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 Bradford few months later he was appointed one of the king's six chaplains in ordinary. Two of the chaplains remained with the king, and four preached throughout the country. Bradford preached in many towns of Lancashire and Cheshire, also in London and Saffron Walden. Foxe says that 'sharply he opened and reproved sin; sweetly he preached Christ crucified; pithily he impugned heresies and errors; earnestly he persuaded to godly life.' John Knox, in his 'Godly Letter,' 1554, speaks with admiration of his intrepidity in the pulpit. Bradford's sermons ring with passionate earnestness. He takes the first words that come to hand, and makes no attempt to construct elaborate periods. 'Let us, even to the wearing of our tongue to the stumps, preach and pray,' he exclaims in the 'Sermon on Repentance;' and not for a moment did he slacken his energy. He spoke out boldly and never shrank from denouncing the vices of the great. In a sermon preached before Edward VI he rebuked the worldliness of the courtiers, declaring that God's vengeance would come upon the ungodly among them, and bidding them take example by the sudden fate that had befallen the late Duke of Somerset. At the close of his sermon, with weeping eyes and in a voice of lamentation, he cried out aloud: 'God punished him; and shall He spare you that be double more wicked? No, He shall not. Will ye or will ye not, ye shall drink the cup of the Lord's wrath. Judicium Domini, Judicium Domini! The judgment of the Lord, the judgment of the Lord!'

On 13 Aug. 1553, shortly after the accession of Queen Mary, a sermon in defence of Bonner and against Edward VI was preached at St. Paul's Cross by [q. v.], rector of High Ongar in Essex, and afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells. The sermon gave great offence to the hearers, who would have pulled him out of the pulpit and torn him to pieces if Bradford and John Rogers, vicar of St. Sepulchre's, had not interposed. On the same day in the afternoon Bradford preached at Bow Church, Cheapside, and reproved the people for the violence that had been offered in the morning to Bourne. Within three days after this occurrence Bradford was summoned before the privy council on the charge of preaching seditious sermons, and was committed to the Tower, where he wrote his treatise on 'The Hurt of Hearing Mass.' At first he was permitted to see no man but his keeper; afterwards this severity was relaxed, and he was allowed the society of his fellow-prisoner, Dr. Sandys. On 6 Feb. 1553-4 Bradford and Sandys were separated; the latter was sent to the Marshalsea, and the former was lodged in the same room as Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, the Tower being then very full owing to the imprisonment of Wyatt and his followers. Latimer, in his protest addressed to the queen's commissioners at Oxford (Works, ii. 258-9, Parker Society), tells how he and his fellow-prisoners 'did together read over the New Testament with great deliberation and painful study.' On 24 March Bradford was transferred to the King's Bench prison. Here, probably by the favour of Sir William Fitzwilliam, the knight-marshal of the prison, he was occasionally allowed at large on his parole, and was suffered to receive visitors and administer the sacrament. Once a week he used to visit the criminals in the prison, distributing charity among them and exhorting them to amend their lives. On 22 Jan. 1554-5 he was brought up for examination before Bishops Gardiner, Bonner, and other prelates. There is an account (first published in 1561) in his own words of his three separate examinations before the commissioners on 22, 29, and 30 Jan. The commissioners questioned him closely on subtle points of doctrine, and endeavoured to convince him that his views were heretical; but he answered their arguments with imperturbable calmness, and refused to be convinced. Accordingly he was condemned as an obstinate heretic, and was committed to the Compter in the Poultry. It was at first determined to have him burned at his native town, Manchester; but, whether in the hope of making him recant or from fear of enraging the people of Manchester, the authorities finally kept him in London and waited some months before carrying out the sentence. At the Compter he was visited by several catholic divines, who endeavoured unsuccessfully to effect his conversion. Among these were Archbishop Heath, Bishop Day, Alphonsus a Castro, afterwards archbishop of Compostella, and Bartholomew Carranza, confessor to King Philip, and afterwards archbishop of Toledo. At length, as he refused to recant, a day was fixed for carrying out the sentence. On Sunday, 30 June 1555, he was taken late at night from the Compter to Newgate, all the prisoners in tears bidding him farewell. In spite of the lateness of the hour great crowds were abroad, and as he passed along Cheapside the people wept and prayed for him. A rumour spread that he was to be burned at four o'clock the next morning, and by that hour a great concourse of people had assembled; but it was not until nine o'clock that he was brought to the stake. 'Then,' says Foxe, 'was he led forth to Smithfield with a great company of weaponed men to conduct him thither, as the


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wellwood, James

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 Bradford like was not seen at no man's burning; for in every corner of Smithfield there were some, besides those who stood about the stake.' A young man named John Leaf was his fellow-martyr. After taking a faggot in his hand and kissing it, Bradford desired of the sheriffs that his servant might have his raiment. Consent being given, he put off his raiment and went to the stake. Then holding up his hands, and looking up to heaven, he cried: 'England, England, repent thee of thy sins, repent thee of thy sins. Beware of idolatry, beware of false antichrists; take heed they do not deceive you.' As he was speaking the sheriff ordered his hands to be tied if he would not keep silence. 'O master sheriff,' said Bradford, 'I am quiet. God forgive you this, master sheriff.' Then having asked the people to pray for him he turned to John Leaf and said: 'Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.' His last words were: 'Strait is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth to salvation, and few there be that find it.'

Bradford was a man of singularly gentle character. Parsons, the Jesuit, allowed that he was 'of a more soft and mild nature than many of his fellows.' There is a tradition that on seeing some criminals going to execution he exclaimed: 'But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford.' Often when engaged in conversation he would suddenly fall into a deep reverie, during which his eyes would fill with tears or be radiant with smiles. In all companies he would reprove sin and misbehaviour in any person, 'especially swearers, filthy talkers, and popish praters;' but the manner of his reproof was at once so earnest and so kindly that none could take offence. His life was passed in prayer and study. He seldom slept more than four hours, and he ate only one meal a day. In person he was tall and slender, of a somewhat sanguine complexion, and with an auburn beard. A portrait of him (which is engraved in Baines's 'History of Lancashire, ii. 243) is preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester. A more modern portrait is in Pembroke Hall, Cambridge.

The following is a list of Bradford's writings: A complete collection of Bradford's writings, very carefully edited by Rev. Aubrey Townsend, was published at Cambridge for the Parker Society, 2 vols. 8vo, 1848-53.
 * 1) 'The Divisyon of the Places of the Lawe and of the Gospell, gathered owt of the hooly scriptures by Petrum Artopœum … Translated into English,' London, 1548, 8vo.
 * 2) 'A Godlye Treatise of Prayer [by Melanchthon], translated into English,' London, n. d. 8vo.
 * 3) 'Two Notable Sermons, the one of Repentance, and the other of the Lorde's Supper,' London, 1574, 1581, 1599, 1617; the 'Sermon on Repentance' had been issued separately in 1553 and 1558.
 * 4) 'Complaint of Veritye,' 1559; a short metrical piece printed in a collection issued by William Copland.
 * 5) 'A Godlye Medytacyon,' London, 1559.
 * 6) 'Godlie Meditations upon the Lordes. Prayer, the Beleefe, and Ten Commandements … whereunto is annexed a defence of the doctrine of God's eternal election and predestination,' London, 1562,1578, 1604, &c.
 * 7) 'Meditations;' from his autograph in a copy of Tyndale's New Testament.
 * 8) 'Meditations and Prayers from manuscripts in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and elsewhere.'
 * 9) 'All the Examinacions of the Constante Martir of God, M. John Bradforde, before the Lord Chancellour, B. of Winchester, the B. of London, and other comissioners; whereunto ar annexed his priuate talk and conflictes in prison after his condemnacion,' &c. 1561.
 * 10) 'Hurte of hering Masse,' n. d. (printed by Copland), 1580, 1596.
 * 11) 'A Fruitefull Treatise and full of heavenly consolation against the feare of death,' n. d.
 * 12) Five treatises, namely (1) 'The Old Man and the New;' (2) 'The Flesh and the Spirit;' (3) 'Defence of Election;' (4) 'Against the Fear of Death; ' (5) 'The Restoration of all Things.'
 * 13) 'Ten Declarations and Addresses.'
 * 14) 'An Exhortation to the Brethren in England, and four farewells to London, Cambridge, Lancashire, and Cheshire, and Saffron Walden;' from Coverdale's 'Letters of the Martyrs' and Foxe's 'Acts and Monuments.'
 * 15) 'Sweet Meditations of the Kingdom of Christ,' n. d.
 * 16) Letters from Foxe's 'Acts and Monuments,' 1563, 1570, and 1583; Coverdale's 'Letters of the Martyrs,' Strype's 'Ecclesiastical Memorials,' and manuscripts in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and British Museum. It is probable that Bradford contributed to 'A Confutacion of Four Romish Doctrines,' a treatise entitled 'An Exhortacion to the Carienge of Chryste's crosse, with a true and briefe confutacion of false and papisticall doctryne,' n. d., printed abroad.

 BRADFORD,. [See .]  BRADFORD, JOHN (d. 1780), Welsh poet, was born early in the eighteenth


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Welsh, John


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Welwitsch, Friedrich Martin Josef


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wemyss, David (1678-1720)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wemyss, David (1721-1787)


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wentworth, Henrietta Maria


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wentworth, John


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wentworth, Paul


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 2


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 4


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 5


text: Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Olmsted, Frederick Law


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 6


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 7


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 8


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Chapter 9


text: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Index

title: A Thousand-Mile Walk To The Gulf/Index


text: Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Olney, Edward


text: Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Olney, Jeremiah


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 Moffat on Afrikaner's head; his conversion  brought home to the authorities that the mission had solved a political difficulty, and did something to enlist their sympathy. In December 1819 Mary Smith, who had overcome her parents' objection to her marriage with Moffat, arrived at Cape Town and married him on 27 Dec. 1819 in St. George's church, Cape Town. For fifty years Mary Moffat shared all her husband's hardships and trials, and her name must be associated with his among the pioneers of South African mission work.

A deputation from the London Missionary Society, consisting of Dr. Philip and John Campbell, arrived at Cape Town at the close of 1819. They appointed Moffat superintendent at Lattakoo, and he set out early in 1820 with his wife, arriving at Lattakoo, about one hundred miles from Griquatown, at the end of March. Shortly after their arrival they made an expedition to the westward, along the bed of the Kuruman river, among the villages of the Botswanas. On their return to Lattakoo they were informed by letter from Cape Town that permission had not been granted for them to remain there, and they went to Griquatown, then inhabited by a mixed multitude of Griquas, Korannas, Hottentots, Bakwanas, and Bushmen, to assist Mr. Helm in organising the mission there. On permission arriving from Cape Town the Moffats returned to Lattakoo 17 May 1821, and devoted themselves to mission work and to acquiring a knowledge of the language.

Troubles, however, soon began. The warlike Matabele tribe, under Mosilikatse, climbed the Kwathlamba range and drove out many of the Bapedi and Bakwana tribes, the fugitives pouring down on the western Bakwanas. Moffat, who had heard only vague rumours of what was going on, made a reconnaissance to the north-east. On arriving at Mosite, after some days of travel, he learnt that the Mantatees, as the fugitive tribes were called, were in actual possession of the Baralong towns close to the eastward of the mission, and were on their way to Lattakoo. Moffat hurried home, warned his own people, and hastened to Griquatown to seek the aid of the Griquas. By the time the government commissioner, Mr. Melville, and the Griqua chief Waterboer, with one hundred men, reached the station, the Mantatees had occupied Letakong, only thirty-six miles away. The two Europeans, Moffat and Melville, with Waterboer and his men, met them halfway at the Matlwaring river, and after vain attempts to get speech with them were driven back, and obliged in self-defence to fight. About five hundred Mantatees were killed, and some thousands put to flight. The mission was saved, the invaders retiring never to return. Moffat had distinguished himself by his devotion to the wounded and the women and children, and he gained a personal ascendency which he never lost over the tribes that he had protected.

Circumstances, however, still appeared so threatening that Moffat sent his wife and children for a time to Griquatown, and towards the end of the year (1823) he took them a two months' journey to Cape Town, where he obtained supplies, and conferred with Dr. Philip about the removal of the mission from Lattakoo to Kuruman. They returned to their station in May (1824). Moffat went on 1 July on a long-promised visit to Makaba, the chief of the Bangwaketsi, at Kwakwe. During his absence his wife was in a position of great anxiety. A horde of evil characters, marauding runaways of mixed blood, from the Cape Colony, with Korannas, Bushmen, and Namaquas, had established themselves in the mountains to the westward of Griquatown, and had been joined by renegade Griquas, mounted and armed with guns, who resented the discipline of Waterboer and the other Griqua chiefs. So great was the disquiet and the fear of an attack on Lattakoo that a second time Moffat and his family took refuge at Griquatown. Early in 1825, the western banditti having retired, the Moffats commenced to lay out the new station at Kuruman, to which they had been ordered to remove from Lattakoo. They raised three temporary dwellings, when again a band of armed and mounted marauders made their appearance. The natives at the old station gave way before them, losing nearly all their cattle, and could not be persuaded to return, but drifted away eastward to the Hart or Kolong river. With a dwindled population the work of the missionaries was less onerous, and Moffat commenced his first regular effort to lay the foundation of a Sechwana literature. A spelling-book was prepared and sent to Cape Town to be printed. In 1826 steady progress was made in the erection of the mission buildings, and Moffat devoted all his spare time to manual labour. In 1827 the station at Kuruman was sufficiently advanced to permit Moffat to perfect himself in the Sechwana language, by spending a couple of months in the encampment of Bogacho, a chief of the Baralongs, on the border of the Kalahari desert. On his return the marauders again appeared, and the missionaries had a third time to retire temporarily to Griquatown.

From the commencement stolid indifference to the work had reigned among the


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 passionate, and complete; his mental grasp was close and unrelaxing. He ranks as the founder of modern observational astronomy; nor by the example of his 'solicitous accuracy' alone or chiefly, though this was much. But his discoveries of aberration and nutation first rendered possible exact knowledge of the places of the fixed stars, and thereby of the movements of the other celestial bodies. Moreover, he bequeathed to posterity, in his diligent and faithful record of the state of the heavens in his time, a mass of documentary evidence invaluable for the testing of theory, or the elucidation of change. The publication, for the benefit of his daughter, of his observations, contained in thirteen folio and two quarto volumes, was interrupted by official demands for their possession, followed up by a lawsuit commenced by the crown in 1767, but abandoned in 1776. The Rev. Mr. Peach, Bradley's son-in-law, thereupon offered them to Lord North, to be printed by the Clarendon Press, and after many delays the first of two volumes appeared in 1798, under the editorship of Dr. Hornsby, with the title 'Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, from the year 1750 to the year 1762;' the second, edited by Dr. Abram Robertson, in 1805. They number about 60,000, and fill close upon 1,000 large folio pages. A sequel to Bradley's work, in the observations of Bliss and Green down to 15 March 1765, was included in the second volume. A catalogue of 387 stars, computed by Mason from Bradley's original manuscripts, and appended to the 'Nautical Almanac' for 1773, formed the basis of a similar work inserted by Hornsby in vol. i. (p. xxxviii); and 1,041 of Bradley's stars, reduced by Pilati, were added to Piazzi's second catalogue (1814). In the hands of Bessel, however, his observations assumed a new value. With extraordinary skill and labour he deduced from them in 1818 a catalogue of 3,222 stars for the epoch 1755, so authentically determined as to afford, by comparison with their later places, a sure criterion of their proper motions. The title of 'Fundamenta Astronomiæ' fitly expressed the importance of this work. More accurate values for precession and refraction were similarly obtained. Bradley's observations of the moon and planets, when reduced by Airy, supplied valuable data for the correction of the theories of those bodies.

Portraits of him are preserved at Oxford (by Hudson), at Shirburn Castle, at Greenwich, and in the rooms of the Royal Society. A dial, erected in 1831 by command of William IV, marks the spot at Kew where he began the observations which led to the discoveries of aberration and nutation. His communications to the Royal Society, besides those already adverted to, were on 'The Longitude of Lisbon and the Fort of New York, from Wanstead and London, determined by Eclipses of the First Satellite of Jupiter' (Phil. Trans. xxxiv. 85); and 'An Account of some Observations made in London by Mr. George Graham, and at Black River in Jamaica by Colin Campbell, Esq., concerning the going of a Clock; in order to determine the Difference between the Lengths of Isochronal Pendulums in those Places' (ib. xxxviii. 302). His 'Directions for using the Common Micrometer' were published by Maskelyne in 1772 (ib. lxii. 46). The originals of Bradley's Greenwich observations having been deposited in the Bodleian, the confused mass of his remaining papers, disinterred by Professor S. P. Rigaud, afforded materials for a large quarto volume, published by him in 1832 at Oxford, with the title 'Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of James Bradley, D.D., Astronomer-Royal.' It includes, besides the Kew and Wanstead journals, every record of the slightest value in his handwriting, not omitting papers already printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' with many letters addressed to him by persons of eminence in England and abroad, and in some cases his replies. The prefixed memoir embodies all that the closest inquiry could gather concerning him. The investigation of his early observations, thus brought to light after nearly a century's oblivion, was made the subject of a prize by the Royal Society of Copenhagen in 1832; whence the publication by Dr. Busch of Königsberg of 'Reduction of the Observations made by Bradley at Kew and Wanstead to determine the Quantities of Aberration and Nutation' (Oxford, 1838).

BRADLEY, RALPH (1717–1788), conveyancing barrister, was a contemporary of [q. v.], who has been called the patriarch of modern conveyancing. Bradley was called to the bar by the society, of Gray's Inn, and practised at Stockton-on-Tees with great success for upwards of half a century, he is said to have managed the concerns of almost the whole county of Durham, and,


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 Moffat natives. But the missionaries worked on, mainly encouraged by the sanguine temper of Mary Moffat. In 1829 the desired awakening came. The services were crowded, the schools flourished, and gradually and with much caution some of the natives were admitted to baptism, and a permanent church and a schoolhouse were erected by the natives without cost to the society. Moffat at length enjoyed sufficient leisure to translate into Sechwana the Gospel of St. Luke and a selection of other scriptures. The same year Mosilikatse, chief of the Matabele, sent messengers to inquire into the manners and teaching of the white men at Kuruman. Moffat showed them every attention, and when difficulties arose as to their return through a country occupied by tribes who both feared and hated Mosilikatse, he escorted them home to the banks of the Oori, a long journey through a country which, although it had once contained a dense population, had been so ravaged that it had become the home of wild beasts and venomous reptiles. Moffat stayed eight days with Mosilikatse, by whom he was received with many tokens of friendship; he returned to Kuruman after an absence of two months.

In June 1830 the Moft'ats visited Grahamstown to put their elder children to school, and, leaving his wife to follow by sea, Moffat hurried to Cape Town, riding some four hundred miles in nine days, to start the printing of such parts of the New Testament as had been translated. At Cape Town he could find no printing office able to undertake the work. But the government put at their disposal their own printing office, although unable to supply workmen, and Moffat and another missionary, Mr. Edwards, with such guidance as the man in charge could give them, performed the work themselves. The exertion, however, brought on an illness, and Moffat had to be carried on board ship on his return journey to Algoa Bay. He and his wife reached Kuruman at the end of June 1831, taking with them a printing press.

Early in 1835 a scientific expedition, headed by Dr. Andrew Smith, arrived from Cape Colony, and Moffat accompanied them in May to Mosilikatse's headquarters, to open a way for mission work among the chiefs people, and to obtain timber to roof in the church at Kuruman. In 1836 Moffat, after seeing his wife across the Vaal river on her way to pay a visit in Cape Town, made a detour on his return to Kuruman to visit Mothibi, the old chief of the Batlaping. His journey was well timed, and he was cheered by the interest taken in his teaching. Some American missionaries arrived, who were sent to Mosilikatse, and a volume of 443 pages of translation of scripture lessons into Sechwana was completed before his wife's return in July.

In 1837 the emigration of Dutch farmers disaffected to British rule commenced, and a party of them came into collision with Mosilikatse and the Matabele. The American mission station was destroyed, and a great booty in cattle swept away. Mosilikatse and his people disappeared the following year into the unknown region south of the Zambesi, and missionary work was greatly retarded. Towards the end of 1838 Moffat went to Cape Town with his family, taking with him the complete translation of the New Testament into the Sechwana language, and, sailing for England, arrived in London in June 1839. While the translation was in the press, Moffat commenced a translation of the Psalms, and stayed in England to complete it. It was printed and bound up with the New Testament. He also revised the scripture lessons, of which an edition of six thousand was printed, and wrote 'Labours and Scenes in South Africa,' which was published in the spring of 1842, and met with a very favourable reception. In addition to his literary labours, Moffat was much engaged in preaching and lecturing all over the country on behalf of the London Missionary Society. In 1840 Moffat met David Livingstone in London, and was the means of securing his services for the Bakwana mission. On 30 Jan. 1843, after valedictory services, addresses, and presentations, the Moffats sailed again for South Africa. While waiting at Bethelsdorp in April for their heavy baggage, Moffat made a journey on horseback to Kaffraria, and visited all the eastern stations of the Missionary Society. The Moffats and their party were met by Livingstone at the Vaal river, and reached Kuruman in December.

The mission staff having been increased, the younger missionaries were sent some two or three hundred miles further inland, to various tribes of the Bakwanas. Livingstone, who went to Mabotsa, returned to Kuruman after an accident, was nursed by the Moffats, and married their eldest daughter Mary in 1844. The Livingstones then went to Chonwane, and to this and the other distant stations Kuruman was a centre of administration from which supplies and assistance were drawn. For several years subsequent to 1845 Moffat was hard at work translating into Sechwana the book of Isaiah, other parts of the Old Testament, and the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' which were published in the colony. He of the Bakwana tribes. In May 1854, accompanied by two young Englishmen—


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moffatt, John Marks


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Author:John Foster Dulles

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Author:Andrew Hollingworth Frost

Works about Frost

 * A. H. Frost biography from multimagie.com
 * A. H. Frost biography from multimagie.com
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HE two inland voyagers, Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Simpson, returned from their cruise so greatly refreshed in mind and body that it was determined to repeat the experience as soon as possible. But, as time passed, Sir Walter's enthusiasm waned, and, besides, he looked askance at the idea of taking the road on foot, as his comrade proposed. His gait was very deliberate, with short, even, careful steps, so that he was soon left far in the rear by his more impetuous companion, who forged ahead in a manner that carried him to his destination long before the arrival of Sir Walter. Walking together, therefore, being practically out of the question, when


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vi the second expedition started, on the 23rd of September, 1878, Modestine and her master comprised the only members of the party.

The twelve days' tramp through the Cévennes, though in some ways more exhausting than the canoe voyage, was more to the traveller's taste, having elements of romance the former lacked. To the end of his life the author of Treasure Island and the Child's Garden remained at heart a boy. What could appeal more strongly to the imagination of a "lantern bearer" than the thought of sleeping alone under the stars in a fleecy blue bag, and breaking his fast on bits of chocolate?—to say nothing of the pistol, which I doubt would have proved a very efficient weapon in time of need, had such a chance occurred, it being of an antiquated pattern, uncertain in its mechanism, and more likely to be a menace than a protection to its owner.

The management of Modestine's pack must have been a source of exasperation and perplexity to her master, for my husband was, like his father before him, what the Scotch call a "handless


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Rh man." Neither of them could tie a knot that would hold, and the inventor of the revolving lights and countless scientific instruments would find himself helpless before the problem of cording a trunk, or even buttoning his own cuffs. I remember once, in an out-of-the-way place, my husband offering to carry wood from a distant pile as his share of the camp work, my sister and I to do the cooking. Our supply of fuel seeming very scant, we looked into the matter to find him plodding wearily back and forth, fetching a single stick at a time. He certainly never attained "that neat, hurried, bite-your-thread effect" that he so admired in Americans.

Kegan Paul not only paid twenty pounds for the Travels with a Donkey, but invited the author to dinner, where the shy young man suffered agonies of embarrassment over the claret that was served to the guests alone, Mr. Paul being an abstainer from principle. Would the acceptance, at his invitation, of the wine Mr. Paul thought it wrong to take, put Mr. Paul in a false position? And yet, on what grounds to refuse? This


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viii question became so harassing to the Scotch conscience, that, as my husband has told me, he would have infinitely preferred to dine not at all. 1em


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 ,

The journey which this little book is to describe was very agreeable and fortunate for me. After an uncouth beginning, I had the best of luck to the end. But we are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world,—all, too, travellers with a donkey; and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. We travel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward of life. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and, when we are alone, we are only nearer to the absent.

Every book is, in an intimate sense, a circular letter to the friends of him who writes it. They alone take his meaning; they find private messages, assurances of love, and expressions of gratitude dropped for them in every corner. The public is but a generous patron who defrays the postage. Yet, though the letter is directed to all, we have an old and kindly custom of addressing it on the outside to one. Of what shall a man be proud, if he is not proud of his friends? And so, my dear Sidney Colvin, it is with pride that I sign myself affectionately yours,

R. L. S.


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N a little place called Le Monastier, in a pleasant highland valley fifteen miles from Le Puy, I spent about a month of fine days. Monastier is notable for the making of lace, for drunkenness, for freedom of language, and for unparalleled political dissension. There are adherents of each of the four French parties—Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and Republicans—in this little mountain-town; and they all hate, loathe, decry, and calumniate each other. Except for business purposes, or to give each other the lie in a tavern brawl, they have laid aside even the civility of speech, 'Tis a mere mountain Poland. In the midst of this Babylon I found myself a rallying-point; every one was anxious to be kind and helpful to the stranger. This was


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gull, William Withey


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4 not merely from the natural hospitality of mountain people, nor even from the surprise with which I was regarded as a man living of his own free will in Monastier, when he might just as well have lived anywhere else in this big world; it arose a good deal from my projected excursion southward through the Cévennes. A traveller of my sort was a thing hitherto unheard of in that district. I was looked upon with contempt, like a man who should project a journey to the moon, but yet with a respectful interest, like one setting forth for the inclement Pole. All were ready to help in my preparations; a crowd of sympathisers supported me at the critical moment of a bargain; not a step was taken but was heralded by glasses round and celebrated by a dinner or a breakfast.

It was already hard upon October before I was ready to set forth, and at the high altitudes over which my road lay there was no Indian summer to be looked for. I was determined, if not to camp out, at least to have the means of camping out in my possession; for there is nothing more harassing to an easy mind than the necessity of reaching


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Rh shelter by dusk, and the hospitality of a village inn is not always to be reckoned sure by those who trudge on foot. A tent, above all for a solitary traveller, is troublesome to pitch, and troublesome to strike again; and even on the march it forms a conspicuous feature in your baggage. A sleeping-sack, on the other hand, is always ready—you have only to get into it; it serves a double purpose—a bed by night, a portmanteau by day; and it does not advertise your intention of camping out to every curious passer-by. This is a huge point. If the camp is not secret, it is but a troubled resting-place; you become a public character; the convivial rustic visits your bedside after an early supper; and you must sleep with one eye open, and be up before the day. I decided on a sleeping-sack; and after repeated visits to Le Puy, and a deal of high living for myself and my advisers, a sleeping-sack was designed, constructed, and triumphally brought home. This child of my invention was nearly six feet square, exclusive of two triangular flaps to serve as a pillow by night and as the top and bottom of


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6 the sack by day. I call it "the sack," but it was never a sack by more than courtesy: only a sort of long roll or sausage, green waterproof cart cloth without and blue sheep's fur within. It was commodious as a valise, warm and dry for a bed. There was luxurious turning-room for one; and at a pinch the thing might serve for two, I could bury myself in it up to the neck; for my head I trusted to a fur cap, with a hood to fold down over my ears and a band to pass under my nose like a respirator; and in case of heavy rain I proposed to make myself a little tent, or tentlet, with my waterproof coat, three stones, and a bent branch. It will readily be conceived that I could not carry this huge package on my own, merely human, shoulders. It remained to choose a beast of burthen. Now, a horse is a fine lady among animals, flighty, timid, delicate in eating, of tender health; he is too valuable and too restive to be left alone, so that you are chained to your brute as to a fellow galley-slave; a dangerous road puts him out of his wits; in short, he's an uncertain and exacting ally, and adds thirty-fold to the troubles


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Rh of the voyager. What I required was something cheap and small and hardy, and of a stolid and peaceful temper; and all these requisites pointed to a donkey.

There dwelt an old man in Monastier, of rather unsound intellect according to some, much followed by street-boys, and known to fame as Father Adam. Father Adam had a cart, and to draw the cart a diminutive she-ass, not much bigger than a dog, the colour of a mouse, with a kindly eye and a determined under-jaw. There was something neat and high-bred, a quakerish elegance, about the rogue that hit my fancy on the spot. Our first interview was in Monastier market-place. To prove her good temper, one child after another was set upon her back to ride, and one after another went head over heels into the air; until a want of confidence began to reign in youthful bosoms, and the experiment was discontinued from a dearth of subjects. I was already backed by a deputation of my friends; but as if this were not enough, all the buyers and sellers came round and helped me in the bargain; and the ass and I and


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8 Father Adam were the centre of a hubbub for near half an hour. At length she passed into my service for the consideration of sixty-five francs and a glass of brandy. The sack had already cost eighty francs and two glasses of beer; so that Modestine, as I instantly baptised her, was upon all accounts the cheaper article. Indeed, that was as it should be; for she was only an appurtenance of my mattress, or self-acting bedstead on, four castors. I had a last interview with Father Adam in a billiard-room at the witching hour of dawn, when I administered the brandy. He professed himself greatly touched by the separation, and declared he had often bought white bread for the donkey when he had been content with black bread for himself; but this, according to the best authorities, must have been a flight of fancy. He had a name in the village for brutally misusing the ass; yet it is certain that he shed a tear, and the tear made a clean mark down one cheek.

By the advice of a fallacious local saddler, a leather pad was made for me with rings to fasten


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 Moffat James Chapman and Samuel Edwards—Moffat crossed the edge of the Kalahari desert, found Sechele and his people among the precipices of Lethubaruba, passed over 120 miles of desert to Shoshong, the residence of Sekhomi, chief of the Bamangwato tribe, then by compass over an unknown and uninhabited country in a north-easterly direction for eighteen days, until he reached Mosilikatse and the Matabele. The chief was almost helpless with dropsy, but accompanied Moffat in a further journey to the outposts of the tribe, in the hope of hearing news of Livingstone. The obstacles at last proved insuperable, and Moffat had to content himself with an undertaking from the chief, which he kept, that he would take charge of the supplies for Livingstone, and deliver them to the Makololo. Moffat made his return journey of seven hundred miles to Kuruman without incident.

In 1857 the translation of the Old Testament was finished, and the whole bible in the Sechwana language was printed and distributed. In the same year, by order of the home authorities of the mission, Moffat returned to the Matabeles and obtained the chief's consent to establish a station among them. There followed a meeting with Livingstone at the Cape to define their spheres of labour, and after some delay at Kuruman, owing to quarrels between the Boers and the natives, during which Moffat printed a new hymn-book, he, with three companions, including his younger son, reached the headquarters of the Matabele chief Mosilikatse at the end of October 1859. The chief was at first far from cordial, having heard of the doings of the Transvaal Boers, who so often followed in the wake of the missionaries. Eventually, however, in December a station was formed at Inyati, and Moffat worked hard at the forge and the bench to help forward the necessary buildings, until in June the mission was sufficiently established for him to leave it to itself.

Failing health and domestic troubles led Moffat to finally leave Africa for England on 10 June 1870. He was most warmly received. His wife died at Brixton in January 1871, and Moffat subsequently until his death travelled about the United Kingdom preaching and advocating the cause of missions. He also revised the Sechwana translation of the Old Testament. In 1872 he was made a D.D. of Edinburgh. In 1873 he settled in Knowle Road, Brixton, South London, and was presented with upwards of 5,000l. by his friends. In 1874 he went to Southampton to meet and identify the remains of Livingstone, and was present at the funeral in Westminster Abbey. In August 1876 he was present at the unveiling of the statue of Livingstone in Edinburgh, when the queen, who was at Holyrood, sent for him and gave him a short interview. In April 1877, at the invitation of the French Missionary Society, he visited Paris, and through Theodore Monod addressed four thousand French children. In November 1879 he removed to Leigh, near Tunbridge. He was deeply interested in the Transvaal war, and, believing in the advantages of British rule for the natives, he was greatly shocked at the triumph of the Boers and the acquiescence of the English government in defeat. On 7 May 1881 he was entertained at the Mansion House, London, at a dinner given by the lord mayor in his honour, which the Archbishop of Canterbury, representatives of both houses of parliament, and all the leading men of the religious and philanthropic world attended. In 1882 he visited the Zulu chief Ketchwayo, then in England, and was able to converse with one of his attendants in the Sechwana language. Moffat died peacefully at Leigh on 8 Aug. 1883, and was buried at Norwood cemetery beside the remains of his wife. A monument was erected to his memory at Ormiston, his birthplace in East Lothian.

Moffat's eldest son Robert, and his daughter, Mrs. Livingstone, both died in 1862. Another daughter Bessie married in October 1861 the African missionary, Roger Price. His second daughter married Jean Frédoux, a French missionary, who was killed in 1866, leaving his widow and seven children unprovided for.

Tall and manly, with shaggy hair and beard, clear cut features and piercing eyes, Moffat's exterior was one to impress native races, while his childlike spirit and modest and unselfish nature insured a commanding influence. He was the father and pioneer of South African mission work, and will be remembered as a staunch friend of the natives, an industrious translator, a persevering teacher, and a skilful organiser.

Moffat was the author of: 1. 'Translation of the Gospel of St. Luke into Sechwana,' 12mo, 1830. 2. 'Translation into Sechwana of parts of the Old Testament,' 8vo, 1831. 3. 'A Book of Hymns in Sechwana, Schlapi dialect, 80 pages,' Mission Press, Kuruman, 2nd edition, 1838. 4. 'Africa, or Gospel Light shining in the midst of Heathen Darkness, a Sermon on Isaiah ix. 2, preached before the Directors of the London Missionary Society, &c., with Notes,' 8vo, London, 1840. 5. 'Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa,' 4th edition, London, 8vo,


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Rh on my bundle; and I thoughtfully completed my kit and arranged my toilette. By way of armoury and utensils, I took a revolver, a little spirit-lamp and pan, a lantern and some halfpenny candles, a jack-knife and a large leather flask. The main cargo consisted of two entire changes of warm clothing—besides my travelling wear of country velveteen, pilot-coat, and knitted spencer—some books, and my railway-rug, which, being also in the form of a bag, made me a double castle for cold nights. The permanent larder was represented by cakes of chocolate and tins of Bologna sausage. All this, except what I carried about my person, was easily stowed into the sheepskin bag; and by good fortune I threw in my empty knapsack, rather for convenience of carriage than from any thought that I should want it on my journey. For more immediate needs, I took a leg of cold mutton, a bottle of Beaujolais, an empty bottle to carry milk, an egg-beater, and a considerable quantity of black bread and white, like Father Adam, for myself and donkey, only in my scheme of things the destinations were reversed.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moffat, Robert


text: Category:Methodism

title: Category:Methodism


text: Category:The Salvation Army

title: Category:The Salvation Army


text:
Author:William Blanchard Jerrold

Works

 * The Disgrace to the Family: A Story of Social Distinction (1848)
 * A Brage-beaker with the Swedes; or, Notes from the North in 1852 (1854)
 * Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold (1859)
 * The Chronicles of the Crutch (1860)
 * Up and Down in the World (1863)
 * The Children of Lutetia (1864)
 * Cent per Cent: A Story Written Upon a Bill Stamp (1871)
 * At Home in Paris (1871)
 * "The Best of All Good Company" series (1871-1873)
 * The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs (1882)
 * At Home in Paris (1871)
 * "The Best of All Good Company" series (1871-1873)
 * The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs (1882)

title: Author:William Blanchard Jerrold


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Company of Otoe v. Baldwin

John C. Watson, for County of Otoe.

J. M. Woolworth, for Baldwin.

BLATCHFORD, J.

title: Company of Otoe v. Baldwin


text: Talk:Company of Otoe v. Baldwin

title: Talk:Company of Otoe v. Baldwin


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Company of Otoe v. Baldwin/Opinion of the Court

>>On the first of April, 1882, John T. Baldwin brought a suit at law, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nebraska, against the county of Otoe, in the state of Nebraska, to recover the amount due on sundry coupons cut from bonds issued by that county, the coupons being payable, some January 1st and others July 1st in each year, from and including 1870 to and including 1881, and January 1, 1882. On the eleventh of August, 1882, Baldwin brought another suit at law, in the same court against the same defendant, to recover the amount due on sundry other coupons, cut from some of the same bonds, the coupons being payable, some January 1st and others July 1st in each year, from and including 1878 to and including 1882. The bonds were issued by the county, while Nebraska was a territory, to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, the principal being payable January 1, 1887, with interest from January 1, 1867, at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, payable on July 1st and January 1st in each year. The amount of the principal of the bonds was $40,000, they bore date November 12, 1866, and were signed by the chairman of the board of county commissioners, and the treasurer, and attested by the county clerk, and bore the seal of the county, and were payable to the company or its assigns, and each bond was assigned by it, by an assignment under its seal, to the bearer, indorsed on the bond, and dated November 18, 1869. Each bond contained the following statement: 'This bond is one of a series of one hundred and sixty, of the like tenor and date, one hundred of which are for one hundred dollars, and sixty of which are each for five hundred dollars, in the aggregate amounting to the sum of forty thousand dollars, executed and issued, or to be issued, from time to time, as the wants of said county shall require, to pay to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, as an appropriation made by said county to said railroad company, to aid in the construction of the railroad of said company, to be located in Fremont county Iowa, through a point most convenient to Nebraska City. This debt is authorized by a vote of the legal voters of said county of Otoe, taken at an election held under and by virtue of an order of the county commissioners of said county, on the seventeenth day of March, 1866, in pursuance with the several acts of the legislature of the territory of Nebraska, in such cases made and provided, and a resolution of the board of county commissioners of said county granting such aid.'

Nebraska City is in the county of Otoe, on the west bank of the Missouri river. Fremont county, in Iowa, adjoins Otoe county on the east, being separated from it only by the Missouri river. Council Bluffs is in Iowa, on the east bank of the Missouri river, above Fremont county, and 40 to 50 miles above Nebraska City. St. Joseph is in Missouri, on the east bank of the Missouri river, below the other places named.

On the sixth of January, 1860, the legislative assembly of the territory of Nebraska passed an act (Laws 1859-60, 6th Sess. p. 112) entitled 'An act to authorize Otoe county to subscribe and take stock in any railroad located or to be located in Fremont county, in the state of Iowa.' This act contained the following provisions: 'That the board of county commissioners for Otoe county may, at any time, by an order of said board, cause an election to be held for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the people of Otoe county, as to the propriety of said county subscribing stock for any amount, not exceeding seventy-five thousand dollars, to any railroad company, for the purpose of constructing any railroad now or hereafter to be located in Fremont county and state of Iowa. Section 2. If a majority of the legal voters of said county shall vote in favor of such proposition, then the board of county commissioners of Otoe county shall issue the bonds of said county, for whatever amount of stock it may have been decided upon by such vote, to any such railroad company, which bonds shall not bear any greater interest than ten per cent. per annum.'

On the eleventh of January, 1861, the legislative assembly of the territory passed an act (Laws 1860-61, 7th Sess. p. 146) entitled 'An act to define the powers and duties of county commissioners and county clerk.' This act created in each county a board of county commissioners, consisting of three persons. It also provided as follows:

'Sec. 24. The said commissioners shall have power to submit to the people of the county, at any regular or special election, the question whether the county will borrow money to aid in the construction of public buildings, the question whether the county will aid or construct any road or bridge, or to submit to the people of the county any question involving an extraordinary outlay of money by the county; and said commissioners may aid any enterprise designed for the benefit of the county as aforesaid, whenever a majority of the people thereof shall be in favor of the proposition as provided in this section.

'Sec. 25. When county warrants are at a depreciated value, the said commissioners may, in like manner, submit the question whether a tax of a higher rate than that provided by law shall be levied, and in all cases when an additional tax is laid in pursuance of a vote of the people of the county, for the special purpose of repaying borrowed money, or of constructing or ordaining to construct any road or bridge, or for aiding in any enterprise contemplated by the twenty-first section of this act, such special tax shall be paid in money, and in no other manner.

'Sec. 26. The mode of submitting the questions to the people, contemplated by the last two sections, shall be the following: The whole question, including the sum desired to be raised, or the amount of tax desired to be levied, or the rate per annum, and the whole regulation, including the time of its taking effect or having operation, if it be of a nature to be set forth, and the penalty of its violation, if there be one, is to be published at least for four weeks in some newspaper published in the county. If there be no such newspaper, the publication is to be made by being posted up in at least one of the most public places in each election precinct in the county, and in all cases the notices shall name the time when such question shall be voted upon, and the form in which the question shall be taken, and a copy of the question submitted shall be posted up at each place of voting during the day of election.

'Sec. 27. When the question submitted involves the borrowing or expenditure of money, the proposition of the question must be accompanied by a provision to lay a tax for the payment thereof, in addition to the usual taxes under section sixteen of this act; and no vote adopting the question proposed shall be valid, unless it likewise adopt the amount of tax to be levied to meet the liability incurred.

'Sec. 28. The rate of tax levied in pursuance of the last four sections of this act shall, in no case, exceed more than three mills on the dollar, of the county valuation, in one year. When the object is to borrow money to aid in the erection of public buildings, as provided, the rate shall be such as to pay the debt in ten years. When the object is to construct, or aid in constructing, any road or bridge, the annual rate shall not exceed one mill on a dollar of the valuation; and any special tax or taxes levied in pursuance of this act, becoming delinquent, shall draw the same rate of interest as ordinary taxes levied in pursuance of the revenue laws of this territory.

'Sec. 29. The said commissioners being satisfied that the above requirements have been substantially complied with, and that a majority of the votes cast are in favor of the proposition submitted, shall cause the same to be entered at large upon the book containing the record of their proceedings; and they shall then have power to levy and collect the special tax in the same manner that the other county taxes are collected. Propositions thus acted upon cannot be rescinded by the board of county commissioners.

'Sec. 30. Money raised by the county commissioners in pursuance of the last six sections of this act is specially appropriated and constituted a fund district from all others in the hands of the county treasurer, until the obligation assumed is discharged.'

The records of the commissioners of Otoe county, and the records of that county, show the following facts: The county clerk called a meeting of the commissioners of Otoe county, to be held February 24, 1866, 'to take into consideration the question of submitting to the people of said county the issuance of the bonds of said county, not exceeding $200,000 in amount, to be used in securing to said county an eastern railroad connection.' The meeting was held on that day, two commissioners being present, and it was ordered that an election be held on the seventeenth of March, 1866, in and throughout the county of Otoe, 'for the purpose of ascertaining whether the commissioners of Otoe county shall issue bonds, not to exceed $200,000, for the purpose of securing an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City, N. T.' The election was held on the day named, and the vote was 1,362 for, and 201 against, 'the issuing of two hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of securing an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City.' On the ninth of November, 1866, the commissioners, three being present, made the following order: 'Ordered that ($40,000) forty thousand dollars be donated to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company, provided that said railroad company locate their road within one and a half miles of the ferry landing at Nebraska City, N. T., and secure to Nebraska City and to Otoe county an eastern railroad connection on or before the first day of September, 1876, by way of St. Joseph, Mo. The above order was made inconformity of a vote of legal voters of Otoe county, taken at an election duly held under and by virtue of an order of the county commissioners of said county, on the seventeenth day of March, 1866, in pursuance of the several acts of the legislature of the territory of Nebraska, in such cases made and provided.' The bonds were issued, and were received by the railroad company, $7,000 on the twenty-fourth of November, 1866, $20,000 on the twenty-third of February, 1867, and $13,000 on the thirteenth of November, 1867. Nebraska became a state on the first of March, 1867. Proc. 14 St. 820.

On the fifteenth of February, 1869, the legislature of the state passed an act(Laws 1869, p. 92) entitled 'An act to enable counties, cities, and precincts to borrow money on their bonds, or to issue bonds, to aid in the construction or completion of works of internal improvement in this state, and to legalize bonds already issued for such purpose.' The first seven sections of this act authorized counties, cities, and precincts in the state to issue bonds to aid in the construction of railroads and other works of internal improvement, and prescribed regulations in respect to the same, embracing the taking of a prior vote of the legal voters of the county, city, or precinct, and the laying of taxes to pay the principal and interest of the bonds. Section 8 was as follows:

'Sec. 8. All bonds heretofore voted and issued by any county or city in this state to aid in the construction of any railroad or other work of internal improvement are hereby declared to be legal and valid, and a lien upon all the taxable property in such county or city, notwithstanding any defect or irregularity in the submission of the question to a vote of the people, or in taking the vote, or in the execution of such bonds, and notwithstanding the same may not have been voted upon, executed, or issued in conformity with law, and such bonds shall have the same legal validity and binding force as if they had been legally authorized, voted upon, and executed: provided, that nothing in this section, nor in this act, shall be so construed as to legalize or in any way sanction any vote of the people of Nemaha county heretofore had, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of any railroad, nor anything done by the county commissioners of said county authorizing said vote, or anything done by them in consequence of such vote.'

On the same day the legislature of the state passed another act, (Laws 1869, p. 260,) entitled 'An act to authorize the county commissioners of Otoe county to issue the bonds of said county to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, or any other railroad running east from Nebraska City.' This act provided as follows:

'Whereas, the qualified voters of the county of Otoe and state of Nebraska have heretofore, at an election held for that purpose, authorized the county commissioners of said county to issue the bonds of said county, in payment of stock, to any railroad in Fremont county, Iowa, that would secure to Nebraska City an eastern railroad connection, to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars; and whereas, but forty thousand dollars have been issued: Section 1. Therefore, be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Nebraska, that said commissioners be, and they are hereby, authorized to issue one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the bonds aforesaid to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, or any other railroad company that will secure to Nebraska City a direct eastern railroad connection, as a donation to said railroad company, on such terms and conditions as may be imposed by said county commissioners. Sec. 2. Said bonds, when so issued, are hereby declared to be binding obligations on said county, and to be governed by the terms and conditions of an act entitled 'An act to enable counties, cities, and precincts to borrow money or to issue bonds to aid in the construction or completion of works of internal improvement in this state, and to legalize bonds already issued for such purpose,' approved February, A. D. 1869.'

After an answer and a reply in each suit the two suits were consolidated. The petitions by which the suits were commenced allege, in respect to each of the bonds from which the coupons sued on were cut, that it was issued and delivered to the company and assigned by it in blank, and was sold and delivered by it for value, and has in due course of business come to the plaintiff, 'who has become and is the true and lawful owner and holder thereof, together with the coupons thereto annexed, and without any knowledge of any facts, if any there be, affecting its validity;' that by the second act of February 15, 1869, supra, (which the petitions call an act of the legislature of the territory,) the territory recognized the due issue of the bonds; and that said county paid all of the coupons attached to said bonds when the same were issued, except those which matured on and after January 1, 1870.

The answers deny all the allegations of the petitions except those expressly admitted. They deny that the county issued or delivered the bonds. They admit that the board of county commissioners issued and delivered the bonds and coupons to the company, but aver that they did so without legal authority; that neither the question of issuing the bonds nor the proposition to lay or levy a tax for the payment of the bonds or coupons was ever submitted to or voted or passed upon by the voters or people of the county; that the bonds were a donation by the commissioners to the company, for which the county received no consideration; that the company was an Iowa corporation, having its road wholly in that state; that it obtained the bonds upon an agreement with the commissioners, with which it did not comply, as to where it would build its road and establish a depot; that the plaintiff had notice of all said facts when he received the bonds and coupons, and paid no consideration for them; that the territory of Nebraska did not, by said second act of February 15, 1869, recognize the due issue of the bonds; and that said act was unconstitutional and void, and was not retrospective or retroactive, and did not pretend to authorize or legalize any bond or bonds made or issued before that act was passed. The answer in the second suit alleges, as an additional defense, that the question of issuing the bonds, and the sum to be raised, and the amount of tax, and its rate, were not published before March 17, 1866, or at any time, in any newspaper published in the county, nor posted up in any election precinct, nor was any question of issuing any bonds to said company ever so published or posted up, and no copy of any question to be submitted and voted on by the people of the county at said election was posted up at any place of voting in the county during the seventeenth of March, 1866. The replies deny the matters set up in the answers.

A trial by jury having been duly waived in the consolidated action, it was tried before the circuit judge and the district judge. There was no special finding of facts. The judgment, entered May 19, 1883, states that 'the court finds for the defendant upon all the causes of action pleaded by the plaintiff, upon coupons which were more than five years past due when these actions were brought, and, upon all other causes of action pleaded by the plaintiff in the said two several actions, the court finds for the plaintiff, and assesses his damages at $19,537.65. The judgment is for the plaintiff for that amount, with costs. In the first suit, the answer sets up as a defense to the causes of action on the coupons which were more than five years past due when the suit was brought, the Nebraska statute of limitations.

There is in the record a bill of exceptions, which states that it contains all the evidence offered or given by either party in the trial of the case, but it contains no exception to anything by either party, nor does the record contain any exception to any ruling of the court. The bonds and coupons, and the records of the county commissioners, are made a part of the bill of exceptions The rest of the bill consists of oral testimony.

There is, however, in the record a certificate signed by the circuit judge and the district judge, and filed the same day the judgment was entered, stating that, in the course of the trial, the following questions arose for determination; that is to say: 'First. Whether the commissioners of the defendant had the power to issue bonds under either of the statutes, copies of which are hereto attached, marked 'A' and 'B,' without first giving four weeks' notice of the election, as provided by section 26 of act marked 'B,' so that the same would be good and valid in the hands of a bona fide holder? Second. If the power to issue bonds existed under either of said statutes, was it a defense available to the county, against a bona fide holder of the bonds in suit, that the election, in pursuance of which they were issued, was for the purpose of determining whether the county should issue its bonds to the amount of $200,000 for the purpose of securing an eastern connection for Nebraska City, when only $40,000 was issued under said vote? Third. The order for the election not providing for the submission of a provision to levy a tax, as required by section 27 of the act marked 'B,' should it be presumed that the proposition to issue the bonds submitted and voted on at an election was not accompanied by a provision to lay the tax as required in said act, and, if such presumption is to be indulged, was the presumed fact a defense available to the county against a bona fide holder of the bonds? Fourth. Was it a defense available to the county against a bona fide holder that the bonds in suit, after being issued in pursuance of a vote held under one or both of said acts, were donated to the railroad company, provided it were located within one and one-half miles of Nebraska City? Fifth. If originally illegal and void, were the bonds validated by the acts, copies of which are hereto attached, marked 'C' and 'D'?' The act marked 'A' is the territorial act of January 6, 1860; the act marked 'B' is the territorial act of January 11, 1861; and the acts marked 'C' and 'D' are the two state acts of February 15, 1869. The certificate further states that 'the circuit judge being of the opinion that, all of said questions notwithstanding, judgment should be for the plaintiff and the district judge being of the contrary opinion, it is ordered that judgment be entered for the plaintiff, and the said questions be certified to the supreme court for its consideration and answer, * *  * at the request of counsel.'

Each party has sued out a writ of error to review the judgment. The condition of the record is such, in the absence of an exception by either party to any ruling of the court in the progress of the trial, and of a special finding of the court upon facts, that there is nothing open for our consideration outside of the questions embraced in the certificate of the judges. We accept the certificate as sufficient to warrant an answer to the fifth question, although it does not state, in the terms of section 652 or section 693 of the Revised Statutes, that the judges disagreed upon the points stated in the five questions, or that their opinions were opposed upon such questions, but only that they disagreed as to whether the judgment should be for the plaintiff or the defendant, notwithstanding all of said questions. Having arrived at the conclusion that the fifth question must be answered in the affirmative, and such result disposing of the writ of error taken by the defendant, we do not deem it necessary to answer the other four questions. The fifth question assumes that the bonds were originally illegal and void, and we so assume, without so deciding, in answering that question.

The question is not an open one, on this record, as to whether the plaintiff is a bona fide owner of the bonds and coupons for value, without knowledge or notice of any facts affecting their validity, as alleged in the petitions and replies, and denied in the answers. That issue is found for the plaintiff by the general finding in his favor as to all the causes of action, except those on coupons which fell due before July 1, 1877. This general finding has the same effect as the verdict of a jury, and we cannot review it.

It is contended for the defendant that the failure to give the four weeks' notice of the election, as provided by section 26 of the act marked 'B,' and the failure to include in the vote the question of taxation, as provided by section 27, constituted such a want of power to issue the bonds that the legislature could not validate their issue. The territorial act of January 11, 1861, the proceedings for the election and its result, and the state act marked 'D,' were before this court in Railroad Co. v. Co. of Otoe, 16 Wall. 667, at December term, 1872. After that act was passed, and in September, 1869, the commissioners of Otoe county issued to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, named in that act, as a donation, the $150,000 of bonds mentioned in it; there having been no vote of the people, other than the one above mentioned, authorizing the issue of the bonds. The bonds and their coupons were transferred for value, and before the maturity of any of the coupons, by that company, to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, and it sued the county, on some of the coupons, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nebraska. Upon the trial of that suit, two questions were certified to this court: (1) Whether the act marked 'D,' authorizing the county to issue bonds in aid of a railroad outside of the state, conflicted with the constitution of the state; (2) whether the county commissioners, under that act, could lawfully issue the bonds, without the proposition to vote the bonds for the purpose indicated, and also a tax to pay the same, being or having been submitted to a vote of the people of the county, as provided by the territorial act of January 11, 1861. This court held (1) that the act of February 15, 1869, authorizing the county of Otoe to issue bonds in aid of a railroad outside of the state, did not conflict with the constitution of the state; (2) that it was a valid exercise of legislative authority, to authorize a county to incur indebtedness and impose taxation in aid of railroad companies; (3) that the legislature could constitutionally authorize a donation of the county bonds to the railroad company; (4) that it could authorize aid to a railroad beyond the limits of the county and outside of the state; (5) that under said act of February 15, 1869, the county commissioners could lawfully issue the $150,000 of bonds without a vote of the people, as provided by the territorial act of January 11, 1861, on the proposition to issue them, and on the question of taxation to pay them. This court said, by Justice STRONG: 'If the legislature had power to authorize the county officers to extend aid on behalf of the county or state to a railroad company, as we have seen it had, very plainly it could prescribe the mode in which such aid might be extended, as well as the terms and conditions of the extension, and it needed no assistance from the popular vote of the municipality. Such a vote could not have enlarged legislative power. But the act of 1869 was an unconditional bestowal of authority upon the county commissioners to issue the bonds to the railroad company. It required no precedent action of the voters of the county. It assumed that their assent had been obtained. That prior to 1869 the sanction of approval by a local popular vote had been required for municipal aid to railroad companies or improvement companies, is quite immaterial. The requisition was but the act of an annual legislature, which any subsequent legislature could abrogate or annul.'

It cannot be doubted that the two acts of February 15, 1869, taken together, intended to legalize the $40,000 of bonds issued to the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company. Those bonds fall within the description of section 8 of the act marked 'C,' as bonds theretofore 'voted and issued' by the county of Otoe to aid in the construction of a railroad. The vote was a vote of the county to issue $200,000 of bonds 'for the purpose of securing an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City;' and the $40,000 of bonds were issued as a donation to said company, to aid it in building a railroad so near to Nebraska City as to secure to that city and to the county of Otoe an eastern railroad connection by the way of St. Joseph. The defects and irregularities alleged in respect to the bonds were defects and irregularities in submitting to a vote of the people of the county the question of issuing the bonds, in regard to the publishing of notice, and in regard to including in the vote the question of taxation. It was alleged that the bonds were not voted upon or issued in conformity with law. The statute enacted that, notwithstanding such defects or irregularities, the bonds should be legal and valid, and should have the same legal validity and binding force as if they had been legally authorized, voted upon, and executed. The act of the same date, marked 'D,' refers to and identifies sufficiently the election held, and the authority given by the vote to the county commissioners to issue the bonds of the county, to the amount of $200,000, 'to any railroad in Fremont county, Iowa, that would secure to Nebraska City an eastern railroad connection.' It recites the authority as one to issue the bonds 'in payment of stock.' But the question is one merely of identity, and it is not pretended there was any election in Otoe county to the purport set forth, including the words 'in payment of stock,' while there was just such an election leaving out those words. The identity is further shown by the words in the act, 'and whereas, but forty thousand dollars have been issued,' and by the authority given to issue $150,000 'of the bonds aforesaid;' that is, of the $200,000 of bonds so voted, as a donation to any railroad company that would 'secure to Nebraska City a direct eastern railroad connection.' It is not pretended that any $40,000 of bonds were issued except those named in the bonds sued on in this suit. Taking the two acts together, the legislature recognized the fact that the voters of Otoe connty had voted to issue $200,000 of bonds to secure an eastern railroad connection for Nebraska City, in that county; that $40,000 had been issued; and that the defects and irregularities before named were alleged to have occurred in respect to the voting upon and issuing the $40,000 of the bonds; and it enacted that those bonds should be legal and valid, and that $150,000 more of the $200,000 should be issued for the same purpose.

The decision by this court in regard to the $150,000 of bonds leaves but little more to say in regard to the $40,000. As the legislature had power to authorize the issue of bonds without any precedent action of the voters of the county, it could validate the issue of bonds by curing and legalizing defects in respect to the voting. The bonds were assigned by the railroad company, and came to the plaintiff after the acts of 1869 were passed, and he became a bona fide holder of them on the faith of those acts. The doctrine is well settled in this court that the legislature of a state, unless restrained by its organic law, has the right to authorize a municipal corporation to issue bonds in aid of a railroad, and to levy a tax to pay the bonds and the interest on them, with or without a popular vote, and to cure, by a retrospective act, irregularities in the exercise of the power conferred. Thomson v. Lee Co. 3 Wall. 327; Campbell v. City of Kenosha, 5 Wall. 203.

Much stress is laid by the defendant on the decision of the supreme court of Nebraska in Hamlin v. Meadville, 6 Neb. 227, in 1877. That was a suit brought in February, 1871, by an owner of property in Otoe county, to enjoin the county treasurer from collecting a tax levied on his property to pay the interest on these $40,000 of bonds, and to have the bonds declared void. A judgment to that effect was rendered, and was affirmed by the supreme court. The question adjudged in the case was the power conferred on the county commissioners, by the acts of 1860 and 1861, to issue the bonds. It was held that the only authority, if any, given by the vote of the people was to subscribe for stock in a railroad company. The act marked 'C' was not considered. It was held that it was not the purpose of the act marked 'D' to legalize the $40,000 of bonds, but only to authorize the issue of the $150,000 of bonds; and that the only subject or object expressed in its title was the issuing of bonds. The adjudication in Hamlin v. Meadville is not set up as a judgment binding on the plaintiff. Nor can it be. He was no party to it, nor was any holder of the bonds.

It is objected that the act marked 'C' is void because section 19 of article 2 of the constitution of Nebraska, of 1867, provided that 'no bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title,' and because the act does not comply with those provisions. It is plain, we think, that the bill does not contain more than one subject. That subject is municipal bonds issued, or to be issued, to aid in making works of internal improvement. There is but one purpose, object, or subject, and that is the aiding of such works by bonds, and the status of such bonds. The subject of the act, to authorize future bonds and legalize existing bonds, for such purpose, is clearly expressed in its title.

But it is objected that the title of the act is limited to bonds issued, or to be issued, to aid works in Nebraska, while the body of the act extends to works any where; and that so the subject of the act is not expressed in its title. The first section of the act relates to the future issue of bonds by 'any county or city in the state;' the seventh section relates to like issues by 'any precinct in any organized county of this state;' and the eighth section relates to 'bonds heretofore voted and issued by any county or city in this state.' The railroads and works of internal improvement referred to in the body of the act are not limited to those situated in the state. It would, we think, be a strained construction, to hold that the title of the act is to be so interpreted as to be limited to works situated in the state, when such limitation does not exist in the body of the act, and when the words 'in this state,' in the title, may fairly be regarded as applicable to the prior words 'counties, cities, and precincts,' to which words they are applied in the body of the act. This principle of construction is sanctioned by the views expressed in Montclair v. Ramsdell, 107 U.S. 152, S.C.. 2 SUP. CT. REP. 391, and in City of Jonesboro v. Cairo & St. Louis R. Co. 110 U.S. 192, S.C.. 4 SUP. CT. REP. 67. See, also, Cooley, Const. Lim. 141 et seq. We have not been referred to any decision of the supreme court of Nebraska which we regard as in conflict with these views.

The question sought to be raised by the writ of error of the plaintiff is that the statute of limitations had not run against the coupons which were more than five years past due when the first suit was commenced, because, under section 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Nebraska, the disability of married woman, from whom the plaintiff purchased the bonds, intervened for a sufficient time, between their date and such purchase by him, to prevent what would otherwise be the bar of the statute. Without considering that question, it is sufficient to say that the facts on which it could be raised are not admitted in the pleadings or specially found by the court, and that the general finding for the defendant on the causes of action on coupons which were more than five years past due when the actions were brought, and the absence of any exception by the plaintiff to any ruling of the court in regard to the question, preclude any adjudication here upon it.

The fifth question certified is answered in the affirmative, and the judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.


text: Talk:Company of Otoe v. Baldwin/Opinion of the Court


text:
Lammon v. Feusier

C. J. Hillyer, for plaintiffs in error.

N. M. Stone, for defendants in error.

GRAY, J.

title: Lammon v. Feusier


text: Talk:Lammon v. Feusier

title: Talk:Lammon v. Feusier


text:
Lammon v. Feusier/Opinion of the Court

The original action was brought in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nevada, by Henry Feusier, a citizen of California, against George I. Lammon and three other persons, citizens of Nevada, upon a bond given by Lammon, the marshal of the United States for that district, as principal, and by the other defendants as his sureties, and conditioned that Lammon, 'by himself and by his deputies, shall faithfully perform all the duties of the said office of marshal.' It was alleged, in the declaration, and found by the court (trial by jury having been duly waived) that Lammon, while marshal, and while the bond was in force, having in his hands a writ of attachment on mesne process against the property of one E. D. Feusier, levied it upon the goods of the plaintiff, a stranger to the writ. On the question of law, whether the taking of the plaintiff's property upon a writ of attachment against another person constituted a breach of official duty on Lammon's part, for which his sureties were liable, the circuit judge and the district judge were opposed in opinion, and so certified. The plaintiff having died pending the suit, final judgment was rendered for his executors, in accordance with the opinion of the circuit judge, and the defendants sued out this writ of error.

The bond sued on was given under section 783 of the Revised Statutes, which requires every marshal, before entering on the duties of his office, to give bond with sureties for the faithful performance of those duties by himself and his deputies; and this action was brought under section 784, which authorizes any person, injured by a breach of the condition of the bond, to sue thereon in his own name and for his sole use. The question presented by the record is whether the taking by the marshal, upon a writ of attachment on mesne process aginst one person, of the goods of another, is a breach of the condition of his official bond, for which his sureties are liable. The marshal, in serving a writ of attachment on mesne process, which directs him to take the property of a particular person, acts officially. His official duty is to take the property of that person, and of that person only, and to take only such property of his as is subject to be attached, and not property exempt by law from attachment. A neglect to take the attachable property of that person, and a taking, upon the writ, of the property of another person, or of property exempt from attachment, are equally breaches of his official duty.

The taking of the attachable property of the person named in the writ is rightful; the taking of the property of another person is wrongful; but each, being done by the marshal in executing the writ in his hands, is an attempt to perform his official duty, and is an official act. A person other than the defendant named in the writ, whose property is wrongfully taken, may indeed sue the marshal, like any other wrong-doer, in an action of trespass, to recover damages for the wrongful taking; and neither the official character of the marshal nor the writ of attachment affords him any defense to such an action. Day v. Gallup, 2 Wall. 97; Buck v. Colbath, 3 Wall. 334. But the remedy of a person whose property is wrongfully taken by the marshal in officially executing his writ is not limited to an action against him personally. His official bond is not made to the person in whose behalf the writ is issued, nor to any other individual, but to the government, for the indemnity of all persons injured by the official misconduct of himself or his deputies; and his bond may be put in suit by and for the benefit of any such person.

When a marshal, upon a writ of attachment on mesne process, takes property of a person not named in the writ, the property is in his official custody, and under the control of the court whose officer he is, and whose writ he is executing; and, according to the decisions of this court, the rightful owner cannot maintain an action of replevin against him, nor recover the property specifically in any way, except in the court from which the writ issued. Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 450; Krippendorf v. Hyde, 110 U.S. 276; S.C.. 4 SUP. CT. REP. 27. The principle upon which those decisions are founded is, as declared by Mr. Justice MILLER in Buck v. Colbath, supra, 'that whenever property has been seized by an officer of the court, by virtue of its process, the property is to be considered as in the custody of the court, and under its control, for the time being, and that no other court has a right to interfere with that possession, unless it be some court which may have a direct supervisory control over the court whose process has first taken possession, or some superior jurisdiction in the premises.' 3 Wall. 341. Because the law had been so settled by this court, the plaintiff in this case failed to maintain replevin in the courts of the state of Nevada against the marshal, for the very taking which is the ground of the present action. Feusier v. Lammon, 6 Nev. 209.

For these reasons, the court is of opinion that the taking of goods, upon a writ of attachment, into the custody of the marshal, as the officer of the court that issues the writ, is, whether the goods are the property of the defendant in the writ or of any other person, an official act, and therefore, if wrongful, a breach of the bond given by the marshal for the faithful performance of the duties of his office.

Upon the analogous question whether the sureties upon the official bond of a sheriff, a coroner, or a constable are responsible for his taking upon a writ, directing him to take the property of one person, the property of another, there has been some difference of opinion in the courts of the several states. The view that the sureties are not liable in such a case has been maintained by decisions of the supreme courts of New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, and, perhaps, receives some support from decisions in Alabama, Mississippi, and Indiana. Ex parte Reed, 4 Hill, 572; People v. Schuyler, 5 Barb. 166; State v. Conover, 4 Dutch. 224; State v. Long, 8 Ired. Law, 415; State v. Brown, 11 Ired. Law, 141; Gerber v. Ackley, 32 Wis. 233, and 37 Wis. 43; Governor v. Hancock, 2 Ala. 728; McElhaney v. Gilleland, 30 Ala. 183; Brown v. Mosely, 11 Smedes & M. 354; Jenkins v. Lemonds, 29 Ind. 294; Carey v. State, 34 Ind. 105. But in People v. Schuyler, 4 N. Y. 173, the judgment in 5 Barb. 166, was reversed, and the case of Ex parte Reed, 4 Hill, 572, overruled by a majority of the New York court of appeals, with the concurrence of Chief Justice BRONSON, who had taken part in deciding Reed's Case. The final decision in People v. Schuyler has been since treated by the court of appeals as settling the law upon this point. Mayor, etc., of New York v. Sibberns, 3 Abb. App. 266, and 7 Daly, 436; Cumming v. Brown, 43 N. Y. 514; People v. Lucas, 93 N. Y. 585. And the liability of the sureties in such cases has been affirmed by a great preponderance of authority, including decisions in the highest courts of Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, and California, and in the supreme court of the District of Columbia. Carmack v. Com. 5 Bin. 184; Brunott v. McKee, 6 Watts & S. 513; Archer v. Noble, 3 Greenl. 418; Harris v. Hanson, 2 Fairf. 241; Greenfield v. Wilson, 13 Gray, 384; Tracy v. Goodwin, 5 Allen, 409; State v. Jennings, 4 Ohio St. 418; Sangster v. Com. 17 Grat. 124; Com. v. Stockton, 5 T. B. Mon. 192; Jewell v. Mills, 3 Bush, 62; State v. Moore, 19 Mo. 369; State v. Fitzpatrick, 64 Mo. 185; Charles v. Haskins, 11 Iowa, 329; Turner v. Killian, 12 Neb. 580; Holliman v. Carroll, 27 Tex. 23; Van Pelt v. Littler, 14 Cal. 194; U.S. v. Hine, 3 MacArthur, 27.

In State v. Jennings, supra, Chief Justice THURMAN said: 'The authorities seem to us quite conclusive that a seizure of the goods of A., under color of process against B., is official misconduct in the officer making the seizure, and is a breach of the condition of his official bond, where that is that he will faithfully perform the duties of his office. The reason for this is that the trespass is not the act of a mere individual, but is perpetrated colore officii. If an officer under color of ''fi. fa.'' seizes property of the debtor that is exempt from execution, no one, I imagine, would deny that he had thereby broken the condition of his bond. Why should the law be different if, under color of the same process, he take the goods of a third person? If the exemption of the goods from the execution in the one case makes their seizure official misconduct, why should it not have the like effect in the other? True, it may sometimes be more difficult to ascertain the ownership of the goods than to know whether a particular piece of property is exempt from execution, but this is not always the case, and if it were, it would not justify us in restricting to litigants the indemnity afforded by the official bond, thus leaving the rest of the community with no other indemnity against official misconduct than the responsibility of the officer might furnish.' 4 Ohio St. 423.

So in Lowell v. Parker, 10 Metc. 309, 313, a constable, authorized by statute to serve only writs of attachment in which the damages were laid at no more than $70, took property upon a writ in which the damages were laid at a greater sum. In an action upon his official bond, it was argued for the sureties that they were no more answerable than if he had acted without any writ. But Chief Justice SHAW, in delivering the opinion of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, overruling the objection, and giving judgment for the plaintiff, said: 'He was an officer, had authority to attach goods on mesne process on a suitable writ, professed to have such process, and thereupon took the plaintiff's goods; that is, the goods of Bean, for whose use and benefit this action is brought, and who, therefore, may be called the plaintiff. He therefore took the goods colore officii, and though he had no sufficient warrant for taking them, yet he is responsible to third persons, because such taking was a breach of his official duty.'

Upon the weight of authority, therefore, as well as upon principle, the judgment of the circuit court in the case at bar is right, and must be affirmed.

title: Lammon v. Feusier/Opinion of the Court


text: Talk:Lammon v. Feusier/Opinion of the Court


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Swift & Courtney & Beecher Company v. United States

[Syllabus from pages 22-23 intentionally omitted]

[Statement of Case from pages 23-24 intentionally omitted]

John W. Douglass and ''Saml. Shellabarger'', for appellant.

''Sol. Gen. Phillips'', for appellee.

MATTHEWS, J.


text: Talk:Swift & Courtney & Beecher Company v. United States