MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS(各种各样的文件)

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MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

MISCELLANEOUS

PAPERS

BY CHARLES DICKENS

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

THE AGRICULTURAL

INTEREST

The present Government, having shown itself to be particularly clever

in its management of Indictments for Conspiracy, cannot do better, we

think (keeping in its administrative eye the pacification of some of its most

influential and most unruly supporters), than indict the whole

manufacturing interest of the country for a conspiracy against the

agricultural interest. As the jury ought to be beyond impeachment, the

panel might be chosen among the Duke of Buckingham's tenants, with the

Duke of Buckingham himself as foreman; and, to the end that the country

might be quite satisfied with the judge, and have ample security

beforehand for his moderation and impartiality, it would be desirable,

perhaps, to make such a slight change in the working of the law (a mere

nothing to a Conservative Government, bent upon its end), as would

enable the question to be tried before an Ecclesiastical Court, with the

Bishop of Exeter presiding. The Attorney-General for Ireland, turning

his sword into a ploughshare, might conduct the prosecution; and Mr.

Cobden and the other traversers might adopt any ground of defence they

chose, or prove or disprove anything they pleased, without being

embarrassed by the least anxiety or doubt in reference to the verdict.

That the country in general is in a conspiracy against this sacred but

unhappy agricultural interest, there can be no doubt. It is not alone

within the walls of Covent Garden Theatre, or the Free Trade Hall at

Manchester, or the Town Hall at Birmingham, that the cry "Repeal the

Corn-laws!" is raised. It may be heard, moaning at night, through the

straw-littered wards of Refuges for the Destitute; it may be read in the

gaunt and famished faces which make our streets terrible; it is muttered in

the thankful grace pronounced by haggard wretches over their felon fare in

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

gaols; it is inscribed in dreadful characters upon the walls of Fever

Hospitals; and may be plainly traced in every record of mortality. All of

which proves, that there is a vast conspiracy afoot, against the unfortunate

agricultural interest.

They who run, even upon railroads, may read of this conspiracy. The

old stage-coachman was a farmer's friend. He wore top-boots,

understood cattle, fed his horses upon corn, and had a lively personal

interest in malt. The engine-driver's garb, and sympathies, and tastes

belong to the factory. His fustian dress, besmeared with coal-dust and

begrimed with soot; his oily hands, his dirty face, his knowledge of

machinery; all point him out as one devoted to the manufacturing interest.

Fire and smoke, and red-hot cinders follow in his wake. He has no

attachment to the soil, but travels on a road of iron, furnace wrought. His

warning is not conveyed in the fine old Saxon dialect of our glorious

forefathers, but in a fiendish yell. He never cries "ya-hip", with

agricultural lungs; but jerks forth a manufactured shriek from a brazen

throat.

Where is the agricultural interest represented? From what phase of

our social life has it not been driven, to the undue setting up of its false

rival?

Are the police agricultural? The watchmen were. They wore

woollen nightcaps to a man; they encouraged the growth of timber, by

patriotically adhering to staves and rattles of immense size; they slept

every night in boxes, which were but another form of the celebrated

wooden walls of Old England; they never woke up till it was too late--in

which respect you might have thought them very farmers. How is it with

the police? Their buttons are made at Birmingham; a dozen of their

truncheons would poorly furnish forth a watchman's staff; they have no

wooden walls to repose between; and the crowns of their hats are plated

with cast-iron.

Are the doctors agricultural? Let Messrs. Morison and Moat, of the

Hygeian establishment at King's Cross, London, reply. Is it not, upon the

constant showing of those gentlemen, an ascertained fact that the whole

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

medical profession have united to depreciate the worth of the Universal

Vegetable Medicines? And is this opposition to vegetables, and

exaltation of steel and iron instead, on the part of the regular practitioners,

capable of any interpretation but one? Is it not a distinct renouncement of

the agricultural interest, and a setting up of the manufacturing interest

instead?

Do the professors of the law at all fail in their truth to the beautiful

maid whom they ought to adore? Inquire of the Attorney- General for

Ireland. Inquire of that honourable and learned gentleman, whose last

public act was to cast aside the grey goose- quill, an article of agricultural

produce, and take up the pistol, which, under the system of percussion

locks, has not even a flint to connect it with farming. Or put the question

to a still higher legal functionary, who, on the same occasion, when he

should have been a reed, inclining here and there, as adverse gales of

evidence disposed him, was seen to be a manufactured image on the seat

of Justice, cast by Power, in most impenetrable brass.

The world is too much with us in this manufacturing interest, early and

late; that is the great complaint and the great truth. It is not so with the

agricultural interest, or what passes by that name. It never thinks of the

suffering world, or sees it, or cares to extend its knowledge of it; or, so

long as it remains a world, cares anything about it. All those whom

Dante placed in the first pit or circle of the doleful regions, might have

represented the agricultural interest in the present Parliament, or at quarter

sessions, or at meetings of the farmers' friends, or anywhere else.

But that is not the question now. It is conspired against; and we have

given a few proofs of the conspiracy, as they shine out of various classes

engaged in it. An indictment against the whole manufacturing interest

need not be longer, surely, than the indictment in the case of the Crown

against O'Connell and others. Mr. Cobden may be taken as its

representative--as indeed he is, by one consent already. There may be no

evidence; but that is not required. A judge and jury are all that is needed.

And the Government know where to find them, or they gain experience to

little purpose.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

THREATENING LETTER TO THOMAS HOOD FROM AN

ANCIENT GENTLEMAN

MR. HOOD. SIR,--The Constitution is going at last! You needn't

laugh, Mr. Hood. I am aware that it has been going, two or three times

before; perhaps four times; but it is on the move now, sir, and no mistake.

I beg to say, that I use those last expressions advisedly, sir, and not in

the sense in which they are now used by Jackanapeses. There were no

Jackanapeses when I was a boy, Mr. Hood. England was Old England

when I was young. I little thought it would ever come to be Young

England when I was old. But everything is going backward.

Ah! governments were governments, and judges were judges, in my

day, Mr. Hood. There was no nonsense then. Any of your seditious

complainings, and we were ready with the military on the shortest notice.

We should have charged Covent Garden Theatre, sir, on a Wednesday

night: at the point of the bayonet. Then, the judges were full of dignity

and firmness, and knew how to administer the law. There is only one

judge who knows how to do his duty, now. He tried that revolutionary

female the other day, who, though she was in full work (making shirts at

three-halfpence a piece), had no pride in her country, but treasonably took

it in her head, in the distraction of having been robbed of her easy earnings,

to attempt to drown herself and her young child; and the glorious man

went out of his way, sir--out of his way--to call her up for instant sentence

of Death; and to tell her she had no hope of mercy in this world--as you

may see yourself if you look in the papers of Wednesday the 17th of April.

He won't be supported, sir, I know he won't; but it is worth remembering

that his words were carried into every manufacturing town of this

kingdom, and read aloud to crowds in every political parlour, beer-shop,

news-room, and secret or open place of assembly, frequented by the

discontented working-men; and that no milk-and-water weakness on the

part of the executive can ever blot them out. Great things like that, are

caught up, and stored up, in these times, and are not forgotten, Mr. Hood.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

The public at large (especially those who wish for peace and conciliation)

are universally obliged to him. If it is reserved for any man to set the

Thames on fire, it is reserved for him; and indeed I am told he very nearly

did it, once.

But even he won't save the constitution, sir: it is mauled beyond the

power of preservation. Do you know in what foul weather it will be

sacrificed and shipwrecked, Mr. Hood? Do you know on what rock it

will strike, sir? You don't, I am certain; for nobody does know as yet but

myself. I will tell you.

The constitution will go down, sir (nautically speaking), in the

degeneration of the human species in England, and its reduction into a

mingled race of savages and pigmies.

That is my proposition. That is my prediction. That is the event of

which I give you warning. I am now going to prove it, sir.

You are a literary man, Mr. Hood, and have written, I am told, some

things worth reading. I say I am told, because I never read what is

written in these days. You'll excuse me; but my principle is, that no man

ought to know anything about his own time, except that it is the worst time

that ever was, or is ever likely to be. That is the only way, sir, to be truly

wise and happy.

In your station, as a literary man, Mr. Hood, you are frequently at the

Court of Her Gracious Majesty the Queen. God bless her! You have

reason to know that the three great keys to the royal palace (after rank and

politics) are Science, Literature, Art. I don't approve of this myself. I

think it ungenteel and barbarous, and quite un-English; the custom having

been a foreign one, ever since the reigns of the uncivilised sultans in the

Arabian Nights, who always called the wise men of their time about them.

But so it is. And when you don't dine at the royal table, there is always a

knife and fork for you at the equerries' table: where, I understand, all

gifted men are made particularly welcome.

But all men can't be gifted, Mr. Hood. Neither scientific, literary, nor

artistical powers are any more to be inherited than the property arising

from scientific, literary, or artistic productions, which the law, with a

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

beautiful imitation of nature, declines to protect in the second generation.

Very good, sir. Then, people are naturally very prone to cast about in their

minds for other means of getting at Court Favour; and, watching the signs

of the times, to hew out for themselves, or their descendants, the likeliest

roads to that distinguished goal.

Mr. Hood, it is pretty clear, from recent records in the Court Circular,

that if a father wish to train up his son in the way he should go, to go to

Court: and cannot indenture him to be a scientific man, an author, or an

artist, three courses are open to him. He must endeavour by artificial

means to make him a dwarf, a wild man, or a Boy Jones.

Now, sir, this is the shoal and quicksand on which the constitution will

go to pieces.

I have made inquiry, Mr. Hood, and find that in my neighbourhood

two families and a fraction out of every four, in the lower and middle

classes of society, are studying and practising all conceivable arts to keep

their infant children down. Understand me. I do not mean down in

their numbers, or down in their precocity, but down in their growth, sir.

A destructive and subduing drink, compounded of gin and milk in equal

quantities, such as is given to puppies to retard their growth: not

something short, but something shortening: is administered to these

young creatures many times a day. An unnatural and artificial thirst is

first awakened in these infants by meals of salt beef, bacon, anchovies,

sardines, red herrings, shrimps, olives, pea-soup, and that description of

diet; and when they screech for drink, in accents that might melt a heart of

stone, which they do constantly (I allude to screeching, not to melting),

this liquid is introduced into their too confiding stomachs. At such an

early age, and to so great an extent, is this custom of provoking thirst, then

quenching it with a stunting drink, observed, that brine pap has already

superseded the use of tops-and-bottoms; and wet-nurses, previously free

from any kind of reproach, have been seen to stagger in the streets:

owing, sir, to the quantity of gin introduced into their systems, with a view

to its gradual and natural conversion into the fluid I have already

mentioned.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

Upon the best calculation I can make, this is going on, as I have said,

in the proportion of about two families and a fraction in four. In one

more family and a fraction out of the same number, efforts are being made

to reduce the children to a state of nature; and to inculcate, at a tender age,

the love of raw flesh, train oil, new rum, and the acquisition of scalps.

Wild and outlandish dances are also in vogue (you will have observed the

prevailing rage for the Polka); and savage cries and whoops are much

indulged in (as you may discover, if you doubt it, in the House of

Commons any night). Nay, some persons, Mr. Hood; and persons of some

figure and distinction too; have already succeeded in breeding wild sons;

who have been publicly shown in the Courts of Bankruptcy, and in police-

offices, and in other commodious exhibition-rooms, with great effect, but

who have not yet found favour at court; in consequence, as I infer, of the

impression made by Mr. Rankin's wild men being too fresh and recent, to

say nothing of Mr. Rankin's wild men being foreigners. I need not refer

you, sir, to the late instance of the Ojibbeway Bride. But I am credibly

informed, that she is on the eve of retiring into a savage fastness, where

she may bring forth and educate a wild family, who shall in course of time,

by the dexterous use of the popularity they are certain to acquire at

Windsor and St. James's, divide with dwarfs the principal offices of state,

of patronage, and power, in the United Kingdom.

Consider the deplorable consequences, Mr. Hood, which must result

from these proceedings, and the encouragement they receive in the highest

quarters.

The dwarf being the favourite, sir, it is certain that the public mind will

run in a great and eminent degree upon the production of dwarfs.

Perhaps the failures only will be brought up, wild. The imagination goes

a long way in these cases; and all that the imagination can do, will be done,

and is doing. You may convince yourself of this, by observing the

condition of those ladies who take particular notice of General Tom

Thumb at the Egyptian Hall, during his hours of performance.

The rapid increase of dwarfs, will be first felt in her Majesty's

recruiting department. The standard will, of necessity, be lowered; the

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

dwarfs will grow smaller and smaller; the vulgar expression "a man of his

inches" will become a figure of fact, instead of a figure of speech; crack

regiments, household-troops especially, will pick the smallest men from

all parts of the country; and in the two little porticoes at the Horse Guards,

two Tom Thumbs will be daily seen, doing duty, mounted on a pair of

Shetland ponies. Each of them will be relieved (as Tom Thumb is at this

moment, in the intervals of his performance) by a wild man; and a British

Grenadier will either go into a quart pot, or be an Old Boy, or Blue Gull,

or Flying Bull, or some other savage chief of that nature.

I will not expatiate upon the number of dwarfs who will be found

representing Grecian statues in all parts of the metropolis; because I am

inclined to think that this will be a change for the better; and that the

engagement of two or three in Trafalgar Square will tend to the

improvement of the public taste.

The various genteel employments at Court being held by dwarfs, sir, it

will be necessary to alter, in some respects, the present regulations. It is

quite clear that not even General Tom Thumb himself could preserve a

becoming dignity on state occasions, if required to walk about with a

scaffolding-pole under his arm; therefore the gold and silver sticks at

present used, must be cut down into skewers of those precious metals; a

twig of the black rod will be quite as much as can be conveniently

preserved; the coral and bells of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,

will be used in lieu of the mace at present in existence; and that bauble (as

Oliver Cromwell called it, Mr. Hood), its value being first calculated by

Mr. Finlayson, the government actuary, will be placed to the credit of the

National Debt.

All this, sir, will be the death of the constitution. But this is not all.

The constitution dies hard, perhaps; but there is enough disease impending,

Mr. Hood, to kill it three times over.

Wild men will get into the House of Commons. Imagine that, sir!

Imagine Strong Wind in the House of Commons! It is not an easy matter

to get through a debate now; but I say, imagine Strong Wind, speaking for

the benefit of his constituents, upon the floor of the House of Commons!

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

or imagine (which is pregnant with more awful consequences still) the

ministry having an interpreter in the House of Commons, to tell the

country, in English, what it really means!

Why, sir, that in itself would be blowing the constitution out of the

mortar in St. James's Park, and leaving nothing of it to be seen but smoke.

But this, I repeat it, is the state of things to which we are fast tending,

Mr. Hood; and I enclose my card for your private eye, that you may be

quite certain of it. What the condition of this country will be, when its

standing army is composed of dwarfs, with here and there a wild man to

throw its ranks into confusion, like the elephants employed in war in

former times, I leave you to imagine, sir. It may be objected by some

hopeful jackanapeses, that the number of impressments in the navy,

consequent upon the seizure of the Boy-Joneses, or remaining portion of

the population ambitious of Court Favour, will be in itself sufficient to

defend our Island from foreign invasion. But I tell those jackanapeses,

sir, that while I admit the wisdom of the Boy Jones precedent, of

kidnapping such youths after the expiration of their several terms of

imprisonment as vagabonds; hurrying them on board ship; and packing

them off to sea again whenever they venture to take the air on shore; I

deny the justice of the inference; inasmuch as it appears to me, that the

inquiring minds of those young outlaws must naturally lead to their being

hanged by the enemy as spies, early in their career; and before they shall

have been rated on the books of our fleet as able seamen.

Such, Mr. Hood, sir, is the prospect before us! And unless you, and

some of your friends who have influence at Court, can get up a giant as a

forlorn hope, it is all over with this ill-fated land.

In reference to your own affairs, sir, you will take whatever course

may seem to you most prudent and advisable after this warning. It is not

a warning to be slighted: that I happen to know. I am informed by the

gentleman who favours this, that you have recently been making some

changes and improvements in your Magazine, and are, in point of fact,

starting afresh. If I be well informed, and this be really so, rely upon it

that you cannot start too small, sir. Come down to the duodecimo size

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MISCELLANEOUSPAPERSMISCELLANEOUSPAPERSBYCHARLESDICKENSMISCELLANEOUSPAPERSTHEAGRICULTURALINTERESTThepresentGovernment,havingshownitselftobeparticularlycleverinitsmanagementofIndictmentsforConspiracy,cannotdobetter,wethink(keepinginitsadministrativeeyethepacificationofsomeofitsmostinfluentialandmostun...

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