Part 1
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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1.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [March 31, 1832
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READING FOR ALL.
In a book upon the Poor, published in 1673, called ‘The Grand Concern of England explained,’ we find the following singular proposal:--“that the multitude of stage-coaches and caravans, now travelling upon the roads, may all, or most of them, be suppressed, especially those within forty, fifty, or sixty miles of London.” The evil of the stage-coaches is somewhat difficult to be perceived at the present day; but this ingenious author had no doubt whatever on the matter, “for,” says he, “will any man keep a horse for himself and another for his man, all the year, for to ride one or two journies, that at pleasure, when he hath occasion, can step to any place where his business lies, for two, three, or four shillings, if within twenty miles of London, and so proportionably into any part of England?”
We laugh at the lamentation over the evil of stage-coaches, because we daily see or experience the benefits of the thousands of public conveyances carrying forward the personal intercourse of a busy population, and equally useful whether they run from Paddington to the Bank, or from the General Post-Office to Edinburgh. Some, however, who acknowledge the fallacy of putting down long and short stages, that horses may be kept all the year, “for to ride one or two journies,” may fall into the very same mistake with regard to knowledge that was thus applied to communication. They may desire to retain a monopoly of literature for those who can buy expensive books; they may think a five-guinea quarto (like the horse for one or two journies) a public benefit, and look upon a shilling duodecimo to be used by every one “at pleasure, when he hath occasion,” (like the stage-coach,) as a public evil.
What the stage-coach has become to the middle classes, we hope our Penny Magazine will be to _all_ classes--a universal convenience and enjoyment. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge have considered it proper to commence this publication, from the belief that many persons, whose time and whose means are equally limited, may be induced to purchase and to read it. The various works already published by the Society are principally adapted to diligent readers,--to those who are anxiously desirous to obtain knowledge in a condensed, and, in most cases, systematic form. But there are a very great number of persons who can spare half an hour for the reading of a newspaper, who are sometimes disinclined to open a book. For these we shall endeavour to prepare a useful and entertaining Weekly Magazine, that may be taken up and laid down without requiring any considerable effort; and that may tend to fix the mind upon calmer, and, it may be, purer subjects of thought than the violence of party discussion, or the stimulating details of crime and suffering. We have, however, no expectation of superseding the newspaper, and no desire to supersede it. We hope only to share some portion of the attention which is now almost exclusively bestowed upon “the folio of four pages,” by those who read little and seldom. We consider it the duty of every man to make himself acquainted with the events that are passing in the world,--with the progress of legislation, and the administration of the laws; for every man is deeply interested in all the great questions of government. Every man, however, may not be qualified to understand them; but the more he knows, the less hasty and the less violent will be his opinions. The false judgments which are sometimes formed by the people upon public events, can only be corrected by the diffusion of sound knowledge. Whatever tends to enlarge the range of observation, to add to the store of facts, to awaken the reason, and to lead the imagination into agreeable and innocent trains of thought, may assist in the establishment of a sincere and ardent desire for information; and in this point of view our little Miscellany may prepare the way for the reception of more elaborate and precise knowledge, and be as the small optic-glass called “the finder,” which is placed by the side of a large telescope, to enable the observer to discover the star which is afterwards to be carefully examined by the more perfect instrument.
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CHARING CROSS.
[Illustration: The memorial cross that previously stood at Charing Cross.]
This place has been recently greatly improved by clearing away decaying houses, and enlarging the space for the public convenience, and for the display of newly-erected handsome buildings. It derives its name from having been anciently a village detached from London called _Charing_, and from a stately _Cross_ erected there by order of Edward I., to commemorate his affection for Eleanor, his deceased queen. The cross occupied the last spot on which her body rested in its progress to sepulture in Westminster Abbey. The other resting-places of her sumptuous funeral were dignified by similar edifices.
Two centuries and a half ago, Charing Cross was within bowshot of the open country, all the way to Hampstead and Highgate. North of the Cross there were only a few houses in front of the Mews, where the King’s falcons were kept. The Hay-market was a country road, with hedges on each side, running between pastures. St. Martin’s lane was bounded on the west side by the high walls of the Mews, and on the other side by a few houses and by old St. Martin’s church, where the present church stands. From these buildings it was a quiet country lane, leading to St. Giles’s, then a pleasant village, situated among fine trees. Holborn was a mere road between open meadow-land, with a green hedge on the north side. In the Strand, opposite to St. Martin’s lane, stood the hospital and gardens of St. Mary Rouncival, a religious establishment founded and endowed by William Earl of Pembroke, in the reign of Henry III. In the middle of the road leading to the Abbey, and opposite to Charing Cross, stood a hermitage and chapel dedicated to St. Catherine.
Charing Cross is represented in the above engraving. It was of an octagonal form and built of stone, and in an upper stage contained eight figures. In 1643 it was pulled down and destroyed by the populace, in their zeal against superstitious edifices. Upon the ground of similar zeal, Henry VIII. suppressed the religious houses of the kingdom, and seized their estates and revenues to his own use: the hospital of St. Mary Rouncival was included in this fate. On its ancient site stands the palace of the Duke of Northumberland. It was built in the reign of James I. by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, and during his life was called Northampton House. In 1642 it came to Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, by marriage, and since then has been called Northumberland House.
The exact spot upon which Charing Cross stood is occupied by an equestrian statue of Charles I. in bronze, executed in 1633 by Le Sœur, for the Earl of Arundel. During the civil wars it fell into the hands of the Parliament, by whom it was ordered to be sold and broken up. The purchaser, John River, a brazier, produced some pieces of broken brass, in token of his having complied with the conditions of sale; and he sold to the cavaliers the handles of knives and forks as made from the statue: River deceived both the Parliament and the loyalists; for he had buried the statue unmutilated. At the restoration of Charles II. he dug it up, and sold it to the Government; and Grinlin Gibbon executed a stone pedestal, seventeen feet high, upon which it was placed and still remains. It has been customary on the 29th of May, the anniversary of the Restoration, to dress the statue with oaken boughs.
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VAN DIEMEN’S LAND.
We have before us an Almanac for 1831, published in Hobart Town, the capital of Van Diemen’s Land. It is a matter of agreeable wonder to find an Almanac published in, and for the use of, a country, which even at so late a date as the beginning of the present century (within thirty years), and indeed for some years afterwards, was inhabited merely by a few thousands of the most ignorant and destitute savages on the face of the earth. And now we find established on those distant shores a community so far advanced in social refinement as to have already an almanac of its own; one, too, in many respects as well executed as any production of the same kind to be found in older countries, and much better than some that still disgrace the most civilized countries. This is an Almanac without Astrology.
Although called an Almanac, this little volume contains a considerable variety of information not usually given in works of that description. The heavy stamp-duty in our own country renders it necessary that an Almanac should contain little besides the Calendar, Lists, and useful Tables; and thus the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge prints a Companion to the Almanac, which may be bought with it or not. In addition to a Calendar and the ordinary lists, we have here a body of information respecting the past, and especially the present state of the country, embracing almost every particular with which either a person intending to emigrate, or the general reader, can desire to be acquainted.
Van Diemen’s Land was discovered so long ago as the year 1642, by the Dutch navigator Tasman, who gave it the name which it still bears, in honour of his employer Anthony Van Diemen, the then governor of the Dutch possessions in India. It was not, however, till the year 1604 that the country was taken possession of by England. In the early part of that year Colonel David Collins, having been appointed Governor of the projected settlement, arrived on the island with about four hundred prisoners in charge, and a force of fifty marines under his command. He was accompanied also by several gentlemen, commissioned to fill the various situations in the new government. They fixed their headquarters on the site of the present capital, to which they gave the name of Hobart Town, after Lord Hobart, the then Secretary for the Colonies. “The Colony,” proceeds the narrative before us, “being thus founded, continued to take root, although at times suffering very great hardships. Indeed those who recollect them, and see what the place has since become, will be of opinion that no difficulties at the outset of colonization are enough to deter adventurers from steadily pursuing their object. For the first three years, the inhabitants being wholly dependent upon foreign supplies for the commonest articles of food, were occasionally reduced to great straits; and, accordingly, we hear of eighteen pence per pound having been readily given for kangaroo flesh, and that even sea-weed, or any other vegetable substance that could be eaten, was eagerly sought after. But man is always the better for being thrown upon his own resources. After a time, it was discovered that the colony itself, if the land were cultivated, possessed that which would supersede the necessity of seeking elsewhere for food; and, although the first attempts at husbandry were merely made with the hoe and spade, enough was ascertained by them to bid the colonists go on and prosper.” No sheep or cattle were imported till three years after the settlement of the island. For some time after this, indeed, the colony was looked upon merely as a place of punishment for persons convicted of crimes in New South Wales, numbers of whom accordingly continued to be sent to it every year. Governor Collins died in 1810; and in 1813 Lieutenant-Colonel Davey arrived as his successor.
From about this time the colony began to be considered in a new light. The population consisted no longer merely of the convicts and the garrison; but, besides many persons who, having been originally crown prisoners, had obtained their freedom by servitude or indulgence, embraced a considerable number of settlers who had arrived in successive small parties from the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. Hitherto the only places with which Van Diemen’s Land was allowed to hold any communication, had been New South Wales and England: that restriction was now done away with, and the two colonies were placed, in respect to foreign commerce, on precisely the same footing. In 1816 the numbers of the community and the importance of its affairs had so much increased, that the government thought proper to establish a newspaper, entitled The Hobart Town Gazette, principally for the purpose of promulgating proclamations and other notices. This year also was distinguished by the first exportation of corn from the island, a considerable quantity having been sent to Port Jackson, and likewise by the commencement of whale-fishing by the colonists, “two of the sinews,” says the present writer, “of our prosperity as a colony.”
In 1817 Colonel Davey was succeeded in the government by Colonel Sorell. The first object which engaged the attention of the new Governor was the suppression of an evil under which the colony had for some years been suffering, the ravages of the bush-rangers, as they were called, or prisoners who had made their escape and roamed at large in the woods. The capture and execution of the principal leaders of these marauders in a short time put an end, for the present, to their destructive inroads. Colonel Sorell then applied himself to the improvement, in various ways, of the internal condition of the colony. Amongst other important public works he formed a road between Hobart Town and Launceston, another settlement which had been made about a hundred and twenty miles farther north.
About 1821 may be said to have begun the emigration from England, which has since proceeded almost with uninterrupted steadiness. The immediate consequence was, “that trade began to assume regularity, distilleries and breweries were erected, the Van Diemen’s Land Bank established, St. David’s church at Hobart Town finished and opened, and many other steps taken, equally indicative of the progress the colony was making.” In 1824 a supreme court of judicature was established in the colony. The same year Colonel Sorell was replaced by Colonel Arthur, the present Governor. Very soon after Colonel Arthur’s arrival, bush-ranging again broke out in a more formidable manner than ever; but, by the judicious plans which he adopted for its suppression, “in the course of a few months,” says the present writer, “not only was tranquillity entirely restored, but was placed on so firm a basis, that it is next to impossible ever to be again disturbed by a similar cause.”
In December, 1825, Van Diemen’s Land was declared entirely independent of New South Wales; and an executive and legislative Council were appointed as advisers to the Governor, the members of both being named by the Crown. In 1827 the island was divided into eight police districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a stipendiary magistrate. The colony about this time “began to export considerably, loading several ships each season to England, with wool, bark, and oil.”
A new evil, however, now began to assail the colony, we mean the hostility of the natives. After various attempts had been made in vain to tame them, or to deter them from continuing outrages against the settlers, the Governor, at last, in September 1830, deemed it necessary to resort to the extreme measure of endeavouring to drive them into one corner of the island, with the intention of there enclosing them for the future. For this purpose the whole of the inhabitants were called upon to arm themselves, and to lend their aid to the military. The result had not been completely successful at the time when the latest accounts left the country.
In the course of the year 1828 the colony, and Hobart Town in particular, made a decided step in advance. In 1829 a new Act of Parliament was passed for the government of the colony, the most important provisions of which were, the transference of the power of levying taxes from the Governor to the Legislative Council, and the extension of the authority of all the laws of England to Van Diemen’s Land, as far as the circumstances of the colony permitted.
Such is a brief sketch of the origin and progress hitherto of this young, but advanced and flourishing colony. Our next week’s publication will contain an account of its present state.
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ANTIQUITY OF BEER.
The general drinks of the Anglo-Saxons were ale and mead: wine was a luxury for the great. In the Saxon Dialogues preserved in the Cotton Library in the British Museum, a boy, who is questioned upon his habits and the uses of things, says, in answer to the inquiry what he drank--“Ale if I have it, or water if I have it not.” He adds, that wine is the drink “of the elders and the wise.” Ale was sold to the people, as at this day, in houses of entertainment; “for a priest was forbidden by a law to eat or drink at _ceapealethelum_, literally, places where ale was sold.” After the Norman Conquest, wine became more commonly used; and the vine was extensively cultivated in England. The people, however, held to the beverage of their forefathers with great pertinacity; and neither the juice of the grape nor of the apple were ever general favourites. Of a favourite wassail or drinking-song of the fifteenth century, the burden was--
“Bring us home good ale.”
“The old ale knights of England,” as Camden calls the sturdy yeomen of this period, knew not, however, the ale to which hops in the next century gave both flavour and preservation. Hops appear to have been used in the breweries of the Netherlands in the beginning of the fourteenth century. In England they were not used in the composition of beer till nearly two centuries afterwards. It has been affirmed that the planting of hops was forbidden in the reign of Henry VI.; and it is certain that Henry VIII. forbade brewers to put hops and sulphur into ale. In the fifth year of Edward VI., the royal and national taste appears to have changed; for privileges were then granted to hop-grounds. Tusser, in his ‘Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry,’ printed in 1557, thus sings the praises of this plant:--
“The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink and it flavoureth malt; And being well-brewed long kept it will last, And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast.”
In the reign of James I. the plant was not sufficiently cultivated in England for the consumption; as there is a statue of 1608 against the importation of spoiled hops. In 1830 there were 46,727 acres occupied in the cultivation of hops in Great Britain.
Of barley, there are now above thirty million bushels annually converted into malt in Great Britain; and more than eight million barrels of beer, of which four-fifths are strong beer, are brewed yearly. This is a consumption, by the great body of the people, of a favourite beverage, which indicates a distribution of the national wealth, satisfactory by comparison, with the general poverty of less advanced periods of civilization in our own country, and with that of less industrious nations in our own day.--_Vegetable Substances used for Food._
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FAIR PLAY.
A nobleman resident at a castle in Italy was about to celebrate his marriage feast. All the elements were propitious except the ocean, which had been so boisterous as to deny the very necessary appendage of fish. On the very morning of the feast, however, a poor fisherman made his appearance, with a turbot so large, that it seemed to have been created for the occasion. Joy pervaded the castle, and the fisherman was ushered with his prize into the saloon, where the nobleman, in the presence of his visitors, requested him to put what price he thought proper on the fish, and it should be instantly paid him. One hundred lashes, said the fisherman, on my bare back, is the price of my fish, and I will not bate one strand of whip-cord on the bargain. The nobleman and his guests were not a little astonished, but our chapman was resolute, and remonstrance was in vain. At length the nobleman exclaimed, Well, well, the fellow is a humourist, and the fish we must have, but lay on lightly, and let the price be paid in our presence. After fifty lashes had been administered, Hold, hold, exclaimed the fisherman, I have a partner in this business, and it is fitting that he should receive his share. What, are there two such mad-caps in the world? exclaimed the nobleman; name him, and he shall be sent for instantly. You need not go far for him, said the fisherman, you will find him at your gate, in the shape of your own porter, who would not let me in until I promised that he should have the half of whatever I received for my turbot. Oh, oh, said the nobleman, bring him up instantly, he shall receive his stipulated moiety with the strictest justice. This ceremony being finished, he discharged the porter, and amply rewarded the fisherman.
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_Changes of Manners._--John Locke, the celebrated writer on the Human Mind and on Government, mentions in his Journal, in the year 1679, the following as the amusements of London to be seen by a stranger:--“At Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three times a week all the summer: wrestling, in Lincoln’s Inn Field every evening all the summer; bear and bull baiting, and sometimes prizes at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball, in Tothill-fields.”
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_Animal Sagacity._--In the immense forests of North America, the moose-deer is hunted by the Indians with such relentless perseverance, that all the instincts of the quadruped are called forth for the preservation of its existence. Tanner, a white man who lived thirty years in the woods, thus describes the extraordinary extent of the moose’s vigilance:--“In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the thunder, and the falling timber, are making the loudest and most incessant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it; and though he does not always run, he ceases eating, and rouses his attention to all sounds. If in the course of an hour, or thereabouts, the man neither moves nor makes the least noise, the animal may begin to feed again, but does not forget what he has heard, and is for many hours more vigilant than before.”
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THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
The greater number of our readers must have heard of the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent’s Park, at London, which have been established about four years, and which now comprise the finest menagerie in the world, if we regard the number and variety of the animals. The expense of this establishment, which amounts to many thousand pounds a year, is maintained by the annual subscriptions of the Fellows of the Zoological Society, and the payment (a shilling) by each person who is recommended by the ticket of a proprietor. It is not our intention to give a description of all the various animals there; but we shall from time to time notice any remarkable circumstance that occurs, as illustrative of their habits; or we shall mention any new curiosity which is purchased by the Society, or presented to it.