OLD VIRGINIA.*

Mx. BRADLEY properly styles these somewhat slight studies of Virginia before and just after the Civil War, "Sketches." The ordinary story-lover may be disappointed with them, or may fail utterly to feel an interest in the slender and un- exciting narratives here set forth, with such evident fullness of knowledge of the "Old Dominion." But to the more patient and reflective reader these Sketches from Old Virginia will furnish most agreeable matter for a delightful winter's evening by the fireside. The cultivated Englishman pos- sessed of "the historical sense" must always be inter- ested in the old, ill-starred plantation of the favourite hero of Elizabethan times, the gifted and romantic Sir Walter Raleigh. To such the admirable, if somewhat lengthy, " Introduction " to this little book will be not the least interesting portion of it. In fact, fully to enjoy these " Sketches " it is absolutely necessary to begin at the be-

niketclumfrom Old 'Virginia. By A. G. Bradley. London : Macmillan and Co.

ginning and diligently peruse these opening pages, which are of the nature of an historical reminiscence.

Englishmen, and especially those of the higher classes, have always been at a loss to understand the foremost part played by Virginia in the revolt of the American Colonies from the government of the Mother-country under George III. They can easily understand the republican attitude of New England, founded by the stern, unbending Puritans whose forefathers in the previous century had risen against Charles I., and beheaded that unfortunate Monarch as well as his two principal advisers and abE 'ors in arbitrary rule. But Virginia, so largely colonised by the English landed gentry, and with its original love for the Episcopal Church and for that other time-honoured aristocratic institution, primo- geniture, seems to them, as a leader of Revolution, an historical enigma. Yet, as we know, not only Washington, but Jefferson, Madison, and Patrick Henry were all of the

landed gentry of Virginia. Mr. Bradley's thoughful intro- ductory essay makes this apparent contradiction clear

enough. After reading these pages we can realise why these valiant gentlemen of Virginia stood side by side with the sturdy Puritans of Massachusetts, and opposed the suicidal policy of the stubborn old English King and Lord North.

Mr. Bradley takes us further back than the War of Inde- pendence, and shows how ready the earlier Virginians were to resent kingly injustice. It is a most timely reminder, for, as the writer says, most Americans and all Englishmen have entirely forgotten these suggestive lessons of this early Colonial period. As though that most worthless of our English Kings, the second Charles, had not already enough sins against his country to answer for, we are here reminded of his scandalous conduct towards Virginia, which had hailed his Restoration with the utmost fervour of heartfelt loyalty:—

" A robe of home-spun and home-grown silk was sent over to the Merry Monarch for his coronation, the arms of Virginia wore quartered on those of Great Britain, and every one was happy. A rude awakening came, however, to those enthusiastic loyalists beyond the sea, when one day the news arrived that their loving monarch had made a present of most of the colony to a couple of Court favourites, Culpepper and Arlington, who seemed to be under the fond belief that these sturdy squires and yeomen, these patriarchs of the woods, would recognise them as the overlords of their estates. Great was the uproar. I deputation went to England ; and the easy-going King, who would have parted with halt the British Empire for a little money or a new mistress, was quite surprised at the storm he had raised. With characteristic indolence, however, he revoked the whole business, and only wished to hear the last of the matter."

How, in the face of facts like these, any set of persons— however young or ill-educated—can proclaim their undying loyalty to the Stuarts, and, above all, to this precious speci- men of the race, we are at a. loss to discover. Charles II., though he might have been an amusingly immoral member of a company of strolling players, was as a Monarch worse than useless,—he was distinctly pernicious. As Mr. Bradley remarks, "The Virginians had received a lesson they did not forget." He then relates at some length the still more sug- gestive story of an actual Virginian revolt against this Stuart King, which, to our mind, affords the full historical explana- tion of the attitude of the "Old Dominion" when the much more worthy, if equally misguided Hanoverian Monarch attempted the same arbitrary system of Colonial rule. This episode of early Virginian history is so important that we would like the reader to peruse the actual words in which Mr. Bradley sets it forth :—

"Few people, very few indeed in England I am sure, remember that a few years after this, and exactly a hundred years before the American War of Independence, the colony of Virginia rose in arms against Charles the Second. The rebellion was fermented and led by a young English gentleman, a Mr. Bacon, who had purchased an estate upon the present site of Richmond, was son of the squire of Friston Hall in Norfolk, a graduate of Cam- bridge, and highly connected in the colony itself. The ostensible grievance was the refusal of Sir William Berkeley, the governor, to grant him a commission to fight the Indians who had been murdering settlers, his own overseer amongst others ; but the real causes of discontent lay deeper. There is no space here to speak of them, but it is sufficient to say that if it had not been for Charles the Second's monstrous conduct and flippant ingratitude towards the colony, and for Bacon'.: great talents and ambition, no movement would have been dreamt of. As it was, the whole country, from its western frontier to the sea, was in arms. The governor had behind him some of the highest. and many of the lowest, of the population. The mass of freeholders, however, sympathised with Bacon, and great nu mber4 joined his standard. The Indians were first defeated, and then

loyalists and rebels confronted each other. There were several thousand well-armed men, horse and foot, in the field, and the militia of the various counties under their lieutenants either demonstrated in force or joined issue on one side or the other. Jamestown, the capital, was besieged and burnt, and Sir William Berkeley driven across to the shores of Accomac."

At the critical moment the rebellions young Norfolk squire

died of fever, and the Governor got the upper hand and put the rebellion down with great severity. We have given this rather long extract as we wish to put the solution of what we have termed the "historical enigma" of Virginia as the leader in the War of Independence, as clearly as possible before our readers, who, like all Englishmen, have but recently been rejoicing in the present loyal attitude of the representatives of our great Colonial Empire all over the world. Also because Mr. Bradley so plainly shows that it was Charles II. who sowed the evil seed which pro- duced so disastrous a crop under George III.; while we may discern in "Mr. Bacon," the young Cambridge graduate turned Virginian rebel, the actual forerunner of George Washington, who, though a born Virginian, was, indeed, in all essentials, an English gentleman of precisely the same type and traditions.

We have dwelt at such length on Mr. Bradley's admirable historical " Introduction " that we have at our disposal little space in which to speak of the " Sketches " them- selves. As we have hinted, these " Sketches " will not attract the mere story-reader ; they are too slight, indeed of "plot" they are almost altogether innocent. But to such as intelligently peruse the " Introduction " these old Virginian studies will prove of no little interest. The pictures, even if sketched merely in outline, are lifelike. We at once feel the truth of the descriptions of country life in Virginia in such a sketch as "The Doctor : an old Virginia Fox-Hunter."

Nowhere have we met with more accurate accounts of the effect of the great Civil War on the old Southern States. We must, to enjoy them to the full, abandon any fierce

Abolitionist fervour begot by reading Uncle Tom's Cabin in our impressionable youth. For here we are made to feel that

the negroes were well used by their former masters, and were in the main a very happy and contented class of human beings under the slave system. However that may be, Mr.

Bradley, who clearly knows the "social statics" of the South, paints for us the downfall and decadence of the old Virginian landed gentry with a tender reminiscent hand, and his book makes, as we have said, a pleasant fireside com- panion for the contemplative English student of American life who is above the mere vulgar passion for melodramatic narrative.