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STORY
OP
• - » , * »
« • » _ 4>
GOVERNMENT.
I • •■ ^
* -,
From Savagef5^to Civilizatfon.
RUDIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS. — TRACB5 AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGAND5 AND
THIEVES. — EMPIRES AND OLIGARCHIES. — MONARCHIES, FEUDAL AND
CONSTITUTIONAL. — THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY RULE. — WOMAN IN
OOVERNMENT.-riASONRY AND SECRET ORDERS.— REPUBLICS.
•. 'X-
Henry Austin, Editor.
Illustrated with over 350 engravings and many double-page plates by
the best American and European Artists.
1893:
A. M. THAYER & CO., PublUhers,
BOSTON AND LONDON.
/
THE SKW YOIIK
PrBI.IC I.imiARY j
TiLl.KN AT.ONg
B 1MI L
I
4> •
• • . • • -.'• .• •* •
• *■ •■ •■ .. >
Copyrishty 1893.
By a. M. Thayer & Co.
^ // ri^A/« rtstrvtd.
SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION.
Typography and Prcsswork by
Thb Barta Press, Boston.
a
5'^0€>*=^
a:
E
WHO reads a preface ? Not the public as a rule, and yet
this preface is written in the hope of being the excep-
tion that proves the rule — an exception made in favor,
of this book by a majority of thinking people. For this cause :
it has no excuse to ofifer for its existence, but a reason and a right.
Last winter, the publishing firm, A. M. Thayer & Co., of
Boston and London, realizing that the people lyere beginning to
show a deep and deepening interest in questions of government,
and that they were studying how to improve the American republic
in spite of the politicians, conceived the idea of having a book
that should show as picturesquely as possible all the forms of
government under which mankind has lived, so that the people
could study governmental problems by the light of comparison.
Chosen to compose this work, I have been embarrassed from the
start by the riches of the mines from which my material was to be
drawn, and I am conscious that many other journalists might have
done this selection, connection and addition of thoughts and pic-
tures much better than I. Yet, as one of the Titans of this age
has said : " What is writ is writ. Would it were worthier ! "
If it were, I would like to have paid my friend, Hezekiah But-
terworth, of The Youth^s Companion^ that deservedly popular
paper, the slight compliment of inscribing his honored name
on a dedicatory page. As it is, I make no dedication of my
labor, except to those men and women who find attraction in
these pages.
rv
6 PBEFACE.
Well aware how much more might have been put between
the covers, I still hope and believe that this book will not merely
feed the temporary curiosity of the average mind, but will stim-
ulate the toiling men and women of America to desire, to demand,
and to obtain better conditions of environment if not for them-
selves, at least for their children.
As to the help I have had in composing this book let me
say a few words. Several chapters, perhaps the weightiest, were
written by the veteran Irish journalist, O'Neil Larkin, and one,
the Sixteenth, by Frederick Haynes, with only slight additions
from my pen, and in some other chapters I have used so freely
the work of other writers, English, French, and German, that I
feel myself rather an editor than an author in this case.
Nevertheless, I dare to hope that some critics who are familiar with
former work of mine may find some original and suggestive obser-
vations scattered through this book. In that hope I rest.
Very sincerely,
Henry Austin.
During th.e composition of this book, Mr. Austin, at our sug-
gestion, for tlie sake of ensuring accuracy, cheerfully submitted
most of th.e chapters to various authors ^vho are authorities on
certain subjects. We reproduce of the letters received by him
just a few, — one from Gen. Douglas Frazar, the well-known
traveller and author of "Perseverance Island," "The Log of the
Maryland, '* *' Practical Boat^sailing, " etc., etc.; and one from
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, the famous author and lecturer, and
one from the true philanthropist and world-renowned author
of "The Man Without a Country," etc., etc., the Rev. Edward
Everett Hale. These letters indicate to the public, better than
any amount of advertising could, the character- value of this
book.
A. M. THAYER & CO.,
Publishers.
9
^M. ^A^MuCyyit UMsUZZ^ ^/^nWJ^-
u
■DWARD E. HALB.
39 HIGHLAND ST
ROXBURY. MASS \Jt4~^.^0^^^.xB^
vti/t/ *•
cQ^. (^^iLeu
13
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT.
Great Antiquity of Man — Periods of development classified as Savagery,
Barbarism, and Civilization — How pottery came to be made — The
invention of an alphabet — An approximate Table of Centuries showing
the great, slow steps of the race — Definition of the word Government
— The family as the germ — Different forms, such as the Consanguine,
the Punaluan, Syndyasmian, the Patriarchal, and the Monogamic —
Development of the single family into the Gens — Growth of the Gens
into the Phratry — Development as shown by a tribe of American In-
dians— The American Indian^s true character — Incident in the life of
Wamsutta — Division of the Seneca-Iroquois into Gentcs, Phratries, and
Tribes — Political rights of the Gens — Duties of the Sachem, or peace-
governor — Installing a Sachem — Horns as an emblem of office and
authority — The election and confirmation of the War Chief — Safe-
guards to prevent usurpations — Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity the
cardinal principles of Iroquois government — A council of Indian chiefs
the germ of a modern congress — The first stage of tribal government a
one-power government — The second stage a double government —
Creation of a three-power government — The Iroquois' further step —
Striking resemblance in sentiment between the American Indians and
Homeric Greeks 35
CHAPTER II.
RUDIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS.
Instinct," as a mysterious line of separation between man and other
animals, wiped out — Opinions of Descartes and Bonjeant on dogs —
The brain of the ant as a wonderful atom — Political and Industrial
equality a feature of the ant republic — Slavery among ants far gentler
tlian that among men — Only larvae and pupa) stolen by Ant- kidnap-
pers to bring up as regular slaves — Government among the Termites —
Their architectural talent — Buildings from ten to twenty feet high —
A Termite town an example of cooperation — Possession of a standing
army — The Bee state a communistic monarchy — The Queen the nec-
essary centre and bond of the hive — Labor among bees offering the
highest ideal of Communism, free, voluntary, and uncompulsory—
Many work themselves to death, thus disproving 'Mnstinct " again —
15
16 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Qualifications for office among animal leaders — The donkey as a leader
of a caravan of camels — Mares as leaders of mules in Central America
The principle of appointment among animal leaders — Ample evidence
of self -appointment to leadership among social animals — Street-dog
republics of Constantinople — Division of labor and duty among ani-
mals — Strength in Union a recognized principle — Cooperation clearly
evidenced in animal conventions, conferences, etc. — Trials by jury
witnessed among rooks and storks — Public punisliment among spar-
rows and apes 61
CHAPTER III.
TRACKS AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES.
A people opposed to order or authority from outside — Physiognomy and
habits of the Gypsy — Their beauty — Known to Europeans for eight
centuries and still conundrums — Disputed origin — *' Dukes of Little
Egypt'' — Halcyon times followed by persecutions — The passion for
wandering — A study of their language — Extremely unwilling to unfold
themselves to strangers — A warm family affection — Superstitions and
customs — Odd reasons for swearing off from liquor or tobacco —
Curious burial rites — Seven hundred thousand pure blooded gypsies —
Ineffectual attempts to civilize them — Tlie Abb^ Liszt and a Gypsy
boy — **Five florins for hanging a man'' — The real home of the
continental gypsy — Odd specimen of Gypsy poetry — The Camorra —
History as remarkable as a fable — The Camonistic treasury supplied
from every quarter — Violence, robbery, and murder their weapons —
Many names in different places — The Mafia or Maffia — Suppressed in
Italy it plants itself in America — Mysterious murders — Singular
stories from New Orleans — Its suppression in March, 1891 — The beam
in our own eye in the shape of Pinkerton's band — A certain tendency
to order among thieves in London and Paris — Hank — The common
pickpocket not recognized publicly by the ** swell mobsmen," or by
house-breakers — Fascinating interview with a retired pickpocket and
brief sketch of his life in his own words — '* Thieves' Latin " — ** Sus-
picion always haunts the guilty mind" painfully illustrated in the
thieves' quarter — Pathetic remarks of a professional thief — Difficulty
of a discharged prisoner in escaping from old habits — The boy thief
gets a fourth of the value of what he steals — Infinitely worse in their con-
sequences than petty larceny or burglary are some of the ways of
commerce — The adulteration of food — The Juggernaut of Avarice
and Ignorance 89
CHAPTER IV.
FEUDALISTIC MOXARCHY.
A Gk>vemment of Chiefs with a loose or elastic allegiance to a Head Chief or
King — The **Rundo" — Affectation of political modesty among the
Banyai — A curious Waliuman law — Treatment of women in Central
Africa — Killing a wife a mere trifle — A hundred wives buried alive
with one king in the bed of a river — Captives reserved for slaves —
The immortality of the soul generally believed — Curious cu8t*>m of
cementing friendship by mixing blood and butter — The African idea of a
Fetish — The Priest of the Nile — Horrible devices of magicians —
Human sacrifice — The rain-maker a popular figure — Baker's amusing
interview — The "Gold Coast" — Fanti women —• Innocence tested by
means of ** ordeals" — Morals — European influence corrupting — Belief
in a mysterious child ** who has existed from the beginning of the
world" — The women the more intellectual and energetic sex on the
Gold Coast — The man who buries another succeeds to his property,
^Isahis debts ~ Statesman-like ability and military skill in the Ashanti
r.»
r^ CONTENTS. 17
V
kingdom — Women a regular article of merchandise reckoned by cows —
The powers of the '* Ko toko," or council — An Ashanti king — Gold
mining — "Three hundred ounces of gold taken in a single day" —
Industries apai-t from mining — The Ashanti army — In battle the women
stand behind their husbands — The *' Encouragei's " — Police regulations
in Coomassio — The King as head of the Fire Department — The skull
of Governor Sir Charles Macaithy, killed in the iirst war, kept in the
Bantama, the mausoleum of the kings, as a drinking cup — " By Wednes-
day and Macarthy " a sacred Ashanti oath — The *' Customs'* in Ashanti
and Dahomey — Decapitation as a fine art — The Yam and the Adai
customs — "Kra," the soul of man — The kingdom of Dahomey — Odd
origin of the ** bush-king," or double of the real monarch — Tlie ** Nin-
gan," or prime minister — The *'Meu," the second minister — The
soldiei*s divided into several corps; each soldier equipped at the expense
of the government — Tlie corps of Amazons, or female wamors — Origin
of these Amazons — Their number at present four thousand; divided
into three brigades — The Dahoman eminently religious — Tlie worship
of Danli-gbwe — The Danh-hweh, or fetish snake-house — Tlie Danhsi,
or snake priests — " Atinbodun " — Tlie Dahoman *' Neptune " — Khevy-
osoh, the Thunder-god — Missionary failure in Africa — The reasons —
A better field for effort suggested 141
CHAPTER V.
ABSOLUTISM.
Persia a perfect type of despotism — Chai-acter of the courtier — Many
public functionaries selected by the Persian monarchs from the order of
Mirzas, or *' men of business " — The Collector of the public revenue —
Small salaries of government officials — Precarious life of a courtier —
The pardoned rebel of one province appointed to the supreme command
in another — No official, however high, sure of his life — The Gholams,
or king's guards — The mooshteheds, the highest order of priests, the
supreme pontiffs of the kingdom — The Sheik al Islam — The character
of the moUalis or priests — ** To cheat like a mollali " a frequent saying
in the mouth of a Persian — Persian women believed not to have souls
by some Moslem priests — An Eastern seraglio a "gilded cage" — De-
scription of harem life — The gala dress of a lady of high rank — Mar-
riage ceremonies — Ungovernable temper of Persian women — Persia
no longer the granary of the world — The population of Persia less than
8,000,000 — No navigable rivers, and railways a thing of the future —
The whole revenue of the empire considerably less than $10,000,000 —
The Koran as the basis of civil and criminal law — The t/r/*, or " common
law" — The goverainj^ principle in Mohammedan law, an eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth — Ancient religion of the Persians — The Par-
sees, like the Jews, a persecuted race — Learning of Persia — The stone
and seal cutters of Shirazand Ispahan famous for their skill — Literature
— Adoption of European habits 197
CHAPTER VI.
TFIE RULE OF CASTE.
A marvel and a mystery to Western minds — Religious despotism still flour-
ishing throughout India — The Vedas, or Hindoo Scriptures — The
foundation of Brahminism — Compared with the Greek mythology, that
of India infinitely deeper, more mysterious, and vastly more sublime —
AVater- worship — Self-drowning in the Ganges — Brahmins propitiated
with divine honors — Siva and Vishnoo — Vishnooism a sort of reformed
Sivaism — In addition to the» Hindoo Trinity many inferior gods —
Animals also venerated — The two aspects of Brahminism — Caste every-
where an essentia] part of religion — In the " Institutes of Menu" four
18 THB STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
castes defined as composing the nation — For three thousand years by
means of caste the Brahmins have preserved their ascendency — ^No other
example of such a lease of power — The life of a Brahmin divided into
four periods — The high caste man defiled by the low caste man — Tlie
Brahmin *'can cook for every man, whilst no one can cook for him'* —
The home of human horrors — The Hindoo Fakir preeminent among
cranks — Strange self -martyrdoms — Remarkable municipal institutions
of Hindostan — The famous " village system " — Thieving and burglary
raised to the rank of science — The riches of India — Anecdote of Mali-
moud, the idol-breaker — Temples and shrines — The sacred rivers —
The idol of Juggernaut and its procession — Pinkerton Thugs; the
word and comparison taken from India — Origin of the religious crime.
Thuggee — Early training of Thugs — Secrecy one of the essentials of
their work — Manner of strangling and burying their victims — Account
of the founder of Buddhism — Buddhism now closely studied by Eu-
ropean scholars — Marriage customs — Qualifications for a Brahmin's
bride — Elaborate festival rites and ceremonies — Celibacy a disgrace
both to men and women — The Hindoo women's taste for ill-treatment
— The women of Northern India trea«^ed with respect and devotion —
The ** Festival of tlie Bracelet" — A whole province often accompanies
the return of the pledge — The temple- women — The Suttee — Laws of
inheritance — Education — Architecture and the manufacture of jewelry
— Snake-charming — The moral character of the Hindoo — The Indian
not the same all over India — A Bengalee the most despicable — Macau-
lay on the character of the Bengalee — Political future 225
CHAPTER VII.
A SCHOLASTIC OLIGARCHY.
Oldest and oddest of nations and governments — An eclipse calculated 2155
years before our era — Topography of China — Division into eighteen
provinces; each province into poos, counties, and prefectures — The
great wall — The gate of honor — Chicese streets — The umbrellaed side-
walks — The sewerage system — High-sounding titles of streets — Shops
— Monumental arches — Hoo Chow Foo — Governmental precaution
against fires — The Emperor of China assisted in the management of his
government by a cabinet of four ministers; in addition to this, six
supreme tribunals — Duties of each tribunal — The Empress, or head
wife, is the representative of Mother Earth — The choice of an empi-ess
and of sub-wives — A formidable ari-ay of officials in each province — All
supposed to be appointed by the Emperor on recommendation of the
Board of Ceremonies — Nine marks of distinction by which the rank of
a Chinese officer may be recognized — Dress — Custom of an officer
approaching the Imperial presence — The army made up of the lowest
class — Government residences for all officials — A curious sort of lot-
tery adds a certain spice to the life of convicted criminals — Justice in
China a ''Serial Story of Torture" — The process in civil cases —
Another peculiarity of Chinese government — Imperial clemency extends
to all offenders who are crippled — Religion of China interfuses with its
laws — The original i*eligion — No hereditary nobility — Rank graded by
literary examinations — Every office except that of the Emperor deter-
mined by these — Severity of the examinations — Fifteen candidates suc-
cessful out of five hundred considered remarkable — The degree of
Han-lin; the few who attain it become membei*s of the Han-lin College and
receive fixed salaries — The greatest care taken that these examinations
shall be fair — Daring devices of the candidates to elude the lynx-eyed
examiners — Ancestral worship — The penalty of striking or cursing
parents — Ideas of beauty — Deformed feet of the women and leavings of
Chinese poets thereon — The Kow-tow — Modesty of the ladies —
Chinese handmaids — Seven different reasons for divorce — Amusing
^♦.
CONTENTS. 19
contrariety of Chinese customs — Curious census anecdote — History of
Confucius and his doctrines — The five canonical hooks — Tlie writings
which ranlc next — Chinese literature — All classes read — Proverbs . 281
CHAPTER VIII.
PATERNAL SOCIALISM.
A system of government especially worthy of study — Difference in the mean-
ing or value of the word Socialism twenty years ago and to-day — The
electric shock of a new idea — Tlie chief moral argument of modern
Socialism — Men to-day in tlie mass becoming too much like the
machines tliey tend — Tlie ultimate economic proposition of Socialism
— The Post-office a shining example — The best illustration on a na-
tional scale — A miraculous land in which the sum of human happiness
was large and increasing —Vast extent and singular shape of Peru —
The naturally barren coast fertilized by a system of canals and under-
ground aqueducts — The Maguey suspension bridges — Cuzco the chief
capital — A miniature of the empire — The decimal system used by the
Incas of Peru with remarkable results — The whole empire arranged in
departments of ten thousand with a special governor appointed from the
Inca nobility — Officialism prevented from being an evil by being all-
pervasive — Few laws and crime a rarity — Worship of the Sun — Fable
of the founding of the City of the Sun by the children of the Sun-God —
Personal pomp of an Inca — Magnificence of his palaces — The Baths of
Yucay — Burial customs — Remarkable skill in embalming — Fiscal
regulations and the laws of property — The cultivation of the king's
lands a holiday performance — The llamas — Idleness a crime and indus-
try a matter of public honor and reward — The Peruvians had a chance
to cultivate the graces and dignities of life — Two orders of nobility —
Superior method of taking the census — The <irtisan provided by the
government with his materials, and only required to give a certain por-
tion of his time to public service — Peruvian literature — Method of
preserving thought — Description of the quipus — Anecdote of Atah-
ualpa 325
CHAPTER IX.
THEOCRACY OH PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT.
Basic principle of theocracy — The Pythoness or Priestess of Delphi, how
inspired — Pagan priests the first librarians — The crystallization of the
Hebrew nation — Singularity of the Mosaic laws — Strikinj^ anecdote of
Solomon — The Sanhedrim — The functions of the Levite — The syna-
gogues as schools — Caiphas the head of the theocracy — Crucifixion of
Jesus — Jerusalem battered down by Titus thirty-seven years later —
Dispersion of the Jewish nation — Meeting of the Apostles and framing
of the Apostles' Creed — St. Paul before the Sanhedrim — Condition of
the world at this period — ** Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we
die," the motto of the Roman Empire — Frightful persecution of the
Christians by Xero — The infant church driven to underground refuges —
Christian theocracy assuming shape — The Cross a<lopted by Constivntine
as the imperial standard — The combat practically closed by the imperial
decree, A. D. 313 — Two sovereignties recognized and proclaimed, that
of Pope and Emperor — The heresy of Arius of Alexandria — Ecumeni-
cal council summoned at Nice by Constantine — Summary of the Apos-
tolic Canons — Endeavors of Julian, the apostate, to restore the worship
of the Pagan gods — Decline of the Roman Empire — Attila, **the
Scourge of God" — Meeting between Saint Leo I. and Attila — Roman
empire of the West extinguished — A universal Papal protectorate —
Simoniacal bishops — *'Tlie poisonous viper of the Church" — Extent
of Simony — Struggle between Henry IV. and Hildebrand opened by the
election of Pope Alexander II.— The election of Alexander II. declared
20 THE STORV OF GO\'ERXMENT.
nail bjT Henrj, who nominates Honorios IL as mn anti-pope — Death of
Alexander IL and election of Hildebrand — Decree issued against im-
moral priests — Attempt of Henry to imprison and depose the Pope —
Gregory pronoonces the famous sentence of excommunication and depo-
sition against Henry — Decisive battle of spiritual service reform begun
— Gregory YIL deposed by the simoniacal bishops, and Gilbert of
Ravenna elected as Pope Clement III. — Conflict between Pope Innocent
III. and Philip Augustus on the marriage question — Ferdinand and Isa-
l>ella establish the *' Spanish Inquisition" — Cause of the Great Schism
— Luther — The Peasants' War — Cause of the Reformation in England
— Tlie " Society of Jesus " founded by Ignatius of Loyola — Summary of
the constitution of the Jesuits — The onder dissolve<i by Pope Clement
XIV. under pressure of Catholic Governments — Emperor Xapoleon
crowned in Paris by Pope Pius VII. — Reestablishment of the order of
the Jesuits by Pius VII. — Explanation of the administration of the
Catholic Church — Religious feeling expressed in architecture — Macau-
lay on the Church — Future of the Church in America 357
CHAPTER X.
SIMPLE REPUBLICAKISM.
Switzerland, the democracy most near to perfection — Her history a polit-
ical romance of intense interest — The First Federal Constitution —
** Each for all and all for each " — The growth of the national germ —
Gradual union of the different cantons — Battle of Sempach — The last
attempt of Austria to subdue the confederation — Capture of the town
of Grandson by Charles the Bold — A new treaty signed — The federal
H^>vereignty much strengthened — The Helvetic Republic established in
Switzerland by the French directory — A new constitution called the Act
of Mediation drawn up by Bonaparte — A federal declaration lasting
until 1848 takes the place of the Act of Mediation — Two legislative
chambers created by tlie new constitution — Government ownership and
management of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic systems — No stand-
ing army — Rules of the Federal Assembly — Democratic character of
the executive — The Council of States — The National Council — The
Federal census the basis of representation to the National Council —
Method of voting — The right of initiative — Tlie famous Swiss Referen-
dum — Meaning of the referendum — If the initiative and referendum
systems prevailed in the United States, what then ? — Professor Ely's
illustration — The ancient Land sgeraeinden, or open-air assemblies — A
lively interest taken in national and communal affairs by Sw^iss voters —
Socialistic undertakings of the Communes — The local self-govei*nment
of the commune the cradle and the schoolhouse which evolved the
present Swiss Confederation — Swiss traditions — Industries — Switzer-
land ti>o small for the support of its population — The ** playground of
Europe *' — Peasant proprietors numerous — A passion for borrowing
on mortgage — The Vaudois peasant — Poverty in Canton Vaud almost
UAiknown — Education free of cost 435
CHAPTER XI.
CONSTITUTION AX MONARCHY.
England — The growth of constitutional monarchy a story full of the most
startling contrasts — Military despotism of William the Norman —
The reign of Henry 11. the first in which the people came into promi-
nence — One of the greatest and saddest of regal histories — A true step
toward the equalization of all men before the law — Henry's character
— King John as the most expensive dentist on record — The signing of
the Great (Charter at Runymede — One of the most curious reigns in
England — Great gains made for the people in the development of con-
CONTENTS. 21
stitutional government — Magna Charta revised, and Lord Pembroke
made Protector — Amusing episode of tlie Sicilian throne — Simon de
Hontfort^s check upon the regal power the germ of the present Britisli
Ministry — Tlie first parliament in which the people had any real share
summoned by De Montfort in 1205 — ** Sir Simon the Righteous'' —
Prince Edward's return from a successful crusade and public ovation —
Royal schemes for raising money — Germ of the phi-ase ** Taxation
witliout representation is tyranny" — King Edward's attempt to unite
Scotland, Wales, and England in one country, and lay the foundation of
English unity — The Welsh insurrection — Origin of the title *' Prince
of Wales" — The rising of the popular tide and the eating away of
tlie stubborn rocks of royal privilege and prerogative — Lawless career
of Edward IL — Appointment of a Committee of Government to connect
abuses in the State — Gaveston beheaded by order of the nobles — A
new encroachment on royal power — Deposition of Edward — Institu-
tion of the poll tax — Insurrection of Ihe peasants under Wat, the Tiler
— Attempt of Wat, the Tiler, to abolish tlie cruel forest laws — Defeat
of the insurgents; The beginning of the custom of hanging in chains —
Quarrel between Parliament and King Richard — Richard impeached
and deposed by Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford — The reign of Boling-
broke distinguished for its brilliancy and for an extension of the power
of law — Insurrection of the people under Jack Cade during the reign
of Henry VI. — Beginning of the Wars of the Roses — Edward IV. ex-
torts money from the citizens of London in the form of loans, or ** benevo-
lences" — Quickening of popular intelligence in the reign of Henry VII.
— The power of the baronage broken — The reign of Heniy VIII. that
in which the monarchy reached its worst pitch of cruel absolutism —
The religious agitation of this time productive of immense intel-
lectual results — Publication of More's Utopia — The society of his
time defined by Sir Thomas as ** Nothing but a conspiracy of the
rich against the poor" — The obsequious Parliament simply a tool of
regal power — Beginning of the English Reign of Terror — Thomas
Cromwell beheaded, the first victim of his own law — The dogma of
divine right originated by Henry VIII. — A slavish devotion to a man
replacing the old loyalty to the law — The reign of Elizabeth and epoch
of Shakespeare and Bacon — Defeat of the Spanish Armada and rise of
England to the position of a first-class power — The feeling of nation-
ality intensified — The impetus given to the minds of men by the revival
of learning produces an intellectual harvest — Puritanism the first polit-
ical system which recognized the grandeur of the people as a whole —
Greneral conception of kingship modified by the events of the sixteenth
century — Charles raises his revenue by unjust taxation in all direc-
tions — The trial of Hampden the first declaration of independence on
the part of an English gentleman — John Pym, the first and finest of
parliamentary leatiers — Charles' minister, Strafford, impeached by the
Commons for high treason — Execution of Strafford, a faithful servant
to a bad king — The battle of Edge Hill the beginning of the grandest
era of English history — Oliver Cromwell comes into prominence as a
leader at the battle of Marston Moor — A man of surpassing greatness
— Modern England as a political entity beginning with the triumph of
Cromwell at the battle of Naseby — For the first time a conscious
struggle between political tradition and political progress — Execution
of King Charles — The monarchy formallv abolished and the govera-
ment provided for by the creation of a Council of State selected from the
Commons — Dissolution of Parliament by Cromwell — Cromwell's pro-
tectorate a simple tyranny — ** A time of great peace and prosperity"
— Cromwell refuses the crown and is formally inaugurated Protector —
His sway over the minds of men mighty even in death — Eager royal-
ists greatly disappointed with the reign of Charles II. — Charles II. the
cleverest of the Stuarts — A crisis between King and Parliament pre-
cipitated by the impeachment of Danby — Consent of Charles to the
Habeas Corpus Act — The two years' struggle between King, Parlla-
22 THE STORY OF GOVERXMETr.
meiit, and CofninoBi resnltiiis in the rise of m nev partj called the Whig
— The rise of orgBoizad parties in Pariiaaient the most important erent
sinee the restoraticyn — Polrdeal acts of Charles IL daring the last three
jears of his Ufe — The stor^r of the mistakes of James IL — Flight of
King James, and transference of the crown to William of Orange —
DechmUions of the Bill of Righto — The Triennial Act of William III/s
parliament — James I. a learned bat weak king — Parliament occapied
onljT with the reassertion of ito former righto — Illegal monopolj insti-
tuted hj Cliarles I. the germ of present trasto and sjndicates — First
eifecto of pariiamentary freedom — Change in the character of the
Ministry — The goTemment acquiring a corporate character — * Repre-
sentatires of the people " — The Whig nobles the most powerful ctoss
in the kingdom — The reign of the nobility a beneficent despotism —
Haphazard method of the House of Commons in the days of George
IlL — The society of the '* Friends of the People ^* — Apparently hope-
less entanglement of the legislative, ezecutiTe and judicial functions —
Determination of Victoria to know the doings of her ministers — System
of the British Cabinet — Pointo of difference between the American and
English systems of government — Qualities needful to a minister in
England — Summary of the development of English government . • . 475
CHAPTER Xn.
A GOYSRXMEXT OF MT3TERT A!n> FBATESXITT.
An odd incident connected with one of the secret signs of Masonry —
Legendary Masonry of profound ethical interest — The legend of the
Temple a fascinating myth — Curious claim set up by Freemasonry —
The aim of all secret societies of the past — Freemasonry the com-
pendium of all primitive accumulated human knowledge — The history
of the order divided into two periods — Records of a lodge of 1648 —
The name *' masonic" adopted by the society in the last century —
Freemasonry a tree whose roots are spread through many soils — The
masonic alphabet — Description of a Lodge — A relic of astrology —
Initiation of a novice into the first or Apprentice degree — The second
degree of symbolic Freemasony, the Fellow-Craft —Supposed significance
of the letter G seen in the lodge — The degree of Master Mason —
Another version of the legend of Osiris — The degree of the Holy Royal
Arch — The Omnific Word — The emblem of emblems — Masonry at its
height in France during the revolutionary period — Napoleon and
Masonry — Masonic titles bestowed upon Cambacer^s — The Grand
Orient Lodge — Its half yearly words of command were Napoleonic for-
mulae— The fall of Napoleon attributed to Masonry — History of
Joseph Balsamo, alias Count Cagliostro — The Egyptian rite invented
by Cagliostro — Adoptive Masonry — First lodge of adoption — Anec-
dote of the Jew and the Parsee — Speculative or Philosophical Masonry
not derived from Operative — Historic uncertainty of Masonry — First
appearance of the name ** Freemason " — ^* Masons made here for 12
shillings** — A complete change and rebirth in the year 1717 — The true
character of Freemasonry in the history of the operative sodalities and
successive ages of architects — The *• New Constitution" the Freemasonry
of the present day — The touch of Masonry penetrating all the scenes
of the Revolution — Repeated attempts to make Freemasonry a union of
States and a union of Grand Lodges — A Grand Lodge territory sacred
from invasion — Washington as a Mason — Temporary setback to Ma-
sonry — The golden era of Freemasonry — The comer-stone of Bunker
HiU monument laid by the Grand Lodge — Anti-masonic excitement —
The famous ''Declaration" — The '* Masonic Education and Charity
Trust" — Boston Masonic Temple — The Masonic Temple, Philadelphia,
the finest and largest in the world — Plan of the Chicago building —
Masonry developed from a simple secret society into a great interna-
tional bond, a government within government ^> The purest of democra-
CONTENTS. 28
cieB in theory and practice — One of the most binding oaths and obliga-
tions— Review of history in the United States— -A Grand Lodge of
Masons in every State of the Union — Templar Masonry a semi-military
organization — Degrees and rites of the order — The true essence of
Fieemasonry 567
CHAPTER XIII.
EXPERIMENTAL BEPUBLICANISM.
The Republic of France the offspring of revolution — Condition of the
people prior to the Revolution of 1793 — The peasantry merely beasts of
burden — Liberty of speech and of the press non-existent — Three gen-
eral classes — Inequality even in the family — The taxes all paid by the
peasantry and artisans — Misery of the common people — Immorality
the fashion — View of mai-riage — Tremendous political influence of
Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau, or dramatist, lawyer and novelist
— Louis XVI. attempts reform — Turgot's plans for financial retrench-
ment— Turgot and Malesherbes forced to resign — The famous **Account
Rendered " — Neckar deposed — Calonne exiled — Neckar recalled to ofiice
—Convocation of the States-General — Platform of principles adopted
by the Third Estate — First difficulty arising in the assemblage Icacls to
a live weeks' contest — ** National Constituent Assembly " — First for-
mal session of the Assembly — The inviolability of its membei*s solemnly
proclaimed — Committees for business organized — Dismissal and exile
of Neckar — Storming of the Bastile — Curious anecdotes prophetic of the
flood — Cagliostro, the Wizard — The Revolution baptized in blood —
Feudalism abolished, and the first plank in the platform of the Third
Estate, the equality of man, a reality — Many beneficent laws passed by
the National Assembly — Dissolution of the Assembly after two years'
term of office — New and formidable difficulties before the Legislative
Assembly — Twenty-three years' war — Lafayette proscribed — Sacking
of the Tuilleries — The Assembly powerless — France invaded by the
Duke of Brunswick — Louis XVI. guillotined — A huge political blunder
— The Reign of Terror legalized — Strange anecdote of the institution
by Carrier of Republican marriage — Conflict with the Kings — The
Republic definitively established — The Revolution succeeded by the
military dictatorship of Napoleon — Charles X. a true type of the
Bourbon prince — Louis Philippe chosen king by the Chamber of
Deputies — Universal suffrage decreed by the National Assembly —
Napoleon III. deposed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Republic
proclaimed — The Constitution of France — The present Republic the
offspring of 1793 031
CHAPTER XIV.
GOVEBNMENT AMONG SECRET ORDERS.
Every secret society with a political aim an act of collective conscience —
A legitimate hatred of evil the salvation of nations — Order of the
Chauffeurs, or Burners — Rites of initiation — Marriage customs of the
order — Their detection by the cunning of one of their victims and their
extinction — The Society of the Carbonari — Ceremonies of the Lodge —
A mixture of Masonry and Catholic mysticism — Initiation into the
different degrees — Real object of the association — The Carbonari
played no small part in general European politics — Ambition of the
Carbonari to obtain a constitutional government for their country —
Influence of the order — Carbonarism introduced into France — Why
of special historic interest — Combination with young Italy, a society
with identical aims — Society of " American Hunters " — Lord Byron
said to have been its head — The society an ethical as well as practical
one — Object of the revolutionary society of Nihilists — Articles of their
24 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
belief — **From the United to the Isolated" — Sentences on early
prisoners mild in comparison to those of recent date — The Fenians one
of the most active of political secret societies — Indications that the
association is not extinct — Founding of Fenianism in America — Cou-
yentions at Chicago and Cincinnati — Traitors within tlie organization —
Report of tlie Investigating Committee — Origin of the word Fenian —
Extracts from the Patriotic Litany of Saint Lawrence O* Toole — The
term Tammany first applied to the Columbian order — Evolution of the
title — A striking characteristic — Record of the organization — Early
history — Part played in national affairs — Intricate relations with New
York politics — A survivor of several defeats — The Tammany legend,
a very amusing and instructive tradition — The supreme trait of Tam-
many's character — Symbols of the thirteen tribes — Statistics of
Tammany Hall — The leader of the Tammany forces — The General
Committee — Salaries — Outline of the plan of organization — The work
of the committee — Assembly district organizations — Qualifications
necessary for a district leader — Strict discipline 605
CHAPTER XV.
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT.
Equal citizenship of sexes first recognized during the French Revolution —
Partial citizenship in early American colonies — Wyoming the first real
political democracy of large area — England moving faster than America
towards full female suffrage — Proofs of the interest taken in it by intelli-
gent women — Stain on the history of the State of Washington — How
women have voted and are likely to vote — Woman's political status all
over the world — The next step from a political must be an industrial
democracy — The general stream of human happiness — The world's
debt to women of simple lives — Sudden possession of excessive power —
Depraved women not so much the cause as the result of the corruption of
the middle ages — Sex equality among primitive races — Respect shown to
women by New England Indians — Feminine leadership in modem Africa
— Number of Beiiangin's female warriors — Peculiarities of Polyandrous
tribes — An odd incident illustrative of the working of an Eastern mind —
Condition of woman in the age of Homer — Degradation of woman in the
palmy days of Athens — Sparta alone the cradle of great women — The
HetairsB — Aspasia and the government of Athens — Orientalized Athens
corrupts her conqueror, the Roman — The character of Cleopatra — Zeno-
bia — Rome overrun by Grermans — Effect of feudalism and the Catholic
church on women — The age of chivalry — Joan D' Arc and Agnes Sorel
— Decency in eclipse for three centuries — Isabella of Castile — Mary A.
Livermore's opinion about her — John Knox and his Trumpet Blast —
Elizabeth, the greatest of England'^ queens — Madame de Maintenon —
Madame de Pompadour and her deluge — The crowned women of Russia
— Striking feminine figures of the present century — The real queens of
to-day, where found 721
CHAPTER XVL
SEMT-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
Reflections arising from wandering through the galleries of Versailles —
The most dramatic of recent historical events — Proclamation of Em-
peror William — Legislative functions of the empire — The executive
power in the hands of the Emperor — The Bundesrath and its com-
mittees — The Reichstag — Officers of State — Historical growth of
the Grerman empire — Earliest, recorded Teutonic invasion — Ger-
mans in the Roman armies — Characteristics of the different tribes
— Assemblies of the freemen — Important victory of the German
tribes under Herman — Migratory instincts of the Grermanic tribes
CONTENTS. 26
again showing itself — History of the Franks in Gaul — The treaty
of Verdun — The Huns conquered by King Henry — Beginning of
town life among the Germans — Alliance of Church and State sovereign-
ties— Origin of Germany*8 claim to Italy — Revival of learning — Di-
vision of large duchies into small principalities the beginning of
individualism — Quarrel of Guelph and Gliibeline — Conflict between
Emperor and Pope — Effect on Germany — Power of the Emperors
shattered — Extincti(mof the house of Hohenstaufcn — The Interregnum
— The robber castles of tlie Rhine — Growth of cathedral towns —
Election of Rudolf, founder of the house of Habsburg — Charles IV.
issues the Golden Bull — Invention of gunpowder — Revolution in the
art of war — Invention of printing — Attempt of the rulers to check
the intellectual awakeninij — The edict of Perpetual Peace — The
House of Habsburg at the culmination (►f its power — The Diet at Worms
— Martin Luther placed under the ban of the empire — His translation
of the Bible — Spirit of the times — Beginning of the *' Thirty Years'
War" — Militiry tactics of Gustavus Adolphus — The Peace of West-
phalia— The question of the Rhine provinces made a permanent issue —
Change in the character of the German — Louis XIV. of France signs
the Peace of Utrecht — The Great Elector the 11 rst to keep a standing
army in time of peace — Accession of Frederick the Great — The
"Seven Years* War" — Frederick in the front rank of great com-
manders — Wisdom and energy of Frederick's government — Im-
portant changes in the internal affairs of Germany — Separation of the
spiritual and secular power — Wars with Napoleon — War of Liberation
followed by a season of peace — Constitutions granted by the kings
to their subjects — Unilication of Italy under Victor Emanuel — Otto
Von Bismarck made Prime Minister by King William of Prussia —
Beginning of the end of the small principalities — War between Prussia
and Austria — Formation of the North German Confederation — Defeat
of the French — Political unification of Germany , 753
CHAPTER XVIL
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM.
Rrst movement toward Home Rule by the Colonists — Complex Republi-
canism still an experiment — Congress of the United States and Parlia-
ment of Great Britain the models of government for other countries —
The Congress of the republics of Central and South America — Form of
government in Germany, Denmark, and other countries — Three coordi-
nate branches in the government of the United States — The first coor-
dinate branch: the legislative — General powers of Congress — Article
I., Section 2 of the Constitution — Number of population required to
constitute a congressional district — Election of members — The great
power which the House of Representatives exclusively possesses — An-
other power exclusively exercised by the House — Trials of impeachment
— Power of the Speaker of the House — Importance of the jiosition —
Committees of the House — Duties of the different committees — A
member prohibited from holding any other governmentid office — Pro-
hibited also from voting on measures in which their private interests are
affected — The Senate of the United States — Officers of the Senate —
Exclusive power of ** consent" possessed by the Senate — Notable ex-
ception to the general rule of the Senate durimx the administration of
President Cleveland — An executive session — ** The billionnaireclub " —
Movement agitated for the election of senators by a direct vote of the
people — Reasons in favor — The second coordinate branch of govern-
ment: the executive — The Electoral College — Election of the President
— Chief duty of the President — Power to pardon — Right of veto —
Reason for so much legislative power in the hands of the Executive —
The Cabinet — Duties of the Secretary of State — Assistant Secretaries
24 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
belief — **From the United to the Isolated*' — Sentences on early
prisoners mild in compaiison to those of recent date — The Fenians one
of the most active of political secret societies — Indications that the
association is not extinct — Founding of Fenianism in Ameiica — Cou-
yentions at Chicago and Cincinnati — Traitors within tlie organization —
Report of the Investigating Committee — Origin of the word Fenian —
Extracts from the Patriotic Litany of Saint Lawrence O' Toole — The
term Tammany first applied to the Columbian order — Evolution of the
title — A striking characteristic — Record of the organization — Early
history — Part played in national affairs — Intricate relations with New
York politics — A survivor of several defeats — Tlie Tammany legend,
a very amusing and instructive tradition — The supreme trait of Tam-
many's character — Symbols of the thirteen tribes — Statistics of
Tammany Hall — Tlie leader of the Tammany forces — The General
Committee — Salaries — Outline of the plan of organization — The work
of the committee — Assembly district organizations — Qualifications
necessary for a district leader — Strict discipline dd5
CHAPTER XV.
WOMAN IN GOVERXMENT.
Equal citizenship of sexes first recognized during the French Revolution —
Partial citizenship in early American colonies^ — Wyoming the first real
political democracy of large area — England moving faster than America
towards full female suffrage — Proofs of the interest taken in it by intelli-
gent women — Stain on die history of the State of Washington — How
women have voted and are likely to vote — Woman's political status all
over the world — The next step from a political must be an industrial
democracy — The general stream of human happiness — The world's
debt to women of simple lives — Sudden possession of excessive power —
Depraved women not so much the cause as the result of the corruption of
the middle ages — Sex equality among primitive races — Respect shown to
women by New England Indians — Feminine leadership in modem Africa
— Number of Beliangin's female warriors — Peculiarities of Polyandrous
tribes — An odd incident illustrative of the working of an Eastern mind —
Condition of woman in the age of Homer — Degradation of woman in the
palmy days of Athens — Sparta alone the cradle of great women — The
Hetairffi — Aspasia and the government of Athens — Orientalized Athens
corrupts her conqueror, the Roman — The character of Cleopatra — Zeno-
bia — Rome overrun by Grermans — Effect of feudalism and the Catholic
church on women — The age of chivalry — Joan D' Arc and Agnes Sorel
— Decency in eclipse for three centuries — Isabella of Castile — Mary A.
Livermore's opinion about her — John Knox and his Trumpet Blast —
Elizabeth, the greatest of England'^ queens — Madame de Maintenon —
Madame de Pompadour and her deluge — The crowned women of Russia
— Striking feminine figures of the present century — The real queens of
to-day, where found 721
CHAPTER XVL
REMT-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY,
Reflections arising from wandering through the galleries of Versailles —
The most dramatic of recent historical events — Proclamation of Em-
peror William — Legislative functions of the empire — The executive
power in the hands of the Emperor — The Bundesrath and its com-
mittees—The Reichstag — Officers of State — Historical growth of
the German empire — Earliest recorded Teutonic invasion — Ger-
mans in the Roman armies — Characteristics of the different tribes
— Assemblies of the freemen — Important victory of the German
teftM under Herman — Migratory instincts of the Grermanio tribes
CONTENTS. 25
again showing itself — History of the Franks in Gaul — The treaty
of Verdun — The Uuns conquered by King Henry — Beginning of
town life among the Germans — Alliance of Church and State sovereign-
ties— Origin of Germany's claim to Italy — Revival of learning — Di-
vision of large duchies into small principalities the beginning of
individualism — Quarrel of Guelph and Giiibeline — Conflict between
Emperor and Pope — Etfect on Germany — Power of the Emperors
hiiattcied — Extinction of the house of lloheustaufen — The Interregnum
— TJie robber castles of tlie Rhine — Growth of cathedral towni^i —
Election of Rudolf, founder of the house of Ilabsburg — Charlej? IV.
issues the Golden Bull — Invention of gunpowder — Revolution in the
art of war — Invention of printing — Attempt of the rulers to check
the intellectual awakeuinif — The edict of Perpetual Peac« — The
House of Habsburg at the culmination of its power — The Diet at Womih
— Martin Luther placed under the ban of the empire — His tran*ilat](>zi
of the Bible — Spirit of the times — Beginning of the ** Thirty Yean»'
AVar" — Military tactics of Gustavus Adolphus — Tlie Peare of West-
phalia— The question of the Rhino provinces m.ide a permanent ihsue —
Change in the char.icter of the German — Louis XIV. of Franre Kiini*^
the Peace of Utrecht — The Great Elector tlie first to keep a KLauoixic
army in time of peace — Accession of Frederick the Great — 'J'iit:
"Seven Years' War" — Frederick in the front rank of great c'.»ur-
manders — Wisdom and energy of Frederick's government — luu-
portant changes in the internal atfairs of Germany — Separation <A uit
spiritual and secular power — Wars witli Napoleon — Wai of LibeniiuiJ
followed by a season of peace — Constitutions granted by the kium*-
to their subjects — Unification of Italy under Victor Emauuel — Oin
Von Bismarck made Prime Minister by King William of PruKbia —
Beginning of the end of the small principalities — War l>etwe*»L PruMu
and Austria — Formation of the North German ConfederaUoii — i>vle«'
of the French — Political unification of (Termany 'Z^,
CHAPTER XVIL
COMPLEX KEPUBLICAXISM.
First movement toward Home Rule by the Colonists — Compler htewur*-
canism still an experiment — Congress of the United Staiw Mjji tnzt^
ment of Great Britain the models of government for uiij*ft cuiiiit:*^
The Congress of the republics of Central and South Amtrrjui i'-.-n.. •
government in Germany, Denmark, and other countrieh - - '1 iir«^
nate branches in the government of the United Stater — 'In- ia*
dinate branch: the legislative — General powers of C^^mis^w^—
I., Section 2 of the Constitution — Number of popuiviiuj Paius^r .
constitute a congressional district — Election of nifiuuri "^L**-
power which the House of Representatives excluhiv«>i-
other power exclusively exercised by the Houm.' — '1 rnur- «•:
— Power of the Speaker of the Hijuse — lmjiortaii4-K« «i u^
Committees of the House — Duties of the diflvreis-
member prohibited from holding any other gtiv-
hibited also from voting on measures in wiiifji tli«i'
affected — The Senate of the Uniled Stat^iK — CiHiB^, ♦*
Exclusive power of ** consent" possessed liv li«*
ception to the general rule of the Senate duhm: tm-^,
President Cleveland — An executive session — "Tj
Movement agitated for the election of seuaim •9.«ht
people — Reasons in favor — The secimd
ment: the executive — The Electoral Col _
— Chief duty of the President — Paw«r tD
Reason for so much legislative poww k
The Cabinet — Duties of the
26 THE 8TOBY OF GOYERNXENT.
— Daties of the Secretary of the Treasurr luid his assistauits— The
Commiuioner of Castoms'— The Treasurer of the United States — The
Begister of the Treasurr — Comptroller of the Currency — Director
of the Mint — Commissioner of Internal Revenue — Solicitor of the
Treasury — Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey —
Other officials of the Treasury Department — Publications of the
Bureau of Statistics — Bureau of Printing and Engraving — Secretary
of War— Secretary of the Xavy — Secretary of the Interior — Im-
portant officials of this department — Office of Postmaster-General —
Attorney-General and assistants — Secretary of Aj^ricnlture — Commis-
sioner of labor — Interstate Commerce law — The form of State gov-
ernment similar to that of the national government — Duty of a State
legislature — State elections — The annual political campaign a great
educator of the masses — Necessity for the people to keep the closest
supervision over the doings of their representatives — The Constitution
the organic law of each commonwealth — Government in the sparsely
settled districts of the country — The power of Congress over the Terri-
tories — Good reasons for popular discontent, and remedies suggested . d23
I.
Origin of Government with Man 35
Making Fire by Friction 37
A Savage of the Seoond Period 39
Two Mothers in the Days Before the Flood 41
The Bow and Arrow or Second Stage of Sav^ery 43
The First Potter 45
The Ffrst Weaver 47
Early Agriculture in Europe 49
Meeting of Massaaoit and the Pilgrims 51
One of King Philip's Hunting Lodges 53
Philip, the Last New England King 55
A Haman Heart Offered up to the Sun-God (4 p. fnlder) ... 56a
Wigwam Building Among the Iroquois 57
A Sachem Rendering Judgment 59
From a Picture by Sir Edwin Landseer 63
The Police of the Alps 65
A Vill^e of Beavers 67
Natives of South Africa Fighting Termites 69
Hiving a Bee-Cloud 71
A King of Beasts Who Has No Regular Subjects 73
A City of Sea Birds 77
Kangaroos Led by an Axis Deer 79
28 THE STOEY OP GOVEENMBNT.
A Mutiny in the Cage (4 p folder) 80a
A Prairie Dog Town 81
A Royal Bengal Tiger 83
The Wild Horse 85
A Convention of Seals 87
III.
A Gypsy Queen 90
Roumanian Gypsies Begging 91
A Gypsy Camp 95
In Prison 97
A Group of Turkish Gypsies 99
A French Gypsy Selling Baskets 103
Pleading for Freedom 107
Zigani Pleading before Philip III. of Spain Ill
A Camorristic Tramp 114
Mob of Gentlemen Storming the Parish Prison at New Orleans . 117
A Gypsy Circus (4 p. folder) 123
Thieves' Den 181
A Young London Thief 189
IV.
Punishing a Wife Beater 143
Dragging a King's Wives to His Funeral 149
Making a Fetish of a Foeman's Head 151
King M'Teza, a Friend of Stanley 158
Taking a Prisoner for Slavery 158
Two Fanti Ladies 159
A Criminal Decapitated 161
Ashanti Girls Producing Fetish 165
A Fetish Temple 173 .
An Expert at the " Customs " Asking Applause 175
A Town in Dahomey 181
A Boy's Head, part African — part Arab of the Lower Nile . . 188
Stanley 185
The Hill of the Holy Monkeys 189
BanyaiHuts 198
V.
Absolutism 197
The Shah 199
LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. 29
Barracks of the Gholams 203
A Market Scene in Meshed 205
An Elocutionist in the Harem 207
A Persian Village Belle 210
Musicians in Ispahan Saluting the Sunrise 213
A Marriage Procession 215
A Persian Caravansary or Hotel 219
A Parsee Burial in Northern India 221
A Guebre Making Himself Known by a Secret Sign .... 223
VI.
Benares from the Ganges 227
The Banyan or Sacred Tree 231
High Caste Brahmins 235
A Rich Fakir 237
A Low Class Fakir 239
A Village Sutar 241
Punishment of a Thief in Village India 243
The Temple of Soma 247
The Car of Juggernaut 249
Rushing to Juggernaut 251
Thuggery 253
Thugs Burying a Victim Alive 255
A Siesta in the Jungle 257
A Jeweller in the Shadow of the Temple 259
The Water Carrier 261
Rapid Transit in Northern India 263
The Egg Dancer at a Marriage Celebration 265
A Travelling Barber 267
Husbandry in Northern India 269
Sowing the Seed 271
Two Peasant Women 273
A Snake Charmer 275
Mount^n Travel 277
VII.
A Scholastic Oligarchy 281
A GUmpse of the Great Wall 282
Opium Smokers 283
A Street of Hongs in Canton 285
Canton on the River Side 287
22 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
ment, and Commons resulting In the rise of a new party called the Whig
— The rise of organized parties in Parliament the most important event
since the restoration — Political acts of Charles II. during the last three
years of his life — The story of the mistakes of James II. — Flight of
King James, and transference of the crown to William of Orange —
Declarations of the Bill of Rights — The Triennial Act of William UI.'s
pai'liament — James I. a learned but weak king — Parliament occupied
only with the reassertion of its former rights — Illegal monopoly insti-
tuted by Charles I. the germ of present trusts and syndicates — First
effects of parliamentary freedom — Change in the character of the
Ministry — The government acquiring a corporate character — ** Repre-
sentatives of the people ** — The Whig nobles the most powerful class
in the kingdom — The reign of the nobility a beneficent despotism —
Haphazard method of the House of Commons in the days of George
III. — The society of tlie " Friends of the People '* — Apparently hope-
less entanglement of the legislative, executive and judicial functions —
Determination of Victoria to know the doings of her ministers — System
of the British Cabinet — Points of difference between the American and
English systems of government — Qualities needful to a minister in
England — Summary of the development of English government . . . 475
CHAPTER XII.
A CM)VEBNMENT OF MYSTERY AND FRATERNITY.
An odd incident connected with one of the secret signs of Masonry —
Legendary Masonry of profound ethical interest — The legend of the
Temple a fascinating myth — Curious claim set up by Freemasonry —
The aim of all secret societies of the past — Freemasonry the com-
pendium of all primitive accumulated human knowledge — The history
of the order divided into two periods — Records of a lodge of 1G48 —
The name ** masonic'* adopted by the society in the last century —
Freemasonry a tree whose roots are spread through many soils — The
masonic alphabet — Description of a Lodge — A relic of astrology —
Initiation of a novice into the first or Apprentice degree — The second
degree of symbolic Freemasony, the Fellow-Craft —Supposed significance
of the letter G seen in the lodge — The degree of Master Mason —
Another version of the legend of Osiris — The degree of the Holy Royal
Arch — The Omnific Word — The emblem of emblems — Masonry at its
height in France during the revolutionary period — Napoleon and
Masonry — Masonic titles bestowed upon Cambacenis — The Grand
Orient Lodge — Its half yearly words of command were Napoleonic f or-
mulse — The fall of Napoleon attributed to Masonry — History of
Joseph Balsamo, alias Count Cagliostix) — The Egyptian rite invented
by Cagliostro — Adoptive Masonry — First lodge of adoption — Anec-
dote of the Jew and the Parsee — Speculative or Philosophical Masonry
not derived from Operative — Historic uncertainty of Masonry — First
appearance of the name ** Freemason '* — ** Masons made here for 12
shillings^* — A complete change and rebirth in the year 1717 — The true
character of Freemasonry in the history of the operative sodalities and
successive ages of architects — The *• New Constitution*' the Freemasonry
of the present day — The touch of Masonry penetrating all the scenes
of the Revolution — Repeated attempts to make Freemasonry a union of
States and a union of Grand Lodges — A Grand Lodge territory sacred
from invasion — Washington as a Mason — Temporary setback to Ma-
sonry — The golden era of Freemasonry — The comer-stone of Bunker
HiU monument laid by the Grand Lodge — Anti-masonic excitement —
The famous "Declaration** — The ** Masonic Education and Charity
Trust" — Boston Masonic Temple — The Masonic Temple, Philadelphia,
the finest and largest in the world — Plan of the Chicago building —
Masonry developed from a simple secret society into a great interna-
tional bond, a government within government ^> The purest of democra-
CONTENTS. 28
cies in theory and practice — One of the most binding oaths and obliga-
tions— Review of history in the United States — A Grand Lodge of
Masons in every State of the Union — Templar Masonry a semi-military
organization — Degrees and rites of the order — The true essence of
Freemasonry 567
CHAPTER XIIL
EXPERIMENTAL BEPUBLICANISM.
The Republic of France the offspring of revolution — Condition of the
people prior to the Revolution of 1793 — The peasantry merely beasts of
burden — Liberty of speech and of the press non-existent — Three gen-
eral classes — Inequality even in the family — The taxes all paid by the
peasantry and artisans — Misery of the common people — Immorality
the fashion — View of marriage — Tremendous political influence of
Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau, or dramatist, lawyer and novelist
— Louis XVI. attempts reform — Turgors plans for financial retrench-
ment— Turgotand Malesherbes forced to resign — The famous "Account
Rendered" — Neckar deposed — Calonne exiled — Neckar recalled to office
— Convocation of the States-General — Platform of principles adopted
by the Third Estate — First difficulty arising in the assemblage leads to
a five weeks' contest — ** National Constituent Assembly '* — First for-
mal session of the Assembly — The inviolability of its membere solemnly
proclaimed — Committees for business organized — Dismissal and exile
of Neckar — Storming of the Bastile — Curious anecdotes prophetic of the
flood — Cagliostro, the Wizard — The Revolution baptized in blood —
Feudalism abolished, and the first plank in the platform of the Third
Estate, the equality of man, a reality — Many beneficent laws passed by
the National Assembly — Dissolution of the Assembly after two years'
term of office — New and formidable difficulties before the Legislative
Assembly — Twenty-three years' war — Lafayette proscribed — Sacking
of the Tuillerles — The Assembly powerless — France invaded by the
Duke of Brunswick — Louis XVI. guillotined — A huge political blunder
— The Reign of Terror legalized — Strange anecdote of the institution
by Carrier of Republican marriage — Conflict with the Kings — The
Republic definitively established — The Revolution succeeded by the
military dictatorship of Napoleon — Charles X. a true type of the
Bourbon prince — Louis Philippe chosen king by the Chamber of
Deputies — Universal suffrage decreed by the National Assembly —
Napoleon III. deposed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Republic
proclaimed — The Constitution of France — The present Republic the
offspring of 1793 031
CHAPTER XIV.
GOVEENMENT AMONG SECRET ORDERS.
Every secret society with a political aim an act of collective conscience —
A legitimate hatred of evil the salvation of nations — Order of the
Chauffeurs, or Burners — Rites of initiation — Marriage customs of the
order — Their detection by the cunning of one of their victims and their
extinction — The Society of the Carbonari — (Ceremonies of the Lodge —
A mixture of Masonry and Catholic mysticism — Initiation into the
different degrees — Real object of the association — The Carbonari
played no small part in general European politics — Ambition of the
Carbonari to obtain a constitutional government for their country —
Influence of the order — Carbonarism introduced into France — Why
of special historic interest — Combination with young Italy, a society
with identical aims — Society of ** American Hunters *' — Lord Byron
said to have been its head — The society an ethical as well as practical
one — Object of the revolutionary society of Nihilists — Articles of their
24 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
belief — ** From the United to the Isolated '' — Sentences on early
prisoners mild in comparison to those of recent date — The Fenians one
of the most active of political secret societies — Indications that tlie
association is not extinct — Founding of Fenianism in America — Cou-
ventions at Chicago and Cincinnati — Traitors within the organization —
Report of the Investigating Committee — Origin of the word Fenian —
Extracts from the Patriotic Litany of Saint Lawrence O' Toole — The
term Tammany first applied to the Columbian order — Evolution of the
title — A striking characteristic — Record of the organization — Early
history — Part played in national affairs — Intricate relations with New
York politics — A survivor of several defeats — The Tammany legend,
a very amusing and instructive tradition — The supreme trait of Tam-
many's character — Symbols of the thirteen tribes — Statistics of
Tammany Hall — Tlie leader of the Tammany forces — The General
Committee — Salaries — Outline of the plan of organization — The work
of the committee — Assembly district organizations — Qualifications
necessary for a district leader — Strict discipline 665
CHAPTER XV.
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT.
Equal citizenship of sexes first recognized during the French Revolution —
Partial citizenship in early American colonies — Wyoming the first real
political democracy of large area — England moving faster than America
towards full female suffrage — Proofs of the interest taken in it by intelli-
gent women — Stain on Uie history of the State of Washington — How
women have voted and are likely to vote — Woman's political status all
over the world — The next step from a political must be an industrial
democracy — The general stream of human happiness — The world's
debt to women of simple lives — Sudden possession of excessive power —
Depraved women not so much the cause as the result of the corruption of
the middle ages — Sex equality among primitive races — Respect shown to
women by New England Indians — Feminine leadership in modem Africa
— Number of Behangin's female warriors — Peculiarities of Polyandrous
tribes — An odd incidentillustrative of the working of an Eastern mind —
Condition of woman in the age of Homer — Degradation of woman in the
palmy days of Athens — Sparta alone the cradle of great women — The
HetairsB — Aspasia and the government of Athens — Orientalized Athens
corrupts her conqueror, the Roman — The character of Cleopatra — Zeno-
bia — Rome overrun by Germans — Effect of feudalism and the Catholic
church on women — The age of chivalry — Joan D' Arc and Agnes Sorel
— Decency in eclipse for three centuries — Isabella of Castile — Mary A.
Livermore's opinion about her — John Knox and his Trumpet Blast —
Elizabeth, the greatest of England'^ queens — Madame de Maintenon —
Madame de Pompadour and her deluge — The crowned women of Russia
— Striking feminine figures of the present century — The real queens of
to-day, where found 721
CHAPTER XVL
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
Reflections arising from wandering through the galleries of Versailles —
The most dramatic of recent historical events — Proclamation of Em-
peror William — Legislative functions of the empire — The executive
power in the hands of the Emperor — The Bundesrath and its com-
mittees — The Reichstag — Officers of State — Historical growth of
the German empire — Earliest recorded Teutonic invasion — Ger-
mans in the Roman armies — Characteristics of the different tribes
— Assemblies of the freemen — Important victory of the German
tribes under Herman — Migratory instincts of the Germanic tribes
CONTENTS. 26
again showing itself — History of the Franks in Gaul — The treaty
of Verdun — The Huns conquered by King Henry — Beginning of
town life among the Grermans — Alliance of Church and State sovereign-
ties— Origin of Germany's claim to Italy — Revival of learning — Di-
vision of large duchies into small principalities the beginning of
individualism — Quarrel of Guelph and Giiibeline — Conflict between
Emperor and Pope — Effect on Germany — Power of the Emperors
shattered — Extinction of the house of Uohenstaufen — The Interregnum
— The robber castles of the Rhine — Growth of cathedral towns —
Election of Rudolf, founder of the house of Habsburg — Charles IV.
issues the Golden Bull — Invention of gunpowder — Revolution in the
art of war — Invention of printing — Attempt of the rulers to check
the intellectual awakeuin*^ — The edict of Perpetual Peace — The
House of Habsburg at the culmination of its power — The Diet at Worms
— Martin Luther placed under the ban of tlie empire — His translation
of the Bible — Spirit of the times — Beginning of tlie ** Thirty Years'
War" — Military tactics of Gustavus Adolphus — The Peace of West-
phalia — Tlie question of the Rhine provinces made a permanent issue —
Change in the character of the German — Louis XIV. of France signs
the Peace of Utrecht — The Great Elector the first to keep a standing
army in time of peace — Accession of Frederick the Great — The
*' Seven Years' War" — Frederick in the front rank of gi-eat com-
mandei-s — Wisdom and energy of Frederick's government — Im-
portant changes in the internal affairs of Germany — Separation of the
spiritual and secular power — Wars with Napoleon — War of Liberation
followed by a season of peace — Constitutions granted by the kings
to their subjects — Unification of Italy under Victor Emanuel — Otto
Von Bismarck made Prime Minister by King William of Prussia —
Beginning of the end of the small principalities — War between Prussia
and Austria — Formation of the North German Confederation — Defeat
of the French — Political unification of Germany 753
CHAPTER XVIL
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM.
First movement toward Home Rule by the Colonists — Complex Republi-
canism still an experiment — Congress of the United States and Parlia-
ment of Great Britain the models of government for other countries —
The Congress of the republics of Central and South America — Form of
government In Germany, Denmark, and other countries — Three coordi-
nate branches In the government of the United States — The first coor-
dinate branch: the legislative — General powers of Congress — Article
I., Section 2 of the Constitution — Number of population required to
constitute a congressional district — Election of members — The great
power which the House of Representatives exclusively possesses — An-
other power exclusively exercised by the House — Trials of impeachment
— Power of the Speaker of the House — Importance of the position —
Committees of the House — Duties of the different committees — A
member prohibited from holding any other governmental office — Pro-
hibited also from voting on measures in which their private interests are
affected — The Senate of the United States — Officers of the Senate —
Exclusive power of '* consent" possessed by the Senate — Notable ex-
ception to the general rule of the Senate durini; the administration of
President Cleveland — An executive session — " The bllllonnaire club " —
Movement agitated for the election of senators by a direct vote of the
people — Reasons in favor — The second coordinate branch of govern-
ment: the executive — The Electoral College — Election of the President
— Chief duty of the President — Power to pardon — Right of veto —
Reason for so much legislative power in the hands of the Executive —
The Cabinet — Duties of the Secretary of State — Assistant Secretaries
26 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
— Duties of the Secretary of the Treasury and his assistants— The
Commissioner of Customs — The Treasurer of the United States — The
Ba^ster of the Treasury — Comptroller of the Currency — Director
of the Mint — Commissioner of Internal Revenue — Solicitor of the
Treasury — Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Sxu-vey —
Other officials of the Treasury Department — Publications of the
Bureau of Statistics — Bureau of Printing and Enji^raving — Secretary
of War— Secretary of the Navy — Secretary of the Interior — Im-
portant officials of this department — Office of Postmaster-Creneral —
Attomey-Greneral and assistants — Secretary of Agriculture — Commis-
sioner of labor — Interstate Commerce law — The form of State gov-
ernment similar to that of the national government — Duty of a State
legislature — State elections — The annual political campaign a great
educator of the masses — Necessity for the people to keep the closest
supervision over the doings of their representatives — The Constitution
the organic law of each commonwealth — Grovemment in the sparsely
settled districts of the country — The power of Congress over the Terri-
tories— Good reasons for popular discontent, and i^emedies suggested . 823
I.
Origin of Government with Man 35
Making Fire by Friction 37
A Savage of the Second Period 39
Two Mothers in tlie Days Before the Flood 41
The Bow and Arrow or Second Stage of Sav^ery 43
The First Potter 45
The First Weaver 47
Early Agriculture in Europe 49
Meeting of Massasoit and the Pilgrims 51
One of King Philip's Hunting Lodges 58
Philip, the Last New England King 55
A Human Heart Offered up to the Sun-God (4 p. folder) ... 56a
Wigwam Building Among the Iroquois 57
A Sachem Rendering Judgment 59
IL
From a Keture by Sir Edwin Landseer 63
The Police of the Alps 65
A Village of Beavers 67
Natives of South Africa Fighting Termites 69
Hiving a Bee-Cloud 71
A King of Beaata Who Has No Regular Subjects 73
A City of Sea Birds 77
Kangaroos Led by an Axis Deer 79
28 THE STOEY OP GOVEBNMBNT.
A Mutiny in the Cage (4 p folder) 80a
A Prairie Dog Town 81
A Royal Bengal Tiger 83
The Wild Horse 85
A Convention of Seals 87
III.
A Gypsy Queen 90
Roumanian Gypsies Begging 91
A Gypsy Camp 95
In Prison 97
A Group of Turkish Gypsies 99
A French Gypsy Selling Baskets 103
Pleading for Freedom 107
Zigani Pleading before Philip III. of Spain Ill
A Camorristic Tramp 114
Mob of Gentlemen Storming the Parish Prison at New Orleans . 117
A Gypsy Circus (4 p. folder) 123
Thieves' Den 181
A Young London Thief 189
IV.
Punishing a Wife Beater 143
Dragging a Bang's Wives to His Funeral 149
Making a Fetish of a Foeman's Head 151
King M'Teza, a Friend of Stanley 153
Taking a Prisoner for Slavery 158
Two Fanti Ladies 159
A Criminal Decapitated 161
Ashanti Girls Producing Fetish 165
A Fetish Temple 173 .
An Expert at the " Customs " Asking Applause 175
A Town in Dahomey 181
A Boy's Head, part African — part Arab of the Lower Xile . . 188
Stanley 185
The Hill of the Holy Monkeys 189
BanyaiHuts 198
V.
Absolutism 197
The Shah 199
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 29
Barracks of the Gholams 203
A Market Scene in Meshed 205
An Elocutionist in the Harem 207
A Persian Village Belle 210
Musicians in Ispahan Saluting the Sunrise 213
A Marriage Procession 215
A Persian Caravansary or Hotel 219
A Parsee Burial in Northern India 221
A Guebre Making Himself Known by a Secret Sign .... 223
VI.
Benares from the Ganges 227
The Banyan or Sacred Tree 231
High Caste Brahmins 235
A Rich Fakir 237
A Low Class Fakir 239
A Village Sutar 241
Punishment of a Thief in Village India 243
The Temple of Soma 247
The Car of Ju2C£fernaut 249
Rushing to Juggernaut 251
Thuggery 253
Thugs Burying a Victim Alive 255
A Siesta in the Jungle 257
A Jeweller in the Shadow of the Temple 259
The Water Carrier 261
Rapid Transit in Northern India 263
The Egg Dancer at a Marriage Celebration 265
A Travelling Barber 267
Husbandry in Northern India 269
Sowing the Seed 271
Two Peasant Women 273
A Snake Charmer 275
Mountain Travel 277
VII.
A Scholastic Oligarchy 281
A Glimpse of the Great Wall 282
Opium Smokers 283
A Street of Hongs in Canton 285
Canton on the River Side 287
80 THE STOBY OF GOVBBNMBNT.
Ancient Chinese Soldier 289
The Fruit Girl Who Became an Empress 293
An Officer 294
A Culprit in the Cangue Fed by His Wife 295
Executing a Parricide 297
Hearing a Civil Case 299
Crushing a Rebel 801
A Public Whipping 302
Escorting a Pirate to Execution 303
The Chinese Judgment Day 305
A Great Scholar 307
A Schoolmaster of Pekin 309
On a Fashionable Footing 313
A Sail Wagon 815
A Rat Peddler 319
A Buddhist Temple 321
vm.
A Castle in Spain 327
A Chimuan Palace About the Time of Pizarro 329
Pizarro Drawing the Line 331
A Maguey Suspension Bridge 333
Front View of a Maguey Bridge 335
Modem Cuzco 337
Early Peruvians Worshipping the Sun 339
Lighting the Sacred Fire 340
An Early Inca and His Queen 341
An Inca Travelling 343
A Grovemmental Hotel 344
A Temple of the Sun 345
Peruvian Boys Guarding a Grain Field 347
Modern Llamas as Beasts of Burden 349
A Chimuan Princess 351
Peruvian Viceroy Receiving Reports by Quipus 353
The Quipu 355
IX.
Theocracy or Priestly Government 357
Priestess or Pythoness of Delphi (4 p. folder) 859
Moses and the Tables of the Law 367
King Solomon Deciding a Case 870
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 81
The Crucifixion 876
The Holy Family 377
Paul Pleading His Case at Rome 379
Lions Fed with Christians 381
The Stoning of St. Stephen 383
Constantine after His Conversion 386
The Scourge of God 387
St. Austin Converting the English to Christianity 391
A Marriage among Ancient Jews (4 p. folder) 395
Charlemagne Crowned by the Pope 401
Priests in Prayer at the Deathbed of Columbus 403
An Officer of the Papal Household 406
The Queen of Philip Augustus Appealing to Rome 410
The Trial of a Dead Pope 413
Burial of a Monk 417
Elevation of Pope Pius VII 419
A Jesuit Missionary 421
Pope Leo XIII 425
St. Peter's, Rome 429
Oldest Church in United States 431
James Cardinal Gibbons 433
X.
Simple Republicanism 435
A Switzer of Ancient Days 437
A Swiss Village 439
Napoleonic Cavalry Crossing the Alps 443
Crystal Seekers on Mont Blanc 445
Election of a President (4 p. folder) 449
The President Delivering His Inaugural Address 455
The Government Buildings at Berne 457
The Great St. Bernard 463
Tell Escaping in the Storm 465
A Giri of Berne 469
The Peasant's Friend 471
The Swiss Senate Chamber 473
XL
Constitutional Monarchy 475
Harold the Saxon Taking the Oath of Office 477
80 THE STORY OF GOVERHMENT.
Ancient Chinese Soldier 289
The Fruit Girl Who Became an Empress 298
An Officer 294
A Culprit in the Cangue Fed by His Wife 295
Executing a Parricide 297
Hearing a Civil Case 299
Crushing a Rebel SOI
A Public Whipping 802
Escorting a Pirate to Execution 308
The Chinese Judgment Day 806
A Great Scholar 307
A Schoolmaster of Pekin 309
On a Fashionable Footing 818
A Sail Wi^on 315
A Rat Peddler 319
A Buddhist Temple 321
vni.
A Castle in Spain 327
A Chimuan Palace About the IHme of I^zarro 329
Pizarro Drawing the Line 331
A M^uey Suspension Bridge 333
Front View of a Ms^uey Bridge 335
Modem Cuzco 337
Early Peruvians Worshipping the Sun 339
Lighting the Sacred Fire 340
An Early Inca and His Queen 341
An Inca Travelling 848
A Governmental Hotel 844
A Temple of the Sun 846
Peruvian Boys Guarding a Grain Field 847
Modern Llamas as Beasts of Burden 349
A Chimnan Princess 851
Pemviao Viceroy Receiving Reports by Quipus 858
The Qnipu 865
IX.
ci-aoy or Prio«ly Government 867
» or PytbmiMB of Delphi (4 p. folder) 859
"■"*"" " I Uw 867
870
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 81
The Crucifixion 875
The Holy Family 377
Paal Pleading His Case at Rome 379
Lions Fed with Christians 381
The Stoning of St. Stephen 383
Constantine after His Conversion 385
The Scourge of God 387
St. Austin Converting the English to Christianity 391
A Marriage among Ancient Jews (4 p. folder) 395
Charlemagne Crowned by the Pope 401
Priests in Prayer at the Deathbed of Columbus 403
An Officer of the Papal Household 406
The Queen of Philip Augustus Appealing to Rome 410
The Trial of a Dead Pope 413
Burial of a Monk 417
Elevation of Pope Pius VII 419
A Jesuit Missionary 421
Pope Leo XIII 425
St. Peter's, Rome 429
Oldest Church in United States 431
James Cardinal Gibbons 433
X.
Simple Republicanism 435
A Switzer of Ancient Days 437
A Swiss Village 439
Napoleonic Cavalrj- Crossing the Alps 443
Crystal Seekers on Mont Blanc 445
Election of a President (4 p. folder) 449
The President Delivering His Inaugural Address 455
The Government Buildings at Berne 457
The Great St. Bernard 463
Tell Escaping in the Storm 465
A Giri of Berne 469
The Peasant's Friend 471
The Swiss Senate Chamber 473
XL
Constitational Monarchy 475
Harold the Saxon Taking the Oath of Office 477
24 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
belief — *»From the United to the Isolated*' — Sentences on early
prisoners mild in comparison to those of recent date — The Fenians one
of the most active of political secret societies — Indications tliat tlie
association is not extinct — Founding of Fenianism in America — Con-
ventions at Chicago and Cincinnati — Traitors within tlie organization —
Report of tlio Investigating Committee — Origin of the word Fenian —
Extracts from the Patriotic Litany of Saint Lawrence O' Toole — Tlie
term Tammany first applied to the Columbian order — Evolution of the
title — A striking characteristic — Record of the organization — Early
history — Part played in national affairs — Intricate relations with New
York politics — A survivor of several defeats — The Tammany legend,
a very amusing and instructive tradition — The supreme trait of Tam-
many's character — Symbols of the thirteen tribes — Statistics of
Tammany Hall — The leader of the Tammany forces — The General
Committee — Salaries — Outline of the plan of organization — The work
of the committee — Assembly district organizations — Qualifications
necessary for a district leader — Strict discipline 665
CHAPTER XV.
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT.
Equal citizenship of sexes first recognized during the French Revolution —
Partial citizenship in early American colonies — Wyoming the first real
political democracy of large area — England moving faster than America
towards full female suffrage — Proofs of the interest taken in it by intelli-
gent women — Stain on the history of the State of Washington — How
women have voted and are likely to vote — Woman's political status all
over the world — The next step from a political must be an industrial
democracy — The general stream of human happiness — The world's
debt to women of simple lives — Sudden possession of excessive power —
Depraved women not so much the cause as the result of the corruption of
the middle ages — Sex equality among primitive races — Respect shown to
women by New England Indians — Feminine leadership in modern Africa
— Number of Bebangin's female warriors — Peculiarities of Polyandrous
tribes — An odd incident illustrative of the working of an Eastern mind —
Condition of woman in the age of Homer — Degradation of woman in the
palmy days of Athens — Sparta alone the cradle of great women — The
Hetairaa — Aspasia and the government of Athens — Orientalized Athens
corrupts her conqueror, the Roman — The character of Cleopatra — Zeno-
bia — Rome overrun by Germans — Effect of feudalism and the Catholic
church on women — The age of chivalry — Joan D' Arc and Agnes Sorel
— Decency in eclipse for three centuries — Isabella of Castile — Mary A.
Livermore's opinion about her — John Knox and his Trumpet Blast —
Elizabeth, the greatest of England';^ queens — Madame de Maintenon —
Madame de Pompadour and her deluge — The crowned women of Russia
— Striking feminine figures of the present century — The real queens of
to-day, where found 721
CHAPTER XVI.
8EMT-M1LITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
Refiections arising from wandering through the galleries of Versailles —
The most dramatic of recent historical events — Proclamation of Em-
peror William — Legislative functions of the empire — The executive
power in the hands of tlie Emperor — The Bundesrath and its com-
mittees — The Reichstag — OflBcers of State — Historical growth of
the German empire — Earliest recorded Teutonic invasion — Ger-
mans in the Roman armies — Characteristics of the different tribes
— Assemblies of the freemen — Important victory of the German
tribes under Herman — Migratory instincts of the Grermanic tribes
CONTENTS. 26
again showing itself — History of the Franks in Gaul — The treaty
of Verdun — The Huns conquered by King Henry — Beginning of
town life among the Germans — Alliance of Church and State sovereign-
ties— Origin of Germany's claim to Italy — Revival of learning — Di-
vision of large duchies into small principalities the beginning of
individualism — Quarrel of Guelph and Ghibeline — Conflict between
Emperor and Pope — Effect on Germany — Power of the Emperoi*s
sliatteied — Extinction of the house of Hohenstaufen — The Interregnum
— The robber castles of the Rhine — Growth of cathedral towns —
Election of Rudolf, founder of the house of Habsburg — Charles IV.
issues the Golden Bull — Invention of gunpowder — Revolution in the
art of war — Invention of printing — Attempt of the rulers to check
the intellectual awakening — The edict of Perpetual Peace — The
House of Habsburg at the cuhnination of its power — The Diet at Worms
— Martin Luther placed under the ban of the empire — His translation
of the Bible — Spirit of the times — Beginning of the ** Thirty Years'
War" — Military tactics of Gustavus Adolphus — Tlie Peace of West-
phalia— Tiie question of the Rhine provinces made a permanent issue —
Change in the character of the German — Louis XIV. of France signs
the Peace of Utrecht — The Great Elector the lirst to keep a standing
army in time of peace — Accession of Frederick the Great — The
** Seven Years* War" — Frederick in the front rank of great com-
mandei-s — Wisdom and energy of Frederick's government — Im-
portant changes in the internal affairs of Germany — Separation of the
spiritual and secular power — Wars witli Napoleon — War of Liberation
followed by a season of peace — Constitutions granted by the kings
to their subjects — Unification of Italy under Victor Emanuel — Otto
Von Bismarck made Prime Minister by King William of Prussia —
Beginning of the end of the small principalities — War between Prussia
and Austria — Formation of the North German Confederation — Defeat
of the French — Political unification of Germany 753
CHAPTER XVIL
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM.
First movement toward Home Rule by the Colonists — Complex Republi-
canism still an experiment — Congress of the United States and Parlia-
ment of Great Britain the models of government for other countries —
The Congress of the republics of Central and South America — Form of
government in Germany, Denmark, and other countries — Three coordi-
nate branches in the government of the United States — The first coor-
dinate branch: the legislative — General powers of Congress — Article
L, Section 2 of the Constitution — Number of population required to
constitute a congressional district — Election of members — The great
power which the House of Representatives exclusively possesses — An-
otlier power exclusively exercised by the House — Trials of impeachment
— Power of the Speaker of the Hcmse — Importance of the position —
Committees of the House — Duties of the different committees — A
member prohibited from holding any other governmental office — Pro-
hibited also from voting on measures in which their private interests are
affected — The Senate of the United States — Officers of the Senate —
Exclusive power of '* consent" possessed by the Senate — Notable ex-
ception to the general rule of tlie Senate durinjx the administration of
President Cleveland — An executive session — " The billionnaire club " —
Movement agitated for the election of senators bv a direct vote of the
people — Reasons in favor — The second coordinate branch of govern-
ment: the executive — The Electoral College — Election of the President
— Chief duty of the President — Power to pardon — Right of veto —
Reason for so much legislative power in the hands of the Executive —
The Cabinet — Duties of the Secretary of State — Assistant Secretaries
26 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
— Duties of the Secretary of the Treasury and his assistants — The
Commissioner of Customs — The Treasurer of the United States — The
Bflgister of the Treasury — Comptroller of the Currency — Director
of the Mint — Commissioner of Internal Revenue — Solicitor of the
Treasury — Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey —
Other officials of the Treasury Department — Publications of the
Bureau of Statistics — Bureau of Printing and Engraving — Secretary
of War— Secretary of the Navy — Secretary of the Interior — Im-
portant officials of this department — Office of Postmaster-General —
Attorney-General and assistants — Secretary of Agriculture — Commis-
sioner of labor — Interstate Commerce law — The form of State gov-
ernment similar to that of the national government — Duty of a State
legislature — State elections — The annual political campaign a great
educator of the masses — Necessity for the people to keep the closest
supervision over the doings of their representatives — The Constitution
the organic law of each commonwealth — Government in the sparsely
settled districts of the country — The power of Congress over the Terri-
tories — Good reasons for popular discontent, and i*emedies suggested . 823
Origin of Government with Man 35
Making Fire by Friction 37
A Savage of the Seuond Period 39
Two Mothers in the Days Before the Flood 41
The Bow and Arrow or Second Stage of Savagery 43
The First Potter 45
The Flrat Weaver 47
Early Agriculture in Europe 49
Meeting of Massasoit and the PilgrimH 51
One of King Philip's Hunting Lodges 53
Philip, the Last New England King 55
A Human Heart Offered up to the Sun-God (4 p. folder) ... 56a
Wigwam Building Among the Iroquois 57
A Sachem Rendering Judgment 59
II.
From a Picture by Sir Edwin Landscer 63
The Police of the Alps 65
A Village of Beavers 67
Natives of South Africa Fighting Termites 69
Hiving a Bee-Cloud 71
A King of Beasts Who Has No Regular Subjects 73
A City of Sea Birds 77
Kangaroos Led by an Axis Deer 79
28 THE STOEY OP GOVEENMBNT.
A Mutiny in the Cage (4 p folder) 80a
A Prairie Dog Town 81
A Royal Bengal Tiger 83
The Wild Horse 85
A Convention of Seals 87
III.
A Gypsy Queen 90
Roumanian Gypsies Begging 91
A Gypsy Camp 95
In Prison 97
A Group of Turkish Gypsies 99
A French Gypsy Selling Baskets 103
Pleading for Freedom 107
Zigani Pleading before Philip III. of Spain Ill
A Camorristic Tramp 114
Mob of Gentlemen Storming the Parish Prison at New Orleans . 117
A Gypsy Circus (4 p. folder) 123
Thieves' Den 181
A Young London Thief 139
IV.
Punishing a Wife Beater 143
Dragging a King's Wives to His Funeral 149
Making a Fetish of a Foeman's Head 151
King M'Teza, a Friend of Stanley 153
Taking a Prisoner for Slavery 158
Two Fanti Ladies 159
A Criminal Decapitated 161
Ashanti Girls Producing Fetish 165
A Fetish Temple 173 .
An Expert at the " Customs " Asking Applause 175
A Town in Dahomey 181
A Boy's Head, part African — part Arab of the Lower Nile . . 188
Stanley 185
The Hill of the Holy Monkeys 189
BanyaiHuts 198
V.
Absolutism 197
The Shah 199
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 29
Barracks of the Gholams 203
A Market Scene in Meshed 205
An Elocutionist in the Harem 207
A Persian Village Belle 210
Musicians in Ispahan Saluting the Sunrise 213
A Marriage Procession 215
A Persian Caravansary or Hotel 219
A Parsee Burial in Northern India 221
A Guebre Making Himself Known by a Secret Sign .... 223
VI.
Benares from the Ganges 227
The Banyan or Sacred Tree 231
High Caste Brahmins 235
A Rich Fakir 237
A Low Class Fakir 239
A Village Sutar 241
Punishment of a Thief in Village India 243
The Temple of Soma 247
The Car of Juggernaut 249
Rushing to Juggernaut . . 251
Thuggery 253
Thugs Burying a Victim Alive 255
A Siesta in the Jungle 257
A Jeweller in the Shadow of the Temple 259
The Water Carrier 261
Rapid Transit in Northern India 263
The Egg Dancer at a Marriage Celebration 265
A Travelling Barber 267
Husbandry in Northern India 269
Sowing the Seed 271
Two Peasant Women 273
A Snake Charmer 275
Mountain Travel 277
VII.
A Scholastic Oligarchy 281
A Glimpse of the Great Wall 282
Opium Smokers 283
A Street of Hongs in Canton 285
Canton on the River Side 287
28 THE STOEY OP GOVKBNMENT.
A Mutiny in the Cage (4 p folder) 80a
A Prairie Dog Town 81
A Royal Bengal Tiger 83
The Wild Horse 85
A Convention of Seals 87
III.
A Gypsy Queen 90
Roumanian Gypsies Begging 91
A Gypsy Camp 95
In Prison 97
A Group of Turkish Gypsies 99
A French Gypsy Selling Baskets 103
Pleading for Freedom 107
Zigani Pleading before Philip III. of Spain Ill
A Camorristic Tramp 114
Mob of Gentlemen Storming the Parish Prison at New Orleans . 117
A Gypsy Circus (4 p. folder) 123
Thieves' Den 181
A Young London Thief 139
IV.
Punishing a Wife Beater 143
Dragging a King's Wives to His Funeral 149
Making a Fetish of a Foeman's Head . . . 151
King M'Teza, a Friend of Stanley 153
Taking a Prisoner for Slavery 158
Two Fanti Ladies 159
A Criminal Decapitated 161
Ashanti Girls Producing Fetish 165
A Fetish Temple 173 .
An Expert at the " Customs " Asking Applause 175
A Town in Dahomey 181
A Boy's Head, part African — part Arab of the Lower Nile . . 188
Stanley 185
The Hill of the Holy Monkeys 189
BanyaiHuts 198
V.
Absolutism 197
The Shah 199
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 29
Barracks of the Gholams 203
A Market Scene in Meshed 205
An Elocutionist in the Harem 207
A Persian Village Belle 210
Musicians in Ispahan Saluting the Sunrise 213
A Marriage Procession 215
A Persian Caravansary or Hotel 219
A Parsee Burial in Northern India 221
A Guebre Making Himself Known by a Secret Sign .... 223
VI.
Benares from the Ganges 227
The Banyan or Sacred Tree 231
High Caste Brahmins 235
A Rich Fakir 237
A Low Class Fakir .239
A Village Sutar 241
Punishment of a Thief in Village India 243
The Temple of Soma 247
The Car of Jucjcjernaut 249
Rushing to Juggernaut . . 251
Thuggery 253
Thugs Burying a Victim Alive 255
A Siesta in the Jungle 257
A Jeweller in the Shadow of the Temple 259
The Water Carrier 261
Rapid Transit in Northern India 263
The Egg Dancer at a Marriage Celebration 265
A Travelling Barber 267
Husbandry in Northern India 269
Sowing the Seed 271
Two Peasant Women 273
A Snake Charmer 275
Mountain Travel 277
VII.
A Scholastic Oligarchy 281
A Glimpse of the Great Wall 282
Opium Smokers 283
A Street of Hongs in Canton 285
Canton on the River Side 287
80 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Ancient Chinese Soldier 289
The Fruit Girl Who Became an Empress 293
An Officer 294
A Culprit in the Cangue Fed by His Wife 295
Executing a Parricide 297
Hearing a Civil Case 299
Crushing a Rebel 301
A Public Whipping 302
Escorting a Pirate to Execution 303
The Chinese Judgment Day 305
A Great Scholar 307
A Schoolmaster of Pekin 309
On a Fashionable Footing 313
A Sail Wagon 315
A Rat Peddler 319
A Buddhist Temple 321
VIII.
A Castle in Spain 327
A Chimuan Palace About the Time of Pizarro 329
Pizarro Drawing the Line 331
A Maguey Suspension Bridge 333
Front View of a Maguey Bridge 335
Modem Cuzco 337
Early Peruvians Worshipping the Sun 339
Lighting the Sacred Fire 340
An Early Inca and His Queen 341
An Inca Travelling 343
A Governmental Hotel 344
A Temple of the Sun 345
Peruvian Boys Guarding a Grain Field 347
Modern Llamas as Beasts of Burden 349
A Chimuan Princess 351
Peruvian Viceroy Receiving Reports by Quipus 353
The Quipu 355
IX.
Theocracy or Priestly Grovemment 857
Priestess or P3rthone8s of Delphi (4 p. folder) 359
Moses and the Tables of the Law 367
King Solomon Deciding a Case 870
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ^1
The Crucifixion 875
The Holy Family 377
Paul Pleading His Case at Rome 379
Lions Fed with Christians 381
The Stoning of St. Stephen 383
Constantine after His Conversion 385
The Scourge of God 387
St. Austin Converting the English to Christianity 391
A Marriage among Ancient Jews (4 p. folder) 395
Charlemagne Crowned by the Pope 401
Priests in Prayer at the Deathbed of Columbus 403
An Officer of the Papal Household 406
The Queen of Philip Augustus Appealing to Rome 410
The Trial of a Dead Pope 413
Burial of a Monk 417
Elevation of Pope Pius VII 419
A Jesuit Missionary 421
Pope Leo XIII. / 425
St. Peter's, Rome 429
Oldest Church in United States 431
James Cardinal Gibbons 433
X.
Simple Republicanism 435
A Switzer of Ancient Days 437
A Swiss Village 439
Napoleonic Cavalry Crossing the Alps 443
Crystal Seekers on Mont Blanc 445
Election of a President (4 p. folder) 449
The President Delivering His Inaugural Address 455
The Government Buildings at Berne 457
The Great St. Bernard 463
Tell Escaping in the Storm 465
A Giri of Berne 469
The Peasant's Friend 471
The Swiss Senate Chamber 473
XI.
Constitutional Monarchy 475
Harold the Saxon Taking the Oath of Office 477
82 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Hubert, an early English judge, killed at the Horns of the Altar
(4 p. folder) 479
Magna Charta Island 483
King John in Anger 485
A Crusader 487
Edward I. the Successful Crusader ^ . . . 489
Coronation Chair of Edward IH. with the Stone of Scone . . . 497
Windsor Castle, the Queen's Favorite Residence 501
Interior of the House of Commons ... 507
Block, Ax, and Mask of Headsman in Days of Sir Thomas More 511
Execution of Lady Jane Grey 513
Shakespeare's Birthplace before Restoration 515
Shakespeare Reading before Queen Elizabeth 517
" My Lord, we've time to finish the game and beat the Spaniards
too" 519
Death of Queen Elizabeth 521
Charles 1 525
The Trial of Hampden 529
Cromwell Refusing the Crown 539
William Ewart Gladstone 543
Westminster in 1647 545
An American Bible Presented to the Queen. (4 p. folder) . . . 553
The Great Seal of England 561
The Cabinet Room in Downing St 563
Queen Victoria 565
XII.
Albert Pike 571
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in Masonic Dress 575
The Cathedral, Baptistry, and Leaning Tower of Pisa .... 579
A French Lodge for the Reception of an Apprentice, 1745 . . 583
A French Lodge for the Reception of a Master ... .587
The Cathedral at Rheims 591
Old Tun Tavern at Philadelphia, where the first American Lodge
was organized 595
Napoleon's Retreat from Leipsic (4 p. folder) 599
Green Dragon Tavern, Boston, where the first Boston Lodge was
organized 607
Brother George Washington's Masonic Apron 615
George Washington 625
A Female Crusader Saving a Knight Templar 627
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. 38
XIII.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps 633
Assassination of Gustaviis III. (4 p. folder) 639
Turgot Pavilion of the Louvre 647
Hotel des Invalides 651
A French Monastery During the Revolution 657
Assassination of Julius Cajsar 659
A Woodman's Hut at Ardennes, on the Way to Waterloo, 1815, 661
xrv.
An Initiation Among the Chauffeurs 667
Chauffeurs Disguised as Musicians and Flower Peddlers (4 p.
folder) 671
A Travelling Cardinal Apprehensive of Carbonari, Italy in 1 800 . 679
Russian Political Exiles in Siberia (4 p. folder) 685
John Boyle O'Reilly 693
Richard Croker 099
Meeting of Tammany and Manco Capac 705
Carbonari Making Merry in a Monastery Cellar (4 p. folder) . . 711
XV.
A Head Dance by Squaws 723
The Female Soldiers of Dahomev Fiirhtinc: tlie French . . . 727
Hetaira} of Ancient Athens 729
The Present Empress of Russia ' . 735
Isabella Receiving Columbus 739
Women Watching the Outbreak of Vesuvius 743
Wilhelmine, the Child Queen of the Netherlands 745
Mary A. Livermore 751
XVI.
Colossal Statues of the Genii or War and Peace at ^Munich (4 j).
folder) 757
Brunhild Beholding her Rival, Guthrun, at the Side of Siegfried
(4 p. folder) 765
An Early German Warrior 769
Two Games — A German Scene in the 17th Century (4 p. folder) 773
Wittikind the Saxon Received into Baptism with Charlemagne
for Sponsor 779
Modem German Artillerymen 781
82 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Hubert, an early English judge, killed at the Horns of the Altar
(4 p. folder) 479
Magna Charta Island 483
King John in Anger 485
A Crusader 487
Edward I. the Successful Crusader ^ . . . 489
Coronation Chair of Edward III. with the Stone of Scone . . . 497
Windsor Castle, the Queen's Favorite Residence 501
Interior of the House of Commons ... 507
Block, Ax, and Mask of Headsman in Days of Sir Thomas More 511
Execution of Lady Jane Grey 513
Shakespeare's Birthplace before Restoration 515
Shakespeare Reading before Queen Elizabeth 517
" My Lord, we've time to finish the game and beat the Spaniards
too" 519
Death of Queen Elizabeth 521
Charles 1 525
The Trial of Hampden 529
Cromwell Refusing the Crown 539
William Ewart Gladstone 543
Westminster in 1647 545
An American Bible Presented to the Queen. (4 j). folder) . . . 553
The Great Seal of England 561
The Cabinet Room in Downing St 563
Queen Victoria 565
XII.
Albert Pike 571
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in Masonic Dress 575
The Cathedral, Baptistry, aiid Leaning Tower of Pisa .... 579
A French Lodge for the Reception of an Apprentice, 1745 . . 583
A French Lodge for the Reception of a Master .... 587
The Cathedral at Rheims 591
Old Tun Tavern at Philadelphia, where the first American Lodge
was organized 595
Napoleon's Retreat from Leipsic (4 p. folder) 599
Green Dragon Tavern, Boston, where the first Boston Lodge was
organized 607
Brother George Washington's Masonic Apron 615
George Washington 625
A Female Crusader Saving a Knight Templar 627
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 38
XIII.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps 633
Assassination of Giistavus III. (4 p. folder) 639
Turgot Pavilion of the Louvre 647
Hotel des Invalides 651
A French Monastery During the Revolution 657
Assassination of Julius Cneaar 659
A Woodman's Hut at Ardennes, on the Way to Waterloo, 1815, 661
XIV.
An Initiation Among the Chauffeurs 667
Chauffeurs Disguised as Musicians and Flower Peddlers (4 p.
folder) 671
A Travelling Cardinal Apprehensive of Carbonari, Italy in ISOO . 679
Russian Political Exiles in Siberia (4 p. folder) 685
John Boyle O'Reilly 693
Richard Croker 099
Meeting of Tammany and Manco Capac 705
Carbonari Making Merry in a Monastery Cellar (4 p. folder) . . 711
XV.
A Head Dance by Squaws 723
The Female Soldiers of Dahomey Figliting tlie French . . . 727
Hetaira? of Ancient Athens 729
The Present Empress of Russia ' . 735
Isabella Receivinij Columbus 739
Women Watching the OutVireak of Vesuvius 743
Wilhelmine, the Child Queen of the Netherlands 745
Mary A. Livermore 751
XVI.
Colossal Statues of the Genii or War and Peace at Municli (4 p.
folder) 757
Brunhild Beholding her Rival, Guthrun, at the Side of Siegfried
(4 p. folder) 765
An Early German Warrior 769
Two Games — A German Scene in the 17th Century (4 p. folder) 773
Wittikind the Saxon Received into Baptism with Charlemagne
for Sponsor 779
Modem German Artillerymen 781
84 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The Makers of Modem Germanv 783
Robber Knights Stealing on a Hamlet 785
The Crowning of a Poet with Laurel 787
Grerman Monks Copying 3Ianuscript Before the Invention of Type 789
The Return of Herman After Beaming the Romans 793
John of Gutenberg 795
German Soldiers of Modem Days 797
Beethoven 799
German Children of To-dav 801
Frederick the Great lieturning from the Battle <»f Prague . . . 805
Frederick the Great Holding a War Council 807
The Xun and the Flowers 811
Louise of Prussia and Her Two Sons, Afterwards Frederick
William IV. and Kaiser William 813
The Surrender of Paris 815
The 3Iakers of Modern Italy 819
XVII
Complex Republicanism 823
The Discoverer of America 825
The Pilgrims' First Sunday in America 827
The White House 833
Thomas Jefferson 835
Ben Franklin 837
Faneuil Hall, Boston 839
Bunker Hill Monument at Charlestown, Mass 841
Custom House, Xew Orleans 845
Naval Heroes of the Late War 847
Military Heroes of the Late War 849
Wall Street, New York 853
Grand Army Parade at Washington at Close of War (4 p. folder) 855
New York Post-Office 861
The Capitol at Washington 863
Lincoln 865
Grant 869
A Daughter of the Republic 873
The Spirit of Home (4 p. folder) 877
PROPERTY OF
1ME Onv OF NEW YORK
To come as near as possible to an
:./' understaiidiiig of the origin of govem-
■■ ment we need the iviiigs of imagination
adilwl to the nimlile foet of science, as we
move along the stmnge, the marvellous track
tliat goes bick to the very dawn of human life on tliis jJanet.
Tlie great antiquity of man is a fact on which scientists are
agreed, though only in the last forty years has it been estal)-
lished beyond a doubt, but the exa<"t amount i>f time man has
been on earth will probably never be settled. It is tolerably
certain, however, that man existed before the glacial period,
and that the age of the liuman mee dates back for over one
hundred thousand and possibly three hundred thousand years.
The different periods of hnnian develoimieiit liave been styled
by men of science, Savagei-y, liarbarisni, and Civilization, and
the first two have been divided into three grades.
The first or lower period of savagery dates from the infancy of
the race to the time when man began to catch fish for a living
and discovered the making of fire by simple friction, as depicted
in our first illustration. " More light ! " was the dying exclama-
tion and aspiration of Goethe, the greatest of German thinkers.
86 TCE STORY OF GOVERNMENT,
to
to «>
How stmnge that 'xKe^waterial element, fire, which is the source
of light, which is* vhe ^ign or synlbol of progress, should mark
scientifically the jJractical beginning of the enlightenment of man-
kind I This" first period lasted many .thousand years, and during
that space, marjjs only weapons were clubs and stones rubbed into
a rude resemblaiicQ to ax -heads, and tiet^ to sticks by thongs of
tough grass. - 5^.c-second picture repr^^^sents a man of this period
at the door of hit; ^cay^-hQnie in th^ wildh of ancient Switzerland.
And the third pi^'ttite/ 'i"Two mbtlicrs in the days before the
flood," shows how thlb-c^w-honjci ©f primitive man in Europe was
often invaded by the cave-bear, against whose attacks our savage
ancestors were practically powerless, unless they happened to hit
with an early blow a certaui part of the animal's head. Next came
the middle period of savagery, which is scientifically dated from the
invention of the bow and arrow, that by its use in hunting gave
man a new kind of food and a new means of defence against
enemies.
The second stage of savagery, which is indicated by the fourth
illustration, lasted an almost equal space until the discovery of
the art of making pottery which marked a new step in human
development and introduced the first stage of barbarism. This
period stretched a weary, dreary length of many centuries until
man began, on the Eastern Hemisphere, to domesticate cattle and
live by flocks and herds ; or, on the Western Hemisphere, as among
the Pueblo and Zuni tribes of this continent, to plant maize, to
build an excellent system of irrigation (from which our govern-
ment might take a hint to-day) and to make houses of adobe
brick.
Goquet, in the last century, fii*st propounded the notion that
the way pottery came to be made was that some wooden vessel, or
some basket woven of bark, was daubed with damp clay to protect
it from the fire and then the people, finding the clay harden into
a durable state, conceived the idea of making vessels of clay
instead of wood. Goquet says that Captain Gonneville, who
visited the natives of southeastern South America in 1502, found
their household utensils plastered with a kind of clay to the
thickness of a finger which prevented the fire from burning them.
This second stage of barbarism extends also for ages till, on
to
• • •
THE OEIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAN. 87
the slow Upward journey pt-ti^:iace, wfj-rcjch the third elation
of barbarism which is laax^i^a-lly'thfe'disKJpT^rjrcit the process of
Btneltiiig iron and the use of ii-on tools and weapons. This, like-
wise, endures with slightly increasing degrees of refinement for
ages and ages until v^ha^.i;^ called the first period of civilization,
chaiacterized by the ^njiention of an alphabet Jo'eSpress to the
eye the sounds of the "(dl^iie or, in fine, tlie «fc£ .writing.
If we stop to consider liow many thousand j-cars elapsed from
the invention of the art of writing to tlie invention of the print-
ing-press, during wliicli many sepiuuto so-t>alled civilizations flour-
ished and faded, we shall be more able to undei-stand that many
thousands of years must have intervened between the invention of
the bow and arrow by some early savage of tlie third period to
the invention of a jar of pottery. The following approximate
table may help to fix in the memory the great, slow steps of the race.
88 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
TAB lb:-
. • • * • • •
:ABLB:-jbF H^lMk -PROGRESS.
/ ••.JRrtiSt STAGE (SF- alVAGERY.
. **V' ■ ^ 1^
i From the Infancy* of the race and a diet of
42,700 years. • > Nuts, Roots, *and Fi^iits to catching fish and
• I learning the u8<ift|^Rre.
,^*_
• •••
-** — * ,■ ••
the invention of the
TIVIRD CTAGE OB'SATAGERY.
42,007 years.
• • From llie Bow and An-ow to the invention of
an Earthen Pot for cooking.
FIRST STAGE OF BARBARISM.
Q"i nnA mroo«, i From the Art of Pottery to the Herding or
j»,uuu years. j Domestication of Cattle, etc
SECOND STAGE OF BARBARISM.
21,000 years.
From Herding Cattle, Planting Maize, Build-
ing of Irrigating Canals and Houses of Stone
and Adobe Brick, to the discovery of a process
of Smelting Iron Ore.
THIRD STAGE OF BARBARISM.
7,000 years.
From the Smelting of Iron and Making of
Iron Tools and Weapons to the invention of an
Alphabet.
FIRST STAGE OF CIVILIZATION.
From the Invention of Writtijn Signs to ex-
press the sounds of the human tongue and the
consciousness of thinking, as a thing of value
in itself, to be treasured up or recorded, to
some time in the future, when government of,
for, and by the people shall be an established
fact all over the world, and when poverty and
material misery shall be merely a dim memory
of the past, i)08sibly the year 2,100 of our
present reckoniug.
« Ernest George RavenRtein, F. R. G. S.. of LoihIoii, fipirlnj; the fertile regions of the
earth at 28,209,000 xqiiure miles, and fl^irini; the worltl't* i)Oi)ulation at 1.407,600.000,
or 31 to a sfiuare mile, an<l takin;; as a basts for estimate the standard of living, as
exLning to-<iay in va^iou^ climates, reckons that the world, if brought to its maximnm
of cultivation, can supply 5.9!H,()00.000 nersons with f(K)d. The increase of iM)pulatlon
might l)e materially alTvcted by many unforeseen new conditions, social or meteorological:
but weighing all the data, and considering all the causes likelv to hasten or retard
growth of iK>iiulatioii in various <iuarters, Mr. R. assumes that the increase each decade irlll
be ten per cent. A<'cei>ting those figures as correct, in IJKK) the present population will have
increased to 1,.'«7,«0(),0(K). In IIKW, there will Ihj 2,332.000.000; in 2000, 3.420,000,000; and in the
year 2072, there would Ikj .').l)77,000,000. or within a few millions of what the earth can support.
Consequently in the next 1H2 vears Civilization must have learned myriad new lessons, or
else a cataclysm must occur, destroying the present human race to a great extent, and per-
haps starting man on the second stage of Civnization.
A OAVASB op THE BFrroiTO PERIOD.
40 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The marked decrease in years indicated by the preceding table
from the third stage of savagery to the invention of pottery, and
the still greater decrease to the second stage of barbarism, are
estimated on the principle that every additional invention has
a power of stimulation on the inventive faculty. But while
studying such a table as this, though we cannot help feeling how
slow the evolution has been, it must not dishearten us, nor need
it fill us with a profound sadness for the vanished millions, since
the progress, though slow, has been sure, and with a promise of
evei higher certainties in the future. The history of the race, as
revealed to us by the most recent reseai'ches of science, points
conclusively to the fact that man in the mass, as well as man the
unit, is destined to develop the animal, and probably to become
something more.
The final findings of science are growing to coincide with the
fundamental sense of all intelligent religions ; that man's life is
not merely summed up in the verbs, to eat, drink, sleep, think,
propagate, and die. For it is now beyond dispute that in the slow
process of this development from the naked savage of few words
and equally few ideas, who toiled in caves and fished with his
paws in streams, to the avemge man of to-day, who uses a vocabu-
lary of ten thousand words to express his ideas, or to the scholar
who uses twenty thousand, many races of animals that were on the
eaith with the early man liave entirely disappeared. Does not this
seem to imply that man is not merely a cooking animal, an inventing
and a^spiring one, but that he is pre-eminently a surviving animal?
There is also another reflection that naturally arises from a study
of the ascending struggle of humanity, which is, indeed, that we
are what we are to-day, not merely on account of our individual
struggles and difficult development amid adverse circumstances,
or our fortunate location and easy development in pleasant circum-
stiinces, but largely in either case, because many millions, through
the countless ages of savagery, barbarism, and early civilization,
have toiled and suflfered to make possible our present average of
collective comfort (still, alas ! a pitifully small one) as well as
our individual approximations towards a wise, kindly, dignified
existence ; in short, towards the happiness of refinement and the
refinement of happiness.
40 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The marked decrease in years incUeated by the preceding table
from the third stage of savagery to the invention of pottery, and
the still greater decrease to the second stage of barbarism, are
estimated on the principle that every additional invention has
a power of stimulation on the inventive faculty. But while
studying such a table as this, though we cannot help feeling how
slow the evolution has been, it must not dishearten ns, nor need
it fill us with a profound sadness for the vanished millions, since
the progress, though slow, lias been sure, and with a promise of
evei higher certainties in the future. The history of the race, as
revealed to us by the most recent researches of science, points
eonelusivelv to the fact that man in the mass, as well as man the
unit, is destined to develop the animal, and probably to become
something more.
Tlie final findings of science are gro\iing to coincide with the
fundamental sense of all intelligent religions : that man's life is
not merely summed up in the verl>s, to eat, drink, sleep, think,
projxigate, and die. For it is now beyond dispute that in the slow
process of this development from the naked savage of few words
and equally few ideiis, who toiled in eaves and fished with his
paws in streams, to the average man of t<>-ilay, who uses a vocabu-
lary of ten thousand wonls to express his ide;^, or to the scholar
who uses twenty ihous;ind, manv races of animals that were on the
eanh with the e;u*ly man have entirely disapjvared. Does not this
setr-m TO imply tliat man is not merely a civkii^ir animal, an inventing
and aspiring one, but that he is pre-eminenily a surviving animal?
Tiiriv is also another refle^nion that naturally ;\rises f n^m a study
of the ;\scendin£r stniiTfirl^ of humaniiv. which is. indeed, that we
ai>e wiiai we are to-dav. not mcn^lv on acconn; of our individual
simiTiries and diificult development amid adverse cin'umstances,
or our fortunate ltx\ition and e;isy development in ple^isant cireum-
star.ovs. but lars^-Iv in either c^uk*. Ixvanse manv millions, thxougfa
the eoTir-:!ess ac^« of Siwa^erw Iwrlwrisrn. aini eariv civilization,
have toiled ar.d suffered to make jy^ssiKo or4r pivtseni average of
collective comfon (^s::ll, ai:is ! a pitifully small one^ as well as
our individual api^rvxiniations tow^nis a wise, kir.tilv. di^rnified
exis:er.L-^: in shon. towanis the hap;>iues5> of T^fir.cment and the
ivirir^jr::! of hav'V-ir-ess.
TWO MOTTTERS
HEFOBE THE FLOOB.
42 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Having thus briefly outlined the large steps of the race during
which government has had its slow evolution, suppose we try for
a definition of our own for this word. Suppose we say « Govern-
ment is the condition resulting from an attempt to live together
under some rule or order."
As to its origin, some scholars consider the family as the germ
of it, though some find it rather difficult, when considering how
promiscuous were the relations of the sexes in the early days of
the race, to say \vith certainty that government developed from
the family. Indeed, the opposite has been ably maintained, that
family, as we understand it now, developed from government and
the sense of property.^ The weight of likelihood, however, seems
to be on the side of those who regard the family as the germ,
and this being so it becomes necessary to consider how many kinds
of family relations have been invented or accepted by the human
race.
Fii*st is the Consanguine family, in which brothers and sisters
freely intermarried. This form to-day seems to us a most horrible
thing and is. punished by the laws of every civilized State.
Nevertheless it lingered so long in the minds of men that the
great empire of Egypt, which was in the dawn of civilization and
not in the scientific period of barbarism, not only countenanced it,
but made it conspicuous by the example of the royal family.
The Second form of the family, or of the married relation, has
heen called the Punaluan, and was extant until recently in the
Hawaiian Islands. The missionaries, in 1820, found it prevalent,
and not being scientists or philosophei*s were disproportionately
shocked by it. This consists in all the brothers of a family being
the husbands of each other's wives, or in the sisters being the
wives of each sister's husband; and brother was a term, with
them, of wide significance, comprehending cousins to the third or
foui-th degree.
Caesar, the maker of so much histoiy, and the historian of his
own creations, the profound observer as well as the practical
statesman, makes a note of finding Punaluan marriage among
the ancient Britons in groups of ten or twelve.
» Some scholars hold that Government, modelled after the exercise of authority in the
family unit, is made necessary by the existence of property.
THE OEIGTN OP GOVERNMENT WrTE MAN,
AmongtlieCicn
Indi.iiis,dlbo,!iiel
of this PuiIllllXTI
marriage still Itii
ge„,-anm„«h„
mAiTies the eldeit
(Imghter lii^nng \ ngl t f
all her sisiters, if la tti-.ln.
to support theni But it is
hardlv nece'jsarj to add thit tiu I
exhibitions of amorous indust i
are exceedingly rare among the '
K OP BAVAflBRT.
42 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Having thus briefly outlined the large steps of the race during
which government has had its slow evolution, suppose we try for
a definition of our own for this word. Suppose we say " Govern-
ment is the condition resulting from an attempt to live together
under some rule or order."
As to its origin, some scholars consider the family as the germ
of it, though some find it rather difficult, when considering how
promiscuous were the relations of the sexes in the early days of
the race, to say with certainty that government developed from
the family. Indeed, the opposite has been ably maintained, that
family, as we understand it now, developed from government and
the sense of property.^ The weight of likelihood, however, seems
to be on the side of those who regard the family as the germ,
and this being so it becomes necessary to consider how many kinds
of family relations have been invented or accepted by the human
race.
Firet is the Consanguine family, in which brothers and sisters
freely intermarried. This form to-day seems to us a most horrible
thing and is. punished by the laws of every civilized State.
Nevertheless it lingered so long in the minds of men that the
great empire of Egypt, which was in the dawn of civilization and
not hi the scientific period of barbarism, not only countenanced it,
but made it conspicuous by the example of the royal family.
The Second form of the family, or of the married relation, has
been called the Punaluan, and was extant until recently in the
Hawaiian Islands. The missionaries, in 1820, found it prevalent,
and not being scientists or philosophers were disproportionately
shocked by it. This consists in all the brothel's of a family being
the husbands of each other's wives, or in the sisters being the
wives of each sister's husband; and brothei*s was a tenn, with
them, of wide significance, comprehending cousins to the third or
fourth degree.
CaBsar, the maker of so much history, and the historian of his
own creations, the profound observer as well as the practical
statesman, makes a note of finding Punaluan marriage among
the ancient Britons in groups of ten or twelve.
* Some scholars hold that Government, modelled after the exercise of authority in the
family unit, is made necessary by the existence of proi)erty.
THE ORIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAN.
AmoiigtlieCio\\
Indians,also a relit,
of this Punaluin
marriage still lui
gere, — a man « ho
marries the eldest
daughter hi\ing i iigl t t
all her sisters, if lie \i aliLs
to support them But it a,
hardly necessary to add tlwt sueli
exhibitions of amorous iiidusti i
are exceedingly rare among tl e ( i
THE BOW AND AUBOW Olt BK(.
44 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
In South America, likewise, among certain tribes where women
are not regarded as mere beasts of burden traces of a similar
practice still exist.
The Thiid form of family which has been called the Syndyas-
mian, still extant among some of the Indian tribes on this conti-
nent, is a step upward in morals as we regard them. It consists
in the pairing of one woman and one man, not, however, with the
intent or with the absolute promise of continuity, because divorce
at will ^vas a right felt to be inherent in both parties. This
form of family has almost entirely vanished from the world as
a national or tribal characteristic, though it crops up quite
frequently in individual cases.
The Fourth kind of family has been styled the Patriarchal.
This is the marriage of one man to several women, or polygamy^
and still flourishes among some Asiatic nations, yet by no means
to the extent that it once did ; and the attempt to revive it in our
occidental civilization has proved a priestly failure, although the
Mormon colony of Utah, perhaps because of its co-operative
features, has been conspicuous as a commercial success.
The converse of Polygamy, or Polygjmy as it should be called
— that is Polyandry, or the marriage of one woman to several
men, though existent to-day in Ceylon, Australasia and Tibet,
appears to be rather an exceptional sidegro^vth than a regular
grade of development.
The Fifth form of family, or the Monogamic, is that which
flourishes to-day among all civilized races, and that seems to be
the ultimate, the last word of advice which nature has to give
concerning human happiness ; for nearly all the higher animals,
as well as man, develop to the having of only one mate.
Does it not seem, on the whole, rather a reasonable inference
that the moment when absolute promiscuity in the fundamentally
necessary and fundamentally righteous relations of the sexes
ceased to prevail, and the idea ensued of limiting marriage to
certain members of a clan or aggregation of human individuals,
the idea of rule and order arose from such instinctive limitation
and then the idea of authority^ to enforce rule or order, dawned
on the dull brain of the primeval savage ?
We thus grasp the ideas of order and of authority, as twin
THE ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT WITH MAN. 45
elements of a concrete concept of government : order desired by
the general mind, and authority devised and then lodged some-
where to maintain and increase it.
ilHil^ '1^
p
IHr'^M ^M
y
'" • >Mj0#
■P'f
1
t^l
Bfi'-at
p
^^^
Imp ^fw|t^^HH
m
^^^^',
m^\ 1 fft»^^^
^^m
BS^^^^^w
m'J/^r^^^^,%
\ '^M
IBg^i^^f^^^Tj^^
mmtWi
m
^H
HriflHuHS
g
fe' raK
5
*f3
Starting, then, with the single family, we arrive at the Gens> o
•Oeru, LMtn j fAiOi, Greek ; (mnaa, S»iMcrit; oar word JMn belag tbe sauie root.
46 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
kindred, a small body of blood-relations living together, bearing
the same name. This gens, as it throws out branches that settle
in adjacent places, keeps itself connected with these branches by
ceilain customs.
The inter-associations which practise these customs are scien-
tifically called Phratries, from a word of Greek origin, signifying
brotherhood, and indicating their relationship to the nucleus-gens.
As others at a distance come into the same relationship, either
by extension of the original family or by juncture with other fam-
ilies, the tribe is fonned ; and after the tribe, the confederacy,
which was the nearest approach the barbaric mind made to our
present idea of a nation.
The phratry is a brotherhood and an organic growth from the
gens, and among the Greeks and Romans, as among the Iroquois,
it was generally an association for certain religious or social
objects of two or more gentes of the same tribe. The Roman
curia, or cury, was the analogue of the Indian and Grecian
phratry. There were ten gentes in each curia, and ten curiae
in each of the three Roman tribes, making three hundred gentes
among the Romans. The governmental functions of the Roman
curia became much more complex and political than those of the
Greek or Indian, but the primary principle of association for social
or religious purposes was identical. And this tendency to asso-
ciate in phratries or lodges appears to be as strong in the masculine
mind of to-day as it ever was ; of which statement abundant
testimony offers itself in the shape of our numerous fraternities,
such as Masonry, Pythian, and other societies.
All these phratries and tribes and confederacies are evolutions
of the family, and their status is founded on a social rather than
a territorial and property relation. A separate and sharply-marked
domain, and the possession of property, were ideas that only took
root in the minds of men in the very latest dtiys of barbarism,
and to enter upon the second plan of government it was necessary
to supersede the gentes and phratries by townships and city
wards.
The decline of the gens and the rising of the organized town
make the dividing line between barbarism and civilization, between
ancient and modem society.
48 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
It is well established, though but recently, that Man all over
the world has a common scientific evolution ; the story of one race
is the story of all. Humanity is a unit in source, in experi-
ence, in progress; and, in the faith of science we may add,
one also in the certainty of an immortal and imperial destiny.
So, if we take the condition of development shown by a tribe
of American Indians, we shall have a fairly approximate picture
of just how the beautiful civilization of Greece, or the majestic
empire of Rome under Augustus, developed through the gens,
phratry, and tribe.
Too many of us derive our idea of an Indian from Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show, or from the straggling specimens that sell
baskets and beadwork in the summer. But these bear no more
real resemblance to the Indian as he is historically than do the
fawning, flattering, fortune-telling gypsies to the ancient Egyptian
coui*tiers who exchanged elegant compliments amid the roseate
shadows of the perfumed audience chamber of Cleopatra.
Nationally, we have done great material wrong to the original
possessors of this country. Is it not becoming then that we
should at least make some attempt to do justice to them histori-
cally, since we have never, or rarely, done it to the living
individuals ?
Moreover, our ideas of the Indian have always been colored by
conflict. We have inherited a distrust of him, and it is only of
late that scholars generally have begun to appreciate his virtues.
Even large-hearted ti-avellers like Dickens have been misled into
regarding him as merely a dirty and drunken ruflian, glad to live
in laziness and be supported by the government. The trouble is
we are looking upon the Indian, not as God made him, not as
he developed under the kindly eye of nature, but as we white
men have unmade him by the almost off-setting brutality that
accompanies our present civilization. The American Indian,
sitting in council near the banks of some winding water, under
the mellow harvest moon, was a very different being from those
we see to-day, who have exchanged the virtues of barbarism for
the vices of civilization; those to whom we have given of our
Morst instead of our best.
Metacom and Wamsutta, the last Indian kings of prominence
THE ORIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAS.
4&
in Ifew England, were t^^s, it is true, of the third Btage of
barbarism. They were birbarians, but they were gentlemen. In
fiueneas of feeling, in regard for the rights of others, in statesmanr
like qnallties, anil netsdlesa to say in daring, they would compare
with any of the early Saxon chiefa except possibly Alfred the
48 THE STORY OF GOVERXMENT.
It is well established, though but recently, that Man all over
the world has a common scientific evolation ; the story of one race
is the story of all. Humanity is a unit in source, in experi-
ence, in progress; and, in the faith of science we may add,
one also in the certainty of an immortal and imperial destiny.
So, if we take the condition of development sliown by a tribe
of American Indians, we shall have a fairly approximate picture
of just how the beautiful civilization of Greece, or the majestic
empire of Rome under Augustus, developed through the gens,
phratrj-, and tribe.
Too manv of us derive our idea of an Indian from Buffalo BlU's
WQd West Show, or from the straggling specimens that sell
baskets and beadwork in the summer. But these bear no more
real resemblance to the Indian as he is historically than do the
fawning, flattering, fortune-telling gypsies to the ancient Egyptian
courtiers who exchanged elegant compliments amid the roseate
shadows of the perfumed audience chamber of Cleopatra.
Nationally, we have done great material wrong to the original
possessors of this country. Is it not becoming then that we
should at least make some attempt to do justice to them histori-
cally, since we have never, or rarely, done it to the living
individuals ?
Moreover, our ideas of the Indian have always been colored by
conflict. We have inherited a distrust of him, and it is only of
late that scholars generally liave begun to appreciate his "virtues.
Even large-hearted titivellers like Dickens have been misled into
regai-ding him as merely a dirty and drunken ruffian, glad to live
in laziness and be supported by the government. The trouble is
we are lookmg upon the Indian, not as God made him, not as
he developed under the kindly eye of nature, but as we white
men have unmade him by the almost off-setting brutality that
atcorapanies our present civilization. The American Indian,
sitting in council near the banks of some winding water, under
the mellow harvest moon, i^-as a very different being from those
we see to-day, who have exchanged the virtues of barbarism for
the vices of civilization; those to whom we have given of our
Morst instead of our best.
Metacom and Wamsutta, the last Indian kings of prominence
THB ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT WITH MAN.
4&
in New England, were types, it is true, of the third stage of
bftrbarism. They were barbarians, but they were gentlemen. In
JinenesB of feeling, in regard for the rights of others, in statesman-
|l:'j#^|g||^SM|
H|f>"ll^ J
ii|||M^^Sij
SM 1
mmf^m
ml
M^**^
^K^^X
m
R*^^
*i--:|^S
'^^^m
'■■"-;- ;a.ta3.ii
like qaalities, anjl neesUess to say in daring, they would compare
with any of the early Saxon chiefs except possibly Alfred the
50 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Great. For instance, what could be finer than the feeling shown
in the following incident ?
Wamsutta was the chief king of Eastern New England during
the early colonial days. His father, Massasoit, had heaped kind-
nesses on the Pilgrims, fed them when starving, saved them from
the assaults of other tribes. After his death, Wamsutta was one
day at breakfast in one of his many hunting lodges, with several
of his nobles and their wives. A party of Pilgrims surprised
them, seized their weapons that had been stacked outside, and told
the king that he was under arrest and must come to Plymouth
to answer certain charges. The leader of this party offered the
outraged monarch a horse to ride on, but the king refused with
these words : " I could not ride and let these women walk."
This is but one of the many incidents which a certain un-
conscious or subconscious candor lias forced unfriendly historians
to record. Wamsutta died from the effect on his proud nature of
the indignity done him by this arrest, and his brother, Metacom,
or Philip, as he was called by the Pilgrims, for years nursed plans
pf vengeance against the race who had been the cause of his
brother's early death, who had spoiled him of his lands, wantonly
burned many of his hunting-lodges, and tried even in his own
home to curtail his powers.
Philip made war on our English ancestoi-s during the fall of
1675 and the following winter and spring; and though like
Napoleon, a personal failure finally, the results of his well-planned
war on our ancestors were felt for fifty years after his death, or, as
their writers agreed, he retarded the development of New England
for that space.
Yet he, too, with every reason to detest our race, was not only kind
in many instances to the prisoners he captured, but was uniformly
courteous. Mrs. Richardson, who lived as his prisoner for many
months before she was finally restored to her husband, tells us that
this great soldier (even his enemies admitted his military genius)
was a most kindly captor. He asked her one day to make a shirt
for his little son, and when she had made it, expressing his
pleasure, he not only thanked her, but paid her an English shillmg
for it.
Our tardy scholarship is beginning to see that such conduct
THE ORIGIN OP GOVEltNMENT WITH MAN.
more fairly represents the Indian character as it was at the best
period of development than the ravages occasionally committed by
the degenerate tribes of to-day, too often goaded to fury by dis-
honest goTemment agents.
It is a pity that we have not sufficient data concerning the
62 THE STORY OF GOVEKNMENT.
political condition of the New England Indians to show how they
developed to the production of such men as those just named, but
by examining another Indian tribe, the Seneca-Iroquois, we shall
see the evolution of government among barbarians up to hereditary
monarchy as clearly as if we went through a long course of Greek
or Roman history.
The Seneca-Iroquois were divided into gentes, phratries, and
tribes. The chiefs in each gens were usually proportioned to the
membei-s. Among the Iroquois there is one to about every fifty
persons. The Iroquois in New York now number three thousand,
and have eight sachems and about sixty chiefs.
The first question, then, that suggests itself is, what were the politi-
cal rights of the gens. First of all, with the basic right of having
a council of its own, the right of electing and deposing its sachem
and its chiefs. Here we have at once a fact that contradicts the
old historical assumption that the democratical form of govern-
ment is a late invention, and that the monarchical was the one
most natural and most adapted to the evolution of human society.
For the right of electing and deposing the head of the gens
shows that man started in a rude way to have what we are trying
to-day to have in a complete, though perhaps too complex, way ;
namely, a government of the people.
Another right of the gens was the inheritance of property. If
a man died his property would not descend to his son or his
daugliter, but to the gens in common. The feeling here seems to
be identical with that which our most republican millionnaire,
Andrew Carnegie, has recently expi-essed, that a man's material
acquisitions, being largely the result of the co-operation of others,
should at his death revert to whence they came. Mr. Carnegie's
mind, however, has expanded since his firet declaration, for he now
maintains that a rich man in his life-time should restore to the
people, in the shape of libraries, parks, and hospitals, the money
he has made out of them.
Of course, another right of the gens was that of bestowing
names on its members, and of adopting strangers by naming them.
There were obligations, likewise, of help and defence and redress
of injuries, and, in time, an obligation among most not to marry
in the gens. Common religious rites, a common burial place and,
THE ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT WITH UAN. 58
as a necessary basis for the election of a sachem, the right to call
a council, were dbtinctive marks of the Iroquois gens.
As to the election of sachems and chiefs, it is probably a new
fact to most readers that neirly ill tlie American Indiin tribes as
well as tie Seueca-Iroquois hid t vo grades of cl eftainsl ip u
other words, thej had a pea e go\e no and a a ch ef
The sachem, or wise-man, was elected in each gens fi-om among
its membere. A son could not be chosen to succeed his father if
descent was in the female line, which made the son belong to a
different gens.
The duties of a sachein were confined to the affairs of peace.
He settled disputes, advised the time of planting corn, or the
location of the camp, or any matter that demanded personal
adviceior sympathy. It was analogous in some respects to the
64 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
post of father confessor, though among many of the tribes this
function was rudimentary in spite of the semi-religious character
with which the sachem was invested. The relation of the sachem
was primarily to the gens of which he was the official head, while
that of the chief, who was chosen for personal bravery or for
eloquence, was primarily to the tribe or large organization of the
council of which he as well as the sachem were members. The
sachem was so much an officer of peace that he could not go to
war as a sachem, but simply as a private individual in the ranks
under the leaderships of the cliiefs, whose functions were purely
military or advisory in military matters in the general council of
the tribe.
The office of sachem was hereditary in the sense that it was
filled from the same gens as often as a vacancy happened, but it
was filled by election from different relatives of the deceased or
deposed chieftain. Though the office was nominally for life, it
was practically for good behavior, because of the power to depose.
The ceremony of installing a sachem was very picturesque. It
was accompanied by song and dance and the final act was
symbolized by the putting on a headdress of buffalo horns, as his
deposition was symbolized by taking off the horns.
It is one of the little facts that cumulate to show the substan-
tial relativity of mankind that, even among tribes widely separated,
horns have been made emblems of office and authority from time
immemorial, and even of sanctity, as in the Catholic church we
have the horns of the altar, which were invested with a peculiar
siicrediiess. The killing of Thomas k Becket, for instance, in the age
of Henry II. of England, when assassination wiis a common crime,
was accounted especially heinous because the victim was not only
a priest, but was killed while holding one of the horns of the altar.
Horns, also, by tlie imagination of the middle ages, are assigned
to his Satanic Majesty, probably as a token of his power, and the
horn as a sign of plenty is another emblem, derived possibly from
the Scandinavian drinking-horn, though it is also credited with a
Roman and Greek derivation. Tylor intimates that the command-
ing appearance of buffalos and such animals as wear horns may
have suggested to the general mind this thing as a token of
dignity and authority. i
48 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
It is well established, though but recently, that Man all over
the world has a common scientific evolution ; the story of one race
is the story of all. Humanity is a unit in source, in experi-
ence, in progress; and, in the faith of science we may add,
one also in the certainty of an immortal and imperial destiny.
So, if we take the condition of development shown by a tribe
of American Indians, we shall have a fairly approximate picture
of just how the beautiful civilization of Greece, or the majestic
empire of Rome under Augustus, developed through the gens,
phratiy, and tribe.
Too many of us derive our idea of an Indian from Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show, or from the straggling specimens that sell
baskets and beadwork in the summer. But these bear no more
real resemblance to the Indian as he is historically than do the
fawning, flattering, fortune-telling gypsies to the ancient Egyptian
courtiers who exchanged elegant compliments amid the roseate
shadows of the perfumed audience chamber of Cleopatra.
Nationally, we have done great material wrong to the original
possessors of this country. Is it not becoming then that we
should at least make some attempt to do justice to them histori-
cally, since we have never, or rarely, done it to the living
individuals ?
Moreover, our ideas of the Indian have always been colored by
conflict. We have inherited a distrust of him, and it is only of
lata that scholars generally have begun to appreciate his virtues.
Even large-hearted ti-avellers like Dickens have been misled into
regarding him as merely a dirty and drunken ruflian, glad to live
in laziness and be supported by the government. The trouble is
we are looking upon the Indian, not as God made him, not as
he developed under the kindly eye of nature, but as we white
men have unmade him by the almost off-setting brutality that
atcompanies our present civilization. The American Indian,
sitting in council near the banks of some winding water, under
the mellow harvest moon, was a very different being from those
we see to-day, who have exchanged the virtues of barbarism for
the vices of civilization; those to whom we have given of our
M'oret instead of our best.
Metacom and Wamsutta, the last Indian kings of prominence
THE ORIGIN OF OOVERNHENT WITH HAN.
49
in New England, were t^pes, it is true, of the third stage of
barbarism. They were barbarians, but they were gentlemen. In
fineness of feeling, in regard for the rights of others, in statesman^
lite qualities, aod needless to say in daring, tliey would compare
with any of the early Saxon chiefs except possibly Alfred the
60 THE STORY OF GOVERNT^IENT.
Great. For instance, what could be finer than the feeling shown
in the following incident ?
Wamsutta was the chief king of Eastern New England during
the early colonial days. His father, Massasoit, had heaped kind-
nesses on the Pilgrims, fed them when starving, saved them from
the assaults of other tribes. After his death, Wamsutta was one
day at breakfast in one of his many hunting lodges, with several
of his nobles and their wives. A party of Pilgrims surprised
them, seized their weapons that had been stacked outside, and told
the king that he was under an-est and must come to Plymouth
to answer certain charges. The leader of this party offered the
outiuged monarch a horee to ride on, but the king refused with
these words : " I could not ride and let these wonjen walk."
This is but one of the many incidents which a certain un-
conscious or subconscious candor has forced unfriendly historians
to record. Wamsutta died from the effect on his proud nature of
the indignity done him by this arrest, and his brother, Metacom,
or Philip, as he was called by the Pilgrims, for years nursed plans
pf vengeance against the race who had been the cause of his
brother's early death, who had spoiled him of his lands, wantonly
burned many of his hunting-lodges, and tried even in his own
home to curtail his powers.
Philip made war on our English ancestoi-s during the fall of
1675 and the following winter and spring; and though like
Napoleon, a personal failure finally, the results of his well-planned
war on our ancestors were felt for fifty years after his death, or, as
their writers agreed, he retarded the development of New England
for that space.
Yet he, too, with every reason to detest our race, was not only kind
in many instances to the prisoners he captured, but was uniformly
courteous. Mrs. Richardson, who lived as his ^Drisoner for many
months before she was finally restored to her husband, tells us that
this great soldier (even his enemies admitted Iiis military genius)
was a most kindly captor. He asked her one day to make a shirt
for his little son, and when she had made it, expressing his
pleasure, he not only thanked her, but paid her an English shilling
for it.
Our tardy scholarship is beginning to see that such conduct
THE ORIGIN OF GOVEiENMENT WITH MAN.
more &irly represents the Indian character as it was at the best
period of development than the ravages occasionally committed by
the degenerate tribes of to-day, too often goaded to fury by dis-
honest government agents.
It is a pity that we have not sufficient data concerning the
60 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Great. For instance, what could be finer than the feeling shown
in the following incident ?
Wanisutta was the chief king of Eastern New England during
the early colonial days. His father, Massasoit, had heaped kind-
nesses on the Pilgrims, fed them when starving, saved them from
the assaults of other tribes. After his death, Wanisutta was one
day at breakfast in one of his many hunting lodges, with several
of his nobles and tlieir wives. A party of Pilgrims surprised
them, seized their weapons that had been stacked outside, and told
the king that he was under an-est and must come to Plymouth
to answer certain charges. The leader of this party offered the
outraged monarch a horse to ride on, but the king refused with
these words : " I could not ride and let these wonjen walk."
This is but one of the many incidents which a certain un-
conscious or subconscious candor has forced unfriendly historians
to record. Wamsutta died from the effect on his proud nature of
the indignity done him by this anest, and liis brother, Metacom,
or Philip, as he was called by the Pilgrims, for years nursed plans
pf vengeance against the race who had been the cause of his
brother's early death, who had spoiled him of his lands, wantonly
burned many of his hunting-lodges, and tried even in Ids own
borne to curtail his powers.
Pliilip made war on our English ancestoi-s during the fall of
1675 and the following winter and spring; and though like
Napoleon, a personal failure finally, the results of his well-planned
war on our ancestors were felt for fifty years after his death, or, as
their writers agreed, he reta,rded the development of New England
for that space.
Yet lie, too, with every^ reason to detest our race, was not only kind
in many instances to the prisoners he captured, but was uniformly
courteous. Mrs. Richardson, who lived as his prisoner for many
months before she was finally restored to her husband, tells us that
this great soldier (even his enemies admitted his military genius)
was a most kindly captor. He asked her one day to make a shirt
for his little son, and when she had made it, expressing his
pleasure, he not only thanked her, but paid her an English shilling
for it.
Our tudy tftllMlllfffrlP. J* |)fgin][jipg to see that such conduct
THE ORIGIN OP GOVBitSMENT WITH MAN.
more fairly represents the Indisn character as it waa at the best
period of development than the ravages occasionally committed by
the degenerate tribes of to-day, too often goaded to fury by dis-
honest government agents.
It is a pity that we have not sufBcient data concerning the
62 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
political condition of the New England Indians to show how they
developed to the production of such men as those just named, but
by examining another Indian tribe, the Seneca-Iroquois, we shall
see the evolution of government among barbarians up to hereditary
monarchy as clearly as if we went through a long course of Greek
or Roman history.
The Seneca-Iroquois were divided into gentes, phratries, and
tribes. The chiefs in each gens were usually proportioned to the
members. Among the Iroquois there is one to about every fifty
persons. The Iroquois in New York now number three thousand,
and have eight sachems and about sixty chiefs.
The first question, then, that suggests itself is, what were the politi-
cal rights of the gens. First of all, with the basic right of having
a council of its own, the right of electing and deposing its sachem
and its chiefs. Here we have at once a fact that contradicts the
old historical assumption that the democratical form of govern-
ment is a late invention, and that the monarchical was the one
most natural and most adapted to the evolution of human society.
For the right of electing and deposing the head of the gens
shows that man started in a rude way to have what we are trying
to-ilay to have in a complete, though perhaps too complex, way ;
namely, a government of the people.
Another right of the gens was the inheritance of property. If
a man died his property would not descend to his son or his
daughter, but to the gens in common. The feeling here seems to
])G identical with that which our most republican millionnaire,
Andrew Carnegie, has recently expi-essed, that a man's material
acquisitions, being largely the result of the co-operation of others,
should at his death revert to whence they came. Mr. Carnegie's
mind, however, has expanded since his fii*st declaration, for he now
maintains that a rich man in his life-time should restore to the
people, in the shape of libraries, parks, and hospitals, the money
he has made out of them.
Of course, another right of the gens was that of bestowing
names on its members, and of adopting strangers by naming them.
There were obligations, likewise, of help and defence and redress
of injuries, and, in time, an obligation among most not to marry
in the gens. Common religious rites, a common burial place and.
THE OBIGIN OF GOVERNMENT WITH MAN,
5S
as a neceseaiy baats for the election of a sachem, the right to call
a council, were distinctive maiks of the Iroquois gens.
As to the election of sachems and chiefs, it is piohably a new
fact to most readers that neaily all tl e Ameiican Indiin tribes as
well as the Seneca-lroquois hid tvo grades of chieftainship m
other words they had a pc ice governor and a w ii chief
The sachem, or wise-man, was elected in each gens fi-oni among
its members. A son could not be chosen to succeed hiH father if
descent waa in the female line, whicii made the son belong to a
different gens.
The duties of a sachein were confined to the affaii-s of peace.
He settled disputes, advised the time of planting corn, or the
location of the camp, or any matter that demanded personal
advice, or sympathy. It was analogous in some respects to the
64 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
post of father confessor, though among many of the tribes this
function was rudimentary in spite of the semi-religious character
with which the sachem was invested. The relation of the sachem
was primarily to the gens of which he was the oflScial head, while
that of the chief, who was chosen for personal bravery or for
eloquence, was primarily to the tribe or large organization of the
council of which he its well as the sachem were members. The
sachem was so much an oflBcer of peace that he could not go to
war as a sachem, but simply as a private individual in the ranks
under the leaderships of the chiefs, whose functions were purely
military or advisory in military matters in the general council of
the tribe.
The office of sachem was hereditary in the sense that it was
filled from the same gens as often as a vacancy happened, but it
was filled by election from different relatives of the deceased or
deposed chieftain. Though the office was nominally for life, it
was practically for good behavior, because of the power to depose.
The ceremony of installing a sachem was very picturesque. It
was accompanied by song and dance and the final act was
symbolized by the putting on a headdress of buffalo horns, as his
dei)osition wjis symbolized by taking off the horns.
It is one of the little facts that cumulate to show the substan-
tial relativity of mankind that, even among tribes widely separated,
horns have been made emblems of office and authority from time
immemorial, and even of sanctity, as in the Catholic church we
liave the horns of the altar, whicli were invested with a peculiar
siicredness. The killing of Thomas k Becket, for instance, in the age
of Henry II. of England, when assassination was a common crime,
was accounted especially heinous because the victim was not only
a priest, but was killed while holding one of the horns of the altar.
Horns, also, by the imagination of the middle ages, are assigned
to his Satanic Majesty, probcably as a token of his power, and the
horn as a sign of plenty is another emblem, derived possibly from
the Scandinavian drinking-horn, though it is also credited with a
Roman and Greek derivation. Tylor intimates that the command-
ing appearance of bufifalos and such animals as wear horns may
have suggested to the general mind this thing as a token of
dignity and authority. »
64 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
post of father confessor, though among many of the tribes this
function was rudimentary in spite of the semi-religious character
with which the sachem was invested. The relation of the sachem
was primarily to the gens of which he was the oflScial head, while
that of the chief, who was chosen for personal bravery or for
eloquence, was primarily to the tribe or large organization of the
council of which he as well as the sachem were members. The
sachem wiis so much an officer of peace that he could not go to
war as a sachem, but simply as a private individual in the ranks
under the leaderships of the chiefs, whose functions were purely
military or advisory in military matters in the general council of
the tribe.
The office of sachem was hereditary in the sense that it was
filled from the same gens as often as a vacancy happened, but it
was filled by election from different relatives of the deceased or
deposed chieftain. Though the office was nominally for life, it
was practically for good behavior, because of the power to depose.
The ceremony of installing a sachem was very picturesque. It
was accompanied by song and dance and the final act was
symbolized by the putting on a headdress of buffalo horns, as his
deposition was symbolized by taking off the horns.
It is one of the little facts that cumulate to show the substan-
tial relativity of mankind that, even among tribes widely separated,
horns have been made emblems of office and authority from time
immemorial, and even of sanctity, as in the Catholic church we
liave the horns of the altar, which were invested with a peculiar
sacredness. The killing of Thomas k Becket, for instance, in the age
of Henry II. of England, when assassination was a common crime,
was accounted especially heinous because the victim was not only
a priest, but was killed while holding one of the horns of the altar.
Horns, also, by the imagination of the middle ages, are assigned
to his Satanic Majesty, probably as a token of his power, and the
horn as a sign of plenty is another emblem, derived iK)ssibly from
the Scandinavian drinking-horn, though it is also credited with a
Roman and Greek derivation. Tylor intimates that the command-
ing ai:)pearance of buffalos and such animals as wear horns may
have suggested to the general mind this thing as a token of
dignity and authority. »
48 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
It is well established, though but recently, that Man all over
the world has a common scientific evolution ; the story of one race
is the story of all. Humanity is a unit in source, in experi-
ence, in progress; and, in the faith of science we may add,
one also in the certainty of an immortal and imperial destiny.
So, if we take the condition of development shown by a tribe
of American Indians, we shall have a fairly approximate picture
of just how the beautiful civilization of Greece, or the majestic
empire of Rome under Augustus, developed through the gens,
phratrj^ and tribe.
Too many of us derive our idea of an Indian from Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show, or from the straggling specimens that sell
baskets and beadwork in the summer. But these bear no more
real resemblance to the Indian as he is historically than do the
fawning, flattering, fortune-telling gypsies to the ancient Egyptian
couitiers who exchanged elegant compliments amid the roseate
shadows of the perfumed audience chamber of Cleopatra.
Nationally, we have done great material wrong to the original
possessors of tliis country. Is it not becoming then that we
should at least make some attempt to do justice to them histori-
cally, since we have never, or rarely, done it to the living
individuals ?
Moreover, our ideas of the Indian have always been colored by
conflict. We have inherited a distrust of him, and it is only of
late that scholars generally have begun to appreciate his virtues.
Even large-hearted ti-avellers like Dickens have been misled into
regarding him as merely a dirty and drunken ruffian, glad to live
in laziness and be supported by the government. The trouble is
we are looking upon the Indian, not as God made Iiim, not as
he developed under the kindly eye of nature, but as we white
men have unmade him by the almost off-setting brutality that
accompanies our present civilization. The American Indian,
sitting in council near the banks of some winding water, under
the mellow harvest moon, was a very different being from those
we see to-day, who have exchanged the virtues of barbarism for
the vices of civilization; those to whom we have given of our
M'oret instead of our best.
Metacom and Wamsutta, the last Indian kings of prominence
THB ORIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAN.
in New England, were types, it is true, of the third stage of
barbarism. They were barbarians, but they were gentlemen. In
a of feeling, in regard for the rights of others, in statesman!-
^-'ili
|K^
Ir
^« "'-.
wR
HKSSlS^^^^^k
^^V v!
IS
^m
^M
^H ^<'.^^9&^J^
\mk;'
M
yS|^^^^^
^sl.
m
^^m
m
^H
like qualities, and needleas to say in daring, they would compare
with any of the early Saxon chiefs except pobsibly Alfied the
60 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Great. For instance, what could be finer than the feeling shown
in the following incident ?
Wamsutta was the chief king of Eastern New England during
the early colonial days. His father, Massasoit, had heaped kind-
nesses on the Pilgrims, fed them when starving, saved them from
the assaults of other tribes. After his death, Wamsutta was one
diiy at breakfast in one of his many hunting lodges, with several
of his nobles and their wives. A party of Pilgrims surprised
them, seized their weapons that had been stacked outside, and told
the king that he was under arrest and must come to Plymouth
to answer certain charges. The leader of this party offered the
outraged monarch a horse to ride on, but the king refused with
these words : " I could not ride and let these wonjen walk."
This is but one of the many incidents which a certain un-
conscious or subconscious candor has forced unfriendly historians
to record. Wamsutta died from the effect on his proud nature of
the indignity done him by this an-est, and his brother, Metacom,
or Philip, as he was called by the Pilgrims, for years nursed plans
pf vengeance against the race who had been the cause of his
brother's early death, who had spoiled him of his lands, wantonly
burned many of his hunting-lodges, and tried even in liis own
home to curtail his powers.
Philip made war on our English ancestoi-s during the fall of
1675 and the following winter and spring; and though like
Napoleon, a personal failure finally, the results of his well-planned
war on our ancestors were felt for fifty years after his death, or, as
their writers agreed, he retarded the development of New England
for that space.
Yet he, too, with every reason to detest our race, was not only kind
in many instances to the prisoners he captured, but was uniformly
courteous. Mrs. Richardson, who lived as his prisoner for many
months before she was finally restored to her husband, tells us that
this great soldier (even his enemies admitted his military genius)
was a most kindly captor. He asked her one day to make a shirt
for his little son, and when she had made it, expressing his
pleasure, he not only thanked her, but paid her an English shilling
for it.
Our tardy scholarship is beginning to see that such conduct
THE ORIGIN OP GOVBRNSIENT WITH MAN.
more fairly represents the Indian character as it waa at tlie beat
period of development than the ravages occasionally committed by
the degenerate tribes of to-day, too often goaded to fury by dis-
honest government agents.
It is a pity that we have not sufficient data concerning the
60 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Great. For instance, what could be finer than the feeling shown
in the following incident ?
Wamsutta was the chief king of Eastern New England during
the early colonial days. His father, Massasoit, Iiad heaped kind-
nesses on the Pilgrims, fed them when starving, saved them from
the assaults of other tribes. After his death, Wamsutta was one
day at breakfast in one of his many hunting lodges, with several
of his nobles and their wives. A party of Pilgrims surprised
them, seized their weapons that had been stacked outside, and told
the king that he was under arrest and must come to Plymouth
to answer certain charges. Tlie leader of this party offered the
outraged monarch a hoi-se to ride on, but the king refused with
these words : " I could not ride and let these women walk.**
This is but one of the many incidents which a certain un-
conscious or subconscious candor has forced unfriendly historians
to record. Wamsutta died from the efifect on his proud nature of
the indignity done him by this arrest, and his brother, Metacom,
or Philip, as he was called by the Pilgrims, for years nursed plans
pf vengeance against the race who had been the cause of his
brother's early death, who had spoiled him of his lands, wantonly
burned many of his hunting-lodges, and tried even in liis own
tome to curtail his powers.
Philip made war on our English ancestoi*s during the fall of
1675 and the following winter and spring; and though like
Napoleon, a personal failure finally, the results of his well-planned
war on our ancestors were felt for fifty years after his death, or, as
their writers agreed, he retarded the development of New England
for that space.
Yet he, too, with every reason to detest our race, was not only kind
in many instances to the prisoners he captured, but was uniformly
courteous. Mrs. Richardson, who lived as his prisoner for many
months before she was finally restored to her husband, tells us that
this great soldier (even his enemies admitted his military genius)
was a most kindly captor. He asked her one day to make a shirt
for his little son, and when she had made it, expressing his
pleasure, he not only thanked her, but paid her an English shilling
for it.
Our tardy scholarship is beginning to see that such conduct
THE OBIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAN. 51
more fairly represents the Inditui character as it was at the best
period o£ development than the ravages occasionally committed by
the degenerate tribes of to-day, too often goaded to fury by dia.
honest government agents.
It is a pity that we have not sufficient data concerning the
62 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
political condition of the New England Indians to show how they
developed to the production of such men as those just named, but
by examining another Indian tribe, the Seneca-Iroquois, we shall
see the evolution of government among barbarians up to hereditary
monarchy as clearly as if we went through a long course of Greek
or Roman history.
The Seneca-Iroquois were divided into gentes, phratries, and
tribes. The chiefs in each gens were usually proportioned to the
membere. Among the Iroquois there is one to about every fifty
persons. The Iroquois in New York now number three thousand,
and have eight sachems and about sixty chiefs.
The first question, then, that suggests itself is, what were the politi-
cal rights of the gens. First of all, with the basic right of having
a council of its own, the right of electing and deposing its sachem
and its chiefs. Here we have at once a fact that contradicts the
old historical assumption that the democratical form of govern-
ment is a late invention, and that the monarchical was the one
most natui-al and most adapted to the evolution of human society.
For the right of electing and deposing the head of the gens
shows that man started in a rude way to have what we are trying
to-day to have in a complete, though perhaps too complex, way ;
namely, a government of the people.
Another right of the gens was the inheritance of property. If
a man died his property would not descend to his son or his
daughter, but to the gens in common. The feeling here seems to
be identical with that wliich our most republican millionnaii'e,
Andrew Carnegie, has recently expressed, that a man's material
acquisitions, being largely the result of the co-operation of others,
should at his death revert to whence they came. Mr. Carnegie's
mind, however, has expanded since his fii^t declaration, for he now
maintains that a rich man in his life-time should restore to the
people, in the shape of libraries, parks, and hospitals, the money
he has made out of them.
Of course, another right of the gens was that of bestowing
names on its members, and of adopting strangers by naming them.
There were obligations, likewise, of help and defence and redress
of injuries, and, in time, an obligation among most not to marry
in the gens. Common religious rites, a common burial place and,
THE OBIOIN OF GOVERNMENT WITH HAH. 68
as A necessary basis for the election of a sachem, the right to call
a council, were distinctive marks of tlie Iroquois gens.
As to the election of sachems and chiefs, it is probably a new-
fact to most readers that nea ly 11 tl e Ame a I V n tr'bes as
well as tl e Seneca-1 oquo s h 1 t o g ■ades f cl efta ship
other words, they 1 ad a pe e go emo and a a el ef
The sachem, or wise-man, was elected in each gens from among
its members. A son could not be chosen to succeed his father if
descent was in the female line, which made the son belong to a
different gens.
The duties of a sachem were confined to the affaii-s of peace.
He settled disputes, advised the time of planting corn, or the
location of the camp, or any matter that demanded personal
adviceior sympatiiy. It was analogous in some respects to the
62 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
political condition of the New England Indians to show how they
developed to the production of such men as those just named, but
by examining another Indian tribe, the Seneca-Iroquois, we shall
see the evolution of government among barbarians up to hereditary
monarchy as clearly as if we went through a long course of Greek
or Roman history.
The Seneca-Iroquois were divided into gentes, phratries, and
tribes. The chiefs in each gens were usually proportioned to the
membei*s. Among the Iroquois there is one to about every fifty
persons. The Iroquois in New York now number three thousand,
and have eight sachems and about sixty chiefs.
The first question, then, that suggests itself is, what were the politi-
cal rights of the gens. First of all, with the basic right of having
a council of its own, the right of electing and deposing its sachem
and its chiefs. Here we have at once a fact that contradicts the
old historical assumption that the democratical form of govern-
ment is a late invention, and that the monarchical was the one
most natural and most adapted to the evolution of human society.
For the right of electing and deposing the head of the gens
shows that man started in a rude way to have what we are trying
to-day to have in a complete, though perhaps too complex, way ;
namely, a government of the people.
Another right of the gens was the inheritance of property. If
a man died his property would not descend to his son or his
daughter, but to the gens in common. The feeling here seems to
be identical with that which our most republican millionnaire,
Andrew Carnegie, has recently expressed, that a man's material
acquisitions, being largely the result of the co-operation of others,
should at his death revert to whence they came. Mr. Carnegie's
mind, however, has expanded since his fii*st declaration, for he now
maintains that a rich man in his life-time should restore to the
people, in the shape of libraries, parks, and hospitals, the money
he has made out of them.
Of course, another right of the gens was that of bestowing
names on its members, and of adopting strangers by naming them.
There were obligations, likewise, of help and defence and redress
of injuries, and, in time, an obligation among most not to marry
in the gens. Common religious rites, a common burial place and,
THE OBIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH MAN.
58
as a necessaiy basis for the election of & sachem, the right to call
a council, were distinctive marks of the Iroquois gens.
As to the election of sachems and chiefs, it is probably a new
fact to most readers that nearly ivll tlie American Indiin tribe'' as
well as the Seieca-Iroquo s had t o grades of cl efta slip i
other words, they had a peace go\ernor and a vai cl ef
ONE OF KINO
The sachem, or wise-man, was elected in each gens from among
its members. A son could not be chosen to succeed his father if
descent was in the female line, which made the son belong to a
different gens.
The duties of a sachem were coniined to the affairs of peace.
He settled disputes, advised the time of planting corn, or the
location of the camp, or any matter that demanded personal
advice, or sympathy. It was analogous in some respects to the
64 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
post of father confessor, though among many of the tribes this
function was rudimentary in spite of the semi-religious character
with which the sachem was invested. The relation of the sachem
was primarily to the gens of which he was the official head, while
that of the chief, who was chosen for personal bravery or for
eloquence, was primarily to the tribe or large organization of the
council of which he as well as the sachem were members. The
sachem was so much an officer of peace that he could not go to
war as a sachem, but simply as a private individual in the ranks
under the leaderships of the chiefs, whose functions were purely
military or advisory in military matters in the general council of
the tribe.
The office of sachem was hereditary in the sense that it was
filled from the same gens as often as a vacancy happened, but it
was filled by election from different relatives of the deceased or
deposed chieftain. Though the office was nominally for life, it
was practically for good behavior, because of the power to depose.
The ceremony of installing a sachem was very picturesque. It
was accompanied by song and dance and the final act was
symbolized by the putting on a headdress of buffalo horns, as his
deposition was symbolized by taking off the horns.
It is one of the little facts that cumulate to show the substan-
tial relativity of mankind that, even among tribes widely separated,
horns have been made emblems of office and authority from time
immemorial, and even of sanctity, as in the Catholic church we
have the horns of the altar, which were invested with a peculiar
siicredness. The killing of Thomas h Becket, for instance, in the age
of Henry II. of England, when assassination was a common crime,
was accounted especially heinous because the victim was not only
a priest, but was killed while holding one of the horns of the altar.
Horns, also, by the imagination of the middle ages, are assigned
to liis Satanic Majesty, probably as a token of his power, and the
horn as a sign of plenty is another emblem, derived possibly from
the Scandinavian drinking-horn, though it is also credited with a
Roman and Greek derivation. Tylor intimates that the command-
ing appearance of buffalos and such animals as wear horns may
liave suggested to the general mind this thing as a token of
dignity and authority. »
66 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Among the Iroquois Indians, whose attempt at government we
are considering, the nomination of a sachem by a gens was not
complete until it had received the assent of the seven remaining
gentes. If these gentes, who met for this purpose by phratries,
refused to confirm it, the original gens had to make another
choice ; and even when they had confiimed it, it was still neces-
sary that the new sachem, to use their own peculiar phrase, should
be " raised up^*^ that is, should be inducted into his office by a
council of the confederacy before he could enter upon his duties.
The same method of election and confirmation applied to chiefs,
yet a general council never convened to " raise up " chiefs below
the rank of a sachem, but waited for some time when a sachem
was to be confirmed.
The principle of democracy manifested itself here in the reten-
tion by the gent-i-les,^ or members of each gens, of the right of
electing their most immediate rulers, and also proved itself in
the safeguards thrown around the oflBces to prevent usurpations
by the check on the election which the other gentes held in their
hands and by the additional check held by the whole tribe. We
can see in this ceremonial of " raising up " by the tribe an
analogue of the administration to our President of the oath of
office by some one else, as we can see also in the checks devised
by the Indian mind against the seizure of power by unscrupulous
ambition the same working principle that led the founders of this
republic to put various checks on the power of individuals, and
even of popular assemblies, such as the check of the Senate on the
House of Representatives.
It is worthy of note that in this democratic assembly, or coun-
cil of the gens, which elected a sachem, not merely every man,
but every married woman, had a voice upon great questions,
probably in many cases very much of a voice on little ones, like-
wise. Thus it is evident that the great ideas. Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity, which were the torch-words of the French Revolu-
tion, though never formulated into sounding phrase by Indian
orators, were cardinal principles of their system of government.
Looked at carelessly, a council of Indian chiefs, scantily clad,
> Oent-i-les — the members of a gens or family group. A word to be distinguished from
Gentiles as used in the Bible.
THE OKIGIN OP GOVERNMENT WITH HAK. 67
with paint-daubed faces, armed with rude weapons and amoking
clumsy pipes, is of little importance except as a ptctureijqueneBs
of the past. Studied by the light of science, it is seen to be the
germ of the modern congress, and thus to have a bearing of great
importance on the histoiy of mankind.
The first st^ge of tribal government was a council of chiefs
elected by the gentes and may be styled a one-power government ■
— not a one-raan power, for that was to come later.
, -'^
^-A'^'/^H
^^.„ '^ TEbs
«S*>^0*!^
^^^hM^H
Hg
fii^^'^^^
bb^
^^9
^
^%i:
w^M
^H
^
r'
■■^^F~^
pra^w
^^1
hH
The second stage was a govei'nment divided, or balanced, be-
tween a council of chiefs, or sncliems, and a general ; one repre-
senting the civil, and ^he other the military necessities of the
people.
The general, called War Chief among the Iroquois, Rex among
the Romans, and Basileus among the Oreeks, was the germ, or
suggestion, of a chief executive magistrate. King, Emperor, or
President. This office was elective and not hereditarj' among the
Iroquois and other Indians, as likewise among the Romans, and
later light seems to show that the Spaniards, and the great
historian Prescott following their lead, were mistaken in thinking
68 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that among the Aztecs the office was hereditary. It is also
extremely doubtful whether among the Greeks of the traditionary
period, — that is, those who figure as heroes in the world's
greatest poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, — the office of king was
not elective, instead of Iiereditary, as most scholars have hitherto
assumed.
This double government of an elective council and elective
general, or two-power government, naturally unfolded into a third
stage: a tribal government, with a council of chiefs, a general
commander, and an assembly of the people, since the establishment
of tribes in walled cities, and the creation of wealth in lands,
flocks and herds and in private property necessitated a popular
assembly.
The council of chiefs, to retain their power, found it needful to
submit the most important measures to this popular assembly for
approval or the reverse. It does not appear that this assembly
originated measures, but was content to let the chiefs do their
thinking for them, retaining only the right of rejection or final
action. This was a creation then of a three-power government,
namely the preconsidering council, the popular assembly to sanc-
tion or reject the plans of their accepted thinkers, and the general
to carry them out, if called upon.
The Iroquois went one step further in the development of gov-
ernment than most of the Indians, for one of tlieir wise men,
Ha-yo-went-ha, whom our poet Longfellow has celebrated as
Hiawatha, conceived the idea of uniting their different tribes and
some others into a confederacy mth marked limitations of territory
which was almost an arrival at the conception of a nation. The
Iroquois tradition tells us that the council for this purpose met on
the north shore of the beautiful Onondaga Lake near the present
site of Syracuse, and that the organization was perfected.
The great Edinburgh scholar. Prof. John Stuart Blackie,
remarks that the American Indians and the Greeks of the Homeric
poems bear to each otlier in sentiment a wonderfully striking
resemblance. This is especially true as to the basis of government
indicated by their political or official titles. The Iroquois name
for a sachem (Ilo-yar-na-go-war), which signifies " a counsellor of
the people," has its duplicate in many Greek names for military
[ OBIQIN OF GOVEKNMENT WITH MAN.
59
leaders, which betokens that botli barbaric governraents were based
on the people (as is not the case to-day with the barbaric govern-
meots of Russia and of China) and were, indeed, a rude kind of
free democracy.
Since scientists are agreed that all mtn liave developed in very
nearly similar ways, tliere is contained in this jiarticular picture a
general one also of the way in which all races probably began,
by the slow adding of new featnres to the machinery of their
social system, to evolve tlie idea of government from the family.
What is averagely true of the American Indian applies roundly,
and the different kinds of gfiveninicnt wliicli wo chilli bii led to
study further on, by means of brief historical illustrations, will l>e
seen to be growths upon this primal stock i>f df/mncraticul govern-
ment, excrescences caused citlier hy tlio cleverness of priests, or
the ambition of individual chiefs, who, tenii«>i-arily clothed with
power by the [leople, managed to perpetuate their power in them-
selves and their descendants. But these excrescencfs^ on the fair
growth of the original democratic idea are gradually losing their
vitality and must before long drop awa)-.
■ It 1b believeil by Gome BtaJsnts at liintnry tint tlia iiei>iilB liave Bimrrcly itcvelojieil die
moDaTchiual form as preferable to Oic umiTtalnty.che Hiictiiaiii clmrai-ifr.cjf an <.lii-ar>:lii'! '>r
democratic fomi. PosbIUI; nionaTcliy it part or a natural onlrr. jiwt as a dinorder In chilil-
bood may be a Htfeguatd againat a mure dan^roua disease later— a sort of unconscious
■all'TSCcinaUon on Uie part of a people •levelopin;;.
60 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
We have now had a brief outline of the simplest form of tribal
government, a form adapted to meet only the needs of barbarians.
We shall see in a later chapter how perfect in its mechanism,
and how marvellous in its power has been, and still is, the theo-
cratic, or priestly government, which the great French scholar,
Fustel de Coulanges, seems to think was more strong in the begin-
ning of ancient society than to-day. For de Coulanges maintains
that among ancient races every family had a separate religion ;
that every hearth was the altar of a personal god, and that con-
sequently every attempt at closer association between different
families for the pui^j^ose, or towards the end, of establishing a
joint government was not merely colored, but controlled, by the
theocratic or priestly idea ; was dominated always by the shadow
of the unseen world.
It sometimes happens, however, that great scholars who adopt
certain ideas as genei-al explanations of any problem are tempted
to twist even the simplest fact into an apparent substantiation of
their theories. For example, this great Frenchman just mentioned,
whose lust book had the extraordinary honor of being crowned
three times by the French Academy, takes a very simple passage
from Homer's beautiful poem, " The Odyssey." Ulysses, when
offered countless treasures and immortality likewise, wishes instead
to see once more the flame of his own hearth-fire. The scholar,
often too eager to prove his case and so tempted into becoming
a special {^leader, seems to see in this a proof of the worship of
home and the household fire-god rather than a simple, though
profound, idea put by the greatest of poets into the mouth of his
wisest character.
For should not the wise man's words really be taken as
merely an outburst of the charmingly simple and profoundly true
feeling that human affection outshines all treasures, and that to
see once again, after long separation, one's beloved wife and child
would be more to a man than immoitality away from them ?
II.
f{udin)cr)is
/Kn)or)^ /Kt)itr)clls^
THE beginnings of human government, as of the human
family, if we accept tlie doctrine of Darwin, are
unquestionably found among the lower animals. But
whether we believe the Darwinian theory or not, which
the most eminent pathologist Virchow has recently declared to be
still far from final, we cannot reasonably refuse to admit that
" instinct," as a mysterious line of separation between man and
other animals, has been wiped out. The word, instinct, comes
from the Latin verb, instinguere^ to excite or urge on, and by
logical necessity implies a conscious exciter behind the excitement
exhibited. Hence, very justly from this point of view, Ciesalpinus,
an ancient author, remarks : — " Deus est anima brutorum.^^ " God
is the mind (or moving principle) of animals."
Most of the early philosophers, and especially the Christian
fathers (who were almost unanimous in regarding all animal
life as something necessarily coarse, gross and contemptible),
assumed that animals were mere automata. In the middle ages
those who sought an explanation for the manifold manifestations
of reason among the brutes were, however, slightly at variance in
their opinions, for some attributed such tokens to the all-powerful
and ever-ready devil ; while others referred them to the agency of
God, through the medium of instinct — which was defined as a
61
62 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
guiding, inborn, unchangeable and irresistible propensity, inde-
pendent of experience or training or heredity, and acting appro-
priately without consciousness of the object aimed at.
According to Descartes, the great French philosopher, the
feelings and emotions of animals are an empty show — a welcome
bit of philosophy for animal tormentors. This extreme opinion,
coming from a man so famous, had a great vogue in its time, but
some voices here and there were lifted against it, and even the
Jesuit father, Bonjeant, who found so much intelligence in ani-
mals that he thought most of it must be due to the help of the
devil or devils, turned against Descartes with the words : " All
the Cartesians in the world will never persuade me that a dog is
a mere machine. Imagine a man who should love his clock as
he loves his dog, and who should pet it because he believed it
loved him and was of opinion that it struck the hours con-
sciously and out of friendship for him. Yet, if Descartes be right,
that is exactly the absurdity committed by all those who believe
that their dog is faithful to them and loves them. I see how my
dog runs to me when I call him, caresses me when I coax him,
trembles and runs away when I threaten him, obeys when I order
him, and how he exhibits all the outward signs of the distinct
emotions of joy, grief, pain, fear, desire, love and hate. And if
all the philosophers in the world should try to convince me, I
should never be able to persuade myself that an animal is a
machine."
But, in contradiction of the doctrine that animals are automatic,
it has long been recognized that the power and practice of organi-
zation among the lower animals include a series of phenomena
of the highest interest — phenomena that involve the possession
and application of high mental and even moral faculties. For
instance, there are forms of government and respect for consti-
tuted authority. « If men," wrote the pagan Celsus in the second
century after Christ, " think themselves dilBferentiated from ani-
mals, because they inhabit towns, make laws and set up govern-
ments, they prove themselves in error, for bees and ants do the
same." Celsus also noted that ants talk with each other when
they meet, and offered an opinion, which recent investigation has
confirmed, that they had regular burying-grounds.
EUDIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS. 68
When an animal is very minute, people are apt to think its
oi^nization must be very simple and its intelligence very small,
for the influence of the prejudice of mere size over the majority is
very great. The gigantic dimensions of a whale, or a reptile of
the fossil age, attract general attention, while equal attention is
not easily aroused by the most wonderful phenomena exhibited in
the life of a flea or an ant. Yet the exti-aordinary capabilities of
an apparently lowly creature may yield to a philosopher the most
valuable results.
The cerebral ganglia of the ant — which ganglia in invertebrate
animals take tlie place of tlie bmin proper to tlie vertebrate — are
no larger than a quarter of a pin's head. " Under this point of
view," as Darwin says, "the brain of the ant is one of the most
wonderful atoms of matter in the world, perliaps more so than
the brain of a man." And this fact shows that tliere may be
64 THE STORY OF GOYEBNHENT.
marvellously great mentality in. a maryellonslj small mass of
nervous matter.
Ants live in a republic, in the fullest sense of the word, that
is, in a state on the widest democratic foundations ; and is it not
significant that the most intelligent family among socially living
insects has made for itself a polity which is regarded among men
as the relatively best and most ideal, while a step lower, among
bees, there is a distinct inclination to the form of so-called consti-
tutional monarchy ? Among men, even among many college-bred
Americans, it is frequently said that while the republican form of
government, from a theoretical standpoint, best represents the
ideal of the state and the principles of justice, nevertheless, on
account of the ineradicable weakness of human nature, and the con-
sequent impossibility of self-government, it is not practically
realizable.
Were this true, ought we not to look up to and regard
with profound admiration the little ant-nation that lives at
our feet, since every tribe of those apparently petty creatures
finds itself intelligent and civilized enough to live easily and
happily under the principles of universal equality and liberty?
Shall we not have to revise Solomon's saying, " Go to the ant,
thou sluggard ! " somewhat after this fashion, " Go to the ant,
thou political economist, or college professor who inculcatest
monarchism " ?
But the ant republic has not merely political equality ; it has
gone a step further than that and evolved industrial equality.
It has developed from the social the socialistic republic, and
is indeed in all its industrial, though not in all its social features,
what our most idealistic politiconsocial refonners are wont to put
forward as the last and mightiest aim of human efforts after
governmental perfection ; the ideal of Plato, and Sir Thomas More,
of Edward Bellamy and a growing host of thinkers and
workers now in eveiy place. The ant state is a " Proletariat
State " in the truest sense of the word, since only the wingless,
sexless worker-ants, which have no families of their own to look
after, take part in directing the business, while the winged males
and fertile females are kept as prisoners in the nest, and are fed
and nurtured for the sake of their progeny.
"^^.^ ^'Hb' L^W
THE POLICE C
66 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Tlje expression " sexless " is really not appropriate to the men,
or rather \vonien-workei*s, for these are really undeveloped feinalai^
so that the state is truly under a rule completely feminine.
Huber remarks that these are women whose moral qualities
have been developed at the cost of their physical, — a tiling which
ought not to happen among mankind, for the most perfect devel-
opment of a human being is that wliich is symmetrical. As Alcott
said, Friendship is globular, Love is spherical, and the loss or de-
pression of any element of God's creation is not a superior purity
but an imperfection.
The individual ant does not possess a family, for the principle
of public and state training of children — such as the philosopher
Plato is known to have desired in his republic, and which would
be necessary in a fully organized " Proletariat State " — is thor-
oughly carried out in the ant republic.
There is one singular contradiction to the equality regnant
among ants and this is, that for an unknown length of time they
have had a politico-social institution which has played and still
plays a great part in the history of human nations and civilizations.
This institution, indeed, seems at first sight not to harmonize with
the otherwise social-democratic arrangements of the ant republic ;
but when we remember that slavery existed in the republics of
antiquity, and not only well agreed with the rest of the polity,
but was even an essential support of the same, we can scarcely
deny to the ant republic its democratic character on account of
slavery. And this the rather since slavery among ants is as mild,
if not milder, than it was in Greece, where freed slaves were often
known to rise to the highest offices and dignities of the State,
or even than in Rome, where Greek slaves were the tutors of the
young, and slavery, odious as it may be in and for itself, neverthe-
less apparently contributed to the general advance of civilization.
Besides, slavery among ants, in a very important point, is
far superior to that among men, and it may be said without
question that in this resj^ect ants tliink and act more humanely
than men themselves. For instance, they never allow grown-up
membei"s of their race, who have come to their full antly
consciousness, to l)e enslaved, whereas human slave-makers are
known never to have the smallest scruple on this head. For the
RODIMENTS AMON(i ANIMALS. 67
ant-kidnappers only atea! larvie iind pui)io, which tliey bring up as
regular slaves within their dwellings, so that these last have never
tusted the sweetness of freedom. Only young aiitH, one or two
days old, recognizable by their clear color, which are not yet out
of their long clothes ami do not yet know what is " manly or
wommily pride before the throne of a king," are sei/.ed and made
into slaves, and these aceuatoni themselves <]nickly and easily to
their new position.
The slaves of tlie ants, moreover, do not seem to lie conscious
of the lo.ss, or rather of the absence of freediwn, and, as a rule,
work willingly and uncorapelled, in common with tlicir masters
at all the tasks necessary for the maintenance of the colony, such
as building the dwellings, searching for plant-lice, tendance and
feeding of larv-e and pupse, and so on, and even fight against
members of their own species in company with their robber-lords.
■They are regarded more as frientls, brothel's, or heljiei's than as
real slaves. They never think of escaping from slavery by flight,
although the naturalist, Forel, once observed a revolt among them.
This rule applies at least to the Swiss species ohseiTed by Huber,
while in the south of England colonies* have been seen in which
the slavee never leave or venture to leave the nest, and are thus,
in the true sense of the word, domestic slaves.
Ants also show a strong resemblance to men in the development
of their character. Their great attachment and self-sacrifice for
the commonwealth and for each member of it are accompanied
68 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
generally by a hasty temperament, a proneness to furious anger,
and an unquenchable hatred against all foreign or hostile colonies.
Therewith are blended industry, perseverance, and too often
cruelty. Gluttony also is one of their chai-acteristics, and their
love for a good meal is so great that it is thus possible to restrain
their otherwise unconquerable desire to fight. Nothing is more
interesting than to watch this struggle of two passions. If honey,
of wliich ants are inordinately fond, and for which they will
generally leave all other food, be placed on a battlefield between
two contending parties, as for instance red and turf ants, some of
the warriors will be seen approaching and tasting it. They never
stay by it long, but quickly return to the fight. Sometimes these
same ants will turn back longingly twice or thrice.
Government among the Termites, who are wrongly named
ants, has some highly interesting points. They belong to an
entirely different order of the Insecta, the Orthoptera, are related
most nearly to our Blattae or cockroaches, and are three or four
times as large as our black ants. Their polity seems to be almost
more developed than that of the ants, and their architectural talent
is also superior. They raise, in Africa at least, fine buildings of
from ten to twenty feet high, out of the earth, clay, pieces of
plants, stones, etc., fastening together these materials by a kind
of gummy saliva.
So firm does this make their towns, built in the shape of a cone
or of a large liaycock, that several men can stand on tlieir surface.
Antelopes and buffaloes are wont to use these giant ant-liills for
sentries or watchtowers to look over the wide plains and guard
against the approach of enemies. They do not break through
even under the tread of an elephant or the weight of a heavily
laden wagon. In Senegal their size and number are often so large
that at a distance they frequently resemble human dwellings, the
similarly conical huts of the negro villagei*s, and travellers are
sometimes thereby led in a wi'ong direction. Jol)Son, in his
'' History of Gambia," says that many of these towns are twenty
feet high, and that he and his companions often hid behind them
when out hunting.
At first the buildings are only small, and resemble pyramids
scarcely a foot high. Gradually, as tlie population increases, new
RUDIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS.
69
and similar hills lise up all around. The partition walla are then
broken througli, t^e new dwellings are united to the old, a dome
is added, and a symmetrical roof is built over all. Tims a perfect
objectrlesson of mankind's greatest principle, co-operation, is con-
tinually I'epeated, until the mound of twelve or twenty feet high
is made. The outer covering consists of a firm-domed vaulted
layer of clay, which is exceedingly strong, so as to withstand in-
juries from weather, attacks of enemies, and other accidents.
The astonishment felt at the capabilities of these creatures who
are sometimes a scourge to the human inhabitants of the countries
where they live becomes even greater wlien we investigate the
interior of the hills that .serve as their dwellings. Tliese internal
aiTvmgements are so various and so complicated that pages of des-
cription might be written about tliem. Tliere are myriads of
rooms, cells, nuraeries. })rovisiou i-hamltei-s, guard-ninms, passages.
corridors, vaults, bridges, subterranean streets and vanals, tunnels,
arched ways, steiw, smooth inclines, domes, etc., etc., all arranged
on a definite, coherent, ami well-considered plan. In the middle
of the building, sheltered as far as possible fnim outside dangers,
lies the stately roj-al dwelling, resembling an arclied oven, in which
70 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the royjil pair reside, or rather are imprisoned, for the entrances
and outlets are so small that although the workei-s on service can
pass easily in and out, tlie queen cannot, for during the egg-laying
her lx)dy swells out to an enormous size, two or three thousand
times the size and weight of an ordinary worker.
The tjueen, therefore, never leaves her dwelling, and dies therein.
Round the palace, which is at first small, but is later enlarged in
proportion as tlie queen increases in size, until it is at last a yard
long and half a yard high, lie the nurseries or cells for the eggs
and larvae ; next these the servants' rooms or cells for the workers
who wait on the queen ; then special chambers for the soldiers on
guard, and between these are numerous store-rooms, filled with
gums, resins, dried plant-juices, meal, seeds, fruits, worked-up wood,
etc. According to Bettziech-Beta, there is always in the midst
of the town a large common room, which is used either for
popular assembliei or as the meeting and starting point of the
countless piissages and cliambers of the town. Other naturalists
believe that this space serves for purposes of ventilation.
It is by no means easy to investigate accumtely the interior
of a Termite town, owing to the interdependence of the several
parts — tlie destruction of one room, arch, or passage causing the
breaking down of many, and in addition to tliis the energetic resist-
ance of the Termite soldiers, armed with very sharp and strong
mandibles, puts great obstacles in the way of the observer. " They
fight," says tlie English traveller Smeath man, to whom we owe the
fullest information about these creatures, " thev figrht to the last
man, and they defend so energetically every inch of their projierty
that they often drive away the unshod negroes, while the blood of
the European runs through his stockings. We were never able to
itudy the interior of a nest in peace ; for while the soldiei*s
attacked us, the workers stopped up as quickly as possible the
rooms and passages laid open." They do this especially in the
neighborhood of the royal dwelling, for which they show the great-
est care, and that so cleverly that from the outside it only looks
like a formless heap of clay and cannot be distinguished from its
surroundings. Nevertheless, it is not hard to iind, partly from its
situation in the midst of the building, and partly because it is sur-
rounded by great crowds of workers and soldiei-s, willing to risk
KUDIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS.
71
their lives in its defence. Tlie interior aUo, besides containing the
royal pair, is found filled with hundreds of tlie workers serving the
latter. These faithful servants do not desert their sovereigns even
in utmost need and peril. " For wlien I," says Smeathman, " took
out such a royal dwelling and kept it in a lai^e glajss vessel, all of
the servants busied themselves witli the greatest care about their
sovereigns, and I saw some of them engaged about the head of
the queen, as t)iough they wei-e giving her something. Then they
m
M.W-^Af
m
^H
s
took awav from her abdomen the eggs laid by her, and carried tliem
carefully into some unbroken parts of the building, or hid thein
between scraps of clay as well as they could."
The Termites shun the light nf day : " having light, they ]>i-cfer
darkness rather." Thi;* is also shown to some extent in their state
polity, which, as ahvaily sjiid, otherwise much resembles the Ant
Republic, except that it favow the nionareliical idea by passessing
72 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
a standing army and having genemlly only one queen. By this
possession of a standing army the Termites' state is rendered
more monarchical even than the famous Bee polity, so often re-
garded as the prototype of a monarcliy, or the rule of one indi-
vidual. The Bee government, indeed, generally has only one
queen, but instead of a standing army it carries out to the fullest
extent the purely republican or democratic principle of univei-sal
national arm-bearing in a fashion that leaves far behind it all
human arrangements.
Yet not in this alone, but in all its affairs, the Bee state must be
characterized as a monarchy with very democratic institutions. It
may, indeed, be called a communistic or social-democratical mon-
archy— such as Napoleon III. for a time, while coquetting
with the working-classes, appears to have had the notion of intro-
ducing in France. It may also be called an elective monarchy, for
no direct hereditaiy line is followed, but the queen is in each case
chosen by the workers, and selected or rejected as they please.
The queen in return relies wholly upon the workers, or the neuter
working bees, who, by the possession of their terrible poisoned sting,
unite in their own pereons the functions of workers and soldiers.
The privileged condition of the non-working, pleasure-loving males,
or drones, is only suffered by the worker just so long as .their
services are thought necessary.
On the other hand, the monarchical principle is very plainly
manifested in the fact that the whole life of the hive revolves
more or less round the queen ; where she is wanting, dies, or is
not succeeded by another, the hive falls into disorder, and in a
longer or shorter time infallibly perishes. Single members of the
hive, if they scatter, cither die or become useless, lazy vagabonds
and mischievous higliwaymen. The monarchical principle of the
Bee nation is still more strikingly manifested in comparison with
the other social insects, in that only one ruler or queen is permit-
ted, and that where several accidentally come together the super-
fluous ones are either killed or are compelled to go out and found
new colonies.
Nevertlieless an old and aMicated queen, no longer able to lay
any fertilized eggs, is out of mercy sometimes suffered to remain
for a while in the hive near her successor, and receive some
rl
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li THK STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
measure of tlu? bread of charity. Pfarrer Calminius observed a
case ill which two queens lived peaceably and well tended near
each other on two tables hanging side by side. But these are rare
exceptions. The workers genemlly sting the old useless queens
unmei'ci fully to death, or suffocate them by surrounding them
closely on all sides. Sometimes they are merely driven out of the
hive and left to perish.
The wond(Mful ol)servation has been made that a queen who,
through age or vsome other weakening circumstances, l)ecomes con-
scious of her exhaustion, and has communicated this consciousness
to her people, provides in common with them for the safe succession
to the throne, and soon as this is done gives back the throne and
sceptre into the hands of the people, that is, either voluntarily
leaves the hive in order to die outside, or is killed by the bees and
thrown out.
As a matter of fact there is no small resemblance between the
l)ee system and that of constitutional monarchy in so far as the
l>ees appear to lay no stress on the pei-son of their queen, and are
perfectly contented so long as they have one, that is, some one
capable of discharging the royal or rather maternal duties. They
change the sovereignty as a rule eiisily and quickly, and thoroughly
practise the well-known maxim of constitutional royalty : " Le roi
est mort — vive le roi.'' (The king is dead — long live the king !)
A hive robbed of its queen either doe« homage to a fresh queen
introduced into it just as her predecessor, or brings up a sovereign
by its own efforts ; while a hive long left queenless falls* into sloth
and riot, and sooner or later perishes.
The queen, since all revolves round her, is the necessary centre
and bond of the hive, but without herself taking any personal part
in the business and proceedings. She therefore, in reality, exactly
answers to the foundation-stone of constitutionalism, and is what
Napoleon I. declared he would not be, in reply to the famous
constitutional reproach of Si(^yes : '*The prize-pig of the nation."
She is indeed widely and honorably different from her human
antitype in that she is not simply "representative,'' giving to high
and low merely an empty show, but really discharges actual and
essential duties, without which nothing could exist.
Apart from this, the queen in the simplicity and uniformity of
KUDINrENTS AMONG ANIMALS. 75
her work, and in the half, though respectful, imprisonment in
which she is kept, is a complete contrast to her intellectually and
physically developed and active subjects, so that here, as so often
among men, it might seem fair to say that stupidity or narrowness,
or perhaps only mediocrity, rules over reason.
In any case this sovereignty is nuich restricted by the subjects
who, indeed, seem to indemnify tliemselves for the compulsory
endurance of a monarchical head by observing otherwise the
maxims of the most extreme democraciy, of the widest Socialism
and Comnuuiism. For among l)ees One is as good as another and
the beautiful princi[)le is unconditionally obeyed: '^ Eacli for all
— all for each." They have no private property, no family, no
private dwelling, but liang in thick clumps within the common
room in the narrow space between the combs, taking turns for
brief nightly repose. The building, cleansing, and working are
also carried on partially through the night. All stores are com-
mon ; there is only the state magazine, and all are fed from this
without distinction of person. If want and hunger enter, all die
alike. The queen here is an exception and has the privilege of
dying last. The bees are, however, egotists in such times of need,
and in threatening famine from continued bad weather, throw the
larvie, the drone larvje first, out of the cells. Tliis also happens
likewise, when lack of place for storing provisions occurs, owing
to very successful foraging. The larvie are then thrown out, or
the nuraing nairowed down to the uttermost.
In the matter of labor the bees have realized the liiijhest ideal
of Communism, for it is perfectly free, voluntary, and uncompul-
soiy. Each does its much or as little as seems to it good ; but
there are no sluggards among them, for the universal example acts
as an incitement ; and in a society wherein all work, idleness is
really an unthinkal)le and impossible thing. Wliereas, on the
contmiy, in the much-jHaised opposite condition of human society
the idleness of the few is not onlv favored but seems to be abso-
lutely unavoidable.
Truly, in a communistic foi-m of society the individual must
have the consciousness, as among the l)ees,that, in so far as he is a
member of the whole, he is not working for otliers but for the
common good and therewith for himself. This consciousness
76 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
makes the bees such busy and eager workers that many of them
work themselves to death in a few weeks during the foragmg
season, whereas working bees usually reach an age of nine or ten
months, so tliat the great Roman poet, Virgil, whose genius tlirew
light on the commonest human labors, wrote truly :
** Ofttimes in a mistaken fliglit they tear
Their wings, and even generously die
Before they drop the precious load, so high
The fame of getting honey, and so strong
The love they feel for flowers."
The " instinct " philosopliers will probably say that this work-
ing themselves to death in behalf of the community is only the
result of an inborn, irresistible, heaven-implanted tendency in the
little bee mind from which the insect cannot voluntarily iree
itself, and that we therefore cannot liere speak either of merit or
design. But in the first place is it believable that " instinct "
should impel an animal to do that wliich will finally lead to its
destruction ? Secondly that opinion does not agree with the
already often mentioned experience that the inhabitants of a
queenless hive, which in losing their queen have lost the object of
their society, cejuse to work and fall into idleness and riot.
Now the same form of government which by one naturalist is
termed a monarchy, with a king or ([ueen at its head, is by another
described as a republic, witli a male or female president. But the
essential feature — one of importance in many ways — is the
government of a community or society, of a band or troop,
flock or herd, family or other group of individuals, species or
genera, large or small, by a leader or chief.
The consideration of this embraces the following features of
interest : — 1. The principle of selection and election or appoint-
ment. 2. Competition and ambition for rule and their results.
3. The subjection of the weak to the strong in body, mind and
will. 4. The use and abuse of authority, including the power
of command. 5. The appreciation of insignia of office or status.
6. The value attached to the possession of power and place.
In various forms leaders, governors, chiefs, commanders, pa-
triar<,^hs, mastei-s, rulers, or lieads, are to be found in many social
,' "^TliJhnlil^l^d^'ecting and defending tlie groups into which they are
r .:
78 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
divided. They occur, for instance, among wild, military-, and
pack horses, Eskimo dog teams, or dogs in Turkish towns,
beavers who build villages, camels, deer, oxen, mules, seals who
hold conventions, buffaloes, kangaroos, goats, among certain sea-
birds which appear to live in regular cities and certain of the
quadrumana (such as the siamang gorilla, spider, howling, araguata,
guereza, and other monkeys), cranes, swallows, wild geese, cocks
and hens.
These leaders are, as a general rule, males of middle age, some-
times elderly or old, and possessing as qualifications for office : —
1. Physical superiority ; being frequently above the average in
size and strength, or at least so robust and active that they have
proved themselves successful in combat and otherwise.
2. Mental superiority. They are distinguished, moreover, for
their courage, cautiousness, sagacity, power of command, ability
to act in emergency, so as to protect, defend, or direct their fol-
lowers ; for their experience ; special knowledge of enemies or
of ground ; power of self-control, especially control of temper ;
interest in the common weal ; enterprise ; ingenuity and perae-
vei*ance in the overcoming of difficulties — in other words, adapt-
iveness. Their superiority must be twofold, physical and mental ;
for a merely huge, strong animal, without the requisite intelligence
to adapt its strength to circumstances, would be useless as a leader.
Generally speaking, leadei*s are of the same species as the ani-
mals they command ; belong, perhaps, to tlie same small family or
group, as in the case of certain patriarchs or mere heads of fam-
ilies or tribes. But in other cases tlie chief belongs to a diffei^ent
species or genus. Thus the axis deer, as depicted on the opposite
I)age, sometimes leads **• mobs'' of kangaroos in Australia. The
(lonkev in the district of Smyrna, in Broussa, and the Asiatic
Olympus in Anatolia, and other parts of Asia Minor, is frequently
employed as leader of a caravan of camels; for contrary to the
prejudices of the West, in Oriental lands "Long Eai-s" enjoys the
reputation of being the most intelligent of lioofed betists. Mares
are employed as leadei-s of droves of mules in Centrtil America,
the latter animals having a liigh respect for and pride in the
hoi-se as a ^'distinguished relative," and thus willingly accepting
a mare as their queen.
BAHOAHODS I.ED BY AN J
80 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Man himself frequently becomes the leader of his flocks or his
herds, as in the case of shepherds of the East, who literally
" lead," do not drive, as ours do, their flocks. Man is recognized
literally and figuratively as its " governor " by the dog ; his right
to command is freely acknowledged, and the propriety of his
orders or actions, as a rule, not disputed. Here it should be
noted that in this case it sometimes, at least, happens that man
gains and wields his wonderful power over other animals by the
exercise of kindness, not of terrorism ; by the supremacy of love,
not of fear; by the greatest of all forces, a patient gentleness.
Thus the command of the shepherd over his sheep in primitive
countries, where the use of the sheefxlog is unknown — for
instance, in Palestine — is acquired by his constant association
with his sheep, by his habitual kindly usage, whereby confidence
in, and attiicliment to, liis person or pei-sonality are produced.
King Theodore of Abyssinia with his pet lions was an excellent
example of what a King can accomplish by gentleness instead
of crueltv.
The principle of appointment in the case of all kinds of animal
leadei's is that the strongest, boldest, best in every way, should be
called to the front and invested with supreme power ; and this
principle actuates man equally with other animals in tlie selection
of an animal chief for his flocks or herds. Man chooses and
installs a leading mule, hoi*se, dog, or i-am on the very same prin-
ciple that makes a flock or herd acquiesce in the self-appointment
of some victorious young male. In human emergency of a serious
kind, and on a large and public scale, how frequently it happens
that some man gf marked individuality, but previously unknown,
comes to the fi*ont as a volunteer leader, no one kno\\^ how, and
his supremacy is at once, by tacit consent, acknowledged. Average
people feel that he is the *' right man for the right place." He
has the requisite force of character and the ability to command
universal confidence. Universal confidence is forthwith accorded
for the time.
The man of the time, however, is as liable to be discarded by a
fickle 2X)pulaee i\s the proud and splendid stallion, when he begins
to lose that most indefinable of all qualities, popularity. So in
animal panics, for instance, some pi-eviously unobserved or undis-
RUDtMENTS AMONG ANIMALS.
81
tinguisbed individual starts, liteiully, in this case, to tlie front, and
is followed, for weal or woe, by tlie rest of a troop, herd or flock.
There is ample evidence to show that self-appointment to the
leadership is common among social aiiimaLj ; that the ambition of
DOO TOWN.
some young, energetic, vigorous male urges it to challenge and
defeat the reigning chief, a defeat that is equivalent to the com-
pulsory deposition of the one and the self-instalment of the other.
Thia new appointment, however, is, under the circumstances.
82 THE STOUY OF GOVERNMENT.
ratified by the general assent, so that, in one sense, it may be
deemed a unanimous election. There is a practical and tacit
acknowledgment of the fitness of things, the excitement being
confined mainly to the combatants themselves, though the specta-
tor, no doubt, look on with a varying degree of interest.
There is, liowever, a strong probability, although no direct
evidence, that, in eases where no such candidate presents himself
and takes the law of competition and succession into his o^vn hands,
selection is made by universal suffi-age — by pushing into a posi-
tion of command that individual among them best qualified to
exercise the supreme power. There is very distinct appointment,
certainly, and by a kind of univereal sufifrage, in the street-dog
republics of Constiintinople, for they sometimes select as their
leader some animal belonging to a dififerent quarter of the town
— -from among their natural enemies, therefore — the motive of
such choice being signal bravery displayed by the favored individ-
ual, either in attack or defence.
The usual function of animal leadei*s seems to be that of a piT»-
tector, to direct meiisures of defence in assault, of extrication
or escape in danger. But there are other Ciises in which their
duties are i-ather those of regulatoi*s of the civil, social, or domes-
tic economy of tlie communities over which they preside. Thus
Houzeau describes mayors of toAvns or villages among prairie dogs
— mayor's who grant audiences, receive visits as to administrative
affairs, — in sliort, discharge and regulate public business — and he
tells us, moreover, tliat these governors or presidents of commu-
nities, ()C(^asionally, at least, excel their fellows in size and strength,
as well as in force of character. In the case of animal leaders of
all kinds tliere is a distinct specialization of duty, work, or busi-
ness, a vcrv de^'ided division of labor. But this division of labor
occui-s among the lower animals in a great many other even more
familiar forms. Tims it is illustrat^ul in the appointment from
amont' members of a communitv of
1. Sentinels, sentries, videttes, outposts, ])atrols, guards, or
watchmen of all kinds.
2. Soldiers, laborei-s, artisans, nui'ses, or foragei"s.
3. Different ninks of officers among their soldiei*s, including
generals, aides-de-camp and adjutants.
84 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
4. Delegates, ambassadoi-s, or other forms of representatives
or reportei"s, spies, scouts, commissioners, pioneei's.
5. Officers of justice — including executioners, advocates,
judges, and jury.
6. Royal personages, with their officers or courtiei's, body-guard,
and other attendants.
7. As well as in the relative duties or occupations of male and
female parents, and
8. In the appropriate and harmonious playing of its part by
eacli individual of the group.
Such appointments imply, in certain cases, at least, the assigna-
tion of a special duty to each of a group of animals, there being
evidence further that there is frequently an adaptation of the
special work to be performed to the special ability of a given indi-
vidual to perform it.
Sentinels or guards are regularly posted at appropriate times
and places by a large number of animals, such as the prairie dog,
wild horse, swan, cockatoo of Australia, rooks, and many other birds,
zebra, moufilon, and other sheep, Alpine marmot, certain monkeys,
Greenland and otlier seals, wild African cattle, chamois and other
antelopes, Texan and other ants, and certain wasps.
These guardians of the public safety are appointed usually for
some of the following reasons, or under some of the following
circumstances :
At night, or during the sleep of the flock or herd, to guard
against surprise. During feeding, rest on a march, or pastimes.
In war, on the march or halt, in camp or bivouac. — here also to
prevent surprise.
In connection with the appointment of sentinels the following
points have to be noticed: that, as in the case of leaders, the
animals selected are almost invariably males: that every advan-
tage is taken of elevated ground commanding a view on all sides :
that the animal appointed is implicitly trusted by the rest, has
a specific duty to discharge, and performs it conscientiously.
Must there not, therefore, be an appreciation of the different
kinds of danger, as well as an idea of duty in relation to that danger?
Certain African antelopes place sentries — generally bulls —
while they are grazing, and these sentries take up their posts on
BODIMENTS AMONG ANIMALS. 85
the summits of the huge ant-hilla which we mentioned before and
which form the only heights in certain parts of the plains of tlie
Nile. The occupancy of such watch-towers is, however, unfor-
tunate for themselves in presence of tlie sportsman to whom they
thus readily become a shining mark.
Tlius, in a great variety of ways many of the lower animals rec-
ognize and act upon the principle that union is strcngtli. Tliey
THE wii.n n
form combinations, associations, or alliances, teinponirv or i^n-
manent, for a great number of very specific pnrpiises. They I'O-
operate willingly, intelligently and successfully, nut only with
each other, but with man. One of the most obvious effects ni
such union, indeed even of the simplest form of union, that of
marriage, is the inspii-ation of courage and confidence, the ability
to dare and do, in behalf of themselves or their young, things that
they would never attempt in their incUvidual capacities. Even
86 THE STOUY OF GOVERNMENT.
timid sheep, in combination under a leader, do boldly what they
would never do, individually face a dog, for instance, or hav^e even
been known to chase it ignominiously from a pasture. The meek cow
and many gentle peace-loving birds are capable of similar feats
of courage under similar circumstances.
Various baboons and other apes, spider and other monkeys
apply the principle of co-operation very actively and picturesquely
by making diains, suspension bridges, and laddei's of their own
bodies, joining hands or clinging to each other by various concat^
enations of paws and tails, and use such living bridges to cross
rivers. Virtually the same thing mechanically, and a greater thing
morally, is done by ants, for on bridges composed of the bodies of
the latter, voluntarily sacrificed for the purpose, whole armies of
their fellows sometimes cross rivei-s or streams.
Co-operation on a large scale — on the part of large numbers of
individuals, whether of the same or of different species and
genera, includes the convention, at special times and places, of
convocations, conferences, congregations, or assemblies for the fol-
lowing or other specific ends : — 1. Judicial — for the trial and
punishment of the offenders. 2. Military — for the holding of
councils of war. 3. Recreational — for the celebration of
pastimes, sports, or games of various times. 4. Migrational —
for conference as to the time and manner of migmtion. 5, Defen-
sive — for mutual protection, security, or safety. 6. Industrial
— for the repair of damage to public property. 7. Marauding
— for the acquisition of plunder or booty. 8. Food-seeking or
foraging. 9. Emigration and colonization. 10. Nuptial —
for courtship and murriage. 11. Hibernation. 12. The rescue
of their fellows from captivity or danger.
One of the evidences commonly adduced of the reign of law
among the lower animals, as in man, is the fact that certain birds,
have what are, or what a[)pear to be, regular judicial proceedings,
regular trials by judge and before juiy of culprits against law.
A trial among rooks in England has been thus described by an
eyewitness. In the middle of the assemblage in one case " was
one bird lookin<^ verv downcast and wi'etched. Two more rooks
took their })lace at its side, and then a vast amount of chattering
went on. Ultimately, the unfortunate central bird was pecked
88 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
nearly to pieces and left mangled and helpless on the ground/*
In such a case, we are led to infer, though our conclusions may be
erroneous, that the spectacle was that of an accused, convicted,
condemned criminal, official accusers, and the summary execu-
tion of a judicial sentence.
The stork, too, is represented by the naturalist Watson as
having, or holding, trial by jury, public conventions at which
harangues or speeches are delivered, accusations made, defences
offered, by public oratoi-s and other officials, while the mass of the
audience takes a lively interest in the proceedings. Consulta-
tions are held, sentence is pronounced, and capital punishment
inflicted for such supposed crimes, for instance, as the hatching
of a gosling instead of a stork, which, of course, would be a
shock to public sentiment in storkdom. The sparrow is another
bird that administer public punisliment to offenders, after holding
general councils the proceedings of which are marked by much
agitation, tumult and clamor ; and the public trial of a prisoner
before a court by the aid of advocates has also been mentioned as
occurring among Barbary apes.
From all of which evidences of law and order, of family and
government among the lower animals, is it not clear that the
higher animal might take a few lessons, if the humility and
docility of Science could become attributes of the mass or could be
the guiding principles of politicians or statesmen ? For, indeed,
** If earnest lives in search of truth are noble,
If sacrilice of self to swell the sum
Of human knowledjre and cooperant good
Aro very noble, Science can compare
Her warriors, workers, martyrs, with Religion's.
Yet Science has no pride, because no fear.
She stooi)s to learn as woman yields to love,
Instinctive that the action of surrender
Will crown her empress of a nobler realm."
Ill
::^Mn=iiii=iiii=rr:i''=iHi=iiii=Hii=iiii='':i^iiii=iiii='!:^iiii=iiii=''::^^^^^
'W^'mry:^'J!'w
Traces /Kn}or)^ Qypsics^
Brigarjds arjd Tl;)icvcs.
IN singular contrast with tlie orderly animals deseril)ed in
the ])recedinnr chapter are the people usually called Gypsies,
who appear to l)e not only opposed to any idea of order
or authority from outside, hut to have among themselves
at the present day very little goverinnent discoverahle hy students
of their habits. We need not m) far in search of tliese Asiatic
wanderei-s. They are found in almost every European coun-
try, and of late are frequently seen in the United States and
Australia.
Wherever sighted, they are never to be mistaken. The most
untravelled rustic instinctively knows that the dark-skinned,
black-haired, snaky-eyed, lithe vagal)ond whom he sees in front
of a ragged tent on a connnon, or who camj)s hy the roadside
to boil a kettle, which it is prol):djle contains no poultry of his
own mising, is not a child of the land in which he seems so
much at liome.
Once seen, a typical wandering gyi>sy is as marktMl a })ei'son-
alitv in the memorv as a Jew of the ])urer caste, or a meml)er of
any other nationality which has preserved itself as a distinct
element in the surrounding population. His brown skin stamps
him as none of us, wliile his dark, glittering, serpent-like eye
iiLstinctively recalls some of the faces one meets on the London
Docks, when a steamer from India has arrived. The small hands
89
90 THE SrOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
and feet seem out of keeping with the finely proportioned, sinewy
figures to which they are attached, while the aquiiine nose,
pearly, regular teeth, high cheek-bones, strongly marked bniw,
often knit as if in thought, and general air of secret! veness,
are features of gypsy physiognomy that strike the least observant.
As a rule, the gypsies are not a tall race, though men and women
of uncommon stature are sometimes met, Tlie young female
gypsy has quite often the distinction of a ])eauty singularly fine.
But the beauty is short-
lived. Like all Orien-
tivls, they soon fade ; and
grow old, so far as the
face is concerned, when a
Northern woman is in
lier prime. The hard
work, the squalor of
their habits, their expos-
ure to all weathers, and
their unsettled, precari-
ous— in brief, "gypBy"
— life, help to age them
iKjfoi-e years ought to tell
OIL a healthy person. A
i-emavkable revenge which
Nature takes for her lav-
ishness at the outset is
the siipeniatural hideous-
ncss which she often
l>estows (111 tlu> wiilii'rud fiy|wy crone at a period when hercivilized
sisU-'r is nu-llu\viiiir into the comeliness of riiKt matronhood, or
even near Ihv. fated llireescore and ten. Still, after all to the
contrary, tlni gypsy must indnbitidily l)ear the jMilni for a species
of wild Ix'iiuly, which is adniiralily set off l)y his often romantic
surroundini;.-; — liis Tarlar-like eneainpineiit. Ills stick fire and
ragged tent — wliicli hiiiks so well at a distance, — and the showy
coloi's in wliii-li. like his kindred on tlie other side of the Hima-
layas, he takes s.> in<irdin;iti- a delight.
lie"', then, is a )ieiiple known tn Knr()]>eanK for at least
MAMAS UVPSIES DEliUIS"-
92 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
eight centuries, yet who have managed to conceal many of
their ways and modes of life from the inquisitive scrutiny of the
hundreds who liave made these aspects of their cult a part of their
life's study\ who are to this day the pariahs they were in their
earliest homes, wlio have in their roamings picked up scraps of
tlio hiJisxuagcs religion, and civilization of the countries they
have passed through, but yet sijeak a tongue unintelligible to the
" whites " around them, wlio with a few exceptions are vagabonds
on the face of tlie eartli, despising a fixed life, a roofti*ee, or any
of the ordinary i*estraints of well-ordered society.
When they fii-st came under the notice of civilized people they
were for some careless cause decided to be Egyptians, and as
such were described by the earliest wTiters, and this name, under
various forms, exists in our word, gyi)sy, and in the designations
attached to them hv manv other nations. As for themselvas, thev
• • »•
either knew nothing alxiut their origin, or were sharp enough to
ehime in with the current fancv bv stvlinij themselves "Dukes of
Little Kgyi>t," ivs did a lionle who ap{)eared in 1418 at Zurich,
iissuming the rank of knights, and, among other ** marks of
nobility," carrying with them s[Kirting dogs and a good supply
of monev.
The fii-st notice of them whieh we {>ossess, written about the
year 112*2, eharaoterizes them as " Ishmaelites^ who go -peddling
thiough the wide world, Iwving neither house nor home, cheating
the people with their trieks," a tleseription whieh might l)e fairly
enouL^h aj»;>lied to their doseemlants who aiv at present squatted
untliT ir.aiiv a hedin*.
At lii-st these wanden^rs wen* n^eeiveil with great liospitality,
their supposi'd orio^in and misfortunes obtaining for them an
anunnii of svniuithv o{ whieli tlieir own n>sruen\ ratlier than Jinv
km^wlediro of the aetnal state of mattei-s, very soon deprived
' Mon* :h.*n :!:nv hnntlntl soimmto Morks lnvo J«<H»n urilten on the gjp«ie9. Some of
this liirratnrt* i- ,.f li:tlo nui«.»r:;»n,v: l»ui anxono >\:u> imjijriDe< lliat the pvpsies can be
exluiuv:!'.! in .\ ;\w |v\cos h..,l Ivror ^nmi-^uIi Potts' stxip^ndoxts ••Pi*' Zi^reuner in Earoiia
un.l AMon. * or l.u; i, h > " l>io Zij;vunor in T.mMu Wosc'n und ihner Sprache.''
» TIio r,i:.n:i , r /ini.ili of Siviin. tho ,loxk of AlhitniA, the Zinpini of lOUy, the Pharo
noiM-k l\Mr.»o:i X ,M«.- K- of Hn:v-ir>. tho T,r.:,»r.» of S^^^ntlinaxidu ::k^ IVthemiens of Pnmoe.
:!>c Zi^ounor .^f (;or:n.in>, t^o Tinklor or Tii.kor^ of S^N^ilaml, the Fiiruwni vPhormoites) of
Ti;rko>. ::..> i u»-u» ,m s: nonu*. tlu* Oiirany of Uo;n«;»ni.i, tlie t;u:«htor of Greece, the Hey-
*Wti- Hra:..,n^ ,«f Uoll.ia.l. .uul >o forth. Thox o,»U thomsoUv* ;?...H,thait i». Men, people,
oaa their l.»n.r«.»p\ .Vom , . tk^ . -^...; ,,j ;;„,^ i^ ;;,„^^,^ ,1^ feminine JRmmmi,
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 93
them. They wei*e — so tliey said, or some one having said it for
them, they echoed the agi-eeable fiction — Egyptians, four thou-
sand of wliom, in passing tlirough Hungary, had been compelled
by the sovereign of that countr}^ to l)e baptized, and were con-
demned to seven vears' wandcTinn^s, wliile the remainder of tlie
travellers had l)een slain. Another story was that tliey wei-e
Egyptians, wlio, having been subdued by the Saracens, were
forced to renounce Clu'istianity ; but having been reconquered
by the Christians, tliey were doomed by l*opc Martin V. to a
penance, which consisted of wandering for the space of seven
years, by which time their renunciation of the faith having l>een
atoned, thev would l)e sent into a fine and fertile land.
A third version of the cause of this vagal windage wjis, that
thev had l)een sentenced t^) roam the world for their want of
hospitality to Joseph and Mary, when to save the young child, who
was to save the world, this pair fled into Egyi)t. If wi? are to credit
the historians of the period, these '"Egyptians '' travelled in great
state, headed by " Counts " splenchdly drcsscMl, and luuler the com^
mand of a "Duke," who bore lettei*s of safe conduct from the
Emperor Sigismund. The men were on foot, and the women and
children brought up the rear in wagons, while the *' nobles" rode
on horses with dogs whicli apparently were trained to trespass on
game preserves. They camped outside the walls of towns during
the night and thieved during the day, the consequence being that
several were taken and slain. It would appear that then, as now,
they were fond of tickling the fancy of their dupes l)y assuming
grandiose titles — king, duke, earl, and count. But, except that
some powerful or wealthy individual managed to gain temporary
or j)ennanent control over the band with whicli he travelled, it is
more tlian doubtful whether the gypsies have, or ever had, any
oificial in tlie remotest way deserving theses distinctions.
In the iu»ws})apers ^ we occasionally hear of the death of a gypsy
"King" (U* "Queen," and of his or her burial with pompous
obsequies. The people themselves very naturally like to mystify the
public by keeping up the belief in such dignitaries, and possibly
1 For instance, thi» recent despatch to the Boston Ilenild : —
Elizabctii, N. J., April 14, 18^2. The Iwdy of Annie Lovell, the (Jypsy Queen, who died
in St. I»uij«on Momlay, vrill lie buried in the same prave in Mt. Olivet cemetery, in this city,
in which her grandmother, a fonuer queen, was burietl. The Oypnies have a plot an<l impos-
ing monument.
94 THK STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
having so often lieiird tliein designated by royal titles, adopt
the name and idea. Except, however, in the limited sense men-
tioned, there is no ground for the popular belief, though certain
families, like the Faas and Blyths in Scotland, and the Stanleys
and Hemes in Enjrland, liavinfj always been i-egfarded as aristo-
crats among them, have sometimes been elected to a j>osition of
authority, and liave even received a kind of hereditarj' respect,
due to some traditional story that certain sovereigns had recog-
nized one of their ancestoi^s as a brother monarch. James IV.
of Scotland gave, in looO, '*Anthonius Gagino, Count of Little
Egypt," a letter of recommendation to Christian III. of Den-
mark, wliile James V. granted a writ giving "oure louit Johnne
Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egipt" authority to hang find other-
wise discipline "all p]gyptians" within the realm. ^ This, how-
ever, simply means tliat the Scottish king, like so many other
people, had l)een deceived regarding the origin and status of the
vagalx)n(ls whom he thus recognized, though it is by no means
proved that any corresponding dignities were known before he
thus conferred on the leading men these sweeping powere.
At first, "the Egyptians " were well received, as the facta men-
tioned clearly show; but their popularity was naturally brief.
Within a year of James Y. making "Johnne Faw" and his son
and successor refjea in rejuo^ an act of the Scottish Parliament
was passed, commanding him and his tribesmen to i)ass "furth
the realm," under pain of death. Already, indeed, Germany,
Spain, Fi-ance, England, Denmark and Moravia, had found it
necessary to take similarly drastic mccosures, and before long a
perfect hue and v.vy was raised all over Eui*ope against the ^un-
baptized heathens," who had so recently l)een gulling the simple-
minded Westerns with tlie fables about Joseph and Mary and the
Saracens.
The glitter of the romance with wliich they had been early
invested was nipidlv rul)l)e(l off, after tlie loixls and counts of
Little Egypt had been convicted of harrying a succession of hen-
roosts, and it was hard to j)reserve confidence in the penitence of
a people who had no external symbols of any religion, and lived
» In MalmoHlmrv Ahhoy hiil*' by siil»» witli Atllcl^tau — lies the body of a Ojpsy, "King
John Huollo," ^aill l«> iiu\»' boi'ii hii.l \\\vtv ia IC'.T.
Mi
96 THE STORY OF GOVERNldENT. /
a life about as bereft of morality as it was deficient in that virtue
which then, perhaps, less than now, was rated next to godliness.
Worst of all, " the Egyptians " were discovered to have none of
the wealth which at first they were supposed to own, and were there-
fore a people who could neither be *' squeezed" nor cozened.
After this, we hear little about their pei'secution in Egypt, or
of their '"kings " carrying any letters, except the summary notices
which were duly served on them by tlie constables of every dis-
trict.
Edicts out of number were fmmed for their discomfort, and no
more humiliating reading exists than the different acts, decrees
and writs, which were hurled at these brown-faced wanderers,
ostensibly because in addition to being " diviners and wicked
heathens" they plundered fann-yards and had oceult "trafficke
with the deville."
Our illustration of Zigani pleading to Philip III. of Spain,
early in the year 160C, shows how the church, having ceased its
futile efforts to conveiij them, strove to have them banished. The
general Spanish heart, however, luis always had a kindly comer
for this joyous race, and into many a Spanish song and story the i
gypsy entei-s with a charm of pathos and mystery that always
touches a responsive popular chord. Our great romancer, Walter
Scott, was attracted by tliis race, and into three of his most
powerful novels, Guy Mannering, Quentin Durward, and Peveril
of the Peak, he introduced a strikingly vivid g}T)sy character.
In the middle of the last century there appears to have been a
tendency to treat the gypsies a trifle more mildly, though in 1748
Frederick the Great renewed the law that every gypsy l)eyond the
age of eighteen, found within the Prussian l)ounds, should be
hanged fortliwith, and to this day it is in Germany ipso facto an
indictable offence to 1^ one of the prescribed "zigeuner" unless
specially licensed as such.
Even in Roumania — where they swarm — the condition of
serfdom to which they were reduced was not completely abro-
gated until 18oB, though both Maria Theresa and Joseph II.
tried — with very partial success — to settle them as "New
Peasants " on lands specially set aside for the purpose.
But the passion for wandering is so innate, that just as
TRACES ASIONG GYPSIES, IHtlGANDS AND THIEVES. 0 I
wild (lucks hatched by a bune fitster-iiiothor will take to the
lakes as soon aa they can fly, so a joung gyx'sy, even when reared
away from the influence of the tents of its tril)e, is apt sooner or
later to "kick tlie traces " of culture, and esciqx; to the squalor,
the liberty, and the endless skirmish with society which is the
nonnal life oi its ancestral nomads.
A study of their language soon confirms their Eastern origin,
for though mixed with words from almost every country tln-ough
wliich they have [jassed
i-i»rnii)ted, it is an East
Indian dialect so
marked that, as one of
the most celebi-.ited of
its titudent-t says, it is
]ilca.saiit to I)e able to
study a Hindoo tongue
T witliout stining out of
S Eui-OjK'. A gypsy talks,
^ as does an Oriental, of
111 his "kismet" (fate),
and when he uses the
word "{inran" (koi-an)
he I'l'fei'S to no b<)t>k
Siicred or otherwise, but
to the a<-t of taking an
oatli. "Sliali giv" is
in Itoniany "small
grain-corn "; in Ilindo-
staui "shaii" means
rice. Tlie Engli.sli gypsies
the Hindoo "shaster," the
lx>oks.
In India many sects reganl a cup witl.
Germany tlie gypsies will never touch a
fallen to the ground; ever after
which they reside, and often sadly
■all thelUble "shaster,'
word thcv use to descri
which is simply
« their religious
timihir
ni.
In
a cup which lias once
it is sacred; and in I-higland
many of them can never l>e induced to use a white lx>\vl. The
same antipathy to horse flesh is exhibited among the gypsies that
several Indian tribes display, amj^in biiiyit,.^iere can lie no liesi-
f&mAL^mti^\
98 THE STORV OF (K)VERNMENT.
tation in accepting the now generally received opinion of their com-
paratively recent Indian origin. The gypsies are a singularly
secretive race, and keep their language, as far as they can, con-
cealed from those in wliora they have little trust; hut in course
of time, partly througli intermarriage with vagabond whites,
or through* the association of "travellers" with the real gy^Dsies
a host of Romany words have gotten mixed up with English,
slang. For example, '* jockey is derived from chuckni (a whip);
jockeyism really meaning the scientilic use of a Avhip in speed-
ing a hoi"se; "cove" is from cava (a tiling), thou^^h tlie term
is almost indefinite in its applicability; "shindy" is probably
from chln{/areey which means the same; "cliivy" is from chiv^ one
of the meanings of which is to scold; "shavers," as applied to
little children, is from shavies (children); a "rum'un" is from
Jftiim or Rom (a gn)sy), or a man literally.
In regard to the disposition and traits, good and bad, of the
gypsies, there is alwa^'s, of couree, a wide difference of opinion,
according to the prejudices of the critics, the kind of gypsies
with whom they have come in contact, or the capability of the
judges for arriving at an opinion on the subject. Gypsies are
extremely unwilling to betray themselves to strangers, though
wlien they have confidence in anyone they are ready enough
to answer questions, and as far as lies in their power to shun
the ever-present temptation of "humbugging" the questioner.
Among them, as among every other body of people, there are
good and bad, though, as always happens when a pure or almost
pure-blooded race is concerned, it is easier to arrive at some
general conclusions regarding their disposition and abilities than
those of a mixed people;.
Light-hearted and wonderfully courteous in their conduct
towards strangei*s, and even towards each other, they are capable
of violent passions and cruel vindictiveness. At the same
time, they are ready to forgive, their childish vanity being easily
tickled by a show of affability or an ai)proach to renewed friend-
ship on the part of those by whom they have been offended. The
war which the gypsy has for ages waged against society, and
society against him, has left indelible traces on his character. To
protect himself from the vengeance of the law he has recourse to
A UIU)I:P of TUKKI81I OYI'
ii"A^-;^i\
k
100 THE 3rroRY or •4i>V
that profoiiii<l irnnnin.g' which. hik-» grown to be with him a second
nature, while the indolence that strike* one who sees him asleep
under a he<lgen>w. more than anjr «>cher characteristic, is the out-
come of a life without ambitioOr a eareer with4>ut a goal.
It is an article «>f almi:i6t uniTersal i^jreement with students of
^^grpsYoloj^^" ih:\t if oQi.^c^ a gypsy gives his word he will keep it,
and that they huve preserved thn>ugh many centuries the old
Oriental, or rather the ireneral vasabi^nd idea of inviolable honor
towards the wavfarer within their tents. Tlie children receive
scarcely any training: vet no {)et>ple are kinder to their old parents
and rebitives than the gyjisies. Jetsam and flotsam of society,
they find tliat unless they tie ver}* tightly the bonds which unite
them, they would l)e {xiwerless to ht>ld their own. Hence, j)erhaps,
the warm faniilv affection which distini^uishes these nomads. A
parent never chastises a young child, yet it is quite common f(»r
a gro\\ni-up son to acv^pt meekly a thrashing fn>m his ;iged
father.
A gyi»sy entertains no s^-ruples reganling the methml in which
he supplies his lanler, or, indeed, as to how he acquires property;
])Ut he will just as reailily i>art with what he has to a friend in
worse case than himself. '*I have fimnd tliem/' savs one writer,
""more cheerful, pt)lite and grateful than the lower ordei-s of
other races in Eun)[)e or America, and I Ijclieve that when tlieir
respect and sympathy ai*e secuivd they are quite as upright. Like
all people who are reganletl as outciists, tliey are very proud of
being tiiisted, and under this influence will commit the most
daring acts of honesty." Tliere is no more independent epicm^e
than the g}'psy. He eats ever^'thing that is edible, except hoi-se-
flesli, and sleeps Avherever he lights on a s^mt well sheltered
from the wind, and tolerably safe from the only appanage of
society which he dreads — the i)oliceman. He has, moreover,
a tact and delicacy which many in far loftier stations might well
iinitat(;, and a love of nature which makes mere life a joy.
C)f religion they have little. ''The gypsies' church," they are
in the lialiit of saying, ''was made of pork, and the dogs stole it."
Whcro the alwolute non-observance of the forms of any creed
(•ntailn no diniculty, the gypsies are usually untroubled by a
regard for the faith of the countrj' in which they live. If, on the
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 101
other Iiand, they find it to their profit to profess a belief in some
religion, they never hesitate to pick up as much of it as suits
their convenience, their wonderful art of conforming themselves
to the ways of the i)articiilar community into which they are
thrown serving them here in good stead. Here and there may be
detected, mixed up with endless superstitions and crude bits of
Cliristianity, fragments of nature-worship and veiy early pagan-
ism, though how far serpent- woi-ship and the adoration of a moon-
god, which Sundt fancied he found among the g}'psies of Norway,
exist in reality, or in the too easy conclusions of a student bent
on finding something new is scarcely worth discussing here.
The three great gypsy clans of Gennany, according to Liebich,
Avorship the fir, tlie bii-ch and the hawthorn, and the Welsh
Uomany, certain ftisciated growtlis in trees. The " Phara(^li peo-
ple " of Turkey keep a fire continually burning, and on the first
of May they all go to the seacoast or the banks of a river, where
they thrice throw water on their temples, invoking the invisible
spirits of the place to gi*ant their wishes. Another custom
observed with equal consistency is that of annually drinking some
potion, the secret of whose pi-eparation is known only to the wisest
and oldest of the tribe. This drink is said to render them invul-
nerable to snake-bites, and ceitainly according to trustworthy
travellers the "Chinguins," as they are also called, catch serpents
and handle them with an impunity which is not vouchsafed to any
j)er8ons not of the gypsy i*ace.
They have scai-cely any idea of a future state, the only trace of
such a l)elief which Liebich ever detected being in a gyi^y crone,
who dreamed that she wiis in heaven, which to her appeared to be
a very large garden full of fine fat hedgehogs, the dainty which
Romany gourmands or gluttons most esteem. In Scandinavia,
according to Sundt, who spent yeai-s in studying the vagabonds of
the North, the gyj>sies assemble once a year, and always at night,
for the purpose of unbaptizing all of tlieir children who duiing the
year have been baptized by the Gorgios, or Avhites. On this
occasion the jmrents, whose acquiescence in the Christian rite has
l)een obtained by the jxirsuasive power of gifts, worship a small
idol, which is preserved until the next meeting with the greatest
care and secrecy. This is a good story, but, like many others
102 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
in circulation, had better be accepted with considerable caution.
It would argue for the gypsy the possession of a keen moral sense
— the terror that the baptism was dreadfully wrong. Now tliis
is just what the Indian nomad does not possess. He is indif-
ferent. His moral sense is formed by custom, and morality seems
to be at times a question of latitude and longitude. A fearful
crime in one section of human society is a virtue in another a few
degrees farther north or south.
For instance, in the island of Borneo, a Dyak is, or was, in-
eligible for the Immble position of a prospective husband until
he had decapitated a fellow-man; we should have hanged him.
The civilized father is overwhelmed with sorrow when his boy
is detected pilfering other men's property, but an Apache parent
thanks all the heaven he knows of that the lad who has man-
aged to steal a horse before he was ready to take a wife promises
to prove a comfort to his old age.
So with the gypsy. Ever poor, often'hungry, always liated, it
seems to him the most natural thing in the world that he should
temporarily enrich himself and satisfy his appetite at the expense
of those who, in his eyes, are burdened with superfluities. He
knows it is against the law, for there are legends ever present to
his memory and experience which tell of the policeman's illiberal
ways ; but, as for any moral crime, that is an tispect of the matter
on which the gypsy hivs never heen taught to reflect.
Yet there is hardly a race or tribe — no matter what ill-informed
travellers may say to the contrary — Avhich is entirely without
religion, and the gypsy is no exception to this rule. His feelings
of reverence find vent in an inordinate respect for the dead,
an outcome, it may be, of the intense love he bears his kindred
when alive. The corpse is waked and tlie effects of the deceased
p'ji-son are burned. '* The Annual Register " for 1773 records tliat
'Uhe clothes of tlie late Diana Boswell, queen of the gypsies,
value <£50, were burnt in the Mint, Southwark, by her principal
courtiers, according to ancient custom," and to this day the same
I'ite is observed on the deatli of any of the tribe, though most
probably this is one of tlie ancient rites which are on the wane.
Certain tribes of North American Indians adopt the same 2)lan,
j)ix)bably for the same reason, to put out of sight anything which
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES.
lOS
might recall tht; ineiiioiy of tlie dead, or tempt tlieni to inoiiounce
his or her name.
In England a gypsy will, with wondioua t^elf-denial, often
abstain from spirits for years, because a dead brother was
fond of liquor, or will iibandrm some favorite pureuit because the
deceased when last in liiw company was t'lijrayed in this hasiness
or pastime. Again, a wife or child will often renounce the deli-
L-acy most liked by the dead husband or father. They will never
mention the dead one's name, and if any of the survivors linppeu
104 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
to bear one of the names they will change it for another less apt
to recall the loved one. A gypsy declined a cigar offered to him
by Mr. Leland, the famous American student of their habits,
because in the pockets of his nephew some cigai-s were found after
his death. The same man ceased using snuff after his wife's
deatli. '^Some men/' said a gypsy once, "won't eat meat
because th(» brother or sister that died was fond of it; some
won't drink ale for five or six years; some won't eat the favorite
fish that the child ate; some won't eat potatoes, or cb-ink milk, or
eat apples, and all for the dead. Some won't play cards or the
fiddle — 'that's my poor boy's tunc' — and some won't dance.
*No, I can't dance; the last time I danced was witli poor wife
that's been dead this foiu* yeai*s.' 'Come, brother, let's go and
have a droj) of ale.' 'Xo, brother, I never drank a drop of ale
since my aunt went.' *Well, take some tobacco, brother ? ' 'No,
no; I have not smoked since mv wife fell in the water, and never
came out again alive.' "
This is Oriental entirely, and in Germany, where the gypsies
are even nearer akin to tlie primitive conditions of the race than
in England, the respect for tlie dead is even more profound. " By
my father's head!" is a very binding oatli, but to swear by "the
dead " is even more so. Even in England a gypsy who declares
that he will do anything — "muUo juvo " — tliat is, by liis dead
wife, is pretty sure to keep his word, though he never reads the
Bible, and regards the founder of oiu' faith only in the light of some-
thing to lend strength to an affirmation. In Germany it is said that
Avhen a maiden called Forella died, lier entire tribe ceased calling
the trout bv it« old name of Fore lie. In Engfland this rule is
veiy generally observed, thougii it is not universal. At one time
they put new shoes and even money in the coffin with the corpse,
or decked tlie lx)dy with gay clothes and ornaments of value.
In the coui-se of their wanderings the gypsies have, as might
have been expet^ted, picked up a good many snatches of tlie Chris-
tian religion. For iiLstance, some of them burn an ash fire on
Christmas Day in honor of Christ, "because He was born and
lived like a gypsy." Among otlier of their supei"stitious sciiiples
is a dislike to wash a table-cloth with other clothes. A German
gypsy woman must not cook for four months after the birth of a
TBA0E8 AMONG GYF8IBS, BBIGANOS AlO) THIEVES. 105
child, and any vessel touched by a woman's skirt is defiled, while
one of their most widespread and most Indian practices is to leave
at a road-corner a handful of leaves or grass, or a heap of stones
or sticks, to guide any of the band who may follow.
Though until lately almost entirely without school learning —
the civilized gypsies of Yetholm are of course excepted — they
are far from being a dull or unreceptive race. Many of them are
persons of great natural shrewdness, though, except as musicians,
few of the race have ever attiiined much celebrity. The Ilun-
garians owe their national music to the Zigani. ilaiiy of them
display considerable skill as metal workers, and one or two have
develoj^ed talents of a certain kind as Methodist preachers. The
late Rev. Dr. Gordon, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland,
was always imderstood to be of pure gypsy stock. Lord Jeffrey
and Christopher North (Professor John Wilson) were also said to
be of the wandering folk, and it has long Ixicn aflirmed, though
the asseition has been stoutly disputed, that John IJunyan,
author of "Pilgrim's Progress," belonged to the gypsy stock.
Half of the tramps, the "tnivellei-s," as they are called, of
England, are tinctured Avith Romany blood. These "half-
scrags '^ are an ever-incrcjising class. They are ti-amps and beg-
gai-s, proprietoi-s of tmvelling shows, hoi'se-dealei's, tinkei-s, cheap
Jacks, "Pimclics," iiddlei-s, pottery dealei-s, sellers of vskewers
and dothespegs.
In England the numl)er of house-dwelling <i;y[)sies is on the
increa^se, but it is rare to lind any who have for two generations
ceased to find slielter luider tents, or who do not at intervals take
to their old kind of life. The Sfvp-^v lias nowhere nowadays a
distintttive dress, but he or slie can generally be picked out in
a crow<l bv reason of the crav coloi-s s*^ loved bv the race, and the
heav}' rings on the women's fingei-s. In some parts of the con-
tinent the Avomen wear a peculiar pattern of earrings, and in Hun-
gary the male gypsy is fond of decking his coat with silver
buttons bearing a serpent for a crest.
In the country the gypsy follows nearly all callings, from those
of chimney-sweei)s and factory hands, to those of actors and quack
doctors, but as tinkers, or workere in metal, horse-dealers,
makers of baskets, brooms, clothes-pegs, and pottery sellers.
106 THE STOllY OF GOVERNMENT.
they are pre-eminent. The Calderari, or copper-smitlis of Hun-
gary, travel all over Europe, and sometimes reach as far as
Algeria. In Transylvania they are well known as gold workers,
and no tourist who has ever visited the Alhanibra but must
remember the gypsy smiths whose anvils were placed in the caves
of Oranada.
Altogether, according to Mr. Simson, there cannot be much
fewer than 4,000,000 gypsies in existence, but if pure bloods are
meant, this estimate is probably far over the mark, since Von
Miklosich reckons that number at somewhere in the vicinity of
700,000. In Hungary there are, according to a rough estimate,
about 150,000 gypsies — vagabonds who wander over the countrj-
with their carts and horses, accompanied by their women and chil-
dren, and though at one time pei-secuted as unbelievers, and
hunted to death as sorcerei-s and poisoners, the cruel edicts which
enjoined such treatment wei*e never approved by the Hun-
garian people. The result is, that the gypsies have increased,
and, in their own thriftless, squalid fashion, prospered, despite
the hard usage they have experienced at the hands of their rulers.
Indeed, as we have seen, the Hungarian kings have more than
once protected them as a ''poor wandering people without a coun-
try, and whom all the world rejected," and granted them safe
conducts to go wherever seemed good to them, with their ti'oops
of donkeys and hoi-ses. Joseph II. of Austria tried to settle them
as agriculturists, and had huts built for them, but instead of
occupying the comfortable dwellings themselves they stabled their
cattle in them, and pitched their tents outside.
Then to prevent their corn from sprouting they boiled it before
sowing, and though their children were taken from them and
trained up into habits of work under Magyar and German peas-
ants, these wildlings soon escaped and joined their parents, with-
out having learned anything from their forcible fipprenticeship to
civilization. It is affirmed that a gypsy, who had actually risen
to the rank of an officer in the Austrian army, disappeared one
day, and was found six months afterwards with a band of Zigani
encamped on the heath. A young Slovack peasant fell in love
with and married a gyi)sy girl, but in his al)sence she escaped to
the woods, and when discovered was living under a tree and
TRACES AHOMU QVPSIES, BKIQANDS AND THISVE8.
lOT
feasting on hedgehog after the fashion of the race from whom she
bad been taken.
The Abb^ Liszt, cliarmed with the talent for muaic dispkyed
by a gypsy boy, took him to Paris and tried to traiu the little
lad. But all in vain. The moment he saw his own x>eople in
Vienna his delight was indescribable ; there was no loiiger any
hope of keeping him under the velvet bonds of polite life.
108 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT,
Like all their kindred, the Hungarian g3'^psy has a horror of
restraint and of continuous labor. His vocabulary contains no
"woi-d signifying "to dwell;" hence he follows any trade which
admits of his wandering about the country — farriers, nail-makers,
horse-dealers (and horse-stealers), bear-tamei"s, and beggars. In
the last capacity the Zigani are irrepressible. Time to them is no
object. They will follow the traveller for half an hour, pouring
forth their whine in fluent Magyar or gypsy until a piece of
money is thrown to them, and then they will whine again to the
next likely pusser-by. Indeed, so deeply rooted is tliis love of
mendicity and its twin, mendacity, tliat it is nothing uncommon
for gypsies Avearing gold cliains and rings, carrying gold-headed
canes, and leading race-lioi-ses, to hold out tlieir liands for alms
to all whom tliev meet.
No people are more skilful as horse-doalci's ; a Vermont Yankee
is miles behind them. In truth, so skilful are they, that Josejih
II., who occupied a good deal of his time in devising means for
the reformation of tliis section of his su])jects, al)solutely foiI)ade
tliem to trade in a specfies of mercliandise wliich gave them an
undue advantage over tlieir neighboi-s, and put templ^ition in the
gypsy's way of which he was not at all l)a(^kward to avail him-
self. The women, like tlieir sistei*s everywhere, tell fortunes,
sell clianns, })ly the trade of jugglers and dancers, and, it is said,
not without truth, act as go-l)etweens and supply })oisons.
Manv rustics iu lands besides Ilunorary have still a firm
belief in their power in these respects, and will tell how by magic
formuLnD they have* extinguished Jires, preserved horses from the
flames, discovtMcd hidden tri'asures or springs of watci* hitherto
unsus[)ecte(l, and cured diseases which have defied the regular
faculty. It may be added, though the contraiy has been asserted,
that the moi-als of the women are, if possible, woi-sc tlian
those of the men. Among the g^qjsies, however, as among tlie
people of ev(^rv other race, exceptions are occasionally found
which }»rovc the rule, the rule ])cing that they are vagabonds. The
ex(!eptions are tlu^ few who in Transylvania carry on the tmdes of
wood-carvers, brush-makei's, tile-makei*s, rope-makei>>, ropei"S,
chinmey-sweeps, gold-workers, dentists, and musicians — as they
all are more or less — not to mention the Zigani who are always
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 109
ready to perfonn the hideous function of the public executioner.
** Five florins for hanging a man ! " a gypsy is said to have
exclaimed when offered this fee for his services. ** Why, I would
hang all those gentlemen,'* pointing with an affable grin to the
judges, **for that sum of money I " One or two Zigani have tried
their hand at play-writing and acting, and now and then may be
met a gypsy marionette manager, or even a comedian of the race.
In Hungary they can hardly he said to profess any regular
religion. They are not even pagans, for tliey worship nothing,
though everywhere they show great respect for the dead, never
passing a grave of their relatives witliout pouring on it a few
drops of beer, wine, or bmndy.
They adopt any i-eligion which promises most profit or the
greatest immunity from discomfort. Hence it will sometimes
happen that the children of a wandering gypsy will be baptized
four or five times, and l)e quite ready, so far as their pirents are
concerned, to be baptized a fifth if the nomad liapi)en to come into
a region where religious fervor runs high. How far they acknowl-
edge any head nowadays is an ojien question. At one time they
were governed by four "voivodes," or chiefs, who were elected by
universal suffrage, and proclaimed amid music and applause. A
three-cornered braided hat was placed on the chief's head, and a
pitcher of wine on a j)late covered with flowers presented to him.
This he drained at a draught, then broke the flask in pieces,
after which he harangued the assembly, and shook hands with each
of his subjects in turn. Every seven years the people gathered
round the supreme chief to receive his orders, and those washing
the auriferous sands of the Transylvanian rivers, whatever might
have been the habit of the othera, paid a florin per annum to the
voivode under whom they worked. But in these days the chief
exercises little, if any, visible authority. In Hungary, as in
England and America, the policeman has long since replaced this
gypsy Govereign.
More than any people, save the poor artisans confined to the
vile tenements of our great civilized cities, the gypsies exemplify
the doctrine of the "survival of the fittest." A weakling soon
perishes during the life of hardship which he must endure, but the
strong survive to become the fine specimens of humanity which are
110 THE STOllY OF GOVERNMENT.
seen among them. Epidemics pass over them scatheless. Gout and
rheumatism are to tliem unknown mahidies. Their wounds heal
with wonderful rapidity and, if perchance disease does attack
them, brandy, onions and safifron are the only medicines which
they tolerate. In short, their life ift an animal one. A gypsy
condemned to be hanged will always ask as a last favor to ]>e
allowed a smoke, and a pipe is, perhaps, the fii-st thing wliich is
put into a child's mouth after it is weaned.
Roumania is, however, the rcal home of the continental gypsy,
for there he numlxirs, according to different estimates, from 130,-
000 to 300,000 in spite of the fact that until recently he was a
mere serf, bought and sold with the land on which he squatted.
They were nominally free in 1848, though it was not till eight
years after this that the Zigani could be said to be absolutely
beyond the power of their former owners, and as late as 1845 the
following advertisement appeared in a Bucharest newspaper: —
" The sons and Iieirs of the late Sirdar Nicka of Bucharest will
expose for sale two hundred gypsy families. The men exercise the
trades of locksmiths, goldsniitlis, shoemakers, musicians, and farm
laborers. Not less than four families will be sold in one lot. As a
set-off, the price asked is a ducat cheaper than the ordinary figure.
Facilities for payment/'
In 1825, according to Walsh, if a gypsy l)elonging to a Boyard,
or noble, was killed by his master, no notice was taken of the
circumst^^nce, but if the murder wfis committed by a stmnger a
fine of eighty florins was exacted. Slight faults were punished
by the bastinado applied to the soles of the feet, or by the appli-
cation of an iron mask, in wliicli the head was shut up for a
longer or shorter period, preventing the offender from eating or
drinking. Those who had committed theft were fastened by the
neck and arms to a plank, wliich they carried on their shouldei"s
in the fashion of the Chinese cangue, which we illustrate i|t our
Chinese chapter. They are still in Roumania the hewers of wood
and the drawei*s of water. All rough, unpleasant work is
allotted to them. There the men, women, and children are the
drudges who cany bricks and mortar to the masons, meantime
cooking and sleeping in the building on which they are at work,
112 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
their main food being mamaliga, or maize-meal, boiled and
seasoned with salt. Or, as in other countries, they mend pots and
kettles, shoe horses, or play the medola. But though the tawny
face of the Frenchified Roumanian bears distinct evidence that
his forefathers were not so callous to the charms of the lithe young
gypsy, the so-called whites affect an unutterable scorn for the
Zigani, ranking them as little better than the lower animals.
The philosophy of gypsy life is summed up in the following little
poem composed by a gypsy of Spain in which country these mystic
strollers are regarded with a sort of tender tolerance like naughty
but amusing children.
** Poniqucl liichipen abajo *' There runs a pig down yonder liill
Abillcla iiri balichoro As fast as e^er he can»
Abillela a fjoli goli, And as he runs he crieth stiU :
Ustilame Caloro." ' Come steal me,' gypsy manl"
But the gypsies are injured innocents compared with the extraor-
dinar}^ clandestine clan of robbei*s and assassins called the
Camorristi, whose original home and habitat were the two
Sicilies and lower Italv, but who have followed the Italian i-ace
in its em ignitions and whose dark tracks can Ije discovered in
every city of magnitude in this country. The Camori-a, as this
brotherhood of brigands is termed, affords a remarkable insight
into the subtlety of the Italian character, its wonderful capacity
for devising extraordinary means for the accomplishment of
ordinary ends, and that less amiable aptitude for playing the
conspirator or s[)y which has given the Italian nation an evil odor
in the nostrils of other mces which as a whole it does not deserve.
The recent trouble in New Orleans is tmceable to the Camorra,
for the JLifia is only a branch of that tremendous tree, like the
banyan in its tendency to burrow back into the earth, and like the
upas in its pestilent powers. The history of the Camorra is as
remarkable as any fable, for the Camorristi during the misrale of
the Bourbons were not only tolerated, but were actually permitted
to ply their infamous trade, in the hope that this permission to
plunder the })cople might influence them in favor of the gov^^m-
ment. The result Avas what might have been expected, for when
FraiK-is II., terrified at the measureless assurance of the society
he had favored and fostered, attempted its suppression, the mem-
TBACE8 AMOKG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THISVBS. 118
bers who escaped the wholesale capture and transportation decreed
against them entered into alliance with tlie Garibaldians, and
materially aided in the expulsion of King Bomba.
Meantime, and for many years, they had a festival time of it.
Knowing that their exactions were winked at, they boldly pre-
sented themselves in the markets, at places of public amusement,
and at the street spectacles by which the Neapolitan rulers tried
to make their subjects forget the manner in which they were mis-
governed. If a cab were engaged, the Camorra expected its
share; if the fare were disputed, a hangdog-looking individual
would step up and say with sinister quietness how much the
signer ought to pay, and tlie coachman then knew that the
Camorra had intervened, and would in due time render its
account. Differences between men and masters were referred to
the Camorristi — or taken to another tribunal at the risk of the
recalcitrants regretting their nushness. The Camorristi extracted
their percentage of whatever money passed from hand to hand in
buying property or in making any open or even private purchase,
for the Camorra was everywhere, and showed itself in the most
unlikely quartei's. Rents, Avages, prizes in lotteries, winnings of
gamblers — everything which could be taxed had, willy nilly, tO
contribute to tlie Camorrist treasurj-. There was nothing which
the society could not accomplish, from the ruin of a minister to
the dismissal of a lalx)rer. For a consideration they undertook to
convey smuggled goods to their destination, and if a hravo were
required, the Camorni — for a consideration — would provide the
stiletto.
Violence, robbery and murder were their machinery. Terrorism
kept the members together, and so dreaded Avas their vengeance,
that when thrown into gaol they would often succeed in
exacting money from their fellow-prisoners, and even from the
turnkeys, who dreaded the company committed to their charge,
Tlie ** Camorra" has been repressed i\i Naples, but in Sicily it
flourishes still, not so open and insolent as of yore, but yet potent.
Protean in form, it had many names or aliases also. In Ravenna
and Bologna it was called the "Squadraccia," in Turin the
**Gocca;" and those who have studied this strange cancer in the
social life of Italy say that the Roman " Sicorii, " the " Accoltella-
•. *
114 THE STORY OK GOVERNMENT.
tori " of the Romagna diatriet, and the PmineHaii " Pugnalatori,"
were only tho Ncajjolitaii Cainorristi under other names. It was
a State within a State, and at the time wlien the government
flattered itjjelf that the organization was actiuilly exterminated,
there were upwards of 200,000 persons belonging to it, and
addressing eacli other in a language unintelligible to more honest,
or at least to less lawless, people. Recent revelatioas prove that
if they are no longer able to weaken the power of the autliorities,
and to modify the operations of economic laws by exacting that
share of the national wealth of which
they were deprived either by idleness
or the badness of their rulers, they
are not less a t«rror in certain stiiita
of society, anil a means of paralyzing
confidence in tlie capability of the
law to protect all classes equally.
As the branches of the banyan
tree, hiding themselves in the earth,
re-rooting, burrowing back into si-
lence and shtwlow, are more remark-
able than the original trunk or stem,
so the Mafia, or ^IiifDa, is more sin-
gular than the Caniorm Inseause Jnoiv
3ecretive and subtle.
This society still flourishes in
Sicily, and has biiinches in nearly
every large city on this continent,
Boston, San Francisco, Chicago,
A lAMoRHisTK TRAMi'. ^''"' Vork. foi' cxample. But New-
Orleans especially, by reason of lier
attractive Italian climate, has ]irovcd a magnet to Alafian t-nii-
gmnts.
. New Orleans for many j-eai-s has had a large Sicilian popula-
tion, and for manj' j'eara the jiolice of the Crescent City liave
noticed odd coincidences of crinu*. If a Palermo man was found
dead or dying with a stiletto stab near his heart or in his
stomach, a favorite stabhing-place, a Alessina man soon followed,
tetimes the murder was committed in hnNid day, but when
TBAGES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 116
the case came up for trial, the witnesses from the Sicilian quarter,
where such things generally happened, seemed to experience an
epidemic of stupidity, for the most searching questions failed to
strike from their stony silence a scintilla of evidence tliat could
light the way to a conviction for th3 crime. Out of the court the
munlerer stn)lled witli a smile, rolling a brown paper cigarette.
In 1873 a characteristic ease occurred. Two young Sicilians
quarrelled in the French market; out flushed a knife, and one was
completely disembowelled in a moment. His wife saw the hor-
rible deed, and ran round and round shrieking, and pointing at
the murderer whom the police, coming up, appreliended.
But two days later the woman swore in court that she could
not tell who stabbed her husband. La Mafia had whispered in her
ear, and she knew better than to know. A case occurred when
the present writer lived in New Orleans more striking still.
A Sicilian lay in wait for another and fired at him an old blun-
derbuss loaded to the muzzle with nails, small stones, and buck-
shot. The murderer was seized by the quick police with the
weapon in his hand, and brought before the victim for still more
certain identification.
The dying man darted one glance of hatred at the captive,
then shook his head and said, "It is not the man, but another.
This fool must have i)icked up the empty gun." Then he died,
knowing he would be avenged by his branch of the Mafia, or by
his family clan, jis, indeed, was done not many months after.
But the Mafia did not confine its operations to quarrels and
personal vengeance. Blood wtus its drink, but money was its
meat.
Rich Italians who, by reason of their national knowledge of
Mafian or Camorran methods, could Ikj more easilv intimidated
than citizens of other races living in that charming cosmopolitan
city, veiy often received notices that they must make La Mafia a
little present, the amount of whi(;h, with time and place for
delivery, was obligingly specified.
That for many years these merchants complied is not singular.
They could not give up business and go away to escape the tax.
To whatever city they might fly, the dark feet of the Mafia could
follow them.
116 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT,
Unlike its parent, the Camorra, the Mafia appears to have no
central head, but to have a dozen or more gangs, sometimes at
variance with each other, but all agreed as against general society
or government, and never willing to bear witness against Mafians.
These bands are governed by councils of three which meet in
secret places, not twice successively in the same spot, plan out
the murders or intimidations and give instructions to the members
what they are to do.
Poison is sometimes used, the shotgun is a frequent means,
but the stiletto is considered the most creditable and stylish
instrument for the removal of an enemy or a man who has
neglected to pay tribute.
The world knows how Police Inspector Henessy, having made
a close study of the Mafia, intended to expose it completely and
bring it to an end, and how he was murdered by Mafians in front
of his own house.
The world knows also how the men, by bribery of the jury,
were acquitted, and how a mob of the most respectable citizens
of New Orleans, headed by W. S. Parkerson, John C. WickliflFe,
and Col. W. P. Curtis, three of the most brilliant and popular
men of that city, met around the Clay statue, went to the old
Parish Prison, seized the eleven acquitted men, of whose guilt
there was no shadow of a doubt, and executed them as a warn-
ing to the Mafia. But the Mafia was untamed. A few days
after Mr. Parkerson received the following paper: —
MAFIA WARNING.
" You a domed man and God Amity can't save you. We have it
sworn. Our comrades you murdered and we kill you and you family.
You will be poison. The styleto will do for the wrest."
Other gentlemen, prominent in this respectable and perhaps
justifiable mob, received similar sentences, but up to the present
writing they have remained scathless, and it is likely that the
Mafia will choose hereafter some safer place than New Orleans,
since if any of these men or others connected with that uprising
were to meet with violent or suspiciously sudden deaths, such is
the spirit of New Orleans that probably within twenty-four hours
every Italian would be requested to leave the city forever.
118 THE STORY OF GOVERlOrENT.
The initiation ceremonies of the Mafia, according to the con-
fessions of Caruso, are very simple. Caruso said that the chief
who presided was di*essed in a black domino, that he lield up a
skull in his left hand, and a dirk in his right, speaking solemnly,
but briefly, of the dread power of tlie Mafia. The candidate for
crime then swore, with uplifted hands, to abide by the orders of
the order.
The letters of demand for money or of intimidation which thev
send are generally written in blood, and sealed with a peculiar
rude seal consisting of an owl perched on a skull above cross-bones.
This is a sort of grim, unconscious parody on Poe's raven sit-
ting on the bust of Pallas, and, indeed, a rather more classic
combination, since according to ancient Italian mythology, the
owl was the favorite bird of Pallius, goddess of wisdom, who,
still following the antique, i>erhaps subtly antic, fable was not
born of any feminine creature, but si)rang full grown and armed
from the brain of Jove, king of the gods.
It seems clear that the Mafia exists no longer in its birthplace,
Sicily, for Guido Pantatori, now superintendent of the Missouri
Electric Light Co. at St. Louis, who was formerly an officer in the
Itiilian army, makes the following statement :
In 1860, the Italian government took the first steps looking to the
suppression of this band of cut-throats, and sr) effectual were its efforts
in this direction, that within one voar the Mafia as an orij^anization was
exterminated, and it does not exist in Italy or Sicily to-day. There
was no silly or sickly sentiment about the measures taken there. Ex-
tirpation was the object. We began by arresting every man carrying
concealed weapons, and every suspicious character. These were sent
to prison for six months, even if no other evidence could be found
.against them.
If any further evidence could be found, the prisoners were sentenced
to be executed. The culprits were taken out, stood in a line and shot
down bv the score. Several thousand of the members of the Mafia
were thus executed and the result was })eace in Sicily."
And yet while wc may perhaps ]ye amazed at and disgusted
with a government like that of Italy, which Wiis so slow in ex-
terminating such a society, root and branch, we nnist not forget
the beam in our own eye; we nuist rememljer that, although
TRACBS AMOKa 6TPSIES, BRIGANDS AND TmBVES. 119
there are certain more civilized States of this Union which do
not permit Mr. Pinkcrton's choice collection of assassins to cross
their borders, the great State of New York a few years ago
allowed a railroad corporation whose oppression of its employees
had led to a strike, to employ the Pinkerton desperadoes, not
merely as guai'ds to its property, but as intimidators of the strikers.
Some of the newspapera protested agjiinst this wrong; but
the next day their pi*otest was hushed — how and why anyone who
stops to reason well knows. But these things will not last for-
ever, for the American people are beginning to wake up and break
off their former party ties, and sliake off the chains of that abom-
inable old custom of letting the politicians do their thinking for
them.
Just as traces of government are discernible among the Camor-
risti and Mafians, so among thieves in Iiuge cities like London and
Paris, promoters of disorder and profiters by it thougli they be, a
certain tendency to order crops out. Tliat i-ank among thieves is
i-ecognized lias been proved Ix^yond question. The common pick-
pocket would not dare, in a tavern, to force liis acquaintance or
even his uninvited presence on a jovial gathering of "swell mobs-
men " or of house-breakers. The crimes in which one's life is risked
are accounted of more aristocratic quality, and their perpetrators
exercise an autocratic rule over tlie smaller fry of the republic of
thiever}\ But the average condition of professional thieves in
a city like London is really not quite so good as that of our
honest working classes.
There are forty thousand professional thieves in London,
Roughly estimating the population of the world's metropolis as
numbering six millions, this statistic means that amongst Lon-
doners one person in every hundi-ed and fifty is a forger, a house-
lireaker, a pickpocket, a shoplifter, a receiver of stolen goods, or
in short, a human bird of prey.
Almost eveiy meml^er of this formidjible liost is known to the
"police," but unfortunately this advantage is almost counter-
balanced by the fact tliat the police are as well known to the
majority of the twenty thousand. To their exi^rienced eyes it is
not the helmet and the blue coat that make the policeman. In-
deed, they appear to depend not so much on visual evidence as on
120 the' stoky of government.
some subtle power of scent, such as the fox possesses, in discover-
ing the approach of their natural enemy. They can divine the
detective in his innocent-looking smock-frock or bricklayer jacket,
while he is yet distant the lengtli of a street. Tliey know him by
his step, or by liis clumsy affectation of unofficial loutishness.
They recognize the stiff neck in the loose neckerchief. Tliey
smell "trap," and are superior to it.
The following brief life of an adroit London pickpocket, who
had reformed and become a street singer, shows how thieves are
trained, and how they are oi-ganized in bands. This pickpocket
was about the average height, of sallow complexion, with a rich,
dark, penetrating eye, a moustache and beard. He was a man of
tolerably good education, and liad a mind well fumLshed.
Had he not started so young as a pickpocket, he might have
ripened into a banker — a Naix>leon of finance, but at the time he
told his life history, he was i-ather melancholy and crushed in spirit,
which he stated was the result of repeated imprisonments. Yet,
while narrating some of the exciting passages, liis countenance
lighted up with intense interest and adventurous expression,
I was born in a little hamlet, five miles from Shrewsbury, in the
county of Shropshire. My father was a Wesleyan minister. We
had a very happy home, though strict in the way of religion. I
believe my father would on no account have tolerated such a thinj? as
any of us children stopping out after nine o'clock at night, and I have
heard my mother often say that all the time she was wedded to him,
she never had known him the worse for liquor. My father had family
worship every night between eight and nine o'clock, when the curtains
were drawn over the windows, the candle was lighted, and each of the
children was taught to kneel and pray out loud.
We often had ministers to dinner and supper at our house, and always
after feasting the conversation turned into discussions on different
points of doctrine. I can recollect as well now as though it were yes-
terday the texts used on the various sides of the questions, and the stress
that was laid on different passages to uphold their arguments.
At this time I greedily drank in every word that was uttered, and
soon as they were gone I would fly to the Bible and examine the differ-
ent texts they had quoted. This practice produced a feeling in my
mind that any religious opinions could be plausibly supported out of
the Bible by citing detached passages, and not regarding it as a whole.
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 121
These continual discussions finally seemed to steel my heart com-
pletely against religion, and led to my falling out with my grandfather,
who had a good deal of property that was expected to come to our
family. For my grandsire found out that I looked on our family relig-
ion with.douht, and he bitterly resented it, and when he died, it was
found, on opening his will, that I was not mentioned in it. The whole
of his property was left to my father, with the exception of four houses,
which he had an interest in till my brothers and sister arrived at the
age of twenty-one. Moreover, the property that was left to my father
for his life, he had no power to will away at his death, but it was to go
to a distant relative of my grandfather.
This was the first cause of my leaving home, for the singularity of
my grandfather's will was attributed to my conduct, and, after a while, so
harsh were the family comments, it began to rankle in my boyish mind
that I was a black sheep, something (liferent from my brothers and sis-
ter. After being several times chided by my father for quarreling with
my brothers, I threatened, in a fit of passion, to burn the house down
the fii*st opportunity I got. This threat, though not uttered in my
father's hearing, came to his ear, and he gave me a severe whipping for
it. This was the first and last.
I detennined to leave home, and took nothing away but what be-
longed to me. I had four sovereigns of pocket money, the suit of clothes
I had on, and a shirt. I walked to Shrewsbury and took the coach to
London. When I got to London I had neither friend nor acquaintance.
I first put up in a coffee shop in the Mile End Koad, and lodged there
for seven weeks, till my money was nearly all spent.
During this time my clothes had been getting shabby and dirty, as I
had no one to look after me. Then I went to a meaner lodging house at
Field Lane, Holborn, where I met with such characters as I had never
seen before, and heard language that I had not formerly heard.
The landlady here, however, took pity on me as a poor country boy
who had been well brought up, and kept me for some days longer after
my money was gone. During these few days, I had very little to eat,
except what was given me by some of the lodgers when they got their
own meals. Finally, the landlady's husband objecting to my continued
presence, I was turned out of doors, a little boy in the great world of
London, with no friend to assist me, and perfectly ignorant of the
ways and means of getting a living.
After wandering about for several days half starved, I was taken by
several poor ragged hoys whom I met, to sleep in the dark arches of the
Adelphi. I think I lived with them, sharing all they ha<l, for over a
112 THE STORY OF GOVERNBiENT.
their main food being mamaliga, or maize-meal, boiled and
seasoned with salt. Or, as in other countries, they mend pots and
kettles, shoe horses, or play the medola. But though the tawny
face of the Frenchified Roumanian bears distinct evidence that
his forefathers were not so callous to the charms of the lithe young
gypsy, the so-called whites affect an unutterable scorn for the
Zigani, ranking them as little better than the lower animals.
The philosophy of gypsy life is summed up in the following little
poem composed by a gypsy of Spain in which country these mj'^tic
strollers are regarded with a sort of tender tolerance like naughty
but amusing children.
*' Poraquel luchipen abajo *' There runs a pig down yonder hill
Abillela uri balichoro As fast as e^er he can»
Abillcla a goll goli, And as he runs he crieth still :
Ustilamo Caloro." ' Come steal me,' gypsy manT*
But the gypsies are injured innocents compared with the extraor-
dinarj' clandestine clan of robbers and assassins called the
Camorristi, whose original home and habitat were the two
Sicilies and lower Italv, but who have followed the Italian race
in its emigrations and whose dark tracks can be discovered in
every city of magnitude in this country. The Camorra, as tliis
brotherhood of brigands is termed, affords a remarkable insight
into the subtlety of the Italian character, its wonderful capacity
for devising extraordinary means for the accomplishment of
ordinary ends, and that less amiable aptitude for playing the
conspii-ator or spy which has given the Italian nation an evil odor
in the nostrils of other races which as a whole it does not deserve.
The recent trouble in New Orleans is traceable to the Camorra,
for the Mafia is only a branch of that tremendous tree, like the
banyan in its tendency to burrow back into the earth, and like the
upas in its pestilent powers. The history of the Camorra is as
remarkable as any fable, for the Camorristi during the misrule of
the Bourbons were not only tolerated, but were actually permitted
to ply their infamous trade, in the hope that this permission to
plunder the people might influence them in favor of the govern-
ment. The result was what might have been expected, for when
Francis II., terrified at the measureless assurance of the society
he had favored and fostered, attempted its suppression, the mem-
TBACE8 AMONQ OYPSIB8, BBIGANDB AKD THIEVBS. 118
1)619 who escaped the wholesale capture and transportation decreed
against them entered into alliance with the Garibaldians, and
materially aided in the expulsion of King Bomba.
Meantime, and for many years, they had a festival time of it.
Knowing that their exactions were winked at, they boldly pre-
sented themselves in the markets, at places of i^ublic amusement,
and at the street spectacles by which the Neapolitan rulers tried
to make their subjects forget the manner in which they were mis-
governed. If a cab were engaged, tlie Camonu expected its
share; if the fare were disputed, a hangdog-looking individual
would step up and say with sinister quietness how mucli the
signor ought to pay, and the cojiehman then knew that the
Camorra liad intervened, and would in due time render its
account. Differences between men and masters were referred to
the Camorristi — or taken to anotlier tribunal at tlie risk of the
recalcitrants regretting their i-ashness. Tlie Camorristi extracted
their percentage of whatever money passed from liand to hand in
buying property or in making any open or even private purchase,
for the Camorra was everywhere, and showed itself in the most
unlikely quartens. Rents, wages, prizes in lotteries, winnings of
gamblers — everything which could l>e taxed had, willy nilly, tO
contribute to the Camorrist treasuiy. There AVtis nothing which
the society could not accomplish, from the ruin of a minister to
the dismissal of a Liborer. For a consideration they undertook to
convey smuggled goods to their destination, and if a hravo were
required, the Camorra — for a consideration — would provide the
stiletto.
Violence, robbery and murder were their machinery. Terrorism
kept the members together, and so dreaded was their vengeance,
that when thrown into gaol they would often succeed in
exacting money from their fellow-prisoners, and even from the
turnkeys, who dreaded the company committed to their charge.
Tlie "Camorra" has been repressed iit Naples, but in Sicily it
flourishes still, not so open and insolent as of yore, but yet potent.
Protean in form, it had many names or aliases also. In Ravenna
and Bologna it was called the " Squadraccia, " in Turin the
"Gocca;** and those who have studied this strange cancer in the
.social life of Italy say that the Roman "Sicorii," the " Accoltella-
• 9
114
THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
tori" of the Tlomagiia district, and tlie Paniiesftii "Fugnaktori,"
were only the XeajjoliUm Camorristi under other names. It was
a State within a State, and at the time wlien the government
flattered itself that tlie organization was actually extemiiiiated,
there were upwaitls of 200,000 pei'sons iKdouging to it, and
addressing each other in a language unintelligihlc to more honest,
or at least to less lawless, jjeople. Recent I'evelations prove that
if they arc no longer able to weaken the power of the autliorities,
and ti> modify the operations of eeonomic laws by exacting that
sliare of tbo national wealth of which
they were deprived either by idleness
or the badness of their rulers, they
ai-e not less a tent>r in certain sti-ata
of society, and ii means of paralj"zing
confidence in tlie capabilitj- of the
law to [irotect all classes equally,
jVs the In-anches of the banyan
tree, hiding themselves in the earth,
I'e-rooting, buiTowing lofk into si-
lence and shadow, are more remark-
able than the original trunk or stem,
so the Matiii, or Maffia, i:i more sin-
-■ gular than the Caniorr.i Ijecause nioif
, secretive and subtle.
) Tliis society still flimrishes in
Sicilj', and has bimiches in nearly
cver\' lai^e city on this continent,
Boston, Sun Fi-antisco, ('liicago,
New York, for example. But New
(^)rleaiw esjreciaUy, hy reason of her
attractive Itiiliaii climate, hiis proved a magnet to Mafiaii cmi-
ginntft.
New Orleans for many yean* hiis liad a large Sicilian popula-
tion, and for many yeai-s the police o£ the Crescent City liave
noticed odd coincidences of crime. If a Palenno man was found
dead or dying with a stiletto stab near his heart or in his
stomach, a favorite stiibbing-place, a Messina nuin soon followed.
Sometimes the murder w.is committed iu broad day, but wlien
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 115
the case came up for trial, the witnesses from the Sicilian quarter,
where such things generally happened, seemed to experience an
epidemic of stupidity, for the most searching questions failed to
strike from their stony silence a scintilla of evidence that could
light the way to a conviction for th3 crime. Out of the court the
murderer strolled witli a smile, rolling a brown paper cigarette.
In 1873 a characteristic case occuned. Two young Sicilians
quarrelled in the French market; out flashed a knife, and one was
completely disembowelled in a moment. His wife saw the hor-
rible deed, and ran round and round shrieking, and pointing at
the murderer whom the police, coming up, apprehended.
But two days later the Avoman swore in court that she could
not tell who stabbed her husband. La Mafia had whispered in her
ear, and she knew better than to know. A case occurred when
the present writer lived in New Orleans more striking still.
A Sicilian lay in wait for another and lired at him an old blun-
derbuss loaded to the muzzle with nails, small stones, and buck-
shot. The murderer was seized by the quick police with the
weapon in his hand, and brought before the victim for still more
certain identification.
The dying man darted one glance of hatred at the captive,
then shook his head and said, " It is not the man, but another.
This fool must have picked up the empty gun." Tlien he died,
knowing he would 1k^ avenged by his branch of the Mafia, or by
his family clan, as, indeed, was done not many montlis after.
But the Mafia did not confine its operations to quarrels and
personal vengeance. Blood wius its drink, hut money wius its
meat.
Rich Italians who, by reason of their national knowledge of
Mafian or CamoiTan methocLs, could l)e more easily intimidated
than citizens of other races living in that charming cosmopolitan
city, very often received notices that tliey must make La Mafia a
little present, the amount of which, with time an<l place for
delivery, was obligingly specified.
That for many years these merchants complied is not singular.
They could not give up business and go away to escape the tax.
To whatever city they might fly, the dark feet of the Mafia could
follow them.
116 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Unlike its parent, the Camorra, the Mafia appears to have no
central head, but to have a dozen or more gangs, sometimes at
variance with each other, but all agreed as against general society
or government, and never willing to bear witness against Mafians.
These bands are governed by councils of three which meet in
secret places, not twice successively in the same spot, plan out
the murders or intimidations and give instructions to the members
what they are to do.
Poison is sometimes used, the shotgun is a frequent means,
but the stiletto is considered the most creditable and stylish
instrument for the removal of an enemy or a man who has
neglected to pay tribute.
The world knows how Police Inspector Henessy, having made
a close study of the Mafia, intended to expose it completely and
bring it to an end, and how he was murdered by Mafians in front
of his o^vn house.
The world knows also how the men, by bribery of the jury,
were acquitted, and how a mob of the most respectable citizens
of New OrleJins, headed by W. S. Parkerson, John C. Wickliffe,
and Col. W. P. Curtis, three of tlie most brilliant and popular
men of that city, met around the Clay statue, went to the old
Parish Prison, seized the eleven acquitted men, of whose guilt
there was no shadow of a doubt, and executed them as a warn-
ing to the Mafia. But the Mafia was untamed. A few days
after Mr. Parkerson received the following paper: —
MAFIA WAHXIXG.
" You a domed man and God Amitv can't save vou. We have it
sworn. Our comrades you murdered and we kill you and you family.
You will be poison. The styleto will do for the wrest."
Other gentlemen, prominent in this respectable and perhaps
justifiable mob, received similar sentences, but up to the present
writing they have remained scathless, and it is likely that the
Mafia will choose hereafter some safer place than New Orleans,
since if any of these men or others connected with that uprising
were to meet with violent or suspiciously sudden deaths, such is
the spirit of New Orleans that probably within twenty-four hours
every Italian would be requested to leave the city forever.
118 THE STORY OF GOVERJOfENT.
The initiation ceremonies of the Mafia, according to the con-
fessions of Caruso, are ver^' simple. Caruso said that the chief
who presided was dressed in a black domino, that he held up a
skull in his left hand, and a dirk in liis right, si>eaking solemnly,
but briefly, of the dread power of the Mafia. The candidate for
crime then swore, with uplifted hands, to abide by the orders of
the order.
The lettei-s of demand for money or of intimidation which they
send are genei-ally written in blood, and sealed with a peculiar
rude seal consisting of an owl perched on a skull above cross-bones.
This is a sort of grim, unconscious parody on Poe's i*aven sit-
ting on the bust of Pallas, and, indeed, a rather more classic
combinaticm, since according to ancient Italian mythology, the
owl AVJis the favorite bird of Pallas, goddess of wisdom, who,
still following the antique, ixiriiaps subtly antic, fable was not
Ixirn of any feminine creature, but sprang full grown and armed
from the brain of Jove, king of the gods.
It seems clear that the Mafia exists no longer in its birthplace,
Sicily, for Guido Pantatori, now superintendent of the Missouri
Electric Light Co. at St. Louis, who wiis formerly an officer in the
Italian army, makes the following statement :
In 1860, the Italian government took the first steps looking to the
suppression of this band of cut-throats, and s.) effectual were its efforts
in this direction, that witliiu one vear the Mafia as an organization was
exterminated, and it does not exist in Italy or Sicily to-day. There
was no silly or sickly sentiment about the measures taken there. Ex-
tirpation was the object. We began by arresting every man carrying
concealed weapons, and every suspicious character. These were sent
to prison for six months, even if no other evidence could be found
against them.
If any further evidence could be found, the prisoners were sentenced
to be executed. The culprits were taken out^ stood in a line and shot
down by the score. Several thousand of the members of the Mafia
were thus executed and the result was i)eace in Sicily."
And yet while wc ma}' perhaps be amazed at and disgusted
with a government like that of Italy, which Wiis so slow in ex-
terminating such a society, root and bmncli, we nnist not forget
the beam in our own eye; we must remember that, although
TBAC1CS AMOKa GYPBIBS, BRIGANDS AKD THIEVES. 119
there are certain more civilized States of this Union which do
not permit Mr. Pinkerton's choice collection of assassins to cross
their borders, the great State of New York a few years ago
allowed a railroad corporation whose oppression of its employees
liad led to a strike, to employ the Pinkerton desperadoes, not
merely as gmuds to its property, but as intinndatora of the strikers.
Some of tlie newspapei's protested against this wrong; but
the next day their pi*otest was hushed — how and why anyone who
stops to reason well knows. But these things will not last for-
ever, for the American people are beginning to wake up and break
off their former party ties, and shake off tlie c.hains of that abom-
inable old custom of letting the politicians do their tliinking for
them.
Just as traces of government are discernible among tlie Camor-
risti and Mafians, so among thieves inliuge cities like London and
Paris, pi-omoters of disorder and profiters by it though they be, a
certain tendency to order crops out. Tliat nink among thieves is
recognized has l)een i)roved Ixiyond question. The common pick-
pocket would not dare, in a tavern, to foi-ce liis acquaintance or
even his uninvited presence on a jovial gathering of "swell mobs-
men " or of house-breakei-s. The crimes in wliich one's life is risked
are accounted of more aristocratic quality, and their perj^etrators
exercise an autocratic rule over the smaller fry of the republic of
thievery. But the average condition of professional thieves in
a city like London is really not quite so good as that of our
honest working classes.
There are forty thousand professional thieves in London.
Roughly estimating the population of the world's metropolis as
numbering six millions, this statistic means that amongst Lon-
doners one i>erson in every hundi-ed and fifty is a forger, a house-
breaker, a i)ickpocket, a shoplifter, a receiver of stolen goods, or
in short, a human biixl of prey.
Almost eveiy meml)er of this fonnidable host is known to the
"police,'* but unfortunately this advantage is almost counter-
balanced by the fact that the i>olice are as well known to the
majority of the twenty thousand. To their experienced eyes it is
not the helmet and the blue coat that make the policeman. In-
deed, they appear to depend not so much on visual evidence as on
120 the' story of GOVEnK^tENT.
some subtle power of scent, such Jis the fox possesses, in discover-
ing the approach of their natuml enemy. Tliey can divine the
detective in his innocent-looking smock-frock or bricklayer jacket,
while he is yet distant the length of a street. They know him by
his step, or by his clumsy affectation of unofficial loutLshness.
They recognize the stiff neck in the loose neckerchief. They
smell "ti-ap," and are superior to it.
The following brief life of an adroit London pickpocket, who
had reformed and become a street singer, shows how thieves are
trained, and how they are organized in bands. Tliis pickpocket
was about the average height, of sallow complexion, with a rich,
dark, penetrating eye, a moustache and beard. He was a man of
tolerably good education, and had a mind well furnished.
Had he not started so young as a pickpocket, he might have
ripened into a banker — a Napoleon of finance, but at the time he
told his life history, lie was ratlier melancholy and crushed in spirit,
which he stated was the result of repeated imprisonments. Yet,
while narrating some of the exciting passages, liis countenance
lighted up with intense interest and adventurous expression.
I was horn in a little hamlet, five miles from Shrewsbury, in tlie
county of Shropshire. My father was a Wesley an minister. We
had a very happy home, though strict in the way of religion. I
believe my father would on no accoimt have tolerated such a thing as
any of us children stopping out after nine o'clock at night, and I have
heard my mother often say that all the time she was wedded to him,
she never had known him the worse for liquor. My father had family
worship every night between eight and nine o'clock, when the curtains
were drawn over the windows, the candle was lighted, and each of the
children was taught to kneel and pray out loud.
We often had ministers to dinner and supper at our house, and always
after feasting the conversation turned into discussions on different
points of doctrine. I can recollect as well now as though it were yes-
terday the texts used on the various sides of the questions, and the stress
that was laid on different passages to uphold their arguments.
At this time I greedily drank in every word that was uttered, and
soon as they were gone I would fly to the Bible and examine the differ-
ent texts they had quoted. This practice produced a feeling in my
mind that any religious opinions could be plausibly supported out of
the Bible by citing detached passages, and not regarding it as a whole.
TBACE8 AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 121
These continual discussions finally seemed to steel my heart com-
pletely against religion, and led to my falling out with my grandfather,
who had a good deal of property that was expected to come to our
family. For my grandsirc found out that I looked on our family relig-
ion with doubt, and lie bitterly resented it, and when he died, it was
found, on opening his will, that T was not mentioned in it. The whole
of his pro|)erty was left to my father, with the excei)tion of four houses,
which ho had an Interest in till my brothers and sister arrived at the
age of twenty-one. Moreover, the property that was loft to my father
for his life, he had no power to will away at his death, but it was to go
to a distant relative of my grandfather.
Thb was the first cause of my leaving home, for the singularity of
my grandfather's will was attributed to my conduct, and, after a while, so
harsh were the family comments, it began to rankle in my bo^-ish mind
that I was a black sheep, something di^erent from my brothers and sis-
ter. After being several times eluded by my father for quarreling with
my brothers, I threatened, in a fit of passion, to burn the house down
the first opportunity I got. This threat, though not uttered in my
father's hearing, came to his ear, and he gave me a severe whipping for
it. This was the first and last.
I determined to leave home, and took nothing away but what be-
longed to me. I had four sovereigns of pocket money, the suit of clothes
I had on, and a shirt. I walked to Shrewsbury and took the coach to
Tx^ndon. When I got to London I had neither friend nor acquaintance.
I first put up in a coffee shop in the MUe End Road, and lodged there
for seven weeks, till my money was nearly all spent.
During this time my clothes had been getting shabby and dirty, as I
had no one to look after me. Then I went to a meaner lodging house at
Field Lane, Holborn, where I met with such characters as I had never
seen before, and heard language that I had not formerly heard.
The landlady here, however, took pity on me as a poor country boy
who had been well brought up, .and kept me for some days longer after
my money was gone. During these few days, I had very little to eat,
except what was given me by some of the lodgers when they got their
own meals. Finally, the landlady's husband objecting to my continued
presence, I was turned out of doors, a little boy in the great world of
London, with no friend to assist me, and perfectly ignorant of the
ways and means of getting a living.
After wandering about for several days half starved, I was taken by
several poor ragged l>oys whom I met, to sleep in the dark arches of the
Adelphi. I think I lived with them, sharing all they had, for over a
122 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
month, and during this time I often saw the boys follow the male pas-
sengers, when the half-penny boats came to the Adelphi stairs, i. e., the
part of the river almost opposite the Adelphi Theatre.
I could not at first make out the meaning of this, but I soon found
they generally had one or two handkerchiefs when the passengers left.
At this time there was an old j)rison van in the Adelphi arches, without
wheels, in which we used to sleej), and there we used to meet a man
my companions called " Larry," who gave the boys almost what price
he liked for the handkerchiefs.
My companions, all this time, had been very kind, sharing what they
got with me, but often asking why I did not try my hand at the trade,
till at last I was ashamed to live any longer upon the food they gave me
without earning my share. So, when I gave expression to this rather
natural, and as it seems to me, somewhat commendable feeling, one of
the boys, Joe Muckraw, said to me, that when the next boat came in, if
any man came out likely to carry a good handkerchief, he would let me
have a chance at it.
Next day I saw an elderly gentleman step ashore, and a lady with
him. They had a little dog, with a string attached to it, that they led
along. Before Joe reminded me of my determination, he stole up and
"fanned" the gentleman's j»ocket, i. e., felt it to be sure there was a
handkerchief inside. Then he whispered '* Now, Dick, have a try."
I went to the old gentleman's side, trembling all over, and Joe
keeping close to me in the dark, encouraging me all the time, while the
old gentleman was engaged with the little dog. Lifting up the tail — of
the coat, not the dog, T mean — I took out a green "kingsman " ( hand-
kerchief ), next in value to a black silk handkerchief.
I did it so quietly, quickly, and naturally, I might say, that the gen-
tleman di<l not perceive his loss. We immediately went to the arches
and entered the van where Larry was, and Joe said to him, "This is
Dick's first trial, and you must give him a 'ray' for it," i. e., one shilling
and sixpence. After a deal of pressing, Larry gave us a shilling.
After that I gained confidence, and in the course of a few weeks I
was considered the cleverest of the little band, never missing one boat
coming in, and getting one or two handkerchiefs each time. When we
knew there were no boats coming we used to waste our money on
sweets and fruits, and went often in the evenings to the Victoria The-
atre and Bower Saloon, and other places. When we came out at
twelve or half-past twelve at night, we went to the arches again and
sle])t in the j>rison van. I led this life — and a jolly one it seemed to
mc? then — for a year.
TBAGE8 AMONG GYPSIES, BBIGANDS AND THIEVES. 127
One day sereral men came to visit tis, and they oame again, telling
us pleasant stories of high life and fine ladies whom they knew. I
afterwards learned they were brought by " Larry " to study me, as he
had been speaking of my cleverness at the "tail,'' i. e., stealing from the
tsuls of gentlemen's coats. They used to make me presents and speak
very kindly to me, but at that time they were not quite satisfied as to
my abilities or capacity for taking higher rank in the order.
One day, having grown a little careless in my methods, I was seized
by a gentleman who caught me with his handkerchief in my handy
and I was sentenced to Bridewell for two months. The day of my re-
lease I felt touched and honored to find at the gate a cab waiting for
me, and two of the men standing by who had often made me presents
and spoken to me in the arches. They took me to their own home. One
of them had the first floor of a house, the other had the second,
and both had wives, women exceedingly pretty, very kind-hearted, and,
though you may not believe me, very refined.
I found out shortly afterwards that these men had lately had a boy
with them, but he had been caught., sentenced, and transported to Aus-
tralia about that time, though I did not know this then. They gave
me plenty to eat, and one of the women, by name " Emily," washed and
cleansed me — I was wonderfully dirty — and gave me new clothes
to put on. For three days I was not asked to do anything, but in
the meantime they had been talking to me of going with them and
having no more to do with the boys at the Adelphi or with the
" tiul," but instead to try the finer, more difficult and aristocratic work
of picking ladies' pockets.
I thought it more difficult at first, but found afterwards that it was
more satisfactory to work on a woman's pocket than upon a man's, for
this reason ; more persons work together, and the boy is well sur-
rounded by companions older than himself, and is shielded from the
eyes of the passers-by. Besi<les, it pays better.
As this was my first essay in having anything to do in stealing from
a woman, I believe they were nervous themselves, but they had well
tutored me during the two or thr^e days I had been out of prison.
They had stood against me in the room while Emily walked to and fro,
and I had practised on her by taking out sometimes a lady's clasp
purse, termed a " portemonnaie," and other articles out of her pocket,
and thus I was not quite ignorant of what was expected of me.
On the day of my first attempt one walked in front of me, one on
my right hand, and the other m the rear, and I had the lady on my
left hand. I immediately <' fanned" her (felt her pocket), as she
128 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
stopped to look in at a hosier's window, then I took her purse and gave
it to one of them, and we immediately went to a house in Giltspur
Street. We there examined the purse and found about two sovereigns
in it. The purse was thrown away, as is the general rule, and that
afternoon I found four more purses and then we went home to a good
supper, after which we laid aside entirely the cares of business and went
to the theatre. I recollect how they praised me that night for my
cleverness, and how my cheek glowed with pride at their praise.
The following day we reaped a still better harvest. It amounted to
about 19£. (nearly $100) each. These organized gangs always take
care to allow the boy to see what is in the purse, and to give him his
proper share, equal with the others, because he is their sole support.
If they should lose him they would be unable to do anything until they
got another. Out of my share, I bought a silver watch an<l a gold
chain, and about this time I also bought an elegant little overcoat and
carried it on my left arm to cover my movements.
But men devoted to monetary pursuits — even the most adroit and
careful financiers, — for instance, think of Baring Brothers just lately —
sometimes have their turns of ill-luck and get caught on the wrong
side of an investment. My day came. I saw a gentleman stuff a roll
of bank notes in his waistcoat pocket and, brushing up against him, I
attempted to relieve him. It landed me in prison for three months.
During that time, however, I did not grow thin on prison diet, but
was kept on good rations supplied to me through the kindness of my
comrades out of doors bribing the turnkeys.
When I came out we began to attend the theatres professionally,
and I have often taken as many as six or seven ladies' purses during
the crowding, while they were coming out. We also used to go to
the great races on business, and one day I was induced by my comrades,
much against my will, for I thought it was too risky, to turn my hand
upon two ladies as they were stepping into a carriage. I was detected
by the ladies and there was immediately a tremendous outcry and
rush for me, but I was got clear by two of my comrades, the other
throwing himself in the way, and keeping the pursuers back; for which
he was taken up on suspicion, committed for trial, and not being able
to explain satisfactorily who he was and why he stumbled in the way
of persons trying to seize a young pickpocket, my pal got four months
imprisonment.
We got another man in his j)lace and when his time expired,
went down to meet him, and he did not go out hunting with us for
some time afterwards — nearly a fortnight. After awhile one of the
%taf^- -''^r'^--^-^-T=^
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BBIGANDS AND THIEVES. 129
men w;is seized with a (lecline, and died at Brompton, in the hospital.
Like the other stalls, as men are called who help in a quiet way as the
support while one thief plays the star part, he usually went well-
dressed and had a good appearance. His chief work was to guard me
and to get nie out of difficulty when I was detected, as I was the
mainstay of the band.
One time w^hen I was caught, liowcver, my imprisonment was so
long that the band had to get another boy in my place, and when I
came out I decided to go into business by myself. I went to live
in Charles Street, ])rury Lane, and I stopped there, working all
alone for five or six months, till T got accjuainted with a young
woman, who has ever since been devoted to me. She was not a
thief then, but soon after she got acquainted with me, she divined that
I was. At first it troubled her terribly, but after awhile she accepted
it as destiny and became one herself, even more expert than I, although
she had not i)een regularly educated in stealing as I was when young.
We married after the usual fashion of thieves — that is, for as lonjx as
we should agree. Then we took a cou])le of rooms and went to house-
keeping. I soon got acquainted with sonu^ of the swell mob at the
Seven Dials, and began working along with three of them upon tlie
ladies' ])urses again.
We WQre frequently watched by the j)olice and detectives, who
followed our track, and were often in the same places of amusement
with us. Hut we knew them as well as thev knew us and often
eluded them. Still their followini? us was sometimes the cause of our
doinjj nothing on manv of these occasions, as we knew their eve was
upon us.
But whether I became too well known to the police, or whether in
the course of time my hand lost some of its cunning, the fact stared
me in the face that I got caught more frequently, and also the addi-
tional fact that my imprisonments broke down my health, so I decided
to quit stealing and earn what I conld as a street ballad singer. Sally,
however, kept on stealing, which troubled me. So after trying to be
honest for several months, I told her if she was not satisfied with
what I was earning as a singer I would resume my former employ-
ment. I did this for a year, but was arrested three times. Each time
the prosecutor did not apjjcar and I was acquitted.
Such luck, I felt certain, could not happen a fourth time running,
and I took it as a sign of my last chance to lead an honest life. I
came home and told Sally I would never engage in stealing again, and
I have kept my word. Had I been tried at this time, as there were so
130 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
many former convictions against me, I should very likely have been
transported. I have since then got my living by singing in the streets.
I earn my 28. or 2s. 6d. in an hour or an hour and a half in the even-
ing, and can make a shift. It's a poor calling, but it's honester than
most vocations, isn't it, since I take only what people choose to give
me?
For six or seven years, when engaged in business, I earned perhaps
a larger amount of money than most of the pocket- picking profession.
Our house expenses many weeks would average from 4£ to 5£, for we
lived on the l)est fare, and besides we went to theatres, dressed well,
and bought the best editions of the best authors. I was always very
much interested in the attempts of writers to depict thieves. Very
few of the popular novelists come anywhere near a knowledge of the
natures of thieves, or can even give a fair descnption of the incidents
of their lives. The truth is, a pickpocket, till he rises fo the rank of a
burglar, differs very little in his moral and mental makeup from your
average merchant in any large city like London. Why so?
Well, I maintain that unless you give a man a full equivalent for
what he gives you, you pick his pocket. To make a profit — to get
something for nothing or to get more than you give — is it not
stealing ? When a pickpocket graduates into burglary, another element
comes in, — the risk of life and limb is added — and the possibility, the
probability of becoming a murderer, completes the criminal natare,
and makes the man a man-wolf. Consider a moment. In my life, I
have picked about four thousand pockets, mostly from people who
could afford once in their lives to be thus taxed. Will you not admit
that nearly every very great manufacturer or commercial speculator
takes, under cover of law, more out of the pockets of the honest, hard-
working, producing class in the course of his life than all the pick-
pockets of London put together could amass?
Or even take a burglar for the sake of argument. I don't aspire to
be one, for I am timid and shrink at the thought of risking or of
taking human life. But say that an industrious burglar in his business
life kills two or three men. What does that amount to, compared with
the thousands which my dear native country, England, has killed in
Africa during this century just for the sake of extending her com-
merce ? Indeed, I think I'd rather be the worst of London burglars
than Napoleon the Great, if quantity as well as quality counts in a
consideration of murder. Yes, j)ickpockets generally the world over
know each other, for there's a kind of free masonry among thieves. I
ean pick out a thief as quick as a pocket, whenever I see him.
TRACES AMONG GYl^IES, BRIGANDS AND THIBVES. 181
IHckpockets in any large city are generally well acquainted with
-each other, go visiting like or(]inary people, and liave their parties at
which times they generally " sink the shop," and except for an
occasional phrase you might not know their occupation. They help
iheir comrades in difficulty. They frequently meet with the burglars
bat do not associate with them, unless they join tlieni formally and
give up pockets. Most of the women of pickpockets and burglars are
shoplifters, as they often have to support themselves when their Ims-
hands are in prison. Then, too, a woman would not he considered a
Jielpmeet or fair, square mate for a man, unless she were able to
procure legal counsel for iiim whfri c;mght, and to keep him in clover
for a few days after he gets out of jirison, which she does by shop-
lifting or picking pnckels. I have associated a good deal with the
pick-pockets over London in different districts. You cannot easily cal-
culate their weekly income, as it is so precarious, jicrhaps one day get-
ting 20£ or 30£, and another day being totally unsuccessful. They are
in general very superatitious, and if anything cross them, they will do
nothing. If they see a person they have formerly robbed, they expect
bad luck, and will not attempt anything that day.
182 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
They are very generous in helping each other, when they get into
difficulty or trouble, but have no societies, as they could not be kept
up. Many of them may be in prison five or six months of the year;
some may get a long penal servitude, or transportation ; or they may
have the steel taken out of them, and give uj) this restless criminal life.
They do not generally find stealing gentlemen's watches so profita-
ble as picking la<lies' pockets, for this reason, that the purse can be
thrown away, some of the coins changed, and they may set to work
again immediately ; whereas, when they take a watch, they must go
immediately to the fence ^ with it ; it is not safe to keep it on their per-
son. A good silver watcli will now bring little more than 25s., or
30s., even if tlie watch has cost G£. A good gold watch will not fetch
above 4£. I have worked for two or three hours, and have got, per-
haps, six different purses during that time, throwing the purses away
at once, so that the rol)l>ery might not be traced. Suppose you take a
watch, and you place it in your pocket, while you have also your own
watch. If you hap|>en to bo detected you are searched, and there
being a second watch found on you, the evidence is complete.
The trouser8-]>ocljets are seldom picked, except in a crowd. It is
almost impossible to do this on any other occasion, such as when walk-
ing in the street. The cleverest of the native London thieves, in
general, are the Irish cockneys, that is, London children of Irish
])arenta£re.
I never learned any business or trade, and never did a hard day's
work in my life excej)t in prison. When men in my position take to an
honest employment, they are sometimes i)ointed out by some of the
police as having been formerly convicted thieves, and are often dis-
missed from service, and are driven back into criminal courses.
There is to some natures anjong us thieves, for we are not all alike,
a certain zest in our criminal life, an intense ple:isure in liberty because
we do not know how lont^ we may enjoy it. This cruel uncertaintv
strengthens very often the attachment between pickpockets and their
women, who, I believe, have a stronger liking to each other, in many
cases, than married ]>eople engaged in safer businesses.
Would I rather be honest than j)ick pockets? Yes, I think I would,
though occasionally, when I see a fine silk handkerchief gently bulging
out a gentleman's coat-tail-pocket, my fingers have a momentary twitch
and itch that carries me back on memory's express train to the days of
my boyhood when I slept in the dark arches of the Adelphi and was
the cleverest of my gang at "the tail."
Their tenu for a receiver of stolen ptxKi?*.
TBACBS AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 138
There is a language current amongst them that is to 1x3 met
with in no popular dictionary. Probably not even the "slang dic-
tionary*' contains more than a few of the following instances that
may be accepted as genuine. It will he seen that the prime essen-
tial of "Thieves' Latin" is brevity. By its use, much in one or
two words may be conveyed to a comrade wliile rapidly passing
him in the street, or, should opportunity serve, during a \'i8it to
him while in prison.
For instance, to erase the original name or numlxjr from a stolen
watch and substitute one that is fictitious is called christenhig
Jack. To take the works from one watch and case them in
another, churching Jack. Poultry' stealing is styled beak hunthig.
One who filches from a shopkeeper while j)i-etendin^ to effect an
honest purchase is a bouncer.
One who entices another to play a game at which cheating
rules, such as card or skittle sharping, is a butfoner. The treadmill
of a prison is named a shin scraper, possibly ou account of the
operator's liability, if he is not careful, to get his shins scraped
by the ever-revolving wheel.
To commit burglary is to crack a cane or break a drum. The
van that conveys prisoner to jail is a Black Maria. A thief
who robs cabs or caiTiages by climbing up Ix^hind, and cutting the
stra{)B that secure the luggage on the roof is a firaf/nman^ while
he who trains young thieves, like Fagiii in *M)liver Twist," is a
kidsman.
Breaking a square of gliuss is (!alled »tarring the glaze. To be
transported or sent to penal servitude is being Jagged. Tlii'ee
years' imprisonment is a stretchy while by some defect in thieves'
arithmetic a half stretch is only six months. A confederate in the
practice of thimble-rigging is a nobler. To rol) a till is to pinch
a hob.
One who assists at a sham street row for the purpose of creat-
ing a mob and promoting roblxjry from the person is a jolly. A
thief who secures goods in a shop while a confederate distracts
the attention of the shopkeeper is entitled a palmer. A person or
place marked for plunder is denominated a plant. Going out to
steal linen that is drying in gardens is picturesquely phrased
as going 9nowing. Stolen property generally is sicag. To go
184 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
about half naked to excite compassion is to be on the shallow.
Stealing lead from the roofs of houses is technically termed flying
the blue pigeon. Coiners of bad money are hit fakers^ while mid-
night prowlers who rob drunken men are facetiously nicknamed
Img hunters. Entering a dwelling-house while the family have
gone to church is a dead lark. When a man is convicted of
thieving he is in for a vamp. A city missionary or Scripture
reader is a gospel grinder. When hidden from the police a thief is
said to be laid up in lavender. Forged banknotes are queer screens.
To receive a whipping while in prison is called having scroby or
claws for breakfast. Long-fingered thieves, expert in emptying
ladies' pockets, are fine wirers. The condemned cell is the salt
box. The prison chaplain is rather aptly styled Lady Green. A
boy thief, lithe and thin and daring, such a one as house-breakers
hire for the purpose of entering a small window at the rear of
a dwelling-house, is a little snakesman.
So pertinaciously do the inliabitants of criminal colonies stick
to their "Latin," that a well-known Avriter suggests that special
religious tracts, suiting their condition, should be printed in this
language, as an almost certain method of securing their attention.
But if an acquaintance with the thieves' quarters reveals to one
the amazing subtlety and cleverness of the pilfering fraternity, it
also teaches the guilty fear, the wretchedness, the moral guilt, and
the fearful hardships that fall to the lot of the professional thief.
They are never safe for a moment, and this unceasing jeopardy
produces a constant nervousness. Sometimes when visiting the
sick, a minister who spent his life among them would gently lay
his hand on the shoulder of one, who happened to be standing in
the street. The man would "start like a guilty thing upon a
fearful summons," and it would take him two or three minutes
to recover his self-possession. The adage, "Suspicion always
haunts the guilty mind," is painfully illustrated in the thieves'
quarter by the faces of gray-haired criminals, whose hearts liave
been worn into hardness by the dishonoring chains of transpor-
tation. When, in the dusk, one speaks to a London thief in a
low tone, the guilty start as the man l^nds forward, anxiously
peering into the speaker's face, is a thing frightful to behold.
He is never at rest, the wretched professional thief. He goes
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BRIGANDS AND THIEVES. 135
about with the tools of war perpetually in his hands, and with
enemies in the front and the rear, to the right and the left of
him. "Anybody, to hear 'em talk," a thief once remarked (he
was a thief at that time in possession of liberty ; not an incar-
cerated rogue plying "gammon" as the incarcerated rogue loves
to ply it, for the sake of securing sympathy as a stepping-stone to
something else), "anybody would think to hear 'em talk, that it
was all sugar with us while we were free, and that our sufferin's
did not begin until we were caught and 'put awa:; Them that
think so know nothin' about it. Take a case, i)*> ^j, of a man who
is in for gettin' his livin' 'on tlie cross,' and wi^o luis got a 'kid'
or two, and their mother, at home. I don't ^.ay it is vvj cjise, but
you can take it so if you like. She isn't a thief. Ask her what
she knows about me and she'll tell you that, wuss luck, I've got
in CO. with some bad uns, and she wishes that I liadn't. She
wishes that I hadn't, p'r'aps, — not out of any Goody-two shoes
feelin', but because she loves me. That's the name of it; we
haint got any other word for the feelin' ; and slie can't bear to
think that I may, any hour, be dragged off for six montlis, or a
year, p'r'aps. And them's my feelin's too, and no mistake, day
after day, and Sundays as well as week days. She isn't fonder of
me than I am of her, I'll go bail for that; and as for the kids,
the girl especially, why, I'd skid a wagon Avhecl with my l>ody
rather than her precious skin should be grazed. WtOl, take my
word for it, I never go out in the morniir, and the young un sez
'good-by,' but what I think 'good-by, — yes I p'r'iips it's good-by
for a longer spell than you're dream in' about, you poor little
shaver!' And when I get out into the street, how long am I
safe? Why, only for the straight length of that street, as far as
I can see the coast clear. I may find a stopper at any turnin', or
at any corner. And when you r/o feel the hand on your collar I
I've often wondered what must be a eha})'s feelin's when the
white cap is pulled over his })eepers, and old Caleraft is j)awin'
about his throat to get the rope right. It must be a sight woi-se
than the other feelin', you'll say. Well, if it is, I wonder how
long the chap manages to hold up till he's let go! "
Many a thief is kept in reluctant bondage to crime from the
difficulties he finds in obtaining honest employment and earning
186 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
honest bread, yet some thieves are fond of their criminal calling.
They will tell you plainly that they do not intend to work hard
for five dollars a week when they can easily earn five times as
much by thieving, in less time, and live like gentlemen. But
some are utterly weaiy of the hazard and disgrace. They were
once pure, honest and industrious, and when sick, or in jail, they
are frequently filled with bitter remorse, and make the strongest
vows to have done with a guilty life.
Suppose a man of this sort in jnison. His eyes are opened,
and he sees before him the gulf of utter ruin into which he will
soon be plunged. He knows well enough that the money earned
by thieving goes as ftist as it comes, and that there is no prospect
of his ever being able to retire on his ill-gotten gains. He comes
out of prison det^jrmined to reform. But where is he to go?
What is lie to do? How is he to live? Whatever may have
been done for him in prison is of little or no avail, if as soon iis
he leaves the jail he must go into the world branded with crime,
unprotected and unhelped.
The discharged prisoner must be friendly with some one, and
he must live. His criminal friends will entertain him on the
understood condition that they are to be repaid from the Ix)oty of
his next depredation. Thus the first food he eats, and the firet
friendly chat he has, lK»conie the half-necessitating initiative of
future crime. Frequently the newly discharged prisoner passes
through a round of riot and drunkenness immediately on his
i-elease from a long incareeratioi), as any other man might do in
similar circumstances who has no fixed principles to sustain him.
And so ])y reason of the rebound of newly fioquired lil)erty, and
the influence of the old set, the man is agiiin demoralized.
The discharged prisoner may leave jail with good resolves but
the moment he enters the world there arises before him the dark
and specti*al danger of l)eing hunted down by the police, of
l^eing recognized and insulted, of being shunned and despised
by his fellow-workmen, of being everywhere contemned and
forsaken.
One cannot live amongst the thieves many months and study
them closely, without discovering the fa till fact that they have
no faith in the sincerity, honesty, or goodness of human nature ;
TRACES AMONG GYPSIES, BKIGANDS AND THIEVES. 187
and that this last and saddest scepticism of the human heart
is one of the most powerful influences at work in the continua-
tion of crime. They believe people in general to be no better
than themselves, and that most people will do a wrong thing if
it serves their purpose. They consider themselves better than
many "square" people who practise commercial frauds, and in
this point, perhaps, they are nearly right.
Not having a spark of faith in human nature, their case is all
but hopeless, and only those who have tried the experiment can
tell liow difficult it is to make a thief believe that you are really
disinterested and mean him well. But thieves, the worst of
them, speak gloomily of the prospects of the fraternity, just as a
red Indian might complain of the dwindling of his tribe I^efore
the strong march of advancing civilization.
Although, as most people are aware, the great thief tribe
reckons amongst its number an upper, a middle and a lower
class, pretty much as corresponding grades of station are recog-
nized amongst the honest community, it is doubtful, in the former
case, if promotion from one stage to another may be gained by
individual entei-prise, talent and industry. The literature of *
the country is from time to time enriched by bragging autobiogra-
phies of confessed villains, as well as by tlie penitent revelations
of reclaimed rogues, but it does not appear tliat pei*severance in
the humbler walks of crime leads to the highway of infamous
prosperity.
This, indeed, seems to be an idea too preposterous even for
the pages of Newgate romance, daring in their flights of fancy as
are the authors affecting that delectable line. There is no sinister
antithesis of the well-known honest boy Whittington, who tramped
from Bristol to London with twopence-halfpenny, or five cents, in
his pocket, and afterwards became lord mayor. No low-browed
ragged little tliief, who began his career by purloining a turnip
from a costemionger's barrow, is immortalized in the pages of the
Newgate Calendar as having finally arrived at the high distinc-
tion of wearing fine clothes and ranking as the first of swell
mobsmen, or as a brilliant and fashionable burglar.
On the contrary it is a fatal fact, and should have weight with
aspirants for the convict's mask and badge, that the poor, shabby,
188 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
hard-working thief so remains till tlie end of his days. There is
no more chance of his carrying his shameful figure and miserable
hangdog visage into the tip-top society of his order, than there is
of a camel threading his way through the eye of a needle or a Jay
Gould repenting and restoring his legalized plunder to the people.
Shocking enough is it to contemplate the white-haired tottering
criminal holding on to the front of the dock 'because he dares not
trust entirely his quaking legs, and with no more to urge in his
defence than Fagin liad when it came to the last, — " an old man,
my lord, a very old man" ; and we give him our pity ungrudg-
ingly, because we are no longer troubled with fears of his hos-
tility as regards the present or the future. It is all over with
him or very nearly. The grave yawns for him, and we cannot
help feeling that after all he has hurt himself much more than us.
No, it is not those who have run the length of their tether
of crime that society has to fear, but those who by reason of their
tender age are as yet but feeble toddlera on the road that leads
to the hulks. It would \)e instructive iis well as of great ser-
vice to humanity, if reliable infonnation could be obtiiined as
to the beginning ct tlie down-hill journey by our juvenile
criminals. Without doubt it would l>e found that in a lament-
ably large numlxir of cases the iK^ginning did not arise in the
present transgressoi-s at all, but that they were bred and nurtured
in it, inheriting it from their parents as certain forms of phys-
ical disease are inlierited.
One tiling, at least, is certain ; it would come much cheaper to
every country if these Inidding burglai's and pickpockets were
caught up, Ixjfore their natures l^ecame too thoroughly pickled in
the brine of rascality, and caged away from the community at
large. Boy thieves are the most mischievous and wasteful.
They will mount a house roof, and for the sake of appropriating
the thirty cents' worth of lead that forms its gutter, cause such
damasfe as only a builder's bill of a hundred dollars or so will set
right.
The other day a boy stole a family Bible valued at twelve dol-
lai-s, and after wrenching off the gilt clasps, threw the book into
a sewer; the clas[)s he sold to a marine store dealer for five cents.
It may be fairly assumed in the ciuse of boy thieves, who are so
TBAOE8 AMONQ GTPBrES, BRIGANDS AND IHIBVXS. 189
completely in the hands of others that, before they can " make "
ior themselves five dollars in cash, they must, as a rule, steal
goods to the value of at least forty dollars, and sometimes double
as much. But let us put the loss by exchange at its lowest, and
say that the hoy thief gets a fourth of the value of what he steals;
before he can earn by Odeving as umch as fifty cents a day, he must
rob to the amount of twelve dollars a week, — allowing him his
Sunda^-3 off — or, in short, to live as decently as our common
laborers, the hoy must steal to the value of $624 per annum.
Now, whatever less aura than this it would cost the State to edu-
cate, clothe and teach him, the [>eople
at large would be in pocket.
Yet infinitely worse in its conse-
quences than the \yetty larceny or the
burglaiy thsit are the precarious profes-
sions of outlawed unfortunates Ja our
great cities is the theft which goes on
right under the noses of neiirly every
community in the "way of commerce;
the theft, and sometimes slow munler,
which is called adultei-ation of fond.
Possibly this commen;ial robbery is not
so common in this country as in Enfj-
land, but there is good ground for
believing that in many places adulter-
ation is sj-stematic and inerciisiiig, and
recently a bill has been introduced in Congi-ess for an extension
of the Bureau of Agriculture by tlie appointment of fiwid in-
spectors, whose duties should be the buying of foml in ilifferent
shoiM, and the having such specimens chemically analyzed.
In addition to the fact that bad bread niadi; by private enter-
prise sa^js the national health, chithing made in tenement houses
spreads fevere, and the jiiMnly built, imperfectly ventilated houses
in which the jwior and the lower middle class live cause diseases
ht>m which occasionally the rich die as well jw the \Mor ^-ictima
of plutocratic greed or stupidity. We shall read in a laterchapter
about the Ju^emaut o£ India, but it is merely a toy monster com-
pared to the Jug^niaut of Avarice and Ignorance, under whose
140 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
wheels the masses are being crushed in many nations that have
the amazing effrontery to call themselves civilized. Even in free
and supposedly prosperous America between the years 1850 and
1880, the percentage of criminals more than trebled, and the
percentage of lunatics more than quadrupled. Does not this fact
seem to imply that there is something wrong somewhere in our
present industrial system? Why, in a land so blessed by nature,
should such cui-ses as these be on the increase? Will the reader
study for a few moments these figures and facts from the last
census, and then draw a just conclusion? Our population is
alKmt 04,000,000. Our national wealth is about $65,000,000,000
— sixtv-five billions.
This wealth is divided among three cliisses as foUo'vs :
182,000 rich families own $43,000,000,000
l,20f),000 middUsclass familieK own . . 7,500,000,000
11,(520,000 working-class families own . . 11,200,000,000
Allowing five i)ei*sons to a family, the usual method amor^g
stiitisticuans, each rich pei-son averages a having of $47,253, each
middle class man or woman owns on an average $1,250, and each
meml)er of the toiling legion which composes the bulk of the
poj)ulation and produces the bulk of the wealth, possesses $193.
These figures and calculations are not those of any wild-eyed,
wide-mouthed demagogue, but are put forth by Mr. Thomas G.
Sheannan, a New York millionnaire. What do they mean? Do
the}' not suggest a reasonable cause for the spread of pauperism,
the rise of crime and the possibly near fall of our civilization, as
many a si)lendid but unbalanced society has fallen — witness
Kabylon, Athens, and Home I — into corruption and chaos?
Wlmtever politicians of any party may say, national wealth is
not national health, unless it is well distributed. Let the reader
ask himself not once, in reading these lines, but often in the
future, two questions : Is there not something wrong somewhere,
no matter how personally prosperous or successful I, juM this
momf'jit, miy ba; and is not "this wrong something" our present
industrial system which enriches the few at the expense of the
many ?
IV.
THE kind of government of which the eliief idea is em-
bodied in the word feudalism, imd which w^as once
the prevalent form in Eiiroi)e, as we see it to-day in
Central and Western Africa, presents many features of
intense interest. Iloughly speaking, it is a government of chiefs
witli a sort of loose or elastic allegiance to a liead chief or king.
European feudalism gi*ew to be a much more elaborate system
than that which Africa now exhibits, and an explanation of it will
be found in a note to the chapter on constitutional monarchy ; but
the essential marks are the same, the deg-ree of alleuriance to the
central chief, that is, the power possessed by the king, varying
considerably among the different tribes, probably according to the
length of time of their divergence from the sim[)le democracy of
original tribal government as outlined in chapter first.
All the Central Afric!an governments, for instance, though
feudal, are more or less despotic. Among tluj Manganja the
country is divided up into a number of districts, each of which
has under its control some villages; but each of these districts, or
"Rundos," as they are called, is independent of the other, not
even acknowledging a common chief. Each village pays tribute
to the Rundo, which in its turn protects and assists it in time of
trouble. In fact, the system is not unlike that of the Swiss can-
141
142 THK STOKY OF GOVEKNMENT,
tons, or the American states; "state riglits," however, being i-ather
further advanced in the Black-kingly Republic than in the
European or Transatlantic democratic one. A woman may also
be chief of a Rundo, and they are said to exercise their authority
veiy judiciously.
The Banyai, a trilxi on the southern bank of the Zambesi, elect
their chiefs, but always out of ^ne famil}', though they never select
the immediate descendants ot the late monarch, but always some
relative, sucli as a nephew or brother. It is ficcounted etiquette
for the newl}' elected chief to affect an air of modesty, and a seem-
ing desire to decline the i)roflfered honoi-s as too great for a man
of his rank, ability and ambition. In fact, he expects to be
"thrice," or a greater numl)er of times, offered the "kingly
crown " ; but, unlike his Roman prototype, there is no case on
record in which the honor was eventuall}' refused.
The new chief not only inherits the property, but also the
wives and children of his predecessoi-s, though often one of the
sons of the former chief considei-s, quite mituiully, that he is not
to be kept iii su])servienct) to tlie new monai-ch, and attempts to
set up as a i)etty chief for himself, an attempt whicli generally
results in his having his village burnt alxmt his eai-s, Jis a gentle
hint that he had better receive liis superior in a proj>er man-
ner— viz., by clapping of hands, the common method of salutii-
tion amont^ most of these African tril)es.
Among tlie lianyai it is the custom for wealthy men to send
their sons to be educated, under some man of eminence, in all
the duties and accomplishments of Banyai gentlemen, just as in
former times in Europe the sons of gentlemen were sent as pages
and escpiires to be trained in the laws of cliivahy under some
jmissant knight.
Among the Wahunuis a cuiious law ])ie vails. If anyone
becomes a slave — whicli it is uiniecessary to say is always an
involuntiiry act — he or she is ])ut to deatli when caught again by
their own people, becaust? b}' so doing they have broken one of the
laws of their country. Speke witnessed an instance in which
some women were actually put to death b}^ their own husbands.
Theft is generally severely punished in Africa, if it is committed
on any of their own tribe. The Karagues punish this crime with
144 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
imprisonment in the stocks, often for months at a time. Let a
man strike another with a stick, and he can expiate the offence
by paying ten goats ; but if a spear, or any other deadly weapon
is used, then he is deprived of all his property — one half of the
forfeit going to the crown, the other to the person assaulted.
In case of murder, the entire goods of the murderer are for-
feited to the relatives of the slain. The laws against adultery
are curiously at once both lax and severe. If a wife offend, she
only loses an ear; if a slave, or the daughter of the chief, is the
guilty party, both she and her paramour are executed.
Among some tribes a man is very severely punished for hurting
his wife, as our striking illustration shows, where two wife-beat^rs
are dealt with in no ordinary way, but are whipped till the blood
runs. The old crone is telling the culprit who is bound and
waiting his turn what an artistic flagellation he is going to
receive.
Indeed, women in Central Africa are l)etter trea,ted than gen-
erally among barbarians. Among the Banyai the wife is the
husband's equal. Tlie husband not only regards her with pro-
found respect, but is expected to consult her before concluding
any bargain, and to let her know his most private business
transactions. The women even do business on their own account,
and visit distant towns to effect commercial transactions for their
husbands.
Unlike many women who attempt business, they can S3e that
there are two sides to a bargain. The Banyai system of mamage
is quite in keeping with this region of the strong-minded woman.
Among them there is none of the barter of cows for wives as else-
where.
The bridegroom goes humbly to live at the house of his
father-in-law and meekly submits to be bullied and ordered alxiut
by his mother-in-law, not a more amiable lady than usual, probii-
bly. He has to carry water, cut wood, and altogether demean
himself as becomes his position in life. If lie objects to this
arrangement he may leave, but his wife and children must remain,
unless he can pay as much as will compensate the wife's parents
for the loss of her services.
In unpleasant contrast with this supremacy of woman, let us
FEUDALISTIG MONARCHY. 145
look at Uganda, where she is taught her place with the sharp
logic of the rod. A special Icind of whip made of plaited strips
of hippopotamus hide, with hard, sharp, horny edges, which cut
into the flesh at every stroke, is reserved for the administration
of wifely chastisement. Killing a wife, or a few wives at a time,
is a mere trifle in Uganda. Polygamy is the universal custom.
The King of Uganda has seven thousand women in his palace.^
Often thirty or forty girls will be offered him in a single morning
as brides. If he orders them to fall upon their knees, and
embraces them, then the ceremony of marriage is complete,
the fortunate damsels are received into the number of his wives,
and the parents prostrate themselves before their sovereign,
ejaculating the word ''N'yanz" (thanks) repeatedly, in such
a manner that the ceremony of thanking the sovereign for any
favor is described by those travellers who have visited the Uganda
court as "n'yanzigging." Koffee, the late King of Ashanti, is
said to have had 3,333 wives.
The M angan ja looks upon the burial places of his race as sacred,
and keeps the graves neatly. They are arranged north and south,
and on the surface are laid the implements which the sleeper
beneath used during life.
As amongst the North American Indians these tools are broken
perhaps to prevent their being stolen by irreverent marauders of
their own or other tribes. By the nature of the implements the
passerby can thus tell the occupation, sex, or rank of the dead.
As mourning, the relatives wear strips of palm tied round their
heads, necks, breasts, arms, and legs, and allow them to remain
lutil decay, and the wear and tear to which they are subject, cause
them to drop off.
In other tribes — among the Karague people, for example —
the place and mode of a man's burial are regulated by his rank.
If low, his body is sunk in the lake near which tliey live;
but if of noble caste (or as he is styled, a " Wahuma "), then a
sacred island is the place of its deposit, and the vicinity of the
place of sepulture marked by the symbol of two sticks, tied to a
iThls Is probably a groBS exaggeration, due partly to the desire of the King to Impress
stimngers with his great power and pomp as a hnsband and paitly to the savage inability to
flgnvB oonectly beyobd a certain namber.
144 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
imprisoDment in the stocks, often for months at a time. Let a
man strike another with a stick, and he can expiiite the offence
by paying ten goats ; but if a spear, or any other deadly weapon
is used, then he is deprived of all his property — one half of the
forfeit going to the crown, the other to the j>erson assaulted.
In case of murder, the entire goods of the munlerer are for-
feited to the relatives of the slain. The laws against adulterj-
are curiously at once both lax and severe. It a wife offend, she
only loses an ear; if a slave, or the daughter of the chief, is the
guilty party, hoth she and her paramour are executed.
Among some tribes a man is very severely puiiished for hurting
his wife, as our striking illustration shows, where two wife-beat«rs
are dealt with in no ordinary way, but are whipped till the blood
runs. The old crone is telling the culprit who is bound and
waiting his turn what an artistic flagellation he is going to
receive.
Indeed, women in Central Africa are better treajed than gen-
erally among barbarians. Among the Banyai the wife is tlie
husband's equal. Tlie husband not only regards her with pi-o-
found respect, but is expected to consult her before concluding
any bargain, and to let her know his most private business
transactions. The women even do business on their own account,
and visit distant towns to effect commen:ial transactions for their
husbiinds.
Unlike many women who attempt business, they can see that i
there are two sides t>i ;i bitrgain. The Banyai system of mari'iage i
is quite in keeping uitb this region of the strong-minded wommi. j
Among them there is none of the barter of cows for wives as else-
where.
The bridegroom goes humbly lo live at the
father-in-law and meekly submita to be bullied B
by his mother-in-law, not a more amiable Uiiy.%
hly. He has to carry wattr, iiit wood, auflj
himself as becomes Lis [»
arrangement he may leave, buth
unless he can pay as mtiol^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^
for the loss of her ae
In unpleasant c
146 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
stone, lying across the pathway. No one seeing this mark would
dare to go along the holy path ; at any inconvenience he would
turn aside to I'eacli his destination.
Tlie kings are buried like the nobles, Imt with this addition,
that their l)odies are fiist roixsted for a month, until they are like
sun-dried meat, when tlie lower jaw is cut off, preseived, and
covered with beads. The royal tombs are put under the charge
of special officei-s who occupy huts erected over them.
On the death of any of the great ofticei-s of state, the finger-
lK)nes and hair are also preserved; or, if tliey died shaven, as
sometimes occui-s, a bit of tlieir "mbiigu " dress will be preserved
in place of the liair. Their families guard their tombs. Among the
Wanyoro the dead are buried — the men on the left, the women
on the right of the door.
The Bari bury their dead within the enclosure of their kraal or
homestead, the grave being marked with poles, on whicli are luing
skulls and bonis of cattle, and the top decorated with a tuft of
cocks' feathei's, tlie national "crest" or distinction of a memljer
of that tribe, and which they wear on their heads during life.
The Musgu, one of the rather more civilized African races, are
singular in this respect, that they erect mounds with urns over
their dead, a custom which obtained extensive popularity among
the primitive races of Europe and other countries.
Among the Bongo, soon as life is extinct, the corj)ses are
placed in a crouching j)osture, with the knees forced up to
the chin, and are firmly l)ound round the head and legs. Then,
after the body has been thus compressed into the smallest
possible comj^ass, it is sewn into a sack made of skins, and placed
in a deep grave. A shaft is then sunk perpendicularly about four
feet, and a niche hollowed in the side, so that the bag containing
the corpse should not Iiave to sustain any vertical pressure from
the earth which is thrown in to fill up the grave.
The Bongo have the striking custom of bur}^ing men with the
face turned to the north and women to the south. After the
gmve is filled in, a heap of stones is piled over the spot in a short
cylindrical fonn, and this is supj)Oii:ed by strong stakes, which are
driven into the soil all i-ound. A i)itcher or urn is placed on the
middle of the pile, and the graves are always close to the huts,
FKUDALISTIC MONAliCHY. 147
their site being marked by a number of long forked branches,
carved, by way of ornament, with numerous notc;hes and incisions,
and having their points sharpened like horns.
The typical meaning of these stakes is unknown even to the
natives, the assertion made by tlie traders, that each notch denotes
an enemy killed in biittle by the deceased, being denied by the
Bongo theuLselves. The neiglil)oring Mittoo and Madi adopt a
similar style of sepultiu"e, and the memorial urns erected over tlie
graves of the Musgu remind the traveller of the pitchei"s on tlio?;e
of the Bongo.
When a funeral takes place, all the neiglilx)!^^ attend, and after
being freely entertained with native beer, help to form the grave,
rear the memorial urn, and erect the votive stakes. When the
ceremony is finished, they shoot at the stakes with arrows, which
they leave sticking in the wood.
The Ddre, or Dyooi*s, of the White Nile arniuge their graves
close to their houses, and mark them bv a (drcular mound three or
four feet high, which in a few yeai-s is obliterated by the tropical
rains, and is not renewed.
Among the cannilml Niam-Niam grief, as is frequent among the
African and other trilx?s, is denoted by shaving the head. The
corpse is ordinarily dyed with red wood and adorned with fine
skins and feathers. Men of rank, after l^eiiig attired with their
common aprons, are interred either sitting on their benches or ai*e
enclosed in a kind of coffin made from a hollow tree.
Like the Bongo, the Niam-Xiam bury their dead with a scrupu-
lous regaid to the points of the compass ; but commonly enough
they reverse the iiile of the fonner tribe, the men I)eing deposited
with their faces towaixls the east, the women towards the west.
After the grave has been well stamped down, a hut is erected
over it, though, owing to its fragile character, it rarely long
survives the weather or the annual burning of the steppe
pasture.
. A Wagogo chief, on dying, is washed, and his cori)se placed in
an upright jKwition in a hollow tree, to which the people come
daily to mourn and pour l)eer and ashes on the corpse, indulging
themselves meanwhile in a kind of wake. This ritual goes on
until the body is thoroughly decomposed, when it is placed on
148 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
a platform and exposed to the effects of the weather, that speedily
reduces it to a heap of bones — which ai-e then duly buried.
At one time slaves were sacrificed to heighten the dignity of such
occasions ; but in marked conti-ast with the elaborate rites attend-
ing a great man's sepulture, the bodies of commonei's are thrown
into the nearest jungle to be devoured by beasts of the field and
fowls of the air.
Among some tribes the first step taken when a king expires is
to divert the course of a stream, and to dig an enormous pit in its
bed. This cavern is then lined with living women. At one end
a woman is placed on her liands and knees, and upon lier back the
corpse of the dead king, covered witli l>eads and other ornaments,
is seated, supported on each side by one of his wives, while his
second wife sits at his feet.
The earth is then shovelled in over living and dead alike, all
the women being buried alive except tlie second wife, who is
graciously permitted the privilege of being slaughtered, instead,
before the huge grave is filled in. Finally, forty or fifty slaves
are killed, and their blood poured over the sepulchi-e, after which
the river is allowed to resume its course.
A pitiable sight is the di-agging of a king's wives to his
funeral. They are generally stolid as cattle driven to the
shambles, but in our illustration one can ])e noticed making an
eloquent, though vain, appeal to a former sweetheart in the crowd
to attempt her rescue. The man would like to, but he does not
dare : the superstition of royalty is too strong.
It is said that as many as a hundred women have been buried
with one great chief or king, though smaller men have to be sent
to their long home with only two or three, and their gi-aves
drenched with the blood of as many slaves, while the vulgar herd
have to be content with solitary sepulture, the corpse being placed
in a sitting posture, with the right forefinger pointing heaven-
wards, just level with the top of the mound over his grave.
Eating, smoking, sleeping, fighting, dancing, gambling a little,
and wrestling, may l^e said to form in outline tlie list of a Cen-
tral African's amusementii. Wrestling is about the only manly
sport tliey care for, as hunting and fishing are their daily occupa-
tions, and thei*efore cannot be looked upon as amusements.
150 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Wrestling, however, is only practised among tlie moi-e civilized
races, such as tlie Birghami. So keenly do they contest in tliis,
that it is not an unfrequent occurrence for one of the contestants
to be left dead on the ground. Great men among this people will
keep in their pay, or as slaves, powerful wrestlei-s, on whose
prowess they highly pride themselves. A Avrestler once beaten is
looked upon as no good, and, if a slave, would l)e sold for a mei-e
fraction of the ])rice he was valued at before meeting with this
i*everse of fortune.
In addition, all tlie Birghami, particularly the women, are good
dancers, being active and yet gi-aceful in all their movements.
Their dancing is a sort of acting in dumb show, and all the while
they keep up a low plaintive song, which adds wondrously to the
pleasant impression the scene makes on the onlooker. Music and
dancing are passions throughout Africa.
Fighting, in a more or less disciplined manner, either to avenge
some old feud, some recent wrong, or simply for the sake of plun-
dering the cattle and other property of the weaker tribes, or to
capture them for slaves, is to a great extent the normal state of
most Cent ml African kingdoms.
In dress and general appeamnce, the chief object of the African
warriors seems to be to strike teiTor into the l)eholdei's. Want of
courage is not a failing that can iLsually be ascribed to a savage,
though a display of bravery, unless attended with a corresponding
success, does not seem to be valued ; nor, on the other liand, is a
coward so despised as among civilized nations.
A monarch who "showed the white feather" in Europe, or even
among the semi-civilized pe()2)le of Asiti, would forever incur the
contempt of the meanest of his subjects. Not so in Africa,
apparently. The kingdom of Unyoi-o, ruled by Kamrasi, was
threatened with inviusion. Instead of the king pre^mring to defend
his kingdom as well as he could, his own brother counselled him
to take refuge in flight.
Though fond of display and practical braggadocio — in this
respect l)eing not unlike the Chinese — yet, on occasion, the Cen-
tral Africans have shown themselves, even in warfare against the
Amb slavc-robl)ei's, a far from unworthy enemy — desperation giving
them the courage and force which they might not naturally possess.
PEDDAilSTIC MONARCHY.
151
Of war as a science they know nothing. Indeed, they resort
to most unstrategic methods of going about it — such, for
instance, as the ridiculous Iiabit of the Latookas in sounding a
drum — or nogara — before attacking a village, which can but
give the enemy warning of the intended onslaught.
Captives in %var are usually reserved for slaves. Among the
D6r tribes of the White Nile, the bleached skulls of slain foemen
)eman'k head.
are suspended to the branches of a great tree in the oi>en spai-e of
the village, under which the huge nogaras, iir war-drums, are
placed to be ready for sounding as occasiun may ie<[uiri;. Tlie
I'onciusionof a successful fight is celebnt ted with a wild war-dance,
iliffering but little in general chanicter from those so common
among other savages after their murdemus foiiij-s, except that as
in our illustration of ;i double rain-storm tbey sometimes make a
142 THE STOUY OF GOVEliNMENT.
tons, or the American states; ''state rights," however, being mther
further advanced in the Black-kingly Republic than in the
European or Tmnsatlantic democratic one. A woman may also
be chief of a Rundo, and they are said to exercise their authority
veiy judiciously.
The Banyai, a tribe on the southern bank of the Zambesi, elect
their chiefs, but always out of '^ne fanuly, though they never select
the immediate descendants ot the late monarch, but always some
relative, such as a nephew or brother. It is Jiccounted etiquette
for the newly elected chief to affect an air of modesty, and a seem-
ing desire to decline the proffered honoi's jis too great for a man
of his rank, ability and ambition. In fact, he ex2)ects to l>e
"thrice," or a greater numl)er of times, offered the '"kingly
crown " ; but, unlike liis Roman prototype, there is no ca«e on
record in which the lionor was eventually refused.
Tlie new chief not only inherits the property, but also the
wives and children of his predeccssoi-s, though often one of tlie
sons of the former chief considei's, quite naturally, that he is not
to be kept in subservience to the new monarch, and attempts to
set up as a petty chief for himself, an attempt which generally
results in his having his village burnt alnnit his ears, as a gentle
hint that he had better receive liis superior in a projjer man-
ner— viz., by clapping of hands, the connnon method of saluta-
tion among most of these African tril)es.
Among the Banyai it is the custom for wealthy men to send
their sons to be educated, under some man of eminence, in all
tlie duties and accjomplishments of Banyai gentlemen, just as in
former times in P2ui*ope the sons of gentlemen were sent as pages
and escpiires to be trained in the laws of t:liivalry under some
puissant knight.
Among the Wahunuis a cm-ions law pievails. If anyone
becomes a slave — Avhicli it is inniecessaiy to say is always an
involuntary act — he or she is put to death when caught again by
their own people, because by so doing they have broken one of the
laws of their country. Speke witnessed an instanc^e in which
some women were actually put to death by their own husbands.
Theft is generally severely punished in Africa, if it is committed
on any of their own tribe. The Karagues punish this crime with
144 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
imprisonment in the stocks, often for months at a time. Let a
man strike another with a stick, and he can expiate the offence
by paying ten goats; but if a spear, or any other deadly weapon
is used, then he is deprived of all his property — one half of the
forfeit going to the crown, the other to the person assaulted.
In case of murder, the entire goods of the murderer are for-
feited to the relatives of the slain. The laws against adulteiy
are curiously at once both lax and severe. If a wife offend, she
only loses an ear; if a slave, or the daughter of the chief, is the
guilty party, both she and her paramour are executed.
Among some tribes a man is very severely punished for hurting
his wife, as our striking illustration shows, where two wife-beaters
are dealt with in no ordinary way, but are whipped till the blood
runs. The old crone is telling the culprit who is bound and
waiting his turn what an artistic flagellation he is going to
receive.
Indeed, women in Central Africa are better trea^d than gen-
erally among barbiirians. Among the Banyai the wife is the
husband's equal. Tlie husband not only regards her with pro-
found respect, but is expected to consult her before concluding
any bargain, and to let her know his most private business
transactions. The women even do business on their own account,
and visit distant towns to effect commercial transactions for their
husbands.
Unlike many women who attempt basiness, they can S3e that
there are two sides to a bargain. The Banyai system of marriage
is quite in keeping with this region of the strong-minded woman.
Among them there is none of the barter of cows for wives as else-
where.
The bridegroom goes humbly to live at the house of his
father-in-law and meekly submits to l)e bullied and ordered about
by his mother-in-law, not a more amiable lady than usual, pi'oba-
bly. He has to carry water, cut wood, and altogether demean
himself as becomes his position in life. If he objects to this
arrangement he may leave, but his wife and children must remain,
unless he can pay as much as will compensate the wife's parents
for the loss of her services.
In unpleasant contrast with this supremacy of woman, let us
FEUDALISTIC MONARCHY. 145
look at Uganda, where she is taught her place with the sharp
logic of the rod. A special Icind of whip made of plaited strips
of hippopotamus hide, with hard, sharp, horny edges, which cut
into the flesh at everj'- stroke, is reserved for the administration
of wifely chastisement. Killing a wife, or a few wives at a time,
is a mere trifle in Uganda. Polygamy is the imiversal custom.
The King of Uganda has seven thousand women in his palace.^
Often thirty or forty girls will be offered him in a single morning
as brides. If he orders them to fall upon their knees, and
embraces them, then the ceremony of marriage is complete,
the fortunate damsels are received into the number of liis wives,
and the parents prostrate themselves before their sovereign,
ejaculating the word "N'yanz" (thanks) repeatedly, in such
a manner that the ceremony of thanking the sovereign for any
favor is described by those travellers who have visited the Uganda
court as "n'yanzigging." Koffee, the late King of Ashanti, is
said to have had 3,333 wives.
The Manganja looks upon the burial places of his race as sacred,
and keeps the graves neatly. They are arranged north and south,
and on the surface are laid the implements which the sleeper
beneath used during life.
As amongst the North American Indians these tools are broken
perhaps to prevent their being stolen by irreverent marauders of
their own or other tribes. By the nature of the implements the
passerby can thus tell the occupation, sex, or rank of the dead.
As mourning, the relatives wear strips of j)alm tied round their
heads, necks, breasts, arms, and legs, and allow them to remain
until decay, and the wear and tear to which they are subject, cause
them to drop off.
In other tribes — among the Karague people, for example —
the place and mode of a man's burial are regulated by liis rank.
If low, his body is sunk in the lake near which they live;
but if of noble caste (or as he is styled, a " Wahuma "), then a
sacred island is the place of its deposit, and the vicinity of the
place of sepulture marked by the symbol of two sticks, tied to a
^Thit is probably a gross exaggeration, due partly to the desire of the King to impress
strangers with his great po-vrer and pomp as a husband and pai tly to the savage inability to
figure oorvBOtly beyoiid a certain number.
146 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
stone, lying aci-oss the pathway. No one seeing tliis mark would
dare to go along the holy path ; at any inconvenience he would
turn aside to reach his destination.
The kings are bmied like the nobles, but with this addition,
that their bodies are fii"st roasted for a month, until they are like
sun-dried meat, when the lower jaw is cut off, preseived, and
covered with beads. The royal tombs are put under the charge
of special officei"s who occupy huts erected over tliem.
On the deatli of any of the great oflicei-s of state, the finger-
bones and hair are also preserved; or, if they died shaven, as
sometimes occui-s, a bit of their *' mbiigu " dress will be preserved
in place of the hair. Their families guard their tombs. Among the
Wanyoro the dead are buried — the men on the left, the women
on the right of the door.
The Bari buiy their dead within the enclosure of their kraal or
homestead, the grave being marked with poles, on which are liung
skulls and bonis of cattle, and tlie top decorated with a tuft of
cocks' feathei's, the national " crest " or distinction of a member
of that tribe, and which they wear on their heads during life.
The Musgu, one of the i-ather more civilized African races, are
singular in this respect, that they erect mounds with urns over
their dead, a custom which obtained extensive popularity among
the primitive races of Europe and other countries.
Among the Bongo, soon as life is extinct, the corj>ses arc
placed in a crouching postiu-e, ^vith the knees forced up to
the chin, and are firmly l)ound ix)und the head and legs. Then,
after the body has been thus compressed into the smallest
possible compass, it is sewn into a sack made of skins, and placed
in a deej) grave. A shaft is then sunk perpendicularly about four
feet, and a niche hollowed in the side, so that the bag containing
the corpse should not have to sustiiin any vertical pressure from
the eaith which is thrown in to fill up the grave.
The Bongo have the striking custom of burying men with the
face turned to the noith and women to the south. After the
gmve is filled in, a heap of stones is piled over the spot in a short
cylindrical foi-m, and this is supported by strong stakes, which are
driven into the soil all round. A pitcher or urn is placed on the
middle of the pile, and the graves rae always close to the huts,
FEUDAUSTIC IHONARCHY. 147
their site being marked by a number of long forked branches,
carved, by way of ornament, with numerous notches and incisions,
and having their points sharpened like horns.
The typical meaning of these stakes is unknown even to the
natives, the assertion made by the tmders, that each notc'h denotes
an enemy killed in battle by the deceased, being denied by the
Bongo themselves. The neighlx)riiig Mittoo and Madi adopt a
similar style of sepultui-e, and the memorial urns ei-ectcd over the
graves of the Musgu i*emind the tniveller of the j)itchei*s on those
of the Bongo.
When a funeral tiikes place, all the neighlK^i-s attend, and after
being freely enteitained with native beer, help to form the gitive,
rear the memorial lU'n, and erect the votive stakes. When the
ceremony is finished, they shoot at the stakes with arrows, which
they leave sticking in the wood.
The D6rs, or Dyooi-s, of the White Nile arrange their graves
close to their houses, and mark them by a circular mound three or
four feet liigh, which in a few yeai-s is obliterated by the tropical
rains, and is not renewed.
Among the cannikil Niam-Niam grief, us is frequent among the
African and other tril)es, is denoted by shaving the head. The
corpse is ordinarily dyed with red wood and adorned with fine
skins and feathers. Men of rank, after being attired with their
common aprons, are interred either sitting on their Ix^nehes or are
enclosed in a kind of coffin made from a hollow tree.
Like the Bongo, the Niam-Niam bury their decad with a scrupu-
lous regard to the points of the compass ; but commonly enough
they reverse the rule of the former tribe, the men being de£X)sited
with their faces towaitls the east, the women towards the west.
After the grnve has been well stamped down, a hut is erected
over it, though, owing to its fmgile chai-acter, it rarely long
survives the weather or the annual burning of the steppe
pasture.
. A Wagogo chief, on dying, is washed, and his coi-pse i)laced in
an upriglit jHwition in a hollow tree, to which the i)eople come
daily to mourn and pour beer and ashes on the corpse, indulging
themselves meanwhile in a kind of wake. This ritual goes on
until the body is thoroughly decomposed, when it is placed on
148 THE STOBY OF GOVBRKMENT.
a platform and exposed to the effects of the weather, that speedily
reduces it to a heap of bones — which are then duly buried.
At one time slaves were sacrificed to heighten the dignity of such
occasions; but in marked contrast with the elaborate rites attend-
ing a great man's sepulture, the bodies of commoners are thro^vn
into the nearest jungle to be devoured by beasts of the field and
fowls of the air.
Among some tribes the first step taken when a king expires is
to divert the course of a stream, and to dig an enormous pit in its
bed. Tliis caveni is then lined with living women. At one end
a woman is placed on her liands and knees, and upon her back the
corpse of the dead king, covered with beads and other ornaments,
is seated, supported on each side by one of his wives, while his
second wife sits at his feet.
The earth is then shovelled in over living and dead alike, all
the women being buried alive except the second wife, who is
graciously permitted the privilege of being slaughtered, instead,
before the huge grave is filled in. Finally, forty or fifty slaves
are killed, and their blood poured over the sepulchi-e, after which
the river is allowed to resume its course.
A pitiable sight is the dragging of a king's wives to his
funeral. Tliey are generally stolid as cattle driven to the
shambles, but in our illustration one can be noticed making an
eloquent, though vain, appeal to a former sweetheart in the crowd
to attempt her rescue. The man would like to, but he does not
dare : the superstition of royalty is too strong.
It is said that as many as a hundred women have been buried
with one great chief or king, though smaller men have to be sent
to their long home with only two or three, and their graves
drenched with the blood of as many slaves, while the vulgar heixl
have to be content with solitary sepulture, the corpse being placed
in a sitting posture, with the right forefinger pointing heaven-
wards, just level with the top of the mound over his grave.
Eating, smoking, sleeping, fighting, dancing, gambling a little,
and wrestling, may be said to form in outline the list of a Cen-
tral African's amusements. Wrestling is about the only manly
spoilt they care for, as hunting and fishing are their daily occupa-
tions, and therefore cannot be looked upon as amusements.
150 THE STORY OF GOVEllNMENT.
Wrestling, however, is only practised among the more civilized
races, such as the Birghami. So keenly do they contest in this,
that it is not an unfrequent occurrence for one of the contestants
to be left dead on the ground. Great men among this people will
keep in their pay, or as slaves, powerful wrestlei"s, on whose
prowess they highly pride themselves. A Avrestler once beaten is
looked upon as no good, and, if a slave, would Ihj sold for a mei-e
fraction of the price he was valued at before meeting witli this
reverse of fortune.
In addition, all the Birghami, pai-ticuhirly the women, are good
dancers, being active and yet graceful in all their movements.
Their dancing is a sort of acting in dumb show, and all the while
they keep up a low plaintive song, which adds wondrously to tlie
pleasant impression the scene makes on the onlooker. Music and
dancing are passions throughout Afiica.
Fighting, in a more or less disciplined manner, either to avenge
some old feud, some recent ^vrong, or simply for the sake of plun-
dering the cattle and other property of the weaker tribes, or to
capture tliem for slaves, is to a great extent the normal state of
most Central African kingdoms.
In dress and general appearance, the cliief object of tlie African
warrioi-s seems to be to strike terror into the lieholdei's. Want of
courage is not a failing that can usually be ascribed to a savage,
though a display of bravery, unless attended with a corresponding
success, does not seem to be valued ; nor, on the other liand, is a
coward so despised as among civilized nations.
A monarch who "showed tlie white feather" in Europe, or even
among the semi-civilized peo2)le of Asia, would foi-ever incur the
contempt of the meanest of his subjects. Not so in Africa,
apparently. The kingdom of Unyoro, ruled by Kamrasi, was
threatened with invasion. Instead of the king preparing to defend
his kingdom as well as he could, his own brother counselled him
to take refuge in flight.
Though fond of display and practical braggadocio — in this
respect being not unlike the Chinese — yet, on occasion, the Cen-
tral Africans have shown themselves, even in warfare against the
Amb slave-robbers, a far from unworthy enemy — desperation giving
them the courage and force which they might not naturally possess.
PE0DAI.ISTIC MONARCHY.
151
Of war as a science they know nothing. Indeed, they resort
to most unstrategic methods of going about it — such, for
instance, as the ridiculous habit of the Latookas in sounding a
drum — or nogSra — before attacking a village, which can but
give the enemy warning of the intendsd onslaught.
Captives in war are usually reserved for slaves. Among the
DSr tribes of the White Nile, the bleached skulls of slain foemen
are suspended to the branches of a gi-eat tree in the open 8pR<'e of
the village, imder which the liuge nogaras, iii' Wiir-<lrunis, are
})laced to be ready for sounding as occiision may rt-quire. Tlie
conclusion of a successful fight is celebiiited with a wild war-dance,
differing but little in general cliameter from tliose so common
among other 8a\'age8 after their nmnlei-ous fomj-s, except tliat as
in our illustration of a iloiilile rain-storm they SDUictimes make a
152 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
fetish of a foemaii's head when he has displayed unusual bravery,
by blowing water at it from their mouths.
With all the African tribes religion is superstition and super-
stition religion. Both are equally dark and gross, though in
justice to the Central Africans it must be said that, so f;ir as we
have yet learned, neither their religious nor their superstitious
deeds are disfigured by the abominations that abound in similar
rites among the West Coast tribes.
Few of the Central African tribes believe that, psychologically,
the black man and the white have anything in common. Chris-
tianity, they say, for instance, is good enough for the whites, but
won't do for the blacks. Most of them believe in the immortality
of the soul, as is proved by the fact that nearly all of the tribes
— very strongly the Mangan jas — hold that their relatives come
and speak to them in their dreams.
The spirits of the dead, they believe, can aid and protect them.
Under this belief the Banyai people will, when hunting, pour
out the contents of their snuff-boxes as an offering, which may
have the effect of so far propitiating their dead friends as to
induce them to render the hunting prosperous.
Unlike more irreverent people — savage and civilized — the
Banyai relies quite as much upon his prayers and snuff, as hunt-
ing appliances, as upon his more phyisical weapons. A belief
in a superintending Providence, or in other words in the gods
("Barima"), interfering in the affairs of mortals, is thus dis-
played.
Of the great wisdom of hyaenas and other wild animals they
possess the usual savage high estimate. A hyaena, for instance,
heard "laughing" in the woods at night after an elephant is
killed, is chuckling at the idea that the huntera will not be able
to eat all the flesh, but must perforce leave some to them.
An idea, not widely different from the Polynesian custom of
taboo^ prevails among the Banyai. To guard property left in the
woods, or some such unprotected place, a strip of palm leaf,
smeared with some sticky substance, and decorated with roots,
twigs, leaves, etc., is attached to the property, under the belief
that no one could attempt to pilfex it without being seized with
sickness resulting in speedy death.
FEUDALISTIC MONARCHY.
158
Many of the tribes have no idols, and found their religiouB
belief on a fear of evil spirits, which are, however, under the
control of wizards, whose powers of exorcisinjf them can lie pur-
mSMsSm
llliMH 111 ill 11
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citased by a few goats, generally. If a pei^on falls sick it is
believed that lie must have been bewitched. The punisliment
for this is death, and if the hyaenas refuse to touch the body after
execution, then it is believed that the sentence must have been
164 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
superlatively just. About nearly eveiy animal they have the
most extraordinary superstitions. The antelope bears the reputa-
tion of causing ulcers if its saliva but touches the skin, while the
fingers and toes will fall off if its flesh is eaten.
Lynx and lion skins are a monopoly of the king; accordingly,
no one but he can decorate his person or his dwelling with these
royal peltries. The fat which is skimmed off the water in which
a lion's flesh is boiled is looked upon as a valuable medicine, but
no one must walk around the dead body of a lion, otherwise the
spell which prevents these ferocious animals from entering villages
would be broken.
Two men cement their friendship by making an incision in
each other's body and mixing the blood which flows from the
wound on a leaf with butter. The mixture is then inibbed into
the wound, and the mixed blood and butter is supposed to make
them brothel's for life.
A fetish is, in African idea, almost anything to which super-
natural qualities attach, or which is considered to bring good
fortune or prevent evil. King M'tesa (who was a friend of
Stanley) and liis mother used to set apart certain days for con-
sulting their fetishes, in order to see that nothing was amiss in
the kingdom of Uganda.
It was something like an inquiry into the ecclesiastical con-
dition of the country, and being a religious ceremony is appro-
priately gone into on the fii'st day after the new moon appears.
On the third moon by account the king and all the court shaved
their heads, the king, however, redlining his "cock's comb," and
the pages their double cockades, these being marks of their
official ranks.
Tlierc are certain priests who preside over and direct the rites
of religion — at least, in some cases. Such a one is the priest of
the Nile, who lives in a liut decoi-ated with many mystic sym-
bols — amongst othei-s a paddle, the badge of his high oflBce —
on an island in the lake whicli forms one of the Nile sources
(Victoria Nyanza).
This ecclesiastic is only the deputy or familiar of M'gussa, the
spirit who presides over the water, and his office is to interpret
the secrets the spirit has to tell to the king. There is even a
FEUDALISTIC MONARCHY. 165
tract of land dedicated in some mysterious manner to the gods, or
to one of them.
It is a kind of "church estate," for although the king exercises
authority over some of the people who live on it, others seem to
l)e viewed in a sacred light, and to ba exempt from the control of
the civil power; neither has the king any right to disi)ose of the
land. In this sacred territory there are vilhiges only every fifth
mile, and no roads run through it.
These priestly magicians (M'ganga) are a sad cui-se to African
explorei's, for so thorough is tlicir hold on the minds of the people,
that if they wish to hamper the movements of the traveller, all
they need do is to prophesy all sorts of calamities — drought,
famine, wai-s — as the consecjucnce of his being allowed to pro-
ceed, and the creduloasly superstitious i)eople will believe tliem,
and do their best to avert such dire misfortunes by preventing
the white man from ever setting his eyes on the soil likely to be
so cui-sed by his presence.
Their implement of divination, simple as it may appear, is a
cow's or antelope's horn (Uganga), wliich they stuff with magic
]>owder, also called Uganga. Stuck into the ground in front of
the village, it is supposed to ward off the attacks of an enemy.
By simply holding it in the hand the magician jn-etends he can
discover anything that has been st<3len or lost, and instances have
l)een told of its dragging four men after it with irresistible
imjHjtus up to a thief, when it belabored the culprit and drove
him out of his senses.
So imbued are the natives' minds with belief in the power of
channel's, that they i)'-iy the magician for sticks, stones, or mud
which he has doctored or fetished for them. Tliev believe certain
flowei'S held in the hand will conduct them to anvthiniif lost, iis
also the voices of certain wild animals, birds, or beasts, will ensui'e
them good luck or warn them of danger.
They have many other and horrible devices. For instance, in
times of tribulation, the magician, if he ascertains a war is pro-
jected by inspecting the blood and bones of a fowl which he has
flayed for that purpose, flays a young child, and having laid it
lengthwise on a path, directs all the warriora on proceeding to
battle to step over his sacrifice and ensure themselves victory.
166 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
These extremes, however, are not often resorted to, for the
natives are usually content with simpler means, such as flaying a
goat, instead of a child; while, to prevent any evil approaching
their dwellings, a squashed frog, or any such absui*dity, when
placed on the track, is considered a specific.
Human sacrifice, disgustingly common among the West Coast
tribes, is, with the exceptions mentioned, rather a rare feature in
the religious rites of the interior tribes. The Waganda, when
they go to war, in addition to the sacrifice of a child for the pur-
pose of the warriors stepping over its dead body, use also another
and still more inhuman method of divination in which a child
and a fowl bound together are smothered in the steam of pots, one
inveited over the other.
The min-maker is'also another popular figure in Africa, but the
office is mther a perilous one, for, if the rain-maker fail in his
methods, liis life is in danger. Baker's description of one of these
rain-makers is very amusing. The hero was half chief, half magi-
cian, at Obbo, and, at the time the incident happened, old Katchiba,
the individual in question, called on the famous explorer and
remarked that there had been a dreadful drouth for a fortnight.
" Well," I rei)lie(l, *' you are the rain-maker, why don't you give
your people rain ? " •
" Give my people rain ! " said Katchiba ; " I give them rain if the}'-
don't give me goats ? You don't know my people ; if I am fool enough
to give them rain before they give me goats they would let me starve !
No, no ! let them wait ; if they don't bring me supplies of corn, goats,
fowls, yams, and all that I require, not one drop of rain shall ever fall
again in Obbo. Impudent brutes are my people ! Do you know they
liave positively threatened to kill me unless I bring the rain. They
sha'n't have a drop ; I will wither the crops, and bring a plague upon
their flocks. I'll teach these rascals to insult me ! "
With all this bluster I saw that Old Katchiba was in a great
dilemma, and that he would give anything for a shower, but that he
did not know how to get out of the scrape.
Suddenly altering his tone, he asked, " Have you any rain in your
country?" I replied that we had every now and then. "How do you
bring it? Are you a rain-maker ? "
I told him no one believed in rain-makers in our country, but that we
understood how to bottle lightning (meaning electricity).
FEUDALISTIC MONARCHY. 167
^ I don't keep mine in bottles ; I have a houseful of thunder
and lightning," he most coolly replied ; ^« but if you can bottle
lightning yon must understand rain-making. What do you think of
the weather to-day ?"
I immediately saw the drift of the cunning Old Katchiba ; he
wanted professional advice. I replied that he must know all about it,
as he was a reguLar rain-maker.
" Of course I do," he answered, " but I want to know what you think
of it."
" Well," I said, *' I don't think we shall have any steady rain, but I
think we may have a heavy shower in about four days." (I said this
as I had observed fleecy clouds gathering daily in tlie afternoon.)
" Just my opinion," said Katchiba, delighted, " in four, or ])erhaps
in five days, I intend to give them one shower, just one shower ; yes,
ni just step down to them now, and tell the rascals that if they will
bring me some goats by this evening, and some corn to-morrow morn-
ing, I will give them, in four or five days, just one shower."
To give effect to this declaration he gave three toots on his magic
whistle, inquiring : " Do you use whistles in your country ? "
I only replied by giving so shrill and deafening a whistle on my
fingers that Katchiba stopped his ears and, relapsing into a smile of
admiration, took a glance at the sky from the doorway to see if any
sudden effect had been produced.
" Whistle again," he said ; and once more I performed like the whistle
of a locomotive. " That will do ; we shall have it," said the cunning
old rain-maker, and proud of having so knowingly obtained " counsel's
opinion " on his case, he toddled off to liis impatient subjects.
In a few days a sudden storm of rain and violent thunder added to
Katchiba's renown, and after the shower horns were blowing and
nogaras, or drums, were beating in honor of their chief. Entre 7ious^
my whistle he considered infallible.
Along the feverish coiist of West Africa stretches a range of
country about three hundred miles in length, from the Assinie
River to the River Volta, or a little beyond, to the fi-ontier of
Dahomey. This is the "Gold Coast," low and sandy, bounded
on the east by the dense malarious tropical jungle which rises
gradually from the shore to the height of about fifteen hundred
feet, the whole territory which goes by this attractive name being
about two hundred miles in breadth.
Visited as early as 1364 by French adventurers from Rouen
1S8 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
and Dieppe, it is now ruled as a crown colony by Great Britain.
The chief establishments for trade are at Cape Const Castle,
Elinina, and a few other places. Cape Coast being at present the
seat of government. In the interior, and on both sides of the
River Prah, which flows through it, are several tiibes or nations
of kindred mce sjeaking the same langu-ige or dialer t and gov-
erned bj native kings of a moral c n plexion scarcely less
dusky than their ikins
These ure the Wassaws, Denkeras, Assin, Akem, Aquapims,
Aquamo, Adangme, Krolw, and many other "nations," subdivided
into different tribes. All of them are very familiar with Eui-o-
peans, though thej' have gained little by this intercourse, except
the vices of tlieir visitors.
This coast was long, in common with that lying north and
Houth of it, the active scene of the infamous slave ti'ade. Under
the stimulus of the riches or influence acquired through it, some
of these petty kingdoms rose into impoitance, formed new com-
binations, or fell, as rapidly as they had risen, into obscurity,
after the decay of the trafRc m human flesh.
FBODALI8TIC MONARCHY.
But by far the most
important of all these
kingdoms are those of
the F»nti» and AstiaiitiH,
s e ]> )i r ii t e (I from eacli
other by the River Prah ;
the one, Fanti, lying
on the coast, while the
other in in the interior.
Apparently one people,
and speaking almost ex-
ai-tly the same language,
they have, since the
Euj-o[iean3 made their
acquaintance, been po-
litically separated, raor-
til enemies and rivals,
and mainly owing to
continued disputes in
regard to a claim on the
[lart of the Ashantis for
free aet-ess to the coast,
[leriodically at war with
each other.
On two of these oc-
casions the British gov-
ernment has been foit^ed
to [n-ntect the Fantis
from their more warlike
e 11 c m i c s, and at the
same time to guard their
own commercial inter-
ests, and tlms the names
of the Fantis and
Ashantis liave iM^come
familiar to us.
Tlie Fantis are a lazy, good-for-nothing set at present, what-
ever they may have been before British influeuee. They live
160 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
along the coast, and chiefly at Cape Coast Castle. They are well
made, muscular, and are chocolate colored rather than black.
Their dress is a cloth round the waist and another over their
shouldera when outside their houses, the upper garment being
taken off when a superior passes them.
The women are not good looking, but have fine figures, spoilt,
however, by the "dress improver" or "cankey" (a name also
applied to a loaf of bread), which they wear behind, jind which is
used as a sort of saddle for carrying their children. The cloth
round her waist a woman allows to hang down in the form of a
petticoat; and, if she is married, there is an end, or another
piece, to cover her lx)som.
She is mentally much superior to the man, being lively and
keen with eyes, hands, and tongue. In the last Ashanti war tlie
women did most of the porter work, or carrying of the baggage.
Both sexes prefer as their " cloths " the gaudiest blue, yellow,
or red striped calico. A girdle or string of beads, made of glass,
clay, or gold, according to the wealth of the wearer, is always
worn around the waist.
Their head dress is peculiar. The woolly hair, combed out with
great patience until it may attain a maximum length of nine to ten
inches, is then ti-ained up in the form of a ridge, suppoiiied by
means of a comb, and satiirated with grease. Their skin is diy
and rough, lips verj" thick, ears large, chin protruding, but the
nose scarcely so flat as that of the typical negro.
The head is round, but the face long, and ornamented with a
very scanty beard, while the limbs are large-jointed, bony and
muscular, and (if possible) the women are uglier than the men,
tliat is, when they get old; and age among this people means
fc^ome period near or very little over thirty.
When young, the girls are bright-eyed, lithe of limb and, after
custom liiis familiarized the stranger witli the blackness of their
skin, are not absolutely displeasing. But when age comes, the
face assumes a monkey look, the breasts become pendent, and the
whole pei-son extremely repulsive.
The Fanti territory is divided into four districts, stretching
about thirty miles inland, and each of these districts is governed
by a king, or sometimes by two joint kings. Succession to the
FBVDALISTIC MOHAROHY.
161
headship of the tribes is hereditaiy and has been in some cases held
by women. The king, however, of the confederation of tribes is
elected hy the tribal chiefs.
Their laws are despotic, each
chief ruler having jmwer over
the life and deiith of liis sub-
Crimiuals ai'e puiiislied hy
decaiiitation, slavery, foi-feit-
ure of goods, or by Ireing ex-
pelled and exposed to s\mv
death by famine in the wil-
derness. Inuoeeijce or fpiilt
is tested, a.s in many other
portions of Africa, by meiins
of "oi-deals."
A CBIUIMAI, DECAPTTATBD.
For instance, a suspect is ordered to drink a decoction of some
poisonoiu plant, or to chew a handful of dry rice, when his inno-
cence or guilt is tested hy the effect of the "ordeal" on his
162 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
stomach or his saliva. When the " ordeal " is a poison, he is con-
sidered innocent if his stomach rejects it, but guilty if it does
not, and death, of course, happening in such cases, the man is
considered properly punished. They have, however, one redeem-
ing quality, — they provide for their aged parents.
As to morals among the Fanti, they have long mingled with
Europeans, and European influence on the Gold Coast, as in other
portions of black Africa, has been invariably coiTupting. The
slave trade was at one time almost the only branch of commerce ;
at best its influence on the native character was pernicious.
It has disappeared now, but has not been succeeded by any other
branch of legitimate traffic that suffices to stimulate the possible
latent industiy of the people. Rum and other articles which tend
to corrupt the morals of the people are almost the only articles of
import.
In return for the moral loss sustained by the presence of the
English, attempts have been made to administer an antidote to the
vices introduced among them by traders, in the shape of large
doses of missionary instruction. Probably no set of savages have
ever been more vigorously plied with good advice at certain places,
or entirely neglected at others, than have the Fantis. Ceiiainly
none have ever profited less by it.
But what they lack in religion, they make up in the quantity
and quality of their superstitions, not the least astounding of
which is their belief in a child "who hiis existed from the begin-
ning of the world," and yet has neither eaten nor drunken during
all this time, and of course cannot be expected to grow.
To represent this child they bonow a baby, when anyone is
found rich enough to pay for the gratification of his curiosity, and
the guardian of the sacred Ixibe paints it with colored clays in such
a style tliat it cannot be recognized as belonging to this world.
This guardian is genei-ally a hideous old woman, who must be
quite cognizant of the swindle she is perpetrating, though,
strange to say, Fantis of fair education have been known to
believe in this ridiculous impostuix3.
Cannibalism does not now exist among the Fantis or Ashantis,
though, when General Sir Charles Macarthy was killed in the
first Ashanti war, his heart was eaten by the latter people in order
FEUI iacistic MONABOHT. 168
to give them a share of his courage. ITuinan sacrifices, though
very common among the Ashantis, have now fallen into dianse
among those tribes living along the seaboard; there is, however,
little doubt hut that at one time they were as common among the
fantis ns they are now among their ferocious neighboi's, the
Dahomans or Ashantis.
Polygomy is permitted, though, for financial reasons, is not
often practised. The Women, as the more intellectual and ener-
getic sex of the Gold Coast, maintain the right of divorcing a
husband if he shows cowaixjice in battle.
A Fanti lives to a good old age ; white hair is nothing uncom-
mon amongst them ; but die he must in due course by rum, or the
natural order of events. Great pomp is the rule on such occasions-
Professional mourners — negro mutes — are hired for the cere-
mony ; a slieep is killed for the funeral feast, and the shoulder blade
laid on the grave, where it is permitted to remain for some time.
The man who buries another succeeds to his property, hut
he also succeeds to his debts. In the fii'st case the heirs take veiy
good care to put their deceased i-elative under ground, but with
the defaulting debtor there is not the same stimulus on the part
of his relatives to perform the funeral obsequies. Accordingly,
in the vicinity of every Fanti village, corpses will be found lying
exposed on a platfoim, merely covered with a cloth, nobody hav-
ing beHi found financially courageous enough to bury them.
As on every other occasion of Fanti mirth, grief, or piety,
insufferable noise accompanies the funeml rites. If the deceased
has been a man of any note, all his friends — and the great man,
as all the world over, has in Fanti land an infinitude of friends,
even after he is dead — squat in front of the house and celebrate
the inauspicious event by drinking, yelling, singing, smoking,
and firing muskets.
A dog is sacrificed before the hut, after which the corjwe is
buried along with considerable sums of money, gold, and jewels
of some value. The firet thing an enemy does on entering the
Fanti country is, accordingly, to rifle the graves, though, indeed,
this is occasionally done by the relatives themselves, in spite of
all the tenors of fetish and demon, for avarice is at times stronger
than superstition. ""^ '*-'"' ' '' ""'-— ^^
164 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The amusements of the Faiitis are few. Yelling and dancing-
seem to be the only exertion. Laziness is the salient minor vice
of the Fantis. In this they excel, nor can anything better be
expected of them. They live under a tropical sun; they have an
example of lassitude in the European comnmnity, and, above all,
exertion can scarcely be expected of people whose olily ambition
is to provide for their daily wants.
Now on the Gold Coast a native can live luxuriously on two
cents a day, and the exertion of a few houi-s per week will supply
him with all he requires in the way of rum, gaudy Manchester
goods, and tobacco. Even then, so runs Fanti logic, what
necessity is there for his exerting himself to procure even that?
Sis wife can do so. Accordingly in Fanti land thei-e is an equit-
able division of labor, the wife earns the living and the husband
consumes it.
Whatever the Fantis may have been, the Ashantis are now, at
all events, a much superior people, intellectually, and, if cour-
age is a virtue, morally also. Barbarous no doubt they are, but
it is almost an abuse of the term to call them savage. In their gov-
ernment they display no little force and order, and a well-estab-
lished system of political institutions, the history of which can be
tmced for at least two centuries.
Statesman-like ability and military skill are distinguishing
marks of the aristocnxcy of the kingdom, and the common people
display so much coui-age in battle there is little doubt but thjit
within the Ashanti kingdom lies the element of a great African
military empire, provided the people were efficiently trained and
supplied with the appliances of modem warfare.
And among such strong-minded men there is liope tliat under
moral influences, stronger than those they liave yet come in con-
tact with, the very" supei'stitions — black jind cruel though they
be — which at present give them a pre-eminence over their
neighbors, might be transmuted to something noble, pure, and
sweet.
Though not so powerfully made ns the Fanti, the Ashanti war-
riors are infinitely more courageous; and the women are much
better looking than their Fanti sistei-s. But women are looked
upon as a rpgular arllclo ut nierchdiidise, and nothing astonished
KEDDALISTIC M((NAIICHY.
lfi.5
the Ashanti warriofs more than that, when the English captured
in the late war a couple of women, they let them go free.
"What a curious people these white men are to send the
women awayl Whtf^ this i» moneif.'" was their cnnimentjiry, A
woman among them is always worth at Icitst twentj- or thirty
doU'irs ind a very attractive damsel may fetch ti much is thirty
five n tl e n atr mon il i ket
Government among tl e A 1 a t s s more absolute r less feu
dal stic than amo g other tnbes The s iccess o lo not n
in a direct line but to a brother or neiihew, in wliich latter case
the nephew is not the son of tlio king's brother, but of lils sister,
who (and this is a strange oonnncntar)' on savage moral-s) iiei'd not
be married, the only requisite Ix'ing th;it the prolKihU; father l)e
strong, good looking, and of repuliible oiigiii.
The reason they give for this depurture fi'om the dimct line in
the succession to the Ashanti emwn is tliat one can never be sure
tliat the king is the father of tlic i]UCTit*s son, and that as, more-
over, the queens are almost invarinbly of humljle origin, making
the son of the "princess royal " the licir secures tliat at least there
should be some kingly blood in the occupant of the throne.
/
166 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Failing the brother or the nephew, the sou can occupy the
throne ; failing all three, the chief slave of the dead king. But
the unwritten constitution of Ashanti, though allowing very
8ummaiy powers to the sovereign, controls him in many ways.
The powers of the "Kotoko," or council, curb the tyranny
of the king, for he is bound to consult them in all questions of
foreign policy, and war or peace. He also voluntarily, in times
of trouble, summons to his aid a few chosen councillors, whose
advice he takes or rejects, as seems good to him.
His civil list is great: tribute is paid by the vassal princes,
taxes are levied on all the villages, or "crooms," while tolls and
custom dues make up the rest of the revenue. He hiw also in his
own hands various gold mines, and levies a handsome percentxige
on all the gold found in his country, to which, indeed, he makes
a formal claim, not, however, except in rare cases, enforced.
All nuggets, however, strictly escheat to the king as his special
property.
But where every man is a soldier, and the king is dependent on
the good-will of his subjects — warlike though they be — before
he can cany out any of his ambitious schemes, he is not veiy
apt to unnecessarily irritate them.
From this point of view there is much to be said in favor
of a feudal monarchy, such as that of Ashanti. Yet between the
highest nobles and the king there is a wide gulf; as in Dahomey
the prime minister, or even greatest general, will humble himself
in the dust when entering the dread presence of roj'ulty. A des-
cription of an Ashanti king, by a great African traveller, gives
an excellent example of the richness of the kingdom as well
as the bill baric pomp of a feudal sovereign : —
His manners, says Bowdich, were majestic, yet courteons, and
he did not allow his surprise to beguile him for a moment of the com-
posure of a monarch. He appeared about thirty-eight, inclined to
corpulence, and of a benevolent countenance ; he wore a fillet of aggry
beads round his temple, a necklace of gold cockspur shells strung by
their largest ends, and over his right shoulder a red silk cord suspend-
ing three sapphires cased in gold. His bracelets were the richest mixture
of beads and gold, and his fingers were covered with rings ; his cloth
was a dark green silk ; a pointed diadem was elegantly painted in white
FEUDALISTIO HONABCHY. 167
on hiB forehead, also a pattern resembling an epaalet on each shoulder,
and an ornament like a full-blown rose, one leaf rising above another
until it covered his whole breast; his knee-bands were of aggry beads,
and his ankle-strings of gold ornaments of the most delicate workman-
ship, small drums, swords, guns, and birds clustered together. His san-
dals, of a soft white leather, were embossed across the instcp-band with
small gold and silver cases of sapphires ; he was seated in a low chair,
richly ornamented with gold ; and he had a pair of gold castanets on his
finger and thumb, which he clapped to enforce silence. The belts of
the guards behind his chair were cased in gold, and covered with small
jaw-bones of the same metal.
The elephants' tails, waving like a small cloud before him, were
spangled with gold, and large plumes of feathers were flourished amid
them. His eunuch presided over these attendants, wearing only one
massive piece of gold about his neck ; the royal stool, entirely cased in
gold, was displayed under a splendid umbrella, with drums, horns,
and various musical instruments, cased in gold, about the thickness of
cartridge paper.
Large circles of gold hung by scarlet cloth from the swords of state,
the sheaths as well as the handles of which were also cased ; hatchets
of the same were inter-mixed with them ; the breasts of the Ochras
and various attendants were adorned with large stars, crescents, and
gossamer-wings of solid gold.
The profusion of gold in this picture brings us to a considera-
tion of the principal Ashanti industiy, namely, the gold mines
with which they allow no white man to interfere. When the
Creator first made the world, according to their philosophy. He
created a black man and a white man.
To the black man He offered a calabash of gold, rich soil, a
mud hut, and all the fruits of the earth in abundance ; but the
white man preferred a quantity of paper, pens, and ink, and
having got knowledge, prospered over the black man, who in his
ignorance pi*efeiTed the apparent natural riches. Yet having
made their choice, they say, they intend sticking to it; let the
white man keep to his ink and paper.
A license is exacted from every one in the kingdom of Ashanti
wearing gold ornaments. Strictly speaking, all the gold found
belongs to the king; and when a nobleman or rich man dies the
gold he may leave behind him becomes his majesty's property.
168 THE STORY OF GOVEKNMENT.
Moreover,' it is forbidden for anyone but the king's servants
to sweep the market place at Coomassie, for among the sweep-
ings may be found some particles of dust which have been
dropi)ed in the course of barter, gold dust being the ordinary com-
merce of the country.
When the king dies, his treasures are buried with him in the
Bantama, or sepulchre of the Ashanti monarchs; and no doubt,
had Sir Garnet Wolseley, as was originally his intention, de-
stroyed this sacred enclosure, much of the treasure, the absence
of which 80 disappointed the English soldiers, would have been
found.
" Aggry beads " are ornaments highly prized by the Ashantis.
Their origin is rather obscure, and though the artists of Birming-
ham have attempted to imitate them, they have hitherto failed to
produce a sham which will impose upon the art connoisseurs of
the Gold Coast.
It is probable that they are glass mosaics, and of Egjrptian or
PhoBnician manufacture. The Egyptians or Phcenicians might
have sold their goods to the Berbei-s, and by them the aggry beads,
among other manufactures of these ingenious dwellers in Tyre
or on the Nile banks, might have been passed from tril)e to tribe
until they reached far away Ashanti.
By Ashanti law if an aggry beiul is broken in a scuffle, seven
slaves must be paid to the owner, or in other words, upwards of
$225. They are usually found at some distance from the sea, and
though only picked up now and then by accident, are yet plenti-
ful, proving that during the times these beads readied the
Ashantis, in far away ages, the trade of the Gold Coast must
have been flourishing.
The Ashanti method of extracting the gold from the soil is verj^
primitive. A quantity of the earth, sand, and gravel through
which the scales and little bits of gold are scattered, is dug up by
means of a hoe, and washed in a calabash by a sharp rotiiry move-
ment, which gradually tosses off the earth and sand, and allows
the heavier gold to remain at the bottom of the vessel.
It is, in fact, exactly the same method of washing gold as that
known in California as "panning out," a plan only adopted in
that coiuitry for the purpose of testing the richness of a "placer "
FEUDALISTIC MONABCHy. 169
or gold deposit. . The g^Id saved by this method of washing is
then put into quills for safe keeping.
So thickly impregnated is the soil with gold that even by this
iiide mode of extraction great quantities ai-e obtained. After
eveiy shower of i-ain the streams carry down sand Ifiden with the
precious metal, which on their subsiding is found mixed up
with the alluvium left behind on the banks.
With the improved appliances now used in gold washing
immense quantities might, no doubt, be obtained ; an experienced
Ashanti gfold washer calculates tliat in the coui-se of a year he
will obtain about twenty "minkali," in value two slaves, or
about *80.00.
Gold-buying on the west coast of Africa is not a trade that an
inexperienced hand need take up. The weights are black seeds
called "telekessi," and each bu3'er has his own weights and
scales, so it is a pitched battle between seller and purchaser as to
who can cheat the other.
" Bogus dust " is marnifactured by preparing nuggets of copper
and silver mixed, and the fine dust gold is simulated by copper
filings and red conil powder. The "telekessi" weights are
soaked in butter to make them heavier, and imitation ones of
pebble are even put in their place, from which it is evident that
some of the business devices of our modern industrial sjrstem are
in vogue among the savages.
Mr. Skertchly mentions that in a small factory on the Gold
Coast he hiis seen as much as three hundred ounces of gold taken
in a single day. At all the factories there are professed "gold-
takew," whose duty it is to assay all the gold before it passes
into the ti*ader\s hand, so as to detect and reject the " Brummagem
nuggets" which fire continually offered them.
A half naked savage will arrive in the factory with gold dust
to exchange for guns, powder, or cloth. The dust is carefully
tied up in small pieces of paper in one corner of his waist cloth,
or often enough conccjiled in the intricate mazes of his wool.
The small packet is opened, and the gold-taker empties it into
a copper blow pan, shaped like a banker's sliovel without a
liandle, and with a dexterous movement of the wrist separates
the large from the small particles.
170 THB STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
With a feather-tip he then picks out all the suspicious par-
ticles and bits of dust, and with a wonderfully regulated pufif
blows off the specks of mica and pyrites which would otherwise
have escaped unnoticed. The blown gold is then weighed and
handed over to the trader.
The wages of a good gold-taker are very high, and some over-
acute, but penny-wise-and-pound -foolish j)ersoiis, who have dis-
pensed with the services of these gold-takers, and liave relied upon
the efficiency of aquafortis and touchstone, have found, on con-
veying the gold dust to England, that they have been buying
silver gilt, or even gold dust made in Birmingham itself.
The dress of the Ashantis consists of a tunic of colored calico
or some other cloth, while for higher occasions, or for the clothes
of rich men, silk woven in the native looms is substituted. Oma^
ments of gold, silver, and "aggry beads" are worn, either as
decorations or as charms against illness, witxjhci-aft, or other mis-
fortune.
The grandees, when in full uniform, add "jujus," or breast-
plates of gold, and other glittering omjiments, and cover their
heads with horned helmets of an cxtraordinarj'^ shape, and waving
feather plumes. They frequently decorate their faces with deli-
cately painted imtterns in green or white paint on the cheeks and
forehead. They have seveml musical instruments, and are fond
of dancing, mimicry, story-telling, songs, and all sorts of fun.
Each nobleman has his own band of minstrels and heralds,
who used to patrol the city at stated houi*s of certain days,
playing the tunes which belong to their respective mastei-s.
Feudalism is apt in all countries to have the same belongings,
and hence we see in Africa much wliicli will remind the reader
of similar scenes in Europe during the sway of the mediaeval
chivalry.
The industries of the Ashantis, apart from mining, though
limited, are interesting. Their looms are formed on the same
principle as ours. Their cloths, in fineness, brilliancy, and size,
are, when we consider the appliances by which they have been
produced, and the innate laziness of the native AfricJin, admira-
ble. They also paint, with great ease and rapidity, white cloths,
and excel in pottery and goldsmith's work.
FEUDALISTIG MONARCHY. 171
Their weights are very neat brass casts of almost every animal,
fruit, and vegetable known to them, though the original ones iu
the shape of seeds are still occasionally used, and univei*sally so
on the coast for weighing gold. They also do good work in iron^
tan leather, and are skilful carpentei-s.
The Ashanti army is recruited from all able-bodied men, and
is very numerous. Bowdich calculated that there wei^e 150,000
ready forces, and 204,000 fit to bear arms. The number has
been calculated somewhat higher since his day, viz., at 300,000.
Looking at the Ashanti army, as compared with the fierce
rabbles which go under that name in other portions of Africa, it is
almost in a state of discipline. War is begun, if not with all
the foiins, yet with much of the crnft, diplomatic duplicity, and
wholesale lying prevalent in more civilized communities^
When the Ashanti monarch proposes to invade another tribe or
nation, he despatches envoys, laden witli rich presents, to the
neighboring powers, appealing with one hand to their sense of
justice, by pointing out how great hjis Ixjen the pi-ovocation, and
what a " jutt and holy war " is the systematic murder in which
he is about to engage; and with the other, while assuring them
of his friendship and affection, he takes care to point out how
they can be benefited, if not by helping, at least by not impeding
him in his proposed operations.
He has generals, if he does not command himself, who are
accomplished in all the tactics of savage warfare, ambuscade,
flanking attacks, and feigned retreats. The craft of the diplom-
atists in the council is equalled by the courage of the troops iu
the field.
Every man knows his place, and as soon as war is declared he
accouties himself with musket and cartouch box, and provisioning
himself for a time with a few kalo nuts and a little maize meal,
joins the company to which he belongs.
The enemy will supi)ly the rest of his commissariat, for, like
Stonewall Jackson, his motto is "Always forage on the enemy."
As soon as the army is on the march, the women, daubing them-
selves with white clay, and stripping themselves, march through
the towns, beating the drum and belaboring any wight who may
have remained at home.
172 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Carpenters, blacksmiths, and other ai-tisans accompany the
army, sutlei-s sell provisions and cheat like sutlers the world
over, while money lendera advance casli to impecunious soldiera
at an interest of 120 to 300 per cunt. Lastly, in the van
follow the women bearing pots, calabashes, and other cooking
utensils.
In battle the women stand behind their husbands, supply them
with powder, and animate them with songs. When the battle
begins skirmishers advance ; these are slaves whose lives are of
little value. The secondaiy captains fight in the front ranks,
while the great nobles and the king sit behind on stools, shaded
by the huge umbrellas which denote their rank.
They are like the officei-s in some Spanish-American republics,
who, after the battle has commenced, take to the rear of their
troops, and shout valiant conmiands to them, inculcating in
sonorous language how glorious it is to fight, or even, if neces-
sary, to die for one's country, while they at the same time are
preparing to falsify their maxim by flight.
Hence they are called *' encoumgei's " by the cynical soldiery.
In the same manner the Ashanti encoumgers remain in the rear,
sunt)unded by young men who cut down those who attempt to
reti*eat. "It is," says the Ashanti soldier, "just iis well to die
fighting, for if we attempt to escape we are killed anyhow."
The commander-in-chief, while the battle is raging, sits on his
stool playing some kind of musical instrument, as if to impress the
bystandei-s that he is so confident of victoiy as to be perfectly
easy as to the result. In case of defeat, the captains are expected
to commit suicide.
When the day is lost they seat themselves calmly on casks of
gunpowder, and blow themselves up into the air, that the Aslianti
proverb may be fullilled, "It is shame which. causes the chief to
die.'* If victorious, they never pui-sue the enemy when it is near
sunset.
During the active part of the campaign the anny is forbidden
all other food except meal, a quantity of which each soldier carries
in the bag by his side, and mixes with the fii*st water he finds.
No fires are allowed to be lit.
They eat a little bit of the heart of the first enemy slain, and
FEUDALISTIC MONARCHY.
173
wear ornaments of liis teeth and bones. The wliolc fcinial system
of Ashanti is favorable to military discipline, anil at the same
time conducive to fostering the war spirit and the greed of mili-
tary glory and gain.
The ))eople are a nation of soldiers as well disciplined as a
barbarous amiy can lie. To the neighboring jiowers tliey were,
until their late reveise at the hands of the British, a name of
terror. The Fantis cnnHidered it useless to oppose them; the
verj' name of "Shanti" Wiw almost suiliciciit to make tlieni rmi.
But though the Asliaiitis could con<|iier, thev ccmid not govern,
and one tribe after aiiotlifi lias revolted from their rule, and
either assei-te<l their piistiiu- inde[>endence, or formed a new com-
bination fatid ti> tlieir cojKpu'iois. Since the monarchy sustained
its last shock, at tlie hands of the British, sevenil other tributaries
have revolted fi'om under its sway, tliough they are likely, before
long, to be i-econquered.
174 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Police i-egulations are strictly followed out in Coomassie, the
capital of this feudal kingdom; none, except with the sanction
of the king, can go out of doors at night, and policemen — wild-
looking beings with heads half shaved, long hair falling over
their foreheads, and with lances in their hands — patrol the
btreets to see that this tyrannical regulation, apparently a bit of
military despotism to prevent the chance of plots or revolts, is
carried out with i-elentless rigor.
Another curious regulation, which shows that the Ashanti laws
are not the poitentous gro^vth of mere wantonness uncontrolled by
the people, or undirected by some sound underlying principle, is
that the king must attend all fires. This is a wise provision,
though in a town where fires must be common, a severe tax upon
such a luxurious monarch, for under the eye of the royal dis-
penser of life and death the acting firemen will not be apt to be
dilatoiy in their duties when the fire horn is blown.
When an Ashanti dies his body is buried, and along with it a
quantity of the gold he may have possessed; a similar cus-
tom to one prevalent among the Fantis. The Bantama is the
mausoleum of the kings, as well as a place of human sacrifice,
and the great spiritual stronghold of the priests. In this sacred
place is kept the skull of Governor Sir Charles Macarthy, who
was killed in the fii-st war. "By Wednesday and Macarthy" is
a sacred Ashanti oath.
This skull the Ashanti kings have converted into a drinking
cup, out of which, on solemn occasions, they quaff their nim.
Into this Bantama no stranger is allowed to set his profane foot.
A trusty chief and a jiowerful guard watch it day and night. It
is, according to the varying accounts, from half a mile to a mile
and a half from Cooma^isie, and is connected with the capital by
a broad road.
On tlie decease of any pei-son of rank, numerous human lives
are sacrificed, tlie number being proportionate to the dignity of
the deceased. On the death of the mother of tlie king who ruled
the country in Bowdicli's time, no less than tluee thousand
human beings were butchered; and on his own death, though
we have no certain information, most probably the number was
doubled.
176 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The funeral rites of a great captain are often repeated regularly
every week for two or three months at a stretch, and on each
occasion about two hundred persons sacrificed. These victims are
usually slaves or culprits, and principally females, but it is usual
to "wet the grave " with the blood of a freeman of respectability.
Among the rites of the Ashanti and Daliomey nations few are
more familiar in name to the most cui-sory reader of books of
West African travel than the so-called murdei-ous ceremonies
kno\VTi as the customs.
The word is an Anglicized or corrupted form of the French
coutume^ a general habit — the "general habit "in this case both in
Dahomey and Ashanti — being the slaughter, in a more or less
cruel manner, and accompanied with immense pomp and state
ceremonial, of vast numbers of people, chiefly slaves and criminals,
at certain seasons of the year. Long habit has rendered the per-
formance of these ceremonies imperative.
Abominable though they are, they have even met a faint, half-
hearted defence or apology from white men as political necessities,
for they say that in Ashanti or Dahomey the alx)lition of human
sacrifice would deprive the people of one of their great annual
spectacles, and thereby endanger the very monarc^hy itself. A
parallel piece of political management is to be found in the bloody
gladiatorial shows with which the Roman despots appeased the pas-
sions of the populace. The ruling idea throughout seems to lx>
to send messengers to the dead or to the gods in the persons of
those who are killed. They Ijelieve tJiat the body contains a
spirit or ghost which exists after death, and which flits alx)Ut
the neighborhood of the grave, and even revisits its old home, and
holds converse with those it formerly loved, or plays pranks on
those it disliked; is, in fact, an ethereal, disembodied human being,
subject to all the passions and whims of such a one in the flesh.
By the grave of the dead man are accordingly placed food that
he may eat, or rather that he may eat the " spirit " of the food,
and vessels tliat he may cook it.
For food and vessels, in fact all objects animate or inaniniJite,
liave equally souls or spirits which live in an after world, and
which can ticcompany their spirit master on his journeys to and
from that shadowy land. They also believe in a hades, a country
FEUDALISTIG MONARCHY. 177
below the ground wliere the '^dead dwell in a life that shall have
no end/'
In the other world only kings, princes, and nobles enjoy all
voluptuous delights ; the poorer people wait on them and share
a little in their pleasures. Not only in this hades, or heaven —
for what its exact character is, is somewhat dubious even in their
own philosophy — do men come to life and revel in palm wine
and wives, but they also believe tliat all garments a man has woiti
out will then come to life again — a resurrection of old clothes.
Besides this, liis relations display their affection by giving
him an outfit of weapons, ornaments, new cloth, crockery ware,
etc., so that, like the son of a modem rich man, he may go to the
devil like a gentleman. But who is to carry these things and look
after them? Evidently his wives and slaves. Therefore, a num-
ber of these are killed to keep him company, and often a slave is
killed some time after his de<ith to tivko liim a message, or as
an addition to his houseliold.
In Dahomey this custom of sending messengera is organized
into a system. Thus originated human sacrifice which is, grant-
ing the truth of the theor}' on which it is based, a most mtional
custom. Death is disagreeable to us because we do not know
where we are going, but to the widow of an African chieftain it
is merely a sui'gical operation and a change of existence. That
explains why Africans submit to death so quietly.
A woman at Akropong selected for the sacrifice was stripped
according to custom, but only stunned, not killed by the blows.
She I'ecovered her senses and found hei-self lying on the ground
surrounded by dead bodies. She rose, went into the town where
the elders were seated in council, and told tliem she liad been to
the "Lord of the Dead," and had ])een sent back, because she was
naked ; tlie elders must dress her finely and kill her over again. This
was accordingly done.
But there is another kind of human sacrifice, the slaying of
men and women as gifts to the gods. In Ashanti the first form
of sacrifice is pi-actised. When one of the royal family dies,
slaves are killed by the hundred. Horrible as it may seem that
such a thing should still exist, yet it is true that human sacrifices
have become in Ashanti, as in Dahomey, public entertainments.
178 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The sight of an executioner, in a shaggy cap of black monkey
skin, the same kind that is used for ladies' muffs, chopping off the
bead of a slave, is to the Ashantis what the sports of the amphi-
theatre were to the Romans, or bull tights to the Spaniards of the
present day.
Public executions in all countries draw large crowds of specta-
tors, and in Ashanti this penchant of the multitude has been culti-
vated and developed into an artistic feeling. Decapitation has
become with them an art as various as music. There are two
movements in vogue, tlie allegro^ in which the head is twisted away
by a sharp knife with a dexterous turn of the wrist and the
adcyio^ in which the head is sawn off in slow time.
So common had this spectacle become in the days prior to the
fall of Coomassie, that when the little son of one of the German
missionaries — who was freed by King Coffee on the approach of
the English troops — was angiy at anyone, he would exclaim,
'* Your head will fall to-morrow I "
Slicing off heads had been one of the most common sights that
the child had seen, and was in his eyes the punishment for the
most trifling offence. The place where the bodies are cast is a
swampy place near the town, and when the English troops
visited it the effluvia from swollen, putrefying bodies filled the
air with a carrion stench.
The whole of the blood-stained town had the odor of death, and
every breeze that was wafted over it bore on it the smell of decay-
ing humanity, wliile piles of skulls and human bones testified to
the long continuance of these horrible sacrifices. In Ashanti the
two great seasons of sacrifice are the Yam and tlie Adai customs.
The Yam custom occui-s in the beginning of September, at the
season when the yams are ripe, and is the greatest of the two
customs; it consists in the sacrifice, with much ceremony and
many rites, of large numbers of human beings before the yams are
allowed to be gathered.
The Adai customs, divided into the "Great" and ''Little," are
celebrated every three weeks, though with less expenditure of life
each time than during the Yam celebration. In November, 1881,
a report reached Europe that Mansah, King of Ashanti — a brother
of Koffee, who was deposed by his irat« subjects — had slain two
FEUDALISTip HOKAROHT. 179
hundred girls in order to mix their blood with the '^ swish/' or
clay, for his new palace.
The story proved unfounded, though quite in accord with
Ashanti ideas and customs, and a widespread superstition of all
countries and ages. In PoljTiesia, for example, the foundations
of some of the temples were laid amid human bodies ; under the
gates of Mandalay "spirit watchera" were buried, and not long
ago a panic pervaded the native quarter of Madras out of the
rumor that the English government were about to ensure the
safety of the new harl)or works by sacrificing a number of human
beings.
The religion of the Ashantis^is as rude as their rites in honor of
it are bloody. "Nyonmo" is their Supreme Being, and nearly
evjpry heavenly or terrestrial phenomenon is one of his manifesta-
tions. They worship the earth and the sky as separate deities,
which exercise their influence over mankind; while trees auid
rivers, which are also manifestations of their gods, can only exer-
cise a limited power over particular towns, districts, or men.
**Kra," or the soul of man, existed, in their belief, before the
body, and is transmitted from one man to another, so that the
soul which left the body of an old man may liave entered the body
of the child just born. The priest will augur in regard to the
destiny of the babe yet unljoni, by asking its future Km to tell
one as to its foitune in life.
This Ki-a is distinct from the body, and can give advice, either
good or bad, according to its sex (for there are male and female
Kras), to the body which it inhabits. Evil spirits and ghosts are,
however, what the Ashantis, like the other West Africans, mostly
fear; and to avert their displeasure, resort is had to charms or
fetishes, which may be anything, from a human sacrifice to a pot
of filth compounded by the fetish priest.
> Mr. Reade who lived long among the Ashantis says : It is a mistake to suppose that these
Africans are a stupid people because they liave no books, and do not wear many clotlics. Tlie
children do not go to school, but they sit round the fire at night, or beneath tlio town tree in
the day, and listen to tlieir el<ler5, who discuss ]>o1itics, and matters relating to government*
law, and religion. Every man in a tribe, and every slave belonging to a tribe, has learned at
an early age the constitution by which he is governed, and the policy pursued towards foreign
tribes. In such a land as Ashanti the kings and chiefs are profoundly skilled in the arts of
diplomacy. Their weapon of offence is treachery ; the weajMu of defence, suspicion. They^
hare no aoiiiples and no delusions. They never hesitate to betray, and always hesitate to
beliflTO*
180 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
At the entrance of towns, dwellings, and all places of public
resort, are fetislies to avert evil ; and the pathway of the English
army, all the way from the Pi-ah to Coomassie, was strewn and
littered with fetishes to avert calamity to tlie nation, and to pre-
vent the sacred city being reached by them.
A fetish is indeed something which is popularly supposed to com-
bine in itself the god or his attributes. Fetishism is defined by
Lubbock as "the stage in which man supposes he can force the
Deity to comply with his desires," and Comte has used it to
express a genei-al theory of primitive religion, in which external
objects are regarded "as animated by a life analogous to man's.''
Fetishism thus includes the woi-ship of "stocks and stones,"
and thence passes by an imperceptible gradation into idolatry.
A bit of rag, the claw of some animal, peculiarly shaped stones, or
I'oots, bones, birds' beaks, anything, constitutes a fetish, and
"making fetish" consists mainly in yelling or dancing.
■ The government of Dahome or Dahomey, as it is usually spelled,
presents some very singular points. The monarchy is absolute
within certain limits, yet a wise king always takes care not to inin
counter to the wishes of his subjects in any matter of national
imi)ortance, or when the public sentiment has been firmly and
unmistakably expressed.
But the curiousness lies in the fact that the monarchy is of a
dual character, the authority of the real sovereign being theoreti-
cally supposed to be shared by a "bush-king," an idea which wa.^
the offspring of the brain of Gfou, the eighth king of the present
line.
This bush-king, though a mythical peraonage, has all the
honors, privileges, and appurtenances of a regular sovereign, and
the annual "customs " are prolonged to nearly double their former
length in order to do him honor. He has a palace where looms
are at work, making cloth for his household, pipes, and other
manufactures, a monopoly of which is granted by the king to the
landlord or keeper of the palace of this shadowy being. In addi-
tion, he has his officers of state.
In a word, he is the "c7ow5Ze" of the real king or "akhosu";
and whatever is done for the king in public has to be thrice
repeated ; once for the Amazons, or female guards, then for Ad-
FEUDALWTIU MONARCHY.
c]okpoii, the Imsli-kiiig, and lastly fov Addok-
pcin's Amazons. The ohject of the iiiHtitution
of this bush-kmg is amuaing-
G»?zu was anxious to share in the profits of
the palm oil, imd other trades, hut could not
consent to demean liis royal hands hy mingling
in commercial transactions. Aecoi-dingly the
idea of a "donhle" who should he
the tinding monarch, while the real
sovereign should have all the pleas-
ure of spending the proceeds, was
seized upon. G^zu's douhle was
called Gahqpweh, or "Market-day
coming."
The king makes most of tlie laws,
after submitting them to his priiici-
[wl ministers, whose opinion is always
accepted; and if they approve of the
^*
182 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
"Act of Parliament," hei-alds are sent around and proclaim it to
the people. The people have, however, the privilege of pro-
posing an amendment on an old law, when the 'pro% and c<yn» are
discussed fully in public, without any fear of offence. So on the
whole, the legislative element is in mther a high state of perfec-
tion in the kingdom of Dahomey. Minor offences are judged
by the caboceers, or nobles, but all crimes involving capital
punishment are heard by the king, who alone has the power of
life or death. Many of the laws are very just and appropriate
to the kingdom, but others are mere caprices of a despotic and
whimsical monarch.
Take a few examples : — No person is allowed to marry a wife
imtil he has fii-st asked permission of the king, who can, if he
likes, enlist her in the Amazonian corps; no subject is allowed
to sit on a chair in public, to wear shoes, or to ride in a hammock ;
no goods landed at Wliydah can be I'eshipped; no Dahomey
woman is permitted to leave the country, and so on.
Every man is liable to serve as a soldier, and consequently each
individual in the country is esteemed according to his -military
rank, and the position which that i-ank entitles him to hold in
the different wings of the army, these being of unequal honor in
public esteem.
The "Ningan" is the prime minister and commander-in-chief
of the kingdom, in addition to being chief magistrate, superin-
tendent of police, and principal executioner. No visitors, unless
they are created war captains, can hold any convei'sation with
him; and though prime minister, he has no dealings with civil
business.
All such contemptible *affairs as trade palavera and diplomacy
are beneath the dignity of an official whose sole business in life is
death. He alone, of all the Dahoman subjects, can address the
king with tlie prefix " Asah," a word supposed to resemble a lion's
roar. Like all the high dignitaries, he perfonns most of his
duties by deputies, who are, liowevcr, men of mark.
The second minister of the realm is the "'Meu," whose duties
are onerous and multifarious. All the visitoi-s to the court are
placed under his care. He is the executioner of all the bush-
kind's victims at the annual customs, and collector of the
184 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
revenue. Next to the Meu is the Avogan or Viceroy of Whydah.
In addition, there are several other officials whose positions do
not seem to be very settled and who perform various offices.
The eunuchs rank next to the ministers. They superintend
the Amazons' quarters, and have many privileges not accorded to
other subjects. The night guards of the palace, and the town
police, are also officials of high rank. The trade captains, or
" Akhisin," inspect, if at Whydah, all ships' cargoes, and receive
the customs' duties. Last of all come the commanders of the
various towns, who form alx)ut one fifth of the whole army.
The soldiere are divided into several corps, distinguished by
different uniforms. Each soldier is equipped at the government
expense, but they receive neither pay nor rations, and on the
march are expected either to cany their own provisions, to pur-
chase them, or to forage for them upon the enemy's country.
Fresh elephant steaks on such mai-ches are frequently eaten raw,
being supposed to impart cunning as well as courage.
Every soldier is expected to bring back a head or a prisoner;
and at the conclusion of the campaign the prisoners and heads are
delivered over to the king, who pays each man a fixed price for
his human plunder. Sometimes, in war time, the king will, at
his own charge, ransom captives of his people taken by the enemy.
Surprise is the chief tactic practised in war, and so secret is
eveiything kept that, on the declaration of hostilities, it is rare
that the king tells even his first minister which town he intends
to attack firet. The ai-my marches in silence, not along the
regular coast, but by pathways cut in the bush; no fires are lit;
and all stragglei's are taken prisoners.
In the dead of night the town is surrounded, and just before
daybreak, when all is quiet, the town is assailed, and all the
inhabitants, if possible, captured, the object of all such attacks
being not to kill, but to take prisonei-s, who are either reserved
for the annual customs, or sent as slaves to different parts of the
kingdom, or enlisted in the Dahoman army, where the highest
offices are open to them.
The women are made servants to the Amazons, and reside
witliin the precincts of the palace. The town itself is usually
destroyed, with all its other living inhabitants. If resistance is
^yj^^N::?^)
186 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
attempted, then the struggle is bloody, but short, for African
aboriginal courage is but a spasmodic quality; once let it evap-
orate, it never returns in time to enable the scattered army to
rally. The first repulse is the last.
Disease and hardship decimate the army while on these slave-
hunting expeditions more than the sword. If small-pox breaks
out the mortality is something dreadful; three out of the nine
kings of the present dynasty have fallen victims to this disease.
Perhaps the most extraordinaiy feature in Dahoman economy
is the corps of Amazons or female warriors. This word long ago
got incorporated from the Greek into our language as expressing
a masculine woman, but what these Amazons really ai-e is not so
generally known. Their origin among the Africans dates from
1728, when the exigencies of war compelled the then king to
organize a regiment of women, with whom he attacked and
defeated the old Whydahs. Since then they liave been a marked
feature in the military establishment of the Dahoman kingdom.
Under Gdzu the corps attained its maximum of gi*eatness. With
that acuteness which distinguished him he raised the Amazonian
body from being merely a subordinate establishment to an equal
level with the male soldiers, and created female officers, so that,
by surrounding himself with a band of viragos, bound to him
by all the ties of gratitude and interest, he could at once put a
check on too ambitious subjects, and nip in the bud the first signs
of rebellion.
On a certain day, once in three years, every subject must pre-
sent himself, with his daughtens above a certain age, before the
king. The most promising of those belonging to the higher
classes he selects as officers, the poorer ones b^ing chosen as sol-
diers, while the children of slaves become the servants of the
Amazons who reside within the palace.
This done, the other daughters are returned to their parents to
be disposed of as they may find proper. Some of the selected
girls are "dashed" or presented to the most meritorious soldiers
as wives, and all the female children of these Amazonian wives
are Amazons by birth-right. The king, too, takes several Ama-
zons as concubines, under the name of "leopard wives," who
enjoy many privileges.
ISUDALISTIG MONARCHY. 187
With these exceptions, every Amazon is a celibate; but as
military discipline is not always equal to preventing the little
god Cupid from his mischievous work, a fetish — called ihe
Demen — is erected over one of the palace gates, which by its
power at once discovers any Amazon who is unfaithful to her
military oath in the matter of celilxicy.
Tlie infoimera also — who in these cases are generally jealous
of the culprits — ai-e never backward in causing the misdemeanor
of the erring soldieress to reach the ears of the king, and her fears
being worked on, she almost invariably confesses the name of her
lover. The result is that botli are punished, he assuredly by a
cruel death, and she in all likelihood by blows from the hands of
her comrades.
Though the flower of this coi-ps of female soldiers perished
under the walls of Abeokeuta in 1864, their number may be yet
about four thousand. They are divided into three brigades, each
of which has a peculiar head dress or method of dressing the hair.
Each of these brigades is commanded by female officers and sul>-
officers, and is again divided into Agbaraya, or Blunderbuss
women, the veterans of the aimy only called into action in case of
urgent need; the Gbeto, or Elephant-huntresses, one of the most
celebrated corps in the army, who on hunting expeditions
are exposed to great danger from the infuriated animals; the
Nyekpleh-hentoh, or Razor women, of whom there are only a few
to each wing.
Their special object of attack is the king of the enemy, and the
huge razors which they carry are especially intended for the decapi-
tation of this monarch. Lastly, there are the Gulonentoh, or
Musketeei's, and the Gohento, or Areheresses, who are all young
girls, and more of a show coi^ps, their weapons being of compara-
tively little use in active warfare.
In addition there are troops of camp-followers, hewers of wood,
and drawers of water. Even they enjoy certain privileges. If
met with in the pathway, headed by a beldame ringing a bell,
every man, unless bearing the "king's stick" as insignium of
rank, must instantly disappear to the right or left. To look upon
them would be a crime. Accordingly they are exceedingly self-
important and arrogantly jealous of their prerogatives.
188 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
All the corps of Amazons, with the exception of the Aivh-
eresses, are armed with muskets or blunderbusses, kept scrupu-
lously clean, but though these female warrioi-s are brave to
fei-ocity, they are poor markswomen, hitting a haysfcick being
about the sum of their rifle accomplishments.
The bush-king has also his Amazons, and every official, high
and low, has also his '"' double " among them. If an officer is
elevated to a higher rank, an Amazon within the pilace also gets
a similar title. The mothei-s and wives of deceased kings have
also their representatives among the Amazons, who are called
Akhosusi (king's wives or Mi no, mothei-s).
The term "mother" in Dahomey is, however, a term of i-e-
spect, and does not mean a maternal relative. Though the value
of the Amazonian corps has been justly celebrated as winning
victories for the Dahoman king, yet at the same time we must
remember that its existence is one of the causes of the slow de-
cadence of that kingdom. The pix)portion of celibates is too gi-eat
for the populfition, being somewhei-e about three to one.
Four thousand women represent twelve thousand children,
the greater numlxjr of whom are lost to the State, which cannot
afford such a drain. This, combined with the losses by disease
and war, is one of the fertile sources of the national loss of pres-
tige, which is only too true; and ere long, unless there is a
change, Dahomey will l)e classed among the nations of the past.
A special decoration is reserved for Amazons who have slain
enemies in battle. This is a cowry, glued by the blood of the
slain man to the butt of the musket, one cowTy for each enemy slain.
Until Burton's time we knew almost nothing of the fetishism
which constitutes the religion of the Dahomans. The tradei*s in
charge of the ''factories*' on the coast could tell little. Their
tiilk was of oil, dust, and ivory, and they were more concerned
about how much was to l)e made, honestly or dishonestly, out of
the "black ivory," than what their religion or customs w^ere. So
though for two centuries we have had intercourse with Dahomey,
we are still much in the dark in regard to the nature of their
deities and forms of worship. This we know, however, that they
believe in a Supreme Being, and in a host of minor deities.
Mau, the Supreme Being, resides in a wonderful dwelling above
PKUDALI8TIC MONARCHY. 189
the flky, and is of so exalted a nature as to care very little for
men and their trials. To obtain his aid, special invocation must
he directed to him. Even then he commits the care of human
heinga to monkeys, who in one place frequent a natnntlly teiTaced
river- bluft to ivhich pilgrimages are made and wliicli is called the
Hill of the Holy Monkeys. (Juaixliansliip of human beings is
also entrusted to leopai'ds, snakes, locusts, alligatoi's, and inanimate
objects — stones, rags, cowries, leaves of certain trees — in a
word, to anything and everything.
Man's assistiint keeps a record of the good and evil deeds of
every pei'son by means of notches on a stick; and when anyone
dies his Itody is judged according to tiie records on this monvl
tally. If his good deeds predominate he joins his spirit in Kut-o-
men or the "Dead-land"; but if, on tlie contrary, his evil deeds
pre[>onderate, tlien his Ixxly is entirely desti"oyeil, and a new one
created for the habitation of his spirit or soul.
190 THE STORY OP GOVERNMBNT.
In this belief the spirit has no concern with the body; it is
released, whether the deeds of the person have been good or evil,
immediately after; and whatever is the social condition of a per-
son when he leaves this world, the same will be his social con-
dition in the next.
The slave on earth is the slave in the spirit land; the
king is still the monarch there. The ghosts of parents or rela-
tions take great interest in the affairs of their kin on the
earth, advising them as to their conduct and affairs out of the
depth of knowledge which their residence in the spirit world has
given them. If, however, the misconduct of those on earth is
great, then this protection may be taken from them and given to
entire strangers.
The " customs ** are compliments paid to these guardian spirits,
and to stop them would l)e to insult these all-powerful and useful
beings. When the Dahoman monarch requires special advice, he
applies to the Bassajeh or holy women, who consult the oracle and
obtain an answer. The common people in the same way apply to
a fetish priest, who will act as a medium between the gods and
men.
To every man is assigned at birth a certain number of deeds,
good and bad. He ^is not to blame for those bad deeds allotted
to him, but he can avoid committing them by making certain
offerings to the deity through the medium of the fetish priest.
The Dahoman is thus an eminently religious man. Every action
of his life is mixed up -with his religious ideas, and is mingled
with the desire of obtaining a status in eternity.
Certain priests pi*etend to have seen this far away land of
Kutomen; and if a person is dying he will often pay a handsome
fee to the priest to pay a visit to Kutomen, with a view to beg
the spectral ancestor to excuse the sick man attending the sum-
mons. If the patient recovers, the priest gets the credit of per-
suading the ghost to jirolong his residence on the earth ; but if
not, then he has always the excuse that the spirit will accept of
no subterfuge, and commands immediate i)resence.
Upon one occasion, says Mr. Skertchly, I saw a priest who was
about to depart on a visit to Hades. He received his fee beforehand,
cautious fellow, and went into an empty shed near the patient's
I'EITDALISTIC MONARCHY. 191
house. He then drew a circle on the ground, and took oat of his
M possible sack" a number of charms, all tied up in blood-stained rags.
Squatting down in the centre of this magic circle, and bidding us on
no account to step within it, he covered himself with a large square of
grey baft, profusely and elaborately ornamented. In a few minutes he
commenced to mutter some unintelligible sounds in a low voice, his
body and limbs quivering like an aspen. Half an hour of this farce
ensued, when the fetisher uncovered himself and prepared to deliver
the message.
He said that he had found considerable difficulty in obtaining access
to the ghost who had summoned the patient, as when he knew that a
priest was coming he hid in the bush. He said that the ghost was that
of Nuage (one of the sick man^s dead uncles), and that he was much
offended by this summons not being answered in person ; but in con-
sideration of certain sacrifices offered to Guh, he would think over the
matter. Rather an ambiguous answer, but just in the prevaricating
manner affected by all priests, whether in Japan or on the Yellowstone.
From the statement of these priests it appears that life in the other
world is much the same as in this — wars, palavers, feasts, dances, and
other incidents going on in the same way as on eartli. It appears that
the clothes in which the deceased is buried accompany him to Kuto-
men, for sometimes a priest will bring back with him a necklace, bead,
or other small article known to have been buried with the corpse of
the person who summons the sick man.
Sir Richard Burton mentions the case of a priest who, " after
returning with a declai-ation that he had left a marked coin in
Dead-land, drop{>ed it from his waistcloth at the feet of the payer
while drinking rum." A singular belief is that a spirit may be m
moi*e places than one at the same time. Hence it is believed that
a spirit may remain in spirit land, and yet be in the person of a
newly bom infant.
Thus all the king's children are inhabited by the tmnsmigrated
spirits of former kings, their ancestors. The African cannot gi-asp
the idea of a deity omniscient and omnipresent; accordingly he
has a number of media between himself and Mau, the Supreme
Being.
The Dahoman denies that his Supreme Being has bodily foim,
but yet he ascribes to him human passions ; a sti*ange medley of
contradictions. They are not polytheists ; they worship but one
192 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
god, who is approached, not through minor deities, but through
go-betweens, viz., fetishes. These are, in a word, like the saints
or angels of Christendom, "beings who have powerful influence
for good or evil with Mau."
The most powerful fetish is Danh-gbwe, the tutelary saint of
Whydah, which is pei-sonified by the harmless snake so named.
Its worship was introduced into Dahomey when the kingdom of
Whydah was conquered and annexed. In Whydah, hidden from
eyes profane by a thick grove of fig trees, is the famed Danh-
hweh, or fetish snake-house.
This is nothing more than a circular swish hut, the very model
of the Parian inkstand to be seen in every toyshop. From the
roof depend pieces of cotton yarn, and on the floor, which, in com-
mon with the walls, is whitewashed, are several pots of water. The
pythons, to the number of twenty-two, are coiled on the top of
the wall, or twined around the rafters. All these hideous reptiles
are sacred.
To slay one, even by accident — for to do so purposely would
not be dreamt of — used to entail instant sacrifice to the gods^
and confiscation of all the offender's property to the fetish priests.
Nowadays his punishment is not so severe, but still exemplary
enough. The offender, after a meeting of all the fetishers of the
neighborhood is convened, is seated within a hut of stick,
thatched with dry grass, and built in the enclosure in front of
the snake-house. His clothes and body are well daubed with
palm-oil, mixed with the fat of the murdered snake god.
At a given signal the hut is fired, and the materials being like
tinder, the unfortunate offender against tlie majesty of the snake
is enveloped in flames. In excmciating torture he rushes out of
the flames, his clothes on fii-e, to the nearest water, pursued by
the infuriated priests, who belabor liini with sticks, stones, and
all sorts of rubbish.
If he reaches the water he is free, and should he survive has ex-
piated his crime. Few are able to run the gauntlet, and gener-
ally expire before reaching the cooling water, clubbed to death
l)y the fetishnien, the Danh-yhive-no^ or snake -mothers, as they
are called.
As the door of the snake temple is always open, the snakes fre-
FEDDALISTIC MONAKCHY. 193
quently wander out after nightfall. If any peraon meets one, he
must prostrate himself before it, carrying it tenderly in his anna to
the temple, where his humanity to the snake-god is rewarded by
his being fined for meeting the
snake; and, if lie cannot or will
not j)ay, he is imprisoned until
the uttemiost cowry' is ex-
tracted from him.
Ordiniiry snakes may be killf<l
with impunity, but woe to him
who injures the Danli-gbw
The snake priests have viirio
neophytes or pupils, who are
instructed in the mysteries jiei-
taining to ophio logical theology.
Tliese neophytes are re-
cruited in the following ivay:
If a child is tjmcheil by one of
these snakes in his nocturnal
excursions, it it devoted ever
after to the priesthood of the snake, and its jnirents are forced to
pay large fees for its lengthy instruction in the rites of the fetish
after which he is allowed to practi.se for liiniHt'lf.
Snake worship is one of the most widespii.'iid forms of animal
worship known, hiiviiig been pnictised by must nf the nations of
of eichange. They maile iivi
Ilie »ilB of a aixvie* o( /'yj
•e'.tlcni ibemiielves ui'eil It. I
H been practiced by
i-oninuin " hiir>l-!>liell
•irini; InUlanK
!eorcowiies, or sheUs, as media of eichanjH'.o
j^ nations. The I'ilerttn Fathers at Plyiuoiilh
K the nelKhl-
vliile froi
ciinclitlie" white tFiiin/fr()»'' wan manufactured. The
tunce. In inTI. John ni(^ln«m bad £IGO voted him " In
cuuniry produce." which he wu:i;;lad toeii^tianin! fcirClin Mdlilcnuh. SolM dL-ih incliiilud
beaver AInt, black and white uiintpnm, IwailH, and inuiikut-l>all», value one fartliliig. Il'ttm-
jiuni was also made ot tlie whelk-Bhell (Bm-rinuai). In Xew MfxIco the ear-eliell (lln'lolla
ni/ucciw), the rotmnnn Catirnmlan " AhaliHie," Is used ax ni'iiiey. The Indians wlw re-
iilde<l in [lie vicinity iif tlie old Ituulan u'ttleiuent ot Boilei.'a, on tlie nnrllicrn roa«t of Call-
lomla, uMd at one time jileceH of a clain-Bhell (.•iitTlilomiig aniliiK, <;itt.} aa money. To
retnm to the African cowry. It U the Cm-nra monria of natiiiallHO, a native of the
Indian rapine walen. It In utillzB.1 ax money by the native* nl xmie |urt» of Ilindcwtan.
and is exported lor twrtcr wllh the WR>t African trllwa. In former time II wo-i eiten-
*lvely used In Illnilostan. Rfwu nientlmis that agenllcman rei'ldlngat CuIIauk Utald to
hoiepaldrortlieerecilonof hts/mn/jofrw entirely In these ocjwrleK. The IniMilInK ciwi about
4.«oa nipeei ilcni i£(oa Bterllii);) ; and as Klxty.four ot the»e sheUs are eituLvalent In value to
one iHo!, be paid for It with over K.OOD.OOO of lliene pliell.i. Tons are annuall; nent out from
Ureipool to the Coast ot Africa for trading purposes, and employed in the manner described.
194 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
antiquity, and at the present time by many barbarous or savage
tribes.
Sir John Lubbock considers that the widespread worship of
snakes points us to the fact of the worship having originated
spontaneously in many different places and at different times, and
that the worship of the seipent-god commenced originally as a
malevolent being, who was flattered, as cruel rulera ever are, but
that in process of time this flattery, at first only an expression of
fear, came to be an article of faith.
In ancient times Mr. Fergusson shows that serpent worship
prevailed in Egypt, India, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Greece, and,
to a smaller extent, in Italy. In more modern times tmces have
been found in Persia, Cashmere, Cambodia, Thibet, India, China,
Ceylon, America, and among the Kalmucks. In Africa serpents
were adored among the Abyssinians, and in Upper Egypt. All
along the Gold and Slave Coasts, viz., Guinea, this snake-worship
prevailed at one time.
Bosman, an old writer on Guinea, mentions that some English
sailors who had killed one of these serpents, which they found in
their house, were attacked and killed by the natives. Not to
enumerate other instances, even among the Mahommedan, Foulahs,
and Mandingoes, and among the Christianized people of Sierra
Leone, traces of ophiolatry are said to exist.
The given reason why the snake is so reverenced in Whydah
is because, during an attack on Ardra, it appeared to the army,
and so stimulated it tliat the victory wiis secured. It is still
looked upon with equal veneration, notwithstanding the fact that
it did not avail against the conquering Dahomans, into whose
kingdom Whydah is now incorporated.
Frequently young women who are ill are taken to the snake
temple to be cured and high fees ai*e exacted for this service. In
Astley's "Collection of Voyages and Travels" is figured "Agoye
an Idol of Whiddah," the "God of Councils," in the form of a
human being with serpents and lizards coming out of the top of
its head.
Though nowadays the snake is looked upon as equally powerful
in obtaining favors for its worshippers, yet in Whydah, at least, it
has no visible representation m the shape of an image, its worship
FEUDAUSTIC MONARCHY. 195
being confined to an adoration of the living snakes kept in the
snake-houses in all the principal towns, and which, wandering
about at night, are a perfect nuisance to all who dwell in the
vicinity of the snake-temples.
The Danhsi, or snake-priests ("'snake-mothers" and '* snake-
wives *' they ai*e also called), number upwards of one thousand,
and are of both sexes, married and single. They generally com-
mence with a coui-se of preliminary instruction at Whydah, and
finish off at the great fetish town of Somome.
Another deity, almost as important, is Atin-bodun, personified
by various trees, but who resides in some curious specimen of
ceramic ware, such as an upturned pot, or red cullender. He is
worshipped by offerings of water poured into the little pot, and
is especially powerful in averting and curing diseases, especially
fevers. He also inhabits any tall tree, such as the Loko or
poison tree, a decoction of the leaves of which is used to detect
any hidden crime. Atin-bodun is served by almost as many
priests as the snakes, but they are not of such high rank.
Another deity is Hu, '"the Dahonian Nei)tune,'* who has the
sea at Whydah in his charge. Canoe men woi-ship and offer up
donations of food to him to induce him to save them from the
rolling surf. Formerly the king was accustomed to send a man
dressed as a caboceer, with umbrella, stool, beads, and other
insignia of his rank, to the beach, where he was j^laced in a
canoe by the Huno [priest], and, after sundry offerings and
prayers, caiTied out to sea and thrown overboard. This practice
is now happily discontinued.
Khevyosoh, the thunder-god, is the last of the four principal
Dahoman deities. He is tlie Slave Coast Jupiter, who presides
over the weather, and slays all wlx) offend him with his thunder-
bolts, t. «., abi^ the lightning.
In considering such governments as those of Ashanti and
Dahomey with, their dreadful religious rites, and their curious,
appalling superstitions, one is tempted to wonder, when taking
into account the vast sums which have been subscribed in the last
hundred years for missionary purposes, why Christianity has made
so little impression on the African mind.
We see in this country that the gentle and beautiful teachings
196 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of Him who was born on the wood of a manger and died on the
wood of a cross — the carpenter's son of Galilee — have from the
earliest days of slaveiy been peculiarly attractive to the natures
of our colored brethren, and that since the abolition of slavery
Christianity has been a most potent factor in the gradual eleva-
tion of that i-ace which politicians have been wont to regard as
furnishing the most perplexing problem of our American attempt
at civilization.
Why, then, have so much noble endeavor and so much wealth
been wasted in Africa? Why has the missionary business been
a most pathetic failure? The i)mctical man answers these ques-
tions by affirming tliat tlie African aborigines must be commercially
transfonned and held under the dominion or at least the protector-
ate of some Euroi>ean power, before any efforts to plant Chris-
tianity can be crowned with a satisfactory harvest.
The French are engaged at present in attempting to convert
Behanzin, the King of Dahomey, ])y force of anns, to certain com-
mercial views which they think he ought to liold, and this has
been the English method with all African tril)e8. As one brilliant
writer i)uts it, commercialization or extermination fire tlie only
stepping-stones to civilization in interior Africa and, indeed,
while the Cliristian powei-s of Europe, for the sake of extending
commerce or acquiring territoiy, maintain a martial attitude
towards the unfortuncate natives, there would seem to be slight
chance for the successful dissemination of the doctrines of the
Prince of Peace.
Is it not tlien prolwible that those niinistei-s are quite right
who in the recent meetings of missionary societies have coun-
selled the expenditure of less money for foreign missions jvnd more
for the improvement of the environment of the less pictui-esque
but equally needy heathen in our great cities? If the churches
all over the country would club together and cooperate in
abolishing the tenement-house rookeries or the sweating shops
of just one city every year, it would not be long before the foun-
dations of the Temple of Univei>;al Brotherhood would be fairly
and firmly laid.
Pehsia ii'i>reseiitji, perhajw, more
perfectly than niiy existing natioui
except posaibly some small kingdom among
barbarians, tlio principle of alisolutiani, or iiTe-
lon^ible antl fetterless power in the hands of one
man, inid tliis has been so for inanj' centaries, although
the ]ireaent Pei'sians tire no more descended from the
famous Medes and Persians, or from the i-ice who defeated
Xenophon and his ten thousand, tlian the present inliabitants of
our cosmopolitan country ai'e from tha men who sketched au
outline of practical socialistic goveniment in the cabin of the
Mayflower.
Persia has been so often invaded, and so many iiiecs have con-
tributed to the empire, that it is now difficult, if not impossible,
to trace the original elements. Rivera flow into the sea; you may
trace their currents for a little way, but soon they ))h'nd with the
ocean and their elements defy a chemic auivl}-sis.
So with nearly all ancient realms, Thero has been a blending
of namerons nationalities; yet the philologist and ethnologist
may now and then detect them in certain eddies of the einpire,
where they have feept more unmixed than elsewhere, by a turn
198 THE STORY OP GOVBEKMENT.
of speech, or a cast of countenance. In no province of the
country is the population wholly Persian; everywhere there are
alien elements.
The ancient Persians were celebrated for their handsome per-
sons, rather tall stature, and the beauty of their women. The
modern race, or "Tadjiks," as they call themselves, have a fair
share of good looks; their features are regular, their countenances
oval, hair glossy and luxuriant, and their eyes dark and soft.
Witty, cheerful, frivolous, idle, luxurious, and fond of dress and
display is the character which has been given them, an opinion
that is rather too sweeping to be time.
A people made up of such diverae elements is difficult to char-
acterize without making so many exceptions thiat the rule is not
proved, except to have no existence. However, in progress of
time, notwithstanding the original differences of the people, some
few general chai-acteristics will be found to have become common.
These we may briefly sketch. There are two great classes,
the fixed and the wandering; but the nomad tribes have little
voice in the country, and it is from the fixed inhabitants of the
cities and country seats that the ruling classes and those who
properly constitute the stronghold of the country are selected.
We may, for convenience, divide them into (1) the civil and
military functionaries, including those connected with the couit,
(2) the inhabitants of the towns, such as the merchants, shop-
keepers, artisans, membei"s of the I'eligious orders, men of learn-
ing, and of all kinds of business; (3) the agriculturists or
cultivators of the soil; and lastly (4) there may be added the wild
wanderers or "Eeliauts."
The Persian court is a perfect type of despotism. Every officer
owes his elevation to the favor or caprice of the monarch, and is
liable at any moment to dismissal without a chance of appeal
either to his superioi-s, to a court of law, or to that greater public
opinion which controls tyranny and injustice in other countries.
Treated in a capricious manner by his sovereign, he, in
his turn, rides roughshod over all his inferiors. Knowing that
he may fall as suddenly as he was raised by the whim of the
monarch, he endeavors, during his uncertain tenure of office, to
amass, by every means known in a country where justice and right
200 THB STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
are merely high sounding words for poets to mouth, enough
wealth to support the extravagance which his ix)8ition necessarily
entails, to bribe his enemies when his evil day arrives, or to retire
upon to a quiet comer of the empire if he be fortunate enough to
escape the bowstring in the hour of his fall.
Deceitful, treacherous, venal, aiTogant, dishonest and overbear-
ing, the Persian courtier possesses the art of concealing his true
character under a polished manner, and a lively, courteous, and
mild countenance which rarely betrays the workings of his mind.
Add to this, he is often an acute diplomatist, well informed,
and skilful in business. A court so constituted camiot but be
hated by all the poorer classes, who are the chief sufferers by it,
and its pernicious example spreads the contagion of venality, petty
rascality, and other evils throughout the community.
But all the high officere of State are not selected from the class
of nobles. No doubt, as in most countries, the ** upper classes "
have more than their fair share of power and place ; yet many of
the public functionaries and ministers in Persia belong to the
order of Mirzas, secretaries, or "men of business."
For the policy of the monarchs is to select some of their officers
from the humblest class of life, under the idea that men thus
luised to dignity by the favor of the king alone will be, through
gratitude, more attached to his person than a military noble,
whose rank would, as much as his sovereign's favor, have obtained
for him power, and who, at the beck of ambition or offended pride,
might summon to his aid a host of warlike retainei's and plunge
the country into civil war. *
These Mirzas, though the equals of the nobles in treachery and
immorality, are yet in general more accomplished than they,
being well versed in all state-ci-aft, mild and sulxlued in their
address, and differing from the nobles in not indulging in martial
or athletic exercises, and wearing, instead of a sword or dagger, a
eulumdaun^ or ink horn, attached to their girdle.
Any pei-son can get access to the king to lay his complaint
before him ; but, unless there be a desire to push the affair, the
comi)laint only is heard. However, it is treasured up to be
brought forth in due time when the functionary complained of
^ets into disgrace, and an excuse is desired for his degradation*
ABSOLUTISM. 201
The olBoe of collector of public revenue is a poor one. The
people, knowing that the taxation only goes to enrich the court
and pays for no work of public utility, are unwilling to satisfy the
just demands of the collector, and frequently even threaten to take
his life. This unwillingness to meet their public obligations is in-
tensified by the fact that taxation falls chiefly on the toilers.
The great nobles, foreigners and wealthy native merchants are
exempt from contributions to the Shah's exchequer, though the
first and last named are subject to irregular extortions which are
sometimes even less bearable than the systematic bleeding of the
collector.
On the other hand, the rapacious officials at the capital do every-
thing in their power to extort more taxes, and frequently threaten
the collector with punishment on the plea that he has withheld
taxes, so as to induce him to " squeeze " the population still more
thoroughly.
Thus, between the rebellious j^eople at large who object to being
bled, and the officials close to the Shah who have a thirst for the
silver sweat and golden blood of a peo])le (which is commonly
called taxes), it is easy to see that a revenue collector in Persia
needs the stubbornness of a mule, the persistency of a gadfly, and
the nine lives of a cat.
Such, however, is the accui"sed thirst for gold — so intense, al-
though it is an artificial or accidental and not an innate passion, so
insanely intense is the desire to acquire property — that, even in
the most dangerous districts of the Shah's dominion, this post of
danger is eagerly sought.
Many anecdotes are current in Persia concerning the collector,
his cunning, and tlie ill luck that often attends him like a shadow.
Yet, although the Prince of Sliiraz once in irony ordered a
notorious thief to be punished by being made manager of the
i*e venue of a district, as he could conceive of no crime for which
that appointment would not be an adequate punishment, there is
little doubt that between the people and the public treasury not a
little of the public cash clings to the fingers of the collector, and
that many of them accumulate gi*eat wealth.
Notwithstanding the power of the nobles, the people, either
through a natura\ly high spirit, not effaced by long oppression, or
202 THE STOBY OF GOVEBNMENT.
more probably owing to long custom which allows them to do so
with impunity, loudly proclaim their wrongs at court, if they
consider themselves injured; yet, on account of the difficulty and
expense of travelling, this is denied to the residents in the more
distant parts of the country. The common people are frugal and
industrious. Few are in actual want, and many of the trading
class amass considerable wealth, which by cunning and deceit
they manage to save from the hands of the rapacious courtiers.
**Eveiy one," says Sir John Malcolm, "complains of poverty,
but this complaint as often pi-oceeds from a desire to avoid oppres-
sion as from its actual privations." The government officials are
paid wretchedly small salaries, and even these payments are most
unpunctually made. To meet his daily expenses money has to be
borrowed at a high rate of interest, debts accumulate, and in a
few years a government servant, if honest, would be ruined.
Xo position can be more ignominious than that of a Pereian
courtier in disgrace. Should he incur liis master's displeasiu^,
without the slightest warning he is deprived of his property,
offices, dignities and honors. His slaves are sold or handed over
to the favorite of the hour, his wives and childi-en are insulted or
even exposed to the brutality of his grooms and guards, while he
himself is beaten with a stick or mutilated by the executioner's
knife. Tiie new favorite is often a mere boy, as in our picture.
Yet these revei-ses of fortune are not final. Tliey are philo-
sophically accepted as accidents which must always happen to one
who embraces the precarious life of a courtier, and by the Orien-
tal, who considei-s every misfortune as pre-oidained by fate and
impossible to be prevented, are viewed in a way not widely differ-
ent from that in which a European Secretary of State might i-egard
an official announcement that his sovereign had been pleased
to dispense with his services, or an unfavorable expression of
public opinion in the shape of a severe newspaper article on his
policy.
Indeed, though Persian sovereigns express veiy savagely their
displeasing at the policy of a minister, he may, after experiencing
the infelicity of being disgraced, be received again into royal favor.
His family in such a case is sent back to him, with as many of his
slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, pruned of all danger-
204 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
ous exuberance, is returned. A bath mollifies his bruised feet,
a cap conceals his cr()[)ped ears, and the white-washed culprit is
often reinstated in the very government he has lost, perhaps
carrying with him a sentence of disgi^aee to his successor to whose
inti'igues he owed his temponiry fall.
It is indeed surprising how carelessly the king and his ministers
l)estow situations of confidence on strangers, or on men who, from
having been the sufferei-s of great injustice, might be dreaded as
their bitterest enemies ; yet the management of a conquered state
is frequently intrusted to the khan or prince who before possessed
it in his own right. The pardoned rebel of one province is
appointed to the supi-eme command in another; and the disgraced
noble or governor is sent to take charge of a district where the
utmost fidelity and zeal are required.
No official, however high, can be sure of his life; it lies in the
hands of the king as nmch as does the life of the meanest subject.
The death of an official is detennined, the warrant for his execu-
tion is made out, and an officer is despatched to execute it. The
man rides as fast as horses pressed into his service can carry him
until he arrives at the city where the doomed man lives. He
exhibits his mandate to the governor or chief man of the city, and
commands him to assist him. As soon as the door of the victim's
house is opened, the executioner rushes in, and, di*awing his
scimitar, falls on the unfortunate man with the exclamation, "It
is the king's command," cuts him down, and strikes off his head.
Karely is any resistance offered.
Cases have biien known in which a powerful man has attempted
to waylay the messenger oji the road, when he knew his errand,
and, depriving him of the warrant, has delayed his fate until
another could be got, or until he has had time to obtain paidon.
But usually, suc^h is the awe of the king's name that no atttn:pt
is made by the victim to escape his fate. He calmly submits*
"It is the (lecrcc; of Allah — it is fjite — Allah be praised! " As
for his nearest kin, they fly from him as from a thing accui«ed.
The dependcmts whom an hour ago he could have made happy
Avith a smile desert him as one whose touch would defile. He is
like an infected creature. "All nature seems to be roused againitt
liim," are the woi-ds of an ancient writer in Persia.
206 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The Gholams are the king's guards, and ate composed of young
men held in favor by him. Generally they are young Circassian
or Georgian captives, and accordingly their condition is that of
slaves, though, the ]X)sition being one of honor and emolument,
the sons of tlie highest noblemen may be found there.
The Gholam Corps numbers three thousand or four thousand
men, and, in addition to acting as escorts to the king and guards
to his palaces, they are often despatched on delicate missions,
such as that we have described in relation to the execution of a
disgraced ofScial. In the execution of these errands they often
amass large sums by extortion ; and the surest pi-oof of the in-
vidious character which they bear is the fact that their very name
carries terror. The arrival of a gholam e shahee is enough to
throw a whole district into alaim; it has even depopulated a
village for a time.
The inhabitants of different districts differ considerably in
character, and in their reputation for courage or cowardice.
The inhabitiints of the towns, or ShehereSs^ are even moi-e mixed
than those of the countrj-^ districts. In general, though by no
means to be held up as models for young men, they are of a better
character than the higher ehisses, and are, as a rule, industrious,
polite, sociable, good servants and indulgent masters, though
largely imbued with deceit and greed.
The merchants are often wealthy, and in general are intelligent
and cultivated. The small sliopkeepers are more distinguished
for insincerity and cunning, both vices, though inherent in the
race, being fostered by their constnnt diead of the caprice of their
superiors. The merchants, on the other hand, are, as all through
the East, held in more considenitiou, being looked upon not only
as a source of revenue, but also as a useful medium for main-
taining friendly relations with foreign stiites.
The ecclesiastical law is administered by a numerous body of
priests of all ^rrades, from the Sudder al Suddoor down to the
lowest of the moUahs. The niooshteheds are the highest order,
and are the supnmie pontiffs of the kingdom, who, subject to the
approbation of the sovereign, nominate all the principal judges.
They usually number three or four, and are elected by the people
count of their acknowledged sanctity.
aOo THE STORY OF €K>VEENMENT.
The Sheik al Islam, or niler of the faith, ranks next^to the
mooshteheds. He is a salaried judge, his duty being to admin-
ister the written law. He is often a man of quite as great
influence as the mooshteheds, his official superiors. The other
ecclesiastical ofiicials are those ooanected with the mosques.
Eveiy mosque, except the very inaigniiicant ones, has a
staff of three, viz., tlie mostwuUa, who manages its temporal
affairs, and who may be said to be a kind of churchwarden ; the
muezzin, or caller to prayers (the "beadle "), and the mollah, or
priest proper, who conducts the ceremonial of the Mohammedui
religion. They also preach a sort of sermon on texts from the
Koran — the Mohammedan Bible,
Besides these, there are in every city, and connected with all
seminaries of learning, a crowd of moUahs, who live by their arts,
and have Httle of the priest but the name. They practise astrol-
ogy, write letters and contracts for those who are ignorant of pen-
manship, and thus contrive to prolong a miserable life.
Nothing can be lower than the character of these people.
Their hypocrisy, profligacy and want of principle, are the sub-
jects of stories, epigrams, and proverbs without end. "Take
care," says one adage, "of the face of a woman and the
heels of a mule; but with a mollah be on your guard at all
points." "To hate like a mollah," and "to cheat like a mollah '*
are sayings of frequency in the mouth of a Persian.
It is not the moUahs alone who are the subject of Pereian
jocularity. All classes who are concerned in the administration
of the law or Mohammedan religious ceremonies are proverbial for
their dishonesty and trickery. Chief among these are the seyeda,
or descendants of the prophet, who are accounted rogues hy
nature i but after they have made a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the
birthplace of Mohammed, are considered to have graduated in all
dishonesty and rascality. In the repertory of Peraian jests, nine
tenths hinge upon what a mollah or a hadji (Mecca pilgrim) did,
and the anecdotes are told with a grave humor peculiarly charac-
teristic of the East. The aUtivatorg of the sail, in Persia, though
^-M«ires.<;ed. ;ire hospitable, active, and intelligent, and are more
^^^^fortiibli- in their lives than the average woikman in any
^^^^kr overgrown cities.
AB80LT7TIS1C . 209
Penian wameti, like those of all other Mohammedan countries,
aie not looked upon as the equals of the men. They are hy some
Moslem priests even belieTed not to have souls, and in every case
are mere slaves who minister to the pleasure of their haughly
lords. In many cases, however, their sharp wit enables them to
gain an ascendency over their more lethargic husbands, and even
to sway the affairs of the court at their own sweet will.
An Eastern seraglio is yet a "gilded cage,'* tenanted by
uneducated women, whose only thoughts are to please their mas-
ter and amuse their aimless existence. Intrigue, discontent and
crime are the natural sequence of such a state of matters. The
harem life has been often described, but by none, it is said by
those acquainted with the subject, in more faithful colors than by
the French writer Chardin.
The seraglio of the king, says M. Chardin, is most commonly a
perpetnal prison, from whence scarce one female in six or seven has
the good fortune to escape, for women who have become the mothers
of living children are provided with a small establishment within the
walls, and are never suffered to leave them. But privation of liberty
is by no means the worst evil that exists in these melancholy abodes.
Except to that wife so fortunate as to produce the firstborn son,
to become a mother is the most dreaded event that can happen to the
wretched favorites of the king. When this occurs, not only do the
mothers see their last chance of liberty and marriage cut off, but
they live in the dreadful anticipation of seeing their children de-
prived of life or sight, when the death of their lord shall call a new
tyrant, in the person of his son, the brother of their offspring, to the
throne.
Should they escape having children, by an assiduous court paid to
the king's mother, or to the mother of his eldest son, it sometimes
happens that they obtain the good fortune of being bestowed upon
some of the officers about the court; for the ministers and grandees,
who are always intriguing with these influential ladies, seldom fail of
soliciting a female of the royal harem either for themselves or their
sons.
Indeed, it is no uncommon thing for the king liimself to bestow
one of these fair captives upon one of his favorites, or his courtiers; and
sometimes, when the harem gets crowded, this is done to a great extent
as a measure of economical expediency. Happy the woman thus freed
from, her prison, for she at once exchanges the situation of a slave for
202 THE 8T0BY OF GOVEBNMENT.
more probably owing to long custom which allows them to do so
with impunity, loudly proclaim their wrongs at court, if they
consider themselves injured; yet, on account of the difficulty and
expense of travelling, this is denied to the residents in the more
distant parts of the country. The common people are frugal and
industrious. Few are in actual want, and many of the trading
class amass considerable wealth, which by cunning and deceit
they manage to save from the hands of the rapacious courtiers.
**Evei7 one," says Sir John Malcolm, "complains of poverty,
but this complaint as often pi-oceeds from a desire to avoid oppres-
sion as from its actual privations.'* The government officials are
paid wretchedly small salaries, and even these payments are most
unpunctually made. To meet his daily expenses money has to be
borrowed at a high rate of interest, debts accumulate, and in a
few years a government servant, if honest, would be ruined.
No position can be more ignominious than that of a Persian
courtier in disgrace. Should he incur his master's displeasure,
without the slightest warning he is deprived of his property,
offices, dignities and honors. His slaves are sold or handed over
to the favorite of the Iiour, his wives and childi*en are insulted or
even exposed to the brutality of his grooms and guards, while he
himself is beaten with a stick or mutilated by the executioner's
knife. The new favorite is often a mere boy, as in our picture.
Yet these revei-ses of foi-tune are not final. They are philo-
sophically accepted as accidents which must always happen to one
who embraces the precarious life of a courtier, and by the Orien-
tal, who considei-s every misfortune as pre-oniained by fate and
impossible to be prevented, are viewed in a way not widely differ-
ent fi'om that in which a European Secretary of State might regard
an otlicial announcement that his sovereign had been pleased
to dispense with his services, or an unfavomble expression of
public opinion in the shape of a severe newspaper article on his
policy.
Indeed, though Persian sovereigns express veiy savagely their
displeasure at the policy of a minister, he may, after experiencing
the infelicity of being disgraced, be received again into royal favor.
His family in such a case is sent back to him, with as many of his
slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, pruned of all danger-
196 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of Him who was born on the wood of a manger and died on the
wood of a cross — the carpenter's son of Galilee — have from the
earliest days of slavery been peculiarly attractive to the natures
of our colored brethren, and that since the abolition of slavery
Christianity lias been a most potent factor in the gradual eleva-
tion of that race which politicians have been wont to regard as
furnishing the most perplexing problem of our American attempt
at civilization.
Why, then, have so much noble endeavor and so much wealth
been wasted in Africa? Why has the missionary business been
a most pathetic failure? The pmctical man answers these ques-
tions by aflRrming that the African aborigines must be commercially
transformed and held under the dominion or at least the protector-
ate of some European powei-, before any efforts to plant Chris-
tianity can be crowned with a satisfactory harvest.
The French are engaged at present in attempting to convert
Behanzin, the King of D«ahomey, by force of anus, to certain com-
mercial views which they think he ought to hold, and this has
been the English method with all African tril)es. As one brilliant
writer puts it, commercialization or extermination «are the only
stepping-stones to civilization in interior Africa and, indeed,
while the Christian powei's of Europe, for the sake of extending
commerce or acquiring temtoiy, maintain a martial attitude
towards the unfortunate natives, there would seem to be slight
chance for the successful dissemination of the doctrines of the
Prince of Peace.
Is it not then probable that those niinistei-s are quite right
who in the recent meetings of missionary societies have coun-
selled the expenditure of less money for foreign missions and more
for the improvement of the environment of the less pictui-esque
but equally needy heathen in our great cities? If the churches
all over the country would club together and cooperate in
abolishing the tenement-house rookeries or the sweating shops
of just one city every year, it would not be long before the foun-
dations of the Temple of Univei*sal Brotherhood would be fairly
and firmly laid.
Peusia i-e]i reset its, perhaps, more
perfectly tliaii any existing nation,
except possibly some small kingdom iimong
barbarians, the pfinciple of absolutism, oi- irre-
sponsible ami fetterless power lit tlie lianilw nf one
man, and tliis has been so for many centuries, iilllumgli
the present Persians are no moiB descended fmni l!ie
famous Medes and Persians, or fi'om the i.iee who defeated
Xenophon and his ten thousand, than tlie present inliabitants of
our cosmopolitan country are from ths men who slcet(!bed an
outline of practical socialistic government in the cabin of the
Mayflower.
Pemia has been so often invaded, and so many nun's have eon-
tribnted to the empire, that it is now difficult, if not impossible,
toti-ace the original elements. Rivew flow into the sea; you may
ti-ace their currents for a little «-a\-, but soon thi'v blend with the
ocean and their elements defy a ehemic analysis.
So with neatl)- all ancient realms. Tliere has been a blending
of nnmerons nationalities; yet the philologist and ethnologist
may now and then detect them in certain eddies of the empire,
where they have tept more unmixed than elsewhert-, by a turn
198 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of speech, or a cast of countenance. In no province of the
country is the population wholly Persian; everjrwhere there are
alien elements.
The ancient Persians were celebrated for their handsome per-
sons, rather tall stature, and the beauty of their women. The
modern race, or "Tadjiks," as they call themselves, have a fan-
share of good looks; their featui'es are regular, their countenances
oval, hair glossy and luxuriant, and their eyes dark and soft.
Witty, cheerful, frivolous, idle, luxurious, and fond of dress and
display is the character which has been given them, an opinion
that is rather too sweeping to be true.
A people made up of such diveree elements is difficult to char-
acterize without making so many exceptions that the rule is not
pi-oved, except to have no existence. However, in progress of
time, notwithstanding the original differences of the people, some
few genei'al chai-acteristics will be found to have become common.
These we may briefly sketch. There are two great classes,
the fixed and the wandering; but the nomad tribes have little
voice in the country, and it is from the fixed inhabitants of the
cities and country seats that the ruling classes and those who
properly constitute the stronghold of the country are selected.
We may, for convenience, divide them into (1) the civil and
military functionaries, including those connected with the comt,
(2) the inhabitiints of the towns, such as the merchants, shop-
keepers, artisans, merabei-s of the religious ordei*s, men of learn-
ing, and of all kinds of business; (3) the agriculturists oi
cultivators of the soil ; and lastly (4) there may be added the wild
wanderers or "Eeliauts."
The Persian couit is a perfect type of despotism. Every officer
owes his elevation to the favor or caprice of the monarch, and is
liable at any moment to dismissal without a chance of appeal
either to his superioi-s, to a court of law, or to that greater public
opinion which controls tyranny and injustice in other countries.
Treated in a capricious manner by his sovereign, he, in
his turn, rides roughshod over all his inferiors. Knowing that
he may fall as suddenly as he was raised by the whim of the
monarch, he endeavors, during his uncertain tenure of office, to
amass, by every means known in a country where justice and right
198 THE STOEY OF QOVKEMMEKT.
of speech, or a cast of countenance. In no province of the
country is the population wholly Persian; everywhere there are
alien elements.
The ancient Persians were celebrated for their handsome per-
sons, rather tall stature, and the beauty of their women. The
modern race, or "Tadjiks," as they call themselves, have a fair
aliaits of good looks; their featui'es are regular, their countenances
oval, hair glossy and luxuriant, and their eyes dark and soft.
Witty, cheerful, frivolous, idle, luxurious, and fond of dress and
display is the character which has been given them, an opinion
that is rather too sweeping to be ti-ue.
A people made up of such diverse elements is difficult to char-
acterize without making so many exceptions that the rule is not
proved, except to have no existence. However, in progress of
time, notwithstanding the original differences of the people, some
few general ehai-acteristics will be found to have become common.
These we may briefly sketch. There are two great classes,
the fixed and the wandering; but the nomad tribes have little
voice in the country, and it is from the lixed inhiibitants of the
cities and country seats that the ruling classes and those who
properly constitute the stronghold of the country are selected.
We may, for convenience, divide them into (1) the civil and
military functionaries, including those connected with the couit,
(2) the inhabitants of the towns, such as the merchants, shop-
keepers, artisans, membei'S of the religious orders, men of learn-
ing, and of all kinds of business; (3) tlie agriculturists or
cultivators of the soil ; and lastly (4) there may be added the wild
wanderers or "Eeliauts."
The Persian court is a perfect type of despotism. Every officer
owes his elevation to the favor or caprice of the monarch, and is
liable at any moment to dismissal without a chance of appeal
either to his superiors, to a court of law, or to that greater public
opinion which controls tyranny and injustice in other countries.
Treated in a e^ricioua manner by his sovereign, he, in
his turn, rides rqil^h<{^^*iytBr all his inferiors. Knowing that
^ liu may fnil w iu(Uutiu^!jlrjre was laised by the whim of the
[ bis utiifrtain tennri' of office, to
Inhere justice and right
200 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
are merely high sounding words for poets to mouth, enough
wealth to support the extravagance which his position necessarily
entails, to bribe his enemies when his evil day arrives, or to retire
upon to a quiet corner of the empire if he be fortunate enough to
escape the bowstring in the hour of his fall.
Deceitful, treacherous, venal, aiTogant, dishonest and overbear-
ing, the Persian courtier possesses the art of concealing his true
character under a polished manner, and a lively, courteous, and
mild countenance which rarely betrays the workings of his mind.
Add to this, he is often an acute diplomatist, well informed,
and skilful in business. A court so constituted camiot but be
hated by all the poorer classes, who are the chief sufferers by it,
and its pernicious example spreads the contagion of venality, petty
rascality, and other evils throughout the community.
But all the high officei's of State are not selected from the class
of nobles. No doubt, as in most countries, the *' upper classes ''
have more than their fair share of power and place ; yet many of
the public functionaries and ministers in Persia belong to the
order of Mirzas, secretaries, or "men of business."
For the policy of the monarchs is to select some of their officers
from the huni])lest class of life, under the idea that men thus
raised to dignity by the favor of the king alone will be, through
gratitude, more attached to his pereon than a military noble,
whose rank would, as much as his sovereign's favor, have obtained
for him power, and who, at the beck of ambition or offended pride,
might summon to his aid a host of warlike i*etainera and plunge
the country into civil war. •
These Mii-zas, though the equals of the nobles in treachery and
immorality, are yet in general more accomplished than they,
being well versed in all state-ci*aft, mild and sulxlued in their
address, and differing from the nobles in not indulging in martial
or athletic exercises, and wearing, instead of a sword or dagger, a
cuhimdaun^ or ink horn, attached to their girdle.
Any pei-son can get access to the king to lay his complaint
before him ; but, unless there be a desire to push the affair, the
complaint only is heard. However, it is treasured up to Ix?
brought forth in duc^ time when the functionary complained of
gets into disgrace, and an excuse is desired for his degradation.
ABSOLUTISM. 201
The office of collector of public revenue is a poor one. The
people, knowing that the taxation only goes to enrich the court
and pays for no work of public utility, are unwilling to satisfy the
just demands of the collector, and frequently even threaten to take
his life. This unwillingness to meet their public obligations is in-
tensified by the fact that taxation falls chiefly on the toilers.
The great nobles, foreigners and wealthy native merchants are
exempt from contributions to the Shah's exchequer, though the
first and last named are subject to irregular extortions which are
sometimes even less bearable than the systematic bleeding of the
collector.
On the other hand, the rapacious officials at the capital do every-
thing in their power to extort more taxes, and frequently threaten
the collector with punishment on the plea that he has withheld
taxes, so as to induce him to " squeeze " the populati6n still more
thoroughly.
Thus, between the rebellious people at large who object to being
bled, and the officials close to the Shah who have a thirst for the
silver sweat and golden blood of a people (which is commonly
called taxes), it is easy to see that a revenue collector in Persia
needs the stubbornness of a mule, the persistency of a gadfly, and
the nine lives of a cat.
Such, however, is the accui*sed thirst for gold — so intense, al-
though it is an artificial or accidental and not an innate passion, so
insanely intense is the desire to acquire property — that, even in
the most dangerous districts of the Shah's dominion, this post of
danger is eagerly sought.
Many anecdotes ai-e current in Persia concerning the collector,
his cunning, and the ill luck that often attends him like a shadow.
Yet, although the Prince of Shiraz once in irony ordered a
notorious thief to be punished by being made manager of the
revenue of a district, as he could conceive of no crime for which
that appointment would not be an adequate punishment, there is
little doubt that between the people and the public treasury not a
little of the public cash clings to the fingers of the collector, and
that many of them accumulate gi*eat wealth.
Notwithstanding the power of the nobles, the people, either
through a natura\ly high spirit, not effaced by long oppression, or
202 THE STOBY OF 60VEBKMENT.
more probably owing to long custom which allows them to do so
with impunity, loudly proclaim their wrongs at court, if they
consider themselves injured; yet, on account of the difficulty and
expense of travelling, this is denied to the residents in the more
distant parts of the country. The common people are frugal and
industrious. Few are in actual want, and many of the trading
class amass considerable wealth, which by cunning and deceit
they manage to save from the hands of the rapacious courtiers.
**Eveiy one," says Sir John Malcolm, "complains of poverty,
but this complaint as often pit)ceeds from a desire to avoid oppres-
sion as from its actual privations." The government officials are
paid wretchedly small salaries, and even tliese payments are most
unpunctually made. To meet his daily expenses money has to be
borrowed at a high rate of interest, debts accumulate, and in a
few years a government servant, if honest, would be ruined.
No position can be more ignominious than that of a Peraian
courtier in disgrace. Should he incur his master's displeasure,
without the slightest warning he is deprived of his property,
offices, dignities and honors. His slaves are sold or handed over
to the favorite of the hour, his wives and childi-en are insulted or
even exposed to the bi-utality of his grooms and guards, while he
himself is beaten with a stick or mutilated by the executioner's
knife. The new favorite is often a mere boy, as in our picture.
Yet these revei-ses of fortune are not final. They are philo-
soi^hically accepted as accidents which must always happen to one
who embraces the precarious life of a courtier, and by the Orien-
tal, who considei's every misfortune as pre-oidained by fate and
impossible to be prevented, are viewed in a way not widely differ-
ent from that in which a European Secretary of State might regaixl
an otlicial announcement that his sovereign had been pleased
to dispense with his services, or an unfavorable expression of
public opinion in the shape of a severe newspaper article on his
policy.
Indeed, though Persian sovereigns express veiy savagely their
displeasure at the policy of a minister, he may, after experiencing
the infelicity of being disgraced, be received again into royal favor.
His family in such a case is sent back to him, with as many of his
slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, pruned of all danger-
k
202 THE STOBY OF 60VEBKMENT.
more probably owing to long custom which allows them to do so
with impunity, loudly proclaim their Avrougs at court, if they
consider themselves injured; yet, on account of the difficulty and
expense of travelling, this is denied to the residents in the more
distant parts of the country. The common people are frugal and
industrious. Few are in actual want, and many of the trading
class amass considerable wealth, which by cunning and deceit
they manage to save from the hands of the rapacious courtiers.
**Eveiy one," says Sir John Malcolm, "complains of poverty,
but this complaint as often proceeds from a desire to avoid oppres-
sion as from its actual privations." The government officials are
paid wretchedly small salaries, and even tliese payments are most
unpunctually made. To meet his daily expenses money has to be
borrowed at a high rate of interest, debts accumulate, and in a
few years a government servant, if honest, would be ruined.
No position can be more ignominious than that of a Persian
courtier in disgrace. Should he incur liis master's displeasure,
without the slightest warning he is deprived of his property,
offices, dignities and honors. His slaves are sold or handed over
to the favorite of the hour, his wives and childii>n are insulted or
even exposed to the brutality of his grooms and guards, while he
himself is beaten with a stick or mutilated by the executioner's
knife. The new favorite is often a mere boy, as in our picture.
Yet these revei-ses of fortune are not final. They are philo-
soi^hically accepted as accidents which must always happen to one
who embraces the precarious life of a courtier, and by the Orien-
tal, who considei-s every misfortune as pre-oi*dained by fate and
impossible to be prevented, are viewed in a way not widely differ-
ent from that in which a European Secretary of State might regaixl
an official announcement that his sovereign had been pleased
to disi^ense with his services, or an unfavorable expression of
public opinion in the shape of a severe newspaper article on his
policy.
Indeed, though Persian sovereigns express veiy savagely their
displeasure at the policy of a minister, he may, after experiencing
the infelicity of being disgraced, be received again into royal favor.
His family in such a case is sent back to him, with as many of his
slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, pruned of all danger-
196 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of Him who was born on the wood of a manger and died on the
wood of a cross — the carpenter's son of Galilee — have from the
earliest days of slavery been peculiarly attractive to the natures
of our colored brethren, and that since the abolition of slavery
Christianity has been a most potent factor in the gitidual eleva-
tion of that itice which politicians have been wont to regard as
furnishing the most perplexing problem of our American attempt
at civilization.
Why, then, have so much noble endeavor and so much wealth
been wasted in Africa? Why has the missionary business been
a most pathetic failure? The pi-actical man answers these ques-
tions by affirming that the African aborigines must be commercially
transformed and lield inider the dominion or at least the protector-
ate of some European power, l)efore any efforts to plant Chris-
tianity can be crowned with a satisfactoiy harvest.
The French are engaged at present in attempting to convert
Behanzin, the King of Dahomey, l)y force of arms, to certain com-
mercijil views which they think he ought to hold, and this has
been the English method with all African tribes. As one brilliant
writer puts it, commercialization or extermination are the only
stepping-stones to civilization in interior Africa and, indeed,
while the Christian powers of Europe, for the sake of extending
commerce or acquiring temtory, maintain a martial attitude
towards tlie unfortunate natives, there would seem to be slight
chance for the successful dissemination of the doctrines of the
Prince of PeJice.
Is it not then ])rol)al)le that those ministei's are (juite right
who in the recent meetings of missionarj^ societies have coun-
selled the expenditure of less money for foreign missions and more
for the improvement of the environment of the less ])i(itui'esque
but equally needy heathen in our great cities? If the churches
all over the country would club together and coiiperate in
abolishing the tenement-house rookeries or the sweating shops
of just one city every year, it would not be long liefore the foun-
dations of the Temple of Univei-sal Brotherhood would be fairly
and firmlv laid.
Peusia it'prfseiits, perliaps, more
perfectly than any fsisting nation,
except jiosaibly some small kingdom Eimonff
barbarians, the primjipie nf alisolutisin, or iiTC-
sponsiblL' and fetterless i>owcr in llie hands nf one
man, and this has been sn for many ociituries, although
ihf ]iresent PersiaiiH Hre no more descended from the
famous Medes and Persians, or fniin the i.u'c hIio defeated
Xenoplion and his ten thousiind, than i\iv prt-sent inhabitants of
our cosinoix>litiin country are fi-oni th^ men who sketched .111
outline of pi-actical socialistic goviTiimi'iit in the i-ahin of the
Mayflower.
Persia has Ix'cn so often invaded, and so niiiny races have con-
tributtid to the empire, that it is now dilheull. if not impossible,
to tince the original elements. Hiveis flow into the sea; you may
tiTice their cuiTents for a little w;iy, hut soon they lilenil with the
ocean and their elements defy a chemii- analysis.
So with nearly all ancient realms. Thci-c lias lx?en a blending
of numerous nationalities; yet the philologist and ethnol^^^ist
may now and then detect them in certain eddies of the cmpii'e.
where they have kept more unmixed than elsewhere, by a turn
198 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of speech, or a cast of countenance. In no province of the
country is the population wholly Persian; everjrwhere there are
alien elements.
The ancient Persians were celebrated for their handsome per-
sons, rather tall stature, and the beauty of their women. The
modern race, or "Tadjiks," as they call themselves, have a fair
sliare of good looks; their featui'es are regular, their countenances
oval, hair glossy and luxuriant, and their eyes dark and soft.
Witty, cheerful, frivolous, idle, luxurious, and fond of dress and
display is the character which has been given them, an opinion
that is rather too sweeping to be tiTie.
A people made up of such diverse elements is difficult to char-
acterize without making so many exceptions tliat the rule is not
pioved, except to have no existence. However, in progress of
time, notwithstanding the original differences of the people, some
few general chamcteristics will be found to have become common.
These we may briefly sketch. There are two great classes,
the fixed and the wandering; but tlie nomad tribes have little
voice in the country, and it is from the fixed inhabitants of the
cities and country seats that tlie ruling classes Jind those who
properly constitute the stronghold of the country are selected.
We may, for convenience, divide them into (1) the civil and
military functionaries, including those connected with the couit,
(2) the inhabitants of the towns, such as the merchants, shop-
keepers, artisans, merabei*s of the i*eligious orders, men of learn-
ing, and of all kinds of business; (3) the agriculturists or
cultivators of the soil ; and lastly (4) there may be added the wild
wanderers or "Eeliauts."
The Pei-sian couit is a perfect type of despotism. Every officer
owes his elevation to the favor or caprice of the monarch, and is
liable at any moment to dismissal without a chance of appeal
either to his superioi-s, to a court of law, or to that greater public
opinion which controls tyranny and injustice in other countries.
Treated in a capricious manner by his sovereign, he, in
his turn, rides rouglishod over all his inferiors. Knowing that
he may fall as suddenly as he was raised by the whim of the
monarch, he endeavors, during his uncertain tenure of office, to
amass, by every means known in a country where justice and right
200 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
are merely high sounding words for poets to mouth, enough
wealth to support the extravagance which his ix)sition necessarily
entails, to bribe liis enemies when his evil day arrives, or to retire
upon to a quiet corner of the empire if he be fortunate enough to
escape the bowstring in the hour of his fall.
Deceitful, treacherous, venal, arrogant, dishonest and overbear-
ing, the Persian courtier possesses the art of concealing his true
character under a polished manner, and a lively, courteous, and
mild countenance which rarely betrays the workings of his mind.
Add to this, he is often an acute diplomatist, well informed,
and skilful in business. A court so constituted camiot but be
hated by all the poorer classes, who are the chief sufferers by it,
and its pernicious example spreads the contagion of venality, petty
rascality, and other evils throughout the community.
But all the high officei*s of State are not selected from the class
of nobles. No doubt, as in most countries, the '* upper classes "
have more than their fair share of power and place ; yet many of
the public functionaries and ministers in Persia belong to the
order of Mirzas, secretaries, or "men of business."
For the policy of the monarchs is to select some of their officers
from the 1 nimblest class of life, under the idea that men thus
rnised to dignity by the favor of the king alone will be, through
gratitude, more attached to liis person than a military noble,
whose rank would, as much as his sovereign's favor, have obtained
for him power, and who, at the beck of ambition or offended pride,
might summon to his aid a host of warlike retainei's and plunge
the country into civil war. •
These Mirzas, though tlie equals of the nobles in treachery and
immorality, are yet in geneml more accomplished than they,
being well versed in all state-craft, mild and sulnlued in their
address, and differing from tlie nobles in not indulging in martial
or athletic exercises, and wejiring, instead of a sword or dagger, a
cuhimdaun^ or ink horn, attached to their girdle.
Any pei-son can get access to the king to lay his complaint
before him ; but, unless there be a desire to push the affair, the
complaint only is heard. However, it is treasured up to l)e
brought forth in duo time when the functionarv complained of
gets into disgrace, and an excuse is desired for his degradation.
ABSOLUTISM. 201
The office of collector of public revenue is a poor one. The
people, knowing that the taxation only goes to enrich the court
and pays for no work of public utility, are unwilling to satisfy the
just demands of the collector, and frequently even threaten to take
his life. This unwillingness to meet their public obligations is in-
tensified by the fact that taxation falls chiefly on the toilers.
The great nobles, foreigners and wealthy native merchants are
exempt from contributions to the Shah's exchequer, though the
first and last named are subject to irregular extortions which are
sometimes even less beai*able than the systematic bleeding of the
collector.
On the other hand, the rapacious officials at the capital do every-
thing in their power to extort more taxes, and frequently threaten
the collector with punishment on, the plea that he has withheld
taxes, so as to induce him to " squeeze " the population still more
thoroughly.
Thus, between the rebellious people at large who object to being
bled, and the officials close to the Shah who have a thirst for the
silver sweat and golden blood of a peoj)le (which is commonly
called taxes), it is easy to see that a revenue collector in Persia
needs the stubbornness of a mule, the persistency of a gadfly, and
the nine lives of a cat.
Such, however, is the accursed thirst for gold — so intense, al-
though it is an artificial or accidental and not an innate passion, so
insanely intense is the desire to acquire property — that, even in
the most dangerous districts of the Shah's dominion, this post of
danger is eagerly sought.
Many anecdotes are current in Persia concerning the collector,
his cunning, and the ill luck that often attends him like a shadow.
Yet, although tlie Prince of Sliiraz once in irony ordered a
notorious thief to be punished by being made manager of the
revenue of a district, as he could conceive of no crime for which
that appointment would not be an adequate punishment, there is
little doubt that between the people and the public treasury not a
little of the public cash clings to the fingei-s of the collector, and
that many of them accumulate great wealth.
Notwithstanding the power of the nobles, the people, either
through a naturally high spirit, not effaced by long oppression, or
202 THE 8T0EY OF OOVEBNMENT.
more probably owing to long custom which allows them to do so
with impunity, loudly proclaim their wrongs at court, if they
consider themselves injured; yet, on account of the difficulty and
expense of travelling, this is denied to the residents in the more
distant parts of the coimtry. The conmion people are frugal and
industrious. Few are in actual want, and many of the trading
class amass considerable wealth, which by cunning and deceit
they manage to save from the hands of the rapacious courtiers.
"Eveiy one," says Sir John Malcolm, "complains of poverty,
but this complaint as often proceeds from a desire to avoid oppres-
sion as from its actual privations." The government officials are
paid wretchedly small salaries, and even these payments are most
unpunctually made. To meet his daily expenses money has to be
borrowed at a high rate of interest, debts accumulate, and in a
few years a government servant, if honest, would be ruined.
No position can be more ignominious than that of a Pei-sian
courtier in disgrace. Should he incur his master's displeasure,
without the slightest warning he is deprived of his property,
offices, dignities and honors. Ilis slaves are sold or handed over
to the favorite of the hour, his wives and chilcb-en aro insulted or
even exposed to the brutality of his grooms and guards, while he
himself is beaten with a stick or mutilated by the executioner's
knife. The new favorite is often a mere boy, as in our picture.
Yet these revei-ses of fortune are not final. They are philo-
sophically accepted as accidents which must always happen to one
who embraces the precarious life of a comtier, and by the Orien-
tal, who considei-s every misfortune as pre-oidained by fate and
impossible to be prevented, are viewed in a way not widely differ-
ent from that in which a European Secretary of State might regard
an official announcement that his sovei-eign had been pleased
to dispense with his sei*vices, or an unfavorable expression of
public opinion in the shape of a severe newspaper article on his
policy.
Indeed, though Persian sovereigns express veiy savagely their
displeasure at the policy of a minister, he may, after experiencing
the infelicity of being disgraced, be received again into royal favor.
His family in such a case is sent back to him, with as many of his
slaves as can be recovered ; and his property, pruned of all danger-
204 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
ous exuberance, is returned. A batli mollifies his bruised feet,
a cap conceals his cropped ears, and tlie white- washed culprit is
often reinstat(Kl in the very government he has lost, perhaps
carrying with him a sentence of disgmce to his successor to whose
inti'igues he owed liis temporary fall.
It is indeed surprising how carelessly the king and his ministers
bestow situations of confidence on strangers, or on men who, from
having been the sufferei-s of great injustice, might be dreaded as
their bitterest enemies ; yet the management of a conquered state
is frequently intrusted to the klian or prince who before possessed
it in his own right. The pardoned rebel of one province is
appointed to the supreme command in another; and the disgraced
noble or governor is sent to take charge of a district where the
utmost fidelity and zeal are required.
No ofiicial, however higli, can Ixj sure of his life; it lies in the
hands of the king as mucli as does the life of the meanest subject.
The death of an official is determined, the warrant for his execu-
tion is made out, and an officer is despatched to execute it. The
man rides as fiust as horses pressed into his service can carry him
until he arrives at the city wliere the doomed man lives. He
exhibits hil^ mandati^ to the governor or chief man of the city, and
commands him to tissist him. As soon as the door of the victim's
house is opened, the executioner rushes in, and, diawing his
scimitar, falls on the unfortunate man with the exclamation, "It
is thj king's connnand," cuts him down, and strikes oflf his bead.
llarely is any resistance offered.
Cases have IxM^n known in which a powerful man has attempted
to waylay the* messenger on the road, when he knew his errand,
and, depriving him of the warrant, has delayed his fate until
another could be got, or until he has had time to obtain paidon.
But iLsually, such is the awe of the king's name that no Htttn:pt
is made; In' the victtim to escape his fate. He calmly submit^.
"It is the decrci* of Allah — it is fate — Allah be praised! " As
for his near(\st kin, they fly from him as from a thing accursed.
The dependent's whom an hour ago he could have made happy
witli a smile desert liim as one whose touch would defile. He is
like an infected creature. "All nature seems to be roused againut
him," are the words of an ancient writer in Persia.
206 THE 8T0EY OF GOVERNMENT.
The Gholams are the king's guards, and ai-e composed of young
men held in favor by him. Generally they are young Circassian
or Georgian captives, and accordingly their condition is that of
slaves, though, the position being one of honor and emolument,
the sons of tlie highest noblemen may be found thei'e.
The Gholam Corps numbers three thousand or four thousand
men, and, in addition to acting as escorts to the king and guards
to his palaces, they are often despatched on delicate missions,
such as that we have described in relation to the execution of a
disgraced official. In the execution of these errands they often
amass large sums by extortion ; and the surest pi*oof of the in-
vidious character which they bear is the fact that their very name
carries terror. The aiTival of a gholam e shahee is enough to
throw a whole district into alaim; it has even depopulated a
village for a time.
The inhabitants of different districts differ considerably in
character, and in their reputation for courage or cowardice.
The inhabitants of the towns, or Shehere^s^ are even more mixed
than those of the country districts. In general, though by no
means to be held up as models for young men, they are of a better
character than the higher chisses, and are, as a rule, industrious,
polite, sociable, good servants and indulgent masters, though
largely imbued with deceit and greed.
The merchants are often wealthy, and in general are intelligent
and cultivated. The small shopkeepers are more distinguished
for insincerity and cunning, both vices, though inherent in the
race, being fostered by their constant diead of the caprice of their
superiors. The merchants, on the other hand, are, as all through
the East, held in more consideration, being looked upon not only
as a source of revenue, but also as a useful medium for main-
taining friendly relations with foreign states.
The ecclesiastical law is administered by a numerous body of
priests of all grades, from the Sudder al Suddoor down to the
lowest of the mollahs. The mooshteheds are the highest order,
and are the supreme pontiffs of the kingdom, who, subject to the
approbation of the sovereign, nominate all the principal judges.
They usually number three or four, and are elected by the people
cunt of their acknowledged sanctity.
208 THE STORY OF OOVBRNMENT.
The Sheik al Islam, or ruler of the faith, ranks next* to the
mooshteheds. He is a salaried judge, his duty being to admin-
ister the written law. He is often a man of quite as great
influence as the mooshteheds, his official superiors. The other
ecclesiastical officials are those connected with the mosques.
Eveiy mosque, except the very insignificant ones, has a
staff of three, viz., the mostwuUa, who manages its temporal
affairs, and who may be said to be a kind of churchwarden ; the
muezzin, or caller to prayers (the " beadle "), and the mollah, or
priest proper, who conducts the ceremonial of the Mohammedan
religion. They also preach a sort of sermon on texts from the
Koran — the Mohammedan Bible.
Besides these, there are in every city, and connected with all
seminaries of learning, a crowd of moUahs, who live by their arts,
and have Uttle of the priest but the name. They practise astrol-
ogy, write letters and contracts for those who are ignorant of pen-
manship, and thus contrive to prolong a miserable life.
Nothing can be lower than the character of these people.
Their hypocrisy, profligacy and want of principle, are the sub-
jects of stories, epigrams, and proverbs without end. "Take
care,'' says one adage, "of the face of a woman and the
heels of a mule; but with a mollah be on your guard at all
points." "To hate like a mollah," and "to cheat like a mollah **
are sayings of frequency in the mouth of a Persian.
It is not the mollahs alone who are the subject of Persian
jocularity. All classes who are concerned in the administration
of the law or Mohammedan religious ceremonies are proverbial for
their dishonesty and trickery. Chief among these are the seyeds,
or descendants of the prophet, who are accounted rogues by
nature ; but after they have made a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the
birthplace of Mohammed, are considered to have graduated in all
dishonesty and rascality. In the repertory of Persian jests, nine
tenths hinge upon what a mollah or a hadji (Mecca pilgrim) did,
and the anecdotes are told with a grave hiunor peculiarly charac-
teristic of the East. The cultivators of the soil^ in Persia, though
oppressed, are hospitable, active, and intelligent, and are more
comfortable in their lives than the average workman in any
of our overgrown cities.
AB80LUTIS1C 209
Penian wamen^ like those of all other Mohammedan countries,
are not looked upon as the equals of the men. They are bjr some
Moslem priests even belieyed not to have souls, and in every case
are mere slaves who minister to the pleasure of their haughty
lords. In many cases, however, their sharp wit enables them to
gain an ascendency over their more lethargic husbands, and even
to sway the affairs of the court at their own sweet will.
An Eastern seraglio is yet a "gilded cage," tenanted by
uneducated women, whose only thoughts are to please their mas-
ter and amuse their aimless existence. Intrigue, discontent and
crime are the natural sequence of such a state of matters. The
harem life has been often described, but by none, it is said by
those acquainted with the subject, in more faithful colors than by
the French writer Chardin.
The seraglio of the king, says M. Chardin, is most commonly a
perpetual prison, from whence scarce one female in six or seven has
the good fortune to escape, for women who have become the mothers
of living children are provided with a small establishment within the
walls, and are never suffered to leave them. But privation of liberty
is by no means the worst evil that exists in these melancholy abodes.
Except to that wife so fortunate as to produce the firstborn son,
to become a mother is the most dreaded event that can happen to the
wretched favorites of the king. When this occurs, not only do the
mothers see their last chance of liberty and marriage cut off, but
they live in the dreadful anticipation of seeing their children de-
prived of life or sight, when the death of their lord shall call a new
tyrant, in the person of his son, the brother of their offspring, to the
throne.
Should they escape having children, by an assiduous court paid to
the king's mother, or to the mother of his eldest son, it sometimes
happens that they obtain the good fortune of being bestowed upon
some of the officers about the court; for the ministers and grandees,
who are always intriguing with these influential ladies, seldom fail of
soliciting a female of the royal harem either for themselves or their
sons.
Indeed, it is no uncommon thing for the king himself to bestow
one of these fair captives upon one of his favorites, or his courtiers ; and
sometimes, when the harem gets crowded, this is done to a great extent
as a measure of economical expediency. Happy the woman thus freed
from her prison, for she at once exchanges the situation of a slave for
210
THB STOEY OP GOVERNMEH's-
that of a legitimate and
inflaential wife, and the
head of a domestic estab-
lishment, where uhe ia
ever treated with the at-
tention due to one who
has been the favorite of
a king.
In the case of the
women of villagers and
laborers the veil is en-
tirely dispensed with,
and they may be seen
following their occupa-
tions like women of
their class in Europe,
or other parts of the
world where the Mo-
hammedan faith has not
instilled the idea that
the females of the na-
tion are to be carefully
watched and excluded
from the gaze of all but
their loids. Most of
the harem women are of
Circassian, Georgian, or
Armenian blood, and
are often fair in com-
plexion, well formed,
and handsome, with
large black languish-
ing eyes, rich red lips
and pearly teeth. Their
natural c It a r m s are,
however, often de-
stroyed by the custom they have of painting their cheeks with
various colors, by constantly smoking, which spoils their teeth,
I PEBBIAM TILLAGE BELLE.
ABSOLUTISM. 211
and by the habit of tattooing on their persons various fanciful
figures. A fine head of hair is looked upon as indispensable to
a harem beauty. If nature denies this adornment, it is supplied,
either wholly or in part, by artificial means, a custom which is
not absolutely unknown in a certain civilized (country, of whicli
Teheran is not the capital.
A shift find trousei-s of colored silk or cotton constitute the
dress worn within doors, supf)lemente(l, if the weather be cold, by
a jacket, shawl, cloak, or fui-s. The head is enveloped in a silk
handkerchief, so arranged as to form a kind of turban. When
the women go outside, they fold themselves in a wrap[)er of *'blue
checked stuff," which covei-s them from head to foot, only leaving
a small laced opening for their eyes, through which it is impossi-
ble for even the lady's husband to detect the pei"souality.
Like the Peruvian Ladies, the Pei'sians ding to their incognita
with the keenest relish, as one of the few fragments of personal
liberty which they possess. Frankish civilization is slowly pen-
etrating Iran, a,s the empire of Persia is called; but it has not
yet progressed so far as to induce the women to wear gowns.
These they call '' trousers with one leg," and prefer to possess
this garment with the nonnal number of divisions.
The following description of the gala dress of a lady of high
rank as given by Lady Slieil, who spent much time in Persia, will
be read with relish by all women who take a natural, innocent and
commendable interest in dress: —
The Shah's mother wore a pair of trousers made of gold brocade.
These Persian trousers are always very wide, each leg b^ing, when the
means of the wearer permit it, wider than the skirt of a govn, so that
they have the effect of an exceedingly ample petticoat ; and, as crino-
lines are unknown, the elegatites wear ten or eleven pairs of trousers,
one over the other, in order to make up for the want of the above
important invention. But to return to the Shah's mother. Her
trousers were edged with a border of pearls embroidered on braid ; she
had a thin blue crepe chemisette, also trimmed with pearls. This
chemisette hung down a little below the waist nearly meeting the top
of the trousers, wliich are always fastened by a running string. A
small jacket of velvet was over the chemisette, reaching to the waist,
but not made close in front, and on the head a small shawl pinned
204 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
ous exuberance, is returned. A batli mollifies his bruised feet,
a cap conceals his cropped ears, and tlie white-washed culprit is
often reinstated in the very government he has lost, perhaps
carrying with him a sentence of disgmce to his successor to whose
intrigues he owed his temporary fall.
It is indeed surprising how carelessly the king and his ministers
bestow situations of confidence on strangers, or on men who, from
having been the sufferei-s of great injustice, might he dreaded as
their bitterest enemies ; yet the management of a conquered state
is frequently intrusted to the khan or prince who before possessed
it in his own right. The pardoned rebel of one province is
appointed to the supreme command in another; and the disgraced
noble or governor is sent to take charge of a district where the
utmost fidelity and zeal are required.
No ofiicial, however high, can be sure of his life; it lies in the
hands of the king as nmcli as does tlie life of the meanest subject.
The death of an official is determined, the warrant for his execu-
tion is made out, and an officer is despatched to execute it. The
man rides as fast iis horses pressed into his service can carry him
until he arrives at the city where the doomed man lives. He
exhibits liis mandate to the governor or chief man of the city, and
commands him to assist him. As soon as the door of the victim's
house is opened, the executioner rushes in, and, drawing his
scimitar, falls on the unfortunate man with the exclamation, "It
is the king's command," cuts him down, and strikes off his bead.
Rarely is any resistance offered.
Cases have Ix^en known in which a powerful man has attempted
to waylay the messenger on the road, when he knew his errand,
and, depriving him of the wantint, has delayed his fate until
another could be got, or until he has had time to obtain paidon.
But usually, such is the awe of the king's name that no atttffpt
is made by the victim to escape his fate. He calmly submit^.
*'It is the decree of Allah — it is fate — Allah be praised! " As
for his nearest kin, they fly from him as from a thing accursed.
The dependents whom an hour ago he could have made happy
with a smile desert him as one whose touch would defile. He is
like an infected creature. "All nature seems to be roused agaiimt
him," are the words of an ancient writer in Persia.
206 THE 8T0EY OF GOVERNMENT.
The Gbolams are the king's guards, and are composed of young
men held in favor by him. Generally they are young Circassian
or Georgian captives, and accordingly their condition is that of
slaves, though, the position being one of honor and emolument,
the sons of tlie highest noblemen may be found there.
The Gholam Corps numbers three thousand or four thousand
men, and, in addition to acting as escorts to the king and guards
to his palaces, they are often despatched on delicate missions,
such as that we have described in relation to the execution of a
disgraced official. In the execution of these eiTands they often
amass large sums by extortion ; and the surest proof of the in-
vidious character which they bear is the fact that their very name
<}arries terror. The aiTival of a gholam e shahee is enough to
throw a whole district into alaim; it has even depopulated a
village for a time.
The inhabitants of different districts differ considerably in
character, and in their reputation for courage or cowardice.
The inhabitiints of the towns, or Shehere^s^ are even more mixed
than those of the country districts. In general, though by no
means to be held up as models for young men, they are of a better
character than the higher classes, and are, as a rule, industrious,
polite, sociable, good servants and indulgent masters, though
largely imbued with deceit and greed.
The merchants are often wealthy, and in general are intelligent
and cultivated. The small shopkeepers are more distinguished
for insincerity and cunning, both vices, though inherent in the
race, being fostered by their constant dread of the caprice of their
superiors. The merchants, on the other hand, are, as all through
the East, held in more consideration, being looked upon not only
as a source of revenue, but also as a useful medium for main-
taining friendly relations with foreign stixtes.
The ecclesiastical law is administered by a numerous body of
priests of all grades, from the Sudder al Suddoor down to the
lowest of the mollahs. The mooshteheds are the highest order,
and are the supreme pontiffs of tlie kingdom, who, subject to the
approbation of the sovereign, nominate all the principal judges.
They usually number three or four, and are elected by the people
on account of their acknowledged sanctity.
208 THE STORY OF eOVERNMENT.
The Sheik al Islam, or ruler of the faith, ranks next* to the
mooshteheds. He is a salaried judge, his duty being to admin-
ister the written law. He is often a man of quite as great
influence as the mooshteheds, his official superiors. The other
ecclesiastical officials are those connected with the mosques.
Every mosque, except the very insignificant ones, has a
staff of three, viz., the mostwulla, who manages its temporal
affairs, and who may be said to be a kind of churchwarden ; the
muezzin, or caller to prayers (the "beadle"), and the mollah, or
priest proper, who conducts the ceremonial of the Mohammedan
religion. They also preach a sort of sermon on texts from the
Koran — the Mohammedan Bible.
Besides these, there are in every city, and connected with all
seminaries of learning, a crowd of mollahs, who live by their arts,
and have Kttle of the priest but the name. They practise astrol-
ogy, write letters and contracts for those who are ignorant of pen-
manship, and thus contrive to prolong a miserable life.
Nothing can be lower than the character of these people.
Their hypocrisy, profligacy and want of principle, are the sub-
jects of stories, epigrams, and proverbs without end. "Take
care,** says one adage, "of the face of a woman and the
heels of a mule; but with a mollah be on your guard at all
points.'* "To hate like a mollah," and "to cheat like a mollah ''
are sayings of frequency in the mouth of a Persian.
It is not the mollahs alone who are the subject of Persian
jocularity. All classes who are concerned in the administration
of the law or Mohammedan religious ceremonies are proverbial for
their dishonesty and trickery. Chief among these are the seyeds,
or descendants of the prophet, who are accounted rogues by
nature ^ but after they have made a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the
birthplace of Mohammed, are considered to have graduated in all
dishonesty and rascality. In the repertory of Persian jests, nine
tenths hinge upon what a mollah or a hadji (Mecca pilgrim) did,
and the anecdotes are told with a grave humor peculiarly charac-
teristic of the East. The cultivators of the soil^ in Persia, though
oppressed, are hospitable, active, and intelligent, and are more
comfortable in their lives than the average workman in any
of our overgrown cities.
ABSOLUTISM. 209
Penian wamen^ like those of all other Mohammedan countries,
are not looked upon as the equals of the men. They are hj some
Moslem priests even believed not to have souls, and in every case
are mere slaves who minister to the pleasure of their haughty
lords. In many cases, however, their sharp wit enables them to
gain an ascendency over their more lethargic husbands, and even
to sway the affairs of the court at their own sweet will.
An Eastern seraglio is yet a ** gilded cage,'* tenanted by
uneducated women, whose only thoughts are to please their mas-
ter and amuse their aimless existence. Intrigue, discontent and
crime are the natural sequence of such a state of matters. The
harem life has been often described, but by none, it is said by
those acquainted with the subject, in more faithful colors than by
the French writer Cliardin.
The seraglio of the king, says M. Chardin, is most commonly a
perpetual prison, from whence scarce one female in six or seven has
the good fortune to escape, for women who have become the mothers
of living children are provided with a small establishment within the
walls, and are never suffered to leave them. But privation of liberty
is by no means the worst evil that exists in these melancholy abodes.
Except to that wife so fortunate as to j)roduce the firstborn son,
to become a mother is the most dreaded event that can happen to the
wretched favorites of the king. When this occurs, not only do the
mothers see their last chance of liberty and marriage cut off, but
they live in the dreadful anticipation of seeing thoir children de-
prived of life or sight, when the death of their lord shall call a new
tyrant, in the person of his son, the brother of their offspring, to the
throne.
Should they escape having children, by an assiduous court paid to
the king's mother, or to the mother of his eldest son, it sometimes
happens that they obtain the good fortune of being bestowed upon
some of the officers about the court ; for the ministers and grandees,
who are always intriguing with these influential ladies, seldom fail of
soliciting a female of the royal harem either for themselves or their
sons.
Indeed, it is no uncommon thing for the king himself to bestow
one of these fsur captives upon one of his favorites, or his courtiers; and
sometimes, when the harem gets crowded, this is done to a great extent
as a measure of economical expediency. Happy the woman thus freed
from her prison, for she at once exchanges the situation of a slave for
210
THE STOEY OP GOVBENMENI-
that of a legitimate and
inflnential wife, and the
head of a domestic estab-
liabment, where she ia
ever treated with the at-
tention due to one who
has been the favorite of
a king.
Ia the case of tbe
wotneD of villagers and
laborers the veil is en-
tirely dispensed with,
and they may be seen
following their occupa-
tions like women of
their class in Europe,
or other parts of the
world wliere the Mo-
hammedan faith has not
instilled the idea that
the females of the na-
tion are to be carefully
\vatched and excluded
from the gaze of all but
their loids. Most of
the harem women are of
Circassian, Georgian, or
Armenian blood, and
are often fair in com-
plexion, well formed,
and hand!st»nie, with
large black languish-
ing eyes, rich red lips
and pearly teeth. Their
natural charms are,
however, often de-
stroyed by tbe custom they have of painting their cheeks with
various colors, by constantly smoking, which spoils their teeth.
A PEBSIAH TILLAGE BELLE.
ABSOLUTISM. 211
and by the habit of tattooing on their pei*sons various fanciful
figures. A fine head of hair is looked upon jis indispensable to
a harem l)eauty. If nature denies this adornment, it is supplied,
either wholly or in part, by artificial means, a custom which is
not absolutely unknown in a certain civilized countrv, of which
Teheran is not the capital.
A shift and trousens of colored silk or cotton constitute the
dress worn within doors, sup[)lementc(l, if the weather be cold, by
a jacket, shawl, cloak, or fui-s. The head is enveloped in a silk
handkerchief, so arranged as to form a kind of turban. When
the women go outside, they fold themselves in a wrapi)er of "blue
checked stuff," which covei-s them from head to foot, only leaving
a small laced opening for their eyes, through which it is impossi-
ble for even the lady's husl)and to detect the pei-sonality.
Like the Peruvian ladies, the Pei*sians cling to their incognita
with the keenest relish, as one of the few fragments of i)ersonal
liberty which they possess. Frankish civilization is slowly pen-
etrating Iran, as the empire of Persia is called; but it has not
yet progressed so far as to induce the women to wear gowns.
These they call ''trousers with one leg," and j)refer to possess
this garment with the nonnal num])er of divisions.
The following description of the gala diess of a lady of high
rank as given by Lady Slieil, who s})ent much time in Pei-sia, will
be read with relish by all women who tak(j a natural, innocent and
commendable interest in dress: —
The Shah's inother wore a pair of trousers made of gold brocade.
These Persian trousers are always \qv\ wide, each leg being, when the
means of the wearer permit it, wider than the skirt of a govyn, so that
they have the effect of an exceedingly ample petticoat ; and, as crino-
lines are unknown, the elegantes wear ten or eleven pairs of trousers,
one over the other, in order to make up for the want of the above
important invention. But to return to the Shah's mother. Iler
trousers were edged with a border of pearls embroidered on braid ; she
had a thin blue cr^pe chemisette, also trimmed with pearls. This
chemisette hung down a little below the waist nearly meeting the top
of the trousers, which are always fastened by a running string. A
small jacket of velvet was over the chemisette, reaching to the waist,
but not made close in front, and on the head a small shawl pinned
212 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
under the chin. On the 8hawl were fastened strings of large pearls and
diamond sprigs. Her arms were covered with handsome bracelets,
and her neck with a variety of costly necklaces. Her hair was in
bands and hung down under the shawl in a multitude of small plaits.
She wore no shoes, her feet being covered with cashmere stockings.
The palms of her hands and the tips of her fingers were dyed red with
an herb called henna, and the edges of the inner part of the eyelids were
colored with antimony. All the Kajars [the Tartar tribe to which the
present dynasty belongs] have naturally large arched eyebrows, but
not satisfied with this, the women enlarge them with great streaks of
antimony. Her cheeks were well rouged, as is the invariabla custom
among Persian women of all classes. In fact, like their contemporaries
in Europe, the Persian ladies
*' With carious artft dim charms revive,
And triumph in the bloom of lifty-five. '*
Ignorant, sensual, frivolous, with no intellectual resources to
fall back upon, except the occasional introduction of some femin-
ine elocutionist or story-teller, the conversation of a harem party
is wearisome in the extreme.
All that delicacy which we associate with a woman is absent
from their discourse; scandal and gossip are the only subjects
of conversation, and on every topic they express themselves with
the most disgusting grossness. A friendly tete-d-tSte is every now
and then broken up by a violent quarrel among the beauties, when
invective and abuse, the indecency of which would bar their
repetition almost in a police court or the pages of some of our
*' progressive " daily papers, are said to flow from their Eastern
tongues with a fluency which long practice and a freedom from
anything like shamefacedness can only supply.
The marriage ceremonies are elaborate and peculiar. Like all
other Mohammedans, they are not allowed more than four legal
wives, but they can have as many concubines as they can purchase.
A girl is often l>etrothed to her future husband in infancy, and never
sees him until they stand before the priest to complete the bargain.
She has, however, the option of refusing to do so ; but this is a
privilege so hedged round with difficulties as to be practically
useless. Of late, however, it has become customary to allow the
future husband and wife to see each other, but only "under the
214 THE STOEY OF GOVEENME^'T.
rose." The marriage can be witnessed by two men, or by one
man and two women. The certificate is carefully preserved by
the woman, for in case there be a divorce, the possession of it is
the only means by which she can recover her dowry.
Great rejoicings take place at every marriage, and in the case
of even the middle classes ai-e accompanied by an expenditure so
profuse as to be often almost ruinous. The feasting will hist
from three to forty days, according to the mnk of the contract-
ing parties; thi*ee, at least, are necessary. On the first, the com-
pany assembles; on the second, the bride's hands are stained with
henna ; on the third, the rite takes place, with much ceremony
and not a little humor. This brief account of the conclusion
of a wedding by an eye-witness is full of curious points. The
bride has retired to her room.
The husband, who in this case is a middle-aged widower, makes his
ap])earance, and a looking-glass is immediately held up in such a posi-
tion as to reflect the face of his bride, whom he now for the first time
sees unveiled. It is a critical and anxious moment, for it is that in
which the fidelity of his agents is to be proved, and the charms of his
beloved to be compared with those pictured to him by his ardent
imagination, while the young ladies in attendance, as well as the
gossiping old ones, are eager to catch the first glimpse, and communi-
cate to all the world their opinion of her claims to beauty.
Then the bridegroom takes a bit of sugar-candy, and biting it in two
eats one half himself, and presents the other to his bride, a custom
apparently traceable to the ancient confarreatio^ <»r ^' eating together,"
a portion of the marriage ceremony in an early state of society, of
which the modern bridecake is a remnant. On tlie present occasion
he had no teeth to bite with, jin<l so he broke the sugar with his
fingers, which offended tlie yoiuig woman so much tliat she cast her
portion away. He then took her stockings, threw one over his left
shoulder, placed the other under his ri^lit foot, and ordered all the
spectators to withdraw. They retired accordingly and tlie happy
couple were left alone.
One passage in this descri})lioii illustrates a f(^atuie in the Per-
sian women that we have not yet mentioned, namely, that, though
little better than slaves, they exert their rights in a manner
sometimes far fron; agreeable, (^f ungovernable temper, and with
no moral training wliieli would teacli them to resti*ain their pas-
AB80LTTTI8H. 816
sions, they exert their will in a most pronoimoed maonei', go in
and out of the harem when it pleases them (that is, the harems of
the middle clasises), and when their deaii-es aiB thwiirted, will not
unfrequently give forcible expi'eaaiou to their opinion with the
sharp point of their slipijur on their husband's body. Slaves,
generally Circassians and Georgians, lire sometimes so far admitted
to their master's good graces as to liecome inmates of the harem ;
but slavery in Persia is of im exceedingly mild character. In
all Peraian families of consequence, the major domo, or person in
PKOCESDIOH.
trust — the house steward in faet^will generally be found to be
a khanezadeh, or slave bom in tJie house — the offspring of domestic
slaves, bought when young, and reared and manicd under their
owner's auspices.
The third mode of union noticeable in Persia is accounted dis-
reputable in most Moslem countries, namely, that of a woman
living with a man as his wife for a specified {wriod. This insti-
tution, peculiar to Persia, is not looked upon even there as com-
mendable in the highest degree. Only men of rank make these
limited marri^;es and, practically, such marriages are for life,
the contract being for ninety years, and the children of such mar-
riages enjoying all the privileges of those of the regular wives.
216 THE STORY OF GOVEENMENT.
Divoi-ce, however, can be at any time had by the man, yet most
husbands hesitate to adopt this mode of disposing of a bad matri-
monial bargain. The scandal, and, above all, the necessity of
returning her dowry, are motives which eflfectually restrain him.
If the wife, through ill-usage or other cause, sues for divorce
and obtains it, she forfeits all right to receive back any part of
her dowry, and cases, as might be expected, are not unknown in
which the baser sort have taken advantage of this law to force, by
continued ill-usage, the wife to demand a divorce. Bad temper,
extravagance, and such like, are the usual pleas brought forwai*d
as grounds for a divorce. Adultery is never one of these, for if
this were proved to have been committed, capital punishment,
without recourae to legal proceedings, would be the fate of the
unhappy delinquent.
Harassed by repeated invasions, plunderings, and long ages of
misrule, Persia has fallen from the position she once occupied as
the granary of the world. Her irrigation works, and other means
by which the arid ground was made to blossom with heavy crops,
have been long allowed to fall into decay.
Famine is often a visitor in the land. Few manufactures
flourish, and a countr}' which has great capabilities is allowed to
lie half waste, a few miserable cultivatoi-s, or petty artisans,
being the only source from which the taxes to supply the luxury
and extravagance of the court can be extracted. In modern
Persia there is no more a Darius or a Xerxes than there are the
hosts whom they led to victory or to spoil. No longer do the
Medean cohorts advance, "all gleaming in purple and gold.",
There are scarcely any roads in the countrj- fitted foi wheeled
carriages, and nearly all the goods are borne on the backs of
horses, mules, or camels ; accordingly, the di-awbacks of bad
government put one side, it is hardly possible for a dense
population to subsist. From all accounts, the population of Per-
sia, though the wandering tribes, or Eeliauts, it is impossible to
give with anything like accumcy, is less than 8,000,000. In
Chardin's day, the population of Ispahan, the then capital, was
estimated to be upwards of 700,000. In 1800, Sir John Malcolm
considered that it could not contain more than 100,000 souls;
and owing to the devastation it has suffered from famine since that
ABSOLUTISM. 217
date, it is probable that a census would now show a much smaller
number of inhabitants, perhaps 60,000. Teheran has 200,000,
Meshed 60,000, and Tauris is credited with 165,000 inhabitants.
Mention has been made of bad roads. Navigable rivers there
are none ; and, although telegraphs have been erected, railways
are a thing of the future. They may be built after the coal fields
are developed. Every imported, or even home-produced, article
which has to be carried any distance, is thus necessarily dear.
Silk, cottoft, tobacco, rice, a little grain, dried fruits, sulphur,
horses, wax, and gall nuts, are the chief exports. Of manu-
feustured articles, she exports a little gold and silver brocade, and
some silk and cotton stuffs, chiefly to Russia.
The whole revenue of the empire is considerably less than $10,-
000,000, and is expended by the court, the cost of which is great,
tiiough, in justice, it ought to be mentioned, that during the
reign of the present Shah the income has increased $3,500,000
per annum. Notwithstanding the Mohammedan law, Persian
kings often marry more than four wives. The late Shah had thirty.
The military force varies, the standing army being usually
about 50,000 men, in addition to about 30,000 irregular cavalry,
who are called out in case of necessity ; but, on an emergency,
the Persian monarch could put into the field 150,000 men,
exclusive of camp followers.
How well this army was equipped in former times may be
inferred from the story told regarding the Sliah who besieged
the mud-walled town of a Kurdish chief. A big gun was brought
up against it, but it was found that only three balls could be pro-
cured which would fit it. After two were tired, the town was
summoned to surrender; but the only result was a request to his
Persian majesty to *'fire his third ball, and be done, and leave
them alone in peace I'*
In modem times European arms have been obtained, and the
whole military force is being drilled after the modern methocb,
by English and other officers in the service of the present Shah.
The system may be more satisfactory to the Persian government
than to the officers concerned, as they find that, beyond specious
promises, they have considerable difficulty in rescuing any of their
pay out of the hands of the officials through which it has to pass.
218 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The average pay of a private is about $20 per annum, in
addition to a ration of three pounds of bread. A captain receives
about sixty tomans, and a lieutenant-colonel commanding a regi-
ment 500 tomans ; while the colonel commanding two regiments,
the highest rank in the army, only enjoys pay to the extent of
about 1,000 tomans. A toman is at present worth about $2.15.
The monarch is known as the Shah^ and lias been from the
earliest times an absolute sovereign, having despotic authority
over the lives and property of all his subjects, from the highest to
the lowest. Though usually his eldest legitimate son succeeds
him, yet he has the power to put any of his male oflEspring — the
son of a slave it may be — on the throne; and at one time it was
common for the reigning sovereign either to destroy or to put out
the eyes of all his other sons, so that the heir might reign in
peace.
If the new sovereign proves weak, some of his enemies soon
discover this, and the most probable result is that, after a
rebellion and a series of murders, a new dynasty, in the person of
a successful soldier, is established. It thus follows that, though
the Shah of Pei-sia is absolute, yet he has to keep his power by the
force of circumstances, and, if a wise man, will hesitate to exercise
it in a manner which would excite the hatred of his subjects.
The Koran and the numerous traditional sayings of the
immediate successors of Mohammed form the basis of the whole
civil and criminal law, as administered by the priests in Persia,
as in other Mohammedan countries. But in Pei^sia there is also
the urf^ or "common law," administered by secular magistrates.
The Sheik-al-Islam is the head of the first-named court, though
greatly controlled by the mooshteheds, or high priests, while
the urf is administered by the king in person, by his lieuten-
ants, governors of provinces, chief magistmtes of towns, col-
lectors of the revenue of districts, and by thqt officials who act
under them. The power of life and death rests with the king,
who rarely delegates it, except to princes of the blood royal, or to
governors of remote provinces. The governing principle in
Mohammedan law is what has been called the lex talionis^ an eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Murder, though a capital
offence, can yet be compounded with the heirs of a murdered
ABSOLUTISM.
219
man. The punishment of death is often aggravated by the bar-
barous methods in which it is inflicted. Decapitation, strangling,
or stabbing i:3 the common mode of execution ; but impalement,
or tearing asunder by horses or by the bent boughs of trees, is not
uufrequently practised when, in the opinion of the judge, the
offence warrants this addition to the punishment. Tortures are
sometimes introduced with a view to the discovery of hidden
treasure, but rarely in any other case, Tim loss of the eyes is the
common penalty for political offences. Mutilation is the punish-
ment meted out to a tliJef, tliiiugli he may be forgiven or his sen-
tence lightened at the option of the injured party. The king's
relatives fill nearly all the chief posts, such as the governorships
of provinces; while the other offices of state are given, as already
related, to persons of lowly rank, whose influence miglit there-
after be expected through gratitude to l)e exeix;ised in the kinjf's
220
THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
behalf. Every province has a sum fixed for which it is taxed.
Accordingly, the governor and his agents use every means to
squeeze this sum, and whatever more they can, out of the i)eople.
The overplus remains in the official's hands as his salary or
perquisite. At all events, no one troubles him so long as the
royal treasury in Teheran receives the quotum at which the pro-
vince his been rated. Extortion, therefore, as might be expected,
flourishes in Persia, especially if the district be far removed from
the capital and in a soil congenial to it.
The ancient religion of the Persians (the religion of the Magi)
long ago gave place to Mohammedanism and now lingers only
among the Guebres, a persecuted sect in Persia, and among the
Parsees of India — an ancient colony of Persians who have almost
monopolized the financial business of Bombay and other cities.
It was an extremely elaborate system, the central principle
being the worship of fire and of light. In its main features it was
reformed and restored by Zoroaster who seems to have lived about
five or six hundred years before Christ and whose " Zendavesta " is
one of the most ancient books in the Persian language.
The Parsees and the Guebres never willingly throw filth into
fire or water. The trade of a smith is proscribed among them by
custom though not by law. They use no firearms as a rule, nor
extinguish a fire, though in cases of very destructive fires they
have been known to assist in putting them out. A Parsee or a
Guebre is rarely found as a sailor, his fear of defiling the sea
deterring him from following this occupation. When a person is
dying, they keep a dog near to drive away the evil spirits.
They neither bury nor burn their dead, but inter the body in
a circular tower called dockmetis^ or dokhma. In these towers
are inclined planes on which the corpses are deposited, and the
birds of the air are invited to devour them. They even augur
as to the happiness or misery of the deceased, according as the
left or right eye is fii-st pecked out by the vultures. Our illus-
tration represents the burial of a Parsee traveller on the plains of
Hindostan.
The Parsees, like the Jews, are a persecuted race, and both
have daily the mortification of seeing their saci*ed lands in the
possession of the Mohammedans. The former are, nevertheless.
222 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
much fewer than the latter, for, except the colony which has found
an asylum in India, and the few thousands who still cling to
Persia, it is rare to find one in any other country.
Our picture shows a persecuted Guebre making himself known
to others by a secret sign. He has been wandering from village
to village to elude the attentions of Mohammedan priests who
have suspected his pockets of being as full of gold as his head
was of heresy. At last, on the edge of Kurdistan, he has found a
town where he can safely rest. In India, the Parsees would
be lost in the vast sea of people inhabiting that empire, were it
not for their distinctive dress and other peculiarities which mark
them out prominently from the Mussulmans or Hindoos.
Their high, brimless hats, set a little back so as to form an
angle with the head, at once proclaim the nationality of the wearer,
be it seen in any Indian city, or in the streets of London or Liver-
pool ; for, though not a widely scattered people, no fear of caste
pollution stands in their way should they desire to seek fortune
in countries beyond the sea, albeit, theoretically at least, they ought
not to pass any length of time on the surface of water.
But the Parsee, though a monotheist, is the worshipper of a
second god, and that is the rupee. He despises, he loathes, the
hideous idolatry of the Hindoos; but he bows do\vn before the
silver image which Victoria, Kaisar-i-Hind, has set up in her
Indian dominions.
With the Mohammedan religion all the learning of which
Persia can boast came into the country; but that is little. Logic,
metaphysics, judicial astrology, astronomy, mathematics and medi-
cine, are about the only branches of knowledge cultivated with
any degree of success. Much of their astronomy, as well as their
logic and metaphysics, is puerile in the extreme. Geography is
little understood, though mathematics is taught on much better
principles, owing to their possessing the works of Euclid.
Alchemy is a favorite study, but chemistry is unknown. Their
knowledge of medicine is on a par with the state of the science as
left by Galen and Hippocrates, whose disciples they profess to be.
A few colleges have been established, but are not very prosperous,
and the experiment of sending promising young men to be edu-
cated in Europe does not meet with much approval.
ABSOLUTIBM. 22&
Sine art; is at a low ebb, it being repugnant to the Mohammedim
&ith to make tepresentations of any created thing. The stone
and seal cutters of Shiniz and Ispahan are, however, famous for
A OnXBHB MAKIMQ IIIMBBLF KlIOWIT BY A SECRET SIGH.
their skill, as Cashan is for lacquered tiles. Herat, Meshed, and
Shiniz are equally celebrated for sword-blades and steel work
generally. Their coins were at one time struck by the hammeT,
but in 1872 a mint was established at Sultanet-Abed. near
Tdunui.
S24 THE BTORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The literature of Persia consists chiefly of writings on theology
and polemics, and some works of history, romance, and iKwtrj-.
Some of their manuseriptjj are Ixjautifully illuminated. Persia,
indeed, was once noted for her bai-ds, and the flowurj-, historical
songs of Meerkhond and Khoudeniir are sung to this day.
We have been pictiu-ing Persia as it is ; but, as elsewhere in the
East, European habits are creeping in. French millinery can be
seen in Teheran, and Krupp guns in Shiraz.
Telegraph lines worke<l by Europeans span the kingdom, greatly
to the amusement of the Shah, though with less diversion to the
distant officials, especially about the time that the taxes are
due.
How "a dog, witli its tail in Teheran and its muzzle in Lon-
don, can bark in the one place, when it is pinched in the
other," is not easy to explain to the averse Persian mind, though
regarding the fact of the case there is painfully little doubt.
In a few more decades probably the absolutism of Persia will
be a darkness of the past and over the markets of Meshed and
t^e gardens of Ispahan Progress m'IU throw tlie radiance of elec-
tric light.
VI.
f{ulc of Castc^
INDIA, whicli is regarded by biologistij aa the birth-place of the
human race, has been for centuries a marvel and a mystery
to western minds, and its government, before the East India
Company took possession of many of the provinces, was a
curious mixture of absolutism such as we have depicted in Persia,
and of a kind of religious despotism.
The absolutism has ceased, even in those provinces which,
though not exactly under British rule, are yet, by their adjacency,
under British eye; but the religious despotism still flourishes
thi-oughout the vast domain which liails Victoria as Empress.
This religious government within a government is the rule of
caste, and is what we shall examine in this chapter; Ixicause,
although India is nominally and (tonmiercially under Englisli dom-
ination the tyranny of caste is still paramount there and is liable,
as in the Indian mutiny, if sufficient provocation be given, to cause
a tremendous popular outbreak.
For, though Disraeli cleverly souglit to enlist tlie loyalty of the
Oriental fancy })y making Victoria Empress of India, that is, lunk-
ing her higher in relation to her Indian than to her English subjects,
yet her natural distance from India cannot be overcome in the
popular mind by a mere juggle of words, and it must Jbe admitted
that, despite tlieir governing India the English are a mere fringe
225
226 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
on its vastness — a dewdrop on a lion's mane, liable to be shaken
off if his dormant majesty should awake.
So with Christianity, which has made but little headway against
the dominant Superstition of the Hindoos, whose religion is one of
the few Pagan faiths that liave had sacred books. In these books
are embalmed sound maxims of morality, and sentiments of such
nobility that in this fact alone the Indian faith soars above those
of ancient Greece, Home, or Assyria, where ideas of religion were
bounded by the erection of temples and statues to deities Avho
spoke to their worshippers in no higher form than what appealed
to the eye.
The Vedas, or Hindoo Scriptures, describe a state of society
widely at variance with Hindoo life and the religious tenets
of the present; so that if these sacred books are to be viewed
as the foundations of the prevailing religions of India, much of
Hindooism must have been invented by the Brahmins of a later
date.
The " Code of Menu " is another of the sacred books of Hin-
dooism. It is of a much more recent date than the Vedas, though
at the time it was written the Hindoo race had not extended
beyond the Vindhya Mountains. It is one of the deepest and
most subtle of all holy books, and though now " olwolete in many
respects," is really the foundation of modem Hindooism — legal,
social and political.
The religion of the Hindoos, like nearly every other form of
worship, savage and civilized, has altered much since their Bible
was written. It was purer in former times, but it appears to have
adopted from time to time the deities of the black-skinned
aborigines whom they had conquered, and to have imbibed many of
their superstitions.
The foundation of Braliminism consists in a triad, or "trimurti,"
in which Brahmd ii the creator, Vishnoo the preserver, and Siva
the destroyer. Beneath these there seems to lie the idea of "an
Unspeakable Unity, Brahm or Brihm." These three members of
the Hindoo Trinity were not, however, coeval. Vishnoo worship
is of a much younger date than that of Siva, whose popularity
was near its height at the birth of Christ.
Hindoo woi"ship is now almost entirely concentmted on Vishnoo
THE BULE OV CABIB.
227
and Siva, aiid the female divioities associated with tbem, and
BrahmA is now little regarded, having but one existing temple
in India. Unlike the gods of Greece and Rome, Avho took upon
themselves the form of mankind, only to gratify some passion, as
a rule, or at best to &vor some frieud, the great Hindoo deities
only do so for some good and beneficent purpose. They are
generally sculptured and worshipped in human form, more or less
UKMAKKH FKOU Till
altered according to the idealistic tendencies of the priest or tlie
aiiists.
Thus Vishnoo undertakes ten "avatars," or incarnations, in
iirder to save the world. These incarnations form the subject of
one of tlie loftiest portions of Hindoo theology, and under one
of these forms — that of the beautiful Krishna, or Kama tlie Hero
— he is moat frequently adored by his devotees.
When the "Rig- Veda" was written, Siva — ^who is now a most
frightful and revolting deity — was looked upon as aomethii^
228 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
very different, namely, as the " god of prayer and religfious asceti-
cism, perfect, infinite ; the refuge of worlds, the succorer of mis-
fortune, the spring of wealth, monarch of the world, lord of
Brahmd himself, yet giving in his own person the example of pen-
ance and pain." Compared with the Greek mythology, that of
India is infinitely deeper, more mysterious, and vastly more sub-
lime.^
Much, however, of the most beautiful portions of Hindoo
theology dates from a period subsequent to the Christian era.
Accordingly, some writers of good repute — Wilson in England,
and Lassen in Germany, for example — are of the belief that
traces of Christian influence may be detected in it. Most of the
grosser forms of materialism exist among the modern Hindoos,
mingled with the brighter and more excusable worship of the
elements.
For instance, water^vorship^ a form of religion widely spread
among nations both savage and civilized, is a part of their faith.
To this day, the Brahmin prays to the Ganges as the Roman
offered up his petition to Father Tiber, and the devout children
of a believer consider his soul safe, if he dies by its l)anks, choked,
it may be, by the Ganges mud. The dead are thrown into the
stream, and mothers even offer up their children to the Holy
River.
No place is with the Hindoo so appropriate for piuyer as the
banks of " the river," which to him is what the Nile is to the
Egyptian. Here they bathe and offer up. their vows, their prayers,
and their offerings of fruit, flowei's, rice and sweetmeats. Even
in places where the liver is of considerable breadth, garlands of
flowers are suspended across it.
Though all of the sue red river is holy to the devout Hindoo,
yet so peculiarly sanctifying is one particular spot, near the eon-
Iluence of the Ganges with the Jumna, that all who bathe therein
1 "I cannot help saying," remarks Ludlow, •* that when I compare Greek mythology with
Hin('.oo I am reminded of the saylnj? of the old Egyptian prteftt, that the Greeks were
mere children; so immca.su rably decider does the Hindoo mind api)ear to go in Hounding the
mysteries of the universe, of our own selves. The pervading yearning which manifests itself
for an abiding union with God, the linu hold wliich it has of what I take to l>e the truth of
truths for mankind — that God must take flesh for the salvation of the world —appear to me
principles which make the noblest of Greek myths seem but as babbling nursery rhymes
beside the Hindoo."
THE KITLB OF CASTK. 229
must of necessity — their souls l)eing purified from every sinful
taint — go straight to the gates of Paradise. To ensure this
blissful end of life, every year numbers of devotees commit suicide
by drowning themselves in the river, and so systematically is this
superstition fostered that the Bnihmins keep lK)ats for the pur-
ixjse of assisting their clients to perfonn this last holy office.
The intending suicide rows into the stream, into which, after
fastening to his legs jai-s full of stones, he tlirows himself, or he
simply walks into the 8tre«am with jars fastened in front and
behind his body, and reaching the middle of the stream, he
leisurely fills the jars with water. The jard have hitherto buoyed
him up, but as they fill the bearer sinks into the sacred sti-eam.
Corpses ai-e sunk in the same manner, the devont relfitives towing
the body into mid-stream, after its purification hy a quantity of
straw ignited round it.
What becomes of the body after bein^ sunk concerns no one ;
the alligator may devour it, or the hungry jatrkal tear it to pieces
as it strands on the muddy shore ; but the sacred Ganges has .
received it, and the soul has Ixjen wafted to Paradise. This method
of sinking bodies is, however, only pi-actised by those too poor to
bear the exjKjnse of a funeral pile ; the richer classes invariably
bum the body and thi-ow the ashes into the river. At Benares,
where self-immolation by drowning was once common, the police
now have orders to prevent it as far as possible.
All the Bi-ahmins, but especially the priests, are propitiated
with divine honors ; and, indeed, at certain seasons of the year,
the Brahmin is himself worshipped by his wiie. Their daughters
under eight years of age are worshipped as forms of the goddess
Bhavani, and gifts of flowere, fruit, water, garlands, and incense
are offered to them.
The wives of Brahmins are worshipped by other men, and it is
not uncommon for a hundred of these ladies to he invited to the
house of a rich man, who, after having rei>eated prayers and pmise
before them, concludes the ceremony by offering them rich gifts.
These people of Brahminic caste are venerated as descendants of,
and endowed with some of the divine substance of, their progeni-
tor Brahm&, who was at one time worshipi)ed as the Creator.
On the decay of the worship of Brahm&, Siva and Vishnoo came
280 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
into vogue as deities ; the worship of Siva being supposed to be
the more ancient in date. Siva is represented in various ways.
Sometimes his images represent liim as a silver-colored man with
five faces, in each face thi'ee eyes, of which the third is in the
forehead ; he is seated on a lotus, and clad in a garment of tiger
skin.
In other images he is represented as having only one head, but
still a third eye, with the figure of a half moon on the forehead,
and is riding upon a bull, naked and covered with ashes, his eyes
inflamed with intoxicating drugs ; in one of his hands carrying a
horn, in the other a drum.
Vishnooism may l)e considered as a sort of i-e formed Sivaism,
more refined and spiritual than that of the destroying and renova-
ting god ; its progress has, however, been slow, and its popularity
by no means so gi-eat as that of Sivaism. Its followers are divided
into several sects, each of which is distinguished by its secrets,
sacrifices, and particular signs.
To Vishnoo are offered no bloody sacrifices ; fruits, flowers,
water, clarified butter, sweetmeats, cloths, ornaments, and such
like, are accounted appropriato gifts to a god who is the " preserver
of all things.'' He is a household god. Little images are made
for sale, and worshipped whenever a person enters into a new
house, or to procure tlie removal of family misfortunes.
The heaven of Vishnoo is a region so glorious, that the vivid
fiastern imagination revels in devising terms glowing enough in
which to describe it. All destruction of life is to him abhorrent.
In addition to the Hindoo Trinity there are many inferior gods^
such as Kamadcva, the god of lives, and Krishna K&madeva, the
son of Brahmd, who is represented as a beautiful youth, holding
in his hand a bow and arrow made of flowers. His constant com-
panions are his wife, Rati, the goddess of pleasure, the cuckoo,
the humming bird, and the gentle breezes.
He is continually wandering through the " three worlds," con-
versing with his mother and wife, in gardens and temples, or
riding by moonlight on a parrot or lor}', attended by nymphs or
dancing girls, the foremost of whom bears his standard — a fish
painted on a red ground.
Animals are also venerated hv the Hindoos. As the ancient
THB BULK OP CASTE. 281
I worshipped Atiior, the Celestial Yeiius, under the fona
of a cow, BO the modem Hindoos pay court to Bhavani under the
repreaentation of the same animal. The religious beliefs, as well
as the superstitions of the lower classes, vary much in different
locaiities, and have often little in common with the Hindooism of
tlie Brahmins.
Brahminism has two aspects, separated by a vast chasm. One
is philosophical, the other popular ; one is for the few, the other
for the many. In its original or highest form it is extremely
simple, being a kind of spiritual pantheism, in wliich nothing
really exists except Brnhmfi ; in other words, nothing exists but
God, and everything existing is God.
But between this faith as found in the Ycdas and the corrupt
polyUieism of the Puranas there is an immense gulf, which,
however, is bridged over by the word "emanation." In the
philosophical creed, ever3rthing is identified with Brahmfi ; in the
popular, everything emanates from Brahm&. Stones, plants, ani-
mals, men, gods, demons, every conceivable object, issue from this
232 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
one self-existent nnivei-sal soul, as drojKs from the ocean, sparks
from the fire.
Yet, into these stones, plants, and animals, the spirit of man
may pass, or they nuiy rise to 1x5 gods, and the personal gods are
direct emanations^ from the Supreme Being. Tliis leads to tlio
doctrine of inc«arnation.
Vishnoo, for example, as preserver and pervader, passes into
men to deliver the world from the power of evil demons, while
Kama and Krishna are among the more popular incarnations. In
other words, men, animals, plants, stones, piiss through innumer-
able existences, and they can rise to be gods. But gods, men,
animals, plants, and every conceivable emanation fi-om the supreme
soul, aim at and must end in ieal^oii)tion into their source,
Brahmd.
Caste is everywhere an essential part of religion. Xo longer, as
it once was, a bond of union among large Ixxlies of men, it now
splits up the social fabnc into numerous communities, and thus
prevents all natural or patriotic combinations. In the present
day the family iKmd in India is even stronger than that of caste,
and as both are connected with religion, they weld those con-
cerned so firmly together that Hindoos, as a rulo, have few sym-
pathies and little disposition to co-operate with othei"s, beyond the
circle of their own families, and none at all Ix^yond the limits of
their own immediate castes.
What, then, in detail is this caste, which compels six laborers
camped under one tree, and otherwise undistinguished from each
other in dress or peraon, to build six choolas or cooking places.
» When the following lines from " I'ope'H Ks»ay on Man " were reitlted to a Brahmin priest,
he enthusiastically exclaimed that the poet must liaro been a lirahmin priest in one of his
incarnations.
" All are but parts of one stui>endous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and Ood the soul ;
That, clianp;ed thnmgh all, and yet in all the Mime,
(treat in the earth as in the ethereal frame,
Warms in the sun, refreshes on the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms on the trees ;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Hreathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as i>erfert, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man who mounis,
As the rapt seraph who adores and bums.
To Him no high, no low, no great, no small ;
He Alls, He lK)unds, connects, and equals all."
TH£ BVLE OF CASTE. 288
and eat as jEat apart as if they were men of different races, liabits
and antipathies, instead of being near neighbors, perhaps fellow-
villagers, speaking the same tongue and worshipping the same
gods?
CiUfte is the division of the j>eople into certain classes, between
wlioni liard mid fast lines are drawn, and who, theoretically at
least, follow from one generation to another the same pursuits,
do not intennany with each other, and, so far as commingling
Avith each other is concerned, might almost be said to be distinct
nices. Though much has been written on the subject of caste,
great misimderstanding still exists regarding its nature.
In the "Institutes of Menu, ' a work which lays down the
earliest ari-angements of Hindoo society, the niles of caste are very
distinctly defined. In this code we find four castes defined as
composing the nation, though the existence of mixed castes is also
mentioned. These four main divisioni are: 1, The Brahmin, or
priest ; 2, The Kshatriya, Cliuttree, or soldier ; 8, The Vaisya, or
husl)andman ; and 4, The Soodriv, or servant, in which were doubt-
less comprised most of the (converted aborigines.
In modern times tlu» A'aisya caste has disappeared, the Kshatriya
mainly subsists among the warlike Rajpoots of the northwestern
fi'onticr, and the Soodm chiefly, if not entirely, among the J&ts
and Mahnittius, unless, indeed, we take the hauglity Bmhminical
view of the question, and include fis Soodras all who are not
Bndimins. Tlie Bmhniiu is the pinnacle of this social edifice, and
l)eneath him are endless castes, vaiying according to locality, but
seldom less than seventy, and sometimes reaching as high as 170
iu number.
For three thousand yeais, by means of this powerful instrument
<»f caste, the Brdlnnins liave preserved their ascendency over their
fellows in India, and it must be acknowledged that tlie men, who
could so long hold their sway over turbulent races, speaking many
languages, and obeying few laws, must have l)een wise, prudent,
and firm in their iK)lie3'.
The world can show no other example of such a lease of power.
Had the Brahmin attempted to mauitain his influence by mere
bmte force, he would long ago liave been swept from the earth.
But lie rules without affecting sovereignty; he enjoys many of
234 THE STORY OF GOVBBNMENT.
the prerogatives of priesthood without separating himself from
human society. His original superiority was at first above all
moral and intellectual ; his privileges, even now hemmed round
with numberless disadvantages, were originally bound up with the
severest austerities.
The life of a Brahmin, as set foilh in the holy books, is divided
into four periods. During the first, he must perform the most
menial offices for a superior, to whom he attaches himself as a
disciple. During the second only lie mixes fully in social life,
maiTies and begets children. During the third, he devotes him-
self to religious pi-actices and acts of austerity. The fourth is a
period of entire self-abstraction, till he leaves the body, as a bird
leaves the branch of a tree.
The Bi-ahmin owes his supremacy mainly to the fact that till
recently he only of the Indian castes was acquainted with Sanscrit,
in which language are stored the treasures of Hindoo faith and
philosophy. Every trade, every art in India, is carried on by rules
laid down in these sacred books, the meaning of which is unknown
to the practitioners thereof; but still they blindly obey them, for
the Brahmins have so ordered.
Medical secrets are hereditary in certain Brahmin families, and
to them the sick have to resort. Music will bo traditional in one
family, and geometry in another ; so that the intellectual qualities,
to which of all others the hereditary principle is so unfavorable,
are influenced by caste.
If a man of any caste becomes defiled so that he is no longer
capable of mingling among his fellow-men, he cannot go to those*
of his own class for purification, but must apply to the Brahmins;
who alone possess the power of reinstating him in society ; though
even " the outcasts " have their own priesthood, composed mainly
of devotees, whom a long life of holiness and meditation upon
the Godhead have raised to such a rank above ordinary mortals,
that they seem to become almost capable of ridding themselves of
" the dreary progress of transmigration from shape to shape during
millions of years."
Here again theory does not always agree with practice, for of
late yeare the grip of the Brahmins has been gradually slacken-
ing, and their character for piety and learning deteriorating. In
THK ItULK OF CASTE. 285
earlier days the Brahmin was treated with the reverence befitting
his reputed descent; he \vas regarded as a divine being sprung
from the mouth of Bralim& the Creator, accoriling to the Hindoo
Triad. But biii traditional reputation as a sage and saint, his
single-minded devotion to his religious doties, his mental abstrao
lion, the purity of Km iliiumter, bis babituilc and mude of living
have undergone a nidical cliange.
He is no longer an ascetic, dev'otctl to n;ligiou3 contempUtion.
renouncing all the pleasures of the world, living to a patriarchal
age in some sequestered retreat, and regiirdeil by prince and [jcasant
as the embodiment of autboritj-, alike in law ami religion.
236 THK stohy of government.
On the contrarj', the majority are extremely worldly, and not
a few shockingly immoral individuals, wlio i)ractise few austerities,
and in spite of their notorious poveily engage in secular occupa-
tions for the purpose of gi-atifying their greed of gain. Even
their old monopoly of Sanscrit learning has been ruthlessly
invaded by low caste men and Western scholars, man}' of whom
are infinitely more learned than the majority of the sacerdotal
order.
The endless r.imificationb of the four original cJistes deprived
them of much of their power, and the consequence is that to
compensate themselves for their loss from this source they have
engaged in almost evciy calling, and their cupidity is so great that
every principle of law and morality is shamefully compromised in
their dealings with mankind.
Still, until ca:;te vanishes, perhaps not even then, the "thrice
born " and his poita^ or sacred cord, Avill be an object of awe to
millions of those whom the ancient law of India has oi-dained to
be his social inferioi's. This fact of a low caste entailing a social
ban is, however, tempting many parialis to become Mohammedans,
since within the pule of Islam all men are equals.
Below the Brahmin there are many castes, no caste associating
with that which is lower than it in the social scale. So strictly
is this carried out that in cases where castes, widely distinct from
one another, live in the same district, the very low caste people
are excluded from the highways. This is the system ; the princi-
ple is something different altogether.
It is, in tli'j eye of the Hindoo, a God-appointed system of
society in which every man shall have his settled place, with
which he must rest and be content, no matter what may \ye his
discomfort therein ; and it cannot be denied tliat thouorh the
practice is productive of much evil, yet at tlie same time it has
kept a people, wlio liave no higher controlling principle, from
sinking into a materialism so gro.^s tliat the morals and the whole
fabric of their national and social life would have been shaken
thereby.
Pi»rhaps it is better that the Hindoo should look upon the
Brainniu as his head, than that lie should have no one whom he
can legard as the supreme director of his faith.
THB BULB OF CASTK.
287
The high caste man is deSled hy the low caste man, hat the Iot
caste man is not defiled by contact with anyone beneath him.
Thus, the higher you ascend in the scale of caste, the more di£G-
cult does it become to keep from pollution.
Hence, the Brahmin, who is the highest of all, most cook his
own food, draw bis own water, and, like every high caste man,
perform for himself every duty by the performance of which it
is possible for him to be pol-
luted. Theoretically, at least,
the Brahmin is i)oIluted if the
shadow of a low caste man fulls
upon him, or if he glances into
the high caste man's pot, let
alone his being touched by such
an unholy being.
A Brahmin will even turn
aside and sjiit if a low caste
man should pass him in the pub-
lic street or highway, liow
caste is not therefore, without
its comi)ensating ad vantage.
The low caste
may go
about careless as to who touches
him, or whose shadow falls on "^
his vile person ; lie cannot be
defiled. He can, if wealth v
enough, hire a liigh caste man
— for high caste by no means
implies wealth-^to do any
oiDce for him, and enjoy the
fruits of the work of liis sujw-
rior in the Hindoo social scale, wliile those above him are practi-
cally debarred fmm sharing in hi.s labors.
Hence, the high caste man finds it proiitAble to become the
servant of the low caste man wlio may be able to i>ay for his
menial offices. Brahmins are, therefore, gi-catly run after as
cooks, food being the medium through which pollution can be
most easily imiarted. A Brahmin cook is greatly in demand
288 THE STouy of goveunmknt.
in native Indian regiments, some of the men of which are often
of high castes.
In a word, the Brahmin " can cook for every man, whilst no
one can cook for him"; and the food proceeding from his hands
is always pure. The caste system is not, tlierefore, an unmitigated
evil. To use the words of a thoughtful student of India, there
is nothing in it so very oppressive, inhuman, and monstrous, and
on the bulk of the Hindoo people it weighs but slightly.
India is emphatically the land of human horrors, where freaks
of superstitious fantasy encounter the traveller in nearly every
village. Preeminent among cranks of all nations is the Hindoo
Fakir, and the amount of self-torture which these fanatics will
embrace and yet live, is almost incredible.
Having the tongue bored with a red-hot iron was at one time
a self-torture so popular, that under a clump of banyan trees, near
the temple of the bull god at Chinsurah, the devotees used to
range themselves in a long line, in order to get the operation
performed by a blacksmith, who bore the reputation of not only
doing it effectually, which was well, but also — what was equally
important among the poverty-stricken Fakirs — cheaply.
To walk with parched peas in your shoes was, in the days of
severe penance in Europe, held to be a most reputable punishment
for sins divers and many. But the Hindoo Fakir quite outstrips
the European one. A case is on record, doubtless only a specimen
of many, of a Fakir who walked up and down in front of a mosque
gaily chanting a hymn, with his sandals nailed to his feet by iron
spikes, which projected above the instep.
Others will make the pilgrimage to a shrine, not on foot, but
by rolling their bodies along the ground the whole waj-, by ad-
vancing on their backs, pushing themselves along by their heels,
on their hands and feet, and by various other equally inconve-
nient methods of progression.
Others will sit motionless in one place until the joints of their
limbs get so stiff that they cannot bend them, or with hands
clenched until the nails grow through the flesh, or by holding the
arm, by means of support, in such a position that in time it
withei-s. There is really no end to the ingenuity of these devotees
in inflicting long and lasting tortures on themselves without pre-
ran ItULE OF CASTE. 2S9
vipitating deatli, wIucIl would be a pleasure in coni|iftrison, and
hence not bo meritorious in the eyes of the goda.
Anothei- method of torture, which must be well known to most
readers by means of the illustmtions of it, Ls that in wliich hooks
are inserted in the muscles of the devotees' backs, and then a
number of them are swung in an appiiratus not unlike the
"merry-go-round" seen at fairs, only in this case the solo sup-
port by which the victim iu suspended in mid-air is the hook and
cord inserted in his living flesh.
One of the most curious parts of this business is that, if a per-
240 THE STORY OF GOVERNME^*T.
son wishes to reap the benefits that the gods are supposed to
shower on the meritorious people who practise this species of
torture, he has no difficulty in procuring a substitute who will
submit to it for a small sum, though self-torture is now pro-
hibited by the British authorities.
As remarkable as the Fakirs, though in a far better way, are the
municipal institutions of Hindostan, which date from a period long
before the dawn of history. Their principle is the famous " village
system," the leading idea in which is, that the people of a partic-
ular community do not consist of individual units, but are a body
corporate, for the regulation of whose affairs certain functionaries
are required, and which, as a body, enjojrs certain rights over the
soil. These rights, and the method of administering them, vary
infinitely, but, nevertheless, over all Hindoo India the village sys-
tem in a more or less defined fonn exists.
The land is not the land of any individual ; it belongs in common
to the village, and each is only entitled to his share of the produce
— in kind or in money — of the soil, as a component member of
the body corporate which holds the land in common. These lands
are sometimes worked by the villagers, at other times by hired
lalxDrei-s, or are let out to temporary tenants.
In most cases the former rule — which seems to liave been tlie
general one in early times in India — prevails. The office-bearei-s
of the village, including all the artificei's, form an institution which
has undergone no alteration from time immemorial, and they also
enter into calculations connected with the stiitistics of an agricul-
tural village.
The patel^ or head of the village, has freehold land, or special
rights ; and the kulkarni^ or accountant, Jilso receives remuneration
in various ways. These two officers supply the machinery in ever}-
village for collecting statistical details. The Barra Balloota von-
sists of twelve hereditiiry office-bearei-s, including the patel and
kulkarni^ who receive certain fees or renmneration from the village
in exchange for professional services.
Thus the sutar^ or carj^enter, the lohar^ or smith, the chamhar^
or shoemaker, are paid by each villager, and they mend all imple-
ments for agricultural purposes, the owners finding the materials.
Some of the office-bearers have a right to a certain number of
THE BULB OF CASTE.
241
rows in the crops, and all the fees form items in the calculations.
It is a system so admirable that one can scarcely conceive any-
thing more suited to the peculiar conditions of Hindoo life and
character. By means of it, India is a collection of little, indepen-
dent, self-governing states, each under its potail, or head-man,
which can survive, and have survived revolutions out of number,
to which they are all-impassive ; thus the people, though slaves so
far as political freedom is concerned, are yet municipally in poi^
session ot the most jierfect independence. Tliey want nothing
from any higher state, so long as it wants nothing from them.
This village system must have been devised by men of long heads
and great, honest hearts, since, after the trial of every conceivable
system of administration — for which experiments there were no
earthly reasons except vanity and that i^culiar Anglo-Saxon con-
tempt for everything not emanating from British brains — they are
returning to the system devised so many thousand years ago by
the village wortiiies of Ilindostan.
242 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Lord Metcalf says that if a district remains for a series of yeai-s
the scene of continued pillage and massacre, so that the village
cannot be inhabited, the scattered villagers, nevertheless, return
whenever the power of peaceful possession revives. A generation
may pass away, but the succeeding generation will return ; the
sons will take the place of their fathers, the same site for the
village, the same position for the liouses, the same lands will
be occupied by the^ descendants of those who were driven out
when the village was depopulated.
The quarrels arising out of the village system are settled by
a Punchaijct^ or jury of five or more, who decide both tlie fact
and the law ; and though the Hindoo, when before an English
tribunal, is often too apt an example of the duplicity and fraud
which alloy the characteristics of the race, yet he has little chance,
if bound by oaths which he respects, or which custom has led him
to believe sacred, of escaping from the meshes of the legJil net
with which the Punchayet surrounds all those who come before it.
While considering the matter of native administration of jus-
tice, the subject of Hindoo thieves is apt to obtrude itself. In
very old civilizations, and in overcrowded communities, the trade
of stealing advances with the other arts and sciences, until, as in
India and China, thieving and burglary have grown to be, not the
vulgar, clumsy handicrafts they are in America, or Europe, but
really capable of being ranked among the fine arts.
The Hindoo thief is an expert. For example, a burglar will
bore a hole through the wall, and as Indian village huts are often
built of mud his labors are greatly lightened. Tlie hole being
big enough to allow of his body entering, he does not immediately
take this step, having learnt by long experience that, no matter
how cautious he may be, the quick-eared owner may have heard
his movements, and be ready the moment his head protrudes
through the hole his hands and crowbar have made, to descend
upon it with a pickaxe or a drawn sword.
The burglar, therefore, adopts the precaution of inserting a
stick with a bunch of grass the shape and size of a human head.
If a blow descend on the feeler^ the burglar instantly decamps,
knowing that the house is on the watch and alarmed. If no such
i*esult follows, he enters himself, picks up all he can, and hands
THE r.lILB OF CASTK.
243
the plunder through the hole to his partner outside, wlio preimres
it for being carried f>IT. mid gives the alarm shoiihl tlic least sign
of danger appear.
Then there is tlie thie£ wlio inuies under a house until he comes
to the women's apartment, knowing that so sei'urely is thia
guarded by the rooms on either side that little care is exerted to
protect the inmates' abundant jewelry scattered round. Having
arrived at the scene of his depredations lie gently raises the floor
and admits himself
noiselessh '"tn this d<i
mestic holj of holies
Silently he absorlw
about his person the
metallic treiisures of the
Zenana, and will even
abstract the bantjles ind
bracelets from the limbs
and the iings from tht
noses and eirs of the
sleeping beiuties with-
out awaking them
There >re thieves not
less courageous, who
will entei i cnmp vt
night, jKiss the sentnes
and even step o ^ i r
sleeping dogs, until the\
reach the officei-s' teiit-s,
these gentlemen Ijeing quiti; unaware of the presence of midnight
visitors until in the morning they timl themselves clothed witli
nothingness. A superior hand will even tiike the blanket from
around a sleeper without rousing liini.
Then there are the many different kinds of [.ickpocketa and
"cut-purses," who will enter the crowded hizaar aimed with a
sharp little knife, with which they relieve the girdles of the buyers
and sellers of the purses concealed in the folds of that universal
Oriental article of dress ; or the more dangerous thief, wlio will
gain access to a house in the dark, liis naked body well oiled.
244 THE STORY OF OOVEBNMEKT.
If seized, his supple body slips through the victim's hands, or if
he is likely to be caught, the sharp knife which hangs by a string
around the thicFs neck inflicts an ugly wound on the wrists or
other portions of the person of the captor.
The riches of India have for ages been proverbial. " The
wealth of Omus or of Ind," has been a magnet to many an advent-
urer, from Turkish Sultans to English lords, like Clive, and the
quantity of their spoils has been almost incalculable.
When Mahmoud of Ghazni plimdered Muttra, the fabled birth-
place of Krishna, he obtained, during an orgy of rapine and mass-
acre lasting twenty days, an incredible amount, the gift of
millions of devotees.
Among the loot which he bore to his Alpine home were
huge idols of pure gold, with eyes of rubies and decorations of
sapphires and diamonds, the spoil taking 850 elephants to trans-
port it.
At a later date, when he sacked Somnauth, where for forty
centuries had stood the Temple of Soma, " lord of the moon,"
piles of diamonds and sapphires, rubies and gold, streamed
from the hollow interior of the idol, which the Brahmins had
earnestly endeavored to ransom. The Mohammedans entertain a
strong repugnance to image-worship, and Mahmoud had been
famous for destroying such stumbling-blocks of offence to Moliam-
medan eyes.
The ransom of their chief idol offered by the priests was a tre-
mendous temptation, but principle prevailed, and the religious
warrior with one blow from his mighty battle-axe sent the idol
reeling to the ground among the groaning priests. His piety was
well rewarded. In a few hours the accumulations of ages changed
hands. James Russell Lowell, one of our most American of poets,
has put this striking stoiy into vivid verse.
THE SULTAX MAHMOUD.
Mahmoud once, the idol-breaker, spreader of the faith,
"Was at Somnauth sorely tempted, so the legend saith.
In the great pagoda's centre, monstrous and abhorred,
Granite on a throne of granite, sat the temple's Lord.
Mahmoud paused a moment, silenced by that silent face,
Wliich, with eyes of stone unwavering, awed the ancient place.
THE BULE OF CASTE. 246
Then the Bnihmiiis knelt before him, by hig doubt made bold,
Offering for their idol* a ransom countless gems and gold.
Oold was yellow dirt to Mahmoud, but of precious use,
Since from gold the roots of power suck a magic juice.
*' Were yon stone alone in question, this would please me well, **
Mahmoud said, ** but, with that block there, I my truth must sell.
Wealth and rule slip down with Fortune, as her wheel turns round;
Ho who keeps his faith, he only, cannot be discrowned.
Little were a change of station, loss of life or crown;
But tlie wreck wore past retrieving, if the man fell down.**
Saying this, his mace ho lifted, smote with might and main,
And the idol, on the pavement tumbling, burst in twain.
Luck obeys the downrijlit striker. From the hollow core
Fifty times the Brahmins* offer flooded all the floor.
In addition to such temples reared for the worship of tlie gods,
there are in India many holy places, in some of which shrines are
erected and in others not. To these places great numbers of pil-
grims throng, and reside for a time, in the hope of imbibing from
the surroundings something of the sanctity which is connected
with them.
Others, whose lives have been spent in the pursuit of gain
or in the neglect of religion, resoit liere towards the evening
of their days, so as to die in a sacred locality. They even erect
temples and tanks for water at these places, so that by such meri-
torious deeds they may secure repose for their souls. It is, how-
ever, to the Ganges, the Jumna, the Indus, the Cavery, the Krishna,
and otlier more or less sacred rivers, that the Hindoo chiefly makes
his pilgrimages.
Water is, according to liis belief, the best means of moral
as well as physical purification — a belief which according to
Homer was held by the ancient Greeks. Of these holy Hindoo
places, the city of Benares is the holiest. What Jerusalem was
to the Crusader, and Mecca to the Mahometan. Benares is to
the Hindoo.
According to Brahminic pliilosophy, Benares is too holy to
be a part of this world, and instccad is situated on the point
of Siva's trident. Hence, no earthquakes are ever exi^erienced
there. From this city there is a way direct to heaven — a
royal road to salvation. A very short breathing of its holy air is
sufficient to secure this, provided the pilgrim visit the shrines and
pay for the privilege of so doing.
246 THE ST»>Rr •►r ootebsuest.
All things ar»f ^x:«k(ible t« j in«r ;?J*i> ; Jind it even lies within the
pOB?<*ib£litIe^ that the - l-ee wacin:? ** Englishman who resorts
thither to Lre^ithe hL* Ll^^r mnj occiZn ** afa^rption into Brahmi."
And it niivr be mention*^ L a* *:cjc of the curiosities of religious
fanaticLsm, tliat the H:::«I»>?s aiErm that one Englishman actually
avuileil hiaaself of this j»rivil«e<^-
Extni«>rdLnarr thoimrh this statement mav seem, it is believed
that Job Chamock, who in loV^> Liid the foundation of the East
India C«>uijKiny*s power ia Bengal, absolutely became a Hindoo,
and yearly sacrificed a cock oa his natire wife's tomb, and that
General Ste\»"art also et^raged a Brahmin to perform daily wor-
ship among the c^^llection of iilols which he had arranged on the
portico of his house. Night and d:iy. at all seasons of the year,
everj' dusty nxul leading to Benar&i is thronged with pilgrims
wendiu*:: their wav t«» this centre of Hindoo devotion.
But the Hindoo shrine which is most known in Europe is that of
Juggernaut, Juggernauth. or Jagannat*h. Wlien we speak of a
person crushing himself untler the Juggernaut wheels of custom,
we mean to express that the indi^-iduaFs fear of the opinion
of otliers is irreater than the strenirth of his own vrilh and we but
borrow a simile from one of the mivst famous of Indian supersti-
tions or relicrious rites.
The temple is situattnl in Pooive. or Juggernaut, in the province
of Orissa, about two lunuln.Hl and lifty miles southwest of Calcutta,
and is cliieflv remarkable for the idol containe<l in it, which is
annually dragged in its car in procession.
Indeed, were it not for this annual procession, and tlie crowds
wliich come t^) witness or tiike pLxrt in it, the whole affair would
>>e of little imi>ortance, and command no attention from anyone
not immediatelv interested. The town in which this celebrated
prfKjession is held is mean, dirty and badly built. The streets
are fTowded with sacred oxen, who ai*e trained to attack with
their Ju^niH any intrudei-s on the Siicredness of the route.
VnrumH kinrls of monkeys may l)e seen perched on the houses,
wallH, and treses ; and in the water-tanks are tame crocodiles, which
are objer^t^ of woi'ship.
The Pagoda of Juggernaut is at the end of the principal
ittreet, whidh is \i:ry wide and composed almost entirely of reli-
248 THE STORY OF GOVKKXMENT.
gious establishments with low-piUared verandas in front, and plan-
tations of trees interposed. The temple stands \vithin a square
space inclosed by a lofty stone wall, and measuring 650 feet on a
side.
The principal entrance is crowded with the baskets and
umbrellas of the natives, and the hute of dried leaves and
branches which serve as a shelter for a number of Fakirs, and it
opens on a vestibule witli a pyramidal roof. On eacli side is a
monstrous figure, representing a kind of crowned lion.
In front is a column of dark-colored basalt, of very light and
elegant proportions, surmounted by the figure of the monkey-god
Hanuman, the Indian Mercury. The great pagoda rises from
twenty feet high within the outer inclosure ; from a base thirty
feet square it rises 180 feet, tapering slightly from bottom to top,
and rounded off on the upper part, being crowned with a kind of
dome. The temple is dedicated to Krishna, who is the principal
object of worsliip in the character Juggernaut, and as an incarna-
tion of Vishnoo, but is held in joint tenancy with Siva and with
Sabhadra, the supposed sister and wife of Siva. There are idols of
each, consisting of rudely sculptured blocks of wood about six feet
in height.
Krishna is dark blue, Siva wliite, and Sabhadni of a yellowish
hue. In front of the altar on which these idols are placed is a figure
of the hawk-god, Garounda. A repast is daily served to these idols ;
it consists of 410 lb. rice, 225 lb. flour, 350 lb. clarified butter,
(ghee), 167 lb. treacle, 65 lb. vegetables, 186 lb. milk, 24 lb. spices,
84 lb. salt, and 41 lb. oil. During the meal the doors are closed
against all but a few favored individuals sanctified by long fasts
and a habit of asceticism and penitence. Loud strains of peculiar
music drown all other sounds while the gods are consuming their
daily rations.
About a mile and a half from the temple is a tank, to which the
gods are brought by their attendants to pass a few days annually,
devoted to bathing in the cool watei^s of the sacred pool. Each
idol has its own car, but that of Juggernaut is the i)rincipal one.
It is al)Out thirty feet square, mounted on sixteen wheels, each
more than six feet in diameter, and the whole construction is
upwards of forty feet high. It is i)lentifully adorned externally
THE RULE OF CASTE.
'with sculptniea ot the usual Indian tvpe, and is conTentionally sup-
posed to he drawn hy two wooden horses, which are only attached
to it on the day of procession when two stout cables itre attaclied
to the car. These are seized hy thousands, or hy as many as can
obtain a place to hold Ity, and formerly when it went along the city.
260 THK STORY OF GOVEUNMENT.
there were many that offered themselves as a sacrifice to the
idol, and despei-ately lay down on the ground that the chariot-
wheels might crush them.
But as the British Government no longer makes profit out of the
pilgrims by the tax put upon them, it is doing all it can to dis-
courage the annual religious pandemonium. Instead of hundreds
immolating themselves before the idol's car, only occasionally now,
and even these are rare occasions, a poor decrepit wretch, weary
of life, or drugged by the priests with Indian hemp or opium,
will madly throw himself before the wheels in spite of the efforts
of the police, who have orders to prevent such suicide.
The Hindoo is beginning to be wonderfully cautious of that
swarthy skin of his, even in the service of the gods, and with
a view to his salvation. On a late occasion, indeed, instead of
thousands of devotees struggling to get at the ropes, not a single
hand assisted to drag the car along ; and to the hoiTor and chagrin
of the Brahmins, for the fii*st time in history, the idols of Jugger-
naut came to a standstill in the streets of Pooree. But yet in
civilized America we are di-agging along many a crushing Jugger-
naut in the shape of colossal corporations which plunder the
people and debauch the politicians. Let us hope, however, not for
long.
Speaking of the Juggernaut car of custom or of conventionality
which crushes the individuality of so many recalls another meta-
phor borrowed from India. Most readei-s know of the Pinkerton
men who can be hired in some states by any rich man or corpora-
tion to fire on striking employees. During the last strike on the
New York Central the indignation of the public was aroused by the
murderousness of one of these gangs, and many newspapers
referred to them as Pinkerton thugs.
This word and comparison come from India, where murder used
to be not merely a fine art, but an article of faith among some
fanatics, the surest way not merely of sending but of going to
heaven. " Thuggee," as this religious crime is called, originated
in this manner: The goddess Kali, as well as those of Devee,
Doorga, or Bhavani, by all of which she is known, is looked upon
as Siva's wife.
She is represented in her statues as many-handed, her hands full
THE Biri.B OP CASTE.
251
of varioos kinds of wenpons, and arouud her neck a stiing of
human skolls ; and in old times, according to Hindoo mythology
she made war upon a race of giants, from every drop of whose
blood sprang a demon,
which blood again had
the power of propagat-
ing other demons,
until the land wa»
overrun with diablerie-
At Lost tlie goddess
created two men to
whom she gave hand-
kerchiefs to destroy
the demons. When
they had [(crfoi-med
this tiisk, slie presented
them with the hand-
kerchiefs, iiml, hi ad-
dition, the ]>nvilege of
using tlitMn against
human beings for their
livelihood Hence
arose the caste of
Thug^
The J aie known to
hive existed during
the seventeenth ceii
tui), T\hen they used
female decoys for tht
uiiwirj tnvcUer, as
thtj did ^Mtlun the
pi esent ct ntUM
though these decoys
are of a much older
use than that j^eriod. The fmteriiity is not emiipoNed of men
of one caste, but of people of different castes and religions, and
living in different districts ; liaving secret signs and a peculiar
dialect known to all those who are initiated into the fraternity.
252 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Strange to say, however, the majority of them are nominally not
Hindoos, but Mohammedans, and their tradition is that they origi-
nally sprang from seven tribes, all of that religion, living in the
neighborhood of Delhi, from which they were dislodged in the
seventeenth century.
The Hindoos, however, say that the caste was in existence long
before Mohammed's time ; but as they all agree in worshipping
the Hindoo god Kali, observe the Hindoo fe?.sts in her honor,
make offerings at her temples, and, especially after any murder,
present to her a piece of silver and some sugar, they may be said
to be a Hindoo sect.
Those who are initiated into the body are taught the secret
signs, but only those who apply the noose receive the sacred
wafer of Thuggee, which is believed to change a man's whole
nature. From boyhood to mjinhood they are taught to look upon
the strangulation of uiwffending victims as their calling in life, into
which they are gradually initiated.
First, the neophyte is employed as a scout, or sotha^ only^
his duty Ijcing to give warning of the approach of a traveller.
Sometimes the women and children, jis less ai)t to be suspected,
are employed in this work ; then lie is allowed to see the corpse
after it has been strangled, and to assist at the interment ; lasth%
after a solemn initiation bv means of the sacred sujrar, he is
elevated to the rank of a hhuttote^ or st rangier, and allowed to use
the noose, or roomal^ by which the victims are dispatched.
The whole gang is governed by a jamadar^ sirdar , or chief, and
has attached to it a ffitru^ or teacher. Nothing about their unholy
calling is in the Thug's eyes unholy ; on the contrary, everything
is sacred. The liufhaees^ or gravediggers, constitute one of the
highest grades in the order. The pickaxe with which tlie gravt*
is dug is solemnly forged and consecrated. It is considered as a
gift from Kali, and looked upon accordingly with great veneration.
Every seventh day this pickaxe is brought out and worshipped^
and, no matter how pressing the necessity, the grave for the victim
can be dug by no other instalment. All the Thugs follow some
ostensible trade, but travel about from place to place, under
various disguises, straggling into villages in twos and threes, and
meeting as strangers. Secrecy is one of the essentials of their
I'HB ItlTLK OF CASTE.
work ; never Mill tliey knowingly Htraiigle a, victim in the presence
of anyone not belonging to tlieir order.
One of them sometimes passes as a man of rank, with numerous
attendants, and liis women in palanquins, which in realit> contaut
generally the implements of their calling. Tliey fall in with
other travellers as it liy accident, or for mutvial iimtection. Suil-
dunly, at the favoi-able spot, one throw-s the waisthaiid or tinlKiii
round the victim's ncok. another draws it tight, both pnsliing Iiini
forward witli their other hiinds, a third aeizL-H hiiii hy tlie legs
and throws him on the ground.
254 THE STORY OF GOVERN^IENT.
To strangle a man single-handed is accounted a rare feat, and
one so transcendent that it will ennoble the strangler's descen-
dants for generations to come. If the locality is dangerous,
a canvas screen is thrown up as if to conceal women, and the body
buried behind it ; or one of them will distract the attention of
travellers by pretending to be in a fit. If a stranger approaches,
nevertheless, they weep over the body as over a dear comrade.
The traces of the murder are quickly obliterated.
Such is their expertness that one hundred Thugs have been
known to slaughter on an average eight hundred persons in a
month, and keep up this record for several years. They always
go forward, never passing through towns or villages through
which their victims have passed. If they kill a man of note, they
take care to dispose of all his attendants. They have implicit
faith in omens ; but when the omens are once favorable, they look
upon the victim as an appointed sacrifice to the deity, so that if
he is not slain, Devee would be wroth with them. So they eat,
drink, and sleep without remorse upon new-filled graves.
Before the body is buried, it is pierced with holes to prevent it
swelling, and the grave is so neatly smoothed over that it is next
to impossible for any one of the uninitiated to point out where
one exists, even though newly made. This last rite over, the
Thugs seat themselves round a white cloth, on which are laid the
sacred pickaxe, fresh from digging the grave, a salver of silver,
and some coarse sugar. The sugar is distributed to all present,
and eaten in silence. The silver is supposed to be dedicated to
Kali, as is also the sugar.
This done, the cloth is folded up, the plunder divided, after
shares have been set aside for religious and charitable purposes, in
accordance Avith the ranks of the members of the gang, and the
Thugs go on their way again in the guise of simple traders,
artisans, or travellers. The victims they do not consider killed
by them. It was God who allowed them to be killed, and con-
science never seems to trouble them.
Remorseless murderers, their hands steeped in human blood,
they might, in their own villages, be good fathers, faithful friends,
and be respected in their community as skilful artisans, agricul-
turalists, or traders, whose real calling was never suspected, though
THE HTTLE OP CASTU.
sse
the eommiinity, of ooune, profit I^ their wealth. Generally, how-
BTer, thej take the precantlon of paying tribute to the Zemindar,
or to the police officials, whose very near relatives were often
members of the infamous gang.
Some Thugs, it is said, were even in the employ of the govern-
ment itself. Even when discovered, superstition often protected
them, for there was a title that such and t, 1 a njal v is struck
with leprosy for having had two Th iga tnmpled to death hy ele
phants. Indeed, so openly even long after tl e Bnt sh rule was
established in India, was Thuggee practised, that meichants came
from a distance to purchase the plunder of ivhicli the murderers
had robbed their victims.
Though the murders are uondncted ^vith Meci-ecy, yet it ought
256 THE 8TOBV OF GOVERNMENT.
to be mentioned that this is only part of the system, and not really
from any fear of the consequences, for the Thug exults in his
crime, and if caught never attempts to defend himself, but boasts,
as he is being led to the scaffold, of the number and quality of the
victims whom he has jissisted in sacrificing to the goddess of
destruction.
The Thugs believe that at one time Kali assisted them in
their work by devouring the bodies of the victims, but that one
of the fraternity having indiscreetly pried into her proceedings,
she took offence, and left them in future to bury their victims.
She, however, so far assisted them that she presented one of her
teeth for a pickaxe, a rib for a knife, and the hem of her lower
garment for a noose. Hence the sacredness of all these implements.
Though the existence of this horrible caste was well known to
the natives, and even to the native officials, with such secrecy was
their business conducted that the working of the system has only
been thoroughly understood of late. Such were the pleasant possi-
bilities of travelling in India, in addition to such iis are shown in
the suggestive picture of a siesta in the jungle, where an American
explorer is vividly depicted saving the life of his servant by the
dexterous use of a bit of cord. Between snakes, tigers, and
TImgs, the secret places of India are very alluring to the adventur-
ers but not nice winter resorts for quiet citizens.
Yet though India is the home of many a dark and horrible su-
pei-stition, it is also the lionie of a religion gentle and beautiful,
which of late years has l)een spreading in European countries, and
has even quite a strong following in the United States. Tliis re-
ligion is Buddhism, and a brief account of the founder of this in-
teresting faith may be of value.
Buddha was a rajah's son, heir to a throne, but in the midst
of the pleasures of the sensual court of Kapilavastu, the young
[)rince Siddhartha (his original name) found that there was no
happiness, and that outside his palace gates there were misery
and crime, and suffering and death, such as in the days of his
frivolous life he had never dreamt of. Life inanimate alone pre-
sented to him pictures which were not those of desolation. The
Brahmins afforded him no consolation ; their creed gave the young
prince no comfort, nor did it conform to what he believed were
' THE BULB OF CASTS. 257'
the designs of the beneficent Creator of the uitiverHe. Mi» resolve
vma made.
"I am determined," he said, "that in disftppearing from here
below I will not be any more sabjeot to the vicissitudes of traii»-
migration. I will find the way to put an end to birtli and death,
and when I have discovered it 1 will impart it to the world. I
will teach the law of grace to everyone."
He was then twenty>nine years of age ; but he separated from
father and motlier, wife and children, and set out to visit the
schools of the masters of the laws at Manoii. and gave up six
years to the study of the religious system, as well an tu tlie ascetic
exercises enjoined on the Brahmins. He was not long in artiving
at the conclusion that this road was not the one calculated ti) load
to the goal he had in view.
Breaking loose from all the old faiths, he fimnded ii new one,
sod believed tumself to be imbued with tlie (qualities of Buddha.
and in the possession of ]>erfect wisdom. Commencing his preach-
ing at Benares, in the thirty<8ixth year of liis age, he i-eturned to
Kapilavastn, and converted to the new faith his father. Win wife,
and family. His name was soon known all over Central India.
Nov commenced his contests with the Iti-alimins, which several
268 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
times imperilled his life. But for more than forty years he con-
tinued his bloodless crusade without other protection than what
was afforded him by the love of his followers, the austerity of his
morals, and the perfection of his wisdom. Feeling his end approach-
ing, this great and good man took a tender leave of his companions
in labor, and seating himself under a tree expired. In the year
543 B. c. his followers met and settled the dogmas of their master,
for he, like the sweet-souled Son of the Cai-penter, liad himself com-
mitted nothing to writing.^
The religion of Buddha, or Fo, as it is sometimes called in China,
may well be styled one of the best forms of religion ever invented
by man. It inculcates benevolence, humility, piety, and in all
things moderation. It has no sacrifices, and none of its rites are
secret or cruel. Its sacred books are open to the perusal and study
of everyone, and this fact alone is one of the guarantees of the
good faith of its originator.
But in the more corrupt state into which it fell after the death
of its founder, it had images of all kinds in tlie temples. There
are images representing gods of the hills, woods, valleys, etc., as
well as household deities, to whom offerings, but not sacrificas,
are made. Li the temples, which are very numerous, there are
altars, bells, and beads, jewels and exquisite gem-work. In the
shadow of the temple walls the native goldsmiths and jewellers ply
their craft, making relics to sell to the pious. Incense and tapers
burn day and night in these buildings, around the images, some of
which are of colossal size ; and the utes of the religion are celebra-
ted by singing, processions of priests, and such-like ceremonials.
The trausmignition of souls is, now at least, a leading doctrine
among the Buddhists, and accordingly it follows, from their hold-
ing tliis belief, that they avoid animal food and the act of sacrifice,
either of which might involve the killing of some human being
who was performing one of the states of transmigration. In Tibet
> '• His doctrine," writes M. Aim<^ Hambert, •' which he never intended to have any other
end tlian that of working a moral reform in the Brahmin worship, and substituting a reign of
duty for that of the gods, and the practice of good for that of vain ceremonies, became in
its turn a dogmatic system, accompanied by a superstitious and idolatrous worship. Buddhism
is now the principal religion in the Island of Ceylon, the Burman Empire, the Kingdoms of
Siam and Annara, Tonquin, Til)et, Tartar>', Mongolia, China, and Japan. It reignod for some
time in the whole of India, Java, and other islands, and still exists in Cashmere and Nepaul,
the number of its adherents exceeding four hundred millions of souls, an amount which no
other religion on the globe has attained.
THE BDIjE of CjLSIE.
269
they hava monastflries, containing numerous monlu, who pass their
tune in religious exerciaes and study.
The head of tlie faith is the Dala'i Larna, or Grand Lama,
vho resides at Lhasa, which is accordingly the capital of the
northern Buddhist world. This person^e has di%-ine honora paid
to him, and is also the nominal sovereign of the country, though
the real governing power is vested in the Chinese governor and
a Tibetan minister. Lamaism, or the " Great Vehicle," is, bow-
ever, so amplified a form of the fiuth of Gautama as to be really
a new religion, or sect.
Buddhism is now closely studied by European scholars. The
Brahmins called the Buddhist» Sangataa, or atheists. This can
only be in ita very corrupt state, for eucli a doctrine could surely
never maintain its hold upon one third of the human race, com-
priang nationalities so varied as the keen-trading Chinese, the
energetic Tibetans, tlie gentle, dispassionate Hindoos, and the war-
li^, intelligent Burmese and Siamese.
It was a protest against idolatry and Brahminism by a man
irilo was not a Brahmin but a rajah's son. It abolished caste,
260 THE STOEY OF GOVERNlklENT.
and hence, independently of other reasons, tlie violent opposition
it meets with from the Brahmins. It is really somewhat difficult
to understand its actual doctrines ; but whatever they are. Buddh-
ism has been a power in the world, and it would be a nish
assertion to make that it has not been on tlie whole for good.
In India, thougli not properly the national religion — Bmliminism
being so — it probably, in the number of its followers, at one time
far outstripped those holding tlic indigenous faith of the country.
The marriage customs of a nation like the Hindoo, or indeed
any of the older nationalities, arc so much a part of their govern-
mental status that a full description of them cannot rightly l>e
considered out of place, and will doubtless l>e intensely interesting
to all whose thoughts ever turn to the important subject of mar-
riage, which ought to be the abiding rock — the firm foundation of
human society.
In the " Institutes of Menu " the most clatomte directions ai-e
laid down in regard to the choice of a Bmhmin's wife, and to the
ceremonies that must be undergone by a Brahmin's son before
wedlock. He must sit, for instance, on a stately bed, decked with
a garland of flowers. His father then presents him with a copy
of the Vedas, and a cow, the symbol of Venus. The father next
reads the youtli a grave lecture on his coming duties, and how
he ought to select a wife.
The qualifications for a Brahmin's bride are many and strict, if
the code of the great Hindoo legislator is followed. Not only is
a girl with red hair — a rare case among the Hindoos — to be
avoided, but care must also be taken to shun one with little hair
or with too much. The bride elect must not Ix) immoderately
talkative, nor must she have inflamed eyes.
The young Brahmin must avoid one " with the name of a con-
stellation, of a tree, or of a river, of a barbarous nation, or of a
mountain, of a winged creature, a snake, or of a slave, or one with
any name raising an image of terror. Let him choose for a wife
a girl whose form has no defect ; who has an agreeable name ;
who walks gracefully, like a young elephant (strange comparison I) ;
whose teeth are small, whose hair is modemte in quantity, and
whose body has an exquisite softness."
The siege of the girl's parents is not decided upon until a fortu-
THE RTTLE OF CASTE. 281
nate da^ has boen ftzed. The father of the young man then takes
a number of small presents, and proceeds to the house of tlie
bride-elect, but will immediately tarn back if any animal of evil
omen, such as a fox, a cat, or a serpent should cross his path.
But even if all go well with the ambassador at the house of tlie lady
whom he hopes to make his daughter-in-law, the fatlier of the girl
does not give his consent until he hears the chirp of one of the
small lizards that creep aboutold walls. When this favorable omen
occurs the bride's father &&•
sents, and the marriage day is
fixed.
The four summer months
usually chosen are the most
Incky in the whole calendar;
and, probably on account of
the field-labors being suspended
during that i)eriod, because of
the great heat, some leisure is
aftortled for tlie performance ,
of the ceremony. During the
night preceding the nuptial
flay, the houses of bride and
bridegroom resound witli
music, and buniing Inm[» are
placed at the door l»y women
who utter wishes for their wel-
fare. Balls of rice are made
hj' the women, who towards
the close of the night eat rice
with the bride and bridegi-oom.
Next raoniing tlie wimien '""^ hatek <;
again assemble, and men v-raaking recommences. With buniing
lamps in their lirt:ids, ii " ^es-sel uf pure water, balls of rico-flour,
and a quantity of l»etel, tliey i>i-oceed to visit the neighboring
families, and present tlieni with the plant." On their return liome
the marriage rites ai-e continued.
After placing^the future husband and wife upon a framework,
or wicket of bamboo, and thrice waving around their feet a wisp of
262 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
lighted straw, the women taking a ball of thread, and encompass-
ing the bamboo fi-amework four times, bind the betrothed pair
together, fastening one end of the thread on the right arm of the
youth, and the left arm of the maiden, with a few blades of durva-
grass.
The bodies of the bride and bridegroom are next anointed with
fragrant unguents. When these ceremonies are completed, little
offerings, intended to secure the happiness of the betrothed, are
made at the houses of both parents to the manes or spirits of their
deceased ancestors. Presents of betel, fruit, and sweetmeats are
then exchanged between the bride and bridegroom; and in the
course of the afternoon their heads are shaved.
Immediately after the performance of this part of the ceremony,
a large stone is placed in the midst of a small aitificial pond of
water, surrounded by trees, in which are suspended lamps with
wicks, made of the fruit of the thorn-apple. Upon this stone the
bridegroom stands, and the women, with the burning lamps, rice-
Imlls, etc., in their hands, approach him in single file, and success-
ively touch his forehead with the various objects which they bear.
The bride, bridegroom and all the principal personages concerned
fast until the whole ceremony of the nuptials is completed.
Rich people, and even those who cannot afford such display,
often spend large sums on their weddings, and conduct the cere-
monies with the pomp, splendor, and lavishness so dear to the
Oriental, and sometimes to the Occidental, heart. At night, the
bridegroom, superbly dressed, glittering with gold and silver orna-
ments, and with a crown on his head, is carried in a golden palan-
quin to the bride's dwelling.
Before him n^ove a long procession of servants bearing silver
staves, and open carriages containing singers and dancing-girls,
some of whom, later on, perform the celebrated egg-dance. All
along the line of march attendants, carrying lighted flambeaux, dis-
charge fireworks as they advance ; and scattered amongst them
are musicians who play on various instruments. It is not a little
significant that, since the English conquest of India, these musi-
cians arc frequently Europeans, and European guns are also fired,
every now and then, as accompaniments to this marching —
sometimes martial — musics.
THE BULB OF CASTE. 268
OccaaionaUy these midnight marriage processiona, when passing
through the vilhige, are playfully attacked by the boys and young
people. But these encounters, commenced in sport, not unfre-
quently end in dread earnest mth the loss of many lives.
The ceremonies which follow when the bridegroom has reached
the bride's house — sucli as h is being undressed by the bride's father
a:td clothed in new garments, such as standing on a stool beneath
which a cow's head and other sacred things have been buried, such
as covering the bride with old gaiments and carrying her seven
times round her future lord, then letting them gaze on each other.
"is4*!ii>'
f soiiTiiEiiy ixiiiA.
and approacli and sit down together, take up so much time that
once in one's life would seem a festive sufficiency on this question
of marriage d la Hindoo. But we must remember that time has
little meaning or value to an Eastom mind whose constant concept
is eternity, and a stretch of eei-emony that would be tremendously
tedious to us is to them but a soft and agreeable recreation.
The father-in-law next presents the bridegroom with fourteen
blades of the fragrant kusa grass, pours water into the palm of his
right hand, and reads a mantra, or incantation, over it. Water is
then spilt upon the ground, and the officiating Brahmin, having
264 THE STOliY OF GOVERNMENT.
directed the youth to dip his fingers into a vessel of water,
approaches with tlie girl, and placing her hand upon that of her
husband, binds them together with a garland of flowers.
When the bride has been formally given and received, the garland
of flowers is removed, while the father of the bride repeats tlie
Gdyairi^ or lioliest vei'se of the Vedas. A kind of curtain is then
drawn over the heads of the married pair, who once more regard
each other, after which they are directed to bow to the priest and to
the company, and to invoke the blessings of the gods and Brahmins.
During these ceremonies, portions of the Misra — work on the
various onlers of the Hindoos — are reheai'sed by the Ghatakas,
and the foreheads of the guests are marked with sandal-wood
powder. The bride and bridegroom are finally fastened together
by their garments in token of union, and led back into the midst
of the family.
Celibacy is accounted a disgrace both to men and women. If
a man loses his wife he immediately looks out for a second, but if
she also dies he has difficulty in getting a third, owing to the be-
lief that some bane is upon him. To avoid this supposed cui-se,
he betrotlis himself to a tree^ on which the threatened evil falls.
Fifty is the age wliich the sacred books fix as the period beyond
which a man should not marry, but the Brahmins disregard this
injunction.
Though Indian women are not treated with the same courtesy
and consideration as they are in Western society, and are in many
respects even degraded, yet it is erroneous to suppose that they
are mere slaves, or are sunk as low as thev are in Mohammedan
harems.
Still a Hindoo woman is not considered the equal of a man.
She is looked upon with small consideration, and is supposed to
be incapable of acquiring that degree of mentality which would
allow of her ascension in the social scale. If a man does anything
reprehensible, it is usually said that he has acted in the spirit of
a woman, and she, on the other hand, as the excuse for any fault
she has committed, lays all the blame on the natural inferiority of
her sex.
The Ahh6 Dubois, a well-known and much esteemed writer
on the Hindoos, considers that from some strange perversity
THB BOLE. OF CASTE. 265
of taste, or from tlie effect of custom, the Hindoo women have
absolutely imbibed a taste for ill-treatment " They would," he
assumes, "despise tlieir husbnnds if they treated them with famil-
iarity. I have
t wife in a
rage with her
li us band for
talking with her
in an easy strain.
'His behavior
covera me with
shame,' quoth
she, * and I dare
no longer show
my face, Sutli
conduct among
OB was nevci-
seen till n o w ,
Is he become
a Paranguaif
(Frank), and
does he sui>-
pose me to lie a
woman of that
caste?' '"
Yet, if tht-y
are despiseil in
private, they are
treated with the
highest respect iuk Kn(i-nAN<Fii at a m ajumm^k i i:i.KiiiiArlox.
in public.
Among the ryott, or peasants, thaw is wo sepiiration of the
women. Both sexes sit at night round the lamp, engaged in
cheerful conversation, weaving, spinning, cocking, or jilaying a
kind of game of dominoes.
Among the martial tribes of India, sucli as the Iiaji>oots, the
opinion of the women is taken in all affairs of moment ; and before
■n-ar is decided upon, the chief and his wife first agitate the sub-
266 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
ject in private, after which it is confided to the tribal council
which, in turn, petitions the ruling princes in regard to the decision
at which they have arrived.
The wife is also the guardian of the heir to the chieftainslii[>
during his minority. Among them the women arc everywhere
treated with great delicacy, i-espect, and even affection. Among
these people — the Rajpoots — Colonel Tod describes a curious
festival, wliich is known as the " Festival of the Bracelet."
The Festival of the Bracelet is in spring, and whatever its ori-
gin, it is one of the few occasions where an intercourse of gallan-
try of the most delicate nature is established between the fair sex
and the cavaliei-s of Rajast'hin. Though the bracelet may be sent
by maidens, it is only on occasions of urgent necessity or danger.
The Rajpoot dame bestows with the rakhi (bracelet) the title
of adopted brother ; and while its acceptance secures to her all the
protection of a cavalier servante^ scandal itself never suggests any
other tie. He may hazard his life in her cause, and yet never
receive a smile in reward, for he cannot even see the fair objec^t
who, as brother of her adoption, has constituted him her defender.
But there is a charm in the mystery of such a connection nevcM*
endangered by close observation ; and the loyal to the fair may
well attach a value to the public recognition of being the rakhi-
bund bhdcy the ' l^mcelet-bound brother,' of a princess.
The intrinsic value of such a pledge is never looked to, nor is
it requisite it should be costly, though it varies with the means and
rank of the donor, and may be of floss-silk and spangles, or gold
chains and gems. Tlie acceptance of the pledge and its return is
by the katcJdl^ or corset, of simple silk or satin, or gold brocade
and pearls. In shape or application there is something similar in
Europe ; and, for defending the most delicate part of the struc-
ture of the fair, it is peculiarly appropriate as an emblem of de-
votion.
A whole j)rovince has often accompanied the katchli ; and the
monarch of India was so pleased with this courteous delicacy in
the customs of Rajiist'han, on receiving tlie bmceletof the Princess
Kurnavati, which invested him with the title of brother, and uncle
and protector to her infant, Oody Sing, that he pledged himself to
her service, ' even if the demand were tlie Castle of Rent'uml)or.'
THE BTTLB OF CASTE.
26T
Hnmaiooo proved himself a true knight, mid even abandoned his
conquests in Bengal when called on to redeem his pledge, and
succour Cheetore and the widows and minor sons of Sanga Raria.
Certainly the women of Northern India are not slaves, nor in a
menial position in the households of their huslands. They have
ever been treated with resi^ct and even devotion, and, like women
in the Western World, Iiave been the inspiring causes of nohle
deeds on the part of their admirers and pi-otectors. To win their
unseen smiles the Hindoo
warrior toils and bleeds ;
for tliere is no recess of
the harem into which the
renown of a manly char-
acter and gallant actions
will not i>eiictrate.
The hards, who re-
semble the troubadours
of the Middle Ages, and
the minstrels of ancient
Greece, are everywhere
admitted, to the palace as
well as to the cott^e; I
and the youth of their
country decorated in their
glowing songs with all
the ornaments of poetrj-,
are presented to the
ardent imaginations of the fair in a light highly calculated to in-
spire admiration and love.
In general, the women of India enjoy complete liberty ; only
the women of the higher classes, or those in pjirts of the country
where Mohammedanism prevails, are at all secluded. Among the
lower class, indeed, they have to assist in domestic affairs, in busi-
ness, and in the labors nf agriculture.
But the most extraordinary custom is that which prevails in
some parts of India — Mysore, for example. If a woman of any of
the four pure castes tii-e of her husband, or, being a widow, is
wearied of a life of celibacy, and goes to the temples and eats some
268 THE STORV OF GOVERNMENT.
of the rice offered up to the idol, she is, if of Brahmin caste, offered
the option of either living in the temple or out of it.
If she chooses the former she receives a daily allowance of food,
and a piece of cloth annually. She must in return sweep the
temple, fan the idol with a yak's tail, and perform the duties of
a wife to the attendant Bnxhmins. The male children of these
women are termed moylar^ hut are fond of wearing the Brtihmin-
ical thread .
The daughtei's are usually hrought u[) to live like their mothers,
and the remainder given in marriage to the moylars — who are
either employed in menial offices about the temple, or engage in
agriculture or otlier occupations. These temple-women are not
looked upon as following a disgraceful life, but are, on the con-
trar>', treated with profound resi)ect by the visitors to the shrines.
The women of this chai-acter were formerly the only educated
females in India, and it is remarkable that while a woman bom
into this disreimtable ti-ade, or adopted in a family of tliis kind, is
not Ivvild to pursue a shameless vocation, other women who have
fallcMi from \irtue are esteemed to have discrraced themselves and
their families.
A Hindoo woman's time does not hang heavily on her hands.
If belonging to an industrious family, she rises early in the morn-
ing, lights her lamp, and s[)ius some cotton for the clothing of her
faniilv ; she next feeds and attends to the children. This done,
she s[)rinkles and purifies the floor. Next she sweeps the house
and the yard. She now breakfasts, cleins the bmss and the stone
vessels with straw, ashes, and water. Her next duty is to cleanse,
bruise, and boil rice. About ten or eleven o'clock she tiikes
a towel, and accompanies the women, her neighl)oi's, to the tank,
or river, to bathe.
The last incident in the life of the Hindoo woman is the famous,
or infamous, but now almost abandoned, Suttee, When a Hindoo
dies he is burned on a funeral pile, composed of faggots of wood
drenched with inllaminable substances, and so built as to allow
a free drau'Wit of air to plav from beneath.
His ashes are then thrown into the Ganges, or, if the place of
cremation is at a disUmee from the sacred river, into a liver which
is S2i])posed to be the Ganges. For instance, when a young Indian
THB KTJLE OF GABTK. 269
prince died some yeara ago at Florence, hia body was, by permission
of tiie autboritiea, burned on the banks of the Amo.
If the deceased is of Brahminio rank, or a man of wealth, the
cremation takes place with gi-eat and costly pomp ; but if poor,
and moreover of low caste, his wretched corpse is disposed of as
soon OS possible. The burning of the corpse is a widely spread
custom, and one which, in the interest of public liealth, is highly
to be commended in tropical countries.
But, for the chief wife of the deceased to voluntarily become a
"Suttee " is something revolting. Yet, formerly, until auppi-essed
by the British Government, nothing was more common. The wife
mounted the funeral pile and laid herself down by her dead hus-
band. The faggots were lighted, and in a few minutes the smote
rolled in volumes around the dead and the living.
If through pain the living victim attempted to escape, she was
secured by bamboo rods laid across her body, and held at either
side. Generally her sufferings were short, tlie smoke choking her
before the fire seized upon her flesh. But sometimes they were
unneoesBarily prolonged by the faulty construction of the pile;
270 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
and cases have even been known in which the poor creature has
attempted, and even made good, her escape from the torments to
which, unaware of her own powers of endurance, she had volun-
tarily submitted.
In most cases, however, the stupefied body soon consumed, and
mingled its ashes with those of the form beside it. Sometimes,
no doubt, the " Suttee " was stupefied with drugs, such as opium,
before ascending the pile, though this has been denied, on the
gi'ound that as the woman has to undergo certain forms and repeat
certain prayei*s before she ascends the pile, it requires tlie pos-
session of all her senses unimpaired to perform these aright.
It is not compulsory on the Hindoo woman to perform tliis
" Suttee ''; it is only regarded as a pious act on her part, and it
may be noted that it is generally the Brahmins' widows who per-
form it. The reason is obvious.
A woman of that high cjiste is left a widow ; from being es-
teemed as a goddess, worshipped by those beneath her as part
of Brahma, the giver of life — before whom kings were abject
slaves — who could commit any crime so long as it did not infringe
the sacred laws of caste — in a word, one of the chosen of the
earth, she sinks, by her refusal to become a " Suttee " with her
husband, to be an unclean thing, loathed, despised, and treated
with contempt by the very Pariahs, for whose shadows to fall upon
lier a few hours before was contamination the most vile.
For a delicate girl like her to lose all caste is misery compared
with which the agony of a few minutes is nothing. These facts
we must tiike into account if we would justly estimate the motives
which induce a Hindoo widow to be burned with her husband, or
in default of burning to be buried alive.
In 1829, Lord William Bentinck, among the many other excellent
reforms which he was the means of introducing into India, forbade
the performance of *' Suttee " within the British dominions, under
severe penalties. Notwithstanding the passive resistance of some
of the Indian conservatives of those days, and the presentation of
a petition to the Privy Council in favor of it by some rich Hindoos,
the action of the Governor-General was supported by the Home
Government, and '' Suttee " is now rare, or conducted with great
secresy, in the British Territories as well as in the Protected States.
THR BULK or CA8TE. 271
3%a law» of inheritance among tlie Hindoos are very curious.
The momeitt a son ia born he acquires a vested right in his
father's property, which c-annot be sold without the recognition
of this right of joint ownership. It is, in fact, simply a sort of
Hindoo law of entail, with, however, muny viiriations on the
' European system.
For instance, when a hou comes of age, he can, even agiuust
the will of the jmrent, coniijel a divisiDn of tlie piofMirty ; and,
should the parent acquiesre, one sou can always have a division of
the property against the will of the others. On such a division
taking pWe. the father lias no advaiitaj^- ovf;r his childrt'n, except
that he has two shares iiislea<l of nni;.
Sir Henrj' Maine, the great English livwyv", oh:seives that the
ancient law of the German tribes ^vas very similar ; the atloil, or
flomoin, of ihe family being the joint iiro^ierty of the father and
his sona. Among the Hindoos, also, there are cases in which the
law of primogeniture is followed as i-egards politii^al office and
power, but not regarding property, a singular distinction.
272 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
JSducation is at a low stand in Hindostan. Tlie child generally
begins to acquire the elements of knowledge in its fifth year, being
then taught the alphabet, or sent by its father to school. With the
exception of architecture and the manufacture of jewelrj', the fine
arts have never greatly prospered in India, the grinding despotisms
which from time immemorial have crushed the country, having
been unfavorable to the progress of painting and other branches of
art. In architecture even, it is probable that they never attained
any great perfection until the Moliammedans came among thorn.
For instance, arched bridges are believed to have been unknown
to the native engineers. The art of sculpture early occupied the
Hindoo mind, and most of their designs were influenced by theii*
religious opinions, the gods and their mythology being the solitary
subject in which the minds of the artists revelled. Hence the
appalling sameness in most of their figures.
Painting has been less Jissiduously cultivated than the sister art
of sculpture. The color in their pictures — generally frescoes —
is often good, but the drawing is bad, and the style hard, and
lacking in light and shade. The modem artists, though minutely
copying tlie object on which they are at work, have no idea of
middle tints or of the harmonies of hues.
Music is at an equally low standard or rather ebb, fur it is clear
that formerly the Hindoos' skill and taste in this art were higher
than now ; but some of their poems, such as those in tlie " Vedas,"
are of a very high literary value.
Jewelry is manufactured with the sim[)lest appliances, in very
beautiful patterns — frequently by plaiting wire-work in dainty forms,
though, of course, with much of that brilliant barbarism which is
associated with everything Oriental, and in Delhi a jeweller pur-
suing his ti-ade in the street used to l>e no uncommon sight.
Agriculture varies in different partis of India, as might l)e
expected from a people so various in i*ace. Horses are never
employed, their places in all the labora of the field being supplied
by cows, bullocks, or oxen. The illustrations which we give of
Indian husbandry show how primitive, even to tliis day, are the
methods and machines in vogue.
Of the many extraordinary sights which are common in India
none, perhaps, is more wonderful and fearfully fascinating to a
THB HULK UF CA8TB. . 178
stranger than an exhibdtion bf snake-charming. For a couple of
rupees — about eighty cents — one can witnesa this spectacle in
almost any Indian village, for there are numerous strolling vaga-
bonds who seem able to handle the most deadly snakes with ajtparent
impunity hy meant of music.
It is said that tliese snakes have their fangs extnicted. This, no
doubt, is often the caav; but not invariably so, for men ai« now
and then bitten by these cobras and die in frightful contortions.
Some of the iierfomiances of these serpeiit-cliarnicrs are remark-
jd)lc, as will Ik-
seen by the follow-
ing |>assage from
Oeneral C'anii>-
liell's Indian Jour-
nal : —
When I was on
General I>alryra-
j>lc'a staff at Tri- 1
chinopoly, there m
a dry well in the I
garden, whiph ■
the favorite iutunt |
of snakes and
wliich I shot se
era). One morning 9
I discovered a large ]
o>bra-di-capcllo
the bottom of this I
well, basking in the '
Miin; but while I
ran to fetch my gnn,
some of the native
servants began to pelt him with Atones, nml drove him into liis hole
among the brick-work, T therefore sent f<ir the snake-cliamifni to get
hitn out.
Two of these worthies liaving arrived, we lowere<l tliem into the well
by means of a rope. One of them, after performing sundry incan-
tations, and sprinkling himself and his companion with ashes prepared
from the dung of a saorcd cow, began to play a shrill monotonous
274 THE 8TORV OF GOVERNMENT.
ditty upon a pipe ornamented witli shells, brass rings, and beads, while
the other stood on one side of the snake's hole, holding a rod furnished
at one end with a slip noose.
At first the snake, who had been considerably annoved before he
took refuge in his hole, was deaf to the notes of the charmer; but
after half an hour's constant playing, the spell began to operate, and
the snake was heard to move. In a few minutes more he thrust out
his head ; the horsehair noose was dexterously 8lij)j)ed over it and
drawn tight, and we hoisted up the men, dangling their snake in
triumph. Having carried him to an open 8[>ace of ground, they
released him from the noose.
The enraged snake immediately made a rush at the bystanders,
])utting to flight a crowd of native servants who had assembled to wit-
ness the sport. The snake-charmer, tapping him on the tail with a
switch, induced him to turn up<m himself, at the same time sounding
his pipe.
The snake coiled himself up, raised his head, expanded his liood,
and appeared about to strike ; but instead of doing so, he remained
in the same position, as if fascinated by the music, darting out his
slender forked tongue, and following with his head the motion of the
man's knee, which he kept moving from side to side, within a few
inches of him, as if tempting him to bite.
N"o sooner did the music cease, than the snake dashed forward with
such fury that it required great agility on the part of the man to avoid
him, and then immediately the snake made off as fast as he could go.
The sound of the pipe, however, invariably made him stop, and obliged
him to remain in an upright position as long as the man continued to
play.
^Vfter repeating this experiment several times, :i fowl was placed
within its reach, which he instantly dashed at and bit. The fowl
screamed out the moment it was struck, but ran off, and began picking
among its companions as if nothing had happened.
I pulled out my watch to see how long the venom took to operate.
In about half a minute, the comb and wattles of the fowl began to
change from a red to a livid line, and were soon nearly black, but no
other symptom was apparent. In t\yo minutes it began to stagger, was
seized with strong convulsions, fell to the ground, and continued to
struGfccle violently till it expired, exactly three minutes and a half after
it had been bitten.
On i)lucking the fowl, we found that it had merely been touched on
the extreme ])oint of the pinion. The wound, not larger than the
276 THE STORY- OP GOVERNMENT.
puncture of a needle, was surrounded by a livid spot ; but the remain-
der of the body, with the exception of the comb and wattles (which
were of a dark livid hue), was of the natural color; and I afterwards
learned that my coachman (a half-caste) had eaten it.
Thq charmer now offered to show us his method of catching snakes, and
seizing the reptile (about five feet long) by the point of tlie tail with his
left hand, he slipped the right along the body with lightning swiftness
and, grasping him by the throat with his finger and thumb held him fast,
and forced him to open his jaws and display his poisonous fangs.
Having now gratified my curiosity, I proposed that the snake should
be destroyed, or at least that his fangs might be extracted, an operation
easily performed with a pair of forceps. But the snake being a remarka-
bly fine one, the charmer was unwilling to extract his teeth, as he said
the operation sometimes proved fatal, and begged so hard to be allowed
to keep him as he was, that I at last suffered him to put him in a basket
and carry him off.
After this he frequently brought the snake to the house, still with
his fangs entire, as I ascertained by personal inspection, but so tame
that he handled him freely without fear. But one day the snake
bit the charmer and ended his life.
The moral character of the Hindoo has been much misrepre-
sented by ignorant men, incapjible through prejudice, or from the
want of that habit of making duo allowance for the different cir-
cumstances under which the Hindoo is placed, of forming a calm
and charitable judgment on the mce.
The Hindoo must not be weighed in an American balance, any
more than an American should be measured according to Hindoo
standards. Morality may be absolute, not comparative or relative ;
but, at the same time, putting mere philosophical ethics aside,
we must, for the sake of arriving at something like an intelligible
estimate, adoi)t a standard somewhat elastic.
The perfectly moral nation is a poet's dream of the future, as
the utterly wicked is a something which has not yet existed. The
Hindoos, it must be remembered, notwitlistanding the magnifi-
cence of their courts, the gorgeousness of their shrines, and even the
high state of some of the arts among them, are a comparatively bar-
barous people. Their sacred books may be exalted in tone ; but their
religion is nevertheless gross, licentious, and cruel in many of its
^ain featui-es.
THE RULE OF CASTE.
277
Their paseions are excited by art and by religious pageantries,
and their religious fanaticLsm by a cunning, unscrupulous priest-
hood, ^vhich his, by the aid of that most ingeniously devised
legend of caste,
Imund all beneath
it, and there iti no
one above it, in
iron b o 11 d t as
merciless jind un
Ijreakable as tlioso
<if fate according
to the old Oieek
idea.
But tlie Indian
is not the sinie
(dl over India
The fierce wild
men of the lonei
Himalayan liilU
who used to be
Imnted like wild
Iteasts by the Eng-
lish, seem haidly
the Hjvme race as
the polished, po-
lite and subtle
denizens of the
j^reat cities. The
bold mountain
tribes are vastly
superior in manly
virtues to the peo-
ple of the plains,
and even the
dwellers in the mountain t
low lands and in the valley of the Lower Ganges differ in charao-
ter. Yet, wherever we find the Hindoo he is deceitful and sUppery,
full of adulation and compliment, treacherous and rather wicked.
278 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
He excels in etiquette and courtesy. He has at least five
different ways in which he will make obeisance, according to
the circumstances of the case, or the person before whom he
desires to debase himself, and he runs a close race with the
Spaniard in the skill with which he can invent and pour forth
high-sounding titles and cringing flatteiy to the person addressed.
Of all the races of India a Bengalee is the most despicable.
Lord Macaulay, who had lived among them and knew them well,
long ago expressed their character thoroughly. Speaking of the
men with whom Warren Hastings had to deal, he says : —
What the Italian is to the Englishman, what the Hindoo is to the
Italian, what the Bengalee is to other Hindoos, that was Nuncomar
[a native minister] to other Bengalees. The physical organization
of the Bengalee is feeble even to effeminacy.
He lives in a constant vapor .bath; his pursuits are sedentary, his
limbs delicate, his movements languid. During many ages he has been
trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. Courage,
independence, and veracity, are qualities to which his constitution and
his situation are equally unfavorable.
His mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is weak even to
helplessness for purposes of manly resistance ; but its suppleness and
tact move the children of sterner climates to admiration not un mingled
with contempt. All those arts which are the natural defence of the
weak are more familiar to this subtle race than to the Ionian of the
time of Juvenal, or to the Jew of the dark ages.
What the horns are to the buffalo, what the paw is to the tiger,
what the sting is to the bee, what beauty — according to the old Greek
song — is to woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, smooth
excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery, per-
jury, and forgery, are the weapons, offensive and defensive, of the
people of the Lower Ganges. . . .
As usurers, as money-changers, as sharp legal practitioners, no class
of human beings can bear a comparison with them. With all his soft-
ness, the Bengalee is by no means placable in his enmities, or prone
to pity. TheT[)ertinacity with which he adheres to his purposes yields
only to the immediate pressure of fear. Nor does he lack a certain
kind of courage which is often wanting in his masters. To inevitable
evils he is sometimes found to oppose a passive fortitude, such as the
Stoics attributed to their ideal sage.
THE «ULE OF CA8TK. 279
A European warrior, who rushes on a battery of cannon with a loud
hurrah, will sometimes shriek under the surgeon^s knife, and fall in an
agony of despair at the sentence of death. But the Bengalee, who
would see his country overrun, his house laid in ashes, his children
murdered or dishonored, without having the spirit to strike one blow,
has yet been known to endure torture with the Hrraness of Mucins,
and to mount the scaffold with the steady step and even pulse of
Algernon Sidney.
The general lack of kindness with which the Hindus are treated
by their Anglo-Saxon masters strikes the most careless and unob-
servant traveller in every corner of Victoria's Oriental possessions.
Nor does time nor the frightful warning given by the Sepoy Rebel-
lion seem to soften in any w<ay the English habit of oppression.
An English clergyman not long ago saw the following sight,
A passing Hindu, he says, was rudely taken to task by a petty
captain for not making a salaiim, or profound bow, on the street
to him.
" Why should I ? " said the man. ^^ You have conquered our
race, but I won't salaam." " I'll take you to the general," said
the captain, "and see if you will then." This was done, and the
geneml, as brutal as his inferior officer, roared out : " Make a
salaam, sir." The num still firmly but calmly refused, whereupon
the general seized him by the neck, tlirew him to the ground,
buried his face in the dust, and ordered fifty lashes to be given
him.
Thus by sheer brute force was this Hindu punished for an inde-
pendence which did him honor. But the mild Hindu, as a rule,
submits to the English as to a superior race, and all he can do is
to bide his time. Yet, if not subdued by justice and kindness,
will he not seek his revenge some day, especially as his intelligence
increases ?
What, then, is to l)e the immediate future of this empire of many
mysteries, which is regarded by our scientists as the original birth-
place or 8tarting-ix)int of humanity ? The question is involved,
apparently, not so much in the evolution of the present East
Indian race, as it is in several European questions of political,
racial, and governmental quality, now pressing forward for answer.
280 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
For, as hinted in the beginning of this brief pen-picture, the
English, though now dominating India, are merely a light fringe
on her vast darkness. Underneath the supple servility shown to
them, a keen-eyed traveller cannot help detecting an intense
bitterness — an immense hate.
But the East Indians, thanks to their system of caste, have little
cohesion or faculty of continuous cooperation. They might by a
sudden uprising drive their present ownei-s into the ocean, but in
a few yeai-s, very likely, some other predatory nation would be
again setting the heel of conquest or of commerce upon their
necks.
With the Russians restlessly pushing south, and with a collision
between Russia and England, as is probable, in the early part of
the twentieth century, India might possibly achieve a temporary
independence, but it would seem far more liable, if it had a chance,
to welcome the Russian invasion and glide from English under
Russian sway, simply as a change of evils.
Yet it is difficult for even the heartiest hater of England's
commercial civilization to see how the East Indian people could
benefit by any such change. Russia is still only a barbarism very
lightly gilded, and Russo-Indian rule would be more likely to ravage
ruthlessly what remains of India's former splendor in the way of
palaces and temples than to restore or maintain what the Anglo-
Saxon has spared. And, as for the masses of the people, they
would find individual Russians as cruel or more so than the average
English officer or private of to-day.
Pekhaps tlie oddest kind of government — a
icholastic oligarchy^ with a figurelieud en]i)eror
^f — ia tliiit furnished hy the vast Empire of China
vhich may be regarded an the most compact country in the world,
since it encloses an area of nearly 4,000,000 square milea. That
China is the oldest of nations of which we have anj'thing like a
continuous and tolerably correct history, little doubt can be
entertained.
The researches of antiquarians have jH-oved that in Babylon
astronomical observations and calculiitious were mada 2,231 years
liefoie Christ, and Chinese records speak of an eclipse calculated
2,155 years before our em of reckoning. That this eclipse
really occurred was proved by the Jesuit missionaries who visited
China in the sixteenth century.
Gaubil, a Jesuit preeminent for his mathematical attainments,
examined the series of thiily-six ecliiKes, tt) whit-li the Chinese
philosopher, Confucius, alludes in his writings, and the Catholic
scholar decided that thirty-two of these were absolutely correct,
two uncertain, and two false. But the chronology of the Chinese
extends far back of the flnjt of these eclipses whose occurrence
rernmcnt by « Itv, Hnil In >U agai bu been one o( IIib
THE BTOKY OF GOVEllNMENT.
the scientific priest declared to be established as evidence of the
accuracy of Chinese history.
Before considering the form of government among this mysteri-
ous people, perhaps a brief sketch of the countrj' and some of its
customs might furnish good stepping-stones to an underatanding
of its political peculiarities. China proper lies Ijetween 18° and
41° north latitude. Its eastern extremity bordering on Corea is
marked by 124° east longitude, and iia western boundary on
Burraah and Western Thibet is cut by 98° east longitude. Its
seaboard extends over 2,500 miles with many bays and estuaries,
so thickly studded wth islands that from this geographical fact is
derived one of
the titles of the
emperor, "Lord
of ten thousand
isles."
This e n o r -
mous territory is
divided into
eighteen prov-
inces varying in
size. Each prov-
ince is sub-di-
vided into poo»,
A. QLIMPBE OF THE OREAT WALU . ,
counties, and
pi-efectures. A poo, the capital of which is a market town, con-
sists of a number of towns and villages. A county, the capital
■ of which is a walled city, consists of a number of poos; and a
prefecture, the cajiital of which is also a walled city but larger,
is a collection of counties, the province being several prefectures
with a still larger walled city taken genciiilly iis its capital.
Tluis the eighteen provinces contain about four thousand walled
cities, the walls in some cases being so broad that two carriages
can lie driven abreast. The great wall of China, built to keep
out the Tartars, runs hundreds of miles across the country. It is
now in ruins. Tiie wall around Nankin is eighteen miles in
hmgth. These Avails, as a rule, are crowned with castles and
iiave embra-surcs for artilleiy and loopholes foi' musketry, and on
A 8CH(;lasti(! oligarchy. 283
Uie ramparts huge tttoiica me luoisely piled to be mlled dowu on
Iiesiegers. During the war in which Chribtiau England forced
opium as an article of nieicliandise nn the Cluneuc, this primitive
kind of warfare (that seern» to belong more to the tlays when
PjTi'hus was killed at Aigos hy a tile from the hands of a woman)
came into uae, and some English soldiera were killed by these stones.
At the north, eiust, west, mid south sitles of eiich Chinese city
are folding gates of great strength which are fui-tlirr secured hy
equally massive inner giites. The south g;ite is called the gate
of honor, being regarded as especially governmental. Jtv it the
officials always enter and depart, and no funerals, or unclean
men'handise are allow.'^d ti. go thmugh; and the simlh gate of
I'ekin is genenilly kept I'losed except for the einpeiin-.
284 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The streets are wider iu the north than in the south of
China, and those of Pekin are very broad — and diity beyond
description or conception. They must be smelt to be idealized.
The narrowness of the streets makes them cool in the summer
months and in many towns they are partially roofed by the
residents with canvas, matting, or thin planks of timber. Many
of the towns also in the north of Formosa are ])rotected in this
way.
The sidewalks to the shops are arched over, and as they are
frequent!}' constructed in rude arcades, it is possible to pass
from one end of the town to tfie other withcmt annoyance from
sun or rain, thus furnishing a model for the umbrellaed streets
of that reformed Boston which Bellamv l)eheld in his vision,
"Looking Backward." The streets are paved with granite slab;,
bricks, or cobblestones ; Canton, for iiLstancje, being entirely
slabbed, while Soochow is l)artly, and partly cobblestoned.
But the sewerage system may be best descril)ed as a mai-vellously
successful scheme to produce an intolerable stench in the summer
montlis, which the high-sounding titles of the streets might
seem by force of sarcasm to render still more exasperating, for
one encountei-s sucli names as "The Street of (iolden Profits, the
Street of Benevolence and Love, of Saluting Dmci^oiis, of Refresh-
ing Breezes, of Five Happinesses, of Ninefold Brightness, of
Accumulated Goodness," and so forth. Other streets are simplv
numbered Fii-st, Second, Third, etc.
Chinese shops, which are called Hongs, are built of bricks, as
a rule, and arc entirely open in front. Very few of them have
glass windows, except in tlie city of Pekin. At tlie door stand
very long signboards on each side of which, in bright letters of
gold, orange, and other gay coloi-s, are painted thc^ name of the
hong, and of the various commodities which it contains.
In some cases the shopkeeper placets above the door a small sign-
board in shape of some pailicular article which he has for sale; ius,
for instance, a boot-maker might display a boot; or a spectacle-
maker a i)air of spectacles. Some shopkeepei-s, not satisfied with
the enormous signboards, advertise themselves still further by
painting their names and a list of their wares in large characters
on the outer walls of the cities in which thev live.
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286 THE STORY OF GOVERXMENT.
In the rural districts, on the outer wall of their dwelling
houses, is a board recoixling the name of each person residing
within, and this custom extends to some of the towns. Above
the entrance of each hong lanterns are suspended and from the
rooi lamps of glass or of thin liom, on which are gaily colored
images of players and pagodas.
These numerous bright signboards and lanterns lend a Chinese
street a most cheerful and animated look. The hongs are not
distributed promiscuously throughout Chinese towns but are con-
fined to certain quartera, each branch of tmde having its special
place. No members of the tradesman's family reside either above
or behind the shop, and in the evening when the shutters are put
up, the tradesman hastening to his home in another part of the
town leaves his stock in the care of his apprentices.
In the streets where the gentry reside, the houses are very well
built, but of one story only. As the walls which front the street
have no windows, they present in many cases the appearance of
encampments. Chinese houses, also, have no fireplaces and in
cold weather the occupants keep themselves warm by wearing
much clothing, or by means of bi-aziers in which charcoal embers
are kept burning. As the houses and shops which form the
streets of a Chinese city are rarely of the same height, or
an-anged in straight lines, every t^)wn has a strikingly in^egular
appearance.
The streets or squares are not adorned like thase of Euro-
pean cities with stone, marble, or bronze statues of the learned,
the brave, and the good, but instead, in nearly all the chief
cities of China monumental arches arc erected in honor of re-
nowned warriors, illustrioiLs statesmen, public-spirited citizens,
learned scliolars, and last, but not least, virtuous Avomen Such
monuments are built of brick, marl)lo, and old red sandstone, or,
more commonly, of granite.
A monument of this kind consists of a triple arch or g<iteway,
that is, a large centre gate and smaller gate on each side. On a
large smooth-shining slab above the middle gateway are sculp-
tured figures, or cliai-acters, setting forth the object for which the
citizens, by Inq)crial permission, raised the arch. One of the
largest of these monuments is in the city of Toong-Ping Chan,
288 THE STORY OF GOVERXMENT.
ill honor of a scholar who, at the fige of eighty-two, took the firat
place at the examination for the Hanlin, or Doctor's degree.
As Baltimore with us is called the City of Monuments, IIoo
Chow Foo in China is called the City of Arches. When the
traveller entei-s this city by the south gate, a vista of arches very
impressive greets his gaze, each of them being of vast dimen-
sions and riclily s(?ulptured.
riie Chinese tiike many precautions to save their cities from
conflagrations. Wells are sunk in many streets, and the law
lequires that in various parts of the cities large tubs of water
nnist be kept. On the tops of the houses, also, they frequently
place earthen jai-s containing water, and in all large cities there
are several fire brigades maintained entirely by public contribu-
tions. Tlie engines, water-buckets and lanterns of these brigades
are usually kept in different temples. The officers and men have a
unifonn, and on their hats in large characters the name or num-
l)er of their brigade, and the words " Kow-Fow " or fire-quencher.
Besides these provisions by tlie citizens, the members of the
local government of each city are called on to render their help.
For instance, in Canton each luagisti-ate hixs in his employ sevend
men whose special duty it is to prevent robberies when fires occur,
and under the connnand of the governor are two hundred men
whose duty consists in helping lirenien.
In addition to this, from the forty-eight guardhouses of the
ritv, in the event of a fire, two men are instantly told off to
hasten to the scen(;, and at the close of every month the prefect
and provincial tn^asurer, who are very high ofiicials, are required
to inspect all the goverjimcnt servants whose duties lie in the
<li reaction of extinixuisliin<r fires.
Moreover, with the view of keeping all officials thoroughly
awake to their duties, it is the law that in case eighty houses
are destroyed bv a conflairration, all the officials where it
occurred arc reducecl in rank one decrree, and even when ten
houses are destroyed, the matter is reported to the centml govern-
ment at Pekin.
A few days after a fire, the firemen of each brigade present
receive tis a reward for their services roast pig — a great Chinese
delicacy — jars of choice wine, and small sums of money, the men
A SCHOLASTIC OLIOABCHY. 289
who hokl the hcnie receiving more thaii otheiv, anil those who }uij>-
pen to receive wouikIh during this puhlie duty being still more
liberally remunerated. Persons who cause fires ]>y carelessness,
or otherwise, when caught, ai'e severely punislie<I. It i^ only just
to add that the Chinese are excellent firemen; i[nick to an'ive .
at the !ice>ie of action, and very daring.
The jKipulation of Oliiniv, according to SacliarofF fifty years ago,
liad reached the 3tU{>endoiis figure of 414,68t!,9(t4. During the
next twenty years a great
rebellion occun'ed, in wliich
many cities, towns, and vil-
lages with all their inliabi-
tants were blotted out. This
rebellion covered a i>eriod of
fifteen yeara, but in spite of
Bocli reduction and cheek of
population, it is probable
that tlie empire contains to-
day 450,000 000
Of the moml diaracter of
this people whase i normon'*
number tempts us to liken
them to the sands on the sea
shore, it is not eii.s> to speik
justly; for tins tliaracter !■<
a book written lu strange let
ters more complex to one of
another race, religion, aiul
language, and more difficult
to decipher than the ofldly <ni>Ksi-, mujuku.
shaped word-symbols that compose their written language.
In the same indivi<luals, virtues and vices almost incompi-e-
hensibly incompatible are found side by side. Oentleness,
modesty, industry, cheerfulness, politeness, filial affection and
reverence for old age are in one and the same Cliinaman the
comi>anionB of insincerity, cruelty, jealousy, ingratitude, and
avarice.
But inatanees of moral inconsistencies might be found among
290 THE 8TORY OF GOVERNMENT.
other nations; and if a native of the Flowery Kingdom, for
the purpose of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the American
people, should familiarize himself with the records of our police
and other law courts, and with the curious transactions that occur
in our commercial circles, and the scandals that so often drag our
society do\vn from its dollar-shining pinnacle, sucli a Chinese
traveller might give his countrymen at home a very one-sided and
dei)reciatory account of this country.
Besides, we should not forget that we possess tlie manifold bless-
ings of Christianity of many kinds, fnmi Catholicism to Univer-
salism, and that we have a fonn of government, under which we
are, at least, invited to tlream that we are free. So that, when
we consider the political and social condition of China and her
institutions, it would seem to us rather extraordinary that such
an amount of good can be found in the national characiter.
The government, to be sure, is an irresponsible despotism;
their judges are bribable; their judicial procedure places its
whole reliance on the infliction of torture. Their police are dis-
honest and their prisons dens of cruelty. Their social life lalx)rs
under the blight of polygamy and of slavery; and their customs
hold women in a state of degmdation. Yet, notwitkstanding the
conditions so unfavorable to the development of civil and social
virtues, the Chinese may l>e fairly characterized as a courteous,
orderly, industrious, sober, patriotic and j^eace-loving people.
The Emperor of China is taught to regard himself as the inter-
preter of the decrees of heaven, and he is recognized by the people
as their connecting link with the gods, l)eing designated by
such titles as the ^^Son of Heaven," the '*Lord of Ten Thousand
Yeai-s," and the "Imperial Supreme." This mighty potentiite is
assisted in the management of his government by a cabinet of four
ministers. In addition to which general council are six supreme
tribunals for the conduct in detail of all governmental business.
Tlie first of these tribunals is termed Loo Poo, and divided into
four departments; the first of which selects officers to fill the
various places in the respective provinces and districts. The
second takes cognizance or keeps watch on all such officials.
The tliird affixes the imperial seal, along side of which the em-
peror sometimes makes marks in lettei's of red with what is styled
A SCHOLABTLC OLKiARUHY. liSl
the vermilion pencil, to all books and pnrchmente; and the fourth
keei« the record of the j^od service and merits of distinguished
men.
The second Boai-d ia termed Hoo Poo, and has the care of the
imperial revenues. The third, called Lee Poo, superintends the
religions rites of the people and keeps in order all temples
endowed by the imperial government. The fourth Board, Ping
Poo, has charge of all the naval and military establishments.
The fifth. King Poo, supervises all criminal proceedings. The
sixth, which is termed Ling Poo, superintends all public works
such as mines, manufactories, highways, canals, bridges, etc.
The chief minister of each of these tribunals lays the decisions
or the information secured by his particular board before the
cabinet and when the cabinet lias thoroughly discussed them, they
are submitted with due reverence to his Imperial Majesty.
The power of these ministers is apparently nominal, since the
emperor holds himself responsiUe to none but the gods, and looks
upon the people ae his childi-en.
But while outwardly a Chinese sovereign might manifest con-
tempt for the suggestion of his cabinet, as a rule, in practice
mnch heed is given to their advice; very few, indeed, of the
sovereigns of China feeling themselves sufficiently endowed with
the wisdom of this world to be able to rule without the advice
of others. Besides tlie.se councils, there are two others — the Too-
Cha Yum and the Tsung-Pin Fow.
The former as a Board of Censors is supposed to attend the
meetings of the councils just described for the purpose of ascer-
taining whether plots are being concocted against the stability of
^e government; and the members of this boaid are also frequently
sent into the provinces to watch the way things are going there.
Or, in other words, the Absolutism of China depends almost as
much for its safety on the service of spies as the Plutocracy of
America- is beginning to depend on the Pinkertons.
The second of these two extra Boards consists of six high offi-
cials, who keep a register of the births, deaths, marriages, and
relations of the princes of the blood royal, and make reports upon
their conduct. These records are referred to the emperor everj-
-decade, on which occasion he confers titles and rewards.
292 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
These titles are of four kinds — hereditary, honorary, for state
service, and for literary attainments, and it is imperative on the
ministers of this Board to furnish at frequent intervals to the first-
named tribunals repoits on the conduct of the emperor's different
sons, so that it may be discerned which one possesses in the high-
est degree the essentials of a good sovereign. These repoils, like
all others, finally come to the emperor who has the power of
naming his successor. As a general rule, however, the eldest son
succeeds.
As every emperor of each <lynasty had many Avives, the scions
of imperial houses are numerous, and once it was the custom
to give official employment to each of them. But this custom
caused so much trouble and gave rise to so many conspiracies and
rebellions that it was abandoned, and each prince nowadays lias
to rest satisfied with the high-sounding but empty title of his
rank, and he is liable to be deprived of that, if any act on his
part is deemed beneath the family dignity.
While the emj^eror is regarded by his people as the representa-
tive of heaven, the Empress, or head wife, on the other hand, is
the representative of Mother Earth, and is sup[)ose(l to exercise
some peculiar influence over nature, one of hc^r chief duties
being to sec that woi'shi[) i:; duly paid to the tutelary deity of
silkwomis. It is also her official function to examine carefullv
«
the weaving of the silk stuff which the ladies of the Imperial
harem make into garments for c(?rt;iin state idols.
She is supposed to know no politics, but there are instances on
record of Chinese empresses who have been as familiar tis some of
the noted French dames of the bust century with the minutest
details of State intrigues. The choice of an empress and of the
sub-wives of the sovereign depends solely on their beauty or per-
sonal qualities, and not on their family connections. Tliey ai-e
chosen in the following fashion.
The (laughter of the empress-dowager, or in her alwence a royal
lady invested with authority for the purpose, liolds what might W
fashionably termed a "'drawing-room," and invites Tartar ladies
and daughtei*s of Bannermen, that is, oi those Ixvronial houses
which have a right to carry banners from various paiis of the
ipirc. The belle of this assembly is chosen to be itiised to the
A SCHOLuUTIC OLIGA&GHT. 298
dignity of empreas, and those next in personal attractions am
selected for the rank of sub-wivea.
But BOmetiniea a woman of the lower orders attains to this
lofty rank. The mother of the Emperor Hien-Fung was the
keeper of a fruit store and, like Nell Gwynne, the orange girl
who attracted the attention of Charles II., and from whose liaison
with him are descended some of the peers of England, her grace
and beauty raised her to a power in the state.
In each of the
piDvinces there is a
formidable army of
officials, namely:
govemor-g e n e r a 1 ,
governor, treasurer,
special commissioner,
literary chancellor,
chief justice ; the last
fonr being of equal
rank; six tautaie of
equal rank ; ten pre-
fects of equal rank;
and s e V e n t y-t w o
comity rulers of
equal rank.
Each of these offi-
cials has 11 council to
assist him in the dis-
charge of \\\A duties,
and besides these of-
ficials every town and village has its governing body, so tliat
the empire may be said to be honey-combed with officialism. All
these officials, as it was in ancient Peni, are subordinate to the
one above them; it is a continuous chain. Officials of certain
grades are not allowed t« hold office in their native province, nor
without Imperial permission to marry in the province where they
have been appointed to office; and to prevent the possibility of
acqniiing too much local influence, they are removed in some cases
ereiy tluee years and in other cases every six to other posts of duty.
THE FRmr a OIL wuo
294
THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
All officials are supposed to be appointed by the emperor on
recommendation of the Board of Ceremonies, and candidates for
office, according to law, have to be men who have graduated at
great literary examinations. But the memberij of the Board of
Ceremonies sometimes submit to the notice of his majesty the
names of men whose literary rank has been bought.
There are nine marks of distinction by which the rank of a
Chinese officer may be readily recognized; A member of the first
class wears on the band of
his cap a dark red coral
ball or button ; for the
second class tliis button is
light red; for the third,
light blue ; for the fourth,
dark blue; the fiftli class
wear a ball of crystal,
while mother of pearl is
the ball of the sixth class
mandarin. Members of
the seventh and eighth
cluss wear a golden ball,
in one case smaller, and
for the ninth class, a sil-
ver ball. Each official
may be further distin-
guished by a decoration of
peacock feathers. This
feather runs from the base
of the ball on the hat slop-
ing downwards at the back. The first of the outer garments
worn by an officer is a long loose robe of blue silk, richly em-
broidered with threads of gold. It reaches the ankles of the
wearer, and is bound around his waist by a belt. Above this
robe is a violet tunic with very wide sleeves, but usually thrown
back over the wrists,
When an officer approaches the Imperial presence for the pur-
pose of conferring with the emperor or performing the kowtow,
which in China is the usual act of obeisance, etiquette prescribes
A 8CH0L.ASIIC OLIOABCHT.
295
that the sleeres of tiiis tunic should be stretched over the hands,
which action of course renders him helpless. This custom was
originally adopted to preclude any attempt on the life of the
emperor by those whose duties call them into his presence. A
similar one prevails in the Court of Peraia.
The army is made up uf the lowest class io the empire, and
used to he uniformed so as to frighten the beholder. Govern-
ment residences are provided for all Chinese officials. These
buildings are called yamum and sometimes are extensive, cover-
A OULPBTT
BY HIS WIFE.
ing acres. Fi-om the i-oofs of the halls iu many of these official
dwellings riclily gilded boai-ds are hung on which are set forth
moral maxims from Confucius and other of tlie great ^vriters;
some of these illuminated niottoen being the gifts of the emperor to
former officers distinguished for faithful service. To these
l/amun» are attached public office:*, and to thase occupied by dis-
trict ruletij, chief justices, etc., large prisons are attached.
County rulere, prefects, and chief justices are the officials
specially appointed to preside in the courts of law; and whether
it be of civil or criminal character, a judge is assisted by deputies
or a deputy. To explain fully how justice, so-called, is admin-
296 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
istered in China, it is necessary to state that the accused person is
first brought before the gentry or elders of his village or county.
These punish him, if the crime be of a criminal nature, either by
imprisonment or by exposing him for some time in what is called
a cangue at the corner of one of the most frequented thorough-
fares, or right near the place where the crime was committed; or
by ha/ing him whipped through the streets with a crier reciting
his crime,
One form of the cangue is a box, through the top of which the
head protrudes, and through the sides of which both hands, with a
chain connecting them, are thrust. Tlie illustration represents a
loving Chinese wife feeding her cangued, or canned, husband,
who has committed some slight offence against the peace and
dignity of the emperor — possibly, by fighting near the temple.
A commoner form of the cangue is just the wooden collar alone of
a proportion to the man as in the illustration.
Should a case, however, appear of importance, the prisoner,
with the depositions and the comments on his case, is forwarded
for the mandarin or ruler of the Poo to which the village belongs.
If the mandarin finds the case within his jurisdiction, he pun-
ishes the prisoner; if not, he sends him up to a still higher official,
the county ruler, Avho might send up the case to the prefect of
his department, who in turn might send it up to the provincial
capital, where the chief justice, who only tries capital cases, has
his residence.
The chief justice will then submit his decision to the governop-
gencral and, before a sentence of the chief justice can be carried
into effect, it would be necessary that the criminal in the pres-
ence of the governor-general should make an acknowledgment of
his guilt. If the prisoner were convicted of treason, piracy, or
highway robbery, the governor-general could order his execution at
once. But if lie were guilty of parricide, matricide, or fratricide,
the governor-general must bring the case to the notice of the King
Poo, or Board of Punishments, at Pekin; the president of Avhich
would submit it in turn to the cabinet, who, after brooding
over it, would lay it before the emperor, who, it is said, carefully
examines the depositions on all such cases before confirming the
sentence.
A. SCHOLASTIC OLIQABCHY.
297
A cnriouB sort of lottery adds a certain spice to the life of con-
victed criminals, for at the close of each year the governor-general
forwardj to Pekin a register of the names of those condemned to
death. The emperor, after inspecting each registiT, with liis
vermilion pencil makes a mark against three or fuur names on
each page. Tlie registers are then returned to tht! provincial
governor and the law takes its course against the marked men.
Those, however, whose names have been jxtsaed over do not obtain
a free pardon; bat the second and third year go up with names
of fresh offenders to lie passed Upon by the emperor. Should they
e8ca]>e the mark of the vermilion pencil on the third occasion,
their death sentence is then commuted to trauijportatioii for life.
The mode of trials in China is startlin;; to all who live in lands
■where the sj-stem of giving a prisoner every opportunity to defend
and explain liiinsclf i»revaih; for trials in Cliincso courts of
law are conducted by torturi;. P.nt then we who jiridc ourselves
on our advance in civilization must remcnilHir that only two hun-
dred ycara ago our ancestoi-s were torturing, not only [Kilitical
prisoners, but also women and young girls, to uhtain confessions
of their pr!u;tii'e of witi-Iicraft. Young girls praci isi^ just as much
witchcraft to-diiy, hut they jia^ not the ones who ai-e tortured on
account of it.
Chinese court« arc open to the general public, but (heir cruel-
ties keep away all visitors except those personally interested in
the case. A calendar of '•^•^■^ '» l- tiF'"'' "''*'' *'"' prisoners'
names subjoined, used tg^^^ffiuM'^Al^^Spnter gates of the
298 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
yamun^ but this custom has lapsed into disuse and the list is now
placed on a pillar in one of the inner courts, where it has no
chance of attracting public attention.
The judge sits behind a large table covered with a red cloth,
and the prisoner is made to kneel in front as a mark of respect to
the court, by whom he is accounted guilty until proved innocent.
Secretary and turnkeys stand on each side, no one sitting but the
judge. The charge is read aloud and the prisoner called upon
to plead either guilty or "not guilty." As the prisoner rarely
pleads guilty, trials are very numerous.
The prisoner is asked a great many leading questions, and
should his answers be evasive, torture is at once applied to him as
a means of extracting truth. The commonest form of this torture
is a beating over his neck and shoulders with a double cane
in the hands of the state turnkey. Should he continue to gfive
evasive answers, he is likely to be beaten about the jaws with
two thick pieces of leather, shaped not unlike the sole of a
slipper.
Sometimes this latter instrument is applied with such force as
to loosen his teeth and cause his mouth to swell to such a degree
that for days he is unable to speak or masticate. If he still main-
tains his innocence, he is beaten over the ankles with pieces of
hard wood, and sometimes as a result of this the ankle bones are
broken. If he still persists in refusing to plead guilty, a severer
torture is applied. The present writer saw the following pun-
ishment administered in Canton in 1873.
A large trestle was placed perpendicularly, and the prisoner in
a kneeling posture was made to lean against it. His arms were
then pushed backward and stretched into the upper legs of the
trestle from the ends of which they were suspended by cords
fastened around the thumbs of each hand. The legs were then
pushed backwards and drawn, his knees resting on the ground,
toward the upper legs of the trestle by cords around the large toe
of each foot. «
When he had thus been bound, the questions were again put
to him, and his answers being unsatisfactory he was whipped
up and down his thighs by a split bamboo cane till the blood
ran down and the man fainted. Whereupon he was untied,
292 THE 8TOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
These titles ai-e of four kinds — hereditary, honorarj-, for state
service, and for literary attainments, and it is imperative on the
ministers of this Board to furnish at frequent intervals to the first-
named tribunals reports on the conduct of the emperor's different
sons, so that it may l^e discerned which one possesses in the high-
est degree the essentials of a good sovereign. These reports, like
all others, finally come to the emperor who has the power of
naming his successor. As a geneml rule, however, the eldest son
succeeds.
As every emperor of each dynasty had many wives, the scions
of imperial houses are numerous, and once it was the custom
to give official employment to each of them. But this custom
caused so much trouble and gave rise to so many conspimcies and
rebellions that it was abandoned, and each prince nowadays has
to rest satisfied with the high-sounding but empty title of his
rank, and he is liable to be deprived of that, if any art on his
part is deemed beneath the family dignity.
While the emperor is regarded by his people as the representa-
tive of heaven, the Empress, or head wife, on tlie other hand, is
the representative of Mother Earth, and is su})posed to exercise
some peculiar influence over nature, one of her chief duties
being to sec tliat woi-sliij) i:; duly paid to the tutelaiy deity of
silkwonns. It is also licr official function to examine carefully
the weaving of the silk stu(T wliidi the ladies of tlie Imperial
harem make into garments for certain state idols.
Slie is supposed to know no polities, but there are instances on
record of Chinese empresst^s who have been as familiar jus some of
the noted French dames of the bust century with the minutest
details of Stiito intrigues. The choice of an empress and of the
sub-wiyes of the soyereign depends solely on their l)eauty or j)er-
sonal qualities, and not on their family connections. Tliey are
chosen in the following fashicm.
The daughter of the empress-dowager, or in her absence a royal
lady invested with authority for the puri)ose, liolds wliat might Ih^
fashionably termed a *' drawing-room, " and inyites Tartar ladies
and daughters of Bannermen, that is, of those baronial houses
which hayc a right to carry banners from various parts of the
empire. The l)elle of this assembly is chosen to be raised to the
A SCHOLASTIC OLIOA&CHT. 29S
dignity t£ empiess, and tiiose next in personal attractions are
selected iat the rank of sub-wives.
But sometimea a woman of the lower orders attains to this
lofty rank. The mother of the Emperor Hieu-Fuug was the
keeper of a fruit store and, like Nell Gwynne, the orange girl
who attracted the attention of Charles II., and from whose liaison
with him are descended some of the peers of England, her grace
and heauty raised her to a power in the 8tat«.
In each of the
provinces there is a
formidable array of
ofBcials, namely:
governor-g e n e r a 1 ,
governor, treasurer,
special commissioner,
literary chancellor,
chief justice; the last
four being of equal
rank; six tautais of
equal rank; ten pre-
fects of equal rank;
and a e V e n t y-t w o
coonty rulers of
equal rank.
Each of these offi-
ciah) has a council to
assist him in the dis-
chai^ of his duties,
and besides these of-
ficials every town and village has its governing body, so that
the empire may be said to be honey-combed with officialism. All
these officials, as it was in ancient Peru, are subordinate to the
one above them; it is a continuous chain. Officials of certain
grades are not allowed to hold office in their native province, nor
without Imperial permission to maiTy in the province where they
have been appointed to office; and to prevent the possibility of
acquirii^ too much local influence, they are removed in some cases
ereiy Uiroe years and in other cases every six to other poets of duty.
THE FRurr
294
THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
All officials are supposed to be appointed by the emperor on
recommendation of the Board of Ceremonies, and candidates for
oEGce, according to law, have to be men who have graduated at
great literary examinations. But the members of the Board of
Ceremonies sometimes submit to the notice of his majesty the
names of men whose literary rank has been bought.
There are nine marks of distinction by which thu rank of a
Chinese officer may be readily recognized : A member of the first
class wears on the band of
his cap a dark red coral
ball or button ; for the
second class this button is
light red; for the third,
light blue ; for the fourth,
dark blue; the fifth class
wear a ball of crystal,
while mother of pearl is
the ball of the sixth class
mandarin. Members of
the seventh and eighth
class wear a golden ball,
in one case smaller, and
for the ninth class, a sil-
ver ball. Each official
may be further distin-
guished by a decoration of
peacock feathers. T li i s
feather runs from the base
of the ball oil the hat slop-
ing downwards at the back. The first of the outer garments
worn by an officer is a long loose robe of blue silk, richly em-
broidered with threads of gold. It reaches the ankles of the
wearer, and is bound around his waist by a belt. Above this
robe is a violet tunic with verj- wide sleeves, but usually thrown
back over the wrists.
When an officer approaches the Imperial presence for the pur-
pose of conferring with the emperor or performing the kowtow,
which in China is the usual act of obeisance, etiquette prescribes
A SCHOLASTIC OLIQARCHT. 296
that the sleoTes of this tunic should he stretched over the hands,
vhich action of course renders him helpless. This custom was
originally adopted to preclude any attempt on the life of the
emperor by tliose whose duties call them into his presence. A
similar one prevails in the Court of Pereia.
The army is made up of the lowest class in the empire, and
used to be uniformed so as to frighten the Iwholder. Govern-
ment residences are provider! for all Chinese officials. These
boildings aie called yamum and sometimes are extensive, cover-
ing acres. Fiom the i-oofs of the balls in many of these official
dwellings richly gilded boards are hung on which ai-e set forth
moral maxims from Confucius and oilier of the great writers;
some of these illuminated mottoes I>eing the gifts of the emperor to
former officers distiiiguislied for faithful ser\-icc. To these
yavmn» are attached publit; offices, and to those occupied by dis-
trict rulers, chief justices, etc., large prisons are attached.
County rulci-s, prefects, and chief justices are the officials
specially appointed to preside in the courtit of law ; and whether
it be of civil or crimiiml cliaracter, a judge is assisted by deputies
or a deputy. To explain fully how justice, so-called, is admin-
296 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
istered in China, it is necessary to state that the accused person is
first brought before the gentry or elders of his village or county.
These punish him, if the crime be of a criminal nature, either by
imprisonment or by exposing him for some time in what is called
a cawpie at the corner of one of the most frequented thorough-
fares, or right near the place where the crime was committed; or
by ha/.ing him whipped through the streets with a crier reciting
his crime.
One form of the cangue is a box, through the top of which the
head protrudes, and througli the sides of which both hands, with a
chain connecting them, are thrust. The illustration represents a
loving Chinese wife feeding her cangued, or canned, husband,
who has committed some slight offence against the peace and
dignity of the emperor — possibly, by fighting near the temple.
A commoner form of the cangue is just the wooden collar alone of
a proportion to the man as in the illustration.
Should a case, however, appear of importance, the prisoner,
with the depositions and the comments on his case, is forwarded
for the mandarin or ruler of the Poo to which the village belongs.
If the mandarin finds the case within his jurisdiction, he pun-
ishes the prisoner; if not, he sends him up to a still higher official,
the county ruler, who might send up the case to the prefect of
his department, who in turn might send it up to the provincial
capital, where the chief justice, who only tries capital cases, has
his residence.
The chief justice will then submit his decision to the governop-
general and, before a sentence of the chief justice can be carried
into effect, it would Ix) necessary that the criminal in the pres-
ence of the governor-general sliould make an acknowledgment of
his guilt. If the prisoner were convicted of treason, piracy, or
highway robbery, the governor-general could order his execution at
once. But if Tie were guilty of parricide, matricide, or fratricide,
the governor-general must bring the case to the notice of the King
Poo, or Board of Punishments, at Pekin; the president of which
would sul)nnt it in turn to the cabinet, who, after brooding
over it, would lay it before tlie emperor, who, it is said, carefully
examines the depositions on all such cases before confirming the
sentence.
A SCHOLASTIC OUOABCHT. . 297
A cmioos sort of lottery adds a oertain spice to the life of cod-
Ticted criminals, for at the close of each year the governor-general
forwards to Fekin a register of the names of those condemned to
death. The emperor, after inspecting eacli register, with his
vermilion j>encil mnkes a mark against three or four names on
each page. The renters are then returned to the jirovincial
governor and the law takes its course against the marked men.
Th(»e, however, whose names have been passed over do not obtain
a free pardon; but the second and third year go up with names
of fresh offenders to be passed upon by the eniperor. Shonld they
A PABRICIDE.
escape the mark of the vermilion pencil on the third occasion,
their death sentence is then commuted to tranajwrtatinn for lite.
The mode of trials in China is startling to all who live in lands
where the system of giving a prisoner cveiy opportnnity to defend
and explain himaclE prevails; for trials in Chinese courts of
law are conducted by tortui-e. lint then we who i)ride ourselves
on our advance in civilization must remember that only two hun-
dred years ago our aniiestora were torturing, not only political
prisoners, but also women and young girls, to obtain confessions
of tlieir practice of witchcraft. Young girls practise Just as much
witchcraft to-day, but they arc not the ones who are tortured on
account of it.
Chinese courts are open to the genenil public, but their cruel-
ties keep away all visitors except those personally interested in
the case. A calendar of casg^,ii^J^^ried, with the prisoners'
names subjoined, used ^0^v»ih(M'<it£^0Sputer gates of the
298 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
yamun^ but this custom has lapsed into disuse and the list is now
placed on a pillar in one of the inner courts, where it has no
chance of attracting public attention.
The judge sits behind a large table covered with a red cloth,
and the prisoner is made to kneel in front as a mark of respect to
the court, by whom he is accounted guilty until proved innocent.
Secretary and turnkeys stand on each side, no one sitting but the
judge. The cliarge is read aloud and the prisoner called upon
to plead either guilty or "not guilty." As the prisoner rarely
pleads guilty, trials are very numerous.
The prisoner is asked a great many leading questions, and
should his answers be evasive, torture is at once applied to him as
a means of extracting truth. The commonest form of this torture
is a beating over his neck and shoulders with a double cane
in the hands of the state turnkey. Should he continue to gfive
evasive answers, he is likely to be beaten about the jaws with
two thick pieces of leather, shaped not unlike the sole of a
slipper.
Sometimes this latter instrument is applied with such force as
to loosen his teeth and cause his mouth to swell to such a degree
that for days he is unable to speak or masticate. If he still main-
tains his innocence, he is beaten over the ankles with pieces of
hard wood, and sometimes as a result of this the ankle bones are
broken. If he still persists in refusing to plead guilty, a severer
torture is applied. The present writer saw the following pun-
ishment administered in Canton in 1873.
A large trestle was placed perpendicularly, and the prisoner in
a kneeling posture was made to lean against it. His arms were
then pushed backward and stretched into the upper legs of the
trestle from the ends of which they were suspended by cords
fastened around the thumbs of each hand. The legs were then
pushed backwards and drawn, his knees resting on the ground,
toward the upper legs of the trestle by cords around the large toe
of each foot. •
When he had thus been bound, the questions were again put
to him, and his answers being unsatisfactory he was whipped
up and down his thighs by a split bamboo cane till the blood
ran down and the man fainted. Whereupon he was untied,
800 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
thrown like a log of wood into a large flat basket, and carried by
two men from the Court of Justice into the prison attached to it.
As soon as his skin healed over suificiently to be flayed again,
the judicial examination would continue.
Justice in China may be rightly called a "Serial Story of
Torture," and there are other forms of judicial investigation more
frightful than these described, which must be left to the imagina-
tion of the reader, for the pen refuses to paint them. But
are there no witnesses? Yes, but as they are also in some cases
subjected to torture it is a task of some difficulty to distinguish
which of the unfortunate men kneeling before the judgment seat
is the prisoner, and which the witness ; for anyone suspected of
having a knowledge of another's guilt, and manifesting any un-
willingness to give evidence, would be likely to receive a pre-
liminary beating by way of encouragement.
The process in civil cases is somewhat different. If a dispute
arises between two persons with regard to houses or lands, at first,
as a rule, they have recourse to arbitration, the arbitrators being
generally the principal elders of the street or neighborhood. But
if either party is dissatisfied with their decision, the matter is
taken into the law court and goes before the county ruler.
But the person thus appealing has to incur great expense in
bribing the miderstrappers about the yamuns to bring his petition
to the eyes of the judge, for in China briber}^ is the only avenue
to success in anything. By liberally paying these underlings he
is allowed to stand at the folding doors of one of the inner courts,
and when the ruler passes he falls upon his knees in front of the
sedan chair of the magistrate who calls upon one of his chair
bearers to hand him the suj)pliant\s petition and, having read it,
appoints a day for the case. In these civil cases, also, it is not
uncommon for the judge to inflict torture.
If of great importance, the case would be appealed to higher
tribunals, but not as in criminal cases to the provincial chief jus-
tice, but to the provincial treasurer, and from his court an appeal
lies to that of the governor or governor-general of the piovince.
But the decision of this viceroy is not final, for the next appeal
lies to the governor-general of the adjoining province, and from
him to the emperor through the Cabinet.
A SCHOLASTIC OLIQABCHY.
801
Formerly civil suits were appealed from the highest tribunal
of t^heir province to the emperor in person, but now another
wall of protection to the sovereign against the annoyance of too
much litigation has been built up by making the governor of
the adjoining province an intermediate tribunal.
Another peculiarity of Chinese government is that registers are
kept in which are recorded the merits and demerits of the various
civil and military officials. This custom, which is of great
antiquity, was also practised by other nations. The records of
the Persians and the Greeks contain frequent allusions to it.
Although Chinese officials are, perhaps, as a class, the most cor-
302 THE 6T0HY OP GOVERNMENT.
rapt Btate servants in the world, there are exceptional men of
high integrity -who are held in great esteem by the people.
When Ache-Ong was governor over the province of Kwang-
Tung, at his departure from Canton tlie citizens gave him a
most in:pressive ovation. An imposing procession which took
twenty minutes to pass a given point escorted him to tlie place of
embarkation, carrying silk umbrellas and three hundred painted
boards of praise which had been presented to him by the people.
The way was spanned at frequent intervals by arches, and on hang-
ing banners were painted or
embroidered in large letters
Buch titles as " Friend of the
People," "Bright Star of
the Province," "Benefector
of the Age."
Deputations of different
trade-guilds awaited his ar-
rival at various temples,
where he alighted from his
A PUBLIC WHIPPING. sedan chair to exchange fare-
well compliments and par-
take of refreshments. But it was cot the formal arrangements
that Bpoke of his popularity so much as the enthusiasm of the
people; for the silence generally keptj' when a Chinese ruler
passes, was continuously broken by hearty exclamations of "When
will your excellency come back to us?" and at many points the
crowd was so great as to interrupt the line of march, and almost
upset his chair of state.
Though the penal code of China is so extremely severe,
especially in cases attacking the safety and stability of the throne
or the peace of the empire, it has some verj- humane traits.
Thus, a judge may grant a free pardon to an only son who has
been sentenced to transportation. This pardon is, of course,
granted for the sake of the parents, and shows how the religion
of China interfuses with its laws.
Or, for another instance, when three brothers, the only sons of
their parents, have committed a crime deserving of decapitation
or tiaiuiportation, the two youngest would be punished, and the •
804 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
first bom pardoned. Or, if a father be transported, the law per-
mits his son to accompany him into exile, and the wives of
convicts are allowed to sojourn with their husbands in penal
settlements.
Imperial clemency also extends to all offenders who are crip-
pled ; nor does the law allow convicts to be sent into banishment
during the first month of the year, which is regarded as a month
of rest and indulgence ; nor during the sixth month, as the heat
is supposed to render travelling very uncomfortable.
Reference to the religion of China having been made, perhaps
a little information concerning it would not be out of place.
According to their fable of creation, in the beginning there came
out of a vast egg a Being, who has always been known in Chinese
annals as Poon-Koo-Wong. Of the upper part of his cast-off
shell he formed the hollow heavens; of the lower, the convex
earth. To dispel the darkness, with a wave of his right hand he
made the sun, and with his left, the moon, and, of course, the
stars also.
Then he called into existence the five elements: earth,
water, fire, metal, and wood; and then in order to people the
world, Poon-Koo-Wong caused a cloud of vapor to rise from
a piece of gold, and a similar cloud from a piece of wood.
Breathing on the gold vapor he made the male principle ; and on
the wood vapor, the female. From the union of these two human-
shaped clouds, or spirits, sprang a son and daughter — Ying-Yee
and Cha-No-We — whose descendants over-spread the whole
country.
In honor of Poon-Koo-Wong there are many temples through-
out China. The idol of this hero of antiquity is an almost naked
figure made of wood or clay, wearing an apron of leaves. This
was probably their original religion, for their present one is a
mysterious mixture of several creeds. At one time they appeared
to have worshipped a supreme being with attributes of omni-
science, omnipotence, and immutability, whom they sj^eak of as
Shang-Te. They appear to have some ideas of a Judgment Day,
and a picture of their method of dividing the sheep from the goats
after death may amuse the reader.
But this primitive monotheism has become associated with the
E CHIKESB JUSOKEHT DAT,
806 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
worship of departed ancestors and of spirits supposed to preside
over the various operations of nature : and with this combination
that still holds its place as a national religion, the name of their
great philosopher, Confucius, is associated.
Dark as the despotism of Chinese government may seem at a
first casual glance (which is generally careless unless tlie eye be
naturally full of sympathy), some stars of promise light up its
present, and tempt believers in man to expect for the vast yellow
race an evolution as rich and fair to look upon as is their chosen
imperial or national color, charming one's eye so often with its
infinite varieties which no custom stales.
For nowhere in this gold- adoring world is wealth less courted,
and caressed, and cringed to. In China power and honor spring
from learning. Hence, mere wealth must be always vulgar, and,
if undistinguished by any other qualities, the mere possessor of
riches must rank as inferior to the mandarin, who, by his knowl-
edge, can rise to the highest offices of the state, next to the
emperor himself; and in many cases, the learned man can finally
achieve a wealth also to which "Money-bags," who has made his
fortune by buying and selling, huckstering and cheating it may
be, can never aspire. The unlearned rich man is not held in
respect; he is valued infinitely less than the poorest scholar who
has taken a degree at the great competitive examinations.
There is no hereditary nobility in the empire, unless the
descendants of the Imperial family can be considered such, thougli
these do not constitute the real aristocracy of the country, which
is official and not heredita^}^
Rank is graded by literary examinations. Every office except
that of the emperor, is determined by these, which are accordingly
of extreme interest, especially since we in this country have lately
adopted a similar method of appointing the minor officers of state,
and have thus been imitating the civil service system of the
Chinese, with all its good and bad points.
To obtain the first degree three examinations must be under-
gone ; the preliminary one taking place in the chief town of the
district where the candidate is native. There are always great
numbers of candidates, and the examinations are severe. In 1832,
out of 4,000 who competed in the two districts around Canton,
A SCHOLASTIC OLIQAKCHT.
SOT
•only iTtrenty-seTen were successful. Indeed, for fifteen to be suc-
■oessful out of five hundred is reckoned rather remarkable.
The next examination is h< Id in tlio depirlinciital ( ity, and the
zuimber of candidates who [ircsr nl th< inselves arc of course much
fewer. At the first examination the roa«ls leading to the district
towns are crowded with candidates on foot, on horseback, in carts,
or in palanquins. After this departmental examination another
sifting occura. Those who liave [Kissed liave their names placarded
aa having gained "a name in the department," just as at the pre-
vious examination they had obtained "a name in the village."
The next examiuation is severer still, being hehl under the
806 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
worship of departed ancestors and of spirits supposed to preside
over the various operations of nature : and with this combination
that still holds its place as a national religion, the name of their
great philosopher, Confucius, is associated.
Dark as the despotism of Chinese government may seem at a
first casual glance (which is generally careless unless tlie eye be
naturally full of sympathy), some stars of promise light up its
present, and tempt believers in man to expect for the vast yellow
race an evolution as rich and fair to look upon as is their chosen
imperial or national color, charming one's eye so often with its
infinite varieties which no custom stales.
For nowhere in this gold- adoring world is wealth less courted,
and caressed, and cringed to. In China power and honor spring
from learning. Hence, mere wealth must be always vulgar, and,
if undistinguished by any other qualities, the mere possessor of
riches must rank as inferior to the mandarin, who, by his knowl-
edge, can rise to the highest offices of the state, next to the
emperor himself; and in many cases, the learned man can finally
achieve a wealth also to which "Money-bags," who has made his
fortune by buying and selling, huckstering and cheating it may
be, can never aspire. The unlearned rich man is not held in
respect; he is valued infinitely less than the poorest scholar who
has taken a degree at the great competitive examinations.
There is no hereditary nobility in the empire, unless the
descendants of the Imperial family can be considered such, though
these do not constitute the real aristocracy of the country, whicli
is official and not hereditarj'.
Rank is gi^aded by literary examinations. Every office except
that of the emperor, is determined by these, which are accordingly
of extreme interest, especially since we in this country have lately
adopted a similar method of appointing the minor officers of state,
and have thus been imitating the civil service system of the
Chinese, with all its good and bad points.
To obtain the first degree three examinations must be under-
gone; the preliminary one taking place in the chief town of the
district where the candidate is native. There are alwajrs great
numbers of candidates, and the examinations are severe. In 1832,
out of 4,000 who competed in the two districts around Canton,
A SCHOLASTIC OLIGABCHT. 307
■only twenty-fleven were successful. Indeed, for fifteen to be auc-
oessful out of five hundred is reckoned rather remarkable.
The next examination is held in the departmental city, and the
aamber of candidates who present themselves are of course much
fewer. At the first examination the roads lejuling to tlie district
towns are crawded with candidates on foot, on horseback, in carts,
or in palanquins. After tliis departmental examination another
sifting occurs. Those who Iiave passed liave their names placarded
as having gained "a name in the department," just as at the pre-
vious examination they had obtjiined "a name in the village."
The next examination is severer still, being held under the
808 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
supervision of an imperial examiner, who visits every department
twice in three years. The "bachelor degree," if one may use
this term, is gained by this, and is only given to a certain num-
ber of the successful candidates in proportion to the population of
the respective districts. Most men do not think of going beyond
this degree, unless they intend to seek official employment. The
possession of it confers many privileges ; amongst others exemp-
tion from corporal punishment.
The next examination occurs every three years at the j)rovincial
capital in September, and is sometimes attended by as many as
ten thousand bachelors, anxious to compete for the degree of
licentiate. It is conducted by two examiners from Pekin. At
Nankin, on one occasion, twenty thousand men competed, and the
degree of licentiate was awarded to less than two hundred.
Out of seventy-three candidates, who on one occasion obtained
this degree at Canton, five were under twenty-five years, eight
between twenty and twenty-five, fifteen between twenty-five and
thirty, eighteen between thirty and thirty-five, nine between
thirty-five and forty, twelve between forty and forty-five, three
between forty-five and fifty, while three were over fifty.
Hence it appears that few attain this degree till well advanced
in life. However, all these are not fresh candidates; many are
unsuccessful and, until rendered hopeless by being "plucked"
year after year, will regularly, as the examinations come round,
make attempts to obtain the coveted distinction.
On an average from twelve hundred to seventeen hundred
may annually obtain the degree in all the eighteen provinces.
At these examinations each student is placed for several suc-
cessive days in a little cell, so uncomfortable that it does not
admit of the occupant lying down at full length. Every candi-
date must have a cell to himself, and the number of competitors
being so great, regard has to be had to economy of space,
especially as all Chinese cities are very crowded.
The third, or examination for the doctor's degree, is held at
Pekin, and thither all the competing licentiates must go. These
seldom exceed from two hundred to three hundred. The highest
degree is that of "Han-lin." It is also held at Pekin, and the
few who attain it become members of the Han-lin College, and
A BCHOLASnO OLIOABCHT. oQil
leoeive fixed Balaries. The licentiates are on tlie high load for
preferment as vacancies occnrj the doctots are ensured an imm^
diate and important ofiBce, Trhile from the select Han-lin College
are chosen tlie
emperor's minis-
ters.
The greatest
care is taken that
these examina-
tions shall be
foirly conducted.
Tlie building in
which they are
held is specially
constructed for
the purpose, with
double Avails, be-
tween which sen-
Iries are continu-
ally pacing. The
gates are strictly
watched, and
when the candL
dates enter the
examination hall
they are searched
for books or
BcntpB of paper
that might assist
them in writing
tlieir essays, and the most ticrupulous precautions are taken to
prevent communications between the canditlates.
Their food they take with them, and the government provides
a pitcher of water for eacli. Three sets of themes are given, each
occupying two days and a night. Until that time has expired no
one is allowed to leave his examination cell.
When the essays are written, they are iiist scrutinized as to
dieix oonfomuty with the regulations, for they most not exceed
i. aCHOOLMABTKK 0
810 THE 8T0BY OF OOVERKMENT.
seven htmdred characters, nor must there be any character written
over the ruled red lines of the examination paper which all have
to use ; nor is erasure or correction of any kind allowed. Nor,
although the theme might be the same, can anyone repeat with
improvements an essay of a former examination.
Any obvious fault in composition observed by the officers who
superintend this department would prevent the essay from being
placed in the hands of the higher examiners. These latter then
select the best essays, to the number of two or three hundred, and
subject them to the judgment of the two chief examiners, who
finally decide which are best, and arrange them in the order of
merit. In granting offices the emperor follows the order of
names. In addition to these precautions equal care is taken that
the examiners shall not abuse the confidence reposed in them by
showing favoritism, or having any chance to gratify malice against
any candidate.
The examiners are brought from a distance, and surrounded by
troops, as much to keep them from being tampered with, as to do
them honor in the eyes of the populace. They are not allowed to
see the actual examination papers, but only copies made by official
transcribers, until they have passed a paper as satisfactory, when
the original is brought to them to compare with the copy, and
then, if all be right, the candidate's name is seen which up to this
point is unknown, having been pasted between two sheets of
paper.
Yet when such great things are staked upon these trials of
intellect, it can be readily believed that the ingenuity of the
Chinese literati manages sometimes to elude the most lynx-eyed
examiners. Most amusing are some of the ways in which this is
attempted.
The American undergraduate who takes into the examination
hall a series of notes on his shirt-cuffs, and half a dozen problems
of Euclid on his capacious palms, is a bungler compared with his
Chinese brother in academical iniquity. The trick of employing
a learned substitute — himself a graduate — to enter under the
name of a candidate, perfoim the exercises and, on leaving the
building, substitute his essays for those of the real candidate, is
a well-worn device in China.
A SCHOLASTIC OUGABGHY. 811
Now and then it happens that a friend in the building learns
the themes of the expected essays, writes them in tiny characters
on slips of paper, and drops them enclosed in wax into the water
supplied to the candidate whom he wishes to favor. But the
most daring plan which the reminiscences of the Chinese Dons
can recall was that of a candidate who engaged a friend to tunnel
under the walls of the examination hall, and thus convey to him
through the floor of his cell the documents and other information
needed.
The ancestral worship of China, to which allusion has been
made, is carried in certain practical ways to an exti'eme frightful
to contemplate. A parent has absolute control over the lives of
his children. If he kills one intentionally, he is subject only
to a year's imprisonment, and the chastisement of the bamboo;
if the child struck him previously, there is no punishment
whatever.
As among the Hebrews, the penalty of striking or cursing
parents is death, and so tenacious of order are the Chinese, that
for one person to strike another with hand or foot is accounted
not only a private but a public offence. Hence the common
spectacle of two Chinese quarrelling with endless gesticulations,
but without coming to blows, the surrounding crowd also taking
care to see that the quarrel does not lead the disputants to close
quarters. This instinct has now become hereditary with the
Chinese, for even in the foreign countries to which they have
emigrated they carry this wholesome habit of allowing the tongue
rather than the fist to act as their safety-valve.
Some of their habits of life and modes of thought are closely
interwoven with their governmental system, and are full of inter-
est. A Chinese debtor, for instance, is allowed a reasonable time,
fixed by law, to discharge his obligations ; but if, after the expira-
tion of these da)rs of grace, he fails to pay, he is liable to the
punishment of the bamboo stick. A creditor sometimes quarters
himself with his family ujx)n a debtor, and though this is not
recognized by the law, no one interferes, provided it be done with-
out tumult or violence.
Death is looked upon by a Chinaman with the utmost uncon-
cern, and suicide is adopted as a means of freeing himself from the
812 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
most trifling worry. Yet death is rarely mentioned directly in
their ordinaiy conversation, but is alluded to in a round-about
fashion. Ancestors are worshipped, and in every rich man's
house is a chamber dedicated to this filial duty. Here are pre-
served tablets inscribed with the names of the deceased, and at
stated seasons, and according to forms prescribed in that huge
etiquette code of China — the " Book of Rites " — prostrations
and ceremonies are perfonned before them.
When a person dies it is said that "he has made his salutation
to the age," or has *' ascended to the sky." "To be happy on
earth," they say, "one must be born in Soo-chow, live in Canton,
and die in Lianchan ; " Soo-chow being famous for pretty women,
Canton for luxury, and Lianchan for furnishing excellent wood,
for that last important article which a Chinese sets so much store
by — his coffin.
The Chinese idea of beauty, or at least of the figure that suits a
person of fashion, is rather peculiar. A woman should, for
instance, be extremely slender in appearance, while a man should
be corpulent, or what we understand as "aldermanic."
Both men and women of rank, or at all above the laboring
class, wear their finger-nails long, as a sign that they are not com-
pelled to stoop to manual labor ; and to such an extent are these
nails allowed to grow, that cases of ivory, silver, and even of gold,
ornamented with precious gems, are used to preserve them from
being accidentally broken. Even servants now and then attempt
this bit of foppery and, to preserve them from being broken, splice
them onto thin slips of bamboo.
The small feet of the Chinese women are caused by the curi-
ous inverted ideas of beauty which Fashion in all nations some-
times succeeds in inspiring and maintaining. In China, this
monstrosity must have prevailed for a thousand years, because
the Tailar women do not favor it, and have never adopted it.
Hence the argument that it antedates the Tartar invasion.
It is produced in early childhood by cramping the feet arti-
ficially by means of bandages ; and though it renders those thus
mutilated incapable of walking, except by holding on to walls, or
by very skilfully tottering along, it is regarded as exceedingly
"genteel," probably from the idea of its being associated,
A SOHOIiASTIC OUQAROBir.
818
like the correBponding case of long nails, with exemption from
lahor.
The Chinese poets rave of such deformed feet as "golden
lilies," and describe the rocking of the women in attempting to
walk as the "waving of a willow." The muscles of the leg from
not being in use dwindle away, so that the space from the ankle
to the knee is not so thick as the wrist. Women who have not
this deformity of the feet will sometimes hobble along the street
FARIIIONABLK FOOTINO.
in a manner intended to deceive the observers into believing thftt
the fashionable foot is theint.
Ridiculous as this custom is, the student of strange methods
for "improving" the person gets habituated to otliers equally
strange: and we who have seen, in the course of our studies of
mankind, jKople flattening their foreheads, tattooing their persons,
cutting off their lingers, filing their teeth or dyeing them black,
painting their bodies, slitting their ears, compressing the waist,
putting stones, hones, or metal through the lips, cheeks, or ears,
or in a dozen other ways interfering with nature, have only a
gentle compassion instettd of profound contempt for such exhibits
814 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
of feminine vanity on the part of Cliinese ladies, as depicted in
our illustration of a belle resting her fashionable understanding
on a table.
Never was there a more elaborate code of etiquette than that of
China. It is not alone a court etiquette, but one regulated by the
State in the elaborate "Book of Rites," preserved through ages;
an etiquette which is never altered by fiishiou — for fashion never
changes — and which controls the every-day action of all the
Chinese from the emperor to the coolie. Their prescribed cei-e-
monial usages are three thousand in number. The most abject
method of showing respect to a superior is by performing the
Kow-tow^ and is that by which a vassal signifies his obedience
to his superior.
When an audience is about to be obtained of the emperor, this
prostration is previously made before a yellow screen, and though
it has been performed by the ambassadors of the Dutch — a nation
which in the East has submitted to any indignity which promised
to result in profit — it has been always refused by the English
and Russian ambassadors, and of late years has not been expected
from the representatives of any nation except such as owe vassal-
age to China.
There are various grades of the Kow-tow. For instance, standing
and bending the head is less submissive than kneeling on one or
both knees, and putting the hands and forehead to the ground.
Doing this once is not so humble an act of acknowledgment of
inferiority as doing it three, six, or nine times. Abject as it is,
such is the innate filial obedience in China, that the emperor will
perform it before his mother.
Chinese ladies are taught to paint on silk, to embroider, and to
acquire some skill in music; and though cases of learned ladies
are not unknown, yet they are not as a rule studiously inclined.
The better class of them are modest. To such an extent is this
carried that it is accounted indecorous in a lady to show her
hands, and accordingly they are covered with long sleeves.
When they have been shown pictures of the very dScolletS dress
worn by fashionable European ladies, they very natiually ex-
press themselves much shocked at such immodest and indecent
costumes.
■Ililllllllllllllllllllllilllll)
816 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Polygamy is not, as frequently described in books, sanctioned
by the law. Every man is limited to one wife, but " left-handed "
marriage is permitted to any extent that a man may feel justifiable
according to his purse. But the first wife is regarded as the
social head of the household, and the bickerings which naturally
follow the practice of polygamy render it less common thaii it
would otherwise be.
If the wife has no family, then the taking of a handmaid is con-
sidered as natural — the Chinese looking upon the want of a son
as a terrible affliction. These handmaids are generally bought for
a sum of money from the lowest ranks of the population, and
really enter the family as domestic slaves.
No man is allowed to marry any woman with the same surname
as himself, all people of the same surname being considered kin,
and no government official can marry an actress. Not only is
such a mairiage, if contracted, void, but both parties are punish-
able'with sixty blows; though, if the official hold the degree
of licentiate, this punishment must be remitted for one of cor-
responding severity, into which corporal punishment does not
enter. Finally, though the legal wife is small-footed, the brevet
ones are not.
A man may divorce his wife for seven different reasons: 1.
Barrenness, though this is generally never taken as an excuse, as
he has his remedy in legal concubinage. 2. Adulter}'. 3. Dis-
obedience to the husband's parents; the mother-in-law being more
kindly regarded in China than in Europe. 4. Talkativeness,
5. Thieving. 6. Ill-temper. 7. Inveterate infirmities.
Any of these, however, may be set aside by three circum-
stances: the wife having mourned for her husband's parents; the
family having acquired wealth since the marriage ; and the wife
being without parents to receive her back. It is in all cases dis-
reputable, and in some (as those of a particular rank) illegal, for
a widow to marry again.
Whenever a widow is herself unwilling, the law protects her;
and should she act by the compulsion of parents or other rela-
tions, these are severely punishable. Widows, indeed, have a
very powerful dissuasive from second wedlock, in being absolute
mistresses of themselves and children so long as they remain
A 80HOLA8TI0 OUGABOHY. 817
widows. Marriage is predestined, the Chinese believe, and early
marriages are greatly encouraged. ^^ There are three great acts of
disobedience to parents, and to die without progeny is the chiefs'**
is a Chinese maxim.
The amusing contrariety of Chinese customs as compared with'
ours has been thus epitomized by a traveller : —
On inquiring of the boatman which way Macao lay, I was answered,
** in the west-north"; the wind, as 1 was informed, being east-south.
** We do not say so in Europe," thought I ; but imagine my surprise
when, in explaining the compass, the boatman added that '^ the needle
pointed to the south I "
Desirous to change the subject, I remarked that I supposed he was
going to some high festival, or merrymaking, as his dress was com-
pletely white. He told me, with a look of much dejection, that his
only brother had died the week before, and that he was in the deepest
mourning for him.
On my landing, the first object that attracted my attention was a
military mandarin, who wore an embroidered petticoat, with a string of
beads round his neck, and who besides carried a fan ; and it was with
some dismay that I observed him mount on the right side of his horse.
Another strange sight was a wagon impelled partly by a sail. I was
surrounded by natives, all of whom had the hair shaven from the fore
part of the head, while some of them permitted it to grow on their faces.
On my way to the house prepared for my reception, I saw two
Chinese boys discussing with much earnestness who should be the pos-
sessor of an orange. They debated the point with a vast variety of
gesture, and, at length, without venturing to fight about it, sat down
and divided the orange equally between them. At that moment my
attention was drawn to several old Chinese, some of whom had gray
beards, and nearly all of them huge goggling spectacles.
A few of them were chirruping and chuckling to singing birds, which
they carried in bamboo cages, or perched on a stick ; others were catch-
ing flies to feed the birds \ the remainder of the party seemed to be
delightedly employed in flying paper kites, while a group of boys were
gravely looking on, and regarding these innocent occupations of their
seniors with the most serious and gratified attention. . . .
Resolute in my determination to persevere, the next morning found
me provided with a Chinese master, who happily understood English.
I was fcdly prepared to be told that I was about to study a language
without an alphabet, but was somewhat astonished, on his opening the
Public
818 THE STORY OP GOVBRNMBNT.
Chinese volume, to find him begin at what I had all mj life preirioosly
considered the end of a book. He read the date of publication —
** The fifth year, tenth month, twenty-third day." " We arrange our
dates differently," I observed ; and begged that he would speak of their
ceremonials.
He commenced by saying, " When you receive a distinguished guest,
do not fail to place him on your left hand, for that is the seat of
honor ; and be cautious not to uncover the head, as it would be an un-
becoming act of familiarity." Hardly prepared for this blow to my
established notions, I requested he would discourse of their philosophy.
He reopened the volume, and read with becoming gravity, " The
most learned men are decidedly of opinion that the seat of the
human understanding is the stomach."* I seized the volume in despair,
and rushed from the apartment.
Speaking of stomachs, the Chines^ gourmands seem to excel in
inventing extraordinary dishes. One of the most remarkable of
these consists of young crabs thrown into a vessel of vinegar some
time before dinner is served. The vinegar corrodes their delicate
shells, so that when the lid of the vessel is removed, the lively
young crabs scramble out and run all over the table until their
career is cut stort by each guest snatching up what he can.
The Chinese population is said to be decreasing, though whether
this is owing to the terrible destruction of life caused by the
Taeping Rebellion, when, through massacre, and famine, and dis-
ease whole provinces were decimated, or to an exhaustion of
vitality in the race, the lack of anything like a regular census
renders all theories of purely personal value. Mr. Colbome
Baber, Chinese Secretary of the British Legation at Pekin, tells
a story which may, perhaps, explain this deficiency of statistics.
In very early times the city of Wa-ming-hsien was governed by
a prefect of more than usual discrimination and energy. Having
directed a census to be taken by two independent officials he was
not astonished to find that the two reports exhibited such an enor-
mous discrepancy that they had to be cancelled, and the deputies
reported to the governor for punishment. The prefect then
appointed two other olBcers to number the people.
• This is a mistake for they place it in the heart. It is an old maxim amon^ good house-
wives that the way to keep a man's heart lies through his stomach, but this, like many a pro-
verb, is a libel on human nature.
A SCHOLASTIC OLIGARCHY. 819
But they, taking warning by the fat« of their predecessors, com-
pared notes, and in due time announced Wa-ming-hsien to contain
exactly 20,401 souls. However, being unable to agree whether
the odd figure referred to a male or a female, they, in their turn,
were reported to the governor for punishment. The prefect then
determined to t,ike the census himself and set out for the city.
But, in the meantime, the timid citizens, alarmed at the perti-
nacity of the prefect, and apprehending that he was coming to
levy some oppressive tax, fled from the town and hid themselves
in the fields.
The astonished satrap, finding the place deserted, and fearing
to be "reported to the governor for punishment," lianged himself
in the gate, and when his body was discovered, there was found
firmly clenched in his grasp a paper containing the following
words: "Return of census of the city of Wa-ming-hsien, in the
department of Mu-yu-fu: men, none; women, none; children
under fourteen years of age, of both sexes, none — grand total,
none."
In China now are three great religions, if they can be bo called,
Confucianism, Taouism, and Buddhism. The first two are
indigenous; the last is an importation from India. Koon-foo-tse,
or, as his name has been latinized in the M'ritings of the early
miBBionaries, Confucius, was bom about 551 b. c, and is now
320 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
accounted the great sage and teacher of China. He was the son
of a statesman, and chief minister in his native kingdom, one of
the many into which China was then divided.
Despising the amusements and gaieties common to his age, he
devoted himself to study and reflection in moral and political
science; but, unlike the Greek philosopher Aristotle, he investi-
gated none of the branches of natural science, nor did he interfere
with the common superstitions. His doctrines, therefore, form a
code of moral and political philosophy rather than a religious
system, and his followers are really philosophers more than reli-
gious sectarians. He endeavored to correct the corruptions which
had crei)t into the state, and to restore the maxims of the ancient
kings, who are celebrated in traditional history.
Unswayed by personal ambition, he promulgated his doctrines
with a singleness of purpose that, even in conservative China,
gained him respect and multitudes of followers; and after being
employed' in high offices of state he retired in the company of his
chosen disciples to compile those collections of philosophical
maxims which have now become the sacred books of China.
Nor can it be denied that, though erroneous in some respects,
they deserve much of the honor which has been paid them.
"Treat others according to the treatment which thou wouldst
desire at their hands," and "guard thy secret thoujhtSy^^ were
among his favorite maxims. Filial affection he taught, and even
enjoined it to such an extent, that he ordered that the slayer of a
father should be put to death by the son; that "he should not live
under the same heaven," were the words in which lie urged this
application of the lex talionis.
He was modest in his demeanor, though this virtue has not
descended with his doctrines to his modern disciples, who are self-
sufficient and overbearing to all who do not profess the state
religion of Cliina, as Confucianism really is.
Confucius began early in life to labor as a public teacher and
gathered around him a large circle of disciples. He devoted
himself to reducing the traditions and reigning records of antique
Chinese wisdom, gathered l)y the emperors Yaou and Chun, into
a more perfect form, and before his death had compiled and edited
the five canonical books of the Chinese.
822 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The first, the "Yih King," or the "Book of Changes,*' treats of
the beginning of things and of morals, and may be called a cos-
mological and ethical treatise. The second, "Choo King,** was a
book of histories. The third, "Chee-King,** was a book of poetry,
a collection of ballads, to which things Confucius attached great
value as means of moulding the national chaittcter.
The fourth, the "Lee-Ke," was a "Record of Rites,'* and is an
account of the national ceremonials and religious usages, a knowl-
edge of which is considei*ed essential among the Chinese for the
maintenance of social order and the promotion of virtue. The
fifth, the "Chum-To-Ew," or Spring and Autumn, is a history by
Confucius of his time and of a few preceding reigns. The others
are compilations, though containing much original matter, but
the fifth is said to be the work of the sage himself.
The writings which rank next to these books in popular estima-
tion are the "Four Shoos," which consists mainly of records of his
early sayings gathered by his disciples, except the fourth which
contains the works of Mencius, a celebrated writer of the Con-
fucian school.
These books of Confucius liave had a curious destiny, having
survived imperial jealousy; for in the third centurj'- Che-IIwang-
Te, who had established the supremacy of tlie Tsin Dynasty,
ordered the sacred books of Confucius to be destroyed because
they suggested unfavorable comparisons between his own and
former reigns.
This order was tremblingly obeyed, the first alone being
exempted from general destruction. As it was then customary
for the literati to memorize the writings Qi the various philoso-
phei-s, this cruel emperor tried to perfect his infamous scheme by
putting four hundred Confucian pliilosophers to death. But
under succeeding sovereigns, these lost works of Confucius were
rescued from where they had been hidden by the philosophers or
restored by those who had been trained and had trained others to
keep them in memory.
"The kings," said Confucius on his death-bed, "will not
hearken to my doctrines; I am no longer of use on earth, and it
is time for me to go." But to-day, while tenets of other national
philosophers liave been superseded, those which came from the
A BGHOLASTIO OLIGABCHV. 828
lips of Confucius are admired and embraced by one third of the
great human family.
Throughout the empire his works are regarded as the standard
of moral and political wisdom. Only by a knowledge of them
can literary and political distinction be won; and filial piety
which has assumed the form of ancestral worship and which was
the pivotal point of the system of Confucius may be regarded as
the chief religion of the Chinese; for the doctrines of Taouism
and of Buddhism have but a very small percentage of followers in
comparison with those of Confucius.
The Chinese li^^rature is certainly the most extensive and com-
prehensive in Asia. The printed catalogue of the emperor's
library is contained in 122 volumes, and it is said that a collec-
tion of the Chinese classics, with scholia and commentaries, com-
prises 180,000 volumes. In addition to the "classics," such as
the writings of Confucius and Laoutsze there are the codes of the
law of China, and a rich series of works on medicine, natural
history, agriculture, music, astronomy, etc., and numerous dic-
tionaries.
There are also various encyclopaedias and geographical works,
as well as a series of the national annals from the year B. c. 2698
to A. D. 1645, comprising 3,706 books. Poetry and the drama
are also cultivated, and they have now so far thrown off their
national pride and reserve as to have translated several of the best
English works on medicine, surgery, etc., into the Chinese lan-
guage. Book-sellers' shops are common in every town, and books
can be bought cheap.
All classes read; even the coolie, resting on his burden for a
minute or two, will pull out a book, it may be a i-omance or a
volume of popular songs, and commence reading. Such is the
respect for written or printed paper that any waste material of
that sort is burnt daily in front of the door, or collected by men
who go about from house to house in case any of it should be
profaned.
A few Chinese proverbs may show the character of the people
and their way of thinking better than any mere description: "A
wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself
to the vessel that contains it;" "Misfortunes issue out where
824 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
disease enters in — at the mouth ; " " The error of a moment
may become the sorrow of a lifetime ; " V Disease may be cured,
but not destiny;" "A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as
the hollow moimtiiin rctuins all sounds;" "He who pursues the
stag regards not hjires ; " " If the roots be left the grass will grow
again " (this is the reason given for exterminating a tmitor's
family); "Tlie gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the
man perfected without trials ; " '* A wise man forgets ohl
grudges ; " " Riches come better after poverty than poverty after
riches;" "A bird can roost but on one branch;" '*A horse can
drink no more than its fill from a river " (Enough is as good as a
feast); "When the port is dry the fishes will be seen" (When
the accounts are settled, the profits will appear); "Who swallows
quick can chew but little" (applied to learning); "You cannot
strip two skins off of one cow;" "He who wishes to rise in the
world should veil his ambition with the forms of liumility;"
"The gods cannot help a man who loses opportunities; " "Dig a
well before you are thirsty" (Be prepared against contingencies);
"The full stomach cannot comprehend the evil of hunger;"
" Eggs are close things, but the chicks come out at last " (Murder
will out); "To add feet to a snake" (Superfluity in a discourse
when the subject is altered) ; " Who aims at excellence will be
above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will fall short of it; "
"To win a cat and lose a cow" (consequences of litigation); "I
will not try my porcelain lx)wl against his earthen dish ; "
"Though the life of man fall short of a hundi-ed yeai*s, lie gives
himself as much anxiety as though he were to live a thousand."
N'(i^^
VIII.
Patert;)al
Socialisn;)^
ASYSTEM of government that reduces material misery
to a minimum ; that makes sober habits of industry
characteristic of the people ; that converts chaos into
order and wreathes order with beauty, is surely
worthy of study, although it lui^ j)erished from tlie face of the
earth and lives to-day only in the annals of the more forcible
civilization which is trying to build upon its ruins.
It would seem, too, especially worthy of attention at this time
in this country, because the unnecessary inequalities between man
and man, the vast and intricate problem that stret^-hes between
the two extremes of tramp and millionnaire, the foolish waste of
energy and mat^n*ial which marks our present industrial state, are
pressing on the minds of all candid students and are forcing a
path into our politics with the tremendous, too often misdirected,
energy of those whose thinking is rather a rude ])iussionate feel-
ing than an orderly outcome of ripe reason.
Time, the best, though slowest, of teachei's, brings about many
changes in the meaning or value of words. Twenty years ago if
a man in this country called himself a Socialist, he would have
been looked ui)on Avitli grave suspicion either as a cmnk or an
32'
B26 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
enemy to society. To-day a man who has been professor of inter-
national law at one of our leading colleges permits himself to be
nominated on a Socialist ticket in New York, and actually receives
over thirteen thousand votes. Nor is this an exceptional fact.
In many State legislatures bilk are being introduced which are
either openly or veiledly socialistic in their tendencies.
Socialism to many of us comes with the electric shock of a new
idea, and at first some are unable to decide whether the shock is a
pleasant one or the reverse. The question, of course, at once
arises what is it ? what does it mean ? And the answer is rather
difficult, because in modern days there are a great many varieties.
The fundamental ethics of it, however, are not new. They are
expressed or implied in every great religion, and especially are
they marked with strength in the teachings of the founder of
Christianity and in the early development of that belief.
Probably the purest expression of the ethical side of Socialism is
that implied by Christ in the parable of the vineyard. The master
paid those who came in to work at the eleventh hour just the same
as the workers who had borne the heat and burden of the day, and
rebuked those wlio grumbled at the apparent unfairness of this.
The surface argument is that the first had no cause to complain
because they received all they had bargained for, and the employer
had an inherent right to pay just lus much as he wished to the
others who worked less.
But a comparative study of all Christ's attitudes towards the
economic conditions of his time is likely to draw a candid mind
to the conclusion that, under the superficial argument of the em-
ployer's inherent right to do as he pleased with his own, lies the
intended suggestion that those men who only had the opportunity
or ability to work one hour were paid the same by the just and
tender taskmaster on the broad ground that their human needs
were the same.
The modern phrasing of this doctrine is that society should
demand from each a measure of work in accordance with ability,
and should give to each a measure of comfort according to indi-
vidual need; or, in other words, the philosophic Socialist aims to
equalize men as much as possible materially, being cognizant, of
coui-se, that vast moral and mental inequalities must continue to
328 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
prevail for ages; must always, indeed, persist within certain
degrees, else there would be no difference of character, but one
vast dead-sea level of monotony.
Briefly stated, the chief moral argument of modem Socialism,
and perhaps the strongest plea that could be put foi*th in its favoi*,
is that, by doing away with the sordid pressure of materijil in-
equalities, a greater opportunity will be afforded for the develop-
ment of finei, more original individualities.
Men to-day in the mass are becoming too much like the
madiines which they tend. Our civilization seems to be reduc-
ing itself to an absurd play of mere materialistic forces, and to be
bringing forth, on an average, as its children, a mere concatena-
tion of echoes, — not men, but sounding brasses and tinkling
symbols of men.
But some individuals are inclined to recoil, when brought face
to face with the ultimate economic proposition of Socialism,
namely, that every business necessary to the general welfare
should be managed by the people collectively; that is, that
every municipality should have its public bakeries, shoeshops,
etc., and supply its citizens with the necessaries of life at cost,
instead of allowing private citizens to make fortunes at the
expense of the majority of workers by the accidents or the chica-
neries of trade.
Socialism, it is true, already operates as an active element in
the Government of the United States, — the post-office being a
shining example of it on a national scale and the ownership by
some cities and towns of their water supplies, gas and electric
light, being instances also of its advance into popular favor.
But while all sensible men who have ever given the matter
sufficient study agree as to the advisability of socializing the
larger businesses of the country such as railroads, telegraphs, tel-
ephones, expressage, mines of all kinds, lighting and water sup-
plies, and possibly meat, bread, and ordinary clothing, yet some
cautious thinkers are inclined to feel that Socialism might
become too much like a monstrous monotonous despotism, if it
were permitted to permeate all the avenues of human activity.
Still there would be a vast difference in a Socialism like that
of ancient Peru, which emanated from an authority above, forcing
330 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
itself down on a people, and the Socialism that grows up from a
democratic community superseding the old fancy of government
as a power independent of the governed, and making it mean
a simplified administration of the business of the people con-
sidered as an organic whole.
Many small examples of democratic Socialism have existed, and
in the chapter on Switzerland its political aspects are fully presen-
ted. There are to-day certain communities in the United States
which are Socialistic in character, though religious in name ; but
there have been very few examples in the world of Socialism on
a national scale. The present Emperor of Germany is, indeed,
giving spread to a belief that he intends to socialize his empire as
much as possible, but it can liardly be called an example of national
Socialism, though it presents many of its features.
To find our best illustration, therefore, we are forced to look in
the early history of the new world, for when Pizarro, with a mere
handful of greedy adventurers, conceived the audacious project of
wresting the empire of Peru from the grasp of the Incas, he foimd
himself face to face with a system of government more strange to
the European mind of that epoch than any of the physical marvels
which the Europeans who followed Colimibus had gazed on in
Mexico or Panama.
Pizarro, of whom we present a picture in one of his most famous
attitudes, was a wonderful man, although he could neither read
nor write. Nearly every schoolboy remembers how in his day of
apparent weakness and disaster, he diew a line in the earth with
his sword, saying, "On this side lies Panama with it^ poverty, on
that, Peru with its untold treasures. Those who will follow me,
step across that line," and a famous little band, whose names the
Spanish historian proudly records, crossed the line, after which
there was no hint of turning back.
The Government of Peru was an absolutism, but not in the sense
with which we apply that word to Russia or China, because under
the beneficent rule of the Peruvian kings the country from the
Andes to the ocean had been transformed into a garden, and the
government, apart from tlie necessary maintenance of the emperor
and the national religion, was essentially the Inisiness of the peo-
ple, wisely administered and witli very little friction.
PATERNAL SOCIALISM.
331
That n vast coantry in which the term, national wealth, really
meant national health — a polity which had largely multiplied and
then fairly divided the sum of human happiness — should have
succumbed so easily to so smiill a band as Pizarro led, might seem
to imply some inherent weakness in the socialistic scheme as a
hasis for permanent government.
For two hundred men to seize such an empire — what a miracle I
But Fate fought on the Spanish side.
DltAWINO TUE L
Coming as they did partly on the lioi-se, a new and monstrous
sight to Peruviau eyes, and clad in shining armor, and having
strange and terrible weapons full of thunder and lightning, the
Spanish invadera seemed unnuestionably tlie diviiie cliildi-en of
the Sun, fresh from Heaven, for whom popular sujMjrstition had
long looked forwaixl. Tlicn, too, Pizarro, imitating Cortez, seized
the Inca's person, and tlie Inca, being High-priest as well jis
Emperor, his subjects hardly dared to attempt a lescue, lest his
sacred blood should be shed.
8S2 THE STOBY OF GOYEBNMENT.
The Spanish historians record with grave amazement that they
had discovered a miraculous, land in which there was no such
thing as a poor or discontented man ; in which everybody worked,
from the emperor downward, a reasonable length of time at tasks
fitted to their strength and their ability; in which the problem of
mere living, as it confronts us modems in our so-called civilized
cities, had been satisfactorily settled; in which the average of
human happiness was large and increasing. The Spaniard found
Peru a comparative paradise of paternal Socialism; he made it
a hell of brutal competition.
This wonderful Socialistic Empire (which, partly because of
the superiority of the Spanish fire-arms to the Peruvian weapons,
and partly because the superstitious people readily believed that
their invaders, so fair of countenance, were direct children of the
Sim, fell such an easy pi*ey to Spanish cupidity) was at this period
of its overthrow spreading its power in every direction, and some
of the neighboring nations which it was trying to absorb were of
a civilization almost equal in splendor, if not in some respects
superior; as for instance, the Chimuans, whose architecture, as
conjecturally restored from ruins by the modem scientific mind,
must have been something at once delicate and massive, and far in
advance of Peruvian art. The contrast between clashing systems
of civilization is sometimes clearly shown in their architecture,
and the two pictures, " A Castle in Spain " and " A Chimuan
Palace,*' with which this chapter opens, are excellently suggestive
examples of this fact.
Tlie material realm of the Incas, when Pizarro seized it with
an audacity that has no parallel in history, was of vast extent and
singular shape. It fronted the Pacific Ocean from 2^ north lati-
tude to about 37° south; or, in other words, it consisted of the
western part of tlie modern republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia,
and Chili, with an indeterminate stretch to the east where the
mountiiins and barbarous tribes made its expansion somewhat slow,
although that growth had been constant for tliree hundred years.
This comparatively nan-ow strip of land, rarely more than sixty
miles in width, ^ was a country apparently unfavorable to agri-
* One of the native historians, Oarcilasso, intimates that the empire at its widest plaoe did
not exceed four hundred miles.
884 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
culture or to easy intercomraunication and comfortable living, for
along the sandy coast it rarely rained, and but scanty streams fed
the earth, and it was hemmed in all along by colossal mountains
from three to four miles high who^e solemn and forbidding
grandem* seemed to cast a sort of deterrent shadow over the
aspirations and attempted improvements of man.
The steeps of these sierras with their fro\vning giant faces of
naked porphyry and granite, the frightful precipices, furious
torrents, and gorges of impenetrable gloom that abound in these
regions, at times struck terror or at least dismay into the stout
hearts of the invading Europeans. But they found, as they
advanced, that the art of man had conquered the stubborn heart
of nature in a way that filled them with wonder; for Europe at
that time presented no equal spectacle or even hint of such superb
triumphs of mind over matter as the Government of Peru had
achieved for its people.
The naturally barren coast was fertilized by a system of canals
and underground aqueducts. Many of the most imposing moun-
tains were terraced up to their snowy plateaus with gardens in
which the fruits and vegetables of various zones were raised, and
amid these orchards and gardens at many points towns and ham-
lets were seen clinging to the mountain sides so high above the
average track of the clouds as to delude at first, when the da\vn
disclosed them to the beauty-loving eyes of the Spaniard, with
the physical fancy that these villages were suspended in mid-air
and might vanish, like dreams, at the voice of the breeze of
morning.
Above these towns nestling so confidingly on the breasts
of the giant mountains, were snowy ])lains that rose gradually
towards tlie peaks, and over these white desei-ts of the sky wan-
dered innumerable flocks of llamas, the Peruvian sheep, from
whose wool tlie government clothed the people. And across
chasms, from the like of which, when they travei-sed the empire's
borders, the Spaniards had sluunk back almost with horror as from
living pictures of the abysses of that hell with which their religion
threatened them, — across ravines whose dark, dizzying depths
tempted such as gaze too long to plunge into annihilation, —
across wide gorges where tumultuous torrents chanted mad litanies
PATERNAL SOCtAUSH. 885
of liberty or seemed like the rude flasliiug laughters of the Titaa
mountains, — laughters at tlie pygmy, Man, who had dared
attempt to utilize their forces, — across these divisions of unco-
operant and defiant nature tlie genius of the Peruvian hatl swung
suspension bridges, binding precipice lo steep aud hill to hill
with rope-ro;i(Ls made from tlie fibres of tlie maguey.
These ropes woe twisttd into t,ables thi &iz« of a man's body,
and fitted into liohs in inimcnM, pill ii-s of solid iwk carved out
of the opposite finijof the cliffs Thej \urc cross-pieced with
wood and other smaller ropes, and the sides were protected by a
sufficiently high railing. Of cout^ie, there wiis some elasticity to
bridges made of such material, and their oscillations under the pass-
age of troops were at first frightful and sea-sickish to the Spaniards.
But these bridges, in their size, frequency, and stability,
together with tlie great smooth stone roads traversing the moun-
886 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
tain passes and connecting the capital, Cuzco, with the remotest
villages of the empire, never ceased to excite the admira-
tion of the conquerors. These roads have been suffered now to
fall from disrepair into decay, and mostly into disappearance.
But the fragmentary stretches that remain attest their pristine
massiveness, and the great traveller and philosopher, Humboldt,
always sparing in his praise, ranks them among the most useful
and stupendous works ever executed by man.^
Let us glance at the chief capital of ancient Peru, the city of
Cuzco, ^ the heart of the empire in which centred all the roads
like the arms of the government. Peru was not the name of the
empire, but was given by the Spaniards in mistake. The natives
with pardonable pride called their country Tavintinstiyu, or the
Four Quarters of the World, and, as if in token of the truth
thereof, from the great city of Cuzco where hundreds of thousands
lived happily, with no want, no poverty, and but little disease,
rayed forth four great roads to the four points of the compass, and
the four provinces of the empire.
Cuzco, too, was divided into four quarters, and the various
races that gathered there lived each in the quarter nearest its own
province, and each by law wore the general costume of the
province, modified of course in some measure by individual taste,
but never so much as to hide the place or the rank to which they
belonged.
The capital was thus a miniature of the empire. Each of these
provinces was ruled by a viceroy, or royal deputy, and a council,
and these viceroys not only sent continual reports to the sovereign
or Inca residing in Cuzco of the condition of the people, the
weather, crops, etc., but a certain part of every year they con-
vened in Cuzco to pay their respects to the Inca, and listen to his
plans for the improvement or extension of the empire, thus form-
ing a sort of Cabinet to the Crown.
The decimal system invented by the French and adopted by all
scientists was used by the Incas of Peru in their government with
remarkable results. Such things as the finding of an unknown
^Le grand chemin de Tinea ^tait un des ouvrages les plus utiles et en meme temps des plus
gif^antesques que les hommes aient ex^nt^.—HumOohlt,
* It was situated about the middle of present Peru.
PATERNAL SOCIALISM. 837
dead body, or a mjsterious disappearance which we so often read
of in our newspapers was an impossibilitj in Peru, for every per-
son was numbered, not in the sense of having a tag, but in
the sense of tiiat Scriptural passage which informs us that in the
eyes of a truly i»aternal deity every hair of our heads is numbered.
So in Peru, tliere was no one so insignificant as not to receive the
attention of the government.
The nation at large was divided into decades, or tens, and eveiy
tenth man was an officer, or liigh servant of the rest, his duty
being to see that they enjoyed all their rigltta, to solicit aid for
them from the government when necessary, and to bring offenders
to justice. Justice, so often a bitter jest with us, was a reality
in Peru, for in case of neglect tbe judge had to pay the penalty of
the guilty, and lie bad only live days to decide civses.
These decades were grouped in fives, tens, and hundreds, up to
ten thousand, each head of a decade being under the supervision
of a man representing five decades sometimes, but generally ten;
or in other words each hundred men had nine special officers and
one general captain, each thousand men the same, every captain
of one grade being a subordinate of tlie next higher till ten thou-
888 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
sand was reached. The whole empire was arranged in depart-
ments of ten thousand with a special governor appointed from the
Inca nobility.
Under this system authority was so subdivided and gntduated,
and had so nianv mathematical checks on it that individual
oppression or domination was almast impossible. OflBcialism or
bureaucmcy was prevented from l)eing an evil by making it
all-pervasive.
Not only was every man accoimted for from his birth to his
death, but he felt that he counted in the vast sum of serene hap-
piness which radiated from the sacred person of the Inca, who
was at once the hereditary high priest of the national religion,
and the loving manager of his people's material affairs, watch-
ing over the minutest concerns of their daily lives. This was
not felt to be, as some administrations in France have been,
a vast system of espionage, but a sympathy of the great man with
his children that was tireless and almost sleepless.
The Peruvian felt always a line of communication vibrating
from himself to his sovereign, for although there were no courts
of appeal, and the few laws were very severe, the rights of the
individual were safeguarded by a committee of visitors which
at certain periods perambulated the kingdom, investigating
the character and conduct of the magistrates, and punishing
ip a summary way any judicial eiTors or delinquencies. Nor this
alone, for the lower courts had to make monthly reports of all
cases t/> the higher, and these to the viceroy, so that the Inca
seated at Cuzco could review, reach out and rectify any abuses.
There being no money in Peru, few laws were needed, and
crime was rather a rarity, and at the time of the invasion was
probably becoming rarer, because death was the penalty of the
most grave violations of law, and criminals were thus prevented
from perpetuating themselves.
The crimes of theft and murder were capital, and so was a
breach of the marital vow, though it was justly provided that
extenuating circumstances might be taken into consideration by
the judges to soften the sentence. Blasphemy against the Sun or
against the Sovereign, — an exceedingly rare offence, — and burn-
ing a bridge were death.
PATERNAL SOCIALISM.
Removing landmarkfi, tumiag a water-coui-Mc from a Jieighboi's
land to one's own, and destroying a lioiue were rigorously pun-
ished, as for instance, by a public flogging. Yet no needless
cruelty was displayed. No ingeniously prolonged torments such
as we used to have in the mediicval period of our civilization
were permitted among the mild and polished Peruvians.
840 THE BTOBY OF QOVEBNMBNT.
But we must consider their religion in order to nnderstand
folly the Tastness of the authority which a Peruvian Inca must
Lave possessed in order to be able to pn>duc6 such a majestic
fabric of government composed of harmonized minntia like a
huge temple built of many little bricks, and furthermore to be
able to hand it from sire to son for centuries with improvement
instead of impairment.
This religion was primarily a worship of the sun, whom they
identified as the source of all spirit and force in the universe, just
as our modern
science ideutiflea
that luminary as
the parent of all
the celestial phe-
nomena of our
system. The
late die turn of
Mcience, that our
earth and all its
potentialities had
no separate crea-
tion, but was at
some unimagin-
ably distant
ejwch shot forth
from the sun as a flying spark or cooling cinder of fiery nebulous
matter, was an old accepted belief with the Peruvians.
The earth was sun-bom, and all its children were of that high
origin, but they had fallen from their first estate according to
the Peruvian, as well as the Judfeau tradition, and stood in sore
need of redemption from their degraded habits of worshipping
widely and wildly nearly eveiything in nature, of making war
their pastime and cannibalism their festivity. Therefore the
Sun-God in his pity sent two of his direct children, Manco Capac
and Mama Ocllo Iluaco, to gather the natives into communities
and teach them the arts of a softer, sweeter, and serener life, — a
life more worthy of their originally divine descent. Rarely do
fables bear such practical fruit as was the case in Peru.
842 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
This celestial pair, brother and sister, husband and wife like-
wise, were bidden, so saj'S the fable, to advance along the high
plains near Lake Titicaca, bearing with them a great wedge of
gold, and where the wedge should slip from their hantls and sink
into the ground, there they were to abide and found tlie Cit}' of
the Sun. Tliey had gone but a short spat;e in the valley of Cuzco
when the mini(jle occuiTed, and proved itself completely by the
wedge sinking speedily into the earth and disappearing forever.
Here was founded the Holy C'ity, and from the holy pair were
descended, so the people believed, the Inca race wlio ruled them.
High descent is not such a vain thing, after all, as it often
seems at first blush to a philosopher, if those who have it strive
to live up to it. And it appeai-s to l)e admitted that the Inca
sovereigns were as deeply conscious of what was due from
them as demi-divinities to the j)eople they swayed, as they were
of what was due to them in the matter of reverence and honor.
The French motto ""^^ Noblesse obUge^^ was exemplified in the lives
of the Peruvian princes to a wonderful degi-ee*
Before considering the minute details of the policy develoj)ed
by these extraordinary monarclis, perha})s a brief 2)icture of an
Inca's personal pomp might be of interest and value. The Inca
was placed, by his being the head of the Church as well as of the
State, so immeasurably above all his subjects that even the
haughtiest of the nobles who claimed descent from the same
divine luminary could not venture into his presence except bare-
foot, and bearing on the shoulder a slight burden in sign of servi-
tude or homage.
As the sun is the source of all force, so the Inca was the foun-
tain of all honor, power, or wealth. He raised annies and
usually led them in person, whenever an extension of the empire
among the barbarous tribes to the East was planned. He imposed
taxes, made the laws, and appointed the judges. Louis XIV.
of France was, according to his own epigram, himself, the
State, but a Peruvian Inca was more ; he was Church and State
in one.
And the Inca never forgot the supreme seriousness of the part
assigned him by destiny in the dnima of this earth-life. He
assumed a pomp in his style of living and an exclusiveness
PATERNAL &UC1AUSM. 848
such as few kings could conceive orsusbuii. Iliu dress wus of
tlie finest wool dyed in divers colore and crusted profusely with
bits of gold and jewels. A many-colored, many-folded turban
crowned his head, blazing with jewels, and with a tasselled
fringe of deep scarlet, while two feathers of a rare and strange
bird, called the coraquevqiie,^ standin}; nprijjht in the turban gave
a certain touch of
tenal or wingfid
grace to the daz-
zling splendor of
the 1*0} il h e a i\
dress
But though the
Tnc I was, or felt
himself to be, so
superior to even
the liighest of his
subjects, he con-
descended o c c a-
sionally to frater-
nize with them,
and took especial
pains to inspect
the condition of
the lower classes
and to provide for
their pleasures. At some of the religious festivals he presided in
person, instead of by deputy, and even entertained at his table
some of tlie great nobles, complimenting them on their manage-
ment of his provinces or his armies, and even drinking the health
of such as he wiw most inclined to honor.
At intervals of several years he made a circuit of his vast
estate, or empire, carried in :t sedan chair, stopping at the govern-
mental inns along tlic iv)ute, or at some of his many |wilapes in
the great towns.
As he {)assed along the grand roads wliich the genius of his
844 THK STOBY OF 60TERKHBNT.
ancestors had conceived, and which he kept in perfect condition,
the ghid populace crowding from adjacent villages strewed flowers
before him and sang songs, as they carried fonvard hia haggage
from one village to the next. Now and then he made a longer
stop to listen to grievances, or to settle points referred to him
from legal tribunals, and wherever he halted in this way the
people regarded the spot thereafter as holy ground.
The palaces of the Inca were not of imposing exterior, being
low and long with rather small apartments not communicating with
each other, but opening into a common square or courtyard. The
A OOVERHUENTAL HOTEL.
sides were of massive stone, and the roofs were of wood or in
some places only a tliatcli of I'ushes,
But, inside, the wealth of the empire flooded floor and wall
with aplondor, and claitzled the souses with a barbaric drunken-
ness of magnificence. Gold and silver wn)ught into strangely
»hai>en vessels, images of animals and plants made of the same
costly stuff, and tajiestries of gorgeously coloit^d wool as delicate
in textiu-e^a-s it was rich in hue would have tired the vision by
their profiLsion, had it not been relieved by the niurvellous variety
in 8ha£)c and arriingemcnt.
The favorite retreat of the Incaa from cares of state was at
Yucay, about twelve miles from Cuzco. Here, amid groves and
gardens they loved to linger with their favorite wives, for though
the m-.'i of the people were monogamous the Incaa as a rule were
FATBBNAL SOCIALISM. S46
not. The queen wife, aa among the Egyptians, waa generally a
aister, this being a part of their religioua duty as descend-
anta from the fiist Inca pair vho were brother and sister.
Here they had baths that put to shame those of the Roman
emperors; huge tanks of gold into which crystalline waters deli-
cately perfumed were conducted through subterranean pipes of
silver, while flowers of rarest hue and richest odor grew crowding
over the margins ; and side by side with the natuial flowers and
graceful shrubs that sprang up without coaxing in this temperate
region of the tropics were planted parterres of a kind never seen
in Europe, mjnriad forma of floral and vegetable life skilfully
imitated in gold and silver.
Among these what most astonished the Spanianls were repro-
ductions of Indian corn — that most beautiful growth among
American gmina — where the workmanaliip waa so exquisite that
an ear of gold was half displayed nestling among broad leaves of
silver with a light feathery tassel of the same metal dangling
gracefully from its top.
Should such a sketch of Peruvian opulence stagger the reader's
faith, let him reflect tliat the Andes teemed and still teem with
846 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
gold and silver, and that none of the ore taken from the mines
was converted into use as money but all belonged to the Inca to
be converted into beauty. But the display of kingly wealth such
as the Spanish historians attest may fairly cause surprise when
coupled with the fact that in this respect an Inca owed nothing to
inheritance.
His tremendous treasures were of his own amassing, for at
death all his palaces but one, with all their contents just as he
had left them, were closed up forever. The reason for this was
the belief tliat the soul of the departed might or would return to
earth sometime, and they wished him to find everything just as
he left it before he took his journey among the stars.
When an Inca died, or in his own language " was called home
to the palaces of his father the Sun," his funeral was even more
solemn and gorgeous than his life. His bowels were removed and
buried in the temple of Tampu, fifteen miles from Cuzco, and with
them were buried some of his gold and jewels, and some of his
servants and favorite wives.
As in India, where a similar custom prevailed even into this
century till abolished by the British, many of the immolations
on the part of the women were volimtary; and it is of record
that sometimes the women when denied this doom of conjugal de-
votion took the religious rite into their own hands and killed
themselves over the grave.
This curious ceremony was followed by a year of general mourn-
ing, the people grieving in processionals and the poets singing the
virtues and glories of the departed as if to stimulate his successor
to still higher achievement. The Peruvians were more skilful
than the Egyptians in the wretched device of prolonging the
integrity of the body beyond the limit set to it by nature, and
this skill produced a spectacle that filled the Spaniards with an
awesomeness which even for yeai-s continued to affect them.
On entering the Temple of the Sim at Cuzco one might see,
ranged face to face, the men on the right, and the women on the
left, the embalmed bodies of all the kings and queens of the Inca
race; while on the walls of the temple shone many a dazzling re*
production in gold of the sacred, all-beholding sun.
These bodies, dressed precisely as in life, sat on golden chairs,
OUABDIHO A OBAUt FlBUh
848 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
with their heads bent slightly forward and their hands crossed
over their bosoms. It seemed like an assembly of priests at some
mysterious devotion, and was so startlingly like life that the
Spaniards at first found difficulty in believing that it was merely
a museum of mummies.^
A very strange custom prevailed in regard to these "dead, but
sceptred sovereigns who still ruled men's spirits " from their
temple and their tomb. On certain festivals each was brought
out with great ceremony into the public square of the capital
and a banquet was served before this kingly "death's head at
a feast,*' the guests partaking in the presence of the royal phantom
with the same forms of courtly etiquette as though he were
a living king.
Note has been made of the legislative functions of the empire,
showing how they began and ended in the Inca, like the curve of
a circle returning on itself. The fiscal regulations and the laws
respecting property were equally curious.
The whole ten-itoiy was divided into three parts ; one for the
sun, that is, for the maintenance of the national religion, another
for the Inca, and the last for the working-classes. These propor-
• tions varied in different provinces according to the amount of pop-
ulation, and the greater or less quantity of land needed by the
people.
The lands were divided, per capita^ in equal shares, and as it
was provided by law that every Peruvian should marry on attain-
ing a certain age, when this happened the commune in which he
lived furnished a dwelling and a lot of land, an additional portion
being gitinted for every child, the amount for a son double that
for a daughter.
This division of the soil among the workers was renewed every
year, and the possessions of a tenant increased or diminished ac-
cording to his family. Such a provision might be fancied fatal
to any feeling of attachment to the soil, or to that desire for im-
proving it which generally results from permanent ownership.
1 After the conquest the Peruvians hid these royal effigies lest the Spaniards shoold pro-
fane them ; but five of them were discovered years after, and the historian Garcilasso saw
them in 1560, ** perfect as life,*' he says, *' without so much as a liair or an eyebrow wanting."
As they were borne through the streets of conquered Cuzco, the populace knelt down with
tears and groans, and were deeply touched when they beheld some of the Spaniards dofflng
their caps in sign of respect to departed greatness.
PATERNAL SOCIALI8H. S49
Bat it is probable that the law in its practical operation con-
finned the firat occupant in possession year after year, making
him a tenant for life, even though his offspring might die, unless,
of couise, part of his land were actually needed for other mem<
hers of the community.
The cultivation of the entire territory was done wholly by
the people, who first planted and tilled the lands belonging to
tlie church, iif xt the lands of the old, the sick, the widow, the
orphan, and of soldiers who were away in actual service, and
these duties of religion and of morals having been performed,
the people were then allowed to till their own grounds, each for
himself, but with the understanding that he must assist hia
neighbor whenever sickness or the burden of a young family
860 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
might demand. Finally came the cultivation of the lands espe-
cially appropriated to the crown or the Inca.
It speaks well for the government that in this agricultural
arrangement the lands of the Inca were ranked last, and this
cultivation of the king's lands was turned into a sort of holi-
day performance, for the men, women, and children, summoned
by musical instruments from the central tower of each neighbor-
hood, came clad in their gayest apparel, and went through their
labors singing the popular songs which were so soft and pleas-
ing in character that after the conquest many of them were set
to music by the conquerors.
A like system prevailed as to manufactures. The llamas, or
Peruvian sheep, belonged exclusively to the Church and to the
Inca. A large nimiber were sent every year, from the colder
regions where they fed, to the capital for the consumption of the
court, and for the religious sacrifices, but these were only the
males, and their flesh was not eaten by the common people.
At the season of shearing all the wool was put in public store-
houses and then dealt out to each family as it was needed. In the
lower or warmer pait of the empire cotton was furnished by the
Crown in the same way to the people for their garments. After
the workers had made their year's supply of clothing, they were
required to make the clothes of the Inca and the court officers.
While engaged in both these tasks, committees of inspection
visited them to make sure that each household employed the
materials furnished for its use in the manner intended, and also
to see that everybody in each household, from the child of five to
the old granny able to hold a distaff, did their share in this
cooperative work.
No one, except the very old, or the sick, could eat the bread of
idleness in that empire of order, for law had made impossible the
parasitic forms that hang on our civilization and may some day
drag it down to chaos and a just oblivion. Idleness, indeed,
was a crime in Peru, and industry was made a matter of public
honor and rewarded with special prizes.
A similar course was pursued in regard to all other manufac-
tures, special skill in any craft having a tendency, of course, to
make that cnift hereditary in certain families, and the government
A OHJHUAIf PBUfCBaB.
862 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
wisely directing that those who were employed in more arduous
or dangerous labors should have shorter hours ; as, for instance,
those who worked in mines or quarries.
The object of this mild semi-religious despotism was not to
get as much work as possible out of a man and use him up in a
few years, but to make him work just enough to keep him in good
health and keep the general government in a like condition.
Fortified against the pressure of penury on one side, and saved
from the degrading passion of avarice on the other, by there being
no such mysterious, inanimate mischief as money breeding discord
among them, the Peruvians had a fair chance to cultivate the real
graces and dignities of life, which are few in number, and do not
need far-seeking.
But it was a despotism, and though all fared well and were
happier on an average than any race to-day, some fared better than
others, possessed a larger share of authority, had finer houses, and
walked more proudly in each other's eyes. For there were two
orders of nobility in this empire ; the first and most important of
which was that of the Inca race who boasted a common descent
with their sovereign, and basked in the reflected splendor of his
celestial origin.
These nobles of the blood royal were utilized as officers all over
the kingdom. They wore a peculiar dress just as Chinese man-
darins do to-day, and like Chinese mandarins are said to have
spoken a special language, not entirely intelligible to the com-
mon people.
They alone were admissible to the offices of the priesthood, and
the choicest part of the public domain was assigned for their
support. For a long time the laws made exception in their favor
and just as an early English noble could plead his rank in bar of
certain accusations, so an Inca nobleman was held incapable of
crime except against one of his order.
The other nobility was that of the curacas who were the caciques
or chiefs of recently conquered nations or their descendants.
It was the policy of the Peruvian government, when it added by
conquest a new tribe to its empire, to retain the ruler of such
tribe in his office, and to take his son to the Peruvian capital to
be educated.
. BOCIALISH.
868
These bods were thus hostages for the fidelity of the father and,
bjr teceivitig a governmental education at Cuzco on terms of
perfect eqoalily with the sons of the native nobility, they were
converted into contented and valuable officers when it came time
to appoint them to positions of trust and importance.
The/ generally succeeded their father in the office of curaos,
though it appears that in some provinces the Inca permitted the
people to elect their own rulers — a strange geim of demootiK^ cr
A PKBWIJktf TICXBOT RKCEIVnrs REPOBTS BY QinPTB.
home rule to find in a despotism dead three hundred and fifty
years ago !
So well regulated ^vaa the Peruvian government that our
cumbrous, costly, and extremely uncertain system of taking the
census would have filled them v^ith amazement or amusement.
Their census was being taken all the time and verified itself
from month to month.
The nature of all service required and the amount of all com-
modities needed in the government of the smallest village were
reported month by month to the Inca in his state palace at Cuzco,
and a register was kept of all the births and deaths t^uxiughout
864 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the country, so that exact returns of the population were made
every year ; and at certain intervals resurveys of the country were
taken so that, furnished with complete statistical details, it was
easy for the government, after determining the quantities and
qualities of work required, to distribute it among the respective
provinces best fitted to perform it. For the different provinces
of the country furnished persons peculiarly suited to different
employments; one district supplying the most skilled miners,
another the most skilled workers in metals or in wood.
The artisan was provided by the government with the mate-
rials, and was only required t© give a certain portion of his time
to the public service. He was then succeeded by another for an
equal term, and all engaged in government work were main-
tained for the time at the public expense.
By this constant rotation of labor, and by tliis study of the
special aptitude of each individual, it was intended that no one
should be over-burdened, but each hiive time to provide for his
own household. And in the judgment of a Spanish historian
who was corregidor of Cuzco directly after the conquest, there
was no flaw discoverable in this system of governmental distribu-
tion, so perfectly was it adjusted to the needs and abilities of
the artisan.
The Peruvians had no written language, although they had a
literature which the Spaniards found full of beauty and sublimity,
and their poets, or haravecs^ as they were called, were numerous.
Their means of transmitting their histories and of communicating
with one another were twofold.
Like the early Greek rhapsodists who from father to son, by oral
teaching, tmusmitted the poems of Homer till a later age gathered
them into books, the Peruvian literature was always from mouth
to mouth, a living literature that recited itself constantly to the
people, each historian before he died training a younger one in
all his knowledge.
In addition to this method of preserving thought they had what
is called the quipu, which was a cord about two feet long made
of different colored tlireads tightly intertwisted^ with a quantity
of smaller threads suspended in the fashion of a fringe. These
threads were of different colors and were tied in knots.
PATBBNAL SOCIALISM.
856
The colors denoted objects ; white stood for silver, yellow for
gold. They sometimes, too, represented abstract ideas; white
signifying peace, red war, etc., but though they were used as
means of communicating ideas, they were chiefly valuable for
arithmetical purposes; the knots serving for ciphers and being
THE QUIPU.
combined in such ways as to represent numbers to any amount.
All the statistics of the empire were forwarded from the dif-
ferent provinces in this fashion, and these skeins of many colored
threads, collected and carefully preserved, constituted the national
archives. The Spaniards bear witness to the rapidity of their
calculations by these means, and at the same time their accuracy.
Clever as were the Peruvians in manipulating their curious
language of knots and colore, they were quick to perceive the
superiority of an alphabet and of written signs to convey or con-
serve ideas, when this new method was made known to them by
their conquerors.
This point is illustrated in a very striking anecdote told by
Grarcilasso, a descendant of the Incas who wrote in Spanish a
little after the conquest. It is given by him as an additional
866 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
cause for Pizarro's barbarity to the captive Inca, Atahualpa, who
after a long imprisonment was sentenced to be burnt at the stake.
As the faggots were being kindled, a priest besought the Inca
to embrace Christianity and be baptized, promising that if he did
his burning should be commuted to the milder punishment of
death by strangulation. The Inca yielded, was Christianized and
garroted. Garcilasso's story is this.
While in prison Atahualpa, having noticed Spaniards reading,
asked a Spanish soldier to write the name of God on his thumb
nail. This done, the captive monarch held up his thumb to
several of his guai-ds, and as they read it and each pronounced
the same word, the penetititive mind of the monarch was pleased
with a new science of which his own civilization presented no
likeness.
But when he displayed the inscription to his chief captor,
Pizarro, that chief said nothing, and the Inca, inferring instantly
that he could not read, as was the fact, conceived a contempt for
a leader less educated than the men he led.
Tliis contempt the luckless barbarian was not sufficiently politic
to conceal, and Pizarro, learning it, thus received the additional
sting of a wound to his vanity as a stinmlus to his natural
cruelty.
Hence one the darkest pages in Spanish history — a page
almost as dark as that in which the honest historian has to tell
how the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England i-oasted a whole
town of Indian women, children, and old men, firing on all sides
at those who sought escape from the conflagration, which is humor-
ously called " An Indian Barbecue " by the Puritan author who
wrote an account of it.
Tlieoci-iitie govern in tint, if it i3
to be understood according to &e
etjmology of the worfLs is the only
rii/ poshibio legitimate government. God
" -^ only hath doraiiiion absolute and universal.
All existences distinguishable from Him are
His. He is their creator and ruler. God is Hovereiga
in His own right; all owe Him unconditional obedience;
no one can niuke any inquiry into the intrinsic nature
of His commands before oljeyiiig; inquiry can only l>e made into
what is commanded and whether it is really God who conunands.
Briefly put, this in the basis in principle ui»on which every
tlieocmtic or priestly government has l)een cstablislied from the
beginning. Tlie early human sovereign combined in his per-
sonality both the spiritual and temporal authority. In the start
it should be remembered these powers were not detached the one
from the other, but were both united in the person of the ijatri-
arcb, or pater-famUiaa, the patrician of early Roman history wlio
was both priest and king for his own family, household, otgena.
In tbis order of government originally the two jiowers were tuuted.
358 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
but according to Biblical history in the time and person of
Nimrod the temporal separated itself from the priestly sovereignty
and erected its own authority.
Nimrod proposed to found a mighty empire of which he alone
would reign as absolute lord and master. Amon^ the Gentiles,
that is to say, the people who broke away from the patriarchal
order and religion, it may be fairly assumed that the separation
took place at a much earlier period, probably by violence, wliich
evidently does not appear to have been the case respecting the
Jewish people.
These Gentile nations to the superficial observer may appear to
have become more vigorous as the priesthood became corrupt, as
its influence declined, and as the secular power became more and
more predominant; but it is in appeamnce only; it is the hectic
flush of the internal disorder which presages death. In the heroic
ages of Greece and Rome religious ideas were a living reality
among the people and exerted their most potent influence. When
these nations were most assiduous in the woi-ship of their gods,
they were at the zenith of their real power.
But wlien the philosoplier?* came and undermined the belief in
the popular religion, and ridiculed the popular woi-ship, Greece
became cornipt, fell an easy prey to the invader, lost her inde-
pendence, and retrogressed almost into barbaric darkness. Rome,
wliich was founded by a colony not yet idolaters, became gradually
vile; the power and influence of her priesthood declined, the
piety of her people so renowned during her ages of progress dis-
appeared, and the jNIistress of the World entered upon her long
agony under the Ca?sai*s, those tyrants Avho assumed the title,
when alive, of Pontifex Maximus or High Priest and claimed
worship as divinities when dead.
The pagan temples were the oldest centres of learning, the
oldest repositories of books, and the pagan priests tlie most
cultured class and tlie iirst librarians. Such was certainly the
case in Egypt from the earliest period, and it was largely so in
the Grecian and Roman States. Culture and books were deemed
something sacred that should find their home near the sanctuaries
of the gods and under the watchful guardianship of the priest-
hood.. -.The temple of Minerva at Athens, of Serapis in Egypt,
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 868
nnd that of Jupiter Palatine at Rome, not to mention many others
of less note, were all renowned centres of learning, and contained
extensive libraries. The idea in which this practice originated,
— that of making literature tributary to religion, — was both
l)eautiful and sublime.
The Temple of A[)()llo at Delphi, at tlie foot of Mt. Parnassus,
was the most remarkable on account of the celebrated Amphic-
tyonic League, comprising rei)resentatives of all the Gitjcian
states formed for the purpose oi avenging the pilgrims to the
shrine of the Sun-god, the inhiibitunts of Cirrlia, a neighboring
town, having treated the j)ilgrim8 unjustly. This temple con-
tained the famous oracle of which we give the most perfect illus-
tration which modern art, by restoring ancient fragments, has
been able to evolve.
A singular fact connects this marvellous home of miracles with
early Christianity, namely, that the emperor Nero,wiio so o[)pressed
and tortured the early Christians, plundered this lyeautiful pagan
tem[)le of its wonderful treiusures and its m:igniticent works of art,
and silenced the oracle. Constantine, afterwards conveited to
Christianity, did likewise, but the oracle regained its voice, and
continued to flourish till the i*eign of Theodosius, having lasted,
with a few brief breaks, for nearlv a thousand years.
The adytum of the temple where the oracles were delivered and
which our illustration depicts, was underground. Within it, over
a deep, dark chasm, stood the trij)od on whic;h the pythoness or
priestess sat. From the chasm rose a warm va])or with a strong,
strange odor, acrid and aromatic. Chewing the leaves of the
laurel, a tree sacred to Apollo, the Sun-god, the ])riestess after
awhile, very likely l^eing affected by the vapor, fell into convul-
sions in which she poured forth voluminous, though not very
luminous, savincrs.
These fragmentary sentences Avere instantly jotted down by the
attendant priests wlio turned them into hexametei-s or hexameter
and pentameter couplets, the ])opular verse of the time, and gave
them forth as the revelations of Apollo, Ijord of Life and Light
and Poesy. Li the earliest days the Pythoness Avas a yoimg girl,
but later only women over fifty were chosen for this important
office. Pythonesses had to be natives of Delphi, and old maids of
864 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
most unblemished reputation. The snakes represented in the
picture were temple pets, their fangs having been drawn, and the
name of the priestess, Pythia, or Pythoness, was derived from
the Greek word, Tri/^eti/, to rot; because, according to the tradi-
tion, on the spot where the temple was founded, the Sun-god had
slain a huge serpent whose body rotting into the soil gave a
magical fertility to the charming valley.
The Hebrew nation presents to us the most complete fonn of
theocratic government which the world has ever seen. Under the
patriarchs perfect freedom was enjoyed. Each family was a little
state of wliich the father Avas king and priest. The faith wa.s
handed down by tradition from father to son, and great care
taken to preserve the memory of important occurrences by the
erection of pillars, altars, and other monuments. Abraliam built
altars in many places where he said Jehovah appeared to liim.
When the patriarchal rule of Abraham, Jacob, and their suc-
cessors had become absorbed into and ovei'shadowed by that of the
inspired law-giver, Moses, the crystallization of the Hebrew nation
had begun. The basis of the national unity rested on the unity
of faith in Jehovah. The latter was tlic Lonl (rod of Israel, the
omnipotent and omnipresent ruler of his cliosen people. He
directed Moses to lend tlieni out of oppression in the land of Egypt;
smote the Egyptians with plagues and with the death of every
fii*st-born, and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his armies in the watei"s
of tlie Red Sea. Ilis presence on their toilsome miircli through
the desert wjis made manifest to their corporeal senses, for the
Scriptures say, "The Lord went before tliem to sliow the way by
day in a i)illar of cloud and l)y niglit in a pillar of lire; that
He might be the guide of their journey at both times."
And when they grew hungry in the wilderness and murmured for
the flesh-pots of Egypt, He fed them on manna for forty years, until
they reached the borders of the land of Canaan. Then on Mount
Sinai He declared His solenni covenant: "If therefore you will
hear ^ly voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My peculiar
lX)ssession above all people, for all the earth is Mine. And you
shall be to Me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation."
And the Scriptures say, "All the people answered together:
All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." Tlius was the cove-
THEOCBACY OR PRIESTLY OOVSBKMENT. 866
nant agreed upon ; and three days later when, as the Scriptures
say, ^All Mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord was
come down upon it in fire," He delivered to His chosen people
amid the thunders and lightnings those commandments, laws, and
precepts which constitute the most sublime moral code the world
has ever bowed down before. Whereupon the twelve tribes of
Israel by the foot of the mountain, at an altiir surrounded by
twelve pillars, offered whole burnt offerings to the Lord, promis-
ing to keep all the laws and ordinances which they liad I'eceived.
And Moses sprinkled the blood of the victims upon the people
sa)'ing, "This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath
made with you concerning all these words." Thus tlie covenant
was solemnlv ratified, and the Hebrew nation establislied as a
theocracy.
Some of these Mosaic laws look singular if tliey are viewed
from the standpoint of the modern political economist. For
instance, the Lord said, " Observe the rest of the Sabbath to the
Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt
prune thy vineyard and shalt gather the fruits thereof; but in the
seventh year there shall be a Sabbath to the land of the resting of
the Lord; thou shalt not sow thy field nor prune thy vineyai-d '*
(Lev. XXV. 2, 3, 4).
If such a law Avere proposed to-day nearly all our economists
and statisticians would quickly demonstrate that to carry it into
effect would lead to wholesale Avant and stiirvation among the
masses of the people, and that the proposal could only emanate
from some one bereft of sense. Yet it does not appear that the
Israelites suffered want at any time from a strict oliservance of
either the Sabbath day or of the Sabbath year. Possibly this
observance gave them an opportunity to solve the question of over-
production of food crops which is such a stumbling-block to our
economists ; or ])robably syndicates, trusts, usur}'- and land-specu-*
lation not being known in Israel proved a blessing.
Again the Mosaic ordinance runs, "And thou shalt sanctify the
fiftieth year and shalt proclaim remission (reinstating each man in
his former position) to all the inhabitants of the land ; for it is
the year of jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession and
every one shall go back to his former family, because it is the
866 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow nor reap the
things that grow in the field of their own accord, neither shall
you gather the first finiits of the vines; because of the sanctifica-
tion of the jubilee, but as they gi-ow you shall presently eat them.
In the year of the jubilee all sliall return to their possessions.
The land also shall not be sold forever; becauc it is mine, and
you are strangei"s and sojourners with me. If thy brother be
impoveri.shed and weak of hand and thou receive him iis a stranger
and sojourner, and he live Avith thee, take not usury of him nor
more than thou gavest; fear thy God, tliat thy brother may live
with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury nor
exact of him any increase of fruits" (Lev. xxv. 10, 11, 12, 13,
23, 35, 30, 37).
These laws meant a periodical plenary remission of debt, an
unconditional return of the land to the original owner or his heii-s
in the year of jubilee, and a most positive prohibition of usury. ^
Not in the diluted modern sense Avhich means a very high rate of
interest, but any interest at all, and it is AvoHhy of note the pi-o-
hibitory injunction is repeated in the sacred text. A curious
thought arises from the reading of tliese statutes: IIow the land
monopolists and money changers of the nineteenth century would
rage if an atteni[)t were made to put these precepts of Jehovah
into actual operation. IIow conclusively the former would show
that the feudal teiuu'e under which they l)uy and sell and hold
title is much superior to that indicated by the Lord, and tlie
latter class would no doubt forcibly insist that Moses knew notli-
inu of l)rokei"s' boards with its ^'bulls and beai-s/' and that if he
lived in our civilized day he would woi*ship vritli them the golden
calf set U}) at tlie foot of Sinai by his brother Aaron. And many
of our political economists would endoi*se these conclusions and
claim, as Alplionso of Castile respecting the Ptolemaic system of
astronomy, tliat thev could liave eriven the Lord many valuable
suggestions, had they been present when He declared the land wa,s
His, not to be sold forever, and denounced the exaction of interest
^A <li^tinjrui^ho(l Jewish Rabbi of Boston iMjlieves that the spirit (»f these laws among his
ancient jn'ople was not respcctecl, but was circumvented in various ways, but this eeems
rather a lilK?l on the race, for it is more likely that the Jews were not always so keenly com-
mercial a i>eo]ile as centuries of forced liabitation amonj;; nations who denied them social and
l>oIitical riglits or outlets for intellectual energy liave naturally tended to make them.
868 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
from an impoverished brother or the taking back more than was
given him.
The Mosaic statutes and ordinances along with the others
delivered by his successors from time to time formed the whole
code of public laws of the Jews for a period of fifteen hundred
years, or up to the time of Christ, and they are practically bind-
ing on the world of Judaism at the present time, save in those
matters which relate to the national organism wliich long ago
ceased to exist. Joshua was chosen successor to Moses immedi-
ately preceding the death of the latter. Afterwards judges ruled
in Israel and special leaders were raised up by God to deliver His
people from the oppression of neighboring nations which, we are
told in Holy Writ, invariably resulted from their grievous sins,
chief among which was the sin of idolatrj-. Again and again they
fell ; but always on repenting, Jehovah, remembering the covenant
which He had made with their fathers, called upon the required
leader to arise and deliver his people. Othoniel, Aod, Samgar,
Barac, Deborah the prophetess, Gideon, and others were thus
called.
The command of the annies belonged to those whom the people
chose or God i-aised up in an extraordinary manner ; but none were
subject to them but the country or tribes that chose them or to
whom God gave them for deliverei's. The rest of the jxjople, dis-
orderly and in confusion abusing their liberty, often exposed
themselves to the insults of their enemies wliicli made tliem ask
for a king. In their vain imaginings the novelty of kingl}- rule
possessed a ftuscination for them. When Gideon delivered them
from the Midianites they wanted him to be king, saying: "Rule
tliou over us and thy son and thy son's son." But lie answered :
" I will not rule over you, neither sliall my son rule over you,
but the Lord shall rule over you." But again they clamored to
Samuel for a king, who rebuked them, reminding them of the cove-
nant of Sinai and warning them of the tributes which a king
would exact to support a standing army, an institution yet
unknown in Israel, and of the tithes wliicli they must furnish to
support the royal state, but they would not hear them but still
persisted in calling for a king. And Saul was anointed and set
over them by Samuel, who was succeeded by David, Solomon, and
THEOOAACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 869
a long line of monarchs, the salient points of whose reigns are to
be found in the Biblical record down to the time of the Baby-
lonian captivity.
The wisdom of Solomon is much doubted by modem optimists,
who do not believe that life is to be summed up in his saying
"All is vanity and vexation of spirit," but the practical sense
of the great King, of which an example is given in the illustra-
tion, had spread his fame everywhere. BaiTenness among the
Jews was accounted a stigma, and two women laid claim to the
same baby. Whereupon, to discover who was the real mother,
Solomon calmly ordered the child to be divided Ixjtween them.
The real mother protested against the killing, exclaiming, "No,
no! he is not mine." "But he is," said the wise King, "for the
other woman kept silence and you spake."
The large picture near the end of this chapter i-epresents
a marriage festival among the Jews in the days of Solomon and
is indicative of the high sanctity the Jews attached to marriage
even at a period when polygamy prevailed among the rich and
aristocratic classes.
Shortly after tlie reign of Solomon the Hebrew nation began to
decline. The division among the people into the two kingdoms
of Israel and Judah augmented the evil. Among the ten tribes
who bore the name of the kingdom of Israel corruption and
wickedness prevailed, while Judah, consisting of the two tribes
of Benjamin and Levi, the latter embracing the whole priesthood,
preserved the tradition of the primitive faith, and a more strict
observance of the law.
After the return of the exiled nation to Jerusalem from the
seventy years' captivity in Babylon, they selected for their gov-
ernment a council of seventy-two elders, called the Sanhedrim,
presided over by the high priest, which form of government lasted
until the dispersion. Tliey rebuilt their temple and city. They
were never so faithful to God as after their return from Babvlon.
They had experienced the fulfilment of all the prophecies regard-
ing their exile, and henceforth not a symptom of idolatry can be
discovered amongst them.
The pure theocracy which they had again adopted was to con-
tinue until the work of the coming Messiah had been accomplished.
THE 8T0KY OF GOVKilNMKNT.
Tlif liigli iirifstlionil
(leseeiitieil liy iiilu'iit-
a.ueo to tlii^ eldeiit in
the line cf the fiimily
of \'iroii until the
tmu if Jutlis Mii-
( abtiLs w I II It J) issetl
lilt') iii-4 timilj us
losejihus (let-lues.
"Iht, JpMish jnitst-
hicd \\ab coiihnt^il t«i
the famil) (f \tron
THEOGBACY OB PBIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 871
of the tribe of I^evi exclusively. They first attended to the
tabernacle and afterwards to die temple. Although the whole
tribe of Levi were Levites and connected with the temple, only
the Aaronic failiily were permitted to offer sacrifice or do any-
thing alx)ut the altar. The other tribes paid tithes to the Levites,
who paid one tenth of that wliich tliey received to the priests.
The latter Avere also entitled to the fii-st fruits and a large
lx)rtion of the offerings made in the temple. The duties
assigned to the Levites were first defined by Moses and after-
wards by David. The latter appointed some to guard the
temple's gates, others to sing psalms, while others were to guard
the treasures.
Maimonides lays down the conditions under Avhich the func-
tions of the Levite could be exercised. He could not be admitted
as a novice until he was at least twenty-five yeai-s of age, and his
novitiate continued for five yeai-s so that he must Ix? at leiist thirty
years before his final consecration to the Lord's service. These
Levites who Avere thirty yeai-s of age numl)ered in Solomon's time
thirty-eight thoiusand, of which twenty-four thousand were to set
forward the work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were
oflScers and judges. Four thousand were portei-s, and four thou-
sand praised the Lord with instruments, all of which is related in
the twenty-third chapter, fii-st book of Chronicles. Maimonides
atates that in the temple there was a geneiiil oflicer or master of
ceremonies, with fifteen assistants whosc^ duty it was to announce
the time for the solemnities, the time of sacrifice, and to assign
the guard. They also had charge of the music, the instruments,
and the schedule in which every one's ofiice was marked down,
the libations, the seals, the watei"s, the shew-bread, the incense,
oils, sacerdotivl robes, and vestments. The priests Avere divided
into twentj^-four classes, each class having at its head one who
was called the fii-st, or the prince of priests. Eveiy week one of
these classes went up to Jerusalem to officiate, and on Sablxith
days they succeeded one another until they had all served, but on
solemn feast-days all officiated together.
The prince of each class of priests assigned an entire family
each day to offer sacrifice, and at the close of the week they all
joined together in sacrificing. As there were a number of fami-
872 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
lies in each class, and as each family contained a number of
priests, they drew lots for the performance of the different offices.
This last explains the meaning of the first chapter of St. Luke
which, speaking of Zachary, the father of John the Baptist, says :
''According to the custom of the priestly office it was his lot to
offer incense going into the temple of the Lord."
There were several defects which would exclude from ordina-
tion in the Jewish priesthood very much like some of those which
prove a bar in the Catholic priesthood at the present day. Among
the physical defects which excluded were fifty common to men
and animals, and ninety peculiar to men alone. Those who had
no bar sinist'Cr of birth, but possessed some prohibitory defect of
body, were allowed to live in the department where the wood fen-
the sacrificial fuel was kept which they were obliged to prepare for
the service of the altar, being careful to reject all rotten and
worm-eaten wood which it was unlawful to use. The priests
while officiating were forbidden the use of wine, conversation with
their wives, and had no other food than the temple shew-bread
and the flesh of the sacrifice. All the rites were performed stand-
ing and barefoot with feet washed and head uncovered. Their
chief duties were to keep up the fire on the altar of the burnt
offerings that it might never be extinguished; to offer sacrifices,
guard the sacred vessels, wash the victims, make the aspei-sions or
sprinklings whether of blood or water upon the pei-sons offering
the victims, or upon the book of the law, to burn the incense
upon the altar, to attend to the lamps, to put new shew-bread on
the table, and to remove the old. It Avas also a part of their duty
to catcall the blood of the victims and sprinkle it upon the altar.
All the duties just stated were common to all the priests, but
the high-priest alone was entitled to enter the holy of holies once
a year on the day of expiation, and he alone could offer up the
sacrifice which was prescrilxjd for that day both for his own sins
and those of all the people. Several minor ecclesiastical officials
were connected with the synagogues. One read prayei"s and
preached, and others collected alms and looked after the poor and
helpless. The synagogues Avere also used as schools where the
teachei-s, who were called sages, sat on benches with their pupils
at their feet, — hence Saint Paul's declaration that he learned the
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 378
law at the feet of Gamaliel. Others outside the j^riesthood
throughout the many vicissitudes of the Hebrew nation were
distinguishes! for holiness and j^iety, and for being in close
communion with the Ahniglity from whom they received extraor-
dinary marks of the divine favor. Among these were the
prophets who w(*re called from among all the tribes, the Recha-
bites an ascetic; and coiiteniplativc society of persons, and the
Kazarenes.
To tliis people of the covenant, with their priesthood still
wielding theocratic power in the Jewish province of the Roman
(/{esai*s, tlie fuhicss of time liad arrived and the Word made flesh,
which had been promised to their patriarchs and foretold by their
prophets. The ^Messiah was in their midst, and they knew him
not. '"He was in the world and the world was made by him;
and the worhl knew liini not; lie came unto his own and his own
received him not."
Caiaplias was the high-priest, the head of the theocracy under
which the Jewish hiw was administered, subject to revision only
in very important matters by tlie imperial authority. Tlie Man of
Sorrows was brou<^lit before him to answer for his teachinsr and
doctrine. And when lie answered. Holy Writ says, "The high
priest rending his garments saith: What need we any further
witnesses? " And they led Jesus to Pilate, the representative of
Rome, accusing him. Pilate said to them: '"Take him you and
judge him according to your law." But they refused, insisting
that Pilate should condemn him according to Roman law, which
with much niiso-ivinof he did. .Vnd Jesus was crucified between
two thieves.
Thirty-seven yeai*s later the walls of Jerusalem were battered
down by Titus, tlu; peo})le wlio had surviv^^'d the terrible siege
Avere put to the sword or carried into slavery, the walls of the
temple were levelled to the ground, the holy of holies profaned,
and tlie ground was sown with salt. About a million of Jews
jHjrished in the rebellion, and the living were dispei*sed among all
the nations of the world where at the present hour they present
the singular anomaly of a small remnant of people unassimilated
to any great extent by the nations into Avhich they have entered,
although eighteen centuries have elapsed since their dispersion.
874 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The sceptre has long passed away from the Hebrew theoci-acy^
but the ignominious cross of Calvary in the hands of its legiti-
mate successor became the insignia of a more potential and far-
reaching power than the patriarchs or the prophets foresaw, — the
symbol of an institution Avliicli Avas designed to bear throughout
the whole world the light of truth, — to confound the wisdom of
the pagan jJiilosopliei-s, and to sit in the judgment seat till the
end of time.
The men Avhom Jesus tii-st selected and organized to forward His
work, His helpers, and teachers, were mostly ignorant and obscui*e
fishennen, uncouth in ap])earance, and entirely unacquainted with
the learning of the scliools. It would seem as if the design in
this selection was to confound the onlinary prudence of mankind in
conducting worldly aflfaii*s which assuredly would liave rejected such
ignorant and unpromising instruments to teach and preach on any
subject, and to show to the workl that what Saint Paul calls the
folly of the cross was the way of Christianity, the wisdom of God.
After the crucifixion the apostles and the multitudes whom
thev had converted in Judea were of one lieai-t and mind; they
formed practically but oiu* family, and held everything in com-
mon. There W(mc no poor among them l)ecause they who had
lands or lumses sold them and brought the price to the a])Ostles
for distribution amon<r the indiiifent. About tlie vear 40 the
apostles se[)arated in ol)edience to tlie injunction to preach the
gospel to ?U nations, but l>efore doing so they met together and
com])osed a sul)stantial abridgment of the Christian doctrine,
which is known as the Apostle's (^reed, and the chief object of
which was to dcline and secure the unity of faith which they
deemed essential. A few yeai-s later the tii-st council of the
church was assembled in Jerusalem.
A short time aftenvards occurred the dmniatic scene of Saint
Paul standing l)efor(^ the Sanhedrim, which was presided over by
Ananias, the Jewisii high priest, w^lio charged the jn-isoner with
being a contennier of the law and a profaner of the temple. The
head of the Jewish theocrac^y and the great missionaiy of the new
faith stood face to face. The high priest, who wjis a verj^ bitter
enemy of the Christians, had the sentence of deatli prepared, when
Paul reminded the Pharisees present that he had Ixjcome an object
t
\
376 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of hatred to the Sadducees for having maintained the doctrine of
the resurrection. This statement kindled the fire of party spirit
among the members of the Sanhedrim, the Pharisees declaring
with great vehemence that they could find nothing whatever In
the accused which was worthy of chastisement. Lysias, the
Roman tribune, led Paul away from the waning factions, and
brought him before the Roman tribunal presided over by Felix,
the governor, from whom he appealed to Caesar, and therefore, to
l)rosecute his appeal, made his voyage to Rome to which, according
to the best authorities, Peter had preceded him. Nero was Emperor
of Rome just then, and was Pontifex ^laximus of the Pagan priest-
hood. A brief examination of tlie condition of the world at this
period can be made here with some profit to enable us to judge of
the contest on which the Galilean fishermen had entered.
The Roman Empire was mistress of the world. For half a cen-
tury she had pi^ctically lorded it over all the civilized, semi-civil-
ized, and many of the barbarous nations of the earth. She was most
strongly established at the birth of Christianity. The zenith of
her power and prosperity was reached at about the time when Jesus
the Christ Wiis laid in the manger of the little Judean village of
Betlilehem, one of its outlying conquered proA^inces. The time
which has been termed the golden age of Augustus had opened
and the gates of the temple of Janus were closed to signify
peace. But society presented a most repugnant aspect underneath
the surface. It furnished a picture of most revolting corruption
slightl}' veiled by wealth and ostentation. Mannei-s were with-
out modesty, morals without reality, passion without restraint,
laws Avithout authority, save against the poor who were unable
to purchase imnuuiity, and religion had become a farce. What-
ever pristine strength idolatry once had was exhausted by time
and by the evil use to wliic^h it had been made subservient by
the basest passions. The philosophei-s and satirical poets had
dethroned the gods, and little was left to atti-act and satisfy the
highest ideals of man's spiritual nature. "Eat, drink, and be
merry, for to-morrow we die," pervaded the empire.
It is worthy of special note at this veiy time that while the
greater part of the human i-ace groaned in the most abject slavery,
successful generals and soldiers, and even the most degraded and
378 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
abominable monsters which have disgraced liumanity, were aix)theo-
sized or elevated to the i-ank of gods. The l)estial and depraved
when dead were deified by the living. The heart of society was
coiTupt; moral principles had lost their force.
The zeal and intrepidity of Peter and Paul in the imperial
city itself made many converts at an early date, some even within
the precincts of Nero's palace. Paul in his epistle from Rome
to the Philippians mentions the fact in his greeting, saying, " All
the saints salute you, especially they who are of Cfesar's house."
But Nero proposed to sweep these contemnei's of the gods, tlie
despicable Christians, from the city of Rome, not 'exactly because
he feared or hated them, they were too insignificant as yet, but
to gratify a cruel caprice and impelled probably by a sub-conscious
antipathy to teachings of wliich he must have heard from the
coiutiers. The pretext of the monster was worthy of him.
He ordered the city to l)e set on fire in many places, as the
simplicity of the ancient houses disj^leased him, and he wished
to have them replaced by more ornate edifices, and also to give
the pojnilace wlio were hungering for excitement a spectacle
wliich would outrival the takinof of Trov. Ten of tlie fourteen
divisions of the city were destroyed, and it is alleged that the
tyrant played ii fiddle while watching the blazing scene from
a balcony of the palace. To exculpate himself from the infamous
crime, he charged the Cliristians with having caiLsed the confla-
irration. Thev were arrested l)v his ordei*s, and condemned to die
by the most fiendish torture which his perverted ingenuity could
diivise.
A favorite im})erial and popular amusement was to fc^ed wild
lx?ast^ in the amphitheatre with Cln-istians or men suspected of
Christianitv. Some were sewed into the skins of wild beasts
and hunted through the streets by savage dogs which worried
and devoured tliem; (thei's were crucified. Some were swathed
in garments and bands soaked in pitch and other inflammable
material, and tied to posts along the streets and in the gardens
of the i)alace, where they were set on fire, when night came on, to
furnish light for the locality. Witliina year afterwards, June 29,
A. 1). 1)7, Saint Peter and Saint Paul were i)ut to death by Nero's
orders, the fonner on Mount Janiculum, being crucified head
THEOCRACY OE PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT,
379
downwards at IiU exjH'eiw request as unwortliy tlie hoiini' of liis
Master's position oil tlic! t-ross, and the latter near tlie Fulviaii
waters, Ixsing iielieiuled, iw thts law pmviiled, liecuase lie was a
Koinau citizen.
Thus the issue wius joiiiL-d between the two forces whieli ^vei'o
to contend through niiinj centuries for the control of tlic civilized
world. The vanguiinl of the ('ruciiied One hiiil encountered the
master of many legions and tv the eye of the world siift'ei-e<l igno-
uiiniouH defeat. And thus the contest raged for two hundred and
fifty years; all the [Xiwer of Pagan Rome, its annv, courtiers,
spies, and j^wcudo-philoKojihers being wielded
to stamp out the cliurcli from the earth. What
terrible odda there were in the desperate con-
flict! Piission, jirejudicc. jiower. culture, and the sword on mie
aide, — on tlie other the folly of the cross, purity, humility,
weakness, and fortitiidc. \cvcr l)efiire had cnrth witnessed such
scenes, and proliahly never again will sucli occur.
Again and again in tlu' imperial city the infant ihnrch ^^ils
driven to the undeigi'ound lefugcs wliicli it hail excavated, tlie
labyrinthine catacomlis in wJiich the wniains of the dead con-
fessors were deposited, and where the hunted survivors crouuhed
in the darkness, cold and trembling.
880 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Such were the times and conditions under which the Christian
theocracy was assuming shape and form. The process of crystal-
lization was slowly but efficiently at work. It had a doctrine,
a hierarcliy, a discipline, and a worehip, all regularly but simply
constituted, as befitted the church in its infancy.
The nature of its membership is succinctly given by one of its
early apologists, Athenagoras, of Athens, who says: *' Among us
will be found the ignorant, the poor, laborers, and old women
who cannot, perliaps, define by reasoning the truth of our doctrine.
They do not enter into discussion, but they do good works. The
most aged we honor as our fathers and mothers. The hope of
another life makes us despise the present, even in the midst of
lawful pleasures. Marriage with us is a holy vocation which
imparts the gi-ace necessary to bring up our children in the fear
of the Lord. We have renounced your bloody spectacles,^ being
persuaded that there is very little difference between looking on
murder and committing it."
The martyrology of tlie church grew apace, while at the same
time her membership increased in a marvellous manner in every
place among all ranks and classes of society. Over thirty popes,
successors of Saint Peter, won the laurel crown of martyrdom in
Rome within the two hundred and fifty years which elapsed from
the time of Nero to CoiLstantine. The robust figures of Saint
Gregory of Nyassa, Saint Basil, Saint Justin, Saint Cyprian,
Saint Polycarp, Origen, TertuUian, and a host of others entered
the arena and did valiant service during this supreme trial in
combatting error and explaining the gospel. Beneath the sword
of the executionei-s the gospel was extended. Saint Justin says:
"At the commencement of the second century tliere is no nation
among whom we do not find believers in Christ." The end of
the first great struggle had arrived. Tlie cross, which, according
to the story of the time, appeared in the midday heavens before
the astonished eyes of Pagan Constantine and his whole army
with its letters of fire, In hoe ^hjno vincei^^^ was about to change
the face of the world.
Tliis instrument and sign of ignominy was now adopted as the
» Meaning the gladiatorial ttght» which delighted the jxipulace.
»'• By this sign thou shalt cxmquer."
382 THE STORY OF GOVKKNMENT.
imperial standard, heucefortli to l)e carried side b>' side with the
ancient eagles. Constantine signalized his accession to the sover-
eign power in Rome by an edict in favor of tlie Cluistians. He
granted tliem libeity. For tlie first time during three centuries
an emperor <lared openly to proclaim his sympathy for tlie faith of
Jesus Clirist. He bestowed on the (christian priests all the
privileges accorded to the Pagan priests. The popes hencefor-
ward l>ecame i)ei'S(ms of considcmtion, enjoying the confidence of
the emperor. Tims was practically closed a combat of nearl}'
three centuries between t\w doctrines of the Church of Christ
and idolatrous Home. The imjjerial decret? was dated at Milan,
A. D. 313, and was sent to all the consuls and governoi's throughout
the empire. From this time there were two sovereignties recog-
nized and proclaimed in the world; that of the Pope, and that of
emperor.
Shortly after Constantine issued his decree of toleration, the
Donatistii, bish()i)s of the African sect which followed Donatus,
earnestl}' reijuested him to convene a council of the bishops of
(ifiul to judge of their differences with the Christians who opposed
them. Constantine replied saying: *'You ask judges of me, you
bishops, of mc who am in worldly life, and who myself await the
judgment of Jesus Christ." He forwarded their memorials and
])apers to ^lelchiades, the Poi)e, who called a council of the bishops
of Italy and (iaul in the Lateran palace to settle the troubles of
the Church of Caithage. The government of the church, founded
on the principle of unity in the high ])riesthood or supremacy of
the Roman bisho})s, and perpetuated by an always living hierarchy,
was thus recognized in one of his fii-st acts by the fii-st Christian
Cicsar, Constantine.
The heresy of Arius of Alexandria arose at this time, which in
effect was substantially a denial of the Codhead in the person of
Christ. Arius and his teaching were condemned at a convocation
of the bisho})s of Egyi)t and IJbya, but he refused to submit, and
was exconmiunictated A. D. 820. Very great dissension prevailing
throughout the cast on this account, Constiintine, the emperor,
Avas requested to assemble a council representative of the whole
church, or ecumenical council, as it is expressed in the Greek
language. In concert with the Poj)e, Saint Sylvester, he there-
384 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
fore summoned a general council of all the bishops in the world
to fneet at Nice in Bithynia in the month of June, A. D. 325.
From every quarter of the known glol>e they assembled to the
number of three hundred and eighteen bishops, exclusive of priests,
deacons^ and acolytes. The travelling expenses of all who
attended were paid out of the public trejusury. This was really
the first great council of the universal church, the Council of
Jenisalem, presided over by Saint Peter, consisting of but a
few members, many of whom had seen the Saviour face to face.
The Pope was represented at the council by his legate Osius,
of Cordova, in Spain. Constantine was also present seated
upon a throne. Arius and the bishops who suj)poiled him
were heard in defence of their views, which were embodied
in a profession of faith drawn up by themselves and laid
before the assembled fathers. On a vote it was rejected by an
overwhelming majority. The belief of the great majority was
then expressed and formulated by the jmpal legate, at whose
dictation Hermogenes wrot<3 it.
This profession of faith, known as the Nicene Creed, has become
the received expression of Christian faith. It hius stood the test
of ages, and every generation of Christians have used as a solenni
act of faith that fonnula which Osius the legate read aloud in the
Greek tongue to the fathers of the Nicene Council. The creed
was signed by all the bishops present save two. The council
accordingly condemned them along with Arius, and anathematized
the hitter's writings. Constantine confirmed these decrees by
his authority which gave them the force of law throughout the
empire. This council also drew up several canons or rules of
discipline which were termed the Apostolic Canons. They
embody the whole canonical jurisprudence of the fourth century.
They may be briefly summarized thus: 1. The primacy of the
Roman Church. 2. Hierarchical authority of Patriarchs and
Metropolitans. 3. Election and consecration of bishops. 4.
Celibacy of clerics. 5. Rules for public penance in reconciling
heretics. 6. ^Ecclesiastical discipline relative to marriage.
Respecting the Church of Rome the canon of the council says :
"The primacy has always resided in the Church of Rome. Let
the ancient custom then be vigorously maintained in Egypt,
THEOOHAUV OB PKIESTLY OOVEHNMENT.
, ete."
,iith.iiit\-
of the Patriarclis is etate'l and
Libya, and Pentapolia sn tliat all pay tlie homage of »iibniiHsion to
the Bishop of Alexandria, for so the Roman Pontiff orders. Let
the same lie observed in res|jeet to tlie Bisliop of Aiitiocli, and bo
in all other province
The hieran'liieal
defined in the
thirty' -ninth of
the Apostolic
eanoiis. It is
entitled "Of the
Nidicitude and
}»ower of the
J'iitiiiircli over
the bishi»]>s and
aivlil.islK-iw of
his pati'iaivliate,
anil theprimaey
of the hishop oi
Home over iiU."'
and it pi-oceeds
to lay down the
rul(! of govern-
ment upon the
lines indicated
in the title. The
rules for the
ordination of
bishops;
l)riests, the ob-
servam-o of cler-
ieal celibaey,
the reeoneilia-
tion of heretii's,
and the prohibition of niiirvia^s within certiiin degrees of kindred,
and in other respects, were set foi-tliwith considenible iniiiiiteness,
all of which are easy of iwcess to the student who desires to study
them in their entirety.
From the Council of \iee, therefore, the <:hun:li came forth
s cxiuvEitsiojj.
386 THE STORY OF GOVKKNMENT.
consciou', of its power and mission, fully organized and equipped
for the warfare of time on the earth. The Christian theoci-acy
beeame visible hencefonvard to all men. Thirtv-seven years later
Julian, who has been termed tJie Apostate, was emi)eror. His
whole family had been murdered l)y his predecessor Constantius.
He endeavored to restore the woi-ship of the Pagan gods and over-
turn Christianity, and precipitated a bitter conflict with the Gali-
leans, as he derisively called the Christians. His proclamations
were disregarded by tlie latter when conflicting with their faith,
and they were prosecuted with the utmost rigor.
Julian even undertook to falsify the proi)hecy of Christ
relative to the temple of Jerusalem, that one stone should
not be left upon another, by rebuilding the temi)le. But
Ammianus Marcellinus, a Pagan historian, relates as a mat-
ter of fact that Julian's workmen were driven from the ruins
by Imlls of fii-e which issued from the earth, making it
impossible to carry on the work. Finally, to make himself
greatest of all the Ciesars, he proposed to conquer Persia, and
annex it to his gi*eat empire. On June 26, A. D. 'U)3, his army
was attacked by the Persians. Julian rode rapidly into the tight
without putting on his armor, when a javelin from an unknoAMi
hand pierced him through the body. Theodoret says that he flumn'
a handful of the blood issuing from his wound towards \\w
heavens crying out, "Cialilean, thou hast conquered." His death
soon followed and his anti-Christian edicts were immediate Iv
re])ealed by his successor.
The decline of tlie Roman Empire as a political entity dat<\s
from this period, that is, from the close of the fourtli centurv.
The Goths had some time previoiLsly swept down the nortliern
forests, crossed the Dainibe, defeated a lariifc Roman annv under
the walls of Adrianople, and lield possession of a great })art of the
northern poi-tion of what is now known as Turkey in Europe.
Tlie Huns and Alani, p(M)})les unknown to the first Ca'sai-s, came
rolling along like great tidal waves from tlie great plain of Tar-
taiy driving the Goths l)efore them. The country bonlering on
the Rhine and Da:inl)e was attacked by the Germanic tribes, the
Alemanni, tlie Franks, and Suevi ; the Pei-sians and Nemenians
were attacking the Roman posts along the Euphrates and the
THEOCRACY OB PEIESTLY GOVERNMENT.
887
Tigris. Saint Jerome writing at this time says: " The Roman
Empire is falling to jiieces."
In 451 Attila, the fierce king of the Huns, ^vho claimed the
official title of "The Sfnuiirp ^^ God," swept over Europe, bnisli-
ing the other trilios wli'i liad gone before from his way and
capturing the chief cities of Gaul which he gave u[i to pillage
388 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
and to the violence of his semi-savage soldiery. The two emperors
who claimed sovereignty over the empire, Valentinian and Theo-
dosius II., tried to negotiate with him by offering him the title
of General of the Empire with a large tribute which they would
pay him annually. The reply which he told his ambassadors to
give the emperors was, " Attila, our master and yours, orders you
to prepare him a palace."
This answer meant an invasion. The semi-barbarous invaders
who preceded him by lialf a century had been partially converted
to Christianity and, although independent of imperial authority,
8ome of them now made common cause with the imperial forces
against this awful scourge, who said of himself, "The star falls,
the earth trembles ; I am the hammer of the universe ; the grass
never grows where Attila's horse has once trod." The combined
armies of the Roman general jEtius and Theodoric, king of the
Visigoths, met the hosts of Attila on* the plain of Chalons, in
France, just outside of Orleans, in June. The two armies num-
l)ered about one million of men. It was probably the bloodiest
battle ever fought on earth. From sunrise until sunset the battle
raged at close quarters with battle-axe, sword and spear. Three
hundred thousand men lay dead, when the fight wa^i ended by the
retreat of Attila. Theodoric, the Visigoth king, fell in the conflict
which his valor and skill had contributed to win for the allies.
But the next year, 452, Attila appeared on the borders of Italy
with a larger army than that of the i)receding year, laying waste
the cities and towns on his march with fire and sword. He
destroyed the large and ancient cities of Padua, Vicenza, Verona,
Bresscia, Bergamo, Aquileia, Milan, and Pavia. He pushed on
amid the smoking ruins of the conquered cities direct for Rome,
but halted near Mantua, whose inhabitants fled in dismay to the
marshes where Venice now stands.
The last hour of the Roman Empire of the west seemed to have
struck. The Pontiff, Saint Leo I., appeared in the camp of the
barbarians. He was conducted to the tent of Attila, where he
came as the representative of the God of Peace. The two stood
face to face, one armed with the sword, the other with a crozier.
Attila w\as awed by the bearing and words of the great Pontiff, of
whose fame he had already heard. He heard with favor the propo-
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 889
sition of Saint Leo, and retraced his steps with his army across
the Danube, where he died suddenly the following year while
preparing for further devastation. Saint Leo on his return was
hailed as the savior of Rome, and the enthusiastic people bestowed
upon him the title of Great. A few years later and the Roman
Empire of the west was utterly extinguished. The various prov-
inces were parcelled out by barbarians whose very name was a
terror to the Roman i-ace, which was now everywhere oppressed
by the rude, uncouth and unlettered. conquerons. Tlie Church
alone stood between the victor and the vfinquished to affoi-d pro-
tection, mercy and peace. It was the only institution of the
empire which liad neither shared the overthrow nor been crushed
by its fall. The conquerora saw this; they were awed and
attracted by the pomp of its celebrations and ritual. The Chris-
tian religion, which these tril^es and nations embraced in the
course of time, gmdually tamed their native fieixjeness, but
tliis result of their converaion was slow and it required several
generations to develop. Clovis, the king of the Franks, one day
after his conversion, listening to the Bishop of Rheims reading to
him of the trial of Christ before Pilate and of his cinicifixion,
leaped to his feet and cried out with honest indignation : " Oh,
that I had been there with my Franks I "
With the greater part of the new converts it was the reluctant
work of years to give up their old habits, their violent and irrita-
ble temper, a passionate love of hunting and fighting, and a rude
contempt for the arts and sciences of the concjuered Romans whom
they now held as serfs, and over whom tliey claimed the right of
life and death. It wjis necessary to humanize them first and
Christianize them afterwards. The Church, therefore, labored to
do this work, and during the period embracing from the fifth to
the tenth centurj^ she saw nation after nation bow down reluc-
tantly to her authority; in far-off England St Austin converted
the Saxon king Ethelbert in 596, but the majority of the Hun-
garians were not converted until as late as the year 1000.
To protect the oppressed and to shield the peraecuted in those
days of turbulence and mncor, the privilege of church asylum was
established, which was, in effect, that the fugitive who succeeded
in reaching the precincts of the altar should not be attacked, but
388 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
and to the violence of his semi-savage soldiery. The two emperors
who claimed sovereignty over the empire, Valentinian and Theo-
dosius II., tried to negotiate with him by offering him the title
of General of the Empire with a large tribute wliich they would
pay him annually. The reply which he told his ambassadors to
give the emperors was, " Attila, our master and yours, orders you
to prepare him a palace."
This answer meant an invasion. The semi -barbarous invaders
who preceded him by half a century had been partially converted
to Christianity and, although independent of imperial authority,
some of them now made common cause with the imperial forces
against this awful scourge, who said of himself, " The star falls,
the earth trembles ; I am the hammer of the universe ; the grass
never grows where Attila*s horse has once trod." The combined
armies of the Roman general ^tius and Theodoric, king of the
Visigoths, met the hosts of Attila on" the plain of Clialons, in
France, just outside of Orleans, in June. The two armies num-
l)ered about one million of men. It was probably the bloodiest
battle ever fought on earth. From sunrise until sunset tlie battle
raged at close quarters with battle-axe, sword and spear. Three
hundred thousand men lay dead, when the fight wa^ ended by the
retreat of Attila. Theodoric, the Visigoth king, fell in the conflict
which his valor and skill had contributed to win for the allies.
But the next year, 452, Attila appeared on the borders of Italy
with a larger army than that of the preceding year, laying waste
the cities and towns on his march with fire and sword. He
destroyed the large and ancient cities of Padua, Vicenza, Verona,
Bresscia, Bergamo, Aquileia, Milan, and Pavia. He pushed on
amid the smoking ruins of the conquered cities direct for Rome,
but halted near Mantua, whose inhabitant's fled in dismay to the
marshes where Venice now stands.
The last hour of the Roman Empire of the west seemed to have
struck. The Pontiff, Saint Leo I., appeared in the camp of the
barbarians. He was conducted to the tent of Attila, where he
came as the representative of tlie God of Peace. The two stood
face to face, one armed with the sword, the other with a crozier.
Attila was awed by the bearing and words of the great Pontiff, of
whoi^iuil^^JlAiyitrii.^l''^'^* ^® heard with favor the propo-
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY 00\^ERNM£NT. 889
sition of Saint Leo, and retraced his steps with his army across
the Danube, where he died suddenly the following year while
preparing for further devastation. Saint Leo on his return 'was
hailed as the savior of Rome, and the enthusiastic people bestowed
upon him the title of Great. A few years later and the Roman
Empire of the west was utterly extinguished. The various prov-
inces were parcelled out by barbarians whose very name was a
terror to the Roman race, which was now everywhere oppressed
by the rude, uncouth and unlettered. conqueroi-s. The Church
alone stood between the victor and the vanquished to affoixl pro-
tection, mercy and peace. It was the only institution of the
empire which had neither shared tlie overthrow nor been crushed
by its fall. The conqueroi-s saw this; they were awed and
attracted by the pomp of its celebrations and ritual. The Chris-
tian religion, which these tribes and nations embraced in the
course of time, gmdually tamed their native fierceness, but
this result of their conversion was slow and it required several
generations to develop. Clovis, the king of the Franks, one day
after his conversion, listening to the Bisliop of Rheims reading to
him of the trial of Christ before Pilate and of his crucifixion,
leaped to his feet and cried out with honest indignation: "Oh,
that I had been there with my Franks I "
With the greater part of the new converts it was the reluctant
work of years to give up tlieir old habits, their violent and irrita-
ble temper, a passionate love of hunting and fighting, and a rude
contempt for the arts and sciences of the conquered Romans whom
they now held as serfs, and over whom they claimed the right of
life and death. It was necessary to humanize them first and
Christianize them afterwards. The Church, therefore, laliored to
do this work, and during the period enibmcing from the fifth to
the tenth centiuT she s«aw nation after nation lx)w down i-eluc-
tantly to her authority; in far-off England St Austin conveiled
the Saxon king Ethelbert in 596, but the majority of the Hun-
garians were not converted until as late as the year 1000.
To protect the oppressed and to shield the jiersecuted in those
days of turbulence and rancor, the privilege of church asylum was
established, which was, in effect, that the fugitive who succeeded
in reaching the precincts of the altar should not be attacked, but
390 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that judicial inquiry be made in the case, and the violation of this
decree was enforced by the penalty of excommunication, which
was a punishment of dire significance in those days.
Council after council of tlie Church framed laws to abridge and
curb the power of the feudal lord over liis serf. In a word the
Church was tlie only authority that was generally reverenced
during that age of iron.
* Christianity, or rather reverence for the C'hurcli, was the most
powerfully formative element of modern civilization. The ruler
learned from it some rude justice; tlie ruled lejirned faith and
obedience. Within the Benedictine monasteries learning found
a home, when the only books in use were written by the hands
of the monks on the skins of beiists.
On the dismemberment of the Roman Empire of the west,
Odeacer, the first barbarian king of Italy, claimed the right to
nominate the Pontiff, but the claim was not allowed. His suc-
cessor, Tlieodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, put forward a similar
claim with a like result. Other rulei-s from time to time
claimed this right, and when the German emperoi's l>ecame masters
of Rome they followed tlie same policy and sought the right, if
not to a})point the Pope, to confirm his election. The latter claim
was acquiesced in for a considerable time in the person of the
German emperor. Meanwhile the popes had Ijecome temporal
sovereigns in their own right. The country which they thus
ruled over was the city of Rome and some of the adjacent
territory. Many of the princes in those days invoked the aid of
the Pontiff to settle differences between them precisely as Leo
XIII., the present Pope, a few years ago was called on by Germany
and Spain to adjust a dispute about the Caroline Islands.
Many of these princes took the oath of fealty to the Pope and
became his feudal sul)jects as a prudential measure, because as
such they had a riglit to expect from him protection against for-
eign invasion or usurpation of their throne. They paid to him as
their suzerain a small annual offering, in retinn for which their
territory was declared under the protection of Saint Peter, after
which, if anyone recklessly invaded it upon being admonished
by the Pope, he was formally excommunicated.
This state of things may appear strange in the nineteenth cei>-
392 THE STOUV OK (JOVERXMENT.
tury, but it would be very unsafe to measure the situation of
Europe in the ninth century with the standard of the present day.
The two chief disturbing elements in the government of the
Church, up to the eleventh centurj^ were the exercise by some of
the temporal rulers of the investiture of bishops, and their efforts
by violence, intrigue and coiTuption to fill the papal chair with
creatures devoted to their interests. Tlie meaning of investiture
claimed chiefly by the emperoi-s of Germany was this : the emperor,
haWng richly endowed the bishoprics and abbeys, claimed tlie
right of naming the bishop or abl)ot, and investing him witli the
insignia of office.
Most of these offices, even if considered only from the worldly
standpoint, were of great importiince, as the glel)e lands, the serfs,
and the tithes were annexed to the office. The new incumbent,
on being invested by the emperor with the episcopal ring and
crozier, took the oath of fealty which required, among other things,
that he should join the standard of his liege lord with all his
anned retainers whenever called on to do so. In many instances
of appointments, therefore, more regard was given to the bishop's
military qualifications, or to the amount of money which he would
pay for the office, than for his knowledge of canon law or his good
morals. Men of most dissolute character among the clergy and
laymen, and even minors of wealthy fanuly, were often mach^
bishops in this way. Under a ruler of dcj)rave(l character it may
l)e reasonably inferred that all these api)ointments were given to
the highest bidder or greatest favorite, and that the inferior
clergy under such superioi*s Avere sunk in immorality and wicked-
ness. The popes claimed that appointing bishops in this way
was in direct opposition to the ancient canon law and custom of
the Church, which provided tliat the bishops of a province, or at
lea^st three of them, with the consent and approval of the Pontiff
should elect, thus securing to the Chinch the right of choosing her
own ministers iis well as perfect freedom in the exercise of that
right. The popes continually protested against the right of the
sovereigns to thus introduce the feudal law within the domain
of the Church, but the latter pei-sisted in these attempts until
the monk Ilihlebmnd, Gregory VII., in the eleventh century,
confronted the German emperor from the papal chair.
THEOCRACY OR PRDfiSTLY OOVRRKMBNT. 898
The other disturbing element to which reference has been made,
the intmsion of popes or anti-popes by the secular power through
violence, intrigue, or corruption, was equally as bad as the
simoniacal intrusion of bishops, and it led to scenes and scandals
in Rome which were a disgrace to Christendom. A few instances
of this secular interference will serve as illustrations. The
Count of Tusculum, whose tyranny had excited frequent otlt-
breaks in Italy, and whose territory was about twelve miles from
Rome, secured the election of his own son as Pope Benedict VIII.,
on July 20, 1012. He made a fairly good Pope, however, not-
withstanding the suspicious circumstances attending his elec-
tion. Immediately after his death his brother was elected as
Pope John XX., on July 9, 1024.
Some of the chronicles say he was a layman when elected,
and that some who voted for him were paid for doing so.
No serious char^^e has been made against himself personally.
On the death of John XX. his brother Alberic, Count of
Tusculum, who had a son ten or twelve years of age, con-
ceived the idea of placing this boy in the chair of Saint
Peter. In spite of the canons of the Church, which were express
in the matter, and notwithstanding the sacrilegious nature of the
act, he bought the accomplishment of his criminal design with
money, and the lx)y was elected Pope under the name of Benedict
IX., on December 9, 1033. It was hoped by the upright and
zealous bishops and the faithful generally that Conrad II.,
Emperor of Germany, would exercise in this case the right of
non- confirmation for which he and his predecessors had so strongly
contended with preceding popes. But he would not interfere, for
he was engaged himself in selling bishoprics to the highest bidder,
young or old, lay or cleric.
This boy Pope grew up a depraved wretch, a miserable, wicked
and brazen sinner; but his authority as Pope was acknowledged
and respected by all Christendom, even by those who most loudly
denounced his pei-sonal conduct. Saint Peter Damian, who was a
contemporary, called him "the poisonous viper of the Church.'*
Darras, a Roman Catholic writer, apologizing for this blot on
the papacy, says: "It is doubtless a part of the divine scheme
which gpiides the destinies of the world that the Church should
m
894 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
more clearly prove the divinity of its foundation and preservation
through all ages by meeting at times the deadliest shocks, by
resisting even the unworthiness of its head."
The extent to which simony was carried on may be judged
from the fact that when Leo IX. became Pope, about a year after
the retirement of the wretched Benedict IX., he aimounced that
he would suspend from ecclesiastical functions all whom he found
tainted with the sin, but the declaration drew protests from, all
the Italian bishops who assured him that if he carried his threat
into execution the pastoral ministry must by the very fact cease
in most churches. He contented himself, therefore, with permit-
ting them to continue in the ministry after j^)erforming public
penance. This Pontiff appears to have been an exemplary man,
and indefatigable in trying to reform the clergy and enforce
salutary discipline as laid down by the law of the Church. Nine-
teen years after the death of Leo IX. the pontifical chair was
vacant by the death of Nicholas II. A cardinal was despatched
to the German court to consult the young prince, Henry IV.,
who was then a minor in the hands of a faction, in reference to the
election of a pope ; but the courtiers would not permit Cardinal
Etienne to have access to tlie prince. On Cardinal Etienne's
return the archdeacon Hildebrand assembled the electors, who
immediately elected Alexander II.
As this election substantially opened the great struggle between
Henry IV. of Germany and Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory
VII., a few words are necessary by way of preface to a brief state-
ment of the facts of their contest. Many writers ^ in discussing
the quarrel between this emperor and pope have condemned
Hildebrand lus an ambitious monk who attempted to rule Chris-
tendom in tlie temporal as well as in the spiritual sphere, while
many other writers, including, of coui-se, all who accept the faith
of the papacy, laud the Pontiff in highly eulogistic terms and
denounce his imperial antagonist.
Pope Alexander II. was elected without the concurrence of the
1 Tlie fact8 {^iven in these pages are taken from a very exhaustive and apparently impar-
tial work in two volumes by ProfeftHor J. Voigt, of the University of Halle, Germany, en-
titled, " History of Pope Grcijory VII. ami of his age, from original documents.*' Professor
Voigt is a Protestant, but is evidently unbiassed, and he quotes directly from original manu-
j»cripts which he has carefully examined.
\
388 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
and to the violence of his semi-savage soldiery. The two emperors
who claimed sovereignty over the empire, Valentinian and Theo-
dosius II., tried to negotiate with him by offering him the title
of General of the Empire with a large tribute Avhich they wouhl
pay him annually. The reply which he told liis ambassadors to
give the emperors was, *' Attila, our master and yours, orders you
to prepare him a palace."
This answer meant an invasion. The semi-l)arbiirous invaders
who preceded him by half a century had been partially converted
to Christianity and, although independent of imperial authority,
8ome of them now made common cause with the imperial forces
against this awful scourge, who said of himself, "The star falls,
the earth trembles ; I am the hammer of the imivei-se ; the grass
never grows where Attila's horse has once trod." The combined
armies of the Roman general ^Etius and Theodoric, king of the
Visigoths, met the hosts of Attila on* the plain of Chalons, in
France, just outside of Orleans, in June. Tlie two armies num-
bered about one million of men. It was prolmbly the bloodiest
battle ever fought on earth. From sunrise until sunset the Imttle
raged at close quarters with battle-axe, sword and spear. Three
hundred thousand men lay dead, when the fight was ended by the
retreat of Attila. Theodoric, the Visigoth king, fell in the conflict
which his valor and skill had contributed to win for the allies.
But the next year, 452, Attila appeared on tlie bordei-s of Italy
with a larger army than that of the i)receding year, laying wasto
the cities and towns on his march with fire and sword. He
destroyed the large and ancient cities of Padua, Vicenza, Verona,
Bresscia, Bergamo, Aquileia, Milan, and Pavia. He puslied on
amid the smoking ruins of tlie conquered cities direct for Home,
but halted near Mantua, whose inhabitants fled in dismay to the
marshes where Venice now stands.
The last hour of the Roman Empire of the west seemed to have
struck. The Pontiff, Saint Leo I., appeared in the camp of the
barbarians. He was conducted to the tent of Attila, where he
came as the representative of the God of Peace. The two stood
face to face, one armed with the sword, the other with a crozier.
Attila was awed by the bearing and words of the great Pontiff, of
whose fame he had already heard. He heard with favor the propo-
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY OOVERKMENT. 889
sition of Saint Leo, and retraced his steps with his aimy across
the Danube, where he died suddenly the following year while
preparing for further devastation. Saint Leo on his retum'was
hailed as the savior of Rome, and the enthusiastic people bestowed
upon him the title of Great. A few years later and the Roman
Empire of the west was utterly extinguished. The various prov-
inces were parcelled out by barbarians whose very name was a
terror to the Roman race, which was now everywhere oppressed
by the rude, uncouth and unlettered .conqueroi's. Tlie Church
alone stood between the victor and the vanquished to afford pi*o-
tection, mercy and peace. It was the only institution of the
empire which had neither shared the overthrow nor lieen crushed
by its fall. The conqueroi's saw this ; they were awed and
attnutted by the pomp of its celebrations and ritual. The Chris-
tian religion, which these tribes and nations embraced in the
course of time, gi-adually tamed their native fierceness, but
this result of their conversion was slow and it required several
generations to develop. Clovis, the king of the Franks, one day
after his conversion, listening to the Bishop of Rheims reading to
him of the trial of Christ before Pilate and of his crucifixion,
leaped to his feet and cried out with honest indignation: "Oh,
that I had been there with my Franks I "
With the greater part of the new converts it was the reluctant
work of years to give up their old habits, their violent and irrita-
ble temper, a passionate love of hunting and fighting, and a rude
contempt for the arts and sciences of the conquered Romans whom
they now held as serfs, and over whom they claimed the right of
life and death. It wfis necessary to humanize them firet and
Christianize them afterwards. The Church, therefore, labored to
do this work, and during the period embmcing from the fifth to
the tenth centur}' she saw nation after nation lx)w down reluc-
tantly to her authority; in far-off England St Austin converted
the Saxon king Ethelbeit in 596, but the majority of the Hun-
garians were not converted until Jis late as the year 1000.
To protect the oppressed and to shield the persecuted in those
days of turbulence and luncor, the privilege of church asylum was
established, which was, in effect, that the fugitive who succeeded
in reaching the precincts of the altar should not be attacked, but
390 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that judicial inquiry be made in the case, and the violation of this
decree was enforced by the penalty of excommunication, which
was a punishment of dire significance in those days.
Council after council of the Church framed laws to abridge and
curb the power of the feudal lord over his serf. In a word the
Church WiOs the only authority tliat was generally reverenced
during that age of iron.
* Christianity, or rather reverence for tlie Church, was the most
powerfully formative element of modern civilization. The ruler
learned from it some rude justice; the ruled learned faith and
obedience. Within the Benedictine monasteries learning found
a home, when the only books in use were written by the hands
of the monks on the skins of bciusts.
On the dismemberment of the Roman Empire of the w^st,
Odeacer, the first barbarian king of Italy, claimed the right to
nominate the Pontiff, but the claim was not allowed. His suc-
cessor, Tlieodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, put forward a similar
claim with a like result. Other rulei-s from time to time
claimed this right, and when the German em})er()i's l)ecame masters
of Rome they followed the same policy and sought the riglit, if
not to ai)point the Pope, to confirm liis election. The latter claim
was acquiesced in for a considerable time in tlie person of the
German emperor. Meanwhile the popes had bei'ome temporal
sovereigns in their own right. The country which they thus
ruled over was the city of Rome and some of the adjacent
territory. Many of the princes in those days invoked the aid of
the Pontiff to settle differences between them precisely as Leo
XI II., the present Pope, a few years ago was called on by Germany
and Spain to adjust a dispute about the ('aroline Islands.
Many of these princes took the oath of fealty to the Pope and
became his ftnidal sul)jects as a prudential measure, because as
such they had a right to expect from him protection against for-
eign invasion or usurpation of their throne. They paid to him as
their suzerain a small annual offering, in return for which their
territory \vas declared under the protection of Saint Peter, after
which, if anyone recklessly invaded it upon being admonished
by the Pope, he was formally excommunicated.
This state of things may appear strange in the nineteenth cei>-
CUKISTI ANITA'. 301
392 THE STOUY OF GOVERNMENT.
tury, but it would be veiy unsafe to measure the situation of
Eurojie in the ninth century with the standard of the present day.
The two chief disturbing elements in tlie government of the
Church, up to the eleventh centurj', wei*e the exercise by some of
the temporal rulers of the investiture of bishops, and their eflfoi-ts
by violence, intrigue and coiTuption to fill the papal cliair witli
creatures devoted to their interests. The meaning of investiture
claimed chiefly by the emperoi-s of Germany was this : the em[)en)r,
having richly endowed the bislioprics and abbeys, claimed tlie
right of Ucaming the bishop or abbot, and investing him witli the
insignia of office.
Most of these offices, even if considered only from the worldlv
standpoint, were of great importance, as the glelx3 lands, the serfs,
and the tithes were annexed to the office. The new incumbent,
on being invested by the emperor with the episcopal ring .and
crozier, took the oath of fealty which required, among other things,
that he should join the standard of his liege lord with all his
anued retainei"s whenever called on to do so. In many instances
of appointments, therefore, more regaixl was given to the bishop's
military qualifications, or to the amount of money which he would
pay for the office, than for his knowledge of canon law or his good
morals. Men of most dissolute character among the clergy and
laymen, and even minors of wealthy fiiniily, were often niadt^
bishops in this way. Under a ruler of dcj)nived chanicter it may
l>e reasonabh' inferred that all these appointments were given to
tlie highest bidder or greatest favorite, and that the inferior
clergy under such superioi-s Avere sunk in immorality and wicked-
ness. The popes claimed that appointing bisliops in this way
was in direct opposition to the ancient canon law and custom of
the Church, which provided tliat the bishops of a province, or at
least three of them, with the consent and ap[)roval of the Pontiff
should elect, thus securing to the Church the right of choosing her
own ministei*s Jis well as perfect freedom in the exercise of that
right. The popes continually protested against the right of the
sovereimis to thus introduce the feudal law Avithin the domain
of the Church, but the latter pei-sisted in these attempts until
the monk Ilildebrand, Gregory VII., in the eleventh century,
confronted the German emperor from the papal chair.
THBOORACY OB PREBSTLT GOVEftlTMBNT. 898
The other disturbing element to which reference has been made,
the intrusion of popes or anti-popes by the secular power through
violence, intrigue, or corruption, was equally as bad as the
simoniacal intrusion of bishops, and it led to scenes and scandals
in Rome which were a disgrace to Christendom. A few instances
of this secular interference will serve as illustrations. The
Count of Tusculum, whose tyranny had excited frequent oilt-
breaks in Italy, and whose territory was about twelve miles from
Rome, secured the election of his own son as Pope Benedict VIII.,
on July 20, 1012. He made a fairly good Pope, however, not-
withstanding the suspicious circumstances attending his elec-
tion. Immediately after his death his brother was elected as
Pope John XX., on July 9, 1024.
Some of the chronicles say he was a layman when elected,
and that some who voted for him were paid for doing so.
No serious charge has been made against Iiimself personally.
On the death of John XX. his brother Allieric, Count of
Tusculum, who had a son ten or twelve years of age, con-
ceived the idea of placing this boy in the chair of Saint
Peter. In spite of the canons of the Church, which were express
in the matter, and notwithstanding the sacrilegious nature of the
act, he bought the accomplishment of his criminal design with
money, and the boy was elected Pope under the name of Benedict
IX., on December 9, 1033. It was hoped by the upright and
zealous bishops and the faithful generally that Conrad II.,
Emperor of Germany, would exercise in this case the right of
non- confirmation for which he and his predecessors had so strongly
contended with preceding popes. But he would not interfere, for
he was engaged himself in selling bishoprics to the highest bidder,
yoimg or old, lay or cleric.
This boy Pope grew up a depraved wretch, a miserable, wicked
and brazen sinner; but his authority as Pope was acknowledged
and respected by all Christendom, even by those who most loudly
denounced his pei'sonal conduct. Saint Peter Damian, who was a
contemporary, called him "the poisonous viper of the Church.'*
Darras, a Roman Catholic writer, apologizing for this blot on
the papacy, says: "It is doubtless a part of the divine scheme
which gpiides the destinies of the world that the Church should
894 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
more clearly prove the divinity of its foundation and preservation
through all ages by meeting at times the deadliest shocks, by
resisting even the unworthiness of its head."
The extent to which simony was carried on may be judged
from the fact tliat when Leo IX. became Pope, about a year after
the retirement of the wretched Benedict IX., he announced that
he would suspend from ecclesiastical functions all whom he found
tainted with the sin, but the declaration drew protests from, all
the Italian bishops who assured him that if he carried his threat
into execution the pastoral ministry must by the very fact cease
in most churches. He contented himself, therefore, with permit-
ting them to continue in the ministry after j^)erforming public
penance. This Pontiff appears to have been an exemplary man,
and indefatigable in trying to reform the clergy and enforce
salutary discipline as laid do^vn by the law of the Church. Nine-
teen years after the death of Leo IX. the pontifical chair was
vacant by the death of Nicholas II. A cardinal was despatched
to the German court to consult the young prince, Henry IV.,
who was then a minor in the hands of a faction, in reference to the
election of a pope ; but the courtiers would not permit Cardinal
Etienne to have access to the prince. On Cardinal Etienne's
return the archdeacon Hildebrand assembled the electors, who
immediately elected Alexander II.
As this election substantially opened the great struggle between
Henry IV. of Germany and Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory
VII., a few words are necessary by way of preface to a brief state-
ment of the facts of their contest. Many writers ^ in discussing
the quarrel between this emperor and pope have condemned
Hildebrand as an ambitious monk who attempted to rule Chris-
tendom in tlie temporal as well as in the spiritual sphere, while
many other writers, including, of course, all who accept the faith
of the papacy, laud the Pontiff in highly eulogistic terms and
denounce his imperial antagonist.
Pope Alexander II. was elected without the concurrence of the
1 Tlie factH given in these pages are taken from a very exhaustive and apparently impar-
tial work in two volumes by Professor J. Voigt, of the University of Halle, Germany, en-
titled, "History of Pope (iregory VII. and of his age, from original documents." Professor
Voigt is a Protestant, but is evidently unbiassed, and he quotes directly from original manu-
floripts which he lias carefully examined.
^rk Fiibl^
©
'^).
^ ST. A6M£S BSAHCH. *^
' THEOCRACY OB PBIB8TLY GOVEBNMBNT. 899
empeior, a. d. 1061. The latter, indeed, was only a boy about
ten years of age, but a certain faction of his court governed in '
his name. His chancellor, Guibert of Parma, sold abbacies and
bishoprics whenever a vacancy occurred, and grew rich through
these sales. When the news of the Pope's election reached
Henry he formally declared it null and void, and nominated a
bishop of Parma, notorious for his simoniacal irregularities, as an
anti-Pope under the name of Honorius II. The latter, backed up
by an army, marched on Rome to assert his claim, but was
repulsed by the citizens, aided by Godfrey, Duke of Tuscany.
After making some further trouble the anti-Pope died. Some
years later when Henry IV. was but eighteen years of agfe he
showed a most flagi-ant wickedness. He was already a heartless
debauchee who hesitated at nothing, not even assassination, to
accomplish his foul purposes. He was married to the Italian
Princess Bertha when she was fifteen years old, but he put her
away in a year after their man-iage.
This public act aroused deep indignation in Italy and in
Germany also. On the request of the Archbishop of Mentz,
Germany, the Pope, Alexander II., was asked to investigate
the matter, which he did by sending Saint Peter Damian to
Henry's court. After Damian made a judicial examination
into the matter, he told Henry that his conduct was un-
worthy not only of a prince but of a Christian. "If you
despise the authority of the holy canons, have some regard, at
least, for your reputation," said the papal legate, and to Heniy*s
half-apologetic and sullenly given explanations he finally replied:
"If you resist this advice dictated by reason and faith, the sover-
eign Pontiff will find himself compelled to use the thunders of
the Church against you, and \vill never consent to crown you
emperor."
It should be understood that the German emperors up to this
time had been crowned by the Pope. Henry had not been
crowned, hence he was simply king and emperor-elect. The
young monarch quailed at Damian's threat and promised to
reform; still his general conduct and morality were in no way
improved, but quite to the contrary. As fast as a vacancy
occurred among the prelates of the empire, he filled it with one
400 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of his creatures, in many instances with notoriously immoial
men. Pope Alexander II. died on April 21, 1073, and Hilde-
hrand was elected on the following day, taking as his official
name Gregory VII. The latter was the son of a Roman carpen-
ter, became a monk of the monastery of Cluny, and was the
preceptor in early boyhood of Henry IV. It was a singular coin-
cidence in the lives of these two men that they should first meet
as master and pupil, and after^vards as antagonists in the bitterest
struggle which ever took place between the Pope and any tem-
poral sovereign.
Hildebrand's election was enthusiastically received by the citi-
zens of Rome, who knew him well, and it was applauded by all
that was sound in the Christian hierarchy throughout the world.
Immediately after his election, which it is alleged was forced
upon him, he, designating himself as Pope-elect, despatched a
delegation to Henry IV., requesting him to refuse his sanction to the
election. In a letter which he sent by the delegates to the emperor
the following passage was written : " Should you approve the choice
made in my person, I must warn you that I shall not pass over the
scandalous disorders of which all good men accuse you."
The German bishops advised Henry to refuse consent, which
he was quite willing to withhold, but he was afniid to arouse
the hostility of all that was pure and true in the Christian
world, to whom the fame of Hildebrand, the monk, was not
unknown. He, therefore, reluctantly confirmed the choice of the
electors. The first act of the new Pontiff was dii-ected against
the scandals of the priesthood. A decree was issued against all
priests who had bought their offices or who ])rofaned them by
looseness of conduct.
Priests were to be immediately deposed who i*efused to reform
their lives, and the people were commanded to refuse to assist at
the masses or other services of the rebel priests or to receive the
sacraments from them. A stonn of protestations from all sides
was heard in response to the dcHTee. The bishops of Germany,
France, Italy, and other countries alleged that a great many
churches must be closed if it was enforced, tliat it was dangerous
to forbid the laity to receive sacraments from loosely living
priests, as it would make laymen judges in ecclesiastical mattera.
400 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of his creatures, in many instances with notoriously immoral
men. Pope Alexander II. died on April 21, 1073, and Hilde-
brand was elected on the following day, taking as his official
name Gregory VII. The latter was the son of a Roman carpen-
ter, became a monk of the monastery of Cluny, and was the
preceptor in early boyhood of Henry IV. It was a singular coin-
cidence in the lives of these two men that they should first meet
as master and pupil, and aftersvards as antagonists in the bitterest
struggle which ever took place between the Pope and any tem-
poral sovereign.
Hildebrand's election was enthusiastically received by the citi-
zens of Rome, who knew him well, and it was applauded by all
that was sound in the Christian hierarchy throughout the world.
Immediately after his election, which it is alleged was forced
upon him, he, designating himself as Pope-elect, despatched a
delegation to Henry IV., requesting him to refuse his sanction to the
election. In a letter which he sent by the delegates to the emperor
the following passage was written : " Should you approve the choice
made in my person, I must warn you that I shall not pass over the
scandalous disorders of which all good men accuse you."
The German bishops advised Henry to refuse consent, which
he was quite willing to withhold, but he was afraid to arouse
the hostility of all that was pure and true in the Christian
world, to whom the fame of Hildebrand, the monk, was not
unknown. He, therefore, reluctantly confirmed the choice of the
electors. The first act of the new Pontiff was directed against
the scandals of the priesthood. A decree was issued against all
priests who had bought their offices or who profaned them by
looseness of conduct.
Priests were to be immediately deposed who refused to reform
their lives, and the people were commanded to refuse to assist at
the masses or other services of the rebel priests or to receive the
sacraments from tliein. A storm of protestations from all sides
was heard in response to the decree. The bishops of Germany,
France, Italy, and other coiintries alleged that a great many
churches must be closed if it was enforced, tliat it was dangerous
to forbid the laity to receive sacraments from loosely living
priests, as it would make laymen judges in ecclesiastical matters.
402 THE STOKY OF GO\^RNMENT.
and it seemed to imply that the efficiency of tlie sacrament was in
measure dependent on the worthiness of the priest. Others pro-
tested upon less plausible and more unworthy grounds, showing
the depth of demoralization and depravity to which the ministry
had fallen.
But the iron will of Gregory intensified as the opposition
increased. He sent copies of the decree to all the sovereigns,
urging them to carry it into effect. A few complied, the
many refused. The bishops of France and Germany rejected
the decree altogether, and refused to obey it. Gregory called
a coimcil in Rome (A. D. 1075) when he issued a second decree:
"Forbidding any layman of whatsoever rank, whether emperor,
marquis, prince, or king to confer the investiture; and any cleric,
priest, or bishop to receive it for benefices, abbacies, bishoprics,
and ecclesiastical dignities of whatsoever nature. No one may
keep the government of a church bought for money by a simoni-
acal traflBc. Incontinent clerics are suspended from the exercise
of all ecclesiastical functions. No priest shall contract a matri-
monial alliance. He who already has a wife shall put her away
under pain of deposition. No one can be raised to the priesthood,
unless he first promise to observe perpetual continence. The
faithful should not assist at the offices celebrated by a cleric
whom they see trampling upon the apostolic decrees."
The new decree aroused the wrath of princes and prelates in
many countries. Henry IV. and the bishops of Germany publicly
denounced it and its author. Its promulgation in many German
cities led to riotous mobs headed by disgraceful clergymen. The
Pope, writing after its issuance to one of his brother monks,
Hugh of Cluny, says: "Whether I turn to the west, to the south,
or to the north, I see scarce a single bishop who has reached the
episcopate by canonical means, and who governs his flock in a
spirit of charity. As for the secular rulers, I know not one who
prefers the glory of God to his own, or who sets justice above
interest. The Lombards and Normans among whom I dwell I
often reproach with being woi-se than Jews or heathen. Had I no
hope of a better life hereafter, or no prospect of serving the Church
here, God is my witness that I would not dwell another hour in
Rome, where I have been chained for the last twenty years. TIius
: ST. AGHtS UK(\W, t\\
404 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
divided between a grief which is daily renewed and a hope, alas I
too distant, I am beaten by a thousand fierce storms, and my life
is but one lengthened agony/'
In the meantime a formidable insurrection had broken out in
Saxony because of the enormous taxes levied upon the people by
the emperor. After a number of bloody battles the insurgents
were defeated and large numbers were put to death for engaging
in it. At its close it is alleged that Henry instigated Guibert,
his chancellor, who was the simoniacal archbishop of Ravenna, to
seize the pontiff, imprison him, and procure the election of
another in his place who would pay deference to the emperor's
wishes. The attempt to carry out this scheme was partially suc-
cessful. One of the Cenci, son of a former prefect of Rome, with
a band of armed men burst into the Church of Saint Mary-Major
on Christmas night (A. D. 1075), and dragged the Pope from the
altar where he was celebrating the midnight mass, and amid the
groans and shrieks of the horror-stricken worshippers carried him
off to a stronghold of the Cenci. They hoped to remove him from
the city before daylight and bring him a prisoner to Germany,
but the manhood of Rome had the tower of the Cenci suirounded
within a few hours after the seizure. They threatened to
storm the place and put to death Cenci and every member of
his band.
The captor begged his prisoner to save his life from the maddened
multitude, who were getting the scaling ladders in readiness to
begin the assault. The Pope secured the lives of his captors,
and was then borne to the Church from which he had been carried,
where he continued the celebration which had been so rudely
interrupted. Gregory on the very next day, December 26, wrote
to Henry, saying, "We are astonished at the unfriendly bearing
of your acts and decrees toward the Apostolic See. You have
continued' in contempt of our rescripts to bestow investitures for
vacant bishoprics. We would remind you in true fatherly affec-
tion to acknowledge the empire of Christ, to think of the danger
of preferring your own honor to II is."
Henry made answer by calling a council of the German bishops
at Worms. A formal accusation against the Pope was laid
re this council in whicli he was charged witli many infamous
THEOO&AOY OB PBIE6TLY GOVERNMENT. 406
crimes, one of which was that he had hired assassins to kill Heniy
IV. He was denounced as ^^a heretic, an adulterer, a ferocious
and blood-thirsty beast." The council at the close of a three days
session deposed the Pope, which sentence was signed by the king
and all the bishops in attendance. A messenger was sent from
the emperor to Rome with two letters, one for presentation to the
Pope, and the other for the Roman people. The letter to the
Pope ran thus : —
" Henry, by the grace of God, King, to Hildebrand. Whereas I
expected from you the treatment of a father, I liave learned that you
act as my worst enemy. You have robbed me of the highest marks of
respect due from your See ; you have tried to estrange the hearts of
my Italian subjects. To check this boldness, not by words but by
deeds, I liave called together the lords and bishops of my states. The
council has received ample proofs, as you will see by the enclosed aots^
that you are utterly unworthy any longer to occupy the Holy See. J
have agreed to this sentence. I cease to look upon you as Sovereign
Pontiff, and in virtue of my rank of Roman patrician I command you
to quit the See forthwith."
The two letters were read by the imperial messenger before an
assembly of tlie Roman clergy and nobility over which the Pojx?
presided. The assembly desired to proceed at once to depose the
emperor in the presence of his messenger, but Gregory suggested
tliat they adjourn until the next day. Before adjourning, address-
ing the bishops specially, he said : " We must display the sim-
plicity of the dove as well as the prudence of the serpent."
On the following day he addressed the assembly,, reciting
endeavors wliich he had made to induce Henry to obey the laws
of the Church, and referred with powerful eloquence to the
demoralized condition of the world, owing chiefly to the bad men
who had been introduced into the Episcopal seats by temporal
sovereigns against the continued protests of the pontiffs.
The bishops of the assembly arose and unanimously requested that
Henry be excommimicated for malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfea-
sance, as a public and notorious corrupter of morals, and contemner
and violator of the Ib.\vs of the Christian Church which he had sworn
to obey. The decisive battle of spiritual service reform in Chris-
THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
tendom had begun.
Gregory VII. then arose
and pronounced the fa-
mous sentence of excom-
munication and de[>03i-
tion as follows: —
" St. Peter, prince of the
Apostles, hear thy servant.
I caU thee to witness, thou
and the most holy mother
of God, with St. Paul, thy
brother and all the saints,
that the Chnrch of Rome
compelled me in spite of
myself to rule. In the
name of Almighty God,
Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, and by thy author-
ity, I forbid Henry to
govern the German realm
and Italy. I release all
Christians from the oath
by which they have bound
themselves to him, and I
forbid anyone to serve bim
aa King, Sioce he has
refused to obey as a Chris-
tian, rejecting the counsels
given him for his salvation,
and withdrawing from the
Church which he seeks to
rend I hereby declare him
anathema that all nations
may know even by experi-
ence that thou art Peter,
and that upon this rock
the Son of the Living
God has built his Chorch
against which the gsteg of
ricEU OF THB TAi'Ai. uuusKiioLD. hell shall never prevail."
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 407
A pontifical bull notified the Christian world of the sentence
passed u{K)n Heniy, the news of which created a tremendous
sensation. Germany was divided into two hostile camps, one
papal, the other anti-papal. An assembly of the German bishops
and nobles met near Mentz to consider the situation. Gregory
was represented by two legates. It was determined, in a session
that lasted seven days, to elect a new ruler instead of Henry,
and that unless *' within the space of a year he had obtained
absolution from the sentence of excommunication and deposition
weighing upon him, he should Ik? considered finally deposed from
the throne." And he must disband his army and cease exercising
sovereign authority until he had obtained absolution from the
Pope. Henry consented to the terms and hastened to meet the
Pope at the castle of Canossa in northern Italy. lie put oflf every
insignia of royalty from his person and dressed as a penitent,
barefooted and bareheaded, awaited for the space of three days, from
the 17th to the 20th of January, the Pope's judgment. Prostrate
at the Pope's feet he cried out, " Forgive, most Holy Father, in
your mercy forgive me." Gregory pronounced him absolved, and
reinstated as ruler of the German Empire, and in a bull announced
to the Christian world that Henry was released from his censures.
But Henry was evidently acting the part of a hypocrite. In
a few weeks later he sent a force of men-at-arms into Lombardy
to capture the Pope, which failed through the project leaking
out. Determined not to l)e foiled, and gathering around him
all the simoniacal bishops and their retainers, and the nobles
who disregarded church authority, he proposed to dictate terms to
all his opponents. The German nobles who refused to follow
him met and elected Rudolph, Duke of Suabia, as " the lawful
king of Germany, and defender of the empire of the Franks." In
the civil war which followed Henry was victorious.
Agiiin he was excommunicated and deposed by Gregory', to which
sentence he i-eplied by calling a convocation of the simoniacal
bishops whom he had appointed. These bishops said : " In a council
of twenty-nire bishops we have resolved to depose, expel, and — if
he refuse to obey our injiuiction — to devote to eternal perdition
Hildebrand, the corrupt man who counsels the plunder of churches
and assassination, who defends perjury and murder; Hildebrand,
THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
AK OVFKBa OF TUE PAPAL IIOUHKUOIJ).
tendom li n d begun.
Gregory VII. then arose
and pronounced the fa-
nions sentence of excom-
munication and deposi-
tion as follows : —
"St. Peter, prince of the
Apostles, hear thy servant.
I call thee to witness, thou
and the most holy mother
of God, with St. Pan], thy
brother and all the saints,
that the Chnrch of Itomc
compelled me in spite of
myself to rule. Id the
name of Almighty God,
Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, and by thy author-
ity, I forbid Henry to
govern the German realm
and Italy. I release all
Christiana from the oath
by which they have bound
themselves to Mm, and I
forbid anyone to serve iiira
as King. Since he has
refused to obey as a Chris-
tian, rejecting the counsels
gi\ en him for his salvation,
and withdrawing from the
Church which he seeks to
rend, I hereby declare him
anathema that all nations
may know even by experi-
ence that thou art Peter,
and that upon thia rock
the Son of the Living
God has built his Chnrch
against which the gatea of
hell shall never prevail."
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 407
A pontifical bull notified the Christian world of the sentence
passed ui)on Henry, the news of which created a tremendous
sensation. Germany was divided into two hostile camps, one
papal, the other anti-pa])al. An assembly of the German bishops
and nobles met near Mentz to consider the situation. Gregory
was represented by two legates. It was determined, in a session
that lasted seven days, to elect a new ruler instead of Henry,
and that unless "within the space of a year he had obtained
absolution from the sentence of excommunication and deposition
weighing upon him, he should Ije considered finally deposed from
the throne." And he must disband his army and cease exercising
sovereign authority until he luul obtained alwolution from the
Pope. Heiu-y consented to the terms and hastened to meet the
Pope at the castle of Canossa in northern Italy. He put off every
insignia of royalty from his person and dressed as a penitent,
barefooted and bareheaded, awaited for the sj^ace of three days, from
the 17th to the 20th of January, the Pope's judgment. Prostrate
at the Pope's feet he cried out, "Forgive, most Holy Father, in
your mercy forgive me." Gregory pronounced him absolved, and
reinstated as ruler of the German Empire, and in a bull announced
to the Christian world that Henrj' was released from his censures.
But Henry was evidently acting the part of a hj^^ocrite. In
a few weeks later he sent a force of men-at-arms into Lombardy
to capture the Pope, which failed through the project leaking
out. Determined not to 1x3 foiled, and gathering around liim
all the simoniacal bishops and their retainers, and the nobles
who disregarded church authority, he proposed to dictate terms to
all his opponents. The German nobles who refused to follow
him met and elected Rudolph, Duke of Suabia, as "the lawful
king of Germany, and defender of the empire of the Franks." In
the civil war which followed Ilenrj' was victorious.
Again he was excommunicated and deposed by Gregoiy, to which
sentence he replied by calling a convocation of the simoniacal
bishops whom he had appointed. These bishops said : " In a council
of twenty-nire bishoj)s we have resolved to depose, expel, and — if
he refuse to obey our injunction — to devote to eternal perdition
Hildebrand, the corrupt man who counsels the plunder of churches
and assassination, who defends perjury and murder; Hildebrand,
-sori* ''I'blo^
o
'«.
^THEOCRACY OB PBIESTLY GOVEBNMBNT. 899
emperor, a. d. 1061. The latter, indeed, was only a boy about
ten years of age, but a certain faction of his court governed in '
his name. His chancellor, Guibert of Panna, sold abbacies and
bishoprics whenever a vacancy occurred, and grew rich through
these sales. When the news of the Pope's election reached
Henry he formally declared it null and void, and nominated a
bishop of Parma, notorious for his simoniacal irregularities, as an
anti-Pope under the name of Honorius II. The latter, backed up
by an army, marched on Rome to assert his claim, but was
repulsed by the citizens, aided by Godfrey, Duke of Tuscany.
After making some further trouble the anti-Pope died. Some
years later when Henry IV. was but eighteen years of age he
showed a most flagrant wickedness. He was already a heartless
debauchee who hesitated at nothing, not even assassination, to
accomplish his foul purposes. He was married to the Italian
Princess Bertha when she was fifteen years old, but he put her
away in a year after their marriage.
This public act aroused deep indignation in Italy and in
Germany also. On the request of the Archbishop of Mentz,
Germany, the Pope, Alexander II., was asked to investigate
the matter, which he did by sending Saint Peter Damian to
Henry's court. After Damian made a judicial examination
into the matter, he told Henry that his conduct was un-
worthy not only of a prince but of a Christian. "If you
despise the authority of the holy canons, have some regard, at
least, for your reputation,** said the papal legate, and to Heniy's
half-apologetic and sullenly given explanations he finally replied:
*' If you resist this advice dictated by reason and faith, the sover-
eign Pontiff will find himself compelled to use the thunders of
the Church against you, and will never consent to crown you
emperor.'*
It should be understood that the German emperors up to this
time had been crowned by the Pope. Henry had not been
crowned, hence he was simply king and emperor-elect. The
young monarch quailed at Damian's threat and promised to
reform; still his general conduct and morality were in no way
impi-oved, but quite to the contrary. As fast as a vacancy
occurred among the prelates of the empire, he filled it with one
392 THE STOUY OF GOVERNMENT.
tury, but it would be veiy uusafe to niecosure the situation of
Europe in the ninth century with the stiintlard of the present day.
The two chief disturbing elements in the government of the
Church, up to the eleventh eenturj^ were the exercise by some of
the temporal rulers of the investiture of bishops, and their efforts
by violence, intrigue and coiTuption to fill the papal diair witli
creatures devoted to their interests. The meaning of investiture
claimed chiefly by the emperoi's of Germany was this : the emperf)r,
having richly endowed the bishoprics and abbeys, claimed tlie
right of naming the bishop (u- abl>ot, and investing him witli tlie
insignia of office.
Most of these offices, even if considered onlv from the worldlv
standpoint, were of great importance, as the glelx3 lands, the serfs,
and the tithes were annexed to the office. Tlie new incumbent,
on being invested by the emperor with tlie episctopal ring and
crozier, took the oath of fealty which required, among f)ther things,
that he should join the standard of his liege hnd with all his
armed retainei-s whenever called on to do so. In manv instances
of appointments, therefore, more regard was given to the bishop's
militaiy qualifications, or to the amount of money which he would
2)ay for the office, than for his knowledge of canon law or his good
morals. Men of most dissolute (diameter anioncr the clcriifv and
laymen, and even minors of wealthy family, were often madt^
bishoi)8 in this wtiy. Under a ruler of de])ravcd character it may
be reasonably inferred that all these appointments were given to
the highest bidder or greatest favorite, and that the inferior
clergy under such superioi-s were sunk in immorality and wicked-
ness. The i)opes claimed that ai)pointing bishops in this way
was in direct opposition to the ancient canon law and custom of
the Church, which provided that the bishops of a province, or at
least three of them, with the consent and approval of the Pontiff
should elect, thus securing to the Church the right of choosing her
own ministers iis well as perfect freedom in the exercise of that
right. The popes continually protested against the right of the
sovereijrns to thus introduce the feudal law within the domain
of the Church, but the latter pei-sisted in these attempts until
the monk Hildebrand, Gregory VIT., in the eleventh century,
confronted the Gennan enq^eror from the papal chair.
THEOORAOY OB PBIB8TLT OOVBBKMBNT. 898
Tbe other disturbing element to which reference has been made,
the intmsion of popes or anti-popes by the secular power through
violence, intrigue, or corruption, was equally as bad as the
simoniacal intrusion of bishops, and it led to scenes and scandals
in Rome which were a disgrace to Christendom. A few instances
of this secular interference will serve as illustrations. Hie
Count of Tusculum, whose tyranny liad excited frequent oitt-
breaks in Italy, and whose territory was about twelve miles from
Rome, secured the election of his own son as Pope Benedict VIII.,
on July 20, 1012. He made a fairly good Pope, however, not-
withstanding the suspicious circumstances attending his elec-
tion. Immediately after his death his brother was elected aa
Pope John XX., on July 9, 1024.
Some of the chronicles say he was a layman when elected,
and that some who voted for him were paid for doing so.
No serious char^'C has been made against himself personally.
On the death of John XX. his brother Alberic, Count of
Tusculum, who had a son ten or twelve years of age, con-
ceived the idea of placing this boy in the chair of Saint
Peter. In sj^ite of the canons of the Church, wliich were express
in the matter, and notwithstanding the sticrilegious nature of the
act, he bought the accomplishment of his criminal design with
money, and the boy was elected Pope under the name of Benedict
IX., on December 9, 1033. It was hoped by the upright and
zealous bishops and the faithful generally that Conrad II.,
Emperor of Germany, w^ould exercise in this case the right of
non- confirmation for which he and his predecessors had so strongly-
contended with preceding popes. But he would not interfere, for
he was engaged himself in selling bishoprics to the highest bidder,
young or old, lay or cleric.
This boy Pope grew up a depmved wretch, a miserable, wicked
and brazen sinner; but his authority as Pope was acknowledged
and respected by all Christendom, even by those who most loudly
denounced his peisonal conduct. Saint Peter Damian, who was a
contemporary, called him "the poisonous viper of the Church.**
Darras, a Roman Catholic writer, apologizing for this blot on
the papacy, says: "It is doubtless a part of the divine scheme
which guides the destinies of the world that the Church should
}
894 THE 8T0BY OF GOVEENMENT.
more clearly prove the divinity of its foundation and preservation
through all ages by meeting at times the deadliest shocks, by
resisting even the un worthiness of its head."
The extent to which simony was carried on may be judged
from the fact that when Leo IX. became Pope, about a year after
the retirement of the wretched Benedict IX., he announced that
he would suspend from ecclesiastical functions all whom he found
tainted with the sin, but the declaration drew protests from, all
the Italian bishops who assured him that if he carried his threat
into execution the pastoral ministry must by the very fact cease
in most churches. He contented himself, therefore, with permit-
ting them to continue in the ministry after i^erforming public
penance. This Pontiff appears to have been an exemplary man,
and indefatigable in trying to reform the clergj*^ and enforce
salutary discipline as laid dovm by the law of the Church. Nine-
teen years after the death of Leo IX. the pontifical chair wa«
vacant by the death of Nicholas II. A cardinal was despatched
to the German court to consult the young prince, Henry IV.,
who was then a minor in the hands of a faction, in reference to the
election of a pope; but the courtiers would not i^ennit Cardinal
Etiemie to have access to the prince. On Cardinal Etienne's
return the archdeacon Hildebrand assembled the electors, who
immediately elected Alexander II.
As this election substantially opened the great struggle between
Henry IV. of Gennany and Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory
VII., a few words are necessary by way of i)reface to a brief state-
ment of the facts of their contest. Many writere ^ in discussing
the quarrel between this emperor and pope have condemned
Hildebrand as an ambitious monk who attempted to rule Chris-
tendom in the temporal as well as in the spiritual sphere, while
many other writers, including, of course, all who accept the faith
of the i)apacy, laud the Pontiff in liighly eulogistic terms and
denounce his imperial antagonist.
Pope Alexander II. was elected without the concurrence of the
> Tlie facts given iii these pages are taken from a very exhaustive and apparently impar-
tial work in two volumes by Professor J. Voigt, of the University of Halle, Germany, en-
titled, •• History of Pope Gregory VII. and of his age, from original documents.** Professor
Voigt is a Protestant, but is evidently unbiassed, and he quotes directly from original manu-
scripts which he has carefully examined.
^ THEOCRACY OB PBIESTLY GOVEBKMBNT. 899
emperor, a. d. 1061. The latter, indeed, was only a boy about
ten years of age, but a certain faction of his court governed in
his name. His chancellor, Guibert of Parma, sold abbacies and
bishoprics whenever a vacancy occurred, and grew rich through
these sales. When the news of the Pope's election reached
Henry he formally declared it null and void, and nominated a
bishop of Parma, notorious for his simoniacal irregularities, as an
anti-Pope under the name of Honorius II. The latter, backed up
by an army, marched on Rome to assert his claim, but was
repulsed by the citizens, aided by Godfrey, Duke of Tuscany.
After making some further trouble the anti-Pope died. Some
years later when Henry IV. was but eighteen years of age he
showed a most flagi-ant wickedness. He was already a heartless
debauchee who hesitated at nothing, not even assassination, to
accomplish his foul purposes. He was married to the Italian
Princess Bertha when she was fifteen years old, but he put her
away in a year after their marriage.
This public act aroused deep indignation in Italy and in
(Germany also. On the request of the Archbishop of Mentz,
Germany, the Pope, Alexander II., was asked to investigate
the matter, which he did by sending Saint Peter Damian to
Henry's court. After Damian made a judicial examination
into the matter, he told Henry that his conduct was un-
worthy not only of a prince but of a Christian. "If you
despise the authority of the holy canons, have some regard, at
least, for youi- reputation,'* said the pa^ml legate, and to Heniy's
half-apologetic and sullenly given explanations he finally replied:
**If you resist this advice dictated by reason and faith, the sover-
eign Pontiff will find himself compelled to use the thunders of
the Church against you, and will never consent to crown you
emperor."
It should be understood that the German emperors up to this
time had been crowned by the Pope. Henry had not been
crowned, hence he was simply king and emperor-elect. The
yoimg monarch quailed at Damian's threat and promised to
reform; still his general conduct and morality were in no way
improved, but quite to the contrary. As fast as a vacancy
occurred among the prelates of the empire, he filled it with one
400 THH iSZORT or 'i*f^rWK53nST.
of hi^ creacmes^ in DUknT- iasaosts wzxsl natorionsly immoral
men. Pope Alexander II. iic^i m. Ard 21, 1073, and Hilde-
brand was^ eiei'ce*.! .»n die :<iLl«>Tr:n^ iaLj. tskking as his official
mune Grinron- VIL The lacr^r -vrui ine ioc <rf a Roman caipen-
cer, becacne ^ oxunk »t "liie m^'Cdiscenr ot ChmT, and was the
precepciur in eiuriy x^riW jt Henrr IV* I: was a singular coin-
oidenc« in :Iie l:v^«> ic :iie?e rr^* !neit tfafi dfcfv should iBrst meet
js master Ami papil. ina lire!^rani:^ js nocie^wscs in the bitterest
^Q^x^^e woLcIi ever :u«ok ^I^ic^? oecweea tie Pope and any tem-
HiIJebnnti*> eLevticu was -rfuchu^^asdinillr rev-eived by the citi-
zens o£ Rt^me^ who kaew him welL And it wj^i applauded by all
tfaiu was ^'cmoL in :ae Chnscian hiecanrhr duoo^^faout the world.
rmmeiEaceiT af^^r biji^ eLev'cioiu which u is alle<yed was forced
iipi^n hinu be* desi;c^a::aL^ biauself i?^ Pc»c^^-eleot, despatched a
dele^doa to He:2.ry I V.^rexjaestia^ hiaoL u> refuse his sanction to the
election. H ji it?c:er w hivb be :jeac by the delegates to the emperor
the :.>l>winir jHissaf^ was wrtcsea: "^Slh^ald tvmi appix)ve the choice
null V :n rriy j>en50£u 1 r::^usr wani yott that I shall not i>ass over the
M ;i::iLl1x f'j> vlis<^n.l^r^i o: whi.a ill ^CN^"^^ — '^^'^ Jkvuse vou/'
Tl:e Gerr.Uk:: V:>::oi^ Jkl>:><'*-1 Hciirv :o rvfiise consent^ which
he \v:is <7ii::o \v:il:r.c t.^ \%.:h:.ol.u be: :.e ^^as ;\fraid to arouse
rhe hi-^tiiitv ,^: aii :• ,*: %\as i>ure aikI rrue in the Cliristian
\v."»rM, :o w:;,^:ii :;u* :a:::^' o: H:lvWl>ca::vl* the monk, was not
unknown. He, :ht r\ tv^rw r\:*IucranrlY vvndrme^l the iboice of the
f*!ect4-)rs. T:ie r.rs: aot of :he new Pv^r.iiff was diret»ted against
rhe .-5. antUI> '^t tiie priest IavvL A vKvree w;4S issnetl against all
pri»*st8 who hd«l Unicht ;heir v^tKves or who prxifcmed them by
Ir>rj(«^ftnesc^ of eonduot.
f'riests were to Iv imuuHiiately de[x\?evl who refused to reform
t'h^-jr iivr>, an«l the jxvpie werx^ eonnuAnded to rt»fiise to assist at
thf; maas^r:4 or other services of the relvl priests or to receive the
<H/:rHrn(:uu from tht-ni. A stonn of pn'^tostations from all sides
vH.^ hf'^r] in res{Min>e lo the ilci rtv. The bishops of Germany,
VtriUCA'^ Itiily, and other countries aUei^ed that a great many
f)iUTt'}if'^ mast }>e closed if it Wiis enforced, that it was dangerous
Uf forbid th^^ laity to receive sacraments fn>m hxisely living
]mm\H, fw it would make laymen judcfes in ecclesiastical matters.
M--
• ■»
r»#f
.►-r"******--
•>*>
•>^i
^- :
- V \-» r
' ■ . • • • . ■
" --jr* "^^ .rr*" . 1 ■■■xitfc'r-'
Tllr-'T T'
:ixr TT r*-. ' •- i— f . r -:
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. »- .* ' ■- ■
-r. 1 nii .t-fravrr
in
• -r
. »
•- •"' . c Tr?rrrT^ zrefOBiiB^L ui "He ijopoKCioii
)i*»Tn :;rr- r zzc» -ifetrr. A :?"r tixnpiied* rfie
k*
(rfesEorr cmUed
;•:'•' T .7. t;** .- ... 1" ." T-^.c£L J^ j*s»ic*L l -rt^.-nntl iieeiee :
TT 'UlCi* ■**'^nH^ r
f/*.fj ritT^r-. r-ii-'rir.rit-.ir -t^rri-j* ire -HisTHriiui-i rn>ni rht! exerciae
Tr,/;,.-. ,;, . , -if itiVjis.T.iiii. y ' i»:e '-.iii V :::ui^L To rhe nrieschooil.
p. \ww .!<» i'r't :r Tn:>e '.' nsi^rvr^ ~*»-i"?«fri;tl -mdneaee. The
.'^'i'.f 1 -jj'r.M •! .if.r tfsi>r, in "iie irSi*-^ -rlci^nicif^i bv a cleric
a*
T;»<* n»^-r -!»•.'■ ••-;- ir-iisfi "lit- vr:irii 'C \T:aL'es .iml pmrLites in
-'• '/I ri f' -• . .' ; :i r !• »• ^ . [- f - :i r ' T ' ' . i rj i. "iirr * L>iii ' rs ■ c <j*t niiiiny pabliely
\*-u<r..v »v\ \r. .u\x\ >s .i:;:!j r. I'^ 3r:ci:il^irii>a :a niiiny German
,i!*y ., i\ \-, /ii,rr,»is ir.t.'/s ..K;i.It^: '-.v Ll?:r^^:eii'i- oler,rvmeQ. The
\'^*y\ r, '.:,.-,;/ ;%rr»-r \r.A l.-^-^i:"' >r no ce --t hiit bD>ther monks,
if r/r, •',f ( ,'\u--. ^;i.'»: ** U'r.r:!>r I ctitTx Ii? ii-«r 'vesu co the south,
or V, jj-.r. r,«')rrr,- f -t»v -Aoyiroe a rjiri-^'lr 'li-iuriD wh«^ has reat'hed the
* '^f\'f/ f*y.\\t' Ly r;ir.r,r.!'vi! meari.-*, ar:«l ^'i.«.» ij^'Virrns his flock in a
••ffMjf. of / JiHirit.y. A-^ for thr ^i-:ir.;ir rTiIer>, I know not one who
fT^f'-r.'* \)it' jflory of ^>''>^i to hi.-i own, nr who sets justice above
irif/'r/-*f . 'Jh/! f/OTnl»tjr^I.H arid Normans amoni: whom I dwell I
ofJ/'fi r*|»ro,i/'l» 'A-if h \it'\]\'y ivf^r.se than Jews or heathen. Had I no
\\ii\it\ of (i: \fi'\\pr I iff! h*rn'aft.<rr, or no prrisiK.'ot of serving the Church
li/'f/', (io/| in my viWxu-HH that I wouhl not <lwell another hour in
Morn/', whrn- f havw^ \HM:n chiuuvA fr»r the hist twenty years. TIius
404 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
divided between a grief whicli is daily renewed and a hope, alas I
too distant, I am beaten by a thousand fierce storms, and my life
is but one lengthened agony.**
In the meantime a formidable insurrection had broken out in
Saxony because of the enormous taxes levied upon the people by
the emperor. After a number of bloody battles the insurgents
were defeated and large numbers were put to death for engaging
in it. At its close it is alleged that Henry instigated Guibert,
his chancellor, who was the simoniacal archbishop of Ravenna, to
seize the pontiff, imprison him, and procure the election of
another in his place who would pay deference to the emperor's
wishes. The attempt to carry out this scheme was partially suc-
cessful. One of the Cenci, son of a former prefect of Rome, with
a band of armed men burst into the Church of Saint Mar}'^-Major
on Christmas night (A. D. 1075), and dragged the Pope from the
altar where he was celebrating the midnight mass, and amid the
groans and shrieks of the horror-stricken worshippers carried him
off to a stronghold of the Cenci. They hoped to remove him from
the city before daylight and bring him a prisoner to Germany,
but the manhood of Rome had tlie tower of the Cenci surrounded
within a few hours after the seizure. They threatened to
storm the place and put to deatli Cenci and ever}' member of
his band.
The captor begged his prisoner to save his life from the maddened
multitude, who were getting the scaling ladders in readiness to
begin the assault. The Pope secured the lives of his captors,
and was then borne to the Church from which he had been carried,
where he continued the celebration which had been so rudely
interrupted. Gregory on the very next day, December 26, wrote
to Henry, saying, " We are astonished at the unfriendly bearing
of your acts and decrees toward the Apostolic See. You have
continued* in contempt of our rescripts to l)estow investitures for
vacant bishoprics. We would remind you in true fatherly affec-
tion to acknowledge the empire of Christ, to think of the danger
of prefen-ing your own honor to His."
Henry made answer by calling a council of the German bishops
at Worms. A formal accusation against the Pope was laid
l)efore this council in which he was charged with many infamous
THEOCBAGT OB PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 405
crimes, one of which was that he had hired assassins to kill Heniy
IV. He was denounced as ^^a heretic, an adulterer, a ferocious
and blood-thirsty beast." The council at the close of a three days
session deposed the Pope, which sentence was signed by the king
and all the bisliops in attendance. A messenger was sent from
the emperor to Rome with two letters, one for presentation to the
Pope, and the other for the Roman people. Tlie letter to the
Pope ran thus : —
** Henry, by the grace of God, King, to Hildebrand. Whereas I
expected from you the treatment of a father, I have learned that yon
act as my worst enemy. You have robbed mo of the highest marks of
respect due from your Sec ; you have tried to estrange the hearts of
my Italian subjects. To check this boldness, not by words but by
deeds, I have called together the lords and bishops of my states. The
council has received ample proofs, as you will see by the enclosed aots^
that you are utterly unworthy any longer to occupy the Holy See. I
have agreed to this sentence. I cease to look upon you as Sovereign
Pontiff, and in virtue of my rank of Roman patrician I conmiaDd you
to quit the See forthwith."
The two letters were read by the imperial messenger before an
assembly of the Roman clergy and nobility over which the Pope
presided. The assembly desired to proceed at once to depose the
emperor in the presence of his messenger, but Gregory suggested
that they adjourn until the next day. Before adjourning, address-
ing the bishops specially, he said : " We must display the sim-
plicity of the dove as well as the prudence of the serjient."
On the following day he addressed the assembly,, reciting
endeavors which he had made to induce Henry to obey the laws
of the Church, and refened with powerful eloquence to the
demoralized condition of the world, owing chiefly to the bad men
who had Ik^cu introduced into the Episcopal seats by temporal
sovereigns against the continued protests of the pontiffs.
The bishops of the assemblyarose and unanimously requested that
Henry be excoramimicated for malfeasance,misfeasance, and nonfea-
sance, as a public and notorious corrupter of morals, and contemner
and violator of the laws of the Christian Church which he had sworn
to obey. The decisive battle of si)iritual service reform in Chris-
THE 8T0BY OP GOVEBSSIENT,
tt^ndom li a (1 begun.
Gregory VII. then arose
and pronounced the fa-
mous sentence of excom-
munication and deposi-
tion as follows : —
" St. Peter, prince ot the
Apostles, hear thy servant.
I call thee to witness, thou
and the most holy mother
of God, w-ith St. Paul, thy
brother and all the sainta,
that the Church of Rome
compelled me in epite of
myself to rule. In the
name of Almighty God,
Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, and by thy author-
ity, I forbid Henry to
govern the German roalm
and Italy. I release all
Cliristians from the oath
by which they have bound
themselves to him, and I
forbid anyone to serve liim
as King, Since he has
refused to obey as a Chris-
tian, rejecting the counsels
gnen him for his salvation,
■jnd withdrawing from the
Chui ch which he seeks to
rend I hereby declare him
anathema that all nations
may know even by experi-
ence that thou art Peter,
and that upon this rock
the Son of the Living
God has built his Chnrch
against which the gates of
PAi-Ai. uuusaaoLD. hell shall never prevail."
THEOCRACY OR PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 407
A pontifical bull notified the Christian world of the sentence
passed ujk)!! Henry, the news of which created a tremendous
sensation. Germany was divided into two hostile camps, one
papal, the other anti-papal. An assembly of the German bishops
and nobles met near Mentz to consider the situation. Gregory
wius represented by two legates. It was determined, in a session
that lasted seven days, to elect a new ruler instead of Heniy,
and tliat unless '^within the space of a year he had obtained
absolution from the sentence of excommunication and deposition
weighing upon him, lie should l)e considered finally deposed from
the throne." And lie must dislyand his army and cease exercising
sovereign authority until he had obtained absolution from the
Pope. Henry consented to the terms and hastened to meet the
Pope at the castle of Canossa in northern Italy. He put off every
insignia of royalty from his person and dressed as a penitent,
barefooted and bareheaded, awaited for the space of three days, from
the 17th to the 20th of January, the Pope's judgment. Prostrate
at the Pope's feet he cried out, "Forgive, most Holy Father, in
your mercy forgive me." Gregory pronounced him absolved, and
reinstated as ruler of the German Empire, and in a bull announced
to the Christian world that Henry was released from his censures.
But Henry was evidently acting tlie part of a hyj^ocrite. In
a few weeks later he sent a force of men-at-arms into Lombardy
to capture the Pope, which failed through the project leaking
out. Determined not to l)e foiled, and gathering around him
all the simoniacal bishops and their retainers, and the nobles
who disregarded church authority, he proposed to dictate terms to
all his opponents. The German nobles who refused to follow
him met and elected Rudolph, Duke of Suabia, as " the lawful
king of Germany, and defender of the empire of the Franks." In
the civil war which followed Henry was victorious.
Again he was excommunicated and depased by Gi*egory, to which
sentence he replied by calling a convocation of the simoniacal
bishops whom he had appointed. These bishops said : " In a council
of twenty-nire bishops we have resolved to depose, expel, and — if
he refuse to obey our injunction — to devote to eternal perdition
Hildebrand, the corrupt man who counsels the plunder of churches
and assaBsination, who defends perjury and murder; Hildebrand,
408 THE STORY OF GOVEBNMENT.
that monk possessed of the spirit of hell, the vile apostate from
the faith of our fathers."
They also unanimously elected the imperial chancellor, Guibert
of Ravenna, as Pope Clement III., who instantly set out for
Rome with an army to take possession' of the pontifical office.
All the disorderly clerics, all the riotous, both lay and cleric,
flocked to the standard of the anti-pope who claimed that the
emperor should exercise the chief authority in the choice of popes
and bishops; that no pope or bishop could be la^vfully elected
unless chosen by the emperor or king of Gennany, and that no
account was to be made of a sentence of excommunication pro-
nounced against a temporal sovereign.
Professor Voigt says : " The pen of historj'^ refuses to record all
the woes that followed in the train of this schism." Gregoiy
stood almost alone ; the mighty of earth and many of the unworthy
were arrayed against him. The emperor's pope, Guibert, with
the emperor and a large army, laid siege to Rome in the spring
of 1082. The Romans successfully defended their city and
pontiflF for two years, but, wearied out at length by the rigors of
the protracted siege, they sent a deimtation of citizens to offer
Henry the keys of the city.
Tlie latter and his pope made their entry Mai*ch 21, 1084.
Guibert was formally installed as Pope, and he then crowned
Henry as Emperor of Gennany in the church of Saint Peter,
the latter having borne only the titles of king and emperor-
elect previously. Gregory VII. withdrew from l^)me to Salerno
where he died May 25, 1085. Around the couch on which
he lay dying stood his cardinals, the fiiithful ones who
repudiated the intruded Pope of the empeior. To these he
bequeathed as his only legacy the preservation of the inde-
pendence of the church. He adjured them in his last moments,
sa3'ing, "In the name of Almighty God, in virtue of the authority
of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, I command you to acknowl-
edge as lawful Pope no one who is not elected and consecrated
according to the canonical laws of the Church.'*
He then grew rapidly weaker and for a time was unable to
speak, but rallying for a moment the ebbing life-forces he uttered
the words which will go down to all the unborn generations of
THEOCRACY OB PBIESTLT GOVERNMENT. 409
men of eveiy creed and country: ^I have loved justice and hated
iniquity, therefore do I die in exile.'* The last words had been
spoken. The son of the Roman carpenter, the monk Hildefarand,
the Supreme Pontiff, was dead. The struggle between Gregory
and Henry was ended.
The student of history will perceive a certain similarity
between the actors in this conflict and that which took place
between Henry VIII. of England and Fisher, the Bishop of
Rochester. Hildebrand was a preceptor of the German emperor
in early boyhood ; Fisher was a preceptor of the English monarch.
Hildebrand, for maintaining the papal supremacy, was driven into
exile by his pupil, while Fisher was beheaded for the same
offence by his pupil.
Professor Voigt closes his History of Gregory VII. in these
words: —
^ It is difficult to bestow on him exaggerated eulogy, for he has laid
everywhere the foundation of a solid glory. But every one should
wish to render justice to whom justice is due ; let no man cast a stone
at one who is innocent ; let every one respect and honor a man who
has labored for his age with views so grand and so generous. Let him
who is conscious of having calumniated him, re-enter into his own
conscience."
Apparently the German emperor was ti-iumphant; but the
triumph was in appearance only. The right of temporal princes
to exercise the investiture of bishops was doomed. Pope Victor
III., who followed Gregory VII., took up the work which the
exile of Salerno bequeathed to his successors, and his successors
in turn prosecuted it until this claim was altogether relinquished
by Henry V., emperor of Germany, thirty-seven years after the
death of Gregory VII.
In 1196 the papacy and a French monarch, Philip Augustus,
came into collision on the marriage question. The king, on a
false pretext of kindred, convened some bishops who declared his
marriage void with the queen, a daughter of the king of Denmark.
The latter, when cited before the assembly to answer interrogato-
ries and defend herself against her husband's charges, could not
speak the language of her judges. When an interpreter trans-
410
THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
lated for her the sentence of her repudiatioa, she could only cry
out in an appeal of anguish and indignation : " Rome, Rome ! "
She refused to leave France and return to her father, whereupoa
the king confined her in a convent and married another woman.
Innocent III , a man of extraordinary ability, was Pope. Some
writers charge him with a boundless ambition. However that
may be, he espoused the cause of the repudiated queen and sum- '
moned a council tt Dijon before which Philip Augustus was
cited to appear to answer
for his conduct. The king
refused to appear, bidding
detiance to Pope and comi-
uil. The legate presiding
over the council in the Pope's name, and acting under his in-
struction, laid the French kingdom under an interdict until
proper reparation should be made. The king persecuted the
faithful clergy with great cruelty and civil war was provoked,
many of the feudal nobles drawing the sword to protect the clergy
within their fiefs.
Growing weary of the struggle, Philip made a last appeal to
an assembly of all the nobles and prelates of his realm which he
convoked. "What mustldo?" asked Philip. "Obeythe Pope,
TUBOtRAUY OK I'lIIEHTI.V (loVHIl.VMKNT,
1
pat away Agnes, and take back your queen," they answered.
The king waa forced to yield and t^ queen was restored to her
rightful station.
In regard to the state of educatioD conaidetable impioyement
had been made in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It will,
of cooise, be understood that printing, as we have it to>day, was
unknown ; that every book was produced by the slow and labori-
oos work of writing out every word by hand.
The third general council of the Church, held at Rome by Pope
Alexander III. in 1179, ordained that "since the Church of God,
like a tender mother, ia bound to provide for the poor both in
those things which appertain to the aid of the body and in those
which bfilong to the advancement of the soul, lest the opportunity
for such improyement should be wanting to those poor persons
wlio cannot bt aided by the wealth of their parents, let a compe-
tent benefice lie i^ssigned :n each cathedral church to a teacher whose
duty it ahuU W: to teach the clerks and poor scholars of the same
church griituitoiisly ; by which means the necessity of the teacher
maylxi relieved, and the way to instruction be opened to learners.
Let this pnicticc be also restored in other churches and monasteries,
if in times past anything was set apart in them for this purpose.
But let no out! wxact a price for granting permission to teach."
Pope Innocent III., who has already been refen-ed to, renewed
this decree in 1215, and extended the law to all parochial
churches. Universities arose throughout Europe to light the course
of tlie centuries. Oxford was founded in 886, Cambridge in 915.
Charlemagne founded the University of Paris almut 800, and a
large number of Italian universities, including that of Padua,
Pisa, Pavia, Bologna, and Rome were well-known centres of
learning as early as the twelfth century, each counting its students
by thousands. Padua alone, the alma mater of Columbus and
Vespuciua, had at one time 18,000 students. Anthony Wood,
the chronicler of Oxford, says that that institution in the thir-
teenth century had not less than 30,000 students.
The notorious politico-ecclesiastical tribunal known as the
Spanish Inquisitioa was established by Ferdinand and Isabella
toward the clos^ of the fifteenth century. Prior to this time the
Inqnisition prevailed throughout Christendom as a species of
I
liTr
o:
*. It
of
_^rin^
until
«*^ *•—--. i*-
-A'k .
,•
-^T-^f tfcl*
'X'^
"l^ «■
THEOGRACT Olt PRIESTLY OOTEBNMENT.
418
election of a pope in Rome in April, 1878, when Urban VI.
was unanimously declared elected by tbe cardinals, but afterwards
the French cardinals protested against the legality of che election
and proceeded to elect a pope under the name of Clement VII.
The latter transferred himself to Avignon, in France, from which
be ruled a small portion of the Christian world, chiefiy France,
while the pontiff in Rome was recognized as the lawful Pope by
the greater part of Christendom.
Tlie rival popes — and sometimes there were three claimants —
excommunicated one another, and when they died their successor
who were elected by the resjiective factions did likewise, and on
one occasion a dead pope was actually tried by his successor. The
Christian world was in deep distress, and sadly puzzled at this
apparent sacrifice of the unity under one head, which was the
time-honored boast of the jmpaey. Persons of highest reputation,
reverenced for the holiness of their lives, were to be found on
opposite sides. The unity of faith and worahip was not dis-
turbed; the only question at issue being who was the true Pope.
The schism lasted until 1417, when it was ended by all tlie elec-
tors unanimously voting for Pope Martin V.
.-^'^
414 THE STORY OF OOVERN>1ENT.
It would seem that the ambition of the French king fanning
the ambition of certain French cardinals was the cause of this
schism. The papacy in the beginning of the Middle Ages in its
efforts to humanize Europe, was obliged to come into close con-
tact, and in many instances into conflict — a few examples of
which have been cited — with the temporal rulers, and thus it
was drawn into the arena of politics where it was consequently
subject to all its vicissitudes and dangera.
Many monasteries became a scandal and reproach to Christen-
dom at this time. Yet a large number of the purest and holiest
men and women, whose names adorn the page of Christi-
anity, lived at this epoch, who kept their faces firmly set against
the evils of the time, working in patience, silence and humility
to resist the loud-voiced wrong whicli walked abroad at noonday.
Luther at this time entered upon the stage, and the Reformation
of the sixteenth centurj' was under way. The monk of Witten-
berg found all the material necessary for a great upheaval at
hand; he touched the train and the explosion followed. He
cried out reform on the Alpine heights and an avalanche was set
in motion. He appealed from the authority of the Pope to the
Bible interpreted by everj' Christian for himself as the only rule
of faith.
A great number of sects sprang into existence immediately, some
of which upheld very fantastic doctrines. When Luther reproved
them and insisted upon the soundness of his own views they told
him that he taught the sole authority of the Bible ui>on whicli
they based their belief. One of the most numerous of these sects,
the Anabaptists, protested against the payment of tithes and
other dues, and maintained the right of every parish to choose
and remove at will the preachei's who oecui)ied the pulpits.
They supported these professions by force of arms under their
leader Miinzer, who called himself ''Gideon sent of God to re-
establish with the sword the kingdom of Jesus Christ," and the
Peasants' War ensued, in which the unfortunate Anabaptists were
beaten and Miinzer killed. Luther had endeavored to restrain
them, but finding expostulation useless, he advised the Gennan
princes by letter to "hunt these rebellions peasants like wild l)easts ;
kill them like mad dogs: they are sold body and soul to Satan."
w
THEOCRACY OB PRIESTLY OOVBKNMENT. 416
The Reformation spread quickly to countries outside of Ger-
many. Henry VIII. refonned the Church in England in the
course of a few years by making himself, by act of Parliament,
thtJ liead of it. The cause of the Reformation in England was
that Pope Clement VII. refused to grant Heurj' a divorce from
his wife Catherine, to whom he had been married eighteen years.
Henry wished for young Anne Bolej-n, and he advanced the iisual
pretext of other royal lilxirtines that his conscience troubled him
for living with hh queen because of a certain too close kinship
which they bore to each other before marriage.
The Pontiff, on being appealed to for the necessary dispeosa-
tiion, said he would examine carefully into the matter, but
could not sacrifice his conscience and trample on the laws
o£ God. After the matter was protracted for some yeara,
daring which he tried every possible means to dissuade
Henry from his purpose, a decision was rendered, deciding
definitely against the divorce on which Henry had already
resolved. The king was indignant and made himself pope of
the English Chui-ch. He then ordered Rowland Lee, one of his
chaplains, to marry him immediately to Anne Boleyn, who was
soon to become a mother, and the thing was done.
The history of this royal monster, his many inariiages, his
treatment of his wives and subjects, are too well known to require
reference at any great length here. He reformed the Church in
accordance with his views. While doing so he executed two
queens, one cardinal, two arehbishops, eighteen bishops, thirteen
abbots, five hundred priors and monks, thirty-eight doctors,
twelve dukes and counts, one hundred and sixty-four noblemen of
various ranks, one hundred and twenty-four private citizens, and
one hundred and ten women. These executions were all for
offences committed against his royal personality — against his
majesty. Among these was his early preceptor, the venerable
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was eighty years of age. When
Pope Paul nominated Fisher as cardinal Henry said, * Paul may
send him the bat, but I will take care that he shall have never
a head to wear it on."
Pope Paul HI. called a general council of the Church at
Trent which assembled on December 13, 1545. The council
416 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
pronounced definitely on the teachings of Luther, Calvin,
Zwinglius, and other reformers, condemning them as heretical.
At this period of strife and world-wide religious contention,
the organization arose which was founded hy Ignatius of Loyola,
and known as the "Society of Jesus." This order of priests was
especially designed to counteract the influence of Protestantism.
It has always appeared an object of the greatest terror to many
Protestant minds. The society has been denounced with the
greatest bitterness as a monster of iniquity since it first appeared
in the arena of conflict, and its members from time to time have
been expelled from states raled by kings as well as from states
under republican government. Even members of the Catholic
Church itself have assailed it. Its brethren have been accused
of pandering to the absolutism of princes, and arousing feelings
of revolt among the masses at one and the same time. The fol-
lowing is an accurate summary of the constitution of this notable
society : —
A. M. D. G. QAd majorem Dei gloriam) is its motto. The end
of this society is the greater glory of God. Its members are to
labor for the salvation of their neighbor as for their own. Their
duty toward their neighbor they discharge by means of preaching,
missions, catechetical instructions, conferences with heretics,
the confessional, and especially by the education of youtli; their
own perfection they seek by means of mental prayer, examination
of conscience, the reading of ascetical works, and frequent com-
munion.
Candidates for admission into the society are tried by a novi-
tiate of two years, during which time all studies are laid aside, and
the novices devote their time chiefly to spiritual exercises. At
the end of the novitiate the novice may be admitted to the first
vows, chastity, poverty and obedience, which are like those of
other orders. The poverty of the membei-s consists in their
incapacity to j^ossess either individually or collectively any
income or property. They are to remain satisfied with what is
given them to supply their wants.
Their colleges, however, are endowed in order that neither stu-
dents nor teachers may be taken from their duties to provide for
their own subsistence. After the novitiate they begin the course
418 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of studies — languages, belleS'lettres^ rhetoric, philosophy, theol-
ogy, church history, and the Sacred Scriptures. While pursuing
these studies they are to preserve the spirit of piety in their hearts
by means of frequent examination of conscience, by approaching
the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ at least every
eighth day, and by renewing their vows twice a year. When
they go out of the house they should generally have a companion.
After the completion of his studies, the Jesuit performs a
second novitiate, lasting one year, during which he is employed
in spiritual duties and lives in retirement, perfecting himself in
the knowledge of the constitutions of his order. The members of
the order are divided into three classes, according to their degree
of learning and virtue : —
1st. The professed, who beside the three monastic vows, chas-
tity, poverty and obedience, make a fourth vow of absolute
obedience to the Pope in regard to missions. There are compara-
tively few professed Jesuits or Jesuits of the four vows. From
this class are chosen the general of the order and the other prin-
cipal superiors. Their establishments are : the professed houses,
directed by a praepositus; the colleges, containing at least thirteen
members under a rector, and the residences in charge of a
superior.
2d. The spiritual coadjutors, who are in greater number than
the professed according to their talents and the constitutions of
the order, and the professed in their ministry.
3d. The temporal coadjutors, or lay brothers who are received
for domestic employments.
Each province of the order, as the United States for example,
is governed by a provincial. At the head of the whole order is a
general, who resides at Rome and enjoys full power within the
limits of the constitution. Modifications can be introduced only
by the general congregations. The general appoints nearly all
the officers of the order to prevent whatever dissensions and
intrigues might arise from elections by suffrage ; these appointments
are made after consulting the provincial and the proper con-
suiters. The superiors of the various houses at stated times send
reports to the general of the capacity and conduct of their
subjects.
420 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The general has six assistants whose advice he is bound to
seek; they are to be tried and able men belonging to different
nations, by the names of which they are respectively known.
They are elected by the general congregation and form the
council of the general, but without authority except that of calling
a general congregation in extraordinary cases. The general con-
gregation also elects the general's admonitor who must admonish
him whenever he deems it necessary. The constitution main-
tains the strictest unity in the system, and in the matter of
teaching it aims at repressing, with the most vigorous eneigy,
whatever is at variance with the doctrine of the Church, leaving,
as it is claimed, at the same time in matters of mere opinion, a
freedom which favors the aspirations of genius.
The object of setting forth at such length the rules of this
order, which has been called "the right arm of the Church," is
because the average American knows as little about them as he
does about the laws of the Pharoahs, and aside from their novelty
it is assuredly not a matter for self-gratulation to be ignorant of
the methods and aims of a society of priests which already wields
such a powerful influence throughout our country. And they are
by no means strangers or newcomers in this land. Bancroft,
speaking of their work, says: "The history of their labors ic con-
nected with the origin of eveiy celebrated town in the annals of
French America ; not a cape was turned, nor a river entered but
a Jesuit led the way. . . . Thus did the religious zeal of the
French l)ear the cross to the banks of tlie Saint Mary and the
confines of Lake Superior, and look wistfully towards the homes
of the Sioux, in the valley of the Mississippi, five years before the
New England Elliot had addressed the tribe of Indians that dwelt
within six miles of Boston Harbor." The student who desires to
study the laboi-s of tlie Jesuits in North America can do so with
profit in Parkman's works.
The society wiis suppressed Ijy the governments of the Catholic
countries of Europe*, not only in Europe, but in all their foreign
possessions between 1758 and 1707 . The charges which were made
the pretext for its expulsion are undeserving serious notice. The
chief charge was that a member of the order in Martinique signed
a bill of exchange on another in Paris which was protested.
X JESUIT MISSION A It Y.
422 THE STORY OF GOVERl^fBNT.
most vindictive hatred of its members, and as she was the
greatest power in the kingdom, governing Louis, the so-called
Parliament, and the Minister Choiseul, the decree of banishment
in France was readily obtained. A few years later Pope Clement
XIV., under pressure of the Catholic governments, and much
against his will, issued a bull dissolving the society. Then a
most singular episode occurred. Frederick the Great of Prussia,
and Catherine I., Empress of Russia, wrote to the Pope informing
him that, knowing no better teachers of youth than the Jesuits,
they meant to keep them in their dominions.
The situation was a unique and delicate one. By the bull of
suppression the Jesuits were forbidden to continue living in com-
munities, to receive novices, and consequently to perpetuate their
order. Their General Ricci had solemnly sworn to the Pope to
renounce all power and jurisdiction as superior. The other
Jesuits, obedient to the papal bull although it was their death-
warrant, refused the offers of Frederick and Catherine as long as
the Pope did not authorize their acceptance. The latter was
afraid of arousing the hostility of the Catholic powers by inde-
pendent action in the premises ; so he laid the proposition before
them for consideration. He wiis informed that he might follow
his wishes in the matter, provided he did so quietly and without
great formal publicity. Thus the Jesuits opened their educa-
tional institutions, established their novitiates, and maintained
their order in two non-Catholic countries, wliile they were pro-
hibited in the Catholic stiites. This fact is almost as singular as
the arrest and imprisonment of Ignatius of Loyola and his first
companions by the Spanish Inquisition.
During the last century the conflict between the papacy and
the temporal rulers continued in one form or another, the first
claiming that tha spiritual domain was infringed upon by the latter
and vice versa. In Fnince the opposition proceeded chiefly from
the Parliaments strongly imbued with the principles of Gallican-
ism or national churchism. In Spain the decrees of the Church
were always promulgated with the accompanying restriction
''without prejudice to the royal prerogative."
Tlie opposition in France was chiefly directcnl against the
decrees relating to fines and imi)risonment, in spiritual matters to
THBOCBACY OB PBIB8TLY OOVEBNHENT. 428
be left to the ecclesiastical power, against those forbidding duels,
concubinage, and divorce, those reserving the judgment of bishops
to the Pope alone, and those relating to the consent of parents
deemed necessary in France for legal marriage, and not required
by the law of the Church.
Joseph II. of Germany, towards the close of the century, assumed
and exercised the right of settling all ecclesiastical questions
within his empire ; he deprived bishops of their revenues, expelled
them or abolished their dioceses. By an imperial manifesto he
declared all pontifical bulls subject to his ratification. Bishops
were forbidden to ordain priests without the previous consent of
the emperor; he suppressed a large number of the religious com-
munities, and went so far as to fix the* number of priests for each
church. The Pope protested vigorously. The emperor and the
bishops who supported him carried out their views of church govern-
ment for a time, threatening a schism when the tidal wave of revo-
lution which swept over Europe from Paris gave the emperor
and his brother monarchs other matters to occupy their atten-
tion than things of theocratic discipline.
The French Directory had Pope Pius VI. arrested on Feb. 12,
1798, and brought to France as a prisoner, where he died in
confinement August 29, 1799, because he refused to govern
the Church in accordance with the notions of the gentlemen
in Paris, who proposed to relieve the world of all kinds of
rule save that of "the Republic One and Indivisible." Ranke, in
his ** History of the Popes, " speaking of the death of Pius VI., says :
**In truth, it seemed as if the papal power was forever at an end."
The emperor. Napoleon I., a few years later established amicable
relations with Pope Pius VII., who crowned the emperor at his
request in Paris. Afterwards, in 1805, he appealed to the Pope
to annul the marriage which his brother Joseph, when a minor, had
contracted in Baltimore, in this country, with Miss Patterson, on
the ground that the lady was a Protestant and her husband was a
minor. Whatever opinion one may entertain of the papacy in its
religious aspect, the reply of the aged Pontiff to this monstrous
demand made by the dictator of Europe is worthy of the highest
commendation. Pius VII. in his reply says: "Your Majesty will
understand that, upon the information thus far received by us, it
424 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
is not in our power to pronounce a sentence of nullity. We can-
not utter a judgment in opposition to the rules of the Church, and
we could not, without laying aside those rules, decree the in-
validity of a union which, according to the Word of God, no
human power can sunder."
But the emperor was not to be stopped by this refusal. At his
instigation the state tribunals annulled the marriage, and Joseph
married a princess of Wurtemberg. Afterwards, on the 6th of
July, 1809, the emperor arrested the Pope and all the cardinals'
whom he was able to lay hands on, and brought them all as
prisoners to Paris, so that in case the Pontiff died he would be
able to determine who should be elected in his stead. But Pius
VII. did not die in Paris, although he remained a prisoner in the
emperor's custody until May, 1814, when he was liberated by the
allied sovereigns at the downfall of Napoleon.
Pius VII., on his return to Rome, issued a bull which re-estab-
lished the order of the Society of Jesus throughout the world.
This Pontiff, who is with some truth called one of the greatest of
modem times, governed the Catholic Church for a long time, and
died on the 20th of September, 1823. Since his pontificate the
conflicts between the papacy and tenipoml rulers have not been so
fierce nor so numerous as in the past centuries. Indeed, the only
great subject matter of strife lias been the temporal jurisdiction
which the popes exercised over the small tenitory known as the
States of the Church, or as it is generally termed by Catholics,
**the patrimony of Saint Peter."
Victor Emanuel, the King of Italy, invaded the states of the
Church during the pontificate of Pius IX., the predecessor of the
present Pope, and annexed them to his kingdom, making the city
of Rome his capital. Most Catholics throughout the world have
protested, and still protest, against this act, calling it a flagrant
violation of right, and a sacrilege in a spiritual sense. They
claim that the popes since the days of Pepin and Charlemagne
have administered the temporalities within the Papal states as
executors of the Catholic Church, and tliat it is impossible for the
Pope to be absolutely free as the head of the Church under the
jurisdiction of any flag but his own, liowever small the territory
that flag may cover.
426 THE STORY OF GOVBBKMENT.
A brief explanation of the administration of the Catholic Church,
its powers and how exercised, may be of interest to the average
American reader. The priesthood and governing body of the
Catholic Church is the hierarchy comprising the Pope, the Bishop,
and the Clergy. The Pope is the executive and supreme judicial
authority. The popes were formerly elected by the cardinal
bishops with the consent of the other cardinals and the clergy
and people of Rome, saving also the honor due to Henry III.,
Emperor of Germany and king of the Romans in 1059, and to
any of his successors in whose favor the Holy See should make
the same reservation. But this recognition of the imperial right
to interfere in the election proved to be fertile in anti-popes and
great confusion, hence it was decreed by the Pope and general
Coimcil of Lateran in 1179, that elections should henceforth rest
with the cardinals alone, and tliat in order to be canonical it
must be supported by the votes of two thirds of their number.
This method of election was confirmed and developed at a
subsequent council in 1274, and is practically the rule at the
present time.
When a pope dies the cardinals who are absent are immediately
to be summoned to the conclave by one of the secretaries of the
sacred college ; the election is to begin on the tenth day after the
death. In whatever city the Pope dies, there the election must
be held. Within the ten days the conclave must be constructed
in the papal palace, or in some other suitable edifice. The large
lialls of the palace are so divided by wooden partitions as to
furnish a number of sets of small apartments all opening upon a
corridor. Here the cardinals must remain until they have elected
a pope.
On the tenth day a solemn mass is said in the Vatican Church,
and after it the cardinals form a procession and proceed to the
conclave, taking uj) their respective apartments as the lot haa dis-
tributed them. All the entrances to the building but one are
closed, and tliat is in the charge of officials who are partly pre-
lates, partly officials of the municipality whose business it is to
see that no unauthorized person shall enter, and to exercise a sur-
veillance over the food brought for the cardinals lest any written
communication should be conveyed to them by this channel.
THEOCBAGY OR PRIESTLY QOVBRHMBNT. 427
Morning and evening the cardinals meet in the chapel and a
secret scratiny by means of voting papers is usually instituted in
order to ascertain whether any cardinal has the required majority
of the two thiitls. A cardinal coming from a distance can enter
the conclave after the closure, but only if he claim the right of
doing so within three days of his arrival in the city. Papal
elections have usually been made with reasonable despatch, yet
in times of disturbance the difficulty of obtaining a two
thirds majority has been known to protract the proceedings
for a long time, as in the celebrated conclave of 1799, which
lasted for six months.
The cardinals are not elected ; they are appointed by the Pope.
They have for many centuries been taken in pait from all the
great Christian nations, though those of Italian birth have pre-
dominated. The duties of cardinals are of two kinds: those
which devolve on them while the Pope is living, and those which
ihey have to discharge when the papal chair is vacant. Their
first duty consists in taking an active part in the government of
the Church, for although the Pope is in no way bound to defer to
the opinions of the sacred college, as the cardinals are termed in
practice, he seldom, if ever, takes an important step without their
counsel and concurrence.
The cardinals now take precedence of archbishops and bishops,
although it was not so formerly. At the death of the Pope they
alone elect his successor. Archbishops exercise a limited species
of jurisdiction over the bishops of their archdiocese. An arch-
bishop can receive appeals from the bishops in his jurisdiction in
some cases. The right also devolves upon him of apix)inting a
vicar capitular on the death of a suffragan bishop if the chapter
of the diocese fails to appoint within eight days.
A bishop is superior to simple priests, and the council of Trent
defined that this superiority is of divine origin. The words of the
council are, " If anyone affirm that bishops are not superior to presby-
ters, or that they have not the power of confirming and ordaining,
or that the power which they have is common to presbyters also,
let him be anathema."
In his own diocese it is a bishop's duty to teach. He is required
to preach the word of God unless he be lawfully hindered, nor
428 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
can anyone, secular or regular, preach in the diocese without his
leave. He must watch over purity of doctrine, especially in
schools public and private. No book treating on religion can be
published till it has been examined and has received his imprimatur.
He must administer the sacrament of confirmation, ordain priests,
and consecrate the holy oils, churches, altars, chalices, etc. He
must also approve priests, and give them their '' faculties " to hear
confessions, administer other sacraments, etc.
He may make laws for his diocese, not, however, such as are
contrary to the law of the Church. He decides in the first
instance all ecclesiastical causes. He can inflict penalties, sus-
pension, excommunication and the like. Bishops are usually
selected by a majority vote of the chief priests of a diocese, and
confirmed by the Pope, although the practice varies in different
countries. The bishop-elect must be thirty years of age, a priest,
of Catholic parentage, of good fame, able to produce the public
testimony of some univeraity or academy to his learning. Bishops
are consecrated by the Pope or by a bishop specially commissioned
by the Pope for the pur[)ose.
Next in order after the l)isliops arc the i)ricst«, deacons, sub-
deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readei-s, ostiarii, or doorkeepers.
The firet three are as old, it is alleged, i\s the time of the
apostles. In addition to these are various ecclesiastical orders of
missionary clergymen, monks, nuns, and lay confraternities, all
engaged in the work of the Church.
We conclude tliis brief survey of theocratic government, as
illustrated by the Jewish theocracy and the Catholic Church, with
a few oliservations respecting the latter. Whatever views may be
entertained of her doctrines and pretensions to infallibility, the
Catholic (^^hurch cannot be ignored by the learned OH ignorant, by
the inilers or persons ruled. She touches civilization everywhere
at all points in various ways. She has a direct or at least a most
powerful indirect influence on civil governments. She is a
world-wide, stupendous fact well worthy the profound attention
of the philosopher, the statesman, and the ordinary student of
history.
In these days of more dispassionate historical investigation
than could reasonably be expected at a period closer to the great
480 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
revolution of the sixteenth century, wlien men's minds were
unbalanced by bitter party strife, jitstice can be rendered to her
merits as well as to her demerits. The student of history will
find among her grievous shortcomings that she has always pro-
claimed and maintained one great fundamental truth which is the
bedrock of true civilization: that to her "there is neither Gen-
tile nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian ; but Christ is all, and in
all." The prince and the beggar, the princess and poorest
peasant girl, the master and the servant, kneel side by side in her
most stately temples, on terms of perfect equality, — all reduced
to the same level of humble suppliants for mercy l)efore the altar
of the Crucified One.
The student will also find that her form of government is an
elective monarchy combined with an aristocracy that should
possess considerable merit, and a democracy at the present day at
least without bitter party factions. Every Chiistian man of every
class, no matter how lowly, is eligible to the highest offices in the
Church. Many of the Popes have l)een chosen from the lowest
walks of life. The few men of bad reputation who have occupied
the pontifical chair serve to show by way of contrast the long line
of au<rust men who have adorned it bv their virtues and fortitude
in trying times. Macaulay, who was mucli opposed to the
Clmrch, in reviewing Ranke's history of tlie papacy, concludes by
saying: '^ There is not and there never was on this earth a work
so well deserving of examination as tlie Roman Catholic Church.
The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of
human civilization.
*'No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back
to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantlieon,
and when the cameleopards and tigers bounded in the Flavina
amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday,
when compared with the line of the Roman pontiffs.
'^ This line we ti-ace back in an unbroken series from the Pope
who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who
crowned Pepin in the eighth, and far beyond the time of Pepin the
august dynasty extends until its origin is lost in the twilight of fable.
" The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the
republic of Venice was modern when compared with the papacy ;
THEOCRACY OR PKIE8TLY GOVERNMENT.
4S1
and republic of Venice is gone and the papacy remains. The
papacy remain», not in decay, nor a mere antique, but full of life
and youthful vigor.
" The Catholic Church is still sending forth to tlie furthest ends
of the world missionaries as zealous as those wlio landed in Kent
with Austin, and still confroiitiiig hostile kings with the same
^ipirit witli which she confronted Attila. The numljer oE her
children is gi-eater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in
the new world have more than compensated her for what she has
lost in the old. Her spiritual a.s(^endency extends over the ^"asb
countries which lie between thu plains of the Missouri and Cape
Horn, countries which a century hence may not improbably con-
tain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. . . .
482 STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
" Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her
long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all
the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that
now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not
destined to see the end of them all.
" She was great and respected before the Saxon set foot on
Britain — before the Frank had passed the Rhine — when Grecian
eloquence still flourished at Antioch — when idols were still wor-
shipped in the Temple of Mecca.
"And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some
traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude,
take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the
ruins of St. Paul's."
This striking tribute by a Protestant historian, this confession
of a profound and brilliant scholar, that the Catholic Church
appears to bear promise of permanence, tempts a scientific student
of human affairs to look beneath the jewelled crust of her cere-
monial and traditional assumption, to discover, if possible, a prac-
tical human explanation of her long, and strong,and still unwaning
success.
Catholicism, apart from its celestial claims, is a vast historic
fact. Surviving the persecutions of its enemies, and the still more
dangerous persecutions that some of its benighted professors have
inflicted on others, it shows to-ilay, in the new world especially,
a fresh force in the sphere of tangible action.
Is this power the offspring of a new or simply the continuance
of an old policy, not so vigorously asserted, perhaps, as in days of
yore, but possibly all the more potent because veiled in some
degree and quiet in its movements? It seems to us nothing new,
but simply the ancient policy of restmining the high and raising
the low, the same old policy pursued by her popes towards so
many cruel kings and barbaric barons in the Middle Ages, which
the Church is now trying to apply to the monstrosities which our
present industrial system has spawned.
For what greater monstrosities can there be than sucli absolutely
irresponsible money-kings as Andrew Carnegie who, in a nomi-
nally free nation, can hire with impunity a band of bravos to
commit treason against tlie government by invading a sovereign
434 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMKNT.
State, and provoking a conflict with workmen ground down by
the very capitalist whose foitune they built up ?
Now the Catholic Church in London, through the i>erson of its
cardinal, Henry Edward Manning, not long ago brought about a
peace between the striking dockmen and tlieir capitalistic oppres-
sors. This Prince of the Church, since gone to his well-earned
rest, never rested during liis life in liis efforts to better the condi-
tion of the poor.
He stood for the masses against the classes; and in tliis country
the princes of the Church, such as Cardinal Gibbons, whose like-
ness adorns this book, have always been firm in upliolding the
rights of the people against the anarchistic money-men who are so
near to wrecking this republic on the grinning reefs of their
selfishness and their greed.
The great thinkers of the Catholic C'hurcli liave always been of
the people and for them, maintaining the divine doctrine of the
Crucified One, that the right of a human being to live and to live
properly outweighs any riglits of property ; in brief, that a human
soul is of more importance than all the gold, or silver, or brass of
a Carnegie or a Gould.
Nor is it alone in their private capacities that the chiefs of tho
Churcli have shown themselves the champions of the masses. The^
present Pope, much to the disgust of certain Protestant sovereigns
and of some American ti-ade-kings, several years ago refused to
condemn the order of the Knights of Labor.
Is it, then, a wild guess, a rash prophecy, or a fair calculation,
that in the irrepressible conflict soon to come, the weight of the
Catholic Church, and of all other churches with life in them, will
be thrown into the scale on the side of humanity against the real
Devil, the truly dangerous, debasing power that springs from vast
accumulations of private property ?
I
The stoiy of ihf Swiss Kepublic, its i
,1,'in and development, is a political i
of intense interest.
Switzti-land has been for centuries and itt
at this moment a more perfect dcnioci-acy than any otlier country
on earth. The average American citizen, liowever, know-s much
more aiwut the Wars of the Roses and the Act of Settlement and
the Peasant's AVar than he does of the fact that the jjcople of thu
three Forest Cantons, Tri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, drew up si
written constitution nearly five hundred years hefoi-e the lii'st
Continental Congress a-ssemhled in Philadelphia, and snecessfully
defended tlieir ancient lilx'rtics agaiiwt the powerfiil and rajm-
cious countries which environed tliem.
Tliis lack of knowledge sliould not exist. The story of Swit-
zerland to the Amerieau should possess a peculiar fascination, for
it is tlie history of a sister repnhlic ancient in yeara, yi;t youthful
in democnitic vigor. Americans, therefoie, will naturally read
with sympathy a brief sketch of this intci-esting countrj'. Hub
very few works in the Englifjh language treat on the subject, —
a fact which undoubtedly aecountB for the almost tobil lack of
any material infonnation among tlie English-s|)caking peoplo
regarding Swiss institutions, their rise and growtli.
486 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
In the thirteenth century the people who inhabited the upper
valleys among the Alps acknowledged allegiance, Jis was the
custom under the feudal l:uv, to some paramount lord, — the
emperor of the Roman Empire, — or some nobleman, or monas-
tery. The l)ailiffs or agents whom these lords emi)loyed, becom-
ing obnoxious to the people for attempting to exact more taxes
than the ancient customs allowed, the people offered resistance,
many tumults arose, and at the death of the Emperor Rudolph of
Hapsburg, in July, 1291, a brief teim of anarchy ensued.
At this juncture the people of the communities of Fri, Schwyz,
and UnterwaldiMi came together to consult and devise ways and
means to prot(»ct their common interests, and the}' framed the
famous Treaty or Pact, the original of whicli is preserved in tlie
archives of the Canton of Schwyz, and wliich may properly ])e
describt.»d as the iii-st fedend constitution of Switzerland. The
following is a correct translation of this venerable document: —
The First Federal Constitution of Switzerland.
Verpetiial League of the Forest Cantons, 12^1.
In the name of God, Amen,
1. Honor and public welfare are enhanced when agreements are
entered into for the proper establishment of quiet and peace. Therefore,
know ail meUy that the people of the valley of Uri, the democracy of the
valley ofSwit{, and the community of mountaineers of the lower valley, '
in view of the evil of the time, in order that they may better defend
themselves and their own, have promised in good faith to assist each
other, with aid, counsel, and every favor, with person and goods^
within the valleys and without, with all power and endeavor against
all and every, who may injlict upon any one of them any violence,
molestation, or injury , or may plot evil to t/jeir person or goods,
2, And in every event, each people has promised to hasten to the aid
of the other whenever necessary, and at their own expense, so far as
needed, in order to resist attacks of evil-doers, and to avenge injuries.
To which end they have taken oath in person to do this without deceit,
and to renew by means of the present {agreement) the ancient oatb^
confirmed confederation,-
*Xi(lwalden. Obwalden, the other part of l.'nterwalden, entered the confederation later.
■Ui>on this clause iH bsised the hypothesis that a confederation existed previous to this
time, i»erhap?* as early as 12ri0. No earlier document, however, had l>een preserved, hence the
charter of 1201 is called th« First Peri>etual League {iJcr ewifjc Bund),
* •
aniFLB RSFtTBLICANISH.
48T
}. Yet in sucb a manner that every man, according to bis rank,
stall continw to yield proper obedience to bis overlord.
4. By common agreement and by itnanimous consent, we promise,
enact, and ordain tbat in tbe (foresaid valleys we will in nowise receive
or accept any Judge wbo has obtained bis office for a price, or for mcmty
in any way -wbatever, nor one
vAo is not a native or resident
witb us.
5. If dissension shall arise
between any of tbe confeder-
ates, prudent men of tbe con-
federation shall come together
to settle tbe dispute between
tbe parties as shall seem right
to them, and tbe party which
rejects their judgrtent shall
be an enemy to t^ other con-
federates.
6. Furthermore, it is es-
tablished between ibem that
whoever maliciously kills
another without provocation
shall, if captured, lose bis life,
as bis nefarious crime de-
mands, unless be can show
bis own innocence in tbe
affair ; and if be escapes he
stall never return. Conceal-'
ers and defenders of the afore-
said malefactors shall be ban-
ished from tbe valleys, until
tbey are expressly called back
hy tbe confederates.
7. ^ any one of the con-
federates, by day, or in tbe
silence of tbe night, maliciously attempts to injure another by fire, be
shall never be owned as a compatriot,
8. If any one protects or d^ends tbe aforesaid evil doer, be shall
render satisfaction to tbe person injured,
9. Further, if any one of the confederates robs another of bis goods,
or injures him in anyway, the goods of the evil-doer, if found within
A SWITZKB or ANUIKNT SAYS.
438 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the valleys, shall be seized in order that satisfaction may be given to
the party damaged, according to justice,
JO. Furthermore, no one shall sei{e another's goods for debt, unless
he be manifestly his debtor or surety, and this shall only take place
with the special permission of his judge. Moreover, every man shall
obey his judge, — and if necessary, himself ought to indicate the judge
within (the valley) before whom he ought properly to appear,
1 1 . And if any one rebels against a verdict, and if, in consequence
of this pertinacity y any one of the confederates is injured, the whole body
of confederates are bound to compel the contumacious party to give
satisfaction,
12, If war or discord shall arise among any of the confederates, and
one contending party refuses to accept proffered justice or satisfaction,
the confederates are bound to assist the other party.
I ^, The regulations above written, established for the common wel-
fare and utility y shall, the Lord willing, endure forever , In testimony
of which, at the request of the aforesaid parties, the present instrument
has been made and confirmed with the seals of the three democracies and
valleys aforesaid. Done in the year of the Lord MCCLXXXX primo,
at the beginning of the month of August,
This declaration of the forest cantons beai*s a powerful analogy
to the declaration of the American Continental Conijress of 1774.
They did not throw off their allegiance to the eni[)(»ror of Ger-
many, but asserted that they would defend their rights by whom-
soever assailed. Their nominal allegiance remained until it was
formally alxjlished b\' treaty at West[)halia in 1648.
A secret meeting was afterwards held on the field of Griitli, by
the borders of the lake of Luzerne, on the night of Novemter 17,
1307, to make arrangements for opposing by force of arms any
power which would attempt to abridge their ancient rights.
Walter Fiii-st, with ten othei"s of his canton, represented Uri ;
Werner, Stauffacher, and ten others represented Schwyz, and
Arnold of Unterwalden, with ten compatriots, represented his
canton. Before they separated they swore to defend their homes
and one another against every oppressor, and to l)e ^'ejich for all
and all for each.''
After some yeai*s the emperor proposed to compel the stubborn
Swiss to obey such laws and accept such bailiffs or governors as
he chose to send them. For this purpose he despatched Duke
438 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the valleys, shall be seized in order that satisfaction may be given to
the party damaged, according to justice.
JO. Furtbermorey no one shall sei{e another's goods for debt, unless
be be manifestly bis debtor or surety, and this shall only take place
with the special permission of his judge. Moreover, every man shall
obey bis judge, — and if necessary, himself ought to indicate the judge
within (the valley) before whom he ought properly to appear.
1 1 . And if any one rebels against a verdict, and if, in consequence
of this pertinacity, any one of the confederates is injured, the whole body
of confederates are bound to compel the contumacious party to give
satisfaction.
12. If war or discord shall arise among any of the confederates, and
one contending party refuses to accept proffered justice or satisfaction,
the confederates are bound to assist the other party,
I ^. The regulations above written, established for the common wel-
fare and utility, shall, the Lord willing, endure forever. In testimony
of which, at the request of the aforesaid parties, the present instrument
has been made and confirtned with the seals of the three democracies and
valleys aforesaid. Done in the year of the Lord MCCLXXXX primo.
at the beginning of the month of August.
This declaration of the forest cantons bears a [)0\verful analogy
to the (lechiration of the American Continental Congfress of 1774.
They did not throw off their allegiance to the ein[)eror of (jer-
nianv, but asserted that thev would defend their rigflits bv whom-
soever jissailed. Tlieir nominal allegfiance remained until it wa«
formally alxjlished l)y treaty at West[)ljalia in 1648.
.V secret meeting was afterwards held on the field of Griitli, by
the lx)rdei*s of the lake of Luzerne, on the night of November 17,
1307, to make arrangements for op[)osing by force of arms any
power which would attempt to abridge their ancient rights.
Walter FUi*st, with ten othei"s of his canton, represented Uri ;
Werner, Stauffacher, and ten otliei-s represented Scliwyz, aud
Arnold of Unterwalden, with ten compatriots, represented his
canton. Before they separated they swore to defend their homes
and one another against every oppressor, and to be ^''each for all
and all for each.''
After some years the emi)eror proposed to compel the stubborn
Swiss to ol)ey such laws and accept such bailiffs or governors as
he chose to send them. For this purpose he despatched Duke
440 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
At the narrowest part of the defile, a terrific storm of all sorts of
missiles preceded the headlong onslaught of tlie peasant soldiei*s
who grappled in hand-to-hand conflict with the invaders of their
homes.
The horns of the bulls of Uri sounded the charge of the con-
federates. The conflict was but slioit. The Austrian cavalrj'and
infantry becoming inextricably mixed up impeded each other's
movements, and thus were helpless before the athletic moun-
taineers, wielding spears and huge two-lianded swords. Leo[K)ld
was completely routed, leaving over lialf his army dead and
wounded in the defile of Moigarten.
A few weeks after this gixjat victor}- on the 9tli of T)ecenil)er,
the representatives of the three cantons met at Brunnen and C'on-
cluded a new treaty which re-aflimied the old and added some
new features, one of which was that any canton which had a
lord-paramount should obey him in all proper things, but sliould
never obey him in any way against the three confederates. It
was also agreed in the new treaty that neither one of the
confederates should bind itself to a lord witliout the assent of tlie
othera; that all disputes between tliemselves sliould be setth^l
peaceably, and that tliey would aid each other in case of any
interference in their affairs by any outsidei*s.
The growth of the national germ can be readily perceived in
these latest stipulations, while at tlie same time they acknowl-
edged the suzerainty of the Geiman empire. In the year 13>i2
the city of Luzenie with its adjjwient territoiy joined the con-
federation, making the fourth state of the Union. The city of
Zurich joined in 1351, and during the following 3-ear Glauriui
and Zug sent their Austrian bailiffs away and cast in their lot
with the original confederates. In the succeeding 3'ear, 1353,
Berne joined hands with the sisterhood, thus making the eighth
in the galaxy of states.
In 138fj, the emperor made another great effort to bring the
confederates under subjection. A very large army under the
command of another Leopold of Austria, a nephew of the Duke
Leopold who was defeated at Moi-garten, marched into the terri-
tory of the canton of Lir/crne, where it was met in the open field
by the confederates on the nineteenth day of July in a long and
SIMPLE BEPUBLICAKISM. 441
fiercely coDtested battle, and finally routed after great slaughter
on both sides.
This engagement is known in history as the battle of Sempach.
The chronicles assert that the carnage was awful. The Austrian
commander, Leopold, wth the flower of the imperial chivalrj-,
was left dead on the field. This is the battle in which we are
told by Swiss ti-adition that Arnold of Winkelried, having per-
ceived that tlie repeated attacks of his countrymen upon the
Austrian square of levelled lances liad proved ineffectual, con-
ceived and canued out the sublime project of securing an
entrance into the enemy's midst at the expense of his own life.
Calling upon his battalion to follow him^. on reaching the
Austrian line he extended liis arms, and seizing as many of their
lance points as he could reach, gathered them against his breast
holding them firmly, as he cried out, " Make way for Liberty to
enter."
Through the gap thus made the Swiss entered, and falling upon
the heavily armored foemen in the rear, who now proved as help-
less as they liad hitherto been invincible, the desperate contest
was soon decided by the wholesale slaughter and complete over-
throw of the imi)erial forces. Two years later, in 1388, the
Austrians advanced a force into the canton of Glaurus, but were
defeated by the combined levies of Glaurus and Schwyz on the
9th of April, 1888. This was practically the last attempt of
Austria to enforce her rule on the confederates.
Tliey had now for more than half a century no trouble with the
outside world, their troubles and dissensions springing altogether
from within. The form of their institutions and the right of
suffrage were not alike in the several cantons. In the three forest
cantons, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, all the citizens were
free and equal politically. The whole people of each canton
met in general assembly to decide every imix)rtant matter.
In the municipal cantons or sovereign cities, like Berne,
Ziirich, and Luzerne, on the other hand, none but the burghers
could vote, so that the opinions of the country people in the terri-
tories of these cities were never consulted.
Other troublesome questions arose from time to time. The
municipal canton of Ziirich made an alliance with Austria upon
442 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
which the canton was invaded by the troops of the confederates,
and peace was only restored after a number of serious engage-
ments in 1450. Tiie federal bond seemed to be weak in peaceful
times, but when the national existence Avas threatened, the people
of the cantons rose as one man to defend it. In 1474, Charles
the Bold, of Burgundy, captured the town of Grandson on the
lake of Neuchatel by treacherj^, and put the Swiss garrison to
death. He was attacked immediately after by tlie confederates
and signally defeated. Again at Morat they swept his army from
the field in utter confusion, and finally l)efore the walls of Xancy,
on Januarj' 5, 1477, his livst army was crushed and Charles him-
self was killed.
On the return of peace internal troubles broke out again which
threatened to become quite serious, but fortunately at a diet of
the cantons held in Stiinz, a new *' covenant"^ or convention was
signed on the 22d of Decemlx?r, 1481, which was fairly satis-
factory- to all concerned. At tliis diet two other nmnicipal can-
tons, Frieburg and Solothur, were admitted into tlie confederation,
making the ninth and tentli states, and the federal sovereignty
was much strengthened l)v tliis convention. Separate alliances
l)etween tlie cantons were prohibited, the division of Ixmty cap-
tured in war was regulated, and other provisions made to definitely
settle disputed questions which had arisen from time to time.
This Treatv of Stanz was the third solemn covenant made
l)etweeu the confederates since the a(lo[)tion of the original charter
in 12in. In point of time they occurred as follows: —
Charter of the Forest Cantons (1291).
The Priest's Charter (^1370).
The Convention of Sempach (^1398).
The Convention of Stanz (14X1).
The cities of Basel and Schaffhausen were admitted as the
eleventh and twelfth states of the eonfedemtion in 1501, and
A[»penzell entered the I'liion in lol8. These thirteen cantons
or states which now constituted the confederation i^mained with-
out anv substantial chan<re or nioditication until the close of the
last centurv, at which time the French directorv established in
Switzerlancl what it was [»leased to designate "The Helvetic Re-
public."
8[MI'I,K ItEPUBLICANISM.
443
The French fonn of Uttpuhlican goveniiiient wliich the Swiss
were forced to receive at the point of French iMiyoiietJj in 179S
waa almost a coitipletc i-evereal of the old oi-der of a iinmlwr of
ilomiiiioii I 1 1
444 THE 8TOKY OF GOVEKXME3rr.
ujxiri tliirin^ and the count n- wa^j divided into two bitter factions.
I'he ytiiy active minority, cornjK>sed of tLe jiartLsans of a strong cen-
tral authoritv, M'ai> found chieflv in tlie citieci, while the vast mar
jority of the Federalists who l^'lieved in returning to their own
nieth^xk of government were found in the rural cantons. Uri,
Schwyz, L'nterwalden, and the other old canton^s preferred to elect
their go venior than to liave him selected for them. Bonajiarte, after
a long CTinHultation with the representatives of lx)th of the Swiss
]>olitiral pailies, drew up a new constitution called the Act of
Mediation, which went into effect on the 2d of February, 1803.
Wy the new constitution, six new cantons were added to the
republic, viz., Grisfnis, St. Gallen, Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, and
Ticino, this making nineteen cantons in all. A diet was pro-
vided for, consisting of one deputy for each canton, but as every
deputy who represented a canton containing more than one hun-
dred thousand people had the right to give two votes on the same
subj(M;t, the nineteen deputies iiad l>etween them an aggregate ot
twenty-five votes,
Tlie (li(*t met once a vear in June, when its members voted on
all (juestions as they were instruct(Ml by their respective cantons,
for they could not vote otlujiwise. This constitution lasted until
the; fall of the EinjMTor Na[>olcon in 1815. Valais, Neuchatel,
and (ieneva were adniittttd into the confederation in 1814, which
now consisted of tw(»ntv-two cantons. .Vfter the fall of Napo-
Kmhi, a f(Mleral declaration was drawn up at Ziiric^h in 1815 by
the diet at the instructions of their constituents, which was
accepted by tlie Con^n'css of the great European powers assembled
at Vitrnna, and whicli took the place of tin* A(;t of Mediation and
remained in force till IS-IS.
Tlie new agreement restored nearly all the old sovereign power
oT tlie cantons, and was received with general favor. No mate-
rial cliant^e was made in it mitil religious dissensions arose
hetween the Catholics and Proti*stants, culminating in a short
campaign against some of the Catholic cantons organized in the
Sonderhund in 1S4T. These dissensions and the very natural
desire of the lartrer cantons to have a i^^reator voice in federal
iilTairs than those of much smaller populations, afforded an
excellent jiretext to ask for a change in the fiMleral compact.
I
446 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
On the 17tli of Februaiy, 1848, the work of preparing a new
constitution was assigned to a committee of fourteen, who com-
pleted the work by the 8th of April. This was tlien submitte<l
to a vote of the cantons, all of which endorsed it by a majority
vote, and it was officially promulgated on the 12th of Septemljer,
1848, as the fundamental law of the land. The new constitution
provided for the first time in the liistory of Switzerland for the
creation of two legislative chambers; one designated as the Coun-
cil of the States, corresp(mding to our American Senate, towliich
each canton, large or small, sends two membei*s and no more,
while the other, styled the National Council, corresponding to
our House of Representatives, is composed of deputies elected on
the basis of popuhition.
These two cliambers constitute the Federal Assembly which
elects the executive power or, as it is called, the Federal
Council. The Swiss Presidency, therefore, is a collective institu-
tion consisting of seven members, elected by the Federal Assem-
l)ly in joint session.
This really fii-st Federal Constitution of Switzerland was
revised in certain directions Avith the assent of the required
munber of cantons, and tlie recjuisite i)opular vote on the 29th of
May, 1874, so that it is now designated as the '' Fedeml Con-
stitution of the Swiss Confederation" (of May 29, 1ST4).
The following are the constitutional provisions relative to the
Federal Assemblv, National Council of States, and Federal
Council : —
Art. 7/. IVith the reservation of the rights of the people and of the
cantons (Articles 8q and 121), the supreme authority of the confedera-
tion is exercised by the Federal Assembly, ichich consists of tu\) sec-
tions or councils, to wit :
(A) The National Council.
(B) The Couficil of States.
Art. J2. The National Council is composed of representatives of
the Swiss people, chosen in the ratio of one member for each 2o,(XX)
persons of the total population. Fractions of upwards of 10,000 per-
sons are reckoned as 20,000.
Every canton, and in the divided cantons every half-canton^ chooses
at least one representative.
SIMPLE liEPUBLICANISM. 447
Art. 7^. The elections for the National Couticil are direct. Tbey
are held in federal electoral districts, which in no case shall he formed
out of parts of different cantons.
Art. J4. Every Swiss who has completed twenty years of age, and
who in addition is not excluded from the rights of a voter by the legis-^
lation of the canton in which he is domiciled, has the right to vote in
elections and popular votes.
Nevertheless, the confederation by law may establish uniform regula-
tions for the exercise of such right.
Art, y). Every lay Swiss citi:(en who has the right to vote is eligible
for membership in the National Council.
Art. 76. The National Council is chosen for three years, and
entirely renewed at each general election.
Art. TJ. Representatives to the Council of States, members of the
Federal Council, and officials appointed by that Cowicil, shall not at
the same time be members of the National Council.
Art. 78. The National Council chooses out of its own number, for
each regular or extraordinary session, a president and a vice-president.
A member who has held the office of president during a regular
session is ineligible either as a president or as vice-president at the
next regular session.
The same member may not be vice-president during two consecutive
regular sessions.
fVhen the votes are equally divided the president has a casting vote ;
in elections he votes in the same manner as other members.
Art. 79. Tl)e members of the National Council receive a compensa-
tion out of the federal treasury.
Art. 80. The Council of States consists of forty-four representa-
tives of the cantons. Each canton appoints two representatives ; in the
divided cantons^ each half state chooses one.
Art. 81. The members of the National Council and those of the
Federal Council may not be representatives in the Council of States.
Art. 82. The Council of States chooses out of its own number for
each regular or extraordinary session a president and a vice-president.
Neither the president nor the vice-president can be chosen from
among the representatives of the canton from which the president has
been chosen for the regular session next preceding.
Representatives of the same canton cannot occupy the position of
vice-president during two consecutive regular sessions*
IVhen the votes are equally divided the president has the casting
vote; in elections he votes in the same manner as the other members.
44»
f^r^ * rt*» -w -
.4rT iz,
.4rT, >^. 77^ :3pmK JMsreczzcm sml txacsanse jmumn i:v ^f rbe cot^
federitwm :% exgmiAi rwxrhjMra il^mmcd^smaasBi. r .gaa :membars^
.-frf. 7i>. 77:^ ^neamerr 't:x rt-JdriL Z:mmcd jt jpsejf 'or ttrm
ymr^ '^ :Ap •.-^■■scis :» -jua assam ''mm .:aKnir :si :ix ixrss .zrizms
Hhi^t^ *'^ '^^ yi^tutwoL JLH«m" Jfltf flor vrT 'jjsr nv nemuer of
the r^Jeril Zjumcd iMCf !tp :30sa: "^n» ."rr . Janr . ssicn.
7'> -^as^rji ILnaci s roior .laes -:irir . jcr zuczzan t .'Ae Ato-
y^.iKc:^ :2Kcb icatr :m rbe .smm :r 'it *rrar rarr .irr Sled Jt
the ir-j itrstuM^ :£S5mok >r :bt .^^zcrst .^soHerr ~i7r ~^ 'rmamJer of
the :erm yf -^^ici.
.-frt. tr. 77« immters jf ."fe .^oersi ^'bbcs /au/ *»r. during
:be:r :erm yf yfei. JC^^so?^ -^^ ->rfw '^^» :«J«r a rce :smce >r ,"^
yynteaerjtinn w :n s jjmrom, jr 'bdlomMtr Mberparsmt. }r .xercise
.-^rr. rf, TTv Fsderai fZJancd :s presutd jter 'y :te president of
the confederjtioH, TTxre :s -i Tzce-pnsuenr-
T^e pref;uent if :te sonnderaiion jnd rbg Ticc^TrrsLient if rf)e F&^
r^il Zynnal ir-7 :!yn<£n yr me rar '*r 'te .^\z£rsi Aisemtir 'rom
jmnrr^ :'ye memten n :f:e sounczL
.-frr. I'Zf. T?e Ttemrerr. ^r :/v rrJ^ru Ijitnczl .'ucr/ '•?€ ■'ii:ht to
;i)eaJi jut larzo r.Vt' :jt dzilxr x)iisi n r::e r-\zcr:i .4ijvnir::\ in J jisa
t'je rifbr :a make moiions m :!:e iucic,: -diuitr :sn<:^£ru:o?t.
TV ■nnsrir.irlon > -'^r^ '.oniZ- vmniiuiiiir u>*nir dt^v -jer .'eac.
v-*r* -r^e^-iiii* m riiiniis roiu*iiinji tIu* -iiiv't^ivic^r* u mt- mucous
vhii*h ir it't* Liii'Pi* mu ex^^r-ist^ ill ri^r'-ic? ind r^owei?* ::iiic riiev
liave not •^xoressL" -iele-jT-rrMi ri) riie rVfiLtrn*. pi^^'-r )y rae -.'onijci-
:'iri«-.n. The fetieraL .mrlnrirr ■rniiraiitetjs :iie riixtitii xnd \:h^rtT
'-if ^j» *he r»*^t>r.lt*, ami alme liiu* the ri;iiiL r.^ nuike rreucit.^s widi
TVi'T^ i:< no .^Lir*«linor umiT in 'r^iizerLui'L on:: wiiea die '.'icizea
'<oi''li»='r^ ap»* requirerl f.-r 'inr.v riiev miircli tULiier die 'Ji-^cLuP-h <."»£ the
ff-f\^r^\ miiiur.- • Irriartmeiir. Tlitr er^cire sirtn-jtii o£ die volun-
t/^y-r >»rrri7 in '20J.47'.* meri. Xo Ciinnoa hiis over three hiinilred
f^^'rrfiiir^f^.ut .^^'lidii^rs within ir.^ t«^mtory except by the ex^^tfrs^ per-
roi^HJ^n of th*^ ffrfkral exerrutive.
r SWITZERLAND.
W'lTZERLAMD.
SIMPLE REPUBLICANISM. 458
The people, represented by the Federal Government, own and
manage the entire postal, telegraphic, and telephonic systems of
the country. The manufacture and sale of war-powder and of
spirituous liquors is carried on by the government, and the receipts
are paid into the federal treiisur}-. This governmental manufac-
ture of liquoi-s insures absolute purity in such things to start
with, however much they may deteriorate in passing tlirough
private hands afterwards.
All things relating to the revenue, internal and external,
coinage, Aveightii, and measure, copyright, bankruptcy, patents,
and other like matters are fedend concerns exclusively. The
Federal Council, or Executive of Switzerland, as provided in the
constitution, is elected by the two national legislative bodies who
met in joint session for tliat puipose at the capital city, Berne.
This session is held in the month of December in the chamber
of the National Council or popular branch, the meml)ers of which
liave been elected two months previously in October for a period
of three years. These newly elected membei-s with the deputies
of the upper House, or Council of the States, elect by ballot the
seven members 'of the Federal Council who are to serve for a term
of three veai-s. Two citizens of the same canton cannot be
memlxirs of tlie Federal Council at the same time.
The chairman and vice-chairman of the Fedeml Council are
selected for one year from among the seven members by the
Federal Assemblv. The cliainnan tlius selected b^ars for one
year the title of President of the Swiss Confedemtion. At the
expiration of liis one year*s term of office he cannot be re-elected
president nor even serve as vice-chainnan for the ensuing year,
but mast take his place as one of tlie ordinary membera, from
which it appeal's tliat our fashion of permitting a president to be
his own successor, if he ('an so pull the strings of politics, is not
in the least degree favored by the democracy of Switzerland.
The vice-chairman of one year may be selected by tlie Federal
Assembly as president the following year, but the same member
cannot he vice-chairman for two years current. The members
of the Federal Council take charge one at the head of each of
the seven great departments of state which are designated as
follows : —
454 THE STORY OF GOVEKNMKNT.
1. Foreign aflfaii-s.
2. Interior.
3. Justice and police.
4. Military.
o. Finance and customs.
6. Industry and agriculture.
7 . Posts and railways.
The council meets twice a week to discuss and determine all
matters of importance wliich come Avithin its province. No
decision wliich it may make is legal except not less than a
majorit}', or four membei's, is present. Any one of the members
can submit to either of the chamhei-s, bills of his own initiative
having relation to his own department. The council as a whole
can also submit to the legislature drafts of such measures of
public legislation as it deems wise.
All of the membei-s of the executive have the right to appear on
the floor of either chamber, and to speak for or against any
measure, but they are not allowed to vote in either house.
This privilege of addressing the ljiw-m€ikei"s in session enables
the executive to explain fully, publicly, and without reserve,
their purposes and policy, and the membei's repeatedly avail
themselves of the opportunity. Is there not a hint here that our
nation might take with i)rotit — namely, to make the Cabinet
oilicei'S cfnirte»y members of Congress, with a voice to explain
all matte i*s, but not a vote?
A very singular spectacle, however, — at least it Avould appeal*
so to tlie average American, — presents itself occasionally in
connection Avith tlie membei's of the executive fiddressing the
chambei-s. It has sometimes occurred that they held contrary
opinions on the sul)ject matter of the legislation under discussion,
and the unique siglit has been Avitnessed not unfrequently of one
member of the executive speaking strongly in favor of a measure
who Avas immediately followed by one of his executive colleagues
in opposition.
There is really nothing stmnge in this, when one comprehends
the deiiKH'i'atic characler of the executive, Avliich is practically a
board of manage i-s acting Avithin the constitution under the chair-
manshi]) of tlie president. But it should be undei'stood that their
SIMPLF RErUBLICANISM.
455
election is not a purtily iiitrty victory. They are usually selected
to represent, as far as jn-aeticabl*', all the shades cjf party opinion
in the National Council.
There is a wlioleaome deniocnitic feeling, the growth of cen-
turies, among the majority in the Swiss Chamheix, whieh is ready
to concede that the executive sliouM represent ijartie-s, so that
the true democratic spirit may prevail.
The iircsidi-iii roct-ivt-s alKiut *2,700, and eai-li of the other
iiicnibei-s <>( thf I'miiu'il alHnit S'2,4ftO a yi-ar for the services
tliey render. The f'uiuu-il of Slates, nv snialler House <if the
Federal AsseiiiMy, consists of fnity-four members. Each can-
ton, large oi- small, is equally I'cpresented in this chamWr by
two members. In some cantons these members are elected by
the legislatures, as are the senatoi-s of the TJnited States, while
in others they aie elected by the whole body of the voters by
454 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
1. Foreign aflfaii-s.
2. Interior.
3. Justice and police.
4. Militaiy.
o. Finance and customs.
6. Industry and agriculture.
7. Posts and railways.
The council meets twice a week to discuss and determine all
mattei's of importance which come Avithin its province. No
decision which it may make is legal except not less than a
majoi'ity, or four membei's, is present. Anj^ one of the members
can submit to either of the chambei-s, bills of his own initiative
having relation to his own department. The council as a whole
can also submit to the legislature drafts of such measures of
public legislation as it deems wise.
All of the meml)ei"s of the executive have the right to appear on
the Hoor of either chamlxjr, and to speak for or against any
measure, but they are not allowed to vote in eitlier house.
This privilege of addressing the law-makei*s in session enables
the executive to explain fully, imblicly, and without reserve,
their purposes and policy, and the memlK^i-s repeatedly avail
themselves of the opportunity. Is there not a hint here that our
nation might take with proHt — njiiuely, to make the Ca])inet
offi(*ei*s eonrteay members of Congress, willi a voice to explain
all matte i*s, but not a vote?
A very singular spectacle, however, — at leiist it would appear
so to the average American, — presents itself occasionally in
connection with tlie members of the exei*utive addressing the
chambei-s. It has sometimes occurred that thev held contrarv
opinions on the subject matter of the legislation under discussion,
and the uni([ue sight has been witnessed not unfrequently of one
meml)er of the ex(*eutive speaking strongly in favor of a meiisure
Avho was immediately followed by one of his executive colleagues
in oj)position.
There is really nothing strange in this, when one comprehends
the democratic character of the executive, which is practically a
board of manage i*s acting within the constitution under the chair-
manshi]) of the i)resident. But it should l^e undei-stood that thoir
SlMFLir RKl'UBLICANISM.
455
election is not a purely lutrty victory. They ai-e usually selected
to represent, as fai' as jmicticablf, itl! tlie sluides of jxirty opinion
in the Miitioiiiil Council.
There is a wlioleaome deniocnitie feeling, the growth of cen-
turies, among the majority in the Swiss Cliaiiibei's, which is ready
to eouoede that the executive should itpresent parties, so that
the true democi"atic spirit may prevail.
-^2-^^^:^^^^
Tlie pu-si.U'Mt rL-u(>ivfs alM.ut *2,7y0, and each of the other
iiifinlK'rH i>f till- ronm-il almut -'^2,400 a year for tlie services
they render. Tlu' Cnuncil <if States, or smaller House of the
Feilei'al Assenihly, i-oiisiKts of fui'ty-fonr luemhers. Each can-
ton, large or small, is e(|ually represented In this chamlx?r by
two menibeiK. In some cantons these niemhei's are elected by
the legi.ilatui-es, as are the senators of tlie United States, while
in othere they an- elected by the whcde bodj' of the voters by
456 THE STORY OF OOVEBNMENT.
•
ballot or by the ancient democratic assembly of the people called
the LanAsgeineinden.
The duration of their teiin of office is left entirely to the can-
tons, so that some cantoiLs elect for one year, and othei"S for three
yeai-s. The Council of Stiites selects a president and vice-
president from among their number in a manner similar to tin*
National Council, but neither of tliese officials can l)e chosen from
the deputies of any canton, a deputy of which was president in
the ordinary session immediately preceding. Neither can depu-
ties of the same canton serve as vice-president tor two current
ordinary sessions. The membei's of this house are paid bj' their
respective cantons, save that Avhen any are engaged on committee
work during recess they are paid from the national treasury.
The National Council or popular branch of the Federal Assem-
bly (or Congress) consists of one hundred and forty-nine membera
returned by forty-nine electoral districts. Each member is elected
by twenty thousand of the whole population, but fractions of
population above ten thousand are competent, according to the
constitution, to elect a member. The electoral districts are laid
out within the cantonal boundaries like the congressional electoral
districts in the United States, but while in the latter they are
determined by the legislatures of each state, the Swiss Federal
Assembly attends to that business which is denied to the cantons.
The basis of representation to the National Council is the
Federal census which is taken every ten veal's. The number of
membei's to which a canton is entitled mnges from one returned
by Uri from its one electoral district to twenty -seven returned by
Berne from its six districts. Eveiy male Swiss of twenty -one
yeai-s of age is entitle<l to cast as many votes as there are memlxim
for his electonil district. The method of voting is entirely within
the control of the cantons, and it diffei-s very much as it does
among the states of the Union. In some places the ballots are
sent to th(» house of the voter to bt* marked, while in others he
must present himself at the polling j)lace to secure a ballot.
How manv valuable citizens there are in this land of business
and money-getting who would like to have ballots sent round to
their houses, and be saved the trouble of going to the i)ollsI
Tlie candidates to the National Council must l^e elected at
HIMPI.K IlKITIlI-ICAKiaM.
tlie tii'st or .sccoiiil killot by an absolute majority of all the votes
cast, Init if a tiiinl Imllot is retjuii-eil a plurality of votes will be
sufficient. Tlie general election is lieM triennially mi the
Sunday of (Ictolwr.
458 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The National Council meets in Berne in oi-dinaiy session on
the first Monday of June, and when it assembles again on the first
Monday of December for the second portion of the session, a
president and vice-president of the National Council are chosen.
A special session can be held at any time when the occasion
demands it. Its members are paid a sum equal to about $i per
day for every day they are actuivUy present during the session.
But if anyone fails to answer to his name Avhen the roll is called
that day's jmy is lost to him except he can give a good excuse
satisfactory to the Secretary of the Chamber. Every member
receives travelling expenses at the rate of about five cents a mile
for every mile travelled on sessional business.
The two chambers together form the Fedeml Assembly. They
elect the members of the Federal Council, or executive, tlie
Federal Tribunarl, or judiciary, and the general -in-chief in time
of war. Their scope of power when sitting includes the making
of general or special laws within the limits prescribed by the
constitution.
Neither chamber of the assembly can do any valid business,
unless there is an absolute majority of all the members of that
chamber present. Any member of either chamber can introduce
such proposals for the enactment of new laws iis he deems right,
and they must be acted upon as a matter of coui^e. Any single
voter or body of voters in a canton can do likewise. This is the
right of initiative, as it is called.
A member of either chaml)er can move in his own body that
certain legislation is desirable. If his general proposal is favor-
ably received it will be referreil to the Fedeml Council for the
purpose of having a proper bill drawn upon it which will come
l>efore the avssembly for discussion. Or the Federal Council may
endoi-se the project itself, proceeding on it« own initiative; or
a canton can exercise the right of initiative by correspondence;
or a certain lx)dy of citizens can exercise the right. It should
be remembered, however, that every bill, arising through the
right of initiative, must pass through the liands of the Federal
Council Avho make such recommendations in reference to it as
they deem proper before placing it before the assembly.
When a bill is laid before either chamber by the Federal
SIMPLE REPUBLICANISM. 459
Ooonoilf ft special oommtttee is selected to consider Hnd raport
upon it. When the committee report, and the bill has been
debated, the vote in takc^n. I£ passed, it is then sent to tlie other
chamber where, if the decifiion is also favorable, it Ix'comeB hiw
npoa its promulgation by the Federal Coum^il in the oth<!ial
gazette.
But it is now subject to the refei-enduju. If thirty ihnnsand
citizens whose mimes are on the voting 1it<t«, or eight cantons
acting in their sovereign character, make a demand within two
months after the passage of any general law not declared urgent
at thD time of its introduction, it must be submitted in a short
time to the popular vote. If a majtirity of the people vot« No,
the measui'e is killed ; if Yes, it becomes law. This is the famouit
Swiss referendum to v/hich pure advanced democi-acy there is
something analogous in a dissolution of Parliament in England,
and an appeal to the country when a ministry is defeated by a
few votes on any measure, but in our government there is nothing
of this kind t/et.
The popular initiative and referendum are the i>eculiar and
genuine offspring of that glorious democracy wliose ancestots
l>enned the great charter of their ancient liberties in 1291, and
defended it in hloody conflict only a few years after the bbhops
and barons wrung tlie reluctant, trembling signature from King
John at Unnnymede. The referendum means the submission of
every general law passe<l by representatives to the people them-
selves for their direct action thereon. It is pure democracy.
It places the veto jiower where in eveiy democracy it should
properly belong — in the people — not in a governor or president.
It is the democratic metho<I of the New England town meeting
applied to the State and nation.
The principle of the referendum was adopted centuries ago by
the diet of the thirteen cantons, the membera of which had to
refer (ad audiendum et referendum) to their respective cantons all
their proceedings for endorsement or rejection. The evolutionary
development of this principle secures to Switzerland to-day, as
has been stated at the opening of this sketch, the best form of
democratic government on earth.
There are two kinds of the referendum in Switzerland: the one
460 THE STORY OF GOVKUNMENT.
compulsory and the other optional. The compulsory form
originally had but reference to one point; an amendment to the
constitution wliich had to l)e submitted to the popular vote some-
what similar as a constitutional amendment would be voted upon
by the States of the American Union. The optional referendum
in federal matte i-s has already been touched upon. The refer-
endum now prevails throughout Switzerland except in. a few of
the old cantons of small population where the landsgemeinden
or open air popular assemblages of all the voters make it passible
to take the popular vote at once.
Sir Francis O. Adams, the late British Minister Plenipotentiary
to Switzerland, speaking of tlic referendum says: "Ithius given
luick to the people of Switzerland rights originally possessed by
tliem in most of tlie old cantons but partly or wholly lost in
the course 6f time. As to the moral effect which the exercise of
this institution has had upon the people we are assured that it is
admitted to be salutary even by advei"saries of democratic goveni-
jnent."
The Swiss people do not dread much the wiles of the lobby, the
seductive intlucncL* of the coiporation attorneys, or even the direct
work of tht* coi'rn[)ter, foi* thcv have an ellicient and never failing
corrective at hand which tliev can administer innnc(Uatelv throuirh
the referendum. If the initiative and n^V-rendum systems pre-
vailed ill the States of the American rnion, is it not likely that
many bad laws would lu* soon wiped fi-oni our statutes and a few
additional <rood ones enacted?
Professor Elv, in his excellent work ""Taxation in American
States and Cities," mentions a strong case in |)«)int where he says:
"'The last convention of th(» dominant political parly in a certain
Stiite adopted a platform in which it Wiis demanded that corp(n-a-
tions should pay their fair share of taxes. The party pledged
itself to change the laws of taxation so as to meet the require-
ments of this plank in their platform in cjuse the party received a
majority. The taxation of corporations was the rallying cry of
the campaign. The candidati^s of tlui party received large
majorities, and a bill to tax corporations was introduced in the
legislature. This bill was defeated by the efforts of the attorney
of one of the most powerful railroad corporations in the United
SIMPLE REVUBLICANISK. 461
States, and of the attorney of a great telegraph company. Of
these two attorneys one was president of the convention of the
dominant party to which reference lias been made, and the other
wrote the platfonn."
What severer commentary could Ih) made by a critical foreigner
opposed to democnitic principles on our country as a successful
democi-acy, than the bare sttitementof such an incident furnishes?
Now, if the Swiss initiative and referendum prevailed in the
State where tlie occurrence to whi(!h Professor Elv makes reference
took place, no two corporation attorneys could defeat the wishes
of the people nor could even the wholesale corruption of the
legislatin-e, which was unquestionably elected in that case cliiefly
on the issue of the proper taxation of corporations.
Every one iu*(piainted witli practical politics in the United
States can duplicate Professor Ely's illustmtioii regarding the
tremendous power which cor])orations, syndicates, and trusts
exercise in shaping legislation to their own advantage, and in
most instances against the pul)lic welfare. Tliese powers are
continually defeating the will of the people b}' corrupting the
legislatures, and the people witliout a referendum {ire powerless.
In the Clintons tlie sovereignty inheres in tlie whole people
perpetually, and tlu^ opening deelanition of each of their consti-
tutions asserts that principle explicitly. Tlie constitution of
Ziirich, for instanire, states in its first article that the power
of the state rests on the totality of the people; which j)Ower
is exeiled directly through the voting citizens, and indirectly
throutrh the authorities and officials Avhom thev elect ov cause to
l)e selected.
Tlie ancient landsgenieinilen, or open-air assemblies, Avhich
obtained among the old cantons from time inunemorial, prevailed
until 1848, when they were abolished by Zug and Schwyz. But
the ancient (custom still exists in Appenzell, Glaurus, Unter-
walden, and Uri.
Let us witness the time-honored proceedings in Uri. It is the
first Sunday in May, The landammann, or governor of the
canton, having attended mass in the village church, which is not
large enough on this occasion to hold a quarter of the worship-
pers, heads a procession of the whole congregation from the
462 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
church door to the ancient place of meeting, which is a meadow
not far from the town of Altdorf. The landammann is escorted
by ushers garbed after the fashion of a by-gone age, in black and
yellow, the colors of their canton. Upon an ancient banner,
borne before him, appears the cantonal aims of Uri, a bull's head
on a yellow ground, while quaintly tlressed men carry aloft
upon poles old wild bull's horns of enonnous size, said to be
the identical horns that sounded the charge for the men of Uri
over four centuries ago against the mail-clad knights of Charles
the Bold, of Burgundy, on the ten-ible field of Morat,
** When the Switzer phalanx on the Morat field swept on
Like a ])ine-clad liill
, By an earthquake's will
Hurled the valley upon."
The landiimmaiin, having arrived at the meadow, accompanied
only by his secretary, takes up a position in the centre of the
crowd at a table. The people sit or stand around this table,
which is on a slight elevation. When silence is secured, the
landammann makes a statement respecting all the important
mattei-s which have any bearing on the interests of the people of
the canton, the voters of whidi are now assembled before liim.
When he concludes, there is profound silence for some time, for
every one is offering up a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the
])ast year's blessings; but they pray strong rather than long, and
soon the business of the landsjremeinden l)e<rins.
Every man wlio desires to speak can do so as long as he pleases,
and eveiy subject of special interest is disc'ussed with great
decorum by the oldest men orenerally from the different com-
munes of tlie canton. At last when all debatable matter has
been disposed of the ofHcei's for the coming year are elected.
The landammann, whose oilice luus expired, now delivers up his
charge to the people of the canton with an aflirmation that he has
injured no one voluntarily, and he asks pardon of any citizen who
may think himself aggrieved.
The new landannnann then stands forward, and before the
assembled multitude takes the prescribed oath of office witli great
solemnity; after Avhich the whole people swear to obey him, to
serve their country, and respect tlie laws. The other state offi-
464 THE STORY OB^ GOVERNMENT.
cials are now elected by a show of hands. Then the descendants
of the men who helped to draw the Peqietual Alliance Ti-eaty of
1291 adjourn for one year.
Most of the cantons have a representative fonn of government
tv^ith provision for the referendum when duly demanded. In
Basel fifteen hundred citizens can exercise the popular initiative,
while the referendum is compulsory for all laws, i-esblutions,
and conventions. In Schwj^ and Vaud the referendum is
optional; in the fonner, the demand must l>e made by two
thousand votei*s; in the latter, by six thousand. In all tlie other
cantons where the compulsory referendum does not exist, the
number of votei*s I'equired to dcmiind it in writing varies from
fifteen hundred to live thousand.
The State Council or executive of nearlv all- the cantons
appoints the judi(riid officials of the i*espective canton for a term
of yeai*s; then one permanent tribunal for civil and criminal
causes and juries for the latter. In tlie French cantons the laws
are based on the Code Xapoleon; while the Gennan cantons have
peculiar codes of their own, and the oldest cantons have an
extensive common law to which the courts give effect equally
with their written law.
The conmiunes or townships are the ])asis on which rests the
whole structure of Ue[)ul)lican institutions in Switzerland. The
peo[)le of each possess connuon interests, live in the same vici-
nage, and are self-governed. The (*omnnnies existed before the
canton or the confedei'ation, and the people fiiinly believe that
the natural growth of Democratic lil)crty is upward from the
commune to tli(^ canton, the latter being but an aggregation of
independent connnuncs, and from the canton to the confedemtion.
Each comnume is practically in(le[)endent within its own
boundaries, but the canton exercises a slight supervision over
each in mattei*s relating to education, \\\i} repairs of roads, and so
forth. .V number of connnunes in a canton form a communal
district. Some cantoiLs have several districts; othei*s have but
one. A communal district council is elected to attend to certa,in
duties which are prescril)ed by the connnunes fonning the district.
All citizens who have the right to vote have their names placed on
the voting list of their commune for public inspection.
lI-inu ur THE srouu.
466 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
That the Swiss voters take a lively interest in national as well
as in communal affairs may be gathered from the fact that, with
less than a population of three millions (according to the census
of 1880) at a voting held on November 26, 1882, under the
referendum, a total of 490,149 votes were polled for and against
"a law authorizing the appointment of a Federal Secretary of
Education," and the measure was rejected by nearly two to one.
The communes perform many public services, and enter into
many undertakings for the benefit of the people which may be
characterized as essentially socialistic. These undertakings vary
in their nature. For instance, in the commune of Grindelwaldt
which is in the communal district of Interlaken, in the canton
of Berne, each householder is entitled to a certain amount of
wood annually on the payment of a small sum of money. Any
householder not l)elonging to the commune can get wood from
the communal authorities, but he must pay over fifty per cent,
more for it than the resident. The money received for fire\.'ood
is paid in salaries to the communal forestei-s, who cut the timber,
plant young trees, and take care of them. The inhabitants of
nearly all the connnunes have pasture lands in common.
But while the rules, regulations, and customs of the communes
differ in these respects, the freedom which they possess to make
the most of their opportunities cannot be questioned. This free-
dom they have preserved and defended against every attack since
the beginning of their history. The local self-government of the
commune has been the cradle and the sehoolhouse which evolved
the present Swiss Confederation.
Educated by the past, and jealous of their national birthright
— liberty, — the Swiss people evidently do not propose to have
it filched from them, slowly but surely, under mere forms of
representative government. Hence they have safeguarded the
shrine with the popular initiative and referendum. Not a few
representatives, or a select committee, but the people alone,
standing before the ballot-box, is their court of last resort to pass
upon all important geneml laws.
This is true democracy, worthy of the ancient commonwealths
of that mountain land which has preserved its liberty for centu-
ries in the midst of powerful and hostile foes. Well may the
SIMPLE RBPUBLIGANISM. 467
average Switzer quote these words from the play of William
Tell : —
** I have thought of other lands, whose storms
Are summer flaws to those of mine, and Just
Have wished me there; the thought that mine was free
Has checked that wish, and I have raised my head
And cried in thraldom to that fuiious wind:
* Blow on ! Tliis is the land of Liberty ! ' "
No historical sketcli of Switzerland could seem complete with-
out some mention of William Tell, but unfortunately the majority
of modern authority in mattei-s of tradition incline to the opinion
that the tyrant Gesler was a very amiable administrator of jus-
tice, and that Tell was not a good enough marksman to shoot the
famous ap[)le on his son's head for the sad but sufficient reason
that William Tell never existed save in the imagination of a poet
who thought he ought to exist. We present a picture of him,
liowever, according to an artist who agrees with the poet, and
i-epresents the traditionary hero escaping from a boat and the
trammels of historical research on to the unshakable rock of
pojmlar love and honor.
The varied climate of Switzerland affords the people, despite
the limited amount of arable ground Avhich so mountainous a
country supplies, ample opportunities for varied agriculture. On
the u[)i)er reaches of the Alps grazing and the arts which depend
on it are largely priu'tised. In the warmer valleys and slopes the
vine flourishes so well that wine-making is an industry in most
of the cantons. Water power is of course plentiful, and linen,
cotton, and woollen spinning are extensively followed, while the
watches and pill-l)oxes of the Swiss are famous all over the
world.
Switzerland is, however, too small for the support of its popu-
lation. Accordingly, tlie Swiss, as domestic servants, inn-
keepei'S, couriei"s, and waiters, are found in every city of Europe
and America. Indeed, at one time, the word "Suisse" became so
synonymous with hall porter, that in Paris such a functionary is
still known as '"a Swiss," and in many pai*ts of France the
church l>eadle is still called the "Suisse." At an earlier date
they liired out as soldiers. The Bourbon monarchs bad their
Swiss guards, and the Pope enjoys a like luxurj'.
468 THE 8TOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
This habit of tiiking service abroad — as in truth had the Scots
and Irish, and for much the same reason, namely, the little which
was to keep tliem at home, obtained for these moimtalneeis an
invidious reputation whicli is embodied in the proverb '"Xo
money, no Swiss," th(mgh the proper meaning of it is, that
without pay you cannot have a servant. The king in Hamlet
says, "Where are my Switzei's? Let them guard the door." In
truth, to this day, the Swiss, who is tlic most liberty-loving of
men, and, like the Scot, the most liomesick after a long sepai-a-
tion, lives to a great extent by attending on the stranger.
Switzerland has been nicknamed tlie '"playgnmnd of Europe."
Every year its lovely valleys and mountains are inundated witli
thousands of holiday makei-s, and hence, a hirge portion of its
population is directly or indirectly dependent on ministering to
the conveniertce or the amusement of this swarm of pleasure
seekei's. Hotel keeping on a great scab* is, especially for the
summer months, an important "industry." The upland pastures
are utilized for cattle breeding and dairy farming Tlie most
enteri)rising of the Alpine villagei*s make money by acting as
guides and portei'S to the more ambitions tourists, and even sinct*
railways have p'_Mit*trat(nl the most unpromising places there is
plenty of roOm for the numerous people who have something to
do with lioi-ses, eitlun- in the shape of dnvei-s or of post-honse
keepers.
Peasant farmei"s are almost as numerous as in France, whcde
cantons l)eing divided up into these little territories. In the
well-situated localities the [)easant proprietoi's are, as a rule,
1 Kilter off than their French neighbors, being educated, and very
often quite reiined. MoreovtM*, when their property is small,
they have generally some other occu])ation by which to ludj) tluMr
income, otherwise they would sometimes In* hard en(Migh pinched.
Take, for examj)le, tht» Canton Berne, one of the most thriving
portions of (ierman Switzerland. Taxes are high, and every year
numbei-s of peiusant pro[)rietoi's are forced to emigrate, owing to
the difliculty of keeping their heads above water. Land is dear
and the j>easant has, like all his class, a passion for IxuTowing on
mortgage, either to round off his pro[)erty or to im])rr)ve it. There
are mortgages in existence which were contracted more .than two
i
i I
8IMPL£ nKPl'llLlCANlSM.
469
liumlred yeaiv ago, aiitl bid fiiir tii lituig like iniUfttoneH roniul the
)wek« of genemtioim yet unborn.
The new lendvr is, liowever, less toleitint than the old one.
The spifjul of bankx, railways, and joint stock comjumies lias
ninde it etwifi' to invest money than formerly; the old capitalists
press for tlieir money, and the professional money-lender is apt to
demand the in-
terest when
d n c , or f()re-
elose without
mnuh refjurd
for tlicsuscL'pti-
hilitifs iif the
nmloubtL'dly tilt:
Cimton Vinid.
A Vandois [wiis-
ant, wit lu went y ^ "" ^ "■'
or thirty acres of land ne li ilf of it under \ines tht icst meadow
and jiastiiie, iuid it hit of fi rtit and miiNli i>, one of the most for-
tunate of men, aa iihk h to he mvied iin (he inhabitant of Sniithern
("alifomia who owns his lumeste'Ml
True, lie works haitl hut the A\oik is jileisant and though
ginpes iiiay 1)e a precarious ei-op, tliey seldom wholly fail, and a
470 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
good vintage represents a fair proportion of the value of his land.
The bit of forest supplies him with firewood and timber for
mending his carts and repairing his house and barns; the marsh
furnishes rushes for bedding his cattle. One way and another,
he not only contrives to make both ends meet, but to lay by
something every year as a dower for his daughters and a provision
for his sons. On the sunny slopes of the Lake of Geneva, from
Chillon to La C8te, many peasants may be found to whom this
description would apply. And as nearly every inhabitant of these
lacustrine communes has at least a bit of hind, poverty in Canton
Vaud is almost imknown, and pauperism does not exist.
Education, moreover, both primary and secondary, is free of
cost. Ever}' commune possesses a communal estate, the income
from which is applied to the diminution of local rates, and to the
bringing up and education of the childi-en of deceased members —
a Swiss commune being, in effect, a benefit society, whose meni-
l)ers are mutually responsible for each other's support in case of
need. An instance occurred not long ago of a "ne'er-do-weel"
meml)er of a Vaudois commune being paid '^1,500* to al) jure his
membei'sliip and l^etake liiniself with liis family to America.
Strangei*s are admitted to the freedom of a commune only by pay-
ments, which vary according to the communal possessions. In
the cominniie of Montreux the entrance fee is al)out 8150.
Strangei"s who fall into want are, if Swiss, temporarily relieved
and sent to tlieir native communes. Foreignei's are simply
escorted to the nearest frontier and left there.
Even in the colder Jura country, where gm[)es ripen with diffi-
culty, the thrifty Vaudois have managed to extinguish pau-
perism, by dint of these little industries which have already been
mentioned as forming part of the secondary occupation of the
small farmei'S. The result is that, while on the French side of
the iniaginarj^ line which se[)arates the two cantons, the houses,
though Imilt of stone, are squalid, the windows dirty, the flooi*s
likewise, the men who live in them grimy, and the women
frowsy; the dwellings and tlieir inhabitants on the Swiss side of
the border are smart and cleanly. Every man willing to work
has the means of living, and the communal organization secures a
provision as well for the sick and aged as for fatherless children.
SIMPLE KEPUBUCANISM. 471
doasing from the Fraache Comt^ into Canton Vaud ia like step,
ping from a disorderly kitchen into a dainty parlor. The fitst
habitation on the Swiss side of the border is a neat cottage with
shutters painted in the Vaudois colors — green and white, and,
as you may see tlirougli the 0[)en doors and transparent windows,
as clean inside as it is iiTeproachable outside. You never find a
Vaudois who cannot sign liis name ; you rarely find a Frenchman
who can. The staple industry, after agriculture, is pill-box and
clock-case making, for which suitable timber is found in the
neighboring forests. Tliere are no factories; tie men work at
their own bouses and before
nearly every cottiige iloor is to
be seen a pile of timber sawn
into shapes suitable for the
bench and the lathe,
On the slopes of Mont Tendre
and the shores of Lac de Joux
are made the finest watches in
the world. Ou-onographs, re-
peaters, watches with three or
four dials which give simultan-
eously the time of London,
Paris, Berlin, and Xew York,
act in jwrpetual calendar, and wlien cased and regulated at
Geneva or Berne, sell at prices varj-ing from $200 to $1,000. They
might, of coui-se, l)e manufactiued elsewliei-e, but, as n matter of
fact, it is only in the remote and lofty valley of Lac de Joux —
Ija Vall<ie, par en-dlence, to everj' Switzer — that they are made,
study, practice, and an aptitude wliicli has become hereditary,
having rendensd the peasants of this ixirtion of Switzerland the
most skilful in the world. Yet, considering the eluvracter of
their work, thoir wages are 8uri»risingly low — the men making
from f3.75 to S/i.SO a week, while the work which can be done
1^ women is paid at the rate of forty cents a day. Families,
however, work at home so that their combined eaniings are con-
siderable. With few of them is watchmaking the sole profession.
Nearly every one of the La Vall<Se people is a fanner also, and
divides his time pretty equally between horology and husbandry.
472 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
How watchmaking became the sole iudustry of the valley, how,
slowly and painfully, with what practice and patience, the people
of Joux have become the deftest horologists in Christendom,
would take too long to tell. They doubtless owe something to
nature. The very isolation and remoteness of their position,
their brief summers and silent wintei's, are favoraUe to that con-
centration of mind and freedom from distraction which the pursuit
of so delicate a calling imperatively demands. The art and mys-
tery of fine and complicated Avatchmaking are taught only to
meml)ers of their own families.
Outsiders are as rigorously excluded from tlie profession as are
laymen from practice at the British Bar, for tlie Jurassic horologist
has no intention of making his art too chea]).
The rise of so many small industries in the Frcncli and Swiss
Jura, the manufacture of pill-boxes, clock-cases, wooden pipes,
s})ectiulcs, paste diamonds, and fine files, is doubtless in some
mciisure explained by the geographical ])osition of the country and
its climatic conditions. La Vallce, f(U' instance, is thirty-four
hundriMl feet above sea level; the wintei's are hard, tlie summeis
short; the land (cannot keep the [)ojmlatioii that lives on it, and a
few venerations ajj-o it became necessary for ilw mountaineers
to (levelo[) some iiidustiy or emigrate, at a time when emigra-
tion was iieilliei- easy nor populai*. Manufacturing in a region
utterly without coal, and, a century ai^-o, almost destitute of
roads, was clearly impossible. But tlierc^ was and still is timber
in abundance, and necessity suggested, in one case, the making
of pill-boxes, in another, the making of clock-cases.
From clock-cases to clocks there is only a stc]), and the making
of clocks leads, by natural transition, to the construction of
Avatches. About the year 170G clock and watch making was first
introduced into Le Chenit, one of the three conununes of La
Yall(?e. The result has been that the population, which at one
time wixs only one hundred and sixty, is now six thousand, and
one of the most prosperous in Switzerland.
A few miles from Le Pont, at the northern extremity of Lac de
Joux, lies the town of Vallorbe, consisting, like La Valine, of a
confederacy of three communes, the inhabitants of which are
engrossed in the fabrication of fine files for watchmaking, and of
474 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
scythes, sickles, and other implements for local consumption.
The files of Vallorl)e are almost as widely known as the watch
movements of La Valine. Iron is found in the neighboring moun-
tains, but as nowadays iron cannot be profitably smelted without
coal, the file-makers use for the most part English steel, which
they find best suited to their purposes, and they have a way of
preparing it with charcoal and without oil wliich is peculiarly
their own.
To this art the superiority of their files and cutlery is said to
be largely, if not altogether due. There are a few large firms
here. But the majority of the workmen are peasants living in
their own houses and tilling their own land, devoting themselves
to file-making only when the demands of agriculture admit of
indoor work. Possibly were the people to apply themselves more
constantly to one art, they might attain greater prosperity. The
variety of pui-suits relieves life of some of its monotony, and
favombly affects health, character, and mind. " The workman of
the country," says Vallolon Aubert, the historian of Vallorbe,
"holds himself very high: he must be treated with deference by
the master whom he serves, and will tolerate in him an air
neither of affected superiority nor of haughty scorn.
'^As touching morals, the people are religious, honest, faithful
to their wonl, and delicate on the point of honor." There is no
poverty at Vallorbe. When the old people are past work, they
are maintained by the commune, and children who have lost one
or both parents are also kept at the public cliarge. But in neither
case is there any discredit att4iching to the protirfes of the com-
mune. They are membei's of a benefit society with accumulated
funds, not paupers for the support of whom their more fortunate
neiglilx)rs have to pay an unwilling tax. There is a special fund
for the pui-pose mentioned, which produces about $1,000 a year.
When it is insufficient the deficiency is made good out of the
ordinary revenue of the commune, arising principally from land
and forests ; for the commune is bound not alone to bring up and
educate, but to put to trades the children of deceased members.
The story of the growth
of constitutional monarchy,
foi- whicli we have taken England as an
illusti-ation, is full of the most singular
and idtartling contrasts. Shakespeare has
been accused by some critics of being too much
of a courtier in his ivrilings, of toadying to
royalty ; but when one comes to consider how^ full of dramatic
incident, and how sadly illustrative of human destiny in its devel-
oping, rather than in its completed, state the lives of English kings
Iiave been ever since the battle of Hastings, one can readily under^
stand tliat a mind like Shakesiieare's might be artistically tempted
to write chiefly about kings and nobles, i-ather than to depict the
liumoi-s, follies, and disasters of the common people. One of the
most quoted lines written by the great dramatist, " Uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown." is a reflection that must force itself on
even the most careless and desultory reader of English annals.
William the Norman, when disembarking on the shore of Eng^
land, fell flat upon his face, — a token so appalling that it roused
a murmur of dismay among his men-atrarms, " Save us ; 'tis a
fearful omen I " But the leader, with ready presence of mind
(as great men alwa^-s try to do with Mis or foilurea), turned the
476 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
tumble to advantage by shouting to his men as he picked himself
up, "Fear ye, then, to see me clutching at this earth ? By the
splendor of God, I am only seizing my throne." ^
Yet, if there were anything in signs and tokens, it might seem
as if this fall of William were prophetic of the suigular disasters
that pui^ued the rest of his dynasty. Starting at first with the
mere military despotism of this adventurer, who crowned himself
after defeating King Harold and the Saxons, and apportioned the
lands of the conquered people among his followers, the constitu-
tional monarchy of England has evolved by a seiies of struggles
on the part of the feudal lords against the king for more power,
and of attempts by the king to raise money from the people, either
for his private debaucheries, or to prosecute w^arlike adventures in
other lands. And this conflict, now between king and nobles, then
again between king and common people, has been complicated
from time to time by curious encroachments and attempted en-
croachments on the Church hy the king, and in turn by the
Church on royal and popular rights.
England luis not only been the most pugnacious of nations out-
side of her borders, but has had muie internal disturbance in
proportion to the length of her national life than any country with
whose history we are familiar. In detailing this growth, however,
there are many reigns not necessary to consider, because the popular
mind was taken up with foreign wars, or because the quarrels be-
tween the nobles and the king offset each other, and the people made
little or no headway in obtaining rights and privileges which to-
day seem to us the merest basic necessities of eomfort^ible existence.
For instance, although King Harold, the last of the Saxons, is
a striking, pathetic figure, losing crown and life so soon after his
taking the oath of oflice, a constitutional ceremony that marks the
popular element of Saxon sovereignty as distinct from the military
dictiitorship of the Norman conqueror, we do not dwell upon his
reign because it was so brief, full of promise for the masses, but
with no chance for such promise to ripen. Nor shall we consider
the reign of Alfred the Great, who was a mild paternalist trying
to l)e a popular sovereign.
»T'ie j*aine juie«'(lnto i«< told of (^a-sar a thousaml years lu'fore. Possibly the Norman duke
had heard of this. I'ossibly it was* only history repeating itself.
478 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The first reign, as it seems to us, in which the people as a body-
came into any strong prominence and were regarded as anything
more than mere pawns to be sacrificed at pleasure for the benefit
of kings, knights, and bishops, was the reign of Henry II. grand-
son of William of Normandy, beginning in 1154. For thirty-five
years Henry governed England well under the greatest difficulties.
Amid personal sorrows of a heart-rending nature, this great man
tried to give the whole people an orderly and comfortable
government.
It is perhaps one of the greatest, and certainly, like that of
George HI., one of the saddest of regal histories. Henry was beset
by a cohort of greedy nobles anxious for more power to oppress the
people, and by a legion of lazy and tumultuous priests. He was
cursed with a bad wife who encouraged his sons to plot and rebel
against him, and his troubles with the Church led to an act which
clouded his whole life with passionate remorse. He had hoped, by
making one of his familiar friends, Thomas h Becket, in whom he
thoroughly trusted. Archbishop of Canterbury, to be able to rule
the turbulent priests and so have plenty of time to keep the nobles
within due bounds. But no sooner was k Becket raised to this
lofty eminence than he tried to turn himself into a pei*8onal rival
of his monarch ; not only refusing to take the oath of obedience to
the ancient customs of the country, but causing every other
priest, except one, to qualify this oath of allegiance by the clause,
'* Saving my order."
All that King Henry desired Avas that a certain priest, who
had committed a horrible murder, should be delivered up to be
tried in the same court and in the same way as any otlier mur-
Jerer. Calling a solemn gathering in Westminster Hall, the king
demanded that in future all priests found guilty l)efore a clerical
court of crimes against the laws of the land should be considered
priests no longer and should be handed over to the common law
for punishment. Surely, a most reasonable request on the part of
a king, and a true step toward the equalization of all men before
the law, that is, before the collective conscience of all men.
From the refusal of the proud prelate and his insolent priests a
series of quarrels arose, in which the archbishop found countless
ways of annoying the poor king, already under a continual cloud
I
r!.
CONSTlTrriONAL MONAUt-HY. ■ioo
o£ family trouble, till ime day, when Heiiry burst forth passion-
ately, " Have I no one who will free me from this man?" some of
his frieiiAs took it as a sign that he wished the archbishop to be
murdeifd, and murdered he was by four knights, witliin the
sanctuary and holding one of the horns of the altar. Hubert, an
early iMiglisli judge, was killed in tlie same way and under the
same circumstances, and as the church was considered an asylum
in those daj-s. even for
a criminal pursued by
civil authorities, such a
crime committed in the
holy of holies was ae-
cou nted peculiarly
atrocious.
A .study of Ili'nry's
ehamctcr .satisfies thiit
his filial speech, wrung
from him in the torturir
of itassion, wils not thi-
expression of a deliti-
erate' desire or hint for
action ; hut it shadow-
ed his hk- ill .siiitc of
the Pope's furgiveness.
bopansc Tleniy II. was
warm of heart and hud
loved (he ohl. fiiiiidiar
friend who had Ix'tmy-
ed him, and who had
[wid till- })enidty of
treachery with his life. As this monarch lay in his last illness,
deserted by niuny of his nobles, while his army was fightinjf
against the Kinj; of France and his own son, Richard, a treaty of
peace was bn)nght him in writing, and with it was also bitiught
a list of English deserters from their allegiance whom he was
required to pai-don. That list was headed with the name of
John, his favorite son. This was the last stab that cut in twain
the great heart of the first Plantagenet, the first English king.
484 THE STOllV OF GOVERNMEXT.
except the Saxon Alfred, who had any conception of the rights
of the common people. Turning on his side, he groaned out,
" Let the world go ; I care for nothing more," and cursing the
liour of his birth and the children whom he left, he gave up the
battle of life.
There was one sweet romance in this reign, the story of Fair
Rosamond.^ It tells how this great king had one jewel of true
happiness, one rose of joy amid his crown of thorns ; that he
loved a fair girl and built her a beautiful bower in a park at
Woodstock, and the bower was built in a labyrinth that could
only be found by following the clue of a thread of silk. And the
legend goes that the bad queen, becoming jealous, found the c)ue
and confronted the sweet and gentle girl with a dagger and a cup
of poison, giving her the choice ; and the Fair Rosamond, after
many tears and prayers, all fruitless, took the cup and fell dead
in the happy garden where the birds sang on lovingly just the
same as they had sung before.
Now there was a Fair Rosamond, and the king loved her and
the bad queen probably hated her, but history tells us that we
must give up the bower, and the labyrinth, and the silk tlu-ead, and
the death by poison. As Dickens says in his charming way ^ " I
am afmid Fair Rosamond retired to a nunnery near Oxford and
died there peacefully ; her sister nuns hanging a silken drapery
over her tomb and often dressing it with flowei*s in remembrance
of the youth and beauty that had enchanted the sad king when
he, too, was young and when his life lay fair before him."
The next important event in the history of England was the
signing of the Great Charter. This occurred on June 15, 1215,
in the pleasant field called Runymede, on the banks of the silver
Thames. Signing this charter was, perhaps, the most bitter pill
that an English king ever liad to swallow. And John, the mean-
est of the sons of the great Henry, did it with a very bad grace,
as indeed everything in his life he did with singularly bad
gi-ace, except the extracting of teeth, for he was one of the
most inventive and successful dentists on record. For if we may
be permitted to indulge for a moment in the political slang of the
present day. King John, up to the signing of the charter, had had
^This name is from two Latin words Rosa Mundi — meaning. Rose of the World.
CONMTITCTIOSAL MOSAllCHY.
485
A!i.y
a great pull on all tlic i«;opIe, but especially on the Jews, who
«-ere the most useful ami the most abused inhabitants of London.
Scott, iu liis Ivaiihiie, draws a very mild picture of John's char-
acter in his trwitnieut of Isaac of York, for John, like most of
his prcdeciissoi's and successors in office, even down to the present
ri.'if,'n, had ah\'ays
been in want, —
the royal want of
money, — and lie
utilized hispi-enig-
ative to the extent
<)f taking the i-ich-
est Jew he could
lind and telling
him that he must
fill the royal cof-
fers. On the Jew's
i^ef usal, J o Ii II or-
dered that a tooth
should lie pulled
out every day till
he consented : on
tlie eighth day the
unhappy Israelite
yielded. But the
hour of i-ecknniiig
came, and the chai^
ter forced from
John at Kunj'mede r
lirobiilily caused
liim more pain than
waa condensed in
the Jew's gum-ache
and was doubtless productive of more good to the people than liis
mckless squandering of the Jew's money.
This charter provided that the Church should be maintained in
all its rights ; that the barons should be relieved of oppressive
obligations as vassals of the crown ; the barons, in their turn.
486 THE STORY OP GOVEKNMKNT.
pledging themselves to relieve their vassals, the people ; that the
liberties of London and other cities should not be infringed ; that
foreign merchants should be protected ; that no man sliould be
imprisoned without a fair trial ; and that to no one should there
be any sale, delay, or denial of justice.
Brave words these, worthy of the bravt; Ixirons wlio forced the
mean and cowardly cur, who wore the crown, to sign them ; but at
the same time to the eye of posterity it seems as if the barons them-
selves found it almost as hiird a tatik to live up to this charter
as did the most contem[)tible creature that ever disgraced the
English throne. Anotlier provision of the charter was the
appointment of a council of twenty-five barons to see that John
kept as near to his word as possible, with power to declare war on
him if necessary.
"They have given me five and twenty over-kinga," cried the
hampered tyrant, as in a fit of rage riglit after signing, he rolled
on the floor of bis jmlace, biting sticks and straw.
We now come to one of the most curious reigns in England ;
curious on account of the character of the king, the length of time
that he was endured by the barons, and the gmat gains made, not
bi/ tlie people, but/or them, in the developmt'tit of constitutioniil
govern nient.
Heniy III. began to i-eign as a boy, in 1216, ii gi-eat council
meeting at Bristol, revising Mf^na ('harta and making Lord
Pembroke Regent or Protector of England, us the king was too
young to rule alone. Soon as he came of age Henry showed him-
self a true sou of liis father. He made oaths, and agreements.
and promises with wonderful ease, and broke them with an ease
more wonderful. Always in want of money he i-esoi-ted to all
sorts of tricks to obtain it, so tliat he gained tlie [Kipular title of
being " tlic sturdiest beggar in all England." He even took up
the cross, pretending that he wished to head a crusade and rescue
the tomb of tlic Saviour from the possession of infidels, and he
got permission fi-om the Pope to lay taxes on the English clerg;y.
But some of tlie clergy stood up for their rights. « The Pojw
td Kiiij together," growled the liishop of London, "may take
off my bead, but if they do, beneath it tliey may find
ildier's helmet. I'll pay nothing,"
But s<
^^Qd K
^^^^B m:
^^H)ldi
CONSTITDTIONAL MONARCHY. 487
So Henry hod to give up his (;riisa<le against the pockets of the
prieBts. Then he badgered tlie barons in every possible way to
increase his revenues, and after ten years' squabbling they made
Parliament vote him a large sura wliich he frittered away with
the usual royal rapidity. One of the most amusing things in thia
reign was the episode of the Sicilian throne. This happening to
be empty, the Pope obligingly offered it to Henry III. for his son,
Prince Edward, and gave the English king jiermission to levy a
special tax, mise an army and invade Sicily. But the barons and
the clergy, thinking t!i:it tlifjr king had already Ijeen altogether
too expensive a luxury re
fused to take any pa t tl e
Sicilian bn.siness, o o
tribute a farthing to t by
vote of Parliament ^V 1 ere-
upon the Pope offe ed h s
bargain to the King of Fran e
and a little while af er se t
to Henry 111. of E gla d a
little bill of ^100,000 f r not \ ^^fWBSO^^^^'O^ \
having taken adva tage of
the papal advice a 1 permis
sion to possess 1 n self of
Sicily.
Fancy, for the siike of co
trast between those dijs d ^ sadkk
our own, the ]jresent wise and
venerable Sui>reme Pontiff of that marvellous hierarchy, the
Catliolic Church, sending to our President advice, or permission,
to go to wai' with Chili, or to annex Canada, and then sending in
a little bill of $500,000 for not taking the advice.
King Henry gave the biirons so much trouble that finally the
great Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, who, though a foreigner
hf birth, was admired by the men of his order for his great abili*
ties, and beloved by the common people for his suavities, invented
a check upon the regal power which appears to be the germ of the
j^rese&t department of English government called the British Min-
istry ; a sort of intermediary between the commons and the crown.
488 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
This plan of Simon de Montfort, which he proposed to the
abject, thoroughly scared monarch at Oxford, was no less than a
Committee of Government, twelve men to be selected by the barons
and twelve men by the king. Henry agreed to this, but on
the return of liis brother Richard from abroad summoned up
courage enough to oppose the barons again ; and as they began
to quarrel among themselves the Earl of Leicester left the
kingdom in disgust. Then the people began to be dissatisfied,
thinking that the barons were not doing enough for them, so that
the chances for Henry HI. to be once more tlie real, instead of
nominal, lung of England brightened up again.
It was a common kingly trick in those days to play the people off
against the barons, or the barons off against the people, whichever
could be done most easily ; and even to-day shrewd politicians, in cer-
tain governments supposedly popular, sometimes succeed in shaping
their policies successfully for themselves, by tapping with one hand
the barrels of monopolists, while with the other they tickle the
people, as they fill their ears with promises of better legislation. So
Henry HI., or, as he should be called, Hemy the Ridiculous, told
the Committee of Government that he had decided to abolish
them, in spite of his oath, and seizing all the money in the treasury,
he shut himself up in the Tower of London. Having gained these
coigns of vantage, that is, the money and the Tower, he published a
letter, which he claimed to have received from the Pope, addressed
to the world in general and the English people in particular, inform-
ing them that for five and forty years he had been a just and excellent
king. It was very much as if Nero, who set Rome burning,
should have informed the populace that he did so to demonstrate
the necessity of having fire insurance companies.
But the Earl of Leicester, returning and joining the Earl of
Gloucester, took several of the royal castles and advanced on
London, at which the London people, who had always disliked
the king, were heartily pleased. Then Henry moved out of the
Tower and began scampering about the country till, managing to
secure the tassistance of the Scotch, he gave battle to Leicester and
the Londoners, and, after losing five thousand men, was captured,
whereupon the Pope promptly excommunicated the Earl of Leices-
ter ; but as the English people loved him he became the real king,
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
489
always, however, treating his cnptive, King Henry, with the great-
est respect, yet taking him along everywliere under guard as a
piece of royal furniture.
De Moiitfort, ill the year 1265, summoned tlie fii-at parliament
in which the ]iB(i|ile had any real share, and for several yeare
he governed Eng-
land witli strength
and tender ness
combined.
A new Parlia^
meiit was called in
Januaiy, 1265, to
Westminster, l)ut
the weakness of
the patriotic party
among the Itamn-
i^e was provi'd i>j-
the fact tluit unly
twenty-three earls
and liarons could
l>e found to .sit he-
side llie luuidrod
and twenty eeclesi- -
asties. Tliis aiith-
metical weakness ,
drove Earl Sinmn
to a constitutional
eliange of vast im-
port. As before,
he summoned two
knights fmm every
county. But lie
called a new force into English i>olitics when lie summoned to sit
beside them two citizens fixim every borough. The attendance
of delegates from tbe towns had long lieen usual in the county
courts, when any matter touching their immediate interests was in
question ; hut it was tlie writ issued by Earl Simon that fii-st sum-
moned the merchant and the trader to sit beside the knight of the
■.r^
atusADEit,
490 THE STORY OF GOVERNMEXT.
shire, the baron and the bishop in the parliament of the realm,
and so set the example and laid the foundation of the present
parliamentary system.
But King Henry's son, Edward, having escaped from custody,
succeeded in gathering an army of disaffected barons, defeated
De Montfort's son, and with the De Montfort banners advanced
on the Earl of Leicester. The face of this greatest of mediaeval
English statesmen flushed with joy as he beheld his own ban-
ners advancing to greet him ; but, whfen on nearer coming he saw
who carried the banners, he knew that the end of his just and
generous life was uix)n him. " Lord have mercy on our souk,"
quoth he, " for our bodies are Prince Edward's." He fought with
liis little army, however, till the hist ditch, and fell as a great man
always falls, greatest of all in failure. His enemies mangled his
body and sent it as a compliment to a certain noble dame, the
wife of his worst enemy ; for those were pleasant days and com-
pliments of this kind flew around easily as flies in summer.
But they could not unshape his memory, and for many years
afterwards the people always spoke of him as Sir Simon the
Righteous, crossing themselves as for a saint. And even though
he was dead, and mangled, and unburied, "a prey to dogs and
kites," the cause for which he died still lived and flourished. For
in great causes every step taken makes the movement faster, and
when once a new idea, if it is a true idea, or a just one, comes into
the world, though it may suffer a temporary defeat or eclipse, it is
sure to shine forth again and add to itself new lustre with every
successive century.
The notion that the people really had some natural rights in the
business of government, and that it was, or should be, something
more than a game of greed or glory between kings and nobles,
wjis now thoroughly alive in the English mind ; and though at the
death of De Montfort, Henry III. was restored to his public func-
tions, he was obliged to respect the great charter and the la^vs and
customs established by the Earl of Leicester, and a i^eriod of peace
ensued.
During this calm in the kingdom Prince Edward took up the
set out to the Holy Land on a crusade. There he had
itures, and came back to England after the death of
0ON8TIT0TIONAL MONARCHY.
his father to aacend the thi^one, laden with well-earned honors.
As a soldier of the eroas he had been a superb success, and his
return through different countries was made the occiision of much
international glorificatioii, so tluit on his arrival in England the
national jnide was as deeply and widely enlisted in his favor as
ever before or since in belialf of any great man. London gave
him an ovation almost equal to that which was given to Disraeli
in this century on his return fi-om Berlin bringing in triumph
"Peace with Honor."
But they did things in those old daj-s a little diffei-ently. It
is related that the return of Edtvard I., or Longshanks, wa he was
nicknamed, was celebrated by turning tlie conduits of the streets
and the fountains into rivers of red wine. — ■ typical, iwrhaps, of the
Saracen blood which bis sword had set flowing; the bouses were
tapestried outside with silk and cloths of gold and silver; and
bonfires were lit and oxen were roasted whole- But though Edward
came back in a blaze of [xipularity he soon tumbled into trouble,
— into a ditch from which his long legs were not agile enough
to help him jump out with ease or grace. Of course, it was the
old, old kingly trouble. — the need, or rather the want, of money.
Edward was more fertile than most of iiis prototypes in schemes
for raising it, but in spite of his prestige, in spite of his persistence.
in spite of the acknowledged strength of his chai'aeter, he found
even more tlifliculty than his weak-minded father hiul experienced
as a financier. He attemptetl to tax the clergy without the per-
mission of the Pope, but succeeded no better then his father had
witli the Pope'^ permission, and iiad it not been for the Jews,
whom he threw into prison and then ransomed at thousands of
pounds and finally bvnished from the kingdom, seizing all their
property, he might have had to sell his palace.
And now a curious thing hapjMsned — -out of a cruel murder
a great benefit arose, A Noiman crew, who had quarrelled with
some English sailors when filling their water casks at the same
place, and who had lH;en soundly bethwacked and bethumped,
atlJicked the first English ship they met of sufficiently small size,
seized a merchant and hanged him in the rigging of their own
vessel, with his pet dog at liis feel. Fnmi the hanging of this
merchant grew a national quan-el, and as the preparations for war
492 THE STOllY OF GOVERNMENT.
were expensive, King Edward impatiently began to attempt to
raise money in arbitrary ways, and the chief barons, especially
Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, strongly
opposed him, refusing even to take command of his forces, and
leaving the court attended by many lords.
»' By G — d, Sir Earl," said the King to Bigod, *'you shall either
go or hang."
" By G — d, Sir King," replied the Earl stoutly, " I will neither
go nor hang."
Then he adopted a rather clever means to force the clergy to
pay the taxes which he had levied on them, for when they refused
he declared that if they would not support his government they
had no claim on it for protection, and any man might plunder
them who would. This general permission, or immunity offered
to the thieves and robbers of the kingdom, frightened some of 'the
clergy into paying, but this money in hand only sharpened Edward's
appetite for more. His next move was to seize all the wool and
leather in the hands of the merchants, promising to pay for it when
convenient. Not satisfied with that, he set a tax on the exporta-
tion of wool, but this proved the last straw.
The barons under Bohun and Bigod, at the urgence of tlie mer-
chant^, came together and evolved the new democratic doctrine
that any taxes imposed without the consent of Parliament wen*
unlawful, and Parliament refused to impose taxes until King
Edward should reailirm the two great chartei's, and solemnly
declare in writing that nevermore should there b(^ any power in
the country to wring money from the people exce{)t the power of
Parliament representing all mnks of the people.
Here, we see, was the germ of the phrase used by our Enirlish
forefathers when tliev sev^ered from Ensfland : *' Taxation without
representation is tyranny.*' Is it not a singular proof of the
average dulness of tlie royal biiiin that George HI., in the eigh-
teenth century, should not have been able to profit by the lesson
which Edward F. learned in the thirteenth? If it takes five hun-
dred yeai*s for a just idea to lind permanent lodgment in the average
mind of even a constitutional monarch, what slow progress must
be expe(*ted in the perfection of any goveinmental system where
power has accidentally fallen into one hand, or into a few hands I
t:0S8TlTL"TlOVAI. MOSARI'H
But Edward I., in spite of liiti attempts to be a tyi-aiit, after
learning his lesaon became one of the beat administrators of the
affaini of his coi^try. To him i» due the con(;eptton that Scotland.
Wales, and England ought to be one country, and he set himself
sturdily to the task of i-ealizing this. But unity, which is tlie
draam of all religions, and the doctrine of oiu' recent science as to
the composition of the material univereo, is sometimes a thing veiy
ditlicult to achieve between contiguous nations who seem geograph-
ically intended to be one. It is an ultimate very often just as
difficult as it is dcsiritble. and the first steps towards unity between
|>eopleis, as lietween individuals in friendship or in love, are often
ste])s of pain. It was so with King Edward's dream of a perfected
lUitionality. but he laid the foundation of that English oneness
which to-daj' affects so strongly the civilized world.
His campaign in Wales against Llewellyn, tlieir prince, had
some singular features illustrative of the sjjirit of those times.
When Edward came to the thione he retjuiied the Welsh prince
to swear allegiance to him, as had lieen done to his father, but
Llewellyn refused, and Edward, with a gi-eat fleet, invested the
coattt of Wales, forced the prince to take refuge on Mount Snow-
don, starved liini into an apology and a treaty of peace, and then
returned to London, supposing he had reduced Wales to obedience ;
but the Welsli, though a. gentle and hospitable people, were
mtenaely proud, and the airs some English Ungerei-s in Wales
aaeumed after this treaty were n little too much.
Then wsis revived a prophecy made by a traditional magi-
cian named Metlin, whom Tennyson has put to more beautiful use
in his jKietry than probably ever residted in Merlin's life. This
prophecy was tliat, when English money should become round, a
Prince of Wales would be crowned in London. Now King
Edward liad forbidden the cutting of the English penny into
lialves and yuaitere to represent halfpence and farthings, and had
recently intioduced a round coin. Tlie Welsh people took this as
the first part of Merlin's prophecy, and r*)se with great violence to
complete the prophecy by overturning the English-
Llewellyn's brother, Prince David, led the revolt, surprised the
castle of Hawarden, kdled tlie whole gai-rison, and instantly all
Wales was in a flame of insurrection. Edward, with his customary
486 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
pledging themselves to relieve their vassals, the people ; that the
liberties of London and other cities should not be infringed ; that
foreign merchants should be protected ; that no man should be
imprisoned without a fair trial ; and that to no one should there
be any sale, delay, or denial of justice.
Brave words these, worthy of the bmve barons who forced the
mean and cowardly cur, who wore the crown, to sign them ; but at
the same time to the eye of posterity it seems as if the barons them-
selves found it almost as hard a task to live up to this charter
as did the most contemptible creature that ever disgraced the
English throne. Anotlier provision of the charter was the
appointment of a council of twenty-five barons to see that John
kept as near to his word as possible, with power to declare war on
him if necessary.
"They have given me five and twenty over-kings," cried the
hampered tyrant, as in a fit of rage right after signing, he rolled
on the floor of his jmlace, biting sticks and straw.
We now come to one of the most curious reigns in England ;
curious on account of the character of the king, the length of time
that he was endured by the barons, and the great gains made, not
by tlie people, but /or them, in the development of constitutional
govennnent.
Henry III. began to reign as a boy, in 1216, a great council
meeting at Bristol, revising Magna Charta and making Lord
Pembroke Regent or Protector of England, as the king was too
young to rule alone. Soon as he came of age Henry showed him-
self a true son of his father. He made oaths, and agreements,
and promises with wonderful e<i.se, and broke them with an ease
more wonderful. Always in want of money he resorted to all
sorts of tricks to obtain it, so that he gained the popular title of
being " the sturdiest beggar in all England." He even took up
the cross, pretending that he wished to head a crusade and rescue
the tomb of the Saviour from the possession of infidels, and he
got permission from the Pope to lay taxes on the English clergy.
But some of the clergy stood up for their rights. "The Pope
and King together," growled the Bishop of London, "may take
the mitre off my head, but if they do, beneath it they may find
a soldier's helmet. I'll pay nothing."
CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKCHV.
487
1
So Henry Iiadto give up his cmsacle against the pookete of the
priests. Then he badgered the barons in every possible way to
increase his revenues, and after ten yeara' squabbling they made
Parliament vote liim a. large sum which he fi-ittered away with
the usual royal rapidity. One of the most amusing things in this
reign was the episode of the Sicilian throne. This happening to
be empty, the Pope obliginglj' offered it to Henry III, for his son,
Prince Edward, and gave the English king permission to levy a
special tjix, i-aise an army and invade Sicily. But the barons and
the clergy, thinking th;it their king had already Iwen altogether
too expensive a luxuiy r>
fused to take any part tl e
Sicilian business, or to
tribute a farthing ti t by
vote of Parliament Where
upon the Pope offere t his
bargain to the King of France
and a little while afte sent
to Henry III. of E gla 1 a
little bill of ^100,000 f r i ot
having taken ad ii tage of
the papal advice a I permib
sion to possess 1 nsclf of
Sicily.
Fancy, for the sake of co
trast between those dajs and
our own, the present wise and
venerable Supreme Pontiff of that marvellous hiei-archy, the
Catholic Church, sending to our President advice, or permission,
to go to war with Chili, or to annex Canatla, and then sending in
a little bill of $500,000 for not taking the advice.
King Henry gave the barons so much trouble that finally the
great Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, who, though a foreigner
hy birth, was admired by the men of his order for his great abili-
ties, and beloved by the common people for his suavities, invented
a check upon the regal power which appears to be the germ of the
present department of English government called the British Mia-
istty ; a sort of intennedioiy between the commons and the crown.
;oLsrra:«?
{..NHioC.
. at
wl»>l.
i
l,.if
.1^ 1,1-
I, iifl'-r I'
: i,. ; ;■ :;..:l^ ;r.c Eirl of
'..i.-tl--i a::ii ^.tvanced on
v.1.0 i....i alnMvs .lUIiked
I[..]:r-.- m.vt.l .'lit of the
Liitiv iV.\. in.>na;^iiig to
"txittle lo Leicester and
>-iri<j iivi! tlioii>;iri(l men. vas captured,
illy '^xi;iirniiiiir]icated the Earl of Leices-
•|ili; Irjvud liim hu became the real king,
.■'!. Ti.
.:Ol,:l.. 1,., ir
COKSTITI'TIONAL MONARCHV.
48y
always, however, treating Iiis captive, King Henry, with the great-
est respect, yet taking him along everywhere under guard as a
piece of rayal furniture.
De Moiitfort, in the year 1265, Hummoned the firet parliament
in wliich tlie peojile had any real share, and for several yeans
he governed Eng-
land with ati'ength
and tender nesa
combined.
A new Pai-lia^
ment wa,s called in
January, 1^65, to
Westminster, but
the weakness of
the patriotic party
among tlie baron-
age was proved hy
the fact that only
twenty-three earls
and i^arons could
1)6 found to sit be-
side the hundred '
and twenty eccleai- ^
aaticB. This arith-
metical weakness
drove Earl Simon
to a constitutional
i:hange of vast im-
port. As before,
he summoned two
knight*! from every
eounty. But he
called a new fnrce into English politica when he summoned to sit
beside them two citizens from every borough. The attendaneu
of delegates from the towns had long been usual in the county
courtK, when any matter touching their immediate interests was in
question ; l)ut it wiia tlie writ issued by Earl Simon that first sum-
moned the merr;haut and the trader to sit beside the knight of the
B SDCCESSFCI. CltrSAI
CONSTITUTIONAL MONABCHV.
483
of family trouble, till oae day, wheu Henry burst forth passion-
ately, " Have I no one who will free me from tliis man ? " some of
his friends took it as a sign tliat be wished the archbishop to b©
murdered, and mui-dered lie was by four knights, within the
sanctuary and holding one of the horns, of tin. ilUi Hubert, an
early English judge, wai killed in the same \iAy and under the
same circumstances, and a* the chuich wis coniideied an asjlum
in those days, even foi
a criminal pursued bj
civil authorities, such a
crime committed in the
holy of holies was ac-
counted [>ecuharl^
atrocious.
A study of H( nry >
chai-acter satisfies thit
his fatid speech, wrung
from him in the tortuit
of passion, was in)t the
expression of a di,hl>-
erattf desire or hint foi
action; but itshidow-
ed his life in spite of
the Pope's foi^ivenes-
because Hcniy II wis
warm of heart and had
loved the old, famih ii
friend who liad Ixitm^
ed him, and who V
paid the penalty of
treacbtiry with his life. As this monarch lay in his hist illness,
deseiled hy many of Ins nobles, while his army was fighting
against the King of FriUice and his own son, Rieliard, a ti-eaty of
peace wiis brought him in writing, and with it was also brought
a list of English desertei-s from their allegiance whom he was
required to pardon. That list was headed with the name of
John, his favorite son. This was the last stab that cut in twain
the great heart of the first Plantagenet, the first English king.
484 THE STOKV OF GOVEKNMEXT.
except the Saxon Alfred, wlio had any conception of the rights
of the common people. Turning on his side, he groaned out,
" Let the world go ; I care for nothing more," and cursing the
hour of his birth and the children whom he left, he gave up the
battle of life.
There was one sweet romance in this reign, the story of Fair
Rosamond.^ It tells how this great kmg had one jewel of true
happiness, one rose of joy amid his crown of thorns ; that he
loved a fair girl and built her a beautiful bower in a park at
Woodstock, and the bower was built in a labyrinth that could
only be found by following the clue of a thread of silk. And the
legend goes that the bad queen, becoming jealous, found the c)ue
and confronted the sweet and gentle girl with a dagger and a cup
of poison, giving her the choice ; and the Fair Rosamond, after
many tears and pi-ayers, all fruitless, took the cup and fell dead
in the happy garden where the birds sang on lovingly just the
same as they had sung before.
Now there was a Fair Rosamond, and tlie king loved her and
the l)ad queen probably hated her, but history tells us that we
must give up the bower, and the labyrinth, and the silk tlu-ead, and
the death by poison. As Dickens says in his charming way \ " I
am afraid Fair Rosamond retired to a nunnery near Oxford and
died there peacefully ; her sister nuns hanging a silken drapery
over her tomb and often dressing it with flower's in remembrance
of the youth and beauty that had enchanted the sad king when
he, too, was young and when liis life lay fair before liim."
The next important event in the history of England was the
signing of the Great Charter. This occurred on June 15, 1215,
in the pleasant field called Runymede, on the banks of the silver
Thames. Signing this charter was, perhaps, the most bitter pill
that an English king ever liad to swallow. And John, the mean-
est of the sons of the great Henry, did it with a very bad grace,
as indeed everything in his life he did with singularly bad
grace, except the extracting of teeth, for he was one of the
most inventive and successful dentists on record. For if we may
be permitted to indulge for a moment in tlie political slang of the
present day, King John, up to tlie signing of the charter, had had
1 This name is from two toxin, words Ro^a Mundi — meaning, Ro:^ of the World.
CONSTITUTIONAL MOSAUCHY. 485
a great pull on all the [juople, but esi>ecially on the Jews, who
were the most useful and the most abused inhabitants of London,
Scott, in his Ivaiiliiie, draws a ver^' mild picture of John's char-
acter in his treatment of Isaac of York, for John, like most of
his pivdt'ressoi's and successors in olfice, even down to the present
ivii^n, had always
been in want, —
tlie royal want of
money. — and lie
utilized his[)rei'og-
ative to the extent
of taking tliu rich-
est Jew he could
tind and telliug
him that he must
lill the iijj-al cof-
fers. On the Jew's
refusal. J o h n or-
dered that a tootli
should he pulled
out every day till
he consented : on
the eighth (hiy the
unhappy Isnielite
yielded. But the
hour of reckoning
came, and the char-
ter forced fram
John at liuiiymede
probiibly caused
liim more pain than
was condensed in
the Jew's guni-ache
and was doubtless productive of more good to the people than his
I'eckless squandering of the Jew's money.
This charter ]trovided that the Church shoidd be maintained in
all ita rights ; that the barons should be relieved of oppressive
obligations as vassals of the crown; the barons, in their turn,
486 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
pledging themselves to relieve their vassals, the people ; that the
liberties of London and other cities should not be infringed ; that
foreign merchants should be protected ; that no man should be
imprisoned without a fair trial ; and that to no one should there
be any sale, delay, or denial of justice.
Brave words these, worthy of the brave barons who forced the
mean and cowardly cur, who wore the crown, to sign them ; but at
the same time to the eye of posterity it seems as if the barons them-
selves found it almost as hard a task to live up to this charter
as did the most contemptible creature that ever disgraced the
English throne. Another provision of the charter was the
appointment of a council of twenty-five barons to see that John
kept as near to his word as possible, with power to declare war on
him if necessary.
" They have given me five and twenty over-kings," cried the
hampered tyrant, as in a fit of i-age right after signing, he rolled
on the floor of his jialace, biting sticks and straw.
We now come to one of the most curious reigns in England ;
curious on account of the character of tlie king, the length of time
that he was endured by the barons, and tlie great gains made, not
by the people, but /or them, in the development of constitutional
government.
Henry III. began to reign as a boy, in 1216, a great council
meeting at Bristol, revising Magna Cliarta and making Lord
Pembroke Regent or Protector of England, as the king was too
young to rule alone. Soon as he came of age Ilenry showed him-
self a true son of his father. He made oaths, and agreements,
and promises with wonderful ease, and broke them with an ease
more wonderful. Always in want of money he resorted to all
sorts of tricks to obtiiin it, so that he gained the popular title of
being '' the sturdiest beggar in all England." He even took up
the cross, pretending that he wished to head a crusade and rescue
the tomb of the Saviour from the possession of infidels, and he
got permission from the Pope to lay taxes on the English clergy.
But some of the clergy stood up for their rights. " The Pope
and King together," growled the Bishop of London, "may take
tlie mitre off my head, but if they do, beneath it they may find
a soldier's helmet. I'll pay nothing."
CONSTITUTIONAL MOSAIMIHY.
So Henry had to give up his ciusade agaiust the pockets of tiie
priests. Then he badgered the barons in every possible way to
increase his revenues, and after ten yeaw' squabbling they made
Parliament vote him a large sum which he frittered away with
the usual royal rapidity. One of tiie most amusing things in thia
reign was the episode of the Sicilian throne. This happening to
be empty, the Pope obligingly offei-ed it to Ilenry III. for his son,
Prince Edwai-d, and gave the English king permission to levy a
special tjix, raise an army imd invade Sicily. But the barons and
the clergy, thinking tluit tJipir king had already been altogether
too expensive a lixn re
fused to take any pa n he
Sicilian business,
tiibute a farthing to by
vote of Parliament Whe e-
upon the Pope ff d h s
bargain to the King o F an e
and a little while a e t
to Henry HI, of E g a
Uttie bill of i:100,000 f not
having taken ad\a tag of
the papal advice a pe mis
sion to possess n If of
Sicily.
Fancy, for the sak f on
trast between thos da ad ^^^^
our own, the i)resent wise and
venei"able Supreme Pontiff of that mai'vellous hierai'chy, the
Catholic Church, sending to our President advice, or permission,
to go to war with Chili, or to annex Canada, and then sending in
a little bill of $500,000 for not taking the advice.
King Henry gave the barons so much trouble that finally the
great Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, who, though a foreigner
by birth, was admired by the men of his order for his great abili-
ties, and beloved by the common people for his suavities, invented
a check upon the regal power which appears to be the germ of the
present department of English government called the British Min-
istry ; a sort of intermediaiy between the commons and the crown.
488 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
This plan of Simon de Montfort, which he pi-oposed to the
abject, thoroughly scared monarch at Oxford, was no less than a
Committee of Government, twelve men to be selected by the barons
and twelve men by the king. Henrj'^ agreed to tliis, but on
the return of his brother Richard from abi-oad summoned up
courage enough to oppose the barons again ; and as they began
to quarrel among themselves the Earl of Leicester left the
kingdom in disgust. Then the people began to be dissatisfied,
thinking that tlie barons were not doing enough for them, so that
the chances for Henry III. to be once more the real, instead of
nominal, Iving of England brightened up again.
It was a common kingly trick in those days to play the people oflF
against the barons, or the b:\rons off against the people, whichever
could be done most easily ; and even to-day shrewd politicians, in cer-
tain governments supposedly popular, sometimes succeed in shaping
their policies successfully for themselves, by tapping with one hand
the barrels of monopolists, while with the other they tickle the
people, as they fill their ears with promises of better legislation. So
Ilenrv III., or, as he should be called, Henry the Ridiculous, told
the Committee of Government that he had decided to abolish
them, in spite of his oath, and seizing all the money in the treasury,
lie shut himself up in the Tower of London. Having gained these
coigns of vantage, that is, the money and the Tower, he published a
letter, which he claimed to have received from the Pope, addressed
to the world in general and the English people in particular, inform-
ing them that for five and forty yeai*s he had been a just and excellent
king. It was very much as if Nero, who set Rome burning,
should have informed the populace that he did so to demonstrate
the necessity of having fire insurance companies.
But the Earl of Leicester, returning and joining the Earl of
Gloucester, took several of the royal castles and advanced on
London, at which the London people, who had always disliked
the king, were heartily pleased. Then Henry moved out of the
Tower and began scampering about the country till, managing to
secure the assistance of the Scotch, he gave battle to Leicester and
the Londoners, and, after losing five thousand men, was captured,
reupon the Pope promptly excommunicated the Earl of Leices-
ut as the English people loved him he became the real king,
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
48SI
always, however, treating his captive, King Henry, with the great-
eet respect, yet taking him along everywhere under guard as a
piece of royal furniture.
Do Montfort. in the year 1265, summoned the first parliament
in which the pefiple had any real share, and for several yeare
he governed Eng-
land with strength
and tender ness
comhincd.
A new Parlia-
ment was called In
January, 1265, to
Westminster, hut
the weakness of
the patriotic paity
among tlie bai-on-
age was proved by
the fact thiit unly
twenty-tlii-ee (?;irls
and barons could
t)e found to sit be-
side the hiuulred
and twenty ecclesi- ~
asticH. This aritli-
inetical wfakncf^
drove Earl Sinio
to a constitutional
change of vast im-
port. As before,
he summoned two
knights from every
county. But he
called a new force into EnplLsh polities when he summoned to sit
beside them two citizens from every borough. The attendance
of delegates from the towns had long been usual in the county
courts, when any matter t^Mit-hing their imniciiate interests was in
question; but it was the writ issued by Earl Simon that first sum-
moned the merchant and tlie trader to sit beside tlie knight of the
I., THE 8UCCEBSFUT.
490 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
shire, the baron and the bishop in the parliament of the realm,
and so set the example and laid the foundation of the present
parliamentary system.
But King Henry's son, Edward, having escaped from custody,
succeeded in gathering an army of disaffected barons, defeated
De Montfort's son, and with the De Montfort banners advanced
on the Earl of Leicester. The face of this greatest of mediaeval
English statesmen flushed with joy as he beheld his own ban-
ners advancing to greet him ; but, whfen on nearer coming he saw
who carried the banners, he knew that the end of his just and
generous life was uix)n him. " Lord have mercy on our souls,"
quoth he, " for our bodies are Prince Edward's." He fought with
his little army, however, till the last ditch, and fell as a great man
always falls, greatest of all in failure. His enemies mangled his
body and sent it as a compliment to a certain noble dame, the
wife of his worst enemy ; for those were pleasant days and com-
pliments of this kind flew around easily as flies in summer.
But they could not unshape his memory, and for many years
afterwards the people always spoke of him as Sir Simon the
Righteous, crossing themselves as for a saint. And even though
he was dead, and mangled, and unburied, "a prey to dogs and
kites," the cause for which he died still lived and flourished. For
in great causes every step taken makes the movement faster, and
when once a new idea, if it is a true idea, or a just one, comes into
the world, thougli it may suffer a temporary defeat or eclipse, it is
sure to shine forth again and add to itself new lustre with every
successive century.
The notion that the people really had some natural rights in the
business of government, and that it was, or should be, something
more than a game of greed or glory between kings and nobles,
was now thoroughly alive in the English mind ; and though at the
death of De Montfort, Heniy IH. was restored to his public func-
tions, he was obliged to respect the great charter and the laws and
customs established by the Earl of Leicester, and a period of peace
ensued.
During this calm in the kingdom Prince Edward took up the
ss and set out to tlie Holy Land on a crusade. There he had
ly adventures, and came back to England after the death of
CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKCHY. 491
his father to asceud the throne, laden with well-earned honors.
As a soldier of the cross he had heen a superb success, and h'n
return through different countries was made the occasion of much
international glorification, so that on his arrival in Eoglaad the
national pride was as deeply aiid widely enlisted in his favor as
ever liefore or since in behalf of any great man. London gave
him an ovation almost equal to that which was given to Disraeli
in this century on his return from Berlin bringuig in triumph
"Patffe with Honor r
But they did things in those old days a little diffei-ently. It
is rekti'd tlwt the irtiirii of Edward I., oi' Loiigsh;uiks, as !ie was
nicknamed, Wiw celebi-ated by turning the conduits of the streets
and the fountains into rivers of red wine, — typical, (mrliaps, of the
Saracen blood which his sword had set flowing ; the houses were
tapestried outside with silk and cloths of gold and silver; and
bonfires were lit and oxen were roasted whole. But tliough Edward
came back in a blaze of popularity he soon tumbled into ti'ouble,
— into a ditch from which his long legs were not agile enough
to help him jump out with ease or grace. Of coui'se, it was the
old, old kingly trouble, — the need, or rather the want, of money.
Edward was nioi-e fertile than most of liis prototypes in schemes
for raising it, but in spite of his prestige, in spite of his persistence,
in spite of the acknowledged strengtli of his character, he found
even more difficulty than his weak-minded father had experienced
as a financier. He attempted to tax the clergy without the per-
mission of the Pope, but succeeded no better then his father had
with the Pope's permission, and had it not been for the Jews,
whom he threw into prison and then ransomed at thousands of
pounds and finally Isiniwlied from the kingdom, seizing all their
property, he might liave had to sell his palace.
And now a curious thing happened — -out of a cruel murder
a great benefit aiose. A Norman crew, who had quarrelled with
some English sailoi^ wlien fdling their water casks at the same
place, and who liad l)een soundly bethwacked and bethumped.
attacked the first English ship they met of sufficiently small si7.e,
seized a merchant and hanged him in the rigging of their own
vessel, with bis pet dog at his feet. From the hanging of this
merchant grew a national ijuari'ei, and as tlie preparations for war
492 THE STOllY OF GOVERNMENT.
were expensive, King Edward impatiently began to attempt to
raise money in arbitrary ways, and the chief barons, especially
Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, strongly
opposed him, refusing even to take command of his forces, and
leaving the court attended by many lords.
" By G — d, Sir Earl," said the King to Bigod, " you shall either
go or hang."
" By G — d. Sir King," replied the Earl stoutly, " I will neither
go nor hang."
Then he adopted a rather clever means to force the clergy to
pay the taxes which he had levied on them, for when they refused
he declared that if they would not support his government they
had no claim on it for protection, and any man might plunder
them who would. This general permission, or imniunity offered
to the thieves and robbers of the kingdom, frightened some of 'the
clergy into paying, but this money in hand only sharpened Edward'*
appetite for more. His next move was to seize all tlie wool and
leather in the hands of the merchants, promising to pay for it when
convenient. Not satisfied with that, he set a tax on the exj)orta-
tion of wool, but this proved the lust straw.
Tlie barons under Bohun and Bigod, at tlie urgence of the mer-
chants, came together and evolved the new deinocratio doetrine
that any taxes imposed without the consent of Parliament were
unlawful, and Parliament refused to impose taxes until King
Edward slunild reaffirm the two great charters, and solemnly
declare in writing that nevermore should tliere Ik* any power in
the country to wring money from the people except the pow<;r (»f
Parliament representing all i-anks of the people.
Here, we see, was the germ of the phrase used b}^ our Englisli
forefathei^s wlien they sevei'ecl from England : " Taxation without
representation is tyranny." Is it not a singular proof of the
average dulness of the royal bmin that George III., in the eigh-
teenth century, should not have l)een able t^) profit by the lesson
which Iviward I. learned in the thirteenth? If it takes five hun-
di'ed years for a just idea to find permanent lodgment in the average
mind of even a constitutional monarch, what slow progress must
be expected in the perfection of any governmental system where
power has accidentally fallen into one hand, or into a few hands I
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCKV, 493
But Edward I., in opite of bis !ittem]>ts to lie a tyi-ant, sifter
learning his lesson became one of the best administrators of tlie
affairs of bis coiyitry. To ]iini is due tbe conception that Scotland.
Wales, and England ought to be one country, and he set himself
Bturdiiy to the task of realizing this. But unity, which is the
dream of all religions, and the doctrine of our recent science as to
tiiu composition of the material universe, is sometimes a thing veiy
dillicuU to achieve between contiguous nations who seem geograph-
ically intended to be one. It is an ultimate very often jnst as
difficult as it is desirable, and the first steps towards unity between
peoples, as between individuiils in friendship or in love, are often
steps of pain. It was so with King Edwai-d's dream of a perfected
nationality, bnt he hiid the foundation of that English oneness
which to-day affects so strongly the civilized world.
His cam[)aign in Wales against Llewellyn, their prince, had
some singular features illustrative of the spirit nf tliose times.
When Edward came to the throne he required the Welsh prince
to swear allegiance tn him, as Iiad Iwen done to his father, but
Llewellyn refuseil, and Edivai-d. «ith a great fleet, invested the
coast of Wales, forced the prince to take refuge on Mount Snow-
dun, starved him into an apology and a treaty iif i>eace, and then
returned to London, supposing he had reduced Wales to obedience ;
but the Welsh, though a gentle and hospitalilii people, were
iuieiisely proud, and the airs some English Ungerei-s in Wales
assumed after this ti-eaty were a little too mucli.
Then was revived a ]jrophecy made by a tmditional magi-
cian named Merlin, whom Tennyson has put to more beautiful use
ill liis jwetry than probably ever resulted in Merlin's life. This
pix)phecy was that, when English money should become round, a
Prince of Wales would be crowned in London. Now King
Edward liad forbidden the cutting of the English penny into
lialves and quarters to represent halfpence and farthings, and had
recently introduced a round coin. The Welsh people took this as
tlw first part of Merlin's prophecy, and rose with great violence to
complete the prophecy bj* overturning the English.
Llewellyn's bn)ther, Prince David, led the revolt, surprised tlie
castle of Hawarden. killed the whole gaiTison, and instantly all
Wales was in a flame of insurrection. Edward, witli his customary
486 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
pledging themselves to relieve their vassals, the people ; that the
liberties of London and other cities should not be infringed ; that
foreign merchants should be protected ; that no man should be
imprisoned without a fair trial ; and that to no one should there
be any sale, delay, or denial of justice.
Brave words these, worthy of the brave barons who forced the
mean and cowardly cur, who wore the crown, to sign them ; but at
the same time to the eye of posterity it seems as if the barons them-
selves found it almost as hard a task to live up to this charter
as did the most contemptible creature that ever disgraced the
English throne. Another provision of the charter was the
appointment of a council of twenty-five barons to see that John
kept as near to his word as possible, with power to declare war on
him if necessary.
" They have given me five and twenty over-kings," cried the
hampered tjrrant, as in a fit of rage right after signing, he ix)lled
on the floor of his palace, biting sticks and straw.
We now come to one of the most curious reigns in England ;
curious on account of the character of the king, the length of time
that he was endured by the btirons, and the great gains made, not
by tlie people, but /or them, in the development of constitutional
government.
Heniy III, began to reign as a boy, in 1216, a great council
meeting at Bristol, revising Magna C^^harta and making Lord
Pembroke Regent or Protector of England, as the king was too
young to rule alone. Soon as he came of age Henry showed him-
self a true son of liis father. He made oaths, and agreements,
and promises with wonderful ease, and broke them with an ease
more wonderful. Always in want of money he resoited to all
sorts of tricks to obtain it, so that he gained the popular title of
being '' the sturdiest beggar in all England." He even took up
the cross, pretending that he wished to head a crusade and rescue
the tomb of the Saviour from the possession of infidels, and he
got permission from the Pope to lay taxes on the English clergy.
But some of the clergy stood up for their right«. " The Pope
and King together," growled the Bishop of London, "may take
the mitre off my head, but if they do, beneath it they may find
a soldier's helmet. I'll pay nothing."
COKSTITDTIONAL MONARCHY. 48T
So Heniy lia<l to give up hi» crusade against the pockets of the
priests. Then he badgered the biirona in every possible way to
increase his revenues, and a£ter ten j'ears' squabbling they made
Parliament vote him a large sum which he frittered away with
the usual royal rapidity. One of the moat amusing tilings iu this
reign Wiis tlie episode of the Sicilian throne. This happening to
be empty, the Pope obligingly nffered it to Henry HI. for his son,
Prince Edward, and gave the English king permission to levy a
special tax, raise an array and invade Sicily. But the barons and
the clergy, thinking th:it their king had alreaily been altogether
too exjjensive a luxni^ rt
fused to take any part in the
Sicilian business, oi ti con
tribute a farthing to it by
vote of Parliament Where-
upon the Pope oEfeied his
bargain to the King of France
and a little while tftei sent i
to Henry III. of Englmd a
little bill of ilOO,000 f* r not
having taken ad\antagt of
the papal advice and permis
sion to possess hunself of
Sicily.
Fancy, for the sake of con
trast between thohe d-i\s and j^ chisadbr
our own, the present wise and
venerable Supreme Pontiff of tliat marvellous Iiierarchy, the
Catholic Chuich, sending to our President advice, or permission,
to go to war with Chili, or to annex Canada, and then sending in
a little bill of $500,000 for not taking the advice.
King Henry gave the barons so much trouble that finally the
great Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, wiio, though a foreigner
by birth, was admired by the men of his order for his great abili-
ties, and beloved by the common people for his suavities, invented
a check upon the regal power which appears to be the germ of the
present department of English government called the British Min-
istry ; a sorii of intermediaiy between the conunons and the crown.
ml
i;
iir
V
f ■
■ I
COSSTITITIOSAL SiuSAKCHV. 4(»
of family trouble, till one day, wlieu Henry miret ionh passion-
atelv, *■ Have I no one who will free me from this man?" some of
his frientU took it as a sign that he wished ihe arehbishop to be
murderetl, and murdered he was by four knights, within the
sanctuary and holding one of the horns of the alur. Hubert, an
early English judge, was killed in the same way and uiidet the
same cirtumstances, and as the clmreh was considered an asylum
in those days, even for
a criminal pursued by
civil authorities, such a
Clime committed in the
holy of holies was ac-
counted peculiarly
atrocious.
A stuily of Hi-nr^-'s
eliaracter satisfies thai
his filial speech, wnmi,'
from liim in the torture
of i>assii;>n, was Ufl the
exjii-ession of a del lit-
erati desire or hint for
action; hut it shadow-
ed his life in spite "f
the Poj.e's foigivpness.
because Ilenri- 11. was
warm of heart and had
loved the old. familiar
friend who had U-tray-
wl him. and who liail
paiil the jienalty of
treacheiy with his life. As this monarch lay in his last illness,
deseiinl by many of his nobles, while his amiy was tighting
against the Kinjj of France and his own son, Richard, a treaty of
peace \va,s brought him in writing, and with it wa-s aL<o brought
a list of English deserters from their allegiance whom he wa«
require<l to pardon. Tliat list was headed with the name of
John, his favorite son. This was the last stab tliiit cut in twua
the great heait of the first Fhintagetiet, tfae fitst English king.
484 THE STOUV OF GOVERNMENT.
except the Saxon Alfred, who had any conception of the rights
of the common people. Turning on his side, he groaned out,
** Let the world go ; I care for nothing more," and cui-sing the
hour of his hiitli and the children whom he left, he gave up the
battle of life.
There was one sweet romance in this reign, the story of Fair
Rosamond.^ It tells how this great king liad one jewel of true
happiness, one rose of joy amid his crown of thorns ; that he
loved a fair girl and built her a beautiful bower in a park at
Woodstock, and the bower was built in a labyrinth that could
only be found by following the clue of a thread of silk. And the
legend goes that the bad queen, becoming jealous, found the clue
and confronted the sweet and gentle girl witli a dagger and a cup
of poison, giving her the choice ; and the Fair Rosamond, after
many tears and prayers, all fruitless, took the cup and fell dead
in the happy garden where the birds sang on lo\ingly just the
same as they had sung before.
Now there was a Fair Rosamond, and the king loved her and
the bad queen probably hated her, but history tells us that we
must give up the bower, and the labyrinth, and the silk thread, and
the death by poison. As Dickens says in his charming way ! " I
am afmid Fair Rosamond retired to a nunnery near Oxford and
died there peacefully ; her sister nuns hanging a silken drapery
over her tomb and often dressing it with flowei*s in remembrance
of the youth and beauty that had enchanted the sad king when
he, too, was young and when his life lay fair before him."
The next important event in the history of England was the
signing of the Great Charter. This occurred on June 15, 1215,
in tlie pleasant field called Runymede, on the banks of the silver
Thames. Signing this charter was, perhaps, the most bitter pill
that an English king ever had to swallow. And John, the mean-
est of the sons of the great Henry, did it with a very bad grace,
as indeed everything in his life he did with singularly bad
gi-ace, except the extracting of teeth, for he was one of the
most inventive and successful dentists on record. For if we may
be pennitted to indulge for a moment in the political slang of the
present day, King John, up to the signing of the charter, had had
1 This name is from two Latin words Rosa Mundi — meaning, Ros« of tlie World.
NiSTITUTIONAL MONAUCHY.
485
a great pull on all the i>eople, but esjjeciivUy on the Jews, who
were the most useful aud the most abused iiiliabttaiits of Loudon.
Scott, in liis Iv!iiih[)e. di-aws a very mild picture of John's cliar-
acter in liis tiviitnieut of Isaac of York, for John, like most of
liis i)ivileci;ssiii-s and successors in office, even down to the present
tvign, liiul il«i\^
Ix-eii in wvnt —
tlu^ rayal wxnt >t
money.— iiid ht
utilized liispn io„
jitive to the I \teiit
of taking ih iich
t-st Jew In, iOukl
tind and 1 1 1 1 1 n g
)iim that hi, must
fill the ri jil Lof
fers. On the Jtw s
refasal, J o li n )i
'lered that i tooth
should be pulled
out every di\ till
lie consentt 1 u
the eighth li\ tin,
unhappy ]-,] i lite
yielded. But the
hour <if rt'tk iiiiig
eame, and tliecliar-
ter forced frum
John at Itunj'medp
probably caused
liim more pain than
was condensed in
the Jew's gum-aclif
and was doubtless jnoductive of more good to the people than his
reckless squandering of the Jew's money.
This charter jirovided that the Church should be maintained in
all its rights ; that the barons should be i-elieved of oppressive
obligations as vassals of the crown ; the barons, in their turn.
484 THE STOllV OF GOVERNMENT.
except the Saxon Alfred, who had any conception of the rights
of the common people. Turning on his side, he groaned out,
" Let the world go ; I care for nothing more," and cursing the
hour of his hirtli and the children whom he left, he gave up the
battle of life.
There was one sweet romance in this reign, the stoiy of Fair
Rosamond.^ It tells how this great king had one jewel of true
happiness, one rose of joy amid his crown of thorns ; that he
loved a fair girl and built her a beautiful bower in a park at
Woodstock, and the bower was built in a labyrinth that could
only be found by following the clue of a thread of silk. And the
legend goes that the bad queen, becoming jealous, found the c)ue
and confronted the sweet and gentle girl with a dagger and a cup
of poison, giving her the choice ; and the Fair Rosamond, after
many tears and prayers, all fruitless, took the cup and fell dead
in the happy garden where the birds sang on lovingly just the
same as they had sung before.
Now there was a Fair Rosamond, and the king loved her and
the bad (pieen probably hated her, but history tells us that we
must give up the bower, and the labyrinth, and the silk thread, and
the death by poison. As Dickens says in his charming way ! " I
am afi-aid Fair Rosamond retired to a nunnery near Oxford and
died there peacefully ; her sister nuns hanging a silken drapery
over her tomb and often dressing it with flowei's in remembrance
of the youth and beauty that had enchanted the sad king when
he, too, was young and when his life lay fair before him."
The next important event in the history of England was the
signing of the Great Charter. This occurred on June 15, 1215,
in the pleasant field called Runymede, on the banks of the silver
Thames. Signing this charter was, perhaps, the most bitter pill
that an English king ever liad to swallow. And John, the mean-
est of the sons of the great Henry, did it with a very bad grace,
as indeed everything in his life he did with singularly bad
gmce, except the extracting of teeth, for he was one of the
most inventive and successful dentists on record. For if we may
be permitted to indulge for a moment in the political slang of the
present day. King John, up to the signing of tlie charter, had liad
1 This name is from two Latin words Rosa Mundi — meaning, Ro.^e of the World.
aiNSTITUTIONAL MONAUCHY.
485
a great pull on all the people, but especiiilly on the Jews, who
were the most useful iintl the most abused iiiliabitants of Loudon.
Scott, ill his Ivaiihoe, draws a ver}' mild picture of John's cliar-
iitter in liis treatuieiit of Isaac of York, for John, like most of
his pit;deressi>i-s and successors in office, even down to the present
leign, had al >
been in t —
the royal t f
inoiiey. — 1 I
utilized hi \ o
ative to th te t
of taking I 1
est Jew 1 o Id
find and til g
liim that 1 u t
KU tlic ny-xl of
fers. On tl e J
refusal, J( 1
dered that tooti
should he pulle I
out every 1 \ 1 11
he consented : on
the eiglith day the
unliappy Isnielite
yielded. But the
hour of i-eckoning
came, and the char-
ter forced fmm
John at Kunymede
probi\bly caused
liim more pain tlian
was condensed in
the Jew's gum-ache
and was doubtless productive of more good to the people than liis
reckless squandering of the Jew's money.
This ehiirter provided that the Church should be maintained in
all its rights ; that the barons should be relieved of oppressive
obligations as vassals of the crown; the barons, in their turn.
486 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
pledging themselves to relieve their vassals, the people ; that the
liberties of London and other cities should not be infringed ; that
foreign merchants should be protected ; that no man should be
imprisoned without a fair trial ; and that to no one should there
be any sale, delay, or denial of justice.
Brave words these, worthy of the brave barons who forced the
mean and cowardly cur, who wore the crown, to sign them ; but at
the same time to the eye of posterity it seems as if the barons them-
selves found it almost as hard a task to live up to this charter
as did the most contemptible creature tliat ever disgraced the
English throne. Another provision of the charter was the
appointment of a council of twenty-five barons to see that John
kept as near to his word as possible, with power to declare war on
him if necessary.
" They have given me five and twenty over-kings," cried the
hampered tyrant, as in a fit of rage right after signing, he rolled
on the floor of his palace, biting sticks and straw.
We now come to one of the most curious reigns in England ;
curious on account of the character of the king, the length of time
that he was endured by the barons, and the great gains made, not
by the people, but/or them, in the development of constitutional
government.
Henry III. began to reign as a boy, in 1216, a great council
meeting at Bristol, revising Magna Chart a and making Lord
Pembroke Regent or Protector of England, as tlie king was too
young to rule alone. Soon as he came of age Henry showed him-
self a true son of liis father. He made oaths, and agreements,
and promises with wonderful ease, and broke them with an east'
more wonderful. Always in want of money he resorted to all
sorts of tricks to obtain it, so that he gained the popular title of
Ijeing *' the sturdiest beggar in all England." He even took up
the cross, pretending that he wished to head a crusade and rescue
the tomb of the Saviour from the possession of infidels, and he
got permission from tlie Pope to lay taxes on the English clergy.
But some of the clergy stood up for their rights. "The Pope
and Kng together," growled the Bishop of London, "may take
the mitre off my head, but if they do, beneath it they may find
a soldier's helmet. PU pay nothing."
COKSXITOTlONAIi MOXARCHY.
487
So Henry bad to give up liis onisade against the pockets of the
priests. Then he biidgeied tlie barons iii every possible way to
increase his revenues, and after ten yeais' squabbling they made
Parliament vote him a large sum which be frittered away with
the usual royal rapidity, (ine of the most amusing things in this
reign wiis the episode of the Sicilian throne. This happening to
be empty, the Pope obligingly offered it to Henry III. for his son.
Prince Edward, and gave the English king jiermissiou to levy a
special tax, raise an armyjind invade Sicily. But the barons and
the clergy, thinking that their king had already been altogether
too expensive a luxury, re-
fused t*) take any part in the
Sicilian business, or to con-
tribute a farthing to it l^
vote of Pariiament. Where-
upon the Pope offered his
bargain to the King of France
and a little while after sent
to Henry HI. of England a
Uttle bill of £100,000 for not
having taken advantage of
the papal advice and permis-
sion to possess Iiiniself of
Sicily.
Fancy, for the sake of con-
trast between those days and
our own, the present wise and
venerable Supreme Pontiff
Catholic Church, sending to
that marvellous hierarchy, the
President advice, or permission,
to go to war with Chili, or to annex Canada, and then sending in
a little hill of $500,000 for not taking the advice.
King Henry gave the barons so much tiouble that finally the
great E^rl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, who, though a foreigner
by birth, was admired by the men of his order for his great abili-
ties, and beloved by the common people for his suavities, invented
a check upon the regal power which appears to be the germ of the
present department of English government called the British Min-
istiy ; a sort of interaiediary between the commons and the crown.
488 THK STORY OF GOVEllNMENT.
This plan of Simon de Montfort, which he pi-oposed to the
abject, thoroughly scared monarch at Oxford, was no less than a
Committee of Government, twelve men to be selected by the barons
and twelve men by the king. Henry agreed to this, but on
the return of his brother Richard from abroad summoned up
courage enough to oppose tlie barons again ; and as they began
to quarrel among themselves the Earl of Leicester left the
kingdom in disgust. Then the people began to be dissatisfied,
thinking that tlie barons were not doing enough for them, so that
the chances for Henry HI. to be once more the real, instead of
nominal, Iving of England brightened up again.
It was a common kingly trick in those days to play the people off
against the barons, or the barons off against the people, whichever
could be done most easily ; and even to-day shrewd politicians, in cer-
tain governments supposedly popular, sometimes succeed in shaping
their policies successfully for themselves, by tapping with one hand
the barrels of monopolists, while with the other they tickle the
people, as they fill their ears with promises of better legislation. So
Henrv HI., or, as he should be called, Henry the Ridiculous, told
the Committee of Government that he had decided to abolish
them, in spite of his oath, and seizing all the money in the treasury,
he shut himself up in the Tower of London. Having gained these
coigns of vantage, that is, the money and the Tower, he published a
letter, which he claimed to have received from the Pope, addressed
to the world in general and the English people in particular, inform-
ing them that for five and forty yeai's he had been a just and excellent
king. It was very much as if Nero, who set Rome burning,
should have informed the populace that he did so to demonstrate
the necessity of having fire insurance companies.
But the Earl of Leicester, returning and joining the Earl of
Gloucester, took several of the royal castles and advanced on
London, at which the London people, who had always disliked
the king, were heartily pleiused. Then Henry moved out of the
Tower and began scampering about the country till, managing to
secure the assistance of the Scotch, he gave battle to Leicester and
the Lon(I()nei*s, and, after losing five thousand men, was captured,
whereupon the Pope promptly excommunicated the Earl of Leices-
ter ; but as the English people loved him he became the real king,
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
48!>
1
8 captive. King Henry, with the great-
I along everywhere under guard as a
always, however, trenting li
est respect, yet taking iiii
piece of royal furaiture.
De Moiitfort. in tJie year 1265, smnraoned tlie first parliament
ill which tlie people had any real ahare, and fur several yeare
he governed Eng-
land with strength
and tender ness
combined.
A new Parlia-
ment was called in
January, 1^65, to
Weal m ins t«r, but
the weakness of
the patriotic party
among the baron-
age waa pi'oved liy
the fat^t that only
twenty-three earls
and liarons conld
be found to sit be-
side the bnndred
and twenty ecclesi- ;^%
astJc^w. This arith-
metical weakness ,
drove Earl Simon
to a constitutional
ehange of viist im-
port. As before,
he summoned two
knightsfnim every
county. But be
called a new force into English politics when he summoned to sit
iMJside them two citizens from every borongh. The attendance
of delegates from the towns had long been usual in the county
courts, when any matter tnudiing their immediate interests was in
question ; hut it was the writ issued by Earl Simon that fii-st sum-
moned the merchant and the trader to ait beside the knight of the
490 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
shire, the baron and the bishop in the parliament of the realm,
and so set the example and laid the foundation of the present
parliamentary system.
But King Henry's son, Edward, having escaped from custody,
succeeded in gathering an army of disaffected barons, defeated
De Montfort's son, and with the De Montfort banners advanced
on the Earl of Leicester. The face of tliis greatest of mediaeval
English statesmen flushed with joy as he beheld his own ban-
ners advancing to greet him ; but, whfen on nearer coming he saw
who carried the banners, he knew that the end of his just and
generous life was upon him. " Lord have mercy on our souls,"
quoth he, " for our bodies are Prince Edward's." He fought with
his little army, however, till the last ditch, and fell as a great man
always falls, greatest of all in failure. His enemies mangled his
body and sent it as a compliment to a certain noble dame, the
wife of his worst enemy ; for those were pleasant days and com-
pliments of this kind flew around easily as flies in summer.
But they could not unshape his memory, and for many years
afterwards the people always spoke of him as Sir Simon the
Righteous, crossing themselves as for a saint. And even though
he was dead, and mangled, and unburied, "a prey to dogs and
kites," the cause for which he died still lived and flourished. For
in great causes every step taken makes the movement faster, and
when once a new idea, if it is a true idea, or a just one, comes into
the world, though it may suffer a temporary defeat or eclipse, it is
sure to shine forth again and add to itself new lustre with every
successive century.
The notion that the people really had some natural rights in the
business of government, and that it was, or should be, something
more than a game of greed or glory between kings and nobles,
was now thoroughly alive in the English mind; and though at the
death of De Montfort, Henry HL was restored to his public func-
tions, he was obliged to respect the great charter and the laws and
customs established by the Earl of Leicester, and a period of peace
ensued.
During this calm in the kingdom Prince Edward took up the
cross and set out to the Holy Land on a crusade. There he had
[ventures, and came back to England after the death of
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 491
his father to ascend the throne, ladeii with well-earued honors.
Ah a soldier of the cross he liad been a superb success, and his
return through diGFerent countries was made the occasion of much
interuationul glorification, so that on his arrival in England the
national piide was as deeply and widely enlisted in his favor as
ever before or since in behalf of any great man. London gave
him an ovation almost equal to that which was given to Disraeli
in this century on his return from Berlin bringing in triumph
^^ Peace with Honor"
But they did things in those old days a little differently. It
is related that the return of Edward I., or Lougshnuks, as he was
mcknamed. was celebinted by turning the conduits of the streets
and the fountains into rivers of red wine, — typical, perhaps, of the
Suntcen blood which liia sword had set flowing; the houses were
tapestried outside with silk and cloths of gold and silver; and
bonfires were lit and oxen wt;re roasted wliole. But though Edward
came hack in a blaze of popularity he soon tumbled into trouble,
— into a ditch fi'om wliich his long legs were not agile enough
to help him jump out with ease or grace. Of course, it was the
old, old kingly trouble, — the need, or rather the want, of money.
Edward was nioi-e fertile than most of his prototypes in schemes
for raising it, but in spite of his prestige, in spite of his persistence,
in 8pit« of the acknowledged strength of his cliaracter, he found
even more difficulty than his weak-minded father ha<l experienced
as a financier. He attempted to tax the clergy without the per-
mission of thu Pope, but succeeded no better then his father had
with the Pope's permission, and Iiad it not been tor the Jews,
whom he threw into prison and then ransomed at thousands of
pounds and Anally banished from the kingdom, seizing all their
property, he might liave had to sell his palace.
And now a curious thing hapi>ened — out of a cruel murder
a great benefit arose. A Norman crew, wlio had quarrelled with
some English sailors when filling their water casks at the same
place, and who had been soundly bethwacked and betlmmped,
attacked the first English ship they met of sufficiently small size,
seized a merchant and hanged him in the rigging of their own
vessel, with his pet dog at his' feet. From the hanging of this
merchant grew a national quarrel, and as the preparations for vmt
402 THE STOltY OF GOVERNMENT.
were expensive, King Bd^ard impatiently began tx> attempt to
raiee monej in arbitrary ways, and the chief barons, especially
Bohun, £arl of Hereford, and Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, strongly
opposed him, refusing even to take command of Km forces, and
leaving the couit attended by many lorda.
" By G — d. Sir Earl," said the King to Bigod, "you shall either
go or hang."
" By G — d. Sir King," replied the Earl stoutly, " I will neither
go nor Imng,"
Then he adopted a rather clever means to force the clergy to
pay the taxes which he had levied on them, for when they refused
he declared that if they would not support his government they
had no claim on it for protection, and any man miglit plunder
them who would. This general permission, or immunity offerwl
to the tliicves and robbers of the kingdom, frightcncil some of 'the
clergy into paying, but this money in hand only sharpened Kdwai-d's
apl>etite for more. Hia next move was to seize all the wool and
leather in the hands of the merchants, promising to pay for it wlien
convenient. Not satisfied with ttiat, he set a tax on the exfiorta-
tion of wool, but this proved the last stmw.
The barons under B()hun and Bigod, at the urg«;iiL-e of tlic nu-i^
i-himts, came together and evolved the new denioer.itii- doctrine
tlmt any taxes inn>osed witliout the consent of Parliament ^\•(^l\^
unlawful, and Parliament ri'fmed to ini[)ose tAxe» until King
Edwai-d sliiinld reaffirm the two great charters, and solemnly
declare in writing tlmt nevermore shonld tiiere Ix* any power in
the eountiy to wring money from the people except ihe j)Owcr of
Parliament representing all ranks of the i>eoplc,
Ilei-e, we see, wa.H the germ of the phrase used by "Ur Knsrlish
forefathei-s wlieii tliey severed from Englan<l: "Taxation without
nipresentation is tymnny." Is it not a singular proof of lliu
average dulness of tlie royal brain tlmt Geoige III., in tlie cigli-
tocnth century, should not have been able to prolit l)y tlie lesson
wliich Edward 1. learned in the thii-teenth ? If it takes five hun-
dred years for a ju.st iiiea to find permanent lodgment in the avenigt;
ainfl of cTRn a constitutional monartOi, what slow progress must
reeled in the perfection of any goverinnental sj-stem where
« accidentally fallen Into one hand, or into a few hands !
COSSTITUTIUVAL MONAliCHV. iVd
But Edward 1., in spite of his attempts to be a tymnt, after
leanitDg liis lesson became one of the best administrators of the
f^aint of his coiyitiy. To him its due the conception that Scotland.
Wales, and England ouglit to be one eonntrj-, and he set himself
stni-dily to the task of i-ealiziiig this. But unity, which is the
dream of all religions, and the doctrine of onr recent science as t*i
tlie composition of the material universe, is sometimes a thing veiy
difficult to acliieve between contiguous nations who seem geograph-
ically intended to be one. It is an ultimate very often just as
difficult as it is desirable, and the first stejo towards tmity between
peoples, as between individuals in friendship or in love, are often
steps of pain. It was so with King Edward's dream of a perfected
nationality, but he laid the foundation of that English oneness
ivliich to-day affects so sti-ougly the civilized world.
His campaign in Wales against LIewelly^l, thfiir prince, had
some singular featuies illiistnitive of the s|)irit of those times.
When Edwanl came to the thi-oue he required the Welsh prince
to swear allegiance to liini, as had )>een done to his father, but
Llewellyn refused, and Edivard, with a great fleet, invested the
coa^t of WalcN, forced the prince to take refuge on Mount Snow-
don, starved him into an apology and a treaty of i>eace, and then
Pcturaed to London, supposing he liad reduced Wales to obedience ;
but the Welali, though a gentle and hospitable jieople, were
ititensely proud, and the ail's some English lingerei-s in Wales
assumed after tliis treaty were a little too much.
Then was revived a prophecy made by a traditional magi-
aian named Merlin, whom Tennyson has put to more beautiful use
in his iioetry than probiibly ever resulted in Merlin's life. This
prophecy Wiis that, when English money should become round, a
Prince of Wales would be ci"owned in London, Now King
Edwartl liad forbidden the cutting of the English penny into
halves and quarters to represent halfjience and farthings, and had
recently introduced a round coin. The Welsh people took this as
tlie first part of Merlin's prophecy, and rose with great violence to
complete the prophecy bj' overturning the English.
Llewellyn's brotlier. Prince David, led the revolt, surprised the
castle of Ilawardeii, killed the whole ganison, and instantly all
Wales was in a dame of insurrection. Edward, with his customarr
494 THE STORY OF GOVEUNMENT.
energy, crossed the Menai Strait, near where the wonderful tubular
iron bridge stands to-day, by a bridge of boats that enabled forty
men to march abreast. But the tide rose and divided the boats^
and the Welsh fell upon the soldiers who had landed and drove
them into the sea where their heavy armor caused them to drown
by thousands.
Llewellyn, helped by the bad weather, gained another battle,
but was finally captured, and had his head sent to London, where
it was set on the Tower encircled with a wreath, some say of
silver, to make it look like a ghastly coin and in ridicule of the
crowning of a Prince of Wales in London prophecied by the
Welsh magician. His brother David, six months afterwards, was^
also captured, hanged, di-awn, and quartered, a barbarity which from
that time became the established punishment of treason in England.
All Wales now yielded to the arms of Edward; and Edward's
queen, who was with him on all his military expeditions, happening
to give birth to a young prince in the Welsh castle of Carnai-von,
Edward had the politic impulse to parade the little babe to the
Welsh people as their countryman and to call him the Prince of
Wales ; thus, in his own way, fulfilling the Merlin prophecy and
originating the title that has since been borne by the heir-apparent
to the English throne. Having conquered the Welsh in pui*suance
of his cherished ambition to make Wales, Scotland, and England
one nation, Edward set himself to work improving their condition,
clarifying their laws, and stimulating their trade.
This is, perhaps, one of the most brilliant reigns in English
history, and one is almost tempted to linger over the Scotch
campaigns of this great king ; but we are concerned chiefly in
showing, not the military exploits of crowned statesmen, but the
growth of constitutional monarchy, — a monarchy, as Tennyson
puts it,
** Brocod based upon the people's will
And compassed by the inviolate sea."'
So, noting once more, to impress it on the memory, that the
reign of Edward I. marks the conception that a king cannot im-
pose tiixes without the consent of a parliament representing the
people, we pass on to the reign of Edward II., the little boy who
was born in Wales.
CONSTITUTIONAL, MONABCHV. 495
Thi8 reign is 8tiU more remarkable than the preceding for its
showing the rising of the {wpiihir tide and the eating awiy of the
stubborn rofiks of royal privilege and prerogative. Tnvdition hath
it that the dying hero, Edward I., made his son promise not to
bury his bones, but to carry them about with him till his ambi-
tious dream of uniting the tliree kingdoms luid been fully realized,
as the great Edwaixt fondly hoped it would be by his successor.
But from Edward tbe Great to Edward the Little the fall was
tremendous. Instead of improving the opportunities left him by
his father, Edward 11. recalled from Gascony a certain boon-com-
panion, a young man named Piera Gaveston, of whom Edward
I. had so disapproved that he had banished him from England, and
made his .son swear never to bring him back ; but no sooner was
Edward the Little crowned than he broke his oath, — a kingly
habit, according to all history.
Gaveston, from all accounts, seems to have been a handsome,
indolent, insolent fellow who fancied himself a wit. He reck-
lessly made nearly all tbe prominent English nobles bis enemies
by giving them nicknames, calling one the Hog, another the
Black Dog, another the Jew and so on, and when Edward tbe
Little made tliis favorite Earl of Cornwall and then Regent of the
Kingdom, while he went on a journey to France to marry the
French princess, and when on his return he ran into the arms of
his favorite, embraced Iiim and called liira his brother, the English
lords took offence, as did tlie people, who bad never called the
Gascon by his English title, Earl Cornwall, but i>ersisted in address-
ing him as plain Gaveston.
At last the barons told tlie king bluntly that he must send his
boon -com pan ion away, and they made Gaveston take an oath that
be would never come back. Their anger was redoubled when
they found out that in sending, him away his royal admirer liad
made him Governor fif Ireland. A year afterwards ho came back
and then tbe queen joined the barons in taking offence at the
favorite's presence,
Edwai'd by this time l)eing well-nigh penniless called a parlia-
ment to help him fill bis coffers, but the nobles refused to
eonvene unless he banished the favorite. On bis doing this, they
nssembled, each in armor, and gave him the desired money, but
496 THE STOUY OF GOVERNMENT.
appointed a committee to look after liis household affairs and oor.
I'ect abuses in the state. This committee, after some months of
study, ordained tliat the king, instead of summoning a parliament
whenever it suited his whim or convenience, should summon one
once a year certainly or twice if necessary. They also decided
that if Gaveston ever came back he should be beheade<i, where-
upon the favorite, who, like a bad penny, had returned again, was
sent to Flanders.
Soon after, however, breaking this particular oath for about the
seventh time, Edward the Little had his fellow-reveller back w^ith
him in the North of England, where he was trying to raise an army,
not to complete the conquest of Scotland, as he had promised his
father, but to oppose the nobles. They, however, followed him
up, caught Gaveston, set him on a mule and carried him with the
mockery of military music to Warwick Castle, or the kennel of
the nobleman he had nicknamed the Black Dog. There they
sentenced him to death, and he was taken out on the pleasant
road near the beautiful river by which long afterwards was born
sweet-hearted William Shakespeare, and in the bright sunshine
<^f an English May-day the favorite was beheaded. This seems
another step gained, namely, that an English king would not l>e
allowed to have a counsellor or favorite who was obnoxious to the
nation at large.
Edward showed considerable spirit in trying to revenge the
death of Gaveston, and the civil war between the king and the
l)arons went on for six months, the barons joining their 'forces
with Bruce of Sc(>tland. Then the king got another favorite,
Hugh le Despenser, to help him with advice. Le Despenser was
handsome and brave, but to be favorite and confidential adviser to
such a king was no sinecure, and disaster after disaster followed
the royal arms, although occasionally they gained a victory. Ed-
ward's queen, on account of his neglect, had long refused to live
with him, and now, going back to her native country, France, she
raised an army and invaded England. She was at once joined l)y
the Earls of Kent and Norfolk, the king's two brothers, by other
powerful noblemen, and finally by the very general whom her
luisband sent against her.
This was the beginning of the end, and marks a new encroach-
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 497
ment on royal power, tlie Bishop of HerefonI su^esting to the
queen that the wretclied king, who, after running about the coun-
try like an outlaw, linally gave himself up, should be asked to
resign and that his son should I'eigu iiistead. This suggestion Avas
carried out. Tliey
haled liini into the
House of C nnmoii-.
where Sii Willi ini
Trussel, the icik
er, belalKiied hini
with a trcniti dou Ij
long and fit! j sptech
to the puipose tint
everyone Ii i 1 it
nounccd Ukgi nee
to him and he wns
iio loiigei 1 kin^,
Then Sii Thoni u
Blount, the io\il
high stewird i!
vanced and l>iokt
his white \\ m 1 i
cereuKiny only [ ci
formed at a king •>
death. E Iwird th
Little then ic icu I
himself to 1 i fit
and they] loiltn i
hisson, Eil» iid III
King of jMiglmd
whose t )r )n itic n
chair was set th
St«ne of Scone on
which the Scottish kings had l>een crowned, and which his gniiid-
sire had brought from Scotland. From Edwai-d III. we pass to
the reign of bis gi-andson, Richard II., a mere boy of eleven, who
l»cgan by showing some of tlie courage of Iiis famous father,
Edwaixl the Black Prince. The kingdom, as usual, was involved
498 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
in war, and the English government needing money, a poll tax
of three groats a year for every one above the age of fourteen
was instituted. Three groats were equivalent then to about a
shilling, but making allowance for the difference of value in
money at the present time would amount to about two dollars
and a half.
Only beggars were exempt from this tax and clei^gymen were
taxed more. It is rather curious to note that so long ago the
clergy should have been taxed even in Catholic England, whereas
lately the Supreme Court of the United States has gone to the
extent of mfiking an exception to the contract labor law in the
case of tlie Rev. Dr. Warren, who was imported from England to
be th(J pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York.
This poll tax provoked the greatest indignation ; the people of
Essex rebelled against it and in the county of Kent, a county
which has always had the nickname of the Bold, one Wat, a tiler
by trade, killed the tax-gatherer with one blow for insulting his
daughter, put himself at the head of the malcontents, joined the
peo[)le of Essex, who were in arms under the leadei-ship of a priest
named Jack Straw, and taking out of prison another popular
priest named John Ball, marched on London.
Some have asserted that these peasants had a socialistic intention
to abolish property and declare all men equal ; but it is extremely
doubtful whether they aimed so high, for they stopped everyone
they met, and made them swear to be true to " King Richard and
the people." This was rather to be exi>ected, for tlie people, not
being in such direct contact with their kings as with the nobles, or
feudal lords between them, frequently looked to the king as a pos-
sible protector against the extortion and oppression of the nobles.
This mob marched into London, threw open the prisons, burned
all the documents in Lambeth Palace, destroyed the Duke of
Lancaster's [)alace, the Savoy, which was considered the most
beautiful in the kingdom, made a bonfire of all tlie law-books in
the temple, and yet, singular to relate, stole nothing. Seeing one
man take a silver cup at the burning of the Savoy Palace and put
it in his breast, they drowned him in the Thames, cup and all.
Rather different from a London mob to-day I They waited
patiently, when a proclamation was made that the king would
meet them and grant all their requeats ; and the king did meet .
one section of them, and pretended to be keeping thirty clerks ap
all night writing out a new charter.
Their requests were really very moderate, being simply these
four : TheU neither they, their children, nor any of their deseendcaUt
thovld he held in slavery any loiter by their feudal lords for any
cavse. Secondly, that when they rented land of these feudal lords
they should be allowed to pay in money instead of in service.
Thirdly, (hat they should have liberty to buy and sell freely in all
markets ; and, fourthly, that they should be pardoned for all past
offences.
Wat Tiler is said to hare desired in addition to this an abolition
of tlie cruel forest laws, which punished a starving peasant with
death if he killed one of the royal rabbits, or any other game.
Wat Tiler wiis not leading the party of insurgents with whom
the king was pretending to treat, but in another part of London
was breaking into the Tower, and he and his men are said to have
thrust their swords e\'en into the bed where the Princess of Wales
was sleeping to see if any of their enemies were concealed under
the mattresses, which would indicate that any sense of *' the divin-
ity that doth hedge a king " was at ratlier low ebb among the
people of England.
The meeting between Wat and King Ricliard, which occurred
the nest day, furnishes anotlier apt illustration of the temper of
the times. Wat rode boldly up to Richard and said, without
the usual reverence, '■ King, dost see all these men here ? " " Ah,"
said the king, " why so? " " Because," said Wat, " they are all
at my command and liave sworn to do whatever I say."
Some aiErmed afterwards that while speaking he reached over "
and laid a hand on the king's bridle-rein, whereupon Walworth,
mayor of London, stabbed him in the back, and Wat's followers
bent their bows to avenge the fall of their leader. It was a very
risky moment for King Richard, but the boy had the presence of
mind to spur his horse into the ranks of the rioters and shout out
that Wat was a traitor, and that he. King lUchard, would be their
leader. Taken by surprise, the mob set up a cheer and followed
the young monarch to Islington, where a body of soldiera met him
■and then, turning on his di^ludud fuUuwui-s, put them lu the rout.
500 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Fifteen hundred men were hung in chains as a i-esult of this
insurrection, the chains being added to their bodies to prevent their
grieving kinsmen from taking them down and gi^'ing them the
last sad services of interment. TliLs was the beginning of the
barbarous custpm of hanging in chains and leaving the bodies to
the beaks of birds.
The kingdom now was governed by ministera of King Richaitl^s
choice, he being only sixteen, but Parliament quarreled with liim
so about these ministers that he was obliged to consent to the
appointment of a commission of fourteen for a year. On coming
of age, of course he took things into his own liands again, ap-
pointed a new chancellor and a new treasurer, and announced
to the people that he alone was King of England, which despotic
ground he lield for eight years without much opposition. Then
a large cauldron of trouble — a very witch's broth of woe to the
people also — began to bubble for Richard, stirred up at first,
some thought, by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, whom he had
made Duke of Hereford.
Bolingbroke had stood high in the royal favor, but lost his
influence, and was forced to flee to France. His estates were con-
fiscated and his career apparently ended. Yet the king's conduct
was smoothing Bolingbroke 's return, for Richard Ix^gan to plunge
deeply into debiiuchery. The Commons had granted him a duty
on wool for life, but this had only whetted his avarice, — that
basest of aM passions. In his mad greed to raise money he out-
lawed seventeen counties at once so as to imi)ose fines, and then
left England and invaded Ireland. This was Bolingbroke's
opportunity. He returned from France, reclaimed the estates
which had been >vrested from him, and being joined by the Earl of
Xortluimberland and Westmoreland, lay in wait foi**the king.
Richard, returning from Ireland, deserted by his soldiers, ro<le
from castle to castle l)egging for food, and at last surrendered
himself. He was conducted to the castle of Flint where Henry
Bolingbroke met him and dropi>ed on his courtly knee, as if he
were still respectful to this wandering shadow of a king.
" Your people complain, my liege," said Bolingbroke, *' that for
two and twenty years you have oppressed them bitterly. I wiU.
help you to govern tliem better in future."
k
502 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
" Fair cousin," said the fallen king, " since it pleasetli you, it
pleaseth me mightily."
Richard was then taken for safe keeping to the Tower, but
before lie reached there it is related tliat even his dog left him to
lick the liand of Bolingbroke. The day before Parliament met, a
deputation waited on him and told him he must resign, which he
did, saying that if he had any choice he would prefer to appoint
his cousin his successor.
The next day, in Westminster Hall, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke
of Hereford, commonly called Henry of Lancaster, arose from his
seat beside the empty throne, which was covered with cloth of
gold, and, making the sign of the cross on his forehead, claimed
the realm of England as his right, and the Archbishops of York
and Canterbury, each taking him by an arm, seated him on the
throne. Thus began one of the most brilliant and picturesque
periods of English history, of which Sliakespeare has made immor-
tal use and beauty in his plays.
The gains in popular government during this reign were but
slight, yet there seems to have been an extension of the power of
law, and with that extension a corresponding increase of respect.
As an example of this extension, the beheading of a churchman.
Scroop, Archbishop of York, miglit be adduced ; for Heniy the IV.,
like Henry the 11., — whom lie somewhat resembled in other
respects, — was determined that every man, priest, or prince, or
peasant, in his dominion should be amenable to the general laws.
It is even said that Chief Justice Gascoigne sent the king's son,
afterwards Ilariy tlie V., to prison simply for insulting the majesty
of the law, and that the king approved of it.
But Bolingbroke, who got the throne by strategy and force, had
to hold it all his life by still greater force and strategy. Plot
after plot against him was unearthed and punished, and it would
appear that aspiring nobles made existence such a burden for him
that he actually grew tired of living. An illustration of the man-
ner of conducting public business at tliis time is afforded by the
fact that the fii'st parliament Henry IV. summoned was so quarrel-
some that on one day forty steel gloves were thrown on the floor
among the members as challenges to mortal combat.
In a reign like this very great gains on the part of the people
CONSTITUTIONAL MON.
wei* hardly to be expected; nor in the next reign, though Harry
V. was a man much larger in heart, ami in ahility almost equal to
his father. But beyond gratifying the national vanity by his
fine generalship and deeds of peraonal prowess in France, lie made
little impression on the national life.
The reign of liis successor, Henry VL, was marked by Parlia-
ment'a reveraal of the wishes of the dead king by appointing the
Duke of Bedford instead of the Dake of Gloucester at the head of
the Council of Regency. This reign was also marked by another
insurrection on the part of the people in Kent headed by an Irish-
man, who called Iiimaelf Mortimer, but whose real name was Jack
Cade. They gathered twenty thousand st^piig and put forth two
papers styled "The Complaint of the Com^ns of Kent," and
" Thii Requests of the Captain of the Gteat Assembly."
They defeated a royal army sent against them, and Jack Cade
himself in the armoi- of the dead general led his men to London.
There he seized, tried, and beheaded an unpopular nobleman
named Lord Say, but was unable to keep his army in order. It
gave itself up to gluttonous excesses, and attempted to pillage
London but was soon divided and cut in pieces, and Cade endeav-
oring to escape was killed. Then begiin the famous series of
(juarrels between tlie great houses of York and Lancaster, — the
wars of the Roses.
The king became an idiot and the queen essiiyed to govern the
country, the Duke of York sometimes being in the ascendant oa a
minister and sometimes the Duke of Somerset. Whichever party
triumphed would seize the king, call a parliament, and make him
declare the other side traitors. On one occasion it is related that
the Duke of York entered the House of Lorrls and laid liis hand
upon the gold cloth that covered the emjity thrane as if he had a
strong inclination to sit down there. This duke was a great man
and when in power tried to govern well the racked country, but
he fell at hist by the axe of the headsman ; and yet, a few years
later, his son Edward, Eiirl of March, after making a speech to a
crowd of applauding Londoners, entered the House of Loi-ds and
sat himself on the throne on which his father had lud a prophetio
hand.
Edward FV. tried at first to be a popular king. He married a
604 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
London widow, one Elizabeth Woodville, and his life started
happily ; but thorns sprang up under his bed of roses in the shape
of her relations, Avho were clamorous for offices at the expense of
the people, and to supply their needs and his own w<as a task hard
and continually harder. Towards the end of his life he revived
the old English idea of having a war with France, to obtain funtls
for which he not only got special gmnts from Parliament, but
extorted money from the principal citizens of London in the form
of loans, to wliich Avere given at the time the facetious title of
"Benevolences." He went over to Calais with great pomp, but
instantly accepted the peace proposed by the French king.
The proceedings on this occasion were very gorgeous but amus-
ingly distrustful. The Kings of France and England met on a
tempomry bridge over the river Somme in a strong Avooden grating
something like a lion's cage and embmced each other througli two
holes in this grating, made some exquisite bows and speeches and
departed back to Paris and London. On his death-bed this king
repented of his " Benevolences " and extortions and ordered restitu-
tion to be made to the people he had robl)e(l.
The next tliree reigns, that of Edward V., Richard III., and
Henry VII. are not remarkable for any advances in the idea of
popular government ; but a great (quickening of the popular mind
began to ensue in the reign of Henry VII. from the discovery of
the New World by Columbus, for the king appreciated the im-
portance of this discovery and with the mercliants of Lond(»n and
Bristol fitted out an English expedition for further discoveries
under the command of Sebastian Cal)ot.
After having liad glimpses, as it Avere, of a possible civil and
religious liberty in the reigns we have been considering, it Avas
the curious destiny of the English 2)eople to behold two violent
abolitions of the advantages they had gained, and an apparently
com2)lete extinction of their slowly developing constitutional mon-
archy in an absolutism more savage than tliat of the Cjosai*s.
The long civil wai-s that ceased when Henry VII. ascended the
throne had hastened the fall of Feudalism^ by breaking tlie power
'The essential facts of the feudal system were throe. Ist. The nature of territorial prop-
erty was entirely <lifTerent from its prestMit nature, because no man except the chief or king
owned anytliin^ indei>endently, but lield his possessions as derived from an overlord, with
oertain obligations that had to be fulfilled under pain of forfeiture. 2d. As a necessary
CONSTITI'TIONAL MONARCHY. 505
of the baroiu^. This power lind consisted nf the liosU of dis-
oi-derly retainere MH-ayiiiing about tlieir ca»tles i-eady to furnish
force at a moment's notice in ciwe of revolt. The wm-s had
thinned out these ranks, and Heniy YII. found himself able to
enforce an old statute of Edward I. called the Statute of Liveries
which ordered a dissolution of these military households. Henry
VII., who was called the miser king, when visiting the Earl of
Oxford, one of his stanchest supportere, found two long lines of
liveried retainer drawn ni> to receive liim, " Thanks for your
good-cheer, my lord," quoth the king at parting, "but I cannot
have my laws broken iu my sight. I must send my attorney to
visit you." The liiwyer's visit cost the Earl of Oxford ten
TBiollof llii» the whole of wL.it vro call KOTBroIgnlj or luibllc power anil wlilcli wefeal tobe
tiupeiBoaal wb9 then iwrsoiul, hclni; IcMlgeil in t^ic Inillvlilual loriL fei thkt nhen Loula tin
Great exclaimed ''£'W«(,r'™( imil." " Tlie SLalB, I'm tlio 8:nle," he wa» giving perfect Bxpna-
bIod t<f the doctrine nf fGUtlaligm. 3d. The dMlactlve luarlcoC leoclAllsin was Ita conHtlotu,
anil II one maj^ uee Iha lenii, Iti VDClferoua Intcrilepenilcnce. All tlialegldatlTe, judicial, and
mltlury iDBtltiitlons wliieli united Iho )>"*««»<<» "f flefn or teucia sTuonE tbeiuselvei, and
formed them into society were ubUeutury In their reclprociitluTM. Ttie vaual owediervlM
to lilE lord.— the lard oweil protection to his maal, and ir either failed la bla duty.foiy
tejture of land or net eniued.
Nowadays, when what some jirogressive ]>ap«Tii call the factory lord or the coal baron bai
paid Ills men the agre«d-Q])on wage*, lilt legal obllcattan ceitsei. Ha la not lionncl to proleot
tliem In any way, allbouBh they haye given him In more valuable service tluui uinsl vasgali
of old gare 10 tliclr lords. This te, luilccd, tbe great liilTennre between thla epocb of
ecoNomlc evolution and tliat one, that many duties have lieen raised from the nanow
material, or legal, Bphcre into t'.ie evar-vridvnlnjt realm of inarals.
Thongh tbenDe-man imwer, the iierpetuatedruleuf theotie strong niaTi,~or In one word,
myalty — was thefountaiuof fcuilaliam, It soon found Itself In an ut^nlnin with the stream!
ol force of whtcb It was tlie siinrca. The lilslory of remUUsui la fiiU of einmiilas of vassal*
aiding their immediate lords against the kinp:.
Tin ceremonies occurring on Uie granting a Set were r"fnc*inl'y bomage, fealty, aad
iDvestltnre. Hoioa-K e<i>rested the devotion of tbe vassal , and tbe oath of tealiy ittffered
little from tlie act of lioinage but was Indlepeosable anil was also taken by eceleslastics even
wUen they did not hold any property. Invesiilnro wa« tlieacinal conveyance of the fendat
lands liy tbe lord and was of ino kinds. Proiier investiture was tbe actual placing of tba
TMsalon tlie ground to be conveyed hy tbe lord or his depaty,— which Is called In EngUali
Uw "li»ery of seisin "—meaning. In moi'.em language, deUvery o( pinaeHsiDn. Impuqier
inveatiinre was the hamling over of a stick or stone or piece of turf as a symbol. The ras-
aal'i duties after lnre>.tltnrB were so numeruus anil varied ao with pUca that only a few can
be specified, such O-t the duty of liearln^ uill I lory service for the lord urking, and of supply-
ing a certain amount of tlielr rroductlODS from tbe soli, or a certain number of their cattle,
etc. Sometimes a fief was given by favor for snran very trlfllngBBrvlce to be performed, sudl
SB scDding to the king .-1 gray fox fur every year.
Tbe length of senice was oflea scrupDlously defined For Instann, forty ilayi! was the
usual term that tbe (ennnl of a knlglit's flef was bound lo In In the field at bis own eiqienae.
Hie vassals of the kln^ had vassals nuder them bound to their estatCH by KUbfealtlet, and
■oms of these by forfel uire had beoome rednccil In mere slaves deiiendsnt on the >rlilm of the
master for everything.
This was the lyatem which William the Norman Inlroduoed Into England, hut for his own
proteotlon against the iiiiumachmants of his rupacloua Nirmaii vassals ho wiw forced to take
ap Into his government some of the polltleal cuslams of the )<eople he had oi
^ll .
Th-
B-itli riiiitiiiii;il Ij'.r
in lliJ!* n-'v^u ni;i\ !<■ -li'l 1"
i jnflii. 'riii-* "I' ^ii
• of ll.-.irv 111.' i;i'.l,
-:■ - :: :.:i-.>ic.l
-i. ii ri-: i;:.-.i Kii^:, ,:!:»■::; i.:,m.i
..I nil, u,.' .1..- i.j.;,v.- .M„ui.
Mi.iv. f,,r ;, ],-.„.; -.ill,,- III,.
lill llii' I'i'iliK's "f th.iE niotuinh
liiiii. Sir ■H„„,N.. .\r.iiv .li,..l „ (■,.il,,.li,., ;ii„l yl ill lii«
riM l«i"l., "I l,.|,i;i." M..1.- i'liil>.li,'i| 111.. fTOlLll-s illlil ,l»lii-
wlii..|i t'.-v,.|il I.I iH llii. u'l'tii-i'iil yiianiiii^' tiiat Iiniiijrlil
lull, is Killi'il III.. l:i.|'<i|.|iuu.iii. Fniiii II n'.ii'M U'liero
608 THE STORY OF GOVEBNMSNT.
fifteen hundred years of misapplied Christianity had pixxluced a
frightful crop of social injustice, religious intolerance, and class
tymnny, this delicately humorous philosopher turned to his con-
ception of Utopia, a country in which the struggles of natural
virtue realized those purposes of equality and free fraternity for
Avhicli alone society lias any excuse for existence. In this won-
derful book, the parent of so many modern volumes. More touches
Avith a hand of exquisite lightness and almost caressing tender-
ness all the questions that affect the widest human hearts of
to-day. The great problems of labor, of government, of con-
science he examines, not merely with a keenness that proves the
analytical power of his mind, but in the solutions which he
])roposes he shows himself possessed of a far-reaching originality.
He is not content, like some modern anarchists, with seeking to
destroy what is clearly Avrong, but anxious to build on its ruins
Avhat is nearly right. In some points, such as his treatment of
the labor question, he still remains far in advance of average
civilized opinion, though it must be admitted that the ranks of
those who hold his extremest doctrines are being rapidly increased
])y accessions of the most intelligent and conscientious thinkers.
The whole system of society around Sir Thomas ]\Iore seemed
to him, as he phnised it, "Nothing but a conspiracy of the rich
against the poor." Its economic legislation he called simply the
perfecting of such a conspiracy by ])rocesses of law. " The rich
are ever strivimj to pare away something further from the daily
ivaye% of the poor hy private fraud and even hy puhll : lau\ so that
the tcrong already existing Qfor it is a wrong that those from whom
the state derives mof<t heyiefit should receive least reward^ is made
yet greater by means of the law of the state. The rich devise every
means hy which they may in the first ])lace secure to themselves what
they have amassed hy wrong., and then take to their own use and
j)rofit at the lowest posi<i(le price the tvork and labor of the poor.^
and so soon as the rich decide on adopting these devices in the name
of the public., then they become laws., the result of ivhich is the life
to ivhich the labor claims is doomed., a life so ivretched that even a
beast's seems enviable.'^''
With this he contrasts the life in ''Utopia/' where the aim of
legislation is to cstiiblish the social, industrial, intellectual, and
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. i^>09
religious welfare of the community as a unity, and of the labor
class as the true basis of an orderly commonwealth. In " Utopia "
goods were possessed in common, but Avork was compulsory on
all. The term of toil was shortened to the nine hours demanded
by modern workei*s with a view to affording opportunity for the
intellectual improvement of tlioso who are forced to toil with their
hands. Whereas in England half the people could not read,
every child was taught in "Utoj)ia."
In "Utopia," too, they had come to realize the connection,
between public decency and the hcaltli that springs from plenty
of light, air, comfort, and cleanliness. The same foresight indi-
c<ated in More's treatment of labor and public health is yet more
apparent in his treatment of crime. He was the lirst to suggest
that prevention was better tlian punishment, and tliat the object
of jninishment should be reformation of the individual, and not a
mere reprisal or revenge perpetrated by society.
*'^ If you all oic people to he hadly tamjht^ their morula corrupted
from childhood^ and then when iheij are men puniah them for the
very crimes to which they have been trained^ what is this hut to make
thieves and then to punish them ? "
Simple theft in that day was punished the same as murder, and
More argued that by making tbc penalty identical the law was
tempting the thief to secure his theft and do away Avith his chance
of detection by adding murder to robbery. In tlie great princi-
ples More lai<l down he aiitit*ipated all the improvements that
have marked onr criminal system in the last Inuidred years, and
his treatment of tlie religions cjuestion, Avhich had just l)(.'gun to
flood Enrope with blood, was even more wonderfnlly in advance
of his age.
The religion of "Utopia" was in strong contrast, conflict, with
the faith of Christendom. It rested simply on nature and reason.
It declared Tiod's purpose to be the happiness of man, and that
any ascetic rejection of human delights, save in exceptional cases
for the common good, wits a thanklessness to the (Jiver which was
indeed the blindest and most appalling bhusphemy. Christianity,
it is true. More admitted to be prevalent in liis "Ut02)ia" ; but it
Avas a Christianity in Avhich there Avere few priests, religion center-
ing rather in the family than in the congregation, and each house-
510 THE 8TOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
hold confessing its faults to its father or mother instead of a
priest. More than a century l>efore William of Orange, Thomas
More pi*oclaimed the gi*eat principle of toleration, for in " Utopia "
it was lawful for every man to believe jis he pleased. Disl)elievers
in God and immortality were excluded from public office, not, how-
ever, on the ground of their disbc^lief, but simply because their
opinions were felt to be degrading to mankind, and likely to
incapacitate those Avho held them from governing with nobility
.of temper, l)ut they Avere subject to no punisliment, becaase More
declared that the people of his undiscovered country, Utopia,
were '^ pei*suaded that it is not in a man\s poAver to l)elieve what
he list."
He anticipated also the desire and (h-eam of all religious philoso-
phers tor essential religious unity by his statement that, although
each sect in Utopia performed its special riti's in private, all
assembled at times in a spjicious temple to join in pniyei-s an<I
thanksgivings, so framed as to be satisfactorj' to all. But sucli a
man as Tliomas More had no chance to live out his life at such a
])eriod, and in 1534 he was lu-ought to tho block l)ccause he would
not dignify with his approval the divorce oi' his sovereign.
Henry VIH. had forced the obsequicms Parliament, which in this
reign had beconi;^ simply a tool of regal i)ower instead of a check
upon it, to pass what was called an Act of Succession that made
leoritimate the children of his marriagfc with Anne Bolevn. Tliis
Act of Succession was twofold, requiring an oath to be taken by
all pei"sons, not only recognizing Anne's children as the legal heii's
to the crown, but containing an acknowledgment that Henry's
former marriage with Catherine had been contrary to Scripture,
and therefore invalid from the start. The kin'jf and his chief
counsellor, Thomas Cromwell, knew Flore's iK'licf on this point,
and the invitation to take this oath was merelv a sununons to
death. Thomas More, being unwilling to swear to a delil)erate
lie, at the age of sixty- four gracefully laid his head on the block,
a singular contrast to Charles the First who lost his crown and
head a hundred odd yeai-s later chieflv l)ecause he could not tell
the truth.
This Avas the beginning of what has \)een aptly styled a Reign
of Terror in England, to which the brief period in which Robes-
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 611
pierre made the streets of Paris run i-ed was but a alight affair
comparatively. Fi-om 1.530 to 1540, during which time Thomas
Cromwell was the chief adviser of Henry the Eighth, the people
of England felt "iw if a scorpion slept 'neath every stone."
While the great revolution that struck down the Church was in
progi-ess the English people looked on silently. In the contest
over jiapal power, in tlie refonii of clerical courts, in the lessening
of the legislative independence of the clergy, the nation as a
whole had »ide<l with the king. Hut from the utter debasement of
the churchmen, the gag-
ging of pulpits, and the
suppression of monas-
teries, the heart of the
people revolted. Yet
sucli was the terror in
which tliey had lieen
boimd that only here
and there in stniy fai-ts
that have Iwicn tussed up
to the sni'face do we
catcli glimpses of the
intense iiopular discon-
tent and righteous wnith
that lay seething in se-
cret under this forced
silence, a wratli destined to break out in later years, and entirely
overflow the banks of custom, and sweep away the royal power.
This was a period in which men hardly dared 8[>eak to each other
lest their lightest phrase should be re|>eatc(l to some spy, and
twisted into an expression of treason, jet even the refuge of com-
plete silence was attempted to l)e taken away by the most infamous
law tliat had ever blotted ii statute book. Secret thought was
legislatively niaile treason, and men were forced to reveal their
thoughts on pain of having their silence punished as treason.
Had this tyranny lasted very long, it must have turned the frank,
outspoken English into a nation of hypocrites. Now, though the
former minister, Wolsey, had strained law to the utmost, still he
had sbntnk from assembling pftrliamenta, because of bis feeling
512 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that they were the natural bulwarks of popular liberty against
royal encroachment. But Cromwell, not content with rendering
judges of the law mere mouth-pieces df the royal will, conceived
and carried out during his administration the idea of making Par-
liament itself but the puppet of a regal potentixte as absolutely
lawless as any Oriental despot, and with bill after bill Cromwell
broke down every legal hairier between his desire for a subject's
death, and the speedy gratification of such desire.
It was a singular retribution that the crowning injustice which
this pre-eminently bad nmn sought to introduce into the practice
of attainder, namely, the condemnation of a man Avithout hearing
his defence, was only practised on himself; for, at the moment of
his fall from royal favor in 1540, the council cried unanimously,
" He shall be judged by the bloody law he himself has made." And
with taunts and execrations bursting from the lords at council, tlie
Duke of Norfolk tore the star of the garter from its ribbon around
his neck, and in the month after he was beheaded amid a perfect
riot of public applause.
At Cromwell's death the success of his policy seemed complete ;
monarchy had reached the acme of its power; tlie former liberties
slowly gained by the people appeared lost. The lords or hiions
had been cowed into submission, and the House of Crmimons,
filled with the creatures of Cromwell, had been tninsfornied into
an engine of tyranny. Royal proclamations were supei*seding
parliamentiiry legislation. Benevolences or forced gifts were
encroaching more and more on the right of parliamentary taxa-
tion, and the indeterminate powei*s of the royal council were
eclipsing the processes of the common law.
Then, too, the religious changes had thrown an almost sacred
character over the majesty of the sovereign. In making himself
the head of the church Ilenrv VIII. unconsciouslv oriijinated the
dogma of divine right which was destined to cause his successoi-s
among the Stuarts so much trouble. The voice of England's
preachers had become the piping echo of the royal will, forms of
worship and statements of l>clief being shifted about at the mon-
arch's caprice like the stock-in-trade with which a juggler amuses
his audience. Half of the former wealth of the reliiifious l)odies of
the kingdom had gone to swell the royal coflfei-s and the other
■ I
i
CONSTmrriONAL MONARCHY. 618
hnlf lay at his mercy. It must Imve been this unprecedented and
hitherto unimagiimble concentration of power in the peraou of one
man which oveniwed the minds of the people of England, and
kept tliem for yeara in a stJite of daze or amazement wondering
what next, and wliich made a large mass of the people come to
regard tlic moiuirch as a being high above the laws that applied to
common men. So strong had grown this dreadful servility tliat Par-
liament rose as one man and bowed to the em])ty throne wlieii
Henr)' 'a name wiis mentioned, for a slavish devotion liad i-eplaced
the old loyalty to the law, and when the primate of the English
Church was eulogizing Cromwell, he stated, as that minister's
chief merit, that he loved the king no less than he loved God.
But no sooner was Cromwell dead than this fabric of king wor-
ship which he had built began to crumble away like an ice palace
struck by a summer sun. The very success of his measures
caused the ruin of his policy. He had succeeded in cowing the
604 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
London widow, one Elizabeth Woodville, and his life started
happily ; but thorns sprang up under his bed of roses in the shape
of her relations, who were clamorous for offices at the expense of
the people, and to supply their needs and his own was a task hard
and continually harder. Towards the end of his life he revived
the old English idea of having a war with France, to obtain funcLs
for which he not only got special gi-ants from Parliament, but
extorted money from the principal citizens of London in tlie form
of loans, to which Avere given at the time tlie facetious title of
"Benevolences." He went over to Calais with great pomp, but
instantly accepted the peace proposed by the French king.
The proceedings on this occasion were very gorgeous but amus-
ingly distrustful. The Kings of France and England met on a
tempomry bridge over the river Somme in a strong wooden grating
something like a lion's cage and embraced each other througli two
holes in this grating, made some exquisite bows and speeches and
departed back to Paris and London. On his death-bed this king
repented of his " Benevolences " and extortions and ordered restitu-
tion to be made to the people he had robbed.
The next three reigns, that of Edward V., Richard III., and
Henry VII. are not remarkable for any advances in the i<lea of
popular government ; but a great (quickening of the popular mind
began to ensue in tlie reign of Henry VII. from the discovery of
the New World by Columbus, for the king appreciated the im-
portance of this discovery and with the merchants of London and
Bristol fitted out an English expedition for further dis(!0veries
under the command of Sebastian Cabot.
After having had glimpses, as it Avere, of a possible civil and
religious liberty in the reigns Ave have been considering, it was
tlie curioiLs destiny of the English people to behold two violent
abolitions of the advantages they had gained, and an apparently
completi^ extinction of their slowly developing constitutional mon-
archy in an absolutism more savage than that of the Ca^sai-s.
The long civil wai-s that ceased when Henry VII. ascended the
throne had hastened the fall of Feudalism^ bv breakint^ the i)Ower
*The essential facts of the feudal system were three. Ist. The nature of territorial prop-
erty was entirely different from its present nature, because no man except the chief or kinj;
owned anything: indeiwndently, but lield his possessions as derived from an overlord, with
certain obIi|;rations that had to be fulfilled under pain of forfeiture. 2d. As a necessary
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 606
of the baronage. This power had consisted of the hosts of dis-
oiilerly i*etainei*8 swarming about their castles ready to furnish
force at a moment's notice in case of revolt. The wars had
thinned out these i-anks, and Henry VII. found himself able to
t»nforce an old statute of Edward I. called the Statute of Liveries
which ordered a dissolution of these militiiry liousehohls. Henry
Vll., wlio was called tlie miser king, wlien visiting the Earl of
Oxfoixl, one of his stanchest su[)portei*s, found two long lines of
liveried retainei-s dniwn up to receive him. ''Thanks for your
good-cheer, my lonl," quoth the king at parting, "but I cannot
Iiave my laws bi-oken in my sight. I must send my attorney to
visit vou." The lawver's visit cost the Earl of Oxford ten
result of this the wliole of what we call 8overei<;nty or public power and which we feel to be
impersonal was then i>ersonal, l)ein}>: lodtn^eil in tlie individual lord. So that when Louis the
«reat exclaimed *'Z'e<a^,rVjs« ;/»«/,'• ** The State, I'm the S^ate," he was giving perfect expree-
Hion Ul the doctrine of feudalism. 3d. The di.4tinctive mark of feudalism was its conscious,
and if one may ui*e the term, its vociferous interdependence. All the legislative, judicial, and
military institutions which united the ]»o8sessors of ik'fs or feuds among themselves, and
formed them into society were obligatory i:i their reciproi;ations. Tiie vassal owed senrloe
to his lonl,^the lord owcmI i)rotection to his vassal, and if either failed in his duty, for-
feiture of land or flef ensued.
Nowadays, when what some progressive papers call the factory lord or the coal baron bas
paid his men the agreed-upon wages, his legal obligation ceases. He is not bound to protect
them in any way, although they have given him far mora valuable service than most vassals
of old gave to tluir lords. This is, indeed, the great difference between this epoch of
economic evolution and that one, that many duties have been raised from the narrow
material, or legal, sphere into t'.ie ever- widening realm of morals.
Though the one-man iwwer, the i)erpetuated rule of the one strong num, — or in one word,
royalty — was the fountain of feudalism, it soon found itself in antagonism with the streams
of force of which it was the source. The history of feudalism is full of examples of vassals
aiding their immediate lords against the king.
The ceremonies occurring on the granting a flef were principally homage, fealty, and
investiture. Homa re expressed the devotion of the vassal, and the oath of fealty differed
little from the act of homage but was indispensable and was also taken by ecclesiastics even
when they did not hold any i)n)i>erty. Investiture was the actual conveyance of the feudal
lands by the lord and was of two kinds. Proi>er investiture was the actual placing of the
vassal on the ground to be conveyed by the lord or his deputy,— which is called in English
law "livery of seisin" — meaning, in modern language, delivery of i>ossession. Improper
investiture was the handing over of a stick or stone or piece of turf as a symbol. The vas-
saVs duties after investiture were so numerous and varied so with ])lace that only a few can
be s]>ecilled, such as the duty of l>earing military service for the lord or king, and of supply-
ing a certain amount of their productions from the soil, or a certain number of their cattle,
etc. Sometimes a flef was given by favor for some very trifling ser\ice to be ]>erformed, such
as sending to the king a gray fox fur every year.
The length of service was often scrupulously deflned. For instance, forty days was the
usual term that the tenant of a knight's flef was boun<l to 1>e in the field at his own expense.
The vassals of the king liad vassals under them bound to their estates by snbfealties, and
some of these by forfeiture had become reduced to mere slaves dependent on the whim of the
master for everything.
Tills was the system which William the Norman introduoed into England, but for his own
protection against the encroachments of his rapacious Norman vassals he was forced to take
ap into his government some of the political customs of the people he had conquered.
«r
506 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
thousand pounds, — rather a high price to pay for keeping so
many retainers. This incident shows how the j>ower of the
baronage had been weakened.
Henry VIII. has been epigramatized by one indignant English-
man as " a huge blot of blood and grease " on the history of his
nation. His reign is indeed the part of English history whicli
provokes the profoundest disgust, and yet this epoch, in which
the liberty of the subject went to its lowest ebb, and the mon-
archy reached its worst pitch of cruel, almost insane, absolut-
ism, wjvs in reality a transition period. Some recent historians,
Froude for instance, have endeavored to rehabilitate this regal
wi'etch, Henry VIH., and to make out that he was a king of more
than ordinary talents, but the truth aj)peai*s to be that he was for-
tunate in having about him ministei-s of unusual intellectual
powers, whose abilities he had twe trick of absorbing, and of reflect-
ing to a certain extent as his own. He had one gift that often
dazzles the nuiltitude, — a tremendous energy, an almost tireless
activity in projecting his pereonality upon his subjects. He never
allowed the popular interest to flag for one moment, but plavcd
from first to last a gorgeous dninia, l^rutal, barbaric, bizarre, but
never dull. His quarrels with the Pope, his' tymnny over his
nobles, his extraordinary marital record, and the strange €ij)parent
success that attendtMl all liis wickedness, made him not a pi)i)ular
idol but an object of keener j)opular concern than any preceding
monarch except Henry the Second, Edward the Fii*st, and Harry
the Fifth.
The religious agitation that s[)rang from the mere personal
whim, passion, and vanity of Henry tlie Eiglith was productive of
gi-eat intellectual results, although it deluged England with l)lood
for several successive reit^ns, and fills the close reader of annals
with continual horror. The revival of learning wliich took plare
in tins reijL^n may be said to have shown its most perfect fruit in
oiu* man. This was Sir Thouias ]\Iore, for a long time tlie
a<lviser of Henry the l^ii^hth, till the crimes of that monarch
estrauL^ed him. Sir Thomas ^Unv died a Catholic, and vet in his
delightful book, 'Ttopia," ^lore embodied the feelings and aspi-
rations which ri»veal to us the t^eneml yearnin<x that brounflit
about what is called the Ueformation. From a world where
I
508 THE STOBY OF GOVERNM2NT.
fifteen hundred years of misapplied Christianity had pitxluced a
frightful crop of social injustice, religious intolerance, and class
tyi-anny, this delicately humorous philosopher turned to his con-
ception of Utopia, a country in which the struggles of natural
virtue realized those purposes of equality- and free fraternity for
which alone society has any excuse for existence. In this won-
derful book, the parent of so many modern volumes. More touches
with a hand of exquisite lightness and almost caressing tender-
ness all the questions that affect the widest human hearts of
to-day. Tlie gi-eat problems of labor, of government, of con-
science he examines, not merely with a keenness that proves the
analytical power of his mind, but in the solutions which he
proposes he shows himself possessed of a far-reaching originality.
He is not content, like some modern anarcliists, with seeking to
destroy what is clearly wrong, but anxious to build on its ruins
what is nearly right. In some points, such as his treatment of
the lal)or question, he still remains far in advance of average
civilized opinion, though it must \ye admitted that the ranks of
those wlio hold his extremest doctrines are l)eing rapidly increased
by accessions of the most intelligent and conscientious thinkers.
Tlie wliole system of society around Sir Thomas More seemed
to him, as he phrased it, "Nothing but a conspiracy of the rich
against the poor." Its economic legislation he called simply the
perfecting of such a consj)ii*acy by processes of law. " The rich
are ever 8trivin(j to pare away something further from the daily
wayes of the poor by private fraud and even by public latv^ so that
the irrony already eristiny (^for it is a wrong that those from whom
the state derives most benefit should receive least reivard^ is made
yet greater by means of the law of the state. The rich devise every
means by which they may in the first place secure to themselves what
they have amassed by trrong^ and then take to their own use and
profit at the lowest possilde j^^iee the work and labor of the poor^
and so yoon as the rich decide on adopting these devices in the name
of the public^ then they become laws^ the result of tchich is the life
to tvhiclt tlie labor class is doomed^ a life so wretched that even a
beast's seems enviable ^
With tliis he contrasts tlie life in ''Utopia," wliere the aim of
legislation is to est^iblisli the social, industriiil, intellectual, and
CONflTrriTIONAL MOXAIICHY.
religious welfare of the community as a unity, and of the labor
clasa as the true basis of an orderly commonwealth. In " Utopia "
goods were possessed in common, but work was compulsor}' on
all. Tlie term of toil was shortened to the nine hours demanded
by modem workers with a view to affording opportunity for the
intellectual improvement of those who are forced to toil with their
hands. Whereas in England half the people could not read,
every child was taught in "Utopia."
In "Utopia," too, they had come to realize the connection,
between public decency and the health that springs from plenty
of light, air, comfort, and cleanliness. The same foresight indi-
cated in More's treatment of labor and public health is yet more
{^parent in his treatment of crime. He was the fii-st to suggest
tliat prevention was better than punishment, and that the object
of punishment should be reformation of the individual, and not a
mere reprisal or revenge [Perpetrated by society.
" ]f you allow people to he hadly taught, their morah corrupted
from ehildhooj, and then when they are men punith them for the
very crimes to which they have been trained, what ts this but to make
thieves and then to pvnish them ? "
Simple theft in that day aviis punished the same as murder, and
More argued tliat by making tlie penalty identical tiie law wjis
tempting the thief to secure liis theft and do away with his chance
of detection by adiling murder to i-obljery. In the great princi-
ples More laid down lie aiiticiiMited nil the improvements that
have marked our criminal sj-stem iu tlie last hundred years, and
his treatment of the religious question, which had just begun to
flood Europe with blood, was even more wonderfully in advance
of his age.
Tlie religion of "Utopia" was in strong contrast, conflict, M'ith
the faith of Christendom. It rested simply on nature and reason.
It declared God's purpose to be the happiness of man, and that
any ascetic rejection of huinaii delights, save in exceptional cases
for the common good, was a thanklessness to the Giver which was
indeed the blindest and most appalling blasphemy. Christianity,
it is tme, More admitted to be prevalent in his " Utopia " ; but it
was a Christianity in which there were few priests, religion center-
ing latber in the family than in the congregation, and each house-
510 THE STOKV OF GOVERNMENT.
hold confessing its faults U) its father or mother iastead of a
priest. More than a eenturj' before William of Orange, Thomas
More proclaimed the great principle of toleration, for in ** L'topia ^
it was lawful for everv' man to lielieve jis he pleased. Dislielievers
in Grxl and immortality were excludc'd from public office, not, how-
ever, on the ground of their <lislK'lief, but simply Ixfcause their
opinions were felt to Ixf degrading to mankind, and likely to
incapacitate those who held them from governing with nobility
.of temj>er, but they were subject to h(» punishment, liocause More
declared that the i)eoplc of his undiscovered country, Utopia,
were '' |)ei*8uaded that it is not in a man's pciwer to Ixelieve what
he list."
He anticipated also tlie desii-e and dream of all religioiLs philaso-
j>liers for essential religious unity by his statement that, although
efich sect in Utopia perfonned its special rites in private, all
assembled at times in a spacious temple to join in prayei's ami
thanksgivings, so framed as to Ix* satisfactory' to all. But sucli a
man as Thomas More had no chance to live out his life at such a
period, and in 1534 he was brought to the' ])!i>ck K^cause he would
not dignify with his approval the divoivi* oi his sovereign.
Henry Vlll. had forced the obsequious Parliament, which in this
I'eign had become simply a tool of regal p(»wer instead of a check
upon it, to pass what was called an Act of Succession that made
legitinrate the children of his marriage with Anne I>oleyn. This
Act of Succession Avas twofold, requiring an oath to be taken by
all pei*sons, not only recognizing Anne's children as the legal hell's
to the crown, but containing an acknowledgment that Heiu'j^'s
former marriagi? with Catherine had been contrary to Scripture,
and therefore invalid from the start. The kin^r and his chief
connsellor, Thomas Cromwell, knew More's Wlief on this point,
and the invitation to take this oath was merelv a summons to
death. Thomas More, being unwilling to swear to a delil)erate
lie, at the age of sixty-fonr gracefully laid his head on the block,
a singular contrast to Charles the Fii^st who lost his crown and
liead a hundred odd yeai*s later chiefly l)c»caiise he could not tell
the truth.
This was the beginning of what has l)een aptly styled a Reign
of Terror in England, to which the brief period in Avhich Robes-
CON8TITUTIOSAI, MONARCHY.
511
pierre made the streets of Paris run i-ed was but a sliglit afEair
comimratively. Fmm 1530 to 1540, during wliich time Tliomas
Cromwell was tlie cliief a<lvi8er of Ileiii^' the Eiglith, the people
of Enghviid felt "as if a scorpion slept 'neatli every stone."
While the great i-evolution that struck down the Church was in
progress the English people looked on silently. In the contest
over papil power, in the i-efonu of clerical courts, in the lessening
of the legislative independence of the clergy, the nation as a
g 11 t f o n t1 e utt«r debaseme t of
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cret under this forced '"'' ^"' tih.ham moiik.
silence, a ivititli destined to break out in later years, and entirely
oveiflow the banks of custom, and sweep away the royal power.
This was a [loriod in Avhicli men hardly dared speak to each other
lest their lightest plimse should Iw iv^wated to some spy, an<l
twisted into an expression of treason, yet even the refuge of com-
plete silence wjis attempted to lie taken away by the nio.*t infamous
law that had ever ltlotte<l a statute; Ixtok. Secret thought ^vas
legislatively ina<Ie treason, and men were foreed to I'eveal their
thoughts on ijain of having their silence punished as treason.
Had this tyranny- lasted very long, it must have turned the frank,
outspoken English into a nation of hypocrites. Now, though the
former minister, Wolaey, had strained law to the utmost, still he
had shrunk from assembling parliaments, because of his feeling
512 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that they were the natural bulwarks of popular liberty against
royal encroachment. But Cromwell, not content with rendering-
judges of the law mere mouth-pieces df the royal will, conceived
and caiTied out during his administration the idea of making Par-
liament itself but the puppet of a regal potentate as absolutely
lawless as any Oriental despot, and with bill after bill Cromwell
broke down every legal barrier between his desire for a subject's
death, and the speedy gratification of such desire.
It was a singular retribution that the crowning injustice whicli
this pre-eminently bad man sought to introduce into the practice
of attainder, namely, tlie condemnation of a man without hearing
his defence, was only practised on himself; for, at the moment of
his fall from royal favor in 1540, the council cried unanimously,
" He shall be judged by the bloody law he himself has made." And
with taunts and execrations bursting from the lords at council, the
Duke of Norfolk tore the star of tlie garter from its ribbon around
his neck, and in the month after he was beheaded amid a perfect
riot of public applause.
At Cromwell's deatli the success of his policy seemed complete ;
monarchy had reached the acme of its power; the foimer liljerties
sloAvIy gained by the people appeared lost. The lords or barons
had been cowed into submission, and tlie House of Commons,
filled Avitli the creatures of Cromwell, had been transformed into
an engine of tyranny. Royal proclamations Avere superseding
parliamentiiry legislation. Benevolences or foi-ced gifts wt^-c
encroacliing more and more on the right of parliamentary taxa-
tion, and the indeterminate powers of the royal council Avere
eclipsing the processes of the common law.
Then, too, the religious changes had thrown an almost sacred
character over the majesty of the sovereign. In making liimself
the head of the church Henrv YIII. unconsciouslv orii^inatcd the
dogma of divine right Avhich was destined to cause his successoi-s
among the Stuarts so much trouble. The voice of England's
preachers had become the pil)ing echo of the royal will, forms of
worship and statements of belief being shifted about at the mon-
arch's caprice like the stock-in-trade with whicli a juggler amuses
his audience. Half of the former wealth of the religious bodies of
the kingdom had gone to swell the royal coffers and the other
coNSTirnriONAi. monarchy.
618
half lay at his mercy. It must hnve been this unprecedented and
liitherto unimi^iiiable concentration of power in the peraou of one
man which oveniwed the minds of the people of England, and
Icept them for yeara in a state of daze or amazement wondering
what next, and which made a lai^e musB of the people come to
regard the monai-ch a» a being high above the laws that applied to
JANK UltUV.
common men. So strong had gi-own this (Ireadfnl servility that Par-
liament n>se as one man and bowed to the empty throne when
Henry 'a name was mentioned, for a slavish devotion had replaced
the old loyalty to the law, and when the primate of the English
Church was eulogizing Cromwell, he stated, as tliat mijiister's
chief merit, that ho loved the king no less than he loved God.
But no sooner was Cromwell dea*! tlian tliis fabric of king wor-
ship which he had built began to ci-umble away like an ice palace
struck by a summer sun. The very success of his measures
caused the ruin of his -policy. Me had succeeded in cowing the
514 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
House of Lortls and crowding tlie Comnions with niembei-s
directly or indirectly elected by the royal council ; he had made
Parliament an accomplice in liis attempt at constructing an aliso-
lutism; by parliamentaiy stiitutes lie had dragged the Church
down to the feet of tlie monarch ; by bills of attainder he liad
hounded great nol^les to the l)lock ; under constitutional forms he
had gag^^c(l freedom with new tretusons, and oaths, and ser\ile
questions, but tlie continuous success of such a system, of coui-st*,
depended wholly on the continuous servility of l*arliament U^ the
will of the crown, and whenever a weak king or a weak minister
should happen to ])e in power, a reversal of the situation wcmkl
naturally result. Is it not a curious reflection that Cromwell,
the wickedest minister of England's cruellest king, should have
made the way clear by the very success of his schemes for that
other Cromwell a hundi-ed yeais after, who gave a death blow to
the dogma of the divine right of kings?
It was in this reign that stout Lord llussey gave vent to a senti-
ment which, by the light of later events, reads like a prophecy:
•"■The world will never mend till we fight for it." Like many
another noble in this reign, Hussey ])aid with his head for the
privilege of speaking his mind. The succeeding reigns of
Edward VI., the ten days of i^ady Jane (irey, who paid for her
brief titstc? of royalty with her Iniautiful head on the block, and
the crimson reign of Mary, called the bl(K)dy by Protestants,
though she caused no more blood to flow than many Protestiint
princes, werti distinguished by no diminution of the royal prerog-
atives, and no gains on tlie i)ait oi any class in England; nor Wius
the reign of Elizal)eth, splendid as it seenie(l to the people by
comparison of its quietude, and by reiuson of the j)opular man-
ners and picturesque personality of their (picen, marked by any
political gains.
Elizabeth's chief ambition Avas to preserAc her throne, keep
lingland out of A>ar, and her realm in good order; but she had no
conception of Ix^ng a popular or constitutional monarch save in
the way of dazzling the people with pageantries, and even that
not to any great dt^gree, for she Avas as economical as the present
queen. Hut though ILlizal)eth's sovereignty was almost a des-
potism it Avas i>roductive of great good to the English people.
rONSTITUTtONAL MONARCHY.
515
The feeling of nationality was iiiteiuiitied, the great success which
accident and tiie iihility to take advantage of a<;cident g.ive to
J'liglisli amis against the Spanish Armada not only cripijlcd lier
most formiLlahie rival, hut awakened England tn the idea that she
might Ix'come not merely a gi^eat naval power hut a great colo-
nizing power.
Moreover, in tliis age, the imjictus given to the minds of men
hy the revival of h-arning, of which we <|uoted Sir Tlioniiis Mims
Its a conspicuous exuniple. produced an intellectual hanest some-
thing like (he purse of Fortnnatus. I)ecause to-djiy we urc still
reaping it. Tins eiu is called hy flatteritig liistoi'iaiis the Kli/a-
I>ethan Age. It could lie more aptly, more justly, entitled tho
Sliakespearean or Baconian -Vge; for these two minds (wlumi
some scholai-s would have us Ixdieve were only one) were of such
extraoixliuary richness that they not only atloi-ned their ()Wii time,
51*> THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
turning even much of its tinsel into gold, but they liad, in one
case j)erhaps unconsciously, the faculty of fecundating the future,
and impressing themselves not merely on, but deep into, the
national life as a 2)emianent force.
Their comparative ix)wer has waned somewhat through the ex-
tension of t lie empire and the vast increase in population unaccom-
])anied by a corres])onding increase in education, and yet to-day,
unsatisfactory as are lx)th on the spiritual side, the ma jority of men
are either Shakespeareans in the practical conduct of life, or, if
their minds have a more philosophic cjist, are Baconians. Yet,
strange to say, Shakespeare api>eai"s to have had no reverence for the
future, as Bacon had none for the i>ast.
Bacon's attitude towards theology and psychology which he
left entirely out of his system of human knowledge is paralleled
by Shakes|>eare's inability to see any spiritual meaning or anj'
l)olitical jK)ssibility in the great Puritan movement which was
well under wav in his time. He saw in the Puritans mere
olijects for theatric mirtli, just Jis Bacon saw in all churchmen
pei-sons unwort!iy th(» consideration of a philosopher. Of the popu-
lar trend of Puritanism (and fault v as it was, Puritanism was the
lii-st political system wliicli rcM^ogiiizcd the grandeur of the people
ju; a wliole) Sluikespeare knew notliing. Socially, the j>oet reflects
the aristocnitie view of life and his philosophy is essentially
Iloratian: "(let :us imuli out of life as possible and laugh while
vou live, for vou niav Ije a lony- time dead.'* And vet the Puritan
movement despised by these men Avas the most vital and grandest
force that Ir.ul appeared in the nation's (levelo[)ment ; for, however
much we may abhor its modern displays of narrowness, it brought
into Kn^^land a new conee})tiou of social equality. The common
br(»therhood in C'hiist which it tauj^dit conspired to confound that
ovei'wludmin^ sense of pei-sonal difference which feudalism had
established. Il is true that even now there are very many
Kn::^lishnien of the middle and lower classes who cringe to anyone
that comes from the anciiuit <ri;ntrv, whether he beai*s a title or
Jiot, and who also cringe to any rich tradesman who has lx)Ught
title either directlv or bv i)olitical service, as in the recent
of sundiy manufacturers of beer and porter.
ut the leaven of Puritanism, though it works slowly, is
618 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
making over the entire lump, is working surely, and the admira-
tion of royalty and of nobility per %e is on the wane never again to
wax. The intensity of this Puritan feeling when it first arose in
England can hardly be described, but must be left largely to the
imagination. It was like a new revelation from Him who
preached the Sermon on the Mount. It \\idA Christianity speak-
ing again to all kinds and classes with the same freshness and
force with which this great religion spoke, when inspiring the
hearts of its earliest followei-s to fling themselves into the arena
against the colossal power of the Roman Empire. Under the
teaching of Puritanism the meanest peasant felt himself ennobled,
and the proudest noble recognized that thei'e might be between
himself and his lowest vassal such a thing as spiritual equality.
Macaulay's flippant sneer to the effect that the Puritan objected
to the popular sport of l)ear-baiting, not because it gave pain to
the bear but because it gave jileasiu^e to the spectators, is by no
means a just one. Tliat Puritanism at times ran into excesses of
asceticism, is not to be denied, but a great popular movement, like
a great individual life, should be judged by its best, not by its
worst or bv tlie excesses of its best.
A fact worthy of notice under the Tudoi-s was the compai*ative
al)sence of rebellions. Only two great risings occurred against
the reform policy, the Pilgrimage of Grace, as it was called,
and the rebellion of the Nevilles and Percies in lo09. Each of
these Avas of the type usual under the Plantagenets, where the
great nobles niised the whole countryside against the policy of
the crown. The otlier insuirections during the Tudor dynasty,
such as those of Ivet and Wyatt, were local and for special causes,
but the ease with which these risings were suppressed indicates
tlie general j)opularity of tlie gov^ernment, or the acquiescence of
the majority of the i)eople in a strong rule.
The reason of tliis is to be found, perliaps, })artly in the exten-
sion of the commercial spirit. The rise of commercialism or the
increase of trade in a nation produces a class anxious to have a
steady government rather than one subject to political fluctuations,
and even if such a government does tren(*h cm tlie liberty of the
individual a general consent to the loss of some individuality for
the sake of security is one of the coninion compromises of a com-
620 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
mercial civilization. Then, too, the necessity of self-preservation
as a nation had contributed to the maintenance of internal quiet,
for England had been under the shadow of great dangers from
European complications through the pei-sonal conduct of Henry
the Eighth, and this shadow hung over the land through the reign
of Elizabeth till the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587,
and the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of the
incidents most characteristic of the English temper at this time
is that shown in the illustration. When the Spanish Armada
hove in sight. Sir Francis Drake, Frobisher, Lord Howard and
other naval commanders were playing a game of nine-pins. The
picture tells the story. After the disastrous defeat of the
Spaniards, England, no longer breathlessly anxious for her own
national existence, was able to turn her attention from outside
security to the acquisition of internal or constitutional freedom,
and then it became evident that the calm which had prevailed
under the Tudors was merely the incubation of a tempest.
This effort of the people lasted exactly one hundred years, and
during that time the old liberties won under the Plantagenets were
regained with such certainty that they have never since then l>een
dangerously infringed. The change from the Tudors to the Stuarts
to be thoroughly understood necessitates a consideration of king-
sliip in Europe. The concei)tion of kingship was modified markedly
by the events of the sixteenth century; the idea of a feudal sovereign
was replaced by that of a personal monarch and its opposite, a
constitutional king. As the clash of these ideas was the cause of
the struggle l)etween the Stuarts aiul their parliaments, Avhicli
culminated in the bringing of Charles to the block, and the estab-
lishment of a republic, perhaps it is well to examine rather closely
into the meaning of these modifications. In mediaeval times,
society was founded on the feudal system which we have outlined
in a previous note. It was a vast pyramid with serfdom at the foot,
and at the head an emperor, for Europe still accounted itself a
Roman Empire of which the Emperor of Germany and the Pope
represented the chief temporal and spiritual authorities. Under
the Emperor were ranged the kings and their sul)jects; under
the Pope the arclibisli()])s find their clergy,
t this ideal of feudalism was not altogether realized. Eng-
CONBIITUTIONAL HONABCHT. 521
land always claimed independence of the Holy Roman Empire,
and when the Emperor Sigismund visited Henry V. it was
expressly stipulated that he came as a visitor and not aa one
claiming any authority over the island, or any allegiance from
the king of England. As the mistiness of the Middle Ages
melted away before the rising sun of reviving learning, the old
ideal began to
crumble rapid-
ly, the Emperoi-8
losing their hold
on Italy and
Germany, and
becoming mere
German pri ncea.
In like manner
the Reformation
broke up the ec-
clesiastical en-
tirety, and of
course when
England, Scot-
land, Holland,
and much of
Germany threw
over the papacy,
in this fresh
condition a
fresh theory of
kingship had to
be formed. From the standi>oint of the king, therefoi-e, the
theory was advanced that sovereigns derived their authority
directly from God himself without any interniediation of Em-
peror or Pope. This dogma of divine right made the sovereign
owner of all his dominions in a sense unknown to feudal times,
and changed his relation to tlie law, for in old times a king had
been just as much bound by the customs of the realm as any
of his subjectB. On the other hand an absolutely opposite view
of t^ king's position grew out of the Reformation, the central
514 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
House of Lords and crowding the Commons with members
directly or indirectly elected by the royal council ; he had made
Parliament an accomplice in his attemi)t at constructing an al)so-
lutism; by parliaraentaiy statutes he had dragged the Clnireh
down to the feet of the monarch; by bills of attainder he had
hounded great nobles to the block ; under constitutional forms he
had gagged freedom with new tretusons, and oaths, and ser\ile
questions, Init the continuous success of such a system, of coui-sc,
depended wholly on the continuous servility of Parliament to the
will of the crown, and Avhenever a weak king or a weak minister
should happen to be in power, a reversal of the situation Avould
naturally result. Is it not a curious reflection that Cromwell,
the wickedest minister of P^ngland's cruellest king, sliould have
made the way clear by the very success of his schemes for that
other Cromwell a hundred years after, who gave a death blow to
the dogma of the divine riglit of kings?
It was in this reign that stout Lord Ilussey gave vent to a senti-
ment which, by the light of later events, i-eads like a prophecy:
"The world will never mend till we fight for it." Like many
another noble in this reign, Husvsey paid with his head for the
privilege of speaking his mind. The succeeding reigns of
Edward Y I., the ten days of Lady Jane (nvv, who paid for her
brief taste of royalty with her beautiful head on the block, and
the crimson reign of Maiy, called the bloody by Protestants,
though she caused no more l)lo()d to flow than many Protestant
I)rinces, were distinguished by no diminution of the royal prerog-
atives, and no gains on the part ot any class in England; nor was
the reign of Klizal)eth, splendid as it seemed to the people l)y
comparison of its quietude, and by reason of tbe popular man-
ners and })icturesque personality of their (pieen, marked by any
political gains.
Elizabeth's chief ambition was to preserve her throne, keep
England out of war, and her realm in good order; but she had no
conception of being a popular or (M)nstitutional monarch save in
the way of dazzling the people with pageantries, and even that
not to au}^ great degree, for she was as economical as the present
queen. But though Elizabeth's sovereignty was almost a des-
potism it was productive of great good to the English people.
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHV.
515
Tlie feeling o£ iiiUionality was iuteiisifietl, tlie great success wliich
accident and tiie ability to take advantage of at'cident gave to
English amis against the Spanish Annadiv not only criii|iled lier
most foiTuidable rival, but awakened England to the idea that she
might Ik'Corae not merely a great naval jiower hut a great colo-
1 z ng [ ve
"Mo e 1 t) f, tl I t g e t tl e If men
hy the ivvival of learning, of whieh we (juoted Sir Thomas More
!LS a consjiifuoiis example, produced an intelleitual harvest snnie-
tliiiig like the ]iui-sc of Fortunatiis, l>eeaitsc t^)-day we are slill
reaping it. This era is eallcd by flattering historians th(; Kli/.a-
I)etluin Agir. It eonld l»c more aptly, moi-ii justly, entitled the
SI lakes pcarean or Raecmian Age ; fur tliese two niiiids (whum
some seholai-s would have us believe were only one) were of such
extraoitlinary richness tluit they not only adorned their nwu time,
51»> THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
turning even mncli of its tinsel into gold. l»ui ihey ha*L in one
case i>erliajjs unconsciously, the faculty of fecunilaiing the futme,
and impressing themselves not merely ou, but deep into, the
national lite as a jiermanent force.
Tlu'ir comijarative jiower has waned somewhat thmmgh the ex-
tension <»f the empire and the vast iia-reiise in [>r»pulation unaecom-
]ianied hy a crirresjiTjnding increase in education, and yet to-day,
unsatisfactory- jus are lx>th tm the spiritual side, the ma jority of men
aiti either Shakes{»eareans in the practical conduct of life, or, if
their minds liiive a more phik>sophic cast, are Baconians. Yet,
strange tosay,.Shakes|Kfare api>eai-s to have had no reverence for the
future, as Baco!i had none for tlie i>ast.
Bacon's attitude towanls theology and |isychology which he
left entirely out of his system of human knowledge is paralleled
hy Shakes[>eare's inability to see any spiritual meaning or any
jKjliiical ixjssibiliiy in the great Puritan movement which was
well under wav in his time. He sjiw in the Puritans mere
o])jects for theatric mirtli, just as Bacon siiw in all churchmen
j)ei's<ms unwoiiliy the cou^idenition of a philosopher. Of the popu-
lar tread of Punt:iiiism faiid faulty as it was, Puritanism was the
rn*st ])olitiral system wlii<h rtn-ognizi-d the grandeur of the {Hjople
;u; a whole) Shakespeare knew nothing. Socially, the ])oet rt^flects
the aristo<nitic view of life and his philosophy is essentially
Horatian: **(iet as much out of life as i>ossil)le and laugh while
von live, for you mav 1h' a lonj*" time dead." And A'et the Puritan
movement despised by tliesi' men was the most vital and grandest
force that Ii.kI aj>j)ean.Ml in tlie nation's development ; for, however
miieli we may abhor its modern displays of narrowness, it brought
into Knp(land a new conception of social equality. The common
brotherhood in C'hiist which it taiiLj-hl conspired to confound that
overwludming sense of pei-sonal difference which feudalism had
establislied. It is true that even now there are very many
Kn^-lislnnen of tin* middle? and lower classes who cringe to anyone
that comes from the ancient ''('iitrv, whether he iK-'ai-s a title or
not, and who alscj cringe to any ricli tradesman who has lx)ught
a title either dircM-tlv or bv political service, as in the recent
lidry manufacturers of betu* and porter.
leaven of Puritanism, though it works slowly, is
518 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
making over the entire lump, is working surely, and the admira-
tion of royalty and of nobility per se is on the wane never again to
wax. The intensity of this Puritan feeling when it first arose in
England can hardly be described, but must be left largely to the
imagination. It was like a new revelation from Him who
preached the Sermon on the Mount. It was Christianity speak-
ing again to all kinds and classes with the same freshness and
force with which this great religion spoke, Avhen inspiring the
hearts of its earliest followers to fling themselves into the arena
against the colossal power of the Roman Empire. Under the
teaching of Puritanism the meanest peasant felt himself ennobled,
and the proudest noble recognized that there might be between
himself and his lowest vassal such a thing as spiritual equality.
Macaulay's flippant sneer to the effect that the Puritan objected
to the popular sport of l>ear-baiting, not because it gave pain to
the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectatoi's, is by no
means a just one. Tliat Puritanism at times ran into excesses of
asceticism, is not to be denied, but a great popular movement, like
a great individual life, should be judged by its best, not by its
worst or by the excesses of its best.
A fact worthy of notice und(?r the Tadors was the compai-ative
aljsence of rebellions. Only two great risings occurred against
the reform [)()liey, the Pilgrimage of Grace, as it was called,
and the rebellion of the Nevilles and Percies in loOO. Each of
these was of the type usual under the Plantagenets, where the
great n()l)les raised the whole countryside against the policy of
tlie crown. Tlie other insuiTectioiis during the Tudor dynasty,
such as those of Ivct and Wyatt, were local and for special causes,
but the Ciise Avitli which these risings were supprcvssed indicates
the general popularity of the government, or the acquiescence of
the majority of the people in a strong rule.
The reason of this is to l)e found, perhaps, partly in the exten-
sion of the commercial spirit. Tlie rise of commercialism or the
increase of trade in a nation produces a class anxious to have a
steady government rather than one sul)ject to political fluctuations,
and even if such a government does trench on tlie liberty of the
individual a general consent to the loss of some individuality for
the sake of security is one of the coinnion compromises of a com-
520 THE STOBr OF GOVERNMENT.
mereial cmlization. Then, too, the necessity of self-preservation
as a nation liad contributed to the maintenance of internal quiet,
for England iiad been under the sliadow of great dangers from
Euroj>eaa complications through tlie pereonal conduct of Henry
the Eighth, and this shadow hung over tlie land through the reign
of Elizaljeth till the execution of Marv. Queen of Scots, in 1587,
and the defeat of the Spanish Annada in 1588. One of the
incidents most characteristic of the English temper at this time
is that shown in the illustration. When the Spanish Armada
hove in sight. Sir Francis Drake, Frobisher, Lord Howard and
other naval commanders were playing a game of nine-pins. Tlie
picture tells the story. After the disastroiis defeat of the
SjKiniards, England, no longer breathlessly anxious for her own
national existence, was able to turn her attention from outside
security to the acquisition of internal or constitutional freedom,
and then it became evident that the calm which had prevailed
under the Tudore wa-f merely the incubation of a tempest.
This effort of the jwople lasted exactly one hundred years, and
during tliat time the old liberties won under the Plantagenets were
regained witli such certainty that they have never since then been
dangerously infringed. The change fi-om tlie Tudiirs to the Stuart*
to Ix; thoroughly understood necessitates a consideration of king-
ship in Eurojie. The conception of kingship was niotlified markedly
by the events of tiie sixtoentli century; the idea of a feudal sovereign
was replaced by that of a per!s<mal nionanh and its opposite, a
constitutional king. As the clash of these ideas was the cause of
the struggle Ijetween tlie Stuarts aiul their parliaments, which
culminated in the bringing of CharlcH t" the block, and the estaV
lishment of a rcijuhlic, perhaps it is well to examine rather closely
into the meaning of these modifications. In mediipval times,
society was founded on the feudal system which wc have ontlined
in a previous note. It wa-s a vast pyrnuid with serfdom at the foot,
and at the head an emperor, for Europe still accounted itself a
Roman Empire of which the EmiM?ror of Gennany and the Pope
represented the chief teni]>oral and spiritual authorities. Under
\-vAv. ranged the kings and their subjects; under
Lthe archbishops and their clcigy-
iileal of feudalism was not altogether realized, Eng-
CON8TITDTIOMAL KONABOHT. 621
land always claimed independence of the H0I7 Roman Empire,
and when the Emperor Sigismund visited Henry V. it was
expressly stipulated that he came as a visitor and not as one
claiming any authority over the island, or any allegiance from
the king of England. As the mistiness of the Middle Ages
melted away before the rising sun of reviving learniagi the old
ideal began to
crumble rapid- }T^'ilM\~^ '^tf^j^t^lJif''
ly,the Emperoi-s sSS^lS^B^BtKIB^^Sm
losing their hold iJsa^^^^^SK^SK^
on Italy and ^^^^^^eB^^B^^ .
GermanV) and ^^iuB^^^IBk'{«^ Ifd' U I'. J ^'^
becoming mere M^fflffl^ IBHel^L^ lufl^lS^ad^^...
German princes. BJ^jft^^^ ^BHHPMlfr lji^BSB9iH^3^^
lu like manner Bfe IKgaPfe.L tHM^^BI^^^B^BB^^Bb.
the Reformation j^^^Bbj^^^B •^K^^^V^B^^B^^^B^
broke up the ec- M^i^Wrmfe^T^^^BB&JSWyBBBJw
clesiastical en- w^ulfKm^^r^^^^SwB^Ml^K^^MSK^
tirety, and of |^^^»^^^H^k^^^^B|B^^^BnIp
course when B^^^S7^@r\BlHl^HNB^^^Bll
England, Scot- Bk ^^Bv^^^^P^V^^^BB^^UbBBiil
land, Holland, Bft!^^m^3^^i£^^^^P'"'SHHH^
and much of ^Bn^^BS^M^^^vYy—^ \»^^*5oi
Germany threw ^B^^^JMim^^^f^^rC~V^' j^^^
over the papacy, H^^< '^^UHpH^^Hl^^r^'T^vC^^-
in this fresh BSa^^SP^V^^^^^^2lJitf*?^^^^,fe^- ■
condition a ^^^^^^^^^^|^^?^gj^^^y^v^
fresh theory of
kingship had to
be formed. From the standiwiiit of tlie king, therefore, the
theory was advanced that sovereigns derived their authority
directly from God himself without any intermediation of Em-
peror or Pope. This dogma of divine right made the sovereign
owner of all his dominions in a sense unknown to feudal times,
and changed his relation to the law, for in old times a king had
been just as much bound by the customs of tlie realm as any
of his subjects. On the other hand an absolutely opposite view
of the king's position grew out of the Reformation, the central
514 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
House of Lords and crowding the Commons with membei'S
directly or indirectly elected by the royal council ; he had made
Parliament an accomplice in his attempt at constructing an al)so-
lutism; by parliamentary sttitutes he had dragged the Church
down to the feet of the monarch; by bills of attainder he had
hounded great nobles to the block ; under constitutional forms he
had gagged freedom with new treasons, and oaths, and ser\ile
questions, but the continuous success of sm^h a system, of coui-sc,
depended wholly on the continuous servility of 1 Parliament to the
will of the crown, and whenever a weak king or a weak minister
should happen to be in power, a reversal of the situation would
naturally result. Is it not a curioiLs refltH'tion that Cromw(dl,
the wickedest minister of England's cruellest king, sliould have
made the way clear by the very success of his schemes for that
other Cromwell a hundred yeai-s after, who gave a death blow to
the dogma of the divine right of kings?
It Avas in this reign that stout Lord IFussey gave vent to a senti-
ment which, by the light of later events, reads like a prophecy:
*''The world will never mend till we fight for it." Like many
another noble in this reign, Ilussey paid with his hcixd for the
privilege of speaking his mind. The succeeding reigns of
Edward Y I., the ten days of Lady Jane (irey, who paid for her
brief taste of royalty with her beautifid head on the block, and
the crimson reign of Mary, called the bloody by Protestants,
though she caused no more l)lood to flow than many Protestant
princes, were distinguished by no dimiiuition of the royal prerog-
atives, and no gains on the part ol any class in England; nor wjus
the reign of Elizal)eth, splendid as it sccin(Ml to the people by
comparison of its quietude, and by reiusoii of the popular man-
ners and })icturesque personality of their ({lU'en, marked by any
political gains.
Elizabeth's chief ambition was to preserve her throne, keep
England out of Avar, and her realm in good order; but she had no
conception of being a popular or constitutional monarch save in
the way of dazzling the people with pageantries, and even that
not to any grt^at degree, for she was as economical as the present
queen. But though Elizalx3tli\s sovereignty was almost a des-
potism it was productive of great good to the English people.
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
515
The feeling of nationality was intensified, tlie great success which
accident and tlie abilitj- to take advantage of accident guve to
English ai'ms ngainst the S^wmish Armiula not only cripplt-d her
most fonuidabie rival, but awakened England to the idea that she
might become nut nieridy a great naval power hut a great colo-
nizing power.
Mon'ovcr. in tliis age, the inijjetiis given to the mind.s of men
by the I'evival of learninfr, of wliiib we (piuted Sir Thomas Moro
as a conspifuons exani]'Ic, pixxluoed an intellectuiit hanest sf>nif-
thing like the ]mi-si.' nf Fortunatus, iKieause to-day w<' are slill
reaping it. This em is ealled by flattering liistorians the Kliza-
l)ethan Age. It <'Ouhl lie more aptly, nionj justly, entitled the
Shakespearean or Riiennian Age; for these two ininils (whom
some seholars wouhl liave ns Ixdiev*; were fiuly one) were of such
extraordinary richness tluit tiiey not only adorned their own time,
516 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
turning even much of its tinsel into gold, but they had, in one
case perhaps unconsciously, the faculty of fecundating the future,
and impressing themselves not merely on, but deep into, the
national life iis a permanent force.
Their comparative power has Avaned somewhat through the ex-
tension of the empire and the A^ast increase in population unaccom-
])anied by a corresponding increase in education, and yet to-day,
unsatisftictory as are both on the spiritual side, the majority of men
are either Shakespeareans in the practical conduct of life, or, if
their minds have a more philosophic cast, are Baconians. Yet,
strange to say, Shakespeare appeai-s to haA^e had no reverence for the
future, as Bacon had none for the past.
Bacon's attitude towards theology and psychology which he
left entirely out of his system of human knoAvledge is paralleled
l)y Shakespeare's inability to see any spiritual meaning or any
political possibility in the great Puritan movement which was
Avell under Avay in his time. He saAV in the Puritans mere
objects for theatric mirth, just as Bacon saAV in all churchmen
pei"Sons unworthy tlic consideration of a philosopher. Of the popu-
lar trend of Puritanism (and faulty as it Avas, Puritanism Avas the
iii"st [)oliti('al system Avhicli nnjognizi'd the grandeur of tlie people
iu: a Avholc) Sliakespeare knew nothing. Socially, the poet reflects
the aristocrat ie view of life and his pliilosophy is essentially
Horatian: "(let lus imieli out of life as possible and laugh Avhile
v(m Ha'c, for you luav be a lontr time dead." And yet the Puritan
movement despised l)y tliese men Avas the most vital and grandest
forer' that li:i(l appcNired in the nation's dcA'elopment ; for, hoAvever
much we may ablioi- its modern displays of narroAvness, it brought
into England a new conception of social e(piality. The common
brotherhood in (Inist Avliich it taught conspired to confound that
overwhelming sense of ]>ersonal difference Avhich feudalism had
established. It is true that even now there are very many
Kii;^lishnien of the; middle and lower (dasses who cringe to anyone
that conies from tlie ancient cicntrv, Avhether he beai's a title or
Jiot, and Avho also cringe to any rich tradesman Avho liiis bought
a title either directly or by i)olitical service, as in the recent
case of sundiy manufacturers of bec;r and porter.
But the leaven of Puritanism, though it Avorks slowly, is
518 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
making over the entire lump, is working surely, and the admira-
tion of royalty and of nobility per se is on the wane never again to
wax. The intensity of this Puritan feeling when it first arose in
England can hardly be described, but must be left largely to the
imagination. It was like a new revelation from Him who
preached the Sermon on the Mount. It was Christianity speak-
ing again to all kinds and classes with the same freshness and
force with which this great religion spoke, when inspiring the
hearts of its earliest followers to fling themselves into the arena
against the colossal power of the Roman Empire. Under the
teaching of Puritanism the meanest peasant felt himself ennobled,
and the proudest noble recognized that there might be between
himself and his lowest vassal such a thing as spiritual equality.
Macaulay's flippant sneer to the effect that the Puritan objected
to the popular sport of bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to
the bear but l^ecause it gave pleasure to the spectators, is by no
means a just one. That Puritanism at times ran into excesses of
asceticism, is not to l>e denied, but a great popular movement, like
a great individual life, should Ik? judged by its best, not by its
worst or by tlic excesses of its best.
A fact worthy of notice under the Tadoi*s was the compai-ative
alwence of rebellions. Only two o^reat risings occurred against
the reform [)olicy, the Pilgrimage of Gmee, as it w:\s called,
and the rebellion of the Nevilles and Percies in 1560. Each of
th(ise was of the type usual under the Plantagenets, where the
great nobles raised the whole countryside against the policy of
the crown. Tlie othtn* insurrections during the Tudor dynasty,
sucli as those of Ivet and Wyatt, were local and for special causes,
))Ut the ease Avith whicli these risings were suppressed indicates
the general pojmlarity of the government, or the acquiescence of
the majority of tluj people in a strong rule.
The reason of this is to be found, perliaps, partly in the exten-
sion of the; commercial sj)irit. Tlie rise of commercialism or the
increiuse of trade in a nation produces a class anxious to have a
steady government rather than one subject to political fluctuations,
and even if such a government does trench on the liberty of the
individual a general consent to the loss of some individuality for
the sake of security is one of the conniion com[)romises of a com-
620 THE STOEY OF GOVERNMENT.
mercial civilization. Then, too, the necessity of self-preservation
as a nation had contributed to the maintenance of internal quiet,
for England had been under the shadow of great dangers from
European complications through the pei-sonal conduct of Henrj-
the Eighth, and this shadow hung over the land through the reign
of Elizabeth till the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587,
and the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of the
incidents most characteristic of the English temper at this time
is that shown in the illustration. When the Spanish Armada
hove in sight, Sir Francis Drake, Frobisher, Lord Howard and
other naval commanders were playing a game of nine-pins. The
l)icture tells the story. After the disastrous defeat of the
Spaniards, England, no longer breathlessly anxious for her own
national existence, was able to tuni her attention from outside
secmuty to the acquisition of internal or constitutional freedom,
and then it became evident that the calm which had prevailed
under the Tudors was merely the incubation of a tempest.
This effort of the people lasted exactly one hundred years, and
during that time the old liberties won under the Plantagenets were
regained with such certainty that they have never since then been
dangerously infringed. The change from the Tudors to the Stuarts
to be tlioro uglily understood necessitates a consideration of king-
sliip in Europe. The concei)tion of kingship was modified markedly
l)y the events of tlie sixteenth century ; the idea of a feudal sovereign
was replaced by that of a personal monarch and its opposite, a
constitutional king. As the clash of these ideas was the cause of
the struggle l^tween the Stuarts aiul their parliaments, which
culminated in the bringing of Charles to the block, and the estab-
lishment of a repul)lic, perhaps it is well to examine mther closely
into the meaning of these modifications. In mediaeval times,
society was founded on the feudal system which we liave outlined
in a previous note. It was a vast pyramid with serfdom at the foot,
and at the head an emperor, for Euro})e still accounted itself a
Roman Empire of wliicrh tlie Emperor of Germany and the Pope
represented tlie cliief temporal and spiritual authorities. Under
the Emperor were ranged the kings and their subjects; under
the Pope the archbishops and their clergy,
But this ideal of feudalism was not altogether realized. Eng-
C0N8T1TCT10NAL MONARCHY. 521
land always claimed independence of the Holy Roman Empire,
and when the Emperor Sigisniund visited Henry V. it was
expressly stipulated that he came as a visitor and not as one
claiming iiiiy authority over the island, or any allegiance from
the king of England. As the mistiness of the Middle Ages
melted away Ix^fore the rising sun of reviving leamiug, the old
ideal hegan to
crumble rapid-
ly, the Empcroi-s
losing their hold
on Italy and
Germany, a n d
becoming meie
German princes.
In like manner
the Reformation
broke up the ec-
clesiastical en-
tirety, and of
course when
England, Scot-
land, HoUaiid,
and much of
Germany threw
over the papacy,
in this fresh
condition ;i
fresh theory of
kingship iiad to < ■ -
be fonned. From tlie stand|ioiiit of the king, tlioruforc, the
theoiy was adviinci'd that sovereigns derived their autlioritv
directly from Goil himself without any intennediation of Em-
peror or Pope. This dogma of divine right mailc the sovereign
owner of all his dominions in a sense unknown to feu<lal times.
and changed his relation to the law, for in old times a king liad
been just as much bound by the customs of the realm as any
of his subjects. On the other hand an absolutely opposite view
of the king's position grew out of the Reformation, the central
522 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
idea« of which agitation were the right of private judgment, and
the doctrine of justification by faith. These theories, leaving no
logical place for priestly or royal authority, carried with them
the claim that all men were equal before (Jod, and, if before
Go<l, much more so before men.
Such views wei-e, of coui-se, not fonnulated at the accession of
James I., whom Elizal)eth on her death-be<l vaguely named as her
successor, but they were in the air, and even if James had l)een a
strong man he would have had to encounter them not once but
again and again. He was not a strong man, though perhaps the
most learned king in Europe, and he showed his weakness and
Lack of judgment by pushing juetensions which even the Tudors
would not have dared to do, for no Tudor would have claimed to
be alx)ve the law. If laws stood in their way they had no scruple
about violating or circumventing them, but they never thought of
claiming to do so as a right. James did, and at the same time
tlie popular impression which he made when he arrived in his
n(»w kingdom was not favorable, for he was followed by a train of
needy Scots who looked upon England as a place to Ik? pillaged
j)olitely. At N(?waik, the king caused a j)ick}K)cket to be hung
on tlie spot without trial, and when some Puritan clergy })re-
sented a petition for certain alterations in tlie prayer-book, ten
of their leadeiv; were thrown into prison by his majesty's ordeis.
Hence by the time he had ivached London, England was well
assured that, to secure English lilH*rty from further undermining,
and to })revent the manipulation of her politics by alien adven-
tuieiN, a constant vigilance must l)e exerted.
The feeling in regard to the deluge of Scotchmen, which over-
whelmed Entrlaiid wlu n the Stuarts came in, luis been vented bv
some? celebrated Enirlishincn with a certain Lrrim humor that is
dcliirlitful in itself, thou<rh anv maintenance of national or ]>ro-
vincial prejudice is utterly and intrinsically absurd. The first
to crack any historic joke on this point seems to have l>een Guy
Eawkes, who was the chief conspirator in an attem[)t to blow up
the II:)uses of Parliament, a plot partly political and partly re-
ligious. When (Juy Fawkes, carefully guarded, just after his
arrest, was taken before the king who asked him some questions,
a little S(!otch lord in attendance inquired why the conspirators
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 628
had put 80 very much gunpowder under Parliament, thirty-six
barrels seeming to Iiis thrifty Scotch mind rather an extravagant
amount for the task. To this silly question, Fawkes replied with
extreme gravity, that he thought that amount necessar}-, as it was
liis design not merely to blow up Parliament but to blow all the
Scotchmen l)ack to Scotland. This, and in the next century Dr.
Johnson's definition in his dictionary of oats as a grain that in
England was food for horees and in Scotland food for men, and
in the next century ]Maeaulay's lament over the lost glories of
Greece, *' that her temples had been given up to the successive
depredations of Romans, Turks, and Scotchmen," show how
intense and deepseated a national prejudice may sometimes grow.
At this time Parliament had the sole right of making laws, but
this right had l)ecn continually encroached on by the use of proc-
lamations from tlic king and his council, and Parliament had no
control over the appointment of the king's niinistei-s from the
chancellor or the treasurer to the sheriffs and magistrates. The
judicial i)art of the kingdom was divided into two classes; courts
of Star ChamlK*r and Ilijirh Commission and the ordinarv courts of
the Lmd. Over the fii-st the nation had no control, the judges
being app<)inte<l hv the king and aeting witlumt juries; nor in the
ordinary jury courts were tlie rights of the subject safe, for the
king appointed and dismissed the judges and, iis he indirectly
appointed the sheriffs, and the sheriff eliose the jury, there was
sure to be a strong bias in the king's favor. Besides this, a man
accused of a criminal offence was not furnished witli a copy of the
indictment or a list of the witnesses against him till the day of
trial ; nor was he permitted to examine witnesses upon oath, fi-om
which it will l)e seen that the law courts originally intended for
the protection of the subject had become merely instruments for
his oppression.
Tlie only hope, then, lay in Parliament, but there was now no
law compelling the king to summon one. Nor, so long as he
could pay his way without additional taxes, or get money without
a parliamentary grant, was there any likelihood that he would sum-
mon an assembly which, when once convened, might make laws to
impede or entangle his futiure movements. It is therefore due in'
some degree to the bad economy of the Stuarts that they were
624 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
brought face to face with the national assemblj'' which finallj^
wiped them out.
During the reign of James I. Parliament was occupied only
with the assertion or reassertion of its former riglits ; but from 1614
to 1621 no Parliament met, and James had full chance to develo[>
his dogma of divine right or of governing the country as an abso-
lute sovereign. Now James I. had considerable ability of the
smooth intriguing kind, and only skirmishes occurred between
him and Parliament, prepamtions as it were, or trials of strength,
for the pitched battle of the reign of Charles.
Charles lacked his father's smoothness, and took his father's
theory of divine right still more seriously. Between 1625 and
1629 he had tln-ee parliaments. Between 1629 and 1640 he had
none at all. During that period he ruled with help of a few
advisers and made no endeavor to take into his confidence the
body of the nation. His queen, Henrietta Maria, was vain and
extravagant, and the example of economy in court expenses set
by Elizabeth became merely a tradition, for the cost of the royal
household rose to about ten times the Elizabethan amount, ancl
thus it l)ecanie impossible for the king to live upon his ordinary
income. Tlierefore he began collecting taxes through the stM-
vility of judges in all sorts of illegal ways, and the people l)i»gau
to resent it, at first individually, soon collectively. In 1628,
Robert Chambei's, a London merchant wlio refused to pay the
unlawful taxes on trade, when summoned l)efore the Court of
Exchequer, said there was no country in Europe where mer-
chantii received so little encouragement, and that it was as bad as
living under Turkish tyranny, for which freedom of speech he was
tried before the Coui-t of Star Chamber for "trying to make
people believe that Charles' happy government wt\s a Turkish
tyranny." He was fined two thousand pounds and sent to the
tower where, refusing either to pay or to apologize, he was kept
until released by the Long Parliament.
Monopolies had long been made illegal, but Charles' attorney-
general, Nov, affirmed that though the law forbade the gmnting
of a monopoly to one person, it did not forbid the gi*anting of the
same to two, and thus the sole right of selling various articles
was granted by Charles to companies of individuals who paid a
CHARLES I.
626 THE STOEY OF GOVERNMENT.
large sum on the spot, and a royalty on the amount. We have
here the germ of our trusts and syndicates, equally illegal in the
face of original law. These monopolies were granted for soiip,
starch, gunpowder, and so many otlier things that it looked as if
in time every article in common use would be absorljed by some
company, and the genei-al traders and merchants l)ecame thoroughly
dismayed at the spread of a system so delightful to a few, so dis-
astrous to the many.
Not satisfied with cutting the ground fr<^m un<ler the feet of
the merchants, Charles next pix>ceeded to stamp on the toes of tin*
nobility by a new scheme to gain money. At the CoiKjuest the
old-folk-land or common land of the people liad been annexed hy
the king under the name of the king's forest. This had Ijeen a
large source of revenue to the Plantagenet kings, but had dwindled
away partly in gift« to courtiers, and partly in encroachments by
neighboring barons at times when the crown had been unable to
enforce its rights. In this way large tracts of fortsst land liad
been lost; Rockingham forest, for iiLstance, which had once Ixhmi
sixty miles across now lieing reduced tx) six.
Suddenlv Charles determined to reassert these riofhts whi(th lor
centuries had lain in abeyance, and he sent Lord Holland throuo^h-
out the realm to reclaim all the land within the old boundaries to
which its present holders could show no exact title, and to tind in
addition those who were found to have thus trespassed on tln'
original royal domain. In Essex alone three hundred thousand
pounds was thus raised, ami the Earl of Essi;x was nearly ruined.
Such distress caused to the nobility generally is the reason why
so many noble hoiLses in the civil war that ensued were found on
the Republican side.
The next to suffer were the countrv <xenti'v. ]\y an old law
ownei's of land wcnth twenty pounds a year, that is, about two
hundred })Oun(ls at the present time, were to be kni^^-hted. Tins
practice liad decayed, and Charles took advantai^e of the fact to
send an inquisition into the country, and fine those icentry who
had not complied Avith the obsolete law. A statute of Queen
Elizaljcth had ordered every cottage to have four acies of land
attached to it, and numerous proclamations had been made against
the building of more houses in London, but none of these had
CONSTITUTIOXAL MONARCHY. 527
beein enforced till Charles sent another commission for twenty
miles around London to look into the matter. The poor, accord-
ing to the phrase of the time, were *' mightily vexed," and one
builder wiis fined a thousand pounds and onlored'to pull down
forty new houses or pay a thoasand pounds more. Inn-keepers
were taxed on wine, and when they refused, forced into compliance
by a prohibition to cook any meat. The result was that in one
way or another beer, wine, tolKicco, soap, etc., were all taxed,
and Charles raised his revenue from five hundi-ed thousand pounds
to eight hundred thousand.
Still this was not enough for Charles, though the people were
beginning to consider Scotch kings a costly luxury. The sums
squandered on court festivities had left little for the ordinary
expenses of government. Salaries had fallen into arreare, and
the navy, England's protection against foreign invasion and
against pirates, had been totally neglected. To remedy this,
Charles decided to increase the navv and his own income at
ftr
the same time. English kings had been in the habit of collecting
money from seaboard counties and towns in time of war to furnisli
themselves with a navv, and Charles determined to extend this
tax to inland counties. This ship money, as it was called,
created an inimonsity of indignation becaase it was clearly seen
that under guise of providing a navy Charles was really attempt-
ing to establish a precedent for making himself independent of
Parliament.
The trial of Hami)den, which occurred in 1(337, for refusing to
pay the sliip tax was the lii*st dc?claration of independence on the
|)art of an English gentleman, and therefore attracted far more
attention than the protests or refusals of membej"s of the mercan-
tile class. Hampden's resistancit thrilled tlnough England just at
the moment when men were being roused by the news that the
patience of Scotland had been at last exhausted, and that the
Scottish people and clergy did not intend to submit any longer to
clerical oppression, backed up by legal tyiunny.
The king had ordered the clergy of Edinburgh to introduce the
prayer-book into their churches, but no sooner was it opened at
the chui-ch of St. Giles, July 23, 163G, than a mummr arose
among the congregation and swelled into such a formidable riot
528 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that the church liad to be cleared by the officers of the law. The
judges, however, were so frightened by the rising wrath of the
people that they rendered a decision that the royal Avrit com-
manded only the purchase, and not the use of the prayer-book.
The trial of Hampden, as far as he was concerned personally,
was a farce, for the judges, being mere creatures of the king, with
two exceptions, decided that although Hampden's lawyers had
shown by an unbroken series of evidence that taxation by the king
without consent of Parliament was illegal, nevertheless the king
was above all law. Out of the twelve judges two voted for
Hampden, one decided against the king on teclmical grounds, the
other nine decided for the king. Four years after this Charles,
not having money enough to carry on the war against Presby-
terianism in Scotland, by the advice of his chief counsellor, the
Earl of Stmfford, called a Parliament which, on account of its
brief dumtion, has been styled the Short Parliament.
Eveiy member of the Commons knew that the battle for reli-
gious liberty in Scotland was a battle also for the political liberty
of every individual Englishman, and instead of voting money to
the king to prosecute his Scottish campaign, this Parliament
declared that no subsidy should be granted till security had been
given for religion, property, and parliamentary liberty. An oflFer
to give up the ship money tax failed to lure Parliament away
from this linn stand, and after three weeks' sitting the king exer-
cised his prerogative by dissolving it, and Strafford, his minister,
maintained that the refusal of Parliament to supply the king's
wants freed the king from all rule of government, and entitled
him to supply himself at his royal pleasure. Meantime so suc-
cessful were tlie Scots that Charles was forced to summon a great
council of the peel's at York to help him. These nobles geneitilly
repudiated his projects and again lie was driven to summon a
Parliament which was called the Long Parliament.
Tlie great light of tliis time now began to shine in the person
of John Pym, the finest as he was th(* first of parliamentary
leadei*s. Of the five hundred membei's lie was the one who clearlv
foresaw the certainty that Parliament and the crown had met for
a death struggle. He was the fii'st English statesman who
discerned and tried to apply what may be called the doctrine of
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
619
constitutional proportion. Pym saw that, as an element of
national life. Parliament must outrank the crown, or else it wiiw
of no consequence at all. He saw, too, tliiit of Parliament the
essential part was tiie House of Commons. On these two points
he based his policy. When Charles i-efused to act with Parlia-
ment Pym treated such conduct as a temporary abdication which
580 THE STORY OF GOVKUNMEXT.
vested the entire executive in the two Houses until new arrange-
ments were made. \VTien the lords obstructed public business,
lie served warning upon them that such tactics would only force
tlie Commons "to save the kingdom alone.^'
Revolutionary principles these, but they have Ixjen recognized
as bases of the English constitution since the day when Pym
declared them. The first principle was established deep below
any future uprooting or shaking by the Convention and Parlia-
ment wliich followed on the departure of James II., in 1688.
The second principle was recognized and ratified by the acknowl-
edgment on all sides since the Reform Bill of 1832, that the
government of England is really in the hands of the House of
Commons, and can only be carried on by ministers who represent
the majority of that house. As Strafford, the chief minister of
Charles, represents royal tyranny and England at its lowest point
of national degradation, so John Pym stands out on the canvas
of history jis the embodiment of law, a face looking always
towards the future.
This Long Parliament which Pym managed undid one by one
the lawless acts of Charles' government. Ship money was
declared illegal; the judgment in Hampden's case was annulled;
one of the judges committed to prison ; the statute declaring the
ancient right of the subject, that no sulvsidy, custom, impost, or
any (jhiirg;^ whatsoever ought or may be laid or im[)osed upon any
merchandise exported or imported by subjects, denizens, or aliens,
(rlthouf common couHcnt of ParJiam"nf enXyl f:)rv'ver all preten-
sions of the crowa to any rii^flit of arbitrary tixation; and a
triennial bill called for an assembly of the House every three
yeai*s, and l)Ou:id the returning officers to proceed to election
even if the royal writ failed to summon them.
Not satisfied with this the ('ommons proceeded to impeach the
king's minister, Strafford, for high treason. Charles, always
plotting, apparently a])an(loned Strafford to his fate, and when it
was discovered that the kins' ^vas listenine: to counselloi*s who
proposed that the army should march on London, seize the Tower,
free Strafford and do away with Parliament, Strafford's doom
was sealed. The Londoners were roused to frenzy and as the
])eers gathered at Westminster, crowds saluted them with hoarse
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 531
cries for "Justice." Yielding to this cry the House of Lords
j)assed the bill of attainder found against Strafford by the Com-
mons to which two days hiter Charles gave liis signature, thus
.sacrificing })crhaps one of the most faithful servantij a bad king
vwr possessed, and over this crowning act of royal meanness the
London streets blazed with bonfires, and l)ells rang out from every
steeple.
Tile courage of tlie two Houses of Parliament hud now risen,
and it l)ecame evident to all that civil war was inevitable.
Charles dispatched one of his adherents, the Earl of Newcastle,
to muster an army in the north, iviid both sides prepared for the
coming struggle. Tlie queen sailed for the continent to pawn the
crown jewels and buv nuuiitions of war. The cavaliers, as
the king's i)arty were called, gathered round him and to the last
proposals of 1 Parliament, demanding the power of appointing and
dismissino- the roval ministers, of namincr eruardians for the royal
cliildren, and of virtuallv controUino- militarv, civil, and reli-
Cfious affairs, Cliarles retorted: "If 1 crninted vour demands, I
should be no moi'c thin the mere phantom of a king."
Then beiran the maiidest era of Eni:i'lish history with the battle
of Edge Hill, October 2o, 1;)4*2. This was a drawn battle, but
tlie moral advantage rested with the king, for it showed him to
l)e stronger than bid b;*en generally supposed, and many, there-
fore, fiocked to his standard. It is almost impossible to state
l)rierty tlie rapid succession of striking events which mark this
period. The battles of Edge Hill, and Chalgrove Field where
Hampden fell, wen^ not decisive, nor did the success of the par-
liamentarv ]).irtv become assured till the Commons made a covenant
with Scotland to l)ring the churches of God in the three kins'-
doms to the nearest uniformity in religion in form of church gov-
ernment, and incidentally, as they expressed it, "to extirpate
l)opery, prelacy, supei-stition, schism, and profaneness, and to
preserve the rights and privileges of Parliament, and to unite the
two kingdoms of Scotland and England in a firm peace and imion
to all posterity."
In the next great battk, that of Marston Moor, July 2, 1644,
there came into prominence for the first time a leader whose very
name even for a hundred years after his death sounded a menace
Mie nx sroBT or oovkssukst.
^^, it>i ntrs k %iiur^ fur it is a natter of record that in the last
^f^)^.., ^<^M M Tiitf^isib gentlemia idm b«d msrried a descend-
<,h ^' 'i!.pi^ ^.'Nfamrell petitioned that his name might be
.«.»nv.^ ;> «.- Ik. T^arliameDt to -Qui of hts wife's family, King
•ii. :..<, .'>i>uc«v1l, whose Hank charge mined the title of
«. .. . 'i;u>i>.n V»r. is a man whose snrjassing greatness can-
. \, ^:i.4..t>.i. t^cu! ::; « bri^f skfti'h like this. He was the giant of
»i .* , ;■ r^fftiMs. Dnriii/f tlie rivil war some of the partia-
i^^. . -..ci'V'Jicaak from olitnininga complete victory over th«
v-:,^ . .:~> s, utvc JefeatinfT hJM foivt-R they would permit him to
V. ..... :> ^>'Ou 'fctier inst«a«l of iittciiijiting to capture him luid
'. ......> -tui' iut cod to tlie will'. Till' old .'iiijierstition of lo^-alty
■ss--'- 'K" uiiswcprise. They iliil nut (It*sire to crush him, but
> IS...V '.iiu 'ta,-tl. lk« tlie ixMiliou of a (-oiistitutiniiiil, instead of an
. V .;..*. :tt»nhWi-lfc. and they «hniiik from the taint of treason — a
a:!.v.i u\tfirvirf*J still a trfmendous influence over the Eng-
■ 1-. :v "rlitiji N? K-aten." argued Loiil Manchester at Xewlniry,
V ■' .; -i;". Iv king; if ]i<? beat iis, lie will Ining ns all for
• ■. : -wsi tV i.i»}r ill Inttle," retorted Cromwell, "I would lire
>,v, ,u hi!H just the same as at another."
S. ».k;uk>)\\ W dwlared that the iwirliamentary leaders were
.. ».i ,i u» vv'i*iiHi'r," and that unless the whole foree were new-
.1.-..V v^;, -uiU iium* strictly disciplined, no settled success could
.V . \iv>u<l- Ut' saw that it was neces.sary for success to opi»ose
«'iuU;u>»iMti ^^ub «>iilhusia»im.
■ \ -wi <.'( (>tnw taiBtcrs and town apprentices," he said, "would
iK'wi li^hl »^«ilist men of honor," or such as followed the banner
vJ VUuk-i tt\m a principle of devotion as intensely real as it was
uiy wi^8taken. Cromwell had early discerned that attach-
ll^i l^t A wligimis cause was the one weaimn which could meet
I M\«.«i*hl^'W tiR! chivalry of the cavalier. So he had gathered
I Uui W a nucleus a regiment of a thousand men, a " lovely
jthe called them. No blasphemy, drinking, disorder, or
D allowed in these ranks. "Not a man swears but be
UTe-pence." Nor was his choice of religious men his
d
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 533
only innovation on the military customs of the time. Social
tradition had limited command of regiments to men of birth, but
Cromwell said: "I had i-ather have a plain, russet-coated captain
that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than what
you call a gentleman and is nothing else, though I honor a gen-
tleman that is so indeed."
The civil war came to an end at the battle of Xaseby, June 14,
1645. Charles, indeed, went wandering helplessly along the bor-
ders of Wales in search of fresh forces, but the spring of 1646
saw the few troops that still clung to the king surrounded and
captured at Stow. ''You liave done your work now," said their
leader, Sir Jacob Astley, to his conquerors, "and may go to play,
unless you fall out among yourselves."
With the end of tlie civil war came a time of extreme confu-
sion but of greater interest tlian even the war itself in its bearing
on English history. Modern England, ius apolitical entity, began
with the triumph of Cromwell at Niuseby. When Astley gave up
his sword a little later, the *'work" of the generations that had
striven for public liberty in his own emphatic phrase was "'done."
However the later Stuarts might struggle to revive their absolute
claims, England could safely *'go to play." But a new woik had
commenced ; the constitutional and eeclesiiistical problems that still
beset English polities in the shape of home rule and the national
church came to the front as subjects of debate in the yeai-s
Ixjtween the close of the civil war and tlie death of Charles.
The gi*eat j)arties that have ever since divided the social, political,
and religious life of England, either as Independents and Presby-
terians, Whigs and Tories, Conservatives and Lil^erals, sprang
into organization from the contest between the army which the
civil war had created as an independent force and the Parliament
which had created the civil war.
Then began for the first time a conscious struggle, far from
ended yet, between i)olitical tradition and political progn^ss,
between the piineiplc of religious conformity and that of religious
freedom. From 164G to 1G41) England was a cauldron of con-
spiracy on the part of the defeated king, who had given himself
up to the army in Scotland in 1G46, and with chamcteristic
kingly policy tried to play off the Scotch covenanters against
&^
THE STORr OF GO\'ERX31EXT.
liwi: EwrUfth allies, but the ScMttUh army, accepting four hon-
liivtl tlioiisai:»i p4>imds ia dischaige of its claims, surrendered
(Miiirhrfi to d .•^>Diminee of Parliament in January, 1647. Charles
siHMit the ^^?!^^ oc his time on earth in intriguing to cause trouble
i>i»t\vefi: tin Pirliament and the army.
Thcrt "v-jis still a curious reverence felt for him even by his
^■'Oiunicrrcs. Aavi when the army demanded that "'the capital and
.TniMil f.niiS.T v^t our tn>ubles, by whose commissions, commands
^im: nr.v^T^'tw^^nts all our wars an«l troubles have l)een, may be
s!v». ih.;-\ >-:\»Ui:ht to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief
U« '^ c-^Z-v ot\** this demand drove the Houses to a sort of per-
Ti|«v<'.*^ *v;vsjvur. They hatl been negotiating with the king for
,^»••f^ r ,\uu*essions as a hasis of return to something like the old
i\yU'^.. avaI ihoir reply to this demand fi-om the army wjis to accept
•Ay, X 'U^s si>-called concessions. Tliis act \\'as construed by the
1,.. ;.iivv jvirty ivs a defiance, and Charles was seized and carried
/^t, V,* Mui^i Castle, the bulk of the army moving on London.
'^\\\' sluill know now," said Vane, as the troops surrounded the
*»,,".ixvs \»t' Parliament, **wlio is ou the side of the king, and wlio
'. • '.:u- sivlc of the peoj)le." But fear of the army was weaker
f! 'tiiT the nienibei*s than the awniz.ed lovaltv that strove to save
^ fry % «
''o moiiaix-hy and tin* chnrch. A larye majority of l)oth Houses
w'Uvl lo have Charles Ijack again on his own tenns.
The next morning Colonel I^ride appeai-ed in l^ehalf of the
Aimx's Coiineil of Officers at the door of the House of Commons
wiih a list of forty inemlKii-s of the majority, and as each member
a[»[»eared he was arrested and i)Ut in eontinement. ""By wliat
lii^hl do you this?*' asked one of the nienilx^is. '^By the right
i»f the sword," said Hugh Petei-s. Tlie House still held out, but
ihe next ni()rnin<^ fortv more niemlxTs were excluded and the rest
yitdded. Then tluj two great powei'S which for five years had
wau*'<l tliis hitter conflict, the Parliament and the monarchv,
melted away; the remnant wlio remained to cor»j)erate with, or
carry out the will of the army, was no longer a representative
IhmIv. In the eoai-se iniageiy of popular speech, they were but the
*'r\niij>" of a jiarliament, and hy this name have passed into his-
e House of I^ords at this time had pnictically vanished
CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKCHV.
and the next act of this reviBed House of CommoiiB was a resolu-
tion for the trial of Charles, and a Domination of a court of a
huadred and fifty commissionera to conduct it, with John Brad-
shaw, a lawyer of emiuence, at their head. The rejection of this
ordinance by the few peers ulin etill remained brought out this
resolution from the lower House: "That the people are, nndi-r
God, the original of all jait ]iower; tluvt the Commons of Eng-
land in Parliament asaembleil, being obosen by and i^epreseuting
the people, have the supreme power in this nation, and tliat wliat-
soever is enacted and declared for law by the Comraomi iu Parlia-
meat assembled hath the force of n law, and all the people of this
nation are concluded thereby, although the consent and concur-
rence of the king or House of Peei-s he not ha*il thereunto."
Charles appeared before Bntdshaw's court denying its com-
petence and refusing to plead. Thirty-two witnesses ivere
examined to satisfy the consL'iences of his judges, and on the fifth
day he ^vas condemned to death as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer,
and enemy of his countrj-," The dignity which he had failed to
show in his wrangling with Bradshaw and the judges returned to
him as death drew near. As Macaulay sayj. : " He went to the
block with a placid courage that has half redeemed his fame."
Two masked executioners waited on him as he mounted the scaf-
fold which had Iwen built outside one of the windo\vs of the
Banquettiug Hoiuse at Whitehall. Streets and roofs were
thronged with spectators, and a strong guard of soldiers stood
below. Tlie king's head fell at the first blow, and as the execu-
tioner lifted it by its long locks to the sight of all, groans of pity
and horror mixed with the shouts of triumph from the populace
lepresenting the nation he had misruled.
The news of Charles' death thrilled royal Europe with horror.
The Czar of Russia drove the English envoy from his court.
France withdrew her ambassador from England on the proclama-
tion of the Republic. The Protestant powers of the continent
were more anxious than any to disavow all connection with a
people who liad killed their king. Holland took the lead in acts
of open hostility to the English Commonwealth, i>aying a solemn
official visit to the Prince of Wales who took the title of Charles
II., and refusing an audience to the English envoys. In Scotland
686 'THE STOllY OF GOVKKNMENT.
the Duke of Argyle proclaimed Charles II. king, .and invited him
from Holland to ascend the throne.
Hesitation and delay marked the eoui-se of the Commons in
entering on their new tiisk of recjonstiTicting the government.
Six weeks passed before the monarchy was formally abolished,
and the government of the nation provided for by the creation of
a council of state consisting of forty-one membei's selected from
the Commons who were entrusted with full executive power at
home or abroad. Two months more elapsed l)efore the passing of
the memorable act of May 19, 1649, which declared "that the
people of England and of all the dominions and territories there-
unto belonging are, and shall l)e, and are hereby constituted, made,
established, and confirmed to ]ye a commonwealth and free state,
and shall henceforward be governed as a commonwealth and free
state by the supreme authority of this nation, the representatives
of the people in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint
and constitute officers and ministers for the good of the people,
and that without any king or House of Lords."
Trouble in Ireland, troul)le in Scotland, trou])lo with Holland
stared them in the face ; but with (^roniwell for their leader all
difficulties were tnmsnuited into triuniplis. Charles the Sei'ond
was in Scotland at this time, l)ut to secure the suj)port of the
Scot(.*li he had been put to the greatest humiliations. He had sulr
scribed to the Presbyterian covenant, he had listened to sermons
and scoldings from the ministers, he had Ik'cu called on to sign
a declaration that, wliile it })r()inised l)t4t(»r behavior on his pai*t,
acknowledged the tyranny of liis father and the idolatrousness of
his niotlier, who was a Catliolic
Shameless as he was, tlie youn<r kinij niomentarilv recoiled.
"I could never look my mother in tlu^ face anfain after sisfniui;
such a paper," lie said; but he signed. He was a king, liowever,
only in name, and after tlie battle of Worcester, September 3,
1051, in which Cromweirs loss wu.s little, and the Scots lost six
thousand men, witli all their baggage and artillery, Charles the
Second fled the field, and after months of wandering escaped to
France.
The contluct of Cromwell after theses victories, in dissolving
the Parliament and tiiki ng for a while supreme command of the
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 587
nation, was a necessity of the times. He looked on the legal
defects of liis title to the office of pit)tector as more than supplied by
the consent of the nation. "I called not myself to this place," he
iirgetl ; " God and the i>eople of these kingdoms have borne testi-
mony to it." His rule had been acquiesced in by London, by the
army, by the solemn decision of the judges, by addresses from
every shire, by the appearance of members of the new Parliament
of 1654 in answer to his writ of summons. "Why may I not
balance this providence," he asked, "with any hereditarj' inter-
est?" He discerned in tliis national approval a call from God;
a divine right of a higher order than that of the kings who had
gone before.
But witli the dissolution of this Parliament of 1654 ended all
show of constitutional rule. Cromwell's protectorate became a
simple tyranny. Cromwell, indeed, professed to be restrained by
an ordinance drawn up by one of the early Councils of State,
called the Instrument of Government ; but the one restraint on his
power which this instrument provided, namely the inability to
levy taxes save by consent of Parliament, he set aside on the plea
of necessity.
"The people,'' said he, in words that Charles the First's great
minister StnifFonl might have used, " will prefer their real security
to mei*e forms." From this moment, Whitelock tells us, "many
sober and nol)le lovers of their country, in despair of public
liberty, did begin to incline to the restoration of the Stuarts." If
tyranny could be pardoned, the wisdom with which Cromwell
used the power he had usurped, the grandeur of his rule, and the
vast extent — reai'liing even to the present — of the benefits which
his management of her foreign affairs gave to England, would
win pardon for Cromwell. "We always reckon those eight years
of the usurpation," said the royalist Burnet afterwards, "a time
of great peace and pmsperity."
It was not vulgar flatteiy which influenced the Parliament of
his creation to offer Cromwell the title of king which he refused,
as Caesar did on a similar occasion, for the experience of the
nation had taught these men to find a certain value in the tra-
ditional forms under which their liberties had developed. They
really wished Cromwell to become their king, for a king was
530 THE STORY OP GOVKUNMENT.
vested tlie entire executive in the two Houses until new arrange-
ments were made. When the lonls obstructed public business,
lie served warning upon them tliat such tarCtics would only force
the Commons "to save the kingdom alone,^^
Revolutionary principles these, but they have been recognized
as biises of the English constitution since the day when Pym
declared them. The first principle was established deep below
any future uprooting or shaking by the Convention and Parlia-
ment which followed on the departure of James II., in 1688.
The second principle was recognized and ratified by the acknowl-
edgment on all sides since the Reform Bill of 1832, that the
government of England is really in the hands of the House of
Commons, and can only be carried on by ministers who represent
the majority of that house. As Strafford, the chief minister of
Charles, represents royal tyranny and England at its lowest point
of national degradation, so John Pym stands out on the canvas
of history as the embodiment of law, a face looking always
t^i wards the fut\ue.
This Long Parliament which Pym managed undid one by one
the lawless acts of Charles' government. Ship money was
declared illegal; the judgment in Hampden's ease was annulled;
one of the judges committed to prison ; tlie statute declaring the
ancient right of the subject, that no subsidy, cu-^tom, impost, or
any charg;^ whatsoever ought or may be laid or imposed upon any
merchandise exported or imported by subjjcts, denizens, or aliens,
tnlthout common ro)iHcnt of ParViarn'mt en:l 'd f:>rv'ver all preten-
sions of the crown to anv rii^lit of arbitrary tixation; and a
triennial bill called for an assembly of the House every three
years, and bound the returning officers to proceed to election
even if the royal writ failed to summon them.
Not satisfied witli this the C'Ommons proceeded to impeach the
king's minister, Strafford, for high treason. Charles, always
plotting, ap})arently abandoned Strafford to his fate, and when it
was <liscovered that the kincf was listeningr to counsellors who
proposed that the army should march on London, seize the Tower,
free Strafford and do away with Parliament, Strafford's doom
was sealed. The Londoners were roused to frenzy and as the
])eers gathered at Westminster, crowds saluted them with hoarse
OONSTlTUIlnK
ciies for "Justice." Yielding to this cry the House of Lords
passed the bill of attainder found against Strafford by the Com-
mouB to whicli two dajs later Charles gave his signature, thus
sacrificing perhaps one of the most faithful servants a bad king
ever i)08ses8ed, and over this crowning act of royal meanness the
London streets blazed with bonfires, and bells rang out from every
steeple.
The coumge o£ the two Houses of Parliament had now risen,
and it became evident to all that civil war was inevitable.
Charles dispatched one of his adlierents, the Earl of Newcastle,
to muster an arniy in the nortli, and both sides prepared for the
coming struggle. Tlie queen sailed for the continent to pawn the
crown jewels and biiy munitions of war. The cavaliers, as
the king's party were called, gathered nmud him and to the last
proposals of Parliament, demanding the power of appointing and
dismissing the royal ministers, of naming guardians for the royal
children, and of virtually controlling military, civil, and reli-
gious affaii-s, Charles retorted: "If I granted your demands, I
should be no more than the mere phantom of a king."
Then began the grandest era of English history with the battle
of Edge Hill, October 23, 1042. This was a drawn battle, but
the moral advantage rested with the king, for it showed him to
be stronger than had b^en generally supposed, and many, there-
fore, flocked to his standard. It is almost impossible to state
briefly the mpid succession of striking events which mark this
periml. The battles of Edge Hill, and Chalgrove Field where
Hampden fell, were ]iot decisive, nor did the success of the par-
liamentary party become assured till the Commons made a covenant
with Scotland to bring the churches of God in the three king-
doms to the nearest uniformity in religion in form of church gov-
ernment, and incidentally, as they expressed it, "to extirpate
popery, prelacy, superstition, schism, and profaneness, and to
preserve the rights and privileges of Parliament, and to unite the
two kingdoms of Scotland and England in a firm peace and union
to all posterity."
In the next great battiL, that of Marston Moor, July 2, 1644,
tiiere came into prominence for the first tiine a leader whose very
ntune even for a hundred years after his death sounded a menace
'm^r
624 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
brought face to face with the national assembly which finally
wiped them out.
During the reign of James I. Parliament was occupied only
with the assertion or reassertion of its former rights ; but from 1614
to 1621 no Parliament met, and James had full (;liance to develop
his dogma of divine right or of governing the country as an abso-
lute sovereign. Now James I. had considerable ability of the
smooth intriguing kind, and only skirmishes occurred between
him and Parliament, preparations as it were, or trials of strength,
for the pitched battle of the reign of Charles.
Charles lacked his father's smoothness, and took his father's
theory of divine right still more seriously. Between 1625 and
1629 he had three parliaments. Between 1629 and 1640 he had
none at all. During that period he ruled with help of a few
advisers and made no endeavor to take into his confidence the
body of the nation. His queen, Henrietta Maria, wi\s vain and
extravagant, and the example of economy in coint expenses set
by Elizabeth became merely a tradition, for the cost of the royal
household rose to about ten times the Elizabethan amount, and
thus it l)ecame impossible for the king to live upon his ordinary
income. Therefore he begrau collectinsf taxes tlirouMi the scr-
vility of judges in all sorts of illegal ways, and the people Ix^gan
to resent it, at first individually, soon collectively. In 1628,
Robert Chaml^ei's, a London merchant who refused to pay the
unlawful taxes on trade, when summoned bcfoi'c the Court of
Exchequer, said there w<as no country in Europe where mer-
chants received so little encouragement, and that it was as bad as
living under Turkish tyranny, for which freedom of speech he was
tried before the Court of St^ar Chamber for ''trying to make
people l>elieve that Charles' happy government was a Turkish
tyranny." He wiis fined two thousand pounds and sent to the
tower where, refusing either to pay or to apologize, he was kei>t
until released by the Long Parliament.
Monopolies had long been made illegal, but Charles' attorney-
general, Noy, affirmed that though the law forbade the gmnting
of a monopoly to one person, it did not forbid the granting of the
same to two, and thus the sole right of selling various articles
was granted by Charles to companies of individuals who paid a
IB
1
526 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
large sum on the spot, and a royalty on the amount. We have
here the germ of our trusts and syndicates, equally illegal in tlie
face of original law. These monopolies were granted for soap,
starch, gunpowder, and so many other things that it looked as if
in time every article in common use would be al>sorbed hy some
company, and the general traders and merchants l)ecaine tlioroughly
dismayed at the spread of a system so delightful to a few, so dis-
astrous to the many.
Not satisfied with cutting the ground from under the feet of
the merchants, Charles next pi-oceeded to stamp on the toes of the
nobility by a new scheme to gain money. At the Concjuest the
old-folk-land or common land of the people had lx»en annexed by
the king under the name of the kiug's forest. This had l>een a
large source of revenue to the Plantiigenet kings, but had dwindled
away ])artly in gifts to courtieiij, and partly in encroachments by
neighboring barons at times when the crown had been unable to
enforce its rights. In this way large tracts of foiest land had
been lost; Rockingham forest, for instiince, which had once 1>(hmi
sixty miles across now l)eing reduced to six.
Suddenlv Charles determined to reassert these rights which for
centuries had lain in abeyance, and he sent Lord Holland ihrout^h-
out the realm to reclaim all the land within the old boundaries to
which its present holders could sliow no exact title, and to lind in
addition those who were found to have thus trespassed on tlu»
original royal domain. In Essex alone three hundred thousand
pounds was thus raised, and the Earl of Essex was nearly ruined.
Such disti-ess caused to the nobilitv efenerallv is the reason whv
so many noble houses in the civil war that ensued were found on
the Republican side.
The next to suffer were the countrv <^entrv. 15 v an old law
ownei's of land worth twenty pounds a >'ear, thai is, about two
hundred pounds at the present time, were to be knighted. This
practice had decayed, and Charles took advantage of the fact to
send an inquisition into the country, and tine those L^entrv who
had not comi)lied with the ol^solete law. A statute of Queen
Elizabeth had ordered every cottage to have four acies of land
attached to it, and numerous proclamations had l)een made against
the building of more houses in London, but none of these had
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 6^7
been enforced till Charles sent another commission for twenty
miles around London to look into the matter. The poor, accord-
ing to the phrase of the time, were '* mightily vexed," and one
builder was fined a thousand pounds and ordered* to pull down
forty new houses or i)ay a thousand pounds more. Inn-keepers
were taxed on wine, and wlien they refused, forced into compliance
by a prohibition to cook any meat. The result was that in one
way or another beer, wine, tobacco, soap, etc., were all taxed,
and Charles raised his revenue from five hundred thousand pounds
to eight hundred thousand.
Still this was not enough for Charles, thougli the i)eople were
beginning to consider Scotch kings a costly luxury. The sums
squandered on court festivities had left little for the ordinarj-
expenses of government. Salaries had fallen into arreai-s, and
the navy, England's protection against foreign invasion and
against pirates, had been totally neglected. To remedy this,
Charles decided to increase the navv and his own income at
the same time. English kings had been in the habit of collecting
money from sejil^oard counties and towns in time of war to furnish
themselves with a navv, and Charles determined to extend this
tax to inland counties. This ship money, as it was called,
created an innnensity of indignation because it was clearly seen
that under guise of pnn'iding a navy Charles was really attempt-
ing to est:il)lisli a iH'ecedent for making himself independent of
Parliament.
The trial of Hampden, wliieli occurred in 1<)87, for refusing to
pay the ship tax was the fii*st declaration of independence on the
I)art of an English gentleman, and therefore attmcted far more
attention than the protests or refusals of membei's of the mercan-
tile class. Hampden's resistance thrilled through England just at
the moment when men were beint»: roused bv the news that the
patience of Scotland hatl been at last exhausted, and that the
Scottish peoi)le and clergy did not intend to submit any longer to
clerical oppression, backed up by legal tyranny.
The king had ordered the clergy of Edinburgh to introduce the
prayer-lx)ok into their churches, but no sooner was it opened at
the chui-ch of St. Giles, July 23, 163(3, than a mummr arose
among the congregation and swelled into such a formidable riot
528 THE STORY OF GOVERXMEXT.
that the chui-ch had to be cleared bv the officers of the law. The
judges, however, were so frightened by tlie rising wrath of the
people that they rendered a decision that the royal \\Tit com-
manded only the purchase, and not the use of the prayer-book.
The trial of Hampden, as far as he was concerned personally,
was a farce, for the judges, being mere creatures of the king, with
two exceptions, decided that although Hampden's lawyers had
shown by an unbroken series of evidence that taxation by the king
without consent of Parliament wjis illegal, nevertheless the king
was above all law. Out of the twelve judges two voted for
Hampden, one decided against the king on technical grounds, the
other nine decided for the king. Four years after this Charles,
not having money enough to carrj' on the war against Presby-
terianism in Scotland, bv the advice of his chief counsellor, the
Earl of Straflford, called a Parliament which, on account of its
brief duration, has been st}'led the Short Parliament.
Eveiy member of the Commons knew that the battle for reli-
gioiLs liberty in Scotland was a battle also for the political liberty
of every individual Englishman, sind instead of voting money to
the king to prosecute his Scottish campaign, this Parliament
declared that no subsidy should be granted till security had been
given for religion, property, and parliamentary liberty. An offer
to give up the ship money tax failed to lure Parliament away
from this firm stand, and after three weeks' sitting the king exer-
cised liis prerogative hy dissolving it, and Straflfoi'd, his minister,
maintained that the refusal of Parliament to supply the king's
wants freed the king from all rule of government, and entitled
liim to supply himself at his royal pleasure. Meantime so suc-
cessful were the Sctots that Charles was forced to summon a great
council of the })eei's at York to help him. These nobles generally
repudiated his projects and again he was driven to sunmion a
Parliament which was called the Loner T^lrliament.
The great light of this time now began to shine in the person
of John Pym, the finest as he Wivs the fii*st of parliamentary
leadei's. Of the five hundred membei's he was the one who clearly
foresaw the certainty that Parliament and the crown had met for
a death sti-uggle. lie was the fii-st English statesman who
discerned and tried to apply what may be called the doctrine of
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY.
constitutional proportion. Pym saw that, as an element uf
national life, Parliament must outrank the crown, or else it wa.-i
of nn consequence at all. He saw, too, that of Parliament the
essential part was tlie House of Commons. On these two points
he based his policy. When Charles i-efused to act with Parlia-
ment Pym treated such conduct as a temporary abdication which
530 THE STORY OF CJOVKUNMENT.
vested the entire executive in the two Houses until new arrange-
ments were made. AVhen the lonls obstructed public business,
he served warning ui>on them that such tactics would only force
the Commons "to save the kingdom aZow^."
Revolutionary principles these, but they have l^een recognized
as b;ises of the English constitution since the day when Pym
<lechiixid them. The first principle was established deep below
any future uprooting or shaking by the Convention and Parlia-
ment which foHowed on the departure of James II., in 1688.
Tlie second principle Wiis i-ecognized and mtified by the acknowl-
edgment on all sides since the Reform Bill of 1832, that the
government of England is really in the hands of the House of
Commons, and can only be carried on by ministers who represent
the majority of that house. As Strafford, the chief minister of
Charles, represents royal tyranny and England at its lowest point
of national degradation, so John Pym stands out on the canvas
of history ixs the embodiment of law, a face looking always
towards the future.
This Long Parliament which Pym managed undid one by one
the lawless acts of Charles' government. Ship money was
declared illegal; the judgment in Hampden's case was annulled;
one of the judges committed to prison ; the stixtute declaring the
ancient riglit of the subject, that no subsidy, cu-itom, impost, or
any charges whatsoever ought or may be laid or imposed upon any
merchandise exported or imported by subj.M-ts, denizens, or aliens,
ffuthofff common coHxrnt of Parliament eii.l.'d f:)r.n'er all preten-
sions of the cnnva to any riglit of arbitrary taxation; and a
triennial bill called for an assembly of tlie House every three
years, and bound the returning officers to proceed to election
even if the royal writ failed to summon them.
Not satisfied with this the Commons pro(;eeded to impeach the
king's minister, Strafl:V)r(l, for high treason. Charles, always
plotting, ap})arently abandoned Strafford t(^ his fate, and when it
was discovered that the kinir was listeninir to counselloi*s who
proposed that the army should march on London, seize the Tower,
free Strafford and do away with Parliament, Strafford's doom
was sealed. The Londoners were roused to frenzy and as the
peers gathered at Westminster, crowds saluted them with hoarse
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 631
cries for "Justice." Yielding to this cry the House of Lords
passed the bill of attuinder found against Strafford by the Com-
mons to which two days later Charles gave his signature, thus
sacrificing perhaps one of the most faitliful servant^s a bad king
ever jK)ssessc<l. and over this crowning act of royal meanness the
London streets blazed with bonfires, and bells rang cmt from every
steeple.
The courage of tlie two Houses of Parliament had now risen,
and it Ix'camc evident to all that civil war was inevitable.
Charles dispatclied one of his adherents, the Karl of Newcastle,
to muster an army in the north, and l)oth sides prepared for the
(doming struggle. 'I'he queen sailed for tlie continent to pawn the
crown iewcls and l)u\ nnuiitions of war. The cavaliers, as
the king's party were called, gathered round him and to the last
proposals of Parliament, demanding the power of appointing and
dismiss incr tlie roval ministers, of namins: <jruardians for the roval
t-hildren, and of virtuallv controllinij militarv, civil, and reli-
ffious affairs, Charles retorted: " H I ^nanted vour demands, I
sh(mld be no more thin the mere phantom of a king."
Then beiran the ufraudest era of Knu'lish history with the battle
of Edge Hill, October 2-), l'U2. This was a drawn battle, but
the moral advantage rested with the king, for it showed him to
])e stronger than h id l);'en generally supposed, and many, there-
fore, fiocked to his standard. It is almost impossible to state
briefly tlu^ rapid succession of striking events which mark this
period. The battles of Edge Hill, and Chalgrove Field where
Hampden fell, were not decisive, nor did the success of the par-
liamentarv party become assured till the Connnons made a covenant
with Scotland to brinj]^ the churches of God in the three kinir-
doms to the nearest uniformity in religion in form of church gov-
ernment, and incidentally, as they expressed it, "to extirpate
])Opery, prelacy, su[)erstition, schism, and ])rofaneness, and to
preserve the rights and privileges of Parliament, and to unite the
two kingdoms of Scotland and England in a firm peace and union
to all posterity."
In the next great battlt, that of Marston Moor, July 2^ 1644,
there came into prominence for the first time a leader whose very
name even for a hundred years after his death sounded a menace
532 THE STOUV OF GOVERNMENT.
in the ears of kings, for it is a matter of recoi-d tliat in the last
century when an English gentleman who had married a descend-
ant of Oliver Cromwell petitioned tliat his name might he
changed hy act of Parliament to that of his wife's family, King
George opposed the request.
But Oliver Cromwell, whose flank charge turned the tide of
battle at Mai*ston Moor, is a man whose surpassing greatness can-
not be summarized in a bri^f sketch like this. He was the giant of
an age rich in Titans. During the civil war some of the parlia-
mentary leaders shrank from obtaining a complete victory over the
king; that is, after defeating his forces they would permit him to
retreat in good order instead of attempting to capt\ire him and
summarily put an end to the war. The old superstition of loyalty
clogged their enterprise. They did not desire to crush him, but
to force him back to the position of a constitutional, instead of an
absolute, monarch, and they shmnk fix)m the taint of treason — a
word which exercised still a tremendous influence over the Eng-
lish mind.
"If the king be beaten," argued Lonl Mancliester at Xewbury,
'*he will still be king; if he beat us, he will hang us all for
tmitoi-s."
"If I met the king in battle," retorted Cromwell, "I would lire
my pistol at him just the same as at another."
Furthermore, he declared that the parliamentiiry leadei's were
"afraid to conquer," and that unless the whole force were new-
modeled, and more strictly disciplined, no settled success could
Ixj expected. lie saw that it was necessary for success to oppose
enthusiasm with enthusiasm.
"A set of poor tapstei-s and town apprentices," he said, '* would
never fight against men of honor," or such as followed the banner
of Charles from a principle of devotion as intensely real as it was
immensely mistaken. Cromwell had early discerned that attach-
ment to a religious cause was the one weapon which could meet
and overthrow the chivalry of the cavalier. So he had gatheivd
about him as a nucleus a regiment of a thousand men, a "lovely
company " he called them. No blasphemy, drinking, disorder, or
impiety were allowed in these i*anks. "Not a man swears but he
pays his twelve-pence." Nor was his choice of religious men his
CONSTITUnOKAIi MOKAROHT. 5SS
only innovation on the military customs of the time. Social
tradition had limited command of regiments to men of birth, but
Cromwell said: ^I had rather have a plain, russet-coated captain
that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than what
you call a gentleman and is nothing else, though I honor a gen-
tleman that is so indeed."
The civil war came to an end at the battle of Naseby, June 14,
1645. Charles, indeed, went wandering helplessly along the bor-
dera of Wales in search of fresh forces, but the spring of 1646
saw the few troops that still clung to the king surrounded and
captured at Stow. " You have done your work now," said their
leader. Sir Jacob Astley, to his conquerors, "and may go to play,
unless you fall out among yourselves."
With the end of the civil war came a time of extreme confu-
sion but of greater interest than even the war itself in its beai-ing
on English history. Modern England, tis a political entity, began
with the triumph of Cromwell at Xiiseby. A\Tien Astley gave up
his sword a little later, the '"work" of the generations that had
striven for public libci*ty in his own emphatic phrase was "'done."
However the later Stuarts might struggle to revive their absolute
claims, England could safely "go to play." But a new Avork had
commenced ; the constitutional and ecclesiastical problems that still
beset English polities in the shai)e of home rule and the national
church came to the front as subjects of debate in the yeara
between the close of the civil war and the death of Charles.
The great parties that have ever since divided the social, political,
and religious life of England, either as Independents and Presby-
terians, Whigs and Tories, Conservatives and Libemls, spi-ang
into organization from the contest between the army Avhich the
civil war had created as an independent foree find the Parliament
which had created the civil war.
Then began for the first time a conscious struggle, far from
ended yet, between i)olitical tradition and political progress,
between the princii)le of religious conformity and that of religious
freedom. From 1646 to 1649 England was a cauldron of con-
spiracy on the part of the defeated king, who had given himself
up to the army in Scotland in 1646, and with characteristic
kingly policy tried to play off the Scotch covenanters against
634 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
their English allies, but the Scottish army, accepting four hun-
dred thousand pounds in discharge of its claims, surrendered
Charles to a committee of Parliament in January, 1647. Charles
spent the rest of his time on earth in intriguing to cause trouble
between the Parliament and the army.
There was still a curious reverence felt for him even by his
conquerors, and when the army demanded that ^Hhe capital and
grand author of our troubles, by whose commissions, commands
and procurements all our wars and troubles have been, may be
specially brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief
he is guilty of," this demand drove the Houses to a sort of per-
plexed despair. They had been negotiating with the king for
certain concessions as a basis of return to something like the old
order, and their reply to this demand from the army was to accept
the king's so-called concessions. Tliis act was construed by the
military party as a defiance, and Charles was seized and carried
off to Hurst Castle, the bulk of the army moving on London.
"We shall know now," said Vane, as the troops surrounded the
Houses of Parliament, "who is on the side of the king, and who
on the side of the people." But fear of the army was weaker
among the membei-s than the agonized loyalty that strove to save
the monarchy and the church. A large majority of lx)th Houses
voted to have Charles back again on his own terms.
The next morning Colonel Pride appeared in behalf of the
Army's Council of Officers at the door of the House of Commons
Avith a list of forty nicml^ei's of the majority, and as each member
appeared he was arrested and put in confinement. "By what
right do you this? " asked one of the meml:)ei*s. "By the right
of the sword," said Hugh Petei-s. The House still held out, but
the next morning forty more members were excluded and the rest
yielded. Then the two great powei*s which for five years had
waged this l)itter conflict, the Parliament and the monarchy,
melted Jiway; the remnant wlio remained to coiiperate with, or
carry out the will of the army, was no longer a representative
Ixxly. In the eoai-se imagery of popular speech, they were but the
"'runi^)'' of a parliament, and l)y this name have passed into his-
tory.
The House of Lords at this time had piuctically vanished
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 586
and the next act of this revised House of Commons was a resolu-
tion for the trial of Charles, and a nomination of a court of a
hundred and fifty commissioners to conduct it, with John Brad-
shaw, a lawyer of eminence, at their head. The rejection of this
ordinance by the few peers who still remained brought out this
resolution from the lower House: "That the people are, under
God, the original of all just power; that the Commons of Eng-
land in Parliament assembled, being chosen by and representing
the people, have the supreme power in this nation, and that what-
soever is enacted and declared for law by the Commons in Parlia-
ment assembled hath the force of a law, and all the people of this
nation are concluded thereby, although the consent and concur-
rence of the king or House of Peers be not had thereunto."
Charles appeared before Bnidshaw's court denying its com-
petence and refusing to plead. Thirty-two witnesses were
examined to satisfy the consciences of his judges, and on the fifth
day he was condemned to death as a " tyrant, traitor, murderer,
and enemy of his country." The dignity which he had failed to
show in his wmngling witli Bradshaw and the judges returned to
him as death drew near. As Macaulay says : " He went to the
block with a placid courage that has half i*edeemed his fame."
Two masked executioners waited on him as he mounted the scaf-
fold which had l^een built outside one of the Avindows of the
Banquetting House at Whitehall. Streets and roofs were
thronged with spectatoi's, and a strong guard of soldiers stood
below. The king's head fell at the first blow, and as the execu-
tioner lifted it by its long locks to the sight of all, groans of pity
and horror mixed with the shouts of triumph from the populace
representing the nation he had misruled.
The news of Charles' death thrilled royal Europe with horror.
The Czar of Russia drove the English envoy from his court.
France withdrew her ambassador from England on the proclama-
tion of the Republic. The Protestant powers of the continent
were more anxious than any to disavow all connection with a
people who had killed their king. Holland took the lead in acts
of open hostility to the English Commonwealth, paying a solemn
official visit to the Prince of Wales who took the title of Charley
n., and refusing an audience to the English envoys. In Scotlan<J
536 'THE STOUY OF GOVKRNMENT.
the Duke of Argyle proclaimed Charles II. king, and invited him
from Holland to ascend the throne.
Hesitation and delay marked the CM)ui'8e of the Commons in
entering on their new task of reconstmcting the government.
Six weeks passed before tl\e monarchy was formally abolished,
and the government of the nation provided for by the creation of
Ji council of state consisting of forty-one membei-s selected from
the Commons who were entrusted with full executive power at
home or abroad. Two months more elapsed l)efore the passing of
the memorable act of May 19, 1649, whic^h declared "that the
people of England and of all the dominions and territories there-
unto belonging are, and shall l)e, and are hereby constituted, made,
established, and confinned to he a commonwealth and free state,
and shall henceforAvard be governed as a commonwealth and free
state by the supreme authority of this nation, tlie representatives
of the people in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint
and constitute officers and ministers for the good of the people,
and that without any king or House of Lords."
Trouble in Ireland, trouble in Stjotland, trouble with Holland
stared them in the face ; but with Cromwell for their leader all
difficulties were tniiisniuted into trium[)hs. Charles the Second
was in Scothmd at tliis time, Init to secure the su[)port (»f the
Scotch he had been put to the greatest liumiliations. He had sulr
scribed to tlie Presbyterian covenant, he had listened to sermons
and scoldino;s from the ministers, he had Inten called on to sigfn
a declaration that, while it promised better behavior on his part,
acknowledged the tyranny of his father and the idolatrousness of
his mother, who was a Catholic.
Shameless as he was, the youn*^ kinij niomentarilv recoiled.
"I could never look my mother iu the face again after sign int:^
such a paper,'' lie said; but he signed. He was a king, however,
only in name, and after the battle of Worcester, Septeml)er 3,
lOf)!, in whi(!h Croniweirs loss was little, and the Scots lost six
tlumsand men, with all their baggage ar.d artillery, Charles the
Second fled the field, and after months of wandering escaped to
France.
The conduct of Cromwell after th(^se victoiies, in dissolving
the Parliament and taking for a whiUj supreme command of the
CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKGHV. 687
nation, was a necessity of the times. He looked on the legal
defects of ]iis title to the office of pit)tector as more than supplied by
the consent of the nation. ^^I called not myself to this place/* he
urged ; " God and the jHJople of these kingdoms have home testi-
mony to it." His rule had been acquiesced in by London, by the
army, by the solemn decision of the judges, by addresses from
every shire, by tlie api>eai'ance of membei-s of the new Parliament
of 1654 in answer to liis writ of summons. '*Why may I not
balance this providence," he asked, "with any hereditary' inter-
est?" lie discerned in this national approval a call from God;
a divine right of a higher oi*der than that of the kings who had
gone before.
But Avitli the dissolution of this Parliament of 1654 ended all
show of loiLstitutional rule. Cromwell's protectomte became a
simple tyranny. Ci-omwell, indeed, professed to be restrained by
an ordinance drawn up by one of the early Councils of State,
called the lustriimeiit of Government ; but the one restraint on his
power which this instrument provided, namely the inability to
levy Uixes save by consent of Parliament! he set aside on the plea
of necessity.
"The people,'* said he, in words that Charles the First's great
minister Strafford might have used, " will prefer their real security
to mei-e forms." From this moment, Whitelock tells us, "many
sober and noble lovers of their country, in despair of public
liberty, did begin to incline to the restoration of the Stuarts." If
tyranny could be pardoned, the wisdom with which Cromwell
used the power he had usurped, the grandeur of his rule, and the
vast extent — rea'jhing even to the present — of the benefits which
his management of her foreign affairs gave to England, would
win panlon for Oomwell. " We always reckon those eight years
of the usurpation," said the rojTilist Buniet afterwards, "a time
of great peace and pi-osperity."
It was not vulgar flattery which influenced the Parliament of
his creation to offer Cromwell the title of king which he refused,
as Csesar did on a similar occasion, for the experience of the
nation had taught these men to find a certain value in the tra-
ditional forms under which their liberties had developed. They
really wished Cromwell to become their king, for a king was
538 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
limited to a certain degree l)y constitutional precedents. A pro-
tectorate, on the other hand, was a political novelty that afforded
no means of limiting its power.
But Cromwell knew that the armv he had commanded would
not relish the title of king, and he was right, for a ]:)etition came
from the officers to Parliament demanding a withdrawal of their
liroposal "in the name of the old cause for which they had bled,"
and Cromwell at once headed off a delxite Avhich might have
led to a breach between the armv and the Commons bv refusincr
the crown May 8, 10 ")7. He was then fonnally inaugurated as
Protector by the Parliament, the speaker investing him v.ith a
mantle of state, placing the sceptre in his hand and girding the
sword of justice to his side. By this act of Parliament Cromwell
was allowed to name his own successor, but in all after eases the
office was to be elective. The forms of the older constitution
were carefuUj" restored, Parliament re-established its two houses,
the seventy members of the Upper House to be named by the pro-
tector; a fixed revenue was voted to him; it wjis provided that
no moneys should be rais^'d but by assent of Parliament, and
liberty of Avorsliip was secured for all but Papists, Prelatists,
Socinians, or those who denied the inspiration of the Scriptures,
and liberty of conscience was secured for all. This was in
June, 1057.
But the hand of death was on him and, though never had the
fame of an English ruler stood higher, in the midst of his glory
he was wearv of his task. **God knows," he had cried out to Par-
lianient a year Ixjfore, "'1 would have l)een glad to have lived
under my woodside, and to have kept a flock of sheep than to
have undertiiken this government." Anl now to the weariness of
power was added the feverish impatienee of disease. The Parlia-
ment that opposed him in his plans he dismissed in an angry
speech (jlosing with the words: "I dissolve this Parliament, and
let Ood ludcre between vou and me." Yet he had hardlv dissolved
it before he was planning the summons of another, but before his
plans could be realized his strength gave way. Prayer arose on
everv side for his reooverv, and with characteristic enercfv he was
the last to l)e convinced that his hour was come. A tremendous
August storm which tore roofs from houses and overthrew huge
640 THE 8TORV OF GOVERN^rEXT.
trees in every forest seemed to the popular mind an omen and a
fit prelude to the passing of this mighty spirit. Three days after,
on the 3d of September, 1658, the day which had witnessed his
victories of Worcester and of Dunbar, Cromwell quietly breathed
his last.
So mighty even in death was his sway over the minds of men
that to the wonder of tlie hopefully excited royalists even a doubt-
ful nomination from his deathbed was sufficient to secure the
peaceful succession of liis son, Richard Ci-omwell, to the pro-
tectorate. Many, in fact, wlio denied the authority of the father
acquiesced cheerfully in that of the new protector. Richard,
however, was a weak and worthless man who, conscious of his
inferiority, soon resigned the government, and a new House of
Commons l)egan to draw up terms for a restoration of the Stuart
race in the person of Charles the Second. Charles, with whom
General Monk of the army had been in communication, sent over
a promise of general pardon and religious toleration which was
received with a burst of enthusiasm, and the old constitution was
resU)re(l bv a solemn vote that, accord ingr to the ancient and fun-
damental laws of the kingdom, tlie government is and onght to be
by king, lords, and commons.
Charles at once hiistened to return, landed at Dover and made
his way amid the shouts of the multitude to Whitehall where his
father had lost his head. Puritanism, so men believed, had fallen
never to rise again. As a political experiment it had endod
apparently an utter failure. As a religious system of national
life it brouiifht about the wildest outbreak of moral revolt in the
reign of Charles II. that England had ever witnessed; and j'et
Puritanism was not dead, but was drawing in silence a nobler life
from suffering and defeat. For the whole history of English
progress sinci^ the restoration on its moral and spiritual sides has
been the history of Puritanism. Eager royalists were greatlj'
disappointed with the reign of Charles II., for they beheld the
ideas they had bled for steadily sinking into the background, but
Charles himself was clever enough to realize that the England
which had (tailed him back was a new En<jfland and the monarchv
having passed through the crucible of Cromwell, an entirely new
monarchy. The Parliament proceeded to limit the king's power
COKSTITUTIOKAL KOKAROHT. 541
by chains much stronger though less tangible than any that had
bound his predecessors, for in this reign it secured the power of
controlling the king's policy through a complete and specific con-
trol of the national purse.
Charles II. was by far the cleverest of the Stuarts, and at the
end of his reign found himself more popular and practically more
absolute than any member of his family, but it was in reality by
yielding points of government that lie had gained his ends. Not
since the days of Richard II. had Parliament voted supplies for
special purposes, and when they voted taxes of tonnage and
poundage or subsidies, the king got a large sum of money to
apply as he chose. This plan, however, was far from satis-
factory, for no check could be kept on a king's extravagance,
nor could Parliament have any security that money designed for
a special purpose would be spent for that purpose. In 1665, how-
ever, Parliament voted one million two hundred and fifty thou-
sand pounds, declaring that it was to be applied only to the war
with the Dutch. Charles' chief minister, Clarendon, opjxjsed
this specific limitation as an innovation on royal custom; but
Charles favored it, because he thought it would lure Parliament
into voting supplies more readily, and that he could get hold of
the money for his special purposes just as easily. He was right, as
far as he was concerned, but his successoi*s found that bonds which
he was able to slip through were chains of a heavier kind upon
their movements, and this was obviously an enormous gain for the
people, since it made the control over the purse far more strict, and
the Commons followed it up by iiuiuiring how the money thus
voted was spent, and as a result of this inquiry the treasurer of
the navy was dismissed from his post.
The impeachment ot Danby precipitated a crisis between the
king and Parliament which hitherto Charles had endured, deem-
ing it the most pliant he was likely to get. But losing patience,
when it again impeached his fii'st minister, he decided to risk a
general election. The new Parliament was no better than the
last. Besides impeaching Danby, it tried to exclude the Duke of
York, the king*s brother, from anj' possible succession to the
throne on account of his Catholicism, and was in its tuni dis-
solved.
642 THE STORV OP GOVERNMENT.
At this period Charles showed his good sense by consenting to
the Habeas Corpus Act, which again asserted the principle that
any unconvicted prisoner, unless accused of treason or felony,
niiglit call upon the lord chancellor or any judge, under penalty
of a fine of five hundred pounds, to issue a writ of habeas corpus ^
to the gaoler, ordering him under penalty of a fine of one hundred
poimds to bring up the body of the prisoner within not more tliau
twenty days, and that the judge on his appearance should release
him on bail. In the case of treason or felony, if a i^risoner was
not tried in tlie next term or next sessions of gaol delivery after
his commitment, lie could, on petition to the court, l^e released on
bail, unless it appeared that the crown's witnesses could not be
produced at that time.
This Act contained no new principle, but it gave greater
facility for the assertion of an ancient right, and henceforth the
crown ceased to be able to imprison its enemies in defiance of the
principles of the security of the person.
Charles' attempt to improve his position by an election failed;
again he dissolved Parliament, but its successor only continued
its coui-se, and again an election occurred. Two years the strug-
gle raged; thrice the king exercised his prerogative of dissolving
Parliament; once the Commous exercised theii*s of refusing sup-
plies; once the Exclusion Bill in regard to the Duke of York,
afterwards James II., passed the Commons, only to be rejected
by the Lords. At length, the violence of the Commons over-
leaped itself, Charles found that the nation was with him, and
having secured a permanent income from Louis XIV., the king of
France, lie dissolved the Oxford Parliament and determined to
dispense with the services of Parliament, until one could be
elected that suited him l^etter. Of this he had some hopes, for
the struggle had shown that there was a party in the kingdom
upon whom the king, so long as he was moderate, could rely, and
the violence of the Commons, who had endeavored to exclude
James, not for what he had done, but for what he might do, had
frightened many men of moderate views and caused a reaction in
Charles' favor. This reaction took the form of the rise of a new
party, and from henceforth the country party, as the opposition
1 " Thou Shalt have (or take) the body."
644 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
was called, took the name of Whigs, and the court party, which
yet contained many men who were not courtiere, took tlio name of
Tories.
The rise of organized parties in Parliament is the most impor-
tant event which has taken place since the Restoration ; for it has
established the only conditions on which it seems possible that
constitutional government can be worked with success or promise
of permanency, and happily, at their first rise, the principles they
followed, though vague, were roughly distinguishable, so that
almost every man was able to range himself under the banner of
one or the other. Thus at the very moment when party govern-
ment was coming into existence there was no conflict of small
cliques, which might have hami)ered its Avorking.
Generally speaking, the Tories were such as thought that, if
England was to be governed by king and Parliament, greater
advantage was likely to be gained by upholding the prerogative
of the king than by extending the rights of Parliament, and since
the men who thought thus were almost invariably churchmen,
they adopted as their watchword, "King and Church." The
Whigs, on the other hand, were those wlio Ix^lieved that the safety
of the country lay in giving prominence to the powers of Parlia-
ment, and that the ancient prerogative of the crown should Ix^
restrained in it^? exercise, whenever at variance with the interests
of the subject.
Contrasted with the Tory gentry, the luiiss of the Whig pai*ty
naturally came from the cities and l)orouglis, for it wjis in the
small manufacturinsf towns that the Purit^ms had been stronsf. To
reduce the tide that was running against him, Charles had to play
the part of a politician, and this was one of his acts. The cor-
porate towns held tlieir privileges by virtue of charters which
had been granted at one time or another by the sovereign,
and many of them bore a very ancient date. By these ehartei>;
certain privileges, including the right of self-government, were
granted to the burgesses, wlio purchased the charter either by the
payment of a sum of money or by the performance of certain
duties. ^lany of these duties, dating far back into feudalism, had
l)een quite neglected, and few towns could Ije found which iiad not,
in one way or another, infringed some article of their charter.
COKBTITUTIONAL HONABOHT.
645
Charles, therefore, had a legal shadow of right to call in the
charter, fiad the flaw, coDdemo as forfeit the privileges of the
corporation, and to return the charier with a new list of sldermen
and a new mayor named from the Tory party. This waa what
Charles did, and in this way he spent the last three years of his
life, remodelling the constituencies and providing for the elec-
tion of a Tory Parliament. But death has no respect for politi-
cians and Charles II., who was the best and wont of his race,
died suddenly, asking forgiveness of his injured queen, not of his
corrupted country.
James II.. his hitither, completely deceived hy the calm that bad
WEBTMISSTER IN 1847.
followed the dissolution of the last Parliament, fancied the nation
had outgrown its fit of dislike to a popish sovereign. Perhaps he
gave too much weight to a decree passed hy the Tory University
of Oxford, condemning tho doctrine that resistance to a king is
lawful under certain circumstances. At any rate, within three
years he had jnore than shown himself shorn of any pojiularity be
might have bad. The nation had become utterly sick of him.
The storj' of his mistakes is well known; how ho iised his di8[>cns-
ing power to give Komivn Catliolics not only toleration, but even
ascendem-y in the kingdom; how he turned out experienced offi-
cials, merely because they were Protestants ; how he set up a new
546 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Court of High Commission and attacked the Universities of Ox-
ford and Cambridge ; how tlie non-conformists refused to join him
in his attacks upon the Church ; how even the Church was driven
to give up her doctrine of passive resistance by the prosecution of
the seven bishops; and how the nation was finally driven to
despair by the birth of a prince who would be educated as a
Roman Catholic, and who supplanted the popular Princess Mar}-.
In the time of Edward II., or of Richard II., such conduct
would have been equivalent to his deposition, for in those times
the nation could at a week's notice have marched upon London an
overwhelming force to which the king could oppose notliing but
his own personal adherents. Now, however, times had changed ;
the retention of those five thousand old army men at the Restora-
tion had given to the king the nucleus of a trained force, against
which untrained levies, however valiant, could not easily hold
their ground, and it was absolutely necessar}-, if the nation was
to have a fair chance of declaring its will, for some force to be
found that should balance the thirteen thousand men whom James
had established as his guard on Hoimslow Heatli.
Such a force was found in the «anny of William of Orange,
who came over from Holland to give the nation an opportunity
of declaring its will in a free Parliament. Happily no bittle was
fought. Deserted by their leadei-s and disheartened by their
unpopularity, James' soldiei-s struck no blow in his defence, and
James sought refuge in flight. A convention was summoned
which, taking into account the double flight of James, declared in
a somewhat wordv document tliat "Kinsf James II., haviuij
endeavored to 8ul)vert the constitution of the kingdom l)v break-
ing the original contract between king and })eo[)le, and by the
advice of Jesuits and other wicked pei-sons having violated the
fundamentiil laws, and liaving withdrawn himself out of the king-
dom, had fibdicated tlie government, and that the crown had
thereby l)ecome vacant."
Many schemes were proposed for filling up the vacancy; but
finallv the throne was offered to and accepted by William of
Orange, the son of James' sister, and Mary his wife, James'
daughter, and so not only was James liimself removed from the
throne, but also his lately \)oni son, wliom the majority believed
to be supposititioiLs, was excluded from the succession. But the
convention did more than merely transfer the crown fmm one
member of the royal family to another; they reasserted in the must
positive teima the chief points upon which the constitution ifsted,
and the way in which they had been violated by the Iiite king.
For this purpose they drew up the Bill of Right*, ivhoae chief
declarations were: "WhereJis the late King James II., by the
assistance of diverse evil counsellors, judges, and ministera
employed by him, did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the
Protestant religion, and the laws and ]il>erties of this kingilom,
etc., etc., therefore the Loixis Spiritual and Tera[>oml and the
Commons declare : —
I. "Tliat the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the
execution of laws by regal authority, without consent of Parlia-
ment, is illegal.
IT. "That the pretended jiowfr of dispensing with laws, or the
execution of laws by regal authority, as it Iiath been assumed and
exercised of late, is illegal.
III. "That the commission for erecting tlie late Court of Com-
missioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, andallothercommissionsand
courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious,
IV. "That levying money for or to the use of the ci-own by
pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer
time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, ia
illegal.
V. "That the raising or keeping a standing army within the
kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parlia-
ment, is against law.
VI.. "That the election of members of Parliament ought to be
free."
VII. "That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedinga
in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any
court or place out of Parliament.
VIII. "That for the redress of all grievances, and foi- the
amending, strengthening and preserving of laws, - government
ought to be held frequently."
. In this document also the crown was settled on William and
Mftiy for life, then on Mary'a children, and in their default on
548 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the Princess Anne of Denmark and her children ; and in their
default on the children of William by any other wife.
Here we find again laid down the old principles of English
government, no changes in the law or levying of taxation without
the consent of Parliament, the freedom of election, freedom of
speech and frequency of meeting of that body, and there is added to
these the statement that without consent of Parliament no sover-
eign may keep an army in time of peace. That is all ; but that
in 1688 a standing army should still be an anomaly in England
marks the difiference between the development of government in
England and on the continent.
To the many the revolution meant merely the expulsion of
James II. and his male descendants from the throne; to the few
it meant besides this the substitution of the Parliament for the
king as the really supreme power in the country. The first of
these changes absorbed all interest; the second was hardly noticed
at all.
We have noted how king after king had tried to evside calling
Parliament, and how the enactments under the Plantagenets and
the Triennial Bill under the Stuarts had alikt^ been ineffective to
secure its regular meeting. This dilliculty at once vanished, for
no sooner were supplies granted, not for life, but for one year, than
the whole fabric of government would have melted away, had not
Parliament been summoned year by year to Westminster to renew
the <xJ'ants. Instead of the old difficulty a new one was intro-
diiccd. The Long Parliament had piisscd a Triennial Act mainly
to force the king to summon Parliament eveiy thive yeara;
William Ill.'s Parliament passed their Triennial Act mainly to
prevent the king, M'hen he got a Parliament to his mind,, from
keeping it permanently as Charles II. liad done, instead of appeal-
ing to the people in a fresh election.
In this wav Parliament secured a most effective control over
the expen<liture and military establishments of the country. It
vet remained for them to secure a similar control over the law
conns. Though the removal of the Courts of Star ('haml)er and
High Commission had nrot rid of two great engines of oppivssion,
the ordinary hiw courts of the country had, under the later Stuarts,
and in(h»ed in earlier times in cases where the crown was a party.
been scenes of gross injustice. This was due to three causes : 1,
tite unfair appointment of jarymen; 2, the an&imesa of the pro*
oednre of the court to the accused; 3, the partiality of thd judges
who were appointed or removed by the king's pleasure. All these
points had been brought into question at various times, but they
were for the most part removed under William III. 1. In the
Bill of Rights it was enacted "that jurors ought to be duly im-
panelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials
for high treason ought to be freeholders." 2. By the Treasons
Act of William III. it was ordered tliat the accused should have,
five days before his trial, a list of the witnesses and a copy of the
indictment, and be allowed to examine his own witnesses upon
oath. 3, In the Act of Settlement wliiiih arranged that, as
Anne's children were all dead the succession should pass from her
to the Electress Sophia, it was enacted that the judges should
hold their offices for life, should receive fixed salaries, and should
only be removable on the petition of both Houses of Parliament.
But this new fi-eedom of Parliament at first came near falling
to pieces by its own newness, for it showed a strong tendency
during the reign of William and his successors to degenei'ate into
license. Bribery became the first step of public business. The
great Whig minister. Sir Robert Walpole, gave vent to the cynical
axiom, "Every man has his price," which indeed began to seem
a univei-sal tmth <luring the beginning of Parliamentary freedom.
The consolidation of party government was immensely helped
ly the personal character of the four sovereigns who followed the
Revolution, Willitim III., .Vnne, George I,, and George II., for
they were, esi>ecially the last three, content with the show of
royalty without troubling themselves about the substance, and
showing little disposition to interfere in political affaire.
Meanwliile the character of the ministry itself was changing.
Originally the Cabinet was composed of those members of tlie
Privy Council to whom the king's special confidence was given.
As s rule, but not invariably, they held some special office under
the crown. But it did not follow that ail officials were members
of the Cabinet or even of the Privy Council; nor even was the
Cabinet always composed of holders of the same offices. By
degrees, however, certain ciistoms sprang up. First, the holders
560 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of certain offices came to be regarded as the government ; second,
the most important members of the government attained a certain
recognized position as members of the Cabinet; and thirdly, the
holder of a particular office became recognized as the head of both
Cabinet and government. This office was that of first lord of
the treasuiy. Ever since the Norman Conquest, some minister
has been recognized as in some way tlie king's chief ad\iser.
First, it was the justiciar or lonl chief justice ; tlien it was the
lord chancellor who remained most prominent under the Plan-
tagents. Under the Tudors it 'was sometimes the chancellor,
sometimes tlie treasm*er; Wolsey ^vas cliancellor, Burleigh ^vas
treasurer. Under the Stuarts the chancellor again came to the
front, and Lord Chancellor Clarendon was the last great chan-
cellor. After his fall the minister who presided over the public
purse A^'as the most important, and Lord Treasurer Danby was
distinctly the leading minister of his day. It is curious to note
how justice, law, finance became in turn the most im[x>rtant
things in the country, marking the eiKx*h of the nation t<> a com-
mercial entitv.
The care of the purse was, liowover, loo resjxiiisible a work t<»
l>e often entrusted to one ik*isoii, and as earlv as the reien of
James I. the office had been put in comiuission. This was often
done under Charles I. and Charles II., and since ihe fall of Danbv
in 1G79, it has been the invariable rule, the coniniissionei-s Ivinir
oaHed lonls of the treasury, and their rhairman InMntr stvle<l
first lonl. It was not long, howrvrr, K^fore thr fii-st lonl
acquired all the inijH^rtanee that was formally possessed liy the
single treasuivr. For a time bis preeniinenit* was disputed by
the seei*etaries i^f state, but he finally triumphe<l, and siiu-e the
time of AValix^le the fii-st lonl of the ireasurv has invariablv
lx*en the head of the trovernnient, a faet which is recoirnizt'd bv
the popular title, unknown to law, of Pi-emier.
^\1iile this was goin^^ on another chanj^re of great imjK»rtance
w;v^ pn^gressing. The 'jfovernnient was acouiring a corjK>rate
character. The pnx^ess l)y which it did this wivs very sli>w.
Originally the king's ministers weie completely independent of
one another. Each was appointed or dismissed solely with refer-
ence to the conduct of his own otlice; but bv dei:^n?es, mainlv
CONSTITDTIONAL MONAKCHY. 551
Twcaiise the ministry was more aiid more composed of members
who thought alike, a feeling of solidarity giew up, and it came
to be understood that miiii.sterB stood by one another and that an
attack upon one was an attack upon all. During the reigns of
Geoige I. and George II. this eould hardly be regarded as more
than a tendency ; there were nnmei-oiis instances of ministers vot-
ing against their fellows, and even in the reign of George III.
Lord Thurlow never considered himself bound either to support
a measure or to resign because his colleagues were agreed upon it.
Meanwhile the new importance which the Hoiise of ComraonB
hod gained resulted in differences between it ami the Hereditary
House. At the accession of Anue the lay jwers numbered one
hundred and sixty-two. A majority of these were Wliigs and uo
sooner did the election of 1710 return a Tory majority in the
Commons than the two Houses were at a deadlock. To get over
the difficulty Harley used the prerogative of tlie crown by per-
suading Anne to create twelve new Tory peers who forthwith
altered the balance of parties. But tliis summary process was not
relished by the lords, and in 1719 they made a determined effort
to prevent a repetition of such a political triL-k which they
regarded iis a social insult. With this view they passed a bill
that the House of Lords, which then numbered one hundred and
seventy-eight, should never be raised to a higher number than one
hundred and eighty-four. Had this bill p;tssed the Commons
likewise there would have been two most important results. It
would have eompletely tiiken it out of the power of the minister
of the day to make the lords give way to the House of CommoTis
when the views of the two differed, or in brief, the Hereditary and
not the Elective Chamber would have hiid the dominant voice in
all affairs. Secondly, the rule which had always obtained in Eng-
land, that no bar existed to prevent a commoner from rising to the
peerage, would have been done a\vay with, and the lords would have
become an exclusive body. But the Commons fully ajipreeiated
the danger to their own prospects, and that made them save the
constitution as well, and thus the leading voice iu the State was
preserved to the representatives of the people.
But this expression, "representatives of the people," brings us
to a new inquiry. The House of Commons wbs the leading
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CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKCHY. 557
the policy of the country, for they reserved to themselves all the
most influential places in the ministry. Pitt only forced himself
into this charmed circle by the strength of his personal character,
and Burke, the champion of the Whigs, was never admitted into
the Cabinet at all.
These Whig nobles ruled the House of Commons; for there
were few counties where a Tory luid a chance, and none where
a man unconnected with the aristocracy wius likely to be elected,
while of the borouglis a large proportion were in tlie gift, to all
practical purposes, of one nobleman or another. Tliey ruled
society; for the word of a nobleman was law, and tlic manners of
the nobility gave the tone. Thi^y ruled literature, for no writer
could hope to live by the sale of his works, and the Whig nobility
alone could pay for the luxury of being praised. They had no
rivals in the Univei*sities, for Oxfoitl and Cambridge were asleep;
nor in the clergy, who were given over either to lioping for pre-
fennent, or to making life pleasant; nor in the gentry, who were
too much of the S(piire Western stamp to trouble themselves as
long as they were let alone; while the common people, rarely
able to read, coarse iu their plejisures and ideas, and as yet
thoroughly loyal to the powers tliat be, represented by the great
men of the country, took no interest in politics, if they had no
vote, and, if they had, regarded an election chiefly as a too mrely
occurring epoch of free, unlimited beer.
In a nation such as this, and tli(» English nation of the first half
of the eighteenth century wjis a still worse subject for contem-
plation than it is now, the nobility reigned supreme. But theirs
was, on the whole, a beneficent despotism. Tliey secured the
persons and poc^kets of the subject l)y the revolution of 1088, and
liis creed by the Toleration Act of J. (589, and the repeal of the
occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1718.
But it was inevitiible that a waking uj> should take place, and
presently the nobility found themselves attacked on both sides;
by the people, who demanded a better representation in the Com-
mons; by tlie king, who demanded to liave a larger sbare in the
government of the country. George III. wished to be a pei^sonal
king, not a royal automaton, and lie cleverly fomented the dissen-
sions which a long lease of power had caused among the great
N
668 THE STOEY OF GOVERNMENT.
Whig families. The prosecution of Wilkes ^ had begun to open
men's minds to the fact that parliamentary privileges were not
an end but a means. Parliament is no more a sacred institution
than royalty, and if it abuses its power there is a force beyond
and above it.
Now tlie chief privileges of Parliament were, as we have seen
before, control over their own elections, freedom from arrest and
freedom of speech. But if the right to control their own elec-
tions was used to keep out membei's duly elected by the people;
if the right of freedom from arrest was used to save the members
from paying their just debts, or was extended to their servants
and dependents to the injury of their fellow-subjects; and if
freedom of speech was interpi-eted as the right of using their
privilege to prevent the n.ation from knowing what was done by
its representatives, then these privileges had outlived their time,
and had Ijeen tinned into abuses. And there was no doubt that
this was the case. The treatment of Wilkes, the notorious abuse
of freedom from arrest, the strenuous attempts of Parliament to
prevent their debates from being published, all sliowed that P.ar-
liament, wliich w<as in former times the bulwark of the people
against the sovereign, had in the moment of victoiy forgotten its
obligations and mistaken the object of its own existence. To
put a stop to these evils two ])arties arose; the watchword of one
was the abolition of influence; the crv of the other was reform.
Cxray, the poet, writing at Cambridge, said that he could
remember nothing like the rapid changes of government, and the
fluctuations in ])olicv since the early yeai-s of Charles I. The
virulent lettei"s of Junius overwhelmed the ministry with scorn.
The i)ublication of debates, which after a violent struggle with
Parliament was finally yielded to the printei*s in 1771, threw
light on the proceedings of the Houses and helped to form public
opinion. Still more, the dististrous results of King George's
policy toward the American colonies roused popular indignation,
and by degrees Burke and his friends, so long in an unsuccessful
opposition, found themselves supported by popular opinion. In
» John ^Vilke8 was f»mr times electeil by Middlesex electors, and three times the Commons,
in deflan<e of the Bill of Ri{;hts, declared him incapable of representing the men who had
chosen him. The fourth time they declared his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, who only received
290 votes to Wilkes' 1143, to be duly elected.
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 659
1780, bucked Iiy a large petition from the freeliolders of York-
shire, they won their firet parliamentiiry triumph, for ia that year
Iliinnino;'s inntifui. "tliattlie pow*T of thi.' crowii iiius increased,
18 increasing, and ought to be diminished,*' was carried by two
hundred and thirty-three to two hundred and fifteen.
The next yeiir Lord North resigned, and Rockingham, at the
head of the most united Whig ministry of the reign, came into
power. They did not expect to stay in long, but they determined
before they fell "to strike a good stout blow" at the king's influ-
ence both in and out of Parliament. To do this they took in
hand the king's civil list, and divided it into eight classes,
abolii^hed an immense number of useless oHicea, such as that of
kingV turnspit, whose occupant had a seat in the House of Com-
mons, abolished secret pensions, and curtailed the expenses of the
court to such an extent that, without in the least interfering ivith
the comfort or splendor of the royal family, they diminished its
expenditure by seventy-two thousand pounds a year.
Haphazard is a word almost too feeble to describe the method,
OP absence of metho*!, by which the English House of Commons
gradually assumed the form which it exhibited in the days of
George III. The return of members, the selection of boroughs,
the distribution of the franchise, were all equally anomalous.
Yorkshire and Rutland alike returned two members each; Old
Sanim, where not a vestige of a house was to be seen, sent two
representatives, while Birmingham, whose vast area of thriving
workshops and foi'ges was densely crowded with human beings,
had no representation at all. At Preston every householder had
a vote, and at the election of 1830, 7,122 persons actually polled;
at London the largest number recorded was at the election of 1826
and only amounted to 8,631. But if the result was anomalous, its
history is perhaps still more surprising. Anyone who now notes
the eagerness of English towns tu send members, and the anxiety
of gentlemen to get seats, and is led to imagine by this that the
same eagerness. was shown in former times, and that a desire to
have a share in the national assembly, either personally or
through a representative, bad always been one of the character-
istics of Englishmen, and that to this patriotic feeling is due the
great success of parliamentary institutions in England for so long
\
660 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
a time, would be sadly mistaken, and would be picturing to him-
self a condition of things, the exact contrary of what was the
case.
Refonnation in the representative system was sorely needed as
well as economical reform, but the manoeuvring of George III.
and his supporters had so divided reformers into cliques, that
headway was exceedingly slow.
In 1792 a society called the "Friends of the People" was
formed for the purpose of collecting statistics on the subject, and
in May, 1793, Mr. Grey, who had already made one unsuccessful
motion on the subject, presented to the Commons a petition of
the society in which they demonsti-ated that the representation
was in great need of reform. They showed (1) tliat the majority
of the House was elected by fifteen thousand electors, only one two
hundredth part of the adult males of the kingdom ; (2) that Corn-
wall retmned more members, county and borough, than York-
shire, Middlesex, and Rutland together; (3) that Cornwall sent
more borough members than Yorkshire, Lancashii-e, Warwick-
shire, Middlesex, Worcestershire, and Somei-setshire united; (4)
that eighty-iour individuals did of their own authority send 157
members to Parliament, that seventy otlier individuals practi-
cally nominated 150 more, so that 15-4 pei*sons returned 311
members, a majority of the whole House, which then numl)ered
558. Besides these points the petition complained of the irregu-
larities of the franchise. From that time to this the pressure
from below for a juster distribution of political power luis l)een
constant and tlirough many defeats has evolved lasting and valua-
ble victories. It remains now to consider in its eutiretv the
English government as it exists to-day.
Montesquieu declared that it was essential to the well-l^eing of
every state that the legislative, executive, and judicial functions
should be absolutely separate. In England tliey are apparentl}-
hopelessly entangled. While by one enactment, Parliament for-
bids the sovereign to keep a standing army in peace, by another
it votes money annually for the support of just such a thing.
According to law, the sovereign may declare war, make treaties,
appoint and dismiss his ministers. In point of fact, he can do
nothing without the advice of his niinist^n-s who are responsible to
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHV. 561
Parliament. With prei-ogative so clipped, wliat does a king
amount Uy, wliat purpose does lie serve / Chiefly this : that he is
the living symbol of racial unity round whom history gathers,
and on whom, iis a peraonal object, the feeling of patriotism, so
Viigue in a large state, ean concentrate itself in the form of loj'alty.
The height whiih the sovereign occupies is extreme; but the
descent is bi-oken by the existence iwmd the throne of the nobility.
The nobles de|)end for liouor eitlier on ancient lineage or recent
merit; on the one Iiand they appixuich the crown, on tlie other
tliey foncli society; and as tlie nobility in England have never
been a distinct caste, they serve as a link in the cluiin which
1»nds the jialace to the I'ottage. With the sovereign, they share
many of the functions which lielong to tlie existence of a mon-
archy, and of a nobility which dei)ends neither on political power
nor on commercial success; and in a country like England where
both political and i-onimei-cial ambition run very high, it is a
givat advantai,'e tluit these potencies and potentialities should be
balanced by the existence of lionors whi(^li neither votes nor money
can purchase.
Again, so long iuf they command respect, the nobility help
to teach respect and a higher avemge of human conduct, and
happily the nobility of England in this century have, as an
onler, lieen tolerably Int- from the vices which abroad have
often secured so evil a name for the aristocracy, although it must
lie admitted that signs of decay are becoTuing rather frequent
during the last two decades. As to the constitutional maxim that
the sovereign reigns but does not govern, while it is tnie in the
562 THE STORY OF GOVERNJ^fENT.
main in England, still the present ruler has shown a woman's
determination to know at least what her ministers are doing, as
this note from Victoria to one of her ministers clearly proves.
" The queen requires^ firsts ilmt Lord' Palmer ston will distinctly
state what he proposes in a giveti case in order that the queen may
know as distinctly to what she is yitnng her royal sa7iction. Secondly^
having once given her sancti07i to a measure^ t/uit it be not arbitrarily
altered or modified by the minister. Such an act sh^ must consider as
failing in sincerity to the crown^ and Justly to be visited by her consti-
tutiomd right of dismissing that minister. S/ie expects to be kept
informed of what passes between him and the foreign m,inisters before
important decisions are taken y based vjyon that intercourse/ to receive
the foreign despatc/ies in good time, and to have the draft for her
approval sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with
their contents before tliey must be sent ojf,^'*
From which it appears that Queen Victoria wishes to be some-
thing more than merely a high-saharied executive clerk, signing
documents devised by others. But in reality tlie Queen is only
an ornament, a figurehead to the ship of state, for the ministrj'
fonn the larger part of the executive;. Tliey consist of two bodies,
a large one comprising those oHicci-s who liold political office under
the crown, and wlio, according to custom, all ])clong to that party
whicli has the majority in the House of Conunous, and an inner
council or Cabinet which is made up of the cliief oflicei-s, and who
discuss in secret the most important matters of State. The Cabi-
net and tlie ministrv are terms unknown to the law, but are con-
venicnces of ])opular parlance. Of tlic ministei^s, some are and
some arc not lucmbei's of the? Privy Council, but the Cabinet are,
as we liav(; seen, all membci's of that l)ody, an<l liave developed
out of a small irregular committee, meeting for the tmiLsaction of
the highest state business.
The ofliccs held bv the membci's of the Cabinet are not fixed.
They vary in number from time to time. Though its memlKM*s
are an important part of the executive, they are all of them mem-
bci's of the le<^islative IkxIv. The whole svstem is the result of
no law, aii<l it is fettered in its operation by no enactments.
Nc>w, without going into detail, the great merit of tlie English
plan is, that if the English ministers cannot get their niea.sures
passed by the House of Commons, they can advise the king to dis-
TUB CABl^lET BOOM Uf OOVHISO STBEET. CC3
664 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
solve the House and see whether the nation in a new election
will give them moi-e support; or if the House is dissatisfied with
the ministry it can refuse to order supplies, or pass the Mutiny
Bill, in which case, as supplies are only voted for one year and
the Mutiny Bill is only in force for the same length of time, the
ministry is in its turn forced to dissolve, and hence the ministrj-,
the Commons, and the nation can never be out of accord for any
very long time together. Again, when an English minister wants
a tax granted or a bill jiassed, he can go down to the House and
explain it and use his i>ersonal influence to carry it through.
Moreover, no bill has a chance which is not supported by minis-
ters, or at any rate not opposed by them, and therefore they never
wish to advise the sovereign to exercise his prerogative of refus-
ing his consent.
Now the American Constitution fails in all these points. The
President, if he disagrees with his House of Congress, cannot
dissolve them; on the other hand, they cannot make him dissolve.
He cannot go down to the House; he can only write a letter;
and the ill working of the American system is shown by the
fact that the right of veto has again and again to be used,
because the executive is continually out of accord with the
legislative department. Again, there are other points of dif-
ference. In England immense interest is taken in politics;
indeed, a too keen excitement is felt, while in America, except
at election times, the masses take little interest in politics. In
England the system of pmctically putting the executive into the
hands of that party which has the majority has created a consti-
tutional opposition ever ready to show the nation that it is more
fit than the men in power to manage the nation's affairs. Thus a
regular battle is always going on, and at any moment a grand
caUustroplK- may occur, and the ministry and opposition may have
to change sides, or an appeal be made to the country. It has all
the excitement of a fight. In America there is nothing of
this. No debate can turn out a ministry or produce a general
election, and the consequence is that little interest is taken in
congressional mattei^, except on rare occasions.
Hut does the English system secure the great aim of all govern-
ment that is personal, namely, the getting the best persons for
OOHaTITUTIONAL MONABOHX.
M6
rolera? At any rate, it Beemfl to work as well as any other
plan yet devised. The qualities needful to enable any man to
hold his own as a minister in England seem to he these: He
must be capable of an immense amount of hard work, or he would
never for a moment be able to 8tand the strain both in his office
and in tTie House of Parliament, particularly in the Commons.
He must have been so many years in the House that he has con-
vinced it that he is a capable man. He must almost necessarily
be a good speaker to
explain or defend
his policy. He
must have by per-
sonal character the
respect of the House
and of the nation.
But it does not
necessarily follow
that even men such
as these ai-e invari-
ably able to manage
such varied depart-
ments as war, the
home office, the navy.
This difficulty is met,
however, by arran-
ging that the detail
work of each depart-
ment shall he done
hy permanent officiah
who do 7iot change
with the ministry, and have no polities, so tliat the heads of depart-
ments are merely thoroughly able men, who come into each
department with a desire to make it work well, and who by their
general knowledge of affairs are often able to give an impetus
to public business, to excite energy, and declare fresh war against
the great danger of permanent officialism — red-tapeism.
We may then summarize the development of English govern- ,
ment thus : Througboat the Middle Ages the House of Lords was
666 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the predominant House, because the strength of the nation lay in
the lords and their retainers. Slowly the power, following the
change outside, passed to the House of Commons, but even then
only to the House of Commons as dominated by the same class to
which belonged the House of Lords, Then the great Reform
Bill of 1832 upset this arrangement and gave power into the hands
of the now all-powerful middle class ; and finally, in 1867, Lord
Beaconsfield, a Tory minister whose Torj'ism has been called
Radicalism in masquerade, decided to shift the centre of gravity
still lower, and place the arbitrament of the destinies of the
nation in the hands of the working classes.
Each of these changes has produced a corresponding change in
the members of the ministry and the Commons. So long as the
l^eers held sway the sovereigns had difficulty in keeping as their
counsellors any men who were not of noble birth, and even after
the revolution, when power passed from the hands of the king to
the Houses of Parliament, dukes and earls still formed the pre-
dominant element in every ministry. It was only by degrees that
commoners such as the Pitts gained a footing. With 1832 came
a change. Since that date the ministries have been less aristo-
cratic, when reflecting the character of the new House of Com-
mons, and there is some evidence to show that since 1867 a
further change is in progress.
Jvlystery ajrjd Fratcn^ity*
3E VERAL years ago, when the writer was standing on the
deck of a steamer joat arrived from Europe, close up to
the wharf, while the gang-plank was lowering, he hap-
pened to notice a fellow-passenger, a tallish, elderly
man with a look of much tmvel, of travail, too, perhaps, for his
gmy eyes had a tired, far-away appearance, as if scanning the
cloudy horizon for the vanishing gleains of a fond heart's loat
illuaion.s. All at once the man stretched both arms over his head
in a peculiar way that seemed to his observer on the deck to be-
taken extreme Iwdily as well as mental weariness, though, per-
ba]>s, it was only the twdily symbol of the spiritual fact.
Tlie man's attitude that moment was very strange and calcu-
lated to attract attention. He brought his anus up slowly slx)ve
and then down towards his head, as i f to clasp them back of it, then
clenched his fists, and then let his arms out slowly their full
length, at the same time tilting his head back and seeming for a
Hecond as if he were being nailed to a cross. The supremacy of
sadness or of weariness reigned in face and attitude, and then
he subsided into commonpiaceness,
Suddenly, however, the observer became aware that othere had
marked the odd action, and had translated it into speech, for,
rusliing up the now adjusted gung-plank from the waiting throng
568 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
(two, in fact, not heeding the plank, but, boylike, clambering'
over the side-rails of the steamer), a dozen men crowded round
the tii-ed traveller, seized him by the hands and shoulders and,
as with one voice, begged to know what was the matter and what
they could do to help him.
A more surprised gentleman it would be hard to find. *^I've
heard it said," he exclaimed, "that New Yorkers were the kindest,
most hospitable people on earth, but this beats the Dutch."
Then he proceeded to say that he needed nothing in the world
that he knew of except a good wife and a good digestion, and
would like to know why his kindly assailants had singled liim out
as especially worthy of their cooperative courtesy. Tliey Ijegan
to apologize awkwanlly, saying that they had mistaken him, and
things of that kind, but I heai-d one murmur to another, "Did
you ever see the sign made more perfectly? "
The fiict wa.s, this stranger had accidentJiUy made in all its
details that secret sign of Masonry which indicates supreme dis-
tress and calls for instant help from all worthy brothei-s. Pon-
dering on this incident the writer was led to a close study of
Mfusonry and other secret orders, some of which he h;is since
joined and lie luus the audacity to believe that the condensed
results of liis study as presented in this comparatively brief
eha[)ter will give some surprises in the way of new and novel
Miusonic information, even to Masons tlieniselves who have not
mastered many degrees.
Legendary Mjisonry (which is closely joined with Operative
Masonry, c)r that shown in the aetnal building of many of the
world's most famous eiustles, catliedrals, and palaces, and which
is distinct, except in certain dim possible connections, from
Speculative Masonry which ros(» to the suiface in the lii-st quarter
of the last century,) has all the fascination of fable and is of pro-
found ethical interest to Christian and Jew and Mohammedan,
as well JUS to the Pagan student who is outside of all, yet looking
sympathetically into all — the student,
" Wliose calmly comprehensive mind
Kinbraccs every creed,
And sees in each some well-designed
Expression of man^s need."
w
VKllXMliNT lliT .MVSTEJtV AKV FItATKltNITV. 569
To (ill siieh l!ie Legend o£ tlie Teraplo iniiat be attractive,
whether cutis i tie red as the fabulous foundation of iiiodeiit Masoiuy,
111- as a niajestie mytli standing alone and having no relation to the
present invisible temple, more glorious and more full of wisdom
tJian tlitj line whieli the dreaming monarch, Solomon, tried to
makti "a joy forever," — that temple of Human BrotheHinod
which Masonry tries to build in every land and every heart,
This, then, is the story of that temple of the Wise King.
Solomon, liaviiig determined on biiikling the grandest temple
BVer beheld of mi;ii, colleL-t«d artificers, divided them into com-
panies, imd put them under the command of Adoniram or Hiram
Abiff, an ai(hitJ:-i:t wnt to him by his friend and ally, Hiiiim,
King of Tyre.
According to one Jewish Iniditioii, the aneestry "f the builders
of the mj-stical tempii- wjis as follows: (.>n« of the Elohim, or
primitive genii (anil this word in the Hebrew Scriptures means
gods), maiTied Eve and had a son called Cain; whilst Jehovah or
Adonai, another of the Klohini, ci-eated Adam and united him
with Eve to bring forth the family of Abel, to whom were sub-
jected the sons of Cain, as a ]>unisliment for the transgression of
Eve. Cain, though industriously cultivating the s<)il, yet derived
little pro<lii('e from it, whilst Abel leisurely tended liis flock.
Adonai rejected the gifts and sacrifices of Cain, and stiiTcd up
strife between the sons of the Elohim, Avho had l>een generated
out of fire, and the sons who were formed out of the eartli only.
Cftin killed AI>el, and Adonai, |iursuing his sons with a senes of
humiliations, subjected them to the sons of Abel, thus making
servants and sufferers of the noble family who invented the arts
and diffused science, Tliis is clearly another version of the
Greek myth of Prometheus, jjunished by Jupiter for having
given fire t« men.
Enw^h, a son of Cain, taught men to hew stones, raise build-
ings, and form civil societies. Irad and Mehujiiel, his son and
grandson, .set Ixmndaries to the waters and fashioned cedare into
beams. Methusael, another of his descendants, invented the
sabred chanictere, the books of Tau and the symbolic T, by which
the workei-s descended fmm the genii of lire recognized each other
— a sort of masonio family tree.
670 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Lamech, whose prophecies are inexplicable to the profane, was
the father of Jabel, who firet taught men how to dress camel
skins ; of Jubal, who discovered the harp ; of Naamah, who dis-
covered the ail; of spinning and weaving; of Tubal-Cain, who
first constructed a furnace, worked in metals, and dug deep caves,
subterranean con-idors in the mountains, to save his race during
the deluge.
But that brave, inventive race perished nevertheless, and only
Tubal-Cain and his son, the sole survivors of the glorious and
gigantic family, came out alive. Then the wife of Ham, second
son of Noah, thought the son of Tubal-Cain fitter to mate with
than the sons of men, and he, througli her favor, became progenitor
of Nimrod, called the Mighty Hunter, who taught his brethren
the arts of the chase, and founded Babylon. Thus Adoniram,
or Hiram Abiff, a lineal descendant of Tubal-Cain, seemed called
by destiny to lead the militia of free men, connecting the sons of
fire with the sons of thought, progress, and truth.
And this Hiram fashioned that marvellous building, the temple
of Solomon. He built also the golden throne of Solomon, most
beautifully wrought, and many glorious edifices. But, melan-
choly amidst all his greatness, lie lived alone, understood and
loved by few, hated by many, and among others by Solomon,
who was envious of his genius and his glory.
Now the fame of the wisdom of Solomon had spread to the ends
of the earth; and Balkis, the Queen of Slicba, came to Jeru-
salem to greet the great king and behold the marvels of his
reign. She found Solomon seated on a throne of gilt cedar wood,
arrayed in cloth of gold, so that at fii'st she fancied him a statue
of gold with hands of ivory. Solomon received her with festal
pomp, and led her by the hand all over his palace and then to see
the grand works of the temple ; and the queen was lost in wonder.
Solomon, the wise, except in women, was captivated by her
beauty and soon offered her his hand, which the queen, pleased
at having conquered this proud heart, accepted. But every time
they visited the temple, she repeatedly desired to see the archi-
tect who had wrought such marvels. Solomon delayed as long
as possible presenting Hiram Abiff to the queen, but at last his
fund of excuses failed.
LATE ORANI)
572 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Tlie mysterious artificer, Adoniram, was brought l>efore Balkis,
and he cast on the queen a look that penetrated lier heart. Hav-
ing recovered her comi^osure, Balkis questioned him closely,
despite the rising jealousy of the king. When she wished to see
the countless host of workmen that had wi*ought the temple, and
were still engaged in some parts of its vastness, completing the
inside works, Solomon protested the imj:x)ssibility of Jissembling
them all at once; but Adonimm, leaping on a stone, to be better
seen, with his right hand wrote in the air tlie mystic sjTubol,
Tan, and immediately the men hastened from all parts into the
presence of their master; whereat the queen wondered greatly, and
secretly repented of the j)i*omise she had given the king, for she
felt herself in love with the mighty architect.
Solomon set himself to destro}' tliis affection, and to prepare
his rival's humiliation and ruin. For this puipose, he employed
three fellow-crafts, who were envious of Hiram, l)ecause he had
lefused to raise them to the degree of mastei-s, on account of their
want of knowledge and their idleness. They were Fanor, a
Syrian and a mason; Amin, a Phoenician and a carj^enter ;
Metusael, a Hebrew and a miner. The envy of these three
plotted that the brazen casting which was intended to resemble
the ocean, and which was to raise the oflorv of Hiram to its utmost
lieiglit, should turn out a failure. A young workman, Benoni,
discovered the plan, and revealed it to Solomon, thinking that
sufhcient.
Tlie day for the casting came, and Balkis was present. The
doors that restrained the molten metal were thrown open, and tor-
rents of liquid fire poured into the vjist mould wherein the ])razen
sea was to assume its fonn. But the burning mass ran over the
(»dges of the mould, and flowed like lava into the adjacent places.
The terrified crowd fled from the stream of fii-e.
Hiram, calm as a god, endeavored to aiTest its advance with
ponderous columns {»f water, but without success. The water and
the fire mixed, and the struggle was terrible ; the Mater rose in
dense steam and fell down in the shape of scalding rain, spread-
ing terror and death. The dishonored artificer needed the sym-
pathy of a faithful heart; he sought Benoni, but in vain; tlie
proud youth had perished in endeavoring to prevent the horrible
A flOVKRNMENT OF Sn'8TKRV AND FKATBIISITV. 573
ootaitti'ophe, when he found that Solomon had done nothing to
binder it.
Hiram could not withdraw himself from the scene of his ^a-
comfiture. Oppressed with grief, he heeded not the danger, he
remembered not that this ocean of fire might speedily engulf him ;
he thought of the Queen of Sheba, who came to admire and con-
gratulate him <)n a great triumph, and who saw nothing but a
deadly disaster. Suddenly ho lieard a stniiige voice coming from
above and ciyiiig, "Hiram, Himm, Hiram I " He raised his eyes
and beheld a gigantic figure. The Ap£jarition continued: "Come,
my son, l)e without feai-, I have rendered thee incombustible ; cast
thyself into the flames."
Full of the faith of genius and of love, Hiram threw himself
into the furnace, and where othcra would have found death, he
tasted ineffable deliglits; nor could lie, di-awn by an irresistible
force, h^ave it, »ru\ he asked the Spirit that drew him into the
abyss: "Whither dost thou take imi?" "Into the centre of the
eaiili, into tlie soul of the world, into the kingdom of great Cain,
where liherty reigns with him. There the tyrannous envy of
Adonai ceases; there can we, despising liis anger, taste tlie fruit
of the tree of knowledge; there i.i the home of thy fathers."
"Who then am I, and who art thou?" "I am the fatlier of thy
fathei-s, I am tlie son of Lanu-ch, I am Tubal-Cain."
Then TulKil-Citin introduced Hii-am into the secret sanctuarj-
of the Inmost Fire, where lie exj>ouiided to him the weakness of
Adonai and tlie Iklsc passions of that god, the enemy of his own
creature, whom he condemned to the inexoi-able law of death, to
offset the benelitw which the genii of fire had bestowed on him.
Hiram was thus led into the presence of his ancestor, Cain, and
the Angel of Liglit tliat begat Cain was reflected in the beauty of
this son of love, whose noble and generous mind had roused the
envy of Adonai.
Cain related to Hiram all the experiences, sufferings, and mis-
fortunes, brought uiKin liimby the implacable Adonai. Presently
he heard the voice of him who was the offspring of Tubal-Cain
and his sister Naamah, saying: "A son shall be bom unto thee
whom thou shalt, indeed, not see, but whose numerous descend-
ants shall perpetuate thy race, which, superior to that of Adam,
1
574 THE STORY OF GO\'ERNMENT,
shall acquire the empire of the world ; for many centimes thev
shall consecrate tlieir courage and genius to the ser\'ice of the
ever ungrateful race of Adam, but at last lowest shall become
highest, the gentlest shall become the strongest, and restore on the
earth the worship of fire. Thy sons, in\incible in thy name, shall
destroy the power of kings and of all tyrants, of the rich who are
kings of the poor, yea, and all the ministers of Adonai's tyranny.
Go, my son, the Spirits of Fire are with thee I **
Then Hiram was returned to the earth, and Tulxd-Cain before
quitting him gave him the lianmier with which he himself had
wrought great things, saying: "Thanks to this hanmier and the
help of the genii of fire, tliou shalt speedily accomplish the work
left unfinished through man's stupidity and malignit}'.'' Hiiam
did not hesitate to test at once the wonderful efficacy of the precious
instrument, and the new dsiym beheld that great mass of bronze
cast in a shape like unto the sea when it lauglis up at the moon.
The artist felt a most lively joy ; the queen exulted ; the people
came running up, astounded at this secret power which in one
night had repaired ever}i;hing; and Solomon in silence ate his
heart.
One day, not long after, the queen, accompanied by her maids,
went beyond the walls <»f Jerusalem, and there encountered liiranu
alone and thoughtful. Tlie encounter was decisive; they con-
fessed their love. Had-llad, the bird who filled with the queen
the office of messenger from the Genii of Fire, seeing Hiram in
the air make the sign of the mystie T, flew around his head and
settled on his wrist. At this Sarahil, the nurse of the queen,
exclaimed: "'The oracle is fulfilled, llad-llad i-ecognizes the
huslxind which the Genii of Fire destined for Balkis, whose love
alone she dare accept I "
Whereupon the lovei-s hesitated no longer, but plighted their
troth, and delilx^iated licuv Balkis could eseaj^e fulfilling tlie
promise given to the king. Ilimm wius to Ije the first to quit
Jeiiisaleni; the queen, impatient to rejoin him in Arabia, was to
elude the vicrilance of the king, which she accomplished by with-
drawing from his finger, while he was overcome with wine, the
ring wherewitli she had j)ledge(l liei'self to him.
But meanwhile Solomon had hinted to the envious fellow-crafts
\
I
"■"■■■■'"-■■>■....,, ^,^
676 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that the removal of his rival, who had refused to give them the
master's word, would be acceptable unto himself; so, when the
architect came into the temple to look at his great work for the
last time, he was assailed and slain by them. Befoi*e his death,
however, he had time to throw the golden triamjle whicli he wore
round his neck, and on which was engraven the master's word,
into a deep well. They wrapped up his body, carried it to a soli-
taiy hill, and buried it, phuiting over the grave a sprig of acacia.
Hiram, not having l)een seen for seven days, Solomon, against
his inclination, but to satisfy the clamor of the people, was
forced to have a search made. The body was found by three
masters, and they, suspecting that he had been slain by the three
fellow-crafts for refusing them the master's word, determined,
nevertheless, for greater security, to change the word, and that
the fii'st word accidentiilly uttered on i-aising th(^ l)ody should
thenceforth be the word.
In the act of raising it, the skin came oflf the body, so that one
of the mastei-s exchiimed, (meaning the flesh is off the
) and this word, never to he vttered aloud, and only whispered
in HifUahU'H under eertaiu eonditiouH^ then Ixicame the saci*ed word
of the miister's degree. I'he three fellow-crafts were traced, but
rather than fall into the hands of their pni*snei"s, they committed
suicide, and their heads were l)rought to Solomon.
The triangle, not liaving been found on the body of Hiram, was
soutrht for and at last discovered in the well into which he had
cast it. The king caused it to be placed on a triangular altar
erected in a secret vault, built under the most retired part of the
temple. The triangle was further concealed by a cubical stone,
on which had been inscribed the sacred law. The vault, the
existence of which was onlv known to the twentv-seven elect,
was then walled up.
Such is the Legend of the Temple to whicli for many years
^Masonry usimI to j)oint as the fii*st material work of its mystical,
ancient order, for Masonry has always, until recently, laid claim to
extreme ancientness as one of its many marks of augustness.
Indeed, all nations, all states, all corporations, to increase theii'
power and diuluce from above their excuse for existence, attributt^
to themselves a very early origin.
A GOVERNMENT OF MYSTERY AND FRATERNITY. 577
This wish must be all the stronger in a society altogether ideal
and moral, living a life of principles, which needs rather to seem,
not coeval with, but anterior and superior to, all others. Hence
the curious, fantastic claim set up by Freemasonry of being, not
contemporary with the creation of man, but with that of the
world; because light was before man, and prepared for him a
suitable habitation, and light is the scope and symbol of Free-
masonry.
Now it has been believed by some dreamers that there was from
the verj' first appearance of man on the earth a highly favored and
civilized i-ace, possessing a full knowledge of the laws and proper-
ties of nature, which knowledge was embodied in mystical figures
and schemes such as were deemed appropriate and necessary for
its preservation and propagation.
These figures and schemes were supposedly discovered l)y
magi, or wise men, in different ages, and are partially preserved
in Masonry, though their meaning is no longer imdei'stood l)y the
fraternity. Granting for the sake of argument, or of art, or of
mere picturesqueness, that there have been and still are beings of
that ancient, more fiery nuie, still wandering on earth, trying to
help men, yet constantly hindered and misundei-stood by men,
what are the real truths or doctrines hidden under the symbols
and enigmatical forms of their mystic science, — forms and syin-
lx)ls, which without a key appear but as absurd and del)asing rites
and ceremonies?
The aim of all the secret societies of the piist, except those
which were purely predatoiy or political, was to preserve such
knowledge as still survived, or to recover what had been lost.
And since Freemasonry is, so to speak, the rcHinn^ of tlie teachings
of all those societies, dogmas in accordance with one or more of
those taught in the ancient mysteries and other associations are
to be found in Masonry; hence also it is, impossible to attribute
its origin to one or other specific society preceding it. Free-
masonry is — or rather ought to be — the compendium of all
primitive accumulated human knowledge.
Masonic writera generally divide the history of the Order into
two periods, the firat comprising the time from its assumed foun-
dation to the beginning of the last century, during which the
578 THK ST()i:V OF GOVERNMENT.
Order admitted only masons, i. e., operative masons and aitificei'S
in some way connected with architectui*e. During the earlier
jxjriod the Operative Brotherhood built most of those luai'vellous
structures which delight the eye of the tmveller in Europe. Of
these the Cathedral of Rheims and the Cathedral, Baptistry and
Leaning Tower of Pisa of which we give picitures are shining
examplei;.
The second or present period, they denominate the period of
Speculative Masonry, when the Order no longer chooses its mem-
l)ers only amongst men engaged in the raising of material struc-
tures, but receives into its ranks all who are willing to assist in
building a spiritual temple, the temple of universal harmony and
knowledge. Yet pei*soiis who were not working masons had
l)efore the last century been admitted, for the records of a lodge
Jit Waringtcm, as old as 1648, note the admission of Colonel
Mainwaring, and the great antiquary, Ashmole. Charles I.,
Charles II., and James II. also were initiated.
Still, from what ha.s been said above, does it not follow that true
Masonry always was spectdative^ and tluit to deduce any specific
origin from the ancient Diony^iac mysteries or any other kindred
college is sheer nonsense ? The name "masonic " was adopted by
the society on its reconstruction in the l-dst century, because the
brotherhood of buildei*s who erected the magnificent cathedrals
and other buildings that arose duiing the Middle Ages had
lodges, degrees, landmarks, secret signs, and passwords, such as
the builders of the temple of Solomon are said to have had.
But of a perfect, unbroken connection absolute historic proof is
still lacking.
Vet, considering that Freemasonry^ is a tree, the roots of which
arc spread through so many soils, it follows that tmces of many
things must be found in its fruit; or that its language and ritual
should rettxin much of the various sects and institutions it has
passed througli l)efore arriving at their present state, and accord-
ingly in Masonry we meet with Indian, Egyptian, Jewish, and
Christian ideas, terms, and symbols.
For instance, the Masonic alphabet preserves the angular
character of primitive alplvabets. Thirteen characters (9 + 4)
<*()nipose the Masonic system of wTiting. Hence all the sounds
580
THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
can only be represented by means of points, in the following
manner: —
I 1
A-B C-D E-F
G-H l-L ' M-N
0-P j Q-H , S-T
I I
The letter, a, is written -J ; the ^me sign with a dot in it, JJ,
means b; the sign >• means u, and with a dot >•, v. Masonic
abbreviations are always indicated by thi-ee dots, placed triangu-
larly. Thus, brother is abbreviated B.*. Lodge is written L.-.
or []]. *. in the plural LL.-. or rnLl-*- Our common alphabet has an
equally simple origin, as well as the Arabic numerals; they are
all contained in combinations of the lines of this figure: —
A,
11, "■ )
c.
U,*''- — 1,
—J
)
-J)
H, ,
— J
M,
N, n,
R
K
X T
-J)
V, X.
Y.
Z, 3,
)
z,
^,
^, b
A,
7, Z,
^
The jnrencral leader wlio is not a Mason may 1h» interested in a
brief description of various lodges and of various modern cere-
monies in tlu; making of an apprentice, a fellow-ci-aft, and a mas-
ter. The arrangement of the lodge varies and will vary according
to periods and degrees, but certiiin general rules are always followed
in its construction. According to the most ancient Fi*ench cate-
chism the lodge must huve a vaulted ceiling, painted blue and
covered with golden stars to represent the heavens.
The floor is called a mosaic floor; the term "' mosaic" lx?inir
derived from Moses; i. e., *' drawn from the water,'' l)ecause by
A OOVEENMENT OF MYSTERY AND FBATEKNITV. 581
its variegated coloi-s it represents the eartli as covered with flowera
again after the withdmwal of the watera of the Nile. There uit .
three windows, — one east, one west, and a tliird soutli. There
must also be two or three ant«-chambers, so that the profane,
which is the technieal term for outsiders, may catch no glimjise
of what is going on in the lodge. If, by accident, some stranger
should nevertheless inti-ude, the master exclaims, "It i-aina!"
and the lodge is ipgo facto dissolved.
The lodge should he always hung with black; the brethren
tidting their places accoi-ding to their rank ; the Grand Master in
the eiist, the Master in the south, and the novices at the north.
When an apprentice is made, the lodge is brightly illuminated.
Tlie Grand Master, seated in his ])lace, weara on his neck,
appended to a liii'ge riblwn, a small square and compasses. Before
him stands a table on which lie the Gospel of St. John and a
small hammer. At his side are the two stewards, the first ot
whom wears a level and the second a plumb of gold or silver.
The masters and fellow-crafts stand amund with the apprentices,
all wearing whit* aprons of Iamb akin, and each caiTying a naked
sword.
On the floor are peculiar patterns, representing the steps that
led to Solomon's temple, and the two Pinal's, Jachin and Boaz,
hut which in reality symbolize the summer and winter solstices,
the pillars of Hercules, the two pillai-s ot Seth. Above are seen
the sun, moon, and a large sbir,
A coffin covere the centre of the floor, in which lies a man
apparently dead, with his face turned upward and shrouded with
his white apron smeared with blootl, one h.'ind resting on his
breast and the other extended towards the knee. In the comers
of the roc)m are substances easily combustible, such as sulphur,
to kindle a fire instantjvneously. This apparatus is somewhat
altered when a fellow-craft or a master is to be made. Such was
the old French lodge of which two pictures are given.
The modem lodge is a large square hall, alwaj's, if possible,
situated due east and west. Upon a dais, ascended by three steps
opposite the door of ingress, sit^ the Worshipful Master. Instead
uf the coffin an alUir is placed in the centre on four steps. A
sky-blue canopy dotted with stars, and having above it the shin-
582 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
ing triangle with the sacred name inscribed therein, covers the
throne.
To the left of the canopy is a symbol of the sun, and to the
right of the moon. Another ornament is the blazing star, and
the point within a circle, symbolizing the sun in the universe.
A chest or ark also forms part of the Masonic furniture. To the
west, at the sides of the door of ingress, stand two pillars of
bronze, whose capitals represent pomegranates, bearing on their
fronts the initials J. and B. (Jachin and Boaz).
The senior and junior wardens sit near th3se two columns,
having before them a triangular table, covered with masonic
emblems. Around tlie lodge there are ten other pillars connected
by an architrave with the two pillai-s above mentioned.
On the altar rest a Bible, a square, a pair of compasses and
swords, and three candehibra with long tapei*s are placed, one at
the east at the foot of the steps, the second at the west, near the
first warden, and tlie third at tlie south. The room is surrounded
with benches for the members.
In the lodges called Scotcli, and in English and American
lodges, the canopy that (•()vim's the master's throiK^ is of crimson
silk. In the United States, the Worshipful Master wears a cap
adorned with black feathers and a large cockade of the same color.
The senior and junior wfirdens are seated in niches with fringed
drapery, and Avear, like heralds, stavt^s of el)ony sculptured like
pillai-s.
lies ides the master and the wardens, who are figuratively called
the three Iv/hta^ the lodge litis other ollicera — the orator, secre-
tiiry, treasurer, master of tlu^ ceremonies, keeper of the seals,
ar(;liiteet, steward, captain of tlu*. host, principal sojourner, inner
and outer guard or tyler, and olhei-s. Every official occupies a
place assigned to him, and has his ])ropcr jewels and badges, just
as was the case with the Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek priests in
the antique mysteries.
The meetings are generally held at night. The Worshipful
Master, striking the altar with his mallet, ''opens the labora," and
after having ascertained that the lodge is tyled, i. e., covered
over or guarded well, he turns to the junior waixlen and says:
''Brother junior warden, your consttmt place in tlie lodge?'*
oS4 THE STOBY OF GOVSRNMEOST.
** In the soutf
** Why are you placed there ?
u
u
**" To mark the sun at its meridian, to call the brethren from
labor to refreshment, and from refreshment to labor, that profit
and pleasure may be the result. **
*• Brother senior warden, your constant place in the lodge ?^
'• In the west."
**Why are you placed there?*'
**To mark the setting sun ; to close the lodge by the command
of the Worshipful Master, after seeing that every one has his just
dues."
Why is the master placed in the east?
As the sun rises in the east to open and enliven the day, so
the Worshipful Master is placed in the east to open and enlighten
his lodge, to employ and instruct the brethren."
"At what hour are Masons accustomed to begin their labors? **
"At mid-day."
"What hour is it, brother junior warden?"
"It is niid-dav."
"Since this is the hour, and all is proved right and just, I
declare the lod^e open.""
The purely Jistroiiomical hearing of all this is self-evident to
any student of Chaldean lore, of the pymraids, or of the ruins of
Yucatan. It is a relic of astrology, the science or superstition of
the still's.
When a novice in some societies, but not in all (for initiations
differ in different places) is to be initiated into the first or appren-
tice degree, he is led into tlie lodge building by a stranger to him,
and introduced into ji remote chamlx^r, where he is left alone
for a few minutes.
He is tlien deprived of all metal he may have about him ; his
right knee, and in some lodges his left side, are uncovered, and
the heel of his left shoe, if he wears a low one, is trodden down.
His eyes are bandaged, and he is led into the closet of reflec-
tion where he is told to stay without taking off the bandage, until
he hears three knocks.
signal, on uncovering his eyes, he beholds on the walls
black a variety of inscriptions like the following: "If
A GOVERNMENT OF MYSTEKV AND FBATEBNITV. 685
idle curiosity draw thee hither, depart! " "If thou be afraid of
being enlightened coneeniing thine errors, it profits thee not to
»tay here." "If thou vnhie human distinctions, go hence; here
they are not known,"
After a i)iihiver between the brother who introduces tlie novice
and the master, the candidate, having his eyes again liaiidiiged
and a rope pasued round hi» necl:. Is introduced into tlie middle
of the bretliren, his guide pointing a naked sword to his breast.
He is then keenly questioned as to his object in coming there,
and on answering that he comes to ))e initiated into tlio secrets
of Masonry, he is led out of the lodge and back again several
times to confuse him on the perception of distances,
A lai^e square frame covered with paper, such as circus riders
use, is then brought forward and held by two brethren. The guide
then asks the master: "What shall we do with the profane?"
To which the master replies: "Shut him up in the cave."
Two brethren seine the postulant and throw him through the
paper screen into the arms of two other brethren whostand ready
to receive him. The folding doors, hitherto left open, are then
shut with noise, and by means of an iron ring and bar the closing
of massive locks is imitated, so timt the candidate fancies himself
shut up in a dungeon. Some time then passes in sepulchral
silence.
All at once the master strikes a quick blow, and orders the
candidate to be placed beside the junior warden in a kneeling
position. The master then addresses several questions to him, and
informs him of his duties towards the Order. Next a leverage is
offered to the candidate with the intimation that, if any treason
Itirks in his heart, the drink will turn to poison.
Tlie bowl coiitjiining this dangerous drink has two compart-
ments, the one holding sweet, the other bitter water, auch as that
hi a cup of quassia wood. The candidate is then made to re2)eat:
"I hind myself to the strict and rigorous observance of the duties
prescribed to Freemasons, and if ever I violate my oath " — (here
his guide puts the sweet water to liia lips, and having dnink
some, the candidate continues) " I consent that the sweetness of
this drink be turned into bitterness, and that its salutary effect
become for me that of a subtle poison."
586 THE STORY OF GOVBRNMBNT.
The candidate is then made to drink of the bitter water, wh^re^
upon the master exclaims : " What do I see ? What means the
sudden alteration of your features? Perhaps your conscience
belies your words? Has the sweet drink already turned bitter?
Away with the profane one ! This oath is only a test; the true
one comes after."
The candidate being then asked if he pei-sists in his determina-
tion, and genemlly answering yes, as his curiosity is now well
whetted, he is led a number of times round the lodge ; then he is
dragged over broken chairs, stools, and blocks of wood. This
trial over, he is told to mount the "endless staii-s," and having,
as he supi)oses, attained a great height, he is oixlered to cast
himself down, in which act he only falls a few feet.
This ordeal, wliich is imitated in other secret orders, and in
some with an elaborate cleverness well calculated to delude and
scare the average candidate, is accompanied by much noise, the
brethren striking on the attributes of the oider they carry in their
hands, and uttering all kinds of dismal shouts.
As Ji further trial, he is then passed through fire, which is
rendered harmless by well-known conjui'ing tricks. Tlien his
arm is slightly pricked, and a guri^^ling noise l)eing produced by
one of the brethren, the novice sometimes fancies that he is losing
much blood.
Finally, he takes the oath, tlie brethren standing around him
with di*awn swords. The candidate is then led between the two
pillars, and the brethren place their swords against his breast.
The master of the ceremonies loosens the bandage without taking
it off. Another brother holds tetore him a lamp that sheds a
brilliant light.
The master speaks; '' Brother senior warden, deem you the
candidate worthy of forming part of our society? "
les.
"What do y(m ask for liini? "
"Light."
"Then let there l)e light!"
Three blows with a mallet the master gives, find at the third
the bandage is tiiken off, and the candidate beholds the light,
symbolizing that which is to fill his undei-standing.
588 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The brethren drop their swords, and the candidate is conducted
to the altar, where he kneels, whilst the master says: "In the
name of the Grand Architect of the Univerae, and by virtue of
the powers vested in me, I create and constitute tliee a masonic
apprentice and member of this lodge."
Then striking three more blows with his mallet on the blade of
the sword, he raises the new brother, girds him with the apron
of white lambskin, gives him a pair of white gloves to be worn
in the lodge, and another to be given to the lady he esteems
best. He is then again led between the two pillai-s, and received
by the brethren as one of them.
The second degree of symbolic Freemasonry is that of Fellow-
Craft. The apprentice, who comes asking for an increase of
salary, — a very natural formula for an apprentice — is not con-
ducted like the novice by an unknown brother, nor are his eyes
bandaged, because the light was made for him, but he moves
towards the lodge holding in his hand a rule, one of whose ends
he rests on the left shoulder.
Having reached the door, he gives the apprentice's knock, and
having been admitted find declared the purpose for which he
comes, he walks five times round the lodge, wheieupon he is told
by the master to perform his last Jipprentice's work. He then
pretends to square the rough tishlar. After a deal of instruction,
he takes the oath in which he swears to keep the secrets entrusted
to him.
Then there follows more lecturing on the part of the master,
chiefly on geometry, a science which Masons profess to consider
very precious but of which they know precious little, and to
which the letter G seen in the lodge within an irradiation or
star is supposed to refer, but it more likely is a relic of geo-
mancy, an odd business practised by Chinese ^hisons, especially
as to the proper places in which to build a house.
The degree of Master Mason is more interesting. At tlic
reception of a master, the lodge or "middle chamber" is draped
with black, with death's heads, skeletons, and cross-bones, and
other cheerful welcomes painted on the walls. A taper of yellow
wax, placed in the* east, and a dark lantern, formed of a skull
having a light within, which shines forth through the eye-holes,
A GOVEHNMENT OF MYSTEIIV AND FRATEttNlTV. 589
placeJ on the altar of the most Worshipful Master, gives just
Hufficient light to reveal n coffin, wherein the corjise is represented
either Ijy a hiy-lignre, a serving hrotlier, or by the brother last
iniule a master.
On the coftin is i\ sprig of iicacia, at iU head is a square, and
at its foot, towanla the east, an open compass. The masters are
clothed in black,' and wear large azure sashes, on which are
represented Masonic emblems, the sun, moon, and seven stais.
The object of the meeting is said to be the finding of the word of
the iiiiisfer, Hinim Abiff, who was slain.
The postulant for admission is introduced aft^r some prelimi-
nary ceremonies, Iiavinghis two arms, breasts, and knees bare, and
both he«]s tjllp-sltod. lie iii told that the brethi'eii assembled arc
mourning the death of their Grand Master, and itsked whether
perhaps he was one of tlie murdei'ers, and at the same time he is
shown the body or figure in the coffin.
Having declared his innocence of any slinre in that crime, he is
informed that he will on this occasion have to enact the part of
Hiram, who was slain at the huilding of Solomon's temple, and
whose history he is alwint to l>e told.
The brother, or figure in the coffin, has in tlie meantime lieen
removed, so that when the aspinint looks at it again, much to his
surprise he finds it empty. The stor)' of the munler of Hiram is
then told in a very impressive fashion. The dee<l is not, how-
ever, as in tlie Legend of the Temple previously given, attributed
to Solomon's jealousy, but simply to Hiram's refusal to com-
municate the master's word to three fellow-crafts. The various
incidents of this story aie scenieally enacted on the postulant by
the brother Masons, for in every lodge there are generally some
very fair actore.
"Hiram," the master continues, "having entered the temple at
noon, the three assassins placed themselves at the east, west, and
soutli dof^i'H, and Hiram refusing to reveal the wriiil, lie who stood
at the east door cut Hii-am across the thi-oat with a twenty-four
inch gauge. Hiram flew to the south door, wliere he received
690 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
similar treatment, and thence to the west door, where he was
struck on the head with a gavel which occasioned his death.''
The applicant, at this part of the recital, is informed tliat he,
too, must undergo trials, and must not sink under the influence
of terror, though the hand of death be upon him. He is then
stinick on the forehead and thrown down.
Tlie master continues : " The ruffians carried the body out at
the west door, and buried it at the side of a hill" — here the
postulant is placed in the coffin — " in a grave, on which they
stuck a sprig of acacia to mark the spot. Hiram not making his
appearance as usual, Solomon caused search to be made for him bj'
twelve trusty fellow-crafts that were sent out, three east, three
west, three south, and three north. Of the three who went east,
one being wearj', sat down on the brow of a hill to rest himself,
and in rising caught hold of a twig " — here a twig of that plant
is put into the hand of the aspirant lying in the coffin — *' which
coming up eiisily, showed that the gi*ound had been recently
disturl)ed, and on digging be and his companions found the bodj'
of Hiram. It was in a mangled condition, having lain fourteen
days, whereupon one of those present exclaimed which
means and this became the master's word, {is the former
one was lost through Hiram's death; for though the other two
masters, Solomon, and Hiram, king of Tyre, knew it, it could
only be comnninicated by the three Grand Miistei's conjointly.
The covering of the grave being green moss and turf, other
l\ystandei"s exelainied, ^ Muhcuh domus ^lomino^ dei f/ratiaP which
means, 'Thanks be unto God, our master hath got a mossv
house : ' "
This exclamation shows that the Hebrew buildei's of Solomon's
temple possessed a prophetic knowledge of the Latin tongue I
The body of Hiram could not i)e raised by the aj>prentice's or fel-
low-craft's grip, but only by the master's, or the lion's grip, as
it is called. All this is then imitated by the mixster raising the
aspirant in the coffin, who is then told the word, signs and gri})s,
and takes the oath.
Taken liteniUy, the story of Hiram would offer nothing so
extraordinary as to deserve to be connnemomted after three thou-
sand years throughout the world by solemn rit^s jind ceremonies.
582 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
ing triangle with the sacred name inscribed therein, covers the
throne.
To the left of the canopy is a symbol of the sun, and to the
right of the moon. Another ornament is the blazing star, and
the point within a circle, symbolizing the sun in the universe.
A chest or ark also forms part of the Masonic furniture. To the
west, at the sides of the door of ingress, stand two pillars of
bronze, whose capitals represent pomegranates, bearing on their
fronts the initials J. and B. (Jachin and Boaz).
The senior and junior wardens sit near these two columns,
having before them a triangular table, covered with masonic
emblems. Around the lodge there are ten other pillars connected
by an architrave with the two pillai-s above mentioned.
On the altar rest a Bible, a square, a pair of compasses and
swords, and three candelabra with long tapers are [)laced, one at
the east at the foot of the steps, the second at the west, near the
first warden, and the third at the south. Tlje room is surrounded
with benches for the membei's.
In the lodges called Scotxth, and in Englisli and American
lodges, the canopy that covers the master's throne is of crimson
silk. In the United States, the Woi*shipful Master wears a cap
adorned with black feathei's and a large cockade of the same color.
The senior and junior wardens are seated in niches with fringed
drapeiy, and w(»ar, like heralds, staves of elK)ny sculptured like
pillai-s.
Besides the master and tlie wardens, who are figuratively c;alled
the three lu/hts^ the lodge has other officei*s — the orator, secre-
tary, treasurer, master of the ceremonies, keeper of the seals,
architect, steward, captain of the host, princi[)al sojourner, inner
and outer guard or tyler, and othei-s. Every official occupies a
place assigned to him, and has his proper jewels and badges, just
as wjis the case with the Egyptian, llelnew, and Greek priests in
the antique mysteries.
The meetings are generally held at night. The Worshipful
Master, striking the altar with his mallet, ''opens the labore," and
after having ascertained that the lodge is tyled, i. e., covered
over or guarded well, he turns to the junior warden and says:
''Brother junior warden, your constant place in the lodge?'*
584 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
'' In the south."
" Why are you placed there ? "
" To mark the sun at its meridian, to call the bretliren from
labor to refreshment, and from refreshment to labor, that profit
and pleasure may be the result."
Brother senior warden, your constant place in the lodge ?
*^ In the west."
*'Why are you placed there?
To mark the setting sun ; to close the lodge by the command
of the Worshipful Master, after seeing that eveiy one has his just
dues."
"Why is the master placed in the east?
"As the sun rises in the east to open and enliven the day, so
the Worshipful Miister is placed in the east to open and enlighten
his lodge, to employ and instruct the brethren."
"At what hour are Masons accustomed to begin their labors? "
"At mid-day."
"What hour is it, brother junior warden?"
"It is mid-day."
"Since this is the liour, juid all is proved right and just, I
declare the lodge open."
The purely .astronomical l)earing of all this is self-evident to
any student of Chaldean lore, of the pyramids, or of the ruins of
Yucatan. It is a relic of astrology, the science or superstition of
the stai"s.
When a novice in some societies, but not in all (for initiations
diflfer in different places) is to he initiated into the lirst or appren-
ti(*e degree, he is led into the lodge building by a stranger to him,
and introduced into a remote chaml)er, where he is left alone
for a few minutes.
lie is then deprived of all metal he may have about him ; his
right knee, and in some lodges his left side, are uncovered, and
the heel of his left shoe, if he weara a low one, is trodden down.
His eyes are bandaged, and he is led into the closet of reflec-
tion where he is told to stay without taking off the bandage, until
he hears three knocks.
At the signal, on uncovering his eyes, he beholds on the walls
hung with black a variety of inscriptions like the following: "If
A GOVEENMENT OP MVSTEUY AND FBATEBNtTY. 585
idle curioBity draw thee hither, depart! " "If thou be afraid of
being enlightened concerning thine errore, it iirofits thee not to
stay here." "If tliou viilne human distinctions, go hence; here
they are not known."
After a piilavt-r between the bi-other who introduces the novice
and the master, the candidate, having his eyes again liandaged
and a ro]je passeil round his neck, is introduced into tlie middle
of the brethren, liis guide pointing a naked sword to his breast.
He is then keenly questioned as to his object in coming there,
and oD answering that he comes to be initiated into the secrets
of Masonry, he is led out of the lodge and hack i^ain several
times to confuse him on the perception of distances.
A large square frame covered with paper, such as circus riders
use, is then brouglit forward and held by two brethren. The guide
then asks the master: "What shall we do with the profane?"
To which the master replies: "Shut him up in the cave."
Two brethren sei/.e the postulant and throw him thi-ough the
paper screen into the arms of two other brethren who stand ready
to receive him. The folding doors, hitherto left open, are then
shut witli noise, and by means of an iron ring and b)U- the closing
of massive Ir)cks is imitated, so that the candidate fancies himself
shut up in a dungeon. Some time then passes in sepulchral
iiilence.
All at once the master strikes a quick blow, and orders the
candidate to be placed l>eside the junior warden in a kneeling
position. Tlie master tlien addresses several questions to him, and
informs him of liis duties towards the Order. Next a beverage is
offered to the candidate with the intimation that, if any treason
lurks in his heart, tlie drink will turn to poison.
The bowl containing this dangerous drink has two compart-
ments, the one lioldiag sweet, the other bitter water, such as that
in a cup of quiissia wootl. The candidate is then made to reiieat:
"I bind mj-self U< the strict and rigoi-ons olwervance of the duties
pi-escribed to FreemaBons, and if ever I violate my oath " — (here
his guide put» the sweet water to his lips, and having drunk
some, the candidate continues) "I consent that the sweetness of
this drink be turned into bitterne^, and that its salutary effect
become for me that of a subtle poison."
686 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The candidate is then made to drink of the bitter water, wh^re*
upon the master exclaims : "What do I see? What means the
sudden alteration of your features? Perhaps your conscience
belies your words? Has the sweet drink already turned bitter?
Away with the profane one ! This oath is only a test; the true
one comes after."
The candidate l)eing then asked if he pei-sists in his determina-
tion, and generally answering yes, as his curiosity is now well
whetted, lie is led a number of times round the lodge ; then he is
dragged over broken cliaii-s, stools, and blocks of wood. This
trial over, he is told to mount the "endless stairs," and having,
«s he supposes, attained a great height, he is oi-dered to cast
himself down, in which act he only falls a few feet.
This ordeal, which is imitated in other secret orders, and in
some with an elaborate cleverness well calculated to delude and
scare the average candidate, is accompanied by much noise, the
brethren striking on the attributes of the order they carry in their
hands, and uttering all kinds of dismal shouts.
As a further trial, he is then ptissed through fire, which is
rendered harmless by well-known conjuring tricks. Then his
arm is slightly pricked, and a gurgling noise being produced by
one of the brethren, the novice sometimes fancies that he is lasinjr
much blood.
Finally, he takes tlie oath, the brethren standing around him
with drawn swords. The candidate is then led iH^tween the two
pillars, and the brethren place their swords against his breast.
The master of tlie ceremonies loosens the l)an(lage without taking
it off. Another brother holds befoie him a lamp that sheds a
brilliant light.
The master speaks: "Hrother senior waiden, deem you the
candidate worthy of fornung part of our society? "
"Yes."
"What do yon ask for him? "
"Light."
"Then let there be light! "
Three blows with a mallet the master gives, and at the tliird
the bandage is taken off, and the candidate beholds the Hght,
symbolizing that which is to fill his undei*standing.
588 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
The brethren drop their swords, and the candidate is conducted
to the altar, where he kneels, whilst the master says : "In the
name of the Grand Architect of the Univerae, and by virtue of
the powers vested in me, I create and constitute thee a masonic
apprentice and member of this lodge."
Then striking three more blows with his mallet on the blade of
the sword, he raises the new brother, girds him with the apron
of white lambskin, gives him a pair of white gloves to be worn
in the lodge, and another to be given to the lady he esteems
best. He is then again led between the two pillai*s, and received
by the brethren as one of them.
The second degree of symbolic Freemasonry is that of Fellow-
Craft. The apprentice, who comes asking for an increase of
salary, — a very natural f ommla for an apprentice — is not con-
<lucted like the novice by an unknown brother, nor are his eyes
bandaged, because the light was made for him, but he moves
towards the lodge holding in his hand a rule, one of whose ends
he rests on the left shoulder.
Having reached tlie door, he gives the apprentice's knock, and
having been admitted and declared the purpose for wliieh he
comes, he walks live times round tlie lodge, M'hereu[)on he is told
by the master to perform his last a[)prentice's work. He then
pretends to square the rough ashlar. After a deal of instruction,
he takes the oath in which he swears to keep the secrets entrusted
to him.
Then there follows more lecturing on the part of the mixster,
chiefly on geometry, a science which ilasons profess to consider
very precious but of which they know precious little, and to
which the letter G seen in the lodge within an irradiation or
star is supposed to refer, but it more likely is a relic of geo-
mancy, an odd business practised by Chinese Miusons, especially
as to the proper j)laces in Avliich to build a house.
The degree of Master Mason is more interesting. At tlu^
reception of a master, the lodge or " middle chamlxir " is draped
with black, Avitli death's heads, skeletons, and cross-bones, and
other cheerful Avel(K>mes painted on the walls. A taper of yellow
wax, placed in tlu* east, and a dark lantern, formed of a skull
iving a light within, which shines foith through the eye-holes.
■'i^i^w^^— ^^^-^w
A GOVERNMENT OF MYSTERY AND FRATERNITY. 589
placed on the ttltur of the moat Worshipful Master, gives just
sufficient light to reveal a cofliii, wherein the poiiiae is i-epreseoted
either by a l;iy-figure, a serving brotlier, or by the brother last
made a raasler.
On the coHin is a sprig of acacia, at its head is a square, and
at its foot, toivanls the east, an open compass. The ma-iters are
clothed in black, ^ and wear large azure SEishes, on which are
represented Masonic emblems, the sun, moon, and seven stars.
Tlie object of the meeting is said to be the finding of the word of
the master, Hinira Abiff, who wan wlain.
The postulant for admission is introduced after some prelimi-
nary ceremonies, liaviiig his two amis, breasts, and knees bare, and
both heels slip-shod. He is told that the bretbi-en assembled are
mourning the death of their Grand Master, and lisked whether
perhaps be w:is one of the murderers, and at the same time he is
shown the body or figure in the coffin.
Having declared his innocence of any share in that crime, he is.
informed that he will on this occasion have to enact the part of
Hiram, who was slain at the building of Solomon's temple, and
whose history be is about t*> Ije told,
The brother, or hgure in the coffin, has in the meantime been
removed, so that when the aspirant looks at it again, much to his
surprise he finds it empty. The story of the mui-der of Hiram is
then told in a very impi-essive fashion. The dee<l is not, how-
ever, as in the Legend of the Temple pi'eviously given, attributed
to Solomon's jealousy, but simply to Himni's refusal to com-
municate the master's word to three fellow-crafts. The various
incidents of this stoiy aie scenically enai:ted on the postulant by
the brother Masons, for in every lodge there are jjenerally some
very fair aetora.
"Hiram," the master continues, "having entered the temple at
noon, the three assassins placed themselves at the east, west, and
south doora, and Hii-am refusing to reveal the wnnl, he who stood
at the east door cut Himni across the throat with ii twenty-four
inch gauge, Hii-am flew to the south cloor. wliei'e be received
'In New York Is aloiiga comimseil eniiiel}' nfactore wht
■11 tbg Misonie ceremonies aiclrud in gorgeous costuniea
tDagDlflcence. This ilruoa, aU Bluoiilc wltneuea asrm.i:
oaMtnlod Fawioii l^ay a,L (ibenmnierKU.
690 THE 8TOBY OF GOVEBXMKyT.
similar treatment, and thence to the west door, where he was
stmck on the head witli a gavel which occasioned his death.**
The applicant, at this part of the recital, is informed that he,
too, must undergo trials, and must not sink under the influence
of terror, though the hand of death be uiK)n him. He is then
struck on the forehead and thrown down.
The master continues : " The ruffians carried the body out at
the west door, and buried it at the side of a hill" — here the
postulant is placed in the coffin — "in a gmve, on which they
stuck a sprig of acacia to mark the spot. Hiram not making his
appearance as usual, Solomon caused search to be made for him by
twelve trusty fellow-crafts that were sent out, three east, three
west, three south, and thi-ee north. Of the three who went east,
one being weaiy, sat down on the brow of ^ hill to rest himself,
and in rising caught hold of a twig " — here a twig of that plant
is put into the hand of the aspirant lying in the coffin — ** which
coming up easily, showed that the ground had l)een recently
di8turl>ed, and on digging he and his companions found the body
of Ilimni. It was in a nuuigled condition, having lain fourteen
davs, whereupon one of those present excliiimed which
means and this became tlu* master's wonl, as the former
one was lost throiit^li Hiram's death; for though the other two
mastei's, Solomon, and Hiram, king of Tyre, knew it, it could
only be communicated by the three (irand Mastei's conjointly.
The covering of the grave being green moss and tui-f, other
bystandei's exclaimed, ^ Mhhcuh domus dotnino^ del yratiaP which
means, ••Thanks be unto God, our master hath got a mossv
1» ' »»
ious(» .
This (fxclamatiou sliows that the Hebrew buildei*s of Solomon's
temjile possessed a pro[)hetie knowledge of tlie Latin tongue I
The body of Hiram could not be laised by the aj)prentice's or fel-
low-craft's gri[), but only by the master's, or the lion's grip, as
it IS called. All this is then imitated by the master raising the
asj)irant in the coffin, who is then told the word, signs and grijis,
and takes the oath.
Taken literally, the story of Hiram would offer nothing so
extraordinary as to deserve to be commemorated after three thou-
sand yeai*s tiiroughout the world In* solemn rites and ceremonies.
rUb CATIIii^UUAL
592 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The death of an architect is not so important a matter as to have
more honor paid to it than is shown to the memory of so many
philosophers and learned men who have lost their lives in the
cause of human progress. History knows nothing of him. His
name, to be sure, is mentioned in the Bible, but it is simply said
that he was a man of understanding and cunning in brass. He
is remembered nowhere except in Freemasomy^ ; the legend, in
fact, is purely allegorical, and may bear a twofold interpreta-
tion cosmological and astronomical.
Cosmologically, we find represented therein the dualism of
two antagonistic powers. Good and Evil, GckI and Devil,
which is the leading feature of all Eastern initiations. The dra-
matic portion of the Mj'steries of antiquity is ahvays sustained
by a deity or man who perishes as the victim of an evil power,
and rises again into a more glorious existence. In the ancient
Mysteries, i. e., the Priestly Plays, or the dramatic ceremonies of
all nations, we constantly meet with the record of a sad event, a
crime which plunges nations into strife and grief, succeeded by
joy and exultation.
Astronomically, again, the pai-allel is peiieet, and is, in fact,
only another vei-sion of tlie legend of Osiris. Ilimm represents
Osiris, i. e., the sun. The assassins place themselves at the
west, south, and east doora, that is, the regions illuminated by
the sun; they bury the body, and mark the spot with a sprig of
acacia. Twelve persons play an impoi*tant part in the tragedy,
viz., the three murderers (fellow-crafts), and nine masters. This
number is a plain allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and
the three inferior signs of winter, Libm, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.
Hiram falls dead at the west door, i. e., the sun descends in the
Avest. Tlie acacia of Freemasonry is the plant found in all the
ancient solar allegories, symbolizing the new vegetation to Ix*
antici})ated by the sun's resurrection. The acacia being looked
upon by the ancients as incorruptible, its twigs were preferi-ed for
covering the body of the god-man to the myrtle, Inurel, and othi^r
plants also mentioned in the ancient Mysteries.
Hinim's lx)dy is in a state of decay, having lain fourteen days,
according to one legend; tlie body of Osiris was cut into fourteen
pieces. But, according to other statements, the lx>dy was found
T"
A GOVERNMENT OF MVt'TEltV AND FRATEIISITV. 593
on the seventh day; this would allude to the resurrection of the
HUH, which iictutilly takes place in the seventh month after hii^
pastiage through the inferior sig;n.s, that [iiissage which is called
his deHceut into Iiell.
Hiram can only he raised hy the lion's grij). It is through the
instmmentality of l.eo,^ the sign of the lion, that Osiris is raised;
it is when the sun re-entere tliiit sign tliat he regains hia former
strength, that his restoration to full life takes place. Masons in
this degree call themselves the "children of tlie widow," the sun
on descending into his tomb leaving nature — of wliom Masons
consider themselves tlie pupils — a widow; yet this appelhition
may also have its origin in some reminiscence of the Manichean
sect, whose followera were known as the "sons of the widow."
Tlie degiee of the Holy Royal Arch is also worthy of attention.
Tlie niemhen* of this are denominated "com|>anions." There are
nine officere, the cliief of whom (in England) is Zerubt>abel, a
compound word, meaning "the hriglit lord, the sun." He
rehuihls the temple, anil iherefoi-e represents the sun risen again.
The next ofRccr is Jeshua, the high priest; the thinl, Haggai,
the prophet,
These three compose the grand council. Princijmls and senior
and junior scrihes, one on each side, janitor or tyler without the
door, these companions assembled make up the sirles of the arch,
representing the pillara Jacliin and IJojiz. In front of the princi-
pals stands an altar, inscribed with the names of Solomon, Hiram,
King of Tyre, and Hii-am Abiff.
On entering the chapter, the companions give the sign of sor-
i-ow, in imitation of the ancients mourning for the loss of Osiris.
Nine companions must he present at the opening of a Royal Arch
chapter ; not more nor less than three are permitted to take this
Jegree at tlie same time, the two numbers making up the twelve,
the number of zodiacal signs. Tlie candidates are prepared by
tying a bandage over their eyes, and coiling a rope seven times
round the body of each, which unites them together, with three
feet of slack between them.
1
< SdgarPoe, tbemMCmysterloiiB of moderns, who d&bb]«l In all oocultiam
TrTiUiiK*M« full of MCrologliui] refereacea, in hli ifelrd TTIalumB hasalmllar Uae
Caoie ap throu^ih the lair of tbe Lion
WithlorelahMlQ
686 THE 8T0BY OF GOVERNMENT.
The candidate is then made to drink of the bitter water, wh^re*
upon the master exclaims : *' What do I see? What means the
sudden alteration of your features? Perha^^s your conscience
belies your words? Has the sweet drink already turned bitter?
Away with the profane one ! This oath is only a test; the true
one comes after."
The candidate being then asked if he peraists in his determina-
tion, and generally answering yes, as his curiosity is now well
whetted, he is led a number of times round the lodge ; then he is
dragged over broken chaii-s, stools, and blocks of wood. This
trial over, he is told to mount the "endless staii-s," and having,
iis he supposes, attained a great height, he is oi-dered to cast
himself down, in which act he only falls a few feet.
This ordeal, which is imitated in other secret orders, and in
some with an elaborate cleverness well calculated to delude and
scare the average candidate, is accompanied by much noise, the
brethren striking on the attributes of the order they carry in tlieir
hands, and uttering all kinds of dismal shouts.
As a further trial, he is then passed through fire, which is
rendered harmless by well-known conjuring tricks. Then his
arm is slightly pricked, and a gurgling noise l)eing produced by
one of the brethren, the novice sometimes fancies that he is losinor
much blood.
Finally, he takes the oath, the brethren standing around him
with drawn swords. The candidate is then led Ijctween the two
pillars, and the brethren place their swords against his breast.
The master of the ceremonies loosens the bandage without taking
it off. Another brother holds before him a lamp that sheds a
brilliant light.
The master speaks: "Brother senior warden, deem you the
candidate worthy of forming part of our society? "
"Yes."
"What do you iisk for him? "
"Light."
"Then let there be light!"
Three blows with a mallet the master gives, and at the third
the bandage is taken off, and the candidate beholds the light,
symbolizing that which is to fill his undenstanding.
588 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The brethren drop their swords, and the candidate is conducted
to the altar, where he kneels, whilst the master says: "In the
name of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and by virtue of
the powera vested in me, I create and constitute thee a masonic
apprentice and member of this lodge."
Then striking three more blows with his mallet on the blade of
the sword, he raises the new brother, girds him with the apron
of white lambskin, gives him a pair of white gloves to be woni
in the lodge, and another to be given to the lady he esteems
test. He is then again led between the two pillai-s, and received
by the brethren tis one of them.
The second degree of symbolic Freemasonry is that of Fellow-
Craft. The apprentice, who comes asking for an increase of
salary, — a very natural f omiula for an apprentice — is not con-
ducted like the novice by an unknown brother, nor aie his eyes
bandaged, because the light was made for him, but he moves
towards the lodge holding in his hand a rule, one of whose ends
he rests on the left shoulder.
Having reached the door, he gives the apprentice's knock, and
having been admitted and declared the purpose for which he
comes, he walks five times round the lodge, wliereupon he is told
by the master to perform his last apprentice's work. lie then
l)retends to square the rougli aslilar. After a deal of instruction,
lie takes the oath in which he swears to keep the secrets entrusted
to him.
Then there follows more lecturing on the part of the master,
chiefly on geometry, a science which ^lasons profess to consider
very precious but of which they know precious little, and to
which the letter G seen in the lodge within an irradiation or
star is supposed to refer, but it more likely is a relic of geo-
mancy, an odd business practised by Chinese Masons, especiall}-
as to the proper places in which to build a house.
The degree of Master Mxson is more interesting. At the
reception of a muster, the lodge or "middle chamber" is dmped
with black, with death's heads, skeletons, and cross-bones, and
other cheerful welcomes painted on the walls. A taper of yellow
wax, placed in tin* east, and a dark lantern, formed of a skull
having a light within, which shines forth through the eye-holes.
A GOVERNMENT OF MVSTERV AND FRATEttNITY. 58S
plocod on the altar of the most Worshipful Master, gives just
sufficient light to reveal a coffiii, wherein the corpse is represented
eitljer liy a hiy-figure, a serving lirotlier, nr by the brother last
made a master.
On the cofhn is a sprig of acacia, at it^ head i^i a s()uare, and
at its foot, towaixls the east, an open eoinpass. The masters are
clothed in black, ^ and wear large azure sashes, on which are
repreneuted Alasonio eaibleius, the sun, moon, and seven stois.
The object of the meeting is said to be the finding of the word of
the master, Himm Ahiff, who was slain.
The postulant for admission is introduced after some prelimi-
nary ceremonies, having his two arms, breasts, and knees bare, and
both heels 8li|>shod. He is told that the brethien assembled are
mourning the death of their Grand Master, and ii^ked whether
perhaps he was one of the niunlei'ers, and at the same time he is
shown the body or figure in the coffin.
Having declared liis innocence of any share in that crime, he is
informed that he will on this occasion have to enact the part of
Hiram, who was slain at the building of Solomon's temple, and
whose histi5ry he is al>out t^i Ije told.
The brother, or figure in the coffin, has in the meantime l)een
removed, so that when tlie aspirant looks at it agitin, much to his
surprise he finds it empty. The story of the murder of Hiram is
then told in a veiy impressive fashion. The deed is not, how-
ever, as ill the Legend of the Temple previously given, attributed
to Solomon's jealousy, but simply to Hiram's refusal to com-
municate the master's word to tbi-ee fellow-ciafts. The various
incidents of this etorj- aie scenically enai^ted on the postulant by
the brother Masons, for in every lodge there arc generally some
verj- fair actnre.
"Hiram," the master continues, "having entered the temple at
noon, the three assassins placed themselves at the east, west, and
south doors, and Himm refusing to reveal the word, he who stood
at the east door cut Himm across the throat with a twenty-four
inch gauge. Hiram flew to the south door, where he received
' In New York is a. lorlge cominiMil piulruly of actora wbo once e. jeannoet ud go tbnmsli
all tbe Minoiilc ceremonlei Mlirad In i.">r^i
nmcu mucDce. Thla rlruna, aU HuflDiilc wii
MlebnMd niwtoii Plkr u (ibsnunniprean.
690 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
similar treatment, and thence to the west door, where he was
struck on the head with a gavel which occasioned his death.^
The applicant, at this part of the recital, is informed that he,
too, must undergo trials, and must not sink under the influence
of terror, though the hand of death be ui)on him. He is then
struck on the forehead and tlirown down.
The master continues : ^ The ruffians carried the body out at
the west door, and buried it at the side of a hill*' — here the
postulant is placed in the coffin — " in a gmve, on which they
stuck a sprig of acacia to mark the spot. Hiram not making his
appearance as usual, Solomon caused search to be made for him by
twelve trusty fellow-crafts that were sent out, three east, three
west, three south, and three north. Of the three who went east,
one being wear}'-, sat down on the brow of -a hill to rest himself,
and in rising caught hold of a twig "' — here a twig of that plant
is put into the hand of the aspirant lying in the coffin — ** which
coming up easily, showed that tlie giound liad been recently
disturbed, and on digging he and his companions found the body
of Hii-ani. It wjis in a mangled condition, having lain fourteen
(lays, whereupon one of those present exclaimed which
means and tins became the mtuster's word, as the former
one was lost through Ilimm's death; for though the other two
mastei-s, Solomon, and Ilimm, king of Tyre, knew it, it could
only Ije commiiniitated by the three Grand Masters conjointly.
The covering of the grave l)cing green moss and turf, other
bystandera exclaimed, ^ MmacuH domus domino^ dei gratia P which
means, ^Thanks be unto God, our niiister hath got a mossy
house ! ' "
This exclamation shows that the Hebrew builders of Solomon^s
temple possessed a prophetic knowledge of the Latin tongue I
The body of Iliinni could not l)e raised by the a])prentice's or fel-
low-craft's grip, but only by the master's, or the lion's grip, as
it is called. All this is then imitated by the miLster raising the
sispirant in the coffin, who is then told the word, signs and grips,
and takes the oath.
Taken literally, the story of Himm would offer nothing so
extraordinary as to deserve to be coiumemorated after three thou-
sand years thi-oughout the world by solemn rites and ceremonies.
CATIll^UKAL AT IIUEIM:
^
692 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The death of an architect is not so important a matter as to have
more honor paid to it than is shown to the memory of so many
philosophers and learned men who have lost their lives in the
cause of human progress. History knows nothing of him. His
name, to be sure, is mentioned in the Bible, but it is simply said
that he was a man of understanding and cunning in brass. He
is remembered nowhere except in Freemasonry; the legend, in
fact, is purely allegorical, and may bear a twofold interpreta-
tion cosmological and a^stronomical.
Cosmologically, we find represented therein the dualism of
two antagonistic powers. Good and Evil, God and Devil,
which is the leading feature of all Eastern initiations. The di-a-
matic portion of the Mysteries of antiquity is always sustained
by a deity or man who perishes as the victim of an evil power,
and rises again into a more glorious existence. In the ancient
Mysteries, i. e., the Priestly Plays, or the dramatic ceremonies of
all nations, we constantly meet with the record of a sad event, a
crime which plunges nations into strife and grief, succeeded by
joy and exultjition.
Astronomically, again, the pamllel is perfect, and is, in fai-t,
only another vei-sion of the legend of Osiris. Hiram represents
Osiris, i. e., the sun. The assassins place themselves at the
west, south, and east doors, that is, the regions illuminated l)v
the sun; they bury the body, and mark the spot with a sprig of
acacia. Twelve persons play an impoi^tant part in the tragedy,
viz., the three murderei-s (fellow-crafts), and nine masters. This
number is a plain allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and
the three inferior signs of winter, Libra, Scorjno, and Sagittarius.
Hiram falls dead at the west door, i. e., the sun descends in the
wTst. Tlie acacia of Freeniiisoniy is the plant found in all tlie
ancient solar allegories, symbolizing the new vegetation to 1h»
anticipated by the sun's resurrection. The acacia being looke<l
upon by the ancients as incon-uptible, its twigs were preferred for
covering the Ix)dy of the god-man to the myrtle, laurel, and other
plants also mentioned in the ancient Mysteries.
Hiram's body is in a state of decay, having lain fourteen days,
according to one legend ; the body of Osiris was cut into fourteen
pieces. But, according to other statements, the body was found
A GOVEKNMENT OF MVSTEltV AND FRATEKMTY. 593
on the seventh day; this would allude to the resurrection of the
HUH, ^vhifii actuiilly takes place in the seventh month after his
jioisHage tiuDugli the inferior signs, Uiat passage which is called
hiH doKcent into hell.
Hiram can only l>e raised by the lion's grip. It is tlirough the
insti-umentality of Leo,' the sigu of the lion, that Osiria is raised;
it is when the sun re-ent«!i-8 that sign that he regains his former
strengtli, that his reatoi-ation to full life takes place. Masons in
tliis (iegi-ee call themselves the " chi hlren of the widow, " the sun
ou descending into his tomb leaving nature — of whom Masons
consider themselves the pupils — a widow; yet this appelliition
may also have its origin in some reminiscence of the Manichean
nect, wiiose follow^eis were known as tlie "sons of the widow."
The degree of the Holy Royal Arch is also worthy of attention.
The members of this are denominated "comjHinions," There are
nine officera, the chief of whom (in England) is Zenibhahel, a
compound word, meaning "the bright lord, the sun." He
rebuilds the tfmi)le, and therefore represents the sun risen again.
The next officer is Jeslina, the high priest; the thii-d, Haggai,
the prophet.
These tliree compose tlie gitind council. Principals and senior
and junior scribes, one on each side, janitor or tyler without the
door, these companions assembled make up the sides of the arch,
representing the pillara Jachin and Hoaz. In front of the princi-
pals stands an altar, inscribed with the names of Solomon, Hiram,
King of Tyre, and Hinun Abiff.
On entering the chapter, the companions give the sign of sor-
i-ow, in imitation of the ancients mourning for the loss of Osiris.
Nine companions must l>e present at the opening of a Royal Arch
chapter ; not more nor less tlian three are permitted to take this
degree at the same time, the two numbers making uj) the twelve,
the number of zodiacal signs. Tlie candidates are prepared by
tying a bandage over their eyes, and coiling a rope seven times
round the body of each, which unites them together, with three
feet of slack between them.
■ Edgar Foe, tbe moat myawrinua □( modemi. irbo (Isbbled in all occultisms, and whose
iniUDgi an full of astrolOBicsal referencas, In hlg velrd Ulaluma hu£lmlli.rlliie>:
Came ap throafcl] the lali of tbe Don
WltbloTftinbi '
1
I
694 THE STORY OF OOVBBNMENT.
They then pass under the living arch, which is made hy the
companions either joining their hands and holding them upi or
by holding their rods or swords so as to resemble a gothic arolu
This part of the ceremony used to be attended in some lodges
with much tomfoolery and rough horse play. The compenions
would drop down on the candidates, who were obliged to support
themselves on their hands and knees ; and if they went too slowly,
it was not unusual for one or more of the companions to apply a
sharp point to their bodies to urge them on.
Trials, such as the candidates for initiation into the ancient
mysteries had to go through, were also imitated in the royal arch.
But few, if any, lodges now practise these tricks, fit only for
clowns in vulgar pantomimes. The candidates, after takhig the
oath, declare that they come in order to assist at the rebuilding
of Solomon's temple, whereupon they are fiumished with pickaxes,
shovels, and crowbai-s, and retire.
After awhile, during whicli they ai'e supposed to have been at
work and to have made a discovery, they return, and state, that
on digging for the new foundation they discovered an under-
ground vault, into whicli one of them wiis let down, whei-e he
found a scroll, which on examination turns out to be the long-
lost book of the law.
They set to work again, and discover another vault, and under
that a third. The sun having now gained his meridian height,
darts his rays to the centre, and shines on a white marble pedestal,
on whicli is a plate of gold. On this plate is a double triangle,
and within the triangle some words they cannot undei*stand; they
therefore take the plate to Zeniblml)el.
There the whole mystery of Masonry — iis far as known to
Masons — is unveiled; what the Masons have long been in seai*ch
of is found, for the mysterious writing in a triangular fonn is the
long lost sacred word of the Miister Mason which Solomon and
King Hiram deposited there, as we have seen in the master's
degree.
This was no other than the loffos of Plato and Saint John, tlie
jewel in the bosom of the lotos of Buddha, Au7ny the omnific
but another compound name, intended to bear the same
is substituted by modem Masons, and is communicated to
596 THE STOBY OF GOVBBNMEKT.
•
the candidates in this way : The three principals and each three
companions form the triangles ; each of the three takes his left
hand companion by the right-hand wrist, and his right-hand com-
panion by the left-hand wrist, forming two distinct triangles with
the hands, and a triangle with their right feet, amounting to a
triple triangle ; then they pronounce the following words : - —
As we three did agree,
In peace, love, and unity,
The sacred word to keep.
So we three do agree,
In peace, love, and unity.
The sacrecl wonl to search,
Until we three,
Or three such as we, shall agree
This royal arch chapter to close.
The right hands, still joined as a triangle, are raised as high as
possible, and the word given at low breath in syllables, so that
each companion has to pronounce the whole word. It is not per-
mitted to utter this omnific word above the breath. Zerubbabel
next makes the new companions acquainted with the five signs
used in this degree, and invests them with the biulges of Royal
Archil Masoniy, the apron, sash, and jewel.
Tlie character on the apron is the triple Tau, one of the most
ancient of emblems, and Masons call it the emblem of emblems,
'*with a depth that reac'hes to the creation of the world and all
tliat is therein." This triple Tau is a compound figure of three
T's, called Tau in Greek. Now this Tau or T is the figure of
the old Egyptian Nilometer, which was a i)ole crossed with one
or more tr<uisvei*se pieces, used to asceitain the lieight of the
inundation.
As on the Nile's overflow depended the harvest, the life of
the inhabitants, the Nilometer thus became the symbol of life,
health and prosperity, was accounted a talisman against evil,
and thus, as an amulet, was introduced among Masonic emblems.
Herein lies the gmrid secret of Masonry which passes by symbols
from superstitions to science.
The influence of Masonry or the bearing of the Order on great
in modem times will be found worthy of study by the
both in and out of the fold. A few points only can be
A QOVEUNMENT OK MVSTEBY AND FHATEKNITY. ;")97
noted in one t^hapter. Masonry was at its height in France just
l>efoi-e, during, and aft<^r the Revolution, and part of tlie immense
popularity of our agent, Benjamin Franklin, at the French court,
is supposed to be due to his high Masonic rank and intense
interest in the society.
Napoleon at firet meant to suppiesa Masonry. The representa-
tive Bj^steni of the Grand Orient clasiied witli liis monarchical prin-
ciples, and the oligarchic spirit of the Scotch rite aroused hiti
suspicious. The Parisian lodges, however, practised in the art of
flattery, liumbled thenistdves before the firet consul, prostrat^'d
themselves l>efore the emperor, and sued for grace. The suspicions
of Najicileon were not dissipated; but he perceived the ^k;! icy of
avoiding violent measures, and of conti'olling a body tliat might
turn against liim.
After considerable hesitation, he declared in favor of the Grand
Orient, and the Scotch rite lind to assume the second place. A
single word of Napoleon had done more to establish jteiice between
these rivals thau all former m:ichinations. The Grand Orient
Ijecame a court offici.', and Masoniy an army of employees.
Tlie Grand Miistei-sbip was olTered to Joseph Napoleon, who
accepted it, though never initiated into Frcemiisonry, with the
consent of his brother, but Na[H>lcon, for greater security, insisted
on having his trusty arcli-cliancellor Cambaci^riis appointed Grand
Master Adjunct, to be in reality tlie only head of the order.
Gradually all tlie various branches existing in France gave in
their adhesion to tho iiniierial policy, electing Camhac^rtfs a»
their chief dignitary-, so that be eventually possessed more
Masonic titUfs than any other man licfore or after hira. In 1805,
he was made Grand Master Adjunct ()f the Grand Orient; in
1806, Sovereign Gnmd Mjist«rof the Supmrne Gi-and Council; in
the same yeJU, Gmnd Master of the rite of Heroden of Kilwin-
ning; in 1807, Suju-eme head of the French rite; in the same
year. Grand Master of the Philosopliic Scotch rite; in IS08,
Grand Master < if the Oiiler of Christ; in 1809, National (ii-and
Master of the Knights of the Holy City; in the same year. I'l-o-
tector of the High Philosophic Degrees.
: But soon Masonic disputes among the branches again ran high.
The arch-chancellor, accustomiil and iittaclied to the usages luid
M4 THK BtTAOC or i&O
with itii Kiorii ^jnndinflr citl^si aaii z^^rz^^oa t:er«iir>aiie». "Pie
w^si^ <»f siKik fa^neai. — h^ who plarnftd zran«l nariocal 'traimw —
and at ^au^ tia*^ tjt 4#tcenn:ntf^i on ar-rfuL^Ll.-itr tfat^ Order il:iHr^a«i
rfj^ d^ntji^TA that mig^it *rjin<^ from It:* *Tipc rftwivc. — Luiii^r*
liMiiUt^f ItfAitzuA th^TU and allowed anr^chfrr t«> al&rr r:
YfmMj l\yh fUAf^tt re'^rogtixzcd the Wif^^witj in Fr^sira *:cij
of a Wlr /^ men wli^^ were free, at lea^^t in appearanf!e. as a kimi
of jjr>ljtir;al nafetv valve. The French had taken a liking' to CLeir
lorljfeHf where ther foand a phantom of independence, and mrgfit
f^nmifhir tfienwelveM on nentral ground, for a.<4 a Masonic wriuer of
that era remarket! : ^ In the hosom of ilasonrr there circaLui» a
little of tliat vital air no neceMarj to generooss minds.^
In 1812, tliere exinU^l in France one thousand and eighcv-nine
hff\^^f:n^ all rlejienrling on the Grand Orient; the armj had sixtr-
ninr?, anrl the hKJjje wa« ojjened and cUised with the crv. f7«n?
V Kmjtt'.ry,ur ! - Lori;^ live the ♦rmj^ror. — a piece of ofje*w|uiousncss
of whiftli, u(:V('.r hinrre that ^lav, ha.s Frcemasrmr\- lieeri ^uilrr.
NafKiIcon, from merely tolerating it and keeping it well in hand^
at lait employed it in the anriy, in tli^r newly occupies! territ#>riess
and in miu-Ii an b^; inUrnded to fK-r-ufiv. Imjicrial prose lyt ism
tunK'd tlir? lodgf'H into H^-hool.s of Xaj^deonism. So that it
U;r•r)^M^H prrilabic, if not c<rrt;iin, tliat NajKileon, by means of the
Ma-Hoiiir: Hr»r;i('iy, fac'ilitJited or Hccnred his conquests.
Sjiain, (ornriany, and Itiily were covered with lodges — ante-
chanilKri-H, nirjre than anything els*;, of prefectures and military
commandH presided over and governed by soldiers. The highest
dignitnrieH of Miwonry at that period were marshals, knights of
the h'i^^ion of Honor, nobles of ancient descent, senators, coun-
rillorK, all safe and trusty jKirsons; a state that obeyed the orders
of ('amba<!<!r(>H, as Ikj oln^yed the orders of Napoleon.
OliMecpiiousnc^HH then verg(td on the ridiculous. The half yearly
words of command of the (Jnuid Orient Lodge of that era retrace
the liiHiory of Napoh»oni(; ju'ogress. In 1800, the lodge words
weri', **Sei(»nce and Peace " ; in 1802, after the battle of Marengo,
I
I
692 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The death of an architect is not so important a matter as to have
more honor paid to it than is shown to the memory of so many
philosophers and learned men who have lost their lives in the
cause of human progress. History knows nothing of him. His
name, to be sure, is mentioned in the Bible, but it is simply said
that he was a man of understanding and cunning in brass. He
is remembered nowhere except in Freemasonry; the legend, in
fact, is purely allegorical, and may bear a twofold interpreta-
tion cosmological and astronomical.
Cosmologically, we find represented therein the dualism of
two antagonistic powers. Good and Evil, God and DeviU
which is the leading feature of all Eastern initiations. The dra-
matic portion of the Mysteries of antiquity is always sustained
by a deity or man who perishes iis the victim of an evil power,
and rises again into a more glorious existence. In the ancient
Mysteries, i. e., the Priestly Plays, or the dramatic ceremonies of
all nations, we constantly meet with the record of a sad event, a
crime which plunges nations into strife and grief, succeeded bj'
joy and exultation.
Astronomically, again, the parallel is perfect, and is, in fact,
only another vei'sion of the legend of Osiris. Hiram represents
Osiris, i. e., the sun. The assassins place themselves at the*,
west, south, and east dooi-s, that is, the regions illuminated 1)V
the sun; they bury the body, and mark the spot with a sprig of
acacia. Twelve persons play an important part in the tragedy,
viz., the three murderers (fellow-crafts), and nine masters. This
number is a plain allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and
the three inferior signs of winter, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.
Hiram falls dead at the west door, i.e., the sun descends in the
west. Tlie acacia of Freemasonry is the plant found in all tlie
ancient solar allegories, symbolizing the new vegetation to In-
anticipated by the sun's resurrection. The acacia being looked
upon by the ancients as incorruptible, its twigs were i:)refen*ed for
covering the body of the god-man to the myrtle, laurel, and other
plants also mentioned in the ancient Mysteries.
Hiram's body is in a state of decay, having lain fourteen days,
according to one legend; the body of Osiris was cut into fourteen
pieces. But, according to other statements, the body was found
A tiOVEUNMENT Of SIVSTKIIY AND FRATERNITY. OVA
on the seventh day; this would allude to the resurrection of the
sun, whk'h actually takes place in the Beveiith month after his
jiaiisage througli the inferior signs, that (inssage whicli is called
his descent into hell.
Tiirani can only be raised by the lion's grip. It is thixjugh the
instmnieutality of Leo,^ the sign of the lion, that Osiris ia raised;
it is when the sun re-enters that sign that he regains his former
strength, that his restoi'ation to full life takes place. Masons in
this degree call themselves the " children of the widow," the sun
on descending into his tomb leaving nature — ^of whom Masons
consider themselves the pupils — a widow; yet this appellation
may nlno liave its origin In some reniinijicezice of tliu Manichean
sect, whose followere were known as tlie "sons of tlie widow,"
The degi-ee of tlie Holy Royal Arch is also worthy of attention.
Tlie members of this are denominated "companions." There are
nine officere, the chief of whom (in England) is Zerublmbel, a
compound word, meaning "the briglit lord, the sun." He
rebuilds the temple, and therefore reiireweiits the sun risen again.
Tlie next officer is Jeshua, the high priest; the third, Ha^^i,
the prophet.
These three compose the grand council. Princiitals and senior
and junior scribes, one on each side, janitor or tyler without the
door, these companions iisaenibled make uj) the sides of tlie arch,
representing the pillaw Jachin and Boaz. In front of tlie princi-
pals stands an altar, inscribed with tlie names of Solomon, Hiram,
King of Tyre, and Hii-ani Abiff.
On entering the cliapter, the companions give the sign of sor-
mw, in imitation of the ancients mourning for the loss of Osiris.
Nine companions must lie present at the opening of a Royal Arch
chapter; not more nor less than three are permitted to take this
degree at the same time, the two numbers making up the twelve,
the numlser of zodiacal signs. Tlie candidates are prepared by
tying a bandage over their eyes, and coiling a rope seven times
round the body of eJich, which unites them together, witli three
feet of slack between them.
■ KdEW Foe, the moM mf iterlnus of modemB.who dabbled In all oGCaltlBmB, and wbou
iniUnga an f ull of MtToloElcal refBrences, in hi! weird Ulalume tu
Caiue up UiioQKh tbo IaIt otlt
With lore in bet In
586 THE STOKY OF GOVEANM£NT.
The candidate is then made to drink of the bitter water, where-
upon the master exclaims : "What do I see? What means the
sudden alteration of your features? Perhaps your conscience
belies your words? Has the sweet drink already turned bitter?
Away with the profane one ! This oath is only a test; the true
one comes after."
The candidate being then asked if he persists in his determina-
tion, and generally answering yes, as his curiasity is now well
whetted, he is led a number of times round the lodge; then he is
dragged over broken chaii-s, stools, and blocks of wood. Tliis
trial over, he is told to mount the "endless stairs," and having,
as he supposes, attained a great height, he is ordered to cast
himself down, in which act he only falls a few feet.
Tliis ordeal, which is imitated in other secret orders, and in
some with an elaborate cleverness well calculated to delude and
scare the average candidate, is accompanied by much noise, the
brethren striking on the attributes of the order they carry in their
hands, and uttering all kinds of dismal shouts.
As a further trial, he is then jjassed through fire, which is
rendered harmless by well-known conjuring tricks. Then his
arm is slightly pricked, and a gurgling noise l>eing produced by
one of tlie brethren, the novice sometimes fancies tliat he is losin<r
much blood.
Finally, he takes the oath, the bretliren standing around him
with drawn swords. Tlie candidate is then led Ijetween the two
pillars, and tlie brethren place their swords against his breast.
The master of the ceremonies loosens the bandage without taking
it off. Another brother holds before him a lamp that sheds a
brilliant light.
The master speaks: "Brother senior warden, deem ynu the
candidate worthy of forming part of our society? "
"Yes."
"Wliat do you ask for him? "
Light."
Then let there be light I "
Three blows with a mallet the master gives, and at the third
the bandage is tiiken off, and the candidate beholds the light,
symbolizing that which is to fill his undei"standing.
^i.
fcfc
588 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The bretliren drop their swords, and the candidate is conducted
to the altar, where he kneels, whilst the master says : '* In the
name of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and by virtue of
the powers vested in me, I create and constitute thee a masonic
apprentice and member of this lodge."
Then striking three more blows with his mallet on the blade of
the sword, he raises the new brother, girds him with the apron
of white lambskin, gives him a pair of white gloves to be worn
in the lodge, and another to be given to the lady he esteems
best. He is then again led between the two pillai*s, and received
by the brethren as one of them.
The second degree of symbolic Freemasonry is that of Fellow-
Craft. The apprentice, who comes asking for an increase of
salary, — a very natural formula for an apprentice — is not con-
<lucted like the novice by an unknown brother, nor jire his eyes
bandaged, because the light was made for him, but he moves
towards the lodge holding in his hand a rule, one of whose ends
he rests on the left shoulder.
Having reached the door, he gives the apprentice's knock, and
having been admitted and declared the purpose for which he
comes, he walks live times round the lodge, whereupon lie is told
by the master to perform his last apprentice's work. He tlieu
pretends to square the rough luslilar. After a deal of instruction,
he takes the oath in which he swears to keep the secrets entrusted
to him.
Then there follows more lecturing on the part of the mivster,
chiefly on geometry, a science which Masons profess to consider
veiy precious but of which they know i)recious little, and to
which the letter G seen in the lodge within an irradiation or
star is supposed to refer, but it more likely is a relic of geo-
mancy, an odd bitsiness i)nictised by Chinese ^Lisons, especially
as to the proper places in which to build a hoitse.
The degree of Master Mivson is more interesting. At the
reception of a master, the lodge or "middle chamber" is dmped
with black, with death's heads, skeletons, and cross-l)ones, and
otlier cheerful welcomes i)ainted on the walls. A taper of yellow
wax, placed in Uu* ciist, and a dark lantern, formed of a skull
having a light within, which shines forth through the eye-holes,
A GOVEKNMENT OF MVRTEUV AND FKATBBNITY. 589
placed on the altar of the moat Worshipful Master, gives just
sufficient light to reveal a coffin, wheruin the rniitse is represented
either by a lay-figui-e, a serving hrothcr, or liy the brother last
made a miLster.
On the coliin is a sprig of Jiciicia, at itJi head is a square, and
at its foot, towanls the east, an open compass. The masters are
I'lotlipd in black,' and wear large azure siiahes, on which are
i«pri!acnted Mosonla embli;ni;d, tht: sui), inoou, and seven stars.
The object of the meeting is said to be the finding of the word of
the master, Hiram Abiff, who was slain.
The postulant for admission is introduced after some prelimi-
nary ceremonies, having his two arms, breaKts, and knees bare, and
both heels slip-shod. He is told that tlie brethren assembled are
mourning tlie death of their Grand Master, and asked whether
perhaps he wiis one of the murdei-ers, and at tlie same time he is
shown the body or figure in the coffin.
Having declared his innocence of any share in that crime, he ir
informed that he will on this occasion have to enact the i»art of
Hiram, who was slain at the building of Solomon's temple, and
whose historj- lie is alxiut to Iw told.
The brother, or figure in the coffin, has in the meantime been
removed, so that when the aapii-ant looks at it again, much to his
surprise he finds it empty. The story of the munler of Himm is
then told in a very impressive fashion. The deed is not, how-
ever, as in the Legend of the Temple previously given, attributed
to Solomon's jealousy, but simply to Hinun's i-efusal to com-
miniicate the master's word to thi-ee fellow-cmfts. The various
incidents of this storj- aie scenically enacted on the |>ostulRnt by
the brother Masons, for in every lodge there are generally some
very fair actors,
"Hiram," the master continues, "having entered the temple at
noon, the three assassins placed themselves at the east, west, and
south dooi-s, and Hiram refusing to reveal the w<»t1, he who stood
at the east door cut Hii-ani across the throat with u twenty-four
inch gauge. Hiram flew to the south door, where he received
' In New York Is a loileecoiriniBe.lpnllrBlyof »ctor» wliDorice aytarinwt unci go tliniiiBli
kllclieManonio ceremoulHs atlircd In e°T)^oii> cotiumeB at inily onenlnl unil Snlomonlo
niaenltli^eDce. Thli druua.sll Hasuntc wltuaBua a«ne,i> equal m iniiirPssiVeneM to tlie
oelBbnted rutlim IIb; at oiwnuamergau.
690 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
similar treatment, and thence to the west door, where he was
struck on the head with a gavel which occasioned his death/'
The applicant, at this part of the recital, is informed tliat he,
too, must undei-go trials, and must not sink under the influence
of terror, though the hand of death be uix)n him. He is then
stnick on the forehead and thrown down.
The master continues : '^ The ruffians carried the body out at
the west door, and buried it at the side of a hill" — here the
postulant is placed in the coffin — " in a grave, on which they
stuck a sprig of acacia to mark the spot. Hiram not making his
appearance as usual, Solomon caused search to be made for him by
twelve trusty fellow-crafts that were sent out, three east, three
west, three south, and three north. Of the three who went east,
one being weaiy, sat down on the brow of a hill to rest himself,
and in rising caught hold of a twig " — here a twig of that plant
is put into the hand of the aspirant lying in the coffin — ^' which
coming up easily, showed that the gix)und had l)een recently
disturbed, and on digging he and his companions found the body
of Himni. It was in a mangled condition, having lain fourteen
days, whereu[)()ii one of those present exclaimed which
means and this became the muster's word, as the former
one was lost throui^h Hinvnrs death; for though the other two
masters, Solomon, and Hiram, king of Tyre, knew it, it could
only l)e eonnnunicatcd by th(? three Grand Mastei's conjointly.
The covering of the grave l)eing green moss and turf, other
bystandei*s exehiiined, '' Muhcuh domui* dcnnino^ del gratia P which
means, 'Tiiaiiks he unto God, our nuuster hath got a mossy
house : ' "
This exclamation shows that the Hebrew Imildei^ of Solomon's
temple i)ossesse(l a prophetic knowledge of the Latin tongue I
The body of Hiram could not be raised by the a])prentice's or fel-
low-craft's gri[), but only by the master's, or the lion's grip, as
it is called. All this is then imiUited by the master raising the
jispimnt in the cofiin, who is then told the word, signs and grips,
and takes the oath.
Taken litemlly, the story of Hiram would offer nothing so
extraordinary as to deserve to be commemorated after three thou-
sand yeai-s throughout the world by solenni rites and ceremonies.
692 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The death of an architect is not so important a matter as to have
more honor paid to it than is shown to the memory of so many
philosophers and learned men who have lost their lives in the
cause of human progress. History knows nothing of him. His
name, to be sure, is mentioned in the Bible, but it is simply said
that he was a man of understanding and cunning in brass. He
is remembered nowhere except in Freemasonry; the legend, in
fact, is purely allegorical, and may bear a twofold interpreta-
tion cosmological and astronomical.
Cosmologically, we find represented therein the dualism of
two antagonistic powers. Good and Evil, God and Devil,
which is the leading feature of all Eastern initiations. The di-a-
matic portion of the Mysteries of antiquity is always sustained
by a deity or man who perishes as the victim of an evil power,
and rises again into a more glorious existence. In the ancient
Mysteries, i. e., the Priestly Plays, or the dramatic ceremonies of
all nations, we constantly meet with the record of a sad event, a
crime which plunges nations into strife and grief, succeeded bj-
joy and exultation.
Astronomically, again, the pamllel is perfect, and is, in fact,
only another vei"sion of the legend of Osiris. Hiram represents
Osiris, i. e., the sun. The tissassins place themselves at the
west, south, and east dooi"s, that is, the regions illuminated by
the sun; they burj^ the body, and mark the spot with a sprig of
acacia. Twelve persons play an important part in the tragedy,
viz., the three murderers (fellow-crafts), and nine masters. This
number is a plain allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and
the three inferior signs of winter, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.
Hiram falls dead at the west door, i.e., the sun descends in the
west. Tlie acacia of Freemasonry is the plant found in all tlie
ancient solar allegories, symbolizing the new vegetation to In*
anticipated bv the sun's resurrection. The acacia being looke<l
upon by the ancients as incorruptible, its tw^igs were preferred for
covering the lx)dy of the god-man to the myrtle, Inurel, and other
plants also mentioned in the ancient Mysteries.
Hiram's body is in a state of decay, having lain fourteen days,
according to one legend; the body of Osiris wa,s cut into fourteen
pieces. But, according to other statements, the body was found
A GOVERNMENT l)F MV.STEP.Y AND FRATERNITY. 593
on the eeventh day; this would allude to the resun'ectioii of the
Kuii, which actuiilly takea [ilaee in the seventh muiith after hi«
passage through the inferior signs, that [ la usage whii^h is called
his descent into hell.
Himm can only be i-aised by the lion's griji. It is thi-ough the
instmiuentality of Leo,^ the sign of the lion, that Osiris is raised;
it is when the sun re-enters that sign that he regains his former
strength, that his restoration to full life takes place. Masons in
this degree call themselves the "children of the widow," the «un
on descending into his tomb leaving nature — of whom Masons
consider themselves the pupils — a widow; yet this appellation
may also have its origin in some reminiscence of the Manicheail
seet, whose followei-s were known as the "sons of the widow."
Tlie degree of the Holy Royal Arch is also wortliy of attention.
The memhei-3 of this are denominated "companions." There are
nine officei-8, the chief of whom (in England) is Zenibbabel, a
compound woitl, meaning "the bright lord, the sun." He
rebuilds the temi)le, and liierefore representu the sun risen again.
The next oificer is Jeshua, the high priest; the third, Haggai,
the prophet.
These three compose the gnmd council. PrincijMils and senior
and junior scribes, one on each side, janitor or tyler without the
door, tliese companions assembled make up the sides of the arch,
representing the pillars Jachin and B<kiz. In fnnit of the princi-
pals stJinds an altar, inscribed with the names of Solomon, Hintm,
King of Tyiv, and Hii-am Abiff.
On entering the cliapter, the companions give tlie sign of sor-
row, in imitation of the ancients mourning for the loss of Osiris.
Nine comi)anions niustl^e present at the opening of a Royal Arch
chapter ; not more nor less tlian three are permitted to take this
degree at the same time, the two numbers making up the twelve,
the number of zodiacal signs. The candidates are prepared by
tying a bandage over their eyps, and coiling a rope seven times
round the body of each, which unites them together, with three
feet of slack between tlieni.
< EdgKT Foe, tbe moat mrstciinuB ot muilcing. who liabbled In &11 Dcc^ukiBms, and whose
wriUngtan lull of utroloElcal retercDCW. in liln weird Ulnluue tuusliulliir llneii
Cuue up tbroujtb the iRir of the Lion
With loTB In liBr lumlnoui ejoik
594 THE STORY OF 60VBBNMENT.
They then pass under the living arch, which is made fay the
companions either joining their hands and holding them up, or
hy holding their rods or swords so as to resemble a gothic arch.
This part of the ceremony used to be attended in some lodges
with much tomfoolery and rough horse play. The companions
would drop down on the candidates, who were obliged to support
themselves on their hands and knees ; and if they went too slowly,
it was not unusual for one or more of the companions to apply a
sharp point to their bodies to ui-ge them on.
Trials, such as the candidates for initiation into the ancient
mysteries had to go through, were also imitated in the royal arch.
But few, if any, lodges now practise these tricks, fit only for
clowns in vulgar pantomimes. Tlie candidates, after taking the
oath, declare that they come in order to assist at the rebuilding
of Solomon's temple, wliereupon they are furnished with pickaxes,
shovels, and crowlmrs, and retire.
After awhile, during whicli they ai-e supposed to have been at
work and to have made a discovery, they return, and state, that
on digging for the new foundation they <liscovei*ed an under-
ground vault, into whicli one of them was let down, whei*e lie
found a scroll, whicli on examination turns out to be the long-
lost book of the law.
They set to work again, and discover another vault, and under
that a third. The sun having now gained his meridian height,
darts his rays to the centre, and shines on a white marble pedestal,
on which is a plate of gold. On this plate is a double triangle,
and within the triangle some words they cannot underatand ; they
therefore take the plate to Zerubljabel.
There the whole mystery of Masonry — lus far as known to
Masons — is unveiled ; what the Masons have long been in search
of is found, for the mysterious waiting in a triangular fonu is the
long lost sacred word of the Master Mason which Solomon and
King Hiram deposited there, as we have seen in the master^s
degree.
This was no other than the logos of Plato and Saint John, the
jewel in the bosom of the lotos of Buddha, -4^^, the omnific
word; but another compound name, intended to bear the same
import, is substituted by modem Masons, and is communicated to
596 THE 8T0BY OF GOVERNMENT.
•
the candidates in this way : The three principals and each three
companions form the triangles ; each of the three takes his left
hand companion by the right-hand wrist, and his right-hand com-
panion by the left-hand wrist, forming two distinct triangles with
the hands, and a triangle with their right feet, amounting to a
triple triangle ; then they x)ronoiince the following words : —
Ah we three did agree,
In peace, love, and unity,
The sacred word to keep.
So we three do agree,
In peace, love, and unity,
Tlie sacred word to search.
Until we three,
Or three sucli as we, shall agree
This royal arch chapter to close.
The right hands, still joined as a triangle, are raised as high as
{K)ssible, and the word given at low breath in syllables, so that
each conipiinion has to pi-onounce the whole worti. It is not per-
mitted to utter this omnific word above the breath. Zerubbabel
next makes the new companions acquainted with the five signs
used in this degree, and invests them with the badges of Royal
Arch Masonry-, the apron, sash, and jewel.
Tlie character on the apron is the triple Tau, one of the most
ancient of emblems, and Masons call it the emblem of emblems,
'^wiih a depth that reaches to the creation of the world and all
that is therein." This triple Tau is a compound figure of three
T's, called Tau in Greek. Now this Tau or T is the figure of
the old Egyi)tian Nilometer, which was a pole crossed with one
or more tmnsvei'se pieces, used to ascei-tain the height of the
inundation.
As on the Nile's overflow depended the harvest, the life of
the inhabitants, tlie Nilometer thus became the symbol of life,
health and prosperity, was accounted a tJilisman against evil,
and thus, as an amulet, was introduced among Masonic emblems.
Herein lies the grand secret of Masonry which passes by symbols
from superstitions to science.
Tlie influence of Masonry or the bearing of the Order on gi'eat
events in mcnlern times will be found worthy of study by the
curious both in and out of the fold. A few points only can be
^
A GOVERNMENT OV MVSTEBY AND FRATEKKITY. o97
noted ia one cliapWr. Musoniy was at its height in France just
before, during, and after the Revolution, and part of the immense
popularity o£ our agent, lienjaraiii Franklin, at tlie Fi-eiic-h omrt,
is supposed to I>e due tn his high MaMoiiie rank and iiit^-iise
interest in the society-
Napoleon at first meant to suppreys Masoiny. The representa-
tive sjntem of the Grand Orient ehislied witlihis monarchical prin-
ciples, and the oligarchic spirit of the Scotch rite aroused his
suspicions. The Parisian lodges, however, practised in the art of
flatteiy, humbled themselves before the fii-st consul, prostrated
themselves before the emperor, and sued for grace. The suspicions
of Napoleon were not dissipated; but lie jierceived the policy of
avoiding violent measures, and of conti-olling a body tliat might
torn against him.
After considerable hesitation, lie declared in favor of the (rraiid
Orient, and tlie Scotch rite had to assume the second place. A
single word of Napoleon hail done ntore to establish peace between
these rivals than all former nuichinations. The Gi-and Orient
became a court office, and Mjisonry an army of employees.
The Grand Mastership was offered to Joseph Xapoleon, who
accepted it, tiiough never initiated into Freemasonry, with the
consent of hi.s brother, hut Napoleon, for greater security, insisted
on having liis tnisty arch-chance Ho i- CamlKVCfSres appointed Grand
Master Adjunct, to be in reality the only head of the order.
Gradually all the various branches existing in France gave in
their adhesion to the inijterial policy, electing Camlxicerds as
their chief dignitary-, so that he eventually possessed more
Masonic titias tlmn any otiier man l>efore or after him. In 1805,
he was made Grand Master Adjunct of tlie Grand Orient; in
1806, Sovereign (hiind Master of the Supreme Grand Council; in
the same year. Grand Master of the riti- of Herodeii i>f Kilwin-
ning; in ISO", Su]n-eme head of tlie French rite; in tlie same
year, Grand Master of the I'hihisophic Scotch rite; in IMOH,
Grand Master of the Order of Christ; in 1809, National (initid
Master of the Knights of tlie Holy City; in the same year. I'lii-
t«ctor of the High Philosophic Degrees.
; But soon Masonic disputes among the branchirs again ran high.
The arch-chancellor, accustomed ami attached to the iiiMiges and
pfimiM of cooTQ. iecreciv save oreceremre ro ciie Scocch rite
*^ltfa itR high. jonnrfTng cirlis* '^^•^ 2»}rwi.»a» ceremoaies. The
Oran#i Orient ihea '^arrieti is «M3iiicu]iiic» ro Xapt?le<?n^ who grew
'ir**sUj' "It ^Jittti cizY!es« — he who ^Zjimeti -xr^ui'l canooal dramas —
«wi 'tt one rime he liecermineii on Ab«jkli;*hi:i:r the <>rfer altoeether,
int C^unbsi^^res ^ucceeiied in arre?riii:r hi:? purp«>se, showing^ him
:he 'ianov^ni diat might enane rr»:ni iu* 5upcressi'>n — danirers
Thij*h miisit havi* appeared gr^dc <ijic^ Xipt.Heoc* who hiul never
hfnitated. he^titated then* and allowed iia*.^ther to alter his views.
PonHihlj the despot reoognized the nectftjsity in French society
of a hridj of men who were free, at least in appearance* as a kind
of political safety valve. The French ha>l uiken a liking to their
IrylqpF»ir where thev found a phantom of independence, and might
confiider themselves on neutral ground, for ;l> a ^^lasonic writer of
that era remarked : ** In the bosom of Masonrv there circulates a
little of that vital air so necessary to generous minds. ^
In 1912, there existetl in France one thousand and eighty-nine
lodges, all depending on the Grand Orient : the army had sixty-
nine, and the lo*lge was opened and cl».^sed with the cn% live
r Emp*>r'',ur ! — Long live the t*m;»er^r, — ;i pieiv of olic^eijuiousness
of which, never jjince that lLiv. h^is FreeiiuisiMirv l»eeii 'j^uiltv.
Na[*r,leon, frr>m m«^rely tolerating it and keepini: it well in hand,
at la.-t emijloved it in the amiv. in the uewlv tX'oiii>ied territories,
and in siu.h a.s ke intended t«> oeiu[»y. Ini[x^^rial prose lytism
tamed thf* Indsres into schtx^ls of X;uHiletwiism. So that it
Urcoiries proljahle, if not certain, tluit Xa;H>leon, l>y means of the
Masonid .s^Kriety, far ili tilted or secured his conquests.
Spain, Germany, and Italy were ci>vered with kxlges — ante-
chanilir;rs, more than anything else, of prefectiuv^s and militarj
commands — presided over and governed by soldiers. The highest
dignitaries of Masonry at tliat period were marshals, knights of
the Legion of Honor, nobles of ancient descent, senators, coun-
eillors, ail safe and trusty persons; a state that obeyed the orders
of (!aml>ar;^r^8, as he obeyed the orders of Xaiwleon.
OljHerjuioasness then verged on the ridiculous. The half yearly
Wfjrd.H of command of tlie Grand Orient Lodge of that era retrace
llie history of Na|K)leonic progress. In 1800, the lodge words
were, ** Science and Peace " ; in 1802, after the battle of Marengo,
n
698 THE BTOBY OF GOVEBNMENT.
pomps of courts, secretly gave preference to the Scotch rite
with its high sounding titles and gorgeous ceremonies. The
Grand Orient then carried its complaints to Napoleon, who grew
weary of such farces, — he who planned grand national dramas —
and at one time he determined on abolishing the Order altogether,
but Cambac^r^ succeeded in arresting his purj)ose, showing him
the dangers that might ensue from its suppression — dangers
which must have appeared great, since Napoleon, who had never
hesitated, hesitated then, and allowed another to alter his views.
Possibly the despot recognized the necessity in French society
of a body of men who were free, at least in appearance, as a kind
of political safety valve. The French had taken a liking to their
lodges, where they found a phantom of independence, and might
consider themselves on neutral ground, for jis a Masonic writer of
that era remarked : " In the bosom of Masonry there circulates a
little of that vital air so necessary to generous minds. ^*
In 1812, there existed in France one thousand and eighty-nine
lodges, all depending on the Grand Orient ; the army had sixty-
nine, and the lodge was opened and closed with the cry, J^ve
VEmpereur! — Long live the emperor, — apiece of obsequiousness
of which, never since that day, has Freemasoniy been guilty.
Napoleon, from merely tolerating it and keeping it well in hand,
at last employed it in the army, in the newly oecui)ied territories,
and in such as ke intended to occuin'. Imperial proselytism
turned the lodges into schools of Napoleonisni. So that it
becomes probable, if not certain, that Napoleon, by means of the
Alasonic society, facilitated or secured his conquests.
Spain, Germany, and Itiily were covered with lodges — ante-
chambers, more than anything else, of prefectures and military
commands — presided over and governed by soldiei"s. The highest
dignitaries of Masonry at that period were marshals, knights of
the Legion of Honor, nobles of ancient descent, senators, coun-
cillors, all safe and trusty persons; a state that obeyed the orders
of Cambac^r^s, as he obeyed the orders of Napoleon.
Obsequiousness then verged on the ridiculous. The half yearly
words of command of the Grand Orient Lodge of that era retrace
the history of Napoleonic progress. In 1800, the lodge words
were, "Science and Peace " ; in 1802, after the battle of Marengo,
698 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
pomps of courts, secretly gave preference to tlie Scotch rite
with its high sounding titles and gorgeous ceremonies. The
Grand Orient then carried its complaints to Napoleon, who grew
weary of such farces, — he who planned grand national dramas —
and at one time he determined on abolishing the Order altogether,
but Cambac^rds succeeded in arresting his purpose, showing him
the dangers that might ensue from its suppression — dangers
which must have appeared great, since Napoleon, who had never
hesitated, hesitated then, and allowed another to alter his views.
Possibly the despot recognized the necessity in French society
of a body of men who were free, at least in appearance, as a kind
of political safety valve. The French had taken a liking to their
lodges, where they found a phantom of independence, and might
consider themselves on neutral ground, for as a Masonic writer of
that era remarked: ^^In the bosom of Masonry there circulates a
little of that vital air so necessary to generous minds."
In 1812, there existed in France one thousand and eighty-nine
lodges, all depending on the Grand Orient ; the army had sixty-
nine, and the lodge was opened and closed with the cry, l^ve
VEmpereur! — Long live the emperor, — apiece of obsequiousness
of which, never since that day, has Freemasonry been guilty.
Napoleon, from merely tolerating it and keeping it well in hand,
at last employed it in the army, in the newly occupied territ<)ries,
and in such as ktj intended to occupy. Imperial proselytism
turned the lodges into schools of Napoleonism. So that it
becomes probable, if not certain, that Napoleon, by means of the
Masonic society, facilitated or secured his conquests.
Spain, Gennany, and Ittily were covered with lodges — ante-
chambers, more than anything else, of prefectures and military
commands — presided over and governed by soldiei's. The highest
dignitaries of Masonry at that period were marshals, knights of
the Legion of Honor, nobles of ancient descent, senators, coun-
cillors, all safe and trusty persons; a state that obeyed the orders
of Cambac^rSs, as he obeyed the orders of Napoleon.
Obsequiousness then verged on the ridiculous. The half yearly
words of command of the Grand Orient Lodge of that era retrace
the history of Napoleonic progress. In 1800, the lodge words
were, "Science and Peace " ; in 1802, after the battle of Marengo,
I
A liOVKRNMENT OK MVSTRliV AND FIlATKRXrTY. 603
" Unity and Success " ; in 1804, after the coronation, "Content-
ment and Greatness"; after the battle of Friedland, "Emperor
and Confidence ; " after the suppression of the tribune, " Fidelity " ;
at the birth of Napoleon's son, styled the King of Rome, "Pob-
terity and Joy " ; at the departure of the army of Russia,
"Victory and Return."
Frightful victory! Melancholy return! Napoleon fell and
Masonry rose again from the dust of servility to her true stature
and proper attitude. Some scholars incline to the opinion that
in spite of the truckiing of French Maaons to Napoleon, Masons
elsewhere were so active against him that his fall should be ac-
credited more to Masonry than to Muscovite weather and his own
headlong confidence in his "star." They claim that, dating
from his retreat at Leijtsic, of which a picture photogiaphic in its
realism is given here, the influence of Masonry was thrown
i^inst liim into that scale of Destiny in which he was weighed
and found human.
Of course. Masonry offered an excellent field to adventurers
and skilful impostoi-s to cultivate a crop of credulity by professing
to introduce new rites discovered or recovered by themselves from
the dusty crypts of tradition. It would take up too much space
to recount all the impostures which in the name of Masonry have
been foisted on the public. Let Cagliostro, with his Egyptian
Masonry, suffice as a specimen.
Joseph Balsamo, the disciple ami successor of Saint GeiTnain,
who pretended at tlie court of Louis XV. to have been the con-
temporary of Charles V., Francis L, and Christ, and to jKJSSess
the elixir of life and many other secrets, had vaster designs and a
loftier ambition than his teacher, and was one of the most active
agents of Freemasonry in France and the rest of Europe.
Balsamo was bom at Palermo in 1743, and educated at two
convents in that city, where he acquired some chemical knowl-
edge. As a young man, he fell in with an Armenian, or Greek,
or Spaniard, called Althotas, a kind of adventurer who professed
to possess the philosopher's stone, with whom he led a roving
life for a number of years. What finally became of Althotaa is
not positively known, but Balsamo found his way to Roma,
where he married the beautiful Lorenza Feliciana, whom he
604 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
treated so badly that she ran away from him ; but he recovered
her and acqubed still greater influence over her by magnetically
operating upon her. There seems to be no doubt that he was a
remarkable magnetizer.
Visiting Germany, he was initiated into Fi-eemasonry in whidi
he soon began to take a prominent part. He also assumed <liflFer-
ent titles, such as that of Marquis of Pellegrini, but the one he i»
best known by is that of Count Cagliostro; and by his astuteness,
impudence, and some lucky hits at prophesying, he acquired a
European notoriety and made many dupes, including j)er8on8 of
the highest rank, especially in France, where he founded many
new Masonic lodges.
He was the author of a book called '' The Kite of Egyptiuu
Masoniy," which rite he established first in Courland, and aftei*^
wards in Germany, France, and England. -Vfter having been
banished from France, in consequence of his implication in a
matter concerning the queen, and driven from England by his
creditoi-s, he was induced by liis wife, who was weary of her wan-
dering life, and anxious once more to see her relations, to visit
Rome, where he wiis arrested on the charge of attempting to found
a Masonic lodge, against wliich a papal bull had recently been
promulgated, and was thrown into the castle of Saint Angelo, in
1789. He was condemned to death, but the punishment was
(•ommuted to perpetual imprisonment. His wife was shut up in
a convent, and died soon after. Having been transferred to the
Castle of San Leo, he attempted to strangle the monk who hjid
been sent to confess him, in the hope of escaping in his gown;
but the attempt failed, and it is supposed he died, a prisoner, in
1795.
The Egyptian rite invented by Cagliostro is a mixture of the
sacred and profane, of the serious and laugliable; charlatanism is
its prevailing- feature. Having discovered a MS. of Geoi-ge
Cofton, in which was propounded a singular scheme for the ix^fonn
of Freemasonry in an alchymistic and fantastic sense, Cagliostit)
succeeded in gaining many follower and much wealth, by means
of this rite which he appeai-s to have borrowed from Cofton.
He gave his dupes to undei-stand that the scope of Egyptian
Masonry was to conduct men to i)erfection by means of physical
A GOVERNMENT OF MYilTERY AND PllATliRNlTY. 605
and moral regeneration; aBserting that ttie fotiner was cei'tain
through the use »f prima materia^ and the philosopher's stone,
which assured to man the strength of youth and immortality, and
that the second was to be achieved by the discovery of a pentagon
that would restore man to his primitive innoeence.
This rite indeed is a tissue of fatuities it would not l>e worth
while t« allude to, did it not offer matter for study to the philoso-
pher and moralist. Cagliostro pretended that the rit« had been
first founded by Enoch, remodelled by Eliatj, and finally restored
by the Grand Copt. Both men and women — this latter an
exception to Ma.soiiic cu.Htnms — \vpi-e admitted, though tlic crcjv-
monies for each were slightly different, and the lodges for their
reception entirely distinct.
In the reception of women, among other formalities there was
that of breatliing into the face of the neophyte, saying, "I bi-eathe
upon you this breath to cause to germinate in you and groiv in
your heart the truth we possess; I breathe it into you to
strengthen in you good intentions, and to confinn you in the
faith of your bi'othei-s and sisters. We constitute you a legiti-
mate daughter of true Egyptian adoption and of this worsliipful
lodge."
One of the lodges was called "Sinai," where the mast secret
rites were perfonned; another "Amrat," to symlxtlize the rest
reserved for Masons only. Concerning the pentagon, Cagliostro
taught that it would be given to the masters aftt;r forty days of
intercourse with the seven primitive angels, and that its possessore
would enjoy a pliysical regeneration for 5557 years, after which
they would, through gentle slee[), jiass into heaven.
The pentagon had as much .success with the upper ten thousand
of London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, as the pliilosopher's stone
ever enjoyed; and large sums were given for a few grains of the
rejuvenating joWma materia. There exists yet between Basle and
Strasburg a sumptuous Chinese temple, where the famous penta-
gon was worshipped ; and the lodge " Sinai " at Lyons was as
gorgeous as a palace. i
But besides Masonic delusions, Cagliostro made use of the
I Prima matorla — Primal (or orlgliial) mktter, mppOMd to codUId b condenntion of
604 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
treated so badly that she ran away from him ; but lie recovered
her and acquired still greater influence over her by magnetically
operating upon her. There seems to be no doubt Uiat he was a
remarkable magnetizer.
Visiting Germany, he was initiated into Fi-eemasonry in which
he soon began to take a prominent part. He also assumed differ-
ent titles, such as that of Mai-quis of Pellegrini, but the one he is
best known by is that of Count Cagliostro; and by his astuteness,
impudence, and some lucky hits at prophesying, he acquired a
European notoriety and made many dujjcs, including persons of
the highest rank, especially in France, where he founded many
new Masonic lotlges.
He was the author of a lx>ok called *'The Kite of Egyptian
Masoniy," which rite he established first in Courland, and after-
wards in Germany, France, and England. After having been
banished from France, in consequence of his implication in a
matter concerning the queen, and driven from England by his
creditoiw, he was induced by his wife, who was weary of her wan-
dering life, and anxious once more to see her relations, to visit
Rome, where he was arrested on the charge of attempting to found
a Masonic lodge, against which a papal hull had recently lieen
2)ronnilgate(l, and wius thrown into the castle of Saint Angelo, in
1789. He wiis condemned to death, but the punishment was
commuted to perpetual im})risonnient. His wife was shut up in
a convent, and died soon after. Having l)een transfen-ed to the
Ciistle of San Leo, he attempted to sti-angle the monk who h«id
been sent to confess him, in the hope of escaping in his gown;
but the attempt failed, and it is supposed he die<l, a prisoner, iu
1705.
The Egyptian rite invented by Cagliostro is a mixtui-e of the
sacred and profane, of the serious and laughable; charlatanism is
its prevailing* feature. Having discovered a MS. of George
Cofton, in which was propounded a singular scheme for the itifonn
of Freemasonry in an alchJ^nistic and fantastic sense, Cagliostit)
succeeded in gaining many followers and much wealth, by means
of this rite which he appeal's to have l)orrowed from Cofton.
He gave his dupes to underetand that the scope of Egyptian
Masonry wjis to conduct men to perfection by means of physical
A GOVERNMENT OP MYSTERY AND FHATEUNITV. 605
anil moral regeiipration ; asserting that the former was certain
through the nse iif prima materia^ &nd the phihjsopher's stone,
which assured to man the strength of youth and immortality, and
that the second was to be achieved by the discovery of a pentagon
tliat -.vould restore man to his primitive innocence.
This rite indeed ia a tissue of fatuities it would not he worth
while to allude to, did it not offer matter for study to the philoso-
pher and moralist. Cagliostro pretended that the rite had lieen
first founded hy Enoch, remodelled by Etias, and finally restored
by the Grand Copt. Both men and women — this latter an
exception to Masonic customs — were admitted, though tlie eere-
monioa for each werv slightly diSurvnt, and the lodgo:* for titcir
reception entirely distinct.
In the reception of women, among other formalities there was
that of breathing into the face of the neophyte, saying, " I breathe
upon you this breath to cause to germinate in you and grow in
your heart the truth we possess; I breathe it into you to
strengthen in you good intentions, and to confinn you in the
faith of your brothei-s and sistera. We coiLstitute you a legiti-
mate daughter of true Egyptian adoption and of this worsliipful
lodge."
One of the lodges ^vas called "Sinai," where the mast secret
rites were performed; another "Ararat," to symlxjlize the i-est
reserved for Masons only. Concerning the pentagon, Cagliostro
taught that it would be given to the masters aft<'r forty <lays of
intercourse \vith the seven primitive angels, and that its possessors
would enjoy a physical regeneration for 5557 years, after which
they would, thiough gentle slee[), [miss into heaven.
The pentagon had as much success with the upper ten thousand
of London, Paris, and St. Petei-sburg, as the philosopher's stone
ever enjoyed; and large sums were given for a few grains of the
rejuvenating jorsma materia. There exists yet between Basle and
Strasburg a sumptuous Chinese temple, where the famous penta-
gon was worshipped ; and the lodge " Sinai " at Lyons was as
gorgeous as a palace. >
But besides Masonic delusions, Cagliostro made use of the
< Prima motorla— Piiuut (or orlgliia]) mMUr, Buppond to coduId a
1
606 THB STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
then little underBtood wonders of magnetism to attract adherents;
and, as many persons are wrecked by the wine cup, so he made
dupes of many by means of the water bottle, which trick, as
might be shown, was very ancient, and consisted in divination
by hydromancy.
A child, generally a little gfirl, was made to look into a bottle
of water, and see therein events, past, present, and to come, the
child having, of course, been well tutored beforehand ; and, as
Cagliostro was really a man of observation, he made many shrewd
guesses as to the future, and sometimes fortune favored him — as
in the case of Schiefifort, one of the leaders of the lUuminati, who
refused to join the Egyptian rite, at which Cagliostro was so
incensed that he caused the little girl to see in the decanter the
exterminating angel, who declared that in less than a month
Schieffort would be punished.
Now it so happened that within that period Schieffort committed
suicide, which, of course, gave an immense lift to Cagliostro and
his bottle. In this respect indeed, Cagliostro was a forerunner
of some of our modern spiritualists; and as he did not keep his
occult power a seci'et from all, but freely communicated it, magical
practices were thus introduced into the lodges, which well served
the purposes of the astute, and brought discredit on the institu-
tion.
According to one of the fundamental laws of Masonry — and
a inile prevailing in the greater mysteries of antiquity — women
cannot be received into the order. Women cannot keep secrets,
at least so Milton says through the mouth of Dalila. But we
have already seen that Cagliostro admitted women to the
Egyptian rite; and when at the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury similar associations sprang up in France, which in their
external aspect resembled Freemasonry, but did not exclude
women, the ladies naturally were loud in their praise of such
institutions, so that the Masonic brotherhood, seeing it was
becoming popular, had recourse to the stratagem of establishing
"adoptive " lodges of women, so called because every such lodg^
had finally to be adopted by some regular Masonic lodge.
The Grand Orient of France framed laws for their government,
and the fii'st lodge of adoption was opened in Paris, in 1775, in
608 THE 8TOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
■
which the Duchess of Bourbon presided, and was initiated as
Gmnd Mistress of the rite. The Revolution checked the progress
of this rite, but it wiis revived in 1805, when the Empress Jose-
phine presided over the ^Loge Imperiale d^ Adoption de» Franas-
C/ievalier»j** at Strasburg. Similar lodges spread over Europe,
Great Britain excepted; but they soon declined and are at present
confined to the place of their origin, except that lately in America
there has been instituted for women the Adoptive Masonic Order
of the Extern Star.
The adoptive rite consists of the same degrees as those of
genuine Masonry. Every sister being a dignitary has beside her
a Masonic brother holding the corresponding rank. Hence the
officers are a Grand Master and a Grand Mistress, an Inspector
and Ins{>ectress, a Depositor and a Depositrix, a Conductor and a
Conductress. The business of the lodge is managed by the sis-
terhood, the brethren only acting as their assistants ; but the
Grand Mistress has very little to say or to do, she being only an
honorary companion to the Grand Master.
The first, or apprentice's degree, is only introductory; in the
second, or companion, the scene of the temptation in Eden is
emblematically repi'eseuted: the building of the Tower of Baliel
is the subject of the mistress' degree; and in the fourth, or that
of perfect mistress, the officers represent Moses, Aaron, and their
wives, and the ceremonies refer to the i){issage of the Israelites
through the wilderness, as a symbol of the passage of men and
women through this to another and better life.
Tlie lodge room is tastefully decorated, and divided by eur-
tiiins into four compartments, each repivsenting one of the fou/
quai-tere of the globe, the eastern, or furthermost, representing
.Vsia, where then* are two splendid thrones, decorated with g(d<l
fringe for the Grand Master and the Grand Mistress. The mem-
bera sit on each side in straight lines, the sisters in front, and the
brothel's Ixjhind them, the latter having swords in their hands.
All this pretty playing at Masonry is natumlly followed in
France by a banquet, and on many 0(!casions by a ball, very proper
sequels to private theatricals I At the banquets the members use
a syml)olical language; thus the lodge room is called "Eden,*'
th(^ dooi-s "baiTiere," a glass is called a "lamp," water "white
oil," wine "red oil"; to fill your glass is "to trim yonr lamp,"
etc.
The Jesuits, who according to the French proverb have to poke
their nose into all things, soon poked it into Adoptive Masonry —
— and so they founded new lodges, or modified existing ones of
that rite to further their own purposes. Thus it was that a truly
monkish asceticism was introduced into some of these lodges, which
by the Jesuits were divided into ten degrees ; and we find such
passages in the catechism as these: "Are you prepared, sister, to
sacrifice life for the good of the Catholic, Apostolic Roman
Church?" The tenth or last degree Was called the "Princess of
the Crown," and a great portion of the ritual treats of the Queen
of Sheba. This rite was established in Saxony in 1779.
But whether or not Masoniy descended from the ancient reli-
gious mysteries, its modern and practical value, from a religious
point of view, can hardly be doubted by a candid mind, for what-
ever tends to break down the barriers of national and racial
antipathy, and to produce unity and a sense of essential oneness
among men, paves the way fur a just appreciation of human life
as a whole, and hastens the coming of a true civilization. Aa
excellent example of that joint inculcation of the Fatherhood
of God and the Bi'otherhood of man which is the distinctive mark
of the teaching of Masonry, is furnished by the following
anecdote : —
A Jew entered a Paraee temple and beheld the sacred fire.
"What! " said he to the priest, "do you worship the fire? "
" Not the fire, " answered the priest, '* it is to us only an emblem
of the sun and of his genial heat."
"Do you then worship the sun as your God? " asked the Jew.
"Know ye not that this luminary also is but a work of the
Almighty Creator?"
"We know it," replied the priest, "but the uncultivated man
requires a sensible sign in order to form a conception of the Most
High, and is not the sun, the incomprehensible source of light,
an image of that invisible being who blesses and preserves all
things?"
"Do your people, then," rejoined the Israelite, "distinguish
die type from the original ? They call the sun their God, and.
610 THB STOBY OF 60VEBNMENT.
descending even from this to a baser object, they kneel before an
earthly flame ! Ye amuse the outward, but blind the inward eye ;
and while ye hold to them the earthly, ye draw from them the
heavenly light I Thou shalt not make unto thyself any image or
likeness.**
^How do you designate the Supreme Being?'* asked the
Parsee.
^We call him Jehovah Adonai; that is, the Lord who is,
who was, and who will be," answered the Jew.
^Your appellation is grand and sublime,** said the Parsee,
"but it is too awful and far away.**
A Mason then drew nigh and said, '^ We call him Father I *'
The Parsee and the Jew looked at each other and exclaimed, " Here
is at once an image and a reality; it is a word of the heart.**
Therefore they all raised their eyes to heaven, and said, with
reverence and love, '*Our Father,** and they took each other by
the hand, and all three called one another ^^ brother.*'
At the same time that recent research by Masonic students
compels us to doubt any absolute, direct connection between
modem Masonry and the ancient attempts at fraternal alliance,
the idea that Philosophical, Ritualistic Masonry sprang from that
great craft of Operative Masonry which built so many wonderful
edifices in the Middle Ages all over Europe, must also be aban-
doned. The history of these guilds and great mediaeval corpora-
tions has been repeatedly published, and all that can be safely
said is that the present Masonic lodge system is perhaps due to
these corporations, but that Speculative or Philosophical Masonry,
as it has been developed since 1725, when ritualism commenced,
derived any of its principles from Operative Masonry, is inadmis-
sible.
It has never been demonstrated that in all the guilds, cor-
porations, and other associations of the eighteenth, seventeenth,
and precedent centuries, there was anything whatever that could
serve as a foimdation for the philosophy of Masonry, as it has
since been imderstood. For it has been well settled by such
famous writers on Masonry as W. J. Hughan, A. F. A. Woodford,
R. F. Gould, in England, and D. Murray Lyon, in Scotland, that
as early as 1725 there was no ritual of the degrees; nor is there
A GOVEKNMENT OF MYSTEKY AND FRATBKNITy. 611
any reliable evidence that in 1717 there was anything more than
B. "Mason wortl" whereby MasoiLS could recognize one another.
The Master Mason waa so called after he became the presiding
officer of his lodge; ' and when an apprentice was to be " Crqfted,"
two apprentices should be present to witness the ceremony.
George Eliot, the famous English novelist, whom some critics
consider to have sounded the deeps of the human lieart and brain
more profomidly and truly than any other English writer, makes
one of her humorous characters remark that the Masons are mad,
because they haven't more to conceal, and it is, indeed, true that
the mystery of JVIasoitiy is i-ather the micit which envelopij ita origin
and its spread than anything else, since a few secret forms of initia-
tion and communication can hardly be deemed oE much moment,
inasmuch &a numerous other organizations have similar character-
istics. What chiefly strikes the general student who, like the
present writer, does not happen to be a Mason, is the historic uncer-
tainty in which Masonry has been enshrouded ; perhaps the devout
Mason would add — enshrined. For no man can tell whence it
originated, nor can any man trace accurately the manner in which,
it was transmitted from one to the other, until it has reached all
parts of the civilized world. How came it to America? Who
brought it here ? The brother who did must have found here, or
brought with him, a kindred spirit ready to give and Itkemse to
receive.
There is no need to reiterate what has already been written as
to its early history in the old country. There were, no doubt,
many Freemasons among the early immigrants ^m England. .
Prior to the formation of the first Grand Lodge at London, in
1717, Masons assembled annually, at least, at some central point,
iTbe cit; ot ToTk, In the north of England, is Mlebnted lorltB traditional connectfon with
IfUoni7 in tliat Idngdom. No topic Id tbe blatocj ot Frecmosoni? bM bo mucb engaged tb«
attention of modem Maaanlo Bcbalan, oritlren occasion to more dlsconlon, tbon tbe alleged
fact of tbe eitsWnce ot Masonry In the tenth ceutur? at the dt; of York aa a prominent
point, of tbe calling of a cangreRAtlon of tbe craft tbere in the fear ^. D. t>20, ot tbe organii*.
tion of a general aeaembly and the adoption of a constitution. Dntlng tbe whole of tbe last
and the greater part of tbe present centary, the Fraternity in general have accepted ail of
thrae itatemenUaegenalnepartlona of authentic hl>tor>'; Ami ihb Adveisarli-!- <ir ilii> nril«r
bate, with tlieaame want of dlscrlmi nation, rejected tbein .ill as mytbe; while a fewearueat
■eakera after troth have lieen at a loss to determine whi-t i>art vox hlBtorlcal and what part
lagendary. Becsntly. the discovery ot many old maniuc7i]itH hu directed Ibe latiorH of unoli
aobolan am Hnglian, Woodford, Lyon, and otbere, to tbi> ''rliical piamlnatlon of the early
Ustoiy Of Muoniy, and tbM ot Tork baa pMtloiUarly ensaged their attention.
612 THE STORY OF GOVEBXMENT.
and met in lodge, selecting the oldest master present as Chief
Master to preside over their deliberations. There were different
classes of Masons, — the Operative Mason, the Speculative Mason
who was free of the craft, the Apprentice, the Fellow or Ciafts-
man, the Masters, the Wardens, and the Masters of the Work.
Elach one had his allotted task to do, and all disputes were settled,
intricate problems solved, and the designs on the trestle board
were studied with advantage to all.
History is silent as to what led to the coming together of the
Masons of the four lodges or assemblies in London, at the Apple
Tree Tavern. It may have been that the Operative brethren were
tired of their wandering life, and wanted a fixed place of meeting.
It may have been that a lull had come in the building of old
minsters, cathedrals, and abbeys, and that a period of idleness
was upon the craft. Or it may have been that the sun shone
brightly on the fame of the great architect. Sir Christopher Wren,
whose sole monument is St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and
like our hero worshippers of the present time, they selected him
as the Grand Master of the craft.
Suffice it to say that a wonderful change came over Freemasonry
in 1717, and the spinning-wheel of fancy then began the gathering
together of the fibres of old Masonic history ; and as it turned
slowly at first, these fibres were wound and twisted together,
making a homely thread, and these, gathered by cunning hands
and constantly expanding minds, in time formed that which now
forms the basis of a beautiful piece of work, — the Masonic historj-
of the nineteenth century.
These old Masons were not warmnted to meet by any legal
paper; they were never duly constituted into a lodge. We can
imagine them meeting on the highest hill or in the deepest valley,
whei'e eavesdroppera could not intrude, and note the crude work
of the Master, with the roll of the Old Charges of Freemasons in
his hand, reading therefrom to the candidate, and his affirmation
thereto, and the vow, "So help me God and halidom,** which
made him a Freemason.
The name " Freemason " appears for the first time in Statute
25, of Edward I., of England, A. d. 1350. "X^ statute (Farti-
ficer et servants^^' and from the original French text of the statute
A GOVlillNMKNT HF .MVSTKUV AND FUATEUSITV. 613
the word signifies a "Free-stone Mason, " one who works in free-
stone, as distinguished from the rough mason who merely built
^ Mm
Willi n( mii^'li siijiiex. Tlie mmloni acceptation of the word gives
it its line wlui is " Kivo of th« finilds of the Cnift," i. e., endowed
614 THE STORY OF 60VERNMBNT.
with the freedom of these bodie84 In the beginning of the seven-
teenth centuiy, persons who were not Operative Masons began to
unite with the Freemasons, and were distinguished from the
regular working Masons by the denomination of "Accepted.*'
It is certain that many noblemen, gentlemen, military officers,
clergymen, and others, attracted by the moral principles of the
Fraternity, joined the existing lodges, and to them may be
ascribed the radical changes that afterward took place in the
reconstruction of the Order. It is well known that some of those
earlier and most prominent Masons were men of learning, and
prone to push forward abstract theories, as well as to mix them-
selves up with matters philosophical. It is, therefore, easy to
suppose that to such minds the dogmas of the ruling church would
be distasteful.
By the year 1702, the Speculative lodges in England began to
decay and fall into oblivion, becoming so degenerated as to be
applied to purposes of gain and self-interest; appearing to the
minds of the credulous and superstitious merely as a mysterious
secret society, useful to mariners and travellers visiting different
parts of the world, as a safe introduction among strangers. It is
recorded in the publications of that day, that it was a common
thing, when passing along the streets of London and Liverpool,
particularly by the riverside, to see large painted signs over the
doors of ale houses and sailoi-s' lodgings: "''Masons viade here for
12^."
It was when the ancient forms had commenced to decay and tlie
true comprehension of the meaning of ceremonials, usages, and
discijiline was dying out, that the Fraternity felt the necessity of
preventing its total extinction by re-establishing the Ancient
Landmarks and reinstating the Order. The year 1717 saw a
complete change, at the hands of James Anderson, D. D., l)om
in Edinburg at the close of the seventeenth centurj'-, a minister of
the Scottish Presbyterian Church, in Piccadilly, London, and John
Theophilus Desaguliers, LL. D., of Christ Church, Oxford, the
son of a French Protestant clergyman, who came to England after
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, assisted by other old mem-
bers chosen for their ability and knowledge of the Fraternity.
They were desired, by the rulers of the Order, to peruse and
A GOVEBNMKST OF MYSTEUY AND FRATERSITY.
615
digest into a n«w and better method "The Histoi^', Charges, and
Regulations of the Ancient Fraternity." This was accordingly
done, which points distinctly to the fact that the true character of
Freemasonry is only the history of the operative sodalities and
aaecessive ages of architects.
These clergj-men were, no doubt, actuated by a spirit of t<ilei^
ation. and desirous of introducing a code of morals without the
aid of theology, and they therefore ei-adicat^d the sectarian ele- '
ment of Christianity, substituting the apocryphal li;gend nf
"Hiram " and "Symbolism
of Solomon's Temple," ti-ans-
fonuing it into whnt we now
find "Free and Accepted
Masonry," by converting the
old Stone -masons' allegory,
U]x>n which the legend of the
thinl degree and death of
Hiram Abiff is founded, into
what anciently was the expo-
sition of the stoiyof the fall
of mankind, the sacrificial
redemption of the human
race, and the doctrine of the
resurrection.
It would seem that Doctor
Andereon and his colleagues,
in fulfilling the duty con-
fided to them, may have exceeded tlieir authority and made radi-
cal changes quite unknown before, in reorganizing the' institution,
which, aft«rsome amendments, was formally approved and accepted
A. n. 1723, which became known as the "New Constitution," and
is the Freemasonry of the present day.
They adopted a univerml creed to suit the ideas of such mem-
bers as preferred a philosophical interpretation of Christianity
rather than one that inculcated the tenets of a particular form of
religious belief inconsistent with toleration and universality.
The adoption of a universal creed, on the plan of the Fatherhood
of God and the Brotherhood of Mankind, was to admit men of all
BHOTIIBB OEOItOE WASHIKOTON'S
616 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
religions, nationalities, and stations in life, — not to lay the foun-
dation of an English, Scottish, Irish, or Protestant philosophy,
but a philosophy of the world.
There does not seem to exist a doubt that Doctor Anderson, as
a Christian minister of the Gosi>el, was faithful to his trust. He
was actuated only by a desire to correct existing abuses, by
changing the system of Freemasonrj-, as he found it, into a cos-
mopolitan philosophical society. But although the teachings of
Ancient Freemasonr}-, foi-merly distinctly Christian, are now cos-
mopolitan, it does not prevent or interfere with the right of pri-
vate judgment and conviction, there being room for the admission
of the Christian, as well as the universal, exposition of the symlx)l8
and ritual, which, in the true spirit of the liberal and broad prin-
ciples of the craft, should never he matle the subject of strife,
but held in fraternal peace and good-will by all.
It was years before the authority or prerogative of a Grand
Lodge was understood or recognized. How all is changed ! A
lodge cannot be lawful now, unless duly wan-anted and coniiti-
tuted. At first, the brethen met and agreed to form a lodge, then
the power of assembling the brethren iis a lodge was vested in
a Grand Master, who authorized the meeting ; afterwai-d, the
Grand Master deputed this power to his Deputy or Provincial
Grand Master, and he authorized or recognized the meeting of a
lodge. First a deputation, afterward a warrant; and this was
followed by the solemn ceremonies of constituting into a regular
lodge.
During all the time from 1717 to the Revolution, Masonry wa«
spreading in the colonies of England, perhaps as ittpidly in pi-o-
portion to population jus in the British Isles, and nearly all the
prominent men who wrote their names large on the early history
of this country were membei's of the craft. And in the mother
country the adherents of the four Gmnd Lodges, viz. : England,
"Modern" and "'Ancient," Scotland, and Ireland, were active
workei-s, in the various (juestions then agit^iting the colonies,
which brought with them unrest and discortl.
Tlie craft was divided between their loyalty to the king, luid
their sympathy for and fidelity to the colonies. The suggestions
made by Daniel Coxe, in his plan for a union of the colonies.
A GOVEUNMENT OI'' MYWTKRV AND FliATKKNITV, (ilT
which were advocated afterward by Franklin, and which finally
led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, were gradually
permeating the craft. The feelings of the Fraternity had never
been taken on thia subject, but it is safe to say that the colonies'
friends were found in the greatest numbers in the lodges under the
"Ancients" and the Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland,
while a large percentage of the Royalists or Tories were to be
found In the adherents of the old Grand Lodge or "Moderns,"
The Revolution came with all its bitterness, its devastation, its
bloodshed, its sufferings, its sorrows. Brother was truly in arms
against brother; but, amid the most terrible scenes of the strife,
the touch of Masonry was felt to [lenetrate through the picket-
line, past the sentinels, the guards, the camps of the privates, to
the marque-tents of the commanding officeiis, and the exemplifica-
tion of Masonic teachings was the one bright and redeeming star
of that ^var. In adversity, in sorrow, it was Masoniy ; in pros-
perity, in happiness, it was Masonry still.
With ihe ending of the war and the return of peace came to
Americans the longing for independence in all matters. The
independence of the colonies must be followed closely by that of
the Masonic Frdternity. In this the Grand Lodge of Massachu-
setts took the lead, followed closely by Pennsylvania and others.
Then came the attempt, which was repeated more than once, to
make Freemasonry like unto the government, a union of States
and a union of Giiiiid Lodges. Brother Gen. George Washington
was the first and only one suggested for Grand Master; but the
action taken, by the several Grand Lodges, a<Iverse thereto,
resulted in its abandoment before much pmgress had been made.
The following facsimile of Washington's reply to a farewell
address of Brother Masons on his retirement to private life will
be read with profound interest and revei-ential i-egard by all
j»atriotic Americans.
With the death of Washington the proposed General Grand
Lodge fell through, only to be revived a few years later, with
still less chance of success, and Grand Lodges became more
jealous of their jurisdictional rights, which are now, happily, so
strong that they are respected over the length and breadth of our
land. A Grand Lodge tenitoiy is sacied from invasion. Within
6I(t^ THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
«w liuut^ it U supreme. The State can do no wrong, neither can
.1 ^.iituul LiKlji^t'. Its authority is respected by political power,
.uut v*i\il luw Hnds no cause for interference. It judges it by its
owu ooiiistitution and landmarks which are unchangeable and
which ai\^ founded on equal justice to all.
bhwuuisonry contains within itself the divine law of doing unto
olhvrH as i>eople would that othera should do unto them. In peace
it iH prosiH»ix)US, in strife it is sympathetic, in adversity it is sub-
iiiissivt^ In this countiy it has had its times of prosperity and
mlvorsity. The ending of the Revolution marked a period of
tlttUikfulness for delivery from bondage and an almost worship for
tho deliverer, Gen. George Washington, whose death was mourned
)U« noiu) other but Lincoln's has been mourned in this country.
Thou came the mj^terious disappearance of Morgan and the
utt^U'k upon the institution, by some fanatics and politicians,
whic*h gave a temporary setback to Masonry, ai}d which to this
day still niises in some minds an unwarrantable prejudice
agaiuHt the Order.
Tlien followed the cioiel Civil War, or that of the Rebellion,
tlu» most unfortunate and sorrowful of all, in which attempts
wcnci made to involve Masoniy; but the wise counsel of the
ItMU lei's of the craft in the several Stiites prevented the mixing up
of Masonry and the State, and while Miusonry did not go forth
in the advance with the flag to avert the blow, it wiis found
among the sick and wgunded, the suffering and the dying, and in
phinted the sprig of acacia at the head of many a brother's gi'ave,
on lx)th sides of the lines.
Then came another and better em, purely Masonic, that in
which we are now living. The cjire of the aged brother, his wife,
Avidow, and oqihans, enlists the sympathies of the craft every-
where. Throughout the land there are springing up the homes^
the asylums, and Masonic establishments for the care of poor and
need3\ This may be tenued the golden era of Freemasonry.
A few notes of the most impoi-tant Masonic events in American
history will be of interest to any reader who desires to be well
infonned, whether approving of Masoniy or not. On June
27, 1835, Masonry laid the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill
Monument. Geneitd Lafayette was present, and assisted at the
A GOVERNMENT OF MYSTEllli ASD FUATKItNlTY. blU
Special convocation of the Grand Lodge of Masaaehusetts and the
ceremonies of laying the comer-stoTie. Tho monument was dedi-
cated with Miisonic cereninnies, in 1845.
f WABmNGTOS'a KEl'l.
The Anti-Masonic excitement, caused by the mysterious dis-
apDearance of Morgan, raged long and bitterly in Massachusetts.
Many of the smaller lodges suspended work until the storm was
620 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
spent, while a few surrendered their warrants. In the midst of
the excitement, the Grand Lodge, finding itself without a home,
purchased, in 1830, a lot of ground, and arranged to lay the
comer-stone of a new hall. Amid the hooting and yelling of
a crazy crowd, the Grand Lodge and brethren, numbering two
thousand, with Boston Encampment of Knights Templars at their
head, marched from Faneuil Hall to the place where the corner-
stone was duly and truly laid.
On December 81, 1831, the Masons of Boston published tlie
famous "Declaration," prepared by Charles W. Moore, which did
more to halt the public excitement, cool off the hot-headed, and
restoi^e reason to the doubting, than any other document issued in
this country. This declaration was affirmed and re-affirmed by all
the Grand Lodges of the New England States. But the legislature,
this same year, led by the Anti-Masons, had notified the Grand
Lodge to appear and show cause why the act of incorporation
granted in 1817 sliould not be repealed, and the Grand Lodge, on
December 27, 1833, placing all its property in the hands of
trustees, surrendered in a formal and legal manner, through its
committee, the said act of incorpoi^tiou to the legislature,
together with a "Memorial " setting forth their action in suiTen-
deriiig their chailer. Seventeen years after, this Grand Lodge
was incorpoi-ated a second time by the legislature, in an act which
allows the holding of real estate not exceeding the value of
$500,000, and personal estate not exceeding the value of
$50,000.
Tlie legislature of Massachusetts hjxs also incorporated the
"Masoiiitt Education and Charity Trust," the whole amount of
funds and property authorized to be held by the corporation not
to exceed $1,000,000. While the Grand Lodge is itself incor-
porated, it lias j)rohibited its sulx)r(linate lodges from accepting
a charter, under an act of incorjwration, from "any legishiture or
l)olitical govcninient."
The Temple is situated in the lieait of Boston facing the
Common, on the comer of Boylston and Ti-emont Streets, half
a stone's throw from the old Public Librarj-. Large, com-
modious, built of gmy granite, it has ample accommodations
for the Grand and subordinate lodges, the officers of the Grand
A GOVEIRNMBNT OF MYSTERY AND FKATEKNITV. 621
Lodge, and the library of the Grand Lodge. The property is
valued at about half a million. The Grand Charity Fund
amounts to about 860,000. A teiupomry appropriation of $2,000
annually is maile from the general funds of the Grjind Lodge,
UBtil the income of the Grand Charity Fund ^hall bo available.
Relief is granted by a committee of three, to worthy brethren,
their widows and orphans in distress.
Thia Grand Lodge retains in activity many of its oldest lodges.
The Srst lodge. Saint John's, July 30, 1733, is the oldest on
this continent; Saint Andrew's, 1756, Boston, is the oldest
under Scottish constitution, and there are thirty-three others,
all dating prior to 1799. The minimum fee for the degree is
|>25; the annual dues generally from $2 to $3, with some lodges
at 910 and $15. In this temple is a tine and valuable library,
rich in rare Masonic books, proceedings, and magazines. It has
been fortunate in those who have been called to preside over
it, many of whom have been distinguished above their brethren,
in public and political life, local. State, and National.
The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, the finest and largest
Masonic building in the world, is devoted exclusively to Free-
masonry. One of its halls, the Egyptian Hall, lately decorated
by "the Art Association of the Masonic Temple," is unique in
ornamentation and is said to be the finest specimen of Egyptian
decoration outside of Eg3-pt. This i-oom is known as the "Wil-
liam J. Kelly testimonial to his brother, Thomas R. Patton,"
and was paid for by Brother Kelly as a testimony of a brother's
regard for a brother.
In 1890 there was laid the foundation stone in Chicago of an
immense building eighteen stories high, the upper portion of
which (the seventeenth and eighteenth stories), is to be used by
the Fraternity. The grounds cost $1,100,000, and the structure
when completed, not less than $2,000,000. It is to be fire-proof
throughout and finished in marble, alabaster, and onyx, with
mosaic floors. The prineij)al entrance to the building will be
through an archway opening forty-two feet high and twentj--eight
feet wide. The main rotunda will occupy 3,700 square feet.
This court will be supplied with fourteen elevators in a semi-
circle facing the main entrance. These will have facilities for
622 THB 8TOBY OF GOVEBKMENT.
lifting between 30,000 and 36,000 people per day. Instead of
numbering the different stories 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, they will be
called by names as of streets This order of affairs continues
until the seventeenth story, when the Masonic apartments are
reached. The roof is to be laid out like a garden, with plants
and flowers during the summer, and the view from this point
will be unquestionably the finest in Chicago.
But these local and national demonstrations of Masonic glory
in a material way are but symbols of its nobler and larger life,
for Masonry may be considered to have developed from a simple
secret society into a great international bond — a means to
mitigate the jealousy of nations, soften the asperities of war, and
hasten the day when the Laureate Tennyson's dream shall be
realized by "a parliament of man — a federation of the world."
Yet Masonry may also be called a government within govern-
ment, for it takes cognizance of certain acts of its members in a
fashion supplementaiy to the action of the State authority. For
instance, in a Southern State where duelling was countenanced to
a great degree by public opinion, in 1814, the bearer of a chal-
lenge, tliat passed between two Master Masons, to fight a duel,
was tried and suspended for one year by his lodge. On appeal to
the Grand Lodge, at the recommendation of the committee, to
whom the matter was referred, the sentence was set aside, and
that of reprimand substituted. Some few years later the Grand
Master, William H. Richardson, emboldened, doubtless, by this
leniency, fought a duel with a member of his own lodge. At the
1818 communication, the Grand Master and his opponent, Ben-
jamin W. Dudley, were cited to appear before the Grand Lodge
for having engaged in a duel. It was then resolved that the
Grand Lodge had jurisdiction to inquire into the charge, and
on motion of Brother Henry Clay, a committee was appointed
''to produce a reconciliation between them." The next day the
committee reported, recommending, as a substitute for the resolu-
tion of expulsion then pending, suspension from the privileges of
Masonry for one year; which recommendation was adopted.
The real glorv' of Masonry lies in its being a pure democracy.
In the lodge all men are one. The emperor and the ^^easant
meet with that perfect equality in which men are bom and in which
A (iOVERNMEST OF MY8TBKY AND t'RATEKNlTY. 623
they die. More than this, if a MaHon were passing by the Prince
of Wales, or Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, for insbince, who ai-e two
of the highest Masons in the world, and should moke the sign of
distress, and these high dignitaries .'should pay no heed to the
appeal, they could be and would be summoned before their lodges
on information of the same, and unless they could give a, satisfac-
toiy reason for their neglect, they would he punished therefor.
Another great point of the Masonic Fniteniity is that one of
its most binding oaths and obligations is to watch over and guard
the chastity of the women of Masonic brothers. It might be
objected, imssibly, by some doubter of the value of Masonry, that
it in juHt an luuiili a mau'tt duty, da a member of tlie bi-otlierhood
of humanity, to protect a woman's chastity and to preserve his
own for the one to whom he should belong in that ideal govern-
ment, which goes under the triune name of home, wife, and chil-
dren, and therefore that Masonry can lay no special claim to
honor on this score.
But it may he answered that whatever tends to emphasize in
men's minds the value as well as the beauty of chastity is a great
help in hastening that day when the social evil shall no longer
show its sorrowful, hideous, pestilential, unnecessary face in this
bright world, which men and women could make still brighter, if
they would only listen more faithfully to the voice of their
higher self.
Up to the year 1826, the growth of Masonry in this country
had been very rapid, and lodges had been instituted rather care-
lessly without that regard for perpetuity and solidity which is a
Tttal element in the welfare of an institution. Nor this alone,
but there was a laxity in regard to the material accepted and, at
the first reverse in the onward march of Masonry, the ranks were
largely depleted in certain sections. This reverae was of so
remarkable a character that it bade fair to destroy the institution
in this country. Its effects were felt in the New England States,
Pennsylvania, and more particularly in the State of New York,
where the trouble arose.
In reviewing the history of those times, and weighing the
cause, a candid conclusion would seem to be that, in a large
degree, its effects were attributable to the lack of judgment and
624 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
unnecessary alarm on the part of a few over-zealous members of
the craft, which, combined with other causes, — notably of a
political character, — fanned the flame into a raging fire.
The various accounts published at the time are so colored by
the personal interest of the writers that, as in many matters of
history, certainty is out of the question and a reasonable proba-
bility is all that any student can expect to evolve. It would
seem that the supposed mystery of Masonry tempted one William
Morgan (who had deceitfully entered a lodge and obtained some
degrees, and who felt vindictive for some rebuffs he had received
among his associates) to believe that if he published an exposure
of the secrets of Masonry, he could count on the curiosity of the
public to buy his publication and thus lay the foundation of a
fortune. We have the same kind of people to-day in the shape
of "escaped nuns" and "reformed monks," detailing in lurid and
lugubrious lectures to empty-headed people the imaginary horrors
of the religious institutions in which they have been living.
The politicians who engineered the crusade against Free-
masonr}' in this country, boasted that they had not left one stone
above another in the walls of the Masonic temples, and that they
had driven the plow-share of ruin through the foundations, so
destroying the mystic keystones that the inscriptions on them
could not be deciphered. But the "ancient landmarks" re-
mained ; the time-honored temples were again gradually re-dedi-
cated: good and true men were initiated, and Freemasonry, with
recruited ranks, resumed the discharge of its duties. There is
now a Grand Lodge of Masons in every State of the Union, each
with Its subordinate lodges, having 593,164 regularly affiliated
Master Masons on their rolls.
Royal Arch Masonry, which exists in English-speaking coun-
tries, is supplementary to the universal three first degrees —
Entered Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Miister-raason. The
degrees of Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master,
and Royal Arch Mason, are conferred in Cliaptei's. Delegates
from the Chapters in each State constitute a Grand Chapter, and
the representatives of the Grand Chapter constitute the General
Grand Chapter of the United States, Avhich was organized in 1816.
There are now in the different States forty-four Grand Chapters,
626 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
with 140,960 regularly aifiliated companions on the rolls of sub-
ordinate chapters.
Templar Masonry is a semi-military organization, based on the
*' valiant and magnanimous order" of the Knights Templar, who
are believed to have been initiated into the mysteries of Free-
masonry. The Templar degrees are only conferred upon Master
Masons who have also taken the Royal Arch degrees, and Templar
Masoniy is affiliated with, although totally independent of, those
organizations. The only distinction is, that while Hebrews can
take those degrees, Knights Templar must believe in the divinity
of Jesus Christ.
Does it not strike the thoughtful reader as a rather curious
thing that the only affiliated order of modern Masonry which is
sacred to Christians alone is the one wliich is warlike in its origin
and reminiscence and which in its ceremonial is almost as much
military as Masonic ? Strange illustration at this late day of the
truth contained in the words, " I come not to bring peace but a
sword," uttered by the Gralilean Dreamer and Disturber,^ nearly
nineteen hundred years ago !
Yet wlien we reflect how many roses of romance have clustered
around the shining arms of the Knights Templar since those
days in the close of the eleventh century, when Godfrey de
Bouillon rescued tlie Holy Sepulchre irom the Turks, we cannot
wonder much that men in whom the religious and militant in-
stincts are still strong should take delight in belonging to such an
organization.
The age of chivalry unquestionably tended to foster the Masonic
spirit and to color with it the conduct of men, especially such as
had enrolled themselves Knights of the Temple, with a strange
mixture of monasticism, mysticism, and ultra-philosophic freedom
of thouglit.
Walter Scott, a more profound, because more sympathetic, stu-
dent of life than either Carlyle or Buckle (one of whom thought
that the currents of history were determined by the lives of single
great men, or the other that they were determined by the courses
of single great rivei*s), shows in his character of Brian de Bois
* ** • Disturber and Dreamer* the Philistines cried, when he preached an ideal creed.
Knowing;; not that the men who have changed the world with the world have disagreed "
— Boyle (yjieUlt/spoemon Wendell PhUlips,
A. FEMALE CBD8AIIZB SATlSa A KKIOHT-TEMPLAS. '^
628 THE STORY OP GOVBBNMBNT.
Guilbert in Ivanhoe what was pix>bably a typical Knight Templar
of the early period, when individualism was at a premium, and
before the Masonic spirit of true fraternity had begun to permeate
the mass of that fanatic soldiery who called themselves Templars.
It is likely, however, that their constant contact through conflict
with the Saracens acquainted them finally with the broader ideas of
that civilization, and it is not improbable that thence were derived
many of the rites, customs, and oddly astrologic ceremonies which
afterwards produced or were grafted upon the Speculative Masonry,
whose authentic origin is apparently so recent.
The Crusades, after a loss of six million lives and incalculable
treasure, failed in the original aim of dislodging the infidel pos-
sessors of Palestine. But what the Crusaders failed to gain in
the way of gratifying their religious instincts was, perhaps, more
than compensated by the advance in science which came to Europe
from contact with the Saracens.
The cross is embroidered on the banners of Knights Templar,
and under that "sign " they march shoulder to shoulder, to com-
bat intolerance, error, and infidelity. The local commanderies of
Knights Templar are dedicated to Saint John the Almoner, and
in them are conferred the orders of Knight of the Red Cixxss,
Knight Templar, and Knight of Malta. There is a Grand Com-
mandery in almost every State, and its delegates form the Grand
Encampment, originally organized in 1816, which meets eveiy
three years. The Knights Templar always appear in public,
either mounted or on foot, in uniform and armed. They have
a distinctive system of tiictics, and since the war of 1861-05 they
have received into their ranks so many old soldiers that they
mjirch and drill like veterans. There are in the United States 725
commanderies, with 68,226 regularly affiliated Sir Knights.
The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which is
entirely independent of the organizations of the York rite already
mentioned, consists of thirty-three degrees, commencing with the
Entered Apprentice, and ending with that of Sovereign Grand
Inspector-General. In some countries a Supreme Council,
formed of nine Inspectors General, constitute the Grand Masonic
Tribunal of the rite, and there are two Supreme Councils. That
of the Southern Jurisdiction, the "Mother Council of the
A GOVKUNMKNT IIF MVHTKKV AM) FRATKIJNITY. 620
World," esteblislied in 1801, whicli lias its see at Washington,
exercises jurisdiction over the States south of Miison and Dixon's
line, and the states and ten-itories west oF Uie Mississippi River.
We presented at tlie beginning of thl» chapter a likeness of the
late Albert Pike f<ir many yeara tlie head of this Couneil aud
one of the moat august Masons in t^ie world.
The other States are under the Supi-enie Council of the Korthem
Jurisdiction, organized in 1807, which has its see at Kew York.
TTiere have been several schisms in the Northei-n Supreme Council
at different times, and tltere is now a Supreme Council which
claims authority from a body oi^nized by Joseph Cenieau, in
1813, as " the Supreme Council for the United States of America,
its Territories and r>e[>endencies." The number of Scottish Rite
bodies is about 13,000, of whom iilx)ut 10,000 are included in
the northern jurisdiction.
In addition to the degrees and rites above mentioned there Iiave
been others invented from time to time to gratify those who have
desired Masonie novelties. Among these have been the "Rite of
Memphis," with niuety-five degrees, the "Rite of Misraim," with
over one hundred degrees, and a variety of offshoots from the
Scottish Rite. There is also a Supreme Council, a Grand
Epcampment, and a Grand Lodge of Freemasons of African
Descent, claiming to derive legitimate authority from gi-and
bodies in Great Britain and France.
What, then, in its true essence is this order which has survived
so great a storm bi-ought upon it by its own indiscreet champions,
and which flourishes to-day in spite of the hostility of an ot^ani-
zation far gi-eater in extent, and a power which may be called the
accomulatinii of ages, namely, the Catholic Church, which has
ever been the foe of secrecy*' This Older of Freemasonry is a
comprehensive system of government founded upon the rights of
man, and exercised and enjoyed in the perfection of loyalty,
union, efficiency, and hai-mon}-.
Its mission is peace, progress, and prosperity. It contains the
antecedent ideals, the germs and models of the best forms of
human government. It demonstrates the unnumbered mutual
benefits and blessings flowing from the alliance of sovereignties
co-equal in status, rights, privileges, and prerogatives; and it
630 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
ix)ints out, and leads the way among free, enlightened, and pro-
gressive peoples, to the friendly federation of the world.
Not a religion or a system of religion, it is the handmaid of
all seeking truth, and light, and right. A centre of union for
good and true men of every race and tongue, who believe in God
and practise morality, it knows no politics, no sect, no hierarch,
no Caesar. Without claiming total exemption from the errors
and frailties incident to all things human, or the entire absence
of Iscariot betrayers, or of emissaries seeking to destroy, and
without pretensions to unattainable perfection, it ever strives, by
spreading the light of science and moral truth, by increasing the
power of knowledge, to make the whole realm of nature subser-
vient to the best interests, the highest hopes, and the loftiest
aims of man.
Freemasonry is a system of human philosophy, a school of
learning, a college of builders, a home of brethren. To the
artist and the artisan; to the poet and the philosopher; to the
theorist and the utilitarian ; to the speculative and the operative ;
to the man of business and the sage ; to the prince and the peas-
ant; to the old, the middle-aged, and the youth, Freemasonry is
alike congenial, instructive, and beneficent. Therein all meet
upon the Level, work by the Plumb, and part upon the Square.
Freemasonry is based upon immutable truth and right. It
knows not the changes and shifts of expediency and opportunism.
It is as moveless as the silent rock on which the storm -tossed ocean
rolls in wrath. Firm as the mystic pyramids, it stands, benign
and placid as the musing Sphinx. It survives the commotions
and downfall of empires ; and of it, in substance and essence, the
truth proclaims, semper eadem. It lacks only one element to
make it a true fraternity: it does not admit women into its magic
circle.
THE French republic, like that of the United States, is
the offapring of revolution. It was bom towards the
close of the last century amid the wildest social con-
vulsions which the world has ever witnessed. Like
Pallas Athene, the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, from the braiu of
Jove it sprang, armed and equipped, into the arena of conflict
with the allied monarchs of Europe, who joined their forces to
stamp out the young giant that was proclaiming Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity to all the people. In place of the ancient super-
stition of the divine right of kings to rule, France promulgated
the doctrine of popular sovereignty and maintained it success-
fully f^fainst the roj^l coalition in a desperate stru^le lasting
many years and only now appearing to have achieved a per-
manent victory.
The causes which produced the French Revolution of 1789
were manifold, but they may be summed up in a simple state-
ment: long continued oppression of the masses of the French
people. A brief epitome of the condition of the people prior to
the Revolution will be necessary in order to understand the cause
of the great upheaval. The peasantry who constituted the great
maaa had no voice in either the local or national government from
the time of Louis XIV., or for more than a century prior to the
Revolution. They were merely beasts of burden, producer of
wealth for the king, nobility and aristocratic clergy.
682 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Louis XIV. had absorbed in his own person all the powers of
government; he became the absolute master of France; he made
and annulled laws and levied taxes at his pleasure. His cele-
brated declaration, ^^I am the State/' made in reply to the request
that he should call the States-General or ancient parliament
together, summarizes his ideas of the rights of sovereigns; ideas
not peculiar to him alone, but which at the time prevailed gen-
erally throughout Europe.
Louis XIV. appointed eighteen councillors of State to aasist
him in governing tlie kingdom and its dependencies, and his
successors continued this form of government imtil Louis XVI.,
through necessity, found it indispensable to convoke the States-
General in 1789. During this period liberty of speech and
liberty of the press did not exist.
The penal law allowed the application of torture before trial,
permitted the most atrocious punishments, mutilations, and
death without according to the accused the right of having a
lawyer to manage his case and plead for him, and the judge who
imposed sentence was not even required to state a reason for the
sentence which he pronounced. The criminal code did not press
on all persons alike. A noble was not punished as severely as
a peasant for a similar offence.
There wei*e three general classes or orders of beings in the
kingdom: the nobility, clergy and plebeians. These were again
divided into other distinct classes. Among the nobility there
were the greater and the lesser ; the former living at the court in
splendor on the taxes which came into the national treasury, the
latter in the provinces on their estates on the rents and services
wrung from their tenants.
There were also among the clergy the very rich who enjoyed
the wealthy benefices, and the very poor who ministered to the
spiritual wants of the masses. Among the plebeians the cotnmer-
cial and professional class looked down with contempt upon
the artisan, and the latter scorned the peasant who lay at the
bottom of the ladder in poveity and ignorance supporting the
whole social supei-structure.
There was inequality in the family itself; the custom of primo-
geniture gave to the younger sons of the nobles only an oppor-
ilAPOI.EOW CROSHINO THE ALPS.
684 THE STOBY OF GOVBRNKENT.
tunity to enter the church or army, and to many of the daughters
the only refuge was the convent. In addition to these general
classes were the serfs bound to certain estates, the Jews and the
Protestants, who had no civil rights whatever until after the
death of Louis XIV., which occurred in 1715.
The taxes which were levied by the king and his eighteen royal
councillors were placed in such a way that they were practically
all paid by the peasantry and artisans. According to the official
report of M. Bailly, Inspector-General of Finance under Louin
XVI., in 1786, there was paid into the treasury for the benefit of
the king the sum of 558,172,000 livres; for the benefit of indi-
viduals, corporations, and communities 280,895,000 livres; for the
benefit of the provinces 41,448,000, making a total of 880,015,-
000 livres. 1
Of this enormous sum the clergy who, besides the revenue
derived from their immense property, received tithes of the prod*
ucts of the lands, paid little or nothing; they were expected to
make ^^ gratuitous donations'' to the national exchequer. The
nobility were subject to the payment of a poll tax and one
twentieth of their income, but they generally found means to
evade the payment of the latter. They owned nearly all the land
of France, but paid none of the land tax or taille^ as it was
termed.
The common people who possessed only a very small portion of
the soil paid the whole land tax amounting to 91,000,000 livres;
also the tithe, which in one portion of the kingdom was one
fortieth and in another was one fourth of the gross product, and
cost the agricultural portion of the inhabitants the sum of 133,-
000,000, the seigniorial dues amounting to 35,000,000 and the
corvees or manual service due the lords estimated at 20,000,000
livres. In addition to this gigantic burden the peasants were sub-
ject to multifarious restrictions for the benefit of the owners of
the soil.
Under these cnishing burdens the people of France groaned for
more than a century. The misery of the common people during
the reign of Louis XIV. was frightful. In years of fair harvests
they had barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in
1 A livre id equal to 16}i cents.
EXPERIMESTAI, KEPrBLIOANlaM. 6S5
yeara of scarcity they were destitute and died of starratioii by
thousanrls. In many places there was almost a relapee to sav-
agery. The ]>easants of fertile Normandy lived chiefly on oats, and
dressed in the skins of beasts. In Beauce, iiie very granary of
Paris, the faiTnere lived by begging duriug a portion of the year.
Ill a large number of thei provinces most of the people did not
know the taste of animal food.
Vauban infonns us that in the whole of France not more than
t«n thousand families were in comfortable circumstances. The
amount of articles of fooil consumed ^vas between two and three
times less per head of the population than at the present time.
La Bruy(*re, writing in tbe time of Louis XIV., calls these
peasants "Certain ferocious animals, male and female, scattered
over tbe countrj', biack, livid, and bui-ned by the sun, attached
to the land which they dig and work upon with incomprehensible
obstinacy ; they have an articulate voice, and when they rise on
their feet they exhibit a human facej and in fact they are men.
At night they retire to their dens where they live upon black
bread, water, and roots ; they spare other men the trouble of sow-
ing, cultivating and gathering articles of food."
In the mi<ist of this horrible suffering the king, nobility, and
aristocratic clergy rioted and revelled at the expense of the
plundered masses. In debauchery and licentiousnesa the plun-
derers dissipated tbe wealth produced by the workers. Immorality
became the prevailing fashion riidiating from the royal court out-
ward. Moral ideas had lost all practical force among the upper
As an illustration of the depth to which morality had fallen
the Marquis d'Ai^enson, a very estimable man, considering the
times, and one of the royal ministers, writing in a matter-of-fact
way regarding marriage, said: "Marriage, that monstrous obliga-
tion which will surely go out of fashion! " And continuing he
declared that the proper marriage contract should be " like a lease
contract which could be entered into in October and given up in
January, free unions being much more favorable to the race,"
This was the view of marriage entertained and acted upon by
the leaders of society, from tbe king downward, as the contem-
porary writeix abiiiitliintly show. Kever since the linif of Nen»,
686 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Caligula, and the other monsters of the Roman empire liad
morality fallen so low, or had corruption become so geneml and
brazen as in the kingdom of France before the Revolution.
But, while this long-continued Belshazzar orgy proceeded, new
forces antagonistic to this unnatural order of things entered the
field. The frightful abuses, the gross inequality among men, and
the great disorder and intense poverty, provoked criticism among
the few who had not lost every spark of decency and honesty.
F^nSlon demanded reform from a religious and political point of
view, while Vauban and others, confronted by a constantly
increasing national debt, demanded it from an economic.
The Marquis d'Argenson, in his work "Considerations on the
Government of France," declared for municipal and cantonal
self-government, freedom of trade at home and abroad, the election
of royal officers by ballot, and fearlessly asserted that " Two things
were chiefly to be desired for the good of the State: one that all
citizens should be equal, and the other that each should be the
son of his own works."
The men of letters, genemlly the children of the niiddlt* class,
or bourgeois, assailed with Avit, ridicule and satire the fuil)les and
vices of the aristocrats. The former were warmly welcomed to
the salons of tlie great, for, singular as it may seem, the frivolou-i,
sensual, egoistic society of the eighteenth century carried on even
amid its vices the cult of ideas.
It laughed at a well-polished hon mot even at its own ex[)ense.
Voltaire, Montesquieu, Jlousseaii, and the Kncyclo[)edists, [)liil(>so-
pliized on government and flung their multifarious shafts at the
existing order in Church and State with a skill and force whi(fh
attracted the attention of a multitude of minds, and their ideas
even found their way among tlie dense mass wliicli lived but to
furnish wealth for tJK*, frivolous and vicious.
Tlie tremendous political influence of these* three men on the
thought of their age can l)e clearly traced in the three great
epochs wliich made up the Revolution; tliat of Voltaire wide-
spread and general in the univei-sal enthusiasm of 1789; that of
Montesquieu, calm and statesmanlike in the attempts of the
National Assembly to devise and i)erj)etuate a constitutional gov-
mment, and of Rousseau in the thcmght and action of the savage
EXPBBIMENTAL REJUBLICilHIBM. 63T
leaders who took the helm in the Reign of Terror until they were
themselveii swallowed up in the maelstrom which they helped to
create.
Many strange stories ave told of the era just preceding this
ReTolution in France, stories which the sober historian is perhaps
too ready to reject, forgetting the wisdom embodied in Hamlet's
speech: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy." One of these legends is
that just before the crash in a gay salon the aged poet and
humorist, Cazotte, had a vision. The polished company had
been talking with volubility and eloquence of the wonderful
change which was going to be wrought in the condition of the
commoii people by the educational force of the fraternal doctrines
which Diderot, Voltaire, and the other social philosophers who
were styled Encyclopaedists had been industriously disseminating.
In the midst of this brilliant company who were discussing all
sorts of condescending schemes for the improvement of the masses,
plans which might have been well enough, had they not been too
late, the old poet Cazotte was smitteh with clairvoyance. The
room swam red around him, and in a voice that seemed to labor
up from a vast distance, but which every one heard with thrilling
distinctness, he cried aloud: "I see the end. The Revolution,
whose advent you so joyously prophesy, will come; hut it will
come, not as a feast of roses, but a flood of blood."
The lords and ladies, wits and philosophers, laughed loudly
and one gay dame exclaimed: "Bravo! How humorous the
dear old Cazotte is to-night; how well he acts it, like the
Jew before Belsliazzar !" Then the Marquis de Condorcet spoke
up: "Why not tell us our separate fates, Cazotte? Can you not
prophesy by retail as well as by wholesale V " And the ancient
poet answered: "Many lovely women and many brilliant and
noble men in the days of the impending Revolution will come
under the hands of the headsman, but you. Marquis de Condorcet,
though perishing in prison, will not be profaned by the vile fingers
of the executioner, for in those days wise men like you will carry
poison about them as a preventive. And you," he continued,
pointing from one to another in rapid succession, "your virtues
will not help you then, (ait dame. And you, your venemble
638 THE STOKY OF GOVERNMENT.
age will be no safeguaiti. And you your learning and your
g(;nius will not save. Tour trunkless heads now stare me in the
face."
Such was the restrained and evidently repressed intensity of
the speaker that an uncanny thrill ran tlirough the crowd, but La
Harpe, the disciple of Voltaire, La Harpe, the aggressive atheist,
feeling his neck with his taper fingers, as if fearful that his head
was already going, said quizzically: ^^Cazotte, what about me?
Tliis gory drama of your dream, why am I not in it? I want to
1x5 a star!" ** And so you shall," Cazott€ replied, "for you shall
live through that tempest and, strangest of all, when the calm
has come, you, yes, you, La Harpe, shall become a Christian."
How they roared at this I It seemed the crowning joke.
Cazotte ill all his life, some said, had never been so finely fan-
tastic as that night. Then one in the crowd cried out: "O
prophet, prophesy of thyself," and in the hush tliat followed
Cazotte said: "It is writ in history that for seven days prior to
the siege of JeiOLsalem by the Romans, a man ran about the walls
of that city Avhcreof not one stone was to be left upon another,
rendinjLT his garments and ciying aloud: *Woe unto thee, Jeiii-
saleml Woe unto thee and niel' and on the seventh day, at the
very Ix^ginni ng of the siege, a stone from a Roman catiipult made
that man the firet of the dead." Cazotte boAved liis head and left
\\\i\ ^ray salon. Some shivered a little but most of them tried to
laujifh it awav.
A similar story is told of the wizard Cagliostro mention of
whoso remarkable powei*s has been nuule in our chapter on
^liisonrv. It is said that Cagliostro, sitting at dinner with a
nunilKu- of promintMit nobles and foreign anilxissadoi's just on the
evtj of the French l^evolution, Wiis asked to look into the futui-e.
Shading his eyes with liis heavily jeweled hand, he sjxike in a
strange voice full of fearful intonations, giving a similar picture
of tjie Lon\)rs to come, and [)rophesying that oertixin Frenchmen
in tlie cohlpiwiy would meet with sudden and frightful ends.
One man, a foreign nobienian, asked laughingl}* if there were
no special dish fov him at such a feiist of horroi's; and the wizard,
leaning forward and looking deep into his eyes, answered: "Not
in P^nince, dear Count, but further on. I do not see quite
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1
■™"
EXl'KKIMKNTAL REI-UBLICANISM. ciS
how; tilt' scene is dim, as if clouded witli smoke, but Iwware of
masks! " One nf the wits present exclaimed: "A veiy suife und
s^e advii-e, for Itehind them is often some fiice too fair for a
man's jipace." The foreign count replied that lie did not fear; he
was too ohl a, soldier in that kind of warfare to do aught but love
tlie dangei'. Some yeare aftenvards this jirophecy or guess of
Cagliostm was stai'tlingly verified. The foitign nobleman had
become (iustuvus 111. of Sweden, and he was a-ssassinated from
behind with a pistol at a masked ball iw is faithfully portrayed in
our illnstiiiticui.
The Urnes had more tlian doubled during the reign of Louis
XV., who died in 1774, and yet thei-e Wiis a lai^e annual deficit.
Louis XV. foresaw quite clearly that a day of terrible reckoning
was close at hand, but in liis utter selfishness and moi-al degrada-
tion he consoled himself with the reflection that the storm would
descend upon another head than his own. Ou one occasion he
said: "Matters will go on as they are as long as I live; my suc-
cessor may get out of the difficulty ajj well as lie can." And his
favorite, Miulame de Pompadour, who ruled France through her
turpitude, re^wated with him "After us the deluge."
When Louis XVL ascended the throne, on the death of his
grandfather, he was only twenty yeai's of age. He was a young
man of excellent morals, loving the riglit, and desirous of doing
justice to all. He immediately commenced to alxiHsh the abuses
that surrounded him, l)eginuing with the royal residence, entrance
to which was denied to the titled courtesans who had fi-equented
its corridors and occupied the highest pliiees at the fetes in its
a[Mirtmenta during the reign of his predecessor.
He called to his aid as advisers two of the best and most
eminent l"i«uchnun living, Malcsherbes and Turgot, making the
former minister of the royal household, and the latter minister of
finance. Tui^ot, from the very moment of his api)ointment, in
1774, the year preceding the opening of the American Revolu-
tion, urged upon Louid XVI, "Xo hankruptcv, no increase of
t^ixatioii, no IwiTowing."
He planned extensive reforms in varioiLs directions, a gradual
development of the principle of local self-government in the
munici]>aliti68 and communes, the alMlitiou of the eotiiee or
634 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
tunity to enter the church or army, and to many of the daughters
the only refuge was the convent. In addition to these general
classes were the serfs bound to certain estates, the Jews and the
Protestants, who had no civil rights whatever until after the
death of Louis XIV., which occurred in 1715.
The taxes which were levied by the king and his eighteen royal
councillors were placed in such a way that they were practically
all paid by the peasantry and artisans. According to the official
report of M. Bailly, Inspector-General of Finance under Louis
XVI., in 1786, there was paid into the treasury for the benefit of
the king the sum of 558,172,000 livres; for the benefit of indi-
\'iduals, corporations, and communities 280,395,000 livres; for the
benefit of the provinces 41,448,000, making a total of 880,015,-
000 livres.i
Of this enormous sum the clergy who, besides the revenue
derived from their immense property, received tithes of the prod-
ucts of the lands, paid little or nothing; they were expected to
make "gratuitous donations" to the national exchequer. The
nobility were subject to the payment of a poll tax and one
twentieth of their income, but they generally found means to
evade the payment of the latter. They owned nearly all the land
of France, but paid none of the land tax or taille^ as it was
termed.
The common people who possessed only a very small portion of
the soil paid the whole land tax amounting to 91,000,000 livres;
also the tithe, which in one portion of the kingdom was one
foiiieth and in another was one foiulli of the gross product t, and
cost the agricultural portion of the inhabitants the sum of 138,-
000,000, tlie seigniorial dues amounting to 35,000,000 and the
corvees or manual service due the lords estimated at 20,000,000
livres. In addition to this gigantic burden the peiisants were sub-
ject to multifarious restrictions for the benefit of the owners of
the soil.
Under thes(j criLshing burdens the peoj)le of Fmnce groaned for
more than a century. The misery of the common people during
the reign of Louis XIV. was fric^litful. In years of fair harvests
they had barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in
' A livre 1:1 equal to ISJ-^ cents.
EXPERIMENTAL BEPUBLICAJdSM. 685
je.irs of scarcity they weie destitute and died o£ etanration by
thousands. In many places there was almost a relapse to sav-
agery. The peasants of fertile Normandy lived chiefly on oata, and
dressed in the skins of beasts. In Beauce, the very granary of
Paris, the farmera lived by begging during a portion of the year.
In a large number of the provinces most of the people did not
know the taste of animal food.
Vauhan informs us that in the whole of France not more than
ten thousand families wei'e in comfortable circumstances. The
amount of articles of food consumed was between two and three
times less per head of the population than at the present time.
La Eruy&re. wi'iting in the time of Louis XIV,, calls these
peasants "Certain ferocious animals, male and female, scattered
over the country, black, livid, and burned by the sun, attached
to the land wliich they dig and work upon witli incomprehensible
obstinacy ; they have an articulate voice, and when they rise on
their feet they exhibit a human face; and in fact they are men.
At night they retire to their dens where they live upon black
bread, water, and roots ; they spare other men the trouble of sow-
ing, cultivating and gathering articles of food."
In the midst of this horrible suffering the king, nobility, and
aristocratic clergy rioted and revelled at the expense of the
plundered masses. In debauchery and licentiousness the plun-
derers dissipated the wealth produt^ed by the workers. Immorality
became the prevailing fashion radiating from the royal court out-
ward. Jlora! ideas had lost all practical force among the upper
As an illustration of the depth to which morality had fallen
the Manjuis d'Ai^enson, a very estimable man, considering the
times, and one of the royal ministers, writing in a matter-of-fact
way regarding marriage, said: "Marriage, that monstrous obliga-
tion which will surely go out of fashion! " And continuing he
declared that the proper marriage contract should be " like a lease
contract which could be entered into in October and given up in
January, free unions being much more favorable to the race."
This was the view of marriage entertained and acted upon by
the leaders of society, from the king downward, as the contem-
poraiy writers ahumliiuLly show. Never since the time nf Nero,
636 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Caligula, and the other monsters of the Roman empire had
morality fallen so low, or had corruption become so general and
brazen as in the kingdom of France before the Revolution.
But, while this long-continued Belshazzar orgy proceeded, new
forces antagonistic to this unnatural order of things entered the
field. The frightful abuses, the gross inequality among men, and
the great disorder and intense poverty, provoked criticism among
the few who had not lost every spark of decency and honesty.
F^ndlon demanded reform from a religious and political point of
view, while Vauban and others, confronted by a constantly
increasing national debt, demanded it from an economic.
The Marquis d'Argenson, in his work "Considerations on the
Government of France," declared for municipal and cantonal
self-government, freedom of trade at home and abroad, the election
of royal officers by ballot, and fearlessly asserted that *'Two things
were chiefly to be desired for the good of the State : one tliat all
citizens should be equal, and the other that each should be the
son of his own works.*'
The men of letters, generally the children of the middle class,
or bourgeois, assailed with wit, ridicule and satiri' tlie foibles and
vices of the aristocrats. The former were warmly welcomed to
the salons of the great, for, singular as it may seem, the frivolous,
sensual, egoistic society of the eighteenth century earned on even
amid its vices the cult of ideas.
It laughed at a well-polished hon mot even at its own expense.
Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and the Eiieyelopedists, pliilosi)-
pliized on government and flung their multifarious shafts at the
existing order in Church and State with a skill and foree which
attracted the attention of a multitude of minds, and their ideas
even found their way among the dense mass which lived ])ut to
furnisli wealth for the frivolous and vicious.
The tremendous j)()litical influence of these three men on the
thought of their age can be clearly traced in the three great
epochs wliich made up the Revolution; that of Voltaire wide-
Si)read and general in the univei*sal enthusiiusm of 1789; that of
Montesquieu, calm and stiitesuianlike in the JittemptiS of the
National Assembly to devise and i)er[)etuate a constitutional gov-
ernment, and of Rousseau in the thought and action of the savage
EXPERIMENTAL EEPTTBLICAWISM. DST
leaders who Uwk tlie helm in the Keign of Ten'oi- until they were
theiuHelves swallowed up in the maelsti^om which they helped to
create.
Many strange .stories are told of the era just preceding this
ReTolution in France, stories which the sober historian is perhaps
too ready to reject, foi^etting the wisdom embodied in Hamlet's
speech: "'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy." One of these legends is
that just before the crash in a gay salon the aged poet and
humorist, Cazotte, had a vision. The polished company had
been talking with volubility and eloquence of the wonderful
change which was going to be wrought in the condition of the
common people by the educational force of the fraternal doctrines
which Diderot, Voltaire, and the other social philosophers who
were styled Encyclopjedists had been industriously disseminating.
In the midst of this brilliant company who were discussing all
sorts of condescending schemes for the improvement of the masses,
plans which might have been well enough, had they not been too
late, the old [X)et Cazotte was smittei. with clairvoyance. The
room swam red around him, and in a voice that seemed to labor
up from a vaat distance, but which every one heard with thrilling
distinctness, he cried aloud: "I see the end. Tlie Revolution,
whose advent you so joyously prophesy, will come; but it will
come, not as a feast of roses, but a flood of blood."
The lords and ladies, wits and philosophers, laughed loudly
and one gay dame exclaimed: "Bravo! How humorous the
dear old Cazotte is to-night; how well he acts it, like the
Jew before Belshazzar!" Then the Marquis de Condorcet spoke
up: "Why not tell us our separate fates, Cazotte? Can you not
prophesy by retail as well as by wholesale ? " And the ancient
poet answered: "Many lovely women and many brilliant and
noble men in the days of the impending Revolution will come
under the hands of the headsman, but you, Marquis de Condorcet,
though perishing in prison, will not be profaned by the vile fingers
of the executioner, for in those days wise men like you will carry
poison about them as a preventive. And you," he continued,
pointing from one to another in rapid succession, "your virtues
will not help yoa then, &ir dame. And you, your venerable
630 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
points out, and leads the way among free, enlightened, and pro-
gi-essive peoples, to the friendly federation of the world.
Not a religion or a system of religion, it is the handmaid of
all seeking truth, and light, and right. A centre of union for
good and true men of every race and tongue, who believe in God
and practise morality, it knows no politics, no sect, no hierarch,
no Casar. Without claiming total exemption from the errors
and frailties incident to all things human, or the entire absence
of Iscariot betrayers, or of emissaries seeking to destroy, and
without pretensions to unattainable perfection, it ever strives, by
spreading the light of science and moral truth, by increasing the
power of knowledge, to make the whole realm of nature subser-
vient to the best interests, the highest hopes, and the loftiest
aims of man.
Freemasonry is a system of human philosophy, a school of
learning, a college of builders, a home of brethren. To the
artist and the artisan; to the poet and the philosopher; to the
theorist and the utilitarian ; to the speculative and the operative ;
to the man of business and the sage ; to the prince and the peas-
ant; to the old, the middle-aged, and the youth, Freemasonry is
alike congenial, instructive, and beneficent. Therein all meet
upon the Level, work by the Plumb, and part upon the Square.
Freemasonry is based upon immutable truth and right. It
knows not the changes and shifts of expediency and opportunism.
It is as moveless as the silent rock on which the storm-tossed ocean
rolls in wrath. Firm as the mystic pyramids, it stands, benign
and placid as the musing Sphinx. It survives the commotions
and downfall of empires ; and of it, in substance and essence, the
truth proclaims, semper eadem. It lacks only one element to
make it a true fraternity: it does not admit women into its magic
circle.
THE French republic, like that of the United States, is
the ofEspriag of revolution. It was bom towards the
close of the last centuiy amid the wildest social con-
vulsions which the world has ever witnessed. Like
Pallas Athene, the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, from the brain of
Jove it sprang, armed and equipped, into the arena of conflict
with the allied monarchs of Eui-ope, who joined their forces to
stamp out the young giant that was proclaiming lAherty, Equality,
and Fraternity to all the people. In place of the ancient super-
stition of the divine right of kings to rule, France promulgated
flie doctrine of popular sovereignty and maintained it success-
fully against the royal coalition in a desperate struggle lasting
many years and only now appearing to have achieved a per-
manent victory.
The causes which produced the French Revolution of 1789
were manifold, but they may be summed up in a simple state-
ment: long continued oppression of the masses of the French
people. A brief epitome of the condition of the people prior to
the Revolution will be necessary in order to understand the cause
of the great upheaval. The peasantry who constituted the great
mass had no voice in either the local or national government from
the time of Louis XIV., or for more than a century prior to the
Revolution. They were merely beasts of burden, producei-s of
wealth for the king, nobility and aristocratic clergy.
682 THE 8TOBY OF OOVEBNBiENT.
Louis XIV. had absorbed in his own person all the powers of
government; he became the absolute master of France; he made
and annulled laws and levied taxes at his pleasure. His cele-
brated declaration, ^*I am the State/' made in reply to the request
that he should call the States-General or ancient parliament
together, summarizes his ideas of the rights of sovereigns; ideas
not peculiar to him alone, but which at the time prevailed gen-
erally throughout Euroj)e.
Louis XIV. appointed eighteen councillors of State to assist
him in governing die kingdom and its dependencies, and his
successors continued this form of government until Louis XVI.,
through necessity, found it indispensable to convoke the States-
Greneral in 1789. During this period liberty of speech and
liberty of the press did not exist.
The penal law allowed the application of torture before trial,
permitted the most atrocious punishments, mutilations, and
death without according to the accused the right of having a
lawyer to manage his case and plead for him, and the judge who
imposed sentence was not even required to state a reason for the
sentence which lie pronoimced. The criminal code did not press
on all persons alike. A noble was not punished as severely as
a peasant for a similar offence.
There were three general classes or orders of beings in the
kingdom : the nobility, clergy and plebeians. These were again
divided into other distinct classes. Among the nobility there
were the greater and the lesser ; the former living at the court in
splendor on the taxes which came into the national treasurj^ the
latter in the provinces on their estates on the rents and services
wnmg from their tenants.
There were also among the clergy the very rich who enjoyed
the wealthy l)enefices, and the very poor who ministered to the
spiritual wants of the masses. Among the plebeians the colnmer-
cial and professional class looked down with contempt upon
the artisan, and the latter scorned the peasant who lay at the
bottom of the ladder in poverty and ignorance supporting the
whole social superstructure.
There was inequality in the family itself; the custom of primo-
geniture gave to the younger sons of the nobles only an oppor-
NAPOLEON CltOSSINU THE ALPS.
634 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
tunity to enter the church or army, and to many of the daughters
the only refuge was the convent. In addition to these general
classes were the serfs bound to certain estates, the Jews and the
Protestants, who had no civil rights whatever until after the
death of Louis XIV., which occurred in 1715.
The taxes which were levied by the king and his eighteen royal
councillors were placed in such a way that they were practically
all paid by the peasantry and artisans. According to the official
report of M. Bailly, Inspector-General of Finance under Louis
XVI., in 1786, there was paid into the treasury for the benefit of
the king the sum of 558,172,000 livres; for the benefit of indi-
viduals, corporations, and communities 280,395,000 livres; for the
benefit of the provinces 41,448,000, making a total of 880,015,-
000 livres.i
Of this enormous sum the clergy who, besides the revenue
derived from their immense property, received tithes of the prod-
ucts of the lands, paid little or nothing; they were expected to
make "gratuitous donations" to the national exchequer. The
nobility were subject to the payment of a poll tax and one
twentieth of their income, but they generally found means to
evade tlie payment of the latter. They owned nearly all the land
of France, but paid none of the land tax or taille^ as it wi\s
termed.
The conmion people who possessed only a very small portion of
the soil paid the wliole land tax amounting to 91,000,000 livres;
also the tithe, which in one portion of the kingdom was one
fortieth and in another was one fourth of the gross product, and
cost the agricultural portion of the inhabitants the sum of 133,-
000,000, the seigniorial dues amounting to 35,000,000 and the
corvees or manual service due the lords estimated at 20,000,000
livres. In addition to this gigantic burden the peasants were sub-
ject to multifarious restrictions for the benefit of the ownei's of
the soil.
Under these crusliing burdens the people of France groaned for
more than a century. Hie misery of the common people during
the reic^n of Louis XIV. was fricrhtful. In yeai's of fair harvests
they had barely sufficient to keep body and soul together; in
' A livre is equal to 18J4 cents.
HXPERLMENTAL BBPtJhUCAKISM. 635
years of scarcity they were destitute and died o£ starratioD by
thousiuidii. In many places there was almost a relapse to sav-
agery- The peasants of fertile Normandy lived chiefly on oats, and
dressed in the skins of beasts. In Beatice, the very granaiy of
Paris, the faiTnera lived by begging during a portion of the year.
In a large number of the provinces most of the people did not
know the taste of animal food.
Vaiiban informs ua that in the whole of France not more than
ten tliousand families were in comfortjible circumstances. The
amount of artieica of food consumed \vas between two and three
times less per head of the population than at the present time.
La Bruy^re, writing in the time of Louis XIV., calls these
peasants "Certain feroi-ious animals, male and female, scattered
over the country, black, livid, and burned by the sun, attached
to the land whi<;h they dig and work upon with incomprehensible
obstinacy; tbey have an articulate voice, and when they rise on
their feet they exhibit a human face; and in fact they are men.
At night they retire to their dens where they live upon black
bread, water, and roots ; they spare other men the trouble of sow-
ing, cultivating and gathering articles of food."
In the midst of this horrible suffering the king, nobility, and
aristocratic clergy rioted and revelled at the expense of the
plundered masses. In debauchery and licentiousness the plun-
derers dissipated the wealth produced by the workers. Immorality
became the prevailing fashion radiating from the royal court out-
ward. Moral ideas had lost all practical force among the upper
classes.
As an illustration of the depth to which morality had fallen
the Marquis d'Argenson, a very estimable man, considering the
times, and one of the royal ministers, writing in a matter-of-fact
way regarding marriage, said: "Marriage, that monstitms obliga-
tion which will surely go out of fashion! " And continuing he
declared that the proper marriage contract should be "like a lease
contract which could Ije entered into in October and given up in
January, free unions being much more favorable to the race."
This was the view of marriage entertained and acted upon by
the leaders of society, from the king downward, as the contem-
porary writers abundantly show . Kever siute the tinii; of Xci-o,
686 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Caligula, and the other monsters of the Roman empire liad
morality fallen so low, or had corruption become so general and
brazen as in the kingdom of France before the Revolution.
But, while this long-continued Belshazzar orgy proceeded, new
forces antagonistic to this unnatural order of things entered the
field. The frightful abuses, the gross inequality among men, and
the great disorder and intense poverty, provoked criticism among
the few who had not lost every spark of decency and honesty.
F^ndlon demanded reform from a religious and political point of
view, while Vauban and others, confronted l)y a constantly
increasing national debt, demanded it from an economic.
The Marquis d'Argenson, in his work "Considerations on the
Government of France," declared for municipal and cantonal
self-government, freedom of trade at home and abroad, the election
of royal oflBcers by ballot, and fearlessly asserted that "Two things
were chiefly to be desired for the good of the State : one that all
citizens should be equal, and the other that each should be the
son of his own works.'*
The men of letters, generally the children uf the middle chiss,
or l)Ourgeois, assailed with wit, ridicule and sat in* the foibles and
vices of the aristocrats. The former were warmly welcomed to
the salons of the great, for, singular as it may seem, tlie frivolous,
sensual, egoistic society of the eigliteentli century carried on even
amid its vices the cult of ideas.
It laughed at a well-polished hnn mot even at its own expense.
Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and tlie Encyclopedists, pliiloso-
phized on government and flung their nnilti Carious sliafts at tlie
existing order in C'liurch and State with a skill and force wliicli
attracte(l the attention of a multitude of minds, and their ideas
even found their way among the dense mass whicli lived but to
furnisli wealth for tlie frivolous and vicious.
Tlie tremendous jHjlitical influence of tluise three men on the
thou<ifht of their a<re can be clearlv traced in tlie three irreat
ej^ochs wliich made up the Revolution; that of Voltaire wide-
si)read and general in the iniivei-sal enthusiasm of 1789; that of
Montes(piieu, calm and statesmanlike in the attempts of tlie
National Assembly to devise and perpetuate a constitutional gov-
ernment, and of Rousseau in the tliought and action of the savjige
EXPEBtMENTAL BEPUBLICAHTaM. DdT
leaders who took the helm in the Reign of Terror until they were
themselves swallowed up in tlie maelstrom which they helped to
create.
Many strange stories are told of the era just preceding this
Revolution in France, stories which the sober historian is perliaps
too ready to reject, forgetting the wisdom embodied in Hamlet's
apeech: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
tlian ore dreamt of in your philosophy. " One of these legends is
that just before the crasli in a gay aalon the aged poet and
humorist, Cazotte, had a vision. The polished company had
been talking with volubility and eloquence of the wonderful
change whirh was going to be wrought in the condition of the
common people by the educational force of the fraternal doctrines
which Diderot, Voltaire, and the other social philosophers who
were styled EncyelopEedists had been industriously disseminating.
In the midst of this brilliant company who were discussing all
sorts of condescending schemes for the improvement of the masses,
plans which might have been well enough, had they not been too
late, the old poet Cazotte was smittei. with clairvoyance. The
room swam red around him, and in a voice that seemed to labor
up from a vast distance, but which every one heard with thrilling
distinctness, he cried aloud: "I see the end. The Revolution,
whose advent you so joyously prophesy, will come; but it will
come, not as a feast of roses, but a flood of blood."
The loids and ladies, wits and philosophers, laughed loudly
and one gay dame exclaimed: "Bravo! How humorous the
dear old Cazotte is to-night; how well he acts it, like the
Jew before Belsbazzar!" Then the Marquis de Condorcet spoke
up: "Why not tell us our separate fates, Cazotte? Can you not
prophesy by retail as well as by wholesale?" And the ancient
poet answered: "Many lovely women and many brilliant and
noble men in the days of the impending Revolution will come
under the hands of the headsman, but you, Marquis de Condorcet,
though perishing in prison, will not be profaned by the vile fingers
of the executioner, for in those dajra wise men like you will cany
poison about them as a preventive. And you," he continued,
pointing from one to another in rapid succession, "your virtues
will not help you then, fair dame. And yoUi your venerable
688 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
age will be no safeguard. And you your learning and your
genius will not save. Your trunkless heads now stare me in the
face.*'
Such was the restrained and evidently repressed intensity of
the speaker that an uncanny thrill ran through the crowd, but La
Harpe, the disciple of Voltaire, La Harpe, the aggressive atlieist,
feeling his neck with his taper fingers, as if fearful that his head
was already going, said quizzically: "Cazotte, what about me?
This goiy drama of your dream, why am I not in it ? I want to
be a star!" "And so you shall," Cazotte replied, "for you shall
live through that tempest and, strangest of all, when the calm
has come, you, yes, you, La Harpe, shall become a Christian."
How they roared at this! It seemed the crowning joke.
Cazotte in all his life, some said, had never been so finely fan-
tastic as that night. Then one in the crowd cried out: "O
prophet, prophesy of thyself," and in the hush that followed
Cazotte said: "It is writ in history that for seven days prior to
the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, a man ran about the walls
of that city whereof not one stone was to be left upon another,
rending his garments and erjnng aloud: *Woe imto thee, Jeru-
salem! Woe unto thee and me!' and on the seventh day, at the
very Ijeginning of the siege, a stone from a Roman catapult made
that man the firat of the dead." Cazotte bowed his head and left
the gay salon. Some shivered a little but most of them tried to
laugh it away.
A similar stor}' is told of the wizard Cagliostro mention of
whose reinarka])le powei*s litus been made in our chapter on
^Masonry. It is said tliat Cagliostro, sitting at dinner with a
nunilMM" of prominent nol)le3 and foreign anib:issadoi*s just on the
eve of the Frencli Revolution, was asked to look into the futui'e.
Shading his eves with his heavily jeweled hand, he sj>oke in a
strange voice full of fearful intonations, giving a similar picture
of tjie LojToi-s to come, and jirophesying that certain Frenchmen
in tlie eohiinwiy would meet with sudden and frightful ends.
One man, a foreign nol)ieman, asked laughingly if there were
no sjjeeial dish fov him at such a feitst of liorroi^; and the wizanl,
leaning forward and looking deep into his eyes, answered: "Xot
here in Fnince, dear Count, but further on. I do not see quite
EXHBKIMI11KT.&L RKPtTULlCANlSM. 643
how; tin: scfiif is dim, ius if (rlomteil with MUtnki-. Imt litnviiii- i.f
masks '. " One of the wiu present exclaimed : " A very safe and
sage advice, for betiind them is often some face too fair for a
man's i>eace." The foreign count replied that he did not fear; he
was too olil a soldier in tliat kind of warfare to do auglit but love
the dangei'. Some years afterwards this propliecy or guesH of
Caglioatio was startlingly verified. The foi-eign nobleman had
become Gustavus III. of Sweden, and he was assassinated from
behind with a pistol at a masked l«ll as is faithfully [wrtrayed in
our illustration.
The taxes had more tlian doubled during the reign of Louis
XV., who died in 1774, and yet there w;i3 a large annual deficit.
Louis XV. foresaw quite clearly that a day of terrible reckoning
was close at hand, but in his utter selfishness and moral degrada-
tion he ponsoled himself with the reflection that the storm would
descend upon another head than his own. On one occasion he
said : " Mattein will go on as they are m long as 1 live ; my suc-
cessor may get out of the difficulty as well as he can." And his
favorite, Madame de Pompadour, who ruled Fiunee through her
turpitude, rejjeated with him "After us the deluge."
When Louis XVL ascended the throne, on the death of his
grandfather, he was only t^venty years of age. He was a young
man of excellent morals, loving the right, and desirous of doing
justice to all. lie immediately commenced to aljolish the abuses
that surrounded him, Ijeginning with the royal residence, entmnce
to which was denied to the titled courtesans who had frequented
its corridors and occupied the highest places at the fetes in its
apartments during the reign of his predecessor.
He called to bis aid iis ad\'isers two of the best and most
eminent Krenchnitu living, Malesherbes and Tui^ot, making the
fonner minister of the royal household, and the latter minister of
finance. Tnrgot, from the very moment of his appointment, in
1774, the year preceding the opening of the American Revolu-
tion, urged upon Loui;j XVI. "Xo Iiankruptcy, no increase of
taxation, no bonowing."
He planned extensive reforms in various directions, a gradual
dcvolnpmcnt of the principle of local ar If -government in the
mnnii'ipiilitii'H and conununt-.t, the abolition of thi- corim- or
m
644 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
manual service tax on the pea8antr}% the imposition of a land
tax on the clergy and nobility, the suppression of the greater part
of the monasteries, the equalization of the land tax by a national
land survey, liberty of conscience including the abolition of the
penal code against Protestants, a national code of laws, and a
uniform system of weights and measures for the whole kingdom,
with several other beneficent mesisures which, could they have
been carried out, might have averted the awful catastrophe which
some years later burst like a cyclone over France, astounding the
world with its destructive violence.
But the privileged classes, the nobility and many of the clergy
whose selfish interests were threatened by Turgot's prapositions
made bitter war on the minister, and opposed his every effort to
carry his reforms into practical operation. His progress was slow
and partial. Almost the entire nobility opposed the removal of
the corvee tax on the peasants for a sum equivalent to it laid on
the landowners, but the minister, backed up by the king, suc-
ceeded in abolishing this hoary wrong.
He also freed industries from the control of the seigneurs or
landlords on whose estattis tliey were carried on, and by so doing
increased the numl^er of his enemies. All the selfishness of the
ancient regime formed a conspii-acy against him. The young
king was beleaguered by his enemies and finally, growing weary
of the mental strain to which lie was subjected l)y Turgot on the
one side holding up to his view vast designs which were beyond
his capacity, and the importunities and wliispered suspicions of
the conspirators on the otlier, he asked the minister to resign.
In May, 1776, after two yeai*s of service, Turgot sent in his
resignation in writing, saying: ''My only desii*e is that you will
always be able to believe tliat I have l)een mistaken, and that I
have warned you of fancied dangers. I hoptj that time will not
justify my fears and that your reign may l>e as happy and as
peaceful as your i)eoi)le have expected from your principles of
justice and benevolence."
Malesherbes, the other upright minister, was also forced to
resign. Thirteen yeai-s later he volunteered to defend his i-oyal
master before the National Convention which thirsted for his
blood. Both ministers were succeeded by temporizing and incom-
w
^
EXI'EKIMENTAI. UK!*UBt
!4!RM
S45
petent
lueQ.
Four months
afterwHrds
(ill
the i-efoi-m
measures
liad bee
■n rei)eftletl, and the privilegL-d clasaet
1 reinstated
ill wniiifr-
doing.
But
Fmiiot liad iin
AV imunu'd i
iiiie
w fiimiiL-i:il l.mdeii l.y
her war with England, as an ally of our colonies during the war
for independence. In order to meet this great emergency it was
necessary to call to the assistance of the incompetent minister of
finance some one capable of devising ways and means to support
the army and navy.
This person was found in a celebrated Geneva linker named
Neckar, who acquitted himself with honor in a position made
difficult by the jealousy of the ministers, and tlie ill-concealed
hostility of the courtiei-s. He, too, was forced to resign after
five years of aniuous service.
The cause of his fall was the publication of his famoiis
"Account Rendered," or itjiwrt on the state of the French
finances, which he gave to the public in 1781. In this i-eport
the receipts as set forth appeared to be 10,000,000 livres more
than the expenses, but there was no account of the money bor-
rowed, nor of the toUil expenditures for war purposes. The
public applauded the Hnancier and his report, and the capitalists,
on the strength of it, lent the minister of finance an additional
286,000,000 livi-es.
The court, however, and all the noble placemen and pensioners
decried the publication as a monstrous innovation, a decided
breach of privilege. It was an appeal to the public opinion of
France, something hitherto unheard of anil not to be tolerated.
What would become nf the pensions an<I the customary robbery
carried on in secret, if the national accountji were to be submitted
to the public scrutiny;*
Neckar's fate was decided by his celebrated Cumpte Jtemlu.
Maurepas, the first minister of tlie king, engineered the attack,
and the assault which had been successful agaijist Turgot pn)ved
auccessful against his successor. Louis gave way to the clamor
of the courtiers, and Neckar was deposed for daring to lay before
the jieople even a partial report of the amount of money which
diey paid into the royal treasury, and the purposes for which it
was expended.
Thus things drifted from year to year, the treasury becoming
644 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
mauual service tax on the peasaiitr}% the imjx)sition of a land
tax on the clergy and nobility, the suppression of the greater part
of the monasteries, the equalization of the land tax by a national
land survey, liberty of conscience including the abolition of the
j>enal code against Protestants, a national code of laws, and a
uniform system of weights and measures for the whole kingdom,
with several other beneficent measures which, could they have
been carried out, might have averted the awful catastrophe which
some years later burst like a cyclone over France, astounding the
world with its destructive violence.
But the privileged classes, the nobility and many of the clergy
whose selfish interests were threatened by Turgot's propositions
made bitter war on the minister, and opposed his every effort to
carry his reforms into practical operation. His progiess was slow
and partial. Almost the entire nobility opposed the removal of
the corvee tax on the peasants for a sum equivalent to it laid on
the landowners, but the minister, backed up by the king, suc-
ceeded in abolishing this hoary wrong.
He also freed industries from the control of the seigneurs or
landlords on whose estates they were carried on, and by so doing
increased the number of his enemies. AH the selfishness of the
ancient regime formed a coiispii-acy against him. The young
king was beleaguered by his enemies and finally, growing weary
of the mental strain to wliich lie was subjected by Turgot on the
one side holding up to his view vjist designs which were beyond
his capacity, and the importunities and wliispered suspicions of
the consi)irators on the otlier, he asked tlie minister to resign.
In May, 1776, after two years of service, Turgot sent in his
resignation in writing, saying: '^My only desire is that you will
always be able to believe that I have been mistaken, and that I
have warned you of fancied dangei^s. I hoptj that time will not
justify my fears and that your reign may l)e as happy and as
peaceful as your i>eople have expected from your principles of
justice and benevolence."
Malesherbes, the other upright minister, was also forced to
resign. Thirteen yeai-s later he volunteered to defend his royal
niiister before the National Convention wliich thirsted for his
blood. Both ministers were succeeded by temporizing and incom-
EXHEIUMENTAI, KErUBI.IfANISM 646
pettiitt men. Four monthij afterwards all the refoiin ineasiuvs
hatl been reijealed, anil the privileged closes reinstated in wrong-
doing. But Ftimce had now assumed a new financial hurden liy
her war wiUi England, jis an ally of our colonies during the war
fur -ndeiiendence. In urder to meet this great emergency it ivtis
necessary to call to the assistance of the incompetent minister of
finance some one capable of devising ways and means to support
the army and navy.
This peraon was found in a celebrated Geneva biinker named
Neckar, who acquitted himself with honor in a position made
difficult by the jealousy of the ministers, and the ill-concealed
hostility of the courtiers. He, too, was forced to resign after
five years of arduous service.
The cause of his fall was the publication of his famous
"Account Rendered," oi- i-eport on the state of the French
finances, which he gave to the piiblic in 1781. In this i-eport
the receipts as set forth appeared to be 10,000,000 livres more
than the expenses, but there wiis no account of tlie money bor-
rowed, nor of the total exyenditures for war purposes. The
public applauded the financier and his report, and the capitalists,
on the strength of it, lent the minister of finance an additional
286,000,000 livi-es.
The court, liowever, and all the noble jdacemen and pensioners
decried the publication as a monsti-ous innovation, a decided
breach of privilege. It was an appeal to the public opinion of
France, something hitherto unheard of and not to be tolerated.
What would become of the pensions and the customary robbery
carried on in secret, if the national accounts were to be submitted
to the public scrutiny V
Neckar's fate was decided by his celebrated Compte Rendu.
Maurepas, the first minister of the king, engineered the attack,
and the assault which had been successful gainst Turgot proved
successful against his successor. Louis gave way to the clamor
of the courtiers, and Neckar was deposed for daring to lay before
the jwople even a pai-tial report of the amount of money which
they paid into the royal treasury, and the purposes for which it
was expended.
Thus things drifted from year to year, the treasury liecoming
646 THE STORY OF CJOVEHNMEXT.
more deeply involved in debt at enonnoiis rates of interest, desti-
tution among the masses growing more intense, while profound
fermentation of thought gained in power among the middle
classes, permeating even to the peasantry, who git)wled like
Caliban in restlessness and misery. Calonne, who was appointed
Comptroller-General of Finance in 1788, had little or no ability
for the difficult iX)sition wliicli he occupied, but he managed to
boiTow and expend 500,000,000 francs over and abovt* the
ordinary taxes in three yeai*s with tlie country at peace.
On his disclosing to tlie king this staU? of affaii-s it was deter-
mined to stop further borrowing and to reform the whole system
of taxation. Calonne now proposed to adopt in great part the
plan laid down by Turgot; lie Avould subject the privileged
classes to a tax and the payment of a subsidy ba^sed on land ; he
woukl diminish the land tiix and tluis lighten the burden of the
peasants; grant fi*eedom of trade in grain, and abolisli other
annoying restrictions whicli the common people were loudly cry-
ing out against.
To effect these poimlar rt^forms it was necessary to have recoui-se
to the nation. The kiny: and Calonne were in favor of summon-
ing the States-Clenend, or parliament, of all France, which had
not been convened for over a centurv. Hut tliti veiy name of the
States-General excited alarm in the breast of every pensioner and
(iouilier, and the king did not venture to do more tlian convene
a meeting of the notiibles.
Tlujv met on Febniarv 1-, 1787, to tht^ number of one hundred
and fortv-four membtM-s, of whom twentv-seven were set down as
rcin-esenting the third estate or bourgeois, although in fact there
were ()nly six or seven of the latter among them. The repre-
sentatives of tlu^ Third Estate approved the 2)lans of reform set
forth bv Calonne, but the nibbles refused their assent to burden
their class with a tax on land which they preferred should con-
tinue to 1h*. 2)aid by the peasantry.
The discussion on this i)()int waxed warm; the king took a
heading part in it, growing angry at the stolid opposition to the
measures which he endoi*sed, and he informed them that thev
should (-online their deliberation to the manner in which the tiixes
should be laid, and not to th(^ ]>rinciple of them. Rut the nobles
EXPERIMENTAI, REPUBLICANISM.
647
were almost unanimously adverse, and finally the king wm foi-ced
to give way and send Calonne info exile in Lorraine.
A year later Neckar was recalled to office as fimt minister by
the king. His return to power was hailed by acclamations of
welcome. Confidence revived and the public securities immedi-
ately adviinced thirty
per cent. He found
only 500,000 livies
in the treasury, while
the claims upon it
were very lai^e and
m^nt. No triviil
remedy would me(,t
the n:(inirement« if
the situation. Xeckii
proposed, a n d the
king sanctioned th
convocation of the
StatfN-General ; the
nobility strenuousU
resiHted, Imt the king
hacked up by his ahit
minister, was inflesi
ble, and the States
General wa-^ onleiel
to assemble at Vli
sailles on tlif liii^t d i\
of May, 1T8'.>. I*i •
found e\citenitnt
pi-evailed tlinni<;hout
the country anionfj
all classes on receipt '<•'* 't iavhion t Tin ui
(it this news.
l>emocnitic chilis sfiran^' into i-xistonce In all the
towns, wliich were harangued niglitlyby imi>assioned orators who
declaimed against tlio wrongs the people suffered. The follow-
ing platform of principles was adopted by the Tliii-d Estate
whicli the deputies to the States-General were instructed to sup[iort.
and
648 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
1. Political: that sovereignty emanating from the people
should be exercised only by the agreement of the national repre-
sentatives with the hereditary chief of the state; the urgency of
establishing a constitution for France ; the exclusive right of the
States-General to make the laws which, before being promulgated,
should obtain the royal sanction, to control public expenses and
to vote taxes. The abolition of financial immunities and per-
sonal privileges of the clergy and the nobility; the suppression of
the last remnants of serfdom; the admissibility of all citizens to
public employment; the responsibility of the agents of executive
power.
2. Moral: liberty of worship and of the press; edtusatian of poor
and abandoned ehUdren by the state.
3. Judicial: imiformity of legislation and of jurisprudence ; the
suppression of exceptional jurisdictions; the publicity of debates;
the amelioration of penal laws; the reform of procedure.
4. Administrative: the creation of provincial assemblies; unity
of weights and measures ; a re-division of the kingdom according
to population and revenue.
5. Economic: liberty of industries; the suppression of internal
customs duties; the replacing of the various taxes by a real
estate and personal tax which would reach the products but never
the capital.
On the second of May all the deputies were assembled and
formally presented to the king. On the fifth day Louis opened
the proceedings, seated on his throne surrounded by the princes
of the blood royal. The court occupied the steps of the throne.
On the right of the king sat the clergy numbering 291 members,
comprising 48 archbishops and bishops, 35 abb& or canons, 204
curates, and 3 monks. On the left were seated the nobility
numbering 270 members, consisting of one prince of the blood,
the Duke of Orleans, 240 gentlemen, and 28 magistrates of the
superior courts ; while directly in front of the king at the lower
end of the hall sat the Tliird Estate consisting of 584 members,
of whom 12 were gentlemen, 2 priests, 18 mayors or consuls of
large cities* 162 magistrates, 212 lawyers, 16 physicians, 162
merchants or land-owners and fanners.
The king addressed the assemblage in a l)rief speech which was
'ERIMENTAI. l:iil'UHLU;AI.'ISM. 649
wannly applauded. Neckar preseiiteJ an extensive rupoit on tiie
istat« o£ the treasmy, iu which he showed that there existed an
annual deficit of 56,000,000 livrea and 260,000,000 of anticipated
TeCttipts, and he declared that the t^ing desired the states to assist
him in drvnlnpinn; the indnsti-ies of tlje kingdom and placing its
prosperity upon a lasting hasis.
The assemblage on proceeding to organize for business encoun-
tered the first difficulty on the question of who should 1« entitled
to pronounce judgment on the credentials of the members. The
clergy and nobility claimed that each order should jiass upon its
own members, while the members of the Third Estate unani-
mously insisted that the verification of the credentials of each
member to the States-General should be by the vote of all taken
together.
Inasmuch as the future method of voting upon iiU questions
depended on this matter as a precedent, a hitter struggle ensued
which continued for five weeks. If the vote was to be tJiken by
orders or classes the clergy and nobility were certain of a majority
as against the Third Estate or plebeian order, while if it was taken
by members the latter had a good working majority. Hence the
importance of the contest.
A number of democratic priests from among the clergy joined
the Third Estate in a separate hall which they occupied. ^Vt
length, on the 17th of June, 1789, the Abb^ Sieyes ai-ose among
the benches of the Third Estate and moved that it lesolve itself
into a national asBembly, "inasmuch as this assembly is already
composed of representiitives sent directly by at least ninety-six
hundredths of the nation," etc. ; and afterwards, by another reso-
lution, the word "constituent" was added, thus giving to the
assemblage its oificial designation " National Constituent Assem-
bly " of France.
The order of the clergy by a small majority voted on the 19th
of June to act with the assembly, Tlie court, the nobility, and
some of the aristocratic clei^y pressed the king to disperse the
Aaaembly by force. On the 20th of June soldiera jtatrolled the
vicinage of their place of meeting and guarded the doors of their
hall, keeping them closed, whereupon the president of the Assem-
bly, M. Bailly, convened the members in a tennis court where
660 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
they took a solemn oath before God and their fellow members not
to separate, whatever the consequences, until they had adopted a
written constitution for the people of France.
The majority of the clergy now joined the Third Estate, and
on June 21st, in the Church of Saint Louis, the Assembly pro-
ceeded formally to hold its first session. The king held a royal
sitting on the following day, June 22d, and he warned the
deputies to refrain from laying violent Iiands on the ancient and
constitutional rights of the three orders of the States-General.
"I will work out the welfare of my people alone if you abandon
me," continued the king. He then requested the three orders to
retire to the respective places of meeting assigned them. The
nobility and some of the clergy obeyed, but the deputies of the
Third Estate remained in their seats. The Marquis de Breze,
the king's high chamberlain, retui-ned to the hall and addressed
them, saying, "Gentlemen, you have heard the orders of the king.**
The Count do Mirabeau, one of the popular deputies from Pro-
vence, rebuked the king's messenger for daring to intimidate the
representatives of the people in the performance of their duty,
and told hiiu amid the plaudits of his colleagues, "Go and tell
your master that we are here by the will of the people, and that
we will l)e sent awav only at the i)oint of the bayonet."
On the next day the Assembly solemnly proclaimed the inviola-
bility of its members. Forty-seyen niembei-s of the nobility and
a majority of the clergy novy unit<»d with the ineml)ei« of the
Third Estat<? and finally the king deemed it the wisest course to
pei'suade all of the two orders to join the third, which tliey did
on Juno 27th. The Assembly then organized its committees for
business.
Meantim(j it was generally believed that the coxxrt was prepar-
ing to use force against tlu; National Assembly. Thiily thou-
sand troi^ps were drawn around Paris, among them some foreign
regiments in the king's pay, on the pretext of protecting the
representatives during their del ilu^mt ions. The people of Paris
were nmch excited oyer this unealled-for militaiy display, and
the Assembly, by a large majority, demanded th«at the soldiers be
remoyed from the city.
The royal reply to tliis demand was the dismissal and exile of
652 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
Neckar on July 11th. The anger of the populace became un-
bounded. Several collisions between groups of citizens and sol-
diers immediately took place. The people turned out into the
streets en masse, selected their officers, made fifty thousand pikes
in thirty-six hours, seized thirty thousand muskets with cannon
and sabres which wei-e stored in the Hotel des Jnvalides^ of which
historic place we present a picture, and on the 13th of July
marched upon the Bastile which they stormed after severe loss,
and put to death every one of its garrison, refusing quarter to
any. The Revolution was thus baptized in blood, the forerunner
of rivers yet to flow.
The Revolutionary flame spread to the i-emote countiy districts.
Within a few weeks after the storming of the Bastile the peas-
antry arose in many places aimed with scythes, axes, and other
instruments of husbandry, and set fii'e to castles and convents, to
destroy the old title deeds to the soil^ believing that by their destruc-
tion they would become the owners of the land which they and
their fathers had cultivated for the benefit of the lords.
Lives were lost in the conflict which took place between the
retainers of the castles luul the ignorant, maddened i)easants who,
just aroused to a dim realization of their position and strength,
struck out blindly and brutally. It was Caliban awakening.
To meet the threatening stoim which lowered all round the hori-
zon, wholesale refomis became urgent even in the mind of the
nobility. The nobles in the Assembly, thei*efore, moved to
abolish all the exclusive privileges which they had hitherto
I)OSsessed, and also ecclesiastical tithes, municipal and provincial
privileges. Thus feudalism was abolished in the nation, and
the fii-st plank in the platfonn of the Third Estate — the equality
of man — had l)ecome a reality.
Lafayette, the friend of Wjushington, was appointed general of
the citizen militia of Paris. The pi*estige which he had gained in
the war for American independence led to his selection by tlu»
king with the assent of the Assembly. He endeavored to conti-ol
the eddies and whirlpools of ptission that seethed and foamed
along the revolutionary cun-ent, and for a time he partially suc-
ceeded, but eventually was forced to retire, impotent in the fac;e
of the gigantic upheaval which flung to the surface of society
KXI'KRIMKXTAI. IIV.IT IST.rCAN
conflicting elements inflamed with passion and filled with vanity
at their suddenly acquired power. The conservative leadeis
were gradually pushed aside by the more radical and violent as
the Revolution progressed. Many of the nobility and clergy
fled the country.
Meantime the National Constituent Assembly passed many
beneficent laws. It adopted a constitution which among other
things decreed absolute toleration in matters of religious faith,
liberty of speech, press, industry and commerce. It alx)lished
the feudal la^vs of primogeniture and entail of estates and confis-
cation of property, and decreed the division of projierty among all
the children of a deceased pereon, Protestants and Jews were
admitted to all civil rights, the fomici- were reinstated in such
j>ortions of theii' estates as hiis been added to the projwrty of the
state, an<l the colored people nf the French i-olonie» acquired all the
civil rightu of the whites. All titles of nobility were abolished;
all the people without distinction were simply citizens of France,
and the king was declared chief officer of the state for life.
From the opening of the Assembly in 1789, to the day of its
dissolution on Se]iteinber 30, 17P1, two jwwerful opposing forces
Itattleil for supremitcy, not only in the hall of the Assembly,
liut throujjfhout France; tlie one desirous of .seeing the country
governed by a constitutional monarch under a written constitu-
tion, after the British plan, the other intolenint of any govern-
ment sjive that of a republican fonn, which they purposed to
model in their own way-
The constitution which had been adopted also provided that
the legislalivc power of the nation should l>e exercised by one
{lermauent chaml>er, the niemlwi-s of which should be elected
every two years. It alone possessed the right to initiate Ia\vs
and to declare war. A limited veto power was allowed the king and
the right to vote was conferrcl on two millions of Frenchmen, a
verj- radical innovation in those daj-s of limited suffrage. The
Assembly, l)efore closing its t«'o years term of office as prescribed
by the constitution, passed a general amnesty law, pardoning all
political offendei-s with the view of recalling all those who had
fled the country-. It then dissolved.
The J^egialative Assembly tliat succeeded had new and for-
654 THK STOBY OF GOVEBKHSNT.
•
miclable difficulties to meet. The monarchs of Europe boldly
announced that they purposed by force of arms to restore Louis
XVI. to all his fonner rights, and the Emperor Leopold of
Austria and the King of Prussia published a declaration to that
effect on August 27, 1791. To this threat the Assembly replied
on November 29, 1791, saying: "That if the princes of Germany
continued to favor preparations directed against France, the French
would carry uito their lands^ not fire ami sword^ but liberty. It
was for them to estimate what would be the consequences of tliis
awakening of the nations." The kings, however, perfected their
coalition, moved their armies towards the French frontier, and
a war commenced which continued for twenty-three years.
The radical element now assumed the direction of affairs.
Lafayette was proscribed and forced to leave France. There was
no longer room for such republicans. The mob of Paris dictated
terms both to the king and the Assembly. It attacked and sacked
the Tuileries, after murdering the Swiss guards and nobles. The
king took refuge in the midst of the Assembly, but the mob
marehed into the members' hall demanding that the king should
1)6 deposed, and that a national convention should be convoked
immediatelv-
The Assembly was powerless in the i)resence of armed men
fiesh from the sacking of the Tuileries; it ordered the king to be
imprisoned and autliorized a call for a national convention. In
Septem])er, 1702, the mob broke open the prisons and muixiered
about one thousand prisoners chiefly confined for political offences.
The lielpless Assembly looked on in terrer, but was powerless,
even if it desired, to offer effective opposition. The Reign of
Terror had begun.
While these sanguinary deeds were occurring in Paris, the
Duke of Brunswick, at the head of a Prussian and Imperialist
army of one hundred and sixt}-^ thousand men, invaded France.
He proclaimed that he c^anie to reinstate Louis XVI., and to visit
with (condign punishment all who offered opposition. These
threats of the invader bi-ought the French masses to their feet
almost as one man.
Their undisciplined levi(\s marched to the frontier singing the
famoiLS Oa Ira^ and on the hill of Valmy, with vastly inferior
KXPKKXMEKTAL BEPUBLTCANIS.M. 655
force in point of numbers, in a battle which iiiged for several
houiB, they taught the Prussians a lesson which dampened the
ai-dor of the Duke of Bmnswick. Tlie latter offeied to negotiate)
but the National Convention which had assembled on the very
next day (September 21) after the victory at Valmy and pi'o-
claimed the republic, refused to listen tn any of his propositions
under the circumstances, resolving "that the French Republic can
listen to no proposition until the Prussian troops have entirely
evacuated the French territory." The FrussiauB retreated across
tlie frontier on October 1. On the 6th of November an Aus-
trian army of the coalition was defeated at Jemmapes with great
loss, which gave the republican forees possession of the Nether-
lands with Brussels as headquarters. On the southeastern fron-
tier other decisive victories were won by the French.
The bitterness against royalty and all its surroundings increased
in the convention. The radicals were growing more radical day
by day, and the direction of everything passed into the control of
the most violent among them. Louis XVI. was led from prison
to be tried for his life, notwithstanding that the constitution
declared him inviolable, and that no penalty could be legally pro-
nounced against him save deposition, which had already taken
place.
But he was tried, sentenced, and guillotined within twenty-
four hours after sentence was pronounced, January 21, 1793.
This unfortunate monarch, courageous, just and generous, 9uf-
fei'ed for the crimes of his predecessore. ".\fter us the deluge,"
Madame de Pompadour had said, laughing, to sliow her pearly
teeth, and slmigging her nacreous shoulders. The deluge bad
come. The king's accusera who were his judges put him to
death, they said, to ensure the public safety. It was a huge,
political blunder, for hia death aroused all the kings to a new
coalition against the republic. England with her money and
navy, and Spain with her army now joined the other nations.
It was a royal crusade against the principles of Liberty,
Equalitj-, and Fraternity which the republic had proclainie<l in
the face of Europe. The convention appointed a committee of
public safety, consisting of nine persons, who controlled all
public authority to render it more effective in defence against
1
656 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
external enemies. It also appointed a committee of public se-
curity to ferret out all persons suspected of disaffection, and a
revolutionary tribunal to punish them, as a means of protection
against domestic enemies. The Reign of Terror was thus legal-
ized, and the guillotine commenced its sanguinary work, first
with the nobility and clergy, and a little later with members of
the convention itself who had rendered themselves obnoxious to
the faction in power for the time being.
A murderous mania seemed to have seized France. As the
marvellous revolutionary poet of the age, Byron, wrote, with a
sort of sublime coarseness, " So France got drunk with blood to
vomit crime." To be suspected was to be sentenced and exe-
cuted by the revolutionary committee. Hundreds of the best
citizens in all the cities were put to death as "suspects" without
any evidence adduced against them other than that of the basest
wretches.
In Paris, the Queen, M. Bailly, the tii-st president of the Third
Estate, Lavoisier, the famous chemist, Malesherbes, the octogena-
rian advocate and ex-minister who defended Louis XVI., Gen-
eral Custine, the Duke of Orleans, and over a thousand others,
notable in the literary or professional world, were executed in
the niontli of October, 1793.
At kMii»:th, fortunately for the lives of many othei's, the blood-
thirsty extremists in the convention, the fiiction designated as
the Mountain, commenced to (piarrel among themselves. The
(juairel developed into a trial of strength, with the result that the
defeated parti(?s were ordered to the guillotine by Robespierre
and his a.sso(!iates on the pretext that the i)ublie safety wsis endan-
gered by their existence. In forty-seven days of May and June,
1794, fourteen hundred pei'sons were executed in the city of Paris
alone under the rule of Robespierre.
Another tuni of the wheel and Robespierre and his confreres
were sent to the scaffold, July 28, 1794, amid the jeers of a
mob which had become satiated with blood. Thus culminated
the period known as the Reign of Terror, which had lasted for
four hundred and twenty days; during which time 2,GG9
sentences of death had been carried out in Paris, without speak-
ing of the much larger number put to death in the provinces.
EXPKBIMENTAL KEFUBLICANISM.
65T
The outrajjeB and oppression of the French kings and nobility hiid
brought forth a bloody issue in which the innocent suffered as
well an the guilty.
The clergy of that time shared with the nobility the bitter har-
vest of popular hate which they had helped to sow, and in some
[Milts of France it was as unsafe to be a priest or be connected
with ii monastery in any way as it was to be suspected of aristo-
cratic blood or royalist tendencies. Yet some of the monastic
houses Murvived the stflnn, by bending txi it gracefully, like the
humble lily of tlie meadow, instead of trying to brave it off, like
the haughty oak of the mountain. Oiu- illustration shows the
head of a monasteiy calmly receiving orders from a republican
general to disperse his hrothcihood and close his gates.
The imagination of those in power grew prodigal of lion-ors.
It seemed as if the ingenuity of hate sought to snqjass all pre-
vious exhibitions of fiendishness in celebrating the revenge of the
658 THE 8TOB7 OF GOVEBKMBNT.
common people on tiie aristocrats, who for so many years Iiad
trampled them in the dust and reduced them to a condition really
worse than that of animals ; for horses and dogs and the game
creatures of the forest were treated with an amount of attention
to which the men, women, and children of the lower classes of
France were strangers. And yet, the infliction of these horrors
produced at times scenes of dramatic beauty that brought out the
finer and tenderer sides of French human nature in colors as clear
as its fiercer passions were showing themselves.
One of the most striking incidents, and an excellent example
of the times, occurred when Carrier, a republican general, arrived
at a small place on the River Loire which was strongly suspected
of having royalist sympathies. Hei'e in his lust for vengeance
he seized young men and maidens, and stripping them stark, tied
them together in pairs, attaching to each pair a cannon ball, and
then flung them into the river, which he called instituting the
ceremony of republican marriage.
As one of these young men and a beautiful girl were brought
before him, and sentenced to this dreadful end, the man ex-
claimed : " O Judge, I thank thee ! and at the day of judgment,
when thy sins shriek against thee, if I were in the deepest deep of
hell, I would spring to thy side and plead thy cause with the Most
High; for this doom to which thou hast adjudged me is most
sweet, since I have loved this woman all my life, and as there
was no chance of her becoming my wife, next to the sweetness of
living with her is the bliss of dying with her.*'
Such is the story, a legend possibly, yet probably having some
foundation iu fact, since there is no doubt that the ruthless Car-
rier did throw young men and niaidcjns into the river in the
manner mentioned.
While this carnival of blood was going on within the republic,
its frontier was defended by the bravest armies that ever marched
to battle. The disciplined forces of the allied kings were con-
fronted by twelve hundred thousand fresh-levied republican
recruits, officered by men who knew little or nothing of military
manceuvi-es, and yet the latter, in almost every instance, defeated
their opponents. Carnot, the head of the French militarj" office,
** the orgimizer of victory," as he was flatteringly styled, instructed
BXPEKtMENTAL BK PUBLIC AS ISU. . 659
his newly made geiieralti to strike the enemy rapid Ijinws, to march
their troops right on with the bayonet, regardless of the number
opposed to them, and these tactics were carried out to the letter
successfully. Tliey exactly suited the raw but enthusiastic
republican soldiers who sung their celebrated Calra at the open-
ing of the battles, and then ruslietl impetuously to close quaiieis
with the hirelings of Europe's kings.
But in spite of repeate<l victories of such hea<]long valor, at the
end iif August, 17!)3, France was invaded by still larger annies
from ovi-ry direction, while its coast line was blockaded by the
British fleet, Tlie situation looked desiicrate. but within four
months the rejmbliran soldiers hiid sti-mnit-d the assault, Iicaten
thi- English :iiid Dutch in the north, bni'led the Auatviaiis across
the Khine, compelled the Prussians to retreat, held the Pied-
montese along the line of the Al[ia and fallen back slowly before
the Spaniards from the base of tlie Pyrenees, J.yons and Toulon
in the south were n'oaptured by the republicians, the latter city
660 • THS 8T0BT OF GOYEBNMENT*
in December, 1793, chiefly through the skill of a certain Ci^tuii
Bonaijarte of the artillery.
The conflict with the kings continued during 1794-5. The
republican generals and their troops, growing inured to wmnEaze,
now began to take the initiative and carried the war into tbe
enemies' countries. They established the Batavian Republic in
Holland, invaded Spain, and prepared to enter Prussia and Aus-
tria. Prussia and Spain, fearful of the result, asked for peace.
This \vi\s granted on certain terms favorable to the Republic,
which was thus officially recognized for the first time by two of
the monarchs of Europe.
The Republic was now definitively established, and the princi-
ples of the Revolution vindicated by the French people against the
royal conspirators. Those principles have never since heenforgaUmk
hy the French masses^ whatever temporary aberrations have oeeurred
in their governmental forms. Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
liuve been more than glittering generalities to the Gallic mind
since the fateful period when tliey first rang out over Europe
like a trumpet blast, calling the people to arms against the divine
pretensions of the kings.
The military dictatorehip of the successful general, Napoleon
Bonaparte, succeeded the Revolution. It was inevitable under
the circumstances, just as inevitable as was the assumption by
Julius C'jesar of the supreme power in Rome, when the patricians
had begun to qnairel over their prey, the people.
And just as Ciesar was assassinated by patrician conspirators
in an actual way, so was Ncajwleon assassinated metaphorically
by the conspiracy of kings against him. Yet, had he not been
overcome from without, it is probable that he would have perished
in the sanuj physical way as did the greater Roman whose fall
at the foot of the statue of his rival, Pompey, is one of the laige
pictures of liistory, si^cond only, perhaps, in its importance and
influence on that epoch to the nobler death-scene which we have
shown in our chapter on Tlieocracy.
Na[)oleon was a necessity to Fmnce just then. Chaos demands
a creator. Royal enemies threatened France from the outside,
and internal disordei-s i)ievaile(l. Tlie country, to secure the
social equality which the Revolution had won, threw herself at
662 THE STORY OF QOTERKMENT.
the feet of the man who wielded the conquering sword. She
postponed political liberty for a time to preserve equality. The
Kevolution abdicated in favor of the military power but its prin-
ciples lived on in the hearts of the people, and were spread over
Europe with the victories of the French armies under the con-
sulate and the empire.
The faults of the French Revolution were many; they have
been vividly blazoned in the pages of history by worshippers of
kingly power, but the American student should give due con-
sideration to the other side of the picture so truthfully sketched
by the Abbd Mignet, a broad-minded Catholic scholar, where he
says: ^lu moral affairs it secured tolerance, sought for justice,
proclaimed rights, demanded civil equality, recommended human
fraternity, abolished cruelty in penal institutions, did away with
tlie arbitrary administration of public affairs, endeavored to make
reason the guide of intellect, liberty the guide of governments,
progress the ambition of peoples, and law t&e sovereign of the
whole world."
Tlie history of France from 1799 until the fall of the Emi)ei'or
at Waterloo is the history of Napoleon Bonaparte, first the victor
at Rivoli and Areole, llieii fii-st consul for ten years, next first
consul for life, and finally emperor. It should not he J^orgotten^
however^ thut tJu'tue titles with the powers given him were the expressed
will of the nation. After the French Senate proclaimed him
emperor the votei-s of the country ratified the choice by 3,572,329
votes against 2,5G9. Tliey chose him as their leader at the ballot
box. On his defeat in 1815, the monarchs of Europe re-estab-
lished Louis XVIII. on the tlu^one without consulting the votera
of Franco. Individual libeity was curtailed, a rigid censoi-ship
of the press put into operation, and the political powers of the
great landed jnoprietors were increased. The republicans con-
spired in secret to overthrow the rule imposed upon them with-
out their consent, but failed.
Charles X., who succeeded to the throne in 1824, was a true
tyi)e of the Bourbon prince. He was one of the fii-st emigrants
who fled the countrj' during the Revolution of 1793. He had
learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He believed he was in
dutv bound to restore the ancient hionarchv in all its ancient pre-
w
EXPERIMKSTAL REPUBLICANISM. 663
rogiitives, notwitlistandiiig the constitution and the ]ienple who
elected the Chainl)er ut Deputies.
On the 26th of June, 1830, he issued a, scries nf ordinances
Buppresaing the liberty of the press, annulling the elections of all
the niemhfw to the legislature which hud just been held, and
creating a new method of election. The people flew to arms,
defeated the royal guards, and in a conflict lasting three days
drove Charles from tlie throne.
The Chamber of Deputies then selected Louis Philippe as king,
who reigned until 1848, when his ministry, attempting to sup-
press political meetings in the February of that year, were
opposed by force; an insurrection broke out, the national guards
sympathized with the insurgents, and Louis abdicated tlie throne,
whereupon the Republic was proclaimed and re-establiahed after
the lapse of half a century.
Universal suffrage was immediately decreed by the National
Assembly. The electorate of France numlieied nine millions of
citizens. Louis Napoleon Bonajiarte was elected president for
four years, but afterwards by cunning, duplicity, and gross viola-
tion of the laws which he had solemnly sworn to obseiTe, be suc-
ceeded in having himself pi-oijosed as Emperor of the French by
bis adhei-ents, which proposition he submitted to the votere, who
adopted it by 7,839,552 affirmative votes agiiinst 254,501 in the
negative.
He took the title of Napoleon III,, and governed France witb
considerable discretion until his downfall and capture by the
Prussians, which occurred at the disastrous battle of Sedan,
September 2, 1870. When the news fi-oni Sedan reached Paris,
the Cliiimber of Dei)uties formally deposed the Emperor and pro-
claimed the Kepublif, which has existed since and gives fair
promise of continuance as the permanent form of government in
that countrj'.
The constitution of Fi-ance diffei'S in many particulars from
that of the United States. Tlie following 'are its outlines: The
legislative jiower is exercised by two assemblies, the Senate and
the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of three hundred
members, each of whom must be at least forty years old. They
are elected by the departments, the electoral body in each depart-
664 THE 8TOBY OF GOVBBNMENT.
ment for that purpose consisting of its deputies, the general
council, the councils of the arro7idissements or subdivisions, and
delegates elected by each commune. The senators serve for a
term of nine years, one third retiring by rotation everj- three
years.
The Chamber of Deputies consists of members chosen for a teim
of four years by universal suffrage under the arrangement called
the scrutin de liste^ which means that each department being
entitled to a number of deputies proportioned to the number of its
citizens, the deputies for each are voted for on a general or
departmental ticket.
The executive, or president of the republic, is elected for a
term of seven years by the Senate and Chaml)er of Deputies
united in a single body called the National Assembly. The
president is eligible for re-election; he has the initiative of legis-
lation concurrently with the two chambers, the execution of the
laws, control of the army and navy, and the power of appoint-
ment to all civil and militaiy offices. With the assent of the
Senate he can dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the end of
its four years' term and order a new general election of members
of the lower house. A law liiis been passed declaring ineligible
to the office of president any prince of the families formerly
reigning in France.
The present Republic, the offspring of 1793, appears to rest on
a solid basis. The recent conciliatory attitude of Pope Leo XIII.
towards it, as evidenced by his advice to the French bisho{>s to
cordially accept and work with it in all things which do not
conflict with their spiritual jurisdiction, is a harbinger of g^-eat
promise. The standing aloof of French Catholics in opposition,
aj many have stood in the past, had weakened the Republic ma-
terially. All signs point now to a new era of better feeling in
this respect. The Republic deserves well of France. £sto
perpetxiaJ
nVERY secret society of a political character which has
appeared in history may be regarded as an act of re-
flection, therefore of conscience. For is not conscience
in the individual generally a cumulation and crystalli-
zation of reflection?
A sonietliiiig alive and vivid in nearly every thinking aelf, yet
outside of self. Conscience is the true tjTant of the world.
Intangible, no stiletto can touch it, no axe behead it. Tlie
oh&rnis of woman cannot lull it long, no prayers can mollify, no
menace fright it.
Remorse makes u-s feel witliin ourselves the constant duel of
a dualism. There are two selves within us — one accusing, the
other defending. Virtue or soundness is peaceful, at one with
iteelf, a calm unit, a henltliy atom adjusted to the harmony of the
universe, making and feeling music in the soul.
Yet there may be such a (hing as a collective conscience, and
every secret society with a political aim may be called tlie
expression on a grand scale of the reflection and remorse of the
governed — an avenging and purifying remorse which moves
onward through destruction and death to regeneration and a saner
life.
But the collective conscience which has its expression in secret
01x1618 for the promotion of change differs from personal rancor,
666 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
or from the action of individual conscience, in that it wishes to
punish institutions, not persons, to decapitate ideas, not men.
Such organizations, when they apimiently perish, nevertheless
leave a pious legacy of hate, a superb malediction of indormant
and indomitable justice which enlarges the I'esjx^nsibility and
character of the man "or the people that inherit the reforming or
rebellious impulse. A legitimate hatred of evil is the salvation
of nations. Woe to a race that knows not how to liate I
It must be admitted, however, that some of the secitit govern-
ments within government which have been and still flourish in
the world, while having a scientific excuse for existence by foi-ce
of the social conditions that have produced them, are nevertheless,
in their general scope, simply a brigandage, such as might more
fitly, perhaps, have been classified under our third chapter of Gyp-
sies, Brigands, and Thieves.
We shall Ijegin, therefore, by depicting briefly a secret society
of murder, torture, and robbery, called the Chauffeurs, which
flourished in France at the beginning of this centuiy, and we
shall close by giving an account of the famous Tammany Society
of New York, whose methods are regarded by its opponents
as exemplifying the art of political brigandage on a colossal
scale. Between these two we sliall consider the Carlx)naii of
Itiily, the Fenians, and the Nihilists.
The Chauffeurs or Burnei-s, so-called on account of their apply-
ing fire to their victims to wring revelations of the hiding-places
of secret treasure, were a secret society existing in Fi-ance
before and during the Revolution, and they were only finally
extmguished in the beginning of this century.
The Chauffeurs constituted a compact body, governed by a sin-
gle head. They had tlieir own religion, and a code of civil and
criminal laws, which, though only handed down omlly, was none
the less observed and respected. They received into their frater-
nity all who chose to claim admission, but preferred to emboli such
as had already distinguished themselves by criminal deeds.
Whole families belonged to this Order of Disorder, and the
children were early taught how to act as spies, commit small thefts,
and similar crinu»s, wliich were n^warded more or less liberally, as
thev were executed with more or less daring or adroitness. Want
668 THB 8TOKY OF GOVSBNMKNT.
of success brought proportionate punishment with it, veiy severe
corporeal castigation, which was administered not merely as pun-
ishment, but also to teach the young members to bear bodily pain
with fortitude.
At the age of fourteen or fifteen the boy was initiated into the
first degree of the society. At a kind of religious consecration
he took an oath, calling down on his OAvn head the lightning and
wrath of heaven, if ever he failed in his duty towards the
order. The initiation of a grown-up candidate into this curious
company was, according to one writer, a most singular combina-
tion of a monkish penance by flagellation, and an orgy afterwards
such as the wildest of wild Indians might have envied.
Our illustration of this whip dance by torch-light in the face of
a rude cross is, perhaps, a fair picture of the beginning, the pri-
mary object being, no doubt, to see if the candidate for danger
could bear pain, and to show off the endurance of the past-masters
in iniquity. The orgy that followed can be easily imagined by
anyone who has ever witnessed a Commencement Day at some of
our leading colleges.
The master had almost unbounded authority ; he kept the com-
mon purse, and distributed the booty according to his own discre-
tion. Tlieft from the profane, as outsidei-s were called, was the
fundamental law, and, indeed the support of the society, but tlieft
from a brother was punished, the first time, by a fine throe times
the amount stolen. When repeated, the fine was heavier, and
sometimes tlie thief was put to deatli.
Each brother was bound to come to the assistance of another
when in danger. Their mode of administering justice was
rational, i. e., summary. The accused i)erson was called before
the general assembly of the membei-s, informed of the charge
against him, confronted with the witnesses and, if found innocent,
acquitted ; but if guilty he had either at once to pay the fine
imposed, receive the number of blows allotted, or submit to hang-
ing on the nearest tree, according to the tenor of the sentence.
The religious woi'ship of the Chauffeui-s was a jmrody on tliat of
the church. The sermons of their preachei"s were chiefly directed
to instructing them how most profitably to pursue their profession,
and how to evade the pursuit of the profane. On fete-dajrs the
GOVKRNMEST AMONG KKfUET OlillKKS. 1)69
priest celebrated Mass, and especially invoked the heavenly bless-
ing OQ the object and designs of the society.
Their marriage ceremony was unique. On the wedding-day
ihe bridegroom and bride, accompanied by the best man and chief
bridesmaid, presented themselves before the priest who, after
having read some ribald nonsense from a dirty old book, took a
stick, which he sprinkled with holy water, and after having
placed it in the hands of the two chief witnesses, who held it up
between them, he invited the bridegroom to leap over it, while
the bride stood on the other side awaiting him.
She received him in her arms, and held him up for a few mo-
ments before setting him down on the ground. The bride then
went in front of the stick, and took her leap over it into tliw
bridegroom's arms, whose pride it was to liold her up in the air as
long as possible, before letting her down. Both seated them-
selves on the stick, and the priest put on tlie bride's finger the
wedding-ring.
Divorces were gmnted not only for proved or suspected infidel-
ity, but also on account of incompatibility of temper — which
proves the Chauffeurs U* have been, in this respect at least, verj-
sensible people. The divorce was pronounced in public, and its
principal feature wiis the breaking of the stick on which the pair
had been married, over the wife's head. After that, each was at
liberty to marry again.
This sect was spi-ead over a large part of northwestern
France ; raailo use of a j)eculiar patois, understood by the initiated
only, and had its signs, grips, and passwords like all other secret
societies. It comprised many tliousand members. Its existence
and history first became jmblioly known through the judicial
proceedings taken against it by the courts of Cliaitres, during tlxe
last decade of the last century. Many mystei-ious robberies, fires,
and murders were then brought home to the Chauffeurs. Its Grand
Master at the time was Francis the Fair, so called on account of
his singular personal beauty.
But it was chiefly during the Reign of Terror that the Chauffeurs
committed their greatest ravages. At night large bands of them
invaded isolated houses and the castles of the nobility, robbing
the rich and poor alike. During the day children and old women.
662 THB STOBY OF GOVBRNMXINT.
the feet of the inan who wielded the conquering sword. She
postponed political liberty for a time to preserve equality. The
Revolution abdicated in favor of the military power but its prin-
ciples lived on in the hearts of the people, and were spread over
Europe with the victories of the French armies under the con-
sulate and the empire.
The faults of the French Revolution were many; they have
been vividly blazoned in the pages of history by worshippers of
kingly power, but the American student should give due con-
sideration to the other side of the picture so truthfully sketched
by the Abb^ Mignet, a broad-minded Catholic scholar, where he
says: ^^In moral affairs it secured tolerance, sought for justice,
proclaimed rights, demanded civil equality, recommended human
fraternity, abolished cruelty in penal institutions, did away with
the arbitrary administration of public affairs, endeavored to make
reason the guide of intellect, liberty the guide of governments,
progress the ambition of peoples, and law t&e sovereign of the
whole world."
The history of France from 1799 until the fall of the Emi>ei-or
at Waterloo is the history of Nai)oleon Bonaparte, first the victor
lit Rivoli and Areole, tlien fii-st consul for ten yeai-s, next first
consul for life, and finally empemr. It should 7wt he Jorgotten^
however^ that theae titles with the powers given him were the expressed
will of the nation. After the French Senate proclaimed him
emperor the votei-s of the countiy ratified the choice by 3,572,329
votes against 2,569. They chose him as tlieir leader at the ballot
box. On his defeat in 1815, the monarchs of Europe re-estab-
lished Louis XVIII. on the throne without consulting tlie votera
of France. Individual lilwi'ty was curtailed, a rigid censoi-ship
of the i>ress put into operation, and the political powers of the
great liuuled proprietors were increased. The republicans con-
spired in secret to overtlirow the rule imposed upon them with-
out their consent, but failed.
Charles X., who succeeded to the throne in 1824, was a true
type of the Bourbon prince. He was one of the fii-st emigrants
who fled the countr}*- during the Revolution of 1793. He had
learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He believed he was in
duty })ound to restore the ancient hionarchy in all its ancient pre-
w
KXPEBI^rENTAI. RKPUHLICANISM. 663
rogatives, notwitlistandiiig the constitution and tlie jieople who
elected the Cliamliev of Deputies,
On the Sfith of June, 1830, lie issued ii series oE onliDances
suppressing liic^ liberty vl the pre^^ suuulliiig tlie electiojis of all
the members to the legislature which had just been held, and
creating a neiv^ method of election. The people flew to arms,
defeated the royal guards, and in a conflict lasting three days
drove Charles from the throne.
The Chamber of Deputies then selected Louis Philippe as king,
who reigned until 1848, when his ministry, attempting to sup-
pi'ess political meetings in the February of that year, were
opposed by force; an insurrection broke out, the national guards
sympathized with the insurgents, and Louis abdicated the throne,
whereupon the Republic was jn-oclaimed and re-established after
the lapse of half a century.
Universal suffrage was iimnwliately decreed by the National
Assembly. The electorate of France numbei-ed nine millions of
citizens. Louis Napoleon Ron:iparte was elected president for
four years, but aftenvards hy cunning, duplicity, and gross viola-
tion of the laws which lie had solemnly sworn to observe, he suc-
ceeded in having himself proj>osed as Emperor of the French by
his adherents, wliich ]iroposition he submitted to the votere, who
adopted it by 7,8S9,.552 affirmative votes against 254,S01 in the
negative.
He took the title of Napoleon III., and governed France with
considerable discretion until his downfall and capture by the
Prussians, whicli occurred at the disastrous battle of Sedan,
September 2, 1870. When the news from Sedan reached Paris,
the Chamber of Deimties formally dei)Oscd the Emperor and pro-
claimed the Republic, which has existed since and gives fair
promise of continuance as the permanent form of government in
that countrj'.
The constitution of France differs in many particulars from
that of the United States. The following "are its outlines: The
legislative power is exercised by two assemblies, the Senate and
the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate consists of three hundred
members, each of whom must be at least forty years old. They
are elected by the departments, the electoral body in each depart^
664 THE STOBY OP GOVBENMENT.
ment for that purpose consisting of its deputies, the general
council, the councils of the arrondissements or subdivisions, and
delegates elected by each commune. The senators serve for a
term of nine years, one third retiring by rotation every three
years.
The Chamber of Deputies consists of members chosen for a teim
of four years by universal suffrage under the arrangement called
the scrtUin de liste^ which means that each department being
entitled to a number of deputies proportioned to the number of its
citizens, the deputies for each are voted for on a general or
departmental ticket.
The executive, or president of the republic, is elected for a
term of seven years by the Senate and Chamlxjr of Deputies
united in a single body called the National Assembly. The
president is eligible for re-election; he has the initiative of legis-
lation concurrently with the two chambers, the execution of the
laws, control of the army and navy, and the power of appoint-
ment to all civil and military offices. With the assent of the
Senate he can dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the end of
its four years' term and order a new general election of members
of the lower house. A law liiis been passed declaring ineligible
to the office of president any prince of the families formerly
reigning in France.
The present Republic, the offspring of 1793, appears to rest on
a solid basis. The i*ecent conciliatory attitude of Pope Leo XIII.
towards it, as evidenced by his advice to the French bishojKS to
cordially accept and work witli it in all things which do not
conflict with their spiritual jurisdiction, is a harbinger of great
promise. The standing aloof of French Catholics in opposition,
aj many have stood in the past, had weakened the Republic ma-
terially. All signs point now to a new em of better feeling in
this respect. The Republic deserves well of France. JEitfo
perpetua /
nVERY secret society of a polititivl character which has
appeared in history may be regarded as an act of re-
flection, therefore of conscience. For is not conscience
in the individual genei-aliy a cumulation and crystalli-
zation of reflection?
A something alive and vivid in nearly every thinking self, yet
outside i)f self. Conscience is the true tjTant of the world.
Intangible, no stiletto can touch it, no axe behead It, Tlie
charnis of woman cannot lull it long, no prayers can mollify, no
menace fright it.
Remorse makes us feel witliin ourselves the constant duel of
a dualism. There are two selves within us — one accusing, the
other defending. Virtue or soundness is peaceful, at one with
itself, a calm unit, a healthy atom adjusted to the harmony of the
universe, making and feeling music in the soul.
Yet there may l>e such a thing as a collective conscience, and
every secret society with a political aim may be called the
expression on a grand scale of the reflection and reniorae of the
governed — an avenging and purifying remorse which moves
onward through destniction and death to regeneration and a saner
life.
But the collective conscience which has its expression in secret
oixleis for the promotion of change differs from personal rancor,
666 THE STOBY OP GOVERNMENT.
or from the action of individual conscience, in that it wishes to
punish institutions, not persons, to decapitate ideas, not men.
Such organizations, when they apimi-ently perish, nevertheless
leave a pious legacy of hate, a suj>erb malediction of indormant
and indomitable justice which enlarges the responsibility and
cliaracter of the man or the people that inherit the reforming or
rebellious impulse. A legitimate hatred of evil is the salvation
of nations. Woe to a race that knows not how to liate I
It must be admitted, however, that some of the secret govern-
ments within government which have been and still flourish in
the world, while having a scientific excuse for existence by force
of the social conditions that have produced them, are nevertheless,
in their general scope, simply a brigandage, such as might more
fitly, perhaps, have been classified under our third chapter of Gyp-
sies, Brigands, and Thieves.
We shall begin, therefore, by depicting briefly a secret society
of murder, torture, and roblxfry, called the Chauffeurs, which
flourished in France at the beginning of this centurj-, and we
shall close by giving an account of the famous Tammany Society
of New York, whose methods ai-e regarded by its op{>onents
as exemplifying the art of political brigandage on a colossal
scale. Between these two wt» shall consider the Carbonari of
Italy, the Fenians, and the Nihilists.
The Chauffeurs or Burnei-s, so-called on account of their apply-
ing fire to their victims to wring revelations of the hiding-places
of secret treasure, were a secret society existing in France
before and during the Revolution, and they were only finally
extinguished in the l>eginning of this century.
The Chauffeurs constituted a compact body, governed by a sin-
gle head. They had their own religion, and a code of civil and
criminal laws, which, though only handed down orally, was none
the less observed and resi>ected. They received into their frater-
nity all who chose to claim admission, but preferred to enmll such
as had already distinguished themselves by criminal deeds.
Whole families belonged to this Order of Disoi-der, and the
childi-en were early taught how to act as spies, commit small thefts,
and similar crimes, which were rewarded more or less liberally, as
they were executed Avdth more or less daring or adroitness. Want
668 THB STORY OF GOVBRNMKNT.
of success brought proporidonate punishment with it, ver}' severe
corporeal castigation, which was administered not merely as pun-
ishment, but also to teach the young members to bear bodily pain
with fortitude.
At the age of fourteen or fifteen the boy was initiated into the
first degree of the society. At a kind of religious consecration
he took an oath, calling down on his own head the lightning and
wrath of heaven, if ever he failed in his duty towards the
order. The initiation of a grown-up candidate into this curious
company was, according to one writer, a most singular combina-
tion of a monkish penance by flagellation, and an orgy afterwards
such as the wildest of wild Indians might have envied.
Our illustration of this whip dance by torch-light in the face of
a rude cross is, perhaps, a fair picture of the beginning, the pri-
mary object being, no doubt, to see if the candidate for danger
could bear pain, and to show off the endurance of the past-masters
in iniquity. The orgy that followed can be easily imagined by
anyone who has ever witnessed a Commencement Day at some of
our leading colleges.
The master had almost unbounded authority ; he kept the com-
mon purse, and distributed the booty according to his own discre-
tion. Theft from the profane, as outsiders were called, was the
fundamental law, and, indeed the support of the society, but theft
from a brother was punished, the first time, by a fine thi-ee times
the amount stolen. When repeated, the fine was heavier, and
sometimes the thief was put to death.
Each brother was bound to come to the assistance of another
when in danger. Their mode of administering justice was
rational, i. e., summary. The accused person was called before
the general assembly of the membei's, informed of the charge
against him, confronted with the witnesses and, if found innocent,
acquitted ; but if guilty he had eitlier at once to pay the fine
imiK>sed, receive the number of blows allotted, or submit to hang-
ing on the nearest tree, according to the tenor of the sentence.
The religious woi-ship of the Chauffeurs was a parody on that of
the church. The sermons of their preachers were chiefly directed
to instructing them how most pi*ofitably to pursue their profession,
and how to evade the pursuit of the profane. On fete-dajrs the
tiUVKUNMKST AMON)! SKCliKT 01!I»KUS. ti69
priest celebrated Mass, and especially invoked the heavenlj bless-
ing on the object and designs o£ the society.
Their marriage ceremony was unique. On the wedding-day
the bridegroom and bride, accompanied by the best man and chief
bridesmaid, presented themselves before the priest who, after
haying read some ribald nonsense from a dirty old book, took a
stick, which he sprinkled with holy water, and after having
placed it in the hands of the two chief witnesses, who held it up
between them, he invited the bridegroom to leap over it, while
the bride stood on the other side awaiting him.
She received him in her arra», and held him up for a few mo-
ments before setting him down on the ground. The bride then
went in front of the stick, and took her leap over it into the
bridegroom's arms, whose pride it was to hold her up in the air as
long as possible, before letting her down. Both seated them-
selves on the stick, and the priest put on the l)ride's finger the
wedding-ring.
Divorces were grj.iited not only for proved or suspected infidel-
ity, but also on account of incompatibility of temper — which
proves the Chauffeurs to have been, in this respect at least, verj-
sensible people. The divorce was pronounced in public, and its
principal feature wiis the breaking of the stick on wliich the pair
had been married, over the wife's head. After that, each was ai.
liberty to marry again.
This sect was spread ()ver a large part of northwestern
France ; made use of a peculiar patois, understood by the initiated
only, and had its signs, grips, and passwords like all other secret
societies. It comprised many tliousand members. Its existence
and history first became pulilicly known thi-ough the judicial
proceedings taken against it by the courts of Chartres, during tlie
last decade of the last century. Many mysterious robberies, fires,
and murders were then brought home to the Chauffeurs. Its Grand
Master at the time was Francis the Fair, so called on account of
his singular personal beauty.
But it was chiefly during the Reign of Terror that the Cliauffeurs
committed their greatest nwagus. At night lai'ge bands of them
invaded isolated houses and the castles of the nobility, robbing
the rich and poor alike. During the day children and old women.
670 THE STORY OF GOVEBNMENT.
under yarious disguises and pretences, penetrated into places
where property worth carrying off might be expected to exist, and
on their reports as a basis the society laid its plans.
Sometimes disguised as national guards, they demanded and
obtained admission in the name of the law. Sometimes disguised
as wandering musicians, as represented in our illustration, they
sought information from servants. If they met ^dth resistance
they employed violence ; if not, they contented themselves with
robbery. But sometimes they suspected that the inmates of the
dwelling they had invaded concealed valuables ; in which case they
would tie their hands behind their backs, and casting them on
the ground apply fire to their feet — whence the name chauffeurs^
"burners," until they revealed the hiding-places of their treas-
ures, or died in frightful agony. Such as survived this treatment
were generally crippled for life.
A young man« who had suffered from some of the members of
the society, determined to be revenged on them by betraying
them into the hands of justice. He revealed his plan, which was
very simple, to the authorities of Chartres, and then set about its
execution. In broad daylight in the market-place of Chartres he
picked the pocket of a gendarme or policeman. The gendarme,
having his instructions, of course, saw nothing, but a chauffeur^
some of whom were always prowling about, noticed the apparently
daring deed, and rej)orted it to his fellows and to his chief. Tliat
so clever and bold a thief should not belong to the brotherhood
seemed unnatural ; very soon, therefore, he wius sought out and
very sidvantageoiLs offei*s were made to him if he would join them.
At fii-st, lie seemed disinclined to do so, but eventually yielded,
and then sliowed all the zeal usual with ne<)ph}i«s. He attended
all the meetings of the society, and si)eedily made himself ac-
([uainted with all their secrets, their signs, passwords, modes of
action, hiding-places, etc.
Tlieir safest retreat and great depot, where the Ixwty was
stored, was a wildwood in the neicrhlx)rho(>d of Chartres. When
ihe false brother had made these discoveries, and had also ascertained
a cl^iy wl>en nearly all the chief nieml)tM*s of the society would be
iissembled on the spot for phinnin;;' an expedition, he managed to
evade their vigilauoe, and hastened to the authorities, who had held
I
i
Jl--.''
OOVKKNMEST AMONG SECRET OHDERS. 676
a large force of men reudj- in tlie expectation of this cLance.
These wei-e at onco despatched io the locality indicated by the
guide, the wood wiLs siinoiindi'd i^iid thi? Chauffeurs, Ixjing taken
unawares, either perished fighting or were taken pnsonera. After
this blow, which was the almost total extinction of their leaders,
the common herd of Chauffeurs eitlier dispersed, or emigrated.
The Society of the Carbonari, wliich came to light about the
same epoch, was much more jwwerf ul and equally picturesque. It
would seem in some parts of its career like an odd blend of
Masonry and Catholicism fermenting into political action. Piet-
isn] appeared as tlic baae, hut patriotism grew to be the bulk of the
building. Some of its ceremonies may be of interest, especially
to compare with those desorilHid in our Masonry chapter.
The Lodge of the Carbonari, or Good Cousins, as they were
called, was a i-oom of wood shaped like a barn, the pavement of
brick, the interim' furnished with lynches without backs. At the
end was a three-legged block where sat the Grand Master; on
each side was a blotk of similar size for the or;itor and secretaiy.
On the Grand Miister's seat were the following symbols^ a
linen cloth, water, salt, a cross, leaves, sticks, fire, earth, a crown
of white thorns, a ladder, a ball of thread, and three ribbons, one
blue, one red, and one black; an illuminated triangle with
the initial lettera of tlie jMvssword of the second rank in the mid-
dle ; on the left h;iiid a triangle, with the arms of the lodge
painted, and on the right three tnmsparent triangles, each with
the initial letters of the sacred woixls of the first rank.
The Gnmd Miister. and lirst and second assistants, who also sat
before a large wiHideu block, liehl hatchets in their hands. The
miisters wei-e ninged along the wall of one side of the lodge, the
apprenti<^es oil the other. The (Inxiid Master, having opened the
lodge, sjMke as follows : —
"Fii-st Aasistjint, wlicic is the fii'st degree conferred?"
A. In the hnt of a (iood Cousin, in the lodge of the Carbonari.
G. M. How is the first degree conferred?
A. A cloth is stretched over a block of wood, on which are
arranged the bases ; firstly, the cloth itself, water, fire, salt, the
crucifix, a drj' sprig, a green sprig. At least three Good Cousina
(iOVI-lENMENT AMONU SECRET OltDBRB. 675
a large force of men ready in tlie expectation o£ this chance.
These were at once despatched to the locality indicated by the
guide, the wood was surrounded and the Chauffeura. being taken
unawares, either perished fighting or were taken prisoners. After
this blow, which was the almost total extinctioo of their leadetSi
the common hei'd of Cltauffeurs either dispersed, or emigrated.
The Society of the Carbonari, which came to light about the
same epoch, was much more i>owerful and equally picturesque. It
would seem in some parts of its career like an odd blend of
Masonry and Catholicism fermenting into political action. Piet-
ism appeared as tlie baae, but patriotism grew to be the bulk of the
building. Some of its ceremonies may be of interest, especially
to compare with those described in our Ma ionry chapter.
The Lodge of the Carbonari, or Good Cousins, as they were
called, was a loom of wood shaped like a bam, the pavement of
brick, the interior furnished with lynches without backs. At the
end was a three-legged block where sat the Grand Master; on
each side was a block of similar size for the orator and secretary.
On the Grand Master's seat were the following symbols: a
linen cloth, water, salt, a cross, leaves, sticks, fire, earth, a crown
of white tliorns, a ladder, a hall of thread, and three ribbons, one
blue, one red, and one hlack; an ilhiniinated triangle with
the initial lettei-s of (lie piissword of the second mnk in the mid-
dle ; on the left hand a triangle, with the arms of the lodge
painted, and on tlie right tln-ee tniiisparent ti^iangles, each with
the initial letiei-s of the sacred words of the first rank.
Tlie (inmd ^bister, and tirsl and second assistants, who also sat
befoi-e a larfje wooden block, lielil hatchets in their hands. The
masters wei* niiiged alonj;; the wall of one side of the lodge, the
apjirentii-es on tiie other. Tlii> (ii-aiid Miister, having opened the
lodge, spoke as follows : —
"Fii-st Assistant, where is tlie fii-st degree confen'ed? ''
A. In the Imt of a Good Cousin, in the lodge of tlu' Oijliiiiuiri.
G. M, How is the first degree conferred?
A. A cloth is stretched over a block of wood, mi whicli are
arranged the bases ; tuutly, the cloth itself, water, lire, salt, the
crucitix, a dry sprig, a gieen sprig. At least three Gciml ('oiihiim
676 THE 8T0EY OF GOVERNMENT.
must be present for an initiation ; the introducer, always accom«
panied by a master, who remain outside the place where are the
bases and the Good Cousins."
The master who accompanied the introducer then gave three
taps with his foot and cried: "Masters, Good Cousins, I need
succor." The Good Cousins suiTounded the block of wood,
against which they struck their waist cords and made the sign,
carrying the right hand from the left shoulder to the right side,
one of them exclaiming, ''I have heanl the voice of a Good
Cousin who needs help. Perhaps he brings wood to feed the fur-
naces." The introducer was then brought in. The assistant
became silent, and the Grand Master addressed the new-comer : —
**My Good Cousin, whence come you?"
I. From the wood.
G. M. Whither go you?
I. Into the Chamber of Honor, to conquer my passions, submit
my will, and be instructed in Carbonarism.
G. M. What have you brought from the Avood?
I. Wood, leaves, earth.
G. M. Do you bring anything elst^?
I. Yes; faith, hope, and charity.
(i. M. Who is he whom you bring liither?
I. A man lost in the wood.
G. M. What does he seek?
I. To enter our order.
G. M. Introduce him.
The neophjiie wius then brought in. The Gi-and Master put
several questions to him regaining his morals and religion, and
tlien bade him kneel, holding the crucifix, and pronounce the
oath, repeating it with solemn slo>vness after the Grand Master:
''I promise and bind myself on my honor not to reveal tlie secrets
of the Good Cousins; not to attack the virtue of their wives or
daughtei's, and to afford all tlie helji in my i)Ower to every Good
Cousin needing it. So help me God I "
After some preliminary questioning the Grand Master tlien
addressed the novice who had lx»en drillcMl l)efoi-elmnd : "Wliat
means the block of wood ? "
N. Heaven and the roundness of the earth.
J •. .
' .
GOVERNMENT AMONG SECRET ORDERS. 1)77
G. M. Wlmt means tlio cloth"
N. That which hides itself on beiug born.
G. M. The water?
N. That which serves to wash and purify from original sin.
G. M. The fire?
N. To show us our higliest duties.
G. M. Tliesiilt?
N, That we are Cliristians.
G. M. Tlie enicifix?
X. It reminds lis of our redemption.
G, M. Whiit does the thread eommemonite ?
N. Tlie MotliLT of God that spun it.
G. M. What means the crown of white thorns?
N. The troubles and struggles of Good Cousins.
G. M. What is the furnace?
N. The school of Good Cousins,
G. M. What means the tree with its roots up in the air?
N. If all the trees were like that, the work of the Good
Cousins would not be needed.
This catechism is much longer, but enough lias been given to
show its quality. Lacking explanations, one would be tempted
to fancy that this were modelled after, if it were not the prototype
of the forms used to-day by many secret societies in America that
seek by their fantasy to stir from the start the imagination of the
aspirant for secret degrees.
But, as in other societies, like that of the Illuminati, the object
was not at the outset to alarm the neophyte, for his disposi-
tion had first to l)e tested before the real meaning of the ritual
was revealed to him. Still, some of the figures betray themselves,
though studiously concealed.
The furnace was the ciiUective work at which the Carlwnari
labored. The sacred fire they kept alive was Liberty's flame with
which they aspired to illumine the world. They did not care-
lessly choose coal for their symbol; for coal is the dark fountain
of light and warmth that puiifies the air. The forest represented
Italy, the wild wood of Dante, infested with wild beasts, that is at
that time thronged with foreign oppressore. The tree with the
roots in the air typified kingdoms dustioytjd and tlu'oucs overthrown.
678 THE STORV OF GOVKBNMBNT.
Catholic mysticism constantly came to the surface thiongh
these ceremonies, the highest honors being given to Christy who
was indeed the Good Cousin of all men. Carbonarism did not in
its infancy openly assail religious belief, but made use of it, en*
deavoring to simplify and reduce it to first principles, just
Freemasonry does. The candidate, as in the last-named order,
supposed to perform journeys through the forest and through firOf
to each of which a mystical meaning was attached.
But the true meaning was not told in this degree. In fact, for
all who wished to gain an insight into the real objects of CSar-
bonarism, this degree could not suffice. It was necessaiy to pro*
ceed to the second degree, nearly the whole of which was occupied
with the martyrdom of Christ, imparting to the catechism a
tristful character, calculated to surprise and terrify the candidate.
The former figures were here invested with new and unexpected
meanings, touching the minutest points of the crucifixion of the
Good Cousin Jesus, which more and more led the initiated to
believe that the unusual and whimsical forms were simply stu*
{>endous aitifices framed to confound the ideas and suspicions of
thoir enemies, and cause them to lose the traces of the funda-
mental idea.
In this constant Carbon arian recurrence to the martyrdom of
Christ two aims are discernible, — the one essentially educational,
to familiarize the new Cousin with the idea of sacrifice, even of
life, if necessary; the other, chiefly political, intended to gain
proselytes among the superstitious, the mystics, the souls loving
Christianity — the souls fiiudamentally good, however prejudiced,
because loving — who constituted the greater number in a Roman
Catholic country like Italy.
Thus, the furnace signified the Holy Sepulchre; the rustling of
the leaves symbolized the flagellation of the Good Cousin, the
Grand Master of the Universe, and so on. Tlie candidate for
initiation into this degree had to undergo further trials. He
represented Christ, while the Grand Master took the name of
Pilate; the first councillor that of Caiaplias; the second that of
Herod ; the Good Cousins generally were called the people.
The candidate was led bound from one officer to the other, and
finally condemned to be crucified; but he was pardoned on taking
V
i
680 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
a second oath, more binding than the first, consenting to have his
body cut in pieces and burnt, as in the former degree. But still
even then the true secret of the order was not revealed till the
degree of Grand Elect, which degree was only conferred with the
greatest precautions, secretly, and to Carbonari known for their
prudence, zeal, courage, and devotion to the order.
Besides, the candidates introduced into the grotto of reception
had to be true friends of popular liberty, and ready to fight against
tyrannical governments. The admission of the candidate took
place .by voting, and three black balls sufficed for his rejection.
He had to be thirty-three years and three months old, the sup-
posed age of Christ on the day of his death.
The religious drama now merged into a political one. The
lodge was held in a remoter and more secret place, only known lo
the Grrand Masters already received into the degree of Grand
Elect. The lodge was triangular, truncated at the eastern end.
The Grand Master Grand Elect was seated upon a throne. Two
guards, from the shape of their swords called Flames, stood at the
entrance. The assistants were named Sun and Moon. Three
lamps, in the shape of sun, moon, and stars hung at the three
angles of the grotto or lodge.
The cathechism now revealed to the candidate that tlie real
object of the association was politicial, and aimed at the overthrow
of all tyrants, and the establishment of nnivei-sal liberty, the time
for which, according to their dreams, had amved. To each
prominent member a station and duties in the coming conflict
were assigned, and the ceremony concluded by all present kneel-
ing and pointing their sword at their breast, while the Grand
Elect pronounced the following formula : —
"I, a free citizen of Ausonia,^ swear before the Gmnd Master
of the Univei'se, and the Grand Elect Good Cousin, to devote mv
whole life to the triumph of the principles of Liberty, Equality,
and Progress, which are the soul of all the secret and public acts
of Carbonarism. I promise that, if it be impossible to restore
the reign of Liberty without a struggle, I will fight to the death.
I consent, should I prove false to my oath, to be slain by my
Good Cousins Grand Elect: to be fastened to the cross in a
> Ausonia was the ancient name for Italy.
GOVERNMENT AMONG BEUKET OEDER8. 681
lodge, naked, crowned with thoms ; to have my belly torn open, the
entrails and heart taken out and scattered to the ivinda. Such are our
conditions. SWEAR!" The Good Couainareplied: "Weswear,"
This ilegree of Graiitl Master Gi'and Elect, the highest o£ Car-
bonarisin, was only accessible to those who had given proofs of
great intelligence and resolution. Tlie Good Cousins being
assembled in the lodge, the candidate wiw brought in blindfold.
Two meinhow, representing the two thieves, carried a cross, which
WW8 finnly planted in the ground. One of the two pretended
thieves wa^ then addressed as a traitor to the cause, and con-
demned to die on the cross.
He ivsigried himself to his fate, as fully deserved, and was tied
to the cross with silken cords; and, to delude the candidate,
whose eyes were still bandaged, he uttered loud groans. The
Gifind Master pronounced the same doom on the other robber, but
he, i-epresenting the non-repentant one, exclaimed : " I sliall
undergo my fate, cureing 30U, and consoling myself with the
thought that I shall be avenged, and that strangers shall exter-
minate you to the last Carbonaro. Know that I have pointed out
jrour retreat to the chiefs of the hostile army, and that within a
short time you shall fall into their hands. Do your worst.'"
The Grand Elect then turned to the candidate and, alluding to
the punishment awai-ded to tr.vit«rs as shown on the present occa-
sion, informed him tliat he also must be fastened to the cross, if
he persisted in his intention to pmceed, and must receive on his
body the sacred marks, whereby the Grand Masters Grand Elect
of all the lodges are known to each other, and must also pronounce
the oath, whereupon the bandage \vould lie removed, he would
descend irom the cross, and be clothed with the insignia of the
Grand Master Elect,
He was then firmly tied to the cross, and pricked three times
on the right arm, seven times on the left, and three times under
the left breast. Tlie cross being erected in the middle of the
oave, that the membei's might see the marks on the body, on a
given sign, the bandage being removed, the Cousins encircled tlie
ouididate, pointing their swords and daggera at his bieast, and
threatening hira with even a worse death, should he turn traitor.
They also watohed his demeanor to see if he betrayed any fear.
682 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Seven ^ toasts in his honor were then drunk, and the Grand
£lect explained the real meaning of the symbols, which were
never printed, but were only written down and jealously guarded,
the owner promising to bum or swallow them, rather than let
them fall into other hands. The Grand Master concluded by
si)eaking in praise of the revolution which had then begun, and
exclaimed : *' Very soon the nations, weary of tyranny, shall cele-
bmte a victoiy over the tyrants ; very soon. ..."
Here the wicked thief exclaimed: "Very soon all ye shall
perish! " and suddenly was heard outside the grotto the clash of
weapons and shouts of struggling men. One of the doorkeepers
cried out that the door was on the point of being broken through,
and a battering on it was heard directly after. The Good Cousins
rushed to another door which was behind the crosses, and there-
fore unseen by the candidate ; the noise then grew louder, and
the cries of Austrian soldiery nearer. The Cousins returned in
great disorder, as if overpowered by superior numbers, said a few
words of encouragement to the candidate fastened to the cross, and
disappeared through the floor, which opened beneath them.
Cousins, dressed in the hated uniform of the foreigner, entered
and expressed wonder at the mysterious disappeai-ance of the Car-
bonari. Perceiving the pei'sons on the crosses and finding them
still alive, they proposed to put an end to their misery. They
charged their guns and prepared to shoot, when suddenly a num-
ber of balls rattled into the cave, the soldiers fell as if struck,
and the CousiiLs re-entered through manj^ openings, closing at
once behind them, while they shouted: '"Victory I Death to
t}TannyI Long live the republic of Ausonial Long live liberty I
Long live the government established by the brave Carbonari! "
In an instant the apparently dead soldieis and the two thieves
were carried out of the cave; and the candidate having l)een
helped down from the cross, was proclaimed by the Grand Master,
who struck seven blows with his axe, a Gi-and Master Grand
Elect.
The Carbonari played no small pa't in geneml Eurofiean poli-
tics outside of Italy, and when the lurid star of the Coi-sican was
> Seven \*^ the mystic nural)er and Heein» to rule ver>' Htmngly through men's most practi-
cal ariftociatioiiii as it does in tlielr most fantastic speculations.
GOVERNMENT AMONG SECRET ORDERS. (i83
declining tliey were bargaining with Kitgliind for a guaranty of
the oomjilete independence of Italy, with Rome for its capital,
and for its boundaries the tlu«e stjas and the Alps; Corsica, Sar-
dinia, Sicily, the seven ialaiids and those on the coasts of the Med-
iterraDcan, Adriatic, and loniiin Seas to be integml portioim of the
new Roman Empire^ a superb dream of nationality which has
now partially materialized.
This project, liowever, fell thi'ough at the time, although the
bait held out to England wiis exceedingly tempting. But the
ambition of the Cail>onari to obtain a constitutional government
for thfir LOuntiT iK-gan to l^ar fruit in other countries which, of
coui'80, by reactioM stirred up the original society.
In 1819 took place the rising at Cadiz, hy which the King of
Spain, Ferdinand VII,, wa; compelled to give Spain constitu-
tional privileges. This ai-oused the enthusiasm of the Carbonari
to the point of ardency, but there was no unanimity in their
counsels, and their intrigues only led to many being imprisoned
and others banished.
An attempt made in 1820, however, with the Abbe Menichini
for their leader, extorted a constitution. The influence of the Car-
bonari now increased; lodges were established everywhere. Even
women now became connected with the sect, and female lodges
with the title of "the Garden Women" (^e Gtardinierey were
formed, each sister taking the name of a flower. The secrets of
Carbonarism, its signs, words, and symbols were openly pro-
claimed, and blessed in the churches. But the triumjih did not
last long. Austrian influence, the disloyalty of the king, and
treason in the sect itself, put an end to it in 1821.
The Carbonari in the Roman States about this time aimed at
the overthrow of the pajial power, and chose tlie moment when
the Pope was expected to die to carry out their scheme. They
had collected large forces and provisions at Macerata, but the
sudden recovery of tlie Poi)e put a stop to the enter[>ri3e. The
leaders were betrayed into the hands of the government, and some
of them condemned to death and others to peipetual imprisonment;
though the Pope aftenvards commuted tlie sentences. Up to this
point Carbonarism had been an ally of Catholicism, but after^vai-ds,
as Carbonarism degenerated in its i>ower, its membemge grew
684 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
vicious and its methods so unholy, that even a travelling cardinal
in some parts of Italy, if his horses shied at the lightning of a
summer storm, would fmioy at first that the stopping of his car-
riage might be due to the Carbonari, and that he would be robbed.
Carbonarism was introduced into France in 1820 by Joubert
and Dugier, who had taken part in revolutionary movements in
their own country, and after having for some time found refuge
in Italy, where they had joined the Carbonari, brought their prin-
ciples to France on their return from exile. The sect made
rapid progress among the French ; all the students at the different
universities became members, and Lafayette was chosen its chief.
Lodges existed at La Rochelle, Poitiers, Niort, Bordeaux, Colmar,
Neuf-Brisach, and Belfort, where in 1821 an unsuccessful rise
took place against the government.
The insun-ections fomented by this order in other places were
surface failures; still, though they missed their mark temporarily,
it is clear that they caused subsequent concessions on the part of
politic rulers to the principles they promulgated. But, apart from
any si)ecific results, Carbonarism is of special historic interest, for
it marks a transition period in the evolution of secret societies.
From secret societies occupied with religion, pliilosophy, and
politics in the abstract, it led up to the secret societies whose
objects were more immediately and practically political. And
thus in Fi-ance, Italy, and otlier states, it gave rise to numerous
and various sects, wherein we find the men of thouglit and men
of action, dreamei's and doei*s, combining for one common object
— tln3 progress, as they understand it, of human society.
Carbonarism, in fact, was i-evived about the year 1825, and
some ten yoare after combined, or rather coalesced, with the
soi'iety known as Youn^ Italy, whose aims were identical with
those of the Carbonari — the expulsion of the foreigner from
Italian soil, and the unification of Italy. The Carbonari suc-
ceeded, in 1831, in driving the Duchess of Parma, Maria Louise,
into exile. One of her most trusted councilloi*s was a Carbonaro,
who, when she entered her carriage, coolly wished her a happy
journey, to which she replied by saying to the lady of honor who
accompanied her, " Wliat a Judas ! " This triumph of the Car-
bonari, however, lasted only twentj'-eiglit days; for the duchess
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at the end of that period re-entered her capital, Austi-ia, having
by force of arms effected her restoration.
Another Italian society merits a passing word from its singular
name and the singular man whom gossip connected with it, and
that is the society of the "American Hunters," which was founded
at Ravenna shortly after the prosecution at Macerata, and the
measures taken by the Austrians in 1818, against the Carbonari.
Tlie famous poet. Lord Byron, whose love of Italy seems to
have been a genuine passion, was said to be at the head of
this, and his absence from Italy was ardently desired by the
Austrian authorities, who on one occasion tried to provoke a per-
sonal encounter with the poet. Tlien was witnessed the beautiful
scene of his brother poet, the incomparable Shelley, throwing
himself between the Austiiiin officer and the haughty Byron to
receive the swordatroke himself. How far Byron was mixed up
in the subterranean politics of tliat epoch is a conundrum that
has never been guessed, but his vast popularity to this day among
the common people of Italy is a fact that seems more traceable to
his personality and his deep-felt sympathy with Italian wrongs
tha]i to the tragic magic of his verse.
Tliis Society of American Hunters was said to be extremely
ethical as well as practical, and to have some intention of attemi)t-
ing to revive the Delphic mysteries. They exjjected a sort of
Saviour who was to come from America. It was asserted at one
time that Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-King of Spain, was a member
of the American Iluiitere, and it is not improbable that the Italian
partisans of Napoleon, of whom there were many, gathered new
hopes after the events of 181.5. A sonnet, of which the firet
quatrain is here given, was at that time very popular in Central
Italy, and 8ho^vs the direction of the political wind: —
" Scandalized by groaning nndcr kings so fell,
FilUng EuroiHi with dismay In ev'ry part.
Wo ure driven to solicit Bonapwte
To return from Saint Helena or from liell."
The secret revolutionary society of Nihilists, discovered in
Russia about a generation ago, so many membera of which have
690 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
been seized and condemned to various horrible punishments, is
stronger now than ever, and will unquestionably succeed before
long, at least, in part of its aims. It has for its object the over-
throw of Imperialism and the establishment of universal philo-
sophic Anarchism. The following articles, taken from a document
produced at an early trial, and containing the progmmme of what
these root-and-branch reformers intend, will show that they belong
to the most advanced school of revolutionism : —
1. The revolutionist is a man condemned. He can have no inter-
ests, nor business, nor feelings, nor attachments, nor property, nor even
a name. Everything in him is absorbed in one sole and exclusive
interest, in one single idea, in one solitary passion — the Revolution
8. The Revolutionist despises all doctrines, and has renounced all
science of this world, which he leaves to future generations. He knotcs
but one science^ that of destruction.
6. Severe towards himself, he must be severe towards others. All
tender feelings of family, friendship, love, gratitude, and even of honor,
must often be stifled in his breast by the one cold passion of Revolution.
For him there is but one repose, but one consolation, but one recom-
pense, but one satisfaction^ the success of the Hevolutio^i,
This society, at its Ijegiiming, as it does now, embraced men
of every rank of life, the leading spirit being Netc^haiev, who
escaped. Dolgow, the next in importance, was the sou of a
councillor, and these two succeeded in tMi lightening with their
opinions the minds of many of the students at the Petrovsky
University. They were seconded in their efforts by Rippona,
the son of a militjiry officer, and Prince Cherk(isoff, who on
several occasions supi)lied the funds required. Their plans wei'e
secretly nmde known to the friends of the movement by means
of a paper entitled ''From the United to the Isolated," which
called on the Russians to revolt against the government.
The sentences on these early prisoners, who wei*e all found
guilty, were comparatively mild, the severest being that on Prince
Cherk^soff, who was deprived of his rights and privileges and
ordered to take up his abode in the province of Towsk for the
si)ace of five yeai's. The other conspirators wei'C condemned to pe-
riods of imprisonment varying from a year and a half to three weeks.
Since tlien, however, the sufferings of political prisoners amid
GOVEHNMENT AMONG SECRET OKDEKS. 691
the mines of Siberia liave been so frightful that Engliah and
American civilization, forgetting the more frequent slow and in-
sidious murdei-s pcrpDti-atfd by cuiuiiiig corjiorations under forms
of English and American law, has often of late cried out aghast
and held public meetings of protestation against Russian enormities.
Our picture of political exiles in Siberia is one that will appeal
to every heart with any throb of humanity, for it tells the story
of tyranny more vividly than any printed words could do. It is
not merely life-like, it is life, life-in-death, which many generous-
hearted Russians are enduring to-day for the sake of the men,
and women, and cliildren of the future unto whom shall belong
the earth and the fulness tliereof. For the old superstition that
the many were created for the use and benefit of the few — the
divine right of Dives to be rich by reason of the labors of Lazarus
— is beginning to die out of the minds of men, though, like all
things of darkness, it dies bard.
It is greatly to be feared, liowever, that this old fetish, so fatal
to human happiness, will not utterly perish and be happily buried
until a few cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Paris, or
London have been burned to the ground as warnings to the world
at large, or to serve na toi-ehes that shall light man's onward
steiis a little taster to tliat true state of progress in which the
wealth of a nation shall be found to consist in an even distribu-
tion of all its products, based on equal efforts demanded of all
able-bodied men and women in an industrial republic of organized
common -sense.
One of the most active of political secret societies of recent
times was that of the Fenians, and tliere are indications, every
now and then, that this association is not extinct, but is only
a slumbering volcano, waiting for a chance, when England shall
be involved in some war of magnitude (say with the Russians in
Europe and in India simultaneously) to pour forth such a flood of
lava as would drive the hat Englishman out of Ireland and possi-
bly cause some of the Australian colonies, where Irish blood is
thick, to declai-e themselves independent republics.
Fifteen yeara ago, the writer of this history was living in Mel-
bourne, -which is one of the handsomest and most civilized cities
692 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
in the world, and, happening to render some slight but deeply
appreciated service to an Irish gentleman, was introduced as an
honorary or courtesy member to an Irish Musical Club.
The members all had music in their souls, but, contrary to the
often quoted lines of Shakespeare, they were fit, or were fitting
themselves, for ^treasons, stratagems and spoils" against the
£ngliah Grovemment. Their music was merely a veil to hide
their real purposes, which the writer soon discovered to be the
gradual dissemination of democratic doctrines throughout Aus-
tralia, leading up to the idea of complete political independence.
Several of the members were brilliant writers, and they never
missed a chance, even in their lightest newspaper articles, of
stimulating the Australian's local pride and proclaiming Aus-
tralian ability to govern Austmlia. A war with Russia then
seemed inuninent, and when the writer left Australia, some of the
politicians were ready in that event to spring on the world the
Australian Republic. It was even hinted, outside of Fenian
circles, that England would acquiesce readily, because such a
move would save her the trouble and expense of defending her
Australian possessions and permit her to utilize her navy else-
where.
The foundera of Fenianism in America were two exiles of the
famous year 1848, Col. John O'Mahoney and Michael Doheny.
It was, ac first, a semi-secret association; that is, its meetings
were secret, though its cliief officers were publicly known as such.
But the operations of the brotherhood were hidden from the pub-
lic view. It rapidly increased in numl^ers, spreading through
every State of the American Union, through Canatla and the
British Provinces.
In November, 1863, the organization assumed a new character.
A grand national convention of delegates met at Chicago, and
avowcMl the object of the Brotherhood, namely, the separation of
Ireland from England, and tlie establishment of an Irish republic,
the same changes being first to be effected in Canada.
Another grand convention was held in 186-4 at Cincinnati, the
delegates at which represented some 250,000 members, and each
member was called upon for a contribution of five dollars,
which call was promptly met. At that period the Fenians con-
dOUS UWV1.U O BEILLI'.
694 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
fidently relied on the assistance of the American government,
which was justly indignant with England for her conduct in the
Civil War, and the press of New York City rather favored this
notion which, however, soon proved itself unfounded or at least
premature.
In Ireland the Brotherhood never attained the dimensions it
reached in the United States, and without the assistance of the
latter could do nothing. Still, the Irish, as well as the American
Fenian Association, had its chiefs, officers, both civil and mili-
tary, its common fund and financial agencies, its secret oatlis,
passwords and emblems, its laws and penalties, its concealed
stores of arms, its nightly drills, its cori'espondents and agents,
its journals, and even its popular songs and ballads.
But traitors soon set to work to destroy the oi'ganization from
within. The head centre, O'Mahoney, who was in receipt of an
official salary of $2,000, is thus mentioned in the official report
of the Investigating Committee of the Fenian Brotherhood of
America (1866): —
After a careful examination of the affairs of the Brotherhood yoar
Committee finds in almost every instance the cause of Ireland made
subservient to individual gain ; men who were lauded as patriots sought
every opportunity to plunder the treasury of the Brotherhood, but
legalized their attacks by securing the endorsement of John O'Mahoney
... In John O'Mahoney's integrity the confidence of the Brother-
hood was boundless, and the betrayal of that confidence, whether
through incapacity or premeditation, is not a question for us to deter-
mine . . . Sufficient that he has proved recreant to the trust . . .
Never in the liistory of the Irish people did they repose so much confi-
dence in their leaders ; never before were they so basely deceived and
treacherously dealt with. In fact, the Moffat mansion (the head-
quarters of the American Fenians) was not only an almshouse for
pauper officials and hungry adventurers, but a general telegraph office
for the Canadian authorities and Sir Frederick Bruce, the British
minister at Washington. These paid patriots and professional martyrs
not satisfied with emptying our treasury, connived at posting the Eng-
Ibh authorities in advance of our movement.
From this report it further appeal's that in 1866 the Fenian
treasury in the States cont^iiiied the sum of 'iflSS,©©©; that the
expense of the Moffat mansion and the piirasites who flocked
COVEliNMENT AMON<; SECKE
thither in three months amounted to fl04,000 ; and that Stephens,
the Irish head centre in the same spa^e of time received from
America, in money sent to Paris, the sum of nearly $106,000,
though John O'Mahoney in many of his letters expressed the
greatest mistrust of Stephens.
Possibly he looked upon the latter as a more clever and
daring rogue, who materially diminished his own i>hare of the
spoil. Stephens' career in Ireland is sufficiently well known,
and there is scarcely any doubt that while lie was leadiug his
associates to their ruin, be acted as a spy upon them, and that
there existed some understanding between him and the English
authorities.
Another man of note among the Fenians was John Mitchell,
who had been implicated in the troubles of 1848, was transported,
escaped, and made bis way to the United States. During the
Civil War which mged in this country, he was a supporter of the
Southern cause, was taken prisoner by the North, but liberated by
the President at the request of the Fenians in America. One of
the ablest and noblest of this band wlxs John Boyle O'Reilly, the
poet, whose songs and whose life have endeared him to every warm
American heart.
The Fenians, to mise money, issued bonds to be redeemed by
the future Irish Republic, of which the following is a H[Tecimen : —
1 ^
]^
HAKF.
««D„™0
■ LIBKHTV
1 SHAMROCK.
e e«(«Wi»/.'»
,,1 .,/
T H E
IRISH
R K r I
IS Lie.
Re-leei,
i'.(e h'j- -
-
Board of
1
- - -
— —
Fiuanee.
1 SUNBUHST.
Obscurity envelops the origin of the word, Fenian, just as
obscurity now enwraps the operations of the society. Irish tradi-
tion says that the Fenians were an ancient militia employed on
696
THE STORT OF GOVERKMENT.
home service for protecting the coasts from inyasion. Each of
the four provinces had its band, that of Leinster, to which Fionn
and his family belonged, being at the head of the others. This
Fionn is the Fingal of MacPherson, and the leaders of the move-
ment, no doubt, saw an advantage in connecting their party with
the historic and traditionary glories of Ireland.
Many curious documents and songs, some replete with grim
humor, come to light from time to time concerning Fenianism,
of which oddities — or odd ditties — the following extracts from
the Patriotic Litany of Saint Lawrence O' Toole, published for
the use of the Fenian Brotherhood, may suffice as a specimen.
This litany was actually sung in recitative by some of the brother-
hoods, and the effect was unique.
Call to thine aidj 0 most liherty'loving (fToole^ those Christian
auxiliaries of power and glory — the soul-inspiring cannon^ the meek
and faithful musket^ the pious riJU^ and the cofi^cience-examining
pikej tohichy tempered by a martyr*s faithj a Fenian^s hope^ and a
rebeTs charity^ will triumph over the devil^ and restore to us our own
in our own land forever. Amen.
O* Toole hear us.
From Fhiglish civilization^
From Jiritish luw and order^
From Anglo-Saxon cant and free-
dom^
From the hest of the English
queen ^
From rule Britannia^
From the cloven hoof
From the necessity of annual re-
bellion^
From billeted soldiery^
From a pious church establish-
ment^
From the slavery of praying for
crowned heads^
From royal afiniversariesj
From mock trials^
From all other things purely
Fnglish^
r
O^ Toole deliver xis !
Fenianism the salvation of our race!
Record it above^ (JC Toole.
Fenianism to be stamped out like the cattle plague /
We will prove them fcUseprophetSy O^ Toole.
GOVERNMENT AMONG SECRET OBDEB8. 697
Jreland reduced to obedience, "1
Ireland loi/ul to the crwen, .
IreUtnd pacified with coi'ceammia, \ Jf^ ^s a
Ireland to ' recruit the Uritiah f f'tlsehood,
army, -y'^""^-
Ireland not united in effort, J
Ireland neoer again to be dragged at the tail of any other nation!
Proclaim it on high, 0' Toole.
The term Tammany was first applied to the Columbiaa order,
an association for fi-ateriial and political purposes in New York
City which took form in the year 1789, and which, when incor-
porated in the year 1805, assumed the ailditional appellation,
Tammany, and also gave this odd name to the place of meeting
which was owned or leased by the society. In thia Tammany
Hall the regular Democratic organization of the city and county
of New York assembled up to the year 1879. Thus the name
Tammany gi-ew to be applied as a rule to the political organiza-
tion which met in Tammany Hall whether it was the regular
Democratic organization or not.
This would seem to prove that nowadays there may be much
in a name, for this name has been applied indiscriminately for
eighty yeare. First freely used for a secret benevolent society,
next given to the regular political city and county organization of
a national party assembling in the hall of that society, and in its
third and last evolution of meaning, the title, Tamniiiny, has come
to be attached especially to the Democratic faction which assembles
in Tammany Hall, and which is sometimes regular and sometimes
refractory or boltish.
Not for forty j-ears has Tammany commanded the unquestioned
allegiance of the votere of the Democratic party, but has played
the part, if not of dog-in-the-raanger, at least of a most deter-
mined growler on several occasions. One of it« most striking
characteristics is that it has preserved to a large extent the
features of a secret society and applied them to a political action.
Most of its councils are confidential, and its leaders have worked
for the success of the society first, as a rule, and for the Demo-
cratic party second. They claim, however, that the success of
the Democratic party and the society are identical, although Tam-
C— IT-
698 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
many in its present stage of development lias been described, even
by Democrats, as "a well-disciplined body of predatory jwliti-
cians."
The history of Tammany for the last fifty or sixty years, as it
looks to an outsider, lias been the record of an organization sliar-
ing the principles of a National party, but bent first and fore-
most on controlling the government of the city in which it exists.
Or, in plainer words, it has been a highly successful scheme to
govern a huge, overgrown, unwieldy city by organizing its pur-
chasable vote, by confining in one black-magic circle of self-
interest the day-lal)orer who desires steady employment on the
public roads, and the learned lawyer solicitous for a judgeship of
$15,000 a year, with its additional refereeships and wide influ-
ence. Tammany keeps an eye wide open for smart young law-
yers likely to become disting^shed at the bar, and throws its coils
around them.
The early history of Tammany is exceedingly curious, and f ur^
nishes a suggestive contrast with its later political performances.
It seems that there was an obscure Indian chief called Tan;-
mamend, who signed his mark to one of the treaties with William
Penn concerning the lands of the Delawares. An attempt was
made at one time to connect this legendary gentleman with an
equally obscure Saint Tammany, whose festival on the 12th of
May came in the closing days of the Revolution to replace Saint
George's day.
After William Mooney had organized the Columbian order
with its thiiteen tribes, its twelve sacheuLS or directors, its saga-
more or master of ceremonies, and its wiskinski or door-keeper,
the secondary name of Tammany society was adopted, and in the
processions of the day its members wore the garb of Indians. In
1790 they even entertained an embassy from the Creek Nation,
going about for several days together in Indian costume, a compli-
ment, no doubt, highly relished by those sagacious savages.
In reports of these meetings nowadays the New York papers
still use the odd, old Indian phraseology referring to ''the season
of flowers, council fires, and great wigwams, " just as they were
used in the days of Washington. But Time, that grotesque
alchemist, that mocking transmuter of fine things into base, of
OOVKKNllENT AMONG SECItET UKDEK8. 699
gold into bniss, Ims changed the great siwiliem of Tammany into
a mere political boss, and the chief busineas of its present
Tiskinski, vho once gathered at the door the dollats of the
&ithful, has become simply the prompt collection of political
THE PKESEKT CHIEF C
assessments levied on Taniniiiny office-holders to perpetuate the
power of the machine in New York City.
But it must not be imagined that its power has been confined
to local politics. Since its beginning it has played no small
part in national affairs. Its strong grip on the country at large
was demonstrated in 1801, and the result of its local success at
the polls was the cause, the following winter, of the nomination
of Aaron Burr as vice-president in the congressional caucus at
Washington on the strength of Tammany's victory, and from that
700 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
day to this there have been very few national elections in which
the power of Tammany has not been manifested.
It would, however, tire the general reader to pursue step by
step the political growth of this faction, for its intricate relations
with New York politics have sometimes been a puzzle even to
special students. Yet a few things should be noted as indicative
of its power. Just as a man's strength of character is sometimes
to be measured not so much by his successes as by his recovery
from defeats and his attitude of mind in adversity, so the strength
of an organization may be estimated at times by its setbacks.
Tammany has survived several. Chief of these was its connec-
tion with the Tweed ring, which connection and the loss of
power, after the plunder of the Tweed ring was stopped, are
things still fresh in the public mind. It shows the inherent
power of organization that, even in spite of some severe defeats in
recent times, Tammany has regained and still retains its potency
in New York politics, and is to-day perhaps stronger than ever,
having a leader in Richard Croker far the superior of Tweed in
ability to manipulate men, and the equal, if not the superior, of
John Kelly in honesty.
The Tammany legend to which we have referred has been
hinted at by New York paj^ers but hjis never, so far as we know,
been fully presented since the year 1795, when S. L. Mitchill,
Professor of chemistry, natural history, and agriculture in the
College of New York, delivered an oration before the Columbian
order on the life, exploits, and precepts of Tammany, the famous
Indian chief. This oration is so curious that the reader will
thank us for reproducing the substance of it, and in some places
the exact language.
The Professor begins with the solemn adjuration : " Brothei-s,
possess your minds I Peace!" After an allusion to the council
fire and the women and children present, and after stating that
certain archaeological monuments, found west of the AUeghanies
and northward from the Ohio River, are silent witnesses of the
hero, Tammany, and his people. Professor Mitchill plunges into
a description of various battles or rather hand-to-hand duels
which the great Indian chief had with Hobbamock, the Evil
Spirit, or in plain American, the Devil himself.
GOVERNMENT AMONG SECKKT OltDERR. TUl
According to this New York historian the Devil wns much
troubled at the prosperity whicli the people were enjoying under
the rule o£ Tamnuiny, and so in their pastures His Satanic Majesty
secretly planted poison-Bumaclis and stinging nettles which,
niwpringing in profusion, gave the people no end of trouble.
Tammany, jifter studying the situation, and afu^r cutting down
the trees, and uprooting the nettles, only to find that they grew
all the faster, discovered that the soil was of such a peculiar
character that he could set fire to it.
In doing this Tammany not only reduced the sumachs and net-
tles from a multitudinous majority among the flora to an easily
endured minority; but, in the conflagration of the pastures, the
Arch Fiend, who happened to be skulking about, gloating over
his evil woik, got sorely singed by the flames. In revenge for
this roasting Hohbamock invented the rattle-snake, and sent
innumerable specimens of his invention into the realm of Tam-
many; but the clever chief not only showed his people how to
make life unpleasant for the rattle-snake by sowing the seeds of
the ash tree, but discovered also the virtues of seneca root and
the use of plantain leaves for his people to apply to the snake-
bites.
Old Nick, however, was full of schemes and showed a patience
and fertility of invention worthy of a lietter cause, suggesting the
idea that if the Devil could have been, or could he, refonned by
Tammany what a valuable citizen be might become. His next
move, says our Professor of natural history, was to send alarming
droves of mammoths from the other side of Lake Superior, which
ferocious animals, when turned loose on the Tammanial territory,
did incredible mischief.
Their hides, like those of modern politicians, were so thick
that the light arrows of the followers of Tammany rattled off them
like hailstones from a tin roof, and Tammany was put to his wits'
end to discover a way of ridding his people of these peste.
Tammany had noticed, however, in the days when, like the
eloquent Professor, he had studied natural history, that animals
were fond of salt ; so he sent to the ocean and got a large quan-
tity of it. Digging some deep pits, he set firmly at the bottom
of these pits an array of tough speats, covered the holes with
702 THB 8TOKY OF GOVEBNMENT.
a light network of interlaced saplings and turf, to imitate solid
ground, and then sprinkled his huge traps all over with heaps of
salt.
The mammoths soon got wind of this salt, and came to the
conclusion that they had found their earthly paradise. They
made an indiscriminate rush for the salt beds, crashed through the
light flooring, fell into the pits, and were by their own weight
spitted on the solid spears waiting to receive them. "Then,"
adds the Professor, "the country was cleared of these monsters
whose bones, discovered to this day at the Licks, confirm the reality
of the story."
Satan now tried to drown Tammany and his tribe by a flood,
and to do this he cunningly raised a dam of rock above Ontario,
and caused the rise of Lake Erie ; he made another dam above
Detroit, confining Lakes Huron and Michigan, and presently the
country to the south began to be inundated. Tammany, learning
of this plot in time, opened the drains or courses in which the
Alleghany, Miamis, and Wabash Rivers now run, cut the ditch
which forms the channel of the Ohio through a bed of solid lime-
stone, and thus, giving an easy vent to the dangerous body of
waters impending, turned an imminent colossal calamity into a
broad and brilliant blessing; for which fine example of mechanical
engineering he was rightly hailed as the saviour of his country.
"The lakes," remarks the profound college Professor, "subsided,
but the rapids of Detroit and Niagara remain to this day — monu-
ments to the astonishing event I "
But the Enemy of souls, though baffled, was not beaten. Soon
after he managed to stir up the red men of the east and north, and
they descended in great numbers on the land of the peaceful Tam-
many and his people. Yet, though fond of peace, Tammany was
always ready for war, and with his devoted army he defeated the
invadei-s and took a multitude of their best men prisoners. To
be taken prisoner among the Indians then wjis accounted very dis-
graceful, and the captives not only expected but hoped for a sud-
den execution.
Tammany, however, did not torture them as was their custom,
nor allow his people to insult tliem in any way, but on the con-
trary, after keeping them in quiet seclusion for a while began to
GOVEHNMENT AMONG BECKET ORDERS. 703
treat them as though they were honored guesta, invited them to
live among his people, and so conciliated them that they became
stanch admirers of his policy and, when offered their entire
freedom, some of them staid, and others went home and brought
back their wives and children, to live under the benign influence
of Tammany.
The Devil now decided that the only way to conquer the gentle
savage was to take him off his guard and kill him personally,
after which perliaps it would be easy to get the best of his
people. " Herein," suggests the Professor, "the Devil's meanness
was amply demonstrated, for, instead of sending an open chal-
lenge to Tammany, he hid in a buah to waj'hiy him, but by the
peculiar smell which evil spirits emit, Tammany, coming along,
knew him at once, and when he sprang out was ]-eady to grasp
him."
A terrible tussle it wiis, and appears to have been a sort of
Grseco-Iionian-Anierican- Ind ian-Ne w- York-Ward-poli tician-up-and-
down wrestle, since, accoi-ding to the historian, "for more than a
le^ue the ti-eea and bushes were smashed up, and the contest
lasted for fifty days, until Tammany, by a hiplock, threw the
Devil head and shouklei-s to the ground, and then tried to roll
him along, intending to di-own liim in the Ohio Kiver; but a
huge rock stood in the way, and Tammany was so tired with his
tremendous exeitions that he could not roll the Devil round the
rock."
Relaxing his arm grip on the hips, the chief took Lucifer by the
throat, but liis wrists and thumb had been so weakened that he
could not stop the enemy's weasand, and with a few wriggles the
Devil slipped through his fingera. Tammany shouted after him,
however, as he sneaked away that he had better confine himself
to the cold regions of Labrador and Hudson's Bay, and not be
caught showing his face again on this side of the " Many Waters "
or Great Lakes.
After this more than Homeric battle the Indian hero and
statesman turned his attention to the arts of peace. He was very
fond of watching tlie habits of animals in order to get hints from
them for the improvement of his followers, and in his rambles
he noticed a plant much prized by the crows and raccoons which
704 THE sTOEr or government.
grew rather abundantly in some places, bearing a silken tassel,
and with yellowish seeds.
Taking some of the seeds of this wild plant he put them in
richer soil, cultivated them carefully, and in this way produced
com, wluch he taught his people to roast, grind, and make up
into bread, but not, so far as history goes, to convert into
whiskey. Tammany also discovered how to improve to a high
degree of excellence wild pulse, or beans, "thus annexing," says
the Professor, "another ingredient to his bill of fare" and
"thus," a modem humorist might be tempted to add, "probably
anticipating the glory of Boston."
Tobacco, according to Professor Mitchill, was another of the
discoveries of Tammany, who did not recommend his followers to
use it in the modem method, but to prepare an infusion of it for
the dispersion of fleas, and to smoke it occasionally as a deterrent
to mosquitoes. The wild plum, mandrake, and onion Tammany
also civilized ; the crab tree, by his careful attention, was per-
suaded into bearing apples, and he also improved the canoes, and
bows, and arrows of his people.
In all his endeavors to ameliorate and beautify human life his
daughters assiduously helped him, and were rewarded with a
sweet success, for, in the language of Mitchill, "The wild lilies
quitted their abode in the valleys, and the roses forsook their
habitations on the hills for the pleasui'e of being tended by these
lovely damsels, and of occasionally furnishing a nosegay for their
bosoms and a garland for their temples."
But the sujireme tmit of Tammany's character was that he was
gentle; even improvements he never- tried to force upon his peo-
ple, but simply suggested them, as it were, for he "disdained
usurpation, and would sooner have been bound, loaded with
weights, and cast headlong into the lake than attempt any inva-
sion of the people's rights." In this respect what a remarkable
resemblance he beai*s to the Tammany of to-day I
Alxjut this time a deputation came to him from Manco Capac,
the famous original Inca of Peru, asking Tammany to meet him
half way in the neighlx)rliood of the city of Mexico to take measures
for the improvement of the world. Tammany wanted to meet the
Inca, yet did not wish to go unless it was the desire of liis people.
GOVEltNMKNT AMONG SECKBT ORDKKS.
705
and so at fii-st lie refuserl tlie invitation, but the jieople coming
together Bpontaaeously to a huge council fire, urged their great
leader to leave them and confer with t^e "Illustrious Siichem of
the Andes."
Before departing, however, Tammany divided Jiis people into
thirteen tribes, giving to each a symbol and a sermon of specially
valuable advice connected with that symbol. The symbols were
to be the special belong-
ing of each tribe, but tlie
advice was to be their
general property. It is
notewortliy in this con-
nection that in the organ-
ization of the Tammany
society of moiit-rn d;vy
this division
into thirteen
tribes was re-
ligiously ad-
hered to, for
the addition-
al reason, it
is said, that
there were
originally
thirteen states
composing
the American
Union. At >iKEri\u .>f tammasy and MANL1> CIPAC.
any rate, this
is one of the curious coincidences of histoiy, and should for-
ever disprove the absurd superstition that there is any ill luck
connected with the number thirteen.
"Children of the First trihe,"saidTammany, "let the Eagle l)e
your model ! Learn from him to devote your mind to lofty objects,
and never be caught sleeping in the sun. As he rises on the winds
of morning far above the mountain peaks where he builds his eyry,
so you should rise superior to the fogs of prejudice and passion.
706 THE STORY OF GOVEBNMBNT.
^The symbol of the Second tribe is the Tiger, who affords a
useful lesson to you by his extraordinary agility when roused to
action, and by his power of seeing, when all light is withdrawn save
.that of the stars, — in short, by his discrimination in the dark.
** The symbol of the Third tribe is the Deer, from whom you
should learn to avoid difficulties and dangers, and to escape grace-
fully from the toils of those who would entrap you.
"Of the Fourth tribe let the symbol be the Wolf! Notice his
wide nostrils which catch every atom that floats on the air invisi-
ble as the air itself. As is the vigilance of the wolf, so should
be the vigilance of the myrmidons of Tammany. They should
be the first to rouse and turn their heads to snuff oppression in
every tainted breeze.
"You of the Fifth tribe, my children, are to take useful hints
from the Buffalo; though strong, he likes the company of his
kind. From him comes this message : ^Operate in concert; stand
together and you will be a mountain that no one can move.
Fritter down your strength by division, let wigwam be divided
against wigwam, and you will be an anthill which a baby can
kick over.'
"Let the symbol of the Sixth tribe be the Dog, who by his
affection, even when ill or carelessly treated by his master, brings
finally his master to a kinder and better way.
" Of the Seventh tribe let the symbol be the Beaver, who by his
industiy can build finn houses even in running waters.
" Let the Eighth tribe take the SquiiTel, from whom we can all
learn foresight; who, not satisfied with merely living in the
present, takes up a collection against the storms of winter.
"For the Ninth tribe the symbol is the Fox, whose caution is
shown by the fact that he always reconnoitres before starting on
any journey, and even when started never goes headlong, but
winds his ways so as to get sight or scent of any possible ambush.
" Let the Tenth tribe take the Tortoise, that remarkable animal,
one of whom, according to ancient tradition, supports on his back
the world we inhabit. Benevolence and moderation are charac-
tsristics of the toiloise. Sometimes that tortoise who supports
the world is disgusted at the conduct of its people. By turning
his shell suddenly he could cause the waters to flow over the land
GOVERNMENT AMONQ SECltET ORDERS. 707
in floods, but snch is his Ixiiievolence generally, that he only
shnkea his whell a little, thus (pausing a few earthfjuakes, to
admonish mankind of their evil deeds. The result of his modera-
tion and temperance is such that his vital power is distributed
almost equally nil over his body and throughotit his shell, so that
on account of this distribution of vital force he is difficult to
kill.
"Of the Eleventh tribe the symbol is the Eel, a creature of
gentleness and grace, who slips through life in silence, and
teaches us to eschew unnecessary noise. Though cast an orphan
on creation, knowing neither his parents nor bis origin, by his
gentleness and his co-operativeness he makes life a valuable
thing.
" Let the Twelfth tribe take the Bear who leads a life of patient
endurance, sleeping calmly through the adversities of winter,
confident of the return of spring.
"The model of the Thirteenth tribe shall be the Bee, whose life
famishes a lesson of or<Ier, economy, and discipline which con-
duces to the general good. Nor this alone, for we find in the
world the bees' maxim pretty well established and illustrated,
'that be who works not shall have nothing to eat. ' Learn also, as
the bee exti-acts honey fmm faded flowers, to have that alchemy
of mind which can transmute troubles into triumphs,"
Having delivered to his people this singularly sensible sermon,
Tammany departed southwai-d to have hia interview with Manco
Capac. For this celebrated Peruvian Tammany drew the outlines
of that happy government of Peru which the reader has found
described in the eighth chapter, and which the eloquent orator
and historian of 1795 thinks would have been flourishing to-day,
had it not been for "tlie cui-sOd enterprise of Pizarro." Accord-
ing to Professor Mitchill, Tammany also mapped out a plan to
civilize the Aztecs of Mexico, which plan in the course of time
would unquestionably have succeeded, had it not been overthrown
by what Professor Mitchill styles "the hellish crusade of
Cortez."
Tammany then returned to find that the Devil during his
absence had been doing much mischief in the Tammanial terri-
tory ; had intercepted the comses of the rivers and turned them
708 THE STORY OF OOVEBNMSNT.
in some places into pestiferous swamps whose miasma had pro-
duced fever and sickness among the people. Finding that in
many ways they were sick or were going to the dogs, Tammany
at once treated them with Peruvian bark, a medicine which he
had received from the Incas, and when his supply of Peruvian
bark gave out he tried as a substitute the bark of the dogwood or
tulip tree; and another disease rather worse than swamp fever
Tammany succeeded in mitigating by discovering the medicinal
properties of the lobelia.
But at last this royal benefactor died and to him was given
by a grateful people a most royal burial place. This place curious
antiquarians have detected; he lies interred within the great
Indian mound and foi*t of Muskingum, a monument second to
nothing in symmetry and impressive solemnity except the Cheops
pyramid of Egypt, which is the tomb, not of a great benefactor,
but of a great oppressor of mankind. Singular contrast between
Africa and America, between Pharaoh and Tammany!
The Professor then concludes his oration with this burst of
eighteenth centuiy eloquence : " You may consider the talk you
have now heard as an effort to rescue a curious portion of un-
written history from oblivion. Tlie Eastern world has long boiisted
of the superiority of its people, and the inhabitants of the Western
Continent have been spoken of as a feeble or degraded race of men.
Let Asia extol her Zamolxis, Confucius, and Zoroaster; let
Africa be proud of her Dido, Ptolemy, and Bai-barossa; let Europe
applaud her numberless worthies, who from Romulus to Charle-
magne and from Charlemagne down to tlie present day have founded,
conquered, inherited, or governed states, but where, among them
all, will you find coercion so tempered by gentleness, influence
so co-operative with legal authority, and speculation so happily
connected with practice, as in the institutions of Tammany f
" Avaunt then, ye boastei*s ! Cease, too, your prating about your
Saint Patrick, Saint George, and Saint Louis, and be silent con-
cerning your Saint Andrew and Saint David. Tammany, though
no saint, was, you see, as valorous, inti-epid, and heroic as the best
of them, and besides that did a thousand times more good Let
us then imitate Tammany; let us get his precepts by heart; let
us, like him, wage perpetual war against the Evil Spirit."
GOVEKHMENT AAIOMU SECRET 0RDEB3.
709
From fantasies to figures ia almost like a plunge from the
eablime to the ridiculous, but violent contrasts are sometimes
very profitable to impress the mind with the full extent of a mis-
chief or diinger. An examination, therefore, of the following
statistics will convince the casual reader that the followers o£
Tajimiany have followed the closing advice given by Professor
Mitchill nearly a luindred years, hy " waging so j'-rpetual and suc-
cessful a war against the Evil Spirit" that they have gotten under
their control a lai^e amount of that yellow stuff which is called
the root of all evil.
Tammany Hall monopolizes all the best offices in the city of
New York, and the society entered the year 1892 with a longer
pay-roll than ever before. It is as follows: —
Tbos. C. T. Grain, Chamberlain »25,000
Wm. H. Claek, Corporation Counsel 1*2,000
David J. Deam, Assistant Corporation Counsel .... 10,000
Hugh J. Geant, Mayor 10,000
Thko. W. Mtebs, Comptroller 10,000
Of the subordinate officials we need not give the names ; the
salaries are sufficient.
7,500
1.000
6,000
5,000
, 2,750
, 2,700
, 2,600
, 2,500
, $.4W
, 2,300
, 2,250
24,000
135,000
4,000
26,600
22,500
80,000
84,000
51,750
11,000
31,500
256 at $2,000 (512,000
1,S80
1,980
1,000
7,600
1,850
11,100
1,800
225,000
1,750
3,500
1,700
18,700
1,680
5,040
1,000
14,400
1,550
3,100
1,500
376,500
1,400
212,800
1,380
4,140
1,350
6,750
1,300
241,800
1,260
2,520
1,250
33,750
1,248
1,248
1,200
4,116,000
1,150
10,350
1,110
679,800
1,080
21,600
l,0GO
6,300
no
THE STORY OF GOVEKNMBNT.
566 at
22
167
1
2
7
1
40
20
4
3o
52
20
4
6
73
31
26
53
13
17
1
05
25
5
304
1
31
5
2
230
10
170
2
1
$1,000 $566,000
050 20,000
000 150,300
880 880
850 1,700
840 5,880
820 820
800 30,200
780 15,000
760 3,040
750 26,250
720 37.440
700 10,600
660 2,040
650 8,000
600 43,800
572 17,732
540 14,040
500 26,500
480 6,240
450 7,050
430 436
420 27,300
400 10,000
364 1,820
360 100,440
348 348
300 0,300
2(54 1,320
252 504
240 65,200
228 2,280
216 38,004
225 450
200 200
57 at $102 $10,944
80 „ 180 16,020
23 „ 168 3,864
77 „ 144 11,088
120 „ 120 15,480
5 „ 06 480
5 „ 72 360
22 „ 60 1,320
1 „ 20 20
20 laborers at 5 a day, 250 days
a year (estimated) . . . 25,000
17 laborers at 4.50 a day, 250
days a year 10,125
103 laborers at 4 a day, 250 days
a year 103,000
110 laborers at 3.50 a day, 250
days a year 104,125
235 laborers at 3 a day, 250 days
a year 176,250
243 laborers at 2.50 a day, 250
days a year 301,500
85 laborers at 50 cents an hour,
0 hours a day, 250 days (esti-
mated) 30,375
38 laborers at 30 ccntit an hour,
0 hoiii*s a day, 250 days . 33,345
43 laborers at 35 cents an hour,
0 hours a day, 250 days . 33,802
405 laborers at 25 cents an hour,
0 hours a d.iy, 250 days . 227,812
0 laborers at 10 cents an hour,
0 hours a day .... 3,240
Total $10,123,887
This table is compiled from the Official Record^ which gives the
names and salary of every employee under the Tammany city gov-
ernment. As between two and three per cent, of all salaries are
collected by Tammany for political purposes, the campaign fund
this year must be at least $250,000, exclusive of the special assess-
ments levied upon those seeking nominations for office.
Go into the "Wigwam" — Tammany Hall — any afternoon at
three o'cdock, and you will find seated behind a great flat topped
desk Richard Croker, the leader of the Tammany foi-ces. Under
his guidance and tutelage Tammany has been more successful
-^-
I'S.K'U 'W.k^YS.
V l.Vi.'UU'&MM '^LWVS.V
(JOVEUNMKXT AMONG SECRET ORDERS. 715
thftn at aiiy time Biuce Tweed's downfall, and hia fiieiidii botuit
that he has never managed a campaign which resulted in a defeat.
The organization of Tammany- was cut out and planned before
Croker became a leader, but he has perfected it in such a way
that to-day the composition and discipline of an array is not mow
iiecuratti or severe. While the Tammany leader occupies a pmni-
inent position in the community, and is constantly before Uie
public, the popular idea of him and hia personality ia entirely
eiToneoua. I\Ir. Croker'a beginning Wiia at the foot of the ladder.
He arose literally from the ashes, liaving been in his early youth
tm engineer on the New York Central Railroad.
Instead of being a loud blatherskite and a man who dresses
flashily, he is precisely the opposite. He is quiet and reserv'od,
and weara the plainest and severest black clothes. Ho is a strong
lover of home and, except Avhen a politiciU campaign is in
progress, can always be found there, tie is short and stout,
wears a thick stubby black beard, and has between his teeth at all
times a cigar. Under the most trying circumstances he is calm.
Croker used to be city chamberlain, but he resigned this place
— the most lucrative in the Iwrough — and went to Europe on ac-
count of ill health. Young Crain was appointed to his place,
but the general belief is that Croker has yet an interest in the
salary.
There is no doubt tlmt he could obtain any position he desires,
but he has since his retirement fiviin public olfice devoted himself
to the management of the political organization of which be is tlie
acknowledged chief. Being tlie supreme authority, quite natur-
ally Croker is the head of the Finance Committee, and to hini
come all the contributions levied upon office-holders. For his
management of the organization it is a matter of common talk
that he receives $15,000 a year.
Yet while Tammany is managed by this one man, Richai'd
Croker, the machinery he uses is complicated and interesting.
First there is the General Committee. Tliis is composed of the
active workers in every voting district in New York City. It
has about four thousand members. Next in size and importance
is the committee in each election district, which is called the Com-
mittee on Oi^anization. This committee is composed of only
716 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the leading or most active men of the General Committee of each
district.
The General Committee of each district elect a district leader,
and these leaders, with the «addition of Ricliard Croker, Boiirke
Cocknin, and Tliomas F. Gilroy, compose the Executive Com-
mittee. The routine is that Croker and his chief lieutenants,
Cockran, Gilroy, Grant, and James F. Martin decide on what to
do. Croker tells the Executive Committee, and straightway it
is done, and woe to the man who objects.
In other political organizations one hears of unexpected out-
breaks at meetings, but not so in Tammany. A leader like
Croker, Gilroy, or Martin can easily tell in the afternoon ^vhat
a Tammany meeting will do at night, or how a Tammany Assem-
bly man will vote next month. The chairman of a Tammany
committee becomes "deaf, dumb, and blind," if a man unknown
to him arises to oflFer a resolution.
Mr. Donegan, an official who draws a SI, 200 salary, collects
money for the Tammany organization. Mr. Donegan has no
trouble. The office-holdei's undei-stand, and the schedules are
fixed. The amounts to be contributed Jire about Jis follows : —
*1,200 salaries' *2r).00
1,500 „ 80.00
1,800 „ 35.00
2,000 „ 40.00
2,500 „ 50.00
The collector does not bother with small fry who get under
$1,200, nor does he collect from the big fellows, the heads of
departments, etc. The little fellows pay to the district leadera,
and the big ones pay direct. Judge Pryor, for instance, drew his
check for J?! 0,000 to the Tammany chief last fall. Tlie bankei-s
and business men who are in sympathy with the organization are
attended to by Edward Kearney, and the gamblers and other
"sports" by John J. Scannel and Al Adams. The contractors
contribute direct and handsomely, actuated either by lioj>e oi
reward or fear of punishment. The Genei-al Committee men i>ay
•*?o a year, which alone is 820,000. The organization men pay
•915 a year, which is another $12,000. Donegan collects fully
GOVERNS[EXT AMONG SECRET ORDERS. 717
$60,000 a year, and the old historic opponent of Tammany only
knows what Seannel, Kearney, and the others turn in.
The following is an outline of the plan of organization on
■which Tammany Hall'a power has been built up. The unit of
oi;ifanization in Tammany Hall is the General Committee. This
is made up on a basis of one member For each fifty Democratic
TOtes east at the preceding national or State election within the
city and county of New York. The representation upon this com-
mittee for 1892 by assembly districts was as follows : —
Districts. Districts.
1 86 14 8S
. 110
. 150
. 124
. 90
. 252
. 292
IS U Total 3,000
This, however, does not moan that the General Committee shall
not exceed three thousand men. On the contrary the committee
for the present year has over eight thousand membere. The dis-
trict leader may put as many men on his district delegation as he
sees fit, but, no matter how large the delegation may be, at all
meetings of the committee it can only cast the number of votes
given above. One absolute rule of the General Committee is that
it must have at least one member f ram eacli election district in the
city, but it may have m many more as the district leader sees fit.
Next in order comcj the Committee on Organization. Tliis is
a sub-committee of the General Committee, and consists of
thirty-two men from each assembly district, total 768. Last year
the repreaentation on this committee was twenty-seven from each
assembly district, but for this year the number has been inci'eased
86 above.
718 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
As will be observed, the assembly district representation upon
this committee is not, like the general committee, based upon the
Democratic vote. Every assembly district is treated alike, the
one idea being to bring into this conmiittee the best workers,
the pick and choice of the organization. The result is that the
Committee on Organization is made up largely, though not
wholly, of the election district captains, the men who have charge
of the election districts and are responsible for the organization
thereof.
The Executive Committee, or Committee of Twenty-four, as it
is sometimes called, though the name is a misnomer, consists of
the twenty-four assembly district leaders, the leader or head of
the organization, Mr. Croker, Thomas F. Gilroy, Chairman of the
Organization Committee, and Bourke Cockran who is not a dis-
trict leader, but holds a prominent position in the organization
as the Chairman of the Conmiittee on Resolutions and Corre-
spondence.
Each of these committees has its officers, of course, and its
standing committees. The standing committees of the General
Committee are Committees on Finance, Correspondence, Naturali-
zation, and Printing, eacli consisting of seven members. Tlie
Naturalization Committee is tlie only one of the four concerning
Avliich any explanation is necessary. The duties of this com-
mittee are to look after aliens, who having lived long enough in
the country to comply with the law in that regard are desirous of
l>eing naturalized and thus becoming voters.
The work of the committee is confined mainly to the month or
six weeks just l)efore election. It tlien opens an office or bureau
convenient to the courts to which are sent, by the district leader
and his lieutenants, all persons wishing to be naturalized. The
district leader, before sending such persons to the Naturalization
Committee, is supposed to know that they will "be all right on
election day," that is, that they will vote the ticket of the organi-
zation after being made citizens. Wlien such an alien, properly
certified to, arrives at the bureau, he is taken in charge by a
clerk, who conducts him before a judge of the proper court, and
sees him through the case without cost to him, all the expenses
and court fees being paid by the Tammany organization.
GOVE KN'M EST AMONG SECRET ORDERS. 719
The 8ub-comiiiitt«es of tlie Committee on Organ izat ion in addi-
tion to the Executive Committee almady mentioned, are commit-
tees on expenditures, resolutions, and legislation, o£ six members
each.
The Committee on Organization is charged with the considera-
tion of all matters relating to the organization of the Deinocratio
party, the call of primarj' elections, and the conducting of primary,
general, special, and charter elections; and, in their discretion,
have power of revision and substitution of all nominations made
by conventions called by the General Committee, or any District
or Ward Committee of the oiganization. The committee
authorizes all necessary disbuisements and appropriations. This
committee possesses very extensive power over the General Com-
mittee, but at the same; time it is in its turn subject to the con-
trol of the Executive Committee, and tliat committee again is
supposed to be subject to Mr. Croker.
Assembly district organizations are little machines in them-
selves. At the liead of each assembly district is a district leader,
who ordinarily has absolute charge of the district, and is accounta-
ble for it to the organization. If Itis district makes a bad shoeing
in any election he is called to account, and at a meeting of the
Executive Committee must explain the trouble. If his explana-
tion is unsatisfactoiy, that is, if there is evidence of lack of
organization and proper work in tlie district, or a suspicion of
"trading" on hia i)art, his head rolls in tlie basket, and his
organization is invited to select a new leatler, and, it may be
added, is also instructed whom to select.
To be a district leader a man must have years of experience,
must be able to lead and control men, and his fealty to the organi-
zation must be above suspicion. Jle must also be willing to spend
money and to give up a large part of his time to the duties of his
position.
To assist him in handling his district the district leader luis a
district committee, which is entirely separate and distinct from
the district delegation to the General Committee. The District
Committee is made up of at least five voters, and as many more
as may be from each election district in the assembly district.
Over the men in each election district is placed a captain, who is
720 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
responsible for the conduct of the election therein. To him on
election eve, or early on election morning, the assembly district
leader delivers the ballots and pasters, and "boodle "for that
election district, and if he fails to prove worthy of the confidence
placed in him, his political days are numbered.
But election results are not all that are required of liim,
although that, of course, is the main thing. If he is not in har-
mony with his fellow members in his election district, he must
retire and make room for somebody who can compel harmony.
The captain must see to it that the vote of Tammany Hall is
increased. If it is decreased he is called to account, and if his
explanation is not satisfactory he is suspended. At the meeting
of the assembly district organization once in each m'onth, the cap-
tains report the condition of their seveml election districts and,
if there is a break or weakening in any, the district leader imme-
diately sets to work to repair the fence. In this way the organi-
zation is kept up, and the district leader has his finger constantly
on the political pulse of his district.
This intimate knowledge of his district is necesaaiy to the
leader, as he must in his turn make a report of the geneml condi-
tion of the district at each of the monthly meetings of the Com-
mittee on Organization, and must also report, Avhenever called on,
by the Executive Committee or by the leader.
It is in this way that Mr. Croker is kept in constant knowledge
of the condition of affairs in every part of the city, almost in
every house. It might be added tliat just before an election
tliese reports are made much more frequently, and it would not
be well for any district leader to make rose-tinted reports which
the after-election results failed to justify. They do not cha«e
rainlx)ws or "talk tlirough their liats " at such times in Tam-
many Hall.
How is this strict discipline maintained? Mainly through the
knowledge possessed by all that without it no political organiza-
tion can hope to succeed. Hence, tlie short, sharp shock that
waits those who in any way prove untrue to the organization.
THE French Revolution was the aad mother of many
noble and beautiful dreams some of which are slowly
ripening into vealities. Then, for the first time, was
the demand fairly and squarely made in a national way
for equal citizenship. Each man's highest title was " Ciio^en,"
Citizen; each woman was called " Ctloi/enne" citiKeness.
Yet partial citizenship — the right to cast votes, though proba-
bly not to hold oiiQce — was recognized before that glorious dawn of
better things, that Revolution, so misunderstood in its day by the
average English and American mind.
Women in New Jersey voted for the adoption of the Constitu-
tion of the United States, which it is claimed does not allow
women to vote, though it once did. Under it women voted twice
for President Washington, once for John Adams, and twice for
Thomas Jefferson, and exercised this right for more than thirty
years, from 1776 to 1807, when they were unjustly deprived of
the right, because the dominant party in New Jersey did not like
Uie way that many women voted. Women submitted to the
unjust' le^lation, as they are obliged to do now, but in no true
senw or proper use of langu^^, did they "concur" in being
deprived o£ their rights.
722 THE 8T0BY OF GOVERNMENT.
The first formal demands in this country for perfect equality —
for woman's natural right to a fail* share in the practical every-day
story of government — were made at Seneca Falls, N. T., in 1848*
and at Worcester, Mass., in 1850.
These conventions accomplished little, but showed what was in
the air, — the first blowing of a breeze that will some day be
the very breath of the nostrils of good government.
Twenty years later, 1870, the efiFect of this persistent breeze
began to be shown in New England, for the Massachusetts Repab*
lican Convention admitted Lucy Stone and Mary A. Livermore bb
accredited delegates, and later they were admitted to the second
one held when Garfield lay dead.
A year before this, 1869, in Wyoming, full political ri^ts were
given to women, and for a long time they exercised the right of
suffrage in Utah, thus ^^making a curious graft of the extremeflt
modem democracy on an old religious and patriarchal form of
government.
Wyoming was raised to the rank of a State in 1889, and this
act marked the maturity of the first real political democracy of
large area in modern times because Wyoming came into the Union
with a constitution conferring equal political rights on citizens
regardless of sex.
Next to Wyoming in American civilization stands Kansas, where
women have municipal suffrage throughout the State, and in some
towns women mayors have shown themselves able to administer
affairs as wisely as they did their own households.
On this royal road to reform, England, it must be grievously
admitted, has moved fajjter than our own country, which no longer
with grace can boast of progressiveness, as compai'cd with Europe-
For England and Wales, in 1869, and Scotland, in 1881, yielded
to women the right of municipal suffrage ; limiting it, however, to
unmarried women and widows, and this right prevails in nearly
all the American and Australian provinces.
The little kingdom called the Isle of Man, in 1881, went a step
further, following tlie lead of Wyoming, and making all women
with cei-tiiin property qualifications the political equals of men.
Iceland, likewise, has done the same. In England a curious
spectacle has recently been attracting attention and compelling
724 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
consideration, namely, the Conservative or Tory party oflScially
endorsing the proposal that parliamentary suffrage should be con-
ferred on women. The so-called Liberal party must eventually
come up to this and go beyond it. Indeed, an American who has
carefully studied the situation there says that, had it not been for
the pei*sonal opposition of Gladstone, this reform would have been
an established fact long ago.
To descend from generals to particulars, some of which are
highly curious and worthy of note, we can say in summary that
twenty-eight States and Territories* have conceded the right of
suffrage to women in some form. As an example of the interest
intelligent women take in the exercise of a right long denied, we
may cite the fact that at Binghamton, in New York, three thou-
sand women voted in 1890, and in Kansas, where women have
equal suffrage with men at all municipal elections, fifty thousand
women cast ballots in 1890. These and a host of similar facts
give the lie to the foolish statement that intelligent women do not
care to vote and prefer to leave all politics to men.
In Washington, when it was a territory, women voted generally
for five yeai^, and one year as many as fourteen thousand. Then
they were excluded by a decision of the Territorial Supreme Court
on a mere technicality. They were mostly debarred from voting
on the State Constitution, and as a result the Constitutional provi-
sion guaranteeing suffrage to women was voted down by the men.
It is said on authority that seems ungainsayable that, when
these equal rights were taken away in Washington, the saloons
were thrown open for a day of free drinking in celebration of
Washington's relapse towards barbarism. If this be true, the
inference will be that the saloon element in American life and
politics regards woman as its most dangerous enemy.
The question how women have voted and how they are likely
to vote is, of coui*se, of immense interest, but no wizard, since
•Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michi-
gan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South
Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, an<l Wisconsin grant women various degrees of school
BulTrage. In Arkansas and Missouri women can, by petition, vote on liqnor licenses in many
cases. Several municipalities in Delaware have yielded municipal suffrage to women.
Montana declares them capable of voting on questions of local taxation. Women vote in
New York at school elections and on local improvements such as gas and electric street
lighting, paving, sewerage, an<l municipal bonds. In Pennsylvania women vote, by signing
or refusing to sign petitions, on paving and other local improvements.
WOICAN IN OOVEBNMSNT. 726
Virgil, would hazard a positive answer to this conundrum of the
modem Sphinx. Suffice it to say that we are justified in believing
that in the future day of freedom, now dimly dawning for them,
they will soon learn to exercise their late-gained rights with as
much and possibly more wisdom than the majority of men. In
the Western States where women have had wider degrees of liberty
cheerfully conceded by sensible men in practical matters, such as
voting, they have generally voted the Republican ticket, since that
party was mainly instrumental in enfranchising them.
Gratitude is one of the strongest virtues of good women, but, as
women study more deeply into politics, they will see that voters
owe never so much a debt to the past, as they do a duty to the
future. And probably the good and intelligent women voters of
this country will cast their ballots before many yeai*s for that party
which does not inscribe on its banners any stale economic plati-
tudes about free trade and protection, but which fearlessly strikes
at the root of all the material and many of the mental evils in our
American life, namely, the present industrial system, that means a
constantly increasing centralization of capital and a constantly
moie and more enslaving exploitation of the patient many by a
greedy Jind conceited few.
For the sake of an instructive contrast with the political condi-
tion of women in free republican America, let us glance at her
political status all over the world. Every province in Australia
has municipal woman suffrage. So has Cape Colony, an area of a
million square miles. Australia, it should be remembered, is ter-
ritorially about as large as the American Union — not including
Alaska ; and Australia, besides being at present the land of prom-
ise for women, has been called the paradise of the workingman,
because there by law a day's labor is limited to eight houi-s, and
capital is prevented in various ways from developing to full extent
its inherent tendency to enslave and oppress mankind.
Asia, too, is ahead of the United States in this matter of real
progress. All the Russian colonies in Siberia liave woman muni-
cipal suffrage for heads of households, and women taxpayei-s in
British Burmah and in the Madras and Bombay presidencies have
the same political rank.
Europe shows a similar superiority to " the land of the free and
726 THE STORY OF GOVSRNMENT.
the home of the brave." In Sweden women vote for all elective
officers except representatives, and they vote indirectly for mem-
bers of the Swedish House of Lords. In Norway they have the
school suffrage. In downtrodden Ireland they vote for harbor^
boards, poor-law guardians, and in the city of Belfast for monicipal
officei's. In Russia women vote for all elective officers and on all
local matters. In Finland, for all elective officers. In Austria-
Hungary they vote, by proxy, for all elective officers. In Croatia
and Dalmatia they do so at local elections in person. Italy has
gone a step further in the right direction, for there widows are
entitled to vote for Members of Parliament.
Iceland, the Isle of Man and Pitcaim Island have full woman
suffrage, and nearly two thousand islands have it in some degree.
The area of countries where woman has a suffrage of some kind is
more than 18,000,000 square miles, or larger than Asia, and con-
taining a population of about 350,000,000, or nearly that of Eaiope.
Summarizing the situation, then, we may say that four politieal
divisions of the world — Iceland, the Isle of Man, Pitcaim Islaodf
and the State of Wyoming — furnish illustrations of the only real
complete democracies of modern times, that is, complete political
democracies. The next step above that will be — unless human
nature retn)gi'ades, unless common sense evaporates, unless evolu-
tion on its pnictical side is a scientific lie — an industrial democracy
where no " loafing " and living on othera on the part of monopo-
lists will l)e permitted, and where all able-bodied men and women
will do their share of the world's necessary work and have plenty
of time left for healthy individual development.
Such, briefly put, is the present condition of woman's direct par-
ticipation in human government. That she has, when at or near
her best, a greater sliare in that divine government that subtends
human affaii*s, a fact apparently symlx>led or signalized by the
position of Mary in the Catholic Chureb, can hardly be gainsaid
by any observer who is really unbiased and anxious to be ail-
roundly s(!ientific.
If, in truth, as J?iclielieu says, in Bulwer-Lytton's noble drama,
" Through h>s8 and gain,
Through glory and disgrace the holy stream
Of human happiness glides on,"
728 THE STOBY OF GOVXBNMENT.
and if that stream ever widens as it flows, we must thank not
merely some great men, bat women also who have left a legacy of
beauty more real and royal than what they wore when robed in
breathing flesh.
Nor is it alone to the confessedly great women of history that
this glad debt of thanks should be paid. The general stream of
Buman happiness has been increased more, perhaps, by women of
simple and obscure lives, who have helped to make beautiful
homes, and have ruled with a sceptre of softness over the hearts
of their husbands and children. Happiness, true happiness that
is, has a persistent, a creative, an eternal quality about it. Evil is
destructive in nature, so destructive that it must finally, like the
present industrial tyranny, destroy itself.
The superficial historian who considers chiefly the lives of
such mischievous women as Cleopatra, or the corrupt court
dames who played with power in France, would deny the state-
ment that, as a rule in the past, the women who have really
wielded the most power and produced the most lasting impression
for the development of the world, have been those who have
bloomed in quiet rather than those who have dazzled the imagina-
tions of poets and novelists, and amazed the average thinker by
the ravage they have wrought in the affairs of their time. Yet
such a statement will stand all the more firmly for assaults on its
soundness.
Still it must be admitted that the story of woman in government,
up to the present century, is rather a painful perplexity, a tangle
of vanities more cruel, perhaps, than the deeds of empty-headed,
masculine rulers.
Yet we must remember that women have been chiefly in the
past, not as God made them, but as men unmade them ; that they
have rarely had a fair, free chance, and that, when they obtained
pre-eminence by the accident of beauty or of cleverness, it would
be also an accident if, with the sudden acquisition of power, an
accession of knowledge how best to use such a force came like-
wise.
Indeed, considering this point, may it not be taken as an axiom
that the sudden possession of excessive power by either man or
woman is likely to produce those excesses of power by which man.
F
sr>
JtCUENT ATHKNB.
WOMAN IN GOVEfiNMENT. 733
the unit, as well as man the muss, has suffered miseries but faintly
pictured by historian, or novelist, or poet?
As one of the world's most brilliant women says : " Woman has
had very little direct pai-ticipation in government. She has been
B political non-existent, almost alw<iys, even when the wife or mis-
tress of a king. She has worked in secret by indirection. Women
have had power in the past, as women always will, but it lias been
irre-sponsible power, which is very dangerous in the hands of an
unrepresented class. It seems to me that women were not so
much the cause of the corruption of the Middle Ages, as the result
of it and, as I have read history, they were, in the main, better
than men."
Tliis question of the way in which women of the past have
used or abused governmental power is one of extreme interest to
whi(.'h an entire large hook might well be devot«d, instead of merely
a lii'icf chapter. We shall touch upon it later, and shnll now
pixmeed to consider historically the fundamental question of sex
equality,
Historically, then, we iind that woman's right to share with
man the councils of government as well as those of home is not a
new doctrine or a new pi-actice, by any means. Sex-equality
has prevailed among primitive races, and probably to a larger ex-
tent than science ha.s yet proved. Among the American Indians,
notably the Seneca-Iroquois, women of ripe yeara had a voice,
though not a vote ; and that certain New England tribes had femi-
nine chiefs, or queens, is in evidence ; while, stronger than isolated
instances of feminine leadership, in proof of sex-equality among
the New England Indians at the time their country was seized by
the English in the name of the God who said, " Thou ahalt not
steal, and thou shalt not kill," was the general showing of respect
towards women, and of tender consideration on the part of the
ancient inhabitants of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con-
necticut.
This fact, established by the records of their bitterest enemies,
the predatory English, or Anglo-Americans of thcise days appears
to be one whose historical value is not yet fully understood.
Probably the same, or possibly in some cases a greater degree of
sex-equality prevailed among a majority of the American Indian
734 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
tribes, and at the councils of the sachems, not merely as deputies,
but as voting equals, the squaws were heard with that profound
attention which the Indian race always accords to speakers.
Tonlay, when an unfit, or perhaps one should say as regards
them, a misfit civilization, combined with rum, has produced such
a chaos in Indian habits and customs that it is difficult to decide
what is purely aboriginal and what is modified by contact with the
white man's commercial ways, the direct participation of Indian
women in the tribal government is at a minimum.
Still, it is clear that Indian women to-day are not merely beasts
of burden or passive instruments in the hands of men. Our pic-
ture of the head-dance among squaws after the battle, horrible and
repulsive as it is, nevertheless indicates the influence of the squaws
in stimulating among the men that wild, ferocious valor necessary
for their preservation in the struggle for existence. Yet, i*epul-
sive and horrible as this photographic picture unquestionably
seems, is it so truly cruel as the way in which modern feminine
society stamps on the heads of those weaker sisters who have fallen
victims to the savagery or selfishness of men ?
Even in Africa, where women are more harshly treated as a rule
than anywhere else, accident-s of birth among certain tribes may
give women the leadei'sliip, and in the kingdom of Dahomey, as
we noted in our fourth cliapter, the army is entirely Cf)mposed of
women, who, as the special guardians of tlie king, may be thus con-
sidered to be directly concerned in tlie administration of government.
Our illustration is taken from a pliotograph made in their recent
war with tlie French, who found in these dusky Amazons such
desperate fightei's that French gallantry was for a long time non-
plussed. Some have suggested that it was French gallantry of
another kind which made the European invaders loath to fight
aofainst and kill women.
Whatever may have been the case, it is beyond question that
the French soldiers did not relish their campaign against Behanzin,
the King of Dahomey, and his ferociously valorous army. Some
recent writers estimate that tliis curious collection of pugnacious
women numbers as mau}^ as fourteen thousand, but we believe
these figures inaccurate, and thirik the old statistics, which put the
number at four thousand, are probably nearer right.
"Vhk^^torv of QOVEBNHEST.
That there have been women vanion in all ages, not merely
single examples like Joau d' Arc, bat r^ularoohorts of figfatiog
girls, is it iK>ssible to doubt, when we have such instances as
Dahomey still exUnt? The Amazons referred to by Homer may,
indeed, have been but a ligment of the poet's flashing а but
they are as likely to have been creatures actually seen by the poet
in his rambles before blindness ovortook him, as any of the historic
facte that shine like solemn stars La his two vast palaces of human
picture set in song, " The Iliad and the Odyssey."
Even more strongly than in Africa and in Polynesia does sex-
equality assert itself in certain parts of Asia. Among the polyan-
drous races on the eastern coast of Hindostan property and rank
are derived through the mother only, for the simple reason that
oostom renders paternity uncertain.
Indeed, it is a &ct tbat in this oomer of the world the term,
husband, carries an idea of inferiorify. Victoria, Empress of
In(Ua, is regarded by her loyal polyandrous subjects as the daughter
of the Old East India Company, and is popularly supposed to
reside in London with a multitude of husbands, as becomes her
exalted station.
An odd incident indicative of the working of the Eastern poly-
androus mind was the announcement made by the Sultan of the
Laccadive Islands to his subjects, in 1887. Up to that date this
potentate had been the \'assal of the Bibi of Cannanor, but through
the negotiations of the Governor of Ceylon he became a direct
tributary to the English crown ; whereupon his oriental majesty
announced this political change to his subjects in the way it
appeared to him — namely, that he had been divorced from the
Bibi of Cannanor and had become one of the husbands of Queen
Victoria.
Minicoy, in these very same waters, presents a perfect picture
of primitive feminine rule. The men are alisent most of the year
on fishing expeditions, and the women manage everything, the
fishers, on their return, taking life on land as easily as possible
to make up for their long sojourn on tlie deep.
Looking back through the records of early ages we find a cer-
tain crude equality between the sexes, that is, in the upper ranks
of, life. . The Iliad, celebmting a war caused by the beauty of a
WOMAK IN GOVERKMENT. 737
woman, shows this in many places. The Phseacian Queen, for
iiuitanoe, is depicted as having a share of public responsibility and
sitting on high in the seat of judgment.
The Ody.^ey depicts a later age, when Grecian women had
fallen from their primal high estate and were i-ather suhjtjct to
men, even when queens by right of birth or wifehood. Penelope,
for instance, the aweet example of the chaste and constant heart,
waiting for her lord's return so many weary years, not only has to
endure the biawling of the many suitora for lier hand and land,
■ but is patronized and put in the background by her own son,
Telemaehua.
As the Homeric age faded into fable, the power of woman in
Grecian government jMtled gradually into insignificance, that is to
say, the power of the good women, the mothers, wives, sisters,
and daughters of those marvellous men who in art, philosophy,
histoF}-, poetry, and eloquence made Greece the gem and glory of
the world.
Except in Sparta all the states of Greece adopted and put in
practice the oriental notion that a life of seclusion was the chief
business of modest women, and that education, save in household
matters, was a tree of knowledge fruitful of ill rather than good.
The mother of Socmt^s probably could not read, and it is doubts
ful whether the wife of Sophocles, the Shakespeare of his age,
could comprehend much more than a jot of tliat solemn and splen-
did dramatic poetry hy means of which her husband still inhabits
the bosoniK of men.
Sparta alone escaped the general decline. There tlie women
showed an intense interest in and a profoundly patriotic sympathy
with the affairs of the state. To lose the shield in battle — equiv-
alent to throwing it away so as to run faster from the foe — was
esteemed among Greeks, as among Romans, a mark of cowardice
and accounted a disgrace. " Come back with your shield or on
it I " was the cry of the Spartan woman to husband, lover, or son, as
they went forth to battle ; and when the dying Spartan was asked by
his wife what his epitaph should be, he replied : " Sparta hath
many a nobler son than he," and the woman's pride in her country
and interest-in -its government compelled her to fulfil his djing
behest. ^--:^=^-.^
4 ' ^jjs^kPubig^
738 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Singular, in truth, must have been the daily drama of Athenian
civilization, when the chaste women were excluded from politicail
aflfaii-s, and even secluded from veiy much social intercoui'se with
well-bred men. It is one of the stmngest and saddest assertions
of history, that in those days only the women of loose morals were
educated and were capable of acquiring and exercising wealth and
power. The fact faces us that, when Alexander the Gi-eat laid
low the walls of a city, it was Lais or Thais, a courtesan, who
offei-ed her purse to rebuild them.
These women were called Hetairte, and our illustration affords
a fair representation of their idle, luxurious life as they rest on
a balcony of Parian marble overhanging the play of the summer
waves of the amethystine iEgean. That tliey were originally
adventuresses from Asiatic Greece, and that their ranks were
recruited from the numerous Meditermnean islands rather than
native Greek women of the mainland, seems likely.
Yet how unlikely it would seem that Plato, the most august of
philosophers, must have studied feminine human nature chiefly
through such a medium ! When, however, we reflect that Aspasia,
the Queen of these Iletainc, was accounted the equal and was the
sought companion of such men as Pericles, Soci-ates, and Phidias,
we are constrained to admit that such was probably the case.
This Aspasia actually lectured ^ on rhetoric and philosophy to
social gatherings of loose-robed coui-tesans, and her hold on the
affections of tlie statesman, Pericles, lasted to his last hour.
Thus the goverunient of Athens at one period may be said to
have been administered from a house of l)ought smiles and coarse
caresses.
Let not tliis frightful statement over-startle the student! Cities
like New York, and cvcmi that modern Athens, which lies di-eamin^
of olden freedom under the shadow of Bunker Hill, have been run
by aldermen under the influence of '^ladies" on wliom Aspasia
would have thought her lectures wasted.
Her lectures were doubtless luminous with wit and humor, or
1 " Tills very fact," i^ays Mary A. Liverinore, ".•shows there was more to those * loose- rrilied
courtesans ' than is jienerally sniii»ost'<I, anil as for Asjiasia, she was cliarged with * walking
the streets unveiled, sitting at table with men, (tisl>elieving in tlie Greek go<l8, and lieliev-
ing only in one sole Creator, and with enteruiining original ideas concerning the motions of
the sun and moon.* She was in advance of her time, and the age could not understand her."
■WOMAK IN GOVERNMENT. 789
perhaps were somewhat like out modern sensational sermons ; yet
BUch sermons must have seemed to the practical Athenian "sober-
sidex " but a poor excrhanjje fiir the fi-ightfnl looses of the two wars
which Aij[)asia's ^icrsoiial quarrels and jealousies were supfHined to
have caused.
Mobl)ed in the streets of Athens, the violet-cro^vned city by the
sea. this full-blown flower of feminine beauty and intellectual
power was dragged before the Areopagus for judgment, to be
740 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
saved, however, from the righteous wrath of a roused people by
the soothing eloquence of her staunch lover, Pericles.
After his death, it is said, she continued her course of lectures
under the auspices, not of a man of genius like her former associ-
ates, but of a wealthy flour merchant. Such was the influence
of woman in government in the palmy days of Grecian civilization.
Sic transiit gloria Grceeice !
When Roman roughness and robustness triumphed over Greek
grace and cunning, Rome was really at the height of its moral
power in the world, and such women as Lucretia and Cornelia,
chaste wives and wise mothers, were plentiful among the Romans,
and had a voice, though not a vote, in shaping the laws and cus-
toms, and moulding the public mind to that high sta^p of intel-
lectuality which made the Roman for ages the lawgiver of nations.
But just as Greece had been Orientalized and the rank of her
women lowered, so Rome in turn, though the material mistress of
the world, became the intellectual slave of the Grecian culture
that she liad conquered.
It was in vain that Horace, her wisest and most popular poet,
sang, *' Take away these Oriental aids to luxury — I hate them,
boy ' The insidious East prevailed, and Roman manners under-
went a gradual refining and Roman morals a rapid undennining,
until in the words of the same poet, though not quite as he
implied, " Rome fell by its own weight " — the burden of a gross
immorality, caused by the presence of a bad indirect, and the
absence of a good feminine direct, influence in the government.
During this period of about three centuries at and following
the Christian era there arose two women, both Orientals, and
representing the two antagonistic types of woman in government,
perhaps, more perfectly than any of the antique world.
The first was Cleopatra, that " serpent of Old Nile," and what
she may have planned must remain a mystery, fascinating and
elusive as the primal mystery of life. As we understand her
through the cloudy conceptions of her time, she aspired, for mere
pei-sonal glorification, to bend the empire of the world into the
crook of her finger, now toying with the majesty of the first
CsDsar, now inflaming the passions of the rough Antony with her
infinite wit and giace, now attempting, but failing, to beguile the
\70MAN IN GOVEENMBNT. 741
proud Augustus, just as victory nested amid his banners and his
dim dream of an august CaBsarean empire rose rapidly into the
fair outlines of a firm, definite plan.
Cleopatra to us appears simply a perfect tjrpe of all that is dis-
tinctly bad in feminine government, or in feminine influence as
applied to government, yet she may have been at heart a patriotic
Egyptian princess, trying to save her people from alien domination
by playing off one Roman ruffian against another. Whatever she
was, she remains a most picturesque failure.
Two hundred and fifty years later another Eastern queen, Zeno-
bia, ruling with wondrous wisdom, endeavored, at Palmyra, to lay
the foundations of an Oriental empire, but her patriotic dream of
a united East was rudely dispelled by the Roman Emperor Aurelian,
who, scenting her purpose, deposed her before she was strong
enough to defy Rome.
Had the purple been hereditary in the Roman Empire, doubt-
less some great feminine rulers would have appeared equal to
England's Elizabeth, or Spain's Isabella, in mental vigor ; but im-
perial titles in that Greco-Roman civilization rested simply on the
whims of the soldiers, and women had no chance to become heads
of the state.
The low condition of woman genemlly, which naturally resulted
in a military empire, was somewhat changed when the Germans
began to overrun Italy. Attila, the Hun, had styled himself
** the Scourge of God," and the Germans generally considered
themselves divine scourges, especially made for the chastisement
of the corrupt and effeminate Romans. Lame Gaiseric bade his
pilot steer, when setting out on a Roman foray, " for the ports of
those with whom God is angry."
The German was far ruder than the Roman even in the rem.otest
period of Roman history. To drink mead from an enemy's skull,
for example, wiis a pleasant social accomplishment among these
barbarians.
But the notion of allegiance to the state instead of to a single
person, as representative of the law, imported by the Germans into
Rome, was an idea that was bound to operate ultimately for the
elevation of woman and the extension of her powers in govern-
ment. Because, since women could receive and convey title to
742 THR 8TOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
land, they thus might acquire serrice and aUegiance, and thus
occasionally could rise to political as well as social equality with
men. Thus in feudalism, lurking at the bottom of that otherwiae
oppressive system, lay a few seeds of possible feminine power.
Then, too, the Catholic Chui*ch by its conception of % A'^xm
maternity, its exaltation of a human girl to the rank of tiie Mother
of Grod, began to emphasize the idea in good men's minds of %
certain sacredness attaching to woman, and also the idea of a oex^
tain feminine right to rule by virtue of that sacredness.
Yet at the same time that the Church, in its broad general dol>
trines, raised and widened the sphere of woman as never be£oxe»
nevertheless it narrowed, in those early centuries and through the
Middle Ages, the powers of individual women almost as mooh as
the law did.
Hence women of active ambition, denied full direct exprBSsioii
by Church and Law, began to seek a vent for their energies in die
exercise of indirect power, by a subtle pandering to the ruder pas-
sions of men. And so powerful did these feminine politioiaos
become that in the first half of the tenth century even the papaoy
itself appears to have been swayed by uiLscrupulous women.
The development of feudalism during the eleventh century and
through the crusades, contributed to the legal, social and moral
elevation of woman, or, to state the case very moderately, to
the emancipation of women of a certain class. To be sure, the
Salic law of France forbade the succession of women to the
throne of France, but in the tributaries to that throne this law did
not strictly apply. Eleanor of Aquitaine, at the age of thirteen,
was ruler of all the country between the Loire and the Pyrenees.
The age of chivalry, the flower and fruit of feudalism on the
sentimentiil side, which went out like a candle at the laughing breath
of Cervantes, went out because it had outlived its usefulness as
well as its beauty, and had become an absurdity ; but it is a mis-
take to suppose that chivalry exalted woman merely as an object
of passionate attention.
The courtesy shown to women in the days of chivalry was more
than a refined voluptuousness i it rose quite often into a genuine
worship that made the masculine worshipper worthy of an equal
adoration in return. That age, lacking many of the material
744 THE STORY OF GOVEBNMENT.
comforts which mark this age of manifold mechanisms, this century
of gas, and bi-ass, and electric monopolies, and over-crowded cities,
was, nevertheless, in some ways, perhaps, as well supplied in the
essentials of spiritual happiness.
The fifteenth century in Europe brought to the front of poli-
tics two remarkable women, one, an inspired — or some say, crazy —
peasant girl, Joan D'Arc, the other, Agnes Sorel, for thirteen
years the companion, confidante and counsellor of the King of
France.
Joan of Arc, with her passionate desire to see the Dauphin
crowned at Rheims, despite the English foe, and with her Amazonian
love of being in battle like a man, or of leading men, is the more
picturesque figure, and the enthusiasm which the chaste peasant
maid evoked is still vibrant in the world to-day.
So much so is this the case that we have the singularly sugges-
tive spectacle of Sarah Bernhardt, the leading French actress,
playing the part of Joan in a play especially written for the
popular taste rather tlian for the popular actress.
Yet a much grander dream than Joan's, to drive the English
encroachei*s entirely out of her beloved France, was the steady
purpose of Agnes Sorel, the first, and probably the best, of the
long line of French frailties who ruled unlucky France through
the affections of the king. Hera was no easy task — to turn a
butterfly prince into a steady and sensible monarch, to make almost
a statesman out of royal material so exceedingly raw.
But Asfnes Sorel loved her countrv even more than she loved
her king, though she probably loved him very deeply, too, for we
are apt to love the things that we create, be they our children, or
our works, or the characters that we help our loved ones to build
up.
The next three centuries of French history were the halcyon
times of woman's supremacy in government, but it was nearly
always the supremacy of the wanton, ruling a king through
his passions, and ruled herself by a priest through her super-
stitions.
This might not have been so disivstrous to the people at large
had the priests been as a rule like such churchmen as Manning,
and Gibbons, and many others, or even had they been men of the
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WH^HLJfniE, THB CHILD QUBKK OF THB HBTHBRLAITDS 74S
746 THE 8TORV OF GOVBRNMBNT.
high ambitions and broad abilities of a Richelieu, but mostly they
appear to the unbiased eyes of after ages mere court politicians,
fond of playing the wind-god in the causing or calming of teacup
tempests.
The depravity of that long national night not only outraged
morals but good ta^te, which, after all, is in itself a kind of
rudimentary moral sense. Citation of the whole list of hornir^
would sicken the reader. Let one suffice. Diane de Poitiei's,
who ruled France through Henry II., began her career as the mis-
tress of his father.
The vileness of the House of Valois has passed into a proverb.
Compared with the princes of that stock, Henry VIII. of England
shines forth as rather a gentleman, somewhat uncertain as to the
state of his affections, no doubt, and with a peculiarly adjusted
conscience, but still mth a faint possibility of human natui*e lurk-
ing somewhere amid his catalogue of enormities.
When ho committed a crime, he tried to convert it into a virtue
by some i*egal or legal alchemy. Thus he paid at least a certain
inveited homage to an ideal of right dimly recognized by him in
others' natures, if not in his own.
None of the French princes would have troubled themselves to
have invented a new church, as did Henry VI 1 1, of England, for
the sake of securing a divorce from a mere wife of state whom
they had ceased to care for* They would simply have seized the
othei' woman whom they happened to desire and bent her or broken
her to their bestial will.
About this time a great woman ruled in Spain jointly with her
husband, Feixlinand, consolidating the two houses of Arragon and
Castile. Isabella, it must be admitted, had probably some of the
bad qualities of her race, who have been styled by one rather
pai-tisan historian the most tigerish family of monarchs that ever
ruled in Castile. ^
That Isabella permitted tlie dreadful Inquisition must probably
remain a stiiin on her fame, but that she treated bruUilly her
daughter is rather hard to believe when collated with the fact that
she was indignant at the cruelties practised on the newly dis-
covered Indians by her subjects in the New World.
The attempt has been made by some English writers to take
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT. 747
from Isabella the credit of having' pawned he r jewels to defray the
expenses uf Columbus in his expedition l-o distiover America. But
Maiy A. Livermore, whose public and pi-ivat* utteranoes,
whether of opinion or of fact, are marked by accuracy and modesty,
says on this point : - —
" If there is one historic statement more clearly proved than that
Isabella pledged her jewels for tlie funds for Columbus' first expedi-
tion, I have yet to leani it. To be sure, Luis Santangel furnished the
funds from the finances of the ecclesia-stical treasury of Arragon
of which he was treasurer, but the jewels of Isabella were the
collateral security pledged for the payment.
" Harriet Hosmer is now in Home making an heroic stiitue of
Isabella to commemorate that event. She spent months in study-
ing every detail of Isabella's history, in Spain and in Rome. She
ifl convinced of the truth of the story, and is making her statue
for the World's Fair, representing Isabella offering her jewels to
Columbus."
Feminine domination in Europe reached its climax in the time
from 1550 to 1600. The Marys in England and Scotland, and
the infamous Catherine de Medici in France, from 1559 to 1589,
earned the title of being the crowned curses of kingdoms.
To corrupt the morals of her own sons, and to influence one of
them to commit the monstrous crime and blunder of the massacre
of St. Bartholomew, shows the bad eminence of Catherine's
character. How the cause of the Catholic Church has suffered by
such champions as Mary Stuart and Catherine de Medici it is
easy to see.
But in England the star of woman's political influence began
to shine with a light less lurid, less blood-red and flame-red than
the fires of Sraithfield that had provoked stout John Knox, lurking
in safe obscurity at Dieppe, to blow forth to the public his " First
Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,"
which opened in clear, unmistakable tones: —
*>To promote a woman to beare rule, superiori tie, dominion or em-
pire above any realme, nation or citie, is repugnant to nature, con-
tumelie to Uod, a thing most contrarious to his reveled will and
approved ordinance, and finallie it is the snbversion of good order, of
all eqaitie and justice."
748 THB STORY OF GOVERNBIENT.
Later, on the ascension of Ekigland's throne by Elizabeth, who
became a stanch prop of the Protestant cause more from policy,
possibly, than real belief, John Knox, compromising a little
with his conscience, perhaps, tried to soften somewhat the rough-
ness of that '^ First Blast.'" But it still rings true as expressive
of what a tolerably good man must have felt at the spectacle then
presented by the crowned women of the world.
Elizabeth, the greatest of England's queens, had all the national
failings and some of the national vices emphasized in her personal
character. The vanity of the average Englishman which the
average American has inherited in part if not in whole, that
makes him believe his race and nation the finest under the suuv
was a conspicuous characteristic of good Queen Bess.
That she was also capable of easy lying and that strong oaths
came naturally to her quick lips full of Plantagenet temper seems
beyond a i*easoiiabIe doubt. Yet we must remember in our judg-
ing that lying in courts and in the management of politics is not
called lying but diplomacy, and Elizabeth, very likely, was early
taught this poor trick as the A B C of statesmanship.
The inherited intensity of the woman's nature was thwarted by
her determination, for the sake of her people, to live unmarried,
and thus natural forces turned inward soured her and emphasized
her eccentricities. The closeness of her grandfather, the miser
king, re-appeared in many of her monetary dealings, but it is
hardly believable that her niggardliness caused her, as has been
charged, to give rotten bread to the gallant seamen who drove off
the Spanish Armada.
Mary A. Livermore, who has made especial study of this English
queen, and who was assisted in her lecture on Elizabeth by books
and manuscripts in the British Museum, which no one is allowed
to remove, and who, before rewriting her lecture amid these vener-
able archives, had already written it four times, — such is the
patience and fidelity of those who aim at accuracy — puts her
valuable opinion of this great woman in government in these
vivid words : —
The English people adore Elizabeth. She founded the English
nation. It was a heterogeneous collection of agriculturists when she
WOMAN IN GOVERNMKNT. 749'
ascended the tbrone. She was two hundred years ahead of her t4mfl
aufl would have given entire and perfect i-eljgious fi-eedora, had it been
safe. She huld England limiiy in her band for thirty years and would
not allow it to go to war, knowing that the development of a nation
must come from mthin if it is to grow.
Elizabeth had no extravagant court-follies, no costly Hensualities, no
wasting wara which disheartened the people, cut the sinews of national
strength, and sowed the seeds of future revolution.
All her expenses for palaces, processions, journeys, carri^^es, servants
dresses, everything averaged only 1325,000 a year, while Louis XIV.,
Le Grand Monarqne, spent £40,000,000 on one palace alone. Her
flirtations and coquetries were a part of her state policy, and her deter-
loination never to marry was the outcome of her great ambition to
make England a nation.
The rule of Louis XIV, in France was remarkable for a change
in appearances, though not in realities at the French Court.
The lady who managed this monarch, Madame de MaJiitenoti,
believed herself to be devout in spite of the peculiar position
forced upon her by a more or less grim destiny.
Therefore the flat went forth that piety and rigidity of conduct
were to be the fashion at court ; but while this madame was mistress
of affairs, 300,000 exiles of the best heart and brain of France also
went forth to other lands rather than risk the persecutions which
a sui>er8titiou3 woman, anxious to compound for her own sins by
punishing those of others, might take a fancy to inflict.
Throughout this reign a semblance of decency was kept «p by
the aristocrats, who, to their credit be it said, chafed under the
hypocrisy of their daily lives and longed for the day when
Madame de Maintenon's power should be over.
When that day came and Ixiuis lay in state, liarmless at
last, the French nobility commenced that ci'az.y whirl of cmel
lust through the patient eighteenth century which was to end
only with the guillotine, and tlie awakening of the common
people.
The reign of that pious sinner, de Mnintenon, gave way to tliat
of de Pambere who conti'olled tlie policy of the Kegent. The
next Louis was only a symljol of a man, a sort of vivified niarion-
nette whose strings were pulled at merest whim by Madame la
750 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Marquise de Pompadour, whose style of wearing the hair is even
yet not entirely gone out of fashion.
She it was who made Louis sign the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748, because she could not trust him alone with the army. Not
long after, against the counsel of his ministers, she forced the
foolish Louis into the Seven Years' War to punish Frederick the
Great for some coarse jokes he had made about her.
Like Aspasia, she affected literature and sought the friendship
of Voltaire, that incarnate sneer. But of the doctrines of the
social philosophers, who belonged to the magic circle of which
Voltaire was the centi-al point, she was supremely ignorant.
When some of those who saw (or thought they saw, like men
to-day, who see similar signs) below the smooth surface of the
times, and heard the rumbling thunder in the heart of the moun-
tain, told this Queen of Caprice and Paris what troubles were
at hand, she laughed their solemn words away and said, *'^Apres
nous le dSliLge ! " " After us let the deluge come then ! "
It came like the lava-flood on that laughter-loving city of the
South — like that outbreak of Vesuvius which is hinted at in our
illustmtion of fugitive women watoliing, in a pause of their flight,
the fiery cloud breathed out by the angry mountain.
It came, and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who was the
first thoroughly good woman in nearly two hundi*ed yeai*s to have
a hand in directing the statecraft of womanized France, was
drowned in la Pompadour's deluge. The vengeance of a people
long oppressed, like the rain of God, fell from that cloudy heaven
on the just and unjust. The glorious Revolution swept away
impartially chaste queen and royal courtesan. The reign of the
common people had begun.
During that eighteenth century the power of woman in France
and her grasp on government were matched by similar conditions
among other nations. The firet Bourbon King of Spain, grandson
of Louis XIV. of Fi-ance, for nearly fifty years was ruled by
his wife, Elizabeth Farnese and her Jesuit Confessor, which pair,
with the best of intentions, contrived to complete the ruin of
Spain.
In England Queen Anne, a rather stupid woman, managed to
steer the ship of state with tolei*able success by selecting clever
WOMAN IM" GOVEENMENT.
T51
Qunigters. After her, Caroline, wife of George II., shared with
Walpole the government of England, her hufiband believing to the
day of his death that he was not a woman-ruled monarch like his
neighbora of France and Spain. In Austria, Maria Theresa made
a gallant attempt at maintaining her rights and enlisted the sym-
pathy of the Hungarian Diet.
"Holy" Russia, too, for sixty-eeven years of the eighteenth
century suffered from a set of crowned courtesans to whom far
worse words than John Knox put forth in his " Blast " could be
justly applied. Catliarine I., Anne, Elizabeth, and Catharine II.
hardly seem to be modern women, but rather hideous nightmares
of some historian's dream. The present Empress of Russia, whose
picture adorns these pages, must not be confounded with those
762 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
brazen horrora. Her placid beauty is a shadow of the kind and
placid soul which animates her slightest actions.
In our brief survey of the part woman has played in govern-
ment, we arrive now at the nineteenth century, which was the first
to witness on any large scale the dawn of democracy in the modem
world, and in this, our century, we find few women very con-
spicuously or actively engaged in managing the afi^airs of nations.
Perhaps the most striking figure is the Dowager Empress of
China, who for twenty-five years has influenced the daily destinies
of 450,000,000 of people, and in curious contrast with this mys-
terious old lady in Asia is the Baby Queen of the Netherlands,
whose innocent face is like so many girl faces in many a humble
home.
One who has read HoUandish history cannot help feeling as if
the queenhood of this little Wilhelmine were casting backward
a forgiving beam of gentleness over the crimes and follies of the
House of Orange, and .at the same time throwing forward a gleam
of promise for the future.
In England the long and well-balanced life of Victoria has
wiped away the memories of the disgraceful days of the last
George, and by easy stjiges of popular expansion has paved the
way for a republican government in the day^ soon to come. But
the crowned wives of this century, while they escape censure in
comparison with the past, are not the best real specimens of women
in government.
The real queens of this epoch, springing from the ranks of the
people, and demanding merely that homage which moral gmce,
subserved by intellectual power, must finally obtain, are to be
found in many a quiet home, in many a land, helping their fathers,
brothei-s, husbands and sons, to make this world just a little better
and younger every day.
^ JeiT)i-)Vtihtary Coi;stitutiorjal
W Jyloi^arcl^y.
AiJiii! wantlera through tlie galleries of Veraailles, drink-
ing ill the beauty of the surrouudiiigs, now looking at
the paintings where tho hisf^nry of France is repre-
sented by battle scenes from the earliest struggles of
the Gaul down to recent cam[}aigns in the Crimea and Italy, and
then gaziiig on the wonderful fountains of Apollo, with the Tria-
non seen through the leaves, full of memories of Marie Antoinette,
what visions of history more vivid and exciting than any romance
rise in tlie mind — what memories of great sovereigns, who, raising
France to the highest pitch of glory and influence, were, by the
very means they employed for such ends, tbe cause of her subse-
quent fall and humiliation!
First Louis XIV., le Grand Monarque, whose extravagance in
building tliia palace im[K)veri9hed Fi-ance and helped to bring hia
descendant to the guillotine, fiUcd its walls with pictui-cs fommem-
orating the victories won by Prince Cond(5 and Marshal Turenne,
then saw his hopes of further conquests end at Blenheim. Then
came the Corsican Bonapai-te, who with his marshals at first found
Europe too small for their conquering armies. But after Aiister-
litz and Jena came Waterloo, and the firet empire and its glories
faded out on that fatal field.
Finally Napoleon III. plays his brief part, and after Magenta,
Solferhio, and the Malakoff comes Sedan, and his empire Taiiishes
762 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
brazen horroi'S. Her placid beauty is a shadow of the kind and
placid soul which animates her slightest actions.
In our brief survey of the part woman has played in govern-
ment, we arrive now at the nineteenth century, which was the first
to witness on any large scale the dawn of democracy in the modem
world, and in this, our century, we find few women very con-
spicuously or actively engaged in managing the affairs of nations.
Perhaps the most striking figure is the Dowager Empress of
China, who for twenty-five years has influenced the daily destinies
of 450,000,000 of people, and in curious contrast with this mys-
terious old lady in Asia is the Baby Queen of the Netherlands,
whose innocent face is like so many girl faces in many a humble
home.
One who has read HoUandish history cannot help feeling as if
the queenhood of this little Wilhelmine were casting backwai-d
a forgiving beam of gentleness over the crimes and follies of the
House of Orange, and at the same time throwing forward a gleam
of promise for the future.
In England the long and well-balanced life of Victoria has
wiped away the memories of the disgraceful days of the last
George, and by easy stages of popular expansion lias paved the
way for a republican government in the day^ soon to come. But
the crowned wives of this century, while they escai>e censure in
comparison with the past, are not the best real specimens of women
in government.
Tlie real queens of this epoch, springing from the ranks of the
people, and demanding merely that homage which moi-al gi-ace,
subserved by intellectual power, must finally obtain, are t<i be
found in many a quiet home, in many a land, helping their fathei-s,
brothere, liusbaiids and sons, to make this world just a little better
and younger every day.
XVI.
a
i-)VtiUtart^ Cojj^stitutioi^al
JytoiparcJ^g*
ti'c
^ S one wandei-s tlirough the galleries of Versiiilles, drink-
/"\ iiig in the Injauty of the surroundings, now lookinir »*
/ \^ the paintings where the history of France is
sented by battle scenes from the earliest strugpif^
the Gaul down to recent campaigns in the Crimea and Itar..<«
then gazing on the wonderful fountains of ApoUo, iritij ttt "^
non seen through the loaves, full of memories of Marif
wliat visions of history more vivid and exciting tbazi
rise in the mind — what memories of great BOverei||ife
Prance to the highest pit(di of glory and iiifluenfit.
very means they employed for such ends, tlie
quent fall and humiliation !
First Louis XIV., le Grand Monan^iic^
building this palace impoverished France
descendant to the guillotine, filled its ivalii;
oniting the victories won by Prince C^md^j
then saw his liopes of further couques^-
came the Corsican Bonaparte, wlio
Europe too small for their conqi
litz and Jena canu» Waterloo,
faded out on that fatal field.
Finally Napoleon III. jj
Solferino, and the Malakflff^
764 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
into histoiy; for a third time, after a short period of martial
intoxication, France begs for mercy at the hands of the victorious
German.
Of all the striking histoiical events these palace walls have
witnessed, that one of January 18, 1871, was the most dramatic in
its completion of a people'i^ desire, its consummation of the hopes
of patriots and statesmen for many centuries : the unification of
Germany under one strong power. On that day, al:-eady cele-
bi*ated in the annals of Prussia as the one on which, in 1701, its
first king, Frederic I., was crowned at Konigsberg, King William,
passing between lines of German soldiery representing the various
nations of Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and the smaller princi-
palities, entered the famous Gallerie des Q-laces^ and standing
under a picture of Louis XIV. faced as proud and triumphant an
assembly of men as ever gathered about a leader.
Behind him were ranged six hundred battle flags from his regi-
ments. At his right hand stood the Crown Prince, then the pic-
ture of health and the promise of long life. Ranged beside
him right and left were the kings, princes, and reigning powers
of Germany, statesmen, delegates from tlie North German Con-
federative parliament, such as the speaker, Herr Simson, who
came in the name of that parliament to offer the imjx^rial cix)wn,
and who in 1848 made the same proffer to the brother of the
present king, and representatives from the free towns, and the
leading officers of liis victorious armies.
As the old king, whose niili'tiuy career began with fighting against
the firat Napoleon, saw liiniself supported by such a statesman as
Bismarck, soldiers like Von Moltke and Von Roon, his soldier son
and heir, Fritz, and his brilliant nephew, Frederick Charles, the
" Red Prince^'' he must have felt thiit his kingdom was founded
on a rock, even if the proclamation making him Emperor seemed
like a dream. After the acceptiinee by the king of the imi^erijil
dignity, Bismarck, whose clear bi-ain and iron will had made tliis
scene possible, read the following document in a strong, clear voice
vibrant with pei-sonal, as well as national, triumph : —
We, William, by God's grace King of Prussia, hereby announce that
the German princes and free towns having addressed to us a unanimous
call to renew and undertake with tlie re-establishment of the German
SEMI-MILITARY COHSTITUTIONAIi MONABCeV, 755
Empire the (iigiuty of Emperor, whicli now for sixty years lias been
in «beyance, and tlie requisite provisions having been inserted in the
Constitution of the German Confederation, we regard it aa a duty
we owe to the entire Fatherland to comply with this call of the
united German princes and free towns, and to accept the dignity of
Empei'or.
Accordingly, we and our succeasorg to the crown of Prussia hence-
forth shall use the imperial title in all the relations and affairs of the
German Kmpire, and we hope to God that it may be vouchsafed to
the German nation to lead the Fatherland on to a blessed future, under
the auspices of its ancient splendor.
Mny God grant to ns and to our enocessors to the imperial orown
that we may be the defenders of the German Empire at all times, not
in martial conquests, but in works of peace, in the sphere of national
prosperity, freedom, and civilization.
When the reading wiis over the Grand Duke of Baden stepped
forward and cried: — " Long live the German Eraperar William ! "
This cry was taken up by the assembly, wlio tlien advanced and
did IiiiTiiage to the new Kaiser, while the soldiei-s outside carried on
the cry, and the cannon of Mount Val(?rien, ever firing, gntmbled
in the distance, as if the Gaul muttered curees on what he could
not prevent. So to the popular mind of Germany the old legend
caine true that the Erajjeror Frederick Barbarossa, who with his
knigbts lay bound in enchanted sleep in the mountains of Bavaria,
would come to life again and restore the German Empire,
The Coiiiititution of tiiis empire, fornied hy blood and iron,
hears date April 16, 1871. By its teiins all the states of Ger-
many (twenty-five in number) " form an eternal union for the pro-
tection of the realm and the c^ire of the welfare of the German
people." The legislative functions of tiie empire ai'e vested iJi the
Emperor, the Bundearatli, and the Reichstag. The supreme direo-
tioa of military and political affairs of the empire is vested iu
the King of Prussia, who bears the name of Deutsoher Kaiser,
or German Emperar. The imperial dignity ia hereditary in the
line of HohenzoUem, and follows the law of primogeniture.
The esecutive power is in the Emperor's hands. He repre-
sents the empire internationally, can declare war if defensive,
make peace as well as enter into treaties with other nations ; be
764 THB STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
into history; for a third time, after a short period of martial
intoxication, France begs for mei*cy at the liands of the victorious
German.
Of all the striking historical events these palace walls liave
witnessed, that one of January 18, 1871, was the most dramatic in
its completion of a people'i^ desire, its consummation of the hopes
of patriots and statesmen for many centuries : the unification of
Germany under one strong power. On that day, ali-eady cele-
brated in the annals of Prussia as the one on which, in 1701, its
first king, Frederic I., was crowned at Konigsberg, King William,
passing between lines of German soldiery representing the various
nations of Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and tlie smaller princi-
palities, entered the famous Gallerie des Q-laces^ and standing
under a picture of Louis XIV. faced as proud and triumphant an
assembly of men as ever gathered about a leader.
Behind him were ranged six hundred battle flags from his regi-
ments. At his right hand stood the Crown Prince, then the pic-
ture of health and the promise of long life. Ranged beside
him right and left were the kings, princes, and reigning powers
of Germany, statesmen, delegates from the North German Con-
federative parliament, such as the speaker, Herr Simson, who
came in the name of that parliament to offer the imperial crown,
and who in 1848 made the same proffer to the brother of the
present king, and representatives from the free towns, and the
leading officers of his victorious armies.
As the old king, whose niilitiiry career began with fighting against
the first Napoleon, saw himself supported by such a statesman as
Bismarck, soldiers like Von Moltke and Von Roon, his soldier son
and lieir, Fritz, and his brilliant nepliew, Frederick Charles, tlie
" Red Prince^'''* he must have felt that his kingdom was founded
on a rock, even if the proclamation making him Emperor seemed
like a dream. After the acceptance by the king of the imj^rial
dignity, Bismarck, whose clear bi-ain and iron will had made this
scene possible, read the following document in a strong, dear voice
vibrant with pei*sonal, as well as national, triumph : —
We, William, by God's grace King of Prussia, hereby announce that
the German princes and free towns having addressed to lis a unanimous
call to renew and undertake with the re-establishraent of the German
SEMI-MILITARV CONSTITDTIONAL MONAKOHY. 756
Empire the dignity of Emperor, which dow for sixty years has been
in abeyance, and the requisite provisions having been inserted in tb6
Constitution of the German Confederation, we regard it as a dut^
we owe to the entire Fatherland to comply with tliia call of the
united German princes and free towns, and to accept the dignity of
Accordingly, we and our successors to the crown of Prussia hence-
forth shall use the imperial title in all the relations and affairs ot the
German Empire, and we hope to God that it may be vouchsafed to
the German nation to lead the Fatherland on to a blessed fiiluro, under
the auspices of its ancient splendor.
May God grant to us and to our snocessors to the imperial crown
that we may be the defenders of the German Empire at alt times, not
in martial conquests, but in works of peace, in the sphere of national
prosperity, freedom, and civili7.ation.
When the reatling wits over the Grand Duke of Baden stepped
forward and cried : — " Liuig live the German Emporor William I "
This cry was taken up by the assembly, who then advanced and
did homage to the new Kaiser, while the soldiers outside carried on
the crj-, and the cannon of Mount VaMrien, ever firing, grumbled
in the distance, as if the Gaul muttei-ed curses on what he could
not prevent. So to the popular mind of Germany the old legend
came true that the Emperor Frederick Barbaiossa, who with his
knights lay bound in enchanted sleep in the mountJiins of Bavaria,
would come to life again and restore the German Empire,
The Constitution of this empire, formed by blood and iron,
beat's date April 16. 1871. By its tenns all the states of Ger-
many (twenty-five in numljei) " form an eternal union for the pro-
tection of the realm and the ciire of the welfai-e of the German
people," The legislative functions of the empii-e aie vested in the
Emperor, the Bnndesrath, and the Reichstag. The supreme direo*
tion of military and political affairs of the empire is vested iu
the King of Prussia, who bears the name of Deut»cher Kaiter,
or German Emperor. The im[Mrial dignitj is hereditary In IJMiI
line 'jf HohenzoUem, and follows the law of primogeniture.
Tlie executive power is in the Emperor's haiid.-<. He rep<«> I
Benli* the empire internationally, cbd declare war if d^tnuiue,
wake peace as well as enter into treaties with other i
756 THB STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
also appoints and receives ambassadors, but for declaring offensive
war the consent of the Bundesrath is necessary. The separate
states have the privilege of sending ambassadors to the other
courts, but all consuls abroad are officials of the empire, and are
named by the Emperor.
This upper house of the legislative body, styled the Bundesrath,
or Federal Council, represents the individual states of Germany
like the Senate of the United States. It comprises fifty-eight
membei's, who are appointed by the governments of the individual
states for each session. The apportionment is not equal for each
state, following the analogy of the United States Senate, but is
according to population. All the members of the Bundesiuth,
whose presiding officer is the Chancellor of the Empire, liave the
right to be present at the deliberations of the Reichstag.
Acting under the direction of the chancellor, the Bundesrath
has a supreme and consultative board, and as such has twelve
standing committees : —
Army and fortifications; naval; tariff, trade and taxes; trade and
coraraerce ; railways, posts, and telegraphs; civil and criminal law;
financial accounts ; foreign affairs; Alsace and Lorraine; constitution;
standing orders ; railway tariffs.
Each committee consists of representatives of at least four states
of the empire ; but the foreign affairs committee includes only the
representatives of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, and two
other representatives to be elected every year.
The other body called the Reichstag, corresponding to the Unite<.l
States House of Representatives, is comi)rised of 397 meml)ers
(about one to every 118,000 inhabitants) who are elected by uni-
vei-sal suffrage for five years. Both the Bundesrath and Reichstag
meet in annual session convoked by the Emperor. The Emperor
has the right, after a vote by the Bundesrath, to prorogue and
dissolve the Reichstag.
Without the consent of the Reichstag, the prorogation may not
exceed thirty days, while in case of dissolution new elections
must take place within sixty days — and a new session must opeu
within ninety days. The Reichstag is presided over by an officer
elected by its own members. All laws of the empire must receive
i
748 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Later, on the ascension of Ekigland's throne by Elizabeth, who
became a stanch prop of the Protestant cause more from policy,
possibly, than real belief, John Knox, compromising a little
with his conscience, perhaps, tried to soften somewhat the rough-
ness of that ^^ First Blast.'* But it still rings true as expressive
of what a tolerably good man must have felt at the spectacle then
presented by the crowned women of the world.
Elizabeth, the greatest of England's queens, had all the national
failings and some of the national vices emphasized in her personal
character. The vanity of the average Englishman which the
average American has inherited in part if not in whole, that
makes him believe his race and nation the finest under the sun,
was a conspicuous characteristic of good Queen Bess.
That she was also capable of easy lying and that strong oaths
came naturally to her quick lips full of Plantagenet temper seems
beyond a i*easonable doubt. Yet we must remember in our judg-
ing that lying in courts and in the management of politics is not
called lying but diplomacy, and Elizabeth, very likely, was early
taught this poor trick as the A B C of statesmanship.
The inherited intensity of the woman's natui*e was thwarted by
her determination, for the sake of her people, to live unmarried,
and thus natural forces turned inward soured her and empliasized
her eccentricities. The closeness of her grandfather, the miser
king, re-appeared in many of her monetary dealings, but it is
hardly believable that her niggardliness caused her, as lias been
charged, to give rotten bread to the gallant seamen who drove oflf
the Spanish Armada.
Mary A. Livermore, who has made especial study of this English
queen, and who was assisted in her lecture on Elizabeth by books
and manuscripts in the British Museum, which no one is allowed
to remove, and who, before re\vriting her lecture amid these vener-
able archives, had already ^vritten it four times, — such is the
patience and fidelity of those who aim at accuracy — puts her
valuable opinion of this great woman in government in these
vivid words : —
The English people adore Elizabeth. She founded the English
nation. It was a heterogeneous collection of agriculturists when she
WOMAN IN OOVERNSrENT. 749'
ascended the throne. She waa two hundred years ahead of her time
and would have given entire and perfect religious fi'eedom, had it been
safe. She held England firmly in her hand for thirty yenra and would
not allow it to go to war, knowing that the development of a nation
must come from icitfiin if it is to grow.
Elizabetii had no extravagant court-follies, no costly liensiialitios, no
irssting wars which disheartened the people, cut the sinews of national
strength, and sowed the seeds of future revolution.
All her expenses for palaces, processions, journeys, carriages, servants
^dresses, everything averaged only $525,000 a year, while Louis XIV.,
'Le Grand Monarque, spent £40,000,000 on one palace alone. Her
flirtation H and co«juetried were a part of her aCaCe policy, and her deter-
mination never to marry was the outcome of her great ambition to
make England a nation.
The rule of IjOuIs XiV. in France was remarkable for a change
in appearances, though not in realities at the French Court.
The lady who managed this monarcli, Madame de Maintenoii,
believed herself to be devout in spite of the peculiar position
forced tipon her by a more or less grim destiny.
Therefore the fiat went forth that piety and rigidity of conduct
were to be the fashion at court ; but while this madame was mistress
of affairs, 300,000 exiles of the best heart and brain of France also
went forth to other lands i-ather than risk the persecutions which
a superstitious woman, anxious to compound for her own sins by
punishing those of others, might take a fancy to inflict.
Throughout this reign a semblance of decency was kept up by
the aristocrats, who, to their credit be it said, chafed under the
hypocrisy of their daily lives and longed for the day when
Madame de Maintenon's power should be over.
When that day came and Louis lay in state, liarmless at
last, the French nobility commenced that crazy whirl of cmel
lust through the patient eighteenth century which was to end
only with the guiliotine, and the awakening of the common
people.
The reign of that pious sinner, de Maintenon, gave way to that
of de Parabere who oonti-olled the policy of the Regent. The
next Louis was only a symbol of a man. a sort of vivilied marion-
nette whose strings were pulled at merest whim by Madame la
760 TliB STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
Marquise de Pompadour, whose style of wearing the hair is even
yet not entirely gone out of fashion.
She it was who made Louis sign the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748, because she could not trust him alone with the army. Not
long after, against the counsel of his ministers, she forced the
foolish Louis into the Seven Years* War to punish Frederick the
Great for some coarse jokes he had made about her.
Like Aspasia, she affected literature and sought the friendship
of Voltaire, that incarnate sneer. But of the doctrines of the
social philosophers, who belonged to the magic circle of which
Voltaire was the central point, she was supremely ignorant.
When some of those who saw (or thought they saw, like men
to-day, who see similar signs) below the smooth sur&ce of the
times, and heard the rumbling thunder in the heart of the moun*
tain, told this Queen of Caprice and Paris what troubles were
at hand, she laughed their solemn words away and said, ^« Apris
natis le dSluge ! " " After us let the deluge come then ! "
It came like the lava-flood on that laughter-loving city of the
South — like that outbreak of Vesuvius which is hinted at in our
illustmtion of fugitive women watching, in a pause of their flight,
the fiery cloud breathed out by the angry mountain.
It came, and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who was the
first thoroughly good woman in nearly two hundred yeai-s to have
a hand in directing the statecraft of womanized France, was
drowned in la Pompadour's deluge. The vengeance of a people
long oppressed, like the rain of God, fell from that cloudy heaven
on the just and unjust. The glorious Revolution swept away
impai-tially chaste queen and royal courtesan. The reign of the
common people had begim.
During that eighteenth century the power of woman in France
and her grasp on government were matched by similar conditions
among other nations. The first Bourbon King of Spain, grandson
of Louis XIV. of France, for nearly fifty years wivs ruled by
his wife, Elizabeth Farnese and her Jesuit Confessor, which pair,
with the best of intentions, contrived to complete the ruin of
Spain.
In England Queen Anne, a rather stupid woman, managed to
steer the ship of state with tolerable success by selecting clever
■WOMAN IN GOVEENMENT.
761
ministers. After her, Caroline, wife of George II., shared with
Walpole the government of England, her husband believing to the
day of hia death that he waa not a womau-tuled monarch like hia
neighbors of France and Spain. In Austria, Maria Theresa made
a gallant attempt at maintaining her rights and enlisted the sym-
pathy of tlie Hungarian Diet.
"Holy" Russia, too, for sixty-seven years of the eighteenth
century suffered from a set of crowned courtesans to wliom far
worse woi-ds than Jolin Knox put forth in his " Blast " could be
justly applied. Catharine I., Anne, Elizabeth, and Catharine II.
hardly seem to be modern women, hut i-ather hideous nightmares
of some historian's dream. The present Empress of Russia, whose
picture adorns these pages, must not be confounded with those
744 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
comforts which mark this age of manifold mechanisms, this century
of gas, and bi-ass, and electric monopolies, and over-crowded cities,
was, nevertheless, in some ways, perhaps, as well supplied in the
essentials of spiritual happiness.
The fifteenth century in Europe brought to the front of poli-
tics two remarkable women, one, an inspired — or some say, crazy —
peasant girl, Joan D'Arc, the other, Agnes Sorel, for thirteen
years the companion, confidante and counsellor of the King of
France.
Joan of Arc, with her passionate desire to see the Dauphin
crowned at Rheims, despite the English foe, and with her Amazonian
love of being in battle like a man, or of leading men, is the more
picturesque figure, and the enthusiasm which the chaste peasant
maid evoked is still vibrant in the world to-day.
So much so is this the case that we have the singularly sugges-
tive spectacle of Sarah Bernhardt, the leading French actress,
playing the part of Joan in a play especially written for the
popular taste rather than for the popular actress.
Yet a much grander dream than Joan's, to drive the English
encroachei's entirely out of her beloved France, was the steady
purpose of Agnes Sorel, the first, and probably the best, of the
long line of French frailties who ruled unlucky France through
the affections of the king. Hei-s was no easy task — to turn a
butterfly prince into a steady and sensible monarch, to make almost
a statesman out of royal material so exceedingly raw.
But Agnes Sorel loved her country even more than she loved
her king, though she probably loved him very deeply, too, for we
are apt to love the things that we create, be they our children, or
our works, or the charactei*s that we help our loved ones to build
up.
The next three centuries of French history were the halcyon
times of woman's supremacy in government, but it was nearly
always the supremacy of the wanton, ruling a king through
his passions, and ruled herself by a priest through her super-
stitions.
This might not have been so disastrous to the people at large
had the priests been as a rule like such churchmen {is Manning,
and Gibbons, and many others, or even had they been men of the
WtLBELMtTTB,
QUEEN OF THE MBTRBBI.AKDB 146
746 THE STORY OF 60VBRNMENT.
high ambitions and broad abilities of a Richelieu, but mostly tliej
appear to the unbiased eyes of after ages mere coui-t politicians,
fond of playing the wind-god in the causing or calming of teacup
tempests.
The depravity of that long national night not only outraged
morals but good taste, which, after all, is in itself a kind of
rudimentary moral sense. Citation of the whole list of horrors
would sicken the reader. Let one suffice. Diane de Poitiei's,
who ruled France through Henry II., began her career as the mis-
tress of his father.
The vileness of the House of Yalois has passed into a proverb.
Compared with the princes of that stock, Henry YIII. of England
shines forth as rather a gentleman, somewhat uncertain as to the
state of his affections, no doubt, and with a peculiarly adjusted
conscience, but still mth a faint possibility of human nature lurk-
ing somewhere amid his catalogue of enormities.
When ho committed a crime, he tried to convert it into a virtue
by some regal or legal alchemy. Thus he paid at least a certain
inverted homage to an ideal of right dimly recognized by him in
others' natures, if not in his own.
None of the French princes would have troubled themselves to
have invented a new church, as did Henry VIII. of England, for
the sake of securing a divorce from a mere wife of state whom
they had ceased to care for# They would simply have seized the
other woman whom they happened to desire and bent her or broken
her to their bestial will.
About this time a great woman ruled in S23ain jointly with her
husband, Ferdinand, consolidating the two houses of Arragon and
Castile. Isabella, it must be admitted, had probably some of the
bad qualities of her race, who have been styled by one r.ither
paitisan historian the most tigerish family of monarchs that ever
ruled in Castile. ^
That Isabella permitted the dreadful Inquisition must probubly
remain a stiiin on her fame, but that she treated brutally her
daughter is rather hard to believe when collated with the fact tliat
she was indignant at the cruelties practised on the newly dis-
covered Indians by her subjects in the New World.
The attempt has been made by some English writers to take
WOMAN IN GOVEENMBNT. 747
from Isabella the credit of having [mwned her jewels to defray the
expenses of Columbus in his expedition to discover America. But
Mary A. Livermore, whose public and private utterances,
whether of opinion or of fact, are marked by accuracy and modesty,
says on tliia point : —
" If there is one historic statement more clearly proved than that
Isabella pledged her jewels for the funds for Columbus' first expedi-
tion, I have yet to learn it. To be sure, Luis Santangel furnished the
funds from the finances of the ecclesiiistical treasury of Arragon
of which he was treasurer, but the jewels of Isabella were tfie
collateral security pledged for the payment,
" Harriet Hosnier is now in Rome making an heroic statue of
Isabella to commemorate that event. She S[)ent months in study-
ing every detail of Isabella's history, in Spain and in Rome. She
is convinced of the truth of the story, and is making her statue
for the World's Fair, representing Isabella offering her jewels to
Columbus."
Feminine domination in Europe reached its climax in the time
from 1550 to 1600. The Marys in England and Scotland, and
the infamous Catherine de Medici in France, from 1559 to 1589,
ekmed the title of being the crowned curses of kingdoms.
To corrupt the morals of her own sons, and to influence one of
them to commit the monstrous crime and blunder of the massacre
of St. Bartholomew, shows the bad eminence of Catherine's
character. How the cause of the Catholic Church has suffered by
such champions as Mary Stuart and Catherine de Medici it is
easy to see.
But in England the star of woman's political influence began
to shine with a light less luiid, less blood-red and flame-red than
the fires of Smithfield that had provoked stout John Knox, lurking
in safe obscurity at Dieppe, to blow forth to the public his " First
Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,"
which opened in c^eat, nnmistafeable tones: —
" To jiromoto a woman to beare rule, Huperioritie, dominion or em-
pire above any realme, nation or citie, is repugnant to nature, con-
tumelie to God, a thing most contnirious to his reveled will and
approved ordinance, and finallie it ia the subversion of good order, of
all equitio and justice."
748 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Later, on the ascension of England's throne by Elizabeth, who
became a stanch prop of the Protestant cause more from policy,
possibly, than real belief, John Knox, compromising a little
with his conscience, perhaps, tried to soften somewhat the rough-
ness of that ^^ First Blast/' But it still rings true as expressive
of what a tolerably good man must have felt at the spectacle then
presented by the crowned women of the world.
Elizabeth, the greatest of England's queens, had all the national
failings and some of the national vices emphasized in her personal
character. The vanity of the average Englishman which the
average American has inherited in part if not in whole, that
makes him believe his race and nation the finest under the sun,
was a conspicuous characteristic of good Queen Bess.
That she was also capable of easy lying and that strong oaths
came naturally to her quick lips full of Plantagenet temper seems
beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet we must remember in our judg-
ing that lying in courts and in the management of politics is not
called lying but diplomacy, and Elizabeth, very likely, was early
taught this poor ti'ick as the A B C of statesmanship.
The inherited intensity of the woman's nature was thwarted by
her determination, for the sake of her people, to live unmamed,
and thus natural forces turned inward soured her and emphasized
her eccentricities. The closeness of lier grandfather, the miser
king, re-appeared in many of her monetary dealings, but it is
hardly believable that her niggardliness caused her, as lias been
charged, to give rotten bread to the gallant seamen who drove off
the Spanish Armada.
Mary A. Livermore, who has made especial study of this English
queen, and who was assisted in her lecture on Elizabeth by books
and manuscripts in the British Museum, which no one is allowed
to remove, and wlio, before rewriting her lecture amid these vener-
able archives, had already written it four times, — such is the
patience and fidelity of those who aim at accuracy — puts her
valuable opinion of this great woman in government in these
vivid words : —
The English people adore Elizabeth. She founded the English
nation. It was a heterogeneous collection of agriculturists when she
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT. T-19'
ascended tlie throne. She was two hundred years ahead of hor time
and would have given entire and perfect rehgioiia freedom, had it been
safe. She held England firmly in her hand for thirty years and would
not allow it to go to war, knowing that the development of a nntion
must come from tpithin if it is to grow.
Elizabeth had no extravagant con rt-fol lies, no costly sensualities, no
wasting ware which disheartened the people, cut the sinews of national
strength, and sowed the seeds of future revolution.
All her expenses for palaces, processions, journeys, carriages, servants
dresses, evernhing averaged only t.$25,000 a year, while Lotiis XIV.,
Le Grand Monarqne, spent X40, 000,000 on one palace alone. Her
flirtations and coquetries were a part of her state policy, and her deter-
minatJon never to marry was the outcome of her great ambition to
make England a nation.
The rule of I^iiia XIV. in Fi-aiice was remarkable for a change
in appearances, tliough not in i-ealities at the Fiunch Court.
The hidy who managed this monarch, Madame de Maint«noii,
believed herself to be devout in spite of the peculiar position
forced upon her by a more or less grim destiny.
Therefoi-e the fiat went forth that piety and rigidity of conduct
were to be the fashion at coui*t ; but while this matlame was miBtress
of affairs. 300,000 exiles of the best heart and brain of France also
■went forth to other lands i-ather than risk the persecutions which
a superatitious woman, anxious to compound for her own sins by
punishing those of others, might tiike a fancy to inflict.
Throughout this veign a semblance of decency was kept up by
the aristocrats, who, to their credit be it said, chafed under the
hypocrisy of their daily lives and longed for the day when
Madame de Maintenon's power should be over.
When that day came and Louis lay in state, harmless at
last, the French nobility commenced that ci-azy Avhul of cniel
lust through the patient eighteenth century which was to end
only with the guillotine, iuid tlie awakening of the common
people.
The reign of that pious sinner, de Maintenon, gave way hi that
of de Pai-aljcre who controlled the policy of the Regent. The
next Louis was only a symbol of a man, a sort of vivified marion-
nette whose strings were pulled at merest whim by Madame la
760 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Marquise de Pompadour, whose style of wearing the hair is even
yet not entirely gone out of fashion.
She it was who made Louis sign the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748, because she could not trust him alone with the army. Not
long after, against the counsel of his ministers, she forced the
foolish Louis into the Seven Years' War to punish Frederick the
Great for some coarse jokes he had made about her.
Like Aspasia, she affected literature and sought the friendship
of Voltaire, that incarnate sneer. But of the doctrines of the
social philosophers, who belonged to the magic circle of which
Voltaire was the central point, she was supremely ignorant.
When some of those who saw (or thought they saw, like men
to-day, who see similar signs) below the smooth surface of the
times, and heard the rumbling thunder in the heart of the moun-
tain, told this Queen of Caprice and Paris what troubles were
at hand, she laughed their solemn words away and said, " Apre%
noiLS le deluge I " " After us let the deluge come then I "
It came like the lava-flood on that laughter-loving city of the
South — like that outbreak of Vesuvius which is liinted at in our
illustration of fugitive women watching, in a pause of their flight,
the liery cloud breatlied out by tlie angry mountain.
It came, and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, w^ho was the
first thoroughly good woman in nearly two hundred yeara to have
a hand in directing tlie statecraft of womanized France, wiis
drowned in la Pompadour's deluge. The vengeance of a people
long oppressed, like the rain of God, fell from that cloudy heaven
on the just and unjust. The glorious Revolution swept away
impartially chaste queen and royal courtesan. The reign of the
common people had begun.
During that eighteenth century the power of woman in France
and her grasp on government were matched by similar conditions
among other nations. The first Bourbon King of Spain, grandson
of Louis XIV. of France, for nearly fifty yeare was ruled by
his wife, Elizabeth Farnese and her Jesuit Confessor, which pair,
with the best of intentions, contrived to complete the ruin of
Spain.
In England Queen Anne, a rather stupid woman, managed to
steer the ship of state with tolerable success by selecting clever
WOMAN IN GOVERNMENT.
761
ministers. After her, Caroline, wife of George II., shared with
Walpole the government of England, her husband believing to the
day of his death that he was not a woman-ruled monarch hke his
if^
^BtfC'-
A
JM
Wf9
m
w
A
■ <■■>>"
Iff^
M^
Wa
3
^S.'t-''
"1
a'.
m
^:
%,,
■
neighbors of France and Spain. In Austria, Maria Theresa made
a gallant attempt at maintaining her rights and enlisted the sym-
pathy of the Hungarian Diet.
" Holy " Russia, too, for sixty-seven years of the eigliteenth
century suffered from a set of crowned courtesans to whom far
worse wni-ds than John Knox put forth in liis " Blast " could be
justly applied. Catharine I., Anne, Elizabeth, and Catharine II.
hardly seem to be modern women, but rather hideous nightmares
of some historian's dream. The present Empress of Hussia, whose
picture adorns tiiese p^pes, must not be confounded with those
762 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
brazen horrora. Her placid beauty is a shadow of the kind and
placid soul which animates her slightest actions.
In our brief survey of the part woman has played in govern-
ment, we arrive now at the nineteenth century, which was the first
to witness on any large scale the dawn of democracy in the modem
world, and in this, our century, we find few women veiy con-
spicuously or actively engaged in managing the affairs of nations.
Perhaps the most striking figure is the Dowager Empress of
China, who for twenty-five years has influenced the daily destinies
of 450,000,000 of people, and in curious contrast with this mys-
terious old lady in Asia is the Baby Queen of the Netherlands,
whose innocent face is like so many girl faces in many a humble
home.
One who has read HoUandish history cannot help feeling as if
the queenhood of this little Wilhelmine wei'e casting backward
a forgiving beam of gentleness over the crimes and follies of the
House of Orange, and .at the same time throwing forward a gleam
of promise for the future.
In England the long and well-balanced life of Victoria has
wiped away the memories of the disgraceful days of the last
George, and by easy stages of popular expansion has paved tlie
way for a republican government in the days soon to come. But
the crowned wives of this century, while they escape censure in
comparison with the past, are not the best real specimens of women
in government.
The real queens of this epoch, springing from the ranks of the
people, and demanding merely that homage which moral gi*ace,
subserved by intellectual power, must finally obtain, are to be
found in many a quiet home, in many a land, helping their fathers,
brothere, Inisbinds and sons, to make this world just a little better
and younger every day.
J
Scn^i-JVtiUtary Co institutional
Jvloparcl^y*
TIL S onts wanders through the galleries of Versailles, drink-
/ \ lug in tli6 beauty of the surroimdings, now looking at
/ % the piiiiitiiigB where the liistfiry of Fi-ance is repre-
sented by battle scenes from the earliest strugglea of
the Gaul down to recent campaigns in the Crimea and Italy, and
then gazing on the wonderful fountains of Apollo, with the Tri^
non seen tlirongh the leaver, full of memorii^s of Jlarie Antoinette,
what visions of history more vivid and exciting than any romance
rise in the mind — what memories of great sovereigns, who, raising
France to the highest pitch of glory and influence, were, by the
very means they employed for such ends, the cause of her subse-
quent fall and humiliation !
First Louis XIV., le &rand Monarque, whose extravagance in
building this palace impoverished France and helped to bring his
descendant to the guillotine, filled its walls with pictures commem-
orating the victories won by Prince Cond(5 and Mai-shal Turenne,
then saw his hopes of further conquests end at Blenheim. Then
came the Corsican Bonaparte, who with his marshals at first found
Europe too small for their conquering armies. But after Auster-
litz and Jena came Waterloo, and the fiist empire and its glories
faded out on that fatal field.
Finally Napoleon III. plays his brief part, and after Magenta,
SoUV-i-iiin. uii'I ilic Malakoff ccmes Sedan, and his empire vanishes
754 THE STORY OF OOVERNMENT.
into history; for a third time, after a short period of martial
intoxication, France begs for mercy at the liands of the victorious
German.
Of all the striking historical events these palace walls liave
witnessed, that one of January 18, 1871, was the most di-amatic in
its completion of a people^i^ desii*e, its consummation of the liopes
of patriots and statesmen for many centuries : the unification of
Germany under one strong power. On that day, ali-eady cele-
brated in the annals of Prussia as the one on which, in 1701, its
first king, Frederic I., was crowned at Konigsberg, King William,
passing between lines of German soldiery representing the various
nations of Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and the smaller princi-
palities, entered the famous Qallerie des Qlaces^ and standing
under a picture of Louis XIV. faced as proud and triumphant an
assembly of men as ever gathered about a leader.
Behind him were ranged six hundred battle flags from his regi-
ments. At his right hand stood the Crown Prince, then the pic-
ture of health and the promise of long life. Ranged beside
him right and left were the kings, princes, and reigning powers
of Germany, statesmen, delegates from the North German Con-
federative parliament, such as the speaker, Herr Simson, who
came in the name of that parliament to offer the imperial crown,
and who in 1848 made the same proffer to the brother of the
present king, and representatives from the free towns, and the
leading officers of his victorious armies.
As the old king, whose niiirtary career began with fighting against
the firat Napoleon, saw himself supported by such a statesman as
Bismarck, soldiers like Von Moltke and Von Roon, his soldier son
and lieir, Fritz, and liis brilliant nephew, Frederick Charles, the
^^Hed Prince^'' he must have felt that his kingdom was founded
on a rock, even if the proclamation making liim Emperor seemed
like a dream. After the acceptance by the king of the imperial
dignity, Bismarck, whose clear brain and iron will had made tliLs
scene possible, read the following document in a strong, clear voice
vibrant with pei-sonal, as well as national, triumph : —
We, William, by God's grace King of Prussia, hereby announce that
the German princes and free towns having addressed to us a unanimous
call to renew and ini<lertake with the re-establishment of the German
w
SEMI-MELITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONAROHV- 755
Empire the dignity of Emperor, -wliicli now for sixty years has been
in abeyance, aiid the requisite provisionB having been inserted in the
ConRfitHtion of the German Confederation, wo regard it as a duty
we owe to the entire Fatherland to comply with this call of the
united German princes and free towns, and to accept the dignity of
Emperor.
Accordingly, we and our successors to the crown of Prussia hence-
forth shall use the imperial title in all the relations and affairs of the
German Empire, and we hope to God that it may be vouchsafed to
the German nation to lead the Fatliorland on to a blessed future, ander
the auapices of its ancient splendor.
3Iay God grant to us and to our successors to the im}>erial crown
that we may be the defenders of the German Empire at all times, not
in martial conqnesU, but in works of peace, in the sphere of national
prosperity, freedom, and civilization.
When the reailiiig wjis over the Grand Duke of Biiden stepped
forward and cried : — " Long live the German Emperor WiUiftm 1 "
This cry was taken up by the assembly, wlio then advanced and
did homage to the new Kaiser, while the soldiei-s outside carried on
the cry, and the cannon o£ Mount Val^rien, ever firing, grumbled
in the distance, as if the Gaul muttered curses on what he could
not prevent. So to the popular mind of Germany the old legend
came true that the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who with his
knights lay bound in enchanted sleep in the mountains of Bavaria,
would come to life again and i^store the German Empire.
Tlie Constitution of this empiru, formed by blood and ii-on,
bears date April 16, 1871. By its terms all the states of Gei>
many (twenty-five in number) " form an eternal union for the pro-
tection of the realm and the care of the weltai-e of the German
people." The legislative functions of the empire are vested in the
Emperor, the Bundesrath, and the Reichstag. The supreme direc-
tion of military and political affairs of the empire is vested in
the King of Prussia, who beai-s the name of Deutgcher Kaher,
or German Emperor, Tlie imi>erial dignity is hereditary in the
line of HohenzoUern, and follows the law of primogeniture.
The executive power is in the Emperor's hands. He repre-
sents the empire internationally, can declare war if defentivs,
make peace as well as enter into treaties with other nations; he
754 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
into history; for a third time, after a short period of martial
intoxication, France begs for mercy at the liands of the victorious
German.
Of all the striking historical events these palace walls Iiave
witnessed, that one of January 18, 1871, was the most dramatic in
its completion of a people^^ desii*e, its consummation of the hopes
of patriots and statesmen for many centuries : the unification of
Germany under one strong power. On that day, ali-eady cele-
brated in the annals of Prussia as the one on which, in 1701, its
first king, Frederic I., was crowned at Konigsberg, King William,
passing between lines of German soldiery representing the various
nations of Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and the smaller princi-
palities, entered the famous Qallerie des Glaces^ and standing
under a picture of Louis XIV. faced as proud and triumphant an
assembly of men as ever gathered about a leader.
Behind him were ranged six hundred battle flags from his regi-
ments. At his right liand stood the Crown Prince, then the pic-
ture of health and the promise of long life. Ranged beside
him right and left were the kings, princes, and reigning powers
of Germany, statesmen, delegates from the North German Con-
federative parliament, such as the speaker, Herr Simson, who
came in the name of that parliament to offer the imperial crown,
and who in 1848 made the same proffer to the brother of the
present king, and representatives from the free towns, and the
leading officers of his victorious armies.
As the old king, whose niiirtiuy career began with fighting against
the first Napoleon, saw himself supported by such a statesman as
Bismarck, soldiers like Von Moltke and Von Roon, his soldier son
and heir, Fritz, and his brilliant nephew, Frederick Charles, the
" Hed Prince^'' he must have felt that his kingdom was founded
on a rock, even if the proclamation making him Emperor seemed
like a dream. After the acceptance by the king of the imi>erial
dignity, Bismarck, whose clear bi-ain and iron will liad made this
scene possible, read the following document in a strong, clear voice
vibrant with personal, jis well as national, triumph : —
We, William, by God's grace King of Prussia, hereby announce that
the German princes and free towns having addressed to us a unanimous
call to renew and undertake with the re-establishment of the German
SEMI-MlLITARi' CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 755
Empire the dignity of Emperor, which now for sixty years has been
in abeyance, and the requisite provisions having been inserted in the
Constitution of tlie German Confederation, we regard it as a duty
we owe to the entire Fatherland to comply with tliis call of the
united German princes and free towns, and to accept the dignity ot
Emperor.
Accordingly, we and our successors to the crown of Prussia hence-
forth shall use the imperial title in all the relations and affairs of the
German Empire, and we hope to God that it may he vouchsafed to
the German nation to lead the Fntherland on to a blessed future, under
the auspices of ita ancient splendor.
May God grant to us and to our successors to the imperial crown
that we may be the defenders of the German Enipire at all times, not
in martial conqueNta, but in works of peace, in the sphere of national
prosperity, freedom, and civilization.
When the reading wiis over the Grand Duke of Biiden atepiied
forward and cried : —"■ Lmig live the German Emperor William I "
This cry was taken up by the assenihly, who then advanced and
did hoina^ to tlie new Kaiser, while the soldiers outside carried on
the oiy, and the cannon of Mount Valtfrien, ever firing, grumbled
in the distance, an if the Gaul muttered curses on what he could
not prevent. So tfi the popular mind of Gennany the old legend
came true that tlie Emperor Frederick Barbai-ossa, who with hia
knights lay bound in enchanted sleep in the mountains of Bavaria,
would come to life again and restore the German Empire.
The Constitution of tbia empire, formed by blood and iitia,
bears date April 16, 1871. By its teiins all the states of Ger-
many (twenty-five in number) " form an eternal union for the pi-o-
tection of the realm and the c;ire of the welfare of the German
people." The legislative functions of the empire are vested in the
Emperor, the Bundesi-atb, and the Reichstag. The supreme direc-
tion of military and political affairs of tlie empire is vested in
the King of Prussia, who beara the name of Iteutscher Kaiter,
or German Emperor, The imperial dignity ia hereditary in the
line of Hohenzollem, and follows the law of primogeniture.
The executive power is in tlie Emperor'a hands. He repre-
sents the empire internationally, can declare war if defensive,
make i>eace as well as enter into treaties with otlier nutions j he
766 THE STOUT OF GOVERNMENT.
also api>oints and receives ambassadors, but for declaring offensive
war the consent of the Bundesrath is necessary. The separate
states have the privilege of sending ambassadors to the other
courts, but all consuls abroad are officials of the empire, and are
named by the Emperor.
This upper house of the legislative body, styled the Bundesrath,
or Federal Council, represents the individual states of Germany
like the Senate of the United States. It comprises fifty-eight
membera, who are appointed by the governments of the individual
states for each session. The apportionment is not equal for each
state, following the analogy of the United States Senate, but is
according to population. All the members of the Bundesrath,
whose presiding officer is the Chancellor of the Enii)irc, liave the
right to be present at the deliberations of the Reiclistag.
Acting under the direction of the chancellor, the Bundesrath
has a supreme and consultative board, and as such has twelve
standing committees : —
Army and fortifications; naval; tanff, trade and taxes; trade and
commerce ; railways, posts, and telegraphs ; civil and criminal law ;
financial accounts ; foreign affairs; Alsace and Lorraine; constitution;
standing orders ; railway tariffs.
Each committee consists of representatives of at least four states
of the empire ; but the foreign affaii*s committee includes only the
representatives of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, and two
other representatives to be elected every year.
The other body called the Reichstag, corresponding to the Unitecl
States House of Representatives, is comprised of 397 menil)ers
(about one to every 118,000 inhabitants) who arc elected by iiui-
vci*sal suffrage for five years. Both the Bundesrath and Reichstag
meet in annual session convoked by the Eni[)eror. The Emperor
has the right, after a vote by the Bundesrath, to prorogue and
dissolve the Reiclistag.
Without the consent of the Reichstag, the prorogation maj'- not
exceed thirty days, while hi case of dissolution new elections
must take place within sixty days — and a new session must opeu
ninety days. The Reichstag is presided over by an officer
by its own membei*s. All laws of the empire must receive
J.
SEXE-XtUTASY COSSTrrmOSAL MOKABCBT. 761
Uie Totes of an aleolnte nnjontr of tbe Bandesrath aud Reichsl)^,
and to take effect nrast nceire tba assent of the Emperor, »ad be
onmrteTB^oed when pramolgated br the chancellor of the empire.
As Hoards its legislatiTe fnnctioos the empire bas supreme and
indrpendcQt control in matters i^latiog to militarr afturs and the
navTt to the imperial fiiLiooeSi, German commerce^ to posts and
tel^iaphs, and also to railvrars, as far as these affect the conuDon
defeace of the conntry. Ba\-ana and Wartemberg, hovre^'er, have
preset^td their own postal and telegraphic admiQistration.
The legislatire power of the empire takes precedence of that of
the separate sutes in the regulation of matters affecting freedom
of migration, domicile, settlement, and the rights of German sah-
jects generally, also everything relating to hanking, patents, copj»-
i^ts, navigation of rivei^ and canaU, civil and criminal legi&latioii,
jadicial procedure, sanitary police, and control of the press and of
anociations.
These ofBcere of state, or imperial secret.iries, do not form a
ministn' or cabinet as in Great Britain where tl»e members come
into ofiice or leave it with the prime minister, bat act indepeo-
deutly of c«tch other, and are under tlte general supervision of the
chancellor. Tiiey are classilied thus:
1. Chanci'llor tif the f mpin-.
2. Ministry' for foreijni affairs
3. Imperial home ofHoe.
4. Inipeml ailmiralty.
5. Imperial miiitArv of jitst)p«.
ft. Imperial treasury'.
ALho presidents of imperial hut^atts:
1. I'ast-office.
i. liaihravs.
3. Exchequer.
4. Invalid Fiin.1.
5. B>i>k.
6. Debt Commission.
Tlie various states of Gennanr are represented as follows in the
Btuid«grath and Sett^listag : —
762
THK STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
STiLTBS OF THE EMPIBEL
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
6
0
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
10
20
21
22
28
24
25
Number of
MembeniA
Bandesimth.
Kingdom of Prossia
,1 „ Bftvaria •
„ „ Wurtemberg
,, ,, Saxony
Grand Duchy of Baden
If 19 », MecklenbuTg-Schwerin
If ff ff xie886« ••••••••••••••••••• ••
,f „ „ Oldenburg
„ „ „ Saxe- Weimar
f f • , , f Meoklenburg-Streli tz.
Duchy of Brunswick
„ „ Saxe-Meiningen
„ „ Anhalt
„ „ Saxe-Coburg-Gotlia
„ ,, Saxe-Altenburg
Principality of Waldeck
II II LiPP« ......
„ „ Scliwarsburg-Rudolstadt
„ „ Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . .
„ „ ReuBs-Schleiz
„ „ Schaumburg-Lippe
„ „ ReuBS-Greiz
Free Town of Hamburg
„ „ „ Lubeck
ff tf f, Bremen
Reichsland of Alsace and Lorraine
17
(5
4
4
3
2
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Number of
Deputies in
Reicbstai^.
236
4S
17
23
14
6
0
3
3
1
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
15
58
397
Alsace and Lorraine are represented in the Bundesrath by four cominlssioneni without
votes.
This Constitution bears the impress of the master Iiand of Bis-
marck, and after the one formed by the fathers of the American
Republic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the age and is like
the latter in many respects, although the means given for the
people to express themselves are few. It was hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in this particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest in the Emperor as much
executive j)ower for war as possible.
To realize the different threads whicli were woven together to
make this new German Empire, one needs to read the proclamation
carefully. In it the empire is spoken of as restored after being in
abeyance sixty yeare, therefore, liistorically, the German Kaiser is
the successor of CharlemHgne, Otho the Great, Frederick B^r-
barossa, Charles V., and Francis II. wlio abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Napoleon.
8EMI-MIUTARY CONSTITnTIONAL MONABCHr. 788
In tliU new empire Austria has im longer a iKJsition, and for tlie
fipBt time the reigning house is Protestant in religion tuiil is no
longer elective. These facts represent tlie culmination of yeara
of wjir and diplomacy and the ivaeting of thousands of lives on
the battlefield. The free cities of Liibeck, Hambui^, and
Bremen, although incorporated is this empire, preserve their local
right? or republics, the same as the little republic of San Marino
does ill the kingdom of Italy, and the rights of the petty princes
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
survive.
So we see tlie feudal rights of the petty princes, the khigly
ofBces of Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria granted them by
Kapoleon I., and the democratic privileges of the free cities all
preserved and welded together as if by the hammer of Thor.
The empire firmlj' established, reforms wei'e tpiickly inaugurated.
The post-office, railways, and telegraplis were nationalized,
although Bavaria and Wiirtemberg retain control over their own
systems,
A uniform system nf currency was adopted on a gold standard,
based ufxm the mark, approximate value of which in United States
' is twenty-five cents.
1
IM Pteiintee = luarlt I ,1^.^^. 6 iiiarkt. =HaU*-Kroiie 1
A uniform code of commercial and criminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The appointment of judges is also a state and
not an imperial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience andfor complete equality among all religious
confessions. The order of Jesuits, however, is interdicted in all
parts (if the empire, also all convents and religious orders, except
those for nursing the sick. Education is general and compulsory,
and every German is lialtle to service in the army with no substitu-
tion allowed.
The approval of the Kaiser must be obtained to all appoint-
ments, and nothing affecting the superior direction of tlie ti-oopa
of any st4ite can lie done without his consent. With the exception
of Bavaria, all German troops must swear the oath of fealty to -
the Emperor, and that is imjiosed upon tlie Bavarians in time of
THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
BTATBS or THE EMFIBE.
MeSbera"ii
Biiutlminttb.
SSr
10
1
lU
M
11
16
30
31
-'H
M
17
I
,, „ Br™""v.v. ■.■.■.■.■.■.■.'.■.■■.■.■.■.■■.■.;;;:
,. „ „ Mecklonburg-Scliwerin
Q
„ Hecklenburg-Strelitz
1
,1 „ Schwaizburg-HudolBtadt
„ „ Scbwarzburg-SoQilersliausea . ■
\
M vid Lorraine (
e rtpnHnted In the Itundmntli b; to
ThiB Constitution bears the impress of the master hand of Bis.
marck, and after the one formed by the fathers of the American
Aepublic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the age and is like
the latter in many respects, although the means given for the
people to express themselves are few. It was hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in this particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest In the Emperor as much
executive power for war as possible.
To realize the different threads which wei-e woven together to
make this new German Empire, one needs to read the proclamation
carefully. In it the empire is spoken of aa restored after being in
abeyance sixty yeai-s, therefore, historically, the German Kaiser is
the successor of Charletm^ne, Otho the Great, Frederick B^r-
harossa, Charles V., and Francis II. who abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Napoleon.
w
SEMI-MILITARY CONST IT DT ION A L MONARCHY.
Iq thU new empire Austria has no longer a position, and for tho
first time the reigning house is Protestant in religion and is no
longer elective. These facta represent the culmination of years
of war ahil diplomacy aiitl tlie wasting of thousands of lives on
the battlefield. The free cities of Lubeck, Hamburg, and
Bremen, although incorporated in this empire, preserve their local
rights or republics, the same as the little republic of San Marino
does in the kingdom of Italy, and the rights of the petty princes
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
survive.
So we see the feudal rights of the petty princes, the kingly
offices of Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria granted thera by
Napoleon I,, and the democratin privileges of the free cities all
preserved and welded together as if by the liamraer of Thor.
The empire firmlj' established, reforms were quickly inaugurated.
The post-office, railways, and telegraphs were nationalized,
although Bavaria and Wiii-tembei^ retain control over their own
systems.
A uniform system of currency was adopted on a gold standnrd,
based upon the mark, approximate value of which in United States
currency is twenty-five cents.
A uniform code of commei'cial and criminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The appointment of judges is also a state and
not an im[jerial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience and for complete equality among all religious
confessions. The order of Je.suits, liowever, is interdicted in all
parts of the empire, also all convents and religious orders, except
those for nureing the sick. Education is general and compnlsoiy,
and every German is liable to service in the army with no substitu-
tion allowed.
The approval of tlie ICaiser must be obtained to all appoint-
ments, and nothing affecting the superior direction of the ti-oops
of any stiite can l>e done without his consent. With the exception
of Bavaria, all German troops must swear the oath of fealty to -
the Emperor, and tiiat is imposed upon tlie Bavarians in time of
764 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
into history; for a third time, after a short period of martial
intoxication, France begs for mei*cy at the Iiands of the victorious
German.
Of all the striking historical events these palace walls liave
witnessed, that one of January 18, 1871, was the most dramatic in
its completion of a people^Q desire, its consummation of the hopes
of patriots and statesmen for many centuries : the unification of
Germany under one strong power. On that day, ah-eady cele-
brated in the annals of Prussia as the one on which, in 1701, its
first king, Frederic I., was crowned at Konigsberg, King William,
passing between lines of German soldiery representing the various
nations of Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and the smaller princi-
palities, entered the famous Gallerie des Glaces^ and standing
under a picture of Louis XIV. faced as proud and triumphant an
assembly of men as ever gatliered about a leader.
Behind him were ranged six hundred battle flags from his regi-
ments. At his right hand stood the Crown Prince, then the pic-
ture of health and the promise of long life. Ranged beside
him right and left were the kings, princes, and reigning powers
of Germany, statesmen, delegates from the North German Con-
federative parliament, such as the speaker, Herr Simson, wlio
came in the name of that j)arliament to offer the imperial crown,
and who in 1848 made the same proffer to the brother of the
present king, and representatives from the free towns, and the
leading officers of his victorious armies.
As the old king, whose nuirtixry career began with fighting against
the first Napoleon, saw himself supported by such a statesman as
Bismarck, soldiers like Von Moltke and Von Roon, liis soldier son
and heir, Fritz, and liis brilliant nephew, Frederick Charles, the
" Hed Princey'^ he must have felt that his kingdom was founded
on a rock, even if the proclamation making him Emperor seemed
like a di*eam. After the acceptance by tlie king of the imi)erial
dignity, Bismarck, whose clear bi-aiu and iron will had made this
scene j)ossible, read the following document in a strong, clear voice
vibrant with pei-sonal, as well as national, triumph : —
We, William, by God's grace King of Prussia, hereby announce that
the German princes and free towns having addressed to us a unanimous
call to renew and undertake with the re-establishment of the German
SEMI-MtLITARi' CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 755
Empire the dignity of Emperor, which now tor sixty years has been
in abeyance, and the requisite provisiona having been inserted in the
Constitution of the Geiman Confederation, we regard it as a dnty
we owe to the entire Fatherland to comply with this call of the
united German princes and free towns, and to accept the dignity of
Emperor.
Accordingly, we and our successors to the crown of Prussia hence-
forth shall nse the imperial title in all the relations and affairs of the
German Empire, and we hope to God that it maybe vouchsafed to
the German nation to lead the Fntherland on to a blessed future, under
the auspices of its ancient splendor.
May God grant to us and to our enocessors to the imperial crown
that we may be the defenders of the German Empire at all times, not
in martial conquests, but in works of peace, in the sphere of national
prosperity, freedom, and civiH^ation.
When the reading was over the Gr.md Duke of Baden stepped
forward and cried : — " Long live the German Emperor William! "
This cry was taken up by the a.ssembly, who then advanced and
did homage to thu new Kaiser, while the soldiein outsifle carried oa
the cry, and the cannon of Mount VaMrien, ever firing, grumbled
in the distance, as if the Gaul muttered curses on what he could
not prevent. Sn to the popular mind of Germany the old legend
came ti'ue that the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who with his
knights lay bound in enchanted sleep in the mountains of Bavaria,
would come to life again and restore the German Empire.
The Constitution of this empire, formed by blood and ii-on,
bears date April IC, 1871. By its tei-ms all the stjvtes of Ger-
many (twenty-five in number) " form an eternal union for the pro-
tection o£ the realm and the care of the welfare of the German
people." The legislative functions of the empire are vested in the
Emperor, the Bundearath, and the Reichstag. The supreme direc-
tion of military and political affairs of the empire is vested in
the King of Prussia, who boars the name of Deulseher KaUer,
or German Emperor. Tlie imperial dignity is hereditary in the
line of HohenzoUern, and follows the law of primogeniture.
The executive power is in the Emperor's hands. He repre-
sents the empire internationally, can declare war if defensive,
make [leace as ^rell as enter into treaties with other nations ; be
756 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
also appoints and receives ambassadors, but for declaring offensive
war the consent of the Bundesrath is necessary. The separate
states have the privilege of sending ambassadors to the other
courts, but all consuls abroad are officials of the empire, and are
named by the Emperor.
This upper house of the legislative body, styled the Bundesratli,
or Federal Council, represents the individual states of Germany
like the Senate of the United States. It comprises fifty-eight
membera, who are appointed by the governments of the individual
states for each session. The apportionment is not equal for each
state, following the analogy of tlie United States Senate, but is
according to population. All the members of the Bundesmtli,
whose presiding officer is the Chancellor of the Empire, have the
right to be present at the deliberations of the Reiclistag.
Acting under the direction of the cliancellor, the Bundesrath
has a supreme and consultative board, and as such has twelve
standin^^ committees : —
Army and fortifications; naval; tariff, trade and taxes; trade and
commerce ; railways, posts, ^nd telegraphs ; civil and criminal law ;
financial accounts ; foreign affairs ; Alsace and Lorraine; constitution;
standing orders ; railway tariffs.
Each committee consists of representatives of at least four states
of tlie empire ; but the foreign affairs committee includes only the
representatives of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, and two
other representatives to be elected every year.
The other body called the Reichstag, corres[X)nding to the United
States House of Representatives, is comprised of 397 meml)ers
(about one to every 118,000 inhabitants) who arc elected by uni-
vei-sal suffrage for five years. Both the Bundesrath and Reichstag
meet in annual session convoked by the Emperor. The Emperor
has the right, after a vote by the Bundesrath, to prorogue and
dissolve the Reichstag.
Without the consent of the Reiclistag, the prorogation may not
exceed thirty days, while in case of dissolution new elections
must take place within sixty days — and a new session must opeu
within ninety days. The Reichstag is presided over by an officer
elected by its own membei-s. All laws of the empire must receive
SEMI-MILITARY COSSTITUTIOSAI, WONABCHV. 761
the votes of an absoluta majority of the Bundesrathand Reichstag,
and to t4ike effect must receive the assent of the Empei"or, and be
counteraigned when promulgated by the chancellor of the empire.
As regards its legislative functions the empire has supreme and
indepeniieiit contiol in matters relating to military affairs and the
navy, to the imperial finances, German commerce, to posts and
telegraphs, and also to railways, as far as these affect the common
defence of the countrj-. Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, however, have
preserved their own postal and telegraphic administration.
The legislative pawer of the empire takes precedence of that of
the separate states in the regulation of matters affecting freedom
of migration, domicile, settlement, and the rights of German sub-
jects generally, also everything relating to banking, patents, copy-
rights, navigation of rivers and canals, civil and criminal legislation,
judicial procedure, sanitary police, and control of the press and of
associations.
These oflicei-s of state, or imperial secretaries, do not form a
ministry or Ciibinet as in Great Britain where tlie miinibei-s come
into office or loavo it with the prime minister, but act indepen-
dently of each other, and are under the genenil supervision of the
chancellor. Thev are classified thus :
Chancel lu
r of the e
npirc.
Ministry
or foreign
affairs
Imperial home offii-c
Imperial
a.lminilty.
Imperial
liriistry of
juflti^e.
Imperial
rcasnry.
o i,re.i.k.
lU of imj
erial bui-eans
I'ost-oftie
I tail ways
Exchcqiie
Invalid 1-
jnd.
Bank.
Debt Commission.
Tile various stitea of Germany aie repi-esented as foUoi
Bundesrath and Reichstag: —
I
THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
STATES or THB EKPtRR
Kingtlom of Prussia
,, „ Bavarln
„ ,, Wiirtcmberg
„ „ Saxony
Grand Daohjr of Batten
„ „ „ Uecklenbnrg-Schirerin
„ „ „ HeaM
„ „ „ Oldenbaif;.
„ „ „ Soxe-Weimar
„ , „ Moeklonburg-Strelltz
Duchy of Brnuswick
„ „ Saxe-M^aingen
„ „ Anhnlt
„ „ Saxo-Cobiirg-Gotlia
„ „ Saxe-Altenburg ■■■'
PriacipalUy of Walrfeck
„ „ Schwarabiirg-Rui^olstadt
„ „ tkhnarebura-Suudei-BliauBen ,
„ „ KeUBs-Sclileie
„ ,, Schaum1)iirt;-Lippe..
„ „ KeiiBB-Greiz i
Fi-ee Town of Hamburg
, „ ,, Liibeck
Bieraen.....
Riii ell stand of AUiwo and Lorraine.
This CoDstitution bears the impress of the master hand of Bis.
marck, and after the one formed by the fathers of the American
Republic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the age and is like
the latter in many respects, although the means ^ven for the
people to express themselves are few. It waa hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in this particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest in the Emperor as much
executive power for war as possible.
To realize the different threads which were woven together to
make thb new German Empire, one needs to read the pi-oclamation
carefully. In it tlie empire is spoken of as restored after being in
abeyance sixty years, therefore, historically, the GeiTnan Kaiser is
the successor of Charleoitiigne, Otho the Gi'eat, Frederick B^r*
barOBsa, Charles V., and Francis II. who abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Kapoleon.
I
SEMI-MTLITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 168
In tilis new empire Austria has no longer a poi^itiou, and for tlm
first time tbe reigning house is Protestant in religion and is no
longer elective. These facts repi-esent the culmination of years
of war ahil diplomacy and the wasting of thousands of lives on
tlie battlefield. The free cities of Liibeck, Hamburg, and
Bremen, although incorporated in this empire, preserve their local
rights or rejmblics, the same as the little republic of San Marino
does in the kingdom of Italy, and the rights of the petty princes
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
aiirvive.
So we see the feudal rights of the petty princes, the kingly
offices of Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria gmnted them by
Napoleon I,, and tbe democratic privileges of the free cities all
presei-ved and welded together as if by the hammer of Thor.
The empire fii-mly established, reforms were quickly inaugurated.
The post-office, railways, and telegraphs were nationalized,
although Bavaria and Wiii-tembei^ retain control over their own
systems.
A uniform system of currency was adopted on a gold standard,
based upon the mark, approximate value of wliich in United States
currency is twenty-five eents.
IM PTBnillm^niBrk I ..,„. fi uinrku = Hnlbe-Krone I
3 iiiiirk» = Thaler | "iivBr. jg :=Knine S gold.
SO „ = Uojiiwl-Kroua \
A uniform code of commercial and criminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The appointment of judges is also a state and
not an imperial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience and for complete equality among all religious
confessions. The oitler of Jesuits, liowever, is interdicted in all
pai'ts of the empire, also all convents and religious orders, except
those for nursing the sick. Education is geneml and compnlsoiyj
and every German is liable to service in the army witli no sutistitu-
tion allowed.
The approval of the Kaiser must be obtained to all appoint-
mentji, and nothing affecting the euperior direction i)f the troops
of any state can be done without his consent. With tlie exception
of Bavariiu all German ti-oopa must swear the oath of fealty to ■
tbe Emperor, and that is imposed upon the Bavarians in time of
762
THB STORY OF GOYEBKMEKT.
1
2
8
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
28
24
25
STATES OF THE BKFIBB.
ft
19
91
99
9»
99
99
99
99
99
99
99
99
99
99
Komber of
Memben io
BundMrath.
Kingdom of Prassia
Bavaria
Wurtemberg
„ „ Saxony
Grand Dnchy of Baden
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Hesse
Oldenburg
Saze- Weimar
„ • , „ Meoklenburg-Strelitz.
Duchy of Brunswick
„ Saxe-Meiningen
„ Anhalt
„ Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
„ ,, Saxe-Altenburg
Principality of Waldeck
9> Lippe
„ Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
„ Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . .
Reuss-Schleiz
Schaumburg-Lippe
„ Reuss-Greiz
Free Town of Hamburg
Liibeck
99 19 9*
,, ,, ,, Bremen •
Reichsland of Alsace and Lorraine
17
($
4
4
3
2
3
Namber of
DemitlMlii
Reicbstag.
236
48
17
23
14
6
0
3
3
1
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
15
58 397
Alsaco and Lorraiue are represented in the Bundesrath by four commissioners vrltboat
rotes.
This Constitution bears the impress of the master hand of Bis-
marck, and after the one formed by the fathers of the American
Republic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the age and is like
the latter in many respects, although the means given for the
people to express themselves are few. It was hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in tliis particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest in the Emperor as much
executive power for war as possible.
To realize the different threads which were woven together to
make this new German Empire, one needs to read the proclamation
carefully. In it the empire is spoken of as restored after being in
abeyance sixty yeara, therefore, historically, the Geiman Kaiser is
the successor of Charlemiigne, Otho the Great, Frederick B^r^
barossa, Charles V., and Francis II. who abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Napoleon.
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 788
rin this new empii'e Austria has no longer a position, and for thu
first time tliB reigning house is Protestant in religion and is no
longer elective. These facts i-epi-esent the culmination of yenia
of war and diplomacy and the wasting of thousands of lives on
the battlefield. The free cities of Liibeck, Hamburg, and
Bremen, although incorporated in this empire, preserve their local
rights or republics, the same aa the little republic of San Marino
does in the kingcJom of Italy, and the rights of the petty princes
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
survive.
So we see the feudal righto of the petty princes, the kingly
offices of Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria granted them by
Napoleon I., and the democratic privileges of the free cities all
pi-eserved and welded together as if by the hammer of Thor.
The empire fu-mly established, reforms were {[uickly inaugurated.
The postHjffice, railways, and telegraphs were nationalized,
although Bavaria atid Wurtembei^ retain control over their owtt
systems.
A uniform system of currency was adopted on a gold standard,
based upon the mark, approximate value of which in United Statea
currency is twenty-five cents.
A uniform code of conimei'cial and criminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The appointment of judges is also a state and
not an imperial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience and for complete equality among all religious
confessions. Tlie order of Jesuits, however, is interdicted in all
parts of the empire, also all convents and religious orders, except
tliose for nursing the sick. Education is general and compulsory,
and every German is liable to service in the army with no substitu-
tion allowed.
The approval of tlie Kaiser must be o!>taiueil to all appoint-
ments, and nothing affecting the superior direction of the troops
of any state can be donewttlmut his consent. With the exception
of B.ivariii. all German ti-oops must swear the oath of fealty to.
the Emperor, and that is imposed upon tlie Bavarians in time of
764
THE 8TOBY OF OOVBBKMENT.
war. Every German capable of bearing arms must be in the
standing army (or navy) seven years, three years in the active,
and four in the reserve.
All able-bodied men between the age of seventeen and forty-
five, who are neither in the standing nor reserve army, must belong
to the Landstunn, which is only called out in event of invasion of
Germany. The i)eace footing of the impeiial army is: officers,
20,440 ; men, 491,217 ; horses, 98,908. War footing: —
Officers
Surgeons
Other Officials
Rank and File -
Horses
Field Guns.
Other Carriages
FIELD ARMY.
Active.
22,377
4,247
7,»28
M2,406
280,472
2,028
40,081
Reserve
Landwelir.
I
Total.
0,530
1,300
1,033
354,015
72,963
648
9,872
31,913
5,547
9,861
1,297,323
353,435
2,670
49,953
Garrison
Army.
16,209
2,0^5
3,096
868,627
86,324
882
8,763
Grand
Total.
48,122
7,602
12,057
2,105,050
430,750
3,558
58,716
t-*^
To this must be added the milway s,t4iflF and Landsturm, so at
the hist extremity Germany would have a war strength of not less
than 3,000,000 trained men: 'As for naval strength, Gennanj- has
28 ironclad ships, of which 16 are for coast defence. She has
other war ships, bringing lier total to 77 ships, 511 guns, 18,051
men, and 132 tori)edo boats.
With two exceptions, the German states have constitutional
forms of government, most of these wrung from their rulei-s since
the time of the First Napoleon. Carefully as the rights of the
individual states are preserved, the steady growth of a national
spirit will inevitably fuse these various Geiman states into one com-
pact nation like England or France. In a few years Bavaria,
Saxony, or Hanover i^rotobly will no more think of any separation
of interests than do the i)rovinces of Brittany, Burgundy, or Nor-
mandy, in Fiance to-ilay.^
iTlie empire is bounded by the North Sea (293 miles). Denmark (47 miles), and the Baltic (927
milc»). On the east by Riigsia (with Poland) (M3 miles). South by Austria (1,403 mile9)and
Switzerland (2.W miles). On the west by Franee (242 miles), Luxemburg (111 miles), Belgium
^70 miles), :ind IloU.ind (377 miles). Its area is 20H.738 square mile.^, and i>opulation (census
1890) 49,41G,47(;. Of this, 3,223,500 belong to other nationalties than German, such as Wends,
Slavs, Poles, Danes, and French.
SKM1-^]1!JTAKV CONSTITITTIONAI, MONAHCHV.
709
To Tirulei-stanil llie historical growtli of this Empire wy must go
back before the Christian era. The Geimanic tribes &te branches of
thegi-eat Teutonic race, who are supposed to have followed the Kelts
in their movement westward, both stivrting from tlie common Aryan
origin in Asia. Teutons, spreading weatwai-d and as far north as
Norway and Sweden, wei-e checked by the Gaulish Kelts near the
Khine, and settled in Central Enroije, about the rivers flowing
north, such as the Spree, Elbe, and Oder. Of this epoch the his-
toiy cloud-s into fable and through the mists of this bor-
dei^laiid of fact heroic fig-
ures loom — figures which the
genius of German poets and
esijecially of the mighty poet-
musician, Wagner, have made
luminous with solemn, haunt-
ing beauty. One of these early
regal ti-agedies of hive and
jealousy is deliueaU.>d in onr
picture of Bruiiiiild ivfuyniz-
iiig Guchnni at ilie -side of
Siegfried.
Tlie earliest anUientic i-ef-
erence to these Teutons is
that of Pythias, the Greek
sailor, who fmnui himself
laughed at on his return,
800 B. c, from tlie coast of
the Baltic Sea, for speaking
of the anilier he foiuid there, tlie rise and fall of the tides, and
the barbarians aliout the Vistula River clad scantily in skins and
armed with clulw. Later, in the year 113 n. c, the dwellers in
northein Italy were surprised to see an anny of iulmi, accompa-
nied by their women and cliildren, swanning southward through
the piisses of tiie Alps. This swaiin was made up of two races,
the Ciuibri and Teutons, and imniliered several hundred thousand.
Tliey came from the countiy about the North Sea, and ^vcre either
driven out by other tribes or yielded to that migratoiy instinct
always sti-ong in the Teutonic races. They were a laige-sized.
IF.ItMA.V WARKIOK,
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIUNAI, MUNAltCHV.
709
To (inrlei'stand the historical growth of thitt Empire we must go
back before the Clii'istlun era. The Gemianic tribes are hntnches of
the great Teutonic race, who are supposed to have followed the Kelte
in theii" movement westward, both starting from the common Aryan
origin in Asia. Teutons, spreading westward and iis far north as
Norway and Sweden, were cheeked by the Gaulish Kelts near the
Rhine, and settled in Central Europe, about the rivera flowing
noilh, such as the Spree, Elbe, and Oder. Of this epoch the his-
tory clouds into fable and t)i rough the mists o£ this hor-
de I'-lai id of fact hei-oic fig-
ures loom — figures which the
genius of German poebi and
es[)ecially of the mighty poet-
musiciaii, Wagner, have made
luminous with solemn, haunt-
ing beauty. One of these early
i-egiil tragedies of love and
jealousy is deliueatvd in our
picture of Brunliihi ifcotjni/.-
ing Guthrun at llie side of
Siegfried.
Tlie earliest a\Uhfiitic ref-
erence to these Tfutoiis is
that of Pythias, the Grec-k
sailor, who found himself
laughed at on his return,
800 B. c, from the coast of
the Baltic Sea, for speaking
of the aml)er he found there, the rise and f:ill of the tides, and
the kirbiirians about the Vistula River clad scantily in skins and
armed with clubs. Later, in the year 113 n. c, the dwellera in
northein Italy were surprised to see an amiy of men, accompa-
nied by their women and children, swarming southward through
the passes of the Alps. Tliis swanu was made up of two races,
the Cimbri and Teutons, and numliered several hundred thousand.
They came from the eountiy alx>ut the Korth Sea, and ^vere either
dnveu out by other tribes or yielded to that migratoiy instinct
always sti-pug in the Teutonic races. They were a laige-sized,
1
II
TKK STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
BTAtSS OF THE
Kingdom of PmsBia
„ ,. Wiirtemberg
,, „ Saxony
Uriuid Dtioii J of BiuEen
II „ „ Mecklenburg-Schwerin
, , , , „ Oldenburg
„ „ „ Soxe-Welmar
„ , „ Hecklenburg-Strelitz.
Duchy of Briiaswlck
„ „ Saxe-Helningea
„ „ Anhalt ,
., „ Saxe-Cuburg-Gotlia
„ „ Saxe-Altenburg
Principality of Waldook
„ Schwiu'Eburg-Ftudolstadt
„ SchwaTzbtirg'Sondersliaiisen.
„ Reu««-Sc1ileiz
,, ScliaumburK-Liiipe
„ Reuits-Ureiz
Preu Town of liamburg
„ „ „ Liibeck
„ „ „ Bremen
Relchsland of Aleauc and Lorraine
Aluoe and Lomlne u
wnted Intbe Bondeantli byfou
This Constitution bears the impress of the master hand of Bisw
marck, and after the one formed by the fatheis of the American
Republic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the ^e and is like
the latter in many respects, although the means given for the
people to express themselves are few. It was hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in this particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest in the Emperor as much
executive power for war as possible.
To realize the different threads which were woven together to
make this new German Empire, one needs to read the pi-oclamstioii
carefully. In it the empire is spoken of as restored after being in
abeyance sixty years, therefore, historicallj', the German Kaiser is
the successor of Charleowgne, Otho the Great, Frederick B^r^
barossa, Charles V., and Francis II. who abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Napoleon.
BEJn-MILITARY CONSTITDTIONAL MONARCHY. 783
In tliU new empire Austria has no longer a jiosition, and fur the
first time the reigning house is Protestant in religion and is no
longer elective. These facta represent the culmination of yeara
of war and diplomacy and tlie wasting of thousands of lives oa
the battle field. The free cities of Liibeck, Hamburg, and
Bremen, although incoqiorated in this empire, preserve their local
rights or republics, the same as the little republic of San Mariuo
does in the kingtlom of Italy, and the righta of the petty pi'incea
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
survive.
So we see the feuiial rights of the petty princes, the kingly
offices of Saxony, Wurteraberg, and Bavaria gi-anted them by
Napoleon I., and the democratic privileges of the free cities all
preserved and welded togetlier as if by the hammer of Thor.
The empire firmly established, reforms were quickly iniiugurated.
The post-oftiee, railways, and telegraphs were nationalized,
although Bavaria and Wiirteraberg retain control over their own
systems.
A uniform system of currency was adopted on a gold standard,
based upon the mark, approximate value of which in United States
currency is twenty-five cents.
A uniform code of commercial and criminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The appointment of judges is also a state and
not an imperial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience and for complete equality among all religious
confessions. Tlie order of Jesuits, however, is interdicted in all
parts of the empire, aLso all convents and religious orders, except
those for nursing the sick. Education is general and compulsory,
and every German is liable to service in the ai-my with no substitu-
tion allowed.
The approval of tlie Kaiser must be obtained to all appoint-
ments, and nothing affecting the superior direction of the titiops
of any state can be done without his consent. Willi tlie exception,
of Bavaria, all (rennan troops must swear the oath of fealty to
tie Em()eror, and that is imposed upon the Bavarians in time of
762
THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
STATES OF THB EMPIRE.
♦♦
Kingdom of Prussia
„ Bavaria
,, Wiirtemberg
„ Saxony
Grand Duchy of Baden
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Hesso
Oldenburg
Saxe- Weimar
„ , „ Mecklenburg-Streli tz
Ducliy of Brunswick
,, Saxe-Meiningen
,, Anlialt
„ Saxe-Coburg-Gotlia
„ ,. Saxe-AItenburg
Principality of Waldeck
t) Lippe
„ Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Scliwarzburg-SoDdei*shau8en .
Reuss-Schleiz
Scliaumburg-Lippe
Keuss-Greiz
Free Town of Hamburg
,, f, ,, Liibeck
„ ,, ,, Bremen
Reichsland of Alsace and Lorraine
»»
ft
»»
It
»»
»»
It
II
II
II
Number of
Members in
Biindesrath.
17
(5
4
4
3
2
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Number of
I>eputie8 in
ReichHtai^.
2.36
-18
17
23
14
6
9
3
3
1
3
2
2
2
15
58 397
Alsace and I^)rraine are reprenentGd in the Bundesrath by four conimiHHionere M-itbout
votes*.
This Constitution l)ears the impress of the master hand of Bis-
marck, and after the one formed by the fathers of the American
Republic is the greatest piece of statecraft of the age and is like
the latter in many respects, although tlie means given for the
people to express themselves are few. It was hardly to be
expected that the full measure of freedom in this particular would
come at once, for the chief aim was to vest in the Emperor as much
executive power for war as possible.
To realize the different threads wliicli were woven together to
make this new German Empire, one needs t^ read the proclamation
carefully. In it tlie empire is spoken of as restored after being in
abeyance sixty yeai-s, tlierefore, historically, the German Kaiser is
the successor of Charlemagne, Otho the Greats Frederick Bar-
barossa, Charles V., and Francis 11. who abdicated in 1806 in
obedience to Napoleon.
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 768
la tliU new empire Austria has no longer a [wsition, and for the
first time the reigning house is Protestant in religion and is no
longer elective. These facts repi-esent the culmination of years
of war and diplomacy and the \vasting of thousands of lives on
the battlefield. The free cities of Liibeck, Hamburg, and
Bremen, although incorporated ia this empire, pi'eserve their local
rights or republics, the same aa the little republic of San Marino
does in the kingdom of Italy, and tlie rights of the petty princes
and dukes are carefully guarded so that relics of feudalism still
So wo see the feudal rights of the petty princes, the kingly
offices of Saxoiij, Wiirteniberg, and Bavaria granted them by
Na[ioleon I., and the democratic privileges of the free cities all
preserved and welded together as if by the hammer of Thor.
The empire firmly established, reforms were quickly inaugurated.
The post-oi^ce, railways, and telegraphs wera nationalizedi
although Bavaria and Wurtembeig retain control over their own
systems.
A uniform system of currency was adopted on a gold standurd^
based upon the mark, approximate value of which in United States
ouirency is twenty-five cents,
IW Ptennlge = murk I .„,„ B '"nHis =Hall*-Kmne 1
3 roarla = Thaler I """■ lo „ =Kr<in« gold.
2U „ = I)u]ipel-Kroiie }
A uniform code of nommmYrial and ci'iminal law was adopted,
but not of civil. The ap[xiintment of judges is also a state and
not an imperial function. The Constitution provides for entire
liberty of conscience and for complete equality among all religious
confessions. The onler of Jesuits, however, is interdicted in all
parts of the empire, also all convents and religious orders, except
those for nursing the sick. Education is general and compidsoiy,
and every Gennan is liable to service in the array with no Kubstitu-
tioii allowed.
The approval of the Kaiser must be obtained to all appoint-
ments, and nolliiiig aSeoting the superior direction uf the U-oops
of any state can be done without his consent. Witli the exception
of Bavaria, all Gferman troops must swear the oath of fealty to,
the Emperoi', and tliat is imposed upon the Havariaus in time of
764
THE STORY OF GOVBBNMENT.
war. Every German capable of bearing arms must be in the
standing army (or navy) seven years, three years in the active,
and four in the reserve.
All able-bodied men between the age of seventeen and forty-
five, who are neither in the standing nor reserve army, must belong
to the Landsturm, which is only called out in event of invasion of
Germany. The peace footing of the impeiial army is : officers,
20,440 ; men, 491,217 ; horses, 93,908. War footing : —
Officers
SurgeoDS
Other Officials
Rank and File • . .
Horses
Held Guns
Other Carriages
FIELD ARMY.
Active.
22,377
4,247
7,028
042,406
2S0,472
2,028
40,061
Reserve
Landwehr.
Total.
0,ri36
1,300
1,933
354,915
72,963
648
9,872
31,913
5,547
9,861
1,297.323
353,435
2,670
49,^^3
GarrLson
Army.
10,209
2,(»5
3,096
868,627
86,324
882
8,763
Grand
Tt>ta1.
48,122
7,602
12,057
2,165,aM)
430,759
3,558
58,716
•1-f-
To this must be added the railway s.taflf and Landsturm, so at
the last extremity Geimany would have a war strength of not less
than 3,000,000 trained men: 'As for naval strength, Gennany has
28 ironclad ships, of which 16 ai*e for coiist defence. She has
other war ships, bringing her total to 77 shii)s, 611 guns, 18,051
men, and 132 torpedo boats.
With two exceptions, the German states have constitutional
forms of government, most of these wrung from their rulei-s since
the time of the First Napoleon. Carefully as the rights of the
individual states are preserved, the steady growth of a national
spirit will inevitiibly fuse these various German states into one com-
pact nation like England or France. In a few years Bavaria,
Saxony, or Hanover probably will no more think of any separation
of interests tlian do tbe provinces of Brittany, Burgundy, or Nor-
mandy, in France to-day.^
>Tlie empire is bounded by the North Sea (293 miles). Denmark (47 miles), and the Baltic (927
miles). On the ca.^t by Russia (with Poland) (M3 miles). South by Austria (1,403 mile») and
Switzerland (25C miles). On the west by France (242 miles), Luxemburg (111 miles), Betj^iuui
^70 milcs), und IlulUmd r:i77 miles). Its area is 208,738 square miles, and population (census
1800) 49.41C.470. Of this, 3,223,500 belong to other nationalties than German, such as Wends,
Slavs, Poles, Danes, and French.
ILITARV CONSTITUTIONAL MONAltCHY,
TC9
To nnderatand the historical growth of tiiis Empire we must go
Imck before the Chi-iatian era. The Germanic trilies are hmiiches of
the great Teutonic race, avIio are supposed to liave followed the Kelts
in their movement westward, both starting from thecoramon Aryan
origin ill Asia. Teutons, spreading westward and as far north as
Norway and Sweden, were checked by the Gaulish Kelts near the
Kliine, and settled in Central Eurojw, about the rivers flowing
nortli, such as the Spree, Eltie, and Oder. Of this epoch the Iiis-
tory clouds into fable and through the mists of thia bop-
de Inland of fact liei-oic fig-
ures loom — figures which the
genius of Gennan poets and
especially of the mightj' poet-
musician, ^Vaguer, have made
luminous with solemn, haunt-
ing beauty. One of theso early
regnl tragedies of love and
jealousy is delineated in onr
jMCture of Brunhild rcuogniz-
ilig GiUhrun at llie side of
Siegfried.
The earliest auLhtntic ref-
erence to these Teutons is
that of Pythias, the Greek
Bailor, who found himself
laughed at on his return,
300 B. c, fi-om the coast of
the Baltic Sea, for speaking
of the amijer he found there, th
the litirlKirians about the Vistula River clad scantily in skins and
armed with clubs. Later, in the year 115 b. c, the dwellei-a in
northern Italy wei-e suiiirised to see an anny of mu-n, accompa-
nied by their women and eliildren, swarming southward through
the passes of the Aliw. Tiiis swana wai made up of two races,
the Cimbri and Teutons, and numbered seveial hundred thousand.
They cante from the country almut the North Sea, and were either
driven out by other tribes or yielded to tliat migratoiy instinct
always sti-oug in the Teutonic races. Thyy were a 1arge-«ized,
rise and fail of the tides, and
770 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
blue-eyed, red or yellow-haired race of fightei^j, who in a fjw years
overthrew several Roman aimies sent against them. It seemed
as if Rome was to suffer a fate similar to what she endured at the
hands of the Gauls under Bi*ennus, nearly three hundred years
earlier.
One characteristic of this earliest recorded Teutonic inva-
sion was the taking of their women and children, who shared
the dangers and endured the hardships with the men. This
same thing occurs later in the invasion of Britain by Anglo-Saxon
tribes in the fifth century; and still again in the settlement of
the new world by their modem descendants, Englishmen, and the
subsequent migrations westward in the United States by the same
race. Marius, the Roman consul, 102 B. c, after several severe
battles, defeated the Teutons in Gaul, whither they had \vandei*ed ;
then, hastening back to Italy where the Cimbri had remained,
annihilated them. The captives made slaves by these wars after-
wards revolted in Rome under the lead of Spartacus.
We next hear of the Teutons or Germans from C«sar, 50 B. c,
who, having conquered Gaul, encountered them there under their
chief Ariovistus. The name German given by the Gauls to a
Teutonic tribe who had crossed the Rhine, became the title of all
the Teutonic tribes of a later date. Caesar, seeing the warlike as
well as migratory instinct of this race, thought Rome would best
be guarded by invading their territory as he had that of the Gauls,
and reducing them to submission. He drove Ariovistus and his
tribe of Siievi over the Rhine, and soon after, by building
bridges across that river at Coblentz and Bonn, invaded German
territory.
In spite of the headlong valor of the tribesman, the steady dis-
cipline of the Roman legionary won the day after many a hard-
fought battle. Tlie compact formation of the legion, with the
short thrust of the Roman sword, was too much for the loose armv
of the Germans fighting with a longer weapon. Although Ctesar
annihilated some trilxjs he made but slight headway, and seemed
little inclined to follow them into the recesses of their dark
forests. He soon made peace .and incorporated some of the Ger-
mans in his army, especially as cavalry, and they did great service
for him later at Pharsalia, where he defeated Pompey and over-
r
SEMI-MILITAEY CONaTITCTIOSAL MONARCHY. 771
threw the Roman republic. From this time Grermans began to
enlist in the Roman ai-miea until finally they outnumbered the
BomiiDS in the legions. Csesar, hy his far-reaching vision, is
credited with keeping off the invasion of Rome by these Teutonic
tribes nearly four hundred yeai-s. From him and tlie historian
Tacitus we learn where the most important of these tribes wenj
situated, and what were their mannere and customs.
Altliough all these tribes hud a common Teutonic origin, tliey
differed in many respects from each other; tlie Suevi especially
having peculiar chaiueteri sties. These held no private owuerehip
in lands, but each year changed about, holding it in common, so
that no one could become so attjiched to a locality that he would
be unwilling to go on distant forays.
The Noi-tli, or Low German — for the conformation of the land
divided these tribes into High and Low — owned his land to
a certain extent, and cultivated it apart from the rest. The land
about their primitive villages was held in common, so were the
fertile pastures and the forests; but the tendency of the Koi-th
German was to live apart. Several of their thatched cottages
they called a village ; and a numljer of these villages Wiis called
a hundred, while several kundredn made a ,9^1*, or di.strict.
Every hundred hail its own chief, called a prince, who was
elected by the freemen of the tribe, wlio alone had the right to
vote as well as bear arms. The chiefs of the tribes wei-e also
elected and these were called kings ; while aevei-il tribes on going
to war would elect one of their number, called a Hertzhog, to
lead them. The mass of tribesmen were freemen, and they
recognized a class of nobility among them from their ancient
descent, while below them were the slaves, either captured in
war or freemen unable to pay tlieir debts. Tlie similarity
between debt and slavery still exists.
Between the freemen and the slaves were anotlier class calked
Litit or iewh' (German for people) who held no land except in
service of some freeman, an idea afterwai-ds developing into the
feudal system, and who bora no arms. The assemblies of the
freemen took place either in March or May, as do the town meet-
ings in New England to-day, the political offspring of these
primitive /o^^ moot, or meetir^g. These assemblies were held iu
770 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
blue-eyed, red or yellow-haired luce of figlitei-s, who in a f ow years
overthrew several Roman aimies sent against them. It seemed
as if Rome was to suffer a fate similar to what she endured at tlie
hands of the Gauls under Bi-ennus, nearly three hundred yeai's
earlier.
One characteristic of this earliest recorded Teutonic inva-
sion was the taking of their women and children, who shared
the dangers and endured the hardships with the men. This
same thing occurs later in the invasion of Britain by Anglo-Saxon
tribes in the fifth century; and still again in the settlement of
the new world by their modern descendants. Englishmen, and the
subsequent migrations westward in the United States by tlie same
race. Marius, the Roman consul, 102 b. c, after several severe
battles, defeated the Teutons in Gaul, whither they had wandered ;
then, hastening back to Italy where the Cimbri had remained,
annihilated them. The captives made slaves by these wars after-
wards revolted in Rome under the lead of Spartacus.
We next hear of the Teutons or Germans from Caesar, 50 B. c,
who, having conquered Gaul, encountered them there under their
chief Ariovistus. The name German given by the Gauls to a
Teutonic tribe who had crossed the Rhine, became the title of all
the Teutonic tribes of a later date. Cresar, seeing the warlike as
well as migratory instinct of this race, thought Rome would best
be guarded by invading their territory as he had that of the Gauls,
and reducing them to submission. He drove Ariovistus and his
tribe of Suevi over the Rhine, and soon after, by building
bridges across that river at Coblentz and Bonn, invaded German
territory.
In spite of the headlong valor of the tribesman, the steady dis-
cipline of the Roman legionary won the day after many a hard-
fought battle. The compact formation of the legion, with the
short thrust of the Roman sword, was too much for the loose array
of the Germans fighting with a longer weapon. Although Caesar
annihilated some tribes he made but slight headway, and seemed
little inclined to follow them into the recesses of their dark
forests. He soon made peace and incorporated some of tlie Ger-
mans in his army, especially as cavalry, and they did great service
for him later at Pharsalia, where lie defeated Pompey and over-
w
SEM I-MILITAEY COIiSTiTUTIONAL MONARCHY. 771
threw the Romftn i-epublic. From this time Germans began to
enlist in the Roman anniea until finally tliey outnumbered the
Bomans in the legions, Cassar, by his far-reaching vision, is
cre<Iite(l with keeping off the invasion of Rome by these Teutonic
tribes nearly four hundred yeais. From him and the liistorian
Tacitus we learn where the most important of these tribes wei-e
situated, and what were their manners and customs.
Although all these tribes liad a common Teutonic origin, tliey
differed in many I'esiiects fi-ora each other; the Suevi especially
having peculiar chai'acteristics. These held no pnvate ownerahip
in lands, but each year changed about, holding it in common, so
that no one could become so attached to a locality that he would
be unwilling to go on distant forays.
The North, or Low Gennan — f<5r the conformation of the land
divided these tribes into High and Low — ^ owned his land to
a ceiiain extent, and cultivated it apart frem the rest. The laud
about their primitive villages was held in common, so were tlia
fertile pastures and the forests; but the tendency of the North
German was to live apart. Several of their thatched cotb^ea
they called a village; and a ntimber of these villages was called
a hundred, while several hundreih made a.gau, or district.
Every hundred had its own chief, called a prince, who waa
elected by the freemen of the tribe, who ahmL' Jiad the riglit tn
vote as well iia bear arms. The chiefs of the tribes were also
elected and these were called kings ; while sevei-al tribes on going
to war would elect one of their number, called a HertKhog, to
lead them. The mass of tribesmen were fi-eemen, and they
recognized a class of nobility among them fi'om their ancient
descent, while below them were tlie slaves, either captured in
war or freemen unable to pay their debts. The similarity
between debt and shivery still exists.
Between the freemen and the slaves were another class civllud
Xifi, or Leuti (German for people) who held no land exce]>t in
service of some freeman, an idea afterwards developing into tlia
feudal sj-stem, and who bore iio ai-ma. The assemblies of the
freemen took place either in March or May, as do the town meet-
ings in New England to-day, the political offspring of these
primitive /o2i moot, or meetiTigs. These assemblies wei-e held iit
772 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
■
the open air in some grove daring the crescent moon, where were
offered sacrifices of oxen, which were eaten and washed down
with hnge draughts of beer and mead, while the freemen gave
their opinions with perfect freedom.
In the morning those who were sober formed themselves into
a circle and deliberated over the counsels of the night. Tlie law^
of hospitality were rigidly observed, and a stranger wi^ perfectly
safe in the humblest cot, even if he were charged with a crime.
But he was not expected to stop longer than tliree days, as the
saying was: — "A three days' guest is everywhere curst.**
Every foreign wayfarer might pluck three fruits from a tree,
three shares from a field, and three fish from a pond, whence came
the proverb, ^^ Tliree are free. ^* Their idea of Heaven, or Val-
halla, where the souls of the dead fought each other all day and
caroused all night, gives some indication of their general charac-
teristics. When the Romans met them thev were still a nomadic
people to a great extent, and were constantly warring with each
other.
Under Drusus and Germanicus tlie Romans carried their arms
furthest into Germany, and the Rhine and tlie l)anul)e were
made the limits of the empire, and these two rivers were con-
nected by a wall, to prevent any sudden foray from the tribesmen.
Roman traders penetrated into the depths of the forests, and along
the Rhine and other rivei-s Roman cities sprang up, such as
Cologne, Mentz, TVeves, and.Rativslwn. So imminent seemed the
conversion of Germany into a Rcmrifin province like Gaul that
Herman, or Arminius, as the -Romans called him, a chief of the
tribe of the Cherusci, fonned in the year 5 a. d. a league with
other tribes to strike at the legions then in Germany. Vanis,
their commander, was told that a tribe in the Teutol)er<T^(M- forest
had revolted, and he hastened to chastise them.
Marching through the dense woods, encuml>ered with heavy
armor, their feet slipping in the mud caused by the heavy niins,
the Romans found themselves attacked on every side by the
infuriated Germans. The Imttle mged for several da}'s, but at
last turned against the Romans who could not form in the dense
woods, and were in consequence completely annihilated with a
loss of over 40,000 men. This decisive victorv ensured the free-
■s^^'i-'-'^- - :_
Fif
W"S,i *"'.■*
1^^
«
AAta
M
,'>«^
'i.-ri-
iitfiMjK
1^
*"""
'^ d;^^
pf3
^■Sam
^■r ^^' . .^ ■
BEin-MILITABr COKSTTTUTIOXAL UGSABCHY. 777
dcRn of the Germanic tribes, with the purity of their race and hin-
guage, and phiced Herman as one of the great leaders of the race,
like Frederick the Great, and Ton Moltke of later years. Its
effect in Rome was appalling, and Caesar Augustus went from
room to room in his palace cn'ing, ^ Varus ! Varus, give me hack
mv legions."
For two hundred years the Germans were comparatively quiet ;
then they began to be restless and show signs of >-ielding to their
migratory instinct. The movement was not sudden, but came in
waves at different intervals until evervthinjj Roman was sub-
merged. The Goths were first to move, and being pressed by
the Huns, a Tartar tribe from the east, left their homes along
the Vistula River, crossed the Danube and settled in the Roman
territon" south. Becoming more iK)werful by fresh accessions,
they finally captured Rome itself under their chief, Alaric.
Then the Bnrgundians, Vandals, and Alani began to move ; the
former settling about the nv^v Rhune in Tiaul, and mixinq^ with
the inhabitants f«»mie*l the kingdom of Bumundv. Tlie historv
of the Franks in Gaul inteivsts us because in the vear 800
Charleraafrne, one of the-, successors of the oriirinal Frank ish
conqueroi"s, was ci-owned Emix-ror in Rome by the P«»i»e after
his vietoiy over the L< mihirds, thei*el>y restoring the emiiiiv of
the West. He was as niurh Enii»en»t of. the Germans as nf the
Franks Ixn-anse Ik^Ii countries wei-e united under him. an<l liv his
conquests in Italy became king rif the LomUirds.
The Fnuikish kings had embraced the Trinitarian form of the
Christian creed, while most of the other Teutonic triWs had
embraced the Arian heresv, as the Chunh called it. The Saxons
were still heathen, and onlv renounced the reliirion of their fore-
fathers after over thiitv veai-s' strusrirle with Charlemamie. At
last, their chief, Wittikind, finding resistance hoi»eless, was luip-
tized and received into the Catholic faith, Charlemagne standing
as his sponsor.
By the swonl of the great Frankish king, and the preiu.*hing
of Saint Boniface, Christianity was spread throughout Geiinany.
From the time of this Frankish in>"asion of Gaul to Charlemagne
the conditions of life had greatly changed among the i)eoi>le.
Originally all were freemen who owned land and who could vote
778 THE 8TOEY OF OOVSRNMBKT.
in the assemblies, but by conquests all this was gradually altered,
especially in the conquered country. Lands (in those days the
only wealth) which were formerly held as allodial or belonging
to one's self alone, now were held in the name of another, and rent,
either in service or produce, was given for them.
On the other hand, the one holding the fee or fief was bound
to protect the one holding under him, the obligation being
reciprocal, and thus arose the feudal system. In those days of
almost universal personal warfare protection was necessary to
those who lived by farming, and so classes began to form ; the
lower, or serf class, who were denied the use of arms, and were
obliged to cultivate the soil, and the land-holding or territorial
class who lived on the former, but bore arms and j^rotected them
from others. In Germany this took slower root than else-
where, although the original class of Liti were ruled on some-
thing of this plan; but the large class of freemen made the feudal
system difScult to be established, and regarding certain laws of
inheritance it never was as firmly founded as in other countries.
After the death of Charlemagne, 843 a. d., no one was power-
ful enough to hold his mighty empire together, and after years
of fighting between his sons, and later his grandsons, the lat-
ter decided to divide the empire, which was done by the Treaty
of Verdun. In this treaty the various chiefs made oath in their
respective tongues. Louis the German, who took all the coun-
try east of the Rhine, or rouglily what is now Germany, spoke in
German, while Charles the Bald, who took Francia Occidental is
(modem France), spoke in French. Lothair, the third brother,
took a long nan*ow strip along the left bank of the Rhine from
the Alps to the sea, which he called Lotharingia (modemly Lor-
raine), and which was destined to prove an apple of discord for-
ever between the other two nations.
Although this separation marks the political beginning of Ger-
many, the various tribes were still governed by their chiefs or
dukes, and spoke different dialects. Charlemagne created the
archbishops of Cologne, Treves, and Maintz, spiritual princes
with power equal to the dukes, so the latter would in a measure
be curbed. After the separation of Germany the descendants of
Charlemagne continued on the throne, but on the cessation of line
780 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
in Louis III., the child, the cliiefs of the various nations, or
dukes, decided to elect one of themselves king.
On the death of Conrad, they chose Henry, Duke of Saxony,
as king in 919, called the Fowler, because when told of his elec-
tion he was found hunting. The country was in a bad state when
he came to the throne, especially from the invasion of the eastern
frontiers by hordes of Huns and Magyars. The eastern provinces,
Bohemia and Moravia, had already been settled by Sclavonic races
who filled in the vacant territory made by the migration of the
tribes. The Huns fought on horseback, and from their quick
movements suddenly rushing to a charge, and as quickly wheel-
ing about and returning, it was hard to beat them.
Formerly, in 451, these savage tribes had threatened to conquer
Europe under. their King Attila, who called himself the Scourge
of God, and who devasted Europe until defeated near Chalons in
Gaul. This Attila was called by the Germans Etzel, and figures
in their legends of the Nibelunglied as the husband of Kriemliild.
The Huns, who now fought with Henry, were settled in Hungary
and were fully as fierce as the former ones under Attila. To
preserve liis country while he made ready to defend it Henry paid
tribute to these savages until by building walled towns along the
frontier in Saxony, and obliging every ninth man to dwell therein,
lie was in condition to resist the enemy.
Tlie last tribute he sent was a mangy dog which, of coui-se,
was meant for an insult, and in the war following Henry was
victorious and the power of the Huns broken. Tliis was the
beginning of town life among the Germans. Formerly they had
hated cities, and as a rule destroyed them, but now a new era was
opening. Yet, in spite of the introduction of Christianity, they
were as fien^e as when in former times they swore "by the deck
of the ship, and the rim of the shield, by the withei^s of the
horse, and the point of the sword."
Besides driving away the Huns, Henry invaded the country of
the Wends, a Sclavonic tribe, and captured their stronghold
Branniber, afterwards called Brandenburg, the cmdle of the
modern kinofdom of Prussia. Henry the Fowler's wise and ener-
getic rule did much to consolidate the nation until succeeded by
his son Otto the Great, who, after his conquests in Italy, was
aEMI->fILrTAUY CONSTITDTIONAL MONARCHY.
781
cro-wned Emperor at Rome in 962, and then the country was com-
mitted to a policy which in the end proved to be the political ruin
of both Germans and Itivlians.
The pajiacy fnim its liereditary <lislike of the Lombards, and
from fear of some Itjilian prince becoming too poweKul, was only
too glad to crown Oei-mjin kings a* Emperoi-s and kings of Rome
and LomlKuxIy. This alliance of Church and State sovereignties
was destined to hf?ar bitter fruit in the future, but now it worked
advantageously to both Pope and Emperor, although the poor
people were the suffci-ci-s.
Tlie successors of Otto the Great followed in his footstejis,
consolidating the conquests in Italy by repeated invasions, and
spending the blood and trciisui-e needed for the full development
of their own country in this desire to liold the beautiful land of
Italy in subjection, which they partially succeeded in doing for
many grievous years.
782 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
This was the origin of Germany's claim to Italy, which made
the latter countiy a battlefield for centuries wlienever any power
such as Spain or France wished to quarrel with Gennany,
Tliis claim was never relinquished until the victoiy of the Prus-
sians over Austria, at Sadowa, in 1866, forced the latter power to
cede Venice to Italy, which had been the former's ally in that
famous seven weeks' war.
By 1024 the kingly power piussed to the ducal house of Fi-an-
conia. The cities now began to rise in importance, especially
those along the Rhine, wliich had continued from the time of the
Romans with more or less smouldering vitality. The walled
towns on the civstern frontier, originally harl)oi-s of refuge from the
Huns, now became equally places of slielter for the oppressed
serfs and pccosants, crushed down by tlie weight of the landhold-
ing class. Learning, always in the hands of the clei-gy, began
slowly to i-evive from the tremendous tidal wave of barbarism,
and schools were established at Liege, Gemblowei-s, Paderbum,
and many other places.
In this centiny arose another of those wavelike movements of
the people of Western Europe, bent on conquest, only this time
it was a reflex one from west to east, instead as formerly east to
west, and tliey were called crusiides. Tlie Greek empire had
fallen before the followei-s of Malioinet, and with Constantinople,
passed the Holy Land witli Jeiusaleiu into tlie hands of tlie Turks
and Saracens. That the Holy Sepuleliie sliould l>e in the hands
of uiil)eliev(U's was not to be endured l)v the folk)wei"s of the
Cliuieli ill Europe, and tlie liery preac^hing of Peter the Hermit
aroused all llie fanatical and warlike^ eUnnents tliere. Evervthintr
was pi'omised to tliose wlio would enlist in the holy cause. Sins
were remitted and crimes pai'doned, to those who wore the red
cross, and serfs beeaine freemen.
The lii-st crusade under Godfrey (h^ I>ouillon wrested Jerusalem
from the Turks in lOlM], and for tlie next two hundred yeai*s the
arid lands of Palestine were the l)attle-<jrounds of contendintr
hosts of inlidels and Christians. In Sir Walter Scott's novel c^f
the Talisman, is an account of the third crusade in which Richaixl
the Lion Hearted, King of Englandand the crafty Philip Augustus
of France, took part. The Em[)(,»ror Frederick Barbarossa, of Ger-
1
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^^^^^IP
784 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
many, was the liead of this invading host, but he was drowned
while trying to cross one of the rivers in Syi'ia near where Alex-
ander the Great came near suffering the same fate.
So great was the religious fervor created by these ware, that it
was one time preached that the Holy Land could only be con-
quered by children, and such was the madness of the times that
the fifth crusade was composed of thousands of boys and girls.
They attempted to reach Palestine but were captured by pii-ates,
and few of the original number ever returned. When these
devastating wars ceased, it is estimated that 6,000,000 of the
fighting class of Europe had perished.
From these wars came a more enlightened knowledge of the
East, and an intellectual activity gained by contact with the
more highly civilized Moors and Arabs. From them, also, arose
the various ordei*s of Knights Templar, Knights Hospitallers, and
the Teutonic order, who on return to Europe exercised great influ-
ence over affairs there.
When Henry IV. died, the ducal house of Franconia became
extinct, and the famous old duchy, the cradle of the empire from
whence had migrated the conquering Fj*anks under Clovis, was
divided up between the Church and sojne petty princes, like the
Count Palatine of the Rhine (who became elector in the place of
the Duke of Francouia), the Landgrave of Hesse, and Count of
Nassau. Tliis division of large duchies into small principalities,
an account of the law of descent following the one of equal divi-
sion i-ather than the feudal one of primogeniture, was another evil,
retarding the national growth of Germany. It was the beginning of
individualism, or particularism as it was called then in politics,
which afterwards was carried to ridiculous extremes.
Under Lothair II. the kingly power was in the House of Saxony
for a sliort time, 1125 to 1137, and then passed to the House of
Holien Staufcn by the election of Coni*ad HI. in 1138. The
Hohenstaufens, a Suabian ducal family, were the most brilliant
of any in Germany during mediaeval times; the Suabians had
always been noted for tlieir intellectual brilliancy, and this family
was typical of the country.
Soon after Conrad's election began the famous quarrel of Guelf
and Ghibeline, destined to divide Germany and Italy into hostile
BEMl-MILITAItV CONSTtTUTIONAI, MONARCHY.
parties centuries after the oi-iginal meaning of the words vms
forgotten. Count Welf, of Bavaria, went to warwith tho Hohen-
staufens, whose castle in Suabia was called Weibling, and fi-om
the difficulty the Italians had in jironouncing the W, this letter
was changed to G. The Ghilielines were tlie snpiiorters of the
786 THE 8TOKY OF GOVEBNMEKT.
£niperor, and the Guelftt were those opposed, aiid hiter on were the
adherents of the popes in their long struggle with the Emperors.
Under Frederick Barbarossa, the greatest of these Emperors,
the boundaries of the empire were the widest since Charlemagne,
embracing Italy, Burgundy, Poland, and Denmark. Having
been crowned King of the Lombards, he became involved in war
with the cities in Nortiiem Italy, wliich ended in his levelling
the principal one, Milan, to the ground. And by his victories
over tlie rebellious Henry the Lion Duke of Saxony he ground
that duchy into fragments, and as an old chronicler says, ^All
the animals came in for a share; the lion kept the heart for his
share; the lynx (Bavaria) had a leg; the dog (Hesse) a shoe;
the pig (Holstein) the lungs ; Cologne and Bremen each a hind
leg, while Mentz got the tail.**
Thuringia and Westphalia, portions of this proud ducliy, be-
came separate and were ruled by their respective courts, while
the duchy of Bavaria Barbarossa gave to Otto of Wittelsbach, in
whose descendants' hands it remains to this day.
The people had nothing to say about these changes, when
tliey passed from king to duke or duke to count, or whether they
passed from the mailed hand of the feudatoiy lord to the mortmain
of the Church. Their condition was alike pitiable and hopeless,
for what the feudal lord or the Church did not take from them,
the robber knights seized if they could.
With the death of Frederick Barbarossa in tlie Holy Land, the
empire fell to Frederick II., the most brilliant and accomplished,
as well as ill-fated prince of the Middle Ages. This emperor by
man'iage acquired the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, which,
added to his Lombard kingdom in the north of Italy made him all
but supreme master of that country. To this the Pope naturally
objected, and the quarrel began. One side thundered forth with
anathemas and bulls of excommunication, while the other retali-
ated by physical force, frequently driving the Supreme Pontifif
fi'om Rome by arms.
The effect on Germany of this struggle between Kaiser and
Pope was to loosen all bonds of authority, as the latter in excom-
municating the former would absolve all his subjects from their
allegiance; and the turbulent nobles and tributary princes were
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MUNAltCHV.
787
not slow to avail themselves of the situation. On the other hand
the Emperor, to raise men and money for his Italian wara, was
foi-ced to sell to the cities important franchises and civil liberties
which enabled them to become almost so many little i-epublics.
The Emperors were likewise forced to grant equally important
rights to the princes who supported him, and these rights made
tlieni independent, so all over Germany iirosc a horde of petty
iiTcsponsilile tyrants.
Insteail of the people becoming a homogeneous compact nation,
like the Fi-encli and English, they were hopelessly subdivided
amongst themselves. In the long struggle between tlie popes
and the emperoi's, the popes won, and tlie power of the emjierors
who opposed tlieni was completely shattered. One of the latter,
Henry VI., was forced to stand, with ' scant covering, three
days in a snow stoiin, at Canossa, to obtain pardon of the Pope.
Frederick II., the last of the Hohenstaufens to reign, was, from
788 THE STORY OF GOVKKXMBNT.
his personal beauty, attractivenessy and wide knowledge of
languages, speaking as he did French, German, Italian, Greek,
Latin, and even Arabic, the ** wonder of the age." • In him the
arts found a liberal patron, and poetry a suitor, for he wrote
the first Italian sonnet in that language. To his couit came all
the brilliant minds of tlie day, lawyers like Peter de Yincis to
draw up a code for a kingdom, or poets to receive at the fair
hands of Iiis queen the wreath of laurel moi*e to be coveted than
crowns.
Witli the extinction of the house of Hoheustaufen as dukes oi
Suabia as well as emperors of Germany, their famous patrimony
of Suabia was divided up among their heirs, as formerly were
Franconia and Saxony. For years after they ceased to reign
Germany ptissed through the darkest hour of her existence, and
that period Wtis called Interregimm (1256-1278), when rival can-
didates struggled to get possession of the imperial title. All
authority wiis set at defiance, and each one settled his own
troubles with the swoi-d. There arose throughout the land,
especially along the banks of the rivers,, like the Rhine, innum-
erable robber castles, built and inhabited by a class of nobles who
disdained to get a living by other means than force.
These castles were built along some lonely road, or where
seveml met, and all travellers, esi)ecially merchants, had to pay
toll, or be attacked and have their goods seized. Prelates of the
Church even were not above adding to their revenue by these
means. One of them, a bishop, on being asked why he built his
castle in an out of the way place where no one could get a living
by farming, leplied that "four roads crossed in front of his
domain." The cities, finding their merchants constantly plucked
by these aristocratic robbers, leagued together and made war
upon them. Many of the robl)er knights werc hanged and their
castles burned, and their picturesque ruins to-day lend a chann
to the scenery along the Rhine.
The cities now began to be an important factor in the nation's
development, and were at this period the only places of refuge for
liberty of conduct or of conscience. After the wjive of migrating
tribes had piissed, most of the Roman cities were in ruins, but
Saint Boniface, who firat converted the Germans, I'estored some of
788 THE STOKY OF GOVEKNMKXT.
his i^ei-sonal beauty, attractiveness, and wide knowledge of
languages, speaking as he did French, German, Italian, Greek,
Latin, and even Arabic, the "wonder of the age." • In him the
arts found a liberal patron, and poetry a suitor, for he wrot«
the fii*st Italian sonnet in that language. To his court came all
the brilliant minds of the day, lawyei-s like Peter de Vincis to
draw up a code for a kingdom, or poets to receive at the fair
hands of his (jueen the wreath of laurel more to be coveted than
crowns.
With the extinction of the house of IIoheiLstaufen as dukes of
Suabia as well as emperoi-s of Germany, their famous patrimony
of Suabia w;us divided up among their heirs, as formerly were
Fi-anconia and Saxony. For years after they ceased to reign
Germany passed througli the darkest hour of her existence, and
that period was called InteiTegnum (125G-1273), when rival can-
didates struggled to get possession of the imperial title. All
authority wiis set at defiance, and each one settled his own
troubles with the sword. There arose throughout the land,
especially along the banks of the rivers,, like the Rhine, innum-
erable robber castles, built and inliabited by a chiss of nobles who
disdained to get a living by other means tlian force.
These castles were built aloucr some lonelv ioad, or wliere
several met, and all travellei*s, especially merchants, had to pay
toll, or be atta(;ke(l and have their goods seized. Prelates of the
Church even were not above adding to their revenue by these
means. One of them, a bishop, on l)eing asked wliy he built his
castle in an out of the way place where no one could get a living
by farininq", ie[)lie(l that ^'four roads crossed in front of his
domain." The cities, finding their merchants constantly plucked
})V these aristociaiic robbei"S, leairned tojrether and made war
U[)()n them. Many of the robber knights wei-e hanged and their
castles burned, and their [)i(^tures(pie ruins to-day lend a charm
to the scenery aloni^ the Rhine.
The cities now began to be an important tactor in tlie nation's
deyelo[)nient, and were at this })erio(l the only places of refuge for
liberty of conduct or of conscience. Aftev the wave of mir^ratincf
tribes had passed, most of the Roman ('ities were in ruins, but
Saint Boniface, wlio first eonveuted the (jermans, restored some of
790 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
them and made them bishoprics, under the control of some bishop
or abbot. In these cities the pious monks began the building of
those beautiful cathedrals of Gothic architecture which will be
the admiration of the world as long as civilized man can appre-
ciate the beautiful.
The building of these masterpieces was a cause of the growth
of these cathedral towns. Successive armies of workmen were
employed^ as they were frequently hundreds of years in finishing
these wonderful structures, and following them came the pilgrims
to worship at the shrine, and after them came the trader, eager
for profit; so gradually about the Church there grew up a com-
munity sufficient unto itself, as regards their own governing,
and whose laws were based upon other ideas than killing and
plunder.^
In the north of Germany arose towns such as Bremen, Ham-
burg, and Liibeck, Stittin, Dantzic, and Konigsberg, along the
North and Baltic Seas, who leagued themselves together as the
^ Hansebund, ^ or Hanseatic League, which extended its influence
to towns in the South, such as Augsburg and Niimberg, and "West
even into Russia. These towns coined money, issued notes, and
bills of credit, built fleets which dominated the seas, and exercised
all the rights of sovereign states, and were really so many little
republics surrounded by feudalism.
When the anarchy of the Interregnum could no longer be
endured, the imperial free cities wished for some ruler who could
assist them in their struggles with the princes. So it was decided
to hold an election. The choice of the electoi-s was Rudolf of
Habsburg, in 1273, so called from his castle in Switzerland (still
standing), as one most likely to heal the growing antagonism
between the church and the princes of Germany. Rudolf, the
founder of this powerful and gnisping family, had all the traits
which have made that house a stumbling-block to progress and
civilization.
The power of this family came from fortunate marriages, and
from tlie extinction of the great ducal families, which left a crowd
* In this manner grew up Mayence, Worms, Cologne, and Strasbuig, alcmg the Rhine ;
Ghent, Brussels, and Utrecht, in the Netherlands ; MUnster, Bremen, and Magdeburg in
Saxony, and WUrzburg, lYague, and Vienna in other parts of the conntry.
SBMI-MILITABT OON8TITUTIOKAL MOKARCHY. 791
of petty princes who were only too willing to maintain the suc-
cession of Emperor in the House of Habsburg in return for the
maintenance of their petty sovereignty. In his old age Rudolf
married the beautiful Agnes of Burgundy, then only fourteen
years of age. After the ceremony the Bishop of Spii-es was so
enchanted by her beauty, that he rapturously kissed her (the man-
ners were free in this age), whereupon the Emperor told him it was
the Agnus Dei (i. e., the Lamb of God), not Agnes the Empress,
that he ought to kiss.
One of his successors, Rudolf II., was a true son of this grasp-
ing i*ace, and he was immortalized by Dante's curse in his poem
of Purgatoria : —
*• May on thy r«acc Heaven's just judgment fall;
And be It signally and plainly shown,
With terror thy successors to appall,
Since by thy lust yon distant lands to gain
Thou and thy sire have suffered wild to run
What was the garden of a fair domain.
Canto VIII-lOl.
When one thinks of the blood shed by this family in the thirty
years' war, the assassination of Don Carlos, the son of Philip II.,
the l)eheading of Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution, the
dismemberment of the Austrian Empire by Napoleon I. and later
on by Napoleon III., where she was found to yield Venice to
Italy, the death of Maximilian in Mexico, the crushing defeat by
the Prussians at Sadowa, and the recent tmgedy of the family, the
suicide of the Crown Prince Rudolf, it seems as if the great
Italian poet's curse had been fulfilled.
The Electoral College had now fallen into confusion, and the
constant appeals from it to force of aims by disappointed candi-
dates kept the Emperoi-s in never-ceasing turmoil. Originally
the tribes of Fi-anks, Saxons, Suabians, and Bavarians, and some-
times the Lorrainers from across the Rhine, would encamp along
the banks of that river and choose one of their dukes or chiefs of
tribes, as king. Gradually the fom* dukes of these first four
tribes took to themselves the sole right of voting; the three arch-
bishops of Cologne, Treves, and Maintz voting with them. By
1184, the votes of Franconia and Suabia had passed to other
792 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
hands, and the King of Bohemia had put in a claim for the vote
hitherto held by Bavaria.
To stop this wrangling the Emperor, Charles IV., in 1355,
issued the Golden Bull which settled tliis question, and declared
the legal i)lace of election should be Frankfort, and the ceremony
of coronation should take place at Aix-la-Cluipelle, with the Arch-
bishop of Cologne to crown the king elected. The number of
electors was made seven, the original number, and their dignity
was declared equal to kings, while conspiracy against them was
high treason. In 1338 the electors declared their independence of
the Pope's sanction to make their choice of king valid.
The invention of gunpowder rapidly brought a change to the
now disappearing Middle Ages. This was discovered by a monk
named Schwartz, at Freiburg, in 1354, and the discovery cost him
his life by an explosion. The fii-st i)owder mill was built at
Liibeck in 1360, and the fii-st iron cannon balls were used by the
Hanse Towns in 1387, as the firat balls were made of store.
With the introduction of gunpowder came a revolution in the
art of war, and with it the loss of the prestige of the nobility who
always fought on hoi"seback on the battlefield. Before this, clad
in a suit of armor, with his horse equally })rotected, the noble was
invincible to the ordinary foot soldier, but now that tlie meanest
man with a gun could kill tlie bravest, the days of chivalry were
over.
Witli the introduction of gunpowder also came other forces to
chang(i the thought of the age, and the most potent of these was the
discovery of printing by John of (lutenburg in 1430. Before
this, books were copied hy liand, and tliis immense labor was done
by monks in the monasteries, and to them and tlieir patient
life-long la])ors is due sucli presci'vation as we h>ive of tlie liter-
ary relics of the ancient classic world.
The establishment of uuivcn'sities, together with the diffusion
of learning by ])iinting, had an immense influence on the thought
of the age. Tlij University of Prague, established in 1348, was
already famous foi* its teachers, such as John IIuss and Jerome of
Pratrue, who counted their followers by thousands in Boliemia.
The ecclesiastical authorities tried to stop this intellectual awak-
ening by burning ITuss and Jerome, but their death was the sig-
794 THX BTOBY OF QOYERNHENT.
nal for a bloody uprising in Bohemia under the leadership of
John Ziska, who, although Uind, became one of the great soldiers
of his time. So fierce and unrelenting was this man that on his
death, in 1424, he desired that his skin should be flayed from his
body and made into a drum to be beaten in the presence of the
enemy.
When Maximilian I. came to the throne in 1493, it seemed as
if the lowest point of anarchy and political dismemberment had
been reached, although he in a measure restored the prestige of
the nation, and tried to introduce some refonns. At the Diet of
Worms, 1495, there was issued an Edict of Perpetual Peace,
which was to do away with setUing private quarrels by the sword
or the Faustrecht, figt law^ as it was called.
Trials by combat or by ordeals, such as walking over hot iron,
known as the judgment of God, were still prevalent, for the
people yielded to law slowly and with distrust. When a man
accused a woman, the conditions of the combat were made equal
by burying the man in the ground to his waist, and then armed
with a stick, he had to defend himself from the woman who had
a stone tied in the end of a veil for a weapon.
The House of Hapsburg 'vvas at the culmination of its power
when Charles V, was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1520, as
Emixjror of Germany, for lie ixiled over more provinces than any
previous sovereign, as he took in all the new world which
Columbus had added to the Spanish throne, since by marriage
Spain, Burgundy, and the Netherlands had come into the hands
of this family, and his brother Ferdinand took Austria and the
Tyrol and afterwards Bohemia and Hungary. His coronation
was one of boundless magnificence and display of wealth, as
befitted the taste of this young sovereign who so far had shown
only an inclination to be dissolute, though later he was to develop
into the most powerful ruler of his time.
The first act of the new Emperor's administration was to
appoint a Diet of the empire at Worms, in 1521, to consider the
I)roper measures to combat the new ideas that were then spreading
from the teachings of Martin Luther. This extraordinary man
was bom in Thuringia, in 1483, of a peasant family, and became
an Augufctine friar and professor of theology in the University
=%
\V!
796 THE STOBY OF GOVEKKMEKT.
of Wittenbeig. At fiist he desired merely to reform certain
abuses which were flagrant in the Church, but the current of the
times was too strong for him and lie finally broke from Rome.
The establishment of the universities, reviving as it did the
study of Greek and Hebrew, Iiad spread abroad a spirit of inquiry
and criticism, and great scholars like Rcuchlin, Erasmus, and
Melancthon had prepared men^s minds for the partial overthrow
of the Roman Church. The peasantry and lower orders thought
they had everything to gain from any change whatever, and
gladly hailed these new doctrines as a sign of better times for
them, while the princes simply saw in them an opportunity to
dispossess the Church of some of its enormous wealth.
Luther, summoned to the Diet, walked all the way to tlie city
of Worms, and presented so poor an appearance lb|t the Emperor,
Charles Y., said he looked like the last man to convert him.
Charles Y. was too far seeing a man not to realize that] these
new doctrines would not only disturb the Church, but destroy the
empire, so, after sternly admonishing the princes assembled that
he would continue the religion of the Roman Church as he had
inherited it from his ancestors, he refused to listen longer to the
arguments of Luther. After this Luther ^vas concealed for nearly
a year in the Castle of Wartburg, where he spent his time trans-
lating the Bible into German. He was not above many of the
superstitions of his age, and the room is still shown at the castle
where he threw an inkstand at the devil.
This translation, one of the greatest intellectual achievements
of German scholars, fixed one of the mauy dialects of Hijjh and
Low German, as the one to he followed ever after by the scholarly
classes, and became also the language of the people. The peas-
ants beholding in these doctrines a ehance for their relief, as
now they were hopelessly bound to the soil, thi*ew off the yoke
of their feudal lords, and raising large but poorly discii)lined
armies, be^au burning and devastating the country far and wide
inL525.
Sualjiii, the lUiineland, and Franeonia wei"c in a blaze with
burning convents and castles ; churches were ruined, monasteries
plundered, while cities like Jliinster, which fell into the hands of
a set of fanatics called Anabiq^tists, were given over to every kind
BEHI-MILITASY CONST ITOTIONAL HONABOHY. 79T
of excess. It was the first articulate cry of the downtrodden
masses, and like the similar rising in France of the Jacqaeriet
and the later explosion of the Reign of Terror, was marked by
blind r^e and untamable ferocity. Although these poor peasants
were the followers of Luther, he had no sympathy with them, and
wrote to their rulers '^To strangle, to stab them, secretly and
openly, as they can, as one would a mad dog."
Charles v., now weary with these religioua strifes, calledaDiet
at Augsbui^, ill 1565, to see if some agreement suitiible to all
parties could be arranged. This, in a measiu^, was done, and
rights were given to the Lutherans which were withheld from the
followers of Calviii and Zwingli. Peace, to a certain extent,
followed this Diet, mid a few years after Charles resigned his
Spanish and Netherland interests to his son Phillip, and those of
Germany to his brother Ferdinand.
Bohemia, now possessed by Austria, had even before the times
of Luther been the stronghold of opponents of the Church, who
now embi'aced these new doctrines with enthusiasm. Austria,
798 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT,
determined to stamp these new ideas out, had sent two commis-
sioners to Prague to look over the ground. On the 23d of May,
1618, a day famous as the beginning of the longest, bloodiest,
and most senseless war on record, — for the end left both parties
(neither convinced) just where they began, — was done the deed
which began the ^'^ thirty years^ war,'*''
Count Thurm, at the head of a party of thirty noblemen, inished
into the castle where Martin itz and Slawata, the two commis-
sionei-s, were consulting. Without any parleying, they threw
them out of the window, saying, **Xow see if your Virgin will
help you ! " Their trembling secretaiy was sent after them, fol-
lowing on the bodies of his masters, to whom he apologized as he
struck, saying he could not help it. In spite of the fall of
seventy feet the men, beyond being bruised and badly shaken
up, were uninjured, for they fortunately fell on a heap of refuse,
" By heavens ! " exclaimed one of the throwers, " their Virgin has
saved them I " as the men were observed crawling off amid a fire
of pistol shots.
Both sides quickly found able leaders to command their armies,
Count ^larisfiekl for the Protestants, and Tilly and Wallenstein
for the Imperiiilists. At the end of twelve years the Imperialists
won; evcn-ywhere victorious, and the cause of the Protestants
seemed lio[)eless, for the latter were divided among themselves
regarding roligio:i, and were jealous of each other's success, while
the fornicr had but one form of reliefion, and were controlled bv
the (Hiutral authority of the Emperor. Of all the men whom
tliwse troublous times had thrown to the front, Wallenstein was
the ablest, at least until his great opponent, Gustavus Adolphus,
of Sweden, appeared on the scene.
Born in Bohemia, and educated by the Jesuits, Wallenstein
became interested in the study of astrology, common in those
days, and succeeded in surrounding hinLself A\'ith an air of mj-^-
tery, and attaching himself to the Imperialists. By the force of
his energy and ability to command, he soon rose to the hejid of
their armies, not, however, without aroiusing envy and hatred. He
was the living embodiment of tlie spirit of the times, stern, dark,
and merciless to those who opposed liim.
So confident were tlie Imperialists of success that they issued
LTJDWIQ V, BEETHOVEN.
800 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
an Edict of Restitution, which was that all Church property then
in the hands of Protestants should be returned to its owners.
This the latter refused to do, and prepared to renew the unequal
conflict, when a new element appeared on the scene in the person
of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden.
This young king, the ablest tactician of his time, had intro-
duced a new order of things in the old formation for battle, by
making his lines fewer so not to present as deep a fix)nt to artillery
fire. His troops were armed with a lighter and more easily loaded
musket than their opponents, while their tactical formation for
battle was more modem and in keeping witli the growing use of
artillery.
Landing on the coast of Pomerania with a small but highly
disciplined army of fifteen thousand men, Gustavus quickly
regained most of Northern Germany from the Imperialists. He
was too late to raise the siege of Magdeburg, for that city was
soon after captured by assault by the soldiei*s of Tilly, who razed
its buildings, and i)ut twenty thousand of its inhabitants to the
sword with every species of imaginable cruelty. Gustavus came
up with Tilly soon after at Leipsie, and after a stubborn contest,
in which the su[)eriority of the new tactics of the Swedes was
apparent, won the day, and tlie Ini[)erialists were driven further
South.
Tilly having died from wounds received at Leipsic, there was
nothing else to do but recall Wallenstein and place liini at the
head of the Imperialists. Once again the banditti of Europe
flocked to his standard, and, as if by magic, Wallenstein was at
the head of a large army, and by his generalship forced Gustavus
to give liini battle at Llitzen. The Held was closely contested, as
two of the ablest generals of the day headed the armies, but vic-
tory at last remained with the Swedes, although they left their
brilliant Kinor Gustavus dead at the moment of victorv. The
war had nearly burned itself out when a new hand made its
appearance to assist the Protestants, the hand, strange to say, of
a Cardinal of the Church — Armand de Richelieu.
This statesman saw in the troubles of Germany an opportunity
to humble Austria, and to gain a step nearer the Rhine for
France. By entering into a treaty with Oxenstein, the Minister
8BHI-MILITABY CONSTnUTIONAL MONABOHY. 801
of Swedeiit and advaocing men aod money to the Ptotestaat
princes of Germany, Richeliea fanned the war flames into fuiy
again. After several years more of strife both parties, wearied
out, came to an understanding at the Peace of Westphalia.
Tilts Peace of Westphalia was fatal to Germany politically, hy
reason of its dismemberment by France and Sweden. She was
too weak to refuse the demands of her allies, so she saw Fmnce
take Metz and parts of Lorraine and Alsace from the Houae of
Austria, while Sweden got Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and the
Ifetherlands, in gwning their freedom, oame under the Inflaence
802 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of France. The latter also, by insisting on the complete separa-
tion of the Swiss Confederation from the Imperial Empire, had
two open doors to invade Germany, Through the absorption of
Burgundy by France, and the wi-inging of Alsace and Lorraine
from Austria, the two nations of France and Germany -were
brought face to face on the Rhine — and that vexed question of
the Rhine provinces was made a permanent issue.
It is estimated that two thirds of the people of Germany per-
ished either by the sword or famine during this di-eadful period.
Whole provinces were laid waste, cities were sacked, castles
battered down, monasteries burned, and large numbere of people
lapsed into barbarism. The war had been conducted by both
parties with diabolical ferocity and fiendish ingenuity in torturing
each other's prisoners. There was nothing that the devilish wit
of man, or the fanatic rage of religion, could not devise to maim,
bum, or torture, not only men but helpless women and children.
The following account by an eye-witness will give some idea of
the way the common people were persuaded to give up their
money : —
Both hands of one were tied fast behind him, and a horse hair was
drawn through his tongue by means of an awl. Then, whenever he
would move it only a little up and down, it gave the wretched man
such torture that he often cried out for death. But at every cry he had
four lashes with the tliong on his calves — I believe the fellow would
gladly have killed himself to get rid of the pain if he could have used
his hands. Another's head was bound tightly with a cord containing
many knots, and twisted behind above the neck with a wooden stick,
drawing it tighter and tighter till the bright blood streamed out of his
forehead, mouth, and nose, and even his eyes, and the poor man looked
like one possessed. I was frightened at these cruel plagues and this
pitiless tyranny, and begged Battraurtz to think of God and his own
conscience, and spare the few harmless folk a little in his tortures. But
he spoke in anger, " If you have much pity, you can't be ray friend
long. He that has pity belongs to the devil."
The whole character of the German seemed changed by these
'wars, and he became dull, lieavy, and full of gloomy ideas; nor
ijia. susceptible of the least feeling of mercy, and every judi-
d was stained by the blooil of the tortured. The House
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONAKCHY, 808
of Hapsbui'g was still powerful enough to get its successors
elected from father to son, and by virtue of being Dukes of
Austria and Kings of Bohemia and Hungaiy, they were strong
enough to stamp out all remains of heresy in those dominions.
Although Imperialists in name, they did nothing to federsite the
empire, and simply sought to aggrandize their family.
The other princii>td courts now were those of Bavaria and
Wiirtemburg, and, with the exception of the growing power of
Prussia, the rest of Gei-many was given over to the miserable
tyranny of a horde of petty ru lei's spiritual and tempoml. The
Turks still threatened Germany through Hungary, until defeated
by John Sobiesky, under the walls of Vienna, and the French
under Louis XIV. began their restless movements towaixls the
Rhine.
England, Holland, and Austria i-anged themselves against
Franco and Bavaria, and once again poor Gei-many was made the
battleground of nations. Under the Duke of Marlborough, the
ablest general since Gustavus, and Prince Eugene of Savoy, who
had already won fame in the war with the Turks, the allied army
gave kittle to the French at Blenlieim, Oct. 12, 1704, under
Marshal Tallard. The result was a decisive victory for the
allies, the French losing twenty thousand men killed and
wounded, and the same number were made prisonei-s, among
whom was the Mai^hal himself.
The war, however, did not cease with this decisive victory,
but raged from the Netherlamls along the Rhine frontier, which
was i-ava^red so bv the French that it became almost a desert, and
across the Al[)s into Italy. Tlie following year Marlborough
defeated Marshal Villeroi at Ramillics, a place in sight of the
aftenvards famous field of Waterloo, and in 1708 won the battle
of Oudenarde, and Malplaquet in 1709, while Eugene had been
equally successful in Itidy.
Louis XIV., of France, humbled by these tremendous defeats,
signed the Peace of Utrecht in 1711, when he relinquished most
of his territory along the Rhine, together with large possessions
in the New World to England. In spite of these Avars Germany
was gaining ground in wealth, although backward as compared
with France, England, or even the Netherlands.
804 THB 8T0RY OF GOVXENMXNT.
And now another family was rapidly rising into prominenoe,
who by their achievements were nltimately to remodel the Ger-
man nation. They were from Snabia, and from the start were a
thrifty, long-headed race, who conld save money as well as fight for
it. As far back as 1170 Frederick Barbarossa had made Conrad of
Zollem a Burgrave of Nuremborg, which advanced the family to
such an extent that one of his descendants, Frederic^, was able
to loan the Emperor Sigismund four hundred thousand guildem.
Unable to pay it back, Sigismund made Frederick Margrave of
Brandenburg in 1415.
Prussia was conquered by the Teutonic Order of Knights after
the third crusade, and the natives were either exterminated or
reduced to serfdom. In both these provinces of Brandenbuig and
Prussia large numbers of Saxous, Fmuks, and other North Grermans
settled and formed large and flourishing cities, and the country was
called East and West Prussia, with Konigsberg as the capital.
As early as the Elector Albert, the law of primogeniture was es-
tablished in the Mark of Brandenbuig, and from that time the House
of Hohenzollem was spared the cutting up into fragments which
ruined politically those other nations of Germany who adhered to
the Teutonic principle of equal inheritance. In 1608, the Duchy of
Piiissia, through failure of direct lieirs, came to the Hohenzollem
branch, who were Electoi-s as well as Margraves of Brandenburg,
This house amounted to little until the time of Frederick
"William, called the Great Elector, although during the recent
wars they had seized all the Church property they could grasp.
The Great Elector was the first of a long line of able men who
left no stone unturned that they might leave Prussia greater than
they found it. He defeated tlie Poles and made them relinquish
all claims to the Duchy of Prussia, and later on thrashed the
hithei'to invincible Swedes at Fchzbellin, taking from them in
consequence a large portion of Pomerania.
He was the first to keep a large standing army in time of peace,
by which means Pnissia began to exercise a jwwer greater
than her natural position warranted. The son of the Great Elec-
tor thought himself strong enough to be called a king, so after
a reluctant consent from the Emperor he got himself crowned at
Konigsherg^ Jan. 18, 1701.
SBUI-HILITABT CONSTITITTIONAL HOKABOHY.
806
His son, Frederick William, the half crazy father o£ Frederick
the Great, increased his standing amiy from thirty-eight thousand
to eighty-four thousand, and drilled them to mathematical preci-
sion in tactics, the influence of which training seems to have
lasted into our time. He also enjoyed the fad of having the
FIIKIIEKICK TUK UIIEAT BL-TUIIXIKU FBOM TIIK BATTLE OF TKAOfE.
tallest men in the world as his gren^iers, and when they would
not enlist did not hesitate to kii'lnap and impress them.
An army so laboriously constructed was too precious to risk in
war, so the king simply created a weapon he never used, and
lefnsed to fight with. At his death, in 1740, the army fell into
806 • THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the hands of one who could use it, Frederick the Great. The
histoiy of Germany for the next generation revolves about the
career of this wonderful man who, coming to the throne of Prussia
when he was only twenty-eight, quickly made himself felt as the
greatest ruler of his age.
In early youth he was inclined more towards music and poetrj^
and the study of French literature than the pursuit of arms, but,
on coming to the throne all this was changed, and he resolved on
a war of conquest against the young Austrian Queen, Maria
Theresa. This woman, who was to dispute with Frederick as to
who was the ablest sovereign of the time, came to the Austrian
throne the same year as Frederick began his reign. Her acces-
sion to the throne was the signal for trouble, for Bavaria pushed
her claims for the imperial dignity, while the young king of
Prussia, without a word of warning, invaded Silesia, and over-
threw the Austrians at the battle of Molwitz.
It was Frederick's first battle and, thinking at one time that all
was lost, he fled from the field, only to find next morning that
his old Field Marshal, Schweriii, had won a victory for him.
France saw another opportunity to injure Austria, and forming an
alliance with Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria forced Maria Theresa
to fly from Vienna to Hungary. This people had never been
friendly to Austria, but aroused by the sight of the beautiful
Maria Tlieresa in her misfortunes, tliey shouted, '"We will die
for our King ^ Maria Tlieresa!" They came to her aid with
enthusiasm, and she quickly recovered her lost ground. Her
husband was unable to cope with Frederick, and she was forced
to make peace and cede Silesia.
The Silesian wai*s had left Germany in an unsettled condition,
especially Austiia, who saw the rise of Prussia with ill-concealed
distrust, and only waited an opportunity to regain her provinces.
In consequence Austria and Prussia be<i^an to seek alliances, and
here tlie empress queen was successful, for Kussia, Sweden,
France, and Saxony joined with lier, while Frederick got only the
doubtful friendship) of England.
Seeing that a struj^gle was inevitable, Frederick, w4th charac-
teristic energy, did not wait for war to be declared, but invaded
^TlMire was no (iiicen l>y law, so she was called kinj;.
^■H^^HH^—ii^
p^^
r"'^
ii:>'»fe-^i^ 5dS**
1 " 1
^g
^
■i
11
^.
It^
"^^ •/-.-• '^V^l!
808 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Saxony and, putting its army to rout, came up with the Austrians
at Lowositz, and defeated them. This was the beginning of the
"Seven Years' War," which was to settle the question whether
Prussia was to remain in the family of nations.
The coalition now formed against Frederick was enough to
appall the stoutest heart, for the allies could bring into the field
five hundred thousand men to Frederick's two hundred thousand.
Frederick, with his usual impetuosity, did not wait, but rushing
through the mountain passes of Bohemia, struck the Austrians at
Prague, and after one of the most obstinate battles of modern
times, defeated them, although he suffered the loss of one of his
greatest officers. Marshal Schwerin.
After his victory of Prague, Frederick rushed to meet Daun,
the Austrian general, who fought a battle with him at Kolin, for
the fii*st time victory remaining with the Austrians. Frederick
was now forced to retreat from Bohemia, and found at the same
time that the French had crossed the Rhine and were advancing
from the west, the Swedes were in Pomerania, and the Russians
on the eastern frontier. The Russians, after winning one vic-
tory, recrossed the frontier, and the Prussian army opposing
them, moved to meet the Swedes, driving them out of Pomeiiinia.
Frederick, with only twenty-two thousand men, marched to cheek
the Frencli army of sixty thousand under the Duke de Richelieu,
at Rossbach.
The corruption of the court of Louis XV. had not been the
means of improving the Frencli army, nor was a profligate like
Richelieu, although acceptable to Madame Pompadour, the
highest type of a general. So in spite of the disparity of num-
bers the French were quickly overthrown and routed with great
loss, while Frederick's loss was trifling.
Leaving Rossbach, Frederick returned to meet the Austrians,
now advancing under Prince Charles at Leuthen. Here the
strategic superiority of Frederick was manifest, and he employed
the oblique order of battle against the long line of the enemy,
stretching nearly five miles, and consisting of eighty thousand
soldiers, while his force was only thirty thousand. He managed
to mass the bulk of this on the extreme left flank of the Austrians,
and succeeded in overthrowing them.
BEMI-HUJTAItir GOKSnTUnOKAIi HONABGHY. 809
Yet the victories of Rossbach over the French and Leuthen over
the Anstrians, while raising Frederick to the front rank of great
commanders, the latter battle, in Napoleon's opinion, ensuring his
immortality, barely saved Prussia from annihilation, for the fol-
lowing year found the Russians burning the villages and ravaging
the fields of eastern Prussia, until checked by Frederick at Zom-
dorf, whei-e, with only thirty-two thousand men, he attacked fifty
thousand Russians with the utmost fury, on August 25, 1758.
The battle was bloody and indecisive, and ceased only with the
utter exhaustion of both armies, when night put an end to the
fury of the combatants, who after the cartridges had given out
fought handtoliand until 11,500 Prussians, and 21,500 Russians
were dead or wounded. The next day the Russians disappeared,
and Frederick turned his attention to Daun, who was advancing
with the Austrians. The genius and good judgment which
Frederick had hitherto displayed, witli the exception at Kolin,
now for a time seemed to leave him, and he was surprised and
badly teat^n by Dauu at the Ixittlo of Ilochkirch, Oct. 14, 1758.
Yet in spite of this defeat, Avhenj he lost Mai-shal Keith and nine
thousand men and one hundred and one guns, besides Maurice of
Dessau and himself wounded, Frederick withdrew in good order,
and his opponent failed to follow.
The game for Fnjderick seemed now played out; his treasury
was empty, the magnificent infantry he had drilled and disci-
plined to the point of perfection had ceased to exist after nine
pitched battles, numerous skirmishes, and the terrible marches to
which he had subjected them. In their place were raw levies and
recruits from other countries, wliile the troops of Austria stetidily
improved in quality, and their artillery was always superior.
The following year, 1759, found Frederick in such financial
straits that he resorted to debasing the coin he paid his soldiers
with, and but for the subsidies from England could not have put
another army in the field. With forty-eight thousand he attacked
the Russians at Kunei-sdorf, August 12, 1759, who had seventy-
eight thousand men, and at fii'st he was brilliantly successful, but,
crowding his opponents too hard and thus cutting off their retreat,
he was in return attacked by them and driven from the field.
It was the severest defeat the king had ever received, and it
802 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
of France. The latter also, by insisting on the complete separa-
tion of the Swiss Confederation from the Imperial Empire, had
two open doors to invade Germany, Through the absorption of
Burgundy by France, and the wringing of Alsace and Lorraine
from Austria, the two nations of France and Germany -were
brought face to face on the Rhine — and tliat vexed question of
the Rhine provinces was made a permanent issue.
It is estimated that two thirds of the people of Germany per-
ished either by the sword or famine during this dreadful period.
Whole provinces were laid waste, cities were sacked, castles
battered down, monasteries burned, and large numbers of people
lapsed into barbarism. The war had been conducted by both
parties with diabolical ferocity and fiendish ingenuity in torturing
each other's prisoners. There was nothing that the devilish wit
of man, or the fanatic rage of religion, could not devise to maim,
bum, or torture, not only men but helpless women and children.
The following account by an eye-witness will give some idea of
the way the common people were persuaded to give up their
money : —
Both hands of one were tied fast beliind liim, and a horse hair was
drawn through his tongue by means of an awl. Then, whenever he
would move it only a little up and down, it gave the wretched man
such torture that he often cried out for death. But at every cry he had
four lashes with the thong on his calves — I believe the fellow would
gladly have killed himself to get rid of the i)ain if he could have used
his hands. Another's head was bound tightly with a cord containing
many knots, and twisted behind above the neck with a w^ooden stick,
drawing it tighter and tighter till the bright blood streamed out of his
forehead, mouth, and nose, and even his eyes, and the poor man looked
like one possessed. I was frightened at these cruel plagues and this
pitiless tyranny, and begged Battraurtz to think of God and his own
conscience, and spare the few harmless folk a little in his tortures. But
he spoke in anger, " If you have much pity, you can't be my friend
long. He that has pity belongs to the devil."
The whole character of the German seemed changed by these
wars, and he became dull, heavy, and full of gloomy ideas: nor
was he susceptible of the least feeling of mercy, and eveiy judi-
cial trial was stained by the blooil of the tortured. The House
SEMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 808
of Hapsbui'g was still powerful enough to get its successors
elected from father to son, and by virtue of being Dukes of
Austria and Kings of Bohemia and Hungaiy, they were strong
enough to stamp out all remains of heresy in those dominions.
Although Imperialists in name, they did nothing to federate the
empire, and simply sought to aggrandize their family.
The other principal courts now were those of Bavaria and
Wiirtemburg, and, with the exception of the growing power of
Prussia, the rest of Gennany was given over to the miserable
tyranny of a horde of petty rulera spiritual and temporal. The
Turks still tlireatened Gennany tlirough Hungary, until defeated
by John Sobiesky, under the walls of Vienna, and the French
under Louis XIV. began their restless movements towards the
Rhine.
England, Holland, and Austria ranged themselves against
Franco and Bavaria, and once again poor Germany was made the
battleground of iiations. Under the Duke of Marlborough, the
ablest general since Gustavus, and Prince Eugene of Savoy, who
had already won fame in the war with the Turks, the allied army
gave buttle to the French at Blenlieim, Oct. 12, 1704, under
Marshal Tallard. The result was a decisive victory for the
allies, the French losing twenty thousand men killed and
wounded, and the same number were made prisoners, among
whom was the Alai'shal himself.
The war, however, did not cease with this decisive victory,
but raged from the Netherlands along the Rhine frontier, which
was ravaged so by the I'rench that it became almost a desert, and
across the Alps into Italy. The following year Marlborough
defeated Marshal Villeroi at Ramillies, a place in sight of the
aftenvards famous field of Waterloo, and in 1708 won the battle
of Oudenarde, and Malplaquet in 1709, while Eugene had been
equally successful in Italy.
Louis XIV., of France, humbled by these tremendous defeats,
signed the Peace of Utrecht in 1711, when he relinquished most
of his territory along the Rhine, together with large ^possessions
in the New World t?i England. In spite of these wars Germany
was gaining ground in wealth, altliough backward as compared
with France, England, or even the NeUierlands.
804 TUB 8T0RY OF OOVBBNXKNT.
And now another family was rapidly- rising into pnnmnencev
who hy their achievements were ultimately to remodel the Ger-
man nation. They were from Snahia, and from the start were a
thrifty, long-headed race, who could save money as well as fight for
it. As far hack as 1170 Frederick Barbarossa had made Conrad of
Zollem a Burgrave of Nuremburg, which advanced the family to
such an extent that one of his descendants, Frederic^, was able
to loan the Emperor Sigismund four hundred thousand guildem.
Unable to pay it back) Sigismund made Frederick Margrave of
Brandenburg in 1415.
Prussia was conquered by the Teutonic Order of Knights after
the third crusade, and the natives were either exterminated or
reduced to serfdom. In both these provinces of Brandenburg and
Prussia large numbers of Saxons, Fituiks, and other North Grermans
settled and formed large and flourishing cities, and the country was
called East and West Prussia, witli Konigsberg as the capital.
As early as the Elector Albert, the law of primogeniture was es-
tablished in the Mark of Brandenbm'g, and from that time the House
of HohenzoUem was spared tlie cutting up into fragments which
ruined politically those oilier niitions of Germany who adhered to
the Teutonic principle of equal inheritance. In 1608, the Duchy of
Prussia, through failure of direct heirs, came to tlie HohenzoUem
branch, who were Electoi-s as well as Margraves of Brandenburg.
This house amounted to little until the time of Frederick
"William, called the Great Elector, although during the recent
wars they had seized all the Church property they could grasp.
Tlie Great Elector was the first of a long line of able men who
left no stone unturned that they might leave Prussia greater than
they found it. He defeated the Poles and made them rolinquisli
all claims to the Duchy of Prussia, and later on thrashed the
hitherto invincible Swedes at Fchzbellin, taking from them in
consequence a large i)oi-tion of Pomerania.
He was the first to keep a large standing army in time of i>eace,
by which means Prussia began to exercise a power greater
than her natuml position warranted. The son of the Great Elec-
tor thought himself strong enough to be called a king, so after
a reluctant consent from the Emperor he got himself crowned at
Konigsberg, Jan. 18, 1701.
SBUI-HILITARr CONSTITUTIONAL HONASCHY.
805
His son, Frederick William, the half crazy father of Frederick
the Great, increased hia standing army from thirty-eight thousand
to eighty-four thousand, and drilled them to mathematical preci-
sion in tactics, the influence of which training seems to have
lasted into our time. He also enjoyed the iad of having the
tallest men in the world as his grenadiers, and when they would
not enlist did not hesitate to kidaap and impress them.
An army so laboriously constructed w»8 too precious to risk in
var, so the king simply created a weapon he never tised, and
refused to fight with. At his death, in 1740, the army fell into
806 * THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the hands of one who could use it, Frederick the Great. The
histoiy of Germany for the next generation revolves about the
career of this wonderful man who, coming to the throne of Prussia
when he was only twenty-eight, quickly made himself felt as the
greatest ruler of his age.
In early youth he was inclined more towards music and poetrj'
and the study of French literature than the pursuit of arms, but,
on coming to the throne all this was changed, and he resolved on
a war of conquest against the young Austrian Queen, Maria
Theresa. Tliis woman, who was to dispute ^vith Frederick as to
who was the ablest sovei*eign of the time, came to the Austrian
throne the same year as Frederick began his reign. Her acces-
sion to the throne was the signal for trouble, for Bavaria pushed
her claims for the imperial dignity, while the young king of
Prussia, without a word of warning, invaded Silesia, and over-
threw the Austrians at the battle of Molwitz.
It was Frederick's first battle and, thinking at one time that all
was lost, he fled from the field, only to find next morning that
his old Field Marshal, Schwerin, had won a victory for him.
France saw another opportunity to injure Austria, and forming an
alliance with Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria forced Maria Theresa
to fly from Vienna to Hungary. This people had never been
friendly to Austria, but aroiu^ed by the sight of the beautiful
Maria Theresa in her niisfoiiunes, they shouted, "We will die
for our King^ JIaria Theresa!" They came to her aid with
enthusiasm, and she quickly recovered her lost ground. Her
husband was unal)le to cope with Frederick, and she was forced
to make peace and cede Silesia.
The Silesian Avars had left (fcrmanv in an unsettled condition,
especially Austria, who saw the rise of Prussia with ill-concealed
distrust, and only waited an opportunity to regain her provinces.
In consequence Austria and Prussia began to seek alliances, and
here r.ie t'nq)ress queen was succ'cssful, for Russia, S^veden,
France, anil Saxony joined with lier, while Frederick got only the
doubtful friendship of Kngland.
Seeing that a struggle was inevitable, Frederick, with charac-
teristic energy, did not wait for war to be declared, but invaded
iTlwre was* no <iueen by law, so she was called kinj;.
808 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Saxony and, putting its army to rout, came up with the Austrians
at Lowositz, and defeated them. This was the beginning of the
"Seven Years' War," which was to settle the question whether
Prussia was to remain in the family of nations.
The coalition now formed against Frederick was enough to
appall the stoutest heart, for the allies could bring into the field
five hundred thousand men to Frederick's two hundred thousand.
Frederick, with his usual impetuosity, did not wait, but rushing
through the mountain passes of Bohemia, struck the Austrians at
Prague, and after one of the most obstinate battles of modern
times, defeated them, although he suffered the loss of one of his
greatest officers, Marshal Schwerin.
After his victory of Prague, Frederick rushed to meet Daun,
the Austrian general, who fought a battle with him at Kolin, for
the first time victory remaining with the Austrians. Frederick
was now forced to retreat from Bohemia, and found at the same
time that the French had crossed the Rhine and were advancing
from the west, the Swedes were in Pomerania, and the Russians
on the eastern frontier. The Russians, after winning one vic-
tory, recrossed the frontier, and the Prussian army opposing
them, moved to meet the Swedes, driving them out of Ponieninia.
Frederick, witli only twenty-two thousand men, marched to clieck
the French army of sixty thousand under the Duke de Richelieu,
at Rossbacli.
The corruption of the court of Louis XV. had not been the
means of improving the French army, nor was a profligate like
Richelieu, although acceptable to Madame Pompadour, the
highest type of a general. So iu spite of the disparity of num-
bers the French were quickly overthrown and routed with great
loss, while Frederick's loss was trifling.
Leaving Rossbacli, Frederick returned to meet the Austrians,
now advancing under Prince Charles at Leuthen. Here the
strategic superiority of Frederick was manifest, and he employed
the oblique order of battle against the long line of the enemy,
stretching nearly five miles, and consisting of eighty thousand
soldiers, while his force was only thirty thousand. He managed
to mass the bulk of this on the extreme left flank of the Austrians,
and succeeded in overthrowing them.
SEMI-MIIilTARr CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 809
Yet the victories of Rossbach over the French and Leuthen over
the Austrians, while raising Frederick to the front rank of great
commanders, the latter battle, in Napoleon's opinion, ensuring his
immortality, barely saved Prussia from annihilation, for the fol-
lowing year found the Russians burning the villages and i-avaging
the fields of cfistern Prussia, until checked by Frederick at Zom-
dorf, where, with only thirty-two thousand men, he attacked fifty
thousand Russians witli the utmost fury, on August 25, 1758.
The battle Avas bloody and indecisive, and ceased only with the
utter exhaustion of both armies, when night put au end to the
fury of the combatants, wlio after the cartridges had given out
fought hand to hand until 11,500 Prussians, and 21,500 Russians
were dead or wounded. The next day the Russians disappeared,
and Frederick turned his attention to Daun, who was advancing
with the Austrians. The genius and good judgment which
Frederick had liitherto displayed, with the exception at Kolin,
now for a time .seemed to leave him, and lie was surprised and
badly beaten by Daun at the battle of Ilocldvireh, Oct. 14, 1758.
Yet in spite of tliis d(^feat, wlienj Ikj lost ^lai-shal Keith and nine
thousand men and one hunched and one guns, besides ilaurice of
Dessau and liimself wounded, Frederick Avithdrew in good order,
and his opponent failed to follow.
The game for Frederick seemed now played out; his treasury
was empty, the magnifuient infantiy he had drilled and disci-
plined to the point of perfection had ceased to exist after nine
pitched battles, numerous skirmishes, and the terrible marches to
which he had subjected them. In their place were raw levies and
recruits from other countries, while the troops of Austria steadily
improved in quality, and their artillery was always superior.
The following year, 1759, found Frederick in such financial
straits that he resorted to debasing the coin he paid his soldiers
with, and but for the subsidies from England could not have put
another army in the field. With forty-eight thousand he attacked
the Russians at Kunersdorf, August 12, 1759, who had seventy-
eight thousand men, and at fii-st he wixs brilliantly successful, but,
crowding his opponents too hard and thus cutting off their retreat,
he was in return attacked bv them and driven from the field.
It was the severest defeat the king had ever received, and it
810 THE STOBY OF GOVERNMENT.
.was owing entirely to himself and his obstinacy in forcing the
conflict against the advice of all his generals, and had it been
followed up the Prussian monarchy would have ceased to exist.
The following year found the indomitable Frederick facing his
old enemies, the Austrians, under Daun and Loudon, in the much
fought over territory of Silesia. Here Loudon was defeated at
Ziegnitz, and soon after Daun at Torgau, which proved to be the
last battle either of these constant opponents would ever fight.
The energy of all was now used up, so peace was declared, and
the bloodiest war of modern times was brought to an end.
Frederick had retained Silesia, but his kingdom was well-nigh
ruined. Yet after a few years, such was the wisdom and energy
of his government, that Prussia rose again, and became not only
the strongest but the best governed of the German States. The
House of Hapsburg on the other hand came out of this long strug-
gle with diminished prestige and territory, while in France the
misery of the people was such that it was evident a political hur-
ricane would soon overturn everything.
The storm of the French Revolution began to darken the
horizon of Europe, and although the people of Germany were
apparently quiet, the ruling class were agitated by the fall of the
Bastile, in 1789, the Ixjheading of Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette, the latter a German princess, and daughter of Maria
Tlieresa, and the constant influx of French emigrant nobles who
thronged CA^ery court and clamored for armed interference in the
affairs of France.
In an evil hour Frederick William II., the unworthy successor
of the great Frederick and Joseph II., now Emperor of Germany,
declared war against the French nation, but suffered a series of
defeats such as Valmy and Jemaj^j^es from that now infuriated
people. Prussia now made peace Avith Fi-ance, leaving Austria
alone to fight it out. Tliree French armies struck the latter
power, one under iloreau on the Upper Rhine, the second under
Jourdan on the Lower, and the j'oung Bonaparte invaded Italy.
While the first two armies were unsuccessful, the latter was
brilliantly so, and after a series of unparalleled victories its com-
mander, then only twenty-six yeara of age, was able to dictate
his own terms of peace at Campo Formio, in 1797, whereby France
812 THE STORY OF GOVERNMEKT.
gained the whole of the left bank of the Rhine. But one war was
not to settle the passions now aroused throughout Europe, and
soon Austria and France were fighting again, with the same
result as before. Napoleon thrashed the armies of the former at
Marengo, and Moreau gained the equally important victory of
Hohenlinden.
Important changes now were made in the internal affairs of
Germany on account of so much territory having been suiTendered
to France. The spiritual electorates of Treves, Cologne, and
Mentz were abolished, although the last was transferred to
Ratisbon. By way of compensation the electoral dignity was
given to the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the Duke of Wiirt^m-
berg, the Margrave of Baden, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
All the free imperial cities were done away with except five,
viz : Liibeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Augsburg, and Nuremberg, and
a vast number of bishoprics and abbacies were abolished.
Napoleon had now, in 1804, assumed the title of Emperor of
the French, and later appropriated the iron crown of the Lom-
bards, thus re-establishing on French soil the Empire of Charle-
magne. England, now at war with Napoleon, subsidized the other
nations of Europe, such as Sweden, Russia, and Austria, to form
a coalition against him. This coalition yielded to the rapid
blows of Napoleon and Austria was defeated at Ulm, Vienna was
captured, and the Austrian army, with the Russian allies, were
hopelessly Ixiaten at Austerlitz.
This victory made Napoleon master of Germany, and he pro-
ceeded to re-arrange its various states to suit himself by forming
the Confederation of the Rhine out of all the small German states
on the right bank of that river. He also rewarded his German
allies by making the electors of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg kings,
and the smaller dukes, grand dukes, etc., and gave them territoiy
at the expense of Austria.
The House of Hapsburg was now in the dust, and on August 6,
1806, its Emperor, Francis II., formally renounced the title of
Emperor of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Thus that
union of spiritual and secular power ceased to exist, having lasted
from the reign of Otto the Great, on German soil, and from
Charlemagne in 800.
SEm-HUJTAB; coNSxntnioirAL uonaboet.
818
Prussia, who had hitherto avoided a conflict with the Corsican
adTenturer, ilfapoleon, was now led to declare war agtiinst him,
feeling that, with her annv drilled in the tactics of Frederiok iho
Great, she could come off victorious. It was a vain belief, for
her army, although well drilled, was not yet aci^u&inted with the
modern manceuvres of Napoleon, and it received two crushing
defeats at Aueretadt and Jena, leaving the nation at the feet of
the French Emperarwho
treated very rudely the
beautiful Louise, Queen
of Prussia, when she
sued to him for mercy.
He treated her like
a conqueror, and di-
vided her territory
among his German
allies, such as the Elee-
tor of Saxony, whom he
made a king with Po-
land as trihutjiry, while
he made IT a n o v e r ,
Brunswick, and Hesse-
Cassel into the King-
dom of Westphalia,
which he gave to his
brother Jerome. Con-
stant wars with Napo-
leon only seemed to
rivet the chains of Ger-
many closer, and tear
from her fresh tenitory. One reason for this was that the people
of tlie nation cared very Httlo about the Immiliation of their
rulers, for the rule of the French broke off the last remnants of
the old feudal sj'stem.
Bat the star of the Corsican began to pale, and in 1812, after
his disastrous Moscow campaign, the German raleiB saw a chance
to free themselves from his yoke. By promising the people c<m-
stitutions, abolishing serfdom, and in other respects placing
u)uiaE OF PBuasii and beb two bomb,
AFTEBWABDe FREDEBICK WILLIAU IV.
AXD KAISEB WILLIAM.
814 THE STOEY OF GOVERNMENT.
themselves in line with the results of the French Revolution,
they were enabled to raise armies of such patriotic feivor that
Napoleon for the first time had to cope with a thoroughly aroused
national feeling.
Prussia in her darkest hour had been sustained by the beauti-
ful Queen Louise, the mother of two sons who were to succeed
to the throne of Prussia, and one even to revive the German
Empire and repair the disaster of Jena by Gravelotte and Sedan.
Napoleon had demanded that Prussia should only have a stand-
ing army of forty-two thousand men. Stein, her great states-
man, apparently agreed to this, but just as soon as a recruit was
properly instructed his place was taken by a new one, so in a few
years Prussia had a well-drilled ai-my, several times that amount,
within call.
Despite his terrible losses in Russia, Napoleon had a large
army imder him in Germany in the following year, but after
some minor successes saw several of his marshals beaten at various
points of the long line he tried to hold, so he concentrated about
Leipsic, where he received the attack of the allied army. This
great struggle, known as the battle of the nations, because there
were Swedes, Austrians, Prussians, and Russians on one side
opposed to the French, lasted two days Avhen, after terrible
slaughter on both sides. Napoleon gave way and retreated across
the Rhine, Avith a loss of nearly sixty thousand men, while the
allies had lost about fifty thousand. In our chapter on Masonry
was a picture of this retreat.
The allies now poured into France, and in spite of the mar-
vellous defence made by Napoleon, overcame him, and forced him
to abdicate, sending him to the Island of Elba in the Mediter-
ranean. He was not there long before he escaped, and re-seating
himself on the throne of France, again was ready for battle.
Austria, Prussia, England, and the minor German states, rushed
to arms and prepared for a second invasion of France. Napoleon
anticipated their movements by invading Belgium and endeavor-
ing to strike the Prussian army under Blucher, and the British aimy
under Wellington, before they could unite. For this purpose he
had one hundred and sixteen thousand men, while Blucher had
the same number and Wellington one hundred and six thousand.
816 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Rapidly concentrating his troops by forced marches at Charleroi,
June 15, 1815, he gave battle the next day in two places, one on
his extreme left at Quatre Bras, where Marshal Ney encountered
Wellington, and the other on his right where he himself fought
with Blucher at Ligny, the battlefields being ten miles apart. The
close of this day found Ney unable to drive Wellington from the
field, while Napoleon with great difficulty had barely managed
to do so with Blucher. Wellington and Blucher retreated on
converging lines towards Brussels with Napoleon in sharp purauit
who, having left Grouchy to reach the Prussians, attended to the
English army.
On the memorable 18th of June, Wellington and Napoleon met
at Waterloo, where the fate of Europe was to be decided. It
was nearly noon before Napoleon began his attack, and soon after
small detachments of Prussians began to appear on his riglit
flank. It was evident that Grouchy had failed to hold the Prus-
sians in check, although it was nearly evening before sufficient
numbers of them appeared to decide the fate of the day. The
French were some seventy-two thousand strong, while Wellington
had sixty-nine thousand men, so it was the policy of the latter to
simply hold his ground until Blucher sliould appear. This he
did in spite of the terrific assaults on his line by tlie French, until
at last the British and Prussian armies were joined, and then they
swept Napoleon from the field, and from his throne forever.
After this War of Liberation, Gei-many, like the rest of Europe,
had a season of profound peace, so long, that war seemed van-
ished from the civilized world. Underneath this, however, there
was great political unrest, for the rulers of Gei-many having
promised constitutions to their subjects, were slow in making
these promises good. Metternich, the Prime Minister of Aus-
tria, was the chief obstacle in getting any reforms made, or any
change in the disjointed condition of Germany. Austria refused
to take up again the imperial crown, and she refused to allow
others to seize it. Her idea was to keep the rest of the country
in small and divided principalities.
Stein and Scharnhoi-st, the two statesmen, wished a powerful
German nation, with political rights for the people, and an army
made up of every man capable of bearing arms, but the reactionary
F
SEMl-MTLITABY CONSTITCmONAL MONARCHY. 817
ideas of Mettemich prevailed, and an Act of Confederation was
passed by tlie thirty-nine sovereign states, wliich now made up
Germany, an ai't that was siini>ly a oont in tuition of the methods of
the ulil iuefficieat Die1« without the central hend of the empire<
This patching up of the old mediseval political wagon lasted for
a while, and then the revolution of 1848, that, starting in Pai'ls^
flamed up over Europe shook many a regal numbskull from hii
throne.
After this, most of the kings granted constitutions to their
subjects, but not before blood had been shed, especially in Berlin
where the king, Frederick William IV., tried to crush out the
rising of the people with grapeshot. After this there were
several abortive attempts to create anew the German Empire,
and at an assembly of delegates from all parts of Germany at
Frankfort in 1818, the imperial crown was offered to the King
of Prussia who refused it,
In Italy, likewise, the desire for unification was daily becoming
too strong to be restated. Italy had suffered for centuries, jnat
as Germany had, from a swarm of petty rulers who succeeded in
draining the country of its resources, and made every effort to
stifle the growing national feeling. The House of Savoy, imder
its King, Victor Emanuel, was now the hope of the Liberals and
Nationalists in Italy ; the other rulers being either too despcftio
or imbecile to do anything but oppose unification.
Similar to Prassia some years later, Italy had now four great
men to represent her, and they were her soldier king, Victor
Emanuel, liis Prime Minister Cavour, the ablest statesman since
the days of Richelieu, the orator Mazzini, whose eloquence suc-
ceeded in keeping alive the spaik of Italian freedom, and her
popular hero Garibaldi. Cavour, whose introduction of Sardinian
troops in the Crimea to assist France and England had won for
him the aid of Napoleon III., now with the assistance of tlie
latter's troops began a war with Austria so as to drive her out of
the country. The two great victories of Magenta and Solferino
did this effectually, and soon after, when peace was declared,
Italy became united with Victor Emanuel as its first king, the
papal states and Venice falling to her later.
The coiii^Uiit foiistitvition-liukering. which had been going m
818 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
since the fall of Napoleon, had led to a certain measure of freedom
among the states, most of them now, since 1848, having some
kind of constitutional government, but nothing had been accom-
plished towards making Germany a firm, united nation. King
William of Prussia had called to his aid as Prime Minister, Otto
Von Bismarck, and from this man's appearance on the scene Prus-
sia soon found herself committed to a policy, not second in bold-
ness to those of Napoleon First or Frederick the Great.
A man had arrived, and it was the beginning of the end for the
petty little princelets who had misgoverned Germany for cen-
turies. Although a reactionist and eonsen'^ative in affairs at
home, where he was constantly embroiled with the Prussian Par-
liament over the question of army supplies, he soon after coming
to power made the first move on the political chessboard which
waa to close in the formation of the new German Empire.
The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein had placed themselves
under the rule of the Danish kings some hundreds of years before,
although they were German in language, in customs, and were
always represented in the German Diets. Latterly there had been
constant friction between tliem and the Danish government over
questions of succession and infringments of some of their local
rights. Tliey appealed to the German Diet, who resolved to send
an army to their assistance.
Here was Bismarck's oj^portunity, for, not wishing to pull the
hot chestnuts out of the fire himself, and knowing that if Prussia
alone slioukl undertake this Avar slie would incur the universal
reprobation of Europe, he induced Austria to assist and it was
soon over witli little Denmark, who ceded the two duchies to
Prussia and Austria, whereupon the allies quickly began disagree-
ini; with each other as to who should have them.
As this was ultimately to be a question of war, Bismarck kept
the question open until he was thoroughly prepared. Ever since
the war with Bonaparte, Prussia had adopted the system of uni-
versal military service. She had now at this time adopted the
needle-gun, the firet breech-loading rifle to be used on a large
scale, and had constructed a system of railways leading to various
strategic points, so her troops could be quickly thrown at an
enemy before he could cross the frontier.
820 • THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Not only were the various arms of the service drilled to the
highest point of efficiency, but in Berlin was established a war
college known as the General Staff, where the brightest of the
army officers studied over all possible combinations of attack and
defence with every adjoining nation. War was thus made a
science. Tliis college became a vast storehouse of information
regarding the resources, railways, forts, and troops of other coun-
tries, often more accuiiite and minute than the country knew
itself.
Here the business part of war was thoroughly marked out, and
the nation kept at the point of immediate preparation. The time
soon arrived for action, as the diplomatic part of the struggle
came to nothing, and in the summer of 1866 Prussia and Austria
were at each others' throats again. In Frederick's time it was a
seven years' war; this was finished in seven weeks. Taking the
initiative three Prussian armies directed by Von Moltke crossed
the frontier into Bohemia before the slow-moving Benedek, the
Austrian commander, realized the situation.
After some minor engagements in which the Prussians steadily
pushed their opponents before them, one of the Prussian columns
under Prince. Frederick Charles came up with the Austrians at
Sadowa. Here, joined by the tliird army, the prince, although
having only about one hundred and twenty tliousand, did not lics-
itate to attack Benedek with two hundred thousand, the object
being to hold his attention so closely that he could not move to
ward off the blow of the second army under the Prussian crown
prince who was marching on his flank.
The i)lan worked out like a chess problem, and while Prince
Charles could make no impression on the Austrian centre, he held
it like a vise; soon the columns of the crown prince came in
sight, and, after a des2)erate resistance on the part of the Austrians,
they were driven from the field, thousands falling under the piti-
less fire of the needle-guns.
Peace was soon declared, and Austria was pushed out of the Ger-
manic Confederation where she had long ceased to be a worthy rep-
resentative. Venice was given to Italy who had been Pinissia's
ally by raising an anny, and thus detaining a large one of the
Austrians in Italy, and the Noi-th German Confederation was
SBMI-MILITARY CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 821
farmed with Prussia at its head, while the South German states
were left free to make separate treaties with Prussia regarding
future events.
Prussia had been almost alone in this struggle with Austria,
for nearly all the other German states sided with the latter power,
especially Hanover, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria. Pinissia
annexed Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover, and some of the
smaller duchies. This sudden i^evelation of Prussia's power was
not relished by the Emperor Napoleon HI., of France, who had
been accustomed to have his hand in every European disturbance,
and whose wishes liad not even been consulted by Bismarck in
making peace with Austria.
Fi-ance was impelled by her pride to find some excuse to
quarrel with Prussia, and Napoleon, although he well knew that
his army was not ready, was forced by tlie petty pretext of the
insult to lier ambassador to declare war July 15, 1870. Naj>oleon
, evidently hoi)ed that the South Germans would, as heretofore,
ally themselves with any power against Prussia, but here he made
his mistake, not reckoning on the tremendous force of the new
idea of a unified German nation.
It was not a question now of princes making alliances and
dragging the people cither side they chose, but the rising of an
enraged and determined nation who resolved in spite of i^etty
differences of small sUites to repel the invader, and aftenvards
settle the question of Gennan unity, wliich every one felt was now
tlie price of the struggle. Prussia and her allies. Saxony,
Bavaria, and Wiii-temljerg were fully prepared, having the Prus-
sian army s}'Tstem applied to them since Sadowa, and were able
a iew davs after the declaration of war to send six hundred
thousand men to the front, backed by three hundred thousand
reserves.
France could barely muster three hundred and fifty thousand
trooi)S of the line, poorly armed and equipped, their artillery
muzzle-loading and anticjuated, no system for either moving or
feeding so large a body of men, and finally an absolute dearth of
military talent.
Yet with so small art army, and a good commander, the defensive
line of the Vosges Mountains could have been held against the
822 THE STORY OF GOVEUJJAUSNT.
invading hosts of Germans, but in an evil hour Napoleon moved
forward to take the initiative.
His line was too long, and before he could rectify it the Ger-
mans had broken it in two places, at Weisembourg and Spicherin,
and followed this up with the crushing defeat of Worth. Though
outnumbered and outgeneraled, the French soldiers had still
fought bravely, but were now liuddled about the fortifications of
Metz under Marshal Bazaine, and under Marshal McMahon at the
camp of Chalons where the Emperor Napoleon staid.
Bazaine, moving too slowly towards Paris, found that the
enemy had outmarched him and were heading him by tlie terrific
struggles of Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. Beaten back, he
retired on Metz, where some months later he ignominiously sur-
rendered the largest army ever known to lay down its arms.
McMahon, thinking he could rescue Bazaine, started by a long
circuitous road to the northeast, where lie was met by the armies
01 Von Moltke at Sedan, and after some hard fighting, forced to
surrender the Emperor and nearly one hundred thousand men.
This should have closed the war, but the French, wounded
to the quick by these bitter revei*se8, resolved to continue the
unequal struggle. Paris was besieged by the Germans, but on
the outside the indomitable energy of Gambetta raised army after
army of recruits, who only became food for powder against the
stern discipline and perfectly tmined battalions of Germany.
Tlie struggle was long, bitter, and bloody, but the end came
when Chanzy and Bourbaki, in command of the relieving armies
of Paris, were hopelessly defeated. France then sued for mercy by
her representatives, Tliiei-s and Favre, who pled in vain that the in-
demnity might be paid all in money and not in any loss of territory.
ThiLs William of Prussia came to be crowned in Paris Emperor
of a United Germany, a semi-mil itaiy constitutional monarchy.
The men to whom these last scenes of the drama were due were
Bismarck, one of the greatest of modern statesmen. Von Moltke,
the greatest European strategist since Napoleon, Von Roon, the
organizer of the immense equipment necessary to move so vast an
army, and last the old King William, who had the wisdom to
let these giants work out the problem without too much imperial
interference.
THE chief events in the histoiy of the American Union
are so well known that it would be a waste of time to
retell them in these pages. The framing of a constitu-
tion for self-government or liome rule by the pilgrims in
the cabin of the Mayflower was an act that Htruck the keynote to
the music of tliat fi-oetlom which, from a dim dream in the mind of
the early New Englandera, became in a century and a half an active
aspiration that fruited into a vital fact. For the first century,
of course, the colonists were occupied largely with attempts to
maintain their footing on the soil against the original possessors,
and also against the French of Canada and of some portions of
the west, who had become allies of the Indians in their resistance
to colonial encroachments. But as soon as the coloniste found
tiieir footing firm, the desire for homo iTiIe and their feeling of
natural isolation from England, their feeling of geogiaf^ical and
climatic differences, began to operate powerfully on the sentimenta
of the people iu America and to ripen a spirit of nationality, and
Uiey would doubtless have found oUier excuses for revolution
824 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
in the course of a few decades even if a wise monarch had been
on the throne, and if wise ministers like Chatham had been in
power pursuing a conciliatory policy towards the colonies.
It should be understood that, after our independence was estab-
lished, we still for many years had a very doubtful career before
us, and had it not been for France distracting the attention of
Europe and especially of England,and had it not been for Napoleon,
whose rise helped us to preserve our integrity as a nation, we
might have fallen again under the domination of Great Britain.
As a natuml historical sequence after the War of 1812, and the
Mexican War, which was not to our credit, but was a move for
the aggrandizement and extension of empire, we passed through
the throes of civil war, and the problem of slavery which had
promised to break up this vast nation into a collection of small,
jealous, antagonistic states was settled. But, as some of the
most careful observers from Madison to Lincoln have remarked,
"There are dangers still ahead of us," and it behooves us not
to be inflated with national vanity, but to remember that tlie
complex republicanism under which we live and under which
we enjoy some undeniable blessings is still in many respects an
experiment.
We are menaced at this moment with grave perils from the
accumulation of national wealth in a few hands, and the danger
is that the masses in our large cities may some day find a leader
and may begin a conflict, compared to which the blood shed in
the French Revolution will be as a drojj of water to Niagara.
Already can be heard the subterranean voices which hint a possi-
ble earthquake. It is therefore the duty of every American
citizen to study our fonn of government, reflect upon it most care-
fully, and try to cast his ballot in such a way as to prevent, if
possible, the social upheaval to which all the signs of the times
most emphatically point.
This chapter, therefore, will not rehearse the striking events
of American history, but will show in as plain and simple a man^
ner as possible the form of our government, and the functions
of the officers who administer it. The pictures, likewise, with
which this chapter is illustrated, will be general rather than
special in their relation to the text and not, as in other chapters,
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM.
825
the subjects of nioit: or less extensive cuiiimeiit and anecdotal
allusion.
The niajoiity of legislative bodies throughout the civilized
world are con-
stituted \v i t li
two li o u s e s
being modelled
after eitlici the
Congress t f the
United Suitca or
the Piihimcnt
of Gi-eitliiitam
All tht, R[mb
lies of S ) u t h
Anienci hue
congn,ssi-s of
two houses geu-
eiiilly knowu as
the Senate and
House of Ilepi-e-
sentiilives. The
Senate in these
countries almost
invariably repre-
sents the qnivsi-
sovereignty of
the States or
teparate pmv-
ince» of the
country, while
their House of
lleprese n tat i ves
or Chamber of
Deputies, as it
is usually call-
ed, elected by
the voting people on the basis of population, i-epresenta ttie
people in their national unity.
THE DISCO V
826 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Mexico has a Congress with a Senate and House of Representa-
tives. Brazil has a similar assembly. Hayti has a National
Assembly of two houses. The Dominican Republic has a legisla-
ture consisting of only one house. San Salvador, where the
discoverer of America first set liis progressive foot, has but one
legislative chamber; Gautemala has only one; Honduras has but
one which is designated as the Congress of Deputies; Costix Rica
has a single house called the Chamber of Deputies. All of these
Central and South American countries have adopted our system
of having the President and his Cabinet entirely independent of
Congress wituin the lines of executive duty as prescribed by their
respective constitutions.
In the eastern hemisphere the countries enjoying constitutional
liberty have generally followed the British parliamentary system
of having a cabinet depending solely on the continued sui)port of
a majority in the popular house of the national assembly. A few
have upper houses which are constituted very much like the
United States Senate, the membei"s representing tlie constituent
states of the kingdom or empire.
In Gemiany the Bundesrath, or House of Peei-s, is the upper
house of the Gennan Imperial Assembly, which represents the
various states of the empire, while the Reichstig, or HoiLse of
Representatives, represents the people of the empire as a national
entity. In Austria-Hungary two parliaments exist, one for the
western part of the empire, or Austria proper, and the other for
Hungary. Each of tliese parliaments consists of two houses, one
a chamber of nobles or magnates, and the other of membei*s elected
directly by the 2)eo[)le. Until about thirty yeai-s ago one parlia-
ment made laws for the Austrian empire, but the Hungarians
demanded a parliament of their own, or Home Rule, as it is
called in Ireland, and after a long struggle attended with turmoil,
confusion, and bloodshed their demand was conceded. Since then
internal peace has prevailed in that empire.
Denmai-k has a legislature of two houses named tlie Rigsdag.
The upper chamber is the Landsthing composed of landlords, and
the lower chamber, or Folkthing, is made up of members who are
elected by all the people. Iceland htis one house of thirty-six
members, thirty of whom are elected by the people and six
OOMPLEX SEPUBLICAKIS1C
827
appointed by the Danish king. The legiBlature of Sweden ig
named the Diet. It consists of two housea known as the First
and Second Chambers. Norway's legislature ia called the Stor-
thing or the Great Court, and has two chambeis termed the Lag-
thing and the Odelsthing. Sweden a)id Nor^vay are united
politically, the same king being ruler over both countiies.
Spain and Portugal have legislatures which are designated as
the Cortes. Each Cortes comprises two houses, one named the
House of Peers, the other the Chamber of Deputies. France has
two houses, a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the members of
both being elected. Switzerland and Holland have each two
houses, one representing the states, the other the masses.
Finland is the only section of the Russian empire which has an
elective legislature, an ancient institution which it lias preserved
Uirough many vicissitudes, and which the Czar refuses to allow
in any other portion of his dominions. In this assembly the
nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants are represented. Servia's
legislature of two houses, one of Peers, and the other of popular
representatives, is called the Skupshtina. Roumania and Italy
also have each two chambers. Greece baa one chamber which is
called the BouW. San Marino, a little republic many centuries
old, containing about seven thousand people, has an assembly of
828 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
sixty members who are elected for life from three classes: the
nobles, burghers, and peasants. This republic elects a president
every six months.
Andorra, another little republic in a valley of the Pyrenees,
between France and Spain, with a population of thirteen thou-
sand, has a single chamber of twenty-four members, and the
executive duties are exercised by the bishop of the diocese of
Udal in Spain. Belgium has a Senate and House of Representa-
tives. Japan, under its constitution recently adopted, has a
House of Peers and a House of Representatives. Hawaii has
practically a similar system, the Sandwich Islanders calling their
chambera the House of Nobles and House of Representatives.
The British Colonial legislatures essentially follow the system
of the British Parliament. The South African republics, the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State, have two houses, the mem-
bers of both being elected. Their legislatures are called the
Volksraad. Egypt, under the Khedive as ruler, is governed by a
Chamber of Notables who are selected by him. India is governed
by a British Governor-General and an Executive Council which
he appoints. The Asiatic countries generally are governed in a
manner similar to Russia, that is to say, by the will of the moiuirch,
and are utterly destitute of any form of legislative assembly.
There are tliree coordinate branches or departments in our
government of the United States called the legislative, the execu-
tive, and the judicial ; the fii*st of which makes the laws, the
second directs their execution, and the third determines precisely
the meaning of those laws.
The legislative branch consisting of two houses, or bodies of
representatives, the Senate and House of Representatives, is called
the Congress of the United States, whose general po Wei's are set
forth in Article L, Section 8, of the Constitution thus: —
Sect. VITI. — The conj^ress shall have power —
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts, and
provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but
all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States:
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States:
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes:
4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the
subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States:
COHPLSX BEPUBLIOANISH. 829
ft. To ooln monej, regulate the yalae thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix
liie standard of weights and measores:
d. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and cur^
rent ooin of the United States:
7« To establish post-offices and post-roads:
8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing, for
limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respectlTe
writings and discoveries:
0. To constitute tribunals inferior to tlie supreme court: to define and pun*
ish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the
law of nations:
10. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules
concerning captures on land and water:
11. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use
shall be for a longer period than two years:
12. To provide and maintain a navy:
13. To make rules for the government and regulation of tlio land and naval
forces :
14. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of tlie Union,
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions :
15. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for
governing such parts of tliem as may be employed in the service of tlie United
States; reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers,
and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed
by congress:
10. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular
States and the acceptance of congi*ess, become the seat of the government of
the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by
the consc*iit of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the
erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful build-
ings : — And
17. To make all laws which shall bo necessary and proper, for carrying into
executicm the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitu-
tion in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer
thereof.
Tlie Constitution provides that Congress must meet at least
once a year. Tlie time when it assembles is fixed by law on the
first Monday in December of every year. The President, how-
ever, is authorized by Article II., Section 3, of the Constitution,
to call a special session at any time, whenever " in his opinion there
is business requiring immediate attention. "" Congress enacts all
the laws by which the whole people of the United States as a
nation are governed. It represents the whole people as well as
the States in their ^a^i-sovereig^ty, and hence is the only com-
petent authority under our republican form of government to
880 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
make the laws which we are bound to obey. This first cooi-dinate
branch, the legislative, is divided into what is usually called the
popular branch — the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Respecting the House of Representatives, Article I., Section 2,
of the Constitution provides that it shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the
electors in each State shall have the qualifications which are requisite
for electors of tlie most numerous branch of the State legislature.
No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained
the age of twenty-five years, and have been seven yeare a
citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be
an inhabitant of that State in which lie sliall be chosen.
Each member of the House of Representatives is elected by a
direct vote in the congressional district which he is said to I'epre-
sent. He must be elected by either a majority of the votes cast
or by a plurality according to the law of the State in which the
election takes place.
The congressional districts are fixed every ten yeai-s by tlie
legislatures of the respective States immediately after the national
census is taken, because as representation is based on 2)opulati(^n,
when the latter is found to increase or diminish, it is necessary
to increase or diminish the number of representatives to wliieli
a State is entitled in order to secure as nearly as possible a perfect
equality in popular re2)resentation among the various States.
Congress determines tlie recjuired number of po])ulati()n which
constitutes a concfressional district. In the early days of the
republic the number was much smaller than now. Tlie number
of members in the House of Representatives and the population
which each represented at different decades is shown by the
following table : —
ropulatlon.
3:^,000
33,000
35,000
40,000
47,700
70,080
93,500
127,941
130,5;^^
151,900
I>eca<le.
Members
1793 to 180:5
105
1803 to 1813
141
1813 to 1823
181
1823 to 18:33
212
18:5:l to 1843
240
184:j to 1853
223
1853 to 18(>.''.
234
1803 to 1873
241
1873 to 1883
292
1883 to 1893
325
COMPLBX BEPUBLIGANISM. 881
A member must be an inhabitant of the State, btU not necessarily
of the district in which he is elected^ although few if any members
heretofore elected have not been residents of the districts which
returned them.
A member of the British House of Commons represents a
geographical district which was last fixed by Act of Parliament,
in 1884, containing at that time a population of about sixty-five
thousand people, although some members represent boroughs which
contain a smaller population, but none less than fifteen thousand.
A member of the Swiss and National Assembly represents about
twenty thousand persons in the canton from which he is returned,
and in most countries where representative government obtains a
very similar rule is followed.
The members of the House of Representatives are elected
biennially. Their election now takes place in all the States of
the Union on the first Tuesday in November, though formerly it
was not so in a few States. Members of the House are generally
called Congressmen, which is quite correct, and it would be
equally conect to designate the members of the Senate in the
same way since both bodies form the Congress of the United
States, but the appellation " Congressman," by general usage has
come to be regarded as applying to the members of the House of
Representatives alone.
The great power which the House of Representatives exclusively
possesses, a power conferred by the Constitution itself, is that all
money for any national purpose whatever must be raised by virtue
of laws which it must originate. It is a cardinal principle of our
government that no authority or body save the immediate repre-
sentatives of the people alone should first move in the levying of
taxes upon the people, or voting away their money for any purpose
whatsoever.
During the recent Chilian difficulty, for instance, if the Execu-
tive and the Senate had been united in favor of war, the House of
Representatives by a vote of a majority of one could have prevented
war iy simply refusing to vote the means to carry it on. Of course
the members thus voting would have assumed the responsibility^ of
their action in the face of their constituents who would very soon
at the ballot-box have an opportunity of expressing themselves
832 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
regarding the conduct of their representatives, should they come
forward for re-election.
Another power exclusively exercised by the House of Repi-e-
sentatives is the impeachment of the President and Vice-President
of the United States, and of judges of the United States Courts for
crimes and misdemeanors. In cases of this nature, the House
proceeds by passing a resolution containing the formal charges
against the party impeached, which charges are laid before the
Senate sitting as a High Court of Judicature to determine the
guilt or innocence of the accused, who is summoned to appear
before it and answer to the charges.
The House selects a committee, or managers, as they are termed,
to prosecute the case, which they do by procuring the attendance
of witnesses, by examination of the same, and cross-examination of
tlie witnesses of the accused, and by sucli other ways as are allowed
in ordinary courts. Happily but few trials of impeachment have
been held in this country, the most celebrated being that of Presi-
dent Johnson in 18G8.
By far the most important member of the House is the Speaker.
After a new House assembles and the roll of membership is called,
his election is the first business transacted. He wields immense
power ^ second onli/ to that of the Provident of the United States,
He is usually elected by the votes of the dominant political party
in the House, and ho appoints all the committees whose duties are
to consider and report upon every legislative matter which is laid
before Congress.
As he invariably selects a majority, sometimes a large majority,
of his own l^arty on tliese committees, the far-reaching power of
his position may be perceived. No measure can reach the House
until it is first passed on by a committee which he has appointed.
It is in the power of the majority of a committee to report such
measures as tliey favor at the most [>ropitious time, and to report
such as they are opposed to adversely at the most unfavorable
time.
The majority of each conmiittee has practically the shaping of
all legislation introduced in the House, as it veiy seldom happens
that any bill favorably reported by a committee is defeated or even
materially altered. So important is the ofiice of Speaker regarded
832 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
regarding the conduct of their representatives, should they come
forward for re-election.
Another power exclusively exercised by the House of Repi-e-
sentatives is the impeachment of the President and Vice-President
of the United States, and of judges of the United States Courts for
crimes and misdemeanors. In cases of this nature, the House
proceeds by passing a resolution containing the formal charges
against the party impeached, which charges are laid before the
Senate sitting as a High Court of Judicature to determine the
guilt or innocence of the accused, who is summoned to appear
before it and answer to the charges.
Tlie House selects a committee, or managers, as they are termed,
to prosecute the case, which they do by procuring the attendance
of witnesses, by examination of the same, and cross-examination of
the witnesses of the accused, and by such other ways as are allowed
in ordinary courts. Happily but few trials of impeachment have
been held in this country, tlie most celebrated being that of Presi-
dent Johnson in 1868.
By far the most important member of the House is the Speaker.
After a new House assembles and the roll of menibershijj is called,
his election is the first business transacted. He wields immense
poiver^ second onhj to that of the President of the United States,
lie is usually elected by tlie votes of the dominant political i)arty
in the House, and he ap[)oints all the committees whose duties are
to consider and re2)ort upon every legislative matter which is laid
before Congress.
As he invariably selects a majority, sometimes a large majority,
of his own I)arty on these committees, the far-reaching power of
his position may be perceived. No meiisure can reach the House
until it is fii*st passed on by a committee which lie has appointed.
It is in the power of the majority of a committee to report such
measures as they favor at tlie most propitious time, and to report
such as they are opposed to adversely at the most unfavorable
time.
The majority of each committee has practically the shaping of
all legislation introduced in the House, as it veiy seldom happens
that any bill favorably reported by a committee is defeated or even
materially altered. So important is the office of Speaker regarded
884 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
that very exciting contests generally take place over his election.
These contests in some instances have been very prolonged,
notably in the cases of General Banks in 1856, and Mr. Penning-
ton in 1860, when over two months were spent before an election
was made in either case.
The Speaker is entitled to vote on any question but very seldom
does except in the case of a tie, when he is obliged to determine
the issue by his vote, and he must vote when any question is to
be decided by ballot. The Speaker's salary is eight thousand
doUai-s a year, while all the other members of the House are paid
five thousand dollars each.
Of the important committees of the House the most impor-
tant are the Committee on Ways and Means, and the Committee
of Appropriations. The first named is the committee which has
charge of devising ways and means to raise revenue for the support
of the government. This is done chiefly by internal revenue laws,
and by tariff acts which lay duties on products imported into the
United States. The Committee of Appropriations pass nixyn all
measures which call for money out of the National Treasury for
any purpose whatever and lience its great importance. It prima-
rily holds the pui*se-strings of Uncle Sam's strong box.
Immediately after electing its si)eaker the House votes for it«
otlier officers, which consist of a clerk, a sergeant-at-arms, a
doorkeeper, a postmaster and a chaplain. None of these officials
can be elected from among the niemlxjrs of the House, but any
citizen not liolding a salaried office under the national government
is eligible.
The clerk has a number of assistants whom he appoints and
pays for their services. He also pays the regular salaries of
persons engaged in the service of the House or of any of its
committees. His most important business, however, consist^s in
keeping the docket of legislative business in a proper manner, so
that bills come up in tlieir regular order of precedence, thus fur-
nishing tlie Speaker and any member of the House at any time with
a correct chart of the progress of business. He also calls the roll
and records tlie votes wlien a yea and nay vote is taken.
The sergeant-at-arms is an official wlio is supposed to represent
in his own person all the so\eYii\g\\ iovee of the House when he
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM.
acta in pursuance of its oitlers or in obedience to the Siwaker.
He securea oiiler in the House wlien iiny serioua confusion occura
by advancing among the disorderly niembera with the ancient
emblem of liJs oflicu — the ni;ice ; he li;is power to ari-est and im-
prison any jn-jmber for a gross violation of the rules, and keep the
offender in close custody until releiised hy onler of tlie Sjieaker
or the House.
His power of ari-est, liowever, is uliieflj' exercised on occasiona
when it is found
necessary to get a
(juoruni of ;hu
House ; that is, the
required number
with which to
transact business,
when besets forth,
commissioned by
the Speaker to ar-
rest every alisent
member wliom ln'
may meet ami
bring Ijim fortli-
Avithl^-foietlieba;-
of the House tn
give a siitisfai-torv
excuse for non-at-
tendiviice, whicli is
a grave brcat^h of
the rules. In ail-
dition 111 tlicse vei y nntious duties I
the congressmen tlicir salaries
The door-keeper of the House i^ .uiotliei iiuijortant persoitage
■who is allowed to apjjoint a number of assistants to aid him in
the jjerfonnance of liis duties He exercises general supervision
over the Hall, or meeting plate of the House, the committee rooms
adjoining, and tlie galleries to whitb the public is admitted The
members' desks, chairs, and all the httings and equipments pertain-
ing to tlie House are in his ehaige. He allows no ou^ *ji w^-s^%x
1 also tlie official ^\ho pays
886 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
on the floor of the House except such persons as have a right to be
there.
The postmaster receives all letters for the members, which his
assistants deliver as soon as possible. His office, that of special
postmaster to the House, is created by law and is regarded as a
very honorable position.
The chaplain is, of course, a clergyman, who invokes the Deity
preliminary to the legislative work of each day's session. In addi-
tion to this, his only other official duty is to appear at the funerals
of such congressmen as die at the Capitol. At the beginning of
the century it was a part of his official business to preach a sermon
to Congress on Sundays, but this practice has been discontinued
for many years, owing chiefly to the non-attendance of members.
In addition to his salary of five thousand dollars a year, each
member of the House is allowed something over one hundred
dollars a year for stationery, newspapers, etc., and also a travelling
fee, or " mileage," as it is called, which is fixed at a i-ate of twenty
cents a mile for every mile travelled between his residence and the
city of Washington.
A member is prohibited from holding any other salaried office
under the national government, and he is also legally incapable of
holding any salaried office created by the Congress of which he is
a menil)er until the term of life of that House of Representatives
has expired. No member can legally receive any pay from indi-
viduals or corporations for any service which they may have
rendered in the House, or in any matter in which the United
States is involved, save that in the latter case professional fees as
attorneys in the courts are regarded as ])roper.
They are also piohibitcd from voting on measures in which their
private interests are directly affected, such as railroad, telegraph,
and other corporations in which they are shareliolders, but it is
alleged that breaches of this prohibition have become the rule,
and observance of the prohibition the exception, and this allega-
tion is ])ased on some substantial grounds. The power of great
corporations affects our national, state and municipal legislators
more and more every year and will, till a change in our system
takes place and industrial equality as well as |>olitical equality
shall be firmly established.
838 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
Thfi other subdivision of Congress is called the Senate of the
United States. According to Article I., Section 3, of the Consti-
tution : The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two
senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six
years ; and each senator shall have one vote. No person shall be
a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty yeai-s
and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he
shall be chosen.
The equality and limited sovereignty of the respective States
of the Union are represented by the Senate, each State small or
large being entitled to elect two senators to that body and no
more. Thus, the new States of North Dakota and South DakoUv,
with populations of 182,719 and 328,808 respectively, are repre-
sented by the same number of senators as the States of New York
and Pennsylvania, the former with a population of 5,997,853, and
the latter with a population of 5,258,014.
The Senate corresponds with the Council of States of the
Swiss Confederation, referred to elsewhere, which consists of two
representatives from each canton, but with this difference; in
Switzerland they elect the members of the Council of States for a
term of one, two, or three years, as the cantonal legislatures may
determine, while the duration of office of our senators and the
method of their election is established by constitutional provision.
By constitutional provision also the vice-president of the
United States presides over the sessions of the Senate, while
the Swiss Council of States elect their presiding officer. The
vice-president is not allowed to vote unless in the case of a tie
vote in the Senate, when he is obliged to decide. When he is
absent for any cause, the Senate elects a president pro tempore^
wlio i)erf()rms the duties of the office until the return of the vice-
president.
It is customary at the beginning of every session to elect some
senator as temporary chairman who is genemlly called upon
whenever occasion re(|uires to take the chair throughout the entire
session in the absence of the vice-president. The vice-president
is paid a salary of eight thousand dollai-s a year; the membei-s of
the Senate each receive ftve lV\o\iftM\d doUai-s a year.
'- -^^"^fet
1
m
'isBl ^^^^-
(SI'
*|.:.-
^J@
^i/r
■
'i
1
*^^
1
"'^jI'iS
111
i
1 r^
w
ii'^-
840 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
The other officers of the Senate are a secretary, sergeant-at-
amis, chaplain, postmaster and libi-arian. The office of Secretary
of the Senate corresponds to that of Clerk of the House of Repre-
sentatives. The secretary keeps the roll of senators and is the
custodian of all records, papers, bills, petitions and resolutions
which come before the Senate. He pays the senators their sala-
ries, which duty is perfonned for the members of the House of
Representatives by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House. He has
several clerks to assist him, subject to his direction and control.
The Sergeant-at-Anns of the Senate is the official i*epresenta-
tive of the power of that body, and his authority and duties
correspond in every respect with that of the Sergeant-at-Arms of
the House, except that he does not pay the senators' saLaries and
that he has control of the door-keepei*s of the Senate and all tlie
subordinate employees as well as geneml charge of tlie furniture
of the Chamber, its ante-rooms and lobbies.
The chaplain, postmaster, and librarian of the Senate perform
duties exactly analogous to the similar officials of tlie HoiLse.
The Senate does not pei-mit its presiding officer, the Yice-[)resi-
dent, to appoint its committees as the Speaker of the House of
Representatives does in his Chaml)er, but tlu^y select a special
committee for the purpose, which appoints the various committees
to consider and report upon all measures laid before thein. The
senators are privileged from arrest while attending to their duties,
as also are the membei*s of the House by constitutional 2)rovisi<)n.
All the impoilant official appointments made by the President
of the United States must be submitted to the Senate for contlrnia-
tion. If it votes in favor of an appointee, the pei*son is said to
be '^confirmed/' and he can innnediately assume the duties of the
olfice ; if it votes to reject, the pei'son rejected is del)arred from
the office, and thcj l^resident is powerless Avithout the consent of
the Senate.
This exclusive power of "consent" Avliich the Senate possesses
also extends to the treaties Avhich are made with foreign nations.
No treaty negotiated between the President and government of a
foreign country can go into force and effect until it is ratified by
a two thirds vote of the Senate, according to Article H., Section 2,
oi the Constitution, whicli says ; " The President shall have i)Ower,
COHFLBX KEPUBLICAinSH. 841
bj and with the Advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties,
provided two thirds of the senators present concur.*'
As a general rule the Senate approves all treaties submitted by
the President, but a notable exception occurred in 1888 during
the administration of President Cleveland. The latter laid be-
fore the Senate nn extradition treaty which had been negotiated
with the British
Govern ment,
providing for
the mutual sur-
render of cer-
tain offendei^s
i^rainstthe laws
of this country
and Great Brit-
ain; but it was
rejected in the
Senate by a
great majority.
The ground
of objection was
that some of its
sections would
enable the Brit-
ish Government
to secure the
extradition of
Irish political
offenders — tliat
is of Irishmen
who might vio- ''"*='*'' ^
late the Special Coercion Act which applied to Ireland only, and
to no otlier portion of the British empire, and which created
many new offences not regarded as crimes in either Great Britain
or the United States.
The Senate holds what is termed an executive session whenever
it considers the matters of appointments or treaties, which means
a secret session at which each senator present, as well as the
842 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
special clerk who keeps the record, is sworn to preserve secrecy
respecting the proceedings. At the beginning of our government
all sessions of the Senate were secret for a period of five years, but
this obnoxious practice was abandoned and all of its sessions,
with the exception mentioned, are now as public as those of the
House of Representatives.
Tlie Senate is the high court of the United States for the trial
of impeachments of national officials before which the House of
Representatives present their accusation and prosecute the defend-
ant until judgment is rendered. Of late yeare, more especially
since the Civil War, the Senate has been chiefly composed of very
wealthy men. At the present time it is very often referred to
derisively as the billionnaire club, for it is alleged that many of
its members have been elected, not on account of probity, merit,
or statesmanlike qualities, but solely through the influence of
their personal wealth, or that of the syndicates or corporations
whose special interests they are expected to subserve, as members
of the highest branch of our national legislature where the votes
of the two senatoi-s from Nevada, with a population of 44,327
souls, have the same weight as the vote of all the thirty-four
membeis of the House of Representatives from New York on
every question which comes before Congress, save an original
appropriation or tiix-levy bill.
A movement which is rapidl}^ gathering strength is being
agitated in many parts of our country for the election of senators
by a direct vote of the people. Many powerful reasons can be
urged in favor of this change in the method of their election, and
hardly one sound objection can be offered to it. The nearer the
rej)resentatives are to the whole body of voters, the greater the
responsibility they feel and the more strictly they can be held to
account. The senatoi-s are afar off from the people now, because
elected by the legislatures, Avhich have been time and again
manipulated to elect senators who would never be elected by the
people, had they the i)rivilege of the selection. This change of
method it will rec^uire a constitutional amendment to bring about,
but the gain to the public will l)e worth all the pains taken.
The second coordinate branch of our government is the Execu-
tive, or President, who is the supreme officer to see that the laws
COMPLEX REPTTBUOANIBM. 848
enacted by the national legislature are enforced. Article II., Sec-
tion 1, of the Constitution provides that the executive power shall
be vested in a President of the United States of America. He
shall hold liis office during the term of four years, and together
with tlie vice-president, chosen for the same term, be elected as
follows: Each State shall appoint in such manner as the legisla-
tui-e thereof may direct a number of electors, equal to the whole
number of senators and representatives to which the State may be
entitled in tlie Congress; but no senator, or representative, or
person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States
shall be appointed an elector.
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the
United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall
be eligible to tlie office of President ; neither shall any person be
eligible to tliat office wlio shall not liave attained to the age of
thii-tv-five yeai-s and been fourteen yeai-s a i*esident within the
United States.
The President of the United States Ls not elected by a direct
vote of the people, but by '' electoi*s *' wlio are chosen in such
manner iis the legislatures of the seveml Stiites shall determine.
A State legislature l)y a committee may choose the electors to
represent it in tlie Electoral College, or it may direct the governor
to ai)point them, or have them selected in any other way. But,
as a matter of fact, the "electoi-s" in every State are voted for
directly l)y the people on the Tuesday following the fii*st Monday
in Novcm])er of every presidential year„
The **clectoi-s " chosen in each State are obliged to meet on the
first Wednesday of the month of Decemlxir next ensuing in the
capital of their State wherii they vote for President and vice-
president. A majority of the votes of the totiil Electoral College
is required to elect. If no one voted for by the electoi's receives
a clear majority, the election of President is decided by the House
of Representatives.
After the electoi-s in the several States have voted for the can-
didates of their choice they make three lists of the ballot taken,
which they enclose and seal with a certificate stating that they are
accurate. Two of these lists are addressed to the President of
the United States Senate, one of which is forwarded by mail and
844 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
the other by a special messenger. The third list is deposited
with the judge of the district couil;, within whose jurisdiction the
election has been lield.
At tlie expiration of a month after the meeting of the Electoral
College in each State, if nothing is heard in Washington by mail
or messenger from a State, the President of the United States
Senate serves notice on the Secretary of Stite, who immediately
procures the certified list in the custody of the district judge,
which is laid before the President of tlie Senate. Congress then
assembles on tlie second Wednesday of P'ebruary to count the
votes of the Electoral College.
The Senate, with much formality, lieaded by ite president,
preceded by the sergeant-at-arms, entei*s the hall of the House of
Representatives where they are received by the membei*s of the
latter body standing. The President of the Senate, ascending to
the speaker's dais, breaks open the sealed enveloi^es containing the
returns, which he announces to both houses, and he declares who,
if any, has a majority of the electoml votes, and is consequently
elected President.
In case no person has a majority, the House of Representatives
alone proceeds to elect the President, wiiich it does by selecting
by ballot, as provided in the Constitution, from among the three
candidates who have received the liighest number of electoral
votes, such candidate as it prefers. This selection, liowever, is
not made by each representative casting one vote for liis choice —
it is made Jnj the mcijoritif of (he rej)rexe)itativei< from each State
agreeiwj on a eerfain '*andhlate for whom thej/ east the vote of then-
State^ eiich State having but one vote on such an occasion, the
members of tlie minority, liowever large, liaving practically no
voic"c in the nuitter.
For instance, if the election of President Avere to l>e decided
in 1H0-) by the House of Re[)resentatives, the State of iVIassachu-
setts would record its ])resi(lential vote for a Democrat, seven of
its rcpresentiitives being of that political party, while it^ six
Re])ublican representatives would be absolutely powerless to
affect the lesult.
In case no candidate for the vice-presidency has a majority of
the eiectoral votes, the Senate ahoosea the viee-p resident^ for the rea-
846 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
son that his principal duty is to preside over that body. But they
must choose between the two candidates having the most votes for
vice-president, each senator voting, the majority of votes b^ing
required to elect. And in case the House of Representatives
fails to elect a President, it will be seen that this vice-president
elected by the Senate becomes President, none having been chosen
otherwise according to the Constitution.
The cliief duty of the President is to see that all laws are i)rop-
erly caiTied out. This includes not only the acts passed by Con-
gress, but the organic law itself, the Constitution as well as all
treaties and stipulations entered into between the United Statc»s
and foreign countries. He is commanded by the Constitution to
lay before Congress' from time to time infoimation respecting tlie
state of the country, and in cases of emergency lie is authorized
to call a special session.
He is formally notified by Congress at the opening of eveiy
session that the national legislature is prepared to receive any com-
munication Avhich he desires to lay before them, whereupon he
sends what is termed a message, or written communication, which
deals with the genci-al condition of the country, or calls tluMr
attention to some matter of pressing urgency, and is of greater or
less length according to the inij)ortance and necessities of the
subject matter wliich it contains and according to the natural
verbosity of its composer. Most presidential messages are so long
that vciv few ])ei*soiis read tlieni.
The President is commander-in-chief of the armv and navy of
the United States. The object of this provision in the Constitu-
tion is to ensure that the sovereign authority over the armed
forces of th(i countiy sliall always ]-emain in the pei'son of the man
wlio is elected evcrv four years bv the votes of the country. He
appoints onr ministers and consular oflieei*s to foreign countries,
receives formally all forei<rn minister's accredited to this country,
and under his direction onr State department grants exequatur,
that is, permits to depart to foreign consuls in the United States.
He alone is authorized to negotiate treaties with foreign pow^ei-s
which he must lay before the Senate representing the States for
adoption witliout which no treaty can go into effect.
T]iO jjower to pardon f<.)r any violation of the laws of the United
848 THE STORY OF GOVEKNMENT.
States belongs to tlie President as supreme ruler. This pardon-
ing power exercised by the head of all civilized nations corre-
sponds in a great measure to the powers allowed courts of equity,
which afford relief in cases where the courts of law, by reason of
the rigidity and universality of the written law, fail to do so.
Violations of the criminal law of the United States take place
from time to time through ignorance, or some other powerful
extenuating circumstance occurs which could not be pleaded in
defence in court; in such cases the President in his discretion can
exercise his high prerogative — : the power to pardon — with which
he is invested by the Constitution.
Every bill passed by Congress must be approved by the Presi-
dent. When a measure passes both houses it is submitted to him
for his signature. If he signs the bill it immediately becomes
the law; if he refuses to sign he returns the bill to Congress with
a special message containing reasons for withholding his signa-
ture. When he refuses to sign a bill he is said to be exercising
the veto power given him by the Constitution. A vetoed bill is
practically dead, unless its friends in Congress can secure for it a
two thirds vote of both Houses, when it becomes law, the Presi-
dent's veto notwithstandincr.
In case a bill passes over the veto, it is sent by Congress direct
to the State department, where it takes its place among all other
laws, and must be carried out precisely iis if it bore the signature
of the Executive. Tliis right of the President to veto any legisla-
tive measure passed ])y a majority of the representatives of the
people, as well as by a majority of the States represented by the
Semite, seems, under a republican form of government, to be a
sin<]fular anomaly.
The people elect men to enact laws; they also elect a certain
man to execute those laws, but the Executive possesses sub-
stantially tlie power to say Avhat laws shall be enacted by the
hnv-makers, because it is almost impossible to secure a two thirds
vote to overrule a veto in lK)th Houses against the tremendous
influence of the President, backed by the official patronage and
the great army of officials dependent upon him.
A bare majority of the votes in both Houses can enact any law
which tJie President approves; if he disapproves, a two thirds
850 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
vote is required, so that his legislative power exercised in this
negative fashion is equal in a House of three hundred members
and a Senate of eighty to forty-nine votes in the one house and
thirteen in the other respectively, or the difference between a bare
majority and the number requisite added to it to carrj' a measure
over tlie veto.
The reason for so much legislative power in the liands of the
Executive does not appear to be sound to-day, however it may
have been at the time the Constitution was adopted. The pre-
rogative of British monarchs was conferred by it upon our Execu-
tive, but no British monarcli has exercised tlie veto, since the
time of Queen Anne at the beginning of the last centuiy, and it
is very certain that it will never be used again against a parlia-
mentary act, while our Presidents have used it with impunity to
defeat Treasures to which they were opposed.
The Swiss confederation does not permit its executive to inter-
fere in any direct or indirect way with the Federal Assembly,
and the veto power is retained by the people themselves^ who exercise
it at the ballot-box under the law of the Referendum, which is
explained in another part of this work.
The President cannot l^e tried in any ordinary court for an
offence against the law. Provision has been made, liowever, tliat
if he offends he must be accused by the House of Representatives,
and tried by a legal process called impeachment, by the Senate.
If lie is found guilty he can l)e removed from office. The vice-
president is subject to impeachment and removal in a similar
way, as well as certain otlicr officers of the government.
Tlie salary which the President receives is iifty thousand doUai-s
a 3'ear, with the use of the executive mansion in Washington,
called the White House, which is all furnished and equipped at
the expense of the government. The public treasurj^ also pays
the salaries of his two secretaries, two clerks, telegraph operator,
and a number of minor employees who are engaged in the execu-
tive mansion.
The President appoints the members of his Cabinet, or advisors,
who receive each a salary of eight thousand doUai-s a year. Each
member of the Cabinet is at the head of a very important and
extensive department, which he manages under the direction of
COMPLEX KEPUBLICANISM. 861
the President, who can remove him at any time he sees fit. The
Cabinet officers are prohibited by law from taking any part in the
proceedings of Congress, unlike the members of the Swiss Execu-
tive, who are permitted, and indeed often requested, to appear on
the floor of either house to explain and to give information
respecting the transactions of their departments, and to advocate
or oppose legislative measures 2)ending, but who are not alloAved
to vote. There does not appear any good reason why the privi-
leges extended to the Swiss cabinet could not be adopted in the
United States with the same advantage.
Since our executive depaitment comprises the working machin-
ery of the national government throughout tlie country, as well
as in its relations to foreign countries, a brief summary of the
special departments into Avhich it is subdivided, Avith their chief
officials, powers, and duties Avill be in order.
The Secretary of State has the management under the direction
of the President of the duties appertaining to correspondence with
the United States ministers and consuls to foreign countries,
with the representatives of foreign powei-s accredited to the
United States, and to negotiations of every character rcdating to
foreign affairs. He is also the medium of corres[)on(lence lx3tween
the President and the chief executive of tlie several States of the
Union; he has the custody of the great seal of the United States,
and countor.>;igns and affixes such seal to all executive procla-
mations, to various commissions, and to warrants for pardon, and
the extradition of fugitives from justice.
lie is recrarded as tlie fn-st in rank amon^f the members of the
Cabinet. He is also tlic custodian of tlie treaties made with
foreign states and of the laws of tlie United States. He grants
and issues passports, and all exe<piatui-s to foreign consuls in
the United States are issued through his office. He i)ublishes
the laws and resolutions of Conijress, amendments to the Consti-
tution, and proclamations declaring the admission of new States
into the Union. He is also changed with certain annual reports
to Congress relating to commercial information received from
diplomatic and consular officers of the United States.
The Secretary of State is aided b}'' the Assistant Secretary of
State, who becomes the acting secretary in the absence of liis chief.
852 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
Under the organization of the department the assistant secretary,
second assistant secretary, and third assistant secretary are respec-
tively charged with the immediate supervision of all correspond-
ence with the diplomatic and consular officers of the United
States, and of the miscellaneous correspondence relating thereto,
and in general they are intrusted with the preparation of the cor-
respondence upon any questions arising in the course of the public
business that may be assigned to them by the secretary. A chief
clerk has the general supervision of all the clerks and other
employees, and of all the business of the deimrtment.
Tlie Secretary of the Treasury is charged by law with the
management of the national finances. lie prepares plans for the
improvement of the revenue and for the suppoi-t of the public
credit; he superintends the collection of the revenue, and pre-
scribes the forais of keeping and rendering public accounts and of
making returns; he grants warrants for all moneys drawn from the
treasury in jDursuance of appropriations made by law, and for
the payment of moneys into the treasury ; and he annually sub-
mits to Congress estimates of the jirobable revenues and disburse-
ments of tlie government.
Tlie Secretary of the Treasury also controls tlie construction of
public buildings, tlie coinage and printing of money, tlie collec-
tion of statistics, the administration of the coast and geodetic
survey, life-saving, lighthouse, revenue cutter, steamlioat ins]^>ec-
tion, and marine hospital branches of the public service, and fur-
nishes generally such information as may l>e required by either
branch of Congress on all matters 2)ertaining to everjiihing within
the jurisdiction of the de2)artnient.
There are three assistant secretaries of tlie treasurv- One of
these has general supervision of tlie Avork assigned to one of the
three divisions of the de[)artment, called the Division of Appoint-
ments, which attends to public moneys, loans and currency,
secret service, etc. He signs all letters and i)apers relating to
the business of his division as assistant secretary, or '"by order of
the Secretary," except such iKipei*s as by law require the signature
of the secretary himself, and lie performs all other duties prescribed
by law or by the secretary.
^Another of the assistant secretaries lias the general supervision
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854 XH£ STOKT OF GOVEENMZSTT.
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of the work ais»igiied to the DiTision of Customs,
rerenne marine, special agents, and bniean of naTig&d :*i.. He
signs all letters and papers relating to the business of Ll> iirisinn
as assistant secretanr, or **bT order of the Secietarr,"* eiori-i 5ueL
as by law requixe the signature of the secretary.
The third assistant secretary has general superrision C4 the
business assigned to the DiTisicm of Mails and Files, whieL
embraces warrants, estimates, appropriations, etc. He sigxts all
letters and papers issuing from his division as assistant secretary,
or *"by order of the Secretary," except such as require the signa-
ture of tlie secretanr.
Tlie chief clerk of the secretary of the treasury supervises under
the inmiediate direction of the secretarv and assistant secretaries
all the clerks and employees connected with the department. He
has the superintendence of all buildings occupied by the depart-
ment in the city of Washington, the transmission of the mailsi,
the care of all horses, wagons, and carriages employed, the direc-
tion of engineers, machinists firemen, and laljoren«, and tLe ex-
penditure of the appropriations for contingent exjx'nses *'f the
trefisun- ^lejiartment. He lias also suixfivision of all :'..e • rheia'
corTes[)orideiK-e of the secretary's offi^-e so far as to st-e */:..: :: :>
sUtted in com^ct and official fonn. the enforeeinent «»f t':.- jri^rral
re^^ulatioiLS of the dejiartment, and the charge of all 1 ':>::.*->> oi
the secretary's oftice not assit^iied.
Six au'litors are apjxjinted for the department each ••: w:.. .ni is
at the head of a division bureau assigne^l to piss u>'ii a >|n-cial
class of accounts, the whole toi^ether covering all the rii:;inc:al
transactions of the United States. Two comptrollers, de>iL:nate«*I
as the fii'st and second, are also aj»{>ointed, wliose duties are t-
re-examine, revise, and certify the accounts iv^xated l»y the
auditoi-s.
The Commissioner ai Customs levises and certifies the a<counts
of revenues collected fi-om duties on imports and tonnage; fines,
j)enalties, and forfeitures under the castom and navigation laws,
find frrtm other sources connected with custom matters, also the
accounts oT the imiK>rtation and exi>ortation of goods under the
warehouse system, and many other kindred matters, and he also
approves an<l liU^s the official l>onds given In' custom officers, and
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COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM. 859
transmits their commissions. Tliis office is organized in two
divisions. Customs and Appointments.
The Treasurer of the United States is charged with tlie receipt
and disbursement of all public moneys that may be deposited in
the treasury at Washington, and the sub-treasuries at Boston,
New York, Pliiladelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Fran-
cisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati, and in the national
bank United States de[)Ositories; is trustee for bonds held to
secure national bank circulation, and custodian of Indian trust
fund bonds; is agent for paying the interest on the j^ublic debt,
and for paying sahiries of members of tlie House of Representa-
tives. The following are the sub-divisions of the treasurer's
bureau : —
Chief Clerk. — Receives and distributes the official mail, has charge
of the correspondence and the disposition and payment of the clerical
force, and the ciistody of the records and fiU\s, and of the issue of dupli-
cate clieeks and (h-afts.
Cush Dhnslon. — For receipt and ])ayment of pubHc funds at
Washington.
Jssue J)ivisio7i, — Completion of new United States notes, gold and
silver certificates, and count of silver, gold, and minor coin.
Jiedemptio/i Division. — All currency except national T)ank notes
received and redeemed.
Ijoaii Division. — Interest checks ])re])ared and bonds redeemed.
Accounts J)irisio/i. — The accounts of the treasurv, the sul)-treas-
uries, and the Unite«l States national hanks depositories are ke])t.
National Dank Dirision. — lias custody of bonds held for national
bank circulation, for puhlio deposits and various ))ul>lic trusts, and
makes collection of senii-aniuial duty.
Ncitional Bank Iledeniption Afjenci/. — Notes of national banks are
redeemed and accounted for.
The Register of tlie Treasury is the head official bookkeeper of
the United St.ites. He prepares a statement which shows all
receipts and (lis!)ursements of the public money (except those made
under the supervision of the Post-Office Department) which state-
ment is ti-aiLsmitted annually to C^onorress by the Secretary of the
Treasury. He signs and issues all bonds and sends to the Treas-
urer of the United Stat'js schedules sho^ying the names of persons
entitled to receive interest thereon. He registers all waiTants
860 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury upon the Treasurer, and
transmits statements of balances due to individuals after the settle-
ment of their accounts by the fii*st comptroller or the Commissioner
of Customs, upon which payment is made. The bureau of the
Register is sub-divided into the following divisions : —
Loan Dwision. — In this division registered and coupon bonds are
issaed and all registered bonds transferred ; it also has charge of the
conversion of coupons into registered bonds, the ledger accounts with
holders of registered bonds, and the preparation of schedules upon
which interest on the registered bonds is paid.
Heceipts and Kxpenditurea Division, — In this division are kept the
great account books of the United States which show the civil, diplo-
matic, internal revenue, miscellaneous aud public debt receipts and
expenditures.
Note Coupon and Currency Division, — In this division redeemed
bonds, paid interest coupons, interest checks, and interest-bearing notes
are examined and registered. Treasury notes, legal tenders, and
fractional currency are examined, cancelled, and the destruction
thereof witnessed and recorded.
Interest^ ^xpeiise^ and Warrafit Division. — In this division the
interest on the various loans, tlie premiums and discounts on bonds
sold, and the expense of negotiation are ascertained. It also receives
and registers all civil accounts and civil pay warrants.
The Comptroller of the Currency has, under the direcjtion of
the Secretary of the Treasury, the control of the national banks.
The sulxii visions of this bureau are: —
Orrjanization Dimsion. — The organization of national banks.
Issue Division. — The preparation and issue of national bank circu-
lation.
Reports Division, — Examination and consolidation of the reports
of national banks.
RedemjJtion Division. — The redemj)tion and destruction of notes
issued by national banks.
The Director of the Mint has general supervision of all the
mints and assay offices of the United States. He prescribes
rules, to be api)roved by the Secretary of the Treasury, for the
transact ion of business at the mints and assay offices. He reiru-
lates the distribution of silver coin, and the charges to l)e col-
lected from depositoi^. He receives for adjustment the accounts
yOBK POST OFFICE. — 1"50, 1800, 1
862 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT,
of the mints and assay oifices, superintends their expenditures and
annual settlements, and makes special examinations of them
whenever deemed necessary. All appointment43, removals, and
transfers in the mints and assay offices are subject to his
approval.
The purchase of silver bullion and the allotment of its coinage
is made by him, and at his request are made all transfei's of the
moneys in the mints and assay offices, and advances from appro-
priations for the mint service. Tests of the weight and fineness
of coins struck at the mints are made in the assay laboratory
under his charge. He estimates annually the values of the
standard coins of foreign countries for tlie guidance of the custom-
house officials and for other public purposes. He also prepares
two annual reports, one for the fiscal year, printed in the finance
report of tlie Secretary of the Treasury, and the other for the
calendar year, which contains the statistics of the yearly produc-
tion of the money metals.
The Commissioner "of Internal Revenue makes assessment of aU
internal revenue taxes, and has general superintendence of their
collection and of tlie enforcement of internal revenue laws, the
employment of internal revenue agents, the compensation and
duties of gaugei-s, store-keepci>;, and other sul)oi-dinate officers,
the preparation and distribution of stamps, instructions, etc.,
the analysis of food and drugs in the District of Columbia, and
tlie i)avmeiit of the bouiitv of su<jfar. His bureau is sub-divided
into eight divisions, which are designated as appointments, law,
tol)aeeo, accounts, distilled spirits, stanq^s, assessments, revenue
agents, and sugar bounty.
The S(^lieitor of the Treasury takes cognizance of all frauds or
attempted frauds on the customs revenue. He is charged by law
with duties regarding the compromise of debts, and with a super-
vision over suits for the collection of moneys due to the United
States, excepting those due under the internal revenue laws. His
aj)]>r()val is required of official bonds of United States assistant
treasurei-s, department disbursing clerks, collectors of internal
revenue, the secretary and the chief clerk of the department of
a'jfriculture. As the law ollieer of the treasurv de])artment many
matters are referred to him for his examination and oj^inion aris-
864 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
ing under the customs, navigation, banking, and registry laws,
and in the administration of the department.
He is also charged by law with the supervision of suite and
proceedings arising out of the provisions of law governing national
banking associations in which the United States and any of its
agents or officers are parties ; also with the charge, release, and
sale of lands acqjiired in payment of debt, excepting those acquired
under internal revenue laws.
The Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey is an
official of the Treasury Department. He is charged with the
survey of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts of the United
States, the survey of rivers to the head of tide-water or ship navi-
gation, deep sea soundings, temperature, currents, etc., and
observations on latitude and longitude and points of reference
for state surveys. Results of tliis survey are published annually
which embody professional papers of great value, notices to
mariners, tide tables, charts upon various scales, including harbor
charts, general charts of the coast, and sailing charts, chart cata-
logues, and coast pilots.
The General Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service is also
an official of the Treasur}^ Deimrtment. He supervises the
organization aud government of the employees of the service, pre-
pares regulations and fixes tlie number and compensation of the
surf-men at the several stations witliin the provisions of law, and
does such other things as he believes requisite to promote the effi-
ciency of the life-saving service. He makes an annual report of
the expenditures of the money appropriated for the maintenance of
tlie life-saving seivice to the Secretaiy of the Treasury, l)y whom
it is laid before Congress.
The Supervising Surgeon-General is charged with the super-
vision of the marine hospitals and other relief stations of the ser-
vice, and the care of sick and disabled seamen tiiken fi-om the
merchant vessels of the United States, and from the vessels of the
revenue marine and lighthouse services. He examines and
passes upon the medical certificates of claimants for pensions
under the laws of the life-saving service. He has also the direc-
tion of laboratories established to investigate the cause of con-
tagious diseases, and publishes each week an abstract of sanitarj'
AJIKAUAM X-INCOLM.
866 THE STORYT OF GOVERNMENT.
reports received from all parts of the United States and through
the State Department the reports received fi-om foreign countries.
The Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels superin-
tends the administration of the steamboat inspection laws, pre-
sides at the meeting of the Board of Supervising Inspectoi-s,
receives all reports and examines all accounts of inspectors.
Tlie Chief of the Bureau of Statistics collects and publishes
the statistics of our foreign commerce, embracing tables showing
the imports and exports respectively by countries and custom
districts, the rates of duty on impoi-ts, and the amount of duty
collected on each article or class of articles, the number of immi-
grants, their nationality and occupation, arriving from foreign
countries, and the number of passengera departing for foreign
countries, with much other information of kindred tenor.
The publications of this bureau are as follows : Annual Report
on Commerce and Navigation ; Annual Report on Internal Com-
merce ; Annual Statistical Abstract of the United States ; Quar-
terly Reports on Commerce, Navigation, and Immigration;
Monthly Summar}^ Statement of Imports and Exports ; Monthly
Reports of Total Values of Foreign Commerce and Immigration ;
Monthly Reports of Exports of Breadstuffs, of Provisions, of
Petroleum and Cotton.
The Bureau of Engi-aving and Printing is under tlie Treasury
Department. It designs, engraves, prints, and furnishes all of
the secui'ities and other similar work of the government printed
from steel plates (except postage stamps and postal notes) embi*a-
cing United States notes, bonds and certificates, national biink-
notes, internal revenue and custom stamps, ti-easuiy drafts and
checks, disbirrsing officers' cliecks, licenses, commissions, patent
and pension certificates and portraits of deceased membei's of Con-
gress and other public officei*s authorized by law.
Tlie Secretary of War is the official head of the War Depart-
ment of the United Stiites under the President as commander-in.
chief, and he perfonns such duties tis tlie President desires iH?lative
to tlie militiuy service. lie has chief supervision of all the esti-
mates of appropriations of money to be expended for the depart-
ment, and for army supplies and mtions, and tmnsportation of
troops, and such other expenditures iis he is allowed by law to
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM. 867
make. He lif^ also oflBcial chai'ge of the Military Academy at
West Poiut, of the national cemeteries, the Board of Ordnance
and Fortification, and the publication of the official records of the
Civil War.
He also attends to all matte i*s relating to river and harbor
improvements, the prevention of obstruction to navigation, the
establishment of harbor lines, and he approves all bridges author-
ized by Congress to be built over navigable waters in the United
States. An assistant secretary of war aids the secretary in attend-
ing to the duties of the office. A chief clerk attends to the official
mail and correspondence of tlie department and to such other
duties as may be required by the secretary.
The military bureaus of the department are supervised and
directed by officei's of the regular army as follows: Adjutant-
general, inspector-general, (juartermaster-general, commissary^-
general, surgeon-general, paymaster-general, chief of engineers,
chief of ordnances, judge-advocate-general, and chief signal officer.
The Secretaiy of tlie Navy is at the head of the Navy Depart-
ment, attending to all duties which may be assigned by the Pi*esi-
dent, and he has general superintendence of the construction,
equipment, and employment of all the war-ships of the United
Stiites. He is aided by an assistiiut secretary and a chief clerk
who has charge of all the correspondence of the department.
The naval bureaus of the department are in charge of officers
of the navy, and are as follows: Bureau of navigation, yards
and docks, equipment and recruiting, ordnance, construction and
repair, steam-engineering, medicine and surgery, provisions and
clothing, judge-advocate-general, and marine corps.
The Secretary of the Interior, who is the head of the Depart-
ment of the Interior, supervises all business relating to patents
for inventions, bounty, and pension lands, public lands and sur-
veys, education, railroads, the census, Indian reservations, etc.
He is aided by two assistants who have certain specific duties
assigned them. A chief clerk has general supervision of the
clerks and other employees of the department, and of all its corres
pondence and papers. Under the jurisdiction of this department
the following important officials conduct the duties of their respec-
tive offices.
868 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
The Commissioner of Patents administers the patent laws,
supervises the issuing of lettera-patent, and the registi-ation of
labels and trade-marks. A corps of skilled assistants aid him in
attending to business of the office. The Commissioner of Pen-
sions who examines and adjudicates on all claims for pensions
made according to law. The Commissioner of the General Land
Office attends to the survey, management, and sale of the public
lands, and the issuance of titles for the same.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs superintends the various
tribes of Indians in the several States and Ten-itories. Tlirough
agents he attends to the annual distribution of rations to such
tribes as may be entitled thereto ; he has charge of the general
management of their schools and other duties of a general charac-
ter prescribed by law. The Commissioner of Education collects
statistics showing tlie progress of education througliout the Union*
its form and character in the various portions of tlie countiy, and
all such information as may tend to promote the diffusion of
intelligence.
The Commissioner <^f Railroads is tlio official to whom tliose rail-
road (•()r[)()rjitions ri'iutrt whose roads are located wholly or partly
north, south, or west of the iMissouri River, and to wlioni tht*
L^iiitiMl States Governinvnt has cfraiited anv loan for buildintr or
e(|uipping tlu^ said roads; he is authorized to examine their books
and accounts at least once a year, aud at such other times as Ik*
deems iiecessarv, aud to furnish such information as he m:iv deem
ex[)(Mlieut for the interest of the governnuMit in his annual report,
which uuist be madci to the Secretary of tli(i lutericn* on the tii-st
day of \oyeuil)er of each year.
The Dinu-torof tlu^ (reoh)<ifical Survey attends to the classifica-
tion of i)ul)lic lauds, the examination of the geological stmctnre,
miueial resources, aud products of the national domain The
Superiuteu(l(uit of i\n) Census superintends the taking of the cen-
sus of the Ignited States every tenth year, and its arrangement,
classiiication, aud compilation for th(» pul)lic information.
The Postniiuster-General is the head of the Post-Offiee Depart-
ment, of Ayhich he is the director aud manager. He appointed all
offieei's and employees of the department except the four assistant
postmixsters-general, who are appointed by the President by and
870 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
with the advice and consent of the Senate ; he appoints all post-
mastera whose compensation does not exceed one thousand dollars,
makes postal treaties with foreign governments by and with the
advice and consent of the President, awards and executes con-
tracts, and directs the management of the domestic and foreign
mail service. Each of the assistant .postmasters-general has
charge of a great division containing a large number of sulxlivis-
ions which is thus an-anged for convenience and the despatch of
business.
The Attorney-General is the head of the Department of Justice,
and is the first law officer of the government. He represents the
United States in all legal matters; he gives his advice and
opinion on questions of law when they are required by the Presi-
dent, or by the heads of the other executive departments on ques-
tions of law arising from the administration of their respective
departments; he also exercises a general superintendence and
direction over United States attorneys and marshals in all judi-
cial districts in the States and Territories, and he provides
special counsel for the United States whenever requii*ed by any
department of the government.
A chief clerk witli a number of subordinates assists in conduct-
m^^ tlie clerical business of the department. The Solicitor-Gen-
enil aids the attorney-general in the legal duties of his office
and in his absence acts for him. Tliere are four a^ssistant attor-
neys-general wlio assist in all the legal duties wliich come under
the supervision of the attorney-general.
The Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the Department of
Agriculture. He luis superintendence of all public business con-
nected with the agricultural industry, lie appoints all pei^sons
employed in his department, except the assistant secretary and the
Chief of the Weather Bureau, whose appointments are made by
the President. There are a <jfreat number of sub-divisions in this
department such as the Weather Hureau, the Bureau of Animal
Industry, the Botanical Division, the Division of Vegetable
Pathology, the Chemical Division, the Seed Division, etc., each
with its appropriate chief officer who attends to certain s{>eeified
duties under the direction of the seci-etarv.
The Commissioner of Lal)or is the liead of tlie Deimrtment of
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM. 871
Labor, whose chief duties are to secure useful information on
matter of importance in the relations of labor and capital in the
United States. The collection of facts regarding the hours of
labor, wages paid to men and women, cost of living, housing of
the wage earnei-s, the cost of production and distribution of pro-
ducts, and such like come witliin the scope of his duties.
He is especially charged to investigate the causes of and facts
relating to all controversies and disputes between the eniployei-s of
labor and their employees, and is authorized to obtain information
which may be useful even from foreign countries. He is obliged
to report annually the doings of his department to the President
and Congress and also at such other times as special information
may be desired by either authority.
An Interstate Commission is established with authority to
inquire into the management of the business of all common car-
riers who are subject to the provisions of '"An act to regulate
commerce/' which became law on February 4, 1877, and which
has jurisdiction generally over rates on intei'state traflic, to decide
questions of unjust discrimination and of undue preference, and
to enforce all the provisions of the act.
The United States Civil Service Commission makes recrulations
for the examination of all employees who enter the civil service of
the nation. A Court of Claims, the government printing-office.
Board on Geographic Kames, Bureau of American Republics, and
the Inter-continental Railway Commission, with certain limited
duties assigned to each, of minor importance, make up the balance
of all the bureaus under the immediate control of the Executive.
Respecting the third coordinate branch of the government —
the Judiciary — Article III. of tlie Constitution provides: —
Skctiox 1 . Tlie judicial power of the United States sliall be vi'sted in
one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may
from time to time ordain and establisli. The judges, both of the su-
preme and mferior courts, sliall hold tlieir offices during good behavior,
and shall at stated times receive for their services a compensation
which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
SEr. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and
equity arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States,
and treaties made, or which shall he made under their authority — to
872 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, to
all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to
which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between
two or more states ; between a state and citizens of another state ; be-
tween citizens of different states ; between citizens of the same state
claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or
the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.
In all cases aflF^cting ambassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases
befoix3 mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appelate juris-
diction, both as to law and fact; with such exceptions and under
such regulations as the Congress sliall make.
The power herein vested in the Supreme Court is now exercised
by nine judges, who arc called Justices of the Supreme Court,
and the tribunal itself is oiBcially designated the Supreme Bench.
Tlie head, or presiding Justice of the Bench, is called the Chief
Justice of the United States. The President of the United States
nominates the judges of all the United States courts, which
noniiuatious uie submitted to tlio Spirit;', as it is neces-^ary that
the hitter sliould couiirm eai-h appointment, otherwise it is of no
oft'ect. Wlieiiever the Senalv' I'efuses to endoi'se an appointment,
the President generally submits the name of some other person for
tlu? olhe(\
The decisions of the Supreme Couit are iinal ; it is the highest
aulhoritv, tlie court of last resort. .Vfler it decides what is the
law on any disputed question, tlie whole power of the nation
stands ready to enforce its decision. Even Congress may ])ass a
measure and tlie President sign it. hut if the Supreme Couit
declares it to 1h^ unconstitutional, it is null and void. Tlni court
is iiidepeiidciit as well as supreme 1:1 tlu* judicial sphere. It does
not depend on (\)ngress or tlie President, as each judge when
api)oiiite(l holds his oHice dui'ing good behavior and cannot ho
removiMl exce})t by impeaehnient, in the manner provided by the
Constitution. The court cannot initiate, nor make, nor execute
any laws. It can onlv (h^cide upon laws ali'eadv made.
A majority of the court— that is of the judges composing it —
decides every (piestion which comes up for adjudicaticm. This is
874 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
called I'endering the decisioa of the court, which is written out by
one of the justices selected for that purpose, in appropriate lan-
guage, alleging reasons and citing precedents for the new
decision given, which will serve itself as a precedent for the final
interpretation of the law in the future.
When one or more of the judges constituting a minority of the
Bench cannot concur with the majority, a dissenting opinion is
written out and placed upon record with the other in the official
reports of the court, but the dissenting opinion does not affect in
any way the interpretation of the law.
The regular sessions of the Supreme Court are held in Wash-
ington from the middle of October till May, when the judges
separate, each going into a different section of the country to pre-
side over the sessions of the United States Circuit Courts.
Special sessions of the court may be held at any time as the jus-
tices determine. Each judge is paid a salary of ten thousand
dollars a year, the chief justice receiving five hundred dollars
additional. Provision has been made by Act of Congress that a
justice who has served ten years on the Bench and is seventy years
of age may retire on a })ensi()U equivalent to his salary for the
remainder of his life.
Wliile the Supreme Court determines liually all (questions rela-
tive to tlie Constitution, and to such other mattei's as are set fortii
in Article III. of that instrument, Conirress, bv virtue of its eon-
stitutional power, lias established national eourts of inferior juris-
diction, viz: Courts of Appeal, Circuit Courts, District Couils,
and Commissionei's* Courts.
The Courts of Appeal were established in 1801 to decide
definitely certain (dasses of cases which formerly were appealed to
the Su[)renie Court, thus relieving the latter from the enormous
pressure of l)usiness which threatened to blotdv the judicial wheels.
The whole country is divided into nine judicial divisions each
having a Circuit Court.
These divisions are afjfiiin subdivided into districts, eacli having
a District Court. The Coniniissionei*s' Court is the tribunal of
lowest jurisdiction aniong them all. Each of these courts has the
limits of its jurisdiction clearly prescriU'd by law; its own judge,
or l)ench of judges, its clerks, and other olHcials.
COMPLEX BEPUBLICANISM. 876
In the Territories of the United States special national eom-ts
are also maintained wliich adjudicate upon all questions arising
within the territorial domain, and having judges and other court
officials appointed by the President. All the courts of the United
States in every part of the country follow the same rules. They
are governed exclusively in their proceedings by the statute law
enacted by Congress, and consequently they are not affected by
the dissimilarity of the laws of the respective States in which they
hold their sessions. The limits of their jurisdiction, however,
are explicitly defined, and they cannot invade the field of the
State tribunals within the legal domain of the latter, except in
those particular instances reserved in the Constitution.
The most difficult thing to a foreigner to comprehend respect-
ing our government is the relation which our States bear to the
nation, and the limited universal jurisdiction of the latter
throughout the Sbites. This difficulty disappears, if it is clearly
understood that the nation has no authority or power whatever,
except such as has been, or may be, specially delegated to it by
the States and expressly stated in the Constitution.
All power in our country comes from the people of the respec-
tive States who have deemed it wise for the connnon welfare to
surrender certixin powers which they originally possessed to the
nation wliich now exercises them. The nation has no riglits or
authority except such as have been thus conferred in explicit
terms by the States, and it cannot take away any power which
the}'' still retain. In some countries tlie national governments
confer and take away the people's riglits as tliey see fit ; with
us, the people remain sovereign.
The ninth and tenth amendments to the Constitution are very
explic^it ou this point, showing how very strictly, indeed jealously,
the people guarded against any usurpation of power l)y our
natioiiiil government. The ninth amendment declares: "The
enumeration in tlie Constitution of certain ricfhts shall not be con-
strued to deny or disparage othei-s retained by the people." And
the tenth amendment, with notable clearness and precision, says,
"The powei*s not delegated to the United States by the Constitu-
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people."
876 THE STORY OF GOVKRNMENT.
Those powei-s only wliich liave been considered neeessarj*- to
ensure the common safety, welfare, Jind convenience of the people
of all the States have been surrendered to Congress which repre-
sents the nation. The eighth section of Aiticle I. of the Consti-
tution, with the constitutional amendments, define the i)owers
which Congress alone shall exercise. These i)Owei's have been
stated in the beginning of this chapter and in all other respects
each State of the Union is sovereign within its own Ixirdei-s; it
can enact such laws as the people see fit, but they nuist not con-
flict with laws passed by Congress in the proper exercise of its
constitutional power, nor can a State establish any other than a
republican form of government, because the Constitution pro-
hibits it from doing so.
The form of our State governments is very similar to that of
the national government. Each State has a written constitution,
and a legislative, executive, and judicial dei)artment. The execu-
tive of a State is called the governor; he is elected by the })eople
by direct vote, except in one or two States, for a term fixed by
themselves, in some cases for one, iu othei's for two or three vears.
lie sees that all laws of the State are eai'iied out, and is eom-
mauder-in-eliief of (lie militia, or armed volunteers, whirh he cdn
call out for seivice iu eertain exigenei(\s ])reserilKMl l)y law. lie
also i)oss(isses {\w. })ower of veto over sueh leLcislative measures as
he deems opj)()se(l to th(; public; welfare.
The leii^islature of a Slate consists of two liouses, an upper and
a lowtM* liouse, desiLriuited resneetivelv as tlie Senate and House of
KeprescMitatives, thoUL»li in some States tlie latter is eaUed tlie
Asseml)lv. The members of both hous(\s arc; ehosen direct Iv bv
tlie people. A senator, represent ini^ a much lai'L'i'er district than
a memher of the; lower house, is voted for bv a nnieh larcrer mini-
ber of ])eople, and hence the Senate is always much smaller
numerically than the House of Kepresentatives. Tlu; duty of a
State Ic'jislature is to make all laws reiruhitiu''' the internal con-
cerns -of the; State. It is the authority which grants ehartei*s
to business' eorj)()rations and cities, and it exercises control over
l)anks, insurance com[)ani(»s, and every piihlic and quasi-public
undertaking carried on Avilhin its jurisdiction.
In some States the legislatures are elected every year, and hold
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COMPLEX BEPUBLICAKIBK. 881
umual sessions, while in others biennial elections and sessions
are the rule. Very recently in some sections of the country,
moyements have been made towards securing triennial and even
quadrennial elections in certain States. It is claimed by the
advocates of less frequent elections and sessions tliat the turmoil
and excitement of political campaigns is a great hindrance to
business, and that more perfect legislation could be expected from
men chosen for three or four years than from those chosen for one
year. These claims, however, are generally made by the agents
and attorneys of corporations and syndicates who frequent the
lobbies of our State Houses, endeavoring to secure special legisla-
tion in the interest of their employera.
The frequency of our elect ions in these daj's of gigantic corpora-
tions who bring influences of various kinds to bear on the mem-
bers of our legishitures is the great safeguard and tower of defence
of the people. The annual political campaign is a great educator
of the masses, and the legislator newly commissioned by them
more truly undei'stands and elosel}" represents the views of his
constituents than one who is removed from them by a term of
two, three, or more yeai"s.
The honest and intelligent legislator has no fear of appearing
before his constituents frequently for re-election; tlie dishonest
man may well dread tlie ordeal. There never was a time in the
histoiy of our counliy wlien it has Ix'sen so necessaiy for the peo-
ple to keep tlie closest supen^ision over tlie doings of their repre-
sentatives, and to express their opinions often at the ballot-box
on measures and men, than at the present time, owing to the new
colossal forces of corporati? power which wield such a tremendous
and sinister influence in our legislative halls.
The judicial dei)artnieiit of each State, consisting of courts and
judges ranging from the court of last resort, or Supreme Tribunal,
down to the lowest in jurisdiction, administers the law of the
State. The highest court in a State determines finally all ques-
tions relative to the constitution of the State, that is to say it
interprets the constitution, and all legal matters coming before it
on appeal from the lower courts.
The constitution is the organic law of each commonwealtl), and
a legislature cannot enact a law which will be operative against
882 THE STORY OP GOVERNMENT.
it. If the constitution requires alteration or amendment of any
nature, it must be altered or amended by the whole people of the
State, themselves voting directly on the matter. The laws of
each State vary as a rule from those of the other States, and the
law of one is of no force in any other.
Because of the sovereignty of the States and the dissimilarity
of their laws, the national Constitution provides for the regula-
tion of certain general matters by the United States Congress ;
and also that the public statutes of each State shall be recognized
and respected by all the others. No Stjite, for instance, can
impair the validity of a legal contract made in another State, nor
can it reopen in its courts a case which has been decided by a
competent tribunal in some other State, because the national Con-
a
stitution has so provided to prevent the confusion which would
result from such a condition. Congress representing the nation
manages the affairs that are common to all the States, while the
latter attend to everything else.
In the sparsely settled districts of the country not included in
any of the States, Congress establishes a government usually upon
the petition of some of the people wlio live there. The governor,
judges, and other principal officers of the territory are then nomi-
nated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The people
elect their own legislature which, with the appointed governor,
conduct territorial matters very much as the States do. Indeed,
a Territory is simply an embryo, or infant State ; it only requires
age and growth to become one.
Each teiTitory sends one delegate to the House of Representa-
tives in Wasliington to look after its interests, and make Congress
acquainted with the wants of his constituents. These delegates
cannot vote on any question, but they can speak on the floor of
the House, and otherwise exercise whatever influence they possess
on legislation in wliich they are interested.
The power of Congress over the Territories is supreme in everj'
way. A law made by a Territory becomes invalid whenever Con-
gress says so. A territorial legislature might pass a law similar
to that of a State contiguous, but if Congress disapproved of it,
it would be null, while the same law in the State could not be
interfered with.
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM. 883
When a territory grows large in population and desires to be
admitted a State of the Union, its legislature calls a convention
which adopts a constitution. Tliis constitution is then pre-
sented to Congress, with a petition asking that the territory be
permitted to enter the Union of States. As soon as this is
allowed, the new State, although its population may not be one
twentieth of some of the older States, is entitled to two members
in the Senate of the United States, indicative of its equal sover-
eignty with the other States. She is entitled to as many mem-
bers in the lower House of Congress as her i)opulation gives her
the right to choose and no more.
In closing this necessarily brief exposition and explanation of
the complexities of the republicanism under which we live, we
should fail in our duty to the subject and most of all to the
American people, if we did not point out in clear, unmistakable
terms the grave perils in the path of our progress to which allu-
sion was made in the beginning of this chapter.
We began our national life with the fairest auspices. The
natural wealth of the country was fairly well distributed. No
wide extremes of riches and of poverty dazzled and disturbed the
public vision. Patriotism, pride in our country or in our countiy-
men — a just pride then — was no mere catchword or political
excuse for oratorical display, but was a vital, throbbing, pei*sonal
fact. To be an American was greater than a king.
To-day, how many Americans are ^practically free ? For, if a
man is dependent on the will, or wish, or whim of another to give
him work, and has no certainty that his work will be continuous,
is he not really a slave ? Yet many of the men who suffer just
such a degrading dependence risked their lives thirty odd years ago
to abolish slavery ? They did abolish the slavery of colored men
and blotted out the word as a legal and technical term. But the
thing remains.
Remains with regained and with increasing vigor — a servitude
not merely of the semi-civilized and ignorant mass of an alien race,
but a subjection of white men, and women, and children to a few
taskmasters, a very few profiters and promoters of an industrial
system just as absurd as it is cruel and degrading.
We indulged, especially in New England, in a vast amount of
884 THE STORY OF GOVERNMENT.
virtuous indignation over the evil of black slaverj, and we spent
many noble lives and much treasure to remove the motes from the
eyes of our Southern brother's. But no unpartisan observer will
deny that the condition of colored men mider the regime of the
planter aristocrat was far better on an average than that of the
lower classes to-day in any of our large cities. What, then,
awaits the republic ?
The masses are discontented, and they have a right to be so.
For huge monopolies since the war have crawled into existence
and coiled themselves around the legislature, the judicial bench,
the pulpit and, worst sign of all ! around the press. The middle
classes, to be sure, are tolerably prosperous, and a small pei-sonal
prosperity salves their consciences into silence.
But theirs is a fool's paradise, for numerically they represent
only a tenth of tlie population and tlius, with the working class
who represent nearly nine tenths on one side, and the plutocrats
who represent about one seventieth on the other, the middle classes
are between the upper and nether millstone, and are liable, unless
they wake up in time and liiusten to efTect a change in tlie system,
to l)e ground into powder by dynamite in tlie liantLs of an enraged
populace wliose only Jack for present action is the lack of a
leader.
There is one cure for many, not for all, the evils of our present
situation, and this cure would also Ix*. a preventive of a worse
condition of the body politic. This remedy is a simple one and
the number of pc^-sons who see its virtue increases every day.
That is, to take all the large businesses which directly concern the
masses out of the tricky hands of private enterprise, and make
them parts of the machinery of the government, like the post-oJHce,
for instance.
Railroads, telegniplLs, telephones, expresses, mines of all kinds,
ought to be owned and operated by the general government at
cost for the benefit of the whole people. All means of su[)plying
light, heat, and pure water should belong to the cities and towns ;
likewise^, of course, all franchises for public conveyance such as
hoi^se or electric care.
After these, some other businesses that affect the health of the
pgople might wisely be done by the village, town, or stixte. By
COMPLEX REPUBLICANISM. 886
this method a growth of true and valuable individualities would
he stimulated and a sufficiently large field for the free play of
better individual effort would remain to yield a rich harvest for
the race in the present as well as the future. If some of these
things are not done speedily, it needs no special gift of prophecy
to predict a tremendous crash of national disaster, for the Ameri-
can people, as we noted before, are unquestionably growing very
discontented.
And you who are one of the toiling, moiling millions, you who
live in a poor, ill-furnished liouse, who suffer from cold in winter
and have no bathtub to keep you clean from the daily sweats of
your vacationless summer, you who would like to work a trifle
less and to know a trifle more, you who would like to live with just
a little more dignity, a little more decency — you say the Ameri-
can masses have a right to be discontented. A riglit? Yes, and
in truth it is their highest duty to be so, for discontent is one of
the noblest words in tlie American language. Nay, more, it is not
a mere word. Discontent is the Divine Mother of Progress.
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