LIFE IN JERSEY
THE judge had a fleet of ships of his own trading to nearly every corner
of the globe, and in the months of September and October several vessels
returned from the Newfoundland fishery, laden with codfish, whalebone,
sperm oil, and seal, beaver, fox, and other skins. He made me a sort of
deputy-clerk, and I had to note down every article with its number and
weight. This I did so much to his satisfaction that at Christmas he
actually gave me a sovereign as a present over and above my wages; and a
few kind and complimentary words that he spoke made me feel as if I had
suddenly grown an inch taller. Now I began to feel very pleased and glad
I was born.
I began to think myself surpassingly rich, for I had three good suits of
clothes, and six golden sovereigns in my pocket, and I thought of poor
Jim the ploughman, who used to go to bed early on Saturday night to give
his mother the opportunity to wash his one and only ragged shirt, so
that he might have it clean on Sunday morning. All this time I had
thought greatly about my poor mother, for she had not the slightest idea
of what had become of me. I had been away from April until Christmas. I
had never up to that time any idea of writing a letter as I had never
been to a week-day school, but somehow or other I had acquired the art
of writing. Of course I could not realize how very deep her grief must
have been, being only a male. We as men love our children, but our love
at best cannot be measured or weighed against the deep and constant love
of a mother for her child. Now I thought how pleased she would be if I
could only just put these six sovereigns into her hands. I thought
whether I could manage to go for a week to see her, and return again;
but on second thoughts I decided that would not do at all. So at last I
wrote a letter, and told my mother that I was well and flourishing, but
could not come to see her. If she would come and see me, however, I
would send her the funds to pay her passage. She answered my letter by
return of post to say that she would come, and so in the course of a few
weeks I had the pleasure of meeting her on the pier, as she landed from
the _Atlantic_. The judge gave me as many holidays as I wanted, and so I
was able to show my mother about the Island.
The first thing that surprised her was to see the French women wheeling
heavy barrows of luggage about, while their lords and masters were
swelling about with their gold-laced caps, gingham blouses, patent
leather boots, and the everlasting pipe in their mouths.
Mother would gaze at the women in the street, and say, "Well, I have
worked hard in my time, but I am very glad I am not a Frenchwoman." She
was not surprised, she said, that the Duke of Wellington was able with
a handful of Englishmen to go over and thrash them Frenchmen on their
own ground.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself during the five weeks mother stayed with me.
Father had given her four weeks, but I must confess to playing a trick
on her so that she could stay with me another week. On the day that she
was to leave I went down to the steamship office to ascertain at what
time the packet started, and found it was timed to start at nine o'clock
in the evening. But my mother did not trust quite to that, for she went
herself to learn the hour of departure, so it was no fault of her own
that she was left behind. Well, we had high tea at six o'clock, and got
a few friends together just to talk away the hours until nine o'clock.
So while the ladies were thus employed, and helping my mother put her
things together, I put the clock back three-quarters of an hour. No one
noticed it, as the clock was in another room, and it turned out exactly
as I desired. We went off, my mother and I, she shaking hands and
bidding her friends good-bye and I laughing up my sleeve, knowing full
well that the steam-packet would have left. When we arrived at the pier
and she found it had gone without her she could scarcely believe her own
senses. I knew that she had never been away from her home for
twenty-four hours before, and I also knew that my father would be
dreadfully vexed, especially as he would have to walk a long way to the
Foxwell turnpike to meet the Weymouth coach. I ought to have been put in
the stocks for practising such a joke, but somehow I felt it might be
years before I should see her again.
I took her over to Elizabeth Castle, and she stood close by the great
gun when it was fired off, bearing the deafening noise and the vibration
under our feet like a real old soldier; and then we went to Goree Castle
and saw the oyster fishing; and she was very much amused to see the
oysters as they lay in heaps upon their shells, and to watch the mice,
that swarmed around trying to get a nibble from the open oysters, which
would close up their shells upon them. Then I took her down to St.
Clement's Bay, where her grandfather, a sergeant-major in one of the
English regiments, landed when he was sent to the island to clear out
the French. At the death of Major Peirson in the Royal Square the
command fell upon my great-grandfather, who drove the French out of the
town at the point of the bayonet literally into the sea, and at the time
of our visit the guns which were used in that fight were stuck into the
ground along the beach as a memorial of the occasion.
At the time of my sojourn in Jersey from 1839 to 1847 it contained
twelve parishes. The capital town of St. Heliers contained six or seven
churches besides two Roman Catholic chapels, and several Dissenting
places of worship. There was a fine theatre, and a Court-house in the
Royal Square. This house did duty as the House of Commons, Guildhall,
assize hall, and I know not what besides. I have seen great doings there
when a new judge was being elected. I have also seen prisoners tried for
various offences, but whether the prisoners were French or English or of
any other nation, the whole of the business was carried on in the French
language. If the prisoner at the Bar did not happen to understand that
language so much the worse for him. There was no such person as an
interpreter, and I often heard sentence passed upon a prisoner who was
quite ignorant of the nature of the trial or sentence until some kind
friend who could speak both languages would tell him what he was to
expect.
Mr. Charles Carus Wilson, a man over seven feet in height and a member
of the English Bar, on one occasion stood up and told the judge that the
prisoner had not had a fair trial, that he protested against it, and
that he would report the circumstances to Lord Denman, the Lord Chief
Justice. The judge thereupon told Mr. Wilson that he had insulted the
court and must pay a penalty of L10, and apologise to the court for such
an insult. "Indeed, I shall do neither one nor the other," replied Mr.
Wilson. "Then," said the judge, "you must go to prison during Her
Majesty's pleasure." "Very well," replied Mr. Wilson, "here's off to
jail." So he walked through the streets in charge of a constable, his
head and shoulders towering above the heads of the crowd which had
gathered round. In prison they had to put two bedsteads and beds
together to make it long enough for him to lie down.
Mr. Wilson, however, took it very quietly and courteously and reported
the whole matter to Lord Denman, who sent over a writ of habeas corpus.
Of course I wondered whatever that could be, but the steam packet
arrived on a Sunday morning, covered with flags and banners, and
thousands of people went down to see the sight and wondered what was
going to happen next. I do not know if the judges knew the meaning of
it, but they were nearly frightened out of their wits. Messengers were
sent all over the island to call all the judges together. On Monday
morning they met and consulted, and the result of their deliberations
was that they went themselves and opened the prison doors and asked Mr.
Wilson if he would please to walk out. Charles Carus Wilson, however,
did not please to walk out. He merely replied, "You have sent me here
for I know not what, and I do not feel disposed to be sent to prison and
taken out again just as it suits your whims."
So the upshot of it all was that they had to pay Mr. Wilson's fare and
their own to London, and all had to appear before a judge of the Queen's
Bench, and the Jersey judges were fined L100 each, and the poor woman,
whose trial and sentence of seven years' transportation for stealing a
hen and chicken had caused all the trouble, was freed.
My employer had often told me that if I had been a few years older, he
would have sent me to Newfoundland to superintend his business there. As
I was too young to fill such a responsible position, he proposed that I
should join the _Anchor_, a fine bark of 600 tons. The captain, he said,
was a "very nice gentleman," and on that vessel I should have an
opportunity of learning the art of navigation, so that eventually I
should be able to take charge of any ship belonging to the merchant
service. I thought this was exceedingly kind, especially as he said he
would provide me with an outfit, and I then and there closed with the
bargain. The _Anchor_ was in the harbour and I went on board and
assisted in putting in a stock of provisions, ready for the voyage to
the Brazils. She was to sail in a fortnight, and I was rather glad that
I was born, to fall in luck's way in the manner I had. There now
appeared a prospect of my being placed in a position worth struggling
for, which I knew was not usually the lot of one such as I. So I looked
forward daily and hourly for the kind-hearted judge to supply me with
the outfit. When, lo and behold, one morning, a day or two before the
_Anchor_ was ready to start, the judge told me that he intended to place
Jim Drake in my place, because his father was dead, and he was a poor,
friendless lad. "Just as if I were not a poor, friendless lad," thought
I. I don't think I wished Jim Drake dead, but I did wish that he had
never been born. That he should step in and just open his mouth and
catch the blessing that was intended for me was almost more than I could
bear.
So I had the mortification of seeing Jim Drake go off in the _Anchor_,
and I felt more disgusted than I can tell, especially as the skipper was
a "very nice gentleman." But I afterwards found out that after all this
happened for the best. The judge offered me more than one good
situation. He had several other vessels, besides the _Anchor_, but to
all his offers I turned a deaf ear. If he had ill-used me, or kicked me
and boxed my ears, I should have forgiven him; but he had deceived me,
and for that offence I could not respect him. So I left him and sought
other employment.
I found work in a large blacksmith's shop, and here I had to work very
hard indeed. I stayed for a time, and then engaged myself to another
merchant. I went on board his vessel, which was a small sloop trading
between France and the Channel Islands and occasionally visiting some
English port, Plymouth, Poole or Southampton. Now this old merchant used
to go over to Havre or Granville, proceed a few miles into the country,
buy cows at from L5 to L8 each, and send them on board the _Medora_,
ordering them to be taken to St. Aubin, Jersey, while he himself went on
before in the steam packet.
The _Medora_ in due course ran into harbour, and there would be the old
sinner waiting to order the cows to Poole, and at the next tide we would
set sail for Poole, where he again would be waiting to meet us, and the
cattle would be unloaded and he would take them to the market or drive
them round to the farmers and sell them for pure Jersey cows, thereby
gaining an enormous profit.
One Saturday afternoon when the wind was blowing a hurricane and the sea
rolling and seething in all its majestic fury, as we were scudding along
somewhere between Guernsey and the Isle of Wight, we saw a fine bark in
the distance, and on nearer approach we found it was the _Anchor_,
returning from the West Indies laden with sugar. We got near enough to
speak to each other, and I looked to see if I could make out Jim Drake,
but I failed to do so. The vessel had encountered some very bad weather
for nearly all the bulwarks were gone, and almost everything that is
usually carried on deck had been washed away. The men were, like
ourselves, tied fast with a rope's end to prevent their being washed
overboard. After two or three days and nights in the Channel, we at last
found ourselves in Weymouth harbour. We had been soaking wet and had had
no sleep or food, nor did we seem to require any, but I went to an inn
and got to bed and slept for ten hours. On arriving back in Jersey the
first thing I heard was that Jim Drake, who had just returned in the
_Anchor_, had summoned his skipper for cruelly ill-using him while at
sea. It appeared that the _Anchor_ was no sooner out of Jersey than poor
Jim Drake began to be sea-sick. So this skipper, the "very nice
gentleman," took a rope, and the chief mate took another, and between
them they belaboured poor Jim, one hitting on one side and one on the
other. So this nice pair seem to have taken a delight in ill-using the
poor lad during the whole of the voyage.
One day Jim committed the awful crime of whistling. No one was allowed
to whistle on board except the commander, and he only under
extraordinary circumstances, such as when there was a dead calm he might
whistle for a breeze. Superstition ran so high on board that if a man
whistled he was considered an evil genius; storm and tempest, fire and
famine, aye, the devil himself would visit that ship, and from the
moment Jim Drake whistled every man on board became his enemy. The
skipper cursed, and the mate swore, and poor Jim cried for mercy and
said he did not know he was committing an offence. But they tied him to
the mast and both took a rope and hammered away as if the subject they
were operating upon had been a piece of cast-iron or a block of
granite; and at last one took a handspike and gave Jim a blow which
broke his arm, and as there was no surgeon the limb was never set. This
was the complaint brought before the court, and when I saw Jim there I
cried for pity as the poor lad stood there with his hand twisted round,
the back being towards his thigh, the palm outwards, and the whole
dangling useless by his side. Now Jim was an English lad, and the
skipper a Jerseyman, and all the business of the court was carried on in
French. Jim stated his evidence, but there was not a man amongst that
crew who would corroborate it, and the skipper and the mate were two
very respectable men. Moreover the skipper was such a kind-hearted
gentleman that he had actually given his men a double allowance of grog
on their homeward voyage; so of course, as in duty bound, they all to a
man spoke of his kind and generous conduct. So poor Jim's complaint fell
to the ground. And not only that, but the skipper took proceedings
against him for trying to defame his fair character, and poor Jim was
sent to prison for three weeks. I cried with anguish for Jim, yet
thanked my lucky stars that I did not go on board the _Anchor_.