Chapter 18 of 18 · 3054 words · ~15 min read

CHAPTER XVIII

DEALING IN FUTURES

Do I sleep? do I dream? Do I wonder and doubt? Are things what they seem? Or is visions about? Is our civilisation a failure? Or is the Caucasian played out?

BRET HARTE: “Further Language from Truthful James.”

There are some who think that in Manchester the Caucasian is very much played out, but I am not of their number. I look back on the past history of the city and compare it with the present, and am still of opinion with Richard Cobden that Manchester is the place for all men of bargain and business. The gambling trade in bills no doubt belongs to London, but the real trade of making, collecting, and selling belongs to Manchester. For Manchester is the place where people do things.

It is good to talk about doing things, but better still to do them. As a great teacher used to say to his art students: “Don’t talk about what you are going to do――do it.” That is the Manchester habit. And in the past through the manifestation of this quality the word Manchester became a synonym for energy and freedom, and the right to do and to think without shackles.

And as I say, there are some who think that the days of freedom and energy are gone, and that Manchester is “left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,” but I refuse to be of their party. For as I have read of the past, so I look round and see here to-day the old eternal fight going on, the contest between those who think anything is good enough for Manchester and those who think nothing is too good for Manchester. For these contending spirits are the Genii fighting over the soul and the body of the Master of the Event.

And anon you find the good spirit in the ascendant, and a citizen raises an Owens College or a Whitworth Gallery or a Rylands Library that the name of Manchester may be magnified, and again the Evil Genie has gained the day and hardened the hearts of the rulers of the city, and they can only sit and talk and talk about necessary libraries and art galleries, having altogether lost the Manchester habit of doing them. And to those who are in despair about the hopelessness of the fight, let me recall that delightful American parable dear to my childhood, the Story of the two Frogs. There were, as I remember, two frogs who visited a dairy. One was an optimist and the other a pessimist. And the latter fell into a milk-can and swam about, gazing despondently at the shiny sides up which he could not crawl, and at last feebly ceased to struggle and sank to the bottom and was drowned. Now the optimist frog also fell into a milk-can, and he too looked up at the shiny sides of the can, but he kept a good heart, and all through the night swam and kicked and struggled, until in the early dawn he found himself at the bottom of the can sitting on a pat of butter.

That kind of spirit is not only to be found in frogdom. Richard Cobden had it, and calls it Bonapartian, “a feeling that spurs me on with the conviction that all the obstacles to fortune with which I am impeded will (nay _shall_) yield if assailed with energy.” That is the true Manchester spirit, and it is not dead to-day.

And to my thinking, if you want to realise fully the wonderments that trade and commerce could produce if they would, turn into the real Manchester Cathedral――not the parish church which belongs to the past――but the Cathedral of to-day in Deansgate, the Rylands Library. Around you, seated in their stalls, are the great prophets and preachers of the world, clothed in glorious but perfectly legal vestments, not thrusting their messages uncivilly toward you, but waiting in dumb dignity until you feel worthy to approach and learn. And for my own part to reach one of those side niches, those pleasant pastures of study, harbours of letters in quiet creeks away from the main stream of the library, is to arrive at the haven where I would be. I do not grudge another his ritual and his music, and the sing-song of his priest. I only know that I feel better without them. For in this building I find an odour of sanctity not always to be found in churches. Here I have listened to sermons――voices from beyond――more eloquent in their wisdom than many preached in latter-day pulpits. Sitting in peace and at rest in this beautiful building, the dim ripple of the outer traffic just reaching my ear, I have often wondered whether all Manchester might not be builded and furnished in the same spirit of honour and worthiness. And being faintly imbued with the Manchester spirit myself, there are times when I believe that this will really be so. For my eyes refuse to see, even in nightmares, a picture of Manchester in ruins, with tourists tracking over the desert on hired camels to visit the remains of the Town Hall with its battered frescoes, and the shell of the Rylands Library, sole relics of a vanished city.

My dreams and imagery are far otherwise, and I hold with the poet that eidolons are the entities of entities. And if I have ever appeared to the good librarians in Deansgate to have had my eyes closed in ecclesiastical slumber, it was not really so. I was seeing visions, dreaming dreams, or more truly perhaps, I had impelled my spirit into the future and had left my body, umbrella-wise, hypothecated in the safe keeping of the library officials. For in this method I have many times visited Manchester several hundred years hence, and my difficulty has always been to find the Rylands Library, or even the Town Hall, so many noble buildings of even finer proportions stood among the lawns and gardens and fountains of the city. And I had rather see visions of a New Manchester than a New Jerusalem.

I know no prettier dream, if it be one, than to sail from Eastham up the pure waters of a wider canal and see the country folk resting after their day’s work in the dainty cabarets along the shores, and as the last lock gates close behind you and you swing into the great lagoon to the south of the city, the setting sun crimsons the clean stone and marble warehouses of a noble city. For this I can prophesy――it is information, not a tip――that if there is to be a Manchester at all some hundreds of years hence it will be a city without smoke, its people will be healthy and handsome, its Pharisees will be fewer, and all will breathe pure air and walk clean streets, and when a citizen’s day’s work is done he will be found angling for a trout in the church pool with a better chance of success than he would have to-day.

But these futures depend on the good Genie of Manchester winning the battles of to-day. For when energy, freedom, and the power to do things depart from Manchester she will become “as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.”

INDEX

Abbott, Rev. Edwin, 18 Abbott, Elizabeth, 18 Abbott, George (Archbishop of Canterbury), 18 Addison, J., Q.C., Judge, 41, 113, 139, 152, 153, 174 Agnew, Sir William, 58-64 Aitken, Louis, 90, 134, 135, 212, 214, 221, 224 Anderson, James, Q.C. (Official Referee), 58, 64 Anderson, Mary, 280 Anderton, Mr. (Solicitor), 144, 145 Archer, William, 244 Arnold, W. T., 73-80 Ashton, Thomas, 196 Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 39 Astbury, J. M., 151, 208-210

Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James, 201-207, 265 Ballantine, Serjeant, 23-29 Barrett, Wilson, 281 Barrie, J. M., 75 Beccaria, Bonesana, Marchese di, 107 Bell, Joseph, 192-198 Benson, Frank, 281 Berry, James, 109 Blair, Falkner, 62, 80-83, 87-89, 90, 96, 113-120, 248, 249 Blair, Mrs., 81 Bovill, Sir W., Q.C., 23 Bowen, Lord Justice, 49, 131 Bradbury, J. K., 96 Bradlaugh, Charles, 102 Britland, Mary Ann, 111-118 Brontë, Charlotte, 79 Brougham, Lord, 18, 232 Brown, Ford Madox, 278 Bruce, J. A. B. B., 44, 45 Bryce, Rt. Hon. James, 221 Burnaby, Rev. E., 249, 250 Burnie, R. W., 43 Bury, Dr. Judson, 296 Butt, Hon. Mr. Justice, 50-54 Byrne, T. F., 88, 113-117, 140, 141, 221

Cagney, C. F., 42 Caiger, Rev. W. S., 264 Calvert, Charles, 278, 279 Calvert, Louis, 282-289 Carr, J. Comyns, 244 Cave, Hon. Mr. Justice, 113-118, 134-136, 203, 249 Cecil, Lord Robert, 203 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 40, 43, 55-57, 233, 235 Clarke, Sir Edward. K.C., 114 Clay, Robert, 69 Cobden, Richard, 311, 313 Coleridge, Rt. Hon. Lord Chief Justice, 47, 89-92, 139, 219 Collier, Joseph, 298, 299 Collins, Henn, Q.C., 34 Costeker, Charles, 142 Cottingham, James, 122 Courtneidge, Robert, 283 Coventry, Judge, 142, 143 Coward, Lewis, 58, 203 Cox, Bertram, 40

Danckwerts, W. O. A. J., 39-41, 203 Darling, C. J., 54 Davey, Sir Horace, 132, 133 Davies, Rev. Llewelyn, 17 Davis, Mrs., 81, 82 Day, Mr. Justice, 195-198 Derby, Lord, 197 Dixon, Mary, 112, 113 Dixon, Thomas, 112-116 Douro, Lord, 22 Drummond, Lister, 51, 52 Ducat, Colonel, 62, 63 Dukes, 119-122 Duncombe, Thomas Slingsby, 22

Edwards, Dr. Hall, 295 Esher, Lord, 130, 131

Farren, William, 280 Finlay, Sir Robert, Q.C., 119, 132, 203 Flanagan, Richard, 282 Forbes-Robertson, J., 280 Freemantle, George, 202, 206 Frere, Bartle, 40, 41

Garnett, Richard, 19 Gaskell, Miss, 78-80 Geoghan, G., 42 George, Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd, 43 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 56 Gordon, George, 119, 120 Gordon, Meyer, 119-122 Gordon, Mr., 119-122 Grantham, Hon. Mr. Justice, 127-131 Green, John Francis, 204, 205 Gully, W. C. (Lord Selby), 99, 100, 130, 155, 160-162, 195 Gwenn, Edmund, 288

Haldane, Rt. Hon. R. B., 44, 45 Hannen, Lord, 131 Harwood, Sir John, 265 Hawkins, Hon. Mr. Justice, 23, 49, 63, 133 Heron, Sir Joseph, 59 Herschell, Sir Farrer, Q.C., 36 Heywood, Judge, 133, 220 Heywood, Oliver, 194 Hicks-Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir Michael, 168 Higgin, William Housman, Q.C., 95-101 Hill, Dr. Birkbeck, 106 Hockin, Mr. (Solicitor), 303, 304 Hodgson, C. D., 169-173 Holker, Sir John, Q.C., 24 Holyoake, George Jacob, 19 Hopkinson, Charles, 192, 193 Hopwood, Charles, Q.C., 158, 248-255 Horniman, Miss, 283 Hughes, Charles, 221, 282 Hughes, Judge, 140, 141 Hulton, Mr., 246, 247 Hutton, Crompton, Judge, 143-146

Irving, Sir Henry, 77, 200, 279, 281

James, Sir Henry, Q.C., 36 Jelf, Sir Arthur Richard, Q.C., 53 Johnson, Dr., 105-108, 266 Jones, Dr. Franklin Emrys, 295 Jordan, Ernest, 158

Kelly, Mr., 215, 216 Kendal, Mr., 281 Kendal, Mrs., 281 King, Alderman, 59 Kingsley, Charles, 267

Larmuth, Dr., 296 Leatherbarrow, James, 136, 137 Lee, Yate, Judge, 132 Leech, Dr., 196, 296, 297 Leese, Sir Joseph, 274, 275 Legros, Alphonse, 36 Leresche, J. H. P., 99-101 Lister, Mr. Registrar, 222 Loehnis, H. W., 39 Lovett, William, 21 Lowe, R., 244 Lush, Robert, Q.C., 23 Lyttelton, Hon. A., 203

McCall, R., Q.C., 214, 215, 216 McKeand, Charley, 67, 88, 96, 153-162, 298 McLachlan, Lachlan, 58-64 Maclure, Rt. Rev. Dean of Manchester, 33 Maclure, Sir John William, 274-277 Maltby, Mr., 205 Martin, Baron, 28 Marwood, Mr., 108 Mathew, Hon. Mr. Justice, 49-54 Matthews, Henry, Q.C., 53 Montgomery, P. (Surgeon), 29 Morley, Samuel, M.P., 165 Morris, Phil, R.A., 81 Mouillot, Frederick, 291 Müller, William, 164 Munro, Professor, 203, 207 Murphy, J. P., Q.C., 201-206

Nash, T. A., 240, 241 Newman, Cardinal John Henry, 54, 190, 191 Nowell, Dr., 179 Nunn, Rev. Canon, 261

Orton, Arthur, 49

Panizzi, Anthony, 19 Pankhurst, Dr., 58-63 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 247, 248 Parry Dorothy, 292 Parry, Rev. Canon Edward, 12 Parry, Edward (Tanner), 12 Parry, John Humffreys (Welsh Antiquary), 10 Parry, John Humffreys, Serjeant, 10-31, 35, 144, 269 Parry, John Humffreys (Actor), 30 Parry, Thomas (Attorney), 12 Partington (Artist), 200 Pete, Sir Samuel, 22 Pinero, Sir A. W., 77 Pope, Sam, Q.C., 86 Price, Judge, 177

Rosebery, Lord, 56 Ross, Sergeant, 121 Ruskin, John, 182 Russell, Sir Charles, Q.C., 24, 160, 161, 163 Russell, Judge, 137, 138

Salter, Clavell, K.C., M.P., 42 Sarcey, Francisque, 77 Scott, C. P., 72, 245, 246 Scott, Mrs. C. P., 72, 78 Shee, H. G., 88, 96, 195, 219 Shee, Serjeant, 23 Shields, Frederic, 60 Shuttleworth, Mr., 137 Simon, Henry, 196 Smith, A. L., Hon. Mr. Justice, 136, 137, 212 Smith, Richard, 37-39, 58-64 Southam, F. A., F.R.C.S., 296 Spencer, Reuben, 196 Spencer, Mr., 247, 248 Stanhope, Hon. Edward, 54 Stewart, Archie, 45-47 Sullivan, Barry, 280 Sutton, E., 96, 195

Taylor, William, 294 Terry, Edward, 281 Terry, Ellen, 281 Thomas, John (Solicitor), 11 Thomason, Henry, 294 Thompson, Stephen Chesters, 201-205 Threlfall, Thomas, 54, 55 Toole, J. L., 281 Tree, Sir Herbert, 283 Trevelyan, Rt. Hon. Sir G. O., 44 Tuke, Dr. D. H., 26

Vaughan, Father Bernard, 268

Webster, Sir Richard, Q.C., 55 Welldon, Rt. Rev. J. E. (Dean of Manchester), 7 West, Henry Wyndham, Q.C., 89-95 Weston, Sir Joseph, M.P., 163-169 Whalley, Mr. (Solicitor), 260 Will, Shiress, Q.C., 58 Williams, Lord Justice Vaughan, 131-133, 203 Willis, Judge, K.C., 24, 175 Wilson, Richard, R. A., 12 Woodard, M. N., 113 Woodburne, Lancaster, 135, 136 Wotton, Sir Henry, 105, 123 Wright, G. A., F.R.C.S., 296 Wright, R. S., Hon. Mr. Justice, 39, 47, 132 Wright, Wildy, 29, 30 Wynne, Mr. (Solicitor), 11

Yates, W. M., 96

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