text:
Page:Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes.djvu/373

 * Animals— :Cattle insurance societies.
 * See.
 * See also ; ; ; ;

 * Importation of, quarantine of, and destruction of, if probability of contagion
 * 11 & 12 Vict. c. 105.
 * Destruction of imported hay, straw, fodder, &c. likely to convey contagion
 * 11 & 12 Vict. c. 105.
 * Exposing for sale, and turning out into unindosed land, when diseased
 * 11 & 12 Vict. c. 107.
 * Exposing for sale glandered horses
 * 16 & 17 Vict. c. 62.
 * Regulations by Privy Council as to removal of diseased, or of hay, straw, &c., purifying stables, vehicles, &c., and disposing of diseased animals, and notice of disease
 * 11 & 12 Vict. c. 107.
 * Transfer to Lord Lieutenant, &c. of power under above Acts
 * 29 & 30 Vict. c. 4. s. 1.
 * Regulations for embarkation and landing of persons in charge of, importation and movement of, and of dogs and articles likely to carry infection, and slaughter and burial of diseased, and as to fairs, exhibitions, &c. ; fund for compensation, and powers and duties of guardians, inspectors, and valuers
 * 29 & 30 Vict. c. 4.
 * 33 & 34 Vict. c. 36.
 * 37 & 38 Vict. c. 6.
 * 39 & 40 Vict. c. 51.
 * Regulations as to carriage, &c. of, by railway and steamboat companies, &c.
 * 33 & 34 Vict. c. 36.
 * Expenses of veterinary department of Privy Council Office
 * 35 & 36 Vict. c. 16.
 * Restrictions on keeping, so as to be injurious to health
 * 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121. ss. 8, 13.
 * 29 & 30 Vict. c. 90. ss. 57, 61.
 * 37 & 38 Vict. c. 93. s. 7.
 * See also ; and
 * See also ; and

 * See.
 * See.

 * See.
 * See.

 * Registry of grant of, and of rentcharges
 * (E.) 18 & 19 Vict. c. 15. ss. 12–14.
 * Registry of satisfaction of
 * (E.) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 116.
 * Grant of, by National Debt Commissioners.
 * See ;.
 * Acts granting annuities out of the public revenues:—
 * Amherst, Lord
 * 43 Geo. 3. c. 159.
 * 19 & 20 Vict. c. 43.
 * Bath, Earl of
 * 19 & 20 Vict. c. 59.
 * Cambridge, Duchess of
 * 58 Geo. 3. c. 24.
 * 1 Geo. 4. c. 108.
 * Cambridge, Duke of
 * 13 & 14 Vict. c. 77.
 * Clarges, Sir Thomas, heirs of
 * 39 Geo. 3. c. 84.
 * Combermere, Lord
 * 54 Goo. 3. c. 163.
 * Edinburgh, Duke of
 * 29 & 30 Vict. c. 8.
 * Edinburgh, Duke of and Duchess of
 * 36 & 37 Vict. c. 80.
 * Elgin, Lady
 * 27 & 28 Vict. c. 31.
 * Eversley, Lord
 * 20 Vict. c. 9.
 * Exmouth, Lord
 * 54 Geo. 3. c. 164.
 * Gough, Viscount
 * 9 & 10 Vict. c. 32.
 * Grafton, Duke of
 * 46 Geo. 3. c. 79.
 * 8 & 9 Vict. c. 34.
 * 19 & 20 Vict. c. 43.
 * Hardinge, Viscount
 * 9 & 10 Vict. c. 31.
 * Havelock, Lady and Sir H. M.
 * 21 & 22 Vict. c. 2.
 * Keane, Lord
 * 4 & 5 Vict. c. 1.
 * Marlborough, Duke of (annuity and estates)
 * 3 & 4 Ann. c. 4.
 * 6 Ann. cc. 6. & 7.
 * 2 & 3 Vict. c. 94.
 * 3 & 4 Vict. c. 43.
 * 19 & 20 Vict. c. 43.
 * 19 & 20 Vict. c. 59.
 * Mayo, Lady
 * 35 & 36 Vict. c. 56.
 * Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, Duchess of
 * 6 & 7 Vict. c. 25.
 * 6 & 7 Vict. c. 25.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/189

Rh from the mountain side; and from the reservoirs thus created, the people of the entire city, and mills below are supplied. At the commencement of the rainy season, in June, the flood-gates are opened, and the pent up waters which have been accumulating for a year, are allowed to flow out in a rushing river, which surges through the cañon, and washes everything clean, before it; the reservoirs are then cleansed and repaired. Here for the first time in Mexico, we missed the women at the plaza fountains, and the donkey driving water-carriers, and drew fresh water from the hydrants.

Señor Rocha has a concession for the supplying of the city with water for twenty years, and will be able to repay himself for his vast outlay. He has also built terraced promenades and seats all around the reservoirs, and thus furnished Guanajuato with one of the great requisites of a Mexican city, a place of social public resort for its

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


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/190

184 at evening and morning; he has fine natural taste, and has made the peculiar architecture best fitted for this country and climate, a thorough study; and whenever he sees a man about to build a house of any pretension, he at once offers to superintend its entire construction, free of charge.

Above the city, not far from the reservoirs, is a peculiar, high mountain, crowned with a curious perpendicular rock, which, from its fancied resemblance to the outlines of a giant buffalo, has been christened "El Buffa." From this mountain is procured, in unlimited quantities, a species of lined, and beautifully variegated sandstone, of all the colors of the rainbow—blue, pale green, and chocolate predominating. The sandstone cuts readily, has a fine grain, and is the best material for private residences and public buildings imaginable. With this, and in this way, Señor Rocha has lined the sides of the cañon all the way up to the reservoirs, with residences of the most beautiful style. Graceful pillars in long colonnades, arched portals, and corridors and patos decorated with all the flowers of this prolific climate, are seen by the delighted traveler on every side. Surely, this fine, old, Mexican gentleman is a public benefactor in the largest sense of the term.

For three centuries, Guanajuato furnished the world with an almost uninterrupted stream of silver, and in spite of wars and dissensions, crude and primitive systems of mining and reduction, oppressive taxes and general mismanagement, her mines of incredible wealth still pour out millions annually.

Early in the present century, Humboldt visited this city, and described the mines of the district more fully and scientifically than I am capable of doing; his


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/191

Rh will still hold good in the main, and I refer the reader to it. I was told, that the mine owners—as is somewhat customary in all countries and all ages—imposed upon him in many particulars—and that the figures which he gave, are not to be trusted; but for reasons, which can only be guessed, I find that it is still impossible to obtain any more exact data concerning the yield of particular mines, even at this day. The records are usually imperfect at best, and there is a natural desire not to allow the public a full insight into the workings and value of particular mines. If a mine is paying well, it is always popularly supposed that it is really paying much better than reported; and if not paying at all, it is probably for sale, and the best possible showing is made.

In 1852, the annual yield of the mines of this district was estimated at nine million dollars, of which one-tenth was gold and the remainder silver. It is now only a little more than four million dollars; but with peace, and a judicious investment of capital, it could be doubled, or even trebled, very speedily. The population meantime has fallen off probably fifty per cent, and the city now contains only forty-five or fifty thousand people at the outside estimate.

General Florencio Antillon, Governor of Guanajuato, to whom I am indebted for many courtesies, furnished me with some interesting statistics. From them I learned that the present population of the state is seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty-eight. This is, in proportion to its size, the most densely populated state of the Republic. There are six hundred prisoners in the state-prison, at Salamanca, or one hundred and fifty less than in the


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/192

186 state-prison, with a population fifty per cent, greater. The state forces, under pay, consist of one battalion of the line of four hundred and seventy-nine men, and four squadrons of mounted gendarmes— in all nine hundred and eighty-eight men. These belong to the National Guard, and are always on duty on the road or in the Municipalities. There are also four hundred members of the National Guard not on active duty and pay, and three hundred and ninety-four more doing duty at intervals, and liable to be called out at a moment's notice. The guard of the Department of Guanajuato, is now being armed with Henry rifles from the United States, but the others still have the old English Tower, and the Springfield muskets of 1860-63.

There are two hundred and eight students in the free college. The free schools cost ninety-four thousand dollars per annum, and are well attended. They have day and evening schools connected with the primary department for boys and girls separately, and High Schools intermediate between them and the colleges. The old debt of the state, January 1st, 1868, was fifty eight thousand eight hundred and three dollars and ten cents. The income of the state in 1868, from all sources, was seven hundred and fifty-nine thousand one hundred and seventy-two dollars and nineteen cents, and the expenses, seven hundred and forty-eight thousand thirty-six dollars and fifty-five cents.

The condition of the state, in spite of the depression of its leading interest, silver mining, seems to be comparatively good, and its credit well maintained.

A substantial, well macadamized, carriage-road is now being built from Queretaro to Leon, running entirely


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/193

Rh through the State of Guanajuato, from South-east to North-west, under the direction of Gilberto Torres, a native Mexican Engineer, formerly in the United States Coast Survey, on the California Coast. This road is to be 216 miles long, and will cost the incredibly small sum of $316 per mile, including the erection of several substantial stone bridges already completed.

Governor Antillon, who is a man of splendid personal appearance, tall, handsome and intelligent, was a commander in the Republican army during the war. His reputation as an executive officer is excellent, and the State is said to be one of the best governed in Mexico. He is vigorously shooting the "road-agents

or highwaymen, and already the roads in all parts of the State are comparatively safe for travelers, and will soon be quite so. If the duties on the production of silver could be reduced fifty per cent, on what they now are, the quantity would very largely increase, and the State and Federal Governments would both be largely benefited by it. The climate, generally, throughout the State is about that of Southern California, and as healthy as the climate of any part of the United States.

We visited the Mint of Guanajuato, said to be the best in the Republic, and the only one which is worked by steam. Its machinery is on the English plan, and English made, and the mint is run, under contract, by


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/194

188 an English company. The Treasurer of the mint, Señor Don Juan B. Castelazo, an intelligent and highly educated Mexican, who speaks English well, showed us through the establishment. From him we learned that the annual coinage of the mint is $4,000,000, of which $500,000 is gold and the remainder silver. The old silver coinage was dollars, half-dollars, quarters, reals, (12 1-2 cts.) medios, (6 1-4 cts.) and quartillas, (3 1-8 cts.) and this is the common currency of the country, though the old copper or brass claquos and quartillas still circulate extensively. The Governor has now prepared dies for a new half-dollar similar to the American, and ten and five cent pieces of our pattern. These coins, are already being struck off, but are not yet put in circulation. By the courtesy of Mr. Frederic Meyer, I obtained the first of these new half-dollars coined at the Guanajuato Mint; and for American gold, I obtained a handful of the smaller coins to take home as curiosities to my friends. The gold coined is in onzas or sixteen-dollar pieces, corresponding to the Spanish doubloon. Gold dollars will be coined hereafter, and the old silver, 12 1-2 cents, 6 1-4 cents, and 3 1-8 cents coinage, wil lbe abandoned. In other words, the American decimal system has finally been adopted for all the mints in Mexico.

Señor Castelazo gave me the following list of the taxes which silver producers in Mexico now pay: State tax, three and one-eighth per ct.; melting and assay of bars, one-half of one per ct.; coinage and Government tax, four and three-eighths per ct.; total eight per cent. If the coin is exported—as it generally is—it pays an additional export duty of eight per cent, or sixteen per cent, all told. This is a reduction of at least seven


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/195

Rh. on the old rates; but farther reductions must be made before the silver interest can become again thoroughly prosperous.

One of the greatest objects of interest in Guanajuato, is the ancient Castillo del Grenaditas, a square, two story, stone structure of immense size, flat roof of stone slabs, cemented water-tight, and walls from five to ten feet in thickness, built early in the last century, and originally intended to be used as a granary in which to store surplus corn for the public protection against seasons of scarcity. There is a large court-yard in the center of the structure, surrounded with cornices and graceful pillars.

When Hidalgo, after his pronunciamento with eleven men at Dolores in the State of Guanajuato, in 1810, arrived here, the whole Indian and native-born Spanish-American population flocked to his banner. They were hardly armed at all, but were brave and determined. The Spaniards, two thousand strong, fled into this Castle of Grenaditas, and defended themselves through a long siege, with obstinate courage and determination. The patriots sought in vain to carry the place, as the Spaniards were constantly on the watch, and gave them no opportunity to approach the gates. At night, the Spaniards burned great torches, and by their light, shot all who came within reach.

At last, an Indian placed a great flat stone upon his back, and thus shielded from the bullets which the Spaniards rained down upon it, crawled up to the gates and burned them down. The stone which he used as armor, is still shown. The besiegers followed up their advantage, and, after a part of the garrison had perished from suffocation, carried the castle. It is said that not a Spaniard escaped.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/196

190 In the following year, when Hidalgo, defeated at the Bridge of Calderon, fled to Chihuahua, and was betrayed,

tried, and shot, his head and those of his three companions, were brought here, and placed on four hooks still projecting from the four corners of the building near the roof; and there they remained until 1823, when the successful revolutionists took them down, and buried them, with the honors due to the memory of the first martyrs of Mexican Liberty.

Visiting this Castle, alone, I found it occupied as a Carcel or municipal prison, Police Judges' offices, etc., etc. The troops of the State, all of Indian blood, but fine, stout, hardy, and well-disciplined men, stand guard at this prison, and among the prisoners were


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/197

Rh many white men, descendants of those who suspended the heads of Hidalgo and his companions, on the hooks. A young man, who informed me that he was one of the three judges of the minor criminal court, politely showed me through the building. There were about three hundred men and boys, and thirty, six women in the Carcel. They were in apartments containing from twelve to twenty-five each, all opening on the great court-yard, and light and well ventilated. They were working at boot and shoe making, hatmaking, weaving serapes and coarse blankets, making tallow candles, etc., etc., or attending school. The white blood appeared to predominate among the prisoners, all of whom looked cheerful, clean, well-fed, and comfortable.

All kinds of manufactured goods are hawked about the city on men's shoulders, and you must be careful how you look at anything, or you will be surrounded in a moment with anxious sellers. I asked the price of a pair of blue-steel spurs handsomely inlaid with sterling silver.

"Six dollars, Señor but what will you be pleased to give?"

The same spurs, in California, would bring at least twenty dollars, and I have seen not much finer ones sold at fifty dollars.

I looked at some rebosas, merely to ascertain the price, and was offered good ones for three dollars, and finer ones for six dollars. Remarking, by way of getting rid of the dealer, that they were not fine enough, as my family wore only silk—Heaven forgive me!—I left, and an hour later the dealer was waiting for me at the door of our house, with a dozen costly silk ones in


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/198

192 boxes, for my inspection. I gave him fifty cents for his trouble, not feeling able to buy, and he went off protesting that I was a Republican Prince and a Cabellero grande.

I wanted a pair of boots and could find none in the shops to fit me. Seeing a boot-peddler in the crowd I called him up, and looked at a pair with short legs faced with buff, and soles fancifully shaped and fastened with small metalic nails; they were made at Leon, he told me.

"Too small; I wear number eight!"

He passed his hand carefully over my foot and without another question thanked me, bowed low, and hurried off. When I got back to the house and entered my room, a servant brought me a pair the exact counterpart of those I had looked at, except in size, saying that the owner was in the ante-room. I tried them on, and found them the nicest fit I had ever seen; if they had been made for me in New York they would not have fitted me half so well.

"How much?" I asked of the servant.

"Four dollars Señor!"

"Tell him I will give him three dollars and a half!"

He came back in a minute: "Esta bien, Señor!" He would have taken three dollars, had I offered it, but they were cheap at twice or three times the money, according to our American ideas. How he found out who I was and where to find me, is a mystery I am unable to explain.

The scenes in the market-place or plaza of Guanajuato are beyond description. The poor people of this great mining district cannot afford to waste anything, and they literally eat up an entire animal "from the tip of


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/199

Rh his nose to the end of his tail." All the meat not sold fresh is dried, and sold in that shape. You see men and women squatted on the ground before a pile of sheep and goats heads and necks, dried with, the horns on, and the hair or wool still adhering to them in patches, and notice, not without a rising of the gorge, that the poor customers crowd around, and after haggling for one of them, purchase it for perhaps a cent or two, and walk off, gnawing at it as a dog would gnaw at his bone. Boiled pumpkins or calobassas are also among the staple articles of food among these poor people, and the principal article of their diet is a kind of gruel or soup made from ground corn; and they think themselves vastly fortunate if they can add to this a dried goats-head, sheeps-neck, or the nose or tail of a bullock on Sunday. How they can live and work as they do on such a diet Heaven only knows.

As a rule the people of the lower order are not dishonest, but there are many petty thieves among them. To show how far they will go in the stealing line I will mention a single fact. In a hardware store on the plaza, I noticed several grindstones fastened to the wall by chains, passed through the hole in the center, and padlocks; on inquiry, I learned that this was done to prevent their being stolen and carried off bodily by men who did not even know the use of them, but would take them in preference to almost anything else on which they could lay their hands, because they were heavier, and as they supposed, consequently more valuable.

The priests have given the authorities much trouble, but appear now to have become pretty thoroughly humbled. This was once one of their strongholds, and


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/58

 Brassey himself has told me, I gather he is by no means adverse to assisting a well-considered scheme of the kind. It is essential to the interests of the West Australian Land Company that small settlements should be encouraged along the route of their railway, as what they want to make traffic for their line is not a few wealthy proprietors, but a numerous and thriving population, embracing all sorts of interests in addition to the pastoral. Then, too, as regards the fructification of their estate, there is all the difference in the world between the value of arable as distinguished from mere grazing land.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/200

194 it would hardly have been believed by a visitor twenty years ago, that at this time the holy fathers would be forbidden by law to walk the streets of Guanajuato in their clerical robes and broad hats; but such is the case. About the time we were there, some of them, becoming over-confident, ventured to disobey the law, and appeared in their black robes on the streets. Thereupon, General Antillon issued an order requiring the police to arrest all such offenders, and gave notice that they would be punished with a fine of five hundred dollars, and thirty days in the chain-gang, with double the penalty for each repetition of the offence. Next day there was not a black gown or shovel-hat to be seen in the streets of Guanajuato: and this was the city in which the Church condemned the Padre Hidalgo to death.

Education is by no means neglected or despised by the people of Guanajuato at this time. While there, we attended the annual examination and distribution of prizes at the State College. Governor Antillon presided and distributed the premiums. The College has nearly three hundred students, and is, partly, self-sustaining. It appears to be well managed, and a model institution in its way. The graduating class, with few exceptions, were in full dress black suits, with white kid gloves; but I noticed with not a little pleasure, that some of the highest prizes were carried off by young men of almost unmixed Indian blood, in clean but coarse leather pantaloons and roundabout jackets, who were, apparently, treated with as much consideration by the faculty and their fellow-students as any one there. There was an abundance of exceedingly fine operatic music, some superior declamations, and when all the prizes, consisting of elegantly bound books of practical value—not merely


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/201

Rh parlor ornaments—and diplomas had been distributed, the hall, which was beautifully decorated, was cleared and an array of brilliant loveliness, such as I have seldom if ever seen elsewhere, was soon mingling with the student-throng in the mazy dances of this land of music and of flowers. As we were to leave for Celaya at 4 o'clock next morning, I was reluctantly compelled to leave the ball-room and return home to get some sleep, and so missed the conclusion of the festivities.

The reduction works, or beneficiating haciendas of Guanajuato and Marfil are worthy of especial attention. One of the best establishments of this character in the district, that of Mr. Parkman—an American long resident in Mexico—was visited by our party who spent some hours in inspecting it. The "mill" or crushing apparatus, is run partly by steam, and partly by water power. It is rude and primitive to the last degree. The stamps work on wooden shafts, and the quartz must be constantly shoveled under them by hand, as there is no provision for self-feeding as with us. There are twenty-nine arastras worked by mule-power to reduce the crushed quartz to pulp. All the rock is "dry crushed," and the process is slow and clumsy in the extreme. But the "amalgamation," as we term it, or "beneficiating," as it is termed here, is the most interesting part of the work. We finish the whole operation in a day, but lose on an average twenty-five to forty per cent, of the silver. In White Pine, where the ores are chlorides and oxides, they lose only four to eight per cent—or a little less than is lost here. The cost of fuel is eight dollars per cord, and steam machinery could be run—if it were not for the difficulty of making repairs—for less than it costs in Washoe, as labor


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/202

196 is cheaper; but in beneficiating they would probably lose as much as they saved on the crushing, if the American system of reduction and amalgamation was fully adopted here.

Mr. Parkman's tortas are an improvement. He has seven of them, each sixty feet in diameter, and holding one hundred and twelve tons of pulp. The mules—only two in number—travel around the outside, and draw a shaft which works on a pinion in the center, on which there is a pair of heavy wagon wheels, which, by an adjustable scale, are made to run in a smaller or larger circle, thus working over all the pulp in time. As the pulp works outward toward the side of the torta, it is shoveled back towards the center, by hand, and is thus well mixed. The time required in beneficiating is twenty-five days in Mr. Parkman's hacienda, and the work is always well done. The ore is not of a very refractory character, being mainly pure black and bronze sulphites, and the patio process appears to save more of the silver than any other. I am told that there are occasionally small deposits of chlorides found here, but that by the patio process none of it is saved.

The great mine of San José de Valenciano, which is said to have produced in its day eight hundred million dollars, was not visited by Mr. Seward, but I had the good fortune to see it.

This mine is situated on the mountain, high above the city on the North-east, and occupies a large and rich portion of the Veta Madre or "Mother Vein," of Guanajuato. It was discovered immediately after the conquest by the Spaniards, and for many years was a wonder of wonders. For forty years in succession it


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/203

Rh was " in bonanza" paying enormous dividends to its owners; and when Humboldt visited it, he estimated that it then produced one-fifth of all the silver in the world. It passed after his time into the hands of the "Anglo Mexican Company," which commenced with a capital of five million pounds sterling, (say $25,000,000 in American coin,) with a board of directors sitting in London, who sent out officers of the army and navy who had never seen a mine in their lives, to superintend its workings at fabulous salaries, erected an immense engine, and run it at constant disadvantage and loss; and finally, after sinking in this and other mines, nearly their original capital, learned wisdom from experience, and changed the programme. They employed a competent director, Mr. Charles Furber, working some other mines here at a profit, and in time their stock would have been once more in demand, but a fearful tragedy which I shall presently relate, put an end to all operations again, for a time, at least.

Accompanied by Messrs. Anthony Burgess, Thomas Abrams, Frederick Meyer, Smith, and Dr. Harris, all American residents, who with Governor Antillon, and Alfred Jeanotat had been unceasing in their attentions to us, I started out to visit this famous mine at day-break, Thursday, November 4th. Mounted on the beautifully fleet and easy riding horses of the country—which have an artificial gait, trotting with the hind legs and galloping with the fore legs at the same time—with revolvers at our waists, and swords hung at the pommel of the saddle and run through under the stirrup-strap so as to be held under the left knee of the rider—when will our American cavalry learn this neat trick and dispense with the knocking and rattling


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/59

 VII.

hundred and eighteen miles from Albany one comes across a settlement which is not only the sample one on the West Australian Land Company's concession, but is destined, it is to be hoped, to be the model for many such another all over South-western Western Australia. Katanning is not only the central station of the Great Southern line, but it is the centre of what bids fair to be in the near future a splendid agricultural district, supplying any amount of corn for conversion into flour at the newly erected roller mills, which are the boast and pride of the township. Without being over-sanguine, one may assert that this district in the course of a few years will do great things towards reducing and, in fact, altogether obliterating that humiliating import of £150,000 worth of rural produce which stands recorded against the colony in its truth-telling statistics. It is not to be supposed that everything in this district is virgin in the shape of agriculture. On the contrary, some of the oldest farmholds in the colony are situated in this vicinity, and I should be accused of exaggeration if I were to put down precisely as I was told them the yields of wheat per acre which the settlers hereabout have drawn year after year, for a score of years past, from lands wholly innocent of manure and only rarely recuperated by fallowing. Twenty-three miles to the westward of Katanning is the old settlement of Kojinup, on the now little-used main road from Albany to Perth. Here, too, are a number of settlers to whom the innovations of the Land Company and the rapid rise of Katanning can be little less than revolutionary. As yet, of course,


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/204

198 sabres hung at the belt and always a nuisance?—we started off, at sunrise, up the winding streets and alleys, and over the rugged hillsides to the mine and town around it.

At the crossing of a deep, dry arroyo we crossed over a bridge, which bore an inscription, "For more than three centuries the people of Guanajuato crossed here without a bridge. Behold progress!" In another part of our journey we passed a bridge on which there was this inscription: "This bridge was built here, etc., etc.;" as it is of solid stone, I don't wonder at its having been built there instead of having been built somewhere else, and sent there ready made by express.

An immense church with an elaborately carved and sculptured front, worn and defaced by the storms and convulsions of centuries, but still with unshaken walls of massive stone, stands in the center of a town, which must once have contained from ten to twenty thousand people, all dependent on the working of the great Valenciano mine. The church is unfrequented, save by a few squalid and destitute devotees; the town is in ruins; and desolation reigns sole mistress of the scene. We galloped through the deserted streets, and entered the gate-way of the enclosure out of which have been borne, in times past, enough mule-loads of treasure to sink the largest ship now afloat on the seas. Little boys received our horses, and walked them up and down, while we went through the vast enclosures, where men and animals by thousands, once toiled and suffered, but where now the grass grows and silence reigns.

The extent of these works above ground cannot be adequately described. They cover acres on acres of


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/205

Rh ground, and cost millions of dollars. All around, you see walls from three to eight feet in thickness and solid as the rocks of the mountains, radiating in every direction. There are many shafts sunk deep into the bowels of the earth, each with its separate enclosure and outworks, and the chambers and drifts underground, now filled with water, measure miles in extent. At the main shaft the works resemble a vast fortress, and are on a scale of extent unprecedented in the history of mining in America. The mule-yard surrounded by a high wall, with mangers of cut stone running all around it, must contain, at least, three or four acres of ground, and all the other enclosures and out-buildings are on a proportionate scale.

The extent of the works under ground cannot be seen at this time, as they are filled with water; but it is affirmed by engineers, that the galleries, chambers, and drifts, are longer in the aggregate than all the streets of the city of Guanajuato, and incredible as the statement looks it is probably correct. We went to the mouth of the "tiro general" or great perpendicular shaft, out of which so many millions of tons of ore have been hoisted in years gone by, and laying down upon our faces, looked into the yawning depths below. This shaft is the largest on the American Continent, and nothing in the mining line to be seen in the United States, will bear a comparison with it. It is 687 varas deep,—say 1939 1-4 feet of our measurement—thirty-six feet wide, and eight-sided. The walls of this shaft are exactly perpendicular, and for the protection of the work, men below, laid up in cement, as smooth as the ceiling of an ordinary dwelling-house in the United States. The water now comes up to within 125 varas or about 344 feet of the surface of the ground.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/206

200 We dropped stones into the abyss, and when they struck the water the report and echoes which followed, lasted fifteen seconds, and were perfectly deafening. We then fired a pistol down the tiro, and the report which came back to us was like that of a twenty-four pounder cannon, causing our ears to ring for hours thereafter.

The enclosure around the great tiro is circular and of immense extent. Radiating from the tiro to the outer wall, like the sections of an opened fan, are eight subenclosures corresponding to the eight sides of the tiro: in each of these enclosures stood, formerly, a great upright drum wheel, or winze, called a malacate, on which were the cables which hauled up and let down the buckets filled with water and ore, or men and supplies. The rope was always winding up on one end and down on the other end of the malacate when it was in motion. These eight great malacates were all worked by mule power for centuries, but the English company introduced an immense hoisting engine to do the work. The engine was found to require more feed than the mules, and so was put out of use and the mules substituted again. There is another, but smaller tiro lower down the hill. Humboldt estimated that it would require a tunnel seven or eight miles in length to drain this immense mine; but it seems to me that a much shorter one would do the work effectually; and the chance of striking "feeders" or "blind veins" of ore in the course of the work sufficient to pay the whole or a considerable portion of the cost of its construction, would, apparently, justify the adoption of the plan, by a company having an adequate capital. As the mine now stands, it is estimated, that it would require two


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/207

Rh million dollars, in coin, to put the requisite machinery on the ground, drain the mine by pumping, and commence work. It is generally believed that countless millions of treasure yet remain in this mine, and will some day be exhausted.

In the chapel near the tiro, we saw the votive offerings and pictures presented by grateful miners in commemoration of some miraculous escape from death. One of these was a rude painting representing a miner falling into the great tiro, and being miraculously caught and stayed in mid-air by the Virgin, as he pronounced her name. If any man will convince me that a human being ever fell into that shaft, and escaped with a whole bone in his body, I will swallow all the stories you may tell me about ancient and modern miracles henceforth, without a doubt or question. We saw a number of men sorting over and sifting a great pile of waste ores, the accumulation of years, and this was all the work going on at this great mine when we were there. On every wall, and over every gate-way was the sign of the cross, and ruin and desolation overshadowed all.

Near the church we saw a cross, erected on the spot where a man was waylaid and murdered by bandits only a few months before. Near this, and on the direct road to Guanajuato, a priest was stopped only a short time before our visit, "put up" and "gone through," by the bandits who took every dollar he had, kicked him, and told him to travel. After they had let him go he felt in his pockets, and finding a rial which they had overlooked, called them back, and with a grim humor said to them, "Here my poor friends, there is still 12 1-2 cents coming to you!" They took the money,


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/60

 is a mere nucleus of the town that is to be. The weather board store, hotel, school, and blacksmith's shop are of the regulation pattern of the "bush township," with all the present crudeness and future potentialities of the type. Despite its go-aheadism, too, I noticed on the hotel verandah a more perfect specimen of the torpid young rustic than, I dare be bound, could be produced in the most antiquated Sleepy Hollow in Old England, for when the Australian, especially the young Australian, does "loaf" he "loafs" with a vengeance. Nowhere is this sample of bush humanity to be seen to more advantage than at a roadside railway station, where, if anything so objectless could be credited with an object, he is trying to put himself forward as the antipodes of all that the train advent typifies in the way of movement and progress.

If anything could justify the land grant railway system from the attacks of its opponents the progress made by Katanning in the less than two years of its existence ought to do it; and though at present it is the high-water mark of what has been achieved in this line in Western Australia, there is no reason why Katannings should not be indefinitely multiplied along the course, not only of the Great Southern and Midland Railways, but of the various lines which the Government is on the eve of constructing. The Company have been lucky in securing coadjutors such as the Messrs. Piesse (relatives of the famous Bond street scent manufacturer of that name), who have started a store, ironfoundry, and roller mills in the infant township, the result being that, with the railway facilities afforded for transport to the port of Albany, the conditions of settlement have been revolutionised throughout the district, which boasts a large area of good red loamy soil, previously very imperfectly tilled and persistently over-cropped. Mr. F. C. Piesse, the Member for the district, is a firm believer in the desirability of some scheme of colonisation being adopted on the lines I have suggested, but which will have to be worked out by experts. Could a score or so of colonists of the same type as this gentleman and his brother be scattered about the colony at suitable intervals, and be backed up by a suitable immigration, there would not be much doubt as to its future prosperity. The fact that the


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/208

202 and kicked him again for joking under such serious circumstances.

I have alluded to the new Superintendent of the English Company, Mr. John Furber, who was in charge of these works when we were there. He was a fine, intelligent young man, for whom we all conceived a great liking. A long and useful life appeared to be before him. On Sunday, the 19th of December, a month after we saw him he left his brother's house at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by a servant, to return to his residence at Marfil, distant about a league. After passing the Cerro Trozado, he was attacked a little in advance of the junction of the old and new roads to Marfil, by four men on horseback, supposed to have been plagiaros, belonging to the band of the notorious Juan Duran. A struggle took place in which Mr. Furber was wounded by a pistol-shot in the stomach, after which he was carried off, along with the servant (who was blindfolded) in the direction of the hacienda of Burburron, and, after many turnings and windings, the party crossed the high road to Siloa, (not many miles from where we saw the supposed robbers being chased by the soldiers,) and the river Santa Anna, and entered on the territory of the hacienda of Santa Teresa. At this place the unfortunate gentleman was hung up to a tree, whether dead or alive will probably never be known, and the servant, after having been stripped, was set at liberty and returned to his late master's residence with the news of his murder.

The authorities at once dispatched a party to bring in the body, which was found suspended to a tree without coat or waistcoat, with a paper affixed to the braces, on which was written in ink, the following: "This has


text:
Page:Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes.djvu/70

52


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/209

Rh befallen me because I did not give five thousand dollars."

In justice to the "gentleman of the road" in Mexico, I must say that as a rule they are the most polite people on earth, and even in taking a man's money and watch, do it with a certain courtesy and grace that makes the operation comparatively easy to bear on the part of the victim. They always apologize for the act, regretting that necessity compels them to do it, and in parting with the traveler, devoutly commend him to the protecting care of Divine Providence. When not too sharply pressed by the Government, the different gangs in any one state usually have a sort of business connection, and, if you desire it, the leader of the first band into whose hands you fall will very courteously, write out a pass for you to take along to save you from further molestation. I have one of these passes in my possession. It was given by the leader of a band in the State of Guerraro, to a friend of mine, who was " put up " in the most approved manner. He went through the party in the highest style of the art; and then, sitting on his horse, wrote with a pencil on a slip of paper, on the pommel of his saddle, a pass as follows:

"Dear Gomez: This party has been done according to our regulations. Please let them pass without molestation. Manuel."

The gentleman who received the pass then said:

"But, my dear sir, you have not left me a dollar to buy meals on the road!"

The brigand replied, "Pardon Señor? How much do you require?"

"Well, about five dollars will take me to Acapulco, I think!" said my friend.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/210

204 The brigand chieftain, thereupon, not only gave him back that amount but added to it a nice porte-monnaie which he had just taken, with others of the same sort, from a German peddler, saying that he would find it useful to prevent his losing the small change out of his pocket while sleeping at night. He then told the party that near a certain barranca they would be stopped by the band who had control of that end of the road, to the leader of which this pass was directed. In due time they met the other band, presented the pass, and not only were allowed to proceed without molestation, but were actually furnished with a fresh horse to replace a lame one which had given out on the road, no "boot" being demanded. It is true that the horse, probably, did not cost the bandits anything, and they could afford to be liberal; still, it was an act of courtesy on their part, for which the party felt duly grateful. I have a prejudice against being robbed by anybody, but if I must be robbed, let it be by a Mexican robber, by all means.

The business of kidnaping or carrying off travelers into the mountains and holding them for ransom, and murdering them if the amount demanded is not forthcoming, now so active in Mexico, is of modern origin and a foreign innovation. A few years since the Mexican Government paid a large sum for the importation of an Italian Colony of two hundred men, who were to introduce the culture of silk, and stimulate industry in many branches new to Mexico. These two hundred Italians each brought a hand-organ with them, and took to the business of grinding out "mooshic" on the streets, at once. When that lead was worked out they took to other occupations. Some of them had formerly been


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/211

Rh in the brigand business in their dear, native land; and finding, much to their astonishment, that the trick of kidnaping or plagiaring had not been brought into general practice in Mexico, proceeded to introduce it in all its purity at once. They soon made the roads of Mexico as unsafe as those of any part of Italy; and by the practice of frugality and economy, and strict attention to business, were in a little time enabled to sell out their "stock and good will" to native artists, who now carry on the trade in all its branches at the old stands. The penalty for carrying on this business is death by shooting, and the Juarez Administration, whenever it is backed up with a will by the local authorities, execute it with a relentless vigor which promises to end the practice, or depopulate the country in the end. This is the popular version of the origin of the practice of plagiaring, but I cannot vouch for its being correct in all its details. It is quite certain however that it is not a native institution, and it is a fact, that all the bands engaged in it have more or less of the natives of Southern Europe among them as leading spirits. Of the remnants of Maximilian's army, dispersed widely through the land, there are very few of any nationality, now engaged in an honest occupation. Some are plain robbers on the highway; some merely petty thieves in the cities; and many are plagiaros. Those not in either of the above branches of trade are quite likely to be in sympathy with, if not actually engaged in the various pronunciamentos. There are a few Turcos, some Frenchmen, and now and then a Belgian or Austrian, once soldiers, following some honest trade, and unmolested and respected in the principal cities; but the bulk of the foreign mercenaries brought over by Maximilian, were thieves and ex-convicts in


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/212

206 their own land, and it is not surprising that they fall back into their old occupation, when set free in a new country. The road from Manzanillo to Mexico, via Colima, Guadalajara, Guanajuato and Queretaro, is but little traveled by foreigners visiting the country, and the few who do go over it, generally carry no valuables and ride in the stage, trusting to luck to get through without being robbed, or in any event losing but little. The rural guards keep the road in tolerable safety for the diligencias, and by law the owners of property in the immediate vicinity of a point where a robbery has been committed are pecuniarily responsible to the victims for damages, though few suits of recovery are brought, I imagine. On the road from Acapulco to the the city of Mexico, travelers always secure a guard of six to twenty macheteros and usually pass through the worst districts in safety.

On our return to the city, we passed within sight of the second great mine of the district of Guanajuato, "El Reyes," situated, like the Valenciano, on a hill, with a large town around it, but we did not have time to visit it.

After dinner we went to the Serrano mine, which is being worked at a profit at this time. This is situated in the hill below the Buffa at the upper end of the city. Five hundred men, women, and children are employed at this mine, getting out the ore, breaking it up, and sorting, it. The men generally work in small gangs for a share of the sales of the ore they take out. The amount of silver mined weekly is about five thousand dollars, and the expenses one thousand dollars, leaving a net profit of four thousand dollars.

The great tiro is about 950 feet, in depth.


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/61

 colony has produced men like the Piesses effectually gives the lie to the idea too common amongst a certain class of the old residents that no good thing can come out of Western Australia, either in the shape of men or material.

The next three stations and town-sites combined on the Great Southern line are Wagin, 148 miles, Narrogin, 180 miles, and Pingelly, 211 miles from Albany. Of these embryo townships no more need be said than that they are centres of a fine agricultural and wheat-growing country, as much as thirty bushels of wheat to the acre having been taken off a small farm at Pingelly.

Another thirty miles of easy travelling through similar country brings the passenger to Beverley, to which I have already alluded as the junction of the Great Southern and Government Railway lines. Here passengers between Perth and Albany are compelled to pass the night in rough bush quarters, both going and returning—a primitive arrangement which might suit the old slow pace in Western Australia, but is hardly in keeping with the go-ahead notions now coming into vogue. It may be added, for the information of would-be settlers, that the rainfall on the Company's territory averages thirty-six inches at Albany, diminishing to seventeen inches at Beverley. So regular is the supply of moisture, and so reliable the climate, that from eighteen to twenty bushels of wheat to the acre can be reliably counted on. It is needless, however, to multiply details, but I think I have said enough to put those in the old country who desire a change of condition on inquiry. The curtain has at length been lifted on this long-buried Land of Promise, and those who have the pluck to throw in their lot with the renascence of Western Australia may, I honestly think, do so with the reasonable hope of reaping the harvest of a steadily rising tide in its development and prosperity. Every day brings news of fresh discoveries of the precious metal, and if even the greater number of the fields prove failures, sufficient permanent finds are likely to eventuate to furnish fresh consuming centres for even the largest accession of producers which the coming years are likely to witness in Western Australia.


text: Chronological Table and Index of the Statutes/Chronological Table/Eliz


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/213

Rh A horizontal tunnel penetrates the hill from a level with the hacienda, cutting the tiro or perpendicular shaft at four hundred feet from the surface. This tunnel may be about fifteen hundred feet in length. A railroad track runs through it, and lying down in the cars we were carried in to the edge of the tiro. This tiro is thirty feet in diameter, and six-sided, laid up in cement like that at the Valenciano. The necessity for this is seen in the fact that a rock, weighing many tons, was displaced from a station near the bottom of the shaft, a few days previous to our visit, and falling upon the miners beneath, killed and maimed a large number of them.

Standing here, four hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and six hundred feet above the bottom of the shaft, with a patch of pale blue sky far above us, and inky darkness almost palpable to the touch around us and filling all the depths below, we witnessed the most wonderful scene on which we gazed in Mexico, Men were sent up to the top of the tiro at the surface of the ground, and told to discharge rockets down it. This they did; and the hissing and explosions of the fiery messengers caused the most deafening echoes and re-echoes, while the sides of the shaft, dripping with ooze and slime, were revealed with startling distinctness by the momentary glare.

But this was nothing to what followed: balls of the fibre of the maguey or aloe plant, three feet in diameter and steeped in pine pitch, or resin, were swung out over the mouth of the shaft and set on fire. When the first was in full blaze it was detached and allowed to fall into the abyss. Like a great comet, with body of molten metal and long tail of flame, rushing on a doomed


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/214

208 planet, the monster projectile came down from the dizzy height above us, and passing the mouth of the tunnel in which we stood, with a roar more deafening than the loudest thunder, went bounding and crashing into the depths below, illuminating everything for a moment with its blinding, lurid glare, followed by a darkness and silence more profound than before. As soon as the tremendous echoes which were awakened by the first had died away, a second was sent down, and others followed in quick succession.

Most of our party were unable to control their nerves sufficiently to enable them to approach the edge, and look up and down the tiro, holding by ropes to prevent them from becoming dizzy, and falling headlong into the depths; but those who could do so, beheld a scene, the awful sublimity and grandeur of which beggars all the powers of language.

The remainder of the party now left, and I, in company with the superintendent, clothing myself in a miner's suit to keep off the water and mud, descended to the bottom of the mine, one thousand feet and more from the surface. We went down ladder after ladder, along gallery after gallery, through chambers like great churches in size, and others in which we could not stand erect, down steps cut in the rock and so slippery, with dripping water and soft clay, as to compel us to use an iron-shod staff to support ourselves, and through many a winding turning, until we stood at the bottom of the tiro, wet through with perspiration, and trembling with exhaustion.

At the bottom of the tiro is a great pond of water, the reservoir into which all the drainings of the mine are gathered, and the buckets on the great cables


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/62

 VIII.

may be interesting to the would-be settler to know that an abundant supply of stone suitable for building can be obtained almost throughout the whole of the West Australian Land Company's concession, whilst timber for building, fencing, and firewood is very plentiful. As regards climate, the south-western portion of Western Australia is believed to be one of the healthiest countries in the world, not subject to excessive heat or cold, but temperate and healthful. Water is readily secured by tanks and dams, and sufficient rain falls during the winter to last the summer through when stored. In most parts water can also be obtained at a depth of from 10 to 25 feet, and in districts where ring-barking has been carried out not only does grass grow in profusion, but springs frequently make their appearance. As the Company point out in one of their prospectuses—

To quote from the same source—

"The vine grows anywhere well between latitudes 29° and 34°, and the Company has a large extent of land suited for the various kinds of grape


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/215

Rh worked by the Malacates at the surface, were constantly coming and going between it and the end of the tunnel, six hundred feet above. These buckets will hold three to four hogsheads of water, and are made of raw-hide in the form of an ordinary Mexican water-jar. An iron ring distends the mouth of the bucket, and when the vessel descends, the wet hide flattening down allows the water to rush in, and as the lifting commences, it falls back into its original form, filled to the brim with the dirty fluid. When the bucket reaches the level of the tunnel, it is hauled into the opening, and as the cable is slackened up it flattens down again, and the water escaping over the rim, runs off down the side of the tunnel.

But there are still lower depths. We went down nearly two hundred feet more, and at the bottom of the last level found men at work taking out ore. The dripping of the water at this point is very considerable, and two plans are made use of to get rid of it. A part of the water is carried up to the reservoir, in pig-skins, on the backs of naked and sweating Indians; and a part—the larger part—is pumped up to that point by hand. The pumps are mere straight logs, thirty feet long, with a bore of three inches, and a piston and bucket, pulled and pushed back and forth by two stalwart Indians, sitting on either side, working by main strength without even a lever purchase to help them along. There are stations or reservoirs at the end of each pump, and all must be kept going continually night and day. The Indian pumpers sit down to their work upon the wet rock, and are as naked as when born; the great heat and want of ventilation, at this depth, rendering clothing, if they had it, a superfluity. They get fifty cents each per day, and work twelve


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/216

210 hours at a shift. In all my mining experience, I have never seen such a waste of power and such thoroughly primitive appliances for mining.

I went through many of the galleries and drifts, and examined the vein carefully. The main vein is five to twelve feet wide, quite irregular, and runs in a generally south-western and north-eastern direction, dipping to the south-westward as it descends. It carries metal in a very unequal degree, in different portions, and though presenting rich specimens and bunches of almost pure silver in spots, is not generally very rich.

In one chamber I saw a number of mules and horses feeding a thousand feet below the surface.

These poor creatures are let down in slings from the surface, through the tiro, and never go out again alive.

They turned their glazing eyes upon us, with evident pain, as we passed with lighted torches, and appeared to regard us with mournful interest, as in some way connected with the world above,


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/217

Rh of which they still retained some dim recollection, but which they were never to look upon again. In another chamber I saw women and children cooking food for their husbands and parents; they appeared to live here altogether, probably returning to the light of day only at long intervals. Utterly worn out, at last, we climbed our way back to the tunnel, emerging into daylight just as the sun was setting, swallowed a liberal allowance of brandy to protect ourselves against taking cold, mounted our horses and galloped back to the city.

The weekly sale of ores at the several mines is called the "rescata". One at the Serrano I attended. The ore is placed on the ground, each miner's work in a separate lot, and the buyers sample it before the sale. It is sold in the lump, by guess, not by weight, the buyer taking his chances on the amount. The auctioneer stands silent, under an umbrella, while the miners who have a small interest in the sales over and above their wages, volubly shout the praises of the lot in turn. As each lot is put up, the buyers, singly, whisper their bids in the ear of the auctioneer, and when all have bid, he announces who bid the highest; the other bids are not named. The chance for collusion seem to me to be very great. Some lots brought as high as five hundred dollars, and the aggregate sales exceeded six thousand five hundred dollars, at this rescata. This ended our sight-seeing in Guanajuato.


text:
Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/218

E left Guanajuato at 4, Monday, Nov. 8th, without a guard, and preceeded by postilions running on foot, and carrying torches, drove at a gallop down the long arroyo, between the fortress-like haciendas of the suburbs and Marfil, and out into the open country below the mountains. When day-break came we were crossing a broad "sand-river," near a little town. Many women were carrying water in jars upon their shoulders from shallow wells scooped out of the sand in the bed of the stream, which is not a stream at all, save during the floods of the rainy season.

We had the choice of the "Empressa General de Diligencias" teams at every station, and as the road was excellent went along at a glorious pace. This was the best part of Mexico, which we had yet seen. The plain is broad and extremely fertile, and generally pretty well cultivated. We saw many fields of corn which would be called No. 1, and something over, in Illinois, and broad belts of wheat already well up and brilliantly green. The farms or ranches are of immense size, separated only by pillars of masonry, some fifteen feet in height, to mark the boundaries, and each hacienda or head farm-house is a fortress in itself, surrounded by a small village, occupied by the former peons, but now enfranchised laborers.


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/271

1535.] the return of a petty jury the following day. The prisoners were taken back to the Tower, and the next morning were brought again to the bar. Feron and Hale, the two priests whose conversation had been overheard at Sion, were placed on their trial at the same time. The two latter threw themselves on the mercy of the court. A verdict of guilty was returned against the other four. The sentence was for the usual punishment of high treason. Feron was pardoned; I do not find on what account. Hale and the Carthusians were to suffer together. When Haughton heard the sentence, he merely said, 'This is the judgment of the world.'

An interval of five days was allowed after the trial. On the 4th of May, the execution took place at Tyburn, under circumstances which marked the occasion with peculiar meaning. The punishment in cases of high treason was very terrible. I need not dwell upon the form of it. The English were a hard, fierce people; and with these poor sufferers the law of


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/272

252 the land took its course without alleviation or interference. But another feature distinguished the present execution. For the first time in English history, ecclesiastics were brought out to suffer in their habits, without undergoing the previous ceremony of degradation. Thenceforward the world were to know, that as no sanctuary any more should protect traitors, so the sacred office should avail as little; and the hardest blow which it had yet received was thus dealt to superstition, shaking from its place in the minds of all men the key-stone of the whole system.

To the last moment escape was left open, if the prisoners would submit. Several members of the council attended them to the closing scene, for a final effort of kindness; but they had chosen their course, and were not to be moved from it. Haughton, as first in rank, had the privilege of first dying. When on the scaffold, in compliance with the usual custom, he spoke a few touching and simple words to the people. 'I call to witness Almighty God,' he said, 'and all good people, and I beseech you all here present to bear witness for me in the day of judgment, that being here to die, I declare that it is from no obstinate rebellious spirit that I do not obey the King, but because I fear to offend the Majesty of God. Our holy mother the Church has decreed otherwise than the King and the Parliament have decreed, and therefore, rather than disobey the Church, I am ready to suffer. Pray for me, and have mercy on my brethren, of whom I have been the unworthy prior.' He then knelt down, repeating the first few verses of


text: Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/11


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/63

 required for the white and red. wines, raisins, currants, &c. Vine culture is at present in its infancy. In 1888 only 891 acres were under cultivation, producing 135,888 gallons, or an average on the whole (including newly planted vineyards) of 152 gallons per acre. One grower writes that his are the 'Muscatel' variety, and his average yield is about eight tons of grapes and about 400 gallons to the acre. Another that his consist chiefly of the 'Burgundy' and 'Hermitage'; that he gets about three tons of grapes and 250 to 300 gallons per acre. Some day the manufacture of wine is destined to assume very large proportions, as the climate and soil are specially suited to its production, and it is notorious that West Australian grapes are finer and better than those grown elsewhere. The olive grows luxuriantly in the same districts, and olive oil will no doubt form an important item of export. Sheep, horses, and cattle thrive well throughout the colony, India providing a ready market for any number of good horses fit for military purposes. The export of wool is increasing rapidly. In 1881 4,107,038 pounds were exported, whilst in 1888 it had reached 8,475,240 pounds, and it is a fact that West Australian wool fetches a very high price in the European markets. A great deal of misapprehension has been raised in the other colonies against Western Australia on account of the poison plant growing in certain districts. The lands selected by the Company are to a very great extent free, but where it does exist it can be easily and cheaply eradicated, in proof of which a large employer of labour recently offered to clear the Company's land at sixpence per acre. Western Australia is celebrated for its valuable timber forests, the most useful being jarrah, karri, York gum, yate, sandalwood, and jam tree. In the Company's selections several ranges of extensive forests have been included, and the timber will form a valuable article of commerce. The area of the colony is so great and the population so small that practically very little is known as to its mineral resources, but rich gold discoveries are continually being made, showing that this colony is likely to prove as rich in reef gold as Victoria, thus bearing out the opinion of Sir R. Murchison that Western Australia would prove to be very rich in precious metals. Tin, lead, and copper have also been found of great richness, and coal has been discovered in various parts of the colony. In the Company's selection of land are included some ranges in which there is every indication of valuable mineral properties, including tin and gold, offering great inducements to prospectors and others. The Government of Western Australia allows immigrants to introduce to the colony, free of duty, tools and instruments of trade to the extent of £10 value for each statute adult."

Having generally described the quality and situation of the West Australian Land Company's lands, it only remains to say that the terms on which allotments, varying in size, may be acquired by would-be settlers, are fully set out in Appendix G.

The casual visitor may get a good general idea of the country through merely driving or riding through it, but when he comes to the responsible task of advising others he is glad to have his opinion supplemented by the pronouncements of expert


text:
Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/71

Rh

The object of this railway is to open more beneficially the very extensive collieries and stone quarries which abound on the line, at Coal Pit Heath, and other places in the parishes of Westerleigh, Pucklechurch, and Mangotsfield.

The coal brought down this railway to the River Avon, will find its way, by the Kennet and Avon and the Wilts and Berks Canals, through the counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, and even down the Thames to Reading, Maidenhead and Windsor.

The River Axe has its rise about a mile west of the city of Wells, in Somersetshire, whence, running westward by Wookey, and across the level of Cluer, to the village of Lower Weare, two miles west of Axbridge, and thence by Loxton and Bleadon to Uphill, it falls into the Bristol Channel in Uphill Bay.

Previous to 1802, the Axe was a very indifferent navigation, as a tideway river, to the village of Lower Weare, situate on the high road leading from Bridgewater to Axbridge; but in consequence of the spring tides rising in the Bristol Channel to the height of 40 feet, and there being no locks or sluices on the course to check the advance of the tides, the low lands on its banks were


text:
Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/72

50 frequently overflowed and rendered useless for agricultural purposes. Application was therefore made to parliament for powers enabling the proprietors of lands to improve the drainage of the same, and to make the navigation more efficient; an act accordingly was obtained on the day above quoted, entitled,  'An Act for draining, preserving from Water, and improving, certain Low Lands and Grounds, lying within the several parishes, or chapelries, of Wookey, Westbury, Rodney-Stoke, Wedmore, Mear, Weare, Nyland, Badgworth, Biddisham, East Brent, South Brent, Cheddar, Axbridge, Compton Bishop, Loxton, Bleadon, Brean, Berrow, and Lympsham, all in the county of Somerset; and for altering and improving the Navigation of the River Axe, within the said parishes of Bleadon, Lympsham, Loxton, East Brent, Compton Bishop, Biddisham, Badgworth, Weare, and Axbridge, some or one of them, above and from a certain place called Southern Mead Bars, situate within the said parish of Bleadon.'  By this act, the execution of the works proposed, was entrusted to three commissioners, who were authorized to raise £15,000, on mortgage of the rates and assessments which they were empowered to collect, for the purposes of the act, from owners of lands that were benefited by the drainage; and for their trouble, in executing the trust, a salary of three guineas a-day each was also granted them. Their power extended to four years and six months beyond the time required for the execution of the works, and after that, the navigation and drainage were to be vested in the commissioners of sewers for the county of Somerset.

In the execution of the above works, the commissioners have shortened the navigation by making two cuts, one of which, near Loxton, is above a mile in length They have also constructed a lock, near Southern Mead Bars, which is the only one upon the river. The navigation, by this act, is free of toll. It extends to the village of Lower Weare, near Axbridge, and from its head, to its fall into the Bristol Channel, is nine miles in length.

The line of the proposed Bristol and Taunton Canal crosses this river, near the village of Loxton, and from whence, a branch was laid out to extend to Cheddar, but this part of that projected canal, together with the above-mentioned branch, is now abandoned.


text:
Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/73

Rh

railway commences from the Kipps, or Kippbyres Colliery Branch of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, one mile and a half west of the town of Airdrie, in Lanarkshire, and proceeding by Lea-end Colliery to the north of Airdrie, it passes by Stanrig to the march or division between east and west Arbuckle, in the parish of New Monkland, where the main line terminates. The whole length of the main line is four miles, with a rise, from the Kirkintilloch Railroad, of 352 feet, to Arbuckle. At one mile and three quarters from the west end of the railway there is a branch to Brownside and Blackrig Coal Pits, near the village of Clerkston, and called the Clerkston Branch, of one mile and a quarter in length. Also from the main line another branch called the Whiterig Branch, the length of which is three quarters of a mile. At a distance of nearly a mile from Kippbyres there is a self-acting inclined plane of more than three quarters of a mile in length, and upon the remaining part of this railway the inclinations are such that locomotive machines may be employed very advantageously. The total length of the main line and branches is a little more than six miles. The original estimate was made by Mr. Thomas Grainger, civil engineer, in 1826, and amounted to £18,431, 19s.

The act for making this railway and branches is entitled,  'An Act for making a Railway from Arbuckle and BaUochney, in the parish, of New Monkland, in the county of Lanark, to or near the termination of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, at Kipps, or Kippbyres, also in the said parish of New Monkland and county of Lanark.'  The subscribers to this railway, at the time the act was obtained, consisted of fourteen persons, and were incorporated under the name and style of "The Ballochney Railway Company." They were empowered to raise by subscription £18,425, to be divided into seven hundred and thirty-seven shares of £25 each.

By section 32, the company were, in addition to the sum of


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/64

 authorities. The following is therefore taken from the report of Professor Brown, for many years head of the Ontario College of Agriculture, Canada, and now Principal of the Longerenong Agricultural College, Victoria:—

During the month of February, 1890, I had an opportunity of examining a considerable portion of the extensive lands that belong to your Company in West Australia, ranging all the way from Albany to Beverley, a distance of 243 miles. The first most noticeable fact is the judicious selections made by the company. In a country of such extent there is necessarily great variety in the character of the soil and herbage, and anyone familiar with these and the other things that go to make up the most suitable conditions for settlement cannot fail to recognise how well the selections have been chosen for your Company, so that without doubt you hold a great deal of the best of that district of the colony. I have ascertained from official sources and the evidence of several old settlers, as well as from personal observation, that the southern portion of your property possesses a climate of the most delightful character for residence and certain agricultural productions. An examination of the map will show how this is secured. As all the southern portion has a large water frontage in the proportion to the area of land thereby affected, with much timber, and a great variety of aspect by hills and valleys, there are some of the most favourable conditions for rainfall and its conservation. The average annual is about 40 inches, and is distributed over no less than 130 days, which, with the unusual fact, for Australia, that the thermometer seldom gets over 85°, and never under 35° in the shade, tells of a south of England climate. Further north it gradually increases to the ordinary seasons of this continent. A prominent feature of a great deal of the country is quantity and value of timber, with the other flora so characteristic of West Australia. The smaller herbage in some parts is not the most suitable for live stock, but in the more open lands and along the plains the natural grasses are increasing in quantity and value. But the question is not one of want of favourable conditions for the best pasture, but simply of nature having to be brought under in order to give it a chance. The karri and jarrah timbers occupy a place of high value upon your property, which, with the sandalwood, are already developing into great wealth. There are soils of all kinds, from the pure sand up to the brick-making clay, and a large proportion consists of that light clay loam so suitable for a variety of purposes. The conformation of the country into numerous hills and valleys gives in many cases a variety of soil in small area, and also affords abundance of water. There are several valuable fresh-water lakelets and creeks that never go dry all the seasons through. The natural drainage of the country is, therefore, of a decided kind, and will aid materially the reclamation and settlement of the valley soils that are made up principally of vegetable deposit with the sand. With such a geographical range, then, as you possess, the variety of soil and shelter, the water supply, sea coast resorts, together with abundance of timber and open valleys, there are attractions of the most substantial sort for settlement. Indeed, the question is one of 'What is it you want?' and not of 'What can I get?' Of course, as in all lands of great extent, there are poor soils and unfavourable conditions for settlement, but I have no hesitation in saying that these are not what regulate


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/65

 your extensive domains. It is evident, then, that any branch of farming and gardening can be entered upon under proper choice. On the sea coast and along the southern selections English grasses and green fodders will luxuriate, and thus induce to dairying as a leading pursuit, though there are also culinary crops and some fruits will be successfully cultivated. The international seaport of Albany cannot fail in drawing out the capabilities of that district. Mount Barker, with its more suitable soil and climate, will unquestionably look to the production of fruit; the Stirling Range is decidedly one best adapted to sheep raising; while those of Broomehill and Katanning are evidently for the cereals, and, indeed, if required, for any other thing in agriculture and gardening. The latter selections are of high value. I have pleasure in acknowledging that my examination of your property has entirely swept away my own preconceived views, and those of many others, of the possibilities of agriculture in Western Australia, for much ignorance still prevails about this new colony. Very little has yet been done to show that a great deal of it is one of the best portions of this continent."

I have entered at more length than would otherwise have been justified into the particulars of the West Australian Land Company's concession on the ground that what applies to their land applies equally to a considerable portion of the far greater area in the same locality which the Government retains in its own hands, and which is obtainable on the terms and conditions of which a summary is given in Chapter XII. of the present work. When the Government railway from Perth to Bunbury is completed there will be a second line running parallel with a great portion of the Great Southern Railway, and between it and the coast. The whole of the intervening country to the westward will thus be opened up and given optional access to the ports of Albany and Fremantle, to say nothing of Bunbury itself, which a reasonable expenditure would vastly improve as a harbour.

The Land Corporation of West Australia, too, which possesses a territory extending in blocks from south-west of Broome hill to north-east of Perth, has planned a connecting railway from Broomehill on the Great Southern line to Bunbury, which would afford additional facilities for the opening up of this fertile portion of the South-western District. It would also have the additional advantage of connecting it with what may, if the investigations now being conducted under the auspices of the Government eventuate in success, become a great coal field on the Collie river. It lies on the track between


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/66

 and Bunbury, and specimens of the coal taken from it have been favourably reported on by English experts. If the latter is proved to be obtainable in reliable quantity and quality the conditions of life in this portion of Western Australia would be revolutionized after a fashion which would petrify the old identities.

Amongst the pioneer land companies of Western Australia this Land Corporation of West Australia, Limited, occupies an important position. The Company was incorporated in 1885 under the Joint Stock Companies Acts, and is managed by a London board of directors, at No. 5, Copthall Buildings, London, E.C. The Company had the good fortune to obtain from the Government in 1885, under the old land regulations of 1878, leases for about 1,250,000 acres, situated on the main Perth-Albany road and in proximity to the Great Southern Railway on the east and the Perth-Bunbury Railway on the west. Under these regulations the terms to purchasers were made very easy with a view of inducing settlers to take up and work the land, leases being granted for twenty-one years, subject to the nominal rent of £1 per annum per thousand acres, and on the condition of the lessees erecting a fence round each block and eradicating the indigenous poison shrubs which grow more or less over the colony. The leases thus granted are known as "conditional freeholds," and are readily transferred on payment of some small charges. The Land Corporation had the advantage of being associated with Mr. Alexander Forrest and Mr. W. H. Angove, who certainly showed sound judgment in selecting the lands in the South-west District. The quantity of land surveyed and selected by the Corporation was more than 1,800,000 acres, but the Government, in view of the very favourable terms on which they would be alienating their good land, hurried the Act of 1887 through the Legislature, the time allowed for obtaining the freehold being thereby reduced from twenty-one years to three years, and refused to grant leases for about 600,000 acres, thus reducing the quantity to be acquired by the Land Corporation to about 1,250,000 acres. Now that the colony has its own Government, and so many buyers of land are coming


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/67

 in, the granting of further similar leases has been discontinued on any terms whatever. The directors of the Corporation have turned to account a considerable portion of their leases at prices which have enabled them to pay during the past two years large and regular dividends. The tenure of the land acquired by the Land Corporation of West Australia was granted by the Government of Western Australia in 1886 in one hundred and eleven separate and distinct leases, containing from 1,000 to 164,000 acres. Each lease is a separate contract in itself, and is readily transferred on payment of a small ad valorem duty and fee; so that the work of clearing and fencing can be carried out on any block without reference to any other part of the estate (see page 141).

The land acquired under each lease has been accurately surveyed and measured, the plan with every line marked being attached to each lease and signed by the Commissioner of Crown Lands. The boundary posts are easily found on the land and purchasers from the Company of their rights have no difficulty in identifying blocks and erecting their fences.

The Land Corporation have dealt with several sub-companies, of which the most important is the West Australian Pastoral and Colonisation Company, Limited, which was incorporated in November, 1890, in order to acquire certain lands from the Corporation, with a view to clearing and fencing, and acquiring the freehold title, and cutting up into farms suitable to meet the requirements of intending settlers. Their idea is to import settlers who will carry out the Government conditions as to the extirpation of the poison plant, &c., and who in return will receive long leaseholds at nominal rents.

As we travelled along the Great Southern Railway towards Beverley, I saw something, and heard more, respecting the vast jarrah forests of the south-western portion of the colony. As regards the character of the jarrah wood (Eucalyptus marginata), which seems the prince of Australian timbers, it is of straight growth, attaining 100 feet in height, and yielding solid timber 40 feet long by 2 feet square. In appearance it somewhat resembles mahogany, and, like that wood, is capable of a very high polish, and having enough figure to make it suitable for


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/68

 work. It is chiefly adapted for piles, sleepers, dock work, and shipbuilding, the peculiarity being its resistance to the teredo and white ant, so that copper sheathing in ship building is rendered unnecessary. It is classed at Lloyd's (for twelve years) in the third category of timber used for ship building purposes. It has recently been employed with success for street-paving purposes in London, and the surveyor of one of the great vestries writes thus regarding the respective qualities of jarrah and deal for that purpose:—"Jarrah is more expensive, and, therefore, a smaller area can be provided at the same cost, but is more uniform in texture and quality, which makes it wear with much more evenness than deal, as deal varies considerably even in the length of a plank, and is liable to wear into holes where soft or sappy. Jarrah will wear much longer, and, taking this into account, it will be found the more economical in the end, besides having the advantages of less scavenging and requiring little or no repairs. This, combined with infrequent renewal, causes considerably less inconvenience to the public."


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/69

 IX.

transferred ourselves to the Government railway train at Beverley, we proceeded northwards twenty miles to York, which is one of the titbits agriculturally of Western Australia. It is situated sixty miles east of Perth, and is seventy-eight miles distant by railway. I was unfortunate in arriving in the absence of Mr. J. H. Monger, whose pre-eminence in the district (he died a few months ago) was designated by his popular title of "The Duke of York." His place as a cicerone was, however, admirably supplied by Dr. O'Meehan, a magistrate, and the principal medico of the locality. The chocolate loam about York is marvellously rich, and the crops are phenomenal. These farming oases were especially interesting to me as evidencing what may be accomplished in the way of prosperous settlement when other portions of equally fertile territory are opened up by judicious railway extension.

It was hoped that the line to the Yilgarn gold-fields, which the Government are about to construct, would have branched off from York, but legislative wisdom has decided in favour of a starting-point at Northam, which will bring the fields considerably nearer to Fremantle, and will, I am confident, open up a valuable area of good country immediately eastward of Northam.

Northam is another agricultural centre, and is twenty-two miles from York and fifty-eight from the capital, with which it is connected by a railway branching off from the main Government, or eastern line, at Spencer's Brook. The soil of Northam


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/273

1535.] the 31st Psalm, and after a few moments delivered himself to the executioner. The others followed, undaunted. As one by one they went to their death, the council, at each fresh horrible spectacle, urged the survivors to have pity on themselves; but they urged them in vain. The faces of these men did not grow pale; their voices did not shake; they declared themselves liege subjects of the King, and obedient children of holy Church; 'giving God thanks that they were held worthy to suffer for the truth.' All died without a murmur. The stern work was ended with quartering the bodies; and the arm of Haughton was hung up as a bloody sign over the archway of the Charterhouse, to awe the remaining brothers into submission.

But the spirit of the old martyrs was in these friars. One of them, like the Theban sister, bore away the honoured relic and buried it; and all resolved to persist in their resigned opposition. Six weeks were allowed them to consider. At the end of that time three June 10. more were taken, tried, and hanged; and this still proving ineffectual, Cromwell hesitated to proceed.

The end of the story is very touching and may be


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/274

254 told briefly, that I may not have occasion to return to it. Maurice's account is probably exaggerated, and is written in a tone of strong emotion; but it has all the substantial features of truth. The remaining monks were left in the house; and two secular priests were sent to take charge of the establishment, who starved and ill-used them; and were themselves, according to Maurice, sensual and profligate. From time to time they were called before the privy council. Their friends and relatives were ordered to work upon them. No effort either of severity or kindness was spared to induce them to submit; as if their attitude, so long as it was maintained, was felt as a reproach by the Government. At last, four were carried down to Westminster Abbey, to hear the Bishop of Durham deliver his famous sermon against the Pope; and when this rhetorical inanity had also failed, and as they were thought to confirm one another in their obstinacy, they were dispersed among other houses the temper of which could be depended upon. Some were sent to the north; others to Sion, where a new prior had been appointed of zealous loyalty; others were left at home to be disciplined by the questionable seculars. But nothing answered. Two found their way into active rebellion, and being concerned in the Pilgrimage of Grace, were hung in chains at York. Ten were sent to Newgate, where nine died miserably of prison fever and filth; the tenth survivor was


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/275

1535.] . The remainder, of whom Maurice was one, went through a form of submission, with a mental reservation, and escaped abroad.

So fell the monks of the London Charterhouse, splintered to pieces—for so only could their resistance be overcome—by the iron sceptre and the iron hand which held it. They were, however, alone of their kind. There were many perhaps who wished to resemble them, who would have imitated their example had they dared. But all bent except these. If it had been otherwise, the Reformation would have been impossible, and perhaps it would not have been needed. Their story claims from us that sympathy which is the due of their exalted courage. But we cannot blame the Government. Those who know what the condition of the country really was, must feel their inability to suggest, with any tolerable reasonableness, what else could have been done. They may regret so hard a necessity, but they will regret in silence. The King, too, was not without feeling. It was no matter of indifference to him that he found himself driven to such stern courses with his subjects; and as the golden splendour of his manhood was thus suddenly clouding, 'he commanded all about his Court to poll their heads,'


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/276

256 in public token of mourning; 'and to give them example, he caused his own head to be polled; and from thenceforth his beard to be knotted, and to be no more shaven.'

The friars of Charterhouse suffered for the Catholic faith, as Protestants had suffered, and were still to suffer, for a faith fairer than theirs. In this same month of May, in the same year, the English annals contain another entry of no less sad significance. The bishops, as each day they parted further from their old allegiance, and were called in consequence by the hateful name of heretics, were increasingly anxious to prove by evident tokens their zeal for the true faith; and although the late act of heresy had moderated their powers, yet power enough remained to enable them to work their will upon all extreme offenders. Henry, also, it is likely, was not sorry of an opportunity of showing that his justice was even-handed, and that a schism from the Papacy was not a lapse into heterodoxy. His mind was moving. Latimer and Shaxton, who three years before had been on trial for their lives, were soon to be upon the bench; and in the late injunctions, the Bible, and not the decrees of the Church, had been held up as the canon of truth. But heresy, though the definition of it was changing, remained a crime; and although the limits of permitted belief were imperceptibly enlarging, to transgress the recognized boundaries was an offence enormous as ever.


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/277

1535.] If we can conceive the temper with which the reasonable and practical English at present regard the Socialists of the continent, deepened by an intensity of conviction, of which these later ages have had but little experience, we can then imagine the light in which the Anabaptists of the Netherlands appeared in the eyes of orthodox Europe. If some opinions, once thought heretical, were regarded with less agitated repugnance, the heresy of these enemies of mankind was patent to the world. On them the laws of the country might take their natural course, and no voice was raised to speak for them.

We find, therefore, in Stow's Chronicle, the following brief entry: 'The five and twentieth day of May were, in St Paul's church, London, examined nineteen men and six women, born in Holland, whose opinions were—first, that in Christ is not two natures, God and man; secondly, that Christ took neither flesh nor blood of the Virgin Mary; thirdly, that children born of infidels may be saved; fourthly, that; baptism of children is of none effect; fifthly, that the sacrament of Christ's body is but bread only; sixthly, that he who after baptism sinneth wittingly, sinneth deadly, and cannot be saved. Fourteen of them were condemned: a man and a woman were burnt at Smithfield. The remaining twelve were scattered among other towns, there to be burnt.' The details are gone —the


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/278

258 names are gone. Poor Hollanders they were, and that is all. Scarcely the fact seemed worth the mention, so shortly it is told in a passing paragraph. For them no Europe was agitated, no Courts were ordered into mourning, no Papal hearts trembled with indignation. At their deaths the world looked on complacent, indifferent, or exulting. Yet here, too, out of twenty-five common men and women were found fourteen who, by no terror of stake or torture, could be tempted to say that they believed what they did not believe. History for them has no word of praise; yet they, too, were not giving their blood in vain. Their lives might have been as useless as the lives of most of us. In their deaths they assisted to pay the purchase-money for England's freedom.

After the execution of the Carthusians, it became a question what should be done with the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More. They had remained for a year in the Tower, undisturbed; and there is no reason to think that they would have been further troubled, except for the fault of one, if not of both. It appeared, however, on the trial of Father Reynolds, that Fisher's


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/279

1535.] imprudence or zeal had tempted him again to meddle with dangerous matters. A correspondence had passed between the Bishop and the King, on the Act of Supremacy, or on some subject connected with it. The King had taken no public notice of Fisher's words, but he had required a promise that the letter should not be shown to any other person. The unwise old man gave his word, but he did not observe it; he sent copies both of what he had himself written and of the King's answer to the Sion monks, furnishing them at the same time with a copy of the book which he had written against the divorce, and two other books, written by Abel, the Queen's confessor, and the Spanish ambassador. Whether he was discovered to have held any other correspondence, or whether anything of an analogous kind was proved against More, I am unable to discover. Both he and Fisher had been treated with greater indulgence than was usual with prisoners. Their


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/280

260 own attendants had waited on them; they were allowed to receive visits from their relatives within the Tower walls, and to correspond with their families and friends. As a matter of course, under such circumstances, they must have expressed their opinions on the great subject of the day; and those opinions were made known throughout England, and, indeed, throughout Europe. Whether they did more than this, or whether they had only indirectly allowed their influence to be used against the Government, must be left to conjecture. But the language of a document under the King's hand speaks of their having given some cause of provocation, of no common kind; and this is confirmed by Cromwell, who, was once deeply attached to More. 'When they were in strait keeping,' say the instructions to the Bishop of Hereford, 'having nevertheless the prison at their liberties, they ceased not both to practise an insurrection within the realm, and also to use all the devices to them


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/17

Rh


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/18

xiv


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/19

Rh


text:
Earth's Mystery

 * Coates, Florence Earle (1905), as "I Looked on Sorrow" in The Delineator (November 1905).
 * Coates, Florence Earle (1909), "Earth's Mystery" in Lyrics of Life (1909).
 * Coates, Florence Earle (1916), "Earth's Mystery" in Poems II.

title: Earth's Mystery


text:
Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/20

xvi


text:
Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/70

 is a splendid chocolate loam, like that of its rival, York, producing wheat crops of from eighteen to thirty bushels to the acre. I explored the district under the intelligent ciceronage of Mr. Madden, the local manager of the National Bank of Australasia, which in other directions has prominently associated itself with the rising fortunes of Western Australia. From observations I made, farming in the Northam district is some thing more than a profitable pursuit, the advent of railway communication and the establishment of roller mills having given an immense spurt to wheat production, where formerly grazing predominated in connection with a very old-fashioned style of agriculture. Where wheat was grown in the old times an exhaustive method of continuous cropping was resorted to, whereas now a rotative and fallowing system, accompanied even by some rudimentary manuring, is beginning to prevail. What with the railway, and what with responsible government, a new spirit possesses the people, the colony, to use Mr. Madden's expressive phraseology, having virtually been "born again, after the bad start it made in the days of its early and premature inflation. The advent of the banks has been nearly as beneficial as the advent of the railways. Formerly cash was almost unknown, and a barbarous system of barter all-prevailing. One or two store-keeping monopolists supplied the farmers with provisions and necessaries, receiving their produce in exchange. The charge for supplies was more than double Perth rates, whilst the price given for the agricultural produce went to the opposite extreme. The storekeeper wanted an exorbitant profit both on what he sold and on what he bought or took in exchange. The farmer had thus very little chance of making more than a bare living, and was lucky if he did not labour under a load of debt, which the periodical advent of harvest only partially extinguished. Now that the banks have come into the field, the Queen's head on the coin of the realm has become a more familiar object. The farmer gets reasonable advances to enable him to develop his holding at 8 per cent. on deposit of his deeds, and is thus able to buy his provisions in the cheapest and to sell his produce in the dearest market, Perth being now rendered reasonably accessible by railway. Even