LEAVES FROM MY JOURNAL. * This account of a trip to
Carlsbad by way of Hamburg, and a re- turn by the Rhine, is a singular instance of good faith in producing reality. The voyage from London to Hamburg in a disagreeable steamer is told with great minuteness, mingled with an exposition of personal motives and opinions which in a professional litterateur would savour strongly of bookmaking. The run from Ham- burg to Leipsic by rail, the brief stop at the literary city, and the subsequent journey to Carlsbad, are described with a minuteness equal to that of the outward voyage, and but few incidents vary the account of Hamburg and Carlsbad. The matter, however, is so evidently real, and is so evidently recorded because of the impression it made on the writer's mind—it is, in short, so complete a tran- script of the actual, that we seem to accompany the author ; to see all that he saw, and to receive his opinions as if listening to his con- versation. Probably the fact that the journal was originally writ- ten for private friends, and originally printed for private circu- lation, may have contributed to give it the real and unaffected cha- racter it possesses.
The " Member of the late Parliament," moreover, is a pleasant writer, describing with spirit what he sees with distinctness. He has his eyes open to the affairs of life and the topics of the day, mingling politics and social philosophy with his descriptions of wayfaring occurrences. Of this character are the remarks upon the public walks or boulevards of Leipsic,—one of the great wants of our own country; and when we look at the wonderful increase of our towns, a growing want, though we take no sys- tematic steps to remedy it.
"The walk round the walls—or how shall I express it, for walls there are none ?—but the walks upon the demolished fortifications of Leipsig, now a well:shaded pleasureLground of l'Anglaise, are amongst the most pleasing of these places of urban recreation (and there are many) with which I am ac- quainted in Germany. I recollected it well, and returned to it with un- feigned satisfaction, tempered, however, with the feeling of sincere regret that we have nothing of the sort for our middling and poor folk in England. The value of such a thing, for such a town, is not to be calculated ; and the workman, with such a healthful advantage, must, even in bad circumstances, find less temptation to repine at the lot of his more fortunate neighbour, with his park and pleasure-grounds. In some portion, besides, he is sure to find a little stall or guinguette, with a sunny or shady seat, as the case may be, offering some humble but grateful luxuries for his enjoyment. What would I not give to see my own country's children of toil so furnished! That I had not contented myself with wishing only for these things for them, suggested a complacent reflection; but when I saw the pieople of Leipsig in their holy- day attire, who have only a step to go to find themselves in this little Ely- sium, and then transported myself back in thought, per mare per terms, and saw the access to the Thames on both sides absolutely forbidden, and thought of the long walk that must in most instances be taken to gain even such bare recreation as our Parks afford, the contrast was annoying. I cannot at this moment recollect whether, in many foreign towns, not formerly for- tresses the same attention has been paid to the wants and comfort of the peo- ple. Hamburg, Frankfort, Vienna, Leipsig, and some others that I could name, owe these advantages to curtain and bastion overthrown, and fosse converted to other purposes, and embellished. This, the inhabitants-of those • Leaves from My Journal, during the Summer of 18.51. By a Member of the late Parliament. With Illustrations. Published by Murray. places were for the most part not slow to accomplish after the last war, having tasted some of the sweets of a siege, more or less protracted, in which the interests and wishes of themselves—the real sufferers—were probably never for an instant even adverted to. Lyons and St. Etienne, if I recollect right, are not so well off; and Elberfeld and Barmen are, or at least ten years ago were, still interspersed with gardens. But when one thinks that there is not one town of any importance in England where anything ap- proaching the Anlage ' of Leipsig exists, and that every day more and more of desirable suburban spots are becoming riveted in the stern bonds of brick and iron, it does strike one's mind most forcibly, that of all classes of Euro- pean peoples, the English workman is the worst off in respect of attractive or indeed of any space for recreation ; and, considering the air, loaded with soot and damp, not to mention other impurities, in which he works, no one stands in such extreme need of adventitious aid as himself. The aristocracy and the middle class have both sinned against him : the one intent upon his gratifications, the other upon his gains, left their weaker brother to shift for himself, and so he went to the walL"
The closing remarks are true enough as regards the workman and the aristocracy ; it may be doubted whether they are correct as applied to the middle class. The price of land near towns, and the power of the landlord, is too much for them, or rather for their pockets. The quarters of the middle class may be better drained and ventilated, and possess more of the other appliances of hygiene than those of the poor; but in the heart of London the business value of space packs them as closely, and in the modern outskirts they have not much larger openings for air. The " Member of the late Parliament" is religiously disposed, and one of his topics is the want of religions service abroad for members of the English Church. With the whole of our endow- ments applicable to individuals whose freeholds they become as soon as they are inducted, this want is not very readily supplied. The Government do little in this way—only an embassy chaplain here and there ; the economizing class who reside in Continental towns for cheapness do not like to tax themselves for the support of a church and a minister of high character; the subscriptions of flying indi- viduals are uncertain, even if this class of people felt inclined to subscribe. The consequence is almost worse than nothing. A very dubious set of parsons establish themselves in Continental towns, living on what they can pick up, and bringing discredit on the English Church. A man of this stamp was at Leipsic, and em- ployed a valet de place as a sort of touter ; the same valet hap- pened to be our traveller's guide, and told this story of his reve- rend employer.
"One day my guide was casting his net as usual, to catch as many fishes as he could with which to make loaves for his employer, when, upon putting the usual question to a guest at the H6tel de Baviere, whether he desired to attend service, he was met by an inquiry as to the name of the individual who proposed to perform it. That interrogatory being satisfied, the stranger seemed to take an unusual interest in the person in question, and begged to have a description of his appearance, age, &c., and, finally, in an off-hand manner, inquired the way to the police-station. My guide being a man of reflection, and having a sneaking kindness for his reverend friend, bethought him that there was something a little unusual in the proceedings of this tra- veller, and so betook himself to the lodgings which were at the moment being converted into a temporary tabernacle. There he informed the owner of what had just passed, and gave the name of the mysterious stranger which he had culled from the Livre d'Etrangers. The parson smiled—a smile in- dicative of confidence in his own resources; he did not hurry himself; he knew that legal delays, proverbial everywhere, are not less real in Saxony than elsewhere. A slight indisposition prevented the usual morning service. The railway left at a quarter to three ; and when the authorities arrived at five o'clock, like the baseless fabric of a vision, not even a wreck was left be- hind. A too great facility of expending other people's money without a suffi- cient attention to the law of restitution, was supposed to have been the cause of this singular and abrupt termination to the English service, and the trans- ference of this gentleman's labours elsewhere. But, alas !—must it be con- fessed ?—the ministerial representatives of our church, on the Continent, have not hitherto been very well calculated to make it shine in the eyes of those amongst whom they dwelt. Within my own knowledge one was in a similar predicament to the above, another was half mad, a third had eloped with two ladies, and a fourth had collected a subscription and when the auditors appeared there was nothing to audit. In another case two rivals claimed exclusive ministration in the same locality, had each a flourishing party, and mutually excommunicated each other and flocks ; while the last in the catalogue set congregation and all authority, native as well as foreign, at complete defiance ; and, for fear this should not be sufficiently known, issued numerous pamphlets upon the subject of his rights and wrongs. I deeply regret it; I wish some remedy could be applied, though I have none to suggest, for the comfort of finding the Church service in one's own tongue in foreign lands is always great, but it is unspeakably so when one happens to be alone. The moral I draw from this state of affairs is, not to make too nice inquiries, when one finds a service, as to who or why, but simply to profit by the occasion, and hope for the best."
Public opinion naturally attracted a politician's attention. The Austrian troops were quartered at Hamburg when the traveller arrived there; and he found so bitter a spirit animating the breasts of the citizens, that when he inquired if the fine bands of the Aus- trian regiments were likely to play where he could hear them, he was answered—" They seldom play except in private for some Austrian officer; and if they do so in public, not a man will re- main to hear them." He saw many of the Austrian officers about —" they had not the air of men who think themselves in comfort- able quarters"; and upon further acquaintance he " found so much asperity existing between the Austrians and Prussians, that they seemed incapable of restraining it." In polities, the Germans are desponding of their country and "their future."
"Nothing can be more lamentable than to hear the language of the Ger- mans when speculating upon the future destinies of their country. They seem to have lost all confidence, not in their rulers alone, for at that one should hardly be surprised, but, what is far worse, in their country's for- tunes. One and all declare that there is no real religion in Germany ; and though at first I could hardly bring myself to credit it, I have now come to the conclusion that it is no exaggeration of the fact. Frederick the Great and his system have fairly uprooted it in North Germany ; and indeed, the truth 'compels me to declare that Protestant Germany is almost without a weed. The church service is never thought of on a week-day, never twice on a Sunday; and in Dresden and other places I believe the habit amongst
the upper classes is to go about once a month. If you express your surprise at this habitual absence from God's house, they will tell von that by going too often it loses its effect. In regard to the workine* classes, I have no data ; but there are certain indications that would tend to show that the ex- pectation of such observances on their part must be limited indeed.
• • • • • •
" The Catholic portion of its inhabitants, and especially the Austrian and some of the Bavarian provinces, are in this respect better ; they have some kind of religious faith, some little attachment to law and order. The school children assemble at seven o'clock in the morning till nine, when they at- tend service for half an hour, and frequently join in sinning. with the organ : there are set times for dogmatic teaching by the parish priests ; to be sure, as I have already, described, in the neighbourhood of Carlsbad it is not of a very elevating description, and the fables inculcated are often so transparent that even quite the commoner sort see through them : the result is, extensive infidelity. In the middle class this is even more the case; still, some have sufficient discrimination to see the blessed doctrine of the atonement shining, like the polar star, through all the dross and impurity of patristic tradition, and have something still to cling to, with which to make human life com- prehensible and tolerable. Therefore, in Catholic Germany, there is yet in the bulk of the people some small holding-ground for the anchor of hope. When, however, in addition to all these fermenting elements of trouble and confusion, one adds the feeling generated by the political events of the last three years, one can hardly be surprised at the desponding and bitter view taken of the future by the inhabitants of this remarkable country. The unanimity of dissatisfaction is by no means so astonishing as the freedom and strength of language with which it is expressed. The epithets applied by his own subjects to the King of Prussia are enough to make one's ears tingle. Amongst other things, the inexcusable calling out of the Landwehr last winter, added to total retrogression in all Liberal policy, seems to have filled the cup of Prussian grievance to overflowing. They said, ' Had the case arisen when it had become necessary to do battle for our national inde- pendence, under the guidance of a wise, liberal, and consistent sovereign, there is nothing to which we would noecheerfully have submitted; but to have all this intense loss and inconvenience created for the sake of warding off the consequences of royal and diplomatic duplicity, is perfectly intoler- able.' I heard several instances of the suffering caused by this calling out of the Landwehr ; and amongst the rest a lady of high degree herself nar- rated to me her own case. Just as her only daughter died, her husband and every one of her male servants, except one who was a foreigner, were called away. The mournful obsequies were not yet completed, before, at less than twelve hours' notice, she was ordered to receive and provide for twelve officers and eighty soldiers in her house."
We have all read in City articles of the confusion of Austrian finances, and the fiscal discredit of Austria. General terms, how- ever, give but an indifferent idea of the actual working of a depre- ciated currency. This was its detailed operation in matters of daily life at Carlsbad.
" I never was much more astonished at anything than at the circulating medium here ; a surprise which was not lessened when I was assured that, curious as it was, they had just emerged from a state of things still more unheard of. When I presented my metal thaler to pay for something, I was offered in change a little bundle of most inconceivable-looking dirty shreds of paper : the only thing I can liken them to are the toll-tickets one sees in a waggoner's hat after an accidental sojourn there of two or three days. 'upon my manifesting some repugnance to this proposed exchange of silver for filthy rags, the bookseller, at whose shop I happened to be, told me, that about two years ago, when the financial difficulties of Austria were at their culminating point, they resorted to an issue of vast quantities of paper, re- deemable upon future contingencies. The precious metals at once vanished. The people, recollecting the events at the termination of the great war in 1816, when the Government compelled the payment of taxes in the silver florin, value two shillings, whilst it issued a paper florin, nominally the same value, but really not worth more than tenpence, were very shy of ac- cepting the new offer. So they hit upon a succedaneum in the shape of private paper : each shopkeeper issued notes, promising to pay at sight a certain amount of bread, or meat, or cloth, or silk, as the case might be. This was carried on to an incredible extent, and was, I was assured, for some time the only alternative to a state of absolute barter. Some rather ludi- crous scenes took place with foreigners coming to Carlsbad, who were not altogether satisfied with the offer of this species of change in return for their sovereigns and napoleons. One traveller, already sufficiently discontented with the ragged scraps which the exigencies of life had compelled him to accept, went to a second or third rate inn, and having got something to eat, presented one of these bons for payment ; whereupon, as it represented a higher value than the soup and Rindfleish he had consumed, being some shoemaker's acceptance for a pair of shoes, certain papers were tendered in exchange, of so novel a cut and colour, that with disdain he rejected them,
Iwo y inquiring who was to be responsible to him for the fulfilment of such promissory note. With equal haughtiness the tenderer replied, to be sure!' `And pray, sir, who may you be ? " Why, the head waiter of The Three Periwinkles, to be sure!' "
Health was the motive of the traveller's trip, and there will be found some good advice to invalids as to their proceedings, as well as hints to economists at Carlsbad.
Previous page
