Paterson

“ When the Queen's Record Reign was being celebrated in Perth, Mr. Paterson was a moving spirit in the festivities, being chairman of the Decoration Committee. He has always been an active member of the Australian Natives' Association, and is an ex-president of the Western Australian branch. He takes an interest in athletic sports of all kinds, and is vice-president of a number of sporting combinations. There is a refreshing geniality and frankness about Mr. Paterson. No one is more zealous than he of the welfare of Perth. ”

“ Richard Bulger, the second priest ordained by Bishop Connolly, was sent to Paterson as its first resident pastor, or rather as a missionary to Northern New Jersey, with his headquarters at Paterson. God only knows the patient and uncomplaining services, the whole-souled zeal of this truly Apostolic priest, as he travelled through the counties of Passaic, Sussex and Morris. Of a cheerful and gay disposition he delighted in telling amusing incidents connected with his travels. Some have come down to us by tradition curtailed or adorned as the narrator's imagination was lively or dull. ”

“ Paterson was apparently more at home in exploration and study of science than as an administrator or even a soldier. ‘The weak Colonel Paterson,’ writes Rusden on one occasion, ‘thought more of botanical collections than of extending the cords of British sovereignty.’ He seems to have been of an amiable and undecided character, often giving offence to two opposing parties by his anxiety to please both. He was the most lavish of the early administrators in his grants to private persons of the land of the colony. ”

“ Paterson's works are excellent in form and matter; they are quite impersonal, for few men who have written so much have said so little about themselves. There is no reference to the scurrilous attacks made on him. They are the true products of a noble and disinterested as well as vigorous mind. ”

“ Paterson's acquaintance with the native language, there was no need of an interpreter, and he proceeded to explain the purpose of his visit.
"We are come," said he, "from the other side of the globe to greet you, O King! We are come as friends, not as enemies. We would take nothing from you without due payment. We offer to purchase from you sufficient land for our settlement, and we want not only your land, but your friendship. If you treat us kindly, if you deal with us honourably, we will help to make you and your people greater and richer, and we will also aid you against your enemies. ”

“ Paterson will receive a big cheque from his publishers; and most thoroughly will he have deserved it.”
DAILY TELEGRAPH—“A bright, exhilarating story of thrilling adventures and hairbreadth ’scapes in Western America.... As a sensational romance Mr. Paterson’s latest fiction may safely be pronounced ‘bad to beat.’”
ST. JAMES’S BUDGET—“It would be difficult to find a more exciting story of adventure than that provided by Mr. Arthur Paterson in A Son of the Plains.... The interest never flags for a single instant.” ”

“ Paterson, who was made colonel by brevet on 25 April 1808, was still at Port Dalrymple when Major Johnston reported to him the deposition of Governor William Bligh [q. v.] In January 1809 he went to Sydney, and administered the government till the king's pleasure was known. He had approved the proceedings taken against Bligh by the officers of the New South Wales corps, and declined to entertain Bligh's appeals that he should restore him. Bligh had plotted to place Paterson under arrest on his arrival, and Paterson wrote indignantly to Lord Castlereagh of Bligh's conduct. ”

“ It will, however, show to the rising generation to whom they are indebted for the success [Pg 14] of the church in Paterson: who the men and women were whom God made his instruments in establishing Catholicism in Passaic County.
Agnew, Patrick, was among the earliest Catholic settlers in Paterson. He was for some time employed in the Phœnix Mill but subsequently kept a store in Cross street. His son John is in business in this city; his son Thomas is in business in San Francisco and his daughter Margaret is the wife of Charles H. O'Neill, of Jersey City. ”

“ When Paterson did at last reach headquarters in January, 1809, Foveaux remained the real though no longer the nominal chief. Paterson went up to Paramatta and nursed his infirmities at the Governor's cottage in peaceful retirement. The Government went on in his name, and it was nominally under his orders that Macarthur and Johnston sailed for England in the Admiral Gambier merchant vessel in March, 1809. They went to lay their case against Bligh before the Home Government, and in the same month Bligh also set sail in His Majesty's Ship Porpoise of which he held the command. ”

“ In other words, we fear that by that time he will be, in the common but hideously significant phrase, another man. Now, it is this horrible fairy tale of a man constantly changing into other men that is the soul of the Decadence. That John Paterson should, with apparent calm, look forward to being a certain General Barker on Monday, Dr. Macgregor on Tuesday, Sir Walter Carstairs on Wednesday, and Sam Slugg on Thursday, may seem a nightmare; but to that nightmare we give the name of modern culture. ”

“ It became a delicate and troublesome task to select from such a throng of eager volunteers, for, of course, all could not go, and, alas! for the success of the enterprise, in too many cases family interest or personal influence prevailed to find a place for some good-for-nothing scapegrace instead of an honest, hard-working man, who would have been a valuable addition. If only Mr. Paterson had been able to inspire those associated with him with his own unselfish zeal and high integrity, there might have been a different story to tell. ”

“ Paul, Covent Garden, London, died in 1740, and young Paterson went to France. About 1748 he opened a shop opposite Durham Yard, in the Strand, and imported foreign books; at that time Paul Vaillant was the only other dealer in foreign literature in London. Paterson published a few books, among them Mrs. Charlotte Lennox's first work, ‘Poems on several Occasions,’ in 1747. He continued the business without great success until about 1753, when he commenced as auctioneer at Essex House, formerly the residence of Sir Orlando Bridgman, in Essex Street, Strand. ”

“ The conversation between Mr. Pulitzer and Paterson, or, rather, Paterson's frequently interrupted monologue, lasted until we had all finished dinner, and the butler had lighted Mr. Pulitzer's cigar. In the middle of an eloquent passage from Paterson, Mr. Pulitzer rose, turned abruptly toward me, held out his hand, and said, "I'm very glad to have met you, Mr. Ireland; you have entertained me very much. Please come here to-morrow at eleven o'clock, and I'll take you out for a drive. Good-night." He took Paterson's arm and left the room. ”

“ Paterson is the hero of Eliot Warburton's novel Darien, or the Merchant Prince, an historical romance, London, 1852; and to Paterson is dedicated Paul Coq's treatise La Monnaie de Banque ou l'espèce et le portefeuille, Paris, 1863, to which is prefixed a memoir, in which full justice is done to Paterson's supreme business talents. ”

“ At that time the people of the northern kingdom were considering how best to share in that trade which was so rapidly enriching their southern neighbours. Paterson saw his opportunity. He removed to Edinburgh, unfolded his Darien (q.v.) scheme, and soon had the whole nation with him. He is the supposed author of the act of 1695 which formed the “Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies.” This company, he arranged, should establish a settlement on the Isthmus of Darien, and “thus hold the key of the commerce of the world.” ”

“ Hence you were not slow to organize temperance societies, not merely for the older men and women, but also for the young men, and even for boys, and from the very day on which you entered the City of Paterson, up to the present moment, you have never relaxed your energies in the promotion of the cause of temperance, and in checking the ravages of intemperance in your parish. ”

“ John's Church.—A Silver Jubilee.—A Life Devoted to the Service of the Almighty.—The Choir of the Church.—Various Societies of the Congregation.
No person in Paterson has done harder and more energetic work in the cause of Catholicism than the reverend pastor of St. John's congregation, Father William McNulty. His pluck, untiring zeal, kind disposition and many other laudable characteristics have endeared him to all. ”

“ If the veranda had been on fire, he felt he could not have left it to seek safety in some place where he was unable to see the bushy path where the two strolled. Then they emerged from that on to the broader walk that led straight to where he was sitting, and after a few whispered words, Lord Paterson left her there, and came quickly towards the hotel. He passed close by Hugh, gave him (so Hugh thought) a glance of amused derision, and went into the hotel.
Julia came quickly towards him when Lord Paterson had gone.
“Oh, Hughie,” she said. “Will you be a tremendous angel? ”

“ For example, a woman of evil repute, named Margaret Paterson, having drawn aside from virtue two very young men, James and David Kennedy, sons of a late minister of the Trinity College Church, was adjudged to stand an hour in the jougs at the Tron, and then to be scourged from the Castle Hill to the Netherbow, after which a life of exile in the plantations was her portion. ”

“ The Blast remained in the West Indies until the peace of 1783, when she returned to England, and was put out of commission. At the commencement of the war with the French republic, Captain Paterson obtained the command of the Gorgon store-ship, in which he proceeded with the late Viscount Hood to the Mediterranean, where he was promoted by his Lordship to post rank in the Ariadne, of 20 guns, by commission dated Jan. 20, 1794; and in the course of the same year removed into the Melpomene, a fine frigate taken possession of at Calvi, when that place surrendered to the British arms [6] . ”

“ George Paterson said. "That man means to marry your sister, and get hold of all she possesses."
"Oh, George! Amelia is close on fifty, and Mr. Skinner can't be much over thirty."
"That does not matter; the same thing is done every day. Don't we see great folks setting the example, and ladies of any age marrying young fellows who want their money? You may depend upon it, Skinner has this in his little sly eye. Well, I shan't do him any good by abusing him, nor myself neither; so I'll have done."
"Not a word from Jack," Mrs. Harrison sighed out—"not a word." ”

“ There is singular fitness in the motto “Sic vos non vobis” inscribed under the only portrait of him we possess.
See Life of W. Paterson, by S. Bannister (Edinburgh, 1858) ; Paterson's Works, by S. Bannister (3 vols., London, 1859) ; The Birthplace and Parentage of W. Paterson, by W. Pagan (Edinburgh, 1865) ; Eng. Hist. Review, xi. 260. The brilliant account of the Darien scheme in the fifth volume of Macaulay's History is incorrect and misleading; that in Burton's Hist. of Scotland (vol. viii. ch. 84) is much truer. ”

“ British Art may congratulate itself that in Helen Paterson’s case, as in that of so many others, “there’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” It is very certain that had the fates ordained that she should remain in Birmingham her talent would never have flowed into the channel which has made possible a memoir of her Art under the title of “Happy England.” ”

“ In the autumn of the year 1874 Miss Paterson was married to Mr. William Allingham, the well-known poet, editor of Fraser’s Magazine, and friend of so many of the celebrities in literature, science, and art of the middle of the last century, amongst whom may be mentioned Carlyle, Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Browning, and Tennyson. It was to be near the first named that the newly married couple went to reside in Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, where they passed the next seven years of their married life, namely until 1881. ”

“ National antipathy operated on some minds, religious antipathy on others. But it is impossible to deny that the anger which Paterson's schemes excited throughout the south of the island was, in the main, just and reasonable. Though it was not yet generally known in what precise spot his colony was to be planted, there could be little doubt that he intended to occupy some part of America; and there could be as little doubt that such occupation would be resisted. There would be a maritime war; and such a war Scotland had no means of carrying on. ”

“ It was true that almost every habitable part of America had already been seized by some European power. Paterson, however, imagined that one province, the most important of all, had been overlooked by the short-sighted cupidity of vulgar politicians and vulgar traders. The isthmus which joined the two great continents of the New World remained, according to him, unappropriated. Great Spanish viceroyalties, he said, lay on the east and on the west; but the mountains and forests of Darien were abandoned to rude tribes which followed their own usages and obeyed their own princes. ”

“ Dan Paterson now inhabits a neat cottage in the village, and Mr. Laing has quite set him up with a boat of his own, ready rigged and fitted for use. He has entirely reformed, has become a member of a temperance society, and his wife and family are as happy as the day is long. Mr. and Mrs. Laing are supplied with the very best of fish, and stockings and mittens are manufactured by the Patersons for the little Laings, particularly during boisterous weather, when fishing is out of the question. Thus has a wise Providence made even the wrath of man to praise him. ”

“ On 4 Feb. 1809 he and Bligh signed the convention by which the latter consented to go home ‘with the utmost despatch,’ but Bligh had not gone further than Tasmania by March, and continued to give trouble. Paterson was relieved on 31 Dec. 1809 by the arrival of the new governor, Lachlan Macquarie [q. v.] His corps—now become the 102nd regiment—was ordered home, and he left the colony in May 1810, amid the enthusiastic farewells of the colonists. He died on the passage home, on board her majesty's ship Dromedary, on 21 June 1810. ”