THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE
There is a sport prevalent among the downs in Hampshire to which, though
not of a high degree, much interest is attached. Men and boys, with
social glee and happy boyish shouts, congregate together on a
hill-side, at the mouth of a narrow hole, and proceed, with the aid of
a well-trained bull-dog, to draw a badger. If the badger be at all
commendable in his class this is by no means an easy thing to do. He is
a sturdy animal, and well fortified with sharp and practised teeth; his
hide is of the toughest; his paws of the strongest, and his dead power
of resistance so great as to give him more than an equal chance with the
bull-dog. The delighted sportsmen stand round listening to the growls
and snarls, the tearings, gnawings, and bloody struggles of the
combatants within.--'Well done, badger!--Well done, bull-dog!--Draw him,
bulldog!--Bite him, badger!' Each has his friends, and the interest of
the moment is intense. The badger, it is true, has done no harm. He has
been doing as it was appointed for him to do, poor badger, in that hole
of his. But then, why were badgers created but to be drawn? Why, indeed,
but to be drawn, or not to be drawn, as the case may be? See! the
bull-dog returns minus an ear, with an eye hanging loose, his nether
lip torn off, and one paw bitten through and through. Limping, dejected,
beaten, glaring fearfully from his one remaining eye, the dog comes out;
and the badger within rolls himself up with affected ease, hiding his
bloody wounds from the public eye.
So it is that the sport is played in Hampshire; and so also at
Westminster--with a difference, however. In Hampshire the two brutes
retain ever their appointed natures. The badger is always a badger,
and the bull-dog never other than a bull-dog. At Westminster there is
a juster reciprocity of position. The badger when drawn has to take his
place outside the hole, and fight again for the home of his love; while
the victorious bull-dog assumes a state of badgerdom, dons the skin of
his enemy, and, in his turn, submits to be baited.
The pursuit is certainly full of interest, but it is somewhat deficient
in dignity.
The parliamentary committee, which was to sit with reference to the
Limehouse and Rotherhithe Bridge, had been one of the effects of a
baiting-match such as that above described. In this contest the enemies
of the proud occupier of the den on the mountain-side had not been
contented to attempt to expel him with a single bull-dog. A whole pack
had been let loose at his devoted throat. Bull-dogs had been at him, and
terriers, mastiffs, blood-hounds, lurchers, and curs; but so accustomed
was he to the contest, so knowing in his fence, so ready with all the
weapons given to him by nature, that, in spite of the numbers and venom
of his enemies, he had contrived to hold his own. Some leading hounds
had fallen to rise no more; others had retreated, yelping to their
kennels, to lie quiet for a while, till time might give them courage
for a new attack. The country round was filled with the noise of their
plaints, and the yowling and howling of canine defeat. The grey old
badger meanwhile sat proud in his hole, with all his badger kin around
him, and laughed his well-known badger laugh at his disconsolate foes.
Such a brock had not for years been seen in the country-side; so cool,
so resolute, so knowing in his badger ways, so impregnable in his badger
hole, and so good-humoured withal. He could bite full sore with those
old teeth of his, and yet he never condescended to show them. A badger
indeed of whom the country might well be proud!
But in the scramble of the fight some little curs had been permitted to
run away with some little bones; and, in this way, Mr. Nogo, the member
for Mile End, had been allowed to carry his motion for a committee to
inquire as to the expediency of the Government's advancing a quarter of
a million towards the completion of that momentous national undertaking,
the building of a bridge from Limehouse to Rotherhithe.
Very much had been said about this bridge, till men living out of the
light of parliamentary life, nine hundred and ninety-nine men, that is,
out of every thousand in the Queen's dominions, had begun to think
that it was the great want of the age. Men living in the light, the
supporters of the bridge as well as its enemies, knew very well that
such an erection was quite unneeded, and would in all probability never
be made. But then the firm of Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, who held a
vast quantity of the bridge shares, and who were to be the contractors
for building it, had an all-powerful influence in the borough of
Limehouse. Where would Mr. Nogo be if he did not cultivate the
friendship of such men as Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam?
And so Mr. Nogo, and those who acted with Mr. Nogo--men, that is, who
had little jobs of their own to do, and in the doing of which Mr. Nogo
occasionally assisted, Undy Scott, for instance, and such-like--these
men, I say, had talked much about the bridge; and gentlemen on the
Treasury bench, who could have afforded to show up the folly of the
scheme, and to put Mr. Nogo down at once, had he been alone, felt
themselves under the necessity of temporizing. As to giving a penny
of the public money for such a purpose, that they knew was out of the
question; that Mr. Nogo never expected; that they all knew Mr. Nogo
never expected. But as Mr. Nogo's numbers were so respectable, it was
necessary to oppose him in a respectable parliamentary steady manner.
He had fifteen with him! Had he been quite alone, Mr. Vigil would have
sneered him off; had he had but four to back him, the old badger would
have laughed them out of face with a brace of grins. But fifteen--! Mr.
Whip Vigil thought that the committee would be the most safe. So would
the outer world be brought to confess that the interests of Limehouse
and Poplar, Rotherhithe and Deptford, had not been overlooked by a
careful Government.
But of whom was the committee to be made up? That was now the question
which to Mr. Nogo, in his hour of temporary greatness, was truly
momentous. He of course was to be the chairman, and to him appertained
the duty of naming the other members; of naming them indeed--so much he
could undoubtedly do by the strength of his own privilege. But of what
use to name a string of men to whom Mr. Vigil would not consent? Mr.
Nogo, did he do so, would have to divide on every name, and be beaten
at every division. There would be no triumph in that. No; Mr. Nogo fully
understood that his triumph must be achieved--if he were destined to a
triumph--by an astute skill in his selection, not by an open choice
of friends. He must obtain a balance on his side, but one in which the
scale would lean so slightly to his side that Mr. Vigil's eyes might be
deceived. Those who knew Mr. Vigil best were inclined to surmise that
such an arrangement was somewhat beyond Mr. Nogo's political capacity.
There is a proverb which goes to show that a certain little lively
animal may be shaved if he be caught napping; but then the difficulty of
so catching him is extreme.
Mr. Nogo, at the head of the list, put Mr. Vigil himself. This, of
course, was a necessity to him--would that he could have dispensed with
it! Then he named sundry supporters of the Government, sundry members
also of the opposition; and he filled up the list with certain others
who could not be regarded as sure supporters of one side or the
other, but with whom, for certain reasons, he thought he might in this
particular case be safe. Undy Scott was of course not among the number,
as Mr. Nogo would only have damaged his cause by naming a man known to
have a pecuniary interest in the concern.
The member for Mile End was doubtless sharp, but Mr. Vigil was sharper.
His object was, in fact, merely to do his duty to the country by
preventing a profuse and useless expenditure of money. His anxiety was
a perfectly honest one--to save the Exchequer namely. But the
circumstances of the case required that he should fight the battle
according to the tactics of the House, and he well understood how to do
so.
When the list was read he objected to two or three names--only to two or
three. They were not those of staunch enemies of the Government; nor did
he propose in their places the names of staunch supporters. He suggested
certain gentlemen who, from their acquaintance with bridges, tolls,
rivers, &c., would, as he said, be probably of use. He, also, was sure
of his men, and as he succeeded with two of them, he was also pretty
sure of his committee.
And then the committee met, and a lot of witnesses were in attendance.
The chairman opened his case, and proceeded to prove, by the evidence
of sundry most respectable men connected with Limehouse, and with the
portions of Surrey and Kent lying immediately opposite to it, that the
most intense desire for friendly and commercial intercourse was felt;
but that, though absolutely close to each other, the districts were so
divided by adverse circumstances, circumstances which were monstrous
considering the advance of science in the nineteenth century, that
the dearest friends were constrained to perpetual banishment from each
other; and that the men of Kent were utterly unable to do any trade at
Limehouse, and the Limehousians equally unable to carry on traffic in
Surrey.
It was wonderful that the narrow river should be so effective for
injury. One gentleman from Poplar proved that, having given his daughter
in marriage to a man of Deptford two years since, he had not yet been
able to see her since that day. Her house, by the crow's flight, was but
seven furlongs from his own; but, as he kept no horse, he could not get
to her residence without a four hours' walk, for which he felt himself
to be too old. He was, however, able to visit his married daughter at
Reading, and be back to tea. The witness declared that his life was made
miserable by his being thus debarred from his child, and he wiped his
eyes with his pocket-handkerchief piteously, sitting there in front of
the committee. In answer to Mr. Vigil he admitted that there might be a
ferry, but stated that he did not know. Having had, from childhood, an
aversion to the water, he had not inquired. He was aware that some rash
people had gone through the Tunnel, but for himself he did not think the
Tunnel a safe mode of transit.
Another gentleman belonging to Rotherhithe, who was obliged to be almost
daily at Blackwall, maintained two horses for the express purpose of
going backwards and forwards, round by London Bridge. They cost him
£70 per annum each. Such a bridge as that now proposed, and which the
gentleman declared that he regarded as an embryo monument of national
glory, would save him £140 per annum. He then proceeded to make a little
speech about the spirit of the age, and the influence of routine, which
he described as a gloomy gnome. But his oratory was cruelly cut short by
Mr. Vigil, who demanded of him whether he ever used the river steamers.
The witness shuddered fearfully as he assured the committee that he
never did, and referred to the _Cricket_, whose boilers burst in the
year 1842; besides, he had, he said, his things to carry with him.
Another witness told how unsafe was the transit of heavy goods by barge
from one side of the river to another. He had had a cargo of marine
stores which would go to sea before their time. The strong ebb of the
tide, joined to the river current, had positively carried the barge
away, and its course had not been stopped till it had drifted on shore
at Purfleet. He acknowledged that something had transpired of the
bargemen being drunk, but he had no knowledge himself that such had been
the case. No other cargoes of his own had been carried away, but he
had heard that such was often the case. He thought that the bridge
was imperatively demanded. Would the tolls pay? He felt sure that
they would. Why, then, should not the bridge be built as a commercial
speculation, without Government aid? He thought that in such cases a
fostering Government was bound to come forward and show the way. He had
a few shares in the bridge himself. He had paid up £1 a share. They were
now worth 2s. 6d. each. They had been worth nothing before the committee
had been ordered to sit. He declined to give any opinion as to what the
shares would be worth if the money were granted.
Ladies at Limehouse proved that if there were a bridge they could save
30s. a year each, by buying their tea and sugar at Rotherhithe; and so
singular are the usages of trade, that the ladies of Rotherhithe would
benefit their husbands equally, and return the compliment, by consuming
the bread of Limehouse. The shores of Kent were pining for the beef of
the opposite bank, and only too anxious to give in return the surplus
stock of their own poultry.
'Let but a bridge be opened,' as was asserted by one animated vendor of
rope, 'and Poplar would soon rival Pimlico. Perhaps that might not be
desirable in the eyes of men who lived in the purlieus of the Court,
and who were desirous to build no new bridge, except that over
the ornamental water in St. James's Park.' Upon uttering which the
rope-vendor looked at Mr. Vigil as though he expected him to sink at
once under the table.
Mr. Blocks, of the great firm of Blocks, Piles, and Cofferdam, then came
forward. He declared that a large sum of money was necessary before
this great national undertaking could be begun in a spirit worthy of the
nineteenth century. It was intended to commence the approaches on each
side of the river a quarter of a mile from the first abutment of the
bridge, in order to acquire the necessary altitude without a steep
ascent. He then described what a glorious bridge this bridge would
be; how it would eclipse all bridges that had ever been built; how the
fleets of all nations would ride under it; how many hundred thousand
square feet of wrought iron would be consumed in its construction; how
many tons of Portland stone in the abutments, parapets, and supporting
walls; how much timber would be buried twenty fathoms deep in the mud of
the river; how many miles of paving-stone would be laid down. Mr. Blocks
went on with his astonishing figures till the committee were bewildered,
and even Mr. Vigil, though well used to calculations, could hardly raise
his mind to the dimensions of the proposed undertaking.
The engineer followed, and showed how easily this great work could be
accomplished. There was no difficulty, literally none. The patronage of
the Crown was all that was required. The engineer was asked whether by
the word patronage he meant money, and after a little laughing and a few
counter questions, he admitted that, in his estimation, patronage and
money did mean the same thing.
Such was the case made out by the promoters of the bridge, and the
chairman and his party were very sanguine of success. They conceived
that Mr. Blocks' figures had completely cowed their antagonists.
Mr. Vigil then took his case in hand, and brought forward his witnesses.
It now appeared that the intercourse between the people living on each
side of the river was immense, and ever on the increase. Limehouse, it
would seem, had nothing to do but to go to Deptford, and that Deptford
consumed all its time in returning the visit. Little children were sent
across continually on the most trifling errands, going and coming for
one halfpenny. An immense income was made by the owners of the ferry. No
two adjacent streets in London had more to do with each other than had
the lanes of Rotherhithe and the lanes of Limehouse. Westminster and
Lambeth were further apart, and less connected by friendly intercourse.
The frequenters of the ferry were found to outnumber the passengers over
Waterloo Bridge by ten to one.
Indeed, so lamentable a proposition as this of building a bridge across
the river had never before been mooted by the public. Men conversant
with such matters gave it as their opinion that no amount of tolls that
could reasonably be expected would pay one per cent on the money which
it was proposed to expend; that sum, however, they stated, would not
more than half cover the full cost of the bridge. Traffic would be
prohibited by the heavy charges which would be necessary, and the
probability would be that the ferry would still continue to be the
ordinary mode of crossing the river.
A gentleman, accustomed to use strong figures of speech, declared that
if such a bridge were built, the wisest course would be to sow the
surface with grass, and let it out for grazing. This witness was taken
specially in hand by Mr. Nogo, and targed very tightly. Mr. Vigil had
contrived to prove, out of the mouths of inimical witnesses, the very
reverse of that which they had been summoned thither to assert. The
secret of the ferry had been first brought to the light by the gentleman
who could not visit his daughter at Deptford, and so on. These triumphs
had evidently been very pleasant to Mr. Vigil, and Mr. Nogo thought that
he might judiciously take a leaf out of the Treasury book. Actuated
by this ambition, he, with the assistance of his friend, the M'Carthy
Desmond, put no less than 2,250 questions to the gentleman who suggested
the grazing, in order to induce him to say, that if there were a bridge,
men would probably walk over it. But they could not bring him to own to
a single passenger, unless they would abandon the tolls. The most that
they could get from him was, that perhaps an old woman, with more money
than wit, might go over it on a Sunday afternoon, if--which he did not
believe--any old woman existed, _in that part of the world_, who had
more money than wit.
This witness was kept in the chair for three days, during which Mr.
Vigil was nearly driven wild by the loss of his valuable time. But he
did not complain. Nor would he have complained, though he might have
absented himself, had the witness been kept in the chair three
weeks instead of three days. The expense of the committee, including
witnesses, shorthand-writers, and printing, was about £60 a day, but
it never occurred to any one of the number to get up and declare with
indignation, that such a waste of money and time on so palpably absurd a
scheme was degrading, and to demand an immediate close of their labours.
It all went smoothly to the end, and Mr. Nogo walked off from his task
with the approving conscience of a patriotic legislator.
At the close the members met to prepare their report. It was then the
first week in August, and they were naturally in a hurry to finish their
work. It was now their duty to decide on the merits of what they had
heard, to form a judgement as to the veracity of the witnesses, and
declare, on behalf of the country which they represented, whether or no
this bridge should be built at the expense of the nation.
With his decision each was ready enough; but not one of them dreamed of
being influenced by anything which had been said before them. All the
world--that is, all that were in any way concerned in the matter--knew
that the witnesses for the bridge were anxious to have it built, and
that the witnesses against the bridge were anxious to prevent the
building. It would be the worst of ignorance, ignorance of the usage of
the world we live in, to suppose that any member of Parliament could
be influenced by such manoeuvres. Besides, was not the mind of each man
fully known before the committee met?
Various propositions were made by the members among themselves, and
various amendments moved. The balance of the different parties had been
nearly preserved. A decided victory was not to be expected on either
side. At last the resolution to which the committee came was this:
'That this committee is not prepared, under existing circumstances, to
recommend a grant of public money for the purpose of erecting a bridge
at Limehouse; but that the committee consider that the matter is still
open to consideration should further evidence be adduced.'
Mr. Vigil was perfectly satisfied. He did not wish to acerbate the
member for Mile End, and was quite willing to give him a lift towards
keeping his seat for the borough, if able to do so without cost to the
public exchequer. At Limehouse the report of the committee was declared
by certain persons to be as good as a decision in their favour; it was
only postponing the matter for another session. But Mr. Vigil knew that
he had carried his point, and the world soon agreed with him. He at
least did his work successfully, and, considering the circumstances of
his position, he did it with credit to himself.
A huge blue volume was then published, containing, among other things,
all Mr. Nogo's 2,250 questions and their answers; and so the Limehouse
and Rotherhithe bridge dropped into oblivion and was forgotten.