Littell's Living Age/Volume 129/Issue 1663/Heligoland
HELIGOLAND.
On Tuesday evening the House of Lords had a debate on India, the greatest, while on Monday evening it had turned its attention to Heligoland, the smallest, possession of the British crown. As the number of persons who know where Heligoland is may perhaps be limited, we will mention that it is an island, or rather group of islands, in the German Ocean, twenty-five miles from the mouths of the Elbe, Weser, and Eider. The main island is divided into the cliff and the low land. The cliff is a rock rising to an elevation of ninety to one hundred and seventy feet above the level of the sea. The summit is a tolerably level plain, about forty-two hundred paces in circumference. The lowland adjoining has two good harbours. The circumference of the whole island does not exceed three miles. In former ages it was of much greater extent. It has been during many centuries much consumed by the waves, and lately it has been eaten up by rabbits. It was anciently the residence of a chief of the Sicambri, and the seat of worship of a Saxon deity. When the English took possession of it in 1807, during the war with Denmark, it became the depot for goods which were smuggled into Continental ports; the lowland, which had been an uninhabited down, was covered with warehouses; and the population of the island increased to four thousand. More recently it has been a favourite site for gambling-tables, where perhaps the worship of the Saxon deity was continued. On the conclusion of peace in 1814 the English retained possession of the island, probably for the sake of its double harbour, and for the advantage which it offers for defence in having two wells of good water. The English erected batteries and a lighthouse. They placed there a governor and a garrison, but levied no taxes, and did not interfere with the internal government. It is of course under the superintendence of the Colonial Office, and Lord Carnarvon, who is indefatigable in the business of making things pleasant all round with colonists, has not neglected to propitiate the descendants of the Sicambri.
We are indebted to Lord Rosebery for calling our attention to this interesting colony by moving for papers relating to Heligoland. It has been said that by the capitulation of 1807 the ancient rights and liberties of the inhabitants were secured to them, and Lord Rosebery desires to ascertain what those ancient rights and liberties precisely were. It is believed, however, that every householder was entitled to be summoned to a council before any taxation could be imposed on him. Things remained almost unchanged until 1864, when Heligoland, like larger colonies, behoved to have a constitution. By an order in council of that year a legislative council was created. It consisted of twelve persons summoned by royal warrant; and when questions of taxation were involved, twelve burghers were to be added to the council by election. By this time, probably, some zealot desires to introduce representative government into the island, and we are quite prepared to hear that the recent plague of rabbits is ascribed to the want of parliamentary institutions. It appears that in 1866 the governor reported that the constitution was working admirably, and two years afterwards it was abolished. If it be true that, while the inhabitants had not paid the taxes imposed on them, the public debt which had amounted to 750l. was reduced to 600l., we can only say that charity should begin at home, and we should like to have such a beautiful constitution among ourselves. We decline to adopt the suggestion which may possibly be offered that the debt was reduced out of the profits of the gambling-table. The Duke of Buckingham, when he was colonial secretary, is said to have gone in uniform in a man-of-war to Heligoland, and taken away its bauble of a constitution. The German newspapers, which naturally take a lively interest in the descendants of the Sicambri, have lately called attention to this alleged grievance, and they complain that, whereas we are always preaching liberty to other governments, we have summarily abolished the constitution of one of our own dependencies. Lord Carnarvon, in answer to Lord Rosebery, remarked that the Heligolanders are a sensitive race, as indeed are most of the races with which he is brought into official contact, and he feared that the production of the capitulation of 1807 would wound the susceptibilities of the dependency. Considering that this capitulation is, as he says, an historic document, and that its contents must be perfectly well known to those who were affected by it, Lord Carnarvon's anxiety is perhaps excessive. It may be remembered that Napoleon had by the Peace of Tilsit converted Russia from a dangerous enemy into a subservient friend. Our government apprehended that he and the emperor Alexander would employ the Danish fleet against us, and so we determined to seize it ourselves. Whatever may be thought of the justice of this resolution, there can be no question of the vigour with which it was executed. A fleet and army was immediately despatched; and, whereas the battle of Friedland was fought on the 14th June and the Peace of Tilsit concluded on 9th July, the surrender of the Danish fleet was exacted on the 7th September. As a branch of these operations, a small squadron was sent to Heligoland, and while our admiral was preparing to storm the place with his marines and seamen, a flag of truce arrived, and next day was signed the capitulation which Lord Rosebery now wishes to have produced. Thus the island, which was much wanted as a refuge for our cruisers in these dangerous waters, became a possession of the British crown, and our traders, we may be sure, promptly utilized its commercial capabilities. The hope which we had founded on the stubborn courage of the Russian armies was dissipated as soon as Napoleon's military genius had full scope. But not even by his splendid victory at Friedland, nor by the confederacy which followed it, could he abate the pertinacity of our resistance. Whatever came of our allies we were never disappointed in ourselves, and it may be doubted whether the vigilance of our cruisers or the activity of our smugglers caused greater irritation to our enemy. It would have been better if we had not imitated the petty spite he showed. When we employed our naval power in cutting off supplies of drugs from Napoleon's confederates, Sydney Smith ridiculed our great scheme for closing, as he said, the ports and the bowels of Northern Europe.
It was against an earlier confederacy of the same kind that Nelson battled in 1801. Twice within seven years Copenhagen heard the thunder of our guns, and the capitulation of Heligoland commemorates our second attack on the nation with which we have now so close a tie. Yet Nelson wrote that the Danes were the brothers, and should never be the enemies, of the English. They might, however, be pardoned in those days for thinking that we had a way of dissembling our love. If, as is likely, the Heligolanders have now German sympathies, they may not feel any particular irritation at looking back at our attacks on Denmark, and at any rate they know their own history. Lord Carnarvon tells us that the capitulation did not confirm ancient rights and liberties. The island is now, he says, in a state of contentment and satisfaction, and he implies that it does not regret the constitution of 1864. If its people are happier than they were when they could pay off debt without collecting taxes, the Colonial Office has something to be proud of. They may be prosperous; but if they are contented they deserve to be described, in the indignant language of agitation, as wretches whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance. Their community is probably about as big as one of those "populous places" which lately exercised the sagacity of magistrates at quarter sessions. The colonial secretary, correcting Lord Rosebery, stated that we supplied Heligoland with a constitution soon after it came into our possession. It had a legislative council consisting of six nominated members, with whom six others were to be associated under certain circumstances. The connection between the island and Denmark in those days was much closer than it afterwards became, and we regret to learn that, as a result of or contemporaneously with this Danish connection, it was impossible to recover debts or to enforce legal processes in the island, gambling-tables were set up, and, as Lord Carnarvon delicately puts it, "great difficulties arose" as to wrecking and salvage cases. The descendants of the Sicambri seem to have thought that of all slaves the most base is he that pays, and it may be plausibly conjectured that the Saxon deity who was worshipped on the island was identical with Mercury. The constitution of 1864 is described as "a change in the direction of local self-government," and it may be admitted that the islanders of that day did need an increase of self-government, but in a moral, not political, sense. An extension of the franchise was granted, and there are enthusiasts capable of believing that universal suffrage would cure a propensity to wrecking and gambling, and promote a law-abiding and debt-paying frame of mind. However, that experiment failed, as experiments have failed in larger colonies, and then the Duke of Buckingham went to the island, as above described, and abolished its constitution with the happiest possible results. Another speaker, being free from official regard for susceptible Sicambri, remarked that at that time it was impossible to serve a writ, and that Heligoland wanted not so much a constitution as a constable. In fact, it was a sort of Whitefriars with sea air; and even Lord Carnarvon seems to admit that an English officer called receiver of wrecks was quite as important in the new system as the lieutenant-governor or his council. So far as could be possible under the authority of the British crown, this island seems to have approximated to the condition ascribed by a witness in the case of the "Lennie" mutineers to (we think) Isle de Rhé. "I told them it was a republic, and there were no police, and they had better go ashore." Self-government, in the sense of keeping your hands from picking and stealing, was obviously the want of the islanders, and they have now acquired it. Lord Carnarvon does not directly question the assertion that this island was a paradise under the lamented constitution of 1864; but he rather seems to suggest that it was something else, and he positively states the public debt has been further reduced since the advent of the wreck-receiver. In fact, there has been rather less liberty and rather more law. The debt of Heligoland does not, so far as we know, figure prominently in the transactions of the stock exchange, and the possessor of a few hundred pounds might probably constitute himself sole creditor of this dependency of the British crown. Lord Carnarvon omits to notice the alarming prevalence of rabbits, and we fear that a colonial secretary in uniform on board a man-of-war would produce small impression on them. But we could at all events turn out a few foxes on the island.