and in which the employment is both irksome and unhealthy. "Earthenware, porcelain, hosiery, pin-making, needle-making, manufacture of arius, nail-making, card-setting, draw-boy weaving, iron-works, forges, &c., iron-foundries, glass-trade, collieries, calico-printing, tobacco manufacture, button factories, bleaching and paper mills.". pations in which I find them engaged, Parliament, to satisfy itself, appointed committees, and sent commissioners over the country; but he had long before examined his own witnesses, and had everywhere anticipated the commissioners by previous researches. Minute acquaintance with cases that came before them, and an exact knowledge of the habits of all classes, and of the peculiarities of the several branches of labour, enabled him to test evidence when it was given under the bias of some extraneous motive, to detect the internal marks of unsoundness that appeared in some of the official reports, and to baffle the ingenuity of those antagonists who would burnish up the opposite side of the black shield to make it appear white, while in reality it was all black. Against the reasons of statesmen he could not only bring the appeals which rouse humanity, but he could demonstrate the impolicy of overworking the labourer, of disheartening the poor, of hardening the parental bosom, of propagating reasons of discontent among the lower classes, and thus it became apparent that no policy could be sound that acquiesced in such a state of things, nor could a government be firm, nor could even a throne be steady, that found not support in the broad and deep foundations of public confidence. The HomeSecretary whom he once warned so energetically of the consequences of displaying a heartless indifference to the wrongs of an entire class of the population, heard other portents of a storm that was actually impending, and we cannot but perceive, on reviewing the comparative state of England during the last twenty years, that if the discontented operatives of 1838 had been appealed to then, as their successors were in 1848, it would not have been so easy to have turned back the torrent of popular disaffection that would have been swollen from the manufacturing districts. The tempest of party rage no longer howls. His recent victory over an obstructive administration, his heroic perseverance, his self-denial and independence, together with an entire absence of that weakness which hunts for popularity, or succumbs to power, gave him an influence for good that it was now vain to resist. And it is due to the government of that day to say that, so far were its members from resisting this proposal that they gave it the full advantage of their patronage. Lord Ashley, after the introduction we have copied, turned to some parts of his lists, pointed out, very briefly, but with sufficient clearness, what, in each branch of labour or manufacture was most painful, deleterious, or demoralizing; and then he had the happiness of receiving almost unanimous support. Without any material opposition, and with the cordial concurrence of the British Parliament, for it was not warped at that moment by the conflicting passions, that had formerly steeled the hearts of so many of its members, cool from the fever of party politics, he went home that evening like one who had gathered the fruit of a laborious and late harvest. He gathered it before the autumnal damps could spoil the grain, or untimely snows had fallen to hinder the joyousness of "harvest home." But it is not only on the arena of parliamentary debate that we must look for Lord Ashley. He seldom spoke at length in the House of Commons on general subjects. The element of debate But when their grievances were mitiwas not congenial with his mind. But on gated, if not removed; when one illusa great object he could pursue that with trious member of the English aristoindomitable firmness, but he had no cracy, and be surrounded by many ambition to glitter in the foremost rank others like-minded with himself, of orators. Conducting personal in- pleaded for the poor and the helpless, vestigation and carrying on correspond- both in the legislature and in the heart ence with persons who could supply of England, the old enmity against that him with information, he spent no small order began to give way before the inportion of his time in gathering mate- fluence of a kindlier feeling. It has rials for the prosecution of that object. | now become honourable for the wearer of a coronet to lay aside the stiffness of his rank, and to go down among the poor in the character of a benefactor, a teacher, and a friend. Legislation, too, having once been resolutely turned into a new channel, ceased to be the mere utterance of authority, in the apprehension of the poor; and, therefore, law putting on a milder majesty, can exert a wider and a stronger sway. Then, when the factory regulations received royal sanction, the Bible was carried into the factories by the very entrance which philanthropy had made. Then, the children, released from withering slavery, could learn to read and understand that Bible, and it was found that philanthropy had raised an outwork for the defence of Christianity amidst the strongest holds of unbelief, and had also laid the foundation of another great work which, although it is now but just begun, yet certainly is begun. But the same nobleman who, in those earlier times of social amelioration, was doing the work of a pioneer among factory children, chimney-sweeps, and the children of the poor in general, was bespeaking the gratitude of those children whom he might reasonably expect to greet him when he should meet them again as youths, as men, as fathers and as mothers, and ask their respectful attention to his counsels. He once taught their masters justice. He will afterwards come, as a patron of great societies, and as an advocate of Education in its most efficient and most necessary forms, to teach themselves truth. confirm those statements of an enemy. But we can confidently challenge a comparison of our own population, number for number, with any population in Europe, and may justly feel indignant at the calumnies which we know to be unjust, and must not fail to observe that the inhabitants of Continental Europe would never have heard so much of the grievances of our labouring classes, taken in the aggregate and exhibited in one startling picture, if Lord Ashley had not made his gigantic efforts at once to disclose the evil and to provide the remedy. His exertions, therefore, not only demanded the gratitude of some feeble and injured classes at the time, but they are now recorded in the memory of the whole nation, as tending to vindicate Great Britain in the sight of the world from an accusation which was once too well grounded, but which each successive year goes further to repel. If Lord Ashley had even then retired from his labours, immediately after the parliamentary effort which we last noted, and added not a word or an action more to swell the debt of gratitude which is due to him, the children of Eng land might well have poured their pence into a treasury for the erection of a monument to the memory of the children's friend. The restored lunatic might have crowned that monument with amaranths, and the persecuted Jew from Syria, whose release from monkish tortures and chains was not without the interposition of Lord Ashley, might have mingled with the myriads who came to bless him, and witnessed the fulfilment of a prayer he had often breathed for him-"May his end be good." But it was not so; his end is not yet come. He lives to earn a yet larger meed of gratitude. Ashley, the long familiar name, is exchanged for Shaftesbury, and a few pages more must be reserved for marking a career not less happily pursued than aus It may be remembered that shortly after the Great Exhibition of 1851, a Frenchman wrote a book to create, or perhaps in many quarters only to strengthen, a persuasion that the poor of this country were ground down in the lowest state of depravity and of dereliction. Facts in the reports of City Missionaries, and of other devoted and benevolent persons, who prosecute their labours in the lowest haunts of wretchedness, might have seemed to piciously begun. (To be continued.) 49 JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM. JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM was born | lents, the friendship of Mohammed Ali, at Flushing, near Falmouth, in Corn- then the ruling Pasha of Egypt, he wall, in 1786. He was but nine years proposed to his Highness the re-opening of age when he embraced the maritime profession, and commenced his worldwide travels. Misfortune began immediately to haunt his steps. Ere he completed his tenth year he was a pri soner of war, and passed several months in confinement at Corunna; and ere he attained his eleventh, he had been marched barefoot many hundred miles through Spain and Portugal to Lisbon. He subsequently visited other countries in a seafaring capacity; at the age of twenty-one he was appointed to the command of a vessel; and performed several voyages to the West Indies, the two Americas, and the Mediterranean, (including Gibraltar, Malta, the Greek Islands, and Smyrna, in the Levant,) in the double character of captain and supercargo. Having thus acquired a practical knowledge of the value of ships and merchandize, he proposed to settle as a general merchant at Malta, then the great central magazine whence the Continent of Europe derived its supplies of English and Colonial produce, and the great prize-port into which all captured vessels were brought for adjudication and sale. Already he had acquainted himself with the languages of which Malta was the seat, French, Italian, Greek, and Arabic; and he had every prospect, therefore, of successful speculation. But here disappointment again encountered him; the plague just then broke out, in 1813, and he found on his arrival at Valetta, that all landing was prohibited. He proceeded, in consequence, to Smyrna, was cordially received by the British residents, and waited there the course of events at Malta. At length, finding his hopes in that quarter futile, he sought around him fresh sources of enterprise. After a stay of some months at Smyrna, during which the intelligence from Malta continued to be more and more unfavourable, he proceeded to Alexandria, in Egypt, and thence to Cairo, where he was cordially received by the British Consul-General, Colonel Missett, and entertained as a guest at the British Residency; and having soon won the notice, and secured by his ta of the ancient canal that had connected On It was now proposed by the BritoEgyptian merchants, that Mr. Buckingham should survey, on their behalf, the hydrography of the Red Sea, and proceed by that route to India, with a view of ascertaining how far the merchants there might be disposed to renew the commercial intercourse formerly existing between that country and Egypt. He acceded to their wish (indeed, the enterprise had been suggested by himself to the Pasha, for increasing the facilities of maritime commerce, and cementing a friendship between his Highness and the English), and after a disastrous voyage, he reached his destination. But here again he was disappointed, the merchants of Bombay demanding securities, he was not empowered to give them, and deemed it unlikely they could obtain. He, therefore, after communicating this to his E employers, sought other occupation. A of Mohammed Ali, for which the Comweek had scarcely elapsed ere he ob- pany's license was not required, bearing tained the command of a frigate then letters and commissions to the Indian just launched for the Imaum of Muscat, Government, as the Envoy of an indeand commissioned for China; but while pendent Prince. Proceeding from Alexactually rigging and fitting out his ship andria to Beyrout, and thence by Tyre, for sea, he was acquainted by the Bom- Sidon, Acre, and Jaffa, to Jerusalem, he bay Government that, as he had not the was compelled by various circumstances Company's license, he could not be per- to traverse nearly the whole of Palesmitted to retain his post, or even to con- tine, the countries east of Jordan and tinue in India. the Dead Sea, the Hauran, and the DeThis first banishment of Mr. Buck-capolis. He reached Damascus; from ingham from India was not in conse- whence he was invited to Mount Lebaquence of any fault on his part, either non, to become the guest, and enjoy the alleged or even suspected; but merely hospitality of Lady Hester Stanhope; in conformity with the settled principle after which he visited Baalbeck, Tripoli, of the East India Company's monopoly, Antioch, the Orontes, and Aleppo; to prevent any one from visiting India proceeding thence into Mesopotamia, on any pretence, or for any purpose, he crossed the Euphrates at Bir; without their express license, which Mr. passed on to Orfah, near Haran, the Ur Buckingham did not possess, merely of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abrabecause, on his leaving England to ham, and the Edessa of the Greeks; settle at Malta, he had never contem-journeyed to Diarbekir, or the Black plated visiting India at all, and did not know that such a license was necessary. Indeed, the Governor of Bombay, the late Sir Evan Nepean, at the very moment of his feeling himself compelled to have recourse to this harsh measure of banishing a man without trial, and without the commission of any moral or political offence, used these express words, in his communication to Mr. Francis Warden, then Chief Secretary of the Bombay Government, through whom the correspondence on this subject passed: "To the individual himself (meaning Mr. Buckingham) I have not the slightest degree of objection; on the contrary, he appeared to me to be a sensible, intelligent man; and I shall by no means be sorry to see him return with the Company's license, believing, as I do, that he would be of use to the mercantile interests, in opening the trade of the Red Sea." Being thus banished from the country, with the highest compliment to his utility, Mr. Buckingham returned again to Egypt, by a second voyage through the Red Sea, during which, with his usual energy and industry, he collected ample materials, en route, for a new hydrographical chart for all its coasts. The Brito-Egyptian merchants resolving now to obtain from the Pasha the securities demanded by the merchants of Bombay, a treaty was made between his Highness the British Consul, and Mr. Buckingham, with which the latter returned to India, as the representative City, in the heart of Asia Minor, to Mardin, on the mountains, and by the Great Desert of Sinjar, to Mosul on the Tigris; inspected the renowned sites of the ancient cities of Nineveh, Arbela, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia; made extensive researches on the ruins of Babylon, identified the hanging gardens of Semiramis, and the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and discovered a portion of the ancient wall of Babylon, supposed to be entirely destroyed; ascended the tower of Babel; and, at length, reposed in Bagdad. Pursuing his route towards India, he advanced into Persia, crossing the chain of Mount Zagros, and going by Kermanshah_to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, Ispahan, the most magnificent of oriental cities, Persepolis, and its splendid ruins, and (by Shiraz and Shapoor) to Bushir, where he embarked in a ship of war belonging to the East India Company, which was bound on an expedition against the Wahabees, the pirates of the Persian Gulf; visited Ras-el-Khyma, their chief port; went on shore with the Commodore of the squadron, Captain Brydges, and acted as his Arabian interpreter; assisted afterwards in the bombardment of the town, and finally reached Bombay at the end of 1816, having been nearly twelve months on his perilous journey. It proved as unsuccessful as his first mission to Bombay in its object, the merchants still wanting confidence in the Egyptian Government. By this time, however, the Company's license had been forwarded to him from England, authorizing him to remain in their territories; and he accordingly resumed his command in the service of the Imaum of Muscat, being re-appointed to the same ship, the Humayoon Shah, his removal from which had cost him in the interim, some £30,000, which had gone into the pockets of his more fortunate successor, by three successful voyages to China, yielding £10,000 each. After visiting Muscat and Bussorah, he returned with his vessel to Bombay; proceeded down the coast of Malabar (touching at Tellicherry, Calicut, Mahee, and Cochin), to Colombo and Point de Galle; thence passed up the Coromandel coast, by Covelong, Madras, Vizagapatam, and Bimlipatam; and, having greatly extended the hydrographical knowledge of the Persian Gulf and the river Euphrates, reached Calcutta, in June, 1818. Here he found orders from the Imaum, directing him to proceed with the ship to the coast of Zanzibar, and give convoy to certain vessels there, engaged in the slave trade. But Buckingham abhorred the slave system; having opposed it in the West Indies many years before, and, having no alternative, rather than acquire riches from such a polluted source, he resigned the command, and the income of £4,000 a year, which it yielded him. Would that all the sons of Britain had been likeminded! Would that all her descendants were so now! Then would the chains drop from the unoffending captive; then would the hands of commerce be unstained by blood, and religion accompany her to teach and to bless the world. under the title of "The Calcutta Journal," obtained almost instant popularity, and within three years yielded its enterprising founder a net profit of about £8,000 per annum.* The great subjects of Free Trade, Free Settlement, and a Free Press, advocated by Mr. Buckingham, in the paper alluded to, were unpalatable, however, to some in authority; and led them to cherish feelings of animosity against him; and the Marquis of Hastings having returned to Europe, and being succeeded for a short interval by a temporary Governor-General, Mr. John Adam-after suffering much persecution at his hands, Mr. Buckingham was suddenly ordered to quit Calcutta, without a hearing, trial, or defence; the fortune he had acquired was utterly annihilated, debts were entailed on him by the suppression of his paper and protracted proceedings to avert this stroke, to the amount of £10,000; and his wife, who had just joined him after ten years' separation, was ejected with him from house and home-an act of cruelty and tyranny which excited the just indignation of all classes of Indian society. Again, and most cruelly, disappointed in his hopes, Mr. Buckingham returned to England, where the injuries he had suffered in India equally excited the commiseration and indignation of the public at home; and where his claims to compensation were recognised and defended by many distinguished men, * At first published only twice a week, its success was so great as at length to lead to its daily issue. A taste for learning and enlightened pur suits was called by it into existence; in polite literature and general information it is said to have been unequalled; and it numbered every individual in India of literary eminence among It was now suggested to him by Mr. its contributors. The good it effected is admitted Palmer, "the Prince of the Merchants by all who were then in that country, to have been greater than was ever achieved by any pub of the East," that he had talents for lication that had previously existed in any part literary and political life, and ought to public abuses, and caused them to be redressed, of our Eastern possessions. It exposed many relinquish the maritime profession; and and prevented many more being committed, from the attentions paid Mr. Buckingham the apprehension of its censures; it greatly imby the highest authorities, including tive courts; and was the first to inveigh openly proved the administration of justice in the nathe Governor-General, Lord Hastings, against the practice of Suttee, and ultimately Bishop Middleton, the Supreme Judges, murderous rite; condemned the equally revolting forced on the suppression of that frightful and and the invitation of the leading British practice of the Government deriving a revenue merchants (whom his disinterested and from the superstitions of the natives in their pilhigh-principled conduct had deeply im-lition of that iniquitous source of gain; defended grimages to Juggernaut, and accelerated the abopressed), induced him to consent to the Christian missionaries in their holy and beundertake the establishment and editor-elevation of the Indian population; opposed nevolent labours; advocated the education and ship of a newspaper on the liberal prineiples which then characterized the Hastings' administration. It was issued every despotic act; and pleaded, boldly, earnestly, and incessantly, for the Great Reforms then required for India, all of which have since been accomplished. |