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the uncommercial traveller-第19部分

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not have been selected because they were the men who had the most

to tell it; but because they happened to be in a state admitting of

their safe removal。  Fourthly; to say whether the coroner and jury

could have come there; to those pillows; and taken a little

evidence?  My official friend declined to commit himself to a

reply。



There was a sergeant; reading; in one of the fireside groups。  As

he was a man of very intelligent countenance; and as I have a great

respect for non…commissioned officers as a class; I sat down on the

nearest bed; to have some talk with him。  (It was the bed of one of

the grisliest of the poor skeletons; and he died soon afterwards。)



'I was glad to see; in the evidence of an officer at the Inquest;

sergeant; that he never saw men behave better on board ship than

these men。'



'They did behave very well; sir。'



'I was glad to see; too; that every man had a hammock。'  The

sergeant gravely shook his head。  'There must be some mistake; sir。

The men of my own mess had no hammocks。  There were not hammocks

enough on board; and the men of the two next messes laid hold of

hammocks for themselves as soon as they got on board; and squeezed

my men out; as I may say。'



'Had the squeezed…out men none then?'



'None; sir。  As men died; their hammocks were used by other men;

who wanted hammocks; but many men had none at all。'



'Then you don't agree with the evidence on that point?'



'Certainly not; sir。  A man can't; when he knows to the contrary。'



'Did any of the men sell their bedding for drink?'



'There is some mistake on that point too; sir。  Men were under the

impression … I knew it for a fact at the time … that it was not

allowed to take blankets or bedding on board; and so men who had

things of that sort came to sell them purposely。'



'Did any of the men sell their clothes for drink?'



'They did; sir。'  (I believe there never was a more truthful

witness than the sergeant。  He had no inclination to make out a

case。)



'Many?'



'Some; sir' (considering the question)。  'Soldier…like。  They had

been long marching in the rainy season; by bad roads … no roads at

all; in short … and when they got to Calcutta; men turned to and

drank; before taking a last look at it。  Soldier…like。'



'Do you see any men in this ward; for example; who sold clothes for

drink at that time?'



The sergeant's wan eye; happily just beginning to rekindle with

health; travelled round the place and came back to me。  'Certainly;

sir。'



'The marching to Calcutta in the rainy season must have been

severe?'



'It was very severe; sir。'



'Yet what with the rest and the sea air; I should have thought that

the men (even the men who got drunk) would have soon begun to

recover on board ship?'



'So they might; but the bad food told upon them; and when we got

into a cold latitude; it began to tell more; and the men dropped。'



'The sick had a general disinclination for food; I am told;

sergeant?'



'Have you seen the food; sir?'



'Some of it。'



'Have you seen the state of their mouths; sir?'



If the sergeant; who was a man of a few orderly words; had spoken

the amount of this volume; he could not have settled that question

better。  I believe the sick could as soon have eaten the ship; as

the ship's provisions。



I took the additional liberty with my friend Pangloss; when I had

left the sergeant with good wishes; of asking Pangloss whether he

had ever heard of biscuit getting drunk and bartering its

nutritious qualities for putrefaction and vermin; of peas becoming

hardened in liquor; of hammocks drinking themselves off the face of

the earth; of lime…juice; vegetables; vinegar; cooking

accommodation; water supply; and beer; all taking to drinking

together and going to ruin?  'If not (I asked him); what did he say

in defence of the officers condemned by the Coroner's jury; who; by

signing the General Inspection report relative to the ship Great

Tasmania; chartered for these troops; had deliberately asserted all

that bad and poisonous dunghill refuse; to be good and wholesome

food?'  My official friend replied that it was a remarkable fact;


that whereas some officers were only positively good; and other

officers only comparatively better; those particular officers were

superlatively the very best of all possible officers。



My hand and my heart fail me; in writing my record of this journey。

The spectacle of the soldiers in the hospital…beds of that

Liverpool workhouse (a very good workhouse; indeed; be it

understood); was so shocking and so shameful; that as an Englishman

I blush to remember it。  It would have been simply unbearable at

the time; but for the consideration and pity with which they were

soothed in their sufferings。



No punishment that our inefficient laws provide; is worthy of the

name when set against the guilt of this transaction。  But; if the

memory of it die out unavenged; and if it do not result in the

inexorable dismissal and disgrace of those who are responsible for

it; their escape will be infamous to the Government (no matter of

what party) that so neglects its duty; and infamous to the nation

that tamely suffers such intolerable wrong to be done in its name。







CHAPTER IX … CITY OF LONDON CHURCHES







If the confession that I have often travelled from this Covent

Garden lodging of mine on Sundays; should give offence to those who

never travel on Sundays; they will be satisfied (I hope) by my

adding that the journeys in question were made to churches。



Not that I have any curiosity to hear powerful preachers。  Time

was; when I was dragged by the hair of my head; as one may say; to

hear too many。  On summer evenings; when every flower; and tree;

and bird; might have better addressed my soft young heart; I have

in my day been caught in the palm of a female hand by the crown;

have been violently scrubbed from the neck to the roots of the hair

as a purification for the Temple; and have then been carried off

highly charged with saponaceous electricity; to be steamed like a

potato in the unventilated breath of the powerful Boanerges Boiler

and his congregation; until what small mind I had; was quite

steamed out of me。  In which pitiable plight I have been haled out

of the place of meeting; at the conclusion of the exercises; and

catechised respecting Boanerges Boiler; his fifthly; his sixthly;

and his seventhly; until I have regarded that reverend person in

the light of a most dismal and oppressive Charade。  Time was; when

I was carried off to platform assemblages at which no human child;

whether of wrath or grace; could possibly keep its eyes open; and

when I felt the fatal sleep stealing; stealing over me; and when I

gradually heard the orator in possession; spinning and humming like

a great top; until he rolled; collapsed; and tumbled over; and I

discovered to my burning shame and fear; that as to that last stage

it was not he; but I。  I have sat under Boanerges when he has

specifically addressed himself to us … us; the infants … and at

this present writing I hear his lumbering jocularity (which never

amused us; though we basely pretended that it did); and I behold

his big round face; and I look up the inside of his outstretched

coat…sleeve as if it were a telescope with the stopper on; and I

hate him with an unwholesome hatred for two hours。  Through such

means did it come to pass that I knew the powerful preacher from

beginning to end; all over and all through; while I was very young;

and that I left him behind at an early period of life。  Peace be

with him!  More peace than he brought to me!



Now; I have heard many preachers since that time … not powerful;

merely Christian; unaffected; and reverential … and I have had many

such preachers on my roll of friends。  But; it was not to hear

these; any more than the powerful class; that I made my Sunday

journeys。  They were journeys of curiosity to the numerous churches

in the City of London。  It came into my head one day; here had I

been cultivating a familiarity with all the churches of Rome; and I

knew nothing of the insides of the old churches of London!  This

befell on a Sunday morning。  I began my expeditions that very same

day; and they lasted me a year。



I never wanted to know the names of the churches to which I went;

and to this hour I am profoundly ignorant in that particular of at

least nine…tenths of them。  Indeed; saying that I know the church

of old GOWER'S tomb (he lies in effigy with his head upon his

books) to be the church of Saint Saviour's; Southwark; and the

church of MILTON'S tomb to be the church of Cripplegate; and the

church on Cornhill with the great golden keys to be the church of

Saint Peter; I doubt if I could pass a competitive examination in

any of the names。  No question did I ever ask of living creature

concerning these churches; and no answer to any antiquarian

question on the subject that I ever put to books; shall harass the

reader's soul。  A full half of my pleasure in them arose out of

their mystery; mysterious I found them; mysterious they shall

remain for me。



Where shall I begin my round of hidden and forgotten old churches

in the City of London?



It is twenty minutes short of eleven on a Sunday morning; when I

stroll down one of the many narrow hilly streets in the City that

tend due south to the Thames。  It is my first experiment; and I

have come to the region of Whittington in an omnibus; and we have

put down a fierce…eyed; spare old woman; whose slate…coloured gown

smells of herbs; and who walked up Aldersgate…street to some chapel

where she comforts herself with brimstone doctrine; I warrant。  We

have also put down a stouter and sweeter old lady; with a pretty

large prayer…book in an unfolded pocket…handkerchief; who got out

at a corner of a court near Stationers' Ha
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