' EDWARD WHELAN)

Che Cram

ner.

\ WEEKLY JOURNAL OF POLITICS, LITERATURE AND NEWS,

Chis is true Liberty, when Free-born fHen, having to advise the Public, man speak free ——euRPIEs. [EDITOR axp PUBLISHER. “ . ~ - a ee — —- -—-- ~ ~ = + -= . ~= ~ are — — _ - mame =

Vor. VI.

=e ee Sw

MOON'S PHASES, — AUGUST, 1856.

First Quarter 8th day, 7h. 43m. evening. S.W. Full Moon 16th day, lh. 15m. morning. Ss. Last Quarter 22d day, 4h. 28m. evening. KE. / New Moon 30th day, 6h. 34m. morning. E. eo a . ' »? | “ilerature, |

SLEEP, LITTLE BABY, SLEEP.

1

Not in the cradle-bed, Not on thy mother’s breast, Henceforth shall be thy rest, Bat with the quiet dead.

I’ve seen thee in thy beauty,

A thing all health and glee, Bat never then wert thou So beautiful as now,

Darling! thou seem’st to me.

Mount up, immortal essence ! Young spirit, haste, depart ;

And is this death? Dread thing!

If such thy visiting, - Flow beautiful thou art!

Uh, I could gaze forever, Upon that waxen face '

So passionless, so pure,

The little shrine was sure, An angel's dwelling-place.

Giod took thee in his merey, A lamb untasked, untried, He fought the fight for thee, And won the victory ! And thou art sanctified '

I] look around and see Lhe sinfobways of men ; And O, beloved child ' I’m more than reconciled To thy departure then.

Now, like a d ‘w-drop shrined Within a crystal stone,

Thou'rt safe in heaven, my dove.

Safe with the source of love, The Everlasting One !

2 —<D- =e

(From Dickens's Household Words.) FISHER’S GHOST. AN AUSTRALIAN STORY.

In the colony of New South Wales, at a place ealled Pearith, distant from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He had been originally transported ut had become free by servitude. Uneeasing toil andl gies steadiness of character had acquired for him a considerable property, for a person in his station of life. His lands and stock were not worth less than four thousand pounds. He was unmarried, and was about forty-five years old.

Suddeuly Fisher disappeared ; and one of his neighbours —a man named Smith—gave out that he had gone to Eng- land, but would return in two or three years. Smith produced adocument, purporting to be executed by Fisher; and ac- cording to this document, Fisher bad appointed Smith to act as his agent during his absence. Fisher was a man of very singular habits and eccentric character, and his silence about

his departure, instead of creating surprise, was declared to |

be exactly like him.

About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man ealled Ben Wier, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own cart to market, was returning from Sydney, one night, when he beheld, seated ona sail which bounded the road—Fisher. ‘The night was very dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was, atleast, twelve yards. Wier, nevertheless, saw Fisher’s figure seated on the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, ‘ Fisher, is that you?’ No answer was returned ; but there, still on the rail, sat the form of the maa with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Wier—who was not drunk, though he had taken several glasses of strong liquor on the road—jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To bis surprise the form vanished.

‘Well,’ exclaimed old Wier, ‘ this is very curious, any- how,’ and, breaking several branches of a sapling so as to mark the exact spot, here mounted his cart, put his old mare into 2 jeg trot, and soon reached his home.

Ben was not likely to keep this vision a secret from his ” woman. All that he bad seen he faithfully related to

er.

* Hold your nonsense, Ben !’ was old Betty’sreply. ‘ You know that you have been a drinking and disturbing of your imagination. Ain't Fisher gone to England? And if he had a come back, do you think we shouldn’t a heard on it.’

‘Ay, Betty!’ said old Ben, + but he’da cruel gash in his forehead, and the blood was all fresh like. Faith, it makes one shudder to think on’t. }t were his ghost.’

‘How can you talk so foolish, Ben ? said the old woman. ‘You must be drunk surely to get on about ghostesses.’

‘I tell thee Tam not drunk,’ rejoined old Ben angrily.

‘There’s been foul play, Betty; I’m sure on’t. There sat’

Fisher on a rail—not more than a matter of two miles from this. Egad, it were on his own fence that he sat. There he was, in his shirt-sleeves, with his arms a folded; just as he used to sit when he was waiting for anybody coming up the road. Bless you, Betty, I seed ’im till I was as close

8s am to thee; when all on a sudden, he vanished like Smoke.’

‘ Nonsense, Ben ; don’t talk of it,’ said old Betty, ‘ or tha |

Le Well, you are satisfied that I am not drunk ; but per- | OLN AAA AOE Al ll ALO LLM MMM ll el

CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1856.

posed of his produce, and what he had brought back from)‘ Mr. Smith, I am anxious to purchase a piece of land on the! Sydney in return. After this he said to her, ‘ Well, Betty, | other side of the road, belonging to this estate, and I would I'm not drunk to-night, anyhow, am I? give a fair price for it. Have you the power to sell.’ | ‘ No,’ said Betty. ‘You are quite sober, sensible like, to-| ‘Oh, yes, sir,’ replied Smith. ‘The power which I hold night, Ben ; and therefore you have come home without any | from Fisher is a general power ;’ and he forthwith produced | ghost in your head. Ghost! Don’t believe there is any a document, purporting to be signed by Fisher, but which was such things.’ hot witnessed, | ‘If you are not very busy, I should like to show you the. 'fectly sober,’ said the old man. piece of land I allude to,’ said Mr. Grafton. ‘Yes, Ben,’ said Betty, | *Qh, certainly sir. I am quite at your service,’ said | * Well, then,’ said Ben, ‘I tell thee what, Betty. I saw Smith; and he then ordered his horse to be saddled. | Fisher again to-night.’ | It was necessary to pass the pond where the remains of |} ‘Stuff!’ cried old Betty. Fisher's body were then exposed. When they came near ‘ You may say stuff,’ said the old farmer ; ‘ but I tell you | the spot, Mr. Grafton, looking Smith full in the face, said, | what—I saw him as plainly as I did last Thursday night.!‘ Mr. Smith, I want to show you something. Look here | ‘Smith is a bad ’un! Do you think that Fisher would ever| He pointed to the decomposed body, and narrowly watching | have left this country without ecming to bid you and me! Mr. Smith’s countenance, he remarked :-— These are the | | good bye ?’ ‘remains of Fisher. How do you account for their being) | ‘It's all fancy!’ said old Betty. ‘Now drink your grog found in this pond ? : a ‘and smoke your pipe, and think no more about the ghost.| Smith, with the greatest coolness, got off his horse, mi-| I won’t hear on’t.’ ,nutely examined the remains, and then admitted that there | ‘I'm as fond of my grog and pipe as most men,’ said old | was no doubt they were Fisher’s. Hie confessed himself at | Ben; ‘but I’m not going to drink anything to-night. It] a loss to account for their discovery, unless it could be (he may be all fancy, as you call it, but I’m now going to tell) said) that semebody had waylaid him on the road when he

Mr. Grafton all I saw, and what I think ;’ and with these left his home for Sydney ; had murdered him for the gold |

| words he got up, and left the house, and bank-notes which he had about his person, and then | Mr. Grafton was a gentleman who lived about a mile | throwh him into the pond. ‘My hands, thank Heaven !’ from old Wier’s farm, He had been formerly a lieutenant| he concluded, ‘are clean. If my old friend could come to lin the navy, but was now on half-pay, and was a settler in| life agaiu, he would tell you that I had no hand in his hor- | the new colony ; be was, moreover, in the commission of the | rible murder,’ ;

peace. Mr. Grafton knew not what to think, He was nota | When old Ben arrived at Mr. Grafton’s house, Mr. Graf- ‘believer in ghosts. Could it be possible, he began to ask {ton was about to retire to bed; but he requested -old Ben|pimself, that old Wier had committed this crime, and— might be shewn in. He desired the farmer to take a seat | finding it weigh heavily on bis conscience, and fearing that by the fire, and then inquired what was the latest news in ‘he might be cetected—had trumped up the story about the

Sydney. | ghost—-had pretecded that he was led to the spot by super-

‘What is it, Ben ? asked Mr. Grafion, eagerly. but still he was by no means sats ‘Why, sir,’ resumed old Ber, ‘ you know I am not a weak- | as appearance were against him.

} minded man, nor a fool exactly ; for L was born and bred in| ; z= | Yorkshire.’ | master had often talked of going to Englawt an rbewvies | ‘No, Ben, I don’t believe you to be weak-minded, nor do | his friends, and of leaving Mr. Smith to manage "8 farm ;

| think you a fool,’said Mr, Grafton ; ‘but what can you! and that though they were surprised when Mr. Smn.” cé™e,

|have to say that you come at this late hour, and that you | end said he had ‘ gone at last,’ they did not think it av al | unlikely that he had done so. An inquest was held, and a,

| require such a preface ?” | ‘That I have seen the ghost of Fisher, sir, said the old verdict of wilful murder found against Thomas Smith. He man; and he detailed the particulars of which the reader is! was thereupcn transmitted to Sydney for trial, at the ensuing | already in possession. | sessions, in the supreme court. The case naturally excited | | Mr. Gratton was at first disposed to think with old Betty, | great interest; in the colony; and public opinion respecting | |that Ben had seen Fisher's ghost through an extra glass or! Smith’s guilt was evenly balanced. two of rum on the first night, and that on the seeond night,| ‘The day of trial came ; and the court was crowded almost | | when perfectly sober, he was unable to divest himself of the! to suffocation? The Attorney General very truly remarked |idea previously entertained.—But after a little consideration | that there were circumstances connected with the case which | the words ‘ How very siagular !’ involuntarily escaped him. | were without any precedent in the annals of jurisprudence. | Go home, Ben,’ said Mr. Grafion, ‘and Jet me see you | The only witnesses were old Wier and Mr. Grafton. with, | | to-morrow at sunrise. We will go together to the place| who defended himself with great composure and ability, where you say you saw the ghost.’ cross-examined them at considerable length, and with con-

Mr. Grafton used to encourage the aboriginal natives of} summate skill. The prosecution having closed, Smith ad-

No. 4. “ SA TS which convinced it. He clixbed up slowly like some ungainly parrot into his perch, with his horny fingers itching for a personal assault or me, 1 know, and grunted out: “ You a gentleman!” There was no doubt, by his tone and manner, that the expression was elliptical, and meant that I was not a gentleman. The words were so intensified and pregnant with

| emphasis, that he seemed tosay: ‘“ Well, of all the fradulent

imitations and absurd parodies upon a gentleman that ever I saw, you are the most transparent and the least like life. You a gentleman !”

“My dear sir,” said I, with a blandness, I flatter myself, searcely exceeded by that of the present First Lord of the Treasury—* who ever said I was ?”

The man drove rapidly away without reply. This cireum- stance afforded me food for reflection all the way down to De- vonsbire : it set me thinking upon what a gentleman is sup- posed by different classes of people to be and not to be ; how almost everybody has a particular and private account of him to give ; how, despisinfveach other’s definitions most pro“ound- ly as we do, we still don't like to be left out of our neighbour's catalogue : and, finally, how we are deterred, by various shib- boleths and empty phrases, from doing what is watural and right, whereof * not gentlemanly ” is perhaps the chief, The Hansome cabman had done wisely in concentrating his sareastie feelings in that form of words he used ; and-had [ not hap- pened to be a philosopher—which my all-round collar and light-colored kid-gloves put him far from suspecting—I should have been aggrieved and imposed upon. But what did the in- sult amount to in other words? That I was not in the habit of throwing away my money upon undeserving objects ; or that having it to spare, I did not use it to the detrimentand discomfort of future travellers poorer than myself.

I am afraid that the term “ gentleman” is mostly applied by the lower classes to those of their superiors who are most lavish and extravagant. When the last scions of the noble house of Fitzplantagencet, in the play, are compelled to remove

‘The news in Sydney, sir, is very small,’ said old Ben ;/ natural ageney—ard thus by bringing the murder voluntarily from their ancestral hall into furnished eee in tho wheat is falling, but maige stil! keeps its price—seven and | to light, hoped to stifle all suspicion ¢ But then he considered | same neighbourhood, and that insolent ironmonger, odgkins, sixpence a bushel; but [ want to tell you, sir, something} Wier’s exceilent characte*, u!S kind disposition and good reigneth in their stead, it is customary for the ee to that will astonish you.’ | sintiens. «Mab aaee put (0 fight his. suspicion of Wier ; | deny him any title of respect, and to remain unchangeable in ‘sfie! of Smith’s guilt, much | their devotion to the fallen race; but we don’t find this all jtrue upon the stage of the world. As long as Bodgkins Fisher’s servants wore examined, and stated that their | scatters his coin broadcast, he need not fear any rivalry, but

| with unpleasant comparison. “ Hea gentleman! Noa, noa; 'there’s nothing loike blood ”—except money. When I ‘heard from our parish clerk concerning the double marriage

becoming prudent, it is natural enough that he should meet

ot the squire’s two sons, the elder of whom had made what is oclied a good match, and the younger married the governess —thay Mazter George was well enough, but that Master Henry was “twice the gentleman”—I had an immediate suspicion thay the oné bad given him half a sovereign after the eermony, an the other a whole one, which, indeed, was The middle classes—1,¥ Which everybody means the class that is below kimself—are very tenacious of this title. « A yentleman of my acquaintance,” they say, “ was telling me,” &ec., instead of “A man I know,” oF “ A friend of mine,” as it is expressed by the higher ranks, ‘be Chartist, almost without exception, begins his speech with ‘ Gentlemen.” Upwards in the social scale-ithe word ge‘s many a new

New South Wales (the race which bas been ve y aptly de- | dressed the jury, which consisted of military officers, in his| meaning; but the leading idea is .still that of pecuniary

scribed ‘the last link in the human chain’) to remain about | defence. He admitted that the circumstances were strong |his premises. At the head of a little tribe then encamped | against him; but he most ingeniously proceeded to explain on Mr. Grafton’s estate, was a sharp young man named | them.

|Johnny Crook. The peculiar faculty of the aboriginal] The power of attorney, which he produced, he contended | natives of New South Wales, of tracking the human foot, | had been regularly drafted by Fisher, and he called several | not only over grass but over the hardest rock ; and of tracking | witnesses, who swore that they believed the signature to be. |the whereabouts of runaways by signs imperceptible to civil-| that of the deceased. He, further, produced a will, which | ised eyes, is well known; and this man, Johnny Crook, was/ had been drawn up by Fisher’s attorney, and by that will | famous for his skill in this particular art of tracking. He| Fisher had appointed Smith his sole executor, in the event ‘had recently been instrumental in the apprehension of several | of his death. He declined, he said, to throw any suspicion bushrangers whom he had tracked over twenty-seven miles of | on Wier; but he would appeal to the common sense of the rocky country and fields, which they had crossed barefooted, jury whether tbe ghost story was entitled to any credit, and, 'in the hope of checking the black fellow in the progress of if it were not, to ask themselves why it had been invented ? his keen pursuit with the horse police. He alluded to the fact—which on cross-examination Mr. When old Ben Wier made his appearance in the morning | Grafton swore to—that when the remains were first shown at Mr. Grafton’s house, the black chief Johnny Crook, was/|to him, he did not conduct himself as a guilty man would summoned to attend. He came and brought with him seve- | have been likely to do, although he was horror-stricken on ral of his subjects. The party set out, old Wier showing | beholding the hideous spectacle. He concluded by invoking the way. The leaves on the branches of the saplings which | the Almighty to bear witness that he was innocent of the ‘he had broken on the first night of seeing the ghost, were | diabolical crime for which he had been arraigned, The | withered, and sufficiently pointed out the exact rail on which | judge (the late Sir Francis Forbes) recapitulated the evidence. | the phantom was represented to have sat. There were stains! It was nowasy matter to deal with that part of it which had upon the rail. Johnny Crook who had then no idea of what| reference to the apparition ; and if the charge of the judge he was required for, pronounced these stains to be ‘ White | had any leaning one way or the other, it was decidedly in man’s blood ;’ and after searching about for some time, he/ favor of an acquittal. The jury retired; but after delibera- pointed to a spot whereon a human body had been laid. tion for seven hours, they returned to the court with a verdict In New South Wales long droughts are not very uncom-| of Guilty. mon; and nota single shower of rain had fallen for seven} The judge then sentenced the prisoner to be hanged on the | months previously—not sufficient even to lay the dust upon/ following Monday. It was ona Thursday night he was the roads. convicted. On the Sunday, Smith expressed a wish to see In consequence of the time that had elapsed, Crook had! the clergyman. His wish was instantly attended to, when no small difficulty to contend with; but in about two hours he confessed that he, and he alone, committed the murder ; he succeeded in tracking the footsteps of one man to the/and that it was upon the very rail where Wicr swore that he unfrequented side of the pond at some distance. He gaveit|had seen Fisher’s ghost sitting, that he had knocked out as his opinion that another man had been dragged thither. | Fisher’s brains witha tomahawk. The power of attorney The savage walked round the pond, eagerly examining its| he likewise confessed was a forgery, but declared that the borders and the sedges and weeds springing up round it.— | will was genuine. a — be separ ae - eon poly aye me This is very extraordinary, but is, nevertheless, true in i wen "6 aa A Ae Meningie pe eats tn the pond ; | substance, if not in every particular. Most persons who Uf Having Unished his examination, he laid himself down on! pave visited Sydney for any length of time, will no doubt, his face and looked keenly along the surface of the smooth have had it narrated to them and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long ee sought object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle WHAT IS A GENTLEMAN? of the pond to where the decomposition of some sunken sub- sckuiltl stance had produced a slimy coating streaked with prismatic! The subject of this paper occurred to me in the following colors, he exclaimed, ‘ White man’s fat!’ The pond was) manner :—-I had paid my Hansome cabman, who had brought |

neighbours will only laugh at you. Come to bed, and you'll | immediately searched ; and, below the spot indicated, the me to the Paddington station, his precisely correct fare—it |

forget all about it before to-morrow morning.’

Old Ben went to bed ; but he did not next moraing forget | ‘ll about what he had seen on the previous night; on the Contrary, he was more positive than before. However, at

earnest, and oft repeated request of the old woman, he Promised not to mention having seen Fisher’s ghost, for fear it might expose him to ridicule.

Ou the following Thursday night, when old Ben was re-| lng from market—again in his cart—he saw, seated on Same rail, the identical apparition. He had purposely

sbstained from drinking that day, and was in the full pos- “ssion of all his senses, On this occasion old Ben was too much alarmed tostop. He urged the old mare on, and got as speedily as possible. As soon as he had unharnessed

and fed the mare, and taken his purchases out o® the cart,’ ‘ee his cottage, lighted his pipe, sat over the fire with | better half, and gave her an aceount of how he had dis-,

remains of a body were discovered. A large stone anda _ being a weakness of mine, contrary to the general custom, to. rotted silk handkerchief were found near the body; these give cabmen, in common with other honest folk, their dues, Lad been used to sink it.

superiority. At thegreat public schools, it is not eonsidered quite “ gentlemanly” among the boys to be open “ upoa the foundation ” at all, although the school was intended for such, and for such only ; and the town boys who get their edugation a little cheaper, are called for that reason. “ clods.” ~The “ gentleman” commoners of the university are not better born than the rest of their college-companions ; but they are richer ; the countryman whose ancestors had come over with

William the Conqueror, and who has fat beeves and bursting barns in plenty, is still denied this title in full, unless he has property independent of bis farm. His gentlemanliness is mitigated ; he is a ‘* gentleman-farmer.”

’ In cities, the term is considered somewhat fanciful, and is certainly less cared for; the“ gent,” is not indignant at being so designated ; he thinks it short—he doesn’t know how short for “ gentleman.” In society, a man who was otherwise un- exceptionabie, and possessed of all the virtues, and who could give most cogent and unanswerable reasons for preferring a cap to a hat, would certainly be not a gentleman if met in Regent Street with a cap on. He would also be deprived of that honorable name if he were seen eating fish by the help of a knife, and not, at the hazard of choking himself with an unpleasant piece of bread, that he does not know whether to

eat or drop after each mouthful. A man of high title may

do, however, pretty much as he likes. He certainly may commit an incredible amount of vicious actions without losing this designation; and, on the other hand, a man of humble fortunes, however worthy, scarcely ever has it bestowed upon him even by the wisest. One of the coldest- hearted and most profligate princes was denominated by this same “ society ” for years the first “ gentleman ” in Europe. When, therefore, we hear ourselves or others proclaimed to

be “gentlemen” or “no gentlemen,” we should consider,

before being flattered or annoyed, who says it, and what he or she is likely to mean.

** He is not a gentleman, you know,” says Lieutenant Chif- ney of the Heavies, who can’t spell, and whose father keeps alivery-stable. ‘* Why, bless you, he gives drawing lessons '”

“A gentleman ?--oh, dear no,” says the rector’s wife, “ The man is a dissenter!”

“A worthy man—very much so,” says the squire. “ But did you never hear it? Ah ‘his father was a woodstapler !”

“What is a pound?” was a question that puzzled the national wisdom, as discovered by franchise, a good deal.

‘‘ What is respectability ?’ remained unanswered until this present century, wherein it was described in a court of law to be the keeping a gig.

“What is a gentleman?” still stands unresolved. _ Like genius, it is in truth to be well discerned by rare and sympa- thising souls, but not to be defined. Jobnson, with his dietion-

and not to present them with that sixpence in addition which ary account of it: “A man of birth,” satisfies nobody, and

That it was the body of Fisher there could be no question. | is the silver medal awarded to ferocity by fear: I had paid least of all, perhaps, the men of birth.

It might have been identified by the teeth ; but on the waist- | bim, I say, and he had held the money, as a matter of course, | coat there were some large brass buttons which were imme- | in the palm of his horny hand; and demanded “ What was | diately recognised, both by Mr. Grafion and old Ben Wier, | that for * as though there was vo such thing as a table of as Fisher's property. He had worn these buttons on his: cab-fares in the world ; and I had replied—there being plenty | waistcoat for several years. of time before the train started—by entering into the supply |

Leaving the body by the side of the pond; and old Ben and demand question in general, and the. charge and cou-.

’

and the blacks to guard it, Mr. Grafton cantered up to venience of strect locomotion in particular, just as Mr. |

Fisher’s house. Smith was now in possession of' al! the mis- Macculloch might have done, which I find to be a nice little sing man’s property, but had removed to Fisher’s house.— , annoying plan with cabmen, and better than the very strongest | It was about a mile and a half distant. He inquired for language, which indced bas no more effect on them than port: |

The churl in spirit, up or down Along the seale of rauks, through all, To him who grasps a golden bail, By biood a king, at heart a clown—

The chur! in spirit, howe’er he veil His want in forms for fashion’s sake, Will Jet his coltish nature break

At seasons through the glided pale.

Mr. Smith. Mr, Smith, who was at breakfast, came out, wine-and-water upon an opium-cater. When J had finished The bard sings truly ; and indeed the poets, as it should be,

{ ;

and invited Mr. Grafton to alight; Mr. Grafton accepted | a rather elaborate treatise upon this subject, which I hope | seem to know most about this matter. How hard, how rare the invitation and after a few desultory observations said, | enlarged his mind, IT showed him Moggs on Distances, a thing it is, they understand, t heax

Pe ee

a

Md

tne Aigo mes 0