right not inconsistent with the rights of everybody else, and does no more. And we think that as a whole our civilization will advance more swiftly and surely by the unaided and untrammeled operation of the

racy is desired. His value is not so much in his extended and exact information (although he frequently has it) as in his fresh eye, his habit of minute accuracy, and last, not least, his unacquaintance with what the author has written. For even he sometimes fails to detect errors when the subject is a very famil iar one to him.

usual in the British official as to be touch

"A necessary condition of this strange mode of mental action seems to be perfecting, he refrains from the harrowing details acquaintance with the fact as to which the erroneous assertion is made. For some years past I have given this subject such a degree of attention as I was able to give it incidentally, and according to my observation this discrepancy of thought and utterance takes place only when the occasion of it is so familiar, or is so clearly in mind, that the speaker or writer could not be reasonably supposed to forget it even for a moment. Another incident of its manifestation is that the assertion made is most often not merely something that the speaker or writer does not mean to say, but its very reverse, or at least something notably at variance with his purpose. For this reason I have called it heterophemy, which means merely the speaking otherwise, and which has relations to and illustrations in heterodoxy, heterogeneous, and heteroclite. I go unwillingly to Greek for a compound name descriptive of this mental phenomenon, and would gladly see my word displaced by a good English word, which I have vainly tried to form. Heterophemy of course gives us heterophemize and heterophemist."

of what he knows, lest he should rend the public heart in their recital. The small part that he tells, however, is bad enough in all conscience, and well merits the serious attention of that vague power which Dickens described collectively as 66 my lords and gentlemen and honorable boards." The inspector's investigations having led him into the manufacturing district, gloomily but veraciously called "the Black Country," he found women there hard at work upon nail and chain manufacturing. This, it need scarcely be told, is one of the most exhausting and physically difficult of human labors. The toil spent on the forging of large nails requires strong muscles and tough bodies. But there in the Black Country young women and old, women who are single and women who are married, are bound in a slavery which compels them to this work all day, and often into the night, for the very lowest grade of wages.

Mr. White gives, among many striking examples of the class of errors he has deNor is this the worst. While the women scribed, an instance from Alison, who, in enumerating in his "History of Europe" the thus wear themselves out, their husbands pall-bearers at the funeral of Wellington, idle, and drink, and spend the poor creatures' transformed the name of Sir Peregrine Maitdesperately gained earnings in the taverns. land into that of Sir Peregrine Pickle-the The young men have a way of looking out hero of one of Smollett's novels-and neifor strong, healthy wives, with this very purther the historian nor the proof-reader depose in view. If they can win the heart of a tected the error, nor was it discovered until "likely girl" by such rude blandishments as after the volume was published. It is clear they are masters of, they are made for life. that this blunder arose from an association For them are the tavern and the skittleground, for their wives the merciless and of ideas prompted by the identity of the Christian cognomen in the two names, the eternal forge. Then if children come, they author writing Pickle when all the time he must perforce be left to wander ragged about knew that Maitland was the word, and in the dingy founderies, and drift in grimy correcting the proof read what ought to have shoals on toward a very dark and dreary been written. Errors of this kind are so puberty. Ten hours a day is the ordinary time of labor for these women; and they get common with writers that it is difficult to understand why Mr. White's article has met eight shillings-two dollars-a week! But with so much derision. Have these sneering they have to purchase their own forging fuel,

critics never committed mistakes of this kind? They may have not, but we have; and so have many of the ladies and gentlemen who contribute to the pages of the JOURNAL. These errors are commonly detected in time, either by the proof-readers or by ourselves, but occasionally one slips by us all and gets before the public. We, therefore, instead of finding in the Galaxy article food for derisive laughter, confess that we are entitled to a place in the list of blunderers cited by Mr. White, and are glad to see the strange and often embarrassing phenomenon philosophically considered and expounded.

TRULY that is a sad and shocking story which has just been told the English public by one of the factory-inspectors. He frankly admits, too, that his story is not a tithe of the truth about the employment of women and children; with a tenderness so un

and rent their own stalls to work at; these expenses reduce their wages by three shillings. Their net gain, therefore, is a pitiful five shillings a week-and this must suffice for food, for lodging, for clothing, for nurses, for doctors, and for the husband's low comfort at the public-house.

who

These wretched slaves for they are surely not a whit better-are "bossed" by gangs of "factors" and "foggers would not for a moment bear comparison for gentleness with the very worst specimens of Southern overseers in slave-holding days. They are generally as hard as the iron that is forged into nails, and as merciless as human machines, paid to have no hearts, usually are. We have heard much of the bad condition of English factory operatives; but we are inclined to think that the story of the female nail-makers of the Black Country is the worst yet told. It almost excites a smile to see the device of a London paper for effect

ing a reform in this state of things. No re liance is placed on the effect of the harrowing story to rouse legislative indignation and remedy; but "my lords and gentlemen" are appealed to on the ground that the women, being weak, make weak chains and poor nails, which, used in the chain-cables and ships of the government, are likely to produce loss and disaster. Official pity, this journal evidently thinks, is not to be relied on; but the official anxiety not to be found wanting in efficiency may at least be trusted.

THE proper treatment of the insane, and especially of insane criminals, is still a by no means wholly-solved problem. Medical science has not yet succeeded in so minutely analyzing the operations and diseases of the brain as to give uniform and authoritative testimony in courts of justice in regard to them; for in almost every case wherein it is important to determine the conscious responsibility of an accused person, the doctors disagree as strenuously as in other branches of their profession. A Scotch physician of eminence has recently urged that the law should so recognize degrees in insanity as to apportion punishments or restraints according to each degree. Some crazy people, he boldly affirms, are too crazy to be hanged, but not too crazy to be consigned to penal labor and to the floggingpost. It need scarcely be said that at present the law only draws the line at the point of moral responsibility. If the criminal is sane enough to know the wickedness of what he is doing, punishment accordingly inexorably follows. If he is not, he is acquitted of all punishment whatever, although not perhaps of all restraint whatever. There is very likely something sound in the Scotch doctor's proposition; for it has at least come to be admitted that insanity is of infinite degrees and shades, and that cases of monomania are no less common than cases of minds wholly and irredeemably overthrown. The inference, therefore, is that many who are of partially diseased brain may commit crimes, being conscious that they are doing so; and these ought surely to be punished. The difficulty lies in the scientific imperfection, which is yet unable to determine the degrees of insanity with that amount of accuracy which would enable them to be incorporated in a precise code of criminal ju risprudence. At present, insanity is often adopted as a convenient defense when none other is possible, and this is principally dangerous in the facility offered to it by the contradictory evidence of even the best medical Undoubtedly partially insane men sometimes go scot - free after committing crimes for which their insanity does not render them irresponsible. This is a necessary

men.

evil, to be remedied only by further and pa- | given in the preceding pages all that has been

tient scrutiny into the causes, action, and etfects, of diseases of the brain.

THE

Literary.

HE fourth volume of Mr. Bancroft's "Native Races of the Pacific States" is devoted to Antiquities, and, besides presenting a detailed description of all material relics of the past discovered within the territory falling properly within the limits of his work, gives a general view of the corresponding remains in South America and the eastern portion of the United States. It is worthy of notice that here, for the first time, the pathway which Mr. Bancroft marked out for himself in the beginning leads him over ground that has been more or less thoroughly worked by his predecessors; and it is, perhaps, the best possible evidence, both of the value of his plan and of the excellence of its execution, that, in spite of the charm of personal experience and adventure possessed by the works of Stephens and Catherwood, Squier, Norman, Charnay, Waldeck, and others, this volume will at once be accepted as by far the best, the most complete, and the most trustworthy treatise on American antiquities that has ever been published. It is entitled to this position for two reasons, one of which will be mentioned further along in our notice; the other and most important is that it is encylopedic in scope, embodying the researches and observatioes, not of one traveler, but of five hundred, and combining in a single panoramic view the whole vast network of monumental relics left by the aborigines of our entire continent. These researches, moreover, are not given in a summary or condensed, and therefore incomplete, form, but are reproduced, so far as facts and results are concerned, in full; so that Mr. Bancroft's description of Copan, for instance, or Uxmal, or Chichen, or Palenque, is far more complete than that of any other writer whatever. It is also more trustworthy; for, by careful study and comparison of information drawn from all available sources, the witnesses mutually corroborating or correcting one another's statements, the author has probably arrived in each case practically at the truth. The task must have been most laborious; and we can well believe that, "though necessarily, to a great extent, a compilation, the volume is none the less the result of hard and long-continued study." But Mr. Bancroft does not exaggerate the value of his work to the student of archæology or ethnology when he comes to sum up results in one of the later chapters: "I have gone," he says, over the whole extent of the Pacific States, from the southern isthmus to Behring Strait, carefully examining, so far as written records could enable me to do so, every foot of this broad territory, in search of the handiwork of its aboriginal inhabitants.

66

Practically I have

*The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. IV. Antiquities. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875.

written on the subject. Before a perfect account of all that the native races left can be written, before the material relics can reveal all they have to tell about the peoples whose work they are, a long and patient work of exploration and study must be performed a work hardly commenced yet even in the thickly-populated centres of Old-World learning, and still less advanced naturally in the broad, new fields and forests of the Far West. In this volume the general reader may find an accurate and comprehensive, if not a very fascinating, picture of all that aboriginal art has produced; the student of ethnological topics may found his theories on all that is known respecting any particular monument here spread before him, rather than on a partial knowledge derived by long study from the accounts in works to which he has access, contradicted, very likely, in other works not consulted-and many a writer has subjected himself to ridicule by resting an important part of his favorite theory on a discovery by Smith, which has been proved an error or a hoax by Jones and Brown; the antiquarian student may save himself some years of hard labor in searching between five hundred and a thousand volumes for information to which he is here guided directly, even if he be unwilling to take his information at second hand; and, finally, the explorer who proposes to examine a certain section of the country may acquaint himself, by a few hours' reading, with all that previous explorers have done or failed to do, and by having his attention specially called to their work will be able to correct their errors and supply what they have neglected."

But little need be added to the foregoing description of the scope of the work; and Mr. Bancroft's literary methods and style have already been sufficiently indicated in our notices of previous volumes. One feature of the present volume which calls for special mention are the notes, which furnish a copious and continuous commentary on the text, scarcely less interesting, even to the general reader, than the text itself. These notes give full references to and quotations from all the authorities consulted, thus supplying a complete index to all that has been written on the subject. They contain, also, bibliographical notices and historical details of the discovery and successive explorations of each ruin, critical discussions on disputed points, hints as to the relative accuracy and trustworthiness of different authors, and other information of great interest and val

ue.

[ocr errors]

Of course no clear idea of architectural remains or other material relics could be conveyed without pictures; and accordingly the volume contains numerous illustrations, including a general map of the entire region, plans and charts, ground-plans and elevations of important edifices, and pictures of sculpture and other decorations, idols, implements, ornaments, and hieroglyphics. the cuts employed," says Mr. Bancroft, "many are the originals taken from the published works of explorers, particularly of Messrs. Stephens and Squier, with their permission. . . . Where such originals could not be obtained I have made accurate copies of drawings carefully selected from what I have deemed the best authorities, always with a view to give the clearest possible idea of the

objects described, and with no attempt at

mere pictorial embellishment."

Our second reason for ascribing a preeminent value to this treatise on American antiquities is its conservative tone and the scrupulous consistency with which its author adheres to the recorded facts. Even if it had no other merit, Mr. Bancroft's work would be invaluable as an antidote to the wild guesses of speculative theorists which have hitherto almost monopolized American archæ ological discusion; and his habit of examining every thing by "the cold, white light of reason" gives us good reason to hope that in his forthcoming fifth volume-which is to deal with traditional and written archæology -we shall at last learn precisely how much and how little we actually know concerning those mysterious peoples whose civilizations preceded our own on the North American Continent.

A VERY charming story, which ought to have been noticed earlier, is "One Summer" (Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co.). Even the word "charming" hardly expresses with sufficient emphasis the pleasure we have taken in reading it; it is simply delightful, unique in method and manner, and with a peculiarly piquant flavor of humorous observation. The plot, indeed, is commonplace: a city young lady meets a city gentleman while summering in a New England village, with results dear to the heart of novel writers and readers. But here ends whatever of commonplaceness the story contains; the action is rapid and dramatic, the incidents fresh and appropriate and vividly narrated, and the character-draw. ing exceedingly good. The character-drawing is the strong point of the book, and marks it as a work of genuine promise; for, though the entire canvas is small-too small to admit of elaboration-the several dramatis persona stand forth with the distinctness of individual portraits. Philip Ogden, for example, who acts the difficult part of hero, is of a type rare in fiction-a man who is a gentleman without being "knightly," and intelligent without being priggish. His début into the narrative occurs under rather awkward circumstances; but he advances steadily in the reader's estimation until before the close we are disposed to take his part even against that most perversely-fascinating of recent heroines, “Leigh" herself. Tom, too, and Hetty, the irrepressible young married couple, are cleverly drawn and amusing, though they rather tend to keep one's teeth on edge with the persistence and brilliancy of their repar tees. The author's masterpiece, however, is the portrait of Jimmie Holbrook, familiarly known as "Gem." The Small Boy is not unknown in literature, and no one can deny his charms who has read Dickens's "Martin Chuz zlewit;" but in the person of "Gem" he receives his apotheosis. It is not possible that he should ever be made more purely and ut terly delightful. Before our acquaintance with "Gem" has ripened into what may be called intimacy, his very name on the printed page calls up a smile, half humorous, half tender; aud, when the exigencies of the lovemaking consign him to the sick-bed, the story

« AnkstesnisTęsti »