in plunder have formed the romance of Germany for a considerable period.
The confusion produced by the French war, and the general disturbance of
the countries on both sides of the Rhine, have at once awakened the
spirit of license, and given it impunity. A dashing fellow named
Schinderhannes, not more than three-and-twenty years of age, but loving
the luxuries of life too well to do without them, and disliking the
labour required for their possession, commenced a general system of
plunder down the Rhine. He easily organized a band, composed, I believe,
of deserters from the French and Austrian troops, who preferred
wholesale robbery to being shot in either service at the rate of
threepence a-day; and for a while nothing could be more prosperous than
their proceedings. Their leader, with all his daring, was politic,
professing himself the friend of the poor, standing on the best terms
with the peasantry, scattering his money in all directions with the
lavishness of a prince, and professing to make war only on the nobility,
the rich clergy, and the Jew merchants especially--the German Jews being
always supposed by the people to be the grand depositories of the
national wealth. But this favouritism among the peasantry was of the
highest service to his enterprizes. It gave him information, it rescued
him from difficulties, and it recruited his troop, which was said to
amount to several hundreds, and to be in the highest state of
discipline. After laying the country under contribution from Mayence to
Coblentz, he crossed the river into Franconia, and commenced a period of
enterprize there. But no man's luck lasts for ever. It was his habit to
acquire information for himself by travelling about in various
disguises. One day, in entering one of the little Franconian towns in
the habit of a pedlar, and driving a cart with wares before him, he was
recognized by one of the passers-by, whose sagacity was probably
sharpened by having been plundered by him. An investigation followed,
in which the disguised pedlar declared himself an Austrian subject, and
an Austrian soldier. In consequence, he was ordered to the Austrian
depot at Frankfort, where he met another recognition still more
formidable. A comrade with whom he had probably quarrelled; for this
part of the story is not yet clear, denounced him to the police; and, to
the astonishment of the honest Frankforters, it was announced that the
robber king, the bandit hero, was in their hands. As his exploits had
been chiefly performed on the left bank of the Rhine, and his revenues
had been raised out of French property in the manner of a forced loan,
the Republic, conceiving him to be an interloper on their monopoly,
immediately demanded him from the German authorities. In the old
war-loving times, the Frankforters would probably have blown the trumpet
and insisted on their privilege of acting as his jailers, but experience
had given them wisdom, they swallowed their wrath, and the robber king
was given up to the robber Republic. If Schinderhannes had been in the
service of France, he would have been doing for the last ten years, on
its account, exactly what he had been doing on his own. But unluckily
for himself, he robbed in the name of Schinderhannes, and not in the
name of liberty and equality; and now, instead of having his name
shouted by all France, inserted in triumphant bulletins, and ranked with
the Bonapartes and Caesars, he will be called a thief, stripped of his
last rixdollar, and hanged.
* * * * *
An extraordinary instance of mortality has just occurred, which has
favoured the conversation of the clubs, and thrown the west end into
condolence and confusion for the last twenty-four hours. Colonel
O'Kelly's famous parrot is dead. The stories told of this surprising
bird have long stretched public credulity to its utmost extent. But if
even the half of what is told be true, it exhibited the most singular
sagacity. Not having seen it myself, I can only give the general report.
But, beyond all question, it has been the wonder of London for years,
and however willing John Bull may be to be deluded, there is no instance
of his being deluded long. This bird's chief faculty was singing, seldom
a parrot faculty, but its ear was so perfect, that it acquired tunes
with great rapidity, and retained them with such remarkable exactness,
that if, by accident, it made a mistake in the melody, it corrected
itself, and tried over the tune until its recollection was completely
recovered. It also spoke well, and would hold a kind of dialogue almost
approaching to rationality. So great was its reputation that the colonel
was offered L500 a-year by persons who intended to make an exhibition of
it; but he was afraid that his favourite would be put to too hard work,
and he refused the offer, which was frequently renewed. The creature
must have been old, for it had been bought thirty years before by the
colonel's uncle, and even then it must have had a high reputation, for
it was bought at the price of 100 guineas. Three remarkable bequests had
been made by that uncle to the colonel,--the estate of Canons, the
parrot, and the horse Eclipse, the most powerful racer ever known in
England; so superior to every other horse of his day, that his
superiority at length became useless, as no bets would be laid against
him. In the spirit of vague curiosity, this parrot was opened by two
surgeons, as if to discover the secret of his cleverness; but nothing
was seen, except that the muscles of the throat were peculiarly strong;
nothing to account for its death was discovered.
* * * * *
Andreossi, the French ambassador, has arrived. He is a rude and rough
specimen even of the Republican, but a man of intelligence, an engineer,
and distinguished for his publications. Still the bone of contention is
Malta, and the difficulty seems greater than ever. The French consul
insists on its abandonment by England, as an article of the treaty of
Amiens; but the answer of England is perfectly intelligible,--You have
not adhered to that treaty in any instance whatever, but have gone on
annexing Italian provinces to France. You have just now made a vassal
of Switzerland, and to all our remonstrances on the subject you have
answered with utter scorn. While you violate your stipulations, how can
you expect that we shall perform ours? But another obstruction to the
surrender of Malta has been produced by the conduct of France herself.
She has seized the entire property of the Order in France, in Piedmont,
and wherever she can seize it. Spain, probably by her suggestion, has
followed her example, and the Order now is reduced to pauperism; in
fact, it no longer exists. Thus it is impossible to restore the island
to the Order of St John of Jerusalem; and to give it up at once to
France, would be to throw away an important security for the due
performance of the treaty. Government are so determined on this view of
the case, that orders have been sent to Malta for all officers on leave
to join their regiments immediately.
Malta is one of the remarkable instances in which we may trace a kind of
penalty on the rapaciousness of the Republic. While it remained in the
possession of the Order, it had observed a kind of neutrality, which was
especially serviceable to France, as the island was a refuge for its
ships, and a depot for its commerce, in common with that of England. But
Bonaparte, in his Egyptian expedition, finding the opportunity
favourable, from the weakness of the knights, and the defenceless state
of the works, landed his troops, and took possession of it without
ceremony. No act could be more atrocious as a breach of faith, for the
knights were in alliance with France, and were wholly unprepared for
hostilities. The place was now in full possession of the treacherous
ally. Contributions were raised; the churches were plundered of their
plate and ornaments; the knights were expelled, and a French garrison
took possession of the island. What was the result? Malta was instantly
blockaded by the British, the garrison was reduced by famine, and Malta
became an English possession; which it never would have been, if the
knights had remained there; for England, in her respect for the faith of
treaties, would not have disturbed their independence. Thus, the
Republic, by iniquitously grasping at Malta, in fact threw it into the
hands of England. It is scarcely less remarkable, that the plunder of
Malta was also totally lost, it being placed on board the admiral's
ship, which was blown up at the battle of the Nile.
* * * * *
One of the first acts of the French consul has been to conciliate the
Italian priesthood by an act which they regard as equivalent to a
conversion to Christianity. The image of our Lady of Loretto, in the
French invasion of Italy, had been carried off from Rome; of course, the
sorrows of the true believers were unbounded. The image was certainly
not intended to decorate the gallery of the Louvre, for it was as black
as a negro; and, from the time of its capture, it had unfortunately lost
all its old power of working miracles. But it has at length been
restored to its former abode, and myriads of the pious followed the
procession. Discharges of cannon and ringing of bells welcomed its
approach. It was carried by eight bishops, in a species of triumphal
palanquin, splendidly decorated, and placed on its altar in the Santa
Casa with all imaginable pomps and ceremonies. The whole town was
illuminated in the evening, and the country was in a state of exultation
at what it regards as an evidence of the immediate favor of heaven.
* * * * *
A singular and melancholy trial has just taken place, in which a colonel
in the army, with several of the soldiery and others, have been found
guilty of a conspiracy to overthrow the government, and kill the king on
the day of his opening Parliament. The 16th of November 1802, had been
the day appointed for this desperate deed; but information having been
obtained of the design through a confederate, the whole party of
conspirators were seized on that day by the police at a house in
Lambeth, where they arrested Despard and his fellow traitors. On the
floor of the room three printed papers were found, containing their
proclamation.
They were headed, "_Constitution_, the independence of Great Britain and
Ireland, an equalization of civil and religious rights, an ample
provision for the wives of the heroes who shall fall in the conquest, a
liberal reward for distinguished merits; these are the objects for which
we contend, and to obtain these objects we swear to be united in the
awful presence of Almighty God." Then follows the oath: "I, A.B., do
voluntarily declare that I will endeavour to the utmost of my power to
obtain the objects of this union, viz. to recover those rights which the
Supreme Being, in his infinite bounty, has given to all men; that
neither hopes, fears, rewards, nor punishments, shall ever induce me to
give any information, directly or indirectly, concerning the business,
or of any member of this or any similar society, so help me God."
One of the witnesses, a private in the Guards, gave evidence that the
object of the conspiracy was to overturn the present system of
government; to unite in companies, and to get arms. They subscribed, and
the object of the subscription was, to pay delegates to go into the
country, and to defray the expense of printing their papers. All persons
belonging to the subscription were to be divided into ten companies,
each consisting of ten, with an eleventh who was called captain. The
next order was, that the oldest captain of five companies took the
command of those fifty men, and was to be called colonel of the
subdivision. Every means was to be adopted to get as many recruits as
possible. There was to be no regular organization in London, for fear of
attracting the eye of government. But the system was to be urged
vigorously in the great manufacturing towns; the insurrection was to
commence by an attack on the House of Parliament; and the king was to be
put to death either on his way to the House, or in the House. The
mail-coaches were then to be stopt, as a signal to their adherents in
the country that the insurrection had triumphed in the metropolis. An
assault was then to be made on the Tower, and the arms seized. At
subsequent meetings, the question of the royal seizure was more than
once discussed; and Despard had declared it to be essential to the
success of the plot, that no effect could be produced unless the whole
royal family were secured. The first plan for the seizure of the king
was to shoot his carriage horses, then force him out of the carriage,
and carry him off. A second plan was then proposed, viz. that of loading
the Egyptian gun in St James's Park with chain shot, and firing it at
the royal carriage as it passed along.
Lord Nelson and General Sir Alured Clarke were brought as evidence to
character. Lord Nelson said, that he and Colonel Despard had served
together on the Spanish Main in 1799, and that he was then a loyal man
and a brave officer. Lord Ellenborough strongly charged the jury. He
declared that there was no question of law, and that the whole case
resolved itself into a question of fact. The jury, after retiring for
half an hour, brought in a verdict of guilty.
In a few days after, Despard, with six of his accomplices, were executed
in front of the new jail in the Borough. The men were chiefly soldiers
whom this wretched criminal had bribed or bewildered into the commission
of treason. Despard made a speech on the scaffold, declaring himself
innocent, and that he was put to death simply for being a friend to
truth, liberty, and justice. How he could have made this declaration
after the evidence that had been given, is wholly unintelligible except
on the ground of insanity, though of that there was no symptom, except
in the design itself. What prompted the design except narrow
circumstances, bad habits, and the temptations of a revengeful spirit,
was never discovered.
* * * * *
A trial, which exhibited extraordinary talent in the defence, by a
counsel hitherto unknown, has attracted an interest still more general,
though of a less melancholy order. Peltier, an emigrant, and supposed to
be an agent of the French emigrant body, had commenced a periodical
work, entitled _L'Ambigu_; the chief object of which was to attack the
policy, person, and conduct of the First Consul of France. His assaults
were so pointed, that they were complained of by the French government
as libels; and the answer returned was, that the only means which the
ministry possessed of punishing such offences, was by the verdict of a
jury. The Attorney-general, in opening the case, described the paper. On
its frontispiece, was a sphinx with a crown upon its head, the features
closely resembling those of Bonaparte. A portion of the paper was
devoted to a parody of the harangue of Lepidus against Sylla. It asks
the French people, "Why they have fought against Austria, Prussia,
Italy, England, Germany, and Russia, if it be not to preserve our
liberty and our property, and that we might obey none but the laws
alone. And now, this tiger, who dares to call himself the Founder, or
the Regenerator of France, enjoys the fruit of your labours as spoil
taken from the enemy. This man, sole master in the midst of those who
surround him, has ordained lists of proscription, and put in execution
banishment without sentence, by which there are punishments for the
French who have not yet seen the light. Proscribed families, giving
birth out of France to children, oppressed before they are born. In
another part, the paper urged to immediate action. It says, "Citizens,
you must march, you must oppose what is passing, if you desire that he
should not seize upon all that you have. There must be no delays, no
useless wishes; reckon only upon yourselves, unless you indeed have the
stupidity to suppose that he will abdicate through shame of tyranny that
which he holds by force of crime." In another part, he assails the First
Consul on the nature of his precautions to secure his power. He charges
him with the formation of a troop of Mamelukes, composed of Greeks,
Maltese, Arabians, and Copts, "a collection of foreign banditti, whose
name and dress, recalling the mad and disastrous Egyptian expedition,
should cover him with shame; but who, not speaking our language, nor
having any point of contact with our army, will always be the satellites
of the tyrant, his mutes, his cut-throats, and his hangmen. The laws,
the justice, the finances, the administration; in fine, the liberty and
life of the citizens, are all in the power of one man. You see at every
moment arbitrary arrests, judges punished for having acquitted citizens,
individuals put to death after having been already acquitted by law,
sentences and sentences of death extorted from judges by threats.
Remains there for men, who would deserve that name, any thing else to
do, but to avenge their wrongs, or perish with glory?"
Another portion of this paper contained an ode, in which all things were
represented as in a state of convulsion, all shaken by a tremendous
storm; but nature, either blind or cruel, sparing the head of the tyrant
alone:--still carrying on the parody of the Roman speech, it pronounces
that a poniard is the last resource of Rome to rescue herself from a
dictator. It asks, is it from a Corsican that a Frenchman must receive
his chains? was it to crown a traitor that France had punished her
kings? In another, a libel, which traced the rise of Bonaparte, and
charged him with the intention of assuming imperial power, concluded in
these words:--"Carried on the shield, let him be elected emperor;
finally, (and Romulus recalls the thing to mind,) I wish that on the
morrow he may have his 'apotheosis.'" This the Attorney-general
certainly, with every appearance of reason, pronounced to be a palpable
suggestion to put the First Consul to death; as history tells us that
Romulus was assassinated.
The defence by Mackintosh was a bold and eloquent performance. He
commenced by a spirited animadversion on the Attorney's speech, and then
extended his subject into a general defence of the liberty of the press,
which he pronounced to be the true object of attack on the part of the
First Consul. He followed the history of its suppression through all the
states under French influence, and then came to the attempt at its
suppression here. He then invoked the jury to regard themselves as the
protectors of the freedom of speech on earth, and to rescue his client
from the severity of an oppression which threatened the universal
slavery of mankind.
This speech has been strongly criticised as one in which the advocate
defended himself and his party, while he neglected his client. But the
obvious truth is, that unless the suggestion of assassination is
defensible, there could be no defence, and unless the laws of nations
justify the most violent charges on the character of foreign sovereigns,
there could be no justification for the language of the whole paper.
Mackintosh evidently took the best course for his cause. He made out of
bad materials a showy speech; he turned the public eye from the guilt of
the libel to the popular value of the press; where others would have
given a dull pleading, he gave a stately romance; where the jury, in
feebler hands, would have been suffered to see the facts in their savage
nudity, he exhibited them clothed in classic draperies, and dazzled the
eye with the lofty features and heroic attitudes of ancient love of
country. All the skill of man could not have saved Peltier from a
verdict of guilty; but the genius of the orator invested his sentence
with something of the glory of martyrdom. The breaking out of the war
relieved Peltier from the consequences of the verdict. But there can be
no question that, if he had been thrown into prison, he would have been
an object of the general sympathy; that the liberty of the press would
have been regarded as in some degree involved in his sufferings; that he
would have found public liberality willing to alleviate his personal and
pecuniary difficulties; and that his punishment would have been
shortened, and his fine paid by the zeal of the national sympathy. Such
are the triumphs of eloquence. Such is the value of having a man of
genius for an advocate. Such is the importance to the man of genius
himself, of resolving to exert his highest powers for his client.
Mackintosh has been called an indolent man; and he has been hitherto but
little known. But he has at last discovered his own faculties, and he
has only to keep them in action to achieve the highest successes of the
bar; to fill the place of Erskine; and if no man can make Erskine
forgotten, at least make him unregretted. This speech also has taught
another lesson, and that lesson is, that the bar can be the theatre of
the highest rank of eloquence, and that all which is regarded as the
limit of forensic excellence, is a gratuitous degradation of its own
dignity. The sharp retort, the sly innuendo, the dexterous hint, the
hard, keen subtlety, the rough common sense, all valuable in their
degree, and all profitable to their possessor, are only of an inferior
grade. Let the true orator come forth, and the spruce pleader is
instantly flung into the background. Let the appeal of a powerful mind
be made to the jury, and all the small address, and practical skill, and
sly ingenuity, are dropped behind. The passion of the true orator
communicates its passion; his natural richness of conception fills the
spirit of his hearers; his power of producing new thoughts and giving
new shapes to acknowledged truths; his whole magnificence of mind
erecting and developing new views of human action as it moves along,
lead the feelings of men in a willing fascination until the charm is
complete. But after such a man, let the mere advocate stand up, and how
feebly does his voice fall on the ear, how dry are his facts, how
tedious his tricks, how lacklustre, empty, and vain are his contrivances
to produce conviction!
Mackintosh wants one grand quality for the jury,--he speaks like one who
thinks more of his argument than of his audience; he forgets the faces
before him, and is evidently poring over the images within. Though with
a visage of the colour, and seemingly of the texture of granite, he
blushes at a misplaced word, and is evidently sensitive to the error of
a comma. No man ever spoke with effect who cannot hesitate without being
overwhelmed, blunder without a blush, or be bewildered by his own
impetuosity, without turning back to retrace. _En avant_ is the precept
for the orator, as much as it is the principle of the soldier.
Mackintosh has to learn these things; but he has a full mind, a classic
tongue, and a subtle imagination, and these constitute the one thing
needful for the orator, comprehend all, and complete all.
* * * * *
The late Lord Orford, the relative of the well-known Horace Walpole, is
one of the curious evidences that every man who takes it into his head
to be conspicuous, right or wrong, may make for himself a name. Lord
Orford, while his relative was writing all kinds of brilliant things,
collecting antiquities, worshipping the genius of cracked china, and
bowing down before fardingales and topknots of the time of Francis I.,
in the Temple of Strawberry Hill, was forming a niche for his fame in
his dog-kennel, and immortalizing himself by the help of his hounds.
Next to Actaeon, he was the greatest dog-fancier that the world has ever
seen, and would have rivalled Endymion, if Diana was to be won by the
fleetest of quadrupeds. He was boundless in his profusion in respect of
his favourite animals, until at last, finding that his ideas of
perfection could not be realized by any living greyhounds, he speculated
on the race unborn, and crossed his dogs until, after seven summers, he
brought them to unrivalled excellence. He had at various times fifty
brace of greyhounds, quartering them over every part of his county
Norfolk, of which he was lord-lieutenant, probably for the sake of
trying the effect of air and locality.
One of his lordship's conceptions was, that of training animals to
purposes that nature never designed them for; and, if lions had been
accessible in this country, he would probably have put a snaffle into
the mouth of the forest king, and have trained him for hunting, unless
his lordship had been devoured in the experiment. But his most notorious
attempt of this order, was a four-in-hand of stags. Having obtained four
red deer of strong make, he harnessed them, and by dint of the infinite
diligence which he exerted on all such occasions; was at length enabled
to drive his four antlered coursers along the high-road. But on one
unfortunate day, as he was driving to Newmarket, a pack of hounds, in
full cry after fox or hare, crossing the road, got scent of the track.
Finding more attractive metal, they left the chase, and followed the
stags in full cry. The animals now became irrestrainable, dashed along
at full speed, and carried the phaeton and his lordship in it, to his
great alarm, along the road, at the rate of thirty miles an hour.
Luckily they did not take their way across the country, or their
driver's neck must have been broken. The scene was now particularly
animating; the hounds were still heard in full cry; no power could stop
the frightened stags; his lordship exerted all his charioteering skill
in vain. Luckily, he had been in the habit of driving to Newmarket. The
stags rushed into the town, to the astonishment of every body, and
darted into the inn yard. Here the gates were shut, and scarcely too
soon, for in a minute or two after the whole dogs of the hunt came
rushing into the town, and roaring for their prey. This escape seems to
have cured his lordship of stag-driving; but his passion for coursing
grew only more active, and the bitterest day of the year, he was seen
mounted on his piebald pony, and, in his love of the sport, apparently
insensible to the severities of the weather; while the hardiest of his
followers shrank, he was always seen, without great-coat or gloves, with
his little three-cocked hat facing the storm, and evidently insensible
to every thing but the performances of his hounds.