thus done with doubt on the subject, and to know what the meaning is of words which we say, or write, that we never criticise an analysis or a conjecture of this kind; it is so useful, whether it be right or wrong; because it is nearly the same thing to the public; only it seems hard that Ramsgate, having had a harbour and a name two thousand years ago, should yet be styled a village of yesterday. Julius Cæsar's day is a rather far off yesterday. The population of the town is extremely floating. The regular inhabitants now say they are far over Margate; although the two places kept very very close for some thirty years. Ramsgate claims 15,000 absolute and settled people within its boundaries; and as to the visitors, they vary from 10,000 to 30,000, according to circumstances. As we naturally wished to know the shape of the place for it was rather late when we were cast upon its hospitality, we turned to a guide book, and there learned that it was built in the form of a cross. With daylight, however, we found that to be a mistake, as we generally find is the case with everything in guide books. The High-street runs from the chasm in the cliff already mentioned, backwards, of course, and upwards for a very long distance that is, long in a country town, and may be considered the beam of the cross. The arms are King and Queen-streets; but there are a number of minor arms. None of them occupy a horizontal position towards the beam, but go up the hill on either side at a very sharp angle, as anybody will observe who may be foolishly induced to drive or ride a hired horse down to the Highstreet. The shape of the town, therefore, resembles that of one of the ships built upon its sands, after, to the keel, a few of the ribs have been affixed. Dr. Taylor would probably describe it anatomically as resembling a skeleton. The grand old harbour is decidedly the pride of the place, with its fully one mile of marine parade, consisting of two piers of great length and a breakwater between them, forming the inner harbour or basin, with locks resembling those of a dock. The water in the inner harbour is perfectly calm in any weather, but although the eastern pier slightly "overlaps" the western, the outer harbour is very unsafe in a vigorous storm, and we observed two vessels sink in it, of which one was laden with sugar, a perishable and valuable cargo. The taxes levied on passing vessels for the support of these harbours has been the subject of public complaint and parliamentary discussion. Every man should know his own business best; and we cannot pretend to teach shipowners how to manage their own affairs; but certainly the experience of these two or three days of storm established the propriety of paying any reasonable sum for the use of Ramsgate harbour. An immense number of coasting and other vessels found refuge there, which could not have rode out the gale; and the Goodwin sands and other sands make the navigation difficult, in addition to awkwardly strong currents at almost every state of the tide. Two foreign vessels missed the harbour, struck upon the eastern pier, and went to pieces in an incredibly short space of time. Want of sail was the reason assigned by the Ramsgate navigators, who believe that no ship which carries adequate sail to stem the current of the tides can ever miss the entrance to their harbour. These calamities, in which one lad was drowned, did not appear to be considered very serious afflic tions by a large portion of the inhabitants; for, in half an hour from the date of the wreck, quantities of broken wood were borne up the cliffs triumphantly; and for two days hundreds of persons were engaged in transferring coals and timber from the beach to their own cellars. This species of plunder ceased when nothing more remained to be taken; and the beach was cleared of all the cargoes recoverable, and nearly all the ships. These proceedings are justified on the understanding that broken timber and coals cannot be collected and sold for the benefit of the insurers or the owners. In some cases this statement may be true. In others it would be erroneous; but who will decide the merits. Those who want the worthless coal and wood are always before the owners, and take the matter into their own hands. The custom creates confusion concerning the rights of property, and it would be wise to postpone this wrecking, until some constituted authority gave permission to commence, if the case seemed hopeless for the proprietors. The harbour is not exclusively one of refuge, for the port has a considerable trade, and has cultivated the shipping business for many years. It affords also all the facilities necessary for repairing large vessels. The Don Pedro, a large Glasgow steamer, was there for some repairs to its screw; and the Hiawatha, an American vessel, for a new rudder, during our stay. Long ago now, before the existence of railways, and when the approach to Ramsgate must have been costly, George IV. selected it as the port of embarkation when he visited his Hanoverian dominions. On that occasion his Majesty was good enough to designate the harbour Royal; and it has been the Royal harbour of Ramsgate since then till now. The inhabitants considered themselves bound to testify their gratitude for this word Royal, and accordingly entered into a subscription which termimated in the fact, that An obelisk stands to mark the spot, The spot, of course, should be that whereon the first gentleman of Europe stood last in his own dominions; but an obelisk is not bound to be literally correct. The sands east of the Eastern Pier afford yards under the cliffs for ship building, and, although the trade does not appear to be very active, still there are vessels drawing towards completion. The seas off the Kentish coast have a peculiar SEA-BATHING. knack of doing mischief; and yet they want the solemn grandeur of the waves that come up to us from Norway or the North Cape-on and up, and right against a frowning black hard rock, with shocks that are heard twenty miles inland; and old women, knitting by their fires, shake their heads, and say the sea is making moan for its dead. The channel waves are cross, short, ill-natured existences, like those little Ghoorkas though, of whom we read in Indian letters, very dangerous to quarrel with; but their wrath is soon laid, and on the day after the storm the sea looks as if it never could be or had been angry. The small strip of sand that extends from the east pier to certain rocks running out from the cliffs, has been wortlra mint of money to Ramsgate. It is the sea-bathing district, and crowded or overcrowded to one o'clock in summer weather, and late in autumn. The sand is equally divided between the sexes; and in that respect no complaint can honestly be made, except that it would be better if it were only a little larger. The cliffs above are the greatest annoyance to unfortunate bathers, who have not got quite hardened to the practice. A placard in each bathing machine informs gentlemen that the owners of the machine are bound to furnish them with bathing drawers or a gown; but nobody seems to have informed the commissioners who issue the placards, that gentlemen are not in the habit of wearing other people's inexpressibles, and much less of bathing in all the world's drawers and gowns. Therefore the bather must get through as well as possible without eucumbrance. When the tide is at an ebb that is difficult enough, for it is a long walk to deep water; and modest men crawl in crab fashion; but all men are not modest, and never were. The commissioners have ordered bathing to cease at one p.m., that the general public may promenade on the cliffs. We assure them that one is the precise hour when the general public leave the cliffs; and, therefore, if they could make some arrangement to keep those general people in their proper place until that hour, it would conduce at least to becoming ap pearances. However, it is the same everywhere, we believe, and people get inured to anything; only it is droll enough to hear of a literary man who wrote violently against the indecency of kilts, from one of these bathing neighbourhoods. The cliffs of Ramsgate are chalk and white, save where most lovely wild flowers have fixed their roots in small shelves of the rock, and flourish splendidly, safe from all spoilers except the bees or birds. The gap that we have already mentioned, divides the range into the cast and west cliffs. The sea view from either of them is very splendid; in one respect the finest, probably, in the world, from the number of vessels ever passing up or down the channel, out of or into the London river; and the numerous fleet of merchant vessels, almost invariably waiting orders or wind at anchor in the Downs. 695 The cliffs are not very high, but high enough to be dangerous, and to be picturesque-dangerous in their present unguarded state; for even where a fence has been erected, especially on the eastern cliffs, it is rotten in some places, weak in others, and spars once removed have not been renewed, so that there is not any difficulty in children creeping through and tumbling over, in search of the pretty flowers of the rock. That they have not done so hitherto-provided that they have not, is no apology for negligence of this description; and as the prosperity of the place must depend partially on small matters of this kind, the commissioners should look after the matter. We recollect a very sad case in this neighbourhood, not so very old as to be forgotten, and rather than another similar case should occur it might be useful to guard the range of cliffs from Sir Moses Montefiore's to West cliff terrace with iron railing. The tops of the cliffs are in many places worn away so that refts are visible in them, and the danger to incautious pedestrians is thus slightly increased. The walks, moreover, are very beautiful and very tempting, even when night has fallen, and far and near the lonely lights glimmer up like native stars of the ocean. The younger portions of the town are remarkably well built, and several squares and crescents of very elegant houses have been erected both on the east and west cliffs; but the western district, although removed from the bathing quarter, has the superiority in the number, if not in the character, of its houses. The inhabitants have exhibited a singular perversity in the nomenclature of the streets. Thus "The Vale," decidedly the finest square in the town, and one endowed with a marvellous quality and quantity of evergreens, is literally a sloping range of ground going up or down at a sharp angle, and in Scotland, we should call it "the bræ." Any hill climber would be terrfied to think of the hills of Kent, if these be fair specimen of its vales. The plains must be worse, for we felt it hard enough work to climb "the plains of Waterloo," on the East side of the town; and by what sort of reasoning any man was ever persuaded to call them plains baffles ordinary intellects. We foresee great evil from these blunders. Three or four hundred years hence, some antiquarian geologist will adduce these names as proofs of a gradual upheaving, or a convulsion, or something in nature that has lifted up one end of "the vale" so gently and quietly, as in no way to disturb the pretty church and spire that crowns its top. He will have difficulty to account for the corresponding upheaving of the plains on the opposite side; but he is sure to do it in some way, and many strange stories may be formed respecting them, if these names cannot be mended. The ecclesiastical edificies of the town are extremely grand or neat, or have been at least costly. The parish church of St. Lawrence, is a thousand years old or thereby; and is thus a curiosity for its antiquity. The original chapel of ease built | nothing more pressing to do than to eat shrimps in for the greater accomodation of the parishioners, many years ago, is a large and plain building. More recently a church was built at a cost of £30,000, which combines, as it ought to do for the money, a large expanse of pews, with all the cathedral magnificence of stained glass and carved work; but we presume that its practices and tenets must be very High Church, if not Puseyistical, from the multitudes of its services, and some other symptoms of that nature. The third Established Church in the town-or the fourth, if the old church of St. Lawrence be reckoned as within Ramsgate, which it is not geographically, although is is ecclesiastically available-crowns the vale and is a remarkably handsome building, erected at a much smaller cost than the larger edifice on the east. all possible forms, and pass away their time. So far as we could see, the small population of Pegwell Bay are entirely in the shrimp trade. These little animals can be obtained fresh from the sea, and there are large manufactories for preserving them or extracting the essence. Each of these establishments is the original establishment; but there must be some mistake in that which it is not worth while to solve. The little children of Pegwell and the vicinity are born with an extraordi nary instinct against accidents, for they play boisterously to the very edges of the cliffs, against which the sea breaks roughly, and we presume that they never fall over, while their entire vicinity is bored through for deep wells some hundred feet bencath the surface, but we don't suppose it postumbled in, or, for charity's sake, some good sible that any of these small creatures have ever Samaritan would give a shilling to board over these water caves. A painful deficiency of water or water power is apparent in the Isle of Thanet, from the number of old-fashioned windmills, with their huge sails hanging for existence upon every All sects appear to have their representative blast that blows, and which, to persons accusbuildings--at least all English sects; from the tomed to northern scenery, where burns and rivuJewish synagogue, erected at the eastern extre-lets abound-and each of them has a water power mity of the town, to the Roman Catholic chapel at every two or three hundred yards of its course of the West Cliff; and these arrangements tend -wears a strange appearance. to render the place agreeable to all visitors. At one period within historical records Thanet was an island, and the great Stour carried fleets upon its waters, and Pegwell Bay was the entrance to the Thames, and if the said waters of the Stour had not abandoned their old courses, and gone vagabondising somehave been solely employed in catching and curing where else, the Pegwellians would not at this day shrimps. The Evangelical Dissenters have a larger number of chapels, with apparently large congregations; and the oldest Independent church seems to have been erected for a congregation which has existed since 1680; so we assume that Ramsgate even then had been a considerable place. Ramsgate aspires to be considered more exclusive and reputable than some of its rivals; and one of these guide-books assures its readers that even peers and peeresses reside there; and there can be no doubt that it has a quiet, settled air on Sundays-more Sabbatical than is common in similar watering places; although the peers and peeresses, perhaps, do little towards that end. The amusements commonly patronised are also of an intellectual class, although there are to be found, after all this commendation, concert-rooms with very cheap rates of admission-pretty nearly what you choose to drink-and even masked balls, which, looking to the price of the tickets, cannot be extremely select; but, against all that, we noticed popular lectures by gentlemen, who placarded themselves as celebrated," or known," and Foresters' concerts for the benefit "well of the India Mutiny Fund; and the Music Hall, with all the doings thereof, and another hall with all the proceedings therein, and the Marine Library, with its musical evening promenade, very well got up, indeed, by its proprietor, and such a number of booksellers' shops as infers that the residents or their visitors must be a reading class. The drives and walks around Ramsgate are extremely enticing. The Isle of Thanet has a splendid vegetation, an inexhaustible capability of throwing up evergreen shrubs and producing orchards, and yielding all manner of corn, and fruit, and flowers, in rich abundance. Bay is a celebrated resort of people who have Pegwell have also rich scenery-not sublime, not wild, The roads leading to Broadstairs and to Margate nothing of that kind-very far from it indeed ; but pretty with flowers and verdure to the close of the season. between the two great bathing towns, is a very St. Peter's, something like half-way fine old English village, with another of those ancient churches where the rude forefathers of the hamlet worshipped for long and many centuries; whose times ten generations lived and died, and and its huge grave-yard, where men between dynasties flourished and faded, and empires rose and fell-sleep side by side. How solemn is the mass of pain and pleasure laid past in that old graveyard of St. Peter's; and there are twenty thousand similar aggregations in those islands. The village was a hugely vulgar annoyance, so thoworst feature we met with in this very pretty ronghly low and unpoetical that we should not confess it without the authority and precedent of Thomas Moore, who wrote that we must all dine. We could see no place where a dinner was to be obtained; and, therefore, by a foot-path, we wandered on, now between high stone walls that then between hedges, to "the Shallows protected nothing more than ploughed fields, and POLITICAL NARRATIVE. lovely cottage at that season, covered over with creditable bunches of grapes, surrounded by a large and nicely kept shrubbery, with clumps of roses and wreathes of honeysuckle and jasmine, and all manner of flowers; and those lasting evergreens of Thanet that all good people love so well; and bowers, never disgraced by any liquid stronger than milk or tea; and yet, where we have heard that sometimes a thousand of these wandering visitors to Margate and its sister, contrive to pass an afternoon. Now we are not in any manner surprised at that, if, as it is said, the sea air improves London appetites-not at any time badfor tea at the Shallows is something for an epicure to think on through a dreary winter of workespecially in the square room of the cottage, not unlike an entrance hall at first sight, decorated with art engravings--not of mounful, stupid, or wicked paintings, such as Cain killing Abel; that we often meet in old houses; but good moral English subjects and themes-though there are indeed engravings of the various phases of that solemn tragedy, over which we have cried a great deal in different places long ago-the story of the "Babes in the Wood." It would be quite impossible for the merest child to become so sentimental here for the bread, and the tea, and more particularly the cream, are so engaging, that after all, we could put up even with Cain and Abel on the walls without a murmur. The means of getting to and from Ramsgate, are, of course, the South Eastern Railway, steamers, and a variety of coaches, which maintain their position on the short roads-roads of twenty to thirty miles however, just, we believe, because mankind like to do droll things in the country, and among other matters to travel by coach. 697 The hospitality of the people of Ramsgate appears unbounded. Almost every house in some street invites the wayfarer to bed and board and rest-to lodgings furnished or unfurnished-but that is not the case in every quarter, Ramsgate has its old reputable squares and streets, whose inhabitants have nothing whatever to do with the floating population, upon whose vaccilating ways we suppose that they rather look down. It is a town with an absolute and real population of respectable residents who stand by themselves without our assistance. Indeed it does not depend on Summer visitors so much as some other towns of the class, for when the Summer goes the Winter comes, and with the Winter storms, and ships seeking refuge-and ships needing repairs-and the Winter's labours are, perhaps, not less productive than the Summer's amusements; although it would be a curious statistical diversion for some member of the Board of Trade to ascertain the employment or fate during the Winter, of the many goats and the still more numerous donkeys and donkey-drivers who furnish little armies of little children with their afternoon's amusement; or even the still more valuable horses and drivers who would seem a cavalry regiment in Summer. What work do they perform, and how do they live from November to May. There are questions of social economy, into which it may be impertinent to inquire too closely, and these may be of them. Altogether, we formed a highly favourable opinion of Ramsgate, as a very sensible, respectable town, that necessarily becomes prettier as it becomes larger, from the nature of the ground upon which it partly stands now, and will stand hereafter if its hereafter is to be one of extension and prosperity. POLITICAL NARRATIVE. THE INDIAN WAR. The intelligence received from India by the last mail has been considered satisfactory by the public, but the estimate is not altogether correct. Delhi was assaulted on the 14th September. Breaches had been made in the walls by the heavy mortars which were expected early in September. The assault occurred in three columns. Two were successful, and one, consisting of the Cashmere Brigade and the Ghoorkas, were compelled to retire. The Cashmere men had arrived only a short time previously, and did not act with great courage; so the poor Ghoorkas from the hills, although they preserved their character for valour, were not supported, and were obliged to retire. The position was abandoned by the mutineers on the 15th, which they had thus successfully defended on the 14th; and on the evening of the 16th, official intelligence has been received, that mortars had been brought within the city, and had commenced to shell the palaces at that time in the possession of the mutineers. The despatches of General Wilson only come down to the evening of the 16th, and we regret that the loss of 40 officers, and 600 men killed and wounded had been, so far as we can learn, incurred before that night. Native reports, apparently well authenticated mentioned that the city was entirely in the possession of the British forces on the evening of the 20th of September; that the king had fled with his family; but had been subsequently taken. ders, who bayonetted some, if not every one of them. It would seem that the soldiers in every other case since have deprived Mr. Grant of the exercise of the high prerogative of mercy. The capture of the city is reported in despatches on leaving prison by a party of the 78th Highlan from native princes favourable to the Government. General Wilson, before the assault, issued strict orders against private plundering, and for the protection of children and females. He promised to the army an equitable division of prize money. The armed men and mutineers were left to the bayonet. The non-receipt of official despatches after the 16th is explained by the interruption of the mail service above Mooltan on the Indus. The cause of that interruption is unknown, but fears exist for the safety of the district, as some soldiers in Bombay regiments had mutinied in Scinde. They were seized, more than twenty were hung in one place, and others were banished. Major Eyre, acting under General Outram, attacked a detachment of Nana Sahib's men, on the march from Allahabad to Cawnpore. These men had crossed the Ganges from Oude, and were all destroyed or drowned in attempting to re-cross the river. They numbered three hundred. Severe fighting had occurred at Lucknow, from the efforts of Nena Sahib's followers to destroy the small garrison in the Presidency. These gallant guards of several hundreds of helpless persons, mothers with their children, had on the 5th September, driven back their frantic assailants with a great slaughter. One mine was sprung, and four hundred Sepoys sunk dead among the ruins. General Havelock having been joined by General Outram's force, crossed the Ganges on the 19th September, and all known of his march subse. quently is, that he was skirmishing with the foe. He expected to reach Lucknow in time to relieve the garrison, who were provisioned to the 1st current. From other quarters of India we hear of risings among the Sepoys. The 50th and 52nd regiments had quietly marched away from their cantonments without injuring their officers. Assam, on the north-eastern frontier, was in disorder; and the tea planters had been obliged to leave their interesting occupation, and their properties may be ruined for years. The 93rd Scotch and the 23rd Welsh regiments had arrived at Calcutta, followed by the 64th, and before October Sir Colin Campbell had proceeded up the Ganges probably, with reinforcements consisting of 5,000 men. The character of the despatches depends upon the circumstances that attended or followed the fall of Delhi. We shall not be acquainted with them for ten days perhaps; but much rests upon the moral result that they may produce in Bengal. About one hundred and fifty of the Cawnpore mutineers were arrested, but afterward pardoned by Mr. J. P. Grant, resident at Allahabad-a piece of lenity thought to be at least very misjudged. A private, and said to be a reliable, letter from Calcutta states that these men were attacked THE COMMERCIAL PANIC. The intelligence from the United States gradually prepared the people of this conntry for the suspension of specie payments everywhere. Pensylvania, Rhodes Island, and the banks of Baltimore led the way, and then followed at a respectful distance those of Boston and New York. The intelligence received on the 26th current by the Arabia, leaves no doubt that all the banks of the Union are gone. This general stoppage is not the result of a sudden panic, for the bankers have had six months to consider the exigency. It does not resemble the suspension of the Bank Charter Act in this country by the Government which was adopted in 1847, and may be repealed in 1857, for that only concerns those laws by which artificial security is supposed to be obtained for the payment of bullion, and leaves the bankers responsible still for the redemption of their notes. The suspension in the United States is the act of the bankers, and resembles an act of insolvency. Several failures have occurred during the week. The responsibilities of one firm, Thornton, Huggins, Ward, and Co., amount, it is said, to nearly one million sterling, and of their assets, half a million are in bills on the United States. Some in Glasgow and its neighbourhood present an aggregrate of nearly two millions, without particularly noticing firms of minor importance brought down in consequence of others, whose liabilities must amount to a large sum. Every house at all connected with America, no matter how remote or indirect the connexion may be, suffers more or less by the crisis; and the late events must try all but those possessed of large resources independent of business. The The multitude of failures among mercantile houses in all parts of the Union is unprecedented. With the example of bankers before them commercial houses close their doors rapidly. losses to this country will be extremely severe; and all the measures that can be possibly taken here will not prevent the exportation of bullion to pay for corn and cotton, which may be obtained at a low rate. The commercial panic in the United States cannot be traced to any other causes than the great expansion of the railway system; and the extravagance of the mercantile body in all their business and personal arrangements. The former is the larger cause; but the republican simplicity of the West for many years has been a very strange article. As for the canals, docks, harbours, and railways of the Union, their shares are held here to the extent of one hundred millions sterling, and the value of the whole is not at present twenty five millions. The difference is lost in the meantime. |