CHAPTER X. THE NELSON MONUMENT.
The following day being dry, we walked out to view the wonders of thisgreat commercial city of England, Liverpool. The side-paths were filledwith an active and busy population, and the main streets thronged withheavily-laden waggons, conveying to the docks the manufactures of thecountry, or carrying inward the productions of foreign nations. It wasan animating and busy scene.
"This," said Mr. Hopewell, "is solitude. It is in a place like this,that you feel yourself to be an isolated being, when you are surroundedby multitudes who have no sympathy with you, to whom you are not onlywholly unknown, but not one of whom you have ever seen before.
"The solitude of the vast American forest is not equal to this.Encompassed by the great objects of nature, you recognise nature's Godevery where; you feel his presence, and rely on his protection. Everything in a city is artificial, the predominant idea is man; and man,under circumstances like the present, is neither your friend norprotector. You form no part of the social system here. Gregarious bynature, you cannot associate; dependent, you cannot attach yourself; arational being, you cannot interchange ideas. In seeking the wildernessyou enter the abode of solitude, and are naturally and voluntarilyalone. On visiting a city, on the contrary, you enter the residence ofman, and if you are forced into isolation there, to you it is worse thana desert.
"I know of nothing so depressing as this feeling of unconnectedindividuality, amidst a dense population like this. But, my friend,there is One who never forsakes us either in the throng or thewilderness, whose ear is always open to our petitions, and who hasinvited us to rely on his goodness and mercy."
"You hadn't ought to feel lonely here, Minister," said Mr. Slick. "It'sa place we have a right to boast of is Liverpool; we built it, and I'lltell you what it is, to build two such cities as New York and Liverpoolin the short time we did, is sunthin' to brag of. If there had been noNew York, there would have been no Liverpool; but if there had been noLiverpool, there would have been a New York though. They couldn't donothin' without us. We had to build them elegant line-packets for 'em;they couldn't build one that could sail, and if she sail'd she couldn'tsteer, and if she sail'd and steer'd, she upsot; there was always ascrew loose somewhere.
"It cost us a great deal too to build them ere great docks. They coverabout seventy acres, I reckon. We have to pay heavy port dues to keep'em up, and pay interest on capital. The worst of it is, too, while wepay for all this, we hante got the direction of the works."
"If you have paid for all these things," said I, "you had betterlay claim to Liverpool. Like the disputed territory (to which it nowappears, you knew you had no legal or equitable claim), it is probableyou will have half of it ceded to you, for the purpose of conciliation.I admire this boast of yours uncommonly. It reminds me of theconversation we had some years ago, about the device on your "navalbutton," of the eagle holding an anchor in its claws--that nationalemblem of ill-directed ambition and vulgar pretension."
"I thank you for that hint," said Mr. Slick, "I was in jeest like; butthere is more in it, for all that, than you'd think. It ain't literalfact, but it is figurative truth. But now I'll shew you sunthin' inthis town, that's as false as parjury, sunthin that's a disgrace to thiscountry and an insult to our great nation, and there is no jeest in itnother, but a downright lie; and, since you go for to throw up to me ournaval button with its 'eagle and anchor,' I'll point out to you sunthin'a hundred thousand million times wus. What was the name o' that Englishadmiral folks made such a touss about; that cripple-gaited, one-eyed,one-armed little naval critter?"
"Do you mean Lord Nelson?"
"I do," said he, and pointing to his monument, he continued, "Therehe is as big as life, five feet nothin', with his shoes on. Now examinethat monument, and tell me if the English don't know how to brag, aswell as some other folks, and whether they don't brag too sumtimes, whenthey hante got no right to. There is four figures there a representingthe four quarters of the globe in chains, and among them America, acrouchin' down, and a-beggin' for life, like a mean heathen Ingin. Well,jist do the civil now, and tell me when that little braggin' feller everwhipped us, will you? Just tell me the day of the year he was ever ableto do it, since his mammy cut the apron string and let him run to seekhis fortin'. Heavens and airth, we'd a chawed him right up!
"No, there never was an officer among you, that had any thing to bragof about us but one, and he wasn't a Britisher--he was a despisableBlue-nose colonist boy of Halifax. When his captain was took belowwounded, he was leftenant, so he jist ups and takes command o' theShannon, and fit like a tiger and took our splendid frigate theChesapeake, and that was sumthing to brag on. And what did he get forit? Why colony sarce, half-pay, and leave to make room for Englishersto go over his head; and here is a lyin' false monument, erected to thisman that never even see'd one of our national ships, much less smeltthunder and lightning out of one, that English like, has got this forwhat he didn't do.
"I am sorry Mr. Lett [Footnote: This was the man that blew up the Brockmonument in Canada. _He was a Patriot_.] is dead to Canada, or I'd givehim a hint about this. I'd say, 'I hope none of our free and enlightenedcitizens will blow this lyin', swaggerin', bullyin' monument up? Ishould be sorry for 'em to take notice of such vulgar insolence as this;for bullies will brag.' He'd wink and say, 'I won't non-concur with you,Mr. Slick. I hope it won't be blowed up; but wishes like dreams comecon_trary_ ways sometimes, and I shouldn't much wonder if it braggedtill it bust some night.' It would go for it, that's a fact. For Mr.Lett has a kind of nateral genius for blowin' up of monuments.
"Now you talk of our Eagle takin' an anchor in its claws as bad taste.I won't say it isn't; but it is a nation sight better nor this. See whatthe little admiral critter is about! why he is a stampin' and a jabbin'of the iron heel of his boot into the lifeless body of a fallen foe!It's horrid disgustin', and ain't overly brave nother; and to makematters wus, as if this warn't bad enough, them four emblem figures,have great heavy iron chains on 'em, and a great enormous sneezer ofa lion has one part o' the chain in its mouth, and is a-growlin' anda-grinnin' and a-snarling at 'em like mad, as much as to say, 'if youdare to move the sixteen hundredth part of an inch, I will fall to andmake mincemeat of you, in less than half no time. I don't think therenever was nothin' so bad as this, ever seen since the days of old daddyAdam down to this present blessed day, I don't indeed. So don't come forto go, Squire, to tarnt me with the Eagle and the anchor no more, for Idon't like it a bit; you'd better look to your '_Nelson monument_' andlet us alone. So come now!"
Amidst much that was coarse, and more that was exaggerated, there wasstill some foundation for the remarks of the Attache.
"You arrogate a little too much to yourselves," I observed, "inconsidering the United States as all America. At the time thesebrilliant deeds were achieved, which this monument is intended tocommemorate, the Spaniards owned a very much greater portion of thetransatlantic continent than you now do, and their navy composed a partof the hostile fleets which were destroyed by Lord Nelson. At that time,also, you had no navy, or at all events, so few ships, as scarcelyto deserve the name of one; nor had you won for yourselves that highcharacter, which you now so justly enjoy, for skill and gallantry. Iagree with you, however, in thinking the monument is in bad taste. Thename of Lord Nelson is its own monument. It will survive when theseperishable structures, which the pride or the gratitude of hiscountrymen have erected to perpetuate his fame, shall have moulderedinto dust, and been forgotten for ever. If visible objects are thoughtnecessary to suggest the mention of his name oftener that it wouldotherwise occur to the mind, they should be such as to improve thetaste, as well as awaken the patriotism of the beholder. As an American,there is nothing to which you have a right to object, but as a critic,I admit that there is much that you cannot approve in the '_NelsonMonument_.'"
The Attaché; or, Sam Slick in England — Complete Page 10
