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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive III. D.

One of the principal controversies surrounding the Geneva Conference concerns the intent of the Armistice and the Final Declaration. While it is clear that the Armistice between the French and the Viet Minh was designed to end the actual hostilities, the political intent of the belligerents, and that of the Conference participants expressed in the Final Declaration, is in doubt. The central issue in dispute is whether or not the participants intended to unify Vietnam, and if so, whether the subsequent actions of the U.S. and the GVN in frustrating that intent make them culpable for the present war.

China and Russia were, in general, pleased with the results of the Geneva Conference, even though they had been forced to accept a settlement considerably at variance from their initial demands. Since these powers were primarily interested in attaining their political goals without triggering a massive response from a united West, cessation of the war on even minimally advantageous terms would allow them time to consolidate gains and to extend their control further into Southeast Asia with fewer risks. They recognized that the DRV did not receive concessions commensurate with its military power and political control, but the Communists, probably miscalculating the future U.S. commitment to South Vietnam, no doubt felt that they could safely transfer the combat from the battlefield to the sphere of politics. However, the final settlement severely compromised DRV expectations and objectives: the line of partition was at the 17th parallel, not the 13th; elections were envisaged after two years, not immediately; supervision was to be by an international body, not by the belligerents themselves; and Communist movements in Laos and Cambodia were denied identity and support, not sanctioned by the Conference. Yet, despite these setbacks and disappointments, the DRV apparently expected to fall heir to all of Vietnam in fairly short order, either through a plebiscite on unification, or by default when the GVN collapsed from internal disorder. (Tab 1)

For the United Kingdom as well as for France, the final outcome at Geneva was in the main satisfactory. The bloodshed had ceased; the danger of broadened conflict was averted. The U.S. understanding of the Accords is more difficult to fathom. Immediately upon the conclusion of the conference, the U.S. representative, Under Secretary of State Walter Bedell Smith, stated that the results were the best possible under the circumstances. Both he and President Eisenhower stated that the U.S. "would view any renewal of the aggression in violation of the [Geneva] agreements with grave concern and as seriously threatening international peace and security." President Kennedy in December 1961 used this quote as justification for his support of South Vietnam. But the purpose of Rh

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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive the U.S. declaration remains obscure. It can be argued that its intent was not a long-term U.S. commitment, but an attempt to deter the DRV from attacking the GVN in the two-year period prior to elections. According to this argument, the Eisenhower Administration would have accepted any outcome if assured that the voting were free. A counterargument is that Smith was throwing down the gauntlet to the Communists. An NSC action immediately following the Conference considered the Accords a "major disaster for U.S. interests" and called for affirmative political action to foreclose further loss. In other words, while the specifics of the Accords were much in line with the U.S. negotiating position, the overall U.S. evaluation of the Conference held that territory had been yielded to the Communists. In this light, the Smith declaration marks the jumping-off point for the concerted U.S. efforts to devise a collective security system for Vietnam and all of Southeast Asia, which culminated in the Manila Pact of September, 1954 (SEATO), and the aid program for Ngo Dinh Diem. (Tab 2)

Interpretations of the spirit of the Accords are as disparate as the interests of the Geneva conferees. Yet, it is difficult to believe that any of the participants expected the Geneva Accords to provide an independent and unified Vietnam. The Communist states — the Soviet Union, Communist China, and the DRV — apparently assumed that the development of a stable regime in the South was very unlikely, and that the DRV would eventually gain control of the entire country. They, in any event, had sound evidence that the GVN was unlikely to last out the two years before elections. It may well be, then, that the conciliatory posture of the Communist states at the conference can be explained by their presumption that the specific terms of agreement were less important than the detente itself — that their future successes, however slow in coming, were inevitable. Western reactions and expectations, on the other hand, were no doubt quite different. While France was interested in extricating itself from its military failure, it was no less interested in maintaining its cultural and economic position in Vietnam. Even the United Kingdom gave every indication that it wished to prevent a general Communist takeover. Hence, it would appear that these powers, like the U.S., wanted to stop the fighting, but not at the sacrifice of all of Vietnam to the Communists. Thus, the spirit of the Accords may have been much less significant than the letter of the Accords. In other words, by dividing the country at the 17th parallel, with each zone under a separate "civil administration," by providing for the regroupment of forces and the movement of people North and South, and by putting off elections for two years, the Geneva participants jeopardized, if not precluded, the unification of Vietnam. Whatever the parties intended, the practical effect of the specific terms of the Agreement was a permanently divided nation. (Tab 3) Rh

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Rh

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text: Riders of the Purple Sage/Chapter 22

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text: Riders of the Purple Sage/Chapter 23

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Rh

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xx Page


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Author:William Blacker

Works

 * Oliver's Advice, published in 1834 under the pseudonym Fitz Stewart.

title: Author:William Blacker


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1536.] He now paused for a moment in his denunciation of Henry, and took up his parable against the English bishops, who had betrayed the flock of Christ, and driven them into the den of the villain King. 'You thought,' he said to these learned prelates, 'that the Roman pontiff slept—that you might spoil him with impunity, as the robber Cacus spoiled the sleeping Hercules. Ah! but the Lord of the sheep sees you. He sees you from his throne in heaven. Not we only who are left yet alive tell, with our bleating voices, whither you have driven us; but, in louder tones than ours, the blood of those whom ye have slain, because they would not hear your hireling voices, cries out of the dust to Christ. Oh, horrible!—most horrible! No penalty which human justice could devise can reach your crimes. Men look to see when some unwonted vengeance shall light upon you, like that which fell on Korah and his company, in whose footsteps ye now are following. If the earth open her mouth and swallow you up quick, every Christian man will applaud the righteous judgment of the Almighty.'

Again he passed back to the King, assailing him in pages of alternate argument and reprobation. In most modern language he asserted the responsibility of sovereigns, calling English history to witness for him in the just rebellions provoked by tyranny; and Henry, he said, had broken his coronation oath and forfeited his crown. This and similar matter occupied the second part. It had been tolerably immoderate even so far, but the main torrent had yet to flow.


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452 The third and most important section divides itself into an address, first to the King and then to England; finally to the foreign powers—the Emperor particularly, and the Spanish army.

'I have spoken,' he commenced, 'but, after all, I have spoken in vain. Wine turns to vinegar in a foul vessel; and to little purpose have I poured my truth into a mind defiled with falsehood and impurity. How shall I purify you? How, indeed! when you imagine that yourself, and not I, are in possession of the truth; when you undertake to be a teacher of others; when, forsooth, you are head of a Church. But, come, listen to me. I will be your physician. I will thrust a probe into those envenomed wounds. If I cause you pain, believe that it is for your good. You do not know that you have a wound to probe. You pretend that you have only sought to do the will of God. You will say so. I know it. But, I beseech you, listen to me. Was it indeed your conscience which moved you? Not so. You lusted after a woman who was not your wife. You would make the Word of God bear false witness for you; and God's providence has permitted you to overwhelm yourself in infamy. I say, you desire to fulfil your lusts. And how, you ask, do I know this? How can I see your heart? Who but God can read those secrets? Yes, oh prince; he also knows—to whom God will reveal the heart. And I tell you that I am he to whom God has revealed yours. You will cry out against my arrogance. How should God open your heart to me? But contain yourself a little. I do not


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1536.] say that God has shown more to me than he has shown to any man who will use his understanding. You think that the offspring of your harlot will be allowed to sit on the throne, that the pure blood of England will endure to be her subjects. No, truly. If you dream thus, you have little of your father's wisdom.. There is not a peer in all the land who will not hold his title better than the title of a, harlot's bastard. Like Cadmus, you have flung a spear among your people, and armed them for mutual slaughter. And you—you the vilest of plunderers—a thief—a robber—you call yourself supreme head of the Church! I acquit the nation of the infamy of their consent. They have not consented. The few suffrages which you can claim have been extorted by terror. Again, how do I know this? I, who was absent from my country? Yes, I was absent. Nor have I heard one word of it from any creature. And yet so it is. I have a more sure testimony than the testimony of eyes and ears, which forbids me to be mistaken.'

The witness was the death of Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and the Charterhouse monks; and the story of their martyrdom was told with some power and passion.

The remedy for all its evils rested with England. England must rebel He called on it with solemn earnestness, to consider its position: its Church infected with heresy, its saints slaughtered, its laws uprooted, its


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454 succession shattered; sedition within, and foreign war imminent from without; and the single cause of these accumulated miseries a licentious tyrant. 'And oh! my country,' he exclaimed, 'if any memory remains to you of your antient liberties, remember—remember the time when kings who ruled over you unjustly were called to account by the authority of your laws. They tell you that all is the King's. I tell you that all is the commonwealth's. You, oh! my country, are all. The King is but your servant and minister. Wipe away your tears, and turn to the Lord your God.'

Of his own intended conduct he would give Henry fair warning. 'I myself,' he said, once more addressing him, 'I myself shall approach the throne of your last ally, the King of France. I shall demand that he assist you no longer; that, remembering the honour of his father, with his own past fidelity to the Church of Christ, he will turn against you and strike you down. And think you that he will refuse my petition? How long dream you that God will bear with you? Your company shall be broken up. The scourge shall come down upon you like a wave. The pirates who waste the shores of the Mediterranean are less the servants of Satan than you. The pirates murder but the bodies of men. You murder their souls. Satan alone, of all created beings, may fitly be compared with you.'

So far I have endeavoured to condense the voluminous language into a paraphrase, which but languidly approaches the blaze and fury of the original. Vituperation, notwithstanding, would have been of trifling


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1536.] and the safe exhortations of refugees, inciting domestic rebellions, the dangers of which they have no intention of sharing, are a form of treason which may usually be despised. But it is otherwise when the refugee becomes a foreign agent of his faction, and not only threatens to invite invasion, but converts his menace into act. When the pages which follow were printed, they seemed of such grave moment that they were extracted and circulated as a pamphlet in the German States. The translation, therefore, will now adhere closely to the text.

'I call to witness,' he went on, 'that love of my country which is engrafted in me by nature—that love of the Church which is given to me by the Son of God—did I hear that the Emperor was on the seas, on his way against Constantinople, I would know no rest till I was at his feet—I would call to him were he in the very narrows of the Bosphorus—I would force myself into his presence—I would address him thus: 'Cæsar,' I would say, 'what is this which you are doing? Whither are you leading this mighty army? Would you subdue the enemies of Christendom? Oh! then, turn, turn your sails. Go where a worse peril is threatening—where the wound is fresh, and where a foe presses more fearful far than the Turk. You count it a noble thing to break the chains of Christian captives; and noble, indeed, it is. But more glorious is it to rescue from eternal damnation the many thousand souls who are torn from the Church's bosom, and to bring them back to the faith of Christ. What will you have gained when


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456 you have driven back the Turks, if other Turks be sprung up meanwhile amidst ourselves? What are Turks save a sect of Christians revolted from the Church? The beginning of the Turks is the beginning of all heretics. They rejected the Head which was set over them by Christ, and thus by degrees they fell away from the doctrine of Christ. What then? See you not the seed of these self-same Turks scattered at home before your doors? Would, indeed, it were so scanty that there was any difficulty in discerning its presence! Yes; you see it, sad to say, in your own Germany. The disease is there, though not as yet in its worst form. It is not yet set forth by authority. The German Church may even now cast forth the seed of the adulterers, and bear again the true fruit of Catholic truth. But for England! Alas! in England that seed is sown thick and broad; and by the sovereign's hand. It is sown, and it is quickening, and the growing blade is defended by the sword. The sword is the answer to all opponents. Nay, even silence is an equal crime. Thomas More, the wisest, the most virtuous of living men, was slain for silence. Among the monks, the more holy, the more devout they be, the greater is the peril. All lips are closed by fear of death. If these fine beginnings do not prove to you what it is to forsake the head of the Church, what other evidence do you desire? The Turks might teach you: they, too, forsook him—they, too, brought in the power of the sword; by the sword these many ages they have maintained themselves, and now the memory of their mother has perished, and


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1536.] too late the Church cries to her lost children to return to her. Or, again, Germany may teach you. How calm, how tranquil, how full of piety was Germany! How did Germany flourish while it held steadfast by the faith! How has it been torn with wars, distracted with mutinies, since it has revolted from its allegiance! There is no hope for Germany, unless, which God grant, it return to the Church—our Supreme Head. This is the Church's surest bulwark; this is the first mark for the assaults of heretics; this the first rallying point of true Catholics; this, Cæsar, those heroic children of the Church in England have lately died to defend, choosing rather to give their naked bodies to the swords of their enemies than desert a post which was the key to the sanctuary.

''That post was stormed—those valiant soldiers were slain. What wonder, when the champion of the foemen's host was a king! Oh, misery; worse than the worst which ever yet has befallen the spouse of Christ! The poison of heresy has reached a king, and, like the Turk, he shakes his drawn sword in the face of


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Rh in relation to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not stop there. It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the Constitution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. The Constitution declares that the judicial powers of the United States extend to cases arising under the laws of the United States, and that such laws, the Constitution and treaties, shall be paramount to the State Constitutions and laws. The judiciary act prescribes the mode by which the case may be brought before a Court of the United States, by appeal, when a State tribunal shall decide against this provision of the Constitution. The ordinance declares there shall be no appeal; makes the State law paramount to the Constitution and laws of the United States; forces judges and jurors to swear that they will disregard their provisions; and even makes it penal in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further declares that it shall not be lawful for the autliorities of the United States, or of that State, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within its limits.

Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of the voters of a single State. Here is a provision of the Constitution which is solemnly abrogated by the same authority.

On such expositions and reasonings, the ordinance grounds not only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it complains, but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union if any attempt is made to execute them.

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitution, which they say, is a compact between sovereign States, who have preserved their whole sovereignty, and therefore, are subject to no superior; that because they made the compact, they can break it, when, in their opinion, it has been departed from by the other States. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of our government sufficiently to see the radical error on which it rests.

The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting through the State Legislatures in making the compact, to meet and discuss its provisions, and acting in separate conventions when they ratified those provisions; but the terms used in its construction, show it to be a government in which the people of all the States, collectively, are represented. We are one people in the choice of the President and Vice-President. Here the States have no other agency than to direct the mode in which the votes shall be given. The candidates having the majority of all the votes, are chosen. The electors of a majority of the States may have given their votes for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The people then, and not the States, are represented in the executive branch.


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458 all who resist him. If he affect now some show of moderation, it is but to gain time and strength, that he may strike the deadlier blows; and strike he will, doubt it not, if he obtain his desire. Will you then, Cæsar—you who profess that you love the faith—will you grant him that time? When the servants of Christ cry to you, in their agony, for help,—when you must aid them now, or your aid will be for ever useless,—will you turn your arms on other foes? will you be found wanting to the passionate hope of your friends, when that hope alone, that simple hope, has held them back from using their own strength and striking for themselves? Dream not, Cæsar, that all generous hearts are quenched in England—that faith and piety are dead. Judge rather those who are alive by the deaths of those who have gone to the scaffold for religion's sake. If God reserved for Himself seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, when Ahab and his cursed Jezebel slew his prophets, think not that, in these days of greater light, our Jezebel, with all her scent for blood, has destroyed the whole defenders of the truth. There are legions in England yet unbroken who have never yet bent their knees. Go thither, and God, who has been their Saviour, will bid them rally to your banners. They are the same English, Cæsar, who, unaided, and in slighter causes, have brought their princes to their judgment bar—have bidden them give account for moneys wasted to the prejudice of the commonwealth, and when they could not pass their audit, have stripped them of crown and sceptre. They are the


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1536.] same; and long ago, in like manner, would they have punished this king also, but that they looked to you. In you is their trust—in your noble nature, and in your zeal for God. Their cause is yours, peculiarly yours; by you they think the evil can be remedied with less hurt to England than by themselves. Wisely, therefore, they hold their hand till you shall come.

''And you—you will leave them desolate; you turn your back upon this glorious cause; you waste yourself in a distant enterprise. Is it that your soldiers demand this unhappy preference? are your soldiers so eager to face their old eastern enemies? But what soldiers, Cæsar! Your Spaniards?—your own Spaniards? Ah! if they could hear the noble daughter of Isabella, wasted with misery, appealing in her most righteous cause to their faithful hearts! The memory of that illustrious lady, well I know, is not yet so blotted from their recollection that a daughter worthy of so great a mother could pray to them in vain. Were they told that a princess of Spain, child of the proudest sovereign of that proud empire, after twenty years of marriage, had been driven out as if she had been the bastard of some clown or huckster that had crept from her filth into the royal bed, and to make room for a vile harlot—think you they would tamely bear an injury which the basest of mankind would wash out in blood? Think you that, when there scarce breathes a man so poor of soul who would not risk his life to requite so deep an indignity, the gentlemen of Spain will hesitate to revenge the daughter of their sovereign? Shall it go out among the nations


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460 to your shame and everlasting ignominy, that Spain sits down under the insult because she is faint-hearted—because she is feeble, and dares not move? It cannot be. Gather them together, Cæsar. Call your musters; I will speak to them—I will tell them that the child and grandchild of Isabella of Castille are dishonoured and robbed of their inheritance, and at the mention of that name you shall see them reverse their sails, and turn back of themselves their vessels' prows.

''But not for Catherine's sake do I now stand a suitor either to you or them. For herself she desires nothing; she utters no complaint over her most unrighteous fate. You are now in the meridian of your glory, and some portion of its lustre should be hers; yet she is miserable, and she endures her misery. Each fresh triumph of your arms entails on her some fresh oppression; but hers is no selfish sorrow for herself or for her cause. She implores you, Cæsar, for the sake of England, of that England into which from her own noble stem she was once engrafted, which she loves and must love as her second country. Her private interests are nothing to her; but if it so happen that the cause of this illustrious and most dear land is so bound up in hers—that if she be neglected, England must forfeit her place among the nations—must be torn with civil distractions, and be plunged in ruin and disaster irretrievable—if the cause of religion be so joined to her cause that her desertion is the desertion of the Holy Church, that the ancient faith will be destroyed, new sects will spring up, not in that island only, which at her coming


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12 In the House of Representatives there is this difference, that the people of one State do not, as in the case of President and Vice-President, all vote for the same officers. The people of all the States do not vote for all the members, each State electing only its own representatives. But this creates no material distinction. When chosen, they are all representatives of the United States, not representatives of the particular State from which they come. They are paid by the United States, not by the State; nor are they accountable to it for any act done in the performance of their legislative functions; and, however they may in practice, as it is their duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their particular constituents when they come in conflict with any other partial or local interest, yet it is their first and highest duty, as representatives of the United States, to promote the general good.

The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league; and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot, from that period, possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offence against the whole Union. To say that any State may, at pleasure, secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation: because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms; and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on a failure.

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties to that compact may, when they feel themselves aggrieved, depart from it; but it is precisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A compact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may, by its terms, have a sanction or penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with no other consequence than moral guilt: if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated or implied penalty. A league between independent nations, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one; or, if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, it cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary, always


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195 CHAPTER XV.

there are few towns on this earth's surface more hemmed in by mountains than Arrowtown. The snowy peaks peer down the chimneys, and in whatever direction you look out your eye meets only crags and rocks, gorges and precipices. The Arrow runs its muddy stream at the base of the cliffs, and the houses, built of flat slate-stones, jostle each other on the brink of the stream. The sands in the river have been turned over for gold some five times already; and it is said that a methodical search would even now unearth much more treasure.

It was raining heavily as we left O'Kane's little hostelry, where every regard had been paid to our comfort; and never in all my travelling experience did I face a gloomier prospect. We seemed hopelessly caged in by immense lofty walls of rock; and the bridle and team tracks to the various workings, in the glens and gorges, wound along the

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CALENDAR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.

MANUAL OF PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS HELD BY THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS.

PRACTICAL PHYSICS.

ABRIDGED MATHEMATICAL TABLES.


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 face of the walls at a dizzy height above the stream; with bare gaunt pinnacles piercing the mists in all directions.

The township was founded during the first gold rush to the district, twenty-six years ago. The rude masonry walls of the old houses are much more antique-looking than one commonly sees in any colonial town.

All this region round about is auriferous. The shaly, slaty, crumbling mass, of which the hills and strata are composed, is seamed and permeated everywhere throughout its bulk by thin veins of quartz, and most of these are gold-bearing. In all the flats, and in the beds and on the sides of all the rivers and creeks, surface digging and sluicing has been more or less profitably followed; and at one time there was an immense mining population in these lake districts. Now, however, "Ichabod" might almost be written over the map.

At Macetown there are some rich reefs now being worked, and Macetown is even more inaccessible than Arrowtown. The teams that go to Macetown must surely possess some of the attributes of the goat or house-fly, for the road is perhaps one of the most audacious in the colonies. It literally sticks to the face of the cliffs in some parts.

Rain! rain. How it patters. Mud! mud. How it splashes. The horses, poor things, look veritable hypochrondriacs, and both driver and passengers look blue as the surroundings.

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 Through a temporary rift in the grey mist, the gaunt hills show their bare, naked, ugly backs, lacerated with gaping scars. All the glamour of the kindly drapery of snow has vanished under the pitiless pelting of the rain. Great landslips have laid bare the blue shale-beds on the mountain sides. The chasms and abyssmal [sic] depths look the very acme of wild unrelieved desolation. There is not a bright tint. The only signs of motion are the foaming cascades tearing down the gullies, their silvery streaks looking like the white locks of angry furies trailing over the barren jagged clefts. The only sign of life is where a ghostly gull, sated with the flesh of some poisoned rabbits, wings his heavy flight athwart the black-blue background of dripping rock.

We seem to be floating above the clouds, and to be dipping into a sea of mist. Yonder is a glorious peep! A rift in the cloud with a spumy circle of cirrhus edges, reveals a glimpse of a snowy peak, far, far aloft. It looks, as we might fancy, the face of a veteran warrior, with a few lyart locks scattered thinly over his brow, to gaze at us through the gauzy curtains of an hospital window.

Now we cross the Arrow, swift as its name portends; roaring and foaming deep down in its drumly channel. Look at the old workings! What Titan's toil has been here! It looks as if a pack of prediluvian monsters had been madly tearing at the banks. The valley is riven and torn and trenched and furrowed in all directions. Every furlong of the way now for the next thirty

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 miles is like this. These are the early diggings. The auriferous earth was sluiced, and the boulders and rocks and pebbles piled up in great dykes and battlements out of reach of the water. It is a most unique appearance. I have never witnessed such. The dykes and wavy irregular outlines are quite unlike the débris and tumuli left after the workings or alluvial gold-washing in any part of Australia I have visited. Look back! How majestic seem these mighty sentinels, clad in eternal snow, and looking down so purely and serenely on the disrupted valley, as if in pity at the mad hurry-scurry and feverish lust of gold which they have witnessed.

The peaceful plough has now succeeded the eager pick and shovel, and several thatched farmcots are visible here and there through the mists.

On our left a magnificent cascade comes shooting down over an abrupt ledge, and now we reach the Swift Burn gorge. 'Twould take a Doré to paint this awful chasm. Far below, the Swift Burn dashes. Appropriate name! The abyss is appalling in its inky hues of desolation. It looks as if mortification had set in on all the livid faces of crag, and rotting cliff, and the black-blue tinge of universal dissolution has set its seal on all the surroundings. The Arrow here loses its mud-begrimed waters in the olive-green volume of the swift Kawarau. The canyon is of a depth that makes one shudder. The crags and peaks are blasted as if by the scorching breath of the legions

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 of Apollyon. The seamed and riven sides of the crumbling gorge assume the most ghastly hues. All the potent agencies of nature in her most wrathful mood, have seemingly been exerted here to produce a chaos of wild, weird desolation. It is a picture fit for a prophet's vision, laden with wrath and woe, and desolation.

It is, indeed, a vision of judgment. The memory of it haunts me yet. A solemn awe settles on our spirits. Words utterly fail to present a tithe of the terrific awesomeness of this amazing pass.

We cross the Kawarau by a massive iron bridge, slung on thick wire cables, let into the solid rock on either side. A column of splintered spray comes scatteringly down over the giddy height to the left. We shudder as we gaze back at the terrible view.

Surely, now we are coming into some more cheerful environment? But no! Nature presents herself in these wild solitudes in her most forbidding guise. The Hindoos would say that Kali, or Doorga, the goddess of wrath and desolation, was the presiding divinity here. Everything is baneful—malign.

See dangling on yonder line a row of gory mangled scalps—a ribbon of bloody flesh with a silver selvage? What is it? Nay, start not! These are only a few hundred gory rabbit-skins drying for market. They are quite in keeping with the scenery.

A few farmsteads are scattered over this desolate

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text:
Author:Horatio Scott Carslaw

Works

 * An Introduction to the Infinitesimal Calculus. (1905)

title: Author:Horatio Scott Carslaw


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 strath. On the other side of the river the strath is ribbed into ridges by the file-like teeth of innumerable rills and runlets. These are nature's files eating away the mass of the earthquake's upheaval. The swift Kawarau there is but nature's bosom, sweeping the detritus of the workshop down into the open plains of the low country, there to be worked up by the rosy fingers of that cunning artificer old Helios into ruddy fruit and golden grain, and all the witching loveliness of grass and flower and tree.

What a laboratory is this! We are looking here at nature in her apprentice stage.

The mist is now gathering its serried battalions and slowly retiring to the mountain tops. The valleys come out more distinctly. The sound of falling waters becomes more clear and musical.

Hurrah! Yonder is the sun, and we are to have a fine day after all. What a glorious vision have we here! Surely, reader, could you but behold this with me my rhapsodies might be pardoned.

This gorge is named Nevis Bluff Pass. How eerie and uncanny look those rotten crumbling masses overhead. The road winds in and out amid heaps of fallen débris, and the rocks hang ominously over the horses' heads. Below, the impetuous river is in a more savage mood than ever. The water, pent up and impeded by fallen rocks, roars and swishes and churns itself into foam, as it dashes in impotent wrath against the great buttresses and barriers that seek to retard, its

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text: Author talk:Horatio Scott Carslaw

title: Author talk:Horatio Scott Carslaw


text: Author talk:Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller

title: Author talk:Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller


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 furious rush. There is not a blink of brightness here to relieve the pallid leaden look. Even the snowy heights are again hidden by the grey dark envious mist, which clings to the sodden soil like grave-cloths.

Here is an episode in keeping with the general aspect. The rabbitters have been out laying poisoned grain. Poor greedy bunny! Have you no premonition of danger? No; the all-devouring greed which makes these multitudinous hordes such an awful plague, is not to be deterred by any scruples. The grain is looked on as a godsend, for of grass and green herbage there is not a blade all eaten up long ago. The vermin are at starvation point. They eat. See now! Look at that one leaping in the air in its death agonies. Look at the contortions and gyrations of that other. Hear the agonizing screams of a third; the deadly drug is eating at the vitals of the hapless rodents. The earth is dotted with white upturned pelts of dozens of them. They lie thick behind every tuft of spear-grass, in scores under every cliff, in hundreds over the plains. The peltry hunters will have a rich harvest this evening. As the rabbitters move forward, picking up the dead beasts and rapidly skinning them, hundreds of seagulls follow the gang, flitting about like eerie ghosts, and gorging themselves on the poisoned carcases. The poison does not seem to affect these birds; at least no dead gulls are ever noticed, though I saw them myself feeding on the poisoned flesh.

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text:
Author:James Arthur Pollock

Works

 * Practical Physics. (1907, with Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller)
 * "The Discharge of Electricity from Glowing Carbon" in Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 42 (1908 with A. B. B. Ranclaud)
 * "The Relighting of the Carbon Arc" in Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 42 (1908 with E. M. Wellisch and A. B. B. Ranclaud)

title: Author:James Arthur Pollock


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 This rabbit infliction is of awful dimensions here. We saw them by the thousand, bobbing about among the dry withered thistle-stalks, and many hundreds of tons of skins are exported from Otago and Southland every year. On some runs as many as fifty men are employed laying poison and collecting skins. The skins almost pay for the outlay, but of course the check to the wool industry cannot be formulated in figures. The skins are most valuable naturally when the winter fur is on them. There is so much difficult country hereabouts where the vermin can breed in safety, that they will never now be wholly eradicated, but already they are being sensibly held in check, and meantime the poor people comfort themselves with the thought, that after all, employment is given to many hundreds of hands, and money is of necessity spent in the country which might otherwise only swell the hoards of absentee squatters, and rich corporations. The poison used is phosphorized grain. For flat country, where the warrens are easily accessible, and the soil not too porous, probably no better means of checking the plague has been found than that promulgated by an old fellow-student of my own, whom I had the pleasure of meeting again in Dunedin after a long separation of more than twenty years.

I refer to Professor James G. Black, Professor of Chemistry in the Otago University. Some nine years ago the rabbit plague was working havoc with the prospects of pastoralists in Southland; and one of the leading squatters, Mr. James

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text:
Author:Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller

Works

 * Practical Physics. (1907, with James Arthur Pollock)

title: Author:Oscar Ulrich Vonwiller


text: Author talk:James Arthur Pollock

title: Author talk:James Arthur Pollock


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 Holmes, of Castle Rock station, Southland, wrote to Professor Black, almost in despair, to see if he could suggest any remedy. After some consideration the professor recommended the trial of the bisulphide of carbon and himself superintended the experiments. The rabbits were first of all hunted into the warrens by dogs. A rag or stem of the common New Zealand flax (phormium), dipped in the bisulphide, or a spoonful of the liquid itself, was then put into each hole in the warren and a sod was then stamped into each opening. The poisonous fumes are immediately generated and penetrate to the remotest recesses of the warren, and no live rabbit escapes the deadly dose.

For low lands this is the best remedy that was then known, and none better has been discovered since, and to Professor Black belongs the honour of having first suggested and tried it. It gives me genuine pleasure to be able to record this of an old fellow-student; for his modesty is only equalled by his high attainments.

During this digression the coach has been jolting on, and the weather has been clearing.

Right ahead, seemingly barring the valley, Mount Difficulty towers aloft. It is well named. Its black bare ribs are like the bones of some giant megatherium, which have been scorched and blackened by primeval fires. We cross the Victoria Bridge, and in the valley below, the Nevis here joins its waters to those of the Kawarau. The Nevis is muddy and thick as pea-soup from recent freshets.

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 In these wild glens the liver-loving kea is very plentiful. This epicure is rather an interesting example of an uncommon fact in natural history. Of course it is pretty generally known that the kea has attained an unenviable notoriety on account of the damage he does to the sheep. He fastens on to some unlucky beast, and with his powerful hooked beak regularly cuts a hole into the poor victim till he reaches the dainty he is in search of—the liver. This luscious morsel having been appropriated, the bleeding, lacerated victim is left to die in agony, while the rapacious kea transfers his attentions to another ill-fated member of the flock. And yet the kea was formerly a fruit-eating bird. He is allied to the macaw family, and how the taste for a carnivorous diet became developed does not seem yet to be known. It is a curious instance of change of natural instinct.

I should say the student of natural history would find a fine field for observation here. Another episode befell us here, and thus: The driver and I were chatting gaily, when an exclamation from him roused my attention to the swift movements of a couple of birds. A sparrowhawk in pursuit of a fine blue rock pigeon. They swept past us on fleet, strong wing. The hawk swooped to strike; but the pigeon eluded him. Again they circled, swept upward, downward, flashed past us like a streak of light, and again the hawk made his deadly dart. Palpitating, trembling, the harried pigeon just managed to

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 swoop under the friendly shelter of a clump of bushes beside a mountain rill that came merrily rippling down the hillside. The baffled hawk, with a most malignant glitter in his eye, took up his station on a jutting rock, and had evidently made up his mind to wait for the poor pigeon.

"No, old man, I'll be hanged if you'll have him," said Jack, the driver, apostrophizing the hawk.

"Here, sir, hold the ribbons." This to me, throwing me the reins. Jack got down from his perch, and after a little search in the bush was rewarded by the capture of the poor dazed pigeon, who was consigned to safe custody in the boot. The hawk dodged a stone, which Jack threw at him, and very sulkily winged his way off in quest of other prey.

At this part of the road the rocks show a curious honeycombed appearance, and the river rolls along in a series of rapids, in a terrific chasm far below. This spot is known locally as "the natural bridge." A mass of fallen rock obstructs the stream, which at low water can be easily forded here over the o'er-arching rocks. High up in mid air, a broken and partly dismantled iron flume spans the gorge. It was designed to carry water across to some diggings on the other side of the valley; but the span was too great, and it was never a success.

Now the road crosses "Roaring Meg." The name describes the torrent. It comes roaring, tearing, crashing, dashing down the steep, and plunges like a catapult into the river bed. The

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 force and velocity must be stupendous, and the impact of so many tons of water at such a speed sends the volume of the Kawarau high in air, tossed in blinding spray, and the mighty buttresses of rock seem to tremble again as the water surges to and fro in their cavernous recesses. The swift Kawarau staggers, and its waves, swift as they are, are for the moment dammed back, and rise as a charger preparing for a bound into the thick of the fray. The point of junction is a hissing hell of foam—a very Phlegethon of fury. It needs the pen of a master to fitly describe such a "meeting of the waters" as this.

Below this point, and across the foam-filled chasm, we see the miners' huts on the Gentle Annie claim. Provisions and stores are sent across in a chair slung to a wire rope stretched across the river. By the same dizzy contrivance the wives and children of the district cross and re-cross. The school children use this contrivance daily. Surely here, if anywhere, we should have a race of women not liable to that mysterious malady known as "the nerves."

Still farther down the valley, great beetling rocks rise on either hand, and amid their honeycombed recesses colonies of blue and white pigeons have taken up their quarters. Here we release our rescued captive, and watch his gladsome exultant flight, as he rejoiced in his recovered freedom.

There is a magnificent cataract in the river here for some hundred yards. Several Chinamen are fossicking among the chinks and crannies of

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text: Author talk:Samuel Henry Egerton Barraclough


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 the colossal dykes which the early toilers for gold have formerly heaped up. Millions upon millions of tons of earth must have been sluiced from these hillsides.

We pass now a gang of men busily restoring the traffic which has been interrupted by a terrific landslip caused by the recent heavy rains. The rocks here are rotten and treacherous. The formation is chiefly mica schist, both hard and soft, with beds and layers of slate and phyllite.

A short distance beyond, we reach the deserted Kawarau Gorge township. There was formerly a dense and busy population here; but there are only some three houses and a school now standing.

The valley now widens out, and away across the river, Jack points out the cliffs of Bannockburn, where active sluicing is even now being carried on, and where some very heavy finds of gold have made the place famous. Like mostly all the fields around this district, however, Bannockburn is now getting worked out, and will soon be deserted.

Now we rattle on to a broad, flat, sandy plain, a church steeple showing its tip at the far verge; above which towers a snowy range, and nestling in the shadow thereof is the neat little town of Cromwell.

Cromwell, in common with mostly every town of any importance in New Zealand, can boast of one thing which Sydney with all her magnificence yet lacks.

"And what is that?" you may ask.

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 Well, it is simply this: a perfect and plentiful water supply. Its source is in the hills over the river, and the water crosses in great pipes under the bridge. There are three banks represented in the town, and a racecourse and hospital testify both to the philanthropic and sporting tendencies of the people.

From a lignite pit a few miles out on the plain, good fuel can be procured at 20s. per ton. This rather unusual conjunction of coal and gold is common enough on the Otago goldfields.

At Cromwell the individuality of the Kawarau becomes merged in that of the Molyneux, and the valley downward is now named the Molyneux Valley; emblematic this of the gradual absorption of the native in the foreign element. In a hollow by the river, we find the Chinese camp. Of course a gardener is to be found in close proximity, and the rocking of several mining cradles, shows that these industrious and persevering Asiatics are yet finding payable gold, though the more impatient Anglo-Saxon has long since considered the workings "played out."

The contrast between the green current of the Molyneux and the grey muddy volume of the Kawarau is most striking. All around the junction of the two streams the country consists of bare grey rugged cliffs and tumbled rocks of a friable material, which crumbles and flakes under the influence of the weather; and the river carries enormous masses of material with it in its onward course.

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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Francis


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 In fact, New Zealand is a good instance of growth—not merely mental, or political, or commercial, but physical material growth. Geologists tell us that every year the land encroaches on the sea; and when we see the rivers at work we can see the process for ourselves.

The valley of the Molyneux is much wider and more open; but at this wintry season (May) it is not less bare and desolate-looking than the upper straths and gorges.

Clyde is another languishing little town through which we pass. The new bridge on stone piers is a noticeable feature. The old one, with four others on the river, were swept away entirely by the great flood of 1878.

At Alexandria, the next township, we find sluicing on a small scale still being practised. A substantial dredge is at work in the river bed itself, and the mud-laden Manuherikia rolls down its tribute to swell the swift Molyneux.

The country here presents a picture of chaotic desolation. The rocks are crumbling and rotting. Everything looks ruinous. Sand and withered thistle-stalks seem the prevailing products of the place, and there does not seem even enough herbage to support a rabbit. In fact, we see numbers of dead ones near the road, and the great convoys of gulls are the only live animals we see.

It is a treat from this desolate region to come upon a well-cultivated, well-populated settlement known as Spear Grass Flat. It is also called Bald

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 Hill Flat, but as Bald Hill is covered with great brown bunches of spear-grass, all but a spot on the crown, the origin of the names is not far to seek. On the right the Old Man Range lies, gleaming white with drifted snow. Round one farmstead we count over thirty great stacks. The wheat grown here took the second prize at the Sydney Exhibition.

Here another curious freak of bird nature came under our observation. A massive carcase had been slung up by the butcher of the settlement, and perched on it were dozens of twittering sparrows and tom-tits tearing away at the flesh and regaling themselves right royally. I had often heard the expression, "A tom-tit on a round of beef," as an illustration of an unequal match in size, but here was the real thing itself.

At Gorge Creek we dip into the valley down a slippery, muddy decline, very trying to the poor horses, and change teams at the top of the next rise. The last sixteen miles into Roxburgh is through rocky country and is done in the dark. At Coal Creek Flat there are some famous orchards. The fruit fetches high prices in Dunedin. Grapes are grown under glass, and it is amazing to see so little attention paid to such an industry, since more than three-fourths of the fruit consumed in the colony comes from abroad.

Flitting lights, twinkling and moving down below near the stream, and others shining with a steady glow, now apprise us that Roxburgh is in sight. The lights by the river are those of the

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 night shift of miners, busy sluicing their wash-dirt while the river is low. Roxburgh is our resting-place for the night, and cold and weary we alight, and are glad of the welcome dinner and warm fire which are awaiting us.

title: Page:Our New Zealand Cousins.djvu/227


text:
Author:Samuel Henry Egerton Barraclough

Works

 * Abridged Mathematical Tables. (1907)

title: Author:Samuel Henry Egerton Barraclough


text: Our New Zealand Cousins/Chapter 15

title: Our New Zealand Cousins/Chapter 15


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, George (1722-1796)


text:
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Rh

next morning, before Lucy and her father had left their apartments, Brandon, who was a remarkably early riser, had disturbed the luxurious Mauleverer in his first slumber. Although the courtier possessed a villa some miles from Bath, he preferred a lodging in the town, both as being warmer than a rarely inhabited country-house, and as being, to an indolent man, more

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36 convenient for the gaieties and the waters of the medicinal city.

As soon as the Earl had rubbed his eyes, stretched himself, and prepared for the untimeous colloquy, Brandon poured forth his excuses for the hour he had chosen for a visit.

"Mention it not, my dear Brandon," said the good-natured nobleman, with a sigh; "I am glad at any hour to see you, and I am very sure, that what you have to communicate is always worth listening to."

"It was only upon public business, though of rather a more important description than usual, that I ventured to disturb you," answered Brandon, seating himself on a chair by the bedside. "This morning—an hour ago—I received by private express, a letter from London, stating that a new arrangement will positively be made in the Cabinet—nay, naming the very promotions and changes; I confess, that as my name occurred, as also your own, in these nominations, I was anxious to have the benefit of your necessarily accurate knowledge on the subject, as well as of your advice."

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first man that Steelman and Smith came up to on the last embankment, where they struck the new railway line, was a heavy, gloomy, labouring man with bow-yangs on and straps round his wrists. Steelman bade him the time of day and had a few words with him over the weather. The man of mullick gave it as his opinion that the fine weather would'nt last, and seemed to take a gloomy kind of pleasure in that reflection; he said there was more rain down yonder, pointing to the south-east, than the moon could swallow up―the moon was in its first quarter, during which time it is popularly believed in some parts of Maoriland that the south-easter is most likely to be out on the wallaby and the weather bad. Steelman regarded that quarter of the sky with an expression of gentle remonstrance mingled as it were 305


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Rh "Really, Brandon," said Mauleverer, with a half-peevish smile, "any other hour in the day would have done for 'the business of the nation,' as the newspapers call that troublesome farce we go through; and I had imagined you would not have broken my nightly slumbers, except for something of real importance—the discovery of a new beauty, or the invention of a new dish."

"Neither the one nor the other could you have expected from me, my dear Lord," rejoined Brandon; "you know the dry trifles in which a lawyer's life wastes itself away, and beauties and dishes have no attraction for us, except the former be damsels deserted, and the latter patents invaded. But my news, after all, is worth hearing, unless you have heard it before."

"Not I! but I suppose I shall hear it in the course of the day; pray Heaven I be not sent for, to attend some plague of a council. Begin!"

"In the first place, Lord Duberly resolves to resign, unless this negotiation for peace be made a cabinet question!"

"Pshaw! let him resign. I have opposed the peace so long, that it is out of the question. Of

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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, George (1746-1829)


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38 course, Lord Wanstead will not think of it—and he may count on my boroughs. A peace! shameful, disgraceful, dastardly proposition!"

"But, my dear Lord, my letter says, that this unexpected firmness on the part of Lord Duberly has produced so great a sensation, that seeing the impossibility of forming a durable cabinet without him, the King has consented to the negotiation, and Duberly stays in!"

"The devil!—what next!"

"Raffden and Sternhold go out in favour of Baldwin and Charlton; and in the hope that you will lend your aid to"

"I!" said Lord Mauleverer, very angrily; "I! lend my aid to Baldwin, the Jacobin, and Charlton, the son of a brewer!"

"Very true!" continued Brandon, "but in the hope that you might be persuaded to regard the new arrangements with an indulgent eye, you are talked of instead of the Duke of for the vacant garter and the office of Chamberlain."

"You don't mean it!" cried Mauleverer, starting from his bed.

"A few other (but, I hear, chiefly legal)

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 with a sort of fatherly indulgence, agreed mildly with the labouring man, and seemed lost for a moment in a reverie from which he roused himself to enquire cautiously after the boss. There was no boss, it was a co-operative party. That chap standing over there by the dray in the end of the cutting was their spokesman―their representative: they called him Boss, but that was only his nickname in camp. Steelman expressed his thanks and moved on towards the cutting, followed respectfully by Smith.

Steelman wore a snuff-coloured sac suit, a wide-awake hat, a pair of professional-looking spectacles, and a scientific expression; there was a clerical atmosphere about him, strengthened however by an air as of unconscious dignity and superiority, born of intellect and knowledge. He carried a black bag, which was an indispensable article in his profession in more senses than one. Smith was decently dressed in sober tweed and looked like a man of no account, who was mechanically devoted to his employer's interests, pleasures, or whims, whatever they may have been.

The boss was a decent-looking young fellow with a good face―rather solemn―and a quiet manner.

'Good day, sir,' said Steelman.

'Good day, sir,' said the Boss.

'Nice weather this.'

'Yes, it is, but I'm afraid it won't last.'

'I am afraid it will not by the look of the sky down there,' ventured Steelman.

'No, I go mostly by the look of our weather prophet,' said the Boss with a quiet smile, indicating the gloomy man.


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Rh are to be made. Among the rest, my learned brother, the democrat Sarsden, is to have a silk gown; Cromwell is to be Attorney-general, and, between ourselves,—they have offered me a Judgeship."

"But the garter!" said Mauleverer, scarcely hearing the rest of the lawyer's news,—"the whole object, aim, and ambition, of my life. How truly kind in the King! After all," continued the Earl laughing, and throwing himself back, "Opinions are variable—truth is not uniform—the times change, not we—and we must have peace instead of war!"

"Your maxims are indisputable, and the conclusion you come to is excellent," said Brandon.

"Why, you and I, my dear fellow," said the Earl, "who know men, and who have lived all our lives in the world, must laugh behind the scenes at the cant we wrap in tinsel, and send out to stalk across the stage. We know that our Coriolanus of Tory integrity, is a corporal kept by a prostitute; and the Brutus of Whig liberty, is a lackey turned out of place for stealing the spoons,—but we must not tell this to the world. So,

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40 Brandon, you must write me a speech for the next session—and be sure it has plenty of general maxims, and concludes with 'my bleeding country!'"

The lawyer smiled. "You consent then to the expulsion of Sternhold and Raffden? for, after all, that is the question. Our British vessel, as the damned metaphor-mongers call the state, carries the public good safe in the hold like brandy, and it is only when fear, storm, or the devil makes the rogues quarrel among themselves, and break up the casks, that one gets above a thimble-full at a time. We should go on fighting with the rest of the world for ever, if the ministers had not taken to fight among themselves."

"As for Sternhold," said the Earl, "'tis a vulgar dog, and voted for economical reform—besides, I don't know him;—he may go to the devil, for aught I care; but Kaffden must be dealt handsomely with, or, despite the garter, I will fall back among the Whigs, who, after all, give tolerable dinners."

"But why, my Lord, must Raffden be treated better than his brother recusant?"

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Rh "Because he sent me in the handsomest manner possible, a pipe of that wonderful Madeira, which you know I consider the chief grace of my cellars, and he gave up a canal navigation bill which would have enriched his whole county, when he knew that it would injure my property. No, Brandon, curse public cant, we know what that is. But we are gentlemen, and our private friends must not be thrown to the devil, unless, at least, we do it in the civilest manner we can."

"Fear not," said the lawyer; "you have only to say the word, and the cabinet can cook up an embassy to Owhyee, and send Raffden there with a stipend of five-thousand a-year."

"Ah! that's well thought of; or we might give him a grant of a hundred thousand acres in one of the colonies, or let him buy crown-land at a discount of eighty per cent. So that's settled."

"And now, my dear friend," said Brandon, "I will tell you frankly why I come so early; I am required to give a hasty answer to the proposal I have received, namely of the Judgeship. Your opinion?"

"A Judgeship! you a Judge? What! forsake

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 'I suppose bad weather would put you back in your work?'

'Yes, it will; we didn't want any bad weather just now.'

Steelman got the weather question satisfactorily settled; then he said:

'You seem to be getting on with the railway.'

'Oh, yes, we are about over the worst of it.'

'The worst of it?' echoed Steelman, with mild surprise: 'I should have thought you were just coming into it' and he pointed to the ridge ahead.

'Oh, our section doesn't go any further than that pole you see sticking up yonder. We had the worst of it back there across the swamps―working up to our waists in water most of the time, in mid-winter too―and at eighteenpence a yard.'

'That was bad.'

'Yes, rather rough. Did you come from the terminus?'

'Yes, I sent my baggage on in the brake.'

'Commercial traveller, I suppose,' asked the Boss, glancing at Smith, who stood a little to the rear of Steelman, seeming interested in the work.

' Oh no,' said Steelman, smiling―'I am―well―I'm a geologist; this is my man here,' indicating Smith. '(You may put down the bag, James, and have a smoke.) My name is Stoneleigh―you might have heard of it.'

The Boss said 'oh,' and then presently he added 'indeed,' in an undecided tone.

There was a pause―embarrassed on the part of the Boss―he was silent not knowing what to say.


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42 your brilliant career for so petty a dignity!—you jest!"

"Not at all,—listen. You know how bitterly I have opposed this peace, and what hot enemies I have made among the new friends of the administration: on the one hand, these enemies insist on sacrificing me; and on the other, if I were to stay in the Lower House and speak for what I have before opposed, I should forfeit the support of a great portion of my own party; hated by one body, and mistrusted by the other, a seat in the House of Commons ceases to be an object. It is proposed that I should retire on the dignity of a Judge, with the positive and pledged, though secret, promise of his Majesty and the Premier, to give me the first vacancy among the chiefs. The place of Chief Justice or Chief Baron is indeed the only fair remuneration for my surrender of the gains of my profession, and the abandonment of my parliamentary and legal career; the title might go (at least, by an exertion of interest) to the eldest son of my niece, in case she married a commoner:—or," added he, after a pause, "her second son in case she married a peer."

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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, George Francis Robert


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Rh "Ha—true!" said Mauleverer quickly, and as if struck by some sudden thought, "and your charming niece, Brandon, would be worthy of any honour either to her children or herself. You do not know how struck I was with her; there is something so graceful in her simplicity; and in her manner of smoothing down the little rugosities of Warlock House, there was so genuine and so easy a dignity, that I declare I almost thought myself young again and capable of the self-cheat of believing myself in love. But, oh! Brandon, imagine me at your brother's board!—me, for whom ortolans are too substantial, and who feel, when I tread, the slightest inequality in the carpets of Tournay!—imagine me, dear Brandon, in a black-wainscot room, hung round with your ancestors in brown wigs with posies in their button-holes,—an immense fire on one side and a thorough draught on the other,—a huge circle of beef before me, smoking like Vesuvius, and twice as large,—a plateful (the plate was pewter, is there not a metal so called?) of this mingled flame and lava sent under my very nostril, and upon pain of ill-breeding to be dispatched down my proper

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 Steelman studied his man and concluded that he would do.

'Having a look at the country, I suppose?' asked the Boss presently.

'Yes,' said Steelman; then after a moment's reflection: 'I am travelling for my own amusement and improvement, and also in the interest of science, which amounts to the same thing. I am a member of the Royal Geological Society―vice-president in fact of a leading Australian branch;' and then, as if conscious that he had appeared guilty of egotism, he shifted the subject a bit. 'Yes. Very interesting country this―very interesting indeed. I should like to make a stay here for a day or so. Your work opens right into my hands. I cannot remember seeing a geological formation which interested me so much. Look at the face of that cutting, for instance. Why! you can almost read the history of the geological world from yesterday―this morning as it were―beginning with the super-surface on top and going right down through the different layers and stratas―through the vanished ages―right down and back to the prehistorical―to the very primeval or fundamental geological formations!' And Steelman studied the face of the cutting as if he could read it like a book, with every layer or stratum a chapter, and every streak a note of explanation. The Boss seemed to be getting interested, and Steelman gained confidence and proceeded to identify and classify the different 'stratas and layers,' and fix their ages, and describe the conditions and politics of Man in their different times, for the Boss's benefit.


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44 old gentleman in fustian-breeches and worsted stockings, by way of a butler, filling me a can of ale,—and your worthy brother asking me if I would not prefer port,—a lean footman in a livery (such a livery, ye gods!) scarlet, blue, yellow, and green, a rainbow ill made! on the opposite side of the table looking at 'the Lord' with eyes and mouth equally open, and large enough to swallow me,—and your excellent brother himself at the head of the table glowing through the mists of the beef, like the rising sun in a sign-post,—and then, Brandon, turning from this image, behold beside me the fair, delicate, aristocratic, yet simple loveliness of your niece, and—but you look angry—I have offended you."

It was high time for Mauleverer to ask that question; for, during the whole of the Earl's recital, the dark face of his companion had literally burnt with rage: and here we may observe, how genenerally [sic] selfishness, which makes the man of the world, prevents its possessor, by a sort of paradox, from being consummately so. For Mauleverer, occupied by the pleasure he felt at his own wit, and never having that magic sympathy with

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Rh others, which creates the incessantly keen observer, had not, for a moment, thought that he was offending to the quick the hidden pride of the lawyer. Nay, so little did he suspect Brandon's real weaknesses, that he thought him a philosopher, who would have laughed alike at principles and people, however near to him might be the latter, and however important the former. Mastering by a single effort, which restored his cheek to its usual steady hue, the outward signs of his displeasure, Brandon rejoined,

"Offend me! by no means, my dear Lord. I do not wonder at your painful situation in an old country gentleman's house, which has not for centuries offered scenes fit for the presence of so distinguished a guest. Never, I may say, since the time when Sir Charles de Brandon entertained Elizabeth at Warlock; and your ancestor, (you know my old musty studies on those points of obscure antiquity,) John Mauleverer, who was a noted goldsmith of London, supplied the plate for the occasion."

"Fairly retorted," said Mauleverer, smiling; for though the Earl had a great contempt for

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Rh vegetation interlaced with vines and flowers of tangled growth, in all making a scene in the short Mexican twilight well worth remembering.

Darkness closed us in from further observations, and at half-past nine we found ourselves comfortably settled in the Hotel de Michoacan. The camarista was both voluble and agreeable, with a hint of officiousness thrown in for good measure. At seven in the morning he entered our rooms without knocking, his hair standing erect upon his pumpkin-shaped head, and without preface or embarrassment stated it was not the custom in that part of the country to eat any desayuno (breakfast) except chocolate or coffee and bread. He evidently thought we looked doubtful as to the truth of his information, as well as of other marvelous things he told us concerning the hotel. To emphasize his statements, he stepped across the room and handed us each a copy of the regulations of the hotel. His face wore a masterly grin and his hair seemed to move back and forth "like quills upon the fretful porcupine," as he pointed exultingly to the literal English translation. He proudly directed our attention to Article XVIII., which read thus:

"In conformity with an order from the police, people coming to take lodgings into this hotel are obliged to let know their names, trades, and countries, as well as the place whence they do come, and those to which they are bound to, so that the whole be inscribed in a book which is kept for that purpose at the hotel office."

Article VII. informed us that:

"In the amount of room rent, the inward room service and the candle for enlightening it at night are only included; whatever other service the lodger may require is to be considered an extra charge, and, of course, paid for separately."

On reading this, I asked him if he did not also furnish matches. He turned his head, disdainfully surveying us from the height of his superior knowledge, as he replied with increasing emphasis and long-drawn intonation: "No señora, en este hotel siempre faltan jabon y cerillos" ("In this hotel we never furnish soap or matches").

Here were the identical words of Pomposo at the San Carlos! The


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46 low birth, set on high places, in other men, he was utterly void of pride for his own family.—"Fairly retorted! but I never meant any thing else but a laugh at your brother's housekeeping; a joke, surely, permitted to a man whose own fastidiousness on these matters is so standing a jest. But, by heavens, Brandon, to turn from these subjects, your niece is the prettiest girl I have seen for twenty years; and if she would forget my being the descendant of John Mauleverer, the noted goldsmith of London, she may be Lady Mauleverer as soon as she pleases."

"Nay, now, let us be serious, and talk of the judgeship," said Brandon, affecting to treat the proposal as a joke.

"By the soul of Sir Charles de Brandon, I am serious!" cried the Earl; "and as a proof of it, I hope you will let me pay my respects to your niece to-day—not with my offer in my hand, yet—for it must be a love-match on both sides," and the Earl, glancing towards an opposite glass, which reflected his attenuated but comely features, beneath his velvet night-cap, trimmed with mechlin, laughed half-triumphantly as he spoke.

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Rh A sneer just passed the lips of Brandon, and as instantly vanished; while Mauleverer continued:—

"And as for the judgeship, dear Brandon, I advise you to accept it, though you know best; and I do think no man will stand a fairer chance of the Chief-Justiceship, or, though it be somewhat unusual for "common" lawyers, why not the Woolsack itself? As you say, the second son of your niece might inherit the dignity of the peerage!"

"Well, I will consider of it favourably," said Brandon, and soon afterwards he left the nobleman to renew his broken repose.

"I can't laugh at that man," said Mauleverer to himself, as he turned round in his bed, "though he has much that I should laugh at in another; and faith, there is one little matter I might well scorn him for, if I were not a philosopher. 'Tis a pretty girl, his niece, and with proper instructions might do one credit; besides, she has 60,000l. ready money; and faith, I have not a shilling for my own pleasure, though I have, or, alas! had, fifty thousand a-year for that of my establishment! In

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48 all probability, she will be the lawyer's heiress, and he must have made, at least, as much again as her portion; nor is he, poor devil, a very good life. Moreover, if he rise to the peerage? and the second son—Well, well! it will not be such a bad match for the goldsmith's descendant either!"

With that thought, Lord Mauleverer fell asleep. He rose about noon, dressed himself with unusual pains, and was just going forth on a visit to Miss Brandon, when he suddenly remembered that her uncle had not mentioned her address, or his own. He referred to the lawyer's note of the preceding evening; no direction was inscribed on it; and Mauleverer was forced, with much chagrin, to forego for that day the pleasure he had promised himself.

In truth, the wary lawyer, who, as we have said, despised show and outward appearances as much as any man, was yet sensible of their effect even in the eyes of a lover; and moreover, Lord Mauleverer was one, whose habits of life were calculated to arouse a certain degree of vigilance on points of household pomp, even in the most unobservant. Brandon therefore resolved that Lucy

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Rh should not be visited by her admirer, till the removal to their new abode was effected; nor was it till the third day from that on which Mauleverer had held with Brandon the interview we have recorded, that the Earl received a note from Brandon, seemingly turning only on political matters, but inscribed with the address and direction in full form.

Mauleverer answered it in person. He found Lucy at home, and more beautiful than ever; and from that day his mind was made up, as the Mammas say, and his visits became constant.

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Rh and families and individuals enjoy the rare privilege of dwelling in these noble tenements with their frescoed walls and deep recesses.

Our curiosity was not satisfied with regard to El Carmen, one of the oldest and most dismantled of all the convents in Morelia, having been established in 1593. Intent upon gratifying this curiosity, we bent our steps thither quite early one morning and were amply repaid. In many places the walls were moss-grown and dilapidated, while here and there the tangled vines and grasses and broken columns gave emphasis to the signs of decay that marked the ruin. Sitting complacently upon a broken, fallen column, we beheld an object that filled us with horror—an Indian mendigo, a representation in one, of the ancient Aztec, the pobre Mexicano, and the gentleman of the nineteenth century.

His head was covered by a mass of straggling black hair that fell like the mane of a buffalo over his penetrating black eyes, which were turned upon us with a furtive suspiciousness by no means comfortable. He was barefooted and shirtless. His trousers of white cotton were of rather insignificant dimensions, having only a full width to each leg. Surmounting the whole, tipped slightly to one side, was an ancient stove-pipe hat. Time did not admit of a further inspection, and taking refuge in some rapid evolutionary movements, we rushed through the big open doors, which creaked mournfully on their hinges, on into the vault-like hall, up the steep, shaky steps. It never occurred to us to look back, so sure were we that this remarkable specimen of humanity was in close pursuit. At the top of the stairway, ere we had recovered our breath.


text: Paul Clifford/Volume 2/Chapter 2

title: Paul Clifford/Volume 2/Chapter 2


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Henry


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306 magically a door opened and a swarthy, dark face peeped out, as if to say, "What in the world are you two women doing here?" We took no time to see how he looked; and shaking with alarm, yet convulsed with laughter, we turned hastily from this dark hall to one a little less obscure. The unusual noise and scampering of feet attracted the attention of the occupant of another room, and before we could catch our breath, another door opened and the head of a veritable Apollo looked out. This last apparition was too much, and the floor, polished by the feet of past generations, seemed to give way beneath our own, and we collapsed on its slippery surface. Overcome by imaginary terrors, we calmly awaited our fate. Seeing our alarm and ghost-like paleness, he came forth with the manner characteristic of an accomplished Mexican gentleman, and kindly offered to serve us in any way possible. Madame de C—— quickly explained, in beautiful Spanish, the cause of our fright and consequent flight, and before she had finished he, too, was in the full enjoyment of our unexpected merriment.

Ere we had arisen from our humble position on the floor, we glanced upward at the walls, lined with pictures, where our attention was riveted upon one of them which would of itself have put us to flight. It represented some penitents at confession, while the devil, painted red, pranced around on all fours, evidently angered because these devotees were lost to him.

Our Apollo informed us that he was a law student in one of the colleges, and had chosen a room in El Carmen because of its peculiar quietude. He accompanied us in a deliberate inspection of the time-stained office. It is doubtful, however, if we were in a sufficiently equable frame of mind to contemplate serenely the beauties of the numerous exquisite paintings which adorned the walls. The grand old organ stood mute yet eloquent; its language uttered in the past, its tones never more to be repeated.

When we descended to the ground, the cause of our fears sat unmoved, not having changed his position since we left him, save tipping his hat a little more to one side, while the expression on his


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, Howel


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304 possibility of a pre-arrangement flashed across me, of course to be instantly rejected. The printed rules were before us, thirty of them, mostly restrictive. But in my travels I found every hotel well provided in this respect, the English translations being always waggish in their literalness.

The lover of ancient art, and of objects that have a history, may find in Mexico an inexhaustible fund of interest in visiting the numerous convents that exist everywhere. In many cases they have been purchased by private individuals and are used as residences. The government owns others, and has established in them colleges and municipal and industrial schools. In no place have I found these establishments more interesting than at Morelia. One of the most extensive is El Carmen, the venerable convent of the Carmelites. We visited it one evening, but time did not permit us to explore its spacious interior, and we decided to return and complete the inspection.

The Carmelites, on leaving the country, had presented this convent, with all its belongings, to a private citizen.

We visited many others, and always with an increasing desire to investigate further these remnants of the past. Among them were San Juan de Dios, La Merced, and San Diego. Special mention belongs to the last named. The convent of San Diego stands at the opening of the San Pedro Park. Attached to it is the sanctuary of Guadalupe, erected in 1708, a beautiful specimen of Doric architecture, adorned with columns, entablatures, and shields. This consecrated building served as a retreat for the bishop and clergy. The convent was founded by the will of a citizen of Valladolid, who in 1747 left $21,000 for that purpose, with the condition that the sanctuary be annexed to it. Accordingly the building was erected and the old sanctuary enlarged. Many years later the magnificent altar was constructed which now adorns the church. The tall cypresses which screen the entrance were planted in 1807. They no longer shelter the devotees nor the monks pacing up and down in pious meditation; for the convent of San Diego, like so many others, has been secularized,


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Rh

the McKinley family were numerous and the paternal purse by no means large, it soon became a question of what should be done with so many boys and girls. The older ones had outgrown the Niles school, and there was no other school in the neighborhood to which they could be sent.

"We will move to Poland," said Mr. McKinley. "There are more chances there, and I want to do the best I can by the children." And to Poland the family moved when William McKinley was nine years old. Poland was well known for its educational facilities, for it boasted of two good institutes of learning, one controlled by the Methodists and the other by the Presbyterians. Shortly after the McKinley's came to the place the Presbyterian school was burned down, and then both institutions were merged into one, known as the Union Seminary.


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12 Poland is located eight miles south of Youngstown, and is given over to mining and agriculture. The great railroads have passed it by, and consequently it has made scant advances since the time when William McKinley trudged its dusty roads on his way to the Union Seminary. Here his elder sister Annie taught for some years, and here the young scholar made a firm friend of another teacher, a Miss Blakelee, who, after serving the school for many years, left her position to be married. Miss Blakelee was McKinley's favorite teacher, rind when, in 1883, he went to Poland Academy to address the graduating class there, he paid her a glowing tribute for all she had done toward making him the scholar that he was.

In those days there was always plenty of work for William McKinley to do at home. He sawed and split wood, brought water, and did his share of house chores just as other boys have done and are doing to-day. He never shirked, but would get through as quickly as possible, that he might get back to his book or to some favorite problem in mathematics, for he was a lover of the


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Rh latter study. When there was nothing else to do, he would often listen to the men talking about politics, state rights, and kindred subjects, and on several occasions he travelled to Youngstown with his school chums to listen to some political speakers. These were the days in which the question of slavery was uppermost in all men's minds, and the politicians waxed exceedingly warm in their arguments of what should and what should not be done.

"I'd like to be a politician and spout out like that," said one of the schoolboys one day, after listening to a speech.

"I'll tell you what we can do," answered McKinley. "We can organize or join a debating society. Then we can choose a subject to debate on, take sides, and have lots of fun, and it will be instructive, too."

The subject was broached to the boys and girls the next day and took like wildfire. Some thirty of them formed the club, and they obtained a small room where they might hold their meetings and do their debating. It was decided to call the club the Everett Literary and Debating Society, in honor of Edward Everett, the


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14 distinguished secretary of state, senator, and at one time president of Harvard College. In those days Everett was at the height of his fame, and was known from one end of the land to the other for his power as a debater.

The boys and girls were very proud of their society, and it was a happy day for William McKinley when he became its president and sat in the chair on the platform with the gavel in his hand. One cannot help but wonder if he had any dreams in those days concerning the great and important places he was to occupy in the future.

Unfortunately there are no authentic records of the subjects which were debated by the society at this period, but they probably numbered a great variety. The slavery question was in everybody's mouth, and very likely it came in for a full share of the discussion. But it is a matter of record that William McKinley spoke often, giving the chair up to somebody else for that purpose, and that his manner so charmed those who listened to him that when it came time to vote for one side or the other of the


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Rh, he was generally found on the winning side.

At first the society room was but plainly furnished, with a small desk-like table, a few common chairs, and half a dozen benches. On the walls were a print of Washington and another of Jefferson, and between them a pair of crossed flags. The floor was bare.

"I think this society ought to have a carpet for the floor," said one of the girl members one day.

"Oh yes, let us have a carpet, by all means!" cried a number. "It would make the room look ever so much nicer."

When the question was put to the boys, some of them were doubtful. A carpet would cost a good deal of money, and besides, what would keep it from getting covered with mud on rainy meeting days? None of the roads around Poland were paved, and when it was wet, the shoes and boots of the members often became thickly covered with mud.

"We'll get a carpet," said the young president. "Let us all save up and contribute what we can, and when we've


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16 got it, we'll find some way to keep it clean."

So the society began to save up, and at last had enough money to purchase the carpet. A committee of the girls was appointed, and they went to a local store, where they selected a durable ingrain carpet having a groundwork of green, with red flowers and yellowish wreaths. When the carpet was tacked down, it looked so new and beautiful that hardly anybody dared to step upon it.

"The boys will spoil the carpet with their muddy hobnailed boots," said one of the girl members.

"I move we make slippers for the boys to wear while attending the meetings," said another girl.

This motion was seconded and carried, and all the girls set to work to knit or embroider slippers for the male members of the society. But alas! by the time the next meeting took place the slippers were far from ready, and it rained in torrents. The boys came as usual, but stood outside in their muddy boots and shoes, not daring to venture a step farther, for fear of spoiling that nice new carpet.


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Rh "Let's take off our boots and shoes!" cried one boy. "We can hold the meeting in our stocking feet just as well!" And in a twinkling off came the muddy foot coverings, which the boys placed wherever it was convenient. And thus, in his stocking feet, William McKinley took the chair, and the business of the debating society proceeded.

In his younger years William McKinley had loved not only to go fishing and bathing, but also to go horseback riding, and a story is told of how he once won a race between another boy and himself on horseback between Poland and Youngstown. But as he grew older this love of outdoor sports diminished, although he loved horses and driving as long as he lived. More and more of his time was devoted to reading and studying, until some of his chums got to calling him "The studious William." Whenever there was a case to be tried in court, and he could get there, he went, and sitting in a corner, would drink in every word uttered by the lawyers and the judge.

"Well, what did you think of the case.


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18 William?" asked one of the lawyers of him, one day, after court was over.

"I thought it went the wrong way," was the quick answer.

"The wrong way? Why?"

"The defendant didn't bring out his evidence strong enough. He had a good case, it seemed to me. The goods he bought were not as good as they were represented to be, and it wasn't fair to make him pay the full price for them."

At this the lawyer smiled. "I think you are right, William," he said, "and I shouldn't be surprised to see the case appealed."

The case was appealed, and when tried in a higher court the verdict was for the defendant, just as William McKinley said it ought to be. This shows well how judicial was his turn of mind even when a youth.


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viii


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 'Now, continued Steelman, turning slowly from the cutting, removing his glasses, and letting his thoughtful eyes wander casually over the general scenery―'now the first impression that this country would leave on an ordinary intelligent mind―though maybe unconsciously, would be as of a new country―new in a geological sense; with patches of an older geological and vegetable formation cropping out here and there; as for instance that clump of dead trees on that clear alluvial slope there, that outcrop of lime-stone, or that timber yonder,' and he indicated a dead forest which seemed alive and green because of the parasites. 'But the country is old―old; perhaps the oldest geological formation in the world is to be seen here, as is the oldest vegetable formation in Australia. I am not using the words old and now in an ordinary sense, you understand, but in a geological sense.'

The Boss said, 'I understand,' and that geology must be a very interesting study.

Steelman ran his eye meditatively over the cutting again, and turning to Smith said,

'Go up there, James, and fetch me a specimen of that slaty out-crop you see there―just above the coeval strata.'

It was a stiff climb and slippery, but Smith had to do it, and he did it.

'This,' said Steelman, breaking the rotten piece between his fingers, 'belongs probably to an older geological period than its position would indicate―a primitive sandstone level perhaps. Its position on that layer is no doubt due to volcanic upheavals― U


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 such disturbances, or rather the results of such disturbances, have been and are the cause of the greatest trouble to geologists―endless errors and controversy. You see we must study the country, not as it appears now, but as it would appear had the natural geological growth been left to mature undisturbed; we must restore and reconstruct such disorganised portions of the mineral kingdom, if you understand me.'

The Boss said he understood.

Steelman found an opportunity to wink sharply and severely at Smith, who had been careless enough to allow his features to relapse into a vacant grin.

'It is generally known even amongst the ignorant that rock grows―grows from the outside―but the rock here, a specimen of which I hold in my hand, is now in the process of decomposition; to be plain it is rotting―in an advanced stage of decomposition―so much so that you are not able to identify it with any geological period or formation, even as you may not be able to identify any other extremely decomposed body.'

The Boss blinked and knitted his brow, but had the presence of mind to say: 'Just so.'

'Had the rock on that cutting been healthy―been alive, as it were―you would have had your work cut out; but it is dead and has been dead for ages perhaps. You find less trouble in working it than you would ordinary clay or sand, or even gravel, which formations together are really rock in embryo―before birth as it were.'

The Boss's brow cleared.

'The country round here is simply rotting down―simply rotting down.'


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 He removed his spectacles, wiped them, and wiped his face; then his attention seemed to be attracted by some stones at his feet. He picked one up and examined it.

'I shouldn't wonder,' he mused, absently, 'I shouldn't wonder if there is alluvial gold in some of these creeks and gullies, perhaps tin or even silver, quite probably antimony.'

The boss seemed interested.

'Can you tell me if there is any place in this neighbourhood where I could get accommodation for myself and my servant for a day or two?' asked Steelman presently. 'I should very much like to break my journey here.'

'Well, no,' said the Boss. 'I can't say I do―I don't know of any place nearer than Pahiatua, and that's seven miles from here.'

'I know that,' said Steelman reflectively, 'but I fully expected to have found a house of accommodation of some sort on the way, else I would have gone on in the van.'

'Well,' said the Boss. 'If you like to camp with us for to-night, at least, and don't mind roughing it, you'll be welcome, I'm sure.'

'If I was sure that I would not be putting you to any trouble, or interfering in any way with your domestic economy'

'No trouble at all,' interrupted the Boss. 'The boys will be only too glad, and there's an empty whare where you can sleep. Better stay. It's going to be a rough night.'

After tea Steelman entertained the Boss and a few V


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harris, James (1709-1780)