CHAPTER VII.
RETURN TO EUROPE.
The "City of Berlin"—The Inman Line—The Service at Roche's Point—Queenstown Discomforts—A sorry Welcome Home.
July 2nd.[B]—Up at 5.30. The Duke, Lady Green, Sir Henry, Mr. Wright, Edward, all engaged in the transport department, with Mr. Trowbridge in observation; incessant activity. The Queen Anne coach was in readiness at 7.30, and in half an hour more we were discharged at the Inman wharf. There was a great flotilla—five large steamers leaving at the same period for Liverpool, and there was the usual throng at the landing-places of friends to bid "good-bye" to those who were about to cross the Atlantic. The steamer we had selected belonged to the Inman line, and whatever there may have been wanting to the eye on board, compared to the trimness and paint of the Cunard steamers, there was nothing to regret in our accommodation or service. There were so many passengers that the dining-saloon, illuminated by the electric light—which was also used for the purpose of lighting the engine-room and the lamps in the corridors—would not contain them all at the same time, and so there were two messes for dinner. Epergnes filled with the most beautiful flowers were ranged in order, and a rampant war-steed composed of white roses was displayed on the table. I am not about to give a log-book, or to trespass on the patience of my readers by an account of such an ordinary event as a passage home. The second day after we left New York was the anniversary of Independence, July 4th, and the day was duly celebrated by the citizens of the United States, who constituted the large majority of our fellow-passengers. The "stars and stripes" were hoisted at the main, and the cabin was draped with British and American flags. But there was no speechifying, and the spread-eagle was content with moderate flights; a recitation and a song or two, and the fire of champagne corks, being the only indications of an extraordinary festivity.
About this time of the year the Atlantic, in the latitudes which we traverse, is rather vexed of fogs; and if one be disposed to low spirits, I know nothing which weighs upon him more than the sound of the fog-horn. But what must it be for the captain, who is perforce obliged to go at full speed, or as near to it as he can, with the expectation every moment of some startled cry from the bow "Sail right ahead!" Nor is it quite out of the running that an iceberg may be taking a sail across his course. Fortunately we had no experiences of the kind; and as night was falling on the 10th July land was in sight.
The lights of the Fastnet were seen through drifting haze, and about 10 o'clock at night the "City of Berlin" steamed through a rising sea, with a strong beam wind, into the roadstead of Roche's Point, burned her rockets, and laid-to for the steamer to take the mails, and those passengers who had decided to land, on shore.
It was blowing freshly, and rain fell heavily; and as we looked down from the lighted decks on the murky water, and made out the tug as she paddled up to us, rising and falling on the waves, we were seized with reasonable misgivings as to the propriety of leaving our ship and taking to such a craft. I am bound to say that our experience more than amply justified them.
I am writing these lines with a very faint hope that any amendment will be introduced, in consequence of what I say, into the abominable service between the American vessels off Roche's Point and Queenstown. In fine weather and in daylight it is not of much consequence, perhaps, what discomfort one may be exposed to in a short passage to the shore; but to affront women and children with the misery which must be experienced at night time and in bad weather, in the steamers employed in the service, is little short of barbarous, if it be not indeed altogether so.
After I had got down upon the deck of the little steamer and surveyed the scene around me, I thought that it would have been much wiser to have gone on with my friends to Liverpool; but I had some engagements in Ireland, and so had the experience I was glad not to share with my fellow-passengers, on whom I should have liked the old country to have made a favourable impression. There was the great steamer, with hundreds of waving hands, and the sound of friendly voices bidding us "God speed," a blaze of lights, and almost as steady as the solid earth, as the horrible little tug puffed away, and, getting from under her lee at once, encountered the swell. If she could have ridden over the water below, she certainly could not escape that which came down from above; so that we were all pretty wet and cross and miserable in the half-hour which elapsed before we reached the shore. Fortunately, there were not many passengers who availed themselves of the opportunity; but the deck of the steamer was crowded by poor people returning to their native country. Accommodation for the cabin passengers, except seats on the wet and sloppy decks, there was none. There was a little cabin, stuffy and comfortless, and moreover occupied by a couple of women who had come out to see friends by way of a pleasure excursion, and who were suffering the last extremities of sea-sickness. The spray broke over the luggage and passengers; it was in such circumstances that the custom-house officers began their search. One of them, opening my bag, which was unlocked, found a small revolver. It was unloaded, and there was no ammunition for it; but, nevertheless, it was seized, for I was "importing arms into a proclaimed district without licence." A similar mishap occurred to a Spanish officer, who was not quite so easily appeased as I was by the assurance that the arm would be given up on proper application to the police. His revolver, he insisted, was part of his uniform, a necessity of his existence, and the authorities might as well seize his epaulettes or spurs. However, my deadly weapon was restored to me some days afterwards, after a correspondence with the custom-house, and I dare say the Hidalgo was equally fortunate. These were incidents to denote that we were in the midst of trouble. There was but a sorry welcome for us when we landed at Queenstown. Not a car to be found, that I could see; but there were a few porters, and the agent of the hotel at the pier; and, commending my luggage to his care, I walked to the establishment. It surely cannot be quite an unaccustomed event for a steamer to arrive at Queenstown at that time of night! The last train for Cork had gone; and it might have been expected that lighted rooms and some sort of preparation would have awaited the travellers; for every vessel that touches at Queenstown, coming from America, surely lands a few people needing rest and refreshment? A demoralised waiter, who appeared to think that such a thing had never happened in the whole course of his experience, as the inroad of ten or twelve people asking for supper and bedrooms, informed us that nothing could be done until the gentleman who represented the hotel at the landing-place had arrived; and so we sat on the stairs for half an hour, and were then shown into a gaunt room, dimly lighted by gas. There was nothing ready. The hungry people, by dint of patience and perseverance, eventually succeeded about midnight in obtaining some poor substitute for supper and scrambled to their beds.
I mention the circumstances in which my fellow-passengers and I were landed at Queenstown, that those who are interested in promoting the welfare of the port, and in making the route through Ireland less thoroughly objectionable, may take steps to obviate the great inconvenience to which travellers at present are certainly exposed.
Next morning I reached Mallow. I was but a few hours in the "distressful country," but I found that things had gone from bad to worse while we were in the States. I heard from my fellow-travellers in the train that "Boycotting" had attained such a pitch in the South, that all the relations and conditions of social life were exposed to peril, if not destruction. And still, with the usual cheerfulness of Irish landlords, accustomed, as it were, to these excesses of the popular will, my informants talked of hunting, fishing, and shooting; and I heard full accounts of the state of the rivers, and of the take of fish which had made some of them happy. The County Cork, indeed, had nearly a parallel in the "wild West." But what a contrast between the state of public feeling, in respect to the outrages which were perpetrated in each, in the country we had left, and that to which I had returned! In the United States there was no attempt to justify the men who were guilty of such deeds. In Ireland it was impossible to obtain evidence or to convict the offenders. I am not going to close this narrative of our little excursion with a political disquisition, indeed I have not the materials for forming any opinion respecting the breadth and depth of what may be called the Irish national movement in the United States; but there seems to be a general vague impression in America that as the British Government was not very wise and equitable in its dealings with the people of the thirteen colonies in the reign of King George, it is, somehow or other, at the present moment, treating with harshness and injustice the whole of the Irish race in Ireland. It is impossible not to recognise the fact that the head, perhaps the heart, and certainly the purse of this development of Irish discontent are in the United States. The arms, the body, and the legs are in Ireland. During the whole time of our visit, although we visited towns where eminent orators were lecturing upon Irish subjects, and where representatives of the League were in session, there was not a trace brought home to us of the strong sympathy which undoubtedly exists in many American cities with the movement in Ireland. There were accounts of the meetings in the newspapers, and now and then a few leading articles on the subject; but we might have concluded, from what we saw and heard generally, that the Irish question was of far less importance to the American people than the religious views of Colonel Ingersoll, or the discussions between the railway companies respecting their fares. The recital of wrongs, most of which have been long ago redressed, still reaches the ear and touches the heart of the American public, and if the Irish population had not in many ways provoked or excited the antagonism of the native Americans in the towns, and of the Teutonic element which exercises such a powerful influence in the country, there would be far greater sympathy for the supposed oppression of the Sister Island by England. The fact that emigrants come from Europe is accepted as a proof that the countries which they leave are ill-governed; and Americans, in dealing with the emigration question, are apt to forget the existence and nature of the forces which induced their own ancestors to seek homes in the New World.