only the sacred relics that had been deposited there, but the seeds of all the animosities and discords of the past, and that thenceforward peace, and concord, and common interests would bind together the two peoples and fuse them into one race. about Speeches over and function ended, the visitors returned to the encampment. There, in one of the marquees supplied by Government for the occasion, the veteran Pretorius, with his friendly household, entertained the chief guests of the day to a bountiful repast of roast beef and plum pudding, and much kindly talk ensued things past, present, and to come in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Of what passed then this only may be said now, that there was not in General Joubert's mind the smallest apparent apprehension of any imminent explosion, but there was on his mind a very strong Cornhill Magazine. persuasion that a policy of reasonable compliance with the demands of the Uitlanders would be the best means of meeting the difficulties of the situation. Before luncheon was over the gathering clouds burst in a tempest over the camp. Wind raged, rain fell in sheets, lightning flashed and deafening thunder pealed. The river rose to flood level, and trickling streams became almost impassable torrents. It was in such weather that we bade our hosts a hearty farewell, and that the latest celebration of Dingaan's Day came to an end. Just a fortnight later Dr. Jameson, with his band of troopers, crossed the frontier of the Transvaal and marched on Johannesburg! Four years later the Bishop of Natal buried the dead on the battlefield of. Chieveley, slain by Boer shells and bullets on the day preceding. CARLYLE AND ROBERT CHAMBERS: UNPUBLISHED LETTERS. The letters from Thomas Carlyle to Robert Chambers, which form the excuse for this article, were recently discovered among other correspondence preserved in the vaults of our publishing office in Edinburgh. They had previously been lost sight of for nearly sixty years, and were found among numerous other interesting letters, chiefly relating to the early history of Chambers's Journal. It may be mentioned that other Carlyle correspondence of less interest is to be found among the letters written by distinguished persons to the late Dr. Robert Chambers, and now preserved by his descendants. The letters here printed are in relation to the original fund raised for the benefit of Mrs. Begg, the surviving sister of Robert Burns. The result, as indicated by these letters, was not particularly successful; but, later on, through the exertions of Lord Houghton, Mr. Carlyle and others, and the special solicitation of Lady Peel, a pension was granted by the Queen to Mrs. Begg. This, together with the fund already raised, was sufficient to provide Mrs. Begg against any future anxiety as to ways and means. Mr. Robert Burns Begg, of Kinross, in his "Memoir of Isobel Burns" (Mrs. Begg), gives an interesting account of the later life of his grandaunt, who, with her two daughters, had settled at Tranent, near Edinburgh, about the year 1832. In 1843, after the pension had been bestowed, it was arranged that Mrs. Begg and her daughters should return to Ayrshire; and the family took up their abode in a picturesque cottage on the banks of the Doon, near the highroad leading to Ayr. Here Mrs. Begg spent the last fifteen years of her life in the companionship of her daughters. In her comfortable cottage she received numerous friends belonging to the locality and many visitors from a distance, of widely different grades. Her recollections of the poet were vivid and distinct, and with her sister-in-law, Jean Armour, she had kept up a warm friendship until Jean's death in 1834. Mrs. Begg died in December, 1858, in her eighty-eighth year; and in 1859, at the time of the first Burns Centenary Celebration (a more recent celebration in 1896 was the hundredth anniversary of his death), a sum of one thousand pounds was raised for her daughters, Carlyle again taking great interest in this subscription. Messrs. W. & R. Chambers had already handed to Mrs. Begg the proceeds, amounting to two hundred pounds, of the first impression of Robert Chambers's "Life and Works of Burns" (1851-52). compelled at a glance to see how far the nineteenth century had even then travelled from the shallow critical canons of its earlier years. Carlyle's Burns essay seems to have been among the first fruits of the six years spent in literary labor and seclusion in the solitude of Craigenputtock. Characteristic though it is, yet in the matter of style there is a noticeable difference between Carlyle's Burns essay and his other work; and when Mr. Sumner remarked on this to Jeffrey, Jeffrey said, "I will tell you why that is different from his other articles: I altered it." The year 1831, which saw Carlyle's migration from Craigenputtock to London, witnessed also one of his very few appearances as a public speaker. He was actually induced-"not against my deliberate will, but with a very great repugnance," he says-to attend a dinner at Dumfries in honor of the Dumfriesshire poet and littérateur, Allan Cunningham, well knowing he would be expected to make a speech. He did make a speech-a memorable speech, for it was another hearty tribute to "the memory of Robert Burns," the toast then proposed being drunk in solemn silence. Carlyle's essay on Burns in the Edinburgh Review in 1828 was nominally a review of Lockhart's short but excellent Life of Burns, published the same The fact that this biography year. was by the son-in-law of the great Sir Walter Scott, who was also editor of the Quarterly Review, helped to make Burns known to thousands who, till then, had barely heard his name; and Carlyle's review contributed greatly to the same result. It was, indeed, the most important piece of Burns criticism that had yet appeared. Its kindly sympathy, generous judgment, and profound insight contrast quite singularly with the essay on Burns published in the same Review by Lord Jeffrey, then and still in 1828 its editor. If, after reading Jeffrey's well-meant but superficial paper, we pass to Carlyle's, we are deavor on behalf of Burns's sister is The first of these letters from Mr. Carlyle to Dr. Robert Chambers is dated from Templand in Dumfriesshire. Templand belonged to the family of Mrs. Welsh, Carlyle's mother-inlaw; at Templand Mrs. Welsh spent her later years; and there, in the end of February, 1842, she died. This was the "mournful event" which brought Carlyle from his home in Chelsea to Scotland at this time. The phrase "Worship of Heroes" recalls the fact that the year before he had published in book-form his lectures-delivered in 1840-on "Heroes and Hero-worship:" Templand, Thornhill, Dumfries, 3 April, 1842. My Dear Sir,-Your Samaritan en nounce. worthy of all praise. It strikes one as a most tragical fact, this that you anHow many tavern dinners are eaten yearly in all quarters of the globe, and froth-speeches delivered, in elegiac commemoration of the brokenhearted Robert Burns, with "Ah, the barbarously-entreated Poet; ah, if we had him here now!"-and his own sister is yet here, and one of those tavern dinner bills would be a benefit to her; and froth-speech is still all that results! "Be ye warmed, be ye fed,"-our pockets remain buttoned, only our foolish mouths are open, to eat and to jabber. It is damnable. Such "Worship of Heroes" is like much else that it holds of,-a thing requiring peremptorily to be altered. I for one thank you that you have stirred to act in this matter, instead of dining and talking. There can be no possible objection to your use of my name in the way proposed, unless it be that a better Lockhart's, were easily procurable: for example, whom I doubt not I could soon persuade, were I back again in London. You must also take my poor guinea; a kind of widow's mite, which, poor as all authors are, it will be a luxury for me to give. I think also I can gather a few guineas more in my home circle, if you send me a halfdozen of your subscription papers up to town. A mournful event has brought me detains me down hither, and still here; but in some two weeks more I expect to be at Chelsea again. even With many good wishes, and good remembrances (for your face and voice, as well as books, are known to me from of old), I remain, Yours most truly, T. Carlyle. In 1842 the Anti-Corn-Law agitation was in full course; the "People's Petition" for something like the Charter was rejected; and in summer there were strikes, riots, and commotions in various places. A Chinese war was being carried on, and 1842 recorded the worst disasters of the Afghan war, in cluding that awful retreat from Cabul. It was not till September that Ghuznee and Cabul were retaken. Hence, writing a second letter in July, Carlyle had only too good reason to speak of "the present awful time:" Chelsea, 23 July, 1842. My Dear Sir,-As the season here is drawing to a close, Mr. Milnes and I thought good to wind up our BeggSubscription affairs, and transmit you the amount. We have made out the sorriest pittance, as you will see by the particulars on the annexed sheet: but indeed, after the conquest of the pension, we did not think it right, in the present awful time, to press charitable people, or even to apply at all to such as were not decidedly rich. Mr. Milnes took the Fashionables in his own hand,-and truly they have not proved too exuberant upon him: I had an agent in the City, of whom I expected something; but when applied to, he responded that some other party or parties had been among his friends for the same object and in his hand there was nothing. I sent off the amount, thirty-three pounds and sixpence, yesterday afternoon; and it will be paid, when asked for, at the British Linen Company Bank, to "Robt. Chambers, Esq., Athol Place, Edinr.": -and so herewith ends my stewardship in this piece of Benevolence. I am right glad we got the little Pension; otherwise I fear the Subscription would have been rather a lame affair. . Yesterday, on my way homewards, I received another sovereign; and a certain acquaintance of mine in Lincoln's Inn Fields professes to have some three pounds and odd already in his hand, and to be able to gather a few pounds more if he had circulars; for which element of furtherance he long ago applied to me, but got none, my stock being out. If you have any circulars left, pray be so kind as address half a dozen to that worthy man: "John Forster, Esq., 58, Lincoln's Inn Fields"; the result of his labors, together with this new sovereign of mine, and any other dripping that may fall into my dish, shall thereby in some good way be transmitted to you. Much more money might be gathered if one became pressing: indeed there has been properly no pressure here at all; Peel having once yielded, the matter elsewhere was left very much to take its course. We are all much pleased with the figure Miss Begg makes in these transactions; her letters are full of modest sense and propriety; one asks along with you, whether no better task than sewing clothes at Tranent could be discovered for her? You, if you see a possibility, will not fail to lay hold of it for the poor girl. In the meanwhile, I suppose she is safe at Tranent, and not unhappy;-rather well off, one may say, as welfare goes in this world. I reckon it one of the best features of this Begg business that your conquest for them is not one that lifts them out of their old state at all; but simply renders soft and light for them a set of conditions they were from the first used to. You have seen Isabella Begg, and can judge her and her circumstances and capabilities: we will leave you to do your wisest and kindest. And so adieu, my dear Sir; and thanks to you in the name of all good Scotchmen and men; and, according to the old Proverb, May ne'er worse be among us! Yours very sincerely, T. Carlyle. The John Forster who, from the above and from the following letter, is seen to have taken a hearty interest in the subscription, was, of course, the wellknown writer, the biographer of Goldsmith and friend of Dickens. Chelsea, 2 Decr., 1842. My dear Sir,-This Postoffice order, for the Begg Subscription, does not represent my own sovereign which you were rigorous enough to send back to me, but the sovereign of a "Wm. Hamilton, Esq., Cheapside," from whom I received that sum after the rest had been despatched to you. I meant to add it to some pittance which I understand Mr. Forster (58 Lincoln's Inn Fields) still holds, with the firm purpose of sending it to you; but we do not meet often, Forster and 1; and last time we did meet, he was not yet ready; so, to wash my hands of all chance of sacrilege, do you here take the little coin, and add it to the others! Your last letter, expressing some doubt as to the annual pension of £20, I forwarded it to Milnes; from whom there came answer, that at the Treasury things went on very slow, but that of the pension itself there was no doubt whatever. Well;-I wish poor Mrs. Begg had the first instalment of it. Should there be any altogether too ominous delay, pray give us notice, and it shall be quickened. Milnes, I believe, is in Constantinople or somewhere far Eastward; but there are other people here. This is the fourth of the five letters from Carlyle on the subject which have been preserved: Chelsea, 12 Decr., 1842. My dear Sir,-Your news of the Begg Subscription is very good; and yet not all good; that is a most mortifying paltriness, that of the illustrious Premier pausing over his first bounty as too enormous, and reducing it to half! I myself saw his autograph, announcing that Great Britain would afford Twenty pounds to the indigent representatives of its greatest man in these centuries; and now, it seems, terrified at the rash act, she has ventured only upon Ten. The sons of Gilbert Burns, too, it would appear, have been "eating dirt." Alas, the whole world continually eats quantities of dirt. Yet, praised be Heaven, some Four Hundred pounds for such an end do come out of the world, dirt-eating world as it is; and you, for your share, have been enabled to accomplish your problem, to solace and screen from misery a meritorious, forlorn, every way venerable Scottish heart, to save all Scottish men from a new ugly stigma; and do one other heavenly act under this terrestrial sun. We will complain of nothing; let us rejoice over many things. Your project for these young women and their mother meets, in every feat ure of it, my entire approbation. They will do better in Ayrshire every way, since they themselves wish to go thither. The scene is, at any rate, more genial, as I suppose, for representatives of Burns; by removal from Tranent, where they have from poor become "rich," they escape a multitude of mean village envies, and other impediments; they have free scope to begin on new ground a new course of activities. Being, to all appearance, sensible young women, I think there is no danger but they will do well. Their sixty pounds a-year is perhaps after all just about the happiest sum for them. Work is still useful, necessary; but no longer tyrannous tread-mill_necessity; they are not dangerously lifted into a new sphere of existence, but rendered easy in the old one. We may hope, a blessing will be on that poor, good household, and better outlooks on all sides are opening for them. I have signed the Paper. I return These letters show the essentially kindly and generous temper of a man who, from external eccentricities, has often been harshly misjudged; they show how keenly interested, considerate and painstaking Carlyle could be in doing a kindness. At that moment he was a hard-pressed literary man, in the thick of his struggle with Dryasdust over the body and soul of Cromwell, and it should be remembered that it was only in these years that Carlyle and his wife had been raised beyond the pressure of straitened and precarious means. The fifth letter of the series is also the last: Chelsea, 21 Decr., 1842. My dear Sir, -The more I considered that matter of Mrs. Begg's Pensiou, the more incredible it became to me that Sir Robt. Peel could have done such a thing. My first hypothesis was that I had misunderstood your letter; that by the omission of some "each," or other such word, the meaning might have been defaced and overset in that passage. But no; there is a second sentence in which you say, and count expressly, that the Beggs have ten pounds in all from this source. My next conclusion therefore was that some Clerk or Subaltern Official at the Treasury was in error; that if so, Sir Robert ought to be again made acquainted with the matter. Accordingly I set one of my friends to make inquiry at the Treasury; his answer arrives this morning, that all is right there; that it is not ten pounds to the two Misses Begg, but ten pounds to each of them,-twenty pounds in all, as was originally settled. Here are the particulars as he writes them down. With great satisfaction I conclude, therefore, that your information was defective; that the business itself is all right. Your own reckoning, with the results of it, you can rectify at your leisure; but if there is anything else to be rectified, if these Treasury people are still in error or defect, pray apprise me instantly. Otherwise, I say, there is no haste. Yours ever truly, T. Carlyle. The following letter, intimating that a pension had been granted, was written by Mr. Monckton Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton), conspicuous alike in politics, society and literature; and was, of course, addressed not to Dr. Chambers but to Mrs. Begg: 26 Pall Mall, London, June 6th, 1842. Madam,-I have the pleasure of informing you that Sir Robert Peel, having been informed that a sister of the great Poet Burns was still living, and in straitened circumstances, has recommended her Majesty to apply to your use the sum of £50 sterling from the Royal bounty, and also that Lady Peel, out of the small fund which lies at her disposal as wife of the Prime Minister, has expressed her desire to settle on you the annual pension of £20. If you prefer that this pension |