BOOKS.
FRANK MARRYAT'S MOUNTAINS AND MOLEHILLS.* IN the year 1850 Mr. Marryat started for California, on what he intimates was an experimental visit, and for which he seems to have been well found both in cash and commodities. He first tried farming ; but his agriculture did not succeed : the retirement was also invaded by troops of Yankee miners; being then and in- tending to remain an alien, he could not claim a right of pre- emption on the land where he had squatted ; so he finally gave away his improvements to an American acquaintance. He was next engaged in founding a city, which was to have been the seat of government; but the site of the capital being changed, the speculation came to nought. A third scheme consisted in crushing quartz to extract the gold; but, though his American engineer worked his steam-engine of eight-horse power up to twelve-horse, the quartz crushed the iron machine, (it should have been steel,) instead of being crushed itself; and that project came to an end. These solid attempts were varied by sporting, excursionizing, "prospecting" in a larger sense than the diggers use the term, and by an histrionic &hilt at San Francisco, on a second visit.
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What first struck me, among the many changes of a few months, was that the inhabitants generally were less eccentric in dress. When first I arrived, the people were most capricious in this respect; they wore, in fact, whatever pleased them, long hair and beards included: sobered down by cir- cumstances, however, they had now quietly relapsed into the habits of ordi- nary mortals.
Places of rational amusement had sprung up, and replaced in a great measure the gambling saloons, whose fortunes were rather on the wane from over-competition. There were clubs, reading-rooms, and a small theatre called the Dramatic Museum. This last was sadly in want of actors, and as my time hung very heavily on my hands (I was awaiting the arrival of a vessel from England) I gave way to a vicious propensity that had long been my bane, and joined the company as a volunteer. For about a month, under an assumed name, I nightly Used Up ' and Jeremy Diddlered' my Cali- fornian audiences ; who never having, fortunately, seen Charles Mathews, did not, therefore, stone me to death for my presumptuous attempts to personate that unrivalled actor's characters.
" I became at last so used to seeing my last appearance but one' dis- played on the advertising posters, that I began to associate myself with the profession altogether, and to believe my name was Warren ; and, what with the excitement of acting in leading parts, and the pleasant parties and pic- nics with our troupe, I forgot all about Russian River Farm, and became a very slave to the buskin."
In one of the many conflagrations that happened at San Fran- cisco, Mr. Marryat's journals and sketches were burnt, with other property. This volume is therefore in reality "Recollections of a Burnt Journal "; not, perhaps, the less vivid and striking from containing only such salient points as stood out in memory from the mass of everyday matters. California is not a new subject, but that portion of it which has been most used up—the " Diggings "—is only touched upon incidentally by Mr. Marryat ; his actual pursuits being of a larger kind than digging and wash- ing dirt on the chance of finding gold. A narrative of the journey across the Isthmus to Panama and the voyage to San Francisco— pictures of that rising sea-port at various stages of its wonderful growth—sketches of some of the many " characters " the author fell in with among such a congregation of adventurers, with various incidents which he witnessed or which befell himself—are the " light literature " topics of his journey. Many of these appear somewhat heightened in the telling and coloured for effect ; oc- casionally there is an effort at smartness by means of "old-revived new " jokes. They, are, however, readable and graphic. A valuable part of the book is the shrewdly reflective observa- tions on social characteristics in California ; very often containing larger conclusions than the author sees, or at least draws. Such are now the spread of information, the means of locomotion, and everywhere the necessity or at least the desire for an easy living without much work, that there was a sharp competition in Cali- fornia in all business that did not involve a very large capital or continuous hard labour. In England, emigration and the de- mand connected with the gold-discoveries or the war have not as yet done much to lighten the competition in " light genteel " vo- cations, whether trades, professions, or situations. Wherever there is "an opening" at home, several are rushing to it. Even in California, and at an early period, there was a similar competi- tion, though business there might neither be so " light " nor so " genteel.'
"There are too many stores in Sonoma • there are so many people in Cali- fornia who can only jive by keeping small retail shops, that directly a good opening for making money in this way appears, there is a regular rush of small speculators in soap and candles, who all arrive at the desired spot about the same time, each one undoubtedly congratulating himself that he alone has been struck with the bright idea. A man who came to the coun- try in 1848 told me that he managed with great toil and at great expense to get a large cask of whisky to some rich diggings on the banks of the
• Mountains and Molehills; or Recollections of a Burnt Journal. By Frank Marryat, Author of "Borneo and the Eastern Archipelago." With Illustrations by the Author. Published by Longman and Co.
Yuba, where he commenced retailing it at immense profits ; but on the se- cond day his customers fell off, and he found that another Yankee had also rolled up a cask and was underselling him higher up the river. So he moved higher up again by a circuitous route, until again supplanted; and these two continued 'cutting each other out,' and living a life of uncertainty, until they formed a junction, with the intention of jointly reaping the profits that attend a monopoly of the article in demand. But almost as soon as the new concern was started, up went a canvass house by the side of them, and out went a board on which was written ' Liquor Store.' So with every opening where the chances of large profits are held out, where there are so many calculating speculative people, competition steps in and mono- poly is destroyed."
The enterprise and energy of the Americans are well described by Mr. Marryat ; and, coupled with the present position of European affairs, especially at home, the picture is suggestive. Whatever else Transatlantic freedom and self-government may do, they seem to bring out all the activity, resource, and other qualities of action, that are in a man. Individually or collectively, the American is neither daunted by danger nor deterred by difficulty ; in any en- terprise he undertakes he dispenses with ease, and carries his life in his hand. These qualities have their drawbacks in a somewhat braggart disposition, and a restless, reckless, probably unscrupu- lous character, which pursues the end without much regard to the means. In the Old World the best features of all this are re- versed. By law in many countries, in all by practice and -opinion, the qualities of the people are compressed, or at least narrowed, to the routine of their daily calling. Even in England, a man who attempts to emerge is looked upon as a singular or remarkable person; in other countries, except France, the means scarcely exist for a man's rising, unless as a tool of power either political or ecclesiastical. But while the capacities of European peoples are narrowed, it may be questioned whether the absolute govern- ments do not to a considerable extent realize the effects of de- mocratic liberty—or licence, if you please to call it so : that is, the native qualities and resources in a man which are useful to a despotism are fully developed under a despotic system, however society at large may be kept down. This development does not fully take place with the British people even in the indus- trial pursuits of private life. Compare our day-labourers, farm- ers, mechanics, shopkeepers, or even merchants and manufac- turers, with the corresponding classes in America. As long as the competition is confined to matters of daily routine, the English- man would probably equal the American ; but try him with some new occupation, or place him in a new difficulty, where his com- fort, perhaps his life, might depend upon the readiness of his resources, and then who would have the advantage ? This ten- dency to jogtrot, so far as it pervades society, can only be over- come by dispelling prejudice and pointing to examples. In our public departments, civil or military, the evil is an established system, just as its reverse is found in despotisms. Whatever a man's natural capacity may be, it is not only not encouraged in a public office or a military career, but it is depressed to the dead level of the system. However lively or energetic the individual may be out of his special employment, he seems when in it to be mastered by the genius offieii. Were it otherwise, the nature of our regulations, probably of our habits, would prevent the lower orders in the publics service from influencing the chiefs. Fanny an American army ragged and starving within six or seven miles of ample supplies, when we see that a man bent upon an easy life undertook to carry a cask of whisky from the sea to the Diggings. Except on essential occasions, where individual man must be limited to the artificial character of the soldier, the American army would doubtless present a more free and easy assemblage than ac- cords with our notions. There would be less rigid etiquette, fewer external signs of reverence for authority. Change the word "au- thority" for " traditional observance" and the remarks may be ap- plied to political life and the civil service. The question apparently is, whether national character and substantial interests are to be sacrificed to punctilio; but there is perhaps the further question, how much of the evil now made palpable does not rest upon na- tional prejudices ?
The instances of the American aptitude and energy are numer- ous in Mr. Marryat's book ; here is one.
"Leaving Barnes with the baggage and dogs, Thomas and I proceeded in search of a backwoodsman's hut, which we had been informed existed in this direction. After following the river for some time, we ascended a steep hill, from the summit of which was presented the moat lovely panorama : beneath us the thickly-wooded plain extended for miles—on one side bounded by mountains, on the other melting away iu a blue hazy distance; the windings of the Russian River wore marked distinctly in contrast with the dark rocks and foliage that lined its banks, whilst immediately beneath us was a forest of firs and red-wood trees, over which the vultures wheeled in- cessantly, and not even the sound of an insect disturbed the silence of the scene. "From this hill we discovered the but of which we were in search, situ- ated near a running stream and surrounded by towering red-wood trees. We found the occupant at home : he was a tall sinewy man, a Missourian of the name of March, and he at once cheerfully assisted us. He lent us his mule to bring up our baggage, and by nightfall we were encamped within a few yards of his hut. There were two other backwoodsmen living \ith March ; and these three had just completed, nnaided, a saw-mill, La which they had applied the power of the stream, by means of an overshot- wheel. The heavy bean that forined the mill-frame, the dam said xitee, had all been constructed from the adjacent forest-trees ; and now that the work was completed, wanting only the saw, for which they intended to its to San Francisco, it seemed incredible that so large a frame could be put to- gether by so small a number of men. This saw-mill erected in the forest and of the forest, raising its long beams from the midst of the romantic scenery that surrounded it, was a glorious instance of what energy will ac- complish, and of the rapidity with which each man in an American colony contributes towards the development of the new country's resources.
" And it contrasts strangely with the languid inertness of those commu- nities, who, with equal braius and hands, ponder and dream over the means of supplying wants, even when they have long been felt, to see that here even the uneducated backwoodsman devotes his time and energy to preparing for the wants to come; buoyed up by an admirable confidence in the rapid growth and prosperity of his country, which confidence is part of his educa- tion and one great secret of his success. If the Americans go ahead, it is principally because they look ahead.' March, when he planned his mill and felled his first tree in this solitary forest, ranked with those who wrote from the tents of San Francisco for steam-engines and foundries. Now, us I write, these hitter are performing their daily work in the city, and have be- come essential to its wants ; whilst March's mill, seemingly so out of place where I first saw it, can now barely supply the wants of the numerous agri- cultural population that is settling round about it."
Mr. Marryat's illustrations are lithographs, tinted or coloured, and wood-cuts; some representative of scenery, but more of man- ners, incidents, and comical or absurd situations which may have come under his notice, and for which he shows a predilection.
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