The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-09-06

in ashes; the mind of man, which tri-
umrrs over the body, had here been
ss6tlbdued by matter and left no trace of
itself. -
ooh London: London ! SO much
talett, SO much glory and%beauty, such
mighty hearts, such mighty works, srtcss,,
ages-of story-al buried in one black
mas Piteous spectacle F" cried Pau
lett S,riking his breast. and stretching
| forth ms arms over the skeleton of what
was once sovereign of the world.
Re took his son by the hand and led
himoFer the confused masses, telling him
as they went along what were the ruins
by which they passed.
"This great heap of buildings which
has fallen into a square, must be the
palace of our kings It is that where
ST. James dwelt till nobler build
ings rose with the improving times.
| See here Charles-there is less ruin
here This opener space was park and
garden : and time has been that / have
heard the buzz of men filling all this
| place, when the soyereigns came to hold
their courts in that building. 1 think
| that this dreadful fire must have taken
place before life was quite extinct; for
see there are heaps of bones here, as
though men had fled together to avoid
it /; and it either overlook them with long
tongues of fire, such as a burning city
would send forth, or smothered them
before they could escape, with its smoke.
| Ha / see almost palace there-a
wonder of modern art. 1t is the house
once saw, and only, once, for it was
built during the years of the great
drouth"
Who could build in those days,
father ?" said Charles g L thought no
one had any heart for doing more than
what we do, and that is but Just keeping
ourselves alive"
Nay, it was very long before the per-
suasion came that those were the last
days. We all believed that rain would
come again and restore the earth to its
old order, and whoever possessed the
means, builded and projected still. You
may see this magnificent palace suffered
violence before the fire for its orna-
ments are torn from the walls, and its
statutes mutilated by other means than
the bare fall. 1t was the property of a
man called Jephcot, who, when the wa
ter began to fail, contrived means to
bring it into London from great dis
tances, and thus to secure supply when
the ordinary means were useless. He
kept the contrivance secret, and suppH-
ed the city when other mems resources
VIZ exhausted; and he grew exceeding
I ly rich by this exercise or hrs ingenuity ,
and built himself the palace which you
see there But when the failures wa
ter amounted to absolute famine the
rich people naturally were the last who
wanted they gave his price, and he sup
piled them before he would supply 9th
ers who had no money to bring. This
was endured with murmurs, which might
have gone little longer had not Jeph-
cot, in the midst of this distress, given
in banquet to the great people of Lon
don.
g It was in the. second year of the
drouth, when little thinking what the end
was to be, we all continued to live, as far
as possible as we had done before. 1
was in London where the Parliament
was then setting, and among others was
| invited to this house, and still remember
the scene of luxurious profusion of these
bare rooms. In the midst of the noise
of a crowded assembly, some of us heard
sounds outside, which were such as you
will never hear. even if you live-sounds
of the feet and. voices of thousands of
human beings. Among this tumult, We
began to distinguish individual voices
chiefly those of woman, crying out swa-
ter = We paid little attention, and those
who did, said the police and soldiers were
out and would prevent violence but be-
fore long it was whispered that these
forces, pressed by extreme want, and
seeing their families perishing, had join
ed the mob and were exciting violence.
There fell silence over the whole as
sembly; every one left the tables, and to
consult, and while we did Sc, there came
an assault on the front of the house, and
voices of the populace all broke out at
once into shouting They were irresis-
tably they forced their way in, and
came pouring up the staircase they ut
tered cries of vengeance for imaginary
wrongs, saying that the waters of Lon
don had been kept for the rich, and that
there was an abundance for both rich and
poor, and threatened the lives of Jeph-
cot and his family, even more eagerly
than they demanded water. He tried to
tddress them, but they caught him down
from the head of the staircase where he
stood, and flung him at once over the mar
BILE banisters This was the signal for
an attack on all sides We rushed for
ward to rescue his body and revenge him,
they to possess themselves of the treas
ure they so much coveted. Of course
we were overpowered, for we were one
to fifty; and that night there fell a. hun
dred of the mobiles ofEngland. The wo-
men were respected by the mob, and ex-
cept one lady who was shot accidentally,
and another who saw her son fall, and
stood over him till he ceased to breathe,
and then fell wounded and dying herself,
all escaped. Your mother was not there.
When our party was quite vanquished,
found myself in the midst of the mob
bleeding to death as L thought; but
they flung me on one side and recov-
ered. They pulled the house to the
ground, after they had satiated them
selves with drinking. And that was the
first great calamity which overthrew the
government of the country"
{" And how did that come about, faith
er ?'' said Charles, eagerly holding him
by the hand, and sharing his excitement.
Paulett led him on, telling him at one
ruined monument after another, what
steps had been taken at each, in the de-
struction of the order of things. They
came to the dry channel of the Thames,
deep wide trench, whose bottom show
| oJ ob;a,te 4bot bo5 1o;n +Loro union, tbo