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Alina Gamboa
Regional
Integration,
Development,
& Governance
in Mesoamerica
Regional Integration, Development,
and Governance in Mesoamerica
 Alina Gamboa

Regional Integration,
Development,
and Governance
in Mesoamerica
Alina Gamboa
Universidad Anahuac México
Mexico City, Mexico

ISBN 978-3-030-25349-3 ISBN 978-3-030-25350-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25350-9

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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 Preface

September 2010, I had sent in the final version of Ph.D. dissertation

“Regionalism, Regionalisation and Governance: The Case of the Plan
Puebla Panama,” after a long process that included research, travel, and
personal growth. I had returned to school to do my master’s after eight
years in the workforce and continued to do a Ph.D. because I had a sub-
ject of research that I could not ignore. I began the process as a sin-
gle mom in a foreign country. During the years that ensued, the process
combined study, work, teaching, travel, move, marriage, another move,
baby, then another. I ended the process back in Mexico City, with a teen-
ager, a toddler, and a 6-month-old baby.
As I finished up the final text, I remember a moment of frustration while
on the phone with my supervisor, I wanted to change something, and he
said, “save it for your book.” I laughed off the comment, thinking “that
will never happen.” The next day after turning everything in, I shoved all
my notes, notebooks, books to the back of the bookshelf, thinking I might
never look at them again. I was exhausted, sleep-deprived, and tired of star-
ing at a computer screen. I spend the next five years raising kids and working
in my family’s human resources firm. Away from academia except for collab-
orating on a chapter about education.
Fast forward to 2016; I accepted to teach part-time at Anahuac
University. There I realised that the topic of my dissertation sparked
interest, and I began toying with the idea of revisiting my research.

v
vi PREFACE

The US election of 2016 caused great worry in Mexico and Central

America; many regional issues were once again at the forefront of
debates. US–Mexico relations were uneasy since the president-elect
had vowed to eliminate the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), build a wall on the US–Mexico border to stop illegal immi-
grants from entering the United States (mainly from Mexico and Central
America) and considerably reduce foreign aid if specific security issues
were not addressed. Mexico’s President responded to the accusations
and agreed to renegotiate NAFTA, however, there was much discussion
in Mexico on the need to diversify trade and to strengthen both diplo-
matic and economic relations with its neighbours to the South. It is in
the context of this discussion that I decided to revisit the possibility of
publishing my research. Even though I had researched a specific regional
development project in Mesoamerica, the Plan Puebla Panama (2001–
2007); the lessons learned during its 7-year existence are relevant to cur-
rent regional relations and the geopolitical context.
The transition from dissertation to this book was not an easy one; it
had already been challenging to condense thousands of pages of research
into a 300-page dissertation, even more challenging to cut out entire
sections to tie it into our current context and integrate new develop-
ments and literature. My first reaction was to try and replicate the field
research that took place in 2006–2008. However, time and budget con-
straints would not permit it. Getting permissions for the interviews that
took place back then was also tricky since the contact details I have for
most of the interviewees no longer work, organisations have disappeared,
government offices were reorganised, or at least have new personnel. All
interviewees gave their spoken (recorded) consent for their interviews to
be used in my dissertation, knowing that dissertations are available pub-
licly. However, since I was unable to contact most of the interviewees
for renewed permissions for the specific use of this book, I have omitted
their names and only left the position they held at the time.
In this work, I try not to lose sight of the fact that the people that
were in favour of the Plan Puebla Panama regional project, as were as
those against are people. Some with more to gain, some with much to
lose, but people all the same. And I believe that the same is true for all
development programmes, no one has perfect information, not one team
has all the answers, not one external advisor group will come up with the
only solution. Each group, each new government, each new team has a
new diagnosis and new treatment, and mistakes will be made.
 PREFACE vii

I do not have perfect information; I was an observer and investiga-

tor, and raconteur. This work is not intended to be normative, (although
social science is hardly neutral), it is following for a period of time, the
making and possibly unmaking of the Mesoamerican region, searching
for patterns, insights, and trying to make some sense out of the regional
networks that take place in one of the most amazing areas of the world.
I hope this book gives you a glimpse of the complexity, beauty, and
importance that this corner called Mesoamerica has for regional and
global interactions.

Mexico City, Mexico Alina Gamboa

 Acknowledgements

I thank God for the opportunities I have had, for giving me strength and
for my wonderful family. I dedicate this book to my parents, that began
this long journey with me (specially my mom, editor, and babysitter),
and my husband, who supports me through thick and thin, I love you
more than you will ever know. Andony, Matías, and Alexa, I love you to
the moon and back….Always.
I want to thank Prof. Shaun Breslin, Prof. Benedicte Bull, and Prof.
Ben Rosamond for all your feedback on my Ph.D. dissertation. You will
note that I returned to my “eclectic approach to theory,” it’s what makes
more sense to me. I also want to thank Prof. Caroline Linse for her help
and encouragement.

ix
 Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Theoretical Framework 39

3 Debates and Issues 75

4 Regionalisms and Regional Governance in Mesoamerica 113

5 From National to Local: Government Structures

in Mesoamerica 159

6 Non-governmental Actors, Horizontal Participation

in Policy 195

7 Conclusion 231

Annex A 255

Annex B 259

Annex C 265

Bibliography 271

xi
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 The Mesoamerican initiatives 6

Table 1.2 Proyecto Mesoamerica 29
Table 2.1 Classifying regionness 48
Table 2.2 Governance analytical framework (based on Hufty 2009) 54
Table 4.1 Central American Integration System 116
Table 4.2 PPP structure 2002 119
Table 4.3 PPP structure 2005 123
Table 4.4 Proyecto Mesoamerica structure (2016) 126
Table 4.5 Overlapping regionalisms in Mesoamerica 132
Table 4.6 Timeline: from Plan Puebla Panamá to Proyecto
Mesoamerica 151

xiii
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 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Mesoamerican regionalism began as an effort to tackle the shared prob-

lems of this area. As a relatively new construct based on an ancient
identity, the Mesoamerican Region (MAR) showcases several of the
debates present today in the study of regionalism and regionalisation.
Although regional borders in the Americas have never been defined to
the satisfaction of all (see Phillips 2004), most literature on regional-
ism has divided the Americas into “North,” “Central” and “South.”
Mesoamerica overlaps parts of North America and Central America, how-
ever, in lieu of being formed independently from the previous bounda-
ries, Mesoamerica is directly involved, interdependent with, and linked to
the political economy of these regions. In other words, the North and
Central American regions were not dismantled, nor did they regroup to
make room for this new region; instead, the MAR overlaps the previous
spaces. This overlapping is not a new phenomenon in Latin America;
for example, geographically Mexico has always been considered as part
of North America, but culturally, it is included into the cultural-linguis-
tic region of “Latin America,” which includes everything from Mexico to
Argentina and Chile. In light of this multiple categorising, it is unlikely
that Mesoamerican regional processes will ever be independent of North,
Central American, and Caribbean integration processes. This reinvention
of Mesoamerica, sparked in 2001 by the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and
other projects, heightened the awareness of the region and its role in the
political economy of the Americas (see Villafuerte 2004; Lopez-Calva and

© The Author(s) 2020 1

A. Gamboa, Regional Integration,
Development, and Governance in Mesoamerica,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25350-9_1
2 A. GAMBOA

Lustig 2003; Pisani and Wayne 2003). Fuelled in part as a response to the
(then) forthcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement (FTAA),
the PPP continued even after the collapse of FTAA negotiations in 2005.
However, the project and the region underwent many changes during its
seven-year existence. This case exemplifies how regions are continually
shifting, changing direction, and adapting their geographical span.
Regionalism provides fertile ground for analysis in the International
Political Economy (IPE) field of enquiry. The increasing number of
regions and the ever-changing scope and nature of these has raised sev-
eral questions for scholars of IPE, particularly the significance that this
trend has on world order (Payne and Gamble 1996). The PPP (2001–
2008) was one of the regional projects that shared the MAR space. It
launched amidst a large amount of media hype and controversy; over its
seven-year span, it was relaunched, restructured, and finally replaced with
a new regional project. Nevertheless, regionalisation—the deepened eco-
nomic or political relationship that can result from regionalism (Hettne
2000)—did not occur to the extent expected.
My research, which consists of a case study of the PPP, exemplifies
the difficulty of implementing regional projects in Mesoamerica. By
approaching the case study using the notions of regionalism, regional-
isation, and governance, we can see the role of the PPP as a multidi-
mensional regional development project, in shaping the Mesoamerican
region. Dismissing the PPP as a failed project without a thorough anal-
ysis runs the risk of missing an enriching debate on the making (or
unmaking) (Söderbaum 2016) of this region. My research will approach
the case of the PPP, seeking to identify the cracks that caused the demise
of the project and the effects it had on shaping the MAR. I argue that
the PPP was not implemented in its entirety due to a weak and frag-
mented system of governance at all levels.
For this reason, the PPP should not be evaluated solely on the pol-
icies or projects it encompassed. Upon reviewing the institutional
changes made for the transition from PPP to Proyecto Mesoamérica,
the regional institutional structure shows a positive transformation.
However, my analysis shows that this structure was only ONE aspect of
the governance structure needed to implement a multifaceted regional
project. Changes did not occur at other levels of governance. Out of the
99 projects proposed at the inception of the PPP, only large infrastruc-
ture projects advanced, projects that were overseen by fewer government
actors. Many considered that the PPP failed since it did not complete
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

many of its objectives or make a significant impact on poverty reduc-

tion. But, that is not the whole story, the PPP shaped the making of the
MAR in other ways, mainly through the networking of non-governmen-
tal groups that opposed many of the components of the PPP. Although
the original networks are no longer in place, they set a precedent, and
enrich our understanding of regionalism—that which occurs outside of
formal institutions.

1.1  Brief History of the Plan Puebla Panamá

The year 2000 marked a new expectancy in Mexican politics. After a his-
toric defeat of the political party that governed during seven decades, a
president from the opposition party took office. This defeat promised to
change the modus operandi of Mexican politics, as well as bring forth
desired development and growth. One of the issues discussed during the
presidential campaign was the notable inequality existing in the nation.
Not just between the rich and the poor throughout the country, but
also between the north that had seemingly benefited from the increas-
ing trade and investment promoted by the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and the south-southeast which remained lagging.
During Vicente Fox’s Presidential campaign, he asserted that during the
six years NAFTA had been in place, this inequality had increased instead
of diminishing with the increased trade and growth as measured in terms
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (CG-PPP 2002: 4–5). President-
Elect Vicente Fox and his transition team1 worked from the moment of
their victorious July election to formulate a plan that would help inte-
grate the weaker southern Mexican states into the rest of the national
economy, promote development, and boost the welfare of its inhabitants.
The governments of Central America were working on another devel-
opment plan as a response to the devastation that had occurred dur-
ing Hurricane Mitch in 1998. They created, together with the IDB,
the Central American Business School (INCAE), and the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL),
a study, presented in Madrid in 2000 named “Central America facing

1 Mexican elections are held in early July each six years and a winner is declared shortly

thereafter; the elected candidate takes office during the December 1st inaugural ceremony,
leaving a five-month “transition” gap. Starting in 2024, presidents will be inaugurated on 1
October, closing the gap to around 3 months.
4 A. GAMBOA

the twenty-first Century” (CG-PPP 2002: 9–10), it is also known as

the “Madrid Agenda.” During an extraordinary meeting of the
Tuxtla Mechanism for Cooperation and Dialogue (hereafter Tuxtla
Mechanism)—the instrument for addressing issues conjointly between
Mexico and Central America—the then Mexican President-Elect Vicente
Fox proposed to unify both development plans highlighting the sim-
ilarities of the conditions found in the southern parts of Mexico with
those of Central America. The unification of the development plans
was considered a novel idea for regional development (see Declaración
Extraordinaria 2001). It was, however, not the first proposal for a
regional project, since during the Tuxtla Mechanism meeting held in
Guatemala (year 2000), the concept of a “Mesoamerican Region” or a
“Mesoamerican Community of Nations” had already been suggested.2
The idea was that a joint development plan, coupled with the exist-
ing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between Mexico and some of the
Central American countries, would be able to tackle regional problems
and issues effectively. The Plan Puebla Panama, known as the PPP, was
named after the geographic span it covered: from the central Mexican
state of Puebla through to Panamá. Mexico and the Central American
countries worked separately on the diagnostic chapters and proposals for
the plan and then, in March of 2001, presented them as the blueprint for
development for the region (CG-PPP 2002: 7–9).
The PPP came under scrutiny by academics, politicians, and pres-
sure groups from the time it was first announced. Many critics attacked
the use of the term “Mesoamerica” to describe the physical geography
covered by the plan. Others criticised the similarities it had with pro-
posals presented by the previous administration.3 Debates grew about
whose interests were prioritised in this development project and who
would benefit. Most critics agreed that little help would reach the poor-
est inhabitants of the region, those whose interests were supposedly at
the forefront. Throughout its first year of life, the PPP was at the centre
of debates, criticisms, and protests held by academics, non-governmen-
tal organisations (NGOs), civil society groups, indigenous groups, and

2 See
www.sgsica.org/reuniondepresidentes/documentos/declara-tuxtla-IV.html.
3 See
the section on predecessors to the PPP later in this chapter. The administration pre-
vious to Vicente Fox belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which had
ruled for over 70 years, a fact which illustrates why Fox’s victory was considered a historical
win by his National Action Party (PAN).
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

opposing political parties. These critics claimed vindication each time the
PPP fell into a crisis.
As a result, the 2002 report on the advance of the PPP included an
extensive section on changes made on the focus and structure of the Plan.
This report stated that the initial document was a “first explanation of
objectives and strategies, along with a set of projects made up mainly of
infrastructure projects. Because of this, it was deemed necessary to rein-
force the social and environmental aspects of the Plan and, in general, the
whole sustainable development strategy for the region” (CG-PPP 2002:
1). In addition to presenting the advances of the PPP after one year of its
existence, the project coordinators acknowledged the criticisms that had
been made and began a series of adjustments to the Plan.
The PPP went through an initial institutional restructuring within
each of the individual participating governments. Thus in 2003, the PPP
was back in the limelight with a relaunch proposal promising to bring
forth a more efficient plan with tangible results. Each member state was
assigned one of the eight initiatives of the PPP (see Table 1.1) and was
to designate a presidential commissioner to head that initiative and to
coordinate with the other member states and internal departments. For
example, Guatemala received the Mesoamerican electrical connectivity
initiative, so the Guatemalan President appointed his commissioner from
the National Electricity Institute (INDE). Also, each of the ministries of
foreign affairs (MFAs) were encouraged to include the PPP as a criti-
cal aspect to foreign policy and to become active players in the projects.
In practice, however, it was felt that several presidents appointed a com-
missioner out of political considerations and not necessarily according to
who would be best suited for the position (Interview 27: 2006).
Notwithstanding the institutional reforms and the change in dis-
course by the Mexican government, sceptics thought the PPP was
doomed to failure and would disappear after national elections changed
governments, in particular, the Mexican presidency at the end of 2006.
Initially, the PPP had been spearheaded through the President’s Office
for Strategic Planning and Regional Development (OPEDR), specially
created by President Fox for this purpose (later declared unconstitutional
by the Congress). This office housed the General Coordination of the
Plan Puebla Panamá (CG-PPP) and was responsible for publishing pro-
ject initiatives and reports. An example of a publication written during
that time, the “Informe de Avances y Perspectivas Junio 2002,” focuses
mainly on Mexico and gives the impression that the Central American
 6
Table 1.1 The Mesoamerican initiatives

1. Sustainable development—to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and participating parties, particularly local
communities, in environmental conservation. Country in Charge: Nicaragua
The first initiative will work closely together with the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC), as it has little budget of its own. This
A. GAMBOA

initiative reiterates the nations’ commitment to the MBC and gives it and other environmental initiatives their full support. The PPP
Nations also agree to coordinate environmental laws and to invest in research which will enable the profitable but sustainable use of
national natural resources. The Mesoamerican Fund for sustainable development will be set up as part of this initiative, providing small
projects with necessary funding
2. Human development—to reduce poverty, enable vulnerable elements of society access to basic social services and contribute to the full develop-
ment of Mesoamerican peoples. Country in charge: Mexico
The scope of the Human Development initiative is quite ample. Within this initiative fall projects for; worker training, education and
literacy, local development projects, indigenous communities, environmental education for indigenous people and farmers, statistics on
migration, health, and demography, as well as further statistical work to evaluate the conditions of the people in the region
Worker training or retraining for the most part will occur within manufacturing, where the new investments will provide training for
potential employees, however, each state should emphasise local education, particularly in rural areas where there is a higher illiteracy
rate. Bilingual primary education will be an integral part of the Plan, where the indigenous populations will be taught in both Spanish
and their native language to foment the richness of the indigenous languages while enabling students to continue into secondary
education which is still mainly taught in Spanish. Health issues will be tackled both through local health providers, but also through
cooperation over threats that transcend borders (tropical diseases, AIDS, etc.). Educational campaigns on health and hygiene are also
part of this initiative
The Human Development initiative will be funded through the local governments of each country, though the national governments
may allocate further funding towards some projects, most of the initiative does not include separate funding
3. Disaster prevention and mitigation—to promote the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters and incorporate the consideration of the
elements of risk in projects by all actors involved. Country in Charge: Panama
This initiative is closely tied to the UNDP and CEPAL joint project to assist with disaster prevention and mitigation. In addition to a
commitment to the results of this project and full cooperation thereof, PPP nations will heighten efforts to educate people on ways to
prevent natural disasters, but also on how they can protect themselves and their families from potential risk
As insurance markets are still not fully developed in the region, the initiative will facilitate the entrance of insurance companies, particu-
larly those versed in catastrophe risk mitigation
As part of the initiative, further funding will be given to meteorological centres and emergency response systems will be evaluated.
The main recognition of this initiative is that in such a small and vulnerable area, disasters tend to hit more than one country at a time,
therefore coordinated efforts will enable rescue teams to cover damaged areas quicker
4. Promotion of tourism—to promote the development of ecological, cultural and historical tourism, through regional actions that will be bene-
fit from complementarities, economies of scale and tourism’s chains of production. Country in Charge: Belize
Stemming from the success of the coordinated tourist corridor “Mundo Maya,” this initiative will continue to support standing pro-
jects, but also seeks to find new projects for the area. Tourism is already an important economic activity; however, research in the diag-
nostic documents for the PPP identified further untapped potential for tourism in the area. Ecotourism (successfully managed in some
Mexican states and in Costa Rica) could be further developed in the region as many potential areas have been identified as suitable for
ecotourism development. Since natural areas transcend borders (just like the cultural Maya route), integral circuits could be developed
for rainforests or reef exploration. As part of the initiative, standards will be agreed upon to decide when a project is sustainable and
official certificates will be given to all sustainable establishments. Indigenous communities will be invited to participate in the proposed
projects
5. Enabling of commercial exchange—to foment commercial exchange in the region through reducing transaction costs between countries and
promote the participation of small and medium enterprises in regional exports. Country in Charge: Honduras
The plan includes constructing six different “development zones” which will be made up of a variety of industries. Although private
1

and foreign investment is a key element for production in the PPP, the commercial exchange initiative focuses on the transaction pro-
cesses between the nations. Identified as inefficient in the diagnostic chapters of the PPP, border transactions are targeted as processes
that need to be modernized and simplified. Programs to support the small and medium enterprises in the region will also be in place,
particularly since investment ventures will attract and strengthen large multinational companies
Although commercial treaties and free trade agreements are not a priority for the PPP as numerous trade coalitions are already in
existence, in some instances the treaties are overlapping or contradictory. The fifth initiative of the PPP will establish a mechanism to
INTRODUCTION

analyse existing commercial agreements and recommend homologising aspects of the treaties between the PPP countries
7

(continued)
 8
Table 1.1 (continued)
6. Transport—to promote the physical integration of the region to facilitate the transit of goods and peoples, and in this way lower transporta-
tion costs. Country in Charge: Costa Rica
The strained and inadequate transportation systems in the area, as well as the poor construction of the roads have brought this issue
as one of the main priorities of the PPP. IDB and private funding have been made available for undergoing major improvements and
A. GAMBOA

developments in transportation, road construction, interconnectedness and an overhaul of main highways

Under the International Mesoamerican Road Network (RICAM) heading, three highway investment programs are proposed for
Mexico: The Puebla-Panama Corridor, the Atlantic Corridor, and the Mexican Interior Corridor. These corridors correspond to a
Pacific route, and Atlantic route and a North-South highway system, respectively. The Transportation Corridor is a 3156-kilometre
North-south Pacific Coast highway that will run through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
and Panama. The RICAM’s main objective is to use transportation infrastructure to take advantage of the region’s strategic location
and enable the efficient movement of goods between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico
Dry canals, or railway and highway combinations, will be running east-west to connect ports on both coasts and development zones
will be constructed between the two. Initially there were five proposed dry canals located in Southern Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador,
and Honduras. To complement the dry canals, deep-water ports will be built in order to accommodate large ocean freightliners
7. Energy interconnection—to interconnect energy markets, particularly electrical, with a view to promotes an increase in the investments in
this sector and reduce the price of electricity. Country in Charge: Guatemala
A large part of the industrial plan involves the installation of an energy network to facilitate production in the region. As part of the
larger Electric Interconnection System for Central American Nations (SIEPAC), the energy upgrades are also meant to increase the qual-
ity of life for rural residents. A regional energy grid will be developed as part of the plan to supply the development zones with electricity
and gas. Proposals include the construction of 25 hydroelectric dams and a 1830 km electrical line that will carry 230 kilowatts of power
As well as an integrated energy grid, a gas line has been designed to transport natural gas through the region, from Mexico to Panama.
Colombia is negotiating with the PPP countries to be included in this project
8. Communications—to expand the supply of telecommunication services and provide universal access to them. Country in Charge: El
Salvador
The main project under the 8th initiative is to create a regional fibre optic network to enable telecommunication services through-
out the region, particularly in remote access zones. Mobile phone networks will also be expanded in order to reach the connectivity
target. A secondary objective behind this initiative is to increase access to information networks for the rural population, including the
internet

Sources OECD (2005) and Presidencia Documento Base (2001), ¿Qué es el Plan Puebla Panamá? Publicity leaflet
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

element was an afterthought. Sandoval and Salazar (2002: 9) state that

the instruments of the PPP “do not leave the reader satisfied; since it
emphasises on the Mexican part, leaving the remaining seven countries
to one side.”
To affirm the continuity and include Central America in the formu-
lation and implementation of policies, the 2004 relaunch and set up in
2005 in San Salvador included creating a technical ministry for the PPP.
This city was already home base to the General Ministry for the Central
American Integration System (SG-SICA), the umbrella mechanism for
Central American Integration (further explained in Chapter 4).
The change in venue ensured more attention on the Central American
aspects of the PPP and that PPP directives could coordinate with their
counterparts in the SG-SICA and its institutions. It also aimed to
demonstrate that the PPP would be a continuous regional effort and not
an imposition by Mexican policymakers, as Ornelas (2002) and Bartra
(2001), have criticised as explained by Rocha (2006). The changing
of location aided the Mexican Presidency in its attempt to distance the
PPP from public criticism, particularly internal debates taking place in
Congress and some of the south-eastern Mexican States. These internal
conflicts had already weakened Mexican regional leadership.
The campaign of the 2006 Mexican elections brought the PPP out
of anonymity back to the public forum. The main political parties went
back and forth on the advantages of continuing with the projects, how-
ever critical they were of its track record up until then. The coalitions of
left-wing political parties cried out for a PPP that would fit in with their
ideology and would shift focus onto social projects instead of infrastruc-
ture. The right-wing candidate called for restructuring and increasing the
institutions that looked after the project in the hope of arriving at a point
where these projects would advance and bring the promised results of
sustainable development in the region. During the electoral campaign
and the controversial results that followed the election, the criticism of
the PPP was no longer due to its proposals or lack thereof, but mainly
for becoming another lost promise of development.
The PPP marched on quietly; advancing on many of its pro-
posed infrastructure projects, although some ended up being attrib-
uted to other government or regional entities rather than to the PPP.
The acceptance of Colombia, first as an honorary member and then
as a full member in 2006, went almost unnoticed by the press, except
for Nicaragua, where President Ortega had opposed Colombia’s
10 A. GAMBOA

membership (Reforma, 11 April 2007).4 The adhesion of the Dominican

Republic also went unnoticed. The number of official projects was nar-
rowed down again to those that were the least problematic or likely to
cause protests. The newly reshaped institutions (2005) increased organ-
isational capabilities and attempted to coordinate the relationship of the
PPP with other regional organisms in Mesoamerica, after identifying
cases of overlap and duplicate efforts. Shortly after Mexican President
Calderón took office in 2006, he called once more for evaluating and
restructuring the PPP, showing that Mexico again held the reins. In
June 2008, the PPP’s final progress report was presented, along with
the framework for its replacement: The Mesoamerican Integration and
Development Project known as Proyecto Mesoamérica.
It would be interesting to compare the initial 2001 diagnostic docu-
ments on Mexico and Central America to an updated version that would
show what progress or results had occurred during the seven years of the
PPP, but such analysis was not officially compiled.5 Whereas the origi-
nal diagnostic documents focused on poverty indicators regarding health,
education, and nutrition along with statistics, including the number of
households with electricity, running water, sewage and floors, only build-
ing and renewing major infrastructure within the region showed significant
advancement.6 Status reports of the PPP described the funds allocated and
spent. What became noticeable during the span of the PPP is that even
though multidimensional issues require a multidimensional approach,
implementation mechanisms rest on the modes of governance, and if these
are fragmented, so is implementation. It also highlighted the geopolitical
importance of the Mesoamerican region, particularly on how differently the
many issues in Mesoamerica are viewed within and outside the region.

4 Amplía Calderón bloque regional: Integran a Colombia al Plan Puebla-Panamá pese a

resistencias de Daniel Ortega; by Ernesto Nuñez and Erika Hernández Sección Nacional
Periódico Reforma 11 Abril 2007.
5 The IDB through its Office of Evaluation and Oversight published an evaluation of

their participation in the PPP, in their report they state “However, the Bank’s contribu-
tion to the PPP’s results is difficult to determine. First, the Bank did not set up indicators
to measure the impact of its regional operations. Second, the Bank did not define specific
objectives to guide its involvement in, or the development of, the PPP” (OVE 2008: 22).
6 See Plan Puebla Panamá Documento Base, Capítulo México Presidencia de la República

2001, and Plan Puebla Panamá Avances y Perspectivas Junio 2002, which points out that the
main cause for the lagging of the south of Mexico was due to lack of investment in infrastruc-
ture by the Federal Government which had instead invested in the North (CG-PPP 2002: 5).
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Exploring the Variety of Random
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Daughter of Eve’s—and indeed less than any it has been my fate to
converse with for some years.—I wish I could make myself of any
Service to Mrs Draper whilst she is in India—and I in the world—for
worldly affairs I could be of none.—I wish you, dear Sir, many years’
happiness. ’Tis a part of my Litany to pray for her health and Life—
She is too good to be lost—and I would out of pure zeal take a
pilgrimage to Mecca to seek a Medicine.” 17
If the intimacy was, as is here contended, not carried to the last
extreme, there is no doubt of the vigour with which Sterne and his
Brahmine flirted, and therefore Sterne cannot be acquitted of
insincerity when he wrote to Daniel Draper that he looked upon Eliza
as a daughter. But if there is little that is paternal in the few letters
of his to Mrs Draper that have been preserved, on the other hand
there is nothing from which the conclusion of undue intimacy can be
built up.
It may be taken for granted that Mrs Draper’s feelings were not very
deeply engaged by Sterne. A woman of three and twenty does not
often find such enduring attraction in a man of four and fifty as a
man of that age does in a woman more than thirty years his junior.
But Sterne had fame and undoubted powers of fascination, and Mrs
Draper had in her composition an innocent vanity that induced her
to encourage him. The homage of one of the most famous men in
England was a compliment not lightly to be ignored; and, being
flattered, Eliza, unhappy at home, was far from unwilling to enjoy
herself abroad. She was clever and bright—perhaps a little bitter,
too, remembering that she had been married before she was old
enough to know what marriage meant, to a man with uncongenial
tastes, dour, and bad-tempered. It is to her credit that she never
told Sterne of her marital infelicity, though candid friends left him in
no doubt as to her relations with her husband. “Mrs James sunk my
heart with an infamous account of Draper and his detested
character,” Sterne wrote in the “Journal to Eliza” on 17th April 1767,
a few weeks after the lady to whom it was addressed had sailed for
India.
Eliza is a figure so fascinating to the world interested in the personal
side of literary history that a few pages may perhaps be devoted to
tracing her life after her acquaintance with Sterne. She was
undoubtedly an attractive woman, and made conquest of others
than the author of “Tristram Shandy” during this visit to England.
The Abbé Raynal, a man about the same age as Sterne, fell a victim
to her charms, and expressed his passion in a strange and wild piece
of bombast, which he inserted in the second edition of his “History
of the Indies.”
It was not only to men of middle age that Mrs Draper appealed, for
her cousin and playmate of her youth, Thomas Mathew Sclater, was
one of her most devoted admirers. That she was fascinating may be
taken for granted, but wherein lay her attractiveness is not so clear.
Raynal laid more stress on the qualities of her mind than on her
appearance. Sterne, too, by his own not too artless confession, was
in the first instance drawn to her by something other than her good
looks.
“I have just returned from our dear Mrs James’s, where I have been
talking of thee for three hours” (he wrote to her when they had
become well acquainted). “She has got your picture, and likes it; but
Marriot, and some other judges, agree that mine is the better, and
expressive of a sweeter character. But what is that to the original?
yet I acknowledge that hers is a picture for the world, and mine is
calculated only to please a very sincere friend, or sentimental
philosopher.—In the one, you are dressed in smiles, and with all the
advantage of silks, pearls, and ermine;—in the other, simple as a
vestal—appearing the good girl nature made you: which, to me,
conveys an idea of more unaffected sweetness, than Mrs Draper,
habited for conquest, in a birthday suit, with her countenance
animated, and her dimples visible.—If I remember right, Eliza, you
endeavoured to collect every charm of your person into your face,
with more than common care, the day you sat for Mrs James.—Your
colour, too, brightened; and your eyes shone with more than usual
brilliancy. I then requested you to come simple and unadorned when
you sat for me—knowing (as I see with unprejudiced eyes) that you
could receive no addition from the silk-worm’s aid, or jeweller’s
polish. Let me now tell you a truth, which, I believe, I have uttered
before. When I first saw you, I beheld you as an object of
compassion, and as a very plain woman. The mode of your dress
(though fashionable) disfigured you. But nothing now could render
you such, but the being solicitous to make yourself admired as a
handsome one.—You are not handsome, Eliza, nor is yours a face
that will please the tenth part of your beholders—but are something
more; for I scruple not to tell you, I never saw so intelligent, so
animated, so good a countenance; nor was there (nor ever will be)
that man of sense, tenderness, and feeling, in your company three
hours, that was not (or will not be) your admirer, or friend, in
consequence of it; that is, if you assume, or assumed, no character
foreign to your own, but appeared the artless being nature designed
you for. A something in your eyes, and voice, you possess in a
degree more persuasive than any woman I ever saw, read, or heard
of. But it is that bewitching sort of nameless excellence that men of
nice sensibility alone can be touched with.”
While all are agreed that Mrs Draper had beauty of expression rather
than perfectly formed features, there was given a description of her
as having “an appearance of artless innocence, a transparent
complexion, consequent upon delicate health, but without any
sallowness, brilliant eyes, a melodious voice, an intellectual
countenance, unusually lighted up with much animation and
expressing a sweet gentleness of disposition.” 18 She had, we are
told, engaging manners and numerous accomplishments. She talked
well and wrote well, and could play the piano and the guitar. Her
faults were a tendency to pecuniary extravagance and a liking for
admiration—which latter trait, in her correspondence, she admitted
and bewailed. She was also, it must be admitted, a most arrant flirt.
 MRS DRAPER TO HER COUSIN,
THOMAS MATHEW SCLATER
“Earl Chatham, May 2nd, 1767.
(Off Santiago.)
“. . . From the vilest spot of earth I ever saw, and inhabited by the
ugliest of Beings—I greet my beloved cousin—St Jago the place—a
charming passage to it—fair winds and fine weather all the way.
Health, too, my friend, is once more returned to her enthusiastic
votary. I am all Life, air, and spirits—who’d have thought it—
considering me in the light of an Exile. And how do you, my Sclater?
—and how sat the thoughts of my departure on your Eyes? and how
the reality of it? I want you to answer me a thousand questions, yet
hope not for an answer to them for many, many months. I am. . . .
Did you receive a letter I wrote you from the Downs, with a copy of
one enclosed from Sterne to me with his sermons and ‘Shandy’? I
sent such to you, notwithstanding the Bagatelle airs I give myself—
my heart heaves with sighs, and my eyes betray its agitating
emotions, every time I think of England and my valuable connections
there—ah, my Sclater, I almost wish I had not re-visited that
charming country, or that it had been my fate to have resided in it
for ever, but in the first instance the Lord’s will be done, mine I hope
may be accomplished in the second.”

MRS DRAPER TO THOMAS

MATHEW SCLATER
“Earl Chatham, November 29th, 1767.
(Off the Malabar Coast.)
“They all tell me I’m so improved—nothing—I say to what I was in
England—nobody can contradict the assertion—and if it adds to my
consequence, you know—it is good policy. Always self to be the
subject of your pen (you say) Eliza—why not, my dear cousin? Why
have I not as good a right to tell you of my perfections as Montaigne
had to divulge to the World he loved white wine better than red?
with several other Whims, Capricios, bodily complaints, infirmities of
temper, &c., &c.—of the old Gascoignes, not but I love his essays
better than most modern ones—and think those that have branded
him with the name of Egotist—deserve to be Debar’d the pleasure of
speaking of—or looking at themselves—how is it we love to laugh,
and yet we do not often approve the person who feeds that
voracious passion? Human nature this! vile rogue!—’tis a bad picture
—however there’s a great resemblance. . . . Once a year is tax
enough on a tender Conscience, to sit down premeditatedly to write
fibs—and let it not enter your imagination that you are to correspond
with me in such terms as your heart dictates. No, my dear Sclater—
such a conduct though perfectly innocent (and to me worth all the
studied periods of Labour’d Eloquence) would be offensive to my
Husband—whose humour I now am resolved to study—and if
possible conform to if the most punctilious attention—can render me
necessary to his happiness . . . be so—Honour—prudence—and the
interest of my beloved children . . . and the necessary Sacrifice—and
I will make it. Opposing his will will not do—let me now try, if the
conforming to it, in every particular will better my condition—it is my
wish, Sclater—it is my ambition (indeed it is)—to be more
distinguished as a good wife than as the agreeable woman I am in
your partial Eyes even—’tis true I have vanity enough to think I have
understanding sufficient
to give laws to my Family, but as that cannot be, and Providence for
wise purposes constituted the male the Head—I will endeavour to
act an underpart with grace. ‘Where much is given, much is
required.’ I will think of this proverb and learn humility.”
 Laurence Sterne

MRS DRAPER TO HER AUNT, MRS

PICKERING
“Bombay, High Meadow, March 21st, 1768.
“I found my Husband in possession of health, and a good post.
Providence will, I hope, continue to him the blessing of the one and
the Directors at home, that of the other. My agreeable sister is now
a widow, and so much improved in mind and person, as to be a very
interesting object. May she be so far conscious of her own worth as
to avoid throwing herself away a second time.”

MRS DRAPER TO THOMAS

MATHEW SCLATER
 “Tellichery, May 1769.
“Mr D. has lost his beneficial post at Bombay, and is, by order of the
Company, now Chief in one of the Factories subordinate to it. This
was a terrible blow to us at first, but use has in some measure
reconciled the mortifying change, though we have no prospect of
acquiring such an independence here as will enable us to settle in
England for many, very many years, as the country for some time
has been the seat of war, and still continues subject to frequent
alarms from the growing power of an ambitious usurper. I’ve no
doubt but a general massacre of the English will ensue, if he once
more visits this coast. Our fortifications are a wretched burlesque
upon such. Troops not better soldiers than trained Bands, and too
few in number to cope with so able a general and politician.
“I was within an hour once of being his prisoner, and cannot say but
I thought it a piece of good fortune to escape that honour, though
he has promised to treat all English ladies well that cheerfully submit
to the laws of his seraglio. The way of life I’m now in is quite new to
me, but not utterly unpleasant. I’m by turns the wife of a Merchant,
Soldier, and Innkeeper, for in such different capacities is the Chief of
Tellichery destined to act. The War is a bar to Commerce, yet I do a
great deal of business in the mercantile way, as my husband’s
amanuensis. You know his inability to use the pen, and as he has
lost his Clerks and Accountant, without any prospect of acquiring
others, I’m necessitated to pass the greatest part of my time in his
office, and consent to do so, as it gives me consequence and him
pleasure. I really should not be unhappy here if the Motive for which
we left England could be as easily accomplished as at Bombay, but
that cannot be without an advantageous place—then indeed we
should do very well.
“The country is pleasant and healthy (a second Montpelier), our
house (a fort and property of the Company) a magnificent one,
furnished, too, at our Master’s expense, and the allowance for
supporting it creditably, what you would term genteelly, though it
does not defray the charge of Liquors, which alone amount to six
hundred a year, and such a sum, vast as it seems, does not seem
extravagant in our situation. For we are obliged to keep a public
table, and six months in the year have a full house of shipping
Gentry, that resort to us for traffic and intelligence from all parts of
India, China, and Asia. Our Society at other times is very confined,
as it only consists of a few factors, and two or three families: and
such we cannot expect great intercourse with on account of the
heavy rains and terrible thunder with lightning to which this Coast is
peculiarly subject six months in the year. . . . I flatter myself I’m
beloved by such of the Malabars as are within reach of my notice. I
was born upon their coast, which is an argument in my favour. . . . I
never go out without a guard of six Sepoys (Mahomedan soldiers)
armed with drawn sabres and loaded pistols, as some of the natives
are treacherous and might be induced to insult a woman of my
Consequence without a Veil.”

MRS DRAPER TO THOMAS

MATHEW SCLATER
“Surat, April 5th, 1771.
“. . . I received your affectionate letter, my dear Coz, and I prophecy
that I shall answer it very stupidly for I danced last night—supped
on a cool terrace, and sat up till three o’clock this morning. This may
appear nothing very extraordinary to you, my spirits and love of the
graceful movement considered, but it was a very great undertaking,
the climate, my plan of temperance and exercise considered; for you
must know that I find it necessary to live simply mechanical, in order
to preserve the remains of a broken constitution and some traces of
my former appearance. I rise with the lark daily, and as constantly
amble some eight or sixteen miles—after the fox too, occasionally,
but field sports have something Royal with them here. What think
you of hunting the Antelope with Leopards? This I have frequently
done, and a noble diversion it is. Early hours and abstemious Diet
are absolutely necessary to the possession of health in India, and I
generally conform to the one, and invariably practise the other. Ten
or eleven o’clock at the latest, is the usual time of retiring, and soup
or vegetables with sherbet and milk constitutes the whole of my
regimen. Still I cannot acquire anything like confirmed health or
strength here; but if this mode of living preserves my being, my
cheerfulness and natural disposition to make the best of things will I
hope teach me to bear it. . . . At least I will not thro’ any fault of my
own, return to Europe with the dregs of life only, but endeavour by
every honest means to preserve such a position of animating spirit
as may qualify me for the character of an agreeable companion; and
then, who knows but cool weather, fashionable society and the
animating presence of those I love may enable me
‘Formed by their converse happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.’
“Do you know that I begin to think all praise foreign but that of true
desert. It was not always so, but this same solitude produces
reflection, and reflection is good.
“It is an enemy to everything that is not founded on truth,
consequently I grow fond of my own approbation and endeavour to
deserve it by such a mode of thinking and acting as may enable me
to acquire it. Seriously, my dear Sclater, I believe I shall one day be
a good moralist.”

MRS DRAPER TO MRS RICHARD

SCLATER
“Bombay, February 6th, 1772.
“I cannot say that we have any immediate hopes of returning to
England as independent people. India is not what it was, my dear
Madam, nor is even a moderate fortune to be acquired here, without
more assiduity and time than the generality of English persons can
be induced to believe or think of as absolutely necessary; but this
Idea, painful as it is to many adventurers who’ve no notion of the
difficulties they are to encounter in the road to wealth, would not
affect me considerably, if I had not some very material reasons for
wishing to leave the Climate expeditiously. My health is much
prejudiced by a Residence in it, my affection for an only child,
strongly induces me to bid farewell to it before it is too late to
benefit by a change of scene. Mr Draper will in all probability be
obliged to continue here some years longer, but, as to myself, I hope
to be permitted to call myself an inhabitant of your country before I
am two years older.”

MRS DRAPER TO MRS ANNE

JAMES
“Bombay, April 15th, 1772.
“You wonder, my dear, at my writing to Becket—I’ll tell you why I did
so. I have heard some Anecdotes extremely disadvantageous to the
Characters of the Widow and Daughter [of Sterne], and that from
Persons who said they had been personally acquainted with them,
both in France and England. . . . Some part of their Intelligence
corroborated what I had a thousand times heard from the Lips of
Yorick, almost invariably repeated. . . . The Secret of my Letters
being in her hands, had somehow become extremely Public: it was
noticed to me by almost every Acquaintance I had in the Ships, or at
this Settlement—this alarmed me, for at that time I had never
communicated the circumstance and could not suspect you of acting
by me in any manner which I would not have acted in by myself—
One Gentleman in particular told me that both you and I should be
deceived, if we had the least reliance on the Honor or Principles of
Mrs Sterne, for that, when she had secured as much as she could for
suppressing the Correspondence she was capable of selling it to a
Bookseller afterwards—by either refusing to return it to you—or
taking Copies of it, without our knowledge—and therefore He
advised me, if I was averse to its Publication, to take every means in
my Power of Suppressing it—this influenced me to write to Becket
and promise Him a reward equal to his Expectations if He would
deliver the letters to you. . . .
“My dear Friend, that stiffness you complain’d of, when I called you
Mrs James I said I could not accost you with my usual Freedom
entirely arose from a Depression of Spirits, too natural to the
mortified, when severe Disappointments gall the Sense—You had
told me that Sterne was no more—I had heard it before, but this
Confirmation of it truly afflicted me; for I was almost an Idolator of
his Worth, while I found Him the Mild, Generous, Good Yorick, We
had so often thought Him to be—to add to my regret for his loss his
Widow had my letters in her Power (I never entertained a good
opinion of her), and meant to subject me to Disgrace and
Inconvenience by the Publication of them. You know not the
contents of these letters, and it was natural for you to form the
worst judgment of them, when those who had seen ’em reported
them unfavourably, and were disposed to dislike me on that Account.
My dear girl! had I not cause to feel humbled so Circumstanced—
and can you wonder at my sensations communicating themselves to
my Pen?
“Miss Sterne’s did indeed, my dear, give me a great deal of pain—it
was such a one as I by no means deserved in answer to one written
in the true Spirit of kindness, however it might have been
constructed.—Mr Sterne had repeatedly told me, that his Daughter
was as well acquainted with my Character as he was with my
Appearance—in all his letters wrote since my leaving England this
Circumstance is much dwelt upon. Another, too, that of Mrs Sterne
being in too precarious a State of Health, to render it possible that
she would survive many months. Her violence of temper (indeed,
James, I wish not to recriminate or be severe just now) and the
hatefulness of her Character, are strongly urged to me, as the Cause
of his Indifferent Health, the whole of his Misfortunes, and the Evils
that would probably Shorten his Life—the visit Mrs Sterne meditated,
some time antecedent to his Death, he most pathetically lamented,
as an adventure that would wound his Peace and greatly embarrass
his Circumstances—the former on account of the Eye Witness He
should be to his Child’s Affections having been alienated from Him
by the artful Misrepresentations of her Mother under whose Tutorage
she had ever been—and the latter, from the Rapacity of her
Disposition—for well do I know, says he, ‘that the sole Intent of her
Visit is to plague and fleece me—had I Money enough, I would buy
off this Journey, as I have done several others—but till my
Sentimental Work is published I shall not have a single sou more
than will Indemnify People for my immediate Expenses.’ The receipt
of this Intelligence I heard of Yorick’s Death. The very first Ship
which left us Afterwards, I wrote to Miss Sterne by—and with all the
freedom which my Intimacy with her Father and his Communications
warranted—I purposely avoided speaking of her Mother, for I knew
nothing to her Advantage, and I had heard a great deal to the
reverse—so circumstanced—how could I with any kind of Delicacy
Mention a Person who was hateful to my departed Friend, when for
the sake of that very Friend I wished to confer a kindness on his
Daughter—and to enhance the value of it, Solicited her Society and
consent to share my Prospects, as the highest Favor which could be
shown to Myself—indeed, I knew not, but Mrs Sterne, from the
Description I had received of her, might be no more—or privately
confined, if in Being, owing to a Malady, which I have been told the
violence of her temper subjects her to.” 19
It has been stated by many writers that the cause of the unhappy
life led by the Drapers at Bombay was the fault of Sterne, whose
insidious flatteries undermined the lady’s moral rectitude. This, not
to put too fine a point on it, is a conclusion as absurd as it is
unwarrantable. Mrs Draper was far too intelligent not to realise that
Sterne was a sentimentalist, and not to understand that such
allusions as to her being his second wife were, if in bad taste, at
least meant to be playful, seeing that he was, and knew he was,
standing on the threshold of the valley of the shadow of death. Mrs
Draper left her husband six years after she had said farewell to
Sterne, not because of the author’s influence on her, but because
her patience, weakened by a long course of unkind behaviour, was
finally outraged by her husband’s obvious partiality for her maid, Mrs
Leeds. She had long desired to leave Draper, and now a legitimate
excuse was furnished, which in the eyes of all unprejudiced persons
justified the step.
Draper, who seems to have had some suspicion of her intention,
watched her closely, and for a while it was impossible for her to get
away. At last she escaped from Mazagon on board a King’s cutter,
and it was stated that she had eloped with one of her admirers, Sir
John Clark. The truth was that she accepted his escort to the house
of her uncle, Thomas Whitehall, who lived at Masulipatam.

MRS DRAPER TO THOMAS

MATHEW SCLATER
“Rajahmundy, 80 miles from Masulipatam,
“January 20th, 1774.
“. . . I will let you into my present situation. I live entirely with my
uncle, and I shall continue to do so to the last hour of my life if he
continues to wish it as much as he does at present.”
Whether her uncle did not continue to desire her company, or
whether she tired of the life, cannot be determined, but later, in the
year 1774, Mrs Draper returned to England. There she took up her
friendship with the Jameses from the point at which it had been
interrupted by her departure seven years earlier for India, and she
was soon the centre of a distinguished circle. The publication, in
1775, of some of Sterne’s letters to her made her somewhat
unpleasantly notorious, and she withdrew from London to the
comparative seclusion of Bristol, where she remained until her
death, three years later. She was buried in Bristol Cathedral, where a
monument, depicting two classical figures bending over a shield, one
bearing a torch, the other a dove, was erected in her honour. The
shield bore the inscription:
Sacred
To the Memory
of
Mrs Eliza Draper,
in whom
Genius and Benevolence
were united.
She died August 3, 1778,
aged 35.
 The Demoniacs

’T
was at Jesus College, Cambridge,” Sterne wrote in the last year
of his life, “I commenced a friendship with Mr H——, which has
been most lasting on both sides.” This “Mr H——” was the
notorious John Hall, who added to his patronymic the name of
Stevenson after his marriage in 1739 with an heiress, Anne,
daughter of Ambrose Stevenson of Manor House, in the parish of
Lanchester, county Durham. Born in 1718, the second son of Joseph
Hall, counsellor-at-law of Durham, by his wife, Catherine, eldest
daughter of Edward Trotter of Skelton Castle, near Guisborough,
John Hall-Stevenson, to call him by the name by which he is best
known, went in his eighteenth year to the University, for which,
though he did not there distinguish himself, he cherished to the end
of his days a sincere regard. “I should recommend Cambridge as a
place infinitely preferable to the Temple,” he wrote to his eldest
grandson, on 17th February 1785, “and particularly on account of
the connections you may form with young gentlemen of your own
age, of the first rank, men that you must live with hereafter: it is the
only time of life to make lasting, honourable, and useful friendships.
These advantages were lost to me and blasted by premature
marriage, the scantiness of my fortune forced me to vegetate in the
country, and precluded me from every laudable pursuit suggested by
ambition.”
The friendship between Sterne and Hall-Stevenson must have been
of rapid growth, as Hall-Stevenson went to Jesus College in June
1835, and Sterne left the University when he took his degree in the
following January. Hall-Stevenson has been, no doubt accurately,
described as a very precocious lad, with Rabelaisian tastes, and
again and again his influence with Sterne has been made an excuse
for the humorist’s lapses from morality and decency. This, however,
is most unfair, for when the young men became acquainted Hall-
Stevenson was only seventeen years of age, whereas Sterne was
two-and-twenty. Be this as it may, of their intimacy at this time there
is no doubt, and tradition tells how they studied together—it would
be interesting in the light of subsequent events to know what they
studied. They called each other cousin, though the relationship, if
any, was most remote. “Cousin Anthony Shandy,” Hall-Stevenson in
days to come signed himself, and Sterne, in the famous dog-Latin
letter written a few months before he died, addressed him: “mi
consobrine, consobrinis meis omnibus carior.”
Hall-Stevenson remained at Cambridge until 1838, then went abroad
for a year, and on his return made the “premature marriage” to
which allusion has been made. When he and Sterne met again is a
problem not easy to solve. Sterne, writing to Bishop Warburton in
June 1760, mentioned that he did not know Hall-Stevenson’s
handwriting. “From a nineteen years’ total interruption of all
correspondence with him,” he said, “I had forgot his hand.” Since
Sterne is so precise in giving the number of years, it would seem as
if he and his college friend had written to each other until 1741, and
that in this year the youthful intimacy, after the manner of its kind,
had lapsed. Probably for some years they may have drifted apart,
but there is an abundance of evidence to show that long before
1760 they were again on the best terms.
The threads of the college friendship, it has generally been stated,
were gathered together when Skelton Castle came into the
possession of Hall-Stevenson, who thenceforth resided there. As to
when this happened the writers on Sterne only agree in remarking
that it was not until after 1745, in which year, after the rebellion,
Lawson Trotter, the owner of the castle and a noted Jacobite, fled
the country; some say that then the property passed to his sister,
Hall-Stevenson’s mother, and at her death to her son; others that it
passed direct to the nephew as the next in tail. All these statements
are inaccurate. Lawson Trotter sold Skelton Castle to Joseph Hall in
1727, and Hall-Stevenson, his elder brother having died in childhood,
inherited the estate at the death of his father six years later.
Skelton Castle, which is believed to date back before the Conquest,
had been added to, a square tower here, a round tower there, by
many of its occupiers, Bruces, Cowpers, Trotters, until, when it came
into the hands of Hall-Stevenson, it was a quaint patchwork edifice,
erected on a platform supported by two buttressed terraces, which
raised it high above the surrounding moat. Hall-Stevenson, amused
by the picture presented by its medley of architectural styles,
christened it “Crazy Castle,” and wrote some humorous verses
descriptive of it, well worthy to be preserved, especially as they are
almost the only lines from his pen that can be printed in this
respectable age:

“There is a Castle in the North,

Seated upon a swampy clay,
At present but of little worth,
In former times it had its day.

This ancient Castle is call’d Crazy,

Whose mould’ring walks a moat environs,
Which moat goes heavily and lazy,
Like a poor prisoner in irons.”

Skelton Castle was at this date more than half ruined, as the owner
was at some pains to indicate:
“Many a time I’ve stood and thought,
Seeing the boat upon this ditch,
It look’d as if it had been brought
For the amusement of a witch,
To sail amongst applauding frogs,
With water-rats, dead cats and dogs.

The boat so leaky is, and old,

That if you’re fanciful and merry,
You may conceive, without being told,
That it resembles Charon’s wherry.

A turret also you may note,

Its glory vanish’d like a dream,
Transform’d into a pigeon-coat,
Nodding beside the sleepy stream.

From whence, by steps with moss o’ergrown,

You mount upon a terrace high,
Where stands that heavy pile of stone,
Irregular, and all awry.

If many a buttress did not reach

A kind and salutary hand,
Did not encourage and beseech,
The terrace and the house to stand,
Left to themselves, and at a loss,
They’d tumble down into the foss.

Over the Castle hangs a Tow’r,

Threat’ning destruction every hour;
Where owls, and bats, and the jackdaw,
Their vespers and their Sabbath keep,
All night scream horribly, and caw,
And snore all day in horrid sleep.

Oft at the quarrels and the noise

 Oft at the quarrels and the noise
Of scolding maids or idle boys,
Myriads of rooks rise up and fly,
Like legions of damn’d souls,
As black as coals,
That foul and darken all the sky.”

Hall-Stevenson was, as has been remarked, a poor man, and could

not afford to undertake the task of repairing the vast structure,
though once he thought of making an effort to do so. When Sterne
heard of this he wrote protesting against any interference with the
fine old structure, and seasoned his letter with a touch of worldly
wisdom that comes quaintly from him:
“But what art thou meditating with axes and hammers?—‘I know the
pride and the naughtiness of thy heart,’ and thou lovest the sweet
visions of architraves, friezes and pediments with their tympanums,
and thou hast found out a pretence, à raison de cinq livres sterling
to be laid out in four years, &c. &c. (so as not to be felt, which is
always added by the d——l as a bait) to justify thyself unto thyself.
It may be very wise to do this—but ’tis wiser to keep one’s money in
one’s pocket, whilst there are wars without and rumours of wars
within. St —— advises his disciples to sell both coat and waistcoat—
and go rather without shirt or sword, than leave no money in their
scrip to go to Jerusalem with. Now those quatre ans consecutifs, my
dear Anthony, are the most precious morsels in thy life to come (in
this world), and thou wilt do well to enjoy that morsel without cares,
calculations, and curses, and damns, and debts—for as sure as stone
is stone, and mortar is mortar, &c., ’twill be one of the many works
of thy repentance.—But after all, if the Fates have decreed it, as you
and I have some time supposed it on account of your generosity,
‘that you are never to be a monied man,’ the decree will be fulfilled
whether you adorn your castle and line it with cedar, and paint it
within side and without side with vermilion, or not—et cela étant
(having a bottle of Frontiniac and glass at my right hand) I drink,
dear Anthony, to thy health and happiness, and to the final
accomplishments of all thy lunary and sublunary projects.”
Notwithstanding this sage counsel, Hall-Stevenson called in an
architect, presently to be referred to as “Don Pringello,” who, to his
credit, declined to tamper with the building, and succeeded in
inducing the owner to abandon the plan of reconstruction.
Hall-Stevenson from time to time visited London, and made
acquaintance with Horace Walpole, and also with Sir Francis
Dashwood and John Wilkes, who introduced him to the Monks of
Medmenham and also gave him a taste for politics, that afterwards
found vent in some satirical verses. Lack of means, however,
prevented his taking any considerable part in metropolitan gaieties,
and he lived most of his life on his estate, making an occasional stay
at Scarborough or some other northern watering-place. At Skelton,
as William Hutton phrased it happily, he “kept a full-spread board,
and wore down the steps of his cellar.” Steeped in Rabelaisian
literature, he caught something of the spirit of the books he had
perused; and, inspired by the example of the deceased Duke of
Wharton and of his friend Dashwood, he gathered round him a body
of men with similar tastes, and founded, in imitation of the Hell-fire
Club and the Monks of Medmenham, a society which has passed into
history as the Demoniacs.
The number of members of this convivial community cannot have
been considerable. Hall-Stevenson in “Crazy Tales” gives eleven
stories, each supposed to have been told by one of the band, the
identity of the narrator being veiled under a nickname; and if this
may be accepted as a guide, then there were but eleven Demoniacs
in 1862—though, in a later edition, were added, “Old Hewett’s Tale,”
and “Tom of Colesby’s Tale.” In most cases it has been easy to
discover the names of the members. “Anthony” of the “Crazy Tale”
was, of course, the host; and “My Cousin” Sterne, though he was
also known among the fraternity as “The Blackbird,” probably
because of his clerical attire, and under this sobriquet was made the
subject of one of Hall-Stevenson’s “Makarony Fables.” “Zachary” was
Zachary Moore, of Lofthouse, a fashionable man about town, who
spent a great fortune in riotous living; though the only story of his
extravagance that has been handed down is, that his horses were
always shod with silver, and that when a shoe fell off or was loose,
he would have it replaced with a new one. He was a jovial fellow,
and popular.

“What sober heads hath thou made ache!

How many hath thou kept from nodding!
How many wise ones, for thy sake,
Have flown to thee, and left off plodding.”

Thus he was apostrophised by Hall-Stevenson, who subsequently

indited an epitaph for him, which while it does much credit to the
writer’s heart, does less to his head: such a prodigal as Moore was
lucky to be presented with an ensigncy.
“Z. M. Esq.” (thus runs the epitaph), “A Living Monument, of the
Friendship and Generosity of the Great; After an Intimacy of Thirty
Years With most of The Great Personages of these Kingdoms, Who
did him the Honour to assist him, In the laborious Work, Of getting
to the far End of a great Fortune; These his Noble Friends, From
Gratitude For the many happy Days and Nights Enjoyed by his
means, Exalted him, through their Influence, In the forty-seventh
year of his Age, To an Ensigncy; which he actually enjoys at present
at Gibraltar.”
The “Privy Counsellor” of the “Tales” has been said to be Sir Francis
Dashwood, but upon what grounds this statement has been made is
not clear: if the assumption is accurate, the “Privy Counsellor”
cannot often have attended the gatherings of the brethren, being
usually otherwise engaged in London. “Panty,” an abbreviation of
Pantagruel, is known to have been the Rev. Robert Lascelles,
subsequently the incumbent of Gilling, in the West Riding; and “Don
Pringello,” whose name has not transpired, 20 has his niche in
“Tristram Shandy,” where it is mentioned: “I am this moment in a
handsome pavilion built by Pringello upon the banks of the
Garonne.” Don Pringello also receives honourable mention in a
scholium to the Tale inscribed to his name by “Cousin Anthony.”
“Don Pringello” (Hall-Stevenson wrote) “was a celebrated Spanish
Architect, of unbounded generosity. At his own expense, on the
other side of the Pyrenean Mountains, he built many noble castles,
both for private people and for the public, out of his own funds; he
repaired several palaces, situated upon the pleasant banks of that
delightful river, the Garonne, in France, and came over on purpose
to rebuild Crazy-Castle; but, struck with its venerable remains, he
could only be prevailed upon to add a few ornaments, suitable to the
stile and taste of the age it was built in.”
“Old Hewett” was that eccentric William Hewett, or Hewitt,
introduced into “Humphrey Clinker” by Smollett, who prophesied
that, “his exit will be as odd as his life has been extravagant.”
Smollett’s anticipation was justified, even before the novel was
published, as the author mentions in a footnote. Hewett in 1767,
being then over seventy years of age, was attacked by an internal
complaint, and, to quote Smollett,
“he resolved to take himself off by abstinence; and this resolution he
executed like an ancient Roman. He saw company to the last,
cracked his jokes, conversed freely, and entertained his guests with
music. On the third day of his fast, he found himself entirely freed
from his complaint; but refused taking sustinence. He said the most
disagreeable part of the journey was past, and he should be a
cursed fool indeed to put about ship when he was just entering the
harbour. In these sentiments he persisted, without any marks of
affectation; and thus finished his course with such ease and serenity,
as would have done honour to the firmest stoic of antiquity.”
There are still unaccounted for, “Captain Shadow,” “The Student of
Law,” “The Governor of Txlbury,” “The Lxxb,” “The Poet,” and “Tom
of Colesby”; and against these may be placed other frequenters of
Skelton Castle—though it is possible some may not have been of the
brotherhood. There were Garland, a neighbouring squire; and
Scroope, whom Sterne referred to as “Cardinal S.” and who was
probably a parson; and “G.” of the printed letters, whose name in
the originals is given as Gilbert. More likely to have been Demoniacs
were Hall-Stevenson’s younger brother, Colonel George Lawson Hall
(who married a daughter of Lord William Manners), and Andrew
Irvine, called by his familiars “Paddy Andrews,” master of the
Grammar School at Kirkleatham. Because Dr Alexander Carlyle met
at Harrogate in the company of Hall-Stevenson that Charles Lee who
subsequently became a general in the American army, and fought
against his countrymen in the War of Independence, Lee has been
written down one of the society; but it is improbable he was
enrolled, if only because, leaving England in 1751 at the age of
twenty, he was not again in his native land before “Crazy Tales” was
written, except for a few months in the spring of 1761.
The Demoniacs (and the title may for the nonce be taken to include
all the frequenters of Skelton Castle) have been damned by each
succeeding writer who has taken them for his subject; but it is
extremely doubtful if they were as black as they have been painted.
Had they been merely vulgar debauchees, it is inconceivable that
Sterne would have let them make the acquaintance, not only of his
wife, but also of the young daughter he cherished so tenderly; and it
is only one degree less unlikely that they would have won and
retained his affectionate regard for a score of years, or that he
would have read to them “Tristram Shandy” and have desired their
opinion of the various instalments of that work. His letters are full of
references to the Demoniacs, and he rarely wrote to “dear Cousin
Anthony” without sending greetings to his associates, and
expressing the wish that he was with them.
“Greet the Colonel [Hall] in my name, and thank him cordially from
me for his many civilities to Madame and Mademoiselle Sterne, who
send all due acknowledgments” (he wrote from Toulouse, 12th
August 1762; adding in a postscript:) “Oh! how I envy you all at
Crazy Castle! I would like to spend a month with you—and should
return back again for the vintage. . . . Now farewell—remember me
to my beloved Colonel—greet Panty most lovingly on my behalf, and
if Mrs C—— and Miss C——, &c. are at G[uisborough], greet them
likewise with a holy kiss—So God bless you.”
A couple of months later, Sterne, still at Toulouse, addressed Hall-
Stevenson:
“If I had nothing to stop me I would engage to set out this morning,
and knock at Crazy Castle gates in three days less time—by which
time I should find you and the Colonel, Panty, &c. all alone—the
season I most wish and like to be with you.”
Again and again are allusions to the Crazelites, as Sterne often called
them:
“I send all compliments to Sir C. D[ashwoo]d and G——s. I love
them from my soul. If G[ilber]t is with you, him also” (he wrote from
Coxwold, 4th September 1764; and from Naples, two years later:).
“Give my kind services to my friends—especially to the household of
faith—my dear Garland—to the worthy Colonel—to Cardinal
S[croope], and to my fellow-labourer Pantagruel.”
Even in the last year of his life he looked forward to being present at
a reunion at the castle: “We shall all meet from the east, and from
the south, and (as at the last) be happy together.”
Faults the Demoniacs certainly had; but there is no reason to
believe, indeed there is not a jot or tittle of evidence to support the
suggestion, that they performed the blasphemous rites associated
with the more famous institutions that served as their model. Their
indulgences were limited to coarse stories and deep potations;
which, after all, were regarded as venial sins in the eighteenth
century. Even so, of course, it must be admitted they were not fit
company for clergymen, and it is a matter for regret that Sterne
should have been of the party. Doubtless Laurence told his story of
“A Cock and a Bull” with the best of them; but he was no drunkard,
and tried to induce Hall-Stevenson to give up the habit of heavy
drinking.
“If I was you, quoth Yorick, I would drink more water, Eugenius” (so
runs a passage in “Tristram Shandy”). “And, if I was you, Yorick,
replied Eugenius, so would I.”
On the other hand, several of the Demoniacs were men of
intelligence. With all his vices, Dashwood had brains of no mean
order; Irvine, the schoolmaster, and a Cambridge D.D., had, at least,
some reading; and Lascelles, a keen fisherman, could write verses—
not very good verses, it is true—in Latin and English. It is doubtful,
however, if he was that Robert Lascelles who in 1811 wrote the
“Letters on Sporting,” in which he treated of angling, shooting, and
coursing; although this rare work has been attributed to him. William
Hewett, too, was a cultured man; he had been tutor to the Marquis
of Granby, and was a friend of Voltaire. He had a pretty wit. It has
been told how being in the Campidoglio at Rome, Hewett, who
owned “no religion but that of nature,” made up to the bust of
Jupiter, and, bowing very low, exclaimed in the Italian language, “I
hope, sir, if ever you get your head above water again, you will
remember that I paid my respects to you in your adversity.” Indeed
that carousals at Skelton Castle were confined to the evening is
shown by Hall-Stevenson’s account of his guest’s occupations during
the day.
 “Some fell to fiddling, some to fluting,
Some to shooting, some to fishing,
Some to pishing and disputing,
Or to computing by wishing.

And in the evening when they met

(To think on’t always does me good,)
There never met a jollier sett,
Either before, or since the Flood.”

Nor was Hall-Stevenson a mere voluptuary. Even though the critic

may have exaggerated who wrote of him: “He could engage in the
grave discussions of criticism and literature with superior power; he
was qualified to enliven general society with the smile of Horace, the
laughter of Cervantes; or he could sit on Fontaine’s easy chair, and
unbosom his humour to his chosen friends”; yet there is no doubt
that he was a good classical scholar, and, for an Englishman,
exceptionally well read in the belles lettres of Europe, in a day when
such knowledge was rare.

“Anthony, Lord of Crazy Castle,

Neither a fisher, nor a shooter,
No man’s, but any woman’s vassel,
If he could find a way to suit her”;

so he wrote himself down; and the description is good so far as it

goes. But though “My Cousin Anthony” thus indicates that, unlike
Sterne, he has no liking for field sports, he does not mention that he
found his pleasure at home in the great library, that was so rich in
what Bagehot has described as “old folio learning and the amatory
reading of other days.” There the owner browsed for hours together,
and he wrought better than he knew when he introduced his friend
Sterne to the apartment and made him free of it, for there it was
that Sterne found in many quaint forgotten volumes much of that
strange lore with which the elder Shandy’s mind was packed. Dr
Carlyle found Hall-Stevenson a “highly-accomplished and well-bred
gentleman,” and Sterne’s opinion of his old college friend is clearly
shown not only in his letters but in the character of “Eugenius” in
“Tristram Shandy.” There must have been virtues in the man who
stood for Eugenius, else Sterne, who had as keen an eye for the
weaknesses of his fellows as any author that ever lived, would not
have immortalised him as the wise, kindly counsellor of Yorick. How
tenderly Sterne rallied “Cousin Anthony” upon his hypochondria.
“And so you think this [letter] cursed stupid—but that, my dear H.,
depends much upon the quotâ horâ of your shabby clock, if the
pointer of it is in any quarter between ten in the morning or four in
the afternoon—I give it up—or if the day is obscured by dark
engendering clouds of either wet or dry weather, I am still lost—but
who knows but it be five—and the day as fine a day as ever shone
upon the earth since the destruction of Sodom—and peradventure
your honour may have got a good hearty dinner to-day, and eat and
drink your intellectuals into a placidulish and blandulish amalgama—
to bear nonsense, so much for that.”
So he wrote from Coxwould in August 1761; and rather more than a
year later, when he was at Toulouse, he reverted to the subject:
“I rejoice from my heart, down to my reins, that you have snatched
so many happy and sunshiny days out of the hands of the blue
devils. If we live to meet and join our forces as heretofore, we will
give these gentry a drubbing—and turn them for ever out of their
usurped citadel—some legions of them have been put to flight
already by your operations this last campaign—and I hope to have a
hand in dispersing the remainder the first time my dear cousin sets
up his banners again under the square tower.”
Once, indeed, Sterne tried to cure his friend. Hall-Stevenson had a
great fear of the effect of the east wind upon his health, and he had
a weather-cock placed so that he could see it from the window of his
room, and he would consult it every morning. When the wind blew
from that quarter he would not get up, or, being up, would retire to
bed. During one of Sterne’s visits to Skelton Castle he bribed a lad to
climb up one night and tie the vane to the west; and Hall-Stevenson,
after the customary inspection of the weather-cock, joined his
guests the next day without any ill effect, although as a matter of
fact an east wind was blowing. The trick was subsequently
explained; but it is doubtful if it cured the malade imaginaire.
Hall-Stevenson was as devoted to Sterne as Sterne to him, and he
made agreeable reference to their affection:

“In this retreat, whilom so sweet,

Once Tristram and his cousin dwelt,
They talk of Crazy when they meet,
As if their tender hearts would melt.”

When the first two volumes of “Tristram Shandy” were published,

Hall-Stevenson indicted a lyric epistle “To my Cousin Shandy, on his
coming to Town,” that, through its indecency, brought in its train
more annoyance than pleasure to Sterne; and subsequently (in
1768) parodied the style of the book under the title of “A
Sentimental Dialogue between two Souls in the Palpable Bodies of
an English Lady of Quality and an Irish Gentleman,” introduced by a
note: “Tristram Shandy presents his compliments to the Gentlemen
of Ireland, and begs their acceptance of a Sentimental Offering, as
an acknowledgment due to the Country where he was born.” A year
after Sterne’s death Hall-Stevenson, over the signature of
“Eugenius,” issued a continuation of “A Sentimental Journey,” for
which he made the following excuse:
“The Editor has compiled this Continuation of his Sentimental
Journey, from such motives, and upon such authority, as he flatters
himself will form a sufficient apology to his readers for its
publication.
“The abrupt manner in which the Second Volume concluded, seemed
forcibly to claim a sequel; and doubtless if the author’s life had been
spared, the world would have received it from his own hand, as he
had materials already prepared. The intimacy which subsisted
between Mr Sterne and the Editor, gave the latter frequent occasion
of hearing him relate the most remarkable incidents of the latter part
of his last journey, which made such an impression on him, that he
thinks he has retained them so perfectly as to be able to commit
them to paper. In doing this, he has endeavoured to imitate his
friends stile and manner, but how far he has been successful in this
respect, he leaves the reader to determine. The work may now,
however, be considered as complete; and the remaining curiosity of
the readers of Yorick’s Sentimental Journey, will at least be gratified
with respect to facts, events, and observations.”
The book opens with an apostrophe to his dead friend:
“Delightful Humourist! thine were unaccountable faculties. Thy Muse
was the Muse of joy and sorrow,—of sorrow and joy. Thou didst so
exquisitely blend fancy with feeling, mirth with misfortune; thy
laughter was so laughable; and thy sighs so sad; that—thou never
wast, never will be equalled.—Thou hadst the Key of the Heart.—
Lend it to a Friend.
“O Yorick, hear me! Half thy work is left unfinished, and all thy spirit
is fled.—Send part of it back. Drop one remnant of it to a Friend.”
The prayer was not granted. The mantle of Yorick did not fall upon
Eugenius, who had neither the power of humour or pathos, but only
the indelicacy a hundredfold increased, of the great man. Indeed,
the writings of Hall-Stevenson rendered poor service to his friends,
for it was their publication that brought about the forcible
condemnation of the Demoniacs: the flagrant indecency of “Crazy
Tales” being accepted as a clue to the thoughts and actions of the
members of the society. Yet of that little production, which appeared
in 1762, the author thought very highly.
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