EMINENT PERSONS
 
 EMINENT PEKSONS 
 
 BIOGKAPHIES 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE TIMES 
 
 VOLUME III 
 1882 1886 
 
 3L0nHon 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 AND I;e ^imc0 OFFICE, PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE 
 
 1893 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAKLES EGBERT DARWIN ..... 1 
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI ...... 12 
 
 DR. PUSEY . . . . . .42 
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY .... 65 
 
 LEON GAMBETTA ...... 80 
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF ...... 98 
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL ...... 110 
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD . . . .119 
 
 MR. CHENERY . . (fio^ry ' PV* </f/in ) . 141 
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE ...... 149 
 
 MR. FAWCETT . . . . . . .160 
 
 GENERAL GORDON ...... 191 
 
 EARL CAIRNS ....... 199 
 
 VICTOR HUGO ....... 207 
 
 GENERAL GRANT . . . . . . 230 
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE ..... 253 
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY ...... 262 
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN ...... 278 
 
 MR. FORSTER . . . . . . . 286 
 
 COUNT BEUST . 308
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1882 
 
 EXACTLY a year to a day has separated the deaths of two of the 
 most powerful men of this century some have said of any 
 century ; and those who care for the task will find some very 
 curious analogies between the progress and the ultimate results 
 of the work of the two men, totally different as were the spheres 
 in which they exercised their remarkable powers. On 19th 
 April 1881 all the civilised world held its breath at the news 
 of the death of Lord Beaconsfield ; not less must be the effect 
 upon the most civilised part of the civilised world when the 
 announcement of the death of Charles Darwin flashes over the 
 face of that earth whose secrets he has done more than any 
 other to reveal. All who knew anything of Mr. Darwin know 
 that, massive as he seemed, it was only by the greatest care and 
 the simplest habits that he was able to maintain a moderate 
 amount of health and strength. Mr. Darwin had been suffering 
 for some time past from weakness of the heart, but had con- 
 tinued to do a slight amount of experimental work up to the 
 last. His death took place at about four o'clock on Wednesday 
 afternoon. 
 
 Fifteen volumes lie before us and nearly as many memoirs 
 large ^and small, the product of forty-five years' work a product 
 which in quantity would do credit to the most robust constitu- 
 tion. But when we consider Mr. Darwin's always feeble health 
 and his deliberately slow method of work, never hasting but 
 rarely resting, the result seems marvellous. But, wonderful as 
 VOL. m & B 

 
 2 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 this is under the circumstances, it is not by mere quantity Mr. 
 Darwin's work will be judged ; the quantity is of chief import- 
 ance in respect of the multifarious channels throughout which 
 his influence has spread. 
 
 On the great principle of hereditariness of which he himself 
 was the prophet and expounder, Mr. Darwin could not help 
 being a remarkable man. Through his father descended from 
 Erasmus Darwin, one of the most remarkable and original men 
 of his age, and through his mother from Josiah Wedgwood, a 
 man in his own line of scarcely less originality, Mr. Darwin 
 was bound, under favourable surroundings, to develop powers 
 far beyond the average. Charles Kobert Darwin (he seldom 
 used the second name) was the son of Robert Waring Darwin, 
 the third son by his first marriage of Erasmus Darwin, best 
 known to the general reader by his scientifico-poetic work, The 
 Botanic Garden. The late Mr. Darwin's father was a physician 
 at Shrewsbury, who, although a man of considerable originality, 
 devoted his powers almost entirely to his profession ; his 
 mother, as we have said, was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. 
 He was born at Shrewsbury on 12th February 1809, so that he 
 has died in his seventy-fourth year. 
 
 Mr. Darwin was educated at Shrewsbury School under Dr. 
 Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. In 1825 he went 
 to Edinburgh University, therein following the example of 
 his grandfather, where he spent two sessions. Here, among 
 other subjects, he studied marine zoology, and at the close 
 of 1826 read before the Plinian Society of the University 
 two short papers, probably his first, one of them on the 
 Ova of Flustra. From Edinburgh Mr. Darwin went to Christ's 
 College, Cambridge, where he took his Bachelor's degree in 
 1831, proceeding to M.A. in 1837. The interval was of 
 epoch-making importance. We believe that Darwin, like 
 Murchison, was a keen fox -hunter in his youth, and that 
 it was in the field that his great habits of observation were 
 first awakened. 
 
 In the autumn of 1831, Captain Fitzroy having offered to 
 give up part of his own cabin to any naturalist who would 
 accompany Her Majesty's ship " Beagle " in her surveying voyage 
 round the world, Mr. Darwin volunteered his services without 
 salary, but on condition that he should have entire disposal of 
 his collections, all of which he ultimately deposited in various
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 3 
 
 public institutions. The " Beagle " sailed from England 
 27th December 1831, and returned 28th October 1836, having 
 thus been absent nearly five years. In more ways than one 
 these five years were the most eventful of Mr. Darwin's life. 
 During these five years the " Beagle " circumnavigated the world, 
 and it is not too much to say that single-handed Mr. Darwin 
 during the voyage did more for natural history in all its 
 varied departments than any expedition has done since ; 
 much more when we consider the momentous results that 
 followed. No one can read the simple, yet intensely interest- 
 ing Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, without tracing in 
 it the germs of all that Mr. Darwin has subsequently done in 
 natural science. 
 
 Simplicity and freedom from technicality have been the 
 leading characteristics of all Mr. Darwin's best-known and most 
 influential works ; and in this volume on the voyage of the 
 " Beagle " there is scarcely a page that will not interest any ordi- 
 narily intelligent man, and many pages that must claim the 
 attention of the mere reader of stories of adventure. Full of 
 incident it is, especially during the author's long sojourn in 
 South America and in the vicinity of Magellan's Straits. Mr. 
 Darwin's phenomenal genius as a scientific observer is seen 
 throughout when watching the method of catching and taming 
 the wild horses of the Pampas, as when investigating the struc- 
 ture of the coral reefs of the Pacific. The first edition was 
 published early in 1845, and the second was dedicated to Sir 
 Charles Lyell, who, with his usual acuteness, early perceived 
 the remarkable originality of the young naturalist, and to whom 
 the latter was indebted for much wise counsel and help, as is 
 evident from the recently-published life and letters of the great 
 geologist. 
 
 That was not the only immediate result of this great 
 voyage ; under the superintendence of Mr. Darwin, and with 
 abundant description and annotation by him, the Zoology of 
 the expedition was published before the narrative, in 1840, 
 with Professor Owen, Mr. Waterhouse, the Rev. L. Jenyns, and 
 Mr. Bell as contributing specialists. Not only so, but still also 
 before the general narrative Mr. Darwin published his first original 
 contribution to science in his Structure and Distribution of Coral 
 Beefs (1842). This work for the first time shed clear light 
 upon the method of work of the tiny creatures whose exquisite
 
 4 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 fabrics are spread over the face of the Pacific. True, quite 
 recently Mr. Murray has broached a new theory, or rather 
 modification of Darwin's theory, which is beginning to find 
 acceptance ; but even if universally accepted it will not detract 
 from the original estimate of the work of the " Beagle " naturalist. 
 Still further, we have a direct result of the voyage in a 
 volume, published in 1844, on the Volcanic Islands visited 
 during the Voyage of the Beagle, and in 1846, Geological Observa- 
 tions in South America. Both these works are even now 
 referred to by geologists as classical, and as having suggested 
 lines of research of the highest fertility. In the Transactions 
 of the Geological Society, moreover, other memoirs suggested by 
 the results of the voyage will be found, one as early as 1838. 
 But even that is not the earliest important paper of the great 
 observer. Just a year after his return, in November 1837, 
 he read to the Geological Society a paper, to be found 
 in its Transactions, " On the Formation of Vegetable Mould." 
 This paper gave the result of observations begun some time 
 before, observations only completed in his latest published 
 work, that on Earthworms, reviewed in these columns only a 
 few months ago. Experiments were arranged for, we then 
 pointed out, which took forty years to ripen. Such far- 
 seeing deliberation can only be the attribute of the greatest 
 minds, which can see the end from the beginning. Other 
 results of the voyage in botany and entomology we could refer 
 to weie it needful. 
 
 But the greatest result of all was probably that on the mind 
 of the naturalist himself. Passing over a generation, the spirit 
 of his grandfather seems to have reappeared in Charles Darwin 
 with intensified power and precision. We need not here enter 
 into the delicate distinctions which exist between the develop- 
 mental theories of Erasmus, which were prematurely sown in 
 unfruitful and unprepared soil, and those of his greater grand- 
 son, which have revolutionised research and thought in every 
 department of human activity. The inherited germ was doubt- 
 less rapidly and fully developed during the splendid opportunities 
 presented by the voyage of the " Beagle." Throughout all his 
 subsequent work the influence of this voyage is apparent, and 
 continued reference is made to the stores of observation laid up 
 during those eventful five years. 
 
 Mr. Darwin's subsequent life was totally uneventful. Three
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 5 
 
 years after his return, in the beginning of 1839, he married his 
 cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and in 1842 he took up his residence 
 at Down, Beckenham, Kent, of which county he was a magistrate. 
 There he has lived since, and there on Wednesday he died. It 
 is known to his friends that Mr. Darwin never quite recovered 
 from the evil effects of his long voyage. He himself tells us that 
 during nearly the whole time he suffered from sea-sickness, an 
 affliction which no constitution could altogether withstand. As 
 we have said, it has only been by the quietest living and the 
 greatest carefulness that Mr. Darwin was able to keep himself 
 in moderate health and working order. His habits and manners 
 were of childlike simplicity, his bearing of the most winning 
 geniality, and his modesty and evident unconsciousness of his 
 own greatness almost phenomenal. In sending a letter or 
 contribution to a journal, he asked for its insertion with a 
 doubting hesitancy, rare even in a tiro. His personal influence 
 on young scientific men can with difficulty be calculated ; his 
 simple readiness to listen and suggest and help has won, the 
 gratitude of many an aspiring observer. 
 
 Since he took up his residence at Down, Mr. Darwin's life 
 has been marked mainly by the successive publication of those 
 works which have revolutionised modern thought. In 1859 
 was published what may be regarded as the most momentous 
 of all his works, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec- 
 tion. No one who had not reached manhood at the time can 
 have any idea of the consternation caused by the publication 
 of this work. We need not repeat the anathemas that were 
 hurled at the head of the simple-minded observer, and the 
 prophecies of ruin to religion and morality, if Mr. Darwin's 
 doctrines were accepted. No one, we are sure, would be more 
 surprised than the author himself at the results which followed. 
 But all this has long passed. The work, slowly at first, but 
 with increasing rapidity, made its way to general acceptance, 
 and its anathematisers have been bound to find a modus vivendi 
 between their creeds and the theories propounded in the Origin 
 of Species. The revolution in scientific doctrine and scientific 
 method brought about by the publication of this work was ably 
 pointed out by Professor Huxley two years ago in his lecture on 
 "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species." Mr. Huxley 
 says : 
 
 "In fact, those who have watched the progress of science
 
 6 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 within the last ten years will bear me out to the full when I 
 assert that there is no field of biological inquiry in which the 
 influence of the Origin of Species is not traceable; the foremost men 
 of science in every country are either avowed champions of its 
 leading doctrines, or at any rate abstain from opposing them ; a 
 host of young and ardent investigators seek for and find inspira- 
 tion and guidance in Mr. Darwin's great work ; and the general 
 doctrine of Evolution, to one side of which it gives expression, 
 finds in the phenomena of biology a firm base of operations 
 whence it may conduct its conquest of the whole realm of 
 nature." 
 
 But it is not only in physical and natural science that the 
 revolutionary influence of the Origin of Species is seen. It is 
 not too much to say that the doctrines propounded in this 
 volume, in The Descent of Man, and other subsequent works, 
 have influenced thought and research in every direction. It 
 has been said, perhaps prematurely, that one must seek back 
 to Newton, or even Copernicus, to find a man whose influence 
 on human thought and methods of looking at the universe has 
 been as radical as that of the naturalist who has just died. Of 
 course Mr. Darwin's originality has been assailed. Kant, Laplace, 
 Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and others, and of course Lucretius, 
 have been brought forward as the real originators of the fertile 
 idea which has taken its name from Mr. Charles Darwin. Give 
 these old-world worthies all the credit which is justly their due, 
 and it is not little ; let it be granted that Darwin received the 
 first initiative in his fertile career of research from a study of 
 what had been done by his predecessors ; and yet how conies 
 it that these old theories fell comparatively dead and bore no 
 substantial fruit ? One reason must be that, as propounded by 
 Mr. Darwin, the theory of evolution had a mature vitality which 
 compelled acceptance, and the phenomenal vigour of which is 
 seen in the results. Mr. Darwin's great theory, in some of its 
 parts, may require modification ; he himself latterly, we believe, 
 did not seek to maintain it in all its original integrity. As has 
 been suggested, some greater law may yet be found which will 
 cover Darwinism and take a wider sweep ; but, whatever 
 development science may assume, Mr. Darwin will in all the 
 future stand out as one of the giants in scientific thought and 
 scientific investigation. 
 
 All Mr. Darwin's subsequent works were developments in
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 7 
 
 different directions of the great principles applied in the Origin 
 of Species. Between 1844 and 1854 he published through the 
 Ray and other societies various monographs, which even his 
 greatest admirers admit do not do him the highest credit as a 
 minute anatomist. His next great work, published in 1862, 
 was that on the Fertilisation of Orchids ; this, with the work on 
 (>oss and Self -Fertilisation of Plants (1876) and that on the 
 Forms of Flowers (1878), and various papers in scientific publica- 
 tions on the agency of insects in fertilisation, opened up a new 
 field, which in his own hands and the hands of his numerous 
 disciples have led to results of the greatest interest and the 
 greatest influence on a knowledge of the ways of plants. 
 Other works belonging to this category are those On the 
 Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants, Insectivorous Plants, 
 and The Movements of Plants (1881), all of which opened up 
 perfectly fresh fields of investigation, and shed light on the 
 most intimate workings of nature. Mr. Darwin's influence in 
 these, as in others of his works, has acted like an inspira- 
 tion, leading men to follow methods and attain results which a 
 quarter of a century ago were beyond the scope of the most 
 fantastic dream. 
 
 But perhaps the works with which the name of Mr. Darwin 
 is most intimately associated in popular estimation, and indeed 
 the works which have had the deepest influence on the tendencies 
 of modern thought and research in those departments in which 
 humanity is most deeply interested, are those bearing on the 
 natural history of man. Nine years after the publication of the 
 Origin of Species, appeared (1868), in two volumes, the great 
 collection of instances and experiments bearing on the Variation 
 of Plants and Animals under Domestication. We have called 
 this a collection of facts, and the same term might be applied, 
 with greater or less exactness, to all the other works of Mr. 
 Darwin. This is the characteristic Darwinian method. Years 
 and years are spent in the accumulation of facts with open- 
 minded watchfulness as to the tendency of the results. The 
 expressed inferences in Mr. Darwin's works are few ; he piles 
 instance on instance and experiment on experiment, and, almost 
 invariably, the conclusion to which he comes seems but the 
 expression of the careful and unbiassed reader's own thought. 
 Nowhere is this more signally evident than in the work on 
 Domesticated Animals and Plants.
 
 8 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 The results which were brought out in those volumes were 
 full of significance, while at the same time they afforded 
 abundant occasion for the opponents of Darwinism to scoff and 
 pour harmless contempt on the whole line of inquiry, forgetting 
 or wilfully shutting their eyes to the fact that the results which 
 Mr. Darwin showed were possible on a small scale bore no 
 proportion to the gigantic efforts of nature through untold ages. 
 The chapters on Inheritance in this work were full of signi- 
 ficance, and seemed a natural transition to the work which 
 followed three years later (1871) The Descent of Man and 
 Selection in Relation to Sex. Even greater consternation was 
 caused in many circles by the publication of this work than by 
 the Origin of Species. And the reason of this is obvious. Not 
 only did it seem directly to assail the amour propre of humanity, 
 but to imperil some of its most deeply-cherished beliefs. With 
 wonderful rapidity, however, did men of all shades of belief 
 manage to reconcile themselves to the new and disturbing factor 
 introduced into the sphere of scientific and philosophical 
 speculation. All sorts of half-way refuges were sought for and 
 found by those whose mental comfort was threatened, and, 
 again, as before, there was little difficulty in finding a modus 
 vivendi between two sets of doctrines that at first sight seemed 
 totally irreconcilable. 
 
 After all, what have the highest aspirations of mankind to fear 
 from the investigations and speculations of a man who is capable 
 of writing as Mr. Darwin does in the concluding pages of his 
 Descent of Man 1 " Important as the struggle for existence has been, 
 and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is 
 concerned, there are other agencies more important. For the 
 moral qualities .are advanced either directly or indirectly, much 
 more through the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, 
 instruction, religion, etc., than through natural selection ; 
 though to this latter agency may be safely attributed the 
 social instincts which afforded the basis for the development of 
 the moral sense. . . . For my own part I would as soon be 
 descended from that heroic little monkey who braved his 
 dreaded enemy to save the life of his keeper, or from that old 
 baboon who, descending from the mountains, carried away in 
 triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs 
 as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up 
 bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide without remorse, treats
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 9 
 
 his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the 
 grossest superstition. Man may be excused for feeling some 
 pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to 
 the very summit of the organic scale ; and the fact of his having 
 thus risen instead of having been aboriginally placed there may 
 give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future. 
 But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with 
 the truth as far as our reason permits us to discern it ; and 
 I have given the evidence to the best of my ability. We must, 
 however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his 
 noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, 
 with benevolence which extends not only to other men, but to 
 the humblest living creature, with his godlike intellect, 
 which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of 
 the solar system with all these exalted powers, man still 
 bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his low 
 origin." 
 
 Among scientific men themselves, among those who welcomed 
 the Darwinian method and the distinctive doctrines of Darwin- 
 ism, none of the master's works have probably met with more 
 criticism than that on the Descent of Man. Not that the 
 naturalists of the highest standing have any hesitation in 
 accepting the general principles illustrated in the Descent of 
 Man ; the ablest and most candid biologists admit that in 
 that direction the truth seems to lie ; but that the various stages 
 are so incomplete, the record is so imperfect, that before stereo- 
 typing their beliefs it would be wise to wait for more light. 
 The general conclusion is not doubted, but how it has been 
 reached by nature is by no means evident. And in this 
 connection we cannot do better than quote the words of Professor 
 Huxley in the lecture already alluded to, and which, we are 
 sure, Mr. Darwin himself would have endorsed with all his 
 strength : 
 
 " History warns us, however, that it is the customary fate of 
 new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions ; and, 
 as matters now stand, it is hardly rash to anticipate that, in 
 another twenty years, the new generation, educated under the 
 influences of the present day, will be in danger of accepting the 
 main doctrines of the Origin of Species with as little reflection, 
 and, it may be, with as little justification, as so many of our 
 contemporaries twenty years ago rejected them. Against any
 
 10 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 such a consummation let us all devoutly pray ; for the scientific 
 spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally-held 
 truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. Now, the 
 essence of the scientific spirit is criticism. It tells us that to 
 whatever doctrine claiming our assent we should reply, ' Take it 
 if you can compel it.' The struggle for existence holds as much 
 in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a 
 species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its 
 power of resisting extinction by its rivals." 
 
 As a sort of side issue of the Descent of Man, and as throwing 
 light upon the doctrines developed therein, with much more of 
 independent interest and suggestiveness, The Expression of the 
 Emotions in Men and Animals was published in 1872. This is, 
 perhaps, the most amusing of Mr. Darwin's works, while at the 
 same time it is one which evidently involved observation 
 and research of the most minute and careful kind. It is one, 
 moreover, which shows how continually and instinctively the 
 author was on the watch for instances that were likely to have 
 any bearing on the varied lines of his researches. 
 
 To attempt to reckon up the influence which Mr. Darwin's 
 multifarious work has had upon modern thought and modern 
 life in all its phases seems as difficult a task as it would be to 
 count the number and trace the extent of the sound-waves from 
 a park of artillery. The impetus he has given to science, not 
 only in his own, but in other departments, can only find a 
 parallel in Newton. Through his influence the whole method 
 of seeking after knowledge has been changed, and the increasing 
 rapidity with which the results are every day developed becomes 
 more and more bewildering. To what remote corners in religion, 
 in legislation, in education, in everyday life, from Imperial 
 Assemblies and venerable Universities to humble board schools 
 and remote Scottish manses, the impetus initiated on board the 
 " Beagle " and developed at the quiet and comfortable home at 
 Beckenham has reached, those who are in the whirl and sweep 
 of it are not in a position to say. Under the immediate influence 
 of the sad loss we can only state a few obvious facts and make a 
 few quite as obvious reflections ; in time we may be able to 
 realise how great a man now belongs to the past. That Mr. 
 Darwin's work was not done nor his capacity for work exhausted 
 was well enough seen in his recently-published work on Worms ; 
 and with the help of his able and congenial sons, Mr. George
 
 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN 11 
 
 and Mr. Francis Darwin, we might have hoped for one or two 
 more of the familiar green-covered volumes. 
 
 Honours and medals were showered upon Mr. Darwin by 
 learned societies all the world over ; from Germany, where his 
 disciples, led by Hackel, have out-Darwined Darwin, he received 
 a Knighthood of the Prussian Order of Merit.
 
 GENEKAL GARIBALDI 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1882 
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI died at Caprera at half-past six o'clock last 
 evening. The last hero of the heroic age of New Italy is no 
 more the most popular, the most legendary, the most blameless ; 
 the one who, had he, like Cavour, died at the opportune moment, 
 would have been deemed absolutely without fault, and, therefore, 
 superhuman and fabulous. As a consolation to the mediocrity 
 of the common run of mortals, there was a weak side in Gari- 
 baldi's nature. There was shade enough enhancing and relieving 
 the light of the picture to make it lifelike. Men have spoken 
 of the " ass's head linked to the lion's heart." Garibaldi could 
 afford to acknowledge the correctness of the taunt ; but he was 
 not accountable for the asinine part of his composition. Like all 
 other men, he was the offspring of circumstance. He could not 
 emancipate himself from the influences of his early training. 
 His sympathies were too strong to resist the ascendency of his 
 surroundings. He had all the lion's instincts ; not merely the 
 headlong courage, but the far nobler qualities of the magna- 
 nimity, the placability, the self-denial attributed to the idealised 
 king of the animals. His impulses were all generous, his 
 judgment naturally sound, his motives invariably upright, his 
 conscience unerring. His deficiency was in good, stout self-reli- 
 ance. He suffered the blanks which his imperfect education had 
 left in his mind to be filled up by unsafe counsellors. He 
 thought with other men's brains ; but he never was misled by 
 bad advice to the extent of blinding himself to better suggestions. 
 He was at all times amenable to reason, always ready, if not 
 humbly to acknowledge an error, at least bravely to repair it.
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 13 
 
 All his deeds will bear criticism ; happy if he had spoken less 
 and written nothing ! 
 
 Garibaldi has not left the world without some account of 
 his birth, parentage, and early life. Not a little of his great, 
 naive, and enthusiastic character may be studied in those 
 Memoires, of which his eccentric friend, Alexandre Dumas, 
 published a free translation. He was born 22nd July 1807. 
 He was a native of Nice, a city inhabited by a mongrel race, 
 but himself sprung from a purely Italian family. The name of 
 Garibaldi, common enough throughout North Italy, betokens 
 old Lombard descent. He first saw light, as he states, in the 
 very house and room where, forty-nine years before, Massena 
 was born. His father, Domenico, had come from Chiavari, in 
 the Riviera di Levante ; he gives his mother's name, Rosa 
 Ragiundo. Garibaldi's father and grandfather were seamen, and 
 he took to the sea as his native element, developing great 
 strength and skill as a swimmer, an accomplishment which 
 enabled him to save drowning men on several memorable 
 occasions. For what book learning he had he seems to have 
 been indebted to the desultory lessons of priestly schoolmasters 
 under the direction of his mother. Of this latter he always 
 spoke with great tenderness, acknowledging that "to her 
 inspiration he owed his patriotic feelings," and stating that "in 
 his greatest dangers by land and sea, his imagination always 
 conjured up the picture of the pious woman prostrated at the 
 feet of the Most High interceding for the safety of her beloved." 
 
 In early life he embarked in his father's merchant vessel, 
 a brig, and in that and other craft he made frequent voyages to 
 Odessa, Rome, and Constantinople. Soon after the revolution- 
 ary movements of 1831 he was at Marseilles, where he fell in 
 with Mazzini, busy at that time with the organisation of " Young 
 Italy " and with the preparations for an invasion of Italy by 
 sea, which, upon Mazzini's expulsion from Marseilles, was 
 attempted at Geneva, and directed against the Savoy frontier. 
 The Savoy expedition turned out an egregious failure, the 
 blame of which Garibaldi, on Mazzini's statement, throws on the 
 Polish General Ramorino's treachery. Garibaldi himself, who 
 had embarked on board the royal frigate "Euridice" to gain 
 possession of that vessel by a mutiny of the crew, being off 
 Genoa, and hearing of a plot to storm the barracks of the 
 Carabinieri, landed in the town to join it ; but the attack upon
 
 14 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 the barracks miscarried, and he, not daring to go back to his 
 ship, saw himself irreparably compromised, fled to Nice, and 
 thence crossed the Var and found himself an exile at Marseilles. 
 Here he betook himself again to his sea life, sailed for the 
 Black Sea and for Tunis, and at last on board the " Nageur," of 
 Nantes, for Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 In the commentaries before alluded to, Garibaldi gives the 
 fullest particulars of the exploits by which he rose to distinction 
 beyond the Atlantic during the twelve years elapsing from his 
 leaving Europe in 1836 to his return to Italy in 1848. It is 
 the romance of his career, and will some day be wrought into 
 an epic blending the charms of the Odyssey with those of the 
 Iliad a battle and a march being the theme of the eventful 
 tale almost from beginning to end. 
 
 Garibaldi took service with the Republic of Rio Grande do 
 Sul, a vast territory belonging to Brazil, then in open rebellion 
 and war against that Empire. He took the command of a 
 privateer's boat with a crew of twelve men, to which he gave 
 the name of " Mazzini," and by the aid of which he soon helped 
 himself to a larger and better-armed vessel, a prize taken from 
 the enemy. In his many encounters with the Imperial or 
 Brazilian party the hero bought experience both of wonderfully 
 propitious and terribly adverse fortune, and had every imagin- 
 able variety of romantic adventure and hairbreadth escapes. 
 He was severely wounded, taken prisoner, and in one instance, 
 at Gualeguay, in the Argentine territory, he found himself in 
 the power of one Leonardo Millan, a type of Spanish South- 
 American brutality, by whom he was savagely struck in the 
 face with a horsewhip, submitted to several hours' rack and 
 torture, and thrown into a dungeon in which his sufferings were 
 soothed by the ministration of that " angel of charity," a woman, 
 by name Madame Alleman. 
 
 Escaping from his tormentor by the intervention of the 
 Governor of Gualeguay, Paolo Echague, Garibaldi crossed from 
 the territories of the Plate into those of the Rio Grande, and 
 faithful to the cause of that Republic he fought with better 
 success, winning battles, storming fortresses, standing his ground 
 with a handful of men, or even single-handed, against incredible 
 odds, beating strong squadrons with a few small vessels, giving 
 through all proofs of the rarest disinterestedness, humanity, and 
 generosity, disobeying orders to sack and ravage vanquished
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 15 
 
 cities, and exercising that mixture of authority and glamour 
 over his followers which almost enabled him to dispense with 
 the ties of stern rule and discipline. At last, after losing a 
 flotilla in a hurricane on the coast of Santa Caterina, where he 
 landed wrecked and forlorn, having seen his bravest and most 
 cherished Italian friends shot down or drowned, he fell in with 
 his Anita not, apparently, the first fair one for whom he had 
 a passing fancy with whom he united his destinies, for better 
 for worse, in life and till death, in some off-hand manner, about 
 which he is reticent and mysterious. Anita turned out almost 
 as great and daring and long-enduring a being as her heroic 
 mate, and was by his side in all fights by land and sea, till the 
 fortunes of the Republic of Rio Grande declined, when, after 
 giving birth to her first-born, Menotti Garibaldi, 16th September 
 1840, she went with that infant and his father through unheard- 
 of hardships and dangers in the disastrous retreat of Las Antas ; 
 when at last Garibaldi, beginning to feel the responsibilities of 
 a growing family, and despairing of the issues of an ill-con- 
 ducted war, took leave of his Republican friends at Rio Grande 
 and went for a short respite in his adventurous career to 
 Montevideo. 
 
 After trying on the journey to find employment as a cattle 
 drover, Garibaldi settled at Montevideo in the capacity of a 
 general broker and teacher of mathematics ; but, war having 
 broken out between the Republic of the Uruguay and Buenos 
 Ayres, the Condottiere was solicited to draw his sword for the 
 former State which afforded him hospitality, and was trusted 
 with the command of a little squadron destined to operate on 
 the Parana river against a largely superior Argentine force. This 
 expedition was contrived by enemies high in power in the 
 Monte videan Government, who, jealous of the reputation won 
 by Garibaldi at Rio Grande, vainly plotted to have him assassin- 
 ated with his friend Anzani, and hoped to rid themselves of 
 him by exposing him to dangers from which it seemed impossible 
 that he could extricate himself. Garibaldi, however, made the 
 best of his desperate position, and escaped, not only with his 
 life, but also with " honour the only thing that was not lost." 
 
 Presently, danger pressing sorely on the Republic, he 
 organised his Italian Legion, which behaved well through a new 
 series of land and sea combats, its band of only 400 combatants 
 often beating the enemy's corps 600 men strong, at the close
 
 16 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 
 
 of which exploits its soldiers refused grants of land offered to 
 them by a grateful State, " the stimulus of their exertions," as 
 their commander said, " being only the triumph of the Republi- 
 can cause." The Legion was afterwards, as a mark of honour, 
 allowed precedence over all the other troops of the Eepublic. The 
 war continued, and under the auspices of their commander the 
 soldiers of the Italian Legion rose to such distinction that at 
 the affairs of the Boyada and of Salto Sant' Antonio, February 
 1846, Garibaldi was empowered to write to the Government of 
 the Kepublic that the brilliant successes of those deeds of arms 
 were entirely due to their gallantry. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, news from Europe came to turn the 
 attention of Italian patriots to the momentous events which 
 were rapidly changing the conditions of the Peninsula. Years 
 had passed. Pius IX. was Pope ; Sicily had risen in open and 
 successful revolt ; a Republic had been proclaimed in France ; 
 Constitutions were being wrested from the reluctant hands of 
 most European despots. Austria was convulsed with insur- 
 rectionary attempts ; the Milanese drove Radetzky from their 
 city after five days' fighting, and Charles Albert unfurled the 
 national standard and crossed the Ticino. 
 
 The theatre of the exploits of the hero of Montevideo was 
 soon changed. All who had a heart and soul in Italy were up 
 and doing, and could Italy's greatest heart and soul remain 
 beyond seas ? Garibaldi, on the first reports of the Pope's 
 liberal leanings, wrote to the Nuncio Bedini at Montevideo, 
 17th October 1847, offering the services of the Italian Legion to 
 His Holiness, who was now almost on the eve of a war with 
 Austria, " although," the letter said, " the writer was well aware 
 that St. Peter's throne rests on a solid basis proof against all 
 human attacks, and needing no mortal defenders." The Nuncio 
 returned thanks and praises and referred Garibaldi's tender to 
 the Pontifical Government at Rome. But Garibaldi, never 
 well disposed to losing time, after vainly waiting for further 
 communication from Pope or Nuncio, brooked no longer delay. 
 With incredible difficulty he scraped together money and means, 
 and embarked with his brave friend Anzani (who died at Genoa 
 soon after landing), having with him only eighty-five men and 
 two cannon, and leaving the remainder of his Legion to follow 
 when and how it could. He crossed the ocean, landed at Nice, 
 proceeded to Genoa and Milan, and when Charles Albert, de-
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 17 
 
 feated at Custozza, withdrew from the Lombard city and 
 accepted an armistice which saved Piedmont from invasion, 
 August 1848, Garibaldi passed over to Mazzini, and at the 
 head of a volunteer force, of which Mazzini was the standard- 
 bearer, issued a manifesto in which he proclaimed the Sardinian 
 king a traitor, and declared that " the royal war was at an end, 
 and that of the people was now to begin." That proclamation 
 was, however, only an idle bravado. Mazzini, even if he had 
 the spirit, lacked the physical strength of a fighting man. The 
 Garibaldians, on hearing the news of the fall of Milan, lost 
 heart, and many crossed over the frontier to Switzerland. With 
 thinned and dispirited bands, Garibaldi, aided by his friend 
 Medici, ventured on a few desultory fights near Luino, on Lake 
 Maggiore, but soon fell back and withdrew to Lugano in the 
 Canton Ticino, his health, it is said, breaking down, and his 
 immediate followers being reduced to some 300. 
 
 A few months later, Pius IX., fallen from his popularity and 
 pressed hard by hia disaffected subjects, who murdered his 
 Minister and almost stormed him in his palace at the Quirinal, 
 ran away to Gae'ta, and a Roman Republic was proclaimed, of 
 which Mazzini, in a triumvirate with two others, mere men of 
 straw, became the head. Attacked by the French in flagrant 
 violation of all rights of nations, Rome undertook to defend 
 itself, and whatever Italy could boast of generous hearts, 
 regardless of party differences, rallied round Garibaldi, who 
 drove back the French from Porta Pancrazio, 29th and 30th April 
 1849, defeated the Neapolitans in that campaign of Velletri, 
 which was like the farce contrasting with the tragic drama soon 
 to be acted at Rome, and withstood a three months' siege in 
 which many of the noblest champions of the Italian cause 
 lavished their lives in a hopeless, yet, as it proved, not a 
 fruitless struggle. 
 
 The French having gained possession of the city, 13th July 
 1849, Garibaldi left it with a band of devoted volunteers, retired 
 via Terni and Orvieto, gathering together about 2000 men in 
 his progress, crossed the Apennines, pressed by the Austrians 
 with overwhelming forces, sought a refuge at San Marino, gave 
 the enemy the slip in the night, embarked at Cesenatico for 
 Venice, which was still withstanding the Austrian siege, was 
 met by four Austrian men-of-war, which compelled him to put 
 back and land on the coast near Ravenna, and wandered ashore 
 
 VOL. Ill C
 
 18 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 in the woods, where Anita, his inseparable companion in this 
 disastrous march, though in the same interesting state as she 
 was on the retreat of Las Antas at Rio Grande, succumbed to 
 the fatigues of the journey, and expired in the hero's arras. 
 Garibaldi's devoted friends Ugo Bassi and Ciceruacchio, falling 
 into the hands of the Austrians, were shot by them without any 
 forms of trial and by an act of barbarism which no human or 
 divine law could justify. The heartbroken hero, with a few 
 trusty men, made his way from the Adriatic to the Mediter- 
 ranean, was arrested by the Sardinian Carabinieri at Chiavari, 
 conveyed to Genoa, where La Marmora was in command, and 
 there embarked for Tunis ; hence, finding nowhere a refuge, he 
 proceeded to the Island of La Maddalena, off the shore of 
 Sardinia, and hence again to Gibraltar and Tangier. 
 
 Our theme is Garibaldi, and we have neither time nor leisure 
 to do more than sum up those pages of Italian history in which 
 his name occurs almost at every line. Up to the close of this 
 first dolorous episode of 1848-49, Garibaldi had shown himself 
 a patriot rather than a partisan. His first application was to a 
 Pope and a King, and he had evinced no relentless enmity to 
 the monarchic principle. He arrived in Lombardy when Charles 
 Albert had been overpowered, not so much by Radetzky as by 
 Mazzini, a monomaniac, who though himself at first showing no 
 reluctance to come to terms with a King, never forgave that 
 King his unwillingness to attempt impossibilities, and who was 
 determined that there should never be an Italy unless it could 
 be made into a Republic with a Mazzinian dictatorship. That 
 Republic was proclaimed at Rome, and Garibaldi joined it ; 
 but even at that juncture he himself, and Medici and Bixio, 
 and others, were Italians before they were Republicans ; and 
 among the noblest combatants, Manara, the Dandolos, and 
 others, who lavished their blood like water, made no parade 
 of their democracy, and would have looked upon any bigoted 
 political exclusiveness as arrant treason to the national cause. 
 With the exception of Mazzini himself and of some obscure 
 men anxious to shine by such lurid light as emanated from 
 him, the Italians soon proved that they were of one mind 
 on the subject. 
 
 With respect to Garibaldi himself, there is ample evidence 
 that it AVOS, in his sane moments, his country and not his party 
 that was uppermost in his thoughts. Some letters of La
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 19 
 
 Marmora lately published in the Italian papers bear witness 
 to the mutual esteem and sympathy that sprang up between 
 those two brave men, when Garibaldi, soon after the fall of 
 Rome and the loss of Anita, was brought before the General 
 then in command of that city by the Carabinieri to whom he 
 had in his helplessness surrendered as prisoner. La Marmora 
 received the heartbroken fugitive as a brother, supplied him 
 with ample means for his journey to Tunis, and obtained for 
 him from the Turin Government the assignment of an honour- 
 able pension, which Garibaldi did not in his straits disdain to 
 accept. But, in his opinion, all seemed now over for Italy ; 
 Charles Albert's son, Victor Emmanuel, after the defeat of 
 Novara, had made his peace with Austria in March 1849. 
 Venice had succumbed after heroic sufferings in August, and 
 Garibaldi, again crossing the ocean, settled at New York as 
 a tallow chandler, and only came back to Europe in 1855. 
 
 When Garibaldi returned from America he did not look out 
 for Mazzini or his Eepublicans in England or Switzerland, but 
 sought a home in Piedmont, a Constitutional State, which 
 allowed him an obscure but peaceful retreat in his hermitage 
 at Caprera, an island rock on the Sardinian coast near the 
 Maddalena, conveying to him a hint that the time might soon 
 come in which his country's cause would summon him from 
 his retirement. And, truly, four years later (1859) the 
 destinies of Italy were nearing their fulfilment. France and 
 Piedmont took the field against Austria. Garibaldi, leaving his 
 island home, swore fealty to Victor Emmanuel as the best of 
 Republics, took the command of the Chasseurs des Alpes, aided 
 the royal army in its defence of the territory previous to the 
 arrival of its great French auxiliary, and, following in the upper 
 region a line parallel to that kept in the plain by the conquest 
 of Palestro, Magenta, and Solferino, beat the Austrians at Varese 
 and San Fermo, bewildered his adversary Urban by the rashness 
 of his movements on the mountains above Como, advanced upon 
 Bergamo and Brescia, and pushed on to the Valtellina up to the 
 very summit of the Stelvio Pass. Here the peace of Villafranca 
 put an end to the struggle, and Garibaldi, afflicted by the 
 arthritic pains to which he was a martyr all his life, travelled 
 for a few days' rest to Tuscany and Genoa. 
 
 At Genoa, during the autumn and winter, Garibaldi, hospit- 
 ably entertained by his friend Augusto Vecchi outside the city,
 
 20 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 busied himself with that expedition of " the Thousand " which 
 made one State of the South and North of Italy. He embarked 
 on the llth of May 1860 at Genoa, landed at Marsala, beat the 
 Neapolitans at Calatafimi, followed up his success to Palermo, 
 and, aided by the insurgent city, compelled the garrison to 
 surrender. He again routed the Bourbon troops at Milazzo, 
 and had soon the whole island at his discretion, with the excep- 
 tion of the citadel of Messina. He then crossed over into 
 Calabria, and, almost without firing a shot, drove the Nea- 
 politan King's troops before him all over the mainland, 
 compelled the King to abandon the strong pass of La Cava 
 and to withdraw his forces from his capital, where Garibaldi, 
 with only a few of his staff, made his triumphal entry on the 
 7th of September 1860. 
 
 After a few days' rest Garibaldi followed the disheartened 
 King to Capua, obtained new signal successes on the Volturno, 
 at Santa Maria, and Caserta ; but would probably have been 
 unable to accomplish the enterprise had not the Piedmontese, 
 whose Government had aided Garibaldi's expedition while 
 pretending to oppose it, overrun the Marches, beaten La- 
 moriciere and the Papal forces at Castel Fidardo, and, crossing 
 the frontier and the Apennines, besieged and reduced the 
 strong places of Capua and Gaeta. Garibaldi, who, as dictator, 
 had with doubtful success endeavoured to establish something 
 like rule in the Two Sicilies, aware of the arduousness of a 
 task which would have exceeded many wiser men's powers, met 
 the King at Naples, delivered the two kingdoms into his hands, 
 and, declining all the proffered honours and emoluments for 
 himself, took leave of his Sovereign and embarked for the 
 solitude of his rock-farm at Caprera. 
 
 This was the hero's crowning glory, and had he been 
 wrecked on the voyage or landed with an unshaken deter- 
 mination never to revisit the mainland, his achievements would 
 have gone dowii to posterity as a myth, hardly second to the 
 deeds of the ancient demigods ; and he would have been free 
 from the alloy of the earthly passions which in almost all cases 
 degraded their divine nature. But Garibaldi was elected a 
 Deputy, and was over-persuaded to meet in Parliament adver- 
 saries of a different nature from those he had been wont to 
 encounter in the field. The discussion on the cession of his 
 native city, Nice, to France, and the Bill for the amalgamation
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 21 
 
 of his volunteer forces into the royal army with a confirmation 
 of the rank which he had in his sore need often too recklessly 
 lavished on them, seemed to him to establish the necessity of 
 his appearing in his place in the Chamber of Deputies. But a 
 wrestling match with Cavour, or even with Cialdini, was no 
 task for the debating powers of the blunt hero of Calatafimi. 
 Overwhelmed by the strong logic of the Minister and by the 
 less generous sarcasm of the rival warrior, Garibaldi withdrew 
 to his lodgings, where more rational and trusty advisers pre- 
 vailed upon him to give up the contest and go back to the 
 solitude which he should never have quitted. 
 
 But Cavour died ; Eicasoli forfeited the King's good graces, 
 and the slippery Rattazzi acceded to power. Confronted by a 
 hostile majority, he came to terms with the revolutionary 
 party of the Left by engaging to supply Garibaldi with one 
 million francs for an expedition against the Austrians at Venice. 
 The Venetian enterprise turned out hopeless, and Garibaldi, 
 abandoning it, listened to schemers who suggested a rescue of 
 Home from the French. Garibaldi landed with some partisans 
 in Sicily, collected a few bands of picciotti, or raw youths, in 
 the island, and crossed to Calabria, hoping soon to find himself 
 at the head of a force sufficient to drive the French garrison 
 from Rome. Rattazzi, who could not blind himself to the 
 disasters which awaited so foolhardy an enterprise, sent the 
 royal forces against its projector under Pallavicini, who attacked, 
 wounded, and seized Garibaldi at Aspromonte, 29th August 
 1862, and sent him a prisoner for a few days to the fort 
 of Varigliano at Spezzia, whence he was conveyed to Caprera. 
 Great sympathy was felt for him in England, and he was 
 attended in his illness by Mr. Partridge, the English surgeon, 
 sent to Italy for the purpose. In April 1864 he paid a visit 
 to the country which had manifested so keen an interest in 
 his career, and was welcomed with enthusiasm alike by the 
 English people and the English aristocracy, his reception cul- 
 minating in a grand banquet given in his honour by the Lord 
 Mayor and City of London. 
 
 Aspromonte led to Rattazzi's downfall. A Ministry suc- 
 ceeded which, by the September Convention of 1864, removed 
 the seat of government to Florence and seemed to have 
 renounced all Italy's pretensions to Rome, from which France 
 engaged to withdraw her garrison. Two years later a war
 
 22 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 between Prussia and Austria led to the deliverance of Venice. 
 During this campaign of 1866 Garibaldi again appeared in the 
 field as the King's soldier, and, at the head of several thousand 
 volunteers, vainly attempted to force his way into the gorges of 
 the Southern Tyrol. Beaten by the superior skill of the 
 Austrian marksmen, wounded, and overcome by ill -health, he 
 fell back soon after the disaster of Custozza, and was again fain 
 to seek his retreat of Caprera. 
 
 But, in the following year, the La Marmora - Ricasoli 
 Government having been compelled to yield to the hostile 
 feeling of the deeply -humiliated country, Eattazzi was again 
 in the ascendant, and, refining upon Cavour's cunning, laid the 
 plan for an attempt upon defenceless Rome, and, while for- 
 warding it with all his might, pretended to combat it by all 
 the means at his disposal. Rattazzi, a mere frog of a states- 
 man, trusted he could swell himself up to the size of the ox, 
 Cavour. He hoped either that his manoeuvres could hood- 
 wink the Emperor Napoleon or that the sympathies of that 
 vacillating monarch could be easily won over to the fulfilment 
 of Italy's last wishes. Enlistments of men and distributions of 
 arms were carried on throughout Italy and in the capital under 
 the very eyes, with the connivance and, indeed, the co-opera- 
 tion of the Government. Volunteers gathered on the borders 
 of the shrunken Pontifical State under command of Garibaldi's 
 son, Menotti. Garibaldi himself landed at Genoa, travelled 
 about the country, came to Florence, and addressed the multi- 
 tude in language of which the Government affected to condemn 
 the violence and which led to the farce of the General's arrest 
 at Sinalunga and his removal to Caprera, where his movements 
 were watched by royal cruisers, which, however, he was allowed 
 to evade, when the great blow was to be struck and his assist- 
 ance was needed. Garibaldi again landed at Leghorn, joined 
 the volunteer force on the Papal frontier, advanced upon 
 Monterotondo, and there and at Mentana succumbed to the 
 superior forces of the Pontifical army aided by a few French 
 battalions landing to the Pope's rescue under De Failly, 3rd 
 November 1867. 
 
 Sick at heart and wounded in spirit, Garibaldi was sent 
 back to Caprera, where, three years later, upon the French 
 garrison being again removed from Rome in consequence of the 
 disasters of the Franco-German war, which led to the Emperor
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 23 
 
 Napoleon's overthrow at Sedan, he had the mortification of 
 seeing Rome broken into by the royal Italian army, and the 
 dream of his youth, the completion of a united, free, and 
 independent State in Italy, achieved without his having a 
 hand in the final exploit. By a strange revulsion of feeling the 
 revengeful ill-will he had long harboured against all-powerful 
 Imperial France was changed to enthusiastic interest in the 
 fate of fast -sinking, Eepublican France; and, appealing to the 
 ready sympathies of adventurers used to follow him without 
 questioning, he again issued forth from his island solitude, 
 joined Gambetta at Tours on the 9th of October 1870, and was 
 by him sent in command of Francs-Tireurs and Gardes Mobiles 
 to the Vosges. He betook himself to Besangon, fought the 
 Germans at Autun, was beaten back by Werder at Montbard, 
 and finally altogether bewildered and out-generalled at Dijon. 
 In return for his devotion to the cause of a country which had 
 twice beaten him at Rome and robbed him of his native Nice, 
 the good man was treated with insult and scorn by the Retro- 
 gradist party, then in the ascendant at the Bordeaux Assembly, 
 to which he had been returned a Deputy, and, shaking the 
 dust from his feet, he went back a sadder if not a wiser man to 
 Caprera, 20th February 1871. 
 
 Three years later he reappeared on the political stage at 
 Rome, where a seat in the Chamber of Deputies was always 
 reserved for him, and where his friends of the Opposition, even 
 after Rattazzi's death, looked up to him as the champion who 
 should grapple with the strength of the majority supporting the 
 Minghetti Administration and determine its fall. 
 
 The Italian cause had by this time achieved its complete 
 triumph, and pure, enlightened, honourable patriotism could 
 well afford to retire from business. The country was rid of 
 the foreigner from the Alps to the sea, and at Rome the Pope 
 had been brought to that condition of a mere High Priest 
 which modern civilisation clearly assigned to him. There 
 were, properly speaking, no political parties in Italy, for an 
 overwhelming majority in the country had from beginning to 
 end unanimously agreed in their wishes for the emancipation 
 of the country and for its unity as far as it seemed practicable. 
 Even the most sincere and devout Catholics were so far anti- 
 Clerical that they looked on the combination of the attributes 
 of a Pope with those of a King as something out of date,
 
 24 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 abnormal, and monstrous. In the Chamber of Deputies neither 
 the absolute Retrogradists nor the Ultra - Democrats had any 
 place, nor could any have lawfully been allowed to them, for 
 the representatives of the people swore their oath to the King 
 and the Constitution, and it could not be assumed that any one 
 of them would perjure himself, though a few of them were 
 certainly guilty of unworthy equivocation and mental reserve. 
 
 There was, nevertheless, or there grew up at an early period, 
 a division in the Italian Parliament. There were a Right and a 
 Left, and in time, also, the usual subdivisions of Right and Left 
 Centres ; a tendency to splitting, an agreement to disagree, being, 
 indeed, inevitable and far from undesirable in all deliberative 
 Assemblies. The Right in Italy was under the leadership of 
 Cavour so long as the great statesman lived, and after his death 
 of the most distinguished disciples of his school, Ricasoli, Farini, 
 etc., many of whom were carried away by premature death, but 
 some of whom, like Lanza, Sella, Minghetti, Visconti, Venosta, 
 maintained the ascendency of their party, and governed, or, as 
 their adversaries contended, "misgoverned," the country for 
 sixteen years (1860 to 1875). 
 
 The Opposition acknowledged as its chief Rattazzi, a man 
 who had begun life as Cavour's friend, and had only seceded 
 from him from personal motives, having, indeed, absolutely no 
 policy, but who, when Cavour was no more, contrived, as we 
 have seen, to snatch power by associating himself with the 
 impatient patriots of the tout ou rien school. These set up the 
 cries of "Roma e Venezia !" and "Roma o morte !" disdaining the 
 temporising conduct of the Cavour school, which, while aiming 
 at the same ends, still troubled themselves about the efficiency 
 and adequacy of the means. Rattazzi's strength lay in his 
 insincere and unavowed alliance with the Garibaldians, men like 
 Crispi, Nicotera, Cairoli, and others, who like most Italians had 
 been Mazzinians in their own time, but who, upon the annexa- 
 tion of Italy to Piedmont, had rallied round the standard of 
 Victor Emmanuel and repudiated Republicanism, protesting 
 themselves Monarchists and declaring that, whether by legal or 
 illegal means, they were only acting with and for the King. 
 With the support of these men Rattazzi attempted what his 
 adversaries denounced as impossibilities, and the results were 
 Aspromonte and Montana, all those tragic episodes in which 
 Garibaldi was called to play the protagonist, and which ended
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 25 
 
 witli his sorrowful retirement to Caprera, and with the igno- 
 minious downfall of the Rattazzi Administration, leaving the 
 work which they had bungled to be accomplished by the 
 moderate followers of the Cavour policy, who attempted nothing 
 impracticable, inspired greater confidence, and were more con- 
 stantly favoured by fortune. 
 
 But Rattazzi died in 1874, and his party, left to the guidance 
 of Depretis and aware of its impotence, hoped to recover some 
 strength by troubling Garibaldi's repose, bringing him to Rome, 
 and reawakening the enthusiasm of the multitude by the prestige 
 of the hero's name. Garibaldi, however, at this juncture dis- 
 appointed both friends and foes. Like a political Balaam, 
 eventually blessing those he had gone to curse, he declared that 
 Italy was free and his work was done, that he renounced politics, 
 and intended to spend his remaining days in works of public 
 utility, and, to begin with, in an embankment of the Tiber and 
 the drainage of the Campagna. He was, of course, immediately 
 pounced upon by an army of sharp contractors and dreamy 
 projectors, and bewildered by plans and schemes, for the very 
 survey of which the funds were not forthcoming, he turned his 
 back upon them all and revisited his rocky hermitage, whence 
 it was fondly hoped that in later years no seductions of false 
 friends would have any longer the power to move him. 
 
 These sanguine anticipations were, however, doomed to fresh 
 disillusion. The blunders of the Minghetti Administration, and 
 the necessary instability of all Parliamentary institutions, led to 
 a crisis, in which the Left party, availing itself of a split in the 
 majority, managed to wriggle itself into office, under the pre- 
 sidency of Depretis, in March 1876. Depretis, at the head of 
 a feeble Left Centre, sought his strength in men of more advanced 
 opinions, and especially in the so-called men of action, Crispi, 
 Nicotera, Cairoli, and others, who had sided with Garibaldi in 
 all his enterprises, and had either prepared the ground for his 
 exploits or powerfully contributed to his successes. The various 
 Ministerial combinations which followed one upon another under 
 Depretis were soon discredited by their want of ability and 
 energy, and by their despotic tendencies. They were hampered 
 by the popular outcry for Radical measures, which they had 
 favoured while in Opposition, but of which they found the 
 fulfilment impracticable when in power. Unable to hold their 
 ground on any intelligible policy, they endeavoured to win
 
 26 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 popularity by timidly and hypocritically countenancing a vague 
 patriotic agitation, and courting a half-hearted alliance with the 
 worn-out and almost extinguished Mazzinians. 
 
 Great and important events had occurred in the interval. 
 Mazzini had ended in 1872, consistent with himself, conspiring 
 in death against that Italy for which he had always conspired 
 in his lifetime. The catastrophe which in January 1878 carried 
 off Victor Emmanuel a few days before the decease of Pope 
 Pius IX. had given full demonstration that the Savoy dynasty 
 and the monarchic principle were based in Italy on a rock of 
 popular gratitude which neither Clerical Obscurantism nor 
 rampant Republicanism had power to shake. Between Garibaldi 
 and Mazzini no great cordiality had existed even at Eome 
 during the Republic of 1849, as Mazzini, jealous of the hero's 
 popularity, had unjustly placed Roselli above him in command 
 of the Velletri expedition, a preference to which Garibaldi had 
 not been insensible, although he professed in his Memoirs that 
 he was " inaccessible to all such questions of amour propre," and 
 that "had he been allowed to draw his sword even as a mere 
 soldier against his country's enemy, he would gladly have served 
 in. the ranks -;of the Bersaglieri," and that he, therefore, 
 " accepted with gratitude the rank of a General of Division." 
 
 Since then the two great patriots had followed a diverging 
 course ; Garibaldi, though still professing himself a Republican, 
 faithfully followed the royal standard, while Mazzini held up 
 the red flag till the merest shred of it was left. Garibaldi, 
 besides, in the hopeless confusion through which he strove to 
 solve to his satisfaction social problems which puzzled the best- 
 organised brains, had happened to clash with some of the views 
 entertained by the no less perplexed but ultra-mystical Mazzini, 
 with respect to the definition of the various tendencies of 
 Socialism and Communism ; so that some sharp skirmishing had 
 gone on between them and between their respective partisans, 
 which, without interfering with the mutual esteem of the leaders, 
 had widened the estrangement long existing between them. 
 
 The Mazzinian party, now reduced to a few scribblers in the 
 Dovere and the Unita Italiana poor creatures who clung to 
 the great man's coat-skirts, and hoped to shine by his reflected 
 light to a few transcendent enthusiasts like the high-gifted 
 Aurelio Saffi, the upright-minded Nicola Fabrizi, and the hot- 
 headed Bertani, Cavallotti, and others, after vainly trying to
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 27 
 
 interest the public on such subjects as universal suffrage, right 
 of meeting, and other democratic measures, set up a clamour for 
 the Italia Irredenta, a matter on which such Garibaldians as 
 Cairoli, Crispi, and Nicotera were compromised by all their 
 precedents. That Italian unity was incomplete so long as any 
 territory geographically or nationally belonging to the Peninsula 
 was in the foreigner's hands was a notion scouted by all men of 
 sense ; and even the highly-respected Garibaldian, Nino Bixio, 
 was invariably " coughed down " in the Chamber whenever he 
 ventured to touch on that dangerous topic. That Trent and 
 the valley of the Adige were purely Italian, and that the posses- 
 sion of this district would considerably add to the strength of 
 the frontier, no one would deny ; but the same principle would 
 be equally applicable to the Canton Ticino, which belongs to 
 Switzerland, and to Mentone and Eoccabruna, which France 
 usurped in 1860, when Napoleon III. declared that the crest 
 of the Alps should define the boundary line between his own 
 empire and Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. To go to war for 
 such mere slips of land as these would be too great a stretch of 
 insanity for even the most reckless Radical government, while, 
 as to Trieste, neither local interests nor practical geographical 
 expediency, nor even ethnical considerations, could ever advise 
 the separation of that city and of the Istrian Peninsula from the 
 Slavic and German States to which those districts are of vital 
 importance and the annexation of them to Italy, with which 
 they have no community of interests whatever. 
 
 Such were the views of all the most sincere, but rational 
 patriots in Italy, and the subject was allowed to drop, especially 
 as the advisability of cultivating the goodwill of Germany and 
 keeping on friendly terms with Austria became apparent even 
 to the most blind. But lately, in the complication of Eastern 
 affairs, there arose in weak minds a notion that the dignity of 
 Italy had been compromised and her interests sacrificed by the 
 Depretis Government and the diplomatists representing Italy at 
 the Congress of Berlin. The Mazzinian agitators, now finding 
 sympathies among the Garibaldians, hoped to turn the situation 
 to their purposes by bringing forward what remained of the 
 broken-down idol of the uncompromising party. 
 
 Garibaldi once more was seen in Rome, April 1879. He 
 made his usual silly speeches and put forth his oft-repeated 
 senseless proclamations ; he was supposed to be proposing great
 
 28 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 purchases of arms, to be enlisting hosts of volunteers, to be 
 planning thorough reforms and preparing formidable expeditions. 
 But Garibaldi, away from Caprera, could not fail to have his 
 good as well as his evil angels about him. He saw the King ; 
 he listened to General Medici, his own right arm in so many 
 campaigns, and now first aide-de-camp to King Humbert, as he 
 had before been to King Victor Emmanuel. He listened, and, 
 though not convinced, he was silenced. Although too proud to 
 acknowledge the absurdity of his schemes in words, he was too 
 wise not to give them up in deeds. He withdrew from the vain 
 popular acclamation ; shut his door against the crowd of his 
 visitors, and, although he announced his intention to take up 
 his domicile in Eome, he pleaded indisposition as an excuse for 
 inaction and retirement. Unfortunately there was only too much 
 ground in the plea. The arthritic pains of which symptoms 
 had manifested themselves as early as during the Lombard 
 campaign of 1849, which had almost crippled him before his 
 ill-advised intervention in behalf of the French Eepublic in 
 1871, had been seriously aggravated by its toils, and the sight 
 of his helplessness in Rome, as he hobbled up the steps of Monte- 
 citorio in 1874, was saddening to all beholders, and prepared his 
 friends for that end which, however, was to be put off for 
 several years. The fatigue of the voyage from Caprera in 1879, 
 and still more the excitement of incessant calls, objectless con- 
 ferences, and endless exhibitions, soon utterly prostrated the 
 hero, and before the backward spring had fully set in it became 
 evident that Garibaldi's life could only be a lingering agony. 
 
 His life, if life it may be called, and at all events his suffer- 
 ings were prolonged yet a few years. He left home in the 
 spring of last year on a mad scheme of liberating, " by force if 
 necessary," his son-in-law, Canzio, who had been arrested as a 
 plotter for the Republic. But, having obtained the man's release 
 from the King's Government, as a favour, he went to Milan, 
 and there, as everywhere else, he met with the usual enthusiastic 
 reception. But weary, as always happened, of all vain clamour, 
 he once more sought the peace of his hermitage. He left it 
 again a few weeks since for Palermo to attend the 600th anni- 
 versary of the Sicilian Vespers. 
 
 Garibaldi is dead. The spell attached to his name has partly 
 been broken by the prolongation of his life beyond its sphere of 
 possible usefulness ; but the worth of his character will bear
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 29 
 
 inspection, even when sober criticism had done its utmost to 
 strip it of all the glitter with which popular enthusiasm had 
 invested it. 
 
 In the first place, this hero of a hundred fights has been 
 made almost too much of as a warrior, but justice has hardly, 
 perhaps, been done to his abilities as a leader. Garibaldi was 
 no strategist. He knew little and cared less about organisation, 
 equipment, or discipline ; never looked to means of transport or 
 commissariat, but simply marched at the head of a few officers, 
 hardly turning to see how the troops would follow. He never 
 had a competent head of the staff. He thought he had found 
 one in his friend Anzani, at Montevideo, a man of whose abilities 
 and actual -genius Garibaldi had the most transcendent ideas, 
 who had often brought order in the Legion where before his 
 arrival all was confusion, and of whom Garibaldi said that " had 
 such a genius as Anzani's conducted the Lombard campaign of 
 1848 or commanded at the battle of Novara or the siege of 
 Rome, the stranger would from that moment have ceased to tread 
 with impunity the bones of Italy's bravest combatants." But 
 Anzani died, as we have seen, on his landing at Genoa in 1848, 
 and Garibaldi was left only with valiant and heroic but inex- 
 perienced and incapable men. The army which conquered 
 Naples in 1860 trailed up a long straggling line from Reggio to 
 Salerno, picking up the arms with which the fugitive Neapolitans 
 strewed the fields, living as they could on the grapes and fruits 
 providentially at that season ripening everywhere on the road- 
 side. At Varese and Como, in the previous year, the Italian 
 guerrillero astonished Urban by appearing before him where the 
 Austrian was sure Garibaldi could not be, and where, indeed, 
 the volunteer chief was almost alone ; "his 2000 volunteers," 
 as he said, "straggling behind, while his adversary had 14,000 
 men at hand." What was mere rash confidence of the Italian 
 struck the Austrian as deep stratagem, and he was put to flight 
 by a mere trick of audacity, analogous to that which had served 
 the purposes of Bonaparte and compelled the Austrian com- 
 manders of his own time to surrender, sixty-two years before, 
 in those same North Italian districts and only a little more to 
 the east. 
 
 Garibaldi, however, was a tactician, and would have creditably 
 handled an army had a ready-made one, well armed and trained 
 and led, been placed under his orders on the eve of battle. He
 
 30 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 had the sure glance, the quick resolution, the prompt resource 
 of that Enfant gdtd de la victoire, his townsman, Massena. As 
 the Lombard volunteer, Emilio Dandolo, quoted by Dumas, 
 graphically paints his chief " On the approach of a foe, Gari- 
 baldi would ride up to a culminating point in the landscape, 
 survey the ground for hours with the spy-glass in brooding 
 silence, and come down with a swoop on the enemy, acting 
 upon some well-contrived combination of movements by which 
 advantage had been taken of all circumstances in his favour." 
 
 And he possessed, besides, in a supreme degree that glamour 
 which enslaved his volunteers' minds and hearts to his will. 
 Though there was no order or discipline in his army, there was 
 always the most blind and passive obedience wherever he was. 
 Even with his crew on board his privateer sloop at Rio Grande 
 he tells us he had ordered the life, honour, and property of the 
 passengers of a vessel he had captured to be respected " I was 
 almost saying under penalty of death," he adds, " but it would 
 have been wrong to say that, for nobody ever disputed my orders. 
 There never was anybody to be punished." A great craven 
 must he be who would not fire up at sight of that calm and 
 secure lion face. Garibaldi had faith in himself. He looked 
 upon that handful of "the Thousand," who had been a match 
 for 60,000 Neapolitans, as equally fit to cope with all the hosts 
 of France and Austria, singly or conjointly. To make anything 
 possible he had only to will it, to order it, and he never failed 
 to find men ready and willing to attempt it. He called out in 
 one instance in Rome for "forty volunteers wanted for an 
 operation in which half of them would be sure to be killed, and 
 the other half mortally wounded." " The whole battalion," he 
 adds, " rushed forward to offer themselves, and we had to draw 
 lots." On another occasion, also at Rome, he " called all well- 
 disposed men to follow him." " Officers and soldiers instantly 
 sprang up as if the ground had brought them forth." At the 
 close of the siege, when, upon the surrender being voted by the 
 Assembly, he had made up his mind to depart, he put forth this 
 singular order of the day : " Whoever chooses to follow me 
 will be received among my own men. All I ask of them is a 
 heart full of love for our country. They will have no pay, no 
 rest. They will get bread and water when chance may supply 
 them. Whoever likes not this may remain behind. Once out 
 of the gates of Rome every step will be one step nearer to death."
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 31 
 
 Four thousand infantry and five hundred horsemen, two-thirds 
 of what was left of the defenders of Rome, accepted these 
 conditions. 
 
 And it was in peace as in war. In leisure hours in his 
 wanderings, and more in his solitude at Caprera, Garibaldi 
 read a good deal, and accumulated an ill-digested mass of know- 
 ledge, of which the Utopian mysticisms of Mazzini and the 
 paradoxical vagaries of Victor Hugo constituted the chief 
 ingredients. But in politics as in arms his mind lacked the 
 basis of a rudimental education. He rushed to conclusions 
 without troubling his head about arguments. His crude notions 
 of Democracy, of Communism, of Cosmopolitanism, of Positivism, 
 were jumbled together in his brain and jostled one another in 
 hopeless confusion, involving him in unconscious contradiction 
 notwithstanding all his efforts to maintain a character for con- 
 sistency. In sober moments he seemed to acknowledge his 
 intellectual deficiencies, his imperfect education, the facility with 
 which he allowed his own fancy or the advice of dangerous 
 friends to run away with his better judgment ; but presently 
 he would lay aside all diffidence, harangue, indite letters, preside 
 at meetings, address multitudes, talk with the greatest boldness 
 about what he least understood, and put his friends to the blush 
 by his emphatic, trenchant, absolute tone, by his wild theories 
 and sweeping assertions, as he did at Geneva at one of the 
 Peace Society Congresses, when, before a bigoted Calvinistic 
 audience, he settled the question whether St. Peter ever had or 
 had not been in Rome "a futile question," he said, "for I can 
 tell you no such person as Peter has ever existed." 
 
 But with a heart like Garibaldi's a man may well afford to 
 allow his brain to go a- woolgathering. As an earnest patriot as 
 all Italians were while a country was denied to them Garibaldi 
 never went wrong, or his error was repaired and atoned for 
 before he had to rue its worst consequences. Let even his 
 worst enemy write Garibaldi's biography and he will always 
 appear the most single-minded and disinterested, the least self- 
 conscious of all men. Not only did he for many years with 
 unshaken consistency refuse all rewards and distinctions, but he 
 shunned and dreaded popular clamour, and was worried and 
 revolted, as well as confused and dismayed, at the abject wor- 
 ship paid to him by high and low wherever he appeared. He 
 stood or sat stern and sullen as women, men, and even priests
 
 32 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 in Calabria hailed him as " Our Messiah ! our Redeemer ! " as 
 in Lombardy mothers held up their new-born infants to be 
 christened by him, " no other hand being so sure to bring God's 
 blessing with it" ; or as in London, where, in 1864, he fairly 
 ran away from the fine ladies who seemed at a loss to know how 
 a true lion should be lionised. 
 
 Garibaldi had the ideal lion nature in him, all the dignity 
 and gentleness, the sudden flash of anger, the forgiveness, the 
 absence of all rancour, malice, or uncharitableness. Even the 
 brute Leonardo Millan, who had struck, racked, and imprisoned 
 him without reason, when he fell into his power and trembled 
 for 'his life was suffered to go unscathed, the only vengeance of 
 Garibaldi being limited to fixing his look into his face so as to 
 give him to understand that he was recognised but deemed 
 utterly beneath a man's resentment. He was the most loving, 
 the least hating of men. Whatever follies or even crimes may 
 have been committed in his name, one may freely defy the 
 world to trace an act of meanness or a deed of cruelty, or even a 
 deliberately unkind word, to the man himself. However madly 
 he dabbled in Republicanism, his devotion to Victor Emmanuel 
 was proof against all slight or ill-treatment on the part of the 
 King's Government. Whatever progress he made in the modern 
 school of philosophers, his faith in God was unshaken. 
 
 Unfortunately, his trust in men and women transcended 
 all discretion. It is painful, but just, to record how his facile 
 credulity entrapped him into a mock marriage with the Countess 
 Raimondi, a young lady of rank, at Como, during the campaign 
 of 1859 ; it is melancholy, but instructive, to recollect the spec- 
 tacle he exhibited in Rome in 1874, when he made, for the 
 first time, his appearance with a newly-wedded wife and babies 
 in his suite, the results of his domestication with the nurse of 
 his daughter's children, the only one of her sex, probably, 
 besides his Teresita herself, who soothed the weary hours of the 
 almost heartbroken Hermit of Caprera. It was with a view to 
 benefit this offspring of his late marriage that Garibaldi, depart- 
 ing from that rule of heroic disinterestedness which had made 
 him reject all rewards, honours, and distinctions decreed by the 
 King's Government and Parliament, accepted in these latter 
 years an annuity for himself, with reversion to his widow and 
 orphans. In order to establish the legitimacy of this union, he 
 applied to the tribunals at Rome for the annulment of his
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 33 
 
 previous marriage with the Countess Raimondi a suit only too 
 likely to drag to a wearisome length and to bring into light 
 passages in the hero's career which might with greater wisdom 
 have been buried in oblivion. 
 
 The photographs of Garibaldi have reached so far and have 
 been so long before the. world that a description of his personal 
 appearance may be deemed superfluous. Indeed, neither words 
 nor mere lights and shadows could give a satisfactory idea of that 
 stately and commanding figure as it was before years and 
 intense arthritic sufferings had contracted and, as it were, 
 doubled it up. Garibaldi was a middle-sized man and not of 
 an athletic build, though gifted with uncommon strength and 
 surprising agility. He looked to the greatest advantage on 
 horseback, as he sat in the saddle with such perfect ease and 
 yet with such calm serenity, as if he were grown to it, having 
 had, though originally a sailor, the benefit of a long experience 
 in taming the wild mustangs of the Pampas.. But his chief 
 beauty was the head and the unique dignity with which it rose 
 on the shoulders. The features were cast in the old classic 
 mould ; the forehead was high and broad, a perpendicular line 
 from the roots of the hair to the eyebrows. His mass of tawny 
 hair and full red beard gave the countenance its peculiar lion- 
 like character. The brow was open, genial, sunny ; the eyes 
 dark gray, deep, shining with a steady reddish light ; the nose, 
 mouth, and chin exquisitely chiselled, the countenance habitually 
 at rest, but at sight of those dear to him beaming with a 
 " caressing smile, revealing all the innate strength and grace of 
 his loving nature." 
 
 There was both taste and simplicity in the costume to which 
 he gave his name, and to which he adhered, on his return from 
 America, with a fondness which was imputed to foppery, and 
 with which Cialdini, with questionable discretion, taunted him 
 when the volunteer chief appeared clad in it in the House of 
 Deputies, where a military uniform was rarely seen except in 
 the pageantry of a royal sitting. The garb consisted of a plain 
 red shirt and gray trousers, over which he threw the folds of the 
 Spanish- Ajnerican poncho, an ample upper garment of thin white 
 woollen cloth with crimson lining, which did duty as a standard, 
 and round which his volunteers were bidden to rally in the 
 thick of the fight, as did the French Huguenot chivalry round 
 Henry of Navarre's "panache blanche." His sword was a fine 
 
 VOL. Ill D
 
 34 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 cavalry blade, forged in England and the gift of English friends, 
 and with it he might be seen at his early breakfast on the 
 tented field cutting his bread and slicing his Bologna sausage, 
 and inviting those he particularly wished to distinguish to share 
 that savoury fare. The sabre did good slashing work at need, 
 however, and at Milazzo, in Sicily, it bore him out safely from 
 the midst of a knot of Neapolitan troopers who caught him by 
 surprise and fancied they had him at their discretion. Gari- 
 baldi carried no other weapons, though the officers in his suite 
 had pistols and daggers at their belts ; and his negro groom, by 
 name Aguyar, who for a long time followed him as his shadow, 
 like Napoleon's Mameluke, and was shot dead by his side at 
 Rome, was armed with a long lance with a crimson pennon, 
 used as his chiefs banner. 
 
 His staff officers were a numerous, quaint, and motley crew, 
 men of all ages and conditions, mostly devoted personal friends 
 not all of them available for personal strength or technical 
 knowledge, but all to be relied upon for their readiness to die 
 with or for him. Some of the most distinguished, like Nino 
 Bixio, Medici, Sirtori, Cosenz, and others, had all the headlong 
 bravery of their General more than that no man could boast 
 and were his superiors in intelligence and in professional 
 experience, ably conducting as his lieutenants field operations to 
 which he was, from some cause or other, unable to attend. The 
 veterans he brought with him from Montevideo, a Genoese 
 battalion whom his friend Augusto Vecchi helped to enlist, and 
 the Lombard Legion, under Manara, were all men of tried 
 valour, well trained to the use of the rifle, inured to hardships 
 and privations, and they constituted the nucleus of the Gari- 
 baldian force throughout its campaigns. The remainder was a 
 shapeless mass of raw recruits from all parts of Italy, joining or 
 leaving the band almost at their pleasure mere boys from the 
 universities, youths of noble and rich family, lean artisans from 
 the towns, stout peasants and labourers from the country, 
 adventurers of indifferent character, deserters from the army, 
 and the like, all marching in loose companies, like FalstafPs 
 recruits, under improvised officers and non - commissioned 
 officers ; but all, or most of- them, entirely disinterested about 
 pay or promotion, putting up with long fasts and heavy marches, 
 only asking to be brought face to face with the enemy, and 
 when under the immediate influence of Garibaldi himself or of
 
 GENERAL GAEIBALDI 35 
 
 his trusty friends seldom guilty of soldierly excesses or of any 
 breach of discipline. The effect the presence of the hero had 
 among them was surprising. A word addressed to them in his 
 clear, ringing silver voice electrified even the dullest. An order 
 coming from him was never questioned, never disregarded. No 
 one waited for a second bidding or an explanation. " Your 
 business is not to inquire how you are to storm that position. 
 You must only go and do it." And it was done. 
 
 There was nothing more providential in the combination of 
 favourable circumstances to which the triumph of the Italian 
 cause was owing than the opportune production of this singular, 
 this " mysterious conqueror," as he was called, and the almost 
 mythical prestige he threw on deeds of arms so amazing in their 
 success as to disarm criticism and to present them to the startled 
 world in the light of superhuman achievements. When even 
 the steady valour of the Piedmontese army, owing to bad 
 generalship, was succumbing to the Austrian invader at Custozza 
 and Novara, in 1848-49, it was something to say that mere 
 citizens, under Garibaldi, were gloriously giving the lie to the old 
 taunt that " Italians don't fight " by not only standing their 
 ground behind stone walls at Venice and Rome, but also crossing 
 bayonets with the best troops of the French Republic outside 
 the gates of the latter-named city, and giving their lives with a 
 lavishness worthy of the ancient warlike race whose dust lay 
 beneath their feet. Garibaldi and Rome were all that survived 
 as a hallowed memory out of the wreck of Italian hopes at that 
 gloomy period ; and Garibaldi and what remained of the heroes 
 of Rome were what stood foremost in that more auspicious trial 
 of 1859-60, in which the old errors were retrieved and the 
 former disasters repaired. With the final emancipation of the 
 country the three names of Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, and 
 Garibaldi will be for ever associated ; but if the characters of 
 the first and second of that triumvirate are sure to be deeply 
 studied, thoroughly weighed, and rated at their just value as 
 realities, the last-named will appeal to the imagination as 
 something unauthenticated, like William Tell a mere un- 
 demonstrable episode a legend. 
 
 It was also by a favourable dispensation of heaven that, 
 while on any prospect of a warlike struggle neither Garibaldi's 
 confidence in himself nor his countrymen's faith in him ever 
 belied itself for one moment, whenever any difficult political
 
 36 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 question arose by which the destinies of the country might be 
 compromised, the sane part of the nation fell away from the rash 
 hero ; and he himself, never very sure of his own judgment and 
 soon mistrusting the guidance of the designing partisans or crazy 
 fanatics who played upon his sanguine imagination, allowed 
 himself all at once to be sobered by more rational and trust- 
 worthy advisers, and, without recanting his opinions or deserting 
 his party, went quietly back to his solitude, and made, by 
 abandoning the execution of his intended action, an implicit 
 confession of all the erroneousness of his conception. For, 
 after all, Garibaldi was not deficient in intelligence or plain 
 common sense, and his faculties, had they received timely 
 cultivation and development, would have been of no mean 
 order. He told us himself that his attendance on the lessons 
 of his priestly instructors was extremely desultory, and that 
 his father's wishes to train him to some sedentary profession 
 too early clashed with the son's restless disposition and adven- 
 turous spirit. When in later life he became aware of the short- 
 comings of his education and of the narrow range of his reading, 
 while yet, in the leisure of his island home, he aspired to 
 literary distinction, he was unable to perceive how hopelessly 
 his sphere of thought was vitiated by the mysticism of Mazzini 
 and his style tainted with the bombast of Victor Hugo. Yet, 
 even in his most deplorable vagaries, his judgment was always 
 more correct than that of the editor of Young Italy and his 
 logic more sound than that of the author of Notre Dame de Paris. 
 All the popularity of the Hermit of Caprera failed to procure 
 the novel which he was tempted to publish a very extensive 
 number of readers at home or abroad, and it is not likely that 
 any unkind friend will outrage poor Garibaldi's memory by 
 undertaking the publication of his letters and speeches. The 
 saying of the old Eoman tyrant, "Would I had never learnt 
 to write," must at many periods of his life have occurred to 
 Garibaldi, though from different motives and altogether in a 
 different sense. Yet that the Condottiere of Marsala was not 
 without some aptitude as a writer, that he was not without con- 
 siderable graphic power, and even a certain dry, grim humour, 
 one may gather from many passages in those Oommentaires a la 
 Jules C&ar which he jotted down without any pretensions to 
 art, only for private circulation among his friends, and of 
 which he was with great reluctance prevailed upon by his
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 37 
 
 French guest at the Chiatamone to sanction the publication. In 
 those scanty and imperfect fragments not a little may be learnt, 
 not only of the great man's doings, but also of the ins and outs 
 of his mind and of the best and worst traits in his character. 
 
 He had, he tells us, towards the close of the siege of Koine, 
 in June 1849, chosen his headquarters at the Villa Savorelli, 
 the very focus of the artillery fire from the advancing French 
 parallels, and appointed Manara his chief of the staff. From 
 the house one had a wide view of the Campagna and of the pro- 
 gress of the operations of the siege. It was an interesting spot, 
 and everybody crowded on the General, anxious to enjoy the 
 singularity of the scene. Garibaldi says : 
 
 " It is true that this diversion was not free from danger, for 
 it was known that the Savorelli Villa was my headquarters, and 
 balls and bullets and shells rattled all day on my windows. 
 Especially when, to obtain a better view, I went up to the bel- 
 vedere above the roof of the house, the matter became rather 
 curious. It was a regular hail of bullets, and I have never 
 heard a more incessant hissing of winged lead. The house, 
 shaken by the cannon-balls, trembled as if in an earthquake. 
 Often, to give the French artillerymen a more brisk employment, 
 I had my breakfast served up on the belvedere, which had no 
 other protection than a wooden parapet. Then, I can tell you, I 
 had such a music as dispensed me from summoning that of the 
 regimental bands. But matters became even worse when some 
 practical joker of the staff amused himself by hoisting to the light- 
 ning-conductor above the little terrace a banner, on which were 
 written in large letters the words, ' Bonjour, Cardinal Oudinot.' 
 
 "On the fourth or fifth day in which I thus amused the 
 enemy's gunners and sharpshooters, General Avezzana (the War 
 Minister) came to see me, and, not finding the parlour window 
 sufficiently high, asked whether there was not some elevated 
 spot on which the view of the plain might be more unlimited. 
 I took him to the belvedere. Doubtless the French intended to 
 do him especial honour, as on our first appearance the usual 
 music burst out. The General very coolly surveyed the enemy's 
 position, then went downstairs without saying one word. On 
 the morrow I found my belvedere blindtf with earth-bags. I 
 asked by whose order that had been done. The answer was, 
 ' The War Minister's ! ' 
 
 "This rage of the French artillerymen about riddling my
 
 38 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 poor headquarters with shot gave rise now and then to amusing 
 scenes. 
 
 " One day the 5th or 6th of June, I think my friend 
 Augusto Vecchi, who was both actor and author in the drama 
 we were representing, paid me a visit at dinner-time. As I had 
 some guests, I had got a dinner ready-made from Rome in a 
 tin case. I saw that the sight of our bill of fare was tempting 
 Vecchi, and I asked him to sit down with us. General Avezzana 
 and Costantino Beta were of the party. We sat on the ground 
 in the garden. The bullets shook the house so violently that 
 to eat on a table we would have required such an apparatus as is 
 used on board ship in foul weather. Just as we were halfway with 
 our dinner a shell burst. Everybody vanished. Vecchi was 
 about to follow, but I seized him by the wrist, and, compelling 
 him to sit down, I told him laughing (he was a member of the 
 Assembly), ' Father Conscript, leave not thy curule chair.' The 
 shell burst, as I had correctly foreseen, on the opposite side to 
 where we sat ; we escaped with a cloud of dust, which covered 
 both ourselves and our dinner. . . . 
 
 " Strange to say, it was always Vecchi who was the hero of 
 similar adventures. Another day he came on business and 
 found me at table. On this occasion MM. les Artilleurs were so 
 obliging as to allow me some rest. Before me smoked a most 
 appetising risotto. I made room for Vecchi on my right and 
 bade him fall to. But just as he was about to sit down 
 Manara stopped him. ' Do not do that, Vecchi,' he said ; ' this 
 is the third day in which the officers invited by the General 
 have been killed one after the other on that very spot, and no 
 time left them for digestion.' And, in fact, Davio, Rozat, and 
 Panizzi had fallen exactly as Manara described. But the 
 savour of the rice had more weight with Vecchi than Manara's 
 omen. ' All right,' said Vecchi, ' that fits admirably with a 
 prediction which was made to me.' ' What prediction ? ' asked 
 Manara. ' When I was a child,' replied Vecchi, ' a gipsy con- 
 sulted the stars and foretold that I should be buried at Rome, 
 thirty-six years old, and very rich. And again, in 1838, on a 
 pedestrian trip to Naples, being at Sarno, near Salerno, I was 
 pursuing in a cotton plantation a gipsy girl, eighteen years old, 
 whose bright black eyes I was determined to kiss. She de- 
 fended herself with her knife ; to her offensive weapon I opposed 
 as defensive armour a beautiful brand-new scudo. The girl
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 39 
 
 took the crown, seized and examined my hand, and made out 
 from the lines that I should be buried in Rome, at thirty-six, 
 very rich. I am now in my thirty-sixth year, and, though not 
 very rich, I am only too much so for one doomed to die. But I 
 am as strong a fatalist as any Mahomedan ; what is written, is 
 written. General, hand here the rice.' 
 
 " We laughed at the story ; but Manara looked grave, and 
 said, ' All very well, Vecchi ; but I shall not be easy in mind 
 till this day is over.' Then, addressing myself, he added, 
 ' General, in God's name, do not send him on any errand 
 to-day.' 
 
 " This suited Vecchi very well, for he was dreadfully tired 
 after two nights' watching, and, after dinner, he asked leave to 
 withdraw and take some rest. ' Lie down on my bed, if you 
 like,' said Manara, whether in jest or in earnest ; ' I will not 
 allow you to go out to-day.' Vecchi threw himself on the bed. 
 
 " An hour later I saw some Frenchmen placing gabions on 
 the trench open just in front of our bastion. I looked about 
 me for an officer to point the fire of a dozen of our sharpshooters 
 at them. I forget how I had disposed of them all, but found 
 myself alone. I thought of Vecchi, who was sleeping with 
 tight-closed fists ; I felt some qualms of compunction about 
 waking him, but the balls made a dreadful ravage. I seized 
 him by the leg ; he opened his eyes. ' Come,' said I, ' you 
 have slept twenty-four hours. Manara's prediction has lost its 
 spell. Pick me out a dozen of our best shots, and tickle me 
 the sides of those fellows down yonder.' Vecchi, who is very 
 brave, did not wait for more words. He chose twelve Bersa- 
 glieri, and placed himself in ambush behind a barricade of 
 gabions which a lieutenant of engineers, named Pozzio, was 
 rearing. Hence he opened so murderous a fire against the 
 French that these returned the rifle fire with cannon-shot. 
 Half an hour later somebody came to tell me, ' Do you know, 
 General, poor Vecchi has been killed ? ' I felt a sharp twitch 
 in my heart. I had been the cause of my friend's death, and I 
 loaded myself with reproaches ; but before an hour had elapsed, 
 to my great joy, I saw him come back safe and sound. ' Ah, 
 by God, let me hug thee to my heart ; I thought you had been 
 killed.' ' Only buried,' he answered, and related how a cannon- 
 ball had cut in twain an earth -bag, which had thrown its 
 contents upon him ; that at the same instant this bag in its
 
 40 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 collapse had determined the fall of the other bags, ten or 
 twelve, which had fallen at once upon him, and literally 
 interred him. 
 
 " But in the meanwhile something had happened far more 
 picturesque than even Vecchi's real death would have been. 
 The same cannon-ball which buried him had struck against the 
 wall, and by rebound had come back to wound a young soldier 
 in the back, shattering the spine. The young soldier had been 
 placed on a hand-barrow with his arms crossed on his breast, 
 and his open eyes turned up heavenwards, having breathed his 
 last. They were about to remove him to the ambulance, when 
 an officer threw himself on the body and covered it with kisses. 
 The officer was Lieutenant Pozzio, of the Engineers, and the 
 young soldier was Colomba Antonietti, his wife, who had 
 followed him to Velletri and had fought beside him on the 3rd 
 of June." 
 
 Such dramatic power, such talent for blending the humor- 
 ous with the pathetic, Garibaldi displayed at least in his 
 translator's hands. That the charm of the naive and graphic 
 narrative belongs entirely to the original, and that it is a per- 
 fectly correct picture of the events it records, it would seem for 
 any one conversant with the scene and the actors represented 
 absolutely impossible to doubt. Such tenderness of heart, such 
 unaffected attachment to a friend, such minute seizure of all 
 the salient points that can give a narrative piquancy and effect, 
 are evidence of a sympathetic imagination, which could not be 
 compatible with a selfish nature. Napoleon I., and perhaps 
 Prince Bismarck, could never write such a touching scene. 
 
 We shall conclude with the account of the share Garibaldi 
 took in the last fight at Villa Spada, on the walls of Rome, 
 30th June : 
 
 "The night of the 29th settled on Rome like a winding- 
 sheet. To prevent the repairs in our breaches the French 
 artillery thundered all night. It was a terrible night. The 
 storm of heaven blended with that of the earth. The thunder 
 growled, the lightning met the shell in mid-air, the thunder- 
 bolt fell in two or three places as if to hallow the doomed city. 
 In spite of St. Peter's Day, the two armies continued their 
 mortal duel. At nightfall, as an attack in the dark was 
 expected, the whole town was lighted up ; all, even the dome 
 of St. Peter's. Such illumination, in fact, is the custom in
 
 GENERAL GARIBALDI 41 
 
 Rome on St. Peter's Eve. Any man throwing on that evening 
 a glance on the Eternal City would have seen one of those 
 sights which can be viewed but once in the lapse of centuries. 
 At his feet he would have seen a grand valley of churches and 
 palaces, cut in twain by the winding Tiber, dark at that 
 moment as Phlegethon. On the left a mound, the Capitol, 
 upon the tower of which waved the standard of the Republic. 
 On the right, the dark outline of Monte Mario, where flaunted, 
 in antagonism to ours, the French and Papal flags. Below it 
 the dome of Michael Angelo, rearing itself to the clouds, a 
 blaze of light ; and, finally, as a frame to the picture, the 
 Janiculum and all the line of San Pancrazio also lighted up, 
 but by the flashes of the artillery and musketry fire. . . . 
 
 " At midnight the sky cleared, the thunder and the cannon 
 were hushed, silence followed upon all that infernal roar, and 
 the French profited by it to draw nearer and nearer to the 
 walls and to take possession of the breach opened into bastion 
 No. 8. At two in the morning we heard three cannon-shots 
 fired at equal intervals. The sentries called to arms, the 
 trumpets sounded. The Bersaglieri, always ready, always 
 unweary, sallied from the Villa Spada and ran to the San 
 Pancrazio gate, leaving two companies as a reserve in defence 
 of the villa. They sank to their knees in the soaked earth. 
 I placed myself at their head, with my sword -drawn, intoning 
 the Italian popular hymn. At this moment, I confess, I had 
 only one desire to get myself killed. I threw myself with 
 my men upon the French. What happened then? I know 
 nothing about it. For two hours I struck without intermission. 
 When the day dawned I was all covered with blood. I had 
 not a single scratch. It was a miracle."
 
 DR. PUSEY 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1882 
 
 A GREAT and venerable name that now for half a century has 
 been a living power in the Church of England is to-day of the 
 past. The world-renowned Dr. Pusey, after a life of incessant 
 labour, after his full share of those provocations of which even 
 the best are known to be sensible, and after long suffering, to 
 the special sorrow of those whom the poet describes as standing 
 by while their sons are placed on the funeral pyre, is gone to 
 his rest. So prolonged a career of unremitting industry, under 
 some circumstances unfavourable to health, is an example of 
 the intimate connection between mental vigour and physical 
 vitality often found at our old universities. 
 
 Dr. Pusey was a member of one of those numerous families 
 that our neighbours could find no place for in their own 
 political system, and drove to find shelter and welcome in ours. 
 The first appearance of the Bouveries gave little promise of the 
 distinguished position they now occupy. In 1568 a Fleming 
 of that name, with his young wife from Frankfort, settled at 
 Canterbury, and no doubt worshipped in the undercroft of the 
 cathedral granted to the French Protestants by Queen Elizabeth. 
 The family rose to wealth and eminence in the City of London 
 as Turkey merchants. In due time it acquired a baronetcy and 
 a peerage, the former just before the first Jacobite rebellion, the 
 latter just after the second. The Earl of Radnor, the thorough- 
 going Liberal and rigid economist, by the strength of his con- 
 victions and his frequent appearances gave prominence and 
 power to the family name. But it was only known to those 
 who were personally acquainted with both him and his half-
 
 DR. PUSEY 43 
 
 cousin, Edward Bouverie Pusey, how much they resembled one 
 another both in person and in character. 
 
 The Pusey branch of the family, however, residing at Pusey, 
 a mansion surrounded by a dozen or two cottages twelve miles 
 from Oxford, in a region of sand-hills and fir-trees, were a 
 modification of the Bouverie type. It is possible that local 
 circumstances, as they certainly gave a turn to the life's work 
 of the elder brother, may have had their influence on the 
 younger. Edward Pusey spent his youth here in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of the old Eoman Catholic family of 
 Throckmorton, and in a district that had long been remarkable 
 for extreme though not violent religious divisions. Under the 
 shadow of the Throckmortons of Buckland there had grown up 
 a large Roman Catholic community, side by side with an Inde- 
 pendent congregation that had lapsed into Socinianism. Shute 
 Barrington, who came to be Bishop of Durham, and others of 
 his family, had been members of this congregation in its better 
 days. It was here, a mile from Pusey House, that Berington, 
 the Roman Catholic historian, passed away in 1827, with an 
 old nurse and the clergyman's wife, suddenly called in, at his 
 bedside. P'dlip Pusey, the elder brother, was an accomplished 
 literary man, who was considered by some of his friends to live 
 in the clouds, and who certainly knew more of agriculture than 
 anybody else, though he paid very dearly for it. 
 
 Edward Pusey, a hard student, and something of a recluse 
 from his early years, went to Christ Church, and took a Classical 
 First at Easter in 1822, together with Edward Denison, after- 
 wards Bishop of Salisbury, and some others less known to 
 fame. Two years after he gained the Latin essay prize for a 
 comparison of the Greek and Roman colonies, and was elected 
 to a Fellowship at Oriel. Here he found himself immediately 
 junior to John Henry Newman and in the society of William 
 James, John Keble, Tyler, Whately, Hawkins, soon to be 
 Provost, and Jelf, afterwards Principal of King's College, 
 London. To these were added, two years after, Robert Wilber- 
 force and Richard Hurrell Froude, both of them undergraduate 
 members of the College at the date of Pusey's election. Barring 
 a few of those personal peculiarities which are to be found in 
 all gentlemen, especially scholars, coming from different circles 
 and schools, and which cause sometimes a difficulty, but much 
 oftener a smile, there never was a set of men more bound
 
 44 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 together by mutual admiration and affection, more willing to 
 appreciate one another's powers, or more conscious of a great 
 common cause. The formation of such a group speaks well for 
 the discernment and also for the liberality of men like Cople- 
 ston, then Provost, who could not but have an almost pre- 
 ponderating part in these elections. 
 
 It was unavoidable that there should be some singularity 
 in Pusey's position, whether in the College or in the University. 
 Though now in Oriel, he was not quite of it, for he was more 
 of Christ Church. He had a position in the neighbouring 
 county society. The " Pusey horn," by which the estate was 
 held and transmitted, was a bit of antiquarian romance known 
 to most undergraduates in Oxford. Not the least he was a 
 German scholar, a rare thing in those days. A man cannot 
 expel or even much control his instincts, and Pusey, from the 
 first, could not help an involuntary recoil from the sort of men 
 who in those days claimed the monopoly of spiritual religion. 
 Some of them were Christians and gentlemen too, but Pusey 
 was fastidious ; and, as he could not join in the merriment 
 which religious pretensions associated with awkward manners 
 and unprepossessing appearance sometimes occasioned, he con- 
 fined himself to holding aloof from those people. His attitude 
 to all sides of the Church of England was almost necessarily 
 one of reserve. He could not go along with the " Evangelical " 
 party, nor yet with the "High and Dry," as it had already 
 come to be called. As little could he give his heart to the new 
 school of speculative philosophy, which had already given a 
 name to Oriel, and which proposed to submit all creeds, all 
 opinions, all systems and institutions, to the test of logical 
 analysis. The " Noetic " school it was styled in the University 
 at large, from these critical pretensions, and from the substitu- 
 tion of intellect for faith which the school seemed to pride 
 itself on. 
 
 Germany was supposed in those days to be the manufactory 
 of opinions, and it was said all these battles had been fought 
 there with one result. So Pusey went to Germany, and before 
 long produced the results of his inquiries and studies, soon 
 followed, as all his publications were, by a second and a fuller 
 instalment. The book was singularly impartial, almost in- 
 different in its tone. It introduced to the English reader as 
 veritable personages, who had once lived in the flesh and done
 
 DR. PUSEY 45 
 
 their work and had their influence, the Rationalists and Pietists 
 known here only as names. Such criticisms as there were in 
 the theological world for there were not many were founded 
 on a general feeling that the Germans nowadays were not much 
 to us, that it did not much matter what they believed or did 
 not believe, that we were not likely to share either their criti- 
 cism or their philosophy or their sentimentalism, and that, 
 upon the whole, Mr. Pusey had wasted his time and made a 
 mistake. Yet there was no denying it was a considerable work, 
 and out of Oxford there were those who perceived, if not its 
 value, at least the capabilities of the writer. It would not 
 surprise any Oxford man of that standing to find Cardinal 
 Newman dating his intimacy with Pusey no farther back than 
 the year 1827 or 1828. 
 
 In those days the Fellows of Oriel, immediately upon their 
 election, were requested to give up their rooms for the use of 
 iindergraduates, and thus they lost one inducement to residence. 
 Pusey had his home, his study, and his library a dozen miles 
 off. After the completion of his probationary year, therefore, 
 he was very little in Oxford, and, as appears, sometimes abroad. 
 But the time came when all Oxford grieved to hear that Dr. 
 Nicoll, after holding the Regius Professorship of Hebrew for 
 six years, had died, some said of the dust of the Bodleian, some 
 of the unwholesome air of his residence. Coming after White 
 and Lawrencej Nicoll was chiefly remembered for one of the 
 longest sermons ever preached at St. Mary's, proving, from 
 Genesis iv. 7, the primitive institution of sacrifice. This was 
 in the year 1828, when the Tories were still in the ascendant. 
 Everything pointed to Pusey for the vacant Chair. Not to 
 speak of his connections, nor yet of his attainments, which 
 had to be seen through a veil of modesty, nor yet of his publi- 
 cations, which it required learning and labour to appreciate, 
 there was immense promise in both the man and his work, 
 especially in the audacity with which he had invaded at so early 
 an age so difficult a region as German theology, and exhibited 
 the spoil, as it were, to the English public. 
 
 Almost as a matter of course Pusey entered the house he was 
 never to quit. It is the south-west angle of the famous " Tom 
 Quad," and rises like a bastion over the dismal and dirty 
 districts stretching to the Isis, and to the once sacred, now 
 desolate Isle of Oseney. Peter Martyr was one of the first
 
 46 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 occupants of the house ; but, a wanderer all his days, he was 
 not to find rest there. His wife, and his obstinate refusal to 
 wear the surplice, provoked the Catholics, who broke his 
 windows and kept him awake with loud abuse. So he had to 
 move to the heart of the College under the walls of the Cathedral. 
 Dr. Pusey has been more fortunate in his cause and in his 
 antagonists. They have thrown plenty of stones, but without 
 breaking his windows ; and if they have disturbed his sleep 
 it is because he has been only too happy to spend nights in 
 replying to them. 
 
 At the date of his appointment his Chair was of no great 
 significance. Very few read Hebrew. Bishop Burgess had in 
 vain been urging the study on all the clergy who came to him 
 for institution. It was only here and there that a clergyman 
 in some remote parish beguiled his solitude with this unearthly, 
 unfathomable, incommunicable tongue, and got quizzed accord- 
 ingly. Hebrew was supposed to have to do only with the 
 Jewish dispensation, and hardly to concern a Christian. But 
 the Professor was a Canon of Christ Church, and this was a very 
 substantial thing, besides being a good standing-point for a great 
 deal more. Except that the Tests and Corporation Acts had 
 just been repealed in a very quiet way to save the trouble of an 
 annual indemnity, there was then hardly a note of the coming 
 storms. All the general public expected from the new Professor 
 was that he would save the credit of Oxford for learning, and 
 add some bulky volumes to the numerous Oxford libraries. 
 About the time of his preferment to the Canonry, Dr. Pusey 
 married a lady in every respect qualified to adorn his new 
 position and to assist him in turning it to the best account. 
 The next year came Catholic emancipation, followed rapidly by 
 all the events which, at home and abroad, changed the aspect 
 of human affairs, making it certain that no institution would 
 remain what it had been, and that, consequently, people had 
 better not concentrate all their powers in vain attempts to keep 
 things as they were. 
 
 Dr. Pusey entered as little as he could into the controversies 
 of the day, which could not but be painful to him, not to say 
 embarrassing. He devoted himself to the work of his Chair. 
 He had classes in Hebrew senior and junior taking the 
 former himself, and engaging for the latter a gentleman of 
 Hebrew extraction who did his work well. But Dr. Pusey did
 
 DR. PUSEY 47 
 
 more. The Eegius Professors of Hebrew have, as a rule, been 
 theologians as well as scholars, and have sometimes been best 
 known in the former capacity. Dr. Pusey had weekly gather- 
 ings of clergy in his house for the reading of papers and for 
 discussions that is, if they could be provoked. The papers 
 were generally his own, and when the time came for discussion 
 he was the chief talker. The most capacious dining-room is 
 inadequate to an assemblage of thirty or forty gentlemen, sitting 
 in their cumbrous academical vestments, after dinner, under gas, 
 to hear compositions presumed, not unjustly, to require close 
 and undivided attention. 
 
 Few who attended could call these meetings a success. 
 Possibly it was a gain that people were thus familiarised with 
 names, with controversies, with events and histories hardly 
 realised before. Theology needs self-assertion like any other 
 science. But the attempt laboured under special difficulties. 
 Dr. Pusey had read more than anybody there, and it is hard to 
 join issue with a man who knows, so to speak, more of the 
 country to be fought over. Then he had not that ready, free, 
 and fluent utterance which is necessary for a lead in conversa- 
 tion. His was the not uncommon case of the man becoming 
 inseparable from his writing. Pusey without the book, and 
 the book without Pusey, could alike give no idea of the immense 
 power of both combined. The habit of writing had formed the 
 course of his thoughts, and he had to speak as he wrote that 
 is, from a manuscript, and in the seat of authority. Once in 
 the pulpit, with a well-prepared discourse, and himself deeply 
 impressed with the gravity of what he had to say, Dr. Pusey 
 was a preacher of the grand old school the School of Fathers 
 and Divines. He held overflowing congregations in breathless 
 attention, they never lost a word. The longest and most com- 
 plicated sentence easily unfolded its meaning to their willing 
 intelligence. They left the church with the solemn tone sound- 
 ing still in their ears, and as long as they were under the spell 
 they did not venture to criticise what they were called on to 
 feel and believe. Such was Dr. Pusey in the pulpit ; out of it 
 he could only write or talk. As to the former, his works, un- 
 aided by his delivery, even in the disguise of a pamphlet, 
 severely taxed the patience and the intelligence of ordinary 
 readers. As to the latter, his hesitations and continual correc- 
 tions prevented that flow which is necessary to ensure eloquence.
 
 48 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 But these weekly musters were only one of several attempts 
 at what may be called restoration attempts in which Dr. Pusey 
 anticipated some of the recent University changes. He was very 
 early an advocate for an examination in " Arts " at the end of two 
 years, and examinations in special subjects, including theology, 
 in the place of what was then the final examination for the 
 degree. 
 
 There was, too, in those days, as there is now, a serious want. 
 When a man had passed his final examination and taken his 
 degree, may be with great honour, with the greatest wish to 
 contume his studies, and with every promise of doing so with 
 good effect, he suddenly lost the University at the very time 
 when it promised to be most useful to him. What are libraries, 
 what are lecturers, what are societies of learned men made for, 
 if not to assist scholars, no longer under daily instruction and 
 tied to a curriculum, but free to study what they pleased ? Yet 
 there was, and there is, no place for them in Oxford, unless they 
 had the rare, and now still rarer, luck to get a fellowship, or 
 would put their hands to the grindstone again, and take the 
 chance of private pupils. So he took some theological students 
 into his house. This developed into a " Hall." In conjunction 
 with John Henry Newman, he took a house nearly opposite 
 Christ Church, and furnished it with mediaeval simplicity for 
 the use of graduates wishing to reside for study. It cannot be 
 set down as an utter failure, when it is considered that one of 
 the inmates, both of Dr. Pusey's house and of the hall, was the 
 late Eegius Professor of Divinity, who remained there till his 
 election to a Fellowship at Magdalen. Meanwhile, without 
 any view of forming a party, as it might afterwards have been 
 interpreted, Dr. Pusey extended the range of his hospitality, 
 giving different generations of University men the valued oppor- 
 tunity of meeting on social terms. 
 
 There had now come a time when everything seemed going 
 by the board, when all things, in the quaint words of a college 
 foundation deed, tended visibly not to be, and then he was 
 thought the best and cleverest who was for the most sweeping 
 changes. As early as 1832 there was hardly anybody of note 
 in the country who had not delivered himself on Church Reform, 
 and it had become a necessity for a man to speak out now or 
 for ever hold his tongue. In all these utterances there was one 
 common supposition, and it was that great changes were inevit-
 
 DR. PTJSEY 49 
 
 able, and the only question was what they were to be. There 
 were those who would not wait for the change, or thought the 
 case hopeless. They were leaving the Church, right and left, 
 discharging Parthian shots of denunciation and invective. 
 "Set your house in order" was the universal cry. 
 
 Then came the Tracts for the Times, first anonymous, but 
 after a few numbers understood to be issued chiefly on the re- 
 sponsibility of Newman, Pusey, and Keble. Everybody knew 
 that it was scarcely possible to find three more different men, 
 none more so than themselves. They contributed their several 
 quotas to the undertaking. Pusey gave his great learning, his 
 solidity, his unchangeableness, his position, his family name, 
 and last, but not least, his having been a nominee of the Con- 
 servative party. The antagonists, who were a legion, showed a 
 due sense of Pusey's share in the new combination by giving his 
 name to the movement. People do not like to fight with 
 shadows. They look for an opponent whom it will be a dis- 
 tinction to have to measure swords with. The Tracts, too, were 
 rather flimsy things, in a publishing point of view mere litter 
 on any table and rubbish on a counter. They were as the frogs 
 of Egypt in the eyes of the booksellers. They wanted weight, 
 and therefore required something in the nature of paper-weights 
 to prevent them from being carried off by the first gust of wind. 
 
 Pusey could never do anything under thirty pages, followed 
 by sixty, and in due time by three hundred. His contributions 
 to the Tracts are very good reading, but we doubt whether they 
 were ever much read, or ever will be. They helped the vol- 
 umes to goodly dimensions, and qualified them for a place on a 
 gentleman's shelves. But while Dr. Pusey was thus performing 
 the part of ballast, he accepted with a certain excess of gallantry 
 the reckless course of the craft to which he had committed him- 
 self. He went even farther in some points, as if anxious to draw 
 the fire upon himself, confident of his power to reply. After 
 the lapse of a whole generation, any record of personal relations 
 must be in the nature of a monograph, and no two accounts of 
 this period are found quite to agree. Even the contemporary 
 narratives are evidently from very different points of view. 
 Cardinal Newman, in his history of his religious opinions, 
 published in his Apologia in 1 864, reduced to the smallest possible 
 compass his carefully-elaborated account of Dr. Pusey's part in the 
 Oxford movement. Its brevity allows of its insertion here : 
 VOL. Ill E
 
 50 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 " It was under these circumstances that Dr. Pusey joined us. 
 I had known him well since 1827-28, and had felt for him an 
 enthusiastic admiration. I xised to call him 6 //.eyas. His great 
 learning, his immense diligence, his scholarlike mind, his simple 
 devotion to the cause of religion overcame me ; and great of 
 course was my joy when, in the last days of 1833, he showed a 
 disposition to make common cause with us. His Tract on Fast- 
 ing appeared as one of the series with the date of 21st December. 
 He was not, however, I think, fully associated in the movement 
 till 1835 and 1836, when he published his Tract on Baptism 
 and started the Library of the Fathers. He at once gave to us 
 a position and a name. Without him we should have had no 
 chance, especially at the early date of 1834, of making any 
 serious resistance to the Liberal aggression. But Dr. Pusey was 
 a Professor and Canon of Christ Church ; he had a vast influence 
 in consequence of his deep religious seriousness, the munificence 
 of his charities, his Professorship, his family connections, and 
 his easy relations with University authorities. He was to the 
 movement all that Mr. Rose might have been, with that indis- 
 pensable addition which was wanting to Mr. Rose the intimate 
 friendship and the familiar daily society of the persons who had 
 commenced it. And he had that special claim on their attach- 
 ment which lies in the living presence of a faithful and loyal 
 affectionateness. There was henceforth a man who could be 
 the head and centre of the zealous people in every part of the 
 country who were adopting the new opinions ; and not only so, 
 but there was one who furnished the movement with a front to 
 the world, and gained from it a recognition from other parties in 
 the University. In 1829 Mr. Froude, or Mr. Wilberforce, or 
 Mr. Newman were but individuals ; and, when they ranged 
 themselves in the contest of that year on the side of Sir Robert 
 Inglis, men on either side only asked with surprise how they got 
 there, and attached no significance to the fact but Dr. Pusey 
 was, to use the common expression, a host in himself ; he was able 
 to give a name, a form, and a personality to what was without 
 him a sort of mob ; and when various parties had to meet 
 together in order to resist the liberal acts of the Government, 
 we of the movement took our place by right among them. 
 
 " Such was the benefit which he conferred on the movement 
 externally ; nor was the internal advantage at all inferior to it. 
 He was a man of large designs ; he had a hopeful, sanguine
 
 DR. PUSEY 51 
 
 mind ; he had no fear of others ; he was haunted by no 
 intellectual perplexities. People are apt to say that he was 
 once nearer to the Catholic Church than he is now ; I pray God 
 that he may be one day far nearer to the Catholic Church than 
 he was then ; for I believe that, in his reason and judgment, 
 all the time that I knew him, he never was near to it at all. 
 When I became a Catholic, I was often asked, 'What of Dr. 
 Pusey ? ' When I said that I did not see symptoms of his doing 
 as I had done, I was sometimes thought uncharitable. If 
 confidence in his position is (as it is) a first essential in the 
 leader of a party, Dr. Pusey had it. The most remarkable 
 instance of this was his statement, in one of his subsequent 
 defences of the movement, when, too, it had advanced a con- 
 siderable way in the direction of Rome, that among its most 
 hopeful peculiarities was its ' stationariness.' He made it in 
 good faith ; it was his subjective view of it. 
 
 " Dr. Pusey's influence was felt at once. He saw that there 
 ought to be more sobriety, more gravity, more careful pains, 
 more sense of responsibility in the Tracts, and in the whole 
 movement. It was through him that the character of the 
 Tracts was changed. When he gave to us his Tract on Fasting 
 he put his initials to it. In 1835 he published his elaborate 
 Treatise on Baptism, which was followed by other Tracts from 
 different authors, if not of equal learning, yet of equal power 
 and appositeness. The Catenas of Anglican divines which occur 
 in the series, though projected, I think, by me, were executed 
 with a like aim at greater accuracy and method. In 1836 he 
 advertised his great project for a translation of the Fathers. 
 But I must return to myself. I am not writing the history 
 either of Dr. Pusey or of the movement ; but it is a pleasure to 
 me to have been able to introduce here reminiscences of the 
 place which he held in it, which have so direct a bearing on 
 myself that they are no digression from my narrative. 
 
 " I suspect it was Dr. Pusey's influence and example which 
 set me, and made me set others, on the larger and more careful 
 works in defence of the principles of the movement which 
 followed in a course of years some of them demanding and 
 receiving from their authors such elaborate treatment that they 
 did not make their appearance till both its temper and its 
 fortunes had changed. I set about a work at once ; one in 
 which was brought out with precision the relation in which we
 
 52 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 stood to the Church of Eome. We could not move a step in 
 comfort till this was done. It was of absolute necessity and a 
 plain duty to provide as soon as possible a large statement 
 which would encourage and reassure our friends and repel the 
 attacks of our opponents." 
 
 Dr. Pusey might have been slow to join the movement, but, 
 once in, he showed no wish to be out. The work was thoroughly 
 congenial meat and drink to him, it might be said. He took 
 his part in the controversy, or rather theological warfare, 
 which ensued upon the appointment of Mr. Hampden to the 
 Regius Professorship of Divinity. He first published a com- 
 parison of Dr. Hampden's theological statements with the 
 Thirty -nine Articles ; and upon the appearance of the new 
 Professor's inaugural lecture he published a sequel, comparing 
 Dr. Hampden's past and present statements. The last 
 pamphlet showed a rather milder tone than what was prevalent 
 in those days. Apart from the true gentleness of Pusey's 
 character, it is to be considered that, while up to that time he 
 had had little personal acquaintance with Hampden, he was 
 now doomed to live in some degree of companionship with him. 
 He did his best to save Hampden's faith at the cost of his 
 principles. 
 
 Hampden might be a Christian, and a good one, but he was 
 no theologian. He did not speak the language of the Church. 
 Hampden probably knew this already ; indeed, it was just what 
 he wished, and therefore, there was no reason why he and 
 Pusey should not be as good friends as any two persons can be 
 who speak different languages. " Many are the tongues of 
 men," says Homer, "but there is only one in heaven." Dr. 
 Pusey's own cautious tone was justified by the result. The 
 campaign against Hampden could not but be a failure. The 
 new Professor of Divinity, in due time a Bishop, forgot all his 
 anti- scholastic lore as quickly as he had acquired it, and 
 preached and charged very much as most bishops preach and 
 charge. It was of no use then to attack him for what he had 
 once been supposed to be. The whole feeling of this country 
 is against a succession of trials and a continual ripping up of 
 old charges. Hampden had won the day, fighting as he did 
 under the segis of the royal supremacy. British philanthropy 
 can take even bishops under its protection ; but the fact of the 
 warfare and the bold defiance of the supremacy, hitherto
 
 DR. PUSEY 53 
 
 supposed to whitewash the favourite object from all suspicion 
 of heresy, terrified the holders of place and power and all the 
 aspirants for them in the country. Something must be done to 
 abate this evil, which threatened ostracism all round. Already 
 there were skirmishers, here, there, and everywhere ; but hence- 
 forth the war was universal. After all the irregular forces of 
 the Church, or not of it, had done their very worst, the bishops 
 formed themselves into line, and delivered double -shotted 
 charges against the disturbers of the general peace. 
 
 Dr. Pusey was all the while looking out for something 
 utterly unpalatable, and a bar to all reconciliation. As if to 
 bring every baptized Christian on his knees before him, he 
 preached a sermon from a well-known startling text in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, drawing from it the doctrine, so at 
 least he was understood, that wilful sin after baptism is never 
 wholly forgiven. The burden of the sermon was the word 
 " irreparable." The text admits of a different interpretation ; 
 but Dr. Pusey, in his anxiety to bring his hearers to the very 
 verge of the pit of destruction, seemed to be pushing them into 
 it without a way of escape. The Evangelical party proclaimed 
 it a downright heresy. The High Church did not take it so 
 much amiss. They did not usually care to go out of their way 
 in quest of storms, rocks, shoals, and quicksands ; but in this 
 particular instance the blow seemed to be directed against the 
 prevailing way of regarding the sacraments as outside and 
 purely emblematic ordinances, the reception of which did not 
 materially alter a man's case as regards his hope of salvation. 
 The London church people, the bishop there, and the leading 
 societies looked on Dr. Pusey as a powerful and comparatively 
 safe agency, whom it was well to tame, to put in harness, and 
 to utilise. He had to write a pamphlet in defence of the plan 
 of the Metropolis Churches Fund, in which a well-known 
 religious journal had begun to see flat rebellion against its own 
 lines churches no longer purchasable, and clergy at liberty to 
 interpret the Church as they pleased. 
 
 In the year 1838, about midway between the beginning and 
 the end of the Oxford movement, in the strict sense of that 
 term, Dr. Pusey preached on the 5th of November in the 
 University pulpit. The sermon, of which the real text was in 
 the title-page " In quietness and in confidence shall be your 
 strength " was on the providential government of the world,
 
 54 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 as asserted and illustrated by Scripture, and as proved by the 
 course of human affairs. It was full of the preacher's lifelong 
 thoughts and feelings ; but it might have been preached from 
 any Protestant pulpit in Ireland, where the preacher's remarks 
 on the national deliverance effected by the arrival of the Prince 
 of Orange would have been more appreciated than in this island. 
 If it was not a thoroughly Orange demonstration if the preacher 
 admitted, with Macaulay, that the Great Revolution was not 
 glorious in its means and agency, and that there are things 
 about it to be a little ashamed of yet he held it a great 
 blessing, justified by circumstances and by results ; while the 
 act of the Prince could not be considered guilty, inasmuch as 
 he started with fair intentions, but was driven on to take the 
 crown by a course of events over which he had no control. 
 He allowed that there was nothing meritorious about the event, 
 nothing for the nation to be proud of ; but held that on that 
 very account it was the more plainly a blessing from heaven 
 that we should be thankful for. The sermon was reviewed in 
 the periodical then under Newman's editorship, when due 
 praise and prominence were awarded to the leading thoughts, 
 while the passages that might touch the political susceptibilities 
 of the " Oxford party " were alluded to and omitted, with much 
 regret, as too long for quotation. 
 
 If this sermon were intended to be a sop to Cerberus, it had 
 but a partial and temporary effect. St. Mary's itself became 
 the scene of eager competition and rival demonstration. Every 
 Sunday morning and afternoon the University had the use of 
 the pulpit, while at four o'clock the vicar the present Cardinal 
 entered into possession and preached to crowded graduate and 
 undergraduate congregations. As he was always at his post, 
 this seemed to leave him and his friends the lion's share of the 
 coveted rostra, and all that his antagonists could do was to 
 establish as close a monopoly of the pulpit as they could for the 
 morning and early afternoon services. There arose a Vice- 
 Chancellor who helped them. The pulpit blazed like an active 
 volcano with "anti-Puseyism." All the authorities privileged 
 to preach, the select preachers selected, indeed, for the purpose 
 and the unselect, and the commonalty of M.A.'s coming up to 
 take their turn, kept up an incessant fire of vituperation. Of 
 course they had something to say, but they were not the men to 
 stop there ; indeed, it is a way of polemical theologians to go on.
 
 DR. PUSEY 55 
 
 When several good men had been passed over in the choice 
 of preachers, as too much of the new school, Dr. Pusey came 
 to the resolution to absent himself from the University sermons. 
 He preferred, as well anybody might do, the parish sermons 
 preached from the same pulpit by Newman. It was a strong 
 measure, for the laws of the University required attendance 
 from every member of the University, but as the same laws 
 required every Doctor of Divinity to take his place in the pro- 
 cession before the service, and this rule had long been in 
 abeyance, Dr. Pusey could claim the general licence of a negli- 
 gent age. The heads of houses did not like seeing Brutus 
 always conspicuous by his absence, and Looked out for their 
 revenge. They had it. In 1843 Dr. Pusey's own turn for 
 preaching came round. What a prudent man would have done 
 in the circumstances it is needless to ask. Several times has it 
 occurred in the memory of man that when all the University 
 had assembled at St. Mary's in the hope of hearing something 
 very surprising, or very obnoxious, they have been mildly 
 rebuked by a sermon such as they might have heard from any 
 village pastor. Dr. Pusey had improved the rare opportunity 
 by an exposition of the high sacramental theory in the utmost 
 strength of language that had ever been allowed to English 
 Churchmen. The Vice-Chancellor, the head of the Evangelical 
 school, sent for the sermon, with an intimation that action 
 would be taken upon it. 
 
 No doubt Dr. Pusey immediately set to work elaborating 
 his defence, and adding to his pile of testimonies from all ages 
 of the Church. Soon, however, he heard that the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor had revived for the occasion a long-forgotten statute 
 empowering the Vice-Chancellor to create a tribunal of six 
 doctors for the trial of any person preaching or teaching contrary 
 to the received doctrines of the University. What was more, 
 he was informed that the sermon was all they required ; they 
 had it, and therefore did not want the presence of the writer. 
 Dr. Pusey remonstrated publicly, officially, and through one 
 who claimed to be a friend in the Board of six doctors. The 
 statute had been disinterred from arbitrary times, but not even 
 in the most arbitrary times the days of the Star Chamber 
 had there been denied to an accused person the right of making 
 an appearance and saying what he had to say in his defence. 
 Laud is frequently charged by Puritan writers with overbearing
 
 56 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 and even outrageous conduct in the Star Chamber, but this 
 itself proves that there was a trial, and that the accused was 
 allowed a hearing. The terms of the statute implied a trial, 
 and by English usage a public trial. The six doctors, however, 
 took the ground that this was a matter of domestic discipline ; 
 they had to preserve the peace of the University and the fate 
 of young men not well able to take care of their faith them- 
 selves. A public trial, they said, would be worse than the 
 sermon itself, and would spread the mischief and interrupt all 
 other studies. This was something like treating the University 
 as a large boarding-school, a very natural result of the Laudian 
 or College system, . but one which Laud could hardly have 
 anticipated. For a week, therefore, Dr. Pusey had the pleasure 
 of knowing that a Board, carefully composed of men more or 
 less hostile to his opinions, was sitting with closed doors, 
 considering how far they could venture to go in condemnation 
 and punishment. 
 
 The Board, however, had its difficulties. The sermon was 
 guarded from the Komish doctrine. It savoured not of Transub- 
 stantiation, but of Consubstantiation, and one of the members 
 of the Board reminded his colleagues that Consubstantiation 
 was preached in the precincts of St. James's Palace to the 
 German members of the royal household, and was, in fact, the 
 creed of Luther, and of such as still hold to him, including 
 some of the reigning German families. The Board must there- 
 fore take care what it was about. It did. It said not a word 
 about the sermon, but suspended Dr. Pusey from the use of 
 the University pulpit for two years. Had it been a trial of 
 strength and skill between two factions of schoolboys, this would 
 have been a happy hit As Dr. Pusey would not hear the six 
 doctors preach, so they would put themselves out of the way 
 of having to listen to him. Yet the actual result was to put 
 the six doctors and their adherents in the wrong, and make a 
 martyr of Dr. Pusey, who went on writing and publishing more 
 than ever, and was now much more read than he had ever been. 
 He went on contributing to the Tracts for the Times, though, if 
 he ever read those which he did not write himself, he would 
 have seen things to stagger him. It is not unlikely, however, 
 that the only Tracts he read were his own. Writers are not 
 always good readers, except for their own uses. There was 
 from the first the understanding of a general joint responsibility
 
 DR. PUSEY 57 
 
 not to be too exactly interpreted. But the theology of the 
 Tracts was not inexact. The critics, in fact, were very anxious 
 to write, and were accordingly in. the mood of mutual toleration. 
 
 Meanwhile Dr. Pusey was contributing largely in writing, in 
 translating, in editorship, and in funds to several series still 
 occupying much space in the shelves of University men of that 
 period, and contributing largely to the profits of the enterprising 
 class of tradesmen who undertake " removals." The Library of 
 the Fathers, the English translations of them, the Anglo-Catholic 
 Library are some of the portentous results of that tremendous 
 incubation. The other side, not to be beat, brought out the 
 English Keformers, quite as voluminous, unreadable, and unread 
 as the poison of which they were to be the antidote. They 
 still occupy upper shelves, their backs paler year by year, the 
 dust thickening upon their edges, uncut, practically not worth 
 the cutting ; for they speak not to the heart, or mind, or soul 
 of these days. It is lamentable to reflect on the immense 
 absorption of energy, opportunity, and resources of all kinds 
 involved in these mountains of useless toil. Men qualified to 
 take important parts in the Church, or in the world at large, 
 became bookworms, antiquaries, hair-splitters, and disputants 
 ready to rise at any fly, and to pick a quarrel with any fancied 
 antagonist, high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned. 
 When they should have been emerging into the work of life, 
 they went back to their cells. Men of simpler aims, though 
 may be less mental calibre, were filling the open positions and 
 accepting ordinary duties, thereby becoming acquainted with 
 the world, and winning useful and honourable fields of exertion. 
 The result is that not a few who started with the vision of 
 turning the Church upside down, or rather taking it off its 
 existing basis, and planting it anew on the early centuries, have 
 found themselves nowhere, while the humble drudges they once 
 contemned are masters of the situation. It is difficult to 
 conceive that the estimable men who began this movement, and 
 carried it on for many years, ever gave a serious thought to the 
 consequences to the innumerable lesser men working as rank 
 and file in the great army under their orders. 
 
 Meanwhile, the movement had ramified according to the 
 special taste of the converts or the demand of circumstances. 
 Dr. Pusey himself was neither a poet nor an ecclesiologist, nor 
 a ritualist. He wrote no verses, he translated none ; he designed
 
 58 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 no churches, he planned no painted windows ; he wore no 
 peculiar vestments, except those of his degree ; he practised no 
 genuflections, gestures, or other novelties. Like Keble and 
 Newman, he always performed the service as country clergymen 
 had been accustomed to do, only with a deeper reverence and 
 possibly more significance. A world of art nay, several worlds 
 of art now sprang into existence. Of religious poetry, it 
 might almost be said, up to this time there had been none. 
 The critics of the day, if they chanced to perceive the least 
 element of worship in a copy of verses, put it down as a forced 
 and impossible hybrid. What could fancy and duty have to do 
 with one another 1 Churchgoers had to choose between " Tate 
 and Brady " and the hymns which drove Cowper mad, in which 
 state he wrote more of them. Nowadays, in spite of many 
 reasonable objections which have to be felt rather than expressed 
 by old-fashioned Churchmen, " Hymns Ancient and Modern " 
 have taken possession of the land, forcing themselves into 
 churches where it is evident the pulpit and the choir are as 
 much at variance as Ebal and Gerizim. We have no choice 
 but to use them and interpret them as best we can, though 
 criticism and devotion are apt to part company. 
 
 As to ecclesiastical architecture, no doubt Dr. Pusey had to go 
 along with the current. But in 1,832, when he preached and 
 published a sermon at the consecration of a church he had been 
 chiefly instrumental in raising at Grove, in the parish of Wantage, 
 he dwelt on the Spiritual Church, not after our own devices or 
 in fond rivalry of old Jewish magnificence, and he dropped not 
 a word that could be considered prophetic of the visible change 
 he lived to see. There has been an absolute resurrection of 
 Gothic architecture, no longer called Gothic. We have revived 
 a dead art at the very point where the most graceful and poetic 
 style was suddenly abandoned for the more practical and exclus- 
 ively English " Perpendicular." The earlier style now lives and 
 grows, and develops into new forms, as if it were but a stripling 
 in years after a death-sleep of five centuries. 
 
 Cambridge is apt to take up a challenge from Oxford and 
 win. So it did now by a length or two. It is true that Mr. J. 
 H. Parker, a veritable Colossus of architectural and antiquarian 
 literature, has sustained the credit of Oxford almost single-handed ; 
 but Cambridge has sent out, on the whole, the greater number 
 of publications and of propagandists for carrying out what came
 
 DR. PUSEY 59 
 
 to be called Puseyism into the details of worship and religious 
 life. A very natural comparison has sometimes been made. On 
 the one hand, the leaders of the movement, who professed to 
 revive the Primitive Church, worshipped as the English parsons 
 and squires had done till the other day. On the other hand, 
 the followers, who only carried this teaching to its legitimate 
 consequences, clothed the restored worship with its own proper 
 vestments, appliances, forms, and ceremonies. Which are right, 
 or least wrong ? For the former it must be said that people 
 change more easily their opinions than their practice ; but it 
 must be claimed for the Eitualists, as they are called, that they 
 are logical and consistent. They think so themselves, and others 
 think so too. 
 
 Dr. Pusey was not strictly logical or consistent when in de- 
 fence of his teaching he appealed to his own simplicity of practice 
 in the performance of Church service. It is an appeal to mercy 
 and no more, and the world always will have a tenderness for 
 the simple folk who go on doing as they and their fathers have 
 done before. The time has not arrived for a break. Nobody 
 knows when the first Christian ceased from joining in the services 
 of the temple, and observing the great feasts, as well as the 
 routine of smaller ordinances. In the somewhat parallel case of 
 our days, Dr. Pusey, to the end, remained in his practice a 
 Berkshire country clergyman, while his disciples have thought 
 nothing too quaint or too recondite for revival. Not long ago 
 he claimed special weight for his advice to Mr. Pelham Dale to 
 resist the judgment of the court given against him, and petitioned 
 the Queen to override the authority of the judge and let him go 
 without the required submission, on the very ground that he 
 was not himself a Ritualist, and therefore, presumably, an im- 
 partial adviser. 
 
 It is true enough Dr. Pusey has ever been apt to let things 
 about him go on as they are. It would be worth the while of a 
 tourist to look in at Pusey Church and see whether baptism is 
 still administered from an earthenware basin, with a large cat, 
 the crest of the family, depicted inside, for so it was half a century 
 ago. Nothing will now satisfy the true Churchman, in the 
 absence of a baptistery, but a font of marbles and mosaics, as- 
 cended by steps, and surmounted with a towering cover. On 
 the other hand, indifferent as Dr. Pusey might be to these 
 matters of detail, he has always stood by his adherents, often as
 
 60 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 he must have lamented their zealous indiscretion. They have 
 always found in him the deepest sympathy in respect of the 
 grievances which are apt to take most hold on clerical natures. 
 The Church of the Fathers was his province ; and had he con- 
 cerned his taste or his reputation, we will venture to say he 
 would not willingly have gone out of it. He would cheerfully 
 have devoted the whole of his life to the mysteries of the Real 
 Presence and the Eucharistic Sacrifice ; the inspiration of Scrip- 
 ture ; the hidden meanings of the Sacred Text, especially where 
 the significance has hitherto evaded exact determination. 
 
 But he found himself the head of a great and even powerful 
 party. The chance, for such it was, that gave his name to it 
 was prophetic. Newman retired and seceded. Keble retired 
 into country life and died. Many of the second rank retired, or 
 passed away. Pusey remained strong, energetic, glad to be 
 challenged, not a pleasant customer for the most adroit logo- 
 machist, and beginning to be tolerably wide in the range of his 
 interest. The cessation of his part in the Tracts for the Times 
 and subsequently of his relations to Newman, in respect of the 
 movement, has been briefly stated by the latter in the celebrated 
 publication already quoted, and could have been stated in even 
 fewer words. Dr. Pusey just held his ground and remained 
 what he had been, as Newman, indeed, always expected he would 
 do. He refused to believe, what at length he was told by all 
 about him, that Newman was merely meditating a sacrifice to 
 Rome. The latter wished him to be told it, as a fact ; but 
 somehow, it is not very clear why, shrank himself from telling 
 him. Strange it was, that the greatest master of the English 
 language, living or even dead one might almost say, could not 
 tell a very intimate friend and fellow-worker a truth then most 
 important to both of them. At last he wrote some letters with 
 an expressed wish that they should be shown to Pusey. The 
 rest must be in Newman's own words : 
 
 " On receiving these letters, my correspondent, if I recollect 
 rightly, at once communicated the matter of them to Dr. Pusey, 
 and this will enable me to state, as nearly as I can, the way in 
 which my changed state of opinion was made known to him. 
 
 " I had from the first a great difficulty in making Dr. Pusey 
 understand such differences of opinion as existed between himself 
 and me. When there was a proposal about the end of 1838 for 
 a subscription for a Cranmer Memorial, he wished us both to
 
 DR. PUSEY 61 
 
 subscribe together to it. I could not, of course, and wished him 
 to subscribe by himself. That he would not do ; he could not 
 bear the thought of our appearing to the world in separate 
 positions in a matter of importance. And, as time went on, he 
 would not take any hints which I gave him on the subject of my 
 growing inclination to Rome. When I found him so determined, 
 I often had not the heart to go on. And then I knew that, 
 from affection to me, he so often took up and threw himself into 
 what I said, that I felt the great responsibility I should incur if 
 I put things before him just as I might view them. And, not 
 knowing him so well as I did afterwards, I feared lest I should 
 unsettle him. And, moreover, I recollected well how prostrated 
 he had been with illness in 1832, and I used always to think 
 that the start of the movement had given him a fresh life. I 
 fancied that his physical energies even depended on the presence 
 of a vigorous hope and bright prospects for his imagination to 
 feed upon ; so much so, that when he was so unworthily treated 
 by the authorities of the place in 1843, I recollect writing to 
 the late Mr. Dodsworth to state my anxiety lest, if his mind 
 became dejected in consequence, his health would suffer seriously 
 also. These were difficulties in my way ; and then, again, 
 another difficulty was, that, as we were not together under the 
 same roof, we only saw each other at set times ; others, indeed, 
 who were coming in or out of my rooms freely, and as there 
 might be need at the moment, knew all my thoughts easily ; 
 but for him to know them well, formal efforts were necessary. 
 A common friend of ours broke it all to him in 1841, as far as 
 matters had gone at that time, and showed him clearly the 
 logical conclusions which must lie in propositions to which I had 
 committed myself ; but somehow or other, in a little while his 
 mind fell back into its former happy state, and he could not 
 bring himself to believe that he and I should not go on pleasantly 
 together to the end. But that affectionate dream needs must 
 have been broken at last ; and two years afterwards, that friend 
 to whom I wrote the letters which I have just now inserted, set 
 himself, as I have said, to break it. Upon that I, too, begged 
 Dr. Pusey to tell in private to any one he would that I thought 
 in the event I should leave the Church of England. However, 
 he would not do so ; and at the end of 1844 had almost relapsed 
 into his former thoughts about me, if I may judge from a letter 
 of his which I have found. Nay, at the Commemoration of 1845,
 
 62 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 a few months before I left the Anglican Church, I think he said 
 about me to a friend, ' I trust after all we shall keep him.' " 
 
 The truth is, these two men, from the beginning of the 
 movement to the memorable year 1846, were working with 
 unremitting industry and extreme concentration of mind on 
 two divergent lines. It is not impossible that each was so 
 absorbed in his work that he could not, or at least did not, 
 address himself to the problem how long their surviving 
 shadow of agreement and co-operation could last. It is not 
 too much to suppose that each of them was pursuing his own 
 course quite as uninterruptedly and unswervingly as if the 
 other had no existence at all, Newman as if there was no Pusey, 
 and Pusey as if the Cardinal had been one of the wonders of 
 the seventeenth century instead of the nineteenth. Newman's 
 secession, however, when at last he took a sorrowful parting 
 with Pusey and other friends at the residence of the Radcliffe 
 Observer, made a great difference in Pusey's position. He was 
 now the head of the movement, the champion of the doctrines 
 for which Laud died and the non-jurors gave up all their 
 portion in this life. It was he, now, and he alone, that had to 
 be consulted at every emergency, and that had to advise the 
 numerous class that flock to every oracle to be encouraged in 
 their own ways. The system had been binary ; there now was 
 but one centre of attraction. Dr. Pusey gladly accepted all the 
 responsibilities and all the labours of the new situation. His 
 works, in the massive and voluminous sense of the word, show 
 days and nights of incessant toil. Nevertheless, he was always 
 prepared when " called on " to do battle for his cause and 
 opinions. Our own columns have borne testimony to his 
 constant readiness to join issue on fit occasion and with meet 
 foe. Any such question as Church and State, royal supremacy, 
 marriage after divorce or with a deceased wife's sister, was sure 
 to bring him out. His letters to this journal extended over all 
 the latter part of his life and were continued to its close. It 
 was only the other day that, with the hand of death upon 
 him, he claimed in our columns sympathy for an imprisoned 
 ritualist. 
 
 He seems to have taken care, at the beginning of the great 
 movement, to ascertain the points on which he could and would 
 make a stand thus far and no farther. He never surrendered 
 ground once grasped for more than he could hold. People
 
 DR. PUSEY 63 
 
 forget the battles he has had to fight while they see the triumph 
 of his cause in some thousand churches in this land. There was 
 a period when Miss Sellon's case filled the papers examination 
 after examination, letter after letter, bulky pamphlets and 
 bulkier replies. Few people would now be able to recall what 
 it was all about, and we have no wish to help them. Dr. Pusey 
 has always stood to the lady, who naturally enjoyed persecution 
 under such patronage, and he has continually acted as director, 
 if not chief supporter, of Miss Sellon's establishment. 
 
 Young England of the clerical type is sure to do even more 
 than justice to the chivalrous, obstinate, and thorough -going. 
 Twenty years ago Dr. Pusey had become the most popular man 
 in the Church of England. He was not a bishop, and had to 
 keep nobody in order ; nay, for the matter of that, he might 
 be allowed to enjoy a little disorder. He was not a Church 
 Commissioner and had to mulct nobody, and deny nobody's 
 prayer. He was not a great patron, and had not to make ten 
 men enemies and one man ungrateful. He was known to care 
 nothing for money. Such was Pusey's hold upon the heart 
 of thousands. He had only to show himself at any meeting 
 of clergy, and all rose as to a patriarch. At the Church 
 Congresses his name elicited vociferous welcomes. The English- 
 man, whether he be lay or clerical, is not much in the habit of 
 calculating what a course will lead to. He likes it, and takes 
 his chance of the sequel. Mediaevalism pushed to the utmost 
 extent of toleration, and evidently minded to go farther if 
 possible, has won innumerable hearts among the wealthy, the 
 intellectual, the young, and the fair ; but it is plainly a diverg- 
 ence from the prevailing taste of the country, and incompatible 
 with the state of things implied in the union of the Church 
 with the State. It can only lead to great troubles of one kind 
 or another, which the successes and triumphs of the hour may 
 hide from the gaze, but cannot avert in the end or stave off 
 very long. Such has been the career of an undoubtedly good 
 and great man. The public feels a commendable interest in 
 knowing in what circumstances such a man has fought his life's 
 battle. It may be still said that in this country we are men 
 first, theologians or politicians afterwards. 
 
 Dr. Pusey became a widower in 1839. Besides two daughters 
 he had a son, who for many years seemed likely to succeed to 
 the Pusey estates. Though infirm of body, the younger Pusey
 
 64 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 was a person of considerable ability and learning. Besides 
 some independent authorship, he largely assisted his father in 
 his works. He died a few years since. Dr. Pusey has had 
 several severe illnesses, almost unto death, recovering seemingly 
 more by mental energy than by any of nature's resources, for 
 he was immediately at his work again. Private life and even 
 official duty yield many long and unchanging careers. Dr. 
 Pusey's home has been the seat of a working laboratory at high 
 drive and the centre of a raging warfare for more than half a 
 century, and he has been the same all through to the end. 
 From his castle-like eminence he has seen the nineteenth century 
 passing by, himself as great a figure as any in the pageant. If 
 Cranmer was the most conspicuous ecclesiastical personage in 
 the sixteenth century, Laud in the seventeenth, and it is hard 
 to say who in the eighteenth, then no one could dispute with 
 Dr. Pusey the honour of giving his name to the great Anglican 
 reaction of the nineteenth. Nomenclature is apt to be pre- 
 carious and even haphazard. Our continents, new or old, are 
 not so much named as misnamed. Yet named they are, and 
 there is now no help for it. By the concurrence of an infinite 
 number of witnesses, Dr. Pusey is the nominal founder of the 
 existing phase of the Church of England. As Regius Professor 
 of Hebrew, he has seen every English see filled and filled again. 
 He has seen an incessant warfare of controversy, litigation, and 
 rival demonstrations. He has heard of more hostile charges 
 than man could remember or read. But he has seen all sides 
 agree in acknowledging Dr. Pusey to be the author of this 
 restoration or of this corruption. It is he that has scattered 
 blessings over the land, or curses. Half the English theological 
 world has reverenced him as a saint, risen whenever he has 
 shown himself, and pronounced even his name with bated 
 breath ; half have found no charge or insinuation too bad for 
 him. It is Dr. Pusey who has been the Reformer or the 
 Heresiarch of the century.
 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1882 
 
 BY the death of the Primate, the Church of England, as well as 
 the whole Anglican community scattered throughout the world, 
 has lost something more than a titular chief. It has lost the 
 example of a genial and lofty character united to the mature 
 powers of a keen and cultivated intellect; it has lost the 
 leadership of one who was untiring in all good works, com- 
 prehensive in charity, tolerant in opinion, and singularly fail- 
 to all opponents ; above all, it has lost the guidance of a firm 
 and temperate judgment, never vehement, never hasty, and 
 very seldom at fault, such as is oftener, perhaps, associated 
 with eminence in civil affairs than with the Primacy of the 
 Anglican Communion. Dr. Tait will long be remembered as a 
 worthy occupant of the archiepiscopal throne, not because he 
 magnified his office, but because he administered it with 
 unfailing good sense, never pandering to ecclesiastical pride, 
 and always striving to infuse his own mitis sapientia and 
 judicial moderation into the government of the Church. 
 
 Dr. Tait was a Scotchman of Presbyterian parentage, and the 
 fact has a direct bearing on his ecclesiastical character and 
 career. To it he doubtless owed that broad comprehensiveness 
 which some narrow theologians were inclined to censure as 
 latitude, but which, at any rate, enabled him to do justice and 
 to extend his sympathies towards the religious communities of 
 the United Kingdom which do not recognise tbe authority of 
 the Established Church. Probably no Primate ever lived on 
 such friendly terms with Nonconformity terms which, though 
 they fostered charity and good feeling, never did anything to 
 
 VOL. Ill F
 
 66 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 compromise his own position or that of his Church. Certainly 
 no Primate ever realised so fully the essential unity of the 
 greater Anglican communion and its catholic function in the 
 modern world, and none ever strove more earnestly to compose 
 and adjust the minor differences of parties within his own 
 immediate jurisdiction. Such a man can ill be spared and will 
 be not at all easy to replace. His character and qualities would 
 have marked him for eminence in any calling in life. They 
 enabled him to succeed Arnold at Rugby and Blomfield in 
 the See of London and not to suffer by the comparison. In the 
 See of Canterbury it was, perhaps, more easy to surpass his 
 immediate predecessors. For the last century and a half the 
 Archbishops of Canterbury have, with a few exceptions, been 
 men of moderate abilities and commonplace qualities. But over 
 the See of London have presided a Gibson, a Compton, a Porteus, 
 a Lowth, and a Blomfield, and with each of these, as well as 
 with our Howleys, Sumners, and Longleys, the late Arch- 
 bishop's name will be handed down as one who has not only 
 helped to keep up the dignity of the Episcopal and Archiepis- 
 copal office among us, but even to render it illustrious. 
 
 In the early years of George III., when Lord Bute was 
 Prime Minister, it would have seemed nothing strange to see a 
 Scotchman walk southwards from Edinburgh and rise by rapid 
 steps to the See of London or even of Canterbury. But 
 Archibald Campbell Tait was born long after the time when the 
 star of the Butes was in the ascendant ; and he has afforded a 
 rare instance of a man born north of the Tweed, and of 
 Presbyterian parentage, taking his seat on the Bishops' Bench in 
 the House of Peers. He was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of 
 December 1811, the youngest son of the late Mr. Craufurd 
 Tait, of Harviestoun, in the county of Clackmannan, a gentle- 
 man who did good service in his day as the fosterer of education 
 and of scientific agriculture in his neighbourhood ; his mother 
 was Susan, fourth daughter of the late Sir Islay Campbell, 
 sometime Lord President of Scotland. 
 
 Like most of the sons of the gentry of Scotland, he received 
 his early education in " Modern Athens " at the Edinburgh 
 Academy, then under the charge of the late Archdeacon Williams, 
 a man of a very wide range of learning and scholarship, who is 
 still remembered for his contributions to Homeric literature. 
 Removing thence about the year 1827 to the University of
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 67 
 
 Glasgow, he completed his youthful education, and obtained in 
 1830 a "Snell" Exhibition, with which he went to Balliol 
 College, Oxford. A story is told, we believe on the authority 
 of the late Dean of Westminster, that when young Tait first 
 went up to Balliol and called on Dr. Jenkyns, at that time 
 Master of the College, the Master said to him, " Well, Mr. Tait, 
 what have you come to Oxford for ? " " To improve myself, sir, 
 and to make friends," was the reply of the future Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. The answer was prophetic, for Tait's career at 
 Oxford was a brilliant one, and many of his Oxford friendships 
 lasted throughout his life, and retained a singular warmth of 
 affection on both sides. He was elected to an open Scholarship 
 at Balliol, and he took his BA. degree in 1833, when he 
 obtained a first class in the School of Literce Humaniores, one of 
 his examiners being Dr. Moberly, the present Bishop of Salisbury. 
 Shortly afterwards he was elected to a Fellowship at Balliol and 
 in due time he became Tutor and Dean, taking his M.A. degree 
 in 1836. He examined twice in the School of Literce Hwma- 
 niores, in 1841 and 1842, and in 1843, shortly after he had 
 quitted Oxford for Eugby, he was appointed a Select Preacher. 
 His eminence and success as a Tutor of Balliol a college which 
 Jenkyns and an able staff were pushing to the foremost place, which 
 it still occupies, in the University were considerable, as 
 measured by the academical standard of his time. His " Logic 
 Lectures" especially, as well as his "Catechetical Lectures" 
 delivered in chapel, were, and are, gratefully remembered by 
 many an old Balliol man who had the privilege of hearing them 
 delivered. 
 
 Tait was a man who always rose to the requirements of the 
 post he occupied. In the old days of Oxford, when a gentleman 
 and a good Churchman was considered fully qualified for any 
 academical post, it was something of an experiment to appoint a 
 young Scotchman of Presbyterian extraction to the Tutorship of 
 an important college. He had not then acquired that bland 
 geniality of address and demeanour which gave him in later life 
 so strong a hold on all persons with whom he was brought into 
 contact, and his Scottish stiffness placed him at some disadvan- 
 tage in comparison with older tutors who were certainly his 
 inferiors in intellect and attainments. At Eugby, again, he 
 had to follow Arnold, and neither his colleagues nor his pupils 
 were disposed at first to regard him as the equal of his great
 
 68 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 predecessor. But both at Oxford and Rugby Tait succeeded, in 
 spite of such disadvantages, by dint of earnestness and industry, 
 by straightforwardness and good sense, and by his national habit, 
 early acquired and never abandoned, of doing to the utmost all 
 that he had to do. It was not merely at Oxford, but throughout 
 his whole life, that he strove "to improve himself and to make 
 friends." At Oxford. Rugby, Carlisle, London, and Canterbury 
 he was always improving himself, always advancing to the height 
 of the positions he was successively called upon to occupy ; and 
 he never lost the friends whom he made throughout each portion 
 of his career. 
 
 In the spring of 1841 the name of Mr. Tait, who at that 
 time had become Senior Tutor of Balliol, was brought some- 
 what prominently before the world as one of the " Four Tutors " 
 who publicly protested against the principles of interpretation of 
 the Thirty-nine Articles laid down by John Henry Newman, in 
 his celebrated Tract for the Times No. 90, and so threw down 
 the gauntlet to the Tractarian party, then just at the zenith of 
 its power and popularity at Oxford. The publication of Tract 90 
 marked the crisis of the " Oxford Movement." It created a storm 
 in the Church and the nation at large, the like of which has not 
 been witnessed since, and though the movement itself was one 
 which strove, as its leader avowed, to stem the tide of " Liberal- 
 ism," it may be doubted whether a stroke more powerful in its 
 indirect and ultimate results was ever struck in favour of freedom 
 of thought than the publication of Tract 90. Dr. Newman's 
 object was to show that the Thirty-nine Articles were susceptible 
 of a Roman or quasi-Roman interpretation ; in many points he 
 was successful, in others his subtle dialectical skill overshot the 
 mark. 
 
 But the net result of the whole controversy has been to bring 
 to light and lay stress upon the historical fact that the Thirty- 
 nine Articles are, and were originally meant to be, articles of 
 peace, conciliation, and inclusion rather than a dogmatic and 
 exclusive statement of the differences between England and 
 Rome. Whether by inadvertence or intention, the framers of 
 the Articles had given to them this ambiguous character. " Mr. 
 Newman," says Mr. Oakeley, one of the historians of the 
 movement, who was himself carried by it to Rome, " appeared 
 to avoid all imputations on the honesty of the English Re- 
 formers. He supposed them to have been rather diplomatic
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 69 
 
 than dishonest. He spoke of the Articles as the same sort of 
 compromise as would result from two very different parties 
 having to draw up a petition to Parliament, or other such public 
 document, in which each side would have to secure a certain 
 recognition of its own views by insisting largely upon the use 
 of an ambiguous phraseology." "Rather diplomatic than dis- 
 honest" the expression aptly defines the purpose of the 
 writer of Tract 90. He would economise, minimise, and strictly 
 define. Whatever of Romish doctrine was not excluded in set 
 terms he would show to be constructively included. His purpose 
 was poles asunder from that of the Jesuit writers who had treated 
 the Articles in something of the same fashion. They strove so 
 to interpret the formulae as to gain a clandestine entrance into 
 a community they were sworn to destroy ; his endeavour was to 
 retain within the Church to which they belonged, and to which 
 they would fain be loyal, men whom the bare letter of the 
 Articles seemed to exclude. His primary purpose failed ; he 
 succeeded only in showing the way to Rome, and before long he 
 was treading it himself. But once for all he destroyed the 
 exclusive character of the Articles and demonstrated the in- 
 sufficiency of traditional methods of interpreting them. By a 
 singular irony of fate, the liberty which he had conquered for 
 he was never formally condemned was, before many years had 
 passed, claimed and claimed in vain by one of his earliest 
 assailants. 
 
 All this we can see clearly enough now. But the whole 
 matter showed itself in quite another aspect to those among 
 whom Tract 90 was thrown like a bombshell in the spring 
 of 1841. " It is a fact," says the writer whom we have al- 
 ready quoted, " though almost an incredible one, that Mr. 
 Newman was totally unprepared for the reception which this 
 most remarkable essay encountered both in the University 
 and throughout the country. . . . He most conscientiously 
 believed that the interpretation of the Articles which he 
 proposed, however new and however little consistent, in some 
 parts at least, with their primd facie aspect, was yet fairly 
 attributable to them ; and he expressed the greatest surprise 
 when a friend, to whom he showed his Tract previously to 
 publication, gave it as his opinion (entirely borne out by the 
 result) that it would completely electrify the University and 
 the Church. . . . Tract 90 had not been out many days
 
 70 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 before the University of Oxford was in a fever of excitement. 
 It was bought with such avidity that the very presses were 
 taxed almost beyond their powers to meet the exigencies of the 
 demand. Edition followed edition by days rather than by 
 weeks ; and it was not very long before Mr. Newman, as I 
 have heard, realised money enough, by the sale of this shilling 
 pamphlet, to purchase a valuable library. If, during the 
 month which followed its appearance, you had happened to 
 enter any common-room in Oxford between the hours of six 
 and nine in the evening, you would have been safe to hear 
 some ten or twenty voices eloquent on the subject of Tract 90. 
 If you had happened to pass two heads of houses or tutors of 
 colleges strolling down High Street in the afternoon, or return- 
 ing from their walk over Magdalen Bridge, a thousand to one 
 but you would have caught the words ' Newman ' and ' Tract 
 90.' Nor was it many days before action was taken upon the 
 question. Four gentlemen, tutors of their respective colleges, 
 came forward as the representatives of the great body of their 
 order with a manifesto, in the course of which they stated that 
 they were ' at a loss to see what security would remain were 
 the principles of the Tract generally recognised ; that the most 
 plainly erroneous doctrines and practices of the Church of 
 Rome might now be inculcated in the lecture -rooms of the 
 University and from the pulpits of our churches.' " 
 
 Such is the story narrated by a contemporary witness and 
 actor. The four tutors were Mr. Churton, of Brasenose ; Mr. 
 H. B. Wilson, of St. John's ; Mr. Griffiths, of Wadham ; and 
 Mr. Tait, of Balliol. Their protest was followed within a few 
 days by a formal declaration of the Hebdomadal Board, which 
 at that time consisted exclusively of the heads of houses, 
 together with the two proctors as the representatives of the 
 body of residents. But the author of the Tract was never 
 formally condemned for writing it. The protest of the four 
 tutors was personal and individual, and derived whatever 
 public character it had from the statutory obligation then 
 imposed upon all tutors of giving their pupils instruction in 
 the formularies of the Church of England. The declaration of 
 the Hebdomadal Board had no executive validity ; it could 
 only have taken effect if the Board had followed up its issue 
 by proposing in Convocation that Mr. Newman should either 
 be deprived of his degree or be suspended from his academical
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 71 
 
 functions of teaching and preaching. But this machinery of 
 condemnation, which was subsequently set in motion against 
 Dr. Pusey and Mr. Ward, was never applied to the author of 
 Tract 90. Dr. Bagot, the easy-going Bishop of the diocese in 
 which Newman was a beneficed clergyman, sent him a message, 
 stating that in his opinion the Tracts for the Times were doing 
 mischief and ought to be given up. Newman promptly obeyed 
 his ecclesiastical superior, and Tract 90 was the last of a memor- 
 able series. 
 
 With the subsequent history of the Tractarian movement 
 Dr. Tait had no very direct relations ; he left Oxford for Rugby 
 in the following year, and by the time he became Bishop of 
 London, Tractarianism was practically dead and Ritualism had 
 taken its place. In Macmillan's Magazine for October there 
 was published a graceful essay from his pen, suggested by Mr. 
 Mozley's Reminiscences, and written very shortly before his 
 last illness, which contains reflections on the movement and its 
 results, softened, no doubt, by the lapse of time, and certainly 
 mellowed by the growth of experience. Of the four tutors, Mr. 
 Churton is long since dead ; Mr. Griffiths became Warden of 
 Wadham in succession to Dr. Symons, a conspicuous Evangelical 
 leader, and though he resigned the Wardenship a year ago he 
 is still resident in Oxford, where he holds the post of Keeper of 
 the Archives. Mr. Wilson whose Bampton Lectures were 
 long remembered in Oxford for their reach of thought and 
 grandeur of style was afterwards a contributor to Essays and 
 Reviews. It is one of the revenges of time that the tutor whose 
 pen may have drafted the protest against Newman's latitude 
 at any rate, it was he who subsequently explained and defended 
 it in a published letter addressed to Mr. Churton was many 
 years afterwards himself the defendant in a prolonged prosecu- 
 tion for heresy. 
 
 In June 1842 the sudden death of Dr. Arnold caused a 
 vacancy in the Headinastership of Rugby School, and Mr. Tait 
 was chosen as Arnold's successor against a very formidable field 
 of competitors. The appointment at the time was regarded as 
 about the best that could be made ; for, although Mr. Tait was 
 not a great " scholar " in the narrow and restricted sense in 
 which that term was formerly understood at Oxford, yet he was 
 well known for his broad and powerful attainments in the 
 almost more important field of " science " ; in his knowledge of
 
 72 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 " logic " and " rhetoric," and in acquaintance with the 
 Ethics of Aristotle, he was surpassed by none in the 
 University. Besides this, he had shown great administrative 
 capacities as Dean and Tutor of his College ; while his ex- 
 perience of young men was as great as his knowledge of the world 
 a point in which Oxford Dons are not always pre-eminent. 
 The appointment was fully justified by its results. A list of 
 his pupils at Rugby would include many eminent names ; 
 among them may be mentioned the present Earl of Derby and 
 M. Waddington, late Prime Minister of France, who entered at 
 Rugby in 1841. To follow after a master so efficient and so 
 liked as Thomas Arnold was in itself no easy task ; but to have 
 succeeded, as Dr. Tait did, in the management of Rugby School 
 was a sufficient proof of his possession of that practical wisdom 
 and those elements of personal popularity which justified his 
 subsequent advancement to still higher posts. 
 
 Shortly after his appointment to the Headmastership of 
 Rugby, Dr. Tait became engaged to be married to Miss Catharine 
 Spooner, daughter of Archdeacon Spoouer, vicar of Elmdon, 
 and niece of Mr. Richard Spooner, for many years one of the 
 members of Parliament for Warwickshire. The marriage took 
 place in the summer of 1843 and the union was one of singular 
 happiness, but also of the severest trial. Mrs. Tait was the 
 partner of all her husband's labours at Rugby and at Carlisle, 
 in London, at Lambeth, and at Canterbury. Her life has been 
 written partly by her own hand, in the touching and tragic 
 account which she wrote for her surviving children of the 
 deaths of five of her daughters at Carlisle in the spring of 
 1856, partly in the brief and feeling memoir written by the 
 Archbishop himself, and partly in the memorials collected at 
 the request of the Archbishop after her death in 1878 by the 
 Rev. William Benham and published in the well - known 
 volume entitled Catharine and Craufurd Tait. The domestic 
 life of the Archbishop was one of singular beauty both in its 
 joys and in its sorrows, and the latter, which were heavy, were 
 borne with manly fortitude and Christian resignation. He has 
 survived his only son by a little more than four years, and his 
 own death has occurred within a day or two of the fourth anni- 
 versary of that of his wife. The heavy bereavement of his 
 later years never interfered with the faithful discharge of the 
 duties of his high station ; but since the death of Mrs. Tait his
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 73 
 
 advancing years and growing infirmities had compelled him to 
 husband his failing strength and to live in comparative retire- 
 ment, as if he was patiently waiting his own release. He 
 always felt that his life hung by a slender thread, and therefore 
 when his last illness came he was the least surprised and the 
 least disconcerted of all the inmates of his palace. 
 
 At Rugby Dr. Tait was an intensely hard worker so hard, 
 indeed, that before he had been there more than six or seven 
 years his work began to tell seriously on his health, and brought 
 on a dangerous attack of rheumatic fever, from the constitutional 
 effects of which he never entirely recovered. His disregard of 
 personal ease and his eager love of labour were known and felt 
 powerfully among old and young Rugbeians, who, like all other 
 Englishmen, and especially public-school men, are apt to honour 
 and respect " thoroughness " in those who are set over them far 
 above all mere intellectual qualities. In 1850 he accepted from 
 the Government of Lord John Russell the Deanery of Carlisle, 
 a post which it was thought and hoped would afford him some 
 rest and respite after his labours at Rugby. 
 
 But rest and indolence were not to the taste of Dr. Tait. 
 No sooner had the fair northern city welcomed his arrival than 
 its people became aware that a real hard worker had come to it. 
 The establishment of a daily service, the increased efficiency of 
 the schools of the place, and the frequent presence of the new 
 Dean in the abodes of the poor made it evident that, whatever 
 might be the opinion of other men, at all events Dr. Tait did 
 not regard a Deanery as only another name for a well-paid 
 sinecure. For six years he remained at Carlisle ; and there he 
 lost within a few weeks five of his young children from scarlet 
 fever, the infection of which he was supposed to have carried to 
 the Deanery from the bedside of some sick man or woman whom 
 he was visiting. 
 
 From the Deanery of Carlisle to the Bishopric of London 
 was a great step. But the promotion had not been unearned. 
 While holding his Deanery, Dr. Tait had taken an active part 
 in the proceedings of the first Oxford University Commission, 
 and it is well known that next to the late Bishop of Peterborough 
 (Dr. Jeune) he had the largest hand in the preparation of the 
 Commissioners' Report. In the summer of 1856 Dr. Blomfield 
 obtained leave to resign the See of London, and a Royal congtf 
 d'e'lire was issued recommending the Very Rev. Archibald Camp-
 
 74 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 bell Tait as a fit and proper person to be elected by the Chapter 
 in his room. The offer of the see was conveyed to Dr. Tait by 
 Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time ; but it 
 is understood that the appointment was made at the direct 
 suggestion of the Queen. 
 
 No sooner was his consecration over than he made it plain 
 to all men that he had but enlarged his sphere of usefulness. 
 The hard-working Dean did not settle down into an easy-going 
 Bishop of the dilettante or drawing-room type. To the astonish- 
 ment of all that loved respectability and routine, he made his 
 presence felt in various out-of-the-way places, now preaching in 
 omnibus yards, now visiting the sick wards of some metropolitan 
 hospital, now penning a summons to the faithful, both clergy 
 and laity, to make a noble and united effort on behalf of the 
 spiritual destitution of that great city which is the centre of his 
 diocese. For his spirited efforts to carry the light of the Gospel 
 into the dark dwellings of the poor of London, and to secure the 
 erection of at least one place of worship in each district of every 
 parish of London, and, above all, for the plain-spoken zeal with 
 which he placed this work as a duty neither more nor less 
 before the wealthy classes of this great metropolis, he deserved 
 and secured the gratitude of all religious men, whatever their 
 opinions might be, excepting, perhaps, a few hot-headed partisans 
 of the extreme High Church School. The result of his Lord- 
 ship's appeal to the wealthier classes of the metropolis was the 
 commencement of a large annual subscription called the Bishop 
 of London's Fund, which in the first five years of its existence 
 had raised a sum of nearly .350,000 for the erection of churches, 
 schools, and parsonages in the poorer suburbs of the metropolis ; 
 had called into being above seventy new districts, which have 
 rapidly developed into separate and endowed parishes ; and, to 
 say nothing of a whole army of scripture readers and " mission 
 women," had the effect of adding some hundred clergymen to the 
 permanent working staff of the diocese, before the elevation of 
 its author to the archiepiscopal chair. 
 
 The episcopal duties of hospitality were not forgotten amid 
 the sterner occupations of the See of London. Mrs. Tait, who 
 shared and seconded all her husband's labours as only a true 
 woman can never putting herself unduly forward, never inter- 
 fering in matters that did not concern her, but making her life 
 a part of his and filling it with occupations congenial to her
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 75 
 
 character and station was indefatigable in her efforts to promote 
 a kindly social intercourse between the Bishop and his clergy. 
 Her garden-parties at Fulham, at which the clergy of the whole 
 diocese were wont to assemble, were made by her the pleasantest 
 and not the least valuable characteristics of Dr. Tait's episcopate. 
 They were thoroughly friendly gatherings, where every one was 
 made to feel at ease, and where gaiety and wit were not unwel- 
 come even if bishops themselves were sometimes taken for a 
 butt. The story of the emu which was sent to the Bishop from 
 Australia is no doubt well known, but it is good enough to bear 
 repetition. At one of these pleasant gatherings, says Mr. Benham, 
 the emu was turned out into the meadows to be inspected by 
 the guests ; but the cows resented the intrusion and gave chase 
 to the unfortunate bird. " Halloa," exclaimed Dean Milman 
 excitedly, " there goes Colenso, and all the bishops after him." 
 It was on the same day that the Dean saw Bishops Wilberforce 
 and Villiers into a cab together as they drove off to attend some 
 meeting. He approached them as they started, and with much 
 solemnity of manner whispered, " See that ye fall not out by 
 the way !" 
 
 In 1868 Archbishop Longley died and the Bishop of London 
 was appointed his successor. In 1862 he had been offered the 
 Archbishopric of York by Lord Palmerston and had declined it 
 by the advice of his wife. " This," says the Archbishop himself, 
 " was before the organisation of the Bishop of London's Fund, 
 and at that time I was in more vigorous health, and much work 
 in Condon to which my strength was equal seemed to lie before 
 me. The offer of the Archbishopric of Canterbury presented 
 none of the difficulty which must have attended a migration from 
 London to York." The offer was made by Mr. Disraeli during 
 his first brief tenure of the Premiership, and the selection has 
 always been held to have done great credit to his sagacity and 
 freedom from party predilections in the exercise of ecclesiastical 
 patronage. It is probable, moreover, that the Queen's personal 
 preference was again exercised in favour of Dr. Tait. In any 
 case, Mr. Disraeli made a good choice, as the career of the Arch- 
 bishop has abundantly proved. He chose a man who was well 
 fitted to guide the Church with unfailing moderation and good 
 sense, even though he might often be found voting on the side 
 opposed to the Premier who appointed him. 
 
 The first measure of importance on which, after his installa-
 
 76 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 tion as Archbishop of Canterbury, the new Primate had to give 
 counsel was the disestablishment of the Irish Church a measure 
 of which he reluctantly acknowledged the political necessity and 
 in respect of which he accordingly strove to act as mediator 
 between the two parties, though he considered that it was not 
 politic to oppose it. A hasty visit to Scotland, where the first 
 Scottish -born Archbishop of Canterbury received a hearty 
 welcome, and a sudden and sharp illness were notable incidents 
 in the first year of his archiepiscopal life. There was no 
 " Suffragan Bishop " then for him to rely upon, and hard work 
 told with terrible effect on a constitution which the labours of 
 the See of London had seriously impaired. 
 
 One of the first works of the new Archbishop, aided by his 
 noble-hearted wife, was the erection of St. Peter's Orphanage, in 
 the Isle of Thanet, where his Grace had lately purchased a 
 country residence. In 1870 the Archbishop was relieved of 
 some portion of his heaviest duties by the appointment of a 
 Suffragan Bishop of Dover, in the person of Archdeacon Parry ; 
 and a winter spent in the North of Italy contributed largely to 
 the re-establishment of his health. 
 
 The rest of the career of the Archbishop, though his lot was 
 cast in troublous times of controversy, was, for the most part, 
 uneventful. Its history is recorded in his three quadrennial 
 charges, the last of which was delivered in 1880. In his place 
 in the House of Lords or in Convocation, he was always the 
 same consistent advocate of all necessary toleration in lesser 
 matters, the same censurer of harsh and irritating measures, 
 whether against Boman Catholics or Nonconformists, and the 
 constant counsellor of charity and peace. When the religious 
 world was convulsed by the appointment of Dr. Temple to the 
 See of Exeter, the Archbishop used all his influence to calm the 
 storm which arose. It will also be remembered to the credit of 
 his goodness of heart that, much as he disapproved the semi- 
 Romanism of the ultra-Ritualistic school, he did his best to pro- 
 mote legislation which would give a loophole of escape to Mr. 
 Green from his durance in Lancaster Gaol. His charges and 
 pastoral letters sufficiently show the man, advocating as they did 
 a large comprehension of those who would agree to accept the 
 broad principles of the Gospel without insisting on debatable 
 points as essentials. On one subject, however, he wrote plainly, 
 if not sternly namely, in the cause of temperance. One of the
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 77 
 
 latest acts of the Archbishop before his illness was to send, 
 through his chaplain, a small contribution to the Salvation 
 Army, whose services he was probably all the more anxious to 
 utilise, in the cause of the poor, on account of the great support 
 which he felt that they gave to the temperance cause, which he 
 had deeply at heart. 
 
 In the House of Lords, and in the Upper House of Convoca- 
 tion, too, Archbishop Tait was not an infrequent speaker ; and 
 on most practical subjects which bore in any way on the interests 
 of the Established Church he was always listened to with 
 respect. He took a keen interest in the universities, and he 
 spoke with sagacity and authority in the debates of the House 
 of Lords on Lord Salisbury's measures of University reform. In 
 theological controversy he was always moderate and conciliatory, 
 and when he engaged in polemic, as he did in some of his 
 charges, he was careful to state the views of his opponents with 
 rare precision and singular fairness. He had been one of those 
 clergy who published their satisfaction at the decision of the 
 Privy Council in the Gorham case, and from the time when he 
 became a Bishop he exhibited that breadth and liberality of 
 sentiment of which he had given such proofs while Headmaster 
 of Rugby and Dean of Carlisle. The Church of England, he 
 well knew and felt, was designed to be, not narrow, but largely 
 comprehensive, and to embrace within its fold two powerful 
 parties, or, at all events, all men of moderate opinions belonging 
 to two rival schools of thought and teaching, with, perhaps, a 
 large infusion of a third school of religious opinion, men who 
 are inclined to " broad " views and a rigid neutrality. To the 
 extreme Ritualistic school, indeed, he always showed himself a 
 firm opponent, and more than once he had occasion to rebuke 
 with some severity the wearing of coloured stoles and other 
 attempts at gorgeous vestments, the use of which he considered 
 incompatible with an honest adherence to the formularies of the 
 Established Church. In his well-known work on The Dangers 
 and Safeguards of Modern Theology, he laid down earnestly the 
 principle that all controversy ought to be conducted in a 
 Christian spirit of forbearance ; and, while strongly and firmly 
 attached to the Articles of the Church, he enforced upon his 
 readers his conviction that " the truths of a living Christian faith 
 can never be made to find their way into reluctant minds 
 through mere protests and negations, far less by the mere
 
 78 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 attempt to inflict pains and penalties on those whom we think 
 to be in error." 
 
 To these broad and tolerant principles Dr. Tait was true 
 from first to last through his archiepiscopal career, and in the 
 paper to which we have referred above, he speaks with affection- 
 ate remembrance of his lifelong intimacy with two of the 
 Tractarian converts to Eomanism. The truth is that under a 
 singularly cold and stern exterior the Archbishop wore a very 
 warm and affectionate heart, and this fact was known and 
 appreciated by all who knew him, from the Queen on the throne 
 down to the humblest of the curates in his diocese. Strong as 
 were his convictions against the Romish Church and all Romish 
 and even Romeward tendencies, he never erred against Christian 
 charity in their practical application ; and a future age will 
 respect him as no unworthy successor of those who have sat in 
 the chair of St. Augustine before him. The deaths of his son, 
 the Rev. Craufurd Tait, not many months after his appointment 
 to the vicarage of Netting Hill, and afterwards of Mrs. Tait, who 
 had been for more than a quarter of a century the partner of all 
 his cares, and, it may be said, of half his labours, told terribly 
 on the health of the affectionate and home-loving man, whose 
 heart beat so warmly and tenderly under the archiepiscopal 
 purple. He never recovered the blow, and during his last 
 illness, which he bore with patience and composure, as he had 
 borne the heavy trials of his life, he more than once expressed 
 his weariness of life and his perfect readiness to obey the final 
 summons. 
 
 Dr. Tait was the ninety-second occupant of the See of Canter- 
 bury, reckoning from the first arrival of St. Augustine, and the 
 twenty-third in succession from the first Protestant Archbishop, 
 Matthew Parker. According to Sir Harris Nicolas, " the Arch- 
 bishop is accounted Primate and Metropolitan of All England 
 and is the first Peer in the realm, having precedence of all 
 Dukes not of the Blood Royal and of all the great officers of 
 state. He is styled ' His Grace,' and he styles himself officially 
 Archbishop of Canterbury Divind Providentid, whereas the 
 prelates of his province are styled bishops Divind Permissione. 
 At coronations it is his duty and privilege to place the crown 
 upon the Sovereign's head ; and, wherever the Court may be, the 
 King and Queen are the proper domestic parishioners of the 
 Archbishop. The Bishop of London is accounted his Provincial
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 79 
 
 Dean, the Bishop of Winchester his Sub-Dean, the Bishop of 
 Lincoln his Chancellor, and the Bishop of Bochester his Chap- 
 lain." It may be added, on the same authority, that the See of 
 Canterbury has given to the Church no less than eighteen saints; 
 to the Church of Borne nine Cardinals ; and to the civil state 
 of England twelve Lord Chancellors, four Lord Treasurers, and 
 one Chief Justice. 
 
 The see is generally said to be valued in the King's books at 
 ,2816 a year ; but in the good old days, before the Ecclesiasti- 
 cal Commission, the income was probably ten times that amount, 
 though it varied from year to year. It is now fixed at 15,000 
 with the palaces of Addington and Lambeth. The diocese of 
 Canterbury includes nearly the whole of Kent, except the 
 Deanery of Bochester and a few suburban parishes, and also the 
 parishes of Addington and Croydon, in Surrey. The Archbishop, 
 as such, enjoys the patronage of between 180 and 190 livings. 
 The province of Canterbury includes twenty-two diocesan sees, 
 exclusive of suffragans namely, London, Winchester, Bath and 
 Wells, Bangor, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester and Bristol, 
 Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, Llandaff, Norwich, Oxford, Peter- 
 borough, Bochester, St. Albans, St. Asaph, St. David's, Salisbury, 
 Truro, and Worcester. 
 
 The late Prelate was a Privy Councillor, an Official Trustee of 
 the British Museum, a Governor of the Charter House, Visitor 
 of All Souls, Merton, and Keble Colleges, Oxford, of Sion 
 College, of Harrow School, and of Highgate School ; President 
 of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel, and of the National Society ; 
 and President of the Council of King's College, London, and of 
 St. Mark's College, Chelsea. For many years he was Visitor of 
 Balliol College, Oxford, a society which enjoys the singular 
 privilege of electing its own Visitor, and exercised it in favour 
 of its former Tutor and Dean.
 
 L^ON GAMBETTA 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1883 
 
 LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA was born at Cahors on the 3rd of 
 April 1838. His father, who still lives, was a tradesman 
 dealing in crockery ; his mother's maiden name was Massabie. 
 Leon's grandfather was a Genoese, who emigrated to France at 
 the beginning of this century ; and as his name signifies, in the 
 dialect of Genoa, a liquid measure of two quarts' capacity, it 
 has been supposed that it was conferred upon one of his fore- 
 fathers as a sobriquet. Ldon Gambetta's grandfather was a poor 
 man of no education, and his only son, Leon's father, thought he 
 had done very well for himself when he set up a shop with the 
 small dowry brought him by his wife, Mile. Massabie. The 
 mother of Ldon died while he was a child, and he was indebted 
 for his early teaching to his maternal aunt and to her brother, a 
 priest, who held a small benefice in a village near Cahors. 
 
 It was at first intended that L<$on should follow his father's 
 trade ; but, as he was a boy very apt at learning and fond of 
 books, his uncle and aunt decided that it would be better to put 
 him at the seminary with a view to his ultimately taking holy 
 orders. Le"on's father does not seem to have much liked this 
 scheme, for he had no second son who could succeed to his 
 business ; but he had a great love for his bright -witted boy, 
 and, having conceived a high respect for his talents, yielded to 
 the pleasing idea that he would some day become an ornament 
 to the Church. This belief may be explained by the fact that 
 L<k>n was, as a child, ardently religious. When twelve years 
 old, he wrote an ode dedicated to his "patron, St. L<$on, and to 
 all the Popes called Ldon," and this composition was printed in
 
 llON GAMBETTA 81 
 
 the Catholic journal of the diocese. In after years some of his 
 political enemies tried to get hold of a copy, but failed, and 
 published a spurious one, which they gave out for his. It may 
 be remembered that M. Henri Rochefort also began his career as 
 a writer by an ode to the Virgin Mary, published when he was 
 seventeen. In M. Eochefort's case the ode was found and re- 
 printed by Bonapartist journals, to the great indignation of the 
 author, who tried to explain away his youthful opinions, with 
 much unnecessary vituperation of the critics who had recalled 
 them. But M. Gambetta was never so weak. When Cardinal 
 Pecci was elected Pope and chose the title of Leo XIII., 
 M. Gambetta, who was dining with some friends when the news 
 arrived, remarked with a smile, " I ought to be in luck now, 
 for that makes me a new patron ; I daresay I should have 
 turned some fine verses on him while I was my uncle's pupil." 
 
 The career of L4on Gambetta must continue to exercise over 
 young advocates and journalists the same kind of fascination as 
 that of Napoleon I. does over young officers ; and, indeed, the 
 fact that Bonaparte and Gambetta were both of Italian origin, 
 and came to sudden and great power while they were very 
 young, was often quoted to draw a parallel between the two. 
 But there is this difference between Bonaparte and Gambetta, 
 that whereas the latter made his mark in life later by some 
 three or four years than the former, brilliant destinies were 
 prophesied for him, by others besides his relations, when he 
 was still a child. While Bonaparte was a pupil at the school 
 of Brieiine, his masters predicted that he would make a poor 
 officer, because he had no aptitude for mathematics ; when 
 Gambetta was at the seminary, his tutors foretold that he would 
 make a great figure in life, " but never," they regretfully added, 
 " as a Churchman." The boy began well, but he had evidently 
 no vocation for the strict discipline of the Church ; he was too 
 disputatious, not meek enough about taking blows without 
 returning them, and, in short, too headstrong. Anticipating 
 the judgment which M. Grevy passed upon him when he was 
 thirty-three years old, his ecclesiastical masters reported of him 
 that he was un esprit rebelle, turbulent, and they advised his 
 removal to another school. 
 
 Young Gambetta was accordingly sent to the lyc& that is, 
 the lay public school of Cahors, and here he immediately won 
 golden opinions by his cleverness, his industry, and the happy 
 
 VOL. Ill G
 
 82 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 vivacity of his character. One of the half-yearly bulletins of 
 the lyce'e, which has been preserved in his family, records that 
 he was " passionate without being vindictive, and proud without 
 arrogance." In time he became the best Latin scholar at the 
 school and the most proficient in French composition. When 
 he was in his sixteenth year, however, an accident, which de- 
 stroyed his left eye, quelled for a time the exuberance of his 
 character and suddenly gave a new direction to his studies. 
 Fearing lest he should lose his sight altogether, he set himself 
 to learn the alphabet for the blind, in order that he might read 
 in books with raised letters ; he also applied himself to the 
 study of music and the violin. During a whole year he was 
 forbidden to open a book, and in the evenings his aunt, Mile. 
 Massabie, used to read to him. There were in the house several 
 volumes of the Constitutionnel for the years 1840-42, and it 
 was the boy's greatest pleasure to hear the Parliamentary debates 
 of those years when Thiers and Guizot were struggling for 
 ascendency. His aunt, who never tired in devotion to her 
 motherless nephew, whom she loved as a son, could not under- 
 stand what pleasure he took in listening to long speeches about 
 Egypt and Mehemet Ali, the balance of power, the liberty of the 
 press, etc. ; but Thiers's speeches used to make the boy quite 
 enthusiastic, and it is to this early admiration which he con- 
 ceived for the chief exponent of Liberal politics under Louis 
 Philippe's reign that may be attributed much of the loyalty 
 which Qambetta displayed towards Thiers in after-life. He 
 always trusted Thiers, and one day in 1873, when there was a 
 dissension in the office of the Rdpublique Frangaise as to whether 
 the candidature of M. Barodet for Paris should be supported 
 against that of Count de Rdmusat, who was M. Thiers's nominee, 
 he quoted from memory a passage out of one of Thiers's speeches 
 and exclaimed, "The man who spoke those words deserves our 
 confidence." 
 
 Eventually Gambetta let himself be persuaded to back up 
 Barodet, but it was against his better judgment, and when the 
 election of M. Barodet, by starting the " Conservative Union," led 
 to M. Thiers's downfall, there was something like a storm in the 
 office of the R^publique and the Barodists seceded from the staff. 
 But, returning to Gambetta's school-days, one may note that his 
 precocious zeal for politics nearly caused his expulsion from the 
 bjcde of Cahors. In 1855 M. Fortoul, Minister of Public In-
 
 LEON GAMBETTA 83 
 
 struction, visited the town, and Gambetta, as the head scholar of 
 the lycte, had to deliver before him an address in Latin. The 
 speech was first revised by the headmaster ; but in declaiming 
 it, Gambetta inserted a few unauthorised reflections of his own 
 upon the reign of Tiberius, by whom he pretty clearly designated 
 Napoleon III. What made the matter amusing was that M. 
 Fortoul, who had probably been paying but little attention, 
 patted young Gambetta solemnly on the head at the close of his 
 oration, and said, " Tr&s lien, trls Hen." 
 
 From Cahors Gambetta went to Paris to study law, and he 
 quickly drew the attention of the Imperial police upon himself 
 by acting as ringleader in those demonstrations which the 
 students of the Latin Quarter were accustomed to make in times 
 of public excitement Peaceful demonstrations they always 
 were, because the police would stand nothing like rioting ; but 
 it was something to march at the head of a procession carrying 
 wreaths to the tomb of a Republican, or to lead cabals for 
 hissing off the stage of the Theatre Frangais or the Ode"on 
 pieces by unpopular writers, like M. Edmond About (for in 
 those days M. About was a Bonapartist). 
 
 Gambetta lodged for a time at that famous old-fashioned 
 hostelry for students, the Hotel Corneille, near the Ode"on ; and 
 one night when the Emperor and Empress visited the theatre 
 and it was feared that the students might make some disrespect- 
 ful uproar, he received private notice that if he tried to enter 
 the Ode"on he would be arrested. " Well," he said to the friend 
 at court who had brought him the message unofficially, " I was 
 going to the theatre to try and keep order, for I don't want to 
 have a disturbance there, and I think I am the only person 
 having any authority over the students." The friend went 
 away, but returned in about two hours with a clumsy request 
 that Gambetta would go to the theatre and " keep order," a 
 suspicious invitation, which was of course declined. 
 
 Gambetta had not exaggerated the influence which he pos- 
 sessed in the student world ; it was very great, and at the Cafe" 
 Racine, where he spent a couple of hours every evening, he 
 became the head - centre of an informal literary and political 
 association, whose members were recruited from among the 
 most brilliant pupils of the schools of law and medicine, and 
 from among the artists who studied under Ingres and Delacroix 
 that is, who belonged to the two crack studios. After he
 
 84 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 had got his inscription at the Paris Bar in 1859, Garnbetta 
 transferred his custom to the Cafd Procope, which stands in the 
 Rue de 1'Ancienne Com^die, facing the old Theatre Frangais, 
 where Beaumarchais's Mariage de Figaro was first performed. 
 
 Gambetta's enemies have often made fun about his fondness 
 for " draining bocks and spouting " at the Cafe" Procope ; but 
 this is absurd, for, under the Empire, young men who wished to 
 exchange ideas, and who had not large apartments at their dis- 
 posal, could only meet in cafes. Political clubs were not 
 tolerated, and the law as to secret societies, which prohibited 
 persons from assembling to the number of more than twelve 
 for any political purpose, made it very perilous for a reputed 
 Liberal to receive his friends too often at home. At a cafe" men 
 were pretty safe, because the proprietor was held in bail by the 
 police for the good behaviour of his customers ; but nothing in 
 the way of speechifying would have been allowed at one of 
 these places, and Gambetta's discourses at the Cafe Procope 
 were all held in an undertone amid the clinking of dominoes 
 and the noise of waiters coming and going. 
 
 For two or three years the Procope remained the only noted 
 Opposition cafe" ; but just before the general election of 1863, 
 M. Arthur Ranc, an amnestied ddportd (who had narrowly escaped 
 the guillotine for getting mixed up in a plot against the 
 Emperor's life), converted the Cafe" de Madrid into a head- 
 quarters for the rising young men of the Opposition of all shades. 
 It was M. Ranc's plan to band Legitimists, Orleanists, and 
 Republicans all together against the Empire, and it is a proof 
 of the terrible bitterness of party warfare in those days that 
 M. Ranc, who afterwards became such a devoted friend and 
 adherent of M. Gambetta, at first thought poorly of him for 
 being too Republican that is, too frank an enemy of the 
 reigning dynasty. He crossed the Seine one evening to hear 
 the young man of whose Liberal fervour he had heard talk, and 
 returned, expressing the opinion " Cette fougue, ce n'est pas 
 de la politique" Gambetta was at this time a handsome man, 
 with dark flowing hair, not curly, but thick and clustering, a 
 somewhat Jewish face, dazzling teeth, and a boisterous voice. 
 For the reasons already explained, he could not talk very loud 
 at the cafe, but now and then, as he discussed some point in a 
 speech delivered by M. Billault or M. Rouher in the Corps 
 L6gislatif, he would bring his fist down with a sounding thump
 
 GAMBETTA 85 
 
 on the red marble table, represented by tradition to be that upon 
 which Voltaire had corrected the acting edition of Zaire, or he 
 would break out into a lusty Homeric laugh, that would startle 
 and confound the spies from the Kue de Jerusalem, of whom 
 there were always one or two in the place disguised as inoffensive 
 bourgeois. 
 
 But Gambetta did not spend all his time at the cafe". By day 
 he worked very busily as secretary to M. Adolphe Cr^mieux, 
 a staunch Republican, who had been a member of the Provisional 
 Government of 1848, and who had a large practice at the Bar 
 of Paris. The secretary to an eminent French avocat holds a 
 position to which there is nothing analogous at the English Bar. 
 He goes into court with his chief, watches cases for him, and by 
 degrees picks up crumbs of his practice. Before entering M. 
 Cre"mieux's office Gambetta had served for a while under M. 
 Charles Lachaud, the most eloquent and popular counsel in 
 criminal causes ; but Lachaud was a Bonapartist, and this 
 induced his secretary to leave him after a few weeks. Cre'mieux 
 was of the Jewish faith, and his practice was of two sorts ; in 
 the Civil Courts he held briefs in most of the commercial and 
 banking cases to which his co-religionists were parties, while in 
 the Correctional Courts he defended Liberal journalists, who 
 used to come up for trial in batches regularly every Friday. 
 As he was an uncommonly hard worker, it used to be said of 
 him that he took the press cases for relaxation ; but, advancing 
 in years, the amusement palled upon him, and he soon handed 
 over some of his briefs to his secretary. Gambetta's first public 
 speech was delivered in 1861 in defence of the Marquis Le 
 Guillois, a nobleman of facetious humour, who edited a comic 
 newspaper called Le Hanndon. He was seized with unexpected 
 nervousness as he began ; but before he had stammered out a 
 dozen sentences he was stopped by the presiding judge, who told 
 him mildly that no big words were required in a cause which 
 only involved a fine of 1 00 francs " all the less so," added he, 
 " as your client is acquitted." 
 
 Gambetta used to say that after this it took him years to 
 recover from the effect of the judge's quiet snub. Like many 
 other young men of talent, he had gone into court expecting to 
 carry everything before him, and had found that the art of 
 forensic pleading is not to be acquired without practice. He did 
 practise most diligently, and the speeches some thirty in all
 
 86 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 which, he delivered in unimportant cases during the next seven 
 years were conspicuous for their avoidance of rhetorical flourish. 
 Adolphe Cre"mieux had cautioned him that the secret of oratory 
 lies in mastering the subject of one's discourse " Don't try 
 gymnastic feats until you have a firm platform to spring from " 
 a maxim which a conceited young man, impatient of results, 
 might have despised, but which commended itself to an 
 ambitious man who felt that, although a chance comes to all, 
 it is an important point to be prepared for the chance when it 
 does come. A plutocrat once asked Horace Vernet to "do him 
 a little thing in pencil " for his album. Vernet did the little 
 thing and asked 1000 francs for it. "But it only took you five 
 minutes to draw," exclaimed the man of wealth. " Yes, but it 
 took me thirty years to learn to do it in five minutes," replied 
 Vernet. And so Gambetta, when some one remarked that he 
 was very lucky in having conquered renown by a single speech, 
 broke out impetuously, " I was years preparing that speech 
 twenty times I wanted to deliver it, but did not feel that I had 
 it here (touching his head), though it palpitated here (thumping 
 his breast) as if it would break my heart." 
 
 The speech in question was delivered on the 1 7th of November 
 1868, before the notorious Judge Delesvaux (who has been called 
 the Jeffreys of the Second Empire), in defence of Louis Charles 
 Delescluze, editor of the Beveil. The Eeveil had started a sub- 
 scription for erecting a monument to the memory of the Eepre- 
 sentative Baudin, who was killed at the coup d'&at of 1851, 
 and the Government unwisely instituted a prosecution against 
 the editor. It was late in the afternoon when the case was 
 called on after a number of others, but the sixth Chamber was 
 crowded with journalists and barristers, as it always was on 
 Fridays, when Delesvaux a man with hawk-like features and 
 a flaming complexion would sit " tearing up newspaper articles 
 with beak and talons," as Emile de Girardin said of him. Just 
 before Gambetta rose, Delesvaux observed "I suppose you 
 have not much to say ; so it will hardly be worth while to have 
 the gas lighted." " Never mind the gas, sir, I will throw light 
 enough on this affair," answered Gambetta, and it was amid the 
 laughter produced by this joke that he began. His genius 
 found vent that day, and he spoke from first to last without a 
 halt. Reviewing his client's case, he brought Napoleon III. 
 himself to book, and recalled the circumstances under which
 
 GAMBETTA 87 
 
 Baudin had died " defending that Republican Constitution which 
 President Louis Bonaparte, in contempt of his oath, had violated." 
 At this, Judge Delesvaux half rose in his seat and endeavoured 
 to stop the speaker, but a positive roar from the whole crowd 
 in court forced him to sit down. It was a sign of the approach- 
 ing political earthquake that Delesvaux should have sat down 
 in that way ; for he was a man of great resolution, but he must 
 have felt then as if the earth were trembling under him. So 
 Gambetta continued to speak, denouncing with unimaginable 
 energy the tyrannies and turpitudes of the reign which had con- 
 fiscated all the liberties of France, till at last he concluded with 
 this magnificent peroration, which was rendered most solemn by 
 the increasing darkness of the court and the intense, attentive 
 silence of the audience : " In every country but this you see 
 the people commemorate as a holiday the date which brought 
 the reigning dynasty to the throne. You alone are ashamed of 
 the day which gave you a bloodstained crown the 2nd of 
 December, when Baudin died ! Well, that day which you 
 reject, we Republicans will keep holy. It shall be the day of 
 mourning for our martyrs and the festival of our hopes ! " 
 
 When Gambetta left the court after this it was felt by all 
 who had heard him that he was the coming man of the Republi- 
 can party; and next day Opposition journals of every shade 
 of opinion from one end of France to the other acclaimed him 
 as a future leader. To understand Gambetta's success it must 
 be remembered that in 1868 the Imperial system had gradually 
 been losing ground in France, owing in a great measure to the 
 Emperor's increasing infirmities of body and to the death of his 
 most strenuous counsellors, Billault and De Morny. It was seen 
 that Napoleon III.'s hand was growing feeble, and that the 
 objects of his policy were confused. In M. Rouher the Emperor 
 had a Minister who would have done well as a Parliamentary 
 statesman, but who, being slow, cautious, and ponderous in all 
 his ways, was not fitted for ruling such a nation as France with 
 an iron rod. 
 
 From 1852 to 1860 the Imperial reign had been terrible, 
 almost ferocious, in its repression of all popular movements 
 towards freedom. In 1860 an attempt was made to conciliate 
 moderate Liberals by a few concessions, but they were grudg- 
 ingly made. In 1867, De Morny being dead, there was a 
 further instalment of half-hearted reforms, but the disastrous
 
 88 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 collapse of the Mexican expedition, and the execution of the 
 Emperor Maximilian in that year, impaired the prestige of the 
 Empire ; and when, in 1868, Henri Rochefort, under cover of 
 a new press law, started his Lanterne, he had no difficulty in 
 turning the dynasty, its ministers, courtiers, achievements, and 
 all the events that constituted the " Napoleonic legend " into 
 ridicule. The days of wholesale transportations of men without 
 trial were at an end ; an amnesty had brought back many 
 hundreds of political prisoners from Cayenne and Lambessa, with 
 exiles from London, Brussels, and Geneva, and these men were 
 careering about the country as agitators. The Chambers, again, 
 no longer held their sittings with closed doors, their debates 
 were published, electoral meetings were tolerated, and the 
 Government had parted with its prerogative of suppressing 
 newspapers by mere official edict. In fact, it had taken to 
 making war upon Liberalism by petty and vexatious methods 
 imprisoning insignificant journalists for short terms in the 
 mildly-conducted gaol of Ste. Pdlagie ; trying to check the 
 circulation of Opposition journals by forbidding them to be sold 
 in railway stations ; stifling debates in the Corps Legislatif by 
 the cldture, and so forth. 
 
 On the other hand, the Empire had begun to win over a 
 certain number of its former opponents, who felt justly enough 
 that if the Emperor was not met half-way when he made 
 liberal advances he would inevitably recede, and that there 
 must then ensue either a new coup d'etat or a revolution. Two 
 members of the famous " Five," who formed the entire Opposi- 
 tion in the Corps Legislatif from 1857 to 1863 MM. Emile 
 Ollivier and Dariinon had gone over ; sundry Orleanists were 
 making their terms with the Government ; and Emile de 
 Girardin, who edited La Liberte', was advocating with much 
 talent and conviction the formation of an Imperial -Liberal 
 party which should aim at restoring Parliamentary government 
 without trying to upset the throne. 
 
 M. Gambetta, therefore, came to the front at a time when 
 the Republicans pure, who would make no peace with the 
 " Man of December," were in want of new leaders. When he 
 made his great speech the general election of 1869 was at 
 hand ; he was forthwith invited to stand for Paris and Mar- 
 seilles, and throwing himself with a veritable furia into the 
 double electoral contest, lie thundered out a series of philippics
 
 LEON GAMBETTA 89 
 
 in which he declared himself to be an "irreconcilable" and 
 claimed the support of all in whose breasts burned " an un- 
 quenchable hatred" of the Empire. He was elected in both 
 constituencies, one of his opponents at Marseilles being M. de 
 Lesseps ; but he had so exhausted himself by his round of 
 speeches that he was seized with a throat affection, which 
 prevented him from taking much part in the labours of the 
 session of 1869. On the 2nd of January 1870 the Liberal 
 Ministry of M. Emile Ollivier acceded to office ; and Gambetta, 
 who was by that time restored to health, at once joined issue 
 with the Cabinet on the question of confidence. " All that you 
 may give us in the way of reforms we accept," he said ; "and 
 we may possibly force you to yield more than you intend, but 
 all you give and all we take we shall use simply as a bridge to 
 carry us over to another form of government." 
 
 Indirectly this speech was the cause of all the disasters 
 which fell upon France in that year. It cotild not be expected 
 that the Emperor should suffer any doubt to subsist as to 
 whether he still enjoyed the confidence of the nation. The 
 Republican Opposition though they held but twenty seats out 
 of 263 in the Corps L^gislatif talked as if they had the popu- 
 lation of all the large cities at their backs. The Emperor 
 resolved to put this assertion to the test by holding a plebiscite ; 
 and the result of the national poll taken in May was to give 
 him 7,500,000 votes. But the Opposition got a million and a 
 half of suffrages, and what dismayed the Court most was that 
 53,000 soldiers out of a standing army of about 200,000 voted 
 against the Emperor. This was a truly alarming sign for a 
 Government which placed so much reliance upon the army as 
 an instrument of coercion at home ; and it was promptly 
 decided by the Emperor's unofficial advisers that he must 
 undertake a war in order to recover his authority over the 
 army, and be enabled to cope successfully with the Republican 
 faction. To this scheme M. Emile Ollivier was, of course, no 
 party, as one of its objects was to dismiss him from office ; and 
 when in July the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohen- 
 zollern for the throne of Spain was seized upon by the war 
 party as a pretext for conflict with Prussia, M. Ollivier could 
 assure the Chamber with perfect good faith that there would be 
 no war if the obnoxious candidature were withdrawn. On the 
 very day before the war was declared, M. Ollivier, who knew
 
 90 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 little of what was passing at St. Cloud (where Marshal Lebceuf, 
 Prince Metternich, and M. Conti alone were in the Emperor's 
 confidence), affirmed that he would resign sooner than be 
 responsible for an "aggression" upon Prussia. This was 
 during a dinner-party at his official residence in the Place 
 Vendome, but, at dessert, he was summoned away to St. Cloud, 
 where the Emperor, or rather the Empress, overcame his 
 scruples so completely that on the following day he stated in 
 the Corps Le'gislatif that he embarked upon the war with a 
 light heart. 
 
 Gambetta and the Kepublicans felt that they had every 
 cause for fear when matters had taken this turn. Relying 
 upon Marshal Lebceuf 's assurances that " everything was ready," 
 they saw the prospect of a short sensational campaign like that 
 against Austria in 1859, to be followed by some high-handed 
 stroke of home policy that would sweep most of them into 
 prison or exile. Gambetta could not refrain from bitterly 
 upbraiding Ollivier " You will find that you have been 
 fooled in all this," he said ; " for when the war is over you 
 will be thrown aside like a squeezed orange." " I think my 
 fate will be a happier one than yours, unless you mend your 
 manners," answered Ollivier drily. Three weeks after this, 
 however, everything was changed. The Imperial armies had 
 been beaten at Woerth and Forbach ; the Ollivier Cabinet had 
 fallen amid popular execration (hardly deserved) ; and Gam- 
 betta, forced by circumstances into a position of great influence, 
 received a private visit from Madame Bazaine, who prayed him 
 to agitate that her husband might be appointed as the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the armies. Gambetta was too sincerely 
 patriotic to feel any partisan satisfaction at the reverses which 
 Napoleon III.'s armies had suffered ; and in stirring up the 
 Republicans in the Chamber and in the press to clamour for 
 the appointment of Bazaine he believed he was urging the 
 claims of a competent soldier who was being kept from the 
 chief command solely by dynastic jealousies. He was to learn 
 a couple of months later how much he had been mistaken in 
 his estimate of Bazaine's talents and rectitude of purpose ; and, 
 indeed, Bazaine's conduct towards Gambetta and the Republi- 
 cans from first to last was the more inexplicable as it was un- 
 questionably owing to their agitation that he was placed in the 
 high position which he had coveted.
 
 GAMBETTA 91 
 
 During the three weeks between Forbach and Sedan Gam- 
 betta had to take rather exciting precautions to ensure his own 
 safety. He was aware that the Empress-Regent's advisers were 
 urging her to have the leaders of the Opposition arrested, and 
 he felt pretty certain that this course would be adopted if the 
 news of a victory arrived. He used to sleep in a different 
 house every night, and never ventured abroad unattended or 
 without firearms. His position was one of great difficulty, for 
 agents of the Internationale made overtures to him with a view 
 to promote an insurrection in Paris, and he forfeited the con- 
 fidence of these fanatics by declining to abet their plans. 
 Gambetta was so little desirous of establishing a Republic by 
 revolution that even when the tidings arrived on the night of 
 the 3rd of September of the Emperor's surrender at Sedan, his 
 chief concern was as to how he could get the deposition of 
 Napoleon III. and the Empress -Regent effected by lawful 
 methods. He hastened to M. Thiers's house, and asked him 
 whether he would accept the Presidency of a Provisional 
 Government? Thiers, sitting up in bed, said he was willing, 
 provided that his office was conferred upon him by the Corps 
 L^gislatif. 
 
 Accordingly, Gambetta spent all the morning of Sunday, 
 the 4th of September, whipping up members of the majority, 
 and trying to persuade them to go down to the Palais Bourbon 
 and elect a new Government. But he found most of these 
 gentlemen anxious to get off to the different railway stations as 
 soon as possible in cabs. Going to the Chamber himself 
 towards one o'clock, he was carried through the doors by the 
 surging mob which invaded the palace, and in half an hour he 
 shouted himself quite hoarse in adjuring the crowds from the 
 tribune to let the Assembly deliberate in peace. But while he 
 was literally croaking in his attempts to make the people hear 
 reason, news was brought to him that M. Blanqui and some 
 other adventurous spirits, taking time by the forelock, had 
 repaired to the Hotel de Ville, and were setting up a Govern- 
 ment of their own. Upon this Gambetta precipitately left the 
 palace, jumped into a victoria, and drove to the Hotel de Ville, 
 amid a mob of several thousands of persons, who escorted him, 
 cheering all the way. Before five o'clock the deputies for 
 Paris, with the exception of M. Thiers, had constituted them- 
 selves into a Government, which, at the suggestion of M.
 
 92 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Kochefort, took the name of Government of the National 
 Defence ; and M. Gambetta received the appointment of 
 Minister of the Interior. It may be remarked in passing that 
 on the day after these events Judge Delesvaux, fearing, perhaps 
 needlessly, that some of the triumphant Republicans whom, he 
 had so often punished would wreak vengeance upon him, com- 
 mitted suicide. On the other hand, Gambetta's client in the 
 Baudin affair L. C. Delescluze came to him on the morning 
 of the 5th of September and reproached him with much 
 asperity for not having caused the Empress to be arrested. 
 " We want no rose-water Republicans to rule us," said this 
 honest but gloomy zealot, who was shot a few months later 
 during the extermination of the Commune. 
 
 The siege of Paris brought M. Gambetta to the most romantic 
 part of his career. The National Defence Government had 
 delegated two of their members, MM. Cremieux and Glaiz- 
 Bizoin, to go to Tours and govern the provinces, but being 
 both elderly men of weak health they were hardly up to their 
 work ; and early in October M. Gambetta was ordered by his 
 colleagues to join them. He had to leave Paris in a balloon, 
 and in going over the German lines nearly met with misad- 
 venture through the balloon sinking till it came within range 
 of some marksmen's rifles. He reached Tours in safety, however, 
 and set to work at once with marvellous activity to organise 
 resistance against the invasion. He was ably seconded by M. de 
 Freycinet, and between them these two did all that it was 
 humanly possible to perform ; but from the first their task was 
 one of formidable difficulty, and all chances of repelling the 
 Germans from French soil vanished after the shameful capitula- 
 tion of Bazaine at Metz. 
 
 Nevertheless, all who saw M. Gambetta during his procon- 
 sulate at Tours will remember with what a splendid energy he 
 worked, how sincerely hopeful he was, and this must not be 
 forgotten how uniformly generous and genial. Invested with 
 despotic powers, he never once abused them to molest an 
 opponent. Many Bonapartists trembled lest he should have 
 them arrested, or, by quartering battalions of Mobiles upon 
 them, eat up their substance ; but he let them alone, and would 
 never suffer them to be bullied by any placeman under his 
 orders. One of his greatest worries came from the horde of 
 adventurers who besieged his house night and day begging for
 
 LEON GAMBETTA 93 
 
 contracts, official postu, and commissions, or suggesting plans of 
 campaign for the rout of the enemy. Gambetta at last found 
 out a way of dealing with these cormorants. He used to receive 
 them in a large room full of clerks and officers, he the while 
 seated in his shirt-sleeves, smoking. " Speak up, sir," he used 
 to say, speaking sometimes with a voice like a gong ; at other 
 times laughing with Rabelaisian joviality ; and by such means 
 he readily put out of countenance men who had only come on 
 foolish business. 
 
 In his public harangues, both at Tours and Bordeaux (whither 
 the Provisional Government repaired in December, being driven 
 southward by the German advance), he somehow always managed 
 to electrify his hearers. He spoke from balconies, railway 
 carriages, kerb-stones ; wherever he went the people demanded 
 a speech of him, and his words never failed to cheer, while 
 they conquered for him a wide popularity. Indeed, Gambetta 
 so deluded himself while diffusing hope and combativeness into 
 others that when, after a five months' siege, Paris capitulated, 
 he still persisted in thinking that resistance was possible, and 
 rather than take any part in the national surrender he gave in 
 his resignation. He was by that time fairly worn out and had 
 to go to St. Sebastian to recruit his health. It was alleged that 
 he went there so as to avoid taking any side in the civil war 
 between the Parliament of Versailles and the Commune ; but 
 after the Communist Government had been at work a fortnight, 
 and when the impracticability of its aims was fully disclosed, 
 he took care to let it be known that he was on the side of the 
 National Assembly. 
 
 M. Gambetta had been returned to the Assembly by nine 
 constituencies at the Armistice Elections of 1871, but he was 
 slow to take his seat in the Chamber, for he perceived that some 
 time must elapse before he could again play any useful part in 
 politics. The Radical majority in the Assembly held him re- 
 sponsible for the undue prolongation of the war, with all its 
 disasters, and even M. Thiers spoke often with unmeasured 
 severity of his administration at Tours. All this M. Gambetta 
 bore with something like meekness. In 1871 he founded a 
 newspaper, La, RdpuUique Frangaise, and in the first number 
 sounded the keynote of his prudent, self-effacing policy, which 
 was to support M. Thiers in founding a nominal Republic, and 
 to wait in patience for the rest that is, for the gradual adapta-
 
 94 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 tion of free institutions to the new regime. Acting up to this 
 principle when he returned to the Chamber in 1872, he entered 
 upon a course of tactics which obliged him to win a daily victory 
 over himself in order that he might keep his followers in sub- 
 jection and yet not dispirit them. 
 
 To those who knew the ardent nature of the man it was 
 sometimes painful to see him sitting livid and with a forced 
 smile upon his lips while attacks were being hurled at him 
 which he felt that for the good of his party he must not answer. 
 If he had broken lances with all who tilted against him he 
 must have been up and fighting in the tribune every day, and 
 if he had gratified his own natural impulses he would have 
 fought in this way without respite. His self-control was all 
 the more admirable as when on rare occasions he did speak, 
 in order to reassure those who might have thought that his 
 Liberalism was cooling, his oratory never failed in its effect. 
 Friends and foes alike were subjugated by that strident voice 
 and those amazing gestures, which showed that he put his whole 
 heart and soul into every word he uttered. He had a way of 
 turning towards those who interrupted him and raining fiery 
 words upon them till they were cowed, while these denuncia- 
 tions excited his partisans to frenzy, and caused them to start 
 up from their places and flock towards the tribune, shouting 
 and clapping their hands, so that the hall of debate often 
 presented an indescribable spectacle. It used to be thought 
 that M. Gambetta had an iron constitution to expend such 
 nervous force as he did, not only in the tribune, but in the 
 lobbies, the smoking-room, and wherever else he talked, to 
 bring men round to his way of thinking. But it is evident 
 now that he was wearing himself out rapidly ; and that every 
 one of those discourses, which will be remembered as rare 
 intellectual treats by those who heard them, cost the gifted 
 orator days or months of life. 
 
 M. Thiers did not understand Gambetta as Gambetta under- 
 stood him, or he would not have resigned in 1873, saying that 
 the Republicans were making his work too difficult. When 
 Marshal MacMahon succeeded to the Presidency it looked as 
 if the Republic were doomed, and nothing but M. Gambetta's 
 wonderful suppleness and tact during the sessions of 1874-45 
 could have saved it. He had to keep himself in the background, 
 to use an Italian astuteness in explaining away the blunders of
 
 L^ON GAMBETTA 95 
 
 his followers ; and when this would not do he had to use 
 violent language, which should frighten timid doctrinaire 
 Orleanists with prospects of popular risings in which he would 
 take the lead. His greatest triumphs were earned when by 
 dint of superhuman coaxing in the lobbies he got the Republic 
 proclaimed as the Government of France (in 1875, on M. 
 Wallon's motion) by a majority of one vote ; and again when 
 at the first election for life Senators he concluded a treaty with 
 the Legitimists, and by giving them a dozen seats secured fifty 
 for the Republicans and ousted the Orleanists altogether. 
 
 From this time the Republic was founded with at least 
 temporary security, and although a coalition of all the re- 
 actionary parties rallied against it in 1877, when M. Jules 
 Simon's Ministry was dismissed, and when the Due de Broglie 
 was induced to try to destroy the new form of Government by 
 Caesarist methods, yet there was never any real danger that the 
 Republic would succumb. From the day when M. Thiers died, 
 M. Gambetta stood guarding it like a sentinel. Just before the 
 general election of 1877 an emissary was sent to him from the 
 De Broglie-Fourtou Ministry, requesting him for his own sake not 
 to make a speech against Marshal MacMahon. He laughed when 
 he heard that he would be prosecuted if he made the speech. 
 He was twirling a cigarette, and laid down a copy of the Revue 
 des Deux Motides in which he had been reading an essay on Mr. 
 Gladstone's speeches about the Irish Church. " Tell the Prime 
 Minister," he said, " that I will speak from a pedestal if I can ; 
 but if not, from a housetop. In one way or another, my voice 
 shall reach farther than his, and so long as I have a drop of 
 blood to shed the Republic shall not fall." M. Gambetta was 
 sentenced to four months' imprisonment for the speech in which 
 he said that Marshal MacMahon would have to yield to the 
 popular will or resign, but before he could be put into gaol the 
 De Broglie Cabinet had ceased to exist. Marshal MacMahon's 
 resignation in 1879 was the obviously natural consequence of 
 the complete victory which the Republicans gained in 1877; 
 but it was greatly to M. Gambetta's credit that he quietly 
 tolerated during fifteen months the Presidency of the gallant 
 soldier who had never been his friend. When urged to agitate 
 for the Marshal's overthrow, he always said, " It will do the 
 Republic good if its first President serves his term of office 
 quietly to the end."
 
 96 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 It was M. Gambetta who designated M. Grevy for the Pre- 
 sidency of the Eepublic, and when he himself succeeded to the 
 Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies he entered upon quite a 
 new phase of his public life. He had founded the Republic, 
 but he had made a host of enemies among those who think that 
 no Republic is worth having unless it unsettles the property of 
 the industrious for the benefit of those who will not work but 
 can only brawl. He himself had become Conservative not in 
 the reactionary sense of that term, but Conservative as an English 
 Whig may be, loving the perfect blending of liberty and order. 
 Experience had taught him that there are men who cannot be 
 parleyed with, whose mainspring is need and whose only policy 
 is spoliation. He was as eager as ever to check the ascendency 
 of the Roman Catholic Church in matters of education, but he 
 had no wish whatever may have been said to the contrary 
 to destroy the Church or to see France become a land of infidels. 
 Besides this, he had a keen relish for the pomps of office. 
 
 In his latter years Gambetta had become portly, gray-headed, 
 a little unwieldy, and averse to locomotion. While he lived at 
 the Palais Bourbon he loved to bathe in the Due de Moray's 
 silver, parcel-gilt bath, and to have his carriage escorted by a 
 troop of Cuirassiers when he went to pay official visits. He 
 used to say that Louis Philippe had made himself cheap by too 
 much simplicity a thing obnoxious to the French, who love to 
 get their money's worth when they see their rulers make a 
 public appearance. It is well known that M. Gambetta's 
 personal ambition was to succeed to M. GreVy a legitimate 
 object enough, seeing how he had worked for the Republic, but 
 this ambition, never openly avowed, serves to explain why he 
 took so little pains to remain in office when he became Prime 
 Minister last year. Had his Cabinet lasted till 1884, it would 
 by that time have become unpopular, as all Cabinets must become 
 after a time in an agitated country where factions are many. 
 Gambetta's only hope of retaining popularity as a Minister was 
 by passing a scrutin de liste Bill, which would have enabled him 
 to manage the constituencies by the caucus system. When this 
 chance was denied him it became his natural policy to keep 
 away from office altogether, so that he might enter with renovated 
 prestige into the Presidential campaign of 1885. Whether he 
 would have become President of the Republic had he lived it is 
 impossible to say, but this much may be affirmed, that among
 
 LEON GAMBETTA 97 
 
 the Republicans who thwarted his designs, alleging that he was 
 no true Liberal, few could match him for sincerity in his 
 Republican convictions, fewer still for courage and industry, and 
 none at all for patience under reverses, and good-humoured 
 magnanimity in the hour of triumph. Now that he is gone 
 many of his former opponents will acknowledge that he was the 
 most useful and devoted champion, if not always the discreetest, 
 that French Republicanism ever had. 
 
 VOL. in
 
 PEINCE GORTCHAKOFF 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1883 
 
 MORE than a year ago we announced the retirement of Prince 
 Alexander Gortchakoff from the Eussian Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs. M. de Giers succeeded him, and, though brought up 
 at his feet, has introduced into the Imperial policy a spirit 
 which seems to relegate the period of the Prince's sway to remote 
 antiquity. But the Prince remained titular Chancellor of the 
 Russian Empire ; and his death, which occurred at Baden-Baden 
 at four o'clock yesterday morning, takes from the circle of Euro- 
 pean celebrities one of its most conspicuous and familiar figures. 
 The extinction of a remarkable career does not produce the less 
 the sense of a void that there is none to carry it on ; that Prince 
 Gortchakoff, dying on the eve of the new Tsar's coronation, and 
 of what it is hoped may be the beginning of a happier era for 
 the Russian people, has left no heir to his peculiar powers and 
 character as a statesman. 
 
 Alexander Michaelowitsch Gortchakoff came of a princely 
 family which claimed descent from Rurik. One of his ancestors 
 was slain by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and has 
 been canonised by the Greek Church. Another, Peter, in 1611, 
 had the equal ill-fortune without the saintly glory to be taken 
 captive by the Poles in the fortress of Smolensk, which he com- 
 manded. A third, Ivan, in the last century, during the reign of 
 Catherine II., was neither unfortunate nor glorious, but proved 
 more of a benefactor to his house by marrying into the Suwarrow 
 family. That alliance introduced the Gortchakoffs within the 
 narrow caste which for generations has monopolised the highest 
 offices of the State. From the marriage descended three illus-
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 99 
 
 trious Russians. Two of them, brothers, were soldiers, and 
 fought in the Crimea. The elder, Prince Michael, was the 
 skilful Commander-in-Chief who bravely defended Sebastopol, 
 and, when the city became untenable, conducted a very brilliant 
 retreat. Their cousin, Alexander Michaelowitsch, was born in 
 1798. He was educated at the aristocratic Lyceum of Zarskoe- 
 Selo, and left it a sound classical scholar. What was more 
 important for his future career, he also learnt to speak and write 
 in French with elegance. For this accomplishment, according 
 to Herr Klaczko, the author of Les Deux Chanceliers, who relies 
 upon a Russian authority, he was indebted to a brother of the 
 too-famous Marat. Among his fellow-pupils was the patriotic 
 poet Pouschkin, who addressed to him several of his youthful 
 lyrics. In one Pouschkin predicts the success in the world of 
 " Fortune's favoured son." Young Gortchakoff had indeed his 
 fortune still to carve out ; but he echoed his schoolfellow's 
 sympathy. When Pouschkin was interned in a remote village 
 for a poetical outburst against the established order, Gortchakoff 
 was one of the only two among his old comrades who visited and 
 consoled him. 
 
 Diplomacy was the profession assigned to Gortchakoff, and on 
 quitting the Lyceum he entered the office of Foreign Affairs. 
 Count Nesselrode was at the time Foreign Minister. As his 
 Attache, Gortchakoff, in January 1821, attended the Congress 
 of Laybach, at which the Emperors of Russia and Austria, and 
 the Kings of Prussia and Naples, met to concert the suppression 
 of the revolutionary movement in Naples. The Laybach Con- 
 gress broke up in May. In December 1822 another Congress 
 assembled at Verona, to which also Gortchakoff accompanied 
 Nesselrode. At that Congress, as is well known, the evacuation 
 of Piedmont and Naples by the Austrian armies of occupation 
 was decided upon. The young diplomatist was as yet only an 
 apprentice to the mystery. No tradition remains of any especial 
 impression having been produced by him at either unlucky con- 
 sultation. In 1824 he was appointed Secretary to the Russian 
 Legation in London. Here again he seems hardly to have left 
 his mark. His name does not once occur in Greville's Diary. 
 He so far, however, persuaded his official superiors of his 
 abilities that in 1830 he was nominated Chargd d'Affaires at 
 the Court of Tuscany, a position of importance on account of 
 Austrian relations with Italian politics. Thence he was trans-
 
 100 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 ferred within two years to Vienna. The death of his principal, 
 the Russian Ambassador, gave him some prominence, and he 
 used his opportunity. In 1841, when he was now forty-three, 
 he was appointed to the Russian Legation at Stuttgart. 
 
 He had thus risen slowly, and might have been supposed to 
 have scarcely a career before him. The accident of the engage- 
 ment of the Emperor Alexander's daughter, Olga, to the Crown 
 Prince of Wurtemberg brought him into relations with the 
 Court of St. Petersburg, which he knew how to turn to account. 
 He negotiated the alliance as Ambassador Extraordinary, and 
 was rewarded with the dignity of Privy Councillor. At Stuttgart 
 he remained officially as Russian Minister, but in reality to advise 
 the Grand Duchess in her new position, and to be a special 
 intermediary between her adopted and her native home. From 
 Stuttgart Gortchakoff watched the revolutionary spirit awaking 
 throughout Germany. He witnessed its outbreak in Stuttgart 
 itself, with the vain efforts of the old King William to quell it. 
 Though he could not sympathise, he appreciated the force of the 
 agitation better than many German statesmen. While stationed 
 in Wurtemberg he maintained his old relations with Vienna. 
 It was commonly believed that he was consulted on the state of 
 Austria, and counselled the abdication of Ferdinand in favour of 
 Francis Joseph. When in 1850 the reaction set in, and the 
 German confederation was re-established in place of the Parlia- 
 ment of Frankfort and its new empire, Prince Gortchakoff, who 
 had studied the machinery in operation, without compromising 
 himself, was appointed Russian Minister at the Diet. His 
 ostensible duties were not very onerous. His real function was 
 to observe and to report. He was a centre in Germany for all 
 the influences which conflicted with revolution. No more 
 characteristic representative of Russian diplomacy could have 
 been selected to stand beside the grave of the Duke of Wellington 
 in St. Paul's Cathedral on 18th November 1852. That grave 
 marked a new departure for Russian policy in Europe, and the 
 bearer of the Tsar's condolences was soon to initiate it. Above 
 all, at the Frankfort Diet he made the acquaintance of a young 
 lieutenant of Landwehr, the Prussian representative, Herr von 
 Bismarck. 
 
 The restored Bund was in a high degree the work of the 
 Russian envoy's master. The Tsar had crushed the revolution 
 in Hungary. He frowned it down in Germany proper. Russia
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 101 
 
 represented, as it had represented since 1814, but more potently 
 than ever, the principle of Conservatism in Europe. Russia, 
 under Nicholas, up to this period affected to covet nothing for 
 herself, but only peace for Europe. For that end she was 
 prepared to join any league which would intervene against 
 revolution wherever it might rear its head. She was prepared 
 to intervene, if necessary, alone. That was the traditional 
 policy of Russia for the earlier half of the nineteenth century. 
 It had been the policy of the Tsar Alexander I. It was the 
 policy of Nesselrode. It was the policy in which Gortchakoff 
 had been educated. But it had ceased to be the policy of the 
 reigning Emperor. Russian ascendency in Europe had stirred 
 in Nicholas the latent thirst for Eastern domination. Nessel- 
 rode and Gortchakoff were made acquainted with the Emperor's 
 designs, and saw all that was dangerous in them. But the 
 Emperor was his own Minister of Foreign Affairs in the last 
 resort, and his Council had to find the means to do his bidding. 
 From the Prussian nation, terrified by the explosion of 1848-49, 
 and morally coerced by the family alliance of the Romanoffs 
 and Hohenzollerns, there was nothing to fear. Nicholas 
 imagined that, if not gratitude, timidity made him equally 
 secure from interference on the part of Austria. He was 
 speedily undeceived, and may have attributed the disappoint- 
 ment to the close family relations with the Austrian Minister, 
 Count Buol, of his Ambassador, Baron Meyendorff. Meyen- 
 dorff was in any case not accounted sufficiently sympathetic 
 with the Tsar's aspirations. The representative of Russia at 
 the German Diet, and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of 
 Stuttgart, was more pliable and might show himself fuller of 
 resource. Alexander Gortchakoff was transferred, at first pro- 
 visionally, but in 1855 definitely, from Frankfort and Stuttgart 
 to Vienna. 
 
 Thus, at the ripe age of fifty-six, he had at length achieved 
 the highest rank in his early vocation. He had won a great 
 prize in diplomacy. But he had to justify his elevation, not by 
 dexterity in improving a victory, but by prudence in repairing 
 a defeat Like his cousin Michael, who shone yet more in the 
 hour of retreat from the ruins of his great fortress than when 
 threatening the allies behind their intrenchments, Alexander 
 Gortchakoff knew how to make salvage of a very doleful wreck. 
 The Hapsburgs whom Nicholas had rescued in 1849 had en-
 
 102 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 raged him by indications that they felt a higher obligation than 
 gratitude for dynastic aid. Prince Gortchakoff will be remem- 
 bered for his bitter mot that Austria is not a nation, but only a 
 Government. Yet as a Government, if not a nation, the 
 Government of Austria-Hungary could not resign itself to see 
 Russia swallow up Turkey. The new Russian Ambassador 
 found at the Vienna Conference of 1854 Austria resolute to 
 forbid the occupation by Russia of the Principalities. Thence- 
 forth he knew that the enterprise against a Turkey supported 
 by France and Great Britain was impossible, and directed his 
 efforts to convince his own Court of that sad truth. To him it 
 was in a great measure due that Russia did not continue to 
 mortgage her future yet more irretrievably, but accepted the 
 basis of a pacification. A patriotic Russian, he grieved over 
 the necessity of agreeing to the Peace of Paris ; but just because 
 he was a patriot he supported it with all his weight. As soon 
 as the Congress of Paris closed, his new Sovereign, Alexander 
 II., recognised the wisdom and courage he had exhibited in 
 discounting a tremendous reverse. In 1856 Prince Gort- 
 chakoff succeeded the superannuated Chancellor Nesselrode at 
 the St. Petersburg Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Herr Klaczko has observed that the previous Foreign Minis- 
 ters of Russia were simple nominees and clerks of the Tsar. 
 They were important personages in Europe, but insignificant at 
 home. The illustrious Nesselrode was a Westphalian who 
 owed his rise wholly to the choice of Alexander I. The 
 Russian people accepted him from the Emperor, of whom they 
 held him the mere mouthpiece. Prince Gortchakoff, on the 
 contrary, had become renowned in Russia as a sagacious states- 
 man, and above all as the inveterate enemy of Austria, before 
 he was put at the head of the Foreign Office. The popular 
 voice in a manner elected him. His policy was as unlike that 
 of his predecessors as the origin of his power. Count Nessel- 
 rode, like Prince Metternich, had been the representative in 
 Europe of a tideless Conservatism. Prince Gortchakoff repre- 
 sented revenge and movement Eastwards. He was in no 
 hurry. He contented himself with accustoming Europe anew 
 to the voice of St. Petersburg in international questions. He 
 neither sought nor rejected friendships. France first presented 
 herself, and Gortchakoff listened to the friendly overtures of 
 the Emperor Napoleon. He knew the exhaustion of his
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 103 
 
 country, and took care that it should not be drawn into 
 European complications. He took pleasure, however, in the 
 French overthrow of Austria in 1859 at Magenta and Solferino, 
 which he regarded as punishment for the ingratitude of 1854, 
 and he acquiesced in the French intervention in 1860-61 in 
 Syria, as a blow struck at Ottoman independence. 
 
 While in his famous circular of 1856 he had denounced 
 sarcastically the pretensions of the Western Powers to interfere 
 with the internal administration of the kingdom of the Two 
 Sicilies, he took advantage of the Italian war of 1859-60 to 
 propose a European intervention in aid of the Turkish rayahs 
 of Bosnia and Bulgaria. An expression in the circular of 
 1856 has become historical " La Russia ne boude pas; elle 
 se recueille." Russia had not abandoned her love of interven- 
 ing in European affairs. She was only re-collecting herself 
 and recruiting her exhausted energies. Her Foreign Minister 
 economised her resources for objects near and dear to Russia. 
 Thus in 1862 he declined the proposal of M. Drouyn de Lhuys 
 to join France and Great Britain in interposing between the 
 Federals and the Confederates in the war of secession. During 
 the same period he had enough indeed to do at home in repress- 
 ing the Polish insurrection, and in rebuffing the suggestions 
 of England, Austria, and France for an assuagement of the 
 severities employed in quelling it. The argumentatively con- 
 temptuous tone of his retorts to foreign diplomatic advice 
 delighted the Russians, in whose minds the reverses of the 
 Crimea still rankled. It had been a highly popular step on the 
 part of the Tsar to name him Vice-Chancellor of the Empire. 
 His appointment, in July 1863, to be Chancellor expressly in 
 reward for his diplomatic attitude towards an indignant Europe 
 was greeted with even more enthusiastic applause. By 1863 
 Prince Chancellor Gortchakoff, now sixty -five years old, was 
 become the most powerful Minister, not in Russia alone, but in 
 Europe. 
 
 Gradually circumstances had been drawing very close to- 
 gether the Berlin and St. Petersburg Foreign Offices. It had 
 seemed at one time as if France and Russia were to approxi- 
 mate. But there could be no real conjunction between 
 Napoleonic ideas and Russian Conservatism. Russia and 
 Prussia were united by a common jealousy of Austria. There 
 was besides an ancient personal alliance between the Russian
 
 104 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 and Prussian Ministers dating from the time when they listened 
 together to the futile debates of the Frankfort Diet, and 
 strengthened by Count Bismarck's residence as Prussian envoy 
 at St. Petersburg in 1859-62. Prince Gortchakoff in 1863 
 smoothed the way to the occupation of Holstein by the Federal 
 troops. It might seem that Austria was as much benefited as 
 Prussia ; but Prussia reaped all the advantage. When Prussia 
 precipitated herself on Austria in 1866, Prince Gortchakoff 
 showed no intention to interpose. When Austria lay at the 
 feet of Prussia, Russia seemingly was neither alarmed at the 
 aggrandisement of her neighbour nor mournful at the abase- 
 ment of Russian allies and connections among the minor States. 
 
 In 1870 there was no longer simple abstinence from inter- 
 ference between two belligerent nations. There was a positive 
 understanding on the part of the two Chancellors that Russia 
 should answer for the neutrality of Austria. France and 
 Prussia had since Sadowa been bidding for the friendship of 
 Prince Gortchakoff. France was willing to aid and abet Russia 
 in wresting Crete from the Porte, and assigning it to the young 
 bridegroom of the Grand Duchess Olga. Count Beust, on 
 behalf of Austria, desired to recompact the collective authority 
 of Europe over Turkey, which was a result by no means ac- 
 ceptable to St. Petersburg. But he too could have been per- 
 suaded to join in this extension of the Hellenic kingdom in 
 order to win the goodwill of Russia. The Russian Chancellor 
 received the proposal amicably. As for the attempt, however, 
 to use Crete as a bribe to combine St. Petersburg with Vienna 
 and the Tuileries against Berlin, that was trying to reverse a 
 foregone conclusion. 
 
 There was already a consummated understanding between 
 the German and Russian Chancellors, which no negotiations of 
 M. de Moustier and Count Beust could disturb by the breadth 
 of an inch. It was never embodied in protocols ; but Prince 
 Gortchakoff and his master were satisfied they had grounds for 
 assuming that, in return for Russia keeping the lists free from 
 Austrian intrusion on the side of France, what they considered 
 the natural current of events in European Turkey was to be let 
 flow unimpeded by Prussia. The abrogation of the Black Sea 
 Article of the Treaty of Paris was supposed by Russia to be 
 not the object of the tacit compact, but only its earnest. Slavonic 
 agitation was rife in Roumania and the adjoining provinces of
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 105 
 
 Turkey ; Hellenic agitation had a free course in Greece ; and 
 the Conservative Foreign Office of St. Petersburg was the 
 apologist of both. For a time it looked as if the Russian 
 Chancellor were to be paid at once his share of the price of the 
 understanding with Prussia. But Herr Klaczko thinks M. Bene- 
 detti right in the belief he expressed to his negligent superiors 
 at Paris in January 1870, that Prince Bismarck had always 
 resolved he should himself make the first move, and not 
 " become a card in the game of the St. Petersburg Cabinet." 
 
 It is not necessary to think Prince GortchakofF was out- 
 witted. The crisis may or may not have been sufficiently 
 matured for a final Eastern struggle. At any rate, Prince 
 GortchakofFs mind was not itself braced for it. He has never 
 shown the audacity of his triumphant compeer. He contented 
 himself with laying up gratitude at the Prussian Court for the 
 fidelity with which he forbade Austrian and Danish interven- 
 tion, and with which, when fortune declared against France, he 
 negatived Count Beust's project of a concerted representation in 
 favour of moderate terms of peace by the neutral Powers. He 
 even rejected a suggestion by Lord Granville, then at the 
 English Foreign Office, for an understanding between Great 
 Britain and Eussia which might afford a basis for a general 
 neutral appeal to King William's humanity. The thanks tele- 
 graphed from Versailles from the German Emperor to the Tsar 
 on 26th February 1871 were the immediate reward of Prince 
 GortchakofFs policy. The concurrence of Prince Bismarck at 
 the end of the war in the Russian demand for the abrogation of 
 the article of the Treaty of 1856 forbidding the presence of 
 Russian warships in the Black Sea was part of the material 
 recompense. 
 
 The tone in which Prince Gortchakoff demanded that abro- 
 gation sufficiently showed his reliance on the countenance of 
 Germany. He did not represent its inutility and ask Europe, 
 which had imposed the restriction on Russia, for its surrender. 
 He haughtily warned the Powers, by his circular of November 
 1870, that Russia did not intend to be bound by it in future. 
 The Conference of London resulted in inducing Russia to 
 conform in language to the obligations of treaties. Practically 
 she had her way. Prince Gortchakoff was indebted to Prussia 
 for being able to boast that he had torn up an essential portion 
 of the arrangement which marked the lowest point of Russian
 
 106 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 humiliation. Thenceforward, whether the impulse came from 
 the Prince or the Tsar, from this time a different temper is 
 observable in the relations between Berlin and St. Petersburg. 
 Berlin acted almost as if it had paid in the London Conference 
 its debt to St. Petersburg ; and the latter acted almost as if it 
 had begun to repent of having given too long a tether to 
 Prussian ambition. To the interposition of the Emperor 
 Alexander has been commonly attributed the rescue of France 
 from a threatened attack by Germany four years later. Whether 
 any such attack was ever meditated must remain uncertain. 
 We have been always indisposed to believe it. That the Tsar 
 and his Chancellor were sincerely opposed to overbearing 
 menaces against France can hardly be questioned. But what- 
 ever aggression might have been attempted on national rights 
 in Western Europe, it may be doubted if Russia would have 
 done more than protest at Berlin. Prince Gortchakoff s hands 
 were tied by Panslavism. So long as the Russian Chancery 
 simply supervised the affairs of Europe it was an irresistible 
 arbitrator. It had now descended into the arena, and was 
 exposed to all the chances of a combatant. 
 
 This was the radical defect of Prince Gortchakoffs policy, 
 as contrasted with that of Count Nesselrode, or with his own 
 for the six or eight years after the Treaty of Paris. It may 
 not have been his own fault primarily. There is no reason for 
 withholding belief from the assertion of the not very friendly 
 author of Russia before and after the War, that " only at the 
 eleventh hour the Chancellor of the Empire consented to take 
 the side of the Nationalists." The volunteers who had served 
 in Servia were treated, the same author admits, "with marked 
 disfavour." But the Chancellor had from the moment of his 
 rise to power adopted the course of attaching to his policy 
 popular enthusiasm. He feared popular enthusiasm ; he feared 
 still more to resist it. 
 
 We should probably not be mistaken if we concluded that, 
 perplexed by a force he could not control, he let himself go, 
 trusting that the wave of national and Panslavic excitement 
 might throw him up high and dry at the point he desired to 
 reach and exhaust itself in the effort. Again, there is no reason 
 altogether to deny the assertion of the eloquent authoress of 
 Russia and England that " Prince Worontzoff, our Ambassador 
 at the Court of St. James's, was a devoted advocate of the
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 107 
 
 Anglo- Russian alliance, and that his convictions are shared by 
 the Imperial Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff." The Chancellor 
 would very likely have preferred to have the assistance of Great 
 Britain in coercing the Porte, on the bases laid down at the 
 Constantinople Conference. With that assistance or without it, 
 he was determined the coercion should be accomplished. When 
 the Constantinople Conference broke up, Prince Gortchakoff 
 did not cease to negotiate with England for her concurrence in 
 ,a crusade against the Turks. When that concurrence was 
 finally refused, the Russian Panslavists were let loose. There 
 was first a conflict of Foreign Office circulars. So far as mere 
 fencing with subtle arguments and innuendoes went, the Prince 
 was not worsted. Never has any statesman used with more 
 effect the art of putting on acts a construction they might 
 honestly bear if proceeding from any other than the controver- 
 sialist, in the security that the antagonist cannot in self-respect 
 descend to an argumentum ad hominem vein of wrangling. All 
 that Russia had done, or was doing, for the Servians and 
 against the Turks might have been as innocent as the Prince 
 asserted it to be had not Russian statesmen been known to 
 have been playing for centuries at the same game. 
 
 After the Russian army once crossed the Danube the Chan- 
 cellor retired into the second place. He gave way to generals 
 and engineers. Even when the Balkans were passed and the 
 Bosphorus was in sight, Prince Gortchakoff was less heard of 
 than General IgnatiefF. Yet when General Ignatieff was dis- 
 credited, through the general repudiation of the Treaty of San 
 Stefano, the effect was to discredit the Chancellor too. The 
 principal figure on the Russian side at the Berlin Congress was 
 not Prince Gortchakoff, but Count Schouvaloff. The Prince 
 retained office, but after the Congress he held power ad interim. 
 Europe looked upon him as fighting a desperate battle of per- 
 sonal influence with Prince Bismarck, in the forlorn hope of 
 re-establishing the tottering edifice of his predominance. Prob- 
 ably the reports of the feud between the ancient friends have 
 been much exaggerated. If the aged Chancellor, at a German 
 bath, threw out hints to a Paris journalist of a design to patch 
 up the old Franco-Russian alliance, it was a policy he had 
 often tried before. The jealousy imputed to him of the German 
 Chancellor may have existed or not. If the dislike had grown 
 to be real, a feeling like that was least of all likely to be
 
 108 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 allowed by a statesman of Prince Gortchakoffs character to 
 make or mar a policy. 
 
 The truth is that the part of Russia in Europe which for- 
 merly consisted in playing off one State against another and 
 holding the balance between them, is, at any rate for the 
 moment, exhausted ; and Prince Gortchakoff was too old to 
 learn any other. New necessities have fallen upon Russia. It 
 has become more urgent for her to maintain internal coherence 
 than to present an aggressive or dictatorial front to external 
 foes or rivals. A great Minister of the Interior is more wanted 
 than the subtlest of Foreign Ministers. Prince Gortchakoff had 
 studied Europe more closely than his own country. Even 
 in the grand revolution by which the serfs were emancipated 
 he took a subordinate part, if any. He knew no device for the 
 healing of the plague-spots which infect Russian society. He 
 was a past-master of the art of treating Europe as a chess-board, 
 and states and peoples, including his own, as pawns. He was 
 not prepared to find his pieces swept off the board by a hand 
 beneath his own which he could neither guide nor feel. Before 
 hia Imperial master was assassinated, and long before his lieu- 
 tenant, M. de Giers, formally superseded him as Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, he had ceased to be a controlling influence in 
 Russia or Europe. General Loris Melikoff first, and then 
 General Ignatieff, though not Foreign Ministers in name, were 
 appointed to deal with problems which robbed the Chancellor- 
 ship of all its energy and meaning. For Prince Gortchakoff 
 Russia and the Russian people, and even its enthusiasms, had 
 merely been so much force at his disposal for the movement of 
 Europe. Nihilism, and regicide, and Jew-baiting, agricultural 
 discontent, commercial stagnation, and financial embarrassments 
 drained the resources on which he calculated for his projects. 
 In his Chancery at St. Petersburg he had been as purely a 
 diplomatist as in the Vienna Embassy. He had survived to a 
 date when a Russian Foreign Minister had to reckon with 
 Russia still more than with Europe. 
 
 No studies in mental history could be more interesting if 
 the Prince in his soft and luxurious leisure recorded his re- 
 flections, at once perplexed and cynical, on a course of national 
 change which had stranded his statesmanship high and dry. 
 How Russian historians will, on their side, deal with his 
 memory hereafter it is on the morrow of his death not the
 
 PRINCE GORTCHAKOFF 109 
 
 time to conjecture. It must at least be said that nowhere 
 will the student of diplomacy discover more exquisite models 
 of controversial ingenuity than in Prince GortchakofFs circulars. 
 Working on the most unpromising materials, he oftener than 
 not succeeded in putting his adversary logically in the wrong. 
 His diction is always sharp and refined. For those who can 
 read between the lines not a clause but is sharp as a dagger 
 against the statesman he is assailing. If a diplomatic circular 
 can ever be said to be witty, Prince Gortchakoff s despatches 
 deserve that praise. 
 
 The Prince has left two sons already grown up to manhood 
 and engaged in diplomacy. They have earned the reputation 
 of sagacity ; they do not pretend to genius. But Russian 
 diplomatists ripen slowly. Their father himself was well 
 advanced in middle life before he became remarked among his 
 contemporaries. The same phenomenon may be reproduced in 
 the case of his children.
 
 SIR GEOEGE JESSEL 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1883 
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL was born in 1824, being the son of the late 
 Zadok Aaron Jessel, a Jewish merchant, who lived in Savile 
 Row when Savile Row was to the City what Bayswater is now, 
 and afterwards removed to Putney, as to a distant rural retire- 
 ment, from which he watched the commencement of the 
 brilliant career of his gifted son. Zadok Jessel is said to have 
 dealt largely in coral and similar goods ; he bought land in the 
 City ; and was able to provide handsomely for his four surviv- 
 ing children, of whom the late Master of the Rolls was the 
 youngest. The Master of the Rolls in his youth was educated 
 by Mr. Neumegen, of Kew, who trained many of those of the 
 Jewish community who have since become most distinguished. 
 
 Being debarred by religious restrictions from a full enjoyment 
 of the privileges of Oxford and Cambridge, young George Jessel 
 entered as a student of University College, London, and passed 
 the examinations of London University. He was a scholar of 
 the College and of the University, took his B.A. degree with 
 the highest honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy 
 the year after Isaac Todhunter, and shortly before R. H. Hutton 
 and Walter Bagehot. In these double distinctions he followed 
 in the steps of the late Mr. Jacob Waley. He was specially 
 reported by the examiners as possessed of " very distinguished 
 merit." He also took honours and a prize in vegetable 
 physiology and structural botany, and he continued his 
 botanical studies to the last. When he was forming his gardens 
 at Ladham, near Goudhurst, his house in Kent, Sir George 
 Jessel went every Sunday to the Royal Botanical Gardens at
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL 111 
 
 Kew to observe the plants and select the species with which he 
 would stock his grounds, and he read ponderous tomes on the 
 classification of plants with the same care with which he got up 
 his briefs. He became M.A. and gold medalist in 1844 in 
 Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He was the last Flaherty 
 scholar at University College. 
 
 Sir George Jessel completed his academical career at the age 
 of twenty, and had entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn two 
 years before. His London education had the effect of giving 
 him an introduction to the practical work of his life at an earlier 
 age than that at which graduates of Oxford and Cambridge 
 learn the names of leading cases and the doctrines of law and 
 equity. His retentive memory became stored at its most 
 impressionable period with the rules of the Courts and the 
 leading authorities for them ; and afterwards in argument he 
 would cite from his unaided recollection case after case with a 
 facility which baffled opposition. 
 
 Mr. Jessel read with Bellinger Brodie, the eminent convey- 
 ancer, the draftsman of the Fines and Recoveries Act. He also 
 passed some time in the chambers of Mr. Peacock, afterwards 
 Sir Barnes Peacock, Chief Justice of Bengal and member of the 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ; and, being called to 
 the Bar on the 4th of May 1847 by the Honourable Society of 
 Lincoln's Inn, took chambers with his friend Mr. G. T. Jenkins, 
 afterwards his secretary, and now a Master of the Supreme 
 Court of Judicature, " devilled " gratuitously for his old master, 
 Brodie, and sought practice on his own account as a convey- 
 ancer. The interval in the life of a successful barrister between 
 "call" and "silk" is sometimes as short as ten years. The 
 rapidity with which Jessel did everything prepares us for a 
 short interval here ; but, in fact, it was not till eighteen years 
 from his admission to the outer Bar that he became Queen's 
 Counsel. He very soon obtained a moderate amount of business, 
 and in two years from his call refused to take the allowance 
 which his father had made him. But his work stagnated for 
 some years at an average of 600 a year, and, on talking over 
 his prospects at the Bar with a friend in the same plight, Mr. 
 George Jessel announced the conclusion that he had mistaken 
 his vocation in life, and that he would have done better to have 
 entered on almost any other career. But hitherto his occupation 
 had been chiefly in conveyancing. It happened shortly after
 
 112 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 this conversation that he was taken into Court, and in Court his 
 really profound knowledge, added to the most perfect and 
 unhesitating confidence in himself and readiness to assert his 
 views against others, soon" marked him out. 
 
 Lord "Westbury delayed the grant of a silk gown after a time 
 when Mr. Jessel thought himself fairly entitled to it. But in 
 1865 Mr. Jessel obtained "rank"; he attached himself to the 
 Court of Lord Eomilly, Master of the Rolls, and speedily rose to 
 a commanding position there. He led the Court, and some 
 added " by the nose " ; he had, certainly, a remarkable success 
 in procuring the adoption of his view on debatable questions. 
 Nine years before (in 1856) Mr. Jessel had married a daughter 
 of Mr. Joseph Moses, of London, by his wife nte Konigswarter, 
 a great heiress of Vienna. He settled in Cleveland Square, 
 Hyde Park, whence he removed to 1 Hyde Park Gardens after 
 his elevation to the Bench. In 1868 he was returned to 
 Parliament for Dover in the Liberal interest, won the attention 
 of Mr. Gladstone by a speech on the Bankruptcy Bill in 1869, 
 and became Solicitor-General in 1871. 
 
 On the whole, Sir George Jessel was not successful as a 
 debater. The House was impatient of his dogmatism. He carried 
 into the shifting art of politics the method of argument which 
 he had learnt in a legal system based upon authority. But in the 
 other and less showy part of a law officer's duty, that of giving 
 sound and prompt advice to the Government on the thousand 
 questions which arise, no law officer has, we believe, given 
 more unqualified satisfaction. His opinions on legal points 
 were solid and strong something on which a Minister could 
 lean with confidence. Masses of papers on all branches of law, 
 foreign law, international law, and domestic, were poured into 
 his chambers from all the public offices. He contrived to get 
 through all this work, in addition to his private practice, with 
 but little assistance. His rapidity and penetration in grasping 
 the essential parts of a long series of statements and arguments 
 were something to wonder at and to despair of imitating. 
 These qualities were employed to the full in the two years of 
 his Solicitor-Generalship, in which he contrived to earn at the 
 rate of from 20,000 to 23,000 a year, although on his entry 
 into office the patent fees were taken away (not without a 
 commutation allowance of smaller amount) from the office 
 which they had previously helped to enrich.
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL 113 
 
 The acceptance of judicial office meant to Sir George Jessel 
 the reduction of professional income to 6000 a year from the 
 large sums which we have just mentioned. Fortunately his 
 private means were considerable, and he could afford to dis- 
 regard these considerations. The succession to Lord Eomilly, 
 before whom Sir George Jessel had argued with so much success, 
 was doubtless peculiarly agreeable to him, and it is remarkable 
 that Mr. Justice Chitty, the leader in Sir George Jessel's Court, 
 succeeded in like manner to the seat of the Master of the Rolls 
 when the latter ceased to be a Judge of First Instance. It 
 is not generally known that the post of Master of the Rolls 
 was first offered to Lord Coleridge, then Sir John Coleridge, 
 Attorney -General, and there was considerable delay in making 
 a definitive appointment. The acceptance of the office by Lord 
 Coleridge would doubtless have contributed powerfully to the 
 "fusion" of law and equity, of which more was heard then 
 even than now. But Lord Coleridge ultimately declined, and 
 acceded later in the year, on the death of Lord Chief Justice 
 Bovill, to the cushion of the Common Pleas, from which he after- 
 wards passed to the Chief Justiceship of England. 
 
 If any doubts were felt as to the appropriateness of the 
 appointment of Sir George Jessel to the post of Master of the 
 Rolls, they were speedily dispelled by the unexampled spectacle 
 which his Court now presented. Never had there been within 
 the memory of living lawyers, or within historical memory, 
 such rapid, such satisfactory, such punctual discharge of legal 
 business. As an advocate, Sir George Jessel had often been over- 
 masterful. At Westminster Sir Alexander Cockburn called 
 him to account for want of patience and unusual vehemence in 
 addressing the dignified tribunal over which the Chief Justice 
 of the Queen's Bench presided. With Lord Justice James, like 
 himself a consummate master of equity, and like himself 
 impatient of opposition and confident of opinion, Sir George 
 Jessel had come into somewhat rough collision in argument. 
 But the temperament of the late Master of the Rolls was 
 eminently Roman. It was only to equals or superiors that he 
 was overbearing. His asperity was disarmed by submission, 
 and when he was on the Bench, although eminent Queen's 
 Counsel might fear his interruptions, to the diffident junior the 
 Rolls was a suave fountain of advice and assistance. 
 
 In the marvellously quick transaction of judicial business in 
 VOL. Ill I
 
 114 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Court and Chambers, Sir George Jessel sometimes gave decisions 
 which were successfully appealed from. This very week we 
 have reported the reversal by the House of Lords of a judgment 
 of the Court of Appeal, to which he was a party, on an im- 
 portant point in the law of discovery. But the successful 
 appeals from the Master of the Rolls rather illustrate the 
 differences of opinion which may exist in different minds on 
 legal questions, or on the legal conclusions to be drawn from 
 complicated sets of facts, than mistake in the tribunal. An 
 odd incident of his career at the Rolls was an attack made 
 upon Sir George Jessel by a dangerous lunatic. The lunatic 
 shot at Sir George Jessel, not from any special dissatisfaction 
 with the Master of the Rolls, but from some crazy wish to 
 express dissatisfaction generally with the judicial Bench. 
 
 The office of Master of the Rolls was considerably modified 
 during the tenure of it by Sir George Jessel, and it will be desir- 
 able to explain what it originally was and what it became while 
 he held it. The Master or Keeper of the Rolls is an officer of 
 high antiquity, mentioned in the time of William the Conqueror, 
 traceable, with duties akin to those discharged in our own days 
 by Sir George Jessel, in the time of John. He was one of a troop 
 of learned persons called Masters, who accompanied the Chan- 
 cellor, and held from that high keeper of the conscience of the 
 King a derivative jurisdiction, subject to appeal to the prime 
 source of their authority. The Master who kept the Rolls was 
 of special importance ; he took precedence of the chiefs of the 
 Common Law, except the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's 
 Bench, and when the Lords Justices of Appeal were formed as 
 a new appellate tribunal, the Master of the Rolls, although an 
 appeal lay from him to the Lords Justices and they could over- 
 turn his decisions, nevertheless was preferred to the Lords 
 Justices on all occasions of State ceremony. He became a 
 Judge of First Instance in Chancery, having, in general, con- 
 current jurisdiction with the Vice-Chancellors. The Master of 
 the Rolls had also in virtue of his office certain other high 
 duties. He had in his custody all enrolments of the Court and 
 certain public documents engrossed on parchment rolls. An 
 ancient hospital in the neighbourhood of Fetter Lane and 
 Chancery Lane had been established by royal authority for the 
 reception of converted Jews. When the Jews were expelled by 
 Edward I. this house was handed over to the Master of the
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL 115 
 
 Rolls. It thus, in our day, came into the keeping of a Jewish 
 Master of the Rolls, who once omitted a Vacation Sitting on 
 the groiind that it fell upon a Jewish fast^day. The records in 
 his charge, which had at one time been kept in the Tower, 
 came gradually to he preserved in this Rolls House. 
 
 By the Act passed in the beginning of the reign of the Queen 
 which established the Public Record Office, the Master of the 
 Rolls was made keeper of all the records in the Public Record 
 Office. Sir George Jessel took great interest in this department 
 of his public duties. The magnificent series of publications 
 illustrating the early history of this country which have been 
 produced by the Office owe something to his enlightened super- 
 vision. Judicially, the Master of the Rolls remained a Judge 
 of First Instance till a year or two ago. But the Judicature 
 Act and Appellate Jurisdiction Act gave him power to sit in 
 the new Court of Appeal established by the Acts. By virtue 
 of his high traditional rank, he usually had the presidency of 
 the Court when he sat with it. In 1881 an Act passed which 
 altered the duties of his office altogether. The Master of the 
 Rolls was henceforth relieved of all his duties as Judge of 
 First Instance and became the ordinary President of the Court 
 of Appeal. 
 
 As a Judge of Appeal Sir George Jessel treated the decisions 
 which came before him with the utmost possible respect, using 
 freely the liberty which his position gave him to disregard the 
 perverse old cases which the Courts of lower jurisdiction had felt 
 obliged to obey, and sometimes consciously modifying the law, 
 in the true spirit of the old creators of Equity jurisprudence. 
 If a personal history of English law is ever written, the part 
 which in the Victorian era Sir George Jessel took in adapting 
 the principles of Equity to a day in which cheques and tele- 
 graphic transfers have superseded the use of moneys in bags, in 
 which express and implied trusts have reached a complexity 
 which must be appreciated and carefully dealt with, not solved by 
 a resolution to disregard it, will be recorded as considerable. It 
 is interesting to recall the language which he himself held on the 
 subject. The words are taken from a luminous judgment in the 
 thirteenth volume of the Chancery Division Reports. Speaking 
 of " the modern rules of Equity," the Master of the Rolls said : 
 " I intentionally say modern rules, because it must not be 
 forgotten that the rules of Courts of Equity are not like the
 
 116 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 rules of the Common Law, supposed to be established from time 
 immemorial. It is perfectly well known that they have been 
 established from time to time altered, improved, and refined 
 from time to time. In many cases we know the names of the 
 Chancellors who invented them. No doubt they were invented 
 for the purpose of securing the better administration of justice, 
 but still they were invented. Take such things as these the 
 separate use of a married woman, the restraint on alienation, 
 the modern rule against perpetuities, and the rules of equitable 
 waste. We can name the Chancellors who first invented them, 
 and state the date when they were first introduced into Equity 
 jurisprudence ; and, therefore, in cases of this kind the older 
 precedents in Equity are of very little value. The doctrines 
 are progressive, refined, and improved ; and if we want to know 
 what the rules of Equity are we must look, of course, rather to 
 the more modern than to the more ancient cases." In the very 
 judgment in which these words occur the Master of the Eolls 
 laid down such a development of the pre-existing law as is 
 practically new law. Many of his judgments in the Court of 
 Appeal are luminous essays, not only models of orderly arrange- 
 ment and scientific induction, but great efforts of creation. 
 
 Cases of much popular interest do not often come into the 
 hands of the Equity draftsman or before a Master of the Rolls. 
 Sir George Jessel tried the respective rights of the Rev. Frank 
 and Mrs. Besant to the custody of their children, and decided 
 in accordance with the feelings of most Englishmen. His recent 
 decision in the case of Robarts against the City of London will 
 be fresh in the public mind. Here Sir George Jessel and his 
 colleagues in the Court of Appeal studiously deviated from the 
 salutary general rule laid down by Lord Coleridge, that judges 
 should not travel from the record before them to make observa- 
 tions on matters not directly in issue, the object being to correct 
 observations of a similar nature which had been made in the 
 Court below. Sir George Jessel has recently taken part in 
 deciding important telephone cases. His scientific attainments 
 were of great use in the Plimpton skate and other patent 
 cases. 
 
 In 1880 Sir George Jessel was unanimously elected by the 
 Senate of the University of London as Vice-Chancellor (Lord 
 Granville being Chancellor), an office previously held by Sir 
 John Lefevre and by Mr. Grote. Sir George was the first
 
 SIR GEORGE JESSEL 117 
 
 graduate who ever held this office, and he was extremely 
 gratified by the distinction. His education, his knowledge of 
 the history and working of the University, his deep interest in 
 its welfare, and his remarkable skill in the conduct of its 
 business and of the meetings of the Senate constituted him one 
 of the ablest and most efficient officers. His loss is felt to be 
 irreparable. He never failed, even after a long and fatiguing 
 day in Court, to attend the meetings at which his presence was 
 expected. To those who witnessed with concern the efforts 
 which he made to discharge his duties it was almost of painful 
 interest to see how, when breathless and exhausted after ascend- 
 ing the stairs and then resting for a few minutes, his clear, 
 bright intellect, and his power of guiding and controlling 
 opinions, led to the settlement of troubles and questions which 
 in other hands would have caused endless discussion. It is 
 about a week ago since he attended a meeting of the Brown 
 Institute Committee in reference to the study and treatment of 
 the diseases and injuries of animals, and submitted a report on 
 the subject, prepared by himself, which will have a permanent 
 influence on the welfare and usefulness of the Institution. 
 
 Among his many other public duties, Sir George accepted 
 office on the Royal Commission for the amendment of the 
 Medical Acts ; indeed, it is not saying too much to assert that 
 the fact of his consenting to act induced the Government with 
 more confidence to appoint the Commission over which Lord 
 Camperdown presided. This confidence was fully justified. 
 Sir George took the deepest interest in the subject, and the 
 report, in the preparation of which he took a large part, is the 
 basis on which the Bill introduced by the Lord President in 
 the House of Lords, which promises to have a lasting and 
 healthful influence on the medical profession, is founded. He 
 was a trustee of the British Museum and one of the Commis- 
 sioners of Patents, having special duties under the Trade Mark 
 Acts with regard to the registration of trade marks. Sir George 
 Jessel's forte was in detail, and on the Committees of the Judges 
 he rendered services which can hardly be over-estimated. Under 
 the Judicature Act of 1873 a long series of rules of Court was 
 drafted, which ultimately became the schedule to the Act of 
 1875, and established, in fact, a new code of practice for the 
 Courts. Sir George Jessel was the ordinary chairman of the 
 Committee of Judges which settled the draft, and took an active
 
 118 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 part in all subsequent modifications. In the discussions on the 
 impending new rules his experience was often invoked. 
 
 Sir George Jessel was sworn of Her Majesty's Privy Council 
 on his elevation to the Bench in 1873. The Master of the 
 Rolls was the last of the judges who were capable of sitting in 
 the House of Commons. Although this privilege still existed 
 at the time when Sir George Jessel was appointed, he deemed 
 it becoming, in view of the approaching abolition of the excep- 
 tion, to resign his seat for Dover ; but his references to the 
 subject in his farewell address and a willingness afterwards 
 shown to be nominated member for the University of London 
 appeared to betray that he retired with reluctance from 
 Parliamentary life. It was thought probable that in the not 
 very distant future the Sovereign might mark her gracious 
 sense of the services of the eminent judge by a call to the 
 Upper House, such as had been extended to earlier Masters of 
 the Rolls. Sir George Jessel was appointed Treasurer to his 
 Inn of Court, Lincoln's Inn, for 1883. 
 
 As a young man, Sir George Jessel travelled a good deal, 
 visiting Constantinople and America. Afterwards he often 
 passed the vacation abroad, as at Homburg, with his friend 
 Vice -Chancellor Malins, or in the Tyrol. But when he had 
 fairly laid out his estate in Kent, it became his favourite 
 amusement in the holidays to spend his days there in harmless 
 rural pleasures. He did not shoot or hunt, but would collect 
 and classify fungi, or would throw into the marking out of the 
 tennis-lawn the same close attention to the matter in hand 
 which was invaluable to him in deciding cases. He took pains 
 to keep himself abreast of the discoveries of modern sciences, 
 made a special journey to Paris for the Electrical Exhibition, 
 etc. In distributing prizes to some school - children recently, 
 near his country home, Sir George Jessel energetically preached 
 the doctrine of hard work. His speeches at City dinners were 
 often interesting. In London he rode in the Park every day 
 in summer ; in winter he was as constant in his afternoon's 
 attendance at the Athenseum. Sir George Jessel was fond of 
 the theatre and of society, and was a yearly visitor to the 
 Master of Balliol, but otherwise was difficult to tempt from his 
 own country house.
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1883 
 
 YESTERDAY died, on Austrian soil, "the last of the kings of 
 France," a prince who at his birth was surnamed " L'Enfant du 
 Miracle" and baptized " Dieudonn4," or God -given. He was 
 born more than seven months after his father had fallen under 
 the dagger of an assassin, and his coming into the world was 
 regarded as such an auspicious event from assuring the suc- 
 cession to the throne in the line of the elder Bourbons that 
 even people who believed in luck rather than in providential 
 dispensation came to the superstitious conclusion that the 
 Bourbons were fated to reign long. The Prince was the son 
 of Charles Ferdinand, Due de Berry, himself the second son of 
 the Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X., and the situation of 
 the dynasty at the time of his birth was this : The throne was 
 filled by Louis XVIII., brother of the ill-fated Louis XVI. and 
 formerly Comte de Provence, who had no children. His heir- 
 presumptive was his brother, the Comte d'Artois, who had two 
 sons Antoine, Due d'Angouleme, married to Marie -Thdrese, 
 daughter of Louis XVI., but having no issue ; and the Due de 
 Berry, who, in 1816, married the Princess Caroline of Naples. 
 From this union was born, in 1819, a daughter, Louise, after- 
 wards Duchess of Parma ; but as the Salic Law excluded women 
 from the throne the Due d'Orldans, head of the younger branch 
 of Bourbons, stood heir to the Due de Berry in case the latter 
 died without leaving a son ; and it was in the hope of destroy- 
 ing the elder Bourbon line that a fanatic named Louvel, a 
 journeyman saddler, assassinated the Due de Berry on the 13th 
 of February 1 820.
 
 120 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 The crime was committed under the portico of the Old Opera- 
 House, in what is now the Place Louvois. As the Prince was 
 escorting the Duchesse de Berry to her coach, and gaily humming 
 a snatch from Gluck's Orphde, he was struck in the back, and 
 the blow was dealt with such savage force that the point of the 
 knife went right through his chest and pierced the sky-blue 
 moir Riband of the Order of the Holy Spirit which he was 
 wearing. Louvel had no accomplices, and he did not attempt 
 to fly, but folded his arms, and only expressed regret that his 
 stab had not caused instantaneous death. 
 
 The scene of the Prince's final hour was dramatic beyond 
 description. He was carried into the private foyer of the Opera, 
 and there, mingling with singers in their paint and ballet-dancers 
 in their tinsel, were presently gathered all the members of the 
 royal family, the Ministers, and great officers of State. The 
 King arrived from the Tuileries old Louis XVIII., impotent 
 in his feet, and hobbling painfully along, with his black gaiters, 
 starched cravat, and powdered hair, which made him look like 
 an old-fashioned notary. The Comte d'Artois was there too, his 
 handsome face, usually so serene, pinched with anguish ; and so 
 was the portly Due d'Orl^ans afterwards Louis Philippe who 
 had a difficult part to play under the malevolent glances of courtiers 
 seeking on his physiognomy for some sign of satisfaction at an 
 event which appeared likely to establish the fortunes of his 
 family. When all the illustrious company were assembled round 
 the " property " mattress on which the Duke lay dying, the mild 
 and polished Due de Quelen, Archbishop of Paris the last of 
 the grand seigneur prelates, who wore diamonds and rubies like 
 a Court beauty walked in bearing the viaticum, and attended 
 by choristers with incense. He was preceded by a vicar-general, 
 who scattered holy water around him with an asperges brush to 
 purify the place ; and, indeed, the Archbishop's first care was to 
 consecrate the room, in consequence of which the building was 
 never more used as an opera-house after that day. 
 
 The Due de Berry, who was but forty-two years of age and 
 of vigorous constitution, wrestled long with death ; and almost 
 in his last breath he prayed that his murderer might be pardoned. 
 Meanwhile, Louvel stood in a corner of the room, guarded by 
 soldiers, who had so maltreated him with the stocks of their 
 muskets that his face streamed with blood ; and as he leaned 
 against the wall ready to faint, the Duke, espying him, said,
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 121 
 
 " Give him some water." M. Elie Decazes, the Minister of the 
 Interior (father of the present Duke of that name), had just 
 entered the room, and, taking up a glass of water, he approached 
 the murderer and whispered, " Miserable man, was the dagger 
 poisoned ? " These whispered words were to cost him dear. 
 M. Decazes was a Liberal, and the exasperation of the ultra- 
 Royalists at the Duke's death reached such a point that they 
 did not scruple to accuse him of being Louvel's accomplice. 
 " The dagger that killed the Duke was a Liberal idea," said 
 Benjamin Constant, the flippant Opposition orator ; and these 
 foolish words, besides causing M. Decazes's downfall, provoked a 
 furious reaction throughout the country against what were called 
 the principles of 1789. 
 
 However, there was a sort of lull after the 29th of September, 
 when the young widowed Duchess, to the unspeakable delight 
 of all good Koyalists, gave birth to a son. Of course it was pre- 
 tended in certain quarters that the royal baby was a changeling ; 
 and the unfortunate Due d'Orleans, to whom all ill-natured 
 rumours were attributed, became more odious to the Court than 
 he had been before, from having, as it was alleged, paid a crazy 
 woman to start up and declare that she had sold a baby to the 
 Duchesse d'Angouleme. But the mass of the people never 
 believed in the changeling story, and when the little Due de 
 Bordeaux was exhibited to the public on the day of his christen- 
 ing after having been baptized in water brought from the 
 Jordan by Chateaubriand the enormous crowd under the 
 balcony of the Tuileries, where the child was held up by his 
 nurse, raised such acclamations as forced even the sceptical 
 Louis XVIII. to borrow a pocket-handkerchief from Madame du 
 Cayla. A national subscription had been set on foot to buy the 
 baby an estate worthy of his rank, and more than 60,000 
 having been collected, the trustees purchased the Chateau de 
 Chambord, a beautiful place near Blois, which had been the 
 residence of Stanislas of Poland and of Marshal Saxe. The title 
 of Due de Bordeaux had been bestowed upon the Prince out of 
 compliment to the city which was the first to proclaim the 
 Bourbons after the overthrow of Napoleon ; but the King now 
 created his grand-nephew Comte de Chambord, and this was the 
 title by which the Prince was generally styled after the revolu- 
 tion of 1830, which drove Charles X. and his family into exile. 
 
 Six years before this revolution, when Louis XVIII. lay
 
 122 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 dying, the little Due de Bordeaux was brought to his bedside, 
 and the King, laying a hand on the child's head, said to the 
 Comte d'Artois, " Brother, be ruled by the thought of this boy's 
 welfare ; do nothing that will lose him his crown." The heir- 
 apparent bowed, but whispered to the Due de Montmorency 
 that he considered the advice was "in bad taste." One of 
 Charles X.'s first acts after ascending the throne was to commis- 
 sion his little grandson to a colonelship of Hussars. It will be 
 remembered that Napoleon III., by way of reviving the sobriquet 
 of " le petit Caporal," made the Prince Imperial, at the age of 
 three, a corporal in the Imperial Guard ; but under Charles X. 
 there was no such humouring of democratic instincts. The boy- 
 prince had the Due de Montmorency for his governor, the 
 Duchesse de Chevreuse for his governess, two marquises as his 
 equerries ; and once a week his regiment of Hussars was brought 
 into the Cour du Carrousel to be paraded before his eyes. On 
 these occasions it was customary to allow a certain number of 
 persons to press forward with petitions and thrust them into the 
 child's hands, in order that his name might be associated with 
 acts of royal clemency or favour. As the petitions which the 
 boy touched were always granted, it may be supposed that the 
 claims in them had been officially entertained beforehand. 
 
 In 1825, when Charles X. was anointed and crowned in the 
 Cathedral of Rheims with a pomp that recalled the grandiose 
 splendour of the old Monarchy, the Due de Bordeaux figured in 
 the royal procession, riding in a silvered coach drawn by six 
 white horses, and wearing a white satin costume embroidered 
 with silver lilies, and the blue Riband of the Holy Spirit. In 
 accordance with a Catholic custom, he had been dedicated to the 
 Blessed Virgin, and, until he was six years old, he never wore 
 any colours but blue and white, which are regarded as hers. 
 He was a pretty boy, with fair hair and blue eyes, very docile, 
 and with a sweet smile, which he had been taught to display to 
 everybody. Lamartine and Victor Hugo both rhymed odes to 
 him ; the writers in the Drapeau Blanc and Quotidienne, which 
 were the principal Royalist organs of the day, vied with one 
 another in their invention of anecdotes which described him as 
 always saying or doing good things ; and by these means the 
 boy became really a darling of loyal subjects. 
 
 But Charles X. himself, who had royal qualities as well as 
 defects, was not unpopular ; and if he lost his throne in a sudden
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 123 
 
 squall it was not because he sought to deprive the French of their 
 liberties, but because he chose the wrong man to abet him in 
 this endeavour. Prince Polignac, who became Prime Minister 
 in 1829, was a puzzle-headed man a "mere idiot," as M. 
 Guizot described him in speaking to the late Bishop Wilberforce. 
 During Napoleon's reign he had been condemned for taking part 
 in the plot of Georges and Pichegru, and confined for ten years 
 as a State prisoner in a private madhouse. In this retreat he 
 had learnt, like our James II., " to dream and tell his beads." 
 After the King had tried to get rid of a Liberal Chamber by two 
 dissolutions within a few weeks, Prince Polignac advised him to 
 sign those famous Ordinances which abrogated the Charter of 
 1815 ; but this he did without having taken any precautions to 
 follow up his move by the energetic fusillade which, as De Morny 
 said in after years, " is the proper accompaniment of a despot 
 singing a solo." The Ordinances were signed, not without hesi- 
 tation, at the Palace of St. Cloud, on the morning of the 25th 
 of July 1830, after Charles X. had attended mass. There was 
 a cloud on the King's brow for some time after he had done this 
 foolish thing ; but presently this cleared away and he went to 
 hunt the stag in the forest of Rambouillet, relying on the 
 assurances of Marshal Marmont that the garrison of Paris would 
 do its duty. The Liberals were so little confident in their 
 power of resisting the royal troops that Adolphe Thiers, then 
 editor of the National, betook himself to Montmorency, and it 
 was not till after a day's meditation that, feeling ashamed of 
 himself, he returned to Paris and drew up his magnificent 
 "Protest," which was signed by 210 journalists of the Liberal 
 party. 
 
 Meanwhile Paris began to simmer, and Charles X.'s regiments, 
 though full of loyalty, were not strong enough to cope with the 
 enormous multitude which filled the streets, encouraging gamins, 
 students, and girls to tear down Polignac's posters ; nor at the 
 outset were they commanded with sufficient spirit. In the work 
 of bill-tearing Jules Grevy, then a law student, distinguished 
 himself, and got nothing worse than a wound from the boot of 
 a staff lieutenant, who, as historical legends pretend, was the 
 future Marshal MacMahon. On the afternoon of Tuesday, the 
 27th, a deputation of mothers, chiefly market-women, went to 
 St. Cloud with a box of bonbons and a bouquet for the little 
 Due de Bordeaux, and tried to present a petition to the Duchesse
 
 124 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 de Berry, praying that she would use her influence to get the 
 Ordinances withdrawn, in order that other boys might not be 
 made fatherless like hers through civil strife. But the gift and 
 the petition were declined, and the noise of firing began to be 
 heard over Paris as the market-women trudged back, eating 
 between them the sweetmeats which they had brought for the 
 little Prince. 
 
 The fighting between the King's troops and the insurgents 
 lasted three days. The Garde Royale, whose officers were all 
 sons of peers, and the Swiss Guards, who hated the Parisians 
 well, fought with desperation ; but they were overmatched. 
 On the evening of the 28th Charles X. played his rubber of 
 whist as usual, and tried to look cheerful ; but on the following 
 day it was all over with the Bourbon dynasty, and the Due 
 d'Angouleme, in a paroxysm of rage such as he never exhibited 
 before or after, tore off Marmont's epaulets, accusing him of 
 having betrayed the King as he had betrayed VAutre that is, 
 Napoleon. Marmont was one of those unfortunate men whose 
 conduct always requires to be explained in books of three 
 volumes ; but his Memoirs have not altered the general opinion 
 that he was a poor creature. On the 1st of August the King 
 withdrew to Rambouillet, and on the 2nd abdicated ; at the same 
 time the Due d'Angouleme an easy, unambitious man 
 renounced his own rights in favour of his nephew, who thus 
 became King of France, the Due d'0rle"ans being appointed 
 Lieutenant-General of the kingdom until the boy should attain 
 his majority. 
 
 All these arrangements came too late. The Liberal leaders 
 did not want a regency ; they urged the Due d'0r!4ans to 
 accept the Crown that a Republic might not be established ; 
 and the new King King of the French he called himself in 
 servile homage to the mob sent M. Odilon Barrot, as Com- 
 missioner, to escort Charles X. to Cherbourg. Even at this 
 juncture the old King could not believe that his subjects wished 
 to drive him out. A few months before he had gone on a tour 
 through his dominions, and had been received everywhere with 
 enthusiasm, so that he kept hoping the provinces would rise up 
 and undo the seditious work of Paris. He journeyed towards 
 the sea like a conqueror in state, accompanied by his family, 
 his guards, and courtiers enough to fill fifty coaches. It took 
 him more than a fortnight, travelling with royal slowness, to
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 125 
 
 reach the port where he was to embark for England ; and all 
 along his route he heard words of compassion uttered for the 
 little Due de Bordeaux who stood at the window of a coach 
 with his sister blowing pretty kisses to the crowds. The boy 
 had not been informed as to what had happened ; he was in 
 high glee at hearing himself addressed as King and Majesty, 
 and the rigid observance of Court etiquette during the journey 
 kept him from guessing that he was going into exile. At 
 Laigle etiquette nearly robbed the two kings of their dinners, 
 for the hotel at which they alighted had only round tables 
 tables, therefore, of which their Majesties could not take the 
 head. However, a carpenter was called in to saw one of the 
 tables into a rectangle, after which the juvenile monarch and 
 his grandfather could sit down without shocking the High 
 Chamberlain. Prince Polignac followed his mis-served master 
 to England ; but he lay concealed in a baggage-waggon, having 
 as much to fear from infuriated Royalists as from the rabble. 
 
 There may be some natives of Edinburgh who still remember 
 the time when Charles X. held his court at Holyrood, and when 
 the Due de Bordeaux was frequently to be seen riding about the 
 city in a chaise driven by postilions with white cockades. The 
 Reform agitation in England rendered it undesirable that the 
 exiled family should establish themselves and plot against Louis 
 Philippe in or near London, and, after a while, William IV.'s 
 Minister gave hints that even Holyrood must not be made a 
 centre of intrigues. So the Bourbon Court removed to Prague, 
 and there it was soon resolved that the Duchesse de Berry a 
 Princess full of spirit and liveliness, who was the idol of the 
 Royalists should start for France, land privately in La Vendee, 
 and try to revive the old Breton loyalty in favour of her boy. 
 
 But this expedition, though carefully planned, ended in 
 disaster. If there had been a Republic in Paris the Venddens 
 would have understood the issues set before them ; but the 
 crown had been transmitted with comparative quietness, so far 
 as the provinces were concerned, from Charles X. to Louis 
 Philippe, and the peasantry could not see all the points of 
 difference between one king and another. A single engagement 
 with the new King's troops sufficed to rout the small body of 
 the Duchess's adherents, and the discomfited lady, trying to 
 escape from the country in the disguise of a peasant woman, 
 sabots and all, was betrayed into the hands of the Government
 
 126 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 by an infamous man, named Deutz, who charged ,40,000 as 
 the price of his treachery. Then the most calamitous blow of 
 all fell upon the Legitimists, for the Duchess, being confined 
 for months in the Chateau de Blaye, could not conceal that she 
 was pregnant, and was obliged to confess that she had been 
 privately married to an Italian nobleman, Count Lucchesi-Palli. 
 Charles X. never forgave this mesalliance. The little Comte de 
 Chambord had not been captured with his mother, but had been 
 conveyed out of France by the Marquis de la Rochejaquelein 
 and the Due de Blacas ; and when the Duchess left her prison 
 she was denied permission to join her boy or even to see him 
 again, except in the presence of strangers. 
 
 The Comte was confided to the care of his aunt, the Duchesse 
 d'Angouleme, a princess of masculine energy, who in face and 
 character resembled her grandmother, the Empress Maria 
 Theresa, and whom Napoleon called " the only man among the 
 Bourbons." Her placid husband seems to have found her 
 virility too much for him, for in 1832 he assumed the title of 
 Comte de Marnes, and retired altogether into private life, saying 
 his wife had " stolen his breeches, and that he was content she 
 should wear them since they fitted her." The daughter of 
 Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette was an excellent woman, 
 intelligent though hard ; but it would have been better for the 
 young Henri V. if he had been brought up under the softer 
 influence of his warm-hearted, cheerful, and most lovable 
 mother. The Duchesse de Berry was not pretty, but she was a 
 great charmer ; " to listen half an hour to her prattle is worth 
 two glasses of good wine," said Lord Stuart de Eothesay, when 
 he was Ambassador in Paris. There was something very 
 touching in the humility with which she submitted to be 
 banished from the royal family, as if her second marriage 
 had disgraced her, whereas, in truth, the gentleman to whom 
 she had given her hand was not unworthy of her. " Would you 
 have thought it more moral if I had not married him ? " she 
 asked of her strong-minded cousin. " II y a une morale d'Etat," 
 answered the Duchesse d'Angouleme sourly ; and afterwards 
 this good lady alluded with complacency to the excellent 
 example set by another beau gar f on, who, having married a 
 princess of blood -royal, had been satisfied "with some left- 
 handed ceremony in a vestry," and described himself wittily on 
 his cards as " Master of her Royal Highness's household."
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 127 
 
 Charles X. died in 1836 at Goertz, or Goritz, a small town of 
 Istria, long noted as the chief place where Hebrew books were 
 printed for the East. He had gone there from Prague in 1 835, and 
 it was at Goertz that the Comte de Chambord received an education 
 that was to estrange him completely from the political thought 
 of the century. His principal tutor was the Due de Dainas, 
 a man who might have compared with the present Bishop of 
 St. Andrews for the variety of his accomplishments as scholar, 
 athlete, Churchman, and causeur. He was one of those amusing, 
 exuberant, sentimental, and winning men who always disclaim 
 sentiment in arguing and profess to be guided by cold reason 
 unanswerable men, having erudition, anecdote, syllogisms, and 
 humour all at their command for the defence of any prejudice 
 or paradox. The Due de Damas was no bigot. He would 
 almost have subscribed to the' proposition of a certain English 
 peer that " the Church is a branch of the Civil Service." But as 
 such he understood its uses, and claimed for it his pupil's whole- 
 hearted devotion. " Men seek shelter under that which is firm," 
 was his favourite maxim. " Tired sceptics return to Rome because 
 its doctrines are immutable, and disappointed politicians to 
 absolutism. France will grow sick of the new systems which 
 promise more than they yield, and her people will then crave 
 for a restoration of the old Monarchy, which stood upright a 
 thousand years." In this doctrine of reaction applied to an un- 
 settled country like France there was a great deal of truth. 
 But the flaw lay in ignoring the fact that in politics people are 
 attracted chiefly to men, not to ideas. We regulate our spiritual 
 lives by principles, but we like that our temporal business shall 
 be managed for us by men of nerve, who can persuade us that 
 they are leading us forward, even though they are doing the 
 contrary. 
 
 The Comte de Chambord's education should have fostered in 
 Mm that happy audacity which enables a man to give new 
 names to old things, as Napoleon III. did in 1852, when he 
 established a Monarchy more despotic than that of Louis XIV., 
 and called it the latest development of democracy. Instead of 
 that the Comte's pious aunt and his romantic tutor taught him 
 to attach himself to the symbols, imaginary glories, and not less 
 imaginary principles of the old Monarchy ; in fact, what the 
 Comte de Chambord really did was to create in fancy an ideal 
 Monarchy, such as had never existed. " Our dear Henri is a little
 
 128 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 mystical ; his is a poet's nature," wrote the Duchesse d'Angou- 
 leme in 1840 to P. A. Berryer, the great Legitimist orator ; but 
 Henri V. never wrote a passable line of poetry, and he was 
 mystical only because his mind had been nourished entirely on 
 fictions. He had learned the history of France out of that 
 queer book by Father Lorriquet, which makes no mention of the 
 follies, crimes, and tribulations of the French kings, but records 
 only their pomps and victories. They are all crowned saints, 
 including Louis XV., and the downfall of their power was 
 explained to Henri V. by the circumstance that the aristocracy, 
 who ought to have been the supporters of the Church and 
 of the Throne, had been led away by the heresies of a certain 
 Voltaire. 
 
 This fact, this one great smirch on the pages of French 
 history, made a deep mark on the mind of the young Prince, 
 who knew nothing of Voltaire beyond that he was the devil's 
 emissary, like Luther ; but a time came when the Due de Damas 
 found that his pupil, by dint of brooding over the unexpiated 
 sin of his country, was lapsing into a dangerous train of 
 thought. In his twentieth year the Prince began to fast often, 
 spent hours daily in the chapel of his chateau, and would come 
 out thence with streaming eyes ; his great fear was that he 
 could never become so good a man as his ancestors, and that he 
 might draw down new calamities on France by his want of 
 firmness. He pushed introspection to such a point that he 
 began to trouble his confessor, the Jesuit Father Lemercier, with 
 sheets of letter-paper covered with memoranda as to his evil 
 thoughts. A visit from the wise Cardinal Lambruschini (who 
 was very nearly being elected Pope a few years afterwards in 
 the place of him who became Pius IX.) restored composure to 
 his mind. But the Cardinal advised that he should travel, and 
 soon afterwards the Prince set off on a tour with the amusing 
 Due de Ldvis and General Latour-Foissac. He journeyed over 
 Austria, part of Germany, and Italy, being received in all the 
 Courts with royal honours, much to the disgust of Louis 
 Philippe's envoys ; and he excited everywhere feelings of 
 mingled admiration and astonishment. He was a handsome 
 young man, who bore himself with a kingly dignity, but he was 
 grave beyond his years, shy with women being no Frenchman 
 in this respect and he betrayed his ignorance on almost all 
 subjects with such an astounding coolness that some of his
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 129 
 
 hosts at first eyed him askance, wondering whether he was a 
 practical joker. 
 
 Sir Robert Gordon, who was British Ambassador at Vienna, 
 wrote to a friend in England : " The young King of France 
 has been here amusing everybody. People do not know what 
 to make of him. The other night, speaking to the Emperor, he 
 said something so incredibly simple that the Emperor looked 
 hard at him twice, expecting he was going to smile." After a 
 while, however, the surprise which the Comte created gave way 
 to a kind of enthusiasm, and sovereigns passed the word to one 
 another that he was a young Prince really worth studying. He 
 had never read a novel, he took no interest in science, his 
 knowledge of history was derived from a tissue of ballads and 
 fairy tales ; but his faith in the divine right of kings and the 
 ardour with which he expressed himself about the duties of 
 princes in setting models of piety to their subjects were refreshing 
 novelties to certain blasts potentates, who were weary of hear- 
 ing most young princes boast of comprehending " the Liberal 
 principles of the age." The King of Naples (Bomba) exclaimed 
 in a transport that Henri V. would be a new David a simple 
 boy with a sling, who would slay the Goliath of Impiety. 
 Count d'Orsay, who saw the Prince two or three years later in 
 London, and who thought poorly of him, conveyed a similar idea 
 in other words. Somebody had remarked that the Comte de 
 Chambord had a fine head. " Yes," he said, " it is a palace with 
 no room furnished in it except the chapel." 
 
 In 1841, two months before he became of age, the Comte de 
 Chambord met with a bad accident of which he was to feel the 
 consequences for the remainder of his life. Riding in the 
 neighbourhood of Kirchberg, he was thrown from his horse, and 
 fractured his left thigh. A permanent lameness was the result, 
 not very marked, but sufficient to make prolonged exercise dis- 
 tasteful to him. Moreover, the accident spoilt his nerve for 
 riding and made it impossible that he should figure in the 
 military pageants of foreign Courts. This was a great dis- 
 appointment to his adherents, who had been anxious that he 
 should appear frequently in uniform, and be represented as 
 having military tastes and aptitudes. 
 
 In that same year, 1841, the Duchesse d'Angouleme pur- 
 chased the castle and estate of Frohsdorf, about forty miles from 
 Vienna, and the Comte de Chambord had been taken there from 
 
 VOL. Ill K
 
 130 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Goertz for a change of air, when news arrived of the sudden 
 death of the Due d'Orleans, Louis Philippe's heir, through a 
 carriage accident. This event seemed likely to be of great import- 
 ance to the Comte de Chambord, for the Due d'Orleans had en- 
 joyed an immense popularity. Affable, generous, brave, highly 
 educated, the friend of artists and authors, and a sincere Liberal, 
 he promised to make an excellent king ; but the eldest of his 
 children, the Comte de Paris, was only four years old, and 
 Guizot's Government, having to introduce a Kegency Bill, found 
 itself in difficulties. The Duchesse d'Orleans (Hdlene of Meck- 
 lenburg) was a Protestant, and Guizot, though a Calvinist 
 himself, dared not propose her for fear of offending the Roman 
 Catholics. On the other hand, the Due de Nemours, the King's 
 second son, was not popular, and his nomination as Eegent 
 greatly weakened the Monarchy of July. 
 
 The Comte de Chambord was still confined to his couch 
 when all these events happened, and he was not well enough to 
 be moved until November 1843. He then went to London, 
 where a house in Belgrave Square had been hired for him, and 
 he announced his pretensions to the throne in the most public 
 fashion, calling upon all his partisans to come and do him 
 homage. They flocked to London in great numbers, and 
 Louis Philippe grew so alarmed that it was arranged the 
 Deputies of the majority should, in their address answering the 
 Speech from the Throne in the session of 1844, censure the 
 conduct of twenty-six members of the Lower House who had been 
 among the pilgrims. These gentlemen at once resigned their seats, 
 but were re-elected. What was worse, a sudden fashion set in for 
 " Chambordism " ; the circulation of the Legitimist papers was 
 quintupled ; ladies wore bonnets A la Chambord ; actors, 
 " g a ggi n g" i n their parts, introduced allusions to " lilies," the 
 " Grand Monarque," "Henri IV." and the "poule aupot," and were 
 frantically applauded. Paris, always on the quest for some 
 new thing, chose to look upon the young Henri V. as a hero 
 whose elevated ideas dwarfed the petty peaceful policy of a 
 bourgeois king. 
 
 At this time the future Napoleon III. was a prisoner at Ham, 
 ridiculous on account of his two mad raids upon Strasburg and 
 Boulogne ; the Republican party were discredited owing to the 
 foolish insurrection of Barbes in 1839; and the Comte de 
 Chambord, who had most of the clergy and nobility and a large
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 131 
 
 mass of malcontents on his side, to say nothing of Berryer, who 
 was a host in himself, was the only serious pretender whom 
 Louis Philippe had to fear. He much strengthened himself in 
 1847 by marrying the Princess Maria-Theresa, daughter of the 
 Duke of Modena, who added a very large fortune to that which 
 he possessed already ; and in 1848, when all of a sudden a 
 revolution broke out in Paris and drove Louis Philippe from 
 the throne, he could reckon that he had every chance in his 
 favour. He was on a visit to his mother at Venice when the 
 news of Louis Philippe's ludicrous fall reached him, for, since 
 his majority, he had often sought the companionship of the 
 amiable woman whom the Duchesse d'Angouleme still called 
 contemptuously "la Palli." The Duchesse de Berry, always 
 impulsive, jumped up, clapping her hands, and danced round 
 the room ; but the Duchesse d'Angouleme received the tidings 
 at Frohsdorf in a manner which showed a much deeper, more 
 intense feeling of triumph. When she heard of Louis Philippe's 
 pitiful hesitations, of his unkingly weakness and shameful flight, 
 in which no element of humiliation and of just retribution, 
 according to her view was wanting, she stopped the Due de 
 Blacas, who had come to her with the story, and who related it 
 laughing. " C?est assez" she said, thrilling all over in her 
 black robes (she had lost her husband in 1844). "Mon 
 Dieu, I dare not listen any more ; we are too completely 
 avenged." 
 
 Why did not the Comte de Chambord make a better use of 
 his opportunities in 1848 ? The answer must be the plain one 
 that he was deficient in personal courage. The fact might be 
 varnished by saying that he was over-conscientious and more of 
 a monk than a prince ; but this would not be true. He was 
 bigoted and very ignorant, but he had outgrown the religious 
 hysteria of his twentieth year ; he had become a bon vivant, was 
 vain of his rank, and much wished to be king. Nor was there 
 in him any resolute objection to reigning as a constitutional 
 sovereign, for in several little addresses to deputations, and in 
 letters he was always writing letters he declared that he 
 meant to rule with the help of advisers elected by the people. 
 The organs of his party, and especially L' Union and La Gazette 
 de France, which were known to draw their inspirations directly 
 from his circle, stated the same thing in much more explicit 
 terms ; but it was a suspicious circumstance that scruples always
 
 132 EMINENT PERSONS' 
 
 overcame the Comte when it was necessary that he should take 
 personal action. 
 
 Four months after the revolution of February the second 
 Republic was doomed. The Communist insurrection of June 
 had broken out and had been thoroughly repressed by General 
 Cavaignac ; a Conservative reaction set in, and the first Legis- 
 lature elected during the General's rule contained a strong 
 minority of Legitimists and a large number of members who 
 were ready to rally round Henri V. on condition that he should 
 issue a manifesto embodying a charter of public liberties. But 
 this he would never do, though he repeatedly promised to do it. 
 He flitted about from place to place, inviting his friends to meet 
 him in palaces or hotels ; and at his hospitable table he spoke 
 with so much sense and sweetness that his guests went away 
 enchanted. But at the very moment when, after toiling and 
 moiling, arrangements had been effected in accordance with his 
 own suggestions, he would mysteriously vanish, and would be 
 next heard of as performing a "retreat" in a monastery. Again, 
 when he ran away he would leave some confusing letter behind 
 him which darkened the political waters like the discharges of 
 an ink-fish. 
 
 Tricky would be a hard term to use about the Comte de 
 Chambord, but he gave his word lightly, and it was worth little, 
 because his moods were so variable. When the battle was far 
 off he snorted like a war-horse ; when the time came for actually 
 joining in the fray he always found it necessary to consult some 
 reverend father as to whether it were fitting he should fight. 
 Louis Napoleon, a very different man, canvassed the country 
 while the Bourbon Prince idled, and in a few weeks, by dint of 
 clever electioneering, he won all the popularity which Henri V. 
 might have got if he had shown vigour, or if he had simply 
 refrained from thwarting those who worked for him. But 
 even after the Presidential election of December 1848 the 
 Comte de Chambord still had good prospects. Most of the 
 Legitimists had voted for Prince Bonaparte so that Cavaignac 
 might not prevail, but they regarded the Prince merely as a 
 stopgap, and were confident that before the expiring of his four 
 years' term they should be able to arrange for Henri V.'s suc- 
 ceeding him. 
 
 By the light of all that has happened since, it seems strange 
 that so astute a man as Berryer, the Parliamentary leader of the
 
 THE- COMTE DE CHAMBORD 133 
 
 Legitimists, should never have divined that Louis Napoleon, 
 when once placed in command of the strongly -centralised 
 administrative machinery of France, would not easily be got rid 
 of. But Berryer's delusions were shared by a great many 
 other sharp men, including Thiers, and the years 1849-51 
 were consumed in intrigues tending to bring about a fusion 
 between the two Royalist parties. The Marquis de la Roche- 
 jaquelein was the first among the Legitimist leaders who saw 
 through the Comte de Chambord. " (Test un farceur, une poule 
 mouille'e," he said, giving deadly offence to Berry er by those 
 words. The Duchesse d'Angouleme, however, had arrived at 
 the same painful conclusion. For her religion's sake she pre- 
 tended to acquiesce in her nephew's untimely scruples, but she 
 was grievously disappointed to see him miss his destiny as a 
 modern David by his lack of the spirit which conquered the 
 Philistines, and the last year of her life was one of fretfulness. 
 She died in 1851, just in time to be spared the sorrow of wit- 
 nessing the destruction of all Royalist hopes by Louis Napoleon's 
 coup d'e'tat. 
 
 In 1852 the fortunes of the Comte de Chambord had fallen 
 so low that he was obliged to employ a stationer in the Passage 
 Choiseul, named Jeanne, to act as his political agent-general. 
 From this man's shop were issued childish tracts of the Comte's 
 own composition, prophesying disaster to France unless her 
 people made atonement ; but the nature of the atonement was 
 only hinted at in vague mystical terms. The nation was " to 
 fall at the feet of the Prince who bore the standard of Joan of 
 Arc," to " hail the reign of the Cross and the lilies," and so 
 forth. One morning the Imperial police entered M. Jeanne's 
 shop and seized two cartloads of these little books, but they were 
 deemed so harmless that nobody was prosecuted for having cir- 
 culated them. 
 
 The Comte de Chambord's vagaries during the second Re- 
 public had alienated a section of his followers, who rallied to 
 the Empire ; unfortunately, a larger section remained faithful 
 to him, and this was a melancholy thing for themselves and for 
 France. In reviewing the career of the " honorary King," one 
 is bound not to forget how very mischievous his influence was 
 how selfishly and unpatriotically he acted in not releasing 
 from their allegiance men whom he had been unable to lead, 
 and who, by remaining in subjection to him, had to renounce
 
 134 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 all chance of serving their country. The Legitimists became a 
 sulking party. They could not, consistently with Royalist 
 principles, condemn the policy of an Emperor who ruled as 
 autocratically as the old King, and who maintained an army of 
 20,000 men in Rome to uphold the temporal power ; so they 
 had to base their opposition to Napoleon III. on metaphysical 
 divine right principle. During eighteen years the miserable 
 spectacle was witnessed of thousands of well-educated, honourable 
 gentlemen withdrawing altogether from public life, and refusing 
 to serve France as soldiers, sailors, statesmen, or judges, because 
 they could not swear obedience to an Emperor elected by 
 plebiscite. 
 
 All this time the Comte de Chambord lived in easy and 
 cheerful retirement. No children were born of his marriage, 
 and as he bore no love to his heir-presumptive, the Comte de 
 Paris, he had not to trouble himself about that Prince's future. 
 His large fortune allowed him to keep up a stately court on a 
 small scale, to travel much and with great comfort, to indulge 
 his taste for sport, and to receive a succession of visitors all the 
 year round. Anybody who came to him from France, no matter 
 what was his rank or business, was sure to be most courteously 
 entertained ; but the Due de Blacas, who acted as chamberlain, 
 used to inform visitors that they were not to address the Prince as 
 Sire, and Your Majesty, or to talk politics, the truth being that 
 the Comte did not wish to be put to the trouble of explaining 
 his mysterious views. He preferred to keep up his character as 
 a royal hermit, pensive and impenetrable ; and if by chance 
 he emitted an opinion it was pontifically, without inviting dis- 
 cussion. The Imperial Court of France always treated him with 
 a deep respect from policy. 
 
 M. Alphonse Daudet tells an amusing story of how, being a 
 young man and having been offered the post of secretary to the 
 Due de Morny, he thought good to inform that statesman that 
 he was a Legitimist. " So is the Empress," was the unexpected 
 answer. The Empress cherished, indeed, some pretty project for 
 getting the Prince Imperial betrothed to Henri V.'s niece (who 
 eventually married Don Carlos), and prevailing upon the Comte 
 to acknowledge Napoleon III.'s son as his political heir, but the 
 Emperor and Empress also made a point of honouring their 
 enemy in order that they might conciliate his titled adherents 
 and attract them to the Tuileries. As M. Edmond About
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 135 
 
 remarked, " On fait la guerre aux Re'publicains a coups de baton, 
 aux Le'gitimistes a coup d'encensoir." To thwart the Imperial 
 designs the Comte de Chambord now and then launched a 
 proclamation ordering his friends not to vote at this or that 
 election ; and after the Italian war, when the Papal States were 
 in danger, he wrote a valiant letter, declaring that he was ready 
 to shed his blood for the temporal power, but as he did not 
 buckle on his sword to go and encounter Garibaldi, this out- 
 burst only made people smile. 
 
 It must be added that the Bourbon Prince's reputation de- 
 clined year by year from its getting gradually known through 
 newspapers that he was truly a very dull man. Journalists 
 went to interview him in German watering-places ; and two 
 distinguished savants falling in with him during his Syrian 
 travels in 1863-64 took his intellectual measure ; but nobody 
 was ever able to report that he was a man of parts. Advancing 
 into middle age he had become stout and bald ; and he had a 
 good-humoured expression, which made him pleasant as a host ; 
 but the only topics on which he was fluent were sport and the 
 curiosities to be found in churches. Being unable to ride, he 
 had caused his forest at Frohsdorf to be intersected by splendid 
 roads along which he could follow his hounds at boar or stag 
 hunts in a phaeton ; as for churches he had visited hundreds of 
 them and probably knew more than any man about the miracu- 
 lous properties attaching to different relics. For the rest, he 
 bought pictures, but they were selected for him ; he had no 
 preference for any particular composer ; it made him yawn to 
 go to the theatre ; and being once asked what he thought of M. 
 Alexandre Dumas's romances, he answered solemnly that their 
 author had taken " great liberties " with French history. Alto- 
 gether, the Comte de Chambord had become rather a laughing- 
 stock among Frenchmen when the events of 1870-71 occurred 
 and placed him once more in a position where it needed only a 
 little daring to make him king. 
 
 Of course the daring failed him ; though he had stronger 
 moral support from 1871 to 1873 than under the second Re- 
 public. In 1848 nobody thought that the French could submit 
 to a restoration of despotic monarchy, so that in demanding that 
 France should entrust her destinies to him " unconditionally," 
 he seemed even to his own followers to be asking too much. 
 But after Napoleon III.'s reign the Comte de Chambord could
 
 136 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 urge that despotism was by no means so contrary to the spirit 
 of the age as had once been supposed ; and he could prove that 
 Napoleon had prospered so long as he had been faithful to the 
 principles of autocracy, and had only begun to totter from the 
 day when he made a half-hearted attempt to restore Parliament- 
 ary institutions. 
 
 Unfortunately, Henri V.'s failing had never been sturdiness, 
 but instability ; and under the third Republic he commenced 
 exactly the same old game of hasty promises and unblushing 
 retractations as he had played twenty years before. From 
 Geneva, from Antwerp, from Bruges, from his own Chateau de 
 Chambord which he revisited, he issued a series of letters which 
 were expressly intended to allay the public prejudices touching 
 his opinions. He plainly declared that he would never disown 
 the tricolour, " reddened by the blood of French soldiers " ; he 
 stated that it was absurd to think that he could wish to govern 
 without a Parliament or that he had any idea of reviving Church 
 tithes or of suppressing political equality, " which is but a 
 guarantee of the love which a good king bears towards all his 
 subjects equally as to his children." Had the Comte not made 
 these declarations the Royalists could never have pitched their 
 hopes so high or pushed their intrigues so far as they did. The 
 cabal which overthrew M. Thiers in May 1873 went to work 
 on the understanding that the Comte de Chambord was ready 
 to accept the Crown and to recognise the Comte de Paris as his 
 heir, provided the latter went to Frohsdorf to do him homage. 
 
 Accordingly, the long-delayed interview between the heads 
 of the two royal houses took place on the 5th of August 1873 ; 
 but nothing came of it. The Comte de Paris was received 
 somewhat like the prodigal son kindly by the Comte de 
 Chambord, very coldly by the Comtesse, a lady of exemplary 
 life but rather chilling manners. The Due de Chartres accom- 
 panied his brother, but the Comte de Chambord expected, or 
 pretended to have expected, that the elder princes, Louis 
 Philippe's sons, would have come too. In taking leave of his 
 kinsman he could not help administering a soft coup de patte : 
 " Your uncles are not ill, I hope ? " he said ; and the Comte de 
 Paris returned to France feeling that he had compromised him- 
 self without assured profit, for though he had done homage to 
 Henri V. as chief of his house, the latter had not returned the 
 compliment by greeting him as his heir.
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 137 
 
 A few weeks after this the Comte de Chambord came privately 
 to Versailles, and there his friends urged him to take the Crown 
 suddenly by a coup de main. Everything was ready, as they 
 assured him. There was a Royalist majority in the National 
 Assembly, and if he would only march into the hall of debate 
 and personally demand the recognition of his rights, he should 
 be hailed King by acclamation ; and Marshal MacMahon would 
 take care that the army obeyed the decree of the Assembly. 
 
 One night the Comte de Chambord, who was staying in the 
 house of a Breton deputy, M. de la Rochette, paced about the 
 dining-room musing in agony of mind as to whether he ought 
 to do what his host and others asked of him ; but at last he took 
 to flight in his favourite way, and left a letter saying that it 
 would have been derogatory to his dignity to act as he had been 
 advised. The truth is, he was waiting for a national call and 
 he had not heard it ; on that point his prudent ears could not 
 deceive him. He had come to Versailles expecting to be braced 
 in the atmosphere of the royal city where four kings of his race 
 had held their splendid and mighty courts ; but all he had seen 
 brought disappointment and sadness. Better than any man he 
 knew what were the glories of old Versailles when it was the 
 residence of the greatest nobles; the place to which victorious 
 generals came to receive their Sovereign's rewards and the smiles 
 of society ; the centre of arts, literature, wit, and graceful 
 manners ; the most polished academy in the world, as well as 
 the finest Court. But of the old Versailles no traces were left in 
 the new except under the form of bricks and stones. With 
 some shrewdness the Prince looked for signs of a Royalist feeling 
 where assuredly they would have been most displayed had they 
 existed over the doors of shops and in the enseignes of public- 
 houses. Had the memory of the martyred Louis XVI. been 
 honoured by any wine-shop bearing the sign Au bon Louis XVI. ; 
 had tradesmen exhibited the azure shield of the Bourbons in 
 boast that their predecessors had once been purveyors to the 
 Court, Henri V. might have believed that he had friends among 
 the people. 
 
 But seeking for tokens of constancy or of penitence among 
 the sons of those who had been his forefathers' subjects he found 
 none. In the most conspicuous part of the town rose the statue 
 of the Republican General Hoche, who vanquished the Royalists 
 and shattered their last hopes in the Vendee ; and, notwith-
 
 138 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 standing that in 1873 the fires and massacres of the Commune 
 were things of yesterday, Radical electoral addresses bloomed on 
 every hoarding red as ever. The Prince went to visit the palace 
 a clandestine visit and he was almost disguised by a muffler 
 which hid his beard. He leaned on the arm of M. de la Rochette, 
 and the guide who showed them round had no suspicion of the 
 thrill which must have passed through the gentleman who limped 
 so dejectedly behind him when he said, " This is the bed in which 
 .Louis XIV. died ; and this the balcony where the heralds used 
 to stand to proclaim a king's death, crying ' Le Roi est mort : 
 Vive le Eoi.' " The palace was then being occupied by the 
 National Assembly. The deputies held their sittings in the 
 theatre where J. J. Rousseau's Devin du Village had been per- 
 formed before Louis XV.'s Court. The chapel where Bossuet 
 and Massillon had preached was disused. Most of the reception- 
 rooms were devoted to the museum of pictures which represent 
 the battles of Napoleon, episodes in the Revolution of 1830, and 
 the pomps of Napoleon III.'s reign. Ae'for the stately Galerie 
 des Glaces, the most important items about it which suggested 
 themselves to the guide's mind were that William I. had been 
 proclaimed there Emperor of Germany, and that during the 
 Commune the room had served as a dormitory to some Republican 
 deputies. All this was not very inspiriting ; and it may be 
 that the unsuspecting guide taught his thoughtful hearer " the 
 last of the kings " a lesson. Henri V. may have gone away 
 from the palace determined that before he stretched out his 
 hand to a crown he would make sure that the men who had 
 snatched it away from him when he was a boy were offering it 
 to him again in real earnest. 
 
 His ever-indulgent partisans excused his hesitations, blamed 
 M. de la Rochette for his excess of zeal, and resolved that two 
 members of the Right MM. Chesnelong and Lucien Brun 
 should go to Salzburg and formally offer the Crown to the 
 Prince in the name of the Parliamentary majority. They were 
 encouraged to take this step by the Union, and when they 
 started on their journey the general opinion in Paris was that 
 all difficulties were about to be removed. State carriages had 
 actually been ordered for Henri V.'s triumphal entry into 
 Paris ; and the factories of Lyons were receiving from Parisian 
 drapers large orders for silks embroidered with golden lilies. 
 But once again and for the last time the grandson of Charles X.
 
 THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD 139 
 
 played his double game. To MM. Chesnelong and Brun he 
 said, in the most correct constitutional language, that he accepted 
 their proposals, and would leave it to the National Assembly to 
 frame a new Constitution for France ; but scarcely had the two 
 politicians returned home with these glad tidings than the Prince 
 telegraphed a note to the Union to the effect that he "would 
 never consent to be the King of the Revolution." A week later 
 27th October 1873 he gave the final blow to the hopes of 
 his friends by a manifesto, in which he proclaimed that he. 
 " would never renounce the white flag the standard of Arques 
 and Ivry." 
 
 Arques and Ivry were Protestant victories gained by Henri 
 IV. over the Catholic Leaguers, and it showed a comical 
 ignorance of history in Henri V. to allude to them as he did. 
 But was not his whole life mixed strangely with the comic 
 element ? One can have no wish to speak disrespectfully of a 
 Prince of gentle character whose ideal of moral duty was, no 
 doubt, high ; but historical truth compels the remark that the 
 Comte de Chambord was never equal to the high destinies which 
 his birth had prepared for him. He may have been born with 
 talents, but his education marred them, while the mental and 
 physical distress he experienced whenever he was instigated to a 
 course involving personal danger surely proved that he was 
 more fitted to wear a cowl than a crown. He will remain 
 known in history as Henry the Unready. Fortune did more 
 for him than she generally does for men of his stamp by offering 
 him her spurned favours two or three times over ; but it is, at 
 least, consoling to remember that he never fretted much over 
 the chances which he threw away. He did not pine in exile 
 like Charles X., but had in him much of the philosophical self- 
 contentment of Louis XVIII., with some mixture of the 
 meditativeness which made solitude dear to Louis XVI. When 
 he had to give up the hope of seeing children born to him, he 
 appears to have become secretly indifferent to recovering his 
 throne, and it is only a pity that he did not avow this indiffer- 
 ence, sparing his devoted followers much trouble and France 
 the many worries that have resulted from useless party strife. 
 
 It is unquestionable that the Comte de Chambord's conduct 
 in 1873 was dictated partly by the alarms of the Princess his 
 wife, who shrank from the prospect of revolutionary horrors, and 
 partly by the antipathy felt both by the Comte and the Comtesse
 
 140 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 towards the Orleans Princes. The Bourbon Prince's quiet, cool, 
 but implacable dislike of his cousins of the younger branch 
 would be enough by itself to explain why he should have been 
 in no hurry to take any course which must eventually have 
 facilitated the Comte de Paris's succession to the throne. 
 Nevertheless, it is probable that many, ignoring the human 
 motives that prompted some of Henri V.'s actions, remembering 
 only his good points, and the patiently-borne agonies of his last 
 illness, may from this time please to speak of him as a paragon 
 among princes, in whom was no pettiness and who sacrificed 
 everything to principle. One need not grudge any Royalist this 
 pious belief. It is enough to have indicated our reasons -for not 
 sharing it.
 
 MR. CHENERY 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FEBRUARY 12, 1884 
 
 IT is with the deepest regret that we record the death of Mr. 
 Thomas Chenery, the editor of this journal, which occurred at 
 his house in Serjeants' Inn at seven o'clock yesterday morning. 
 The fatal illness was of very brief duration, and Mr. Chenery 
 died literally at his post. So late as Friday, the 1st of 
 February, he was at the Times office discharging the full duties 
 of his laborious and responsible position, bearing the burden of 
 his increasing malady with manifest suffering, though without 
 a murmur of complaint, and manfully striving to combat an 
 illness, the signs of which he seemed reluctant to recognise, 
 though they were only too painfully apparent to his colleagues 
 and assistants. 
 
 For some time past, indeed for the greater part of the last 
 twelve months, Mr. Chenery's usually robust health had seemed 
 to those who watched him closely to exhibit signs of the strain 
 to which he habitually subjected it by his unceasing devotion 
 to work and duty. But towards the end of the year he seemed 
 to be better again, and when, at the beginning of last month, 
 he went away for a brief holiday in order to prepare for the 
 heavy labours awaiting him in the Parliamentary session, he 
 appeared to be in a fair way to recover his usual health and 
 spirits. This, however, was not to be. He went to Paris, as 
 was his wont, but came back to London in a few days ; and 
 when he returned to his work towards the close of the month 
 the signs of serious illness in his face and bearing were only 
 too visible to his colleagues. For some days he struggled on 
 with rare courage and devotion, and at times it seemed as
 
 142 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 though he were slowly recovering. On Saturday, the 2nd of 
 February, however, he was too ill to rise, and from that time 
 his strength was slowly ebbing away. Last Sunday evening he 
 underwent an operation, performed by Mr. Haward, surgeon to 
 St. George's Hospital, at the request of Mr. Henry Lee, his 
 regular medical attendant. The operation was satisfactorily 
 performed, but afterwards Mr. Chenery sank into a state of 
 partial unconsciousness, from which he never recovered, and he 
 passed quietly away at an early hour yesterday morning. 
 
 Of our own loss by the death of a man of Mr. Chenery's 
 wide knowledge, sound judgment, and great capacity, we have 
 no desire to speak at undue length ; but it certainly behoves 
 us to dwell on the magnificent devotion and self-sacrifice dis- 
 played by one who, though little before the world in his 
 personal capacity, was nevertheless an important public servant, 
 and who gave not merely his strength, but his weakness and 
 even his life itself, to the service in which he was engaged. 
 
 There is very little that is eventful to be told of the life of 
 Mr. Chenery. The life of the editor of such a journal as the 
 Times is not, of course, devoid of events, but its events are those 
 of current history rather than of the individual career. In this 
 connection, however, it may truly be said that hardly within 
 the memory of living men with the possible exception of the 
 five or six years which included the Crimean War and the 
 Indian Mutiny could a period be found so crowded with 
 momentous and critical events as the six years that have elapsed 
 since Mr. Chenery became editor of the Times. In 1878 the 
 Russo-Turkish War was virtually over. Plevna had fallen in 
 the last days of 1877, Gourko had made his gallant march 
 across the Balkans in mid-winter, and when Parliament met 
 in 1878 the Russian forces were at the very gates of Constanti- 
 nople. Then followed the passage of the Dardanelles by the 
 British Fleet, the negotiation of the Treaty of San Stefano, the 
 resignation of Lord Derby, and the changes of policy that 
 resulted from it, the movement of the Indian troops to Malta, 
 and all the long negotiations which preceded the meeting of 
 the Congress at Berlin. The occupation of Cyprus, the Anglo- 
 Turkish Convention, the outbreak of the Afghan War, and the 
 meeting of Parliament in the autumn were incidents of the 
 latter half of the eventful year 1878. In 1879 we had the 
 troubles in Zululand, and the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari at
 
 MR. CHENERY 143 
 
 Cabul ; 1880 brought the general election, the change of 
 Government, and the rise of the Irish troubles. The Land Act 
 was passed in 1881, and Mr. Parnell was imprisoned in the 
 autumn of the same year. The Phoenix Park murders and the 
 Egyptian campaign were the most memorable events of 1882, 
 while the history of last year is still too fresh in the memory 
 of all to need any recapitulation here. 
 
 In this brief survey of an eventful period we have mentioned 
 only the most salient and memorable events, and have omitted 
 others of almost equal importance. These are the events in the 
 midst of which Mr. Chenery had to move as editor, and on 
 many of them he must be held to have exercised an amount of 
 influence such as few individuals can claim in respect of the 
 great affairs of mankind. But an editor of the Times must 
 move and work, not merely in great^iffairs. Humani nihil a se 
 alienum putat ; whatever concerns mankind for the moment, 
 from a war to a whim, from a passing fancy or transient fashion 
 to the great secular movements of humanity, from a great crime 
 to a great catastrophe, the tragedy of life and its comedy, the 
 victories of science and the achievements of literature, the 
 vicissitudes of circumstance and the inexorable harvest of death 
 these, and much more than these, are threads in the web of 
 which an editor's life is woven, and belong as much to his 
 personal life as they do to the general history of his time. 
 
 All these events, however, belong only to the brief and final 
 period of six years in an active and well-spent life. It behoves 
 us to give some fuller account of Mr. Chenery's history before he 
 assumed the onerous and responsible post of editor of the Times. 
 He was born in Barbados in the year 1826. In early youth he 
 made several voyages between the West Indies, where his 
 parents lived, and this country, and he seems thus to have 
 acquired that love of travel which never afterwards forsook him. 
 He was sent to school at Eton, and thence he proceeded to 
 Caius College, Cambridge. 
 
 After the conclusion of his University career, Mr. Chenery 
 was called to the Bar, and was soon afterwards appointed to 
 represent this journal as its correspondent at Constantinople in 
 the stormy diplomatic period which preceded the Crimean War. 
 His experience in this capacity was excellent training for a 
 publicist ; but his residence at Constantinople, which lasted for 
 some years, exercised in another direction a very decisive
 
 144 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 influence on his life. Constantinople in tliose days was the 
 abode of eminent men and the scene of remarkable events. We 
 need only mention the great Eltchi Lord Stratford de Redcliffe 
 and the severe diplomatic contest which he sustained against 
 the representatives of Russia and other Powers, and recall the 
 many Englishmen of note who passed the Bosphorus in those 
 years on their way to or from the seat of war in the Crimea. 
 Among the friends whom Mr. Chenery made at this period of 
 his life was the gifted Algernon Smythe afterwards Lord 
 Strangford and we may conjecture that it was the influence of 
 this kindred spirit that gave Mr. Chenery that turn for philo- 
 logical studies in which he was afterwards to attain so remark- 
 able an eminence. 
 
 Mr. Chenery also lived much with the leaders of the Greek 
 community at Constantinople, and his acquisition of their native 
 language gave him an interest in the connection of Modern 
 Romaic with classical Greek on the one hand, and with the 
 Oriental languages in use at Constantinople on the other, which 
 also tended in the direction of his favourite bias for philology. 
 These, however, were only the occupations of his leisure. The 
 task of correspondent of this journal at Constantinople in those 
 momentous years was no light one, and it should be mentioned 
 that on more than one occasion Mr. Chenery went up to the 
 front in the Crimea to relieve Dr. W. H. Russell, who, as is well 
 known, was our special correspondent at the seat of war. After 
 the war Mr. Chenery returned to this country and was forth- 
 with employed on the staff of the Times as a regular contributor 
 of leading articles, reviews, and other original papers. This 
 employment was continuous from the time of his return to 
 England until he became editor, so that it may be said without 
 exaggeration that, from the time when he quitted the University 
 until almost the very hour of his death, his life was devoted to 
 the service of the Times. His command of a powerful and 
 impressive style, his wide general culture, and his extensive 
 knowledge of European politics, both in their contemporary bear- 
 ings and in their historical relations, rendered his services of 
 peculiar value. 
 
 But though his occupation as a journalist was sufficient to 
 engage the whole attention of an ordinary man, Mr. Chenery, 
 while never neglecting his duties in that capacity, neverthe- 
 less found time to pursue the Oriental studies of which he
 
 MR. CHENERY 145 
 
 had become enamoured in the East. He seemed to live the life 
 of two men, and to give to each the energy and application 
 which many men would have found a heavy burden in either. 
 So completely were his two occupations separated that many of 
 his friends who knew him only as an Oriental scholar never 
 knew, and found it difficult to believe, that he was also one of 
 the busiest and most accomplished journalists of his time. His 
 Oriental studies were pursued with surpassing enthusiasm. For 
 languages he had a most remarkable gift. French, German, 
 and, we believe, Italian, he read with ease and spoke with 
 fluency, he was master of modern Greek and Turkish, and as 
 an Arabic and Hebrew scholar he had few rivals among his 
 contemporaries. It was constantly his habit with his Oriental 
 friends to converse freely in Hebrew, and he wrote an intro- 
 duction in Hebrew to one of his philological works which has 
 been regarded by competent Hebraists as one of the most 
 finished pieces of composition ever produced by a man who had 
 not learnt Hebrew as a vernacular language in his childhood. 
 His capacity for acquiring the colloquial use of languages, 
 whether European or Oriental, was comparable only to that of 
 men like the late Professor Palmer or M. Vambe'ry ; but, in 
 addition to this, he brought to the study of language a scholarly 
 instinct and a philological acumen like that of Lord Strangford 
 himself, and such as is rarely associated with an exceptional 
 colloquial capacity. 
 
 When the company for the revision of the Old Testament 
 was formed, it was natural that Mr. Chenery should be invited 
 to join it ; he devoted much time and thought to its labours 
 before he became editor of the Times ; and even after his 
 assumption of that post he seemed to find a welcome relaxation 
 in an occasional participation in its labours. For some time he 
 was Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society, and his studies in 
 Arabic literature are well known and appreciated by all Oriental 
 scholars. His great work in this department was a translation, 
 accompanied by learned historical and grammatical notes, and a 
 masterly introduction, of the well-known Arabic classic entitled 
 The Assemblies of Al-Harin. This was published in 1867, and 
 at once established Mr. Chenery's reputation throughout the 
 learned world as one of the most accomplished of living Oriental 
 scholars. We may mention in this connection that a few years 
 ago two men so competent to judge as the late Professor 
 
 VOL. Ill L
 
 146 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Bernays, of Bonn, a Jew by birth and a student of Oriental 
 literature by predilection, and M. Kenan, incontestably the 
 most brilliant Semitic scholar of France, spoke to a common 
 friend in terms of enthusiastic admiration of Mr. Chenery's 
 philological attainments. 
 
 In 1868 the Lord Almoner's Professorship of Arabic at 
 Oxford became vacant by the death of the late Dr. Macbride, 
 and Mr. Chenery was appointed to the Chair by the then Lord 
 Almoner, Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. The Chair is one 
 of small emolument and intermittent duties, but such duties as 
 there were Mr. Chenery discharged with his usual thoroughness, 
 soon engaging the confidence of Dr. Pusey and other Oxford 
 Orientalists, and bearing his part when opportunity offered in 
 promoting the welfare of Oriental studies in Oxford. His 
 inaugural lecture, a masterly account of the Arabic language in 
 its historical and philological relations, was delivered on 3rd 
 December 1868, and published shortly afterwards. 
 
 Mr. Chenery, who, as we have said, was a graduate of 
 Cambridge, was incorporated soon after his appointment to the 
 Arabic Chair at Oxford as a member of Christ Church, and was 
 received with kindly welcome and appreciation by the members 
 of that distinguished Society a reception which he in his turn 
 Avarmly appreciated, and often spoke of in terms of cordial and 
 grateful recognition. His appointment as Professor did not 
 interfere with his occupation as a journalist. If his days were 
 given to his own loved Oriental studies, his nights were still 
 devoted to contemporary politics. A singular result of this rare 
 combination of employments was exhibited in his pamphlet 
 published in 1869, entitled Suggestions for a Railway Route to 
 India. In this pamphlet the writer shows an equal command 
 of contemporary politics, of practical affairs, and of a scholar's 
 historical knowledge of Oriental conditions of life. In 1872 
 Mr. Chenery published an edition of the Machberoth Ithiel, a 
 Hebrew work written in imitation of the Assemblies of Al-Hariri, 
 by Yehudah ben Shelomo Alknarizi, and it was his introduction 
 to this work, written in Hebrew, which, as we have mentioned, 
 extorted the enthusiastic admiration of Hebrew scholars, both 
 Jewish and Christian. 
 
 Mr. Chenery retained the Lord Almoner's Professorship of 
 Arabic at Oxford until 1877, when, on the failure of Mr. 
 Delane's health, he was appointed Mr. Delane's successor as
 
 MR. CHENERY 147 
 
 editor. From that time, as was inevitable, his Oriental studies 
 were for the most part suspended, though it would seem that 
 nothing was more congenial to him than an occasional return to 
 them. His scholarly instincts and tastes never forsook him ; 
 more than once he has been seen during his brief holidays 
 searching the boxes of the booksellers on the Quai Voltaire, 
 in Paris, and carrying off some dusty treasure of classical or 
 Oriental lore with the ardour of a true lover of books. For a 
 longer holiday he would go by choice to the meetings of the 
 International Congress of Orientalists he was present at Leyden 
 last autumn and for a brief relaxation he would attend a session 
 of the company of Old Testament Revisers. These, however, 
 were genuine relaxations, and taken only at times when relaxa- 
 tion was possible, not to say necessary, to him. 
 
 Since he became editor, a little more than six years ago, his 
 first and last thought was always for, the welfare of this journal, 
 to which his rare power of application, his rapid and compre- 
 hensive judgment, his large experience of affairs, and his 
 capacious stores of knowledge were devoted without stint, with 
 no thought of his ease and comfort, and perhaps with too little 
 regard for his health and strength. To the world which knew 
 him not it may have seemed incongruous that a learned Oriental 
 scholar was chosen by those who did know him to succeed 
 Mr. Delane. But the learned Oriental scholar was only half the 
 man ; the other half was an accomplished publicist, an ex- 
 perienced man of affairs ; and as the period of public affairs 
 with which it has fallen to his lot to deal has been in large 
 measure a period of which the dominant interest has centred in 
 the course of events in the East, it will be acknowledged that 
 the selection was amply justified both by his personal fitness on 
 general grounds and by his special and peculiar aptitude for 
 dealing with Oriental affairs. 
 
 Mr. Chenery's life during his editorship is nothing more nor 
 less than the history of this journal, and that, after the brief 
 summary we have given above, we must leave to speak for 
 itself. Of his personal characteristics, to none known so well as 
 to his sorrowing colleagues in the Times office, we have scarcely 
 the heart to speak on the very morrow of his untimely death. 
 In society he was widely known and highly esteemed, though 
 much of his life had been that of a retired student, and though 
 his disposition was naturally shy, and his manner in consequence
 
 148 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 somewhat reserved. He was rarely provoked into saying an 
 unkindly word of any one, and his unfailing consideration for 
 all with whom he was brought into contact in the discharge of 
 his editorial duties secured for him their genuine and affectionate 
 regard. The public loss in the death of such a man, so versed 
 in affairs, so masculine in judgment, so flexible and versatile in 
 capacity, is no slight one ; to his colleagues and private friends 
 it is a heavy personal sorrow. To the world he leaves a record 
 of work, both public and private, which will not be easily 
 forgotten ; to his friends and associates in the conduct of this 
 journal he bequeaths the consoling and stimulating example of 
 a life cheerfully spent and a death manfully faced in the loyal 
 discharge of public duty.
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1884 
 
 THE death of Sir Bartle Frere brings to a sad and sudden 
 conclusion the most notable and varied career among con- 
 temporary Anglo-Indians. His public life covered a period of 
 more than half a century, and from the very first day of his 
 entry into the service of the East India Company he succeeded 
 in showing that he was a man of no common stamp. More 
 than any of his contemporaries was he thought at one time to 
 be favoured by fortune. Whatever he touched succeeded. He 
 not only triumphed over difficulties ; they vanished from his 
 path. He gained the approval of his superiors, the admiration 
 of his subordinates, and the affection of the native peoples 
 whom he governed with such gentle firmness. For forty years 
 and more everything he did turned to the advantage of the 
 State and to his own honour ; and then he fell upon evil days. 
 The last few years were clouded with doubt and personal 
 misfortune, though he maintained to the last the full and 
 unshaken conviction that his African stewardship had been 
 guided, not merely by a sense of justice, but in accordance with 
 the dictates of a sound policy. It is as an Anglo-Indian states- 
 man and administrator, however, that Sir Bartle Frere will be 
 permanently remembered, and in that capacity it will be difficult 
 even for his enemies to deny him a place beside his great rival 
 and contemporary, John Lawrence, and among that galaxy of 
 Englishmen who have made the government of India the most 
 remarkable achievement of an alien government recorded in 
 history. 
 
 The Freres were not merely an ancient, but a remarkable
 
 150 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 family. Established in the eastern counties of Norfolk and 
 Suffolk from the time of the Conquest, they had sent more than 
 one representative to Parliament. Sir Bartle Frere's own grand- 
 father had been member for St. Ives, and had perhaps a higher 
 claim to recollection for having keenly contested the Senior 
 Wranglership with the celebrated Paley. One of the sons of 
 this Mr. Frere was the well-known wit, the Right Hon. John 
 Hookham Frere, the friend of Canning ; another was Mr. 
 Edward Frere, the father of the subject of this memoir. Henry 
 Bartle Edward Frere was his fifth son. He was born in one of 
 the wildest parts of Wales on the 29th March 1815. From 
 Wales he went to Bath, where he was educated at one of those 
 numerous grammar schools which trace their origin to the 
 bounty of Edward VI. The education he received at this school 
 was not extensive, but it was thorough as far as it went. When 
 he was seventeen years of age he was nominated to Haileybury, 
 but in the entrance examination he only passed by the narrowest 
 margin. He came out on the list last but one. There is no 
 doubt that he felt this result with keen mortification, as he had 
 been considered a promising scholar at Bath, and a high place 
 had been predicted for him. Once admitted, he set himself to 
 work with such energy that at the end of the first term he had 
 raised himself to the second place in his class ; at the close of 
 the following term he had gained the first place, and, as Colonel 
 Malleson tells us, in a very interesting sketch of his career, 
 written some twelve years ago, he "never afterwards lost it." 
 At the end of 1833 he passed from Haileybury as its foremost 
 student into the ranks of the Company's Civil Service. 
 
 At that time the long sea route was still the only way of 
 reaching India from England. During the Napoleonic struggle 
 important news had been several times conveyed across Syria, 
 and this fact had suggested the idea of an overland route. 
 Lord William Bentinck had said something in favour of the 
 realisation of this idea, and had even proposed sending the first 
 steamer constructed for the Indian service to Suez in order to 
 convey any civilians or officers who cared to proceed by the Red 
 Sea to India. Bartle Frere had heard of this project, and 
 determined to avail himself of the opportunity. He presented 
 a request in the form of a petition to the directors in Leadenhall 
 Street for permission to be allowed to take this route in his 
 journey to India, and the application was as gravely discussed
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 151 
 
 as if it had been a matter of annexing some independent State 
 or deciding whether a right of adoption should be granted. It 
 seems probable that so unusual a favour would have been 
 refused for fear of creating a dangerous precedent but for the 
 intervention of Mr. Butterworth Bayley, the member of a 
 distinguished Anglo-Indian family which even in our own time 
 has given several able men to the Indian services. 
 
 Mr. Frere left England in May 1834 for the Mediterranean. 
 At Malta he passed a few days with his uncle, Mr. Hookham 
 Frere, and thence proceeded in a Greek brigantine to Alexandria. 
 Not the least of his difficulties consisted in the fact that there 
 were no regular passenger boats, and he had to avail himself 
 of the best means of travelling that offered itself. He went to 
 Cairo, where, hearing no news of the expected steamer, he and 
 his three companions proceeded by Thebes and Keneh to 
 Kossier on the Red Sea. They crossed that sea in an open 
 boat, touching at the Arabian ports of Yambo and Jeddah ; 
 but they could get no tidings of Lord William Bentinck's 
 steamer, for the very good reason that it had never proceeded 
 west of Ceylon. At Mocha they took passage on board of an 
 Arab buggalow conveying pilgrims to Surat, and, as Frere 
 already knew enough Arabic to converse with the crew and 
 the religiously-disposed passengers, the trip was both instructive 
 and interesting. With regard to his Arabic Dr. Wolff, the 
 eccentric traveller, had pronounced him to be "fit to scold his 
 way through Egypt." After nineteen days at sea, during the 
 latter half of which provisions ran short and the voyagers had 
 to live on hulwa, a glutinous sweetmeat, the young official 
 reached Bombay on the 23rd of September 1834. The 
 adventures of this journey did not cease with his arrival, for the 
 authorities refused for a time to believe it possible that the 
 first civilian out of Haileybury would have come in such an 
 outlandish fashion. He had to establish his identity, and there 
 are still a few Anglo-Indians living who can recall the excite- 
 ment produced by Mr. Bartle Frere's unusual mode of travelling. 
 
 The young civilian, who had not yet attained his twentieth 
 year, threw himself with as much energy into the duties of his 
 appointment as he had shown in the choice of his route and in 
 his manner of carrying out his intention. Within three months 
 he had passed the necessary examination in Hindostani. He 
 then devoted his attention to the Mahratta and Guzerat tongues,
 
 152 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 which he mastered with extraordinary rapidity. But Mr. 
 Frere had the instincts of a sportsman as well as the happy 
 knack of acquiring a mastery of languages. He was only 
 entering upon manhood, and hearing that there was excellent 
 sport at Belgaum, he made an application to Lord Clare, the 
 Governor of Bombay, for an appointment to that station. This 
 application is remarkable for the additional reason that it was 
 the first and last request he ever made in connection with his 
 sphere of work. 
 
 Lord Clare did not consider it proper to comply with the 
 request, and sent him instead to Poona, where there was very 
 hard work, no prospect of sport and still less of promotion. 
 Mr. Frere had to turn his attention from thoughts of tiger and 
 bison slaying to questions of revenue. He employed his leisure 
 in studying at their seat of government the history and character 
 of the Mahratta people, in whose language he had already made 
 himself fluent. Attached to the Revenue Department, under 
 Mr. Goldsmid, he assisted that officer in his efforts to improve 
 the system of collecting the taxes then in vogue among a long- 
 oppressed people. During this period he lived in the very 
 heart of the Mahratta country, and under precisely the same 
 conditions as if he had been a native official and not a member 
 of a ruling caste. By this means he acquired an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the Mahratta people, which made him un- 
 questionably the greatest authority on the subject. 
 
 When he succeeded, in course of time, to Mr. Goldsmid's 
 post, he found in Khandesh the opportunity of the sport of 
 which he had been deprived on his first taking up his official 
 duties. It was during this period that Mr. Frere came into 
 contact with Sir James Outram. The meeting was under 
 appropriate circumstances, after an exciting boar chase in Khan- 
 desh, for both were enthusiastic shikaris ; and Sir Bartle himself 
 wrote an account of the scene long afterwards for the biography 
 of the Bayard of India, written by the friend and lieutenant 
 of both, Sir Frederick Goldsmid. While many of his con- 
 temporaries were gaining fame and promotion in connection with 
 the war in Afghanistan, Mr. Frere, not so fortunate, was 
 employed in the routine work of revenue assessment in 
 Kattiawar or the Deccan. A further misfortune befell him. 
 He was attacked with jungle fever, and, after a severe illness, 
 only recovered to be told by the medical men at Bombay that
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 153 
 
 it would be folly to think of remaining in India, as lie could 
 not stand the climate. He disregarded the warning, and 
 remained in India, with the results to be recorded. 
 
 His Mahratta experiences closed the first period of his 
 Indian career. The results attained by him and his associates 
 were so successful that their system was forthwith adopted and 
 applied in the rest of the Bombay Presidency, and eventually 
 in Mysore, Scinde, and Berar. The effect on the people was 
 almost magical. As Mr. Frere himself wrote some years later, 
 " from being the most wretched, depressed set in the Deccan 
 they have become thriving independent fellows, thoroughly 
 grateful for what has been done for them." 
 
 The second period of his public life began with his appoint- 
 ment as private secretary to Sir George Arthur, the Governor 
 of Bombay. He obtained this post unexpectedly through the 
 death of the gentleman appointed on his way out from England. 
 It was one for which his tact, courtesy, and conciliatory manners 
 pre-eminently fitted him. No long interval elapsed before the 
 opportunity occurred of evincing all these qualities in reference 
 to a critical question of historical interest. Sir Charles Napier 
 attacked the Ameers of Scinde in 1843, and on the overthrow 
 of their army at Miani, Lord Ellenborough formally annexed 
 their territory. A great outcry was raised against this measure, 
 partly on the ground that it was unjust, partly that it was 
 inexpedient, and the whole Civil Service, chiefly because they 
 were alarmed at the growing partiality to the civil employment 
 of military officers, took up the side of Outram in his campaign 
 against Sir Charles Napier and the annexation of Scinde. The 
 discussion of that subject agitated Indian society for more than 
 two years ; and it naturally excited the greatest commotion of 
 all in Bombay. Every effort was made by the supporters of 
 the one side or the other to draw some word or act of par- 
 tisanship from the Governor. But neither Sir George Arthur 
 nor his private secretary was to be caught napping. The 
 former kept the general in the field supplied with all the stores 
 and officers that he required. The latter turned aside all the 
 direct applications and the indirect manoeuvres to obtain from 
 him any expression of opinion. When the heat of the contro- 
 versy cooled down, Sir George Arthur had the double satisfaction 
 of retaining the undiminished confidence of the Government 
 and the respect of Outram's warmest supporters. Whenever
 
 154 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 the subject was referred to at a later period, Sir Bartle would 
 usually turn the question by extolling Outrani's gallant defence 
 of the Hyderabad Residency. This second period terminated 
 in an auspicious manner with his marriage in 1844 to Sir 
 George Arthur's second daughter, a lady who has shared with 
 him for forty years every vicissitude of fortune, and to whose 
 unfailing graciousness has been due much of her husband's 
 success and popularity. 
 
 Up to this point in his career Mr. Frere had not been 
 brought as prominently forward as several of his contemporaries, 
 men who had passed out of Haileybury below him. He had 
 also filled only subordinate positions, although they were such 
 as required great tact and accurate knowledge. But in 1847 
 he was appointed, in succession to Outram, Resident at Sattara, 
 and very shortly after his appointment the occurrence known 
 as the Sattara lapse occurred, and the event, important as it 
 was on political grounds, was also worthy of notice as revealing 
 Mr. Frere's character in its true light. The affairs of Sattara 
 had been long in a state of confusion. One rajah had been 
 deposed and deprived of the right of adoption. His brother 
 was placed in the seat of authority, but when he too died a 
 few months after Mr. Frere's appointment and adopted a 
 kinsman as his heir, there ensued a conflict of views. Mr. 
 Frere recognised him as rajah ; the Governor-General ignored 
 the fact of adoption and formally annexed Sattara to the 
 Company's dominions. Both Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone 
 and Captain Grant Duff signified their opinion, as the officials 
 responsible for the treaty of 1819, that Mr. Frere had taken 
 the right step, and that the action of the Governor-General was 
 in contravention of that solemn engagement. However, it did 
 not alter the fact that Sattara ceased to be an independent 
 principality, and Mr. Frere's appointment was changed from 
 that of Resident to Commissioner. 
 
 Mr. Frere remained more than two years at Sattara, and in 
 1850 he was transferred to Scinde as Chief Commissioner, in 
 succession to its conqueror, Sir Charles Napier. In Scinde, a 
 barren tract of country through which the Indus passes without 
 fertilising it, Mr. Frere threw himself with all his energies into 
 the work of improving the communications, constructing canals, 
 and establishing a great seaport at Kurrachee as the most 
 convenient outlet for the resources of the province and of the
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 155 
 
 country beyond. In his dealings with the frontier tribes, he 
 was, no doubt, supported by that remarkable man General John 
 Jacob ; but Jacob's policy in his dealings with the border clans 
 of always carefully distinguishing between the innocent and the 
 guilty was one essentially in accordance with Frere's innate love 
 of justice. In 1856 he came to England on a short holiday, and 
 on his return in the spring of the following year he learnt at 
 Kurrachee of the outbreak at Meerut. 
 
 In great crises little men expose their shallowness, while the 
 born leaders reveal talents only half suspected before. Mr. 
 Bartle Frere took in the whole situation at a glance. If mutiny 
 could be successful at Meerut there was not a station from one 
 end of India to the other where it might not be tried with 
 every reasonable chance of success. The loss of Delhi was a loss 
 of prestige which could only be recovered slowly and painfully. 
 An hour of peril was evidently approaching, when it behoved 
 every Englishman to think not only of retaining the ground on 
 which he stood, but of helping his countrymen at every menaced 
 point to hold theirs. Mr. Bartle Frere saw with his fresh and 
 vigorous understanding still more than this. He realised with 
 the insight of genius that everything depended on the preserva- 
 tion of tranquillity in the Punjab and on the ultimate recovery 
 of Delhi Seeing thus clearly, the next point he asked himself 
 was what he could do to assist towards the attainment of those 
 objects. He decided with the greatest promptitude. The 
 population of Scinde included two million Mahomedans, and to 
 keep this large number in order he had only two weak European 
 regiments, four native regiments, the Scinde horse, some native 
 artillery, a troop of Horse Artillery, and a mutinous cavalry 
 regiment. Most men would have thought that the Europeans 
 were far too few to keep the natives in order. Mr. Frere 
 decided in a few hours after his arrival that it was his bounden 
 duty to send off the strongest of his English regiments without 
 delay to Moultan. 
 
 The late Lord Lawrence had also read the situation with the 
 eye of a master mind ; and he and Frere, only to be compared 
 with each other among Anglo-Indians of their time in this as in 
 general intellect and capacity, enjoy the right to claim that they 
 alone saw what was the effectual thing to be done, and that a 
 little local danger was wisely incurred in order to meet and 
 crush a great peril to the Empire. Bartle Frere's prompt
 
 156 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 measure secured the strong fortress of Moultan throughout the 
 worst days of the Mutiny. He followed up this statesmanlike 
 act with many others as an administrator scarcely less remark- 
 able or worthy of praise in their way. He repressed three 
 distinct attempts to mutiny among his native troops. Having 
 purged their ranks of traitors and restored some sense of 
 discipline, he despatched one Beloochee regiment to the Punjab, 
 and some of his artillery to Central India. It was then he 
 wrote the famous sentence to Lord Elphinstone that " when the 
 head and heart are threatened, the extremities must take care of 
 themselves." 
 
 Such service, rendered in such graceful, not less than efficient 
 manner, called for special recognition. He twice received the 
 thanks of Parliament, he was made a K.C.B., and one of his 
 former chiefs, Lord Falkland, extolled the merits of twenty-five 
 years' service among the peoples of India, of which his own 
 countrymen had been ignorant. Again, perhaps, the most 
 striking testimony to his merit came from the lips of a private 
 individual. The aged Mountstuart Elphinstone, who fifty years 
 before had visited the Afghan monarch in the character of 
 English envoy, and whose career was one of the most remarkable 
 and instructive in the whole course of Anglo-Indian history, 
 said, when Frere's name was mentioned, " Ah, tell me about him, 
 he is a man after my own heart." 
 
 After the close of the Mutiny, Mr. Frere was nominated to 
 the Viceroy's Council, and left Scinde for Calcutta. As might 
 be considered inevitable after so great a crisis, the state of affairs 
 at headquarters was one of confusion and disorganisation. In 
 no department were these more painfully apparent than in that 
 of the finances. A trained and experienced financier, Mr. James 
 Wilson, was sent out from England for the express purpose of 
 arranging the taxes and the expenditure on a firm and equitable 
 basis. Sir Bartle Frere assisted him in all his investigations 
 and propositions from the abundant stores of his information, 
 and approved the remedies he suggested, not because they were 
 above all criticism, but because " the risk involved was as 
 nothing compared with the certain ruin of drifting into bank- 
 ruptcy by remaining as we are." On Mr. Wilson's death, Sir 
 Bartle Frere assumed for a time the personal discharge of the 
 duties of Finance Minister, and when Mr. Samuel Laing 
 arrived he entered into the same hearty co-operation with
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 157 
 
 him in his difficult task as with his predecessor. He also 
 devoted himself to the work of restoring so far as he possibly 
 could the social relations between Europeans and natives which 
 had been violently broken off by the events of the Mutiny. 
 His residence at Calcutta became the principal place of assembly 
 in the capital. 
 
 Another exceptional feature in Sir Bartle's character was the 
 cordiality which he always succeeded in establishing with the 
 military authorities. Unlike other civilians, and particularly 
 his great contemporary Lord Lawrence, he was on the most 
 friendly terms with Lord Strathnairn and the many distinguished 
 officers who took a part in the reorganisation of the Indian 
 armies, and was never disposed to repeat the cuckoo cry that 
 soldiers only think of spending money, and nothing of how it is 
 to be obtained from the people's pockets. 
 
 In 1862 he was appointed Governor of Bombay, and Lord 
 Canning, writing on his way home to congratulate him, said, 
 " God grant you health and strength to do your work in your 
 own noble spirit." As Governor of Bombay Sir Bartle devoted 
 himself to every object calculated to improve the condition of 
 the people or to increase the prosperity of the great Presidency 
 entrusted to his charge. In all this good work he found an able 
 and energetic colleague in his wife, and Lady Frere was among 
 the very first English ladies to devote time and attention to the 
 question of female education. He founded more public buildings 
 and started more works of public utility than any of his pre- 
 decessors. He gave Bombay a municipality. During his 
 government the death-rate of Bombay was reduced to almost 
 one-half of what it had been. He was at Bombay during the 
 height of the great cotton fever, and he controlled affairs during 
 the crisis which followed in its fortunes after the close of the 
 American Civil War. He returned to England in 1867, when 
 he was appointed on the first vacancy a member of the Indian 
 Council. 
 
 Although his Indian career had practically closed, he was far 
 too valuable and experienced a public servant to be allowed to 
 remain idle. In October 1872 he was sent as Special Com- 
 missioner to the East Coast of Africa, and in the following May 
 negotiated the treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar by which that 
 potentate pledged himself to put an end to slavery throughout 
 his dominions. On his return he was entrusted with the
 
 158 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 responsible duty of accompanying the Prince of Wales on his 
 tour through India, and of acting as a mentor on all questions 
 of Indian policy and history. In January 1877 he was 
 appointed to the Cape of Good Hope. With reference to this 
 portion of his career, the events are too near our .time and the 
 final solution of the many local difficulties is too uncertain for 
 an attempt to be made to decide the exact merit or demerit of 
 the policy which he wished to carry out, and with the execution 
 of which he was entrusted. Had he succeeded, he would no 
 doubt have conferred a great and timely service on his country. 
 How far he erred in not better adapting his means to his end 
 must remain for a later posterity finally to decide ; but, perhaps, 
 when South African confederation is an accomplished fact there 
 will be a lenient and half-regretful remembrance of the man 
 who first endeavoured to realise it. Sir Bartle Frere's South 
 African stewardship was unfortunate for him in every way, and 
 it is not generally known that he returned after four years' 
 absence a considerably poorer man than when he went out. 
 
 But it is not for his conduct of affairs in South Africa that 
 Sir Bartle Frere will be permanently remembered by his 
 countrymen. They will think of him mainly as a very able 
 and distinguished Anglo-Indian administrator, and as one of 
 those men who devote their energies and the best years of their 
 life to the service of the millions of India. His long residence 
 in India was marked by sterling work rendered, not only to his 
 country, but to the cause of justice and good government on 
 more than one critical occasion. His popularity with his own 
 countrymen was equalled by his popularity among the natives. 
 He was their friend in word and deed long before the spurious 
 and sickly sentimentality as to race equality had come into 
 vogue. The first thing the natives used to ask on their arrival 
 in this country was, " How is Sir Bartle ? " Such general 
 homage showed that he possessed character as well as a charming 
 manner. His detractors used to say that his performance belied 
 his promise ; but that was only because they had mistaken the 
 kindness of his mode of expressing that their requests were 
 inadmissible. Sir Bartle was known everywhere at Kurrachee, 
 at Calcutta, at Bombay, as well as at the Cape for his liberal 
 hospitality ; and very few persons were brought into contact 
 with him without confessing the charm of his manner. But 
 those who imagined that Sir Bartle Frere was either weak or
 
 SIR BARTLE FRERE 159 
 
 hesitating in his action because he was slow to say an unkind 
 word only looked on the surface. No one was more decided in 
 his opinions than he. Few men could act more promptly, and 
 no one better typified the saying of " the hand of iron in the 
 glove of silk." It was Sir Bartle Frere's misfortune not to have 
 had the same opportunities as his contemporary, the late Lord 
 Lawrence, for he would have used them with as much effect. 
 India, large as it is, could not furnish space for two independent 
 careers worthy of these rivals. 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere had all the instincts of a statesman. He 
 always saw the point to be finally attained for the settlement of 
 a difficulty, if he sometimes overlooked the obstacles to be 
 removed. His letter to Sir John Kaye in 1874 on our Afghan 
 policy was a remarkable State paper which will be permanently 
 quoted and referred to, and his views on Indian government 
 were both broad and sound. His courage and fortitude were 
 worthy of all praise, and sustained him when he laboured under 
 the sense that his efforts had been misunderstood and not 
 appreciated by his Government. The careers of Englishmen 
 connected with India that might be placed on the same footing 
 as his are very few. They may be counted on the fingers of the 
 hand. And not one of those who either preceded or accompanied 
 him in his work has left a name that will endure longer as the 
 possessor of the great and good qualities which will make the 
 hearts of natives and of Englishmen alike overflow with grief at 
 the news of the death of Sir Bartle Frere.
 
 ME. FAWCETT 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1884 
 
 THE premature and lamented death of the Right Hon. Henry 
 Fawcett, M.P., has removed a notable figure from the sphere of 
 Parliamentary life. Short as was Mr. Fawcett's official career, 
 it was yet sufficiently long to prove that he possessed no small 
 share of administrative ability. It has been said that the 
 academic mind fails when it comes to grapple with the details 
 of practical work ; but Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet contains more 
 than one member whose experience contradicts this assertion. 
 Certainly the statesman who has been cut off at a moment when 
 it seemed that further possibilities of political usefulness were 
 opening out before him was signally successful in grasping the 
 duties of his office and in carrying them out to the satisfaction 
 of the nation at large. During his tenure of the office of Post- 
 master-General, Mr. Fawcett demonstrated his capacity for deal- 
 ing with the complicated business questions which constantly 
 arose for settlement, and he infused more life and vigour 
 generally into his administration of the Post Office than was the 
 case with many of his predecessors. 
 
 The deceased, who was the son of Mr. W. Fawcett, J.P., of 
 Salisbury, was born on the 26th of August 1833, so that at the 
 time of his death he was in his fifty-second year. The "elder 
 Fawcett was one of the earliest members of the Anti-Corn Law 
 League, and he was well known to and esteemed by Mr. Cobden 
 and Mr. Bright. When he had attained his eightieth year he 
 was still an excellent and effective speaker. He appears to have 
 transmitted something of his own fine, robust constitution to his 
 son, who until suddenly struck down by illness a short time
 
 MR. FAWCETT 161 
 
 ago, and now again by the attack which has had a melancholy 
 and fatal result enjoyed the most perfect physical health and 
 spirits. Educated first at a local school near Salisbury, Henry 
 Fawcett was sent, at the age of fourteen, to Queenwood College, 
 Hampshire, where Professor Tyndall chanced to be a teacher at 
 the time. In his seventeenth year the young student entered 
 at King's College, London, and it was during his residence here 
 that his imagination was first fired by the desire to embark upon 
 a Parliamentary life. In 1852 he proceeded to Trinity Hall, 
 Cambridge, and here the ability and enthusiasm he displayed were 
 such that the most sanguine hopes were indulged in for his future. 
 
 Alike at Cambridge as elsewhere, Mr. Fawcett's motto seems 
 to have been " mens sana in corpore sano," and he was passion- 
 ately fond of all healthy athletic exercises. For nearly four 
 years he remained at the University, graduating in 1856 with 
 high mathematical honours, being seventh Wrangler, and in the 
 same year he was elected a Fellow of his Hall. On leaving 
 Cambridge, Mr. Fawcett went to London, where he began 
 studying for the Bar. He made no secret, however, of his dis- 
 taste for the profession, which he would not have adopted save 
 as a stepping-stone to a career in Parliament. He was already 
 much more enamoured of questions affecting philosophy and 
 political economy, and was an ardent admirer and student of 
 the writings of John Stuart Mill. 
 
 On the 17th of September 1858 it was the terrible mis- 
 fortune of Mr. Fawcett, senior, unwittingly to deprive his son of 
 the greatest physical blessing which man enjoys the privilege 
 of sight They were out partridge-shooting together, when two 
 stray shots from the father's gun struck the face of his son, the 
 sad and singular result being that the centre of each eye was 
 perfectly pierced by the shot. In a moment Mr. Fawcett was 
 rendered quite blind, the eyes being completely destroyed. 
 Most men, in the face of such a calamity, would have been over- 
 whelmed by their feelings and plunged into irremediable despair. 
 With Mr. Fawcett it was quite different. While feeling the 
 deprivation keenly, in a short time he recovered his usual 
 elasticity of spirits, and was far less afflicted by the melancholy 
 event than his sorrowing father. The accident occurred on a 
 spot overlooking Salisbury Cathedral, and the last gleam of 
 nature Mr.' Fawcett was able to perceive was thus associated 
 with his native place. 
 
 VOL. m M
 
 162 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Facing the future with a brave heart, in the course of a few 
 weeks he had resolved upon his course of action. His general 
 health was not at all injured by his accident, and he returned 
 to Cambridge University, where he devoted himself to the 
 systematic study of political economy. With the aid of a reader, 
 who now became his constant companion, and subsequently by 
 the aid also of his devoted wife, he was able to minimise the 
 evil effects of the accident. In just a twelvemonth after the 
 occurrence he attended the meetings of the British Association 
 at Aberdeen. Here he read, or rather spoke, a paper upon 
 " The Economic Effects of the recent Gold Discoveries." As 
 this paper was full of elaborate statistics, the extraordinary 
 strength and retentiveness of the speaker's memory were tested 
 in a very remarkable degree ; but he mastered all his difficulties, 
 and surprised his hearers by the readiness with which he also 
 answered the objections advanced against his theories. 
 
 Having thus broken the ice, he now appeared frequently in 
 public, taking, for example, a prominent part in the proceedings 
 of the British Association and the Social Science Association. 
 He was encouraged to persevere in his economic studies by Mr. 
 Mill and Mr. Cobden, and a speech which he delivered on 
 " Co-operation," at the meeting of the Social Science Congress at 
 Glasgow, drew high praise from Lord Brougham and other 
 critics. He also delivered at Exeter Hall an admirable address 
 on Trade Unionism, during the period of the great builders' 
 strike in London, and this at once constituted him one of the 
 ablest and most trusted friends and advocates of the working 
 classes. 
 
 In 1861, on the death of Sir Charles Napier, member for 
 Southwark, Mr. Fawcett made his first effort to get into Parlia- 
 ment for that borough. He resolved not to contest the seat on 
 the paid agency principle, and this and other things weighed 
 against him, especially the circumstance that he did not speci- 
 fically pledge himself to go to the poll. In the end. he retired 
 from the contest, and Mr. Layard was returned. In 1863 Mr. 
 Fawcett contested the borough of Cambridge, but lost by eighty 
 votes. The same year appeared his Manual of Political Economy, 
 and he was also at this time a voluminous contributor of articles 
 on economic and political science to the leading reviews and 
 magazines. He was elected in 1863 Professor of Political 
 Economy in Cambridge University, and about the same period
 
 MR. FAWCETT 163 
 
 made a third unsuccessful attempt to get into the House of 
 Commons, contesting the representation of Brighton. During 
 the American Civil War he was a warm supporter of the cause 
 of the North, speaking forcibly on its behalf on several occasions. 
 At the general election of 1865 Mr. Fawcett's wish was gratified, 
 as he was now returned to Parliament for Brighton by a 
 majority of 500 over his Conservative opponent. Re-elected in 
 1868, at the general election of 1874 he was rejected, Brighton 
 being one of those constituencies which felt the wave of the 
 Conservative reaction in that year. He obtained a seat for 
 Hackney, however, in April 1874, and this borough he con- 
 tinued to represent until his death. 
 
 Mr. Fawcett was an effective speaker, though he somewhat 
 lacked fervour. His maiden speech in the House of Commons 
 was delivered in connection with the Whig Reform Bill of 1866. 
 This Bill he warmly approved as a wise and just concession to 
 the claims of the working classes. He made a smart and effective 
 attack upon Mr. Lowe. The speech generally was regarded as 
 very successful, and the new member received hearty congratu- 
 lations from his friends. 
 
 In the session of 1867, when Mr. Coleridge brought forward 
 his Bill to abolish the religious tests required from members 
 of the University of Oxford, Mr. Fawcett was successful in 
 carrying an instruction to the Committee on the Bill empower- 
 ing them to extend its provisions to Cambridge. The measure, 
 however, was subsequently thrown out in the House of Lords. 
 
 Towards the close of the session of 1869 Mr. Fawcett raised 
 the question of University Education in Ireland by drawing 
 attention to the restrictions on the scholarships and fellowships 
 of Trinity College. He had given notice of his intention to 
 move a resolution in favour of the removal of these restrictions, 
 when the authorities of Trinity College themselves voluntarily 
 anticipated the motion. Mr. Fawcett brought forward his 
 resolution notwithstanding, being anxious for its discussion. 
 
 In the following session the Government carried their 
 University Tests Bill, by which, for the first time, all lay 
 students of whatever religious creeds were admitted to the 
 English universities on equal terms. Mr. Fawcett also brought 
 in his Bill for opening to all sects the endowments of Trinity 
 College, Dublin. As we have already seen, the College itself 
 had, in consequence of the disestablishment of the Irish Church,
 
 164 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 determined to consent to the abolition of tests ; and Mr. Plunket, 
 the Parliamentary representative of the College, had taken the 
 opportunity, on a motion by Mr. Fawcett for the production of 
 correspondence, to challenge the Government to adopt or reject 
 the liberal offer of his constituents. Mr. Fawcett, in moving 
 the second reading of his Bill, delivered an able speech, and 
 he received powerful support from both sides of the House. 
 Mr. Gladstone, however, argued against the Bill, without 
 indicating the views of the Government upon the whole question, 
 and the Solicitor-General for Ireland subsequently talked out 
 the measure. Another attempt was made by Mr. Fawcett 
 to settle this question in the session of 1872, but Mr. Gladstone 
 still declined to allow his hand to be forced in the matter of 
 Irish University education, and the Bill was again talked out, 
 without a crucial division being taken upon its principle. In 
 this session Mr. Fawcett spoke powerfully on the education 
 question, exhorting all parties not to waste time in striving 
 after miserable sectarian triumphs, but to unite for the solution 
 of a difficult problem. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's Government at this time incurred considerable 
 unpopularity in consequence of the Ewelme Rectory appoint- 
 ment, Sir Robert Collier's elevation to the Judicial Committee 
 of the Privy Council, and other matters. Professor Fawcett, 
 while generally a friend to the Ministry, took a decidedly 
 independent tone at this juncture. Speaking at Brighton, and 
 referring to the appointment of Sir Robert Collier, he said it 
 would be far better that a dozen Administrations should fall 
 than that Parliament should sanction the act of lawlessness 
 involved in the colourable evasion of a positive legal enactment. 
 
 The Irish University question was not allowed to sleep, and 
 in the session of 1873 it was destined to effect a defeat of the 
 Government. Mr. Gladstone introduced the Ministerial measure, 
 on which occasion he delivered one of his most important 
 speeches. When the division on the second reading was taken, 
 the Roman Catholic members coalesced with the Conservatives 
 and placed the Government in a minority of three in a House 
 of 571 members. The Premier resigned office, but Mr. Disraeli, 
 being unwilling at the time to succeed his rival, Ministers 
 resumed their places. Before the session closed, Mr. Fawcett 
 again introduced his Bill for the reform of the University of 
 Dublin, and this time it was allowed to pass as a simple measure
 
 MR. FAWCETT 165 
 
 for the abolition of tests. During the debate on the defunct 
 Ministerial Bill, the hon. member had delivered himself of 
 a strong philippic against the Government, asserting that 
 their Bill, if carried, could lead to no other conclusion but the 
 establishment of denominational education in Ireland. The 
 Bill, however, as we have seen, did not pass, and Ministers 
 were now chary of burning their fingers again over this matter. 
 
 Mr. Fawcett took a deep interest in all questions affecting 
 India. In fact, so warmly did he identify himself with these 
 subjects that he was once described as "member for Hackney 
 and India." He was for effecting broad reforms in the ad- 
 ministration of India. One of his earliest speeches in con- 
 nection with our great Eastern dependency was delivered on 
 the occasion of the Sultan's visit to this country, when it was 
 proposed to defray the expenses of his entertainment out of 
 the Indian revenues. He strongly attacked the Government 
 for their proposal, and found himself one of the most popular 
 men with the people of India in consequence. 
 
 In 1872 he delivered a very telling speech upon the financial 
 condition of India, when he obtained a Committee of the House 
 of Commons to inquire into the condition of the Indian finances. 
 He made on this occasion a strong attack upon the supposed 
 Indian surpluses, which were always said to exist, but which 
 were very difficult to realise. His efforts in connection with 
 India and his resistance to the efforts made to take away Epping 
 Forest from the people made him exceedingly popular with the 
 electors of Hackney. This feeling was further stimulated by 
 his endeavours to get the benefit of the Factory Acts extended 
 to the children of agricultural labourers, and by his support 
 of other humanitarian measures affecting the health and welfare 
 of the humbler classes. 
 
 On several occasions in the session of 1878 he was heard in 
 the House of Commons upon Indian questions. He initiated 
 in the first place an important discussion on Sir John Strachey's 
 previous Budget, condemning the increase in the duties on salt 
 in Bombay and Madras in order to equalise them over India, 
 when they might have been equalised by lowering them ; and 
 the imposition of the license tax on trades and professions, as 
 falling with most weight upon the poor. He also condemned 
 the expenditure of the famine taxes on doubtful public works. 
 
 Mr. Fawcett delivered a second important speech in connection
 
 166 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 with the movement of the Indian troops to Malta, charging the 
 Beaconsfield Government with having deceived the House in 
 this matter. As to the statement that it was unnecessary for 
 the Government to inform Parliament of its intentions, he said 
 " he would rather the Government had squandered and wasted 
 millions of English money than that they should have started 
 on the career of bringing Indian troops to fight European 
 battles without consulting Parliament. If this could be done 
 there was not a single thing the Executive could not do without 
 first consulting Parliament. Before such a step was carried out, 
 Parliament ought at least to have been informed of the cost it 
 would involve. Parliament was responsible for the good 
 government of India, and if anything wrong happened there, 
 Parliament could not escape the responsibility." Lord Beacons- 
 field's Government, however, was at this time all-powerful, and 
 its action on this and other questions which excited much 
 comment was endorsed by Parliament. 
 
 Towards the close of the session, Mr. Fawcett once more 
 raised this topic. During the debate on the Indian Budget, 
 he stigmatised the Indian Secretary's statistics as fallacious, 
 and moved a resolution declaring that the House regarded 
 with apprehension the present position of Indian finance ; and 
 that, in view of the power claimed by the Crown to employ 
 any number of Indian troops in all parts of Her Majesty's 
 dominions, there was not sufficient security against the military 
 expenditure of India being unduly increased. After a lengthy 
 debate, the resolution was negatived by fifty -nine to twenty. 
 When it was proposed to defray the expenses of the Afghan 
 War out of the revenues of India, Mr. Fawcett moved as an 
 amendment, "That this House is of opinion that it would 
 be unjust that the revenues of India should be applied to 
 defray the extraordinary expenses of the military operations now 
 being carried on against the Ameer of Afghanistan." He argued 
 that the Government had declared the war for Imperial far more 
 than for Indian purposes. If the war was an Imperial one 
 then England was bound to pay for it. He contended that there 
 was no real surplus of Indian revenue, and that the money they 
 were proposing to take for the war was money appropriated as 
 a famine fund, and obtained by the most onerous of taxes. Mr. 
 Gladstone seconded the amendment, but it was lost by a majority 
 of 110.
 
 MR. FAWCETT 167 
 
 A sharp passage of arms occurred early in 1880 in connection 
 with the Indian Budget It was found that instead of the 
 surplus which the Indian Government had expected, when the 
 Budget was made public, Sir John Strachey discovered that he 
 would have to make provision for a large deficit, and that this 
 deficit was caused by an extraordinary miscalculation in the cost 
 of the Afghan War. Mr. Fawcett stated at Hackney that Lord 
 Cranbrook was made aware on 1 3th March of the miscalculation, 
 although the prosperity of India and the existence of a surplus 
 were boasted of by Conservative candidates throughout the 
 general electioneering campaign. Mr. Stanhope indignantly 
 denied this, and Mr. Fawcett at the same time wrote to the 
 papers saying that he had been misinformed. It was not until 
 the elections had nearly concluded that an explicit statement re- 
 specting the deficiency reached the India Office. In the follow- 
 ing September Mr. Fawcett received from some native inhabitants 
 of Bombay, who had previously subscribed 250 towards his 
 election expenses, a silver tea-service and salver of Cutch work, 
 enclosed in a carved wood case, also of native manufacture. 
 The case was inscribed, " Presented to the Right Hon. Henry 
 Fawcett, M.P., by his native friends and admirers in Bombay, 
 India, June 1880." 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone came into power after the general 
 election of 1880 he proffered Mr. Fawcett the office of Post- 
 master-General, which was accepted. Before the close of the 
 first session of his official career the new Postmaster-General 
 had introduced several legislative reforms affecting the business 
 of the Post Office. The most important of these was the Money 
 Orders Act, the object of which was to reduce the charge for 
 orders, and to facilitate their currency. The cost of orders was 
 reduced, and the transmission of the notes made less cumbrous. 
 Another reform was also introduced in connection with the 
 Savings Bank. It was provided that forms containing twelve 
 spaces each could be obtained at the Post Office, and when a 
 penny stamp had been affixed in each space the form might be 
 put in the Savings Bank, and an account opened in the name 
 of the depositor. These reforms the public speedily availed 
 themselves of to a large extent. Mr. Fawcett also established a 
 new Parcel Post, which has proved a great boon to the mercan- 
 tile community, though as yet it has not been very successful 
 financially. He further instituted many useful reforms in con-
 
 168 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 nection with the postal department, and brought the telegraphic 
 service into a much greater state of efficiency than when he 
 found it. 
 
 But of all the reforms by which Mr. Fawcett signalised his 
 control of the Post Office, perhaps there was none which promises 
 to be more beneficial (especially to the working classes) than his 
 elaborate scheme of Post Office annuities and insurance, which 
 came into operation in June of the present year. The chief 
 reason which had heretofore prevented annuities and policies of 
 life insurance from being obtained in any considerable number 
 through the Post Office was that so many cumbrous and trouble- 
 some formalities had to be gone through. Under the new 
 scheme annuities and insurance are made through the deposits 
 in the Post Office Savings Banks, and instead of a special visit 
 being required each time a payment is due the depositor has 
 only to give a written order that a certain portion of his deposits 
 should be devoted to his annuity or insurance. There are more 
 than 7400 Post Office Savings Banks in England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland. The number of depositors is upwards of 3,000,000, 
 and the aggregate amount of deposits nearly 45,000,000. 
 With a few exceptions, these depositors may devote any part of 
 their deposits, or of the interest thereon, to the purchase of an 
 annuity for old age, or to securing an insurance policy. A 
 person may also become a depositor with the sole object of 
 having his money applied to the purchase of an annuity or 
 insurance policy. Annuities of any amount between l and 
 100 a year can be purchased on the life of any person not under 
 five years of age. There is thus brought within the reach of 
 every family a ready and feasible plan of insurance and annuity. 
 
 Mr. Fawcett determined to make his scheme self-supporting, 
 so that it should not become a charge in any way upon the tax- 
 payers of the country. But while responsible for the elaboration 
 of this scheme the deceased did not fail to give the credit of its 
 inception to the Assistant-Keceiver and Accountant-General of 
 the Post Office. At the time of his death it is understood that 
 Mr. Fawcett was engaged in perfecting other useful reforms in 
 connection with the postal and telegraphic services. 
 
 The Postmaster-General, in addition to his appearances in 
 Parliament, delivered several addresses in public within the past 
 two years, and only quite recently we reported his annual 
 address to his constituents at Hackney.
 
 MR. FAWCETT 169 
 
 A new edition of Mr. Fawcett's Manual of Political Economy 
 appeared in 1869, with two fresh chapters entitled respectively, 
 " National Education " and " The Poor Laws and their Influence 
 on Pauperism" ; and in 1874 a third edition of the work was 
 published, likewise with additional chapters. He was also the 
 author of a work on Pauperism, its Causes and Remedies, issued 
 in 1871, and of Speeches on some Current Political Questions 
 (1873) ; and Free Trade and Protection, which appeared in 1878. 
 With regard to the last-named work, it may be stated that a 
 fourth edition of it was published in 1882, at the time when 
 the present attempted revival of protectionist theories in this 
 country began to assume shape. While the author, however, 
 did not ignore the strong position occupied by protection on the 
 Continent, in the United States, and in many of our English 
 colonies, he affirmed that it could be shown that nothing had 
 occurred either to make us estimate less highly the advantages 
 of free trade than we had formerly done, or to encourage any 
 departure from its principles. " Yet a restatement of the 
 principles of free trade," he remarked, " cannot be out of place 
 when it is observed that even in England many of those who 
 profess strong adherence to these principles hold them by so 
 slender a thread that, when they settle in our colonies and are 
 surrounded by a somewhat different set of economic circumstances, 
 they become, in numerous instances, ardent protectionists." 
 This little work forms a very excellent plea for Free Trade 
 versus Protection, and for that reason will doubtless continue to 
 possess a permanent value. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to Mr. Fawcett's partiality 
 for out-door exercises, but it may now be added that he was an 
 excellent angler, and although this pursuit requires the greatest 
 delicacy and sensitiveness of touch he was able always to follow 
 it after he lost his sight on the banks of his favourite river the 
 Itchen. This was doubtless owing to the fact that he was very 
 familiar with its waters, and when taken to various points of 
 the river he could throw the line with great advantage. 
 Walking, rowing, and skating he also delighted in, and frequently 
 went for a spin of thirty or forty miles on the ice in the Cam- 
 bridgeshire and Lincolnshire fens. As a hard rider he had few 
 rivals, and there was a joke against him at Cambridge that 
 when he went out riding with a couple of friends, as was cus- 
 tomary with him, fifty per cent was placed on the hire of the
 
 170 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 horses when the livery -stable keeper discovered that he had 
 enjoyed the honour of having the Professor of Political Economy 
 for a companion. 
 
 As a speaker, the deceased was distinguished for a close, 
 compact, and argumentative style. He had no pretensions to 
 eloquence of the emotional and imaginative type ; but there 
 have been few speakers in the House of Commons of recent 
 years who could so marshal the facts and statistics of their 
 addresses that the whole should be clearly and readily under- 
 stood. This was due to his own mental orderliness, and the utter 
 absence of all confusion in his ideas. He was always clear and 
 perspicuous, simple in illustration and arrangement, and yet full 
 of matter. He was one of that small band of Parliamentary 
 orators who have, first, something to say, and who, secondly, 
 manage to say it well. He could not sway the masses as a great 
 orator, but with a fit audience he was always effective, and 
 frequently convincing.
 
 GENERAL GORDON 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1885 
 
 THE death of General Gordon is accompanied by every circum- 
 stance that could make the event most distressing and painful 
 for his relations, his friends, and his countrymen. It is only a 
 few weeks ago since the details of his magnificent defence of 
 Khartoum were summed up and recorded in our columns, and 
 on the very same day, as it happened, Sir Herbert Stewart 
 struck on the field of Abu Klea what seemed the first blow 
 towards effecting his deliverance. At the very moment we were 
 beginning to flatter ourselves that all anxiety might be laid aside, 
 and that the doubts of many weary months of delay and 
 uncertainty could be safely banished, General Gordon was placed 
 by the treachery of some of his followers in the hands of the 
 enemy whom he had so long and so valiantly defied. Even then 
 the hope was cherished that although Khartoum had fallen its 
 heroic defender might have been spared ; but a t harsh fate has 
 decreed otherwise. If we accept the accounts which have reached 
 this country, and which are unfortunately only too consistent, 
 he was stabbed in the palace while rallying his men to make 
 head against the treachery which had admitted to Khartoum a 
 fanatical host who marked their capture of the town that had so 
 long resisted them by an indiscriminate slaughter. This pain- 
 ful and pathetic end intensifies the dramatic interest of an episode 
 in our history as an Imperial people which has all the complete- 
 ness of a Greek tragedy in its exhibition of a remorseless fate 
 and the intensity of human passion and suffering, and with 
 which the name of General Gordon will be gloriously associated 
 until the end of time.
 
 172 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Charles George Gordon was born on the 28th of January 1833, 
 at Woolwich, in the very cradle of that branch of the service in 
 which he was destined to pass a career of more than usual 
 distinction, even if his own proper career as an English officer 
 be alone taken into consideration. He was the fourth son of an 
 artillery officer, Henry William Gordon, who attained the rank 
 of Lieutenant-General, and the associations of his youth, as well 
 as the traditions of his family, proud, and rightly so, of its 
 connection with the great Highland house of the same name, 
 left him no choice save to adopt the profession of arms. He 
 was educated at different private schools, having as his com- 
 panion and mentor at one of these in Somersetshire his elder 
 brother, the late Major-General Enderby Gordon ; but when he 
 was a little more than fifteen he was entered at the Royal 
 Military Academy at Woolwich. Whether his earlier training 
 had been deficient, or that he did not take kindly to the course 
 of cramming even then necessary to gain admission into the 
 ranks of the senior arm of the service, the fact remains that he 
 did not at first achieve any great distinction in his studies, and 
 on one occasion he received the rebuke " that he would never 
 make an officer." Whatever doubt there may have been as to 
 Gordon's mental capacity or as to his assiduity, there never was 
 any real ground to doubt the quality of his temper or the lofti- 
 ness of his aspirations. His reply to the officer who thus 
 undeservedly, as we must think, rebuked him served to prove 
 over again that " the boy is father to the man." He " tore his 
 epaulets from his shoulders and cast them at his superior's 
 feet." 
 
 Despite all unfavourable prognostications, he passed his 
 examinations successfully, and obtained the much-coveted dis- 
 tinction of a commission in the Royal Engineers. His first 
 station in 1854 was at Pembroke Dock, where he was employed 
 in connection with the fortifications then being erected for the 
 protection of the new docks, while the most exciting events of 
 the Crimean War were in progress. His letters home, which 
 were published last summer, and which furnish an exceedingly 
 interesting record of his early military experiences, show that 
 from the first day of his entrance into the army he took a keen 
 interest in all the details of his profession, to the mastery of 
 which he zealously applied himself. At the end of 1854, when 
 it was perceived that the allied forces would be detained
 
 GENERAL GORDON 173 
 
 before Sebastopol during the winter, he was ordered to proceed 
 with some huts to the Crimea ; but by a piece of good luck he 
 obtained permission to travel overland to Marseilles, while the 
 huts were sent round by sea in a collier. On his arrival in 
 January 1855 he was at once placed under the officer in 
 command of a portion of the trenches, and during the remaining 
 nine months of the siege he took a prominent part in the 
 engineering operations in front of the Eussian stronghold. On 
 one occasion he wrote saying that he had been continuously 
 employed in the trenches for more than a month. When the 
 Russians evacuated the southern portion of the town which they 
 had so gallantly defended, he was entrusted with a responsible 
 share in the work of destroying the harbour and fortifications 
 upon which successive Tsars had bestowed their millions. 
 
 No one can deny that in this early and familiar correspond- 
 ence to his relations the young engineer revealed the qualities 
 which most characterised his more recent and more famous 
 achievements in Asia and Africa. It is not merely characterised 
 by his natural simplicity and steadfast devotion to duty, but 
 also evinces military skill and the extraordinary fascination he 
 was able to exercise over all men with whom he was brought 
 into contact. But while these letters contain many characteristic 
 stories of the siege, in which, almost unconsciously, the writer 
 reveals the part he played in the dangers and excitement of 
 those eventful days, perhaps what will be considered the most 
 striking personal incident has had to be recorded by others. 
 If this anecdote stood alone there would be nothing to excite 
 surprise in his having been able at so early an age (he was only 
 twenty-two) to impress his soldiers with an implicit belief in 
 him and to gain their unswerving devotion. The following 
 is a brief account of the anecdote to which we refer : " One day 
 in going the round of the trenches he heard a corporal and 
 sapper of engineers in violent altercation. He stopped to ask 
 what was the matter, when he was told that the men were 
 engaged placing some fresh gabions in the battery, and that the 
 corporal had ordered the sapper to stand up on the parapet, 
 where he was exposed to the enemy's fire, while he, in the full 
 shelter of the battery, handed the baskets up to him. Gordon 
 at once jumped up to the parapet, ordered the corporal to join 
 him, while the sapper handed them the gabions. When the 
 work was done, and done under the fire of the watchful Russian
 
 174 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 gunners, Gordon turned to the corporal and said, ' Never order 
 a man to do anything that you are afraid to do yourself.' " 
 
 The close of the Crimean War did not bring Gordon's connec- 
 tion with the Russians to an end. While the majority of the 
 English officers and troops returned either to England or to 
 India, he was specially attached to the Commission appointed 
 to define the new frontier of Bessarabia ; and the experience he 
 gained in this capacity was considered so useful that, despite a 
 mild remonstrance on his part, he was peremptorily directed to 
 proceed on similar work to Armenia. On the first occasion he 
 acted as assistant to Colonel Simmons, when the great point was 
 to obtain the restoration to Turkey of the strong fortress of 
 Kars. After the completion of this part of the incidental 
 labours arising out of the Treaty of Paris he returned^to 
 England, but it was only a brief holiday he enjoyed during the 
 winter of 1857 ; and early in the following year he was sent as 
 Special Commissioner to the Caucasus to arrange certain points 
 in connection with the Armenian frontier from the Russian side. 
 On this occasion he ascended one of the peaks of Mount Ararat ; 
 and it may be interesting to state that while the impression he 
 formed of the Russians at a distance, from their defence of 
 Sebastopol, was most favourable to them in their character of 
 soldiers, his opinion was very much modified, if not completely 
 altered, on closer contact. 
 
 The most striking trait in Gordon's character at this time 
 was the absence of the religious zeal which at a later period 
 made it so pronounced and peculiarly marked. His letters 
 show him to have been a very intelligent and a very assiduous 
 officer in his profession, with the true military instinct and a 
 skill in draughtsmanship not often surpassed. At the same 
 time there are many indications that the writer was even at the 
 early age to which we refer something more than serious, and a 
 skilful analyser of the human mind might have declared that 
 his original religious belief would, under the precise circum- 
 stances of his later wonder-working career in China and the 
 Soudan, have produced exactly such a state of religious conviction 
 as Gordon had attained during the last fifteen or sixteen years of 
 his life. But in these early days the young engineer kept his 
 opinions on these matters of supreme importance to himself, 
 and even in his confidential and private letters there is only a 
 casual reference to the subject. The letters are full, however, of
 
 GENERAL GORDON 175 
 
 military knowledge and enthusiasm, and reveal the caution, the 
 energy, and the thoroughness in regard to detail which, when 
 combined with the high moral qualities needed for the assertion 
 of European superiority over Asiatics, enabled him in China to 
 achieve some of the most remarkable military triumphs that are 
 recorded in history. 
 
 After his second return from Armenia Gordon was stationed 
 at Chatham for a short period, but in the summer of 1860 he 
 proceeded to China, where an Anglo-French expedition was 
 carrying on operations to compel the Chinese to ratify the 
 treaty concluded by Lord Elgin in the previous year, and also 
 to exact reparation for the attack on Admiral Hope's squadron 
 by the garrison of the Taku Forts. Gordon took part in the 
 advance on Pekin, the battle of Chan Chia Wan, and the 
 subsequent destruction of the Summer Palace in punishment 
 of the treacherous capture and ill-treatment of Sir Harry 
 Parkes, his companions, and escort. Gordon sent home a very 
 graphic description of the burning of the Summer Palace, 
 but it, like much else that he wrote, must remain here 
 unquoted. 
 
 After the signing of peace he was stationed at Tientsin, 
 which remained occupied by an English force pending the final 
 arrangements for the establishment of the English and other 
 foreign Ministers in Pekin itself. There, as everywhere else, he 
 employed his leisure in useful work. He surveyed much of the 
 country surrounding Tientsin, mapped down the road along the 
 banks of the Peiho to the Taku Forts, and on one occasion 
 rode with his friend Lieutenant Cardew to Kalgan, one of the 
 principal towns and gates of the Great Wall, through a part of 
 China then little known, although later travellers have since 
 made it tolerably familiar ground. They carried their luggage 
 in two of the lumbering native carts, which have no springs, 
 and the large wooden wheels of which are only adaptable to the 
 deep ruts of certain parts of the province. When they quitted 
 the part of the province in which it had been made the axle 
 had to be widened to suit the broader ruts. A Chinese boy 
 served as interpreter. Although the Chinese people were 
 generally civil and well-behaved, the journey did not end 
 without an adventure. At Taiyuen, which has been called the 
 Toledo of China from the fame of its cutlery, they got into 
 trouble with their innkeeper, who charged an extortionate sum
 
 176 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 for the night's lodging and meagre fare that he had provided. 
 Expostulation made no impression, and, discovering that the 
 crowd were in sympathy with their countryman, Captain 
 Gordon took a prompt resolve. He ordered the boy and his 
 carts to hasten as fast as they could along the road to Pekin, 
 while he repressed the most demonstrative of the crowd with a 
 sight of his revolver, which, however, they succeeded in taking 
 from him. He then called out, " Let us go to the Yamen,". and 
 settle the matter before the mandarin. This pacified the crowd 
 and the revolver was returned. They then proceeded to the 
 Yamen, but as they reached the door Gordon gave his comrade 
 a signal, and they both turned their horses' heads and galloped 
 off as hard as they could, followed in close pursuit by the mob 
 of this Chinese city. They succeeded in getting rid of their 
 pursuers and in reaching Tientsin in safety, although not 
 without several adventures of an equally inconvenient but less 
 dangerous character. 
 
 When Captain Gordon had had nearly two years' experience 
 of Northern China he was summoned in the course of his 
 military duty to the coast of Central China, which had become 
 the scene of the most important events then happening in that 
 Empire. The English military occupation of certain places in 
 the province of Pechihli ceased in the spring of 1862, and some 
 of the troops were transferred to Shanghai, where the depreda- 
 tions of the Taeping rebels compelled Sir Charles Staveley to 
 take steps to clear the neighbourhood of the foreign settlement 
 of these marauders. Captain Gordon took a responsible part 
 as Chief Engineer in the operations carried out during the last 
 six months of that year against the Taepings. The followers of 
 Tien Wang were expelled, not without hard fighting and some 
 loss, from all the towns which they had seized within a radius 
 of thirty miles of Shanghai ; but when this was accomplished 
 the English policy again became one of strict, if vigilant, 
 neutrality between the Chinese Government and those defying 
 its authority. 
 
 The cessation of warlike measures brought no rest to Captain 
 Gordon. In the field he had to build bridges over the numerous 
 canals and creeks and to superintend all the measures for carry- 
 ing the places attacked by assault ; and when other officers 
 returned to the usual routine of garrison duty, there devolved 
 on him as engineer officer the onerous and responsible task of
 
 GENERAL GORDON 177 
 
 making a complete survey of the region which had just been 
 cleared from the presence of the Taepings. There can be no 
 doubt that it was while engaged on this survey that he acquired 
 that intimate knowledge of the country, and also of the peculiar 
 features of the people, which enabled him in so signal and 
 successful a manner to win victories and to crush a rebellion 
 with men who, as he said, fled in panic from their villages at 
 the -mere rumour of the approach of a Taeping band. During 
 these months he also had opportunities of perceiving the hollow- 
 ness of Taeping pretensions, and the disastrous consequences to 
 the people and country which their acts entailed. His one 
 feeling was compassion for the unfortunate country people, and 
 his sole wish was that an end might be put as speedily as 
 possible to the civil war which it was obvious to him could not 
 prove permanently successful, and which, even if successful, 
 would represent the triumph of men who had no higher idea 
 of government than their own exaltation, and no greater 
 desire than to effect their own personal gain. When many 
 thought the Taepings would be the regenerators of China and 
 the propagators of Christianity, Captain Gordon detected the 
 imposture, and revealed their true character and ambition. 
 
 It is unnecessary to record here the different attempts made 
 by Chinese troops in conjunction with a special corps trained 
 and led by European and American officers, and to which had 
 been given the high-sounding title of the Ever- Victorious Army, 
 for the purpose of expelling the Taepings from the province of 
 Kiangsu. Suffice it to say that of those officers Ward had been 
 killed in action, Burgevine disgraced and dismissed the service 
 for an act of violence, and both Holland and Tapp discredited 
 by reverses in the field, when the present Viceroy, Li-Hung- 
 Chang, appealed to General Staveley to appoint an English 
 officer in whom he had confidence for the command of the 
 foreign- drilled force, to which the Chinese authorities mainly 
 trusted to bring the rebels again into subjection. 
 
 General Staveley responded to this application in the same 
 spirit as that in which it was made, and, although there would 
 seem to have been some happy inspiration in the selection, those 
 who will sift the qualifications of the officers available will have 
 no difficulty in accepting the statement that there was absolutely 
 no other English officer on the spot who had anything approach- 
 ing the same claim to be nominated for this highly honourable 
 VOL. in N
 
 178 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 and extremely difficult post as Captain Gordon. General 
 Staveley nominated him ; but the appointment had to be 
 referred to the Horse Guards, and Gordon himself was not 
 sanguine as to the result, for he wrote home that he did " not 
 suppose the English Government would allow an officer of his 
 low rank to take so high a command." However, they did so, 
 although Gordon, who was given the brevet rank of Major, did 
 not, at his own request, take up the active command in the field 
 until 24th March 1863, for he wished to complete the survey 
 upon which he had been long engaged, and to which he rightly 
 attached the utmost importance. The request was in one sense 
 highly typical of the man. At the beginning, as well as at the 
 end of his career he was strongly impressed with the wisdom of 
 doing one thing at a time, and of overcoming a difficulty with 
 the least possible outlay in either men or resources. 
 
 When Major Gordon assumed the command of the force 
 called the Ever- Victorious Army a name which, until he led 
 it, was quite undeserved and a misnomer the fortunes of the 
 Imperial cause had again become clouded over. It is true that 
 on the great river Yang-tse-Kiang the Taepings held little more 
 than Nankin, and that the forces of the Government had been 
 increased in numbers and efficiency by the efforts of Tseng 
 Kwofan. In Chekiang, also, Tso-Tsung-Tang had completed the 
 levies of men necessary to the reassertion of the Emperor's 
 authority in that province. But, still, in the most important 
 districts of Kiangsu and on the route of the Grand Canal the 
 efforts of Chung Wang, the ablest of the Taepings, had been 
 crowned with success, and the Imperialists, who had. abandoned 
 all thought of opposing his forces in the open field, surrendered 
 the few towns remaining in their possession more often than 
 not at the first summons. The confidence of the enemy and 
 the skill of their leader constituted one danger. The jealousy 
 of his Chinese colleagues and the insubordination of the force to 
 the command of which he had just been appointed were still 
 greater perils in the path of the young captain. Chung Wang 
 and his followers were in themselves sufficiently formidable 
 opponents without any internal element of weakness or dis- 
 union. Yet, perhaps, it is not going too far to declare that the 
 difficulties which Gordon had to overcome on his own side were 
 quite as great as those which presented themselves from his 
 enemies. The position on his assuming the command has been
 
 GENERAL GORDON 179 
 
 thus summed up by one who wrote with a full acquaintance of 
 General Gordon's correspondence during this period : 
 
 " It would have been unreasonable to suppose that the 
 appointment of a young English engineer officer to the command 
 of a force which it was considered would more probably disobey 
 him than accept him as its leader could suffice to restore the 
 doubtful fortune of a war that had already continued for two 
 years under very similar conditions. Yet clearly the whole 
 result depended on whether he would succeed better than Ward, 
 or Burgevine, or Holland in vanquishing the more desperate 
 and well-armed rebels who were in actual possession of all the 
 strong places in the province of Kiangsu, and whose detach- 
 ments stretched from Hangchow to Nankin. There was also 
 another danger the disciplined Chinese contingent, now 
 numbering five regiments, with their foreign officers, of all 
 nationalities, adventurers unrestrained by any consideration of 
 obedience to their own Governments, furnished the means of 
 great mischief should any leader present himself to exhort them 
 to fight for their own hand and to carve out a dominion for 
 themselves. The possibility was far from chimerical ; it was 
 fully realised and appreciated by the English authorities. A 
 great responsibility therefore devolved upon Captain Gordon. 
 He had not merely to beat a victorious enemy and to restore 
 the confidence and discipline of his defeated troops, but he had 
 also to advance the objects of the English Government and to 
 redeem the rights of a long-outraged people. Unlike his pre- 
 decessors, he had no personal aims for himself ; he did not wish 
 to displace or weaken the authority of the Chinese officials ; 
 and his paramount thought was how to rescue the unfortunate 
 inhabitants of Kiangsu from the calamities which had desolated 
 their hearths and driven whole towns and districts to the verge 
 of destruction and despair." 
 
 One week after he assumed the command Major Gordon 
 began his campaign with the recapture of Fushan, a small town 
 on the coast north of Shanghai, and, as the consequence of this 
 success, the Taepings who had been long blockading Chanzu 
 retired from before that place and allowed one of the few 
 remaining Imperial garrisons to recover its communication with 
 the outer world. This success was somewhat counterbalanced 
 by the loss of 1500 Chinese troops, who were led into an 
 ambuscade at Taitsan under the pretence of a desire on the part
 
 180 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 of the garrison to surrender. Major Gordon was at once 
 requested by Li-Hung-Chang to retrieve this disaster, especially 
 because Taitsan had witnessed more than one previous discom- 
 fiture of the Imperial forces. Major Gordon attacked this place 
 on the 1st of May 1863, and the fighting continued far into the 
 following day. The resistance was of a most stubborn character, 
 and the Taepings manned the breach with the greatest deter- 
 mination. Major Gordon attributed the favourable turn of a 
 doubtful day to the opportune arrival of two howitzers, and at 
 last he had the satisfaction of seeing the Taepings quit the 
 ramparts and evacuate the town. 
 
 From Taitsan the young commander marched on Quinsan, a 
 strong and important position situated on a creek leading into 
 the Grand Canal at Soochow. His arrangements for the attack 
 were disturbed and had to be abandoned in consequence of the 
 insubordination of his men. Major Gordon was compelled to 
 return to his headquarters and restore a sense of discipline 
 among his unruly men before he could attempt so grave a task 
 as an attack on Quinsan. Not only were the men of the Ever- 
 Victorious Army unruly by disposition, but the officers, insti- 
 gated by the intrigues and representations of Burgevine, paid 
 only partial respect to the orders of the young English officer. 
 At last Major Gordon had to announce that he would march on 
 a certain morning with or without his men. Influenced by 
 this act of decision, they all obeyed, and he reached Quinsan 
 at the head of 3000 men, who, although but recently impressed 
 with a sense of duty, had in this short period acquired no slight 
 belief and confidence in the skill and energy of their new leader. 
 Quinsan was strongly built and defended by large numbers of 
 the Taepings. It was evident that an attack in front would 
 certainly entail heavy loss and might possibly prove unsuccessful. 
 Major Gordon, therefore, attacked the stockades on the right 
 flank and carried them. He then reconnoitred the rear of the 
 town from a steamer, upon which he succeeded in making his 
 way for some distance up the creek towards Soochow. Asiatics 
 proverbially become alarmed and discouraged as soon as they 
 discover that their line of retreat is in danger. So it was at 
 Quinsan, for its defenders, far from imitating the valour of their 
 comrades at Taitsan, retreated precipitately the moment they dis- 
 covered that Gordon, in the " Hyson," had carried the stockades 
 at Chumze, a short distance west of Quinsan itself. Quinsan,
 
 GENERAL GORDON 181 
 
 which had been one of the most formidable of the Taeping 
 possessions, then became Major Gordon's headquarters and his 
 base for the realisation of his most important object, the reduc- 
 tion of Soochow. 
 
 It was typical of the force which Major Gordon had under 
 him that the transfer of his headquarters from Sunkiang to 
 Quinsan was not effected without a mutiny. The non-com- 
 missioned officers were particularly insubordinate. Major 
 Gordon described this incident in his confidential report on the 
 Quinsan force : 
 
 "The non-commissioned officers, as usual, all paraded, and 
 were sent for by Major Gordon, who asked them the reason why 
 the men did not fall in and who wrote the proclamation. They, 
 of course, did not know, and on Major Gordon telling them he 
 would be obliged to shoot one in every five, they evinced their 
 objection to this proceeding by a groan. The most prominent 
 in this was a corporal, who was dragged out, and a couple of 
 infantry who were standing by were ordered to load and directed 
 to shoot the mutineer, which one did without the slightest 
 hesitation. Since that time we had no trouble." 
 
 Neither time nor space allows of a succinct account of the 
 numerous minor operations which were the necessary pre- 
 liminaries to the attack on Soochow, where the Taeping leaders 
 had concentrated the chief part of their forces and the great 
 bulk of their supplies. It will be interesting to record here 
 what their commander thought of the troops with whom he had 
 to carry on this campaign. Writing on the 16th of July to a 
 military friend, he said : 
 
 " I hope you do not think that I have a magnificent army. 
 You never did see such a rabble as it was, and, although I 
 think I have improved it, it is still sadly wanting. I now 
 occupy a most commanding position with respect to the rebels, 
 being able to attack them along a very wide front ; but then 
 they have nearly 50,000 men in Soochow, and I have 3000 
 and three steamers. Now both officers and men, although 
 ragged and perhaps slightly disreputable, are in capital order 
 and well disposed. Some of the prisoners are in my body- 
 guard, and want to fight their old friends." 
 
 Major Gordon did not actually sit down before Soochow 
 until September. Before that many engagements had been 
 fought, with uniform success, and the ex-leader and adventurer,
 
 182 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Burgevine, had taken the decided step of joining the rebels in 
 their chief stronghold. The latter event was not without its 
 advantages, as it compelled Major Gordon to withdraw the 
 resignation which he had placed in Li's hands in disgust at 
 the apathy and opposition of his Chinese colleagues. Major 
 Gordon's first action after his resumption of the command was 
 to capture the village of Patachiaou, close to the southern limits 
 of Soochow, which was already beleaguered on the eastern side 
 by the Chinese forces under General Ching. Although the 
 Taepings made several desperate efforts to recover this place, 
 Major Gordon repulsed all their attacks, with heavy loss to the 
 assailants. The progress of the siege, or, more correctly, the 
 investment, of Soochow was marked by what may be called the 
 Burgevine incident, when that misguided adventurer proposed 
 to Major Gordon, who had always been particularly considerate 
 towards him, that they should coalesce and establish a Govern- 
 ment of their own making. These overtures were rejected with 
 the indifference and contempt that might have been expected, 
 and the self-appointed arbiter of the destinies of the Chinese 
 Empire was coldly informed that it would be better and wiser 
 to confine his attention to whether he intended to surrender 
 or not, instead of discussing impossible schemes of personal 
 ambition. 
 
 The siege and capture of Soochow was the greatest and most 
 difficult of Gordon's exploits in China. As soon as he found 
 himself firmly established on both the eastern and southern 
 sides of the town, Major Gordon took steps to shut the Taepings 
 in on the western side also. He accomplished this without 
 much difficulty, and, after a desperate battle at Leeku, where an 
 officer was killed at his side, he acquired a position to the north 
 of the town as well. By the middle of October Major Gordon 
 had, with a force of less than 15,000 men, almost succeeded in 
 completely investing the Taeping army of 40,000 men which 
 garrisoned Soochow ; and it became his chief care to perfect the 
 investment on the north by the capture of Fusaiquan, the last 
 of the Taeping positions which gave them the command of the 
 navigation of the Grand Canal. Through the treachery or 
 incapacity of the commander, the resistance encountered was 
 insignificant, and Major Gordon had the satisfaction of complet- 
 ing the investment of Soochow at a very slight loss in comparison 
 with the result achieved.
 
 GENERAL GORDON 183 
 
 On the 27th of November Major Gordon delivered his first 
 attack on the main defences of Soochow by a night assault upon 
 the Low Mun stockades, in front of the East Gate. For the 
 first, but not, unfortunately, the last time, he was to experience 
 the inconstancy of fortune. The Taepings had been warned of 
 the coming foe, and in the dark the attacking party became 
 disordered. After a desperate effort to restore the fight, Major 
 Gordon drew off his force, with a loss of about 165 killed 
 and wounded. Nothing dismayed, he concentrated the whole 
 of his force for a fresh attack, and, after a heavy cannonade, 
 carried the Low Mun stockades at the head of his men. It 
 is appropriate to state here that, although he had to organise 
 the simplest details in person, Major Gordon was always the 
 first man in these attacks. It was he who showed the way to 
 victory as well as how to prepare for it ; but he never carried 
 any weapon save a small cane, which the Chinese soon regarded 
 with almost superstitious reverence and named his "wand of 
 victory." 
 
 The capture of the Low Mun stockades practically entailed 
 the fall of Soochow itself. Chung Wang, who in the worst 
 extremity never despaired, abandoned it to its fate, and the 
 Wangs, or chiefs, who remained turned their attention, not to 
 prolonging the defence, but to obtaining the best possible terms 
 from the Chinese authorities. Major Gordon was, of course, in 
 favour of according the most lenient conditions to a brave 
 enemy, and, indeed, there were the strongest reasons for not 
 driving to desperation the large number of men in Soochow, 
 who still far exceeded the force by which they were hemmed 
 in. Several interviews were held between Gordon and Li-Hung- 
 Chang on the one side and Mow Wang and his lieutenants on 
 the other ; and as the result of these negotiations the garrison 
 was admitted to terms and the Taeping leaders were promised 
 their lives. Major Gordon held himself pledged personally for 
 the safety of Mow Wang, who at his request had spared the 
 life of Burgevine. His dismay and indignation may be imagined 
 when he discovered that the Chinese leaders had consummated 
 an act of treachery, not extraordinary if the Chinese character 
 and the temptation to extirpate a band of rebels at one stroke 
 be taken into consideration, but for which there appeared in the 
 English officer's eyes at the time to be no extenuation whatever. 
 
 It was by a mere accident that Major Gordon discovered that
 
 184 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 the Wangs had been foully murdered, and when he hastened 
 into the city to discover the full extent of the breach of faith 
 that had been committed, or to exact summary vengeance on 
 those who had perpetrated it and thereby sullied his name 
 for good faith, he very nearly incurred a similar fate at the 
 hands of the Taepings, who knew that something untoward had 
 occurred, but who were fortunately ignorant of the death of their 
 leaders. Had they been aware of it Major Gordon's life would 
 not have been worth a moment's purchase. After he escaped 
 from the clutches of the Taepings he resigned his command, 
 refusing with indignation the large present of money and the 
 other honours conferred upon him for the capture of Soochow. 
 
 For two months, during which the Taepings recovered in 
 some degree from the rude blows which he had inflicted upon 
 them, he remained in inaction at Shanghai ; and it was only 
 when it became clear that the war would relapse into its old 
 desultory character without his personal direction that, at the 
 earnest entreaties of Li-Hung-Chang, he consented to resume the 
 conduct of the campaign. It is somewhat strange that these 
 later operations, which were carried on with greater freedom from 
 Chinese interference, were marked by more than one serious 
 defeat in the field. After several successes the Ever- Victorious 
 Army was repulsed with very heavy loss in an attack on Kintang, 
 and Major Gordon was severely wounded. This reverse was 
 followed by another at the village of Waisso ; but the com- 
 mander's energy and promptitude sufficed to repair this disaster 
 within a week. The decisive action of the campaign was to be 
 the capture of Changchow, a town on the Grand Canal, half- 
 way between Soochow and Nankin. It had been in the pos- 
 session of the Taepings for four years, and was held in the 
 spring of 1864 by all the forces which they could muster 
 outside of Nankin. The garrison fought with the valour of 
 despair, and two assaults, one of which was led by Gordon in 
 person, were repulsed with heavy loss to both the Chinese army 
 and the disciplined contingent. But on the llth of May, the 
 anniversary of its capture by the Taepings in 1860, the besiegers 
 surprised the garrison by attacking in the middle of the day, and 
 carried the place by storm with little loss to themselves. The 
 capture of Changchow brought the operations of the Ever- 
 Victorious Army to a conclusion, and three weeks later that 
 force was formally disbanded. The manner in which he con-
 
 GENERAL GORDON 185 
 
 verted the peasants of Kiangsu into excellent soldiers may be 
 termed remarkable, and would justify the application to him of 
 the words in which Shakespeare has described Hotspur, 
 
 Whose spirit lent a fire 
 Even to the dullest peasant in the camp. 
 
 It was then that Gordon recorded the remarkable opinion that 
 " the Chinese fight very well under their own officers, but under 
 European leaders they must very soon become rebels to their 
 own Government." 
 
 The successful termination of the long struggle which had 
 brought such misery upon China and her people was generally 
 and rightly attributed to the young officer, who refused to profit 
 in any worldly sense by his remarkable achievement. He 
 accepted a few unmeaning honours at the hands of the Chinese 
 Government, eager to express its gratitude, but he refused all 
 offers of a more solid character. He also took every measure in 
 his power to avoid the ovation with which his countrymen were 
 prepared to welcome him on his return ; but his modesty could 
 not stifle the general admiration felt towards him for what he 
 had accomplished, nor prevent his receiving the name, by which 
 he will, perhaps, be best remembered among his contemporaries, 
 of Chinese Gordon. 
 
 The first few months of his residence in England were passed 
 with his family at- Southampton, but early in 1865 he was 
 appointed chief engineer officer at Gravesend, and he retained 
 that appointment until 1871. Many anecdotes have been pre- 
 served of his life at Gravesend during these six years to show 
 that he devoted himself with the same thoroughness to the 
 question of dealing with the impoverished classes of the London 
 outskirts as he had done to the suppression of the rebellion 
 among the Taepings in China, and from them it seems only 
 natural to suppose that his powers of organisation and his 
 personal influence might have been employed in a work of 
 transcendent utility in mitigating the evils of pauperism in the 
 East End of the metropolis. It is generally known how he 
 used not merely to take waifs out of the streets and supply their 
 wants, but how he spent the spare hours of the evening in 
 teaching them himself. When they arrived at the necessary 
 age, and had passed through the required course of probation, 
 he provided them with a career ; and it was characteristic of
 
 186 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 the whole man's character that he should generally have selected 
 one in the Navy. It became his practice to follow their after- 
 lives with attention, and to mark the course of the vessels 
 which they had joined with pins on the map from which he 
 inspired his youthful audience with their first lessons in 
 geography. 
 
 There is little to cause surprise in the fact that many of his 
 pupils or protdgtfs were not merely rescued from dishonest 
 practices, but that through him more than one youth was 
 spared the consequences of having yielded to a momentary 
 temptation. A case of this kind may be mentioned. A boy 
 stole some money from the tradesman who employed him, and 
 his master was on the point of having him locked up, when 
 the mother came in intense grief to Colonel Gordon to implore" 
 him to help her in her dilemma. He was moved by her 
 entreaties, and he induced the master not to publicly prosecute 
 the culprit. Colonel Gordon then sent the boy to a school for 
 twelve months, and afterwards procured him a berth at sea. 
 The boy has grown into a man with a good character, thanks 
 to his benefactor, and he is only one among many others who 
 have had cause to exclaim when Gordon's name is mentioned, 
 " God bless the Colonel." It should be remembered, in con- 
 clusion, that all these deeds of mercy were done on his pay as 
 an English colonel, and without any private resources whatever. 
 
 In 1871 Colonel Gordon was appointed British Consul at 
 Galatz, which place he had visited and described at the time 
 of his serving on the Danubian Commission in 1857. In this 
 corner of Europe he remained buried from public view for 
 three years until he volunteered at the end of 1873 his services 
 for any work in Egypt. At that moment Sir Samuel Baker 
 had just resigned his command under the Khedive, and Colonel 
 Gordon was appointed in his place, at first as Governor of the 
 tribes on the Upper Nile, and later on with the higher title 
 of Governor-General of the Soudan. From the beginning of 
 1874 until 1879 he governed the vast region of the Blacks 
 with satisfaction to the Cairo Administration, which was 
 extremely hard to please, and with credit to himself. He did 
 much to restore the finances, and he inaugurated the necessary 
 measures for the ultimate abolition of domestic slavery and the 
 slave trade. He firmly established the power of the Khedive 
 on the Nile by the use of steamers, in Darfour by the overthrow
 
 GENERAL GORDON 187 
 
 of Zebehr's son Suleiman, and on the Abyssinian frontier by a 
 treaty with King John. He gained at the same time a high 
 reputation among the people by his justice and courage. He 
 had that great merit in the eyes of an Eastern people of being 
 always accessible ; and he inspired his soldiers with something 
 of his own inexhaustible ardour and confidence. 
 
 His rule in the Soudan was glorious to himself, satisfactory 
 even to the Khedive, and gratifying to Englishmen as a 
 practical demonstration of the qualities which they must wish 
 to see most common among their countrymen. When it closed 
 there was no one to carry on the work he had so well begun, 
 and the vast region which he had almost wrested from the 
 hands of the slave dealers was allowed to lapse into their 
 possession. The apathy or selfish designs of the Egyptian 
 officials allowed matters to reach such a pass within their 
 jurisdiction that the power of the Mahdi had become formidable, 
 and had been granted time to consolidate itself almost before 
 the outer world was aware of its existence. When General 
 Gordon left the Soudan the public peace was undisturbed, and 
 the tranquillity of the Khedive's latest acquisitions seemed 
 assured. That this prospect has proved delusive must be 
 attributed in the first place to the blunders of his successors, 
 and in the second to the wilful shortsightedness of the English 
 Government. 
 
 One of the most peculiar incidents of his long and varied 
 career occurred after his return from Egypt. We refer to his 
 appointment to the post of private secretary to Lord Ripon 
 when that nobleman proceeded to India as Viceroy in May 
 1880. His acceptance of that office caused no slight surprise, 
 and when a few months later he suddenly resigned, the 
 opinion was general that the latter event was less surprising 
 than the former. Several reasons were suggested for his 
 taking this step, but the true one has never been revealed. 
 General Gordon stated in private that the following was the 
 sole motive of his resignation. At the time of his arrival in 
 India one of the chief political topics was whether Yakoob 
 Khan, then a prisoner in honourable confinement at Murree, 
 was guilty of connivance in the Cabul massacre or not As 
 the Viceroy's private secretary, Gordon saw the documents sent 
 from Cabul in support of the charge against the Ameer, and he 
 declared that they failed to substantiate the accusation. Other
 
 188 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 men would have stopped at that point, but not Gordon. He 
 carried out the reasoning to the logical conclusion if Yakoob 
 Khan was not guilty he should never have been deposed, and 
 he ought to be restored to his country. The impossibility of 
 accepting this conclusion may be obvious, but the fact shows 
 the consistency of Gordon's character and redounds to his credit. 
 It is satisfactory also to know that the officials of the Indian 
 Foreign Office afterwards termed the documents sent from 
 Cabul "worthless trash." This was the reason for General 
 Gordon's sudden retirement from an uncongenial post, as he 
 explained it himself, and on his return to England he made 
 more than one attempt to procure what he considered justice 
 for Yakoob Khan. 
 
 From India he went to China in response to a summons 
 from his former colleague Li-Hung-Chang, and he is credited 
 with having inspired the Chinese with peaceful views at the 
 most critical period of one of their disputes with Russia. Per- 
 haps his presence in China may not have been without some 
 effect also at St. Petersburg. However, he gave the Chinese 
 excellent advice as to the kind of war they should wage, and 
 it is possible to detect in their recent fighting with the French 
 some trace of their having profited by his recommendations. 
 
 From China he came back to England, but his stay was 
 short. A distinguished brother officer had, in the usual course 
 of duty, to proceed to the Mauritius to command the engineers 
 in that possession. The work was uninviting and distasteful, 
 and he mentioned the fact to Colonel Gordon. The latter, in 
 his too generous fashion, at once replied, " Oh, I will go in 
 your place." For more than a year he remained in this island, 
 although the task proved exceedingly irksome, but on his 
 attaining the rank of Major-General he was relieved from his 
 post. Then the Cape authorities, with trouble on their hands 
 in Basutoland, applied to him, and he went at once in response 
 to their appeal. The true story has yet to be told of how he 
 visited Masupha, and of the manner in which the colonial 
 authorities played him false, and brought his life into jeopardy, 
 had Masupha shown himself a less generous foe. It is one of 
 the few blanks that remain to be filled up in the varied and 
 remarkable career which has now closed. 
 
 His South African experiences seem to have intensified his 
 reserve, and to have strengthened his resolve to live apart from
 
 GENERAL GORDON 189 
 
 his fellow-men. After a very brief visit to this country he 
 left for Palestine, where he resided principally at Jaffa during 
 the whole of 1883. There he passed his time in meditation 
 on the meaning of the Book of Revelation, and also in con- 
 sidering the condition of the Turkish Empire. His interest 
 in the Egyptian question was very keen, and he followed each 
 move on the political chess-board at Cairo with great attention 
 and intimate local knowledge. He suddenly returned to Europe 
 in the last month of 1883, and it was not long before it became 
 known that he had accepted a command from the King of the 
 Belgians to proceed to the Congo. How that plan was changed 
 at the last moment and how he proceeded at the shortest 
 notice to Egypt has been too recently narrated in our columns 
 to need repetition. Nor need anything more be said of that 
 marvellous defence of Khartoum for nearly twelve months, 
 which is in every way worthy of the man who was not only 
 successful in almost everything he undertook, but who made 
 the simplest tasks appear honourable by the noble manner in 
 which he carried them out. There is no other name in history 
 with which so many striking achievements will be permanently 
 associated. The last is the most brilliant of them all ; and 
 there is some solace in the thought that, while elsewhere he 
 fought for the benefit of foreign countries, he upheld at Khar- 
 toum the honour of his own country when it had been allowed 
 by our statesmen to sink very low. For that alone he would 
 command the gratitude of all true Englishmen. 
 
 In conclusion, some reflections appropriately suggest them- 
 selves about one who filled so prominent a place in the eyes 
 of his countrymen, by whom he will ever be remembered with 
 pride mingled with regret. One of the. salient features in 
 Gordon's character, without a due allowance for which it is 
 impossible to measure the exact value of his opinions, was his 
 extraordinary placability. No one was gifted in a higher 
 degree than he was with that marvellous insight into human 
 character which amounts almost to an instinct, and in which 
 women are, perhaps too credulously, believed to excel. He 
 seldom failed to detect the impostor, the self-seeker, and the 
 tyrant, whether he was only a minister or majesty himself ; 
 and with some definite object of good in his mind he would 
 express his opinions without qualification, and with a candour 
 that spared not susceptibilities and that injured reputations.
 
 190 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 And then, after a little time, when the object had been attained 
 or had passed out of his mind, he would be disposed to relent 
 towards the individual and to say, "Who am I that I should 
 judge?" 
 
 No one read Nubar with a truer glance than he on their first 
 coming in contact ten years ago, but he more recently repented 
 of the severity of his denunciation. It is not difficult, therefore, 
 to find much that may at first sight appear inconsistent in 
 Gordon's instinctive aversion, and his subsequent interviews and 
 friendly intercourse with Nubar at Cairo. It is only removed 
 by the certain conviction all who knew him well will have that 
 Gordon never wavered or faltered in his own opinions. His 
 humility led him to go out of his way to show that he considered 
 that he had no right to judge harshly of any one. So it was also 
 with Zebehr. He knew that we might as well expect the 
 leopard to change its spots as to ask the king of the slaveholders 
 to injure the institution which gave him political power and 
 wealth. And when General Gordon expressed his desire for the 
 return to the Soudan of the man whom he alone had kept at 
 Cairo during all these years, there was further evidence of his 
 relenting towards an adversary. He also charitably said that 
 Zebehr had probably improved during his exile. At the same 
 time, he justified Zebehr's appointment by the necessities of 
 English policy in the Soudan if the evacuation was to be 
 carried out. 
 
 Another circumstance must be taken into account in deciding 
 what Gordon's own views were on the subject of what he could 
 perform and as to what policy was feasible. The man who has 
 accomplished the marvellous, especially when the imperfection 
 of his means leaves little or nothing to be detracted from the 
 personal influence of his character, acquires a degree of self-con- 
 fidence which in ordinary men becomes vanity or arrogance ; 
 but in Gordon, whose mind was tinged with a strong religious 
 feeling of the Puritan type from the earliest period, it became 
 an intensified and increasing belief that he was a selected 
 emissary and chosen agent of God. Something of this was 
 perceptible so long ago as his China campaigns, when it may 
 be said without exaggeration that he really represented the good 
 and the advantage of the people as something apart and distinct 
 from the political objects kept in view by the Chinese Govern- 
 ment and the Taeping rebels. It became stronger during his
 
 GENERAL GORDON 191 
 
 residence at Gravesend, when he attached to his person boys of 
 the poorer classes strictly speaking, of no class at all ; but it 
 was the long solitary life in the Soudan that most strengthened 
 the feeling, until it became so closely ingrained in his nature 
 that it formed part of the man. The solitude of his life when 
 he had no other companion than his Bible, as well as the 
 character of his work, when he had to perform, as he has himself 
 told us, all the functions of all the Ministers, naturally increased 
 the conviction that the whole burden of the Government rested 
 on his shoulders, and that without his personal energy every- 
 thing would go wrong. 
 
 General Gordon realised all this with as little sense of 
 personal vanity as it is possible for weak human nature to feel ; 
 but, while this was so, there was an accentuated assurance that 
 he was the agent of good by Divine permission if not appoint- 
 ment. He never sought but rather shunned employment. Yet 
 when any specific work was offered or forced upon him he never 
 refused or showed lukewarmness, accepting the summons as the 
 decree of Providence with as much calmness as a Mahomedan 
 would accept kismet. Sometimes when an avenue of doing 
 some real good seemed open to him he would be filled with 
 almost youthful enthusiasm ; but such cannot be said to have 
 been the case with regard to his last journey to Khartoum, for 
 he was going to announce to a people the promise of whose 
 emancipation he had procured some years ago that the English 
 people and Government had not the will and the power to 
 redeem the pledge of their nominee the Khedive. 
 
 When people ask why General Gordon went on this mission 
 they forget that General Gordon was an officer of the Queen and 
 on the Active List, and that his devotion to duty was always so 
 strong that all his arrangements with foreign governments were 
 accompanied by the proviso "unless my own Government 
 requires my services." But still if General Gordon went back 
 to the Soudan with the absence of that enthusiasm which in the 
 case of men of his temperament is the best guarantee of success, 
 it cannot be said that he was hopeless of doing any good. He 
 was not able to assure the peoples of the Soudan that he had 
 received the fiat of England to spare neither its treasure nor its 
 authority in giving effect to the Convention of 1877; but still 
 he might be able to bear the olive branch of peace if he could 
 only allay the popular excitement by assuring the people that
 
 192 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 nothing would be disturbed, that the slaves should remain slaves, 
 and that their owners should be left unmolested in all their 
 rights of property. The policy is not a worthy or, as events 
 will prove, a profitable one ; but let the responsibility rest on 
 those who ordered it, not on the agent who from the most laud- 
 able motives sought to carry it out, even after he had clearly 
 described what he considered to be the true policy. 
 
 But there can be little doubt that General Gordon in 
 accepting the mission to Khartoum was actuated by only two 
 considerations first, a sense of duty ; and, secondly, a belief 
 that if he could not do the greatest possible good he might still 
 do much that would benefit the people and promote the chances 
 of peace. His mode of reasoning was simple. It ran thus : 
 " If God wills it, nothing is impossible. He has placed this 
 work before me, and it is my part only to obey. At the 
 worst I die or am killed, which is nothing, and nobody else is 
 involved." 
 
 With regard to his Congo mission, which it is appropriate to 
 consider here from the sudden manner in which it was postponed 
 and gave place to the journey to Khartoum, it is no longer 
 indelicate to say that he regarded it with a double feeling. On 
 the one hand he felt bound by his pledge to the King of the 
 Belgians, and the fulfilment of his promise was rendered all the 
 more pleasing to him by the frank and generous manner in 
 which the King met every wish and accepted all the responsi- 
 bilities of General Gordon's transfer from the English Army to 
 his own, including the settlement of a sum of <7000 upon his 
 heirs. He imagined and drew up for his own personal conviction 
 a scheme for the suppression of the slave trade by means of 
 armed levies raised on the Congo for the conquest or subjugation 
 of the great slave-capturing people, the Niam Niam. The details 
 of that scheme, as given by himself, were recorded in an article 
 which appeared in the Times of the 17th of January last year, 
 and although they were not destined to be realised they are 
 interesting as a project of imaginative philanthropy. In the 
 commercial prospects of the Congo route he took little or no 
 interest. He revealed his own opinion when he said in a 
 striking sentence, " Those equatorial regions of Africa are all the 
 same, they have only steam." Still his heart was never 
 thoroughly in this work, and on the morning of his last 
 departure for Brussels he repeatedly expressed the hope that
 
 GENERAL GORDON 193 
 
 " there may be a respite, but in any case if I live I go to the 
 Congo for the King in October." Whether this was merely a 
 presentiment, or whether on that morning of the 16th of 
 January he really knew that his destination had been changed 
 but was under a promise of secrecy, we have no means of saying, 
 but certainly his own relatives did not know until a later date 
 that Egypt had been substituted for the Congo. The respite 
 was granted, but there will be few of his friends who will not 
 regret it. It would have been better to have attempted single- 
 handed a chivalrous, if probably vain, crusade against the Niam 
 Niam in the heart of Africa than to have been reserved for the 
 fate of being the personal exponent of the weakness and pro- 
 crastination of his own country. 
 
 LEADING ARTICLE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1885 
 
 The country is as yet in possession of no further authentic 
 details respecting the reported death of General Gordon. Up 
 to last night the War Office had received from Lord Wolseley 
 no confirmation of the story which was brought on the preceding 
 day to Korti from Gubat, and which so profoundly stirred the 
 whole country yesterday. This absence of news is not, indeed, 
 difficult to account for. As we announced yesterday, the head- 
 quarters started on the previous day to cross the desert ; and 
 consequently Lord Wolseley being removed from the end of his 
 telegraph wire, messages from him would of course be longer in 
 coming. Again, he would be especially careful not to send a 
 positive confirmation of such important news until all doubt was 
 finally cleared from his own mind. So far as it appears as yet, 
 all that was yesterday telegraphed to England, whether by 
 Router's Agency or through other channels, may have come from 
 one source, the messenger or messengers who professed to bring 
 news to Colonel Boscawen. If so, there is of course the possi- 
 bility that the news may be an invention, or at least a perversion 
 of the facts. This, however, is the very most that can be said, 
 and it must be owned that it does not tell strongly on the side 
 of hope. The story as we have it is so precise, so circumstantial, 
 and fits in so exactly with what Sir Charles Wilson saw and 
 inferred, that the chances in favour of its truth seem to be 
 overwhelming. We are then, unhappily, justified in treating it 
 as true, and in regarding that brilliant, that unique career, as 
 VOL. in o
 
 194 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 closed. On another page we tell the story of it in detail. Here 
 we may be content to touch rapidly upon some of the main 
 points in a life and character which stand alone in modern times, 
 or, if not alone, which place the name of Gordon side by side 
 with that of Garibaldi. 
 
 All that has recently been told of Gordon's youth proves 
 that he made his mark, and showed of what stuff he was made, 
 very early in his career not, indeed, at Woolwich, but in the 
 trenches before Sebastopol, whither he went at the age of one- 
 and-twenty. The peculiar religious beliefs which coloured his 
 whole later life had not then taken possession of him ; but the 
 character was essentially the same then as always. The story 
 which we tell this morning of his leaping on the bastion in the 
 face of the Russian sharpshooters, by way of shaming a corporal 
 into doing his duty, is thoroughly characteristic ; it is of a 
 piece with his leading the storming parties in China armed but 
 with a cane. Devotion of this rare kind was even then accom- 
 panied with the highest military aptitudes and with the strictest 
 performance of his purely professional duties ; his services as an 
 engineer officer were conspicuous, and were highly valued by 
 his official superiors, when, after the war was over, the young 
 subaltern served on the Delimitation Commissions both in 
 Bessarabia and Armenia. 
 
 The next four years he seems to have spent at Chatham in 
 the routine of his profession ; but in 1860 he took the step 
 which, as it eventually happened, was to be the decisive step of 
 his life. He went to China to join the British force which 
 was co-operating with the French in endeavouring to compel 
 respect for the Elgin Treaty ; he was present in the march on 
 Pekin, and in the attack on the Summer Palace ; he was 
 stationed at Tientsin for the two following years ; and he found 
 himself at Shanghai during the critical time of the Taeping 
 rebellion. In March 1863, at thirty years of age, and holding 
 only the brevet rank of Major in the English Army, he took the 
 command of the 3000 Chinese Imperialists to whom was com- 
 mitted the forlorn hope of defeating and crushing the hordes of 
 ferocious insurgents who had for a long time past been desolat- 
 ing the richest province of the Chinese Empire and shaking the 
 established authority to its foundations. How he performed 
 his task, with what extraordinary combination of discipline 
 and dash, courage and sympathy, enthusiasm and resource, he
 
 GENERAL GORDON 195 
 
 succeeded in making his ragged regiment into an army, and in 
 taking fort after fort and city after cityj is told at length in our 
 columns this morning. In fourteen months, with but a hand- 
 ful of fighting men, and hampered by the corruptest officials in 
 the world, he succeeded in completely suppressing a rebellion 
 which, as is only fully realised by those who were in China at 
 the time, has never been equalled in point of sheer wanton 
 destructiveness since the days of Tamerlane. 
 
 Gordon's task, as he conceived it, was simple. He knew 
 that the officials of Pekin were corrupt, but he saw that the 
 rebels would put nothing better in their place ; and he believed 
 in Li-Hung-Chang. He carried out his achievement with that 
 same unique combination of inventiveness and energy, self- 
 devotion and sympathetic understanding of his materials, that 
 the world has since then learned to identify with his name. 
 The Chinese Empire was saved from anarchy ; and Gordon, 
 henceforth " Chinese Gordon," refusing all reward, went back 
 to his ordinary work as a simple officer of the British Army. 
 
 He had achieved the first great work of his life, but much 
 else remained. At Gravesend, where he was employed in 
 improving the defences of the Thames, he set himself, according 
 to the now familiar story, to reclaim scores of the young waifs 
 and strays of London, and succeeded in making many a little 
 outcast into an excellent servant of his country. Then he 
 became Consul at Galatz, and was lost to view for three years, 
 to emerge suddenly, at the end of 1873, as the successor of Sir 
 Samuel Baker in the government of the Egyptian Soudan. 
 Here, in two periods of less than two years each, and mainly 
 by peaceful means, he achieved the second great work of his 
 life a work which only causes independent of himself have 
 made to be less permanent than his achievement in China. He 
 surveyed the White Nile up to Gondokoro ; he prepared the 
 way for the abolition of the slave trade ; he began the disband- 
 ing of the Bashi-Bazouks who encouraged it, and tempted the 
 people to revolt against their cruelties and exactions ; he con- 
 ciliated and pacified the people ; and he spread the belief in 
 his own name almost as successfully as he had spread it in 
 China. Once he had resigned and returned to England ; but 
 Ismail begged him to go back, and he consented. Then, on 
 the accession of Tewfik, he resigned once more, on the ground 
 that he had done as much as any one man could do.
 
 196 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 There is an unpublished story of a conversation which he 
 had at that time with an English official in Cairo, which throws 
 a good deal of light both on his character and on the problem 
 of government in those barbarous regions. " I shall go," he 
 said, " and you must get a man to succeed me if you can. 
 But I do not deny that he will want three qualifications which 
 are seldom found together. First, he must have my iron con- 
 stitution ; for Khartoum is too much for any one who has not. 
 Then, he must have my contempt for money ; otherwise the 
 people will never believe in his sincerity. Lastly, he must 
 have my contempt for death." Such a man was not found ; 
 and the Eastern Soudan relapsed into the state of administra- 
 tive chaos of which the Mahdi, the representative alike of the 
 vested interests of the slaveholders and of Mussulman fanati- 
 cism, is the outcome. 
 
 There is no need to tell more of the heroic but painful story 
 how Gordon, called away from the equally superhuman task 
 of coping with slavery on the Upper Congo, was sent a year 
 ago to try to resettle the Soudan, to bring away the Egyptian 
 garrisons, and to divide the region, if possible, among petty 
 sultans who would be strong enough to keep order. He went, 
 as all the world knows, unaided. He had but one English 
 companion, the lamented Colonel Stewart ; his self-devotion 
 asked no more. Still, it became very soon apparent that if his 
 mission was to succeed he must be supported from England ; 
 and we, unlike some of those who are now ostentatiously 
 lamenting him, lost no opportunity of urging the Government 
 to send support. The Government was silent, and for many 
 months General Gordon had to employ against the besieging 
 forces that endless resource, that unbounded ingenuity, in which 
 he stood alone, and which made the story told by our late 
 correspondent, Mr. Power, a document almost without a parallel 
 among military annals. 
 
 The marvellous career, it is to be feared, is now ended. 
 The life is over ; at the moment when relief was at hand, 
 treachery did that which force could not do, and Gordon, if we 
 are to believe the too probable story, fell with the fall of 
 Khartoum. All is over except his influence, his example, his 
 name. Probably the grief and admiration of his country will 
 find expression in some great material monument ; and the 
 richest and the noblest that the sculptor's art could produce
 
 GENERAL GORDON 197 
 
 would be well deserved. But " the labour of an age in piled 
 stones " is not necessary to keep alive the memory of one 
 whose life was its own best monument. That life has done 
 much for this generation. It has served conspicuously to 
 remind us that the age of chivalry is not dead ; that chivalry 
 in the highest sense is rare indeed, but that its influence is as 
 great and as far-reaching as of old. It has proved, too, that 
 the English race is in no sense degenerate if that needed to be 
 proved to a people which, among much that is sad and sordid, 
 yet sees all round it the daily acts of heroism that its best men 
 and women are performing. Gordon's life and death bear 
 bright and noble witness that even in a materialistic age the 
 ideals of faith, duty, and enthusiasm are living forces still.
 
 EARL CAIRNS 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1885 
 
 THE death of Lord Cairns is a great, we had almost said an 
 irremediable, loss to the Conservative party in the Upper House. 
 His great legal acquirements and acumen, and his sagacious 
 counsels, made him an invaluable leader of his party on all 
 occasions, but more especially in periods of difficulty and of 
 crisis. If Lord Salisbury may be called the Achilles of the 
 Conservative party, the deceased Earl notwithstanding that he 
 was not ripe in years as men count statesmanship was well 
 entitled to the epithet of the Nestor of that party. The full 
 extent of the loss the Conservatives are called upon to sustain 
 by his death will not be realised until the leaders of the party 
 are once more summoned to undertake the responsibilities of 
 office. The influence of Lord Cairns upon Conservatism was 
 pre-eminently a salutary one useful in moderating the zeal of 
 the most active members of the party, and invaluable as a con- 
 structive force in practical legislation. 
 
 The Right Hon. Hugh MacCalmont, Earl Cairns, was the 
 son of Mr. William Cairns, of Cultra, County Down, by 
 Rosanna, daughter of Mr. H. Johnson. The Cairns family 
 originally went over to Ireland from the South of Scotland. 
 Thomas Cairns, of the Cairns, Orchardtown, in the Stewartry of 
 Kirkcudbright, migrated with Murray, Earl of Annandale, who 
 was his uncle by marriage. He settled in Ulster in the reign 
 of James I. A grandson of his, Alexander Cairns, was with 
 Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim, and in 1708 was created 
 a baronet for his services. The baronetcy afterwards became 
 extinct. Another member of the family represented the borough
 
 EARL CAIRNS 199 
 
 of Belfast in the Irish Parliament from 1703 to 1707. The 
 father of the deceased Earl ultimately became the representative 
 of the family in the male line, Lord Cairns being his second son. 
 
 His lordship was born in the year 1819, so that he had only 
 completed his sixty -fifth year. He was educated at Trinity 
 College, Dublin, of which he subsequently became Chancellor, 
 a position he continued to hold until his death. While a 
 student at Trinity College, he was placed by his father, for 
 classical instruction, under the tutorship of the Rev. George 
 Wheeler, afterwards Rector of Ballysax. When Mr. Cairns first 
 introduced his son to Mr. Wheeler, he had, it is said, some 
 thought of the Church for his profession ; but Mr. Wheeler who 
 then counted among his pupils Hugh Law, Willes, Palles, and 
 Fitzgibbon urged Mr. Cairns to give way to his son's own pre- 
 dilections in favour of the law, and this was the course ultimately 
 taken. Up to the close of Mr. Wheeler's life, Lord Cairns 
 never ceased to remember and acknowledge in frank and 
 generous terms his early obligations to his tutor. Mr. Cairns 
 had a distinguished career at Trinity College, where he was in 
 the first class in classics, and obtained other academical honours. 
 On the 26th of January 1844 he was called to the English Bar 
 at the Middle Temple, and he rapidly acquired an extensive 
 practice in the Courts of Equity. Although only twenty-five 
 years of age, his abilities were widely recognised among his 
 professional brethren and the public ; and there was undoubtedly 
 before him a very honourable and most lucrative career. 
 
 Desirous of entering upon political life, Mr. Cairns contested 
 Belfast in 1852. He was returned for that borough, and con- 
 tinued to represent it in the Conservative interest until his 
 elevation to the judicial bench. In 1856 Mr. Cairns was 
 appointed one of Her Majesty's Counsel and a Bencher of 
 Lincoln's Inn. Lord Derby being called upon to form an 
 Administration in February 1858, Mr. Cairns was offered the 
 appointment of Solicitor-General, which he accepted, receiving 
 on the occasion the honour of knighthood. 
 
 The first important occasion on which Sir Hugh Cairns 
 exhibited his powers as a debater was during the celebrated 
 debate of May 1858, concerning Lord Ellenborough's censure of 
 Lord Canning's proclamation to the inhabitants of our Indian 
 Empire. In the following session the new law-officer gave an 
 earnest of his intentions as a law reformer. He introduced two
 
 200 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 important measures, one of which was designed to simplify titles, 
 and the other to establish a registry of landed estates. His lucid 
 exposition of these measures very favourably impressed the 
 House, without distinction of party, but unfortunately a 
 Ministerial crisis and the abrupt conclusion of the session pre- 
 vented the Bills from being carried. But throughout his subse- 
 quent career he laboured zealously to simplify legal enactments 
 and procedure ; and his Chancery efforts, as well as those in 
 relation to the Landed Estates Bill, were, to a very great extent, 
 brought to a successful issue. 
 
 Sir Hugh Cairns spoke with much force in the debate on the 
 " Cagliari " question, and his persuasive eloquence, as well as 
 his power of marshalling and dealing with facts, rendered him 
 an invaluable debater on the Conservative side of the House. 
 When the French Treaty was brought forward for Parliamentary 
 sanction by Mr. Gladstone in the session of 1860, Sir Hugh 
 Cairns accepted it on behalf of his party. At the same time he 
 pointed out its defects, and contrasted the vigilance of the French 
 negotiators of the treaty with ours, who had surrendered the 
 power to prohibit the export of coal a power which was pos- 
 sessed for political purposes, and had no relation to commerce. 
 But although he considered the treaty one-sided, imperfect, and 
 halting, he was not prepared to take the responsibility of defeat- 
 ing it. This statesmanlike attitude Sir Hugh Cairns adopted 
 with regard to other important legislative measures at a later 
 period. 
 
 When Mr. Monsell introduced the Eoman Catholic Oaths Bill 
 in the session of 1865, Sir H. Cairns brought forward an 
 amendment intended to secure the inviolability of the Protestant 
 religion and the Protestant Government in the United Kingdom. 
 He agreed that the defence of the Church and of our Protestant 
 institutions rested on the affections of the vast majority of the 
 people, but affirmed that one of the grounds for the maintenance 
 of the Protestant Government and religion was the oath con- 
 tained in the Act of 1829, the efficacy of which was shown by 
 the abstention of many gentlemen from voting on questions 
 affecting the Church. Mr. Disraeli supported the amendment, 
 and the division was a very close one, the Government securing 
 a majority of nineteen only. The Reform question was the 
 absorbing topic of the session of 1866, and, the Liberal ranks 
 being weakened by the defection of a band of members nick-
 
 EARL CAIRNS 201 
 
 named collectively the Cave of Adullam by Mr. Bright, the 
 Government were ultimately defeated, after several severe 
 contests, in which they had only secured small majorities. 
 Being in a minority of eleven, the Ministry resigned, and the 
 Earl of Derby was sent for by the Queen. It was universally 
 felt that Sir Hugh Cairns had distinguished himself so greatly, 
 both as a law adviser and a Parliamentary orator, that there 
 could be no contest with him for the post of Attorney-General. 
 It was consequently offered to him by the new Premier and 
 accepted in June 1866. In the following October he was made 
 Lord Justice of Appeal, succeeding Sir James Knight Bruce. 
 In February of the following year, 1867, he was created a peer 
 under the title of Baron Cairns, of Garmoyle, in the county of 
 Antrim. 
 
 In the session of 1867 Mr. Disraeli introduced his famous 
 Reform Bill. When after many vicissitudes it had passed 
 through the House of Commons and gone to the Upper House, 
 Lord Cairns took a prominent part in the discussions upon the 
 measure, and proposed several important amendments. Among 
 these was one which sought to raise the qualification of the 
 lodger franchise from ,10 to 15. It was accepted by the 
 Government, and carried. Later, however, when the report of 
 the Committee came to be considered, Earl Russell moved, with 
 the assent of Lord Derby, to reinstate the 10 value. Lord 
 Cairns, after stating that he was not aware when he moved his 
 amendment that the franchise adopted by the Committee of the 
 Commons was a compromise, agreed to abandon his own proposi- 
 tion, and the 10 lodger franchise was restored. Another 
 important amendment introduced by Lord Cairns was his 
 provision for cumulative voting, otherwise a proposition for the 
 representation of minorities. It was strongly denounced by Mr. 
 Bright, who considered it to be a restriction of electoral power, 
 but it gained the support of politicians so widely different as 
 Mr. Stuart Mill and Mr. Disraeli. The amendment was carried, 
 after a prolonged debate, by 253 to 204 votes. 
 
 By way of showing the indefatigable energy of Lord Cairns, 
 it may be stated that during the progress of the Reform Bill 
 through the House of Lords he delivered no fewer than twenty- 
 four speeches upon the various clauses of the measure. In this 
 same session of 1867 Lord Cairns delivered an important speech 
 upon Earl Russell's motion for an Address to the Queen praying
 
 202 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 for a Royal Commission into the revenues of the Irish Church, 
 with a view to their more equitable application for the benefit 
 of the Irish people. Lord Cairns denied that the temporalities 
 of the Irish Church had ever been the property of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, claiming for tithes the strong right of pre- 
 scription. He admitted that inequalities did exist in the 
 application of the Irish Church funds, but insisted that the 
 income was not in larger proportion to the members of the 
 Church than in England. He predicted that the destruction of the 
 Established Church would produce almost fatal social and political 
 consequences to the landed interest and to the connection with 
 Great Britain. This address was afterwards referred to by the 
 Liberal speakers as a " No surrender " speech, which would help 
 forward the end it sought to avert. 
 
 In February 1868 Lord Derby relinquished the Premiership 
 in consequence of failing health. Mr. Disraeli now became the 
 head of the Administration, and among other changes which 
 took place in the Ministry Lord Cairns became Lord Chancellor 
 in the room of Lord Chelmsford. His lordship was again called 
 upon to defend the interests of the Irish Church during the 
 debate in the Upper House on Mr. Gladstone's Suspensory Bill. 
 On that occasion Lord Cairns spoke with extraordinary force 
 and eloquence, and his speech fully maintained, if it did not 
 enhance, his reputation as a master in the arts of luminous 
 statement and of close and subtle argumentation. So effective, 
 indeed, was this oration as a defence of the Established Church 
 of Ireland that it was subsequently printed and attained a very 
 wide circulation, its arguments furnishing weapons for other 
 speakers on the same subject. In this able address Lord Cairns 
 strongly criticised the details of Mr. Gladstone's measure, point- 
 ing out what he regarded as its grave defects, as well as its 
 striking injustice, and he called upon the House of Lords not to 
 be moved by the decision of the Commons, but to reject the 
 Bill as an attack on property, on the supremacy of the Crown, 
 and on the interests of Protestantism and of peace in Ireland. 
 The Lords rejected the Bill by 192 to 97 votes, although it had 
 been affirmed by large majorities in the House of Commons. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone's Irish Church Bill was brought for- 
 ward in the Upper House in the ensuing session, Lord Cairns 
 again spoke with his accustomed energy and ability. He 
 examined at length the three great allegations upon which the
 
 EARL CAIRNS 203 
 
 measure was based viz. that the Irish Church was a badge of 
 conquest, that it had not fulfilled its mission, and that it had 
 formerly been guilty of many tyrannical acts. He argued 
 warmly against the truth of these propositions, and disputed 
 Hallam's doctrine of the right of the State to deal otherwise 
 with corporate than with private property. He admitted that 
 the nation was entitled to see that the property of the Irish 
 Church was properly applied, but it was not entitled to con- 
 fiscate it because all the Irish nation had not happened to 
 benefit from it. He foresaw, he said, very calamitous results 
 to Irish Protestantism from disendowment ; while the principle 
 of adopting a numerical test of religious equality was of danger- 
 ous example for the English Church. The second reading of the 
 Bill was carried by 179 to 146, the House of Lords feeling the 
 necessity of a compromise upon the question. Subsequently 
 a conference was held between Lord Cairns and Lord Granville 
 upon disputed points, and an amicable result was arrived at. 
 Lord Cairns stated the points of compromise to the House, 
 which consisted of the disposal of the surplus, the mode of 
 commutation, etc. ; and he intimated that, much as he disliked 
 the whole Bill, concessions were preferable to leaving the whole 
 controversy in suspense for an indefinite period. The service 
 rendered on this occasion by Lord Cairns was of great practical 
 value in the settlement of this long-agitated question of the dis- 
 establishment of the Irish Church. 
 
 In 1869 Lord Cairns resigned his position as leader of the 
 Conservative party in the House of Lords, but on the opening 
 of the session of 1870 he consented to resume it. There was 
 no other member of the party deemed suitable for the place, 
 Lord Salisbury at that time being disqualified by reason of the 
 differences which separated him on some questions from his 
 party, and more especially from Mr. Disraeli. Although Lord 
 Cairns was regarded by some as being too exclusively the lawyer 
 in his speeches, and although his oratory lacked the variety 
 which that of a model Parliamentary leader should possess, his 
 great ability gave him a commanding place in which he had no 
 competitors. His health, however, soon gave way, and he was 
 obliged to repair to Mentone, leaving the Duke of Richmond in 
 temporary charge of the duties of the leadership. Lord Cairns, 
 nevertheless, led the Conservative attack in the debate upon the 
 Address, and later in the session he made an important speech
 
 204 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 upon the New Triple Treaty signed by England, Prussia, and 
 France, recording the determination of those Powers to maintain 
 intact the independence and neutrality of Belgium, as provided 
 in the Quintuple Treaty of 1839. In the debates which arose 
 upon Sir Robert Collier's appointment to a seat in the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council, Lord Cairns maintained that 
 the spirit and essence of the Act had been clearly and palpably 
 violated. He said that he honoured Lord Chief Justice Cock- 
 burn for the stand he had taken against the appointment, and he 
 emphatically traversed the doctrines by which the Ministerialists 
 sought to defend the appointment. At this time Lord Cairns 
 continued to take an active part himself, when his health 
 permitted, in the judicial business of the House of Lords. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone having retired from office in February 1874, 
 Mr. Disraeli was summoned by the Queen to form a new 
 Administration, and Lord Cairns again became Lord Chancellor. 
 In the session of 1879 his lordship introduced the Irish Uni- 
 versity Bill, put forward by the Government to supersede that 
 of The O'Conor Don. The Ministerial measure, as first intro- 
 duced, was one of extraordinary simplicity, being nothing more 
 than a proposal to create an examining body which should have 
 the power of conferring degrees upon all approved candidates, 
 irrespective of their place of education. No scholarships, no 
 lectureships or professorships were to be attached to the new 
 University, no result fees were to be paid by it to training 
 schools or colleges. It was, in fact, the Queen's University, 
 with a difference, this difference simply being that its degrees 
 were to be open to all comers. In consideration of this, the 
 Government proposed to abolish the Queen's University, and to 
 transfer the rights of its graduates to sit in convocation to the 
 convocation of the new University. The annual grant of 5000 
 was also to be transferred, and the Senate of the new University 
 was to consist of not more than thirty-six members, six of whom 
 were to be elected by the convocation. 
 
 Considerable agitation arose with respect to the measure, and 
 in the end the Government decided to throw upon the Senate of 
 the new University the duty of framing a scheme of exhibitions, 
 prizes, scholarships, and fellowships, for which Parliament would 
 be asked to provide the money in the annual votes. Lord 
 Cairns continued to hold the office of Lord Chancellor until 
 April 1880, when Lord Beaconsfield went out of office.
 
 EARL CAIRNS 205 
 
 On several occasions his lordship severely criticised the policy 
 of Mr. Gladstone's Government, and in the session of 1881, when 
 affairs in the Transvaal formed a prominent topic of discussion, 
 he called attention to the arrangement which had been made by 
 Her Majesty's Government with the Boers. His speech on that 
 occasion, which was unusually impassioned, had a great effect 
 upon the House, and afterwards upon the country. It was 
 printed subsequently in the form of a pamphlet, and in this 
 form was very widely circulated. After dwelling upon the 
 disasters sustained by our troops, his lordship observed that the 
 Transvaal had been ceded to the Boers, the annexation had been 
 cancelled, the Republic had been restored, and the Queen had 
 nothing more to say to that country. He accused the Govern- 
 ment of having coined a new meaning for the word " suzerain," 
 and then given that title to the Queen. Lord Cairns concluded 
 with this stirring peroration, which was much applauded : " I 
 wish that, while still the Transvaal remains, as you say it does, 
 under our control, the British flag had not been first reversed 
 and then trailed in insult through the mud. I wish that the 
 moment when you are weakening our Empire in the East had 
 not been selected for dismembering our Empire in South Africa. 
 These are the aggravations of the transaction. You have used 
 no pains to conceal what was humbling, and a shame that was 
 real you have also made burning. But the transaction without 
 the aggravations is bad enough. It has already touched, and 
 will every day touch more deeply, the heart of the nation. 
 Other reverses we have had, other disasters ; but a reverse is not 
 dishonour, and a disaster does not necessarily imply disgrace. 
 To Her Majesty's Government we owe a sensation which to this 
 country of ours is new, and which certainly is not agreeable. 
 
 ' ' In all the ills we ever bore 
 We grieved, we sighed, we wept ; we never blushed before." 
 
 It may be stated that on the 27th of September 1878 the 
 late Earl was advanced to the dignities of Viscount Garmoyle 
 and Earl Cairns. Known to the nation at large as an eminent 
 lawyer, statesman, and judge, his lordship had also other claims 
 to be remembered by his fellow-countrymen. Although occupy- 
 ing the high and onerous position of Lord High Chancellor of 
 England, he never relaxed to the last those benevolent and 
 philanthropic efforts for which he was widely esteemed in all
 
 206 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 circles. Like his successor on the woolsack, Lord Cairns was not 
 ashamed of being a Sunday School teacher, and it is recorded of 
 him that, when he was asked after his elevation whether he 
 would not now be compelled to give up Sunday School work, he 
 emphatically answered, "Certainly not." 
 
 Although deeply attached to the Evangelical principles of the 
 Church of England, he was ready to co-operate on all occasions 
 with other workers in the religious field. He appeared on many 
 platforms in the metropolis as an advocate of measures, social 
 and religious, for the amelioration of the masses ; and with Lord 
 Shaftesbury he shared the distinction of being the friend of the 
 homeless city arab. In Dr. Barnardo's Homes for Destitute 
 Children, at Stepney and Ilford, his lordship took a special 
 interest. It will be remembered that when the management of 
 these Homes was subjected to a good deal of criticism, and when 
 a Board of Arbitration had decided that unjust accusations had 
 been brought against the director of the Homes, Lord Cairns 
 came forward and expressed his readiness to assume the office 
 of president of a committee formed to assist Dr. Barnardo in 
 the further development of his work. The Coffee-house move- 
 ment, also, and many other movements and organisations which 
 had for their object the reclamation of the masses of the popula- 
 tion from degrading or vicious habits, Lord Cairns encouraged, 
 not only by his name, but by his personal labours and influence. 
 Several of the local institutions of Bournemouth, and notably 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was an 
 earnest and constant supporter, will suffer greatly by his death. 
 Down to the end he laboured personally and strenuously in 
 connection with the association just named. 
 
 Lord Cairns received the honorary degree of LL.D. from 
 Cambridge University in 1862, and that of D.C.L. from Oxford 
 in the year following. He was also LL.D. of Trinity College, 
 Dublin. His lordship married in May 1856 Mary Harriet, 
 eldest daughter of Mr. John MacNeile of Parkmount, County 
 Antrim, and had issue five sons and two daughters. His first- 
 born son, Hugh, survived his birth only two days. The late 
 Earl is consequently succeeded in the peerage by his second son, 
 Arthur William, Viscount Garmoyle, who was born on the 21st 
 of December 1861. Lord Garmoyle's name was not long ago 
 before the public in connection with a cause cetebre in the Law 
 Courts.
 
 VICTOR HUGO 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1885 
 
 BY the death of Victor Hugo yesterday, France loses the most 
 variously gifted of her sons, and the world of letters its most 
 brilliant ornament. From the universality of his genius he has 
 frequently been compared with our own Shakespeare ; but while 
 his power over human passion, his vivid and capacious imagina- 
 tion, and his plastic intellectual energies may suggest and 
 partially warrant such a comparison with the first of all poets, 
 the great writer just deceased lacked the grand impartiality, the 
 profound calm, and the serene and lofty judgment which are 
 characteristic of Shakespeare and of the few great master spirits 
 of the world. But, when this exception has been taken, the 
 poet whose loss all humanity now mourns was not only one of 
 the most remarkable figures of this generation, but perhaps the 
 finest purely literary spirit that France has ever produced. 
 
 Victor Marie Hugo was born at Besangon on the 26th of 
 February 1802. He is generally reputed to have sprung from 
 a family which had been ennobled three centuries before, in the 
 person of George Hugo, Captain of the Guard to the Due de 
 Lorraine. Joseph Leopold Sigisbert, the father of Victor Hugo, 
 was a General in the French army, and held important commands 
 in France and Italy. Beginning his military career under the 
 Republic, he rose rapidly during the Empire, distinguishing 
 himself by his courage and his brilliant services. His wife was 
 a native of La Vendee, and an ardent Catholic and Royalist ; 
 the character of both was strongly individualised, and the poet 
 seems to have inherited many of their mental peculiarities. But 
 the physical tenement of the child of genius was exceedingly
 
 208 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 frail, and none who saw him gave him as many days to live as 
 he survived to number years. While in an apparently moribund 
 condition he was taken to the Mairie, and there his birth was 
 registered. Years afterwards the poet celebrated in verse the 
 care, the tenderness, and the love which were lavished upon him, 
 and which made him in a twofold sense the child of his devoted 
 mother. 
 
 His earliest years were passed amid constant change and 
 excitement. Before he had completed his fifth year he had 
 travelled from Besangon to Elba, and thence into the province 
 of Avellino, in Calabria, where his father was engaged in the 
 extirpation of the brigand tribes, one of whose leaders was the 
 famous bandit, Fra Diavolo. He also visited Florence, Rome, 
 and Naples, and returned to Paris in the year 1809. Madame 
 Hugo took up her abode at the old convent of the Feuillantines, 
 and for two years the young Hugo led a quiet and studious 
 existence, beginning his education under Lahorie, a proscribed 
 general, and having near him his mother and the little child- 
 friend Adele Foucher, who was afterwards to become the poet's 
 wife. Lahorie, having been betrayed, was imprisoned and put 
 to death by the Imperial Government, and this melancholy 
 event made a profound impression upon his little pupil. It 
 contributed, together with the teachings of his mother, to develop 
 in the mind of the child those strong Royalist sentiments which 
 found expression in his youthful works. In 1811 Victor was 
 called by his father to Spain, where he passed a year in the 
 seminary of nobles. At the early age of ten he began to 
 experiment in verse. Returning to Paris, he resumed the old 
 life at the Feuillantines, and his studies here, under the direction 
 of his mother, continued for three years unchecked. But during 
 the period of the Hundred Days, although Victor Hugo had 
 given clear proof of the bent of his genius, his father resolved 
 upon placing him in a preparatory school, before sending him 
 to the Polytechnic, with the view of adopting a military career. 
 
 Yet, even in his new and uncongenial quarters, the young 
 poet did not neglect the muse. His literary precocity and 
 fecundity were indeed marvellous. One writer states that 
 during the years 1815-18 that is, from his thirteenth to his 
 sixteenth year he made every possible kind of verse, odes, 
 satires, epistles, poems, tragedies, elegies, idylls, imitations of 
 Ossian, translations from Virgil, from Horace, and from Lucan.
 
 VICTOR HUGO 209 
 
 There were other translations from Ausonius and from Martial, 
 romances, fables, stories, epigrams, madrigals, logographs, acrostics, 
 charades, enigmas, and impromptus ; and he also achieved a 
 comic opera. In 1816 he wrote the tragedy of Irtam&ne, to 
 celebrate the accession of Louis XVIII., but not long afterwards 
 this and other juvenile efforts he deemed it necessary to apologise 
 for. He considerably puzzled the wise heads of the Academy 
 in the year 1817, when he competed for the prize of poetry, 
 the subject assigned being " The Happiness derived from Study 
 in every Situation in Life." The examiners were struck with 
 the merits of the poem, but refused credence to the statement 
 of the author that he was but fifteen years of age. In order to 
 convince the sceptics, the young poet forwarded his certificate 
 of birth, but instead of obtaining the prize he had to content 
 himself with the honourable mention of the Academy. Many 
 anecdotes are told respecting these early days. By his poem of 
 "Moses on the Nile," Hugo won the prize offered by the Academy 
 of Toulouse. Having gained three prizes he was constituted 
 Master of the Floral Games, and at the age of eighteen he 
 became a provincial Academician. About this time he wrote 
 the " Ode to La Vendee," and the curious story of " Bug-Jargal," 
 which was published in the Conservateur Litteraire, a periodical 
 founded by Victor and his two brothers. 
 
 A singular example is furnished of the acuteness and fore- 
 sight of Hugo's father. His talented son having on one occasion 
 expressed himself strongly in favour of the Vendeans, the elder 
 Hugo turned towards General Lucotte and observed : " Let us 
 leave all to time. The child shares his mother's views ; the 
 man will have the opinions of his father." This vaticination 
 was strictly fulfilled. On the death of the Due de Berry, Victor 
 Hugo wrote an ode which became very popular in Eoyalist 
 circles. 
 
 Madame Hugo died in the year 1821, to the great grief of her 
 already famous son, who was devotedly attached to her. In his 
 sorrow he turned to the one being who had alone the power to 
 comfort him, and in 1822 Mile. Foucher became the wife of 
 Victor Hugo. He was but twenty years of age, while the bride was 
 much younger. In this same year appeared the first volume of 
 Victor Hugo's Odes et Ballades, poems which united a classic 
 form with romanticity of sentiment. For this work Hugo 
 received 700f., and with the generous recklessness which dis- 
 VOL. in p
 
 210 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 tinguished him, he spent the whole sum on a French cashmere 
 shawl, the gem of his wife's wedding trousseau. Han d'Islande 
 quickly followed the odes, and the first edition of this work 
 produced him lOOOf. The realism of this novel created many 
 enemies in literary circles. While critics admitted the wit, the 
 learning, and the picturesque force which stamped it with a refresh- 
 ing originality, they complained of manifest defects, and condemned 
 the author for his attempt to satiate his ambition and his hopes 
 with the reputation and the excitement of the present moment. 
 
 With the publication of the second volume of Odes et Ballades, 
 in 1826, it was obvious that a change was coming over the 
 ideas of the poet. A literary revolution preceded the political 
 one of 1830. Hugo was one of the chief spirits among a band 
 of writers who charged themselves with the formidable task of 
 regenerating French literature. They resolved to discard the 
 old classical models, and by the warmth of their imagination 
 and the electrical fervour of their newly-emancipated spirits, to 
 establish a new order of things in the realm of poetry. The 
 monotonous Alexandrines were deposed, and irregular but 
 powerful forms of verse usurped their place. Nor was it only 
 in poetic form that they sought to effect a revolution. Matter 
 must be changed as well as metre. Art must conform to Nature. 
 Nature was mistress, and must be followed. The new school 
 assumed the name of " La jeune France," but the outer world 
 distinguished them by the generic title of the Romanticists, as 
 opposed to their rivals and predecessors, the Classicists. 
 
 Victor Hugo was the acknowledged head of the new movement, 
 and the circle which was formed under the name of the Ce"nacle 
 included such writers and critics as Sainte Beuve, Bdranger, and 
 the brothers Deschamps. A newspaper, La Muse Frangaise, 
 was established to advocate the new views. It was in 1827 
 that the first definite fruits of the literary revolution became 
 apparent by the publication of Victor Hugo's drama of Cromwell. 
 In composing the original draft of this drama, the author in- 
 tended it for stage representation, with Talma as the chief 
 character. But Talma died before the drama was completed, and, 
 as ultimately finished, the author did not intend the drama for 
 stage representation. In the preface he unfolded his views upon 
 the dramatic art. Briefly put, they were to this effect that the 
 stage is chiefly a reflex of society, a mirror in which the public 
 should see its image faithfully reflected. The drama was not to
 
 VICTOR HUGO 211 
 
 be circumscribed by tragedy alone, but comedy was to render its 
 share in the delineation of character. The author's resolve to 
 make himself independent of the three unities led to much 
 hostile criticism ; but he was also not without his defenders. 
 
 In 1828 M. Hugo published a series of odes entitled Les 
 Orientales. They contained much fresh and musical, but not 
 very profound, verse, and advanced the author in the esteem of 
 the public. He next engaged upon a play dealing with the 
 history of Amy Robsart, but it was not given to the public, a 
 pension granted by Louis XVIII. to the author enabling the 
 latter to keep back such works as his judgment recommended 
 him not to issue. 
 
 The occasion of the next publication of Victor Hugo, Le 
 Dernier Jour d'un Condamntf, furnishes an opportunity for 
 referring to him in his character of a humanitarian. The 
 abolition of capital punishment was a measure which he warmly 
 and persistently supported, and his powerful writings had great 
 influence in disgusting the French mind with the sickening 
 details of public executions. The work above mentioned was 
 a powerful protest against capital punishment, and it was 
 followed up by an earnest and lifelong advocacy of the same 
 course. After the lapse of a quarter of a century he wrote 
 Claude Gueux, dealing with a convict of that name whose 
 reprieve had been appealed for in vain. In 1839 Hugo was 
 successful in interceding for the life of Barbes, who had been co- 
 leader with Blanqui in an insurrection ; and twenty -three years 
 later an interesting correspondence passed between the reprieved 
 man and his benefactor. 
 
 As a peer of France Victor Hugo sat in judgment in 1846 
 and 1847 on two men, named King and Lecomte, who had 
 fired at the king, and in both cases he declined to vote for the 
 capital sentence being executed. When the whole question of 
 capital punishments was discussed by the Assembly in 1848, 
 Victor Hugo delivered a brief but impassioned speech. " In the 
 first act of the Constitution that you vote," he said, " you have 
 carried out the first thought of the people you have overturned 
 the throne. Now carry out the other ; overturn the scaffold ! I vote 
 for the abolition, pure, simple, and definitive, of the penalty of 
 death." The friends of condemned criminals repeatedly besought 
 the intercession of Victor Hugo, knowing his horror of capital 
 punishment.
 
 212 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 In 1851, when the poet's eldest son, Charles Hugo, was 
 summoned before the Court of Assize for having protested in 
 L'Evtfnement against an execution which had been accompanied 
 by horrible circumstances, the father claimed the right to defend 
 him, which was accorded. In the course of his very powerful 
 address on that occasion, he exclaimed, with much emotion, 
 " The real culprit in this matter, if there is a culprit, is not my 
 son. It is I myself I who for a quarter of a century have 
 not ceased to battle against all forms of the irreparable penalty 
 I who during all this time have never ceased to advocate the 
 inviolability of human life." The speech was thrilling and 
 argumentative by turns. But the speaker, notwithstanding his 
 fervid eloquence, failed to convert his hearers, and Charles Hugo 
 was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In 1854 the 
 hanging of a man named Tapner, in Guernsey, created a great 
 sensation. Victor Hugo laboured for his reprieve, but in vain ; 
 and he afterwards addressed a trenchant letter to Lord Palmer- 
 ston, in which he recapitulated certain ghastly incidents which 
 rendered the execution unusually horrible and repulsive. When 
 John Brown, of Harper's Ferry celebrity, was condemned to 
 death, Victor Hugo penned a stirring remonstrance to the 
 United States. 
 
 On many other occasions also he came forward to denounce 
 the exaction of the death penalty. The power of his pen was 
 so great that the Deputy Salverte declared it was owing to such 
 " execrable books " as The Last Day of a Convict that France 
 had adopted the plea of extenuating circumstances. To him 
 also credit was given for the cry which arose in Switzerland for 
 the abolition of the punishment of death, a letter which he 
 wrote, and which was distributed widely throughout the cantons, 
 having produced an immense effect 
 
 To return to the literary efforts of M. Hugo. Having 
 established a new dramatic school, it was but natural that he who 
 was regarded as its founder should be urged to produce a work 
 that should serve as a stage exposition of the new principles. 
 This was forthcoming in the drama of Marion Delorme. This 
 work was unquestionably original, and, in the opinion of some 
 critics, as unquestionably immoral. It is full of excellent 
 things, but the task which the author set himself in its composi- 
 tion was a difficult and delicate one. But for its delineation of 
 human passion it must take high rank among stage efforts.
 
 VICTOR HUGO 213 
 
 The censor, M. de Martignac, who held by the old school, de- 
 cided against it, both on literary and political grounds. He saw 
 in the description of Louis XIII. an unflattering allusion to 
 Charles X. The author carried the matter to the King himself. 
 Charles promised to look into the matter and give an immediate 
 answer. He did so, but it was hostile to the play. Desiring 
 to pacify Hugo, whose genius he admired, the King granted him 
 a fresh pension of 4000f., but the poet refused the bribe, and 
 the Constitutionnel remarked upon this : " Youth is less easily 
 corrupted than the Ministers think." 
 
 Another dramatic venture immediately succeeded, for Victor 
 Hugo's was a restless and impulsive intellect, which sought 
 only a fuller expression under a policy of repression. This 
 time it was the famous drama of Hernani with which he 
 delighted his friends and still further exasperated his enemies. 
 The play was produced at the Theatre Fran<jais on the 25th of 
 February 1830 amid a scene of great excitement. Some of the 
 partisans for and against the drama came to actual blows, but 
 the friends of the dramatist prevailed, and the piece was suc- 
 cessful. Chateaubriand wrote a flattering letter to the author. 
 After a few nights the enemies of the piece increased in numbers 
 and violence, but still the theatre filled and money came pouring 
 into the treasury. Hernani excited a furore that extended to 
 the provinces. A fatal duel arising out of it was fought at 
 Toulouse, and at Vannes a corporal of Dragoons died leaving 
 this instruction in his will : " I wish to have it engraved on 
 my tombstone, ' Here lies one who believed in Victor Hugo.' " 
 
 The poet now alternated his dramatic writing with the pro- 
 duction of the remarkable romance, N6tre Dame de Paris. He 
 had bound himself by agreement with a publisher to produce a 
 novel within a given time, and unable to get sufficient leisure 
 in any other way he shut himself up resolutely beyond the 
 reach of the world. Investing in a bottle of ink and a thick 
 gray worsted garment which enveloped him from the head to 
 the heels, he locked up his clothes so that he should not be 
 tempted to go out, and set to work. His friends thought very- 
 little of the portions of the novel which he read to them ; but 
 M. Alphonse Karr was so struck by the title which Hugo first 
 thought of giving to his story, The Contents of a Bottle of Ink, 
 that he begged to be allowed to use it. The book was finished 
 in less than six months, and although the great majority of the
 
 214 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 critics were strongly hostile to it, it became one of the most 
 favourite romances with both French and English readers. And 
 the strength of its characters, combined with the dramatic 
 power it displays, may well justify the popular verdict in this 
 matter. The author was pressed by the publishers for more 
 novels, and for some time two titles were displayed before an 
 eager public viz. the Fils "He la Bossue and La Quiquengrogne. 
 But other work intervened, and these stories were never pro- 
 duced. The Revolution of 1 830 did away with the old censorship 
 of the stage, and a proposition was at once made by the Comedie 
 Franchise to produce Marion Delorme. In the year following 
 he consented to its performance, but gave it to the Theatre of 
 the Porte Saint-Martin. It achieved a fair success. In 1831 
 appeared a new volume of lyrical poems by Victor Hugo, entitled 
 Les Feuilles d'Automne. In these impressions of a poetic nature, 
 thrown off when the author had banished from his mind the dis- 
 tracting outer world, there are many sweet and tender passages. 
 In 1832 Victor Hugo wrote Le Roi s'Amuse, and Baron 
 Taylor secured it for the Theatre Frangais. It was produced 
 on the 22nd of November, but immediately suspended by the 
 Government. An attempted assassination of the king on the 
 night of the first performance played into the hands of the 
 censor, and made the alleged necessity for the suppression of 
 the drama the more plausible. The play was not very well 
 received, and on Victor Hugo being asked whether his name 
 should be mentioned to the audience, he replied, " Sir, I have 
 rather a higher opinion of my play now that it is a failure." 
 The reason assigned for the suppression of the drama was that 
 it was an offence against public morality. The author was 
 exceedingly angry, and appealed to the judges, but they decided 
 against him. Although the Revolution had deprived M. Hugo 
 of the pension of lOOOf. out of the privy purse conferred upon 
 him by Louis XVIIL, he still received the pension of 2000f. 
 allowed him by the Home Minister. The Ministerial journals 
 now twitted him with attacking royalty but at the same time 
 taking pay from it. Upon this Victor Hugo wrote a letter to 
 M. d'Argout, in which he stated that he had accepted the pension 
 as a tribute to his literary work, but now that it was misunder- 
 stood he entirely relinquished it. M. d'Argout replied that he 
 should still reserve the pension for the poet, but the latter never 
 afterwards took it up.
 
 VICTOR HUGO 215 
 
 Dramas from Victor Hugo's pen now followed each other in 
 rapid succession. Lucrece Borgia was performed in 1833, with 
 Mile. Georges, M. Delafosse, and M. Fre"de"ric Lemaitre in the 
 principal characters. The superb acting in the last scene called 
 forth quite an ovation. The author was obliged to escape as best 
 he could from the admiring crowds which besieged him on leav- 
 ing. The receipts from the three first performances amounted 
 to 84,769f. a sum never approached under the management 
 of the Porte Saint-Martin. Marie Tudor followed, but prejudice 
 was created against this piece on the ground that it was more than 
 ever a tissue of horrors ; that Mary was a bloodthirsty creature, 
 and that the executioner was perpetually on the stage. 
 
 By the year 1834 it became manifest that a change had come 
 over the political sentiments of Victor Hugo. In L'Etude sur 
 Mirabeau, the Royalistic ideas of the early ballads were thrown 
 over, and the celebration of the rights of the people had taken 
 their place. The change had been arrived at gradually and 
 honestly, but the poet felt that some statement of a semi- 
 autobiographic character was due from him, and he gave the 
 reasons for his new faith in his Literature et Philosophic MiUes. 
 It was impossible for a mind constituted like his, and susceptible 
 at every point, to stand still ; and he felt himself irresistibly 
 urged upon the path of progress. Angela, another new drama, 
 was produced in 1835, and Mile. Mars sustained the chief 
 character. We almost toil after this prolific writer in vain. 
 Three volumes of poems Les Chants du Crdpuscule, Les Voix 
 Interieures, and Les Rayons et les Ombres appeared between 
 1835 and 1840, and testified not only to the poet's versatility 
 but to his richness and wealth of diction. In July 1837 Victor 
 Hugo was appointed officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1838 
 was produced his drama of Ruy Bias. The manager of the 
 theatre looked forward anxiously to the opening night, but the 
 play succeeded admirably. The first four acts went off very 
 well, but in the fifth act M. Frdddric Lemaitre rivalled the 
 greatest comedians. The drama achieved a genuine success 
 that is, a success emanating spontaneously from the public ; and 
 it was performed for fifty nights. 
 
 The last of Victor Hugo's writings for the stage, Les Bur- 
 graves, was produced in 1843. Here, as in his other pieces, 
 there were witnessed the same strong contrasts. He delighted 
 in opposing human passions and in a strange commingling of
 
 216 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 comedy with tragedy which shocked the notions of those who 
 held by the severity of the dramatic unities. But the effects 
 which he managed to produce were undoubted ; and, however 
 people might urge that he was heterodox, all at least concurred 
 in admitting that he was original. But he resolved to give up 
 the theatre, and with the production of Les Burgraves our 
 author shook the dramatic dust from under his feet and left 
 the stage to pursue its own course. 
 
 With regard to the developments in his political and social 
 views, while these excited surprise and animadversion in some 
 quarters, upon those who had faithfully traced his career and 
 his writings during his fourth decade these changes could have 
 no effect. For example, although he fell in with the regime of 
 Louis Philippe, he made no secret of it that he regarded the 
 monarchy only as temporary it was merely a prelude to the 
 Republic. Yet he did not think that the Eepublic was at that 
 moment ripe. But the keen and intuitive mind of Lamennais 
 had read him rightly. " I knew," remarked that distinguished 
 man, " that you could not remain Koyalist ; but I place the 
 Republic in the present and you foretell it in the future." 
 Though enthusiastic beyond measure in most things, Victor 
 Hugo was willing to tolerate the existing monarchy under the 
 belief that it must lead to the Republic. In discoursing of 
 Mirabeau in 1824 he had dwelt upon the necessity for the 
 observant man to make allowances. By 1837 he had gone a 
 step further, and defined his object to be' to agree with all 
 parties in what was liberal and generous, but with none in what 
 was illiberal and mischievous. At this time also he regarded 
 social reforms as by far the most necessary and the most press- 
 ing. In 1840 he claimed the following as his rule of action : 
 " No engagement, no chain. Liberty should pervade both 
 his ideas and his actions. He should be free in his goodwill 
 towards those who are really working, free in his aversion 
 towards those who are hurtful, free in his love towards those 
 who serve, free in his pity towards those who suffer." It 
 required little in the nature of prophecy to indicate Hugo's 
 future upon political and social questions. Emancipation, in 
 the sense of democratic progress, was all that could be pre- 
 dicated of him. 
 
 Although the brilliant talents of Victor Hugo had given him 
 a fame already extending far beyond his native country, they
 
 VICTOR HUGO 217 
 
 could not ensure him a place among the "Immortals." That 
 capricious corporation, the French Academy, looked askance 
 when he knocked at its doors for admittance. For some years 
 he was obliged to console himself with the fact that he was hut 
 one member of an illustrious band, beginning with Moliere, all 
 of whom had been passed over by this learned body. His first 
 application as a candidate was in 1836, when the Academy pre- 
 ferred M. Dupaty ; at the next attempt, three years later, M. 
 Mole" was the fortunate one ; in 1840 the Academy chose M. 
 Flourens in preference to the poet and dramatist ; but on a 
 fourth application, in 1841, the sacred doors were at length 
 opened to him, and Victor Hugo obtained the honours to which 
 he had long ago become legitimately entitled. 
 
 Shortly after his election into the French Academy Victor 
 Hugo made several foreign tours, among others one through 
 Spain, whence he was suddenly recalled by a severe domestic 
 affliction. His daughter Le"opoldine and her husband, Charles 
 Vacquerie, to whom she had but recently been united, were 
 drowned while out upon a pleasure excursion. The sad event 
 made a profound impression upon the mind of the poet. 
 
 On the 15th of April 1845 Victor Hugo was created a peer of 
 France by Louis Philippe, but the title of Count seems an anomaly 
 when associated with such a name as his. The Revolution of 
 1848 called him to definite action. Elected to represent the 
 city of Paris in the Constituent Assembly, his votes were given 
 now to the Right and now to the Democratic party. He was 
 re-elected to the Legislative Assembly, being the tenth among 
 twenty-eight candidates ; and he now rapidly assumed the posi- 
 tion of one of the leaders and chief orators of the Left. He 
 spoke eloquently upon the affairs of Rome, the limitation of 
 universal suffrage, the project for the revision of the Constitu- 
 tion, and other questions. But the passionate vehemence of his 
 language, his strong personal attacks upon Montalembert, with 
 whom he engaged in a Parliamentary duel extending over 
 three years, and his frequent attacks upon the President of 
 the Republic drew upon him the reproaches of the majority for 
 his new-born Republican zeal. The odes written in his youth, 
 as well as the writings of maturer years, were quoted against 
 him. At the same time also, the journal which he had founded, 
 L'Evdhement, and which had passed through the same changing 
 phases of opinion as himself, was prosecuted, condemned, and
 
 218 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 suppressed, but only to reappear under the name of the Avene- 
 ment. With MM. Schoelcher, Madier-Montjau, and others, 
 Victor Hugo organised an abortive resistance to the coup d'etat 
 of the 2nd of December. With other members of the extreme 
 Left he was banished from France for life by Prince Louis 
 Napoleon. Immediately upon his exile he signed, along with 
 several of his colleagues, an appeal to arms, couched in extremely 
 vehement language, and he followed this up by his scathing 
 brochure Napoleon le Petit, published in Brussels. In the 
 following year, 1853, he further issued at Brussels a volume 
 of poems under the title of Les Chdtiments. 
 
 These works furnished the strongest invectives ever uttered 
 against " the man of December." They exhibit a man of genius 
 expending all his wealth of satire and denunciation in the white 
 heat of passion. The work last named, which is as remarkable 
 for its elegance of composition as for its intense political feeling, 
 was destined, after a clandestine circulation of eighteen years, 
 and upon the fall of the Emperor in 1870, to prove the poet's 
 best passport to a yet greater popularity than he had hitherto 
 enjoyed. Withdrawing first to Jersey, the illustrious exile 
 was not long allowed to remain there. Difficulties arose 
 between the French and British Governments, and Victor Hugo 
 ultimately settled in Guernsey, with which island his name has 
 ever since been associated, and where he spent many years 
 fruitful in literary effort. The first substantial result of the 
 exchange of political for purely literary labours appeared in Les 
 Contemplations, published in 1856. The work was speedily very 
 popular, and it has been described as the lyrical record of twenty- 
 five years. 
 
 In 1859 appeared La Le'gende des Si&cles. Announced as a 
 simple fragment of a yet greater poem as the first part of a 
 trilogy, of which the other two were to be called La Fin de 
 Satan and Dieu this work was yet far more striking than 
 any of its predecessors for its brilliancy and energy, its literary 
 skill, and its powerful conceptions. The Bishop of Derry has 
 given a full, and, on the whole, discriminating criticism of 
 this remarkable work, and with some success has translated 
 passages from it. But Victor Hugo's French is too peculiar 
 and impassioned to be brought within the trammels of English 
 verse. 
 
 On the 15th of August 1859 a general amnesty was pro-
 
 VICTOR HUGO 219 
 
 claimed. This was refused by Victor Hugo, Edgar Quinet, 
 Louis Blanc, and others, who replied by a counter manifesto. 
 When he was again pressed, ten years later, to accept a second 
 amnesty, he refused with still greater warmth, answering his 
 friend Pyat in these words S'il n'en reste qu'un, je serai celui-ld. 
 He was blamed by some for adopting this attitude, and others 
 affirmed that if he had stood forward in the time of peril as he 
 ought to have done, the fatal day of Sadowa might have been 
 averted, and the disastrous Ministry of M. Emile Ollivier, with 
 its subsequent avalanche of ruin, might have been rendered 
 impossible. This, at any rate, will suffice to show the power 
 ascribed to the individual will of Victor Hugo. 
 
 In the year 1862 appeared a new and powerful work by our 
 author, and one in an entirely new groove namely, the great 
 social romance Les Miserables. It was issued simultaneously in 
 nine languages, and published in Paris, Brussels, London, New 
 York, Madrid, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Turin. The appear- 
 ance of the work had been eagerly awaited. Its reception was 
 peculiar. It was as warmly applauded by some as it was fiercely 
 denounced by others for its social philosophy. But all critics 
 acknowledged the genius which blazed in the pages of this 
 romance, one writer affirming that it contained in dilution more 
 colossal imagery than anything which had been produced in 
 Europe since the Divine Comedy. In 1865 was published the 
 volume Chansons des Rues et des Bois, in which so much power 
 was expended over the infinitely little as to earn for the author 
 the sobriquet of " the Paganini of poetry." A second important 
 work dealing with metaphysical and social questions, Les 
 Travailleurs de la Mer, appeared in 1866. This romance has 
 been compared with the Prometheus of ^Eschylus. The plot 
 is nothing ; the development of a human soul everything. 
 Gilliatt's battle with the devil fish is probably the most realistic 
 thing ever penned. A third descriptive romance, L'Homme qui 
 Kit, appeared in 1869, the year following the death of Madame 
 Victor Hugo at Brussels. Again the movement of life plays a 
 subordinate part, and the real purpose of the work is seen to be 
 a description of the battle waged in the individual breast, first 
 with Fate, and then with those ancient enemies of man, the 
 World, the Flesh, and the Devil. But, notwithstanding its 
 evidences of power, this work failed to obtain that deep hold 
 upon the public mind which was secured by its predecessors.
 
 220 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 The closing years of the Empire witnessed a great literary 
 triumph for Victor Hugo in the reproduction of his Hernani at 
 the Theatre Francais. During the time of the Paris Universal 
 Exhibition in 1867 this drama was performed for the long 
 period of four months with striking success. 
 
 At this time Victor Hugo was a frequent contributor to the 
 Rappel, a journal which had been founded under his inspiration, 
 and which was conducted by M. Vacquerie, the brothers Hugo, 
 and M. Eochefort. It had gained a great ascendency over the 
 population of Paris. On the occasion of the plebiscite of the 
 8th of May 1870, which ratified the new Constitution of the 
 Empire, the poet published a protest in the Rappel entitled 
 " Non ; in three letters this word says everything." The 
 article was so strong a development of the writer's views on 
 the subject of the Empire that he was cited for bringing the 
 Government into hatred and contempt. 
 
 With the disaster of Sedan the Empire fell, and the revolution 
 of the 4th of September followed. Victor Hugo now returned 
 to Paris, where he was received with great enthusiasm. He 
 addressed a letter to the German people exhorting them also to 
 proclaim a republic and to join hands with France. When the 
 insurrectionary movement of the 31st of October occurred, his 
 name appeared on the list of the Committee of Public Safety ; 
 but he disavowed the use made of his name, and on the ensuing 
 5th of November declined to become a candidate at the general 
 election of the mayors of Paris ; 4029 suffrages, however, were 
 accorded him in the fifteenth arrondissement. In the elections 
 of February 1871 he was returned second on the list with 
 214,000 votes, Louis Blanc coming first with 216,000, and 
 Garibaldi third with 200,000 votes. Speaking in the National 
 Assembly on the 1st of March, he powerfully denounced the 
 ratification of the preliminaries of peace. On the 8th, during 
 the debate which took place in the National Assembly on the 
 election of Garibaldi, Victor Hugo ascended the tribune and 
 said : 
 
 " France has met with nothing but cowardice from Europe. 
 Not a Power, not a single king, rose to assist us. One man 
 alone intervened in our favour ; that man had an idea and a 
 sword. With his idea he delivered one people ; with his 
 sword he delivered another. Of all the generals who fought 
 for France Garibaldi is the only one who was not beaten."
 
 VICTOR HUGO 221 
 
 Here there were violent interruptions on the Eight, and the 
 speaker declared he would give in his resignation. Being sub- 
 sequently asked by the President whether he adhered to the 
 letter of resignation which he had laid upon the table, he 
 replied that he persisted in his resolve, and forthwith left the 
 hall. The next day M. GreVy read the following letter from 
 Victor Hugo : " Three weeks ago the Assembly refused to 
 hear Garibaldi; to-day it refuses to hear me. I resign my 
 seat." Louis Blanc expressed the profound grief caused by this 
 resignation to all the political friends of Victor Hugo, and said 
 that it was a misfortune added to the other calamities of the 
 country. 
 
 A heavy domestic calamity befell the poet on the 13th of 
 March, when his son Charles died of cerebral congestion. The 
 bereaved parent brought the body to Paris on the 18th, the 
 day of the insurrection in the capital Civil war was now 
 inaugurated, with all its horrors ; but this period of outrage 
 and assassination is matter of familiar history. Leaving Paris 
 during the horrors of the Commune, the poet went to Brussels. 
 On the 26th of May, while in this city, he wrote a letter pro- 
 testing against the decision of the Belgian Government with 
 regard to the insurgents of Paris. In this letter he offered 
 publicly an asylum to the soldiers of the Commune, and, as the 
 Ministry considered that the letter compromised the interests of 
 Belgium, the writer was expelled from the country. Returning 
 to Paris after the trial of the leaders of the Commune, he inter- 
 ceded, but in vain, with M. Thiers on behalf of M. Rochefort. 
 He was again adopted as a candidate for Paris by all the 
 Radical Press in the election of the 7th of January 1872 ; but 
 he declined the imperative mandate which the Radical clubs 
 wished to impose upon him, while accepting the mandat con- 
 traduel, which he denned for the first time. He was defeated, 
 receiving only 95,900 votes, as against 122,395 given to his 
 opponent, M. Vautrain. 
 
 During the siege of Paris a new edition was brought out of 
 Les Chdtiments, a work, as we have seen, originally published in 
 1853. This reproduction consisted of more than 100,000 
 copies. The principal pieces in the collection were recited at 
 the theatres, the proceeds being devoted to the works of defence, 
 the ambulances, etc. Readings and recitations from the work 
 were also given in the provinces with a like object. Victor
 
 222 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Hugo defended his own career in the work entitled Actes et 
 Paroles, written in 1870-72; and this was followed up by 
 L'Anne'e Terrible, issued in the last-named year. Belonging to 
 the same class or category of intellectual labour was La Libtfra- 
 tion du Territoire, a poem published in 1873, and sold for the 
 benefit of the inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine. 
 
 In 1874 appeared the grand historical and political romance, 
 Quatre-vingt-treize, which was published on the same day in ten 
 languages. This great prose epic, upon the most terrible year 
 in modern history, 1793, excited the liveliest interest through- 
 out Europe, and critics of all shades of opinion hastened to do 
 justice to its extraordinary merits. To this work succeeded, 
 in 1874, a pathetic sketch, Mes Fils, and, in 1875-76, Avant 
 I'Exil, Pendant I'Exil, Depuis I'Exil, being a complete collection 
 of Victor Hugo's addresses, orations, and confessions of faith, 
 etc., during the preceding thirty years. Pour un Soldat was 
 a little brochure written in favour of an obscure deserter. 
 
 Although the poet seemed temporarily to have abandoned 
 political life, he had not forgotten his friends and the electors of 
 Paris. Frequent letters published in the public press proved 
 this, as well as his presence as chairman at a number of 
 democratic conventions, and the delivery of a number of public 
 discourses, such as those pronounced at the funerals of M. 
 Edgar Quinet, Madame Louis Blanc, and others. Preparatory 
 to the first Senatorial elections, M. Cle'menceau, President of the 
 Municipal Council of Paris, waited upon the poet, and, in the 
 name of the majority of his colleagues, offered him the function 
 of delegate. M. Hugo accepted, and at once issued his mani- 
 festo, entitled "The Delegate of Paris to the Delegates of the 
 36,000 Communes of France," in which he reiterated, with 
 redoubled energy, his old idea of the abolition of monarchy by 
 the federation of the peoples. On the 30th of January 1876 
 he was elected Senator of Paris, but after a keen struggle. He 
 was only the fourth out of five, and was not returned until 
 after a second scrutiny, when it was found that he had secured 
 114 votes out of a total of 216. 
 
 On the 21st of March 1876 M. Hugo introduced in the 
 Senate a proposal for granting an amnesty to all those con- 
 demned for the events of March 1871, and to all those then 
 undergoing punishment for political crimes or offences in Paris, 
 including the assassins of the hostages. On the 22nd of May
 
 VICTOR HUGO 223 
 
 he delivered an eloquent oration in support of his motion, but 
 it was rejected, only about seven hands being held up for the 
 amnesty. The poet orator again pleaded the same cause in 
 January 1879, but his proposal was coldly received. In the 
 following month, however, an Amnesty Bill was passed by the 
 Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 To return to the literary record of Victor Hugo. Early in 
 1877 appeared the second part of the Le'gende des Siecles, and 
 shortly afterwards the poet was deeply gratified by Tennyson's 
 greeting of him in the Nineteenth Century as " Victor in poesy, 
 Victor in romance." In October 1877 appeared another re- 
 markable work by the deceased, L'Histoire d'un Crime. It had 
 been written a quarter of a century before in condemnation of 
 the events of December 1851, and now, when there were 
 possible rumours of a coup d'e'tat of another kind, he deemed it 
 absolutely imperative to publish it. As he remarked in his 
 preface, " This work is more than opportune ; it is imperative. 
 I publish it." In the following November appeared a lighter 
 work, L'Art d'etre Grandpere. When the second part of The 
 History of a Crime appeared, at the beginning of 1878, France 
 had fortunately passed through a period of great political excite- 
 ment without those fearful consequences which have frequently 
 followed such periods in her history. The continuation of 
 Victor Hugo's work did not, consequently, create such popular 
 fervour as it might otherwise have done. But the author was 
 as scathing as ever in his invectives, and no one knew such 
 strong depths of bitterness and indignation as he. On the 
 29th of April 1878 appeared Victor Hugo's new poem, Le 
 Pape. 
 
 When the Voltaire centenary was celebrated in Paris in 
 May 1878 Victor Hugo was the chief speaker. The great 
 meeting was held in the Gaite Theatre, which was crowded to 
 suffocation. While all the speakers at that meeting were 
 warmly applauded, our correspondent, writing on that occasion, 
 observes that, " It was when M. Victor Hugo rose that the 
 tempest of acclamation burst forth. Can a grander, a more 
 striking, a more exaggerated scene be conceived than this 
 association of Victor Hugo and Voltaire, of the most eloquent 
 and the most touching of French orators, exhausting his mines 
 of highly -coloured epithets and colossal antitheses on the 
 ironical head of Voltaire ? A report of his speech does not
 
 224 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 suffice ; the white head and apostle's beard, the inspired eye, 
 the solemn voice, rolling as if it would sound in the ears of 
 posterity ; the involuntary haughty attitude in vain striving to 
 seem modest ; the imperturbable seriousness with which he 
 piles antithesis upon antithesis all this must be realised." 
 Victor Hugo was enthusiastically cheered on taking the chair ; 
 but, waving his arm, he exclaimed " Vive la Republique ! " a 
 cry which was then taken up with equal fervour. After the 
 other speakers had been heard, the distinguished chairman 
 delivered his oration. He rapidly sketched the work accom- 
 plished by Voltaire, and concluded with an eloquent perora- 
 tion. 
 
 The International Literary Congress, held in Paris in June 
 1878, once more beheld Victor Hugo to the front upon a 
 question in which he took much interest. His speech on that 
 occasion was accepted by the Congress as forming the basis of 
 its decisions. In the August following this conference a great 
 working men's meeting was held in the French capital in 
 favour of international arbitration, and Victor Hugo, unable 
 to be present and to take the chair as he intended, sent a com- 
 munication expressing his approbation of the objects of the 
 meeting. " The supreme future is with you," he wrote. " All 
 that is done, even against you, will serve you. Continue to 
 march, labour, and think. You are a single people. Europe 
 and you want a single thing peace." In February 1879 
 Victor Hugo furnished another illustration to many which had 
 gone before of the liberality of his mind and his support of 
 the doctrine of imiversal toleration by the publication of a 
 poem entitled La Pititf Supreme. 
 
 On the eve of the seventy-eighth birthday of the poet, 
 25th February 1880, which was also the fiftieth anniversary 
 of Hernani, this famous play was produced at the Come'die 
 Francaise. The performance of the piece was followed by the 
 recitation of verses by M. Copp^e, and by the crowning of the 
 author's biist 
 
 Religions et Religion, a work by Victor Hugo which appeared 
 early in 1880, is an attack not only upon various systems of 
 religion, but also upon those who attack all religion. L'Ane, 
 which was published some months later in the same year, is, as 
 its name implies, a poem of a totally different order. Desiring 
 to lash his kind, with Rabelais, the poet puts his denunciations
 
 VICTOR HUGO 225 
 
 into the mouth of an ass, which animal is taken to be the type 
 of unsophisticated man. The work was regarded as a failure, 
 in spite of the genius which played about its pages, the satiric 
 power of Victor Hugo being one rather of fierce denunciation 
 than that which consists in the perception of the incongruous 
 in humanity. In 1881 appeared Les Quatre Vents de I' Esprit. 
 Torquemada, a drama written chiefly during Victor Hugo's exile 
 in Guernsey, was published in 1882. The poet himself 
 regarded it as one of his best efforts, and it certainly exhibits 
 his glowing imagination and his power in depicting human 
 misery at their highest. The great Inquisitor is drawn as a 
 single-minded enthusiast who, following relentlessly to their 
 conclusion the doctrines upon which he has been nourished since 
 childhood, burns and tortures people from pure love of their 
 souls, hoping thereby to save them. In 1883 Hugo issued the 
 last part of his great work, La Let/ende des Siecles, on the whole 
 the finest, perhaps, of all his works, since it displays a 
 disciplined imagination without revealing so prominently the 
 defects apparent in so many other of the poet's compositions. 
 
 In addition to the works named, Victor Hugo was the 
 author of Choix Moral des Lettres de Voltaire, published in 1824, 
 and afterwards incorporated with some modifications in the 
 volume already mentioned, Littdrature et Philosophic Mel&s; of 
 a number of articles, poems, and translations which appeared 
 in the Conservateur Litteraire, the Revue des Deux Mondes, and 
 the Globe; of three discourses pronounced before the French 
 Academy ; a collection of poems relating to childhood, published 
 in 1858, and entitled Les Enfants, Livre des Mdres ; William 
 Shakespeare, an anonymous work published in 1864 ; Paris, 
 being an introduction to the Paris Guide published by M. 
 Ulbach ; and the Voix de Guernesey, a poem which appeared at 
 Brussels in 1868, and was inspired by the engagement of 
 Mentana. It is also well known that the deceased was a skilful 
 artist, and M. The"ophile Gautier published in 1863 a collection 
 of his designs. The poet is understood to have left behind him 
 a considerable number of important works in manuscript, which 
 will be published in accordance with his instructions. 
 
 Few monarchs have received such an ovation as was accorded 
 to Victor Hugo by the city of Paris on the 27th of February 
 1881. The day before, the poet had completed his seventy -ninth 
 year, and by the French people this is regarded as entitling to 
 
 VOL. Ill Q
 
 226 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 octogenarian honours. A celebration took place which was 
 compared with the reception of Voltaire in 1788. The Avenue 
 d'Eylau, where Victor Hugo resided, was densely thronged, and 
 the poet, being recognised with his children and grandchildren 
 at an upper window of his house, was cheered by a vast multi- 
 tude, estimated by unsympathetic observers at 100,000. The 
 Municipality had erected at the entrance to the avenue lofty 
 flag-staffs decorated with shields bearing the titles of his works, 
 and supporting a large drapery inscribed "1802, Victor Hugo, 
 1881." Early in the morning the avenue was thronged with 
 processions, consisting of collegians, trade unions, musical and 
 benefit societies, deputations from the districts of Paris and from 
 the provinces, etc. A deputation of children, bearing a blue 
 and red banner with the inscription " L'Art d'etre Grand-pere," 
 and headed by a little girl in white, arrived at the house, and 
 were received by Victor Hugo in the drawing-room. The little 
 maiden, who recited some lines by M. Mended, was blessed by 
 the venerable poet. 
 
 Among other incidents of the day, the Paris Municipality 
 drew up in front of the house, when Victor Hugo addressed 
 them in praise of the city of Paris. A stream of processions 
 then began to file past the house, those of the musical societies 
 alone exceeding 100. The entire avenue, nearly a mile long, 
 was crowded with spectators, and the conduct of this immense 
 gathering was most exemplary. At the Trocaddro a musical and 
 literary festival was held, when selections from Victor Hugo's 
 works were sung or recited by some of the leading Paris artistes, 
 and the " Marseillaise " was performed by a military band. 
 M. Louis Blanc, who presided, said that few great men had 
 entered in their lifetime into their immortality. Voltaire and 
 Victor Hugo had both deserved this, one for stigmatising 
 religious intolerance, the other for having, with incomparable 
 lustre, served humanity. In the evening of the day there was 
 a Victor Hugo concert at the Conservatoire, and at many of the 
 theatres verses were recited in his honour. On the night of the 
 25th a special performance was given at the Galte of Lucrdce 
 Borgia, which had not been produced there for ten years. The 
 house was filled, all the notabilities of Paris being present, while 
 the poet himself also appeared for a short time. The celebra- 
 tion generally was one triumphant success. 
 
 On the occasion of Hugo's eightieth birthday, in February 

 
 VICTOR HUGO 227 
 
 1882, the French Government ordered a free performance of 
 Hernani at the Theatre Frangais ; 2300 persons squeezed them- 
 selves into accommodation intended only for 1500. On the day 
 following, the committee of the previous year's grand celebration 
 presented Hugo with a bronze miniature of Michael Angelo's 
 Moses. In responding for the gift, in the presence of 5000 
 persons, the poet said : 
 
 " I accept your present, and I await a still better one, the 
 greatest a man can receive I mean death ; death, that recom- 
 pense for the good done on earth. I shall live in my descendants, 
 my grandchildren, Jeanne and Georges. If indeed I have a 
 narrow-minded thought it is for them. I wish to ensure their 
 future, and I confide them to the protection of all the loyal and 
 devoted hearts here present." 
 
 On the 22nd of November 1882 a jubilee performance of 
 Le Roi s'Amuse was given at the Theatre Frangais. Fifty years 
 before, as we have seen, it was produced amid such tumults that 
 the Government forbade its further representation. Now it was 
 produced with great favour, the utmost interest having been 
 manifested for weeks previously. Our correspondent stated at 
 the time that if there had been 10,000 seats in the house instead 
 of 1500 there would still have been an insufficiency of places to 
 satisfy the demand. M. Got achieved a great triumph in the 
 part of Triboulet. 
 
 In private life and character Victor Hugo was one of the 
 noblest and most unselfish of men. Many are the anecdotes 
 related of his generosity and kindliness of disposition. One who 
 had every opportunity of studying his private life states that 
 when residing at Hauteville House, Guernsey, he organised a 
 poor children's repast twice a week, to which he invited the 
 poorest of the poor, giving them roast beef and good wine to 
 invigorate them. He likewise adopted the rather Quixotic 
 measure of reserving a room in his house for the use of any 
 literary person in temporary distress ; and this hospitality would 
 last sometimes for two, three, or even six months. The 
 befriended ones were not allowed to feel the irksomeness of their 
 position ; they had their place at table with the poet, and free 
 rooms were granted them. 
 
 The poet had a special talent for organising Christmas 
 parties, and was never happier than when surrounded by his 
 grandchildren. He mingled in all their games and even shared
 
 228 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 their troubles and their punishments. When his favourite little 
 grandchild was put on dry bread for bad conduct the grandfather 
 was so unhappy that he would take no dessert. His pleasures 
 were as simple as his mind was great. He has been accused of 
 being an infidel ; but those who knew him best maintain 
 strongly that he was a firm believer in God and in a future 
 state. Even when in his octogenarian period it was the poet's 
 habit to rise with the day, summer and winter, and to work 
 until nine. He then allowed himself an hour's rest for break- 
 fast and his morning constitutional, after which he again sat at 
 his desk, mostly pursuing his intellectual labours, till five in the 
 afternoon. Work being concluded, he dined at half-past six, 
 and invariably retired to rest at ten. On one occasion, speaking 
 of his future works, the poet said : 
 
 " I shall have more to do than I have already done. One 
 would think that with age the mind weakens ; with me it 
 appears, on the contrary, to grow stronger. The horizon gets 
 larger, and I shall pass away without having finished my 
 task." 
 
 It may be stated that a magnificent national edition of 
 Victor Hugo's works is being prepared, which, when completed, 
 will extend to forty volumes of square quarto form. Each 
 volume will contain five etchings from designs by Baudry, 
 Constant, Boulanger, Ge"rome, Henner, and other distinguished 
 artists; and, in addition, the work will contain altogether 2500 
 illustrations in the text. All that art and the printers and 
 publishers can do is being essayed to make this edition worthy 
 of the poet's reputation. 
 
 We have now reached the close of our survey of a remark- 
 able career. This is not the place in which to cast the horo- 
 scope of this great name. It is not for us to say what will 
 perish and what will remain of that vast mass of intellectual 
 treasure which Victor Hugo has left behind him. But it 
 must be obvious to all that with the passing away of the great 
 head of the Romantic school there is lost to French literature 
 one of its mightiest and most operative forces. Victor Hugo's 
 is a colossal figure in that literature. His mind was one of 
 the most powerful and original that ever illumined its brilliant 
 pages. Yet that mind had its weaknesses. Superb in wealth 
 of fancy and power of language, the very gift of speech itself 
 proved a snare to him. He lacked concentration. Who could
 
 VICTOR HUGO 229 
 
 have predicted for Shakespeare the same kind of immortality 
 he now enjoys if he had bequeathed to us an intellectual 
 legacy ten times larger than that we have received ? As it is, 
 in spite of its infinite variety, we can, as it were, stretch our 
 hands over the whole Shakespearian keyboard and bear within 
 our recollection his exquisite notes of sadness and of joy. We 
 can never gauge the depths of his heart and intellect, but we 
 can make his every line immortal. With Victor Hugo it is 
 different. Passing in review the prodigious list of his works, 
 we may use the words of Scripture and ask, " Who shall say 
 which shall prosper, this or that, or whether both shall be 
 alike good ? " That much will live, however, and live per- 
 manently, we may rest assured. He has a niche to himself 
 in that temple of fame assigned to the world's great poets, and 
 that niche is a high and honourable one. For the present, to 
 change the figure, we can only add our tribute of regret that 
 one of the greatest luminaries of our time has sunk below the 
 earthly horizon.
 
 GENERAL GRANT 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885 
 
 ULYSSES S. GRANT, General on the retired list of the United 
 States Army, and eighteenth President of the United States, 
 who died yesterday morning after a long illness at Mount 
 M'Gregor, near Saratoga, New York, was born in the State 
 of Ohio, at a small village called Point Pleasant, 27th April 
 1822. His ancestry was Scotch, and his parents were in 
 humble circumstances. He was named Hiram Ulysses Grant, 
 and during his infancy his parents removed to Georgetown, 
 Ohio, where his boyhood was passed. He had but moderate 
 opportunities for education in early life, and when seventeen 
 years of age the member of Congress from the district in which 
 he lived appointed him a cadet at the United States Military 
 Academy at West Point, New York. By a blunder his name 
 in the appointment was written " Ulysses S. Grant," and this 
 name he had to adopt. He served the usual four years' military 
 course at the Academy without special distinction, although he 
 showed some proficiency in mathematics, and in 1843 graduated 
 number twenty-one in a class of thirty-nine. His first com- 
 mission was brevet second lieutenant of infantry in the army, 
 and he was sent to join a regiment guarding, and sometimes 
 fighting, the Indians on the Missouri frontier, where he con- 
 tinued for two years, when the war between the United States 
 and Mexico began, and his regiment was sent to the Texan 
 frontier to join the army corps then forming under the command 
 of General Zachary Taylor, who afterwards became President 
 of the United States. 
 
 On 30th September 1845 young Grant was commissioned
 
 GENERAL GRANT 231 
 
 second lieutenant, and he entered with ardour upon the 
 campaign of invasion of Mexico, which began the following 
 spring. He developed fine soldierly qualities, and first saw 
 bloodshed at the opening battle of that invasion at Palo Alto 
 in May 1864. He took part in all the battles of that active 
 campaign, which included the capture of Monterey and the 
 siege and capture of Vera Cruz. In April 1847 Grant was 
 made the quartermaster of his regiment, the 4th Infantry, and 
 he participated in the battles fought by the American troops on 
 their victorious advance into the interior after the capture of 
 Vera Cruz. For his gallantry at the battle of Molino del Key, 
 in September, he was made a first lieutenant on the field, and 
 at Chapultepec, a few days later, he commanded his regiment, 
 and did such good service that he was brevetted captain. 
 Colonel Garland, who commanded the brigade to which his 
 regiment was attached, called especial attention to Grant in his 
 report describing the operations of the day, and said, " I must 
 not omit to call attention to Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry, 
 who acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under 
 my own observation." The subsequent capture of the city of 
 Mexico and the dictation of terms of peace by the victors ended 
 the war. 
 
 When the United States troops were withdrawn, Captain 
 Grant returned with his regiment, and was afterwards located 
 at various posts on the Canadian border. He married in 
 1848, his wife being the sister of a classmate, Miss Julia T. 
 Dent, who is still living. For several years his life was without 
 special feature. His regiment was ordered to the Pacific coast, 
 and he accompanied it, being for two years in California and 
 Oregon, where he was commissioned a full captain, 5th August 
 1853. In July 1854 he resigned from the army and settled 
 at St. Louis as a farmer and real estate agent. His business 
 talents were poor and he had ill success, and for a few years he 
 tried various occupations in civil life at various places, finally 
 going to Galena, Illinois, in 1859, to join his father, who was 
 a tanner. When the American Civil War began, in the spring 
 of 1861, Grant's fortunes were at a low ebb, and he was ready 
 for almost anything that promised an improvement. The 
 opening of the Civil War found the country without an army, 
 and the entire North aflame to raise a volunteer soldiery. The 
 few men in different parts of the States who had been officers
 
 232 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 of the regular army, and particularly those who had seen active 
 service in Mexico and on the frontier, at once advanced to a 
 high place in the popular estimation, as the main reliance in 
 officering the new force. A company of volunteer troops was 
 formed at Galena and selected Grant for its captain. He was 
 thirty-nine years of age when, a day or two after the firing 
 upon Fort Sumter, he marched his company to Springfield, 
 the capital of Illinois, and offered his services to the Governor 
 of the State. The next few weeks saw a remarkable uprising, 
 military organisations forming and drilling all over the 
 country, and being made up into regiments and sent to the 
 seat of war. 
 
 Governor Yates selected Captain Grant as his aide-de-camp 
 and mustering officer to organise the State troops of Illinois, 
 and this service occupied him nearly two months. He organised 
 twenty-one regiments, and on 17th June 1861 was commissioned 
 as colonel of the 21st Illinois Regiment. During the remainder 
 of this month he drilled his regiment, and in July crossed over 
 the Mississippi river and was ordered to guard the Hannibal 
 and St. Joseph Railroad, which crosses the northern part of the 
 State of Missouri, and was in constant danger of destruction by 
 guerilla raids. Promotion was rapid in the early part of the 
 Civil War, especially for veteran officers, and August found 
 him practically in command of all the troops in Northern 
 Missouri, a part of the force under General John Pope, and 
 on 23rd August he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 
 his commission being dated 17th May 1861. 
 
 The qualities of General Grant, both as a fighter and as a 
 strategist, were early recognised, and his remarkable military 
 career may be regarded as beginning in August, when he was 
 sent to take command at Cairo, the point of junction of the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This important post was threat- 
 ened by Confederates in Kentucky, and also by a disaffected 
 element in Southern Illinois and Missouri ; and a large force 
 of Union troops was concentrated there. Grant had not been 
 there long before he made up his mind that safety would be 
 best assured by holding the strategic points of the Mississippi 
 river below the Ohio river, and also those on the Kentucky 
 shore of the latter stream. In September he seized and 
 garrisoned Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river, and 
 Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and thus
 
 GENERAL GRANT 233 
 
 got control of Western Kentucky. His firm, straightforward, 
 and sententious character was shown in his proclamation to 
 the citizens of Paducah, in which he said, " I have nothing to 
 do with opinions, and shall deal only with armed rebellion and 
 its aiders and abettors." 
 
 Having thus cared for the Confederates on the eastern side 
 of the Mississippi, in October he began a campaign against those 
 on the western shore, where General Jeff Thompson had 
 assembled a formidable force. Grant sent out a detachment 
 from Cairo to check their advance, which was done in a battle 
 at Fredericktown, Missouri, and then, taking the field in person, 
 he fought on 7th November, with two brigades, the battle of 
 Belmont, Missouri, his first contest of the war, having a horse 
 shot under him. This movement effectually demoralised the 
 Confederates in the southern counties of Missouri. 
 
 Grant, who was in every sense a fighter, then began preparing 
 for an active campaign further southward, and made Paducah 
 his base. Here he gathered a force of 15,000 men, and also 
 assembled a fleet of western river steamboats, sheathed with 
 iron as a bullet-proof protection, and known as "tin-clads." 
 The enemy had strongly garrisoned posts near the boundary line 
 between Kentucky and Tennessee, known as Forts Henry and 
 Donelson, the former controlling the Tennessee river and the 
 latter the Cumberland. With his troops and steamers on 
 3rd February he left Paducah to attack them. Fort Henry was 
 first invested, and on 6th February surrendered, its capture 
 being mainly the work of the boats. Fort Donelson, commanded 
 by General Buckner, made a stubborn resistance, and Grant 
 gradually increased his force, besieging it to 30,000 men, who 
 fought a severe battle on 15th February, losing 2300 killed 
 and wounded. The fort was shattered, and Buckner proposed 
 that Commissioners be appointed to arrange terms of capitula- 
 tion. Grant promptly wrote in reply : "No terms other than 
 an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I 
 propose to move immediately upon your works." On the 16th 
 the fort, with its defenders, surrendered, being the first great 
 victory that had crowned the Union arms, which had been 
 generally unfortunate in the campaign east of the Alleghanies. 
 The victor at once became a national celebrity, and the sobriquet 
 of " Unconditional Surrender Grant " was given him as the 
 popular testimony of admiration of his terse demand for the
 
 234 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 surrender that had given so much gratification. He was com- 
 missioned Major-General, dating from 16th February 1862. 
 
 Grant's subsequent career became practically the history of 
 the war for the suppression of the rebellion. General Halleck 
 had been placed in general command of all the troops west of 
 the Alleghanies, and he had been collecting a force of about 
 40,000 men to make an expedition up the Tennessee river, 
 under General Smith ; but soon after it started General Smith 
 died, and the command fell upon General Grant. An attack 
 upon Corinth, in Northern Mississippi, had been contemplated, 
 and part of the force in anticipation of this had been lying some 
 time at Pittsburg Landing, when at daylight on 6th April 
 General Albert Sydney Johnston, with an overwhelming 
 Confederate army, surprised and routed them with great loss. 
 Grant arrived on the field in the morning and reformed the 
 broken lines, after which heavy reinforcements, under General 
 Buell, were ordered up, and, arriving in the night, the battle was 
 renewed next day ; and the enemy, being defeated, withdrew 
 behind the intrenchment at Corinth. These were the bloodiest 
 conflicts that had taken place down to that time, the killed and 
 wounded numbering 12,000 in each army, and Grant being 
 slightly wounded. 
 
 The Confederates were followed to Corinth, and General 
 Halleck arriving assumed command, and began a siege of the 
 place. This continued several weeks, the enemy subsequently 
 evacuating their works. Halleck was called to Washington in 
 July, after M'Clellan's disastrous retreat from before Eichmond, 
 and Grant was given command of the Department of West 
 Tennessee. The country looked to him as the hero of the 
 western active campaign, the defeats and disasters in Virginia 
 having caused general dismay. He made his headquarters at 
 Corinth, which was a post of strategic importance in Northern 
 Mississippi, and for two months devoted his attention to 
 suppressing guerillas and spies and strengthening his force pre- 
 paratory to a new campaign. He took possession of Memphis, 
 and severely disciplined a newspaper there which published 
 treasonable articles. In September he sent out an expedition 
 which attacked and defeated the Confederates under General 
 Price at luka, gaining a substantial victory. In the meantime 
 General Bragg, with another Confederate force, began pushing 
 northwards towards the Ohio river through the country to the
 
 GENERAL GRANT 235 
 
 eastward, and the better to check this advance Grant removed 
 his headquarters to Jackson, Tennessee, with part of his guns. 
 He left about 20,000 men, under General Eosecrans, at Corinth, 
 and the enemy, under Price and Van Dorn, hoping to beat him in 
 detail, attacked Corinth with 40,000 men on 3rd October. After 
 a desperate battle, continuing two days, Kosecrans successfully re- 
 pulsed them, while General Buell, with an auxiliary force, moved 
 out to intercept Bragg, and forced the latter to give up his advance 
 towards the Ohio river and retreat towards East Tennessee. 
 
 General Grant was thus left free for a march further south- 
 ward, and in the middle of October his department was expanded 
 to include Vicksburg, his troops being constituted the Thirteenth 
 Army Corps. Vicksburg was the great Confederate stronghold 
 on the Mississippi river, and the active and energetic commander 
 soon conceived the idea of trying to capture it. This occupied 
 his attention for several months. He first approached it from 
 the north, but the enemy outmanoeuvred him, and inflicted" 
 serious losses in December by capturing and destroying much of 
 his stores at Holly Springs, in Mississippi. He then determined 
 to make his attack from the southward. When the severity of 
 the winter had passed he crossed over with his army to the 
 western' 4 bank of the Mississippi river, moved down, and recrossed 
 at a point below Vicksburg on 30th April 1863. 
 
 Vicksburg was commanded by Pemberton, and, as soon as he 
 divined Grant's movement, he sent for reinforcements, which 
 General J. Johnston tried to give him. In a series of brilliant 
 minor engagements, Grant during the early part of May pre- 
 vented this, and on 18th May he began the siege of Vicksburg. 
 For fully a year this " Gibralter " had obstructed the navigation 
 of the Mississippi by the Union forces, whose gunboats had 
 control of the river both above and below, although at Port 
 Hudson, 120 miles further down, the Confederates were build- 
 ing extensive fortifications. General Pemberton had about 
 25,000 effective men, but was deficient in small ammunition, 
 and had only sixty days' rations. He contracted his lines, con- 
 centrating all his forces in the immediate defences of the town, 
 and abandoned Haines's Bluff. Johnston advised Pemberton to 
 evacuate Vicksburg if the bluff was untenable, and march to 
 the north-east, he himself moving so as to expedite a junction 
 of their forces. Pemberton replied that it was impossible to 
 withdraw, and that he had decided to hold Vicksburg as long as
 
 236 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 possible, conceiving it to be the most important point in the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Grant no sooner began the siege than he tried on 19th May 
 to. carry the place by a coup de main, but he was repulsed, and 
 then made a regular investiture. His force was soon increased 
 to 70,000 men, and he maintained the siege until 3rd July, 
 when Pemberton sent him a note stating that he was fully able 
 to hold his defensive position for an indefinite period, but pro- 
 posing that Commissioners should be named to arrange a 
 capitulation. Grant met Pemberton personally in the afternoon 
 to arrange the terms, and the actual surrender followed next 
 morning, 4th July 1863. There were 27,000 prisoners paroled 
 together, of whom about 15,000 were fit for duty, the others 
 being sick or wounded. From the time he crossed the Mississippi 
 Grant had lost 8575 killed and wounded, half of them in the 
 immediate siege. The Confederate loss during the same period 
 was about 10,000. This victory caused a great sensation 
 throughout the country, which had been depressed by repeated 
 defeats in Virginia and by Lee's march northward into 
 Pennsylvania until checked by General Meade at Gettysburg ; 
 and Grant from that time became the great hero of the war. 
 He had been a Major-General of Volunteers and was promoted 
 to Major-General in the regular army, the highest rank he 
 could attain as the law then existed. 
 
 General Grant was in October given the supreme command 
 west of the mountains, his territory being called the " Military 
 Division of the Mississippi," with departments under him, com- 
 manded respectively by Generals Sherman, Thomas, Burnside, 
 and Hooker. After Vicksburg fell, his troops had driven 
 Johnston's forces eastward, and they with Bragg's troops, which 
 had gone into East Tennessee, began threatening Chattanooga. 
 This picturesque town nestles among the Alleghany Mountains 
 near the southern border of Tennessee, and Bragg occupied 
 formidable positions near by on Missionary Ridge and Lookout 
 Mountain. Grant, in November, concentrated troops for the 
 defence of Chattanooga, and on the 24th and 25th Bragg's 
 strongholds were carried by assault, and he abandoned that 
 portion of the mountain district, retreating into Georgia. The 
 Union troops pursued him some distance and then turned to 
 relieve Burnside at Knoxville in East Tennessee, whom the 
 Confederates had besieged, General Longstreet commanding them.
 
 GENERAL GRANT 237 
 
 These were the last active movements in the west which General 
 Grant personally directed. The successive failures in the east, 
 in the campaigns made in Virginia by various generals for the 
 capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond, caused a popular 
 demand that the young commander who had so distinguished 
 himself in the west should be placed in charge of what was 
 regarded as the chief theatre of the war. 
 
 When Congress convened in December 1863 the first 
 measure passed was a resolution ordering a gold medal to 
 be struck for Grant, and returning thanks to him and his 
 army. His name was on every tongue, and preparatory to 
 giving him control of all the armies, Congress, in March 
 1864, created the rank of Lieutenant -General of the army, 
 and President Lincoln immediately appointed him. When his 
 appointment was announced he at once went to Washington, 
 arriving 9th March, and received his commission. He was given 
 entire control as Commander - in - Chief of all the campaigns 
 against the Confederacy. Never before during the war had any 
 general in the field commanded all the Union armies. All 
 previous generals in Virginia had been trammelled and thwarted 
 by the powers in Washington. This political interference was 
 thenceforward to cease ; and it did cease in reality, Grant, 
 during the remaining year of the war, being an autocrat whose 
 will was the supreme law in military affairs. He returned to 
 the west, and at Nashville, 17th March, issued his order taking 
 command, announcing that his " headquarters would be in the 
 field " and with the " Army of the Potomac." He had nearly 
 700,000 men in active service under him. 
 
 At Nashville, in connection with General Sherman, he 
 planned two campaigns, east and west of the mountains. 
 Sherman was to operate against Johnston's forces at Atlanta, 
 Georgia ; and Meade was to move against Lee at Richmond, 
 the latter movement being supervised by General Grant in 
 person. Returning to the east he got his troops in readiness 
 to advance as soon as the opening of spring permitted. The 
 movement against Richmond began 3rd May 1864, Grant cross- 
 ing the Rapidan river with the Army of the Potomac, a few 
 days later being reinforced by Burnside's troops, who were 
 brought from the west, so that he had a force of nearly 
 150,000 men. His object was to turn Lee's right flank by 
 pushing through the desolate region known as the " Wilder-
 
 238 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 ness," and thus to place the Union army between Lee's forces 
 and Richmond. This quickly resulted in a bloody contest, for 
 Lee on the 4th of May learned Grant's movement, immediately 
 took the offensive, and, marching eastward into the " Wilder- 
 ness," struck Grant's advancing forces on the flank. The region 
 was a difficult one to move in, being filled with scrub timber 
 and in many places an impenetrable jungle. The battle began 
 on the 5th and, each side being reinforced, was continued on 
 the 6th. The fighting was almost exclusively with musketry, 
 the nature of the ground making artillery useless. Grant's 
 numbers were at all points superior to Lee's, and though the 
 two days' contest was generally regarded as a drawn battle, 
 Grant had secured the roads by which he was to pass out of the 
 " Wilderness " towards the southward, and after a day's rest 
 was able to resume the march towards Richmond. 
 
 On the night of 7th May the Union army was put in motion 
 towards Spottsylvania, a few miles to the south-eastward, 
 moving in two columns. The advance was slow and difficult, 
 being obstructed at all points by felled trees and constant 
 skirmishes on front and flanks. Lee had evidently anticipated 
 Grant's movement, for he was pushing forward by a parallel 
 road, and his advance had reached and was intrenched at 
 Spottsylvania before Grant's advance came up. Lee got his 
 entire force in position there during the 8th, facing north and 
 east. Both armies strengthened their positions on the 9th, and 
 on the 10th Grant made a succession of attacks, losing about 
 5000 men and being repulsed, the enemy having comparatively 
 but small loss. The battle was renewed on the llth, and again 
 on the 12th, when, before daybreak, General Hancock stormed 
 and captured Lee's outer works, with 4000 prisoners. Lee, 
 from his inner citadel, made five unsuccessful attempts to recap- 
 ture this work. 
 
 Grant in the meantime made repeated attacks upon Lee's 
 flanks, which were repulsed, and finding the enemy's position 
 practically unassailable, Grant during the next week gradually 
 developed his left flank by withdrawing troops from the right 
 under cover of the remainder of the army. By this movement 
 Grant hoped to outflank the Confederates, but Lee discovered 
 the process and made similar movements to meet it, moving at 
 the same time on a somewhat shorter line. When, on 23rd 
 May, the Union army arrived at the northern bank of the
 
 GENERAL GRANT 239 
 
 North Anna river the enemy were found posted on the southern 
 bank. Hancock on the left and Warren leading the Union 
 right crossed over, the latter being furiously assailed. Warren 
 repulsed the assault with a loss of about 350, and took 1000 
 prisoners. The Union flanks held their positions, but Lee 
 prevented their centre from crossing, and Grant, seeing the 
 danger of his position, determined to abandon it. On the night 
 of 26th May the Union army was withdrawn and started by a 
 wide circuit eastward and then southward towards the Pamun- 
 key river, one of the affluents of York river, Lee again making 
 a similar movement by a shorter line. This series of " Battles 
 of the Wilderness," continuing about three weeks, were the 
 bloodiest of the war, Grant's losses being 41,398, while no 
 trustworthy report was made of Lee's losses, which estimates 
 place at 20,000. 
 
 It was during this series of battles that Grant sent the de- 
 spatch to the Government containing the famous sentence : "I 
 propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." 
 After crossing the Pamunkey, Grant's troops advanced to Cold 
 Harbor, a few miles northward from Richmond, on the edge of 
 the swamps of the Chickahominy region, where Lee's forces 
 were found intrenched in an impregnable position. Grant had 
 got his army reinforced up to 150,000 men, while Lee had 
 about 50,000. Grant determined to advance against the 
 intrenchments, and in the gray rainy dawn of 3rd June the 
 rush was made, the Union troops being, however, everywhere 
 repulsed with heavy losses. A desultory contest was kept up 
 during the day, but the attack was not renewed, Grant having 
 lost 7000 killed and wounded, the Confederate loss being less 
 than half that number. For nearly two weeks the armies lay 
 in position watching each other, when Grant made up his mind 
 to abandon this plan of attack and to adopt a new one, by 
 which Richmond, like Vicksburg, might be outflanked and 
 taken from the rear. 
 
 These successive contests, which aggregated Union losses of 
 about 55,000 men and Confederate losses of 32,000, showed 
 the character of Grant's military tactics. He knew that in the 
 tottering condition of the Confederacy it must ultimately suc- 
 cumb to starvation and the waste of battle, and so long as men 
 enough were given him to throw upon the enemy he would 
 keep it up. The Government gave him everything he asked,
 
 240 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 and sent constant reinforcements to Virginia, which was then 
 the principal theatre of the war. To prevent the Confederates 
 from getting reinforcements, other detachments of Union troops 
 were being advanced in the Shenandoah Valley and along the 
 Kanawha, in West Virginia, while the Confederates west of the 
 mountains were fully engaged in caring for Sherman's advance 
 to Atlanta. Grant had also hoped that General Butler, south 
 of the James, might have captured Petersburg, so as to invest 
 Richmond from the southern side. Butler had been foiled, 
 however, and, crossing the James river in June, Grant person- 
 ally began the siege of Petersburg. 
 
 The crossing of the James river, which was the beginning of 
 the operations against Petersburg as directed by General Grant 
 personally, was made upon 12th June 1864, and the army 
 encamped at City Point, the junction of the Appomattox river 
 with the James. Butler's troops were at Bermuda Hundred, a 
 peninsula formed by a bend of the James above City Point. 
 Lee withdrew his forces into Richmond and took new positions 
 east and south of the city, his forces, with the men he found at 
 Richmond, being about 70,000, while Grant had 100,000. 
 Grant immediately began attacks upon the enemy's position. 
 On 15th June a corps of Butler's forces made an unsuccessful 
 assault, and on the 16th a combined attack was made by Han- 
 cock's, Burnside's, and Butler's troops, which was repulsed with 
 great slaughter. These preliminary engagements, Grant re- 
 ported, had only the result that " the enemy was merely 
 forced into an interior position," yet they cost the Union army 
 the loss of 10,268 men. 
 
 Grant then proceeded to invest Petersburg, which is about 
 six miles south-west up the Appomattox from City Point, and 
 the siege began on the 19th of June. Lee, leaving about half 
 his force at Richmond, went with the remainder to defend 
 Petersburg, establishing strong lines around the town, east, 
 south, and south-west. Grant approached from the east, and on 
 the 21st made a movement to seize the Weldon Railroad, which 
 runs southward from the town. This attack was repulsed, but 
 Grant's cavalry, about 8000 strong, made an extensive raid 
 through the country south and south-west of Petersburg for 
 many miles, tearing up this and other railroads, so that Lee 
 was reduced to sore straits for want of supplies. 
 
 Thus matters rested during July, when Grant made a new
 
 GENERAL GRANT 241 
 
 plan. He sent a force across the James and up the eastern 
 bank to a place called Deep Bottom, near Richmond, to threaten 
 an attack, in the hope that Lee would withdraw part of his 
 force from Petersburg to meet this new movement. In the 
 meantime a mine had been dug under a fort occupying an 
 advanced position in the Confederate defensive lines, directly 
 behind which was Cemetery Hill, the most commanding ground 
 in Petersburg. This mine was a gallery 520 feet long, terminat- 
 ing in lateral branches 40 feet long in each direction, and it was 
 charged with 8000 pounds of powder. General Burnside had 
 it in charge, and if the Confederate works were blown up by 
 the explosion other troops were disposed so as to quickly re- 
 inforce him. The Deep Bottom expedition having reached its 
 post, the mine was exploded on 30th July about daybreak, 
 blowing up the fort and its garrison of about 500 Confederates, 
 belonging to a South Carolina regiment. The explosion made 
 a crater about 30 feet deep, 200 feet long, and 60 feet wide, 
 and the Confederates fled from their works on either hand. 
 The sides of the crater were rough and steep, so that they could 
 not be mounted in military order. A single Union regiment 
 managed to climb up, and made for Cemetery Hill ; but, others 
 not following, they faltered and finally fell back into the crater. 
 The Confederates quickly rallied, poured in shells, and planted 
 guns to command the approach. Four hours were spent in 
 this ineffectual effort, and then the Union forces were with- 
 drawn, leaving 1900 prisoners, their entire loss being about 
 4000, while the Confederates lost about 1000. This result 
 was disheartening, and a long period of comparative inaction 
 followed, Grant making movements to get possession of the 
 railways south and west of Petersburg, which Lee steadily foiled. 
 Butler tried to cut the Dutch Gap Canal across a narrow neck 
 of land to divert the James, but this was also unsuccessful. 
 
 Nothing of interest occurred in the autumn or winter, the 
 two armies watching each other, although movements elsewhere 
 were gradually enclosing the Confederacy in narrower limits, 
 until, when spring opened and Sherman's march from Atlanta 
 had come out to the sea, it was practically reduced to Southern 
 Virginia and northern North Carolina. Lee and Johnston, all 
 told, then had less than 100,000 rebels, while Grant, Sherman, 
 and others were pressing them in all directions. Petersburg and 
 Richmond were successfully held, but their supplies were en- 
 
 VOL. Ill R
 
 242 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 dangered, and at times cut off. Lee in March planned to abandon 
 Petersburg and Richmond, and to unite with Johnston, who was 
 on the Carolina border. Lee to facilitate his withdrawal threw an 
 offensive movement against the Union right. 
 
 On the morning of 25th March squads of Confederates an- 
 nouncing themselves as deserters approached the Union lines, 
 and this being a common occurrence no suspicion was aroused. 
 Suddenly, however, these squads overpowered the pickets, and 
 a Confederate column 5000 strong rushed out and seized a fort. 
 In a few minutes the Union guns from all sides began playing 
 upon the fort, and it was speedily retaken, less than half the 
 Confederates being able to regain their lines. The contest 
 extended, and the Confederates lost altogether 4500 and the 
 Union army 2000. Grant then began a movement westward 
 to turn the Confederate right, the troops being in full motion 
 by 29th March. The moving columns were about 50,000, 
 including 10,000 cavalry under Sheridan. Lee had an in- 
 trenched line at Petersburg about ten miles long, and, leaving 
 10,000 men to defend it, collected all his remaining force, not 
 20,000 men, to oppose this flanking movement. A furious 
 storm next day made the roads almost impassable, but on the 
 31st the two forces met at Five Forks, about eight miles 
 south-west of Petersburg, and had a severe conflict. Lee gained 
 some advantage, and on 1st April drove the Union advance 
 about three miles southward to Dinwiddie. Eeinforcements 
 coming up, Sheridan, who was in command, forced the Con- 
 federates back to Five Forks, and then beyond it, routing them 
 at Hatcher's Run, and the cavalry pursuing them for miles. 
 This broke up the two corps of Lee's army upon which he had 
 placed the most reliance, the Confederates losing 6000 prisoners, 
 besides large numbers killed and wounded. Simultaneously 
 with this movement a heavy bombardment was made upon the 
 works at Petersburg and a general assault was ordered on 2nd 
 April, the outposts being captured. Lee that night abandoned 
 both Petersburg and Richmond. 
 
 The Confederates still had 40,000 men, but they were widely 
 scattered and the only forlorn hope was in concentration. 
 Before daybreak on 3rd April the Confederates had all with- 
 drawn from Petersburg, crossed the Appomattox and burnt the 
 bridges behind them, at the same time blowing up the magazines 
 on the whole line to Richmond. The Union troops immediately
 
 GENERAL GRANT 243 
 
 advanced, and were met by the Mayor of Petersburg, who sur- 
 rendered the city. To unite their forces, Lee moved north- 
 west from Petersburg and Longstreet south-west from Eichmond, 
 and they came together at Chesterfield. Thence they moved 
 westward, Grant pursuing on parallel roads to the southward. 
 Lee had ordered a provision train to meet him at Amelia, but 
 through mistake of orders it went on to Richmond without 
 unloading, so that when he arrived he found no rations for the 
 famishing troops and had to halt and send out foraging parties. 
 This delay was fatal, for Grant's troops came up and surrounded 
 him, so that further resistance was useless. On 8th April Grant 
 sent Lee a message to the effect that there was no hope of any 
 further successful resistance, and demanding surrender in order 
 to avoid further shedding of blood. Lee replied, asking the 
 terms upon which a surrender would be received. Grant named 
 as the sole condition that "the men and officers surrendered 
 shall be disqualified from taking up arms again against the Govern- 
 ment of the United States until properly discharged." Lee, on 
 the 9th, met Grant near Appomattox Court-house, and the terms 
 of surrender were agreed upon. The list of paroled prisoners 
 was 27,805, but of these barely one-third had any arms, there 
 being only 1 0,000 muskets and 30 cannon found. All the rest 
 of Lee's army had been killed or captured, or had deserted during 
 the operations around Richmond and Petersburg. 
 
 This ended the great Civil War, and Grant became a hero of 
 world-wide renown. He was the commander of all the armies 
 of the United States, and made his headquarters at Washington, 
 his duties for several months afterwards being chiefly those 
 connected with the reduction of the army to the peace establish- 
 ment. In July 1866 he was made General, this rank being 
 created by Congress especially for him. 
 
 The labours of Southern reconstruction were going on, and 
 these gradually drew Grant into politics. It became evident 
 that he would be chosen President at the next election, and the 
 leaders of both parties made overtures to him. The quarrel of 
 President Andrew Johnson with the Republican party was 
 precipitated, and this ultimately resulted in Grant casting his 
 lot with the Republicans. Johnson had removed Stanton, the 
 Secretary of War, and appointed Grant to serve ad interim. 
 This removal the Senate refused to sanction, and then Grant, 
 having held the office until January 1868, returned it to Stanton.
 
 244 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 The President wanted Grant to retain the secretaryship, but he 
 declined, and a caustic correspondence followed. The Re- 
 publicans, in May, nominated him for President, and he was 
 chosen in November, his Democratic competitor being Horatio 
 Seymour, of New York. In March 1869 he assumed the office, 
 and the chief labour of his early Administration was the 
 Southern reconstruction, which had been delayed by the quarrels 
 and want of harmony during Johnson's rule. Congress was 
 in close sympathy with the President, and the work of Southern 
 recuperation was successfully conducted. 
 
 The most prominent event of President Grant's first Adminis- 
 tration, however, was the negotiation of the Alabama Claims 
 Treaty with Great Britain in May 1871, which was followed 
 by the Geneva Award, in 1872, of a gross sum of $15,500,000, 
 to be paid to the United States for damages to American 
 commerce by Confederate cruisers fitted out in British ports. 
 The first movement for the reform of the Civil Service in the 
 United States was also begun by the appointment of a Com- 
 mission by President Grant in 1871 to inquire into the condition 
 of the Civil Service. The Republican Convention held in June 
 
 1872 renominated Grant for President, and there was a slight 
 secession from the party, led by the New York Tribune, in 
 consequence. This party, who called themselves the "Liberal Re- 
 publicans," nominated Horace Greeley, the editor of the Tribune, 
 for President, and the Democrats endorsed him. Grant was 
 easily elected in November 1872, and Greeley died soon after 
 the election. Upon Grant's second inauguration in 1873 his 
 salary was increased to $50,000. During this second term 
 much attention was given to the preparations for the centennial 
 anniversary of American Independence, and in May 1876, to 
 commemorate that event, he opened the Philadelphia Exhibition, 
 the first International Fair held in America. 
 
 The popular favour which had been shown General Grant 
 without interruption from the opening of his remarkable career 
 during the Civil War began to wane during his second term as 
 President. Internal quarrels were developed in his party; 
 political corruptions, resulting from the vast fiscal operations 
 during and after the war, were disclosed, and a strong feeling 
 began to be manifested in favour of reforms and the withdrawal 
 of the military control of the South. The financial panic of 
 
 1873 came, and seriously disturbed all monetary values ; while
 
 GENERAL GRANT 245 
 
 gold, which had been at a premium, was gradually approximating 
 in value to the paper currency, thus forcing down all paper values. 
 
 All of these causes contributed to weaken the Republican 
 party, and the elections in the autumn of 1874 resulted in the 
 return of a large Democratic majority in the House, which did 
 not assemble, however, until December 1875. During the 
 session which followed there was general wire-pulling on the 
 part of politicians of all beliefs to control the Presidential 
 succession. James G. Elaine, who had been Speaker of the 
 House, had a strong Republican following ; while General 
 Grant's immediate friends and official supporters, with several 
 prominent Republican leaders, generally desired his renomination 
 for a third term. The unwritten tradition of the Republic, 
 that no President should serve more than two terms, proved too 
 formidable for this ambition, however, and when the Republican 
 Nominating Convention assembled at Cincinnati in the summer 
 of 1876 Grant's name was not presented as a candidate. Elaine 
 received the strongest support, but a coalition of his opponents 
 of all kinds, by a small majority, nominated Rutherford B. 
 Hayes, of Ohio, as the Republican candidate for President, the 
 Democrats naming Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. The 
 popular election was exciting, and was carried by the Democrats, 
 but by questionable operations in the three Southern States of 
 South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, controlled by " carpet- 
 bag" State Governments, through the presence of the troops, 
 double electoral returns were obtained, and by the machinery of 
 the " Electoral Commission " subsequently devised Hayes was 
 awarded the election. This result was only secured through the 
 desire of the country to avert another civil conflict, which at 
 times during the electoral count was extremely imminent, the 
 Democratic leaders submitting in the interests of peace. 
 
 General Grant during this period held a firm hand upon the 
 army, and contributed much to securing a peaceful solution of 
 the grave difficulties surrounding the Presidental election. He 
 assisted at the inauguration of his successor in "Washington upon 
 5th March 1877, and then retired to private life, residing in 
 New York city. 
 
 His friends, however, did not abandon the " third term " 
 project, and during the subsequent period they laboured in- 
 dustriously to secure popular favour for his renomination, 
 arguing that the interval of a term held by another President
 
 246 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 broke the force by yielding to it of the " two term rule." As 
 General Grant had never been beyond the borders of the United 
 States, except during his campaigns in Mexico in early life, a 
 tour was planned for him around the world, to continue two 
 years. He sailed from Philadelphia in 1877, visited Europe 
 and the East, and was everywhere received with the highest 
 honours, being regarded as the most distinguished citizen of the 
 great Republic. His visit was particularly appreciated in the 
 East, and the friendships formed with the Governments of China 
 and Japan always continued, the Ministers of both nations in 
 America afterwards making him their constant adviser. He 
 returned to San Francisco at the close of 1879, and, after a 
 journey across the continent, which was a constant ovation, his 
 tour round the world terminated at Philadelphia, the starting- 
 point, with a succession of brilliant pageants that at once 
 pointed to him as the most formidable Republican candidate for 
 President. 
 
 At the Republican Nominating Convention in June 1880, 
 at Chicago, his supporters made a gallant fight, led by Roscoe 
 Conkling, then Senator from New York, and for several days 
 their steady vote of 306 for their favourite gained them great 
 notoriety. Again Mr. Elaine was a formidable candidate also, 
 and the contest, which was most bitter, sowed the seeds of 
 Republican division into the factions afterwards known as 
 "Stalwarts" and "Half-breeds." As was the case in 1876, the 
 Ohio faction ngain reaped the benefit of this division, and by a 
 coalition with Mr. Elaine's supporters they finally nominated 
 James A. Garfield as candidate for President, and he was elected 
 in the autumn. 
 
 General Grant afterwards resided in New York city, and 
 began to devote some attention to commercial matters, especially 
 in their relations with Mexico and Central America. He made 
 visits to those countries, and, representing the United States 
 Government, negotiated a Mexican reciprocity treaty, which, 
 however, has not yet gone into effect. His business talents were 
 small, however, and to this, with the penchant his sons always 
 had for speculation, may be traced the financial misfortunes that 
 clouded his closing years. Gifts had been showered upon him, 
 and his salaries and emoluments had been generously supplied, 
 but while by no means extravagant at any time in his household 
 expenses, his fortunes when accumulated were soon sunk in
 
 GENERAL GRANT 247 
 
 mining and other enterprises. Finally, through the instru- 
 mentality of friends, a fund of $250,000 was invested for him, 
 of which he was given only the interest in quarterly payments, 
 and upon this, and some small income from other sources, he 
 lived. The allurements of Wall Street, however, were too much 
 for the family, and his sons not long ago formed the firm of 
 Grant and Ward, with General Grant at first a special partner, 
 but afterwards a general partner. 
 
 His later life has been mainly a series of misfortunes. On 
 the eve of Christmas 1883 he slipped and fell on the ice in 
 front of his residence, and sustained severe injuries to the hip 
 which long confined him to the house, and necessitated his after- 
 wards going about on crutches. The wild speculations of the 
 firm of Grant and Ward, conducted without the knowledge of the 
 General, began to culminate soon afterwards, and caused their 
 suspension, the collapse of the Marine National Bank of New 
 York, and a general Wall Street panic in the spring of 1884, 
 Ferdinand Ward, the guilty partner, being put in gaol. 
 
 This failure was a terrible blow to General Grant, who had 
 imagined that he was very wealthy, and his borrowing of 
 $150,000 from William H. Vanderbilt on the eve of the failure, 
 with other sums from other friends, all of which was sunk with 
 the general wreck, caused him to give up his property to the 
 creditors. Vanderbilt generously forgave his debt, but Grant 
 would not accept his property back, and the sorrows that 
 followed broke down his health. Excessive smoking had pro- 
 duced a cancer at the root of the tongue ; he was racked by 
 neuralgic pains which necessitated the drawing of several of his 
 teeth ; and his hip -trouble and lameness gave him extreme 
 annoyance. To get relief, and also to avoid the poverty he 
 believed impending, he began writing a series of articles for the 
 Century magazine, which largely increased the circulation of that 
 popular periodical, especially in this country ; and he also 
 worked upon his Memoirs, this book, the only one he has 
 written, being a history of his military career. The vicissi- 
 tudes of his long and painful illness during the spring and 
 summer of this year will be fresh in the memory of our readers. 
 Several times he has been at the point of death, but again and 
 again his wonderful constitution has enabled him to rally at the 
 last moment. Congress, out of sympathy for the unfortunate 
 condition of the dying hero, passed, a few months ago, an Act
 
 248 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 under which he was restored to the army as General on the 
 retired list, with full pay and emoluments. This action was 
 extremely gratifying to him, and when informed of it he said, 
 " I am at the head of the army once more." 
 
 General Grant was small in stature, but slightly built, until 
 in middle life he became somewhat stout, and was until after 
 his retirement from the Presidency most reserved and taciturn. 
 He was an inveterate smoker, often smoking twenty cigars daily, 
 until with the advance of his disease his physicians advised him 
 to stop, and he then left off with, as he said, but little difficulty, 
 only feeling the inconvenience for two or three days. In the 
 rare cases, while in official life, that any extended talking was 
 done by him he was generally slow in his speech, carefully 
 weighing each word as it was uttered. After his visits abroad, 
 however, he changed in this respect, and subsequently became 
 quite free in conversation. He avoided display, and, unless it 
 was absolutely necessary, rarely wore his uniform. He has been 
 known to watch a battle and give his orders with coolness and 
 precision, cigar in mouth, clad in an old blouse and wearing a 
 high silk hat. He could readily go without food or sleep for 
 forty-eight hours, and first began to appreciate the fact that he 
 was growing old when this abstinence seemed to be burdensome. 
 He was steadfast in his friendships, and throughout his career 
 both in the army and in the Presidency always filled up his 
 Staff and his Cabinet from among his personal friends, regard- 
 less of hostile criticism or political expediency. His family 
 relations were always sincere and hearty ; he warmly loved his 
 children, of whom he had four, three sons and one daughter, 
 although he was undemonstrative in that as in everything else. 
 His wonderful career shows the possibilities of life in the 
 American Republic, both in its ups and downs. His name will 
 share with that of Abraham Lincoln the chief glories of American 
 history in the nineteenth century. 
 
 LEADING ARTICLE, FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885 
 
 In the person of General Grant, who died yesterday morn- 
 ing, after a period of most painful suffering borne with stoical 
 fortitude and patience, the Republic of the United States loses 
 the most conspicuous historical figure of the momentous era of 
 the Civil War. Lincoln has been enshrined in the popular
 
 GENERAL GRANT . 249 
 
 memory even more by the tragic circumstances of his death than 
 by his heroic simplicity of character and his unswerving devotion 
 to public duty. Seward and Sumner were statesmen who 
 rather influenced politicians than swayed the masses. But, 
 with all his faults, Grant loomed larger in the people's eye than 
 any of his rivals or coevals. He united the claims of the 
 successful commander in the field to those of the chief magis- 
 trate twice chosen by the voice of the nation to sit in the seat of 
 Washington. If his nature was of metal of far more mixed 
 alloy than that of the founder of the Eepublic, as even General 
 Grant's warmest admirers must admit, it may be fairly pleaded 
 that he was in this only the creature of his time. He was born 
 and bred in a society which had descended rapidly from the 
 high level of early Republican purity, and his mature training 
 was not such as to maintain a lofty standard of political morals. 
 
 But if General Grant's faults were those of his age and 
 country, his military qualities, on which the fortunes of the United 
 States at the most critical moment depended, were his own. 
 Others, both on the Federal and on the Confederate side, were 
 undoubtedly at least his equals in strategical ability. His cam- 
 paigns had not the fascination of Sherman's famous march or 
 of Stonewall Jackson's Cromwellian achievements, nor was his 
 genius as a commander displayed with the dignified and noble 
 serenity, undisturbed in defeat as in victory, which marked the 
 career of his great antagonist, Lee. But in energy, in resolu- 
 tion, and in iron tenacity of purpose Grant was never sur- 
 passed, and those qualities he brought into exercise at more than 
 one crisis when the Unionist cause was in danger of moral 
 enfeeblement and political decomposition. 
 
 A r6sum6 of his services during the Civil War is almost a 
 history of that life-and-death conflict. Every step in Grant's 
 rapid ascent to the supreme command of the armies of the 
 Union was signalised by exploits which, apart from their 
 military value, were of priceless importance in their influence 
 on the spirit of the Northern people and on the temper of the 
 soldiery. Early in 1862 his capture of Fort Henry and Fort 
 Donelson threw almost the first bright gleam across the 
 darkened prospects of the Federal cause in the West. In 1863, 
 after giving proof of his fighting quality in a succession of 
 obstinate and sanguinary battles, he struck a deadly blow at the 
 hopes of the Confederacy by the capture of Vicksburg. In
 
 250 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 1864 he had become so incontestably the foremost soldier on 
 the side of the Union that he was called as much by the voice 
 of the nation as by the choice of the President to the office of 
 Commander-in-Chief. With what desperate determination, with 
 what stupendous expenditure of men and military resources, he 
 struck at the central strongholds of the Confederates is told in 
 the full account of his life which we give on another page. On 
 the 9th of April 1865, just thirteen months after his accession 
 to the supreme command, Grant received the surrender of the 
 remnant of Lee's army at Appomattox Court-house, and brought 
 that war of giants to a triumphant close. 
 
 The saviour of the Union and the victor of the Confederacy 
 has passed away a few months after the twentieth anniversary 
 of his crowning achievement. His fame has in the interval 
 undergone some strange vicissitudes. If any military work had 
 remained to be done, General Grant would probably have 
 escaped the temptation of political life, for which he was not 
 fitted either by nature or by habit. But his triumph was so 
 complete that nothing remained for him to do, and when the 
 army was reduced to a peace establishment the politicians of the 
 Republican party contrived to enlist on their side the personality 
 and reputation of the victorious General, whose previous party 
 connections had been rather with the Democrats. His election, 
 however, to the Presidency in 1868 was mainly due to a spon- 
 taneous movement of popular gratitude, though it is to be 
 remembered that some of the Southern States were still excluded 
 from political rights, and that the white population of the 
 South was for the most part disfranchised. 
 
 General Grant's first Administration was signalised by im- 
 portant diplomatic successes the settlement of the Alabama 
 dispute by the Washington Treaty and the Geneva Award, and 
 of the San Juan boundary by the Berlin Arbitration. But his 
 tendency towards an annexationist policy in the Gulf of Mexico, 
 displayed in his dealings with San Domingo and Cuba, met 
 with little favour, and the "reconstruction" measures in the 
 South, which gave a monopoly of political power to corrupt 
 and ignorant negroes, began to be looked upon with suspicion 
 and dislike by many Northern Republicans, as well as by the 
 whole body of the Democratic party. Senator Sumner, whose 
 influence, though waning, had not lost its potency, especially in 
 New England, vehemently denounced the " one-man power " of
 
 GENERAL GRANT 251 
 
 the President, and bitterly attacked both his political capacity 
 and his management of the public patronage. 
 
 The authority of General Grant's name, however, was still 
 too strong to be shaken by mere criticism, and in 1872 he was 
 elected President for a second term, defeating Mr. Greeley, 
 whom the Democrats had chosen with singular perversity as 
 their champion, by an overwhelming majority. The honour of 
 re-election had only been conferred since President Jackson's 
 time on Lincoln, during the crisis of the Civil War. In 
 General Grant's case it was hoped that he would learn political 
 wisdom by experience, but according to the weightiest testimony 
 his second Administration was in every way less creditable and 
 successful than his first. The " one-man power " was supplanted 
 by that of a powerful organisation of Eepublican politicians, by 
 whom the fame of General Grant, as well as his ofiicial position 
 at the head of the Federal Executive, was unscrupulously 
 utilised for party purposes. To the discontent created by 
 stagnation in business and commercial crises, to the propagandism 
 of currency heresies, and to disputes between labour and 
 capital, were added a succession of scandals in ofiicial circles and 
 in connection with public undertakings for which the President 
 had to bear his share of discredit. 
 
 General Grant's tenacity of will, so valuable in his military 
 enterprises, proved a dangerous quality in politics. He was 
 careless of public opinion ; he refused to dismiss officials of 
 tainted repute, on the ground that he " could not desert his men 
 under fire " ; and, as is observed of him elsewhere, he " filled up 
 his Staff and his Cabinet from among his personal friends, 
 regardless of hostile criticism or political expediency." Never- 
 theless, he might have secured the Republican nomination for 
 the third time and perhaps would in that way have hastened 
 the transfer of power to the Democrats which has been finally 
 accomplished in the election of Mr. Cleveland if his ambition 
 had not been thwarted by the reluctance of the American people 
 to break through Constitutional precedents. The defeat of the 
 "third term" movement in 1876 was, no doubt, assisted by the 
 indignation provoked by transparent attempts to maintain cor- 
 rupt Negro Governments in the South in the interest of the 
 Republican party, and by the growing feeling in favour of Civil 
 Service reform. But the principal element in the movement 
 which gave the Republican nomination to Mr. Hayes in 1876
 
 252 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 and to General Garfield in 1880 was the superstition derived 
 from the doctrine and practice of Washington. 
 
 General Grant's visit to Europe and Asia, following close 
 upon the interesting Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
 was a series of social triumphs. In this country and elsewhere 
 everybody was glad to welcome the distinguished soldier, the 
 twice-chosen Chief Magistrate of the United States, and few 
 cared to recall, if they ever knew of them, the failures and 
 stains of his domestic policy. His partisans at home, or those 
 who still hoped to conjure with his name, imagined that after 
 this unique and flattering experience, the " third term " policy 
 might be revived with some prospect of success. In fact, at the 
 Republican Convention of 1880 General Grant, backed by 
 Senator Conkling, had only one formidable competitor in the 
 person of Mr. Elaine, till, almost at the last moment, General 
 Garfield was brought forward and obtained a majority of votes. 
 Since that time General Grant's political ambition has been 
 extinct ; he has passed through many painful private trials and 
 humiliations, the bitterness of which, however, was mitigated by 
 numberless proofs that his countrymen, casting aside the 
 memory of his political errors, retained a grateful recollection of 
 his splendid military services. In the agony of his dying 
 illness he has shown the same firmness and courage which made 
 him great as a soldier, and which contributed, perhaps, more 
 than the gifts of any other single person to rescue the United 
 States from the danger of disruption.
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1885 
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE passed away peacefully yesterday 
 afternoon at his house of East Cliff, near Ramsgate. It would 
 be out of place to use the conventional terms of regret with 
 regard to one who has died so full of years and honours. His 
 life has gradually and painlessly waned away since his neigh- 
 bours and friends, the latter to be found in the most diverse 
 ranks, religions, races, and climates, celebrated on 28th October 
 1884 the completion of the hundredth year of his singularly 
 prolonged and memorable existence. He retained inter- 
 mittently to the last great mental clearness and activity, which 
 he enjoyed alternately with long periods of passive expectancy 
 waiting for the end ; and it is satisfactory to know that he was 
 cheered and positively sustained by being told from time to 
 time how the good works he had set on foot prospered, and by 
 learning the universal interest felt in his health and the long 
 continuance of his days. He was, in particular, greatly cheered 
 to hear Dr. Hermann Adler's good report of the wellbeing of 
 the tenants of the dwellings which he had promoted in and 
 about Jerusalem, and he was much occupied with the wedding 
 present which he was privileged to present to Princess Beatrice. 
 On this he caused to be engraved the verse from Proverbs, 
 "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest 
 them all," which he had never tired of applying to his own 
 wife. When he no longer possessed the energy for conversation 
 he was sometimes heard repeating under his breath verses in 
 Hebrew from the Psalms, and it may truly be said that his last 
 thoughts were occupied with the duties of piety, loyalty, and
 
 254 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 benevolence, which it had been his aim during the century to 
 fulfil. To the Jews it may well seem as if with him the 
 central pillar of their temple had fallen ; but those who calmly 
 contemplate his life will understand that the example of his 
 useful and benevolent career has done its work. 
 
 Moses Montefiore was born, the eldest son of a not very 
 wealthy merchant, on the 24th of October 1784. His ancestors 
 had dwelt in Ancona and Leghorn, cities in which by special, 
 and then exceptional legislation, Jews had been permitted to 
 trade. His grandfather, Moses Haim Montefiore, had settled in 
 England, where he had nine sons and eight daughters, and was 
 a near neighbour and associate of Benjamin Disraeli, the grand- 
 father of Lord Beaconsfield. Joseph Elias, fourth son among 
 the seventeen children, married a daughter of the house of 
 Mocatta, a family of Moorish or Spanish Jews, who had left 
 their tombs in the Lido at Venice and in the graveyard at 
 Amsterdam. Joseph Montefiore's wife accompanied him to 
 Leghorn, whither he went to buy for the English market, and 
 there, in the Via Reale, she gave birth to the first of her eight 
 children, Moses Haim, the subject of this notice, whose name 
 was registered in the books of the synagogue as born on 24th 
 October (the eve of 9th Heshvan) 1784. Returning to England 
 with his parents, Moses Montefiore was educated privately, 
 articled to Mr. Robert Johnson, a wholesale tea merchant in 
 Eastcheap, and afterwards entered the Stock Exchange, where 
 his uncle purchased for him for 1200 the right to practise as 
 one of the twelve Jewish brokers. No greater number than 
 that was permitted by the City of London, although a more 
 enlightened body than most of the English communities of 
 that day, to compete with the stockbrokers of the orthodox 
 confession. 
 
 Moses Montefiore joined a Surrey volunteer regiment (he 
 lived at Kennington Terrace), a,nd rose to the rank of captain. 
 He became very popular on the Stock Exchange, and much 
 consideration was shown for him when, in consequence of the 
 default of another person, he had to ask for a few days' time, 
 which was cheerfully accorded him, to deliver some Exchequer 
 Bills. He began the publication of a regular price-list of 
 securities, was joined in business by his brother Abraham, and 
 became connected in business and by marriage with Nathan 
 Mayer Rothschild, whose name is still signed on the cheques of
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE 255 
 
 the great house in New Court. The two friends married sisters, 
 daughters of Levy Barent Cohen, a merchant of Dutch descent, 
 greatly respected for his wealth and benevolence. Abraham 
 Montefiore wedded Henrietta Rothschild, sister of the great 
 financier, and thus established another bond of union between 
 the families. It is fitting that in Sir Moses's will this time- 
 honoured connection is still recognised. Lord Eothschild, 
 whose elevation to the peerage during the last few weeks of Sir 
 Moses's life was a sign of the completeness of the emancipation 
 for which the Rothschilds and Montefiore battled so long, is 
 named as one of the executors, the others being Mr. Joseph 
 Sebag, Mr. Arthur Cohen, Q.C., and Dr. Loewe. Mr. Joseph 
 Sebag, as the senior surviving nephew, is the senior executor ; 
 Mr. Arthur Cohen is a nephew of the late Lady Montefiore ; 
 and Dr. Loewe is the linguist and Orientalist who accompanied 
 Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore on their journeys to the East. 
 Moses Montefiore married in 1812. 
 
 It was in 1813 that Mr. Rothschild brought out the British 
 loan for 12,000,000 for warlike operations against Napoleon 
 Bonaparte ; and henceforward the brothers Montefiore were 
 associated with the transactions of the house of Rothschild. 
 He lived next door to Mr. Rothschild, and has himself described 
 how " N. M. Rothschild," as Sir Moses was wont to call his 
 brother-in-law in speaking of him to other persons, roused him 
 at five o'clock in the morning to give news of the escape from 
 Elba, which. Mr. Rothschild was able to communicate to the 
 Ministry. The carrier, on being told the message he had 
 brought in a sealed despatch, cried " Vive 1'Empereur," and 
 his interlocutors were able to frame from his enthusiasm a 
 shrewd estimate of the temper of the French. 
 
 In 1824 Mr. Montefiore had retired from business and 
 settled in Park Lane, Mr. Rothschild removing at about the 
 same time to Piccadilly, where he long occupied a house now 
 the property of the Savile Club. " Thank God, and be con- 
 tent," was his wife's behest to Mr. Montefiore, and he was 
 henceforth only occupied with duties of a semi-public nature, 
 as in founding, in conjunction with his friends, the Alliance 
 Fire, Life, and Marine Insurance Office, the Imperial Con- 
 tinental Gas Association, and the Provincial Bank of Ireland. 
 The Alliance Office was successful from the first, profiting as it 
 did in its life department by the greater average of longevity
 
 256 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 among its Jewish clients, who were admitted at the ordinary 
 rates, based on actuarial calculations embracing both Jew and 
 Gentile. The Gas Association, though its shares stand now at 
 a high premium, had as hard a struggle for existence as the 
 electric light companies which are now striving to soften the 
 heart of the Board of Trade. In connection, with the Irish 
 banking business Sir Moses went twice round Ireland, and was 
 presented with the freedom of Londonderry. He was for a 
 short time a director of the South-Eastern Railway, and in 
 memory of this connection received in 1883 from the then 
 directors a gold pass, a purely honorary distinction in the 
 circumstances. 
 
 It was in 1827 that Mr. Montefiore undertook the pilgrimage 
 which coloured the whole of his future existence. He had 
 been known as a pious and benevolent man, and as one who, 
 while reverent of tradition, controlled it by good sense, as in 
 seeking his wife from among the " German " Jews, although 
 himself a member of the Sephardic or Spanish synagogue. 
 But his lifelong devotion to the cause of his oppressed brethren 
 in the East dates from his visit to Palestine in 1827. The 
 way to Palestine then lay through Egypt, as that to Cairo 
 now passes by Constantinople. The record of the journey, as 
 told by Mrs. Montefiore in her diary, is interesting. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Montefiore drove to Dover, had their travelling carriage 
 placed on the Boulogne steamer, and posted to Turin. At 
 Radicofani Mr. Montefiore, a man of forty-three, and ignorant 
 that he himself would exceed a century of existence, gave the 
 curate a dollar for the oldest person in the place, who, writes 
 Lady Montefiore, " had only the heavens for his covering and 
 the earth for his couch." They were rowed from Messina to 
 Malta, and took in their convoyed ship which they chartered 
 for Alexandria three poor Greek women, whose husbands had 
 fallen at Missolonghi. The meeting with Mehemet Ali laid the 
 foundations of a lasting friendship, but Mr. Salt, the British 
 Consul, warned the travellers strongly against proceeding to 
 Palestine. They would be sold for slaves ; he trembled to 
 think what would become of Mrs. Montefiore. 
 
 This pair of travellers, however, were not easily frightened. 
 They sailed to Jaffa and rode into Jerusalem, " a fallen, desolate, 
 and abject " city, as Lady Montefiore describes it. They found 
 the Jews very poor and miserable, dwelling like conies in the
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE 257 
 
 clefts in the rocks, oppressed by officials, paying 300 a year 
 for the melancholy privilege of weeping at the wall which is 
 called the Wailing Place of Jerusalem. After administering 
 bountiful alms, and making still more fruitful inquiries into 
 the possibility of a permanent amelioration of the condition of 
 the people by stimulating industry, the Monteflores returned to 
 Alexandria, where they heard Arab women lamenting in the 
 street the defeat of Navarino. Afterwards they themselves 
 brought home some of Codrington's despatches. 
 
 Immediately on his return from this visit to the East, Mr. 
 Montefiore joined the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a body 
 of representatives elected by the synagogues, and this council 
 for many years afterwards under his direction took a lively 
 interest in the welfare of its foreign brethren. The English Jews 
 had, however, on their own part a struggle to maintain for 
 political emancipation. Wealthy, well-educated, and often 
 honoured socially, they were excluded by their religion from 
 sitting in either House of Parliament and from most public 
 offices. The battle for the privileges and duties of citizenship 
 had to be won by showing themselves conspicuously worthy of 
 these rights and able to fulfil these duties. David Salomons, 
 the friend of Montefiore, being a candidate for the shrievalty, 
 was told that if a criminal was reprieved from hanging on a 
 Saturday, his Sabbath, his religion would prevent him from 
 announcing the commutation of the sentence. He refuted so 
 absurd a charge, and was elected sheriff of London and Middlesex, 
 but was unable to take the qualifying oath, and accordingly 
 exercised but an imperfect jurisdiction till Lyndhurst passed a 
 Bill to relieve him. This was in 1835; in 1837 Montefiore 
 came forward and became the second Jewish sheriff. A year 
 before he had been elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 As sheriff at the Coronation Moses Montefiore was knighted 
 by the Queen, to whom as Princess Victoria he had already 
 been enabled to offer the courtesy of the use of his grounds at 
 Ramsgate, the agreeable gardens attached to his house at East 
 Cliff, at which he lived for over sixty years and at which he 
 ultimately died. By his energy, popularity, and his own 
 munificence, Sir Moses Montefiore made unprecedentedly large 
 collections for the City charities during his year of office as sheriff. 
 He was also able to secure the pardon of the only criminal whom 
 it would have been his duty to cause to be put to death. 
 
 VOL. Ill 8
 
 258 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Immediately after he had served his year Sir Moses and 
 Lady Montefiore departed on their second pilgrimage to the 
 Holy Land. They visited on the way the seven synagogues of 
 Rome, making benefactions to the congregations ; and while they 
 fulfilled the responsibilities of life did not forget its graces. 
 They met Prince Coburg and the Duchess of Sutherland at a 
 reception at the Duke of Torlonia's, saw Severn's pictures, 
 Gibson's statues, and the museums, bought works of art, enter- 
 tained a Papal inonsignor and a French abbe", and sent Passover 
 cakes to their friends. At Malta, where Prince George of Cam- 
 bridge (now his Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding- 
 in-Chief) arrived during their stay, news met them that the 
 plague was raging at Jerusalem. Sir Moses accordingly pro- 
 posed to proceed alone. " This," writes Lady Montefiore, " I 
 peremptorily resisted, and the expressions of Ruth furnished 
 my heart at the moment with the language it most desired to 
 use. * Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following 
 after thee ; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou 
 lodgest I will lodge.' " This time they were received in Jeru- 
 salem with the most brilliant ceremony as the friends of the 
 Egyptian ruler and the benefactors of all. After distributing 
 funds intrusted to him by the Chief Rabbi, Sir Moses returned 
 to Beyrout impressed with the necessity of introducing agri- 
 culture among the Jews of the Holy Land. He obtained from 
 Mehemet Ali a decree authorising the Jews to acquire land, and 
 was preparing an extensive scheme for farming the soil of 
 Palestine by the descendants of those who anciently possessed it, 
 when political disturbances overturned all the plans formed, 
 and rendered valueless the privileges acquired. The Sultan 
 sent his armies against Syria, Acre was bombarded, and the rule 
 of Mehemet Ali was destroyed. 
 
 In 1840 the blood accusation, the terrible and lying charge 
 that the Jews offered up human sacrifice, was stirred against 
 them in Rhodes and Damascus. In both these places the popu- 
 lace demanded the blood of the Jews, and the local authorities 
 were not averse to imprisoning such as could afford ransom. 
 Some of these victims perished in captivity. Sir Moses Monte- 
 fiore called upon his fellow-citizens to express their disbelief in 
 the charge and their sympathy with the oppressed Israelites. 
 The Lord Mayor presided over a public meeting at the Mansion 
 House, Lord Palmerston received a deputation, Sir Moses Monte-
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE 259 
 
 fiore proceeded to Alexandria and Constantinople to demand a 
 fair trial for the accused. Political complications made a public 
 hearing at Damascus impossible, but the 'surviving prisoners 
 were released ; the Ehodian charge fell to the ground ; and the 
 Sultan in response to Sir Moses's appeal issued the firman of 
 12th Kamazan, 1256, which discusses the inveterate calumny, 
 refers to the Biblical maxim which prohibits Jews from using 
 the blood even of animals, and dismisses as groundless the 
 charge that they employ human blood. The firman goes on to 
 declare the equality before the law of the Jewish nation with 
 the other subjects of the Commander of the Faithful, and 
 forbids any molestation of them in their religious or temporal 
 concerns. 
 
 During his visit to Constantinople Sir Moses found that few 
 of the Jews could read or write the language of the country, 
 although they were by no means illiterate so far as concerned 
 Hebrew and the strange dialect compounded of Spanish and 
 Hebrew which their ancestors had brought away in exile from 
 the Iberian Peninsula. He conferred with the leaders of the 
 congregations, and suggested that the Turkish language should 
 be taught in their schools. " I am quite satisfied," he writes, 
 " it will be greatly useful, as it will fit our people for employ- 
 ments and situations from which they are now excluded." This 
 expectation has been signally fulfilled. At that time no Jew 
 was in the public service. Now many have attained high 
 military or civil rank. The result of the mission of 1840 was 
 felt to be so momentous that it was proposed in Germany to 
 institute a new Purim in its honour. In England the Queen 
 granted to her Knight-errant, who had ridden abroad redressing 
 human wrongs, the right of bearing supporters, an honour 
 usually reserved to peers and the knights of orders. 
 
 Sir Moses Montefiore's next mission was to Kussia. In the 
 wintry weather of February and March he travelled to St. 
 Petersburg to induce the Tsar to recall a ukase which he had 
 issued ordering the removal into the interior of all Jews living 
 within fifty versts of the frontier. With the good offices of the 
 Court of St. James, and the commercial results of the measure 
 being foreseen, it was recalled. Great risks had been run from 
 wolves and ice during this journey, and the eloquence, or rather 
 the sincerity of Sir Moses Montefiore, and the effect of his bear- 
 ing as a representative Israelite, and at the same time an English
 
 260 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 gentleman of high standing, had entirely prevailed. On his 
 return several members of the royal house attended a reception 
 given in his honour by the late Charlotte Baroness de Roths- 
 child, at Gunnersbury, and the Queen conferred upon him a 
 baronetcy. 
 
 In 1858 Sir Moses travelled to Eome and had his unsuccess- 
 ful encounter with Cardinal Antonelli, who refused to give up 
 the child Mortara, surreptitiously baptized by a nurse and stolen 
 from his mother, who died of grief. The refusal, perhaps, 
 hastened the fall of the temporal power. 
 
 In 1860 Montefiore headed the subscription for the relief of 
 the misery of the Christians of Syria, who had been attacked by 
 the Druses of Mount Lebanon. His letter appeared in our 
 columns on 12th July, and resulted in the collection of more than 
 22,500. We cannot describe all his journeys to the Holy 
 Land, which he visited seven times in all, on the last occasion 
 when he was more than ninety years of age. Whole cities 
 went out to meet him on the way, sermons were preached, odes 
 composed in his honour. In Palestine he endowed hospitals and 
 alms-houses, set on foot agricultural enterprises, planted gardens, 
 built synagogues and tombs. Besides his own benefactions he 
 was often chosen to administer the charities of others, as, for 
 example, by Juda Touro of New Orleans, who left large sums at 
 his disposal for improvements in Jerusalem. He pleaded with a 
 later Tzar (Alexander II.) in St. Petersburg and with the King of 
 Roumania at Bucharest for his brethren, crossed the great desert on 
 a litter to the city of Morocco and procured a milder treatment 
 for Jews tortured by barbarians. From his bedroom at East 
 Cliff he sent letters to every member of the Hungarian Legis- 
 lature, exposing the iniquity of the false blood accusation at 
 Tisza Eslar, and corresponded with Lord Beaconsfield and the 
 present Prime Minister on the subject of the Jews of Roumania, 
 whose condition he believed in vain to have been permanently 
 regulated and improved by the Treaty of Berlin. Judith, Lady 
 Montefiore, the dear companion of his travels, died in 1862. 
 He built in her memory a college at Ramsgate, where rabbis 
 maintained by his benevolence pass their days in prayer and 
 study of the law. He also founded in her memory scholarships 
 and prizes for girls and boys. The mausoleum at Ramsgate in 
 which she at present lies alone is a model of the building called 
 the tomb of Rachel on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem,
 
 SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE 261 
 
 which he had often visited with her who was as dear to him as 
 Rachel was to his ancestor. 
 
 Sir Moses's entry into his one hundredth year on the 8th of 
 November 1883 (corresponding with 8th Heshvan, 5643), was 
 celebrated as a public holiday at Ramsgate, where his liberal but 
 discriminating charities, administered by the local clergy of all 
 denominations, and his unfailing courtesy and hospitality, had 
 made him most popular. The occasion became, by reason of 
 the widespread public interest aroused, one of national signifi- 
 cance, and the Queen herself telegraphed, " I congratulate you 
 sincerely on your entering into the hundredth year of a useful 
 and honourable life." The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edin- 
 burgh, the City of London, and hundreds of representative 
 bodies sent similar messages. At Jerusalem and among the 
 Jewish congregations throughout the world special prayers were 
 offered up and services held. The Lord Mayor attended the 
 special service held last year (26th October 1884) in London on 
 the completion of Sir Moses's century of existence, and the com- 
 memorations at Ramsgate and throughout the country and the 
 world in churches and synagogues were still more striking than 
 that of 1883. The excitement of receiving so many congratula- 
 tions was great for a centenarian, but on the whole it had a 
 beneficial effect upon his health. Sir Moses had ardently 
 desired to see his hundredth year, and that wish had been 
 fulfilled.
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1885 
 
 IN Lord Shaftesbury there has passed away the most eminent 
 social reformer of the present century. It is not too much to 
 say that he had acquired world-wide fame as a philanthropist, 
 and that his name is inextricably interwoven with many of the 
 most humane movements of two generations. Pre-eminently 
 the friend of the poor, the degraded, and the outcast, his 
 generous sympathies and his ceaseless efforts on behalf of the 
 classes in whom he took so deep an interest have given him a 
 high place in the illustrious roll of benevolent Englishmen. 
 Whatever errors of judgment he may have committed during his 
 long career, these are forgotten in the universal sentiment of 
 regret which the announcement of his death will awaken. It 
 is interesting and perhaps not a little singular to note that one 
 of the most steadfast and powerful friends which the humbler 
 classes have ever had, as well as one of the most trusted, did 
 not belong to their own order of the commonalty, but to the 
 privileged order of the aristocracy. 
 
 Anthony Ashley Cooper, K.G., D.C.L., seventh earl and a 
 baronet, was born on the 28th of April 1801. Among those 
 of his predecessors who held the title were two men of distin- 
 guished talents ; these were the first and third earls respectively. 
 The former, Sir Anthony Ashley, lived in the stirring times of 
 the Commonwealth. He was an able though changeable 
 statesman, for while in the outset he espoused the royal cause, 
 he forsook this for that of the Parliamentarians, but subsequently 
 reverted to Monarchical principles, and materially assisted in 
 restoring the Monarchy under Charles II. Honours fell thick
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 263 
 
 and fast upon him for his services. He received two baronies, 
 and in 1672 was created Earl of Shaftesbury. He was after- 
 wards successively Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, Lord High Chancellor of England, and Lord Presi- 
 dent of the Council. As for his public acts, are they not 
 written in the devious and tortuous records of history and 
 diplomacy 1 The third Earl of Shaftesbury was Anthony of 
 the " Characteristics," described by Voltaire as the boldest of 
 English philosophers. The fourth and fifth earls were not 
 notable men. The sixth, the immediate predecessor of the 
 noblman now deceased, was for some time Chairman of Com- 
 mittees in the House of Lords. He married a daughter of the 
 third Duke of Marlborough, and died in 1851, in his eighty- 
 fourth year. 
 
 The earl now deceased was educated at Christ Church, 
 Oxford, where he obtained a first class in Classics in 1822, 
 graduated M.A. in 1832, and was created D.C.L. in 1841. As 
 Lord Ashley, he was first returned to Parliament as member 
 for Woodstock in 1826. All through his political career he 
 assumed an attitude of independence, and although he had a 
 brief experience of official life, he had no desire for office, the 
 details of which were somewhat irksome to him. On entering 
 the House he gave a general but not a constant support to the 
 Governments of Liverpool and Canning. His first considerable 
 speech was delivered in 1828, in connection with the proposed 
 provision for Canning's family, which he cordially supported. 
 When the Duke of Wellington came into power, Lord Ashley 
 accepted office as one of the Commissioners of the Board of 
 Control. He was returned for Dorchester in 1830, and for 
 Dorsetshire in 1831, which county he represented for fifteen 
 years. He was returned for Bath in 1847, and sat for that 
 borough until the year 1851, when he succeeded his father in 
 the peerage. Lord Ashley had a second brief experience of 
 office in 1834-35, when he was a Lord of the Admiralty in Sir 
 Robert Peel's Administration. Peel again offered him a post in 
 the Government in 1841, but Lord Ashley declined the offer on 
 finding that the Premier's views would not allow him to 
 support the Ten Hours Bill. 
 
 One of the greatest humanitarian movements with which the 
 name of Lord Shaftesbury will be permanently associated is 
 that which led to the beneficent legislation for the factory
 
 264 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 operatives. It was begun by Mr. M. T. Sadler and Mr. Richard 
 Oastler in 1830, but when the former lost his seat in 1833, 
 Lord Ashley became the Parliamentary champion of the cause. 
 The evidence which he brought together in the latter year con- 
 cerning the treatment of children in factories sent a thrill of 
 horror through the length and breadth of England. Slavery in 
 the West Indies had nothing worse to show in comparison with 
 it. In the manufacturing districts wages were at a starvation 
 rate, and the children were literally worked to death 
 murdered by inches. Mrs. Browning, in her pathetic poem, 
 The Cry of the Children, did not exaggerate one whit the terrible 
 condition of things which prevailed. There were everywhere a 
 dreadful reality of oppression and a fearful sense of injustice, of 
 intolerable misery and of intolerable wrongs, more formidable 
 than any causes which ever led a people to insurrection. But 
 although the main credit for the ameliorating measures which 
 ensued rightly belonged to Lord Shaftesbury, he himself, in the 
 preface to a volume of his speeches published in 1868, paid a 
 generous tribute to the efforts of those who preceded him in the 
 good work. 
 
 Lord Ashley went down to the factory districts to investigate 
 for himself the condition of the operatives. Describing his 
 visit many years afterwards, he said : " In Bradford especially 
 the fruits of long and cruel toil were most remarkable. The 
 cripples and distorted forms might be numbered by hundreds, 
 perhaps by thousands. A friend of mine collected a vast 
 number together for me ; the sight was most piteous, the 
 deformities incredible. They seemed to me, such were their 
 crooked shapes, like a mass of crooked alphabets." While the 
 factories were fearfully unhealthy for all, accidents thinned the 
 ranks of the workers. The sympathetic nature of Lord Ashley 
 was stirred to its depths, and accordingly in the session of 
 1833 he brought forward his Bill for shortening and regulating 
 the employment of children in the factories, and for protecting 
 them against maltreatment. But very little was done. The 
 Bill was allowed to go to a second reading without opposition, 
 the Government being determined to issue thereupon a Com- 
 mission for further inquiry. 
 
 The Commission being carried on a division, and having 
 reported after the delay of a few months, the House went into 
 Committee on the Bill ; but the first and most important clause
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 265 
 
 having been rejected, Lord Ashley threw the whole into the hands 
 of the Ministry. The clauses underwent in consequence very 
 serious modifications ; but though the measure fell far short of 
 what was intended, it yet contained several humane and highly 
 useful provisions, while it established for the first time the great 
 principle that labour and education should be combined. The 
 question now slept for some years, but in the session of 1838 
 Lord Ashley raised it again. He showed by statistics that fifty- 
 five per cent of those working in factories were females ; that 
 children were found travelling twenty miles a day to and from 
 the mills ; that in the factory districts as many persons died 
 under twenty years of age as under forty in any other part of 
 England ; that in Manchester half the population died under 
 three years of age ; and that sixty clergymen had testified to 
 the vicious and awful condition of the factory districts. But 
 the Government of the day gave his lordship no support, and 
 nothing was effected. 
 
 We get glimpses of Lord Ashley's attitude towards other 
 questions at this time. Baron Bunsen, in his diary for February 
 1839, writes: "Ashley took me to a meeting whose tendency 
 and significance made that day one of the most important of my 
 life. He, and Sandon, and others desire a lay union for exten- 
 sion of Church rights, in order to call upon all lay Churchmen 
 of England to stand up for two points one, that the people 
 shall have a regular education, in parish and commercial 
 schools ; the second, that the schools shall be under the clergy, 
 directed by a diocesan Board, consisting of clergy and gentry, 
 under the bishop." Bunsen also speaks of Lord Ashley's work 
 among the thieves and with the ragged schools. On one 
 occasion, together with Jackson, the city missionary, he met 
 270 thieves at their own wish to consult with them as to the 
 means they could employ to lead better lives. He gained the 
 hearts of the poor and the unfortunate in an almost unexampled 
 manner. Nor should his efforts in connection with the aboli- 
 tion of slavery be forgotten. 
 
 Through the exertions of Lord Ashley a Commission was 
 appointed in 1840 to inquire into the employment of women 
 and children in mines and collieries. This was the second 
 branch of his lordship's great remedial work. The report of 
 the Commissioners was one of the saddest and most melancholy 
 documents ever submitted to Parliament. It was shown that
 
 266 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 children were consigned by their parents almost from the cradle 
 to perpetual labour, at an employment entailing on them pre- 
 mature adolescence, disease, and misery, and amid scenes which 
 ensured a moral degradation even worse than the physical 
 suffering which accompanied it. With regard to the women, it 
 was further established that they were compelled to work like 
 beasts of burden in noisome caves where the sun never entered, 
 surrounded by an atmosphere of vice and pollution which could 
 hardly be depicted with decency, and under circumstances of 
 coarse and loathsome exposure to which savage life scarcely 
 afforded a parallel 
 
 In June 1842 Lord Ashley moved for leave to introduce a 
 Bill founded on the Commissioner's report, and restraining the 
 frightful evils complained of. It seems incredible in a Chris- 
 tian country that such cruelties as he described could ever have 
 been inflicted or borne. Women and children were harnessed 
 with chains, like animals, in trucks, and pursued their labour 
 under the most galling and painful conditions. Eighteen hours 
 a day of the most distressing occupation physically, and the 
 most disastrous morally, was of frequent occurrence. " In the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire," said Lord Ashley, "it is not un- 
 common for infants of even five years old to be sent to the pit. 
 About Halifax and the neighbourhood children are sometimes 
 brought to the pits at the age of six years, and are taken out of 
 their beds at four o'clock. Bradford and Leeds the same ; in 
 Lancashire from five to six. Near Oldham children are worked 
 as low as four years old ; and in the small collieries towards 
 the hills some are so young they are brought to work in their 
 bedgowns." Similar tales came from Scotland and Wales, and 
 it is not surprising that in these hotbeds of horror and suffering 
 all forms of disease and vice were rampant. The House of 
 Commons was amazed and indignant at the harrowing details 
 laid before it. By way of legislative provisions, Lord Ashley 
 proposed first, the total exclusion of female labour from all 
 mines and collieries in the country ; secondly, the exclusion of 
 all boys under thirteen years of age ; thirdly, the exclusion of 
 all males under twenty-one years of age as engineers, youthful 
 engineers being a fertile cause of accidents ; and, fourthly, the 
 abolition of apprenticeship. With some slight amendments 
 only, this truly benevolent and salutary measure passed into 
 law.
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 267 
 
 One of the ablest of Lord Ashley's Parliamentary addresses 
 was delivered in February 1843, in connection with his motion 
 for an address to the Queen, praying for the instant and serious 
 consideration of the best means for promoting the blessings of a 
 moral and religious education among the working classes. The 
 mover strongly attacked the oppression and corruption which 
 prevailed, and exposed the doings of those who ground the 
 faces of the poor. He demonstrated by statistics that there 
 were no fewer than 1,014,193 children capable of education 
 and yet under no kind of educational influence. In the county 
 of Lancaster alone the annual expenditure for the punishment 
 of crime was 604,965, while the annual vote for education in 
 all England was 30,000. The evils of the truck system, the 
 payment of wages in public houses, and the bad state of work- 
 men's dwellings were forcibly shown. All these things made 
 it impossible for the adult to practise that morality of which he 
 should be an example to his children. Lord Ashley's motion 
 was agreed to, and it led to the Government of the day bestir- 
 ring themselves in the important question of education. 
 
 The Ten Hours Bill controversy had now become a burning 
 question, this and the Anti-Corn Law Agitation being the most 
 pressing social movements of the time. The former had gone 
 through many phases, and at length, in 1844, it threatened to 
 wreck the Government of Sir Robert Peel. Sir James Graham 
 brought in a Ministerial Bill placing further restrictions on 
 labour in factories. Lord Ashley carried an amendment against 
 the Government reducing the hours of labour to ten per day, 
 and the question was further bitterly debated, the House 
 deciding by a majority of three against the Ministerial pro- 
 position of twelve hours, and by a majority of seven against 
 Lord Ashley's amendment of ten hours. Thereupon Sir James 
 Graham withdrew the Bill and introduced another. The con- 
 flict was renewed at various stages, and upon the third reading 
 Lord Ashley's proposal of ten hours was rejected by 297 to 159. 
 As he could not get all he wished, Lord Ashley wisely took 
 all he could get. The measure went to the Upper House, where 
 it soon passed and became law. It contained many important 
 provisions which had a strongly beneficial effect upon factory 
 workers. Not long afterwards, Lord Ashley drew up an 
 amending Bill, still in favour of the ten hours' limit. Having 
 resigned his seat for Dorset, however, in consequence of his
 
 268 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 conviction that he could no longer conscientiously resist the 
 abolition of the Corn Laws, he entrusted the Bill to the care of 
 Mr. Fielden. It was defeated by a majority of ten ; but in 
 1847, Sir R. Peel having quitted office, another amending Bill 
 to the same effect was brought in by Mr. Fielden, carried suc- 
 cessfully through the House, and sent to the Lords. It became 
 law, but its operation was greatly impeded by legal intricacies 
 and every form of ingenious difficulty. 
 
 In 1848 Lord Ashley resumed charge of the measure, and 
 "in 1850," as he himself afterwards wrote, "emerging from 
 many struggles, it was reduced to good working order. One 
 provision alone was wanting, the provision for confining the 
 labour of children of tender years within the hours between six 
 and six. This was effected in 1853 by Lord Palmerston, then 
 Secretary of State for the Home Department ; and since that 
 day the Act has required neither impulse nor amendment." 
 The Factory Acts have, nevertheless, since been extended and 
 consolidated. Lord Ashley lived to see the day when those who 
 had bitterly opposed his crusade personally thanked him for his 
 efforts. He had taken up a task which seemed quite hopeless, 
 and his unwearied exertions greatly interfered with his home 
 life and his domestic happiness. But Lady Ashley cheered him 
 in his laborious undertaking, and as some recognition of the 
 efforts of the deceased on behalf of factory operatives, the 
 Countess was presented with a bust of her husband on the 6th 
 of August 1859. On this memorable occasion 7000 persons, 
 belonging to the Manchester manufacturing district, insisted 
 upon kissing Lord Ashley's hands. Such is a brief recital of 
 one of the most arduous campaigns in English domestic legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 Another noble movement with which Lord Shaftesbury's 
 name is inseparably connected was the establishment of ragged 
 schools. He was, indeed, the life and soul of this enterprise. 
 Alive to the necessity for laying hold of the waifs and strays of 
 our great cities before they were manufactured into hardened 
 criminals, Lord Ashley founded his organisation for the benefit 
 of all outcast classes. The slums of London forty years ago 
 were as dangerous as they were disgraceful. Certain districts 
 the police only dared venture to explore in companies and 
 strengthened with arms. It is stated that in one rookery in 
 Marylebone there were 300 families found herding in 119
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 269 
 
 houses, young and old alike having the characteristics of savages. 
 The purlieus of Drury Lane were equally bad, and in Wild 
 Court nearly 1000 persons actually existed in fourteen houses. 
 The life there was too horrible to be depicted. Ratcliff and 
 Bluegate Fields were the synonym for all that was vile and 
 abandoned. As was to be expected, juvenile crime increased at 
 a rapid rate, and the cry arose for either more schools or more 
 prisons. It seemed difficult to tell where to begin upon this 
 mass of degradation and vice, and when the first advertisement 
 in connection with the Field Lane Ragged School the pioneer 
 enterprise appeared in the Times there were, doubtless, many 
 prepared to smile over what looked like a Quixotic under- 
 taking. 
 
 But Lord Ashley was as persevering as he was energetic, 
 and again he set himself personally to examine into the con- 
 dition of the classes he sought to benefit. The results of his 
 investigations appeared in an article' which he contributed to 
 the Quarterly Review in 1846. He dealt fully with the question 
 of the danger threatened to the State by the criminal classes, 
 which were increasing at a fearful rate, and, referring to the 
 younger portion of these classes, he described them as "bold 
 and pert and dirty as London sparrows, but pale, feeble, and 
 sadly inferior to them in plumpness of outline." Holborn, the 
 Strand, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Lambeth, and Westminster 
 all had their swarms of these evil and precocious children. 
 " The stranger dives into the recesses from which they seem to 
 issue, and there he sees before and behind, on the right hand 
 and on the left, every form and character of evil that can 
 offend the sense and deaden the morals." In thousands of cases 
 they merely came up and perished as vermin. The districts in 
 which they were reared reeked with filth and abominations of 
 all kinds. The influence of their surroundings upon the young 
 was shown in the fact that 14,887 persons under twenty years 
 of age were arrested in London during the year 1845. 
 
 In 1848 Lord Ashley pleaded the cause of ragged children 
 in Parliament, and from that time forward, on the platform 
 and in the press, as president of the Ragged School Union, he 
 laboured arduously and unceasingly for the movement. In a 
 very short time he, and those who were associated with him in 
 the work, had got hold of 10,000 children, snatched from the 
 vortex of London. But the task was a very uphill one, and it
 
 270 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 was only the indomitable spirit of Lord Shaftesbury which pre- 
 vented the movement from collapsing. Speaking so lately as 
 1883 on the subject of the Ragged School Union his lordship 
 said, " For thirty-nine years I have been president of this grand 
 institution, and I have not missed one anniversary." And after 
 dwelling on the necessity for the work, he added, " Did we not, 
 during the palmy days of the ragged schools, pick up from the 
 streets some 300,000 boys and girls, all of whom, if they had 
 not been taken up, would have been found before long among 
 the dangerous classes ? " This army of children became good 
 and industrious citizens, entering into trade and domestic service 
 in England and the colonies. The Ragged School Union acknow- 
 ledged their indebtedness to their president by presenting him 
 with his portrait on his eightieth birthday in 1881. 
 
 Other philanthropic movements were greatly indebted to 
 Lord Shaftesbury. There is, for example, the Shoeblack 
 Brigade, which had its origin at the time of the great Exhibi- 
 tion of 1851. Beginning in a very small way, this movement 
 prospered so that in thirty years from its foundation it numbered 
 at one time 306 members, who earned nearly 12,000 in twelve 
 months. The movement was intended to be a remedial and 
 auxiliary one ; and we find that in 1882 as many as 1619 new 
 members entered the brigade in London, while 1584 left the 
 ranks, 600 of them having been placed out in suitable situations. 
 The Reformatory and Refuge Union was another benevolent 
 organisation in which the deceased took a deep interest. The 
 Union has now 589 homes, with accommodation for nearly 
 50,000 inmates. 
 
 It was owing to the intervention of Lord Shaftesbury that 
 Lord Palmerston introduced his Bill for the Care and Reforma- 
 tion of Juvenile Offenders. Sanitary reform and the health of 
 the people were also the objects of his solicitude. Time after 
 time, and first in his speech on the Public Health Bill in 1848, 
 he called attention to these questions, and on one occasion, in 
 addressing the House of Lords, he affirmed that the horrible 
 state of our towns and the condition of the dwellings of the 
 people lay at the root of two - thirds of the disorders which 
 afflicted the country. He held that good drainage, good ventila- 
 tion, good and healthy houses, and an ample supply of good 
 water would not only go far to extinguish epidemics and reduce 
 fevers, but would have a great influence upon the moral habits
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 271 
 
 of the population. Lodging-house reform was another matter 
 in which he rendered essential service, and among the measures 
 passed by the Legislature at his instigation was a very necessary 
 one for the registration and inspection of common lodging- 
 houses. Charles Dickens described Lord Shaftesbury's Common 
 Lodging-house Act as the best legislation that had ever pro- 
 ceeded from the English Parliament ; and there is no doubt 
 that it effected a complete revolution where one was strongly 
 needed. 
 
 By the death of his father in 1851 Lord Ashley was called 
 to the Upper House. In his new sphere, however, Lord 
 Shaftesbury relaxed neither his legislative nor his philanthropic 
 efforts. In the session of 1853 he introduced his Juvenile 
 Mendicancy Bill, a measure called for by the public feeling of 
 the time. But although spoken of in the warmest terms by 
 Lord Brougham, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Grey, and others, 
 the Bill met with many difficulties. A second Bill on the 
 subject was introduced at the same time in the House of 
 Commons by Mr. Adderley. In the end it was deemed 
 advisable to withdraw both measures, and to press upon the 
 Government the urgent necessity of dealing with the whole 
 question. Lord Palmerston consequently introduced the measure 
 referred to above. The chief effect of the new Act was that the 
 reformatories established by philanthropic efforts in various parts 
 of the kingdom were more distinctly than heretofore recognised 
 by the Government, and received aid from the national funds. 
 
 For a professed philanthropist to receive a challenge to a 
 duel is a singular circumstance, yet this actually occurred to 
 Lord Shaftesbury in 1853. The affair arose out of the Juvenile 
 Mendicancy Bill. In the course of a speech in the House of 
 Lords, Lord Shaftesbury had cited the judgment of Lord Eldon in 
 the case of William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley (Lord Morning- 
 ton) in order to show that the proposed detention of children 
 whose parents were immoral was nothing new in law. Lord 
 Mornington resented this as an interference with his private 
 affairs, and wrote to the Earl that he " must apologise or fight." 
 Lord Shaftesbury, in answer, briefly defended his quotation from 
 an ordinary legal authority, and, so far as the challenge was 
 concerned, referred Lord Mornington to the magistrate at Bow 
 Street or to his solicitors. Lord Mornington rejoined that this 
 added to the original insult, and was besides "very absurdly
 
 272 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 impertinent." Nothing further came of the affair, but it was 
 not a little amusing that in reference to a case before the Lords 
 Justices in Chancery, the same week, Lord Mornington wrote, 
 " I have ever felt, as a peer of the realm, that I am more bound 
 to respect the law than other men." 
 
 On the outbreak of the Crimean War Lord Shaftesbury 
 initiated an important debate in the House of Lords on 
 Christianity in Turkey. He denounced the assertion of the 
 Russian manifesto that England and France were fighting for 
 Mahomedanism and Russia for Christianity. This, he affirmed, 
 was a repetition of the charge made by Mr. Cobden. The 
 question was not one of religion but of justice, and he infinitely 
 preferred the Turkish to the Russian civilisation. He showed 
 that Protestantism was allowed a free field in Turkey, but in 
 Russia no religious movement was permitted. The British 
 Government was repeatedly compelled to interfere against the 
 religious outrages of Russian agents ; in fact, during twenty 
 years Turkey had permitted more for the advancement of 
 civilisation than Russia had during 400. 
 
 In 1857 Lord Shaftesbury caused great excitement through- 
 out the country by a speech which he made at Wimborne in 
 connection with the Indian Mutiny Relief Fund. He referred 
 in pointed terms to the reserve exhibited by the Press in allud- 
 ing to the cruelties practised on our children and countrywomen 
 by the sepoys as tending to lessen the sympathy and assistance 
 solicited. He had himself, he said, seen a letter from the 
 highest lady then in India describing a case in which parents 
 were forced to swallow portions of their own children previous 
 to being burnt themselves over a slow fire. His lordship 
 afterwards explained that he had not actually seen a letter from 
 Lady Canning, but that he had heard of one referring to the 
 above atrocities. Lord Shaftesbury's statement that mutilation 
 had been frequently resorted to by the rebel sepoys led to a 
 heated controversy in the newspapers. The result of the very 
 careful inquiries instituted showed that, although a remorseless 
 spirit had been shown so far as the destruction of life was con- 
 cerned, mutilation could not be established to any considerable 
 extent. 
 
 The Governor-General of India having issued a severe pro- 
 clamation in Oude, Lord Ellenborough, the Minister for India, 
 sent, unknown to his colleagues, a despatch severely censuring
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 273 
 
 this proclamation. The despatch became public and led to his 
 resignation, and very nearly to the defeat of the Ministry, a vote 
 of censure being moved in both Houses of Parliament, but not 
 carried. Lord Shaftesbury moved the vote of censure on the 
 Government in the Lords, taking the view that Lord Ellen- 
 borough's condemnation of the Governor-General was calculated 
 to weaken the authority of the latter and to encourage those then 
 in arms against the British power. A very exciting debate 
 followed upon this motion, which was only lost by nine votes. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was the chief originator of the movement 
 for holding religious services on Sundays in the London theatres. 
 For a time the practice obtained a very considerable hold. But 
 in the session of 1860 Lord Dungannon drew the attention of 
 the House of Lords to the subject, and proposed a resolution 
 to the effect that such services, being highly irregular and 
 inconsistent with order, were calculated to injure rather than 
 advance the progress of sound religious principles in the 
 metropolis and throughout the country. The noble lord 
 asserted the incompatibility between the associations of the 
 theatre and those of religion, and declared that the movement 
 was fraught with danger to the Church of England. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury, in reply, admitted that he was the chief 
 originator of the movement, and defended it in a speech of con- 
 siderable ability and fervour. The motion was ultimately 
 withdrawn. Not long before Lord Shaftesbury had also been 
 called upon to draw up a measure in connection with the 
 religious services at Exeter Hall. Eager, however, as Lord 
 Shaftesbury was to spread the benefits of Evangelical religion 
 among the lower classes, he was a very strong opponent of 
 liberal theology. For example, when the widely-known work 
 Ecce Homo appeared, he said, in a speech at the annual 
 meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid Society : " Sir, how men 
 are deluded, how they are misled by those who should be their 
 guides ! I confess I was perfectly aghast the other day, 
 when, speaking to a clergyman and asking him his opinion of 
 the most pestilential book ever vomited, I think, from the jaws 
 of hell I mean Ecce Homo he deliberately told me, he 
 being a great professor of Evangelical religion, that the book had 
 excited his deepest admiration, and that he did not hesitate to 
 say that it had conferred great benefit upon his own soul." In 
 religious matters Lord Shaftesbury had a Shibboleth, and it 
 
 VOL. Ill T
 
 274 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 must be confessed that it was a somewhat narrow one, and one 
 which prevented him occasionally from doing justice to the 
 work and aims of men possessed like himself of an eminently 
 religious nature, but whose views differed materially from his 
 own. 
 
 One of the most interesting of Lord Shaftesbury's speeches 
 was delivered in connection with the Elementary Education Act 
 of 1870. Addressing the House of Lords, he denied the exist- 
 ence of a "religious difficulty." He did not believe that this 
 difficulty had ever had any existence whatever, except as a 
 euphonious term for the assault and defence, oftentimes not 
 wisely conducted on the part of the defenders, and certainly not 
 justly on the part of the assailants, of the Established Church. 
 He showed the question of compulsion to be an exceedingly 
 difficult one on the ground of the migratory character of the 
 population. School accommodation would be required for about 
 400,000 children, two-thirds of whom belonged to a roving 
 population. Lord Shaftesbury admitted that the tendency in 
 England was towards rate-provided schools and the institution 
 of secular education. But he did not expect very much from 
 the Bill, for neither in Prussia nor in America had a similar 
 system produced a moral, though it might have stimulated an 
 intellectual, life. Nevertheless, the measure was a step in the 
 right direction. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was presented with the freedom of the 
 City of Glasgow on the 28th of August 1871, and on the same 
 day he laid the foundation-stone of a new Convalescent Home 
 for Glasgow at Lenzie Junction. The Home, which was erected 
 at a cost of 5000, has accommodation for sixty-two convalescent 
 patients. In addressing a meeting of the working classes of 
 Glasgow on the 31st, his lordship reviewed the campaign in 
 connection with the Factory Acts, maintaining that the Ten 
 Hours Act was the greatest boon that was ever conferred, not 
 only upon the operatives, but upon the proprietors and capitalists 
 of the country. An address was presented to the speaker by 
 the factory workers expressive of their gratitude for his exertions 
 in their cause. At a later period Lord Shaftesbury was also 
 presented with the freedom of the City of Edinburgh in recogni- 
 tion of his long-continued philanthropic efforts. 
 
 On the 3rd of August 1872 he laid the first stone of the 
 new buildings on the Shaftesbury Park Estate, which had been
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 275 
 
 acquired by the Artisans', Labourers' and General Dwellings 
 Company, for the purpose of laying out as a workman's city. 
 The company was formed in 1867 in consequence of the 
 destruction of houses by railroads, and for other public im- 
 provements for the purpose of enabling workmen to erect 
 dwellings combining fitness and economy with the latest 
 sanitary appliances, and to become themselves the owners of 
 these dwellings in the course of a stated number of years by 
 the payment of a small additional rent. The houses were to be 
 of three kinds, and were to be for the accommodation, not only 
 of artisans, but of clerks, and each house was to form a distinct 
 and separate tenancy. This estate, situate in Battersea, near 
 Clapham Junction Station, was opened in July 1874. It 
 contained 1200 houses, capable of accommodating about 8000 
 persons. In addition to the houses, the township included 
 several special features, such as schools, an ornamental garden, 
 a lecture-hall, co-operative stores and general stores, but there 
 was no publichouse or pawnshop within its precincts. At the 
 inauguration, Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Disraeli, Lord Granville, 
 and other gentlemen made speeches, the Prime Minister ex- 
 pressing his warm sympathy with Lord Shaftesbury's endeavours 
 to improve the condition of the working classes. 
 
 A severe affliction befell Lord Shaftesbury in 1872 by the 
 death of his wife. This lady, who was mourned by all classes, 
 was the eldest daughter of Lady Palmerston, by her first 
 husband, Lord Cowper. Her Majesty the Queen wrote a most 
 kind and touching letter to the Earl upon his bereavement, and 
 referred to the character of his wife in the warmest and most 
 affectionate terms. 
 
 On some public questions Lord Shaftesbury held very decided 
 views. He was strongly hostile to the opening of the national 
 museums and galleries on Sundays. On the passing of the 
 Ballot Bill, while not counselling the Lords to reject it, he 
 said that, by adopting the principle of secret voting, the nation 
 inflicted upon itself a direct dishonour. It was an open avowal 
 of cowardice and corruption. He predicted that the Bill would 
 be altogether ineffective to put down intimidation, and it would 
 make bribery ten times worse. In the debate on the Public 
 Worship Regulation Bill, Lord Shaftesbury vehemently de- 
 nounced Ritualism, and, with regard to the confessional, he 
 affirmed that, if it were suffered to continue unchecked and it
 
 276 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 could not be checked by any ordinary legislation it would 
 produce an entire change in the spiritual, moral, and political 
 character of the English people, and would sink the Established 
 Church in inevitable ruin. Lord Shaftesbury was for some 
 years a member of the Ecclesiastical Commission, and it is well 
 known that during the premiership of Lord Palmerston he had 
 considerable influence in the appointment of bishops. 
 
 When the lunacy laws of the country were in a disgraceful 
 condition, Lord Shaftesbury took the initiative in amending 
 these laws, and for upwards of fifty years he was chairman of 
 the "Lunacy Commission. Great reforms were effected in the 
 treatment of the insane ; indeed, it is no exaggeration to say 
 that a revolution has been witnessed during the past half- 
 century in the management of public and private asylums. In 
 March 1884 Lord Shaftesbury was the guest of the Lord Mayor 
 at the Mansion House, and we find him not long afterwards 
 engaged in the congenial occupation of unveiling the statue to 
 William Tyndale on the Thames Embankment. On that oc- 
 casion he described Tyndale's greatest memorial as the English 
 New Testament. 
 
 In June 1884 the freedom of the City of London was 
 presented to the Earl in the Library of the Guildhall. The 
 City Chamberlain, in enumerating the claims of the newest 
 freeman, referred to his labours in connection with the Climbing 
 Boys Act, the Factory and the Hours Act, the Mines and 
 Colliery Regulation Acts, the establishment of ragged schools, 
 training ships, refuges for boys and girls, and other philanthropic 
 institutions. Allusion was also made to his lordship's share in 
 striking the fetters from the slaves in the colonies and elsewhere ; 
 to his successful efforts for ameliorating the condition of lunatics ; 
 to his encouragement of city mission work in the courts and 
 slums of the vast metropolis, and of the circulation of the Holy 
 Scriptures in the various languages of the globe ; and, lastly, to 
 his active and useful sympathy on behalf of wronged and tortured 
 dumb animals. Never was the freedom of the city more worthily 
 bestowed, and space would fail us to enumerate the undertakings 
 of a charitable or remediable nature in which the late Earl 
 engaged. The British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious 
 Tract Society, the London City Mission, the Sunday School 
 Union, the Field Lane Refuges and Ragged Schools, the National 
 Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children, and a hundred
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY 277 
 
 other excellent organisations were all indebted to him for 
 active aid, sympathy, and advice. He seemed to be a connecting 
 link between the highest and the lowest classes in the State. 
 While he enjoyed the esteem and friendship of his Sovereign, he 
 was also the friend of men in the humblest stations, down even 
 to the costermonger and the chimney sweep. Wherever he 
 appeared he invariably evoked enthusiasm and affection. 
 
 In person, Lord Shaftesbury was tall and somewhat imposing 
 in appearance. His manners and speech were alike persuasive ; 
 and his personal character stood so high that he was warmly 
 esteemed even by those from whom he most widely differed. 
 As a landlord, he was just and yet generous, and fully alive to 
 his great responsibilities. The village of Wimborne St. Giles, 
 near his family seat of St. Giles, was transformed under his 
 care into a model village. He built new labourers' cottages, 
 each containing a front parlour and kitchen on the ground floor, 
 with three bedrooms above, absolutely unconnected with each 
 other. Every cottage has its apricot tree, its pump, its separate 
 sanitary arrangements, its pigsty, and its quarter-acre allotment 
 the labourer paying for all these things only 52s. per annum. 
 The tenants were never behind with their rents, but the Earl 
 was content with a small percentage on his original outlay. 
 The woods round Wimborne St. Giles are very large and not 
 overstocked with game, for the late landlord held strongly to 
 the principle that it was unfair to preserve too much. Alms- 
 houses and other advantages are offered to those who are beyond 
 work. Lord Shaftesbury spent some period every year upon 
 the estate, although his numerous public undertakings made 
 serious inroads upon his time. But amid all other engagements, 
 he never forgot that charity which begins at home.
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN 
 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1885 
 
 BY the death of Field -Marshal Lord Strathnairn, which took 
 place yesterday at Paris, the English army loses one of its 
 oldest members, and, notwithstanding the laurels gained by 
 others on recent occasions, its most distinguished ornament. 
 None of the brave leaders who became illustrious during the 
 ordeal of the Indian Mutiny acquired a greater reputation than 
 Sir Hugh Rose, and although it would be difficult and in- 
 vidious to make any distinction in valour among those who 
 played their part in different scenes of the same great struggle, 
 few, probably, would be found to dispute that the Central 
 Indian campaign provided Sir Hugh Rose with opportunities 
 of evincing qualities of generalship which have not often fallen 
 to the lot of an English commander. In the record of English 
 warfare in India there are very few passages which will com- 
 pare with the victorious march of Sir Hugh Rose from Mhow to 
 Calpee and his recapture of Gwalior. Lord Strathnairn's career 
 had been in other particulars distinguished ; but it was the 
 Central Indian campaign that entitled him to the rank of a 
 great general, and it is upon that period of his military service 
 that his biographer will naturally be most disposed to dwell. 
 
 Hugh Henry Rose was born in the year 1803. His father, 
 Sir George Henry Rose, was Clerk of Parliaments, a post which 
 his father had held before him. Lord Strathnairn entered in 
 1820 the army, for which his tastes most suited him. The 
 long peace which followed Waterloo prevented his displaying 
 any special qualities, and he had been twenty years in the 
 service before any opportunity occurred to justify in active
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN 279 
 
 employment the good opinion which his superiors had formed 
 of his zeal and energy. In 1840, however, when Ibrahim 
 Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, had overthrown Turkish authority 
 in Syria, and the English Government decided to afford the 
 Sultan some assistance, Lieutenant-Colonel Rose was sent, with 
 other officers, to organise the Turkish defence. Although the 
 Egyptians were compelled by the force of our diplomatic opposi- 
 tion to halt in their advance, and shortly afterwards to retreat, 
 there were several hostile encounters, and in one of these 
 Colonel Rose greatly distinguished himself, for after a personal 
 contest in which he was wounded, he took the commander of 
 the Egyptian cavalry prisoner. The success was due to his 
 admirable horsemanship as well as to his swordsmanship, and 
 many of those who served under him later on will admit the 
 applicability to him of the epithet of " the iron seat." For 
 this exploit he received a sword of honour from the Sultan, and 
 the Companionship of the Bath, as well as several Turkish 
 Orders, showed how well he was considered to have acted 
 during his semi-diplomatic, semi-military employment in Syria. 
 Lord Palmerston, whose main object had been to checkmate 
 French intrigue in Egypt, was so impressed by his actions that 
 he made him Consul-General for Syria. 
 
 In the days of Louis Philippe Syria represented the focus of 
 that intrigue which has always sheltered itself under the shade 
 of the great Eastern Question ; but when the opportunism of 
 the Orleanists gave place to the aggressive bureaucratism of 
 Napoleon the centre of political gravity passed from St. Jean 
 d'Acre to Constantinople itself. Colonel Rose was then trans- 
 ferred from the shores of the Levant to be Secretary to Lord 
 Stratford de Redcliffe. During the absence of his chief in the 
 critical winter of 1853-54 Colonel Rose acted as Charge 
 d' Affaires, and to him belongs the credit of having been one of 
 the first to detect the schemes of the Tsar Nicholas. During 
 the absence of the Great Elchi he took upon himself the respon- 
 sibility, at the request of the Porte, of ordering the English 
 Mediterranean fleet into Turkish waters, and, had he been able 
 to execute his own policy, he would have ordered it into the 
 Black Sea, when the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Synope, 
 commonly called the massacre of Sinope, might have been 
 averted. 
 
 During the Crimean campaign he acted as Principal Com-
 
 280 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 missioner at the headquarters of the French army, and he was 
 present at most of the assaults, being wounded on one occasion 
 in the trenches, while at Inkerman he had two horses shot 
 under him. When. the war closed he was nominated a K.C.B., 
 and the French commander specially recommended him for the 
 Victoria Cross on account of his extraordinary gallantry. As 
 no field officer can receive that decoration, it was found impos- 
 sible to comply with the representation of Marshal Canrobert. 
 
 A short interval of rest followed the termination of the 
 struggle with Russia, and then, in the autumn of 1857, Sir 
 Hugh Eose was sent to Bombay to take his part in the heroic 
 struggle of the English race to maintain their position in India 
 against their enemies. At this critical point in his career Sir 
 Hugh Eose had only shown that he possessed great energy and 
 courage, and although he had attained the rank of Major- 
 General he had never commanded any body of troops either in 
 the field or merely on the parade-ground. Those who knew 
 him were already convinced that the occasion had only to offer 
 for him to show himself worthy of it. He arrived in India at 
 the very moment when the worst of the mutiny had revealed 
 itself and when we were beginning to see, not only how we 
 should maintain our position, but how all that had been lost 
 would be recovered. In these concluding operations Sir Hugh 
 Eose was destined to take as prominent a part in Central India 
 as Lord Clyde did in the region between Cawnpore and Luck- 
 now, and no doubt the conspicuous part he was able to play 
 must to a great extent be attributed to the fact that he was 
 virtually independent and that he was supported by so strong- 
 minded an official as Sir Eobert Hamilton, at that time the 
 Governor- General's agent in Central India. 
 
 The events in the Southern Mahratta country, and par- 
 ticularly in Indore, in the summer and autumn of 1857, had 
 necessitated a campaign in Central India that is to say, the 
 reassertion of English power in the country between the 
 Vindhya range and the Ganges. It was not until December of 
 that year that Sir Hugh Eose took actual command of the 
 Central India Field Force, which was composed of two weak 
 brigades. Early in 1858 the force began its advance from 
 Mhow, the military cantonment situated in proximity to the 
 capital of Holkar. The town of Eathgarh, a place of no incon- 
 siderable strength, was the first object of attack. Sir Hugh
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN 281 
 
 Rose appeared before its walls on the 24th of January, and 
 siege operations at once commenced. The arrival of a relieving 
 force threatened to arrest them, but Sir Hugh Eose met the 
 new-comers, inflicted a severe defeat upon them, and the garri- 
 son, in a state of panic, evacuated their strong fort and fled. 
 This success was achieved on the 29th of January, and on the 
 ensuing day it was followed up by a victory on the Bina river. 
 The immediate consequence of these preliminary measures was 
 the relief of the garrison of Segore, which had been beleaguered 
 for eight months. One week later the strong fort of Garhakot, 
 which at an earlier period of the century had successfully 
 resisted the efforts of a large Anglo-Indian force, was evacuated 
 by its garrison. 
 
 The truly difficult part of the Central Indian campaign began 
 on the 26th of February with the second advance from Segore. 
 The capture of the fort of Barodia was the preliminary to the 
 attack on the naturally strong passes of Maltun and Madanpur, 
 and the English leader was only able to overcome the strenuous 
 opposition of the rebel leaders by a flanking movement. The 
 immediate results of this victory were very considerable, as 
 several strong forts, including the residence of the rebel leader 
 of Banpur, surrendered without resistance. This success was 
 supplemented by that of the second brigade, which, under the 
 command of Brigadier Stuart, captured the strong town of 
 Chandairi, that had been described as a place of splendour from 
 before the time of Akbar. The strongly-fortified town of Jhansi, 
 defended by its heroic Ranee, formed the next obstacle in his 
 path, and the capture of this place was one of the chief objects 
 of the campaign. 
 
 At the moment when he had arrived within fifteen miles of 
 Jhansi, a despatch was received by himself and Sir Robert 
 Hamilton from both Sir Colin Campbell and Lord Canning, 
 ordering him to postpone his march on Jhansi till he had 
 relieved a place called Chirkari, about eighty miles out of his 
 line of march. Sir Hugh Rose saw and protested against the 
 folly of the order, but as a soldier he felt bound to obey ; and 
 had not Sir Robert Hamilton accepted the whole blame and 
 responsibility in the matter, there is no doubt that the campaign 
 in Central India would have assumed a different complexion 
 from what it possesses in Indian history. The march on Jhansi 
 was continued, and on the 21st of March the small English
 
 282 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 force encamped outside that town. The position of Jhansi may 
 almost be called formidable, and on this occasion it was held by 
 a garrison of 11,000 men under the indomitable Ranee. Sir 
 Hugh Rose's force numbered only 1500 men, of whom about 
 one-third were English. The difficulty of the task was increased 
 by the fact that the large city, four miles and a half in circum- 
 ference, had to be taken before the fortress could be successfully 
 approached. The bombardment had gone on for about a week, 
 when the news arrived that a large relieving army was 
 approaching, and the report proved true. Tantia Topi, who 
 has been called the ablest of the rebel leaders, but who lacked 
 the courage to support his craft, had, after his defeat at 
 Cawnpore, raised a fresh force of 22,000 men, and with these 
 he hastened to relieve the bravest of his confederates, the Ranee 
 of Jhansi. 
 
 Under these circumstances most commanders would, at least, 
 have relaxed their attack on Jhansi until they had dealt with 
 the relieving army outside ; but Sir Hugh Rose redoubled his, 
 while with a chosen part of his small band he marched out to 
 encounter Tantia Topi. A desperate combat ensued, but the 
 very small English force, thanks to the skill of its leader in 
 attacking the flanks of his assailant, proved sufficient to drive 
 Tantia Topi's army from the field, with the loss of all its guns. 
 It may be confidently asserted that this feat has never been 
 surpassed in the annals of war. It was followed up by a still 
 more strenuous attack on Jhansi, which, notwithstanding the 
 strength of its garrison and the ability of its commandant, was 
 carried by assault on the 3rd of April. After the capture of 
 the palace and the destruction of several large bodies of troops, 
 the Ranee evacuated the fortress in the night and fled with her 
 bodyguard. 
 
 But, satisfactory as the capture of Jhansi was, the really 
 remarkable achievement was the defeat of Tantia Topi and his 
 22,000 men in the open field under the eyes of the defenders 
 of the town. The next and last object of the campaign was to 
 gain possession of Calpee, whither the Ranee had retired, and 
 which occupied an important strategical position on the Jumna 
 south-west of Cawnpore. It was nearly the end of April before 
 the English general approached the place where the Ranee and 
 Tantia Topi had again set up their standard. The battle of 
 Kunch proved a successful commencement for this later contest,
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN 283 
 
 and the skilful manner in which the rebels retired from a 
 disastrous field was no inappropriate precursor of the vigorous 
 and original tactics shown by them at Calpee a few days later. 
 The position of the rebels at that place was exceedingly strong, 
 being protected by a succession of ravines, and the mutineers 
 were the more desperate because they had no avenue of escape 
 north of the Jumna, which defended the town on one side. 
 
 In her straits the bold idea had occurred to the Ranee of 
 Jhansi to surprise her assailants by assuming the offensive. She 
 began with a feigned attack in one direction while she concen- 
 trated all her efforts in a real attack from the opposite quarter ; 
 but fortunately Sir Hugh Eose realised the plan, and succeeded 
 in baffling it. The combat proved extremely bitter, as the 
 rebels fought with great courage, and the day was only turned 
 by the English general bringing up and leading in person the 
 camel corps. Then the victory was complete, and the loss of 
 the ' mutineers was increased by their being driven into the 
 ravines which had constituted their chief defence. The capture 
 of Calpee was in a military sense of the highest importance, as 
 it deprived the rebels of their principal arsenal. With its fall 
 the Central Indian campaign was considered to have terminated, 
 and as it was momentarily thought that both Tantia Topi and 
 the Ranee had become fugitives without any followers, there 
 seemed no reason why the Central Indian Field Force should 
 not be disbanded. 
 
 Orders had, indeed, been issued to that effect, when the 
 startling intelligence arrived that the vanquished had by some 
 means gained possession of Gwalior, reputed to be the strongest 
 fort in India. The desperation of their fortunes suggested to 
 the Ranee, who was the bravest of the conspirators, the idea that 
 by seizing Gwalior and rousing the subjects of Scindiah all 
 might be retrieved. They proceeded to put their project into 
 execution with the least possible delay, and they found no 
 difficulty in overcoming the nominal resistance offered by 
 Scindiah's troops. When Sir Hugh Rose was on the eve of 
 quitting Calpee he learnt that those he had so recently defeated 
 were again in arms, that they had collected another army, and 
 gained a fresh arsenal and stronghold, and that one of the loyal 
 princes had been expelled from his capital. It was necessary to 
 again take the field. Technically speaking, Sir Hugh Rose was 
 without a command, but the gravity of the situation set techni-
 
 284 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 calities aside. He reassumed the command, and with all the 
 troops fit to take the field he advanced in the direction of 
 Gwalior. When he reached a place within a few miles of 
 Morar he was joined by Brigadier Robert Napier, the present 
 Lord Napier of Magdala. He then reconnoitred the rebel 
 position in that cantonment, and, notwithstanding its strength, 
 decided on an immediate attack, for, as he tersely expressed it 
 in his report, "a prompt attack has always more effect on the 
 rebels than a procrastinated one." 
 
 The battle of Morar, although marked by more than one 
 unfortunate contretemps, resulted in the complete defeat of the 
 Mahrattas, and the subsequent action at Kotah-ki-Serai com- 
 pleted the overthrow of the enemy. Perhaps the greatest result 
 attained by these successes was the removal of the formidable 
 Eanee of Jhansi, who, dressed as a man, was killed in the latter 
 of these engagements. All the writers on this period of the 
 Mutiny admit the ability and extol the courage of the Eanee. 
 Lord Strathnairn declared that "of all the men among the rebels 
 the Ranee was the best man of the lot." The attack on the 
 town of Gwalior, and its capture, in spite of a vigorous defence, 
 added another remarkable achievement to the list of those per- 
 formed ; and the campaign was brought to a glorious conclusion 
 by the capture of the rock citadel of Gwalior by two officers and 
 a mere handful of men. This summary of his Central Indian 
 campaign may be ended appropriately with an extract from his 
 final orders, in which he said : " Not a man in these forces 
 enjoyed his natural health or strength ; an Indian sun and 
 months of marching and broken rest had told on the strongest. 
 But the moment they were told to take Gwalior for their Queen 
 and country they thought of nothing but victory." The credit 
 of these brilliant successes must be shared with the troops who 
 fought them, but no one can dispute the generalship which won 
 the battle of Jhansi and carried the fortified positions at Calpee 
 and Gwalior. 
 
 These brilliant services were rewarded two years after the 
 recovery of Gwalior with the Indian Commander-in-Chiefship, 
 on the return of Lord Clyde, and when Sir Hugh came himself 
 to England in 1865 he was appointed to a similar post in 
 Ireland. He was raised to the peerage as Lord Strathnairn of 
 Jhansi in 1866, and eleven years later he received the much- 
 coveted bdton of a Field -Marshal. During the trying arrange-
 
 LORD STRATHNAIRN 285 
 
 merits connected with, the amalgamation of the Queen's and 
 Company's military services he displayed much tact and patience, 
 but he never again obtained the same opportunities of distinction 
 as fell to his share in 1858, and his military career may be 
 considered to have terminated on his retirement from the Irish 
 command in 1870. This must be attributed rather to necessity 
 than inclination, as he was to the last a keen observer of the 
 latest phases of the Eastern Question, including its new develop- 
 ment in Central Asia. The skill which he had shown in. an 
 independent command against the two ablest native leaders 
 produced by the Indian Mutiny, and under exceptionally 
 arduous circumstances, justified the prognostication that he 
 would worthily sustain the reputation he had won in leading 
 larger bodies of men on a more important field, and had the 
 Turco-Russian War of 1877-78 spread it is probable that he 
 would have been provided with the fresh opportunity he so 
 eagerly desired. But the occasion never came, and Lord 
 Strathnairn will live in military history, not for what he might 
 have done, but for what he actually accomplished in Central 
 India as Sir Hugh Rose. During the last twenty years Lord 
 Strathnairn has been known as a prominent member of society, 
 and as occasionally taking part in debates in the Upper House 
 on matters connected with India ; but there was little to remind 
 his acquaintances of later days of the energetic and intrepid 
 leader who carried the strongest fortresses in India by escalade, 
 and who routed in the field armies sometimes twenty times as 
 numerous as his own. His admirers will regret that his oppor- 
 tunity of distinguishing himself in command came so late in 
 life, and that it was never repeated ; and there will be no 
 difference of opinion as to the great qualities he displayed in 
 his Central Indian campaign.
 
 ME. FORSTER 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1886 
 
 IT is with the deepest regret that we record the fatal termina- 
 tion of Mr. Forster's long illness. By a strangely dramatic fate 
 he has been taken away in the very week which is to see the 
 introduction of measures of which, if he were alive and well, he 
 would be one of the most formidable opponents. His loss, which 
 would have been felt at any time, is felt all the more painfully 
 now. England mourns in him a strong and an honest man. 
 
 It is somewhat curious that Mr. Forster, who has for many 
 years been identified with Yorkshire, and who has been con- 
 sidered by so many as the typical West Yorkshireman, was not 
 really of Yorkshire birth. His .father was William Forster, a 
 member of an old Quaker family which had been long settled 
 at Tottenham, and his mother was Anna Buxton, sister of the 
 first Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. Both father and mother were 
 remarkable people. William Forster, who was born in 1784, 
 was throughout his life an example of that intense spirituality 
 which was and is the mark of the finer natures among the 
 Society of Friends. Without a particle of cant or hypocrisy, 
 he was, as his early journals show, given over from his boyhood 
 to good works and to seeking after perfection, as the Friends 
 understood it. He was intended to join his father in the busi- 
 ness of a land agent, but the attractions of the life of preacher 
 and teacher were too strong for him, and by the age of two-and- 
 twenty he was recognised as one who had devoted his life to 
 this work. His memoirs describe him as spending the next 
 ten years in travelling all over Great Britain " confirming the 
 churches."
 
 MR. FORSTER 287 
 
 In 1816 he married Anna Buxton. She, too, was a member 
 of the Society, but had not been brought up according to its 
 straitest sect. Her parents, who lived near Weymouth, had 
 encouraged her to see something of the world, and King George 
 III., who was a frequent visitor to the Dorset coast, distin- 
 guished the handsome and elegant girl with his especial notice. 
 But some time before her marriage she, too, became " serious," 
 and finding a kindred spirit in William Forster she joined 
 hands with him in 1816 in the Friends' meeting-house at 
 Shaftesbury. They settled at Bradpole, in Dorset, where 
 William Forster intended to devote himself to the duties of his 
 ministry. " Our cottage," he writes to a friend, " is a plainly- 
 built stone house with thatched roof and casement windows. 
 In front we have a neat fore-court, at the back a small orchard, 
 and at the other end I hope to make a good garden. The only 
 objection is the distance of one and a half mile from meeting." 
 
 In this cottage at Bradpole was born their only child, William 
 Edward Forster, on 1 1 th July 1818. He was brought up, as was 
 to be expected, in the beliefs and in the discipline of the Quaker 
 body, and, as has been so often the case with remarkable men, 
 his character received a strong and indelible impress from his 
 admirable mother. When the time came to send him to school 
 he went back to the family home at Tottenham and attended 
 the Friends' school. There he received and assimilated a good 
 and solid education, which in later years he largely supple- 
 mented by a careful study of wide departments of English 
 literature. On leaving school he was put into business, and in 
 due time became a manufacturer at Bradford, ultimately being 
 taken into partnership by Mr. William Fison, and becoming 
 joint owner of the great worsted and alpaca mill at Burley-in- 
 Wharfedale. 
 
 His first public act of importance was to accompany his 
 father on a visit to the famine-stricken districts of Connemara 
 in the winter of 1846-47, as distributor of the relief fund 
 collected by the Friends. Of the second part of this visit he 
 wrote an account which was printed at the time, and which not 
 only is one of the best descriptions of those terrible scenes that 
 have been preserved, but throws a strong light upon the writer's 
 character. " At Westport," he writes, " we saw a strange and 
 fearful sight, like what we read of in beleaguered cities." At 
 Leenane " I was struck by the pale, spiritless look of the boat-
 
 288 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 men, so different from their wild Irish fun when I went the 
 same excursion before." At the village of Cleggan " I was 
 quickly surrounded by a mob of men, women, and children, 
 more like famished dogs than fellow-creatures, whose looks and 
 cries all showed that they were suffering the ravening agony 
 of hunger." Then summarising the results of what he had 
 observed, he proceeds, " Like a scourge of locusts ' the hunger ' 
 daily sweeps over fresh districts, eating up all before it ; one 
 class after another is falling into the same abyss of ruin ;" and 
 he ends with the expression of his own deeply-felt practical 
 conclusion : " The result of our social system is that vast 
 numbers of our fellow-countrymen the peasantry of one of 
 the richest nations the world ever knew have not leave to 
 live. . . . No one of us can have a right to enjoy either riches 
 or repose until to the utmost of his ability he strive to wash 
 himself clean of all share in the guilt of such inequality." 
 
 The time was to come when the writer of these words 
 would have the opportunity of directing from a position of 
 authority a policy which should aim at making the recurrence 
 of such scenes impossible, and of doing as much as one man 
 could to strike at the root of the evils of Irish misgovernment. 
 The result to himself was that during two years of the most 
 single-minded and self-denying labours he was attacked more 
 fiercely and unscrupulously by the representatives of Ireland 
 than ever Chief Secretary had been attacked before, and that in 
 the end he was obliged to retire from office, because his col- 
 leagues would not consent to arm him with those exceptional 
 powers for the repression of disorder which two weeks later a 
 ghastly tragedy showed to be absolutely necessary. 
 
 Although Mr. Forster seems to have always looked forward 
 to a Parliamentary career, he did not for some time to come 
 take any active part in public affairs. In 1849 we find him 
 venturing into the field of literature. A new edition of Clark- 
 son's Life of William Penn was called for, and Mr. Forster 
 prefaced it by a long and very able defence of Penn against the 
 charges which had lately been levelled at his character by 
 Macaulay. It is curious that he should have entered the lists 
 in defence of the Quaker hero at the very moment when he was 
 about to leave the connection. 
 
 In 1850 he married Jane Martha, eldest daughter of the 
 late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, a lady whose high, clear intelligence
 
 MR. FORSTER 289 
 
 and lofty character proved in after years to be of the greatest 
 value to him throughout his political career. A marriage with 
 one who was not a Friend ipso facto excluded him from the 
 Society ; but that the formal excommunication was accompanied 
 with no bitterness and no loss of affection was evident from the 
 beginning. It is said that a little while after his marriage two 
 grave and reverend Quakers, commissioned by the Society, 
 called upon Mr. Forster to announce his expulsion ; that they 
 delivered themselves of their errand in dignified language, and 
 then shook hands and stayed to luncheon. From that time 
 Mr. Forster acted consistently as a member of the Church of 
 England, and, as every one remembers, at the time of the 
 education controversies the Dissenters commonly charged him 
 with being even too loyal to that Church. But he never 
 ceased to regard with a certain tenderness the Society in which 
 he had been brought up, and to continue on terms of closest 
 friendship with most of the prominent members of that dwind- 
 ling band. It may be added that some years after his marriage, 
 in 1859, his wife's youngest brother, William Delafield Arnold, 
 the brilliant young Director of Public Instruction in the 
 Punjab, died on his way from India, having lost his wife a few 
 months previously, and that, as they had no children of their 
 own, Mr. and Mrs. Forster at once adopted his two sons and 
 two daughters. 
 
 As his fortieth year approached Mr. Forster began to take 
 an active part in public affairs, and to speak and lecture in his 
 own neighbourhood. A lecture that he delivered in 1858 
 before the Leeds Philosophical Institution, " How we Tax 
 India," is worth reading even at the present day, if only as a 
 clear and painstaking r&umd of the statistics of the subject, 
 combined with an enlightened statement of Indian financial 
 policy. In the next year he came forward with Mr. Baines as 
 an advanced Liberal candidate for Leeds, but he was beaten 
 after a close contest by his Conservative opponent. The 
 numbers were : Baines, 2343 ; Beecroft, 2302 ; Forster, 2280. 
 The election showed that he was already highly esteemed in 
 the West Eiding, and it was not surprising that on a vacancy 
 occurring in the representation of Bradford, in 1861, he should 
 be invited to stand, and should be returned without opposition, 
 thus beginning that political connection with the town of 
 Bradford which continued without a break, although not without 
 
 VOL. Ill U
 
 290 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 an occasional difficulty, until the end of his life. The new 
 member pleased his constituents so well that he was again 
 returned without opposition at the general election of 1865. 
 In 1868 he was returned at the head of the poll in a contest in 
 which all the three candidates himself, Mr. Ripley, and the 
 late Mr. Edward Miall were Liberals, Mr. Miall's candidature 
 in this election being the first sign of the hostility with which 
 the more active section of the Nonconformists had come to 
 regard Mr. Forster. 
 
 Meantime he was working hard in Parliament, and gaining 
 very considerable position in the opinion both of the House 
 and of the country. He took an especially prominent part in 
 the discussions that were then being held as to the Civil War 
 in America and as to the duty of England at that crisis, and it 
 need hardly be said that the son of William Forster, who had 
 literally sacrified his life to the cause of Abolition, ranged him- 
 self from the outset on the Northern side. His platform 
 speeches on this subject were numerous, and we find him often 
 bringing it forward in Parliament, as when, in 1863, he vigor- 
 ously denounced the imprudence of allowing Alabamas to be 
 built in English dockyards. 
 
 Lord Palmerston's death in 1865 led to a reconstruction of 
 the Government under Earl Russell, the lead of the Lower 
 House being intrusted to Mr. Gladstone. It was at this time 
 that Mr. Forster first took office, becoming Under-Secretary for 
 the Colonies, with Mr. Cardwell for his chief. It was to the 
 large experience which he gained during his eight months of 
 office as Under-Secretary that Mr. Forster used to attribute 
 much of that deep interest in all colonial questions which filled 
 so large a part of his later life. His fondness for the Imperial 
 idea in its widest and truest sense, his desire that the England 
 of the future should be not one of many independent English- 
 speaking communities, but the centre of a vast federated 
 empire, had before this been half instinctive ; but from the 
 time of his service at the Colonial Office it became a matter of 
 reasoned conviction. It is only lately that the phrase " Im- 
 perial federation " has found its way into the ordinary political 
 vocabulary, but to Mr. Forster the idea, if not the expression, 
 was long ago familiar. 
 
 It is not a little curious to notice that when in 1875 he was 
 invited to deliver an address to the Edinburgh Philosophical
 
 MR. FORSTER 291 
 
 Institution he chose for his subject, " Our Colonial Empire." 
 The address is, in fact, a formal statement of the arguments 
 against separation and a formal answer to the arguments on the 
 other side which had captivated so many Liberals a few years 
 before, when stated by that brilliant master of paradox, Gold- 
 win Smith. " I believe," said Mr. Forster, " that our union 
 with our colonies will not be severed, because I believe that we 
 and they will more and more prize this union, and become 
 convinced that it can only be preserved by looking forward to 
 association on equal terms." The programme of colonial federa- 
 tion, as it is now understood both here and in the colonies, was, 
 in effect, laid down almost for the first time in that Edinburgh 
 address. 
 
 The session of 1866 was given over almost entirely to the 
 question of Parliamentary reform. The Government had to 
 fight, not only Mr. Disraeli and the Conservatives, but also the 
 body of still more dangerous enemies which had started up 
 amid their own ranks. In the end, as every one remembers, 
 the strength which Mr. Lowe and the Adullamites lent to the 
 Opposition proved fatal to Mr. Gladstone ; but this was not 
 before a series of debates had taken place which make the 
 oratorical mock combats of 1884 seem pale and shadowy. As 
 was to be expected, Mr. Forster took a valiant part in this 
 combat of heroes, his principal speech being delivered in the 
 great eight nights' debate on the second reading of the Bill. 
 A great part of it was devoted to a clear and manly statement 
 of his belief in the political capacity of the working classes as a 
 whole, and though his language was far less incisive than Mr. 
 Lowe's, though it was wanting both in fervid eloquence and in 
 epigrammatic point, it still had weight as the language of one 
 who spoke from his own experience and observation, and who 
 might be thoroughly depended upon for meaning what he said. 
 
 But, besides this, Mr. Forster's speech was interesting as 
 containing something like a political programme of his own. 
 He was not content to regard Parliamentary reform as an end 
 in itself. With that eye for the practical effect of measures for 
 which he was always remarkable, he looked forward to what 
 was to come after reform. "If I were looking," he said, 
 " merely to the interests of Radical reform, I should be very 
 easy about the result of this debate. The cause of Radical 
 reform will not suffer from the rejection of this Bill ; but we
 
 292 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 have other things to do besides extend the franchise. We want 
 to make Ireland loyal and contented ; we want to get rid of 
 pauperism in this country ; we want to fight against a class 
 which is more to be dreaded than the holders of a 7 franchise 
 I mean the dangerous class in our large towns. If we can 
 get into Parliament those who are more immediately above 
 them, we shall be able to legislate more efficiently for them. 
 We want to see whether we cannot make for the agricultural 
 labourer some better hope than the workhouse in his old age. 
 We want to have Old England as well taught as New 
 England." 
 
 The last words were prophetic, and if in the twenty years 
 that have elapsed since Mr. Forster used them England has 
 approached in the matter of elementary education to the 
 standard of America, it is to him more than to any other single 
 man that the change is due. Since 1870 Mr. Forster has had 
 work to do more personally perilous and more difficult than 
 the work of carrying an Education Bill, and as the reviled and 
 persecuted Chief Secretary for Ireland, he has, perhaps, filled a 
 larger place in the public eyes than he did as Vice- President of 
 the Council, but all the same the great work of his life and the 
 work by which history will chiefly remember him, was that of 
 carrying through the House of Commons the Bill which gave 
 England the first system of national elementary education that 
 was at all worthy of the name. The nickname of " Education 
 Forster," which used to be given him for some years after 1870, 
 expressed a truth that history will repeat. For some time 
 previously he had been endeavouring to touch the education 
 question practically. The whole country, indeed, had become 
 alive to the necessity of founding a national system of instruc- 
 tion for the poor, and all the world had begun to see that it 
 was nothing less than insanity to put the political destinies of 
 the country into the hands of the working classes without 
 taking what care one could that their children should be sent 
 to school. " We must induce our masters to learn their letters" 
 had been the memorable words of Mr. Lowe ; and Mr. Bernal 
 Osborne had expressed the feelings of the country when he said 
 that the Reform Bill had made it necessary to change Sir 
 Robert Peel's cry of " Register ! register ! register ! " into 
 " Educate ! educate ! educate ! " 
 
 Accordingly, after Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill had become
 
 MB. FORSTER 293 
 
 law, various bodies throughout the country began to take the 
 question of education seriously in hand. In a short time these 
 bodies concentrated themselves into two the Education Union, 
 which had its headquarters at Manchester, and the League, 
 which met at Birmingham. Characteristically enough, the 
 great difference between these two bodies was not strictly an 
 educational but a religious difference, the Union inclining to a 
 system which should preserve the various denominational 
 interests, especially that of the Church of England, and the 
 League endeavouring to protect the Dissenters against the 
 machinations of the Church by making all rate-aided education 
 secular. We shall see in a moment to what lengths the contest 
 proceeded after the Ministerial Bill had got fairly under way. 
 Mr. Forster and Mr. Cardwell being then in opposition and 
 merely private members brought in Education Bills in 1867 
 and 1868 ; not, of course, with the intention of carrying them, 
 but rather with the view of provoking discussion. 
 
 At last, in November 1868, the Liberal party found itself 
 returned to Parliament with a firm and compact majority, 
 pledged to the redress of many grievances and to a course of 
 what has been sometimes disrespectfully called " heroic legisla- 
 tion." Lord Russell announced his intention of retiring into 
 private life, and Mr. Gladstone became Premier, charged with 
 carrying out the mandates of the reformed constituencies. Mr. 
 Forster's claims to high office were admitted, and the nature of 
 the work to be assigned to him was shown by the fact that he 
 was appointed Vice-President of the Council, the main part of 
 his duties being identical with the work of a Minister of Educa- 
 tion. In the first session of the new Parliament Mr. Forster 
 was not called upon to take a very prominent part in the work of 
 the House, though he took his share in the animated debates on 
 the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Among the varied 
 functions of the Vice-President, as they then were, was included 
 the duty of looking after the cattle plague, so that not only the 
 work of superintending the collection of educational statistics 
 from all over the world, but also the duty of deciding between 
 rival methods of extirpating a cattle disease and that of recon- 
 ciling the claims of landowners and county ratepayers in assess- 
 ing damages were imposed, in true English fashion, upon a 
 Bradford manufacturer. The autumn of this year was spent in 
 preparing the Education Bill.
 
 294 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 The third week in February 1870 witnessed the introduction 
 of both of the measures which were to make the session 
 memorable. Mr. Gladstone brought in his Irish Land Bill on 
 15th February, and Mr. Forster followed two days later with his 
 Elementary Education Bill His speech on introducing the 
 measure was a much more important utterance than any that he 
 had hitherto made. It was singularly careful in form, it was 
 full of striking and easily apprehended details, it revealed a 
 profound study of all the intricacies of the question, it was con- 
 ciliatory in tone, and it was warmed throughout by a genuine 
 enthusiasm for the cause which the Minister had taken in hand. 
 The House was taken aback by the demonstration that, in a 
 country which professed to stand in the forefront of civilisation, 
 no less than 1,100,000 children were receiving no instruction 
 at all, and, moreover, that of those who did attend school a 
 very large number were irregular in their attendance, and were 
 in the habit of leaving before their twelfth year. In other 
 words, about one-quarter of the youth of England was growing 
 up without any education, and this at a time when our industrial 
 supremacy was already being seriously threatened by foreign 
 rivals, and when, as was to be shown beyond question a few 
 months later, the new methods of warfare were certain to place 
 military supremacy also in the hands of the best educated people. 
 
 Mr. Forster proceeded to ask the question, "How can we 
 cover the country with good schools ? " and he answered it in 
 the spirit which might have been expected from an English 
 Liberal Minister that is to say, he repudiated altogether the 
 idea of making the State, as such, directly responsible for the 
 provision of such schools, while reserving to it the right of 
 seeing that they were provided. -Where the existing schools 
 were adequate they were to be left practically alone ; where 
 they were inadequate their work was to be supplemented by 
 schools established through a new local authority. This local 
 authority was the School Board at that time a new creation 
 altogether, now one of the most familiar facts in our administra- 
 tion a body which was to be regularly elected, and which, 
 when elected, was to have the power of providing necessary 
 school accommodation, and of directing its own schools, subject, 
 of course, to the ultimate control of the Education Department. 
 Mr. Forster's first proposal was that the Boards should be 
 elected by the Town Councils or the Vestries, excepting in
 
 MR. FORSTER 295 
 
 London, where popular election was to be resorted to ; it is well 
 known that the method finally adopted was that of direct 
 popular election in all cases. 
 
 Thus far the Bill contained little that could be made matter 
 of controversy. But the real difficulty was to come, and, as is 
 always the case where elementary education is concerned, it 
 hinged upon religion. The strength and the bitterness of the 
 feeling aroused took quiet observers somewhat by surprise, but it is 
 not difficult to account for it. The Dissenters had had their 
 appetite whetted by a successful attack upon the Irish Church 
 Establishment, and they were in no mood to allow, without a 
 vigorous protest, the passing of a Bill which, as they thought, 
 would perpetuate the supremacy of the Establishment in Eng- 
 land. Moreover, they had calculated upon Mr. Forster's Quaker 
 training, and had regarded him as more one of themselves than 
 the event proved him to be. They were not satisfied with the 
 strong conscience clause contained in the Bill ; they believed 
 that any clergyman or manager who chose to do so could easily 
 set it aside. Above all, they regarded the famous " 25th 
 clause " as an insidious but most dangerous attack upon them- 
 selves the clause permitting School Boards to pay the fees of 
 needy children at denominational schools out of the rates. The 
 Nonconformist opposition to the Bill grew apace. 
 
 For a few days after the first reading nearly every newspaper in 
 the country was full of praise of Mr. Forster and of the new Bill, 
 but presently the Birmingham League settled down upon the 
 religious shortcomings of the measure, and around these there 
 speedily arose a controversy which by the time of the debate on 
 the second reading, on 14th March, had assumed most threatening 
 proportions. All the substantial gains of the measure, the 
 promise that it offered of putting English elementary education 
 on a level with that of the United States, or Holland, or Ger- 
 many, were forgotten, and, as Mr. Lowe happily said, Church 
 and Dissent began to behave like a fine herd of cattle in a large 
 meadow which had deserted the rich grass spread all around 
 them and had begun to fight desperately over a bed of nettles in 
 a corner. The opposition came to a point in an amendment 
 moved to the second reading by Mr. George Dixon, Liberal 
 member for Birmingham, and chairman of the Education 
 League, to the effect "that no measure for the elementary 
 education of the people could afford a permanent satisfactory
 
 296 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 settlement which left the important question of religious in- 
 struction to be determined by the local authorities." In other 
 words, the League desired Parliament should absolutely prohibit 
 all religious education in the Board schools a truly remarkable 
 aspiration on the part of a number of religious men, and only 
 to be explained on the supposition that, though the sects love 
 religion much, it is only, to adopt the words of a German 
 Volkslied, religion as they see her. 
 
 The Government having made the rejection of the amend- 
 ment a Cabinet question, Mr. Dixon withdrew it, and, when 
 the Bill went into Committee some three months later, the 
 Prime Minister announced that the Government was ready to 
 accept the amendment of Mr. Cowper-Temple, the effect of 
 which would be "to exclude from all rate-aided schools every 
 catechism and formulary distinctive of denominational creeds, 
 and to sever altogether the connection between the local School 
 Boards and the denominational schools, leaving the latter to 
 look wholly to the central grant for help." As a consequence 
 of this, the share of the total cost of education payable by the 
 central department, which had originally been fixed at one- 
 third, was raised to one-half, and it was on this basis that the 
 thorny question of religious education was settled. The Bill 
 passed without much further difficulty, in spite of the opposi- 
 tion of such Conservatives as Lord Eobert Montagu, the Dis- 
 senters led by Mr. Winterbotham, and that most redoubtable of 
 free lances he was not yet a member of the Government Mr. 
 Vernon Harcourt. The Bill passed, though Mr. Dixon declared 
 that the Government had roused the suspicion, distrust, and 
 indignation of some of their most earnest supporters, and though 
 Mr. Gathorne Hardy, in language still less measured, accused 
 them of " inaugurating a system of hypocrisy, treachery, and 
 baseness." Surely there never was a more signal instance of 
 "the falsehood of extremes." The invective of both classes of 
 irreconcilables was mercilessly poured out upon Mr. Forster, 
 but time was on his side, and here in 1886 we are able to sit 
 and contemplate a system of national education which, with all 
 its imperfections, has succeeded in " covering England with good 
 schools," and which, as experience has shown, leaves little room 
 for that struggle between Church and Dissent which, according 
 to the League and to Mr. Gathorne Hardy, was to make the 
 successful working of the measure impossible.
 
 MR. FORSTER 297 
 
 Mr. Forster's next important task was to carry the Ballot 
 BilL Introduced in 1871 and passed through the House of 
 Commons in July, this measure was rejected by the House of 
 Lords on the familiar ground that it came up too late for their 
 lordships to consider it adequately. The real truth was that the 
 House of Lords, having in the two previous sessions been forced 
 to swallow the Irish Church Bill and the Irish Land Bill, and 
 having in the session of 1871 been compelled to give up the 
 cherished principle of purchase in the army, determined to make 
 what stand they could against the ballot The only result was 
 to give Mr. Forster the trouble of doing his work all over again, 
 and to consume three valuable months of the session of 1872. 
 We have since that time become too painfully familiar with 
 obstruction to make anything of the kind surprising, but it 
 must be owned that the spectacle of the House spending three 
 months on the details of a Bill which it had passed the year 
 before is not a little curious. Mr. Forster, however, played his 
 hand well ; and it was generally admitted that his conduct of 
 the Bill in the teeth of the opposition of the whole Tory party, 
 as well as of malcontent Liberals like Mr. Vernon Harcourt, 
 showed great tactical ability. 
 
 We may pass very rapidly over the next eight years, during 
 the last six of which Mr. Forster was in opposition. He had 
 been returned for Bradford at the head of the poll in 1874, in 
 spite of the hostility of the Dissenters, who could not forgive 
 him the Education Act. He took in all the great debates of 
 the next few sessions the part that is expected of an Opposition 
 leader, and his political reputation stood so high that when, 
 early in 1875, Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of 
 the Liberal party, Mr. Forster was seriously spoken of as his 
 successor. He publicly declined, however, to be put in nomina- 
 tion, and the choice of the party fell upon Lord Hartington. 
 It is a curious and little known fact that at the preliminary 
 meeting held to decide what name should be submitted to the 
 party, all the aristocratic Whigs voted for Mr. Forster and all 
 the Kadical manufacturers for Lord Hartington. In the same 
 year Mr. Forster was elected an F.R.S., and later was chosen 
 Lord Rector of Aberdeen University, where he delivered an 
 interesting address in the beginning of 1876. Meantime foreign 
 affairs were looking threatening and the Eastern Question was 
 looming large. In the autumn Mr. Forster paid a visit to
 
 298 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Servia and Turkey, and on his return made a speech to his 
 constituents that had been anxiously waited for. Like many 
 other utterances of his, it was too moderate, too carefully 
 balanced, to please either party ; but the evident desire of the 
 speaker to come at the facts of the situation, the desire to see 
 and state the truth, made the speech perhaps more valuable 
 than many an address more passionate and popular. In the 
 subsequent debates in the House of Commons on the Eastern 
 Question, Mr. Forster, while agreeing generally with Liberal 
 opposition to Lord Beaconsfield's policy, took care never to 
 incur the reproach of want of patriotism. 
 
 Mr. Forster took his due share of the electoral campaign of 
 1880, and on the accession of Mr. Gladstone to power he was 
 appointed to the difficult and dangerous post of Chief Secretary 
 for Ireland, with Earl Cowper as Lord Lieutenant. His first 
 important duty was to introduce the Compensation for Dis- 
 turbance Bill, which was carried through the Commons, but 
 rejected in the Lords by the enormous majority of 282 to 51. 
 A few days after this defeat Mr. Forster made a moderate speech 
 in the Lower House, "deeply regretting" the loss of the 
 Compensation Bill, and appealing to the good sense and good 
 feeling of all classes in Ireland to help the Government in its 
 difficult task. But the excitement caused in Ireland by the 
 conduct of the Lords was great ; the Land League, which during 
 the whole of the spring and summer had been steadily extending 
 its power over the country, used the fate of the Disturbance 
 Bill as a fresh weapon of offence both against the landlords and 
 the Government ; the statistics of agrarian outrage became more 
 and more alarming week by week, and the despatch of additional 
 troops to Ireland within a fortnight of the Lords' decision bore 
 fresh witness to the seriousness of the situation. Meanwhile, 
 as the session dragged to its end, the Parliamentary difficulties 
 connected with the Government's Irish policy became more and 
 more marked ; the Irish members became more insolent and 
 unmanageable, and the Lords, by their rejection of the Irish 
 Registration Bill, provoked an indignant protest on the part of 
 the Irish Secretary against the " contemptuous indifference " 
 shown by the Peers to the wishes and demands of the repre- 
 sentatives of the people. 
 
 A few weeks later Mr. Forster was in residence at the Chief 
 Secretary's Lodge in the Phoenix Park, there to pass the gloomy
 
 MR. FORSTER 299 
 
 autumn and winter of 1880-81. The ghastly murder of Lord 
 Mountmorres in the last week of September made a fitting 
 prelude to the outburst of crime and savagery with which the 
 Irish Executive had to contend during those long winter months. 
 The leading events of the time are fresh in the memory of us 
 all the growth of the Land League " terror " ; the impunity 
 enjoyed by the murderous " village tyrant " whom no witness 
 would accuse and no jury convict ; the incendiary speeches of 
 the Land League agitators ; the sinister and well-founded 
 rumours of dissensions in the Cabinet which gathered strength 
 during the recess ; the courageous but abortive State Trials by 
 which the Irish Executive endeavoured to grapple with an 
 organisation much too strong for any such cumbrous and 
 antiquated methods of repression as they were alone able to 
 employ. Through it all Mr. Forster showed the most inde- 
 fatigable energy and devotion. The actual physical labour 
 of the life was enormous ; the actual physical risks of it, as 
 everybody but himself was aware, were great. But his strong 
 constitution, his unbounded power of work, and a personal 
 nerve and courage which was instinctive and part of the man's 
 fundamental constitution, never failed him. The sorely-tried 
 and hard-worked officials about him, though they might often 
 criticise his decisions, were soon full of admiration for his 
 personal quality and spirit, while his liking for the Irish 
 character and his enjoyment of whatever could be enjoyed in 
 the Irish life were of the greatest use in maintaining his own 
 cheerfulness and that of those about him during one of the 
 severest struggles ever waged by a Government. 
 
 Parliament assembled on the 6th of January, nearly a month 
 before the usual time, the reason for the early meeting being 
 the state of Ireland. The debate on the Address lasted for ten 
 nights. At last, on the 24th of January, Mr. Forster rose to 
 introduce the Bill which had been announced in the Queen's 
 Speech, the Bill for granting "additional powers necessary in 
 the Queen's judgment, not only for the vindication of order and 
 public law, but likewise to secure on behalf of her subjects 
 protection for life and property and personal liberty of action." 
 Mr. Forster's speech, which made a great impression on the 
 House and the country, was a plain, unvarnished statement of 
 the dreary truth that agrarian outrages had increased to an 
 extent which made it inevitable for the Government to claim
 
 300 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 new powers unless it was to abdicate its functions altogether. 
 " The chief characteristic of these outrages," said Mr. Forster, 
 " is intimidation, and the object is obedience to certain com- 
 mands, especially commands not to take farms and not to pay 
 rent, which have been issued by the Land League. Their 
 effect is fear and terror, and submissive obedience to these 
 orders of the Land League." Towards the end of his speech 
 Mr. Forster uttered some words which those who knew his 
 character felt to be spoken from his heart. "This," he said, 
 "has been the most painful duty I ever had to perform. I 
 never expected it, and if I had thought that this duty would 
 have devolved on me, I certainly should not have been Irish 
 Secretary. Indeed, I think I may go further, and say that if I 
 had foreseen that this would have been the result of twenty 
 years of Parliamentary life, I think I should have left Parlia- 
 mentary life alone. But," he added, " I never was more clear 
 in my life as to the necessity of a duty." 
 
 The Bill was carried, and received the royal assent early in 
 March, but it need hardly be said that it did not pass the House of 
 Commons without the most strenuous opposition, direct and in- 
 direct, from the Irish party. Every device that their newly-de- 
 veloped genius for obstruction could suggest was put in practice ; 
 every opportunity was taken of arguing at great length questions 
 that were only remotely connected with Ireland, and of prolonging 
 the debate upon the Irish Bill till the patience of the House and 
 the country were alike exhausted. In the end, however, the 
 Government got its way, and Mr. Forster was able to exert those 
 powers which it had cost him so much to ask for. The main 
 provision of the Act, and the point in which it chiefly differed 
 from the Crimes Act of the following year, was that it enabled 
 the Irish Government to arrest without trial persons "reasonably 
 suspected " of crime or conspiracy. 
 
 In a short time some 900 men were imprisoned under this 
 clause, for Mr. Forster and his advisers firmly believed that it 
 was only by widespread action of this kind that the active 
 agents of the League terrorism could be restrained. It is 
 possible that among the 900 suspects there may have been a 
 small number of men who were innocent of outrage, and even 
 of active incitement to outrage ; but to represent the matter, as 
 the Land League orators and some Radicals in England were 
 fond of doing, in the light of an odious and vindictive assertion
 
 MR. FORSTER 301 
 
 of force in order to silence mere political opponents, is simply 
 to state what is false. The mass of men imprisoned were those 
 " village ruffians " of whom Mr. Forster had spoken in Parlia- 
 ment, men of bad character in every way ; men who were 
 positively known to the police to have been either concerned in 
 outrage or to be plotting outrage ; men like the murderers of 
 Lord Ardilaun's bailiffs, and men of another class, who confined 
 their activity to secret incitements to murder. 
 
 The Protection Act became law on 2nd March. By the end 
 of March some thirty or forty men had been arrested "on 
 reasonable suspicion" of complicity in outrage or intimidation. 
 April was marked by the fiery speeches of Mr. Dillon, who 
 seemed to have been driven into frenzy by the first batch of 
 arrests, and who was himself lodged in Kilmainham Gaol early 
 in May in consequence of a series of inflammatory harangues, 
 such as no Government, under the circumstances, could have 
 allowed to go on unchecked. In June Mr. Foster had to meet 
 a first attack upon his administration of the new Act an attack 
 which was conducted with the most passionate hostility on the 
 part of the Parnellites, and was followed by a still fiercer 
 onslaught two months later. Meanwhile the Irish Secretary 
 hurried backwards and forwards from London to Dublin, 
 responsible in Ireland for the whole conduct of the campaign 
 against crime and anarchy, and charged in London with the 
 heavy and monotonous task of defending every act of Irish 
 administration against the onslaughts of a body of men whose 
 chief object in life at that moment was the harassing of Mr. 
 Forster. 
 
 The Irish "questions" of 1881 were, perhaps, the leading 
 feature of the Parliamentary year. They were the chief means 
 which the Irish members enjoyed of at once baiting the Chief 
 Secretary and attracting the attention of their sympathisers in 
 Ireland and America, and they used them to the utmost. An 
 Irish member of the present day is reported to have said that 
 the Irish party would remain unmanageable in Parliament until 
 they were confronted with a Chief Secretary possessing " the 
 heart of an iceberg and the hide of a rhinoceros." Certainly 
 these qualifications, whatever might be his courage and strength, 
 were not qualifications of Mr. Forster. The " questions " told 
 upon him, as later on they told, in due process of time, upon 
 Mr. Trevelyan. His scrupulous conscientiousness, his over-
 
 302 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 anxious desire to meet every lawful claim, availed him nothing 
 with his antagonists. There was something in his rugged English 
 personality which after a time roused the special antipathy of 
 the Irish benches, and with each month that passed the strain 
 upon nerve and faculty, both in and out of the House, became 
 constantly more intense. During this harassing summer, too, 
 Mr. Forster was not only administering the Protection Act with 
 one hand and protecting the administration of it with the other 
 against the incessant attacks of the Parnellites ; he was also 
 taking an active part in the intricate Land Bill debates, the 
 interest of the labourers under the Bill being at one or two 
 points specially entrusted to him. 
 
 When Parliament rose in September there was no rest for 
 the Chief Secretary. The months that followed were some of 
 the most arduous and eventful of any in his memorable term of 
 office. On 13th October, at the Guildhall, Mr. Gladstone an- 
 nounced the arrest of Mr. Parnell, an arrest followed by those 
 of Messrs. Sexton, Quinn, O'Kelly, O'Brien, and others, and 
 finally by the suppression of the Land League as an illegal and 
 treasonable association. It was on the 20th of October that 
 the League was suppressed by proclamation, and two days 
 before the Dublin Correspondent of the Times reported : " Mr. 
 Forster drove in his brougham to the Castle under an escort of 
 mounted police. This is the first time he has been so protected." 
 Thenceforward, until his resignation in the following May, the 
 Chief Secretary was in constant personal danger of a more or less 
 urgent kind. 
 
 Nothing happened during the early months of 1882 to vary 
 the history of Mr. Forster's Irish administration. The principal 
 "suspects" were still in prison, and the Assistant-Commissioners 
 were working the Land Act in different parts of the country, to 
 the small satisfaction of the landlords. Outrages continued, 
 though not in so great a number as in the previous year. At 
 last, early in March, Mr. Forster took the bold step of personally 
 visiting some of the worst districts, and at Tullamore he 
 addressed a crowd from a window of the hotel. The subject of 
 his speech was the outrages, and he denounced the people for 
 the want of moral courage which prevented them from combining 
 to say, "We don't choose to be threatened, we don't choose to be 
 bullied." He urged the people of Ireland to help the Government; 
 but, he added, " whether you do so or not it is the duty of the
 
 MR. FORSTER 303 
 
 Government to stop the outrages ; and stop them we will." 
 The courage shown in thus venturing into the country unpro- 
 tected was fully appreciated in England, and even in Ireland Mr. 
 Forster's " pluck " obtained its meed of admiration. 
 
 But it was not till the revelations of Carey and others at the 
 Phoenix Park trials that the extent of his personal danger, then 
 and at all times during this winter and spring, was fully under- 
 stood. From that evidence it appeared that the " Invincibles " 
 had marked him down for destruction ; that several attempts 
 upon his life had been organised ; and that they had only been 
 frustrated by a series of the merest accidents. On one occasion 
 the appointed signal failed to be given ; on another, Mr. Forster's 
 intending murderers were waiting for him at the railway 
 station, and actually looked into the carraige where his wife and 
 adopted daughter were sitting, while he had unintentionally 
 escaped them by driving over to Kingstown. 
 
 The time of trial, disappointment, and danger was however 
 about to close. On Tuesday, 2nd May, Mr. Gladstone announced 
 that Lord Cowper and Mr. Forster had resigned their positions 
 as Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary, and that it was the in- 
 tention of the Government forthwith to release Messrs. Parnell, 
 Sexton, and O'Kelly from Kilmainham. On the following 
 Thursday Mr. Forster made a memorable speech in the House of 
 Commons, explaining the reasons of his resignation. Stated 
 shortly, they were that one of the following three conditions 
 was, in his view, indispensable to the release of the prisoners 
 " a public promise on their part, Ireland quiet, or the acquisi- 
 tion of fresh powers by the Government." The promise had 
 not been given, Ireland was not quiet, and the Cabinet would 
 consent to ask for no fresh powers. Therefore, with great re- 
 luctance, Mr. Forster resigned, and Lord Cowper with him, to 
 be succeeded by Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish. 
 What happened on the following Saturday in the Phoenix Park 
 has burnt itself into the memory of England. The new Chief 
 Secretary, who had that day landed, bringing a message of peace 
 to Ireland, was murdered with Mr. Burke by the same gang 
 who had so often sought Mr. Forster's life. This was on 6th May; 
 on llth May Sir William Harcourt brought in the Prevention 
 of Crimes Bill ; and on 1 2th May Mr. Forster addressed his con- 
 stituents at Bradford, and added to the explanation of his 
 position which he had already given. " I left the Government,"
 
 304 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 he said, " with the greatest possible pain, because I could not 
 believe that it was a wise or, under the circumstances, a right 
 thing to release the three members of Parliament without having 
 reasonable belief that they would not or could not, when they 
 were released, do the things for which we had to shut them up." 
 
 That, however, the three members had not been released 
 without some kind of arrangement, understanding, or whatever 
 vaguer word may be chosen, became evident soon after from the 
 debates in Parliament on what was known as the Kilmainham 
 Treaty. It is not necessary to reopen the controversies to 
 which that famous understanding gave rise. Enough to say 
 that Mr. Parnell wrote from Kilmainham to Captain O'Shea on 
 28th April a letter, in which he stated that, if the arrears 
 question were settled upon the lines indicated by himself and 
 his friends, he " had every confidence a confidence shared by 
 his colleagues that the exertions which they would be able to 
 make strenuously and unremittingly would be effective in 
 stopping outrages and intimidation of all kinds." The letter 
 was read in the House of Commons, but not absolutely as it had 
 been written. A sentence was omitted in which Mr. Parnell 
 said that the accomplishment of the programme he had sketched 
 out would " enable him to co-operate cordially for the future 
 with the Liberal party in forwarding Liberal principles ; " and, 
 unfortunately for the party, it was only by the intervention of 
 Mr. Forster himself that this significant and damaging sentence 
 became public. It may be imagined that the love which was 
 felt for him by the thorough-going partisans among the Liberals 
 did not become any the warmer after this episode. But those 
 who saw in Mr. Forster's intervention a desire to avenge himself 
 upon the party which had deserted him totally misunderstood 
 his character. Here, as in the hundred other instances, he took 
 the step complained of because he thought that truth was more 
 important than a momentary party advantage. 
 
 The passing of the Crimes Act, which was not accomplished 
 without considerable difficulty, and the passing of the Arrears 
 Act marked the termination of the next stage of Irish policy. 
 Mr. Trevelyan was installed at the Chief Secretary's lodge, and 
 one of the few faults that the country had to find with his 
 administration of the new Acts was that he was a little too slow 
 to recognise the fact that it was Mr. Forster who had borne the 
 burden and heat of the day. Mr. Forster himself took advan-
 
 MR. FORSTER 305 
 
 tage of his hard-earned leisure to recruit his health, and during 
 the autumn of 1882 he appeared little in public. But the 
 following winter brought him once more very prominently into' 
 notice, for the revelations of Farrell and Carey at the Dublin 
 trials brought home to the mind of the country how unrelenting 
 had been the conspiracies against his life and how constant his 
 danger. His popularity, especially in the north, was greatly 
 increased, and he could not show his face, whether at Leeds and 
 Bradford, or at busy Whitehaven or quiet Ambleside, without 
 receiving an ovation. The meeting of Parliament was marked 
 by a debate on the Address of unprecedented length and bitter- 
 ness, the most notable episode in which was the tremendous 
 attack delivered by Mr. Forster upon Mr. Parnell and the Land 
 League. It is a curious instance of the difference in point of 
 effect between facts and charges printed in a pamphlet, and the 
 same facts and charges urged in Parliament by a prominent 
 politician, that the statements made in the pamphlet The 
 Truth about the Land League had been for a long time before 
 the public, and had made comparatively little impression, but 
 that when Mr. Forster took them up and drove them home in 
 the House of Commons the whole country rang with them. 
 Quoting many violent speeches by Messrs. Brennan, Boyton, 
 Sheridan, and Redpath, all men of high authority in the League, 
 and then quoting many passages from United Ireland, of which 
 Mr. Parnell and Mr. Justin McCarthy were part proprietors, 
 Mr. Forster proceeded : 
 
 "I will repeat again what the charge is which I make 
 against the hon. member for Cork. Probably a more serious 
 charge was never made by any member of this House against 
 another member. It is not that he himself directly planned or 
 perpetrated outrages or murders, but that he either connived at 
 them or when warned " 
 
 At this point Mr. Parnell broke in with the words " It is a 
 lie ! " Mr. O'Kelly shouted out the same sentence three times, 
 and was, consequently, suspended. But the member for Cork 
 attempted no answer at the time. Some hours afterwards he 
 moved the adjournment of the debate, and next day, in the 
 presence of a House crowded to suffocation, he delivered his 
 reply, which was no reply, but, instead, one of those bitter 
 attacks upon Mr. Forster's administration of which the House 
 had heard so many and was to hear so many more. With this 
 
 VOL. Ill X
 
 306 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 incident we may leave Mr. Forster's connection with Ireland, 
 for nothing that occurred later was of equal importance. 
 
 The other public questions with which he most identified 
 himself during this and the next two sessions were those of the 
 colonies and Egypt. In his views on colonial questions he had, 
 as we have said already, always agreed with those who advocate 
 a close union between the mother -country and the British 
 settlements beyond sea. Accordingly it was not surprising that 
 he should be among the first to take up and actively to favour 
 the plans of the Imperial Federation League. He presided at 
 several of its meetings, he spoke and wrote in its favour, and 
 during these years he constantly acted as a kind of unofficial 
 guide and champion to all leading colonists who were endeavour- 
 ing to bring the colonies into a nearer relation with England. 
 
 The South African problem was the special object of his 
 study. An inherited interest in the welfare of the black races 
 combined with a profound distrust of the Boers, a respect for 
 treaties, and a belief in the governing capacities of Englishmen 
 to make him support all measures that promised to ensure 
 British rule over the black tribes. He was strongly in favour 
 of Mr. Mackenzie's appointment as Resident in Bechuanaland 
 and of Sir Charles Warren's expedition. As regards Egypt, too, 
 he was among the strongest advocates of the policy of accepting 
 our engagements and not shrinking from responsibility. His 
 attitude towards the Liberal Goverment on this question was, 
 all through 1883, 1884, and up to the fall of Khartoum, an 
 attitude of severe criticism. On each of the votes of censure in 
 1884 he spoke condemning the vacillation and delay which had 
 marked the government policy as regards the Soudan, declaring 
 that " the battle of Tel-el-Kebir ought not to have been fought " 
 unless we were prepared to take the consequences, and scouting 
 the notion of governing an Oriental nation by means of good 
 advice. But during that session Mr. Forster never went so far 
 as to vote against the Government. His part of "candid 
 friend" was, he thought, sufficiently well played if he spoke 
 against their past policy, but gave them the benefit of the doubt 
 for the future. But in 1885, after the fall of Khartoum, he 
 once joined Mr. Goschen in recording his vote against them. 
 This was on the 27th February, after the debate on Sir Stafford 
 Northcote's motion, when the Government were only saved by 
 fourteen votes.
 
 MR. FORSTER 307 
 
 Mr. Forster took a prominent part in the debates on the 
 County Franchise Bill, always speaking and voting in favour of 
 the measure ; and he attended the great open-air meeting at 
 Leeds on 6th October 1884, in condemnation of the action of 
 the House of Lords. He was, in fact, a consistent supporter of 
 the widening of the franchise ; but of the peculiar development 
 of democracy known as the Caucus he was an equally consistent 
 opponent. In the early days of Mr. Chamberlain's Liberal 
 federation he had a sharp passage of arms with the newly- 
 constituted Liberal association of Bradford, and flatly refused to 
 submit his claims to represent the constituency to them for 
 approval. The soreness thus created never wholly disappeared, 
 though Mr. Forster continued to command the confidence both 
 of all the moderate Liberals of the upper classes and of the 
 great majority of the workmen. The Eedistribution Act broke 
 up Bradford into three divisions, and consequently Mr. Forster 
 had to take his farewell of the united constituency. This he 
 did in a striking speech delivered in the Bradford Town Hall 
 on the 1st of last August ; and on the dissolution he became a 
 candidate for the central division of the borough. After some 
 difficulties with the Liberal association he was accepted by them 
 as candidate, and at the election when he unfortunately lay 
 sick at his house in Eccleston Square received the support of 
 the party against a Conservative opponent. His success was 
 never in doubt, and he was returned in his absence by a majority 
 of over 1500. Unhappily, he was never able to take his seat 
 in the new Parliament, for the creation of which he had worked 
 so hard, and his presence in which woiild have been so highly 
 valued by the country.
 
 COUNT BEUST 
 LEADING ARTICLE, MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1886 
 
 AT a critical moment in the development of the Eastern Question, 
 and amid events which may at any moment force the most 
 important decisions upon the statesmen of Austria-Hungary, we 
 have to chronicle the somewhat sudden death of the man who, 
 more than any other, is identified with the existing constitution 
 and the actual position of the Dual Monarchy. Count Frederick 
 Ferdinand von Beust was born in January 1809, and was conse- 
 quently far advanced in hia seventy-eighth year. Since May 
 1882, when he retired from the post of Austrian Ambassador in 
 Paris, and also from the diplomatic service of his country, he 
 has not figured prominently upon the political stage. On that 
 occasion the Emperor Francis Joseph addressed to his old servant 
 a graceful letter, recognising and warmly thanking him for the 
 distinguished services he had rendered to Austria, especially 
 during the eventful years when, as Chancellor of the Empire 
 and Minister for Foreign Affairs, he directed the immense 
 changes necessitated by the crushing disasters of the Seven 
 Weeks' War. 
 
 The Austrian public apparently have short memories for 
 services of the kind, for our Vienna Correspondent relates that 
 when last he saw Count Beust he complained that, on the 
 anniversary of Austrian constitutionalism, he had not received 
 a single acknowledgment of the great part he played in liberal- 
 ising Austrian institutions and reconstituting the shattered 
 monarchy. Gratitude in this case is, however, inevitably 
 alloyed with other feelings. The man who welds together, 
 however skilfully, nationalities which refuse to amalgamate,
 
 COUNT BEUST 309 
 
 cannot in the nature of things obtain that hearty and enthusiastic 
 recognition which belongs to one who like Prince Bismarck effects 
 the unification of a people. Austria and Hungary, although 
 yoked together, maintain their individual interests, which are 
 so far from being identical that the points in Count Beust's 
 work which commend themselves most to one may be precisely 
 those which are most grudgingly acquiesced in by the other. 
 There is considerable difference of opinion, as our Correspondent 
 reminds us, not only between Austrians and Hungarians, but 
 between Austrians and Austrians, as to whether the means 
 employed by the Chancellor were the best that could have been 
 devised. His answer would probably have been that they were 
 the only ones open to him. The Hungarians led by Francis 
 D6ak were not in a very tractable mood, and were much more 
 concerned to obtain the concessions dictated by a somewhat 
 irritable and exigent patriotism than to co-operate dispassionately 
 for the construction of a new political entity. The difficulties 
 of the task were enormous, and, whatever judgment may be 
 passed on its execution in the light of after knowledge, it is 
 probable that as Count Beust was the only man capable of 
 accomplishing it, so was the way he actually chose the only 
 one possible in the circumstances. 
 
 As a Saxon Minister, Count Beust had played a distinguished 
 part in European politics and had made himself a brilliant 
 reputation when the battle of Sadowa destroyed at a blow the 
 whole political stage on which he worked. The great blemish 
 of his career is that he totally failed to divine the nature of the 
 upheaval that was being prepared at Berlin. The permanence 
 of the Germanic Confederation appeared to him so necessary and 
 so satisfactory that up to the very moment of its final disappear- 
 ance he laboured assiduously for its maintenance. Beside 
 Austria and Prussia, whose accustomed relationship seemed 
 part of the order of the universe, it was his dream to construct a 
 third and independent power, consolidated out of the remaining 
 German States. 
 
 It was Prince Bismarck's great merit and his strength that 
 he saw clearly the past, present, and the inevitable futility of the 
 attempt to bind these jealous and irresponsible States into any 
 kind of solid unity by mere parchments. The long primacy of 
 Austria had left Germany a geographical expression and made 
 the fields of the Fatherland the battle-ground of foreign intrigues.
 
 310 EMINENT PERSONS 
 
 Prince Bismarck saw that salvation could be found only in a 
 totally new organisation, knit together mit Blut und Eisen, and 
 he saw, too, that Prussia alone was in a position to secure it. 
 Count Beust saw neither the need nor the possibility, nor did he 
 ever realise the displacement of effective authority brought about 
 by the labours of the series of Prussian statesmen who, on the 
 morrow of Jena, began the work of reconstructing their country. 
 Hence we find him in 1864 endeavouring, as representative of 
 the Bund, to control the settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein 
 difficulty at the London Conference, and two years later, when 
 that obscure and thorny question issued in war between Austria 
 and Prussia, he was engaged in marshalling the forces of Saxony 
 to take part with the Kaiser. A peremptory demand from 
 Berlin for a statement of his intentions was followed in two 
 days by the occupation of the Saxon capital, and the 30,000 
 Saxon troops who started to join the Austrians in Bohemia 
 shared in the crushing defeat of Benedek. In a few days the 
 whole political edifice wherein Beust had been born, had lived 
 and worked, and to the maintenance of which he had un- 
 doubtingly given his great abilities, had crumbled about his 
 ears. There was no longer a Confederation ; there was hardly 
 even an Austria. Germany lay at the feet of Prince Bismarck, 
 and the occupation of the Saxon Minister was gone. 
 
 Such a blow was hard to bear and hard to forgive. For 
 ten years Count Beust had been the foremost antagonist of 
 the great statesman whose daring conceptions were realised with 
 such tremendous completeness, and the chief exponent of a 
 theory of German political life which vanished like a dream. 
 It is not, perhaps, wonderful that he never could forgive Prince 
 Bismarck, or that he failed to do justice to the great qualities 
 which brought about his own discomfiture. But this over- 
 powering calamity was really the beginning of his own greatness. 
 Fighting a lost cause and championing an impossible idea, his 
 labour was doomed to sterility ; yet to that cause and that idea 
 he would doubtless have remained faithful to the end. The 
 Seven Weeks' War virtually decided in about as many days 
 freed him from the trammels of an overmastering prepossession, 
 and transferred him to a sphere in which his great constructive 
 abilities found play. 
 
 He was called to Vienna to reconstruct the shattered Monarchy 
 of the Hapsburgs, and in the performance of that task he found
 
 COUNT BEUST 311 
 
 the opportunity to build up a solid reputation and to leave his 
 mark upon the politics of Europe. In Saxony he had been a 
 Reactionary, or at the lowest a very Conservative Minister. 
 In Austria he recognised as promptly as if to the manner born 
 that safety could be found only in extensive and far-reaching 
 Liberal reconstruction. He made great concessions to the 
 Hungarians, got the Emperor crowned King of Hungary at 
 Pesth, and then set to work with equal energy and enlighten- 
 ment to reorganise the whole internal polity of the Empire. 
 The removal of religious disabilities, the separation of Church 
 and State, the abrogation of the Concordat of 1855, the establish- 
 ment of civil marriage, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, 
 and the relaxation of the stringent Press laws formerly in force 
 were among the measures due to his exertions. He was not less 
 careful to reorganise the finances of the Empire and to provide 
 for its defence. 
 
 For all this part of his work the Austrians owe him a deep 
 debt of gratitude ; and his claims would be higher still could 
 he have succeeded in throwing off with his Saxon Conservatism 
 his prejudices in foreign politics. But he could never bring 
 himself to be quite cordial towards Germany, and, while dis- 
 claiming all idea of revenge, he favoured an alliance with France 
 in 1870, and at least once declined distinct overtures of alliance 
 from Berlin. In 1871 he resigned his post as Chancellor, 
 undoubtedly because it was felt that he was not the man to 
 cultivate those cordial relations with Germany which are 
 essential to Austria's wellbeing, if not to her very existence. 
 He became Ambassador to England, and subsequently to France, 
 but his career as a statesman may be said to have closed when 
 he gave place to Count Andrassy. The political structure he 
 reared is now undergoing a strain of extreme severity, and his 
 successors have to tread a path in which pitfalls are numerous, 
 but the difficulties of the Dual Monarchy must be regarded as 
 inherent in the nature of the materials with which he had to 
 deal rather than as due to the arrangements of Count Beust. 
 
 END OF VOLUME IIL
 
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 SCIENTIFIC LECTURES AND 
 
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 LITERARY AND GENERAL LEC- 
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 THE HERMITS. 
 
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 GOOD NEWS OF GOD. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTA- 
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 DISCIPLINE, AND OTHER SER- 
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 WESTMINSTER SERMONS. 
 
 ALL SAINTS' DAY, AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 
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 TALES OF OLD TRAVEL. 
 
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 REUBEN SACHS. 
 
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 MRS. LORIMER. 
 
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 TALES OF OLD JAPAN. Illustrated. 
 
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 SPECTA TOR " Mr. Christie Murray has more power and genius for the delineation of 
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 SA TURD A y REVIEW" Few modern novelists can tell a story of English country 
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 JOHN VALE'S GUARDIAN. THE WEAKER VESSEL. 
 
 HE FELL AMONG THIEVES. By D. C. MURRAY and H. HERMAN. 
 
 Uniform ivitA the above. 
 THE NEW ANTIGONE : A ROMANCE. 
 
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 ACADEMY " At her best she is, with one or two exceptions, the best of living English 
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 A BELEAGUERED CITY. | JOYCE. 
 NEIGHBOURS ON THE GREEN. 
 KIRSTEEN. | HESTER. 
 
 HE THAT WILL NOT WHEN HE MAY. 
 
 THE RAILWAY 
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 MAN AND HIS 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR.
 
 By W. CLARK RUSSELL. 
 
 TIMES " Mr. Clark Russell is one of those writers who have set themselves to revive 
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 JOHN INGLESANT. 
 SIR PERCIVAL. 
 
 THE LITTLE SCHOOLMASTER MARK. 
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 MISS BRETHERTON. 
 
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 LEAVES OF A LIFE. | LATER LEAVES. 
 
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 HEARTSEASE. 
 
 HOPES AND FEARS. 
 
 DYNEVOR TERRACE. 
 
 THE DAISY CHAIN. 
 
 THE TRIAL: MORE LINKS OF THE 
 
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 PILLARS OF THE HOUSE. Vol. I. 
 PILLARS OF THE HOUSE. Vol. II. 
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 THE CLEVER WOMAN OF THE 
 
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 LADY HESTER, AND THE DANVERS 
 
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 MAGNUM BONUM. 
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 NUTTIE'S FATHER. 
 
 SCENES AND CHARACTERS. 
 
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 BYE-WORDS. 
 
 BEECHCROFT AT ROCKSTONE. 
 
 MORE BYWORDS. 
 
 A REPUTED CHANGELING. 
 
 THE LITTLE DUKE. 
 
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 THE PRINCE AND THE PAGE. 
 
 P's AND Q's AND LITTLE LUCY'S 
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 THE TWO PENNILESS PRIN- 
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 THAT STICK. 
 
 AN OLD WOMAN'S OUTLOOK. 
 
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 SEEKERS AFTER GOD. 
 
 ETERNAL HOPE. 
 
 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO 
 
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