\\ 1) . - 
 
 Ct>i \ 
 
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 \
 
 AN 
 
 ENGLISH COUNTRY SQUIRE 
 
 AS* 
 
 SKETCHED AT HARDWICKE COURT 
 
 GLOUCESTERSHIRE 
 BY 
 
 PROFESSOR YON HOLTZENDORFF 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 ROSA GEBHAED 
 
 GLOUCESTER 
 JOHN BELLOWS, EASTGATE
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A residence of many years in England has taught me with 
 how much confidence a foreigner may always appeal to its 
 indulgence ; and it is in full reliance on this indulgence that I 
 now introduce the "English Country Squire" of Franz von 
 Holtzendorff to the English reader. 
 
 Accident first placed in my hand a copy of Professor von 
 Holtzendorff" s sketch of the Country Squire, as illustrated by 
 the life and work of Mr. Barwick Baker, of Hardwicke Court. 
 I had so often heard Mr. Barwick Baker spoken of in terms of 
 admiration and respect by those with whom I resided, that I 
 was curious to learn what impression he had left on the mind 
 of my distinguished fellow-countryman. I read the book with 
 an interest which increased as I progressed. I commenced its 
 translation, as a German exercise, with my pupil ; I continued 
 it for my own instruction, and completed it at the request of 
 friends, who at first bespoke a private perusal of the manuscript, 
 and who subsequently assured me that I should afford pleasure 
 to a large circle of readers by its publication. In complying 
 with this sugge stion, I am encouraged by the approval of those 
 on whose judgment I have learned to rely. 
 
 Professor von Holtzendorff addresses himself to his own 
 country, and he seeks to make known to it the existence and 
 functions of a class in the social and political constitution of 
 England, to which it has nothing analagous in its own public 
 
 1179149
 
 life. Of this class, of its social influence and public work, the 
 English reader has nothing to learn from Ihe German Professor, 
 but it may interest him to see how this purely English crea- 
 tion strikes the imagination of a conscientious student of the 
 English social and political system, who is able to test the 
 efficiency of the work it performs, as compared with that which 
 in his own country is wholly entrusted to official agents. 
 
 In the hope that my translation may awaken and satisfy this 
 interest, I find my only excuse for my appeal to an English 
 public ; and my purpose will have been accomplished if, in any 
 measure, I may lead it to a juster appreciation of the sacrifices 
 and services of a class which has no existence out of England, 
 and the influence of which must have so largely contributed to 
 the loyalty and self-reliance of English national life. 
 
 I take the opportunity of publicly thanking the friends who 
 have kindly revised my work, and aided me in preparing it for 
 the press. They know how much I feel I owe to them. 
 
 Their object as well as my own has been to present the 
 thoughts of the Professor as nearly as possible in his own 
 words, and to adhere to the text as closely as the genius of the 
 two languages would permit. If, as I have too much reason 
 to fear, the result has been occasional obscurity of meaning, 
 which a freer treatment would have escaped, I must ask the 
 reader to bear in mind that I have only undertaken the duty 
 of a translator, and that German modes of thought and German 
 peculiarities of construction do not lend themselves readily to 
 English forms of expression. 
 
 I take this opportunity also of thanking Miss Powell, the 
 accomplished sister of J. J. Powell, Esq., Q.C., of the Oxford 
 Circuit, who, having also translated the sketch, most kindly 
 placed her manuscript at my disposal. Although it did not 
 reach me till my own was completed, I have largely availed 
 myself of her permission to appropriate her more idiomatic 
 rendering of a foreign language, in which she is evidently 
 proficient.
 
 And, lastly, 1 must express my acknowledgments to Professor 
 von Holtzendorff, with whose sanction and approval my task 
 was undertaken ; and to Mr. Baker himself for occasional notes 
 on such portions of the manuscript as he kindly permitted me 
 to submit to his correction. 
 
 ROSA GEBHARD. 
 
 Tibberton Court, 
 
 Gloucester, July, 1878.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I. THROUGH IRELAND TO GLOUCESTERSHIRE 1 
 
 II. ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE AT HARDWICKE COURT ... 8 
 
 III. THE EEFORMATORY SCHOOL OF HARDWICKE COURT 24 
 
 IV. IN THE LIBRARY 40 
 
 V. THE OPINION OF THE SQUIRE ox SCHOOL REFORM... 45 
 
 VI. THE COUNTY GAOL AT GLOUCESTER 51 
 
 VII. THE Wo RKING MENS' MEETING AT STROUD 68 
 
 VIII. THE SQUIRE'S EDUCATION 78 
 
 IX. DEPARTURE FROM HARDWICKE COURT 90 
 
 X. THE INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS IN LONDON 94
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 through Itclanb io (filaitceatershiri. 
 
 IT was in the summer of the year 1861, towards 
 the middle of August, that, accepting the invitation 
 of my friend Sir Walter Crofton, I went to Dublin to 
 take part in the proceedings of the Social Science 
 Congress. Its most prominent members among them 
 the aged Lord Brougham, who curiously enough, was 
 then paying his first visit to the "Emerald Isle;" the 
 recorder of Birmingham, Mr. Davenport Hill, a gentle- 
 man distinguished for his labours in Criminal Law 
 Reform, with his daughters, themselves authoresses; 
 Miss Mary Carpenter, afterwards the Educator of 
 Indian women; Miss Frances Power Cobbe; and 
 numerous other eminent men and women had speci- 
 ally assembled for the purpose of studying, on the 
 spot, Crof ton's creation, the Irish Prison System. There 
 could not have been a better opportunity for acquiring 
 information as to Houses of Correction, the state of 
 Education, the Poor Law, and the Agricultural in- 
 stitutions of the country, under the guidance of the 
 most experienced public men. They were beautiful, 
 sunny, hospitable, but at the same time hard and 
 fatiguing days, the strain of which I should scarcely 
 have been able to endure, had I not taken an early
 
 train every morning to Kingstown and plunged into 
 the fresh clear waters of the beautiful bay. To 
 listen for at least four hours daily during a whole 
 week to speeches, addresses, lectures, reports and 
 discussions on English jurisprudence, education, 
 schools, workhouses, political economy, and withal to be 
 obliged to sit as a privileged guest on a platform, from 
 which absence or escape was impossible, to be occasion- 
 ally appealed to as to the various institutions of the 
 Prussian Political system, besides visiting all the 
 remarkable establishments and charitable institutions 
 of the city and its neighbourhood, was hard work. 
 And then that overflowing hospitality which is no- 
 where equalled ! The viceroy, at that time the Earl 
 of Carlisle, Lord Talbot of Malahide, the Mayor of 
 Dublin, the chief Government officials of the country, 
 Lord O'Hagan, Lawson, Lentaigne, and many others, 
 vied with each other in their courtesy to the foreign 
 members of the congress. After such exertions, the 
 hour appeared not unwelcome, which permitted me 
 to fly straight across the island from the best, most 
 genial, and most attractive society of Dublin to the 
 wilds of Connemara, to enjoy, under the guidance of 
 Rodenberg, whose excellent and charming descriptions 
 accompanied me everywhere, the scenery of Erin, and 
 its grand, beautiful, and at times melancholy coasts. 
 
 It was indeed the height of enjoyment sailing in 
 an open boat along the Western Coast among 
 solitary rocks into the mighty rolling waves of the 
 Atlantic Ocean; to compare the desolate Connemara.
 
 the lovely county of Wicklow, the banks of the 
 Shannon, and the beautiful lakes of Killarney, their 
 scenery and people, with Rodenberg's description, at 
 once so refined and yet so true to nature. Just as in 
 painting, there is a realistic landscape, Rodenberg, 
 as the converse of this in his book, "The Green Isle," 
 has pictured a landscape of romance, creating an 
 illusion so vivid, that I often fancied I recognized the 
 figures he has woven with such consummate skill into 
 the description of his travels. Having reached the 
 end of my excursion, I embarked at Cork for Bristol, 
 in order to pay a visit to Gloucestershire. 
 
 Among the visitors in Dublin, I had the good fortune 
 to make the acquaintance of Mr. Barwick Lloyd Baker, 
 the real originator and founder of the Social Science 
 Congress, and to win his friendship by the expression 
 of opinions on the Irish Prison System, and the 
 administration of the Criminal Law, which coincided 
 with his own to a degree most striking to us both. 
 I had been told that Baker was one of the most 
 influential men, not only of his county, but of his 
 country; that he had established the first Eeforma- 
 tory School for young criminals in his neighbourhood, 
 and turned the tide of legislation in favour of such 
 schools ; and that besides this, he had gained a uni- 
 versally recognized reputation as a reformer of the 
 system of Poor Law Belief. It had long been my 
 wish to study a real country squire, who united in his 
 own person a natural progressive tendency with the 
 tenacious attachment of the genuine Tory to the past.
 
 Ere I took leave of him lie had sung the praises of 
 his county in strains which would have moved a less 
 impressionable man than myself. 
 
 "Why," said he, " should you return the way you 
 came, via Holyhead ? The entrance into the harbour 
 of Bristol will repay the voyage, and Gloucestershire 
 is well worthy of a visit. If you are an antiquary, 
 you will find antiquities in abundance. Our county 
 was the centre of Roman power, and the first territory 
 which Christianity conquered in Britain. In fully a 
 third of our 325 county parishes, there have been 
 found remains of Roman times. The first Christian 
 King, who reigned in the world, Lucius, was buried 
 at Gloucester, and the most ancient of our Christian 
 churches, St. Mary de Lode, was built there. The 
 first known translator of the Bible, John Trevisa, 
 was Vicar of Berkeley ; even Wickliffe through his 
 Canonry belonged to us. The first Protestant sermon, 
 of which we have any knowledge, was preached by 
 Coverdale in Sudeley Castle. Our Cathedral, at 
 Gloucester, is one of the masterpieces of architecture 
 in England. If you are one of those who care to 
 make pilgrimages to the scenes of great political 
 events of the past, (and you told me that you had ex- 
 pressly made a pilgrimage to Waterloo) allow me to 
 remind you that an assembly which might be said 
 to be the first Parliament, was held there by Aurelius 
 Ambrosius, and that King Alfred called there also a 
 Wittenagemot, in which the rights of the church and 
 the laity were clearly established and defined. In a
 
 Parliament held at Gloucester, the compilation of 
 that celebrated Doomsday Book was decreed, of which 
 every tyro in English History has heard ; and there 
 under Henry IV., in the beginning of the 15th 
 century, the firmest foundations of our political 
 freedom were laid, when, for the first time, the 
 Commons made good their claim against the Lords, 
 that they should not be taxed without their own 
 consent.* If you are a lover of Nature, the Valley 
 of the Severn will charm you. Nowhere in England 
 will you find such oaks as in the Forest of Dean. To 
 the timber of this Forest is due much of our naval 
 supremacy ; and the Spanish Monarch, when he 
 despatched the Armada against us, gave especial 
 directions, under any circumstances, to destroy the 
 Forest of Dean. If you care for hunting and fishing, 
 you will like to make the acquaintance of the Severn 
 salmon, which realizes in the London market a 
 penny a pound more than any other; and our 
 lampreys, were, till the year 1830, sent to the kings 
 of England as a Christmas gift, and were decorated 
 with gold. The lamprey may be called the king of 
 fish, and the symbol of the advancing power of our 
 Parliaments, for weak King John was audacious 
 enough, at one time, to punish the people of Glouces- 
 ter with a fine of 40 marks, because, as the indictment 
 
 * This claim was established at an earlier period : it has been cited 
 in error. It was the exclusive right of the Commons to originate a 
 Money Bill that was established by 9th Henry IV., 1467. See HaUam's 
 Middle Ages, c. viii., Part iii., pp. 84 & 103. Ed. 1868.
 
 ran, ' they had been wanting in due respect to 
 the lampreys,' and King Henry III. ordered 'omnes 
 lampredes et allosas,' which were caught at Glou- 
 cester, to be sent to Court. If, after all that, you 
 should still hesitate, I can promise to show you a few 
 specimens of sharpers and thieves, who, in some States 
 with disordered finances, would have just as much 
 right to appear at Court as the lampreys under the 
 Plantagenets." I could not resist this invitation, so 
 I accepted, but I added that, "if I wished to inspect 
 thoroughly all the objects of interest for which your 
 county is remarkable, I should be obliged to remain 
 your visitor so long that my wife would institute 
 proceedings against me in the Divorce Court, for 
 cruelty and desertion. I must elect between the 
 remains of your ancient churches and the modern 
 sharpers of your county. Let us then confine our- 
 selves to theives and vagrants, to lampreys and 
 salmon, and above all things to yourself; for the 
 English country squire, whom I have hitherto known 
 only through novels, or text books of English con- 
 stitutional history, is to me, of all your sights, that 
 which most attracts me. I always had a vague 
 impression that your squires were the class who gave 
 their own colouring to English society; that you 
 were nowhere else to be found in the world; but 
 nevertheless, that if you continued to import Conti- 
 nental 'Bureaucracy' into your political system, you 
 would die out some day, like the Red Indians in 
 America. Au revoir then in about a fortnight."
 
 After an excellent passage, which, according to my 
 taste, implies a rough sea and a fresh breeze as 
 accessaries, I arrived at Bristol, and, after a short 
 stay, went on to Gloucester. In the evening a cab 
 conveyed me from Gloucester station to Hardwicke 
 Court.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 English 0untrt} fife at garbtokke tort 
 
 I EE ACHED Hardwicke Court just as twilight was 
 casting its shadows over the landscape. Scarcely 
 anything could be seen, during the drive, of the 
 country round, or of the fine and spacious residence, 
 except the venerable trees, which now and then caine 
 into view and stood boldly out in the gloom. But 
 the next morning, as soon as the early sun shone 
 through my bedroom window, I was enabled to admire 
 the beauty with which nature has adorned this part 
 of Gloucestershire. Over the distant fields, bright 
 with flowers, dotted with ancient elms and beeches, 
 and lighted up by the clear autumnal sun, I could see 
 stretching out in the distance the blue range of the 
 Cotswold Hills. Our first greeting over, the Squire at 
 once pointed out to me a secluded apartment ; the one 
 which he thought it most important for a German to 
 know namely, the smoking room. According to his 
 idea every German has three national characteristics, 
 smoking, singing, and Sabbath-breaking; the first 
 and only idea in which I found him led astray by 
 an abstract theory. Directly after breakfast he 
 wished to show me the County Prison at Gloucester 
 but as I desired first to be made acquainted with
 
 his mode of life at home, I followed Goethe's advice, 
 always to take the ladies into my counsel. Accordingly 
 I requested the lady of the house, in consideration of 
 my ignorance of English country life, to instruct me 
 as to my privileges and duties as a guest ; and as we 
 walked round the extensive grounds, she gave me, in 
 a natural and lively manner, the desired information, 
 which I here repeat, in her own words. 
 
 " You wish me to give you the particulars of our 
 domestic life, no doubt in order that you may obtain 
 a more appreciative view of my husband's public 
 activity. You will have learnt, I suppose, many 
 things from English romances and novels, but little 
 of those incidents of our daily life which would be 
 devoid of interest to English readers, who are already 
 sufficiently familiar with them. Compare the plain, 
 colourless crayon-drawing which I lay before you a 
 thoroughly prosaic sketch with those more highly 
 finished paintings with which you have already been 
 made acquainted. Such common-place sketches are 
 sometimes closer to reality than the pictures in which 
 you clothe your characters in holiday attire, in order 
 to produce a certain effect of colour on the eye of 
 the spectator. I will take as a specimen the establish- 
 ments of those whose means do not greatly exceed 
 our own. 
 
 " In most of these houses the master's first occu- 
 pation in the morning is to read the newspaper, 
 which he has generally finished when the nine o'clock 
 bell calls us to the breakfast room. All the servants
 
 of the house, and as many of the guests as like, 
 attend the morning prayers, which usually occupy 
 about a quarter of an hour." 
 
 " As many of the guests as like," was perhaps said 
 by the considerate hostess with special reference to 
 myself ; for I had been present at this ceremony a 
 few hours before, and had observed it with the 
 greatest attention, and not without some little sur- 
 prise. I had seen how, at a sign from the master 
 of the house, in sight of the table laid for breakfast, 
 all the ladies and gentlemen present fell down before 
 their chairs, bent their heads, covered their faces 
 with their hands or handkerchiefs, and followed with 
 the customary responses, the recital, by the master 
 of the house, of a prayer selected from the Prayer 
 Book. Probably, from want of habit, I had shown 
 myself somewhat awkward during this spiritual 
 exercise. My remark that this custom was not usual 
 in German families, and that, where there were 
 prayers before meals, they were not recited in a 
 kneeling posture, may have suggested the hint, that 
 the guests were perfectly free to appear or not to 
 appear as seemed best to themselves. The lady 
 continued : 
 
 " I repeat that there is no formality to be observed 
 in these matters. If there are many guests, there 
 are always some who will be late at breakfast. If 
 you remain some time with us, you will be sure to 
 find that the English breakfast is not so systematic 
 an affair as in Continental hotels. It consists of tea
 
 11 
 
 and coffee, hot and cold meat, brown and white bread, 
 toast, honey, orange marmalade, eggs, now and then 
 an omelette, more rarely fish, but always bacon. 
 Each one takes whatever he pleases, without being 
 bound by any rule other than his own choice. Break- 
 fast over, the guests disperse, to amuse themselves 
 as they please. The master of the house withdraws 
 to his room, confers with his steward on household 
 affairs, and receives people from the neighbourhood : 
 farmers, tenants, or labourers, who may wish to see 
 him. After that he inspects the stables and horses, 
 and then sits down at his writing-table. Then comes 
 the luncheon hour, which we almost universally ob- 
 serve in this country at half -past one. But it does 
 not matter if you are late ; your only punishment 
 will be that you will find the hot dishes have become 
 cold, and this has proved itself a sufficient penalty to 
 enforce the rules of the house." 
 
 " Allow me to interrupt you," said I, " as we have 
 now arrived at this important point, my long-honoured 
 and especially favourite meal, luncheon ; and do not 
 think me rude if I ask where you yourself usually 
 spend your morning, and what are your own occupa- 
 tions ? It is most important for me to know this, for 
 hospitality becomes a heavy burden if the guests 
 require to be entertained by their hosts at inconve- 
 nient times, instead of taking care of themselves. 
 It strikes me as if even this walk were a kind of 
 extra duty, lying outside the routine of your daily 
 programme."
 
 12 
 
 "Your supposition is not quite unfounded. As 
 soon as breakfast is over, at about ten o'clock, the 
 lady of the house disappears to give her orders for 
 dinner in the housekeeper's room or the kitchen; to 
 settle disputes between the servants, and make pre- 
 paration for the reception of fresh guests, of whom 
 there is never any lack during the autumn and winter 
 season. Then follows the hour for receiving the poor 
 women of the neighbourhood, who come to make their 
 complaints, to give some information, or to beg for 
 something, such as old clothes for sick children, or 
 simple medicines, which I dispense to them. Our 
 next duty is the instruction of the children of the 
 family, which must be superintended. As I have 
 only sons, who were educated at Eton, my duties are 
 lessened in this respect, and therefore I have more 
 leisure to write my letters during these later hours 
 of the morning, or to consult my lady guests in the 
 drawing-room or in the library as to whether they 
 feel inclined to drive, ride, or walk in the afternoon. 
 Whether it is easier for us now-a-days to manage a 
 household than formerly I do not know. Perhaps 
 since the number of domestic occupations is dimin- 
 ished the skill in many cases has decreased. It is a 
 long time since, in every country establishment, soap, 
 candles, malt, and other things were manufactured 
 at home. But in many a house, still, beer is brewed, 
 cider made, all the bread baked, and laundry-work 
 performed. We ourselves keep up, for the use of 
 the family, this old fashion, although many think it
 
 more convenient at the present time to order their 
 beer from Alsopp or Bass. You shall judge for your- 
 self as to the quality of our cider, which already has 
 been in the cellar six years. 
 
 "In the afternoon you take care of yourself, 
 accompany the ladies in their ride or drive, shoot, do 
 whatever you like, or what the other guests propose. 
 However I fancy you will have little spare time, as it 
 has been arranged that you should accompany my 
 husband whilst in the discharge of his official duties. 
 I think you will see more of vagrants, beggars, and 
 thieves than you and we care for. At five o'clock 
 your afternoon leave is at an end. We expect you 
 punctually at the tea-table, which at this hour is laid 
 in the drawing-room. This custom may not be known 
 to you, but it has of late years become naturalized 
 with us. Gentlemen and ladies like it, although they 
 are often warned against too free indulgence in this 
 beverage. This five o'clock tea, as it is called, is not 
 a regular meal : a slice of thin bread and butter or a 
 biscuit only is taken with the cup of tea. In summer 
 we often have tea in the garden. The ladies of the 
 neighbourhood visit each other at this hour, so that 
 there is sometimes assembled in this way a large 
 party. In winter the guests mostly retire to their 
 rooms afterwards, to read, write, or even to repose, if 
 they have come home tired from hunting, and they 
 make their appearance for dinner at seven or eight 
 o'clock. How we spend the evening you have already 
 seen. Whilst with you the opinion prevails that winter
 
 14 
 
 is best spent in town, we think life in the country to 
 be preferred. We take good care to have agreeable 
 guests in the house, who like a rubber at whist, or a 
 cheerful round game. The ladies retire about eleven ; 
 the gentlemen finish their day's work in the smoking- 
 room, or enjoy a cigar at the billiard- table, if this be 
 not, as in some houses, near the drawing-room or in 
 the hall close by. You must often have been surprised 
 that we English ladies have such an invincible repug- 
 nance to tobacco smoke, but there is no dispensation 
 from our rule of abstinence, except in those rooms 
 which my husband has already pointed out to you. 
 From the fatigue and excitement of balls and dances, 
 which play so important a part in your winter amuse- 
 ments, we are nearly exempt. The county, which plays 
 a principal part in politics, provides also for youth of 
 dancing age, and for the occasional ' county balls ;' 
 the houses of the neighbouring landed proprietors are 
 filled with young people, who remain with them some 
 days. The best restorative after a night's dissipation 
 is a run with the hounds. You cannot think how the 
 spirits rise when, on the following morning, the music 
 of the pack arouses from their slumbers the sleepy 
 guests. I hope you do not share the prejudice that 
 a good rider must necessarily be a bad housekeeper." 
 Here the eyes of my gentle hostess sparkled and lit 
 up a beauty which had survived the bloom of youth. 
 " Oh ! you do not know the charm of a clear frosty 
 winter morning ! with what freshness of spirits one 
 goes to the meet ! How often have I shared this.
 
 15 
 
 delight with my husband, cantering- to cover by his 
 side ! On a bold and accomplished horsewoman many 
 an eye rests with equal interest as on the wonderful 
 wiles of the fox ! We may admit it to be better for 
 ladies to renounce all claim to rank as first-rate riders 
 and to return home, when the hounds have ' gone 
 away.' Some censorious people complain that our 
 ladies lead a freer life than in our grandmothers' 
 time. But 011 the whole I think the good clearly 
 preponderates. Even though some may indulge too 
 freely their passion for riding, tax their strength 
 by excessive exercise on foot, or spend whole days in 
 salmon fishing, yet they contribute to society more 
 useful members than those who spend their whole 
 time in-doors, without having the least sympathy in 
 the amusements of their husbands and brothers. 
 Women who are too weak and delicate, are hardly 
 able to act with firmness on those important and 
 decisive occasions which in the lifetime of every one 
 of us are certain to present themselves ; but I have 
 often observed that in England women who take 
 active exercise, and occasionally risk the perils of the 
 chase, act with the greater energy and a clearer 
 understanding, and in other ways not infrequently 
 excel those who shun active amusements, and only 
 devote their time to music or painting." 
 
 The simple picture of daily domestic rule at Hard- 
 wicke Court had thus grown into a spirited defence 
 of English country life. One more subject was yet 
 on my mind. After staying two days longer, fate
 
 16 
 
 threatened me with an English Sabbath, from which 
 I could not escape. I observed : 
 
 " Nothing would be more welcome to me than to 
 spend a winter in this glorious scenery, and especially 
 in your house. Can you believe that I am wanting 
 either in perception or appreciation of the charms 
 which you have just described ? Even men of science 
 are now no longer what they were in the time of our 
 grandfathers. All science has the same aim to 
 return to nature the aim which created our poetry 
 in Germany a hundred years ago. The science which 
 I profess is but the recognition of the wants which are 
 inherent in human nature in the social condition of 
 the life of every State, according to the particular 
 stage of its development. At all times, and from my 
 childhood onwards, amongst non-German countries, 
 I have admired England and Italy the most. We 
 owe to your English example the renovation of our 
 political life, and I think that we have yet a great 
 deal to learn from you. Unfortunately, however, I 
 have never yet been able to sympathise with your 
 English Sunday. I really think it un-English ; old 
 merry England does not recognise it. I know for a 
 certainty what you think of it. But as I have hitherto 
 only spent Sunday in the towns of your land, I 
 await your commands with a promise that I will 
 swear allegiance to you for a week, and that I will 
 keep the peace ; but I make no sacrifice of conviction 
 when I do this, for he who is allowed to wander about 
 among these trees need not indulge in scrupulous
 
 17 
 
 enquiries whether he gazes on the Cotswold hills on 
 a Sunday or a Monday." 
 
 " On the whole," replied the lady, " the difference 
 between week-days and Sundays is not as perceptible 
 in the country as in towns. The great museum of 
 nature's treasure is always open to us; it only appears 
 to me that its beauties and riches reveal themselves 
 in greater splendour when contemplated in hallowed 
 repose of soul. The difference which strikes you is, 
 however, obvious. To many these chestnut trees, 
 those distant hills, and the veil of clouds that over- 
 hangs them, are more full of beauty on a Sunday 
 than on other days. For us ancient custom has 
 shielded the observance of the Sunday against those 
 reproaches which are of constant repetition in the 
 mouth of the foreigner, and which, as I must admit, 
 are more and more frequently re-echoed by the 
 inhabitants of our own towns. Let every one leave 
 it to his own conscience to determine whether he 
 will set apart one special day exclusively to devotion ; 
 but that which we unconditionally desire is a day of 
 rest. This day of rest is just the bond which unites 
 master and servant. The master who does not rest 
 himself on Sunday, does not let his servants rest 
 either. There is a so-called servants' question in the 
 great programme of the questions of the day. Do 
 you really believe that you can have faithful servants 
 if they are denied throughout the year that time of 
 repose which, by law, we allow even to game ? The 
 disregard of the Sunday divides the whole nation
 
 18 
 
 between contented and discontented. For how can 
 the servant who has worked for six days to supply 
 our wants, find blessing in the seventh, with extra 
 strain upon his powers to meet the additional fes- 
 tivities of the Sunday ? For us the matter is very 
 simple. We go to church twice on a Sunday, and 
 wish that our servants should do the same. We walk 
 to the church, which is at some distance, for if we 
 were to use our horses what rest would the coachman 
 have ? And if we have large dinner parties on a 
 Sunday what rest would the cook have ? And so on 
 through the whole household. Where the church is 
 too far off, the Squire has mostly an omnibus or a 
 break,' to take the greater number of his servants 
 to church with the least possible amount of work. 
 Where the guests are numerous, there is unfor- 
 tunately a large dinner also required on Sundays. 
 But you must not count on a menu such as you have 
 to day, and will have to-morrow. You must be 
 satisfied with what, if you please, you may call an Old 
 Testament bill of fare a good piece of roast beef, 
 a couple of boiled fowls, and a plum pudding. Roast 
 beef and plum pudding are the universal and national 
 standing dishes in all England, at least in the country. 
 You may indeed appeal against this practice as far 
 as regards London. During the season you can 
 procure a very good dinner on a Sunday at Richmond 
 or at Greenwich. There is no want either of diver- 
 sion or amusement. Do these cheerful Sunday guests 
 consider that they deprive the hotel servants and
 
 11) 
 
 their own coachmen of the day of rest? They laugh 
 off the whole question until, at a later period of 
 life, they become more thoughtful, and observe that 
 London, Greenwich, and Richmond are only to be 
 regarded as exceptions to England as a whole. Pos- 
 sibly, however, it may be otherwise, for it really 
 seems as though London during these last few years 
 approached more and more the mode of life in 
 Continental towns. We can only deplore it, and 
 shall not be able to prevent it, but we must urge our 
 disapproval whenever the opportunity offers." 
 
 As we had now left Hardwicke Court, and involun- 
 tarily strayed to London, I requested my friend to 
 have the goodness to complete for me the circle of 
 her yearly life: "for I assume," I said, "that you 
 make a stay of some length in London once at least 
 every year. I must tell you beforehand, that I 
 myself find in this custom the explanation of the 
 fact that in English politics common sense so often 
 solves the questions which are insoluble by the learned 
 world, and that in England you have a public opinion, 
 which must be wanting in Germany for the present. 
 For public opinion is not the aggregate of .any 
 number of individual opinions or anonymous newspaper 
 articles but rather the opinion of a class socially 
 united and enjoying the confidence of the people, 
 expressed under the personal responsibility of leading 
 men, and then universally accepted; an opinion not 
 uttered, as it were, on one day and forgotten the 
 next, but one which does not permit its voice to be 
 c 2
 
 silent until it has made itself respected. It is to 
 your great advantage, Madam, that the Squire regu- 
 larly divides his time between the country and London, 
 although perchance unequally ; and it is to the great 
 advantage also of the Metropolitan Bench and Bar 
 that they can regularly every year spend a few 
 weeks in the houses of their country friends. It 
 is just this which gives such wonderful unity 
 to the nation ; just this which first creates the 
 possibility of a public opinion which is something 
 more than a phrase." 
 
 " I myself, whose life has been spent partly in 
 the country, but the greater part of which has 
 been devoted to the pursuits of the town, can well 
 appreciate a gentry thus moving to and fro between 
 the two, for I frequently observe how the doctrinaire 
 of the large cities in Continental countries, in 
 spite of all his official learning, is unable to dis- 
 tinguish an oak from a lime tree, the blade of the 
 oat from that of wheat, and has not an idea upon 
 country affairs ; while on the other hand, the large 
 landed proprietor is often incapable of looking out 
 beyond the limited horizon of respectable, no doubt, 
 but at the same time, one-sided agricultural interests, 
 over the free and surging ocean of a life agitated 
 by noble impulses, and hurried onwards by the 
 current of great ideas." 
 
 " How charming," replied my companion, " that 
 you should have a theory ready at hand to justify 
 our annual visit to London ; but we have been wholly
 
 unconscious that we have been at the same time 
 thereby rendering service to the State. We swim 
 with the stream. After Easter almost everyone 
 migrates from the country to Town. If he is in 
 Parliament, he is obliged to reside there for the most 
 part from February until August ; but he will rarely 
 take a house for his family before Easter, for they 
 prefer to remain somewhat later in the country. If 
 he be not in Parliament, he will nevertheless desire 
 to spend six weeks after Easter in Town. If he has 
 no Political duties, his daughters will not leave him 
 in pease. If they are young, he must provide them 
 with the best masters in music, drawing and lan- 
 guages. If they are grown up, they must, ' come out ' 
 in London, to use a conventional phrase. They are 
 then introduced into society, when in virtue of a 
 compromise it is sufficient that one of the parents 
 shall accompany them to balls, while the other seeks 
 repose. When we return from London, we find our 
 garden in full bloom, and now arrives the season of 
 fetes to which we often have to drive a long way in 
 the afternoon to enjoy, between four and seven, the 
 society of our friends. These unceremonious gather- 
 ings in the open air are charming. There is no 
 regular table laid, but tea, coffee, ices, fresh and 
 preserved fruits, biscuits and claret-cup are simply 
 handed round. The young people formerly engaged 
 in cricket matches ; now they play other games 
 which have come into later fashion. Finally comes 
 the Autumn, when the well-endowed and the wearied
 
 22 
 
 politician migrates to the moors for grouse-shooting, 
 deer-stalking, or trout-fishing. If his means do not 
 permit him the very costly luxury of a Scotch moor, 
 he always resorts with pleasure to Scotland to spend 
 the month of August there with his family. How 
 glorious is the Scotch mountain air : the breezes of 
 heaven and ocean blended into one. I know not 
 how it is, but there is something in Scotch air and 
 scenery in summer which cheers one and makes one 
 young again, and which has an unspeakable charm. 
 To accompany my husband to Scotland, is the most 
 cherished of my anticipations and hopes." 
 
 By this time we had reached the door of Hardwicke 
 Court. Baker awaited us with impatience, and would 
 not understand that the survey of his grounds could 
 have occupied so much time. 
 
 " Surely you must have been giving my wife a 
 lecture on German schools, and methods of education. 
 But I hope that the question is not yet brought to 
 the vote, and that I still have a right to speak." 
 
 "On the contrary, my friend," I replied, "my 
 humble self has hitherto been in the pleasant position 
 of listening, and receiving instruction. Before I can 
 form my opinion of your public life, I must gain 
 some insight into your domestic habits. As a Justice 
 of the Peace, you will admit that I have heard a 
 competent witness. When I heard in Dublin of the 
 activity of your public life, and learnt that in all 
 difficult undertakings, it was said proverbially by 
 your friends that a ' Twelve-Baker-power would be 
 needed to ensure success,' I was seized with a
 
 28 
 
 misgiving that you might be one of those modern 
 politicians, who as chosen apostles of the people 
 accept it as their mission to improve the world by 
 reformatory precepts, whilst their wives are left 
 behind to fight out in the servants' hall a Trojan war 
 of daily disputes, and their sons, who are growing up, 
 make their home at the public house. Thank God, 
 I am now at ease on your account."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 JUfornmtoriD ^thooi of garbtokke Court 
 
 Luncheon over, the Squire, who, on any other 
 occasion would never waste time in smoking, and 
 only filled his short clay pipe at the end of his day's 
 work, pressed me to come to his smoking-room. I 
 thought I had noticed that even the key-hole was 
 stopped up, in order to preserve the ladies' delicate 
 nerves from every disagreeable sensation. He took 
 up the diary, in which he had entered his notes, 
 turned over the leaves and said : " Let us make out 
 our programme, that you may be prepared to excuse 
 yourself to the ladies in case they are amiable or 
 polite enough to invite you to accompany them in 
 their walks, or on any other expedition. Here is 
 my list : September 18th, Meeting of the Board of 
 Guardians, which by the way, unless I am away 
 from home, costs me one day a week, and obliges 
 me to hurry over my breakfast : you may, if you like, 
 escort a few vagrants to the workhouse. 
 
 " September 20th : Grand Jury, which has little to 
 do this time. Shortly after, Quarter Sessions ; on the 
 first day Police business ; matters connected with the 
 erection of a new bridge, and the repair of high-
 
 25 
 
 ways ; on the second day, Criminal business, which 
 this time includes some bad cases of larceny. 
 
 " September 22nd : Inspection of the County Prison 
 and Lunatic Asylum. 
 
 " September 23rd : Meeting to discuss the steps to 
 be taken against the pollution of a tributary of the 
 Severn. 
 
 " September 28th : Onslaught on the worst cases 
 of crime at the Assizes. If you wish to visit the 
 Coroner and the Coroner's Jury, there will.be an 
 opportunity to-morrow. On the whole there is not 
 much to do at present." 
 
 "Little to do?" said I, in astonishment. "You 
 call it doing little, if you sacrifice three days or more 
 every week gratuitously to public service?" "It is 
 little indeed ! As it happens I have here the busi- 
 ness engagements of a friend of mine, who, at present 
 fills the office of County chairman, I should like you 
 to look at it for comparison's sake, and in order that 
 you may form a more correct estimate of my modest 
 performances." The Squire turned to his writing- 
 table, and handed me a paper, on which I found the 
 following notices : 
 
 " Taking the chair at the Pauper Lunatic Asylum, 
 and at the Barnwood Lunatic Asylum 48 Mondays 
 every year, viz. : Every 2nd and 4th Monday in the 
 calendar month, meeting of the Lunatic Asylum 
 Committee; every first and third Monday, Inspection 
 of Lunatic Asylums. Journey there by the 9.30 
 train, return between four and five. Every Friday,
 
 Petty Sessions at Stroud, which generally last, 
 according to the business, from half-an-hour to six: 
 hours, the forenoon from 11 to 12 o'clock. At two 
 o'clock Meeting of the Board of Guardians; after 
 that the Local Board of Health. Journey to Stroud 
 at 10.30, returning between four and six o'clock. 
 Once a month, on a Friday, at 3.30 meeting of the 
 Highway Board. Four times a year on five succes- 
 sive days, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 
 Thursday, Chairman's business at Quarter Sessions. 
 This may, perhaps, run to seven days if the Minutes 
 of the Court are not ready until the Saturday. 
 Several days for which I have no appointments are 
 taken up every quarter for miscellaneous business, 
 and sundry visits to the County Prison. Every 
 Wednesday, meeting of the Hospital Committee, 
 which lasts an hour, and a visit to the Workhouse, 
 which lasts an hour and a half. Every quarter 
 one visit to the Reformatory School, which takes 
 up one morning. Four days every year I have 
 to sit as Commissioner of Taxes, or for the assess- 
 ment of local burdens, or appointment of collectors. 
 A few days occasionally for the Elementary Schools 
 and the Treasurership of three Parish Schools. Once 
 every quarter, meeting of the School Committee. A 
 few hours a day occasionally for the Savings Bank, 
 and Artisans' Building Society, provident and friendly 
 societies, and secretaryship of the School of Art. One 
 evening every week, supervision as officer of the 
 Volunteer drill; one afternoon every week supervision
 
 of the Rifle-shooting during the yearly period of 
 practise; one week every year in Camp. Total: three 
 full days every week, exclusive of correspondence/" 
 When I had finished reading the paper, the Squire 
 remarked: "You will have no objections, I hope, to 
 raise against this documentary evidence ! Meanwhile, 
 it is getting late, so now decide for yourself where 
 we are to go first." 
 
 "Let us begin this afternoon with your Reforma- 
 tory School." 
 
 We set out, and in a quarter of an hour, during 
 which time the Squire explained to me the principles 
 of his agricultural work, we reached Hardwicke Court 
 Reformatory. The Superintendent expected us, and 
 had assembled his lads, most of them between twelve 
 and fifteen years old. Their tools were lying near 
 them, and they had just begun digging in the garden. 
 We went among them. Baker raised his finger 
 and conducted a song,* which was given in unison 
 and with spirit. Then we went into the simply fur- 
 nished schoolroom. The result of an examination in 
 elementary subjects was to obtain accurate and ready 
 answers to our questions. After the lapse of an hour, 
 the field-work, which had been accidentally sus- 
 pended, was resumed. In a brief address, the boys 
 
 * Note by T. B. LI. Baker : It does not much matter, but I never 
 did and never could have "conducted a song " in my life. A German 
 supposes that everyone could do it, and can hardly believe that any 
 one can be like me utterly destitute of voice or ear. The Superin- 
 tendent did the singing.
 
 28 
 
 were exhorted to prove themselves worthy of the 
 honour shown to them by the visit of a foreigner ; 
 and with a " Hurrah " we left. 
 
 Most Continental visitors would have complained 
 that there were not a sufficient number of separate 
 cells in this Reformatory, for solitary confinement is 
 with them the beginning and end of a radical cure. 
 In Hardwicke Court Kef ormatory however the foun- 
 ders thought they might dispense with a greater 
 number of cells, considering that they would be able 
 by daily intercourse with the young delinquents to 
 recognize the worst examples, and then to bring every 
 pressure to bear upon them so as to make them real 
 props of the Institution, and the means through which 
 a higher influence could be exercised, without how- 
 ever showing them any preference whatever, or allow- 
 ing them to discover the process by which their own 
 will was working for good. 
 
 On solitary confinement itself Baker had already 
 expressed his opinion based on his own experience, 
 that it had a favourable effect on grown up prisoners 
 in the beginning of their confinement, but that, 
 beyond this he thought it offered the very worst 
 preparation for the battle with the rough reality of 
 life. 
 
 It seemed to me especially desirable to become 
 acquainted with Hardwicke Court Reformatory for 
 more reasons than one. As I had prepared myself 
 for my journey by an examination of the blue books, 
 which are published every year, on the state of most
 
 29 
 
 of the Reformatory Institutions, it was hardly necessary 
 to go into a laborious investigation on the spot as to 
 the statistics of these schools. What struck me most 
 was the unmistakeable look of cheerful industry, and 
 the shade of complexion, which formed such a striking 
 contrast to the pale, cadaverous, expressionless faces 
 of the young shoemakers and tailors in the Industrial 
 Reformatories of towns. I had never any doubt 
 whatever that field-work in the open air was greatly 
 preferable to confinement for young people. But 
 nowhere else as yet had the experiment been at- 
 tempted than at Hardwicke Court.* It was for a 
 large landowner to create that which clergymen, or 
 charitable institutions under their guidance, only 
 occasionally venture upon ; and before I had actually 
 seen this work on the spot, during my whole journey, 
 this thought occupied my mind, whether large landed 
 proprietors in Germany, either alone or in connection 
 with other men of their own rank should not establish 
 Reformatories or smaller Orphan Asylums, so that, 
 by exercising the rights of Guardianship up to matu- 
 rity, they might educate a better race of trained 
 agricultural labourers, than they have at present at 
 their disposal in North Germany. It cannot be denied 
 that Rail ways have helped to weaken the good relations 
 
 * Note by T. B. LI. Baker: The Professor is mistaken in this. 
 Both Capt. Brenton's School mentioned further on. and the Philan- 
 thropic Society's School reorganized at Eed Hill by Mr! Sydney 
 Turner were established as chiefly agricultural Reformatories before 
 that at Hardwicke.
 
 30 
 
 between the landowners and the somewhat nomad 
 class of labourers. In the whole world, in America 
 as well as Europe, the large town with its daily 
 amusements, sights and diversions, exercises such a 
 powerful charm on the lowest classes that the best 
 workmen become estranged from country-life and 
 migrate to town. But as true as is this experience, 
 is also the observation of the Psychologist, that a 
 stronger need of natural life, a stronger love for 
 nature is innate in town-children, than is the case 
 with country-children. Every plant and every flower 
 stalk, the blossoming or fruit-bearing tree, the crow- 
 ing cock or the singing bird, the domestic or the wild 
 animal, everything on which the eye of a young rustic 
 rests with indifference, excites curiosity, inquisitive- 
 ness and sympathy in the town-child. Should not 
 this characteristic of the human mind, this contrast, 
 which exists between town and country, be utilized 
 in the work of education ? Might it not play a certain 
 part in the treatment of Social Questions ? Has not 
 a distinguished Austrian lately proposed, that a garden 
 should be attached to each newly-built National 
 School. 
 
 I congratulated Baker on the success of his under- 
 taking, which was just entering on its tenth year of 
 work, upon which the Squire answered: 
 
 "The man who is afraid of suffering shipwreck in 
 a useful and good enterprise ought not to undertake 
 anything. It is a sign of weakness to desire to see 
 your way always to rapid and immediate success.
 
 ai 
 
 The commencement of our attempt gave us but little 
 encouragement. Let me describe the state of things 
 existing in the beginning of the half century; I must 
 remark however, that my memory may fail me as to 
 details, and I will not undertake any responsibility 
 for that which I have from others. 
 
 "In the year 1788 the Philanthropic Society bought 
 a few acres of land at St. George's in the Fields, 
 which is now a closely populated district. A few 
 boys were taken in, whose parents had been hanged 
 or transported, and were employed in agriculture. 
 Two poor tumble-down houses were their refuge, for 
 the neat appearance which belongs to many charitable 
 institutions of the present day, was then totally 
 wanting. By degrees the number of neglected 
 children increased, and at the same time also London 
 advanced its suburbs farther and farther into the 
 fields,so that a mere Country Institution grew into 
 an Industrial School. The next attempt of this kind 
 was made by a Captain of the Eoyal Navy, Edward 
 Pelham Brenton. After he had left the service, the 
 terrible condition of vicious and neglected children 
 in the suburbs of London excited his pity. He him- 
 self had small means. No rich friends assisted him. 
 With the support of a few tradespeople he founded 
 a small school in the county of Essex at Bow. Others 
 stepped in with a helping hand, especially a very 
 wealthy Jewish broker, David Haes, so that it became 
 possible to enlarge the school, and it received the 
 name of the Children's Friends School. It was
 
 removed to the northern part of London, to Hackney- 
 wick. At this time Miss Murray, a grand-daughter 
 of the Duke of Athol heard of the effort, which was 
 little known, and supported the school with the 
 greatest self-devotion. She herself founded from 
 the same point of view a Reformatory School for 
 girls, the Victoria Asylum, in remembrance of 
 the fact that the Queen for the first time had 
 lent her name to a Reformatory School, while the 
 first Act of Parliament on this subject was passed in 
 the first year of her reign. Now the School began 
 to flourish. But nevertheless Brenton did not give 
 up his praiseworthy habit of rigid simplicity. The 
 bedrooms remained rough. He bought at little cost 
 the tiles of old houses destined to be pulled down and 
 made his boys build a shed, which was arranged like 
 a sailor's cabin with three rows of hammocks, one 
 above the other. If he was told, that the boys should 
 be made a little more comfortable, he always replied : 
 "They are much better off than the brave lads in her 
 Majesty's Navy." In the meantime many difficulties 
 arose. Wages fell; no one was willing to give em- 
 ployment to suspicious individuals, after they had 
 been discharged from the Reformatory. Brenton 
 struck out the plan of transplanting children to those 
 colonies which required labour, and selected the Cape 
 of Good Hope. A Committee of very distinguished 
 gentlemen was formed there, in order to receive the 
 boys, to let them go through a seven years' appren- 
 ticeship, to take care of their education, and to pay
 
 monthly an amount, which was to be placed partly 
 in a Savings-Bank, and partly to be paid to the London 
 Society for covering- the expenses of the passage. 
 Ten Pounds which the boys received from the Savings- 
 Bank after the expiration of their apprenticeship was 
 a nice little sum in the colonies, with which it was 
 possible to make a fortune. All went well at first. 
 The demand in the colony increased. In order to 
 meet it, they were unfortunately induced, in London, 
 to send off boys hastily, without careful selection. 
 In the year 183 7 rumours were spread that some were 
 badly conducted, and others badly treated, which 
 was not to be wondered at. Just as every great 
 merchant, so every public enterprise, the very best 
 not excepted, must keep a loss account. In the year 
 1838, if I am not mistaken, an English clergyman 
 was sent off in order to travel through Cape colony, 
 and to report on the state of affairs. Now the reverse 
 of my story begins. A few years before this episode 
 a literary man a newspaper contributor in whose 
 veins ran hot negro blood, but who was nevertheless 
 an influential and effective writer, is said to have 
 gone to the Cape. Slavery had just then been 
 abolished, and great excitement prevailed everywhere 
 against the negroes in the colony. The writer in 
 question was badly treated, and on his return to 
 England he poured forth his wrath against the 
 government of the colony and its adherents in the 
 public press. He found employment on the Times, 
 and stormed in his articles with all his might. One
 
 34 
 
 of the lads who had been sent off too early from 
 London, and without any guarantee of good conduct, 
 turned out ill also in the colony. Passed on from 
 one master to another, he came into the hands of a 
 Dutch Boer, was well beaten by him, fled secretly on 
 board ship, returned to London, and carried on his 
 old trade as a thief until he was caught, in 1839. 
 He gave his own version of his course of life before 
 the judge. Of course he had been a good boy, some 
 gentlemen had talked him into trusting them, pro- 
 mised to make him a clever fellow, sent him to the 
 Cape, and sold him there as a slave to a Dutch settler. 
 Accidentally the half -cast, (the Times' reporter,) was 
 present in the court, so immediately there appeared 
 a series of the most violent articles against the Cape 
 Committee. The London Committee was said to 
 consist of a band of Jewish swindlers, driving an 
 abominable slave-trade, stealing children, and selling 
 them to Dutchmen. Small sums received for the 
 re-payment of the costs of the passage out, were 
 represented in the heinous character of wages of 
 sin. A panic broke out among the parents : the 
 relatives left behind were frightened, and wanted 
 their children brought back, which could not of 
 course be effected in a few weeks. The storm was 
 let loose. Poor Brenton died soon afterwards, be- 
 fore the desired reports arrived, according to which 
 the children in the colony were very well cared for. 
 Again a change took place. Many parents, who had 
 noisily demanded their children back, offered now to
 
 35 
 
 ship off others. But it was too late. If once a 
 strong impression is produced in public through the 
 press it cannot be effaced as with a sponge from the 
 black board. The annual subscriptions were with- 
 drawn. Several times the excited populace attacked 
 the Beformatory; once it was preserved from destruc- 
 tion by a young man who sprang out of the crowd, 
 and declared, with rare courage, that he himself had 
 been a thief, that he had been saved in this Beform- 
 atory from ruin, and had later become well-to-do, 
 and now was ready to defend the house to his utmost ! " 
 
 "That was an admirable act," I exclaimed, "grand 
 and noble as the presence of mind of the captain 
 who remains on the sinking ship until he sees every 
 one saved in the boats. This courage, this confession 
 of the sins of his youth, in face of a whole crowd of 
 people, in the public street, by a respectable and 
 wealthy man, exceeds the boldness of a battalion 
 which rushes from the trenches upon the guns of an 
 enemy's fortress !" 
 
 "Now hear the end," continued the Squire. "Poor 
 David Haes, who had contributed so richly to the 
 success of the Beformatory, was cursed as the Jew 
 who had carried on the slave-trade from avarice, and 
 had sold children. His family went off in the obscu- 
 rity of night to Brighton for safety ; he himself 
 remained in London and carried on his business. The 
 police knew that he was in constant danger of his 
 life, and watched his steps. The Beformatories for 
 boys and girls were at an end !"
 
 Silently we walked back to Hardwicke Court. 
 Captain Brenton, the reformed thief who was pre- 
 pared to fight in defence of a Reformatory, and the 
 story of the Jew Haes in the mouth of the High 
 Church Tory, had touched me so deeply that for a 
 long time I was at a loss for words, and was incapable 
 of turning the conversation to another subject. At 
 last I remarked, " After such a termination to the 
 old Eef ormatory, to found a new one here was almost 
 as courageous as the conduct of the Jew, who, in 
 daily danger of his life, remained in London, at the 
 bidding of a good conscience, and thought of the 
 safety of his family, but not of his own." 
 
 " Although my name has been connected with the 
 founding of Hardwicke Court Reformatory," replied 
 the Squire, " my merit is much smaller than most 
 people think. It was a woman who gave me the first 
 idea ; I followed her advice in all, and must say that 
 she was right in everything. I made Miss Murray's 
 acquaintance when those sad events occurred which 
 perhaps contributed to Brenton's death. And she it 
 was to whom before all others the honour is due. The 
 thought slumbered in my mind for a long time to 
 found a new Reformatory, but there was no one to 
 support me in carrying it out, though I sounded 
 many. At last it happened that in the year 1851 I 
 formed a friendship with a young man whose appear- 
 ance on the scene decided me. George Bengough 
 asked me why I would not make a beginning myself ? 
 I answered him that a man was necessary for the
 
 purpose who would devote his whole time, his whole 
 soul, and his whole heart to this task ; but that I was 
 not justified in putting on one side my engagements 
 as a Justice of the Peace, as a Magistrate, and as a 
 Poor Law Guardian, which would be absolutely neces- 
 sary. To my astonishment the young Squire, who 
 was heir to a fortune of 10,000 a year, declared that, 
 in spite of his youth, he would like to undertake it, 
 if an older man like myself would help him with 
 it. The work was quickly taken in hand, a little 
 establishment was provided, and later on enlarged- 
 He himself, in March, 1852, just as he was entering 
 on his 24th year, selected for his own benevolent 
 purposes, three of the worst young criminals in 
 London, who were about to be discharged from prison. 
 He had no experience in the treatment of neglected 
 children, neither was his way of acting always the 
 right one. But he had a rare gift, which is seldom 
 sufficiently appreciated. He was quite unselfish in 
 his sacrifice in his devotion to an aim which he 
 had set before him for the good of his fellow-crea- 
 tures. It was a matter of complete indifference to 
 him whether the credit of what he did should be 
 enjoyed by himself or by another. Would that it were 
 universally known what power there lies in such 
 unselfishness ! So we began with the three born 
 thieves from London, and added to them a few accom- 
 plished thieves from Cheltenham, because a better 
 kind would have been corrupted directly. According 
 to our calculations, having really reformed the London 
 thieves, they were to help, like tame elephants, in
 
 catching the wild ones, and in taming those who 
 were to come after them. George Bengough resided 
 for the first few months in my house, and worked 
 together with me. Then he removed to some rooms 
 in the Beformatory itself. For two years he worked 
 in the ranks as a schoolmaster. When the under- 
 taking was fully established he left the superinten- 
 dence of it confidently in my hands. Suffering as he 
 was, he went to Florence: there is no hope of his 
 recovery, and I am expecting daily to hear of his 
 death. Do you understand, now, that it grieves nie 
 when I am spoken of in terms of praise ? Do you 
 know another young man who, with a yearly income 
 of 10,000, would reside for two years with young 
 criminals, and give them elementary instruction ?" 
 
 " Dear friend," I replied, "in the heat of the fight 
 I am much given to exaggerations ; but I am inclined 
 to believe, until I have proof to the contrary, that 
 you would have to return to primitive Christianity to 
 find a second example ; perhaps even then it would be 
 in vain. It is a trifle in youth to hide a despairing, 
 broken heart in a convent, or in later years to give 
 one's fortune to the Church, or to be burned as a 
 martyr for some dogma a trifle in comparison with 
 the example of this young man, who retains his wealth, 
 and then for years brings daily to the stake his own 
 patience, and his enjoyment of life, by associating 
 early and late, single-handed, with the dregs of youth- 
 ful corruption. This deed seems to me so prodigious 
 that civilized people of our century will see in it 
 nothing but the first indications of insanity. If poor
 
 39 
 
 George really dies of consumption he will refute 
 those who maintain with confidence that he will end 
 his life in a lunatic asylum. But was it not the 
 intensity, Baker, of your own earnestness that kin- 
 dled in that young man's heart the flames of a pure 
 enthusiasm ?" 
 
 " Bengough's work has found its reward," asserted 
 Baker, solemnly. " Cheltenham alone produced for- 
 merly almost as many young thieves as all the rest 
 of the county together. In the year 1852 forty-five 
 boys were imprisoned ; four years later fifty-three. 
 After long endeavours we found out who were the 
 leaders and who the apprentices in crime. We caught 
 the two young master thieves, and behold ! in the 
 year 1857 only fourteen boys were convicted. There- 
 upon we turned our attention to the rest of the 
 county with equal success. In the last five years 
 England has been covered with Reformatories for 
 young criminals. Investigations of this kind caused 
 a decrease within the same space of time of 6,000 
 criminals yearly. It is a great thing to rescue alive one 
 human being who has fallen over a precipice, but far 
 greater yet to prevent two from falling over the pre- 
 cipice at all. On the whole I think, on looking back 
 on what has hitherto been effected, that Hardwicke 
 Court has atoned for the sin of those who brought 
 the earlier school of children's friends in London to 
 ruin. A great deal more than we have already done 
 can yet be accomplished, but we must not relax our 
 efforts for a single moment." 
 
 In the meantime we had reached Hardwicke Court.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 In the Ci 
 
 THE hour for the five o'clock tea had come. We 
 went to the library, where tea was to be served. 
 My fellow guests, of whom there were about a 
 dozen, had already assembled. I learned in the 
 course of conversation the following particulars 
 respecting five o'clock tea. As long as the principal 
 meal was taken at six, there was no need for tea in 
 the afternoon. But since the hour of the principal 
 meal has been postponed to half -past seven or eight 
 o'clock, afternoon tea has almost become a constitu- 
 tional detail of domestic life. This change took 
 place after the close of the Crimean war. An elderly 
 lady related to Mr. Baker, told me what follows : 
 " I well remember the time when our friends, 
 brothers, and sons, returned from the war alas! 
 how many did not return! what enjoyment it was 
 for them after the terrible privations of those days, 
 to sit once more by the warm fireside, surrounded 
 by their family. All pressed around them and 
 listened to their narrative. Cold tea had been their 
 favourite beverage in the trenches before Sebastopol. 
 Hot tea with bread and butter appeared to them on 
 their return home as Nectar and Ambrosia. In
 
 41 
 
 the oft repeated pleasure we enjoyed, in refreshing 
 the heroes of our families with their favourite 
 beverage, the old strict traditional domestic rule 
 was broken, and so began five o'clock tea, which 
 is, as it were, the daily renewed commemoration of 
 the return of our warriors, the hour which in 
 reminding some how much they owe to Providence, 
 recalls to others the painful memory of bereave- 
 ments, causing us to feel from year to year more 
 peacefully inclined towards other nations." 
 
 How I like even now to recall in thought those 
 evening hours. I shall never forget the library. 
 It was a room almost square in form, adjoining the 
 large hall and the dining-room ; two of its walls 
 were lined from floor to ceiling with rows of books 
 in antique bindings. The third wall was broken by 
 two large windows, and between them stood a vener- 
 able bookcase. In the fourth was a fireplace of 
 gigantic size ; the fire blazing ; the armchairs round 
 it in a semi-circle. In the middle, a round table, 
 bearing a heavy lamp, and covered with books and 
 the latest papers ; on little tables in the corners a 
 wealth of rare old china. Ladies and gentlemen, 
 on comfortable chairs scattered about the room, or 
 in groups, some listening, others talking in a lively 
 strain, laughing, cheerful, or in repose, all lifted 
 into a higher state of enjoyment by unaffected, 
 hearty hospitality. So stands the library at Hard- 
 wicke Court before my eyes. I understood, without 
 being able to make a comparison for myself, what a
 
 42 
 
 London barrister, who so to speak, knew the whole 
 of England intimately, had told me in Dublin, 
 " Hardwicke Court is the pleasantest house amongst 
 those of my extensive acquaintance." On the 
 walls which were not covered with books, hung old 
 family portraits, among which there was one of 
 striking beauty the Squire himself, painted by 
 Richmond. The portrait had been presented to 
 him by the managers of English Reformatories, as 
 an acknowledgment of his services in rescuing young 
 criminals. 
 
 While I was looking for the first time attentively 
 at the portrait, the mistress of the house remarked 
 that the ladies had already retired to their rooms, 
 and that dinner-time was drawing near. 
 
 " Until a few years ago," she continued, " it was 
 the custom for ladies to appear at the dinner-table 
 attired in low dresses, as if going to a ball. They 
 required then a long time for their toilette. But the 
 proceedings of the Board of Health seem to have 
 had this result, that at the present time, we take, 
 where it is possible, greater precautions against 
 catching cold. Except on extraordinary occasions, 
 we appear now in high dresses. What do you think 
 in your country of the custom, that the guests in 
 the house, and even the members of the family, 
 when they are by themselves, should change their 
 dress before dinner? I remarked that, with our 
 way of living and the early dinner, there could 
 be no question of strict rules; that, besides, the
 
 43 
 
 dress-coat and white tie suited our male sex so ill, that 
 a resolution to wear them on any special occasion 
 required to be proposed and carried like a Bill in 
 Parliament after a third reading. 
 
 " It is possible," was the reply, " that we are a 
 little too strict. But I learned by experience on the 
 Continent, how great is the advantage of some 
 settled social practice existing among the educated 
 classes. The individual need not then scrutinize 
 others, or ask what others will do. How much time 
 is thus lost. How often I found young ladies 
 puzzled with regard to the question, how they were 
 to dress, and often it was found necessary to enter 
 into consultation with a neighbour. 
 
 " Besides, it seems to me that it is well, even in less 
 formal society, instead of rushing to table straight 
 from the business of the day, to profit by the interval 
 of dressing to gain a few moments for quiet reflection. 
 We ought to shake off the dust of the streets, not 
 only from our shoes, but also from our thoughts, 
 when we go to meet our best friends. I know that 
 you will call our habits formal. I see in them a 
 courtesy which, from the first, disposes one's neigh- 
 bour to be affable. We ladies are grateful for this 
 small concession as to dress. In return we leave the 
 gentlemen alone during the last half hour with their 
 claret and port, which is undoubtedly agreeable to 
 them." 
 
 I felt all the less inclined to contradict as I had 
 already during my first visit to England, in the year
 
 44 
 
 1850, been fully persuaded of the advantages of this 
 kind of ritualism, and had never ceased to consider 
 the practice of early dinners in Germany a most 
 faulty institution. I promised to appear punctually, 
 and retired. I found pleasant company in my room. 
 The hostess, as a delicate attention, had so arranged 
 that several German classics, for which she had 
 observed my predilection, should be at hand, for the 
 service of such spare moments as I might find. A 
 similar touching attention had been once shown me 
 by an Italian Abbot, at whose house I passed the 
 night. On a small table by my bedside I found 
 Schiller's poems and Luther's translation of the New 
 Testament, but the title-page had been torn out, so 
 as not to give offence to the faithful. 
 
 About half -past seven the dinner-bell was rung. 
 The Squire received me at the drawing-room door. 
 "I hope that your hour's solitude has not spoiled 
 your good temper. Now we have a common work 
 before us. We are anxious to see whether a German 
 Professor has as good an appetite as one of us. But 
 do not imagine that you may choose your own neigh- 
 bour at table; in this country you must submit to 
 the choice of your hosts. You will remark that I 
 take in first the lady of the highest rank among our 
 guests. My wife, with her cavalier, is always the last 
 in order, and closes the procession. On account of 
 your unsatisfactory performance at luncheon you 
 are to be, for the day, this last cavalier. Take care 
 that you may be promoted to-morrow."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 (Opinion of the Squire on School |flcform. 
 
 THE ladies had risen from the table ; the gentle- 
 men passed the bottles of port, sherry, and 
 claret, with the regularity of planets from hand to 
 hand. Baker moved his chair towards me : " Has 
 nothing struck you in contrasting my Reformatory 
 with other similar institutions ?" " Certainly," I 
 replied ; "if I had not been quite diverted from my 
 own thoughts by your narrative I should have already 
 spoken my mind on the subject. Your boys' cheer- 
 fulness at their field- work struck me : your boys look 
 better than elsewhere. The prevailing type of face 
 is usually apathy, stupidity, cunning, or smooth 
 hypocrisy ; but in vain have I looked for these in 
 your colony." 
 
 " To this result I attach the greatest importance. 
 My Reformatory is designed not merely to reclaim 
 my juvenile delinquents, but also to improve our 
 village school itself, by the experience gained through 
 these boys. It is a wide-spread error that instruction 
 and knowledge are to be everything in life. I have 
 no objection to elementary instruction ; quite the 
 contrary. But do not make people believe that they 
 are something wonderful if they have learned to read
 
 46 
 
 and write well. Schoolmasters say, ( life is not merely 
 beer and skittles.' I tell the schoolmasters, the life 
 of poor people is not merely reading and writing. 
 That is not the chief object in my Reformatory. 
 The chief object with me is discipline, having regard 
 to the conflicts of later life. The goodness of the 
 pudding does not depend upon how it is served and 
 put on the table, but upon the flavour. Also in the 
 higher classes of society Greek and Latin are not 
 culture itself, but only a means of culture. Can you 
 deny that there are most learned men who, at the 
 bottom, are very uncultivated ?" 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 '' Man consists of body, soul and intellect. It is 
 unfortunate that the tendency of the age is more 
 and more towards the cultivation of the intellect only 
 on one side : the whole man should be cultivated. 
 The schoolmaster almost feels indifferent to what 
 will become of his pupils later on. He wants to 
 train parade horses for the school inspector. If the 
 schoolmaster were to devote yearly one day to visit 
 the parents of the pupils who had left him, and to 
 collect careful notes as to their acts and deeds, more 
 would be learned from such a summary than from 
 wonderful examinations. The great question is, 
 what influence school discipline exercises 011 later 
 life. By this alone can its worth be measured. In 
 these days it appears as though learning were to 
 become the aim of life. Learn, drudge, and ever 
 learn. The whole world appears to the schoolmastei
 
 47 
 
 like a well-furnished schoolroom, wherein every one 
 retains the place which had been asigned to him on 
 the school form. Is it so ? Not always ; and even 
 not very seldom is the place in life the very reverse of 
 the place in school : the first shall be last. He who 
 is to become a thorough workman must, while at 
 school, not merely work with his head, but also with 
 his hands, and still more, must will to learn in season. 
 Exercise of the will in the faculty of mental and 
 bodily exertion; that is the point. Is it not folly to 
 tell children who write particularly well, or read with 
 particular fluency, that they might become something 
 better than workmen ? If a really diligent, hard- 
 working lad remains behind at school, he ought to be 
 preferred to those who have good natural abilities 
 and learn easily. That is j ustice. But we see that 
 the master always lavishes his praise upon those who 
 give him the least trouble. What is the consequence ? 
 The petted lapdogs of the master do nothing in later 
 life, because they think, from their school days on- 
 wards, that they know everything already. The 
 slow pupils accomplish nothing, because, from being 
 always found fault with, they still believe that they 
 can do nothing. But in the present day, life requires 
 that every one should exert his energies to the utmost. 
 The labourer must work daily, like that pattern pastor 
 who wearies his flock on a Sunday with forty -parson 
 power. 
 
 "According to my observations in the Reformatory, 
 the reformed village school should present somewhat
 
 48 
 
 like the following appearance : Every country school 
 should receive as an appurtenance from two to five 
 acres of land. An old ploughman, whose strength is 
 already on the wane, should be installed, at compara- 
 tively small wages. This old man should receive 
 children of four years of age, who, in this country, 
 are often sent to school, the parents paying him a 
 weekly sum of sixpence, at which price they would 
 be only too glad to get rid of them. Some easy 
 occupation will soon be found in the field. Children 
 above five years of age would pay twopence less, 
 those above six years twopence less again. At this 
 last-mentioned age they can weed quite well. Chil- 
 dren of the age of seven should pay nothing. At 
 the age of eight the school-child should receive a 
 strip of ground to cultivate in play hours, and what 
 that produced might be taken home or sold. For 
 children under twelve the present school hours are 
 restricted to five every day, fully sufficient for learn- 
 ing. I should give the younger children seven hours, 
 four for the school and three for the garden. Thus 
 the child would be already acquiring the habit, so 
 important in later life, of constant and continuous 
 work. His strength must not be overstrained ; but 
 moderate manual labour has a beneficial effect on the 
 future, and gives increased stimulus to intellectual 
 labour. Dreamy brooding on the school-bench would 
 then become rarer. Secondly, the income of the 
 school would be raised. Ten boys work an acre of 
 land, which, after deducting the payment of rent,
 
 49 
 
 yields us an income of 10 almost double the 
 amount of the boys' school fees. Thirdly, the super- 
 intendence of the children being prolonged for two 
 hours, makes it possible to observe the character and 
 propensities, to discover faults of character which 
 a schoolmaster never notices during lesson time and 
 to awaken the love for work. Fourthly, the boys 
 would remain at school a longer time, without any 
 check to their bodily development. At twelve years 
 of age a boy earns 2s. a week by his work. Is his 
 father so very much to blame if he longs for this 
 2s. to go towards the support of his family, and 
 removes the boy from school ? Suppose you had a 
 yearly income of 600 or 6,000, and at the moment 
 your son was to go to the University a profitable 
 appointment with 100 or 1,000 per annum were 
 offered him, would it not be a strong temptation ? 
 And yet the labourer, who earns 12s. a week, is 
 required not only to resist this strong temptation, 
 but to pay twopence a week from his own pocket, 
 which is very irksome to him. If, on the other hand, 
 you make a sufficiently large school garden, a boy at 
 the age of twelve might, from his small piece of land, 
 that he cultivates in his spare time, make a profit, by 
 vegetables or fruit, at the rate of 20s. to 30s. per 
 annum, and take it home. That would not indeed 
 compensate the parents, but it might relieve them a 
 little. And with what attention would these children 
 learn to take care of their small property ! They 
 would feel how disagreeable it is to be robbed, even 
 E
 
 50 
 
 on a small scale, and therefore themselves desist from 
 pilfering. But how is it now? At twelve, eleven, 
 or ten years of age, children are removed from school, 
 and forced to labour for ten hours, in spite of their 
 undeveloped muscles. Is it possible, then, for a child, 
 who creeps home exhausted from his work, to read 
 with attention ? In a few years the fruits of the 
 schooling are lost. The true balance between muscles 
 and nerves between hand and brain can only be 
 kept up by the school garden." 
 
 My neighbour on the left remarked that such a 
 plan would suffer shipwreck in the difficulties of its 
 execution. 
 
 " It is true that it might be difficult to carry it 
 out," remarked the Squire ; " to alter the electoral 
 laws would be an easier task. He, however, who, on 
 the score of convenience clings to the old system 
 and shrinks from important reforms, does not deserve 
 the name of a Conservative. That my plan is possible 
 I have proved. Two-and-twenty years ago I founded 
 such a school : it stood and flourished. Afterwards 
 I was obliged to give it up, because the schoolmaster 
 left me, and I could not find a substitute. Every 
 schoolmaster with whom I endeavoured to treat 
 thought digging was unworthy an educated man; 
 all were more fastidious gentlemen than myself. 
 Now-a-days teachers are more sensible than they 
 were then. But I have grown too old, and must 
 therefore leave the carrying out of my plan to 
 younger energies."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 (tamtg 0>%ol nt Gloucester. 
 
 fTlHE morning was dull, and it threatened to rain : 
 JL the (pheasant) shooting was put off. The Squire, 
 who had some arrears of business in Gloucester, 
 proposed that we should, after breakfast, visit the 
 prison there ; and ordered the carriage. 
 
 " You have seen a large number of Irish county 
 prisons, and will be able to compare them with ours. 
 You shall tell me whether we have any reason to be 
 ashamed. In these county prisons there arises a great 
 political question. The question is whether the 
 Government shall leave to us unpaid magistrates our 
 old office, or whether all the prisons shall be cen- 
 tralised in the hands of Government officials, as is 
 done on the Continent." 
 
 The drive to Gloucester offered us rich and varied 
 changes of scenery. Each tree and each house had 
 its own story. We passed a building striking from 
 its stateliness and its antiquity, and Baker remarked : 
 
 " It is extraordinary how long some houses stand. 
 Berkeley Castle is inhabited to this day, and it dates 
 back to the time of Earl Godwin, of whom mention 
 E 2
 
 r>2 
 
 is made under Edward the Confessor. Another house, 
 the mansion of Horton, exists still without any change 
 in its masonry since the time of Henry II. But the 
 most remarkable of all is, that we have an ancient 
 barn, in the parish of Rodmarton, near Hazeldean, 
 which is proved to have been built in the year 1290. 
 That building behind the splendid chestnut trees 
 which excite your admiration, belonged for many 
 years to the Powell family, which has given many 
 learned and distinguished lawyers to England. There 
 is an anecdote told of the worthy judge Sir John 
 Powell. Trials for witchcraft were very popular in 
 the time of the last Stuart. An old woman was 
 brought before the Judge, charged with being able 
 to fly. Powell asked her: "Prisoner, can you fly?" 
 " Yes, my Lord," replied the accused. " Then fly home 
 as fast as you can; I know of no law that forbids 
 flying." Of course the prisoner was acquitted. 
 
 I replied: "How much wisdom there lies in that 
 little anecdote. It is really worth preservation for 
 the use of many learned gentlemen and many courts 
 of justice. For instance if a trial for high treason 
 were going on in our country and the accused were 
 asked: "Prisoner is it true, that you wish to over- 
 throw the State, and sever its territory by violence? 
 one might sometimes say like old Powell, on his 
 pleading guilty: Well then, overthrow the State and 
 sever its territory, but in the first 1 place, go home." 
 
 Meanwhile we had arrived at the entrance of the 
 prison. We rang, and the Governor came out to
 
 receive us, as if we had been relapsed prisoners ; and 
 went round with us. It was worth while to spend a 
 few hours in this building. Nearly ninety years had 
 passed since Howard had first come forward to reform 
 the prisons in the County of Bedford. Ten years 
 later, in 1783, Sir George Paul brought the matter of 
 Prison-Reform before the Quarter-Sessions of the 
 County of Gloucester ; proposed to build a new Peni- 
 tentiary ; and obtained an Act of Parliament for this 
 purpose. After another nine years appeared the first 
 public report of this, at the time, model-prison. So 
 great was the renown of this institution that the 
 Americans at the commencement of this century sent 
 a Commission personally to inspect it and adopted 
 the system as their own. Sir George Paul was one 
 of the fathers of the Solitary System which he applied 
 for terms not exceeding a month. The cells he used, 
 exist still. The convicts at first were not employed 
 in work, but during a portion of the day, the bible 
 was read; they had also separate cells for day and 
 night, walked daily in the open air, and were per- 
 fectly well treated. The Americans came to inspect 
 in 1807; the English Government first took notice 
 of the system in 1834, and sent Crawford out to 
 report on the subject. Baker related as follows: 
 
 "It was, I believe, in the year 1836, when acting 
 as Visiting Justice of the Prison that I received a 
 letter from Lord John Russell, the then Home 
 Secretary, in which he laid down for us about forty 
 different rules to observe in future. I was fortunately
 
 54 
 
 able to remark to his Lordship, that about five and 
 thirty of these rules had originated at Gloucester, 
 and had been adopted by the Americans from us ; 
 that four of the others which would neither do good 
 nor harm, should be at once adopted, but that the 
 last was open to so much question that it required 
 another and closer examination by the Government. 
 He thereupon declared his intention of requesting 
 the Attorney-General to give his opinion on the 
 matter, but we never received his decision. Russell's 
 successor, Sir James Graham, who possibly in Dickens' 
 American Notes might have read something on the 
 new system adopted in that country, sent us there- 
 upon strict orders to entirely abandon the Solitary 
 System, and in its place to introduce the Separate 
 System, and to keep each prisoner apart from others. 
 A new system then! We old visiting Justices dis- 
 covered now to our delight, that we were thus carried 
 back to Sir George Paul's original plan, as it had 
 been before Lord John Russell's time, and that the 
 so-called American improvements were abandoned. 
 The difference as compared with the old times was 
 only this: door-locks of a different form, introduction 
 of gas in place of oil-lamps, washing basins of a 
 different pattern, an odd arrangement of cells to 
 facilitate the assembling of the prisoners in church, 
 and a splendid system of ventilation which very 
 nearly suffocated every prisoner who was not 
 accustomed to it. This was the wisdom of the 
 Government. Of course all these things have
 
 55 
 
 disappeared long ago. In the course of half-a-cen- 
 tury nearly a hundred different schemes had been tried 
 that every thing might remain at last in the condition 
 created for it by Sir George Paul's original design." 
 
 After visiting every portion of the building, and 
 exchanging opinions in the condemned cells on 
 the subject of capital punishment, we decided to 
 question some of the prisoners on their antecedents, 
 and their plans for the future; on what Baker 
 called the "consequences." A few fine yellow-and- 
 brown-clad specimens were called away from the 
 tread-mill. 
 
 "Tom Jones here again?" "Yes, Sir, I was stupid 
 enough to get away from the surveillance of the 
 police, who had already come to my help, and had 
 got me some work that paid. I got away to an old 
 friend in Cheshire. You can fancy the rest." 
 
 "How much did you steal?" "About three pounds 
 worth." "Your sentence?" "Six months, Sir." 
 "Good, you can go!" 
 
 A second sinner appeared at the door. "William 
 Eeye, step nearer, my man. I have known you for- 
 merly as a willing labourer. Have you been stealing 
 too ? How did that ha-ppen ? I never thought 
 to find you here." "Ah, Sir!" rejoined the man, 
 "My wife was just confined. While she was ill I 
 was obliged to help at home, got behind in the week's 
 wages, and could not pay my rent, so I took from the 
 drawer of a friend, who in a hard-hearted manner 
 refused me a loan, a sum which I fully intended to
 
 56 
 
 repay him. To have left my house, would have been 
 the death of my wife. She has died since my 
 imprisonment, and my children are in the workhouse. 
 It was only fifteen shillings." 
 
 "For how long are you sentenced?" "Eighteen 
 months." 
 
 "You can go. But remind me when your time is 
 at an end. I will consider what we can do for you, 
 and will enquire next week about your children. 
 Don't be anxious about them." 
 
 The third entered: "James Wright," explained the 
 Governor, "a very dangerous thief who is wonder- 
 fully clever at crying and has been ten times con- 
 victed in Lancashire. He stole from his employer, 
 out of the workshop, tools to the value of eight 
 pounds, and has whined his well-deserved punish- 
 ment in the convict prison, down to a three months 
 imprisonment." 
 
 "Well Wright," began Baker, "the bible verses 
 which you are sure to have got ready, you may 
 reserve for a better occasion. I see by your looks 
 that you are a drunkard. A pity that you are only 
 here for three months; you need a longer cure and 
 should have begged for it. If you seriously wish it, 
 things may go better with you. I will at once note 
 down your name in my pocket-book. Some way or 
 other, you shall be helped after your release." "Ah 
 Sir, the soup for dinner last week was quite unfit for 
 a Christian, and I had for my tea in the morning a 
 second infusion made with soapy water from the
 
 57 
 
 wash-tub. God have mercy on me." " Your com- 
 plaints shall be enquired into more closely. For 
 to-day that is enough you can go." 
 
 In this way about a dozen were examined. We 
 repaired to the kitchen, tasted the food prepared for 
 dinner, inspected the housekeeping departments and 
 took leave of the Governor. After we had visited 
 the interior of the Cathedral, we set out on our 
 return home. The Squire however proposed, inas- 
 much as the weather had meanwhile cleared up again 
 contrary to all expectation, that we should choose 
 another route, which, as he assured me, would be 
 more interesting, and being longer, would give us 
 time to converse a little on prison affairs. We got 
 out into the country. The Squire enquired my 
 opinion of the county prison. 
 
 "My worthiest friend!" replied I, "were it not 
 necessary that I should speedily return to Germany, 
 I would propose to you that we commit somewhere 
 in the neighbourhood a decent little offence, perhaps 
 a little poaching, in order to be confined together in 
 the Gloucester prison. I should be sure to learn 
 much, but unfortunately it is doubtful whether we 
 should keep each other company and be able to escape 
 that abominable tread-mill. Amongst the inmates 
 of your prison I found many a familiar expression of 
 face. In all countries is to be found a cosmopolitan 
 thief's countenance which is everywhere reproduced. 
 One thing astonished me. I cannot conceive, how 
 in this conservative England, how in your county in
 
 58 
 
 which a barn can survive even the names of noble 
 and distinguished families, the very same thing can 
 happen as with us. The old offender is visited by 
 the Judge with lighter punishment than the novice. 
 Here too I find the same arbitrary procedure which 
 we call "Judicial Justice." The Criminal Judge 
 seeks, according to his best insight and in good faith, 
 to do justice but the result of comparison can only 
 be to indicate an arbitrary will. To mete out punish- 
 ment is however nothing more than to award it 
 according to the very limited measure of one's own 
 experience, without the slightest regard to what 
 another Judge in the same place, or at any rate in 
 the vicinity, may award for the same offence ; is in 
 fact to award it according to one's own personal bias 
 with regard to the particular prisoner. Every one 
 uses in the scales of justice weights that are correct 
 enough in themselves, but which have been tested by 
 no common standard. One uses Apothecaries weight, 
 another Avoirdupois, a third, weights of some other 
 class. It is a pity that an experiment cannot be 
 tried; if the same man were in each different juris- 
 diction of the same State to steal the coat of another 
 guest from the public room of an inn, and he were 
 tried for that same offence by the several tribunals 
 of those different jurisdictions, what a pattern card 
 of sentences would be the result ! Of no single Judge 
 could it be said that he had given an arbitrary or 
 unjust judgment, but when contrasted with the others, 
 each separate judgment would appear arbitrary."
 
 59 
 
 "For years," replied Baker, "has my mind been 
 occupied by the liveliest perception of this fact. At 
 last I believe I am getting nearer to the solution of 
 my doubts. As usual this solution occurred to me at 
 a moment in which I felt myself oppressed with dul- 
 ness. At such times of acute stupidity, I hit upon 
 the exact ideas I want and which are so simple that 
 they are not seen by learned men and would not be 
 seen by myself if I were in full possession of my 
 intellect. In such hours of stupidity I forget, equally, 
 what I have myself formerly learnt and thought. In 
 the case of almost every useful idea, in which I have 
 been successful, I have been obliged to wait for one 
 of these natural fits of dulness, before I could work 
 out any judicious design. The whole mischief of this 
 judicial arbitrariness, which you describe is, in fact, 
 due to the learning of the men to whom the adminis- 
 tratioH^of criminal justice is committed. These 
 men are of the highest character, conspicuous ability, 
 noble minds, and the ripest wisdom. But what in 
 spite of the greatest sagacity in the administration 
 of criminal law they call "Justice" is like a tale from 
 "The Thousand and One Nights." To all these men 
 in fact is wanting the discriminative faculty. They 
 know nothing of human nature, but they possess a 
 large knowledge of books, theories, principles, con- 
 troversies, and systems, all of which are absolutely 
 indispensable for the administration of civil law. 
 But they do not know in actual life the men whom 
 they are called to judge. For how should they learn
 
 60 
 
 to know the modes of thought, moral perceptions, 
 wants, wishes, and habits of thieves and swindlers ? 
 Do they associate with such men? The more learned 
 a judge is the more unequally does he mete out 
 punishment. Quite contrary to my custom, I must 
 in this particular take credit to ourselves, the un- 
 learned judges. We visit the prisons nearly every 
 week, are in daily communication with the police, are 
 in hourly contact with the men who belong to the 
 lowest classes of our labouring population, and en- 
 deavour to assist prisoners who are leaving gaol to 
 earn their own living. We know the criminal as he 
 has been, as he is, and as he will be, from real life, 
 not from the representation of witnesses, or from 
 official reports. Should we not be able to feel with 
 the prisoner if we wish to pronounce righteous judg- 
 ment? And these learned gentlemen will not permit 
 themselves to feel ! That would not be consistent 
 with their position as jurists. Only the Queen may 
 be permitted to feel when she exercises the preroga- 
 tive of mercy. The judge imagines that he is strictly 
 logical in measuring the crime of the prisoner, and 
 thereby is often led wonderfully astray. The incon- 
 sistency you may have observed in the present day 
 in unequal sentences and judicial utterances, rarely 
 proceeds from unlearned Justices of the Peace who 
 act at the Quarter Sessions, but from the learned and 
 salaried Police Magistrates of the towns, or from the 
 Judges of Assize. Do not think, my friend, that 
 penal justice can be learnt from books, or logically
 
 61 
 
 deduced, or even mathematically computed. It must 
 also be in some measure felt out. But we practical 
 people, who have not studied jurisprudence, feel from 
 two different points of view ; from that of our own 
 domestic interests, which are injuriously affected by 
 the crime ; and from that of the moral degradation 
 of the individual criminal. Our measure of punish- 
 ment is therefore based on very sure foundations : 
 on the sympathy which only imposes 011 every criminal 
 just as much as is necessary for his own reformation, 
 and with due regard to our own security. And these 
 two lines have their meeting point : security against 
 the criminal through his own reclamation, not indeed 
 by pampering him, but by wholesome severity and 
 hard work. As a matter of course we also make mis- 
 takes and err in our judgment. But these mistakes 
 are accidental, occasional, and sometimes unavoidable. 
 The mistakes of the learned Judges of Assize, on the 
 contrary, who never know or see the prisoner except 
 during the trial, who do not know how their sentence 
 may really work upon him, and never come into 
 personal contact with him, their errors, I say, are 
 inevitable, regular, and always unavoidable, because 
 they do not relate to the crime, but to the criminal." 
 " What you say," replied I, " is discouraging to 
 the ears of a Professor of Criminal Jurisprudence. 
 But I must admit that the problem we are discussing 
 is not to be solved theoretically or scientifically, 
 unless indeed on me, or on some better man, should 
 fall as has fallen on you that blessed hour of
 
 62 
 
 dulness in which we become prophets, because we 
 forget all we have ever learnt before. Moreover I 
 spoke just now of your contact and intercourse with 
 the police. In our country it is a very rare thing to 
 find one of that calling in the house of a country 
 gentleman. They are a respectable class, but very 
 much disliked." 
 
 " The difference," observed Baker, " is obvious, 
 and cannot have escaped you. Our county, which 
 contains eight hundred thousand acres, with three 
 hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants, is thickly 
 studded over with Justices of the Peace. There are 
 two hundred and twenty at the present moment, 
 all settled or living among us. The superiority of 
 these unpaid Justices of the Peace consists in this, 
 that they have time for reflection. If a man is paid 
 for his services, we in England expect him to work 
 as hard as he can for his money. When the lawyer 
 or the judge has taken off his wig, he is of course 
 anxious to refresh his wearied mind, and put his 
 professional business on one side. It is otherwise 
 with the country Justice of the Peace. He goes to 
 his Petty Sessions, or to the meeting of the Board of 
 Guardians twice a week, and the thought as to how 
 he may find a remedy for an evil, frequently accom- 
 panies him on his rounds over the farm, and even 
 when hunting or shooting, until he arrives at some 
 solution. And so it happens that lawyers of large 
 and profitable practice, or distinguished judges, have 
 no time to become acquainted with the habits and
 
 thoughts of the lower or even of the criminal class. 
 Is it to be wondered at that there should not be a 
 closer relation between the judges and the police 
 officers in many continental countries ? The judge 
 only sees his notes of evidence : the police-officer only 
 the facts themselves, without any anxious regard to 
 the operation of the law. 
 
 "The institution of our rural police dates from the 
 year 1839. The Chief Constable is appointed by the 
 Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions, who are 
 wholly independent men. He on his part is thus 
 all the more free from the suspicion of being a 
 Government spy ; and party politics do not come into 
 play in the appointment of Justices of the Peace. 
 We pay the Chief Constable out of our local taxes. 
 As the greater number of our landed proprietors are 
 Justices, they are therefore quite the fit persons to 
 control the police. Almost everywhere in the counties 
 the rule is followed not to place an old professionally 
 trained policeman at the head of the force. Though 
 of great respectability, professional police-officers are 
 rarely men of high culture : they have not the feel- 
 ings of gentlemen. A professional police-officer, 
 who has a life-long practice in detecting thieves, 
 arrows into such a habit of distrust that he sees 
 
 o 
 
 immediately in every individual, whenever there is 
 the slightest suspicion, a confirmed thief. This does 
 not suit us. We prefer to give a high salary, of five 
 hundred pounds per annum, and then select from 
 fifty to a hundred candidates, of whom many have
 
 64 
 
 been colonels, or captains in the army or navy ; many 
 distinguished by their aptitude for command, by 
 sound common sense, by a talent for organisation, by 
 discriminating judgment, and, above all, by love of 
 work. These gentlemen know very little indeed of 
 jurisprudence, and of criminal law only what they 
 may have picked up in the service, or from the prac- 
 tice before Courts Martial. Nevertheless they learn 
 very quickly the small technical details of practice, 
 while they preserve the broad point of view free from 
 all prejudice, and just for that reason are qualified to 
 weigh the most important of all questions, how crime 
 in general may be diminished. A man who is all his 
 life baiting his hook for thieves, does not generally 
 reflect .on the social conditions out of which crime 
 arises. Does not also the learned Judge of Assize 
 apply an unjust and unequal law, at first with reluct- 
 tance, soon with the greatest indifference, and always 
 on the presumption that it would not become him 
 publicly to stamp with its true character a bad law ? 
 
 " A gentleman has the right, if the law obliges 
 him to do wrong, to plead against the bad law in 
 public, in order to relieve his conscience. And he 
 does this because he is uiisalaried, and therefore 
 independent. 
 
 " A little anecdote I have read illustrates what I 
 may call the leading idea of the lower police-officers. 
 Lord S., living in the Irish county of Wicklow, was 
 attacked by poachers in a plantation, and defended 
 himself most courageously. He met a constable at
 
 65 
 
 the other end of the wood, to whom he told what 
 had happened. This police-officer appeared much 
 astonished when he saw Lord S. in person before 
 him, and said, sulkily, that he had been cognizant of 
 the plot against his Lordship, and that he certainly 
 should have arrested the poachers after the murder 
 had been committed. When Lord S. asked him why 
 he had not warned him of the danger that threatened 
 his life, he replied, ' Why, my Lord, if I had taken 
 the two poachers after committing the crime, I should 
 have been officially rewarded. For that very reason 
 I was lying in wait. A warning to your Lordship 
 would have been my loss ; my superiors would not 
 have considered that a proof of my zeal.' 
 
 "The professional police-officer, not only in France, 
 but also with us in England, is accused of looking 
 upon wretched criminals in the light of game. As it 
 is the duty of the keeper in autumn to have as many 
 pheasants as possible for his master to shoot, so it 
 is thought to be the duty of the regular professional 
 police-officer to bring before his Worship the Justice 
 the greatest possible number of accused to be con- 
 victed. You may allow, perhaps, for a little exag- 
 geration on my part, but this is, after all, a true 
 statement of the case, when a grey-headed professional 
 stands at the head of the police ; while it is quite 
 different if a refined, high-minded gentleman is 
 appointed by us to the direction of affairs. Now you 
 know why I recommend with such full confidence 
 the usefulness of the system of police superintendence
 
 of discharged criminals, while on the continent there 
 exists the greatest distrust concerning it. I am glad 
 that our opinions coincide so entirely, and that you 
 publicly professed yourself on my side in Dublin. 
 But enough of police for the present. Is it not a sin 
 to speak of it during this beautiful drive 9 
 
 " I have indeed forgotten to show you the spot 
 which Milton is said to have preferred before most 
 others. It was on yonder hill, where we should have 
 looked round about us. It is certain that Milton 
 wrote ' Paradise Lost' in our county. Other poems 
 too belong to us, although the poets came from other 
 parts of England. Pope lived for a long time at 
 Cirencester, Swift at Berkeley Castle. Do you see 
 those hedges 9" 
 
 " Certainly,'" I replied. " Is there anything re- 
 markable about them 9 Did one of your poets sit 
 under those hawthorne hedges with the lady of his 
 choice 9" 
 
 " Nothing of the kind," said Baker, laughing. 
 " But would you believe it that during a long period 
 there were vineyards on that spot and throughout 
 this neighbourhood 9 They are specified as vineyards 
 in Doomsday Book, and William of Malmesbury tes- 
 tifies that in no other county of England were there 
 such productive vineyards, or such sweet grapes. 
 After all, I prefer these hedges to the vineyards of 
 yore, and am thankful that the latter have disap- 
 peared. Most probably after the battle of Agincourt 
 the English learned to appreciate good claret, and so
 
 were put out of conceit with their own grapes. The 
 climate also may have changed since the thirteenth 
 century. Even if such wine were tolerable at the 
 present day, I should not wish to have it in my 
 cellar. I like a good, strong, old port, which is not 
 hurried down the throat like the lighter wines, but 
 which you like to keep awhile between your teeth 
 before allowing it to escape. Port agrees best with 
 the Squire, who takes a great deal of exercise, and 
 has often to go long distances. It is true the gout 
 often lames my five fingers just when I feel most 
 inclined for writing, yet I don't mind the tormentor 
 in the extremities, if he does not come too often. 
 But I always know when he is there, and can guard 
 against him. Others have him in their hearts without 
 being aware of his presence. At dinner to-day you 
 shall have some good old port, which I have saved 
 for my oldest grandchild's christening. 
 
 " Ha ! John, hold the horses, and be careful with 
 them. We have driven as fast as if the' police were 
 at our heels, and we had some bad money to conceal."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 fUorhing Glens' Jfteeting at troub. 
 
 WE had spent the forenoon, contrary to our 
 usual custom, in Barwick Baker's study. A 
 few bad characters of the neighbourhood had been 
 brought up for examination and disposed of. The 
 Squire got up at last, after several hours' business, 
 and said : 
 
 "It is fortunate that in England human beings 
 are, on the average, rather more sensible than the 
 laws. Our legal capacities must have made a strange 
 impression upon you. If only the learned gentlemen 
 in Parliament were not always so fond of framing 
 fine statutes which are not at all fitted for real life ! 
 What is the use of the distinction between felony 
 and trespass ? In accordance with the law I, sitting 
 in my arm-chair, might have given the heedless young 
 fellow from Cheltenham whom I dismissed just now 
 with a reprimand for cutting off, with his stick, out 
 of pure mischief, as he walked along the road, the 
 head of a cabbage in the neighbouring field six 
 months' imprisonment, and, in case of repetition, 
 even a year. If the same man had stolen five shil- 
 lings, two magistrates would have been required to 
 pass sentence on him, but these two could have given
 
 69 
 
 him no more than three months. If he had stolen 
 to the value of five shillings and sixpence, he would 
 have had to appear before the Quarter Sessions. Is 
 there any sense or reason in that ? Sometimes I feel 
 as if quite bewildered when I look over the list of 
 penal sentences. A simple case of assault committed 
 against a non-official is punished by two months' 
 imprisonment ; against a police-officer in a borough 
 one month at the most ; against a police-officer of 
 the county again by two months.* But enough of 
 this. Get ready, and we will drive to Stroud, where 
 I must make a speech to the factory hands. You 
 need not listen to it ; but you ought to see the good 
 people of the manufactories there." 
 
 " May I ask on what topic you are going to speak?" 
 " I have often warned the people successfully, in 
 my speeches, against strikes. In such cases they have 
 more faith in the Squire than in the professors of 
 political economy. The workmen know that we are 
 not exactly charmed with the great manufacturers, 
 and that we Squires often complain of the towns- 
 people, who kill our trout by the drainage from their 
 factories. Precisely for that reason they believe in 
 us, because we exhort them earnestly to stick to 
 work. I want to try to-day to point out to the 
 workmen the defects in Union relief and Poor-Law 
 administration. The plague of rural districts is 
 
 * Note by T. B. LI. Baker. A Bill is now (1878) before Parliament 
 to correct these anomalies.
 
 70 
 
 connected with these defects, vagrancy, the extir- 
 pation or decrease of which forms one of the tasks 
 of my life. It is worth while fighting against this 
 invasion. About thirty thousand vagrants are always 
 on the tramp at the same time, and go the round of 
 the English counties begging : some of them are 
 honest people out of employment, and seeking work, 
 but the greater part are really idlers and thieves." 
 
 The prospect of hearing a large landed proprietor 
 address a workmen's meeting, in a manufacturing 
 town, was very attractive to me. The thought was 
 convincing in itself that workmen, who regard their 
 factory lords with a certain distrust, might more 
 easily be reconciled to their situation by an intelli- 
 gent landed proprietor than by others, who, rightly 
 or wrongly, are suspected of partiality. 
 
 We drove to the town of Stroud, which is situated 
 near Gloucester. The Squire enlightened me on the 
 way as to the wages and the particular branches of 
 industry in the county, among which, in the Middle 
 Ages, the iron and the clothing trades were the 
 principal. 
 
 " Do you know that the noble Spanish merino sheep 
 really comes from our county ? I hardly think you 
 do ; for few Englishmen are aware that the merino 
 sheep, which, at the beginning of this century, laid 
 the foundation of the flourishing state of the Austra- 
 lian wool-growing colonies, is not to be attributed to 
 the Spanish grandees, but to the English national 
 heroes. King Edward III selected from our county
 
 the sheep which he presented to the King of Spain ; 
 it is only doubtful whether from the Ryelands of 
 Dymock, or from the so-called Cotteswolds. It was 
 the same Edward who first sent for Dutch cloth- 
 weavers, to teach the people their trade. Some of 
 our richest county families owe their wealth to this 
 design. Of course there was no question of free- 
 trade in those times. A law of Edward's reign 
 forbad his subjects to wear any material that had 
 been manufactured on the other side of the channel; 
 only the king and queen, and the royal house were 
 exempt from it. It was fortunate that we were 
 already rich when we adopted free-trade, and by this 
 means rivalled our masters, the Dutch. We also 
 owe to them the cultivation of choice vegetables." 
 
 About three hundred workmen had already assem- 
 bled, and were waiting for the address, when we 
 arrived at Badbrook Hall, in the town of Stroud. 
 The Chairman, Mr. Holloway, conducted us to the 
 platform, on which several distinguished men of the 
 town and neighbourhood had taken their places, made 
 a few introductory remarks, and then gave way to 
 Barwick Baker, who said : 
 
 "I propose speaking about paupers and their 
 treatment. Do not expect much froii me : a few 
 days ago I was lame, hand and foot. I shall be 
 especially pleased if at the conclusion of my speech 
 you will make known your doubts and objections. 
 It is a proof of good speeches that they are not 
 received in silence, but awaken healthy discussion in
 
 72 
 
 the arena of opinion. You, as artisans, may ask at 
 the outset whether this is the place in which to talk 
 of poor relief ? I confidently believe that all here 
 assembled are careful, thorough and skilful workmen. 
 You are strong enough to help yourselves, and do 
 not require assistance. What have you to do with 
 the workhouse ? I have several reasons for claiming 
 your attention. In the first place, God only knows 
 what may happen to any one of us how soon one or 
 other among us, you or I, may need help. Secondly, 
 if none of us needs help for himself, many nearly 
 related to us are in poor circumstances. And, thirdly, 
 I reckon on your attention because none are so ready 
 to assist the needy and suffering as the working 
 classes themselves. If we could compute in money 
 or money's worth what is given to the indigent, I 
 believe that we should find more is done by the great 
 mass of workmen than by the small number of rich 
 people. But all depends upon how and to whom 
 alms are given ; the actual amount is of less import- 
 ance. You will doubtless have been told that it is 
 thriftless to give alms that it would be better to 
 discard benevolence generally, and let the poor simply 
 perish: there are very learned and very liberal people 
 who maintain this. However I do not myself think 
 this view liberal, but simply contemptible ; for I can 
 only see a trifling difference between killing a man 
 outright and letting him starve for want of help. 
 If you refuse a man the necessary relief prescribed 
 for the poor by law, he would in the end have to be
 
 maintained by private means at a greater cost. The 
 heart of a true Englishman revolts at the idea of any 
 one starving. The abolition of public poor relief 
 would only favour the niggardly and mean, and 
 burthen still more heavily the free-giver. I trust 
 that we always may maintain the principle which was 
 laid down in the year 1600, under Queen Elizabeth, 
 that the poor are to be allowed from the public rates 
 of the parish as much as is absolutely necessary for 
 the preservation of life, but that the able-bodied 
 poor, out of employment, must be kept to such work 
 as may be found for them." 
 
 After this the speaker touched upon the principal 
 events in Poor-law legislation down to the year 1834 ; 
 the previous miserable condition of England and 
 Scotland ; and refuted the assertion that the poor- 
 rates, which are assessed on landed property, can 
 be shifted by the landlords on to the shoulders of 
 the less wealthy class of tenants. Only the small 
 fluctuations would fall upon the farmer, while the 
 average rates must be estimated by the landed pro- 
 prietor in the valuation of the rent. He described 
 the injustice of the assessment. The whole burden 
 of the poor-rate was borne by the land, while the 
 produce of the land formed only the sixth part of the 
 English national income. 
 
 " The want of system in the whole administrative 
 machinery must be considered a further defect; each 
 Poor-Law Union acted according to its own discretion. 
 It was also a mistake, when wages were suddenly
 
 74 
 
 lowered, to supply the deficiency from the poor-rates, 
 in order to enable the workman to maintain his 
 family ; for it was this very proceeding which made 
 the workman willing to work at too low wages, to his 
 permanent disadvantage. Finally, it was needful to 
 advance yet further, and form out of Poor Law 
 Unions yet larger communities, in order to be able 
 to treat according to their different needs the different 
 classes of paupers ; while now, in every workhouse, 
 cripples, old men, vagabonds, vagrants, children, and 
 ne'er-do-wells, were herded together under the same 
 regulations, without any possibility of rendering jus- 
 tice to the particular circumstances of the individual. 
 There was an honourable, innocent poverty, caused 
 by misfortune, which deserved pity and consideration, 
 by the side of that shameful poverty, incurred by 
 thoughtlessness and culpable idleness. Nothing was 
 more unjust than to designate poverty, absolutely 
 and without consideration of its cause, as a disgrace; 
 by such conduct the respectable poor were prevented 
 from seeking at the proper time the assistance legally 
 due to them. Larger districts should be formed, in 
 which from three to four workhouses might be united, 
 so that pauper children, who are in no way to blame 
 for their condition, might be treated kindly that 
 honest and industrious people, having become feeble 
 at an advanced age, might have some comforts allowed 
 them in a separate house, which others, who had 
 been thoughtless and unthrifty, did not deserve; that 
 these again might be kept in a special poor-house,
 
 and restricted to the supply of bare necessaries ; and 
 that vagabonds and those who shirked work might 
 be also kept in special institutions. 
 
 "The main thing is, that the workman, who began 
 to save, and did save, in times of high wages, ought 
 in his old age to be maintained better out of the 
 public rates, than those, who would not save, although 
 they might have done so. The workman who did 
 not save all he could, did himself and his family a 
 great wrong. I know a poor man, who at the decline 
 of the woollen manufactures, was left without em- 
 ployment. His fellows accepted relief, but he set 
 himself to saw wood with his unpractised hands, 
 groaned under this hard work for several weeks, but 
 throve by-and-bye, through training his children to 
 the same trade. He established saw-mills of his 
 own, and is now a wealthy man, who supports churches 
 and charitable institutions, and his eight sons are 
 equally prosperous. If a man like myself, who holds 
 his wealth by inheritance, spends his money freely 
 for public benefit, it is only a matter of course, and 
 ought to be reasonably expected as a point of honour ; 
 but if such a workman succeeds, after a terrible 
 struggle for existence, in becoming well to do, and 
 then gives away large sums for the building of 
 churches and founding of schools to the glory of God 
 and the good of his fellow-creatures, I can only call 
 this noble. Such cases may be rare, but it is highly 
 gratifying that something like this has occurred in 
 the neighbourhood of this place, and it reads us a
 
 76 
 
 lesson worthy of being taken to heart. Such work- 
 men as this are not trained in workhouses. He who 
 as a boy, was brought up in a public institution of 
 this kind, often learns how to be patient, submissive, 
 willing and obedient, but he never will exert himself 
 to make the utmost efforts of which a workman is 
 capable. Esteem yourselves happy if you can give 
 your children that which no workhouse has to offer: 
 hard work, vigorous games, and bodily exercise, 
 tolerable instruction, and abundance of fresh air out 
 of doors." 
 
 B. Baker's speech, which might have lasted about 
 two hours, was received with loud applause and 
 hearty thanks, although it touched upon a theme 
 which was most unwelcome to the workman. It had 
 been his object throughout to impress upon his 
 hearers with the greatest emphasis that the workman 
 could and ought to save in good times. As might be 
 expected this proposition was disputed. A workman 
 in the middle of the hall rose and remarked, after he 
 had contested the possibility of saving under present 
 circumstances : "If there were more Christian feeling 
 between manufacturers and workmen, fewer com- 
 plaints would be heard; that he saw no reason why 
 the rich should have so much and the poor so little ; 
 that the workman, according to his opinion, should 
 have, instead of the present average wages of twelve 
 shillings, at least five pounds a week for his support 
 according to Christian principles." Loud laughter 
 rewarded the objector. The discussion went on
 
 quietly again, and was concluded in a most dignified 
 manner, after Baker had quoted a few more examples 
 of economy drawn from his own experience, and had 
 also pointed out that not only through Savings' Banks, 
 but also through private associations and private 
 charity, care should be taken to alleviate the con- 
 dition of old and infirm workmen as supplemental to 
 Poor Law Eelief . Economy however should always 
 be encouraged as much as possible by giving some 
 advantages to the careful. Economy ought not to 
 be discouraged by suffering the artisan to believe, too 
 often with truth, that it is not possible for him to 
 save enough, and therefore is not worth while to save 
 at all.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 gquirc's (Ebucation. 
 
 IN driving back from Stroud I asked the Squire if 
 he would kindly submit to a little examination, 
 as I very much desired to know how he had been 
 educated, that I might make a comparison between 
 German and English education. Perhaps some 
 account of his youth might be the necessary intro- 
 duction to his public-spirited labours. He replied: 
 
 "How I was educated? As long as I remained in 
 the country, in my father's house, the pointers, 
 setters, and retrievers were my favourite companions, 
 and much of my time was spent also in the stables. 
 Is not the society of dogs and the training of horses 
 very instructive'? I am certain that I have thus in 
 many ways learned how to manage uneducated clowns. 
 My father was not bent upon making me a fashionable 
 drawing-room lounger. We did not discuss the 
 latest fashion as we rode to the meet or went shoot- 
 ing together. In his conversation, he led me to 
 consider how we might best eradicate vagrancy, or 
 how criminals ought to be treated. So after spend- 
 ing my youth riding across country, how could I, 
 later on, reconcile myself to the loafing-life of a 
 fashionable gentleman? It is not the case that boys
 
 79 
 
 learn everything by sitting still. We learn most in 
 active life, and all learning should tend to intellectual 
 activity." 
 
 I answered him: "You are right. A hundred- 
 weight of knowledge often does not contain a grain 
 of sense, and I have no desire to see your Latin 
 exercises." 
 
 "My talents can at most only be called moderate. 
 How was it that I, formerly a slow schoolboy, a 
 nearly* plucked student, who came once to grief at 
 Oxford, a willing beast of burden according to the 
 current estimate of my school-fellows, who groaned 
 under syntax and grammar, without conspicuous quali- 
 fications as sportsman or agriculturist, an indifferent, 
 although eager horseman, a very uncertain shot, a 
 frequently mistaken judge in the matter of cattle 
 and horses, in short a man without any remarkable 
 abilities, how came it that I have been able to under- 
 take what has interested you sufficiently to bring you 
 to the scene of my operations? The answer to this 
 question is clear to me. I have not done all that you 
 ascribe to me. You told me one day when we dis- 
 cussed the affairs of our English State Church, that you 
 did not swear by creeds and the dogmas of theology. 
 Well, I for my part, believe without any reservation 
 in the doctrines of our Established Church, which 
 probably represents the purest and most genuine 
 
 * Note by T. B. LI. Baker. I should omit nearly. I was plucked 
 at Oxford. This shews what u a poor dull'' tool /was, and that what 
 has been since done is not my doing.
 
 80 
 
 form of Christianity. But far more strongly than 
 in these Church dogmas, do I believe in my heart in 
 that which my most inward voice preaches to me as 
 the most essential in all undertakings, in the help 
 and presence of God, the All Wise, the All Good, 
 and the Almighty. It was not an Epicurean god 
 who created the world, who put it in motion like a 
 machine, and then returned to his Olympic heights 
 to leave it to itself. No: He is ever living and ever 
 present, seeing and knowing, guiding and preserving, 
 and even now working His miracles everywhere, 
 although in his wisdom, the depth of which no 
 sounding-lead of human investigation can fathom, 
 He keeps His hand concealed. However could I have 
 worked without faith? Think of a number of men 
 who are striving for a prize in the same art, in paint- 
 ting, sculpture, or wood-carving. Each one brings 
 the best tools and implements to the contest. But 
 suppose one of them has discovered that he is far 
 more skilful than the rest. Can you not fancy him, 
 thus gifted by nature, choosing a blunt and weak 
 tool, and then executing a masterpiece merely for 
 the purpose that all might learn how this work has 
 been executed not through the excellence of the tool 
 employed, but through the skill of a master's hand. 
 I am this blunt tool in His hand. Do not say that this 
 is modesty. Quite the contrary ; it is my highest 
 pride. If it could be proved that Shakspeare had 
 written one of his most splendid pieces with a certain 
 quill, this quill would certainly realize a high price
 
 81 
 
 at a public sale. Now if this pen had any soul and 
 feeling, might it not he allowed to feel grateful and 
 proud? If, on the contrary, this quill should say: I 
 am the author of the suhlime work, it would thereby 
 prove that it was not only part of a goose, but also as 
 stupid as a goose. But if it were to say: Although 
 I am only an old worn-out quill, still I am the pen 
 with which Shakspeare wrote his immortal plays ; I 
 feel grateful and proud to have been used by him ; 
 that would be a just pride. Therefore I argue like 
 this pen. Whatever good I have done, comes from 
 an impulse external to myself." 
 
 The Squire spoke these words in a solemn tone, 
 which was in striking contrast to his usual mood. 
 The sportsman, who had begun by asserting that 
 setters had been his early teachers, had fallen into a 
 serious contemplation of the Divine Being. I was 
 seized with awe and remained silent for a considerable 
 time, waiting for him to give a different turn to 
 our conversation. At last I remarked: "I cannot 
 persuade myself that the Established Church (Hoch- 
 kirche) has any great hold upon you. But you 
 belong to that highest Church, the congregation of 
 which unfortunately is so small. Your true confession 
 of faith is the good work which has been done with- 
 out any consciousness of its own merit." 
 
 "I have never," remarked Baker, "in my designs 
 and undertakings limited myself to definite beliefs. 
 My attachment to the Established Church never 
 forbids me, where it is a question of the public
 
 82 
 
 welfare, to work amicably as well with Archbishop 
 Manning, the Catholic, as with Mary Carpenter, who 
 is a Unitarian. Must one then be narrow-minded 
 because one holds firmly to any particular creed? I 
 do not suppose that the Established Church is in- 
 fallible ; I only think that it probably teaches the 
 truth in matters on which I feel myself incapable 
 of thinking out my own conclusions. As a Tory, too, 
 I have followed the same rule, and work with men 
 who at elections vote differently from myself. The 
 bitterness of political opponents, on account of their 
 party- views, is to me more hateful than any injustice 
 that could be done to myself. But enough! 
 
 " Why, in the world, do you press me with your 
 questions as to my education, as though I were a 
 plant left to slumber between the blotting-paper of 
 a herbarium ? " 
 
 I answered him, that in Germany there were no 
 Country Squires of his class, and that later on I should 
 like to publish some account of his work; that for 
 the present I should wait until a better pen could be 
 found to raise him to the rank of a hero, as the central 
 figure of some political novel of the day. 
 
 " Spare me, my friend :" he replied, " spare me 
 the prospect of figuring in a romance. Nine-tenths 
 of the novel-reading public are women, who could 
 learn nothing from me. So far as I know, the in- 
 structors of the young forbid the reading even of the 
 best novels; for they believe that they are thereby 
 drawn away from serious work. If therefore you
 
 desire to take m.3 as the subject of any literary 
 effort, do you rather make it your aim that young 
 men who desire to be useful to the State, or whose 
 fathers desire them to be so, should be brought to 
 consider whether our English Squires are worthy of 
 their respect and imitation, and what resemblance 
 we may have preserved in our damper atmosphere to 
 our old cousins, your 'Landjunker.' But in truth 
 the idea has never yet occurred to me that ink should 
 ever be wasted upon such as we are." 
 
 After a considerable pause he continued: "Your 
 plan after all does not seem to be so bad. Write 
 about me, and of me anything that you wish. It 
 would be useful for the youth of the present day, 
 not only in Germany, but everywhere, to preserve 
 some prepared specimens of the Country Squire. 
 Some valuable articles are often found even in 
 lumber-rooms or in broker's shops, and not a few of 
 you Continental people will believe that we poor 
 Squires are about to become things of the past, and 
 ought to vanish in the interests of humanity. 
 
 " Not even our fox-hunting, which keeps our 
 digestive organs in better order than your rhubarb, 
 is to be left to us much longer. If by any ill-luck 
 we had to take the law from your legal professors, 
 we should not be safe for a moment. Fox-hunting 
 would be punished as cruelty to animals. The other 
 day I read a book on German Criminal Law which 
 was translated into English, and admired the refined 
 barbarism of your so-called juridical notions. One 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 of our advocates, who had studied at Gottingen, even 
 told me that the fox-hunter might be punished for 
 two offences at the same time, that is, first for tor- 
 turing the hunted fox, and secondly for overworking 
 his horse. Now if you think that it is not possible 
 for any philanthropic feeling to exist with our fox- 
 hunting, you must consider that without fox-hunting, 
 the Country Squire would be no longer possible. 
 Then do not forget, if you wish to draw my portrait, 
 to place me surrounded by all that your learned 
 countrymen regard as vicious habits, or as Squire- 
 like doings. Do not forget my dogs and horses: if 
 I had still boys at home, not grown-up, they should 
 give you a boxing performance before you leave." 
 
 I hastened to re-assure the Squire: "You may be 
 quite sure that I feel at least as much respect for 
 scientific boxing as for other gymnastic exercises. 
 May it not become necessary, owing to the in- 
 creasing violence of the mob in our great cities, to 
 teach boys in the higher schools the art of scientific 
 boxing, just as girls in boarding-schools are instructed 
 in needlework? In America, everybody who can, 
 seeks to protect himself against attack with a con- 
 cealed revolver. If in Germany the insolent tramp 
 knows with certainty that from fear of physical 
 violence the educated always keep out of his way; 
 that if respectable women are subjected to insult, 
 the pavement is at once cleared of the passers-by, 
 in order to escape the clenched fist or the possibility 
 of a stab with the knife ; if he reckons upon it that
 
 85 
 
 no one will interfere, because all think it unbecoming 
 to assist in a scuffle any one who is in danger, whilst 
 with you in England the practised fist of a gentleman 
 frequently takes, at the right time, the place of the 
 missing or absent constable ; who would then not be 
 brought to the belief that the 'noble art of self- 
 defence' is perhaps acquiring greater importance 
 than the use of the old fencing-foils, in an age in 
 which it is no longer customary to carry weapons 
 except on military service, when the revolver is dis- 
 carded, and when nevertheless sufficient policemen 
 cannot be maintained to keep in check, in the streets 
 of large towns, the savage insolence or the rude im- 
 portunities of half -drunken ruffians? The gentleman 
 turns aside when he sees himself menaced, because, 
 by the codes of social law, he cannot fight the common 
 man in a duel. Coarse men observe this, and think 
 it safe to take any liberty, believing in the cowardice 
 of cultivated men." 
 
 Baker seized this playful remark with the greatest 
 vivacity: "Do you think, then, that our constables 
 would be as courageous, as they really have to be 
 every day in their struggle with the greatest crimi- 
 nals, if they had not a good reserve at their back, 
 a reserve of all gentlemen, who, if there be any need, 
 let their fists do voluntary service, where the stand- 
 ing army of police is not sufficient? Do you think 
 that our girls and women could wander through the 
 streets of London with such self-confidence if they 
 did not know that at any moment of embarrassment,
 
 86 
 
 or in face of insolent importunities, the arm of any 
 strange gentleman was at their service? You can 
 only take the power of the lash out of the hands 
 of Government when you entrust the right of prompt 
 self-defence to the fists of a courageous community, 
 who pro patria, not from the love of brawling, are 
 ready, if necessary, to resort to them. As to myself, 
 I am perfectly sure that I should not have meddled 
 so far with vagrants, beggars, and thieves, if I had 
 not known from my youth upwards, that my hands 
 could guard my head. 
 
 " What you said just now of boxing, presents to 
 me, thank goodness, the strongest security that you 
 would not draw my portrait, as an apostle of peace, 
 in a white necktie, having by his side a glass of eau 
 sucree. I told you already that I do not like pure 
 sugar and water without an addition of brandy. If 
 your picture succeed, I shall be pleased. Not on my 
 own account ; for of what importance am I ? Nor 
 on your account ; for you cannot earn either praise 
 or blame, because none of the readers on whom you 
 might rely will be able to compare the living original 
 with your production. But should you really succeed 
 in painting, without any flattery, that which is not 
 my own individual possession, but merely the trust 
 committed by my ancestors into the hands of an 
 English Country Squire, your work may possibly be 
 of some use. Your sketch may have a favourable 
 effect in making young people of the higher classes 
 in your country, who have no need to work for their
 
 87 
 
 bread, feel more inclined to undertake the most self- 
 rewarding of all work, that for the welfare of their 
 fellow- creatures. When I look back on my life, I 
 am astonished at the great number of useful things, 
 which indeed were not the results of my own thought, 
 but which may have been promoted by me in active 
 life. Many a one says: 'Help yourself and God will 
 help you.' But I think one may say with greater 
 reason, God mostly helps those who strive constantly 
 and perseveringly to help others, not with the aim of 
 earning reputation for themselves, but merely in 
 order to do good to their neighbours. Undoubtedly 
 there must also be men in Germany, who work 
 willingly one half of the week for the welfare of 
 their neighbours, and the other half for their own 
 support, refreshment and recreation." 
 
 I shook my head. "Our country gentlemen are 
 able, gallant, unsurpassed military officers; they are 
 good fathers of families, and often, too, intelligent 
 and successful agriculturists. But at every incon- 
 venience which oppresses them they appeal for help to 
 the law. During the centuries of absolute monarchy 
 they forgot the habit of personal sacrifice to public 
 service, and complain of unbearable inconvenience 
 when they are summoned once in every two years for 
 a fortnight to sit upon juries. The course of events 
 with us was this: the political selfishness of the 
 ancient legislators led to absolute monarchy; abso- 
 lute monarchy to the centralisation of a bureaucracy, 
 which crushed and destroyed all action ; and this
 
 88 
 
 bureaucracy to the selfishness of agricultural interests. 
 Only since I came here have I understood the histo- 
 rical connection between self-government and public 
 spirit working unselfishly and unpaid. It will be a 
 long time before there will be found in Germany any 
 considerable number of Squires who think for them- 
 selves, act for themselves, and give themselves trouble, 
 without having either already passed through schools 
 of state-administration, without bringing the prin- 
 ciples of military discipline into their relations with 
 their subordinates, or without attempting to intro- 
 duce party-politics into their daily pursuits. Do we 
 not furnish you yearly, to meet your deficit, a certain 
 number of young foxes from Germany, which are 
 turned out on English ground? How would it be if 
 you transplanted to Germany a number of young 
 Squires, to show your gratitude for those foxes, which 
 are so essential to your sport ? " 
 
 "I am sorry," replied Baker, "that this exchange 
 cannot be carried out. Your German foxes, which 
 may be more diplomatic than ours in robbing a 
 hen-roost, prove themselves to be exceedingly stupid 
 in England, when they have the misfortune to be 
 hunted. They do not know how to behave, and are 
 real blockheads in comparison with our native fox, to 
 whom it is frequently a delight to outwit the whole 
 pack. As your foxes fare in England, just so our 
 young Squires would fare in Germany. They would 
 be distanced by the sons of your privy counsellors in 
 Latin and Greek Grammar. Your professors would
 
 89 
 
 be indignant at their youthful self-sufficiency, and 
 still more enraged if they commenced to row, to box, 
 to ride, and to shoot. The young Squires would be 
 expelled from school, in case they did not prefer to 
 run away, which they most probably would."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Bqmrture from Ijarbtoicke Court. 
 
 I HAD spent a most enjoyable week, full of 
 instructive observations, and my departure was 
 impending : the last evening had come. Plans for 
 another meeting were sketched out and discussed; 
 when the lady of the house remarked : 
 
 " You must come again next year, for Hardwicke 
 Court does not offer you quite a complete picture of 
 English country life ; you ought to be introduced 
 into our neighbours' houses. I have no daughters ; 
 and you must see our English daughters to be able 
 rightly to estimate one of the weightiest influences 
 of our social life. It is a pleasure to observe how 
 they contribute their fair share to the self-government 
 of the county. Not a few, full of noble devotion, 
 teach in the Sunday school, visit the sick and poor, 
 direct the choir in church, or play the organ. Our 
 daughters are well prepared, when the time arrives 
 that they assume the character of Lady Bountiful, 
 to distribute to the poor, in hard times, warm soup 
 and woollen blankets. You know that their social 
 duties are not limited to playing the piano."
 
 I replied : " We can often know with certainty 
 even that which we have not seen. If marriage is 
 to be anything more than a lottery one must have 
 known the wife beforehand in her girlhood. This is 
 the reason it is so important that society should give 
 a girl the opportunity of putting her good impulses 
 into practice. But on the other hand, you recognize 
 in the woman what she was as a girl. I think that 
 I have seen enough here to be able to judge. But 
 one question I should like to ask : Have you, as a 
 mother, never felt with pain the inequality among 
 your children ? the inequality which settles upon 
 your eldest son this beautiful property, and leaves 
 the younger one, not indeed empty-handed, but yet 
 less fully provided for? Have you altogether escaped 
 the feeling which led mighty monarchs, contrary to 
 reasons of state, to encroach upon the rule of primo- 
 geniture in the succession to the throne ?" 
 
 " I have been expecting this question from you 
 for a long time. I have never had any doubts on 
 this point. Both my sons are equally dear to me, 
 both are equally near my heart. Nevertheless even 
 parental affection submits to the requirements of our 
 historical life, clearly recognized for centuries, and 
 which devolves upon us by inheritance. It is not the 
 inequality of condition which ministers to the reason- 
 able needs of life, but it is the invariable equality of 
 personal pretensions in men which is the source of 
 trivial envy and jealousy, which injures families, and 
 in public life prevents many a good action, which
 
 92 
 
 might otherwise have been performed. With us the 
 younger brother looks without envy up to the elder. 
 If law and custom, prejudice and policy, fill people 
 with the delusion that they are equals, how then can 
 the command of Christianity be obeyed that the 
 higher must humble himself and serve ? Our eldest 
 son, after the death of his father, inherits his pro- 
 perty, and with it the good-will of our tenants, whose 
 forefathers have been also on the Hardwicke Court 
 estate. Because he is better off than his younger 
 brother he is bound by honour and conscience to do 
 the more for him. The elder brother's house remains 
 a place of refuge in a case of extreme need, which, 
 it is to be hoped, will never arise, as we pay the fifth 
 part of our income to a life insurance company, so 
 that, in case of our death, a respectable capital may be 
 insured to the younger. To do honour to the house 
 is the anxious desire of the younger sons. Would 
 an increase of a few hundred pounds of yearly income, 
 which they might get under an equal distribution of 
 the property, be a permanent gain ? or would it be 
 too high a price to pay to save the sacrifice of the 
 head of the family, and avoid the destruction of the 
 local traditions, through which all of the circle draw 
 according to their needs ? Let them divide in the 
 towns as much as they please. The Landed Estate 
 must preserve the character of a monarchical consti- 
 tution through the principle of indivisibility for the 
 welfare of the family. This is no party question in 
 my eyes, but a question of life and health to the
 
 English nation. It is getting late; you want to start 
 early to-morrow, so go to bed through the smoking- 
 room." 
 
 The Squire did not admire that kind of leave-taking 
 which has come into fashion at the German railway- 
 stations between travellers and their relations who 
 are left behind. The next morning, as the carriage 
 came to the door, I could not find him anywhere in 
 the house. He had gone off on business, and had 
 pressed my hand the night before, as a sign of 
 farewell. A London barrister, with whom I had 
 formed a friendship, accompanied me to my seat in 
 the carriage. 
 
 "You are pleased with Hardwicke Court," he said, 
 " I know it without any assurance on your part. I 
 should not believe the contrary, even if you really 
 asserted it. But what do you think of this class of 
 our country Squires, to which Barwick Baker belongs ? 
 Does this class of men seem to you to be already out 
 of date, or has it any claim upon the future ?" 
 
 " You might yourself have answered the question, 
 my friend. But if you wish to have it confirmed 
 once more, be it so. If in every English county there 
 were three men like Barwick Baker to be found, I 
 should envy your country far more on that account 
 than for those gigantic golden millions that are 
 hoarded up in the vaults of the Bank of England."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 <3flte f tttenmttamtl fkteon Congress in Bonbon. 
 
 MORE than ten years had passed since my visit 
 to Hardwicke Court, when Baker and I were 
 brought together again, through our common interest 
 in the improvement of the prison system. European 
 Governments had been induced, through the Secretary 
 of the great American Prison Union of New York, 
 Dr. Wines, to send practical men as deputies to the 
 International Prison Congress. Government officials, 
 Governors of Prisons, of Reformatories, of Asylums, 
 and Professors of Criminal Law, assembled in London 
 in July, 1872, in order to consult as to the reform of 
 prisons and the principles of penal legislation. 
 
 Dr. Wines is entitled to the earliest and greatest 
 merit of bringing about the Congress. He and his 
 wife crossed the Atlantic Ocean four times, in order 
 personally to arrange the matter. Endowed with 
 that instinct of philanthropy which is peculiar to 
 many Americans, he was led by the observations that,
 
 in his own country, there were to be found perhaps 
 the very worst and most defective of prison institu- 
 tutions, to set everything- in motion towards a reform 
 in Europe. Like those American missionaries who 
 preach eternal peace in Europe, without troubling 
 themselves because the Redskins, by continual en- 
 croachments, are incited to murderous inroads upon 
 the territories of the North American Union, or 
 because the revolver plays a part in the legislation of 
 the Southern States, he hoped for a favourable effect 
 upon the fate of prisoners from a grand demonstra- 
 tion, in which all civilized states were to take a part. 
 The English Government had shewn itself the least 
 disposed to promote the meeting of the Congress. 
 It foresaw quite correctly that the treadmill and the 
 lash, as sacred traditions of prison administration, 
 would find little favour with the Continental and 
 American philanthropists. That in spite of such 
 difficulties the Congress was held in London, and 
 was welcomed with such brilliant hospitality by its 
 leading men, was due to the labour and care of 
 Baker and his distinguished fellow-workers. 
 
 The Middle Temple, the home of the incorporated 
 society of barristers, which assumes its name, is not 
 known to every traveller. He who walks from Charing 
 Cross or Trafalgar Square to the city, reaches it near 
 Temple Bar, by turning to the right through a nar- 
 row passage, into a large garden-ground, which lies 
 enclosed between the Strand and Fleet Street on one 
 side and the Thames embankment on the other.
 
 96 
 
 Nearly in the centre, but somewhat nearer Fleet 
 Street, rises the palace of the Middle Temple, sur- 
 rounded by a row of smaller buildings. Immediately 
 by stands the very ancient church of the Knights 
 Templars, in the porch of which lies buried the author 
 of the Vicar of Wakefield. There is a splendid view 
 over a wide lawn towards the row of lofty buildings, 
 which, following the winding of the Thames, mark 
 the margin of the mighty river. In the distance the 
 varied life of the metropolis may be heard, humming 
 and murmuring softly from this green island, which 
 lies peacefully and quietly amidst the boundless ocean 
 of houses which surround it. There is hardly a spot 
 to be found in the modern capitals of Europe which is 
 so pleasantly situated, and so untroubled by the streams 
 of traffic so near at hand, and so full of life which 
 flow daily along the Thames and Fleet Street and 
 the Strand. Undisturbed by the roar of carriages? 
 one may stroll upon the grassy lawn at pleasure, and 
 consult and debate in the stately hall of the Middle 
 Temple, which Shakspeare consecrated by the reci- 
 tation there of his Midsummer Night's Dream before 
 Queen Elizabeth, and which the love of art has 
 recently restored in the ancient style. A handsomer 
 room than this hall could not possibly be found 
 for the deliberations of the International Prison 
 Congress. On the 3rd of July, 1872, the conflict of 
 opinions, principles and systems commenced the 
 interchange of experiences between men and women 
 who represented the various countries between
 
 1)7 
 
 Kamschatka and California, or Mexico, between 
 Matapan and the North Cape. 
 
 The Gloucestershire Squire appeared fortified by a 
 display of triumphant results. Police inspection, for 
 which he had fought for a long- time almost alone, 
 had been raised by legislation to be the statute law 
 of England ; the number of crimes since the Act 
 of I860 was on the decrease ; poor relief, without 
 any co-operation, of Government, through meetings 
 of Poor Law Guardians, had been reformed according 
 to Baker's suggestions ; vagrancy had been restrained 
 in the western counties ; and the supply of depraved 
 children to the Reformatories had steadily diminished. 
 The foreign visitors of the Congress heard but little 
 of all these triumphs of a work of more than thirty 
 years' labour in the service of prisoners, discharged 
 criminals and paupers. Baker sat out his ten days 
 without taking his place in the front rows, and called 
 out, like an attentive listener, his loud "Hear, hear! " 
 whenever from the mouth of an American, a French- 
 man, or German, there was suggested, as a theoretical 
 principle or practical result, some measure which he 
 himself, in his county, had long ago put in operation, 
 without having found any authority for it beyond 
 that of his own sound common sense, his own 
 observation, and his political instinct. He always 
 firmly declined to accept the congratulations of the 
 few foreigners who were aware of his services. He 
 denied that any original idea could be imputed to 
 him which had not previously occurred to some other 
 H
 
 98 
 
 than himself. But he had no false modesty, for he 
 claimed to possess one merit. " I possess, thank 
 God, the patience which in women is called angelic, 
 and which in myself I can only liken to that of the 
 donkey $ because I have no talents whatever. With 
 this donkey-like patience I have accomplished one 
 feat that is worthy of imitation. I have obtained a 
 hearing in a cause which the cultivated world does 
 not care to discuss, in the cause of thieves, prisoners, 
 vagrants, and paupers. I attacked the indifferent 
 with zeal, and left them no peace. I tormented 
 some thirty great and small newspapers in the capital 
 and the provinces until they put my two hundred 
 and fifty essays, letters, articles, and addresses in 
 print. The doctors may settle whether my fingers 
 have been crippled by gout or newspaper writing. 
 It is a feat of which I am truly proud to have brought 
 under my hat, so to speak, 518 out of the 648 Poor 
 Law Unions in England and Wales, by annual 
 invitation of their representatives, progressing from 
 small beginnings to a meeting for consultation as 
 to the steps to be taken in common for the suppres- 
 sion of vagrancy. It took sixteen years' labour 
 to establish these meetings, which I hope will 
 be held regularly henceforth. I began with two 
 neighbouring Poor Law districts in my own county. 
 Considering the confusion which results from the 
 local administration of poor relief which is not under 
 one uniform direction, was not the idea of such com- 
 mon consultation so self-evident that it might have
 
 occurred to any child ? But to put such, simple ideas 
 into practice, where there is no direction from above, 
 but where all depends on mutual agreement and sound 
 common sense, that donkey-like patience is required 
 which most people look upon with a shrug of the shoul- 
 ders, but which I reckon as true honour to myself." 
 
 The Squire with the donkey-like patience was also 
 an excellent guide in the capital. Although I had 
 visited London repeatedly in the course of years, he 
 surprised me by his proposals to visit objects of 
 interest, of the existence of which I had not hitherto 
 had the least idea. The same man who had medi- 
 tated, during more than forty years of intercourse 
 with the poor, on the improvement of county adminis- 
 tration, agitated, written and spoken in favour of it, 
 and was besides a passionate lover of fox-hunting, 
 proved to be also a man of refined artistic tastes. 
 I owe it to him that I made the acquaintance of a 
 private gallery in Park Lane, little known anywhere 
 out of England. He had always something ready 
 to fill up the short intervals between the sittings of 
 the Congress. His wife and eldest son had come 
 with him to London, and shared with him the inte- 
 rests and anxieties of a Congress, in which the 
 profusion of accumulated reports threatened often 
 to overwhelm even the experienced prison official. 
 As the meeting was approaching its close I took a 
 last walk with the Squire in the garden of the 
 Middle Temple. What had passed long ago, and 
 lately, flitted once more across our memories. 
 
 H2
 
 100 
 
 "What is now your final opinion on the Congress ?" 
 I asked Baker. He answered, after some reflection : 
 
 " What a splendid work it is the Congress has 
 taken in hand ! Decrease of temptation, against 
 which we ask to be shielded in the Lord's Prayer ! 
 Decrease of temptation in the whole civilized world 
 and amongst all nations. Does society ever consider 
 how often it leads into temptation those who appear 
 in the prisoner's dock '? How much I wish I was a 
 man of great talents, and able to do more in this 
 work. God prosper it ! If I live ten years longer 
 I hope to see much good fruit from it. The day 
 before yesterday, when I came home in the afternoon 
 somewhat tired, and was resting, exhausted by the 
 broiling July sun, I am glad to say that I had another 
 attack of stupidity. During this state I had a new 
 vision. It seemed to me as though the future would 
 talk somewhat less of prison systems and theories 
 than in these latter days. The main question then 
 would be what society should do with its doubt- 
 ful and corrupted elements before punishment, in 
 order to prevent crime ; and what, after punishment., 
 is to become of the discharged ? In comparison with 
 this what happens in prisons is, after all, a secondary 
 consideration, although it may be important enough. 
 Let us be satisfied if in the jail we do not corrupt 
 body and soul. The value of prison treatment lies 
 altogether in its connection with what happened 
 before imprisonment, and what will happen after. The 
 of tener I visit prisons the less highly do I think of their
 
 101 
 
 capacity for moral training-. I cannot share the con- 
 fidence of so many men in walls, chains, bolts, locks, 
 barred windows, cells, and party-coloured jackets. 
 Twenty years ago the prisoners' beds were examined 
 daily, to discover whether there might not be secreted 
 somewhere a small piece of iron, some wire, or a nail, 
 with which they might attempt to break out. Now- 
 a-days we give the prisoners knives in their cells. 
 Nevertheless there are fewer escapes than formerly, 
 because catching the fugitives again has become so 
 much easier. We take a small lock of hair from the 
 prisoner for a souvenir, as the youth who sees the 
 hour of parting approach takes leave of his lady- 
 love. We obtain from the registry of the lock of 
 hair the means of sure recognition, if one of our 
 proteges escapes. We send the souvenir to some 
 police official in whose vicinity the run-away is sup- 
 posed to be.* During my fit of stupidity there floated 
 in my mind the vague idea that, in the place of the 
 present prison institutions, something better might 
 come, which I have not yet distinctly realized. Some- 
 thing dawned upon me which I can only indicate in 
 a little story. Admiral Sir Hastings Yelverton had 
 under his command a very promising young officer, 
 who loved his profession passionately, and had every 
 
 * Note by T. B. LI. Baker. The author has mistaken this process 
 The practice was to cut a small patch of hair off the head, close to 
 the skull, of any boy suspected of intention to escape ; and the bare 
 place and not the lock taken from it aided the identification by 
 the police.
 
 102 
 
 prospect of rapid advancement, Unfortunately he 
 committed some grave offence 011 service, I do not 
 know what. The Admiral sent for him, reproved 
 him in a mild but serious manner, and ended his 
 reproof with the words : ' I am sorry to be obliged to 
 tell you you have lost my confidence.' The young man, 
 who was almost moved to tears, replied : ' Admiral, 
 I feel that you are right, and can only say that, in 
 case you desire that I should leave the service, I will 
 ask for my discharge, although all my hopes and 
 my whole future would be destroyed.' ' But, Sir,' 
 replied the Admiral, 'I do not desire your discharge ; 
 I only ask that you should regain my confidence.' I 
 over-estimate perhaps the value of this answer, but 
 it seems to me a most noble one ; it gives a direction 
 as to the path which we should follow in order to 
 reduce to the lowest necessary minimum such a 
 melancholy, expensive, degrading, unbusiness-like 
 device as the deprivation of liberty. In our present 
 adminstration of Criminal Law there is an element 
 of untruth. We tell the criminal who has served 
 his time within the prison walls that he has expiated 
 his fault atoned for his wrong-doing ; and this is 
 simply false. For as soon as he is discharged the 
 real punishment for most criminals begins. Wherever 
 he makes himself known, the discharged prisoner is 
 repulsed with natural distrust. In prison he was not 
 able to regain the forfeited confidence of society. 
 Thus the incessant struggle arises between the resent- 
 ment of the culprit and the invincible distrust of the
 
 103 
 
 public. We ought to tell the criminal openly that 
 he must first regain this lost confidence, and show 
 him how he can regain it. And now good-bye ; in 
 an hour I must be at the railway station." 
 
 I went to take leave of his wife : we had still a 
 quarter of an hour for a chat. 
 
 "I remember," said my kind hostess, in a jesting 
 tone, " that you formerly spoke of your wish to 
 encourage the establishment of a boxing-school for 
 gentlemen. How does it go on ? We have often 
 laughed over it." 
 
 " Excellently," I replied. "The idea is beginning 
 already to become naturalized. Moreover I have myself 
 had experiences lately, here in London, which only 
 confirm me in my views. In company with several 
 members of the Congress we visited, late at night, a 
 bar-room near Leicester Square, to take a glass of beer 
 in passing. When a group of Frenchmen present heard 
 us talk German, their national feeling was roused by 
 the memory of their defeats, of which we were alto- 
 gether innocent. One of these gentlemen, a giant 
 in stature, said in French : ' I wonder if those 
 gentlemen have seen anything in Berlin of the clocks 
 which have disappeared from France ?' Instead 
 of simply ignoring this remark with becoming con- 
 tempt, irritation tempted me to reply, in French too : 
 ' These gentlemen have not seen anything in Berlin 
 of the French clocks, but they have seen nearly all 
 the French cannon that were to be found in France.' 
 We paid our bill and went away. When we had
 
 104 
 
 gone about fifty paces we observed that three times 
 as many Frenchmen were following us, and held their 
 cudgels ready. The giant who had attacked us in 
 the bar-room gave one of my companions a blow in 
 the ribs, by way of beginning the fight. In this 
 critical moment, which might easily have taken a 
 dangerous turn, there came into the head of a young 
 Hanoverian, Dr. Bartling, the happiest idea in the 
 world. He suddenly turned round and called out in 
 English : ' Stop thief, stop thief !' And, pointing to 
 the attacking Frenchman : ' I know you ; you are a 
 discharged thief ; you have attacked me in order to 
 pick my pockets. Stop thief ;' In a second, about 
 fifty Englishmen were around us. But before these 
 could do anything the Frenchmen had vanished into 
 a dark side street. We shook the hands of those of 
 our deliverers who were nearest to us. It was La 
 Belle Alliance in miniature. Had I been thirty years 
 younger, and had it really come to a street fight, I 
 might perhaps have taken an involuntary journey to 
 Hardwicke Court Reformatory. 
 
 " How are you getting on at Hardwicke Court ?" I 
 asked, taking leave. " What are you doing in your 
 house, and in your school ?" 
 
 " We have some trouble in finding proper inmates 
 for the Reformatory. My eldest son, who at the 
 time of your visit was at Oxford, is now farming some 
 land near Hardwicke Court, and has settled about 
 two miles' distance from us, with his wife and child. 
 He will tread, I hope, in the steps of his father.
 
 105 
 
 The happy homesteads of Old England still stand, as 
 formerly ; but wo cannot shut our eyes to the changes 
 that have taken place in cur county of late years. 
 Many of the venerable country seats, with their 
 comfortable houses and their ancestral trees, have 
 been vacated by their ancient owners, and have passed 
 into the hands of those who have amassed large 
 fortunes by commerce and industrial pursuits. Do 
 you think it reprehensible that we should mourn 
 the disappearance of old families ? With all due 
 acknowledgment of the skill of those who have 
 accumulated such large fortunes, I yet feel that a 
 generation must pass before they will be regarded 
 by the country people as belonging to the county. 
 They are entitled to respect ; let us hope that they 
 will imitate the virtues of their predecessors without 
 falling into their vices of extravagance on the race- 
 course and at the gambling .table. WTiile these new 
 families are taking root in our soil, much alas ! may 
 be lost. In the wake of these new people new city 
 fashions come into the country. The look of our 
 dinner table is no longer the same as it was ten years 
 ago. Although in Eastern politics our interests differ 
 entirely from those of the Russians, yet we lay our 
 table a, la, Russe. The massive covers and the decan- 
 ters have disappeared from the table, which is now 
 furnished only with choice dessert-dishes, and is 
 transformed for the rest into a costly flower-garden. 
 Perhaps the fragrance of these flowers is more con- 
 ducive to health than the bouquet of port and sherry.
 
 106 
 
 " My husband appears more youthful the more he 
 increases in years. Last autumn he devoted ten more 
 days to hunting than in former seasons. His only 
 anxiety is lest Government and Parliament, by a 
 Prisons' Act, should centralize the administration of 
 all the county prisons in the hands of paid officials, 
 and should relieve him of the duty of supervision." 
 
 JOHN BELLOWS, STEAM PBE8S, GLOUCESTER