_April 30th, 1814._--The good effects of the abolition of all the
apparatus of gambling were more and more apparent. Those who were
heretofore employed merely in rattling of the dice and shuffling of
cards, were now occupied in matters more becoming a rational and
accountable being. They are now busily employed in reading, writing,
drawing, and in studying arithmetic and navigation. Our ship begins to
wear the appearance of a seminary of learning; for we have established
numerous schools in various parts of the ship; and there appears a
strong desire for improvement among the younger class of the
prisoners. Every one is now convinced of the pernicious effects of
gambling. In order to improve this praiseworthy disposition, the
committee, which is in fact a board of selectmen, applied to the
agent, Mr. Beasly, for stationery; he accordingly sent us a ream of
writing paper, a few slates, and a few copies of a small treatise on
arithmetic. His supply was by no means equal to our needs. Four times
the number would have been in constant use; for it checked the
emulation of some when they could not obtain what they wished.
It was pleasing to see a number of quite young men preferring
education to gaming, noise and uproar; not but what we had among us a
set of noisy, thoughtless, giggling idle fellows, mere drums, that
sounded loud by reason of their emptiness. I never was so thoroughly
convinced of the great importance of a good education, grounded on
sound and serious principles, as since I have formed one among this
congregation of wretchedness. I fear I shall betray my partiality if I
should candidly write down my observations on this subject. We
Americans are taught from our infancy not only to believe, but to
think, compare and hold fast that which we find to be good. It seems
to me that the Roman Catholic religion takes all the trouble of
thinking and examining from off the mind of their believers. It is a
scheme of rules and discipline not very unlike that of the military,
and its punishments horrible. The Episcopal church of England treads
close upon the heels of the papal, and has formed a system all cut and
dried, like the Catholic, for a man to believe and be saved. Both of
them make religion a stationary point, and not a motive of principle,
forever progressing to perfection. One never dares to think or speak
beyond the bounds of that common prayer book, established by the king
and his council: whereas an American reads or hears read the bible
from his infancy, and thereby acquires a freedom of thinking unknown
even to the generality of Englishmen. I should never have thought so
much on these subjects had I not remarked the difference of thinking,
and behavior of the different people here crowded together. I do not
presume to say which is best or which is worst; I can only say which
is the freest from bigotry, and which is least trammelled by
ordinances merely political.
The ragged and despised legislators of the _Crown Prince_ prison ship,
in solemn council between decks convened, never adopted a wiser
measure than that of breaking up the dangerous habit of gambling. I
had an idea that gaming often become the ruling passion; but I never
before had an idea of its fascinating power. Some of our crew, of
reputed good habits, became so bewitched with gaming that they
plundered their companions and returned to their cards and wheels of
fortune with a serious and anxious ardor, totally void of pleasantry,
that seemed to me to border upon insanity.
After the gaming tables were demolished, some of our companions amused
themselves by running, and tumbling, and scampering about the ship,
disturbing those who were disposed to read, write and study
navigation. Not content with this, they hollowed, ridiculed and
insulted people passing in vessels and boats up and down the river.
The commander had no small difficulty in putting a stop to this
disgraceful river-slang.
On receiving a month's pay from Mr. Beasly, our agent, so called,
every prisoner contributed three pence towards a fund for purchasing
beer. They formed themselves into classes, like our collegians, and
these appointed persons to sell it to those who wished for it; and
each member of the class shared his proportion of the profits. This
answered a very good purpose; it checked the monopolizers and
muckworms that infested our ship, and fattened on our wastefulness. It
also benefitted those who did not choose to drink beer, or _porter_,
as they call it in England.
Some disagreeable and very mortifying occurrences took place among us
in the course of this spring. Four of our men agreed together to go on
to the quarter-deck and offer themselves to the commander, to enter
into the service of the British. Their intention was discovered before
they had an opportunity of putting it in execution. Two of them were
caught, and two escaped. These two were arraigned and sentenced to be
marked with the letter T, with Indian ink, pricked into their
foreheads, being the initial of the word _Traitor_; after which, one
went aft and entered; the other judged better, and remained with his
countrymen. Had these been Englishmen we should have applauded them;
and had they been Irishmen, we had no right to blame them; but we had
the mortification to know that they were, by birth, Americans. Some
thought the punishment was too severe, and which we had no right to
inflict; others thought that the letter in their foreheads should have
been F, for FEDERALIST; for this was the name they ever afterwards
were known by.
The Frenchmen were now (in the month of May) leaving the reach. Many
of them had been in prison ever since 1803. These men are going home
to live under a government forced upon them by foreigners! How unlike
Americans, who had rather perish under tortures, than submit to the
yoke of a foreigner. Our Frenchmen always spoke in raptures of the
emperor NAPOLEON, and with contempt of _Louis_. When we spoke in
praise of Bonaparte, they would throw their arms around us, and cry
out, one bon American! But these men are all passion and no principle;
they are fit for any thing but liberty. I cannot judge of the whole
nation; but those I have seen here, are an abandoned set of men. I
dare not write down their incredible vices. There has been a great cry
of _French influence_ by the British party in New England. I never
thought it ever existed, and I am very certain that it never will
exist, unless they, and we should become a very altered people. It is
a happy circumstance that the wide Atlantic rolls between us and
France, and between us and England.
LOUIS 18th, passed through Chatham this month, for France. The tops of
the carriages, only, were to be seen by the prisoners. On this
occasion, the cannon were firing from London to Sheerness. Our
Frenchmen looked blacker than ever. They were, be sure, obliged to
stick the white cockade on their hats, but they told us they had
Bonaparte's cockade in their hearts. They checked the expression of
their feelings lest it should retard their liberation.
On the news of taking of Paris, and of the flight of Bonaparte to
Elba, all our prison-keepers were alive for joy.--"Thank God that I am
an _Englishman_," says our commander, lieut. O.--and "thank God I am a
_Briton_," says our surgeon, who is a Scotchman. _John Bull_ is now on
the very top of the steeple, hourrowing and swinging his hat, and
crying out to the whole universe, "_I'm thinking Johnny Bull_, the
magnanimous John Bull, the soul of the continental war, the protector
of France, the restorer of his holiness the Pope, and of Ferdinand the
_Great_, the terror and admiration of the whole world. I have nothing
now left me to do, but to flog the yankees, and depose MADISON; and
burn the city of Washington, disperse the Congress, establish in their
place the _Hartford Convention_, and raise Caleb Strong to the high
rank his devotion merits. After this, I will divide the world between
me and ----. _Prevost_, who is, beyond doubt, at this very moment, at
the city of Hartford, in Connecticut; or at the city of North Hampton,
the capital of my province of Massachusetts."
_John Bull_[G] is, be sure, an hearty old fellow, with some very good
points in his odd character; but, dwelling on an island, he oft times
betrays an ignorance of the world, and of himself, so that we cannot
help laughing at him, once in a while, for his conceitedness. His
ignorance of America, and Americans, is a source of ridicule among us
all. An English lady said to one of the officers, who had the care of
American prisoners in England, "I hear, Sir, that the Americans are
very ingenious in the manufactory of many little articles, and should
like to have some of them."--The officer replied that she might
herself give directions to some of the Americans, whom he would direct
to speak with her. "O," said she, "how can that be, _I cannot speak
their language_!" The individuals of the navy of England, have pretty
correct ideas of us; but the soldiery of England have betrayed their
ignorance in a manner that is astonishing, and some times truly
laughable, even among their officers, who have taken prisoners. To
this ignorance of free and happy America, and to the very generally
diffused blessings of a respectable education, which we all enjoy, is
to be attributed the base treatment we have experienced in some
periods of our painful captivity. Who could have entertained any
respect, or good opinion of a set of miserable looking, half naked
dirty men, such as we all were when we arrived in the different ships
from America? Our own parents, our brothers and sisters, would not
have recognized us as their relatives. The soldiers taken under
Boestler, were the verriest looking vagabonds I ever saw. They
resembled more the idea I have formed of the lowest tenants of St.
Giles', than American citizens, born and bred up in a sort of Indian
freedom, and living all their lives in plenty, and never knowing,
until they came into the hands of the English, what it was to be
pinched for food, or to be infested by vermin. This short, severe, and
for America, _most glorious war_, has given all ranks of the British
nation more correct ideas of that people, who have vanquished them in
every contest, the ill-omened frigate Chesapeake alone excepted.
During this short war, the British have learnt this important truth,
that the Americans are a brave and skilful people, who, though they
appear to differ among themselves, _are all united against any attack
from the English_; and on our side we have learnt, that to carry on a
war, as we have done, is _pretty expensive_.
The surgeon of this ship, who is a clever Scotchman, speaks of the
English nation as in a state of starvation in the midst of her great
power, and abounding wealth, and matchless glory; for the late capture
of Paris, _by the English_, with a _trifling_ assistance of the
allies, has absolutely intoxicated the whole nation, so that every man
of them talks as if he were drunk. He told me, "that although the ship
carpenters, at Chatham, received two guineas a week, (which, by the
way, is not so much as our carpenters receive in America) they were
always poor, and could lay up nothing against the accidents of
sickness; but that when such misfortunes came upon them, they, in
common with the manufacturers of England, with their families, went
upon the parish, or into some hospitals. He said, such laboring people
laid out too much in flesh meat, and in porter; which was not the
custom in Scotland; and that there it was considered an indelible
disgrace to a family to be maintained by the parish; but that it was
so common in England, that no disgrace was attached to it. We, in
Scotland, said he, would work our hands off, before any of our family
should ask the parish for assistance to live." It appears from
authentic documents, published in London, that, young and old, there
are little short of two millions of paupers in England, including
common beggars, and persons in alms-houses; that is, upon an average,
about _one_ pauper, or beggar, to every _four_ who are not paupers or
beggars.
In the parish of _St. Sepulcher_, which is in the heart of the city of
London, there were last January, (1816,)
Paupers in the work-house, 227
Children at nurse, 25
Insane poor, 8
Relieved out of the house, 92
Relieved in the country, 9
---
361
Now the number of persons _who pay_ poor rates in this parish, was at
the same time, 612. The annual amount of the expenses about _l_6,600.
This is from an official account given by Mr. Miller and Wm. Scaife.
Such is the picture of the _prosperity_ of the _opulent_ city of
London, when at peace with all the world; after they had put down
Bonaparte, and set up the Pope, and Ferdinand the 7th, and restored
Louis 18th to the throne of the Bourbons, and revived the holy
inquisition, with all its fervours!--Read this, Americans, and bless
God that your lots (lines) have fallen in pleasant places.
A century ago, a Scotch writer, Fletcher, of Saltoun, gives this
account of the beggarly state of Scotland.--"There are," says he, "at
this day in Scotland (besides a great many poor families meanly
provided for by the church boxes, with others, who, by living upon bad
food, fall into various diseases) two hundred thousand people begging
from door to door. These are not only no way advantageous, but a very
grievous burden to so poor a country; and though the number of them be
perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of this present
great distress, yet in all times there have been about one hundred
thousand of those vagabonds (gipsies) who have lived without any
regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even those of
God and nature.
"No magistrate could ever discover, or be informed, which way one in a
hundred of these wretches died, or that they were ever baptized. Many
murders have been discovered among them; and they are not only a most
unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread,
or some kind of provisions to perhaps forty such villains in one day,
are sure to be insulted by them;) but they rob many poor people who
live in houses distant from any neighborhood. In years of plenty, many
thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and
riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and
other the like public occasions, they are to be seen, both man and
woman, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting
together."
Among the evils imported from Britain, America has never been cursed
with that part of their population called GIPSIES, forming in England
an _imperium in imperio_. The famous "_orders in council_," can be
clearly traced up to a Gipsy origin. The Londoners imitate and follow,
but originate nothing.--One of the monarchs of Scotland acknowledged
the _Gipsies_ as a separate and independent race. The word is a
corruption of _Egyptians_.
The Surgeon also talked much about the poor laws; and the taxes to
support the vast number of the poor in England. I told him that in
Massachusetts, which contained about half a million of people, we had
not more than a thousand persons maintained at the public charge; and
that this thousand included foreigners--English, _Scotch_, Irish,
Germans, Danes, Swedes, and not a few negroes. He seemed surprized at
this account; but after a little pause, he said, "it was just like
Scotland, where they had very few poor; and of those, very few were so
degraded in mind, as to go into an alms-house, like an Englishman."
The Doctor observed, "that the English were full of money; that they
gave large and long credit, and that tailors, shoe-makers and hatters,
gave a generous credit, and could afford so to do." He said, "that the
'_capitalists_' ruled and turned the wheels of the government at their
will and pleasure; they have great influence in the nation, but they
have no ancestors, nor any thing to boast of but their money, which
gives them all their consequence; for it is true if they shut their
purses, the whole machinery of the government must stop." I could have
told this discontented Caledonian a different story. I could have told
him that all our capitalists, merchants and monied men, especially in
New England, had shut their purses against our administration, and
yet, in spite of these detestable sons of mammon, our governmental
machine went steadily on, while we vanquished our enemy by land and by
sea; but I did not wish to mortify a civil, friendly man. "In
England," continued he, "the merchant governs the cabinet; and the
cabinet governs the parliament; and the sovereign governs both; but,"
said he, "the capitalists, (by which he meant the mercantile interest)
govern the whole." I did not choose to controvert his opinions; but,
"thinks-I-to-my-self," ah! Sawney, thou art mistaken; America,
democratic America, has proved that the most democratical government
upon the terraqueous globe, has gone steadily on to greatness, to
victory and to glory, with the capitalists or mercantile interest, _in
direct opposition to its wondrous measures_!
I believe that our surgeon was a good man, and not ill qualified in
his profession; but no politician, and pretty strongly attached to
his tribe; who, from his account, never spent much money in buying
meat and strong beer. He talked much of the machine and _wheels_ of
government; from all which I concluded, that the court of St. James's
was the hub, or nave, where all the spokes of the great wheel of the
machine terminated; and that the laboring people, manufacturers, and
merchants were doomed, all their days, to grease this wheel. It is
remarkable that David, the royal Psalmist, among the severest of the
curses bestowed on his enemies, expressly says, "_Lord, make them like
unto a wheel._"