The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-10 00:00:00

142 (unless peculiarly affected by overshipment) be maintained in a fair proportion to the yield of gold ; and it atands to reason that, if all labour in the diggings is compensated proportionately with that of the digger, it is better for a working man to labour at the trade be understands. The uncertainty of the miner's life is thus avoided, and if the profits are sometimes smaller, that is more then compen sated for by regularity ; for it is an extraordinary fact that, let the diggings fall off as they will, the miners will still require bread and breeches, and will find the money to pay for them. • • • • • It is requisite for an emigrant of superior class that he should possess at least three qualifications independent of his abilities—viz., a small amount of capital, a good con stitution, and an absence of all pride but that which nerves a man to accomplish all that he undertakes honestly, be it what it may. Such a man is an acquisition to a colony, and if his fortunes are adverse he is an exception to the rule. A few plain, homely sentences like these would have more effect upon the emigrants of the labouring class than any persuasions " not to "go to the diggings." Go to the diggings is the best advice to be given to a man proceed ing to a gold country, and see and work for yourself, and reflection will soon teach you that, when once you have earned a little capital, your own trade is the easier and more certain of the two. The book is illustrated with some most graphic and humorous woodcuts, and with several excellently-painted pictures of San Francisco. The narrative is ♦ery entertaining, and much sound information on the countries visited, together with a plentiful fund of amusement, will be found in this lively and carefully-produced volume. A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1.653 and 1654. Impartially Written by the Ambassador Bulstrode Whitelocke. A New Edition. London : Longmans. As this work, though excellent of its class, is not widely known, the first edition having been printed so far back as 1772, we may be excused for noticing it at some length. It is of d. üble worth, as pi esenting us with some valuable notices of Cromwell and his policy and of the Court of Sweden during the reign of Queen Christina, when really governed oy the Chancellor Oxenstiern. The writer of this journal, known as Lord Commissioner Whitelocke, was a lawyer, anti early sided. with the Parliamentary party in the contest with Charles I. He rose with the fortunes of his cause, though never committed to its extreme acts. He was named one of the committee of thirty-eight to draw up the charge against the King, but never attended, and managed to escape all participation in the proceedings of the " High Court of Justice." Subsequently he was favourable to the restora tion of the Royal Family, and, as it is stated in the memoir prefixed to this journal of his embassy, advised Cromwell not to assume the title of King, and persuaded him to enter into a private treaty with Charles 11. This advice, with some other candid statements of his opinion, induced Cromwell to think that he might be profitably employed on a foreign mission, and, notwithstanding his disinclina tion to go abroad, he was ordered to proceed on a embassy to Sweden to conclude a treaty of alliance with the Queen. The early part of this journal, written by Whitelocke with great candour, is occupied, with his doubts us to the course he should' pursue. He was very unwilling to proceed, yet he dared not refuse. His wife and daughter entreated him to stay, and in the midst of his perplexity he seems to have been mainly de cided by the common-sense counsel of an old servant of his house. This bit of dialogue between Whitelocke and his faithful William Cooke shows the notion entertained at the time of Croon% ell's power by the common people : Whitelocke : I perceive you are not so much against my going as others are. Cooke : I see no cause to be much against it, that's the truth on't ; because I hope it may be for the good of you and yours, which I wish with all my heart. and ever did. Whitelocke : But do not you think it would be more for our good for me to stay at home? Cooke : That you know best ; but this I think, that if by going abroad you may gain a good advantage to your state, and by staying al home yon will only spend of it, then it will be more for your good to go abroad than to stay at home. But these till ogy are above me. Whitelocke :,You speak reason, William. liss■i THE PRESS. Cooke : I have no ends in what I speak but my love to you and yours ; and I am sure I shall gain nothing by your going nor lose nothing by your stay. Whitelocke : But my wite much fears the danger. Cooke: Our lady and mistress will be satisfied in what you think best, and knows that God is the same God every- where. I pray God keep you out of dangers if you go or if you stay ' • there will be dangers everywhere. Whitelocke : But more apparent in this journey. Cooke: I cannot tell that; for I have heard that our great man, I mean my Lord General, would have you to go ; and if it be so, and yet you will stay at home, 1 doubt there may be as much danger for you to stay as to go. Whitelocke : It is true the General would have me go, but I am not bound to obey him in all things. Cooke : I am deceived if he will not be obeyed in what he bath a mind to. _ _ Whitelocke : I am not under his command ; what can he do to me? Cooke : What can he do ? What can he not do ? Do not we all see he does what he list ? We poor countrymen are forced to obey him to our cost ; and if he have a mind to punish us or you, it's an old proverb that it is an easy thing to find a staff to beat a dog. And I would not have you to anger him, lest you bring danger and trouble too upon you and your family and state ; that's the truth on't. Whitelocke : 1 fully agree with you in this ; and I hope you will agree to me to be careful of my business in case I shall go, and to obey my wife's commands in my absence. Cooke : I shall, by the help of God, be faithful to you, and carefully observe the commands of my lady and mistress. We read later that this faithful servitor died on the road after coming to London to bid his master farewell : His men helped him up into his cart, and there, pre sently and crietly, he departed out of this world, and be came a saint in heaven. He was on earth a faithful, discreet, and loving servant and friend to Whitelocke and his family. The letter to Whitelocke proposing the em ployment was iu Cromwell's own hand. The commissioner, in his audience with the General, endeavoured to excuse himself by stating that his wife was just confined with a boy. In this extract a good notion is given of the directness of Cromwell's proceedings : Whitelocke : My lord, I am very free to serve the Coin mouwealth in anything within my capacity, and hope they will not expect from me what will be so great prejudice to me and my family as this employment now would be. Cromwell : I am very sorry that the letter came no sooner to you. Pickering : I confess it was my fault. Cromwell: Sir Gilbert Pickering would needs write a very fine letter, and when he had done did not like it him- self. I then took pen and ink, and straightway wrote that letter to you. And the business is of exceeding great im portance to the Commonwealth as any can be—that it is; and there is no prince or state in Christendom with whom there is any probability for us to have a friendship, but only the Queen of Sweden. She hath sent several times to us, but we have returned no embassy to her, only a letter by a young gentleman ; she expects an ambassador from us, and if we should not send a man of eminency to her she would think herself slighted by us, and she is a lady of great honour and stands much upon ceremonies. At a subsequent interview Whitelocko's ob jections were in like manner overruled : Cromwell : I hope you have considered the proposal I made to you, and are willing to serve the Commonwealth. Whitelocke : I have fully considered it, and with humble thanks acknwledge the honour intended me, and tun most willing to serve your Excellency and the Commonwealth; but in this particular I humbly beg your excuse. I have endeavoured to satisfy my own judgment and my nearest relations, but can do neither, nor gain a consent; and I should be very unworthy and ungrateful to go against it Cromwell: You know that no relations use to sway the balance in such matters as this. I know your lady very well, and that she is a good woman, and a religious woman —indeed I think she is; and I durst undertake, in a matter of this nature, wherein the interest of God and of his people is concerned, as they are in your undertaking of this busi ness, I daresay my lady will not oppose it. Cromwell would take no denial in what he held to be so essential to the good of the nation and the Protestant cause. At this time he was meditating his plan for assuming supreme authority under the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and it is likely enough that his " extraordinary ear nestness," which Whitelocke could not but notice, for his departure, might have been dictated quite as much by prudent care for the success of his own scheme, and to rid himself of a troublesome opponent, as to forward " the " interest of God and of his people." The Ambassador relates his voyage to Sweden at some length, and some of the details are amusing, but we must come at once to his reception by the Queen Chtistina:— He perceived the Queen sitting at the upper end of the room upon her chair of state of crimson velvet, with a ca nopy of the same over it. Some ladies stood behind the Queen, and a very great number of lords, officers, and gen tlemen of the court filled the room As soon as he came within this room he put off his hat, and then the Queen put off her up, after the fashion of SATURDAY, men, and came two or three steps forward upon the foot carpet. This, and her being covered and rising from her seat, caused Whitelocke to know her to be the Que en , which otherwise had not been easy to be discerned, her habit being of plain grey stuff; her petticoat reached to the ground, over that a jacket such as men wear, of the same stuff, reaching to her knees. On her left, side, tied with crimson ribbon, she wore the jewel of the Order of Amaranta—her cuffs ruffled a la mode—no gorget or band, but a black scarf about her neck tied before with a black ribbon, as soldiers and mariners sometimes use to wear. Her hair was braided, and hungloose upon her head; she wore a black velvet cap lined with sables, and turned up after the fashion of the country, which she used to put off and on as men do their hats. _ _ Her countenance was sprightly, but somewhat pale ; she had much of majesty in her demeanour, and, though her person were of the smaller size, yet her mien and carriage was very noble. Her Majesty thought it necessary to apolo gise for the plainness of her dress : Then the Queen excused her habit, saying " That she had been ill, which caused her to put herself into the dress of her chamber, in which she chose to appear thus publicly rather than to disappoint him of the time of his audience; that she hoped they would have opportunity and time suf• Select to discourse at large together." Upon this Whiteloeke took his leave, and her Majesty used much courtesy to him and his company. Christina, however, was not accustomed to pay much attention to her habit. When she rode abroad she was, we are told, " gallantly " mounted, habited in her usual fashion of " grey stuff, her hat on her head, her pistols " at her saddle-bow." She amused the Am bassador with shows and pleasures, so that he scarcely seems to have formed any just con ception of her great but irregular character. At one masque the Queen herself danced very well at two entries; in the first she represented a Moorish lady, in the second a citizen's wife ; in both the properties were exactly fitted, and in all the rest of the actors and dancers. But at other times she displayed the extent of her acquirements : She spake of most noted authors who had written in the Italian, French, Latin, Greek, and other languages; and before all the rest she commended Petronius. It is curious now to read that Whitelocke asked her if she had lately seen a book written in Latin by " one Milton, an Englishman." The book was the " Defensio pro Populo An glicano ;" the Queen had seen it, and highly commended part of the matter. In her con versations with Whitelocke she expressed warm admiration of Cromwell's genius:— Queen : Your General is one of the gallantest men in the world ; never were such things done as by the English in your late war. Your General hath done the greatest things of any man in the world; the Prince of Conde is next to him, but short of him. I have as great a respect and honour for your General as for any man alive, and I pray let him know as much from me. Whitelocke : My General is indeed a very brave man ; his actions show it; and I shall not fail to signify to him the great honour of your Majesty's respects to him; and assure your Majesty he hath as high honour for you as for any prince in Christendom. Queen : 1 have been told that many officers of your army will themselves pray and preach to their soldiers ; is that true ? . . Whitelocke : Yes, Madam, it is very true. When their enemies are swearing or debauching or pillaging, the officers and soldiers of the Parliament's army use to be encouraging and exhorting one another out of the Word of God, and praying together to the Lord of Hosts for His blessing to be with them, who has shown His approbation of this military preaching by the successes He bath given them. The Queen was desirous of reaping some advantage from the treaty Whitelocke de sired : Queen : I do not desire above twenty or thirty English ships and some money. Whitelocke : England bath great occasions for money for the pay of their armies and great navies, especially in this time of their wars, both at land and sea ; and this will be principally your Majesty's business, to open the trade into your seas, and I suppose you will not expect ships and money too from others to do your work. Queen : I am in great want of money, and England bath money enough. Whitelocke : They have enough for their occasions. Queen : And some to spare, which 1 have not. Whitelocke : I do not see your Majesty to waste the revenues of your Crown in gallantry of clothes for your own person. 1111 Queen : I am the least curious in clothes of any woman, especially tow I am in the country. Whitelocke : Your wearing plain clothes makes them rich. In the end, the treaty of alliance was happily concluded on mutually advantageous terms. At the time of Whitelocke's visit, the great Chancellor Oxenstiern was in his seventy-first year. Seldom has a great servant of royalty played a part so free from stain in public affairs. The Chancellor of the noble Gus- - miiimilllllllll