THE LETTERS
LORD BLACHFORD
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LETTERS
OF
FREDERIC LORD BLACHFORD
PRINTED BY
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LETTERS
OF
UNDER -SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES
1860-1871
EDITED BY
GEORGE EDEN MARINDIN
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1896
PREFACE
IN putting together the following collection of letters one
object has been that the book should contain as little as
possible besides the letters themselves ; in other words, that
it should be Lord Blachford's letters and not a biography, while
at the same time it should be quite possible to trace the whole
life and character of the writer from his own letters, with the
aid of the few words of introduction which have been placed at
the beginning of each chapter. Some such connecting thread,
with notes here and there, seemed necessary to explain the
circumstances under which the letters at various periods were
written and the events to which they allude.
Lord Blachford left some notes of autobiography, written
for his family, regarding which he expressed a wish that they
should not be published, disliking (as he wrote) ' the rage for
printing at the present day ; ' but he gave a discretionary
power to extract any part, not of a private nature, if it should
seem desirable for any purpose to do so. Some extracts from
these reminiscences have accordingly been inserted in the
introductions to the chapters. He had a remarkable gift for
sketching character in a few telling 'words, and some of these
sketches, taken from his reminiscences, have been included.
With regard to some others, describing public men whom he
thought blameworthy, the conclusion has been reached, not,
it must be confessed, without reluctance, that he would not
have wished them to appear in a printed book. His own I
feeling as regards the publication of letters is expressed in a
letter to Sir Henry Taylor which appears on page 345.
His most constant correspondent, outside his own family,
[6] LETTERS OF LORD B
in his earlier life and, with the exception of Dean Churi
and Sir Henry Taylor, the most constant also at a much later
period was Cardinal Newman. It is much to be regretted
that a box containing, with other papers, about forty letters
to Cardinal Newman, as well as a few of those to Dean Church,
was lost last year by the South Western Railway, when it
was being sent to the editor from Devonshire. There is
little hope of its recovery indeed there can hardly be any
doubt that the letters were long ago burnt by a disappointed
thief. Some months afterwards, however, when this book was
partly in type, the kind search of Cardinal Newman's literary
1 executor, the Rev. Father Neville, discovered seventy letters
written to Newman before he joined the Church of Rome.
After that time there had been a cessation of the correspond-
I ence for several years, and the lost letters, which were, it is
understood, chiefly on public matters of the day and on books,
all belonged to the last twenty years of Lord Blachford's life.
The seventy letters, so kindly placed at the editor's dis-
posal, belong to the period between 1832 and" 1842, during
part of which Rogers and Newman appear to have written to
one another once or twice a week, whenever either was absent
from Oxford. The very closeness of the intimacy in this
interchange of thought makes a large number of these letters
unsuitable for publication. They are mere scraps of answer
or comment, which, taken by themselves, throw no light on
the matters under discussion, and would be as difficult for the
reader to follow as a dialogue in which the words of one of
the speakers are omitted. Of the thirty-two letters which
have been selected, several bear to some extent on discussions,
or proposals, or persons connected with the Oxford Movement,
and will be both clear and interesting to those who still follow
out that history ; and some have a separate value besides, as
explaining letters of Newman already published, which answer
them or are answered by them.
G. E. MARINDIN.
BROOMFIELDS : September 1896.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. SCHOOL LIFE AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE AT OXFORD . . i
II. RESIDENCE AT OXFORD AS A FELLOW OF ORIEL . . . 14
III. WINTER AT ROME. RELINQUISHMENT OF OXFORD LIFE . 63
IV. IN LONDON, READING LAW AND WRITING FOR THE 'TIMES,'
AND EARLY OFFICIAL LIFE (1842-1850) 112
V. CONTINUATION OF WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION . 139
VI. MISSION TO PARIS ON THE COOLIE QUESTION . . . . 170
VII. UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES ..... 225
VIII. LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE (1866-1870) . . . . 263
IX. EIGHTEEN YEARS (1871-1889); PARTLY PARLIAMENTARY LIFE;
BUT CHIEFLY LlFE AT BLACHFORD . . . . . 306
PORTRAITS
LORD BLACHFORD (from a crayon by George Richmond) . . Frontispiece
LORD BLACHFORD (from a photograph by W. Heath & Co.
Plymouth} .......... to face p. 306
Errata
Page 131, line 1 5, for Elliott read Elliot.
, , 224, note, for Loundon read Lowder.
,, 258, line 23, for Foster read Forster.
,, 276, line l8,for Stanfield read Stansfeld.
LETTERS
OF
FREDERIC LORD BLACHFORD
CHAPTER I
School Life and Undergraduate Life at Oxford
FREDERIC ROGERS, afterwards Lord BLACHFORD, was born in
1811. His father, Frederick Leman Rogers, at that time in
the Audit Office, was a younger brother and eventually the
successor of Sir John Rogers of Blachford, near Ivybridge in
South Devon ; his mother was a daughter of Colonel Deare,
of the Bengal Artillery. The Blachford property and the
baronetcy passed in succession to Frederic Rogers himself, to
his next brother John, and to his youngest surviving brother
Edward, who died in 1895 as tenth and last baronet.
In the first half of the century school life began early,
and Frederic Rogers went when he was seven years old
to Mr. Polehampton's school at Worplesdon. Among his
schoolfellows there, and subsequently at Eton, was James
Colvile (the late Sir James Colvile), whose sister he afterwards
married. A holiday visit which Frederic Rogers paid to the
home of his school friend is alluded to in a letter written by
Mrs. Colvile.
' Rogers is so happy that he stays till Tuesday, instead
of going to-morrow. When I asked him if he thought he
B
2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. i
might stay two nights more, he said : " My mother, ma'am,
said if you liked me to stay she had not the least objection,
but at the same time she thought it very unlikely you would
ask me." Mr. Polehampton would have been quite flattered
if he had heard James and Rogers settling quite gravely at
dinner that their sons should certainly go to " Poley's," for
Rogers said " he was quite convinced there was not so good
a school in England of the kind." He is a clever boy of his
age, up to so much conversation of all kinds. He asked
James whether he thought John Napper (a schoolfellow) a
good arguer. Jem said he supposed he was, " for he always
got him into a puzzle in five minutes." " Ah ! but that is
because he takes unfair advantage. If one makes a real
mistake, a palpable one, he takes hold of that, and, whatever
one says after, throws that mistake in one's teeth. I hold
that not to be close arguing." Certainly the world is more
forward than it was, when boys of eleven and twelve argue
about arguing.'
The directness of reply and the turn for analysing
are both characteristic. From Worplesdon he went in 1821
to Eton, to Miss Angelo's house. His tutor for the first
year was Mr. Drury, on whose retirement from Eton he
became the pupil of Mr. Chapman, afterwards Bishop of
Colombo. Those who know the Eton history of that time
will understand why this change of pupil-rooms was not un-
welcome to him. Of Chapman he always spoke with
gratitude ' not a clever man,' he says in some notes of auto-
biography, ' and inordinately given to long words, but enough
of a scholar to teach scholarship, with the steady influence
for good, moral and intellectual, of a man who made me feel
that I was his friend and that he was anxious for my good.'
In his six years at Eton he won several distinctions,
especially for Greek and Latin verses, and reached the position
of 'Captain of the Oppidans.' In his leisure time he was fond
of cricket, in which he became proficient enough to be in the
' Second Eleven ; ' but his favourite amusement was swim-
1821-7 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE 3
ming, and among his anecdotes of Eton life, he tells how he
once jumped off Windsor bridge in company with Arthur
Hallam, at that time his most intimate friend. ' What induced
him to propose it, I do not know, unless it was the example
set by Selvvyn ' or some such philolute. As far as I was
concerned, water was by this time my element. The " Angelo
water rats " (Shadwells, Snows, Denisons, &c.) was a pro-
verbial phrase. The feat was performed to our own satis-
faction. I remember a quick sensation as I was making my
way through the air to the black water below " Shall I go
back ? No, I can't." It was a simple proceeding if you
could only keep yourself perpendicular, otherwise you might
sprain your back or get a tremendous slap from the water
when you reached it.' Another Eton story, which seems to
carry us still further away from the customs of the present
time, gives one of his experiences, as a sixth-form boy, of
Dr. Keate's remarkable fancy for working himself up into a
passion and fulminating a threat which he could not well put f
into execution. Keate, because some boys had been in- :
attentive, chose to keep his division long after the usual time
of dismissal. ' I ejaculated (too distinctly), " Well, if this is
not a shame, never was one." He turned on me red as a
turkey-cock, howled out his reprobation, and told me to stay
and speak to him afterwards not privately, but in the
presence of several boys. He asked me fiercely whether I
still thought it a shame. I replied, I was very sorry for what
I had said. " But do you still think it a shame, sir ? " (" Sir "
having always in his mouth the effect of " sirrah "). I said, '
" I spoke hastily." " But, sir, do you still think it a shame ?
because, if you do, say so at once, and I will expel you on
the spot." I ought to add that he afterwards had me up
privately and talked to me in a tone of remonstrance, which
from its kindness and reasonableness brought the tears into
my eyes.'
1 Afterwards Bishop of New Zealand.
B ^
4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. r
In his last year at Eton, Frederic Rogers took a leading
part in a literary periodical, ' The Eton Miscellany,' which had
been first set on foot by Arthur Hallam and Doyle (afterwards
Sir Francis Doyle), in the hope that it might have the same
success and length of life as ' The Microcosm ' and ' The
Etonian.' He has left the following record of it : ' Gladstone 2
became at once the backbone, editor and responsible for filling
up the pages. After July 1 827, Gladstone, Doyle, and I were
the committee of management. Gladstone's most effective
production was, I think, a humorous poem in twelve-syllable
lines on a deserting member of the corps afterwards Lord
Hanmer. Hallam was always straining after something above
his powers. Doyle was a spirited writer of verses, but rather
too plagiaristic. I was successful in one or two papers con-
taining translations of nursery rhymes into Greek, and in a
mock heroic Spenserian composition. But the affair was a
failure, and most of my doings contemptible. The book con-
tains characters of all the contributors under noms de plume.
Bishop Selwyn figures as Anthony Heaviside, Gladstone as
Bartholomew Bouverie. I appear as Philip Montagu, Hanmer
was David ap Rice ; Doyle was Francis Jermyn.'
The ' Eton Miscellany,' of which copies still exist, ranks
higher in merit among kindred publications than Lord
Blachford's words would imply. It has, indeed,- fewer papers
which escape dulness than the ' Etonian/ and it certainly did
not approach the reputation which that magazine enjoys a
reputation, it must be confessed, not perfectly easy for an un-
prejudiced reader at this distance of time to understand but
it has more real merit than most school periodicals. Among
the causes for a lesser measure of success than the talents of
its promoters might lead us to expect, it may be noted that
all its contributors were schoolboys, whereas some of the
writers in the ' Etonian ' had passed on to the University ; and
also that in 1827 the educational mills were already beginning
2 Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
1827 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE 5
(rightly enough) to grind smaller, and there was not quite as
much liberty for particular genius to go its own way in litera-
ture, outside the school course, as there had been even ten
years earlier.
In 1827 he went from Eton to Oxford, and entered at
Oriel. His Eton reputation for ability and scholarship had
preceded him. The younger Fellows of Oriel were at this
time eagerly exerting themselves to raise the standard of their ^
College, and it was said that Newman had lately written to
a friend among the Eton masteTiTasking him to recommend
some good Eton men for admission to Oriel. Newman was
the tutor who could make most of any brilliant man who
passed through his hands, and to him Frederic Rogers was
allotted as a pupil. But he speaks also of obligations to two
other tutors of Oriel to Hurrell Froude and to Robert
L t <<MI
Wilberforce, 3 ' whose solid knowledge and industry were valu-
able in the group of tutors, furnishing a kind of complement
to Newman and Froude. In particular he had a method of
laying out history so that facts hung on to each other in a way
which made you recollect the time, place, and conditions of
each, as part of a chronological whole.' Of Hurrell Froude
he says : ' He was anything but learned. In lecture he gave
you the idea of not being, in knowledge, so very much in
advance of those whom he taught ; but he had a fine taste, a
quick and piercing precision of thought, a fertility and depth
of reasoning, which stimulated a mind which had any quick-
ness and activity. He had an interest in everything ; he
would' draw with you, sail on the river with you, talk philo-
sophy or politics with you, ride over fences with you, skate
with you all with a kind of joyous enjoyment. Mischief
seems to have been his snare as a boy, and a controlled
delight in what was on the edge of mischief gave a kind of
verve to his character as a man. This made him charming
to those whom he liked. But then he did not choose to like
3 Son of William Wilberforce and elder brother of the Bishop.
6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. i
any whom he did not respect ; and he could be as hard and
sharp as you please on what he thought bad -profane,
vicious, or coxcombical.' These three men the more in-
spiring among the tutors of Oriel at that day had some
difference of opinion with the dons of the old school, as to
whether the tutor was to be (as they thought right) in loco
barentis to his pupils, charged with the responsibility of their
moral and intellectual development, and having some discre-
tionary power to carry it out, or whether he was to be little
more than a lecturer under the supervision of the Provost and
Dean. As a result Newman gave up all his pupils except
Frederic Rogers, who was marked out by high character and
by ability he had already in 1829 won the Craven scholar-
ship as an undergraduate of special promise. He was thus,
in his fourth year at Oxford, Newman's only pupil, working
very hard under his guidance. The intimacy between tutor
and pupil became still closer, when, in the long vacation of
1831, he took lodgings at Iffley near Newman's house, and not
only read with Newman, but spent most of his evenings with
him and his mother and sisters. Among the ties of sympathy
was a common love of music.
To /its Sister.
Oxford (Iffley) : August 12, 1831. /
yr
My dear Marian, Many thanks for the housekeeping
advice, which I doubt not I shall find most useful. I am
beginning to get into the way of reading, and of not being
very miserable, which at first I was rather, for I find that
the two miles divide me completely from Gladstone,
Denison, 4 &c., and though I like Newman very much, and
more as I know more of him, yet in the first place his leisure
hours are spent much with his family, and secondly, we are
4 Henry Denison, a friend at Eton, brother of the Speaker and of the
at Oxford, and in later life. Regained Bishop of Salisbury,
a double first class in 1831. He was
1831 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE 7
not quite of the same age. However, now I begin to feel
very comfortable and independent, and really it would be
quite ridiculous if one were to feel unhappy whenever left by
oneself for a month or two. However, as aforesaid, I am
beginning now to feel very comfortable. My day is spent
pretty much as follows : I get up ; walk out with a book for
about half an hour ; breakfast ; read about four or five hours ;
go out, generally row up to Oxford, which, with whatever I
may have to do there, takes me nearly three hours ; dine ;
stroll for about half an hour, and then return and read till I
go to bed. On the whole I am exceedingly glad I came
here, for I am sure it is almost the only thing which would
have made me read hard, and I think I shall do that now.
By-the-by, I have something to mention which perhaps will
be an agreeable surprise to my father, viz. that the other
morning as I was leaving Newman's room he informed me, in
a very embarrassed kind of way, that he hoped I understood '
that I was reading with him as a college pupil and friend, an
intimation which certainly to me was as unexpected as any-
thing could be. I said what occurred to me on the subject^
and the matter is now settled, only as that is the case I must
take care not to pester him. However, I really think I shall
get as much good from him by merely being under his super-
intendence as from any regular drudging, for he is 'a person
who does me more good, I think, in his remarks on my essays
and such like than in regular cram, and really he seems
disposed to give a very great deal of time to me if I could
with a good conscience exact it. However, at any rate, it
will be a serious diminution of one's yearly expenditure.
Your affectionate brother,
F. ROGERS.
In the early part of 1832 his eyes began to fail, and he
was obliged to give up reading and go home for a time.
Though this necessarily reduced the number of books which
he took up, he came back in the summer with greater vigour
for the final schools, and perhaps did not lose by the enforced
idleness ; at any rate, he secured a double first, in classics and
mathematics the only double first of that year.
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. i
To Mrs. Rogers.
Oriel : May 27, 1832.
My dear Mother, I am sorry to say our suspense must
be rather more protracted than I at first supposed. I fear I
shall not be able to give you news of the classes being settled
for near a fortnight ; we are now in for' paper work, and our
viva voce will not, I hear, begin till that is finished, which will
hardly be before next Thursday or Friday. The viva voce
must take a week at least, and I suppose till it is literally all
over there will be little chance of knowing how matters stand.
We have had already three days of it. The first day I
managed very ill ; however, Newman says he is not dis-
satisfied with what I did, in itself, but that I ought to have
done much better. It was a moral essay, ' Examine the
sentiment " Vice loses half its evil by losing all its grossness,"
and show how far principles of taste were allowed by the
ancient moralists as principles of ethics.' I liked the subject
exceedingly, but spent so much time in thinking on it and
' trying to lay out a plan that I had not time to do more than
the first part of the subject, and the latter part of that in a
very hurried way. I was annoyed with myself, as I should
have liked particularly to have written on the last part. But
it is impossible (at least I find it so) to start at once and
write a complete moral essay in one sitting ; and I trust
others found it so too. Every one was dissatisfied with what
they had accomplished ; I most dreadfully so ; but I hope I
have done pretty well what I have done. I filled about four
and a half foolscap pages.
The next day we had Logic, which I think I did fairly,
and three pieces of EnglishTo turn into Latin. I finished one
and a half, which I fancy must have been what the generality
did. Newman said I had done well with the piece I had
finished which was in Livy's style, but had not very well hit
off the half piece which was in Cicero's. I do not and never
did pique myself on my Latin prose writing, but at the same
time I do think nothing could be less calculated to be turned
1832 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE 9
into Latin than that piece, so that I hope others have failed
too. But I could not hope to do it well, as I had read so very
little Cicero, and that not lately. The third day, Saturday,
we had eight hours given us in order to draw up an accusation
or defence of a person accused of murder (the story being
given us) on the principles laid down in Aristotle's ' Rhetoric.'
Now, as I had not read the said ' Rhetoric ' and did not take it
up, I could not be expected to do this ; so I just mentioned
on my paper that I did not take it up, and therefore did a
Greek oration in the manner (as far as I could) of the Greek
Orators, upon the little I knew of Aristotle's principles. This
Greek oration occupied rather more than three sides of fools-
cap, and Newman said it was a very good imitation of their
style, and that he thought I should get a good deal of credit
for it. To-morrow we set to again. What we shall have I
know not. Hitherto I am pretty well satisfied with what I
have done. But the viva voce will be the trying.part, and that
will not come on for some days. My eyes have stood it capi-
tally. They only felt a very little uneasy yesterday, and I
hope I shall be able to get through the whole without having
any one to write for me, which will be an amazing advantage.
Poor , you will be extremely grieved to 'hear, has
actually by keeping his mind constantly fixed on one subject
(even after he had put off his degree) nearly driven himself
out of his mind. The night before last, about six o'clock, he
disappeared, and did not appear again till a tutor of Balliol
the next day met him wandering about Oxford about five
o'clock, quite unable to give any account of himself. He had
been wandering about on the London road all night, and then
came in exhausted and ill. He was immediately put to bed,
and under Dr. Wootton's care, and is now very much
better. But you may judge what low spirits he had been in
lately, when I tell you that one of his friends said what a
relief it would be to him to find that he had been only drowned
bathing, and that they were on the point of dragging a little
stream which was round a university walk which he had
walked in a good deal the two evenings before. Of course
the anxiety of every one till he reappeared was extreme ; but
I cannot say I ever apprehended anything like what some
io LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. i
seem to have feared. However, I will now finish and not
work my eyes any more, as I wish to rest them a little to-day.
So with love to all, believe me
Your affectionate son,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Oriel, June 9, 1832.
Hurrah ! I have not yet seen the class list, but the first
class contains :
1. Something or other Brewer, 5 Queen's.
2. Francis Hastings Doyle, 6 Christchurch.
3. Frederic Rogers, Oriel.
I shall write to-morrow and tell you all about it
Your affectionate son,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Oxford, June 10, 1832.
My dear Mother, I suppose you have received the three
lines which I sent off by coach last night in order to take you
out of your anxiety. In case you should not I repeat that
there are only three first classes, myself, Breiver of Queen's,
and Doyle. Brewer, I fancy, must be the best ; the list of
books which he took up seems to have been something more
\ enormous than anything which has ever been heard of, and he
really knew them, and had profited by them. His essays
(on history in particular) were excellent, and his viva voce^ too,
capital. Doyle and myself I should think were pretty much
on a par. My papers, I think, were better than his, and his
viva voce was very decidedly far better than mine. In fact, as
I told you before, mine was a failure. I never expected it
would have been otherwise.
Borrett, an Ireland scholar, has got only a second. I think
\ what has done well for me is that Greek oration of which I
( spoke to you. I do not think anything else of mine could
5 J. S. Brewer, the historian.
6 The late Sir Francis Doyle, afterwards Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
1832 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE n
have been very shining : on that I do pique myself. . W.'s
failure was owing to very bad divinity, He told them that
Jeroboam was the son of Rehoboam, and that "TRe son of
Saul who was a friend of David's was named Absalom. On
which they asked him whether he had ever read the Old
Testament, and he answered, in a kind of jaunty way, ' Yes,
yes, that he had read most of it, he had got a good way
in it.'
v As to mathematics, I am not very sanguine ; I find that
what I have forgotten is immense, and my eyes are certainly
not strong enough to bear more than about six hours a day
even of the kind of writing which mathematics requires, so
that I almost despair of making up my lost ground on that
point. Johnson, 7 too, I hear, expresses doubts. However I
hope that now I have got the principal one you will not let
the secondary matter trouble you at all. A double first is a
very nice thing certainly, and one would rather have a double
than not ; but at the same time a first and second is a most
excellent thing to sit down on, and a thing that one has no
manner of right to fidget oneself about.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Oriel, June , 1832.
I write in a very great hurry just to say that I have got my
first [in mathematics] in spite of a little bad luck in the exami-
nation. On the whole, the examination was easy and tolerably
favburable, but an unlucky accident happened. I had taken
up Hydrostatics at a shot, knowing that there was hardly
anything in them, and intending to get up a few formulae the
night before the Hydrostatic paper was given, and then try
my chance. I heard the Hydrostatic paper was to be on
Thursday, and went in on Wednesday evening, not having ever
in the course of my life opened a book on the subject, and
knowing consequently practically nothing about the subject.
Conceive of my astonishment and consternation on seeing
before me the very Hydrostatic paper. I did, by good luck,
one question, a tolerably difficult one luckily, which did not
7 His mathematical ' coach,' afterwards Dean of Wells.
12 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. i
imply much knowledge of fluids, and half of another, and then
my knowledge failed me. Since then I rather (as I thought)
failed in Optics and Mechanics, and have been rather queer
these two last days. However, I fancy I did the first papers
very well well enough, at least, to make up beforehand all
the ground I since lost and here I am in the first class.
Johnson is profuse in praises ; he says he considers it as even
more creditable to me than my classical first, from the very
great disadvantage I laboured under, &c. He is a man who
had no idea of a man's getting a first in mathematics by any
other method than by knowing by heart every formula that
^ver was invented, which of course with my eyes was impos-
sible, and I have now and then rather astonished him by my
ignorance of these formulae, and sometimes by showing him
that it was possible to answer a question without them.
However, I must finish, as it is candle-light, and I am in a
great hurry.
Your affectionate son,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Frederick Leman Rogers, Esq.
Oriel : July I, 1832.
My dear Father, I send you, as you see, a class list, not
that I suppose there will be anything particularly interesting
in it to you (though perhaps Mamma may like to see my
name actually in print] ; but as you must pay postage you
may as well have the classes as well as the letter. We are
actually employed here in getting up a subscription to found
a prize or something of that kind in honour of the Duke of
Wellington. I do not know what you think of His conduct
lately, but here we are all in the highest admiration of him. 8
Bruce showed me three letters (at least copies of them), one
from Lord Harrowby to Lord Wharncliffe, one from Lord
Wharncliffe to the Duke, and the Duke's answer immediately
* This refers to the Duke of Welling- to his withdrawal from active opposition
ton's action in regard to the Reform to the Bill in deference to the King's
Bill ; to his advice to the King that he wish.
should recall Lord Grey to power, and
1832 SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE LIFE 13
previous to the second reading of the Bill in the House of
Lords, which were extremely characteristic and which certainly
gave me an entirely high opinion of the Duke's character. I
hardly know what to do with my books, whether to leave
them here or at least the greater part of them till I stand
at Oriel, as I should probably want them in case I got in, or
to bring them all home at once and have done with the
matter.
Your affectionate son,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
i 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
CHAPTER II
Residence at Oxford as a Fellow of Oriel
IN 1833 Mr. Rogers was elected to a Fellowship at Oriel,
and in the following year he gained the Vinerian Scholarship. 1
From this time till 1841 he was regularly in residence at
Oriel, taking pupils, and pursuing his own reading as far as the
weakness of eyes at that time permitted. Some of his letters
show how much pains he took to encourage and direct the
private reading of his youngest brother Edward, who was
then an Eton boy, and some years later a Student of Christ
Church.
As a Fellow of Oriel he was drawn into even closer
friendship with Newman, of whose power of sympathy with
congenial minds he writes strongly : ' Newman seemed to
have an intuitive perception of all that you thought and felt,
so that he caught at once all that you meant or were driving
at in a sentiment, a philosophical reflection, or a joke within
a certain circle, no doubt, but within a circle which compre-
hended all your common sympathies. And so there was in
talking with him that combination of liveliness and repose
which constitutes ease ; you seemed to be speaking with a
better kind of self, which was drawing you upwards. New-
man's general characteristics his genius, depth of purpose;
his hatred of pomp and affectation ; his piercing insight into
the workings of the human mind at least that part of it
which is best worth knowing his strong and tenacious, if
1 A scholarship in Law.
RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 15
^r ^mf . -
somewhat fastidious, affection (not, it must be confessed,
without a certain tenacity of aversion also) are all matters
of history. I should add that he always seemed to me to
have a kind of repugnance to the highly finished manners of
the man~of the world. Nothing covers what is behind it so
completely as moral or physical polish. It reveals nothing
but what it reflects. And this Newman did not like. It
baffled him and kept him at a distance. He did not know
what matter of interest he could touch with confidence ; and
this to a man, who is keenly alive to sympathy or the want ot
it, means an atmosphere of artificial constraint. As the
[Oxford] movement gathered power in his hands he became
somewhat more disinclined to men who affected an indepen-
dent position, and was quick in detecting a growing diver-
gence, though sometimes curiously over-confident in his power -
of counteracting an adverse prepossession In Newman's
Sermons and Hurrell Froude's conversation I found an un-
compromising devotion to religion with a discouragement oi
anything like gushing profession, which I had been brought up
to dislike and distrust also a religion which was fervent and
reforming in essentials with a due reverence for existing
authorities and habits and traditions, all which I had been
brought up to respect also a religion which did not reject,
but aspired to embody in itself, any form of art and literature,
poetry, philosophy, and even science which could be pressed
into the service of Christianity. And this met my own desires
and tastes not to say my own conception of what man was
made for. And lastly I was greatly captivated by the idea I
that it was possible for a Church not only to teach the truth, ^
but by its discipline to clear itself from impurities and enforce
to a certain extent holiness of life among those who belonged
to it. Like the rest of our small circle, I fully believed that
Newman was to do something indefinitely great in the
direction of Christian Church revival revival in holiness, <
discipline, and authority."
1 6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
Newman was even more anxious to have Frederic Rogers
as a confidant, with whom he could talk over all difficulties,
after "the death of Hurrell Froude in 1836 ; and for the next
year or two they were together a great part of most days
during the Oxford term. Dean Church has made clear the
history of what followed this periocFin a narrative 2 which for
style has hardly been surpassed in the English language. On
this history it would be out of place to dwell here : all
necessary explanation can best be given by quoting a few
words from an article whjch Dean Church wrote upon
Lord Blachford's death. ' From Mr. Newman his pupil
% j- caught that earnest devotion to the cause of the Church
which was supreme with him through life. He entered
heartily into Mr. Newman's purpose to lift the level of the
\ English Church and its clergy. While Mr. Newman at
Oxford was fighting the battle of the English Church, there
was no one who was a closer friend than Rogers, no one in
whom Mr. Newman had such trust, none whose judgment he
so valued, no one in whose companionship he so delighted ;
and the master's friendship was returned by the disciple with
a noble and tender and yet manly honesty. There came, as
we know, times which strained even that friendship ; when the
disciple, just at the moment when the master most needed
and longed for sympathy and counsel, had to choose between
his duty to his Church and the claims and ties of friendship.
He could not follow in the course which his master and friend
had found inevitable ; and that deepest and most delightful
friendship had to be given up. But it was given up, not
indeed without great suffering on both sides, but without
bitterness or unworthy thoughts. The friend had seen too
closely the greatness and purity of his master's character to
fail in tenderness and loyalty, even when he thought his
master going most wrong. He recognised that the error,
deplorable as he thought it, was the mistake of a lofty and
' The Oxford Movement.
1832 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 17
unselfish soul ; and in the height of the popular outcry he
came forward, with a distant and touching reverence, to take
his old friend's part and rebuke the clamour. And at length
the time came when disagreements were long left behind
and each person had finally taken his recognised place ;
and then the old ties were built up again. It could not
be the former friendship of every day and of absolute and
unreserved confidence. But it was the old friendship of
affection and respect renewed, and pleasure in the inter-
change of thoughts. It was a friendship of the antique
type, more common, perhaps, even in the last century than
it is with us, but enriched with Christian hopes and Christian
convictions.' 3 *^^
^f
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : December 21, 1832.
My dear Newman, I hope you received before you
started two letters of introduction for Malta. ... I suppose
you saw the classical class list before you started : in the
Mathematics, Froude of course has his first ; Maule (if you
know the man) is the only double ; Marriott has got a second.
Does not the present system appear from the class list to be
abominable ? As far as my own acquaintances go, their
places seem to have been regulated by their powers of using
philosophical talk (or rather the talk seems a sine qua non\
without reference to whether they understood it or not. (I
do not mean any disrespect to several men who I know de-
served well what they got.)
The Elections, as I suppose you will see by the papers,
are dreadful the Tories beaten everywhere e.g. Hampshire
returns four Whigs Pusey is thrown out for Berkshire
Sadler for Leeds, Wetherall for Oxford, &c., &c. (though, on
the other hand, Manners Sutton is returned for Cambridge
University, and Sir R. Vyvyan for Bristol, and Gladstone
turns out Wilde for Newark). Cobbett and Gully are like-
wise among our legislators. The only consolation is that the
* Reprinted, by permission, from the Guardian.
1 8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
Parliament cannot be worse than it was. However, their
systerrrof"dividing the polling places, Registry, &c., certainly
does seem to have answered ; there have been few riots, and
the elections seem each fairly finished in two days. . . .
With kindest remembrances to Froude,
Believe me yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Oriel : April 12, 1833.
My dear Newman, In the first place I am m. 4 Wilson, I
am truly sorry to say, is not ; Marriott being the other winner.
I suppose your having leave fill September (which I hope
you have by this time heard of) will not keep you out till
then. If it will, pray tell me, and also tell me your plans ;
for I shall feel strongly tempted in that case to make a start
myself towards you. However, this will of course depend on
my health and eyes. I shall give up everything to these last.
They have stood the examination most splendidly, though I
suppose I shall feel it now that the excitement is gone off.
All this time I have not thanked you for your letter,
which I was truly delighted to receive, and for the permission
to see your verses, for which I was equally thankful. 5 I have
only been able to see some of them, as I have had one
opportunity only since your letter to me arrived. I need
hardly say how much I was pleased with what I did see.
H. Wilberforce is here, well, and intending to be ordained
the next opportunity ; he is to take Mr. Sargent's curacy as
you, I suppose, know. You (or rather We ! /) really should
make him some college officer whose duty would be connected
with the elections. He would perform it so well. Even at
present he clearly thinks he ought to come up to all the
4 I.e. have gained an Oriel Fellow- series of poems which Newman wrote
ship. during his travels and sent home. Many
5 This refers to a long letter from of them were published eventually in
Mr. Newman, dated Rome, March 5, the ' Lyra Apostolica ; ' among them
1833, which is printed in ' Letters and ' Lead, Kindly Light,' which he wrote
Correspondence of J. H. Newman,' on the voyage from Palermo to Mar-
vol. i. p. 361. The 'verses' were a seilles (Newman's ' Apologia,' p. 35).
1833 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD ig
Elections. He is going now to finish this letter, as my eyes
are, after all my boasts, not quite up to the work, without at
least delaying the letter.
Keble wishes me to suggest to you that you might make
sometfTing useful (for the ' British Critic/ I suppose) out of the
state of the clergy abroad as you have observed it, to show
people what it is to have a depraved sort of clergy. An
amplification, in short, of what you have written home to me
and others.
Yours most affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
To Edivard Rogers*
Oriel : November 15, 1833.
Dear Edward, I have not had time to answer your letter
before, else I should have done so. You know that what I
want you to do is to get as much of a taste for poetry as you
can, and the ability to see what is and what 'is not poetical.
Now I think there are some papers in the ' Spectator,' and
there certainly are some in the ' Rambler,' which criticise
Milton. I should like you to look out these and read them
attentively over, and when you have looked them over, and
think you well understand what are the chief points which
they notice e.g. whether they praise or blame his choice of
expressions, his harmony, or his thoughts whether they think
he is too bombastical, or only just artistic enough for his
subject, &c., &c. when, I say, you have seen what is said on
points such as these, begin to read the first, and if you like, the
second book of Miltori*s ' Paradise Lost ' carefully, two or three
times 'over, and try to make up your mind for yourself whether
what is said in praise or blame of him is just and true, or not
I do not know how long you will be about this, but when you
have done it, write to me, and tell me some of the passages
which you like, and (if you can) why you like them, and tell
me any expressions which you think describe well what they
want to describe, and whether you think the lines are more
or less harmonious than other blank verse which you have
6 Then a boy at Eton.
20 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
read e.g. Southey's ' Roderick,' which you can look at again
for the purpose ; this you must find out by spouting them
both to yourself and anything else which occurs to you like
this, and do not be afraid of making mistakes, but say every-
thing which suggests itself to you. If you like Milton you can
go on : if you do not, then write to me and I will teTTyou some-
thing else. And if I do not answer you immediately, it will
always do you good to go over those poems of Southey's or
Scott's which you have liked, trying to look not merely for
the story but for poetical passages, and spirited or beautiful
descriptions, good similes, &c., and when you get to anything
which strikes you, read it over and over again, and do not be
satisfied till you know it pretty well. However, this is
enough on the subject of reading. I shall be glad to hear
from you how you are getting on with your tutor and your
school work ; recollect always that that is the first point.
I was much amused, too, at your account of the row at the
Fair, which I had Tiot heard of before. I am going home for
a day or two to-morrow to keep term at Lincoln's Inn ; and
then shall come home a second time, I suppose, soon after
you will.
Remember me to both the Wilders and my tutor if you
have an opportunity. I am extremely glad indeed that you
are more comfortable in Long Chamber. 7
Your very affectionate brother,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
Oriel : November 13, 1834.
My dear Katherine, I am now safely lodged in the
Vinerian Scholarship, without opposition, and it was only by
the most providential chance that I missed having the Vice-
Chancellor, both the Proctors, and divers other functionaries
as registrars, &c., with their noses in the air for an hour or
two waiting to admit me. I concluded that, like other
7 Edward Rogers was a ' Colleger ' buildings were erected under Provost
at Eton ; and the ' Long Chamber ' Hodgson and Dr. Hawtrey) was the
of College in those days (before the new reverse of comfortable.
1834 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 21
concerns of that kind, it would take its course without any
trouble on my part, and accordingly, about the time when the
election was going on, quietly took my hat and stick and set
out with a friend to walk. However, that kind of instinctive
sense of where my interest lay common to all classes of
animals insensibly led me towards the schools where I knew
they were employed upon me ; and I had not gone far before
I met a functionary called the Marshal hurrying down to tell
me that I should be wanted almost directly to be admitted
with cap, gown, bands, white neckcloth, and all the et ceteras
of academical habit. If they had been a quarter of an hour
longer about the election, I should have been a mile off.
As it was, I instantly borrowed a white cravat from one
friend, bands from another, swore allegiance to His Majesty,
and specified all that was damnable, heretical, and so on in
excommunications of princes, abjured the authority of the
Pope of Rome, and became Vinerian Scholar, or, as the Vice-
Chancellor words it, ' was admitted to all the privileges,
honours, and emoluments of the Vinerian Scholarship,' to the
great credit of the University and my own no small profit.
The Duke of Wellington and our ' Parliamentary friends '
have written down to the Heads of Houses to say that they
find great difficulty in defending our present position with
regard to our imposition of the Articles at Entrance. True
enough for them. I should think they would be about as
much at home in defending the doctrine of Justification, or
the Articles themselves. However, our Heads have been
persuaded, and are to bring forward a form of declaration
which they intend substituting for it. I suppose the question
will soon come on in Convocation, and there will be, I pre-
sume, a great fight. 8 However, I do not know whether you
8 Undergraduates at Oxford (though seem now) by a great many others as
not at Cambridge) were at that time re- well. On November 10, 1834, the
quired on their matriculation to subscribe Heads of Colleges, by a majority of one,
to the Thirty-nine Articles. Dr. Hamp- decided to bring before Convocation a
den had published a pamphlet advocating measure for freeing undergraduates
the abolition of this rule, with a view from subscription. In May 1835, the
to the admission of Nonconformists. measure was rejected in Convocation
He was opposed not only by the extreme by a very large majority (see Church's :
Tractarian party, but (strange as it may Oxford Movement, pp. 125-138).
22 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
take enough interest in these University details to know
what I am talking about.
Your affectionate brother,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : December 28, 1834.
My dear Newman, Many thanks for your note which I
was most extremely glad to receive. Of course we shall be
delighted to see you at Blackheath ; tell me somewhat before-
hand when you can come, and I will take care to have some
Oxford friends to meet you.
Gladstone, I hear, is to be a Lord of the Treasury, which
I suppos^e is a very good start for a young nRmrrz/TFz^ He
is in town, "and, I suppose, has not come up for nothing. By
the way, do not the Ministerials seem to guard their expres-
sions of opposition to the admission of Dissenters with us ?
1 see always ' as a claim of right ' scrupulously inserted in such
declarations. What do you say of the Ministry ? I was
rather struck at the description of Dissenters they have at
Bradfield, where, if anywhere, I should have hoped to find they
had not penetrated. 9 They seem to be quite in the old
Charles I. style, believing almost in their own inspiration,
and practising such very audacious dishonesty without detri-
ment to their religion. One man professing particular piety
justifies keeping his beershop open on Sunday by its being
in the way of business. Another will not vote for Pusey, 1
* because he will give his vote to no man who has not the fear
of God in his heart. Meantime he has been detected in gross
I cheating in horse-dealing. I got rather into a scrape there for
advocating amusements for the poor on Sunday Keble is
in bad odour for having done it before me. ""
I have nothing to tell you that you will not see in the
9 Bradfield in Berkshire. Mr. Stevens, Berkshire against Mr. John Walter (the
the founder of Bradfield College, at elder), by whom he had been defeated
that time held the living. in 1832. He was elected in 1834 and
1 Mr. Philip Pusey, elder brother of held the seat for many years.
Dr. E B. Pusey, was standing for
1834 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 23
papers. The City meeting to address the King conservatively
seems to have succeeded in spite of the interruption of all
speaking by some Radicals.
To Miss Rogers.
Oriel : May 2, 1835.
All the Convocation affair 2 went off most triumphantly for
the party who wished no change, the numbers being 459 to 57 ;
rather more than eight to one 3 against the Declaration. The
only unpleasant part is that the beaten party are excessively
angry, and it must be confessed that what happened to them
was a trial of temper. The division was in the Theatre (N.B.
not the play-house), and undergraduates were admitted to the
gallery, who took the liberty of expressing their opinion by
shouts &c. pretty freely. The voters (the M.A.s) were in the
area (which would be in a play-house the pit, but without
benches), and just as they were beginning to give their votes,
which they usually do by going up one by one to the Proctor
and whispering in his ear, one of the anti-reformers cried out
' Non placet ' (the form of negativing) and walked to one side
of the Theatre. It seemed from the gallery, where I was, as
if the whole crowd were following him. You just saw a few
spots here and there stationary, in the midst of the great cur-
rent, and rather struggling not to be carried away in it, as
little bits of dirt do when you are pouring water out of a
basin ; and after a short settling we saw about forty gentlemen
left ' alone with their glory ' in the middle of the room, looking
very foolish, and hardly knowing whether to stand boldly forth
or not, to bear as best they might the shoutings of the oppo-
site party and the undergraduates. However, the others soon
took compassion on them and spread themselves again over
the whole area, and their only penance after that was to listen
to the expression of the undergraduate feelings, till the Proctor
had done counting the votes. It is rather curious that these
very young gentlemen whom people are so anxious to liberate
- On the question of releasing candi- 3 The figures here are consistent.
I dates for matriculation from subscription In Church's Oxford Movement the
to the Thirty-nine Articles (see note majority is said to have been five to
on page 21). one.
24 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
*
from the yoke of subscription are the most vehement and
noisy opponents of any ' relief bill ' that are to be found. I
only wish they had confined themselves to applause, whereas
they took the liberty of hissing our respectable Provost, who
is the great patron of change. Of course we have been inun-
dated with pamphlets, with and without names. . . .
In the meantime I certainly had a very pleasant two days.
Wilson, Ryder, Wilberforce, Harding, spent several days here,
with a quantity of other contemporaries, and Hurrell Froude
arrived just in time from Barbadoes to cut into the middle of it.
It quite surprises me how little people change. All these gentry,
married and single, were so exactly what they always had
been, that I could hardly believe I was not a freshman again.
The only painful thing was that I fear Barbadoes has not
done much for Froude. I was quite shocked to see him, but
I suppose I had been too sanguine ; his wretched thinness
struck me more than it had ever done. They say, however,
that no one ever gains flesh in the West Indies, but that it
tells when they come back. I most earnestly trust it may be
so. He talks of spending the winter at Rome again, going
straight there and coming straight back. He certainly cannot
spend it in England. I cannot describe the kind of sickness
I felt in looking at him when just the first meeting was over.
I suppose it is a hopeful sign that his spirits are just as high
as they always were ; at least were so when he first came here,
for I am afraid we must look for a change in that, as Newman
tells me he has heard to-day that his sister who was so ill is
given over ; I have not seen him since his hearing the news.
HoweveT,' I am getting mopish.
Yours most affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
Oriel : October 25, 1835.
My dear Katherine, Many thanks for your letter. I did
for some time delay writing till the Queen >^vas gone, and
since that employments and engagements ancf calls came one
on another so as to put my writing off two or three days
1835 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 25
longer. The results of the audit were, as I expected, not very
satisfactory, the Fellowships making rather a poor show in
consequence of all the low prices &c. that farmers com-
plain of.
So much for the Fellowship. The Queen 4 has been well
received, and seems to have made a very favourable im-
pression. The precise amount of illuminations, dinners, &c.,
you will find in the papers far better than I can tell you.
Everybody went to a drawing-room, which she held at the
Angel, to show their loyalty, and I among the rest. The poor
Dean of Christ Church 5 has got into more general odium
than ever by mismanaging his part of the matter so as not to
have the Queen at Christ Church. There are various versions
of the story, most people putting it down to some incivility
or brusquerie in his way of offering his house, which is likely
enough, as he is a man who speaks and writes rather too
shortly for court etiquettes. The most unfavourable account
is that he wrote to Lord Howe that there was such and
such a number of rooms unoccupied in his house which Her
Majesty might have ; the most favourable, and, I believe, the
true one, that he wrote to say that his own house and two of
the Canons' houses were at Her Majesty's service, but that
they would require some putting in order and consequently
some time. However, the Queen could not wait, and in con-
sequence went to the Angel Inn ; probably he did it clumsily.
Be that as it may, he bears the whole blame, and, I fancy, is
extremely vexed and annoyed. The Duke of Wellington
lionised her, and seemed in great force.
Newman is, of course, come back bringing as good an ac-
count of Froude 6 as could be expected. He seems quite sta-
tionary ; the lungs certainly are not affected, and he has strength
enough to have thrown off quite the attack he had in August.
His father says that his being with him has done him good,
by keeping up his spirits, and he seems very much to long
after his Oxford friends. Newman has pledged himself to
Froude that somebody shall go down to him at Christmas ;
4 Queen Adelaide. house, the rectory at Dartington, in
5 Dean Gaisford. South Devon.
6 Hurrell Froude was at his father's
26 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
and wants me to do it, which I should very much like, and
half think of doing ; however, we can talk of that when I
come home in November.
Miss P.'s admiration, Samuel Wilberforce, with his wife,
has passed through here, and hopes to see me in the Isle of
Wight if I go that way. Also I have just been hearing her
great friend Moberly preach two admirable University sermons,
in the anti-Evangelical line. He and Wordsworth will be a
great gain to them at Winchester. I am only sorry we lose
him here. Keble is married, but I cannot hear of any further
chance of - *s success, so that we^ shall, I suppose, only
have two vacant Fellowships next Easter. The elder Mozley 7
is here to reside, and I think I shall get on with him better
than I expected. I had fancied him less of a sociable animal
than he is ; he talks, I see, a great deal, and cleverly, though in
a peculiar line which would not be generally interesting.
Doyle is here to stand for All Souls, and Vaughan and
Harrison and Liddell to stay the term. By the way, it was,
I believe, attempted to get up a town and gown row in
honour of the Queen's visit, but there was a difficulty about it
from their being at that moment both on the same side, and
the thing dropped rather dead ; nothing but the breaking of
one ' snob's ' head for frightening horses with crackers. As
for us, we set our tower on fire in Her Majesty's honour, but,
as she left Oxford just as the fire (which was in the chimney)
began to burn up, we thought we might as well put it out
again, which we did at our leisure. The chimney which the
porter chose for lighting, besides affording singular facilities
for such a manoeuvre from being (in parts) never swept, be-
longed to the room in which all our deeds, leases, account
books, &c., are kept, which would have placed our illumina-
tion far beyond any one's else, at any rate in expensiveness.
To Rev. J. H. Newman,
Bridehead : January 16, 1836.
My dear Newman, I have just left Froude, who pro-
fesses to remain" much as he has been, rather weaker than
7 Mr. Thomas Mozley, whose 'Reminiscences' were published in 1882 and
1885. He married a sister of Newman.
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 27
when you were with him, from never being in the open air r
but not worse than he has been from the beginning of his
confinement. I am afraid, too, he is not quite in so good
spirits as he used to be. Perhaps that was so when you were
down. You ought to send Harrison down to him to ^take
lessons on the subject of the Reformers, for certainly he has
a way of speaking which carries conviction in a most extra-
ordinary manner, over and above the arguments he uses. 8
Coming through Exeter and being too late for a coach, I
had the very good luck to meet Dornford, 9 who has by this
time written to the College to resign his Fellowship, not
that he was bound by the letter of the Statute, but he felt
convinced that Adam de Brome ' did not intend his benefaction
for persons situated like him. (i) Dornford (on that occa-
sion) meeting Wilson's brother-in-law, Major Blanshard, did
in the course of conversation say that he considered himself
now as a married man. Major B. thereupon congratulated,
asked when the day was. D. responded that ' he was married
to his church ; his church was and would be his only wife.'
B. hoped he did not entertain Roman Catholic views. ' Oh !
no, no, it is from the high opinion I entertain of the ladles
that I shall remain a bachelor. I consider a wife as a luxury,
not a necessary. If I thought it a necessary, I should get
one.'
He then walked about Exeter with me for about an hour
and a half, talking of the Peninsular War, upon which he said
his mind fell back much more than on his Oriel life, or than it
used to do while he was at Oriel. And this leads me to (2).
Dornford being engaged in puffing the military profession
and his own military life to Major B., the said Major B.
pointed out that he at any rate was now in a line more satis-
factory in the highest respects. ' Ah ! no, no, I am not so
sure of that ; it is very gratifying and remarkable to observe
8 It should be observed that there life served in the Peninsular War.
are expressions in this letter and others ' The original founder of Oriel Col-
of about the same date, implying a lege (in 1324) was Adam de Brome,
disapproval of many of the principles Almoner of Edward II. and Rector of
of the Reformers which was not endorsed St. Mary's, Oxford (RashdalPs Univer-
by Lord Blachford's later judgment. sities of Europe, ii. 492).
9 A Fellow of Oriel who had in earlier
28
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD
CH. II
the satisfactory way in which the military profession is spoken
of in Scripture whenever it occurs, " the centurion who," &c.
It is a very remarkable contrast with the lawyers, who, you
will observe, are never introduced without a sentence of
reprobation.'
Did Froude tell you that some good lady, who has read
you, wonders how it is that you and Arnold should have any
difference between you (as seems to be the case from a note
on one of your sermons), ' your sentiments and general tone
so perfectly agreeing, as your respective sermons show them
to do ' ?
I hear of a certain Mr. Glover, who is a very high Church-
man too much so, and too political for the people here.
He has been dunning Williams to propose a repeal of the
Pr&mnnire, talking about the glory of the English Senator
who should make the first step in freeing the Church. Do
you know who, or what, he is ? I shall try to find out.
Williams is to give him a volume of Oxford Tracts.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
^ j
I heard the other day that you were sure to be a bishop.
- * . .
To Miss M. Rogers.
Oriel : March 30, 1836.
I did not give you much of an account of Hampden's
Convocation, 2 and there was not much to say, as it was
2 Dr. Hampden was supposed to
have used words in his Bampton Lec-
tures which allowed no authority to
anything that depended upon decrees
of the Church and not directly upon the
words of Scripture no authority there-
fore per se to Creeds or Articles. This
at least was held to be the logical con-
clusion of his teaching. On this
account his appointment by the Crown
to the post of Regius Professor of
Divinity was strongly disapproved of,
not only by the ' Tractarians ' at
Oxford, but also by Evangelicals ; and
side attacks, which few, if any, would
now defend, were made upon his
authority. Among them was a pro-
posal, submitted by heads of houses to
Convocation, that Dr. Hampden should
not be allowed a voice in the appoint-
ment of Select Preacher to the Univer-
sity. This proposal was defeated by
the veto of the Proctors in March 1836,
but in May of the same year it was
brought forward again and was passed
by 474 to 94 (see Oxford Movement,
pp. 1 39-1 si).
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 29
almost the same as the affair of the Articles. We had a good
many friends up, and were very comfortable and glad to meet ;:
most of them stayed a day or two, which made it almost worth
while for them to come for pleasure, and we bedded them all
in College. To many, of course, the Proctors' veto must have
been most provoking. But really (barring the inconvenience
to non-residents) I should not myself be very sorry. The
more the matter is thought of, the more I hope people will
see the absurdity of allowing all the King's Church Patronage
to be distributed by a premier, who may be himself infidel,
heretic, or anything else. The Proctors did not give out their
intentions at all till Saturday afternoon, and then not in a
way which seemed to be against their retracting, and not
putting on their veto in case they should find themselves in a
majority. I do not think they meant it unfairly, but they did
not pledge themselves to act certainly one way or the other,
and of course nothing less than a distinct pledge would have
made it safe for us to countermand the voters on our side.
And indeed we could not possibly have countermanded those
beyond London, for on Saturday there was no post through
London, and consequently no letter could reach people beyond
town that way till Tuesday morning, long before which time
they would have left home, as on Tuesday at 2 o'clock the
Convocation met. The requisition to the Vice-Chancellor
which I sent you received about 380 signatures, which are, I
believe, to appear in print. Some left by mistake before
signing, and very many indeed were prevented from coming
up by the rumours about the Proctor's intentions, so that it is
sure to come on again next term. At the last moment, when
it was quite clear that we should be vetoed, a rather important
question arose, whether the Proctors' veto stopped proceedings,
or only nullified them (as the King's refusing assent to a bill
in Parliament), or, in other words, whether the veto was inter-
posed before the ' division ' or after, and, to the surprise of all
persons present, a Mr. Vaughan Thomas, a very grandiloquent
and pompous gentleman, chairman of our meeting, as the
question was about to be put, started off at score with a long
Latin speech to show that they could not prevent us from
dividing, which, could he have got his point, would have
3 o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
almost made the veto a dead letter, as the division would have
been in itself a declaration of the opinion of the University.
However, the Latin produced not the smallest effect. When the
question was put and the Proctors gave their ' non placet,'
the V.C. got up, dissolved Convocation, and was halfway out
before any one knew what was going on. There was a due
proportion of noise, especially from the undergraduates, who
I hope will not be let in again on a similar occasion. All
hands then adjourned to Brasenose Common Room, where
some very bad speeches were made by one or two people who
came from town, Lord Encombe and a Mr. Trevor ; elec-
tioneering kind of claptrap speeches, quite out of place, and
the requisitions, which had been prepared before by sensible
people, proposed, carried, and signed. The names, I fancy,
are to appear in the ' Standard.' And there the matter has
ended for the present. I hear the ' Morning Chronicle ' has
had an attack on Newman and Pusey by name, for being at
the bottom of it.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : July 2, 1836.
My dear Newman, Wood is most sanguine, and eager to
know every one who holds out prospect of being bettered. He
nods his head and says, ' Do you know, Rogers, I do not see
why we should not absorb all young Evangelicals.' This
a propos of , on whom we are to call together, sv ysvoiro.
Wood is eager for controversy with people, and his sine qtia
non for thinking them promising is an anxiety to discuss and
argue the questions : which he will find in Palmer. He is
most warm in his expressions of affection for Bowden. What
a hit you have made there ! He hardly ever sees him, he
says, without finding out something fresh to like in him.
... I have set to work fairly this week at attending Courts.
One great gain will be that it will bring me very much across
Wood ; he lets me sit in his room when I am tired of hearing
arguments in Court, and tells me what to read, and lectures
me. How long this will please him I do not know. I hope
and trust I shall not bore him, and it is consoling to think
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 31
that he will probably tell me when I do. In the meantime
this does not agree very well with [the review of] Bentham, I
confess ; but I hope that if the ' British Critic ' does not come
out till near the end of the month I may have got through
something or other by that time.
. . . What do you think of doing about the Lyral If I
could be of any use I should be very glad and should like it
much, i.e. in case you have not time, and can find no better
person. 3 I hardly know it all at present, and so should start
at a disadvantage compared with many men^ And "I know,
too, that I am not up to half your meanings in different places,
but still I might save you trouble, and you might talk to me
about a general arrangement when you come here, and polish
it up afterwards. If you have any one in your eye (Mozley,
e.g.} who will answer the purpose better, and will do it, so
much the better. Tell me when you are likely to come, or if
you are likely to be prevented.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Miss M. Rogers.
Hursley : August 14, 1836.
My dear Marian, I have had a variety of good and bad
luck since I have been here. In the first place my journey
was very prosperous. It was, as you know, a fine day, and I
was not dreadfully crowded in the coach, though very nearly
so. We had one very fat man sitting outside, on the same
bench with me ; fortunately we were not full at starting, so
that we were able to allow him two places to his own proper
share, without any inconvenience to ourselves. But, as we
went on, it was only the obvious physical impossibility of the
case, as pointed out calmly and impressively by the fat man,
3 Arranging and editing the Lyra from the British [Magazine] with
Apostolica. In Newman's answer to Lyras in them. What I should like
this letter on July 5 (Correspondence, ii. you to do (unless my proposal goes be-
199), he says : ' Thanks for your offer yond your offer) would be to get a
about the Lyra ; your"*~assTs"tance will blank quarto book and paste them in.
be everything. I have told Rivington ... I should wish the series to begin
you will call for any loose sheets he has with Scripture subjects.'
32 . LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
which prevented the coachman from intruding a fourth person
(for whom the coach was in any ordinary state of things
calculated) on our bench. The fat man's mode of argument
was truly irresistible. Just as the coach stopped, we all saw
what was coming, and exclaimed with one voice to the fat
man, ' You must fight our battle, sir.' He accordingly com-
posed himself into the attitude of a candid man, aware that
his specific gravity defies all attempts to turn him out, ready
to do anything that can in reason be expected of him, but
with no thoughts of making room for a fourth passenger. As
the coachman with the expectant came up, he began looking
to one and the other side of him as if to see where it was that
the coachman would expect to put him ; and answered his
' Now, sir, if you please,' with ' Quite impossible you see,
my friend, it's quite impossible. Do what you will, you can
not get me into less than this ' and then he put his two
hands at the distance of about a yard and a half asunder, to
those points in the bench where his body terminated on each
side ; and all with the innocent tone of a man who was trying
to stretch (or rather contract) a point for the coachman, if in
any way possible. And the perplexing thing was that what
he said was so undeniably true. It was perfectly vain to talk
of its being ' a very unbusinesslike way of doing things, to
lose a passenger because one gentleman happened to be a
little stouter (a singular understatement of our argument) than
the rest,' while the solid and unyielding fact was what it was.
And coachee was obliged to carry off the passenger to sit
third on the box ; leaving our friend grumbling on ' quite
impossible ' with the complaining air of a goodnatured man
whom people have attempted to put upon. We had previously
ascertained that he only paid for one place.
Keble is at Freshwater for his wife's health, and proposed
my going there with him on Monday, which I did. Thursday
and bits of Wednesday and Friday I spent with S. Wilberforce
at Brighstone, and found R. Wilberforce staying for some time
there, and H. Wilberforce with his wife came over for a
day, so that all this was most lucky. Now I am back here, just
beginning again my visit to W T ilson. ' So far, so good, now per
4 Mr. Wilson was Mr. Keble's curate at Ilursley.
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD
33
contra : Keble and I, going to Cowes, in our way down seem
to have lost, he, his bag and great coat, I, my cloak, and a
small valise of Wilson's with sundry of my own clothes in it.
Whether these unhappy things have gone to Havre by a
packet which started for that place when we started for Cowes,
or whether a porter is now wearing my nice nankeens and
new silk waistcoat, the fates have not yet suffered to transpire.
I trust the former. Either alternative is melancholy, and one,
I fear, inevitable. I must say that I was so far only blame-
able in that I put a blind confidence in Keble, which I never
will do again in any man that writes verses, and that I put no
direction on my package, for which I the less reproach myself,
as his having done so seems in no degree to have alleviated
his fate. However, it is not, I hope, quite impossible that we
may see them again, and in the meantime I console myself
with thinking that it was not my very best coat that was in
it. I met Mrs.jSargent at the Wilberforces', who is a nice
kind of person, I should think, but I did not see much of her
She seemed much scandalised at R. Wilberforce for using 1
o
disparaging expressions of the Reformation ; which considered,
she seems to have managed ill in marrying three (at least)
out of her four daughters to people who would hold the
same objectionable language. Newman, I hear, the great
oracle of all four of them, she votes ' a confirmed old papist.'
To Rev. J. H. Newman,
Bransgore 5 : August 18, 1836.
My dear Newman, Ke.ble seems very little inclined to
send his Parochial Sermons up to you : he says ' Newman has
been troubled enough with reading things that won't do/
However, he says, ' some time ' he will select some for publi-
cation himself. I have attacked him several times, and will
again when I go back to Hursley : which will be next
Thursday. I cannot get him to say anything about the
Church Commission article ; he says he is sure that if you are
not up to it, he is not, and that he supposes it wants know-
5 Mr. Henry Wilberforce at that time held the living of Bransgore, in Hamp-
shire.
D
34 LETTERS OF .LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
ledge of law, but does not speak like a person who decidedly
will not do it. You are of course welcome to all the poetry
in the ' British Magazine.' He says he has two more Lyras for
you, but cannot lay his hand on them, and I cannot get any-
thing satisfactory out of him. Your letter only reached me
on Saturday evening, and H. Wilberforce took me off un-
expectedly to Bransgore on Wednesday, so that I have not
pressed for answers as I should have done. I can only say I
will. I talked to him about monasteries, and he asked
whether you had any details ready about them, and whether
it would not be worth while putting some people (Sir W.
Heathcote, e.g., he said) upon saving a little money for them
in case of necessity. He said he thought he would not take
a Bishopric, but should not feel decided enough to advise
a friend : and so encouraged I talked rather about the
Provostship, which he seemed to think quite another thing,
but did not pronounce (when I put the TG'TTOS before him)
whether it might not be embarrassing oneself with the system.
-, My own view certainly is against your declining it, unless
you feel that any oaths, pledges, &c., which you would have
to take, would be entangling. The prima facie advantages
* are so great that I cannot think you would have the oppor-
tunity put before you (if it is put) for nothing ; and, as to the
stall at Rochester, having a share of a cathedral in your hands
might turn out a great thing. I am sure New College
service is, even at present, one of the most powerful instru-
ments that we have at Oxford. ...
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
August 29, 1836.
My dear Newman, Keble certainly is the most impracti-
cable of men. I have bullied him with questions till I am
afraid of affronting him about the ' British Critic ' article, and
all I can get out of him is, that he will look at Collier : and
an injunction not to give you any hopes of his writing,
because he had disappointed you often enough already. He
has been at a Visitation Sermon, which he has just finished,
on Tradition, to be preached at a visitation of Dealtry's. He
talks of sending it up to you soon to look at, and at the same
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 35
time a bundle of ' Village Sermons.' And this has taken up
most of his time lately. Indeed, since I spent some days
with him at Freshwater, I have hardly ever seen him for more
than a few minutes at a time, and that generally when he has
been talking with Wilson about parish business, excepting
one or two evenings when all his family have been with him.
He tells me that he hears that G. Denison goes about the
country puffing you and your views of things.
If there is any chance of a new edition of your ' Arians,' I '
do wish you could make the Economy 6 a little more pala-
table ; so many people seem to me to find it hard of digestion.
I think I told you long ago that it was the point on which
Twisleton fastened, and I hear that Sir W. Heathcote, who
people say is a clever man, and I suppose a well-principled, "'
has need of all his respect for you and apostolicity to help
him to stomach it at all.
To Miss S. Rogers.
August 1836.
I suppose people at home have told you all the news that
was to be told before I left home. In the first place I had a
very prosperous and amusing journey to Winchester. The
amusing feature of it was an inordinately fat man who
occupied the place next to me ; .but having already given an
account of the same in a letter home I will not serve you up
the same dish, but will only say that this morning, looking at
the paper, I perceived that on Lablache and some other
singers presenting themselves to get places in the Southampton
(the same) coach, the book-keeper declined taking Lablache
6 ' The principle of the Economy is of His Will. ... It may be said that
; this : that out of various courses, in this principle, true in itself, yet is dan-
religious conduct or statement, all and gerous, because it admits of an easy
each allowable antecedently and in them- abuse, and carries men away into what
selves, that ought to be taken which is becomes insincerity and cunning. This
most expedient and most suitable at the is undeniable ; to do evil that good
time for the object in hand. Instances may come, to consider that the means,
of its application and exercise in Scrip- whatever they are, justify the end, to
ture are such as the following : ( i ) sacrifice truth to expedience, unscrupu-
Divine Providence did but gradually lousness, recklessness, are grave offences,
impart to the world in general, and to These are the abuses of Economy '
the Jews in particular, the knowledge (Apologia, p. 343).
36 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
unless he would pay for two places. It seems the omission
of that precaution in the case of our fat friend had made them
wiser.
I never saw so much of Keble before, and am delighted to
have done so now. I spent the whole days from Monday to
Saturday with his family (except two which I spent with
Samuel Wilberforce), and came home to Hursley with them,
and most delightful people they all are most certainly. I
never could have conceived a person keeping as Keble does
his boyish spirits, till I had seen him pelting his young nephew
in to his lessons in the most reckless way. At the same time
/am very much afraid of him, I confess, from not being able
quite to understand him always, or to make myself always
understood by him, and in talking of serious subjects he has
a disconcerting way of keeping silence sometimes, which may
mean either that he thinks you have been over forward and
are talking sillily, or that what you say is new to him and he
has no answer to make. I sometimes wonder how two men
so very unlike as Newman and he could have got to under-
stand one another so perfectly as they do. I suppose they
hardly could have done so unless they had had Froude as an
interpreter at first. Mrs. Keble I have been more taken with
than any one I have met for a very long time indeed. She is so
weak and ill that she rests (in walking) every thirty or forty
yards, but never takes any one little privilege of an invalid,
and is constantly exerting herself to keep all round her
cheerful and in good spirits, and that with so little of the
manner of a weak person that it is not for some time that
you see that it is an exertion. There is something certainly
inexpressibly taking in seeing a person who has a right to be
lying idle on a sofa, paying the sharpest attention to the little
comforts of every one present ; at the same time it is most
painful to see how very ill she is. One evening in particular,
after I had just heard of the death of Mrs. (which you
have probably seen in the papers), I felt it quite sickening to
look at her talking pleasantly and looking after every one's
cups of tea, and seeming all the time so pale and weak that
one felt that almost every word she spoke livelily was an
imprudent exertion.
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 37
To Mrs. Rogers.
Bransgore : September 18, 1836.
My dear Mother, I left Keble's finally on Thursday,
which is the place I certainly have left with most regret of
any, the whole party, besides their other likeable qualities,
being so kind and glad to see you, and intimate. Mrs. Keble
hopes much to see any of my sisters who may happen to be
in this part of the world ; this she volunteered, and repeated
several times that I must understand her to be in earnest,
and not take the invitation as a matter of compliment, which
I said I should do.
Tell Marian I have been unhappy enough to recommend
the ' Stabat Mater ' to Mrs. Wilberforce, the consequence of
which has been that there has come from the Southampton
music shop the music indeed, but set to regular Evangelical
English words, t\\epertransivit gladius stanza being put to the
following words (by way of a specimen) :
Mercy's streams I here am viewing
Precious drops my soul bedewing
Plead and claim my peace with God. ! ! I
I have tried what I could do, by supplying most of the right
words, to give the poor music a fair chance, but against such
ludicrous mangling I am afraid I can scarcely hope to suc-
ceed. And tell her likewise that some choruses (gipsy chiefly)
in the ' Preciosa ' are perfectly beautiful, and it will be worth
her while trying it. Mrs. Keble played it to me from a P.F.
setting of some nobody's.
I think I told you that I half expected Acland to join
us in our Normandy expedition. He will be "a great acquisi-
tion, both for other reasons and as a sketcher, one of which
article it is highly desirable to have in a party. I hope too
that Wilson will pass through Boulogne while I am there/on
his way home from Switzerland.
38 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
To Miss E. Rogers.
St. Heller's, Jersey : September 24, 1836.
My dear Emily, When last T wrote to you I think it
was from H. Wilberforce's. While there I received intimation
that Newman's consecration 7 was on the 22nd, the day after
we had intended to start H. W., my host, and Mrs. H. W.,
had promised to be there, and there was altogether to be a
party. Accordingly Mr. and Mrs. H. W. and myself started
from Bransgore on Tuesday, slept at Hursley (I at Wilson's
in his absence), and had a pleasant journey to Oxford and
a very pleasant party there. Newman's church, now finished,
is certainly one of the most perfect things for its size I ever
saw, The altar is beautiful, and the rest is so well kept under
that when you come in you seem to see nothing but the altar ;
never certainly was anything so unlike modern churches.
The builders &c. are extremely puzzled at the capricious and
unseemly (as to them appears) way in which his ornament is
spent ; no cushions in the armchairs by the side of the altar,
mere rush hassocks for the priest to kneel on there ; no
cushion to support the prayer-book on the altar ; no cushions
or hangings on the pulpit at a//, and instead of a reading-desk,
the kind of stand that a person plays the violin before, with a
bran hassock to kneel on when necessary ; while the altar
itself was carved stone, with seven very pretty Early English
arches behind it, surmounted by a three-lighted window in the
style of those of Christ Church Chapter-house ; all very
expensive.
We were all in fear as to what the Bishop would say ; in
the first place, stone altar, and in the second crosses over :
these are papistical, and Newman we thought was a person
who could not look over a hedge &c. ; moreover, so was the
ceremony of priests turning to the east to" say the prayers,
which was to be essayed nevertheless ; moreover, there was
no vestry for the Bishop to robe in, and the pulpit was even
illegally destitute of appurtenances. However, his Lordship
was highly pleased and complimentary, and everything went
7 The consecration of Newman's church at Littlemore, near Oxford.
1836 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 39
off in the greatest style. Williams, 8 whom my sisters know of,
is the curate.
After a very jolly day and a half at Oxford I started at
8 o'clock by the Southampton coach, extremely disgusted to
find, with the fear of the equinox before our eyes, that the
wind was getting up and that we should be wet through by
the time we reached Southampton, and be miserable all our
passage. However, we stopped (again) at Keble's and made
him give us victuals and dry our wet thinggTSnd lodged our-
selves in tolerable comfort on the Jersey steamer at 7 o'clock
P.M. on Friday, September 23, 1836, with a good sharp S.W.
wind blowing, and with the swell consequent on what had
blown through the day. Till we got to the Needles, as a look
at the map will point out to you, everything was delightful,
except that everybody knew what they had to look forward
to ; and I have seldom seen anything more beautiful than the
Needles were by moonlight with clouds flying about the tops
of the cliffs. And indeed the whole passage by the north of
the Isle of Wight was beautiful in the same way from the
quantity of white clouds, the skirts of which seemed to be hang-
ing over the hills with breaks here and there and a full moon
every now and then. At the Needles the sharp pitching sent
everybody down to bed like a shot. / myself walked about
deck for some time longer, and never felt less unwell, or more
like a god in my life ; walking down a ship as it is descend-
ing a wave seems to me (next to skating) the nearest approach
to flying that is given to man.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Boulogne-sur-Mer : October 10, 1836.
My dear Newman, I write just to say that I certainly
intend to be at Oxford on Saturday night, or rather Sunday
morning, by the mail. My plans are to come to London by
a packet which leaves this at twelve on Friday night and
professes to cross in about twelve hours. So that I shall have
just an hour or two, I hope, at home, and then pass on to you
8 Mr. Isaac Williams (see below, p. 107).
40 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. H
people at Oxford. Our tour has been very successful, in spite
of some small impediments to our perfect happiness in the
shape of bad weather and unwholesome French living. I
certainly seem to have attained to some few fresh ideas on
the subject of Gothic architecture how wonderfully beautiful
some of the cathedrals are ! I confess I do not attain to a
distinct view about their services, music, &c. ; in fact, gene-
rally speaking, I was not much struck. However, not under-
standing what is going on, and being occupied in a search
through one's Missal to find the place during the greater part
of the service, interfere somewhat, as well with your perception
of beauties and proprieties, as with other things.
The priests seem not to be much respected by the class of
people one meets in diligences, and to have lost entirely their
hold on the national education. I travelled with a boy who is
at one of the Government Colleges, and I should fancy that
the French system had as great capabilities of becoming a
magnificent, flourishing, anti-Christian system as can well be
conceived. Are we to come to this ? Or will the two uni-
versities save us ? Like Acland, I think you ought to put
forth something positive, and don't know what.
However, I shall see you within a week, so I need not
have any compunction at sending you a short note like this
merely to tell you to have rooms ready for me particularly
as it is at your command that I make my appearance. Kind
remembrances to all at Oriel.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : February 1837.
My dear Newman, I was, as you seemed to forebode,
knocked up with the influenza the day but one after I received
your letter. I suppose""you have forgotten what you wrote to
me about ; however, I shall assume that you remember. I
cannot really judge about a title for your book ; I have not
the book enough in my head ; probably have not heard
enough of it to know what title would be appropriate. I
1837 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD
should, e.g., not have thought that the Pastoral Office, &c., was
the subject of your book. 9
S. Wilberforce, I believe, was not attacked at Islington ;
on the contrary, he wanted to get an opportunity of speaking
at Bramston's special desire, but could not. Archdeacon
Hoare gave you all up but Keble, and could not consent to
call ' the great Keble a heretic.' I hear generally they find
now that the ' Christian Year ' contains all evil hidden in it.
Archdeacon H. considers that Keble and himself are the two
most sympathetic souls in the diocese of Winton. Do you
know him ? By the way, I dined with Sir R. Inglis to meet
Thornton the other day, and met Rose/Southey, and one of
the Coleridges, which last talked of Arnold, who, he said,
stated to friends that his fingers itched to review Keble's
* Hooker,' but that he did not do it on account of their old
friendship. He said Arnold considered Keble as quite the
leader and representative of Church views. Rose, I thought,
seemed very much down in the mouth perhaps it was only
that he expected Southey to exhibit which he did not. He
hardly said anything, except that he abused Arnold for
imputing to people (old friends of his own) what he must
have known to be false motives. . . .
Townshend of Durham told somebody that, dining with
Rose, he had for a long time had great difficulty in containing
himself, and at last Rose said that he thought it very doubtful
whether we had got more good or evil from the Reformation .
' Then,' he said, ' I could stand it no more, so I rose and
gave it him, hip and thigh.'
Can I be of any use in translating for the Fathers ? * I
have been thinking over it, and if I could be of use shall be
glad to be so.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
:.
Romanism and Popular Prates- lated 'by Members of 'the English Church,
tantism, published in 1837. edited by Newman, Keble, and Pusey.
The Library of the Fathers, trans-
42 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
To Rev. J. H. Neivman.
University Club : April 27, 1837.
My dear Newman, I never thought very much of my
tract suggestion, but Wood brought some objections to a
pamphlet which did not apply to them, so I suggested them.
The said Wood states first, that he does not remember, and
. does not believe, that you ever commissioned him to write to
Manning about the Optatus. 2 Secondly, that he did say to
S. Wllberforce that it was idle of H. W. to have thrown
_
up the Confessions : and will never again say a word to one
Wilberforce about another but that he was led astray by
your having written to him to ask him to suggest some
translator for the Confessions H. W. having taken the
Letters. 3 That, therefore, as he has only done you one dis-
service, and since you count his letter as a service, he con-
siders himself quits with you.
I see Hope twice a week, and really he seems both a very
nice fellow, and very well inclined to go thoroughly with us.
Jeremy Taylor, as far as I can see, seems his great man. It
is rather absurd to see how many people take Sewell's ground
quite believing your people to be the right set but think-
ing that they individually are more likely to be useful to right
views by not being party men.
Vaughan, I hear, is gone to Hampstead to think out
principles, and has joined to himself Twisleton. The account
I heard from one of the Denisons was that he said he had
taken his views for some tfme on authority, and wanted to
satisfy himself for himself.
You do not tell me how I am to get an Ambrose to
translate from. I told Acland you liked his article, and had
a long talk with him about Maurice. I was amused at your
respective ways of putting the same fact. You complained
of Pusey's being sacrificed to a theory. Acland said that it
was Maurice's very admiration for Pusey which made him
select him as the best and most living specimen he could get
of the English High Church view of the Sacraments.
2 I.e. a proposal that he should 3 The translation of St. Augustine's
translate the writings of Optatus of Confessions and of St. Cyprian's
Milevi against the Donatists. Letters.
1837 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 43
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
May 31, 1837.
Carissime N., I am afraid it is vain to hope that my
sister wilt" recover. The physicians say just what they used
to do about Froude. . . .
Wood has just spoken to me about Froude's ' Remains/
As far as I have an opinion I should say with him, publish
them as soon as they are ready : unless, of course, there is
anything which, on consideration, he as a clergyman of the
Church of England had no right to publish. I cannot help
feeling as if his death was a kind of call to publish them now.
Perhaps (or I may say certainly) I should have thought it
bad policy to publish them so soon, if circumstances had not
pointed that way ; for I am not so ready as Wood to throw
away your character for judgment and moderation ; I hope it
may serve you and Oxford many a good turn yet. But, as it
is, I should go quo fata vocant.
How far does Froude's view of the Eucharist go beyond
what Knox's implies, where he speaks of the consecrated
elements being to us ' all and more than all ' that the
Shechinah was to the Jews ? If not much, will it be so very
startling to people at large ?
Our clergyman here (Legge of All Souls 4 ) seems edging
forwards towards daily service : last year he had it on Saints*
days then in Lent on Wednesdays and Fridays, and now
every week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and
Saints' days. Wood tells me Dodsworth is to have his
church always open, really for the benefit of poor people who
live two or three families in one room.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Rev. J. H. Newman: 1
Eliot Place : July 3, 1837.
I confess myself a good deal at a loss and rather anxious
to know accurately what is the state of things ; which, con-
4 Hon. and Rev. Henry Legge, 5 Newman's answer to this (dated
Vicar of Blackheath. He married a July 5) is printed in Letters and Cor-
sister of Frederic Rogers in 1842. respondence, ii. 237.
44 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
sidering my oath to obey, I certainly have not been diligent
in informing myself of. If I were to come up at the Audit
a few days before the rest, should I be able to get hold of the
Statute Book and make up something of one's mind quietly
beforehand ? I really should like to hear a little what your
view of things is, if it is not troubling you. Is this heretical ?
The statutes about Prayer for the Founder, qud statutes,
are repealed by the Act of Parliament and Convocation which
made it wrong to obey them ; we do not swear to them ;
they are not statutes ; but they should be kept in the Book,
(i) as monuments of our benefactors' intention, binding as
such on all of us, as far as we can rightly observe them (or
\qul\ substitute something for them), a guide to such as wish
to do so, and possibly a still more literal and exact guide to
future and better times : (2) (if there is nothing really per se
wrong in them, which you know best) as existing still in posse
and liable to be called into life at any moment, if Convocation
(qu. and Parliament ?) repealed those of their laws which make
it wrong to obey them literally at present. Then as to the
' eloquio fruantur Latino ' and such like which are part of our
present statutes, I should be glad to see them got rid of, for
Lord Radnor's reasons.
Have pity on me and tell me how much of this is absurd.
For, in spite of all you may say to the contrary, it is pleasant
for a weak conscience to be able to refer one's actions to a
rational principle. Don't treat me Wilsonice for this.
I met and talked with Ward of Balliol the other day at the
Club, and was rather pleased with his way of talking, not that
we talked at all on Catholic subjects ; but he talked (as
Marriott says) like a man in earnest, who wished to see how
he ought to act. The Balliol people in their petition to
Parliament have asserted that they can alter their statutes ;
but they have since found that they cannot, which discovery
seems to have perplexed him in many ways.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
1837 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 45
To Rev. J. If. Newman.
Eliot Place : August 30, 1837.
I have been setting to work (on Dr. Doyle's recommenda-
tion partly) to read Isaiah, which I mention in order to-
acknowledge the benefit conferred on all such readers by
your sermons on the Kingdom of the Saints, and your view
of Prophecy as a record of God's (partly frustrated) intentions,
I cannot say how your notions seem to make everything fall
into order to me, and what a meaning they give to what
otherwise would have been to me only poetry. They seem to
me to grow into a key to every fresh prophecy.
How kind the ' Dublin Review ' is to you, ' amiable young
man,' and what a ' floor ' its defence of Dr. Wiseman from
your charge of unfairness is ! Wood seems rather penetrated
by its (and his own) arguments against Keble's Rule of Faith.
He complains that you and Keble tax his faith too hardly,,
not merely requiring him to believe generally that the Fathers
assert the subordination of Tradition^ which he would readily
do (though his own knowledge went the other way) till he
knew as much about them as you do ; but also that this opinion
of theirs is proved by certain passages which you adduce ; from
which passages his own reason tells him no such inference
can be drawn, 6
Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : November 27, 1837.
By the bye, you know Froude used to say that neither
Laud nor the Reformers could be acquitted of coarseness (on
the ' spirit of the age ' TOTTOS). He said to me of Laud that
6 Newman in his reply (August 31) it is the heart of it. ... I wish Wood
says : ' Your judgment about The would put down on paper where and
Kingdom of the Saints is most valu- how he disagrees with me. I see no
able : first, because it is the first I have more than the man in the moon. All
had on the subject, certainly the first I have said is, that the Fathers do
deliberate one after a perusal of Scrip- appeal in all the controversies to Scrip-
ture ; next, because it is a very essential ture as a final authority ' {Letters and
theory in the Anglican system, indeed Correspondence, ii. 243).
46 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
all he saw in him was that he was a brave man, with some
good vfews, adding that all our divines since the Reformation
had been very dark about Church Independence. I don't
know whether this is desirable to preserve in Froude's
, 'Remains.'
I saw Manning the other day very stout about Church
Commission, and generally, in fact, very respectably revolu-
tionist. What do you think, as a sign of the times, of his
introducing me to Archdeacon Hoare as a gentleman who
would go all lengths with him (the Archdeacon), ' a thoroughly
good Catholic ' ? This was taken as a full title to confidence,
and I was flooded with the contents of the Archdeacon's heart
accordingly.
And now for something which will rather amuse you. I
have been broaching my law-school scheme at home, which
seems to be well received. But what potion do you think I
have used to make their ' absinthia tetra ' palatable ? I really
have hardly the face to write it. The possibility of its leading
to the university membership ! ! I really do think that, looking
at things simply as they are at this present moment, such a
thing is quite enough on the cards to make it not hypocrisy
to use it as I do, and much more likely than any equal dis-
tinction in any other line. Hope suggested it for this
particular purpose. And as far as I have talked yet, the
whole scheme seems to have been quite caught at.
To me it certainly will be an exceeding comfort to think
that I am reading and living here with a definite view of
making myself useful, ultimately at Oxford (as lecturer, not
as member).
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : February 24, 1838.
Antiquissime, 7 I cannot help writing to say how much I
have been struck with your joint Preface to Froude's book.
' Two or three letters of this date licity. The Anglican said to the
begin with this sobriquet, and one with Roman "There is hut one faith, the J
5 ifux^J onroo-ToAiK.';. See Newman's Ancient, and you have not kepTto it ;"
Apologia, p. 106) : ' The Anglican the Roman retorted " There is but one
disputant took his stand upon Antiquity Church, the Catholic, and you are out
or Apostolicity, the Roman upon Catho- f it
RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 47
It really seems to me the noblest thing I have seen for a very
long time, and exactly to hit the right points. There is a
bold frank tone about it that to me seems very taking. I
suppose pointing out that the 'oppressor' view applied to
the Articles (according to Maurice's theory) you considered a
degree of audacity too great even ' perditissimis hominibus.'
I was a good deal amused at your American project for
me, which Wood told me of. Apostolical bagman would
certainly be an amusing trade. I mean this, really ; but that
must be put off till I can do it on my own account, which I
am afraid will approach the Greek Kalends. Paris is more
feasible, as I think I could manage that, without finding a
balance on the wrong side, in October. If I went there, I
think I should go after the Oriel election, and should stay a
month or two.
Hallam (whom I have been beginning to read) says that
when conciliation was the object it was held out by our
Church that the Liturgy was essentially the same as the Mass
Book, referring to Strype and Holinshed (Const. Hist. i. 117,
note). I do not know whether you know him, but I have
been rather struck to see how much he agrees with Froude in
the facts he states, or grants. He calls Collier the fairest
historian of the Reformation. He performs the part of
' advocatus diaboli ' very respectably, especially in the matter
of Cranmer and Edward VI.
Acland took me the other evening to hear a debate on
the ballot, and really I wonder the Radicals do not carry
things before them more than they do. They seem to me so
obviously the straightforward side. I never saw anything
more absurd than Peel's shuffling retreat on finding that he
had hastily avowed his real reason for opposing it ; unwilling-
ness, viz., to trust the unbiassed votes of the constituency.
So, in spite of Sir Robert, Sodor and Man survives : 8 who
is to have it ? I hear that Denison came up from Salisbury
on purpose to vote for it, on some late occasion.
8 In a letter to Keble (October 26, me the clergy there have signed a
1837) Newman writes: 'Sir Robert petitioner, instead of against, the
Inglis [M.P. for Oxford University] suppression of their see. . . . The laity
has been to the I^Je of Man, and tells are getting up a petition against,'
48 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
To Rev, J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : March 20, 1838.
I was most exceedingly pleased the day before yesterday
to receive a copy of dear Froude's book ' from the editors,' and
you are hereby desired to conceive yourself thanked ' pro rei
suavitate ; ' and not ' pro facultate nostra.' It seems like having
you all three bound up together and put in one's bookshelves
bodily, and I hope will give o<riov ri ical evspyss to the read-
ing of it, as well as to the sight of the blue backs.
I have only to complain that editors and authors do not
have a set of title-pages sent down to them to indite with their
own hand the words of gift, instead of leaving it to Mr.
Rivington. You see you can never satisfy people.
I heard from Wilson that Judge Coleridge had protested,
and went to see whether I could hear anything about it from
J. Froude. He said his father had written to him to say that
Coleridge had sent him a very kind letter, but ' strongly
animadverting ' on the publication of some passages what, he
did not say. I was glad to find from what he said that the
Archdeacon and his family had made up their minds well to
that, and a great deal more of such remonstrances.
I met Utterton in an omnibus the other day, who told me
it was the prevailing subject of conversation at Oxford, and
that reasonable (!) people generally acquiesced in your reasons
for publication.
To Miss Rogers.
May 12, 1838.
I have committed the extravagance of hiring a pianoforte
for a month, to the infinite annoyance, I have no doubt, of
Daman who is over my head ; but such is my infirmity of
purpose that I know if I had it not I should be always draw-
ing by candlelight or some such trick.
Newman wants me to write a review of a couple of small
volumes of poems by two Cambridge men called Trench 9 and
Milnes ' for the ' British Critic,' but as it is to be done in the
8 Archbishop Trench. ' Monckton Milnes (the late Lgrd Houghton).
1838 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 49
course of the next fortnight or three weeks I do not feel very
hopeful. I shall give up all notion of translating Ambrose.
Wood, when I was in town, offered to take it off my hands,
and I shall accept his offer. I am pretty regular in my two
hours' law ; I generally get an hour of Hume, irregularly one
with Edward 2 (who is, besides reading, doing some Latin com-
position with me), and I scarce know how I get rid of the
rest of the day. To-morrow I am going to make a holiday,
a thing I have by no means earned, and make an expedition
about 8 miles on the London road with Courtney and an-
other friend, to a curious and pretty church at Dorchester,
which we all want to lionise.
Your affectionate brother,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Temple : July 30, 1838.
My dear Newman, Wood and I feel honoured by being
selected as pursebearers for the movement. Wood only sug-
gests that the managers ought to be resident at Oxford,
which is at least uncertain in both our cases. Young Mozley
seems likely hereafter to be in the right position for adminis-
tering it. Certainly we ought, as you say, to be clerics. Of
course, if from any circumstances I should think myself an
unfit person to manage the money, I should not be breaking
trust in transferring it to such persons as our friends might
think best fitted to take my place. I understand myself
bound either to administer the fund for the ends which you
have in view, or to take care that it is put into the hands of
those who will so act.
I was somewhat amused at a view of you people I heard
the other day a propos of Mr. Davenport. A coxcombical
diner-out, whose name I don't know, was talking of the
extreme difficulty of pronouncing where religious enthusiasm
ended and madness began, and observed that Mr. D. brought
different bishops to vouch for his sanity, and ' again Pusey
2 His brother, then at Christ Church.
\\
50 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH, n
and those Oxford men, who, by the way, are themselves just
on those confines where it is so puzzling to pronounce.'
Really you had better look sharp or you will all find your-
selves under Dr. Warburton's care some of these days. In
mere prudence Pusey ought to set up a britzcha.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : August i, 1838.
My dear Newman, I went yesterday with my sister to
see Westmacott's drawing, and it seems to me as if it would
be quite beautiful, and not in the least ostentatious. It and
Littlemore Chapel will be quite worthy of one another. My
sister, to whom I had read your account of it, went not quite
prepared to find fault, but certainly with considerable mis-
givings, and was quite converted by the sight of it to
unqualified admiration. However, all I had to say I said to
Westmacott. He was uncommonly good-natured in showing
all the beautiful things in his studio, and talked very warmly
about you, and hesitatingly about his possible ' British Critic '
article. So the acquaintance began very flourishingly, and I
am to call on him when we are in town together again. Really
he may be a most valuable aid if he will take in good earnest
to reviving the old rjdos in sculpture, which seems quite his
notion.
What do you think of Gladstone's exculpation of you ?
And what of the face Froude would have made at being
quoted in the House of Commons as ' an accomplished
gentleman' by Lord Morpeth? 3 And what of Sir R. H.
Inglis's pledging himself that the University was not 'becom-
ing day by day a less loyal child of the Reformation ' ? Over-
hasty Sir Robert !
Gladstone, by the bye, is engaged on a book on ' Church
and State,' or rather, Wood says, ' the Duties of the State to
the Church.' I do not know whether to be glad or not ; he
3 See a letter from Newman to editor of the Remains [of Hurrell
James Mozley (Letters and Correspon- Fronde]. Gladstone has defended me ;
dence,\i. 255): ' You see Lord Morpeth Sir R. Inglis the University.'
has been upon me in the House, as
'
1838 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 51
certainly must pledge himself to principles far above those
held by any modern statesman, and from the way in which
he talks of Erastianism and Church grievances, and Hook,
I hope he won't tether himself the wrong way.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : October 4, 1838.
My dear Newman, I cannot say I got anything beyond
amusement from my trip : the size of our family party made
it even more than usually difficult to pick up information, and
I am never much of a hand at it. The priests seem to have
identified themselves with the Revolution very much so
everyone says. In the cathedral is a monument to a certain
Count Merode who was killed, they write, ' Catholicae fidei
patriaeque jura tuendo,' but the civil authorities, and the one
or two laics to whom I could talk, seemed to put it on the
mere ' liberty ' ground. I suppose that is partly from
Leopold's being a Protestant. Do you see that Lacordaire
(of 'Avenir ' memory) is putting himself at the head of a re-
establishment of the Dominicans in France ? Also do you
observe in Blackwood an attack on a book of Guizot's for
being Roman Catholic ? He seems from the little I saw to be
doing wonderfully good service to the Middle Ages.
I was sorry to hear that your friend, Mr. Stephen of the
Colonial Office, was the author of the article on Froude ;
though it is better than if it had been a younger man. Doyle
talked of it and spoke of the ' Remains ' as having produced
the impression of an unamiable character.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : January 21, 1839.
My dear Newman, I am very glad to hear what you say
generally about the going on of things ; certainly one cannot
go anywhere without hearing of the ' Oxford Tract party,'
&c. I could scarcely write a letter in the club-room the other
day, so much was my attention distracted by two men who
52 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
were discussing you and you seem by degrees to be taking
possession even of the public streets ; at least the last time I
crossed St. Paul's Churchyard I heard the words ' Newmanite '
and ' Puseyite ' (a new and sonorous compound) from' two
passers-by, wffo were talking very intently. I hear people
talk of the desirableness of some systematic, or at least com-
pendious, statement of what you really do teach. What
regard is due to the complainants I scarce do know. They
were elderly people, and more or less Establishmentarians,
and certainly within my own experience hereabouts I should
say what one has seen elsewhere that the rising genera-
tion areour hope : elderly people believe newspapers and
periodicals ; which is a great disadvantage. Wood seems
sanguine, as does the redoubtable Nathaniel Goldsmid, and
one or two other youngers contrariwise certainly the elders.
I am sorry to hear the bishops join the Cranmer business, 4
and, I must say, sorry also that they make it a church not a
monument, as the farther they went in identifying it with
Cranmer, the more intelligible was the ground that one could
take against them.
If you want to see a fresh crime of Cranmer's, look at the
comment with which he accompanies his signature to certain
answers to certain questions on doctrinal points, submitted by
Henry VIII. to the bishops and learned men of the Church.
Also look at the Bishop of London's (I believe Bonner's)
answer to the first question, on the definition of a sacrament
(Burnet, vol. i. part 2, pp. 314 and 367). I am exceedingly
glad "you speak so highly of Gladstone. What do you think
of the following glee (which I have just fallen foul of) as a
compendium of the 1688 rjOos ?
Let's live good honest lives,
And make much of our wives,
And since all flesh is grass
Let's merrily drink our glass.
God bless our noble King, what need we fear the Pope.
the Jesuits, Jews and Turks ?
For we defy the Devil and all his works.
4 The Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford. printed in Letters and Correspondence,
(This letter is in answer to one from ii. 279).
Newman of January 14, which is
1839 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 53
To Rev. J. H. Nezvman.
Eliot Place: September 13, 1839.
My dear Newman, Edward tells me that you purposed
writing to me soon, so I take the initiative in order to bring
your good intentions to a point. I have not much satisfactory
to say concerning myself, having spent my time in a very
pleasant idleness at H. Wilberforce's and up the Seine with
my sister.
At Rouen, which was our farthest point, I was a good deal
pleased "affcT amused with a French priest, almoner of a
hospital, to whom H. W. introduced me. H. W. had told me
that he was a simple, unlearned, amiable kind of man who
confined himself to his duties, but from his intercourse with
him (H. W.) and Shadwell (a friend of ours) he has obviously
conceived a hope that he may be in his little way instrumental
in the great work which he considers going on in England.
And accordingly I found him with the end of his tongue
thoroughly furnished with all the quips and quirks, and sly
questions, which could be launched against an Anglican, and
obviously unable to resist any opportunity of bringing them
out. He evidently liked H. W. very much ; confessed, as
he said, a ' faible pour M. Wilberforce,' but could not resist
cuts at him as a family man ; wanted to know whether we had
not a kind of hereditary priesthood in England ; observed in
showing us his vestments that Madame W. must have
regretted much the disuse of them, ' she would have been
very well pleased to see her husband in these fine dresses ; '
was constantly observing, ' We, who are not reformed, who are
behind the rest of the world, have preserved this custom,'
or ' take a good deal of care about these little things/
as he was showing off vestments, chapels, and everything
else that he thought by any possibility could captivate us.
He kept Wilberforce's and Shadwell's cards with great care,
because they would be valuable when the said W. and S.
54 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. 11
turned Catholic ; was anxious I should do so, urging the
authority of Marshal Turenne, who was converted by Bossuet's
Exposition, which he accordingly gave me ; asked whether
there were no Catholic priests in England whom I could
consult ; cross-examined me to elicit the uncertainty of the
Church of England teaching; argued in (I must say) rather a
light, controversial, skin-deep way about the Eucharist, and
floored me most uncommonly by asking me whether I could
in my conscience say that I had no doubts in my heart about
my own Church being right ; my sister said she had none, but
he did not seem inclined to accept that as an answer, and the
' consequence was that a certain uncomfortable silence, which
I kept, must have considerably strengthened an impression
(much to be deplored, but which certainly existed in his mind)
that the English Church had not the strongest conceivable
hold on the mind of her children. I should like much to
send him Hope ; he is particularly anxious that all of us
should send him ' beaucoup de vos amis.' He tells me I am
not far from the kingdom of Heaven, as, I hear, he told
Shadwell ; but obviously his sympathies are entirely, at
present, with individuals, not with our Church. And I take
discredit to myself for not having properly stuck up for my
Mother. One thing is, it is so difficult to get beyond common-
places, unless you understand a language much better than I
do French.
I (who like my friends' wives, though ' presbyterae ') passed
a very pleasant time with H. W., who seems to me flourish-
ing. He really keeps his edge very sharp, in spite of the
country tendencies that you complain of.
Did you talk over with Wilson, when at Hursley, his
notion of being a candidate for the Mastership of Acland's
London Normal School, and the opposition to him as curate
of Kebles, raised by him of London, and Wood's gentlemanly
and quiet request (at the Board) that, for the convenience of
all proscribed parties, a definite line of exclusion might be
drawn, to which the authorities declined acceding ?
Has your long vacation produced anything besides
Dionysius ? However, you will tell me all about that ; I
II
1839 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 55
shall expect to hear great things, for I think one's notions of
other people's capabilities are much increased by one's own
idleness. 5
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : September 16, 1839.
My dearest N., I did not calculate on eliciting such a
pathetic apology as the exordium of your letter by my P.S.
Another time I will write at the bottom ' this is a joke,' as I
see you do, though I must say such exceeding caution seems
to me more considerate than complimentary.
As you make an attack on me, let me tell you that your
well-wishers here are all in the act of being extremely
scandalised at reports which reach them (not through me) of
your making yourself conspicuous by short trousers, worsted
stockings, and bad gloves a kind of notoriety more befitting
a Methodist preacher than an ' Anglo-Catholic ' priest, and
which those who have the onus upon them of defending or
explaining all that you think yourself justified in doing have
much right to complain of. If you can't mend in any other
way, you must be compelled to wear Wellingtons and straps.
I wish you would come here for a day or two, though I
do not know that I have much to attract you : my playing
sister is away, so you would not have any Beethoven, and I
suspect everybody is out of town. Church has promised me
a day or two before the vacation is over, and I would try
and bring him up at the same time. Do try to pare an end
off somebody's visit, and let me have it. I only limit myself
to a day or two because I suppose it is hopeless to ask for
more ; I hope you do not want to be told that nothing would
give us greater pleasure than to have you with us for the rest
of the vacation.
5 Newman's answer, dated Septem- come to the worst, I should turn
her 15, is printed in his Letters and Brother of Charity in London an
Correspondence, ii. 285. In the course object which, qtiite independently of any
of it he says : ' You see, if things were to such perplexities, is growing on me.'
56 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
I don't wonder at what you say about ' brother of Charity.'
It is a kind of thought that causes 'even me sometimes a
certain unsubstantial fidgety aspiration, such as people have
after those acts of self-denial from which circumstances seem
most effectually to protect them. But what do you mean by
' things coming to the worst ' ? Ejectment from Oriel and St.
Mary's, or the Triple Crown ? Oibo ! That you should be con-
templating such contingencies ! A s to our ill-treatment of them,
I do think they should remember that if we hanged, they burnt,
and if we have married Bishops, they have had profligate Popes.
1 must finish, as I am going to town to wish Henry
Denison of All Souls' good-bye. He is going off with a
younger brother to settle in New South Wales. Of all the
birds in the air ! 6
To Miss M. Rogers.
Oriel : October 30, 1839.
My dear Marian, My occupations since I left home have
been principally confined to accounts (which do not suggest
any interesting topics) and certain necessary letters (which
are much in the same predicament). The only thing which
has happened to me lately which has not happened to me
twenty times before, is that I have taken a lesson or two of
Johnson in the art . of observing (stars, that is), which I can
fancy very interesting. It certainly is remarkable to see a
star waddle across the field of a telescope, set to the right
place half an hour before, exactly where and when you ex-
pected it ; and there is something exceedingly satisfactory in
the wonderful accuracy with which you note down its pro-
ceedings. Johnson's two first observations told the same story
within -J-Q-JJ- of a second. And my own first observation (on
which I pride myself) I think verified itself to about T V of a
second. Then there is a kind of tranquil punctuality about
the observer's way of going on which is highly edifying. You
get to appreciate such infinitely small fractions of time as a
6 It was in answer to this letter that man, containing the quotation from
Newman wrote the letter, dated Sep- St. Augustine, ' Secwrus judicat orbis
tember 22 (fitters and Correspondence, terrarum,' which, hesays in the Apologia,
ii. 286) about the article by Dr. Wise- so strongly affected him.
1839 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 57
matter of course, you consider yourself as having ' plenty of
time ' to get yourself in order for an event which is to happen
in 1 5 seconds, and this when being too late even by one second
is irretrievable. Two things are absolutely necessary, never
to be too late, and never to be in a hurry, and it is a decided
object not to be many seconds too soon. I can't fancy any
more magnificent practice for a fidgety person who wanted
to be un fidgeted.
Oxford is very full of our friends, Johnson, Mozley, Hope,
and Church being the principal, besides Newman.
I hear Wilson will probably be settled in London, being
likely to be nominated master of one of the National Society
(Acland's) Training Schools for masters. It is a great act of
self-devotion on his part going from Hursley to be a school-
master in London, and so I think he feels it, but I should
think he would be uncommonly useful. I shall like to see
him now and then. The Bishop of London objected to him
as Keble's curate, and was^tjrrrywron over by the very high
character Sir H. Oakeley gave of Wilson. It seems amusing
that Sir H. Oakeley's good opinion should compensate for
the guilt of a connexion with Keble.
I have been not a little amused since writing all the
above at a regular pitched battle between a Roman Catholic
priest, who has been picked up here by a good-natured friend
of mine named Hamilton 7 (chaplain to Bishop Denison),
and Palmer, 8 of whom you have heard from the Winters.
Hamilton asked me to meet the Roman Catholic, and Palmer
was of the party ! After dinner the Roman Catholic set to,
and Palmer in like manner. Strange to say, I seldom remem-
ber having laughed more, the two men were so unlike, and
their modes of attack so very amusing. The Roman Catholic
was as unfair as he could be, but he certainly gave Palmer
one or two sharp shakings. He was a clever man, up with
the particular points in question, and prepared to lie when he
7 Walter Hamilton, who was in the as Bishop of Salisbury,
remove above Frederic Rogers at Eton. 8 William Palmer, brother of the
At this time he was a Fellow of Merton late Lord ' Selbome. He afterwards
and examining chaplain tc Bishop joined the Church of Rome.
Denison, whom he succeeded in 1854
58 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
thought he would not be found out (as he was once), and
every now and then coming a bit of eloquence, very much
reminding me of Malan in his way of putting awkward ques-
tions, and sneering by implication at our deficiencies ; Palmer,
on the contrary, prosing away in a dry humorous way, with
answers for almost everything sometimes grievously far-fetched,
and when he had no answer simply resuming the thread of
his discourse as if nothing had happened and flowing on
again with equanimity. I am somewhat amused at Hamilton's
having been the man to pick up the Papist, and that by a kind
of accident.
You have probably not heard what you will be very sorry
to hear, that Henry 9 goes after all to the West Indies. He
starts on the 1 5th of November. I have just heard it from
home.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss S. Rogers.
Oriel : November 12, 1839.
My dear Sophy, I duly sent off the music to Mrs. Keble,
but forgot that your note was not in the parcel with the music,
but elsewhere ; your note therefore I sent by itself afterwards,
crossing a note from Keble to acknowledge what had come,
and to state that your note (which I had alluded to in a letter
to him) had not. I will copy his sentence not because there
is anything in it, but because I know people (and I suppose
you) like particular acknowledgments. ' Let me now thank
you and your sister most kindly in Charlotte's name and my
own for the letter, music, and buckle, all of which were most
acceptable in their kind ; but there was no letter from Miss
Rogers in the parcel which I think you gave us reason to
expect ; there was a slip of paper with a pattern for painted
glass which we conjectured might have slipped in by mistake
for the note. Shall I return it, and will your sister send her
letter in exchange ? '
9 His brother, then in the Artillery.
1839 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 59.
I have set going here a little singing meeting with one of
the young Aclands 1 and Anderdon (who is just up for his
degree now) under the auspices of a certain Mr. Elvey 2 which
I hope will get on into something. Two hours in the evening
once a week to practise a little old sacred music. There has
been some bad luck about our start, engagements interfering,
&c., which (as Elvey is rather an odd-tempered gentleman ^
whom I particularly want to talk over) I somewhat regret.
But we shall see what we shall see.
Oxford is full of friends. Acland 3 is up, though not at
this moment, else I should get him to frank this. Two of our
friends (Pattison and Christie by name) have just got Fellow-
ships at different colleges, and altogether things are very
pleasant ; only perhaps rather too many engagements. We
have all sorts of queer people coming here now, having
got rid of the Papist ; we have had a Syrian Christian from
Beyrout, interpreter to the Persian princes, dining about here..
He dined with Newman one day in his fez &c., very much
indeed to the amusement of the undergraduates. Unluckily,,
just as he was coming we heard reports of his being a great
scamp, which materially lessened our satisfaction at his pre-
sence, particularly by making us anxious about our silver
spoons. If it had not been for this report, which I really
believe was only the malice of some missionary, he would
have been a great lion. He talked English as grammatically
and far more fluently than I can, and was only too happy to
hold forth about the Syrian Church, which certainly from his
account is terribly bullied. Whenever any Christian power
displeases the Grand Turk he bastinadoes all the bishops,,
priests, and deacons in his dominions.
I must finish, as I have to go to one of Newman's soirees
and am late. Love to all.
Your affectionate brother,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
1 The present Sir Henry Acland and George Elvey.
a younger brother. 3 The present Sir Thomas Acland,,
- The well-known composer, Sir at that time M. P. for West Somerset.
60 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
< January 21, 1840.
My dear Newman, It seems almost absurd to write to
you now, as I shall see you on Saturday, but I do not like to
come back without having thanked you for your letter, which
was a most exceeding relief to me.
I have just seen Wood for the first time, after many in-
effectual attempts : he is contemplating a little account of
Endowments (Monasteries, Colleges, Tithes, Hospitals) for the
Christian Knowledge Society, to be one of a set of books
which Hope is busying himself about, in favour of which he
has given up Churton's ' Englishman's Library.'
I see a popular way of speaking is beginning to be that
* without agreeing with the Oxford people, it must be allowed
they have done good hitherto.' A young clergyman was
saying that, in the country, people who talked in that way
were altering their practice in a way that ' we town people '
had no notion of, and he spoke of a fox-hunting style of clergy-
man, who, ' without any agreement with the Oxford Tracts,'
had been setting up services on Saints' days and other days.
He himself, he said, was on the point of taking a curacy
under a friend of his, but found to his amazement that he
would involve himself in three daily services, one at 6 o'clock
in the morning, and, not liking either to go on with this or to
leave it off, receded.
I met Blakesley the other day. I see the intellectual thing at
Cambridge is to despise exceedingly the ' vulgar outcry ' about
Froude, and to admire him as a phenomenon with more or
fewer reservations (professing to be more refined than those
of the populace) according to the individual. As if they and
Froude were clever enough to understand one another, and to
have a kind of communion on the basis of intellect, however
they might differ. James Spedding, Froude's cousin, seems
an exception to this liberal way of viewing things, which
Blakesley exceedingly wonders at, because ' Spedding is a
man of so remarkably catJwlic a mind, a man who can under-
stand and be intimate with men from whom he differs in
1840 RESIDENCE AT OXFORD 61
every single article of opinion.' I suggested that Froude
could make himself disagreeable on occasions, but could
not make Blakesley view it as a reality, that though most
fascinating in general, he might have chosen to be other-
wise to Spedding. I myself should scarcely have expected
it, for Spedding is, I should think, anything but a random
talker, indeed (whether for good or for bad) a remarkably
calm-sighted, thoughtful, observant kind of man I mean I
should have expected F. to have been rather distant than
severe or hostile to him.
The House of Commons seems with Sir R. Peel at their
head to have got into a most uncommon scrape with the
Judges ; among lawyers I fancy there can scarce be said to be
two opinions, and Follett, who was the great authority on the
Commons' side, has changed his opinion on looking at the
cases. 4 I see very few people, but can scarce make out how
so little excitement is felt about this, or about the Chartists.
The prospect of being without tea seems to me what princi-
pally affects people of all the various political subjects going.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : June 14, 1840.
My dear Newman, I don't know that I have much
reason for writing except to inform you of the fact that I am
come back to England, and hope to set to work in earnest on
Bentham No. 2. I suppose you do not expect it for this next
number. 5
I consider myself to have had a very successful fortnight
abroad, almost entirely occupied however in looking at scenery,
Cologne and Mayence Cathedrals being the only ecclesiastical
things which we saw.
I came across one Roman Catholic priest with whom I
4 A Mr. Stockdale had prosecuted a matter of Privilege, and passed a
Messrs. Hansard for publishing a libel motion committing the sheriffs who had
in the Parliamentary Debates and had levied damages upon Hansard. [See
obtained damages in the Court of Greville Memoirs, 2nd part, i. 257.]
Queen's Bench. Sir R. Peel joined 5 Of the British Critic, which New-
with Lord John Russell in treating it as man edited from 1838 to 1841.
62 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. n
had some conversation on a railroad. We got as far as a
little skirmishing just in the old style ; he repeated Malais's
jeers against Henry VIII.'s spoliations, and I the natural
retort of the desecrated churches in France. He had told
me that he was travelling for amusement, and I had told him
to come to England ; he said he travelled in Catholic countries,
I said we called ourselves Catholic ; he asked how it was then
that we had not decorations in our churches, which led to Henry
VIII., &c. I told him I would show him some churches bien
soigne'es in Oxford if he would come there, on which he
asked if there were not some professors there who ' se rappro-
chent a la religion Catholique ; ' I replied rather quickly ' Us
la tiennent, Monsieur,' on which he closed the conversation
with an impatient ' Augh,' as if it really were too bad that a
person of education should persevere in talking such non-
sense.
The Archbishop of Cologne's business people consider as
likely to be settled, the Archbishop not returning to his diocese,
and Rome winking at the mixed marriages. A Frenchman
(who seemed to me a raff) told me that the plan in France
was for the marrying parties (or party) to give the promise
required by the Church (that children of both sexes should be
brought up as Catholics) verbally, with which the clergy were
satisfied ; then, when children made their appearance, the
promise was broken without redress, as the law (if appealed to)
will enforce its own general rule, unless a written promise can
be produced to the contrary : that rule being that males
follow the father, and females the mother. The clergy, he
said, did not much like this, but ' faisaient bonne mine a un
mauvais jeu/ or some such phrase.
1840 63
CHAPTER III
Winter at Rome. Relinquishment of Oxford Life.
IN the autumn of 1840 he went to Italy with James Hope
(afterward Hope-Scott). They remained there principally at
Rome through the winter, and returned to England in May
1841. Both the friends had desired, among other objects of
travel, to make themselves in some degree acquainted with the
organisation and management of the Roman Church. What-
ever the result to Mr. Hope (who joined the Roman Church
some years later), the effect on Frederic Rogers was to
strengthen his anti-Roman convictions. On His return to
Oxford he found the storm raging which had been raised by
Tract 90. He was now divided by pronounced differences of
opinion, not only from the more advanced men, such as Ward
and Oakeley, but also from Newman himself, and did not in all
points agree with the attitude adopted by the leaders of the
more moderate and steadfast party in the movement, such as
Keble, Pusey, and Sir G. Prevost. Those of whose opinions
and actions in Oxford he now most approved were Church,
who from this time to the end of his life was his closesT~ahd
most intimate friend, and James" Mozley. The festilt of this
breaking of old ties was that, after two terms spent at Oxford,
he settled to give up the University life, and to read law in
London, taking advantage at the same time of a proposal
that he should write leading articles for the ' Times.'
To Miss Rogers.
Oriel : July 2, 1840.
My dear Kate, I have had young Walter with me
again pressing me to write for his father" even if I cannot
64 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
edit, and suggesting the Opium Question for a few articles.
TTns unattached way of doing things seems to me very
feasible. ... I almost think I shall try my hand. No one
will know anything about the matter except my own private
friends, and I can do just as much and as little as I please.
Hope l wants me very much to go with him to Italy this
wkfter. He goes for his health, and Newman will have it I
ought to go for mine. It is tempting, as I cannot hope to
have such a pleasant companion often (perhaps ever) again.
And he would have capital introductions and all my own
tastes. I doubt about leaving the Treasurership [at Oriel],
about having quite money enough, and whether after all my
health would be sufficiently benefited to give me an honest
excuse for going. Perhaps by these articles I might turn a
penny or two which would help me. I should like to hear
what all you think of it
Yours very affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Edzuard Rogers, Esq.
Lyons, Hotel du Nord : November 3, 1840.
My dear Edward, I told you I should give you a line from
Lyons, where I am shut in by rain. I have been somewhat
unlucky in my journey here, as I was rather in my crossing
from Southampton. Paris was prosperous enough, as I have
duly written home. I found the Chalons diligence started 1 2
hours later than I wished, and so had to take the Nevers and
Moulins road to Lyons, travelling 36 hours to Moulins, there
sleeping, passing Sunday, and on Sunday evening at 9 o'clock
starting again, intending to get to Lyons in about 20 odd
hours. I hear, however, somewhat startling accounts of the
floods consequent upon the last few days of heavy rain in all
the hilly country between Moulins and Lyons (part of which
is very pretty, or more). As we got on, these reports began
to increase in vigour ; people ' did not recollect the water so
high since 1812;' 'at a place called Pont Charlan the water
was 4 or 5 feet deep over the road,' &c. &c. ; however, we
1 James Hope, afterwards Hope Scott of Abbotsford.
1840 WINTER AT ROME 65
passed the ' 4 foot ' boldly and found it not much over the
axles, and we hoped that all would be equally manageable
(we were to arrive at Lyons after 24 hours' travelling at
1 1 o'clock and there sleep) ; however, the reports which met us
became more and more threatening, the faubourg between us
and Lyons was ' impassable, under water, houses going, 34
bodies picked up of people drowned by the inundation.' At
the relais before we got to Lyons we heard pretty much the
state of the case. First, the Rhone had risen tremendously
and carried away all sorts of things that are too near it or too
low, manufactories and houses, stopping up all straight com-
munication with Lyons on the Italian side (as some English
travellers told us at the relais who had been stopped for some
time), then the Rhone subsided and people began to think
themselves quit, but in the night the Saone rose twice as high
and did most tremendous havoc ; the houses are of mud, so
that the river had nothing to do but eat away for a short time
at the foundations and down the whole came, and, as it was
unexpected, I fear very many lives were lost. The woman
of the house was in a great state of fright about a son of hers
who had a manufactory near the banks of the Saone. How-
ever, we went on as close to Lyons as we could, and about 12
o'clock arrived within a mile or two with nothing between us
and it but this suburb (Vaize), which was under water and
quite impassable, and no way but a roundabout one, which I
walked when it became light. It would have been madness
for a diligence to attempt it at night. So we stopped (accord-
ing to orders which had met the conducteur] at a little
auberge for the night. Beds, of course, there were none, and
every one was rushing from their houses down below in terror
and filling up everything ; one woman came in who had been
confined not 24 hours ; what they did with her I don't know ;
I proposed making a kind of couch on a billiard table which
was in the room, and as that was not done I suppose some-
thing better was. A man gave us an account, which I only
half understood, of his having been let down through a win-
dow and got off, but having heard others who could not be
carried off crying out ' Oh! qa coule, fa coule' (meaning the
house was falling). One man had seen 26 houses go at once
66 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
another 18. This went on, people coming in and out for
most of the night (perhaps all) till I went to sleep (taliter
qualiter} in the diligence, and the next morning as I walked
in with two Frenchmen by the roundabout way I saw what
had been a house (the flooring and the stairs or rather steps
being all that betrayed much of its origin) washed through
the bridge under my feet. All the steamboats had of course
been discontinued ; it is all that the water can do by itself to
get under some of the bridges, and besides people say
steamers would be washed clear away into the country, and if
they could get down safe, getting up again would be quite out
of the question. And now (at least three hours ago) they
told me the water was still rising, and, as the rain goes on
hard, one does not see what chance there is of its ceasing to
rise.
I have had a letter from Hope,, who will be at Milan till
the loth. I shall start hence ovtfr Mount Cenis to Turin by
malle-poste to-morrow morning at 5 o'clock, and they profess
that forty-two hours (I suppose really about forty-eight or
fifty) will take us to Turin. Then I shall stop a day and
night to rest and look about me, spend the Sunday probably
at Vercelli, Novara, or some such place, and on Monday on
to Milan, where you had better direct to me until further
orders at Reichman's Hotel.
I have just been to the table d'hote and out to do divers
things and look about me. I never saw such an uncomfort-
able affair. The streets are narrow and very high ; I counted
nine stories once in a new house, very dirty and smoky-look-
ing. Then there is a drizzle, occasionally increasing into hard
rain, and with all this all the streets leading to the Saone are
crowded with people walking about in a vague kind of way,
with dripping umbrellas ; then at the end of each street is an
actual crowd watching the advance of the water up the street.
I stood in one crowd for some little time in a street which did
not lead direct to the Saone, but into another parallel to the
river. How many streets there were between me and the
Saone I don't know, but I expect more than one ; and yet
the water was advancing up the street where I stood in pulses
at about half a minute's distance (I should guess), each pulse
1840 WINTER AT ROME 67
advancing perhaps a foot and a half farther than the one
before it. It was very hopeless wandering about, as really I
never knew when I should or should not be intercepted by a
flooded street. Once or twice I was obliged to turn back
when I thought I had got into the middle of the town and fairly
turned the flank of the water. At a church door I saw a
crowd of people reading a Proclamation, or at least a letter to
his Cures from the Archbishop, telling them to use, till
November 15, a form of Mass before commanded, adding the
prayer ' ad compescendam aquarum inundationem,* to come
to an understanding with the Mayor about subscriptions and
covering for those who were out of their houses, offering his own
' salles de 1'Archeveche ' for the effects of those who wanted
to bestow them somewhere, and telling them to bid their
parishioners implore the succour of her whom the Church
called the ' Consolatrice des affliges/ and who had so often
benefited the city of Lyons. The people, I thought, seemed
pleased with it. Since I began my letter a bridge has gone,
but I could not get near it, nor indeed near the Saone, without
more trouble and paddling than I liked. It is really a fright-
ful thing to think of the tJwusands that are thrown clean out
into the streets, unless so far as their neighbours house them,
for fear their houses should fall on their heads. I have
written as fast as I can write and cannot read over (candle-
light), so I dare say there are mistakes. You may as well
send it to Church with my compliments. He is a gossiping
fellow who will be edified by it ; as for Newman, he would say
I was practising for reporter to a newspaper.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
Extract from a fragment of journal written at Milan in
November 1840 :
Friday, November 13. We went to Manzojii's 2 at half-past
ten ; found Vitali 3 who says he sees him every morning. He
2 Manzoni was living close to Milan. remains in my memory of him. '
He had 'written I Promessi Spo si about 3 Ambrogio Vitali, Secretary to the
thirteen years before^~~I7ord Blachford Archbishop of Milan. His brother
writes elsewhere : ' A gentle, refined, Giuseppe was a Professor at Monza.
sensitive purity and earnestness is what
68 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
made us seat ourselves, and observed, laughing, ' You see, I
order about here as if it were in my own house.' He went
in to tell Manzoni, who came out and almost immediately
began controversy, as we had expected. His breakfast came
in, coffee and bread, which he took at a table a little removed
from us, going on with the conversation, with one or two
interruptions which were despatched pretty summarily. Part
of his argument was : The Gospel is not only for men of
leisure and acquirement, but for the poor. Now, a peasant,
whose allegiance the English and Roman Church each claim,
can say to the English, ' You confess there was a time (pre-
vious to the Reformation), when you held what you now
contradict. You say you were wrong. How then can you
ask me to follow your teaching implicitly ? God commands
me to have an assurance, a full un doubting faith in what I
hold. I cannot have this, except as based on an infallible
guide.'
Tie said he felt a kind of'effroi' at reading some account
of the Queen of England's coronation oath, that the doctrine
of Transubstantiation was abominable, &c. r On what
ground could a young girl pretend to anathematise with such
certainty the whole Catholic Church? Was if on the
strength of her own individual judgment, or on the authority
of a Church which did not pretend to be unerring ? '
Hope said that if Roman Catholics were to convince us
they must first study us. Manzoni said he himself was cer-
tainly ignorant on these points, but it must be remembered
that Roman Catholic controversialists would often appear
less learned than they were, from avoiding details purposely,
as knowing that the question was one of principles and there-
fore declining any challenge to descend from them.
He spoke of the appointment of French bishops as won-
derfully ordered for good, though in the hands of an infidel
government.
He said : ' If you have to do with an atheist, you cannot
make him see proof of God in all that you regard as such ;
he has an answer for all your positive arguments. So it is
with the Church. She cannot be proved by argument ; she
proves herself by her appearance ; and then, when objections
1840 WINTER AT ROME 69
are brought against her, seeing they are intrinsically false
and unreasonable, they can be answered by reason. This
perception of the Church and all truth God gives ; but ' in
answer to an objection of Hope's ' discussion is still useful to
excite interest and remove prejudice.'
Hope observed that Manzoni might have this faith in the
Roman Catholic Church's infallibility from early education ;
but, for us, we wanted positive evidence. Manzoni interrupted
him seriously : ' Stop : let me speak for myself. I was for many
years of my life (I pray God to pardon me for it) in utter infi-
delity, nay, anxious to make proselytes. I hated the Church,
and had some liking for Protestantism, as its enemy.' He
then told how he began reading Protestant controversies with
Rome, and was convinced ' by her majestic attitude ' of her
truth. Hope said, to speak frankly, that fact explained to
him the stress which Manzoni laid on the necessity of an in-
fallible authority, as the expression of an unnatural craving
and the consequence of a disordered state of mind ; and that
he had another Roman Catholic friend whose history was the
same, and who argued in the same way. Manzoni replied :
' There is then a living man in this case, whose name I know
not, besides myself. Let me add another St. Augustine.'
As we took our leave he said : ' I trust it is God that is work-
ing in you. You are not like Protestants who deny that they
have a Mother. You are only bewildered and do not know
who your Mother is.'
On Sunday we went to Manzoni again. I only remember
disjointed things which he said, partly because people came
in among others Grossi, the author of ' Visconti.' Manzoni
talked of priests as often not well instructed because they
cease reading when they are employed in their parishes ; but
a priest is regarded as a gentleman whatever his father may
be ; hence the poorer classes are anxious to have a son a
priest, to raise the family ; but for the very poor the educa-
tion is too expensive. The Church, he thought, wanted a
fresh Order ; the old Orders had lost their force ; even in the
Jesuits he did not see any elements of great power.
He spoke of reform in the Italian language, a hobby of
his, and observed that we ' had paramount authority in
70 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
London ' ! which ruled pronunciation, whereas in Italy no
state would concede the supremacy to another ; the supe-
riority of Tuscan pronunciation was now contested. He spoke
of Rosmini (whom he was anxious we should meet) as a
' forte^tete.' ' His philosophy has too much pretension, but
his demolition of other philosophies is good.' This Manzoni
seemed to think was all that philosophy could do demolish
falsehood.
He recurred to doctrinal questions and said that what the
Pope pronounced he accepted, because he believed it true,
the Pope being infallible, but, as I understood, he would not
on a point of doctrine shrink from writing against or submit
to be silenced by his Bishop, any more than by any other
man, or suspend his judgment out of respect for him. ' Our
duty is to promulgate what we believe to be truth, and
nothing is to stop us but evidence against it. The Pope's
voice, however, is conclusive.'
To Miss S. Rogers.
'Genoa j) November 26, 1840.
\ *"^^
Here I am at Genoa beginning to recover my temper
after a most offensive" journey from Milan in M. Bonafous's
diligence, said diligence having performed the journey (about
100 miles) in 40 hours, stopping at a dirty frontier Village
(25 miles from Milan) 9 hours, to wait for its corresponding
diligence to come up, we all this time being i^ miles from
Pavia and about seven from a most beautiful Chartreuse
which I could easily have seen if fTiaH grasped~triat we
were to wait half the time which we did. And this after
having made us start at 4 o'clock in the morning, and
arriving at the said frontier at 10 o'clock in the morning. I
started by diligence, leaving Hope to follow with a sick friend
(I am afraid consumptive) in hi^carriage, so as to see Genoa
before he comes up and be ready to start with him forthwith
for Leghorn. I expect him to-morrow evening
I don't think much happened at Milan after my last letter.
We called again on the Vitalis, of whom the sick one is
particularly anxious we should turn Romanists. He was
1840 WINTER AT ROME 71
confined to his bed and I should be afraid was not likely to
get better. He took our hands one after another and begged
us quite pathetically to make ' un pas en avance ' ' je mour-
rais content.' We called in the evening and found his
brother sitting with a couple of clerical friends and Grossi the
author of ' Visconti,' who left as we came in ; and a very com-
fortable talk we had with these same black-frocked people
concerning matters in general, most of them plain, good,
straightforward people. I am much surprised to find they all
read Byron. I gave one of them (who has given me Manzoni's
hymns) Keble's ' Christian Year,' to improve his notions. We
are going "to send them Newman's ' Romanism ' and the
' Tracts for the Times ' to crack their teeth upon. Most of \1
them are Ultramontanes, i.e. hold the strongest views of the
Pope's own private authority, except one jolly comfortable
Professor of Dogmatical Theology at the Seminary, who
wanted Hope to send him Paley's and all other Evidences he
could lay his hands on, and who settled Ultramontanism in a
most summary way ; little to the edification of the Vitalis
who were present ; finally asserting that they only held these
opinions as a theory, did not realise them, and if a case were
to arise when the Pope decided, and the body of the Church
hesitated to accept his decision, they (the Ultramontanes)
would not act up to their own principles, but would suspend
their own judgment too. The professors of the Seminary
have a billiard table, at which he was engaged when we called ;
and N.B., he is the only Italian who has offered us anything
to eat or drink, videlicet ' un cafe.'
We saw Manzoni once again, and while we were there
Grossi droppecT in, whose manner I liked much. If I had
stayed at Milan I should have tried to get really acquainted
with him. I have never felt my bad French such an impedi-
ment as since I have been in Italy. It is all very well tete a tete
to speak bad French and boggle, but in a company of clever
men who all speak with ease and fluency one must speak
readily or not at all. They so decidedly think we are going
to become Papists that I hatf feel as if I was sailing under
false colours. However, if people will draw conclusions for
themselves 'they must take the consequences.
72 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
I am beginning to fire off Italian in conversation (tete a
tete} and comprehend tolerably when people speak to me
slowly, but my own sentences are sadly apt to miss fire.
Hope makes wonderful progress. I have not managed to
make the most of my time here ; have seen the three
principal collections, mounted the heights and gone a
little way out to sea, and the principal churches, but none
thoroughly the days are sadly short and I don't get up early
enough.
We start to-morrow evening for Civita Vecchia, staying
the greater part of the Sunday at Leghorn but starting
again in the evening. Watson, Hope's sick friend, is a
former ward of his father's, without father or mother, and
it is plainly a great object with him to get to the warm part
of Italy (which this is not) immediately, which makes us
press to Rome rather faster than we should otherwise. As
far as my own personal liking goes, I am glad of this, as I
want to get settled.
I am astonished to find how many Americans are to be
met. I met a third, a sculptor, yesterday morning. All that
travel seem ' Whigs,' which is in fact the kind of mercantile
aristocracy which is growing up, and is the American Con-
servative. . . . Hope and I take some credit to ourselves
for having spent some days (at least the greater part of them)
in the Ambrosian library collating for Pusey a MS. of a
treatise of Tertullian, which we have satisfactorily finished,
creating, I hope, in the Italians a creditable notion of Oxford
industry, seeing we flatter ourselves we knocked it off in
businesslike style. Dreadfully dull work, amounting princi-
pally to noting down all the errors of a stupid copyist. How-
ever, I rejoice to have done one useful thing here.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Rome, 60 Piazza Barberini : December 16, 1840.
To-day I have had a pleasant day, in spite of the
weather. I went with Richmond 4 to a Convent of St. Onofrio
where Tasso died, and of which I believe he was almost a
4 Mr. George Richmond, R.A.
1840 WINTER AT ROME 73
member, which seems to me an uncommonly interesting
place, though I can scarce tell why. There are some beauti-
ful frescoes by a painter whose name I never heard till I
came here, but who seems to me (for devotional subjects) as
beautiful as almost anything I ever saw, by name Pinturicchio,
a fellow pupil with Raffaelle of Perugino. Almost all his
pictures that I have seen are of the Virgin, and much alike
and of the old stiff style, but all of them sweetness and purity
itself. Then I went with Richmond and his brother, and a Christ
Church man, by name Ruskin, again to the Vatican, and really
enjoyed it ; we did not attempt to look at more than two or
three of Raphael's frescoes, ' Heliodorus,' ' The School of
Athens,' ' The Dispute of the Sacrament ' (which perhaps you
don't know), and scarce anything else. Richmond was a very
great help to understanding the merit of what I saw, and
about these particular frescoes I do think I begin to feel as I
ought ; the tapestry (cartoons) and the loggia I still feel
wonderfully unable to appreciate. Soon after I got back, a
certain Dr. Baines, a great man about Bath, of whom you may
have heard, came to call on Hope, and rinding me only,
came in, and I had a pleasant talk with him for a short time.
I hear he has given offence to the Propaganda by what he
has done in England, and is kept here by them, much to his
own inconvenience. He calls himself on his card Vescovo di
Siga, but" really is coming, or rather has been, with episcopal
authority to England, claiming jurisdiction (among other
places) over part of what the Pope calls his diocese, Salisbury.
He is smooth, as many of the English Roman Catholics seem
to be. He said the Pope had told him of a variety of fine
things that Mehmet Ali was sending him, some mummies and
' some 15 or 20 alabaster columns for St. Paul's, a new church
being built about \\ miles from Rome, and for which the
Emperor of Russia (though labouring under the Pope's indig-
nation for taking some thousands of his subjects slap over
from him to the Russian Church) is going to send an altar of
malachite or at least malachite for an altar.
December 17.
I found my letter getting so very dull last night, that I
left off till I had something more to say. To-day I went at
74 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
half-past nine o'clock to see two Cardinals instituted, and I
. cannot say much for the process. It certainly did not im-
I press one with much sense of the majesty of Roman Catholi-
I cism. We first walked into the Consistory, where there
was a large assortment of priests, Englishmen and women,
and Swiss guard, and then took as good a place as we could
get, and waited till the Cardinals dropped in, which they did
one by one, each with his Chaplain, who sat himself down at the
Cardinal's feet, and an usher, who arranged for him his great'
violet-coloured silk train. Some of them were striking-look-
ing men, but scarce any, perhaps not more than two or three
I of those whose faces I saw, men who gave one the notion of
[ being what a cardinal ought to be. Presently we heard
some hymn being (well) sung outside, and in came the two
new Cardinals, who had (I should say) been half admitted on
Monday, and only had now to receive the hat The Pope 5
had just come'and sat himself down in his throne, in a great
gold tissue mitre (not triple crown) and wrapped up in a
rich crimson and gold mantle. All the Cardinals kissed hands,
and bowed themselves back to their places, their chaplains
performing genuflexions to the Pope, just as they do to the
altar. Then, as aforesaid, the new Cardinals came, kissed first,
the Pope's foot, then his hand, then his cheek. Then they
went round kissing all their brother Cardinals on each side of
their faces, or at least making as if they did ; an operation
which seemed very much to amuse all parties. I was standing
close behind the Cardinals' seats, like a footman at dinner,
within arm's length of their red caps, so that I had a good
sight of this process. The new Cardinals generally seemed
to have something pleasant to say to their senior friends ; I
could have fancied they took that opportunity of thanking
their friends for their good offices. However that may have
been, there was generally a laugh about the matter. Then
they went out, and a set of gentlemen in dresses I did not
understand presented a petition in Latin for the canonisation
of somebody, which occupied the time till they came back.
Then (we are informed by a Monsignore Baggs 6 to whom we
s Pope Gregory XVI.
* Monsignore Baggs was head of the English College at Rome.
1840 (l WINDER AT ROME
were introduced) it was referred to the Committee of Rites to-
investigate the evidence for the miracles alleged to have
been performed, which are always a necessary preliminary
to canonisation. Then they came back with singing (I think)
again, and the Pope placed the hat on each of their heads suc-
cessively, with a form not unlike our form of conferring
degrees. And then all parties dispersed with singing again.
Hope was excessively disgusted at the whole affair. I not
much, because I did not expect much, but he had been
struck by a conversation he had with Overbeck the painter,.
an able, excellent man and enthusiastic Romanist (converted
from Protestantism), who had put before him a grand pictorial
view of His Holiness's acts, contrasting his power with the
divided helpless state of Protestant Churches. c An old man
sitting in the Vatican writes ten lines upon a piece of parch-
ment, and sends it forth, and all Christendom is moved '
(meaning, I suppose, his allocution against the Emperor of
Russia) ; and then all this pompous external parade of Swiss
guard and purple gowns, with so very little appearance of
seriousness or solemnity, was rather an unexpected commentary
on Overbeck's little romance particularly to Hope, who has
an especial objection of his own to the mixture of temporal
and spiritual.
We4iave got hold of an uncommonly nice Italian master
named Armellini, full of fun. It is amusing to see how
obviously he has been used to work up lazy people ; his
whole system of teaching presupposes a state of the most
excessive indisposition to do anything in his pupil, and his
great aim accordingly to hammer the rules of grammar into
us in a way by ' which we shall not be annojati! He is full of
attacks on our countrymen and us (at a venture) for thinking
nothing good but what is English, and is in fine a very nice
clever merry little man. Hope, who picks up the language
from all quarters very quickly7"had used the word arrangiata
in his exercise, a word perfectly understood hereabouts, with
which A. found fault (as I had done before), and on Hope's
asking whether it was not Italian told us, 'Si dica si dica
ma non e Italiano, e lingua di Piazza di Spagna ' (the
place where the hotels and shops and English residents are).
76 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
I am going to engage the captain of the Swiss guard, simply
to talk to me for an hour a day at the price of 3 pauls (about
is. 6d.} an hour, by which I expect to do wonders. I should
like to be able to talk Italian for the last month that I spend
here. I have been to-day to look at a very magnificent
church, St. John Lateran, and saw a list of relics which cer-
tainly petrified me. The list was in mosaic arid very old,
possibly 1,000 years ; probably the church does not profess to
possess them now. Not satisfied with St. John Baptist's camel's
hair girdle, fragments of five barley 'loaves, and the table on
which the last supper was eaten, they actually possess, in gold
and olive mosaic, two phials of the blood and water that came
from our Saviour's side ; also the ark of the covenant, two
tables of the Law, manna, and shewbread. The boy who
showed the curiosities showed me a large piece of porphyry
in the wall of the cloisters as the stone on which the soldiers
cast lots for our Lord's vesture, and there was an inscription
.showing that it professed to be so ; also a column of the
Jewish temple split at the time of our Saviour's crucifixion
and some columns with a slab on them professing to be ex-
actly of His height.
On Saturday, in the evening, I go to Lady Davy's, a very
good-natured person but not very wise, and fond of paying
herself compliments, which thing always embarrasses me to
such an extent that I can't get on with people who do it.
"*/
To Miss Rogers.
Rome, 60 Piazza Barberini : December 20, 1840.
Lady Davy, Hope's friend, is lively (or rather perhaps talks
incessantly), very good-natured, clever in her way, and has lived
among distinguished people, and, being established as a lady
patroness of long standing at Rome, one meets pleasant people
at her house, but, unfortunately, in the particular article of
sense she is uncommonly lacking, at least as far as one sees
by mere company talk. I fancy she is to introduce me to
Madame Potemkin, the Russian Ambassadress, who ' receives '
every Wednesday, and Hope tells me is a nice person.
I am getting to work pretty fairly at Italian, besides
1840 WINTER AT ROME 77
Armellini twice a week ; every morning I have a man to talk
for an hour named Pfyffer, attached to the Pope's Swiss guard
and a regular gossip. His family have been in the Papal guard
for 200 years, and are descended from ' the great Ludovic '
Pfyffer, who was general of the forces of Lucerne in the battle
of something. 7 He gives a most miserable account of the
parish clergy, even more in the country than in the city, as
drunken &c.,but praises much the Dominicans and Capuchins
(mendicants), and only abuses the Jesuits (which he does hand-
somely) for being intriguing and ambitious and successful.
He abuses also the Cardinals, but praises much a certain
Cardinal Micara, a Capuchin, Bishop of Frascati, who continues
all the rigour of a monastic life still, and has got his bishopric
into very good order, but has so set against him the other
Cardinals by his measures of reform that he now never appears
at Rome, but confines himself to his own see, dining with the
pupils in the seminary, performing his visitations on his mule,
sleeping on a straw mattress, and castigating his clergy. We
project a visit to him to look what manner of man he is. Hope
does not get much out of his Jesuits, though he much ~lik'es('
the Father General, and has gone the length of asking him
(r) how it is that the Jesuits have managed to bring down upon
themselves such universal suspicion, and (2) \vhether it is not
bad policy to give them all that bland manner and downcast
look which is peculiar to them. The Father General answers :
(i) 'Blessed are ye when men speak eviTof you/ and (2) that
courtesy and modesty are Christian virtues, and of the latter
modesty of the eyes is a great part. They seem to be con-
sidered as the movers of almost all that goes on here. I think
I mentioned that at the time of the cholera, when the other
priests held back, they came forward and exposed themselves
most brilliantly, being everywhere and doing everything.
We have seen several ceremonies, (i) conferring the hat
7 This seems to refer to Colonel Pfiffer, and the Queen Mother at Meaux and
Ffyfter, or Pfeiffer, surnamed ' Roi des convoyed them to Paris ; and he fought
Suisses,' born at Lucerne in 1530. He at Jarnac and at Moncontour. After
took service with the French and wards he went home to Lucerne and
fought both in Piedmont and in France. held various offices in the Confedera-
He commanded, it is said, 6,000 Swiss tion.
in 1567, when he rescued Charles IX.
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
on two Cardinals, (2) consecrating of a Bishop (or at least
part), (3) ordination of about one or two hundred men to the
six other orders (Priest, Deacon, Sub-deacon, Acolyte, Reader,
Door-keeper), and tonsure by the Bishop, (4) High Mass
before the Pope at the Sistine Chapel, (5) a mass for the Prin-
cess Borghese, and English sermon in her honour by Dr.
Baggs, head of the English College here, whom we know. I
cannot say that their ceremonies impress me : they strike me
as mere scenery. The music in the Sistine Chapel and the
' Dies Irae ' &c. in the Mass for the Princess Borghese were cer-
tainly very beautiful, but the whole affair was so decidedly by
way of being a sight that it altogether left a very unsatisfactory
impression on my mind. And so much are the Roman
Catholic services intended to be looked atTnoTTTterally joined
in, that a portable Latin [service book ?] is a thing which is
not to be got in Rome. The careless way in which Protestants
crowd to see the sight is bad, and perhaps it is that in a great
measure which prevents one from feeling the solemnity of what
is going on, but I cannot help thinking that Roman Catholics
do very much the same, and are practically (though not of
course in theory) expected to do so ; this, however, may be un-
charitable. Certainly Rome strikes me as the least devotional
of any Roman Catholic city I have been in. I do think if I
wanted to stop my own self from turning Romanist, Rome is
the place I should fix myself in.
I" was a good deal amused the other day by going over a
Carthusian Church (Santa Maria degli Angeli, constructed by
Michel Angelo out of the old baths of Domitian) with one of
the monks, a Frenchman named Father Bruno, evidently most
proud, first of his order, which he said was the only one which
had never had to be reformed, secondly of his convent, its pic-
tures and relics (which were, for the most part, more unpre-
tending, and had more appearance of genuineness than those
at St. John Lateran), and thirdly of his own countrymen in
the convent. It seems their rule is only to leave the walls
of the convent once a week. This the Italian monks com-
plained of as impracticable, and begged for dispensation ac-
cordingly ; however, Father Bruno and five other French
monks were sent for, who have kept the rules rigorously, to
1840 WINTER AT ROME 79
the no small triumph of the said Bruno. They have each three
rooms, a small garden, and a fine airy cloister to walk in, with
plenty of orange trees. I asked Father Bruno a question of
Church's, whether private friendships were discouraged, an idea
which he rather contemptuously repelled, telling me that his
order did not perform any ' capuchinades,' and that all their
penances and exercises were such as were plainly improving.
But it turned out that their opportunities for private friendship
are not very great, as they only meet (for purposes of conversa-
tion &c.) on Sundays (at least, so I understood) unless there
was some peculiar reason, when they asked leave of the prior
to see each other : their spiritual director, however, they
might always see. They eat no meat, and often, as e.g. for the
whole of Advent and Lent, have only one meal a day, and get
up for two or three hours for service at midnight. OTree*there \
was a notion that the maigre diet was unwholesome, and the
Pope thought of relaxing this rule, but they sent up a deputa-
tion of men between 80 and 120, the very sight of whom con-
vinced him that no reform was necessary. Father Bruno
says there are not to be found in the world such a set of
healthy, long-lived men as the Carthusians. He himself is cer-
tainly a good portly specimen:
I wish you could see the servant we are condemned to,
Maria by name, commonly called about the house ' Mariuccia.'
Our padrona tells us she is given to drink, and certainly she
never recollects any one thing we tell her by any chance, and
then all we get on remonstrance is ' Ah, oggi abbi pazienza,'
an expression which was supplicatory at first, but which is
fast becoming admonitory, a piece of impertinence which
moves my wrath ; for though I know that patience is a great
virtue, and an incapable servant is a capital exercise for it,
still that is hardly the particular view of the case which one
expects to have enforced on one by the criminal herself. I
am to go to bed, so goodbye to you all. I hope you had
a merry Christmas and will have a happy New Year. Love
to all.
Ever your affectionate brother,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
P.S. I told you in my last that our padrona has been very
8o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
ill. She is now well again, and came into our room the other
day to pay us her compliments, sat down and told us the his-
tory of her illness, which was an ' arrabbiatura ' with a lodger,
who she conceived had treated her ill, and she thought it
fitting to be so ' arrabbiata ' with him that it brought on a
fever. Richmond tells us it is a recognised form of illness
with Italians, and that all of them under such an infliction will
tell you their case, and expect condolences and obliging in-
quiries, just as much as if they called it nervous depression or
spleen.
To Miss M. Rogers.
Rome : December 31, 1840.
My dear Marian, I suppose my letters from Rome have
somewhat set your heart at rest about the present chance
of our turning Romanists. However, we got into a scrape
yesterday evening at Lady Davy's. Hope, who is a sharp
ready fellow, but who has not in any degree read up the
controversy, thought fit (for which I have not yet nearly
forgiven him) to plunge himself, in full conclave, into a
controversy with Bishop Baines on our very most vulnerable
point, the formal correctness of the proceedings at the Reforma-
tion, a point at which the Roman Catholics have laboured
a good deal just at present, and which Bishop Baines plainly
had crammed. I was talking with Sir G. Clerk next to him,
and to my horror I heard what was going on and somewhat
weakly stopped for a moment to listen and in a very slight
way joined. I don't consider that I made a mess of it as far
as my share went, which was merely putting in a word here
and there to stop a thrust of old Baines, but it had the effect
of increasing the audience, which was bad, and I must say
that Hope, who was the combatant, must have seemed, though
he was never fairly floored, to have the worst of it, and left
on the minds of the spectators the impression that ' Puseyism '
could not defend itself against Popery. I had no pity on him
at all, and, after listening for some little time, fairly burst
through the ring and retreated, having, as Hope declares with
very much indignation, been looking blue and green and
black for half an hour before. He declares I used him
1840 WINTER AT ROME 81
abominably, showing all the world that I thought him floored,
but ' Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere ? ' May it be a
lesson to him ! Baines is a clever fellow, thoroughly fluent
and courteous, knows exactly wherrhe has made a point and
hammers it in. I hope this is a sufficient expiation for a
certain exultation which I confess we did feel over the spiritual
director at Milan.
I think I told you of the Carthusian Convent I went
over with Hope and my friend Father Bruno. I suppose
it is quite the case that they live very austere lives, but
the horrors of their continual jours maigres are somewhat
softened to me by hearing from my friend Mr. Pfyffer that
turtle was allowed, that it was part of the ordinary food, and
that they kept a stock of turtle in a pond or something of the
kind on the premises. Also I was a good deal interested by
a Franciscan convent which I went over with a lay brother,
who had narrowly missed being sent as missionary to
Jerusalem, a nice fellow (not of the lower class) but, it
appeared to me, rather ashamed of his religion, which was not
so well.
I have been trying this morning to get out of my scandal-
monger all that I can about the state of parties among the
ecclesiastical authorities here, which is not very much. I
expected to find that the division was one of political views,
i.e. that some Cardinals might be more liberal or more severe
in reforming, or more disposed to exert Church authority
against Kings of Prussia and Czars of Russia than the rest,
but from all I can make out the division of the conclave
appears to be between the Genoese and the Roman Party ;
the contest in the next Papal election is considered to lie
between a Cardinal Patrizzi, who is the candidate of the latter,
and Franzoni of the former interest. The latter is now at
the head of the Propaganda (which is worked by the Jesuits),
and both are said to be good men, but neither clever. My
friend who is very anxious to see the Romans educated,
streets improved, thievery and dirt put down, the country
tilled, and so on says neither of them is sharp enough,
' buonissimi, ma buoni per niente,' as temporal governors of
Rome. He would like to see Cardinal Micara Pope, who
G
82 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. m
from his Capuchin education has ' seen the world ' down to the
dregs, and would unite the requisites of being an honest man
and being up to the rogues. However, he would please
no party. 8 Austria, France, Spain, and Portugal have, it
seems, a veto on the -election of the Pope, which is exercised
in a curious way. The Cardinals, each with a chaplain and a
\ servant, are turned into the Tope's palace to elect a new one ;
the entrance (as I understand) is walled up, their dinner sent
to them through a kind of turnstile, and no one allowed to
speak to them except through a ' grille ' and in the presence
of witnesses ; then each of these four Powers has a Cardinal
in their confidence who has a list of the persons to be vetoed,
and if on collecting the votes any one of the forbidden seems
to be getting a majority of votes as it comes near the critical
moment he puts in his veto and a fresh start is made. But if
any candidate has once got his majority it is too late forThe
vetoist, and he is Pope in spite of Austria's or any one else's
objection. So if a majority of Cardinals quite understand each
( other, it has happened that they have been very sharp in
their proceedings and whipped out all their votes before the
gentleman with the veto in his pocket knew what they were
up to, and so got in their candidate, and left him with his nose
in the air. I believe the present Cardinals bear a fair character,
and a few of them are said to be very good men indeed. I
have heard Mezzofanti, the Cardinal who can talk fifty-six
languages like fifty-six natives, spoken of as a man who
would give the very shirt off his back in alms. His first
discovery of his own talent for languages was, it is said,
owing to his vehement wish to be of use as confessor to the
mixture of all nations which composed the French army in
the North of Italy when he was a poor priest at Bologna.
He had great offers to take him thence, but refused them all
till the Pope commanded him to Rome. They say that
except in that one point he is not a clever man. My paper
is finished, so goodbye to you.
Yours affectionately,
F. R.
s Gregory XVI. did not die till 1846. Lambruschini and Cardinal Mastai
when the contest lay between Cardinal Ferretti (Plus IX.).
1841 WINTER AT ROME . 83
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Rome : January 16, 1841.
My dear Newman, Very many thanks for your most
acceptable letter, especially, as always, for what you say about
yourself. I don't remember what I said against Rome which
you think wrong fTTiope it was nothing insolent, or flippant,
or self-congratulatory. I must own however to a strong
aversion from her present form,' which has been growing on
me ever since I have been here. It is a wretched thing to be
travelling among foreign Churches with the feeling that one
must see faults in them in order to justify our own (Anglican)
position ; and I know I have had that feeling about me
very strongly, and I dare say it has made me say things more
bitterly than I ought to have done, particularly, I am afraid,
in letters I have written since yours. All I can say is, I have
tried not to allow it to make me believe lies. It is a little
cruel of you to talk in that quiet way about inserting my
' most merciless criticism ' on Sewell, 9 whose explosion is
certainly most amusing. I shall be anxious to know if he
deigns to express any feeling about it ; for you make me
remorseful.
I am very sorry to hear what you say about Bowden's
feeling the winter. Cannot he get away ?
As to my own proceedings, I am sorry to say I am as idle
as ever, and begin to give up all hopes of being anything
better while I am here. However, the last two or three days
have been more worth having than anything I have seen before
here. Hope has got himself introduced to a certain priest
named Pentini, who is concerned in an interesting system of
retraites for the poorer classes and soldiers, of which he is
to show us the whole history ; and on Tuesday he took us over
the building, and gave us a lecture upon their proceedings.
They are a society of twelve priests, incorporated by the Pope,
but quite independent, with twelve (or more) working men
9 This alludes, apparently, to a had written him an account in a letter
scheme of Professor Sewell's for con- published in Dean Church's Life and
verting the Irish, of "which Mr. Church Letters, p. 26.
G 2
84 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
(without authority) under them, who simply buy a house large
enough to accommodate about seventy people, with beds, a
kitchen, a chapel and oratory, lecture room, and yard to walk in ;
catch their seventy men, partly with, partly againsttheir will, and
then inflict upon them eight or nine days of preaching, silence,
meagre diet, finishing with confession and communion. When
we went through the house they had got some fifty or sixty
soldiers in hand. They came, we were told, of their own free
will ; but those who would not come of their own free will
were forced to come. It seemed to me from his account as if
it were fairly part of the military discipline to send them all
once in so many years. When they went out, a batch (muta)
of townsmen were to come in ; and so, Pentini said, about
twelve or fifteen hundred people passed through their hands
during the year, with, on the whole, the very best results.
Sometimes, he told us, men were sent who were known to
cherish certain evil intentions, in order to have them worked
out of them ; and he showed us a stiletto hidden in a pipe,
which had been given up after a few days of their discipline
by a man who had been sent to them as known to be planning
revenge on another. The society was self-elected, with no
necessary connexion with the parochial system, and each
' muta ' required seven priests to manage it, the whole being
divided into four roomfuls, and none ever left alone. Pentini
himself seems a thoroughly earnest simple-hearted little man,
apparently anxious to show everything, from the firm faith he
has in its excellence ; so I hope we shall see a good deal
there.
Also I have been much amused at a dinner which we had
at a convent of Franciscans at Albano, under the guidance of
a certain tame deacon who is in Hope's employ, and whom I
confess I respect as little as well may be, he being a regular
' Graeculus esuriens,' who professes himself ready to spend
' even his life ' in Hope's service, and whom the said Hope has
been obliged to prohibit from lying on his behalf, the man
urging that profitable as well as jocose lies, ' bugie avvantag-
giose,' are only venial sins, and therefore not to be accounted
of. He ' fouls his own nest,' like Pugin, not a little. I can't
make up my mind whether to be civil or rude to him ; so
1841 WINTER AT ROME 85
alternate between the two, and catch it from my conscience
both ways.
However, such as he is, he took us to Albano, and got us
the above-mentioned dinner, and a very respectable one it was :
we dined in the refectory, sitting all round the room with our
backs to the wall. Three plates of meat (one being added
on account of a feast-day), soup, cheese, and fruit. I can't say
much for their polish or devotion (at grace), but they seemed
to be good-humoured, and to be good friends with one another,
and it was quite edifying to see the energy with which the
whole convent set to work, when they had finished their own
dinner, trying to make one or two pet cats jump for the re-
mainder ; the said cats, however, utterly neglecting the whole
set of them in favour of one very dirty old lay brother, appa-
rently the porter, to the infinite amusement of the unsuccess-
ful aspirants.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Rome : January 26, 1841.
My dear Mother, 1 think of leaving this place on
February 25, going slowly to Florence by Terni, Perugia,
Lake Thrasymene, Spoleto, and Arezzo, staying ten days
or a fortnight at Florence, then a day at Pisa, then home
by the Cornice road through Genoa (without stopping), Nice,
Avignon, up the Rhone and down the Seine, and home, I hope,
so as to spend Passion Week with you.
Richmond has just started back for England, to my grief,
as I have not seen near as much in his company as I should
have wished, especially in and about the Vatican. However,
I hope to renew our acquaintance in London, and I shall get
him down to Blackheath and make him give Kate some
advice. I still have a few great sights in Rome unseen, but
I think I have now nearly gone through all after a fashion
and have before me principally the pleasant part of revisiting
in Rome, and making a few excursions to the neighbour-
hood.
Yesterday, Mr. Leslie Melville took us to call on Waterton
the naturalist, of South American crocodile reputation He
86 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. m
showed us his stuffed birds, both finished and in hand. Hope
asked about his terrible South American poison, whether it
would kill cold-blooded animals. He said it would kill turtles,
which are the animals most tenacious of life that he knew :
' Why, sir, there was a turtle that I had skinned and taken
out his inside, and put in the glass eyes, and steeped him in
corrosive sublimate several hours ; Lord, sir, the next morning
the animal bit my finger.' Also I was much amused at a
history he gave me of his having gone into the Jesuits' church
'to say a few prayers' (he is, as he says, 'a good deal addicted
to Popery,' i.e. the most thorough-going Roman Catholic in
Rome), he put down his hat and went through his devotions,
but found, when he rose, that a fellow had carried off his good
hat, and left instead an old thing that he could hardly bear to
put on his head ; and then, on complaining to a Jesuit friend,
all the consolation he got was the observation that he had only
fulfilled one half of the Divine precept ' Watch and pray.' I
will venture to say the Jesuit himself (Hope's friend G.) never
fell into a similar omission.
On coming home from hearing Mozart's Requiem (January
28) I have just found Marian's letter, for which thank her
very much. I had done very much what she seems inclined
to in the matter of music, in which I shall invest a few
pounds. I have ordered Pergolesi, also some trios of Clari's
for S. C. B. I shall not stay here beyond Easter unless I
receive a volunteer pressure thereto from Oxford (which I
don't think likely) with assurance of the Provost's sanction,
though, as you may suppose, I lick my lips a little at the
thought of an Italian spring. I really have so wasted my
time here that I don't feel as if I had earned any longer stay
here. If I felt I was doing any good, getting up my subjects
in a producible shape, &c., &c., it would be another thing. I
think I was right in coming out here on the plea of health,
but without either that or useful occupation I don't think
Oriel Fellows ought to be amusing themselves about Italy. I
may as well say, to prevent you from getting up an Oxford
recommendation to me to stay, that a letter in answer to
this cannot reach me here, and if I got as far as Florence on
my way home I should not stop. I don't myself regret the
1841 WINTER AT ROME 87
loss of the Holy Week, for really the Roman Catholic ceremo-
nies are so theatrical that I have no satisfaction in them and
reproach myself for going (as I have done) simply to hear the
music and see the sight. I have been as full of engagements
here as you have been for the last fortnight; I don't think I have
had three evenings without some engagement or other, ball,
dinner, or evening party. The gayest balls I have been at
are Madame Potemkin's yesterday week (Wednesday), the
Russian ambassadress. But they are things which I confess
bore me considerably, insomuch that last night I was fairly
too lazy to go to one which I believe was rather a splendid
sight, and for which I had had to buy a ticket on the Capitol.
To Rev. J. H. Newman. 1
Rome : January 30, 1841.
My dear Newman, I quite own that I am disposed to fix
upon the faults of Rome. I "know I have long felt so, ever
since I began to feel that the controversy between ourselves
and Rome was really pressing, and since I have ' fancied ' that
high estimate of her advantages was leading to a scorn of our
own church. And I cannot complain of being distrusted on
that account ; I distrust myself, I know I am very likely not to
observe their merits, or to give them proper weight. But I
do think you are a little hard on my honesty when you set me
aside as simply ' disqualified to be a witness of facts against
her.' And again I think you are mistaken in thinkifig that it
is ''their demureness ' or ' their minute ceremonial ' merely
that is setting me against them. However, I will not inflict
justifications on you, particularly as I have just plucked a
letter which I had nearly finished to you for containing near
two pages of them.
First, will you thank Pusey from Hope for his letter to him,
and say that H. will write to him when anything is settled ?
From what he hears here, he thinks it will be difficult to get
a good travelling collator ; perhaps it will be necessary to get
one from Germany.
1 This letter is in answer to one from which is printed in Letters and Corre-
Newman, dated January 10, 1841, ;ponde>ice, ii. 323.
88 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
February 2. Since writing the above I have heard from
poor Abeken ' that Lutheran ' as you remorselessly call him
that a certain Dr. Huyse (?), who has done some collations of
Tertullian's ' Apologeticus,' would be a good and a likely man
to be travelling rummager, and that being a Roman Catholic
would not be any advantage except in Rome, and not very
material here. However, all this H. will write about. I will
bring home the collation of the ' Apologeticus.'
Hope has been rather taken with Bishop Baines of late, in
spite of their encounter. We had a long and interesting talk
with him during an hour and a halfs walking up and down
the Corso, and divers other public places where he would most
effectually spoil our characters by being seen with us. It was
in part the other aspect (I conclude) of what you at Oxford
heard from Pugin. He was summoned here (by the Propa-
ganda,) for that Pastoral of his which we heard of in England,
which certainly seems pretty strong against Mr. Spencer's
prayers for the conversion of England in particular, and against
new converts in general under that name. The charge attacks
them for being abusive, and for setting afloat practices un-
necessarily affronting to the English. And he complained to
us in the same way of injudicious hot-headed people who would
do just what was most shocking to English prejudices silly
books of devotion (as respecting the ' Sacred Heart of Jtsus ')
over which the Bishop unfortunately had no control. ' Some '
(of the ' converts ') ' filled with the presumption of their ancient
sect, and strangers to the humility of the religion ' they have
embraced, commence their career by dictating to their spiritual
rulers,' is his opinion on the unlucky converts. He is said
(by his friends) to have gained a complete victory here, but
the mere fact of having been kept here some months from his
district seems something of a punishment. He spoke as if the
old jealousies between seculars and regulars (Jesuits especially)
were rising again, and especially on the subject of advowsons.
I hear from a friend of his (a Mr. Colyar, Roman Catholic)
that there is some expectation of bringing the Abyssinian
Churches into the Roman Communion. They have been in
the habit of buying a patriarch when they wanted one from
Mehemet AH ; the last he sent was a very bad one, a regular
1841 WINTER AT ROME 89
scamp, and, accordingly, when they found him out they deposed
him : but Mehemet AH would not take him back again, or,
of course, give them another, so that all the functions of the
Patriarch remained unperformed. Accordingly they have sent
an embassy to Rome to say that they have always been in
the habit of praying for the Pope, and that they hope he will
send them one. Mr. C. winks and says he suspects there
were some Jesuits in the neighbourhood. However, the
Abyssinians are here, and delivered a discourse at the Propa-
ganda at the Epiphany, when orations or poems were recited
in some forty or fifty different languages I believe, a most
curious exhibition some of them. I have a suspicion this may
be an old story to you.
The said Mr. C. also took us to call on a certain
Cardinal Micara, of whom I think I have spoken before a
Cardinal who lives a Capuchin life, with no state, in the
seminary of his diocese (Frascati), the myths of him being
(i) that he has quarrelled with the whole Conclave, and will not
enter their ' Congregations ' till they have put down a certain
Government lottery which exists here ; (2) that if he were
Pope he would drive all heretics out of Rome forthwith. The
facts are that he does attend the Congregations, and is not
likely to be Pope. All seem agreed, however, that he has
talent enough for most things, and daring for anything. Hope
and I, now we have seen him, can't quite agree what kind of
man he is. He seems to occupy himself with all manner of
subjects : Russian statistics and the state of the marshes about
Rome were the two which we came across ; also he is fond of
fine paintings, and said to be a great theologian, but with all
this, I thought, was a curious absence of refinement and
dignity. Almost all the conversation was between him and
Mr. Colyar (as was not unnatural, seeing Italian was the
language spoken), and he carried it on in a kind of nudging,
familiar, jocose way, which H. ascribed to shyness or to
his not having made up his mind how to deal with us : I
chiefly to a Capuchin education. I have seldom seen a person
who gave me the idea of having much more ' go ' in him.
Mr. C. said that at one time the only English words he
knew were ' Will you box ? ' learnt from an Irish Capuchin,
90 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
and with these he greeted the said Colyar whenever he called.
He seemed to make me understand more than I ever did
before great men whom one reads of, as carrying through life
with them, through all their greatness, what the conventions
of the world call somewhat low tastes.
I don't know why I have gone on prosing about this man,
whom I have only seen once, except that he interested me a
good deal, and that I have little else to say, and that I have
given you data sufficient to set my opinions at their proper
value a piece of consideration, by the way, which I suspect
you don't always give me due credit for, though really I don't
know why I should say so, for I feel that what you say of my
uncharitablencss is just.
Hope asks whether you knew that a German Protestant
named Dressel is bringing out here from the Vatican manu-
scripts (part only of which, it is said, Jacobson saw) a new
edition of the Apostolical Fathers. The said Dressel has
also taken a great deal of pains with collations of an edition
of Prudentius which he wants to bring out, but it is question-
able whether he has money enough to publish it himself. I
have said I would suggest to you whether it could be made
any use of for the ' Library of the Fathers.' He is a man well
thought of here, for character and accuracy, by those who
speak of him, has worked his eyes out, and is in distress.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
Rome : February 6, 1841.
I must allow I shall not be sorry to get rid of Rome.
The bad weather and continual parties, and calls on persons I
shall probably never see again, have fairly tired me out. I
feel as if when I began to move I must have some fine
weather. I met at a party the other day M. Bethmann
Holwegg, owner of the Castle of Rheineck at the mouth of
the valley of the Brohl, which you probably recollect, and he
recognised me as having been civil to him at Oxford ; so
we greeted most amiably, and have exchanged invitations.
He is an eminent man in his line (civil law).
1841 WINTER AT ROME 91
We paid our visits to the Cardinals Micara and Mezzo-
fanti. Micara was a vivacious old fellow with a kind of
Capuchin good humour about him, but, with all his vivacity,
capable, I could quite believe, of packing all heretics clean
out of Rome, as some people say he would do if he were
Pope. He would have made a capital picture with his red
cap, Capuchin dress, long white beard, and bright keen eye.
(I am afraid our going over to Frascati to look at him is quite
out of the question.) And the Capuchin establishment in
which he lives is a magnificent affair in extent, though of
course as plain as possible in details, and quite unornamented.
There is something, however, to me about the long corridors
and quadrangles of the convent which is very grand and
taking. Mezzofanti (the owner of the forty or sixty languages,
I forget which) is a very courteous man, who talked English
to us most fluently all the time we were with him, but without
any particular talent.
February 9. All plans to the right about face. I have
just received a letter from Church insisting that there is no
manner of necessity for my coming home for Easter, so I
have indited a letter to the Provost, asking for more leave
of absence, which I shall use to see Carnival here, then I
think Naples, then through Rome again to Florence and
Venice. So you may continue to address your letters here
till the 4th or 5th of March, then write to Florence. One
letter, perhaps, will have gone there as it is.
I have fallen across Mrs. Somerville several times lately,
and like her uncommonly. I never met such an unaffected
person with so much in her. Lady Adam is always exceed-
ingly cordial, as she seems to be to all the English, but some-
how I never find that we have more than a few words to say
to one another ; very empresste always but not much of it.
And I am afraid last night I made rather a hole in my
manners by staying after everybody else (but the Somervilles)
talking to Mrs. S. By the way I dined last night with a very
taking old German soldier, a Count Briihl, come to accom-
modate the Cologne affair, which they say here the King of
Prussia wishes to have settled at almost any time. The party
was only Hope, Count B., a M. Reumont, secretary of the
92 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
Prussian Legation, and myself, and a very pleasant evening
we passed till it was time to be off for our respective evening
engagements.
I have got rather a curiosity for you in the shape of an
Italian love letter, written by the scrivano at the bottom of
our staircase. I had suggested the notion to Hope, who
accordingly, being the impudent man of the party, must needs
one fine morning begin feeling his way towards getting the
said letter, with our bland but tremendous 'padrona.' 'A
good honest fellow the scrivano.' ' Yes.' ' How did he get
on in the world ? What did he do ? Presumed he wrote a
great many letters ? ' ' Yes.' ' Letters for the contadini of
all sorts ? ' ' Yes, of all sorts.' ' From father to children,
brothers, sisters, friends, &c. ? ' ' Yes, all that come ; fathers,
brothers, everybody else.' ' And lovers if they come to him ? '
' Ah ! ma non cattive lettere, non scrive mai cattive lettere,
uomo scrupolosissimo always takes care that the letters he
writes should be " oneste lettere." ' And it came too clear to
be mistaken that the unfortunate Hope in one short moment
had entirely knocked down all the little reputation we have
scraped together during the last two months for steadiness
and respectability, and was believed to have the most
iniquitous designs on the poor scrivano's handiwork. How-
ever, on mentioning the story to my friend M. Pfyffer, he
instantly volunteered to get the thing done, as he does every-
thing else, and accordingly in two days we were in possession of
a most approved specimen of the article required (' ma non
cattiva,' implying honourable proposals), with all manner of
illustrations plain and coloured.
To Frederick L. Rogers, Esq.
Naples : March 9, 1841.
My dear Father, I have bid good-bye, almost for good,
to Rome, without much regret. I have made one or two
acquaintances that I like, but the chances are so much against
my being thrown across them again that one does not gain
much. In the last fe\v days I made some acquaintances that
I have liked as much as any people I have met at Rome,
1841 WINTER AT ROME 93
through a certain Oxford man named Anderdon ; a certain
German Count and Countess Hohenthal with her sister, a
Princess Biron, good-natured, warm-hearted, and I should
think superior people, and the ladies with the additional
advantage of being very pretty. Mrs. Somerville's praises I
think I have sung before. These are a few among some
thirty or forty houses where I did leave or ought to have left
P.P.C.s on leaving Rome. I have left a sad number of things
unseen, my only consolation when people cross-questioned
me being that I have dropt into one sight which is worth
seeing, and extremely difficult to see, being the Villa Ludovici,
including a magnificent statue gallery of the Prince Piombino,
a man who refuses admittance to everybody, even Chantrey
the sculptor, and the Pope ! The Hohenthals, however,
managed to get admittance for a party, to which Anderdon
appended me ; which was the beginning of our acquaintance.
I have been posting here with two Swintons, one a rising
Scotch advocate, a very nice, frank, honest-hearted, fellow as
possible, knows the Pringles of Yare, and Sir W. Scott's
family well ; but I can't make out much of our other Scotch
friends ; he has come abroad for his health, and brings with
him his brother, who has insisted on taking up painting as a
profession. The advocate meditates a visit to Oxford, where
I shall like much to see him. One youth was a wild man
from Ireland by name C , utterly unlicked, but most
entirely good-natured and charitable to all the world except
towards a little tuft-hunting tutor of Lord Gifford's (who is
travelling here) who has apologised to him, C , for not intro-
ducing him to society at Rome according to a supposed promise
at Florence ; ' accursed villain,' ' infernal valet de place,' and
such like, are among the epithets eulogistic which the remem-
brance of the insult elicits whenever it occurs to him, which it
does almost twice a day.
We had three beautiful days for our journey here, which
was for the most part along Horace's iter ad Brundisium, for
writing which travellers to Naples should thank him much.
The first day stopped at Albano to lionise, and slept at
Cisterna (Tres Tabernae in Acts xxviii.), next day lionised
Tarracina, ' impobitum saxis candentibus (now red) Anxur,'
94 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
lost Swinton's baggage from behind the carriage at Itri, a
place famous for brigands, and had to pay a couple of scudi
to some country people who had found it (probably before it
was lost) on the road ; and slept like Horace at Mola di
Gaeta, under the Formian Hills and on the site (it is said) of
the Villa where Cicero was killed. The third day a beautiful
journey under the hills to Capua, and so to Naples.
To Rev, J. H. Newman.
Val Montone : March 26, 1841.
I have made what I suppose were pretty much your tours
round about Naples, to Paestum, Amalfi (by sea from
Salerno), Sorrento, Capri and Castellamare. I am sorry to
say I always fail to appreciate properly what I have heard
much puffed beforehand ; consequently Pompeii disappointed
me a little even at Amalfi I must confess I was rather dis-
appointed because it did not surpass my expectations. The
coast between Salerno and Amalfi, and Paestum did. There
is certainly something very pleasant in the way in which these
places carry one back either to Horace and Juvenal (Virgil I
have not with me), or to the time when I read them, I can't
quite tell which. And lines which one sees now to be graphic
haunt one in a pleasant way. I have been pursued for the
last day or two by ' Liris quieta mordet aqua, &c.,' and
' Principis angusta Caprearum in rupe sedentis,' since I have
crossed the Liris and seen Tiberius's Palace at Capri, a regular
specimen of a magnificent vulture's nest.
I hear of a bishop in these parts (Neapolitan), of Avellino
I think, who is what my cabman calls with much reprobation
' inquieto assai assai,' i.e. endeavouring vigorously to reform
the clergy, and others too. The clergy, for misconduct, are
without ceremony imprisoned in the Bishop's palace. Do
you know exactly on what theory the distinction between
offences of ecclesiastical and of civil cognisance are kept up
here in the Papal States, the punishment being the same ?
A man, as I understand, may be imprisoned for blasphemy,
incontinence, or theft : but for the last by the police for the
two former by the Bishop. Is the Roman view of civil
1841 WINTER AT ROME 95
authority the utilitarian or the paternal ? I think I mentioned
that one of the Cardinals (Giustiniani, who is said to have
been nearly elected Pope but vetoed by Austria) is also said
to have used his episcopal authority of imprisonment at his
diocese, Imola, to such purpose that it was thought expedient
to transfer him to another diocese out of the ferment which
he had raised in his own.
Rome, April 8. A day or two since I saw a remarkable
thing at one of the retraites, which I spoke of before for the
lower classes, and which a priest named Pentini was to take
us to. We went to hear him (in fact) preach to sixty or
seventy soldiers who were in the ritiro, partly by compulsion,
partly by their own will. We were present at one of a course
of sermons which were to last the eight days of their being
there. It happened to be the one on the Blessed Virgin.
We were in the chapel and they in the next room with the
door almost shut, so I could not hear distinctly, but I should
not have thought it powerful except that Pentini himself is
an earnest, simple-hearted man and very energetic in manner.
However, near the end of the sermon we were sent out of that
part of the chapel, and shortly Pentini rushed in with all the
soldiers in a body after him, who all threw themselves sobbing
and groaning before a picture of the Virgin over the Altar, he
standing at their head and leading the way in vehement
ejaculations to her, mixed with a kind of shouting encourage-
ment to pray on, and pray earnestly much in the way,
mutatis mutandis, in which you would cheer on men who
were fighting : all the men going on sobbing loudly and
apparently quite overcome as ' Pray to her, pray earnestly, cry
to her you know not how she loves you cry " Viva Maria ! "
and then there was a kind of low shout of ' Viva Maria ! '
(which with ' Viva Gesu ! ' seems common both as an utterance
and as an inscription on the walls. I did not know it, though
I suppose you do, from such books as ' St. Francois de Sales ').
This continued for some time and ended with a short litany
or some other office. He had told us that he considered this
sermon was the most effectual of any to bend those who came
into the place set against the discipline they were to undergo.
The people, I hear, consider that great temporal curses are
likely to fall on those who attend these exercises without
96 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
being bettered by them. And accordingly there is much
dread of going. Pentini himself certainly seemed to consider
that manifest judgments had fallen on those who had relapsed,
after repentance there. A day or two before, I had heard two
of the Jesuits' ' esercizi nobili,' which certainly did not strike
me at all. . . .
We hear terrible rumours here about what is going on at
Oxford 2 Stanley with active curiosity, Smith of Trinity
with distress, Hope with a manly anxiety, and I with a stomach-
ache. Our principal authority is the ' Standard ' with com-
ments by the ' Sun.' Waterton, the mad ornithologist, calls
you all ' the party that won't speak out,' i.e. Roman Catholics
that won't own it. He has got hold of the ' Ecclesiastical
Almanac,' now the ' Puseyite Almanac,' as he calls it (I sup-
pose from his Jesuit friends who are ' taking notes '), and of
course considers us all on the turn.
I have not seen very much of the ceremonies of last week,
scarcely more than the fireworks, and the misereres of the
Sistine Chapel, which certainly are very wonderful (they
struck me like a wild singing of birds), though I do not under-
stand the excessive impressiveness that they are said to have.
The only things that the ' public ' seem to have been im-
pressed with this year were the benediction, and the Pope's
manner of waiting on the pilgrims. I hear the Pope much
better spoken of than I expected, and I have heard the cur-
rent scandals denied in a frank unreserved way that looked
true. The highest classes here are said to be far better
behaved in point of morality than in any other great city of
Italy. On my way here I saw one or two show convents
(Trisalti, Carthusian, and Monte Casino, Benedictine), but
much in the way a stranger sees Christ Church. At the
strangers' table of the former I met a curious specimen of
human nature, or rather of the Neapolitan country clergy,
who amused me not a little, but will keep, as I am afraid
you would row me for malice if I filled a letter with him. I
shall be somewhat anxious for what I find at Florence from
Oxford. Kindest remembrances to all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
2 Tract 90 (on the Articles) was published in February, 1841.
is-ii WINTER AT ROME 97
To Mrs. Rogers.
Venice : May 9, 1841.
This place is delightful, and the Piazza di S. Marco, with
the church (a kind of Eastern, Byzantine, half mosque-looking
cathedral) and Doge's palace &c., beyond anything I could I
have conceived. I find myself there about twice a day, and I
don't remember having enjoyed anything more than Friday
evening, when a band began to play about sunset ; all the
cafes, which almost surround the piazza, put out chairs, and
all Venice came to walk about and enjoy themselves shops
gaily lighted up, and a beautiful starlight night. The deli-
cious part of it is that all that you see there is magnificent
and just as it was when the old Doges married the sea, and
just exactly what it ougJit to have been a magnificent mixture
of the merchant and the noble, nothing at all of the feudal
about it, nothing for defence, or putting you in mind of bands
of retainers, nothing rough or unfinished, but a look of rich,
well-managed security about the architecture, fine taste, no
expense spared in detail, and no eyesores allowed, except
perhaps one or two things, such as the standard holes, which
had historical associations. Then the smaller canals are
picturesque beyond belief, with a rich breadth of light and
shade, and beauty of colour (even during the sirocco which is
now blowing) quite wonderful to English eyes. And the luxury
of sliding about in your most comfortable gondola instead of
a dusty, muddy cab is no small addition to the enjoyment.
I have made this evening at dinner what I hope will be a
nice acquaintance a M. Thevenot, a French Carlist, who has
been to Trieste, to visit the ex-Royal Family of France, and
tells me that the ' Queen is coming to the Hotel in a fe\v
days, incog., to visit a friend.' Having told me this on a few
minutes' acquaintance, he makes such a mystery of it that I
almost suspect him of being an impostor, else I should say
he was a remarkably pleasing, intelligent, manly kind of fellow
and, curiously enough, he is in fact an old acquaintance, we
having travelled together from Naples to Monte Casino about
six weeks since, when he was much offended with a friend, a
H
98 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
fellow traveller, for admiring the country we passed through.
* Bah ! tu es malade.' ' Tu ne vois pas clair ce matin.' But
I hear him coming to the door to take me out in his gondola.
May 10. My friend M. Thevenot is certainly a nice fellow.
After the strict secrecy that he enjoined me about ' the Queen/
I find her incognito only extends to travelling under the
title of Duchess of Angouleme, my to-day's gondoliers having
told me that the said Duchess and her nephew were to come the
day after to-morrow. M. T. gives a most enthusiastic account
of their virtues. She never speaks a harsh word of those who
have injured her, and the young Henri V. has much esprit, is
handsome, amiable, and rides like an angel on horseback. I
have struck up here and on the road an alliance with a
family hight Ruskin, the father a good, honest north-
countryman, and at the same time, London merchant ; the
son an Oxford prizeman, 3 who draws beautifully. Also I
have just met the Hohenthals, to whom I shall go this even-
ing, so that I find myself somewhat at home here. There
is something very amusing and agreeable in the way you meet
over and over again some of your travelling acquaintances.
I have just been over the inside of the Doge's palace,
Bridge of Sighs, &c. It is a terrible place, and more especially
in the change from the size and magnificence of the state
rooms to the prisons beneath, which are duly to be seen
horrible places (though, they say, healthy), with almost more
-wall than space in them ; some with a gleam of daylight
(those for more ordinary criminals), the next story for those
who were taken cognisance of by the ' inquisizione ' (as I
understood), not Inquisition, with lamplight coming to them
only through a round hole barred ; and then below the level
of the canal those of the state criminals and some others which
they called ' casi reservati,' reserved, i.e., for the Council of
Ten, with no light at all. Certainly, on the whole, taking into
account the position on the Canal, a narrowish and therefore
dark thoroughfare, and under all these magnificent counci
halls with nothing in them but rich paintings of glories and
victories and Doges and their virtues, and then the dreadful.
3 Mr. Ruskin \vas then an under- and the first volume of Modern Painters
graduate. He took his degree in 1842. was published the year after.
1841 WINTER AT ROME 99
quiet Venetian way of settling people's fate, they are as im-
pressive places as I have seen. Ordinary criminals after
condemnation were simply executed (in front of the palace,
I think) in the sight of the people ; but the ' casi reservati '
were made away with in those prisons, ' on the stone which
you are standing on,' as I was told by the man who was
lighting me through the narrow passages, when I asked him
where the quiet executions took place.
May 12. I have been rather more diligent in lionising here
than in most places, though my good friend M. Thevenot
spoilt a morning the day before yesterday. The pictures are
very magnificent, not with the same touchirigness that one
finds about Perugia, &c., but rich golden flesh and drapery
and bold light and shade. In that line I am much in love
with Tintoret, a painter one never sees in England, but who
seems to "have painted in Venice almost as much as Rubens
in Belgium. What perhaps pleases me most just at present
is his originality ; it is something so very refreshing after having
gone through crowds of pictures, one just a little differing
from the others of their school, to come slap on a man who
has quite imagined a style for himself and thrown it off at
once quite complete. For K.'s benefit, I will say that his style
is generally strong effect of light and shade, with very bold con-
trasts and hardly any half tint except on the masses of light ;
effect, however, not being of sharp contrast but of full richness-
His shades are not veined with half lights like Rembrandt's,
but dark masses, which, if he wishes to break, he breaks by a
light as bright as any other in the drawing, only not so large
(as e.g. in a glory round the head of a saint). And his great
picture (the miracle of St. Mark, a slave whom a crowd are
trying to kill with hatchets and stakes, which all break upon
him) is in colour just what his ordinary pictures are in chiaro-
scuro. However, it is absurd writing to you about a painter
that you don't know, only the more I think of that picture the
more I am astonished at it. I can't conceive what could have
put it into his head. I should say there was no mannerism
in it and yet that it was totally unlike any other style of
painting I ever saw ; and the vigour of the drawing is quite
up to the colouring.
ioo LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
I went to-day over the Arsenal, which has some interesting
things in it ; standards taken at Lepanto, which I liked because
when one reads of bashaws, their tails, and Turkish standards
flying in old history, it is satisfactory to have seen them and
know exactly what they were like. Also some instruments
of torture, the collar (as I understood) with which Carrara 4
was strangled ; thumbscrews and other nice inventions for
people who would not confess, taken from the Doge's palace,
of which I have told you, a beautiful little model of the
Bucentaur, and the actual chair of the Doge from it. All
which things I don't consider as mere relics (for which I still
profess not to care) but good solid realities which make you
conceive history twice as well as you would without them. I
regret every moment I do not know Italian history, particularly
Venetian. Here I have, within sight of my window, palaces
of Foscari, Barbarigi, Pisani, Grimani, and I "may say
Giustiniani, with nothing but a vague notion that people of
these names existed in Venice, and did great things, without
knowing what, except from Lord Byron. And by the way
that gentleman does seem to enjoy the most extraordinary
popularity here and everywhere in Italy. He is the first
author every Italian priest or layman talks to you of. An
Armenian to whom I brought a letter, and who showed me
his convent, obviously thought it the great fact of his life to
have taught Lord Byron. The Vitalis at Milan, a student I
picked up at Padua, and the gondoliers here, all set to work
talking of him immediately. N.B. I have seen in the shops
here ' Oliviero Tuuist,' ' scritto da Boz (Carolo Dickens),
e volgarizzato (!) da A. B.' The notion of Oliver being put
into the vulgar tongue, that vulgar tongue being Italian, seems
to me rich. I should like to know Mr. A. B.
By the bye, don't be surprised at an artist of the name of
Lear dropping in upon you some day to see if I have come
back. But ask to see his drawings, which are beautiful. He
is a friend of the Hornbys, and I told him I hoped we should
see him some day on his way to them, and that, even though
1 am not at home, I hoped he would go in and make your
1 Francesco II. da Carrara, sur- taken prisoner by the Venetians and
named ' Novello,' of Padua. He \\as put to death in 1406.
1841 WINTER AT ROME 101
acquaintance, telling him at the same time if he had his port-
folio with him that some of you would really and truly enjoy
looking at them. He was to have been my companion in the
mountains about Subiaco &c., and the sketches (black and
white chalk) are principally about Rome.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Innspruck : May 19, 1841.
I can't say what a satisfaction it was to me to receive
Church's letter and your P.S. at Florence. 5 The whole affair
has been to me like the bursting of a cloud that had been
making me very uncomfortable, and it is quite a relief to fancy
that it has gone off with so little damage. I suppose you
feel yourself that the stopping of the Tracts is a thing of very
little importance now, and, as you imply, things are on a
truer footing. . . .
I hear from a French Carlist that the French Government
is obliged to keep down religious education by a tax, i.e. that
there are two systems at work, the Government one of ecoles
d? enseignement mutuel (of course purely secular) ; and that of
the ' freres ignorantins.' Under the Restoration the Govern-
ment patronised the latter, who accordingly got somewhat
idle ; but since the Government of 1830 has discountenanced
them they have become much more zealous, and there has
been the great religious reaction, and all this, with the natural
tendency of the French to oppose the Government, has
made the ' freres ignorantins ' so much preferred by the people
that the schools of enseignement mutuel would fall if they
were not supported b'y a tax, paid by every teacher on
every pupil whom he takes, which (I think) goes to support
them. He viewed the enseignement mutuel people as useful
in their way, partly as a spur to the others, and partly as
really ' authors of improvements,' but said they were in fact
theorists, and the others were those who were used to have
5 This letter from Mr. Church, dated Oxford), is published with Mr. New-
March 14, 1841 (giving a full account man's postscript in theZz) and Letters
of the feeling and the proceedings at of Dean Church, pp. 27-34.
102 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
the reins in their hands, and knew how to manage children,
and whom the people were used to.
The Tyrolese are really an uncommonly nice people.
Anderdon told me that before you had been a day in the
Tyrol you felt as if they were all your brothers even without
speaking the language and really it is very true, and I do
think it is not founded on fancy, but on themselves. There
seems to be a mixture of obligingness and independence
which is quite refreshing after the south of Italy, where one
could not speak six civil words to a man without being asked
for qualctt cosa. This place is, I think, the most beautiful I
have yet seen, far beyond Florence, and to my mind without
the enervating look that the beautiful Italian cities have.
At Verona I found as usual the Capuchins and Jesuits
more thought of than the other clergy ; my cicerone liked the
seculars because they were liberi, disliked the regulars
because they were fanatici, excepted in favour of the Capu-
chins because they were truly pii : explained that to mean
that they did great penances and got up in the middle of the
night to do them ; they were notfanaticz, because when people
confessed to them they considered that true contrition was
enough, and set very slight penances. The Jesuits, on the
contrary, were fanatici inasmuch as they were not to be
trifled with, and would not give absolution without good
hearty penance. I was rather amused at the difference of
Italian and English notions of fanaticism.
There is here (and elsewhere) a remarkable order called
' Redemptorists' : their office is, when called on by a clergyman,
to send some five of their body to preach and receive con-
fessions in his parish for twelve days in short, to head a kind
of ' revival.' A good, simple-hearted friend of Hope's here
tells me they produce very great effects, ' converting' whole
parishes of mauvais sujets, and he said it did not cause any
itching ears or discontent with their cure, as, firstly, they were
not ' popular preachers,' but simply zealous, honest men ; and,
secondly (what seemed to me remarkable), that they often
removed a cause of want of confidence between cure and
people, for that they frequently found (so they told him)
persons who, from fear of confessing to a person who knew
is-ii WINTER AT ROME 103
them and was daily seeing them, had gone on, up to the time
when the Redemptorists came, making false confessions, and
confessed truly to these, whom they were never to see again.
And he said that after this one good confession such persons
did in fact put themselves under the cure's guidance in a way
in which they (of course) never had done it before. They go
principally to country parishes and were nearly coming to
Wales, but had no one who understood Welsh, and so the
opportunity passed. I was taken by my friend to see one to-
day, but I cannot say much transpired, seeing the Redemp-
torist understood no languages but German and Latin talk-
ing the latter not very well and we were keeping him from
his dinner.
I saw an account of ' No. 90 ' in an Innspruck religious
newspaper (or periodical) translated from the Untvers, and
wished I knew German enough to read it. The delight with
which my little friend here looks forward to the time when
England with all her power of spreading Christianity will
return to the Roman Catholic Church is so sanguine that it
rather perplexes me.
I met Dr. Weedall (I think his name is), late head of
Oscott College, again and again, and he has told me certainly
a strange history. I ought to say that he is a person whose
conversation is moderate and quiet and sensible, and so on,
but with a strong dash of softness or else he thought me
very soft as, e.g., he talked with great satisfaction, and
wished to impress me by talking of an academia or kind of
conversazione held at Cardinal Orioli's on Good Friday evening,
when the Cardinal read a paper on Latin prose, and others
copies of hexameters, &c., and a celebrated improvisatrice
named Rosa Taddei improvised on subjects connected with
our Saviour's Passion. However, his history is that he
stopped in the Tyrol to see two young women who are much
talked of among Roman Catholics. They are said both to
have shown a very remarkable piety from their childhood,
and both early in life were attacked by very painful diseases
which have never left them, and both have devoted themselves
to a life of contemplation. In one this has passed into a
continued ecstasy, except when commanded by her confessor
io 4 LETTERS OF LORI) BLACHFORD CH. in
(without whose direction she never makes a movement) ; she
is continually on her knees in a position which Dr. W. de-
scribes as most beautiful and impressive, and one in which the
mere natural force of the human body could scarce sustain
her. When bidden by him, she lies down and gets up
which Dr. W. saw and in a way which he says he cannot
describe, but which seems to be without any of the effort which
even a person in health would find it necessary to use (e.g.
without unclosing her hands), and when bidden by him she
eats a few grapes or a pear or some such slight thing. She
never speaks to any one, but people are taken in to see her,
and she seems to take a pleasure in seeirig them. The other
case is of the same kind, but that the ecstasy is not continual,
| and / think she speaks to strangers. She has not eaten or
drunk anything at all for seven years, as her confessor testifies
* to Dr. W. Both have received the stigmata (which Dr. W.
saw), and the latter also the impression of the crown of thorns,
all of which cause them the greatest agony, and in the latter
case gush out with blood (on Friday when they go over in
their meditations the Passion of our Lord, and especially at
three o'clock). The places where these two persons have
appeared were places (like all the Tyrol, as I understood)
where there was a great deal of piety, and their history has
acted as a stimulus. How does all this strike you ? I must
confess to a strong prejudice against it. On the other hand
I happened to go into a Tyrolese church the other morning
r (a feast day) while Mass was going on, and I must allow it is
, a thing to make one sad to see what may be, and is not, in the
( Anglican Church.
Dollinger and Wendischmann are being very civil, and
Dollinger is one of the most taking people I have seen since I
have been abroad.
All sorts of remembrances to all people, Church, Mozley
Marriott, Johnson, Ward, &c.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS
1841 WINTER AT ROME 105
To Miss S. Rogers.
Oriel : June 27, 1841.
I find as I thought that that passage in Newman's letter
to the Bishop of Oxford 6 which seems to throw the responsi-
bility of the Tracts on the Bishop ivas put in to please him ;
and that the whole letter was sent to him before it was pub-
lished, and just sent back with a verbal notice of his ' unquali-
fied approbation,' and then followed by a very kind and satis-
factory note. The Bishop wished it to appear that he had
always kept Jiis eye on the Tracts, which in fact was tantamount
(whether he meant it or not) to taking part of the responsi-
bility, as far as permission went.
I suspect matters here will end in Church's tutorship being
taken away. It is an uncommon nuisance for the Provost, as
he loses two tutors by marriage (Daman and Prichard) this
vacation, and so if Church goes he will be left with none but
- who is a blister to him. But it seems he cannot well
help himself. Church was honest enough to volunteer telling
him that he agreed with No. 90. The Provost said first he
was a young man and did not know his own mind, which
would have left things in a very uncomfortable position for
Church as leaving it in the Provost's power to keep him (on
trial) just as long as was convenient, and then pack him off on
plea of being incorrigible, but since that he has had a talk, in
which he proposed Church's keeping the tutorship but not
lecturing on the Articles. This Church declined on the ground
of the statute quoted by the Heads of Houses, which makes
it the duty of tutors to teacJi the Articles. Then the Provost
proposed laying it before the Vice-Chancellor : this Church
also declined ; it being perfectly clear how the Vice-Chan-
cellor would give it (against Church) and the Provost being
perfectly competent to act by himself. So that the only
effect would have been forcing from a University authority a
strong judgment against No. 90. Now it is the Provost's
move, and I suspect he is bound by some agreement among
the Heads themselves not to keep a tutor under those circum-
stances (at least such an agreement has been asserted in print
e Bishop Bagot.
106 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. HI
to exist, professedly on the authority of a Head), so that I
suppose Church must budge. Probably it will end in Church
keeping it for a short limited time, as a favour, till some tutors
can be found to fill the places, if the Provost can submit to be
under an obligation to the men he is turning out. He
lately asked a good meek kind of man named B. (cousin of
Pusey's) whether he agreed with 90, informing him that if he
did he could not sign his college testimonials for priest's
orders. B. in a great fright replied that he had no occa-
sion for them, having already got them a year ago. ' But you
will want them for that year.' No, he had been out of resi-
dence, and had accordingly got them from three neigh-
bouring beneficed clergymen. So departed B. thinking the
Provost had floored him excessively. The rest of the world,
however, thought he had floored the Provost.
The Provost is obviously quite alive to the excessive in
convenience of parting with Church at the present moment,
which is amusing, especially if he is at the bottom at all of the
agreement to expel tutors. I don't know which will be the
martyr, he or Church.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Eliot Place : July 22, 1841.
As to the ' British Critic,' I confess myself out of heart. A
line which shall satisfy Oakeley, Ward, Keble, and Wilson
permanently seems hard to find, independently of the
particular difficulties about Mozley. I am afraid your notion
of my getting ' general influence ' in the review is rather
hopeless. I feel far too perplexed and mistrustful myself to
have any chance of keeping together half-a-dozen different
sets of writers all pulling ways which I don't understand. . . .
To Miss S. Rogers.
Oriel : Nov. 21, 1841.
My dear Sophy, Your card has just arrived, and looks
all that is beautiful. Pusey has been writing a most out-
rageously injudicious letter (which any one of his friends would
have stopped if he had shown it them) in hopes of benefiting
1841 WINTER AT ROME 107
Williams 7 by a plain statement of the case, and stating as
matters of course and commonly known, first, that before
party differences arose Williams was looked to by residents
as the obvious man for the professorship, and secondly, that
Garbett would not have been brought forward now to oppose
him but for such theological differences. Now, both these
things are in spirit quite true. The majority of residents will
vote for Williams in spite of the strong cry against him, and
he was publicly, and alone, talked of as the probable professor,
principally of course among people of our own sort, but, I
should think, in a way that must have come to the ears of
most men, though certain sets do live so completely apart
from others that, no doubt, they would not have heard it (I
mean Heads of Houses, and hunting, noisy men, of whom there
are still a residue here). As to the other assertion, it is clear
that a set is generally being made against us (tutors turned
out, &c.). The opposition to Williams is put on a theo-
logical ground by his opponents publicly, and as far as I hear
almost universally, and the other candidate, Garbett, let
Williams know that if he (Williams) withdrew in favour of a
third person (C laugh ton) Garbett would not stand. This is
explained in another way, viz. that against Claughton Garbett
thought he should have no chance, whereas he would against
Williams, but it certainly has a personal cut about it.
But on the other hand the head of Garbett's college, 8 it
seems, had never heard of Williams as a candidate when he
proposed to the college bringing forward Garbett, so he put
forward a paper flooring Pusey with this fact, which you
observe does floor (apparently) both Pusey's assertions, and
talking about its being begun in 'generous rivalry ' and then
' not being responsible for its having become theological.'
7 In 1841, on the election to the unwisely emphasised the point (which
Professorship of Poetry, vacated by Mr. was not, however, avowed by the other
Keble, there was a contest between side) that the fight was a theological
Mr. Isaac Williams and Mr. (afterwards one. The contest waged by pamphlets
Archdeacon) Garbett of Brasenose. and letters, both at Oxford and in Lon-
The opposition to Mr. Williams was, don, ended in 1842, when it was found
unfortunately, beyond a doubt due to that Mr. Garbett had most promises
the fact that he belonged to the Trac- of votes, and Mr. Williams with-
tarian party and was a friend of New- drew,
man and Keble. Dr. Pusey's letter s Dr. Gilbert.
io8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
However, people were very angry with Pusey's letter at first,
as dictation, and because it was Pusey, and this affair ot
Gilbert's has at present much heightened the bad effect.
To the same.
Oriel : December 12, 1841.
As to matters here I am afraid Fusey has knocked Wil-
liams's chance on the head ; I think he -really would have got
in if it had not been for that letter. And now, could you
suppose it possible Pusey can hardly be persuaded not to
write a third letter, which he wishes to direct at the universal
recipient Jelf ? I had to be called in and advise about the
second, and never in the whole course of my practice did I
undergo such a two days as were spent in the consideration
of what should be said, a whole host of perfectly different
opinions to be taken, Pusey himself dissatisfied with every-
thing that was not grossly injudicious, and all of us in the
most exceeding agony as to what would come, Pusey pro-
ducing specimen after specimen each more dangerous than
the last. And Gilbert's humbugging letter in possession of
the field all the time, and getting additional credit every
moment that it remained unanswered. However, I hope the
answer has done pretty fairly, i.e. it has done no harm, which
was all that could be expected.
I have had a short troublesome correspondence with
Gladstone and Badeley, who wanted a compromise, they
thinking that there was on the tapis a proposal to that effect
from the other party. The people on the other side talk
very big, and I suppose they really will beat us by some con-
siderable majority ; but our numbers, if anything like all our
promises come up, will be such as would secure an enormous
majority in any ordinary case. The only thing that could
save us would be some happy event which would make all
the impartial people who want it not to be a theological con-
test rush up and vote on the merits of the question. But how
they are to be worked up to such an act I don't see.
The moderate man was not myself but Palmer of Magdalen,
whom you probably know of, who has accordingly, to show
1841 WINTER AT ROME
109
that he is not moderate, issued a letter to Golightly princi-
pally intended to ' anathematise ' (his word) all Protestants
and Protestantism and favourers thereof, archbishops, bishops,
priests, deacons, and laymen, in a style which I should think
might not be without a certain effect on the unlucky Williams's
election. I really don't know why it is that everybody should
seize this especial opportunity of going mad.
The Bishop of Winchester has again refused to ordain
- [one of Mr. Keble's curates]. Keble, of course, is very
much distressed at it. I don't know what he will do. ~" Pro-
fessor Airey has been here for a day or so, and breakfasted
with me this morning, with Johnson. What a queer fellow
he is ! He was amusing at breakfast ; only he is plainly a
lazy hand at getting up, and so was about three quarters of
an hour after time, which does not always do in college.
I got up an unsuccessful attempt at Palestrina the other
day ; and pretty much gave up the notion of continuing it.
One little thing, a kind of chant, very easy, I should like to
try when we get home, in the reality it is most beautiful, and
even played on the piano very fine.
I have not been seeing very much of anybody except
Church, Mozley, and perhaps Donkin. The fact is, people are
beginning to feel anxious about things, and I am glad they
should, for it is not before they ought.
I think Sibthorp's conversion did good here in the way
of frightening your young gentlemen who had been overready
with their tongues. What do you think of 'Jack ' Morris
taking the sober line? Ward, Oakeley, and "others goon
pushing ahead, but many men are pulling up, Mozley," Ryder,
Bloxam, I should say Pusey and Williams : of Keble I can't
tell. I should think it almost impossible to say what strange
changes of position may have taken place before three years
are out.
On the whole matters look to me dreary enough, though
one cannot but trust that things will be made to turn out
right, if only people try to do right. If it were not for some
indistinct feeling of that kind I should feel very blue.
Yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
no LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. in
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
12 Paper Buildings, 1 emple : January 4, 1842.
My dear Newman, I hardly like troubling you about
Williams's election, but I think somebody in Oxford should
know the state of the case. A proposal to withdraw both
candidates and letter of the Committee here will come down
to the President of Trinity by this post. You will see the
kind of thing it is. A letter, however, which I received from
Gladstone this morning made me call on him, and I found
him obviously set on getting the matter finished quoquo modo :
if not by the withdrawal of both, by the withdrawal of one ;
and urging the signatures of five out of seven bishops
(members of Convocation) the known sentiments of all, &c.
as motives, in conscience for the withdrawal of one even if
the other refused. He seems to have got them (especially
the Bishop of Oxford) to sign, by the notion (on their parts)
that their authority would put an end to the contest,
Llandaff and Chichester (alone) refusing, because they wished
a stigma thrown upon Williams. He insisted much on the
Bishop's real wish that Williams would withdraw, and, as far
as I understood, wished to establish that the presumption of
the wish, arising from the mere fact of their signatures, was
sufficient to bind us either to act on it or to take measures
to draw out a more distinct statement, especially from the
Bishop of Oxford. He seemed to think the Bishop of Oxford
would be ready to give this.
I say all this because else it appears to me you might
fancy things going differently from what they really are.
Yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Temple : April 3, 1843.
My dear Newman, I do not like to meet you again with-
out having said, once for all, what I hope you will not think
hollow or false. I cannot disguise from myself how very
1843 WINTER AT ROME in
improbable perhaps impossible a recurrence to our former
terms is. But I wish, before the time has past for such an
acknowledgment, to have said how deeply and painfully I feel
and I may say have more or less felt for years the great-
ness of what I am losing, and to thank you for all you have
done and been to me. I know that it is in a great measure
by my own act that I am losing this, and I cannot persuade
myself that I am substantially wrong, or that I could long
have avoided what has happened. But I do believe, if I may
dare to say so, that God would have found a way to preserve
to me so great a blessing as your friendship if I had been less
unworthy of it. I do feel most earnestly how much of any-
thing which I may venture to be thankful for in what I am is
of your forming how more than kind how tender you have
always been to me, and how unlikely it is that I can ever \
again meet with anything approaching in value to the I
intimacy which you gave me. ... I should have been pained
at leaving all this unsaid. But I do not write it with any
idea of forcing an answer from you nor does it require one
and I shall not attach any meaning to your leaving it un-
answered.
Yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
ii2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
CHAPTER IV
In London, reading law and writing for the ' Times,'
and early official life (1842-1850)
IN the summer of 1 842 Mr. Rogers began his work in London,
reading law in the Temple, where he shared chambers with
Mr. S. Wood, a brother of the late Lord Halifax. All his
evenings, except on Sunday, seem to have been taken up by
the task of writing leaders for the ' Times.' He has left an
account of this work.-which gives an interesting picture of the
journalism of that day : ' I dined with Mr. Walter and his son
in Printing House Square at five o'clock, and found that I was
expected to write an article then and there on one of the subjects
of the day. I protested my inability,' not supposing myself
capable of doing such a thing in less than a week. This was
pooh-poohed. I tried, found it possible, and found also that
I was expected to repeat the process next day ; same hour,
same dinner, short conversation after dinner, then the subject
was announced and I was left alone till tea-time, when Mr.
Walter appeared, read aloud what I had done, with criticisms,
and after correction carried off the copy to the printer.
When the article was finished the same process was repeated,
and when I was disburdened of the whole article I went home
to bed. Gradually it appeared that I was expected to do
this (exceptis excipiendis) every evening. And being, though
an Oxford Don, not skilful in saying No, or in evading saying
Yes, while Walter was an adept in the art of making you
believe that you had pledged yourself to do what he wanted
you to do, I found myself soon engaged to write a daily
1842 WORK IN LONDON 113
article, usually in the manner aforesaid, with a very liberal
salary. I neither wanted nor expected one or the other ;
but there I was engaged, with a month's vacation and occa-
sional holidays, pledged to write six articles a week, and to
eat five dinners in Printing House Square. Several rules or
objects I laid down for myself: (i) not to write on Sunday,
except in case of real urgency ; (2) to strike a blow when I
could in favour of the "good cause ;" (3) to substitute, as far
as I could, satire for " thunder." The dinners I found such a
tie that after the first year I gave them up. A new arrange-
ment was made, and ultimately it was understood that I
should send articles when required (i.e. about every day).
' It was a harassing work, partly from its continuous
pressure, partly from a constant apprehension that my in-
dependence was being undermined. At the same time it was
very interesting and amusing. In the first place you were
not unfrequently crossing swords with notabilities by whom
it was some credit even to have been attacked. Once I got
o
such a notice from Sir Robert Peel. It was on occasion of
his bill relating to banks of issue. I had read Jones Lloyd's
and Hubbard's pamphlets on the subject not to speak of
ancient literature, such as Horner's famous report on currency
and felt myself capable of putting on the airs of a financial
oracle. So I criticised, in an extremely patronising way, his
great speech (founded, of course, on a thorough mastery of the
subject), and proceeded to air my own newly acquired know-
ledge, under cover of supplying gaps in his argument. It
was not badly done, and completely deceived Sir Robert,
who, not seeing beyond the lion's skin, answered it in a tone
of respectful deference with which he would have replied to
some great City magnate.
' Then the phrase " monster meeting " was due to me.
An immense balloon, called (I think) the " Nassau balloon,"
had been popularly christened the " monster balloon," and I
applied the phrase contumeliously to one of O'Connell's
I
ii 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
immense out-of-door meetings. He accepted it, as the
Netherlanders in old times accepted the nickname of
Gueux." " The ' Times ' called it a monster meeting, did
they ? Well ! monster meetings they should be " and
monster meetings they were for the future.
' Sometimes (though rarely) I saw or heard that what I
considered a valuable thought had been accepted as such as
" that political economy busied itself too exclusively with the
creation and not enough with the distribution of wealth," a
view which must have been novel in 1 844, as Laveleye spoke
of it in the seventies as having recently attracted attention.
' It was less flattering, but much more amusing, to see
how mere commonplace views on this or that subject were
taken for granted at dinner parties for the next week or so.
It sometimes happened, for instance, that, having to write an
article, say, on a debate, I had had much discussion with
myself as to the various handles by which it might be laid
hold of should I grapple with the actual subject, or criticise
the characters of the speakers, or the tactics which underlay
the question, or a particular quarrel which gave a liveliness
to the debate, or the probable results, &c. ? and, having chosen
my handle, I might have had some difficulty in distributing my
praise or blame. Not so my readers at least, the average
diner-out. They talked my article, as if there was no other
point in the debate than that which I had selected, and no
conceivable opinion but that which I had, perhaps doubtfully,
adopted.
' Also I could be virtuous not to the extent of airing
any chivalrous or transcendental principle, but in a sober,
reasonable, decent, utilitarian way. And be it observed that
under cover of this cool reasonableness it is possible to give
support now and then to a tolerably high standard of moral
judgment.
' I really think I did a great deal to put an end to duelling ;
never lost an opportunity of making it ridiculous, and was
1843 WORK IN LONDON 115
favoured by opportunities for doing so. And after I had
been at this some time (an early article about one Sir
Nathaniel Wraxall was, I think, particularly successful), I
was much gratified by some rather dull peer boring the House
with a long account of some personal affront, because, he
said, duelling had recently been made so ridiculous that a
gentleman could no longer take that mode of righting himself.
' I was also successful (partly by these very articles) in
making Printing House Square understand that there were
other modes of affecting public opinion besides " thunder."
Mr. Walter showed me one day with much satisfaction what
he considered a compliment to my articles, in a letter (since
printed) from Crabbe Robinson. The point was, to express
his satisfaction at a new kind of article, which, instead of
laying down the law, stated the case thoughtfully without
dictating, though inviting, a particular judgment. 1 In some
cases this might be or, rather, certainly was due to the fact
that I did not feel sure (articles being often written on ex parte
or possibly imperfect information) that one or the other
opinion was right ; and, indeed, it is the habit of my mind to
escape from the responsibility of committing myself to a con-
clusive opinion till the case is quite clear, or till something
has to be done. . . .
* People do not consider that in reality what they think
the dishonesty (i.e. inconsistency) of a paper is often the honesty
of contributors, each of whom is allowed to say what he really
believes. Of course, in matters of serious principle the pro-
prietors or editor ought to have their own views and admit
1 The passage occurs in Crabbe It has become mild, argumentative,
Robinson's Diary, vol. iii. 237 (under and discriminating. I wrote lately to
the year 1843) : ' Have you not re- Walter to tell him that I thought the
marked how much the style of the paper better than it has been ever
"Times" is changed now from what it since I have known it that is, thirty-
was ? One no longer sees those fierce six years. He thanked me most warmly
declamations which caused Stoddart to for my encouragement and commenda-
get the name of " Dr. Slop," and the tion.'
paper the title of " The Thunderer."
n6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
nothing else in their leading articles. But there are numerous
cases in which they cannot have, and are not called upon to
have, a settled opinion, and are quite right in leaving the
matter to the writer.'
In 1844 Mr. Rogers began his official life, and gave up
writing for the ' Times.' His first appointment was to the
post of Registrar of Joint Stock Companies. The origin and
nature of his office may be best described in his own words :
' An Act (unparalleled for the looseness of its drafting) had
been passed with good reason for the registration and
regulation of joint stock companies, and I was appointed to
the office created for this purpose. I hardly had time to
shake myself and two or three clerks into our building, and
to get the necessary books and appliances, before the storm
burst upon us. Every existing company had to register its
name with us. There had been enormous frauds connected
with joint stock companies, and the English law of partner-
ship seemed made for obstructing co-operation and enriching
lawyers. An Act was very properly passed to remedy these
evils by facilitating incorporation, and enforcing (to a ridicu-
lous extent) publicity. Every company thereafter formed
had to register its name, and every change of name, certain
particulars and every change in those particulars, every
advertisement it ever issued, and every change in such adver-
tisements ; and to register an approved deed of settlement
containing certain provisions held by the registrar to fulfil
various conditions laid down by Act of Parliament. And all
these things were to be registered promptly, so as to be ready
for public inspection as soon as the company began to receive
money. At this time in 1844 the railway mania was in
its utmost fury ; every third-rate attorney seemed to ally
himself to a third-rate surveyor, and to register two or three
men of straw as " promoters " of some new railway in a
country of which they knew nothing, in the hope of obtaining
from would-be shareholders sufficient deposits to pay their
1844 WORK IN LONDON 117
own bills the rest took its chance. Other speculations fol-
lowed suit, at a distance, in their extravagance. I remember
one man who came to inspect a register (on due payment of
a shilling) with the object of selecting some two places between
which no railway was yet proposed, in order that he might
start one.
' I held the registrarship first under Mr. Gladstone and
then under Lord Dalhousie ; my real chief, however, being
John Shaw Lefevre the most amiable of men, also clear-
headed, most industrious, of great literary accomplishments,
a man of the world, and a thorough man of business. He
was always cordial and friendly, though he could pull me up
when I was careless, in a way of his own.'
Mr. Rogers seems to have succeeded in getting this
Registration Office into order, but did not remain in it long,
for in the course of the same year he was appointed Assistant
Under Secretary to the Colonial Office and Emigration
Commissioner. In 1846 emigration had so much increased
that it became a matter of great public interest. It was not
therefore a loss that his work was restricted to the Emigration
Office as Emigration Commissioner with two colleagues, Mr.
Murdoch being the chairman. ' We were responsible (i) for
checking all the abuses which went on in private passenger
ships, particularly such as carried Irish emigrants and fever
with them to America ; (2) for conducting in our own ships a
large but intermittent emigration to Australia ; (3) for doing
the same for the black emigration to the West Indies ; (4) for
the examination (to the satisfaction of the Colonial Office)
of the innumerable projects of emigration and land-take
which were produced by the colonisation mania of the day.'
In 1845, having already given up his work for the 'Times,'
he also resigned his Oriel Fellowship. By the existing Univer-
sity regulations he could have retained it, but he always in-
tended to give it up as soon as he had any sufficient office or
work which promised to be permanent. Curiously enough, his
n8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
resignation reached the Provost of Oriel on the very day on
which Newman announced his adhesion to Rome and re-
signed his Fellowship. From this arose a report at that time
at Oxford the very reverse of the truth that Rogers had
followed Newman to Rome.
In 1845, and for some time afterwards, he devoted much
of his leisure time to the serious work of starting the
' Guardian,' in conjunction with a few of his most intimate
Oxford friends. It was intended to be a Church newspaper
of a higher order than the existing ' English Churchman,' and
in some degree to carry on the principles of the Oxford move-
ment as they were understood before the division in the ranks
of those who took part in it. He has left in writing a descrip-
tion of the enterprise. ' Newman had joined Rome, and left
those who had adhered to him headless, unorganised, suspected
by others and suspecting each other ; for nobody yet knew
who would follow where he led. For a time a kind of per-
plexed hopelessness prevailed ; who would trust us ? or
rather who could be expected to trust us, with such a fact as
that our acknowledged leader, who, in our view, had systema-
ised the best practicable defence against Rome, had on full
consideration pronounced his and our case a bad one ?
However, different people in different places picked them-
selves up and began to consider how they could take their
share in the battle which they refused to consider as lost.
Whether I was the first to start the idea of a newspaper, I do
not know. Anyhow the idea was taken up by the knot to which
I belonged, embracing James Mozley and Thomas Haddan,
who, like myself, had written not unsuccessfully in the
" Times," and Church and Bernard, who had signalised
themselves in reviews. We, I think, comprised the substan-
tial staff of the undertaking. That is, we tried to collect
contributors and cash, but made ourselves responsible to each
other for finding what was wanting in writing and capital.
We expected to succeed in doing good, for it was something
1845 WORK IN LONDON 119
even to shake out a standard and seem not discouraged ; and,
in the'event, to succeed financially. But we were totally inex-
perienced in the handling of a newspaper and in the conduct
of business. We took the somewhat bold resolution of starting
the paper ourselves, dealing directly with the printer and with
Haddan's clerk as ostensible publisher and sub-editor. We
made an agreement with some printers in Little Fulteney
Street, and hired a room opposite the printing establishment,
over the shop of a baker, where we could attend or meet to.
see what was going on, and where some of us spent the
greater part of every Tuesday night correcting proofs, reject-
ing or inserting matter, writing articles on the last subjects
which had turned up, giving last touches, and generally
editing. Bernard, Haddan, and I, being in London, must, I
suppose, have done most of this work, but Church and Mozley
used to take their share, making use of a bedroom in my
lodgings in Queen Street, Mayfair, whither I had migrated
from the Temple. To these lodgings we used sometimes to
return at four or five o'clock in the morning sometimes,
perhaps, later ; for I connect some of these returns home with
the smell of bread hot from the oven, on which I think we
sometimes made our breakfast. It was on January 21, 1846,
that the " Guardian " came into life (simultaneously with the
" Daily News ") ; and for nearly six months we must have
scrambled on, with plenty of help from writers of our own
kidney, but in the lower departments we had no help but
that of Haddan's clerk ; and how we managed to get through
the drudgery part I hardly now understand. Bernard and
Haddan must have been indefatigable. In July 1846 we were
lucky enough to find Mr. Martin Sharp to take the manage-
ment of our affairs for us as publisher, manager, and osten-
sible editor ; the higher editorial duties soon passed into the
hands of Bernard. We received also literary help from many
friends Northcote, Coleridge, Mackarncss, Burgon, and
others.'
120 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
He goes on to trace the great and well-deserved success
of the ' Guardian,' which followed increasingly a few years
afterwards.
In September 1847 he married Georgiana Mary Colvile,
daughter of Andrew Colvile of Ochiltree, and sister of his
1 .old schoolfellow, Sir James Colvile. At the end of the same
year his uncle, Sir John Rogers, died, and his father, now Sir
Frederick Leman Rogers, resigned his post in the Audit
Office, and went to live on the family property to which he
had succeeded Blachford, near Ivybridge, in Devonshire.
To Miss S. Rogers.
Landerneau, 2 September 4, 1844.
My dear Sophy, I suppose my father will have received
my hurried note written yesterday immediately on receiving
Gladstone's offer of the Registrarship of Joint Stock Companies.
I am at present partly occupied in considering how I shall
break the matter to Mr. Walter. I suppose my connexion
with him may be considered at an end the moment I get a
place. I like the notion decidedly as far as my own comfort
is concerned. The only doubt I feel is as to its permanence,
but as Gladstone says nothing about that I presume I am
safe. I have given a distant hint at it in my note to him.
At any rate if it offers a fair prospect of permanence it seems
to me a thing to be caught at, because if I have an opportu-
nity of doing work and making myself known to a few official
people it will be much.
Now to my proceedings, of which I think I brought the
history up to Landerneau. We found M. le Comte de
Cadeille out, his daughter very Englishified and not wholly
improved thereby ; very anxious to be civil but not knowing
quite how ; the whole terminating in an invitation to dine on
Wednesday. On Sunday (a very hot day) we lounged away
the morning in rest, and walked in the afternoon to a place
called La Foret, where there was to be what is called a
In Brittany, not far from Brest. He was travelling with Mr. Church.
1844 HOLIDAY IN BRITTANY 121
' pardon,' i.e. a collection of the country people all round to
hear vespers, a sermon, join in or see the procession, receive
a benediction, and dance. There are sometimes great ' pardons '
hereabouts which people in danger make vows to attend,
barefoot, half-naked, or otherwise as the case may be. Here the
ceremonial is even greater, the people come from thirty or forty
miles round, and the gaieties last three or four days; at Chateau-
lin (the place we last came from) there was a ball (assemblee)
on Monday, horse-racing, foot-racing, dancing for prizes, &c. ; at
La Foret it was only a small ' pardon,' but one of the most beau-
tiful sights I ever saw. The church is a picturesque (and very
characteristic) Breton church on the side of a hill, looking
down on an arm of the sea, and surrounded by trees just so
kept as to see the sea (or river as you choose to call it) and
opposite bank through. The churchyard, full, almost crowded,
with men and women in Breton costume ; the men in enor-
mous black flapping hat, dark jacket and trousers, some sashes,
some long hair down their backs, occupying one part of the
churchyard ; the women in every variety of bright-coloured
scarf and apron, very dark gown and brilliantly clean white
caps, in the other part ; kneeling, standing, talking or loun-
ging, according to tastes and the part of the service that was
going on. The kneeling of all the people for the benediction
which we saw from the top of the bank on the upper side of the
churchyard was beautiful to look at, the crowd of white caps
with a crowd beyond of black heads and jackets, and beyond
that the sea coast seen through the trees, and all this seen
between a frame of the church on one side and a picturesque
Breton cross on the other. Presently one or two young fellows
got up to the belfry by some steps cut in the roof of the church
and set to work there ringing the bells. Out came the pro-
cession, the priests, women, crosses, canopy, a crowd of
black-headed men and a crowd of white-capped women, and
walked round the churchyard, the others kneeling as the
Sacrament passed ; and then they are all separated, those who
could stay at La Foret to dance &c., those who could not
(we among the number) to get home as fast as they could.
The next day, Monday, we went to Brest, intending to
get out to the extreme point (St. Mathieu) ten or twelve miles
i22 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
further ; but finding no carriage to be had, went up the
Chateaulin river (which is very pretty) through the Rade (or
Roads) of Brest which forms, I should think, about the most
magnificent harbour in the world for steamers. We were put
down a mile or two short of our destination (Chateaulin), and
found the diligence full, the coupt being occupied by an
English officer, a very civil and communicative old French
gentleman, and his daughter. So we ' took our feet, in our
hand ' and determined to walk our two miles, but hung about
to look at a very picturesque and natural-looking dance
that was going on about a dozen young girls just come
from the fete at Chateaulin, and rather more young men,
arranged sometimes in two, sometimes in one line, having
hold each of the other's little finger, and dancing, to the
singing of two of the young men, a figure that (barring the
running under arms) had more the effect of ' Thread my
Needle ' than anything else that I can think of. The song was
like a somewhat monotonous English country dance, with a
touch of the Ashantee. At last the diligence started. Church
said ' Look ! ' and I saw the horses turning sharp the wrong
way ; in another moment the whole concern toppled and came
smash down on its side ; the postilion (as we heard was his
habit) was drunk, the leader had been accustomed to go the
other way and took the wrong turn, and between them this was
the result. The people in the interior were soon out, but, as
nobody seemed inclined to help those in the coupe, Church and
I jumped up on the coach (the door side was undermost), the
fools of Frenchmen holloaing out ' Ne montez pas sur la
voiture,' and began to help out our friends. First came the
Englishman, covered with blood, but only a little bruised,
who proceeded to help the others ; then the young lady, dread-
fully cut about the face, her nose laid open, who (perhaps
naturally) had lost her wits and, instead of getting out of the
way, sat in the window, crying ' Sauvez mon pere,' a thing
impossible while she sat there ; next the old gentleman, quite
quiet, except that he too had been crying ' Sauvez ma fille,'
covered with blood, very pale, and with an arm broken. The
only other serious hurt seemed to be an old woman whoeom-
plaincd of her shoulder, but more of the back of her head,
1844 HOLIDAY IN BRITTANY 123
which was bleeding profusely, a good thing as I supposed.
She was travelling with her son (a soldier) and daughter, who
seemed attentive but not alarmed. After much parleying the
surgeon was sent for and arrived, and finding them in good
hands we left for Chateaulin, having done what we could to
help the young French lady in the matter of luggage &c.
They had friends at Chateaulin, who, as well as the Brest
brother-in-law, were immediately sent for. The next morning
we met the old man walking into Chateaulin with his friends,
weak but professing himself better, his daughter's face
terribly cut about. But we heard very bad accounts of some-
body, whom I take to be the old woman. The priest had
been sent for, and had administered extreme unction and
they expected her to die. I had no conception of her
being so much hurt, and hope it is not true. She sat
upright against a piece of timber slightly leaning against a
wall, and was able to talk and walk, and help a little in
making herself a sling for her hurt arm.
Tuesday we came here, a most beautiful drive, and after
dinner drove to a professed ruin (the first regular humbug we
have come across), which Mile, de Cadeille in her injudicious
goodness had provided for us, together with a copy of the
Nation (Irish newspaper), a history of Landerneau, and of
certain mines not far off.
To-day M. de Cadeille called, a friendly old gentleman,
and has thought it necessary to send us to see the Lander-
neau racecourse ! he not being well enough to go with us.
Conceive being boxed up in his carriage and packed off as if
one was the Spanish Ambassador to such a place. How-
ever, it is curious. What think you of an old half-Druidical
looking cross, opposite the great stand and between the bands
of musicians on the top of an exposed heath? We saw an
interesting church on our way back, else I should say M. de
C.'s civility was unfortunate. However, I must finish or I
shall keep his dinner waiting. Love to all,
Yours affectionately,
F. R.
124 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
To Mr. Church.
October, 1844.
Dear Church, All is right here. Lefevre exceedingly
civil, not at all of a don, and has put me into the hands of a
little lawyer named Symonds, now a Registrar of Metropolitan
Buildings, who drew the bill and is up to details. Yesterday
walked about with them choosing an office, probably close by
here in Serjeants' Inn, and a seal of office. I shall soon be
immersed in consideration of portfolios, book-binding, modes
of pasting documents, ruling lines, managing clerks and
messengers, drawing forms, &c. ; at present totally at sea.
I have had two interviews with Lefevre, and am to have
an enormous palaver with Symonds on Monday, and back to
Lefevre on Thursday, meantime getting up Acts of Parlia-
ment and Blue Books.
I have an assistant and three or four clerks certain. No-
body knows or can guess the extent of work which is to be
done ; it seems to me likely to be enormous, and Lefevre
tells me that with moderate industry I may in a month or two
know more about the matter than any one else and be a
person to be referred to by the Board of Trade on these
matters ' which we know nothing about.'
To Mrs. Rogers.
Guingamp : August 28, 1845.
My dear Mother, As you see, I am at Guingamp, but
without very much to say yet. Lefevre thought there was no
necessity for my staying in town, so I started from London
by the 3 o'clock train, and from Southampton by the 7 o'clock
Jersey packet. About i o'clock the next day we arrived at
Jersey, changed instanter to another packet, and arrived at
St. Malo about 6 o'clock. At 7 o'clock the next (Wednesday)
morning I started for Guingamp, via Dinan and St. Brieuc.
My travelling companion from St. Malo to St. Brieuc was a
good-humoured, unaffected priest, successor of the Abbe
Malais at the Hotel Dieu at Rouen, who talked a good deal
about the religious state of France. He gave a most tre-
1845 HOLIDAY IN BRITTANY 125
mendous picture of it, far worse than I was prepared for.
Every one, he said, received their ' premier communion,' but
after that never attended a religious service or received any
religious instruction, and consequently before a few years are
over are positively without any religious idea of any sort or
kind. And he would not allow that there was much differ-
ence (at least in Normandy) between the country and the
town. The rising generation, he said, are worst of all. And
the schools (which everybody is almost obliged to attend,
private schools not being allowed by the laws) are practically
schools of infidelity. He has books to lend to the patients
in the Hopital, histories of Rome, lives of good men, &c.
If he attempts to lend anything religious the patients tell him
' C'est bon pour les enfans.' However, he said he is sufficiently
respected to be able to take possession of all bad books that
he finds circulating there, though Government (under whom
all these hospitals are) would not bear him out in doing so
and have signified as much.
At 5 we 3 dined at St. Brieuc, and I transferred myself
(there being no room in the diligence) to a most miserable
little voiture de retour, which got me to Guingamp about 10
o'clock.
To-day I have taken a long walk up the Trieux and back
again, and have been rather disappointed. The river is a
quiet little trout stream running along a narrow, and not very
deep valley, with a slight edging (generally) on one or both
sides of water meadow, and beyond that of wood or heath,
with rock breaking through occasionally ; water mills every
mile or two. This might, of course, be beautiful, but it is not
even pretty owing to the want of boldness of form, and partly
to the Breton custom of lopping up their trees like the most
absurd of our hedgerow elm trees. I think I should say that
the want of fine trees was the great mischief. I made two
sketches only, one an attempt at water-colours, both failures,
but the water-colour sufficiently near success to encourage me
to try again. The day was dull and uniform (threatening
rain), which made it hopeless for a beginner to make any-
thing of colours. I think my attempt would have been much
3 He was travelling with Mr. Mountague Bernard.
iz6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
better if I had had the sun. I had it only for five minutes at
the end, just long enough to show me the absurd mistakes I
had made. Of course I collected a crowd of dirty children
(at least the second time about eight or nine), some jabbering
a little French and all a great deal of Breton, and having a
great deal of fun. I ascertained that the name of the place
I was drawing was Sainte Croix, and inquired the meaning
of a phrase which they kept repeating to one another with
infinite amusement, pronounced ' allapol ka.' However, they
could give me no information except ' c'est ce que M.
Maynard dit,' which would have puzzled me if I had not
happened to see in a window that morning a set of infamously
bad caricatures of which ' M. Maynard ' is the hero. I cer-
tainly did not expect even the name of the polka to have
made its way down to the dirty little children of a most
miserable village in Brittany.
Yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Mrs. H. Legge.
Le Faou : September 8, 1845.
My dear Marian, To-day (Monday) we have come into
Le Faou, to see a ' pardon ' at a place called Huelgoat, where
there is a holy oak. It had, of course, all the ordinary features
of a ' pardon,' the costumes were quaint and varied, but the
scenery less striking than at the one I had seen at La Foret.
But a few peculiar features. People make pilgrimages to
Huelgoat, and accordingly we had people walking barefoot or
scrambling on their knees round the church, and water being
served out to drink, at a holy well close by, at which also
people came pressing to wash their feet and hands and say a
prayer. But the oddest thing was the mixture of fair with
the whole. The first thing was Mass at 1 1 o'clock. We
went into the church to have a look at part of the service,
preached in Breton, with much variety of tone and apparently
very familiar ; then the preacher sat clown for a time in the
pulpit and began talking to them (as it seemed to me) in
a familiar expostulatory way ; the women all in the nave,
squatting down on the ground, a sea of white caps ; the men
1845 HOLIDAY IN BRITTANY 127
standing in the transepts and sitting on benches, or on the steps
of the altar fine-looking fellows, generally with long hair
down their backs and a dress something between a Swiss
peasant and a gentleman of George I.'s time, very quiet and
respectful (except a little whispering) but somewhat im-
movable. But after service there was the funniest sequel.
Offerings are made at this place to a considerable extent, and
those who can't give money may give what they can, a gay
ribbon, an old coat, an ornamented child's skull cap, &c.
Well, when mass was over, four long-haired young fellows
who had been employed to go round the church and church-
yard with plates for money, and who are evidently the wags
of the village, got up on the steps of the cross in the church-
yard, and without delay put up all these offerings to sale to
the highest bidder. All the women collected round them and
there was a quarter of an hour's high fun about all their
ribbons, which, as it appeared to me, did not fetch any very
extraordinary price, if indeed they were got off at all. Then
came three or four hours' waiting till vespers at 3 o'clock.
One or two cabarets opened (Greenwich fair fashion) opposite
the church, and a few stalls at which you could get a certain
variety of eatables and drinkables, there being one stall for
each separate article. Bernard and I composed our luncheon
as follows : we bought at one stall a roll apiece which we
split, we then went to another stall where a dirty fisherman
was frying small fish, of them we bought four (fried on the
spot with incredible despatch), deposited them in our rolls and
departed to sit down under a hedge to devour them with our
fingers and pocket knife, then we came back again and
bought a halfpenny-worth of wine apiece at a third stall and
the same amount of pears at a fourth ; being in all : rolls,
two sous ; fish, one sou ; wine, one sou ; dessert, one sou.
And this seemed the general mode of proceeding. Then
came vespers, I fear not quite so decorously attended, some
of the Bretons having used the intermediate time to get very
drunk. A second collection of money by the long-haired
young gentlemen, and high romps with some young ladies to
get their money from them ; after service a procession, and all
went home.
128 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
Crozon : September 11.
September 9. Boat to a place called Landevenne on the
Brest river. Walk about the country with beautiful views of
the river reminding one of the view over the Alf at Prinzes
Koppfen. Steam up the Aulne to Chateaulin, an old friend.
At Chateaulin the next day we saw the tail of a fete, people
dancing for a prize, and a general dance in the evening to the
playing of the celebrated hautbois player of the country, a
blind man named Maturin. This hautbois with a bagpipe
accompaniment was the only music, and so far as I could see,
it appeared pretty much going the whole day. What the
players' lungs are made of I don't know, I suppose brass
and leather like their instruments. About 10 or n o'clock
we saw one playing to an increasing party of (then) ten or
fifteen, who were dancing with an odd vigorous gravity in the
middle of the high road ; at 2 o'clock he was playing to
amuse the populace during the foot-races, for men and
women ; at three o'clock he began playing to the prize dancers,
general dancing began immediately, and about eight o'clock
he was still playing in the thick of a hard shower. The
dancing is highly funny, half the population of the town form
themselves into strings of ten or twenty, and set to work
cantering about a dusty place (Tarin.es (which they call the
' champ de bataille ' and entirely fill) with consummate care
and deliberation, holding each other by the little finger and
occasionally changing the leader after a fashion which I did
not understand. How they managed to avoid utter confusion
I don't know. But, as they did, the effect of these long lines
coiling about, sometimes straight and parallel with each other,
sometimes crossing each other and turning sharp round, was
very quaint and rather pretty.
Quimper : September 12.
Yesterday we drove to a place called Crozon to see some
beautiful grottoes and splendid coast scenery (rock) on a little
peninsula south of Brest. This thoroughly answered : fine
weather, barring a haze, and the things magnificent. Then a
drive from Crozon here, where we have just arrived. It looks
very pretty, but we have only seen it at night. But perhaps
1845 HOLIDAY IN BRITTANY 129
the most curious part of the Crozon business was the old
scamp of a fisherman who rowed us about. He told us that
at the time of the cholera it was fully believed by the common
people that the rich (' the nobles ' as he called them) had caused
it in order to get rid of the surplus population, and that if it
had lasted six weeks longer ' tous les riches auraient et
egorges,' a process which he seemed to regard with very
tolerable complacency himself. He, I think, plainly believed
that the rich and the physicians had been in a league against
the ' malheureux,' having, he told us, himself heard the
physicians say of a young fellow whom they were attending,
' II faut sauver celui-ci, il fera bon soldat,' and he zvas saved.
They did not .know, he said, that he understood French, but
he knew what they said. I asked him if the physicians could
have saved more men if they had chosen, and then he stuck
his tongue out and nodded grimly and made a quantity of
contortions signifying ' Let them alone for that.' I think all
fellows who are given to Jacquerie have the same way of
leering and twisting their tongues about. This man was
thoroughly ignorant, had been a sailor and present at the
taking of a place of which he could not remember the name,
but which turned out to be Algiers, was a long time under-
standing that London was the capital of England, but was
no inconsiderable philosopher in a practical way, agreed with
the rich that there were too many people in France, but
thought the proper remedy was a war. Thought it might be
no bad thing that one half of the ' malheureux ' might be put
out of the world by the management of the ' riches,' no use
for the ' malheureux ' to serve out the ' riches ' in that way,
they would only fall quarrelling who should have their goods ;
often had not bread to put into his children's mouths, but
knew that he slept sound and had less ' chagrin ' than a
' riche,' and finished by imposing on us most outrageously,
after having shown us the grottoes, I must say, very well.
I should think it clear that, though the power of the
priests is in full vigour, that of the seigneurs is wholly gone.
In fact, without the law of primogeniture it can hardly exist.
But the division of party seems to me to be between town
and country. M. de Cadeille told us that the campagnards
K
1 30 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
thought that the bourgeois had done them and got all the
good things for themselves in the last revolution, and would
take the first plausible opportunity of rising and pillaging the
towns. This, however, is difficult, as they are all disarmed,
while the town people are not. Half-past eleven o'clock.
Good-night.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Miss Rogers.
Colonial Office : May 28, 1846.
My dear Katherine, Here you have my first Colonial
date. The Order in Council is to come out to-morrow, at
least to be made, and I am appointed here ; with a formal
letter of proposal from Gladstone in my pocket. A precau-
tion, I suspect, not wholly unnecessary or rather not at all
premature, the Ministry being suspected of a considerable
amount of ricketiness.
I am now in possession of a large first-floor room looking
out on the park, but with the view rather the worse for certain
trees before the windows ; badly furnished, but furniture has
been ordered consonant with the dignity of an Assistant Under
Secretary ; rather cold, which must be cured by fires, and
having the inconvenience that I am able to hear most of
the conversation of the clerks in the next room. This has
to be cured by a large insertion of sawdust into the walls.
I had an interview with Stephen 4 on Friday and again
to-day. He lectured me for about an hour on the mode
of managing the Colonies, and my own position in the office,
the features of the latter being that he did not look on me
with jealousy or dislike because he looked on me as a pro-
bable successor, and that I was to understand that I was a cut
above the clerks, and was to ring to have them sent to me
when I wanted them. Conceive my telling the messenger
to send me forthwith Philip van Artevelde (who is the senior
clerk). 5
4 Sir James Stephen was then Under Secretary for the Colonies.
5 Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Taylor.
1846 EARLY OFFICIAL LIFE i 3I
To-day I came here to deposit myself at 2 o'clock, and
was duly introduced to all the senior clerks, Taylor, our friend
Murdoch, a Mr. Blackwood whom I have met at Gladstone's,
with two or three others. I hear ominous words as to the
dulness of my probable work ; however, that must take its
chance. Beginnings are always dull.
Hitherto I like Stephen. He is the most consecutive, or
rather continuous, talker I ever heard flow, with a great deal
in what he says, and singular precision of thought and ex-
pression and a spice of humour running through the whole.
I also like the looks and manner of the people I have been
introduced to. Murdoch &c. very friendly. What the juniors
may think of the matter I don't know. Nous verrons.
I have also been to the Emigration Office to Wood and
Elliott, both very warm and pleasant ; we soon got our feet on
the fender.
To Mrs. Rogers.
Steamer off Genoa : December 20, 1846.
My dear Mother, To set your mind at rest about my
having received Lord Grey's letter, 6 I write this, though I shall
follow it and perhaps pass it on the road. I received that
and your others immediately after having posted the letter in
which I say I have not received them.
With regard to Lord Grey's letter your soul was prophetic.
It is an offer of the appointment of Secretary of Governor at
Malta with i,5oo/. a year coupled with an announcement that
he does not think I possess ' that peculiar aptitude for dealing
with large masses of business ' which would be necessary for
an Under Secretary of State, and that therefore, in case of
Stephen's giving up his place, he would not appoint me. He
supposes that I accepted my present appointment with an
understanding that I should succeed to that post, and therefore
that he is bound to say this. I have written an answer which
goes with this letter thanking him, begging to be allowed to
6 Sir Robert Peel had resigned in John Russell had become Prime Minister
June of this year, defeated on an Irish and Lord Grey had succeeded Mr.
Coercion Bill, just after the passing of Gladstone as Secretary for War and
the Repeal of the Corn Laws. Lord Colonies.
132 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
defer my answer till two or three days after my return
to England, and telling him that no such understanding
existed.
Of course, this announcement (though I could not suppose
that any one would appoint me Under Secretary of State all
at once) comes in a mortifying shape. But the question is,
What is to be done with the offer ? Viewing the matter per-
sonally the pros are : higher pay, less work, climate which
would suit my health, and a work which would have probably
more variety and more independence about it (I should think)
than my present, which is simply that of legal cad to Stephen,
also if, which I feel to be very possible, Lord Grey is right in
thinking that my forte does not lie in dealing with masses
of business, the taking a principal part in the actual manage-
ment of a small colony might suit me better and show me to
better advantage than having to deal with the paper work of
the whole. I don't know whether it is a pro or a con that I
should hope for the most part to have one of my sisters with
me. Then the cons : removal from home, I mean from your-
selves, and the chance both of missing higher preferment in
England and of missing opportunities of being useful to the
other members of the family. The uncomfortable part of the
matter is that I am afraid it is in the nature of an intimation
from Lord Grey that he would be glad to get rid of me if
possible, and if his desire to do so took the turn of depreciating
what I did (which, considering my inexperience and Stephen's
position over me, it would be very easy for him to effect and
almost impossible for me to meet) it certainly would make my
position very uncomfortable. I don't think I ought to do any-
thing definitive without writing to Gladstone, which I shall do
by this post. I should be inclined to be much influenced
by seeing what effect Lord Grey's letter had on him.
It is to be observed that, excepting Governorships, the
appointment must be about the most eligible of all of which
Lord Grey has the patronage.
1847 EARLY OFFICIAL LIFE 133
To Lady Rogers.
Oxford : July 20, 1847.
Matters here are going on as was prophesied. We are
ahead, but it is a near thing. The number of votes given to-
day is (I think) 321 for Round, 362 for Gladstone, besides 200
others who have paired. A majority of 3 1 on 700 is not very
large, but we consider this day has had adverse circumstances
about it, and so are in heart for to-morrow. . . . One of the
Roman Catholic converts has thought fit to tender his vote
for Gladstone. They have stopped his mouth by insisting
(as I believe without a shadow of law or right) on his taking
the oath of supremacy. The unfortunate pleaded that his
name was on the books, that no formal sentence of disability
had passed on him, and that he had actually just paid his
college dues, for which he produced the Bursar's receipt.
However, they stopped him with the oath for that day,
and now they find that, as he is in Holy Orders, they can
blow him up by application of the 39 Articles, which if he
does not subscribe on demand, he will, pro facto, incur every
requisite disability. The man is notoriously as mad as a
March hare.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
9 Park Street : March 3, 1848.
My dear Church, I ought to have thanked you for your
letter and the news in it long ago. But I half expected to
have seen you in town as you promised. And now I write
principally because if I don't write I sha'n't hear from you
again.
I suppose the Praemunire negotiations 7 between Lord
John and our friends have gone off into nothing. If it is so
I am not sorry for it. I could hardly fancy anything coming
of it, and in some way or other I do not doubt he would
have got the best of it ; either he would have taken them in or
he would have led them to do something which would have
seemed to put them in the wrong.
7 I.e. the correspondence regarding Lord John Russell's appointment of
Dr. Hampden to the See of Hereford.
T 3 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
What do you say to Louis Philippe? It seems clear, or
at least is thought so, that he could have put down the mob
if he would have authorised firing cannon upon them. They
say that the Duke of Nemours says that he himself besought
him to give the necessary authority but the King would not.
The D. of N. and the Princess Clementine embarked for
England in the same steamer, both in disguise, and the Duke
was only recognised by one of his children (who was with
the Princess) hearing his voice accidentally and crying out
' Ah voila mon papa ! ' Somebody passing the Princess (I
suppose English) in the streets (in France) slipped a ten
pound note into her hand a curiously thoughtful- thing
to do. I don't know whether these latter matters have got
into the papers. I believe they are Royal Family gossip, at
least they rise in that direction.
The most alarming consideration to my mind in the
matter is that if a war breaks out it will put an end to all
Emigration. They must turn us into a War Department.
How curiously picturesque some of the bits are already,
and how dreadfully parallel with the old story ! Does it not
strike you that Lamartine's life is in a very uninsurable state ?
I should think he would be one of the first to be knocked off
the perch as time goes on, probably by the commandant,
whoever he may be, of their new penniless brigade.
People seem rather anxious about Lord John's health,
and beginning to speculate what is to happen if he slips off.
Some say Peel is ready to take the command. A. Wood,
professing to be in the secret, declares that he abhors the very
notion. And some protectionists talk of the necessity of
reunion against radicalism. They continue to talk of Goul-
burn (! !) as a leader.
To Rev. James Mozley
9 Ovington Square : April 9, 1848.
We arc in a good deal of excitement here. 8 Ministers
expect regular mischief : the Admiralty is filled with arms and
marines. They say that the Chartists make no secret of their
s The Chartist gathering on Kennington Common was on Monday, April 10.
i48 EARLY OFFICIAL LIFE 135
intention to have it out ; and, especially, to attack the
Government offices. The consequence is that we are all
expected to appear at nine o'clock to-morrow, and to stay
the night dying at our posts if necessary. Guns are to be
had on application at the Treasury, but only in case of special
need (in which event of course not a soul would be able to
get out of the house), and with a distinct charge that no one
is to be trusted with a gun who does not know how to load
and fire it or who is likely to be in a very great fright.
Elliot, my quondam chief, is extremely grand like a man
who feels himself in the face of an emergency to which he is
equal a mixture of the man of business, of presence of mind,
of decision, and of light-heartedness. Another, colleague
fussy, anxious for orders : ' What are we to do ? We must
understand clearly what is expected of us ' &c., &c.
Downing Street preparing its mind for bloodshed, and for
accepting assistance from the Emigration Office (which it is
supposed, rightly enough, will escape notice in the bustle), in
case they should ' lose any men ! ' Everybody is a special
constable ; and constabular rank is regulated by official rank
rather a fantastic notion, cos s/j,ol &OKSIV. Some of the fat
messengers and skinny copyists who are put in requisition,
and whom I saw swearing to do their duty ' without favour
or partiality, ill will or malice ' (they say nothing about fear),
pass ludicrousness.
Meanwhile the whole matter, at least the serious part of
it, is in the hands of the Duke [of Wellington] ; and I hear
from people who are a good deal with him that they never
saw him with his wits more about him. The plan hitherto
has been to occupy the bridges, and so keep the mob to
Southwark and Lambeth, but there is now a rumour that
they have changed the locality of the demonstration to
Primrose Hill. They obviously should have done this at
first ; but I cannot conceive that they can do it now without
confusion. At any rate, it is odd if Feargus O'Connor out-
generals the Duke. My artillery brother is on duty for
Kennington Common, as adjutant ; and I hear he has been
riding over to reconnoitre the ground with his colonel. So I
suppose they contemplate the possibility of a row on the spot.
136 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
I hear now it is to be a variety of small rows in different
places. They say we are to have several days of it, Tuesday
the worst. A French policeman tells Guizot, who tells the
world, that he recognises in the streets the faces of many of
the most forward people in the French fight. This I had
heard said before. We had a report here, which proved false,
that there was fighting in Ireland ; but Irishmen say that the
fighting there will depend on what happens here. Others say
it will wait for an anticipated rise in Canada.
No ministerial rumours. Everything is merged in the
mob.
Yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
Plymouth : May 31, 1848.
Our Irish workhouse girls arrived here by Monday's
steamer from Dublin. I got to the Depot just in time to see
the lighter (or barge) arrive full of them a very pretty sight
it was, one of those picturesque barges with dark red sails
full of 185 bright cloaks and shawls of different colours, clean
and new, and they came out picturesque but not pretty. In
fact, they are generally ugly and clumsy, though healthy and
strong, but there was a certain amount of uniform about
them which was pleasing. The Presbyterians from Belfast
all in grey ill-made gowns and tippets a kind of tweed stuff.
Armagh bright brown and white printed cotton. Lisburne
checked red shawls, &c., &c. They seemed generally glad
to go. I only met with one that wished herself back again,
a helpless kind of creature. But they were all excessively
disgusted at the notion of being parted from their ' comrades ; '
they seemed already to have selected partners for the voyage.
One poor girl was quite in tears at being separated from the
other ' Lisburne ' girls, and came to me to remind me that I
had promised they should be all together. It turned out
that her bag was inside out, which made her number (which
was 91) look like 19. When she got to berth 91 there was
her name nailed up in the thick of her friends, to her great
joy. We have got about 7O Roman Catholics about the
EARLY OFFICIAL LIFE 137
same, I fancy, of Presbyterians, and rather more of Church of
England.
The Wesleyan matron I hope will do well when on board.
She is getting on well with the sub-matrons, and has two
daughters who will also be sub-matrons. Meantime she has
been blundering about her luggage. It has not arrived, and in
an hour or two the ship will be ready to start except for her.
Luckily the wind is contrary (it has just become so), else we
should have the ' Earl Grey ' with its three masts, captain,
crew, and 200 emigrants all waiting in port (perhaps losing
the wind) for Mrs. C.'s portmanteau.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Sydenham, 1849.
Work is slackening with me, and I am meditating some-
thing for the ' Christian Remembrancer,' but don't know
what. Can you suggest anything better than ' Friends in
Council,' Vol. II. ? I have not seen it yet, but think it must
be (from what I have read of Helps's) a kind of thing I could
prose about. You see the difficulty is want of eyes and of
steady working time.
When Keble comes back from the Isle of Man you must
find out what he has to say for himself. My wife gave him
a letter to her uncle, the liberal Bishop, 9 who is a very frank,
kind, and hard-working person, though of course Whig enough.
From all we can hear they seem to have got on very flourish-
ingly. The Bishop obviously considers himself to have got
rises out of Keble about Miss Sellon &c., and I have no doubt
poked him about a good deal. And I see no signs of Keble
having given him the rough side of his tongue. Indeed, there
is an honesty about him by which I can fancy the said Keble
being much taken. But I should like to know. They seemed
rather shocked at his ideas of discipline and could not stomach
the idea of Bishop Wilson whipping (?) penitents. 1
9 Lord Auckland, then Bishop of Wilson, Bishof of Sodor and Man,
Sodor and Man, afterwards Bishop of there is mention of the Bishop's strict
Bath and Wells. discipline.
1 In Keble's Life of Dr. Thomas
138 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. iv
To Rev. Edward Rogers.
9 Park Street : August 11, 1849.
We have of course been going on quietly enough here. I
find not much office work (of which I am glad) and I think
the eyes are a little improving. Our principal event is a run
down to Eton for Election Saturday. We betook ourselves
to Pickering, who, of course, was all that was hospitable.
We cabbed to Surly Hall, and got into his punt to see the
fireworks, and very interesting it all was. The boys looked
so like gentlemen, with so much freedom and no misbehaviour.
It certainly is a noble nursery for an English university. No
wonder gentlemen are not radicals. I really seem to myself
to be almost thrown back into one's old steady-going or
rather rampageous Tory ways of thinking by looking at the
old place and the young people. Pickering gave a very good
account of their behaviour, especially in re church ; and James
Mozley, who spent three or four days there with one of the
Hawtreys, was much struck at the tone (inter alia) of the
speeches at Election Monday ; so much more serious than
our ' Gaudes ; ' and he was surprised to find that ' strong '
men like Abraham 2 were viewed with so little suspicion or
prejudice even by Dons and Provosts. . . .
You will probably have seen that Sir H. Jenner 3 has
given judgment against Gorham on the ground that Baptismal
Regeneration is the doctrine of the Church of England.
People talked of a secession in consequence, but that is all
nonsense, I take it. It is really, however, a very great point
gained. It puts a large mass of heterodox people into a
state of mere sufferance, to say the least, and probably will
make them feel that they live in glass houses.
2 Afterwards Bishop of Wellington Bramford Speke, to which he had been
in New Zealand. appointed. Sir H. Jenner's judgment
3 Sir H. Jenner was Dean of Arches. was reversed by the Judicial Committee
The question was whether the Bishop of the Privy Council, and Mr. Gorham
of Exeter (Dr. Phillpotts) could refuse to was eventually inducted.
institute Mr. Gorham to the living of
1850 139
CHAPTER V
Continuation of Work as Commissioner of Emigration.
To Miss Rogers.
London : June 12, 1850.
I HEAR no ecclesiastical or political news. There seems a
lull in both departments. The report that Dodsworth, Allen,
Henry Wilberforce, and some others are going over forthwith,
does not seem yet true, though I am afraid it can be no more
than a respite, which, if so, is worth little. Keble is getting,
I think, very much put out at the Romanisers, imprimis with
their attacks on Pusey, whom some of them who are gone do
not scruple to describe as possessed by the devil. Perhaps
this was mentioned by Church while you were with us.
G. has just told me an amusing story, which I dare say
you have heard, of the Nepaulese ambassador who is the
great lion just now. Passing St. Paul's he suddenly told the
carriage to stop, and spoke a few words to a Hindoo who was
sweeping the crossing, on which the man threw his broom
over the churchyard, gaily got into the carriage and drove off.
That evening the man was at Lady Londonderry's party
dressed up in all sorts of magnificent toggery, and all the
world was saying how much pleasanter it was now that the
' princes ' had got an interpreter. Rather a sudden rise in
life. A curious importation of Oriental ups and downs into
the City of London.
To Miss Rogers.
9 Ovington Square : September 10, 1850.
Did I tell you that I made acquaintance with Edward
Barnard, who acted as chairman to a dinner given by the
140 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
' Fire Annihilator Company ' to which I was asked ? He
was friendly and amusing, talked a good deal of our family
and more of Eton, and told some good old Eton and Colonial
Office stories. The ' demonstration,' as they called it, of their
' annihilator ' was certainly remarkable. They set on fire a
long tank (I think fifty feet by six) of pitch, shavings, tur-
pentine, &c., and when the whole was in a blaze ten or twelve
feet high, two men with machines like large ill-conditioned
watering-pots, walked slowly from one end to the other, just
sweeping the fire out as they went. In the inside of their
machine was a composition which when ignited threw forth a
kind of steaming gas that totally put out any flame which it
came into contact with. Then they set on fire a lot of com-
bustibles in the between decks of a barge while the company
were all walking on the deck, and just smothered it out in two
or three minutes with these same watering pots, after allowing
it to blaze up through the hatchways, sending up (I should
think) twenty feet high or more of flame. Lastly they set on
fire a lot of combustibles inside a. plank house ; and when the
flame had broken the windows and was blazing out of every
aperture, put the whole out with their pots saving the plank
walls. Of course, the object was to get us to force passenger
ships to carry their machines, which was perfectly obvious to
one or two large shipowners who were part of the party, and
one of them rather disturbed the harmony of the evening by
gruffly protesting against having inventions fastened on them
and tried at their expense ; ' he didn't see why such a set was
to be made at the shipowners, let the householders first be
told that they must all supply themselves with annihilators
and then it would be time to come upon the shipowners.'
Ever yours,
F. R.
To Miss Rogers.
Ovington Square : November 23, 1850.
In re the Pope, articles in the ' Guardian ' (the last of which
was mine, the one before Haddan's) express pretty much my
views. 1 It is a matter against which the Church of England
1 The Pope had issued a bull estab- to take their titles from certain sees
lishing a hierarchy of Bishops who were which he constituted. There were, of
1850 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 141
may properly protest, but I- think the great hubbub one of
the most arrant pieces of humbug that was ever got up by a
Whig Minister for his own ends. The more I think of it the
more I think it so. How Lord John is to get out of his
letter I don't know. Wiseman seems to me to demolish him
absolutely. They say his colleagues dislike his skft at the
Roman ' mummeries.' I expect there will be a patch up at
the expense of the Church, and perhaps under the auspices
of H. M., who is believed to have set it going. I don't my-
self expect so much harm to the Church from this kind of
mere vulgar outbreak as from the distribution of Church
patronage. The mob outcry will wear itself out and then
common sense, as it does in the end, will get uppermost.
Manning, Dodsworth, and Aubrey de Vere are going
together to Palestine. I suppose they will join Rome out
there, at least I don't suppose any one would join Manning
and Dodsworth who did not intend to follow them. I hear
cases of disquiet every here and there.
However, I don't see any shaking in our clique ; Keble is
as firm as a rock and stouter in acquiescing in aggression
against Rome than I ever thought to see him. There is a
degree both of attack and of liberalism in my articles which
I feared he would not approve. But he does wholly.
Mozley is setting to work with a book on Baptism. He
declares there has been no thinking for the last twenty years,
not even by Newman, so he is going to give the world his
thoughts, which I am afraid will not wholly give satisfaction.
As if we had not enough to torment us, he is bitten by St.
Augustine's Predestinarianism. I believe Wynne will try to
course, Roman Catholic Bishops already inveighing against the Papal usurpa-
in England, and it mattered little if tion, and against Tractarianism, in the
they took their titles from Westminster strongest terms. A strong anti-papal
&c. , but at this particular time the agitation with much bitterness on both
claim of the Pope to divide England sides was the result. Eventually the
into dioceses seemed to some a dange- Government passed the ' Ecclesiastical
rous aggression, connected (as to some Titles Bill,' which made it penal for a
extent it was) with the conversions Roman Catholic Bishop to assume a
which had followed the Oxford Move- title from any existing See. It was not
ment. Lord John Russell very unwisely a very dignified form of protest and as
wrote a letter (on November 4), ad- a piece of legislation was quite nuga-
dressed to the Bishop of Durhan 1 , tory. It was repealed in 1871.
142 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
keep his All Souls Fellowship. But the report of 's trying
to keep his rectory I take to be false. When I was at
Abbotsford a letter arrived from him to say that he had
resigned, and was there for a few days to pack up his things
for a new residence, and (this was the object of his letter)
wanted to know whether Hope could tell him anything
about the cheapness of cooking by gas \ Pound a monkey in
a mortar and his monkeyism will not depart from him. . . .
Northcote, I hear, is working hard at country knowledge and
begins to know one breed of cattle from another ; I hope he
will get into Parliament.
G. and I went (with an order of his) to see the buildings
of the Exposition. 2 It is a very remarkable sight. Some-
thing itself between a gigantic green-house and a gigantic
railway station. But the singular part was the appearance of
rapid rise that it had ; so much space occupied, so many
things going on, saw-pits, circular saws, forges, all kinds of
carpenter shops, iron skeletons rising here, glass being put in
there, holes for the foundation elsewhere. And the ingenious
machinery for cutting into shape the window frames, each bit
passing through almost as many hands as a pin does, all this
gave a marvellous idea of promptitude and order. The thing
itself is wonderfully light. One can hardly conceive its
standing. Foundations it can hardly be said to have at all.
Slender columns of iron set in pits about four feet square and
two deep, rilled with concrete, are all that the building is to
stand on. I calculated that some of these columns would
have to support each about seventy square yards covered
with people and goods, independently of the building itself.
We were there when the dinner bell rang (there are about
2,000 people at work), and the effect was like stirring an
enormous ants' nest ; there was a general bustle overhead
on the roofs, galleries, &c., all clustering round the ladders,
crowding, clambering, and sliding down, and streaming down
all the aisles from the workshops and works.
'-' Sir Stafford Northcote was one of the most active commissioners for the
Exhibition of 1851.
1851 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 143
To Miss Rogers.
Ovington Square : April i, 1851.
My dear Kate, I hear that Lord John is after all in
again with just the old set I cannot help hoping, however,
that he has lost a remarkable amount of credit and can't last
very long. You will have seen by the papers all that has
taken place and I can tell you no more.
I went, however, with Church (who has just left us) to the
debate in the Lords last night. Stanley was excellent, so
gentlemanly and natural. 3 It struck"~rne very much how in
all his behaviour about the crisis, he had been a thorough
gentleman without losing any advantage which he was bound
to take as a politician and the head of a party. The grounds
on which, in the first instance, he threw back on Lord John
the onus of forming a coalition Ministry seemed to me very
well taken and well brought out.
I am not at present dissatisfied with the state of things.
Stanley and Gladstone could not have coalesced with honour ;
so I am glad they have not. I am also glad that the first
great move has been taken, and that with so much weight
and resolution against the Papal Aggression row, by Lord
Aberdeen and Sir J. Graham. It cannot fail to have weight.
And you will see that Stanley in effect gives the question
very much of a shelving by the parliamentary inquiry which
he proposes. Then he brings the question of Protection to an
issue which is obviously intended to set it at rest. If he fails
to get a Protectionist parliament next general election, he
says, he and his friends are prepared to take it as a fait
accompli. This will be a great stumbling-block out of the
way, and it is a great thing that his party are made to feel the
necessity of coalescing with some of the Peel party ; indeed,
it almost looks as if Stanley wished to make them feel it. It
was impossible, I thought, to gather whether he felt any
bitterness towards Gladstone and Co. for not joining him
(he was short but complimentary and dropped nothing) ]
fancy that the subs do.
3 Lord Stanley did not succeed his this year, but he had been called up to
father (as I4th Earl of Derby) till June of the House of Lords in 1844.
i 4 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
What I must rejoice at is that there is no Peelite and
Whig fusion. I suppose Graham will before long join them,
but I do trust he will leave his party behind him. How
closely they do or do not hold together at present there is
nothing at all, as far as I hear, to show. I ought to say that
the papers have dropped the last sentence of Stanley's last
speech which told very well. You will see that Lord Lans-
downe attacked him for not believing fully the Ministers'
statement of the reasons of their resignation. He replied by
pointing out the hurried precipitate way in which it had
been done ; the noble Marquis was safe at Bowood all the
time, a noble Earl (Carlisle) first heard in the City that there
was no cabinet for him to belong to, the Lord Privy Seal, a
relation of the Premier, was as ignorant of his intentions as
of those of the Pope, ' and ' (then he leant forward across the
table and raised his voice like a person in thoroughly good
humour with all the world and his own joke) ' and his noble
relation didn't even pay him the compliment of saying,
" TJiere's something that concerns you ! " I don't know how
the hit reads, but it quite told on the House, and I can't
understand how the reporters missed it. There was good-
humoured ' Put that in your pipe and smoke it ' in his
manner of doing it which was perfect.
My impression is that Stanley will have gained in public
estimation by the really handsome, manly, and clever way in
which he has done the whole thing. His tone was very con-
ciliatory towards the Peelites, and I should hope (though I
don't know) that a coalition with some of them hereafter was
facilitated, rather than otherwise.
To Miss Rogers.
London: September 18, 1851.
I have had William Froude ' for a few days here, but he
is off to the Mediterranean to cruise with the captain of a
steam ship of war. Among other things he is to go to
Alexandria to see about the possibility of removing Cleopatra's
needle, as the Pasha of Egypt has given in. We had a great
' The civil engineer, brother of Hurrell Fronde and of James Anthony Froude
1851 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 145
discussion as to what he should see in going through France
and I flatter myself I have made out a very good fortnight
for him. He had not time for the Exhibition, but took me
through Maudslay's (the great engineer's) works. Most
striking they are. The size of everything was wonderful,
but what was most wonderful to me was to see punches
and shears cutting through iron plates an inch thick like so
much soap. To say that they cut it as quietly as scissors cut
paper is below the mark. The shear (almost a foot long) came
down and went through with a steady, tranquil, noiseless soft-
ness as if it met just with no resistance at all. Since that I
have been trying to get up the cotton-making machinery in
the Exhibition and have made some way towards under-
standing a mule and a power loom wonderfully beautiful
contrivances both of them. But I am shocked to find how
close I must get to a thing to understand it.
The news of the gold in N. S. Wales is at last officially
confirmed. Sir C. Fitzroy sends a sketch of one lump weigh-
ing forty- seven ounces. Thousands are off from Sydney,
making a sensible difference, he said, in the population. Of
course, many are wholly unfit for the work, and it did not
appear how they were to feed or to travel along the 200 or
300 miles which they had to get across. Ships can't get off
from the desertion of the sailors, and we here cannot get ships
to go to Sydney (for that reason) except at the most exorbi-
tant prices. I trust we shall make a better affair of it than
California, but with a convict population to deal with I don't
envy the Government. Of course, no one but Government
has a right to lay a single finger on a single grain of gold ; but
there are not the physical means of preventing them from
helping themselves.
To Miss Rogers.
London: 1851.
1 was amused the other day at a police dodge, which I
had never heard before, practised at the opening of the Ex-
hibition. They had at the gate a bunch of detectives 'of all
nations,' and as the chevaliers cTindustrie of all nations came
in, the police gave a sign, and the check-taker gave them a
i 4 6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
green instead of white or yellow card. When they got in, the
employes were directed to show all the gentlemen and ladies
with green cards into a particular inclosed quarter of the
building, so that each ' swell ' as he arrived was civilly handed
on till he was finally shown into a family party of his own
friends. Of course no exit was allowed. I can't help laugh-
ing at the thought of the fellows one after another coming
in with their best behaviour on, and looking out for a place
near a good victim, and becoming gradually alive to the fact
that they were all old friends of a sort. It must have been
worth while being one of the first comers, to have seen how
all the rest took it.
I have lots to do, so good-bye. Love to all. I suppose
you have seen in the paper Lady Buckinghamshire's 5 death.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
Ovington Square: April 10, 1852
The official despatches from Victoria fully bear out the
reports of the gold which you will perhaps have seen in the
* Times.' The Governor, Latrobe, seemed fairly appalled by
it. He wrote that two tons a week were coming in, and
seemed quite to think that there was no end to it. He now
asks for ships of war, regiments of soldiers, &c. The Hudson's
Bay people have also found some in Queen Charlotte's Island.
If the Imperial Government are wise they will lay hands on
part of that for themselves. But I hope they will have it
worked through the Hudson's Bay Company, which will
increase our profits.
All this is highly important as to the sale of Hoo. (i I
should be much more disinclined to sell now that a real change
in the value of money seems so much more imminent. Before
long I should think that, even in anticipation of this change
5 An aunt of his wife's. She was a years before, and died nearly half a
daughter of the first Lord Auckland, century after, the death of Pitt,
and would have been married to Pitt, 6 A farm belonging to the Blachford
but for the want of money on both sides. property.
She married Lord Buckinghamshire five
1852 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 147
everybody will be calling in their mortgages and trying to
exchange them for purchases, i.e. to turn their money debt
into land. This, on the one hand, will tend to make it diffi-
cult to get or keep money on mortgage, and on the other will
raise the price of land. But the former tendency will be
counteracted by the rush of gold which will increase the quan-
tity of money seeking some kind of investment.
To Rev. Edward Rogers.
London: February 23, 1853.
I write just now to finish my account of my dinner at the
Duke of Newcastle's while it is fresh in my head. I was next
but one to Lord Clarendon and opposite to the Duke of
Leinster, Lord Carlisle, and Lord Lyttelton. Lords Carlisle
and Lyttelton talked diagonally to Lord Clarendon and the
Duke, so that I was in good company, and after I had been
spoken to and said my little say, I was privileged to listen as
one of the group. Lord Clarendon was the talker and most
agreeable. Without many stories or elaborate bons mots, he
had a neat way of capping everything and carrying it on,
with just enough in his answer to make you laugh. They dis-
cussed a good deal different people. I shall just attempt heads
of a dialogue about Lyndhurst and Brougham. They were
lauding Lyndhurst and saying how genial and agreeable he was,
especially in the House, and ' all without a touch of display or
intention to exhibit.' Lord Cl. : ' Not a bit of it, he is just
beginning his display ; he said to me the other day, " I must
have a bill of my own. There is St. Leonards has six bills,
all enormous ; then Brougham has three ; and little Cranworth,
he has two. I must find something to reform, I must have a
bill too." ' Then came Brougham's turn. Lord Lyttelton
observed how he got on with half the sleep of ordinary mortals.
' He lives two lives, that man.' Lord Cl. : ' H'm. Yes, and
one a very disorderly one. However, he's an uncommonly
good fellow, no one would do more for a friend.' . . . But
the best sight was after dinner. I heard behind me Mr.
O'F., an Irishman just deserting from the Brigade, lecturing
Lord Clarendon on the proper mode of governing Ireland, a
i 4 8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
regular case of veteran diplomatist versus impudent Irishman.
Lord Clarendon was (and intended to be) the centre of a circle,
with his shoulders well against the chimneypiece and his coat
tails under his arms, and heard him out with the gravest of
patiences. Mr. O'F. was telling him how Ireland should be
conciliated by paying the priests. Lord Clarendon heard him
well out and then began deliberately, ' You see unfortunately
there is in this country a universal impression that the Catholic
priests in Ireland are disaffected. People here think that
they would one and all be very well pleased to see Louis
Napoleon in possession of Ireland, or England either ' (then
he got well upon his legs and fixed his eyes, which have a
kind of cold glitter about them, very firmly on O'F., as if he
could look, and was looking, clean into him), ' and don't you
think that impression is well founded ? ' O'F. admitted it was,
and very sad too, but then you have a state of things to deal
with, and what is to be done ? Lord Clarendon (very delibe-
rately and rather solemn) : ' It is with the greatest reluctance,
after great hesitation, contrary to all my prepossessions, after
the most obstinate struggles to avoid it, that I have come to
the conclusion that nothing at all is to be done. Nothing is
of any use. Every concession has been merely made a step-
ping-stone for a further demand, and it is plain that what the
priesthood really want is not equality, but to be placed in the
position now held by the Established Church.' Then he
became rhetorical and rather violent. ' When was a govern-
ment more just, more anxiously impartial, more thoroughly
desirous to act without respect of parties than Lord John's
administration of Ireland '(rather cool) 'and how was it treated?
With ' (espressivo inolto] ( the grossest ingratitude.' O'F.
acknowledged the merits of ' your Lordship's government,' but
Lord Clarendon went on with a peroration which was only
stopped by Lord Carlisle's offering him a seat in his brougham,
which he accepted, and receded sideways, giving it to O'F. to
the last moment, so that a reply was impossible. It certainly
was no bad specimen of ' Put that in your pipe.' But the
beauty was that, while the energetic outburst of feeling was
going on, if you looked at Lord Clarendon's face you saw that
iced cucumber was a joke to him in coolness. He was just
1853 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 149
keeping his cold sharp eye steadily fixed on the man, without
a vestige of expression in his face except that of keen watch-
fulness. What he said was perfectly true, and there was every
reason why he should believe it. But when you looked at his
face you could not help saying, ' Now, you don't believe a
word of what you are saying, and what in the world are you
saying it for ? ' It was evidently intended that O'F. should
communicate it to the Brigade, and I could only suppose it to
mean, ' Now, the last time we had dealings together we prepaid
you, and you sold us. Next time we don't intend to give you
a single concession till we have got your votes.' On the
whole it was certainly a good specimen of politico-diplomatic
life and quite as good as a stage play.
The Duke of Leinster came up during the harangue and
struck in. ' He had been a Liberal all his life, but a stand
must be made,' &c., so I suppose the Ministers have made up
their minds, having got the pick of the Brigade, to hold the
rest at open defiance.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Ovington Square: April u, 1853.
I was glad to hear of your visit to Winchester, and had a
kind of half hope, though not much bigger than a whole wish,
that you might have come up to Oxford to vote for the
Registrarship. I went ; and made that an excuse for taking
down a party, and getting a luncheon for them out of James
Mozley. I think our people deserved a severe snub from their
non-resident friends for so breaking up our interest as to give
nobody a chance. Neither Cornish nor Rawlinson, as matters
stood, were justified in going to the poll. Lake, I hear, kept
Rawlinson in the field in spite of his appearing in the minority
in the promises.
How the Protectionist party is knocking to pieces ! Do
you remember J. B. M.'s simile (in his article on Newman) of
a ship sailing through floating bits of timber ? Gladstone's
position seems rather like it. The mere weight of his move-
ments throws off all the trifling atfacks of Dizzy and Co.
1 50 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
they just knock against his sides and float off. I should
ratheY like to know how far his budget was put forward
because it was best abstractedly for the country, or what
degree of skill had been used in making it ' go down,' e.g.
buying the ' Times ' by the free supplement, Manchester by the
legacy duty on land, 7 &c. &c. The landholders fas S. F. N.
says in the ' Guardian ') have not got much but an argument,
which, too, he will not allow them to use.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Ovington Square: Dec. 29, 1853.
My dear Church, You are too bad ; Thursday is the
only day in this week before Friday on which I dine out.
Why in the world did you not come on here at once from
Sparkford, instead of pottering back to Oxford, where you
cannot have anything to do ? A bed is exceedingly at your
service. If you would take it we should at least see one
another on Friday morning. Do come.
The Ministry is a bad job. I don't know what to expect.
But I have expressed myself fully in the 'Guardian.' If
Gladstone has anything Conservative in him, he will find it
difficult to remain in a Ministry which must eventually be
thrown on Radical support. But he is so really powerful
a man that whatever shakes, and delays, and loss of time
there may be, he must come up near the surface. I expect
he will show the best i.e: most politically powerful side of
himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Pursuing details
is so much his power, if only he is not run away with by it. I
think, if it is not a paradox, he has not poetry enough for the
formation of a first-rate judgment. He has an immense mass
of knowledge most methodically arranged, but the separate
items must be looked for in their respective boxes, and do not
float about and combine. The consequence is, not merely
want of play, but that crotchety, one-sided, narrowish mode
' In Mr. (Gladstone's famous Budget stamp duty was abolished two years
of 1853 the additional stamp required later. The same Budget of 1853 intro-
for supplements was taken off, and a cluced the succession duty for real pro-
single stamp of a penny covered the perty.
whole copy, whatever its size. The
1853 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 151
of viewing a matter uncorrected by the necessary comparisons
and considerations, which people call ingenious and subtle
and Gladstonian. He looks at the details, not the aspects of
a subject, and mastered it, I should imagine, by pursuing it
hither and thither from one starting-point, not by walking
round it. And financial subjects will, I suppose, bear this
mode of treatment better than any other. When they don't
bear it, they bear it down with a kind of tangible power which
makes onesided views impossible.
What do you say to the formation in the Cabinet of a
Graham, Palmerston, and Molesworth party?
To Lady Rogers (Lady Blachford}.
Feb. 5, 1854.
Edward drove me over to Kingsbridge in the dog-cart,
where, after waiting some three hours, we saw the proceedings.
Sir Stafford Northcote's speech was a repetition of his Newton
one, which has been printed and circulated, with certainly the
most admirable effect on the election. Everybody on the
Low Church side is rather more pleased than one likes
with the disclaimer of Puseyite parsons. Northcote apologised
for it to me by the necessity of the case and the absurd ex-
travagance of the Newton parsons, and said he had taken the
opportunity at Exeter of setting himself right by abusing the
laity for the fifth of November riots. The people were dull
and one could not see that they were on one side or the other
during the speech, which was fluent, clear, but without any
special points. The fencing afterwards was much better.
He is capital at that. He just hits at once those good-
humoured answers, which with an agreeable, amused manner
are ' the right thing.' One man started the opposition on the
Tory side an honest old stuttering tradesman, I should think,
of what people call ' the right sort.' He told us he had always
been a C C Conservative, or rather a T T Tory, ' that
the hon. baronet was evidently a man of great ability, and, he
believed, an honest man, and was going to be our member,'
but what he didn't like was these four names, Courtney,
Acland, Kennaway, Durant. ' Did the hon. baronet know
that Sir T. D. Acland always voted against the other three
152 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
c >unty members ? ' N. ' No, indeed, I don't ! ' ' The hon.
baronet must know that.' N., with overpowering innocence
and urgency, ' No, indeed, I assure you I don't. There are
certain questions respecting Free Commercial policy, which
certainly Sir Thomas Acland does consider settled, and
others hitherto have not, &c., but, &c.' ' Then does the hon.
baronet know that Mr. Durant proposed a Whig candidate
for Totnes ? ' (Durant sitting behind laughing.) ' Well, now
he has seen the error of his ways, for, you see, he is proposing
a Conservative.' ' Well, all I can say is I should like to have
seen the name of Sir John Duller there.' ' Well, so should I,
but surely Mr. - - would not have had the member for
the county do so unconstitutional a thing as to put his name,
&c.' Then came a Radical who wanted answers to these
questions: i. Ballot, 2, I forget, 3. whether N. would support
the law of Primogenitureship.' ' Primo-how-much ? ' from the
crowd. N. ' I will take the last of the three questions first.
I am an eldest son, and I think the law of Primogeniture a
capital law. And I think if I didn't take care of my own
interests, the Kingsbridge electors would think I wasn't very
well able to take care of theirs.' ' I want to know, if all these
boroughs are disfranchised, whether the hon. baronet will vote
for giving Kingsbridge a member ? ' 'I think I must wait till
after the election before I answer that question, and then I
shall see whether the Kingsbridge electors are sufficiently en-
lightened to send a member of their own to Parliament.'
Northcote speaks at Plymouth to-morrow, and at Totnes
on Tuesday. I shall not be at home till Wednesday morning.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Ovington Square : March 16, 1854.
So you went up to vote against Pusey, the Heads, and the
' Record.' I got rowed by J. B. M. for not going up, but I own
that residents seem to me to manage their tactics so ill (cases
of Rawlinson and Hanscll) that I have ceased to obey their
calls, and certainly don't intend to do so unless either I have
a strong conviction of my own, or our party is united with a
prospect of success. My brother Edward had to go up and
1854 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 153
vote in duty to Pusey against his convictions so far as he had
formed any.
People seem to me in an odd state about the war, perhaps
because I am so myself. Nobody has any genuine enthusiasm
about it, but a discontented cry of ' I suppose we must,'
caused by a factitious indignation against Russia. I hear it
said that the Emperor's proposal a year or two ago was that
we should take Candia and Egypt and he what he liked, to
which we replied that we could not entertain the idea of dis-
membering Turkey. Then Sir H. Seymour left St. Peters-
burg in more or less of a huff, saying he must take care that
the whole truth (meaning about another matter) must come
out, that the Emperor then thought he meant- the publication
of their secret negotiations, and so took the initiative in order
to take off the edge of our publication. The result is that he
has placed us at liberty to publish what otherwise would have
remained confidential. Meanwhile the military people and
Rothschild persevere in saying it will all come to nothing.
Lord Raglan, that there will not be a shot fired, but the whole
settled by manoeuvring. Lord Seaton's is the same story.
Others, that the Russians announce their intention to make
the war defensive : whether this involves holding the principali-
ties, non liquet.
Also rumours of great quarrellings in the Ministry. The
' Press ' is trying hard to cocker up Lord John into holding
hard by his Reform Bill, by which they flatter him that he
will outlive Peel. Reform is to stand in the eyes of posterity
with Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, and Johnny to be
greater leading Opposition than serving in the Ministry. Report
is pretty distinct that he, Graham, and Lord Granville, if any-
body, are the three (alone) who would quit office rather than
the Reform Bill. But people are hardly to suppose that the
remainder can hold office without them.
I had an amusing run to Devonshire to do what I could
for Northcote ; and certainly it is very pleasant on such an
occasion to find yourself inheriting a family influence even
though not a very large one. In only one case did I hear the
idea of politics broached, it was always that ' I always have
voted with the family and intend to,' and this in one or two
154 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
cases from little landholders, not tenants. I asked whether our
asking for votes would be considered intimidation, but it was
clear that far from this it was considered a friendly compli-
ment. We were told every here and there that ' - - says he
would vote with your honour if you or Mr. Edward would
ask him,' all very flattering to one's self-importance. It
makes me understand (not justify) the tenacity with which
people cling to extent of encumbered property.
I have been reading ' Dante ' and ' Anselm.' They are most
excellent, and make one wish, like the ' Guardian/ that you
could find time to write a history of something. You really
owe it to yourself. It is provoking to feel that you are wasted
on these ' Guardian ' articles, good as they are for the paper
and probably (I confess) better for your pocket than your
first large production.
To Miss Rogers.
Ovington Square : March 28, 1854.
Of course, people are in a flutter (more than excitement)
about the war: especially 'my colleague' Wood, who is
evidently anxious to have a finger in the war pie, not un-
naturally, as so many of his relations are in the thick of it
in different ways. He took me down yesterday to look at a
transport which is taking artillery from Woolwich. We just
came in upon them as they were hoisting the last horse or
two in. And a very pretty animated sight it was. I suppose
you know how it is done. The horse is put in a sling, craned
up twenty or thirty feet into the air, where he plunges and
kicks out to his own satisfaction, then in that position wheeled
round till he gets over the hatchway and let gently down
through the said hatchways to the bottom of the ship, where
the men are waiting to rush in upon him and mob him into
his place The arrangement is this. The hold had a good
broad passage down the middle with a row of horses each
side, nose inwards, packed as close as they could be. It
looked all very comfortable at the moment when we saw it,
but one thought what a turmoil there would be when the
ship began to roll and plunge. They were separated each
from each by bars padded more or less, and there were pads
also behind, bars also in front, so that they had not much
room for being riotous.
We fell upon Sir Hew, who was civil, asked after my mother
and discussed matters. They have sent off some ships already.
Each is complete in itself and is to make the best of its way to
Gallipoli.
Wood tells me that when Lord Raglan and the rest were
at Paris the Emperor expressed great surprise at the rapid
way in which we had got all our men to Malta, and said they
could not do it. Satisfactory to our authorities ; only we
have not got our horses, and I understand that till they arrive
the infantry might just as well be in London.
Our Oxford affairs are getting into a considerable mess.
The younger party of our friends have taken up University
Reform, and have in conjunction with Gladstone pretty much
framed the Government bill. On the other hand, Pusey (who
draws with him Keble and Marriott) has joined the heads
in thinking it revolutionary, and -now on Friday I receive
dunning letters from Mozley and Rawlinson to come up to
vote against a petition which Keble and Pusey and Marriott
will agitate for. I don't know whether it is sneaking, but I
shall simply not trouble myself to go. I don't care enough
about the bill pro or con to vote against either section of my
friends. It is not good enough or bad enough for that. It
seems by no means impossible that it may be simply shelved
by the war.
Was not the secret correspondence amusing ? It is not
often that one has such a peep behind the scenes. Sir H.
Seymour must evidently be a sharp fellow, he sees so clearly
the real English of things, and is so prompt (at least on his
own showing) in taking advantage of openings. 8
I am glad to see by to-day's proclamation that we give
up the great ' neutral bottom ' question, i.e. that we don't pro-
fess any longer to touch Russian goods in neutral vessels. It
will tend, of course, to prevent us from choking the trade of
s This refers to the proposals which the dominions of Turkey, as being the
the Czar made to the English Ambas- goods of ' a sick man.'
sador, Sir H-. Seymour, for partitioning
156 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
any country with which we go to war. But, after all, I think
every step towards making war less generally disagreeable is
a point gained.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
8 Park Street : May 25, 1854.
My dear Church, I sincerely congratulate you, first on
receiving a son and heir, secondly on receiving him on the
same day as Martin R. Sharp, and thirdly on Her Majesty's
birthday. Is he to be named Victor ? Give my kindest
regards to Mrs. Church and the little gentleman, and let me
know some time or other how they are getting on. I had my
usual birthday dinner last Saturday and was lucky in getting
a good deal of talk with the Duke, Lord Hardinge, and Sir
Hew Ross (the Lieut-General of Ordnance). They all seemed
(in spite of the ' Times ' Commission) proud of their arrange-
ments, and the Duke said that a friend of the Emperor's (of
the French) had been telling him that Canrobert from Gallipoli
and the military authorities at Paris are complaining how
much worse off their soldiers are than the English who came
out with their tents and their beer and every comfort men
could invent for them. Lord Hardinge was severe on the
people who wanted chairs in their tents, and observed that
for some years they had no tents at all in the Peninsula, till
a year or two before the end of the war the Duke got them.
He thought the Czar's conduct of the war ' very disgraceful,
coming up bullying to Kalafat, concentrating masses of troops,
and all the rest of it, and then being obliged to shorten his
line and fall back.' I tried him on Omar Pasha. But he did
not very much respond ; a clever man, but had made his line
of defence much too long. I suggested his success, on which
he observed that a man sometimes got a good deal of credit
by the blunders of his opponents.
Also I made Sir George Grey's (New Zealand) acquain-
tance. He goes out in the independent Church (of England)
line, which he considers almost necessary to support society
in New Zealand. In this and other things he said that he
was very much struck in coming to England with the way in
which we lived for the present. In the colony whatever you
1854 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 157
do or plan is calculated with a view to what it will or ought
to be twenty or fifty or a hundred years hence. Here nobody
looks a year before them.
I suppose this is very true, especially as regards Govern-
ment. Indeed, I never have been able to see how a really
representative Government could be far-sighted except in the
way of removing obstacles to the natural action of the society.
People have not in the mass patience enough, or faith enough
in any of their representatives, to endure anything that is only
to have prospective advantages, involving of course large pre-
sent sacrifice.
I have also just shaken hands and exchanged words with
Selwyn. 9 Just what he was in the fifth form at Eton. I
was much struck with his way of walking up and down talking
to his old and some new friends : there was a kind of lofty
frank independence and Trappy a- la about it, rather like a
savage yet very like a bishop, a combination of humour and
dignity and unaffectedness and elasticity that recalled one's
old feeling of having got hold of a great man, long lost. I
must finish.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To R. W. Church.
Ovington Square : Sept. 15, 1854.
My dear Church, At last I am discharging my very bad
conscience of the letter I owe you, and, I am afraid, without
much prospect of writing a letter worth receiving. Till lately
I have been at work either on things which it was difficult
to put off, or on the largest question I have had yet, being
little less than a Legislative Declaration of Independence on
the part of the Australian Colonies. The successive Secre-
taries of State have been bidding for popularity with them by
offering to let them have their own way. And in professed
pursuance of these offers they (New South Wales, Victoria
and South Australia) have sent home laws which may be
shortly described as placing the administration of the colony
in a Ministry dependent on the representative assembly, and
" The Bishop of New Zealand.
158 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
abolishing the Queen's right of disallowing Colonial Acts.
What remains to complete colonial independence except
command of the land and sea forces I don't quite see. I shall
be interested to see what comes of it. It is a great pity that,
give as much as you will, you can't please the colonists with
anything short of absolute independence, so that it is not
easy to say how you are to accomplish what we are, I sup-
pose, all looking to the eventual parting company on good
terms.
Also I have been getting Keble to compile a prayer-book
which we shall put on board all our emigrant ships. I shall
send you a copy to look at when it is printed. I am rather
proud of it, though only the channel.
I am afraid Keble is a good deal put out with Gladstone ;
he writes severely and substitutes ' Mr. Gladstone ' for
' W. E. G' l If I could be sanguine about what people call
' things in general,' i.e. about our own strength, I should be
sanguine about the effect of the University Act, Dissenters
and all (not that I would have supported the latter part). I
can't help thinking that if Dissenting tradesmen begin to
send their sons to Oxford, it might chance that the effect
would be just that the Church would appropriate some of the
best blood of Dissent, the very people who would otherwise
be most effective against her.
To Lady Rogers.
Ovington Square : August 2, 1855.
Wood tells me that somebody (I think Lord Hardinge's
son) has been dining with Pelissier and says that the Depart-
ment of Works has run up for him a fine house and garden,
with reception rooms, smoking pavilions, clocks, carpets in
short, all the Parisian meubles and luxuries that can be in-
vented, simply on the notion that it is appropriate to the con-
dition of a commander-in-chief. And this while Layard and
the ' Times ' were abusing Lord Raglan for having a cottage for
himself and staff.
1 It is noticeable that this circle of (Wilberforce), &c. In many cases the
intimate Oxford friends nearly always full surname has been substituted for
wrote of oneanother by initials, ]. H. N. the convenience of modern readers.
(Newman), J. B. M. (Mozley), H. W.
1855 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 159
To Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone.
9 Ovington Square : August 15, 1855.
My dear Gladstone, I cannot help writing to say (if it is
not impertinent) how very much I am hoping that you will
print your speeches on the war.
People seem to be gone mad, but I hope not so mad but
that they are capable of being gradually affected by truth.
And I don't know where else they are likely to get it. I am
afraid I am asking you to increase your chance of being
stoned. But as I see you are well quit of London for your
holiday, your martyrdom is at any rate respited till next
session.
I cannot say how much satisfaction I felt in reading in
your speeches all (and much more than all) that I had myself
been longing to hear said with effect.
Ever yours sincerely,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone.
8 Park Street : October 12, 1855.
My dear Gladstone, I must thank you for sending me
your speeches. I had observed that they were published,
but did not know where to get them. It was a great satis-
faction to study them again. They put the world in your
debt, a good deal more, I am afraid, than the world is likely
to acknowledge.
The average specimens of the public whom one meets are
still, even when they profess themselves anxious for peace,
so terribly exacting in their terms.
I see by a note that you have sent to this office that you
are looking into the progress of Emigration. Is there any
special point on which we are likely to be able to give you
information ?
Ever yours sincerely,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
160 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Blachford : November 28, 1855.
My dear Church, I have but half a morning for lots of
letters which ought to have been written long ago, so I must
despatch you summarily. George Mayow 2 (you know whom
I mean) writes that Windham was appreciated before the
Redan business. Col. Wood told him (Mayow) that he
(Wood) was in command of a battery 3 when they found the
Russians almost on them, skirmishers among their numbers.
The Captain asked W. what he was to do ; W. told him he
could not retire, but, seeing Windham, galloped up to him
to ask assistance. Windham was Sir G. Cathcart's quarter-
master (qu. general ?) and had been sent by him to order up
Torrens's brigade to succour his disastrous advance, which he
was doing. Windham looked for a moment, said ' Yes, I
see,' and shot off to Torrens to ask for a regiment or two.
Torrens (knowing Cathcart's straits) hesitated for a moment,
when Windham (his junior officer) said that as senior on the
staff of T.'s commanding officer he ordered him officially to
send up two regiments to save the battery. It was done, and
Cathcart before he was killed approved it. But, as Mayow
writes, a man must have tolerable nerve to force down the
throat of his senior officer a movement which both of them
know to be directly contrary to the instructions he had
received from the common superior, whose authority he appro-
priated, and when both of them also knew that superior to be
in the utmost extremity. What strikes me most is the entire
confidence he must have had in being right, and on a snap
judgment.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Park Street : March 18, 1856.
My dear Church, I am glad you and Mrs. Church like
' Dorothy.' 4 The characters seem to me very good, also the
- Colonel Mayow was Major of the 3 At Inkerman.
1 7th Lancers in the Light Cavalry 4 A novel by his sister-in-law, Mrs.
Charlie at Balaclava. Paul.
1856 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 161
gradual accumulation of bereavements and depositions on
Dorothy and the mode in which Lance's return after a long
absence brings sharply back on you the contrast between
what was and what is, is very good. . . . We have finished
Orme, which is admirable. I was quite struck, on taking up
Froissart for the first time the other day, to see how much it
reminded me of Orme. The mixture of chronicling with
lively graphic touches and descriptions, the mutual considera-
tion of the great belligerents for each other, abject population,
floating bodies of mercenaries, vast variety of minute move-
ments and individual feats, are quite remarkable. And the
contrast between Edward III. and John Company only makes
it better. Certainly the Frenchmen </zV/mess it. We are now
on Macaulay. How absurdly diffuse or rather minute he is !
It seems constantly as if he had some one touch which he
could not resist, and gave you a couple of pages of trifling
detail in order to avoid the appearance of lugging it in head
and shoulders.
Did I give you a couple of Crimean stories I got from
Wood ? I shall repeat them on the chance.
His brother-in-law, Col. Brownrigg, was aide-de-camp to
Brown when they took Kertch, and was sent by him to ask
Col. Autemarre (the Frenchman in command) to stop plunder.
The answer he got was : ' Mais, mon cher, je ferai tout mon
possible pour le general tout mon possible : mais vous savez
bien que je n'ai fait la guerre qu'en Afrique, et la, mon Dieu,
on tue toujours les habitants!
The other was the account of a horse artillery man in
Colonel Wood's troop, a fine fellow six foot high, who was
taken at Kinburn. He seems to have pleased the general in
command, and was had up to be shown to a party of Russian
officers and gentlemen. One came forward from the rest and
questioned him in very good English. ' All the men in his
troop were not of his height ? ' ' Yes, he was pretty much the
average standard ' (terrible lie). ' How many strong did your
troop land ? ' ' Well, sir, when we take Russian prisoners, we
don't ask them these questions ' (lie again) ' and I shouldn't
like to get my comrades into a scrape. I'm in your hands,
sir, but I hope you won't ask me any questions.' Well, he
M
162 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
was told he needn't answer anything but what he chose, then
* Would he like to go to England ? ' ' No, he would rather
go back to stay with his comrades as long as they stayed in
the Crimea.' ' How long was that to be ? ' ' Why, sir, we
expect to be there five years.' The Russian pricked up his
ears at this : ' What was to keep them five years in the
Crimea ? ' ' Why, sir, we think in my regiment that the
nation won't be satisfied till they haye made the enemy pay
the expenses of the war, and we don't think we can bring him
down to that under five years.' This amused the questioner
greatly, and he told it all to the rest, and after a little more
talk told the man he should be sent off by the next vessel
that went to Odessa to go back to ' his comrades,' which was
accordingly done ; and it appeared that the inquisitive gentle-
man was no less a person than the Emperor. This was the
man's account, and I suppose was roughly true.
My brother 5 has been back at Woolwich for the last few
weeks. He is getting steadily better ; but it will be a long
time before he is strong again. One feels a continual fidget
lest he should be doing something absurd and making himself
ill again.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
1856.
It is astonishing to me how little people talk of politics.
I suppose the Gladstone and Disraeli combination means a
large amount of mischief. But there is no keenness about it
in those people whom you meet. It seems as if people really
did not much care who was in, so long as they were not bored
by Income Tax or otherwise. As for the Chinese war, which
seems to me one of the greatest iniquities of our days, nobody
seems to care sixpence about it. I was half alarmed, by the
way, the other day, lest I should be found responsible for it,
by allowing to pass the Colonial Ordinance under which Sir
J. Bowring has been making a fool of himself. 6 It xvas our
5 His artillery brother, Henry, who British flag and claim British protection
had returned from the Crimea dange- was the only warrant which Sir J.
rously ill. Bowring ( Minister at Hongkong) had for
6 The clause providing for the regi- the outrageous bombardment of Canton,
stration of vessels which could hoist the It came out afterwards that even this
1856 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 163
business to report that it should be referred to the Board of
Trade ; and if instead of doing so we (or rather I) had
reported it unobjectionable I might have had the reflection
that a blunder of mine had been a link in the chain of causes
of all this slaughtering. I was relieved to find, however, that
we were all right. I cannot help suspecting that our friend
Dorney Harding has got rather into a mess, though it is one
which John Bull will pull him through.
I have been reproaching myself for some time for doing
nothing for poor people, and have begun (faute de mieux]
reading aloud to patients in St. George's Hospital now and
then. I do so wish I had a turn for it ; but I have never
felt visiting of that kind anything but an annoyance. And
this revives all the dissatisfied shyness that I used to feel in
former times at such things. Is there any medicine for such
a moral diathesis ?
I have been reading Newman's letters on Universities (printed wVi^r
first in a newspaper) and have been rather struck by his
ingenuity in proposing an avenir for Ireland. He feels that
some rivalry with England must be got up, and that as far as
governing power goes John Bull must in the nature of things
be lord and master over Pat ; of course, though, they could not
be otherwise : ' tu regere imperio.' But he holds out the bait
of an intellectual supremacy which shall make Dublin the
Athens of modern civilisation, the centre of mind and letters
to all who speak the great English language, which is over-
spreading the world. And really it seems a bright idea. One
hardly sees what might not be made of Irish invention and
brilliancy if it would submit itself to a good intellectual
training.
But he seems to me terribly behindhand in supposing
that by merely establishing a centre of Catholic learning he
can draw all the world after him as people did in the middle
ages. He seems quite to forget that barbarous ignorance
clause did not apply, since the ' Arrow ' parties, among them Mr. Gladstone and
had not been registered at the time, and Mr. Disraeli, joined in condemning
was a Chinese vessel both in law and Sir J. Bowring's action, which was
in fact. Leading politicians of both approved by Lord Palmerston.
M 2
1 64 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
and the inaccessibility of centres of learning are not the evils
of the present day, and that he himself has to fight, not with
the ignorance of the people, but the rivalry of Queen's
Colleges ; in fact, that sharp fellows and educational institu-
tions are rather a drug than otherwise. However, it is very
interesting.
How does Montaigne get on ; and when does it come out ?
I am glad you are publishing at last with your name. I don't
call r^-publishing the same thing
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Miss Rogers.
8 Park Street : Sept. 9, 1856.
I have been reading Wiseman and Newman's ' Callista ' and
Fabiola ' (both worth reading), and I think I must review
them slightly in the ' Guardian,' though I have not a great deal
to say. One thing I am mightily amused with, which is the
marked way in which Wiseman (whose scene is laid under the
persecution of Diocletian) brings into light the old Christian
families in whom the faith was hereditary and who had
furnished in each generation their martyrs to the cause. All
his principal martyrs are hereditary Christians, while an
impracticable convert, who is all for flying in everybody's face,
courting martyrdom &c., is the ' Judas ' of the story, betraying
his brethren is punished repents and is restored. Newman's
great character, on the other hand, is St. Cyprian, who is
delicately made to point out how he is a convert and how all
the apostates were hereditary Christians, who are described as
almost universally torpid, only to be roused in fact by the
martyrdom of a convert. Wiseman gives a good deal of
interesting topography and Christian antiquities, and a lively
plot with some absurdities, and some beautiful incidents or
passages. Newman gives some very fine scenes and very fine
characters with a good lot of sharp satire, somewhat wanting
in delicacy of touch. It is odd how both of them fire on
heathenism almost as a living personal enemy : Newman
most vigorously, as he hits at Protestant England (the nation
rather than the Church) over the shoulders of Pagan Rome.
1
1856 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 165
To Rev. R. W. Church.
8 Park Street : December 10, 1856.
I have been trying, at the instigation of Moberly, of New
" College, to get your name into circulation for the Ecclesiastical
History professorship. It seemed extravagant to suppose that
Lord Shaftesbury would allow Lord Palmerston to appoint the
Proctor who vetoed the censure on Newman. But there is some
good always, I think, in putting a man's name about. However,
I could do nothing, as I imagine Stanley is to be the man. So
at least, affirms Bonamy Price.
I have marvellously little to say for myself. Indeed, I feel
a most aged inability to care about things except the little
matters I have in hand myself, official prospects, Blachford
buildings, and cuttings and plantings and exchangings, and
altogether what intimately concerns self. As to office, it seems
more and more clear that I am to go to the C. O., and more
and more doubtful when it will happen. Not just yet, cer-
tainly, and in time anything may turn up. For the present,
I suppose, I shall have an easyish time of it here for some time,
plenty of opportunity for doing something else if I had it in me.
I am beginning to think my own liberalism will come to a
crisis one of these days. I got into a controversy with Keble
about divorce, and am besides half afraid to think of look-
ing him in the face from feeling so out of his line on the
Denison case. 7 I arn only glad you and Bernard are able to
treat it as you do, but I confess the Articles seem to me in-
superable, and it is a very unpleasant feeling that if I told
Keble the truth I should say that his subscriptions are incon-
sistent with what I understand to be his belief. And I must
say that St. John vi., taken as a prophetic exposition of the
~ A charge had been made against with sentence of deprivation. The
Archdeacon Denison in 1854 that a Court of Arches, on an appeal, in the
sermon preached by him the previous following year reversed this decision,
year contained doctrines about the and absolved Archdeacon Denison from
Eucharist which were inconsistent with the charges, on the ground that more
the Articles. Judgment was pronounced than the prescribed time had elapsed
against him by the Diocesan Court of between the alleged offence and the
Bath and Wells on October 22, 1856, beginning of the action.
166 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
sacramental doctrine, and culminating in 77 <rapj; OVK
ouSsv, seems to me to carry you out of the stream of thought
which culminates in Roman or semi-Roman doctrine.
Have you looked at Helps's ' Conquest of America ' ? It is
well worth reading, except that it really makes one boil too
much. The unbridled treachery and ferocity of the Spaniards
passes all I had imagined. And somehow it is, to me, more
terrible to see Christians cruel to heathens than vice versa.
There is the triumph of martyrdom on one set of accounts to
set against the dreariness of successful cruelty, but here the
crime of the tyrants is greater and more one's own, and the
compensation of the persecuted less. It makes the Papal act
which handed America over to the Spaniards a terrible deed.
There is such a contrast between the stupendous power which is
affected in such a transfer, and the utter want of qualification
for its proper exercise, which is evident in the act itself and
all that followed on it. However, I must be off. Kindest
regards to Mrs. and Master Church.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
August 26, 1857.
My dear Mother, I think I got as far as Chambciy in my
last letter, which, as far as I was concerned, was somewhat of
a failure. It is exceedingly prettily placed, among good
Savoyard hills, but the heat made the smallest distance for-
midable, and so there was hardly any getting out of the town,
and in the evening we were seduced by a laughing little cham-
bermaid to go and see what she called ' la vogue,' which is sup-
posed to be a kind of guinguette, and expected to see the world
and his wife nicely dressed and looking fresh and gay ; but it
was a mere stupid crowd, disturbed every now and then by a
procession of men arm in arm, with a noisy drum at their head,
going up and down the town with a vague intention of
amusing themselves or somebody else (it was hard to see
which), but without quite sense or spirit enough to make a row.
Besides I got cheated at Chambery. Next day a drive to Ugine,
a beautifully placed village, at one end of a mule ride which
1857 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 167
leads to Sallenches. We came into Sallenches after dark
(near 1 1 o'clock), and next morning, getting out of the inn
door, I got my first view of Mont Blanc, blazing white with
flying clouds, sometimes hiding more, sometimes less, of his
head. Georgie and I had a pleasant morning walk on the
side of the valley opposite to Mont Blanc, getting fine views of
him (broken by clouds) from time to time. Next day to
Chamonix, by a fine valley with some wild defiles, and noble
views of the .different groups of ' Aiguilles ' which form the real
beauty of Mont Blanc. I fancy Mont Blanc to be a magnifi-
cent mass of pointed peaks, of which the highest are so high
up and so close together that the perpetual snow has actually
buried them. But, however that may be, the peculiarity of
Mont Blanc is that the two summits, the Calotte and the Dome
du Goiiter, are flat lumps, like the ordinary shape of an English
granite pile, while they are supported by a most beautiful forest
of peaks advancing out in all directions, and forming a kind
of pinnacled wall round the great snow field, through which the
ice pours down into the low country wherever it finds an opening.
Our first great expedition was to the Flegere, a point high up on
the side of the valley opposite to Mont Blanc, from which you
see its whole line spread out right and left as far as you can
see, the white domes above, but not greatly above, everything
else, and the aiguilles stretched out in front of them in a kind
of battle array, graceful and beautiful beyond everything, with
the great glaciers pouring through them here and there like
enormous cataracts. That evening we crossed the Glacier des
Bossons and the next day crossed the Mer de Glace. S. was
unequal to the Bossons, G. and E. were unequal to the Mer de
Glace, but nobody went off without seeing a glacier and standing
on it. It is certainly very wonderful. The immensity of the
mass of ice is striking, the deep light blue which is discovered
by any chasm or new fracture of the ice is almost unearthly
(there are no blues, however, tell Kate, equal to the Rosenlaui),
and where the ice passes over a great fall in the ground it breaks
into a magnificent imitation of rocks and waves (' pyramides '
they call them on the Glacier des Bossons), but to me they were
more the satisfaction of a curiosity than actual enjoyment.
From the Isere, the Flegere, the Tete Noire, and Vevey, I
1 68 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. v
seemed to myself to be sucking in pleasure. But on the great
torrents of ice one seemed rather to be examining and taking
in something very wonderful, though, no doubt, the peaks in
which you were enveloped were very beautiful too. I think
that a glacier is not a thing for zVz7<<? enjoyment. I suspect the
true pleasure of the ice is in hearty exertion, when a man feels
that he has a good day's work before him and is doing it.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
8 Park Street : November 16, 1857.
So we are inside Delhi and Lucknow, at last. I suppose
it will hardly do to ask what we did when we got in, at least
to Delhi. It must have been a frightful business. I feel
what you say about the heathen. These facts seem to sweep
away one's sickly faint view of the Ammonites and such
people, and to suggest a wholly different and more terrible
picture of the deserts of a heathen nation. It is curious how
these realities (to use the cant word) seem to drive people
back on a Jewish state of mind. I mean how people jump at
once to the idea of bloody and sweeping punishments
administered to a whole community, for example or ampu-
tation's sakes.
I hear that the day before the telegraph came in the Govern-
ment sent Sir F. Thesiger, who has a son-in-law (Colonel Inglis,
in command), daughter, and grandchildren there, a despatch
from Colonel Inglis to Havelock which must (of course) have
been received here by last mail. Colonel Inglis said that he
had taken the command with 300 fighting men, that these of
course had been reduced by casualties, that he had then 20
guns bearing or playing on him, that all were on half rations,
and had enough to last them at any rate till the 24th, and
hoped they could hold out till then, that he thought the enemy
did not know the state they were in and that, to prevent their
learning it, he had not allowed a single message to be sent
out except this despatch, and that if Havelock wished to
communicate with him he had better send a verbal message
o
by any native whom he could trust, with the password ' Agra.'
I suppose he must have felt when he sent this that it was
1857 WORK AS COMMISSIONER OF EMIGRATION 169
likely enough to be the last message that any Christian would
receive from any inside the fort.
When Thesiger told my friend this, he had just received
in court this post's telegram, ' Lucknow relieved,' and of course
was in a swim of excitement, and rushed home, leaving all
his causes to take care of themselves (if they came on) and
begging somebody to make what apology or excuse he could
.... I have just come back from attending the funeral of
an uncle whom you may recollect near Southampton General
Rogers (then Col.), the last of my father's brothers.
i7o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
CHAPTER VI
Mission to Paris on the Coolie Question, 1858, 1859
SIR F. ROGERS spent a considerable part of these two years
in negotiations in Paris about the terms on which the French
should be allowed to import coolie labourers into their colonies.
He has left the following notes of the manner in which the
negotiations began :
' The English nation, while its own interests are not very
visibly and gravely concerned, has a strong vein of philan-
thropy, but it is in regard to negro slavery that this feeling
has so taken hold of the people, and is so powerfully organised
as to become a political influence. Partly on this account
and partly also, I doubt not, from genuine conviction, Lord
Palmerston had taken up this particular question, and felt
himself bound to assist, if possible, certain plans of the French
Government for conducting an immigration from the West
Coast of Africa to the French negro colonies, which was
supposed to have hitherto covered a disguised slave trade.
' The French Government, pressed by its planters, did not
venture simply to suppress this, and, I take it for granted,
replied to a remonstrance by pointing to our own coolie emi-
gration (which it had for some time been my special function
to superintend). At any rate, Lord Palmerston, then Premier,
and Lord Clarendon, then at the Foreign Office, suggested to
the French that, if they would give up their African emi-
gration, they might be allowed to take coolies from India to
their colonies on the same terms (mutatis mutandis] as those
on which they were taken to English colonies. Neither the
India Office, nor the Colonial Office, much liked this arrange-
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 171
ment, because it appeared probable that, since we had not
been more than able to protect the coolies in our own colonies,
we should be less than able to protect them in those of France ;
and so the evil of quasi-slavery might exist, the responsibility
of it merely being transferred from the Foreign Office (which
was bound to protect the Africans) to us, or rather to the
India Office, which was bound to protect the Indians.
' However, the first step was that the French should under-
stand what would be the terms to which the planters would
be bound to submit in importing coolies from India, and I was
bidden to call on Persigny. Persigny was on the whole much
pleased, and in course of time desired that I should be sent to
Paris to be examined before a committee of which Prince
Napoleon, then Minister of the Colonies, was chief, and then
settle the details of the question.
' Persigny struck me as not having much in him ; he liked
to talk as if he were conducting large affairs with large views,
and at the same time was competent to descend into the
minutest particulars ; but he did not show that grasp of prin-
ciples in their practical bearing which makes what I should
call the " man of capacity," and which saves principles from
becoming loose and airy, and details from becoming petty, as
they do in the hands of political and commercial projectors,
who overwhelm you with one or the other project without
impressing a man of sense with any certainty that it will work
as it is expected to work. Some time afterwards I happened
to speak of him to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, as not having
much impressed me (Lord Stratford having just been stay-
ing with him at a country house). He said that Persigny had
nothing in him, no suite in conversation, or tact : " He said to
me " (and he drew himself up ferociously as he spoke) " he said
to me, ' Milord, on me dit que vous etes deux personnes, dans
la conversation rien de plus charmant : mais touchez aux
affaires ! eh, voila le lion Britannique,' " and his lordship
straightened his neck and opened his eyes and closed his lips
172 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
as if he felt himself the British Lion and had just had his
whiskers pulled. This was in driving from Saltram to Mount
Edgcumbe. Driving back I was touched by a little bit of sad
poetry. We were crossing one of the Plymouth creeks, and saw
two small sails, one in deep shadow, and the other white with
the sun upon it. Lord Stratford just pointed them out to
my wife, with the words "Hope and disappointment;" he
spoke sadly, as if he had some real reason ; on the other
hand, he certainly had some cause for feeling satisfied. . . .
' The negotiations were interrupted when the French war
in Italy was imminent and gave the French something to
think of. However, it was taken up again after the conclu-
sion of the war, and I was again sent to Paris to proceed with
the convention this time with M. de Chasseloup Laubat.
He was a talkative, quick, handy fellow, and we got through
the work rapidly and in a friendly way. The only hitch was
his great anxiety to get into this convention a special mention
of Nossibe and Mayotta, two places of which I had never
heard, but which turned out to be places in Madagascar, 1
where the French wanted to get a specific recognition of
their acquisitions.
' The convention was some time after concluded,
as I had settled it ; I imagine, with scarcely an alteration.'
To Lady Rogers,
January 1858.
My dear Mother, A few lines written in a hurry to in-
form you of a new ' commissionership ' which has fallen on
my head (unpaid of course) I am now commissioner for
settling in conjunction with a French Commissioner the
regulations under which coolies may be taken from British
India to French colonies.
Wednesday evening I got a note from Labouchere say-
ing that he and Lord Clarendon had settled this mode of pro-
1 Two small islands off the north- was written supply more clearly the
west coast of Madagascar. Events motive of this insertion,
which have happened since the above
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 173
ceeding ; 2 and yesterday evening I got a note from Lord C.
to Labouchere, forwarded for me to open (in his absence)
and act upon immediately, saying that M. de Persigny was quite
satisfied with that mode of proceeding, ' that if he had known
where to find Sir F. Rogers he would have called upon him
and made his acquaintance,' but, that not being so, he wished
Sir F. R. would call upon him at the French Embassy at
half-past two ' to-morrow,' i.e. to-day. To the French
Embassy I am accordingly bound ; and I suppose I shall be
introduced by M. de Persigny to my colleague and antagonist
in the negotiation. The French are, I believe, excessively
anxious not only to get the thing done, but to get it done
immediately. So I suppose I shall be spurred on, or dunned
furiously. At present I don't know my own position, and
not only go without a shadow of instruction of any sort but
without a distinct view as to what instructions I must or can
get. And (between ourselves) I am not likely to get much
from Labouchere, and am likely to be a kind of central point
to be battered by all the conflicting interests French, West
Indian, East Indian, Foreign Office, philanthropists, sugar-
manufacturers &c. so I look at my future with ' awe mixed
with jollity.' Mind, this is not to be talked about just yet
I wish diplomacy were not so wholly new to me. As to
knowledge of the subject, I am at least a one-eyed man among
the blind, I hope.
Ever affectionately,
F. R.
Happy New Year to you all.
Miss S. Rogers.
January 3, 1858.
My dear Sophy, You come in for the account of my
interview with M. de Persigny. At half-past two, of course,
I presented myself and was shown in ; he is a pleasant-
mannered man, much younger than I was prepared for, as I
fancy (or fancied) him an old Louis Philippe official, agree-
able-looking, and anxious to set to work. It soon appeared
2 Mr. Labouchere (afterwards Lord the Colonies, Lord Clarendon Foreign
Taunton) was Secretary of State for Secretary.
174 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
that he intended to do all the work on his side himself, and
he was somewhat disconcerted at hearing that I had no in-
structions, till I told him that however I knew enough about
the matter to enter upon it, and that probably we might
facilitate matters by going over the ground. Accordingly we
started, he at once taking for the heads of the negotiation a
certain paper that I had concocted for the Foreign Office
while I was laid up with rheumatism. The paper, I think,
was pretty clear and complete, and as it was done off-hand
without papers I think I got credit for it (a mere enumeration
of regulations). I was able to throw off on the first point
with what he considered a great concession (at least I
volunteered that I personally thought it ought to be conceded),
and, as my ground was that the contrary course would even-
tually lead to heart-burnings between England and France,
that gave occasion to a little oration on his part on the
general desirableness of avoiding paltry points of collision
between two great nations. Then we went through the
points : one point he (as they say) ' tried on ' about which I
had thought and was prepared for him, then he at once gave
in (he never argued a single point, or for a moment, but
merely occupied himself in ascertaining what we would
or could give, generally assenting and noting quickly any
point that might be material in after-discussions). Then
on some provocation or other he made a speech, as if it were
to imbue me with the views with which the Foreign Office
ought to be indoctrinated (and, of course, had been) in the
general treatment of the question. We, the English, had had
our triumphs in 1815, and our enormous progress since had
given us the supremacy in this and that, commerce, &c.
Therefore we had that supremacy to lose and nothing to gain
by war. France, under a new dynasty, which wanted con-
solidating, also required peace till she was firm on her legs.
A liberal mode of dealing was the way to preserve peace. In
the matter of Bolgrad :< (here he could not remember the name
3 The Russian plenipotentiary at the the approach to the Danube. England
Conference of Paris claimed Bolgrad and Austria, wishing to keep the Rus-
on the River Yalpuk, a little north sian frontier away from the Danube,
of the Danube, and the Isle of Ser- stood out against this (though France
pents, which would have commanded did not) and eventually gained their
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 175
of the place, and had to boggle and apologise for five minutes
in a way which interfered with the effect of the oration), the
Emperor was wrong (very confidential was it not?) quite
wrong ; he had given an offhand assent to the Russian pro-
position without seeing what depended on it. Then we,
the English, thought he was Russianising, which was not the
case, and he had to get out of the scrape as he could. In
fact, he frankly owned to Lord Palmerston that the whole was
his fault a blunder. But then a nation cannot go on time
after time confessing itself wrong, and it would be very un-
fortunate if a quarrel were to arise by requiring such a thing.
This is ambiguous and oracular. The sense is this. The
French Government have promised their colonies to revive the
slave trade (in substance), the English make such a row about
this that it may lead to war or something like it, unless the
dispute is evaded. The French Government is too far
pledged to give in visibly, whether wrong or right. But if
you will let us get emigrant labourers from India instead of
buying slaves in Africa, we will give up the African enter-
prise and tell our colonists that we have made a capital
bargain for them, and so we shall be out of the mess
altogether.
All this is sous-entendu, and, I suppose, was all said to me
in order to impress me with the feeling that I held the fate of
Europe in my hands and would imperil it if I did not some-
how or another come to an understanding about this same
emigration. And I must admit that this sort of humbug,
even though one sees through it, has a decided effect on the
temper with which one gets into the matter.
Then I raised a point on which I felt a future difficulty
was coming, sooner or later. He said then, for the first time,
that his Government had instructed him that the obvious
mode of getting over it was inadmissible. Then I explained
that something effective we must have. He agreed, and
then we concurred in a proposition, he admitting its propriety
(indeed, I think it was his own suggestion) but reserving it
point. The frontier between Russia clavia, and, of course, also the Isle of
and Turkey at that point followed the Serpents. This was settled early in
River Yalpuk, leaving Uolgracl to Mol- January 1857.
1 76 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
for his Government. All that I said or did was, of course, so
reserved, as I told him I had no instructions.
However, he evidently considered (and he was not far
wrong, I think) that the affair was practically so far settled ;
and we made little rough notes of what we had agreed, he
taking a copy of mine, which, I suppose, he sent off to Paris.
At least he worked like a man whose mind was bent on
settling this particular question without an hour's more delay
than he could help. He tells Lord Clarendon the Emperor is
determined to have labour from one place or another, and
that at once.
He is not like any English worker that I have seen.
There is about him a quick promptitude in getting through
questions one by one, without forestalling or going back to
anything, which is unlike an English official, who is either a
clerk or a great man. He worked like a union of the two
more of the clerk, but having the authority to speak and settle
things (generally) off his own bat that a chief has. And yet
he worked like a man who was to give an account to a chief
of what he had done, and would be held accountable for
letting the matter he had in hand sleep or miss its way. I
should say perhaps more than anything else of him that he
was ' thoroughly alive.' It is too soon to say he was very
fair, else I should say that also. There, now you have a full,
true, and particular account of my introduction to diplomacy.
I must be off, so good-bye.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
Of course all this is not to be talked of cela va sans dire.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
8 Park Street, Westminster: January 14, 1858.
My dear Church, I certainly wish very much that I
could have a talk with you, especially as I have come out in
a new shape. At present I am engaged in an ' English
Commission ' with M. de Persigny, a plan about Coolie
Emigration, which presents some considerable perplexities,
and, Dis quoniam propins contingo, have seen some little bits
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 177
of fun which you would enjoy if I could talk them over with
you, but are hardly spicy enough to be potted in a letter. I
am in a somewhat absurd position, pretty much without
authority or instructions, but dealing with a subject of which
I certainly know more than anybody else, at the same time
hemmed round by superior authorities, who, little as they
know what the details and rights of the matter are, know
what they want and have traditional and incompatible views.
The French Government are, I imagine, determined to have
their way ; the Foreign Office determined that the question
should be settled ; Labouchere is torn about by divers in-
fluences which must, under all circumstances, prevent his
standing upright, but is subject to a Colonial Office influence
adverse to what the French (if they see their way as clearly
as I suppose they do) will insist upon. The India Board 4
have drawling, minute, obstructive ways, that will stop the
whole thing, I should think, if nobody runs over them. Then
the matter is one which, if it gets wind, will bring down on
poor Labouchere's head, in a state of fury, the West Indians,
or the humanitarians, or both.
I was greatly amused at the (as yet only) interview with
de Persigny he is very pleasant and, as somebody called him,
' coulant] but different from any English chief that I have
seen. He unites with a certain amount of a chiefs authority
much more of a head clerk's mode of going rapidly and with
knowledge through the successive points of a case, never
anticipating what is coming or going back to what is past,
or showing ignorance or hesitation as to what he had and
what he had not power to conclude. But what struck me
very much was that he seemed to work (I cannot analyse my
reason further) as if he had a master in the cupboard watch-
ing him and seeing that he lost no point in anything. Also
I was greatly amused at his endeavours to make me imagine
by one or two set orations that the question at issue was one
on which it was of such deep importance that England and
France should not fall out (becoming withal confidential),
that no small difficulties should be allowed to interpose
themselves &c. &c. all this being peculiarly apposite or
4 The old Board of Control, now within a few months of its end.
N
1 78 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
inapposite (as you choose to view it) to ray peculiar function,
which was that of framing details which he was likely to
dispute, on a matter in which I was supposed to be cognisant
of details. I should say that the thing was well done, except
that he did not make full allowances for my being a matter
of fact Englishman instead of a Frenchman of expansive
views.
To Lady Rogers.
January 20, 1858.
I have seen Persigny again (we talk English with a phrase
or two of French). He apparently knew that I had finished
my work and that he must wait the leisure of the Court of
Directors, but he sent for me because he wanted to tell me
what the Paris people objected to, and I was reassured to
find that he was with me and against his own Government.
It is rather amusing to see how each department wants to
keep itself clear of difficulties. The Minister of Marine, ' qui est
un peu partisan ' according to M. de Persigny, wants on behalf
of his colonies to make sure of a supply of coolies and so to
charge us with the collection, and blame us if we fail in doing
it. I say : ' We can't collect enough for ourselves ; and won't pro-
mise for you what we can't perform. If we do, you will cer-
tainly turn upon us and say we have not given you fair play.
Go and collect, if you can, for yourselves. It will keep us
better friends in the long run if when you fail you have
clearly no one to blame but yourselves.' This last sentence
(being clearly true) touches the Ambassador who will be
troubled to compose French and English quarrels, just as the
Minister of Marine will be troubled to allay Colonial
complaints, and so I may fairly hope the Ambassador is in
earnest (as I think he is) when he professes himself to side
with me. He was very friendly and seemed as if he did not
wish to get rid of me. But when I got up to go away he
perched himself like a little bird (he is more like a cock robin
than I thought him at first) on the top of his fender with his
back against the chimney-piece and went on discoursing
about our business. I was much amused at one point which I
tried to make. The French pack their emigrants and ships twice
as close as we do, and yet they have had very good passages.
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 179
Of course they object to imposing on themselves our strict
law, and I want to come to some compromise, so I tried to
find what would pacify them, and suggested 50 cubical feet
par personne. This posed old Persigny, who wanted to know
what it meant ; and betook himself in a vague perplexed
way, like a puzzled linen-draper, to a measuring tape which
he began to pull out, and measure distances in the air as if
that would help him. So I explained that 50 cubical feet
was 6 feet long i^ feet broad and 5^ feet high, or, to make
the matter more intelligible, if he would imagine the whole
ground pretty well covered with human beings lying at full
length, and 5^ feet of height above them, that would be the
thing ' and,' I added, ' I don't think you can well give a man
less than that? I shall not easily forget the mixture of
disgust and astonishment and amusement with which he
burst out, ' Sacre-Dieu ! non ! they will all be sick ' (or rather
' seek ') ' too,' on which I began to repent me of having given in
so much, and tried to retrieve a point or two, with what
success remains to be seen.
To Lady Rogers.
February 2, 1858.
I have not written to you my last communications with
Persigny. On the 2 ist I received notice that the Court of
Directors 5 had approved my articles, and so I took them
off at once to him, and on the 23rd he despatched them in a
modified shape (in some respects) to his Government, giving
me warning of one or two objections, which (as I could not
yield to them myself) the Government would raise.
Since that time I have heard no more of him I dare say
that the exchange of shots, which must have taken place
about the ' attentat ' on the Emperor, does not dispose them
to proceed very cheerfully or zealously in the negotiations.
5 The powers of the East India of representations from the French
Company lasted till June of that year. Government. The Bill was right and
" Orsini's attempt at assassination desirable, but unfortunately the English
on January 14. This was followed by nation had lost its temper over some
Lord Palmerston's 'Conspiracy to stupid inflammatory speeches of officers
Murder Bill,' drawn up in consequence in the French Army, who talked about
x8o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
He was personally very civil and easy throughout, though
keen in working for what he considered his Government
would object to. I have no doubt I shall have a lot of objec-
tions to meet when it comes back.
He read me a long list of the ' Minister of Marine's '
objections to what I may call my requirement, that the
French should collect emigrants for themselves instead of
throwing it on the British Government, and of his own reply
which was characteristic and amusing. The civil deference
with which the objections of the ' Marine ' were magnified
and evaded was very French ; and an elaborate argument
that the cordial and bona fide co-operation of the English
Government might be counted upon because the success
of the scheme was the only way in which Lord Palmer-
ston could escape from allowing the French emigration
from Africa and so incurring the pressure of public opinion,
' which is so susceptible a cet cgard' and of ' la Societi Biblique '
(which was made to figure as a great political power), was
wonderfully characteristic of a French view of English
manners.
I tried to say something civil about the attack on Louis
Napoleon ; but did not make much of it, and his mode of
dealing with my little sentiment, a kind of significant shake
of the hand at parting, without words, was explained when I
saw afterwards in the papers what he had been saying to the
Lord Mayor the same or previous day.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
February 20, 1858.
My dear Church, My French negotiations have come to
a fix. After all the drawing up of details and canvassing
and inquiring, the French Government require a preliminary
which according to my views is absolutely inadmissible,
and so the matter stands Persigny pledged to my view, and
professing much anxiety to get over the people in Paris
(where he now is), but the ' Ministre de Marine,' who I
' pursuing the assassins to their strong- rejected, really on the absurd theory
hold ' [England] ; so the Bill was that it was truckling to the French.
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 181
imagine sees more clearly the actual view of the case, stoutly
opposed to concession unless we can guarantee them what
they want to get which we can't do. Persigny gets more
insignificant as I look closely at him, but very friendly and
amusing. He read me a good many of the Paris comments on
my articles (some grossly unreasonable) and observed on the
spirit of mistrust, especially on some which concerned particular
proposals of ' Sire Rogers ' ' apparemment on vous croit un
Ogre par-la ' told me how the Emperor and he had to com-
bat all these natural jealousies in France, just as English
Ministers had in England, and how he would get at the
man in Paris who had drawn the papers, ' the Sire Frederic
Rogers of Paris,' and see whether he could not come round
him. I wish you could have seen him, sometimes perched
on the top of his fender, with his shoulder-blades just
leaning against his chimney-piece, and extending his arm
like a man who was extending protection to all French
subjects in all parts of the globe, to give a weight to a
peroration ; of course, all this was especially confidential. I
should think in every point of view it must all come to an end
now. I don't half like, under present circumstances, calling
on his locum tenens.
Pam has got, in a degree, his deserts. There are lots of
things (as I think) to be said for any one else in his situation,
but none for him. He has been making capital of the un-
reasonable arrogance of the English, and passed himself off
as the man who was to make all the world submit to it, and
upset or outbid anybody who was for reasonable dealing, and
now he has to be reasonable, or more, to foreign powers and
make a case against England.
I think if I had been the Opposition I would have con-
tented myself with protesting in speecJies against the omission
to answer Walewski, without coming to a vote on it. It is a
mere censure without any practical object ; and according to
the old principle you should not censure (by vote of the
House of Commons) unless you can replace a Ministry, which
I apprehend the Opposition cannot. Also I confess I dislike
inexpressibly House of Commons meddlings in foreign
negotiations.
1 82 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
However, I can't deny a satisfaction for the moment in
the result.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
8 Park Street : November 8, 1858.
I have been so busy that I forget whether I have told you
about Gladstone's mission, not that I have much to say,
except that I have come across him and Sir Edward a little,
from having to draw up his commission. 7 It was very absurd
to see them talking it over, Gladstone's clear dark eye and
serious face and ponderous forehead and calm manner was
such a contrast with Sir E.'s lean, narrow face, and hurried
theatrical, conscious kind of ways. Of course, my affair was
merely with form and language, knowing, in fact, nothing of
the substance of what was being done, but people are cha-
racteristic even in their way of treating that. They both
originally wanted CGladstone, I suppose, principally) to give
the mission a diplomatic character, the lonians being, under
the treaty of Paris, a ' free and independent State ' under
our ' protection.' But that I had to fight against, and, indeed,
on looking into the matter, it would have been as absurd as a
matter of form as it plainly would be as a matter of substance.
I have seen a good deal of Lord Carnarvon about that
and other matters. He is very friendly and extra confi-
dential, and I think will have not a bad judgment when he
gets a little more to know his ground and have confidence in
himself. Both he and Sir Edward work very hard, Sir E.
writes perfect volumes by way of minutes, and then tells me
that he learnt two great maxims in life, one to write as little
as possible and the other to say as little as possible. 8
However, I must get to work ; so good-bye.
Ever yours,
F. R.
7 Mr. Gladstone was sent as special 8 Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (the
High Commissioner to the Ionian first Lord Lytton) was Secretary of
Islands to inquire into the complaints State for the Colonies ; Lord Carnarvon
which the people of those islands made was Parliamentary Under Secretary for
regarding the Protectorate of Great the Colonies.
Britain.
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 183
To Lady Rogers.
November 9, 1858.
My dear Mother, I forget how much I told you about
Gladstone. I have had to do the technical part drawing his
commission and writing his introductory letter. He and Sir
Edward Lytton are obviously Philhellenes, and, I should say,
disposed to think that we have treated the lonians rather arbi-
trarily. This I take to be true ; but on the other hand I imagine
that it is difficult to treat such a pack of scamps otherwise.
In 1815 we acknowledged them as a ' single, free, and inde-
pendent republic, under a protection,' and the King engaged
to employ peculiar solicitude in looking after their internal
organisation and administration ; then we or our Lord High
Commissioner required them to pass a constitutional law,
which, under the forms of a republic, really gave our Lord
High Commissioner despotic power, and this power he
exercised until lately when Lords Grey and Seaton 9 gave
them a real voice in their government. This they have used
to job astoundingly and rebel occasionally. We, on the
other hand, have shot the rebels, and resumed somewhat of
our despotic sway.
The people all, I imagine, hate us, and wish for union with
Greece ; but a good many, apparently, in Corfu think that
English despotism is better than English or Ionian anarchy,
and would be satisfied to get back quietly to the old strong
rule. Meanwhile all our own knowledge respecting the state
of feeling &c. in the islands comes either from what we see
of the noisy democrats, who are probably a bad set, or what
we are told by our own toadies, who are likely enough to be
worse. So the appointment of an able and unprejudiced
Commission of Inquiry is a likely thing enough to be
valuable.
Sir Edward and Gladstone wanted to make the mission
a diplomatic one Envoy as well as Commissions and Sir
E. L. made a ridiculous speech, sawing his arm up and
down as if I was the House of Commons, and holding
9 Lord Seaton as Lord High Commissioner, Lord Grey as Secretary for the
Colonies in 1848.
1 84 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
forth about the ' Statesman ' whom he would wish, if he could
(Gladstone was not avowed), to procure for the work. But
on examination it was pretty clearly ascertained that this
could not be, and it was accordingly given up Then I had
to draw the Commission, and was brought rather pleasantly
into council with Gladstone and Sir Edward (it was pretty
clear who was the better man) on the final alterations.
As to the coolie business, I supposed it to be stirring
because the Foreign Office came to me to look up some old
papers. But Louis Napoleon's manifesto * was quite a surprise.
I don't know whether or not they will make use of me I
don't think that the French would desire me. Persigny
might y but he is out, and the Paris people look on me as a
perfect enemy. I think our people would wish to use me if
they were sure I would not be troublesome and thwart the
project. I don't know that there is any reason for making
any further mystery about my having been engaged with
Persigny in the negotiations to which his Imperial Majesty
alludes. I have done nothing about it except to send in to
Lord Carnarvon one or two outstanding letters which ought
to be in the hands of any one who takes charge of the matter,
simply that he may know that he has all that has passed,
and to enter a little warning on one point which wants
reconsidering.
I was glad to see old , who, with his white moustachios
and stupendous hunched-up shoulders, looks like one of the
savage smelters in Retsch's ' Fridolin,' putting the unjust
steward into the fire.
To Miss Rogers.
Nov. 22, 1858.
My dear Kate, I write to say that I find on my table a
letter from the Colonial Office inclosing one from Lord
Malmesbury to Sir E. B. Lytton, saying that the French
1 The Emperor, in a letter to Prince in disguise, I will not allow it on any
Napoleon on October 30, said that he conditions ; ' and he desired that his
would no longer permit negro labourers minister should try to obtain Indian
to be taken from the African coast : ' If coolies as free labourers,
their enrolment is simply the slave-trade
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 185
Government have requested ' the presence and assistance of Sir
F. Rogers ' in Paris as soon as possible, that he, Lord M.,
has spoken to Lords Derby and Stanley, who consent, and that
he would be much obliged to Sir E. L. ' to allow and direct
Sir F. R. to call at the Foreign Office at 4.30 ' to-day.
Sir E. L.'s private secretary incloses it, writes that Sir E.
B. L. has answered that I cannot be spared from here until
the end of the week. I am afraid I may hardly be able to
write after I have been at the F. O. there probably will then
be much to say. So I finish off at once.
Ever yours,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
Nov. 25, 1858.
My dear Kate, A line only to say that I have just seen
Lord Malmesbury, who wished me to go off this week, and
had partly promised that I would. So I have been to Sir
Edward, and got leave to be off on Friday. My instructions,
I suppose, are simply to present myself to Lord Cowley that
is all he tells me to do.
The object professed is to give all possible information to
a Commission, at the head of which is my old friend Persigny.
Ever affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Chateau de Chantilly : Nov. 2"8, 1858.
My dear Mother, G. will probably send you on my first
letter, so I shall not repeat, except to say that I found in getting
to Paris that Lord Cowley was then with the Emperor at
Compiegne, and was living at Chantilly (the Ambassade in
Paris being under repair), and Lord Chelsea, whom I saw,
told me I could not do better than go down and spend the
Sunday with him there. Accordingly I got down by an
evening train in time for dinner, and, as Lord C. was not to be
home till late (12 o'clock at night), had dinner and a pleasant
evening with Lady Cowley, two of her daughters, and a
governess Lady Cowley very hospitable and friendly. This
1 86 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
evening I have seen Lord Cowley, who is too busy to have
anything to say to me till the morning, when we can talk
over our own affairs ; meanwhile I have been looking a little
over the premises, and am now waiting for a summons to
take a lionising walk with Lady Cowley.
The Chateau was the hunting palace of the great Conde,
but the larger and more magnificent part was destroyed in
the Revolution, leaving a kind of appendage called the
' capitainerie ' (in the style of the Tuileries), which is the
present chateau. Conde's stables (holding 170 horses)
remain. And the whole plan certainly has a grand look
of Louis Quatorze magnificence remaining. The inside
is said to have been fitted by Watteau, and very beautiful
in its way ; the room in which I am writing (my bedroom) is
a little circular room, about twenty feet across, with all sorts
of painted ceiling and gilt adornments, with alternations of
painted wood and gold pilasters and shawl-like hangings,
medallions, &c. ; and looking out in front on a large piece of
artificial water, which wanders about the house as if it might
once have been a moat, with some idea of defence ; but had
afterwards been enlarged and Louis Quatorzified. The base-
ment story, or, as they call it, ' the foundation,' of the old
palace remains, and there is a kind of faint similarity to a
fortified house in the outline both of it and the water, in
which I can contrive to imagine that the taste of the great
general may be visible. The terraces are very grand indeed,
smaller than those of the Crystal Palace, but more beautiful,
and evidently the real tiling, out of which the Crystal
Palace terraces are blown out. It is on a flat, so there is no
view, except just upon the grounds, which seem to be
according to the French park fashion avenues, vistas, &c.
The whole is backed by the Forest of Chantilly, of which one
just sees the edge, looking like a belt. It went from Conde
to the Due de Bourbon, then to the Due d'Aumale, and then,
on the forced sale of the Orleans property, was bought by
Messrs. Coutts, it is said, for the Orleans family.
Back again from my walk. The stables are certainly a
sight more like a cathedral than anything else, if one could
imagine a cathedral strictly a la Louis Quatorze they
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 187
certainly impress on one's mind a notion of the way in which
the great princes of the blood did things then, also relics of
the old festive way of going on ; a group of would-be
picturesque cottages, including a mill, where the gentlemen
and ladies used to picnic in the dress of Dresden china millers
and shepherdesses, and a labyrinth, in the centre of which
luncheon for two was laid every day ; both the cottages (the
hameau} and labyrinth are in decay.
Watteau seems to have been a hanger-on to the Conde
clique of his day, and in one of the rooms there is a caricature
of Louis Quatorze and Madame Pompadour as monkeys.
(Conde was always in opposition.)
The village is a queer place largely inhabited by a
population of English jockeys. In front of their windows is
the great race-course of France, where there are races four or
five times a year (the principal one being called 'the Derby')
and constant training ; and, of course, English trainers and
jockeys are in request, and a set of them have fairly naturalised
themselves here. I find my room is an imposture, being fitted
up, not ' siecle de Louis XV.' as I supposed, but only by the
Due d'Aumale. However, be that as it may, it is a gorgeous
little affair ; I ought to have seen that it was too fresh for an
antiquity. Lord C. at luncheon rather short and grumpy
I hope nothing has gone wrong. I am glad to hear from him
that they have seized the fellow Guernsey that stole the
paper from the Colonial Office. The subs, were rather in a
state of indignation at its not having been done before. He
was to have been off to the United States on Friday or Satur-
day, and I suppose that made them feel that it must be done.
To Lady Rogers (Lady BlachforcT).
Hotel du Louvre : November 29, 1858.
Half-past seven P.M., Hotel du Louvre, dinner just
finished, dressing-gown, slippers, wood fire, and a long
evening. . . I had a very pleasant time at Chantilly. The
place is very pretty and full of character, and Lady Cowley
fond of showing it off at least, apparently so. On Sunday
I was agreeably surprised to find that they had a chaplain
1 88 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
and two services for the benefit of themselves and the colony
of English jockeys and trainers who have been collected at
Chantilly, leaving time for a goodish walk between services
(along the old waterworks of Conde and Lenotre) and odds
and ends of time enough to read the Emperor's ' Idees
Napoleoniennes ' an interesting book under the circum-
stances, with a good many striking thoughts in it, and a good
deal of useless effort to fight against facts. The idea running
through it is that the Empire was in Napoleon's view the
only practicable school by which the French could be
educated into freedom. . . .
Business was soon despatched ; in fact, I was merely in
the first instance to answer questions, though in so doing we
may probably work some way towards an understanding. I
understand that Prince Napoleon 2 is to do the business
himself (like Persigny), and, I suppose, at Persigny's sugges-
tion desired that I personally should be sent over. But
there seems to be a hitch of etiquette. Walewski protests
against any communication between England and France in
Paris except through him. But nobody wants him, the
particular matter not being, I suppose, his affair : so, as a
compromise, he insists that I should see him before I see
Prince Napoleon, but as he is not forthcoming in Paris till
Wednesday I am idle to-morrow ; and Lord C. has written
to the father of his private secretary, who is a famous lioniser
of Paris, to give me a helping hand in that way. I expect to
hear from him. On Wednesday Lord C. is coming to Paris,
and will take me to Walewski ; after that I shall, I suppose,
be free for the Prince, and business will begin. It will
probably last two or three days, so that I am not likely to
get away this week, and Lord C. says that if it comes to
negotiation I shall be wanted again. Lord Cowley is a
mixture sometimes dry and silent almost to forbiddingness,
and sometimes very communicative, and cordially communi-
cative, only of what he wishes to be known and repeated, but
with the appearance of talking freely and giving his opinion.
Of course, the Embassy view of everything is in relation to
its own work. ' Everything that tends to blow the coals
- Prince Napoleon (' Plon-Plon ') was Minister for the Colonies.
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 189
between England and France is detestable. Montalembert
is a trumpery fellow, absolutist at heart, and merely set on
notoriety. The Government have most imprudently fallen
into a trap and given him his wish. Nobody in Paris cares
twopence about him, his book, or his prosecution.' 3 Lord C.
seemed to think that the French had very little confidence in
any of the old Louis-Philippist school of statesmen, and said
that the Emperor had said to him more than once that if he
could find any Minister in whom France could have real con-
fidence he would make any sacrifice to get his services. The
first part seems likely enough, for I suppose that all the world
knows Thiers to be a regular scamp, and Guizot, though
honest himself, to have been a regular fountain of corruption
to others. Au reste, ' any sacrifice' is a loose way of speaking
that may mean anything you choose, but I can easily imagine
that the Emperor hands the government of the country over
to unknown men who are staunch friends of his own, partly
because he believes the old school to be in sober truth not a
bit more trustworthy, and therefore not worth the sacrifice
which he would have to make for them.
This morning (Monday) I left Chantilly, got here between
two and three, and what with a call at the Embassy, shaking
into shape at the Hotel, and luncheon, did not manage to get
more than a walk along the Quais before dark.
No use for the cocked hat, but I suppose it was safe to
bring it.
To Lady Rogers (Lady Blachford}.
Paris : December 3.
As far as I am concerned this week is simply lost.
I imagine there is ill feeling between Walewski and Prince
Napoleon, and W. is affronted at having the matter pass over
his head. He has first interposed generally, next he has ap-
pointed Lord Cowley to bring me before him on Wednesday
(yesterday), then to-day (Thursday), and now he professes to
3 Montalembert was prosecuted the French Empire. The judges sen-
( November 25, 1858) for having pub- tenced him to a fine of 6,000 francs and
lished the pamphlet Un Debat surFInde, six months' imprisonment; but the
in which he contrasted English liberty Emperor gave a free pardon,
with the system of government under
1 9 o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
be detained with the Emperor at Cornpiegne till Saturday
and pushes off my interview till Monday. Lord Chelsea says
this is the kind of thing he does. Meanwhile, I suppose, the
Colonial Office will growl. Luckily I left a clear table, except
what I have with me, and I hope nothing is accumulating. I
am not really wanted. . . . December^ All different. We really
are of such importance that we shall have our heads turned.
' S. A. I. le Prince Napoleon ayant appris que Sir F. Rogers
etait arrive a Paris, le Prince desire vivement qu'il soit entendu
aujourd'hui meme' (being about 4 P.M. already) ' par la commis-
sion d'enquete sur 1'immigration. La Commission se rassemble
a cet effet ce soir au Palais Royal. Si Sir F. R. veut bien
s'y presenter a neuf heures du soir, il sera re^u par le Prince et
introduit a la Commission. L'entree au Palais Royal est Peri-
style Montpensier. Des ordres sont donnes a 1'huissier. Dans
le cas oil Sir F. R. serait dans 1'impossibilit^ de repondre
aujourd'hui au vceu de la Commission, le Prince desire vive-
ment en etre informe, soit directement, soit par 1'intermediaire
du Commandant Ferri Pisani, son aide-de-camp, Secretaire
de la Commission, demeurant au Palais Royal.
C. FERRI PISANI.
< Paris &c. &c.'
So you see in a few hours I shall be fairly landed. I
intended to have kept the grand letter (addressed to Lord
Cowley), but as Lord C. wants it back again as his protection
against Walewski, you see I waste time in copying it. I went to
Ferri Pisani with Lord Chelsea, and having ascertained first rny
way, secondly, how I am to address the Prince (who is to be
my questioner), I am now waiting for first my dinner and next
neuf heures.
To Miss Rogers.
Paris : December 5, 1858.
My letter was broken off by a letter from the Embassy
inclosing one to Lord Cowley (I suppose) from the Prince's
aide-de-camp .... appointing 9 o'clock when I should be
received by the Prince and introduced to the Commission.
Well, of course, off I went, was shown into a magnificent
room at the ' Ministere d'Algerie ' into which came the Prince
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 191
(short, stout, intelligent-looking and very like his uncle) and
Persigny. The Prince received me courteously and Persigny
cordially, and after a few words took me into the next room,
a large, long, handsome room, with a large, long table with
about twenty Frenchmen, sage-looking and solemn. The
Prince took his seat on the centre of one long side, with
Persigny on his right, and put me opposite to him and began
his questions I tremble for my French and still tremble at
the recollection of it but there I was with the Prince upon
me in the first instance and, to say the truth, as cool as a
cucumber. ' Nous causerons ensemble,' was the way he put
it, and the notion was throughout of giving it a friendly con-
versational character. Well, before long, others began to
strike in with their questions, one or two who really wanted
information, and some who wanted to show off themselves
one in particular, although he had got up the question of
Mauritius very well. Then arose larger questions of general
immigration policy views of the British Government and so
on reasons pro and con for African emigration, and little
half-impatient discussions between the Prince and members
of the Commission, I being the mark at which every one who
wanted to make his point fired his first arrow. ' Si Monseigneur
me permettra, je ferai une question a Sir Rogers,' or 'je
rappellerai a M. Rogers une question a laquelle il a deja
repondu, mais qui me parait demander quelque developpe-
ment,' and so on. I got sometimes horribly confused in my
French, and then they told me to speak English. Many of
them understood it, and the Prince, I think, well. This lasted
for about an hour and a quarter, when the Prince rose and led
the way into the room in which he had received me, Persigny
half followed, expressing a hope that I was authorised to
negotiate, but then falling back motioned me to follow alone.
Then the Prince repeated that he wished very much I would
get authority to begin negotiations at once that we might
despatch it all in a fortnight if the matter were really pressed
on, and after a little talking in this strain shook hands very
courteously ; afterwards I came back to ask whether I should
be of any further use at present, as giving more information,
explaining that 1 had work to do in London. He told me,
i 9 2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
no, that they had got my ' autorit6 ' for the points on which
they wanted it (so that now I might run back at once, but
that Lord C. is back at Chantilly, and I must, I suppose, get
his leave (I wrote to him the result of the interview). Then
with another rather pointed handshaking, we each went our
way, he back to the Commission, I out as I came.
I would give two and sixpence to know that I had not
grossly exposed myself: there was a calm courtesy about their
mode of dealing with my flounderings in French which is
alarming to look back upon though it was particularly re-
assuring while the process was going on.
The one point which keeps me is that I was appointed
for Walewski on Tuesday, and when you miss an appoint-
ment with a somewhat unwilling appointer you have a chance
of messing the whole affair. So I half incline to run down
myself to-day to Chantilly, and find out what will be the best
way of managing. I ought to have a few days in London
before coming back to take up the negotiation, else the C. O.
will be grumbling.
To Lady Rogers.
H. de Veuillemont : December 17, 1858.
As you did not have my last great interview you shall
have this a more nervous one than the other. I was duly
informed, as I told you, by Lord Cowley that the Prince and
Benedetti were to take me in hand. In the course of the day
I got two notes, one from a M. Belling, the Chef de Cabinet
as it is called, to Walewski ; another (provoked by a note of
mine) from Ferri Pisani telling me to go to the Prince's private
residence, 18 Avenue Montaigne, at 9 P.M., which seems to
be his time for doing this kind of things. Well, away I went,
but first, like a goose, thought it was Rue Montaigne, and got
set down at a most ill-looking and shabby, dirty porte cochere,
then, like a double goose, not seeing instantly that I had
somehow gone wrong, and being a few minutes too soon, sent
away my voiturc and walked about till 9 o'clock. Well, when
9 o'clock came I rang at the bell and got into a still dirtier
yard, with nobody but an old woman, from whom I ascer-
tained my mistake, and had explained to me that I was to
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 193
' traverser les Champs-Elysees ' and so on ; so off I posted, not
knowing really my way, being in the dark and horribly dis-
gusted at the notion of being too late. Again I went wrong,
but at last, with many askings (not being able to read numbers),
got safe to the house an hotel standing alone, with a sweep in
front. There I found to my great satisfaction that the Prince
was still at a Ministerial dinner, and was shown into a small
room, where a big, yellow-haired and bearded, round-faced, tall,
broad, black-coated man came to divert me, a kind of major-
domo or master of the ceremonies he seemed to be. So we
talked of London and Paris, fogs &c., till we heard the Prince
had come. Then I was shown into a library tea table and tea-
urn hissing, Benedetti requesting to be introduced, study table
with three ominous-looking sheets of foolscap and blotting
paper, laid out, and with a little complimenting, got to work.
Well, we went over the whole ground and got matters pretty
much to the shape in which they were left with Persigny
that is to say, we see the future points of battle. The matter
is to be brought into a more definite shape, and then we are
to be at it again on Wednesday. These proceedings seem to
be rather like a table d'hote dinner at the Hotel du Louvre.
We get through the courses fast enough when they come, but
there is an enormous pause between them ; I am not sure,
however, that it is more than necessary, seeing that every-
thing has to be well considered and by divers people probably.
Meantime this looks long ; on Wednesday we may come to
some conclusion (or not), on Thursday I shall write (I suppose)
referring the points of difference home ; these will have to be
considered by Lords Malmesbury and Stanley and perhaps
Sir E. Lytton and their respective advisers. They must
agree on something and send it back then a fresh touch of
conference here then a fresh reference home which perhaps
I may take home myself in person. This seems the least that
can happen. The interview was curious. The Prince, I should
think, affected a good deal of his uncle's ways ; he is loud and
declamatory, disposed to bear down opposition, but (to me)
very civil, and not indisposed to infuse a touch of satire into
his declamation ; quick in seeing things, but not always
catching a fine point. Benedetti, on the contrary, is quite
194 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
courteous and insinuating and would make you suppose that
you were wholly agreed in substance, and only differed as to
the position of phrases and turns of expression never run
away with by any of the Prince's misunderstandings and quietly
keeping all straight and warding off fights about nothing. At
the same time both the one and the other gave me very dis-
tinctly indeed the impression that it was necessary to look
sharp, and very hard work it was. When you have a man
that talks rather loud and long in English you have a great
advantage, because, while he is battering you, you can give
him a half attention and compose your own answer and study
your position. But when he is talking French your (or at
least my) whole attention is necessary to be sure that you
understand him, and so all that is said has to be said (in
fact) much more off-hand. Also you have to consider when
you speak, not only what you ought to say but what you can
say and how ; all which, when it is really necessary, if you can
help it, not to make a false step, gives one a kind of feeling of
being hurried through all the different subjects which arise
and are despatched, so that really I hardly felt that I had
recovered my breath till I had slept upon it. It was like
having a battle with two dogs, one great open-mouthed
barking fellow, who was making all sorts of noise and demon-
strations in front, while an extremely quiet bull terrier was
very composedly walking round you and about your legs with
evidently the deepest interest in your calves, but, withal, the
greatest propriety of demeanour.
However, we were all very civil, and after about two
hours of it (which carried the matter as far as it could be
carried at present) I was dismissed, leaving them (I suppose)
to talk it over by themselves, and Benedetti (as he declared)
to read and note twenty-five despatches. I got home about
a quarter to twelve o'clock, and having only had a cup of tea
at the expense of His Imperial Highness had a good com-
fortable talk and tea with Edward and went to bed.
I can't say I like the work altogether. It is interesting
but an unpleasantly anxious interest. It is very unpleasant
to deal with people who you feel want to trip you up, and
understand their work that is, the method of proceeding
1858 MISSION TO PARIS 195
better than you do, and very unpleasant to feel what tyranny
and loss of life may be inflicted on thousands of people by a
false step. I get rather nervous and almost shaky when I
think of this part of the matter. But even little meddlings
of this kind help one to understand historical people. 1
think I feel a little how Roman and Venetian ambassadors
must have felt in the presence of great men. When you
really come to work, it is astonishing how the difference of
personal rank vanishes in the feeling that whatever you may
be, there is a big nation behind you.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
Paris, Hotel Veuillemont : December 26, 1858.
On Thursday I got an invitation to dine on Christmas Day
with His Imperial Highness. His hotel is an extremely hand-
some Villa rather Pompeian in style; consistently classical, with
the necessary modifications to make it Parisian. The din-
ner was very choice, rooms and lighting splendid, and the
party made up, half of grand official-looking gentlemen, and
half of Algerian officers (one being General McMahon, the
man who stormed the Malakhoff, and is now military com-
mandant of Algeria) ; of the rest I found out nothing, except
my old friend Benedetti, and a young Prince of Schleswig-
Holstein, who is on the wide world here, and who turned out
or rather whom I knew to be an old friend of James and
Charlotte Colvile's at Calcutta. It was pleasant to see the
style of such a dinner (to say nothing of eating a variety of
remarkably good things) : the rising from dinner instantly on
finishing, and proceeding to the very handsome drawing-
room where the whole party instantly set to work on their
cigars, the Algerians walking up and down the room in
twos as if it was a guard-house or the deck of a steamer, was
a new style of thing. But otherwise except when the Prince or
Benedetti took me in hand on our business there was nobody
to talk to except my little Prince, who introduced himself. To
say the truth, I think the Frenchmen might have been a little
more civil. I had entirely to start the conversation, almost
to force it even to my neighbours at dinner. There was no
196 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
species I will not say of effort to make the foreigner at home, not
even of inclination to meet him half way. If it had happened
in England I should just have called it English mauvaise Jionte,
and I really half think some of it may have been so ; at least,
there was about one or two of the soldiers a great want of that
ready prompt look that one associates with a Frenchman,
almost the manner of men who were not quite sure that they
were in their place ; perhaps they only felt that they were not
quite the men to do the honours of the Prince's drawing-
room ; anyhow I wish they had been a little more agreeable.
I had a longish talk on business in the course of the
evening with the Prince, his secretary and Benedetti, with a
certain amount of general talk. The Prince professes himself a
Radical, ' plusqu'un radical ' in matters of free trade, but I
suppose unable as yet to carry out his views ; an admirer of
Bright, ' who in a year or two may be Minister, qui sait ? ' I
should think he would have a good deal of pleasure in over-
coming opposition and bowling things over. Just now his
game is, I fancy, to consolidate his own power as Minister of
Algeria and the Colonies ; shaking himself free from all
Ministers of War, Trade, Foreign Affairs, &c., and managing
his own matters and all things 'ad colonialia' without
communication with anybody but the Emperor. He was
asking to whom I now reported my proceedings, or, what he
thought synonymous, who was Colonial Secretary. I ex-
plained that, though I was attached to the Colonial Depart-
ment, I communicated on this matter with Lord Malmesbury ;
on which Benedetti (turning to his chief) struck in with an
' of course,' in which again H.I.H. replied by something which
was a mixture of grunt, chuckle, and horse-laugh. ' H'n.
Moi, je ne communique ' (that was not the word) ' qu'avec le
parlement, c'est a dire Napoleon Trois.'
To Miss S. Rogers.
Paris : January 4, 1859.
You will sec by the papers that the Emperor has given
the funds a kick by a short speech to the Austrian Ambassa-
dor. After a word of personal friendship for the Emperor
1859 MISSION TO PARIS
197
of Austria he added, loud enough for every one to hear, ' but
I am sorry that our relations are not good.'
I must have expressed myself ill about Prince N. He is
pointedly civil and cordial to me. What made his party
rather oppressive to me was that the other Frenchmen did
not pity my solitude when I had no friend nigh.
To Hon. Mrs. Legge.
Paris : January 9, 1859.
My dear Marian, I intended to have given you an
account of the Napoleon's dinner No. 2, but in the first place
it was not very eventful ; and in the second place I thought
it would have enabled me to get back to London at once,
and so see you before long. However, I have been baulked
in my hope to get off this evening, and so have an hour for a
letter.
I only met this time Benedetti and Ferri Pisani (the Prince's
secretary). Prince Napoleon rather likes to talk, I think, of the
prospect of England's being radicalised by Mr. Bright, for he
was again upon that subject. Also he cross-examined me a
good deal about English official salaries and talked about
official arrangements. I forget whether I told you that at the
former dinner he was attacking Benedetti about the number of
Foreign Ministers that ought to be supplied by the Foreign
Department, and I laughed and said, ' Voila, monsieur, les
reformes que chacun fait dans les departements d'autrui.'
And he turned round quite eagerly and said ' Mais je les fais
dans le mien,' and went on, on the point. I believe he is a
good deal engaged on ' administrative reform ' as we should
call it. This time he was attacking bureaucracy and bureau-
crats, partly by way of chaffing Benedetti, and declared
that he had nine about him ; one was an engineer (Pisani, a
chef d'escadron, I observe), another something else, but none (I
understood) the practised official. On the other hand, Benedetti
was giving in names of old hands in the Algerian Depart-
ment, as much as to say, ' Ah, with all your new men it is
the old clerk that does the work.' However, it was a business
198 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
affair altogether; we talked a little business in the grand
drawing-room (looking very different from the day in which
it was blazing with candles), then went in to dinner, then
back again to the drawing-room, when the Prince went to
sleep sitting on the sofa with a cigar in his mouth, a thing I
never saw before, then adjourned to the library to settle
some business. The only touch of character that I remember
was explaining (as he likes to do) the difficulty he has in
forcing this treaty down the throats of the old sailors and
the Colonial party. ' Je vous dis, il fallait le faire enfin par
ma volonte. II fallait dire absolument : Je le veux.' And I
dare say he did.
Now there are some little alterations to be settled, and he
wishes to see me again on them. So I am waiting without
knowing when he will appoint me. I have heard nothing
from him yet, though Pisani hoped I should not be kept over
Monday.
I suppose you have seen in the papers the Emperor's
speech to the Austrian Ambassador. I understand from
those who heard it that it was a little softened in the publica-
tion. It was : ' Je regrette que nos rapports soient mauvais,
mais vous direz a 1'Empereur que mes sentiments personnels
envers lui sont les memes.' The Servian question was con-
sidered ugly, but that seems by the papers to be settled.
But the real point is, of course, Italy. That is always in a
combustible state, and I suppose any encouragement from
England and France would set it in a blaze.
We have just been looking over the Hotel des Invalides
nothing to be compared with Greenwich Hospital in any
point of view, least of all in the cleanliness of the wards ; the
smell of the one we looked into was enough to knock a man
down. Also a look at Napoleon's tomb. It appears, how-
ever, that he is to be moved to St. Denis. I don't wonder at it.
We went there on Saturday (the most interesting and beau-
tiful thing I have seen here), and it seems at present a kind
of standing protest against all that has happened since the ex-
pulsion of the Bourbons. It is the custom of the church (where,
as you know, the kings of France are all buried) that there
should be an altar in mourning, as it were, for the last sove-
1859 MISSION TO PARIS
199
reign buried there. It is now in mourning for Louis XVIII.
Of course, this is natural enough seeing Charles X. and
Louis Philippe both died in exile. But it has a kind of
ominous look which the present Napoleon, I could easily
fancy, would like to remove. So, I observe, thought a little
French Legitimist whom we met this morning at Lady Elgin's,
and who was introduced to me as Professor of Hindostanee and
one of the few remaining Gallicans in the French Church. It
was rather curious to see the way in which he felt himself
deserted by his Church, and looked (I think) with a species of
charity accordingly to the English. He was greatly disgusted
at the substitution of the Roman for the Parisian Liturgy
which is in course of taking place. At present, the Parisian
Liturgy is in actual use, but the Pope has ordered (as I
understand) the substitution of the Roman, and the Ultra-
montane ecclesiastics have contrived to suspend the printing
of the Parisian ; so that a person cannot at this moment
buy a copy of the Mass service as it is actually performed
in the churches of Paris. What an inconceivable state of
things ! M. de Tassis cries against the weakness of the
bishops in giving up their old service. But I suppose it is
really that they -are Ultramontanes and like it.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
Ovington Square : January 17, 1859.
My dear Church, Here I am back, but only for a few
days. After I wrote to you, and some offs and ons had taken
place, I was summoned to dine again with the Prince Napoleon
on business, just himself, his secretary, Benedetti, and myself.
Well, we went through matters again ; one or two small objec-
tions were partially removed ; and then I proposed to come to
London with their amended project in my pocket to push it
through as fast as I can. Accordingly, I arrived last Thursday
and am to go through a course of Secretaries of State : Sir
Edward, Lord Stanley, and then Lord Malmesbury. Lord S-
will, of course, be the man who will settle in substance all the
Coolie part of the matter ; and I shall not be surprised if the
decision on one point which he has already arrived at stops
200 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
the whole \ affair. However, I am to get my instructions
complete on all points (probably something in the nature of
an amended'project), and shall try to be back by the end of
this week, when Prince N. will be back from his marriage at
Turin. That seems a wretched affair.
I don't know that my further experience of the diplomats
added anything to my first-sight impressions. They go on,
one plausible and the other blustering, and T certainly have
had quite enough of them. Nap. was very curious about our
official arrangements, salaries, &c., disposal of patronage by
the Indian Secretary of State, and so on, with a great idea
that Bright is to become a great man, a Minister (which I
told him was likely enough) and a Prime Minister perhaps.
Also he professes himself a great ' radical ' in the matter of
' libre echange,' takes credit, rather like a great boy, for push-
ing in that direction, and wants to get compliments from our
Ministry on a little advance in that direction which he pro-
poses to make in the convention. On the whole, however, it
is a great bore being with people with whom you have to
fence, and with whom, though you wish to get on well with
them for a purpose, and are glad to have seen them, you would
be best pleased to have no further relations. Intercourse is such
a dull thing if you neither have nor wish to have friendli-
ness in it.
Did I tell you of our visit to the Bourse? I think-not.
We were sent up a staircase into a gallery or loggia from
which you look down on a great square hall containing some
2,000 or 3,000 people. As we were coming up the stairs
(Edward and I) we heard a most tremendous clamour, and
supposed some extraordinary uproar, a man being torn in
pieces, or something of the kind. But when we had got up
so as to see it all, and had partly mastered what was going
on we realised that this was the normal state of the Paris
Stock Exchange. At one end of the room was a small ring
framed off as if for a prize fight, round this was a larger one,
outside the larger was the public in a dense crowd, inside the
smaller one nothing and nobody, but in the intermediate
annulus were about seventy or eighty brokers crowding to the
edge of the inner ring, and everybody making bargains across
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 201
it with everybody. It seemed a kind of confused melee of
auctions, everybody being indiscriminately seller, buyer, and
auctioneer clamouring, gesticulating, taking notes I think
this was the most absurd thing I saw in Paris ; the most
interesting, if that can be called in Paris, was the Church of
St Denis and the monuments of the kings. I think I must
go the round of it again.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Sunday : January 23, 1859.
My dear Mother, The last I told you was, I think, that I
was to go through a course of Secretaries of State. First I
went off to Sir E. B. Lytton, who was in Cabinet and packed
off to him a note to say I wanted to see him and Lord Stanley
together or apart. No answer came to this, and I waited
accordingly some three or four hours (an hour after dinner
time) till at last out he came. He does not like the affair, I
should think, feeling that the colonists will be upon him about
it (which I don't think they will I seem to see my way about
that) and that he will generally be involved in squabbles and
troubles and things that he does not like, and that the other
Ministers are stronger than he, and will put upon him and take
the halfpence and leave him the kicks ; and so he expresses
a strong personal objection to this and that provision, and
then draws in his horns with a kind of querulous ' unless wiser
persons than I should take a different view ' like a man who
is afraid of being snubbed for having an opinion of his own.
The end is that Lord Stanley 4 was to talk to me about it ;
so the next day I was off to Leadenhall Street to find his
lordship, was told he was again at a Cabinet, found out he
was not, was recommended to rout him up at his private
house before 10 A.M. next morning, and ended by losing a
4 Lord Stanley (the late Lord Derby) the India Office (which he had just
was Secretary of State for the Colonies taken over), and was succeeded at the
in his father's Ministry which came into Colonial Office by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton.
office on the defeat of Lord Palmerston's The India Bill was passed in June 1858.
' Conspiracy to Murder Bill ' in Feb- The East Indian Directors met in
ruary 1858, but he was transferred to Leadenhall Street.
202 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
second day and writing a note asking an interview the next day.
In the evening, he sent for me in a sudden way to the Colonial
Office. I told him the then main question, and got him
to my views about them with a little reluctance (which
was all the better for me) as I want backbone. He was
pleasant, and soon decided the matter, made his notes on a
sheet of note-paper and stepped off at once to Lord Malmes-
bury 5 whom I tried to get hold of the next day. He was,
however, at Windsor, and appointed me for Friday, when
I saw him. He strikes me as a sensible but rather dull
man wishes more to get the matter through than Lord
Stanley does, and so is inclined to give up as much as possible.
Of course, this is natural enough, as he is not responsible for
the coolies. With him I regularly went through the treaty
clause by clause, putting my questions as I went on and
getting definite answers as far as I -cared to get them. Of
course, he could not know about details, but he rather took
my views about them, making, however, some good sugges-
tions, which nevertheless will, I think, hardly be sufficient to
escape what is perhaps the great difficulty of the whole, the
getting an ' effectual renunciation of the African Free Emigra-
tion ' as it is called.
From him I went to the ' Treaty Clerk ' at the Foreign
Office, and from that time I cannot complain that the work
has stood still. In the afternoon I was translating the French
draft convention, altering it in the proof ; in the evening he
was overhauling it ; in the morning I was settling off some
Colonial Office business with Merivale, 6 till he came to me with
his work done ; the rest of the morning I was resettling it with
him, or getting up information at the Slave Department of
the Foreign Office. From 6 to 9, B. and two clerks were
making three fair copies while I was dining, and from 10 to
12 I was again revising and writing a note to Lord Stanley,
while they, I hope, were dining or supping. To-day (Sunday)
I have delivered my letter at St. James's Square, but find
Lord S. out of town, and this evening I dine with Harding at
5 Foreign Secretary in Lord Derby's ceecled Sir James Stephen as Under
Ministry, March i858-March 1859. Secretary for the Colonies.
6 Mr. Herman Merivaie had sue-
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 203
his desire (I suppose prompted from above) to talk over the
subject with him. G. told you of this little saying of Lord M.'s :
' It will be a feather in your cap if you can get it done in
time for the Queen's Speech ' but I am afraid it is impossible,
I almost despair of getting off on Tuesday. And I cannot
see how the French objections which are sure to arrive can
possibly be disposed of, at the usual pace of work, in the
eight days which remain between Wednesday the 26th and
Wednesday the 2nd.
And now I want you to do something for me which is
to send hampers of game &c. from Blachford to the three
young men in the Colonial Office who lost their dinner and
kept their wives waiting in despair, in order to make three copies
of some thirty articles for me in a hurry.
To Lady Rogers.
Hotel Bedford, Paris : January 30, 1859.
My dear Mother, I had a desperate scamper at the last
all in a bustle, and had, after passing Tuesday night in the
steamer and railway, to sit up till one o'clock on Wednesday
night helping to make a copy of the convention in French
and English for Benedetti. A wretched concern it was, as a
matter of caligraphy I was perfectly ashamed of sending it
to him. However, I gave it to him the next morning. He
simply received it asking few questions, and treating it as not
impossible that it should get into the Queen's Speech. But
I hear Lord Cowley ' scouts the idea ' of its being possible.
Meantime I conjecture it to have gone to Turin to the Prince,
in which case I calculate I cannot hear of it until to-morrow,
and that only in case he answers by return of post. Seeing
that the Queen has to say her say on Tuesday it appears
unimaginable that it could be got into shape and sent to
London, approved, then signed and initialled here, and the
news of the signature and initialling sent home between the
two days ; the only possibility is that our draft is accepted
wholly, which will, of course, ease matters. . . .
In the afternoon I went with Georgie and Lady Augusta
Bruce to look at an infant school and one or two old houses
204 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
in or about the Rue St. Antoine. Sully's old palace very
pompous and characteristic of the man, massive, substantial
and overloaded with ornament ; and the old palace of St.
Paul inhabited by Louis XIII., well worth seeing. There are
not many of these old spots about Paris, and so one values
what one can get.
We are pretty comfortable and tolerably cheap here.
The main evil is a portentous woman who dines steadily at
the table d'hote and talks the loudest, most self-satisfied, and
most utterly abominable French that I have heard for a
long time. I could hardly have imagined anything at once
so bad and so unhesitating ; I have never seen her at fault for
a moment, and she not only talks but dominates in French.
To Miss Rogers.
Paris : February 3, 1859.
It seems my matters must wait till Prince Napoleon comes
back with his bride, so I suppose I shall not get off before the
end of next week, if then. Lord Cowley is also clear that I
must be presented, and as the Emperor fixes the time for
such things that may be another delay. I understand that
the convention is to be, so I may perhaps have a dinner at
the Tuileries. If they were to fete the Princess Clotilde and
would ask me to one of their gaieties it would be a sight
worth seeing, though in some respects rather sad.
The principal event lately has been a dinner with Lady
Augusta Bruce, 7 a friend of Georgie's, at her mother's, Lady
Elgin's. The dinner was merely among themselves and
Baillie, an attache who married Lady Frances Bruce. But the
event of the evening was the coming in of an old gentle-
man, Comte de Bruce, who had been page to the Comte
d'Artois before the French Revolution. He was, of course,
a refugee, and was placed, by the interest of Lord Elgin, 8
in a regiment commanded by young M. de Bouille, and
so saved from the semi-starvation to which emigrants
'Afterwards married to Dean Stanley. s The Lord Elgin who brought home
She was then living with her mother in the' Elgin' marbles; he was grandfather
Paris. of the presen Viceroy of India.
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 205
generally were reduced. He has the most grateful recollec-
tion of this, and pays it off to Lady Elgin, whom he has
lately found out, to his great satisfaction. She, poor lady, is
paralytic, without speech, and only expressing her meaning or
wishes by inarticulate sounds and gesticulations. It was very
touching to see the reverent old-fashioned way in which he
took her hand and kissed it coming in and going away. He
was, as he said, a Scotchman, living abroad by permission of
his sovereign : i.e. under a letter given by Charles I. in 1633
to one of his ancestors, a cadet of the Elgin Bruces. Lady
Augusta regularly set herself to set him going upon old times
and away he went. We had been reading the very period in
Carlyle the evening before, and I cannot express the strange
feeling it gave one to hear this old gentleman quietly
dropping his allusions and sentiments in the easy familiar
way of personal knowledge, just on the points which we had
been previously reading of, as history, not of but before the
Revolution. It was as if a man had started after dinner with
' 1 remember Julius Caesar saying to me just as he was going
off to Gaul. ' Lady A. asked him whether he had not once
borne Marie Antoinette's train, and he answered in the kind
of half modest, half self-satisfied disclaimer of a man who
wishes to keep the credit without appearing to make more of
himself than he deserves. ' Ah, c'etait un hasard. La Reine
etait allee voir Mesdames Tantes avec Monsieur ' (Mesdames
Tantes being the daughters of Louis XV. whom Carlyle
mentions as having stuck to him on his death-bed, and the
Count being page to Monsieur, afterwards Louis XV 1 1 1.), ' et
son service n'etait pas la, ainsi il fallait' that I should carry
her train. ' Ah, Mesdames Tantes etaient tres aimees de la
Reine et de tout le monde, parce qu'elles etaient tres bonnes
et toujours tres bonnes pour moi, puisque Louis Quinze
.aimait beaucoup mon oncle. Quand mon oncle se retirait de
son service, il disait : " Tous mes bons serviteurs me quittent." '
Then Lady A. tried to make out whether in the years '85-6-7
there was in the Court any of that vague apprehension which
one might have imagined, and there was a kind of curious
familiarity, a matter-of-courseness, which seemed to carry one
back like a shot, when he said with half surprise : ' Mais non,
206 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
c'etait avant I'assemblee des notables.' He told us that he
was in the antechamber when Cardinal de Rohan passed
through to the King and was arrested on his way out ; and he
looked at him with all his eyes because he had never seen a
Cardinal before. He was still at that time page to Monsieur,
and he described how he and his fellow pages were well treated
by the mob. 'On aimait ma livree parce qu'on croyait que Mon-
sieur avait des idees populaires, mais les pages de Monseigneur '
(Charles X.) ran the risk of their lives in going into Paris
(Carlyle again). He said that de Rohan was arrested by one
d'Agoust, major in the Gardes du Corps, with some of his
brethren, who were all so much employed in that kind of work
that it was said to be a family of ' bons chiens d'arret.' They
have a descendant in Paris, a little insignificant man, as the
Count de B.'s daughter was making out. ' C'est done le nain de
la famille,' said the old gentleman ; ' ils etaient beaux hommes,
les d'Agoust.' Then he explained that from his pageship he
was promoted into the army, the regiment (I think M. de
Bouille's), but not the detachment, which was to have taken
charge of the King on the flight to Varennes. Lady A. ob-
served that that affair was ' mal mene,' and he answered quite
quickly, like a subaltern standing up for his colonel, ' Mais M.
de Bouille ne le mena pas mal,' and then went off into a
panegyric on M. de Bouille ; how when he was Governor of
St. Lucia and an English frigate was wrecked there in time
of war, he helped them all he could, and would not make them
prisoners, and sent them home, saying that it was not the
French army that beat them but the elements ; how the
English merchants gave him a sword and pistols at the end
of the war to show their sense of the generous way in which
he had carried it on ; how, when he was overhead and ears in
debt and the King determined to pay his debts for him, he
thanked his Majesty and requested leave to draw on the
Treasury for TOO crowns, his debts being nearer 50,000.
Then we came to more modern times, and were greatly
amused by his answering with the slow deliberation of a man
who feels he is going to say something heretical, almost shock-
ing, ' Moi, j'avoue, j'ai un peu de respect pour Napoleon ' (then,
very distinctly, to prevent any misconception) ; ' je veux dire
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 207
Napoleon premier.' People should have known what France
was then, to know what he did for it. ' Nous devons a lui que
la chretiente existe en France.'
To Miss S. Rogers?
Paris : February 5, 1859.
My dear Sophy, Lady Augusta Bruce is a treasure, and
her idea of a dinner party is a good one four persons to a
plain dinner, and at the dinner or in the evening one person
who is really worth meeting. The day before yesterday she
gave us a M. Mohl, a German by extraction, Professor of San-
scrit, hater of the French official hierarchy, as they call it, and
above and beyond all, of Louis Napoleon, but naturalised here
for thirty years or so, and a person of extreme fun. The
evening (or the best part of it) reduced itself into an account
of all his adventures while in the National Guard. I wish I
could give you them ; but, in the first place, I cannot remember
all, and next, half the fun was in his vigorous and lively way
of telling it, and his very good but strongly accented English.
I will try, however, and you must fancy all his sayings in
French or German-English every syllable equally accented,
foreign words here and there, English familiar phrases slightly
diverted from their uses, and .so on, but fluent and pointed.
Imprimis, he was obliged in 1830 to enter the National
Guard, and, abhorring it and all that belonged to it, set himself
in the first place to consider how, without subjecting himself
to any penalty, he could get out of it. The best way which
occurred to him was to get a copy of the 287 articles of war,
to put them up on the wall of his room, and to make himself
such a perfect master of them that by a proper and constant
use of them (being a man of talent, industry, coolness, and in-
finite humour) he might make himself so utterly insupportable
to everybody as to tire them into turning him out. H. will
fully appreciate the extreme wisdom of his proceedings ; though
it seems to have cost him twelve years' labour to accomplish
his object. However, here are two or three of his anecdotes
9 This letter has already appeared in print. It was published in the Spectator
after M. Mohl's death.
208 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
supply foreign accent. ' Now I will show you how they did
things in those days. I will tell you about the man who was
assassinated. While I was on duty at night in. the Corps du
Garde, a man came rushing in to say there was a terrible thing
they were assassinating a man in the Rue Cherche-Midi.
Well, instead of our going out as fast as we could to help this
man who was assassinating or assassinated, the officer says to
me, Go immediately and tell the Commissaire de Police : he
lives in the Rue Crenelle, under a red lamp. Well, away I go
and find my Rue Crenelle and red lamp and I make a great
noise at the door for a long time. At last a head with a night-
cap comes out at the window and asks me what in the world
I want. " The Commissaire de Police," say I. " Well, I am
the Commissaire de Police. What do you want ? " " There
is a man being assassinated in the Rue Cherche-Midi."
" Which side of the gutter ? " says he. Well, I did not know
about one side or the other side, so I say at once boldly, " The
right side as you come down the street." " Ah," he says, " that
is in the other arrondissement ; go to the other Commissaire,
No. Rue ." So away I go, with my man being assassi-
nated all the time, and I find my other Commissaire. " Which
side of the gutter ? " says he. So I thought at any rate I will stick
to my story, and I say, " The right side coming down the street."
" Ah," dit-il, " cela me regarde. But how long is it since they
have been assassinating him ? " ' About three quarters of an
hour," say I. " Ah, then he is dead by this time. We must
get two men and a stretcher to carry him away." So we get
two men and a stretcher, and I went with them, for I wanted
to see whether the man was on the right side of the gutter or
not ; and we found him lying stone dead in the gutter. But
he was more on the right side than the left, and he was stabbed
through the heart, so the three-quarters of an hour did not
signify. But this is the way they do things here.'
Then came instances of his own mode of performing mili-
tary duty. You must remember that in Louis Philippe's time,
the Line and the National Guard were doubled up, as it were,
every sentry consisting of one Liner and one National. He
had begun by giving us an account of the ' gone ' or ' gohn '
(gun) which had been issued to him, incapable of going off,
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 209
and bought cheap from the Tower of London because the
English wanted to get rid of it. This ' gohn ' played a great
part in all his adventures. ' One day, when I was going down
to take my twenty-four hours' duty, I thought how I should
get through the time, and as I was going down, I stop at a
bouquiniste, what you call bookstall, and bought a dozen
brochures or so, to read till I go home again. And when I
get to my post I put my " g5hn " carefully away in my sentry
box and sit down to read. There was a little dwarf wall under
the archway by my sentry box a wall round the corner to
prevent the carriages coming on the trottoir so I spread out my
dozen brochures on the dwarf wall, and I choose out the one I
like best, and I sit down among my books and I begin my
reading. Well, presently I hear a gentleman go by on horse-
back who talks to the soldiers, and seems very much discom-
posed ; but I do not pay any attention, and when he is gone,
up comes the soldier and says, " National, you are in a scrape ;
vous donnez scandale." "Why should I be in a scrape ? " says I.
" Nous verrons." Well, presently I hear a noise, and I look up
and I see our capitaine running along without his cap, and
carrying his sword in his hand to run faster, and he runs up
to me and he says, " Mais quel scandale ! Quel horreur ! " " Mais
quel scandale, capitaine ? " lui dis-je ; " qu'est-ce qui est arrive ? "
" Mais c'est vous c'est vous est-ce que c'est comme ga que
vous montez garde ? Oil estvotre fusil ?" " It is safe in my
sentry box," say I. " Et vos livres ! est-ce done que vous tenez
ici boutique de bouquiniste ? " " It is only something for me
to read. I cannot wait here all day doing nothing." " Et vous
restez toujours assis comme ga ? " " Mais oui I have not the
force in my legs to keep always standing." " C'est un scandale,
vous dis-je c'est un scandale." " Mais qu'est-ce qu'il faut
done faire, capitaine ? " And as he was a reasonable man, I
got him at last to consent to a compromise. I had found out
by this time which of my brochures was worth reading and
which were not ; so I agreed that I would take my " gohn " out
of my sentry box, and I would put there in its stead my eleven
brochures which were not worth reading, and I would sit on
my dwarf wall and put my " gdhn " between my knees, and go
on reading my twelfth brochure.'
2 io LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
Another in the same spirit : ' One day I was told to
stand sentry under an archway to prevent the carriages from
passing under it. But I find that the masons had made a
scaffolding and a wall, and a great mess altogether, so that a
dog could not pass, much less a carriage ; so I sit down, and
take out my newspaper and spread it out before my eyes and
begin reading. Well, before long I hear somebody chatter-
ing and sputtering behind my newspaper, and I turn down
the top and look over it and see a capitaine of the line in a
great rage, and he says, " What are you about ? What do you
suppose you are here for ? " "I am here," I say, " to prevent
carriages from going through ; mais je les en defie, done je
cultive mon esprit. " And so we fell into an argument, and at
last says he, " But with that newspaper before your eyes you
cannot salute an officer as he passes." So I say to him quite
quietly, " Y tenez-vous, capitaine ? " and that put him out of
himself. " Votre nom ? " me dit-il. " Je ne pourrais pas vous
le dire." " Mais vous connaissez votre nom ? " " Mais vraiment
cette occupation me rend si stupide que je ne pourrais rien dire
avec certitude. Demandez au Corps du Garde." Now I must
tell you there was one thing about which we Nationals all
agreed, that nobody should get any information at the Corps
du Garde. " Who is the sentry at the gate of the Tuileries ? "
" We do not know." " Let me see thefeuille de service" " There
it is, but it will tell you nothing, for the Nationals are always
exchanging duties, and the changes are not entered." And so it
was that my capitaine went away and I heard no more of him.'
Lastly you shall have his crowning exploit, after which
they never put him on duty again. The law authorises the
officers to call out National Guards for twenty-four hours'
duty ; but they used to add on to this two hours extra,
calling them out two hours before the duty begins, for drill
and parade. Our friend knew and did not like this ; so he
presented himself two hours after the time appointed, and
quietly took up a position ready to fall in when the parade
was over and the Nationals dismissed to their respective
posts. ' When the parade was over, the colonel saw me
standing at my ease, and that I had not been parading with
the rest (which was as plain as a pikestaff) and asked me
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 211
why I had not come before. " Because," say I, " the law only
allows you to call me out for twenty-four hours, and as I know
you will not send me away before 1 1 o'clock to-morrow, I have
not come before 1 1 o'clock to-day." " Ah ! " says he, " la garde
nationale se perdra par les raisonnements." " Toute chose,"
lui dis-je, " se perd par son ennemi naturel." Then he tells me
that he will give me double duty, and I tell him that I must
submit, but that I shall bring an action against him for abus
de pouvoir. However, he gives me double duty at the gate,
which is now blocked up, from the garden of the Tuileries on
to the Seine. Well, there I went, and as there were a great
many of my friends going to and fro there, I begin talking to
them, when a little gentleman with a fine cane begins a
conversation with me. " Well, National, it is a fine day ; how
do you like beingon guard ? " and after a word or two he says :
" You do not seem to know me." I say, " I have not the
honour of your acquaintance." Says he, " I am the colonel of
your regiment." Say I, " And I am the National Guard whom
you ordered to do double duty this morning, and if you are a
colonel (he was in plain clothes) you ought to know that
it is an offence to speak to a sentry on his post, and I -there-
fore arrest you for it, and will trouble you to walk into my
sentry box till the corporal comes round to let you out."
" Ah ! " says he, " that is ^plaisanterie" " Du tout" says I ; " je
ne plaisante jamais avec la baionnette. Go into my sentry
box or the soldier opposite will put his hand on your collar
and put you in." He did not like this at all, as he was one
of the fine gentlemen of Paris, the Due de Grammont, I think,
and he did not want to stand like an ape behind me in my
sentry box, for all his fine friends to laugh at when they
passed. The only thing I wondered at was why he did not
sink into the earth. For what could he do ? He had before
him a man with a gun in his hand, with the law on his side
(for he was dans son tort\ and his mortal enemy. So he made
a great fuss about it, and at last I let him go, telling him he
had better not be so strict to other people another time.
After that I was never called out to do duty again.'
Yours affectionately,
F/R.
212 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
Hotel de Bedford : February 14, 1859.
My dear Edward, I went last night to the ball given by
the Prefet and Municipality of Paris at the Hotel de Ville to
Prince Napoleon and the Princess Clotilde. Never did I
conceive anything so beautiful. The Tuileries is a thing
wholly not to be spoken of in the same sentence with it. In
the first place, it is not in a suite of apartments that you are,
mind, but in a palace upstairs, downstairs, galleries, stair-
cases, corridors, saloons, small sitting-rooms or cabinets ; here
and there ball-rooms, here and there refreshment-rooms ;
servants in white liveries everywhere about, telling you which
way to go ; and all in a blaze of light. The main ball-room
has a magnificent gallery, about (I should guess) 200 feet long,
the sides formed by a row of Corinthian columns, white
and gold, projecting from the wall, with rich satin damask
curtains between each, and in front of each a large chandelier
thirteen compartments, making on both sides twenty-six
chandeliers in all. Then above that the usual kind of ceiling,
only so high as to give room for a second row of windows on
one side of the room, and a gallery a kind of triforium, you
may say on the other. This was the grand ball-room ; to
this there was an ante-chamber, smaller but more beautiful,
the upper gallery being not so much set on the ceiling, but
a kind of loggia, only with caryatides instead of columns
from this above I saw the entry of the prince below. But
far more beautiful was what I call (by way of distinction, for
room it was not) the music room. First fancy yourself in a
quad as big as a small Oxford quad, the said quad being
made up of a colonnade all round below and a second colonnade
all round above, the lower colonnade ornamented by marble
columns, the upper by statues standing above each column ;
above both a tallish roof with dormer windows, in the form
of the Hotel de Ville at Rouen, but with Renaissance details.
Then from the top, or nearly so, of the roof of the quad,
starts a fresh roof which shall cover in the quad ; then put a
rich carpet on the ground, with curtains in all the apertures
of the colonnade, richly dressed centgardes at the side of
each column, lamps in the hands of all statues, chandeliers in
front of each arch, lamps in close line along but below the
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 213
banisters of the staircase, so that up to the very top there was
no mysterious darkness (three stories high, remember) ; and
then under the staircase a plentiful fountain playing, the water
rushing up, falling into basins, and then rolling out of sight
over two or three steps among yuccas, camellias, and all sorts
of flowers and evergreens, with a great gurgling and coolness.
No plaster or painting, but all that you saw honest stone, and
marble, and carpet, and damask, and all the galleries crowded
with brilliantly dressed people, leaning their elbows on rich
velvet hangings, to look at you below. Of course all these
galleries were part of your range, and the people in them not
spectators, but you. The company with jewels, and artificial
flowers, and silks, and satins. Then in another place you
came on a low, long gallery, broken in by columns or piers
with nothing but trellis-work and roses (real bona-fide creeping
or trained roses about you). Then perhaps a second great
Louis-Quatorze ball-room ; then a pleasant room, all light-
blue hangings, light-blue curtains, light-blue chairs, pretty
and ladylike ; then you dropped on tea and ices ; then dif-
ferent forms of staircase, differently treated in point of orna-
ment. The only defect was that before long you found that
you had wholly lost your bearings, and became unable to get
back to any place which you wanted to reach up, down, in,
or out and could only recognise an old friend when you
came upon it. I hope it will be open to the public to-day, in
which case I shall go to have a look at it by daylight a sad
falling-off, but it will be like looking up one's analysis for
Collections. The blaze of light in these places is astounding.
To Miss Rogers.
9 Ovington Square : February 28, 1859.
I have not much to say here, except that Sir E. B. Lytton
is in a great quandary about a committee on West Indian
matters, which has been asked for by one of the race of
Buxton. Everybody is agreed that it ought to be stopped,
but it is by no means so clear that it can be ; and if it can't,
why, then, Ministry must not try. If it is given, of course I
shall have to appear to give the Government account of the
2i 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
immigration, which will be the main object of attack. Lord
Carnarvon had a great talk about it with me last Thursday,
wishing to know what sort of case I considered we had. I
think we have a very good one, and told him so, and that I
had no fear of the committee, though I quite agreed that it
would be very troublesome, and ought to be quashed if pos-
sible ; but that I did not think that Government should
oppose it with an obstinacy that looked like fear. ' Do you
feel sure that we shall have an overwhelming answer to
everything that is brought up ? ' ' Overwhelming is a big
word, and nobody can tell certainly what they may bring up ;
but I feel sure that, before a fair committee, the immigration
can, on the whole, be thoroughly justified and shown to have
been successful.' ' Oh, we must get something better than a
fair committee. Well, I think I understand now where we
stand and what to be about. Thank you very much.' And
so we stand for the present. I suppose the committee will
be given, and am not without a certain curiosity about the
result. If it comes, I shall not be altogether sorry.
I suppose I am safe here till Lord Cowley comes back
from Vienna, and then it is of course a chance what happens.
If they accept bodily the draft which they have in their hands,
which is hardly probable, or if they refuse it bodily, which is
hardly possible, after what the Emperor said to Lord Cowley
I shall not go back. But if, which is most likely, they
refuse some changes of detail, accepting in the main, then I
shall have to go. I don't know whether Georgie told you
that Lady Augusta Bruce wants me to put up at Lady
Elgin's, which will be pleasant. And this I shall do, for some
days at least, unless her spare room is occupied by one of her
brothers. I shall have the profit and pleasure, probably, of
seeing some nice French people, and shall have the satisfac-
tion of feeling that I really shall be useful to them in the
evenings in helping to amuse poor Lady Elgin. I can't say
I look with any pleasure to renewing my acquaintance with
Plon-plon ; that marriage of his really makes one sick to
think of. 1 never heard a man so generally abused. Pro-
bably he will have little to say to me.
I have my hands pretty full, and so am taking the oppor-
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 215
tunity of Sunday evening to write, and shall put up at once
without waiting to see what to-morrow produces. Love to
all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Colonial Office : April 29, 1859.
My hands are pretty free. There is a flow of easy work
not very heavy nor yet very light and Lord Carnavon is very
pleasant to do work with. He makes me feel that he relies
on me and likes making work. And it is pleasant to have to
deal with a person who sees the absurd side of things as much
as he does. He certainly has the advantage of not being
anxious. He was breakfasting with Gladstone yesterday, and
tells me that Gladstone is furiously Sardinian. He Lord C.
is as furiously Austrian, has read the whole history of the
Revolutionary War to test Austrian character, and finds that
under all their terrible trials they never once broke faith or
shuffled with us.
You will see that the ' Times ' is finding out all sorts of
bad omens sales of charts, &c., &c. No doubt it looks as if
a terrible time was coming. However, I think our people are
inclined to brace themselves up to it. Taxes will be their
first test. Certainly the war is not of our seeking. I hope
the big wars which we don't seek may not be coming as a
punishment for the little wars that we do.
Wolfe tells me that the elections are going on very Con-
servatively. Four gains to-day. G. Hope and Vansittart at
the head of the poll at Windsor, others I don't remember.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
May 3, 1859.
My picture gives satisfaction. 1 We were amused at an
old gentleman who was looking at it while we were laughing
about it behind him, and catching the idea, accomplished a
1 His portrait by the late Mr. George Richmond, R.A., was in the Academy
exhibition of 1859.
216 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
very gradual ' right-about face ' so as to get a look at the
original. But unluckily, just as he had accomplished his
artful object, I quite unconsciously wished good-bye (to A.
and S.) and ran off a loss for him.
I have read ' The Bertrams,' a wretched book. The part
about Jerusalem is really too offensive to be read. He means
to satirise the coarse way in which people take their pleasure
about holy places, and so he himself, in the very act of doing
so, makes literary capital out of it. It is just as if a fellow
were to draw a smart, lively description of some disgusting
outrage which had been offered to his wife or sister, and
print it in the newspaper by way of shaming the offender.
I am not very sensitive, I think, in many things of that
kind. I mean I often defend people who are accused of pro-
fanity for satirising or exposing what is profane. But this is
indefensible. The Waddington is well drawn, though dis-
gusting. It brings out very well the dangers of that strength
of mind which enables a man or woman to act steadily on a
principle, instead of allowing themselves to be carried away
by a feeling which after all may be a truer guide than the
principle. In her case, of course, the principle is pride and
worldly prudence.
But it illustrates, I think well, the danger of being strong
enough to overrule your instincts, especially, perhaps, in a
woman.
To Rev. R. W. Church.
Paris : Hotel Castiglione.
September 4, 1859.
My dear Church, Ecconii. After bringing me up from
Blachford, the Ministers could not make up their minds, and
kept me for a fortnight in London while they were deciding
pretty much what, if there had been less cooks to the broth,
might have been settled in two or three hours, and I might have
visited you comfortably after all. I had my interview with
Lord John,- which was rather amusing. He is very courteous,
with a pleasing smile and dignified manner ; but his small
2 Lord John Russell was then Foreign Secretary ; the Duke of Newcastle
Secretary for the Colonies
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 217
size is almost droll, when you are receiving orders from him,
or answering questions. He asked me a question or two
let me talk talked about some old doings of his own respect-
ing emigration, and let the conversation rather drop, without
indicating clearly whether he wanted me to be off or not a
mistake, as I think, of great men, who are entitled to keep
you as long as they choose, and send you away when they
have done with you. However, I considered that ' When
you doubt, be off,' and acted accordingly. I believe he really
is a shy man, and does not know how to do a thing of
that kind easily. His manner was a good composed one,
which did not let out much, and quite friendly, but in the
solemn line ; and his talk rather too much on the ' I did so
and so.' Well, at last I got off and have been about ten
days here. I am now doing business with Chasseloup Laubat,
the Colonial Minister, who is certainly rather an amusing
contrast with Lord John and the Duke of Newcastle, lively
good-humoured, frank-mannered, a great talker, seeming to
tell you much and expecting you to be equally open with
him, and liking a triumph in the way of chaff. There was in
our English draft an error of copying- 3 for 5 instead of 5 for
3 ; there was also what was worse an absurd bull in point
of language, the consequence of making an alteration in a
principal phrase, without altering what hangs on to it-
These he inflicted on me in the most unrelenting way (all very
good-humoured). I think he must have made me a present
at least half a dozen times of the clerical error. I see him
again to-morrow and dine with him on Tuesday. I have
often thought of writing to you to see whether after all you
would come over here. But there is such a continual un-
certainty about my stay that I never can fix on any plan
which will last for more than a few days. At first I thought
the matter would go off wholly and at once, but it has fallen
back into its old state of hammering out details. I suppose
I can hardly be off under ten days from this time. But there
is no telling. Things might take a turn which would send
me to London off-hand, or keep me here for weeks. The
Emperor, it is said, wishes it decidedly to go on, and as Lord
Cowley says : ' Any point on which you and Chasseloup can't
2i8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
agree is to be referred to him.' I felt rather tall at being so
near the great man of the age. By the way, Lord C. men-
tioned as a thing that ' ought to be known ' that at the be-
ginning of the Crimean war the Emperor proposed that
England should send one fifth of the troops, the whole to be
under the command of a French general, while France should
furnish one fifth of the ships to be under the command of an
English admiral ; to which Lord C. replied that that was all
very well in the abstract, but made the objection ' Our soldiers
will serve honestly under your general, and so far so good.
But I defy you to name a single captain in the French navy
who will honestly serve under an English admiral ; ' to which
Louis Napoleon replied : ' Be it so ; but see where you are
driving me ; if you will not take my proposal you are driving
me to increase my fleet. And take my word for it, that in
three or four years you will be complaining of the very
increase that you have forced upon me.' I don't know that
it quite bears out the inference that Lord C. desired to draw
from it, but it certainly shows remarkable foresight.
His (the Emperor's) view now is, arm as much as you like ;
every independent nation has a right to arm as much as it
thinks necessary for its own security. ' But I think it very
hard that you should throw the blame on me, and say that you
are arming against me.' Lord Cowley says that the Emperor
was greatly disgusted with the apathy of the Italians. The
French took with them into Lombardy 28,000 stand of arms,
expecting a popular rising, and that they would be able to
distribute them among the insurgents. They were able to
distribute 500. He also mentioned, as true, the story that
an Italian town which had welcomed, in great triumph,
the French soldiers, pulled down the tricolor and ran up
the Austrian colours on a rumour that the French had been
beaten. So you see your view of the relations between the
Emperor and the Italians was pretty correct. It is really a
curious spectacle, the working up of the little Italian States.
I suppose \ve shall now soon know what is to become of
them.
I was too late for all the military fetes here, not crossing
until a week after they were all over, and the soldiers des-
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 219
patched to their garrisons. I hear that Paris was uncommonly
glad to get rid of the Zouaves and Turcos, and that the
soldiers themselves did not at all like the affair, but would
much rather have been sent off to their garrisons, instead of
being whisked up by railway to a dusty camp, and there
made a spectacle of for the Parisians.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
Hotel Castiglione :
September 23, 1859.
My dear Church, Here still, and I don't know when I
am to get away.
We have had some amusing interviews with Chasseloup
Laubat. I told you of his luncheon on a lump of sugar, of
which he offered me a part, and of his talking almost three
and a half hours at a rush, and of our agreement in not liking
the job which we had to settle. Well, the Emperor settled
that the thing was to go on, and sogo on we did, and are
getting over the details with some small difficulties hanging
about us, and one apparently insuperable ahead. I am struck
rather with the kind of difficulties which arise ; they seem to
be matters of phrase or language the peremptory stringent
mode of drafting, which is English, seems to hurt their
feelings ; they want to be treated like gentlemen in legal
documents. But then it is sometimes not perfectly clear whether
this extreme susceptibility is not a contrivance to keep open
loopholes. There was an amusing specimen of our mode of
proceeding in the very first article. It stood (at the desire of
Prince Napoleon) that the Indians should be at liberty to
emigrate freely to the French colonies. I objected that they
should add ' sous les conditions ci-apres stipulees.' The
matter seemed one of mere language, and so was treated ;
till at last M. de Chasseloup Laubat, being driven into a
corner, let out that the Prince at the council had made a
great puffing and blowing about this clause, explaining that
the influence of France was conferring on the poor Indians,
who had hitherto been cramped up in their country, the
' liberty of emigration.' ' Mais le Prince nous a dit que' &c.
220 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
On which I instantly replied that I thought the Indian Govern-
ment, if that view of the matter were suggested to them,
would reply that they did not make stipulations with a
foreign power for the good government of their own subjects,
that they knew what was good for them, and would of course
do it, but would not be inclined to admit of foreign meddling ;
on which, with a kind of half laugh, half shrug, he said : ' Ah
mais nous autres Francais, voyez-vous, nous aliens porter
partout la liberte (action of hands in the air) pff pff comme
en Italic.' Shrug again. And so the matter dropped and I
hope is settled.
Another mot amused me. He had been very critical
both on our draft (which we were rash enough to have trans-
lated into French at the Embassy) and on the frequency of
my petites c/ioses, small stickings in of words and phrases
which seemed to me necessary to make the thing as water-
tight as it ought to be. And I had told him that this was all
very well for him who was a Minister of State to pick holes
in the work, but that it was not so easy a matter for me who
was but representative of half a dozen Ministers who were
not always quite agreed among themselves. And I had
asked him whether the French had the proverb of ' too many
cooks.' Presently we came to one of the awkwardnesses
which had been imparted into the affair by the translation
made by an Attache. My friend stopped : ' Puisque trop de
cuisiniers font mauvais potage, qu'est-ce qu'il en arrive, quand
les marmitons s'en melent ? '
Another thing was too horrible to be laughed at at
least almost. I had written home and to you about his
talking three and a half hours. I had also told Lord
Cowley, who told me that he did not know him, that he got
on very well, but that he was a great talker. In the middle
of one of our colloquies, a propos to nothing very particular,
he broke out ' Est-ce que vous avez dit a Lord Cowley que
je suis bavard ? Lord Cowley ne me connait pas, n'est-ce
pas ? ' I was aghast, as you may imagine, thinking for a
moment whether it \vas only his conscience that made him
suppose that I had said it, and mine that made me suppose
he had heard it, or whether Lord Cowley had betrayed me
1859 MISSION TO PARIS 221
to Walewski, and Walewski had thereupon chaffed Chasseloup,
or what had happened. The concurrence of thoughts ' Lord
Cowley ne me connait pas ' seemed like a repetition of the
Chantilly talk. Nothing better occurred to me than to look
surprised (in which there was no difficulty) and to say ' Je
lui ai dit que nous avions beaucoup parle.' And I must say
that I wish it had not happened.
We have been to Fontainebleau twice, and we were lucky
enough to cut in for a stag hunt. I wrote a long account of
it home, which I think would amuse you, and if you would
send this to Blachford and ask them to let you read the
Fontainebleau stag hunt, it would be an exchange profitable,
I flatter myself, to both.
I must finish, so good-bye. Kind remembrances to your
wife ; mine sends her love. We are very glad to hear so good
an account of you all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Paris : October 21, 1859
I have dined twice at the Rue de Lille, meeting Baillie
both times and M. de Fresne last time. We were a little
prosy. He is of course very hot about Austria and the good
Austrian government of Italy and had a fight with Baillie. He
told a revolution story, which, however, sounded to me
(coming from him) a little got up. The revolutionary autho-
rities were anxious to get hold of a priest who was in the
habit, contrary to law, of visiting the dying and administering
the Sacrament, and some blackguards settled that one of
them would affect to be dying and send for him, and then
they would catch him in the act of performing the office.
They accordingly sent and he came, but when he came up to
the bed he said, ' Mais comment ? vous etes trop tard, 1'homme
est mort.' And so he was. The others were so alarmed at
what seemed a judgment that from that reason (or from the
criminal act not having been performed") the priest escaped.
222 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
To Lady Rogers.
Paris : October 24, 1859.
I have been rather often at the Rue de Lille by invitation
or otherwise. I was talking yesterday with Mile, des
Pomarets of the first emigration, which she greatly dis-
approved, taking her views from her father who stayed to be
put in prison, while his brother stayed to be shot. Certainly
it seems a regular desertion of their posts, and what was
worst they jeered at as coivards those officers who did not
emigrate, sending them spindles and broken swords, till at
last they bullied them into following their example, and
leaving the King alone. His useless character seems to me
the only excuse for those who ran before it was necessary.
She said that when her mother, after the troubles, came back
to her estates (vineyards in Burgundy), she found the cellars
stocked with all the wine of the last few years which the
tenants had gone on making and putting by for her
against the time when she would come back and take it. All
the time the priests were taken away from them, they
assembled regularly twice every Sunday at church, and the
oldest read the service. She said that so it was in places (as
Auvergne) where the landlords were good as a class, but
where some were good and some bad, the good had to suffer
for it, with the bad.
To Miss Rogers.
8 Park Street : January 13, 1860.
I have nothing special to say since my last, except that I
have not much office work to do just at present, and so mean
to give the ' Guardian ' a help.
I met Sir Charles Macarthy yesterday, a clever fellow,
Colonial Secretary at Ceylon. He is just from Paris, where
he appears to have been living with the Orleanists, Thiers,
Cousin, &c., who are furious with Louis Napoleon for his
attack on the Pope. Considering that Louis Philippe was no
Churchman, and that Cousin and Thiers are probably both
unbelievers, of course the cry is a mere attempt at party
advantage. A French naval officer told him that there was a
1860 MISSION TO PARIS 223
moment when an invasion of England might have been
possible, but that in a few months it became a most doubtful
possibility, and that now the very idea was ridiculous, that no
French naval officer would dream of viewing such a thing as
possible. Thiers declared that nobody had even thought of
it ; others (i.e. my friend, M. Mohl) nudged Macarthy and
told him that Thiers might say what he pleased, but did not
himself believe what he was saying. There were certain flat-
bottomed boats, said by Thiers to be built for navigating the
Loire ; by others, for the benefit of the English coast, which
was the main point in discussion. Love to all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
8 Park Street : February 14, 1860.
My work here seems to be leaving me just now. I have
been coming for the last few days, almost to go away again.
Before that I had a rush of work, owing to a hard and inter-
esting job, which has the effect always of keeping me at work
on itself for a week or so, and then piling up a heap of light
work to be disposed of when it is gone. But now all that is
cleared off; and at this moment, twelve o'clock, I have
absolutely nothing to do. My hard job was on the question
whether the natives of New Zealand should be managed by
the Home Government or handed over to the colonists, and
if the former, how ? a question well worth working at, and I
think I sent them a creditable report. I start with Merivale
a little against me. Of course I am for keeping the matter
for the present in the hands of people responsible to the
Crown.
Gladstone's speech seems to have been a great success
and his scheme is well spoken of in the City ; I suppose he
will carry it. But I have been very angry with the Govern-
ment for Sir G. C. Lewis's disgraceful mode of handing over
Bryan King to the mob. That he is an obstinate fellow is no
answer. 3
3 Mr. Bryan King had been Rector In 1856, on the question of Eucharistic
of St George's in the East since 1842. Vestments, and other matters of ritual,
22 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vi
I was rather glad to find the other day that A. C. had
been much shocked by the profane abuse that the Ultramon-
tane papers are heaping on the French Emperor, and
one is glad to see in moderate Roman Catholics a tendency
to separate themselves from the firebrand party. The
thing that shocked her was a kind of parody of the Passion,
Louis Napoleon standing for Pilate, and his wife saying to
him, ' Have thou nothing to do with that just man ' (the Pope).
I believe there is a good deal of division among them on the
subject.
As far as we are concerned, I think the personal attitude
of the Irish Roman Catholic members gives us reason to wish
that the Pope had no temporal authority. Here are a number
of members who are going to vote steadily against the
Ministry, not because they think the Ministry have done
anything 'bad for England, not because they think badly of
their principles of foreign policy, but simply because they
give their vote with reference to the temporal advantage of a
foreign Prince, and not with regard to any other point of right
or wrong or any really religious principles of English policy
whatever.
Of course injustice is injustice, and it is not to be defended.
But certainly one may well wish that a state of things which
induces members of the Legislature to take such a line did
not exist.
he and his curates, Mr. Mackonochie some concessions (Life of Archbishop
and Mr. Loudon, were violently at- Tail, vol. i. p. 230 ; Loudon, Twenty-
tacked by the Evangelical Party. His one Years in St. George s Mission, p.
church from time to time during the 227). Sir G. Cornewall Lewis was
next few years became the scene of dis- Home Secretary, and so far answerable
graceful riots, Bishop Tail having in for the non-interference of the police,
vain tried to persuade Mr. King to make
1860 225
CHAPTER VII
Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 1860
IN May 1860, Mr. Merivale was transferred from the Colonial
Office to the Secretaryship of the India Office, and Sir F.
Rogers was offered the post of permanent Under-Secretary
for the Colonies. With the Colonial administration, in which
for the next ten years he had so large a share, his experience
of fourteen years as an Emigration Commissioner had already
made him familiar. His chief, when he accepted this post,
was the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the
Colonies in Lord Palmerston's Ministry.
' The Duke of Newcastle,' he writes, ' was an honest and
honourable man, a thorough gentleman in all his feelings and
ways, and considerate of all about him. To me he was
always kind. He was stiff, so that you would never say any-
thing to him because it came into your head. He respected
other people's position, but was sensible of his own ; and his
familiarity friendly enough was not such as invited a
response. It was said of him that he did not remember his
rank unless you forgot it, and the expression well hit off his
relations to subordinates. In political administration he was
painstaking, clear-headed and just. But his abilities were
moderate ; and he did not see how far they were from being
sufficient for the management of great affairs which, how-
ever, he was always ambitious of handling. It was said that
Peel looked to him as a future Premier, and it was thought
that the Duke expected it. The failure would have been
terrible, as was seen from his administration of the War
Q
226 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
Office, where he showed himself unequal either to managing
affairs himself or to choosing confidential advisers who could
manage them for him. When the Duke of Newcastle died
in the year 1864, he was succeeded at the Colonial Office
by Mr. Cardwell. Cardwell was just and kind, clear-
headed and hard-headed, industrious, very accurate, and
enormously safe, especially in regard to matters of which the
House of Commons might have cognisance. In fact, he
seemed always to feel on his trial before the House of
Commons ; and I have occasionally felt that his dread of a
parliamentary scrape sometimes supplied the place of thorough
force of character. He had a fine instinctive sense of what
" would do " in that point of view, which made him invulne-
rable to specious fallacies in the opposite sense. And it is to
be remarked that in nine cases out of ten his guide would be
a true guide the House of Commons seeing in ordinary cases
what is not honest, or not for the public interest. He could
deal well with masses of business, and bring order out of dis-
order. He knew his own mind and worked steadily towards
his point ; but which was odd for a hard-headed man did
not always distinguish a plausible from a substantial result.
He took pains not to make enemies, and bore no ill-will to
his opponents.'
To Miss Rogers.
London : May 4, 1860.
My dear Kate, Very many thanks for your letter. I
am, as you see, installed here in Stephen's old armchair, and
have just had all the interviews with the senior clerks, telling
them about the division of business. We, Elliot and I, have
divided the work between us a good deal ; he taking North
America and Africa, and Mediterranean ; I taking Australia,
West Indies, Eastern Colonies, Ceylon, &c. I also taking
legal matters everywhere, and he military and convict
matters everywhere. But it remains to be seen how all this
will end.
F. R.
1860 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 227
To Lady Rogers.
9 Ovington Square : June 17, 1860.
My dear Mother, Sunday, and I have had a day to my-
self, and this very wet Sunday I take the opportunity, like a
good boy, to give some account of myself.
The work goes on much as it did. I rather hope now for
a little relaxation of the storm, one or two important things
that have taken up time being, for the moment, disposed o f
But there is plenty ahead. Just now I am well off. I have
brought with me the only thing that had to be done when I
left the office on Saturday, and hope to have it done before I
leave for the office on Monday. I may consider while I am
walking down that I have my table clear. The satisfaction
of this is that I have gained rather than lost in my work. It
is not more than I can do, and 1 hope I do it well. This
however remains to be seen. You will have seen by the
papers that we have New Zealand troubles ahead. The
clergy of the English Church out there think us (the English)
in the wrong, I fear. But the official accounts, coming
through a Government well inclined to protect the natives,
seem to show that great care has been taken to keep us in
the right, and that we are so. He, the Governor, asks for
8,000 troops, which is of course absurd. However, you need not
say that. I see very little of the Duke [of Newcastle]. The
Duke works at home, comes down about three, is off to the
House of Lords about four, and probably has two or three
appointments in the meantime, so that it is very difficult to
catch him at all, and you must dispose of what you have to
say shortly and clearly when you do see him ; so far, perhaps,
no bad thing. But then, when a thing has to be passed in a
hurry, amended in progress, and so on, the absence of your
chief or his inaccessibility is worrying. However, he is very
ready to accept your conclusions, very clear in his own direc-
tions, and extremely careful (which I respect very highly)
never to throw back on a subordinate any shadow of respon-
sibility for advice that he has once accepted. I think I have
observed this in more than one thing. He is a good deal
brought to, I think, when his advisers differ, and rather
Q2
228 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
catches at the notion of getting fresh advice, as if the bulk of
advice made it easier to decide, sometimes without seeing that
the advice he seeks is on his own principles less valuable than
what he has got. He is oddly dilatory about patronage, even
when he has substantially made up his mind (as I under-
stand) ; he seems to hesitate at making the plunge, and goes
on letting the idea simmer in his mind. Just now he is keep-
ing various Governors expectant in a state of anxiety.
I take it for granted that you know about G.'s Drawing
Room. She looked ' very nice,' as William (the footman) told
her. After having a good look at the side view (she sitting
in the middle of the drawing-room in a circle of beholders) he
did not content himself with it, like the more modest maid-
servants, but moved round to get a front view, looking in a
composed k'nd of way, as you would at a statue or a wild
beast, or anything inanimate or irrational, and then gave out
' I am sure you couldn't look nicer, my lady.' Church and I
almost burst out laughing, but restrained ourselves till he had
got out of the room. Since that time he has asked to have a
boy under him.
To Lady Rogers.
January 29, 1861.
What do you think of the last from the United States ?
Sir E. Head ! read me a letter from an eminent Boston man
describing the state of things as hopeless. Fifteen Slave
States almost certain to go, and nobody knowing whom to
follow or what to do. ' There is anarchy in men's minds,'
he says. As showing what is going on, Sir E. H. showed
me an extract from a newspaper, being an address signed
by the Senate and Representatives of Maine and by 19,000
other persons, praying the Queen of England to effect the
annexation of Maine to Canada. And the Consul at
Boston writes to Engleheart that people there are talking of
New England uniting with Canada to form a kingdom
under a Prince of the Blood Royal. Think what the old
heroes of Bunker's Hill and the men who pitched their tea
into Boston Harbour would say to this, within a hundred
years of their liberation.
1 Governor-General of Canada.
1861 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 229
However, don't talk of this, for though public in the
United States, our people here may not wish it talked of.
Head said that of course it must be all a lie, but that it was
impossible in the present state of things to disbelieve any-
thing.
To Lady Rogers.
Undated, apparently August 20, 1860.
G. will have told you that Chichester Fortescue, 1 being in
a great fright that his Bill (New Zealand) would be abandoned,
took me, as a bottle-holder, to an interview between himself
and Lord Palmerston. We were duly shown in, and found
his lordship writing and sealing letters, in the midst of such
a heap of papers, books &c., as I should have thought suffi-
cient to make the transaction of business impossible. He
set us down, finished his sealings, directions and so on, and
then sat himself down, put his hands between his knees and
assumed a kind of fixed resigned look, drooping his shoulders
and sinking his eyes like a man who was to undergo a
shower-bath. Then (it being understood that Palmerston
was in doubt about proceeding) Fortescue began, and, as I
should say, rehearsed his speech for the House, stating
the case and invoking me occasionally. Pam, when he had
done, put one or two (pretty searching) questions and listened
carefully to the answers (rather deaf). He said in a kind of
obedient way, ' Well, then, I have got my lesson ; and I shall
say that alterations will be made in the Bill that will remove
any of the objections, and that the Government will state the
1 Mr. Chichester Fortescue (Lord for Tuesday, August 21. But there
Carlingford) was then Parliamentary was opposition in Parliament and in
Under-Secretary for the Colonies. The New Zealand (chiefly in the southern
Bill, as introduced by the Duke of New- island), and on that day Lord Palmer-
castle in July 1860, was for the protec- ston announced that the Government
tion of the aborigines, to establish, by would not proceed with the Bill so late
imperial authority, a local council on in the Session. It was intended (see
which should devolve the revision of Times of April 20, 1861) to re-intro-
the native laws and the arrangements duce it next year, but the New Zealand
respecting the sale and purchase of Bill (passed in May 1861) dealt only
native land. This passed the House of with the division of the provinces in
Lords, and the second reading in the New Zealand. (See also p. 228.)
Commons was fixed (as this letter says)
230 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
reasons for introducing it on Monday ' (now put off till Tues-
day), and then got up, and we got up and went off in our cab,
I had expected a kind of arguing and cross-examination, and
the whole thing was despatched by Pam in such a free and
easy way and with so little trouble to himself (except hearing
F.'s speech) that as soon as we got into the cab I burst into a
fit of laughter, in which F. joined. Then I asked, ' Well, what
do you think he thinks of you and your case ? ' ' Oh, I don't
know,' with an amused look. ' I would give something to
know. I should say his impression was that it would go down
with the House of Commons/ and then he laughed and said :
' This is being behind the scenes.' He had quoted to Palmerston
with great force a passage in favour of his present proceedings
from a despatch of Lord Carnarvon's. ' Of course I shall read
that in the House/ as if that were the testimony of an enemy.
So when we got into the cab I told him that that despatch was
my writing, so that when the Whig Under-Secretary quotes the
Tory Under-Secretary in favour of the Whig measure it will be
in fact quoting Sir F. R.'s despatch as a hostile testimony to
the merits of Sir F. R.'s Bill. I told him this and he laughed and
said, ' Behind the scenes again.' He is very pleasant and un-
commonly plucky, for we have the whole world against us,
I can hardly believe even now that it will pass. It is fixed
for Tuesday evening. Sir J. Pakington and Adderley speak
against ; Lord Robert Cecil and Bethell (Attorney-General) for.
Bethell is quite keen and a valuable help.
To Rev. Edward Rogers.
Colonial Office : February 23, 1861.
I got an immense buttering from the Attorney-General
(Bethell) about that paper which I wrote at Blachford on
Ionian Consular Jurisdiction ' an admirable paper I can
assure you I mean what I say an admirable paper a perfect
knowledge of the subject very well put together and felici-
tously expressed complete as a Jurist a lawyer and ' (some
word implying the political treatment of the subject). He
harped rather on the ' Jurist ' part of the matter, which is a
character I rather ambition. He took occasion to explain to
me ' there is jus. t,ex, and forum. Jus is the principles of
1861 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 231
natural justice, especially as embodied in international law.
Lex, the written law defining offences and rights. Forum, the
mode of procedure and jurisdiction of courts.'
I really shall soon begin to think that V.'s friend was right
and that I am a profound lawyer, or at any rate that, by a
judicious amount of silence and a judicious choice of occasions
for lecturing, I may support that character.
To Lady Rogers.
April 12, 1 86 1.
What do you think of the Cooly business turning up again ?
I was called on yesterday by a delegate from Reunion, who is in
London trying to push things through. I am amused to see
how ' the cat jumps.' This Reunion man is full of concessions,
has the firmest reliance on English good faith, &c., &c. At
one of his proposals, however, I asked, ' Qu'est-ce qu'en diront
MM. les Delegues des Antilles ?' when out came the truth.
Reunion, being close to India, and seeing what has happened
in Mauritius, wants coolies and cares little about Africa ; the
Antilles, being far from India, wants Africans and cares little
comparatively about coolies ; consequently the Reunionists
are hot to push the treaty through (having already got five
ship-loads), while the Antilles abuse us and it, and would stop
it if they could. Now this Reunion man appears to have got
hold of the French and Foreign Office, and I dare say will
push it through.
To Lady Rogers.
May 10, 1861.
I have just been interrupted by a little M. Imhausen,
' Delegue de 1'ile de Reunion,' who has come over to push the
Cooly Treaty, which seems approaching a conclusion (as it
has seemed for the last two years), and prays me to restore
him to his family (now in Paris) by expediting matters.
' Vous me rendrez a ma famille,' with an affectionate enthu-
siasm, and then enlists my sympathy by appealing to my
paternity. ' Vous, Monsieur, qui etes le pere de ce traite ;
on 1'appelle toujours dans les departements de Paris le traite
Rogers.' I can't say I wish to ride down to posterity on the
back of that convention. It is enough to have ridden it into
the Colonial Office, and now I should like to change my horse.
232 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vii
To Miss Rogers.
Nov. 1861.
My dear Kate, War in earnest, I am afraid. 2 Sir E.
Head has just been here talking about what is doing to put
Canada in a state of defence. They are proceeding just as if
war was declared, as far as preparations go. You see the
Yankees have dealt us their slap in the face just as the St.
Lawrence is frozen up and New Brunswick covered with snow,
so that it is not so easy to say how anything ought to be sent.
The only hope is that the bankers and substantial men in
the U.S. may be strong enough to send Seward to the right-
about, and then knock under. But it is much more probable
that before our mission arrives they will have committed them-
selves too deeply to recede or at any rate to recede in double
quick time which I apprehend we shall demand.
Of course Canada is in danger, but a few thousand English
soldiers (and there are a few thousand in the North American
provinces) will do a great deal till more come. I hear Col.
Lysons is likely to be sent however, don't talk of that till you
see it I hope he is fit for real work.
Pam goes about saying he is not going to be bullied, and
I suppose is not. Mr. Slidell says that the lieutenant who
boarded the ' Trent ' said, ' Oh, John Bull would do as he had
done before, he would bark, but not bite.'
They say the lieutenant who had to seize Slidell and Mason
was a Southerner, who had been dining with them at Havannah,
which accounts for his saying that it was the most disagree-
able job he ever had.
The American proceedings, as a matter of policy, seem to
me so wild that I cannot but half think that Seward feels
himself going (they talk of very strong opposition growing
up to him), and wishes to be turned out on the ground of
affronting England ; in which case, of course, he would go out
- Slidell and Mason, the Commis- in November 1861. The Guards were
sioners from the Southern Confederate sent to Canada, but the American Go-
States, were taken by force by Captain vernment gave up the commissioners,
Wilkes, of the American Navy, from the and the danger of war passed.
British West India Mail Steamer ' Trent,'
1861 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 233
as a mob hero with a capital chance of coming back again on
mob shoulders, saying that all the mischief had been done
while and because he was out of office.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
March 4, 1862.
We had a pleasant Sunday (as we always have) with the
Taylors. I like him more and more. He certainly has an
enjoyment in being considerably unlike everybody else, more
perhaps like a Capuchin friar than any other animal.
He amused me by an anecdote of Lord Melbourne. In
his (Lord M.'s) Cabinet, Lord Grey (then Howick) was object-
ing after his manner to everybody's draft of a proposed
certain despatch, and at last Lord M. pushed a sheet of paper
to him, and said, ' Well, then, in God's name try your own
hand upon it' Lord Howick wrote a sentence, then altered
it, then expunged it, then crunched up the paper and threw it
down, then da capo with another sheet of paper, all which Lord
Melbourne allowed him to do for some time without interrup-
tion, and when he came to a short pause struck in with ' Ah,
I thought so you see now, when you have nobody to contra-
dict but yourself, you are done.' Not a bad Cabinet interior.
I told Taylor I did not know whether I wished to be again
under Lord Grey, and he said, ' Oh, depend upon it, you would
like it very much. I should like excessively to see you
together. You would get on admirably now.' . . . The last
thing almost I have been upon is a ponderous quarrel between
the Governor and the Bishop of , in the course
of which the Bishop, thinking himself insulted, told the
Governor that he would have to answer for it to a ' Higher
Power.' The Governor, a soldier, taking it for granted he
meant the Duke of Newcastle, proceeded at once to lay the
matter before the Executive Council, in order to appear with
fresh support beiore his Grace, and in a subsequent de-
spatch informed us in a tone of something like complaint that
his Lordship 'now says that when he referred to a " Higher
Power " he did not mean that he would report me to your
Grace, but that God would judge me,' evidently not quite per-
234 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
suaded in his mind that the explanation was not an after-
thought.
These quarrels often make me think what a capital post
a Roman Proconsul had. ' If it were a matter of wrong,
reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a
question of words and of your law, see ye to it, for I will be
judge of no such thing, and he drave them from the judgment
seat. And the Jews took Sosthenes and beat him. But
Gallic cared for none of these things.' I wish we could afford
to wink at the Governor and Bishop horse-whipping each
other. As far as I see, it would do both of them good, and I
shall get the Duke to go as near it as ever I can with due re-
gard to his character.
To the Bishop of Oxford?
June 30, 1862.
My dear Lord Bishop, I am rather afraid of being mis-
understood about your Bill, a copy of which has just reached
me.
I, of course, think it is a just claim of the English Church
to be allowed to consecrate Missionary Bishops, and as a
Churchman I shall be extremely glad if your particular Bill
passes as it stands.
But I think that in your Bill the State is entitled to take
this objection the Bill proposes to invest a Bishop in a
Mahomedan country say of Mecca with a statutory rela-
tion to the Church of England, that is to say, to attach him
remotely, but really, to the constitution of this country. of
which the Church is a part.
Now, this Bishop of Mecca is not a mere Bishop of English
congregations, but a Missionary Bishop bound in that capacity
to make war upon Mahomedanism, which is, on the other
hand, part of the political constitution of the Ottoman
Empire.
Now, the Ottoman Empire having been to a certain extent
admitted into the family of nations, is it according to the
comity of nations that the English Parliament should take
under its wing an organised attack on the constitution of
3 Bishop Wilberforce.
1862 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 235
that Empire ? The Pope, no doubt, does it in England, but
first he does it under shelter of certain principles of tolera-
tion, which we profess, and which it appears to me are suffi-
cient to cover his aggression ; and next we, notwithstanding,
quarrel with him for doing it.
You will answer that the Crown may, under your Bill,
prevent any such complications by refusing its assent to the
creation of any Bishopric which is calculated to cause them.
This is one of those answers which is good or bad accord-
ing to the animus of the person to whom it is addressed.
A rash or careless Minister may authorise the erection of an
Anglican Bishopric in a place where its erection would be
politically unjustifiable. The question is whether the advan-
tage (of setting the Church going in a missionary direction)
justifies the risk of an ill-advised appointment causing a com-
plication with a foreign country.
Personally, I think it does (and therefore wish well to
your Bill), but if I held the well-being of the English Church
a matter of little importance to this country I should think
differently, and should think that the Parliament had a right
to some more distinct guarantee (to speak as a politician)
against the abuse of the powers of consecration.
Even personally I prefer our colonial principle of pro-
ceeding, the principle, namely, of leaving Bishops to consecrate
in virtue of their inherent spiritual powers, and leaving the
consecrating and consecrated to arrange for themselves what
shall be their relations to each other. In this case, the State
is subject to no responsibility (colonial Bishops being no part
of the Constitution), and is therefore entitled to no control
over the missionary operations of the Church.
I should therefore have liked best to see a Bill (though
it would have been perhaps very difficult to draw one) which
would merely have permitted the Church to create an
Episcopate beyond the limits of the Queen's Dominions,
leaving the relations of that Episcopate to be formed by
mutual consent without any statutory aid or the necessity of
any Royal assent. 4
4 Some account of the accomplishment of this will be found at the end of
Chapter viii.
236 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
But I repeat, in default of this, I should consider your Bill
as likely to be of great advantage, and wish it success.
Yours sincerely,
F. ROGERS.
To Hon. Mrs. H. Legge.
Venice : October 13, 1862.
Rainy journey to Milan, rainy morning at Milan rainy
journey to Padua. Then we had a beautiful morning to look
at Padua, which is not, I think, sufficiently highly rated the
famous Giotto frescoes are, of course, valued properly. They
are the only Giottos that I really feel myself to appreciate. And
they derive great interest from the fact that Dante was with him
while he painted them, and that from the style of their beauty
Dante might have painted them himself there is that curious
mixture of beautiful finish in essentials (in D. harmony of
verse, appropriateness of language, and precision of thought)
with a rude carelessness of conventionality when it interferes
with the vigorous expression of an idea, which seems to me
characteristic of Dante, or (what is partly the same thing)
a power of realising a conception and putting his whole mind
and soul into the expression of it. I should like to see
(except that they would be so entirely spoilt by being taken
out of the context) a series of heads of our Saviour taken from
these frescoes. They would in themselves almost be a r&umJ
of the Gospel. Two which are almost contiguous are, I think,
the most impressive : the expression of our Saviour receiving
Judas's kiss, and of our Saviour telling the women of Jerusalem
to weep for themselves. The first is like the sentence of the
Last Judgment ; our Saviour seems to look through and through
Judas. It is an habitually sad face, but there is no emotion of
sorrow ; it is simply piercing and unrelenting as if there was
no use in thinking of what might have been, respecting a man
whose day of mercy was past. I could fancy Dante suggest-
ing the treatment and sitting by dissatisfied with the sketches
till his idea was exactly realised. The other is all tenderness ;
the expression of sorrow for their sorrow, and of seeing what
was coming upon them more clearly than they did themselves,
is perfect and beautiful, and also (I should say) quite Dan-
1862 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 237
tesque. Still more so the raising of Lazarus Lazarus stand-
ing straight up, ghastly and surprised, like a ghost in swaddling
clothes (tied hand and foot), the two sisters crawling (I
really can hardly use any other expression) at our Saviour's
feet. On the whole it is a most interesting sight if you stay
long enough before it, as in some slight degree we did.
The city is beautiful from the number of old palaces in
decadence, and the profusion of colonnades supported not on
piers but slight marble columns ; and a shrine of St. Antonio is,
I think, about the most beautiful thing of its kind I ever saw.
I wonder it is not more praised. There is a certain reflection
of Venice in Padua (substituting colonnades for canals) which
makes it also interesting. The type is similar, and it strikes
me, as I write, that part of what I most admire in St. Antonio's
shrine it has in common with St. Mark's.
To Sir George Grey?*
Colonial Office : November 26, 1862.
My dear Sir George, I inclose a letter from Wirima
Repa 6 to his grandfather, which perhaps you will be good
enough to forward to its destination. I inclose also the copy
of a letter from Captain Tremlett, in whose charge he is, which
appears to be satisfactory. We are somewhat puzzled to
know what to do next with the boy. At present he is in the
' Impregnable ' in the harbour at Devonport, with two or three
hundred boys who are in training for the Royal Navy ; he is
looked after by one of the petty officers, with whom he messes ;
he is clothed differently from the rest, and has one or two
privileges, and a certain amount of private and pocket money.
Captain Tremlett represents him as anxious to learn English
(our main point just at present), affectionate, but rather morti-
fied if not a little passionate when anything is refused him,
fond of dress and of games of chance, holding himself aloof
from the other boys (which is perhaps as well), pleased with
notice and generally contented.
* Then Governor of New Zealand. placed at the disposal of the Queen.
6 Wirima Repa was the grandson of a As will be seen by the following letters,
Maori chief, who wished the boy to be the poor boy's life was short.
238 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
This does tolerably well for the present, but he is said not
to fancy the sea and to show some turn for drawing and
machinery. It seems to us here that it might be very useful,
if possible, after two or three years to send him back to New
Zealand, with some such knowledge and habits as would
render him useful to his countrymen. But there is great diffi-
culty in finding a place in which he will acquire these, when
he has outgrown the ' Impregnable,' i.e. when he can write
and read English a little and speak it fairly well.
It is rather late to ask you the question, but it would much
assist in dealing with the boy if we knew your views about
him, and particularly what teaching would be likely to make
him most useful in New Zealand when he gets back a little
surveying, mechanics, working in wood or iron, agriculture,
navigation ?
I am afraid he will hardly be advanced enough in English
to raise these further questions before we get an answer from
you to this letter.
Believe me yours very truly,
F. R.
To Rev. Dr. Lowe?
December 13, 1862.
Dear Sir, Mr. Mozley informs me that I may communi-
cate with you respecting a young New Zealander who has
been sent to England by his grandfather, one of the principal
chiefs on the English side, or, rather, beyond comparison the
most important and trustworthy friend we have ; and whom
the Duke of Newcastle wishes to send back to his country,
after two or three years' residence here, with something of
European knowledge and improvement.
He is a lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age. I should
think, both from what I saw and from what I hear of him,
that he was susceptible of kindness, and that he had much
quickness of observation (as to such things as flowers, family
likeness, simple mechanical contrivances, &c.). He speaks
(or spoke in last September) very broken English, but under-
stood fairly those to whom he was accustomed ; he was
7 Headmaster of Hurstpierpoint School.
1862 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 239
inclined to be contented and to form attachments (probably
not very strong ones). I hear he is anxious to learn, fond of
dress, and that he stands somewhat on his dignity which is
as well, seeing he is at present among a set of boys picked
up anywhere, being educated for seamen.
When I saw him he could write a little, but, strange to
say, could not read. He was also inclined to try his hand a
little at drawing. So much for the boy.
What I should be very glad to ascertain is whether you
think you could take him in hand, what you would propose
to do with him, who would be his associates, whether the
place is healthy (a very important point), and what would be
your terms.
The difficulty, I suppose, would be in assigning to any
class a boy so big and so untrained. My own general notion
would be to teach him first reading, writing, arithmetic, and
manners ; then some useful art for which he showed a taste
(I mean not so much the manual aptitude as the principles
and rationale of it, so that he would bring his own knowledge
to bear on his countrymen) ; neatness of hand, such as it may
be, together with something or other for which he may show
special aptitude in the way of accomplishments, say a little
physical science, history, drawing, and music anything, in
short, that it was possible to hope that he would pursue for
his own amusement, and with which in after years he might
infect his wife and children.
Yours,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers (Lady Blachford].
Clumber: January 2, 1863.
I duly arrived here about five o'clock, having fallen in
with the Reeves.
The dinner party were the Reeves, a Colonel and Mrs.
Sherwin Gregory (neighbours), and myself. The next day
were added the Speaker (Denison), and Venables a clever
pleasant fellow whom you may know by name.
I have spent my leisure time in walking (declining a gun)
partly alone, partly with Venables, partly with the ladies
2 4 o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
and men shooters. Yesterday a dull day, made the place
look dull. To-day is beautiful, and makes the place produce
a different impression. It is very ducal, and much what you
might expect. The country is made up of low undulations
at a slight gradient the top of the hills or ridges not being
higher than the top of a good-sized house. Along one of the
valleys runs a stream (which becomes ultimately the Idle),
which has been stopped up in one place and widened, for, say,
a mile and a half, into a lake ; the banks are wooded, and
planted park-like fashion ; and close on one side of the water
is Clumber, a heavy house with stately terraces running down
to the water.
The rooms are very grand ; library beautiful ; drawing-
room and dining-room to match. The drawing-room, recently
furnished with white satin walls and sky-blue curtains for
the Prince of Wales, is certainly very stately and fine ; so
are the plate, the statues, the horses and carriages, and the
pictures. But it is all a kind of George III. grandeur
imposing without much interest. The Duke yesterday
lionised us over house and grounds, which are all of a piece ;
a characteristic picture hanging in the hall gives a key to a
good deal. The picture is of horsemen, gamekeepers, and
dogs, and it comprises the great-grandfathers of the present
Duke, of the present Duke's gamekeeper, of his assistant
gamekeeper, the ancestors of his spaniels (the Clumber breed,
who will not thrive anywhere else), and the ancestors of his
pointers. In fact, everything but the horses appears to have
been hereditary.
To Lady Rogers (Lady Blachford}.
Clumber : January 4, 1 863.
The Duke is anxious to be friendly and to do all his
duties to tenants, neighbours, friends, &c. kindly, I fancy,
to real intimates, or in matters which call for real feeling,
but in the matter of the ' small change ' of feeling, what
small talk is to conversation, he is somewhat depourvu.
I think I described the place. It is very characteristic of
the possessor. Very little natural advantages, a reasonably
nice river stream, low slopes, indifferent timber all swollen
1863 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 241
into a sheet of water and spacious park by their connexion
with the dukedom. The house ducal, the talk ducal, the
dinner ducal ; the collection of silks, satins, and diamonds in
the large drawing-room with satin hangings, after dinner,
strikingly ducal. It rather decidedly impressed me in its
pompous way, the more so because there was no large party,
but merely a few persons looking magnificent, and as if it
was not necessary that they should be a large party. Not,
so far, the kind of thing I like, but the kind of thing to look
at as a stage play.
I renewed my acquaintance with Venables, a clever fellow,
whom I knew at Cambridge, and who writes the political
articles of the ' Saturday Review.' A fellow of a clear, calm,
rather biting turn of mind, and no nonsense, whom I intend
to cultivate. A thorough Liberal, I imagine. I also met the
Reeves ; he is the editor of the ' Edinburgh/ who knows
everybody, has seen a good deal, and consequently has a
good deal to say which is amusing to hear. I picked up a
fair amount of their little odds and ends, which are pleasant to
hear but hardly worth writing, and not very easy to remember.
One thing amused me from hardly knowing whether it
was a passage of arms or not. The clerks of the Privy Coun-
cil were Charles Greville and William Bathurst, The place
is, of course, one of importance. When Lord Derby came in,
as Reeves told us, Charles Greville declared he would never
attend the Council till the Conservatives went out, and so
put it off on William Bathurst, who delighted in the dignity
of attending. 'Ah,' said the Duke, more inclined, I imagine,
to side with the Conservative Peer Premier than with the
Liberal official ' You know how Derby took that. He said,
" What on earth can you suppose it signifies to me what
footman brings up the coal-scuttle when I ring the bell ? "
I did not think it necessary to consider whether I was
bound to appropriate any part of the indignity, and so only
chuckled.
The Duke said, to report a somewhat improper sentiment,
that one of our Ministers had complained to Louis Napoleon
that he was playing fast and loose with us ; to which Louis
Napoleon replied : ' I can assure you I wish nothing better
R
242 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
than to be faithful to England as my wife. I must confess I
like to have another power from time to time as my mistress.'
There is something for us to make what we can of, considering
the nature and habits of the man. Love to all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Rev. Dr. Lowe.
February 13, 1863.
Dear Sir, I have not written to you on the subject of
Wirima Repa the New Zealander, partly on account of his
illness, which has frightened us, lest we should be obliged to
send him back to New Zealand. At present he is better, and
I think it possible we may be able to keep him over the
summer, sending him back in October or thereabouts ; another
winter here would be plainly imprudent. The fear is of con-
sumption he has been troubled with cough &c., and an
obstinate sore in his leg, now better, but apparently more or
less constitutional. This may affect your readiness to take
charge of him for a few months. And it may still make it
impossible to send him to Hurstpierpoint. But I will write
to you again on the subject unless I hear from you that what
I have now said makes it impossible for you to take him.
We should be glad to place him in your hands, if you were
ready to take him and his health appeared to allow of it In
answer to one of your questions, he is a Christian, and a good
docile, reverent one, fond of reading his Bible (in Maori), and
not without desire to be a missionary on the understanding,
however, that this is not to interfere with his fighting the
Waikatos, for which also he has a taste.
What his capacity is I do not know, but he is evidently
extremely amiable and affectionate. He has a good deal of
quiet dignity when with the other boys on the ' Impregnable,'
who are not, and whom he feels not to be, his equals their
principal point of contact being the game of draughts, in
which he excels. He now, I am told, understands English
perfectly, but does not speak with ease.
Yours faithfully,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
1863 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 243
To Miss Rogers.
March 18, 1863.
My dear Kate, It seems an age since I have written
what can really be called a letter to Blachford, and now I
have an idle morning just fit for the purpose. I had a very
sharp touch of work from the latter end of last month ; since
that time I have had, what in the ordinary course of things
would be easy work ; but there have been a few blank days,
more or less of holidays, which, though easing the work as
far as comfort was concerned, kept me in a sense pretty well
employed. (Drawing-room Princess Alexandra journeying
to Hurstpierpoint.)
I suppose G. will have told you all about the two first.
The last was a journey to an institution on High Church
principles for middle-class education, to which we shall send
young Wirima Repa. It is just the place for him a collegiate
building in a high healthy situation, with 300 boys of different
ages ; a cheery, good-hearted head-master and wife who will
notice the boy ; a kind of pupil-teacher, who can be more
or less told off for him ; the run of the country (no bounds) ;
and, what he will much delight in, a rifle-corps in the school,
which will have to appear at a review on Easter Monday or
Tuesday. The head-master's wife was a Miss Coleridge, and
will therefore have aboriginal tendencies, being cousin to
Patteson, the Bishop of Melanesia.
My employment during the end of February was in a great
measure the drafting a long New Zealand despatch which was
moved for by Adderley in the House of Commons before it
was sent off in a great measure before it was written and
which may make a row here and there. I may almost say it has
been written three times ; first, a year or so ago, next in January
last, and thirdly in February last. The Duke of N. criticised
the January version as too didactic ' like what they find fault
with in Stephen but better ' a compliment with which I was
not ill-pleased whatever it may be worth. Then it went
through a revision of my own in consequence of fresh news
from New Zealand, then a revision by Fortescue, all of which
took a good deal of the sting out of it, and, I half think, a little
R 2
244 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
the coherency. It remains, however, a complete treatise.
Fortescue read it all to the Duke and myself in its final form
for approval, and I was disappointed with it. Then I read it
myself and liked it better. What the rest of the world will
say to it I do not know. I think I shall send it to you when
it comes out (though in itself it is not a kind of thing that
would interest you) as the most elaborate ' State paper ' I
have yet produced.
The truth is that I doubt whether it ought to appear in
the form of a despatch at all. It is rather an attempt to
obtain from public opinion in England support against the
public opinion of New Zealand which ought by rights to be
got by a speech in the House of Commons. But to say the
truth, I don't feel that I could get my own views (such as
they are) well before the world in that way, and, as I attach a
certain amount of importance to them, I have put them out
in this way at the risk of making the Duke look like a lecturer.
I hope, however, that this will not be the effect. For the
New Zealanders have happily given me lots of handles for all
that I wanted to say, so that, though I may be tedious, I can
hardly be accused of being uncalled for. Also the occasion
is an important one a regular turning-point, in regard to
colonial policy as regards military defence of colonies.
We have been getting through Kinglake's ' Crimea,' which
of course you will get in due time from Mudie. It is exces-
sively entertaining ; his sketches of character are admirably
amusing, especially when you know the men (Gladstone, Duke
of Newcastle, and Lord Stratford) and can separate the
genuinely good hits from views which have more or less an
ingenious partiality or caricature.
I think, however, it is what I should call a wicked book.
First it does not admit of war as a terrible necessity, but
rather writes it up as a noble amusement like fox-hunting.
At least, this is to me the spirit of the book. Next it is a
reckless attack on the French Empire, that is ''in spite of all
his efforts to make a distinction), on the French nation. His
friends say that he feels that, knowing the truth, a duty is laid
on him to speak it. But there are many ways of speaking
the truth, and the policy of the book with regard to the French
1863 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 245
is a cold bitter desire to sting, rising, with regard to the
Emperor and his generals, to a burning hatred and desire to
destroy. All this is put but with the most finished possible
deliberation, the author being evidently quite careless of the
effect it may produce in engendering bitter and angry feelings
between England and France, and desirous if possible of
inflaming the French feeling against Louis Napoleon, with-
out (I must believe) any distinct view as to what is to happen
as a consequence of this inflammation.
His monster account of the battle of the Alma is as
interesting almost as a novel (if you deliver yourself up to it),
but it requires very careful reading, and is provoking from
the long deliberate episodes which he inflicts upon you
sometimes in the very crisis of affairs. I should call it very
instructive in a military point of view to a non-military reader,
i.e. (like William Greig's account of the Battle of Waterloo)
it gives you by its detail a real comprehension of the
value of lots of things, which in ordinary military histories
you see stated roughly and have to take for granted, as
matters of tactics or military detail, which an unprofessional
reader has to pass over in faith. Colonel Hood's manoeuvre
appears very clearly.
On a careless reading the whole will (I should think)
appear a mass of confusion. But this is only from the
tremendously complicated task which he has undertaken.
And with care you can get at a distinct idea how (in his view)
each separate regiment (almost) of the French and English
army acted, and how all their proceedings bore upon each
other. But then you have to study 300 pages. I should think
that you must take at least two or three times as long to
read the account as it took the armies to fight the battle.
Then, to be sure, they were 100,000 men and you are only one.
Love to all.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Summer, 1863.
I suppose G. or somebody told you how Wirima Repa
went down to Osborne to see the Queen, very ill, poor fellow,
246 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
and of course with much fatigue, and came back delighted
with his opportunity, but in a state of dignified disgust with
his countrymen 8 who went down with him, and who, from his
account, would seem to have drunk more than was good for
them, and made more noise than was by any means to be
desired. The Princesses showed the Maori women over
their own private rooms, and the Queen had Wirima in for
a little talk after she had disposed of the rest, and finally sent
them all (him inclusive) a little autograph of her own, her
signature and the date of the visit, on note paper with a
black border about an inch broad a pleasant memento
enough for an affectionate boy. Altogether the visit was
a great success having been a great object which is not
always the case.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
September i, 1863.
I had a very pleasant day at Birmingham, though I look
back at it as you do at some exciting novel I hardly know
with more pleasure or pain. Newman was, of course, ex-
tremely affectionate, asking after you all, and hearing with
interest all I had to say (I delivered your message and
Sophy's), and going back with great pleasure and feeling to
all recollections of old times, conversations &c. But I
cannot express the melancholy feeling which the whole view
of his situation (with Ward's comments) has left on my mind.
There he is almost alone in a large house with none of his
old friends about him, overworked, and that in a way which
is not his own line not what he had expected or planned
for himself or for which he seemed fitted, thrown away by
the communion to which he has devoted himself, and
evidently sensible that he is so thrown away. He talked
freely as if it were old times again about his former and
present plans the translation of the Bible, which for a time
was committed to him and then fell out of his hands a
s These were some Maories, who fered, and arranged for their entertain-
had been brought over by a speculating ment, and for their return to their own
showman. The Colonial Office inter- country.
1863 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 247
project of writing on ' Reason and Faith ' his school
projects of Catholic University and the question (which
divides them) whether it is better to effect, if possible, a
lodgment in Oxford or Cambridge, which is his view, or to
set up a separate University, which is Manning's, and the
majority's and the inability of his own people to understand
what a University in his sense of the word (derived from
Oxford) really is. He set me criticising his beginnings towards
a church, and, though there is much I did not like, I happily
hit more than once on a thing to admire warmly, which made
him stop and look at me hard in his old amused way and
ask, ' Now, do you really mean what you say ? ' ' Certainly.'
' Because, my dear Rogers, that is my own.' And once or
twice, after talks of this kind (quite in the old way) as we
were walking rather quickly from place to place, he leading
the way, and so, not talking, he was left to follow his own
thoughts for a moment, I caught a kind of impatient and
half mournful ' Ah, tzt ' (you know the sound, though I can't
spell it), which seemed to say, ' Why is he not with me, why
can't I be often talking to him in this way ? ' Then we
talked about various matters, Birmingham habits, Birming-
ham villas, architecture, Ward and his eccentricities (I saw,
sitting with Newman and his two followers, that a joke at
Ward's expense was not unacceptable, and it was a pleasure to
get a good hearty laugh out of him in the old fashion). He
gave me the whole day (dismissing rather shortly Lord Henry
Kerr, who dropped in) but evidently did not desire that I
should come again on Monday, so I started by an earlier
train (9.30) and got here in time to do a little work.
To Miss Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : October 10, 1863.
My dear Kate. Our Maori proceedings have been some-
what strange and perplexing. In the first place you know
that we were told that Wirima would start on Wednesday
morning, then this was put off to Thursday, and luckily
for poor Wirima frightfully overwalked himself (being left
alone for a short walk), came here hardly able to stand, and
248 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORU CH. vn
at 1 1 o'clock, when I went into his bedroom to see that he
was all right, we found him suffering so much that we sent for
the doctor, who at once poulticed him and dosed him for an
attack of pleurisy. Next day he was better, but hardly thought
himself able to see Mr. and Mrs. Pomare. 9 However, I forced
them on him (in his bedroom) ; his coming to luncheon was
out of the question, and at last it was agreed that Mr. Pomare
should stay with him and see him off. So we were at once
saddled with 6 feet 3 of savage, in addition to poor W.
However the six feet three packed themselves up on an arm-
chair. He seems to have looked after him very nicely,
though I was rather alarmed to see the window left open all
night upon a pleuritic patient (the alternative was being
baked), and on the next (Thursday) morning he was far
better. The doctor thought, not only that he was fit to
embark (which we had doubted), but that the voyage would
do him more good than anything else could do him, and that
there was really a chance of his reaching New Zealand.
Well, on Thursday morning off I started with my two Maories
to the Emigration Office
But on arriving in the City I was informed that the ship's
surgeon (the very point on which we were particular) had
cried off, that the ship could not start till the next day, and
that W.'s cabin (a very good one, I understand) would not be
ready for him until then. So what was to be done?
Of course all things are possible, though all things are
not convenient ; and the question was whether to go back,
which would have been to W.'s great disappointment, for he
was keen to get on board. However, at last, I settled to put
them into the hands of the Emigration officer a kind
sensible fellow, who would take them to Gravesend, bed
them there, put them on board the next morning. ... I
have not yet heard the result. 1 They ought to have started
yesterday, and, if so, ought to have let me know. But I
believe they are in good hands.
11 The Pomares belonged to the party was born to them in England,
of Maories whose reception by the ' Wirima died on the voyage to New
Queen was mentioned above. The Zealand.
Queen was Godmother to a child who
1863 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 249
To Rev. E. Rogers.
1863.
I dined yesterday with Goulburn, and met Ward, of
Balliol, who was enormous fun. He is full of stories of his
own priests, some rather good; but what most interested me was
his account of Newman, which was very sad. He disposed
of as absurd (I have no doubt with truth) the statements that
Newman was dissatisfied in the sense of being shaken in his
belief. But it appeared clearly that he is entirely a fish out of
water that he has practically broken with the old Roman
Catholics that almost all even of his old friends have left him
that he thinks very ill of his own health, and that his principal
interest now is in his school at Birmingham, about seventy or
eighty sons of converts. The main difference appears to be as
to the manner of education. Newman is for a system like our
public schools and universities with great freedom of life.
Accordingly while he was at Dublin College it transpired that
some of the collegians had been going to plays, and had
been hunting in pink. This is wholly contrary to their
system, which is one of close surveillance and rigid discipline,
and the Archbishop held forth to Newman for half an hour
and an hour about it. (' Very narrow-minded man, you know,
Archbishop Cullen, but excellent good man and in this case,
you know, quite right, I think.') ' But then,' as he says to
Ward, ' what can I do when Dr. Newman just listens to me
without speaking, and then says, " I will think about it," and
then everything goes on just as it was before ? ' There is an
internal evidence of truth about this which places it beyond
doubt. One sees the stony expression of Newman's face.
Well, thereupon they turned him out, greatly to his own mortifi-
cation, and, of course, having given up the English Church
for the Roman, and England with his English friends for
Ireland and the Irish, it must have been galling and sad to be
sent back again to the place with which you had broken all
or almost all your ties.
Ward implied almost used the expression that N.
considered that his real life had come to a close in 1845.
But then one knows what Ward's ideas are worth.
250 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
The Roman Catholics describe Newman as a mauvais
coucheur, bad bedfellow.
Ward said that St. John was the only man who had stuck
to him. Dalgairns had quite left him I suppose for Faber.
On the whole I came home very sad about him, and much
disgusted with Manning, Faber, Wiseman, et id genus omne.
He seems to be writing a great work, ' Faith and
Reason,' I suppose on the ground of belief in everything. It
will be a good work (I do not doubt) when it comes. It
occurs to me that Church would very much like to see all
this. But I have no time to write it him ; would you send it
him?
To Miss Rogers.
18 Radnor Place : July 12, 1864.
Of course you have been in a certain amount of excite-
ment here about the vote of no confidence. The reports were
up and down for a long time : at the last people expected a
majority of about ten, and the eighteen was a triumph to the
Ministry. As you see, the Conservatives gained some eighteen
Irish Roman Catholic votes, with whom Dizzy is always
supposed to be coquetting ; per contra, they lost a few Con-
servatives who were disgusted at the Catholic alliance. The
Whig Evangelicals sent out a manifesto to their co-religionists
(it is said) calling on them to come out from among the
Papists, and some obeyed the call and voted with Palrnerston.
Northcote, by whom I sat to see the lamentable conclusion of
the Eton and Harrow cricket match, was talking politics to
Lord Cawdor, and both agreed that they wished to be quit of
the Irishmen. ' Every Irish vote we gain loses us an English
one.' That is one of the bones of contention between Diz.
and his party.
Cardwell told me that he thought the speeches also told on
the division. One man said \vhen Pam got up, ' Now my vote
depends on this speech,' and voted with Pam. He said that
Brand (the Treasury Whip) told him that he considered that
Dizzy's replies frequently sent votes to the Ministry, i.e. that
people were disgusted at his rhetorical slash, and took it out
by voting against him. They now talk of the Ministry being
1864 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 251
safe until next autumn, which seems to me rather rash, con-
sidering how little anybody can calculate on Pam's life, or
foresee what will happen if he dies or throws up, and Glad-
stone steps forward to lead the Commons, or to obstruct any
one else who is put forward to lead. I imagine his speech
to have been a considerable success once or twice I have
heard the expression that it ' crushed the debate.'
As I have said I spent a morning (being rather easy just
now) in seeing the end of the Eton and Harrow match. I
had no notion what a pretty thing a cricket match was. The
Harrow fielding was beautiful no fumbling but every
fellow stopped the ball as if it stuck to his hand the moment
they touched. I hear the bowling was very good also, but
that I had not eyes to see.
To Miss Florence Nightingale.
December 6, 1864.
Dear Madam, The abuse of supplying liquors to Indians
and aborigines is, as you may suppose, no new matter of
regret perhaps I should say despair to this office. Laws
have been passed against it in Upper and Lower Canada, in
Vancouver I., in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland,
New Zealand, and, I think, in West Australia. Police
regulations of the same kind exist in S. Australia.
But the difficulty is not in passing laws but in enforcing
them ; and considering the difficulty of enforcing all that
ought to be enforced, even in this old, well-organised country,
against the unwearying pressure of pecuniary interests, it can
easily be imagined what is the difficulty of preventing
publicans from doing as they like in young democracies where
the machinery of Government is meagre, population scattered
(as in the Australian bush and Canadian backwoods), and
perhaps a large seaboard is the scene of a more or less illicit
coasting trade.
I dare say that more might be done than is much more.
But the wishes of the Home Government are perfectly well
known in such matters, and the temper of the colonists (at
least, in large colonies) is not very tolerant of Home inter-
252 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
ference. I fear, therefore, that the Secretary of State could
do little more than remain on the watch for opportunities,
which would enable him to stir the question, and keep
governors alive to their duties. This is rather an unsatis-
factory conclusion, and I heartily wish for myself that I saw
my way to anything less unsatisfactory. But I am not
aware, at the present moment, of any colony in which a
movement from the Colonial Office would be likely to do any
good.
Yours very faithfully,
F. ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
December n, 1864.
Mozley, as you perhaps know, is going to preach what
are called the Bampton lectures at Oxford, and has taken
Miracles as his subject. He is very like himself, thinking away
like a steam engine of 100 horse-power, and whirling you
along with him if you will let him. However, he came here
more to pump than to talk, and I held forth on Metaphysics
like a demon. I did not know I had so many. I shall be
curious to see what he makes of it. It is the subject of the
day, and he might do the world and himself any amount of
good by a really first-rate treatise.
To Miss Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : December 23, 1864.
My dear Kate, We have been unusually quiet since we
got home, except as to family company. Partly, I believe,
because I was getting rather sluggish and averse to the
trouble of composing a dinner party : partly, I suppose, be-
cause other people are reserving themselves for later in the
season.
Cardwell is happily absent, though not so much as I could
wish. He is very friendly, but his fidgets are a great torment.
The constant presence in his mind of the House of Commons
and the Leader of the Opposition is a terrible nuisance. And
after a despatch is drafted with sufficient clearness to give all
necessary instruction and sufficient prudence to be perfectly
1864 UNDERSECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 253
defensible (because right) against any reasonable attack, he
will go on for half an hour revising and modifying and paring
off edges in order that it may offer no handle ; sometimes, as
I think, to the disadvantage of the despatch as a matter of
administration.
I have been a good deal interested by the proposed
American union. We have had the principal man here, the
Canadian Prime Minister, 2 to talk it over, and of course
it was interesting to understand (though of course seeing
through his eyes) the position of affairs. The great difficulty
is to arrange for a real union of the five provinces (Canada,
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince
Edward Island) on terms which shall make the Central
or Federal Legislation really dominant, so as to make one
body politic of the whole, and yet to provide security to the
French Canadians that this dominancy would not be used to
swamp their religion and habits. Then, as it is not, of course,
desirable (or is supposed not to be so) to legislate specifically
for Lower Canada, there is to be a scheme which gives too
much to the individual provinces, but leaving it to the British
provinces to effect a clear amalgamation by degrees. This,
as you may suppose, renders the affair rather wanting in
neatness and scientific character. But I suppose it will push
through, as all parties are agreed in desiring to launch a
' British America.'
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
Extract from a letter to a Colonial Governor?
Your suspicion that you are over-full in your despatches
is, I think, just. Their exuberance, so to call it, gives them
rather an appearance (which is, of course, disadvantageous)
of being written for the public, not very well informed and
anxious to be amused and interested, than for a Secretary of
State anxious to deal rightly with the subject in hand, and
desirous above all things of having succinctly, prominently
2 Sir John Macdonald. There is a 3 This was written in answer to a
fuller account of these matters at the letter asking for criticism of despatches,
end of chapter viii.
254 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
completely, and once for all brought before him the informa-
tion (including, of course, state of opinion) which is requisite
to guide his judgment, and the impressions of the Governor
on these facts. I mean that reiteration, reflections, historical
illustrations and quotations &c., necessary and instructive to
a general reader, are easily overdone in the transaction of
business.
Then there are two or three points on which I should
lodge what is called, I think, a ' caveat.'
1. General fulness of statement is no compensation for
the omission of an important fact or consideration ; sometimes
even it has the effect of overlaying the significant fact.
2. It is no doubt a Governor's clear duty to give the
Secretary of State his honest opinion and honest information ;
and it is his right also to do so for his own protection. But
a Governor is often under a temptation to do more than this,
and so to express his own opinions as to appear an advocate
for the views held by those about him (and by himself),
although by so doing he may add to the practical difficulties
of the Government here.
3. It is impossible for a Secretary of State to ignore in-
formation which comes to him from newspapers, individuals, or
elsewhere. What he can do and ought to do, and what it is
the rule to do, is to give the Governor (or Colonial Govern-
ment indirectly) the opportunity of explanation. If a request
for explanation is treated as a censure (as I think you and
your ministers treat it), all this information (which it is, I
repeat,- impossible to exclude, often impossible to leave un-
noticed) will be doing its work silently and uncontradicted,
than which nothing can be worse for the Governor and the
Colony.
4. No doubt the colonists, or some of them, are angry
with us. They may have some good reasons. It is not for
me to say they have not. But they have some bad ones.
One is this : some of their friends are continually trying,
while disclaiming argument or controversy, to do the work of
argument by insinuating in papers intended for the public
facts which we think untrue, and arguments which we think
delusive. We do not like our flank being thus turned, and
1864 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 255
justifiably, as I hold, protest sharply against such insinuations,
recalling what, if we are right, is the true state of affairs.
This has a tart appearance, but it is the doing of those who
provoke it.
Another bad reason is that the Secretary of State is un-
hesitatingly represented as saying sometimes what he has
cautiously avoided saying ; sometimes what he has expressly
disclaimed (there is, I think, a splendid instance in a paper
you sent me lately), or as implying or believing a fact when
he only asks a question. The representations of course
become current ; the original on which the representations
are based does not. And the consequence is, of course, a
popular impression against the Colonial Office. . . .
I am writing on post day without time to be short, and
unluckily without your letters before me, so I may not have
chosen my words very properly, or have said exactly what I
wished to say in answer to your letters.
Yours sincerely,
F. ROGERS.
To Rev. E. Rogers.
1865
I think Charles Buxton has rather disgraced himself in
his writing about Eyre. 4 My notion is that Eyre was really
justified in viewing the matter as a most dangerous rebellion
to be crushed at all hazards, and I expect to find his first
measure right. But I doubt whether he will be able to show
that he pulled up the rude reckless system of execution and
other punishment as soon as safety was substantially re-
stored, and he might have recovered his head. And I am
clear that he has not felt sufficiently the painful and terrible
character of what he and the officers acting under him have
done.
4 Mr. Eyre (previously distinguished action saved the English residents from
for his adventurous journeys in Aus- grave danger ; but it was judged that
tralia) was Governor of Jamaica. The he had carried his severity farther than
rising of the coloured population was, was necessary, and that his punishments
as may be gathered from the letters had been too summary ; and he was
which follow, a serious one ; and it recalled,
could not be questioned that his prompt
256 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
As to the numbers of blacks killed our evidence at present
is :
1. Official despatches which do not show more than 200
or 300, but do not negative the idea that very many more
have been killed one way or other.
2. A loose statement in a private letter that ' I should say
1,000 had been killed.'
3. A triumphant statement in a Jamaica paper that 2,000
have been killed. A report of the naval officer in command
that 1,500 would be a moderate estimate.
4. An oral statement of a dissenting minister and manager
of estate who was in the thick of it, and assisted at some of
the courts-martial, that many more than 2,000, say 5,000, may
have perished.
So that the matter is vague and terrible enough. I am
very anxious to see what this mail brings from Eyre.
To Rev. E. Rogers.
1865.
My dear Edward, Church found a point superfluous in
your Hebrew, but as the mistake was John Rogers's 5 and not
the printer's, he left it unaltered. Your title-page professes to
be a facsimile, not a revised edition. He read the two sheets
5 Edward Rogers was publishing of Christ Church in Dublin in 1651 for
The Life and Opinions of a Fifth such time as he should be minister for
Monarchy Man, chiefly extracted from the puritan congregation there : he was
the writings of Jo/in Rogers, preacher. afterwards imprisoned by Cromwell in
This John Rogers was an ancestor, Carisbrooke Castle, and treated very
father of the first baronet. There had harshly, but it was because he went too
been a constant family tradition (a far against earthly monarchs in fact
curious instance of the development of he was denounced for praying that God
myth) to the effect that ' their ancestor would 'hasten the time when Christ
had been Dean of Christ Church in should reign and we shall have no other
Dublin, imprisoned by Cromwell in Lord Protector. Let our faith have so
Carisbrooke Castle for his loyalty to much of the grain of mustard seed as
Charles I.' The truth, as Sir E. Rogers to say to that great mountain "Be
found, was that John Rogers, though removed" and it shall be removed.'
the son of a Prebendary of Ely, was Antony Wood called him ' a conceited
ultra-puritan and a preacher of the pragmatical fellow,' and Cromwell said
Fifth Monarchy. He was presented to him, 'You will talk, I see, though
by the Parliamentary Commissioners it be nothing to the purpose.'
with some of the confiscated revenues
1865 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 257
and was clearly of opinion that there was nothing in them
which ought to be omitted. I was glad of this, for though
he did not know how much more of the same kind there was,
and so far saw your extracts at an advantage, yet he did not
also know how they were introduced, and so saw them at a
disadvantage. He was also clear that an account of R.'s
doctrine and discipline was indispensable. I really think
you could not have been shorter, unless you intended to write
a wholly different kind of book. He understands that he is
to review it. ...
Mrs. 's relations with her maids are rich. She was
describing one who was a breaker of china. At last she broke
three things in one day. ' So I said to her, " You are ill, Jane,
you want some castor oil." The maid stared and was asto-
nished. " Your hand shakes, you want some castor oil, Jane."
The maid took it as a joke and grinned. But when bedtime
came, the upper maid was duly summoned. " Jane is ill, and
wants some castor oil ; come with me and I will give it out
for her." ' . . . Mrs. appeared at the bedside with a
quite inflexible determination, explained that Jane was ill
and did want castor oil and must take it. She did take it,
and no further breakage occurred from that time to I don't
know when.
Ever yours,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers (Lady Blachford}.
July 1 8, 1865.
Almost before I got to Oxford I found it was all up with
us. 6 When the railway omnibus stopped at its first hotel
waiter and boots told us that Hardy was 200 ahead, evidently
too great a start to be made up"~on the last day's poll ; and
when I saw Bernard, he told me that the Committee had
actually telegraphed to Gladstone that the seat was lost
To-day will somewhat reduce the majority, but the poll is not
carried on with any hope of reducing it materially. The
numbers will be rather above 1,700 on one side, and about
6 The members for the University of 1865, Mr. Gathorne Hardy (Lord
had been Mr. Gladstone and Sir Cranbrook) took Mr. Gladstone's
William Heathcote. At the election place.
S
258 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
1,900 on the other. The total number of voters is about
4,150. . . . It is a great bore. All the consolation is that
Hardy is not a Bacf man, certainly the best opponent that
| Gladstone has yet had. Gladstone will, of course, try South
Lancashire, but with very much diminished chance of getting
I in. ...
It is astonishing what mistakes men will make. One
actually sent up a voting paper certified properly by a
magistrate to have been signed by the voter in his presence,
but not signed by the voter at all. Some persons have been
troubled by a scruple of conscience in cases where the paper
was insufficiently executed, considering that after such a
failure they cannot conscientiously affirm that they have
' signed no other voting paper ' (which they are required to
do) and have written up to the Committee for advice. The
answer has been ' Sir, you are mistaken in supposing that
you have signed a voting paper. You have indeed attempted
to do so, but you have signally failed. There is therefore no
reason,' &c. Gladstone has sent down an admirable fare-
well letter, short, dignified, and feeling, almost enough to make
some of his opponents repent of their votes, I should say.
To Miss Rogers.
Radnor Place : November 25, 1865.
My dear Kate, I have had my first interview with
William Forster. He is certainly a rough diamond, as strange
a contrast to Fortescue's polished, almost feminine, manner as
can well be imagined. But he seems a clear-headed, thinking,
and not wrong-headed man, ready for work and very friendly.
He began at once, when we were alone, asking after all the
family. . . .
I see he is a regular universal suffrage man, or something
near it, by his speech at Bradford, which by the way did not
appear to me to have much in it.
We are expecting our Jamaica news with some anxiety.
The soldiers seem to have made wildish work of it, and
Eyre's hanging a member of the Assembly by court-martial,
sending him from Kingston for the purpose, is rather startling.
1865 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 259
The Dissenters are preparing a most furious attack on the
local Government and soldiers. They intend to try to make
out, I fancy, that Gordon was an obnoxious champion of the
negroes, whom the Government hated, and took this oppor-
tunity to get rid of. Of course they put themselves on their
defence and pelt as they are pelted.
To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
1 8 Radnor Place : December 18, 1865.
My dear Gladstone, I ought to have thanked you some
days since for the copy of your speeches which you sent me.
Parts of them almost brought the tears to my eyes on re-
reading them in cold blood. But personally glad as I always
was to have you at Oxford, I cannot help feeling that you are
better where you are. The position of having to do good to
thosfi whom you represent, in a manner which they do not
conceive to be good, and that, not once or twice, but as a
consequence of certain differences of view on matters of
wisdom and equity which are sure to be always reproducing
themselves, is a position which would drive me mad, and from
which a man who is to govern the country ought to be
released.
I confess, however, that I hope to find that you differ from
some of your present constituents as to ends, almost as much
as you differed from some of your late constituents as to
means, if at least it is fair to call democracy an end and
Church ascendency a mean.
Yours very sincerely,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
Colonial Office : January 2, 1866.
My dear Church, What do you say about this ? You
see Gladstone is a good deal smitten by the book ' Ecce Homo,'
and would be glad to see it well reviewed. I should imagine
it would be very much in your line. Try it. It is, I hear, or
rather you see, an exhibition of our Saviour's character and
\
260 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
mission from the merely human side, not "denying, but care-
fully excluding, the idea of His divine attributes.
I should imagine it would require much care to do justice
to its value as an exhibition of part of the truth, so as yet to
warn people effectually against so riveting their eyes on that
part as to become insensible to its essential incompleteness.
's ' something beyond human being needed ' is an un-
commonly feeble conclusion to arrive at.
I can easily believe that there may be Unitarians (and
this man may or may not be one of them) wKb love and
revere Christ, believing Him to be mere man, with greater
depth and fervency than many of us love and revere Him,
though believing Him to be God. And one would desire to
do justice to such men, utinam nostri essent I What one
would desire is that such men's works should be so exhibited
as to lead Unitarians and others forward instead of leading
Churchmen backward. And this would be done in this case
if (to put the matter extravagantly) any one would write such
a book under the title of ' My Lord and my God ' as would
, furnish an inseparable second volume to ( Ecce Homo,' so that
no one who bought one would think his book complete with-
out the other.
However, all this is said in the dark, as I have not seen
the book, I have heard of it.
Why will you not come to town ? There are so many
things, it seems to me, that I should like to talk to you about.
The Jamaica business is most terrible. The doings on both
v .sides appear in truth to be rather worse than better than what
you see in the papers. Only that consideration suggests
excuses for the whites which are wholly wanting in the case
of the blacks. It is really terrible to see human nature naked.
Ever yours,
F. ROGERS.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
January 25, 1866.
My dear Church, What Newman says about his views on
the present state of things is a reflection on \vhaF~I said on
1866 UNDER-SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES 261
the author of ' Ecce Homo/ 7 that one of his aims was the
( moral elevation of your (the Roman) Church.'
He replies with general truth no not moral, but mixed
moral and intellectual, a narrowness which is not of God.'
Again, his anticipations for the future, as to a fresh aspect
of doctrine opening out, seem to me rather an answer to my
suggestion that ' Ecce Homo ' was aiming at establishing a basis
of doctrine without assuming inspiration in any technical sense.
I understand him to amuse himself by taking all the
privileges of sham mystification with me. ' I have sent for
the book,' i.e. he said to somebody, ' Just fetch "me " Ecce
Homo," I want to see what it was in the forty-eighth page
that opened Rogers's eyes so wide.'
To Right Hon. W. E, Gladstone.
1 8 Radnor Place : February 18, 1866. j
My dear Gladstone, If you have twenty minutes to spare
next Sunday do cast your eye through Newman's two sermons
sixteen and seventeen of the volume called ' Sermons on the
Subjects of the Day,' headed ' The Christian Church an
Imperial Power,' and ' Sanctity the Token of the Christian
Empire,' particularly pages 256-58, 263-5, 2 73~5. 284, 287.
And observe not only the particular thoughts but their group-
ing and relation to each other. 8
' If he be not Bran he is Bran's brother.'
Yours sincerely,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
7 Sir John Seeley published Ecce Homo.
Homo'm T866 without Ms name, and " Coincidences, partly of thought and
many incorrect guesses at the author partly of style, may be observed, if the
were made at the time. It is remark- passages referred to are compared with
able that (as appears from this" and the the chapters inEae Homo on 'Christ's
next two letters) two of Newman's Royalty,' ' Christ's Credentials,' and
most intimate friends, both very acute ' The Conditions of Membership in
critics, discussed the probability of Christ's Kingdom.'
Newman himself having
^f
I
262 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vn
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
1 8 Radnor Place [February 1866 ?]
My dear Church, I am so possessed with the idea
of the book being Newman's that nothing will drive it
out of my head, not even this "letter, though it is not in style
like Newman, and as you say mystification is carried very
far. Why should you not give your name ? and why should
you not give Macmillan leave to print your article if he likes ?
Be the author of ' Ecce Homo ' who he may, I should (if I
were you) like to have established a relation of personal
friendship with him. I think it is really ungracious to refuse.
It clearly accepts your interpretation of the book so far
as belief in the Divinity of Christ goes, on which you express
a positive opinion. But it does not say / am a Roman
Catholic.
'~ I have been reading your Hooker by snatches. I like
the preface very much, but I see that when you warm to your
work, and involve yourself in a sentence in which you really
wish to give force and vivacity to what you have to develop,
you still run to substantives. I think you are quite right to
do in your fashion what requires to be done best.
Hooker's melody is beautiful certainly. One has a curious
feeling in reading it, that it is such a full grandiose exposition
of truth with such odd assumptions as evidence of matters
which in the present day are almost exploded, at any rate
that have to be stated with proof or apology by a member of
the aristocracy of intellect.
The style of the writing brings to my ears the lines
' A solemn air, and the best comforter
' To an unsettled fancy.'
Just at the present conjuncture of religious belief, would
a sketch of the counter-Church heathen revival of philosophy
and morality be interesting. I could fancy some curious
parallels. An essay on Origen, for example, or Julian the
Apostate.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
1866 263
CHAPTER VIII
Last Years of Official Life, 1866-1870
IN June 1866 Lord Russell's Government was turned out by
Lord Dunkellin's amendment to the franchise bill and Lord
Derby became Premier. Lord Carnarvon was the new
chief at the Colonial Office. ' Lord Carnarvon became at
once a friend more intimate than Cardwell, both because
there was more warmth in him, and because there was the
bond of a common feeling in Church matters. He was a
great contrast. He had not Cardwell's hard-headed desire
so to do the work that statesmen, and Parliament following
statesmen, should see it was well done : but he had more of
a generous desire to effect worthy objects, and also more, I
think, of a wish to shine before the public and to distinguish
himself in the ordinary sense of the word. His failing was
rather too much self-consciousness, and a disposition to be
caught by showy schemes. He was not the least afraid of
the House of Commons, a great recommendation to a chief
in the eyes of his subordinates ; but on the other hand, being
in the House of Lords, though he was less afraid of what the
House of Commons would say or think of him, he was less
able to control what they could do to him and his measures.
He was friendly to everybody and particularly so to me both
as a chief and as a companion. It was curious, that though
he was fully aware of his own abilities and desirous of
receiving credit for them, particularly in his measures and
public appearances, he was given to take a second part in
conversation, always wishing rather to draw out others than
to speak himself. Accordingly I used to find myself lecturing
him almost in the tone of an old college tutor, which is after
all a little the same position as that of a Senior Under-
264 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vin
Secretary. When Cardwell retired he gave his opinion
(without any suggestion from me) to his successor, Lord
Carnarvon, that I ought to have assistance, which was given
me in the person of Henry (now Sir Henry) Holland, 1 than
whom it was impossible to have a more delightful subordi-
nate : prompt, intelligent, conciliating, regular, always ready
to help, never making difficulties, and having that quickness
to perceive the characteristic or amusing side of business
which goes far to make work into play. Not only did his
industry take work off my shoulders, but his companionship
lightened what remained. He had a kind of pleasantly
impulsive rapidity, which in some men leaves an impression
of want of solidity ; but his judgment was very good, and he
would stand to it. He had at once that openness of mind
which would make him, as a member of a department or a
party, alive to the force of adverse arguments, and at the
same time that intelligent flexibility which enables a man to
turn the flank of differences, and to continue to act not less
cordially because on one point there was a hitch. When
Lord Carnarvon left the Disraeli Ministry with Lord Salis-
bury and General Peel, on the occasion of the 1 867 Reform
Bill, he was succeeded by the Duke of Buckingham, a
thoroughly honest and kind-hearted man, with a rough but
friendly manner, not without shrewdness, and clear-headed,
but with a natural turn for detail which he had indulged as
Chairman of a great railway, till it injured his capacity as a
Minister. . . . The Duke of Buckingham was followed at the
Colonial Office (when Mr. Gladstone became Premier) by
Lord Granville, the pleasantest and most satisfactory chief of
those under whom I served. His merits as a chief were, that
he trusted his subordinates in matters of detail, that he saw
his way clearly and would act vigorously in what may be
called ministerial as distinguished from departmental policy,
and he was ready to act with promptitude and authority in
matters which none but a chief could handle, matters requi-
ring action in the House of Lords or the Cabinet or the
Treasury. And in a diplomatic kind of way he thoroughly
enjoyed the characteristic and amusing side of business.'
1 The present Lord Knutsford.
1866 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 265
To Lady Rogers.
Colonial Office : July 4, 1866.
Lord Carnarvon has made his appearance. Cardwell has
had him here to talk to, and called me in to be bottle-holder.
I was much struck by Cardwell's mode of going through the
state of business. There was such an evident wish simply to
ease matters to his successor and facilitate in every way the
transaction of business.
Both were very kind to me, and Lord C. almost instantly
asked about distribution of work, and seemed surprised to
find that I had what I have to do : on which Cardwell spoke
up (having left something to the same effect in writing) and
said that he should be prepared to support any step for taking
the legal busiuess away from me, as a relief that concerned
the interest of the public. Lord C. meets me here to-morrow
at 1 2 o'clock to take up what most presses.
How those poor Austrians are getting slaughtered ! 2 It
is heart-breaking. I should suppose that the end of the
Austrian Empire was fairly come, were it not that they seem
to be so wonderfully tenacious of life.
To Lady Rogers.
October 9, 1866.
I have had a pleasant Sunday at Highclere. Sir Henry
Storks, 3 a certain Major Skinner, a Ceylon official, a very fine
fellow, I should think, of the ' valuable old public servant '
sort, two New Brunswickers, the Oxford notoriety Mansel,
and his wife, and a young brother Auberon, I think, is his
name whom I liked greatly, and a young private secretary
who was cordial and energetic in doing the honours of the
house.
'-' The Battle of Sadowa was fought His work there was over, when Sir
on July 3- John Peter Grant was appointed
3 Governor of Malta. The year Governor of Jamaica, and he returned
before he had been sent out to Jamaica to his post at Malta. He was Lord
as President of the Commission to High Commissioner of the Ionian
inquire into the events which took Islands at the time of their cession to
place in the governorship of Mr. Eyre. Greece, in 1864.
266 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
Storks is always pleasant. I never came across a more
complete man of the world a man with all his wits about
him, never slighting or quarrelling with anybody never
committing himself determined to succeed in all he attempts
and to let alone what cannot be effected ready and quick-
witted in conversation, never without his answer to any thrust
you make at him plenty of good sayings and stories talking
such French, it was a pleasure to hear the sounds, and 1
should think as good Italian a scientific appreciation of a
French cook, and of the proprieties of a dinner thinking
London even in November better than the country, and
plainly professing that if, as the ' Autocrat ' says, ' good
Americans when they die go to Paris,' he would be content to
throw in his lot with them.
If there is one thing he would like just now, it is that the
Pope would take refuge in Malta during his government : I
think I see the grave courtesy with which he would receive
His Holiness, with a perfect appreciation of what was due to
the Chair of St. Peter from the representative of the British
Crown in Malta, and vice versa.
I am not sure whether he has strong affection or much
imagination. However, he is, I should think, a capital
master, a capital servant, a capital ally, and a capital com-
panion.
To Lady Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : November 2, 1866.
My dear Mother, I cannot get from under my pressure
quite, but I must not delay in giving you an account of my
last Highclere visit till I have forgotten it all.
I had offered myself for Sunday and was accepted, and
pressed to come on Friday to talk over some business for
Saturday's mail. ... I had unwittingly offered myself to
meet the Salisburys and the Disraelis. It was a piece of luck,
for Lord Carnarvon had first asked me on the previous
Sunday when I was engaged. The other guests were a young
cousin, Edward Herbert, Graham the private secretary, and
Verdon, a Melbourne Minister. I planted myself next Edward
Herbert, a pleasant, intelligent Viennese attache. . . . Dizzy
1866 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 267
was either much out of humour or assumed the mysterious ;
silent and sullen-looking, as far as I saw. He is certainly a
most remarkable-looking fellow eyes, mouth, chin, hair,
everything ; but he is far more massive and powerful-looking
than I imagined. The caricatures give me a notion of
something rather insignificant. There is nothing at all of
that nothing puny, or merely acute. . . .
Next day Saturday. I had some very pleasant walking
with Edward Herbert and was greatly amused at an interview
with a gamekeeper whom we met. The gamekeeper was got
up in such gilt and velveteen as almost made one take off
one's hat, and was full of dissatisfaction at the leave given to
tenants to kill hares, and looking forward with a grim satis-
faction to ' his Lordship ' having next year to send into New-
bury to buy leverets for the table ; then he burst out on the
farmers. ' Right good shots, sir ; some of them will kill their
fourteen or seventeen hares a day ; there's - , the best shot
in the neighbourhood, just as good as any gentleman as has
been brought up to it.' He was altogether of opinion that a
Tory Government was an unmixed evil, ' made his Lordship
entirely neglect the game, and no getting him to listen to any-
thing.'
At breakfast and luncheon I found myself next Mrs.
Disraeli. She insists on being heard and seen and ' keeps up
the ball ; ' rather thinks herself the life of the party. Seeing
out of the window a piebald cow in the park, she insisted
that every one all round the table should wish for something
(I suppose you know the superstition ; I did not), overriding
and smashing all the little private neighbourly conversations.
Lord Salisbury wished for ' sleep ' and explained himself to
wish for ' the power of going to sleep when he was bored.'
On Sunday I had two delightful walks ; the day was per-
fect and the place lovely, and I liked my companions
Graham in the morning, Auberon Herbert and Verdon in the
afternoon, and partly Lord Carnarvon. I was almost tempted
to join their smoking party after bedtime.
On Monday I found myself (without being treated with
anything but the most entire friendliness) rather hustled off
i.e. sent by a rather slow, very early train when there was
268 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
another an hour later, and faster. However, I had every
reason to be satisfied with the result, for it appeared that the
Disraelis were going by the last train, while Lord and Lady
Salisbury, Verdon and Edward Herbert were going by the
first. The Highclere party had a carriage to itself, and we
were really neither more nor less than a jolly party.
I have not told you Lord Salisbury's story about the
Duke of Malakhoffand his pheasant. He (Malakhoff) was at
a battue at Strathfieldsaye and shot nothing, much to his
disgust, and when the day was over it appeared that he
would be extremely put out unless he was allowed or enabled
to kill something ; so, in spite of all the gamekeepers could
think, feel, or say, a pheasant was procured, tied by its leg to
the top of a post, and Malakhoff was put some thirty yards
off with a double-barrelled gun. It was supposed that he
would thereupon and from thence take two shots at the bird.
Not a bit of it ; he loaded his two barrels, walked close up to
the pheasant, put the muzzle close to him and discharged
both barrels into him with ' He ! coquin ! ' The next day
the Duke of Wellington told the keeper that Malakhoff was a
great man who had smoked to death 500 Arab men, women,
and children in a cave, to which the gamekeeper replied,
4 Like enough, your Grace, he'd be capable of anything.'
To Miss Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : November 2, 1866.
My dear Kate, I am much elated to hear of the flower-
ing of another Sikkim rhododendron. 4 Oddly enough, I had
just been admiring at Stowe what I took to be Sikkim rhodo-
dendrons and trying to make out whether any of them were
the same as ours. It looks a beautiful flower, and it gives
hopes that the others may come on one by one.
Stowe is a magnificent place, ducal in the highest possible
degree. But, after the fashion, I suppose, of the last century,
everything seems sacrificed to pomp. There is one perfectly
magnificent suite of rooms running from one end of the house
to the other. Here is the south front. (Sketched on the
letter.)
4 A present from Sir Joseph Hooker, brought from the Himalayas.
1866 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 269
In front, a terrace garden, and in front of that a splendid
lawn with trees on each side (pierced for one or two views)
sloping down to the water at .the bottom, and facing
the opposite slope of the valley. But (for the sake of the
architectural fagade) not one of the south bedrooms along
this grand south front look out to this great view, but look
out over the leads, or sideways, and the domestic dining-room
and the Duke's study are down in the basement, so low that
I think they can hardly see over the terrace flower-beds, on
which they look, to the view beyond. The other side of the
basement is offices, and all that part of the house seems
intended for it, for you have to go through dreary cellar-like
vaulted corridors to get at the Duke's study. However, for
entertaining crowned heads it is admirable.
I disposed of what I went down for, pretty much to my
satisfaction, or at least got the instructions for it, and must
finish off to-morrow. . . . The Duke seems to be endeavour-
ing to recover as he can the mass of beautiful things that
were sold to pay his father's debts. He showed me some
miniatures (in which they were rich in old times), one of which
(the great Duchess of Marlborough) he had bought back. It
was lamentable to see the masses of empty brackets that were
formerly filled with majolica. The ceiling and wall decora-
tions were very fine ; they were done by Italian artists in about
1780. I rather like to see the internal decorations of that
date after the Louis Quatorze had a little worn out.
To Lady Rogers.
Colonial Office : May 8, 1867.
The Ministers, I fancy, are well pleased with themselves
about Luxemburg. What seems to me to be feared is that
Louis Napoleon is putting off the evil day till he has got a
sufficient armament of breech-loaders. I confess I do not
much fancy extending our guarantees. Storks has just inter-
rupted me with a call. He says that in Paris a week ago the
talk was all of war, and that the Prussians (he hears) look
on the Conference as an insult ; in fact, that war is to be. I
cannot imagine that we shall be foolish enough to guarantee
270 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
Luxemburg. Storks thinks that Prussia would like a little
more time for preparation as well as France, and that the
French Man will carry it at first, but not at last.
To Lord Monck.
June 6, 1867.
My dear Lord Monck, I have sent on your letters and
enclose some copies of the Union Act. I wish you heartily a
pleasant voyage and a prosperous time in Canada. 5
It is a great occasion and there are few things I should
like better than to be at your elbow during the launch of the
new ship.
Yours sincerely,
F. ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
June 15, 1867.
My dear Mother, Yesterday evening a small 'immediate'
despatch box came in from the Duke of Buckingham, and
the lock being out of order I had, in great perplexity, to
commit the atrocity which shocked John so much, of breaking
it open, imagining Fenian invasions of Canada, an insurrection
in Heligoland, and ' what not.' However, it turned out to be
information that the Ministers and their Under-Secretaries
would be presented to the Sultan 6 at half-past three to-day,
and that he would take me if I was duly rigged out at 2.45.
And now I have just come back from making the
Commander of the Faithful's acquaintance. The rooms of
Buckingham Palace look, I think, more grandiose than I had
expected from seeing them in the evening, and of course there
was the usual approach through the handsome staircase with
flowers &c., &c. Then all the party collected gradually,
Ministers dropping in one after the other, and one or two Turks
sprinkled among them. The Duke introduced me to Fuad
Pasha, the Grand Vizier who shook my hand with a certain
5 The Act for the Confederation of Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New
the North American Provinces was Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island),
passed in March 1867. Lord Monck The first Dominion Parliament met at
was going out as the first Governor- Ottawa in November of that year.
General of the new Dominion of 8 The Sultin Abdul Aziz.
Canada (then including Upper and
1867 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 271
empressement a keen-faced old man, with (I should have
said) a touch of the Greek in his physiognomy, red fez, blue
frock coat richly embroidered with lots of diamond orders, and
red trousers. Then after a time we were arranged in a semi-
circle, the door of the inner room was opened so that we saw
his suite and speculated about what they were, and after a
time he came forth at the head of them. Their general dresses
are modifications of Fuad Pasha's, but there were one or two
Albanians (beautiful dresses they are), red cap, gold tissue
scarf, white kilt with some bright scarlet showing below it,
and handsome leggings.
Then he made his round, began, and had some conversa-
tion with Lord Derby and the two or three chief Ministers
through Fuad, who seemed to translate everything, shaking
hands with them at the end. Then he came round and stood
for a moment or two before each of us second-chops, looking
more or less agreeable, while Lord Bradford said to Fuad,
' Sir Frederic Rogers, sous-secretaire des Colonies,' and Fuad
said something to the Sultan, and I (as every one else) bowed,
and Fuad said on behalf of H.I.M. : ' Enchante de faire votre
connaissance.' Then he swept off again with his suite into his
inner room.
He is a handsome-looking man, pot-bellied, with a quiet,
heavy, and perhaps rather languid expression, but a dignified
manner, not at all graceful. The whole affair from Downing
Street to Downing Street took an hour.
It is a thing to have done to shake hands with a Grand
Vizier, though Grand Viziers are not what they used to be.
And I am certainly glad to have had a good look at the
Sultan.
There, I thought I would give you this while it was fresh
in my mind, and now I must set to work again.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
July 6, 1867.
I thought the debate on martial law went well as to the
principle. I think we (the Colonial Office) are quite right on
272 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
the point on which Cockburn denounces our view (viz. that
in emergencies a man is to suspend the law, trusting to an
act of indemnity).
The essence of the difference when run home appears to
me this : I say that a man in authority is to do his best to
put down a rebellion, trusting that if he acts honestly and
defensibly in general an act of indemnity will be passed to
cover all that he has done.
Cockburn says that a man in authority is to endeavour to
put down a rebellion by such means, and by such only, as a
jury of his countrymen may be expected in each separate
case to accept as rendered lawful by the necessity of the case.
His view seems to me to have every possible disadvantage.
It absolutely paralyses every man who is not prepared to
risk his own life and reputation ; for how can he tell what a
judge and jury will pronounce to be the measure of necessity
recognised by law ? And next it does not provide for a just
determination of the question, for it is almost certain that a
jury in such critical circumstances will be of such stuff that
either it will indiscriminately condemn every officer, or it will
indiscriminately acquit every officer, or it will be absolutely
incapable of agreeing on any verdict. A Government and
Legislature subject to the pressure of public opinion are far
less likely to be unfair.
Ever yours,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
1 8 Radnor Place : March 21, 1868.
I have just read Bernard. I do not see much harm in
what he says, except that he appears to me rather given to
advocate the particular step which the Liberals want for the
moment, without considering what next ; or rather, without
considering whether the next landing-place is more stable
than that which he proposes to leave.
If he only means that colleges may be relieved from Acts
of Uniformity, but should remain at liberty to impose tests
of their own, being consistent with or in the spirit of
1868 LAST YEARS OF OFFICAIL LIFE 273
their Statutes, I am not disposed to differ from him in the
abstract.
But I wish the Church party had coolness and wisdom
and determination enough to see when the stand ought to be
made with the utmost available resolution. I should be quite
ready to abandon outworks, if only I were sure that somewhere
or other in the rear we were shutting gates and pulling up
drawbridges and mounting cannon.
What would be encouraging would be the way in which
the early Church, with all its abuses and absurdities, which I
suppose had begun to be pretty vigorous, had bottom enough
to throw off all the shallow intellectual speculations and philo-
sophical morality of Alexandria &c.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
Highclere Castle : August 9, 1868.
My dear Mother, Here we are for a Sunday. We stay
till 2 o'clock to-morrow, Monday, when we must be off for
me to sign letters &c. at Downing Street at 5 o'clock. G.
perhaps told you of my Committee on military matters. There
has been a great difficulty about a garrison for the Straits
Settlements, what it was to be, who was to pay, &c. Sir
H. Storks and I met and settled it to our own satisfaction.
But as the Horse Guards (not to say Treasury) were con-
cerned, the War Office sent us a letter to propose officially
that the matter should be referred to a Committee of one
representative from the Colonial Office, one from the War
Office, and one from the Horse Guards, meaning Sir H.
Storks, Sir Hope Grant, and myself. Storks and I are boule-
verses by an announcement from Sir Hope that nothing would
induce the Duke of Cambridge to consent to our plan. How-
ever, at last we agreed on something.
The point was that Storks and I wanted to have nothing
from the Horse Guards but 150 British artillery men, and
that the colony should provide for the rest armed police.
But the Horse Guards said that British troops could not stand
sentry in the tropics, therefore that if we had 150 white
T
274 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
artillery with guns, magazine, &c., we must have 1 50 black
troops to stand sentry over all this, and then the black troops
would also have to stand sentry over themselves, and that
this would require another 150 black troops, 300 in all. Then
the question was how and where to get these black troops.
The Horse Guards wanted not to reduce a Ceylon coloured
regiment and use that ; Storks wanted to reduce it and save
money. Indian regiments had not enough white officers, the
Ceylon regiment could not keep up its privates, and so on.
However, at last we settled to hire a regiment from the Indian
Government. Of course / did not care where it came from
so long as we got it, having only to take care that faith was
kept with the colony, a pledge having been made that it
should have so many men for such a sum of money.
Well, this being our report, we all met. The Duke of
Cambridge's manner is uncommonly taking and pleasant and
frank. But somehow or other he had a jolly big-dog way of
blurting out things that made me inclined to laugh, and I felt
that if there were not a desk between him and me I should get
into a scrape.
The question arose, and the Horse Guards were to tell us,
what amount of troops were necessary. I should have meant
by this, what amount of troops were wanted to give the colony
such protection from mobs, neighbours pirates, &c., in time
of war as we undertook to give. But the Horse Guards never
seemed for a moment to entertain this view, their single
idea was, what sentries were necessary, and how many men
were necessary to give these sentries five nights in bed out of
six. . . .
This [a proposal of Sir J. Pakington's] entirely threw
over poor Storks (whose face visibly lengthened), and I must
say H.R.H. saw it like a shot, and got up from his seat:
* Ah, ah ! that'll do capitally. Just put that into writing,' and
then went over to Pakington as if he was going to stand over
him with his fist till he had done it. I fairly laughed (with
my face I mean) this time, and as he was now above the box
which screened me he caught it, and I thought I was in a
scrape. Not a bit. ' Ah, I see Sir Frederic smiles, but / always
think there's nothing like black and white.'
1868 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 275
And so it was all put down, and the last I heard from
Storks as we broke up at the door was : ' And here we are, just
where we were before.' True enough perhaps for him ; for the
Duke of Cambridge had done him. But the rest of the world
knew where they were, and now we shall have to battle it
out with the colony. I hope my view on that head will be
found to hold water. If not, I shall have to draw as long a
face as he does.
To the Rev. Father Newman.
1 8 Radnor Place : December 3, 1868.
My dear Newman, I put off answering your letter till I
heard from Doyle. I have not yet got through Gladstone's
autobiography, nor some other things which I began with hopes
that are disappointed. Of course, as you say, some of his
friends think it injudicious, and I am not sure that it is not
injudicious on that very account. One great weight which
Gladstone has to carry in the political race is a character for
want of judgment ; and every addition to that is an impedi-
ment.
I am prepared to find that, if it is not injudicious, it is an
act of the same kind as the Maynooth secession from Sir
Robert Peel i.e. a manifesto or manifestation to be appealed
to hereafter, when he moves on the English establishment, as
he now appeals to the Maynooth move in explanation of his
policy towards the Irish establishment.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
To Miss S. Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : December 20, 1868.
I like my chief 7 very much. He is very pleasant and
friendly, and I think will not meddle beyond what is required
to keep us clear of political slips. G. told you of what Card-
well said, that he had told Lord G. that with him at the head
7 Lord Granville. Mr. Disraeli Minister. Lord Granville was at the
resigned early in December after the Colonial Office till Lord Clarendon's
General Election of November 1868, death in 1870, when he moved to the
and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Foreign Office.
T 2
276 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
and me as the ' motive power,' the office could not go wrong ;
and then when I acknowledged the compliment said, ' Oh, it
is just the truth.'
I am just making a general reform as to my own business,
a horizontal instead of vertical section of the business, so that
I shall have all the top, and others all the bottom (this is a
rude way of saying it) instead of dividing the world between
us : Asia to me and Africa to Sandford. . . .
Sandford 8 I do not see much, but like what I see. He is
a good Churchman, which I am uncommonly glad of, and
seems to be going steadily at his work in a businesslike pains-
taking way. He meets my reform half way, though rather
depressing his position, and with perfect pleasantness.
There is no political speculation that I hear. Gladstone
is so strong that there is not much room for speculation. The
younger Radicals I imagine are very angry at not having a
better share in the places. You see they have all been pushed
into second-rate places, Forster, Ayrton, Stanfield, Bruce and
Childers being the only men who get a real lift. They are
men who are both regular ' county families,' and steady-going
fellows with no turn for revolution. Egerton (the late Con-
servative Under-Secretary of the F. O.) was loud in his praise
of the way in which they had helped the incoming Conserva-
tives with information, each in the department which he had
managed, to transact their business at starting, really anxious,
not for party advantage, but for the proper transaction of the
business of the country. On the whole I think the Radical
element is depressed to the utmost limit of prudence. Page
Wood's appointment is of course excellent.
To Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone.
Colonial Office : January 8, 1869.
My dear Gladstone, There is nothing in Church's reasons
to cause ' permanent uneasiness ' except so far as they indicate
that he is not getting better of his most unreasonable habit of
declining everything.
8 Mr. (afterwards Lord) Sandford was then Assistant Under-Secretary for the
Colonies.
1869 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 277
It seems, from a letter that I got from him this morning,
that when he wrote his Irish Church articles he made up his
mind that he would not be the better for them, and (in a spirit
which other people have acted on within the last thirty years
and got called crotchety for their pains) determined that if
you came into power, one of your first acts should not be to
give him anything. He said the kindness of your letter shook
him greatly, and that he never refused anything with so much
regret, but that he felt after all that there was no real reason
for changing his decision, and was only vexed at the appear-
ance of repelling a kindness, and the impossibility of explaining
to you.
It appears to me to the last degree unreasonable, and I
half feel that I myself as his friend owe you an apology. For
if every honest man is to act on his principle, how are you
possibly to fill the high places of the Church except with place-
hunters ?
Yours very sincerely,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
June 19, 1869.
My dear Mother, I don't know that I have anything
special to say, and sit down because I have a few minutes to
spare.
Our Foreign Office party went off very splendidly. It is
certainly a royal sight. The staircase, which my sisters will
remember, well lighted and filled with finely dressed people
going up and down was magnificent, like some great Paul
Veronese painting alive, only that the dresses are all of such
light colours. We always meet the same friends at these
places, Hollands, Forsters, Mowbrays, Palmers, and generally
politicals. Forster was full of praises of the speech of the
Bishop of Peterborough, 9 never had such a treat in his life ;
he enjoys a good cut and thrust, on whichever side it comes,
which J like in him. I praised Thirlwall's speech (St. Davids).
He said yes, but he did not half like to see a Bishop deserting
9 Bishop Magee against the Bill for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church.
278 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
his position and his order. He certainly has a great, grim
allowance of an adversary's merits which is amusing.
Lord Granville, of course, was somewhat disgusted with the
mess BrigTit had goTIKem ~fnT67"saicT irwouT3~Tose r some votes,
and tol'd me what he himself was going to say with some fun. 1
Lord' Salisbury's interruption was curiously happy (as a hit) ;
it exactly put into his mouth what was the very next thing
he was going to say. I thought his plan of (I suppose) snub-
bing Bright's ungentlemariliness, by appropriating the attack
as one on himself 'as well as the other Lords (' unwisdom ' and
' childish tinkering '), was very like him. I wonder whether
John Bright saw the snub. . . .
To Lady Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : November 1869.
My dear Mother, ... I don't know that I have much to
say to amuse you on your sick-bed. I expect we shall have
some fighting to do in the Parliament about the colonies next
February and wish we had some one stronger in the Commons
than Monsell. However, we have Gladstone well with us :
and he is, of course, aTiost. '"
'Just now we are rather perplexed by an insurrection in
the Red River (Hudson's Bay Territory), which comes just at
an unlucky moment, as the whole transfer of that great terri-
tory to Canada was on the point of taking place.
The official news came here in a long (cypher) telegram
on Friday while Macdonald 2 (who is for the moment in charge
1 At a meeting in Birmingham on Houses on June 18. Mr. Gladstone in
June 14, 1869 about the Irish Church his reply took occasion to say that he
Bill, then before the Lords, a letter was had himself steadily discouraged public
read from Mr. Bright (then President meetings on the subject then before
of the Board of Trade) in which he Parliament, and that each branch of
reflected on the capacity of the House the Legislature might justly feel jealous
of Lords, and hinted that if they delayed of any attempt to interfere with its
the passing of the Bill, people might liberty of discussion,
be led to inquire what was the ' special '-' The late Reginald Somerled Mac-
value ' of the House of Lords as part of donald, well known as an explorer
the Constitution. Even his own party of the High Alps. He was then a
felt that such a letter from a Cabinet clerk in the Colonial Office, and private
Minister was, to say the least, indis- secretary to Sir F. Rogers,
creet. A discussion was raised in both
1869 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE
279
of the key or ^cypher as it is called) and Merivale were dining
here. As we have been worried by all sorts of rubbish,
Fenian threats, murder of Prince Arthur, and so on, Macdonald
was full of zeal about starting off at once to decypher it, leav-
ing his dessert behind him, and I was so affected by his fly-
away rodomontading ways that for a moment I was going to
let him go, when Merivale grimly grumbled to the rest of the
company, who, of course, were waiting the result, ' All this is
bluster and brag, you know.' This restored my presence of
mind and I told Macdonald that he need not hurry himself.
He says, if it had been at Stowe or Chandos House he would
have had to be off in a jiffy. When I went to bed, however,
I was a little fidgety and was rather reassured by receiving a
note from Macdonald at breakfast time to say it was only
this insurrection which he had heard of long ago. Meantime,
of course, it gives us a little trouble, framing a proclamation
and firing it off by cable, discussing with the Agent of the
Canadian Government, who may not like to take over the
property with the tenants in such a state, and so on.
Edward will remember a despatch I drafted at Blachford
to turn the flank of some fellows who are trying to set up an
anti-Downing Street Colonial Conference. It seems to have
answered its purpose, for I hear they complain that till that
despatch went round they got nothing but favourable answers,
and now they get nothing but unfavourable. They are, as
may be seen by the papers, agitating to the best of their
powers, but I think we shall beat them. . . .
I am afraid the Archbishop of Canterbury 3 is dying, and
of course every one is speculating on his successor. . . . Lord
Granville was asking me whom I thought the best man ; I said
(or at least wrote after consideration) Claughton. But, of
course, he is out of the question as being a Tory Bishop.
As times go I should not be ill pleased with Jacobson
whom I have heard mentioned. Lord G.'s criticism on him is
that he is a man who is always looking as if he was going to
say something uncommonly shrewd, but it never comes.
Edward will probably tell you that it is a whimsically good
picture of him.
3 Archbishop Tait. He recovered and lived nearly fourteen years longer.
280 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vin
I should doubt whether Wilberforce would be allowed to
have it, nor should I myself be exceedingly pleased at the
appointment.
To Miss Rogers.
Walmer Castle : September 19, 1869.
My dear Kate, Here I am, as you see : very pleasantly
housed and on the mend. I am getting stronger, though not
very fast. . . .
The house is a strange place, a Henry the Eighth fortifica-
tion ; four round corner towers, with a moat round them
turned into garden, and in the middle a central tower with a
deep passage almost amounting to a small moat, but now
turned into passage. The great round tower is the habitable
part of the house with certain additions and subtractions, and
the turnings of the passages and shapes of the rooms are
beyond understanding. I give you a general plan of our bed-
room and dressing-room. . . . The corner towers are batteries
and make an extremely pleasant terrace overlooking the sea
and Goodwin Sands, with swarms of vessels : I counted up-
wards of 160, Lord Granville thought there must be 150 in
sight. Our party is : Lord Granville himself, who is full of
talk and anecdote ; Lady Granville, friendly and pleasant ;
her mother, Mrs. Campbell of Islay, and Meade ; so that we
spend our time agreeably. It is a pleasant run of anecdotes
which are characteristic, told with great freedom, and plea-
santer perhaps from the persons they relate to than they would
be as a mere matter of humour or oddity. I remember two
about his own family, i.e. his mother. His father, he said,
with all his experience, was to the last shy and silent, but
very fond of society. His mother cared little about society
but was perfectly prompt -and self-possessed, and he had one
or two stories of her readiness from third persons who were
by. A lady came to one of her Paris parties, and she said to
her neighbour, ' I know that woman, but I never invited her
here.' The lady approached and the friend wondered what
would happen ; when Lady Granville received her with the
most affable and cordial ' Enchantee de vous voir ici, madame,
invitee ou non invitee.'
1869 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 281
She had large parties, omnium gatherum, and small special
parties, principally French. A pushing lady attacked her at
the omnium gatherum, and told her that she lived herself so
much among the French that she hoped Lady G. would in-
vite her to one of her small parties. Lady G.'s answer was
prompt, compact, but in the most affectionate cadence ' No,
dearest Mrs. .' The two together amused me. And last
night we had a regular string of Cabinet and other stories, just
of that kind of calibre, perhaps scarcely capable of retailing
but very pleasant to hear run off.
Yesterday we drove over to Sir Walter James's, Bettis-
hanger, pretty gardens &c. ; to-day we are to walk to Deal
Castle (if a heavy shower does not prevent us). The country
has some tolerably pretty spots on the north but is generally
very dull ; to the S., i.e. towards Dover, it is evidently
better. I must finish.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Miss Rogers.
Colonial Office : May 5, 1870.
As you see by the ' Times,' we are for the moment in a state
of satisfaction as to our Red River difficulty. 4
Lord Granville's statement seems to me very good and
judicious. The rocks ahead are connected with the murder
of Scott by Riel. I do not understand how Riel fails to see
that he is liable to be tried for his life for that little trans-
action. Nor do I see how the Government can avoid so
trying him if it once gets its hand on the reins. If this breaks
upon him he must either (i) ask an amnesty, (2) oppose our
troops while they are clambering and wading their way
through the lake country, (3) run away ; and in the two last
cases he will have to consider whether it would be more
4 After the Hudson's Bay Territory Settlement should be separate and
was transferred to Canada, Louis Riel independent. A successful expedition
headed an insurrection of the Red was led in August 1870, by Colonel
River Settlement (now Manitoba), (now F. M. Lord) Wolseley, against
seized Fort Garry and claimed that the the insurgents, who submitted quietly.
2 8 2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
satisfactory to him, like the Greek brigands, to finish off by
murdering a few of his opponents.
From all we hear, no Canadian Ministry would dare to
give an amnesty, and if the question rises it will rise on the
entry of our troops, under Imperial authority, i.e. it will fall
on Sir J. Young as an Imperial officer to settle it, and he will
ask us.
What would be most satisfactory in the abstract would
be to hang him. What would be most for the future peace
of the country would be that he should run off with such
Hudson Bay furs and other valuables as he can lay his hands
upon.
I saw a man yesterday who saw Scott shot (from a distance)
and repeated all the horrors of his being alive for some hours
after being nailed up in his coffin, and then the coffin being
opened and his being despatched.
I breakfasted the day before yesterday with Lord Granville
to discuss the difficulties of the expedition with Laurence
Oliphant .... who on the strength of having been in the
neighbourhood (at Lake Erie) thinks himself capable of
advising everybody. The croakers are rather tiresome.
Luckily Lord G. has a laudable impassibility to croak when
he is once in for it.
Sir John Mitchell, late commander-in-chief, is sending us
long memoranda to show that the route is impracticable, to
which the answers are : I. that Canada has spent ioo,ooo/.
in improving it since he saw it ; 2. that at any rate it was
not impracticable to Annie Colvile, 5 who did it in its worst
state
5 Wife of his brother-in-law, Mr. the return journey he took a shorter
Eden Colvile, who was Governor of the route (with more snow-shoe travelling
Red River Settlement from 184910 1852. over the mountains, and less canoe)
Mr. Colvile's district included Van- which occupied only three months. He
couver Island on the other side of the had arranged to meet Mrs. Colvile at
Rocky Mountains, and in one visit to Fort Garry, in the Red River Settle-
Vancouver he spent four months in get- ment, and she was to start from Mon-
ting there, travelling every day and all treal on a given day. They came into
day by the lakes, with portages, and Fort Garry from opposite directions on
down the Frazer River, with no com- the same afternoon,
panions but the Indian canoe-men. On
1870 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 283
To Miss Rogers.
September 25, 1870.
I saw Monsell fresh from France. He is a devoted admirer
of Trochu, who, he says, is a religious Breton of the Montalem-
bert school, a determined, honest, first-rate man. He had seen
him when he went through Paris early in August. He says
what struck him was the fixed expression of sadness which
never left his countenance or changed in the least, like stone,
though he was speaking with great eloquence and animation.
It was a long time before the Emperor's Government could
make up its mind to employ him, and only in extremity.
Till the ' personal government ' was gone he was most
desponding, now (he implied) he felt that at least France was
free to exert herself.
You see that Lord Lyons has brought the King of Prussia
and Favre together, which is a step.
To Lady Rogers.
Binsted Wyck : G October 16, 1870.
My dear Mother, You will like to see the enclosed.
Please to send it back. I have written something for his
Lordship on the bombardment, rather too rhetorical, and
wanting to be chastised before it is sent, if it is capable of
being sent to Bismarck, and I am waiting to see what comes
of it. 7 I expect it may be useful in furnishing some phrases
or single thoughts, but that it is too undiplomatic to be capable
of use bodily. I have not got hold of the Foreign Office slang
or the diplomatic proprieties. I am afraid he is rather bad
with his gout. His last letter to me ended ' Yours goutily, G.'
I am glad to be in relations with him again of course, this
is all the deepest of secrets.
My draft hinged on the consideration that as bombard-
ment had been useless at Strasburg it would be wanton in
Paris, and therefore a blot on an otherwise noble history (that
6 He was staying with Mr. Wickham, gestions for a despatch from the English
the present M.P. for East Hants. Government to the Prussian deprecating
7 He had been asked by Lord Gran- a bombardment of Paris,
ville (now Foreign Minister) to draftsug-
284 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
of the present war) and of course a spring of inextinguishable
hatred between France and Germany for generations. . . .
This is a very pretty place, and our host and hostess are
so pleasant that it is a particularly agreeable visit. . . . The
features of the country are broadish valleys with coombes
running into them, at the head of one of which and on the
hill the house is placed one of those houses that have grown
up like Blachford, but into a shape more according to modern
taste, with gables and oriel windows, with a terrace in front
and water meadows, which form the two sides of the coombe
below, and a sweep of distance with a front ground of woody
slopes beyond. The meadow, fringed with wood, on which I
am looking, has a good deal the look of an ' alp/ one of those
little pastures which you find in Switzerland ; and, to give it
more of a Swiss taste, he has put one or two bells on his cows,
which he says they like very much, and which he has been
extremely proud to find useful, as in a foggy morning and on
a great irregular zigzag run of meadow it helps the dairyman
to find out where they are. We are surrounded by friends,
Rickards and Palmer, and I think others within a few
miles. . . .
I intend, if as I suppose I am asked, to dine with the
Lord Mayor on November 9 to hear what Gladstone says. I
suppose he will say something, and it will be a very goodly
dinner.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
October 21, 1870.
What a mess those Frenchmen are making of it ! I must
say that, though 1 keenly desire peace, I find it impossible to
have much sympathy with such a set of vapourers as those at
the head of affairs or those to whose silly vanity the leaders
are obliged to pander. I do most heartily sympathise with
and pity the poor peasantry who have to pay for it all.
Georgie was reading me yesterday a long letter from a French
lady in Sedan, sister of the Protestant minister there, which
was full of pathos. But one is used to the horrors, and I
think what touched me almost most of all was the grief of a
1870 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 285
poor peasant woman who was bringing her pet cow to be
butchered. ' Oh ! madame, la pauvre bete, elle s'est opposed,
elle ne le comprend pas, et puis je 1'avais elevee de la mere et
elle ne connait que moi. Ah, mon Dieu, quel malheur, tout !
ils prennent tout ! il faudra done mourir de faim ! ' This was
said to the writer, Mile. Gulden, who is nursing the wounded,
relieving the starving, and so on. She is full of gratitude for
what the English are doing, in money or otherwise ; says the
Prussians are individually well behaved and steady, some
officers ' tout ce qu'il y a de plus poli et convenable,' but the
system and Governor frightfully grinding and hard. One
Prussian officer who calls on them (the Guldens), and often
spends the evening with them, ' apporte lui-meme de 1'argent
aux pauvres incendies de ce malheureux Bazeilles.'
She says she found some of the poor people of Bazeilles
paid to look after the Bavarian wounded and doing it with the
greatest kindness, not charging their miseries on the soldiers,
but saying ' c'est tout Bismarck.'
And in their case it was the soldiers, Bavarians, who she
says are not bad in themselves, but after battle ' n'ont ni frein
ni loi.' It is a remarkable letter, so strangely just and
measured, and accepting what has passed as a judgment on
them all for their lying, luxury, and frivolity.
I should like to know whether she is an example of the
old Huguenots. Sedan, you remember, was the Duke of
Bouillon's headquarters and of course the great Protestant
stronghold.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To Lady Rogers.
Walmer Castle : October 31, 1870.
My dear Mother, We came down in the train with a
Prussian attache, or Secretary of Legation, Count Kuserow,
who was bound, like ourselves, to the Castle, and is staying
here with us. The rest of the party are : Mr. Fullerton
(husband of Lady Georgina Fullerton, the novelist, Lord
Granville's sister) and a Mr. Wetherall Roman Catholic like
286 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
Fullerton, and a clever man a clerk in the War Office,
and of the Dollinger and Acton school ; editor or something
of the kind of the Roman Catholic Anti-ultramontane Review
which the Pope at one time censured.
The Prussian is a Prussian all over : civil, self-satisfied,
correct, continuous in his conversation, speaking English
correctly and with ease but tant soit peu heavy. Of course,
he precludes a good many subjects ; but yesterday morning,
when he was out of the way, Lord Granville b.egan about the
war. He said that he had more hope of peace than the
newspapers, though, of course, not sanguine ; that when both
Governments desired it there was always hope that it would
come, and that both did desire it now. He observed that it
was all very well to talk of England going for nothing, but
that here we had all the neutrals ready to do what we liked,
France of course anxious, and Prussia, after all its cries
against neutral mediation, not ill pleased that we should
come forward. He said he heard from surgeons and others
that the German army had had quite enough of it and
wanted peace. (And Herbert of the C.O. told me that a
sister of his passing through Germany found people also
of that mind. All cried out for peace, and told her that
we (the English) did not know what they had suffered in
loss of lives.) They evidently hide the amount of
loss. Kuserow implied that Bernstorff had no relatives
lost, but Lord G. was down on him at once with a nephew
here and a wife's cousin there, and other family losses.
And it must be so. There is a good hope that it will sicken
them.
He says Bismarck hates us as a centre of constitutional-
ism, and affects to depreciate us as powerless ' an old red
rag.'
Lord G. evidently has no love for the Prussians, and is a
little inclined to make the best of the French always except
the Due de Grammont.
I have been in the habit of defending the French on the
ground of Grammont's volunteer to Lord Lyons of a written
declaration that if so and so were done ' tout 1'incident est
termine.' But he, Lord G., quotes Grammont as saying that
1S70 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 287
there were twenty ways out of it, but that Le Bceuf would
have the war, declaring that he was ready. So Grammont
upset the coach.
The Empress seems to have said to Lord Cowley that it
was due to the weakness of the Emperor i.e. this not
insisting on his own opinion, which was in favour of peace.
She added, ' I admit that I was too warlike. . . .'
I was amused at a saying of old Brunnow, the Russian
Ambassador. t He observed to Lord G. that Thiers had gone
round to all the neutrals, just so as to avoid the dangers of
the siege. Lord G. said the same thought had passed his
own mind, but that he had dismissed it as improper and
unjust. ' Moi pas,' Brunnow replied ; then he added : ' Moi,
j'aurais faitautant' (pause). ' II n'est pas donne" a tout le
monde d'etre heros ' (pause). ' II y avait Regulus.' To
appreciate it you should know the look of the man a great,
big, old, stumping mountain with a great sallow ponderous
face, but a dry twinkle in his eye, which lighted up at the
whimsicality of going back to some 300 B.C. to look for
a man to whom it had been given to be a hero.
G. was amused at a little passage of arms between
Lord Granville and Kuserow. She, Lady Granville, and
Kuserow, were sitting talking at one end of the room after
dark, and Lord Granville was working in the other corner,
when they heard him say in his most velvety voice, ' I see
that 30,000 rifles and 200,000 cartridges are being shipped in
the United States for France.' (Of course, you know that
Bismarck is getting up a feeling in Germany against England
for allowing the export of arms &c., in which they are quite
wrong, as our doings are consistent with international law,
and just like what Prussia did for Russia during the Crimea.)
Kuserow said, ' I hope we shall catch them before they reach
France ' (pause) ; then Lord G., ' I wonder when you intend
to make a remonstrance against it.' Kuserow then took up
the gauntlet and began explaining somehow that there
were obligations between us and Prussia which did not exist
with the United States (pause again) ; then Lord Granville,
silkier than ever, ' What I don't quite understand is when you
changed your minds.' The Prussian was quick enough to
288 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vin
catch his meaning, laughed, and said, ' Ah ! you mean about
the Crimea,' and shut up.
He Kuserow is a great Bismarckian, and apparently
considers that there is to be a remodification of German
parties, Bismarck (as I infer) giving up the old ' Specific
Prussian ' party, as it is called there (the ' Chauvins ' of
France, and ' Codini ' of Italy), who are for mere Prussian
objects and unmitigated absolutism, and placing himself at
the head of what we should call a ' Liberal-Conservative ' party,
with German (as distinct from Prussian) objects. All I can
say is that, if his memoirs are true (which Kuserow says they
are in the main), it will be a considerable change.
He dropped one thing, which seemed as if he expected
an arrangement between Prussia and Russia embracing
Constantinople. Dawdling about on Sunday, he picked up
a volume of Macaulay's Essays, in which he described the
Parisians at the entry of the Allies in 1814, in a way which
was a wonderfully severe and accurate anticipation of their
behaviour now. Presently he came up again : ' I am falling
on one remarkable thing after another. I find what I never
knew before ' (he had taken up Cobden's political writings)
' that Cobden advocated abandoning Constantinople to Russia,'
and he proceeded to announce that he should buy the
book.
An agreement to that purpose between Prussia and
Russia is, as I suppose you know, what France threatens us
with in case we neglect to help her.
Lord Granville showed me a letter from Count d'Haus-
sonville sending most warm thanks for Colonel Loyd Lindsay's
2O,ooo/., but pouring scorn on our diplomatists (English) and
Government for their inaction : ' On rit d'eux.' They think
they can flout us into folly, as they would be able to flout one
another.
There, it is getting to luncheon time, and my eyes are
complaining. We stay here till to-morrow, when Lord and
Lady Granville go up to town themselves for a fort-
night.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
1870 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 289
P.S. When Lord Canning went to India, he dined with
Lord Ellenborough to be coached. Lord Ellenborough said
he would find the work unremitting. ' Most men,' he said,
' grow a beard when they go to a hot climate ; I did not, and
I found my practice valuable, for while I was shaving was the
only time I had to throw my mind on the whole of India.' He
declared that he had never read over a despatch which he had
written except that which was a reply to the despatch recall-
ing him. Lord Granville asked the Prussian which they
thought the best general, Prince Frederick Charles or the
Crown Prince. He said that no one gave the Crown Prince
credit for military ability till after the Danish war ; that he
then greatly interested himself in the soldiers, went about
among them, and so on, and then got a command and credit
in the Austrian campaign ; but he said (cautiously and justly)
that you could not judge which was best till you set them to
manoeuvre troops without a chef cTttat at their elbow. At
present each has close to him one of the best generals in the
Prussian army.
To Lady Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : December 14, 1870^
My dear Mother, We had a pleasant dinner party
yesterday. Doyle was very amusing : one story is worth
repeating.
Talbot, the head of Keble College, is a very good scholar,
but a bad driver. The other day he took out Prince Hassan,
the son of the Khedive (as they call him now), who is getting
an Oxford education to fit him for the Pachalik at Cairo
and upset him into a ditch. The next day, driving out
again, he caught up Liddon taking his constitutional, and
pulled up to ask him to take a seat. Liddon also pulled up,
and replied, ' What ! intendest thou to kill me as thou killedst
that Egyptian yesterday ? '
I got into a great fight right and left about Gambetta,
whom I believe to be a most abominable impostor. To
prove him a great man, one of the company told the story
that when he was a boy his father sent him to a Jesuit school,
he declaring that if he was sent he would put his eyes out.
u
2QO LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
He was sent, and before long the tutor wrote to his father
that the boy was very ill, and must be looked to. When the
father came, he found that the boy had put out, by some
means or other, one eye, and announced that if he were not
taken away he would put out the other, on which the father
yielded.
It seems that he was as little able to take care of himself
then as he is to take care of France now, and that what
he should have done to himself he is doing to France. It
has lost one eye, and he is putting out the other.
The Foreign Office are, I am afraid, in anxiety about this
Luxemburg business. It seems to me very ugly, not so
much on account of Luxemburg, which does not signify to
us, as from the menacing way in which Prussia announces her
intention. It seems as much as to say, ' We are determined
to quarrel with you ; Russia has given you a kick, and some-
how or other you have managed to satisfy yourself with a
half apology ; take this from us ; and if this kick is not
sufficient, we will try another.'
I hear from a German by extraction, who has lately
been through Germany, that the nation is terribly tired of the
war. This ought to be all in favour of peace.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Lady Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : January 12, 1871.
My dear Mother, Yesterday I had an interesting after-
noon with the Stanleys, who asked Georgie and myself to
meet Pere Hyacinthe at tea, half-past five. There was no one
but him, so we had a real talk instead of just being introduced
and saying some banalit^s. The defect of the proceeding was
that I found myself talking instead of listening, which, though
good exercise in French, was not what I wanted ; but some-
how or other I found myself in for it. I think the Pere was
rather tired of being trotted out. Anyhow they began on
Newman, whom he had just been visiting, and whom, I think,
he wanted to understand. That set me off, and Stanley kept
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 291
putting things in that made me more~and more go on. What
I now think he wanted to judge of was how far Newman
would be prepared to join in any manifesto against Infallibility
(not that he so put it), and Stanley wanted so to turn the
conversation as to illustrate that point. He had made up his
mind that Newman would not take a leading part in any such
move, whatever he might think, and could not have been
encouraged by what I told him of Newman's almost super-
stitious desire (as it used to be) to obey authority implicitly
when it would speak out.
However, at last he began to talk himself about the Infalli-
bility the dogine as they call it and the Council. He said
that the Council originally had passed a decree condemning
all Protestants as unbelievers, deists, atheists, and everything
else that is bad (which I imagine the Pope does annually), and
that they would not hear with patience, and hardly hear at all,
Strossmayer the great liberal Archbishop j3n the other side,
almost hooting him. But that Baron Arnim, the Prussian
Minister, asked what he was to do if this were passed and
published. The Prussian Government wrote back, Leave
Rome, in that case, at once. This he told the Pope, and the
decree (or whatever they call it) was heard no more of.
He thought the war was in favour of Infallibility ; that if
men had had nothing else to think of, they would have thought
of that, and there would have been discussions taking place,
and opinions settled while the questions were fresh and
people's minds open. But he thinks that in a year it will be
an old story and people will be reconciled to the status quo,
i.e. to the new doctrine as established.
He seemed to expect nothing from the Bishops (except
perhaps Strossmayer), not a great deal from the clergy, but an
opposition widespread but more or less what he called sourde
among the laity, and a disbelief in it wider than the opposition,
what he called a schisme latent.
He did not speak of the war, but I hear he told the
Stanleys (with whom he is living) that the exasperation in
France was demoralising. He said he had received a letter
from a moderate man, who expressed his hopes that the King
of Prussia would be assassinated.
u 2
292 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. VIM
He is rather a short man, broadly made, with a broad but
even-cut face, with a well-proportioned, powerful look, dark
hair with a touch of grey, eye dark and intelligent rather
than thoughtful or piercing, and a fresh healthy colour rather
what I should call an intelligent Belgian physiognomy than a
French one.
There was no touch of vapouring or pretence, nothing of
the platform or showy conversationalist
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
To Miss Rogers.
1 8 Radnor Place : January 30, 1871.
I do not know that I have much that is cheerful to tell
you, except what you see in the papers, which is certainly a
very great relief. What the I5th of February is to produce
for France, God knows. Peace I take it for granted a
republic, I suppose, but under whom ? Never I suppose was
a great nation called on to pronounce on its own fate with so
little notion whom it could trust, or whom it ought to place
in the saddle. I cannot imagine their adhering to Gambetta,
or he to them. It becomes material to ask now, what was
the ' pact with death ' to which he told us he was party.
It seems at first sight that Death will have a right to consider
himself ill-treated and thrown over.
I am very glad the Prussians do not enter Paris ; there is,
I will not say a generosity, but an absence of ungenerosity
about it which is a shade better than I expected : no doubt,
they are themselves too anxious for peace to risk driving
Favre and Trochu further into a corner.
You see Mozley is Regius Professor of Divinity. Glad-
stone sent for me to talk about it, and asked me what I
thought of M.'s prospects as a Professor. Then he began on
me about my retirement. ' Surely you are not going to ' etc.,
' having made for yourself such a position as you have,' and
then he said that all my chiefs spoke so highly etc., and
when I afterwards used the phrase that they had all been
' very kind to me,' he said in a kind of Marry, come up ' way,
* I should think so.'
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 293
I keep thinking that in eleven hours (it is now I P.M.)
I shall be entitled to retire on a pension.
W. Froude is up and down here, about an Admiralty
commission on which he is sitting. It is to discuss, as far as
I see, ship- building in general, shapes, armour, sizes, etc. etc.
He seems to like it much and says that the sailors and men
of science of whom it is composed work well together. It is
to be hoped they will keep us straight, and make our ditch
impassable to Prussians or any one else.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
To the Rev. R. W. Church.
1 8 Radnor Place : February i, 1871.
Gladstone said to me of you, ' His refusal of the Worcester
Canonry was from a most generous feeling, but it was very
unwise.' Of course I am aware that it was not a question of what
is called ' wisdom/ and I more entered into your feelings about
that refusal than, I think, about any other. But putting it
together with what had just passed, it made me understand
what old placemongers say, that it is such a step to have some-
thing that is worth giving away. The Worcester Canonry a
valu the Professorship to Mozley. You remember the old
Cardinal who, with no recommendation, had had all the ' best '
things of the Roman Church, and told some one who wanted
an explanation, that he had never spoken evil of anybody
and never refused anything.
So we have come to the opening of the last Act at Paris.
I suppose the revocation by the Paris Government of the
delegation to its Bordeaux offshoot is required by Bismarck,
But what will it lead to ? Gambetta will scarcely consent to
be left en /'air. And if not, shall we have peace in the
North between Germany and what Germany considers the
lawful Government, and fighting in esse or posse between
Germany and what Germany considers in the South an
unauthorised collection of brigands ? Or will the National
Convention really meet and make peace ?
How the history of parties and countries in the present
day illustrates the way in which the personal qualities of
294 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
bodies of men bring their own rewards and punishments
with them, by guiding them in the choice of their guides.
The French and the Conservatives desire to be deceived and
to say what it is pleasant to say, to think what it is pleasant to
think, and to hear what it is pleasant to hear, and are a prey
to Gambetta and Disraeli And yet has not the genuine
enthusiasm of the Italians for each other's freedom produced
on the whole a degree of respectability in the government
which was hardly to be expected from men whose raison
d'etre was (from one point of view) to take what did not
belong to them ?
To Miss Rogers.
March 13, 1871.
Perhaps you saw that some of Cook's excursionists were
caught at Paris. Miss was one of them, and after the
massacre thought it high time to make off, so with a kind of
English hobbledehoy who was attached to her (as a com-
panion, not a lover) she took her bag and posted off to the
railway station.
They met a lot of insurgent Nationals marching along the
trottoir, who called out Chaussee, Chaussee, but the English
youth, not understanding that he was expected to go into the
gutter, held on his way. On this the front fellows brought
down their bayonets upon him, to which action, without yield-
ing ground, he replied by the ebullition ' I say, mister, don't
you go poking at me.' Something, I suppose (and can easily
conceive), in his manner set the Nationals in a violent fit
of laughter, and they let him have his way. I call this
maintaining the character of England in every sense of the
phrase.
To Miss Rogers.
Athenaeum Club : May 19, 1871.
My dear Kate, Here I am half-way home, after having
finally quitted my room in Downing Street. It has been an
odd feeling of pain and pleasure. It is a real pleasure to be
free, and a real pleasure to be so kindly parted with. I have
cither sought or been sought by nearly all the members of the
Office, and have heard a complimentary amount of regrets. The
packing up of books and burning papers and handing over
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 295
of memoranda is a dismal kind of ceremony, and parting with
work in which I have been for so long I may almost say
exclusively occupied, and with men with whom I have con-
tracted such friendly relations now of so many years' stand-
ing is pathetic, so that just at present the retrospective and
rather sad side is uppermost. And when I feel that to-
morrow I shall wake to a holiday, the thought suggests itself
' And what shall I do with it ? '
However, I shall be a good deal surprised if that lasts
long.
Work for the last two or three days I have really had
none, but the succession of interviews at first rather reviving
has got a little tiring, and I feel as if I could not set my
mind to considering whether I have anything worth telling.
I incline to think I have not.
Ever yours affectionately,
FREDERIC ROGERS.
In 1871, at the age of sixty, he resigned his post and
retired on a pension. It is believed that Lord Granville
particularly desired him to fill the post of Under-Secretary
for Foreign Affairs. But he did not wish any longer to con-
tinue the heavy strain of official work, a strain which he had
felt the more from the constant weakness of his eyes, and he
held to his purpose of taking his well-earned rest in country
life. It happened too that at this time his mother died, and
this made him the more anxious to settle down at Blachford
and carry on the management of the property which had been
hers since his father's death.
At this point, when he finally severed his long connexion
with colonial administration, a brief account of colonial history
as it came before him, extracted from notes of autobiography
which he left, will be useful both to indicate the opinions
which he entertained and to explain some of the letters which
follow.
' The matters which come before the Colonial Office are
by the nature of the case in great part official details and
controversies even of the most petty kind It is, of course, a
296 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
great thing that in all these controversies, whether between
private persons and officials, or among officials themselves,
the Colonial Office should maintain a reputation for justice,
as an accessible Court of Appeal. And this gives interest to
small cases. And it is more interesting, though more rare,
to watch the development of principles. Two such I should
particularly note as having established themselves during my
acquaintance with the Colonial Office colonial self-govern-
ment, and the emancipation of the colonial Churches.
' Fifty years 8 ago the colonies were divided in general
into two classes Crown colonies, in which the Crown was
almost absolute, and colonies having representative institutions,
that is to say, colonies in which money could not be granted or
laws passed without the consent of an elected assembly. The
executive government was in all cases alike composed of
permanent officers appointed by the Crown.
' To this limitation of the colonists' power the Canadians
first objected, and it was determined in Canada and the other
N. American colonies to establish what is called responsible
government, under which the executive government is
composed of persons who command the confidence of the
local legislature. This is, of course, the English Constitution
the Governor, like the Queen, being obliged (except in a
few matters of Imperial interest) to endorse the action of his
Ministry, and being unable to exercise any authority without
them. The full extent of the principle thus conceded was not
at once understood, nor did it extend beyond N. America :
for the establishment of such institutions in the West Indies
(where certain representative institutions existed) would have
been ruinous, and Australia was as yet comparatively unim-
portant.
' But wherever there was a vigorous and heterogeneous
white population, a demand arose, which it would have been
impossible, if it had been advisable, to resist, for this form of
government, which, as in America, unavoidably and rapidly
developed into practical independence : the Governor (the
only remaining link between the colony and the mother
country) being in essentials little more than the ambassador
8 This was written about 1885.
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 297
of a great State to a weaker, with which it is on terms of
close alliance, and which relies on the protection of the more
powerful.
' On the other hand the mother country, while abandon-
ing all local authority, soon began to decline the responsibility
of local defence, and has withdrawn her troops from British
North America, Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony.
This great establishment of colonial independence cannot (as
I think) be justly or wisely or possibly arrested.
1 Of the growth of the Australian colonies, and of their
independence consequent on that growth, I had been witness
at the Emigration Office. During the fourteen years I had
been in that Office, I had been concerned with my colleagues
in sending out upwards of half a million emigrants to
Australia and New Zealand. When I joined (in 1846) the
population of New South Wales, including the then unimpor-
tant district of Port Philip, was considerably under 200,000.
Before I left the Emigration Office (in 1861) it had risen to
nearly 800,000. Its wealth had increased pari passu and so
had its independence. The Australian colonies had received
responsible government, had enacted their own constitutions,
and, excepting that they were not entitled to repeal Imperial
statutes expressly intended to apply to them, had become
free from all practical interference with their legislature. Of
this constitutional progress (extending to all the Australian
colonies, and embracing at last Western Australia) I was
especially cognisant, as having to examine and report on all
their laws.
' The moral difficulty in the abandonment of all this
authority was the difficulty of securing the protection of
coloured races, who are always exterminated by Anglo-Saxons
in temperate climates, and yet are incapable of receiving
more than an illusory share in the government.
' Lord Grey was possessed with the idea that it was prac-
ticable to give representative institutions, and then to stop
without giving responsible government something like the
English Constitution under Elizabeth and the Stuarts. He
did not understand either the vigorous independence of an
Anglo-Saxon community or the weakness of an executive
298 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
which represents a democracy. So events took their own
course, and left his theories behind.
' When the natives were so few that they gave no trouble
to the colonists, matters went on without a check. Complete
independence in local affairs was given, and British troops
were withdrawn. But in New Zealand and the Cape it was
otherwise. In each of these colonies the colonists required
our protection, and the question arose on what terms we
should continue it, or whether we should withdraw it.
' In New Zealand the danger arose from the desire of the
colonists to acquire land, and the growing indisposition to
part with it, except at increasingly high prices. The Govern-
ment proposed the establishment of a kind of land court,
composed of the Governor and a few persons in whom the
natives would confide, and acting, not under the authority of
the colonial government, whose capacity the natives at that
time distrusted, but under that of the Queen, whom they
respected.
' This was approved in the Colonial Office, and a Bill,
prepared by me, was introduced into Parliament, but rejected
without division, because it was held that the colony was
entitled in that, as in other matters, to manage its own
affairs ; from which it followed that they were to have abso-
lute power of bringing on wars of which we were to pay the
cost, and that they would be under a constant temptation,
which they were not likely to resist, to pick a quarrel with
the natives, and clear them out at our expense.
' Simultaneously a war did break out provoked, I should
say, by high-handed dealings of the colonists which led to
the employment, with little credit to us, of ridiculously large
bodies of troops, the destruction of the tribe which was most
advanced among the Maoris in civilisation, and whose territory
presented the greatest temptation to cupidity, and the appro-
priation of their land. For myself, I at once made up my mind
that there would be no quiet for ourselves or safety for the
natives until our troops were recalled and the colonists forced
to rely on their own resources, and to try mild and just methods
rather than violent ones. . . . Eventually the last regiment
was withdrawn, and we had no more trouble with the Maoris.
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 299
' The case of the Cape was very different in one respect
In New Zealand the colonists were equal in number, or nearly
so, to the natives, and were increasing, while the natives were
diminishing ; there was therefore no reason why they should
not be forced to defend themselves. In Africa the natives
were far more numerous, and increased, when not thinned by
war, faster than the colonists. And, the executive being still,
according to Lord Grey's policy, in the hands of the Home
Government, it was possible to exercise a very efficient con-
trol on native policy. The colonists seemed to require more
protection for themselves, and allowed the Government to
protect the natives. But here difficulties arose in the general
government. The finances got into disorder, and Sir P.
Wodehouse declared that the Home Government (i.e. him-
self) could, with the existing constitution, do nothing. He
was told that if he could prevail on the colonists to reform
the constitution so as to give the Crown the requisite power,
he, and they, might do so. . .
' If, on the other hand, the government were changed to
a " responsible " government, the question was whether (as
troops would not be supplied to a responsible government)
this alteration would not be the signal for native war. But
it was thought and I think that events have not at present
disproved the supposition that the white population was
sufficiently varied in their interests and sufficiently intelligent
to avoid native wars if they must pay for them ; and it was
decided that they should have responsible government. . . .
[At the time of the Zulu War] this policy was reversed, and
the system was re-introduced of war carried on at the expense
of the British Treasury. . . . [Since that period] it was
decided that we might safely give the government of the
colony to the colonists. The final step was taken by Lord
Kimberley after I left the Colonial Office.
' I had always believed and the belief has so confirmed and
consolidated itself that I can hardly realise the possibility of
any one seriously thinking the contrary that the destiny of
our colonies is independence ; and that, in this point of view,
the function of the Colonial Office is to secure that our con-
nexion, while it lasts, shall be as profitable to both parties,
3oo LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
and our separation, when it comes, as amicable as possible.
This opinion is founded first on the general principle that a
spirited nation (and a colony becomes a nation) will not sub-
mit to be governed in its internal affairs by a distant Govern-
ment, and that nations geographically remote have no such
common interests as will bind them permanently together in
foreign policy, with all its details and mutations.
' This being so, and a colony being regarded as the seat
of a nation, the Colonial Office presented an interesting set of
successive developments, by which the seed grew into a
forest tree. First there was, as I have described, the personal
government of the Governor, instructed by the Colonial Office ;
then came a purely legislative council, nominated by him ;
then a part of this legislative council became the instrument
of an informal kind of representation, a means of feeling and
in some degree conforming to public opinion ; then part of
it became elective a minority, but an influential minority ;
then came the separation into a nominated and an elective
chamber (called, as I have said, representative institutions) ;
then responsible government, placing the executive in the
hands of persons practically nominated, as in England, by
the community ; then, in Canada, the addition of status and
weight given by confederation.
' The scheme of confederation floated about for some little
time as an idea. Among other persons who took it up was
a Mr. Howe, a popular leader in Nova Scotia. But it took no
substance till it was adopted by Sir John Macdonald, the ex-
ceedingly able Premier of Canada. In that colony the French
were so large a minority (if indeed in mere numbers they were
a minority) that government became almost impracticable,
and he adopted the idea of confederation with New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia, separating, however, Upper and Lower
Canada, so that the French should be predominant in the latter
their own province while the union of New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia would make the British predominant in the
Union. This involved a new constitution containing guarantees
sufficient to ensure that the dominant party in the" Dominion,"
as it was to be, should not be able to withdraw the privileges
given to the French province of Lower Canada. In this
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 301
arrangement the French agreed, and their leader, Mr. Cartier
(afterwards Sir G. Cartier), joined Macdonald in a ministry
which was to carry it into effect. They framed an Act to
be carried in the Imperial Parliament, and a large deputation
from the proposed four provinces, with Macdonald (and
Cartier) at their head, came to England to settle details with
the Secretary of State. The delegates were ministers of their
respective provinces, the legislatures of which addressed the
Crown praying that the Act might be passed.
' But meantime Howe had changed his views. His enemies
said that he did not see his way to such advantages for himself
as he had hoped for in confederation. At any rate, he was
not in the delegacy nor in the provincial ministry. And not
being so, he agitated the province 'through its length and
breadth," and came to England loaded with petitions against
a change which would transfer them the most ancient and
loyal North American colony from theallegiance of the Crown
to that of a Canadian ministry. All this was done in the most
approved platform style, and h.e spouted in public and inter
viewed in private with all the usual evidence of being the
mouthpiece of the people of Nova Scotia. True, the people
through the legislature had expressed themselves differently,
and their ministers were pressing confederation on the Home
Government. But there was all the usual evidence that the
people had changed their minds, and that Mr. Howe was the
people.
' However, he could not arrest the progress of the negotia-
tions. It was, I should say, under Mr. Cardwell's rule that the
project was matured ; but it was during Lord Carnarvon's
secretaryship that the deputation arrived. They held many
meetings, at which I was always present. Lord Carnarvon
was in the chair, and I was rather disappointed in his power
of presidency. Macdonald was the ruling genius and spokes-
man, and I was very greatly struck by his power of manage-
ment and adroitness. The French delegates were keenly on
the watch for anything which weakened their securities ; on
the contrary, the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick delegates
were very jealous of concession to the arrieree province ; while
one main stipulation in favour of the French was open to
302 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vm
constitutional objections on the part of the Home Govern-
ment.
' Macdonald had to argue the question with the Home
Government on a point on which the slightest divergence from
the narrow line already agreed on in Canada was watched for
here by the French, and there by the English as eager dogs
watch a rat hole ; a snap on one side might have provoked a
snap on the other, and put an end to the concord. He stated
and argued the case with cool, ready fluency, while at the same
time you saw that every word was measured, and that while
he was making for a point ahead, he was never for a moment
unconscious of any of the rocks among which he had to steer.
' The measure was settled and passed easily through the
House of Lords, introduced in a good speech by Lord Car-
narvon. This done, or soon after it was done, Lord Carnarvon
left office, and was succeeded by the Duke of Buckingham.
One day, probably while the measure was passing through the
House of Commons, the Duke came into my room and said :
" Well, there will be no more difficulty over Nova Scotia." The
measure passed, and all the colonists returned home. I was
curious to see what was to become of Howe. And what became
of him was this.
' On his return to Nova Scotia he convened a meeting of
the leading malcontents, and he made them a speech. He
told them that he had left no stone unturned in England to
give effect to their wishes, but the statesmen, without distinc-
tion of party, were unjust and inexorable. That the time for
words was over, and that for deeds was come. That if they
intended to assert themselves, they must do it as did the
Fathers of American Independence. That he had drawn up
a declaration, pledging all the signatories to resist confederation
at the cost, if necessary, of their lives and fortunes. This he
was ready to sign the first. And this was the course which
he was prepared to recommend. But if they were not equal
to this, then a mere resistance of talk was idle, and they would
do well to make the best of a situation from which there was
no escape, and, throwing aside local jealousies, to endeavour to
obtain in the new confederation the weight which properly
belonged to Nova Scotia.
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 303
' Of course not one of the agitators had the most remote
idea of perilling a single dollar, much less life and fortune, in
defence of their colonial isolation, and the second alternative
was unanimously adopted. Mr. Howe, with the applause of
his fellow citizens, accepted an appointment from Government
4 So much for the development of the self-governing
colonies while I was at the Colonial Office. I had soon
come to the conclusion that the endowment of the colonial
Churches was not a matter to be calculated on, and my fear
was that in the vain attempt to perpetuate the advantage
which these Churches derived from their connexion with the
Crown, and the comparatively small endowments which they
possessed, either alone or in common with other Churches,
they would be led to make such sacrifices of their ecclesiastical
independence as would interfere with their energy and
stability. . . .
' As endowments were one after another cut away, I suc-
ceeded in persuading successive Secretaries of State that
Churches might be allowed to organise themselves, a matter
in which there was much traditional jealousy ; that the
appointments to bishoprics to which the State contributed no
endowment should be left to these Churches ; and, finally,
that the form of creating bishoprics and appointing bishops
by letters patent should be abandoned. In the colonial
Churches, as in the colonial civil government, the changes which
have taken place (almost entirely within the period when I
was connected with colonial matters) are worth noticing.
Formerly there were colonial bishops appointed during plea-
sure by the Crown under letters patent, asserting very unam-
biguously the extreme form of royal supremacy. These
bishops were paid from imperial funds, and outside the limits
of their dioceses the English Church was represented by a
few State-paid clergy, supplemented insufficiently by the
S.P.G., with a grudging assistance from their people, and in
Canada with the considerable support of the " Clergy
Reserves."
' About the year 1 843 Selwyn refused to accept the
Bishopric of New Zealand unless the appointment was made
for life, and the rampant Erastianism extirpated. This was
3 o 4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. vin
done, but the Crown still retained the creation and appoint-
ment of bishops, even after Miss Burdett-Coutts had set the
example of instituting bishoprics without State aid. The
independence of colonial Churches suffered from two jealousies
one, the apprehension that if the Church organised itself it
would prove a troublesome and exacting power ; the other,
lest ignorant or heterodox men ordained by colonial bishops
should, through our system of patronage, find their way to
English preferment.
' Thus there was a strong official and ecclesiastical feeling
against any organisation in the nature of a synod, and against
taking the colonial episcopate from under the direct control
of the Crown. It was felt by some of broader views that
emancipation was a corollary of disestablishment, which soon
began in the appropriation of the Canadian Clergy Reserves.
Of the bishops some, like Gray and Selwyn, were keen for
independence, and, with more or less judgment Selwyn with
more, Gray with less organised their Churches with a view
to it. But when it came to the question of creation by letters
patent, and all the opportunities for official delay and ob-
struction and meddling, they did not generally like to give
up what they considered the dignity of being the Queen's
Bishop. When I became Under-Secretary for the Colonies,
I found the Duke of Newcastle quite prepared to go with
me, and Fulford, the Primate of Canada, fully realised the
advantages of a free hand. The initial processes were going
on everywhere. But he with my help, and I with his, first
clenched the matter in Canada, when, Palmer being happily
the leading law officer and Phillimore, I think, Queen's
Advocate, I got the Colonial Office to announce that colonial
Churches would be left to elect their own bishops, subject to
the necessity of obtaining what the Prayer Book calls " a
mandate " from the Crown, if they were consecrated in this
country by an English bishop.
' What is certain is, that under the new system that of
free action unaided by the State the colonial Churches have
increased greatly, and the number of the bishops perhaps
rather unnecessarily. (I almost think that the chaplain of
St. Helena must have, or must have had, a Bishop to himself.)
1871 LAST YEARS OF OFFICIAL LIFE 305
Hence, at the time when I retired from the public service, the
colonial Churches (with one or two exceptions, which I think
no longer exist) were as free as the Episcopal Church of
Scotland to regulate their own affairs, to choose and increase
the number of their bishops, and to obtain consecration in
the colonies if they pleased. The old letters patent were swept
away.
' But the existing law of England had been framed by
ecclesiastical lawyers, who had a strong jealousy of colonial
orders, and an extreme devotion to Crown supremacy, and in
accordance with these views provided that no colonial clergy-
man should be eligible for employment in England unless
ordained by a bishop who had been appointed by letters
patent. The effect, therefore, of abolishing these letters
patent was to disqualify all clergy ordained by colonial
bishops thereafter appointed from holding preferment in
England or Ireland. It was quite true that an indiscriminate
admission of such ordinations as qualifications for English
preferment might have poured on us a multitude of clergymen
little fitted for English parishes, and the question arose
(shortly after I became a member of the House of Lords)
what security should be taken against this danger. The
question was complicated by a confused state of the law, and
embarrassed by a variety of prejudices and jealousies so
much so that nobody would take it up. And it was admitted
on all hands that I (who had brought this confusion to a
climax) was the proper person, if not the only person, to
bring in a Bill for its settlement. Having the good-will of all
parties, I succeeded in passing an Act, of which the principle
is this, that any person who has received episcopal orders, and
is willing to accept all the tests required from an English
clergyman on receiving an ecclesiastical appointment, may be
admitted to employment in the English Church, and the
status of an English clergyman, by any diocesan bishop who
is satisfied that his orders are valid, and that he himself is a
person whose admission to such status and employment is
advisable. The bishop's power of rejection is absolute.'
306 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
CHAPTER IX
Eighteen Years (1871-1889) ; Partly Parliamentary Life ;
but chiefly Life at Blachford
THE letters which follow were written after his retirement
from office. About six months, in the autumn of 1871
and the following winter, were spent in travelling. On his
way to Italy he received a letter from Mr. Gladstone offering
him a peerage, which he accepted, after hesitating for some
time for reasons which are given in one of his letters. A
consequence of this acceptance was that lie was obliged to be in
London from time to time, when Parliament was sitting. He
spoke sometimes on subjects of which he had special know-
ledge, but not very frequently. He said himself that he did
not find it easy to begin parliamentary debate with any
prospect of success or usefulness so late in life. On various
parliamentary committees he did a good deal of hard and
useful work up to the year 1 884, when he considered himself
entitled, at the age of seventy-three, to rest altogether from the
public service ; and he was the more anxious to do so because,
dissenting very strongly from Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy, he
was no longer able to support, and found it painful to oppose,
his old friend and leader ; hence nearly the whole of. the last
five years of his life, and the greater part of the last eighteen,
were spent in the country. He did not find the difficulty
which is often supposed to exist in a change of this kind
from busy years of constant official work. He gave some
of his newly-found leisure to literary work to articles and
reviews for the ' Guardian ' and occasionally for other journals
Heatl. Plymouth. Hioto
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 307
or magazines. How readily he threw himself into country
occupations and duties building or improving schools and
cottages and farms, planting or thinning woods and how
completely he found his enjoyment in them, is shown clearly
enough in his letters.
To Miss E. Marindin [Mrs. Franks}.
Hotel Bellevue, Lucerne : September 17, 1871.
My dear Eleanor, I am aware that I owe you a letter,
but hitherto I have had nothing to say that you would not
see better in Murray. On Thursday, however, we saw a sight
not in the guide-books which is worth telling you, and so I
shall do in Georgie's handwriting as you see (at least for the
most part), because I am rather on the sick list. What I
have to tell is a day at Einsiedeln, which you may remember
in ' Anne of Geierstein ' connected with the image of our Lady
of Einsiedeln, one of those repulsive black images of the Holy
Virgin which seem to be credited with an exceptional amount
of miracles and sanctity. I must begin with a little guide-
bookism. The monastery (Benedictine) must, I should think,
be about the oldest institution in Switzerland, having a few
years ago celebrated not its centenary but its millenary. It
is certainly older than the canton of Schwytz, which was the
core of the Swiss Confederation. This is pretty certain, for
the first that is heard in history of Schwytz is that the knowing
monks of Einsiedeln contrived to get from the Emperor of
Germany a grant of the land occupied by squatting right by
les homines de Schwytz, a set of sturdy savages of whom,
till that time, nobody had ever heard. Of course, when in
due time the. monks began to assert their rights, the moun-
taineers resisted, the case was brought before the Emperor
more than once, and decided in favour of the written
documents of the Abbot against the squatting rights of the
Jiommes de Schwytz. To this the Schwytzers paid no
attention. They were accordingly put under the ban of the
Empire ; to this also they paid no attention. They were then
excommunicated by various ecclesiastical authorities in suc-
cession, and their churches shut ; this they so far respected
3 o8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
as to build a little chapel, and compel their priests to celebrate
Mass there, but the rights of Einsiedeln they continued
positively to ignore. Under these circumstances the Convent,
the Empire, and the bishops thought it best to give up the
job as a bad one, and the Schwytzers were relieved from
imperial bans and ecclesiastical interdicts, and allowed to hold
their lands in peace. This little incident was characteristic of
the Schwytzers they never calculated odds, went at every-
thing, and were either destroyed or victorious. When
victorious (as far as I can see from a Swiss history I have
bought) they seem to have celebrated their victory by
plundering le convent des gentils Jiommes a Einsiedeln.
However, the Reformation seems to have changed all this :
Schwytz was one of the cantons which held fast to Rome,
and I believe now have as much reverence for Einsiedeln as
the rest of their Catholic neighbours. Now then for the
occasion of our sight. On September 14, rather more than
900 years ago, when the ecclesiastical authorities were
preparing to consecrate the church of Einsiedeln, the
Bishop of Constance was informed by a voice from Heaven
that he might dispense with the form, as the church had
already been consecrated in Heaven and by the presence of
our Saviour, who, the legend adds, had drunk of one of four-
teen fountains which existed on the spot. Ever since, that
day has been a great day at Einsiedeln, and we went to see
it. We started from a place called Brunnen on the Lake of
Lucerne, and got to Einsiedeln or near it without seeing any
signs of what was going on except one group of thirty or forty
pilgrims trudging along manfully and womanfully with their
priest at their head, from some village on the other side of the
lake, i.e. beyond Brunnen, for a twenty miles' walk. At our half-
way stop they caught us up. and as they came up I was amused
at the way in which the waiters and other hotel authorities
rushed forward to hustle us out of the way, crying ' Place,
place, place,' in order that the pilgrims^might walk in with
due honours. About 12 o'clock we arrived at Einsiedeln.
The Convent is a very large quadrangle, of which one side,
comprising about TOO windows and the west facade of the
Convent church, overhangs a triangular Place very much as
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 309
our National Gallery overhangs Trafalgar Square. The Place
we guessed to be about the size of Trafalgar Square, but con-
siderably steeper. In the place of the terraces and Nelson
column is an imposing perron very spacious, with a broad,
inclined plane running down the hill from the west front of
the church and on each side two handsome quarter circles
of arcades. Between the Nelson column and King Charles's
statue is a stone canopy with fountain jets of water, being the
springs above mentioned, and lower down still was a
temporary wooden construction with an altar (a reposoir, as
they would call it in France) prepared for illumination. The
annexed rude plan and elevation will give you some idea of it.
The monastery is surrounded by hills, one of which may
be said to overhang it and the village to the right of my
picture.
The village, when we got to it, was crowded with pilgrims
estimated by the waiter at ten or twelve thousand
from all parts of (Catholic) Switzerland and further few
sightseers, but lots of booths, of which four-fifths were full of
rosaries, little images of the Madonna, books of devotion, and
so on the fifth being usually, as far as I could see, for the
sale of cotton pocket-handkerchiefs, mostly bright red. The
days of costume seem to have gone by, but a fair sprinkling
from the different cantons were to be seen men and women.
The objets de devotion were intended to be blessed after
Vespers, with the distinction that all might be blessed, but
only those which were of some solid material could have
Indulgences attached to them. Little fly-leaves were also
to be got cheap, one of which (bought by Sir James Paget, of
whose party we were) contained a very beautiful prayer, with
an intimation that any person who said it, or had it said to
him, or kept it about his person, would be preserved from all
accidents and (I think) sin, that poison would not injure him,
that he would be miraculously informed of the day of his
death, that in certain specified conjunctures the prayer would
act the part of an experienced surgeon, with other advantages
which I forget. Among the first things which met your eye
was a ring of circulating pilgrims round the fountain. Every
one desires to drink of the spring which our Saviour tasted,
3 io LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
and as nobody knows which that was, everybody goes
the round. In the church you are faced by a massive shrine
containing the black image with lamps, &c., and before it a
crowd of people silent on their knees. The rest of the
church was filled (there was no service going on) with a
crowd moving quietly about with a kind of serious curiosity,
except that, when we first got in, there was a knot of some
ten or twelve women (I suppose neighbours) going the round
of the chapels and saying before each, aloud and together,
some stated form of prayer. It was a curious sight to see the
businesslike but serious way in which they knelt down to
utter their hum before one chapel, and then got up and moved
on to do the same thing at the next. Then at two o'clock
came Vespers an orchestral service, with a fine old choral
hymn tune sung by voices only in the shrine of the black
image among the lamps. The words were what is called
Salve Regina. It was curious to see the travelled look of
the people trudging or sitting about in or out of the church,
with their basket of (evidently) the day's provisions. One old
fellow struck me very much with his dusty and worn (not
over-fatigued) look, as he trudged down the church aisle
slowly with his alpenstock in his hand. He had evidently
had a good stiff mountain walk that morning. After Vespers
we went to the church again, and the first thing which struck
me was that the hum of groups ' doing ' the shrine had become
a positive chatter, which filled the church. Every chapel had
its one or two groups, all going through their appointed work
the louder because there were so many of them, without
regard (most properly) to anything but themselves. Then
there was a rush out to see a fresh arrival some 200
people arranged in two long single files, well apart so
as to take up a broad strip of road : first about 100
women, then 100 men, then some thirty or forty priests
moving up to the church, singing antiphonally some chant or
litany (Gregorian), and then, when they got into church,
uniting in one great volume of hymn. Then came a break
for dinner, in preparation for the great event of the day
the procession and illuminations. The course of events I
don't distinctly remember, except that either then or on
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 311
the arrival of the 250 pilgrims we heard a grand singing of
' Sun of my Soul ' (not the words, but the tune) note for
note as we have it. I shall like it better hereafter, for I
always had a kind of modern association about it which is
now effectually disposed of. As it got dark the Place began
to light up sharp little lines of fire moved about it, which
on investigation turned out to be trays of illumination
lamps carried to and fro on men's heads. The windows of
the Convent (100) and of the hotels and houses, the arcades,
the front of the church, tne fountain (?) and the reposoir,
all began to light up, till the Place was all of a blaze,
and, what was very beautiful, a gigantic cross lighted itself
up on the side of the overhanging hill, so as to seem, when
the hill became invisible in darkness, like a cross in the sky.
Meantime the inside of the church began to be alive. Two
grand organs with choirs attached began to play, echoing
each other, one loud, one low, from the different ends of the
great church. The distance was great enough to give the
effect of distance. Then at last the candles collected about
the altar, and after more music and singing streamed down
the centre of the church some 200 or 300 men with candles
out at the centre door, and down the slope to the fountains
and reposoir, all singing antiphonally some grand old chant or
hymn first with some, say, twenty or thirty strong voices,
then with the whole mass of voices they could muster, plus an
accompaniment, most effective, of serpents and trombones.
At the end of the procession was the baldachino, and under
it the ' Prince-Abbot ' with the Sacrament in a splendid
monstrance. At each event which occurred i.e. as the
Sacrament was taken from the altar, as the procession started,
as the head of it cleared out from the church, as the Sacra-
ment cleared out, as the Abbot mounted the reposoir cannon
fired from the overhanging hill, as I call it, or bells rang- -or
both sometimes also the clock took the opportunity to strike.
And I can hardly describe the effect upon us of the whole
scene the two single files of candles winding down the
slope from the church to the reposoir, the alternate chanting,
the guns, the bells, the clock, the multitude of faces lighted
up by the blazing reposoir and, as the Sacrament passed,
3 i2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
the kneeling of the vast crowd : all far more beautiful, I think,
because it was at night (as, indeed, is naturally the case with
illuminations but an intelligent being will see what I mean).
In the crowd the remarkable things were, first, the general
quiet ; secondly, the downright way in which the country
women elbowed their way to the place they wanted. Three
of them rushed on Georgie and myself and our neighbours like
Homeric heroes rushing into battle, sweeping opposition aside
right and left with their elbows blindly, as a warrior would
with his two-handed sword. However, we yielded with
sufficient promptitude to escape a catastrophe. When the
abbot reached the reposoir, a number of singers were drafted
off to a distance, when a hymn or musical service was sung,
with the same effect of distant response ; then the multitude
was blessed, the cannons fired, the bells rung, the procession
mounted again to the church, and we went home, arriving at
our gite on the lake about half-past twelve or one o'clock in
the morning. There there is a good long story for you, and
so good-bye.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. ROGERS.
. To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
/ Hotel Bellevue, Lucerne : September 24, 1871.
f My dear Gladstone, You will, I am sure, do me the justice
to assume that I have only just received your letter of the
3 ist ult. I have just got it, and that, I may almost say, by
accident. I can hardly say how it surprised and gratified me ;
but I think I must answer it by explanations. I do not for a
moment suppose that you would offer me or any Cite else a
peerage, except with the full expectation that its duties would
be performed with entire independence. But neither can I
suppose would you do so without some definite idea of the
turn which that independence would probably take. And this
is one point on which I wish to speak as clearly as I can.
\ Partly perhaps from disposition, partly from the habits of a
Permanent Under Secretary, I am singularly averse from party
politics, and find myself almost equally unable to attach myself
i
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 313
to any existing division of political parties. On some points
I find myself radical, some would say revolutionary a thing I
detest On the other hand Tj^terly^dislil^ej^emocrary, abhor
demagogy, doubt whether any country can be Tor any long
time safely and honourably governed in which an aristocracy
more or less hereditary is not a leading element, and I appre-
hend evil for the country from the opposite tendencies of the
day. This rather cross-cuts existing divisions of parties and,
in default of party guidance, I should probably be guided by
personal or temporary considerations to an extent which most
men would denounce as impracticable and inconsistent. To
take an actual illustration : Two years ago I should, if en-
gaged in political life, have been an earnest supporter of yours
as to the Irish Church, while I should as vigorously have sup-
ported our Devonshire members, Lopes and Kekevvich, against
Lord Amberley. You would generally, I think, find me cor-
dially with you in all that part of your policy which goes to
benefit the poor or to purify the public service, military or civil.
But I might find myself taking part decidedly against you on
questions of yielding to what I should call the populace, or
when it appeared to me that constitutional changes were pre-
cipitated from any party necessity. So much for politics
which, however, I say rather to relieve my own mind than
because 1 expect you to attach much weight to it.
Next as to personal matters. I understand the offer of a
peerage to be made to me, not as a mere decoration or an easy
chair, but as an occasion for useful public work. It is on this
point of view that your offer and my acceptance would be
justified. Now I should have been much disappointed if you
had not, as time went on, found some means of making me (of
course gratuitously) useful to the public. It was part of my
scheme of life. But first, in point of strength and health the
public has had the best of me. For some months I have felt
that I could not do again what I have done, or anything like it.
I should fail, which would be an evil for the public ; or I should
break down, an evil for myself, which no man is bound to incur
for the sake of doing what can be sufficiently done by others.
And next, I could not afford to do anything which required
much expense. But for my pension I could not live in my
3 i4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
own country house and meet what I consider imperative local
claims, and with it I cannot add to that country life, which I
consider a duty and a necessity, a regular London residence
during the parliamentary session. What I can do in that
way I hardly yet know. It would certainly be intermittent,
and possibly very short of the expectations with which your
offer is made.
All this being the case, what I now want to do, and very
sincerely is to place you as far as possible in the position of not
having made the offer, and to ask you to consider with the
light this letter gives you whether you would make it afresh if
it had not been made already. If you would not, I should
then like to know whether you would wish me to consider the
whole matter as non avenu, or whether I shall consider myself
as having declined it on the ground of narrow income i.e. on
the ground, which if true in your judgment will be true in my
mouth, that my income will not allow me to perform the duties
of a peerage in the way in which they ought to be performed
in order to justify your recommendation of me to the Queen.
In either of these cases I shall retain the very great gratifica-
tion of having received the offer in fact If you adhere to
your offer you can treat this letter as a most grateful accep-
tance of it.
As you send a message to my wife, I will say that she is
delighted at the offer, and still more, if possible, at the
terms in which it is made. But she is such a conservative
(domestically I now mean, not politically) and so unadven-
turous that I am not sure she will be quite as much pleased
at its taking effect I cannot say how much I was pleased at
your appointment of Church.
Ever yours sincerely,
F. ROGERS.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Milan : October 13, 1871.
My dear Taylor, If it had been possible to help it, I
should not have let you learn from the newspapers my wise
or unwise acceptance of a peerage. But the fact is that you
knew it some days before I did. Gladstone had written me
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 315
a very kind offer of it, and I had replied by explanations leav-
ing him at liberty to treat the offer as non avenu or to treat
my letter as an acceptance. And on the same day I learnt
here by a letter from him (a long time on its road) and from
the ' Times ' that he had taken my acceptance, and that the
Queen was pleased to approve me.
It is in many respects more than pleasant. As a recogni-
tion of my own services its only fault is that it is too much, and
that others may think it so. The work and semi-political
status are just what I should expect to like. But it will cut
rather more deeply than I could have wished into our intended
country life and into our income. To begin with, you will
have us back in town for a more or less long period in February.
Have you any views as to the use of a peer? Mine are
very vague, and I look to be enlightened by practice before I
form any scheme of conducting myself. I look forward with
some apprehension to the necessity of forming opinions that
will hold water on a lot of questions which I have kept at bay
while I could say to myself that I did my share of public duty
in working at the Colonies. I don't know whether others ever
feel the same, but I used to feel that the constant habit of
taking decisions under responsibility tried the determining
powers of the intellect, just as walking up hill fatigues a
certain set of sinews ; and my great rest was in refusing to form
conclusions out of office hours. And now I shall have to set
to work making up my mind de rebus omnibus, much to the dis-
satisfaction, I am afraid, of many friends and relations, who
will think me unaccountable when I develop myself, if I have
to do so.
We have spent a very pleasant month in Switzerland
(Lucerne), which I think has been very useful to some of
the family who had been a good deal shaken by the events of
the year. I met Lord Carnarvon there, and, lounging with
him and Lady Carnarvon to get his letters from the post office,
I thought it just worth while to ask if there were any Poste
Restantes for me, and got Gladstone's letter, which had been
waiting three weeks, and would be waiting there still, I sup-
pose, but for this chance (I had not expected Poste Restante
letters, and most of them so addressed had been sent to me at
316 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
the hotel). It was fortunate, as it was a satisfaction (which I
could not resist) talking it over with him, but rather odd.
Since that we crossed the Alps, glanced at Turin a dry un-
interesting place to my mind, I have no doubt practical to the
highest degree. The people all of them go about as they
do in London, as if they were going somewhere and had some-
thing to do, quite unlike the refreshing enjoyativeness of French
and Italians (proper). Here, too (Milan), there is a good deal
of modern thrivingness. But it is carried off by a few magni-
ficent bequests of antiquity (Duomo and so on), and a cheerful
stateliness which Turin wants. Then we have had a few days
on Lago Maggiore, strolling in chestnut woods delightfully
warm and delightfully cool, with pleasant reminders of home
scenery in the way of ferns, mosses, rocks, and rivulets
sprinkled among the enchanting Italian scenery proper. Now
we are on the point of starting for Florence vid Bologna. If
you are good enough to send us a line it will find us till near
the end of the month at the Hotel de 1'Europe, Florence. Our
very best love to you.
Ever yours,
F. R.
Florence: October 19, 1871.
My dear Taylor, I confess the cacophony though,
strange to say, I had never remarked it ' Frederic Rogers
Baron Blachford ' contains an accumulation of bumping and
creaking and crashing and rattling difficult to parallel in four
words. The three first words, however, are unavoidable, and
as to the last, I am inclined to place considerations of family
and local feeling and semi-constitutional propriety rather
higher than you do, particularly as my decoration is prac-
tically a life one, and concerns not a series of generations for
whose ears, no doubt, consideration would be due but merely
a knot of friends and relations who are more accessible to
association than to euphony. Viewing the title as a reward
of exploits, perhaps I ought to propose myself as Baron of
Heligoland or Wagga-Wagga. But I am disposed to think
that if a man happens to have in his hands that which in old
times was the basis of a baronial title, i.e. a fragment of
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 317
manorial jurisdiction, there is a kind of constitutional pro-
priety in fixing upon that, and if so Blachford, Wisdome, and
Blachworthy l (which has been scouted) are my only alterna-
tives. Now let me thank you for your letter. I need not tell
you what pleasure your pleasure gives me. My wife tells me
that she has liked everybody's letters very much, and yours
better than anybody's that has been written. However, I am
writing for post, and must finish.
Ever yours,
F. ROGERS.
To the Rev. E. Rogers.
Florence : October 26, 1871.
Sight-seeing is sight-seeing at a place like this. We have
had a pleasant drive to St. Miniato, a pleasant walk (aided
by lifts) to Fiesole, a pleasant stroll in Boboli Gardens, all
with charming views of Florence and its contorni ; the quays
along the Arno are bright and beautiful at certain times
sunset and moonlight but for regular strolling, stony and
dusty, without the charm of Paris quays, and gardens, and
Boulevards. Purchasing is an attraction. I hope I have not
been horribly bitten, but I think that, though I have doubt-
less paid plentifully too much (Florence is very dear, and
Berne curiosities were very cheap), yet I am not out of con-
ceit with what I have got, broken about as some of them are.
The wealth of pictures is wonderful, but confusing. I am not
sure now that I agree with those who like simply to carry
away a clear recollection of the best things. I want to feel
a little acquainted with schools and individual painters, which
cannot be done without wading through a good deal. I think
at present my admiration of Ghirlandajo, Masaccio, and such-
like late pre-Raffaelite Florentines increases. But I never have
admired like other people, and am getting tired of Fra
Angelico. Looking at his works is like reading the same
story in different types.
Our American neighbours improve on acquaintance. The
lady is rather proud of her pure English blood and descent
1 Blachworthy was the old name of Blachford ; Wisdome was another manor
on the property.
3 i8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
from Royalists, who, however, seem to have adapted them-
selves to the new state of things, as her uncle married the
daughter of the patriarch Adams, and went with him to
England in his suite as Ambassador. He was a Colonel, and
one day (as the parental relation was kept up in those days) my
friend's grandmother, who seems to have been a Tartar,
thought it her duty to take him to task, opening with ' Child,
I am surprised,' &c. The Colonel meekly inquired, ' Madam,
when will you cease to call me child ? ' To which she replied,
' When you cease to be my son. Leave the room.' On which
he dutifully retired, and penned an apology promising not to
object again. I think my friend would rather like to repeat
the process.
To the Hon. Mrs. Legge.
Assisi : October 1871.
Our next perch (after Florence) was Perugia, which was
thoroughly charming. It occupies the top of something half
mountain, half ridge, and spreads itself about up and down>
and sideways, and crossways, in such a way that you are
always passing under arches, with houses on the top of them,
and coming unexpectedly on beautiful views of the plains of
Umbria and the Apennines, through holes and under arches,
and down flights of steps, and ofif terraces. Then there are
inside noble buildings in the Piazza, and hosts of Peruginos,
capi cC opera. The days were perfect, and we had panoramas
from the terraces of magnificent sunset, of early mists, and of
clear forenoon. The old city walls run about in every possible
direction and at every possible angle, with great Etruscan
vases, Roman superstructure, and mediaeval towers. It came
upon me with all the pleasure of novelty. Indeed a thing
which you have only seen for a few hours thirty years (pretty
exactly) ago may well do so. But still Perugia was a case
of ' vide Murray.' To-day has been better. In the first place,
this place is charming, the picturesqueness of Perugia without
its splendid architecture, but with an element of wildness quite
its own.
Every house and lane and corner is a study ; there is the
same profusion of outlook, and (what we have not seen yet)
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 319
the same profusion of art, only of a still earlier age. But
there is also the connexion of St. Francis, whose history I
have just been reading, and this it is which we have come
across to-day. He is one of those men whose conduct has a
kind of mad brilliancy about it, but a madness founded at
bottom on the most noble principles and the most attractive
character, and producing such results (for a time at least) in
the reformation of the world that if a tree is to be judged by
its fruits you can hardly help believing him inspired. His
celebrity was so rapid that before his death everything con-
nected with him had become, so to say, a relic, and so there
is no possibility of doubting the genuineness of what you see.
The first sight which meets you is in the plain under Assisi
a handsome cinquecento church, dome, transepts, and so on.
When you enter it you see in all its rudeness a coarse stone
construction, the walls of an old substantial hovel, inside
which again is a rich altar with lamps burning, &c., and (when
we saw it, on a fair-day) a stream of peasants entering,
kneeling, and passing. This is the first small construction
made, in fact, by his own hands in which St. Francis and his
first two or three followers dwelt together. Then in the
afternoon we rode off to his retreat in the mountains. The
ride was charming, along the side of the mountains with the
great plain at our feet, encircled by the Apennines, Assisi,
with its walls, towns, citadel, and the rest on a spur behind us,
and Perugia and other towns and villages on slopes or hills in
the distance. Then we turned into a wild combe, very deso-
late except for one patch of some fifty or a hundred acres of
wood, the 'bosco' of St. Francis, and almost at the head of
the combe a group of rude buildings. The views through
and across the wood (of oak and ilex) lovely.
The buildings were shown by an old Franciscan, who was
evidently so taken by what he saw, and what I suspect our
conductor had told him of our interest in the matter, that he
unburthened himself very much of his legends. We had not
the heart to show incredulity, and felt a little like traitors while
he went on. It was a strange place, with doors, and passages,
and descents through which one almost had to creep, with
little grottos, of which we saw one which formed the oratories
3 2o LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
of the first companions, and St. Francis' bed (of the authen-
ticity of which I should think there was no doubt) a bit of
hollowed rock, with a log where his head lay. Our conductor
was very anxious we should walk on the bed, and lay a little
card on the pillow (log) to take it away blessed, for which it
is proper to take off your shoes. This I duly did, and G. was
prepared to do the same ; but she was excused, ' perche non e
per disprezzo ' and she kept them on. Then came the stories.
First there was a miraculous painting of our Saviour on the
cross over the little altar. It had done many things, one of
which was this. One of the brethren had come in after his
day's work, hot and tired, and, resorting to the chapel to pray
before this picture, had gone to sleep. He was awakened by
a slight slap on the face 'non per far male,' and looking
about him saw the arms of our Saviour extended so as to
show that He had done it. Then the picture said : ' Figliuolo
mio, questo e luogo per pregare, non per dormire ; se volete
dormire, andate in dormitorio.' Then there was an ilex (of
which I have a sprig), on which the birds collected round
St. Francis chattering when he was at prayer. On which he
told them to be quiet, and hear him preach. And they were
silent, and he preached to them, not about sin, 'perche
gli animali non hanno peccato.' But he said : ' There is a great
God who made me, and you, and the sun and all things else.
You should praise Him, and now you may praise Him with
me.' And he then began singing and the birds all began
singing with him. Then there was a stream at the bottom
of the combe which disturbed him at his prayer, and he
prayed that it might cease, and it ceased from that time,
however violent the rain might be, except when some great
' gastigo,' war, or famine, or pestilence was imminent. In 1 869
water ran, and an Austrian prelate, ' uomo santissimo/ was
there to see it and said ' Ci sara molto sangue,' and ' molto
sangue ' there has been (in the Prusso-French War). This
year the water has run, and ' e da vedere ' what calamity will
happen.
Then on the edge of the precipice there is a flat flag-
stone, with a hole through which you look to the bottom
of the ravine as into a well. This is a hole through which
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 321
St. Francis cast the devil when he came to tempt him. Then
there were other stories too long to tell about the devil, and
intercession, and the gift of prophecy. But the strange thing
was that the monk stood on this spot where things really as won-
derful as miracles did go on, and where the stones remained as
the first inhabitants had left them, telling us his stories one after
the other with all the attitudes and gesticulations which you
see in pictures, and all the conviction of the middle ages.
Beside him was the wild-looking conductor (of the omnibus)
sucking it all in ; but, as he knew it all by heart already,
every now and then throwing in a correction or amplification
that the monk had forgotten, like a child who corrects you
in telling him a story that he knows. 1 don't think I was ever
so taken out of the nineteenth century before. Finally our
guide told us (what was natural) that we should leave some-
thing for a mass to be said for the ' defunti ' in whom we were
interested. We gave something of course, but without the con-
dition ; but that would not satisfy our friend, who insisted
before we left that the /rate was to say a mass 'per 1' inten-
zione del Signore ' that is to say, in favour of any object that
I may choose to fix on. We had already told him that we were
not Catholics in his sense of the word, and I did not think it
necessary to trouble his mind or disturb thefrate by any further
protests. I am afraid he thought me unduly careless about the
' intermediate state ' of my ' antenati ' (predecessors), for whose
benefit he desired us to exert ourselves, the altar being one
at which any amount of plenary indulgences are obtainable.
To-morrow we see the regular Assisi sights, and get to Rome,
where I hope we shall find letters.
Love to all,
Ever yours,
F. R.
To Miss Rogers.
Hotel de FAngleterre, Rome : November 3, 1871.
Our second day at Assisi was quite as good as the first.
The point was the convent and convent cbiurcfP'oI' St.
Francis. There were magnificent Giottos, Cimabues, &c.,
some of which we saw well and carefully, others not at all.
Y
322 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
But the point was the general scene. It was a great day, All
Saints' day, when at all the great altars there was a great
musical service great in respect to the place, but, as the poor
frate lamentably told us, very slight in comparison with the
grand doings before the suppression of monasteries in the
palmy days of the convent. However, it was quite grand
enough ; more grandeur would have been in the way. The
church consists of a crypt interesting as it contains St.
Francis' remains, and splendid in point of brass work,
marble, &c., and striking because seen only by candle light
but it was just what you might see anywhere in Rome, or
Milan, or Paris. Above that was the church, a dark labyrinth
of columns and altars, and aisles, and flights of steps, and
impasses, half lighted by fine painted windows and absolutely
covered by the richest old frescoes, low and spacious in
comparison with its height, and with a constant movement
(not amounting to a crowd) of Italian peasants, men and
women, come to be there on the great day, and some kneeling,
some simply wandering about. One of Cattermole's pictures
or I think Roberts, of some of the Eastern shrines
would give you the best notion of the general effect. This
church serves as the foundation for an upper church, built
upon it as one storey of a house is on another. This is a
simple cruciform one-aisled church covered with painting,
not entered except once or twice a year for purposes of
worship, and in which we could just study Giotto and Cimabue
at our leisure. When we went down we got entangled, as it
were, in the high mass which was celebrating at the high
altar or rather shrine, for it is not, like other high altars, a
central point commanding the whole of the church, but in a
kind of corner, with its back to the labyrinth of shafts and
chapels. When we had listened for some time, a stream of
bright Italian dresses swept suddenly along and threw them-
selves on their knees between us and the altar. You can
scarcely imagine the beauty of the pictorial and scenic effect
of this natural movement of people so dressed in such a scene
under the double light of lamps and painted windows. It
was as if Ravenna had come to life again.
Our guide was a Papalino not a bad fellow, but pretty well
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 323
crammed by the priests. His view was that Victor Emmanuel
was King of Sardinia and might goto Sardinia. But King of
Italy he was not till he was crowned ; and of course, in the
present state of things, crowned he could not be till the Pope
chose. King elect or King designate he might be, but not
King. One of our cabmen at Rome was in the same line. His
view had the merit of simplicity. Bread was 15 centimes
a pound under the Pope. It is 25 centimes under Victor
Emmanuel. Therefore he was for the Pope and not for
Victor Emmanuel. His view of the position of affairs was
that in Rome at least there were plenty of Papists and
plenty of Mazzinians, but a very small proportion of Victor
Emmariuclites ; and he promised that in the following summer,
or rather in March or April, we should have a blow up not
yet, but presently. Severne (the consul) did not talk very
cheerfully about the state of things. His view was that the
Italians (as has been always the case) could not understand
such a thing as equal rights. Their view was, what was the
good of being uppermost if you were not to plunder, crush,
and exterminate your opponents ? So the Liberals are disposed
to persecute the Papists, and have tried it. On the first
occasion the troops put them down, but fresh occasions will
arise. Unless the Pope comes to terms (which he will not), the
Liberals in Severne's opinion will make what the Italians call a
' strada pulita ' or, as we should say, ' clean sweep ' of Pope,
cardinals, Vatican, monks, Leonine city, and everything
else : and if Victor Emmanuel tries to stop it by the soldiery
the soldiery will not act. These are difficulties not greater
than a great man could tackle. But then the Italians do
not seem to have a great man, or anything like one, among
them.
Tuesday we move to Naples (Hotel de la Bretagne), where
I hear Vesuvius is in eruption.
Ever yours affectionately,
F. R.
Y 2
324 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Miss Rogers.
Naples : November 14, 1871.
My dear Kate, The weather has been so bad that I think
it not impossible that unless it mends we may turn tail and
run back to Rome, leaving Baie and Amalfi undone. How-
ever, we have had one beautiful day at Pompeii, and beautiful
patches of weather, including a most magnificent sunset seen
from the Strada Victor Emmanuel, a kind of terraced road
running behind the city along the side of the hill. This
morning we have been greatly amused at watching the fisher-
men drawing the nets. The sea was swarming with boats,
and at intervals along the shore under the Chiaja were the
seines being hauled in. The way is this : several hundred
yards out to sea is the net buoyed so that you can see it
with a boat to look after it ; at each end of the seine is
a rope carried to the shore, and at the end of the rope some
thirteen or fifteen men. One is stationary at the end of each
rope, coiling it as it comes in ; the rest are pulling away at the
rope in a line ; then, each has hold of the rope not with his
hands, but with a little instrument attached to a broad belt
diagonally round his body, a little rope and peg, so that if he
keeps his own rope and peg gripping the net rope, he pulls
by his belt with the whole weight of his body. As the man at
the head of the line gets up to the coil he looses his peg,
lets go the rope, and walks down to take hold at the tail of
the line, so that there is a continual circulation of men pulling
up to the head of the line and then leaving go and walking
back to take their place at the tail. Their clothes are so
tucked up that the whole leg, including the thigh, is naked ;
on their heads they have caps of various sorts, principally the
old Phrygian, and their torsos are enveloped in every variety
of rags. Their legs are of a fine Venetian brown and shaped
like so many Greek statues, and there are about a lot of imps,
active and impudent, begging, chattering, laughing, &c.
Some groups are mending the nets as they come in, some
lighting the fires to cook, as far as I could see, the small fish
they could pick up. Five, during part of the time, were occu-
pied in looking in the sand for a penny which I had impru-
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 325
dently thrown to one of them, and being called away to take
their share of the work rushed back again to prosecute their
search the moment the net was landed. From this you may
see that the rate of profit was not high ; nor could it be, for
as far as I could see the whole produce of this great exertion
of some thirty men was some two or three hundred small
fishes rather smaller than sprats. Meantime the urchins who
had got hold of a few of these wretched little animals were
shaking them in our faces and asking for money, indicating
that for the smallest consideration they would do something
the nature of which for a long time we could not make out,
but which at length appeared to be the eating those creatures
raw, or perhaps alive. Some of the creatures so to be eaten were
small crabs. When I (for G., luckily for herself, was not by)
was evidently unable to make out what was meant, a bystander
pinched off the head of the wriggling little fish with his fingers,
and then the holder, after exhibiting its convulsive movements,
ate it at two bites very nasty. Nastiness apart, the place
was picturesque beyond measure, and Vesuvius (which formed
the background) took occasion to throw out great jets of black
smoke, one every three or four minutes, for the first time
since we have been here. It was rather solemn ; a black
column rose slowly and perpendicularly from the peak, and
then fell asunder, as it were, into the shape of a tall elm tree.
Then it ceased to issue ; the wind caught it and blew it into a
thin cloud, in which shape it floated off to the north and, while
it was still a floating patch of black, another discharge took
place. Meanwhile as far as we could make out there was a
constant gush of silvery smoke or vapour coming out to the
south of the black smoke above the spot which 1 have marked
O. But this may have been a mere cloud. At present
everything is hidden behind thick rain. The fantastic pic-
turesqueness and incongruity of everything in this place
strikes one. In the Toledo you jostle dirty ragged little
vagabonds that nowhere appear in the decent parts of every
other Christian city ; you meet first a cart driven by a Capu-
chin (begging of course), then a cab loaded with people in
rags, pleasuring ; then you turn aside up something between
a lane and a flight of steps, get entangled in a drove of goats,
326 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
arc nearly run over by donkeys coming down ; then you find
a lot of cabs on the landing-place. Returning to Toledo (the
Regent Street) you fall upon a hay stack, and by diligent
scrutiny discover the head and tail of a horse in the middle of
it, which horse has been carrying it down the hill (a sharp
incline paved with smooth flagstones), and of course has come
as nearly over head and heels as the nature of his load admits.
How the creatures keep their legs at all I cannot understand,
but they do so. The place to-day after a slight drizzle was
like an inclined plane of ice, and in going up and down the
whole street I do not think we saw more than nine or ten
tumbles. Our own cab horse did not tumble more than once r
and picked himself up in a moment. It is wonderful the pace
they go, even when paid by the hour.
To Miss Rogers.
Rome : November 1871.
We got here on Saturday evening. William Palmer and
Sir A. Paget are both away, but I hope much from the Ser-
monetas (to whom the Stanleys introduced us). I first asked
the directeur \\ere whether he knew their address. His answer
was : ' Palazzo Gaetani ' but I wish I could do justice to the
tone and expression of face. The tone was what I think they
call a ' slide ' on the violin running to a very high note, ex-
pressive of the extremest of surprise and amusement, and
being an Italian translation of what an Englishman would say
in Windsor if you asked him whether he knew Queen Victoria's
address : ' Why the Castle, to be sure ; where the devil do you
suppose it would be ? ' However, I still had to find out where
the Palazzo Gaetani was (he is the head of the family, and he
and his son, the Principe Teano, have married English women),
which we did, and left our cards and letter about 2 P.M.
Before we sat down to dinner we got their cards in return, and
the next day, yesterday, we found a card (which it was ex-
plained was left by the Duchess in person) with ' Sta in casa
ogni sera dopo le otto' I don't know how often we can go, but
I imagine pretty constantly. We thought, however, that an
instant appearance would be rather too much of a good thing,
and so shall go this evening.
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 327
The company here is a decided improvement on what it
was, the torrent of Americans seeming to have passed, and we
have some intelligent people (as at Naples) coming home from
India ; also a queer pair now gone that 1 should like to make
out. The husband might have been a correspondent (in France,
where they had lived a great deal) of some north country
house of business. I was amused at one or two of his French
stories about sugar (at cafes). He said he was having some coffee
at the Rotunda in the Palais Royal (just in front of the Trois
Freres Provencaux) with a French friend when somebody who
had also had his coffee left without taking away his remnant
of sugar. On this the French friend quietly put out his hand
and pocketed the derelict sugar. ' You know I did not know
where to look I was ready to jump into my own pocket.'
' What are you doing there ? ' says I. ' Mais c'est paye,' says
he. ' But you didn't pay for it,' says I. ' Mais qu'est que ga
fait ? ' says he. On another occasion one of his friends, habitue
at a certain cafe, left his sugar similarly behind him, and the
next day asked for it in addition to his usual allowance the
claim was allowed, and the sugar duly given him. Judging
from recollections of Chasseloup Laubat, I suppose it is their
luncheon. It is a great comfort to be settled quietly for some
time, and after the first brush I shall try to get a little
regularity, having as a habit an hour or two of reading,
writing, and such like in the morning. It is a place, I am
inclined to think, where you are not easy till you have more
or less cursorily swept over the ground, and are at liberty
to please yourself in idling with or without friends or
objects, without considering whether there is or is not some-
thing you ought to be doing.
To-day my little indisposition will prevent me from seeing
some functions of the day (' Saint Cecilia ') which, however,
may come to nothing, as the ecclesiastical authorities are in
a state of sulk and stop everything they can. Our Neapolitan
marquis was of opinion that strangers would not go to Rome
this year ; his view was that the funzioni being stopped, ' II n'y
a que les ruines, qui sont peu de chose,' and this was said so
naturally that it was evident he believed in it.
328 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To the Hon. Mrs. Legge.
Rome : November 30, 1871.
In spite of G.'s sprained ankle, we are likely to plunge
into dissipation. We have been to see the illuminations (at
least I did), we are to dine with the Sermonetas on Monday,
and with certain Walpoles on Tuesday. He is a blind man, a
brother of Lord Orford's, who is active in charities and one
of a body of people of all nations who called on the Pope to
express sympathy with him on the great illumination day,
the opening by the king of the first Roman Parliament. I
went to the Piazza. Colonna to see the king pass. He was
well received that is to say, there was one of those shouts
which seem to unite in one voice, and of which it is difficult
to judge the amount. But what struck me was the more
than grave look of the people. People say it is the way of
the Romans to be grave. But I think it must be something
more. I was so much struck by it that I stopped at a corner
where the stream was passing after the sight to see whether
I could see a cheerful face : and staying for some little time
it was literally true that I could not see one, except two, or
at most three, chattering women not a single male ; and they
had an air, not only grave, but somewhat anxious or unsatis-
fied, like people coming back from a lottery in which they
have not won. The only excitement I saw was a lot ot
people pointing out to one another something in the sky or
on the top of Antonine's Column, I could not see which. At
'-last it appeared that the morning star was just visible up
there, and the people settled that it was the ' Stella d' Italia '
appearing to them on Italian Unity, which they were the more
pleased at because the Pope's Council, you may remember,
was saluted by thunder, lightning, and rain of a portentous
kind. The impression was that the whole thing went off
well. I am hardly surprised to see how the intelligent people
here distinguish between Napoleon and the French as their
creditors for the freedom of Italy.
A particularly pleasing and intelligent Italian officer who
sat next me at table d'hote (the pleasantest neighbour I had)
for one day said that the history of the treaty of Villa Franca
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 329
Avas that the French army would not go on. They
thought they had made enough sacrifices for Italy. Our
first evening at the Sermonetas' 2 was rather a failure ; they
proclaimed themselves accessible ' dopo le otto,' so we went
at half-past eight and found ourselves a good quarter of an
hour too soon. The Duchess, who is our stand .by, had gone
off" (evidently) to take an after-dinner nap, and had to be
hunted up ; the Duke is blind, and so was unhandy at helping
us through ; the servant could not pronounce nor the company
understand our names, and we interrupted in the middle some
quiet family after-dinner music. However, the Duchess got on
very well (she is so kind and cordial that it is impossible it
should be otherwise) with both of us, and she and I talked as
old acquaintances and settled that we must have known each
other in 1840-1. The Duke is very amiable and intelligent,
but I find great difficulty in understanding his English and
I doubt his understanding mine, and this is a difficulty to
which blindness adds much. Consequently there was a want
of suite in our conversation which prevented much progress.
Last Tuesday I went again (leaving G. on the sofa) and got
on more easily. I was not too soon, the room was not full
but pleasantly filled with deputies and such like, and I was
introduced to the Walpoles and to an avocato Vera, appa-
rarently an habitue, who felt it his duty to take some charge of
the stranger and talked French. I wish it were fairly the
practice to do so ; as a matter of course, one does not
know what to be at when one has a miserable choice between
English, French, and Italian. As to lionising, we are obliged
by G.'s ankle to go tout doucement, which to me personally is
The Duke of Sennoneta, the father of him, and added to his agreeable
of the present Duke, was the ' Don qualities he had a wonderful and
Michelangelo Gaetani ' (then Prince accurate knowledge of his own country
of Teano) with whom Sir Walter Scott during the darker days .... these
made acquaintance in 1832. In Sir historical qualities, added to the amenity
W. Cell's 'Memoranda of Scott's of his manners, rendered him naturally
Visit to Rome' he is described as ' a a favourite with Sir Walter.' The
person of the most amiable disposition, Duchess (his second wife) was a Miss
gentlemanly manners, and remarkable Knight, and was in Rome with her
talents. Sir Walter, to whom he had mother when Lord Blachford was there
paid every attention during his stay at in 1840.
Rome, had conceived a high opinion
330 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
rather a relief. To-day we shall go to hear Vespers at St.
Peter's (having bought a camp stool), and to-morrow the
Vatican sculptures. I am making a few purchases in a small
way, and am rather tempted by lace ; there is a good deal of
the old guipure and such like about, and it seems to me
cheap. We bought two metres yesterday (about two yards
eight inches, I believe) for thirty francs ; that, however, was
rather specially cheap. It is of a massive pattern, looking
almost liked a pierced ribbon. There is also a good deal of
what I think they call Spanish point, and a finer and broader
sort of guipure at a higher price, some thirty or forty francs a
yard, very handsome. All which I mention in case you would
like us to pick up some for you if we have a chance. Anti-
quities are certainly dear. Everything at Florence seemed to
be 200 francs ; here everything worth looking at is 800 francs.
However, I have got a very pretty little terra-cotta female
figure, old Magna Graecia work and I should say unmistak-
ably Greek in its character, for sixty francs (some people
would call it dear at six) ; and I think a charming bit of old
Roman mozaic, two goldfinches flying at each other within a
wreath the size of a reasonable paper weight, for fifty francs ;
and meditate a little more terra cotta if I can, which has
always been in my line. In architecture I am getting very
much attracted by the old Imperial style of church : lines of
columns with flat entablature, a flat, highly ornamental
ceiling, smooth semi-spherical apses, and lots of mosaic the
old basilica in fact and proportionately tired of the St. Paul's
and St. Peter's style, of which, however, one must of course
acknowledge the imposingness.
A lot of people of all nations got up a deputation of
sympathy to the Pope on the day of the opening of the
Italian Parliament, and they say the poor old gentleman
was so overcome that he could hardly thank them. Some-
body told us that he was also very much overcome at a
failure to perform a miracle. It seems authenticated that a
Princess Odeschalchi being dangerously ill from an impossi-
bility of swallowing, the Pope sent her something with a
command to swallow it, which (under the excitement) she
did, and got at once well. It is said that the other day he
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 331
bade a lame man walk. The man, under the excitement
again, sprang up, but at once sank back again ; the Pope
repeated hi.s command twice but with no further effect, and
had to drive on, throwing himself back in his carriage in an
access of disappointment. If true, it must be a strange
excited state of mind ; however, I tell it ' under reserve.'
To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Hotel d'Angleterre, Rome : December 7, 1871.
My dear Gladstone, An ignorant man must always run
the risk of being fussy or of being wrong. I am perfectly
ignorant of the mode or modes in which I can make myself
quietly useful to you and the public in the new capacity
which you have been pleased to impose upon me, and
equally so as to the formalities or proprieties which attend
the taking my place in the House of Lords ; so I will just
report what as at present advised I propose to myself if I do
not hear from you that there is any reason to the contrary.
(I shall be here, i.e. at this address, till Christmas.)
I hope to be in London in the first fortnight in January.
Probably neither you nor Lord Granville will be in town, but
I shall call on the Chancellor to get renseignements and
instructions. I suppose the Court will ensure his being forth-
coming. I shall not make any plans which will prevent my
being guided mainly by what I hear from him, or from you,
or Lord Granville if either of you are accessible. In the
absence of any reason to the contrary, I should (for the sake
of a country summer) probably make a settled stay in town
during the earlier part of the session and run backwards and
forwards during the latter part. But if, as I am told, the
latter part is really the working time, it would be better, I
presume, to reverse the order. Of course I should place
myself among your supporters, and should be glad to make
myself useful, not only to the public, but to you as a Govern-
ment, making the most of agreement and the least of any
difference. Under the latter head I may say that Coleridge's
University Bill is the matter which (unexamined) I least
like the look of.
332 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
I write this by way of keeping- myself en rapport with
you, without troubling you to answer me. I should perhaps
hardly have troubled you to read it, but that I am not
absolutely sure whether a note which I wrote to Lord Gran-
ville reached him or not.
Yours most sincerely,
BLACHFORD.
To Miss S. Rogers.
Rome : December 12, 1871.
My dear Sophy, I have been greatly idle in writing to
the family, partly because I have had some other letters to
write, partly on general grounds. I think I left you before our
Sermoneta dinner. They were very friendly and fixed a day for
our dining with them a family party, with the usual evening
gathering after it. We of course had the Duke and Duchess
between us, and each got on very pleasantly with our neigh-
bours. She is very cordial and amiable, and plainly so much
enjoys her good English talk that it is always pleasant to be
with her. I was introduced then and before to a succes-
sion of deputies ; a Sicilian (rather heavy in his French, and
I did not encourage Italian), two Milanese, both very
nice fellows, who talked mightily about irrigation and
Italian farming which, though I did not carry away much,
was pleasant to hear. . . . But the feature of the evening
was a Madame Peruzzi. Signer Peruzzi I take to be about
the ablest homme <?ttat that they have. He was ' Sindaco '
of Florence (Lord Mayor plus Governor, I take it), and so
administered the city that the Tuscans would be ready, to
make him (says her Grace) ' Ubaldino ' the first Grand Duke
of Tuscany if he would hold up his little finger. He is a
very good speaker, and his wife evidently one of those
people who always have been popular.
We were all sitting in a state of propriety round the tea
table, when down she plumped in the middle of us, and with-
out a moment's delay began talking aloud to everybody at
once, as if she had said to herself: ' Oh, all this dignity will
never do, I must set all this right ' and in five minutes we
were in the middle of a battle royal about Italian pronuncia-
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 333
tion. The Duke of Sermoneta's she was kind enough to
patronise, he had ' really no Roman accent at all ' on which
some of the Romans remarked, ' so much the worse for him,'
for ' lingua Toscana in bocca Romana ' but that she would
not hear of: ' lingua Toscana in bocca Toscana ' was the true
thing. Nobody else pronounced words as they were written
as for the Romans, they doubled all their consonants. ' So,'
it was replied, 'do you in academia, which you pronounce
accademia! ' Well,' she said, ' we spell it with two c's ' an inven-
tion, I believe, made on the spot. I was a good deal struck by
the fineness of their ears for enunciation ; nobody seemed
capable of confusing between academia and accadfrnia as
pronounced by them, but my ear with difficulty detected the
difference. Of course it is easy to make a difference by
imagination and emphasis, but this was what they did not do.
Since that time we have been there in the evening, and made,
I will not say more acquaintances, but talked to more Italians.
I got rather into a corner, but G. had a very pleasant evening
in the thick of it with the Sermonetas and a pleasant Italian
ex-Premier, Minghetti, through some of whom, by the way,
we have got a general order of admittance to the diplomatic
tribune in the Chamber of Deputies.
After the last evening G. was surprised by a message from
below stairs from the ' Principessa di Caserta ' 3 to know
whether she received. I was out, but came up to the hotel
staircase just in time to see the Duchess of Sermoneta
depositing herself on a bit of web (don't you call it?) preparatory
to being carried upstairs to our troisieme by her grand foot-
men, and a facchino (she is a confirmed invalid), and a very
cosy little talk we had over our wood fire. One got on so
well asking her all sorts of questions about Italian politics
and so on ; it was evidently (I thought) such a pleasure to
her to go on telling us.
Yesterday we made the first experiment of our ticket for
the diplomatic tribune. Very comfortable, and we (coming
an hour too soon) had the very best places. It is a great
3 Caserta was a possession of the Roman people still spoke of the
Dukes of Sermoneta till it was sold Sermonetas as Casertas.
to one of the Kings of Naples. The
334 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
place, like a theatre ; the deputies are in the pit, in concentric
circles round the centre, where the President is, each having
his place numbered, with his little desk and inkstand and
paper (like the French). Above in the ' dress circle ' are the
public ; above them a great semi-dome, with a circular skylight
in the centre. G. says that our House of Commons looks
much more businesslike I admit it looks more like a field
of battle and from being much smaller (the gallery as well
as the floor being appropriated to members) I think it does
not show emptiness so dismally as this must. At present the
attendance seems rather large at least there seemed many
more members present than would be in the House of
Commons on so trifling an occasion as yesterday was. But
the sittings are short. The debate, or rather the questions
and answers, seemed prosy but so to me is the House of
Commons in a general way and here we did not. understand
more than some thirty or forty words an hour.
Ever yours,
BLACHFORD.
To the Rev. E. Rogers.
Rome : December 31, 1871.
My dear Edward, I think we owe you more of a letter
than any one else. We have of course been doing the usual
things. Yesterday we went to Frascati ; but the day clouded,
and the distant mountains arid sea were in fog. We got,
however, some beautiful sights particularly a wonderfully
beautiful sunset effect on the plain (purples and reds) without
any adequate sun to account for it. I am greatly struck by the
Italian villas, both the grounds, which are charming beyond
expression and perfectly enjoyable for their purpose, and
the marble in the interiors which, however, are almost
oppressively magnificent. In order to rival them at Blachford,
I have invested some 5/. in scraps of marble, which (unless
the working them up is terribly costly) I think may be made
to look pretty. Somewhere about 250 bits or so ; all sorts of
fragmentary shapes ; but, if put into squares, varying, I
suppose, from 2 to 12 inches square may come in well
I met at dinner on Tuesday a Doctor Pantaleone, now
1871 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 335
(and I think formerly) chief of the great hospital here the
Santo Spirito and politician of, I suppose, the Cavour ideas
and something more. He talked very interestingly. He
was, while a leading physician here, employed by Cavour to
negotiate something or other quietly with the Pope ; but
his negotiations were abruptly brought to a conclusion by an
order transmitted to the then Secretary for the Police, a
Monsignore or Cardinal Mattei, to leave Rome in a month.
He represented that the health of the patients depending on
him required him to remain at least three months, but, finding
that Mattei was under orders, he employed the night in
writing a letter to the Pope himself. The next morning
Mattei wrote to him-^(' I was a very good friend to
Mattei and the Cardinals to some of them I gave physic,
and to some I gave dinners ') and asked him what in the
world he had written to the Pope which had made him
give orders that he (Pantaleone) should leave Rome in
twenty-four hours after service of the orders. Mattei added that
he would keep it back as long as ever he could, but that ' en
revanche' P.-must keep himself in readiness to be off at six
hours' instead of 24 hours' notice. P. after a little delay told
him he could not conveniently be off till a steamer which left
Rome at 1 1 o'clock (say) on Wednesday, to which Mattei
replied that that would do very well, as he should see the
Pope at once and be able to tell him that he was gone. So
Pantaleone took himself off and remained in exile for ten
years, till he came back at the tail of the Italian army.
He declares that he was the emissary of the Italian
Government at Paris at the breaking out of the Prussian \var,
that he saw in a moment how it would all be ; that he
went to Lord Lyons and prevailed on him to prevail on
his Government to prevail on Austria to come to a common
agreement with Italy and England that none would interfere
unless all interfered ; that this served his Government as an
excuse for inaction to the Emperor ; that he wanted the
Italians to go at once to Rome, but was stopped by the
unanswerable reply that they were pledged to the Emperor
not to do so ; that the moment the Emperor was down he went
to Thiers and Favre and persuaded them that it was not a time
336 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
for France to make enemies, and that if their troops went out
of Rome they must not object to the Italians coming in ; that
therefore things took the course they had taken, &c., &c., &c.,
all along of Doctor Pantaleone. He, like all the Italian news-
papers, plumes himself on the Italian plan of playing their cards,
of securing what is for their interest and doing it, and rejects
with scorn the notion that they are wild or exalth. He says
it is their character to be prudent. ' An Italian,' he says,
'you may observe, never makes an imprudent marriage.'
He complained of the want of political intelligence of
the nobles, excepting Sermoneta, whom he spoke of as a
man of surpassing talent, but surprised me by saying that he
failed once as Minister of the Interior because he made a
joke of everything a very good joke, because he was full of
wit, but no more than a joke ; my impression of him would
be of a depressed, gentle person. Of course blindness (joined,
I believe, to a painful disease in the arm) is subduing ; but
it is only now and then, when his face has lighted up for a
moment, that I should have thought him capable of hilarity.
Now I connect him with the Prince de Teano (which he then
was) who called on Hope in P. Barberini, and kept us laughing
by his satirical account of a Derby Day.
Pantaleone has his theory about the malaria ; it is that it
is the result of a minute ' cryptogamous ' plant growing on
the damp land, the infection of which is stopped or absorbed
by trees. So he purposes to plant a few millions of trees
round certain infected tracts, and then, he says, everything
else would be healthy. He states that in South America and
elsewhere to sleep on the infected side of a strip of wood is
certain death on the other side is perfect safety. The only
letter I have got beginning ' My dear Blachford ' is one
from Gladstone. What a mess about Sir R. Collier ! 4
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
4 The Act required that the mem- higher court. Nobody denied his fit-
bers of the new Court of Appeal should ness for the post; but it was felt by
have been previously judges of the many that the Government was ' getting
ower courts. The Attorney-General, round ' the Act by this technical quali-
Sir R. Collier, was made a judge and fication.
then immediately promoted to the
1872 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 337
To Miss Rogers.
Blachford : January 27, 1872.
My dear Kate, I had to splash about a little in London
on Wednesday and Thursday, but was none the worse for it.
Henry Vivian set the bells ringing and very nice bells
they are and the men set up an arch of laurel on the gate
at the lodge. Unluckily, nobody told us of it ; we, being
packed up in a brougham in the dark, did not see it. But
we have been to look at it to-day, and said our compliments,
and ordered a supper for all concerned.
Your house is charming. 5 It is now all roofed except the
tower. The tower is rising, all the stones cut and on the
spot, and the foreman (who, by the way, has a dreadful cold,
caught, I suppose, in your service) says the stone arch will be
all up in a few days.
I saw Lord Granville, who was of course civil. He
plainly wished me to come up to vote on the question which
I must say, in my opinion, improves on acquaintance. 6
But I shguld think with a hostile H. of Lords it was
notwithstanding very likely to turn out the Chancellor [Lord
Selborne], whom, by the way, Lord Westbury describes as ' a
character unredeemed by a single vice.' I think the chances
are that I shall have to be back about the i6th ; then it is
on the cards I may not be up again (to say ' up ') till July.
In and for July they will want me to stop in town ; Lord G.
implied that as to committee I would pretty much please
myself, but hoped that before long I should be taking part
in the debates.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford, Ivybridge : February 7, 1872.
My dear Taylor, The statement that I have been twice
at the Colonial Office ought, like other public rumours, to
have been halved before being believed. I got there once,
almost managed to see Lord Granville (who was a necessity),
and dropped a card or two on the other bigwigs to whom
5 A house was being built by his Sir R. Collier. Votes were important,
sister close to Blachford. since the motion was defeated by a
6 The Opposition moved a vote of majority of only two.
censure regarding the appointment of
Z
338 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
they were urgently due. This in the way of work was about
as much as I could manage. But I should have been delighted
to see you at Rutland Gate if you would have taken the
trouble to come up.
How I envy your friend King Stephen. 7 But there is no
use in envying or wishing to imitate him. I have to pay
33/. for my robes, 8o/. or so for a new coat which I have
kept at bay this ten years, and am now reduced to get then
5<D/. for supporters I being represented by a roebuck, and my
wife (this is not a joke, but fact) by a griffin with gold
tongue and claws and a gold rosette in her or its buttonhole.
And this besides 35O/. for Letters Patent. Well, I am down
here, launched in a way, but just at present without being
able to touch my future life. I cannot get out to look at
anything that has to be looked at, and my indoor time is
taken up with ascertaining as a matter of /. s. d, where I
stand and what I have to play with so that I cannot set to
work even at the paper preliminaries of what is to be done.
The griffin with gold rosette meanwhile is trying to reduce to
ordei an innumerable army of tables and chests of drawers
- -one house containing at the present moment the furniture
of three, and being consequently so choked that there is
hardly room to make things change places. Then there are
piles of old carpets fulfilling your idea of what is due to the
peerage. At least, I think they must be of about the same
quality as Stephen's breeches. However, the disorderly
atoms are beginning to float into their places, and I hope we
shall soon be in some degree at peace.
Remember that we expect all of you here we shall be
ready for you. When ? I suppose I must be in town to
vote on the Collier case (colliery explosion, I hear it is
called), and I shall try somehow or other to catch you. As
yet I hardly know where I shall be ; either Blackheath or with
the Dean of St. Paul's.
As to my getting on I should have said, three days ago,
T Sir II Taylor in a letter to Lord Blachford had quoted the lines :
' King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him half a crown.'
(Autobiography of Henry Taylor, ii. 286.)
1872 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 339
that I was getting well in a gallop. But I have had a check
which reminds me that I must be patient. I find it difficult
to settle matters between the necessity of exercise and the
evils of damp air. The latter has almost taken away my
voice, which I thought I had recovered.
Kindest remembrances to all of you,
Ever yours,
BLACHFORD.
To Lady Blachford.
The Deanery, St. Paul's : June 6, 1872.
I had a prosperous silent journey to London, made my
way here, and then to the House, after correcting proofs in
Burleigh Street
Lord Russell opened, of course, 8 but I could hardly hear
a word he said. Lord Granville in reply was, I thought, very
good and persuasive ; then Lord Grey, acrid and not par-
ticularly good (as I thought). When he got up the House
was crowded, but thereupon an outward current set in, and
before he had spoken ten minutes it had half emptied itself.
Whilst he was at it, Lord Granville came up to me to ask if
I intended to speak. I said no, but as he was going away I
mentioned a mistake of Lord Grey's. He, Lord Grey, had
attacked Lord Granville for misstatement, the charge depend-
ing on the date of a letter printed in the ' Times ' as of May
14 (in the correspondence which you looked out for me, and
8 This debate in the House of Lords adroitness ; but there would have been
was on a motion made by Lord Russell little opposition to the treaty, of which
against the 'Alabama 'Arbitration (Lord the general principles were unquestion-
Russell, as it happened, was Foreign ably fair, had not the American Govern-
Secretary in July 1862 when the ment (owing, as it afterwards appeared,
'Alabama,' through want of prompt to the insistence of Mr. Sumner) chosen
action, slipped out of the Mersey). By to include in their case for the arbitra-
the Treaty of Washington, in 1871, it tion court claims for 'indirect losses'
was arranged to submit to arbitration i.e. general loss of trade, prolonga-
the American claims for damage done tion of the war, &c. , which they
by the ' Alabama ' during the Civil affected to trace to the cruises of the
War (besides the disputes about the 'Alabama.' This was manifestly and
San Juan boundary and the Canadian absurdly unjust, and there is little doubt
Fisheries). Most of the Conservative that the arbitration must have fallen
party, and perhaps some others, con- through if the American Government
sidered the English Commissioners to had not withdrawn the indirect claims,
have failed alike in firmness and in
340 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
which I had been studying). I thought it odd, and, on look-
ing, it appeared that the dates of the letters (in chronological
order) were May 2, May 3, May 14, May 6, and so on. Of
course it was evident (and ought to have been so to Lord
Grey) that I4th was a misprint for 4th. Lord Granville
left me, and, without resuming his seat, walked straight to the
table, begged a moment to* explain, and said that the date of
the letter was not the I4th, but the 4th, and sat down. I was
alarmed and rushed down to explain that it was the I4th in
the ' Times.' ' Oh ! ' he said, ' all right we have it here,' and
in a moment Lord Ripon was up and shaking the' New York
Herald ' with the true date in Lord Grey's face. The matter was
nothing, but I was amused at the audacious promptitude with
which Lord Granville acted on my suggestion (for it was hardly
more) that the date was wrongly printed. It is just his way.
Well, then came Lord Denman, with still more violent
ebb-tide among their lordships, and it became evident to me,
as it had to them, that it was a convenient time for dinner.
While I was thus usefully employed Lord Stratford spoke
how, I know not and Lord Derby began, and after my return
went on without great effect. His line is not, I think, attack.
If he is not sensible and considerate he appears to me not to
be much, and in attack, sense and consideration are not the
successful qualities.
Lord Kimberley was good. Lord Salisbury was very
clever indeed, and very acrimonious. His sentences told,
however, and I could hardly help myself cheering at his
proposal that Lowe, or ' still better' Ayrton, should have been
sent out to deal with the Yankees instead of Lord Ripon. It
was certainly brilliant, and people, some on our side of the
house, evidently enjoyed the pokes at the Yankees, and did
not like the want of spirit of ministers' policy. Also the
Duke of Somerset and Lord Westbury have established a
corner for themselves, just behind the ministerial bench ; a
kind of little, very little Adullam in the most effective place
geographically for being ' nasty ;' and they, it was evident,
were not discoursing good to their friends, though I heard
(could not help hearing) one say, as in a tone of consultation :
' We can't prevent a division ! '
1872 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 341
Then Lord Ripon nil ; Lord Malmesbury nil ; Lord,
Westbury spoke from a false position. Of course he was
clear, flowing, and amusing now and then, but the amuse-
ment was principally from a sense of the absurd insolence with
which he managed to convey his contempt for the ministers
and all their helpers, and he was in this difficulty that he was
desirous, or affected to be so, of preventing the adverse vote
while he was equally desirous to intensify the feeling of dis-
satisfaction with ministers which justified (if anything could
justify) the vote ; hence he had so to distribute his arguments
as to serve both purposes, and did not make a consistent
whole.
Then a youthful maiden speech from Lord Rosebery, and
the great speech of the evening from Cairns. His speeches
are very like one another, and very unpleasant for those against
whom they are directed from their extreme excellence of
arrangement and terrible lucidity. It seems as if you had
never done with him. He makes a case against you a clear,
incisive case and then when that is worked out, and you are
thinking how to get out of the scrape, you begin to find that
what you have as yet heard is not the scrape, but only the
beginning of it ; the foundation of a series of aggravations
and misfortunes which sink you deeper in the mire and close
all avenues of escape. Yet through all this there is a feeling
that there is a fallacy here, and an exaggeration (not of
language, but of thought) there, and that with time, and
power, and liberty to write a book on the subject, a tolerably
good book might be made of ' the dissector dissected.' You
feel that it is a skilful accumulation of all that is bad and a
skilful exclusion of all that is good, which really places the
affair, as a whole, on the most utterly false footing. However,
he is very unpleasant to his adversaries, and his sentiment,
when he tries it, is neat bunkum.
He and Lord Westbury, as you will have seen, both echoed
the claptrap about Bernard's ' less accurate.' 9
9 Mr. Mountague Bernard (then Pro- The others were Lord Ripon (then
fessor of Internationa] Law at Oxford) Lord de Grey), Sir Stafford Northcote,
had been one of the English Com mis- and Sir Edward Thornton,
sioners for the Treaty of Washington.
342 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
.... To-day I hunted up Lord Granville to ask whether
he would like me to speak, and he said Yes, very much, unless
the Opposition were well enough drilled to keep silence ; in
which case, as the Chancellor and the Duke of Argyll wanted
to speak, a third speaker on the same side would be improper.
.... Going down to the House rather late (6 o'clock), as
I knew the Chancellor was to be long, I was met by the news
that Fish l had telegraphed that, subject to our agreement as
to future proceedings, the United States Government con-
sidered the additional article as a withdrawal of the indirect
claims.
Lord Ripon, who told me of this, told me that the news
exploded like a shell among the hostile ranks. Of course it
made it necessary to withdraw Lord Russell's motion, but
Lord Russell was nowhere to be found to withdraw it. Lord
Ripon wanted to propose that Lady Russell, then present,
should withdraw it, as Lord Russell's deputy, from the gallery.
But at last Lord Russell himself was, I suppose, found, and
the whole affair is over for the present. And my beautiful
speech, about which I felt an odd mixture of terror and
amusement, is lost to the world.
.... Church gets credit with those from whom credit is
compliment for his dealings with the Lord Mayor. People
(some) thank him for his dignified rebuke. Vide correspon-
dence printed by Lord Mayor. 2
To Lady Blachford.
The Deanery, St. Paul's : June 8, 1872.
My dear Georgie, Not much more to say, except that, as
you see by the enclosed, I have not got off my ' endowed
schools.'
Yesterday I had my second sitting at the Appellate
Jurisdiction Committee. Sir Barnes Peacock examined, and
gave us long accounts of the mode of administering justice in
1 Mr. Fish was Secretary of State executive committee, that Mr. Burgess
in the United States. should be asked to submit plans for the
- The Lord Mayor had proposed to completion of St. Paul's. The corre-
call a meeting of the subscribers to re- spondence is printed in the Times of
consider the arrangement made by the Jun , 1872.
1872 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 343
India, without much reference to the consideration whether it
was relevant to the appeal question.
We were rather amused, in the middle of a grave cross-
examination, by the interposition of Lord Chelmsford (to the
shorthand writer), ' I don't desire this to be taken down : '
then : ' Sir Barnes, I am glad to find that you are able to give
a positive denial to the statement made in Lord Brougham's
autobiography that you died in India.'
We were all so completely taken in by the confidential
exordium to the shorthand writer, and the gravity with which
the question was delivered, that there was a regular burst of
laughter when the shot went off.
. . . Then Sir H. Mayne was examined, and there was a
discussion carried on, I thought, very pleasantly between the
bigwigs Cairns taking decidedly the lead ; and I think the
inquiry will not last so long as I had supposed. It seems to
me that they are all pretty well agreed, in principle, except
on the question whether the proposed court shall keep up a
purely colourable connexion with the House of Lords.
Church says that there is in the city a considerable cry
against the Puseyite chapter. But, though he is continually
saying how much better it would be to make Lightfoot Dean
I do not see that the cry is a trouble or scare to him. And I
think he seems to feel himself a match for the Lord Mayor,
Cavendish Bentinck & Co. If he talks about things, it is not
in the tone of a man at all puzzled or at sea, or in want of
opinions, but by way of letting off schemes. He catches at a
hint if it is good, but he does not the least seem to want
advice as a stay.
Bernard was here yesterday, and seemed in better spirits
than I expected. He talked freely enough, and took all those
rubbishy criticisms 3 for what they are worth. At least, so it
seemed. Church rather invited or encouraged me after dinner
to tell Bernard what I should have said in the House of
Lords at which he seemed pleased. I did it gladly because
I thought he would be encouraged by the free, aggressive,
thorough-going way in which I proposed to have said (in effect)
that the main article of the Treaty was good and sufficient and
8 See note on the previous letter.
344 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix:
well considered, and that, with all the general cry about its
ambiguity, nobody who looked into the matter had yet dared
to say that the arguments by which its meaning was esta-
blished had any sort of flaw in them or were anything short of
conclusive, except Lord Cairns ; and that his only argument
was such that it really was an admission that with all his
efforts to say something he had nothing to say.
It is no doubt a triumph for the Government, but there
are still difficulties to be got over ; the main one being the
difficulty of making that which is nothing take a colourable
appearance of being something.
Meantime the adjournment, while it has (by letting in this
incident) prevented a beating, has left the Opposition aratori-
cally in possession of the field ; their great speech (Cairns)
remaining unanswered.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : November 25, 1872.
My dear Taylor, ' Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima
culpa.' I am lazy, and not only that, but lazier every day.
Rural life certainly tends to comatosity. But, moreover, a
man in the country has nothing to say except just now that
f the rain it raineth every day ; ' and the more entertaining a
letter you receive, the more ashamed you are to send in
return a yawn.
I will look up your letter, but I feel somewhat doubtful
about finding it. I have been criminally careless about papers
of all kinds (except Colonial Office proper) for the last ten
years, and upon this looseness of custody has come the
upheaving of a change of residence into a house filled with
other people's property ; so till my sisters and their belongings
are gone, I do not know what I have or where I have it, or
how to look for it. In a few days, I hope, I shall begin to
investigate.
Your account of your London doings almost tempts me
to come up to the Deanery to look at you. Meantime, about
your autobiography. You asked me what I thought about
printing letters z>. whether you should tell your story, or
1872 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 345
exhibit it by extracts. At first I thought I could say nothing
but that you must judge for yourself on inspection of the
letters. But I think I have something more to say, though
not much. It seems to me that if an event or impression
which deserves a place on its own historical merits in your
autobiography is recorded in your, correspondence, or if a
certain correspondence is in itself a fact in your life, there is
prima facie reason for exhibiting it by extracts from the
correspondence ; it is more authentically, and very likely
more vividly, stated. But it appears to me that an auto-
biographer should be much on his guard against printing
letters merely because, however rightly, he thinks them good.
To publish correspondence on account of its intrinsic value is
rather for a man's friends than for himself. And to do it is
to come out of doors in undress, and seems to me to savour
of self-exhibition, which I take to be the danger of auto-
biography. It is as if Sydney Smith had published a volume
of his ' Table Talk.'
Therefore, though I think that extracts from your letters
are likely to be among the very most interesting parts of your
book, yet I should like them only where it was (or appeared
to be) the case that they were only introduced for the purpose
of telling what had to be, or could not better be, told. Have
you looked at Stanley's Arnold ? He is considered to have
handled correspondence"very successfully. But that is not
^z/ta-biography.
That poor old fellow to whom you gave some medicated
wadding, and who would like to have given you a present, is
dead, poor fellow. He did not leave you anything in his will ;
but was very anxious to explain to those whom he left behind
the amount of his debts, which were, I think, two and sixpence
for a shovel and two shillings for repairing some tools. He
was, I think, the only link with the generation of my grand-
father whom he remembered swearing, as he did when he
was angry, ' By my salvation.' It is creditable that the bad
words (if these are to be called such) are reported never to
have gone any further. My sister was told that the old man
wandered very much, but had been quieter for some time
' after the Lord came to him' I was horrified to find that
346 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
' the Lord ' meant me. I supposed it something quite
different.
What a state the Continent is in monarchy asserting
itself in France, and nobility shattered in Germany. In one
thing I have profound faith, the ascendency of snobs
To Rev. E. Rogers.
London : February 15, 1873
My dear Edward, As to Chronicle. The Queen's speech
went off tamely enough. Those who desire to depreciate the
Washington Treaty went on pecking at it, but I suppose the
thing is at an end. Since that time attendance on the House
of Lords has been simply formal and stupid, except on Thurs-
day, when Palmer opened his scheme of Land Reform, going
through the whole matter with great clearness and scrupulous
desire to butter their lordships into acquiescence. And from
Cairns's speech I should anticipate an easy passage for the
whole. The difference between them reduces itself to a
question on the Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords,
which is retained in respect of Scotland and Ireland, but
extinguished as to England (where appeals to them are com-
paratively infrequent). Cairns proposes to leave the appeal
to the House of Lords in those English cases in which the
two courts through which the case must reach them disagree,
abolishing it only when those two courts are unanimous
a faint difference which cannot greatly signify, I should think.
The Bishop of Salisbury 4 has been here all the time
(leaving to-day), very pleasant and full of life. At Nobody's, 5
on Wednesday, 1 got between Harrison and Kenyon and
spent a pleasant evening, only disturbed by the necessity of
making a speech bad, but short. On Thursday we had
Oakeley of Balliol here, evidently most happy at going back
with Moberley to old times, in which he seems very much to
live, and about which, he says, he is continually dreaming (I
mean literally). It was rather pathetic. However, I saw very
little of him, having been kept till eight in the House, and
then dining at the Club with or next to Coleridge, Bruce,
4 Dr. Moberley. s A dining club.
1873 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 347
and Acland. Coleridge is sanguine about Gladstone's Irish
University Bill. He seems to have started with the Cabinet
against him and to have converted them all (their point being,
I presume, to have something that would pass], especially
Lowe, whom Coleridge describes as full of admiration for the
clearness of the scheme. I don't understand it, but I imagine
that it just gives or leaves to everybody enough to stop their
mouths without infuriating their neighbours.
I have had one or two talks with (or rather from) Lord
Kimberley, who hands the Colonial Church question over to
the bishops and me, and I am accordingly to meet Selwyn,
Moberley, Isambard Brunei (a canon-lawyer, and a friend of
Froude's) at Lambeth on Tuesday, to feel our way. I had a
few words with Lord Granville, and a long talk (not about
much) with Lord Carnarvon, who wants me to yacht with him
in the Mediterranean till Easter, which would not suit my
book in any way.
To Rev. E. Rogers.
London : March 28, 1873.
My dear E., Well, the great event has gone off, and I
hope satisfactorily. 6 (I may as well say that the ' Times ' has
simply made a speech out of the bill having no affectation of
similarity with any part of what I said.)
Having fortified myself with cold beef, and, according to
V.'s especial advice, with soda-water and sherry, I proceeded
down with G. and deposited her in the gallery opposite me,
and took my place, speculating on the quantity and quality
of my audience, which appeared (ten minutes before the time)
rather thin and disconsolate. I had previously, i.e. since the
beef and soda-water, rehearsed my speech to myself in St.
James's Park, so I felt I had no more to do or think about.
The Bishops' bench of course filled. Canterbury, York, Win-
chester, Carlisle, Lichfield, Salisbury, and some others. Then
the House filled fairly, and I was told that the Duke of Rich-
mond would follow me. I had a pretty good notion that
Cairns and Belmore would follow on the same side (i.e. on the
6 The debate on the Colonial Church Bill, which Lord Blachford introduced
(see above, p. 305).
348 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
Scotch and Irish points). Two or three formal things were
disposed of when Lefevre solemnly proclaimed : ' Second read-
ing of the Colonial Church Bill. Lord Blachford.' I did not
feel the slightest nervousness, and began, as I thought, speak-
ing very distinctly and with ease. They seemed to listen
attentively, but as I approached the only little bit of liveliness
in the speech, without the vestige of a cheer (which, indeed,
would have been out of place), I felt how difficult it was before
such an audience to lift oneself beyond the mere statements
of fact and argument which were necessary. However, I
went at it and, the passage being obviously one which invited
a cheer, I got one. Lord Granville, who had turned and
looked attentively at me in a way which gives heart, had said
* Speak louder,' which I attended to for a moment, and then,
I am afraid, forgot. I think he led off this cheer. Then I
went on, still feeling as if I were attended to up to the end.
Then got up the Duke of Richmond, but, as they say,
* yielded to ' the Archbishop of Canterbury, who paid me
some compliments (vide ' Times '), observing that my speech
justified the sound judgment of the bishops in not bringing in
the bill themselves, but asking me to do it. Then he went
into some statistics to show the size of the Colonial Church,
and therefore of the grievances. Then followed the Opposi-
tion : Duke of Richmond, Cairns, Belmore, Courtown, broken
by Archbishop of York, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord
Chancellor on what I may call my side. The argument was
entirely on their side, nobody attempting really to meet them,
and was directed not against the colonial part of the bill,
which everybody accepted, but against the bearing of the bill
on Scotch and Irish. I got a full share of compliment for
knowledge of the subject. The complimenters were Duke of
Richmond, Lord Cairns, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord
Kimberley clenched them by saying that the subject (which
all agreed had been clearly presented to them) was without
any exception the most difficult to understand or explain
that he had ever met with.
The Archbishop, with a kind of side hit, said that the
Church had a claim on me to extricate them from the difficulty,
as it had been my influence with successive Secretaries of
1873 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 349
State that had got them into it. When it was over, Lord
Granville came up to me and sat down and said, ' Well, I
congratulate you on your great success. We have been agree-
ing that you said in twenty minutes what it would have taken
Cairns an hour and a half to say."
... I have little hope of its passing this session. But I
am not sure that it may not stand a better chance on the
whole by being hammered out in Select Committee, and
passed in the House of Lords this session, and then re-intro-
duced fresh and approved, quite at the beginning of next
session.
I almost think I shall make and send to the ' Guardian '
a report of my speech. It is really wanted, as a brief for
those who talk about it now or may have to talk about it in
the House of Commons. I think, viewed as establishing my
character, I have satisfied their lordships that I can state
intelligibly a difficult case, that I shall not unnecessarily trouble
them with words, and that though the subject was a dry one,
I have the capacity (to some extent) of being otherwise than
dry.
Lord Stanley of Alderley made the House laugh by speak-
ing of the ' noble lord ' (me) ' and the other Right Rev.
Prelates.'
I must finish, both because I must be off, and because my
eyes are shaking. 7
To Lady Blachford.
London : July 8, 1873.
I got on pretty fairly with my committee yesterday, but
was worried by Archbishops, who started various hares of
their own, and a fresh hare is to be started by the Bishop of
Winchester to-morrow.
Lord Shaftesbury got a baiting from Lord Salisbury and
the Chancellor yesterday.* Lord S. made him appear
7 It is well to note that the descrip- sonal parts of such letters are, however,
tions of this and some other debates in inserted because it is thought that they
which Lord Blachford took part were are not without a general interest,
written solely to give pleasure to his s Lord Shaftesbury introduced a bill
near relations. Some of the more per- to prevent frauds in charitable funds.
350 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD OH. ix
blundering, and the Chancellor made the whole House laugh
at him, so that he fairly lost his temper, and told them that if
he was so treated he would never be philanthropical again.
Selborne pointed out that certain wives of Archbishops and
even of Prime Ministers were concerned in ' charitable institu-
tions,' and unless they kept their accounts correctly to the
minutest particular and posted over the door ' at Lambeth or
Carlton H. Gardens ' in legible Roman characters the nature
of their institution and the hours of the day at which their
accounts would be open to the inspection of subscribers, they
would be liable on the first offence to imprisonment with hard
labour (without the alternative of a fine), and for the second
to penal servitude.
Lord Salisbury had got up saying that ' with all respect,'
&c., for his noble friend, there was nothing which he heard of
with greater apprehension and horror than legislation by a dis-
tinguished philanthropist ; then he proceeded to cut the bill
to bits, ending by saying that as it was not to go beyond
the second reading he would not oppose it, but hoped that in
the recess it would be mended.
Then Selborne began by saying that he could not help
thinking that his noble friend was taking a lenient view of
the bill when he proposed to let it have a second reading ;
and then proceeded to expose it as a piece of laughable
tyranny, in a way which the House thoroughly appreciated.
I suppose Shaftesbury will take it out of them by
some special ferocity on Monday. I rather shiver to think
what may happen.
To Hon. Mrs. Legge.
Blachford : August 25, 1873.
My dear Marian, You will have heard about the Man-
oeuvres. Cardwell's visit was on the whole successful, in spite
of misadventures, which were certainly many. In the first
place the weather and other things wholly put an end to the
sham fights on which we had counted for Monday and Tues-
day. The weather also destroyed (except as a matter of
1873 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 351
business) a party which Cardwell 9 had planned for the inspec-
tion of the fortifications in the Sound. Cardwell's luggage
and servants missed trains at Plymouth. Storks 1 left his
luggage in London. Edward and I both met with accidents
which disabled us from riding. Northcote was thrown from
his horse and also laid up for a day. Our carriage broke a
spring on our way to the march past, and I and Bruno upset
an intoxicated pedestrian coming home ; so that to have
sent everybody away pleased as I really think we did was
rather creditable to all parties concerned.
The great point was that the 2 1st was beautiful. The
site was not so good as Ringmoor, but very fine, and the
day was absolutely perfect, cool and warm, with plenty of
sun and flying clouds and clear distances. 2
The sight was less picturesque and instructive, but more
imposing of course, than anything we had had before, and
our carriage though late, owing to the broken spring
had the best possible place. After the show we had
luncheon with Sir C. Staveley to meet the Prince. G. was
opposite to him, and in the knot of conversation of which
he was the centre. I was next General Smith, com-
manding the ist division, who was strong in praises of his
soldiers no complaints even of incivility, all cheerful and in
the best spirits in spite of the rain, and all, men and horses, in
the best health. He had a strong view of the benefit of the
soldiers' recreation rooms, and said that he had walked round
one of them, while some fifty or sixty men were engaged in
writing and reading, without any of them perceiving that he
had come in and gone out. . . .
I walked yesterday to Anglepool, on the Erme. The bed
was a raging mass of rush and foam, the whole of the rocks
being absolutely covered. The same flood drowned poor
Colonel Mackenzie. I have crossed the ford where he was
drowned once or twice lately.
9 Secretary of State for War at that - These military manoeuvres were on
time. Dartmoor near Cadover Bridge, a few
1 Sir Henry Storks, see p. 265. miles from Blachford.
352 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : October 23, 1873.
My dear Taylor, We are just now recovering our breath,
in solitude and torrents of rain, from a course of visitors, partly
pleasure and partly duty.
This is the first year in which we have set to work to get
through conscientiously what we ' ought ' to do in that way.
And the autumn manoeuvres weighted us further with Cardwell,
Storks, and others. We had the Dean, and wished for you
and yours.
Have you ever seen military manoeuvres on anything of a
scale in anything of a country ? They are exceedingly
beautiful. The scampering of artillery and infantry to cover,
the fighting from cover, the clustering for attack, the indica-
tions, and conjectures, and appearances of troops (in a sham
fight) from expected or unexpected quarters all give a great
deal of flesh to one's imaginations of real battles, if (as was
our case) you can get a good commanding situation where you
are in the thick of what is going on on one side.
I cannot quite make out to my own satisfaction whether
I am or am not doing anything besides entertaining visitors.
I find myself keeping a lot of labourers at work about this and
that, stirring them up, insisting, hunting up omissions, deciding
on cottages and lines of fencing. And I think certain people,
and certain grounds, and certain woods will be to a certain
extent more comfortable and pretty and productive for what
I do ; but it is so unlike what I have been accustomed to call
work that I do not know whether it is so or not. There is
a tremendous proportion of gossip and dawdling in it.
Do you keep your eye on Spain ? I was rather amused
at a young naval officer's account of Admiral Yelverton's pro-
ceedings, which furnished the explanation, which I have
always thought the most probable one, of Lord Russell's pre-
ference for post captains as diplomatists. Admiral Yelverton
had first required a delay of bombardment for four days, to
which he added two more at the request of the French Com-
modore, and sent an English captain to communicate this
1873 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 353
extended prohibition to the ' Intransigente ' commander. 3 The
' Intransigente ' stormed and blustered, and said with many
words that he should do as he liked. The Englishman, being
a man economical of the Queen's English, merely said : ' You
had better not. Good morning/ and stepped into his boat.
The next day the ' Numencia ' took up a position of offence,
on which the ' Lord Warden ' (of which my young friend is,
I think, first lieutenant) swept up to her side, close. The
' Numencia ' asked what he or she meant, to which answer was
given : ' To sink you if you fire a shot.' The diplomacy was
completely effectual for its purpose. But then it was con-
ducted under circumstances of advantage.
Certainly conservatism is strong in the ' Paullo post
futurum.' Dizzy, Chambord, and Carlos. The Count of
Chambord's position just now illustrates what I am in the
habit of thinking, that in one sense ' nothing succeeds like
(ill) success.'
If you want to be praised by opponents, acquire a habit
of failing. Sir R. Inglis had the full benefit of this. And for
a certain time he of Chambord had. Liberal papers were full
of his power, and honesty, and logical consistency, and so on,
so long as they considered that his impracticability was playing
their game. But now that the poor man is showing something
of a certain bewildered common-sense, and appears to have a
kind of possibility of winning after a fashion, he becomes an
impostor and traitor, and I do not know what else. 4
Good-bye, and kindest regards to all of you from us.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
3 The ' Numencia ' was one of the * It was reported in the papers of
insurgent frigates from Cartagena, which October 18, 1873, that the Comte
was bombarding Alicante. Early in de Chambord was prepared to make
the following year, when Cartagena sur- concessions ; but in his leiter to M.
rendered to the troops of the Madrid Chesneslong a few days later (Oct. 27)
Government (Jan. II, 1874), the he absolutely refused to substitute the
'Numencia' took off the insurgent tricolor for the white flag, and whatever
Junta to Oran and surrendered to the hopes of his success may have been
French. entertained at once disappeared.
A A
354 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Dean Church.
May 30, 1874.
My dear Church, Thank you. I should have liked very
much to have come up to meet Newman, and I have just got
Coleridge's letter asking me to do so. But I have a houseful
for Whitsun week, and, though I could steal a day or two, it
would not be very gracious. So, after hesitating till Coleridge's
letter forced me to say ' yes ' or ' no/ I have decided to stay
here.
My wife is in distress at the loss of one of her Guernsey
cows milk fever after giving birth to a calf. I wish you
could have seen the way in which our cowman received my
suggestion that, as the poor creature could not survive, and
was only suffering, she should be put out of her pain. He had
'niver heerd of a cow being killed that way.' I felt at once
that I had to apologise, and said that it was to save the poor
creature suffering, to which he said gravely that ' All living
beings had to suffer when it came to the end.' I think he
felt that ' He who killeth a cow was as if he slew a man.' So
he stayed up all night with her till she died in the morning.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
The Deanery, St. Paul's : July 15, 1874.
My dear Taylor, I have never answered your letter,
nearly a month old (June 23), because I was in continual hopes
of answering it by a telegram asking you to bed me the next
day. But it is inconceivable how, with very little really to do,
there is always something which is just enough to prevent you
from being a free agent. . . . What a worry passing a bill is !
I do not wonder at. what I used to think the cowardly indis-
position of our chiefs to take one in hand. In my case there
is an execrable clergyman who would seem to have given his
whole mind to the Colonial Clergy Bill, except that I hear he
contrives to be as great a bore to other persons on other sub-
jects one of those creatures of minute, patchy learning, who
arc always being led astray by some laboriously acquired
1874 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 355
shred of knowledge, which, if he understood more, he would
understand to be nothing to the purpose, but which enables
him to impose on M.P.s who know less than himself, and
so to give honest men like myself an amount of trouble for
which I can only forgive him in my capacity of Christian.
Well, ' Peace be with him ' which in Latin is pereat male,
or at least pereat.
Gladstone's apparition is curious. I am sorry to say I
cannot go with him on either of his points indeed, I may
almost say, on any. I see no reason why the Scotch Church
should not have their way about patronage. I think the cry
against the Public Worship Bill a scare, and I particularly
object to the working and principle of the Endowed Schools
Act. 5 However, everybody seems to agree that he made a
great speech on the Public Worship Bill as a matter of oratory
He does not seem to care much about what was his party,
who, I suppose, are dead against him on two out of three of
these points.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : July 21, 1874.
My dear Church, My eyes are almost out of my head
with writing. But I cannot help saying how very much I
like that letter of yours to the ' Times.' It is in every respect
excellent. 6 I see why you put in the sentence about swapping.
And I think, what you could not expect, that I should have
taken off a little of the edge of one or two expressions about
5 Mr. Gladstone reappeared in Par- 1869 Act) to the Charity Commissioners,
liament on July 6 to oppose the Bill and also made provision for retaining
for the Abolition of Church Patronage connection with the Church, if pre-
(Scotland), having taken no part in scribed by the founder, in the case of
debates since the first nights of the schools founded since the Toleration
session (i.e. about four months before). Act of William and Mary. (In adopt-
He opposed Archbishop Tail's Act for ing this limit Mr. Forster's amending
the Regulation of Public Worship when Act of 1873 was followed, iq preference
it was introduced into the House of to Lord Sandford's original draft).
Commons on July 9. He also opposed 6 The letter of Dean Howson (on the
the Bill for Amending the Endowed subject of the ritual in the Eucharist),
Schools Act of 1869. This. Amending and Dean Church's reply, appeared iu
Bill transferred the powers of the Com- the Times of July 18 and 20.-
mission of Endowed Schools (under the
A A 2
356 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
the Ritualists. But these do not at all affect the impression
produced by the letter, which seems to me excellent in every
direction, as against Howson in particular, persecutors in
general and ritualists, and as asserting the Anglican sacrificial
doctrine, which, without understanding what it amounts to, I
quite see ought to be asserted as you have asserted it.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : July 22, 1874.
My dear Church, I return Newman's letter. I wish he
had fiddled.
I dare say writing your letter was a fret to you. But you
were evidently bursting with what you had to say before I
left you. And I think it rather a godsend that Howson fur-
nished the negative electricity necessary for an explosion.
You would have died of suppressed Tractarianism if something
had not occurred to determine it to the surface.
I shall be much disappointed if it does not do much good.
It just arrests the tendency of well-enough-meaning men to
take for granted that the doctrine of sacrifice is Popery. And
I wish to point out that the fact of your being Dean, and the
eminence which you have acquired as Dean, is what makes it
possible for you thus to speak with effect ex cathedrA.
It seems to me a thoroughly well-planted blow, and I
suppose a reponse sans rtplique.
Yours ever affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : November 27, 1874.
My dear Taylor, What a curious series of publications
Gladstone is pouring forth ! Ritualism, Rome, and Bishop
Patteson. ... I think I am sorry that he has gone in at
Rome. I have a strong belief, in spite of all appearances to
the contrary, that, with patience and justice, eveTTTrish Roman
Catholicism can be mitigated into sense. But it requires all
the power of such a man as Gladstone to control the ebulli-
1874 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 357
tions of our Protestantism while the process of taming is
going on. And if he sets himself to widen the breach between
the countries, as his pamphlet must do, I do not know who is
to patch it up.
Have you observed a Canadian case, in which Christian
burial is denied a man for belonging to a society which has in
its library books prohibited by the Index ? There is to my
mind something singular and rather impressive in the daring
which not only proclaims the doctrines of the Syllabus &c.,
but is beginning in remote parts of the world to give effect
to them. It seems as if the Pope really supposed himself
capable of effecting such a revolution as would turn the
Roman Catholic body into a society floating separately about
the face of the earth, like the Jews or Quakers of the last
century, or the Three Children in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace.
Either he must be rather foolish, or Roman Catholics must
be a more docile body than I have ever supposed possible.
Of course one always knew that there was such a thing as
the ' Index,' but when you practically come across the idea
that a Roman congregation really assumes to tell some 200
or 300 millions of people, adults, litterateurs, and all what
they shall or shall not read, it seems like a dream.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : December 30, 1874.
And now as to egotism which is always a pleasant indul-
gence if it did not bring to a head certain unpleasant
thoughts which without such definite self-consideration would
o
be mere floating vapours.
The unpleasant thought here is that I waste a great deal
of time, partly from idleness, partly from want of method,
partly from want of an interesting task to pick up my stray
ends of time, partly from the real interruptions of country
life on such a property as this, and partly because, when I get
keen about anything requiring continuous use of eyes, I get
pulled up short by them more easily than you would suppose
from Colonial Office recollections. At this moment the letters
are floating or rather quivering before me.
358 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
I have had a good many floating intentions on coming
here county business of a public kind, experiments on the
poor, improvement of estate, literary work, society of neigh-
bours and visitors, parish improvements moral and physical,
and so on. On this came the very disturbing influence of
Parliament. And I am only now beginning to find out into
what form all these things are condensing.
In the first place county business has not, and county
society has hardly, come near me. This is, I suppose, partly
because I have not met society half-way, keeping aloof from
the occasions when men do mostly congregate balls, races,
agricultural meetings, archery, platforms of all sorts and sizes
and this again is partly from taste, and partly because I
have desired to see my way before plunging into anything
like expense.
In the second place, material work, building, planting,
draining, and so on, takes hold on me. Everybody has a
kind of ambition which is by no means what he most approves,
but which he feels congenial. Now I am defectively defec-
tive in intellectual, or social, or political, or philanthropical
ambition. If I accomplish anything in these departments
as I know it is my duty to accomplish it it is as a task,
which only carries with it the pleasure a great one of
accomplishing a task. The measuring yourself against a
difficulty and overcoming it, whether weeding a grass lawn
or solving a problem, is a pleasure when you have once
made the effort of beginning. But as a matter of ambition
I think my pet object would be changing the face of a
country. To feel that fields, and woods, and cottages, and
roads, and the faces of men, women, and children had changed
their character since I had had the handling of a territory,
would be the thing which I should really enjoy in the pro-
spect, and in the progress, and in the result.
So this is taking hold of me. I dare say I waste more
time and money than I ought on improvements that are
luxuries, but I also say to myself that I should like, if possible,
before I die or become past work, to be able to think that
everybody on my property is, except for his or her own fault,
as well lodged, with reference to his station in life, as I am
1874 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 359
with regard to mine. I am making trie-first advances to this,
and in doing so I am beginning to enlarge the very pleasant
relations which existed between Blachford and the labourers
in my mother's time (charity proper I leave to my wife).
Those who were mere labourers, and sometimes dull ones, are
beginning to contract with me for work, and I think are in a
way to rise in comfort and intelligence. And this is in some
degree an excuse for spending perhaps more than I ought
on beautifying my own house, grounds, and pretty places.
However, this, though it causes a good many interruptions,
does not take up any great proportion of time, and ought
not, and I hope will not take up hereafter the time it does
now. Also I do not doubt that I waste a good deal of money
which is not only inconvenient in itself but, so far as it is
mismanagement, demoralising to my accomplices.
Then, as to literary work, I do not, or perhaps / do, know
what you will say when I tell you that I am in the habit of
writing for a weekly newspaper, a clerical paper called the
' Guardian,' in which I feel an interest, first because I had a
hand I may say was the principal hand in setting it up
in times of High Church distress ... I have once or twice
tried my hand at thinking or writing on somewhat larger
subjects. I began a parallel between the lives of John Mill
and Bishop Patteson. But when I had got a certain distance
with a view of Mill's personal history, I did not see what was
to become of it when I had done it, and so stopped short.
What I should have liked to have shown would have been
the different growth of two characters, each intrinsically
noble and thoroughgoing, but one having the advantage of a
family and a God, and the other not having those advantages.
If, when the occasion offered, I had any outlet for such a
composition, I think I should have finished it.
Also I turn in my mind, in a half minute, half desultory
way, fragments of thought intended to combine into a short
Religio Laid ' What do I believe and why ? ' But when I
look at a modern book I find that what has occurred to me
has occurred to others before me, and that, as I cannot make
myself learned, I shall not be able to open my mouth
without exposing my ignorance.
360 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
In point of learning, my great difficulty is to find any-
thing which, when read aloud to save my eyes, or indeed when
read anyhow, will keep me awake. And this is really a more
serious difficulty than you would suppose in the way of a
person who would be glad to make himself capable of doing
anything.
There is a still further difficulty, as to reading aloud, in
finding what will keep both my wife and myself awake. The
heaviest articles which answer these purposes are, I think, the
lighter forms of history, and particularly French history,
to which, after useless excursions in other territory, we are
always recurring.
Well you have asked for egotism, and now you have
got it. I am sorry for you, but you should not have set the
stone rolling.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : January 17, 1875.
So Gladstone goes: I am not sorry. His position was,
I should imagine, an intolerable kind of position, and I own
to a certain constant apprehension of what he would do
next. Is his retirement a step from or towards his adoption
of disestablishment ?
I suppose for the present he is full of something or some-
things or other. But will he not soon become dfeozuvrt and
take to prowling round the political pen, from which he has
excluded himself and snuffing for an entrance ? And when
he begins to snuff it will not be long before he makes a rush
an ugly one at the door.
I shall feel at liberty to feel malignant satisfaction if
Lowe and Harcourt and Co. mess matters in the House of
Commons. Hartington, Forster, Goschen, Harcourt, Low,
is there any one else who has the ghost of a pretension to
lead?
1875 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 361
A
To Dean Church.
Blachford : February 8, 1875.
My dear Church, I enclose a letter from Newman which
will interest you. I told him that I did not quite know what
to make of his ' Schola Theologorum,' meaning in my heart
that it seemed to me that the Church seemed to say one thing,
' Nulla salus extra ecclesiam ; ' and when in the course of things
this was found to be untenable, to invent a variety of modifi-
cations which constituted an unavowed abandonment of what
had been decreed, as if theologians were now to undercut the
Nicene Creed by a new definition of ova-la.
I told S. to send you my article on Manning. If you
object to anything, use your discretion. . . .
I wish you would come here. The foxhounds meet in
front of the house on Tuesday week (the i6th), and if you will
promise to wear your Dean's hat (I will spare the knee
breeches and silks) I will mount you on a little pony that will
jump nicely and scramble through the rocks like a cat. They
draw up the valley througn Combe Wood, so that with good
luck and in fair weather it is the prettiest sight possible.
What a curiously Whig leadership ! 7 Is it a first attempt
at a Middle party, a recovery of the old Liberal position
demolished for the time, by John Mill, Gladstone, and
Cobden ?
To Dean Church.
Blachford : April 5, 1875.
I have been engaged with Froude in a species of corre-
spondence which has elicited from me a paper on Huxley's
' Automatism of Animals,' which again has led me to begin
Carpenter on Mental Philosophy, which is about the most
interesting book I ever read, and one reads with a certain
repose as he is a distinct Theist. It is a satisfaction to have a
really thorough treatise on the quasi-spiritual functions of the
nerves, with a distinct religion and belief in free will at the
bottom of it.
7 Mr. Gladstone announced his re- Hartington was chosen as leader of the
tirement from the leadership of the party on February 3.
Liberal party on January 13. Lord
362 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Dean Church.
Blachford : April 24, 1875.
I remember discussing you with a select Committee,
Gladstone, Manning, Hope, Rogers, as a contributor, with
James Mozley, to William Palmer's quarterly (I forget its
name) H in succession to the ' British Critic.' It was a dinner at
Gladstone's, I think, brought together for the purpose of coming
to some conclusions as to the then intended periodical, and I
told him that I was sure Mozley would soon break away from
Palmer. Manning represented the safe and plausible interest,
rather afraid (if I remember right) of people going too far.
I wish I could live to see a fight between Church and
State represented by Manning as Pope and Gladstone as
English Prime Minister.
Ever yours affectionately,
R
To Dean Church.
Blachford :. May 27, 1875.
My dear Church, I doubt whether I quite go along with
you about the Irish business.
Nor do I quite agree about the ' compromise ' of 1662. I
should have supposed it not so much a compromise as an
imposition of terms by a victorious party. And I should say
that the High Church movement was such an upset of the
status quo (or what may be called practical compromise of
the eighteenth century) that it hardly lay in our mouths to
appeal to a pacification 200 years old, I mean as against the
acts of a lawful authority, or in curtailment of the liberty of
such an authority.
8 Apparently, the Christian Remem- the editor of the Christian Remem-
brancer. In the autumn of 1844 it was brancer.
started as a quarterly (having been a 9 The Act of Uniformity, enforcing
monthly magazine before) to take the for all who held livings Episcopal ordi-
place of the British Critic, which, under nation, acceptance of the Prayer Book,
Mr. Ward's direction, was considered to and abjuration of the Covenant ; upon
be Romanising, or anti-Anglican, in which about 2,000 ministers resigned
tone (see Church's Oxford Movement, their livings
pp. 322, 348). James Mozley became
1875 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 363
My leading feeling is that our principal danger now is
touchiness all round, and the great duty of such a paper as
the ' Guardian ' is to write it down if possible, more among
those whom it can influence (of course) than among those
whom it cannot ; and in the hope that reasonableness, like
unreasonableness, may be catching.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : June 19, 1875.
/ think one great use of a newspaper is to abuse your
readers. If they take you in, it is to read you, and because
they rely on you. So you are in a favourable state to amend
them no doubt primd facie at some loss of circulation but
with effect.
Also what I have set myself often to .do as a press writer
is to stein manias. It is an amusing process from the first
delicate suggestion of a doubt, founded skilfully on one occa-
sion, when you can go, generally, with the stream, to the free
denunciation on which you can venture when you think you
have worked your readers up to it.
To Rev. J. H. Newman.
Blachford: October 28, 1875.
My dear Newman, Nothing could, it appears to me, be
possibly better than what you have written about Keble.
Turn it how I will, it seems excellent in everyway. 1 It brings
out most admirably the picture of his excellences, parrying
the depreciatory remarks that a certain class of people would
be inclined to make. I can quite believe what you say as to
the trouble which it cost you. It does not, however, show in
the way of awkwardness or effort.
I think I shall send you my production, though it is
really not worth sending. I should like to know what you
1 A short preface to a volume of ' whether as a whole, and next in
Keble's Essays. Cardinal Newman had separate parts, it wil answe itspurpose
on October 26 sent to Lord Blachford or whether I shall pluck it.
what he -had written, asking him to say
364 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
thought of it. Paget (Sir James), to whom I showed it in
MS., says, ' I am afraid there is an answer.'
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : December 28, 1875.
My dear Taylor, I think that all that you send me of
your autobiography is excellent. And I do not know why
you should tell me to ' make what I can of it.' . . . Certainly
country life has a tendency to the vegetative. When I try to
think of something to say, I cannot think of anything but that
I am in the middle of building a greenhouse, and have suc-
ceeded (I hope), after struggles inexpressible, in buying a pair
of carriage horses. Also I have (for the first time) attended
a local board of magistrates, and ascertained that the stones of
which our roads are made should pass through a ring of two
and a half inches in diameter also an agricultural dinner
very dull about fat cattle also a charity meeting as bad
as a debate in the House of Lords or Commons.
What do you know of, or think about, Lord Carnarvon's
Cape of Good Hope agitation ? It seems to me (as to the
Cape people) that the Froude mission was an error, both as
to the thing and as to the man. 2
I wonder Herbert, with his Australian experience, agreed
to it. And Froude was not the kind of man (I should think)
to make it go down a man who would take up a view and
work it, not with reference to truth or practical success, but
with reference to scenic effect. No doubt he is a very clever
* fellow, and when he has got a truth he makes it tell. But I
cannot imagine a more unpersuasive person judging from his
* books and a long-ago recollection of his person.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
2 Lord Carnarvon (as Colonial Secre- of South Africa. Mr. J. A. Froude
tary) was trying to effect a Confederation (the historian) was sent out to negotiate.
1875 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 365
To Sir Henry Taylor,
London : December 9, 1875.
What a curious affair this Suez Canal business is ! 3 I like
it (with the rest of the world), buT I -am rather horrified at the
generality of our acquisitiveness just now. Here we have
Suez with Egypt in the distance Perak with Siam in the
distance Fiji with Oceania in the distance, and Ashanti
with Central Africa in the distance. The defence of the whole
to rest on the one or two hundred thousand men whom we
can scratch together in this highly-paid country or on
foreign mercenaries.
Blachford : December 28, 1875.
My dear Church, We are making up our London plans
after a new fashion. ... So we shall not what shall I call
it? trespass on your hospitality. I shall from time to time
regret my deanery quarters, but the arrangement somehow
comes naturally. And it has the advantage of throwing my
country time into the pleasantest part of the year ; rhododen-
drons, strawberries, and all sorts of good things lend themselves
to it. ... Lord Carnarvon has, it seems to me, dropped into a
scrape in South Africa. His Natal policy is (I am sure)
essentially unsound, except as a transitional state. He meant
it as a transition to Confederation. But Confederation is fail-
ing him. And he remains with an unworkable constitution
on his hands, which he might have altered with a high hand
a year ago, but now can only alter by Act of Parliament
This reminds me to ask you to tell your servant (as he
has done before) to pack up my parliamentary papers and to
send them here to me. I ask it because it is on the cards
that I might be expected to say something about colonial
affairs early in the session, and at any rate ought not to be
unable to talk about them.
3 The shares in the Suez Canal held by the Khedive were purchased by
England in November 1875.
366 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
What could the Duke of Cambridge mean by blurting out
what was understood as a warning of possible war ? Certainly
the Turkish question is cropping up in earnest. How oddly
the Pope and the Turk, Rome and Constantinople seem to
run abreast ! Both, in one sense, on their last legs, but yet
Mahometanism and Roman Catholicism, one in Europe, the
other in Africa, are showing great vitality independent of their
centres, or at least of the present temporal condition of their
centres.
I am delighted with Asa Gray (on Botany). It is exactly
what I wanted. I shall soon have finished the outlines, and
shall then fly at the growth and behaviour. I did not con-
ceive that I could have read so much terminology by any
effort of perseverance. But it is so lightened by rationales,
and so absolutely devoid of ' padding,' and so clear in language
and arrangement that I never feel ^vearied, only tired by it.
To Dean Church.
Killerton, Exeter: January 26, 1876.
My dear Church, Your letter reached me yesterday
morning just in time, for at dinner I met Cook 4 here (who, by
the way, considers you the best English writer of the day),
and I had a long talk with him.
I do not doubt that if I were you I should sign, because
I do not doubt that you have ground for thinking and saying,
what I take for granted, partly because I wish to do so, that
the ' agreement ' at Bonn about the word filioque was a
' happy ' one. 5
4 Dr. Cook, Canon of Exeter, and articles of agreement were drawn up re-
editor of the Speakers Commentary on garding the doctrine of the Procession
the Bible. of the Holy Ghost, that being one of the
& There were two Conferences at questions which had divided the Eastern
Bonn, in 1873 and 1874, arranged by and Western Churches. From the
the ' Old Catholics ' of Germany, whose Eastern Church, Archbishop Lycurgus
leader was Dr. von Dollinger, in corre- of Syros took an active part in the Con-
spondence with some prominent mem- ference. Bishop Wordsworth in Con-
bers of the Anglican Church, chief vocation commended to the sympathies
among whom were Bishop Christopher of the Anglican Church the cause of
Wordsworth and Bishop I larold Browne. intercommunion with Old Catholics and
At the second of these Conferences six with the Eastern Church.
1876 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 367
But I dislike the whole system of getting a number of
signatures of mere well-wishers to manifestoes, or testimonials
or projects, on which the ' signatories ' are really not entitled
to pronounce, on the notion that the number of the names or
their general eminence are to supply the place of appropriate
knowledge. So I am disposed still to hold aloof, as I do from
most things. However, we shall soon be able to talk of that
and other things.
I am, or rather was, staying a couple of days here with
Acland (who is, of course, full of everything in particular), and
shall then work our way via Odcombe and Bournemouth to
the opening of Parliament (for which I have to recover my
robes, as the Queen opens in person).
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
London : February 19, 1876.
My dear Taylor, If you ' do not know anything about
it ' without my speech, you are not likely to learn much from
the ' Times,' and still less from any other report. 6 I en-
deavoured to show at length that the deadly nature of the
climate, which made it impossible to send civil officers there
except on the understanding that if they showed capacity
they should be removed before they knew their business, and
which made it impossible to send white soldiers or sailors there
at all, rendered it impossible to perform our obligations to
any subjects there, and therefore made the notion of extend-
ing our dominion absurd and disastrous. Hence it was de-
sirable to consolidate by abandoning our outlying districts.
Then follows the rest of the speech. The ' Times ' did not
report it exactly, but did not (as in the former part) make it
the absolute reverse of what I said. Whether it was good or
bad I do not know.
I have been spending pleasantly a day and the adjacent
nights at Blackmoor Selborne's a handsome modern Gothic
house that he has built the other side of Godalming on the
6 The debate in the House of Lords in West Africa, involving the cession of
was about certain territorial exchanges Gambia to France.
3 68 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
edge of Hampshire and Surrey, with farms behind him, and
heaths and woods and blue distances before : a very attrac-
tive place, and becoming more so every year as his planta-
tions grow up. In making his garden he has dug up some
old vases containing some 30,000 Roman coins, of base
metal, of the half-century preceding Constantine, which he
is engaged in sorting very energetically. Many of them, as
coins of British usurpers, are curious as showing the degree
of art which the Romans had carried with them as far as
Britain.
As to my ' place in the House of Lords,' that is visionary.
I am too old to make it worth while to spend years in
making a Parliamentary position, even if I am not too old
to be able to do it. I do not see my way to do anything but
a set speech and most disagreeable it is to do that.
I find, partly I suppose from the habit of trying to write
tersely, that if I cannot get the expression which I think
best, I cannot get any ; and that when I have got the
expression which I think best I cannot get any other. And
one consequence of this is that I cannot emphasise (by
oratorical repetition) the joints or links or keys of the
argument. And I should think that a hearer, from failing to
have these critical points enforced, would sometimes feel that
I was presenting him with premisses and leaving him to draw
for himself the desired conclusions a process which Bishop
Butler recommended as a mode of compelling readers to
think.
I am glad to have spoken because I certainly obtained
some agreement ; and among the speakers I stood alone in
an outspoken advocacy of abandonment.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Miss Rogers.
London : March 14, 1876.
I have established a place for myself in the House, in the
centre of a group (i) Lord Rosebery, with whom I have
contracted something of an alliance, clever, amusing, but not
thinking small beer of himself or great beer of others. I
1876 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 369
think I told you that he touched a suspicion in my mind,
while C - was speaking, by leaning over to me and
saying contemplatively, ' I think that, with a little encourage-
ment, C might become a bore.' I had talked with him
about Heligoland, and of course a speech of whatever kind
gave importance to his motion. . . .
Last night we had a very good debate, good down-right
cut and thrust. Lord Halifax was long and rather tedious,
but had a good deal to say. Then Lord Salisbury was good,
and seemed to make out his case pretty well, not without
letting drive at the enemy, and particularly Lord Halifax and
the Duke of Argyll, who was reddening and chafing under it
like an angry bantam. Perhaps the sight of this inspired one of
Lord Salisbury's expressions. He was describing the position
of a certain commission, which was being worried by the
Indian Government on one side and the Duke of Argyll on
the other, till at last ' they got tired of playing shuttlecock to
these two ferocious battledores,' &c. &c. The application
was so absurd that in our quarter we could call him (the
Duke) nothing but ' the ferocious battledore ' for the rest of
the debate. And certainly he jumped up and justified his
name. I have not often heard a better speech, but certainly
never one so aggressive.
On the whole there was a great deal of rubbish talked, in
the way of exaggeration of points of form and language.
But the Duke of Argyll seemed to me to be unanswered on the
substance of the matter, which amounted to this : ' Yes, Lord
Salisbury, Secretary of State for India, stumped it in Lanca-
shire and won golden opinions in Manchester by promising,
without consultation with the Indian Government, to repeal
an import duty on Manchester cottons. Then you find that
the Indian Government think, and are right in thinking,
that this repeal is not for the interests of India, and, in-
stead of yielding, you try to force the repeal down their
throats, and scold and bully them because, in the interests
which you and they are bound to consult, they turn your
flank.'
I think myself that if Lord S. had been right at bottom,
the scolding was not more than the Indian manoeuvres
B B
370 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
deserved. But a harsh scolding when you are at bottom
wrong is a very different thing from such a scolding when
you are in the right.
To Lady Blachford.
Blackheath : April 4, 1876.
The Monday's debate [on the Royal Titles Bill] was dull
enough ; the only sparkle was Lord Rosebery's, who fired off
an amusing speech, which kept the House alive. He is
evidently a great favourite, because everybody knows that he
will amuse them. One of his jokes went off at half-cock. The
great point, as you know, is that 'Empress' is to be used in
India but not in England. He talked of it as for 'external
\ application,' and then said it reminded him of the rows of
chemists' bottles which are labelled to be applied externally
but are poison if taken within. But the House caught at
once the words ' external application ' and so spoilt the effect
of his sentence by cheering and laughing too soon. Selborne
was effective, and so was Cairns, but the rest were dull ex-
ceedingly. The Opposition were on the whole, I think, well
pleased with their minority (91) and cheered as lustily as
Government.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : May 12, 1876.
How would an article compounded of your letter and mine
on the Burial question do for the ' Guardian ' next week ?
I personally think that your argument is an imaginative
one. Logically my answer would be that instalments of justice
are no doubt frequently inefficacious Corn Laws, Irish Dis-
establishment, Slavery, and so on. But I think that you are
more likely to keep your hold on rights which are on all
grounds defensible, if you give up what, though your due in
point of technical justice, cannot be defended on its own moral
merits.
As a matter of impression it seems to me that the argument
from dissenting disorderliness is one of those which in practice
will not be found to have a substantial existence. This was
1876 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 371
rather ' borne in ' upon me in thinking over what I had myself
written the other way. However, this kind of impression goes
for little, and, to those who have it not, for nothing.
Setting imagination against imagination I say this : sup-
pose that Lord Granville, commanding the present assent of
the Liberal party, is now speaking to Selborne thus. I will try
first to lay down a basis of settlement on the principle of
security. If I can combine upon that basis you and your
friends, and all but the extravagant dissenters, well and good.
But if I fail with my combination, we must go in next time for
the pure article, with all the force, whatever it may be, of the
Liberal party.
Is it not generally held that Reform might have been
staved off (for good or evil) for years and years if the Duke
of Wellington would have given up East Retford and Old
Sarum ?
To Dean Church.
Blachford : May 15, 1876.
As to ' imaginary,' I do not think I did justice to my mean-
ing. Practical considerations are logical or they are impres-
sional. The latter are perhaps the most valuable. In the
dissenters' case, I imagine the case of the dissenters making
themselves disagreeable, and I also imagine the case of their
not doing so. And I set one against the other ; and, I do not
know why, one or the other at length strikes me as being the
real thing, and the other not. I can give no reason : I can
only say that to me one has got to feel more real than the
other.
And I have so no answer to the counter case except to
call it ' imaginary.' When I said that your objection seemed
to me ' imaginary', I did not mean that that settled the ques-
tion ; but rather to express my state of mind. On the contrary,
to call it ' imaginary ' only says that I have no logical answer
to it, only an adverse impression. Good-bye.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
37 2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Dean Church.
Blachford : June 8, 1876.
I am glad the flowers arrived safe. I think I can hardly
have been here before exactly at this season, the hedge flowers
seem to me so beautiful. Sometimes it is quite a tricolor of
stitchwort, bluebells, and campion, sometimes a blaze of one
or the other. Now and then a whole hedge side is covered
with Geranium lucidum or Herb Robert : and on the moor
(or as I am sorry to say in some fields) we have a regular
extensive carpet of Pedicularis ; orchises only occasional.
By the bye, are you coming to me for the Church Congress ?
Moberly, as you know, half accepts, so far that he will be a
shabby dog if he fails me without a good excuse. (At his
age really not liking it is one.) Keep him stirred up if you can.
If he comes here on plea of going to Congress, he is still not
bound to attend unless he likes.
If there is a chance of you, I shall keep places for as many
as you like to bring, and that will best please me. But if
there is no chance of you (early in October) that is, if you
prefer another time (for I take the visit for granted) then I
should look about elsewhere.
I am (as I think I told you) at work on Mill, and very hard
work I find it. The subject works into ' The fundamental
blot of Benthamism illustrated by the mental history of J. S.
Mill.' I am afraid it is getting too long, and I am rather in
distress for a judgment on it I am afraid I shall have to
trouble you with it.
I am writing in a tumult, the deer almost jumping in at
the window to get beans (of which I think a sack must have
been consumed in the last week), and a small pug-nosed
spaniel with his legs a-kimbo, very like (excuse me) Canon
, barking at them.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Lady Blachford.
London : July 5, 1876.
Last evening there was rather an amusing ' episode,' as
people call it, about the Domesday Book. Lord Bel more
1876 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 373
wanted the Irish part corrected ; then up got Selborne and
said that in his neighbourhood the mistakes were absurd ;
then Lord Granville to say that he was misrepresented ; then
Lord Salisbury said so was he ; then I put in my oar and said
so was I. I wish I had thought of proposing that the Lord
Chancellor should put it from the woolsack that ' Those who
are properly reported in the Domesday Book should say
" Aye," and those who are improperly reported should say
a No," adding that it seemed that the " Noes " have it.'
To Dean Church.
I had heard of Hope Scott's dangerous, or I suppose hope-
less, state, also of John Mozley's death. They are among the
things which make one feel one's own time short. Till you
are about 60, the deaths of your contemporaries seem prema-
ture and exceptional ; now they have a Iiodie inihi character.
We have had the Walters here for a series of stormy days
borne by us all with a cheerfulness almost heroic. He was
like old times, almost divesting himself of Jupiter, which really
does not suit him. And she is most singularly pleasant ; I
never was so much struck before at the way in which a country
house brings a person out. I had always liked her rather
particularly ; but, living in the same house, one finds a bright,
apprehensive, inquiring, and very well informed mind, which
makes the old outside quite like a shell. Love to all your
belongings.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
December 16, 1876.
Certainly there is an inconceivable amount of Turkish
feeling abroad. W. Froude professes himself a Pall- Mai lite.
I suspect that whatever the blockheads or mere partisans
may do or think, the men who furnish brains for both parties
are gravitating towards real autonomy. What is being written
must have its effect. The great facts of the case clear out,
and men of real thought learn to neglect what is irrelevant.
It is only gradually that we are getting to know our own
374 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
case. Till lately it has been mainly instinct. But with
Dentori and Campbell, and Barkley and Evans, we are getting
able to prt-ciser our ground, which I take to be the poisonous
incapacity for good government, not of Mahommedans in the
abstract, nor of Turkish races in the abstract, but of the
Constantinopolitan government, and of those of whom any
Constantinopolitan government must be composed.
I believe it to be a case of magna est veritas.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : January I, 1877.
Can Dizzy pull us into a war ? I hope not. But I feel
towards them as I used to feel towards colonial authorities
who, being in contact with natives, could manipulate the
relations so as to compel the natives to compel the home
authorities to fight. My real fear is just now that the
Russians will look after their own interests in Armenia and
the Bosphorus and then give a mere illusory protection to the
Bulgarians.
To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Blachford, Ivybridge : January II, 1877.
My dear Gladstone, I do not like troubling you with
divergences actual or possible when you have so much on
your mind, and, in regard to the great question which presses,
are doing such splendid services to this and all other
Christian countries.
But I think, all things considered, I ought to tell you that
I feel these Birmingham meetings as a shake to my politics.
Of course it often happens that what looks formidable blows
over, and my feeling of something like alarm at the great
organisation of which Birmingham and Mr. Chamberlain are
the centre may be dissipated by events. But I feel more
strongly the opposite possibility that this rising power may
take a place in politics which may force me to reconsider a
good deal ; and, feeling this, I think myself bound to tell you
so. Meantime do not trouble yourself to answer this letter.
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 375
which is only the expression of an indefinite apprehension, to
which no answer is required, or indeed possible.
Yours very sincerely,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
January 12, 1877.
My dear Church, I think I agree with your letter entirely. 7
I think it an immense difficulty to say what the Church is to
accept. And I wish wise men would think it over and give
us some guiding principles. At present my prevailing feeling
is that this question should not be settled in a passion by a
set of second-rate people who are really fighting the battle
of (as it seems to me) their own perversities.
Moreover I am anxious that the Anti-Establishment
party should not be allowed to play off the errors of the
Ritualists for purposes of disruption. I cannot help feeling
that that is our side of the present movement.
The possibility of such tactics is immensely increased by
the multitude of small incumbencies not state paid, occupied
by men who hang loose on the existing state of things, and,
not having a great deal to gain or lose, ' like their play (like
somebody's geese) better than their food.' They are an ele-
ment, as the case may be, of strength or confusion.
Turning to a very different matter, I am beginning to set
to work on my Roman scraps of marble and shall soon plunge,
I hope, into combinations of colours. I wish we could
experimentalise together. But the time for that is not yet
come.
To Dean Church.
January , 1877.
My dear Church, So the Conference is over. 8 It seems
to me more and more like the end of the Turks. I cannot
7 The letter is printed in Dean rejection by the Turkish Government
Church's Life and Letters, p. 252. of the reforms proposed by the Euro-
It related to the prosecution of Mr. pean Powers, which had been gradually
Tooth, and to the action of the Law reduced to two demands, an Inter-
Courts in ritualistic cases. national Commission, but without exe-
8 The Conference at Constantinople cutive powers, and the appointment of
opened on December 23, 1875, an d Valis approved by the European
closed on January 20, 1876, with the Powers.
376 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
see now how Europe can interfere to save them, or how they
can save themselves from Russia. However, the whole thing
is so strange in its later stages that I expect something
unexpected.
What sets me speculating is IgnatierFs moderation. I
cannot imagine that he would have so completely or so nearly
caved in, if he had not been confident that Turkey would
accept nothing. I could quite imagine that Russia had set
afloat the rumour about their own unpreparedness in order to
lure the Turks on to their ruin. I dare say they will fight,
but I can scarcely fancy them permanently holding their
own.
How are they to feed and pay their troops ? You see
Midhat tells them that they must get their ammunition from
America. Has this anything to do with the Russian squadrons
going there ? or is it merely to get out of the way of Hobart ?
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Odcombe Rectory : February 5, 1877.
My dear Taylor, Perhaps you have seen an elaborate
article of J. A. Froude's in the ' Quarterly ' on S. African policy.
It is an attempt, attractively written, to show that our
policy to the Boers has been one from the beginning of
' neglect and disdain ' and blundering, culminating in the
basest breach of faith on the part of Lords Granville and
Kimberley.
Reeve has written to me to ask me to answer it in the
' Edinburgh,' which I consider myself bound to do. 9
With regard to the climax (regarding the annexation of
Basutoland and the diamond fields), I know where to go for
information : and if I cannot take care of myself and the
C. O., I can blame no one but myself.
But it is not so with the early history. I do not at all
know either what the facts are or where to find them. I
shall probably have to deal lightly with that part of the
subject. But it occurs to me that you must have had at times
9 The article (still worth reading), appeared in the April number of the
On Native Policy in South Africa,' Edinburgh, 1877 (vol. cxlv. p. 447).
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 377
something to say about it, and that you may be able to help
me without much trouble to yourself first by directing me
to some points or considerations which qualify or overthrow
Froude more or less signally, and secondly by referring me
to books or Parliamentary papers, in which I can get at the
truth without more labour than I have time for.
I am on my way to the opening of Parliament. I expect
a good deal of interest. This Turkish question is the first in
which I have felt a real interest for years. All the chief
political movements are to me either matters on which we
are all agreed in principle, and on which the details will just
work themselves into shape, in the hands of those who
handle them ; or else changes which are called for by the
growth of the world, and which sweep away things to which
I am personally more or less attached, though I see that they
have to be got out of the way with as little as possible of
distress and inconvenience. This Turkey question is one
on which I feel a clear faith and strong interest on the
merits.
I have been a good deal interested by a certain Mr.
Wallace's account of the Russian communes, and ask myself
whether the time will come when the world will look on in-
equality of fortune (then extinct) with the same undoubting
reprobation with which we now look on slavery.
Ever yours affectionately,
B,
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : April 2, 1877.
I did not, as you see, speak in the House of Lords on the
Eastern question, partly because, being occupied with my own
composition, I had not time to get it up in the way in which
a speaker should have done i.e. to read the big Blue Books.
You will say that the Eastern question was greater than the
South African. True : but the one could be done best, and had
to be done, by me ; and the other could be done far better by
lots of other people. I had nothing to say that others had
not.
There was some answer of the Duke of Wellington's to
378 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
somebody who recommended him to take up some philan-
thropic object that ' F. M. &c. was one of the small number
of persons who minded their own business.'
A dilemma which occurs to me continually on subjects on
which I have no special qualification is this : Either I agree
with (other ?) people of eminence, in which case they will say
what I have to say ; or I do not, in which case I am pro-
bably wrong. However, the question is one on which, from
time to time, I idly imagine myself speaking.
And the South African question is also a big one. It is
capable of working up into the worst cluster of native wars
that we have yet had.
. . . Do you see the ' Nineteenth Century ' a secession
from the ' Contemporary' (the old case of the foreman setting
up shop against his master) ? There is a curious new inven-
tion in~it called the ' Modern Symposium,' a succession of
small papers on the same subject (the effect on morality of a
decline in religious belief) in the way of discussion. I read it
and was much struck by the weakness in thought of the re-
presentatives of unbelief (Frederic Harrison, Comtist, and
Clifford, materialist). They seem to me to think that a few
flippant or turgid words will do, instead of firm grasp of mind.
There is so much that is solid to be said against everything, and
among other things against Christianity, that they seem to
me quite unnecessarily loose and shallow.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : April 13, 1877.
My dear Taylor, I have read your Autobiography,
Vol. 2, with even more interest than when I read it first
disjointedly. What strikes me still more than at first, when
I see it all together, is the variety of its interest : anecdote,
character, thought, sentiment, and idiosyncrasy the last, as it
ought to be in an autobiography, by no means the least.
There is something, excuse me for continuing to say, highly
amusing, not only in the thing revealed, but in the revelation,
in the composed manner in which you turn yourself upside
down and inside out, to your own, and therefore to your
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 379
readers', satisfaction, with occasional illuminations by flashes
of side-light from Lady Taylor and other of your friends.
... I think I said how much I was struck and interested
by the letters from your mother-in-law, Miss Fenwick, and
Lady Taylor ; but there is no flagging in the worldly and
political matters from which they are absent, and I feel about
these as I remember an Oxford hairdresser saying to a friend
of mine about a lecture which, I think, Edward Denison
(afterwards of Salisbury) gave to the bourgeoisie about the
French Revolution. (No ! I beg his pardon. It was an im-
pudent fellow called , candidate for the representation of
Oxford town.) ' And then, sir, that was very pleasant, sir,
for those of us who had read about it, sir, because we liked to
be reminded, and it was very pleasant, sir, to those who had
not read about it, sir, because we liked to be told.' And so it
is very pleasant, sir, to be reminded of James Stephen, and
told about Lord Melbourne.
I do not feel satisfied with what I said to you about my-
self. It is a great pleasure to me that you should form a
high estimate of me ; but I feel a touch of unmeant irony in
the amount of it, .and I should feel the pleasure more if
the evidences of kind partiality were a little less overpower-
ing.
So war is upon us I mean on Europe. It is of course a
terrible thing, perhaps unusually terrible. But it comes, as it
seems to me, like a necessary surgical operation, only avoid-
able under conditions which (thanks, I fear, to this country)
cannot be fulfilled, or with enduring consequences worse than
war itself. All I hope now, though I am afraid that it is
hardly to be hoped, is that it may be so short, sharp, and
decisive as to give the Turks little time for exterminating the
Christians of Bulgaria. I never have been able to persuade
myself that there was any real alternative between foreign
occupation and carte blanche for the Turks. And so the
sooner Russia is in possession of Bulgaria, and Austria of
Bosnia, the better I shall be pleased.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
380 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : May 28, 1877.
I do not know what to think about Carnarvon's annexa-
tion. 1 My own impression would have beerncThave allowed
the Boers to drink rather more deeply of the cup which they
have mixed for themselves, strengthening the Natal garrison
to meet any native attack on Englishmen, but keeping back
till we were almost physically forced into interference for the
preservation of Englishmen.
I think I would have told the Dutch that if they would not
become English subjects we would not defend them ; and I
would have told the English in Dutch territory gold-diggers
and others that England was in no degree responsible for
their safety while they remained outside our frontier. And
then I would have strengthened myself and waited. But this
is mere guesswork, and I dare say Carnarvon may be able to
show good reasons for what Shepstone has done, and what, I
assume, he will approve.
I think it very likely that our resolute indisposition to
annex up to 1871 was incapable of being maintained, and
that we had run up a kind of arrear of necessity in that way.
But I still look with a certain distrust on our accessions of
responsibility in West Africa, Fiji, the Straits, and South
Africa.
I am deep in mud just now. We are clearing out some
feet of sand, dead leaves, and other dirt from the bottom of
our pond, and constructing an island, to be hereafter covered,
I think, with rhododendrons, hydrangeas, azaleas, and such like
things.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
1 The annexation of the Transvaal 12, 1877, by Sir T. Shepstone, who
Republic, then in financial difficulties had at that time satisfied himself that
and seriously threatened by hostile the Boers wished to belong to the
native tribes, was proclaimed on April British Empire.
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 381
To Dean Church.
Blachford : May 6, 1877.
My dear Church, I have told Sharp to send you a
proof of a review of ' Darwiniana ' [by Dr. Asa Gray]. It
is a difficult book to review, being so much of it review
itself in one case a review of a review. I should like to have
brought out some of the scientific part, particularly the essay
on the Sequoia, which is, I understand, original and very
interesting and curious indeed. But you pointed my atten-
tion to the Natural Theology, and I found I had enough to
do with that, especially now that the ' Guardian ' seems pretty
well crowded. Dr. Gray is very difficult to quote. Thoughts
and phrases, which are just and telling, are bound up with
passages which cannot be taken in without scientific know-
ledge or a clear recollection of what has gone before, and so
cannot be quoted effectively without explanations which
would altogether dilute the effect. However, you will see
what I have done. To me the book is hard reading from
my want of familiarity with the lines of scientific theory.
I get more and more astonished at the absence of reason-
ing power which some of these scientific atheists display, and
also somewhat satisfied.
71? Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : October 26, 1877.
My dear Taylor, Thank you for your praise : which I
need hardly say is very grateful. I think that the notion of
Empire is really gaining ground, and that as political people
like Lord Kimberley do not like to take up a ground against
it which is unpopular, and gives opponents an advantage at
the hustings, it is likely to establish itself in John Bull's mind
as a principle of policy, unless somebody or other can get a
hearing on the other side. And it appeared to me that an
old official who had nothing to hope or fear was the kind of
animal that might be expected to bray aloud on the subject.
I have had one or two notices from friends on what I have
written ; and it strikes me rather painfully that while they
382 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
compliment me on my clearness, they make some observation
or other which shows that I have totally failed to make them
grasp what I suppose to be my argument. I console myself
by supposing that I serve them in the same way when they
write, and recollect Bishop Butler's sentence ' By this
means ' (idle way of reading) ' time even in solitude is happily
got rid of without the pain of attention ; neither is any part
of it more put down to idleness one can scarce forbear say-
ing, is spent with less thought than great part of that which
is spent in reading.'
I enclose an effort at historical writing which may amuse
you, and which may be read without labour (this runs as if I
intended to charge you with inattentive reading, which was
the last thing in my mind). I have sent it to the ' Guardian.'
I wish you would have come here for the beautiful weather
we have just parted with. My rheumatic sprain, which still
confines me to easy walking on tolerably level ground, would
have made us appropriate company for each other, so that we
could have buzzed up and down our mile of flat road like two
old bluebottles in the sun, and, when we went in, dozed in
front of the fire to our respective benefits.
Our autumn is not a very fine specimen of its kind. The
beech-leaves fall and wither, a dead brown instead of the
beautiful scarlet of which they are capable ; and the hurricane
of last week bruised and knocked off the glory of the trees on
the side which it hit, besides mangling them and tearing their
heads off.
I am dawdling through Lady Minto's ' Sir Gilbert Elliot ; '
it is an extremely pleasant lifelike picture of himself and his
friends. It is curious to be brought into such intimate contact
with the relations of political men, with so little contact with
political or historical events. Of course it is no defect in a
book that it does what it does, and does not do what it does
not pretend to do. But it produces an odd effect on the
reader's mind (unless he is very well instructed) like being
shortsighted, and only seeing six feet from your nose.
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 383
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : November 7, 1877.
I will send you my 'Edinburgh.' But as it is the only
copy I have of my production I should like to have it back
again.
What pleasant work the writing of history must be not
the ' indefatigable research ' which is called conscientious,
but the knitting together the characteristic and telling parts
of what the hewers of wood and drawers of water have edited,
or what forms the cream of personal memoirs. I never knew
the amusement of it till I tried my hand on these sketches.
I am now putting together a short sketch of the Florentine
aristocracy from the second book of Machiavelli, which is
very interesting to me. His cold balanced satire is almost as
amusing as de Retz's buoyant fun. But I think it is rather
demoralising to go on reading books in which you have
nobody and nothing to admire.
I agree with you in caring about individual fellow
creatures more than evolution of forces. But then the
creatures or their doings must be worth caring about. I
do not know whether or not to envy the power (which I do
not possess) of what people call ' caring about little things '
memoranda of dinner parties, genealogies, and such like.
My wife is waiting for me, so good-bye.
Ever yours affectionately,
B.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : November 19, 1877.
My dear Taylor, Thank you very much for Leti, which
has arrived. I have his ' Cardinalismo della Santa Chiesa,'
which lets you see the man, a vagrant litterateur, who is a
kind of unattached hanger about between Catholic and
Protestant, and collector of stories about Cardinals and
such like things if scandalous, so much the better but
certainly, as you say, lifelike and amusing beyond measure.
He seems to have been botn some forty years after
Sixtus' death, and must (unless he is a liar of singular
384 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
genius) have got hold of some personal memoirs of the
Conclave. But then the translator professes to have recast
his work, which introduces a fresh element of doubt. I hear
that Ranke (' History of Popes ') mentions and gives a value
for him. I want to find out (and shall) what that value is,
and if it is enough to justify me, I shall certainly compile an
account of his election.
It is a wonderfully good myth at any rate. One sees
and hears the men, and there is such an exuberance of
characteristic stories. 2
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : November 21, 1877.
I am disappointed about Leti. I had adjusted in my head
a kind of historical sketch, which would have been, I think,
highly amusing and characteristic. In fact, all that is neces-
sary for such a sketch is a pair of scissors. But I found from
the Dean that Ranke had given an estimate of Leti's autho-
rity in his ' History of the Popes,' and I asked my brother,
who has the book, to see what Ranke said.
I enclose his account of the matter, and you will see that
after such a judgment by such a man I cannot very well
present his history as anything but a romance, in the matters
which are most racy and relevant. However, it is most
amusing reading, and I am very glad to have seen it viewed
as Roman gossip.
2 Leti in 1669 published a Life of at the time of the election, yet he inter-
Sixtiis V. The current anecdotes about polates the passage about the pretended
that Pope, some of them mythical, are bodily weakness of which the original
derived from this Life. Ranke's criti- says nothing : indeed, it speaks of Car-
cism is given in Appendix xlviii. to the dinal Montalto as full of life and health.
History of the Popes. He shows by As regards Leti's dealings with the MS.
several instances that Leti's biography life which he copied, he sums up : ' Leti
was not original, but a garbled copy of has not only omitted to examine his
an Italian MS., itself full of apocryphal MS. and to correct the errors in it, but
stories. In particular, the famous story to the best of his ability has rendered
of Sixtus throwing away his crutches it still more mendacious. Nevertheless
after his election is discredited. Leti his book went through edition after
is paraphrasing a ' conclave ' written edition, and was often translated.'
1877 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 385
From the ' Cardinalismo,' written by him (Leti), he seems
to have been an inquisitive gentleman going everywhere, to
Protestant meetings, Jewish synagogues, and Turkish mosques
always asking questions and chattering with everybody he
met, subject to the apprehension that they may have been
spies, which however he soon forgot. Once or twice his
omni-voracity for small inquiry reminded me of Arthur
Stanley.
To Miss Rogers.
Killerton / December 6, 1877.
My dear Kate, Our proceedings here have been very
pleasant. Lord Portsmouth is genial and country-gentleman-
like, very clear-headed and shrewd, bearing in mind the duty
of having his eldest son returned sooner or later for the
county, and from that point of view snubbing Acland for his
farming politics economical talk of putting down deer. ' No,
no, don't do that. I find nothing so pacific as venison. He
is evidently immensely popular, and the cheering for him,
with a whole chorus of ' view holloas ' was almost like that for
Northcote. He only stayed one night and did not come back
after the banquet.
.... The dinner went off exceedingly well. 3 Nothing at
all jarring or unpleasant. Everybody here was plainly on
tenterhooks as to what Acland would say. Lord Portsmouth
was beseeching his wife, ancT his wife was beseeching Lord P.
to keep him prudent, and Lady Susan Fortescue was offering
to bet him that he would not keep his speech under ten
minutes, and he had, you will say, the good sense to rehearse
his speech to me as we were driving together to Exeter,
omitting, with great docility, various objectionable topics. So
the result was that he was quite a success, though plainly less
popular, as well he might be at a Conservative banquet, than
the other members. Northcote's speech was very good. The
first part particularly so. But before long he got to bunkum
about the city of Exeter, and Acland kept up grumbling to
me, hardly sotto 1'oce, 'Ah, now he's getting like himself;'
3 The occasion of the dinner was the Northcote. Members of both political I
presentation of a portrait to Sir S. partreg"fTa3 joined in the subscription.
C C
386 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
till at last a reporter, who was doing his shorthand opposite to
us quite irrespective of party, burst out, ' I do wish you'd
hold your tongue, Sir Thomas.' Which he obediently did for
the rest of the speech.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Killerton : December 7, 1877.
My dear Taylor, Thank you for all the enclosed. The
reviews have a great deal that is very good in them. I should
not have applied the epithet 'cold ' to ' Philip van Artevelde'
as a composition ; and it seems to me that the man who does
so has not some perception that I have. Stately and self-
controlled, if you like, and highly economical of gush. Sir
G. Clerk's praise is pleasing and his criticism of the French
amusing.
I read and was much affected by the Dean's sermon.
One's feeling towards such a composition wants an English
word to express it something that is not merely admiring
nor merely taking home, but a warm compound of the two.
I should think that Mackonochie was spoiling his own
game. I imagine that, though he is a very zealous man, he is
not a very wise one, and is open to the temptations of a man
not quite strong enough for a prominent position.
To Lord Selborne.
Blachford : February 7, 1878.
My dear Selborne, Thank you for taking the trouble to
keep me au courant. I had an uneasy feeling that the vote
of 6,ooo,ooo/. might be meant as a pledge to Austria that we
were, ready to join her, to the extent of war if necessary, in
controlling Russia. 4 But I was reassured by the vehemence
with which Cross & Co. denounced as calumnious the charge of
a war policy, and the way in which Lord Salisbury threw over
the old 'independence and integrity' TO'TTOS of Lord Beacons-
field which seemed like capitulation on Lord B.'s part. For
myself, it does not appear to me that Russia should be
4 The Government had, on Jan. 24, 6,ooo,ooo/. to increase the naval and
asked for a supplemental estimate of military strength of the country.
1878 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 387
allowed to get the mouths of the Danube (which she wants),
or Constantinople (which she does not want) or the exclusive
passage of the Dardanelles, which is a barbarous kind of
arrangement. The more she takes in Armenia (to my mind)
the better. And the more Turkish provinces in Europe are
practically made independent the better.
I would go this length with Austria, that, subject to the
decision of a European Congress, I would oppose the transfer
of Roumanian Bessarabia w r ith her, if she would with us
oppose the exclusive passage of the Dardanelles by Russia,
and I would in general sacrifice something of the completeness
of provincial independence in Europe, in order to extend its
area to Thessaly and the islands (with substantial guarantees
of course) only taking care that the whole was placed on a
footing (as to physical force) which would develop forwards
to freedom, and not backwards to tyranny.
What is just now hideous to me is the general appre-
hension that everybody wants to fight everybody if only they
can get a convenient occasion. There is not a Power, except
ourselves, who does not appear to have a kind of growling
desire to be at somebody else.
This feeling of mine may be derived from reading the
' Pall Mall Gazette,' which is always preaching that we ought
to go mad because Europe is becoming a military Bedlam.
I, on the other hand, hold fast by our two great advan-
tages, our seas and our sang-froid.
I am sometimes very indignant at the injustice which is
done to the Russians. A great deal that is said of their past,
and perhaps of their present, general conduct may be true, but
looking not to suspicions, but at proved facts, there is
nothing to show that this war is not on the whole an enor-
mous sacrifice for a noble object, and it is quite plain that
they have done their best to conduct it in a civilised way,
under the most tremendous provocations to savagery.
After all this, one hardly likes to pass to poor Coleridge's
loss. What a terrible blow ! and, I suppose, quite un-
expected.
Ever yours sincerely,
BLACHFORU
C C 2
3 88 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Dean Church.
Blachford : May 28, 1878.
My dear Church, It is sometime since we heard of each
other, so I vent on you a certain sense of relief which comes
of having sent off the last corrected copy of my article. 5 The
less a man has to do, the more he thinks of the little
which he has. Reeve cut the historical part to shivers !
observing that I had sent him two articles instead of one, and
that the least interesting of the two must be got rid of, or, as
he put it, that the review was in the case of a nursery in which
twins had made their appearance when preparations had only
been made for one baby.
Of course all this was done with great propriety (avec des
e"gards avec des e'gards), of which the result only was, that,
instead of drowning my baby at once, I had to tear it to
pieces with my own hands, and throw it away bit by bit.
Now he says that it is ' highly satisfactory, after all the trouble
you have had,' to find that it is quite what it ought to be ' in
length and matter ' a two-edged kind of consolation. How-
ever, it is done with
How tiresome all these reports about the [Berlin] Congress
are ! It seems to me that to attach importance to the miser-
able distinction between submitting 'the Treaty to the Congress
and communicating it is the most absurd thing that we have
yet seen ; remembering that, on the one hand, any Power
may raise in Congress any question relating to the Congress
(so that the submission gives no advantage to England), and
that no member of the Congress is bound by the majority (so
that the submission imposes no disadvantage on Russia).
To G. E. Marindin, Esq.
Blachford : May 15, 1878.
My dear Eden, Thank you for your letter. 6 I did not
intend to have given you the trouble of more than an acknow-
5 A review of May's Democracy in an article on Turkish affairs of which
the Edinburgh Review. Lord Blachford had sent a reprint.
6 The letter in question referred to
1878 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 389
ledgment still less ought I to trouble you with reading
an answer. But sometimes one's fingers itch a little.
1. I dare say you are right in saying that there is a large
section which upholds war against the Turks as ' a crusade '
the ' Pall Mall ' is always saying so. But I never myself hap-
pened to see any person in the flesh who advocated it or to
read any printed or written paper in which it was avowed or
could be inferred.
2. I dare say that the feelings of Russians are partly
crusading, partly Panslavist just as my feelings might be
partly sportsmanlike and partly domestic, if I shot a wolf
which was tearing to pieces my brother but the basis of my
action would be the desire to save a human being from a
savage brute. The English who felt strongly about Bul-
garian atrocities were neither Slav nor ' Orthodox.'
3. As you allow of a war for 'suffering humanity' you of
course do not agree with the passage of Mackintosh which you
quote (unless you explain it away) neither do I. 7 It seems
to me transparently rhetorical. It is plainly much more
wicked to attack on insufficient grounds a prosperous and
virtuous government than a corrupt and desolating one. In
one you injure the people, in the other only the rulers and
their armies, with (supposed) benefit to the people. It is
also plainly a subject of regret that a good government should
be destroyed, while it may be a subject of just and stern
rejoicing that, by whatever agency, a bad one should be
destroyed, and its subjects transferred to those by whom they
will be better used.
4. Of the past history of Russia I know next to nothing.
I only see with my eyes on maps the respective annexations
of England and Russia during the last century and a quarter,
and am astounded at the fact that England should assume
the position of accuser in this respect.
7 The passage is in Mackintosh's tion to mankind for the destruction of
Essay on the Partition of Poland : its independence. As .no government
' There is no political doctrine more is without great faults, such a doctrine
false or more pernicious than that which multiplies the grounds of war, gives an
represents vices in its internal govern- unbounded scope to ambition, and fur-
ment as an extenuation of unjust aggres- nishes benevolent pretexts for every
sions against a country, and a consola- sort of rapine.'
390 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
5. I am disposed to look leniently on our Minister's
omission to notice the hint about Bessarabia. So long as
independent Roumania lies between Turkey and Russia I
cannot see why 50 or 60 miles more or less of sea coast
should signify. Russia's crime (which is very disgusting) is
in taking it against the will of her ally, which did not appear
till the Treaty of S. Stefano (and perhaps does not now much
concern us ; unless we want a quarrel).
6. I agree with you in not confining the delinquencies of
England to a single act (the Berlin Memo.). I begin by
hating with my whole soul, what may be called our traditional
policy (avowed by Palmerston and Beaconsfield) of bolstering
up, for our own purposes, such a desolating and loathsome
oppression (I conceive these words to be chosen with
accuracy) as Turkey. Then I think it was our bounden duty
to retrieve the tremendous error of guaranteeing the ' inde-
pendence and integrity ' of such an oppressor as soon as
the Seraglio put itself in the wrong by not giving effect to
the provisions of the Hatti Humayun of the Treaty of
Paris. This duty arose probably very soon after the Treaty,
but may be said (by an apologist) to have escaped notice, in
so far as it merely appeared in reports and official documents.
It was allowed to slip out of sight.
But three years ago this duty forced itself upon our notice
by the Herzegovinian revolt, and the English Ministry
adopted a course of action by which they did not merely
neglect, but deliberately repudiated it, taking ' independence
and integrity ' as the key of their policy, not in one case or
another, but time after time. The Constantinopolitan con-
ference was an exceptional incident, almost avowedly forced
on the Government by the Bulgarian agitation made
abortive by parallel communications with Turkey and at
the close of which the Government (by the appointment of
Layard and other matters) have come back to what I should
call ' their vomit,' that is to say a course of obstructive special
pleading, hiding the reconstruction of what is intolerable,
under the phrase (which I see you adopt) 'the faith of
treaties.' I say this because it is too evident to be denied
that our present proceedings are such as to enable Turkey to
1878 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 391
prepare for a fresh struggle, that in case of such a struggle
we have her as an ally, and that in case of such an alliance
we must necessarily repay the Sultan and his Ministers by
replacing them more or less in possession of the authority of
which Russia threatens to deprive them.
On the main point, I think the great difference between
us is that I am thoroughly impressed by the belief that
Turkey is incorrigible, while Russia is in process of improve-
ment. These things both of them -come to my mind with
the clearness of the sun. And the suggestion of allowing
Turkey a year for improvement appears to me like allowing
a notoriously bankrupt debtor a month's respite, during which
he will remove his goods, and at the end of which the
creditor (Russia) will have to recommence an expensive
litigation which, when the dilatory plea was urged, was on the
point of being brought to a hearing, sure to end in a success.
I should be very sorry to stand godfather to the motives of
Russian statesmen. I dare say they are as selfish as our own
profess to be. But they have this advantage that their
interests (so far as the liberation of the Turkish provinces go)
coincide with the interests of humanity with which our own
(alleged) interests conflict. And the result is that their
present position, as viewed in future history, is on the road to
grandeur ours on the road to meanness.
Of course all this would change if we became the liberators
and Russia the conqueror. But this does not yet appear.
Meantime I collect the difference between Turkish and
Russian misgovernments in esse and in posse to be such
that the most extensive transfer of Armenia from Turkey to
Russia would (except to the Kurdish robbers) be an enormous
blessing. And I think Russia has a clear right to expect
'compensation' (not 'extensive,' but such as she is now
proposing) from a vanquished enemy who cannot pay in
coin.
Surely you are wrong in supposing that the acquisition
of Bessarabia will give Russia access to Bulgaria. All
Wallachia lies between.
If the Russians had patronised the Thessalians should not
we have made It a fresh charge against them ? I think they
392 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
may fairly say that, with England watching every step which
they took, they had quite enough on their hands.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Miss Rogers.
London : December 1878.
My dear Kate, As letters amuse you I enclose one
from Lord Portsmouth and one from H. Taylor. I think
I told you that Lord Fortescue's defection from the Liberals
was a matter of great speculation at Eggesford. The Duke
of Somerset, as you may see by the papers, made a sharp
speech against the amendment but did not vote. . . . We have
had a long debate, seven hours on Monday, and eleven on
Tuesday, but on Tuesday I took Spohr's ' Last Judgment ' in
a parenthesis at St. Paul's. It was most beautiful, but I
found that the parts which we used to sing came out like
jewels among the rest, which seemed, and perhaps were,
much inferior. The arrangement which made a kind of
service of it (I enclose the paper) was very good and gave a
really devotional character to the whole. The people who
were admitted without tickets (all comers, as on an ordinary
service) were about 7,000 and thoroughly well behaved.
The debates [on the Afghan War] were not generally
brilliant, but interesting and characteristic. Cranbrook
spirited and loud, but the bunkum rather overdone, Lord
Halifax (to me) inaudible, and I should think to the last
degree prosy. Lord Lawrence I thought interesting and in-
structive, but his very bad hesitating manner, his (not
unnecessary) egotism, and his aged look (he is not so old
as I am) gave an appearance of weakness, and the matter
itself was sometimes weighty, sometimes not. Lord Derby
cold and balancing, but often hitting the nail on the head,
the Duke of Somerset very amusing. The next day Lord
Grey (I should say) statesmanlike (them's my sentiments),
Lord Northbrook able, full of matter, but too detailed in
self-justification. . . . Dizzy was to me, for the first time,
thoroughly amusing. I have hitherto found him dull. But
this time he did some lifjht chaff in a manner which was
1878 IN PARLIAMENT AND A-p" BLACK FORD 393
as good as a stage play. It gave me the idea of a man
who had a thorough contempt for" human nature in general
and his audience in particular, but still thought that some of
them might be worthy of the strain of amused and amusing
irony with which he addressed them. It is impossible to
appreciate it without hearing it. On paper it appears (in
parts at least) dry and unmeaning, particularly perhaps his
solemn enumeration of the various Treaties of Rectification
of Frontier which have been contracted of late, but when
you heard his tone of mock solemnity which seemed to
say ' I really believe the lot of you are fools enough to take
all this in earnest,' with a kind of stony twinkle in his marble
face, one could hardly believe that one was not at a comedy.
I was next to Lord Sydney and almost at the same moment
we ejaculated, I ' What a fellow it is ! ' he ' What a buffoon ! '
But there was a kind of divine impudence about it, particu-
larly his treatment oT an interruption by Lord Grey, ' You
are impetuous,' and a sustained ironical chaff of Lord DefBy
which really almost inclined me to vote for him cofite que
cofite. But at the end of the speech he thought it necessary
to go off in bunkum, and that cured me completely.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : February 26, i879. 8
My expression about being at war ' with everybody
everywhere ' was a rough and unjust one, as is sometimes the
case when one thing leads you to give vent to a pent-up
impatience about another.
What was in my mind was this : In Natal, in Afghanistan,
in Turkey we are always assuming at least there are a
quantity of people who assume that, because this or that
state or potentate is an inconvenience to us, making us keep
more troops or ships than we like, or unsettling trade, or
threatening the balance of power, that is at bottom a suffi-
cient reason for trying to disable them, and the only question
is one of waiting for a pretext. This I take it was the old
8 News of the disaster at Isandlwan* in the Zulu War reached London on
February n, 1879.
394 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
theory of foreign policy, which I, for one, flattered myself
was exploded or nearly so, and it is one which, if carried out
to its full extent, would keep us engaged in disabling every-
body, the U.S. because they will evidently one day threaten
our naval supremacy, Prussia, Russia, France, with their great
armies and ambitious objects ; Italy and Greece with their
prospects with regard to Mediterranean trade, and so on.
And the revival of this kind of Chauvinism, jingoism, or
whatever you choose to call it, which is and always has been
the great enemy to the peace of the world, keeps me, I
confess, in that state of disgust which one feels at a thing
which you find to your surprise is not too stupid to be
formidable, like what I suppose Cobdenites feel towards the
resuscitation of protection.
But of course I must admit that the question is one of
degree, and that there is a point at which you must take
measures to clip the wings of a neighbour who is at once
powerful and ill-intentioned.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : March 8, 1879.
My dear Taylor, As to Frere you told me once that I
was possessed of an ' impetuous surefootedness ' I suppose I
have bestowed my impetuosity on you, and my sobriety on
the ' Nineteenth Century.'
I am angry with Frere and have been (before this affair)
since I read his memo, which is at the root of the Afghan
war. It seemed to me then, on contrasting his paper with
that of Lord Lawrence, that he was one of those over-confi-
dent men, who make and ruin joint-stock companies in.
private life, and destroy the princes and nations who trust
them in public. This prepossession may colour my views on
this Zulu matter.
... I do not think Indian administrators understand the
conditions under which Colonial Government has to be carried
on. And I confess I think Frere takes this ignorance for
superior knowledge and does not hesitate to overrule and
force the hand of his superiors.
1879 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 395
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Odcombe Rectory : March 30, 1879.
My notion about the recall is this. I agree with you that
if Frere's presence in South Africa was good for the public, it
might not be wise to sacrifice the Colony to departmental
discipline. But I think that he is a mischief, and that his
recall is in itself a good. Nothing, I conceive or rather infer
will make him carry into effect with reasonable loyalty a policy
that is not his own. And he has the power, so long as he
is there, of forcing the hand of Government to any extent. If
he does not choose to make peace it will not be made. If he
chooses to go on massacring those unlucky savages, on the
plea that if we do not kill them, they will kill us, the Govern-
ment which upholds him must send as many troops as he asks
for. And if another disaster should occur, and if the Cape
natives whom we are trying to disarm should rise behind us,
and the Boers declare themselves independent in front of us,
we shall have a pretty job on our hands.
The announcement of an intention to disarm even friendly
natives I have heard long ago spoken of by South Africans as
wildly imprudent.
To Cardinal Newman.
The Deanery, St. Paul's : December 23, 1879.
My dear Cardinal, Church tells me that this is the right
and allowable way of beginning a letter to you, to ask whether
you have any commands for Rome. Without his instruction
I do not think I should have got beyond the first two words.
If, which is most unlikely, we can take or do anything for
you, we shall of course be delighted, but we are off on Friday.
If any friend occurs to you to whom it seems natural to
you to give us a letter of introduction, we shall be very grate-
ful. But I do not write with that object, or want you to
trouble yourself about the matter.
. . . All sorts of good Christmas wishes to you. My wife
is not by me, or she would send hers most heartily.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
396 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Cardinal Newman.
Mentone : January 2, 1880.
My dear Cardinal, Thank you very much for writing to
tell me of the death of your sister Jemima [Mrs. John Mozley]
her release, I suppose I may say. I often think of those
old Iffley days in which she added so much to the pleasure
of all about her, and certainly I was going to say not least
to mine. What a long time back it is, and how pleasant to
remember ! Before Germany or Italy or a Reformed Parlia-
ment, and when so many other things were so little what they
are, and Froude used to say, ' When will anything happen
to disturb this stagnancy ? ' It seems such a time of repose
that the world seems since that time to have been driven
out of (a fool's) paradise.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Rome : February 19, 1880.
From Pisa where you heard of us, we came straight to
Rome. ... It is a curiously changed place since I was first
here. Then by the side of the Papal Court, lay and clerical
ycompris,\.\\e old Italo- Papal nobility, there was a comfortable
little English colony with an aristocracy of old residents and
artists, which touched the Italian society at its edges, and
lived with a quiet sociability which enabled every one to spend
his evenings (if he liked) with some friend or other, and to
organise archaeological or picturesque or ecclesiastical gaieties
in an easy inexpensive kind of way. Everything was very
dirty out of the best hotels, and every corner was full of
character contadini and processions and cardinals' car-
riages met you in the streets, and altogether the place had an
atmosphere of its own. But now the Embassies have revolu-
tionised society. ' The thing ' is to be asked to the Embassy
and meet the kind of people whom people aspire to meet in
London. The monks are shut up, the Pope and Cardinals
sulk, the artists are put into a corner, the archaeologists are
turning the picturesque old ruins into deserts, or museums, or
quarries, or tea gardens, and the public places are occupied by
1880 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 397
Cook's tourists. ' A different class of people,' grumbled an
old resident with bitter scorn. ' People you never see at a
banker's, but who go and change a five-pound note at a money-
changer's.' Of course, churches and ruins and museums
remain, and most wonderful they are, more so as you know
more of them, but the pleasant dilettante side of Rome is
gone. I must say, however, it remains otherwise remarkable.
Judging by the enormous amount of what women call ' wash '
which you see hanging on long ropes in all sorts of impossible
and magnificent places, and by the floods of Indulgenze Plen-
arie which are advertised on church doors as to be had dog-
cheap, I should say that there can hardly be a place in the
world where there was so much moral and physical washing,
not many places perhaps in which there still is more dirt.
Then (during the carnival) the contadini in their wonder-
ful dresses, getting up dances to the sound of the tambourine
on the public places, and on the grand steps of the Pincian
really as if they were doing it from gaiete de cceur a kind of
polka, I suppose (waltz without rotatory motion), in which the
figure seemed to be in the various movements of the arms.
Also certain itinerant sellers of things are charming. Last
Sunday we saw a crowd being harangued, and found the
orator to be a seller of brass watch-chains. The oratory was
an energetic, unbroken current, coming out unceasingly from
his mouth as from an instrument of music of the most
beautifully pronounced and (as far as I could see) perfectly
grammatical Italian all about the watch-chains. They were
sent to Francia, Inghilterra, and Allemagna nothing was
charged for the labour of making them, for it was ' lavoro for-
zato' 'dei poveri disgraziati che sono in carcere.' A manu-
facturer would give a ' regalo di cinque cento lire to the man
who could make them : and now he was selling them for
what ? non e di cento lire ; non e di cinquanta lire ; non e di
vehti lire ; non e di dieci lire ; non e di una lira ; non e
di novanta centesimi ; non e di ottanta centesimi ; non e di
settanta centesimi ; non e di sessanta centesimi ; ma e di
cinquanta centesimi ciascuno.' The figure of oratory with this
immense and deliberate descent from a hundred francs to fifty
centimes was too much for me, and I put forward my cinquanta,
398 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
which he took, and gave me the chain without a second's dis-
turbance of his eloquence ; and I was glad to see that I had
induced one or more bystanders to do likewise.
Then the beggars, the old and maimed, are certainly very
repulsive, and I, for one, prefer giving to some kind of
almoner ; there is a half-savage, half-whining professionalism
about them which is unpleasant. The boys are some of them
obnoxious, as when they affect to sell things. ' Msoo, Msoo,
vaar chip, vaar chip,' ' one franc, vaar chip, vaar chip.' Also
when they hustle and crowd you, still more when they pelt you
with mud, as they did me when I was trying to sketch S. Gior-
gio in Velabro, the church which gives a title to Cardinal
Newman. (I shall send him a complaint of his parishioners.)
Also very bad when they stop playing to whine. ' Muoio di
fame: madre ammalata.' But I am rather overcome by the
handsome little vagabonds who look up laughing at you and
cry for a soldo, trusting to nothing but their beauty, their
manners, and their impudence. ' No, no, non c' e andate via '
(with a deprecating movement of the palm of the hand, which
is supposed to be a specific). ' Si, si, c' e, c' e,' from a little
bright varlet who keeps trotting round you ; or again, ' No, no,
non c' e ; e poi se vi do qualche cosa, verranno tutti gli altri
a rubarmi.' ' No, no, non lo diro a nessuno, che m' avete dato
qualche cosa.' That little rascal got a penny for being so
bright and handsome and quick. Very immoral.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : May 4, 1880.
My dear Taylor, Well ! What do you say to it all ? 9
Lord Ripon seems rather weak for India, Lord Cowper rather
shy for Ireland. Chamberlain tolerably well muzzled by the
Board of Trade. Forster an odd master for the Irishmen.
Dilke prudently harnessed with Granville, and the rest not
very originally but effectively and promisingly placed. I
wonder to myself much what the effect of truth and justice in
the fleshly shape of Forster will have on the perferuidum in-
s Lord Beaconsfield resigned, after the general election, in April 1880, and Mr.
Gladstone became Prime Minister.
1880 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 399
genium. I never quite know whether Irishmen will think
truth and justice divine or ridiculous, either being on the cards.
Forster is neither one nor the other nor a compromise between
the two. I expect that his grim uncouthness will impress
them with an amiable sense x of~frrmtmess, and that they will
be rather puzzled at first to decide whether his truthfulness is
folly or wisdom, but will end by determining on the last.
What will be the effect of his aversion for jobbing (unless he
leaves it in Yorkshire) on the public opinion across the Channel
I am unable even to conjecture. I think I shall run up to
town for a day or two (at the Deanery) when Parliament
meets in earnest, which I suppose to be about the 2oth.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Lady Blachford.
London : May 28, 1880.
I went last night to see the ' Merchant of Venice ' and
' lolanthe ' Irving and Miss Terry. She is quite charming.
In the casket scene (I am bound to confess) I fairly cried.
The admirable scenery and grouping helped the effect, but it
was produced in spite of a Bassanio who was a butcherly stick.
The judgment scene was admirable, in that difficult speech
of Portia's about mercy there was a pretty feminine earnest-
ness, without a shadow of declamation, which was quite
beautiful, every word coiilait de source, seemed to be suggested
by the abundance of the heart as it rose to the mouth, the
earnestness rising to the throne of heaven as its natural climax.
Irving was often very good, but the facial contortion was
terrific, and the occasional rant abominable (although, they
say, much retrenched). The speech ' Hath not a Jew eyes ?
&c.,' which seems to me one of concentrated wrath and scorn,
and sense of injustice, burning at heart, but under the steady
guidance of logical intellect, was bellowed as it might have
been in Billingsgate, only bass instead of treble. ' lolanthe,'
the one-scene afterpiece, was a piece of poetry acted. The
story so to call it is absurd beyond ordinary absurdity. A
beautiful princess, blind from her birth, but betrothed to a
neighbouring prince who does not know her or her defect, is
400 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
kept by her father in a garden of delights with nobody in her
reach but a nurse, or servant, the father from time to time,
and a physician who is to cure her, without being instructed
as to the nature of sight, or told that anybody has more senses
than herself. For her cure (which must be effected at a par-
ticular moment if at all) it is necessary that she should be told
of her blindness, which her father has not the heart to do.
But the gallant knight her betrothed (who has never seen
and knows nothing on earth about her) penetrates the garden
by chance, falls in love of course, and finds out only gradually
that she is blind, and explains it to her. This bit is really
very beautiful.- Her movements, which tell the spectator that
she is blind, but yet leave it possible that her chance visitors
may not find it out, the gradual way in which the knight dis-
covers and tests it, the tenderness of his explanation, and her
curious surprised half comprehension, probably owe a great
deal of their effect to the fine delicacy of her acting, but seemed
to me as if they would read very beautifully as poetry. Of
course the cure is successful ; while the knight, writing in-
stantly to reject his betrothed, and invading the valley to carry
off his mistress (who, of course, has avowed her own position
with the utmost promptitude and innocence), finds that he has
only troubled himself ' enfoncer une porte ouverte.' The per-
plexities of untutored sight are well written and well acted.
She is impressed by the sky, and asks with awe (as I under-
stood) ' Is it God ? '
I went to see Lear's drawings with Church, and if I had
not spent so much on ourselves, should have been grievously
tempted by one of Nemi, showing quite clearly the zigzag road
by which we descended from the town to the lake.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : October 13, 1880.
My dear Taylor, I confess to a share in debauching the
Dean. That is to say, I persuaded him to stay here till the
last moment at which he was obliged to go to London. My
engine of persuasion was a certain marble manufacture, in
which I am engaged, and of which he became enamoured*
1880 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 401
Eight or nine years ago I brought home from Rome a few
pounds' worth of fragments of various old marbles, and now I
have set to work (after giving the matter some study last
winter in Italy) in trying what can be made of them, experi-
mentalising in contrasts and harmonies on a very small scale.
Every morning after breakfast the Dean (who of course has
great schemes of decoration of St. Paul's floating about him)
started off with me to the ' shop,' and I believe would have
spent the day there fidgeting and watching, to the neglect
of all other duties, if I would have let him, and towards the
end of September we were approaching a climax (not yet
reached), and so he stayed on and on. Engagements are cer-
tainly his weak point, so when I have got him I keep him.
When he went away he was meditating a visit to Bourne-
mouth, and now he is complaining that London makes him
ill. So I expect you will hear or will have heard from him.
Lord Monteagle's outburst against the House of Peers (as
an institution) took me altogether by surprise. 1 It seems
to me that a very real use of that House is to prevent a
Ministry from stealing a march on the nation by means of a
majority among the representatives. And this the House
of Lords did in the case of the Irish Land Bill.
The country is lovely just now, and I think with horror of
having to go to town. How lazy one gets !
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : October 17, 1880.
What a muff European concert is, unless one or more
powers are prepared and allowed to act constable ! The
Sultan is something between a farce and a bad dream, in
which the same ridiculous or disgusting dilemma is always
turning up, in the midst of all your struggles to avoid it. The
eternal promise and the eternal breach, and the eternal sur-
prise at being eternally taken in exactly the same way, and
the eternal objections to the only mode of breaking through
the eternal dilemma, are enough to choke one.
1 See below, letter of October 18.
D D
4 o? LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : October 18, 1880.
No doubt 'the sword of justice' (though sometimes
unwittingly the sword of injustice) is a noble thing, so is it a
safe thing to ' judge not that we be not judged.' And one
has to pick and choose between them. In the course of my
newspaper life I certainly feel that I have rather exceeded
propriety as a swordsman, and feel the temptation grievously
still. One feels that he who smites to the point is a public
benefactor, but it is sometimes at the expense of his own
credit and conscience.
I cannot find Monteagle's speech, but this is the less
matter, as he writes to say that it is incorrectly reported. I
should doubtless have said, like you (only with less knowledge),
that there were few men of whom a pleasing modesty was
more characteristic than of him. But modesty is after all a
local disease, extending to a man's manner but not his speech,
or to his speech but not his writings, and I thought with some
surprise that he might be of those who are carried out of
themselves when ' on his legs.' What I take to be the case is
that he was reported as saying that the House of Lords would
be well out of the way, when he really said or meant to say
that he for himself would rather be eligible for the Commons
than have a seat in the Peers, which of course any man may
say. It was pluckily done of him, to take his chance with a
set of Land Leaguers.
What a set of messes are afloat ! Turks, Afghans, Basutos,
and Irishmen, and floating in the clouds a possible European
war.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Dean Church.
Blachford : October 28, 1880.
Forster's fate in being nicknamed ' Buckshot ' is amusing.
I remember in old days at Blackheath an old lady who
supported at her own expense a school of 50 girls whom she
1880 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 403
indulged alarmingly, and whom, when they were naughty,
from sheer dislike of giving them pain, she caused to lie down
in a long rather coffin-like box. What she got for her
humanity was, that she got mobbed in the streets as the old
woman who buried children alive so much for venturing on
unusual punishments or modes of self-defence.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Totnes : December n, 1880.
My dear Taylor, You will have seen by the papers the
death of James Colvile. 2 You know what a loss it must be
to his wife ; but you have hardly seen enough of the family
to know what he was to them. An eldest brother and dis-
tinguished head of a family is always an idol, more or less, to
his sisters ; and he was so exceedingly kind and attentive,
that he was an unusually great part of their happiness,
particularly to his bedridden sister. It is, I need hardly say,
a great grief to my wife. I am at this moment staying here
with her and two of her sisters. Two of them are gone with
Lady Colvile to the funeral in Scotland at Craigflower,
where he will lie by his boy.
I suppose I ought to be in town at the opening of Parlia-
ment, though there will probably be little of interest in the
Lords. To say the honest truth I am getting more and more
doubtful whether the Liberal Party, as at present constituted,
can govern the country such as Ireland makes it without
involving us in some great calamities.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : January 27, 1881.
My dear Taylor, How have you got on with old father
Winter ? We have got off very well, and I really think have
had more amusement than inconvenience from the weather.
2 Lady Blachford's brother, Right Privy Councillor and Judge of the
Hon. Sir James Colvile, at one time Court of Appeal.
Chief Justice of Bengal ; afterwards a
D D 2
404 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
There has been little or no distress in the neighbourhood to
wring our hearts. But for a day or two we had a curious
sense of isolation no butcher, no baker, no postman, no
doctor, of course no letters or newspapers, and everywhere a
great mass of white, filling the lanes, and sometimes with
drifts 10 or 12 feet high. As our weather was bright and
sunny (between the storms) the earth and sky were very
pretty to look at, which made the inside of the house cheer-
ful. Charming sunsets over the white snow, and purple
branches of trees and grey distance : then a pretty scene of the
men and horses and punt getting out of the pond a doe who
had tumbled in through the ice : then the gradual establish-
ment of communications with the outer world, principally the
village and the railway station : then the news of the wearing
or cutting of paths, the reappearance of joints of meat and
loaves of bread in the village, news of the sheep which had
been lost in the snow and found again. In one case six sheep
were dug out, because the vigilant farmer had observed that a
fox had been trying to scratch his way into a snow drift ;
and wisely judged that it was not for nothing ; so, pursuing the
fox's unfinished work, he recovered his animals. Now the
thaw is making way fast, and we see almost as much green
as white from the windows.
What a set those Irish are ! And what a very good speech
Forster's was. I wonder whether ever before in the history of
the world a set of individuals, in the face of an established
government, succeeded in establishing themselves and their
nominees as a machine for deciding how much of his pro-
perty every proprietor should be allowed to keep, and in
enforcing their decrees by carding, houghing, ear-cropping,
bludgeoning, and shooting, with the universal acquiescence
of the population, and the certainty that no jury would
convict any of their ministers. I thought there was something
very pathetic in Forster's cry that if he could have foreseen
all this he would never have been Irish Secretary, or indeed
a politician, which means that his theory of government,
resting on the notion that the multitude is reasonable, has
been wrecked upon Ireland.
1881 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 405
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : March 9, 1881.
We are just back from London, where I have been on
the Cathedral Commission and kept by the Afghan debate.
Lord Derby's was, I thought, the speech of the debate, which
was, I imagine, a creditable one to their Lordships' House.
I arrived here last night in wind and rain, leaving behind me
our brougham upset (not with me in it), our enormous coach-
man pitched into a hedge, and our horse half-stunned, wholly
numbed, and chipped all over. However, it might have
been worse. The big coachman is only bruised, the carriage
will be set right, and the horse is to be available again.
This Transvaal business seems to be getting worse and
worse. I only hope they will not adopt the Protectorate
scheme, which according to the old precedent will disable us
from controlling the Boers and compel us to protect them
from the consequence of their misdoings. ' Felix opportunitate
mortis ' is the phrase which recurs to my mind when I think
of Colley's death. 3 It would have required some resolution in
him to survive this third disaster. What terrible mischief
these attractive, plausible, self-confident people are capable of
doing ! People seem to get sick of that school, and yet I
believe they will scarcely tolerate a really calm and just and
considerate policy.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Moorcross 4 : June 8, 1881.
My dear Taylor, I have just come into possession of the
' Nineteenth Century,' and read your article on Carlyle. I like
it very much indeed, in every way. It is very interesting and I
am not disposed to quarrel with it, if it is a little on the friendly
side of just. The evil qualities which the reading of his remini-
3 At Majuba Hill, in February 1881.
4 His sister's home, near Blachford.
406 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
scences suggests are envy and egotism ; and your paper leaves
on the mind the impression that, after all, there was a great
deal in Carlyle's circumstances and disposition which would
account for an appearance of these things far in excess of
the reality. Also it is very just to remind us that we are
misled, by the solid, deliberate appearance of a printed book,
into forgetting the passing character of Carlyle's disagreeable
thoughts. Let him that knows of no internal contemptible-
nesses in himself cast the first stone, All this, of course,
weights the condemnation of Froude, which I myself feel to
be righteous. Here I read your article a second time, by
way of parenthesis. It is very good indeed. How you can
write a thing of such force and richness on the wrong side of
eighty, I do not understand. But I have just had an argu-
ment about ' sulphuretted hydrogen.' I think you unjust (for
once) to Carlyle ; others otherwise. The saying seems to me
not a mere ' knocking over of another man's pageantry.'
But, in form of causticity, a sad reflection on the difference
between outward appearance and underlying truth. 5 But no
doubt the person who hears a thing said is the true interpreter.
I am, as you see, in the country, to lay the first stone of
a new church. How charming it is ! We are in a blaze of
rhododendrons, cows up to their knees in grass, hay growing
as fast as it can lay legs to the ground, martins, thrushes,
blackbirds, chaffinches all whisking about in the sun, making
me feel as if I would never go to London again, which not-
withstanding I must on the I3th for particularly disagreeable
business.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
i
5 In Sir Henry Taylor's review cent meteor. . . . they described what
{Nineteenth Cetihtry for 1881) of Car- they had seen in glowing colours and
lyle's Reminiscences the passage occurs : with much enthusiasm. Carlyle, having
' He [Carlyle] delights in knocking over heard them in silence, gave his view of
any pageantry of another man's setting the phenomenon : " Aye, some sul-
up. One evening at the Grange a phuretted hydrogen, I suppose, or some
party of gentlemen returning from a rubbish of that kind." '
walk in the dusk had seen a magnifi-
1881 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 407
Note of a conversation with Cardinal Newman? June 30, 1881.
Newman began by talking about his portrait Millais
only has his sitters for one hour at a time ; he so often paints
children that he has got a knack of catching expressions with
great rapidity, so that he can get what he wants in an hour,
even though for part of the time his subject flags, or goes to
sleep, in which case he has to stop. After an hour the sitter
flags. For Newman he only requires six sittings.
Then he talked of his journey to Rome and his stay there :
how he went with a strong presentiment that he should be ill ;
he caught cold going to mass at Turin, and he wrote a
letter to Rome to have a physician to receive him. There
they just patched him up for the four days of ceremony, and
then he fell at once into the chill of fever, They told him it
would come back after 24 hours ; it did not, but it seemed to
make rushes at him ' like a mosquito ' and then to be checked.
Another very sharp attack came at Leghorn. He saw
nothing of the buildings at Rome as he had wished, and his
friends only for some moments, each like a bewildering
pageant. I asked if he had known the Pope before he was
Pope, and he said ' no,' and ' did not know how he
could have heard of him (J. H. N.), nor did he understand how
the Pope could ever have been elected by Cardinals all or
nearly all nominated by Pius IX. and belonging to the other
of the ' two parties' in the Church. He had lived entirely at
Perugia and was not of the Ultramontane party at all. The
Pope desired to build up, not pull down, i.e. make peace with
sovereigns : he had failed in Germany, Newman did not know
how he stood in Italy. He spoke of the election solemnly,
a 3 if it were a marvel ' God's will.' I asked if the Pope had
a charm of manner ; Cardinal Newman said very great to
him, and that he did not think he was entirely prejudiced, as
the Warden of Keble said the same thing. He added that
he was still ' very kind ' to him, inquiring after him, sending
messages &c., and in one case speaking very warmly of him
in the presence of several persons to friends whom Cardinal
6 Cardinal Newman had breakfasted house in London. Notes of the conver-
with Lord and Lady Blachford at their sation were afterwards written down.
4 o8 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
Newman had recommended to him. I asked if there were
any prospect of the Church and State drawing together in
Italy. He answered doubtfully ; but said there was shortly
to be a Jubilee, and that among the subjects put forth to be
prayed for, besides the usual peace among princes &c., was
the private intention of the Pope, which might relate to his
dealings with the State. The Jubilee was in its nature not
' jubilant ' but a solemn supplication under such circumstances
as now exist a great uprising of infidelity, especially in the
matter of education. Then there came some talk about there
being really a closer union between religious men at bottom
than appeared to be on the surface of things. He spoke of the
interest which men of all sects showed in himself, Dissenters,
Unitarians, Free Kirk, and the good that there was in
their publications, which he recognised. He said he hoped
there might be a levelling up going on a growing up of
external conformity from internal assimilation, like lava
bursting out hot, cooling down on the surface then giving rise
to lichens, then mould, then herbage, and then depth of rich soil,
rich with trees, vines, and all that nature produces.
After that we got on the sadder subject of unbelief, begin-
ning with the School Board question, and the difficulty of keep-
ing up the Roman Catholic schools, where there were high
school board rates to pay, and the hardships to poor Roman
Catholics of having to pay for both. He spoke of the
grandeur of the schools built by the school boards ; one in
particular was made to ' look like a church ' with its well-
planted entourage mimicking a graveyard (he seemed to have
a notion of Anti-Christ about it). He made a grievance (I
think a little needlessly) of being obliged to give the religious
instruction (rooms are provided with good intention, which
he acknowledged, for the purpose in this grand building ' into
which our boys and girls are decanted ') either at the begin-
ning of the school time when the children do not come perhaps
till the lesson is half over, or at the end when they are tired.
He said some Protestants send their children to a Roman
Catholic school because they say they wish their children
to be taught religion of some kind ; some are converted,
others not.
1881 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 409
From this we got to the more general question of scepti-
cism. He spoke of the great intellectual unbelieving move-
ment ' It was so easy to be an atheist' I tried to make
him talk on the question whether in a sense a man may not
believe because he wishes it, in spite of a logical argument
to the contrary. He recurred to the familiar topic that instinct,
which is unanalysed argument, is often truer than what is
logically cogent. I observed that there seemed a question
beyond this whether a man may not sometimes rightly be
unfair to himself, determining e.g. to take a charitable judg-
ment or to think what will keep up his own and other
people's spirits for a great effort (say, in a shipwreck). He
gave a kind of assent, but said it was a subject to be written
about.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Hollyhedge House : December 10, 1881.
My dear Taylor, I must confess I have been this time
unpardonably negligent in writing. As a half excuse I
have been unusually busy for the last three weeks attending
almost every day one of the Royal Commissions, in which I
have contrived to be. I am a good deal amused (amid a
ponderous amount -of dull detail of which ' Cathedrals ' have
at least their share) at the internal politics and contrivances
of a Commission of master minds, managing men, and
modest men. Canterbury is the master, Carlisle the mana-
ging man, and your humble servant, Mr. Walter James and
Mr. Dalrymple, Conservative M.P. for Bute, the modest
men. To whom may be added Lord Cranbrook, the man
of the political world. The master and manager pull the
coach. The man of the world oils the wheels, and the
modest men make suggestions, of which some are snubbed,
some are accepted, and one or two which upset a pet form of
managerial progress are outflanked. This outflanking is not
unamusing. The old idea which was supposed to be shot
down bobs up with nothing but a few feathers shot away,
and somehow or other, without one's exactly knowing how,
and without any special move which gives occasion to oppo-
sition, replaces itself in the scheme. Then it is amusing to
4 ro LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
see how the idea of ' Divide et impera,' dealing with the
Cathedrals one by one, and so subduing them in detail, is
opposed by a novel combination of Deans and Chapters who
cry ' shoulder to shoulder,' so that each Dean and Chapter
meets the solid weight of the Royal Commission before him
by the solid weight of the Capitulate (will that do for a word ?)
behind him. However, our differences are few, and, if we are
wise, will be accommodated.
What are you saying or thinking about Ireland ? I have
always thought the Government are playing a most doubtful
game in allowing Chamberlain and Co. to dictate the policy
of coquetry. And now, of course, it seems likely that we
must do more in the way of civil war than what might
have been sufficient a year ago. However, it is a question
whether any one else could have done any better.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : April 25, 1882.
My dear Taylor, I have been most sincerely grieved at
seeing in the papers the death of Lady Minto. 7 What a loss
to every one who knows her ! There was* a kind of gracious
brightness about her which must have been charming to every-
body who came near her. The relinquishment of that and
all that it signified must make a sad blank in her home and
to you. I thought when I saw Lord Minto lately in London
that he spoke sadly and seriously about her state, but I had
no idea that it was so immediately anxious.
I have just finished the first draft of a long, perhaps
lengthy, report on Fever and Smallpox Hospitals which has
filled my mind for the last three months, and shall have to
spend most of the first fortnight in May in London to try to
finish it with corrections, excisions, and so on. I am glad to
do it, for I feel I am of some use to the Government, and I
am getting less and less disposed to be of use to them (if I
could be so) in domestic politics. So I am glad to do some
7 Wife of the third Lord Minto, and Elliott. She had been living for some
the authoress of the Memoirs of Htigh time near the Taylors at Bournemouth.
1882 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 411
non-political work which may be my excuse for sitting still while
political turmoils are going on. I do not know how far it is
epicurean to feel that the world is going its own way, which
is not mine, and that I have shot my bolts for good or evil,,
am not likely to launch any more effective ones, and may
arrange myself quietly for adding what I can to the comforts
of those within my arm's length, during the few next years,
leaving to the rising politicians who ' would outwit God '
to turn their sails to the winds and storms that they are
rousing. I think, however, I shall hardly be put to bed before
we have some very vigorous outburst of English common-
sense or English insanity. And I only hope Gladstone may
not go in for insanity.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD. -
To Lady Blachford.
Hollyhedge House : May 8, 1882.
It [the murder in Phcenix Park] is certainly in all its
horrors the most dreadful thing of our days. . . . What is
terrible is that we have no right to be surprised at it.
The ' Irish World ' and the ' United Irishmen ' and dema-
gogues of all sorts have been threatening it, and I suppose
we all feel that if the murderers were caught and hanged
they would be martyrs in the eyes of the Irish people, like
the Clerkenwell murderers. This it is which the Govern-
ment ought to feel, and what some of them, I suppose,
do feel. . . . R. told me that he had gone into a shop
on Sunday to buy an ' Observer.' The woman of the shop
said they were all gone, but 'it is all true.' She added
that she had not been able to read it for crying. My
experience was different. We heard it before breakfast
through a servant and the ' Weekly Dispatch.' But we
thought it might be a canard, and I went to the railway
station to seek some other paper. The stall was closed, but
I went up to a seedy old man who was creeping out to the
railway, reading a paper. ' From a man round the corner,'
he said, and added ' It's true,' as if nobody could be think-
ing of anything else. To the shop I went, and bought an
4 i2 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
' Observer ' from a decent, respectable young woman, much
occupied in seeing that her boy handed out the newspapers.
Her observation was, ' Those Irish seem to be at it Is it
the President they have killed ? ' Strange ignorance, and in-
difference to anything but the sale of the news !
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : May 29, 1882.
My dear Taylor, These are terrible times. Inter alia
Jerry 8 late Olaf is no more. The poor fellow had a bad
toothache (it is said), became unable to eat, fell off, was sent
into Plymouth to undergo dentistry at the hands of the
veterinary in most esteem there, was dosed (it is dimly sus-
pected) too much, and died. The gardener who looked after
him could not for a week speak or hear of him without tears
in his eyes, a compliment which he altogether failed to pay to
his own mother-in-law who died at the same time in his house.
My sisters are inconsolable (at least whenever they think
about ponies), and a general feeling of attachment and re-
spect has developed itself, which none of us suspected in one
another. A gipsy offered them (my sisters) another pony,
probably stolen, this morning. When they' asked him where
he lived, he almost laughed in their faces, and answered,
' Why, about.' ' They were so jolly green ! ' However, they
did not buy the pony.
What do you hear of Ireland ? I feel almost hopeless,
particularly because Gladstone seems incapable of really taking
in the idea that the Parnells and the Dillons and the Anna
Parnells have to be treated as irreconcilable enemies. In
all his proceedings there seems to me a kind of undercurrent
of ' Do-ee, now,' which is incompatible with an inflexible ' you
shall,' and this even among his biggest words. It always
seems to me that it is certain ruin to have to trust a bitter
enemy, not because you think him honest, or have any fair
ground for thinking him repentant, but because you suppose
him to be the only man who can rein in his own adherents.
Even if you can buy him outright, which you probably
can't do, ' uno ai'ulso non deficit alter', ten to one he ' leaves
8 A Norwegian pony.
1882 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 413
his tail behind him.' And you have weakened your position
for nothing.
I think I shall vote myself out of politics altogether.
I am old enough to hold myself thoroughly shelved. I
will not oppose Gladstone and Granville. I shall soon
find myself unable to support them (here in England),
and so I shall grow strawberries and go to sleep. I have
always felt that as everybody by the side of the duties
which come to his hand has some work which he would
take up with true natural gusto, the regeneration of mankind,
philosophy, advancement of art, and so on, so I in particular
should like to succeed in changing the face of a country, so
that the hills and valleys and people and cattle and houses
and roads looked cheerful and well cared for, and pleased
with one another (if one may say such a thing of hills and
valleys), and I should like well enough to crawl about for my
last few years mending holes and picking up loose stitches
in that direction.
I forget whether you ever met at our house an old
American friend of ours, whose death appears in the news-
papers Colonel Chester, a curiously simple-hearted genea-
logist, who always reminded me of the Jesuit saying which
Pascal bitterly attacks, that (with an application to the good
works of men) ' God had graciously given to the poor frog
the same delight in his croaking as the nightingale took in
her song.' He (Col. C.) devoted his life to genealogy, and
thought it well spent in ferreting out the minutest particulars
of the minutest families with a kind of enthusiastic devotion
which enabled him to say that at least he had done one thing
as no man had done it before him, or (I add) will probably do
after him. But, with all this, a keeper of the two great Com-
mandments, and as pure, affectionate, and simple-hearted a
man as I ever knew. One of the many ' good-byes for the
present,' which one has now to say, at least which one
desires to be able to say. 9
All kind things from both of us to all of you.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
9 Colonel Chester came over from mission to trace the pedigrees of several
America partly because he had a com- American families who claimed descent
4 i4 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Miss C. Colvile.
October 1882.
My dear Charlotte, I have been reading chapters here
and there of Mr. George, 1 selecting some of which he
appeared to be most proud. He is a kind of man who pro-
vokes me beyond measure, because I know him so well,
without the power of exactly formulating him. He has a
certain amount of knowledge and reading, and, when he
clearly understands what he is writing about, a highly re-
spectable power of clear statement and illustration. Conse-
quently passages in which he states a course of familiar
phenomena, or sticks closely to a beaten track which has
been worn for him by wise men, he is readable, though un-
necessarily diffuse.
But he is totally without the power of sound original
thought, and totally without consciousness of his deficiencies.
Consequently, he is always trying to set wise men right, and
in consequence floundering in a sea of blunders which he
vainly attempts to disguise by a profusion of sentences. In
short, he is a voluble, shallow quack.
No inconsiderable part of my life (at the Emigration
Office) was spent in reporting upon the projects of such
pretenders, so that I have acquired a kind of feverish sensi-
bility in respect of such persons, a kind of wrath at feeling
that there are a lot of people who will think them fine, and
that it will take more labour than their whole generation is
worth to clear out the tangle in which they have enveloped
themselves, and to expose them to the unlearned.
If you want to see a specimen of fluent floundering, read
the chapter on ' Wages not drawn from Capital but produced
by Labour ' (at least if you can). It is an evidently pre-
tentious and unmitigatedly shallow attempt to disprove
from J ohn Rogers, the first of the Pro- probable that the Rogers of Blachford
testant martyrs in the reign of Mary. were descendants. This, however,
He proved to his satisfaction that none seems to have been rather because he
of them could possibly be descended could not disprove it than because he
from John Rogers (which, he said, could establish the pedigree,
would almost prevent his returning to ' Progress and Poverty, by Henry
his own country) ; but he thought it George.
1882 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 415
what is self-evident in itself and utterly untouched by his
argument.
A and B are thrown on a desert island, with food to
sustain them till their next crop. A sows and reaps pro-
visions for two years. B sows and reaps nothing. A having
thus a superfluity of food (which is capital), and B having
none, A agrees with B to feed him for twelve months if during
that time B will build him a wall round his field to keep off
goats (who eat his crop) and will so double his crop. It is a
plain matter of fact that B's wages were paid out of A's first
crop. George spends two or three pages to show that they
were paid out of the third crop, and this even though a ship
were to touch at the island and carry them all off before
that third crop is reaped.
Really this is not an exaggeration of the man's folly, and
all done with the air of an oracle. Anathema esto.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Lady BlacJiford.
Athenaeum Club : December 12, 1882.
The change in Oxford as a city is certainly wonderful.
There was no walking about or seeing anything in the cold
fog (on Sunday), but the mere walking from Rickards's 2 to
Oriel and back led one through a suburb of villas, inhabited
by widows (of whom nine called on Rickards in his first six
weeks), professors, tutors, generals, retired India officers (civil
and military), and what was cornfield has become a large
University Park.
The number of undergraduates has increased 80 per cent. ;
there are two ladies' colleges ; the University and College
buildings are increasing every day (the University running
into debt), and altogether it is a ' Great Babylon.'
At Oriel I was much pleased to find myself and Church
made much of as patriarchs. We went to chapel there at
half-past five P.M. on Sunday, dinner immediately after in
2 The late Sir George Rickards, who had been Professor of Political Economy,
had just resigned his office of Counsel He was a contemporary of Lord Blach-
to the Speaker and was living at ford's at Eton but a little junior to him.
Oxford, where several years before he
4 i6 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
hall ; the common room as in old times. They collect prints
of their old Fellows, and wanted to know whether I could
give them one of me. They picked up one of Beau
Brummel, who, it seems, was at Oriel, and (I suppose) not a
footman there. And on the whole I went home much
gratified.
I think I told you that I had considerable talk with
Jowett, who thinks that Latin and Greek are gone off in the
University.
On Monday Church declined Birmingham, 3 so I went
alone at 11.45, with much fear lest I should be blocked up
by fog or snow. I got there half an hour late, about 2, and
was shown up to the Cardinal in a dormitory (not his) where
a bed was prepared for me, if I chose to stay and sleep.
We talked about many things old times, I think, largely.
While we were talking he was told that Mr. would be
with him at four o'clock. I told him not to mind me, when he
said, au contraire, Mr. was for me, and that two others
with him (the music teacher) were to give me a trio of
Beethoven's' (I must find out which it was, I knew it very
well), which came to pass, and I listened from four o'clock or
so till it was time to wash for a quarter before six dinner.
The dinner was in a large bare room, with panelled sides, say
eight feet high, and a line of dusky pictures above, I should
think portraits of the Heads or Saints of the Order. Round
the room were small square tables, about half as big again as
a card table. The Cardinal had one to himself (he did not,
however, seem to eat), I another next to him, then two of the
fathers at each of the others ; one mounted a pulpit in the
corner of the room, and two carved the victuals at a table in the
centre, and handed it about as waiters fathers, not lay brethren.
The father in the pulpit read first some ten or twenty verses
of one of the Gospels (from the Vulgate), then in English a
short anecdote of St. Philip. He was a confessor to a rich
lady, and her relations were afraid that she would give him
her money. So they ordered St. Philip to give her up, he
went on. Then they ordered the servants to keep him out, he
3 To visit Cardinal Newman who was at this time head of the Roman Catholic
College at Birmingham.
1882 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 417
went on. Then they threatened his life, and his friends
begged him not to run the risk. He said that he had a soul
to save, and that if he was killed for saving it, it would
be the happiest end a man could have. There ended the
story. There was a letter from St. Philip, whether playful
or serious I could not well make out, to a man who had
somehow deserted him. After this the reader and waiters
moved into their places to eat their own dinners, and one of
the fathers put two questions : one was the old one of lying to
save a man's life, giving a story as an instance ; then two or
three fathers gave their views. Newman had already told
me that he was too deaf now to hear what the fathers said on
such occasions, and so did not perform his part of summing
up, but left it to the interrogator, who gave us St. Augustine's
views and his own, nothing very new about either. Then
soon we got up and went away to the common room, very
plain and ascetic, but spacious, where we sat round the fire
and talked till my cab came to fetch me for the 7.20 train.
Of course it was late in such weather, and I did not get
to the Deanery till 12 o'clock, and sat up talking with them
till near one
To Cardinal Newman.
Blachford : December 22, 1882.
My dear Cardinal, Will you tell me or cause me to be
told what was the trio you gave me at the Oratory ? I know
it very well, but unless you give me its designation I shall
not be able to distinguish it hereafter from other old friends.
I want to ' ear-mark ' it.
So Church has refused to sit in the seat of Anselm, or in
what we hold to be such. How strange it seems ! But there
is no doubt, though he himself was doggedly silent on the
subject, that he had the offer. 4 The work would have been
plainly too much for him.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
I cannot say what a pleasure it is to me to have had the
afternoon at the Oratory.
4 Of the Archbishopric of Canterbury on the death of Archbishop Tait.
E E
418 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : May 28, 1883.
My dear Taylor, I find it a little difficult to answer your
question shortly about Aubrey de Vere's article, 5 viz. how far
it and others in the same strain are likely to be useful in
affecting religious and irreligious convictions.
In the first place it is very interesting, attractive, and
elevating in its treatment of a side of moral theology. Many
a religious man will find that it gives flesh and colour and
development to thought which he had inchoate or undeve-
loped, or not at all. There is a clear usefulness of a high
character.
But what he is principally thinking of, I imagine, is not
its didactic, but its controversial use.
And on this it is that I find it rather difficult to see
clearly. Somebody has said (perhaps Coleridge) that every
one is born either an Aristotelian or a Platonist. 6 Of course,
every one who is worth a farthing is in some measure both.
A man must be something of a goose who has nothing of the
cogency and hard-headedness of (say) Bentham, and some-
thing of a block who has nothing of the transcendental
imagination of (say) Coleridge. Of course, also sentiment,
moral sentiment, lies at the root of all that is good or great
in faith. But some men are irresistibly governed by co-
gent reasoning, and some by captivating ideas. And those
who are peculiarly sensitive to one are^ not quite sound
judges of writers who appeal to the other. Now, I think that
I am Aristotelian and Aubrey de Vere Platonist, and I feel a
great difficulty in seeing how far considerations which would
not touch me if I were an adverse disputant ivould touch
persons of the (shall I say?) opposite and more transcendental
cast of mind.
A. de Vere says to his reader, ' Throw yourself into a state
of faith ; it is the noblest, wisest, happiest state just look at it
and see.'
s An article by Mr. Aubrey de Vere chiefly against Agnosticism, and cer-
in the Nineteenth Century for May 1883, tain views of Evolutionists.
' On Subjective Difficulties in Religion,' 6 It is in Coleridge's Table Talk
written in defence of Christian Faith, under July 2, 1830.
1883 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 419
' No doubt,' the man replies, ' if I could get there. But I
find difficulties.'
' Yes, but a hundred difficulties need not make one doubt.'
' True again ; " but," says the doubter, " there are difficulties
and difficulties, and my difficulties are of a class which do
make doubts, and, worse than doubts, disbeliefs. I find it
impossible to reconcile the existence of evil with the belief in
a good and all-powerful God, to accept eternal punishment,
to get over the philosophical argument from necessity, &c." '
If these do not present themselves to a man's mind as
solid grounds of doubt, he need not, me judice, go out of his
way to worry himself about them. But if they did to my
mind I should require something more than a general argu-
ment for distrusting difficulties. I should require something
to show me why I was at liberty to dismiss this difficulty and
not that, and that I was at liberty to dismiss the difficulties
of, or rather objections to, Christianity, while I was not at
liberty to insist on the objections to atheism. If I am to shut
my right eye, why the right ? If my left, why the left ?
The answers to these questions may be in the article.
But if so, they do not march up in battle array. The consi-
derations in which they are involved form an inspiring sight,
but they will not storm a fort held by Aristotelians of the
hard-headed kind.
But perhaps it is intended to teach (and this seems to be
involved in the title) that Christianity, by its mere exhibition
of itself, proves itself to a certain class of minds, and that for
those to w r hom it does not so prove itself, independently of
obstacles to belief or insufficiency of what is generally called
evidence, there is no help.
Probably of the mass of mankind this is true. But in the
' Nineteenth Century ' we deal, or try to deal, with men of mind.
With men of this class, who have a strong conviction that
our reasoning powers were given us to be something like
sovereign guides in sifting religious and moral truth the
article would not, it appears to me, produce much effect. Nor,
I think, would it convince that class of persons that they were
not intended to take reason as something like a sovereign
guide.
420 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
But I quite understand that to those persons who have
more power of overbearing the reasoning power when they
have a firm grasp of a vivid idea, A. de V.'s picture of faith
(for this is what it comes to) might be an assistance to believe
what they desire to believe, or even an inducement to believe
what they were disposed to consider indefensible by reason.
This, of course, would be a sphere of usefulness independent
of the merely didactic effect of preaching aux convertis.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
September 7, 1883.
My dear Taylor, One of the growing evils of old age is
having nothing to say. Another is not knowing that you
have nothing to say. From the second I am happily pre-
served. But to the first I am more and more a prey, and one
result is that for I do not know how many weeks I have
been asking myself what I have said to you, and have been
answering ' Nothing,' et sic de aliis. And now I only write in
a desperate way, for shame ; and because I shall get more, I
know, than I deserve in answer.
We have had here the Dean, his daughter Mary, and his
married daughter Helen, with her husband, F. Paget, son of
Sir James, and Rector of Bromsgrove. 7
The visit is a kind of appendix to their honeymoon. And
this has been an occasion for making the father and son-in-
law really know one another (for which there is nothing like a
country house), taking good long tete-a-tete walks, which, as
they are sympathetic souls, pleases everybody. He (the Dean)
is, I think, getting a little worn out by the air and the duties
of London.
I am glad to receive this morning the report on ' Eccle-
siastical Courts.' There is always a satisfaction in feeling
that you have really done with a thing, even though you
may be but fifteenth fiddle in it. It may lay some dust.
Especially it includes what I suppose will be a standard
account of the growth of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, by Dr.
' Now Dean of Christ Church.
1883 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 421
Stubbs, the great historical indagator of the day in such sub-
jects, which will render certain sorts of loose talking almost
impossible. But I can hardly hope for any such agreement
between political and ecclesiastical parties as will make
remedial legislation possible. The existence of Gladstone is
the only thing which gives it a chance. And as the report
and evidence comprise little short of a thousand folio pages,
mostly of small print, the subject may have a charm for him.
I wish you were here. It would do you good, I am sure, in
the (rare) intervals of sunshine, to look out on the trees and
grass and water and wild ducks and deer, not to say, on
Wednesday last, some two hundred and fifty school children
eating and drinking and trundling hoops and swinging from
the branches of the trees.
What an insanity of objectless greed seems to possess those
Frenchmen, unless indeed they seriously desire to overrun
China, which could hardly be called objectless. 8
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Cardinal Newman.
Athenaeum Club : February u, 1884.
My dear Cardinal, I have not had time to look up much
in the curiosity line ; and what I have done makes me think
that I cannot improve on your suggestion of a book. One
of the best things I have seen for your purpose [a present
to a friend] was a pretty and genuine-looking old cabinet of
ebony and ivory (2O/.). But at Sotheran's (whither Beresford
Hope sent me) I have seen one thing which seemed to me
excellent. I enclose a few leaves from his catalogue, marking
a few articles which are about your price. The best was
Lacroix (p. 41), to be bound in 9 vols. morocco, cost from i6/.
IO.T. to i8/. (rather trifling). But the two best things I saw
were :
1. A large folio (2 vols.) of the ' Roman Catacombs,' with
careful engravings, but not coloured (i5/. in morocco), and
what I should recommend.
2. ' La Renaissance ' (price i6/. i6s. in morocco), 2 folio
8 The French annexed the Tonquin province in 1883.
422 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
volumes, large margin, magnificent print, altogether ' de luxe r
and plenty of excellent etchings of buildings a beautiful
book, in art far superior to the ' Catacombs/ whatever the
latter may be in point of interest.
Sotheran seems to be in constant communication with the
Oratory, and would readily send you a volume for inspection.
If you like it you can settle a binding (why cannot you put
outside one of those splendid coats of arms surmounted by a
Cardinal's hat which one sees on some old books ?).
If not, I shall be in town again for the levee of the 22nd
(to thank the Queen for making me a G.C.M.G.), and will try
my hand again. I suspect, however, that it will require some
idling about in curiosity shops to find anything better than
the ' Renaissance.' The price of antiquities, china, &c., I am
told, has multiplied itself by ten in the last thirty years.
Some measure of the growth of great fortunes.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Cardinal Newman.
Athenaeum Club : February 21, 1884.
My dear Cardinal, First, all good wishes to you on your
birthday. You will not receive them, but I write them, on that
day.
Next, I have just ordered ' The Renaissance,' which is, as
you suppose, a book of which the value consists in its etchings
of ecclesiastic and other Renaissance architecture. Sotheran
says it shall be bound up in three weeks, meaning, I suppose,
six. I have told him when it is finished to write to you for
directions.
I was half tempted to put it in an ecclesiastical livery, but
I could not see any purple leather that pleased me, and so-
ordered a smooth polished brown morocco, with no gilding
except the lettering on the back and (more ornately) on the
side, fit for a book that lies on a table.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 423
To Cardinal Newman.
Blachford : January 16, 1885.
My dear Cardinal, I have been reading Boswell's ' Life of
Johnson ' actually for the first time. What do you say to the
following ? ' Sir, your disquiet is a foolish affair. Why, sir, if
my wife bade me give you her love she would never, to be
sure, tell you to say nothing about it. No, sir. If the Pope,
who I am informed is a man of sense, intended to afford you
a gratification, he would never have imposed a condition to
destroy half its value. Mr. Warton used to say at Trinity
College, " Quod taciturn velis nemini dixeris," and if the Pope
had been ashamed of his affection for you, why, sir, he would
have said nothing about it.' 9
As somebody says, ' Them's my sentiments.'
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : January 20, 1885.
My dear Taylor, I send you, in case you should not be
in the way to see it, cuttings from a ' Pall Mall Gazette,' con-
taining a letter from me on a proposed Federative Council,
also the editorial comment. The editor wrote to me, point-
ing out his and Lord Grey's suggestions, and asking me either
to allow myself to be interviewed on the subject or to give
them my opinion in publishable shape.
I am rather glad of this, as I totally disbelieve in the
possibility of Federation, into which the world is running with
its eyes shut, and really think that the question ought not to
go ' by default.' The cat wants belling.
I hope my letter will compel people to think out the
question seriously. And if nobody agrees with me I must
suppose myself wrong.
I am ordering the ' Edinburgh ' with Aubrey de Vere's re-
view of Spenser. I shall expect a great deal from it, and
n This is an answer in the John- scruples about repeating to others some
sonian manner, to a letter in which kind and complimentary sayings of the
Cardinal Newman wrote that he had Pope.
424 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
shall be curious to see what he makes of Duessa and Archi-
mago, which must be offences to him. 1
I see the ' Pall Mall ' is attacking the Peer Ministers (Gran-
ville, Derby, Northbrook). I have long thought that the
number of these in every Ministry was an indication of some-
thing skin deep in democracy. And I am not surprised at the
Radicals making a grievance of it.
What is our next Parliament to be ? Has any one what-
ever any guess ?
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
The Objections to the Colonial Board of Advice.
You invite me to give an opinion on a proposal contained
in your leading article of the pth inst., and founded on a
suggestion of Lord Grey's, for the establishment of a Council
to advise the Colonial Office. I do not desire to discuss
Lord Grey's proposal, which is that this Council should be a
Committee of her Majesty's Privy Council not necessarily, I
suppose, of ministerial politics. I will only say that I have
not personally a great faith in councils of advice, which seem
to me calculated to embarrass strong administrators, and
perhaps still more to embarrass weak ones. I believe that
departmental business is most effectively performed by one
officer, to whom his subordinates are responsible, and who is
himself responsible to some further superior or to the public,
without the shelter of colleagues or Council. In the case of
a Board, which has somewhat of the nature of a Council, I
feel confident, from many years' experience, that unprofitable
discussion, with its consequent friction, delay, and indecision,
is best avoided by doing as much individually and as little
collectively as possible. When higher matters are concerned,
it seems to me that if a Minister, and not least a Secretary of
State for the Colonies, should want advice, he should take it
from the Cabinet, or from a Committee of the Cabinet, to
which he belongs, and to whose judgment his policy must
conform itself. If he wants information he should be at
liberty to seek it where it is to be found without any official
1 Mr. de Vere had joined the Church of Rome.
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 425
restriction on his choice of informants. Nor, I would submit,
should he be hampered by the necessity of communicating
with any but those whose interests give them a right to be
heard, and that to the extent only which in his opinion the
public interests permit. If a man is not fit to be trusted with
this discretion he is not fit to be Secretary of State. In
discussing your own proposal I am afraid I must write more
of a treatise than either of us would wish.
In the first place you will at once see that I approach the
question from a departmental point of view, and if I seem to
ignore the broader considerations with which it is supposed to
be connected it is because I hold them to be delusive. For
I am bound to avow myself one of that apparently small
minority who look upon Federation as an unattainable
phantom, on grounds which I ought at least generally to
indicate. Even in the matter of foreign policy, about which
alone the question could arise, I cannot conceive the possi-
bility of our having continued to conduct the Government of
the United States of America and the United Kingdom of
Great Britain by one sovereign authority, localised either in
London or in Washington, or with one foot in one place and
one in the other. And what would, in any contingency, have
become impossible by this time in the case of the United
States, must, as it appears to me, become impossible, as time
goes on, in the case of all great and distant Anglo-Saxon
colonies. If so, the question is not whether the useful and
interesting tie which at present connects us can last for ever
or even for very long but whether that transitional
relation will be longest and most beneficially preserved by
tightening or relaxing it. Hitherto we have proceeded on the
principle of relaxation, and by so doing we are admitted, I
believe, to have gained more in mutual contentment than we
have lost in authority. I admit, however, that the question
has changed its aspect. Formerly it was found that we
endangered the connexion by claiming to interfere with the
local affairs of the colonists. The doubt now is whether we
shall not endanger it and ourselves by allowing them to
interfere with our Imperial policy. My own strong impres-
sion is that we shall. The notion of a great Anglo-Saxon
426 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
alliance, not formed with a specific object, as to arrest the
supremacy of some overgrown power or immoral principle,
but on a general understanding (as I conclude) that all shall
join in furthering the wishes and interests of each, seems to
me likely, if, per impossible, it should last long enough, to
degenerate into a successful or unsuccessful contrivance for
bullying the rest of the world. To contend for such an
alliance on the ground that Anglo-Saxons the great ex-
terminators of aborigines in the temperate zone would, when
confederated, set a new and exceptional example of justice
and humanity, seems to me a somewhat transcendental
expectation.
Having said so much, I proceed, subject to the prejudice
which I have raised against myself, to the specific proposal
made in your paper. Like Lord Grey, you propose a Council
of Assistance for the Colonial Office, but one which is to
consist, not of Privy Councillors, but, with possible and
immaterial additions, of the High Commissioner of Canada
and the Agents-General of the other colonies having respon-
sible Governments. It is with this, the backbone of the
matter, that I now desire to deal. I first point out that all
these officers are servants, not of the Queen of England, but
of the Queen of Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, and the
rest. I mean this : Queen Victoria is Sovereign of the
British Empire, and through the British Parliament exer-
cises, within certain constitutional limits, legislative autho-
rity over that empire. She is also Queen of the United
Kingdom, and conducts its government through Ministers
designated by the people of the United Kingdom and not
otherwise. She is also Queen of Canada, and a Governor
appointed by her conducts the government of that Dominion
through Ministers designated by the Canadians and not
otherwise. The High Commissioner is not the servant of
the Queen of England, responsible through the English
Ministers to the people of England, but of the Queen of
Canada, responsible through Canadian Ministers to the people
of Canada. You may quarrel with my language, but the
facts which it is intended to exhibit are indisputable and in-
evitable. To illustrate their relations we may imagine, what
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 427
is quite imaginable, that Ministers of Canada or Victoria or
the Cape of Good Hope, to whom the support of the Irish
party had become indispensable, might appoint Irish Agents-
General, with special instructions to ally themselves with the
National party in embarrassing the existing English Govern-
ment. To execute those instructions would be their duty,
and we see that much might easily be done in that way.
The supposition is not, I trust, likely to be realised, but it
illustrates the duties of a Colonial Office as they are and as
they would remain.
And now what is the actual and what the proposed posi-
tion of these officers in relation to the Minister of the Queen
of England ? Their actual position is one which, originally
viewed with some jealousy in Downing-street, has been of
late cordially accepted and studiously raised in dignity and
influence. Everything seems to be done and to be doing by
the Imperial Government to give Agents-General, relatively
to the Colonial Minister, a status analogous to that which
is held by the representatives of foreign States of equal im-
portance in relation to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
They are held, I apprehend, to be within their proper sphere
when they ask from the Colonial Office any information
which they need, and present any remonstrance or representa-
tion which they think is in place. This they are able to do
with the full weight of their position, individually, or in
groups, or as a whole. And for this purpose they are at
liberty to consult together, and by mutual consent to combine
into an organisation as coherent legally as that of the British
Cabinet. What is proposed is this that the association of
those colonial servants shall not be left to voluntary agree-
ment, but, as a matter of form, shall be established by an act
of the Imperial Sovereign, and, as a matter of substance, shall
have a certain Imperial standing and authority over against
the English Minister a locus standi not only outside the
walls of Downing-street but within it ' a footing inside the
office,' with the ' right to demand information,' and a ' re-
sponsibility for the advice ' which (asked or unasked ?) they
are to give. What this responsibility is to be, beyond that
which they are now under to those whom they represent, I
428 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
do not understand. What it would soon come to, I suspect,
would be this : not that they would be responsible for giving
the advice, but that the Secretary of State would be in-
creasingly responsible for neglecting it.
And now let me consider the working of the scheme. It
is certain that in at least nine colonial cases out of ten no
association would be of the slightest use. The questions with
which the Colonial Office is concerned arise between the
English Government and this or that colony, and would only
be confused by extraneous meddling. Where there is com-
munity of interest there is no difficulty in bringing about
common consultation.
In the case of intended and united pressure on the
Imperial Minister, the Colonial Agents might possibly be a
little strengthened (if that is an advantage) by their Imperial
position. But, on the other hand, when I consider what
common interests Canada has either with Australia or the
Cape Colony, I cannot help thinking that the combined
Council would in reality have no appreciable work to do ; and
when I consider further that they might think it due to their
dignified position to do something or other, and that there is
somebody who is always finding mischief for idle hands, I
cannot help fearing that occasions might be embraced for in-
opportune ventilation of embarrassing principles, or for what
our Transatlantic relations call ' log-rolling.' ' I will roll
your log if you will roll mine. If you (Queensland) will Help
me (Newfoundland) to induce John Bull to risk a quarrel with
France for the sake of my fisheries, I will help you to induce
him to risk a quarrel with Germany about the occupation of
New Guinea.' It seems to me desirable from an English
point of view not to give momentum and authority to this
kind of pressure, which tends to make many suffer for a few.
Still less should I think it advantageous that a body of the
Queen's colonial servants should have a footing inside the
office of her English Minister. Communications between
them appear to me to stand best as they are matters of
discretion and courtesy. Friendly as the relations should
always remain between the colonial representatives and the
English Minister, there may always be matters which it
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 429
would be imprudent or premature for either to disclose to the
other. And if so, the limits of disclosure must of necessity
be discretionary, according to the nature of the subject, and,
I add, the character of the person to whom the communica-
tions are made.
But you may think that my own reasonable limits as a
correspondent have long been over-passed. I can only
apologise by saying that you have set me writing, and that
if a writer belonging to a small minority does not say what
he has to say for himself nobody else will say it for him.
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : March 26, 1885.
My dear Taylor, No, I am not gone to what you call the
bad meaning I suppose Acheron or Phlegethon or worse,
only getting a little like the 'dull fat weed that rots itself at ease'
in that neighbourhood. I have been up to town to give a
vote about Egypt, and to finish off that very Lethean process,
the Cathedral Commission. And now I am back again to my
cabbages.
I have not yet got your revised Autobiography. But I
have read the ' Times ' article, which is in a satisfactory tone
and will I suppose make the book at once an object of curio-
sity. I shall be disappointed if it does not take hold of
people. I did not think that the review caught very well the
characteristics of the book, or rather I thought that it did not
exhibit them in good perspective. . . .
I have been exerting myself to give a lecture to the
' Cornwood Recreation and Improvement Society ' (I need
not say this name was composed by the schoolmaster) on
Egypt, and was much gratified by the great guffaws of
laughter which were produced by some of the stories which
the Egyptian priests told Herodotus. There is an odd
sense of mixture between the venerable and the frivolous
in a series of jokes 3,000 years old, coming out as compact
and genuine as mummies, and very like ours. . . . The Dean
I wish were better ; he was very ill in the winter, and recovers
his strength slowly. I want him to come here, which always
430 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
does him good. But he has to enthrone his new Bishop
and to keep the peace between irreconcilable Canons, and
generally, like other tender-conscienced people, thinks himself
more necessary than he is, not recognising the virtue of
'wholesome neglect' (I have often thanked thee, Jew, for
teaching me that word). And I am afraid he will not slip
cable till he slips off to the South.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : June 22, 1885.
My dear Taylor, I have been constantly thinking of a
letter to you, but am always repelled by the sense that in
the solitude of Blachford I have nothing to say, minding
my own affairs and scarcely reading more than an epitome of
the newspapers. It seems almost a waste of nervous power
to excite yourself about events which you cannot influence
and which you have not long to endure.
However, I am deep in stone and mortar, planning, or
rather now building a village clubroom, a village school-
mistresses' cottage, dormitories for single men (labourers)
attached to the clubhouse, and arranging for the settlement
of some labourers in cottages with some cows attached. All
which, however, is settled when it is settled, and, when the
work begins, is only a pleasant occasion for idling. . . .
I have been a good deal amused at reading (or rather
hearing read, for I have greatly to spare my eyes) a set of
biographies or letters Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Indian
statesman, Disraeli, and Gordon. It makes one curiously
alive to the differences of which our species is capable, in the
single ' variety ' of English public men.
Elphinstone is a type of character which I admire greatly
except as compared with a Christian ideal. A great but not
overpowering desire for distinction, absolute devotion to the
public good, courage, intellect, cultivation, no jealousy or
desire to surpass others in short, a man wholly noble, and,
what is getting rare among Indian statesmen, possessed with
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 431
the idea that, at bottom, India is to be governed with a view
to what is good for the Indians and not for the present or
prospective interests of England, except so far as the two
may fairly be considered as bound up together. A perfect
character of its kind, but without the warmth of religious
enthusiasm, and so with something of the cold beauty of a
Greek statue, though with powers of friendship and bene-
ficence which fascinated those within reach of him.
Dizzy's letters (a thin duodecimo) 2 make one like his
sincere affection for his family, but exhibit shamelessly on
his part, and I suppose unconsciously on the part of his
editor, an appetite for low notoriety, even that of a buffoon,
which is really beneath contempt, and is only elevated by his
undisguised contempt for the people whom he labours to
impose upon. There is a sparkling enjoyment of his own
impudence and the stupidity of his neighbours which is
really attractive ; but one thinks, ' That this man should have
been a belauded Prime Minister, and (of all countries in the
world) of England, to whom on " Primrose Day " Conservative
cultus is paid as to a political saint ! ' And this is the
effect, on a reader, of letters written by himself and edited by
an admirer.
Gordon makes up the triad. It is impossible to imagine
a man living more completely in the presence of God, or
more absolutely careless of his own distinction, comfort,
wealth, or life, a man unreservedly devoted to the cause of
the oppressed. One bows down before him as before a man of
a superior order of being to one's own. But he is almost as
' odd ' now and then as Sir Francis Head. And though he is
constantly engaged in keeping down vanity, there is a degree
of self-gratulation which jars on you.
Our country is beautiful just now ; we live among seas of
rhododendrons, the beauty of which follows on that of spring.
But we are immersed in misty rain, and only see what there
is to see in short bursts of fine weather.
Well, so Lord Salisbury seems in the saddle. What is to
be done with a party who cannot trust English finance in the
2 ['Home Letters, written in 1830, 1831.']
432 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
hands of the only man of them (Northcote) who understands
the subject, and who place India under the dominancy of
Lord Randolph Churchill ?
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Lady Taylor,
Blachford : August 17, 1885.
My dear Lady Taylor, I am really vexed at not complying
with any wish of your husband's, but in some things a man
must act according to his own nature (' can but stand on his
own legs ' some people say) whether that nature is abstractedly
the best or not. 3
Now, in limine (beg pardon for Latin) I have perhaps a
morbid repugnance to those monster petitions which derive
their weight from numbers of signatures, given in a great
measure because they are asked for, without any real
guarantee that the signatories care or know much about the
matter. I have been asked to sign many such but have
pretty steadily refused.
Next, allow me to observe that it seems a Roman Catholic
petition. It addresses the Pope as head of the Catholic
Church, and begs him to issue his advice to the bishops of
' the Church,' silently unchurching all others than those of
his communion.
But I am not a Roman Catholic, or quasi Roman Catholic.
Again, on the one hand, I am not inclined to address a
4 humble petition ' to a prelate who is always anathematising
me (at least once a year, I believe) ; on the other, I do not
feel that I could properly come forward to teach him his
duties.
May I say that I am inclined to think that the old
Italian would feel an amusement not altogether respectful
at the sight of the presenting Cardinal followed by four
flunkies staggering under what Mr. Colam describes as the
' immense ' package of orthodox and heterodox signatures
3 This letter was in answer to a use his authority for the prevention of
request that Lord Blachford should sign cruelty to animals,
a petition to the Pope begging him to
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 433
procured by 500 registered ' unsectarian ' societies ? It would
be an odd sight.
Finally, I cannot honestly say that I believe that the
example of his Holiness (in issuing a pastoral on the
subject) ' will be followed by all sects and nations in the
world ' and cruelty to animals ' checked if not banished from
the face of the earth.'
On the whole, I hope you appreciate my difficulties of
principle and detail, and will accept the answer which I
got some fifty-three years ago when I invaded the rooms
of an undergraduate to get him to sign an Anti-Reform
petition : ' Thank you, I should be very happy, only I had
rather not.'
Yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : .Sept .24, 1885.
My dear Taylor, Turning over some old letters lately I
have found various complaints of my being ' irresponsive,
unacknowledging,' &c., which naturally turned my mind to
you who are always saying that I owe you a principal debt of
letters with large interest in the way of contrition. But what
have I to say ? Life, I hope not very blamably, gets taken
up with matters which interest no one but one's self, what
Lord Granville scornfully calls ' growing cabbages,' but which
includes not only propagation of shrubs, trees, wild duck,
deer, pheasants, and so on, but also the building of cottages,
clubhouse, schoolhouse, which change my level of occupation,
for better or worse, from yours to Lady Taylor's.
In the matter of cruelty to animals, I am really sorry to
show you a cold shoulder. I think, however, that, if I do not
join a multitude to worry the poor old Pope, I furnish a happy
existence while it lasts to a large number of eatable birds
and beasts, wild and tame, and a comfortable subsistence to
a stable of horses, in all say about 250 or 260 living beings,
all being more or less petted, the pheasants for the first half
of their lives, the ducks, deer, chickens, horses, cows, and pigs,
after their respective scales of enjoyment, for the whole of it,
F F
434 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
and none being exposed, so far as can be prevented, to the
discomforts of a deserted old age, such as I am liable to if
(quod absif) I were to survive her who has promised to look
after me.
Is not all this indeed a proof of having nothing to say?
I have had the Dean with me for a short visit, looking, I think,
better than he has for some time, in spite of an August of
work in London. But I think London winters tell on his
constitution, and (as is natural after seventy) his physical
strength is not what it was. I am told by my doctor that I
must expect one year between seventy and eighty to do as
much execution on me as four between sixty and seventy.
So the Eastern question is showing signs of life. What a
humbug (I venture to think) the Palmerston-Disraeli policy
about Russia seems to be, except that it may bring in Austria
as a counter-claimant against Russia for Constantinople.
Do you remember that at the Berlin Conference, after all
was settled, the Ambassadors were chaffing each other about
their feastings, and Dizzy accused (I think) the Russian of
having overdrunk himself, to which the Russian replied, ' Ah,
but you have seen double too. When you left the Conference
you thought you saw two Bulgarias ' ?
What do you think of Gladstone's manifesto ? For myself
I agree with what I see written, in thinking it a public affair.
Of course that is from the necessities of a divided party, but
so it is. It sounds as if he desired now to leave the party
to itself as soon as he could honourably disengage himself
from leadership ; 4 and his position as connecting link between
Whig and Radical seems pretty much played out. The key-
note seems to be : 'Just keep the peace till I am out of your
way.' With regard to Ireland it seems to me that there is
4 Mr. Gladstone's address to the rity of Parliament necessaryfor the con-
Electors of Midlothian on September servation of that unity, is the first duty
18, 1885, which formed the New of every representative of the people ;'
Liberal Manifesto, putting aside as not but he considered that, ' subject to this
ripe for discussion the question of principle,' a grant of enlarged powers
Disestablishment, and answering Mr. to parts of the country to manage their
Parnell's demands by saying 'that to own affairs was a source of strength and
maintain the supremacy of the Crown, a benefit,
the unity of the Empire, and all autho-
1885 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 435
no leader or party that dares to say ' such and such things
are necessary to restore the authority of law in Ireland, and
I will do them if you will let me,' A pitiful attempt to
humour the Irish leaders seems all that anybody now runs
to, as if you could out-blarney an Irishman. It is carrying
coals to Newcastle with a witness. Poor Lord Carnarvon
has certainly got his blarney thrown back in his face.
With what satisfaction after discharging oneself upon such
matters does one's mind recoil upon cabbages, which for a few
years it is given to us in Devonshire to enjoy in peace !
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Sir Henry Taylor.
Blachford : March 15, 1886.
My dear Taylor, How are you ? You ought to be better
during the last few sunny days, if, as my gardener assures
me, plants under glass can endure any amount of cold outside,
but pine for sunshine. However, I believe this has reference
to putting out blossoms, which is not, I take it, your present
occupation.
I have been engaged in my first prosecution of a poacher.
I have been in the habit of keeping a keeper, with the view
of conforming to the usages of the country, but with a distinct
intimation that I did not ' preserve,' and would not prosecute.
This limitation of the keeper's powers, of course, got wind,
and enabled the great and notorious poacher of the parish, a
celebrated drunkard and blasphemer, but a very sharp fellow
even when half drunk, to be continually jeering at the lanky
stu'pid keeper for his inefficiency, without the risk of re-
ceiving the only possible answer, before the bench of
magistrates, of which, however, one of my labourers says,
' That 'ere Jarge, he's been so often before the magistrates,
that he had as lief be there as anywhere else.'
Of all this triumphant jeering I used to hear continual
complaints, to which I turned a deaf ear, till it appeared
that the labourers, now some of them out of work, were
encouraged by his notorious and jubilant impunity to follow
his example along the road to ruin : so I thought it time to
F F 2
436 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
favour one of the unemployed with work, and ' George ' with
a prosecution, which, as he has the faculty of making the
Justices laugh, is always a kind of ovation for him, but
cost him on this occasion thirty shillings say three or four
days' rabbiting. After keeping the audience well amused for
some time, his parting shot at the Board and its subordinates
was delivered while he was fumbling for the amount of his
fine and costs, which he always has forthcoming. The
clerk squeaked out, ' Your worships, the man has got the
money in his pocket,' on which George turned with severe
dignity and said, ' Young man, you seem to know what is in
my pocket much better than I know what is in yours, or wish
to know what is in any man's pocket but my own.'
And so he went off, virtuous all over.
When my wife, who does not half like meeting him drunk,
was remonstrating with him, with a courage which does her
credit, for not sending his son ' Bobby ' to school, he stopped
her with dignity, ' Madam, his name is Robert.'
I give you a full-length portrait of this man, as an
unimpeachable candidate for admission to your proposed
paradise of incorrigibles
What weather it is ! The pleasant feature here is the
flocks of peewits which it brings upon us. I must have seen
forty or fifty the other day between Blachford and Moorcross,
and it is pleasant to see them strutting and flapping about
under the drawing-room windows, and hardly taking the
trouble to rise and wheel round me as I walk about. It is
curiously pretty.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To the Earl of Selborne.
Blachford : April 24, 1886.
My dear Selborne, Let me thank you for your admirable
letter to the 'Times.' I have been longing for such an ex-
position, which brings out the Anti-Repeal argument, not as
an Imperialist one, but as affecting peace and righteous-
ness in Ireland itself. 5
5 Mr. Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bill was introduced on April 8.
1886 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 437
Matters, to my mind, are come to such a strait that I
should not be much indisposed to absolute separation from
Ireland, if only we could conscientiously consent to it. But
the United Kingdom finds itself commissioned to protect
innocent people, in Ireland and elsewhere, against pillage,
murder, and so on, even though this involves the employment
of violence against pillagers and murderers, and I do not see
that it is otherwise than a disgraceful abandonment of duty
to transfer this duty to those who are on the side of the
pillagers.
If and when it is shown that we cannot, or even that the
governing classes in England will not, do this, I think, as at
present advised, I should go in for separation with all its
evident evils. I am afraid, in that case, I might be very
hard-hearted in leaving the Irish people to take the conse-
quences. ' Tu 1'as voulu, George Dandin.'
Does Chamberlain wish to keep the Irish Members in
Parliament as a resource to the Radical party there, as the
Scotch, in a different way, were to the Puritans in Charles I.'s
time ?
Yours ever,
BLACHFORD.
To Cardinal Newman.
Blachford: June n, 1888.
My dear Cardinal, Yes. Doyle has been my intimate
friend for sixty-one years, a year longer than we have "known
each other. 6 I have not seen much of him lately, but what I
have seen of him has been very pleasant. He had so much
heart. It is, no doubt, sad to see our contemporaries (and
juniors) pass away, not one by one, but rather by twos and
threes. There are not many left, though (as I count them
up) more than I should have thought at first sight.
I received from Church, and passed on to my sister Marian,
a letter telling me that you thought of calling on her ; she,
and my eldest sister Katherine, who is staying with her, were
much excited, and in an incoherent, feminine kind of way,
stayed in a whole afternoon for fear of missing you, though it
6 See page 4.
438 LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD CH. ix
was patent that you would have left town before she got the
notice of your having been there.
However, if at any time hereafter you should again think
of calling, please to give her notice. It would be very pro-
voking to her to miss you.
It is not so very long ago since she was writing about
your playing of Beethoven, and saying of one particular
passage in one of the Salieri duets, that, after hearing many
big people, she had never heard it played as you played it.
I almost think I remember it a few piercing notes.
There, now I think you owe her a visit.
Ever yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
I was very glad to hear so good an account of your
strength and spirits from Church. He seems to be in the
way of trouble about the St. Paul's reredos, which is very fine,
but certainly not ' Ultra-Protestant.'
To Lady Taylor.
Blachford : February 23, 1889.
My dear Lady Taylor, The packet of letters has arrived
many thanks. I have not yet opened it ; but I remember
that you desired to possess some of the letters. And I shall
look through them, in order to send you back all except those
(if any) which have no interest greater than that of autographs,
or which have special interest for myself. They will have a
greater and more lasting value for your children (to say nothing
of yourself) than for those into whose hands they may fall
after my death, now not a very remote period. 7
I am surprised that the success of the volumes is only
' moderate.' But ' quiet and wisdom ' are not the character-
istics which attract just now, or seem likely to become more
attractive in the immediate future.
For myself I feel the attraction (of what is quiet and to
my mind wise) more and more. I remember Greig saying in
7 This refers to letters which Lord graphy,' published in 1885. Sir Henry
Blachford had returned to Sir Henry Taylor died in 1886.
Taylor to be used in his ' Autobio-
1889 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 439
a kind of essay on possible Immortality that in his experi-
ence what old people longed for was repose. I certainly for
myself agree with him, and am almost forgetting that my
juniors (like your young people) are of a different mind and
like London. I am thinking of turning Buddhist for the sake
of Nirwana a dormouse for the sake of hibernation.
My sister-in-law's death was scarcely unexpected, and, of
course, as people approach, or pass, their threescore and ten,
such passings away among those dear to them must be ac-
cepted as only natural. But I am not sure that, though the
keenness of the blow is less, the deprivation is not greater
among the old than among the young. Gaps cannot be
filled up, and every death makes you feel more alone. But
perhaps this is not so with those who have children and
grandchildren.
This smells, does it not, of the octogenarian rather than
the septuagenarian. But somehow we seem to have been sur-
rounded for some time by death or threatening of it.
Our love to your party.
Yours affectionately,
BLACHFORD.
To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Blachford: May 21, 1889.
My dear Gladstone, I see by our local paper that you
purpose spending your Whitsun holiday in or about Devon-
shire. If you can pardon political defection, is there any
chance that you would be able to make a perch at Blachford ?
If you would, and could, I cannot say how much pleasure it
would give us. And though we have nothing to offer in the
way of company or sumptuous entertainment, we really have
some beautiful country to show.
A Devonshire river, as you possibly know, (i) rises in a
sponge, (2) cuts its way through peat and boulders to the
slope of the moor, (3) then plunges down through rocks,
woods, and what may be called in England waterfalls, to (4)
undulations of wood and meadow, till it finds salt water (5)
in a generally picturesque estuary.
Blachford is an old-fashioned country house of the last
44Q LETTERS OF LORD BLAGHFORD CH. ix
century, imperfectly but respectably supplied with modern
appliances, on the river Yealm, with No. 3 behind and No. 4
before it, and moor in various forms and directions a couple
of miles from the house.
I do not know what your party is, but we can put up a
fair number of uncritical people.
I wish I could hope that we were likely to see you, were
it even for a day, though so scanty a visit would be rather a
slight to the scenery, of which we are not a little proud.
Ever yours sincerely,
BLACHFORD.
To Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Blachford : October 16, 1889.
My dear Gladstone, Church has sent me your kind letter
of inquiry. At the door, the answer would be ' Much the
same,' but that does not tell much to a friend at a distance.
My disorder the doctors speak of confidently as ' incurable,'
very slow in its progress, but, apart from accident, painless, I
understand free from severe pain, except as to the pains of
weakness and the annoyance of a long struggle with approach-
ing death. Just at this moment I may perhaps be making a
step downwards.
I am capable of little or no mental or bodily effort, read-
ing, writing, or still less conversation, as the disorder fastens
on my vocal chord, and I cannot listen long without exhaus-
tion ; so that, humanly speaking, I am incapable of echoing
your kindly wish for a ' prolonged life.'
From the other point of view, my own personal correction,
the matter is in other hands ; I know, most merciful ones.
With kindest regards to your family,
Believe me,
Yours ever sincerely,
BLACHFORD.
Early in 1889 an illness began, from which Lord Blachford
never recovered, though he was not entirely confined to the
house until the autumn of that year.
1889 IN PARLIAMENT AND AT BLACHFORD 441
Dean Church came down to see him at Blachford in
Septembef'when his illness had taken a turn which left little
real hope ; and shortly afterwards, when the doctors had an-
nounced that his life could not be prolonged many weeks, he
wrote his last letters, one of which is printed above, to his
three oldest friends, with whom his intimacy had begun, at
Eton or at Oxford, sixty years before to Mr. Gladstone, to
Cardinal Newman, and to Dean Church. He died on
November 21, followed in less than a year by Cardinal
Newman, and a few months later by Dean Church.
There was a touching record of the old friendship in
Newman's last illness a very few days before his death. In
bequeathing a present which Lord Blachford had brought to
him from Italy in 1880, he dictated a message to be sent with
it, saying whose gift it had been, how much the donor had
been to him, and how constant his regret that his friend had
not joined the same Church with himself : ' that of all his
friends Lord Blachford was the most gifted, the most talented
and of the most wonderful grasp of mind,' and that of all the
intimacies which he had formed in his Oxford life, close
though some of them were, ' none had approached his intimacy
with Lord Blachford.'
INDEX
ABDUT,
ABDUL Aziz, the Sultan, 270
Abeken, Dr., 88
Aberdeen, Lord, 143
Abraham, Bishop, 137
Acland, Sir Henry, 59
Acland, Sir Thomas, 37, 42, 47, 59,
151. 347, 367, 385
Adam, Lady, 91
Adderley, Right Hon. C. (Lord Norton)
230, 243
Adelaide, Queen, at Oxford, 25
Afghan War, debates on, 392
Africa, South, affairs of, 299, 364, 365,
.376, 378, 380, 395, 405
Airey, Professor, 109
' Alabama ' Arbitration, debate in the
House of Lords, 339
Albano, 84, 93
Allen, Mr., 139
Amalfi, 94
American Provinces, the North, Act
for the Confederation passed, 270
note ', discussions on the confedera-
tion of, 253, 300
Anderdon, Mr., 59, 93, 102
Angelo, Miss, 2
Angouleme, Duchess of, 98
Apennines, 318
' Apologia,' extract from Newman's, 35
note
Argyll, Duke of, 342, 369
Arnim, Baron von, 291
Arnold, Dr., 28, 41
Artois, Comte de, 204
Assisi, St. Francis of, 319 ; legends,
319-321 ; Church, 319, 322
Auckland, Lord, Bishop of Sodor and
Man, 137
Australia, legislative independence of,
1 57 ! growth of, 297 ; gold found in,
145, 146
Autemarre, Colonel, in the Crimea,
161
Avellino, Bishop of, 94
Ayrton, Mr., 240, 276
BLACHFORD
BADELEY, Mr., 108, 135
Baggs, Monsignore, 74, 78
Bagot, Bishop, 105, no
Baillie, Mr., 204, 220
Baines, Bishop, 73, 80, 88
Barkley, Mr., 374
Barnard, Mr. Edward, 139
Bathurst, Mr. William, 241
Beaconsfield, Lord, 353, 374,392, 431
resignation, 398 note ; (see also Dis-
raeli, Mr.)
Belling, M. , 192
Belmore, Lord, 348, 372
Benedetti. M. , 193, 195, 203
Berlin Congress, 388
Bernard, Mr. Mountague, 118, 125,
165, 257, 272, 341, 343
' Bertrams, the,' 222
Bethell, Sir R. (Lord Westbury) 229,
230
Bills, Ecclesiastical Titles, 141 ; New
Zealand, 229 ; Church (Irish), 278
note ; Colonial Church, 305, 347 ;
Abolition of Church Patronage (Scot-
land), 354 ; Endowed Schools Act
of 1869, amending the, 354 ; Public
Worship, 354 ; Royal Titles, 370
Binsted Wyck, 283
Birmingham, 246, 416
Biron, Princess, 93
Bismarck, Prince, 283, 286
Blachford, Lady, letters to, 339, 342,
349, 370, 372, 399, 4ii,4i5-
Blachford, Lord, i ; birth, I ; at Wor-
plesdon, I ; Eton, 2 ; fondness of
swimming, 3 ; at Oxford, 5 ; pupil
of Newman, 6 ; at Iffley, 6 ; exami-
nation, 8 ; secures a double first,
10 ; Fellow of Oriel, 14, 18 ; friend-
ship with Newman, 14 ; Vinerian
Scholar, 20 ; on the measure for
freeing undergraduates from subscrip-
tion, 21, 23 ; on Dr. Hampden's
Convocation, 28 ; at Hursley, 31 ;
interviews with French priests, 53
444
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD
BLACHFORD
6 1 ; account of the flood at Lyons,
64 ; at Milan, 67 ; visits to Manzoni,
68 ; at Genoa, 70 ; Rome, 72, 326,
396 ; present at the institution of two
Cardinals, 74 ; on the Roman
Catholic ceremonies, 78 ; Carthusians,
78, 81 ; the election of the Pope, 82 ;
the system of retraites, 83, 95 ; on
Cardinal Micara, 89, 91 ; leaves
Rome, 92 ; tours round about Naples,
94 ; at Venice, 97 ; on Tintoret's
style, 99 ; at Innspruck, 101 ; on the
two systems of education in France,
101 ; the Capuchins and Jesuits,
102 ; the Redemptorists, 102 ; on
the election of Williams and Garbett,
107 ; in London, 112 ; account of
his work of writing articles for the
' Times,' 112-116 ; appointed to the
post of Registrar of Joint Stock
Companies, 116 ; Assistant Under-
secretary to the Colonial Office, and
Emigration Commissioner, 117 ;
resigns his Fellowship, 117 ; starts
the ' Guardian,' 118 ; marriage, 120 ;
tour in Brittany, 120; at Landerneau,
120; account of a 'pardon, '121, 126 ;
at Guingamp, 124 ; at Quimper, 128 ;
at the Colonial Office, 130 ; offered
the appointment of Secretary of
Governor at Malta, 131 ; special con-
stable for the Chartist riots, 135 ; his
opinion of Lord Stanley, 143 ; of Mr.
Gladstone, 150 ; the Kingsbridge
election, 151 ; criticism of Newman's
letters on Universities, 163 ; of
'Callista' and ' Fabiola,' 164; at
Chambery, 1 66 ; his first view of
Mont Blanc, 167 ; mission to Paris
on the Coolie question, 170, 220 ;
interviews with M. de Persigny, 173,
177, 178 ; on the Ionian Commission
of Enquiry, 183 ; at the Chateau de
Chantilly, 185 ; interviews with
Prince Napoleon, 191, 193 ; dines
with him, 195, 197, 199; meets the
Comte de Bruce, 204 ; M. Mohl,
207 ; ball at the Hotel de Ville, 212 ;
interview with Lord John Russell,
215 ; with Chasseloup Laubat, 216-
219 ; appointed Under-Secretary for
the Colonies, 225 ; opinion of the
Duke of Newcastle, 225, 227 ; of
Mr. Cardwell, 226 ; interview with
Lord Palmerston, 229 ; letter to the
Bishop of Oxford, 234 ; on the famous
Giotto frescoes, 236 ; letter to Sir
George Grey, 237 ; to Dr. Low on
BLACKHEATH
Wirima Repa, 238, 242 ; at Clumber,
239 ; his New Zealand despatch, 243 ;
criticism of Kinglake's ' Crimea,'
244 ; his visit to Cardinal Newman,
246, 416 ; on Mr. Ward's account of
Newman, 249 ; letter to Miss Night-
ingale, 251 ; views on the method of
writing despatches, 253 ; on the re-
bellion in Jamaica, 255 ; on the
author of ' Ecce Homo,' 259-261 ;
visits to Highclere, 265, 266 ; de-
scription of Stowe, 268 ; letter to Lord
Monck, 270 ; his presentation to
the Sultan, 270 ; committee on mili-
tary matters, 273 ; on the Red River
insurrection, 278, 281 ; at Walmer
Castle, 280, 285 ; at Binsted Wyck,
283 ; on the war of 1870, 284 ; on
Pere Hyacinthe, 290 ; his resignation,
295 ; his account of the development
of Colonial self-government, 295-
303 ; on the emancipation of the
Churches, 303-305 ; account of a day
at Einsiedeln, 307-312 ; offer of a
peerage, 312 ; at Florence, 317; on
St. Francis of Assisi, 318-321 ; at
Naples, 324 ; visits to the Sermonetas,
329, 332 ; meets Dr. Pantaleone,
335 ; on the debate in the House of
Lords on the ' Alabama ' Arbitration,
339 ; on Sir Henry Taylor's ' Auto-
biography, '344, 364, 378 ; his speech
on his Colonial Church Bill, 347,
348 ; on the military manoeuvres, 350,
352 ; on his life at Blachford, 357-
360; literary work, 359, 361, 372,
376, 381, 382, 383, 388 ; at Killer-
ton, 366, 385 ; on the cession of
Gambia, 367 ; at Blackmoor, 367 ;
on debates in the House of Lords,
369, 370, 392 ; his article ' On Native
Policy in South Africa,' 376 ; on the
annexation of the Transvaal Republic,
380 ; on the war between Russia and
Turkey, 387, 389 ; on Sir Bartle
Frere's recall, 395 ; on Carlyle, 405 ;
note of a conversation with Cardinal
Newman, 407-409 ; account of a
Royal Commission, 409 ; his report
on Fever and Small-pox Hospitals,
410 ; on the Phcenix Park murder,
411 ; on Mr. George's ' Progress and
Poverty,' 414 ; at Oxford, 415 ; on
Aubrey de Vere's article, 418-420;
his objections to the Colonial Board
of Advice, 424-429 ; illness, 440 ;
death 441
Blackheath, 22
INDEX
445
BLACKMOOR
Blackmoor, 367
Blakesley, Mr., 60
Blanc, Mont, 167
Blanshard, Major, 27
Bloxam, Mr., 109
Boboli Gardens, 317
Boers, the, 376, 380, 405
Bolgrad, negotiations about, 174
Bonn, conferences at, 366 note
Borghese, Princess, 78
Borrett, Mr., 10
Bossons, Glacier des, 167
Bouille, Marquis de, 206
Bouverie, Bartholomew, 4
Bowden, Mr., 30, 83
Bowring, Sir J., 162
Bradfield, 22
Bradford, Lord, 271
Brand, Mr. (Lord Hampden), 250
Bransgore, 33, 38
Brest, 121
Bretons, costumes of the, 121
Brewer, Mr. J. S., 10
Brieuc, St., 125
Bright, Right Hon. John, 197, 278
'British Critic,' 19, 48, 50, 6l note,
I 06, 362
'British Magazine,' 34
Brome, Adam de, 27
Brougham, Lord, 147
Browne, Bishop Harold, 366 note
Brownrigg, Colonel, 161
Bruce, Hon. J. (Lord Elgin), 12
Bruce, Mr. (Lord Aberdare), 276, 346
Bruce, Comte de, 204
Bruce, Lady Augusta, 203, 204, 207,
214
Bruce, Lady Frances, 204
Brtihl, Count, 91
Brunei, Mr. Isambard, 347
Brunnow, Baron, 287
Bruno, Father, 78
Buckingham, Duke of, 264, 270, 302
Buckinghamshire, Lady, 146
Budget of 1853, 150
Buller, Sir John, 152
Burdett-Coutts, Lady, 304
Burgon, Dean, 119
Burial Question, the, 379
Buxton, Mr. Charles, 255
Byron, Lord, 100
CADEILLE, Comte de, 120, 123
Cairns, Lord, 348, 370 ; style of his
speeches, 341
Cambridge, Duke of, 273, 274, 366
Canada, 232, 253, 270, 296, 300, 301
CHURCHES
Canning, Lord, 289
Canrobert, Marshal, 156
Capri, 94
Capuchins, the, 77, 102
Cardinals, institution of, 74
Cardwell, Lord, 250, 252, 263, 265,
301, 350; characteristics in office,
226
Carlisle, Lord, 147
Carlos, Don, 353
Carnarvon, Lord, 182, 214, 221, 265,
301, 315, 347 ; his policy in Natal,
and in the Transvaal, 364, 365,
380 ; characteristics in office, 263
Carrara, Francesca II. da, 100
Carthusians, rules of the, 78, 8 1
Cartier, Sir G. , 301
Caserta, Principessa di (Duchess of
Sermoneta), 333
Cathcart, Sir G., 160
Cathedral Commission, 405, 409, 429
Cawdor, Lord, 250
Cecil, Lord Robert, 230 (see Lord
Salisbury)
Chamberlain, Mr., 375, 398
Chambery, 166
Chambord, Comte de, 353
Chamonix, 167
Chantilly, 185 ; Chateau, 186
Chapman, Bishop, 2
Chartist Riots, 135
Chateaulin, 121, 122, 128
Chelmsford, Lord, 343
Chelsea, Lord, 185
Chester, Colonel, 413
Childers, Right Hon. H., 276
China, war with, 163
' Christian Remembrancer,' 362
' Christian Year,' 41
Christie, Mr., 59
Church, Dean, 55, 57, 63, 105, 109,
118, 122, 256, 342, 417, 420, 429,
434, 438, 441 ; on the friendship
between Cardinal Newman and Lord
Blachford, 16 ; ' Life and Letters
of,' 83, 101, 375 notes ; his reply to
Dean Howson's letter, 355 ; Ox-
ford Movement,' 362 note; his refusal
of the Archbishopric, 417
Letters to, 124, 133, 136, 149,
150, 152, 156, 157, 160, 162, 165,
168, 176, 180, 195, 199, 215, 217,
259, 260, 262, 272, 293, 355, 356,
360, 361, 362, 365, 366, 370, 371,
372, 373, 374, 375, 381, 388, 401,
402
Churches, emancipation of the Colo-
nial, 303-305, 347
446
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD
CHURCHILL
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 432
Cisterna, 93
Civita Vecchia, 72
Clarendon, Lord, 147, 170, 172
Claughton, Bishop, 107
Clementine, Princess, 134
Clerk, Sir G., 80, 386
Clifford, Mr., 378
Clotilde, Princess, 204
Clumber, 240
Cobbett, Mr., 17
Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice, on Mar-
tial Law, 272
Colam, Mr., 432
Coleridge, Sir John, 48
Coleridge, Lord, 119, 346
Coleridge's ' Table Talk,' 418 note
Colley, Sir G., death of, at Majuba
Hill, 405
Collier, Sir R. , 336 ; vote of censure
on his appointment, 337 note
Cologne, Archbishop of, 62
Colombo, Bishop of, 2
Colonial Board of Advice, objections
to the, 424-429
Colonial Church Bill, 305, 347
Colonial Governor, extract from a letter
to a, 253
'Colonies, development of the self-
governing, 296-303, 426, 427 ;
emancipation of the Churches, 303-
30S
Colvile, Lady, 403
Colvile, Sir James, I, 120 ; death,
403
Colvile, Mr. Andrew, I2O
Colvile, Hon. Mrs., I
Colvile, Mrs. Eden, 282
Colvile, Miss C, letter to, 414
Colvile, Mr. Eden, Governor of the
Red River Settlement, 282 note
Colyar, Mr., 88
Compiegne, 185
Constantinople, Conference at, 374
Cook, Dr., 366
Coolie emigration question, 170
Courtney, Mr., 49
Courtown, Lord, 348
Cousin, M., 222
Cowley, Lady, 185
Cowley, Lord, 185, 188, 214, 287
Cowper, Lord, 398
Cranbrook, Lord, 257 note, 392, 409
Crimean War, 151, 156, 218 ; stories of
the, 158, 160, 161
Croix, Sainte, 126
Crozon, 128
Cullen, Archbishop, 249
EVANS
' DAILY NEWS,' 119
Dalgairns, Mr., 250
Dalhousie, Lord, 117
Dalrymple, Sir C., 409
Daman, Professor, 48, 105
Dante and Giotto, 236
Davenport, Mr., 49
Davy, Lady, 76
Deare, Colonel, I
Delhi, siege of, 168
Denison, Archdeacon, 35, 165
Denison, Bishop, 47
Denison, Mr. Henry, 6, 56
Denison, Mr. J. E. (Lord Ossington),
239
Denman, Lord, 340
Denton, Mr. 374
Derby, Lord (the I4th), 241, 263, 271
Derby, Lord (the isth), 340, 392, 405,
(see also Stanley, Lord)
Despatches, suggestions for writing,
253
Dilke, Sir C, 398
Disraeli, Mr., 162, 266; his ' Home
Letters,' 431 (see also Beaconsfield,
Lord)
Disraeli, Mrs., 267
Dodsworth, Mr., 43, 139, 141
Dollinger, Dr. von, 104, 366 note
Domesday Book, mistakes in the, 372
Donkin, Professor, 109
Dornford, Mr., 27
' Dorothy,' 160
Doyle, Sir Francis, 4, 10, 26, 275, 289,
437
Duelling, 115
Dunkellin, Lord, 263
Durant, Mr., 151
' ECCE HOMO,' 259, 260, 261
' Ecclesiastical Courts,' report on, 420
' Ecclesiastical Titles Bill,' 141 note
Egerton, Mr., 276
Einsiedeln, ceremony at, 307-312
Elgin, Lady, 199, 205, 214
Elgin, Lord, 204
Ellenborough, Lord, 289
Elliot, Sir Thomas, 131, 134, 226
Elphinstone, Sir Mountstuart, 430
Elvey, Sir George, 59
Emigrants, Irish workhouse girls, 136
Emigration Office, 117
Encombe, Lord, 30
Eton, 2, 138
Eton and Harrow cricket match, 251
' Eton Miscellany,' 4
Evans, Mr. A. J., 374
INDEX
447
EXHIBITION
Exhibition of 1851, buildings, 142;
opening, 145
Eyre, Mr., Governor of Jamaica, 255,
2 S 8
FABER, Mr., 250
Favre, M., 283, 292
Fiesole, 317
* Fire Annihilator Company,' demon-
stration, 140
Fish, Mr. Secretary, 342
Fitzroy, Sir C., 145
Florence, 317
Follett, Mr., 61
Forster, Right Hon. W. E., 258, 276,
398, 402, 404
Fort Garry, 282 note
Fortescue, Lord, 392
Fortescue, Mr. Chichester (Lord Car-
lingford), his interview with Lord
Palmerston, 229
France, the two systems of education
in, 101
Franks, Mrs., letter to, 307
Franzoni, Cardinal, 8l
Frascati, 334
Frazer River, 282 note
Frere, Sir Bartle, 394
Freshwater, 32, 35
Fresne, M. de, 220
Froude, Mr. Hurrell, 5, 15, 16, 24, 25,
26 ; his ' Remains,' 43, 48
Froude, Mr. J. A., 48, 364 ; his
article on South African policy, 376
Froude, Mr. William, 144, 293, 373
Fuad Pasha, the Grand Vizier, 270
Fulford , Primate of Canada, 304
Fullerton, Lady Georgina, 285
Fullerton, Mr., 285
GAISFORD, Dean, 25
Gallipoli, 155
Gambetta, M., 289
Gambia, cession of, 367 note
Garbett, Archdeacon, 107
Genoa, 70
George, Mr. Henry, ' Progress and
Poverty,' 414
Gifford, Lord, 93
Gilbert, Dr., 107
Giotto, the frescoes of, 236
Giustiniani, Cardinal, 95
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E. , 4, 17, 22,
, no, 117, 133, 158, 257, 412 ;
' Church and State,' 50 ; his Budget
of 1853, 150 ; mission to the Ionian
Islands, 182 ; Prime Minister, 275,
HARRISON
398 note ; his Irish University Bill,
347 ; opposition to various Bills, 354 ;
retirement, 361 note ; his manifesto
of 1885, 434
Letters to, 159, 259, 261, 276, 312,
375. 439, 440
Glover, Mr., 28
Goldsmid, Mr. Nathaniel, 52
Gordon, General, 431
Gorham, Mr., 138 note
Goulburn, Dr., 134, 249
Graham, Sir J., 143, 266, 267
Grammont, Due de, 286
Grant, Sir Hope, 273
Granville, Lady, 280
Granville, Lord, 153, 275, 278, 280,
282, 286, 287, 331, 337, 34.8, 373.
398 ; on the ' Alabama ' Arbitration,
339 ; characteristics in office, 264
Gray, Dr. Asa, 366 ; ' Darwiniana,'
38i
Gray, Bishop, 304
Gregory XVI., Pope, 74, 96
Gregory, Colonel and Mrs. Sherwin,
239
Greville, Mr. Charles, 241
Grey, Lord, 134, 183, 297, 392, 424 ;
his offer to appoint Lord Blachford
Secretary of Governor at Malta,
1 3 1 ; on the ' Alabama ' Arbitration,
339
Grey, Sir George, 156 ; letter to, 237
Grossi, author of ' Visconti,' 69, 71
' Guardian,' extract from the, 16 ; the
work of starting the, 118, 359, 363
Guingamp, 124
Guisot, M., 136
Gulden, Mdlle., 285
Gully, Mr., 17
HADDAN, Mr. Thomas, 118
Halifax, Lord, 112, 369, 392
Hallam, Arthur, 3
Hamilton, Bishop, 57
Hampden, Dr., 21 note; appointed
Regius Professor of Divinity, 28
note ; Bishop of Hereford, 133 note
Hanmer, Lord, 4
Hansard and Stockdale case, 6 1
Hansell, Mr., 152
Harding, Mr., 24
Harding, Sir J. Dorney, 163
Hardinge, Lord, 156
Hardy, Mr. Gathorne (Lord Cran-
brook), 257
Harrison, Mr. B., 26
Harrison, Sir E. , 346
448
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD
HARRISON
Harrison, Mr. Frederic, 378
Harrow and Eton cricket match, 251
Harrowby, Lord, 12
Hartington, Lord, leader of the Liberal
party, 361 note
Hassan, Prince, 289
Haussonville, Count de, 288
Havelock, General, 1 68
Hawtrey, Dr. , 20 note
Head, Sir E., 228, 232
Heathcote, Sir William, 34, 35, 257
note
Heaviside, Anthony, 4
Helps' 'Conquest of America,' 166
Henri V., 98 (see Chambord, Comte
de)
Herbert, Hon. Auberon, 265, 267
Herbert, Mr. Edward, 266, 267, 364
Highclerc, 265, 266
Hoare, Archdeacon, 41, 46
Hodgson, Provost, 20 note
Hohentahl, Count and Countess, 93
Holland, Sir Henry (Lord Knutsford),
264
Holwegg, M. Bethmann, 90
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 268 note
Hope, Mr. G., 221
Hope Scott, Mr. James, 42, 57, 63,
68 ; illness, 373
Howe, Lord, 25
Howe, Mr., and Nova Scotia, 300, 301
Howick, Lord, 233
Howson, Dean, 355 note
Huelgoat, 126
Hursley, 32, 38
Hurstpierpoint School, 243
Huyse, Dr., 88
Hyacinthe, Pere, 290
IFFLEY, 6
Ignatieff, 374
Imhausen, M., 231
Imola diocese, 95
Inglis, SirR., 41, 47, 50, 353
Inglis, Colonel, 168
Ionian Islands, 182
Ireland, 362, 404, 410, 411, 412,
435. 437
Irving, Sir Henry, 399
Isandlwana, disaster at, 393 note
Itri, 94
JAMAICA, rebellion in, 255, 256, 258,
260
James, Sir Walter (Lord Northbourne),
281
LIBRARY
James, Mr. Walter, 409
Jelf, Mr., 108
Jenner, Sir H., 138
Jermyn, Frais, 4
Jesuits, the, 77, 102
John, St., Lateran Church, relics in,
76
Johnson, Dean of Wells, 11, 56
KEATE, Dr., 3
Keble, Rev. J., 19, 26, 32, 34, 36, 41,
63, 109, 137, 141, 158, 165 ; his
' Life of Dr. Thomas Wilson,' 137
note ; ' Essays, ' 363
Keble, Mrs. , 36, 37, 58
Kennaway, Sir John, 151
Kennington Common, Chartist meeting
at, 135
Kerr, Lord Henry, 247
Killerton, 366, 385
Kimberley, Lord, 299, 340, 347
King, Mr. Bryan, 223
Kinglake, his ' Crimea,' 244
Kingsbridge election, 151
Knight, Miss, 329 note
Knutsford, Lord, 264 note
Kuserow, Count, 285, 287
LA FORET, 1 20
Lablache, 35
Labouchere, Mr. (Lord Taunton) 172,
177
Lake, Dean, 149
Landerneau, 120
Landevenue, 128
Lansdowne, Lord, 144
Latrobe, Governor of Victoria, 146
Laubat, M. de Chasseloup, 172, 215;
interview with Lord Blachford, 217-
219
Lawrence, Lord, 392, 394
Layard, Sir Henry, 158
Le Boeuf, Marshal, 286
Le Faou, 126
Lear, Mr., 100
Lefevre, Sir John Shaw, 117, 124
Legge, Hon. and Rev. Henry, 43
Legge, Hon. Mrs. Henry, letters to,
126, 197, 236, 318, 328, 350
Leghorn, 72
Leinster, Duke of, 147
Leti, 383 ; ' Life of Sixtus V,' 384
note
Lewis, Sir G. C. , 223
' Library of Fathers, translated by
members of the English Church,'
41 note
INDEX
449
LIDDELL
Liddell, Dean, 26
Liddon, Canon, 289
Lindsay, Colonel Loyd (Lord Wan-
stead), 288
Littlemore, consecration of the Church
at, 38
London, Bishop of, 57
Lord Mayor, 342
Lords, House of, its value, 313, 401,
402 ; debates in, 143, 339, 342, 347,
349, 367, 370, 372, 392, 405
Louis Napoleon, Emperor, 175, 196,
198, 2 1 6, 218 ; his letter to Prince
Napoleon, 184
Louis Philippe, 134
Low, Dr. , letters to, 238, 242
Lowder, Rev. Charles, 224
Lowe, Right Hon. R., 347
Lucknow, 1 68
Lyndhurst, Lord, 147
Lyons, Lord, 283
Lyons, floods at, 64
' Lyra Apostolica,' 18, 31
Lysons, Colonel, 232
Lyttelton, Lord, 147
Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, 182, 184,
2OI, 213
MACARTHY, Sir Charles, 222
Macdonald, Sir John, 253, 300
Macdonald, Mr., Reginald Somerled,
278
Mackarness, 119
Mackenzie, Colonel, 351
Magee, Bishop, 277
Maggiore, Lago, 316
Majuba Hill, battle of, 405
Malais, Abbe, 124
Malakhoff, Duke of, 268
Malmesbury, Lord, 184, 185, 196, 202,
341
Malo, St., 124
Man, Isle of, 47
Manning, Cardinal, 42, 46, 141, 250,
362
Manoeuvres, military, 350, 352
Mansel, Dean, 265
Manzoni, visits to, 67
Maories, their reception at Osborne,
246
Marie Antoinette, 205
Marindin, Miss E., letter to, 307
Marindin, Mr. G. E., letter to, 388
Marriott, Mr., 17, 1 8
Martial Law, 272
Mason, Mr., 232
Mattei, Cardinal, 335
NEW
Maudslay's engineering works, 145
Maurice, Mr. F. D., 42
Maynard, M. , 126
Mayne, Sir H., 343
Mayotta Island, 172
Mayow, Colonel George, 160
McMahon, Marshal, 195
Melbourne, Lord, anecdote of, 233
Melville, Mr. Leslie, 85
Mer de Glace, 167
Merivale, Mr. Herman, 202, 225, 279
Merode, Count, 51
Mezzofanti, Cardinal 82, 91
Micara, Cardinal Bishop of Frascati,
77, 81, 89, 91
Milan, 67, 236
Milnes, Monckton (Lord Houghton),
48
Mmghetti, Signer, 333
Miniato, St., 317
Minto, Lady, 382, 410
Minto, Lord, 410
Mitchell, Sir John, 282
Moberly, Bishop, 26, 165, 346, 372
Mohl, M. , 207 ; his anecdotes, 208-
211
Mola di Gaeta, 94
Monck, Lord, letter to, 270
Monsell, Mr., 278, 283
Montagu, Philip, 4
Montalembert, Comte de, 189
Monteagle, Lord, 401, 402
Moorcross, 405
Morpeth, Lord, 50
Morris, Rev. J., 109
Moulins, 64
Mozley, Mr James, 50 note, 63, 109,
118, 138, 141, 149, 252 ; Regius Pro-
fessor of Divinity, 292 ; editor of the
' Christian Remembrancer,' 362 ;
letter to, 134
Mozley, Mr. John, 373
Mozley, Mr. Thomas, 26
Mozley, Mrs. John, 396
Murdoch, Mr., 117, 131
NAPLES, 94, 324
Napoleon, Prince, 188, 191, 193, 197,
198 ; receives Sir F. Rogers, 190,
193 ; his marriage, 200, 214
Napoleon I., 206
Napoleon III., 175, 184, 196, 198,
216, 218
Nemours, Duke of, 134
New Brunswick, 300
New South Wales, gold in, 145 ;
population, 297
G G
45
LETTERS OF LORI) BLACHFORD
NEW
New Zealand, 156, 223, 227, 229,
243, 297, 298 ; church in, 303
Newcastle, Duke of, 147, 215, 227,
304 ; characteristics in office, 225
Newman, Cardinal, 5 ; his character- |
istics, 14 ; ' Letters and Correspond- ;
ence of,' 18, 31, 43, 45, 50, 52, 55, |
56, 87 notes ; ' Apologia,' 46 note ;
extracts from letters to Keble, 47 ;
to James Mozley, 50 notes ; joins j
the Church of Rome, 1 18 ; his letters
on Universities, 163 ; ' Fabiola,'
164 ; visits from Lord Blachford,
246, 416 ; his ' Faith and Reason,'
250 ; preface to Keble's ' Essays,'
363 ; note of a conversation with
Lord Blachford, 407-409
Letters to, 17, 18, 22, 26, 30, 33,
34, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49,
50. Si, 53. 55. 6o> 61, 83, 87, 94,
101, 106, 1 10, 275, 363, 395, 396,
417, 421, 422, 423, 437
Nightingale, Miss Florence, letter to,
251
' Nineteenth Century,' 378
North brook, Lord, 392
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 119, 142,
341 note, 351, 385 ; at Kings-
bridge, 151
Nossibe island, 172
Nova Scotia, 300
' Numencia ' the insurgent frigate, 353
O'CONNOR, Feargus, 135
O'F., Mr. 147
Oakeley, Sir H., 57, 63, 109, 346
Oliphant, Laurence, 282
Omar Pasha, 156
Orford, Lord, 328
Oriel College, pictures at, 416
Orioli, Cardinal, 103
Orsini, 179 note
Overbeck, 75
Oxford, 5 ; undergraduates, question
of releasing candidates for matricu-
lation from subscription to the thirty-
nine articles, 21, 23 notes (see
Universities)
Oxford, Bishop of, letter to, 234
'Oxford Movement,' The, 16, 21, 23,
28 notes
PADUA, frescoes at, 236
Paestum, 94
Paget, Sir A., 326
RANKE
Paget, Sir James, 309, 364
Paget, Dean, 420
Pakington, Sir J., 230, 274
Palmer, Mr. William, 57, 108, 326,
362
Palmer, Sir Roundell, 284, 304, (see
also Selborne, Lord)
Palmerston, Lord, 163 note, 165, 170,
181, 229, 250; his 'Conspiracy to
Murder Bill,' 179, 201 notes
Pantaleone, Dr., 334
' Pardon,' account of a, 121, 126
Paris, the Bourse, 200 ; Hotel de Ville,
212
Patrizzi, Cardinal, 81
Patteson, Bishop, 243
Paul, Mrs., \6onote
Pavia, 70
Peacock, Sir Barnes, 342
Peel, Sir Robert, 47, 61, 113 ; resigna-
tion, 131 note
Peel, General, 264
Pelissier, General, 158
Pentini, 83, 95
Persigny, M. de, 171 ; his interviews
with Sir F. Rogers, 173, 177, 178,
191
Perugia, 318
Peruzzi, Signer, 332
Pfyffer, Mr., 77, 8l
Phillimore, Sir R., 304
Phillpotts, Bishop, 137 note
Phoenix Park, murders in, 411
Pickering, Mr., 138
Pinturicchio, 73
Pisani, M. Ferri, 190, 192
Polehampton, Mr., I
Pomarets, Mdlle. des, 220
Pompeii, 94, 324
Pont Charlan, 64
Pope, the, 140 note ; election of the,
82, 407 ; his miracles, 330
Portsmouth, Lord, 385, 392
Potemkin, Madame, 76, 87
Prevost, Sir G. , 63
Price, Professor Bonamy, 165
Prussia, King of, 283
Pusey, Dr. E. B., 22 note, 42, 63,
1 06
Pusey, Mr. P., 17, 22
QUIMPER, 128
RAGLAN, Lord, 153, 155
Ranke's ' History of the Popes,' 384
INDEX
RAWLINSON
Rawlinson, Mr., 149
Red River Settlement, insurrection in, j
278
' Redemptorists ' order, 102
Reeve, Mr. Henry, 239, 241, 376, i
iCC
300
Reform Bill, 12 note
Registration of Joint Stock Companies,
116
Retraces, system of, 83, 95
Reumont, M. , 91
Reunion, a delegate from, 231
Rhone, rising of the, 65
Rice, David ap, 4
Richmond, Duke of, 347
Richmond, Mr. George, 72, 85, 221
Rickards, Sir George, 284, 415
Riel, Louis, 281
Ripon, Lord, 340, 341, 398
Ritualism, 224, 335, 336, 375, 376
Rivington, Mr., 31 note, 48
Robinson, Mr. Crabbe, 115
Rogers, Rev. Edward, I, 14, 49 ; 'The
Life and Opinions of a Fifth Mon-
archy Man,' &c., 256 ; letters to,
19, 64, 137, 147, 212, 229, 242,
255. 256, 317, 334, 346, 347
Rogers, Miss Emily, letter to, 38
Rogers, Frederic, I (see Blachford)
Rogers, Sir Frederick Leman, resigns
his post in the Audit Office, 120;
letters to, 12, 92
Rogers, Colonel Henry, 58, 162
Rogers, Sir John, I ; death, 120
Rogers, John, ' The Life and Opinions
of,' 256 note
Rogers, Miss Kate, letters to, 20, 23,
24, 48, 63, 76, 90, 130, 139, 140,
143, 144, 145, 146, 154, 164, 182,
184, 185, 190, 204, 213, 222, 226,
232, 243, 247, 250, 252, 258, 268,
280, 28l, 283, 292, 294, 321, 324,
326, 337. 368, 385, 392.
Rogers, Miss Marian, letters to, 6, 28,
31, 56, 80 (see Legge, Mrs. H. )
Rogers, Miss S., letters to, 35, 58, 70,
105, 106, 108, 120, 173, 196, 207,
27S/332
Rogers, General, 169
Rogers, Mrs. (Lady Rogers), letters to,
8, 10, n, 37, 72, 85, 97, 124, 131,
133, 135. iSi. 158, 166, 172, 178,
r 79> l*3> X 85, ! 87, 189, 192, 201,
203, 220, 221, 227, 228, 229, 231,
233, 239, 240, 245, 246, 252, 257,
265, 266, 269, 270, 273, 277, 278,
283, 284, 285, 289, 290
Rohan, Cardinal de, arrest of, 206
SHADWELL
' Romanism and Popular Protestantism,'
41 note
Rome, 72, 326 ; changes at, 396 ;
Roman Catholic services in, 78 ; the
diplomatic tribune, 333
Rose, Archdeacon, 41
Rosebery, Lord, 341, 368, 370
Rosmini, 70
Ross, Sir Hew, 155, 156
Rothschild, 153
Rouen, 53
Round, Mr., 133
Ruskin, Mr., 73, 98
Russell, Lord John (Lord Russell), 131
note, 143, 263 ; appoints Dr. Hamp-
den to the See of Hereford, 133 note ;
on the Papal usurpation, 141 note ;
his Reform Bill, 153 ; interview with
Lord Blachford, 215 ; on the ' Ala-
bama ' Arbitration, 339
Russia, war with Turkey, 387, 389
Russia, Czar of, 155, 156, 162
Ryder, Mr., 24, 109
SADOWA, battle of, 265 note
Salerno, 94
Salisbury, Lord, 264, 268, 278, 340,
369, 373,431 ; on Lord Shaftesbury's
Bill, 350
Sallenches, 167
Sandford, Lord, 276
Saone, rising of the, 65
Sargent, Mr., 18
Sargent Mrs., 33
Schleswig-Holstein, Prince of, 195
Schwytz, canton of, 307
Scott, Sir Walter, 329 note
Scott, murder of, by Riel, 281
Seaton, Lord, 153, 183
Seeley, Sir John, ' Ecce Homo,' 261
note
Selborne, Lord, 57 note, 337, 370, 373 ;
his schemes of Land Reform, 346 ; on
Lord Shaftesbury's Bill, 350
Letters to, 386, 436
Sellon, Miss, 137
Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand, 3, 157,
33
Sermoneta, Duke and Duchess of, 326,
329, 332
Serpents, Isle of, 174 note
Severne, Mr., 323
Seward, Mr., 232
Sewell, Professor, 83
Seymour, Sir H., 153, 155
Shadwell, Mr., 53
452
LETTERS OF LORD BLACHFORD
SHAFTESBURY
Shaft esbury, Lord, 165 ; his bill to pre-
vent frauds in charitable funds, 349
Sharp, Mr. Martin, 119, 156, 381
Shepstone, Sir T. , 380 note
Sibthorpe, Mr., 109
Siga, Bishop of, 73 '
Skinner, Major, 265
Slidell, Mr., 232
Smith, General, 351
Somerset, Duke of, 340, 392
Somerville, Mrs., 91
Southey, 41
Spedding, Dr. James, 60
Stanley, Dean, 96, 204 note, 290, 385
Stanley, Lord, 143, 199, 201 (see also
Derby, Lord)
Stanley, Lord, of Alderley, 349
Stansfeld, Right Hon. J., 276
Staveley, Sir C, 351
Stephen, Sir James, 51, 1 30
Stockdale, Mr., 61 note
Storks, Sir Henry, 265, 269, 273, 351
Stowe, 268
Straits Settlements garrison, committee
on, 273
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 171
Strossmayer, Bishop, 291
Stubbs, Dr. (Bishop of Oxford), 421
Suez Canal shares, 365
Sumner, Mr. , 339 note
Sydney, Lord, 393
Symonds, Mr., 124
TADDEI, Rosa, 103
Tait, Archbishop, 279, 348, 409
Talbot, Dr. (Bishop of Rochester), 289,
407
Tarracina, 93
Taunton, Lord, 173 note
Taylor, Lady, letters to, 432, 438
Taylor, Sir Henry, 130 note, 233 ; his
autobiography, 344, 364, 378 ; article
on Carlyle, 405 ; death, 438 note
Letters to, 271, 314, 316, 337,
344, 35 2 , 354, 356, 357, 363, 364,
365, 367, 376, 377, 378, 380, 381,
383, 384, 386, 393, 394, 395, 396,
398, 400, 402, 403, 405, 409, 410,
412, 418, 420, 423, 429, 430, 433,
435
Terry, Miss, 399
Thesiger, Sir F. (Lord Chelmsford),
1 68
Thevenot, M. , 97
Thiers, M., 222
Tliomas, Mr. Vaughan, 29
Thompson, Archbishop, 348
WARBURTON
Thornton, Sir E., 341 note
Thornton, Mr., 41
' Times,' the work of writing articles for
the, 112-116
Tintoret, 99
Tooth, Mr., prosecution of, 375 note
Torrens, General, 160
Townsend, Mr., 41
Tract XC. 63, 96 note, 103, 105
Transvaal Republic, annexation of,
380 ; affairs of, 376,405
Tremlett, Captain, 237
Trench, Archbishop, 48
Trevor, Mr., 30
Trieux, 125
Trochu, General, 283, 292
Turin, 316
Turkey, war with Russia, 387, 389 ;
Turkish Question, the, and Turkish
misgovernment, 366, 373, 374, 377,
379, 387, 391, 40i, 434
Twisleton, Mr., 35, 42
Tyrolese, the, 102
UGINE, 166
Umbria, plains of, 318
Uniformity, Act of, of 1662, 362
United States, 228
Universities and the Church, 21, 22,
23, 28, 44, 107, 155, 158, 272
University of Oxford election in 1865,
257
Utterton, Mr., 48
VANCOUVER Island, 282 note
Vaughan, Mr., 26, 42
Venables, Mr., 239, 241
Venice, 97, 236
Vera, Signer, 329
Verdon, Sir George, 266, 267
Vere, Mr. Aubrey de, 141 ; his article
on ' Subjective Difficulties in
Religion,' 418
Verona, 102
Vesuvius, eruption of, 325
Victor Emmanuel, 323
Vitali, Ambrogio, 67
Vyvyan, Sir R., 17
WALEWSKI, 188, 189
Wallace's ' Russia,' 377
Walmer Castle, 280
Walter, Mr. John, 22 note, 112, 120,
373
Warburton, Dr., 50
INDEX
453
WARD
Ward, Mr., 44, 63, 109; his account
of Newman, 249
Washington, Treaty of, 339, 341
notes, 346
Waterton, Mr., 85, 96
Watson, Mr., 72
Weedall, Dr., 103
Wellington, Duke of, 12, 21, 25, 135
Wendischmann, Dr., 104
Westbury, Lord, 337, 341
Westmacott, Mr., 50
Wetherall, Mr., 285
Wharncliffe, Lord, 12
Wickham, Mr., 283
Wight, Isle of, 39
Wilberforce, Mr. H., 18, 24, 32, 33
note, 38, 53, 139
Wilberforce, Mr. Robert, 5, 32, 33
Wilberforce, Bishop Samuel, 26, 32,
36, 41, 42
Wilberforce, Mrs., 37
Wilkes, Captain, 232 note
Williams, Mr. Isaac, 28, 39 ; oppo-
sition to his election to the Professor-
ship of Poetry, 107
Wilson, Bishop, 137
Wilson, Mr., 18, 24, 27, 32, 37, 48,
54, 57
YOUNG
Winchester, Bishop of, 109, 348
Windham, Colonel, in the Crimea,
1 60
Wirima Repa, 237 ; illness, 242, 248 ;
his visit to Osborne, 245 ; death,
248 note
Wiseman, Cardinal, 45, 56 note, 141,
250 ; his 'Callista,' 164
Wodehouse, Sir P., 299
Wolfe, 221
Wolseley, Lord, 281 note
Wood, Colonel, 160
Wood, Mr. A., 131, 134, 154, 158
Wood, Mr. Page (Lord Hatherley) 276
Wood, Mr. S., 30, 42, 43, 45, 49, 50,
112; his account of ' Endowments, '
60
Wootton, Dr., 9
Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher, 26,
366
Worplesdon, I
Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel, 115
Wynne, Mr., 141
YALPUK River, 174 note
Yelverton, Admiral, 352
Young, Sir J., 282
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