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SKETCHES OF JERSEY.

NO. IV.

THE ISLAND.

We are told that we write sketches in Jersey, yet give little information of Jersey. To supply this omission, therefore, we begin by stating that Jersey (that small but pleasant island) is to be found in 49 deg. N. lat., 2 deg. 22 sec. W. long. The breadth of this same emporium of gaiety is somewhere about six miles; the length, eleven or twelve. We give the greatest limit, because we have an affection for the little place, and wish to make it as important as possible.

Now those tourists and others who visit the little island may have peregrinationary intentions of travelling to the adjacent islands of Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark; and no doubt they would like to know the relative positions of each of these places they may even have insane views (such as we have frequently held ourselves) of journeying over to France, either to Granville, St. Malo, or Cherbourg and they may wish to know what amount of sea-sickness they will have to endure, ere they can reach any or either of these respective places. We will simply give them the distances in old fashioned English miles, and leave all other calculations to themselves.

Jersey, then, is no less than 21 miles from Guernsey, 27 from Alderney, 29 from Granville, 32 from St. Malo, and 42 from Cherbourg. Sark is six miles east of Guernsey. At one time we entertained erratic notions of going there, but as we know that its extent is three miles by one, and as we have heard that there is only one decent house in the island, and nothing in the world to do there but to walk up a steep rock and see the sun rise, and then come down again, we have given up the notion.

But to return to Jersey. First to the soil: It is excellent, of great depth, and very productive. The price of land is high, but with skilful cultivation it amply repays the owners. They have (the Jerseyites, we mean,) a custom of cultivating parts of this land, as what may be termed hanging gardens" coutils," they are called. These gardens are shelves of earth, cut one above another, on the side of a sloping hill. The effect is new and pretty; perhaps we yield to it the latter at tribute in consequence of the former. These "coutils" are generally planted with fruit or vegetables; and we may fairly conclude that the plan answers, as they are so common in the island. We spare the reader a geological analysis of the land, feeling assured that if we took the trouble to write it, he would not care to read it.

After the soil we discuss the climate, which is so far connected with the soil, inasmuch as it has a considerable influence on its productions, and the soil, in return, has a particular influence upon

the climate, which is called mild in winter, hot in summer. As to the later assertion, we steady old English people remark that all places within British atmospheric influence appear to be "hot in summer;" 'twere very strange if Jersey should be "cold in summer!" But it is hot in summer-and very hot, moreover,-and the sky is an intense blue, and the glorious sea takes the same deep hue; and there is always a delicious breeze coming from that sca, and chasing the superfluous heat away.

Then Jersey is certainly "mild in winter "not as mild as some imaginative people would have you believe, who declare they can only "endure" a fire in the months of January and February! We have our own particular notions about their not being able to endure the heat of a fire; we would substitute "expense" for "heat," and we suspect we should be pretty near the truth. For our own part, we must say, that we, during our Jersey winters, always found a fire very comfortable from November, not earlier, to April, or even May. But, nevertheless, Jersey is mild in winter.

Now for the chief town which, as every one knows, is St. Helier's, and a very cheerful place it

is.

The streets, it is true, are narrow; but those streets contain plenty of shops, and those shops hold all you want, if you have only money to pay for the same; for, although people go to Jersey for economy, they cannot live there without that metal which first tempted the Phoenicians to our coasts, and which, judging from the current expression of the day, still seems to be in general requisition-"tin;" therefore, what matters it if the streets are narrow, when they contain what we want?

As to the people--not the English, Irish, and Scotch, but the Jerseyites, the Druidical remains seem to prove that the aborigines belonged to the Celtic races. The Romans also occupied the island for a considerable time; and when their empire in Gaul was conquered, and the Franks were subdued by the Northmen, or Normans, as they were called, Jersey became the residence of the latter, whose actions and conquests there were sung and chronicled by Wace, the first poet and historian of Jersey. Now, these same Normans generally carried matters with a very high hand, and they did not depart from their usual custom in Jersey. They established their own laws, and the legal authority of the island is the "Grand Coustumier de Normandie," a work, according to our British legal authority, Blackstone, of "very great con sideration."

Our worthless King John voluntarily granted a

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LAWS, REVENUE, TRADE, AND POPULATION.

pears-hundreds of bushels of which are yearly sent to England, and other places, and are justly considered a dainty, coming as they do at a time of year when native fruit cannot be obtained. The price asked for these pears is enormous, £5 per hundred being demanded and obtained for the largest-which, however, it may be remarked, should each of them weigh one pound, or even more than that.

The population of Jersey, like everything else there, except the island itself, is on the increase; some years since it extended to 50,000, now it considerably exceeds that number. But it is a changing population, and just at this present time promises to decrease, for a rumour exists in the island of an intention of imposing a local tax on the British residents. Now, the British residents won't stand this, therefore they will leave the place; and, therefore, as we said before, the population may be soon from this cause slightly on the decrease.

charter to Jersey, by which twelve "jurats | etc., and last, not least, pears-the great Jersey coroners" were established to assist the "bailli" in the administration of justice. These "jurats coroners" were to be elected for life from among the natives of the island. In cases of importance, an appeal is permitted to the Queen in council. This charter, and their laws, are still in force, but various modifications have from time to time been made by the different sovereigns of England. The people for whom these laws were framed are an honest, frugal, and industrious set (we are speaking of the Jerseyites, not the British), religious, and strict in their observance of the Sabbath. They are all of the Protestant faith, no Roman Catholic family being of Jersey origin. Each of the twelve parishes which the island contains, has an episcopal church; there are also several chapels of ease, and several dissenting places of worship. The Roman Catholics are chiefly, if not exclusively, French and Irish, and have increased of late years. Two of their chapels exist in St. Helier's. There are various schools established in the island-charity schools on a small scale, and the Royal College on a large one. At the latter establishment an excellent education may be obtained at a comparatively small rate; therefore, although we hate advice ourselves, and never by any chance take it, we are going to bestow a little of it on others, and "advise" people whose incomes are small, and families large, to go to Jersey, and get their boys "licked" into shape, and drilled into knowledge, at the Royal College of Jersey. The building is beautifully and healthfully situated on a hill, and commands a splendid view of the towns of St. Helier's and St. Aubin's, so that the budding masculine mind may delight in the contemplation of the beauties of nature, while conning old Horace and his cotemporaries. The revenue of Jersey is greater than those cynics who decry the little place may imagine; and, moreover, it is rapidly increasing. It is collected under the authority of royal charters, which were in the first instance ganted by the sapient James the First of England. In 1804, the consolidated revenue of Jersey amounted to no more than £5,000; in 1849 it had increased to £20,000! Cynics, look at that! We won't say what it extends to at present, because, like novel writers, we delight to make a mystery and excite an interest; so, ye wise cynics, who abuse our little island, if you would know the present revenue derived from it, you must even find out the same yourselves, and you cannot do better than just, by taking a trip over there, give to your bodies a modicum of sea air,-to your minds, an equivalent amount of Jersey information and finan cial statistics.

From the foregoing account of the revenue, it may fairly be surmised that the trade of the island is in a progressive state; and such is the case. The imports, of course, consist of all the people of the island require for their own use and consumption; the exports comprise cattle, butter,

We suppose our readers will like to know something of the Legislative Assembly, or States. It consists then of the Governor, as the representative of royalty; the Bailli, who acts as president or speaker; 12 Jurats, the 12 Rectors, and the 12 Constables, who are the representatives of each of the 12 parishes. These thirty-six members meet, propose, discuss, and enact laws. The Governor and Bailli can vote only in certain cases. The high legal authorities have seats, but do not vote. There are also two Crown lawyers, who may advise or dissent from, and address the States in any case.

Now it must not be imagined after all we have said, that Jersey is only a trading and legislating place; no, forsooth, Jersey has had, and now retains, military aspirations. Jersey men are many of them devotees of the belligerent Mars. Jersey has a militia, and a very goodly militia, too,—well trained and disciplined men, who, we have no doubt, would offer a brave resistance should our neighbours, the French, make a twelfth attack on the island (they have already perpetrated eleven), and rattle away famously with their artillery, &c. Besides the militia, Jersey (as is of course perfectly well known) is garrisoned with the Queen's troops, who occupy Fort Regent, and other military quarters of the island-the artillery (Queen's Royal) being stationed in Elizabeth Castle-a very pleasant place in summer, but rather dreary in winter, being a complete island at high water, and only to be reached on foot at low water by a wet and uncomfortable route over the beach.

We have now redeemed the charge against us of writing in Jersey rather than of Jersey; but a little more of practical information may be useful How can we get to Jersey?

In many ways;-by the cargo steamship from London direct, which goes every ten days-not the pleasantest mode, but ostensibly cheap; we say ostensibly cheap, because, in order to be really

HOTELS, LODGINGS, RENT.

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so, we must make up our minds to be sea-sick the There are plenty of hotels besides Bree's; lots whole way, in order not to eat; for the voyage of them, like mushrooms, springing up on all sides; round the Straits of Dover occupying a long time" The British,' "The Commercial," "Le Soleil -some days, in fact, time varying according to Levant," &c., &c., of different degrees of cleanli weather-if we eat, we will disburse more in ness-suitable to all pockets and persons; still provisions than would cover the additional passage we say, in friendly advice, go to "Bree's." money of the regular line of steamships from Weymoath, Southampton, or Brighton.

So much for that boat; and now to the other modes of transit. First in order comes the Royal mail steamships from Southampton-we like to be loyal, so we place royalty, even when connected with a steamboat, first. Then we have the Weymouth route, which, en passant, it may be remarked, embodies the advantage of a short sea passage, some three hours less than the Southampton route.

Next we have Maple's boats from Newhaven (the Brighton line), and capital boats they are, too, with good captains and accommodation; in fact, there is no difficulty in getting to Jersey; no difficulty in getting away again, unless one happens to be in debt-in which case he will experience very considerable difficulty; for the tradesmen and tradeswomen, although willing to trust to any amount, while their debtors remain on the island, lose their beautiful confidence in human nature as soon as the above named debtors talk of departure; and, to use a homely but very apposite simile, watch them "as a cat would watch a mouse;" frequently reserving the final spring until the unhappy debtor stands exultingly on the pier, ready for, and certain of as he thinks-escape. Then comes his enemy, his creditor, down upon him, and he must perforce liquidate his debt or debts-or prolong his residence in the island.

But how to get away" is not the first thing a traveller thinks of when he reaches a place although, in our own case, from a concatenation of unpleasant circumstances, it was almost the first thing we thought of on the evening of our arrival in Jersey. However, as we sincerely hope others may not be similarly circumstanced, we will afford a little useful information as to the manner in which the traveller may dispose of himself during the interval which, in the common course of nature, must elapse between his coming to, and departure from, the island.

First of all then, where is he to stop? We suppose, if he have friends in Jersey, he will stop with them; but, in the other case, if he be a wretched, lonely being, wandering about all day, with his hands in his pockets, and, as ninety-nine men out of a hundred do, looking forward to his dinner as the great event of that day, as the welcome "something to do;" then we recommend him to go to "Bree's Hotel," in Bath-street; where, according to the advertisements, he will get "an excellent dinner, either at a table d'hote, or in a private room, at a moderate charge." fact at this hotel or boardinghouse, every comfort can be had which the heart of man (or woman either, for the matter of that) can desire.

In

But perhaps our traveller does not like an hotel -perhaps he has brought those veritable encumbrances with him, a wife and children; in which case an hotel will be too expensive; he must have lodgings. Very good. He can have lodgings, as many as he likes. He may revel in a change of lodgings, have fresh quarters every week, and yet (should he not make a very lengthened sojourn) fail to exhaust the long list of "lodgings to let." As to price, they may be had from ten shillings to three or four guineas per week, the rent depending of course on the number of rooms, and the style and situation of the same. As a rule, lodgings are cheap-cheaper than in any watering place, possessing the same advantages as St. Helier's, which we have visited in England.

But we are progressing, and mean to suppose that our traveller has taken our advice-put up first at "Bree's," been well pleased; moved to lodgings; been better pleased still-indeed so very well pleased that he has decided on becoming a resident in the island, and means to take a house.

Now this is an important affair, and he must give it important consideration; and consider whether he will take a furnished or unfurnished house. If the former, he will pay the same for the furniture (the hire of it) as for the house. Thus a house which will fetch £40 per annum unfurnished, will be £80 per annum furnished. This is the general rule of the island; and universally acted on; although such arrangements are open to a little bargaining. In Jersey, as in every other place, people mast have their eyes open, and remember the proverb, Chacqu'un pour soi; Dieu pour tout.

Very good houses for small families, containing eleven or twelve rooms, may be had for about £25 or £30 British per annum. Some are even less than this, but then they must be in the country. The neighbourhood of St. Helier's is the most expensive, as being the most convenient locality.

However, those who don't object to omnibuses, (Jersey has omnibuses) will not find the country inconvenient; for these lumbering "twelve insides and ten out" traverse every part of it--and then we must recollect that no part of "the country" can be very far removed from "town," as St. Helier's is called, when we remember the whole extent of the island.

Now we have given the rent of houses for small families-but, we don't mean it to be understood that there are no others in the island; for there are grand houses, and very grand houses, to be had a few of them; and there are besides plenty of medium domiciles, something between the "very grand" and the "small family" affairs, aud

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these we fancy are the most useful class after all; and their rents vary between £40 and £60 per annum, unfurnished of course.

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Supposing our traveller, therefore, to have got as far as his house, we imagine he will want a servant. These functionaries may be obtained in Jersey, of all prices, sizes, and ages; from the Marchioness," whose height is three feet nothing, and whose value is estimated at one shilling per week, to the combination of "good plain cook and maid of all work," who considers herself and her services worth £12 per annum. From eight to ten pounds, however, is the average amount of wages to servants in the island; and for the latter sum a very decent "help" may be obtained, who will do every thing you desire her to do, and not expect to spend more than three evenings in the week from home, besides "her Sunday!" We had one French woman as " help," who struck for seven evenings in the week "for herself." We yielded the point, and she pined for an eighth! which, not being able to accomplish, she relinquished her situation. But then, to be sure, she was a Frenchwoman.

As to the salubrity of St. Helier's, doctors differ on the subject. With some people the place agrees well enough; others cannot bear its relaxing properties. The higher ground is the healthier; and we should advise all who go there in a debilitated state, to choose their residence in an elevated situation.

And now, having discussed the useful, we gladly turn to the ornamental attributes of the island. The whole place is intersected with beautiful walks and drives, generally of rather a wild and rugged character. Valleys, whose sloping sides are either cultivated in the hanging "coutils," or covered with the purple blooming heath, and serving as a pasturage for the goats which abound in Jersey. These drives are not generally very well timbered; you may pass through long and shady avenues of trees, but there are not many which attain the magnificent growth of trees in England.

But although Jersey cannot boast much of its trees, it may be very justly proud of its flowers. Heliotropes of gigantic size; fuschias, geraniums, -all are exquisite; of more brilliant colouring

than in England, and all raised with little care. The climate and the soil act as gardeners, and very excellent gardeners (in the mere culture of flowers), do they prove to be.

There are no rivers in Jersey, as may be supposed from the restricted dimensions of the island. In the valleys we noticed running streams of clear pure water. In the winter, these streams are, of course, very much swollen, but the most active imagination could not even then construe them into anything approaching to rivers. Fresh water springs abound in the island; and from these, through the medium of wells, the Jerseyites are supplied with the fluid material for boiling their kettles and slaking their thirst.

One word more in description of Fort Regent, the principal fortification in the island. The cost we have named elsewhere. It is magnificently situated above the harbour, and its cannon could sweep both sea and land for many a mile round. From the broad ramparts we have splendid views of St. Clement's and St. Aubin's bays, the town of St. Helier's, and the extending country. Underneath the Fort there is said to be a subterranean chamber (if, indeed, such a place may be called a chamber), large enough to contain all the women and children of the island, who, in case of its being besieged, would be safely stowed away there, while their sterner companions would be over head, peppering away at the enemy. One inestimable advantage Fort Regent possesses-it can never be without fresh water. A well of immense depth supplies the place. The entrance to the mouth of this well is by a long subterranean rocky passage, leading from the barrack square.

As we steamed into the harbour of St. Heliers, on our first visit to Jersey, we were very much struck with the massive grandeur of Fort Regent, aud we mentally decided, that he would indeed be bold who would provoke the hostility of its battery.

We have now, we believe, said all we have to say about Jersey. We would add, let those who feel inclined go to the island; and while imbibing its pure sea-breezes, and admiring its pretty scenery, test for themselves the truth of our report.

TANGLED TALK.

Sir, we had talk."-Dr. Johnson.

"Better be an outlaw than not free."-Jean Paul, the Only One.

"The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion; and then to moderate again, and pass to somewhat else.”—Lard

Bacon.

THE INDUSTRIAL CULTURE OF WOMEN.

AN improved education, literary, industrial, and moral, for the Better Half of the race is, and, ever since I thought at all, always has been, such a

commonplace with me, in conversation and otherwise, and it is a topic which has so often slipped into these columns, half unawares, from my pes, that no one who reads this will need to be told how

THE INDUSTRIAL CULTURE OF WOMEN.

strongly I feel the necessity which exists for widening (what, in a former paper on the Domestic Relations of Literary Men, I called) "the spiritual trysting-ground" of the sexes, by extending the benefits of a much more varied and robust mental training to girls than is now conventionally accorded to them. As far as my observation goes, the most cultivated and conscientious men and women (out of the pale of purely sectarian prejudice) are quite of accord upon this subject in the general. Those who cannot bear to hear of a better education for women are for the most part men of the world who know too much to believe in anything good, and that loathsome class of men whom Shelley had in his eye in the verse

Things whose trade is over ladies

To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper,
Till all that is divine in woman
Grows cruel, courteous, cold, inhuman,

Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper.

Non ragioniam di lor. Such creatures are rarely converted, rarely reached with any touch of a sound moral criticism. The hope of the world is in the gradual extinction of the breed. But there are other men, who are accessible to common sense and kind feeling; and there are thousands of women, in these times, when the complications of civilisation are teaching the sex the urgent need of multiplying independent sources of happiness, if they would be happy at all, who are prepared to change a general into a special interest in such a question as Industrial Culture for Women.

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have the soul of a gentleman, he can recall situa.
tions in his lifetime in which he has taken silent,
thankless pains, or made silent, thankless sacrifices
of feeling or interest, in behalf of women, merely
from natural chivalry of heart, which is quite incon-
sistent with the "tyrant " hypothesis. He looks
at an English lady, with a kind husband and
affluent " surroundings," and half asks himself,
fretted and worn by business,-Is there in the
world a creature so much to be envied as a well-
to-do Englishwoman? An ordinary Briton looks
no farther. He shelves all "woman's questions
as nuisances, and pursues the old tracks of thought
and action without misgiving in all that relates to
the sex.
If part of his blindness be selfish, let it
be confessed that a snarling, quarrelsome advocacy
is not the thing to anoint his eyes.

All woman's advocacy of women's needs is, of course, not of this character. There are ladies who, like Mrs. Jameson and Harriet Martineau, labouring to better the culture, and widen the social sphere of their own sex, know very well that there is no "conspiracy" to "keep them down;" that all advocacy of the claims of women, as separate from the interests of men, is liable to run into unfairness, and is sure to seem unamiable; that men, not less than themselves, are in these matters entangled in meshes of "custom," to the weaving of which they were unconscious parties, and to the breaking of which frank, friendly concert, in the drawing-room and the market-place, not less than in the journal and the lecture room, is necessary; and that the only advocacy which is likely to "tell," must be at once genial in its tone and practical in its drift. On the other hand, there are men who are ready to "meet" the women halfway" (as the phrase is), in this matter of an improved education, and extended sphere for their

sex.

It is true that real danger attaches to any attempt to deal with the interests of women as if they were separate from those of men. It is true that female advocacy in general is distinguished by a personal tone, which, where there is not sufficient power of mentally changing places in the reader to get it allowed for, is unpleasant and deterring. It is true, also, that some degree of the ridiculous The practical questions concerning women, hangs over the "earnestness of most "earnest which most urgently press upon our attention, do Women. A vulgar-minded woman in earnest is the not require that we should settle, before dealing very Fiend. No man is ever so devoured by the with them, any abstract questions about the capa"" cause he espouses. Her seriousness is more city of women. My own private opinion may be, thau devotional, be the occasion ever so small. that they are not, and never will be, equal to men ; Martyrs jest on the scaffold, and heroes on the that the broad outlines upon which the social brink of action, but propagandist women of averedifice of the future will be reared, are irrevocably age mould, never. Their work is sacramental. marked out in what we already know of the rela Tempt them not with Joe Miller and such like tive characters of the sexes; that the normal carnal pomps and vanities, lest you be sent about position of the woman is one of dependence upon your business with "Away, slight man!" and find the man-all this I may, and I think I may add, "Is't possible?" no answer. Much of their advo- all this I do think. But I am satisfied that there cacy, accordingly, takes the shape of complaint, are remains of barbarous modes of feeling in all, and sometimes of downright objurgation. They They even the best, of the conventional modes of treatwrite in their own behalf as if they were trampled, ing women; that the ills of our competitive indusbetrayed, conspired against on all hands; as if men trial polity, and badly managed social intercourse, were all "tyrants," and could with a lift of the press most hardly upon them, and that their freer finger get them rid of all that "custom" is charged action is the appointed means for healing some of with doing to their social disadvantage. Men, of our social wounds. To this end, they must be. course, resent this. An ordinary Briton hears him come more independent. And they will do so. self branded as a woman's "tyrant" with aston- Providence has taken this matter out of our ishment. He is conscious only of the kindest feel- hands. The enormous number of unmarried ings towards the sex. Probably, certainly if he women is one of the most positive, unquestionable

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