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 "To the last hour of her life she was an excellent spinner; and latterly, the peculiar kind of wool "which she spun was brought exclusively for her, as being the only one in the village who exercised their industry on so fine a sort. During the tearful paroxysms of her last depression she spun with the utmost violence, and with vehemence exclaimed— ' I must spin! '; A paralytic affection struck her whole right side while at work, and obliged her to quit her spindle when only half filled, and she died within a fortnight afterwards! I have that spindle now. She was buried on the last day of the year 1804. She returned from her visit to London on Friday the 29th of June, just, to a day, twenty-three years after she brought me to London, which was also on a Friday, in the year 1781.

TO A SPINDLE. Relic! I will not bow to thee, nor worship! Yet, treasure as thou art, remembrancer Of sunny days, that ever haunt my dreams. When thy brown felloes as a task I twirl'd. And sung my ditties, ere the Farm receiv'd My vagrant foot, and with its liberty And all its cheerful buds and opening flow'r? Had taught my heart to wander.— Relic of affection, come; Thou shalt a moral teach to me and mine.


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ever forgetful of eternity. But her religion was no hypocritical service, no vain form of words!!!—It consisted in loving God and keeping his commandments, as they have been made known to us by Jesus Christ.

READER!

Go thou and do likewise.

has favoured us with permission to copy the annexed portrait of his mother from a picture in his possession, and has himself subjoined the following account of the last stage of her life, together with his first essay in Blank verse, which he has addressed to the Spindle that she left half filled.

"The portrait of my mother was taken on her last visit to London, in the summer of 1804, and about six months previous to her dissolution. During the period of evident decline in her strength and faculties, she conceived, in place of that patient resignation which she had before felt, an ungovernable dread of ultimate want, and observed to a relative with peculiar emphasis, that 'to meet, and , was like 'meeting three great giants.'

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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 and the title-deeds of the house in her lap, surrounded by a group of infant scholars, in full persuasion that her habitation was feeding the flames; but, contrary to her expectation, under its friendly roof, where she had long resided, she finished her career of mortality, and was buried close to the west end of the church, near her first husband, who died of the small-pox. A stone has been erected to her memory by the Duke of Grafton, on which is the following inscription, written by the Rev. R. Fellowes:

Beneath this stone are deposited the mortal remains of, who died December 1804. Her maiden name was, and she was twice married: by her first husband, who lies buried near this spot, she was the mother of six children, the youngest of whom was , the Pastoral Poet. In her household affairs she was a pattern of industry, cleanliness, and every domestic virtue. By her kind, her meek, and inoffensive behaviour, she had conciliated the sincere good-will of all her neighbours and acquaintance. Nor amid the busy cares of time was she


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in future be celebrated as the birthplace of the most simple and captivating of our pastoral poets. The Cottage, which is on the right of the church, as seen in the Print, was purchased as a barn by the grandfather of the Poet, and has since been gradually improving to its present neat and comfortable appearance. It was formerly covered with thatch; but a new roof being necessary at a time when straw could scarcely be procured, the Poet, to whom it has since devolved, covered it with tiles, though with great reluctance, as he lamented the loss of its original simplicity. During the harvest of 1782 or 1783, the village of Honington suffered severely by fire. Four or five double tenemented cottages, the parsonage-house and out-houses, a farm-house and all its appurtenances, were levelled in little more than half an hour. This cottage was immediately in the line of the flames, and was saved almost miraculously by the exertions of the neighbours, assisted by Mr. Austin of Sapiston, and his men: it was on fire several times. The Poet's mother then kept a school at the cottage, and retreated from the distressing scene into the fields with a clock,


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CHAPTER I.

HARRIET AND FREDERICK FEEDING THE BIRDS. a hole which time had made in a wall covered with ivy, a pair of redbreasts built their nest. No place could have been better chosen for the purpose; it was sheltered from the rain, screened from the wind, and in an orchard belonging to a gentleman who had strictly charged his domestics not to destroy the labours of those little songsters who chose his ground as an asylum.

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 Amaryllis


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Rh "No, Mr. Sportsman," said Jack, "you got enough of them, and that's the reason you don't wish to try them again. For my part, I love the waves, and I sing, 'The sea! the sea! it was the sea that brought us here!'"

"What a boaster you are," said Fritz: "it was only yesterday you said to me, 'I will guide you; I know the way by the rocks; I got my buffalo there, and I intend to have another.' Was it in the pinnace you intended to pass the defile, and pursue buffaloes?"

"No, no! I meant on foot," said Jack; "but I thought we should be only two then. But, as we are four—papa at the helm, and three bold rowers, why should we fatigue ourselves in making the tour of the island on our legs, when we have a good vessel to carry us? What says Mr. Philosopher, the prince of idlers, to it?"

"For my part," said Ernest quietly, "I am quite indifferent whether I use my legs in walking, or my arms in rowing, it is equally fatiguing; but walking gives me more chance of filling my plant-box and my game-bag."

"And does he think," added Fritz, "that the mulberry and bread-fruit trees, which we shall certainly find on the other side, grow on the sea? without naming my gazelle, which does not run over the waves."

"No, it is waiting, without moving, for you to shoot it," said Jack; "and Ernest, perhaps you may find on the sea some of those curious things half plants, half animals, which you were showing me in a book."

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 WORLD WORLD PEACE The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion. Thackeray—Vanity Fair. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = | page = 917 }}

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WORLD PEACE


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 2 should tempt her to leave the nest for any length of time till she had hatched her infant brood. Her tender mate every morning took her place while she picked up a hasty breakfast, and often, before he tasted any food himself, cheered her with a song.

At length the day arrived when the happy mother heard the chirping of her little ones; with unexpressible tenderness she spread her maternal wings to cover them, threw out the egg-shells in which they before lay confined, then pressed them to her bosom, and presented them to her mate, who viewed them with rapture, and seated himself by her side that he might share her pleasure.

"We may promise ourselves much delight in rearing our little family," said he, " but it will give us a great deal of trouble. I would willingly bear the whole myself, but it will be impossible for me, with my utmost labour and industry, to supply all our nestlings with what is sufficient for their daily support; it will therefore be necessary for you to leave the nest sometimes to seek provisions for them." She declared her readiness to do so, and said that there would be no necessity for her to be long absent, as she had discovered a place near the orchard where food was scattered on purpose for such birds as would take the pains of seeking it; and that she had been

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28

Once on a time it came to pass, A child by a poor woman rais'd, First saw at home a looking-glass, In which it often fondly gazed.

At length, by a mere child's caprice, But which the grown man often shows, Its raptures for the mirror cease, At which it ugly glances throws.

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20 In point of fact there does not appear to have been any great or continued difficulty within the Jewish-Christian churches in securing a satisfactory practice in the matter of marriage; but it was far otherwise in the case of the Gentile churches. When we pass from the Gospels to the Pauline Epistles we are conscious of a great change in the moral atmosphere. Behind our Lord’s teaching there is a moral background essentially Christian; behind the Pauline Epistles there is a background of moral confusion definitely pagan. Accordingly there is a suggestive absence of direct legislation in practical morals in the one case, and an equally suggestive abundance of it in the other.

Our Lord’s pronouncements on the subject of marriage are, indeed, as coming from Him, of supreme importance, but they do not carry the question beyond the point at which the prophet Malachi had left it, and, indeed, there was no need that they should. He adopts the prophetic point of view, adds the

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 This was Mary Rainer, the distracted girl of Ixworth Thorpe, a small village near Sapiston; a character drawn by Bloomfield in the most exquisite and pathetic language: she still resides at Ixworth Thorpe, but is now in a state of perfect sanity: the Poet acknowledges that he proved an indifferent prophet, when he asserted—

Sapiston Church, like many others in Suffolk, is covered with thatch; from which circumstance it has many times been nearly unroofed by the pilfering of the jackdaws. In the churchyard lie buried Mr. Austin, the venerable master of Giles, Mrs. Austin, and nine of their infant children.


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Rh of the Mishna bearing upon this subject, without being impressed with this conviction."

It does not appear that Christ ever came into contact with any other marriage law or practice than those which obtained in Palestine, and accordingly He never encountered the gross licence of the Græco-Roman world. Very early in the experience of the Church, however, the practical questions implied in the theory and practice of marriage were raised outside the pale of Judaism, and the Apostles found themselves compelled to apply the principles of the Gospel under novel circumstances. We shall find that this application was by no means easy or altogether successful. For outside the Jewish sphere there were absent the presuppositions of a sound marriage law. Christ could take for granted the prophetic teaching, and He could appeal with the relatively debased standard of Rabbinic morality.

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34 The gaudy insect well might boast. From flower to flower it gaily flew, Alighting where it pleas'd him most. "Alas!" the pining cricket sigh'd, "What diff'rences us two divide! While Nature does so much for him, For me she nothing does at all. I'm void of sense and coarse of limb, With figure despicably small; I'm heeded not, am lone and lorn, And might as well have not been born." But while the cricket thus complain'd, A sudden uproar round him reign'd; A troop of children rushing by, Came hunting for the butterfly. With nets, and hats, and kerchiefs too, The gaudy insect they pursue. He struggles hard to get away, But falls at last a helpless prey. One seizes on his wings of gold; Another at his body aims; A third upon his head lays hold; In short, each one the insect claims, But leaves him mangled, dead, and cold. "Ah, ha!" the cricket said, "I see What 'tis a brilliant thing to be. If such the cost to those who shine, I ought no longer to repine; But to live happy I must be Contented with obscurity."

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 IN

AND

ILLUSTRATIVE OF

OF

ACCOMPANIED WITH

DESCRIPTIONS:

TO WHICH IS ANNEXED,

A MEMOIR OF THE POET'S LIFE,

BY

E. W. BRAYLEY.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE, POULTRY; DARTON AND HARVEY, GRACECHURCH STREET; AND J. STORER AND J. GREIG, ENGRAVERS, CHAPEL STREET, PENTONVILLE.


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One balmy night in charming May, As on a hill a shepherd lay, And from the sky with stars o'erspread, The moon her silv'ry radiance shed; While from the rose and lilacs there, Perfumes were filling all the air; While meadows all asleep and still, Were lull'd by murmurs of the rill, A nightingale with tender strain, Voic'd forth the peace of hill and plain, Which seem'd uprising to the skies, From Nature's sweetest harmonies. But in the fullness of that peace, Then all at once the warblings cease. The bird had ended her wild song, And would no more its strains prolong. The shepherd urged her, but in vain, To sing that witching song again. "No," said the bird, "my days are o'er; These scenes shall hear my voice no more.

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THE very flattering reception which the Illustrations of and  have experienced from the Public, encourages a hope that the same liberal patronage will be extended to the present undertaking; and though we are aware that it is a maxim generally received, that living authors are of comparatively small consideration, we are happy to know that the world have, in the instance of "The Farmer's Boy," conferred on its author that generous countenance and support which perhaps equal merit has in former times sighed for in vain.

To, Esq., of Troston Hall, we are much indebted for his useful communications. Mrs., of Levermere Magna; the Rev. , of Fakenham; and Mr. ; have equal claims upon our gratitude.

J. STORER


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 OF

To trace the progress of intellect through the successive stages of its growth, from its early dawn to the period of its full expansion, is an interesting and useful labour; inasmuch, as the formation of proper precepts for moral conduct, must always depend on our acquaintance with the nature of the mind, whether deriving strength from education, or acquiring superiority from the independent exertion of its own powers. The more humble the state, perhaps, from which any human being has emerged to eminence through the vigour of his talents, the higher must have been his merit; for the disadvantages of birth and fortune have a far greater influence on the evolution of the mental faculties, than the moralist, who, with Pope, makes "Virtue its own reward," is at all times willing to


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. Powerful, indeed, must be his genius, who can dissever the brazen trammels that Poverty has forged for her children, and 'outstepping' the control of circumstance, make literature his passport to affluence and to fame.

, the Farmer's Boy, was born at the little village of Honington, in Suffolk, on the 3d of December, 1766. He was the younger son of George Bloomfield, a tailor; and Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Manby, who was the village schoolmistress, and who instructed her own offspring with those of her neighbours. His father died a victim to the small-pox, when the subject of this Memoir was less than a twelvemonth old, and his mother was left a widow with six children.

It is observable that Bloomfield has incorporated the most material events of his life with some one or other of his poems, so that were all the passages selected, and duly arranged, his history would want but few additional particulars to be told in the descriptive language of his own muse. Thus, in his "Good Tidings," after alluding to the family distress occasioned by the fell disease just mentioned, he


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The Mother of ROBERT BLOOMFIELD the Poet


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 notices his parent's death, and the general horror which the contagion inspired, in these words:

The lowly occupation of Mrs. Bloomfield, and the number of her children, which was increased by the issue of a second marriage, deprived her of the means of giving her son Robert any regular schooling; and nearly all the tuition that he ever received out of her own cottage, was from Mr. Rodwell, of Ixworth (now senior clerk to the magistrates of Blackburn Hundred), to whom he went for about two or three months to be improved in writing.


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 At the age of eleven he was taken into the house of Mr. William Austin, his mother's brother-in-law, a respectable farmer of Sapiston, a little village adjoining to Honington, his mother still continuing to find him "a few things to wear," though even this "was more than she well knew how to do." Mr. Austin, having himself a large family, could pay but little attention to his young kinsman, more than to providing him with food and employment: in this respect, however, the treatment of his servants and of his sons was the same; "all worked hard, all lived well."


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HONINGTON CHURCH AND THE COTTAGE IN WHICH ROBT. BLOOMFIELD WAS BORN


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 In this humble station our Poet acquired that intimate knowledge of rural occupations and manners, the display of which forms the distinguishing feature through all his writings. If the perceptive faculties of his mind had not been improved by education, they were at least unclouded by its dogmas; and the sensibility of his soul being awakened by the charms of nature, gave fervour to his thoughts, and he then attained that distinctness of idea and individuality of conception, which became the basis of his subsequent greatness.

Before the age of fifteen it was requisite to make some change in the employment of young Bloomfield, as Mr. Austin had informed his mother that he was so small of his age, as to be very little likely to be able to get his living by hard labour: she wrote therefore to her two elder sons, George and Nathaniel, who were then resident in London: and the former, a ladies' shoemaker, offered to take him and teach him his own business; whilst the latter, a tailor, promised to find him in clothes. On this offer his mother brought him to town, and intrusted him to the care of his brother George, charging him, as "he valued a mother's blessing, to watch over him, to set good examples for him, and never to forget that he had, lost his father."


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 Mr. George Bloomfield then lived in an obscure court, near Coleman-Street, and worked with four others in a light garret, whither Robert was introduced; and whilst acquiring a knowledge of his trade, became, as he has himself expressed it, though on another occasion, "A Gibeonite, and serv'd them all by turns," The most common of his occupations was to read the Newspaper, his " time being of less value" than that of his brother, or of the other workmen; and because, when thus employed, he frequently met with words that he could not understand, an old and tattered Dictionary was bought for his use, by a constant reference to which he soon attained a greater command of language, and could readily comprehend the meaning of any difficult passage that might occur. His knowledge of phraseology and enunciation was also increased by a regular attendance at the meeting-house in the Old Jewry, on Sunday evenings, when the late Rev. Mr. Fawcett was delivering his eloquent and celebrated lectures.

The principal, and indeed only, books that at this time were at his command, were a History of England, a British Traveller, a Geography and the London Magazine. These were purchased in numbers by his brother and fellow-workmen;


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Author:Laurence Echard

Works

 * An Exact Description of Ireland, &c., (1691)
 * A Description of Flanders, or the Spanish Netherlands (1691)
 * A Most Compleat Compendium of Geography, General and Special; describing all the Empires, Kingdoms, and Dominions in the whole World,’ &c. (1691)
 * The Gazeteer's or Newsman's Interpreter: being a Geographical Index of all the considerable Cities, Patriarcships, Bishopricks, … in Europe,’ &c. (1695)
 * The Roman History from the Building of the City to the Perfect Settlement of the Empire by Augustus Cæsar (1699)
 * The Roman History from the Settlement of the Empire by Augustus Cæsar to the Removal of the Imperial Seat by Constantine the Great … Vol. II. For the use of His Highness the Duke of Gloucester (1698)
 * An Abridgment of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World in Five Books,’ &c. (1700)
 * A General Ecclesiastical History from the Nativity of our blessed Saviour to the First Establishment of Christianity by Humane Laws under Emperour Constantine the Great (1702)
 * History of England (1707-1720)
 * The Classical Geographical Dictionary, revised, with a recommendatory preface by Laurence Echard (1715)
 * Maxims and Discourses, Moral and Divine: taken from the Works of Arch-Bishop Tillotson and Methodiz'd and Connected (1719)
 * The History of the Revolution and the Establishment of England in the year 1688. Introduc'd by a necessary Review of the Reign of King Charles and King James the Second. In three books (1725)

Translations

 * Plautus's Comedies, Amphitryon, Epidicus, and Rudens made English; with Critical Remarks upon each Play (1694)
 * Terence's Comedies, made English. With his Life; and some Remarks at the end. By several hands (1694)
 * The Works of Lucian, translated from the Greek by several eminent hands (1710?–11)
 * The History of the Revolutions in England under the Family of the Stuarts, from the year 1603 to 1690. … By F. J. D'Orleans of the Society of Jesus. Translated from the French original printed at Paris. To which is prefixed an Introduction to this History, by Laurence Echard  (1722)

Works about Echard

 * "The Revd. Mr. Lawrence Eachard", in The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 4 (1753), edited by Theophilus Cibber

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 but, with the exception of the Magazine, were read by Bloomfield more as a task than as a pleasure: yet even from these he attained some knowledge both of Geography and History. The Poet's Corner in the newspapers had the greatest share of his attention, and here some of the first productions of his muse were registered; but they were not written exactly at the early age which Mr. G. Bloomfield, in his letter to Capel Lofft, has assigned. At the time they were published, Robert was really in his twentieth year; yet previously to that, even as early as the age of fifteen, he had made some attempts to array his ideas in a poetical garb.

About this time a person, who was troubled with fits, took lodgings in the same house with the Bloomfields, and by his horrid screams, and frightful gesticulations, so affected the sensibility of Robert, that his brother was induced to remove to a neighbouring court, through the fear of consequences. In their new residence they became acquainted with a man of singular character, a native of Dundee, who had many books, and


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 among them Paradise Lost and The Seasons: these he lent to Robert, who was particularly delighted with The Seasons, and studied it with peculiar attention. The vivid imagery and glowing diction of Thomson, were in strict accordance with his own conceptions of the charms of nature; but when at a subsequent period here-considered the descriptions of the Scottish bard, he felt a firm conviction that the subject had not been exhausted; and that "the rural occupation and business of the fields, the dairy, and the farm-yard," would still afford a sufficient range for an original and independent poem.

Soon afterwards a dispute between the masters and the journeymen shoemakers, respecting the right of giving employment to those who had not served a regular apprenticeship, occasioned a temporary suspension in the vocations of young Bloomfield; and till the disputes were settled, his old master and uncle, Mr. Austin, again invited him to his house at Sapiston. The invitation was accepted; and in the very fields where his infant mind first opened to the beauties of the country, and imbibed its fondness for rural simplicity and rural innocence, he experienced a renovation of his original feelings, and 'became fitted to be the writer of The Farmer's Boy.'


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 The dispute in the trade continuing undecided, he returned to London after an absence of two months, and was regularly apprenticed to his brother's landlord, in order to secure him at all events from the effects of the litigation. It was understood, however, that no advantage should be taken of the indentures, and he continued to work with his brother till he had acquired a complete knowledge of his business; his leisure hours being occasionally employed in learning to play on the violin.

At this time his brother left London for Bury St. Edmund's; and about five years afterwards, Robert, who had continued to follow his trade, informed him by letter that "he had sold his fiddle and got a wife." Her name was Mary Anne, daughter to Joseph Church, a boat-builder in the dock-yard at Woolwich. The marriage was solemnized on the 12th of December 1790.

The early years of this alliance were in some respects imbittered by the cares of livelihood, and the sickness of a young family, which interrupted his literary amusements, and for a time made considerable ravages on his health.

Soon came the days that tried a faithful wife, The noise of children, and the cares of life.


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 Then, 'midst the threat'nings of a wintry sky, That cough which blights the bud of infancy, The dread of parents, rest's inveterate foe, Came like a plague, and turn'd my songs to woe. The little sufferers triumph'd over pain, Their mother smil'd, and bade me hope again. Yet care gain'd ground, exertion triumph'd less, Thick fell the gathering terrors of distress; Anxiety, and griefs without a name. Had made their dreadful inroads on my frame; The creeping dropsy, cold as cold could be, Unnerv'd my arm. ——— But Winter's clouds pursu'd their stormy way, And March brought sunshine with the length'ning day; And bade my heart arise, that morn and night Now throbb'd with irresistible delight. ‘To my old Oak Table.’

On the recovery of his strength he resumed his labours in the garret of the house where he then resided, in Bell Alley, Coleman-Street. Here, amidst all the din and bustle made by six or seven persons, pursuing the same trade as his own, did Bloomfield compose ; committing it to paper as he found opportunity, fifty, or a hundred lines at a time, and arranging them as they were afterwards printed, in the exact order in which they had been referred by imagination to memory. The strength of the latter faculty was


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 in his manners, retired in deportment, warm in his friendship, and humble in his piety, he is convinced that individual worth must arise from individual merit: and that the inquiry, 'To whom related, or by whom begot,' is only of use when it tends to improve the conduct, and to instruct the heart. E. W. B.
 * March 15, 1806.


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 EUSTON HALL


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User talk:71.83.196.192

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title: User talk:71.83.196.192


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User talk:Internoob

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N all fiction there is no character that delights the hearts of both young and old more than Alice. The collaborators in this small book cast their product on a cold unfeeling world with the utmost apologies to Lewis Caroll and John Tenniel; and with an ill-nourished hope that those who read will do so with a lenient eye. The idea was conceived of transplanting Alice to Cambridge, and there showing her some of the strange things that may be found in that peculiar place. She found many curious creatures and had many wonderful Adventures.

These few chapters appeared first in the "Harvard Lampoon"—that Prince of humourous papers. They have now collected themselves, and here stand ready to meet the fierce glare of publicity.

June 17, 1913. [ iii ]


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LICE was just about to enter one of the tempting little shops with purple socks and ties in the window, when she saw the White Rabbit hurrying across a mud puddle. She ran after him, and caught him just as he reached a curbstone.

"Please—" she began.

But the White Rabbit did not even turn his head.

"No, I haven't any pennies," he said.

"But I wanted to know—" said Alice.

"Oh, it's you, is it?" the White Rabbit said, turning round blowing a huge cloud of smoke from his pipe into Alice's face. "Well, come on."

"Where?" asked Alice.

[ 7 ]


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 "To the Infection Meeting, of course," said the White Rabbit, starting off at a rapid pace.

"But I don't want to be infected," Alice said, as she ran after him. "I've had the mumps once, and the measles, and so many other things."

"Ah! But you haven't had probation yet," said the White Rabbit, "and you'll catch it sure if you don't go to your Infection Meetings. I'm a Sophomore, and I ought to know. Come on."

[ 8 ]


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 "Who will give it to me?" asked Alice, feeling a little alarmed.

"The Queen, of course. Come on."

Alice didn't like being ordered around in this way, but she followed the White Rabbit, who led her to a room filled with animals of all kinds sitting on benches. At one end of the room was a platform where a large frog sat behind a desk. He was a very young-looking frog, Alice thought, but he looked so severe that she sat down quietly beside the White Rabbit.

The frog, after looking more severe than [ 9 ]


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 ever, suddenly began to write very fast on a blackboard behind him. Alice tried to make out what he was writing, but it seemed to be chiefly nonsense. It ran something like this:

"If, other things being equal, the level of prices should rise, and thus falling create a demand and supply with, and as which, would you consider this a division of labor? If so, when, and in what capacity? If not, why not, and under what circumstances?"

As soon as he had finished, all the other [ 10 ]


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 animals produced paper from nowhere in particular, and begin to scribble as fast as they could. Alice noticed the Lizard, who was sitting in the front row, was the only one who wrote anything original. All the others copied from his paper, and crowded round him so closely that Alice was afraid the poor little creature would be smothered. Meanwhile the frog looked at the ceiling. "He couldn't look anywhere else, the poor thing," thought Alice; "his eyes are on the top of his head."

About two seconds had passed when the frog called out "Time!" and began to gather up the papers. When he had collected them all, he took them to his desk and began to mark them. He marked the first one A, the second one B, and so on down to F, when he began over again with A. All this time he kept his eyes tight shut. "So he will be sure to be impartial," the White Rabbit explained to Alice.

After the marking was finished, the frog handed the papers back to their owners. The [ 11 ]


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 White Rabbit, who had written nothing at all, had a large A on his paper. The Lizard, however, had an F on his.

"A," said the White Rabbit to Alice, "means I wrote an excellent paper."

"But you wrote nothing," objected Alice.

"Nothing succeeds like success," said the White Rabbit, and hurried away, leaving Alice a little puzzled.

Meanwhile all the animals except the frog had disappeared.

"Would you mind telling me," began [ 12 ]


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 Alice, feeling that there ought to be some conversation, "why you—"

"Certainly not," said the frog, handing her a book. "I think you will find this a very able exposition of the subject."

Alice opened the book, and finding it to be poetry, she read the first piece through.

[ 13 ]


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User:Errerr

Hello all, I am errerr. Currently, I am trying to get my feet wet, so please be patient with me.

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"It's all very interesting," said Alice, after she had finished, "but I don't quite understand it."

"You will absorb it after awhile," said the frog, as he got up and walked away, "if you have the faculty."

[ 15 ]


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88 Among Nature's men, before they have gone through the mill of civilisation, plenty to eat and to drink, and someone to talk to, are the essentials of happiness. They see that the dead have none of these requisites, they consider that they are miserable without them. The writer remembers how, when he was a boy, and attended the funeral of a relative in November, he could not sleep all night—a bitter frosty night—with the thought how cold it must be to the dead in the vault, without blankets, hot bottle, or fire. It was in vain for him to reason against the feeling; the feeling was so strong in him that he was conscious of an uncomfortable expectation of the dead coming to claim a share of the blanket, fire, or hot bottle. Now the savage never reasons against such a feeling, and he assumes that the dead will return, as a matter of course, for what he cannot have in the grave.

The ghost is very anxious to assert its former rights. A widow has to get rid of the ghost of her first husband before she can marry again. In Parma a widow about to be remarried is pelted with sticks and stones, not in the least because the Parmese object to remarriage, but in order to scare away the ghost of number one who is hanging about his wife, and who will resent his displacement in her affections by number two.

To the present day, in some of the villages of the ancient Duchy of Teck, in Würtemberg, it is customary when a corpse is being conveyed to the cemetery for the relatives and friends to surround the dead, and in turn talk to it—assure it what a blessed rest it

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Rh is going to; how anxious the kinsfolk are that it may be comfortable; how handsome will be the cross set over the grave; how much all desire that it may sleep soundly and not by any means leave the grave and come haunting old scenes and friends; how unreasonable such conduct as the latter hinted at would be—how it would alter the regard entertained for the deceased, how disrespectful to the Almighty who gives rest to the good, and how it would be regarded as an admission of an uneasy conscience. Lively comparisons are drawn between the joys of paradise and the vale of tears that has been quitted, so as to take away from the deceased all desire to return.

This is a survival of primitive usage and mode of thought, and has its analogies in many places and among diverse races.

The Dacotah Indians address the ghost of the dead in the same "soft solder" to induce it to take the road to the world of spirits, and not to come sauntering back to its wigwam. In Siam and in China it is much the same; persuasion, flattery, threats, are employed.

Unhappily, all ghosts are not open to persuasion, and see through the designs of the mourners, and with them severer measures have to be resorted to. Among the Slavs of the Danube and the Czechs, the bereaved, after the funeral, on going home, turn themselves about after every few steps, and throw sticks, stones, mud, even hot coals, in the direction of the churchyard, so as to frighten the spirit back to the grave so considerately provided for it. A Finnish tribe has not even the decency to wait till

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90 the corpse is covered with soil ; they fire pistols and guns after it as it goes to its grave. In Hamlet, at the funeral of Ophelia, the priest says:—

Unquestionably it must have been customary in England thus to pelt a ghost that was suspected of the intention to wander. The stake driven through the suicide's body was a summary way of ensuring that his ghost should not be troublesome.

Those Finns who fired guns after a dead man had another expedient for holding him fast, if the first failed, and that was to nail him down in his coffin. The Arabs tie his legs together. The Wallachs drive a long nail through his skull; and this usage explains the many skulls that have been exhumed in Germany thus perforated.

The Californian Indians were wont to break the spine of the corpse so as to paralyse his lower limbs and make "walking" impossible. Spirit and body, to the unreasoning mind, are intimately associated. A hurt done to the body wounds the soul. Mrs. Crowe, in her Night Side of Nature, tells a story reversing this. A gentleman in Germany was dying. He expressed great desire to see his son, who was a ne'er-do-well, and was squandering his money in Paris. At that time the young man was sitting on a bench in the Bois-de-Boulogne, with a switch in his hand. Suddenly, he beheld his old father before him. Convinced that he saw a phantom, he raised

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Rh his switch, and cut the apparition once, twice, and thrice across the face, and it vanished. At that moment the dying father uttered a scream, and held his hands to his face. "My boy! my boy! He is striking me again—again!" and he died. The Algonquin Indians beat the walls of the deathchamber to drive out the ghost. In Sumatra a priest is employed with a broom to sweep the ghost out. In Scotland and in North Germany the chairs on which a coffin has rested are reversed, lest the dead man should take a fancy to sit on them instead of going to his grave. In ancient Mexico certain professional ghost ejectors were employed, who, after a funeral, were invited to visit and thoroughly explore the house whence the dead had been removed, and if they found the ghost lurking about in corners, in cupboards, under beds—anywhere, to kick it out. In Siberia, after forty days' "law" given to the ghost, if it be still found loafing about, the Schaman is sent for, who drums it out. He extorts brandy, which he professes to require, as he has to personally conduct the deceased to the land of spirits, where he will make it and the other ghosts so fuddled that they will forget the way back to earth.

In North Germany a troublesome ghost is bagged, and the bag is emptied in some lone spot, or in the garden of a neighbour against whom a grudge is entertained.

Another mode of getting rid of the spirit of the dear departed is to confuse it as to its way home. This is done in various ways. Sometimes the road by which it has been carried to its resting-place is

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92 swept to efface the footprints, and a false track is made into a wood or on to a moor so that the ghost may take the wrong road. Sometimes ashes are strewn on the way to hide the footprints. Sometimes the dead is carried rapidly three or four times round the house so as to make him giddy and not know in which direction he is carried. The universal practice of closing the eyes of the dead may be taken to have originated in the desire that he might be prevented from seeing his way.

In places it was, as already said, customary for the dead body to be taken out of the house, not through the door, but by a hole knocked in the wall for the purpose, and backwards. In Corea, blinders made of black silk are put on the dead man's eyes, to prevent him from finding his way home.

Many savage nations entirely abandon a hut or a camp in which a death has occurred for precisely the same reason—of throwing the dead man's spirit into confusion as to its way home.

It was a common practice in England till quite recently for the room in which a death had occurred to be closed for some time, and this is merely a survival of the custom of abandoning the place where a spirit has left the body. The Esquimaux take out their dying relatives to huts constructed of blocks of ice or snow, and leave them there to expire, for ghosts are as stupid as they are

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Beaston v. Farmers' Bank of Delaware/Dissent Story

Mr. Justice STORY, dissenting.

I dissent from so much of the opinion delivered by the Court in this case, as decides that a corporation is a person within the sense of the 5th section of the act of 1797, ch. 74. I have no doubt, whatsoever, that in a legal and technical sense, a corporation is a person; and that under that denomination, it may be included within the provisions of a statute, where the language and provisions and objects of the statute equally apply to corporations and to private persons. My dissent is founded upon this ground, that neither the language nor the provisions of the 5th section of the act of 1797, ch. 74, are applicable to the case of corporations: but that they apply exclusively to private persons; and cannot, without violence to the words and the objects of that act, be strained so as to reach corporations. I think that the persons intended by the act, are such persons only as may be brought within each of the predicaments stated in the act.

The language of the 5th section is, 'That where any revenue officer, or other person hereafter becoming indebted to the United States, by bond or otherwise, shall become insolvent, or where the estate of any deceased person, in the hands of executors or administrators, shall be insufficient to pay all the debts due from the deceased, the debt due to the United States shall be first satisfied: and the priority hereby established, shall be deemed to extend as well to cases in which a debtor, not having sufficient property to pay all his debts, shall make a voluntary assignment thereof, or in which the effects of an absconding, concealed or absent debtor, shall be attached by process of law, as to cases in which an act of legal bankruptcy shall be committed.'

Now, the statute, manifestly, in this provision, contemplates two classes of cases; insolvency inter vivos; and insolvency upon the death of a debtor. It is plain that the last class cannot have been intended to include corporations; for if it were to be supposed that they could be 'deceased debtors,' yet by no reasonable use of language, can it be said that they can have executors or administrators, or estate in the hands of executors or administrators. The other class of cases, is of insolvency inter vivos. Which are these? First, cases in which a debtor not having sufficient property to pay all his debts, shall make a voluntary assignment thereof; that is, of all his property. It certainly is practicable for a corporation to be in this predicament; if by its charter and constitution it is capable of making such a general assignment. But I must say, that independent of some special and positive law; or provision in its charter to such an effect, I do exceedingly doubt, if any corporation, at least without the express assent of all the corporators, can rightfully dispose of all its property by such a general assignment, so as to render itself incapable in future of performing any of its corporate functions. That would be to say, that a majority of a corporation had a right to extinguish the corporation, by its own will, and at its own pleasure. I doubt that right; at least, unless under very special circumstances. Secondly, cases of an absconding, concealed or absent debtor. Now, it is plain, that in no just sense can a corporation be brought within the terms of this predicament. Thirdly, cases of legal bankruptcy. Such cases do not exist in relation to corporations. The general bankrupt laws of England have never been held to extend to corporations; neither have the general insolvent laws of the several states in this Union, where they exist, ever been extended to corporations. Now, my argument is this, and I wish to put it into the most precise and concise form; that the fifth section of the act of 1797, ch. 74, was never intended to apply to any debtors or persons who were not, and might not be within every one of the classes of predicaments above stated. Corporations cannot be within three out of the four predicaments above stated; and therefore I hold, that the legislature never could have intended to embrace them within the provisions of the section.

I dissent from the opinion upon this point, upon another and independent ground; and that is, that the opinion is wholly extrajudicial, and unauthorized by law. That the question was not made or decided in the court below; and that unless it was so made and decided, it cannot be re-examined in this Court. This is a writ of error, not to a circuit court of the United States, but to the highest court of a state; and brought here for our revision, under the 25th section of the judiciary act of 1789, ch. 20. That section expressly declares, that upon such a writ of error 'no other error shall be assigned, or regarded as a ground of reversal in any such case as aforesaid, than such as appears on the face of the record, and immediately respects the beforementioned questions of the validity or construction of the said constitution, treaties, statutes, commissions or authorities in dispute.' The preceding part of the same section, authorizes the writ of error only when the decision of the state court has been against the validity or construction of the constitution, treaties, statutes, commissions or authorities stated in the section. So that it is manifest, and so has been the uniform course of this Court, that no question not made in the court below, on which its judgment ultimately turned, can be made, or is re-examinable here. I have already said, that it is apparent upon this record, that no such point arose, or decision was made in the court of appeals of Maryland; and, therefore, I cannot but consider the decision here pronounced upon it, as coram non judice; and in no just sense, obligatory upon us, or upon our successors.

I know that my brother, Mr. Justice BARBOUR, held the same opinion as I do, on this question. His departure from the Court before the opinion in this case was pronounced, does not entitle me to speak further in his behalf.

Mr. Justice BALDWIN concurred with Mr. Justice STORY in the opinion delivered by him; and with the majority of the Court, in affirming the judgment of the court of appeals.

Mr. Justice M'LEAN concurred with Mr. Justice STORY.

This cause came on to be hear, on the transcript of the record from the court of appeals for the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is now here adjudged, and ordered by this Court, that the judgment of the said court of appeals in this cause be, and the same is hereby affirmed, with costs.


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Rh ; they have no more wits than a peacock, they can only find their way to the place where they died.

Other usages are to divert a stream and bury the corpse in the river-bed, or lay it beyond running water, which, according to ghost-lore, it cannot pass. Or, again, fires are lighted across its path, and it shrinks from passing through flames. As for water, ghosts loathe it. Among the Matamba negroes a widow is flung into the water and dipped repeatedly so as to wash off the ghost of the dead husband, which is supposed to be clinging to her. In New Zealand, among the Maoris, all who have followed the corpse dive into water so as to throw off the ghost which is sneaking home after them. In Tahiti, all who have assisted at a burial run as hard as they can to the sea and take headers into it for the same object. It is the same in New Guinea. We see the same idea reduced to a mere form in ancient Rome, where, in place of the dive through water, a vessel of water was carried twice round those who had followed the corpse, and they were sprinkled. The custom of washing for purification after a funeral practised by the Jews is a reminiscence of the usage, with a novel explanation given to it.

In the South Pacific, in the Hervey Islands, after a death, men turn out to pummel and fight the returning spirit, and give it a good drubbing in the air.

Now perhaps the reader may have been brought to understand what the sundry mourning costumes originally meant. They were disguises whereby to deceive the ghosts, so that they might not recognise and pester with their undesired attentions the

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Heirs of Wilson v. Life and Fire Insurance Company of New York/Dissent Baldwin

Mr. Justice BALDWIN dissented.

On consideration of the motion made in this cause by Mr. Butler, to dismiss this case for irregularity, on the ground that the writ of error does not set forth the names of all the parties, and of the arguments of counsel thereupon had, as well in support of as against the motion; it is now here ordered and adjudged by this Court, that this writ of error to the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana be, and the same is hereby dismissed, and that it be so certified to the said district court.


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94 who live. Indians who are wont to paint themselves habitually, go after a funeral totally unbedecked with colour. On the other hand, other savages daub themselves fantastically with various colours, making themselves as unlike to what they were previously as is possible. The Coreans, when in mourning, assume hats with low rims that conceal their features.

The Papuans conceal themselves under extinguishers made of banana leaves. Elsewhere in New Guinea they envelop themselves in a wicker-work frame in which they can hardly walk. Among the Mpongues of Western Africa, those who on ordinary occasions wear garments, when suffering bereavement walk in complete nudity. Valerius Maximus tells us that among the Lycians it was customary in mourning for the men to disguise themselves in women's garments.

The custom of cutting the hair short, and of scratching and disfiguring the face, and of rending the garments, all originated from the same thought—to make the survivors unrecognisable by the ghost of the deceased. Plutarch asserts that the Sacæ, after a death, went down into pits and hid themselves for days from the light of the sun. Australian widows near the north-west bend of the Murray shave their heads and plaster them with pipe-clay, which, when dry, forms a close-fitting skull-cap. The spirit of the late lamented, on returning to his better half, either does not recognise his spouse, or is so disgusted with her appearance that he leaves her for ever.

There is almost no end to the expedients adopted

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Rh for getting rid of the dead. Piles of stones are heaped over them, they are buried deep in the earth, they are walled up in natural caves, they are inclosed in megalithic structures, they are burned, they are sunk in the sea. They are threatened, they are cajoled, they are hoodwinked. Every sort of trickery is had recourse to to throw them off the scent of home and to displease them with their living relations.

The wives, horses, dogs slain and buried with them, the copious supplies of food and drink laid on their graves, are bribes to induce them to be content with their situation. Nay, further, in very many places no food may be eaten in the house of mourning for many days after an interment. The object, of course, is to disappoint the returning spirit, which comes seeking a meal, finds none; comes again next day, finds none again; and after a while out of sheer disgust desists from returning.

A vast amount of misdirected ingenuity is expended in bamboozling and bullying the unhappy ghosts; but the feature most striking in these proceedings is the unanimous agreement in considering these ghosts as such imbeciles. When they put off their outward husk, they divest themselves of all that cunning which is the form that intelligence takes in the savage. Not only so, but, although they remember and crave after home comforts, they absolutely forget the tricks they had themselves played on the souls of the dead in their own lifetime; they walk and blunder into the traps which they had themselves laid for other ghosts in the days of their flesh.

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96 Perhaps the lowest abyss of dunderheadedness they have been supposed to reach is when made to mistake their own identity. Recently, near Mentone, a series of prehistoric interments in caves has been exposed. They reveal the dead men as having had their heads daubed over with red oxide of iron. Still extant races of savages paint, plaster, and disfigure their dead. The prehistoric Greeks masked them. The Aztecs masked their deceased kings, and the Siamese do so still. We cannot say with absolute certainty what the object is, but we are probably not far out when we conjecture the purpose to be to make the dead forget who they are when they look at their reflection in the water. There was a favourite song sung some sixty years ago relative to a little old woman who got "muzzy." Whilst in this condition some naughty boys cut her skirts at her knees. When she woke up and saw her condition, "Lawk!" said the little old woman, "this never is me!" And certain ancient peoples treated their dead in something the same way; they disguised and disfigured them so that each ghost on waking up might exclaim, "Lawk! this never is me!" And so, having lost its identity, the soul did not consider that it had a right to revisit its old home and molest its old acquaintances.

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Jenkins v. Pye/Concurrence Catron

Mr. Justice CATRON.

I concur with the majority of the Court, that the decree be reversed; but, differing most materially with the reasons and principles on which the opinion of my brethren proceeds, I will briefly state the difference, hoping sincerely I may be mistaken.

The cause must be reviewed here in the same form that the parties presented it to the circuit court: this is due to the court below, and the only mode we can pursue as a court of appeals.

The bill was filed in July, 1833: the answer in May, 1834: the replication in April, 1835: and, on the 11th of May, the cause was, by agreement, set for hearing; and on the 26th of October, 1835, was heard upon the bill and answers, with two additional facts, which the parties admitted of record; to wit: 1. That George Jenkins was, at the date of the deed from his daughter to him, in 1813, a man of large fortune, and so continued till his death. 2. That the deed conveyed all the estate to which the said Eleanor was in any manner entitled. Upon this case, the court, on the 26th of October, 1835, decreed for the complainants; and ordered an account to be taken of the rents of the property in litigation since George Jenkins' death, the parcels sold by him in his lifetime, and the value of the estate in 1813, &c.

On the 13th of May, 1837, the master commissioner eported; and on the 31st of October, 1837, the report was confirmed by a final decree of the court. Upon this proceeding, it will be remarked, that the decree of October, 1835, could not be reversed by that of 1837, on evidence furnished to the commissioner in taking the account, and which he reported to the court. The first decree could only have been reached by a petition for a rehearing, (if filed in time) or by a bill of review; and we must, therefore, examine the decree of 1835, on the facts then presented to the circuit court.

The bill alleges the conveyance of 1813 to have been executed without any valuable consideration; and that the daughter acted under the influence of parental authority. That it was executed without valuable consideration, the answers admit; but they deny that any constraint or parental authority was exercised, and respond that the deed was made freely and voluntarily. They also admit, that Eleanor Jenkins was born the 17th September, 1790; that her mother died in 1796; that when the deed was made, Eleanor was only eighteen months over twenty-one years of age, and that she was the sole heir of her mother; the father and grantee being tenant by the curtesy of the lands descended. That George Jenkins had two other children by a different mother, who are the defendants; and that he died in 1831, intestate as regarded his real estate.

Eleanor Jenkins married in 1815, and died in 1818; leaving the complainants her heirs.

It is also averred in the answers, that the property in 1813 was in a dilapidated condition; and that it had suffered by fire, which was a principal reason for making the conveyance. The averment is independent of any statement in the bill, is traversed by the replication; and no proof having been made to sustain the averment, of course it cannot be noticed here. The defendants also insist, that the bill should be dismissed because of the lapse of time, and the death of parties and witnesses.

This being the case presented to the circuit court in 1835, the question is, did that court err in ordering the defendants to account? Time and the death of George Jenkins aside, I think it impossible so to hold; consistently with the best established doctrines governing a court of chancery.

The elements of the decree below were, 1. That the grantor, Eleanor Jenkins, was a young heir, and a woman, when she made the conveyance; that it was of her whole estate, without consideration, and to a parent of large wealth.

2. That she was an heir of an estate in reversion, which descended to her in tender infancy; and in regard to the possession and enjoyment of which she must be deemed and treated, in a court of chancery, as an expectant heir.

3. She conveyed to the adult tenant for life, who was her father and natural guardian, with whom she resided, and on whom she was dependent.

I propose to examine the cause, such as it is found; not to speculate upon supposed cases of remainders acquired by purchase, and sold by him who thus acquired; nor upon cases where the tenant for life joins in the sale. These and other transfers of remainders, may depend on very different principles from the case before the Court.

The two first grounds, governing the decision of the circuit court, will be treated together; disregarding for the present the relation of father and daughter.

In the language of Sir William Grant, in Gowland v. De Faria, 17 Vesey, 23, it will be laid down, that 'this is the case of a person who, in this court, is considered as an expectant heir;' and 'that it is incumbent upon those who have dealt with an expectant heir, relative to his reversionary interest, to make good the bargain: that is, to be able to show that a full and adequate consideration was paid. In all such cases, the issue is upon the adequacy of price; no proof of fraud is necessary; and the relief is given upon general principles of mischief to the public, without requiring particular evidence of actual imposition.' 2 Atk. 28; Jeremy's Eq. 398; 1 Story's Eq. 330, sect. 338; 1 Fonblanque's Eq. B. 1, C. 2, sect. 12; 1 Mad. Ch. 118, state the result of the adjudications.

As some doubts are suggested by Mr. Justice Story, and by Mr. Jeremy, in the passages cited of their treatises, whether the strictness of the doctrine applies to cases of dealings for remainders; it is deemed necessary to go into a slight review of the leading adjudged cases, to see if any conveyance resembling the present has been permitted to stand. It is but justice, however, to say, that I do not suppose either of those highly respectable authors intended to question the doctrine in a case like the present; where the estate in reversion descended upon an infant heir, encumbered with a life interest, and the expectancy was given to the tenant for life, within eighteen months after the heir came of age. That such purchase is a constructive fraud, and the purchaser, if a stranger, compelled to account, and give up his bargain, if found to be advantageous; has not, for a century, been an open question. The conveyance is treated as a mortgage, and the grantor relieved on payment of the principal advanced and interest; without inquiry whether there was fraud or imposition.

The doctrine, during the seventeenth contury, met with some opposition, especially in the reigns of Car. II. and Jac. II.; but in Nott v. Hill, 1 Vern. 169; 1 P. W. 310; Newland on Contracts, 436; and Bemey v. Pitt, 2 Vern. 14, it received the most conclusive confirmation short of the judgment of the house of lords. In the former case, Lord Ch. Nottingham decreed redemption (in his own phrase): on rehearing, Lord Keeper North reversed this decree, and refused relief: but this last decree was again reheard before Lord Ch. Jeffries, 2 Vern. 27, and reversed, and that of Lord Nottingham confirmed. So in Bemey v. Pitt, (the report of which is found in 2 Vern. 14; 1 P. W. 311; Newland Con. 347,) Lord Nottingham denied relief; but Lord Ch. Jeffries, 2 Jac. 2, on rehearing, reversed the decree, and let in the grantor to redeem on the usual terms of paying the money advanced, with interest.

In the case of Twisleton v. Griffith, (1716,) the exception was again invoked, that there was no fraud in fact; it was urged, that at this rate the heir of the remainder could not sell, as no one would buy; to which Lord Cowper replied: 'This might force an heir to go home, and submit to his father, or bite on the bridle, and endure some hardships; and in the meantime he might grow wiser, and be reclaimed,' 1 P. W. 313.

In Peacock v. Evans, 16 Ves. 514, the master of the rolls says: (when speaking of an heir selling the expectancy of a remainder during his father's life,) 'To that class of persons, this court seems to have extended a degree of protection approaching nearly to an incapacity to bind themselves by contract;' and he cites with approbation the expressions of Lord Ch. Eldon, in Coles v. Trecotheck, 9 Ves. 234; that, 'The cases of reversions and interests of that sort go upon a very different principle: in some, the whole duty of making good the bargain, upon the principles of this court, is upon the vendee, as in the instance of heirs expectant.' And Sir William Grant added: 'The tendency of this doctrine to render all bargains with such persons very insecure, if not altogether impracticable, seems not to have been considered as operating to prevent its adoption and establishment; but, on the contrary, some of the judges have avowed that probable consequence, as being to them the recommendation of the doctrine.'

In the case referred to, it was admitted there was nothing approaching to fraud or imposition; yet the conveyance was set aside, because a full price had not been paid. All that could be said of it was, that Mr. Peacock had obtained a very advantageous bargain.

So in Gowland v. De Faria, 17 Vesey, 23, where a reversionary interest had been sold, in which the plaintiff's mother had a life estate, all fraud was denied; and no proof introduced, save that the consideration was not full: and in reply to the argument of manifest fairness, the master of the rolls replied: 'In all these cases the issue is on the inadequacy of price. This is the case of a person who, in this court, is considered an expectant heir. He has charged his reversionary interest; and the question is, whether he has received an adequate consideration. Upon that question the evidence 'is all one way:' and the conveyance was treated as a mortgage, vide Davis v. Duke of Marlborough, 2 Swanston, 147.

To cite other authorities to sustain the position assumed would justly be deemed an incumbrance; and I will only ask, had Eleanor Jenkins conveyed to a stranger instead of her father, could a court of chancery have refused her heirs relief, had they come in time?

And by way of introducting the next proposition, it will be submitted, whether her father stood upon higher ground than a stranger?

To a proper understanding of this question, a slight reference must be had to the facts, reported by the commissioner, as they appeared on the final decree in October, 1837. My brethern have given them some consideration, nor will I pass them by; although the pleadings it is apprehended exclude them, they will be taken in connection with the answers and admissions. George Jenkins, in 1813, and at his death, was a man of large wealth. He had two sets of children; one child by a first wife, and two by a second. The answer avers he procured the conveyance to do justice in his family. The account shows, that Eleanor's and George Jenkins's joint interests were worth when the deed was made in March, 1813, eight thousand nine hundred and ninety-two dollars and ninety-seven cents; and that about six months after the execution of the deed, George Jenkins caused to be vested in his daughter, Eleanor, two thousand dollars' worth of bank stock; which was sold by Mr. Pye shortly after he married Eleanor. Further than this, nothing was advanced to the daughter. George Jenkins died intestate, as regarded his lands; whether by accident or design, matters nothing to the infant children who are plaintiffs. The answer avers, that the complainants by the intestacy are entitled to two-elevenths by their grandfather's estate; whereas were they to obtain the lands conveyed by the deed of 1813, and come in as joint heirs of the residue, they would take more than one-half. What advances were made by their father to the two children of George Jenkins, who are defendants, does not appear; but that they take nine-elevenths of the whole estate, by the intestacy, conclusively proves, if George Jenkins obtained the deed, 'best to enable him to do equat justice to all his family,' that he did no such equal justice to his daughter Eleanor in her lifetime, or to her children at his death. He was a man of large wealth, and was bound to do equal justice, if the answer be true; and the defendants aver they personally know the fact to be so: and that this was the consideration of the conveyance. If it was obtained for one purpose, and the property applied to another; for instance, to advance the fortunes of the second set of children; it is well settled the deed should be set aside. To prove it, I need only cite the case of Young v. Peachy, 2 Atkyn's, 254, whose authority has never been questioned since Lord Hardwicke's time.

Again: Two thousand dollars in bank stock was a poor advance for a man of large wealth, having only three children, on the intermarriage of one of them; and we will take it that Eleanor was not intended to be turned off destitute.

The facts thus introduced from the commissioner's report, to control the effect of the first decree, (could they be heard for such purpose,) are therefore of no value, and cannot help the conveyance. How then did the father stand?

The jealousy with which courts of chancery watch contracts made by parents with children, is laid down with terseness and much accuracy by Mr. Justice Story in his lecture on constructive frauds. 1 Story's Ch. 306. He says: 'The natural and just influence which a parent has over a child, renders it peculiarly important for courts of justice to watch over and protect the interests of the latter; and therefore all contracts and conveyances, whereby benefits are secured by children to their parents, are objects of jealousy; and if they are not reasonable under the circumstances, they will be set aside.'

Mr. Newland in his treatise on contracts, chapter 30, page 445, gives the result of the authorities with great clearness and force; and the accuracy of which is fully borne out by the cases. 'It is a natural prosumption,' says he, 'that a parent possesses influence over the mind of his child. Equity therefore regards with a jealous eye contracts between them; and very properly considers this relation to give additional weight and suspicion to circumstances of fraudulent aspect, which the case may involve.' And Lord Hardwicke said in Young v. Peacy, 2 Atk. 258, where the transaction in its leading features much resembled this; the father having obtained a voluntary conveyance from a daughter: 'But the case is greatly strengthened when it comes to be considered that this was a recovery obtained by a father from his child; and when this is the case, it affords another strong circumstance in order to relieve the plaintiffs.'

The British adjudications, uniformly and firmly supporting the doctrine, are cited by the writers above referred to. 1 Story's Eq. 306, Newl. 445, Madd. Chancy. 310; and with which I will rest content: adding, however, that the case before us, is as bare of alleviating circumstances, tending to exempt it from the general rule, as any I have found reported, or known in my experience in life. Had the conveyance been made to a stranger, it could not have been tolerated for a moment; and having been made to the father, in the language of Mr. Newland: 'The relation gives additional weight and suspicion to the circumstances which the case involves.' Its decision rests not on discretion, but on settled rules of property; which, it is supposed by me, should not be disturbed.

But first, more than twenty years elapsed from the execution of the conveyance to the time of filing the bill; and second, it was not filed until after George Jenkings's death. The daughter and her heirs having been at all times since 1813 free to sue; and having had the means, and being under no undue restraint, the presumption is, that time has destroyed the evidence going to prove the fairness of the transaction; or that if the suit had been brought in the grantee's lifetime, he could have adduced it. I confess, however, it is with some difficulty the presumption can be maintained, under the circumstances of this cause, by the British adjudications; yet, our migratory habits, and the consequent loss of evidence are such, that presumptions founded on time must in this country, be firmly supported, without letting in doubtful exceptions to destroy their force: especially when those in whose knowledge the facts rested, which might have explained the transaction, are dead: as in Brown v. Carter, 5 Ves. 875, where the bill was brought to set aside a settlement under an agreement between father and son, made in 1769. The conveyance was voluntary, as in the instance before the Court. The father died in 1793: up to which time no complaint had been made; and very soon after the bill was filed. The Court held, that, 'though transactions of this kind will be looked at with jealousy, that the father should not take an improper advantage of his authority; the complaint must always be made in time; not after the father is dead,' &c.

The same doctrine was held by Lord Eskine in Morse v. Royal, 12 Ves. 376; and relief refused because of the lapse of time and the death of witnesses.

The British case, however, which has most laboured this question, is that of Chalmers v. Bradley, 1 Jac. & Walk. 58; in which the authorities are referred to, where the claims of expectant heirs to have decrees for accounts, and the rescission of contracts, were rejected, because of the lapse of time intervening between the date of the contract and the filing of the bill.

The general doctrine, that full force will be given to presumptions founded on time, and that stale demands will not be enforced to compel parties to account, nor to disturb contracts or possessions, is established on a very firm footing as the doctrine of this Court, in Ricard v. Williams, 7 Wheat.; Hughes v. Edwards, 9 Wheat.; Willison v. Watkins, 3 Peters; Miller v. M'Intyre, 6 Peters; Piatt v. Vattier, 9 Peters; and other decisions. But the difficulty in such cases as the one before the Court is, that the expectant heir is usually destitute, ignorant of his rights, and not on an equal footing with his vendee: and the courts of chancery presume that he contracted in subserviance to circumstances, either of helpless poverty or ignorance; or at least superior knowledge of facts on part of him with whom he contracted. When the facts proved are in accordance with the presumption, and establish that the same condition continued to the date when suit was brought, time has not been strictly regarded in England; and chancery has frequently proceeded to afford relief, disregarding the length of time, upon evidence of a continuing oppression and poverty, or concealment. This cause has certainly in it circumstances to raise difficulties. Eleanor Pye married within two years, and died within five after the conveyance was made; and the complainants were at her death, (and so continued until they sued,) infants. Yet I think no account should have been ordered, nor the conveyance impeached, after the lapse of twenty years, and after George Jenkins's death; and concur that the bill be dismissed.

This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the circuit court of the United States for the District of Columbia, holden in and for the county of Alexandria; and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is decreed and ordered by this Court, that the decree of the said circuit court in this cause be, and the same is hereby reversed; and that this cause be, and the same is hereby remanded to the said circuit court, with directions to dismiss the complainants' bill.

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Rh nobody, and her relatives had long looked upon her as being out of the world. A famous preacher pronounced the funeral sermon. In simple and touching words he described the peaceful passing away of the righteous, who had passed long years in calm preparation for a Christian end. "The angel of death found her," said the orator, "engaged in pious meditation and waiting for the midnight bridegroom."

The service concluded amidst profound silence. The relatives went forward first to take farewell of the corpse. Then followed the numerous guests, who had come to render the last homage to her who for so many years had been a participator in their frivolous amusements. After these followed the members of the Countess's household. The last of these was an old woman of the same age as the deceased. Two young women led her forward by the hand. She had not strength enough to bow down to the ground—she merely shed a few tears and kissed the cold hand of her mistress.

Hermann now resolved to approach the coffin. He knelt down upon the cold stones and remained in that position for some minutes; at last he arose, as pale as the deceased Countess herself; he ascended the steps of the catafalque and bent over the corpse. . . . At that moment it seemed to him that the dead woman darted a mocking look at him and winked with one eye. Hermann started back, took a false step and fell to the ground. Several persons hurried forward and raised him up. At the same moment Lizaveta Ivanovna was borne fainting into the porch of the church. This episode disturbed for some minutes the solemnity of the gloomy ceremony. Among the congregation arose a deep murmur, and a tall thin chamberlain, a near relative of the deceased, whispered in the ear of an Englishman who was standing near him, that the young officer was a natural son of the Countess, to which the Englishman coldly replied: "Oh!"

During the whole of that day, Hermann was strangely excited. Repairing to an out-of-the-way restaurant to dine, he drank a great deal of wine, contrary to his usual custom, in the hope of deadening his inward agitation. But the wine only served to excite his imagination still more. On

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24 returning home, he threw himself upon his bed without undressing, and fell into a deep steep.

When he woke up it was already night, and the moon was shining into the room. He looked at his watch: it was a quarter to three. Sleep had left him; he sat down upon his bed and thought of the funeral of the old Countess.

At that moment somebody in the street looked in at his window, and immediately passed on again. Hermann paid no attention to this incident. A few moments afterwards he heard the door of his ante-room open. Hermann thought that it was his orderly, drunk as usual, returning from some nocturnal expedition, but presently he heard footsteps that were unknown to him: somebody was walking softly over the floor in slippers. The door opened, and a woman dressed in white, entered the room: Hermann mistook her for his old nurse, and wondered what could bring her there at that hour of the night. But the white woman glided rapidly across the room and stood before him—and Hermann recognised the Countess!

"I have come to you against my wish," she said in a firm voice: "but I have been ordered to grant your request. Three, seven, ace, will win for you if played in succession, but only on these conditions: that you do not play more than one card in twenty-four hours, and that you never play again during the rest of your life. I forgive you my death, on condition that you marry my companion, Lizaveta Ivanovna."

With these words she turned round very quietly, walked with a shuffling gait towards the door and disappeared. Hermann heard the street-door open and shut, and again he saw some one look in at him through the window.

For a long time Hermann could not recover himself. He then rose up and entered the next room. His orderly was lying asleep upon the floor, and he had much difficulty in waking him. The orderly was drunk as usual, and no information could be obtained from him. The street-door was locked. Hermann returned to his room, lit his candle, and wrote down all the details of his vision.

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 into fame, for when Kalgoorlie was well-nigh prostrated in consequence of a temporary depression, Mr. Parsons stuck to his post and infused confidence and spirit into a dejected populace. His pluck and courage were at last imitated by others, and when the wave had passed all felt that Mr. Parsons' conduct was exemplary and admirable.

Mr. Parsons now also became a devotee of mining. He soon pegged out the Great Boulder Main Reefs, a lease in closest proximity to the Great Boulder. He became associated in mining ventures with Mr. George MacLeod Matheson, and the Hannan's Central, Boulder North Extended, Boulder North Extended Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 fell to their lot. Mr. Parsons also acquired important and extensive properties in the Scotsman line. Three of his leases were floated in Adelaide by Mr. V. L. Solomon, M.L.A.; six blocks were sold to an English development syndicate, in which directors of the London and Westminster Bank are interested; and the Scotsman leases, which are extremely valuable, were disposed of at a high figure to the North Extended Gold Mines Company. In all Mr. Parsons pegged out 450 acres.

In connection with several leases he entered into an agreement with Kalgoorlie people, previous to departing for England, by which they provided working capital for the mines to keep them in a process of development till he should get them successfully floated. By this contract he obtained a half share while the subscribers got the other half. He went to London in April, 1896, and before the lapse of many months he had accomplished the objects of his mission. He floated these numerous properties into two companies. One of the two is the North East Coolgardie Syndicate, Limited, which has a capital of £250,000; the other is the English Exploration Company; of both he is managing director. Numerous companies and syndicates claim him as a director, and among them the Boulder Perseverance and the North Boulder, two rising properties in proximity to the Great Boulder. He holds (1896) the honourable position of chairman in the Great Boulder Main Reefs. Mr. Parsons takes an active interest in all local institutions. He is vice-president of the Chamber of Mines, and is an honorary member of several town clubs. He is skilful, methodical, and quick in the despatch of business. His affability, magnanimous disposition, and his charity render him a favourite in Kalgoorlie. In the legal profession he possesses an exhaustive knowledge of his subject, and displays a shrewdness of judgment that must arise from a highly logical mind.

GEORGE BELLINGHAM, J.P., M.I.F.M.E., M.E.

T is now considered a wise and fruitful policy to specialise in any one branch of art and science. No doubt the advantages of exclusive devotion to one subject are exceptionally great, as has been proved of late years in connection with chemistry and electricity. Scientists by their restricted attention to each of these sciences have imparted to the world the results of brilliant experiments and investigations. Still, such particularising may tend to close, perhaps involuntarily, the doors of the mind against other equally important departments of knowledge. It overdevelops one part of the mind at the expense of the other.

In Western Australia and in many other growing colonies such exclusive attention to any single branch would prove somewhat barren and unprofitable. To keep pace with the sudden expansion one must, to be truly serviceable, combine the functions of several offices. Facilities are not yet what they should be; environments are still rugged, and till these are perfected and those polished we can have no opportunities of allotting to every man one definite task. Under such circumstances the man who can respond to the calls of different requirements is one who is in every way suited for colonial enterprise.

Mr. Bellingham was born in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1860. His parents removed to Adelaide while he was still a child, and his education was begun and completed in Adelaide. On leaving school he entered the large offices of Messrs. Green and Co., engineers and mining surveyors, of Adelaide. During his five years' apprenticeship he carefully digested much useful information, and wisely availed himself of the wide experiential knowledge which that firm afforded. At the end of his quinquennial term he started business for himself in Adelaide. For three years he practised there as surveyor and mining engineer. Nor were his youthful efforts devoid of success. His rising capabilities were studiously watched, and before he had been any length of time in practice he had won a reputation for his scientific abilities and enterprising perseverance that might have caused jealousy in more experienced circles. But in a comparatively established township it is no easy matter to ascend in proportion to your powers. It is tedious and very gradual, and the energetic mind gets disheartened and goes in search of newer fields and wider spheres.

Mr. Bellingham then, after some deliberation, resolved to

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 quit Adelaide and go to the north of Queensland, which at this time was winning no small amount of fame as a mining field. Whilst there he surveyed Charters Towers and other more or less important places. He returned to Victoria after a short stay in Queensland, and entered the Railway Survey Department of the colony. He was eighteen months in that employ, and completed several large undertakings for the Government. Up till now he had acted as mining engineer, mining surveyor, land surveyor, and lastly, civil engineer. There may be a certain kinship existing among these offices, but while one of them is intricate and difficult enough to the ordinary mind, the mastering of four would be rightly judged as the result of uncommon ability.

In 1891 he left for Western Australia, and entered the Government Survey Department. He went to Coolgardie in October, 1893, to finish some surveying for the Government, and had not been there many months before new goldfields broke out around Coolgardie. The long-expected opportunity came at last. He made Coolgardie his headquarters, and started the business which he at present holds. Though no longer directly in the service of the Government survey, he never discontinued his connection with the department, and often he is called upon to perform surveying operations.

The firm, under the name of Messrs. Bellingham and Sharland, has an extensive connection in Coolgardie. They are architects, civil and mining engineers, land and mining surveyors, and they enjoy the reputation of being one of the oldest established businesses in Coolgardie. Mr. Bellingham is a licensed surveyor of all the Australian colonies except New South Wales, He was admitted as a member of the Institute of Federal Mining Engineers in 1894. In the administration of the municipal affairs of Coolgardie he is a prominent figure. He was elected a councillor in 1895, and still retains his seat. His earnest desire to promote the general good in every department has caused him to take his seat on various sub-committees of the council, such as the Health Board and the Board of Trade. In these two boards he has rendered able services to the community at large. Progress, improvement, and amelioration are his ideals for the advancement of the town. He was one of the first members of the Coolgardie Stock Exchange, and of the Chamber of Mines and Commerce, and he has continued his membership of these two bodies up to the present. Many claim the first local flotation of a mine in Coolgardie, but it is beyond doubt that the Moorfield was the first mine floated locally. This flotation was effected by Mr. Bellingham. He is a director of the Easter Gift, Richmond Gem, and Malcolm Mohr.

He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1895. He is a prominent Freemason in Coolgardie, and was one of the founders of the Freemasonry Lodge of that town, and is now (1896) Senior Warden. He has contributed no little share to the growth of Coolgardie. The bonds which unite him to Coolgardie are strong and lasting, and the sincere interest he takes in every felicitous action finds a response in the breast of those whom he endeavours to benefit. As a committee man, he has exerted himself strenuously in every venture and in every matter of concern, and has shed many a welcome light on what seemed obscure and unpracticable. His efficiencies, his deep and long experience of the fields and the town, and his keen abilities, constitute him a pillar of strength in Coolgardie.

GEORGE ROWLAND FEARBY, M.E.

EW can deny but that Mr. Fearby's knowledge of mining is extensive. At the incredibly early age of eight years, young George busied himself on mining fields, under the careful vigilance of the paternal eye. From then till 1897, which embraces a period of forty years, he has performed great and numerous feats. A detailed enumeration of his diversified series of actions will bring to mind the story of seed-time and harvest.

Mr. Fearby was born in New England, New South Wales, in 1850. His father was a pioneer on the Hanging Rock Goldfields, near Tamworth—one of the earliest alluvial diggings in New South Wales, originally opened up by a fortunate prospector named Wyndham. He was also for a considerable time in partnership with Danger Brothers, who had attained celebrity in the early days of the New South Wales goldfields as highly successful mining experts. Young George's predilection for, and success in, the mining world seems to have been hereditary.

In 1858, at the phenomenal age of eight, he embarked with childish glee on the alluvial fields. He had a boyish curiosity for prying into the hidden secrets of alluvial earth. That early desire, so far from being crushed by his father as a purely boyish freak, which years and better sense would enable him to outgrow,

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