DEALING IN FUTURES
Do I sleep? do I dream?
Do I wonder and doubt?
Are things what they seem?
Or is visions about?
Is our civilisation a failure?
Or is the Caucasian played out?
BRET HARTE:
“Further Language from Truthful James.”
There are some who think that in Manchester the Caucasian is very much
played out, but I am not of their number. I look back on the past
history of the city and compare it with the present, and am still of
opinion with Richard Cobden that Manchester is the place for all men
of bargain and business. The gambling trade in bills no doubt belongs
to London, but the real trade of making, collecting, and selling
belongs to Manchester. For Manchester is the place where people do
things.
It is good to talk about doing things, but better still to do them. As
a great teacher used to say to his art students: “Don’t talk about
what you are going to do――do it.” That is the Manchester habit. And in
the past through the manifestation of this quality the word Manchester
became a synonym for energy and freedom, and the right to do and to
think without shackles.
And as I say, there are some who think that the days of freedom and
energy are gone, and that Manchester is “left as a cottage in a
vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,” but I refuse to be of
their party. For as I have read of the past, so I look round and see
here to-day the old eternal fight going on, the contest between those
who think anything is good enough for Manchester and those who think
nothing is too good for Manchester. For these contending spirits are
the Genii fighting over the soul and the body of the Master of the
Event.
And anon you find the good spirit in the ascendant, and a citizen
raises an Owens College or a Whitworth Gallery or a Rylands Library
that the name of Manchester may be magnified, and again the Evil Genie
has gained the day and hardened the hearts of the rulers of the city,
and they can only sit and talk and talk about necessary libraries and
art galleries, having altogether lost the Manchester habit of doing
them. And to those who are in despair about the hopelessness of the
fight, let me recall that delightful American parable dear to my
childhood, the Story of the two Frogs. There were, as I remember, two
frogs who visited a dairy. One was an optimist and the other a
pessimist. And the latter fell into a milk-can and swam about, gazing
despondently at the shiny sides up which he could not crawl, and at
last feebly ceased to struggle and sank to the bottom and was drowned.
Now the optimist frog also fell into a milk-can, and he too looked up
at the shiny sides of the can, but he kept a good heart, and all
through the night swam and kicked and struggled, until in the early
dawn he found himself at the bottom of the can sitting on a pat of
butter.
That kind of spirit is not only to be found in frogdom. Richard Cobden
had it, and calls it Bonapartian, “a feeling that spurs me on with the
conviction that all the obstacles to fortune with which I am impeded
will (nay _shall_) yield if assailed with energy.” That is the true
Manchester spirit, and it is not dead to-day.
And to my thinking, if you want to realise fully the wonderments that
trade and commerce could produce if they would, turn into the real
Manchester Cathedral――not the parish church which belongs to the
past――but the Cathedral of to-day in Deansgate, the Rylands Library.
Around you, seated in their stalls, are the great prophets and
preachers of the world, clothed in glorious but perfectly legal
vestments, not thrusting their messages uncivilly toward you, but
waiting in dumb dignity until you feel worthy to approach and learn.
And for my own part to reach one of those side niches, those pleasant
pastures of study, harbours of letters in quiet creeks away from the
main stream of the library, is to arrive at the haven where I would
be. I do not grudge another his ritual and his music, and the
sing-song of his priest. I only know that I feel better without them.
For in this building I find an odour of sanctity not always to be
found in churches. Here I have listened to sermons――voices from
beyond――more eloquent in their wisdom than many preached in latter-day
pulpits. Sitting in peace and at rest in this beautiful building, the
dim ripple of the outer traffic just reaching my ear, I have often
wondered whether all Manchester might not be builded and furnished in
the same spirit of honour and worthiness. And being faintly imbued
with the Manchester spirit myself, there are times when I believe that
this will really be so. For my eyes refuse to see, even in nightmares,
a picture of Manchester in ruins, with tourists tracking over the
desert on hired camels to visit the remains of the Town Hall with its
battered frescoes, and the shell of the Rylands Library, sole relics
of a vanished city.
My dreams and imagery are far otherwise, and I hold with the poet that
eidolons are the entities of entities. And if I have ever appeared to
the good librarians in Deansgate to have had my eyes closed in
ecclesiastical slumber, it was not really so. I was seeing visions,
dreaming dreams, or more truly perhaps, I had impelled my spirit into
the future and had left my body, umbrella-wise, hypothecated in the
safe keeping of the library officials. For in this method I have many
times visited Manchester several hundred years hence, and my
difficulty has always been to find the Rylands Library, or even the
Town Hall, so many noble buildings of even finer proportions stood
among the lawns and gardens and fountains of the city. And I had
rather see visions of a New Manchester than a New Jerusalem.
I know no prettier dream, if it be one, than to sail from Eastham up
the pure waters of a wider canal and see the country folk resting
after their day’s work in the dainty cabarets along the shores, and as
the last lock gates close behind you and you swing into the great
lagoon to the south of the city, the setting sun crimsons the clean
stone and marble warehouses of a noble city. For this I can
prophesy――it is information, not a tip――that if there is to be a
Manchester at all some hundreds of years hence it will be a city
without smoke, its people will be healthy and handsome, its Pharisees
will be fewer, and all will breathe pure air and walk clean streets,
and when a citizen’s day’s work is done he will be found angling for a
trout in the church pool with a better chance of success than he would
have to-day.
But these futures depend on the good Genie of Manchester winning the
battles of to-day. For when energy, freedom, and the power to do
things depart from Manchester she will become “as an oak whose leaf
fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.”
INDEX
Abbott, Rev. Edwin, 18
Abbott, Elizabeth, 18
Abbott, George (Archbishop of Canterbury), 18
Addison, J., Q.C., Judge, 41, 113, 139, 152, 153, 174
Agnew, Sir William, 58-64
Aitken, Louis, 90, 134, 135, 212, 214, 221, 224
Anderson, James, Q.C. (Official Referee), 58, 64
Anderson, Mary, 280
Anderton, Mr. (Solicitor), 144, 145
Archer, William, 244
Arnold, W. T., 73-80
Ashton, Thomas, 196
Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 39
Astbury, J. M., 151, 208-210
Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James, 201-207, 265
Ballantine, Serjeant, 23-29
Barrett, Wilson, 281
Barrie, J. M., 75
Beccaria, Bonesana, Marchese di, 107
Bell, Joseph, 192-198
Benson, Frank, 281
Berry, James, 109
Blair, Falkner, 62, 80-83, 87-89, 90, 96, 113-120, 248, 249
Blair, Mrs., 81
Bovill, Sir W., Q.C., 23
Bowen, Lord Justice, 49, 131
Bradbury, J. K., 96
Bradlaugh, Charles, 102
Britland, Mary Ann, 111-118
Brontë, Charlotte, 79
Brougham, Lord, 18, 232
Brown, Ford Madox, 278
Bruce, J. A. B. B., 44, 45
Bryce, Rt. Hon. James, 221
Burnaby, Rev. E., 249, 250
Burnie, R. W., 43
Bury, Dr. Judson, 296
Butt, Hon. Mr. Justice, 50-54
Byrne, T. F., 88, 113-117, 140, 141, 221
Cagney, C. F., 42
Caiger, Rev. W. S., 264
Calvert, Charles, 278, 279
Calvert, Louis, 282-289
Carr, J. Comyns, 244
Cave, Hon. Mr. Justice, 113-118, 134-136, 203, 249
Cecil, Lord Robert, 203
Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 40, 43, 55-57, 233, 235
Clarke, Sir Edward. K.C., 114
Clay, Robert, 69
Cobden, Richard, 311, 313
Coleridge, Rt. Hon. Lord Chief Justice, 47, 89-92, 139, 219
Collier, Joseph, 298, 299
Collins, Henn, Q.C., 34
Costeker, Charles, 142
Cottingham, James, 122
Courtneidge, Robert, 283
Coventry, Judge, 142, 143
Coward, Lewis, 58, 203
Cox, Bertram, 40
Danckwerts, W. O. A. J., 39-41, 203
Darling, C. J., 54
Davey, Sir Horace, 132, 133
Davies, Rev. Llewelyn, 17
Davis, Mrs., 81, 82
Day, Mr. Justice, 195-198
Derby, Lord, 197
Dixon, Mary, 112, 113
Dixon, Thomas, 112-116
Douro, Lord, 22
Drummond, Lister, 51, 52
Ducat, Colonel, 62, 63
Dukes, 119-122
Duncombe, Thomas Slingsby, 22
Edwards, Dr. Hall, 295
Esher, Lord, 130, 131
Farren, William, 280
Finlay, Sir Robert, Q.C., 119, 132, 203
Flanagan, Richard, 282
Forbes-Robertson, J., 280
Freemantle, George, 202, 206
Frere, Bartle, 40, 41
Garnett, Richard, 19
Gaskell, Miss, 78-80
Geoghan, G., 42
George, Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd, 43
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 56
Gordon, George, 119, 120
Gordon, Meyer, 119-122
Gordon, Mr., 119-122
Grantham, Hon. Mr. Justice, 127-131
Green, John Francis, 204, 205
Gully, W. C. (Lord Selby), 99, 100, 130, 155, 160-162, 195
Gwenn, Edmund, 288
Haldane, Rt. Hon. R. B., 44, 45
Hannen, Lord, 131
Harwood, Sir John, 265
Hawkins, Hon. Mr. Justice, 23, 49, 63, 133
Heron, Sir Joseph, 59
Herschell, Sir Farrer, Q.C., 36
Heywood, Judge, 133, 220
Heywood, Oliver, 194
Hicks-Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir Michael, 168
Higgin, William Housman, Q.C., 95-101
Hill, Dr. Birkbeck, 106
Hockin, Mr. (Solicitor), 303, 304
Hodgson, C. D., 169-173
Holker, Sir John, Q.C., 24
Holyoake, George Jacob, 19
Hopkinson, Charles, 192, 193
Hopwood, Charles, Q.C., 158, 248-255
Horniman, Miss, 283
Hughes, Charles, 221, 282
Hughes, Judge, 140, 141
Hulton, Mr., 246, 247
Hutton, Crompton, Judge, 143-146
Irving, Sir Henry, 77, 200, 279, 281
James, Sir Henry, Q.C., 36
Jelf, Sir Arthur Richard, Q.C., 53
Johnson, Dr., 105-108, 266
Jones, Dr. Franklin Emrys, 295
Jordan, Ernest, 158
Kelly, Mr., 215, 216
Kendal, Mr., 281
Kendal, Mrs., 281
King, Alderman, 59
Kingsley, Charles, 267
Larmuth, Dr., 296
Leatherbarrow, James, 136, 137
Lee, Yate, Judge, 132
Leech, Dr., 196, 296, 297
Leese, Sir Joseph, 274, 275
Legros, Alphonse, 36
Leresche, J. H. P., 99-101
Lister, Mr. Registrar, 222
Loehnis, H. W., 39
Lovett, William, 21
Lowe, R., 244
Lush, Robert, Q.C., 23
Lyttelton, Hon. A., 203
McCall, R., Q.C., 214, 215, 216
McKeand, Charley, 67, 88, 96, 153-162, 298
McLachlan, Lachlan, 58-64
Maclure, Rt. Rev. Dean of Manchester, 33
Maclure, Sir John William, 274-277
Maltby, Mr., 205
Martin, Baron, 28
Marwood, Mr., 108
Mathew, Hon. Mr. Justice, 49-54
Matthews, Henry, Q.C., 53
Montgomery, P. (Surgeon), 29
Morley, Samuel, M.P., 165
Morris, Phil, R.A., 81
Mouillot, Frederick, 291
Müller, William, 164
Munro, Professor, 203, 207
Murphy, J. P., Q.C., 201-206
Nash, T. A., 240, 241
Newman, Cardinal John Henry, 54, 190, 191
Nowell, Dr., 179
Nunn, Rev. Canon, 261
Orton, Arthur, 49
Panizzi, Anthony, 19
Pankhurst, Dr., 58-63
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 247, 248
Parry Dorothy, 292
Parry, Rev. Canon Edward, 12
Parry, Edward (Tanner), 12
Parry, John Humffreys (Welsh Antiquary), 10
Parry, John Humffreys, Serjeant, 10-31, 35, 144, 269
Parry, John Humffreys (Actor), 30
Parry, Thomas (Attorney), 12
Partington (Artist), 200
Pete, Sir Samuel, 22
Pinero, Sir A. W., 77
Pope, Sam, Q.C., 86
Price, Judge, 177
Rosebery, Lord, 56
Ross, Sergeant, 121
Ruskin, John, 182
Russell, Sir Charles, Q.C., 24, 160, 161, 163
Russell, Judge, 137, 138
Salter, Clavell, K.C., M.P., 42
Sarcey, Francisque, 77
Scott, C. P., 72, 245, 246
Scott, Mrs. C. P., 72, 78
Shee, H. G., 88, 96, 195, 219
Shee, Serjeant, 23
Shields, Frederic, 60
Shuttleworth, Mr., 137
Simon, Henry, 196
Smith, A. L., Hon. Mr. Justice, 136, 137, 212
Smith, Richard, 37-39, 58-64
Southam, F. A., F.R.C.S., 296
Spencer, Reuben, 196
Spencer, Mr., 247, 248
Stanhope, Hon. Edward, 54
Stewart, Archie, 45-47
Sullivan, Barry, 280
Sutton, E., 96, 195
Taylor, William, 294
Terry, Edward, 281
Terry, Ellen, 281
Thomas, John (Solicitor), 11
Thomason, Henry, 294
Thompson, Stephen Chesters, 201-205
Threlfall, Thomas, 54, 55
Toole, J. L., 281
Tree, Sir Herbert, 283
Trevelyan, Rt. Hon. Sir G. O., 44
Tuke, Dr. D. H., 26
Vaughan, Father Bernard, 268
Webster, Sir Richard, Q.C., 55
Welldon, Rt. Rev. J. E. (Dean of Manchester), 7
West, Henry Wyndham, Q.C., 89-95
Weston, Sir Joseph, M.P., 163-169
Whalley, Mr. (Solicitor), 260
Will, Shiress, Q.C., 58
Williams, Lord Justice Vaughan, 131-133, 203
Willis, Judge, K.C., 24, 175
Wilson, Richard, R. A., 12
Woodard, M. N., 113
Woodburne, Lancaster, 135, 136
Wotton, Sir Henry, 105, 123
Wright, G. A., F.R.C.S., 296
Wright, R. S., Hon. Mr. Justice, 39, 47, 132
Wright, Wildy, 29, 30
Wynne, Mr. (Solicitor), 11
Yates, W. M., 96
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Transcriber’s note:
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