第128章

"STRANGE TO SAY, ON CLUB PAPER."

Before the Duke of York's column, and between the "Athenaeum" and "United Service" Clubs, I have seen more than once, on the esplanade, a preacher holding forth to a little congregation of badauds and street-boys, whom he entertains with a discourse on the crimes of a rapacious aristocracy, or warns of the imminent peril of their own souls.Sometimes this orator is made to "move on" by brutal policemen.Sometimes, on a Sunday, he points to a white head or two visible in the windows of the Clubs to the right and left of him, and volunteers a statement that those quiet and elderly Sabbath-breakers will very soon be called from this world to another, where their lot will by no means be so comfortable as that which the reprobates enjoy here, in their arm-chairs by their snug fires.

At the end of last month, had I been a Pall Mall preacher, I would have liked to send a whip round to all the Clubs in St.James's, and convoke the few members remaining in London to hear a discourse sub Dio on a text from the Observer newspaper.I would have taken post under the statue of Fame, say, where she stands distributing wreaths to the three Crimean Guardsmen.(The crossing-sweeper does not obstruct the path, and I suppose is away at his villa on Sundays.)And, when the congregation was pretty quiet, I would have begun:--In the Observer of the 27th September, 1863, in the fifth page and the fourth column, it is thus written:--"The codicil appended to the will of the late Lord Clyde, executed at Chatham, and bearing the signature of Clyde, F.M., is written, strange to say, on a sheet of paper BEARING THE 'ATHENAEUM CLUB'

MARK."

What the codicil is, my dear brethren, it is not our business to inquire.It conveys a benefaction to a faithful and attached friend of the good Field-Marshal.The gift may be a lakh of rupees, or it may be a house and its contents--furniture, plate, and wine-cellar.

My friends, I know the wine-merchant, and, for the sake of the legatee, hope heartily that the stock is large.

Am I wrong, dear brethren, in supposing that you expect a preacher to say a seasonable word on death here? If you don't, I fear you are but little familiar with the habits of preachers, and are but lax hearers of sermons.We might contrast the vault where the warrior's remains lie shrouded and coffined, with that in which his worldly provision of wine is stowed away.Spain and Portugal and France--all the lands which supplied his store--as hardy and obedient subaltern, as resolute captain, as colonel daring but prudent--he has visited the fields of all.In India and China he marches always unconquered; or at the head of his dauntless Highland brigade he treads the Crimean snow; or he rides from conquest to conquest in India once more; succoring his countrymen in the hour of their utmost need; smiting down the scared mutiny, and trampling out the embers of rebellion; at the head of an heroic army, a consummate chief.And now his glorious old sword is sheathed, and his honors are won: and he has bought him a house, and stored it with modest cheer for his friends (the good old man put water in his own wine, and a glass or two sufficed him)--behold the end comes, and his legatee inherits these modest possessions by virtue of a codicil to his lordship's will, written, "strange to say, upon a sheet of paper, bearing the 'Athenaeum Club' mark."It is to this part of the text, my brethren, that I propose to address myself particularly, and if the remarks I make are offensive to any of you, you know the doors of our meeting-house are open, and you can walk out when you will.Around us are magnificent halls and palaces frequented by such a multitude of men as not even the Roman Forum assembled together.Yonder are the Martium and the Palladium.

Next to the Palladium is the elegant Viatorium, which Barry gracefully stole from Rome.By its side is the massive Reformatorium:

and the--the Ultratorium rears its granite columns beyond.Extending down the street palace after palace rises magnificent, and under their lofty roofs warriors and lawyers, merchants and nobles, scholars and seamen, the wealthy, the poor, the busy, the idle assemble.Into the halls built down this little street and its neighborhood the principal men of all London come to hear or impart the news; and the affairs of the state or of private individuals, the quarrels of empires or of authors, the movements of the court, or the splendid vagaries of fashion, the intrigues of statesmen or of persons of another sex yet more wily, the last news of battles in the great occidental continents, nay, the latest betting for the horse-races, or the advent of a dancer at the theatre--all that men do is discussed in these Pall Mall agorae, where we of London daily assemble.

Now among so many talkers, consider how many false reports must fly about: in such multitudes imagine how many disappointed men there must be; how many chatterboxes; how many feeble and credulous (whereof I mark some specimens in my congregation); how many mean, rancorous, prone to believe ill of their betters, eager to find fault; and then, my brethren, fancy how the words of my text must have been read and received in Pall Mall! (I perceive several of the congregation looking most uncomfortable.One old boy with a dyed moustache turns purple in the face, and struts back to the Martium: another, with a shrug of the shoulder and a murmur of "Rubbish," slinks away in the direction of the Togatorium, and the preacher continues.) The will of Field-Marshal Lord Clyde--signed AT CHATHAM, mind, where his lordship died--is written, STRANGE TOSAY, on a sheet of paper bearing the "Athenaeum Club" mark!