Jacob Faithful ... Illustrated by H. M. Brock. With an introduction by David Hannay

Introduction

BY DAVID HANNAY HanHoit MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK i895 All rights reserved

INTRODUCTION.

There are three sentences in Thackeray's Roundabout Paper De Finibus with which a preface to Jacob Faithful ought properly to begin : ' In one or two of these fits ' (of the fever and ague which were pleasingly treated by hot brandy and water, or fiction) ' I have read novels with the most frightful contentment of mind. Once on the Mississippi it was my beloved_/'T«''5 Faithful ; once at Frank fort-on-the-Maine the delightful Vingt ans apres of Monsieur Dumas ; once at Tunbridge Wells the thrilling Woman in White, and these books gave me amusement from morning till sunset. I remember those ague fits with a great deal of pleasure and gratitude.' Marryat's story is in the best of company when it is named together with Vingt ans apres. There are some who do not find that joy in reading Dumas which is so heartily, and sometimes so noisily, avowed by his professed, not to say professional, admirers.

But they are a minority among the lovers of tales of adventure. It becomes them to reflect that they are probably wrong, and ought to be proportionately modest. They must in any case remember that the true lovers of Dumas can praise nothing more highly than by linking it in their esteem with something of his. Now Thackeray certainly enjoyed Dumas. M. Brunetiere indeed has maintained that the English novelist's praise of eet amuseur was sarcasm in JACOB FAITHFUL disguise, but a fine sense of humour is not what most conspicuously distinguishes the most learned, classical, and polemical of French critics. Thackeray was content with an 'amuser.' If he then, loving Vingt ans apres for what it is, and not complaining of it for not being something quite different, could name Jacob Faithful by its side as 'beloved,' he must be held to have given Marryat's story a certificate of character.

Marryat, we may believe, would have asked for no more than Thackeray's praise gives him. The reader who asks for more than amusement at a time when he does not want to be called upon to think, or even to feel deeply, may be disappointed in Jacob Faithful. He may, if he likes, begin by complaining that Marryat has missed an excellent opportunity of making his story 'an historical document.' The river life as he saw it, and as he partially drew it both in this story and in Poor Jack, has become almost a thing of the past. Steamers, bridges with wide arches, the embankment, and above all the police, have changed it profoundly. Some little historical research is required to reconstruct the world in which Jacob Faithful and young Saunders passed through various adventures to fortune. It is true that the study required is not deep.

Mr. Colquhoun's Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames is not only readable, but may be acquired, by a little vigilance or fair good luck, for sums of a shilling or less on bookstalls, even when bound in calf and nicely tooled. Mr. Colquhoun will explain at length what Marryat only touches on ; and if Jacob Faithful leads his reader into historical researches, who can say that his adventures have not served a purpose more serious than the mere supply of amusement ? The austere critic might, it is true, answer that even the contemptible end of supplying amusement might have been

INTRODUCTION.

better served if Marryat had dwelt more on that side of the river life to which Mr. Colquhoun's treatise is devoted. The picture drawn by that active magistrate of the Queen's Square Court, Westminster, is a curious one, and shows that if we are not better than our fathers, we are at least better off in that we possess a police which does, to a very appreciable extent, protect us from the depredations of ruffians. Shipowners, merchants, wharfingers, or share holders in a dock company may have to suffer from strikes and depression in trade. They are not preyed upon by a large, known, recognised, but hardly controlled criminal population, divided into upper and lower classes of Heavy Horsemen and Light Horsemen, otherwise described as Day Plunderers and Night Plunderers, 'Game' Lumpers, and Lightermen, fraudulent journeymen coopers, and rat catchers, mudlarkers, and scuffle-hunters.

Ships no longer find themselves cut adrift in the river by Light Horsemen, who politely inform the alarmed and indignant skipper that he need not trouble himself any further about his anchor and cables. Rum is not run off in immense quantities by that handy pump the 'jigger' into bladders fitted with wooden nozzles. Game lightermen do not run away with printed cotton goods by the bale. It may be believed that ' game ' as an adjective applied to ship, mate, lighterman, or lumper, is no longer a term in common use. It meant the vessel in which the River Pirate was sure of co-operation in the work of defrauding the shipper of the cargo, or the person who, under pretence of pursuing an honest trade, would aid in the fraud. We no longer, I think, speak of lumpers — at least, not familiarly. AVe say dock labourers.

The 'scuffle-hunter' remains, but we call him the casual docker. The mudlarker is an idle boy, not an adult, who, while pretending to look for rope ends and forgotten pieces X JACOB FAITHFUL of plank in the mud, was in reality the fetcher and carrier to thieves of higher standing. There must surely have been the materials for a tale of adventure of the picaresque order in the doings of this busy criminal world. It was very large. Mr. Colquhoun estimates it class by class, and arrives at a high figure. As for the amount of the combined robberies of all these classes of rogues, it passes belief. Large ware houses of respectable appearance lived on it, and the loss to the customs at last reached a figure which compelled the Government to organise the River Police. Not the least curious feature of it all is, that it was largely a result of our old practice of paying by perquisites instead of wages.

Men were hired at low wages, or none at all, and allowed to pay themselves by levying toll on the goods passing through their hands. Where they were allowed an inch, they, following the example of quite exalted persons, took an ell. The criminal and non-criminal populations sank into one another by fine insensible gradations, which is a state of things presenting opportunities for most excellent combina tions. Marryat merely touched on this attractive subject. It may be that he knew it only, as we do, from Mr. Colquhoun's book, which dates from 1800, thirty-four years before Jacob Faithful was written. But this cannot have been the only reason. He can have known little by personal experience of the honest lighterman or waterman. If then he said but little of Heavy or Light Horsemen and Mudlarkers, it was probably because the subject did not attract him; and as he lived in the happier times when nobody was asked to compile documents in the disguise of stories, he had no motive to write about what he did not find amusing. What had attractions for Marryat was in itself an old theme — the progress from poverty to wealth, and a final

INTRODUCTION.

happy marriage, of a humble hero. In itself this theme has many merits for a tale which is of that soothing character which makes it tolerable in an ague fit on a Mississippi steamer, and acceptable at all times when we are not above lying on a sofa and permitting ourselves to be amused. It is very optimistic, and most unlike the real world. Lighter boys do not often rise to fortune so easily as Jacob Faithful. Neither do they possess, as a rule, such a wonder ful facility in becoming gentlemen. Indeed, if Marryat's opinions are to be gathered from his stories, he seems to have believed that nothing was easier than to become a gentleman. The hero of The Poacher, and The King's Own, Newton Forster, Poor Jack, Jacob Faithful, and others, all 'walk in and hang up their hats' quite comfortably, in the most astonishingly short time after they have started from the most unpromising beginnings.

It is perhaps a little stupid to spend trouble in considering whether the progress of these heroes is probable. The mere rise of low-born man to position is always possible. Marryat might have quoted the case of his own contemporary, Jeremiah Coghlan, as a proof that in the naval world, which he knew best, it was quite within the bounds of probability that a man of spirit, with good luck, might rise to distinction. That the way of doing it should be easier and more diverting in a story than in real life was a matter of course. The question, however, is not whether such things could have happened in the real world, but whether they are credible when told of the happier world of romance. Jacob Faithful judged by the proper standard is more than barely credible — he is eminently plausible. Given his natural honesty, faculty for learning, affectionate disposition and agreeable person, given Mr. Drummond and Mr. Turnbull, and everything else follows.

Nothing could be more a matter of JACOB FAITHFUL course than that Mr. Drummond should give Jacob an education, and Mr. Turnbull leave him a fortune. These things always do happen in the pleasant world of stories written with no more lofty intention than to amuse. The characters, it must be allowed, are somewhat shadowy, nor, indeed, is there much substance in any of the others. An exception must, indeed, be made for a very minor personage, Captain Hector Maclean of the Immortalite frigate, in which Jacob and his friend Tom serve His Majesty towards the end of the story. Captain Maclean has all the appearance of a portrait of some original. His gigantic stature, his harsh face which could be illuminated by a smile, made all the sweeter by contrast, his favourite phrases ' I like ' and ' I do not like,' make up a personality.

Marryat's contemporaries might have found no difficulty in naming the officer who sat for the picture. But the appear ance of Captain Maclean is merely episodical. In the rest of the story we have to deal not with persons but with 'humours.' Old Tom with his endless songs, the Domine with his nose and his solemn pedantry, Stapleton with his ' human nature ' and his affected deafness, are ' humours ' undisguised. The characters which are not so marked as to be recognised again are but shadowy. Even Mary Stapleton, the jilt, remains very vague, though Marryat seems to have taken some trouble with her. It must, however, be again said that it is waste of time, and a rather pedantic form of waste, to seek in Jacob Faithful for what is to be found in Fielding. It is a book of adventures and humours.

The only test it ought fairly to be asked to stand is the inquiry whether the adventures are interesting and the humours lively. To that test the book answers very well. There is no lagging in the incidents, and they are seldom forced. The deaths of Jacob's parents are

INTRODUCTION.

brought about by means which are somewhat arbitrary, and more than a little disgusting, but after this repulsive beginning, the events are in themselves agreeable enough, and they are lavishly supplied. The humours are very sufficient humours. Old Tom, the disabled man-of-war's man, and old Stapleton, the waterman, who shams deaf to attract customers and has been a prize-fighter, having been led to that trade by the number of his battles with his rivals in the affection of his jilting sweetheart, are lively puppets in whom it is possible to take almost a human interest. The labour obviously spent on the Domine is comparatively wasted, but the swarm of minor figures which appear and disappear are for the most part brisk. The influence of Theodore Hook is easily to be traced in the puns, of which there are too many, and in such scenes as the actors' picnic.

Hook had made puns and practical jokes the fashion. Marryat supplied what the public was known to like in a style which will bear comparison with his original. The fashion for these things is gone, and nobody wants to bring it back. It was better in its time, and will wear better, than the smart cackle, cynical humour at second - hand from America, ' cruelty ' at second-hand from France, and gabble about so called 'problems,' which are the fashions of to-day. At any rate it forms only a subordinate part of a lively and kindly story, which does not preach, which was written to amuse, and not that the author might pose in any one of the 'cynical,' 'cruel,' 'daring,' or other affected attitudes with which we are tiresomely familiar. CONTENTS

Chapter I

My birth, parentage, and family pretensions — Unfortunately I prove to be a detrimental or younger son, which is remedied by a trifling accident — I hardly receive the first elements of science from my father, when the elements conspire against me, and I am left an orphan ...... Page I

Chapter II

I fulfil the last injunctions of my father, and I am embarked upon a new element — First bargain in my life very profitable, first parting with old friends very painful — First introduction into civilised life very unsatisfactory to all parties . . . .9

Chapter III

I am sent to a charity school, where the boys do not consider charity as a part of their education — The peculiarities of the master, and the magical effects of a blow of the nose — A disquisition upon the letter A, from which I find all my previous learning thrown away . . . . ■ . .19

Chapter IV

Sleight of hand at the expense of my feet — Filling a man's pockets as great an offence as picking them, and punished accordingly — A turn out, a turn up, and a turn in — Early impressions removed, and redundancy of feeling corrected by a spell of the rattan 26 b JACOB FAITHFUL

Chapter V

Mr. Knapps thinks to catch me napping, but the plot is discovered, and Barnaby Bracegirdle is obliged to loosen his braces for the second time on my account — Drawing caricatures ends in drawing blood — The usher is ushered out of the school, and I am very nearly ushered into the next world, but instead of being bound on so long a journey, I am bound ' 'prentice to a waterman ' ...... Page 35

Chapter VI

I am recommended to leara to swim, and I take the friendly advice- Heavy suspicion on board of the lighter, and a mystery, out of which Mrs. Radcliffe would have made a romance . 46

Chapter VII

The mystery becomes more and more interesting, and I determine to find it out — Prying after things locked up, I am locked up myself — Fleming proves to me that his advice was good when he recommended me to learn to swim . . . .56

Chapter VIII

More of the ups and downs of life — Up before the magistrates, then down the river again in the lighter — The Toms — A light heart upon two sticks — Receive my first lessons in singing — Our lighter well manned with two boys and a fraction . . 65

Chapter IX

The two Toms take to protocolling — Treaty of peace ratified between the belligerent parties — Lots of songs and supper — The largest mess of roast meat upon record . . . -73

Chapter X

I help to hang my late bargemate for his attempt to drown me — One good turn deserves another — The subject suddenly dropped, CONTENTS at Newgate — A yarn in the law line — With due precautions and preparations, the Domine makes his first voyage — to Gravesend ..... Page 82

Chapter XI

Much learning afloat — Young Tom is very lively upon the dead languages — The Domine, after experiencing the wonders of the mighty deep, prepares to revel upon lobscouse — Though the man of learning gets many songs and some yarns from old Tom, he loses the best part of a tale without knowing it .92

Chapter XII

Is a chapter of tales in a double sense — The Domine, from the natural effects of his single-heartedness, begins to see double — A new definition of philosophy, with an episode on jealousy . 100

Chapter XIII

The 'fun grows fast and furious' — The pedagogue does not scan correctly, and his feet become very unequal — An allegorical compliment almost worked up into a literal quarrel — At length, the mighty are laid low, and the Domine hurts his nose . 107

Chapter XIV

Cold water and repentance — The two Toms almost moral, and myself full of wise reflections — The chapter, being full of grave saws, is luckily very short _ and though a very sensible one, I would not advise it to be skipped . . . . .116

Chapter XV

I am unshipped for a short time, in order to record shipments and engross invoices — Form a new acquaintance, what is called in the world 'a warm man,' though he passed the best part of his life among icebergs, and one whole night within the ribs of death — His wife works hard at gentility . . .123 The The The Our XVIII JACOB FAITHFUL

Chapter XVI

High life above stairs, a little below the mark — Fashion, French, vertu, and all that .... Page 130

Chapter XVII

Tomkinses' fete chamfltre and fete dansante — Lights among the gooseberry bushes — All went off well, excepting the lights, they went out — A winding-up that had nearly proved a catastrophe — Old Tom proves that danger makes friends, by a yam, young Tom, by a fact . . . . 138

Chapter XVIII

art of hard lying made easy, though I am made very uneasy by hard lying — I send my ruler as a missive, to let the parties con cerned know that I'm a rebel to tyrannical rule — I am arraigned, tried, and condemned without a hearing — What I lose in speech is made up in feeling, the whole wound up with magnanimous resolves and a little sobbing . . . .149

Chapter XIX

breach widened — I turn sportsman, poacher, and desperado — Some excellent notions propounded of common law upon common rights — The common - keeper uncommonly savage — I warn him off — He prophesies that we shall both come to the gallows — Some men are prophets in their own country — The man right after all . . . . .160

Chapter XX

last adventure not fatal — Take to my grog kindly — Grog makes me a very unkind return — Old Tom at his yarns again — How to put your foot in a mischief, without having a hand in it — Candi dates for the cat-o'-nine-tails . . . .169 CONTENTS

Chapter XXI

On a sick bed — Fever, firmness, and folly — 'Bound 'prentice to a waterman' — I take my first lesson in love, and give my first lesson in Latin — The love lesson makes an impression on my auricular organ — Verily, none are so deaf as those who won't hear ..... Page 178

Chapter XXII

Is very didactic, and treats learnedly of the various senses and ' human nature ' ; is also diffuse on the best training to produce a moral philosopher — indeed, it contains materials with which to build up one system, and half a dozen theories, as these things are now made . . . . . . .192

Chapter XXIII

A very sensible chapter, having reference to the senses — Stapleton, by keeping his under control, keeps his head above water in his wherry — Forced to fight for his wife, and when he had won her, to fight on to keep her — No great prize, yet it made him a prize-fighter ....... 200

Chapter XXIV

The warmth of my gratitude proved by a very cold test— The road to fortune may sometimes lead over a bridge of ice — Mine lay under it — Amor vincit everything but my obstinacy, which young Tom and the old Domine in the sequel will prove to their cost . 208

Chapter XXV

'The feast of reason and the flow of soul' — Stapleton, on human nature, proves the former ; the Domine, in his melting mood, the latter — Sail's shoe particularly noted, and the true ' reading made easy' of a mind at ease, by old Tom . . .217 XX JACOB FAITHFUL

Chapter XXVI

The Domine's bosom grows too warm ; so the party and the frost break up — I go with the stream and against it ; make money both ways— Coolness between Mary and me— No chance of a Thames edition of Abelard and Eloise— Love, learning, and Latin all lost in a fit of the sulks . . • PaSe 232

Chapter XXVII

A good fare — Eat your pudding and hold your tongue — The Domine crossed in love — The crosser also crossed — I find that ' all the world's a stage,' not excepting the stern sheets of my wherry — Cleopatra's barge apostrophised on the river Thames . 241

Chapter XXVIII

The picnic party — Sufferings by oil, ice, fire, and water — Upon the whole, the 'divarting vagabonds,' as the Thespian heroes and heroines are classically termed, are very happy, excepting Mr. Winterbottom, whose feehngs are, by sitting down, down to zero 252

Chapter XXIX

Mr. Turnbull ' sets his house in order ' — Mrs. T. thinks such conduct very disorderly — The captain at his old tricks with his harpoon — He pays his lady's debts of honour, and gives the applicant a quittance under his own foot — Monsieur and Madame Tagliabue withdraw from the society of ces barbares les Anglais . 265

Chapter XXX

Mr. Turnbull finds out that money, though a necessary evil, is not a source of happiness ; the Domine finds out that a little calumny is more effectual than Ovid's Remedy for Love ; and I find out that walking gives one a good appetite for fillet of veal and bacon — I set an example to the clergy in refusing to take money for a seat in church ...... CONTENTS

Chapter XXXI

Mr. Turnbull and I go on a party of pleasure— It turns out to be an adventure, and winds up with a blunderbuss, a tin box, and a lady's cloak ..... Page 284

Chapter XXXII

The waterman turns water-knight — I become chivalrous, see a beautiful face, and go with the stream — The adventure seems to promise more law than love, there being papers in the case, that is, in a tin box ....... 292

Chapter XXXIII

A ten-pound householder occupied with affairs of state — The advantage of the word ' implication ' — An unexpected meeting and a reconciliation — Resolution versus bright black eyes — Verdict for the defendant, with heavy damages .... 298

Chapter XXXIV

How I was revenged upon my enemies — We try the bars of music, but find that we are barred out — Being no go, we go back . 310

Chapter XXXV

The Domine reads me a sermon out of the largest book I ever fell in with, covering nearly two acres of ground — The pages not very easy to turn over, but the type very convenient to read without spectacles — He leaves off without shutting his book, as parsons usually do at the end of their sermons . . .316

Chapter XXXVI

A long story, which ends in the opening of the tin box, which proves to contain deeds much more satisfactory to Mr. Wharncliffe than the deeds of his uncle — I begin to feel the blessings of inde- JACOB FAITHFUL pendence, and suspect that I have acted like a fool — After two years' consideration I become quite sure of it, and, as Tom says, ' no mistake '..... Page 322

Chapter XXXVII

A chapter of losses to all but the reader, though at first Tom works with his wit, and receives the full value of his exertions — We make the very worst bargain we ever made in our lives — We lose our fare, we lose our boat, and we lose our liberty — All loss and no profit — Fare very unfair — Two guineas' worth of argument, not worth twopence, except on the quarterdeck of a man-of-war 332

Chapter Xxxviii

There are many ups and downs in this world — We find ourselves in the Downs — Our captain comes on board, and gives us a short sermon upon antipathies, which most of us never heard the like of — He sets us all upon the go, with his stop watch, and never calls the watch, until the watch is satisfied with all hands . 341

Chapter XXXIX

'To be, or not to be,' that is the question — Splinters on board of a man-of-war, very different from splinters in the finger on shore — Tom prevents this narrative from being wound up by my going down — I receive a lawyer's letter, and instead of being annoyed, am delighted with it . . . . 350

Chapter XL

I interrupt a matrimonial duet and capsize the boat — Being on dry land, no one is drowned — Tom leaves a man-of-war because he don't like it — I find the profession of a gentleman preferable to that of a waterman ..... 360 CHAPTER 'XLI All the little boys are let loose, and the Domine is caught — Anxious to supply my teeth, he falls in with other teeth, and Mrs. Bately CONTENTS also shows her teeth — Gin outside, gin in, and gin out again, and old woman out also — Domine in for it again — More like a Whig ministry than a novel .... Page 368

Chapter XLII

In which I take possession of my own house, and think that it looks very ill-furnished without a wife — Tom's discharge is sent out, but by accident it never reaches him — I take my new station in society ....... 375

Chapter XLIII

The Domine proves Stapleton's ' human natur ' to be correct — The red coat proves too much of a match for the blue — Mary sells Tom, and Tom sells .what is left of him, for a shilling — We never know the value of anything till we have lost it . . 385

Chapter XLIV

I am made very happy — In other respects a very melancholy chapter, which, we are sorry to inform the reader, will be followed up by one still more so . . . . . 391

Chapter XLVI

In which, as usual in the last chapter of a work, everything is wound up much to the reader's satisfaction, and not a little to the author's, who lays down his pen, exclaiming, Thank God ! . . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ' I was able to manage the lighter as it floated down with the tide ' . . . . . Frontispiece ' Told ray story ' . . . . . .12 ' He looked down upon me ' . . . . .24 '"What's all this?"'. . . . . 30 ' "From whom didst thou obtain this?'" . . -39 ' Fleming caught me by the arm ' . . . .52 ' He dragged me out of the cabin ' . . . .62 ' Neither admonition was minded by Tom ' . . .74 ' Tommy made one more desperate tug ' . . -95 ' Shaking hands for nearly five minutes ' . . .110 ' Mrs. Drummond would make me read aloud ' . .124 ' Requesting them not to talk so loud' . . . 137 ' It was indeed an awful moment ' . . . 143 ' I seized a ruler and returned the salute ' . . 153 '" So I've caught you, have I ?" ' . . . 165 ' I found Stapleton at the door of the public-house ' . 183 ' I snatched a kiss ' .....* 188 ' " I used to watch the old missus a-knitting of stockings " ' . 196 '" So I floored him " ' ..... 206 ' Saw Mr. Turnbull fall in ' . . ■ .211 PAGE ' With her sweetest smile, she handed him the tumbler ' .223 ■ Mary covered her face and burst into tears' . . 239 '" Mind what you're arter, young fellow " ' . . . 249 ' Received into the hot frying-pan ' . . 262 'Kicking him out of the room' . . . .273 ' Seized hold of the lady by the arm' . . . . 2S9 ' " Who are you ? and who sent you ?

" ' . . 294 ' I could not do otherwise than go and assist them out ' . 304 '" You must hold on " ' . . . 312 ' "Read that which is now before us"' . . 3 19 ' She held up her singer in mockery, crying, " Boat, sir ; boat, sir"' . . . . . . . 328 ' The seamen in the boat forced her off with their oars ' 335 '" Follow my leader " ' ..... 349 ' I overheard the conversation ' . . . . 362 '" Here, Jacob, are two hard dumplings from yesterday " ' . 370 ' She started from her chair ' . . . . -377 '" Hear me, Jacob — hear me " ' .... 390 ' I brought him some wine ' . . . . 396 ' The Domine, listing up both arms, solemnly prayed ' . . 406 ' Sitting down in the poultry-yard, fancying that he was in his school ' . . . . . . .415