THE REVOLT OF THE BEES. CHAPTER I. "As bees In the spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer AT the distance of five miles to the south-west of Edinburgh rise the Pentland Hills: they are in height about two thousand feet, and form two ridges running parallel with each other, divided by a beautiful ravine, with a burn coursing its way through the centre. In this sequestered retreat, Allan Ramsay laid the scene of the Gentle Shepherd. In a part of the valley where there is a bend, and the space between the hills widens, a monument has been erected to his memory, consecrating the lovely spot to the author of the most finished pastoral of Scotland. Not far distant stands Habies How, which has been described by the poet in the following lines: "farer up the burn is Habies How, Where a' that's sweet in spring and summer grow: B Between twa birks out o'er a little lin Higher up the valley and near the foot of one of the hills is Logan House, supposed to have been the ancient residence of Sir William Worthy, but which is now in the occupation of a shepherd. This is the only habitation within many miles, and in the severest months of the winter, the inmates are prevented by the drifted snow from leaving the valley. Besides tending his flocks, the shepherd receives during July and August, the bee-hives of the neighbouring inhabitants beyond the mountains, for the purpose of enabling the bees to gather honey from the heather, which at that period of the year blooms in great luxuriance on the Pentland Hills; he has generally more than a hundred hives. It happened some thirty years since, when revolutionary principles were so much in vogue, that a few of the bees, in one of the larger hives, manifested a desire to change the policy they had hitherto pursued. Secret meetings were held by the revolutionists, who dispatched emissaries to the neighbouring hives in order to establish a correspondence with others equally discontented. Their designs succeeded; and disaffection spreading from hive to hive, a general revolt took place, and deputies from each were summoned to meet upon the highest eminence. About a hundred bees from each hive being assembled, some difficulty arose in the election of a president; as it was alleged that if a queen bee were appointed, she would be liable to a bias in favour of the existing policy. This objection was at length over-ruled by the nomination of the queen bee Elia, who was distinguished for the strictest impartiality in the administration of justice. Silence having been proclaimed, the queen president rising, addressed the assembly as follows: "It would ill become me, O industrious bees, to offer any opinion upon the important object of our meeting. I will endeavour to enforce the rules of order in your discussion; and for my own part, I shall submit to whatever may be resolved on for the general good. After having swayed the sceptre of the hive with maternal solicitude, should it be decreed that the queens must abdicate the royal cells, I shall depart from mine, not without a sigh, but with the grateful feelings arising from a conscientious discharge of my regal duties. I call upon Orpheus, as the most zealous advocate for a change, to state his grievances and produce his plans of reformation." "I am aware," said Orpheus, "that I have undertaken an invidious task; since in proposing any alteration in the economy of the hive, many will erroneously apprehend that, because their particular interests are for the present disturbed, their happiness will be impaired. But a sense of public duty alone impels me to declare, that to me it appears unjust that those bees who are more active workers than others, should not have a larger share of honey; that the weak and the impotent should derive an equal portion of the produce with those who range the fields; and that even among those who toil the whole day, no distinction is made between the successful wanderer and him who brings in but small supplies. To remedy these evils, I propose, 1st, That each bee shall reserve for his own use and disposal, all the honey that he collects. "2dly, That the Pentland Hills be divided into different districts, and that each hive have its particular allotment. "3dly, That each allotment be sub-divided, and a sub-division appropriated to each bee." "I cannot but with reluctance," said Emilius, "offer an opinion at variance with the sentiments of my friend Orpheus; for often have we winged our way together along the flowery mead, and sought with mutual aid the sweetest petals. But since the history of past ages records no instance of a constitution of apiarian society different from the present, and as we experience no evils which do not admit of a remedy, we should deliberate long, before we abandon those laws which have prevailed in the hive from time immemorial. If some are more weak and feeble than others, it is the dispensation of Nature; and how can the superior efforts of the active and more strong be better directed, upon principles of equity and benevolence, than in supplying the deficiencies of those whose necessities are occasioned by unavoidable causes?" The just reasoning of this appeal was borne down by clamour, and by several violent harangues from the reformists, who were so prepossessed in favour of their new project, and had made so many proselytes, that the Resolutions were carried by a large majority. The meeting broke up; the deputies flew away to their respective hives, and no time was lost in carrying the scheme into effect. We must now detail some of the consequences of the revolution. Scarcely had a week elapsed before a few of the more powerful or fraudulent bees, had accumulated to themselves a much larger portion of honey than they could consume; they had already become sur * feited, indolent and unhealthy, by the quantity they had devoured and although they perceived that the weak were almost famished from being unable to collect sufficient for their subsistence, they would not part with their superfluity but upon certain hard conditions. They required, in the first place, that the destitute bees should surrender to them all right to their individual portions of the Pentland Hills, and in future gather honey solely for the affluent; receiving as a reward for their excessive toil just so much honey as the saturated should agree among themselves to dispense. *"If you should see a flock of pigeons in a field of corn; and if (instead of each picking where and what it liked, taking just as much as it wanted and no more) you should see ninetynine of them gathering all they got into a heap, reserving nothing for themselves but the chaff and the refuse; keeping this heap for one, and that the weakest, perhaps the worst pigeon of the flock; sitting round, and looking on all the winter, whilst this one was devouring, throwing about, and wasting it; and if a pigeon more hardy or hungry than the rest, touched a grain of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon it, and tearing it to pieces:-if you should see this, you would see nothing more than what is every day practised and established among men. "There must be some very important advantages to account for an institution, which in the view of it above given is so paradoxical and unnatural. "The principal of these advantages are the following; 66 66 1st, It increases the produce of the earth. 2dly, It preserves the produce of the earth to maturity. "3dly, It prevents contests. 66 4thly, It improves the conveniency of living.” Paley's Moral Philosophy, book iii. A discovery has now been made in social science, which secures to mankind in a much higher degree the advantages enumerated above, as derived from the right of private property superseding the gregarious state. A discovery which not only improves those advantages in an extraordinary degree, but procures many others, and is destined to banish for ever the evils so well illustrated by Archdeacon Paley's analogy of the pigeons. |