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L'ILLUSTRATION JOURNAL UNIVERSEL

REDACTION, ADMINISTRATION, BUREAUX D'ABONNEMENTS 23, rue de Verneuil, Paris

SUCCURSALE POUR LA VENTE AU D?TAIL 60, rue de Richelieu, Paris

Prix du num?ro: 75 centimes La collection mensuelle, 3 fr.; le vol. semestriel, broch?, 18 fr.; reli? et dor? sur tranches, 23 fr.

Abonnements Paris et d?partements: 3 mois, 3 fr.;--6 mois, 18 fr.;--un an, 36; ?tranger, le port en sus.

Les demandes d'abonnements doivent ?tre accompagn?es d'un mandat-poste ou d'une valeur ? vue sur Paris ? l'ordre de M. Auguste Marc, directeur-g?rant.

SOMMAIRE

HISTOIRE DE LA SEMAINE

FRANCE

Apr?s le vote de la loi de prorogation, il ?tait permis de penser que la majorit?, qui s'?tait ralli?e autour de la haute personnalit? du mar?chal de Mac-Mahon, pourrait bien s'affaiblir ou m?me dispara?tre quand le d?bat viendrait ? se poser non plus sur le terrain national et gouvernemental, mais sur le terrain purement minist?riel; bon nombre de journaux affirmaient avec confiance que le cabinet serait moins heureux que le pr?sident lorsqu'il se pr?senterait pour son propre compte ? la barre de l'Assembl?e, et lorsque M. L?on Say vint ? la tribune d?velopper son interpellation sur la politique suivie pendant les vacances et sur le retard apport? ? la convocation des coll?ges ?lectoraux, il crut pouvoir affirmer que la derni?re heure du minist?re du 24 mai ?tait sur le point de sonner. Ces pr?visions ne se sont pas r?alis?es; le cabinet a remport? une victoire moins ?clatante, il est vrai, que le mar?chal-pr?sident, mais qui s'est sold?e par la majorit? importante de 50 voix; ainsi qu'il s'y ?tait engag?, il a remis avant m?me l'ouverture du d?bat, sa d?mission collective entre les mains du chef de l'?tat, mais pour se reconstituer sur les m?mes bases, sauf quelques changements de personnes et d'attributions qui n'impliquent pas de changement fondamental de tendances ni de principes.

M. de Broglie garde le titre et les fonctions de vice-pr?sident du conseil des ministres et prend le portefeuille de l'int?rieur. MM, Batbie, Ernoul, Beule et de la Bouillerie sortent du cabinet pour faire place ? MM. le duc Decazes, nomm? ministre des affaires ?trang?res; Depeyre, ministre de la justice; de Fourtou, ministre de l'instruction publique et des cultes, et de Larcy, ministre des travaux publics, M. Deseilligny passe ? l'agriculture et au commerce en remplacement de M. de la Bouillerie; enfin les portefeuilles des finances, de la guerre et de la marine restent confi?s, comme pr?c?demment, ? MM. Magne, du Barail et Dompierre d'Hormoy.

Quant au vote de la loi de prorogation, les commentaires qu'il a suscit?s dans la presse sont importants ? noter si l'on veut chercher ? se rendre compte de ce que sera notre r?gime politique dans la phase nouvelle dont cette loi est le point de d?part. Ainsi qu'il fallait s'y attendre, les journaux bonapartistes et r?publicains se sont montr?s fort d?sappoint?s d'une d?faite ? laquelle ils s'attendaient en grande partie, mais sans penser qu'elle serait aussi compl?te; toutefois; ces derniers font contre mauvaise fortune bon coeur, et cherchent ? se consoler en r?p?tant qu'apr?s tout la R?publique subsiste en fait et que rien n'est perdu par cons?quent; constatons en outre que la presse r?publicaine para?t pour le moment corrig?e des intemp?rances de langage qui ont plus d'une fois compromis sa cause, et que ses appr?ciations sont en g?n?ral empreintes d'une mod?ration ? laquelle on ne peut s'emp?cher de rendre justice. Seuls, les journaux du centre droit triomphent avec une joie parfois insuffisamment contenue: <>

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L'apparition de cette note a co?ncid? avec le bruit, r?pandu depuis quelques jours, de l'abdication du comte de Chambord. Y avait-il quelque chose de fond? dans ce bruit?--C'est ce que l'avenir nous apprendra.

ESPAGNE.

L'opinion g?n?ralement ?tablie dans les r?gions officielles est que la diplomatie parviendra ? r?gler le diff?rend; mais la situation, telle qu'elle est aujourd'hui, n'en est pas moins critique. Le sentiment public n'est pas pr?cis?ment belliqueux, bien que certains journaux fassent des efforts supr?mes pour cr?er l'agitation. Les pr?paratifs militaires continuent. Une flotte de quarante-trois navires, portant un mat?riel de six cent quarante-trois pi?ces d'artillerie, a re?u l'ordre de se tenir pr?te au premier signal.

PAYS-BAS

Les pr?paratifs des Hollandais pour la deuxi?me exp?dition contre Atchin sont tr?s activement poursuivis aux Indes; cette exp?dition doit partir dans le courant de ce mois de Batavia pour sa destination. Il est arriv? derni?rement dans le port de cette ville un nouveau navire ? vapeur qui n'a pas apport? moins de 2833 caisses remplies de mat?riel de guerre, avec vingt-cinq canons, ainsi que deux petits bateaux ? vapeur d?mont?s et pr?ts ? ?tre remont?s ? Batavia.

On fait, en outre, ? Samarang, des essais avec des radeaux de d?barquement susceptibles de porter un poids de 16,000 ? 17,000 kilogrammes, et qui seront reconduits en place par des remorqueurs ? vapeur. Ces engins se composent chacun de cinq grands cylindres creux en fer, solidement reli?s ensemble et couverts d'un simple plancher.

SUISSE

Le Conseil f?d?ral suisse vient d'adresser ? notre ministre des affaires ?trang?res une note relative ? la question mon?taire. Nous la reproduisons plus loin. Justement pr?occup? de l'introduction de l'?talon d'or dans plusieurs ?tats et des variations qu'a subies le rapport des monnaies d'or et d'argent, principalement depuis la convention conclue en 1865 entre la France, l'Italie, la Suisse et la Belgique, le gouvernement helv?tique, s'autorisant de l'article 2 de ladite convention, a exprim? le voeu qu'une conf?rence des quatre ?tats signataires f?t convoqu?e le plus t?t possible pour aviser aux mesures propres ? garantir les int?r?ts ?conomiques engag?s dans cette question. Faut-il maintenir le double ?talon, sur eer, etc., shall be licensed at the county courts of the shire where they live, or the Court of Assistants, so as this court may not be thereby hindered in their more weighty affairs."

A noticeable thing about this particular bill is, that when it went down for concurrence the word "deputies" was erased and "house" substituted by the speaker in its stead, thus showing that the newly born popular body had begun to assert itself as the only true representative chamber, and meant to show the more aristocratic branch that the sovereign people had spoken at last.

It is certain that, at the time of which we are speaking, some of the old laws affecting the drinking habits of society were openly disregarded. Drinking healths, for instance, though under the ban of the law, was still practised in Cotton Mather's day by those who met at the social board. We find him defending it as a common form of politeness, and not the invocation of Heaven it had once been in the days of chivalry. Drinking at funerals, weddings, church-raisings, and even at ordinations, was a thing everywhere sanctioned by custom. The person who should have refused to furnish liquor on such an occasion would have been the subject of remarks not at all complimentary to his motives.

It seems curious enough to find that the use of tobacco was looked upon by the fathers of the colony as far more sinful, hurtful, and degrading than indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Indeed, in most of the New England settlements, not only the use but the planting of tobacco was strictly forbidden. Those who had a mind to solace themselves with the interdicted weed could do so only in the most private manner. The language of the law is, "Nor shall any take tobacco in any wine or common victual house, except in a private room there, so as the master of said house nor any guest there shall take offence thereat; which, if any do, then such person shall forbear upon pain of two shillings sixpence for every such offence."

It is found on record that two innocent Dutchmen, who went on a visit to Harvard College,--when that venerable institution was much younger than it is to-day,--were so nearly choked with the fumes of tobacco-smoke, on first going in, that one said to the other, "This is certainly a tavern."

It is also curious to note that, in spite of the steady growth of the smoking habit among all classes of people, public opinion continued to uphold the laws directed to its suppression, though, from our stand-point of to-day, these do seem uncommonly severe. And this state of things existed down to so late a day that men are now living who have been asked to plead "guilty or not guilty," at the bar of a police court, for smoking in the streets of Boston. A dawning sense of the ridiculous, it is presumed, led at last to the discontinuance of arrests for this cause; but for some time longer officers were in the habit of inviting detected smokers to show respect for the memory of a defunct statute of the Commonwealth, by throwing their cigars into the gutter.

Turning to practical considerations, we shall find the tavern holding an important relation to its locality. In the first place, it being so nearly coeval with the laying out of villages, the tavern quickly became the one known landmark for its particular neighborhood. For instance, in Boston alone, the names Seven Star Lane, Orange Tree Lane, Red Lion Lane, Black Horse Lane, Sun Court, Cross Street, Bull Lane, not to mention others that now have so outlandish a sound to sensitive ears, were all derived from taverns. We risk little in saying that a Bostonian in London would think the great metropolis strangely altered for the worse should he find such hallowed names as Charing Cross, Bishopsgate, or Temple Bar replaced by those of some wealthy Smith, Brown, or Robinson; yet he looks on, while the same sort of vandalism is constantly going on at home, with hardly a murmur of disapproval, so differently does the same thing look from different points of view.

As further fixing the topographical character of taverns, it may be stated that in the old almanacs distances are always computed between the inns, instead of from town to town, as the practice now is.

Of course such topographical distinctions as we have pointed out began at a time when there were few public buildings; but the idea almost amounts to an instinct, because even now it is a common habit with every one to first direct the inquiring stranger to some prominent landmark. As such, tavern-signs were soon known and noted by all travellers.

Then again, tavern-titles are, in most cases, traced back to the old country. Love for the old home and its associations made the colonist like to take his mug of ale under the same sign that he had patronized when in England. It was a never-failing reminiscence to him. And innkeepers knew how to appeal to this feeling. Hence the Red Lion and the Lamb, the St. George and the Green Dragon, the Black, White, and Red Horse, the Sun, Seven Stars, and Globe, were each and all so many reminiscences of Old London. In their way they denote the same sort of tie that is perpetuated by the Bostons, Portsmouths, Falmouths, and other names of English origin.

THE EARLIER ORDINARIES.

As early as 1638 there were at least two ordinaries, as taverns were then called, in Boston. That they were no ordinary taverns will at once occur to every one who considers the means then employed to secure sobriety and good order in them. For example, Josselyn says that when a stranger went into one for the purpose of refreshing the inner man, he presently found a constable at his elbow, who, it appeared, was there to see to it that the guest called for no more liquor than seemed good for him. If he did so, the beadle peremptorily countermanded the order, himself fixing the quantity to be drank; and from his decision there was no appeal.

Of these early ordinaries the earliest known to be licensed goes as far back as 1634, when Samuel Cole, comfit-maker, kept it. A kind of interest naturally goes with the spot of ground on which this the first house of public entertainment in the New England metropolis stood. On this point all the early authorities seem to have been at fault. Misled by the meagre record in the Book of Possessions, the zealous antiquaries of former years had always located Cole's Inn in what is now Merchants' Row. Since Thomas Lechford's Note Book has been printed, the copy of a deed, dated in the year 1638, in which Cole conveys part of his dwelling, with brew-house, etc., has been brought to light. The estate noted here is the one situated next northerly from the well-known Old Corner Bookstore, on Washington Street. It would, therefore, appear, beyond reasonable doubt, that Cole's Inn stood in what was already the high street of the town, nearly opposite Governor Winthrop's, which gives greater point to my Lord Leigh's refusal to accept Winthrop's proffered hospitality when his lordship was sojourning under Cole's roof-tree.

In his New England Tragedies, Mr. Longfellow introduces Cole, who is made to say,--

"But the 'Three Mariners' is an orderly, Most orderly, quiet, and respectable house."

Another of these worthy landlords was William Hudson, who had leave to keep an ordinary in 1640. From his occupation of baker, he easily stepped into the congenial employment of innkeeper. Hudson was among the earliest settlers of Boston, and for many years is found most active in town affairs. His name is on the list of those who were admitted freemen of the Colony, in May, 1631. As his son William also followed the same calling, the distinction of Senior and Junior becomes necessary when speaking of them.

We know that Gunnison was favored with the custom of the General Court, because we find that body voting to defray the expenses incurred for being entertained in his house "out of y custom of wines or y wampum of y Narragansetts."

As Gunnison's bill of fare has not come down to us, we are at a loss to know just how the colonial fathers fared at his hospitable board; but so long as the 'treat' was had at the public expense we cannot doubt that the dinners were quite as good as the larder afforded, or that full justice was done to the contents of mine host's cellar by those worthy legislators and lawgivers.

The presence of these old inns at the head of the town dock naturally points to that locality as the business centre, and it continued to hold that relation to the commerce of Boston until, by the building of wharves and piers, ships were enabled to come up to them for the purpose of unloading. Before that time their cargoes were landed in boats and lighters. Far back, in the beginning of things, when everything had to be transported by water to and from the neighboring settlements, this was naturally the busiest place in Boston. In time Dock Square became, as its name indicates, a sort of delta for the confluent lanes running down to the dock below it.

Here, for a time, was centred all the movement to and from the shipping, and, we may add, about all the commerce of the infant settlement. Naturally the vicinity was most convenient for exposing for sale all sorts of merchandise as it was landed, which fact soon led to the establishment of a corn market on one side of the dock and a fish market on the other side.

A glance at the locality in question shows the choice to have been made with a shrewd eye to the future. For example: the house fronted upon the town market-place, where, on stated days, fairs or markets for the sale of country products were held. On one side the tavern was flanked by the well-trodden lane which led to the town dock. From daily chaffering in a small way, those who wished to buy or sell came to meet here regularly. It also became the place for popular gatherings,--on such occasions of ceremony as the publishing of proclamations, mustering of troops, or punishment of criminals,--all of which vindicates its title to be called the heart of the little commonwealth.

Indeed, on this spot the pulse of its daily life beat with ever-increasing vigor. Hither came the country people, with their donkeys and panniers. Here in the open air they set up their little booths to tempt the town's folk with the display of fresh country butter, cheese and eggs, fruits or vegetables. Here came the citizen, with his basket on his arm, exchanging his stock of news or opinions as he bargained for his dinner, and so caught the drift of popular sentiment beyond his own chimney-corner.

"'Twas he who oft dispelled their sadness, And filled the breth'ren's hearts with gladness."

After the burning of the town-house, near by, in the winter of 1747, had turned the General Court out of doors, that body finished its sessions at Vardy's; nor do we find any record of legislation touching Luke's taproom on that occasion.

Vardy's was the resort of the young bloods of the town, who spent their evenings in drinking, gaming, or recounting their love affairs. One July evening, in 1728, two young men belonging to the first families in the province quarreled over their cards or wine. A challenge passed. At that time the sword was the weapon of gentlemen. The parties repaired to a secluded part of the Common, stripped for the encounter, and fought it out by the light of the moon. After a few passes one of the combatants, named Woodbridge, received a mortal thrust; the survivor was hurried off by his friends on board a ship, which immediately set sail. This being the first duel ever fought in the town, it naturally made a great stir.

We cannot leave the neighborhood without at least making mention of the Massacre of the 5th of March, 1770, which took place in front of the tavern. It was then a three-story brick house, the successor, it is believed, of the first building erected on the spot and destroyed in the great fire of 1711. On the opposite corner of the lane stood the Royal Custom House, where a sentry was walking his lonely round on that frosty night, little dreaming of the part he was to play in the coming tragedy. With the assault made by the mob on this sentinel, the fatal affray began which sealed the cause of the colonists with their blood. At this time the tavern enjoyed the patronage of the newly arrived British officers of the army and navy as well as of citizens or placemen, of the Tory party, so that its inmates must have witnessed, with peculiar feelings, every incident of that night of terror. Consequently the house with its sign is shown in Revere's well-known picture of the massacre.

One more old hostelry in this vicinity merits a word from us. Though not going so far back or coming down to so late a date as some of the houses already mentioned, nevertheless it has ample claim not to be passed by in silence.

This fact presupposes a house having what we should now call the latest improvements, or at least possessing some advantages over its older rivals in the excellence of its table or cellarage. When Robert Turner kept it, his rooms were distinguished, after the manner of the old London inns, as the Cross Keys, Green Dragon, Anchor and Castle Chamber, Rose and Sun, Low Room, so making old associations bring in custom.

It was in 1686 that John Dunton, a London bookseller whom Pope lampoons in the "Dunciad," came over to Boston to do a little business in the bookselling line. The vicinity of the town-house was then crowded with book-shops, all of which drove a thriving trade in printing and selling sermons, almanacs, or fugitive essays of a sort now quite unknown outside of a few eager collectors. The time was a critical one in New England, as she was feeling the tremor of the coming revolt which sent King James into exile; yet to read Dunton's account of men and things as he thought he saw them, one would imagine him just dropped into Arcadia, rather than breathing the threatening atmosphere of a country that was tottering on the edge of revolution.

In this off-hand sketch we behold the traditional publican, now, alas! extinct. Gossip, newsmonger, banker, pawnbroker, expediter of men or effects, the intimate association so long existing between landlord and public under the old r?gime everywhere brought about a still closer one among the guild itself, so establishing a network of communication coextensive with all the great routes from Maine to Georgia.

It is related in the memoirs of the celebrated Indian fighter, Captain Benjamin Church, that he and Captain Converse once found themselves in the neighborhood of a tavern at the South End of Boston. As old comrades they wished to go in and take a parting glass together; but, on searching their pockets, Church could find only sixpence and Converse not a penny to bless himself with, so they were compelled to forego this pledge of friendship and part with thirsty lips. Going on to Roxbury, Church luckily found an old neighbor of his, who generously lent him money enough to get home with. He tells the anecdote in order to show to what straits the parsimony of the Massachusetts rulers had reduced him, their great captain, to whom the colony owed so much.

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