Part 17

September 19th. Steven wrote to me yesterday, and gave me information that he had at last succeeded in negotiating the delivery of the wretched sweep behind my house in London. I had begun to negotiate, but the master stood out for more money than was fair, and we determined to seek the unnatural father of the boy, and tempt him, by the offer of a gratuitous education. We have done so, and have prospered; and the child will this day be conveyed from his soot-hole to the Union School on Norwood Hill, where, under God's blessing and especial, merciful grace, he will be trained in the knowledge, and love, and faith of our common Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ. I entertain hopes of the boy; he is described as gentle, and of a sweet disposition; we all know he has suffered, and were eager to rescue him from his temporal and spiritual tyrant. May God, in his unbounded goodness and mercy, accept and defend the child, and train him up to his honor and service, now and forever, through the mediation and love of our dear and blessed Lord!

THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN

Do you hear the children weeping, Oh, my brothers, Ere-the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, And that cannot stop their tears. The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing towards the west;

But the young, young children, Oh, my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the play-time of the others, In the country of the free. Do you question the young children in the sorrow, Why their tears are falling so? The old man may weep for his to-morrow, Which is lost in long ago; The old tree is leafless in the forest, The old year is ending in the frost, The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest, The old hope is hardest to be lost!

But the young, young children, Oh, my brothers, Do you ask them why they stand Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers In our happy fatherland? They look up with their pale and sunken faces, And their looks are sad to see, For the man's hoary anguish draws and presses Down the cheeks of infancy; "Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary," "Our young feet," they say, "are very weak; Few paces have we taken, yet are weary- Our grave-rest is very far to seek; Ask the aged why they weep, and not the children, For the outside earth is cold, And we young ones stand without in our bewildering, And the graves are for the old."

"True," say the children, "it may happen That we die before our time; Little Alice died last year, her grave is shapen Like a snowball in the rime. We looked into the pit prepared to take her; Was no room for any work in the close clay! From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her, Crying, 'Get up, little Alice, it is day.' If you listen by that grave in sun and shower With your ear down, little Alice never cries; Could we see her face, be sure we could not know her, For the smile has time for growing in her eyes! And merry go her moments, lull'd and still'd in The shroud by the kirk chime. It is good when it happens," say the children, "That we die before our time.

Alas! Alas! the children! They are seeking Death in life, as best to have; They are binding up their hearts away from breaking With a cerement from the grave. Go out, children, from the mine and from the city; Sing out, children, as the thrushes do; Pluck your handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty, Laugh aloud to feel your fingers let them through! But they answer, "Are your cowslips of the meadows Like our weeds anear the mine? Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows, From your pleasures fair and fine! For oh," say the children, "we are weary, And we cannot run or leap; If we car'd for any meadows it were merely To drop down in them and sleep.

Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping, We fall upon our faces, trying to go; And underneath our heavy eyelids drooping, The reddest flower would look as pale as snow. For all day we drag our burden tiring Through the coal-dark underground; Or all day we drive the wheels of iron In the factories round and round.

"For all day the wheels are droning, turning; Their wind comes in our faces, Till our hearts turn, our heads with pulses burning, And the walls turn in their places; Turns the sky in high window blank and reeling, Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling, All are turning, all the day, and we with all; And all day the iron wheels are droning And sometimes we could pray, 'O, ye wheels' (breaking out in mad moaning) 'Stop! be silent for to-day!'"

Aye, be silent! Let them hear each other breathing For a moment mouth to mouth! Let them touch each other's hands in a fresh wreathing Of their tender human youth! Let them feel that this cold metallic motion Is not all the life God fashions or reveals! Let them prove their living souls against the notion That they live in you, or under you, O wheels! Still, all day the iron wheels go onward, Grinding life down from its mark; And the children's souls which God is calling sunward Spin on blindly in the dark.

Now, tell the poor young children, Oh, my brothers, To look up to Him and pray; So the blessed One who blesseth all the others, Will bless them another day. They answer, "Who is God that he should hear us, While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirr'd? When we sob aloud the human creatures near us Pass by, hearing not, or answer not, a word. And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding) Strangers speaking at the door; Is it likely God, with angels singing round him, Hears our weeping any more?

"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember, And at midnight's hour of harm, 'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber, We say softly for a charm. We know no other words except 'Our Father,' And we think that, in some pause of the angels' song, God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather, And hold both within his right hand which is strong. 'Our Father!' If he heard us he would surely (For they call him good and mild) Answer, smiling" down the steep world very purely, 'Come and rest with me, my child.'"

"But no!" say the children, weeping faster, "He is speechless as a stone; And they tell us, of his image is the master Who commands us to work on. Go to," say the children, "up in heaven, Dark, wheel-like turning clouds are all we find. Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving; We look up for God, but tears have made us blind." Do you hear the children weeping and disproving, Oh, my brothers, what ye preach? For God's possible is taught by his world's loving, And the children doubt of each.

And well may the children weep before you! They are weary ere they run; They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory Which is brighter than the sun. They know the grief of man without its wisdom; They sink in man's despair without its calm; Are slaves, without the liberty in Christendom; Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm; Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly The harvest of its memories cannot reap- Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly Let them weep! Let them weep! They look up with their pale and sunken faces And their look is dread to see, For they mind you of their angels in high places With eyes turned on Deity. "How long," they say, "How long, O cruel nation, Will you stand to move the world, on a child's heart-- Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation, And tread onward to your throne amid the mark? Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper, And your purple shows your path! But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper Than the strong man in his wrath.

VIII

LORD PALMERSTON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND

I say, in contradiction to the honorable gentleman, that this country does stand well with the great majority of the foreign powers; that the character of this country stands high; that the moral influence of England is great--a moral influence that I do not take credit to this government for having created, but which is founded on the good sense and the wise and enlightened conduct of the British nation. Foreign countries have seen that in the midst of the events which have violently convulsed other countries in Europe, and which have shaken to their foundations ancient institutions, this country has held fast to her ancient landmarks, standing firm in her pride of place:

Fell not, but stands unshaken, from within,

Or from without, 'gainst all temptations armed.

That has given confidence to foreign countries in the government and people of this country. When other monarchies were shaken to their very foundations, England stood unhurt, by its evident security giving confidence to other powers. They have seen that the government of England is not like that of other countries, struggling for its existence, and occupied in guarding against daily dangers. They have seen that the British Constitution acts in unison with the spirit of the nation, with whose interests it is charged. They know that its advice is worthy of being listened to; and that advice is valued and respected, and is not spurned with contumely, as the honorable member would wish us to suppose.

THE "CIVIS ROMANUS" SPEECH

I believe I have now gone through all the heads of the charges which have been brought against me in this debate. I think I have shown that the foreign policy of the government in all the transactions with respect to which its conduct has been impugned, has throughout been guided by those principles which, according to the resolution of the honorable and learned gentleman, ought to regulate the conduct of the government of England in the management of our foreign affairs. I believe that the principles on which we have acted are those which are held by the great mass of the people of this country. I am convinced these principles are calculated, so far as the influence of England may properly be exercised with respect to the destinies of other countries, to conduce to the maintenance of peace, to the advancement of civilization, to the welfare and happiness of mankind.

I do not complain of the conduct of those who have made these matters the means of attack upon her Majesty's ministers. The government of a great country like this is, undoubtedly, an object of fair and legitimate ambition to men of all shades of opinion. It is a noble thing to be allowed to guide the policy and to influence the destiny of such a country; and if ever it was an object of honorable ambition, more than ever must it be so at the moment at which I am speaking. For while we have seen, as stated by the right honorable baronet, the political earthquake rocking Europe from side to side; while we have seen thrones shaken, shattered, leveled, institutions overthrown and destroyed; while in almost every country of Europe the conflict of civil war has deluged the land with blood, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this country has presented a spectacle honorable to the people of England and worthy of the admiration of mankind.

We have shown that liberty is compatible with order; that individual freedom is reconcilable with obedience to the law. We have shown the example of a nation in which every class of society accepts with cheerfulness the lot which Providence has assigned to it, while at the same time every individual of each class is constantly striving to raise himself in the social scale not by injustice and wrong, not by violence and illegality, but by persevering good conduct, and by the steady and energetic exertion of the moral and intellectual faculties with which his Creator has endowed him. To govern such a people as this is indeed an object worthy of the ambition of the noblest man who lives in the land, and therefore I find no fault with those who may think any opportunity a fair one for endeavoring to place themselves in so distinguished and honorable a position; but I contend that we have not in our foreign policy done anything to forfeit the confidence of the country. We may not, perhaps, in this matter or in that, have acted precisely up to the opinions of one person or of another; and hard indeed it is, as we all know by our individual and private experience, to find any number of men agreeing entirely in any matter on which they may not be equally possessed of the details of the facts, circumstances, reasons, and conditions which led to action. But making allowance for those differences of opinion which may fairly and honorably arise among those who concur in general views, I maintain that the principles which can be traced through all our foreign transactions, as the guiding rule and directing spirit of our proceedings, are such as deserve approbation.

I therefore fearlessly challenge the verdict which this House, as representing a political, a commercial, a constitutional country, is to give on the question now brought before it-whether the principles on which the foreign policy of her Majesty's government has been conducted, and the sense of duty which has led us to think ourselves bound to afford protection to our fellow-subjects abroad, are proper and fitting guides for those who are charged with the government of England; and whether, as the Roman in days of old held himself free from indignity when he could say, Civis Romanus sum, so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong.

THE SEPOY MUTINY

THE DEFENSE OF LUCKNOW

Banner of England, not for a season, O banner of Britain, hast thou Floated in conquering--battle, or flapped to the battle-cry! Never with mightier glory than when we had reared thee on high Flying at top of the roofs in the ghastly siege of Lucknow-- Shot thro' the staff or the halyard, but ever we raised thee anew, And ever upon our topmost roof our banner of England blew.