re. Contributions--who knows how far back
they go, far beyond the reign of George the Second, or perhaps the reign
of William Conqueror. Noble and genuine some of them were, many of them
were, I need not doubt: for there is no human edifice that stands long
but has got itself planted, here and there, upon the basis of fact;
and being built, in many respects, according to the laws of statics: no
standing edifice, especially no edifice of State, but has had the
wise and brave at work in it, contributing their lives to it; and is
"cemented," whether it know the fact or not, "by the blood of heroes!"
None; not even the Foreign Office, Home Office, still less the National
Palaver itself. William Conqueror, I find, must have had a first-rate
Home Office, for his share. The _Domesday Book_, done in four years,
and done as it is, with such an admirable brevity, explicitness and
completeness, testifies emphatically what kind of under-secretaries and
officials William had. Silent officials and secretaries, I suppose;
not wasting themselves in parliamentary talk; reserving all their
intelligence for silent survey of the huge dumb fact, silent
consideration how they might compass the mastery of that. Happy
secretaries, happy William!

But indeed nobody knows what inarticulate traditions, remnants of old
wisdom, priceless though quite anonymous, survive in many modern things
that still have life in them. Ben Brace, with his taciturnities, and
rugged stoical ways, with his tarry breeches, stiff as plank-breeches,
I perceive is still a kind of _Lod-brog_ (Loaded-breeks) in more senses
than one; and derives, little conscious of it, many of his excellences
from the old Sea-kings and Saxon Pirates themselves; and how many Blakes
and Nelsons since have contributed to Ben! "Things are not so false
always as they seem," said a certain Professor to me once: "of this
you will find instances in every country, and in your England more than
any--and I hope will draw lessons from them. An English Seventy-four, if
you look merely at the articulate law and methods of it, is one of the
impossiblest entities. The captain is appointed not by preeminent merit
in sailorship, but by parliamentary connection; the men [this was spoken
some years ago] are got by impressment; a press-gang goes out, knocks
men down on the streets of sea-towns, and drags them on board,--if the
ship were to be stranded, I have heard they would nearly all run ashore
and desert.