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A FATHER FOR THE FATHERLESS.

four out of six children, and buried, as he declared, the best part of his life in the grave.'

10. At first, he almost sank under the blow; but he derived consolation from faith, and patience from hope, and found the work of his life ready to his hand, in the very depth of this terrible desolation. The orphans of Weimar came to him instinctively as to their natural protector. How could he turn them from his door to hunger and to thirst? He gave them food, and he clothed them, and, the pressure on his resources growing too heavy for him to bear, he went round among the charitable, and influenced their hearts, until he succeeded in founding the 'Society of Friends in Need,' the first organised movement in Europe on behalf of the distressed poor. The members of this association proposed to themselves the following objects: to lend money without interest to the peasants; to make them free donations when necessary; to assist in rebuilding their houses; to provide shelter and maintenance for the orphans and the sick. Falk was the life and soul of the society, and his untiring energy made it a blessing to

the state.

11. From orphanage his generous intellect extended its cares to vagabondage, and his heart, which pitied the afflicted, could also sympathise with the young Arabs of the streets. He lovingly invited them to the special shelter he provided; fed them, clothed them, taught them, and thus, in fact, established the first Reformatory. He was ridiculed as a theorist, as a visionary; but he persevered. The results were such as he anticipated. Some lads, indeed, turned out ill; but many a brand was plucked from the burning. From the Weimar Reformatory went forth youths who, in after life, attained credit and repute as tradesmen, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, merchants, artists, and schoolmasters. Work and Purpose-the work and purpose of a noble mind and a loving heart had done it all!

12. He continued this life of self-denial and self-sacrifice to the end, though we cannot pause to detail its later incidents. But, looking at its sublime results, we may

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reasonably inquire-If the world gives stars and orders, titles and estates, glory and fame, to the great soldier who destroys his thousands of thousands, what meed will it award to the philanthropist who saves to society so many precious lives? Alas! of the good so silently effected man takes but little heed. The sweet strains of love and mercy are all unheard in the bray of pompous trumpets and the clash of the battle music. Nevertheless, there is One who hath said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' And Falk, we may be sure, desired no higher recompence.

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His death was as calm and tranquil as his life. He had lain for six sleepless weeks, tortured with unceasing pains. When they passed away his end was very near. friend and former pupil arrived in time to catch the last farewell. But even then his eye was dim and his speech broken. Only those who stood around the good man's bed could hear him murmur, at intervals, God-popularfaith short Christ-end.' He died on a February evening, in 1826. Three days afterwards, the children. bore him to his last resting-place with singing of Christian psalms;' and for epitaph remain his own quaint and simple words

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Underneath this linden tree
Lies John Falk; a sinner he,
Saved by Christ's blood and mercy.
Born upon the East Sea strand,
Yet he left home, friends, and land,
Led to Weimar by God's hand.
When the little children round
Stand beside this grassy mound,
Asking, 'Who lies under ground?'-
Heavenly Father, let them say,
Thou hast taken him away;
In the grave is only clay.'

We now proceed to supply a few Examples from English biography of what may be achieved by work and purpose in philanthropy, commercial enterprise, and the pursuits of science.

THE DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER.

1. FRANCIS EGERTON, Duke of Bridgewater, was born in 1736. He was the fifth and youngest son of the first duke, who died when Lord Francis was only five years old, and, all his brothers prematurely perishing, he succeeded to the dukedom at the early age of twelve. His frame was so weak, and his capacity apparently so narrow, that both his mother and nurses neglected him, as unlikely to survive his brothers, but through this very neglect, perhaps, he began to thrive amazingly, and his guardians thought him, when seventeen years old, strong enough to endure the fatigues of Continental travel. They provided him with an admirable tutor in Robert Wood, the author of some learned works on the 'Ruins of Palmyra' and the 'Ruins of Baalbec;' and it is reasonable to suppose that he derived much advantage from the instructions of a scholar so accomplished. They returned from Italy early in 1756, and the young Duke, as yet without an object in life, plunged into the whirl of fashionable dissipations, kept race-horses, rode steeple-chases, and played at skittles. He was rescued from these frivolities by an event which has often had a far less beneficial influence on a man's career. Having formed a passionate attachment to the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton, he proposed to the young widow, and was accepted. But, certain reports affecting her sister's character having reached his ear, he peremptorily insisted that his intended bride should renounce all intimacy with her. The Duchess refused, and he immediately broke off the projected match. Instead of 'breaking his heart' under the disappointment, he sought to relieve himself by engaging in active occupation, and, retiring to his Lancashire estates, set to work in earnest to increase their value and develope their capabilities.

2. The first object upon which he determined was to cut a canal from his mines at Worsley to Manchester, for the purpose of obtaining a quicker and cheaper transit for his coals. By the Mersey navigation the charge for freightage was 3s. 4d. per ton, and so much time and labour were

A BRAVE YOUNG DUKE.

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fruitlessly expended, that the price of the coals when they reached Manchester was necessarily almost double their price at the pit-mouth. Consequently, their consumption was very limited. The young Duke resolved to cut a canal, his own canal, on which his own coals should be drawn by his own horses in his own boats. He applied to Parliament for the necessary powers, and succeeded in obtaining an Act, which received the royal assent in March 1759.

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3. His principal agents in carrying out the extensive schemes in which he now embarked were his land steward, John Gilbert, and his engineer, James Brindley. They laboured together with hearty good will, and by their united energies triumphed over difficulties of the most formidable character. 6 The Duke,' says his latest biographer, very justly, was possessed by a brave spirit. He had put his hand to the work, and he would not look back.' He had become thoroughly inspired by his great idea, and determined to bend his whole energies to the task of carrying it out. He was only thirty years of age-the owner of several fine mansions in different parts of the country, surrounded by noble domains. He had a fortune sufficiently ample to enable him to command the pleasures and luxuries of life, so far as money can secure them; yet all these he voluntarily denied himself, and chose to devote his time to consultation with an unlettered engineer, and his whole resources to the cutting of a canal to unite Liverpool and Manchester.

4. The young Duke took up his residence at Worsley Hall, dismissed his servants, denied himself every luxury but a pipe of tobacco, put down his carriages and town house, and limited the expenses of his household—a duke's household!-to 400l. per annum. To enable him to visit the works of the canal at distant points, he kept, however, a horse for himself and another for his groom. Yet, even with all this rigid economy and self-denial, his resources frequently gave way under the pressure of the heavy burden laid upon them. To construct a canal four-andtwenty miles in length, with its bridges, and aqueducts,

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AN ALE-HOUSE CONCLAVE.

and tunnels, and locks, is a work of immense magnitude even for the wealth of an English duke to carry out; and often it was with the greatest difficulty that his steward, by levying small sums from his tenantry, could raise enough money to meet the Saturday's claims of his large staff of artisans and labourers. In a small public-house at Chat Moss, the Duke, Gilbert, and Brindley would occasionally meet to discuss, over their ale and tobacco, the serious question of the expenses of the works. 'One evening in particular,' we are told, the party was unusually dull and silent. The Duke's funds were exhausted; the canal was by no means nearly finished; his Grace's credit was at the lowest ebb; and he was at a loss what step to take next. There they sat, in the small parlour of the little publichouse, smoking their pipes, with a pitcher of ale before them, melancholy and silent. At last the Duke broke the silence by asking, in a querulous tone, "Well, Brindley, what's to be done now? How are we to get at the money for finishing this canal?" Brindley, after a few puffs, answered through the smoke, "Well, Duke, I can't tell; I only know that if the money can be got, I can finish the canal, and that it will pay well." Ay," rejoined the Duke; "but where are we to get the money?" Brindley could only repeat what he had already said; and thus the little party remained in moody silence for some time longer, when Brindley suddenly started up, and said, "Don't mind, Duke; do n't be cast down; we are sure to succeed, after all!" The party shortly after separated, the Duke going over to Worsley to bed, to revolve in his mind the best mode of raising money to complete his all-absorbing project.'

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5. The Duke finally succeeded in completing his gigantic enterprise without even mortgaging his landed property, though the total cost amounted to no less a sum than 220,000l. He was amply repaid for the outlay, and for the remarkable self-denial which he exercised through so many eventful years, by the enormously increased value of his estates. To the end of his life he took an active interest in his canals, and his mines, and his mills, closely superintending

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