Lady Maria Callcott

“ If you look at the map of the world in this place, my dear little Arthur, you will wonder that two countries in Europe, so close together as England and France, should think or sending their soldiers and sailors so far off as India to fight their battles; but you will wonder still more when you learn that, not content with this, they sent other fleets and armies to North America, where they fought till the English conquered the greatest part of all the country that the French ever had in that part of the world. ”

“ Every turn in our ride brought a new and varied landscape into view: beneath, the sugar-cane in luxuriant growth; above, the ripening orange and the palm; around and scattered through the plain enlivened by the windings of the Guazindiba, the lime, the guava, and a thousand odorous and splendid shrubs, beautified the path.—But all is new here. The long lines of fazenda houses, that now and then take from the solitariness of nature, suggest no association with any advance either of old or present time, in the arts that civilise or that ennoble man. ”

“ If Your Royal Highness, which is not to be believed, were to obey the absurd and indecent decree of the 29th of September, besides losing, in the world, the dignity of a man and of a prince, by becoming the slave of a small number of factious men, you would also have to answer before heaven for the rivers of blood which would assuredly inundate Brazil on account of your absence: because its inhabitants, like raging tigers, would surely remember the supine sloth in which the ancient despotism kept them buried, and in which a new constitutional Machiavelism aims even now to retain them. ”

“ You know, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, I told you that some bold sailors had sailed as far as America. Now Queen Elizabeth, who knew very well that the kings of France and Spain wanted to make war upon England, and drive her away, and oppress the Protestants, thought, like wise King Alfred, that the best way to defend England was to have plenty of ships and good seamen, and brave admirals and captains to command them: and so meet her enemies on the sea, and keep them from ever landing in England. ”

“ The gaudy plumage of the birds, the brilliant hues of the insects, the size, and shape, and colour, and fragrance, of the flowers and shrubs, seen mostly for the first time, enchanted us, and rendered our little journey to the great pepper gardens, whither we were going, delightful. Every hedge is at this season gay with coffee blossom, but it is too early in the year for the pepper or the cotton to be in beauty. It is not many years since Francisco da Cunha and Menezes sent the pepper plant from Goa for these gardens, which were afterwards enlarged by him, when he became governor of Bahia. ”

“ James taught him that no power on earth had any right to find fault with the king, that the king’s power was given to him by God, and that it was a great sin to say that anything the king did was wrong. Thus he taught him to think that the people were made for nothing but to obey kings, and to labour and get money for kings to spend as they pleased, and that even the nobles were nothing but servants for kings ”

“ Whether the gazing on a beautiful scene be in itself a pleasure great enough to alleviate confinement; or whether it does not increase the longing for liberty in a way analogous to that in which a well-remembered air creates a longing, even to death, for the home where that air was first heard;—it seems to me as if, once imprisoned, I would break every association with liberty, and keep my eyes from wandering where my limbs must no longer bear me. ”

“ When King Edward came home to England, he determined to do everything he could to make the people happy: he knew they could not be happy if the laws were not obeyed; so he was determined that no wicked person should escape without punishment, and that all good people might live quietly, and do what they liked best.
I told you before that wise Simon de Montfort, who was killed in Henry the Third’s reign, had got the king to observe the custom of not taking money from the people without the consent of the parliament or of the people themselves. ”

“ Yes, august Sire! the wisdom, the prudence, and the gentle manners of Lord Cochrane, have contributed still more to the happy issue of our political difficulties, than even the fear of his forces, however respectable they might be. To anchor in our port; to proclaim independence; to administer the proper oaths of obedience to Your Imperial Majesty; to suspend hostilities throughout the province; to cause a new government to be elected; to bring the troops of the country into the town, and then only in sufficient numbers for the public order and tranquillity ”

“ It is well for England that the Danish king was good and wise. His name was Canute. When he saw how unhappy the people of England were, and how ill the Danes treated them, he was very sorry, and made laws to prevent the Danes from doing any more mischief in England, and to help the English to make themselves comfortable again. And because some of King Alfred’s good laws had been forgotten, while the wars were going on, he inquired of the old judges and the wise men how he could establish those laws again, and he made the people use them. ”

“ Without Union you cannot be strong, without strength you cannot command Tranquillity. Portuguese! Citizens! You have a Prince who speaks to you with kindness of your own work; who invites you to rally with him round the constitution; who recommends to you that moral force which embraces justice and is identified with reason, and which can alone accomplish the great work we have begun. To-day you burst the bonds which threatened you with suffocation. To-day you assume the true attitude of free men. ”

“ Elizabeth, when she found how very ill Ireland was governed, wished to make it a little more like England, and to try to bring the people to live in peace. She sent a wise Governor there, called Sir Henry Sydney, and then another called Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton; but all that these good men could do was to keep the new English a little in order, and to try to do justice to the other people. By the queen’s orders they set up schools, and a college in Dublin, in hopes that the young Irishmen would learn to become more like the men of other countries. ”

“ The beach is defended by two castles, sufficiently strong when their situation is considered; on one side a furious surf breaking at their base, on the other a deep estuary and flat ground beyond, so that they cannot be commanded. The sand is partially covered by shrubs; one is very splendid with thick leaves and purple bell-shaped flowers; many are like those of the eastern world; many are quite new to me. I was surprised at the extreme beauty of Olinda, or rather of its remains, for it is now in a melancholy state of ruin. All the richer inhabitants have long settled in the lower town. ”

“ A king’s duty is to govern his people well; he must not only see that good laws are made, but he must also take care that everybody obeys them.
A bishop’s duty is to pray and preach, and see that all the clergymen who are under him do their duty, and instruct the people properly.
A soldier’s duty is to fight the enemies of his country in war, and to obey the king, and to live quietly in peace. A judge’s duty is to tell what the law is, to order the punishment of bad people, and to prevent wickedness. A physician’s duty is to cure sick people ”

“ Yet about fifty young creatures, boys and girls, with all the appearance of disease and famine consequent upon scanty food and long confinement in unwholesome places, were sitting and lying about among the filthiest animals in the streets. The sight sent us home to the ship with the heart-ache: and resolution, "not loud but deep," that nothing in our power should be considered too little, or too great, that can tend to abolish or to alleviate slavery. ”

“ The nobles of England are useful to the country. As they are rich enough to live without working for themselves and their families, they have time to be always ready when the king wants advice; or when there is a parliament to make laws; or when the king wishes to send messages to other kings. And as their forefathers were made noble because of their goodness, wisdom, or bravery, they have in general followed their example; and they have always, next after the king, been the people we have loved best, and who have done us the most good. ”

“ I this day, in your presence, most solemnly ratify this promise, and I trust you will assist me in fulfilling it, by framing a wise, just, and practicable constitution, dictated by reason, not caprice; and having solely in view the general happiness, which can never be great if the constitution be not founded on solid grounds, grounds which the wisdom of ages has shown to be just, in order to give true liberty to the people, and sufficient strength to the executive power. ”

“ But I must tell you a great deal more about Lady Jane Grey, and I will begin her story at the time when she was very young indeed.
As she was only a few months older than her cousin Edward the Sixth, she had the same teachers in everything, and she was like him in gentleness, goodness, and kindness. Her masters found that she was still cleverer than the little king, and that she learned Latin and Greek too more readily than he did. She knew French, and Spanish, and Italian perfectly, and loved music and painting. ”

“ So by the time the French and English met again in battle, the French had recovered their spirits. And when the king, and the nobles, and the people saw that young woman go in front of the army, and into every dangerous place, and fight better than any of the bravest soldiers, they would have been ashamed not to follow her; so that her bravery and her good advice did really begin to save her country. ”

“ In town, very few houses have the luxury of a garden at all. These gardens are rather like oriental flower-plots, but they assimilate well with the climate. The flowers of the parterres of Europe grow by the side of the gayer plants and shrubs of the country, shaded by the orange, banana, bread-fruit (now nearly naturalised here,) and the palms, between straight alleys of limes, over whose heads the African melia waves its lilac blossoms; and on the raised water channels, china vases are placed, filled with aloes and tuberoses, and here and there a statue intermixed. ”