BOIL NO MORE.
That very evening, it was thought wise that the members of the Starey
family, who had come so kindly to our aid, should return to the bosom of
their own affairs, at that pleasant place, Stoke Newington. My dear
father was so widely known, and so loved and admired, by all the trade,
that he received an exceedingly large funeral. My dear mother told me,
how many high firms, nearly all of them wholesale, were represented; but
I was pleased only because of her pleasure, or rather of the comfort she
drew from it. Moreover, there were ancient friends who came, as well as
still more of new date, and even some nephews of the name of Upmore,
with warm recollections of their dear Uncle, and hopes of a mutual
(though posthumous) remembrance. Some of these had a good claim to be
fed, in the hunger and thirst of unavailing sorrow--for none of them was
down for sixpence--and my mother, who had made a great effort to attend,
naturally left Mrs. Starey, and her daughters, to offer consolation to
these mourners. Among them, so deep a flow of sympathy was opened, that
when Mr. Cope and myself came in, all the members of the Starey family,
for our three had fetched the residue, were (as Mr. Cope said
afterwards) totally unable _stare_. This made it incumbent upon us to
send them home; and two cabs were ordered, with drivers of well-known
integrity, who received the whole of them, and their goods, on condition
of getting their money, as soon as their job was discharged
conscientiously. Only they must get it from the people they took home,
and not from those compelled to pack them off. Like all other sensible
arrangements, this turned out to all reasonable satisfaction; though the
Stareys made a fearful fuss about it, grieving to go away at all, and
still more to do it at their own expense. They seemed to forget
altogether, that when starvation stared them in the face, my father set
them up in a small candleshop, and supplied them for three months, on
full credit. But such is the way of the world; and what right have I to
be finding fault with it, while yet I continue to belong to it?
When all this was over, and my mother gone to sleep, I opened the paper
which she had given me; and with two of our own best candles lit, (for
my father would never have gas in the house, to ruin our eyes and to
disgrace our business) I read every word of it, sighing sometimes, and
sometimes crying, to find how good he had been to me, who had paid him
out so badly. And private as the matter was, the public, having taken
such a kindly interest in me, might fairly call me ungrateful, if I shut
them out of all of it. Neither could that be done, without a confusion
arising between us. My dear father had clear ideas, as to his own will
and way; and while he enjoyed himself much in the world, he carried on
his work to suit. He had written a letter to me, to be read when he
could no more talk to me; though he little thought, how soon that would
be. After things which I need not enter into, he proceeded with these
words, the whole being written in a plain round hand:
"You will see, my son, that I have worked hard, chiefly that you may do
well. If anything happens to me of a sudden, as may be the case, after
what I have gone through, your mother will be well provided for, as she
has thoroughly deserved of me. Everything will be at her discretion; but
I am sure that she will carry out whatever I wish concerning you. Cut no
capers with my hard earnings; I think you have too much sense for that,
and I have taken good care to prevent it. None of your high society
nonsense, which is not fit for a tradesman's son; but a steady rise in
the world, which is according to the laws of England. When the business
has been well disposed of, after completion of all jobs in hand,
according to the meaning of my will, you must go on with your
school-learning, at the Oxford colleges, where your friend Bill Chumps
has done so well. I have had a long talk with Mr. Cope, though I did not
tell your mother of it, and he says that the money will not be thrown
away; for it makes you anybody's equal, except among the nobility. You
have quite as good a head piece as Bill Chumps, if you will stick to it,
as he has done; and you will see that it pays as well to boil down
animals, as to cut them up, when a man understands the business.
"When you have been through the Colleges, I intend to send you into
Parliament, that you may flabergast the Radicals. These are now making
so much bluster, and getting their own wicked way so fast, that unless a
firm stand is made against them, no man's life will be his own, no more
than his land or money will. Robbery is the beginning, and robbery is
the end of it; and in the middle stands the man with the biggest pair of
jaws; and laughs, as he pockets all their thievery. If this goes on, a
man had better lie down on his back, and rant all day, than labour hard,
and be robbed of it. You have heard me talk of this, my son; but we have
only turned the first leaf yet; if Mr. Panclast gets the power he has
set his stubborn heart on.
"Tommy, I am not a wise man, nor even to be called a clever one; but I
am of a sort that is going by, and perhaps will be missed hereafter.
That is to say, an Englishman, of common sense, and of fair play, and of
tidy pride in his Country. All these are dragged in the dirt, by the
people now getting upper hand of us; and what will come of it? They will
drag themselves in the dirt, and their children; until our grandsons are
ashamed to say--'I am an Englishman.'
"Now mind you this, my dear son, though you have little chance of doing
it, fight you, tooth and nail, against the white-livered lot of
Panclast. Who is he, by right of gab, and words no more English than
himself, to upset the meaning of England, and the value of an
Englishman? A change will come, among the changes he is always starting,
when people will try to respect themselves; and finding it all too late
for that, will turn against him, who has made it so. Then a very few
men, without possessing any quality at all wonderful, except their love
of their Country, may lay hold of the sense of our disgrace, and make it
serve for common sense. Then good-bye to Mr. Panclast!
"Tommy, I wish that I might live, to see a son of mine bear share, in
such an act of righteousness. But I hear your mother with the dinner
ready, and I will go on about it, to-morrow."
* * * * *
The abruptness of this conclusion made me as sad almost as anything;
although I do not see how my father, writing so much in prophetic vein,
could have added anything of more precision, for my future guidance. I
thoroughly understood his wishes, from the above brief sketch of them,
and they agreed entirely with my own; so far at least as I had paid
attention to such matters. Very few boys at school as yet, had made up
their minds immutably,--as Sir Roland Twentifold had done already, and
as every school-boy now does at once--what side in politics is the only
right one, and how it may best be promoted.
As soon as we had the time, and spirit, to look round and think again,
we could not help admiring, more and more, my father's wisdom. Not, by
any manner of means, on account of the sum he had left for our benefit;
though this turned out to be three times as much as my mother, in her
most hopeful moments, had ever dreamed of finding it. It would be
unnatural, if this had failed to increase her admiration; but she wished
everybody to understand, that of that she thought nothing, in comparison
with subjects so much higher. When coarse people said--"He has cut up
grandly. My dear lady, I congratulate you, and your most interesting
son, with all my heart;" she simply waved her hand, and said, "Sir, you
can never have felt, as I do. Money is only an added trouble, when the
guiding hand is gone, and gross exaggerations are made about it." And
she felt most deeply the great injustice, and cruel hardship, of paying
for probate a sum which made her weep again; because of the utter want
of feeling, exhibited by the Revenue.
However, all this had one good effect, perhaps contemplated by the
Revenue. To some extent, it helped to turn the channels of her grief
towards indignation, as well as compelled her to look sharp, to baffle
the harpies of the law, by all the resources of honesty. And so well did
she manage, with the aid of Mrs. Windsor, (who became a very dear friend
now, and entered into all her righteous feelings) that much
disappointment, and many low suspicions, rankled in the stony heart of
Somerset House.
But that, which my mother, and myself, and even the lawyer whom we were
obliged to employ, found the most remarkable, was the skill and
forethought displayed by father, in the settlement of all trade-affairs.
I need not go into particulars now; any more than I need state exactly
the value of his net estate. Upon that point, there are always people,
who know ten times as much as the acting executor can discover, and are
not to be put down, by any process of sworn arithmetic; though as yet it
had not become the duty of any public journal, to measure the depth of a
dead man's pocket, and tell the world, how he divided it. It will be
enough, for those who care to follow my humble fortune, to know that
Kentish Town, Camden Town, Islington, and Ball's Pond were wrong--though
they all agreed about it, and, if any stranger doubted, doubled it--in
putting it at considerably over the sum of a hundred thousand pounds.
With regard to the Works, my father had provided that any Government
contracts, taken before his death, should be executed; and if any more
were offered, upon like terms, his Executors should accept them, so long
as the Conservatives remained in office. But if, as he clearly
anticipated, the Kingdom were over-run shortly by Radicalism and
robbery, the long-established firm of Upmore was not to be associated
with them. For they cut down contracts to the uttermost farthing, and no
honest man could work under them. In that case, our works must be
offered for sale, upon certain conditions, and terms, etc., all of which
proved his wisdom.
But nothing proved his wisdom, and clenched his words, with a
sledge-hammer power, so much as the speedy result upon his proviso about
contracts. For fear of spoiling my education, and attaching a soapy
smell to me, it was strictly declared, that I must keep away from
meddling with a business, which I did not understand. This alone will
show the absurdity of the cries (now raised for party purposes) of
"soap," and "dips," and "where's the grease-pot?"--with which I still
have to contend, when I rise to address our enlightened operatives. My
father had foreseen, I will not say all,--for no Jeremiah could have
ever done that--but some of the mumbling, and blear-eyed decrepitude of
the British nation, which now sets us longing to be Boers, or Zulus, or
anything but what we unhappily are. And this foresight was shown in the
result of the very next general election. The Radicals, (who are forced,
by their own consciences, to set every other nation in the world before
their own) came in with a rampant and blatant--the former to the friends
of our country, and the latter to her foes--majority of six score at
least.
No sooner was the result made known, with a mighty flourish of trumpets,
and a proclamation of the Millennium, than a private and confidential
circular was received by all substantial and enterprising Boilers. In
it, the very ancient date of this typical firm was stated, as well as
its rare advantages in position, and a thousand other things, including
a vested right in Government contracts, and a certainty of being bought
out, at a very noble figure, by the Committee of the new Cattle Market.
Moreover, ashes were in great demand, for a newly formed
Building-Company would take a million loads at once, to erect a thousand
substantial villas, entirely upon, and for the most part of them.
Everything was going up and off, just then, like steam, and smoke, and
bubbles mixed, as they used to be at our chimney-top. When a Liberal
Government first comes in, it sets all knaves a-dancing; and even honest
folk prick long ears up, at the infectious fanfarade of the great
Rogue's March. There are certain to be, at once, bright summers, kindly
winters, and vernal springs; and autumn will stand so thick with corn,
that even the British farmer may have some hope, to get a gleaning.
Trade shall flourish, bubble-companies abound; adulteration--alone of
British industries,--be subsidised; and every foreign bullet, fired
into the back of an Englishman, shall go back, ton for ton, in gold.
National securities went up, with the certainty that they might be
sacked, without outlay in defending them; and commercial circles squared
themselves, with the magic joy, which precedes the sure accomplishment
of the impossible. Every sort of investment was in demand, and everybody
expected ten per cent. on his capital, without posting it. Even Mr.
Windsor, a stout old Tory, fell into the rush of the Liberal flood, and
longed to buy my father's works; but my mother begged him not to do so,
for she would have been loth to see him disappointed; and the price was
high. She told him of my father's caution; and he wisely saw its force.
I am heartily glad, that it was so; for without that risk, our friend
and neighbour lost as much as he could afford; when the usual relapse
set in, from braggart talk, and swindling promise.
But while these were new, and bright, they served our turn, without
fault of ours; and a Radical, of high faith, and sound cash, lost
both--I am very sorry to say--in carrying on our fine old trade.
When these arrangements were complete, my dear mother carried out what
she knew to be my father's wishes--though he had not found time to state
them--by removing to a house upon Haverstock Hill, which stood in its
own grounds, and saw as little of London as a "genteel villa" could wish
to do; while the omnibuses passed our gate, every twenty minutes both to
and fro.
Under the lawyer's advice, she bought this house, when she had tried it;
and then she set up a cook, and housemaid, and a boy to do the knives,
and a pony, twelve hands high, to carry me, when he went quietly, or to
pitch me off, when he was cross. And, whatever the weather was, every
day, by 'bus, or pony, or afoot, I went to Mr. St. Simon Cope; to learn
the classics on week-days, and to hear him preach on Sundays. Until I
became eighteen years old, and obliged to go to Oxford.