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A Record of the BAGE Family History Robert Bage - Papermaker and author Robert Bage (Feb 29, 1728 - Sep 1, 1801), novelist, was born in a leap year, and as William Hutton facetiously pointed out, ''Though he lived to the age of seventy-three, he could not celebrate more than eighteen birthdays.'' He was born at Darley, a hamlet on the river Derwent, adjoining the town of Derby, the son of a paper manufacturer and the first Mrs. Bage, who died shortly after his birth. He attended a common school at Derby, where he became proficient in Latin and ''the Manual Exercise.''Robert Bage, a Quaker who became a free thinker, was an active man of business, and did not take to novel-writing till he was advanced in life. Bage was married at twenty-three, his wife bringing him a sufficient dowry so that he set up a paper mill of his own at Elford, about four miles from Tamworth, a business which he conducted all his life. The mill prospered and Bage employed his leisure time in learning Italian and French, as is evident in his novel The Fair Syrian, and went once a week to Birmingham to receive instruction from a Thomas Hanson in higher mathematics. In 1765 he ventured into the manufacture of iron with three partners, of whom Dr. Erasmus Darwin was one, but after fourteen years the business failed, leaving Bage with a loss of £1500. For consolation he turned to writing. As Sir Walter Scott, who could well sympathize with him, put it ''The man of letters committed his cause to a better champion - literary occupation - the tried solace of misfortune, want and imprisonment. Mount Henneth (1781), Bage's first book, described a Welsh Utopia. He sold it to Lowndes for £30. Its success encouraged him to continue writing novels, usually told in letter form and extending to two or more volumes. The most notable, Man As He Is (1792), and Hermsprong, or Man As He Is Not (1796), filled four and three volumes respectively. Several were translated into French and German, and Scott included three of them in his Ballantyne's ''Novelists' Library.'' Hutton, Bage's friend, testified to his amiability of disposition, and his kindness to his servants and work animals. He may have been brought up in the Quaker faith, though this has been disputed. Two of his three sons became successful business men. Bage was an advocate of ''the natural man'' (like Hermsprong, who, reared among the Indians of North America, came to Europe to finish his education in France and England, and to advocate the equality of man and the emancipation of women). The Fair Syrian traces the conversion of a young French aristocrat to democracy in Revolutionary America. He had a vigorous, easy, and frequently rather course style. PRINCIPAL WORKS Mount Henneth, 1781; Barham Downs, 1784; The Fair Syrian, 1788; James Wallace, 1788; Man As He Is, 1792; Hermsprong, or Man As He Is Not, 1796. ABOUT Fairchild, H. N. The Noble Savage; Fletcher, T. T. F. Robert Bage a Representative Revolutionary Novelist; Gregory, A. The French Revolution and the English Novel; Hutton, W. Life of William Hutton; Scott, W. The Lives of the Novelists; Mid-West Quarterly April 1918. Bage's life was written by Sir Walter Scott. See Scott, ''Miscellaneous Prose Works.'' below. Also see William Hutton, ''Memoirs of Robert Bage,'' 1802. Robert Bage's work was viewed differently in different centuries. When he first published 'Hermsprong' he was considered to be a bit of a revolutionary in his thoughts, but in the 1950's he is regarded quite differently. These different views can be seen in the following examples;- Scott's Miscellaneous Prose Works - Page 338 - 343. Biographies - Robert Bage Robert Bage, a writer of no ordinary merit in the department of fictitious composition, was one of that class of men occurring in Britain alone, who unite successfully the cultivation of letters with those mechanical pursuits, which, upon the continent, are considered as incompatible with the character of an author. The professors of letters are, in most nations, apt to form a caste of their own, into which they may admit men educated for the learned professions, on condition, generally speaking, that thay surrender their pretensions to the lucrative practice of them; but from which mere burghers, occupied in ordinary commerce, are as severely excluded, as roturiers were of old from the society of the noblesse. The case of a paper-maker or a printer employing their own art upon their own publications, would be thought uncommon in France or Germany; yet such were the stations of Bage and Richardson. The Editor has been obliged by Miss Catherine Hutton, daughter of Mr Hutton of Birmingham, well known as an ingenious and successful antiquary, (see i) with a memoir of the few incidents marking the life of Robert Bage, whom a kindred genius, as well as a close commercial intercourse, combined to unite in the bonds of strict friendship. The communication is extremely interesting, and the extracts from Bage's letters show, that amidst the bitterness of political prejudices, the embarrassment of commercial affairs, and all the teasing technicalities of business, the author of Barham Downs still maintained the good-humoured gaiety of his natural temper. One would almost think the author must have drawn from his own private letter-book and correspondence, the discriminating touches which mark the men of business in his novels. The father of Robert Bage was a paper-maker at Darley, a hamlet on the river Derwent, adjoining the town of Derby, and was remarkable only for having had four wives. Robert was the son of the first, and was born at Darley on the 29th of February, 1728. His mother died soon after his birth; and his father, though he retained his mill, and continued to follow his occupation, removed to Derby, where his son received his education at a common school. His attainments here, however, were very remarkable, and such as excited the surprise and admiration of all who knew him. At seven years old he had made a proficiency in Latin. To a knowledge of the Latin language succeeded a knowledge of the art of making paper, which he acquired under the tuition of his father. At the age of twenty-three, Robert Bage married a young woman who possessed beauty, good sense, good temper and money. It may be presumed that the first of these was the first forgotten; the two following secured his happiness in domestic life; the last aided him in the manufacture of paper, which he commenced at Elford, four miles from Tamworth, and conducted to the end of his days. Though no man was more attentive to business, and no one in the country made paper so good of its kind, yet the direction of a manufactory, combined with his present literary attainments, did not satisfy the comprehensive mind of Robert Bage. His manufactory, under his eye, went on with the regularity of a machine, and left him leisure to indulge his desire of knowledge. He acquired the French language from books alone, without any instructor ; and his familiarity with it is evinced by his frequent, perhaps to frequent, use of it in the Fair Syrian. Nine years after his marriage, he studied mathematics; and, as he makes one of his characters say, and as he probably thought respecting himself, '' He was obliged to this science for a correct imagination, and a taste for uniformity in the common actions of life.'' In the year 1765, Bage entered into partnership with three persons, (one of them the celebrated Dr. Darwin,) in an extensive manufactory of iron; and, at the end of fourteen years, when the partnership terminated, he found himself a loser, it is believed, of fifteen hundred pounds. The reason and philosophy of the paper-maker might have struggled long against so considerable a loss; the man of letters committed his cause to a better champion - literary occupation, - the tried solace of misfortune, want, and imprisonment. He wrote the novel of Mount Henneth, in two volumes, which was sold to Lowndes for thirty pounds, and published in 1781. The strong mind, playful fancy, liberal sentiments, and extensive knowledge of the author, are everywhere apparent; but, as he says himself, ''too great praise is a bad letter of recommendation;'' and truth, which he worshipped, demands the acknowledgement, that its sins against decorum are manifest. The succeeding works of Bage were, Barham Downs, two volumes, published 1784; The Fair Syrian, two volumes, published (about) 1787; James Wallace, three volumes, published 1788; Man as he is, four volumes, published 1792; Hermsprong, or man as he is not, three volumes, published 1796. It is, perhaps, without a parallel in the annals of literature, that of six different works, comprising a period of fifteen years, the last should be, as it unquestionably is, the best. Several of Bage's novels were translated into German, and published at Frankfort. Whoever has read Hayley's Life of Cowper will not be sorry that an author should speak for himself, instead of his biographer speaking for him; on this principle are given some extracts from the letters of Robert Bage to his friend, William Hutton. Hutton purchased nearly all the paper which Bage made during forty-five years; and though Bage's letters were letters of business, they were written in a manner peculiarly his own, and friendship was, more or less, interwoven in them; for trade did not, in him, extinguish, or contract, one finer feeling of the soul. Bage, in his ostensible character of a paper-maker, says,- ''March 28, 1785. ''I swear to thee I am one of the most cautious men in the world with regard to the excise; I constantly interpret against myself in doubtful points; and, if I knew a place where I was vulnerable, I would arm it with the armour of Achilles. I have already armed myself all over with the armour of righteousness, but that signifies nothing with our people of excise.''
''August 15, 1787. '' Oh how I wish thou wouldst bend all thy powers to write a history of excise - with cases - showing the injustice, the inequality of causes in acts, and the eternal direction every new one takes towards the oppression of the subject; It might be the most useful book extant. Of whites and blues, blue demy only can come into thy magazine, and that at a great risk of contention with the Lords of the Exchequer; for I know not whether I have understood the sense of people who have seldom the good luck to understand themselves. The paper sent is charged at the lowest price at which a sober paper-maker can live, and drink small-beer.'' ''December 10, 1788. ''Authors, especially when they have acquired a certain degree of reputation, should be candid, and addicted to speak good as well as evil, of poor dumb things. The rope paper is too thin, Iown; but why abuse it from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot? If I have eyes, it has many good qualities, and I hope the good people of Birmingham may find them out. But it is too thin - I am heartily and sincerely concerned for it; but, as I cannot make it thicker, all I can do is reduce the price. Thou proposest threepence a ream - I agree to it. If thou really believest sixpence ought to be abated, do it. Combine together the qualities of justice and mercy, and to their united influence I leave thee.'' ''February 23, 1789. ''The certainty that it cannot be afforded at the stipulated price, makes me run my rope paper too thin. Of this fault, however, I must mend, and will mend, whether thou can'st, or can'st not mend my price. I had rather lose some profit than sink a tolerable name into a bad one.''
''March 11, 1793. ''I make no bill-of-parcels. I do not see why I should give myself the trouble to make thee bills-of-parcels, as thou can'st make them thyself; and, more especially, when it is probable thou wilt make them more to my liking than the issues of my own pen. If the paper is below the standard so far as to oblige thee to lower the price. I am willing to assist in bearing the loss. If the quantity over-burdens thee, take off a shilling a bundle - or take off two; for thy disposition towards me - I see it with pleasure - is kindly.'' ''June 30, 1795. ''Every thing looks black and malignant upon me. Men clamouring for wages which I cannot give - women threatening to pull down my mill - rags raised by freight and insurance - excise-officers depriving me of paper! Say, if thou can'st, whether these gentlemen of the excise-office can seize paper after it has left the maker's possession? - after it has been marked? - stamped? - signed with the officer's name? - excise duty paid? - Do they these things? - Am I to hang myself ?'' ''June 6, 1799. ''Thou can'st not think how teasing the excise-officers are about colour. They had nearly seized a quantity of common cap paper, because it was whitened by the frost. They have an antipathy to any thing whiter than sackcloth. Bage actually had paper seized by the excise-officers, and the same paper liberated, seized again, and again liberated. If his wisdom and integrity have been manifested in the foregoing extracts, the ignorance and folly of these men, or of their masters, must be obvious. A few extracts, not so immediately connected with conduct in trade, may not be superfluous. ''I swear by June, dear William, that one man cannot be more desirous of dealing with another as I am with thee. The chain which connects us cannot be snapped asunder without giving me pain almost to torture. Thou art not so sure of having found the place where Henry the Seventh was lost, as thou mightst have been of finding Elford and a friend. ''I received thy pamphlet, (ii) and am not sure whether I have not read it with more pleasure than any of thy former works. It is lively, and the reasoning just. Only remember, it is sometimes against the institutions of juries and county courts that thou hast directed thy satire, which, I think, ought to be confined to the abuses of them. But why abusest thou me? Did'st thou not know of Mount Henneth, and Barham Downs, before publication? Yea, thou did'st. I think thou did'st also of the Fair Syrian. Of what, then, dost thou accuse me? Be just. And why dost thou call me an infidel? Do I not believe in everything thou sayest? And am I not impatient for thy Derby? I am such a scoundrel as to grumble at paying 30 per cent. ad valorem, which I really do, and more, on my boards, as if one could do too much for one's king and country. But I shall be rewarded when thy History of Derby comes forth.'' ''Miss Hutton was the harbinger of peace and good-will from the Reviewers. I knew she had taste and judgement; I knew also that her encomium would go beyond the just and proper bounds; but I also believed she would not condescend to flatter without some foundation.'' ''Eat my breakfast quietly, thou varlet! So I do when my house does not smoke, or my wife scold, or the newspapers do not tickle me into an irritation, or my men clamour for another increase of wages. But I must get my bread by eating as little of it as possible; for my Lord Pitt will want all I can screw of overplus. No matter. Ten years (iii) hence, perhaps, I shall not care a farthing.'' ''Another meeting among my men! Another (the third) raising of wages! What will all this end in? William Pitt seems playing off another of his alarming manoeuvres - Invasion - against the meeting of Parliament, to scare us into a quiet parting with our money.'' ''If thou hast been again into Wales, and hast not expired in ecstasy, I hope to hear from thee soon. In the interim, and always and evermore, I am thine.'' ''I am afraid thy straggling mode of sending me any body's bills, and every body's bills, will subject me often to returned ones. But I have received good at thy hands, and shall I not receive evil? Every thing in this finest, freest, best of all possible countries, grows worse and worse, and why not thou? ''I looked for the anger thou talked'st of in thy last, but could not find it; and for what would'st thou have been angry, if thou could'st? Turn thy wrath from me, and direct it against the winds and the fogs. In future, I fear it will be directed against the collectors of dirty rags in London and in Germany, where the prices 'have increased, are increasing, and ought to be diminished' - but will not be so, because we begin the century by not doing what we ought to do. What we shall do at the end of it I neither know nor care.'' In October, 1800, Bage had visited Hutton at Birmingham, where the latter still passed the hours of business, and had taken Bennett's Hill in his way home, to call on Catherine Hutton, the daughter of his friend. Both were alarmed at the alteration in Bage's countenance, which exhibited evident symptoms of declining health. They believed that they should see him no more; and he was probably impressed with the same idea, for, on quitting the house at Birmingham, he cordially shook hands with Samuel Hutton, the grand-nephew of his friend, and said, ''Farewell, my dear lad, we shall meet again in heaven.'' At home, Bage seems to have indulged the hope of another meeting in the present world; for two months after his letter of January, he says, in a letter to Hutton, ''Tell Miss Hutton that I have thought of her some hundred times since I saw her; insomuch that I feared I was falling in love. I do love her as much as a man seventy-three years of age, and married, ought to love. I like the idea of paying her a visit, and will try to make it reality sometime - but not yet.'' In April he was scarcely able to write a letter. In June he was again capable of attending to business; but in reply to his friend, who had mentioned paying him a visit, he said, ''I should have been glad and sorry, dear William, to have seen thee at Tamworth.'' On the 1st of September. 1801, he died. Bage had quitted Elford, and during the last eight years of his life he resided at Tamworth, where he ended his days. His wife survived him, but is since dead. He had three sons, one of whom died as he was approaching manhood, to the severe affliction of his father. Charles, the eldest son, settled at Shrewsbury, where he was the proprietor of a very extensive cotton manufactory. He died in 1822, at the age of seventy. Edward, the younger son, was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary at Tamworth, where he afterwards followed his profession. He died many years before his brother. Both possessed a large portion of their father's talents, and equalled him in integrity and moral conduct. Robert also had two daughters. (source; Introduction to 1952 version of 'Hermsprong' ). In his person, Robert Bage was somewhat under the middle size, and rather slender, but well proportioned. His complexion was fair and ruddy; his hair light and curling; his countenance intelligent, mild and placid. His manners were courteous, and his mind was firm. His integrity, his honour, his devotion to truth, were undeviating and incorruptible; his humanity, benevolence, and generosity, were not less conspicuous in private life, than they were in the principal characters in his works. He supplied persons he never saw with money, because he heard they were in want. He kept his servants and his horses to old age, and both men and quadrupeds were attached to him. He behaved to his sons with the unremitting affection of a father; but as they grew up, he treated them as men and equals, and allowed them that independence of mind and conduct which he claimed for himself. On the subject of servants, Bage says, in The Fair Syrian,'' I pity those unhappy masters, who, with unrelenting gravity, damp the effusions of a friendly heart, lest something too familiar for their lordly pride should issue from a servant's lip.'' Of a parent, he says, in the same work, ''Instead of an iron rod of parents, he used only the authority of mild persuasion, and cultivated the affections of his children by social intercourse, and unremitting tenderness.'' It matters not into what mouth Robert Bage put these sentiments; they were his own, his practice was comfortable to them, and their good effects were visible on all around him. The following comparison between Robert Bage and his friend William Hutton, was written by Charles Bage, son of the former, in a letter to Catherine Hutton, daughter of the latter, October 6, 1816. ''The contrast between your father's life and mine is curious. Both were distinguished by great natural talents ; both were mild, benevolent, and affectionate, qualities which were impressed on their countenances ; both were indignant at the wantonness of pride and power ; both were industrious, and both had a strong attachment to literature; yet, with these resemblances, their success in life was very different ; my father never had a strong passion for wealth, and he never rose into opulence. Your father's talents were continually excited by contact with ''the busy haunts of men ;'' my father's were repressed by a long residence in an unfrequented place, in which he shunned the little society he might have had, because he could not relish the conversation of those whose minds were less cultivated than his own. In time, each was the effect of habit, that, although when young he was lively and fond of company, he enjoyed nothing but his book and pen, and a pool at quadrille with ladies. He seems, almost always, to have been fonder of the company of ladies than of men.'' After this satisfactory account of Bage's life and character, there remains nothing for the Editor but to offer a few critical remarks upon his compositions. The general object of Robert Bage's compositions, is rather to exhibit character, than to compose a narrative ; rather to extend and infuse his own political and philosophical opinions, in which a man of his character no doubt was sincere, than merely to amuse the reader with the wonders, or melt him with the sorrows of a fictitious tale. In this respect he resembled Voltaire and Diderot, who made their most formidable assaults on the system of religion and politics which they assailed, by embodying their objections in popular narratives. Even the quaint, facetious, ironical style of this author seems to be copied from the lesser political Romances of the French school ; and if Bage falls short of his prototypes in wit, he must be allowed to exhibit upon several occasions, a rich and truly English vein of humour, which even Voltaire does not possess. Respecting the tendency and motive of these works, it is not the Editor's purpose to say much. Bage appears, from his peculiar style, to have been educated a Quaker ; at least - for we may be wrong in the above inference - he has always painted the individuals of that primitive sect of Christians in amiable colours, when they are introduced as personages into his novels. If this was the case, however, he appears to have wandered from the tenets of the Friends into the wastes of scepticism ; and a sectary, who had reasoned himself into an infidel, could be friend neither to the Church of England, nor the doctrines which she teaches. His opinions of state affairs were perhaps a little biased by the frequent visits of the excise men, who levied taxes on his commodities, for the purpose of maintaining a war which he disapproved of. It was most natural that a person who considered tax-gatherers as extortioners, and the soldiers, paid by the taxes, as licensed murderers, should conceive the whole existing state of human affairs to be wrong.; and if he was conscious of talent, and the power of composition, he might, at the same time, naturally fancy that he was called upon to put it to rights. No opinion was so prevalent in France, and none passed more current among the admirers of French philosophy in Britain, as that the power of framing governments, and of administering them, ought to remain with persons of literary attainments; or, in other words, that those who can most easily and readily write books, are therefore best qualified to govern states. Whoever peruses the writings of the late ingenious Madame de Stael, will perceive that she (one of the most remarkable women certainly of her time) lived and died in the belief, that revolutions were to be effected, and countries governed, by a proper succession of clever pamphlets. A nation which has long enjoyed the benefit of a free press, does not furnish so many believers in the omnipotence of literary talent. Men are aware that every case may be argued on both sides, and seldom render their assent to any proposition merely on the account of the skill with which it is advocated, or the art and humour with which it is illustrated. The Editor of this work was never one of those who think that a good cause can suffer much by free discussion ; and though differing entirely both from his political and theological tenets, admitted Mr Bage's novels into the collection which he superintended, as works of talent and genius. The satirical novel is a species of composition more adapted to confirm those who hold similar opinions with the author, by affording them a triumph at the expense of their opponents, than to convince those who, their minds being yet undecided, may be disposed calmly to investigate the subject. They who are inclined to burn an obnoxious or unpopular person in effigy, care little how far his dress and external appearance are exaggerated and, in the same way, it requires little address in an author, to draw broad caricatures of those whom he regards as foes, or to make specious and flattering representations of such as he considers as friends. They who look on the world with an impartial eye, will scarcely be of opinion, that Mr. Bage has seized the true features which distinguish either the upper or lower ranks. The highest and the lowest rank in society, are each indeed liable to temptations peculiarly their own, and their relative situation serves to illustrate the wisdom of the prayer, ''Give me neither poverty nor riches.'' But these peculiar propensities, we think, will in life be found considerably different from the attributes ascribed to the higher and lower classes by Mr. Bage. In most cases, the author's great man resembles the giant of the ancient romance of chivalry, whose evil qualities were presumed from his superior stature, and who was to be tilted at and cut to pieces, merely because he stood a few inches higher than his fellow-mortals. But the very vices and foibles of the higher classes in modern times are of a kind different from what Bage has frequently represented them. Men of rank, in the present day, are to indifferent, and too indolent, too indulge any of the stormy passions, and irregular but vehement desires, which create the petty tyrant, and perhaps formerly animated the feudal oppressor. Their general fault is a want of energy, or, to speak more accurately, an apathy, which is scarcely disturbed even by the feverish risks to which they expose their fortune, for the sole purpose, so far as can be discerned, of enjoying some momentary excitation. Amongst the numbers, both of rank and talent, who lie stranded upon the shores of Spenser's Lake of Idleness, are many who only want sufficient motives for exertion, to attract at once esteem and admiration; and among those, whom we rather despise than pity, a selfish apathy is the predominating attribute. In like manner, the habits of the lower classes, as existing in Britain, are far from affording, exclusively, that rich fruit of virtue and generosity, which Mr. Bage's writings would teach us to expect. On the contrary, they are discontented, not unnaturally, with the hardships of their situation, occupied too often in seizing upon the transient enjoyments which chance throws in their way, and open to temptations which promise to mend their condition in life, or at least to extend the circle of their pleasures at the expense of their morals. Those, therefore, who weigh equally, will be disposed to think that the state of society most favourable to virtue, may be most successfully sought amongst those who neither want nor abound, who are neither sufficiently raised above the necessity of labour and industry, to be satiated by the ready gratification of every wild wish as it arises, nor so much depressed below the general scale of society, as to be exasperated by struggles against indigence, or seduced by the violence of temptations which that indigence renders it difficult to resist. Though we have thus endeavoured to draw a broad line of distinction between the vices proper to the conditions of the rich and poor, the reader must be cautious to understand these words in a relative sense. For men are not rich or poor in relation to the general amount of their means, but in proportion to their wants and their wishes. He who can adjust his expenses within the limits of his income, how small soever that may be, must escape from the temptations which most easily beset indigence; and, the rich man, who makes it his business, as it is his duty, to attend to the proper distribution of his wealth, will be equally emancipated from those to which opulence is peculiarly obnoxious. (iv) This misrepresentation of the different classes in society, is not the only speculative error in which Bage has indulged during these poetic narratives. There is in his novels a dangerous tendency to slacken the reins of discipline upon a point, where, perhaps, of all others, society must be benefited by their curbing restraint. Fielding, Smollett, and other novelists, have, with very indifferent taste, brought forward their heroes as rakes and debauchees, and treated with great lightness those breaches of morals, which are too commonly considered as venial in the male sex ; but Bage has extended, in some instances, that license to the female sex, and seems at times even to sport with the ties of marriage, which is at once the institution of civil society most favourable to religion and good order, and that which, in its consequences, forms the most marked distinction between man and the lower animals. All the influence which women enjoy in society, - their right to the exercise of that maternal care which forms the first and most indelible species of education ; the wholesome and mitigating restraint which they possess over the passions of mankind ; their power of protecting us when young, and cheering us when old, - depend so entirely on their personal purity, and the charm which it casts around them, that to insinuate a doubt of its real value, is wilfully to remove the broadest corner-stone on which civil society rests, with all its benefits, and with all its comforts. It is true, we can easily conceive that a female like Miss Ross, in Barham Downs, may fall under the arts of a seducer, under circumstances so peculiar as to excite great compassion ; nor are we so rigid as to say, that such a person may not be restored to society, when her subsequent conduct shall have effaced recollection of her error. But she must return thither as a humble penitent, and has no title to sue out her pardon as a matter of right, and to assume a place among the virtuous of her sex as if she had never fallen from her proper sphere. Her disgrace must not be considered as a trivial stain, which may be communicated by a husband as an exceeding good jest to his friend and correspondent ; there must be, not penitence and reformation alone, but humiliation and abasement, in the recollection of her errors. This the laws of society demand even from the unfortunate; and to compromise farther, would open a door to the most unbounded licentiousness. With this fault in principle is connected an indelicacy of expression frequently occurring in Bage's novels, but which, though a gross error in point of taste, we consider as a matter of much less consequence than the former. It is in some degree chastened in the present edition, and where it exists must find such shelter as it can, under the faulty example of earlier novelists. Having adverted to this prominent error in Mr. Bage's theory of morals, we are compelled to remark, that his ideas respecting the male sex are not less inaccurate, considered as rules of mental government, than the over-indulgence with which he seems to regard female frailty. Hermsprong, whom he produces as the ideal perfection of humanity, is paraded as a man who, freed from all the nurse and all the priest has taught, steps forward on his path, without any religious or political restraint, as one who derives his own rules of conduct from his own breast, and avoids or resists all temptations of evil passions, because his reason teaches him that they are attended with evil consequences. In the expressive words of our moral poet Wordsworth, he is ''A reasoning self-sufficient thing, An intellectual all-in-all.'' But did such a man ever exist? or are we, in the fair construction of humanity, with all its temptations, its passions, and its frailties, entitled to expect such perfection from the mere force of practical philosophy? Let each reader ask his own bosom, whether it were possible for him to hold an unaltered tenor of moral and virtuous conduct, did he suppose that to himself alone he was responsible, and that his own reason, a judge so peculiarly subject to be bribed, blinded, and imposed upon by the sophistry with which the human mind can gloss over those actions to which human passions so strongly impel us, was the ultimate judge of his actions? Let each reader ask the question at his own conscience, and if he can honestly and conscientiously answer in the affirmative, he is either that faultless monster which the world never saw, or he deceives himself as grossly as the poor devotee, who, referring his course of conduct to the action of some supposed internal inspiration, conceives himself, upon a different ground, incapable of crime, even when he is in the very act of committing it. We are not treating this subject theologically ; the nature of our present work excludes such serious reasoning. But we would remind, even in these slight sketches, those who stand up for the self-sufficient morality of modern philosophy, or rather sophistry, that the experiment has long since been tried on a large scale. Whatever may be the inferiority of the ancients in physical science, it will scarce be denied, that in moral science they possess all the lights which the unassisted Reason, now referred to as the sufficient light of our paths, could possibly attain. Yet, when we survey what their system of Ethics did for the perfection of the human species, we shall see that but a very few even of the teachers themselves have left behind them such characters as tend to do honour to their doctrines. Some philosophers there were, who, as instructors in morality, showed a laudable example to their followers ; and we will not invidiously inquire how far these were supported in their self-denial, either by vanity, or the desire of preserving consistency, or the importance annexed to the founder of a sect ; although the least of these motives afford great support to temperance, even in cases where it is not rendered easy by advanced age, which of itself calms the more stormy passions. But the satires of Juvenal, of Petronius, and, above all, Lucian, show what slight effect the doctrines of Zeno, Epictetus, Plato, Socrates, and Epicurus, produced on their avowed followers ; and how little influence the beard of the stoic, the sophistry of the Academician, and the self-denied mortification of the Cynics, had upon the sects which derived their names from these distinguished philosophers. We shall find that these pretended despisers of sensual pleasures shared the worst vices of the grossest age of society, and added to them the detestable hypocrisy of pretending, that they were all the while guided by the laws of true wisdom and of right reason. If, in modern times, they who own the restraint of philosophical discipline alone have not given way to such grossness of conduct, it is because those principles of religion, which they affect to despise, have impressed on the public mind a system of moral feeling, unknown till the general prevalence of the Christian faith ; but, which, since its predominance, has so generally pervaded European society, that no pretender to innovation can directly disavow its influence, though he endeavours to show that the same results which are recommended from the Christian pulpit, and practised by the Christian community, might be reached by the unassisted efforts of that human reason, to which he counsels us to resign the sole regulation of our morals. In short, to oppose one authority in the same department to another, the reader is requested to compare the character of the philosophic Square in Tom Jones, with that of Bage's philosophical heroes ; and to consider seriously whether a system of Ethics, founding an exclusive and paramount court in a man's own bosom for the regulation of his own conduct, is likely to form a noble, enlightened, and generous character, influencing others by superior energy and faultless example ; or whether it is not more likely, as in the observer of the rule of right, to regulate morals according to temptation and to convenience, and to form a selfish, sophistical hypocrite, who, with morality always in his mouth, finds a perpetual apology for evading the practice of abstinence, when either passion or interest solicit him to indulgence. We do not mean to say, that, because Bage entertained erroneous notions, he therefore acted viciously. The history of his life, so far as known to us, indicates a contrary course of conduct. It would seem, from his language, as we have already said, that he had been bred among the strict and benevolent sect of Friends ; and if their doctrines carried him some length in speculative error, he certainly could derive nothing from them to favour laxity of morals. In his fictitious works, the Quakers are always brought forward in an amiable point of view ; and the characters of Arnold, and particularly of Miss Carlile, are admirable pictures of the union of talent, and even wit, with the peculiar manners and sentiments of these interesting and primitive persons. But if not vicious himself, Bage's leading principles are such as, if acted upon, would introduce vice into society ; in men of a fiercer mould, they would lead to a very different line of conduct from his own ; and, such being the case, it was the Editor's duty to point out the sophistry on which they are founded. The works of Bage, abstracted from the views against which we have endeavoured to caution the reader, are of high and decided merit. It is scarce possible to read him without being amused, and, to a certain degree, instructed. His whole efforts are turned to the development of human character; and, it must be owned, he possessed a ready key to it. The mere story of the novels seldom possess much interest - it is the conduct of his personages, as thinking and speaking beings, in which we are interested ; and, contrary to the general case, the reader is seldom or never tempted to pass over the dialogue in order to continue the narrative. The author deals occasionally in quick and improbable conversions, as in that of Sir George Osmond, from selfishness and avarice, to generosity and liberality, by the mere loveliness of virtue in his brother and his friends. And he does not appear to have possessed much knowledge of that species of character which is formed by profession or by nationality. His seamen are indifferent ; his Irishmen not beyond those usually brought on the stage ; his Scotchmen still more awkward caricatures, and the language which he puts in their mouths, not similar to any that has been spoken since the days of Babel. It is in detecting the internal workings of a powerful understanding, like that of Paracelsus Holman, that Bage's power chiefly consists ; and great that power must be, considering how much more difficult it is to trace those varieties of character which are formed by such working, than merely to point out such as the mind receives from the manners and customs of the country in which it has ripened. A light, gay, pleasing air, carries us agreeably through Bage's novels ; and when we are disposed to be angry at seeing the worse made to appear the better reason, we are reconciled to the author by the ease and good-humour of his style. We did not think it proper to reject the works of so eminent an author from this collection, merely on account of speculative errors. We have done our best to place a mark on these ; and as we are far from being of opinion, that the youngest and most thoughtless derive their serious opinions from productions of this nature, we leave them for our reader's amusement, trusting that he will remember that a good jest is no argument ; that a novelist, like the master of a puppet-show, has his drama under his absolute authority, and shapes the events to favour his own opinions ; and that whether the Devil flies away with Punch, or Punch strangles the Devil, forms no real argument as to the comparative power of either one or other, but only indicates the special pleasure of the master of the motion. (i) William Hutton, F.S.A. Edin, bookseller, Birmingham, a native of Derby, who raised himself by industry, from a very small beginning, to a state of affluence and respectability, died 1815, aged 92. He employed his pen on a variety of subjects, antiquarian, statistical, poetical, and historical. (ii) Disertation on Juries - S. (iii) Bage lived eight months after the date of this letter, which was written January 24, 1801 - S. (iv) ''Our author, as we have already seen, betrays the dictates of his better reason in the midst of his apology for Tom Jones ; but what importance he really attaches to the influence so undervalued in the passage we have quoted, (see ante, p.260, and note, p.260-61) is distinctly proved and abundantly illustrated in his preface to the works of a very inferior novelist, Robert Bage. The writer, whose works have thus been recalled from an oblivion which we cannot help thinking they merited, wrote at the period of the French Revolution ; and though he had been born and bred among the primitive and virtuous sect of our Quakers, he systematically made his novels the vehicle of all the anti-social, anti-moral, and anti-religious theories that were then but too much in vogue among the half-educated classes in this country. Sir Walter, after exposing with just ridicule the style of gross and senseless caricature in which Mr. Bage, the son of a miller, and himself a paper-maker in a little country town, has thought fit to paint the manners of English gentlemen and ladies, proceeds, as follows, to notice the far graver offences of which his pen had been guilty-'This misrepresentation of the different classes in society,' '' &c. - Quarterly Review, Set. 1826. The second example is taken from the Introduction to his novel 'Hermsprong' published in 1952 by
Robert Bage A Brief Chronology The following is a short chronology of Robert Bage taken from the latest publication of 'Hermsprong' which was released in June 2002 and edited by Pamela Perkins;- 1728 Born (February) in Darley, Derbyshire, the son of a papermaker; his mother dies soon after his birth, and his father remarries. 1732 Bage's first stepmother dies (his father eventually marries twice more). 1751 Bage marries Elizabeth Woolley of Mickleover. 1752 Bage's son Charles born. 1754 Bage's son Edward born (baptized 1 January 1755). 1756 Bage and William Hutton enter business together. 1758 Bage's son John born. 1760 Bage studies mathematics with Thomas Hanson, a "celebrated" Birmingham teacher. 1761 Hutton becomes more closely involved in Bage's business, agreeing to buy all the paper that Bage produces. 1765 Around this time, Bage invests in ironworks with several others, including (according to Godwin) Erasmus Darwin. 1766 Bage sells his mills to the Earl of Donegal (for £2000), leasing them back for £46/year. 1779 Approximately the time of the failure of the ironworks, a failure that costs Bage a large sum of money - perhaps £1500, according to Hutton. 1782 Mount Henneth published by Thomas Lowndes, who pays £30 for the copyright. 1784 Publication of Barham Downs. 1787 Publication of The Fair Syrian. 1788 Publication of James Wallace. 1791 Hutton's property is looted during the Birmingham Riots in July; Bage helps him and subsequently writes bitterly about the attacks on Dissenters in his letters. 1792 Man as he Is published by Minerva Press. 1793 John Bage dies; Robert Bage moves from Elford to Tamworth, although he continues to run the mill and keeps his house in Elford. 1796 Publication of Hermsprong (second edition 1799). 1797 William Godwin visits Bage during an excursion to the Midlands. 1801 Bage dies on 1st September. 1810 Hermsprong republished in Anna Laetitia Barbauld's British Novelists. 1824 Sir Walter Scott publishes an essay on Bage as part of his collection of biographical studies of the major British novelists. 1828 The Chiswick Press reissues Hermsprong, the last edition of any of Bage's novels until the twentieth century. From the same source;- Appendix A Bage's Life 1. William Godwin, from a letter to Mary Wollstonecraft, 15th June, 1797. (In C. Kegan Paul, ed. William Godwin His Friends and Contemporaries. 2 vols. New York AMS Press, 1970. 1 262 - 63.) (Godwin and his friend, Montagu, have called on Erasmus Darwin, who is away, but they meet his wife.) We asked of her a letter to Mr. Bage; but she said that she could not do that with propriety, as she did not know whether she had ever seen him, though he was the Doctor's very particular friend. Thus baffled in our object, we plucked up our courage, and determined to introduce ourselves to the author of 'Hermsprong.' We were able to cite our introduction to Dr. Darwin by the Wedgwoods and our intention of having procured a letter from the doctor. Accordingly, we proceeded from Derby to Burton upon Trent, 16 miles. This is a very handsome town, with a wide and long street, a beautiful river, and a bridge which Montagu said was the longest he ever saw in the world. Here we slept, and drank Burton ale at the spring, after a journey of 48 miles. The next morning, between six and seven, we set out for Tamworth, 15 miles. At Elford, 11 miles, we saw Mr. Bage's mills, and a house in which he lived for forty years. His mills are for paper and flour. Here we enquired respecting him, and found that he had moved to Tamworth five years ago, upon the death of his younger son, by which event he found his life rendered solitary and melancholy. The people at the mill told us that he came three times a week, walking from Tamworth to the mill, four miles; that they expected him at eleven (it was now nine); and that, if we proceeded, we should meet him upon the road. They told us, as a guide, that he was a short man, with white hair, snuff-coloured clothes, and a walking stick. He is 67 years old, exactly the same age as Dr. Darwin. Accordingly, about a mile and a half from Tamworth, we met the man of whom we were in quest, with a book in his hand. We introduced ourselves, and, after a little conversation, I got out of the chaise, and walked back with him to the mill. This six or seven miles was very fortunate, and contributed greatly to our acquaintance. I found him uncommonly cheerful and placid, simple in his manners, and youthful in all his carriage. His house at the mill was floored, every room below stairs, with brick, and like that of a common farmer in every respect. There was, however, the river at the bottom of the garden, skirted with a quickset hedge, and a broad green walk. He told me his history. His father was a miller, as well as himself, and he was born at Derby. At twenty-two he removed to Elford. He had been acquainted forty years with Dr. Darwin. The other acquaintances of his youth, were Whitehurst, author of 'The Theory of the Earth,' and some other eminent man whose name I forget. He taught himself French and Latin, in both of which languages he is a considerable proficient. In his youth he was fond of poetry; but, having some motive for the study of mathematics, he devoted his three hours an afternoon (the portion of time he allotted for reading) to this subject for twelve years, and this employment destroyed the eagerness of his attachment to poetry. In the middle of life, he engaged in a joint undertaking with Dr. Darwin and another person respecting some ironworks. This failed, and he returned once more to his village and his mill. The result filled him with melancholy thoughts; and, to dissipate them, he formed the project of a novel, which he endeavoured to fill with gay and cheerful ideas. At first he had no purpose of publishing what he wrote. Since that time he had been accustomed to produce a novel every two years, and 'Hermsprong' is his sixth. He believes he should not have written novels, but for want of books to assist him in any other literary undertaking. Living at Tamworth, he still retains his house at the mill, as the means of independance. It is his own, and he considers it as his security against the caprice or despotism of a landlord, who might expel him from Tamworth. He has thought much, and like most of those persons I have met with who have conquered many prejudices and read little metaphysics, is a materialist. His favourite book on this point is the 'Systeme de la Nature.' We spent a most delightful day in his company. When we met him, I had taken no breakfast; and though we had set off from Burton that morning at six, and I spent the whole morning in riding and walking, I felt no inconvenience in waiting for food till our dinner time at two, I was so much interested with Mr. Bage's conversation. .................................................... Bage himself seems not to have taken criticism too seriously. Shortly after the publication of Man As He Is, he told William Hutton "What character it will have I know not; but if thou hearest any thing said of it in Birmingham - if good let me know - if bad keep it to thyself. I can digest flattery but hate correction" (Letterbook, Birmingham City Archives 486802 IIR 29, 100) ........................................................ From William Hutton, "Memoirs of Mr. Bage," The Monthly Magazine, vol. XIII (Jan. 1802), 478-79. Sir, I waited, and earnestly wished, to see in your Magazine some memoirs of the late worthy Mr. Robert Bage. But none appearing after so urgent a solicitation, I think myself bound to pay a tribute to a departed friend whom I dearly loved, who stood one of the first in my esteem, whom I have known perhaps longer than any man living, and with whom I have lived in the closest friendship fifty years. This uncommon but excellent man was born Feb. 29, 1728, at Darley, a hamlet in the parish of St. Alkmond's, Derby, where his father worked a paper-mill. Though he lived to the age of 73, he could not celebrate more than 18 birthdays. His mother died soon after his birth, when his father removed to Derby, but kept the mill. He quickly married a second wife, as I well remember, he buried her in 1732. He soon procured another, buried her, and ventured upon a fourth, who survived him. Robert was put to school, so that I did not perfectly know him till 1735, when he was seven years old. He had made at that age such a progress in letters , that he was the wonder of the neighbourhood; he was then in the Latin tongue. My father often held him up to me for imitation, I being much bigger and older. I was then but little acquainted with him, for he moved in a sphere more elevated than I. At this time he was completely master of the manual-exercise, and I saw him instructing some young men. He afterwards was trained to his father's business. In about 1751 he married a young lady, who possessed four accomplishments which seldom meet in one woman, fortune, beauty, good sense, and prudence; I might add a fifth, necessary for the peace of a family, good nature. I have reason to think he found more happiness in domestic life than is usually experienced. Having embraced the marriage state, he entered upon a paper-mill at Elford, four miles from Tamworth, which he conducted to the time of his death. Some men's capacity opens at a late day, and some whither soon after the meridian of life, but Robert Bage's opened and shut with his existence. His enlivening sun shone with vigour during a long period of years. His talents, humanity, honour and generosity, appeared through the whole of his life, conspicuous to all who knew him. I could bring numberless incidents to establish every trait of his character but as this would lead me into too wide a field, I shall confine myself to one or two proofs to each assertion. The powers of his mind were amazingly strong; these, in the early part of his life have already been noted. During my acquaintance with him he learnt music, and the French and Italian languages, without a master. Being inclined, in 1760, to learn the abtruse branches of mathematics, he applied to Thomas Hanson, a celebrated teacher, and spent a night in Birmingham once a week for instruction. As I was intimate with both, I sometimes attended, and before the scholar had been a month, I could easily perceive, though no adept myself, he was able to teach his master, nay, even set him fast. Perhaps part of this victory might arise from the easy fluency with which Mr. Bage delivered himself, while the master of figures was better formed for thinking than speaking. His humanity will appear from his treatment of his servants, and even his horses, who all loved him, and whom he kept to old age. Trade, which is thought to corrupt the mind, made no such impression upon his. Though he laid no stress upon Revelation, his dealings were stamped with rectitude; he remarked to me, "Fraud is beneath a man." He had no other love for money than to use it, or he might have left a much larger property than he did. In Feb. 1756, he asked me to spend the evening with him. He proposed a connection (not a partnership) which I accepted, and which continued, with small variations, according to the mutations of time, till the day of his death. From that date, perhaps, I have paid him 500 1. a year, upon the average, and always with pleasure, which proves this simple point, I was treated with honour. During this long course of 45 years he never gave me one cause of complaint. His honour, and peaceable temper, will farther appear from a remark he made while we travelled in a chaise from Wolsey bridge to Tamworth, in October 1795 - he had then been in partnership with a person in another concern near 15 years - "that they never had one word of difference since they met." His generous cast of mind will appear from two, among many, incidents. I accidentally remarked that, "I had seen a distant relation of his, who was out of employment." - "Give him, (says he) upon my account (though he did not know him) five shillings a week till he gets into work." When the rioters, in 1791, had cruelly destroyed my property to a large amount, and obliged me, with my family, to run away without a shilling, and none durst take us in, we drove, among other places, to the Castle at Tamworth. I asked the people of the inn if they knew me? "No." - "I have no money to pay my way, or property to pledge." Their looks fell. "I am known to Mr. Bage, of Elford, whom I will request to pay my bill." Their looks and my credit rose together. He cheerfully paid it, blamed me for not coming to his house, and I could never prevail upon him to accept a return. With all these rich talents and rare endowments he was mild in the extreme; an enemy to no man, and, I believe, never had one himself. His reason for becoming an author was singular, and such as would have driven another out of authorship. I shall state the cause, and deliver the result as given me by himself in the chaise above mentioned. About the year 1765 he was induced to enter into partnership with three gentlemen in a wholesale iron-manufactory. The pursuit continued about 14 years, then dissolved, when it appeared he had lost a sum, which I have now forgotten, perhaps 1500 l. Fearing the distress of mind would overcome him, he took up the pen to turn the stream of sorrow into that of amusement; a scheme worthy a philosopher. ........................................................ From Web-site;- http://ron.jean.tripod.com/elford/id8.html;- The Shrubbery , The River Tame and Fords THE SHRUBBERY IS THE MAIN ROAD INTO THE VILLAGE FROM TAMWORTH FORDS ACROSS THE RIVER AT ELFORDThree roads ran North and East from the settlement at Fisherwick and Elford, crossing the river by fords which were described in 1766 as often impassable. The most northerly lay to the north east of Fisherwick Hall and was known as Fisherwick Ford in the 16th Century. The second road followed an Iron Age track leading to the river. Its ford was known as Elford Hall ford. In 1600 there was a ferry there, and the crossing was known in 1766 as Elford Ford or Elford Ferry. Interestingly where the Old Hall used to be is a substantial iron eye set in the ground near the river. Presumably this is the where the rope for the ferry was fixed to. It is roughly on a line with where the old iron age track used to be. It is around that track that there have been archaeological excavations of the Neolithic/roman occupation of the land . The third and most southerly road ran through Timmor and crossed the tame by a ford at Elford Mill known as Broad ford in the 13th century. The road was then known as Sropstreteweye, probably meaning the Shrewsbury or Shropshire Road. It continued west from Fisherwick to Lichfield via Huddlesford lane in Whittington., and in the early part of the 16th century it was part of the way from Leicester to Lichfield. In 1599 the road was described as difficult, especially in winter The roads radiating from the former hamlet of Fisherwick ran through Fisherwick Park until the latter part of the 18th Century. They were stopped up as art of an Act in 1766 as part of Lord Donnegals improvement of the park. In return he built a bridge over the Tame at Elford north of Elford Mill. He assumed responsibility for its maintenance and for the upkeep of the road as far as Hademore. Built of pink sandstone the bridge consists of three arches over the main part of the river and an eight arch flood section to the west. Also in 1766 Lord Donegal granted the Lord of Elford and his servants a right of way through the park in a straight line from the gate wheer the road from Elford Ford entered the park, across to Hademore gate. The right covered pedestrians, horses and carriages buy not carts. In 1911 H F Pagett as Lord of Fisherwick, and his eldest son F E Pagett made an agreement with Lichfield Rural District Council for the maintenance of the Whittington Road. During the lifetime of the Pagetts., who agreed to pay for it. It is fortunate that no one person is responsible for that maintenance today. The repairs that have had to be made to the bridge in recent years would be ruinous. From - History of Stafford by M Greenslade (Full of information) 1765 Advice given to Elford Hall re Bage's Construction of a footbridge Crossing by Paper Mill (Elford Hall collection Birmingham Archives) Bage was a business man and author who lived at Elford Mill. There has been a ferry at Elford since time immemorial - To the great detriment of Which Bage owner and occupier of a paper mill, an island opposite to it and of the water thereabouts hath lately needed a footbridge made within a measured mile of the aforesaid ferry. It is asked whether an action will not lay against Bage for needing a bridge greatly detrimental to the ferry, which the owner of Elford Hall has kept up time immemorial, it is obliged to keep up, notwithstanding the said bridge is built upon Bages own land - and goes over his own water. And the action (if it will lay) should be bought in the name of the owner of Elford Hall, or in the mans name who rents the ferry. I am of the opinion that as the owner of Elford Hall has a ferry by prescription, which he is obliged to maintain, any person who offers any other passage upon the river, whether by another ferry or by another bridge as to prejudice the ancient ferry is liable to be sued in an action on the case. For as the law lays the onus of maintaining the ferry it also gives him a profit of an exclusive right of passage. And therefore whether Bage makes any profit or no of his bridge (which is not stated), an action will lie against him: but if he has made a profit of it Damages will be the more considerable. The construction of Bages bridge being built on his own land and coming over his own water are immaterial in this case. If he permits other than his own family to use it, for the rule of law is Sic utere I think the action should be brought in the name of J Pennant of the ferry, otherwise the owner of Elford Hall may possibly be obliged to prove a decrease in rent in order to prove the damages. H Blackstone Carey Street 23 Jan 1765 ........................................................ http://ron.jean.tripod.com/elford/id10.html;- It is of passing interest that this mill site has a long history - Birmingham Central Library contains a manuscript which is a Grant from Leouca, Lady of Elleford to the monks at Mirau (Merevale, Warks) of the mill about 1140 A.D. This manuscript has the distinction of being the oldest document held by the Library. ........................................................ From web-site;- http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk/search/docframe.asp?i=3&stylesheet=xsl\A2A_com.xsl&com=1 Hutton and Beale families of Birmingham Catalogue Ref. MS 3597 Catalogue Ref. Original Library deposit numbers: 4948 L, 5002 L, 5202 L, 504 L, 848 L
Catherine Hutton Catalogue Ref. MS 168
........................................................ MESSRS HINCKLEY, BIRCH AND EXHAM, SOLICITORS, LICHFIELD Catalogue Ref. D15
........................................................ The following web-site is very interesting with regard to what it was like at the time of the Birmingham Riots and how it affected Robert Bage and his friend William Hutton ;- http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/2848/hutton/riots.html The following are extracts which mention Robert Bage;- A NARRATIVE OF THE RIOTS IN BIRMINGHAM, JULY 14, 1791 ,PARTICULARLY AS THEY AFFECTED THE AUTHOR. ....................I asked the people at the Castle Inn whether they knew me. They answered in the negative. I had now a most painful task to undergo. "Though I have entered your house," said I, "as a common guest, I am a desolate wanderer, without money to pay or property to pledge." The man who had paid his bills during sixty-eight years must have been sensibly touched to make this declaration. If he had feelings, it would call them forth. Their countenance fell on hearing it. I farther told them I was known to Mr Robert Bage, a gentleman of the neighbourhood, whom I would request to pay my bill. My credit rose in proportion to the value of the name mentioned. Myself, my wife, son, and daughter passed the night at the Castle at Tamworth................. ................Note.- the editor [of the second edition, Catherine Hutton.] has taken the liberty of inserting in this edition the following letters of Dr. Priestley and Robert Bage, on the subject of the riots, the one being a faithful transcript of the Doctor's sentiments, and the others a specimen of the friendship and elegance of the writer........... Letters from Robert Bage to William Hutton. LETTER I. Elford, July 25th,1791. Mrs. And Miss Hutton are not well. I cannot promise better health here, but I can a hearty welcome and friendly sympathy. In this country it is better to be a Churchman, with just as much common sense as heaven has been pleased to give on an average to Esquimaux, than a Dissenter with the understanding of a Priestley or a Locke. I hope, dear Will, experience will teach thee this great truth, and convey thee to peace and orthodoxy, pudding and stupidity. Since the riots, in every company I have had the misfortune to go into, my ears have been insulted with the bigotry of fifty years back - with "Damn the Presbyterians!" with "Church and king, huzza!" and with true passive obedience and non-resistence; and may my house be burnt too if I am not become as sick of my species, and as desirous of keeping out of its way, as ever was hermit! I have already asked for thy bill at Tamworth; but Rice being out, I could not get it. I will discharge it the first time I go. Not a word of Mrs. Or Miss Hutton. I wish thou wert a true Catholic, and the penance for they sins were to write to me every post till I was satisfied. I would then know precisely the state of all your bodies and all your minds. I am questioned at Tamworth about my friend Hutton. Is he well? Is he in spirits? Has he any apprehensions of renewed violence? Finally, does he write the History of St. Albans, or is that book gone to wreck?
LETTER II. Elford, July 25, 1792. Thank thee for they family intelligence. I love ye all, Presbyterians as ye are. Thou saidst something in they last about authorship, which makes me suspect thou hast heard a rumour of my publishing lately. I have taken great pains, and sunk money to Lane in the price, not to be known any more as a novel writer; - the title of my last I even concealed from my sons, and yet the report goes strongly that "Man as he Is" is mine. What character it will have I know not; but if thou hearest anything said of it in Birmingham - if good, let me know; if bad, keep it to thyself. I can digest flattery, but hate reproof.
LETTER III. Elford, Jan. 24, 1793. In Dr. Priestley's late publication he makes just and honourable mention of thee, in which particular, if I live to publish again, I hope to imitate him. I am pleased to see the good Doctor in print on any subject except theology; but at present nothing from him will be attended to. No man's ear is open to anything but "Damn the French," and "Damn the Presbyterians." I abstain from all society, because respect for my moral principles is scarcely sufficient to preserve me from insult on account of my political. Thine, R. Bage. ........................................................ There is a web-site called 'Revolutionary Players' at ;-http://www.search.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/default.asp?resource=3998 which has a photo of Mill House, Elford, near Lichfield where Robert Bage lived. The writer on the web-site, John Goss is doing a biography of Robert Bage. John Goss writes;- ..............As a person Bage was scrupulously honest. He looked after the welfare of his mill-workers and animals and as a trustee of the Reverend Hill’s charity helped provide education for the poor children of Elford village.7 In later years he kept his mind active, joining Derby Philosophical Society in 1788 and studying mathematics under the tutorship of Birmingham surveyor and astronomer Thomas Hanson......... 7 Stafford P.R.O. D3094/10/1/6 1762. ........................................................ I received the following from a fellow researcher;- In Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen - Jane Austen , a Life. Penguin 1998, she mentions twice Austen's ownership of Robert Bage's Hermsprong, page 123 and 139, and speculates on the effect of this on Austen's thinking. There are a couple of other references to Bage in the context of the intellectual climate in which Jane Austen wrote. ........................................................ Extract from 'The Life of William Hutton' which can be found at the following web-site. It is well worth reading the whole article as it gives you a real feeling for what it was like in the lifetime of Robert Bage. http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/etexts/E000366.htm#X04 1801 The second occurrence was the loss of my worthy friend Robert Bage, whom I had known 66 years, and with whom I had lived upon the most intimate terms of friendship during 51; a person of the most extraordinary parts, and who has not left behind him a man of more honour or generosity. I have lost my oldest friend. He died September 1. Mr. Bage was the Author of Mount Heneth, Barham Downs, James Wallace, The Fair Syrian, Man as he is, and Man as he is not; all much favoured by the world. I wrote, by public desire, the memoirs of his life, which were published in the Monthly Magazine for December 1801. ........................................................ Interesting web-site;- http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/extracts/E000424.htm ........................................................ |
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