"The next morning a boat came off and took us "The universal example of the higher ranks ashore, and we steered at once for the best cabin in throughout Ireland has gone to diffuse a love of the place-bad enough it was, but bearing on the sporting and a hatred of work. The younger browhitewashed wall the encouraging hieroglyphic of ther will drag on his shabby life at the family doa bottle and glass, and above the doorway this in-main, rather than make an effort to be independent scription, contrived ingeniously to fit the space, and reading somewhat like a rude rhyme : BEAMISH and CRAWFORD'S PO set them by their betters, and have had no other.; "Of course they will attend monster meetings, and listen with delight to an orator who offers to by means of a profession; and as for a trade, he would call out the man who suggested such a degradation. The shopkeeper, as much as he can, shuffles out of the business, and leaves it to his wife, while he is either indulging his half-tipsy Here the Saxon called for eggs and bacon-it is grandeur in the back parlor or out with the hounds. The farmer, even in harvest-time, will leave the unnecessary to mention the order of the Celt. But loaded car-throw aside the business of the daythe bacon was not to be procured in the village, to follow the hoont,' if the hounds come in the and a boy despatched to a house "convanient" did neighborhood. Even a shooting sportsman is sufnot return till the Celtic breakfast was heaped up-ficient to attract them: they follow the example on the board. In vain did the Saxon call upon him to stop-to pause-not to throw away so glorious an appetite upon a peck of tubers at least to keep a corner for the bacon. But Mike was mounted on an irresistible hobby, and, like the La-procure them, on the easiest conditions, JUSTICE FOR IRELAND-a phrase, which,, in the minds of dy Baussière, he rode on.'-Well, hold hard be- the audience, means what each most desires—a fore you go into your second peck-see, here's a good farm, easy rents, dear selling, and cheap buyrefuse to go heart and hand with a gentleman who ing-and all to be had by Repeal! How can they promises all this-cracks his joke with a jolly, good-humored face-praises Irish beauty, and boasts of the power of Irish limbs-irresistible in cajolery, and matchless in abuse-never confuted, missioner,' who, if he was not kicked out of the or even questioned, except by some Gutter Comcountry, deserved to be? rasher ready! No.' What! you don't like bacon? Faith, I dunnow!' Not know if you like bacon? Sure, I never tasted the like! He had never tasted bacon! He, an Irishman, of the age of twenty-who had been brought up with pigs from earliest infancy-whose ears, probably, received a grunt before all other sounds-whose infant head had been pillowed upon living chitterlings, and whose earliest plaything was souse-who had bestridden chines and griskins before he could walk, and toddled through boyhood with pettitoes-nay, who could not, at the present hour, when at home, put forth hand or foot without touching ham or flitch; and yet he had never tasted bacon! nor wished to taste it!! "Poor creatures! no wonder we can do nothing for them. What hope is there for a man who, half starved, will yet dine upon a boiled potato-nay, go without even that-rather than try a new dish? who will sell a young pig weighing ten pounds for ten pence to lay out in potatoes, in preference to eating the pig ?-vol. ii., p. 124. If the following fact be new to our author, he will not be sorry to have it. We give it on the most unquestionable authority. When the late 'Famine' was at its worst in Connemara, the sea off the coast there teemed with turbot to such an extent that the laziest of fishermen could not help catching them in thousands; but the common people would not touch them, because, we suppose, there were no potatoes to eat with them-for we can hardly imagine that the objection was the more civilized one of lack of lobsters for sauce. "I am far from presuming to suggest a remedy for Irish disorders; but I am convinced that a stronger power than that afforded by our present laws is required in so desperate a case. To wait till the age of reason dawns upon a people whose them understand what is best for them, or that you besotted ignorance is such that you cannot make are trying to benefit them, is hopeless; who have a native cunning and aptitude to defeat your schemes; who have no sense of independence or shame of beggary; and (which is the worst feature in the case), who are upheld in their opposition to all improvement by those in whom all their confidence is placed, who teach them that England is their great and grinding oppressor, from whom spring all their wrongs and all their misery. This is rung in their ears by all whom they are taught to look up to: their journalists, their poets, their patriots, their priests, have all the same cry, 'On our side is virtue and Erin On theirs is the Saxon and guilt.' This is the never-ending burden of all the speeches and all the writings addressed to the Irish people. It is in vain you feed and clothe them-pay them to make their own roads-drain their own bogs-nay, sow their own land. It is quite sufficient to render the boon distrusted when it is associ From the potato of the peasant the Major ated with the Saxon and guilt! But still the lestakes the liberty of passing to a little dis-son is, Get all you can take every advantage-still course on what is called among the orators cry for more-hate the giver but take the gift'cram, and blaspheme your feeder.' of regimental messes the 'General Question' and we are not unwilling to be among his listeners: "Education may do something; but when you have taught them to read, will they be allowed to read? Did anybody ever see an Irish peasant We offer these extracts, and earnestly recommend almost all the rest of this gentleman's Scraps and Sketches, as fair materials for the dispassionate public-if any such public there be as respects Ireland. Part of his second volume is occupied with a composition of a different class. It is, in fact, a Review of some late 'Histories of Ireland,' among others, of Mr. Moore's; and we think Mr. Moore himself must be startled and amused to see the quiet dexterity with which facts in his book have been set in array against its drift. A man of true genius like him, tasting with such exquisite relish the picturesque of manners as well as of scenery, could not possibly do a history of Ireland so as to meet the wishes of those Milesians who give their fellow-subjects and readers credit for any discourse of reason. He could not, we believe, go over chronicles, and annals, and letters, and despatches, and merely pick out what would serve the purposes of any one party, or faction, or sect whatever :-he must rest on the really salient points, with whatever inferences pregnant it was not in his nature to tell the story and omit the cream. We do not give him credit for being very much in earnest in his own flourishing commentaries, and, in short, have no doubt he will smile with tolerable complacency over this gentle castigation from one in whose society, peradventure, he will feel that he would be considerably more at home than in any congregation either of Old or Young Erin. But we shall not meddle with the brotherreviewer-too happy should we have been to adopt (and abridge) the production if he had sent it to us in MS.-as it is, we can only repeat our fraternal recommendation of what all the candid will admit to be, or at least to contain the stuff of, a first-rate article. Already, it may be thought, we have extracted quite enough of politics from 'Paddiana'-let us honestly tell the reason. We do not question that this book will have a run in Great Britain-but we do not believe it will be allowed to get into any circulation at all among the masses of the Irish-whereas, somehow or other, reviews defy to a certain extent, the sternest and strictest ban whether of the lurking Jesuit -or the brawling priest-or the professional Agitator in Dublin. But even this was a secondary motive. We see certain continental journals crammed continually with articles on Irish matters made up of extracts either from Whig and Radical journals of English birth, or from the tomes of such superficial, dogmatical pedants as M. Beaumont, or such sentimental ninnies as the Vicomte d'Arlincourt. Now the editors of these Bibliothèques Européennes, Bibliothèques Universelles, &c., &c., &c., French, Swiss, Belgian, or German, are, we suspect, in no slight degree directed as to their choice of plunder from the English periodical press by the mere consideration of what will amuse their readers; and therefore we have compounded this paper chiefly in the hope of its attracting their notice, and becoming by their industrious machinery diffused among students who do not materially swell our own or any other English list of subscribers. If we be not disappointed in our anticipations on this score, let us present one humble parting petition to our foreign free-traders. Will they do us the favor not to omit one small specimen more of an elderly and experieneed English officer's serious reflections on the affairs of Ireland? Extremum hunc concede laborem !— "To the great majority of us unimaginative Saxons the Irish character is a profound mystery. There is, from high to low, a want of principle amongst them. They spend without thought, and accept without shame: the old spirit of coshering is still strong amongst them, and they are ready to bestow their burdens or their company upon any one who will, under any circumstances, accept the charge. Their sense of right and wrong is different from ours. A man occupying the high post of a legislator will, for factious and selfish purposes, falsify all history to make out a case; and, no doubt, will readily enough abuse The gentleman who fraudulently possessed himany writer who may expose his nefarious practices. self of his noble relative's diamonds, and pawned them, from the moment of detection loudly proclaimed himself an ill-used man-a victim to the narrow prejudices of society-and railed against its laws. The gallant officer who pocketed a valuand sold it to a jeweller, is perpetually writing for able article of bijouterie belonging to a noble lord, testimonials of his trustworthiness to people whom he knows to be acquainted with all the circumstances of the case; and there is not a farmer in Ireland who would blush to withhold his seed wheat and let his land lie fallow, if he thought there was a probability that the Government would find him seed and till his land for him. His long tongued orators know this, and clamor for him; and even English gentlemen will, for factious purposes, join in the cry. men, within these sixty years, towards habits of order and industry. But that they have made great progress, notwithstanding all the, as we believe, just and true pictures in Paddiana,' there can be no doubt; and most earnestly do we concur in his hope and prayer that the progress may advance henceforth with ever increasing rapidity. ་ ANECDOTE OF PIUS IX.-Cardinal Lambruschini wrote to several religious communities engaging them to offer up prayers that the Pope might be removed from his state of blindness. One of these letters was sent to Pius IX. who caused the cardi "It may seem harsh to say that kindness and conciliation are thrown away upon the Irish in their present state, unless, indeed, it be accompanied by a pretty strong demonstration of power. Savages, or even half-savages, must feel the strong hand to inspire them with respect. Try the conciliatory system in the East, and not even ready money will get you on. Are the Irish civilized? Are they in a condition to be placed on the same footing as the English? Can a people be called civilized where farm-laborers work under an escort of police? where murderers are fostered, and improving landlords shot? where they harrow by the horses' tails? where ball-proof waistcoats are lucrative articles of manufacture? where they be-nal to be invited to come and see him. The cardilieve in O'Higgins? and up to the present moment have paid an impostor a princely income to disunite them from their only friend? In truth, when we reflect upon the scrapes which this brave, good-humored, generous, and nose-led people have been brought into in all ages by their kings, their chiefs, their priests, and their patriots, we are astonished to read in Holinshed that There is no Irish terme for a knave." "—vol. ii., p. 266. nal having replied that he was ill, and could only go the next day, the Pope sent a message that he would wait on the cardinal. On this the cardinal hastened to the Quirinal, and on being introduced the letter which he had addressed to the communito the Pope the Holy Father placed in his hands ties. When the cardinal had read it, the Pope said, You now understand that I could not go to bed without pardoning you." APOTHEOSIS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON AND THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.-On Sunday evening not only We suppose after what we said at the beginning it is entirely needless for us to explain that in this very clever man's diatribes he has not the slightest intention of casting any disparagement on the virtues which, no less than powerful understanding and captivating manners, characterize in our time the great majority of the Irish gentry. He is as far above pandering to the narrow pre-about thirty-five yards. At this moment the car judices of the English bigot as of the Irish fanatic. He regards the questions at issue from an imperial, which is the same thing as to say from a philanthropic point of view. She, however, after remaining in this awkward popreviously fastened by precaution is not known. sition for about ten minutes, was lowered gently to the earth, and at last stood erect on her feet without any material injury.— Galignani. broke under its superincumbent weight, and the great Emperor, represented by a waiter of a coffeehouse who was remarkable for his supposed resemblance to Napoleon, and who was invested with the well-known three-cornered hat and green uniform, came headlong to the spot from which he had risen, in the terrified sight of upwards of 10,000 spectators. We ought to mention that we had not He lay senseless on the ground, and was carried read until our paper was done a small vo-away in a hopeless state. In the meanwhile the lume just published with the title of Ire- Empress Josephine was seen suspended in mid-air land Sixty Years Ago.' If we had, we by a cord. Whether thus caught accidentally or should have excepted it from our general criticism on works lately produced about Irish manners. The author has collected with diligence, and put together in a very agreeable style, a world of most striking and picturesque incidents and characters of hear with gratification and surprise, that the Church the period immediately preceding the Union. of Saint Sophia, at Constantinople, which has been Eminently amusing as he is, we see not the converted into a mosque since 1453, and is the most ancient Christian church that exists, is now underleast trace of Barringtonian romance about going a thorough restoration, by order of the Sultan, his chapters. As to his preface, he is an under the direction of M. Fossati, an architect. As Irishman, though a highly cultivated one--- we are informed, they have removed the layer of therefore we may be pardoned for doubting that decorate the walls were covered, and which are plaster with which the superb mosaics and frescoes whether he has not rather over-estimated not less important as regards art than they are in the progress actually made by his country-respect of history.-Builder. VOL. XII. No. IV. 35 THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.-Our readers will From Howitt's Journal. JOHN BANVARD, THE AMERICAN ARTIST. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. chalk instead of making up prescriptions, the apothecary dismissed him. He then took to painting in earnest, but unluckily, there was not sufficient taste for the fine arts in the West to maintain him; so meeting with some young men of his ac In the year 1840, a young man, hardly of age, took a small boat, and, furnished with drawing materials, descended the river Mississippi, resolved to gain for his country a great name in the kingdom of art. It had been said that America had no artists commensurate with the grandeur and ex-quaintance, they took a boat, and set off tent of her scenery, and John Banvard, now in his little boat, sets sail down the Mississippi, to prove how unfounded was this assertion. We will now say something of his former life, which, with its hardships, disappointments, and privations, had fitted him for the accomplishment of his great undertaking. He was born in New York, and well educated by his father, who was the pastor of Harvard Church, Boston. Being of delicate health in childhood, he was unable to enjoy the active out-of-doors sports of other boys, and accordingly amused himself by drawing, for which he very early showed a decided talent. Besides drawing, he devoted himself also to natural philosophy, and made some clever instruments for his own use, one of which was a camera obscura. His room was a perfect laboratory, or museum. He constructed a little diorama of the sea, on which he exhibited moving ships, and even a naval engagement. The money which was given him, he spent, not in toys and sweetmeats, but in the purchase of types for a little printing-press of his own construction, at which he printed hand-bills for his juvenile exhibitions. The child was truly father of the man, in this, as in so many other cases. But he had much to pass through yet, before the promise of the boy could be developed in the accomplishments of the man. Banvard's father, like many another honest and unworldly man, entered into a partnership in trade, and soon after found himself penniless; this unfortunate connexion swept away all the frugal earnings of his life; his family were turned adrift upon the world, and with this heart-breaking knowledge he died. John was then fifteen, and, taking leave of his family, he set off into Kentucky, to seek his fortune; he tried first of all with an apothecary, but being detected drawing portraits on the wall with down the river in search of adventures, and of these they had no lack-among others, narrowly escaping wreck during a storm. We next find him at the village of New Harmony, on the Wabash river, where, in company with three or four other youths, he built and fitted up a flat-boat, with some dioramic paintings of his own preparation, and then started down the Wabash, with the intention of coasting that river into the Ohio, and so down the Mississippi to New Orleans, exhibiting by the way their works of art to the scanty population of the wilderness. Although their boat was of their own manufacture, they were too poor to complete it entirely before they set out on their extraordinary expedition, but hoped to finish it out of their proceeds as they went along. They took with them such a supply of provisions as their means would afford, and this of course was small enough. The river was low, and none of them having descended the Wabash before, they were consequently ignorant of its navigation; they, therefore, were beset with all the perils of American-river travelling, and at last found themselves fast on a sand-bar, and, at the same time, reduced to their last peck of potatoes. For two days they labored to get their boat off the bar, but in vain, and to add to their dilemma, overexertion, together with being too long in the water, without food, threw poor Banvard into a violent fit of ague. "The bar upon which they were," says the narrative before us, was called the Bone-bar, because the bank of the river, immediately opposite, was full of organic remains. Some of the large bones were then protruding out of the side of the bank, in full view, and, as Banvard lay on the soft sand of the bar, which he found a more comfortable couch than the hard planks of the boat, his head burning with fever, and his limbs aching with pain, he looked at these gloomy relics of an antediluvian race, usual thing for a family to come to see and felt as though his bones would soon be" the Show-boat," the father with a bushel laid with them. At sunset, however, by of potatoes, the mother with a fowl, and good luck, the rest of the company got the the children with a pumpkin a-piece as the boat over the bar, took Banvard aboard, price of their admission. This was a time and landed in the woods almost exhausted. of plenty and prosperity, but unlooked-for Food was as scarce here as on the bar, and misadventures even there befell them. One the weary party went supperless to bed night a mischievous fellow, while they were Next morning they started early, less anx- exhibiting, and the little boat was full of visiious to exhibit their dioramic wonders, than tors, set it loose from the shore, and it thus to obtain something to eat. But they were drifted down the stream with its unconon Wabash island, which is uninhabited, scious load, who were at length landed, to and where they only found some paw-paws, their inconceivable astonishment, several which, although his companions ate vora- miles off, in a thick cane-brake. ciously, Banvard, who was consumed with violent fever, could not touch." Their next adventure was at Plumb-point, where the boat was attacked by a party of Next day they sent their hand-bills to the Murrell robbers, a large organized banthe village of Shawneetown, about seven ditti, who infested the country for miles miles inland, inviting the inhabitants to around, and here Banvard nearly lost his come down and see the wonderful exhibi- life. Several pistol-shots were fired at tion that evening at the wharf; and, to him, but being in the dark, none of them their great joy, on coming within sight of took effect, although several lodged in the the appointed place, they saw a large com- deck of the boat within a few inches of pany assembled. Full of the hope of a him. After a desperate resistance, during good supper at last, they unfortunately which one of the robbers was shot, the boat made more haste than good speed, and ran was rescued, but one of the company retheir boat on a ledge of rocks at a short ceived a severe wound with a bowie-knife. distance from the shore. The efforts of Banvard continued with the boat till it those on land, as well as the luckless com- arrived at the Grand Gulf, and then, findpany on board, were ineffectual to free the ing no profit accruing to him from the exboat, and the good people of Shawneetown pedition, he sold his interest in the compawent back to their homes without seeing ny, and devoted himself to painting. He the show, and, not much to the credit of successively tried his fortune in New Ortheir hospitality, the poor showman again leans, Natchez, Cincinnati, and Louisville, went to bed without a supper. Fortunate-and, having made some money, removed to ly, a steamer passed them in the night, and St. Louis, where he lost every penny he the swell which it occasioned in the river had, but by what means we know not. lifting them off the rocks, they found them- This was a great blow, and affected his selves next morning eight miles below spirits so much, that once, at Cincinnati, Shawneetown, and aground on the Cincin nati bar. Here, luckily, provisions were plentiful, and according to the American law of barter, the dioramic exhibition was opened, and a bushel of potatoes, a fowl, or a dozen of eggs, sufficed for the admission fee. They now ate and drank, and made merry, and poor Banvard found, as we so often do, that adversity has its bless- And now, in the spring of 1840, when ings; his long fast had starved the fever hardly more than twenty years of age, he out of him, and in a few days he was quite set out with this capital, which he had gainwell. ed by so much patient endurance, in a litWhen the good people of Cincinnati tle boat, as we have said, with the implewere satisfied with seeing, and the exhibi-ments of his art around him, resolved to tors had laid in good store of provision, transfer to canvas the glorious river-scenery they again continued their voyage, stopping with which he was so familiar, and, at the at the towns and villages along the shore, same time, to redeem his country from and amusing and astonishing the people by what he thought a severe charge against their show, and everywhere the people paid her. The idea of gain, we are assured, in kind for their amusement. It was no un-never at that time entered his mind; he he took a small boat, and started down the Ohio, without a farthing, living for several days upon the nuts he collected in the woods. After a series of many other strange adventures, he managed to gain three thousand dollars, and with this capital, he commenced his grand project of painting the panorama of the Mississippi. |
