The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Of course his labour was lost. His theories
could scarcely be right, being founded on what,
by a lingual license common in the last
century, may be termed false facts. Cor-
nelius was not sceptical ; he accepted as
truth all that he found positively asserted;
and hence his work is an embodiment of
all the errors and absurdities of his time.
Monstrous as they seem, they survived long
after hia time. In the established medical
books of a century and a half ago we find the
same kind of assertions that Cornelius re-
ceived,—as that peculiar properties resided in
certain strange bodies. We remember it being
particularly set down that cats' brains are a
remedy for epileptic fits—a prescription
scarcely less strange than that given by Cor-
nelius for raising a storm of thunder and
lightning,—to burn the liver of a chameleon oa
the top of a house. He does not seem, how-
ever, to have countenanced magic practices.
He ingeniously confesses that with regard to
the transmutation of metals, the utmost he
had known done was to obtain a certain quan-
tity of gold as the result of a long chemical
process which had that same quantity to com-
mence with. In the midst of much confusion
we occasionally get rays of pure light, as :
" The more intensely I yearn heavenward, the
" more shall I bring down light to dwell in my
" own soul."

A year after his marriage he was fiercely as-
sailed by the monk Catilinet before the Prin-
cess Margaret. The spirit of the Reformation
was abroad, but its first effect was only to ren-
der the monks more jealous and intolerant.
Cornelius had in early life no taste for the bit-
terness of controversy. He resolved to quit
Dole, where the Princess Margaret held her
court, and to seek employment from the Em-
peror. He was attached to the imperial em-
bassy at London that he might use his in-
fluence to prevent the young king, Henry
VIII., from taking part with the Pope in the
dispute with the Emperor. In London, Come-
nelius was the guest of Dean Colet of St. Paul's.
Colet was the friend of Erasmus, and favor-
able to the party of Church Reformation. The
thoughts of Cornelius were fast turning that
way, though he never openlf joined the
Lutheran party. Subsequently he joined the
standard of Maximilian against the French in
Italy, but often doffed his coat of arms to as-
sume the doctor's gown. He taught. in Milan
and in Pavia, and for a time made his home in
the latter city, where he was admitted by the
university to its degree of doctor in each
faculty—divinity, law, and physic. He had
previously been made a knight of arms :

In what battle he won that distinction we are not in-
formed. He himself says, after telling of his acquisition
of the dignity of Doctor " utriusque juris " and of Medicine,
as if by after thought : " Before that time I was a knight,
which rank I did not beg for, borrow in foreign travels,
or secure by impudence and insolence at the inthronisa-
tion of a king, but earned it by valour in war, among the
troops in open battle."
He has secured, therefore, the best honours attainable
in arts and arms. He is acquainted at this time with
eight languages, master of six. He is distinguished among
the learned for his cultivation of occult philosophy, upon
which he has a complete work in manuscript, and though
he has not yet committed anything to press, much has
been written by him upon which he hopes to rest a title to
fair fame. He is not now unprosperous. There is a lull
in war, during which he receives the pay to which he is
entitled for his military services, and can earn money also
as a teacher in the University. He has a wife whom he
loves dearly, and more than a single child. With these he
has settled in tho town of Pavia. His wife's father and her
brother are there also.

We gain an insight into his character by a
letter in which he speaks of his wife :
"1 give," he writes to a friend, "innumerable thanks to
the omnipotent God, who has joined me to a wife after
my own heart; a maiden noble and well•mannered, young,
beautiful, who lives so much in harmony with all my
habits, that never has a word of scolding dropped between
us, and wherein 1 count myself happiest of all, however
our affairs change, in prosperity and adversity always
alike kind to me, alike affable, constant; most just in
mind and sound in counsel, always self-possessed." When
he said that, it was after three years more of life than
have been yet accounted for—three years of severe trial,
among which the sorest, at the period of which we now
speak, was at hand.

After many vicissitudes, he settled in 1518
at Metz as orator and advocate. He was then
thirty-two, and took up his residence in the
city with his wife and son. He was soon
involved in a controversy with the monks
of the city. A young woman was charged

1023

with witchcraft. Cornelius came forward
to defend her. One Nicholas Savin, a Domi-
nican and an Inquisitor, laboured hard to
convict her. He persisted on sitting beside
the judge in the court, and had reviled the ad-
vocate who appeared for;the unfortunate young
woman. Cornelius appealed to the judge :

On the same evening be wrote a letter to the judge,
showing the law in writing that he was not suffered to
explain by word of mouth. For his being called a favourer
of heretics, " the rascally Inquisitor," he says, " as you
may see by these his words, condemns the simple woman
as a heretic, when the cause of action scarcely has been
stated. I seek fair hearing for her while she is untried
and uncondemned, and the vile scoffer calls me favourer
of heresy ! Have you admitted this man to sit on the
bench with you ? The lie is on his head, the infamous
calumniator, and he thinks to quell me with his threats ;
but, to the best of my calling, to the best of my constancy,
I will not desist from the defence of this innocent woman.
Let this brotherkin, priest, or Levite, turn his heart from
her. I will be pitiful with all my power, and call myself
Samaritan, that is to Ray not favourer of heretics, but a
disciple of him, who when it was Raid to him that he was
a Samaritan, and had a devil, denied that he had a devil,
but did not deny that he was P. Samaritan." Presently
he tells how, on the evening before, Sevin, though he had
never before visited the place, went to Vuoypv, feasted
with the girl's accusers, and took presents from them.
But," he adds, " the hypocrite dissembles his iniquity
under the shadow of the Gospel !" He ends a letter,
touching upon sundry legal points, by urging that in the
case in hand there is no heresy at all, or none that comes
at any time under the control of an inquisitor. For no
inquisitor has cognisance or jurisdiction on matters of
suspicion. Heresy must he manifest before it can fall
under inquisitorial correction : therefore the monk must
be excluded. " I pray you," he says, " not to despise
what I have written, unless indeed, even from these pri-
vileges, the poor are excluded. If you are so persuaded,
laws help us in vain, and I have no need to discuss their
meaning. But I hope better things from your integrity,
and have little distrust concerning that bloodthirsty monk.
Farewell. From my study,—with all speed. In this city
of Metz, 1519."

The extract illustrates the character of Cor-
nelius. His protection, however, could not
save the woman from being put to the ques-
tion, and from suffering atrocious torture.

From this date the life of Cornelius was one
of continued vicissitude, of danger, and of dis-
tress. Never had any man more reason to
complain of the faithlessness of princes. He
attended at their courts and received from
them promises and appointments, but rarely
could obtain funds to supply the common
necessaries of life. When in the service of
Louisa of Savoy he in vain petitioned for pay-
ment of his stipulated salary. His complaints
to his friend Chapelain, the physician of
Francis I , are bitter :

"You see how we are played with ! Think of me, fought
against on every side by sorrows—by griefs, indeed, greater
and more incessant than I care to write. There is no
friend here to help me ; all comfort me with empty words
and the court title, which should have brought me honour
and profit, aggravates my hurt, by adding against me envy
to contempt." He goes on to repeat how he was led by
false promises into his false position at Lyons, and how
he was taught to feed on hope, to pine with fear and
sorrow. Held in suspense," he says, "by this continual
hope, to this hour no messenger has told me whether to
remain at this place or quit it: here, therefore, I live with
my large family as a pilgrim in a caravansary, and that in
the most expensive of all towns, under a load of charges,
subject to no little loss. You write that the Queen will
some day comply with my request ; but that she is always
slow—slow also in your affairs. What if in the meantime
I perish ? Truly, so slow a fortune cannot save me
mighty goddess as she is."

He fared no better when he took employment
under his early patron, the Duchess Margaret.
When Regent of the Netherlands, she ap-
pointed him her historiographer, but he neve
received the salary of his office. He was once
cast in prison for debt while in Brussels, and
at last had to leave the country that he might
escape from his creditors. On the death of
his wife he married again, and as happily as
before. His children were numerous, but he
knew not how to provide them with bread. It
was after wide experience of life that he wrote
his " Vanity of Sciences and Arts." It seems
by Mr. Morley's analysis to be the most
valuable of his works, but it only raised him
new enemies.

At length he sought refuge in his native
city Cologne, and here for a time the protec-
tion of the archbishop sheltered him. The
publication of his " Occult Sciences " raised
the monks against him. The Emperor
Charles V. was prejudiced against him, and
Cornelius (though there is obscurity in this
part of the narrative) seems to have been com-
pelled to fly for his life, and to seek protection

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in France. His character towards the close
of his life is touchingly described:—

There was a feminine element perceptible in his whole
character,—the natural gentleness, the affectionate playful.
ness, the quick, nervous perception, the unworldly aspira•
tion, and the want of tact in dealing with the world ; the
impulse to seek happiness in a domestic life belonged to
this part of Agrippa's nature, and to the same part of it
belonged his scolding of the monks and courtiers. There
may have been much of the man's vigour put into his way
of speech, but 1 think that Cornelius resented wrong and
cruelty much as a true woman might resent it, and that
the hard fighting to which he betook himself at last was
not that of a man by nature violent, but—paradox as it
may seem to say so—the inevitable issue to which he was
led by all that was most truly amiable in his nature. In
the last letter of his on record he is found inviting the
moat learned Dryander to a supper, in the name of the
Archbishop of Cologne, and he writes his invitation
while beset by sore distresses, in a genial, airy tone, that
speaks to us of the man who, twice married, never let a
sun set on dispute with either wife; who won entire love
in his Ilome, clung to his friends, and fondled his dogs
even foolishly.
in France he found not shelter, but a prison.
He was arrested by order of Francis, and when
released he was cast abroad homeless and
penniless. He had tin intention, it is sup
posed, of reaching Lyons, that he might pub-
lish his works, but he died before he could
carry his intention into effect. Mr. Morley
says in one place that he died in Lyons, and
in another that he died in Grenoble. We pre-
sume the latter statement to be correct, from
its greater particularity :

Coraelins reached Grenoble and died there, as his perse-
cutors said with triumph, at a mean place, suffering from
sordid want. Yet the same men asserted, that when
travelling he had the skill to pay his way with what ap•
peered to be good money, but changed afterwards to hits
of horn and shell. The truth is, the sick man was
received into the houseof a friendlygentleman, 31.Vuelton,
Receiver General of the Province of Dtuphine. The
house is in tne Rue des Clercs, and afterwards belonged
to the family of Ferrand. There die] Cornelius Agrippa,
forty-nine years old. If spirits walk when restless in their
graves, his may have done so, for they buried him within
a convent of Dominicans.

After his death those stories were promul-
gated by the monks which represent him as
a magician in constant correspondence with
the devil. Fortunately his papers were pre-
served by a friendly hand, and from them has
Mr. Morley constructed this sad instructive
addition to the large volume of " The Calami•
ties of Authors."

Addresses of Major-General Sir Richard Airey
before the Board of General Officers at
Chelsea Hospital. London : Murray.
"TAE people of England," says the Duke of
Wellington in his despatch to Lord Liverpool
after the retreat from Burgos, " so happy as
" they are in every respect, so rich in resources
" of every description, having the use of such
" excellent roads, &c., will not readily believe
" that important results here frequently de-
" pend upon fifty or sixty mules, and a few
" bundles of straw to feed them." The events
of the last two years, and the tone of comment
adopted by a large portion of the public to-
wards the conduct of their armies in the field,
form a striking illustration of the above re-
mark. Eighteen months ago it was no uncom-
mon thing for sensible and well-informed men
to meet together, and condemn the incapacity
of our generals because business was not con-
ducted on the heights of Sebastopol, or among
the raging storms of the Euxine, with the
same precision and regularity as in Thames-
street or the London Docks. They could not
believe that what they saw done every day in
their crowded warehouses and wharfs, with
the aid of the best mechanical appliances, a
well-appointed staff of servants, and foremen
trained from boyhood in the daily exercise of
their duties, could not be done equally well
when all those auxiliaries were removed. They
could not travel out of the range of their
ordinary ideas. An Englishman not able to
make a road ! An Englishman not able to
convoy a train of provisions! An Englishman
not able to build stabling for his horses ! The
thing seemed preposterous. But the fact was
so, as the Duke says, "notwithstanding their
incredulity." In addition to this national
characteristic, we must remember that the
English are as a nation thoroughly unac-
quainted with war in its practical details ; and
also that the public equanimity was naturally
tried most severely by the provoking behaviour
of the Russians, who declined to be "crumpled

THE PRESS.

up " like a sheet of paper, for the noble pur-
pose of demonstrating the weakness of des-
potism. The public was determined to be
angry with some one, and chose rather to libel
our gallant and hardworking soldiers, than
acknowledge itself in the wrong.
If we are any judges of evidence or sound
reasoning, our posterity will discover in the
volume before us abundant grounds for dis-
trusting the verdict of their progenitors.
The prejudices of the present day are too
deeply rooted, and the minds of the people too
violently inflamed, to permit of our hoping
for an immediate reversal of judgment. But we
cannot conceive it possible that the lucid and
temperate statement of facts which Sir Richard
Airey has given us, and the logical and equita-
ble construction which he seeks to put upon
them, should fail;to exercise a most powerful
influence on the nation, when men's minds
shall have regained their usual composure, and
social and professional jealousy have ceased
to operate.
We propose to notice seriatim the Quarter-
master-General's answers to several of the
most serious charges which were brought
against his own department, as well as against
those which by popular ignorance were con-
founded with it; for his addresses, though
ostensibly and directly a vindication of him-
self, tend in realty to the exculpation of the
whole body of Crimean officials, whose errors,
he maintains, never exceeded those for which
the general infirmity of human nature is pro-
perly accountable.
There can be no doubt that the fundamental
error which underlaid the whole of our subse-
quent disasters was the protracted uncertainty
on the subject of winter quarters. This led
to the employment of what deserved to be
called little more than " a moveable column "
on enterprises suitable only for a regularly ap-
pointed army. That the reader may judge of
the magnitude of this difference we subjoin
Sir Richard Airey's own words :

It was estimated that, to move as an " army," the British
force alone would require 14,000 beasts of transport. Yet
the force landed with only seventy transport animals for
the Commissariat Service, and the additional quantity ob-
tained in the neighbourhood of Old Fort did not, I believe,
swell the whole quantity of land transport animals for
commissariat purposes to more than between three and
four hundred.

The French, I believe, landed with no transport animals
except for their ambulances, and only obtained a small
number in the country near the landing-place. Yet they
would have required (even with their then strength) as
much transport as ourselves, if they were to operate as a
regular " army."
It may be said, therefore, that the transport required for
the whole force which landed would amount to 28,000
animals. The allied columns advanced through a province
of Russia with their little string of—a few hundred
( instead of 28,(00 )—beasts of transport, and on three
sides,—and during the flank march on all sides—the Cos•
sacks rode freely round us. Ido not of course mean to
say that it would have been useful or practicable to employ
a large quantity of land transport in such an operation as
that which the allies were then effecting ; and I only point
to the diflerence between a few hundred and twenty-eight
thousand as a means of indicating one of the many broad
distinctions which exist between the regular operations of
an army and those of a moveable column.
Had the design of wintering at Sebastopol
been even conceived of by any person sharing
in the management of the expedition, no
such blunder•, we should imagine, could
have been committed ; but, misled, as it
would seem, by the positive nature of
their instructions, the allied generals made
no provision for an emergency which nothing
had led them to anticipate. It was not till
after the battle of Inkermann that the resolu•
tion of wintering on the heights was finally
taken. But, as that resolution was the in-
evitable result of an attempt to reduce Sebas-
topol by a regular siege, the blame must rest
upon those who first of all counselled so
hazardous a plan of operations. Who this
Was, is not clearly understood. But it was
just one of those occasions when the supreme
military genius has room to manifest itself.
That power of foreseeing all possible con-
tingencies, and balancing their respective
perils, so characteristic of the Great Duke, was
evidently wanting in those who ordered a blind
rush against this enormous fortress when
the autumn season was nearly half over,
with a numerically interior force, and even
those few destitute of the proper equip-
ments. Wellington's despatches after the
retreat of Massena from Torres Vedras, and

SATUEDAY,

after the last successful siege of Badajos, form
a marked condemnation of the prevalant tone
of English criticism immediately after the
battle of the Alma.

The determination to reduce Sebastopol
being, however, once taken, the depart-
ments set about making the best of a
bad job. In his present defence, Sir
Richard Airey first addresses himself to the
business of defining what his own duties
really were, and at what point they were taken
up by the Commissary and Adjutant General.
In regard to transport and fatigue parties—the
two most prominent subjects of dispute on
the present occasion, and the failure in which
was the proximate cause of all the suffering
endured—the office of the Quartermaster.
General is entirely subordinate to the two last
mentioned departments :

I entirely agree with the commissioners, Sir John
M'Neill and Colonel Tulloch, in the conclusion to which
they appear to have come, namely, that the sufferings of
the troops during the winter of MI 5 are traceable to two
causes—over•wurk and want of transport.

It is, therefore, of great importance to me to remove a
misapprehension which seems to have prevailed on this
subject, and to show that the Quartermaster•General'a
Department has nothing to do either with apportioning the
labour of the men, or with the very important business of
supplying the transport of the army. The first of these
duties belongs entirely to the department of the Adjutant-
General ; the last, that of land transport (until after the
formation of the Land Transport Corps in 18:35), apper•
tallied to the Commissariat.
And:—

And here, as an instance of the complete control over all
the means of transport which was exercised, and properly
exercised, by the Commissariat, I may mention an incident
which occurred at the landing of the forces in the Crimea
on the 14th of September, 1834.
At the commencement of the operation, and when only
a few battalions had landed anti formed on the beach, I rode
up to the high ground on our right, and there at some dis-
tance I perceived a large convoy of carts protected by a
body of Cossacks. I rode back to the beach, got Colonel
Lysons to give me two companies of the 2:ird Fusiliers,
and with these advanced quickly in skirmishing order.
The Cossacks laboured hard to save the convoy by violently
urging the bullocks--and even the drivers—with their
lances; but, the Fusiliers advancing, and beginning to
open fire, the Cossacks retreated, leaving us in possession
of a great part of the convoy—l think of about seventy
or eighty bullock carts laden with flour and wood.
Ilefote the army moved, Mr. Commissary Adams, of the
Commissariat Department, claimed all the carts and ani-
mals which had taken, as falling at once under the control
of his department. Now I confess that, as I anticipated
the want of transport for my camp equipage, I thought that
the circumstance of my having had the fortune to effect the
capture gave a fair claim of preference to my department,
and accordingly I pressed that claim, and succeeded with
difficulty in obtaining the use of some of the captured
carts for the transport of hospital tents, hospital comforts,
and intrenching tools ;but even the carts which I succeeded
in having thus used fell immediately under the custody
and management of the Commissariat, and all the rest of
the captured carts were used by the Commissariat for such
purposes as they thought proper.
Of course this question between me and Mr. Commissary
Adams could not have occurred if the department of which
I was the head had been really responsible for the supply
of transport, for here was an instance in which, by a piece
of good fortune, I obtained for the army that supply of
transport which it so much required, and I had no sooner
done so than the Commissariat, as the proper manager of
all transport business, assumed, and properly assumed, the
custody and management of the carts and bullocks which I
had taken.
On the subject of " Army Works " Sir Richard
explains :
It is only by requisitions that tho department can
operate in this direction. Thus, if the army be moving. and
it is perceived that a bridge should be thrown over a river,
to facilitate the march of the troops, the Quartermaster-
General of the Farces makes a requisition upon the officer
commanding the engineers, and requests that he will cause
the works to be duly executed : or, again, if the Quarter-
master General desired to have any work done which can
be performed by the unskilled strength of men, he would
make his requisition upon the Adjutant• General for fatigue
parties.
- -

Having in some measure disentangled
this intricate question from the mystery in
which it was enshrouded from the eyes of
civilians, Sir Richard proceeds to inform us
what success attended their respective exer-
tions. He presents us with the fruits of his
experience in a tabular form, containing the
dates of applications to the Home Government,
and the period which elapsed before they were
finally complied with. Thus it appears that
of 2,000 tons of hay applied for by Mr. Filder
as early as the 13th of September only 228
arrived before the ensuing February, and that
the whole quantity was not completed before
the month of June; that the organisation of
a regular transport brigade was recommended
in June, 1855, and was not begun to be exe-

OCTOBER 25, 1856.

cuted before the following March ; that a
steam bakery was asked for on the Bth of
November, and sent out at the end of May ;
and that a requisition for three thousand tents
on the 28th of November was not executed
till after the succeeding April, on the plea
that enough workmen could not be found in
the country to prepare them more rapidly.
Such being the promptitude evinced in aid of
our perishing soldiers by " all the talents" of
the Coalition, and all the martial energy of Lord
Palmerston, let us see what were the local
obstacles against remedying the horrors of
that memorable winter.
The matters with which Sir Richard Airey
himself was more immediately concerned were
as follows : the road from Balaklava—the
camp equipments—the hutting—the shelter
for the horses, and the issue of warm clothing,
and other stores. The two first questions are
speedily disposed of. No roads could be made
without men, and no men could be got without
dangerously weakening the force in presence of
the enemy. Hired labourers were tried, but they
perished of disease " by fifties," and the labour
of burying them became an additional burden
on our already over taxed resources. Of the
camp equipments, the tents and marquees
which were the subject of the Commissioners
strictures had all been prepared by Sir R.
Airey's predecessor, and were actually shipped
before his own appointment. On the three
remaining topics there is somewhat more to
be said, and we must reserve the discussion
of them for another occasion.

(To be continued.)

The Northinen in Cumberland and Westmoreland.
By Robert Ferguson. London : Long-
mans.
NomiNo, certainly, can more strikingly show
the various 31ements of which England and
the English are compounded than a con-
sideration of the original dialects from
which the language of Shakespeare, Milton,
and Burke has gradually been evolved. Saxon,
Norman, and the Dane have each contributed
amply to our tongue, and the Roman has also
done his part since the circulation of the
ancient classics. The vocabulary of the Eng-
lish language is now the most copious of any
living mode of speech. We possess the Eng-
lish Bible (our great master•classic of the
purest English), and our mighty dramatist
has also given us works which go far to fix our
standard at a certain point. But our lan-
guage, unlike the French, has not been
cramped by itn academical dictionary ; it has
been kept progressive by our popular authors
employing happy words, invented by genius,
and affirmed by public approbation.
Provincial life, also, has aided to keep up
the English tongue. The language of a
Court, or a great capital city, if forced on a
whole people, becomes languid and cramped ;
but English society has never been based on
a capital. The vigorous current of existence
running through our provinces is one of the
most remarkable facts of English social life,
and is not sufficiently appreciated by
foreigners ; and it has much to do with the
peculiarities of English literature.

Mr. Ferguson's pleasing little volume was
suggested by Mr. Worsaae's " Danes and Nor-
wegians in England." He t►aces the lan
guage of the Northmen in Cumberland and
Westmoreland not only in proper names of
places, and of lakes, rivers, and mountains,
but also in various provincial words common
to the border counties. In this latter part the
author treads closely on " Border Literature,"
and his lucubrations may be compared with
Jamieson's researches. The merit of Mr.
Ferguson's essay consists in its curious ex-
amination of words, and its archaeological
illustrations ; but in a critical sense he does
not sufficiently estimate the vast changes
which are made in a language by the use of
particular inflections. As " Todd's Johnson,"
or any other large dictionary, shows, there are
common roots to different tongues. In order,
for example, to write English with classical
purity, a vast stock of English words is not
enough. The writer must also think in Eng-
lish. Cardinal Wiseman and Mr. Carlyle have
both a copious stock of English words, and
are perfectly acquainted with the classics of