LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
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 /
 
 LIFE OF LAURENCE OLIPHANT
 
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 MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE OF LAURENCE OLIPIIANT 
 
 AND OF 
 
 ALICE OLIPHANT, HIS WIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 MAEGAEET OLIPHANT W. OLIPHANT 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 Vol. I. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 1891
 
 .'V 
 
 V.I 
 
 7
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 I HAVE, in concluding this book, to thank ahnost 
 all the persons most closely connected with Lau- 
 rence Oliphant for their kind confidence in in- 
 trustinof me with the numerous letters which 
 reveal his character so much more clearly than 
 anything else can, — especially those which show 
 the formation of that character, addressed to his 
 mother in the early part of his life, which I owe 
 to the courtesy of Mrs Rosamond 01i23hant, now 
 Mrs James Murray Templeton : a courtesy all the 
 more marked that I believe she herself intended, 
 or still intends, to make some record, though prob- 
 ably from a different point of view, of her late 
 husband's life. I have also to render my best 
 thanks to Mrs Wynne Finch, the mother of the 
 late Mrs Laurence Oliphant ; to Mrs Waller, her 
 sister, and to Hamon le Strange, Esq., her brother, 
 for much most interesting information and a num-
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 ber of important letters. Other letters have come 
 to me through Mrs Wynne Finch and other chan- 
 nels — from Lady Guendolen Ramsden, the Hon. 
 F. Leveson Gower, Major Goldsmid, and others, 
 to whom my best thanks are also due. I have 
 also most grateful thanks to oive to Mr and 
 Mrs J. D. Walker, formerly of San Kafael, Cali- 
 fornia, for an account of many incidents of great 
 value in the record of the two lives ; to Mrs 
 Hankin, of Malvern, for the use of her notes of 
 intercourse, both by letter and personally ; to 
 Arthur Oliphant, Esq. ; and to Lady Grant DuflP, 
 in whose house Mr Oliphant died. 
 
 I have one other acknowledgment to make, 
 which in happier circumstances would have been 
 said only to the private ear of him to whom it is 
 due. A great part of the letters quoted here 
 were selected, arranged, and connected for me by 
 my dear son, Cyril Francis Oliphant, whom it 
 pleased God to take to Himself just as the book 
 was ended, the last work he did on earth being 
 included in these pages. It can never bear to 
 me any other memorial and inscription than his 
 beloved name. . 
 
 December 8, 1890.
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS PARENTAGE AXD CHILDHOOD. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The house of Olipliant — The Oliphants of Condie — Sir Anthony's 
 letter— The judge and the officer — The Chief-Justice's ideal — 
 Lowry's expressive eyes — Little letters — The first tutor — The 
 first adventures — Lowry's education, .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 His unusual education — Eevolution in Italy — At the Bar — Life in 
 Ceylon — Diverse counsellors — Letters to his mother — Friends in 
 India — Receiving the natives — Young ladies — Elephant-hunting 
 — A unique experience — Self-examination — All things to all men 
 —End of the holiday, . . . . . .23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BAR THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 Voyage to England — Letters to his father — Social life — The Exhibi- 
 tion building— Letters to his father — Work in the slums — The 
 progress of the law — The Scotch Bar— His first book — Edinburgh 
 society — The Parliament House — His ''blackguards" in West-
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 minster — A vacation ramble — Something to write about — Letters 
 to his mother — A system of self-education — Nijni Novgorod — 
 Worth a journey from England — On the Volga — End of the first 
 stage — Across the steppe — Russian reports, . . .54 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 The ' Eussian Shores of the Black Sea ' — Preparations for war — The 
 Eastern question — The parents at home — A commercial treaty — 
 American hotels • — • Congress — American young ladies — The 
 struggle of life — Champagne — A joyous temperament — A book 
 on America — Lord Elgin's method — People he meets — Success of 
 the negotiations — " The venerable file " — Keception in Canada — 
 Quebec — New appointment — Literary plans — Religious thoughts 
 — The Third Person of the Trinity — An ungrateful lecture — A 
 second treaty — The demure secretary — Politics and society — 
 Vicissitudes of feeling — "Winter in Canada — His Excellency, . 100 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 In suspense — Departure for the Crimea — Therapia — Letter to his 
 mother — The breath of war — Sent to Circassia — " Lots of tin " — 
 Love of theological discussion — "An independent swell " — " Did 
 not expose himself at all "• — Made a battery — Plunder — Camp 
 thoughts — His conscience never satisfied — Again in suspense — 
 In the Southern States — A filibuster — Restored to society, . 158 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 Religious thoughts— Railways in Egypt — Lord Elgin at Singapore — 
 An arrested expedition — The light of reason — Difficulty about 
 prayer — No critic — Christian faith and Christian practice — 
 Advancing faith — Reflecting the mind of God — Unsuited for 
 philosophical inquiries — A day of humiliation^ — Death — The 
 germs of future belief — A musical Mass — The limits of self-
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 denial — The Jesuits and the missionaries — Taking a town — 
 Japan — Occasional gaieties — " "Worse than a colony" — " Setting 
 up his reason " — Death of his father — lyipatient merit — The 
 weakness of the flesh — On revolution intent — In Turin — At Nice 
 — Appointed clicirgi d'affaires at Yedo — Intolerable conditions — 
 The "happy despatch " — The Japanese robber — " Trussed like a 
 fowl " — Alternative withdrawal or fight — Bligh's letter — Return 
 home, ......,, 195 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 POLITICAL ADVENTUKE SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 The Prince of Wales — In unknown lands — English consuls and 
 colonists — Gives up the diplomatic service — The Poles in the 
 field — The downfall of the Poles — Schleswig-Holstein — A citizen 
 of the world — His occupations at home — The British Association 
 — At Greenock — "Papa " in Stirling — "A walk with the lassies " 
 — Norman Macleod a trump — Mother and son — The Stirling 
 burghs — A new development — A little dinner — The ' Owl ' — 
 Ithuriel's spear — ' Piccadilly ' — The wholly worldly and worldly 
 holj', . . . . . . . .268
 
 M E M I Pi 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE OF LAUEENCE OLIPHANT. 
 
 CHAPTEE L 
 
 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 The subject of this memoir, Laurence Oliphant, 
 was a man so unique in himself, so entirely in- 
 dividual and distinct in his generation, that it is 
 more than ordinarily unnecessary to distinguish 
 him by the mild and modest honours of the family 
 of Scotch country gentlemen from which he 
 sprang. I may be permitted, however, the nat- 
 ural weakness of some brief notice of the race of 
 which he has proved one of the most distinguished 
 members, and to which I also belong, both by 
 birth on the mother's side and by marriage. The 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 HIS PAREXTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 fond superstition of ancient race, to which the Scot 
 in all his developments is prone, may be accepted 
 as an excuse for this unfortunately somewhat 
 vague and not very brilliant passage of history. 
 We have not, I fear, been very remarkable as a 
 race. After the first somewhat misty heroes of 
 the past, the house appears only in the occa- 
 sional mention of a name here and there, — when 
 a Lord Oliphant witnessed a royal charter, or lent 
 his silent support to a protest or revolt of the 
 Scots nobility of his time. There is a page in a 
 manuscript of the seventeenth century, preserved 
 in the Heralds' College, which sums up their dis- 
 positions in words very quaint and graphic, and 
 very satisfactory in the point of view of the 
 domestic virtues, but not, perhaps, indicative of 
 much greatness. " The Lord Oliphant. — This 
 baron," says that anonymous authority, " is not 
 of great renown, but yet he hath good landes and 
 profitable ; a house very loyal to the Kings of 
 Scotland ; accounted no orators in theyr wordes 
 nor yet foolish in theyr deedes. They do not 
 surmount in theyr alliances, but are content with 
 theyr worshipful neighbours." " As for the anti- 
 quity of the family and sirname," says Nisbet in 
 his ' System of Heraldry,' in the chapter which 
 treats of " Celestial Figures ; the Sun, Moon, and 
 Stars," to which the bearings of the family belong,
 
 THE HOUSE OF OLIPHANT. 3 
 
 " there was an eminent baron of that name who 
 accompanied Kmg David I. to the siege of Win- 
 chester in England in the year 1142, named 
 David de OHphard ; and the same man or another 
 of that name is to be found frequently a witness 
 to that king's charters ; and particularly (says 
 Mr Crawfurd, in his ' Peerage ') in that to the 
 Priory of Coldingham, whereto his seal is appended, 
 which has thereupon three crescents, which clearly 
 prove him to be the ancestor of the noble family 
 of 01ij)hant, who still bear the same figures in 
 their ensio^n armorial." 
 
 In the Scottish War of Independence, Sir Wil- 
 liam Oliphant of Aberdalgy, in Forfarshire, the 
 acknowledg-ed head of the house, held Stirlinof 
 Castle against the English ; but was not, I fear, 
 quite free of the intrigues of the time, and those 
 occasional chano-es of side which even the s'reat 
 Bruce himself, before he settled into his noble 
 career, was sometimes betrayed into. His son 
 was, however, rewarded for their exertions in the 
 cause of their country by the hand of Elizabeth 
 Bruce, the king's daughter, who was not indeed a 
 legitimate princess — but the distinction counted 
 for little in those days. A generation or two 
 later, the heir of the house acquired some portion 
 of the estate of Kellie in Fifeshire, upon which he 
 settled his second son, Walter Oliphant, my own
 
 4 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 ancestor, and the founder, it is believed, of the 
 picturesque old house called Kellie Castle, in the 
 rural parish of Carnbee, still standing in perfect 
 repair, and most admirably restored by its late 
 inmate. Professor Lorimer of Edinburgh. The 
 barony was conferred afterwards upon the head 
 of the house in 1467. It was renewed on failure 
 of the direct male line by Charles I. in 1657, 
 and became extinct in 1751. In the meantime the 
 family threw off many branches, one of the latest 
 of which was that of Condie, which bears the 
 three crescents, "within a bordure counter com- 
 pony gules and argent," and changed the original 
 crest of a Unicorn's head to that of " a Falcon 
 volant," and the old thrifty motto A Tout j^our- 
 voir, which, I am proud to say, was retained by 
 the Kellie branch, into the newer fashion of a 
 Latin proverb, Altiora Peto, of which, the reader 
 will remember, the most brilliant descendant of 
 the house of Condie made in after days a whim- 
 sical use. 
 
 I am grieved to say that none of the many 
 branches of the house have done anything very 
 remarkable in life. The Jacobite Lairds of Gask 
 have supj^lied an interesting volume to Scots 
 family history by means of their present rep- 
 resentative, Mr Kington Oliphant, whose own 
 achievements in philology and cognate subjects
 
 THE OLIPHANTS OF CONDIE. 5 
 
 are not small ; and Caroline Ollphant, after- 
 wards Lady Nairne, of the same family, was one 
 of the band of women-poets, full of the native 
 music and delightful natural sentiment of their 
 country, who have left so pleasant and so bright 
 a tradition behind them. Perhaps no work of 
 genius ever gained a more universal or delightful 
 fame for its author than the song, " The Land o' 
 the Leal," written by this accomplished woman, 
 has done. Otherwise the record of the name is 
 like the shield of Sir Torr — void of achievement. 
 The house of Condie was no exception to this 
 law : country gentlemen, Scots lawyers, a sol- 
 dier brother now and then, have maintained the 
 worthy tradition of one of those plain Scotch 
 families, in whose absence of distinction so much 
 modest service to their country is implied. An- 
 thony Oliphant, a second son of the house, went 
 farther afield than to the Parliament House of 
 Edinburgh, and found his fortune in the colonies, 
 where he held various dignified posts. Sixty 
 years ago he was Attorney-General at the Cape, 
 where he married Miss Maria Campbell, the 
 daughter of Colonel Campbell of the 7 2d High- 
 landers, and his wife, a member of the large 
 and important family of Cloete ; and there, at 
 Cape Town, in the year 1829, Laurence was 
 born. He was the only child of a pair both of
 
 b HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 whom were notable in their way : she, full of 
 the vivacity and character which descended to 
 her son ; he also a man of much individual power 
 and originality, an excellent lawyer and trusted 
 official. Both were deeply stamped with the form 
 of religious feeling which was most general among 
 pious minds at the time. There is no scorn of 
 religion implied in the fact that it too has its 
 fashions, which shape in successive waves the gene- 
 rations as they go. This couple were evangelical 
 in their sentiments, after the strictest fashion of 
 that devout and much-abused form of faith. The 
 constant self-examination, the minute and scrupu- 
 lous record of every little backsliding, the horror 
 of those gaieties and seductions of the world (much 
 modified, in fact, by that considerable share in 
 them which their position made necessary), which 
 were but too ag-reeable to the social instincts of 
 both, is characteristically evident in a letter which 
 Sir Anthony, then Chief-Justice of Ceylon, ad- 
 dressed to his little son Laurence, ten years old, 
 at that time in England with his mother, and 
 whose tender mind the parents were so anxious 
 to train into the ways of godliness. The glimpse 
 this letter gives of the natural man, a little warm 
 of temper, a little rash in ejaculation, underneath 
 the cloak of the conscientious Christian, who felt 
 that for every idle word he would be called to
 
 SIR Anthony's letter. 
 
 judgment, is, if I may dare to say it, amusing as 
 well as attractive, though the intention of the 
 writer is far removed from any such thought. It 
 is addressed to his dear httle boy, who had been 
 very ill, and had just recovered and written his first 
 letter, " very well written and spelt," to his papa. 
 This loving and tender papa had been transferred 
 from the Cape to Ceylon in the absence of his 
 wife and child in England, and describes to his 
 little son his extreme loneliness in arriving' at his 
 new post. 
 
 "Colombo, J/a_y 31, 1839. 
 
 " After mamma and you went away from the 
 Cape to England for mamma's health, mamma 
 asked the great people in England to remove me 
 from being Attorney-General at the Cape, and to 
 make me Chief-Justice at Ceylon, and they con- 
 sented, and I went to Ceylon after mamma had 
 been a year away ; and when I arrived at Ceylon 
 I heard that my son had been almost dead, and 
 that mamma was so ill that it was not likely 
 she would ever come out to me, and I became 
 very sorry : and I did not see anybody that I 
 have ever known before. There was no John 
 Bell, nor Lady Catherine, nor General Napier, 
 nor Cecilia, nor Johnstone, nor Janet, nor the 
 Butlers, nor any other body to comfort me or 
 speak about mamma with, nor anybody except
 
 8 HIS PAEENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Mr Selby and George that cared about me. I 
 felt very low-spirited and lonely, and like a tree 
 standing by itself that has lost all its leaves, 
 and I looked about for somebody that I thought 
 would not think it tiresome to hear about 
 mamma and you, and as I did not know any- 
 body, or what sort of dispositions they had, I 
 was obliged to guess by their faces. I saw an 
 officer, who was tall and thin like Kobert Baillie 
 of the 72d, and I thought that he looked of 
 an affectionate mild disposition, like dear Jimmy 
 Erskine, and Cousin Day, and Carolus Graham, 
 who are so fond of us, and that he would 
 let me speak to him about my wife and child 
 without thinking it tiresome, and that he would 
 let me love him and be kind to him like 
 Jimmy and the other cousins, although he was 
 no relation. So one day I took him a drive 
 into the country with me. I had been so 
 long living by myself without having prayers 
 every morning at breakfast-time and on Sunday 
 evenings, that I had fallen away a great deal 
 from the love and fear of God, and God had left 
 me to myself in a great measure, because I 
 had neglected His Word and become careless. 
 But God had not turned away His face alto- 
 gether, but only hid it, neither had He forgotten 
 or forsaken me, because you know it is written,
 
 THE JUDGE AND THE OFFICER. 9 
 
 *A woman may forget her sucking child, yet 
 will I not forget thee, saith the Lord ' ; and also, 
 ' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' So I 
 had become careless in my sj)eech, and used bad 
 words thoughtlessly, that I had got into the 
 habit of using when I was a young man and 
 frequented gay company, and I spoke foolish 
 things for want of something to say." 
 
 This picture, drawn by his own hand, of so 
 important a member of society in the busy and 
 prosperous colony, the chief law officer of the 
 Crown, casting his eyes about with a remnant 
 of the shyness of his Scotch youth, to see what 
 face among the new society around looked kind 
 enough to be made a confidant of, and who there 
 was who would listen to his anxious talk about 
 his wife and child without finding it tiresome, 
 is most engaging and attractive. All did not 
 go well, however, in this first drive. One 
 wonders what the Chief-Justice said, with that 
 grave young officer sitting by, — whether he 
 launched too vigorous an epithet at an unwilling 
 horse, or held in a too impetuous one with an 
 objurgation, and what were the foolish things to 
 which he gave utterance, before he ventured to 
 open his heart as he desired, about his pretty 
 young wife, who was far away, and little Lau-
 
 10 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 rence, who was the Hght of their eyes. The 
 Officer — one feels it necessary to put his name 
 with a capital, as if he had been in ' Sandford 
 and Merton ' — made no remark upon his eminent 
 companion's freedom of speech ; but when the 
 Chief- Justice asked him to dinner some time 
 later, declined, on the score that " by mixing 
 in society I am acting inconsistently with my 
 religious principles." This excuse awoke the 
 slumbering conscience of Sir Anthony, who wrote 
 again to the young soldier, asking if it was any- 
 thino- in him, in his conduct or conversation, 
 which had occasioned the refusal, or if it was 
 merely on general principles — in which latter 
 case he hoped that they might still meet, as 
 people of similar minds, in their evening rides or 
 drives, and that if the absent wife was ever able 
 to join him, she as well as he might have the 
 advantage of the pious youth's society. This 
 elicited a letter full of feeling from the young 
 soldier, and a warm friendship was formed. 
 
 The whole narrative breathes of a time gone by. 
 I fear we should be disposed to think the Officer 
 sanctimonious and a religious prig in these changed 
 days. But the genuine humility and moral sen- 
 sitiveness of the middle - aged lawyer, judge 
 and autocrat in his own sphere, is exceedingly 
 touching and beautiful. These are not exactly
 
 THE CHIEF- justice's IDEAL. 11 
 
 the qualities we look for in a Chief-Justice, any 
 more than the shy outlook for a sympathetic face. 
 He was so much impressed by the incident alto- 
 gether that he reported it thus at great length 
 to his child, in the hope that when his Lowry was 
 as big as the Officer in question " he will do ex- 
 actly as he did." " When I am better acquainted 
 with him I shall ask him, that in case I should die 
 soon, and he is ever near my son, to go to him, 
 and ask him if he ever associates with people 
 from whom he can learn anything bad, and to 
 ask him to show him this letter, and if he acts 
 upon it. And my Lowry must keep this letter 
 which I now write, and read it always on his 
 birthday ; and if he is able to draw all the morals 
 from it that it contains, and to act as Mr B. did, 
 if he never meets Mr B. on earth, he will be happy 
 with him in heaven. And I write this for my 
 son's welfare, and that mamma may know that 
 there is somebody here who will love and take 
 care of papa when she is far away." The Chief- 
 Justice of Ceylon is a little confused in style, 
 though that arose no doubt from writing down 
 to his correspondent of ten, and his appearance 
 here is not what we should expect from his 
 imposing position and authority : but how de- 
 lightful is the glimpse of him thus afforded ! 
 Chief -justices, after all, are but men ; they
 
 12 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 yearn for wife and child like the humblest 
 individual, and are subject to the influence of 
 human approbation or disapproval. But few, 
 very few, are those who would admit or yield 
 to the tacit reproof of a stranger wdth such 
 a tender conscience and so much humility. I 
 fear his son would have been disposed to laugh 
 at the Officer and his grave young face. 
 
 The mother and child, thus so far separated 
 from the tender and longing head of the house, 
 spent some part of their time coming and going 
 at Condie, the ancestral home — " sweet Condie," 
 as little Lowry called it — the old Scotch mansion- 
 house of which he spoke in after and graver 
 years. There is a pretty anecdote of his child- 
 hood here, which seems to point at even an 
 earlier age than that mature ten years which he 
 possessed when his father \vrote the letter above 
 quoted. Certain ladies of the neighbourhood, 
 coming to call upon the laird's sister - in - law, 
 young Mrs Anthony from the Caj)e, w^ere intro- 
 duced into the drawing-room, w^here there seemed 
 to be nobody, but where the small boy was play- 
 ing with his box of bricks in a corner. Perhaps 
 the visitors did not perceive him ; perhaps thought 
 him too young to note what they were saying, 
 which was an imprudent confidence. At all 
 events, they began to talk of the lady they were
 
 LOWRYS EXPRESSIVE EYES. 13 
 
 waiting to see — what a pretty young woman she 
 was, and what a jDity the child should be so plain. 
 At this point they were startled by the sudden 
 ujDlifting of a small voice from the corner. "Ah," 
 said the boy, moved, yet philosophically, im- 
 partially, by the criticism upon himself, " but I 
 have very ex|)ressive eyes." The sense of humour, 
 which never deserted him, must thus have shown 
 itself at a very early period. 
 
 There is not very much appearance of it, how- 
 ever, in the schoolboy letters which he wrote 
 from Mr Parr's school at Durnford Manor, near 
 Salisbury, where he began his education. They 
 are amusing sometimes, as every child's letters 
 are, with their jumble of subjects and transparent 
 innocent self-absorption ; but it is happily evi- 
 dent that little Lowry, though something of a 
 hothouse plant, brought up at his mother's feet, 
 had none of the precocious development com- 
 mon to children accustomed to the constant 
 society of their elders. The little letters are 
 often accompanied by a note from the lady of 
 the house, apologetic of poor Lowry 's carelessness, 
 or his handwriting, or the difficulty there was in 
 getting him to write. On one occasion he loses 
 his mother's letter before he has finished reading 
 it, and begs her in the next to put down " some 
 of the most importinate facts " of the lost epistle.
 
 14 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 His style certainly lacks clearness. "All to- 
 gether," he says, " I am third in my class. 
 Graeme, Alfred Montague, a queer little beggar, 
 who sends his complemences to you, but a nice 
 little chap upon the whole, he was sitting next 
 and rubbed it all out, till Mr Waring told him 
 to go away." On another occasion he begs his 
 dear mamma to let him send his letter on Tues- 
 day, because it is more convenient, and because 
 Alfred Montague sends his on Tuesday. He 
 counts the weeks till the holidays, yet thinks 
 on the whole the time passes very quickly. " We 
 generally have what we call larks at night," says 
 the candid little boy. " There are two boys that 
 are very passionate, and we like, of course, to 
 tease them. We shut them up in the fives- 
 court, and they got in such what the boys call 
 a wax, which means a rage." " Do excuse my 
 both bad writing, and am not inclined for writ- 
 ing," he adds. In another Lowry falls a little 
 into the vein of religious retrospection in which 
 he has been trained. " You asked me to speak 
 to you as I used to do," he says ; " I should tell 
 you some more of my besetting sins. One of 
 them is my not saying my prayers as I ought, 
 hurrying over them to get up in the morning 
 because I am late, and at night because it is 
 cold ; another is my hiding what I do naughty
 
 LITTLE LETTEES. 15 
 
 and keeping it from Mr Parr's eyes, not thinking 
 the eye of God is upon me, a greater eye than 
 man's ; and another my cribing things from 
 other boys, which is another word for steal- 
 ing — not exactly stealing, but leads to it." 
 After this calm discrimination of morals, he goes 
 on to other matters. " I am such a horrid 
 sumer " (sum-er — i.e., arithmetician), he says, with 
 felicitous vexation ; " it is that that gets me 
 down in my class so much. I was perfectly 
 beaten last week, for they brought me down 
 from top to bottom." There are many people 
 who will feel the deepest sympathy with Lowry 
 in his tribulations as a "horrid sumer." "Ex- 
 cuse the blots," he adds ; " but I put it in my 
 shelf, and when I came to get it to finish it, and 
 it was out on the table — but I must now finish, 
 for I am impatient." It cannot be said that the 
 writing is much to Lowry 's credit, and the anx- 
 ious excuses of his master's wife are not with- 
 out justification. But it is very touching to 
 find these little letters so carefully preserved 
 after fifty long years, so living in their childish 
 freedom and confusion of over-active thought. 
 The little fellow was not clever, so far as ap- 
 peared ; but he was the light of his mother's 
 eyes, and already a favourite everywhere, — the 
 brightest restless child, always doing, forming
 
 16 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 already his succinct little opinions upon things 
 and men. 
 
 In 1841, Lady Oliphant — who during this in- 
 terval had been spending her time partly in 
 England, partly in Scotland : at the j)aternal 
 house of Condie, which was paradise to Lowry 
 in the holidays ; at Wimbledon, in the house of 
 Major Oliphant,^ another brother of her husband, 
 where the boy found comrades and companions 
 of an age similar to his own ; and for a consider- 
 able period in Edinburgh — joined Sir Anthony in 
 Ceylon. But it soon became apparent that to 
 be separated thus from her only child was too 
 great a strain upon the happiness and health of 
 the tender mother ; and she had not been long 
 settled in the island before imperative orders 
 were sent home for the return of Lowry, accom- 
 panied by a tutor who could carry on his educa- 
 tion. " Send out the kid at once " was, I have 
 been told, the telegraphic summons ; but this 
 must be a fond invention of later days, for there 
 was then no telegraph, nor was Sir Anthony 
 at all likely to use such an expression. This 
 decision was simplified by the fact that there 
 were two boys, the sons of Mr Moydart, a 
 
 1 Afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel James Oliphant, for many years 
 a director of the East India Company, and chairman of that body 
 in 1854.
 
 THE FIRST TUTOR. 17 
 
 neighbour at Colombo, of an age to share his 
 lessons, and afford boyish company for the Chief- 
 Justice's only child. Laurence, who had followed 
 his schoolmaster, Mr Parr, to Preston, in Lanca- 
 shire, where that gentleman had accepted a liv- 
 ing, was summoned from school in all haste, and 
 the much - trusted Uncle James at Wimbledon 
 was charged with the choice of the tutor. The 
 gentleman selected by Major Oliphant was Mr 
 Gepp, now vicar of Higher Easton, near Chelms- 
 ford, a very young man just from Oxford, to 
 whom, as to his pupil, the long journey overland, 
 then a new route, and captivating to the imagina- 
 tion, was a great frolic and delight. 
 
 By this time Lowry had developed out of 
 the early stage of childhood into an active and 
 lively boy, eager for new experiences, and all 
 the novelty and movement that were to be 
 had. One bustling delightful visit he had at 
 Condie to celebrate the marriage of his uncle, 
 where there were tenants' dinners and outdoor 
 dances, at which Lowry " kissed the lassies " 
 with whom he danced, in delightful emulation 
 of another young and gay uncle. He was be- 
 tween twelve and thirteen, with all his facul- 
 ties awake, and his whole being agog for novelty 
 and incident, when he set out to join his 
 parents in the late winter of 1841. He has 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 himself given an account of this, the first 
 great journey which he made independently, the 
 first he could fully recollect. It is astonishing to 
 note the enormous difference between the means 
 of travelling then and now, although the modern 
 age of rapid movement had set in, and the Eng- 
 lish world was already exceedingly proud of itself 
 for its first steps towards speed and ease in that 
 long journey, the most important and momentous 
 of all to Englishmen. From Boulogne, " where 
 we arrived in a steamer direct from London 
 Bridge" — to Marseilles occupied eight days and 
 five nights of incessant diligence travel, varied 
 by the incident of sticking in the snow at 
 Chalons, from which they had to be dug out. 
 The mail train rattles across the Continent from 
 Calais to Brindisi now in three days. Yet I 
 suspect Laurence and his companion had the best 
 of it. Packed up in the banquette of the old- 
 fashioned diligence, they saw and enjoyed every- 
 thing, — the new unfamiliar landscape, the quaint 
 villages, the old towns, the winterly brightness 
 of France, newer and more original to them than 
 anything is now to eyes so accustomed to discount 
 every novelty as ours are. And the jolting, dirt, 
 and wretchedness of the most highly organised 
 train de luxe, with its sleeping -carriages and 
 dining-saloons, one more odious than the other.
 
 THE FIRST ADVENTURES. 19 
 
 yet the last word of luxurious organisation and 
 supposed comfort in travelling — are a poor 
 exchange for the more leisurely progress, which 
 at least permitted a tranquil meal now and then, 
 and unfolded the country through which he 
 passed, and many amusing and agreeable incidents 
 to the traveller. 
 
 " Adventures," somebody says, " come to the 
 adventurous," and this first voyage of the boy 
 who had so many before him was signalised by 
 a visit, made necessary by an accident, to Mocha, 
 a place very little visited either then or now by 
 the Giaour, and where the Shereef w^as exceed- 
 ingly civil to the English travellers — a civility, 
 I believe, explained by the fact that an English 
 gunboat lay not far off, though the strangers 
 were unaware of this strong inducement to polite- 
 ness on the part of their entertainers. The voy- 
 age altogether, with the repeated breakdowns of 
 the ship and pauses for repairs (there was then 
 no P. & 0.), lasted about three months. Vie are 
 not told to what pitch of despairing anxiety the 
 parents in Ceylon had been driven by all this 
 delay. But at last it came to an end, and Lowry 
 settled down in the new brilliant Eastern world, 
 where everything was a wonder, to his lessons 
 with Mr Gepp and the Moydart boys, and to that 
 close companionship with his mother which occu-
 
 20 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 pled SO large a portion of his life. She was still 
 a young woman — " there were but eighteen years 
 between us," he used to say ; and though Lady 
 Oliphant loved to be obeyed, yet she had from 
 his infancy placed the boy — the " Darling," as his 
 father invariably calls him, with a little affection- 
 ate mockery — in a position of influence and equal- 
 ity not perhaps very safe for a child, but always 
 delightful between these two ; for the quick- 
 witted and sharp - sighted boy had always a 
 chivalrous tenderness for his mother, even when, 
 as hap^^ened sometimes, he found it necessary to 
 keep her in her proper place. I have been told 
 an amusinof little illustration of this in an inci- 
 dent that happened one morning when, the 
 tutor's scheme of work appearing unsatisfactory 
 to Lady Oliphant, she came into the schoolroom 
 to announce her desire that it should be altered. 
 To do this before the open-eyed and all-observant 
 boys was, perhaps, not very judicious, and the 
 young preceptor was wounded and vexed. There 
 was probably a sirocco, or its equivalent, blowing 
 — that universal excuse for every fault of temper 
 in warm latitudes — and a quarrel was imminent, 
 when Lowry rose from his books and came to the 
 rescue. " Mamma, this is not the right place for 
 you," said the heaven-born diplomat, offering her 
 his arm, with the fine manners which no doubt
 
 lowry's education. 21 
 
 she had been at such pains to teach him, and 
 leading her away — no doubt half amused, half 
 pleased, although half angry, with the social 
 skill of the boy. 
 
 An education thus conducted, and subject to 
 all the social interruptions of the lively colonial 
 life, where visitors were continually coming and 
 going, and the house of the Chief - Justice a 
 centre of entertainment and pleasant friendli- 
 ness, must have had its drawbacks. But ex- 
 cept for the short period at Salisbury and 
 Preston when he was a little boy, Laurence 
 never was subjected to educational discipline 
 of a severe kind. He was one of the pupils 
 of Life, educated mainly by what his keen eyes 
 saw and his quick ears heard, and his clear 
 understanding and lively wit picked up, amid 
 human intercourse of all kinds. He was in no 
 way the creation of school or college. When, as 
 happens now and then, an education so desul- 
 tory, so little consecutive or steady as his, pro- 
 duces a brilliant man or woman, we are apt to 
 think that the accidental system must be on the 
 whole the best, and education a delusion, like so 
 many other cherished things ; but the conclusion 
 is a rash one, and it is perhaps safest in this, as 
 in so many other directions, to follow the beaten 
 way. I do not think he himself ever regretted
 
 22 HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD, 
 
 it, and he had httle or none of the traditionary 
 resjDect for university training which is so general. 
 He had a most cheerful delightful life, between 
 the gay little capital Colombo — where he knew 
 everybody, and saw everything that occurred, 
 and took his share in entertaining great officials, 
 governors and suchlike, on their way to and from 
 India, as well as less important crowds, civil 
 and military — and that home of health, Newera 
 Ellia, among the hills, which the 01i|)hants were 
 among the first to make ]3opular. In after days a 
 continual flight of letters, daily recording every- 
 thing that happened, went up to that green and 
 wholesome spot from the young man of much 
 business in the court at Colombo and elsewhere, 
 to his mother ; but in the meantime Lowry ac- 
 companied her in all her moves, and the strong- 
 bond of united life, so possible, so perfect, be- 
 tween an intelligent child and a woman full of 
 simplicity, notwithstanding her intelligence and 
 maturity, grew stronger day by day.
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 It was not, however, so much the mtention of 
 his parents, who were fully purposed to complete 
 their son's education in the usual way, as accident, 
 which secured to Laurence the exemption from 
 ordinary studies and restraints, which conduced so 
 much to make him what he was. He had been 
 sent home ao-ain to the care of a tutor in Enof- 
 land, about whom I have not been able to obtain 
 any information, and was being prepared for the 
 university and the ordinary course of a young 
 Englishman's training, when his father returned 
 to England from Ceylon with a two years' leave 
 of absence — the first real holiday which probably 
 the hardworkino- Judg-e had ever had. " I was 
 on the point of going up to Cambridge at the 
 time," says Laurence, in his ' Episodes from a 
 Life of Adventure ' ; " but when he announced 
 that he intended to travel for a couple of years
 
 24 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 with my mother on the Contment, I represented 
 so strongly the sujDerior advantages, from an 
 educational point of view, of European travel 
 over ordinary scholastic training, and my argu- 
 ments were so urgently backed by my mother, 
 that I found myself, to my great delight, trans- 
 ferred from the quiet of a Warwickshire vicarage 
 to the Champs Elysees in Paris ; and, after pass- 
 ing the winter there, spent the following year 
 roaming over Germany, Switzerland, and the 
 Tyrol." It was in the year 1846 that this trans- 
 formation was effected, and the boy turned once 
 for all into the " rolling stone " which he con- 
 tinued to be for all the rest of his life. There 
 could be no more exciting period for a plunge 
 into the Continent, which was so entirely new to 
 the little party of travellers — as novel and strange 
 as if they had been rustics newly setting out from 
 their fields — notwithstanding their acquaintance 
 with the Eastern world and places far away. " I 
 often wondered, while thus engaged," he con- 
 tinues, " whether I was not more usefully and 
 instructively employed than labouring painfully 
 over the diflPerential calculus ; and whether the exe- 
 crable j^citois of the peasants in the Italian valleys, 
 which I took great pains in acquiring, was not 
 likely to be of quite as much use to me in after- 
 life as ancient Greek," This is a question which
 
 HIS UNUSUAL EDUCATION. 25 
 
 it is never very easy to answer. If it were put in 
 another form, and we were to ask whether the 
 brilHant and remarkable individuality of Laurence 
 Oliphant were not worth a host of ordinary 
 university men trimmed to one pattern, it would 
 be simple enough ; yet we may be permitted to 
 believe that the ancient Greek and the profounder 
 culture mio-ht have saved him and the world from 
 some wild dreams of after-life, without diminish- 
 ing the originality and force of his being. These, 
 however, are speculations without use ; for no 
 doubt the manner of development is all involved 
 in the j)roduct, and no man can contradict his 
 nature. However, this free life and acquaintance 
 in the dawn of individual intelligence with the 
 ways of thinking and life of other nations, had 
 doubtless much to do in determinino^ his career. 
 
 In 1847, the family party, ensconced in the com- 
 fortable ark used in old days by such leisurely 
 travellers, with its varying team of four or six 
 horses, according as it climbed or descended the 
 mountain road, passed across the Alps to Italy, 
 then seething with a universal fever of revolution. 
 There never was such ideal travelling as in this 
 lurching, heavy, altogether delightful vehicle, 
 packed in a hundred pockets with everything 
 one could want, pausing wherever it seemed good 
 to the voyager, and with a long rest in the
 
 26 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 heat of the day at some dehghtful old town or 
 picturesque village. The travellers thus gained 
 a knowledge of the country in detail — its end- 
 less stores of beauty, its ever-friendly peoj^le, its 
 humble shrines and fortresses, its overflowing life, 
 such as no hurried railway can afford. One can 
 travel all over Italy now without hearing a word 
 of anything but formal Italian, the language of the 
 books ; no need to puzzle what the peasants say, 
 though it is often so quaint and witty. But it 
 was otherwise in those days. No doubt Lowry 
 occupied the covered banquette in front, from 
 which he could give notice of every new castello 
 or change in the prospect. He was seventeen, at 
 the age when enjoyment of this kind is unalloyed, 
 and the air and movement and constant change 
 are a pure delight. And at such a crisis there 
 was much for an intelligent boy to see and do. 
 The enthusiasm which was growing and swelling 
 through the entire country went to his young 
 head, easily touched at aU times by the contagion 
 of popular excitement. He recounts the " salient 
 features " of this wonderful journey as " indelibly 
 stamped upon my memory." 
 
 " I shall never forget joining a roaring mob one 
 evening, bent I knew not upon what errand, and 
 getting forced by the pressure of the crowd, and 
 my own eagerness, into the front rank, just as we
 
 EEVOLUTION IN ITALY. 27 
 
 reached the Austrian Legation, and seeing the 
 ladders passed to the front, and placed against 
 the wall, and the arms torn down : then I re- 
 member, rather from love of excitement than 
 any strong political sympathy, taking hold, with 
 hundreds of others, of the ropes which were at- 
 tached to them, and dragging them in triumph to 
 the Piazza del Popolo, where a certain Ciceroac- 
 chio, who was a great tribune of the people in 
 those days, and a wood-merchant, had a couple of 
 carts loaded with wood standing ready ; and T re- 
 member their contents being tumultuously upset, 
 and heaped into a pile, and the Austrian arms 
 being dragged on the top of them, and a lady— 
 I think the Princess Pamphili Doria, who was 
 passing in a carriage at the time — being com- 
 pelled to descend, and being handed a flaming 
 torch, with which she was requested to light the 
 bonfire, which blazed up amid the frantic demon- 
 strations of delight of a yelling crowd, who formed 
 round it a huge ring, joining hands, dancing and 
 capering like demons, — in all of which I took an 
 active part, getting home utterly exhausted, and 
 feeling that somehow or other I had deserved well 
 of my country, 
 
 " And I remember upon another occasion being 
 roused from my sleep, about one or two in the 
 morning, by the murmur of many voices, and look-
 
 28 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 ing out of my window and seeing a dense crowd 
 moving beneath, and rushing into my clothes and 
 joining it — for even in those early days I had a 
 certain moss-gathering instinct — and being borne 
 along I knew not whither, and finding myself at last 
 one of a shrieking, howling mob, at the doors of 
 the Propaganda, against which heavy blows were 
 being directed by improvised battering-rams ; and 
 I remember the doors crashing in, and the mob 
 crashing after them, to find empty cells and de- 
 serted corridors, for the monks had sought safety 
 in flight. And I remember standing on the steps 
 of St Peter's while Pope Pio Nono gave his bless- 
 ing to the volunteers that were leaving for Lom- 
 bardy to fight against the Austrians, and seeing 
 the tears roll down his cheeks — as I supposed, 
 because he hated so much to have to do it. These 
 are events which are calculated to leave a lasting 
 impression on the youthful imagination." 
 
 One wonders rather how the excellent judge 
 felt when he found his son thus rushing in where 
 full-grown diplomatists feared to tread, compro- 
 mising himself — if anybody had as yet minded 
 which side Lowry took — even perhaps compromis- 
 ing England, had it been known that the young 
 abettor of revolution was the son of a distin- 
 guished British ofiicial ; or whether the mother 
 did not sufler agonies of anxiety while the crowd
 
 AT THE BAK. 29 
 
 rushed by with her boy, as she must have known, 
 in the thick of the mischief, whatever it was. 
 However, no harm would seem to have come of 
 it, unless indeed this first taste of the sweetness 
 of excitement and the fire of the multitude in 
 motion awakened the latent spark in the mind of 
 one destined to see so much of such movement in 
 after-life. 
 
 At the end of this extraordinary " education by 
 contact," the remarkable substitute for Cambridge 
 which commended itself to the Oliphant family, 
 Laurence returned with his father to Ceylon, 
 where he seems to have been considered old 
 enough at nineteen to enter into a quasi-public 
 life as the Judge's secretary, and where he very 
 soon advanced to the position of a barrister, 
 pleading in the supreme courts, and conducting a 
 great deal of very serious business. He had been 
 engaged in " twenty-three murder cases," he him- 
 self tells us, before he had attained as many years 
 of age. We find a rapid outline of his life at this 
 period in the little notes which he dashed off daily 
 from Colombo and other places to his mother at 
 Newera Ellia, the hill-station which is to Ceylon 
 what Simla is to India : sometimes written from 
 court while the fate of some of his murderers hung 
 in the balance, and he cries out indignant that 
 had they been but tried by papa or before an
 
 30 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 English jury they would have been safe ; some- 
 times in the moment before dinner, when he is 
 preparing to entertain, in his mother's place, 
 papa's dinner-party of serious officials or distin- 
 guished strangers ; sometimes from the cricket- 
 ground ; sometimes after a ball. Lowry was 
 everywhere, in the centre of everything, affec- 
 tionately contemptuous of papa's powers of taking 
 care of himself, and laying down the law, in 
 delightful ease of love and unquestioned suprem- 
 acy, to his mother. There is not a sentence in 
 those little letters to quote, but they place the 
 position before us with the most vivid yet playful 
 clearness. Papa, we may infer, smiled a little 
 sardonically, with that sense of amusement in the 
 precautions taken for him, which is one of the 
 privileges of a parent ; but the mother accepted 
 it all, with pride and confidence unbounded in her 
 boy, to whom it is evident, though he took such 
 care of everybody, a great deal of freedom was 
 permitted. His shooting expeditions, in which 
 he sometimes ran considerable risk, for the game 
 in Ceylon is big and dangerous, were reproduced 
 longf afterwards in sketches so brilliant and life- 
 like that it is easy to see how he must have 
 thrown himself into those exciting moments of 
 life in the jungle — though papa was left to take 
 care of himself at such periods in the distant
 
 LIFE IN CEYLON. 31 
 
 assizes in different parts of the island, whence 
 his son had escaped to more exciting experiences. 
 One does not know whether any recollection of 
 this bright-faced lad, with his boundless high 
 spirits and energy, still lingers in Ceylon ; but the 
 whole island comes to view in his letters, in rapid 
 life-giving touches, a sort of dissolving panorama 
 of a busy society in colonial completeness, great 
 and small, with its eager interests and the buzz 
 of the hundred little intrigues, arrangements, dis- 
 agreements, all of such absorbing interest, all so 
 entirely dead and gone. The Governor's house 
 at Newera Ellia still bears the name, we believe, 
 of the Oliphants, and the island is governed from 
 the spot where Laurence's mother waited for her 
 daily courier, and saw through Lowry's letters, as 
 in a camera, everything that was being done. 
 
 This period of home-dwelling, however, did not 
 last very long. In the end of the year 1850, 
 Laurence being then twenty-one, an unusual and 
 interesting visitor touched at Ceylon on his way 
 from England back to India. He was one of the 
 first native envoys ever sent from the unknown 
 East, and his appearance had been hailed in Eng- 
 land with a warmth of curiosity and interest which 
 was fresh in these days, when public curiosity 
 had not degfenerated into the foolish and selfish 
 society fever over a novelty, w^iich makes social
 
 32 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 success nowadays so little of a compliment. Jung 
 Bahadour was a revelation to the country, which 
 jumped at the idea, not unnatural in the then 
 ignorance of Eastern affairs, and always delight- 
 ful, that India was about to accept with enthu- 
 siasm the culture and sentiments of the West, 
 and that this enlightened and splendid native 
 prince, with his blazing diamonds and his ad- 
 vanced views, was but the first of a noble 
 harvest of liberal minds and civilising measures 
 to come. It is to be supposed that he must have 
 produced a similar impression at Ceylon, notwith- 
 standing the more complete knowledge and the 
 small public faith in " natives " with which a 
 colonial community is endowed. At all events, 
 the romance about him, the distance and novelty 
 of his unknown country far away, and the in- 
 stinct of the traveller and adventurer which was 
 so strong in young Laurence, combined to sur- 
 round the envoy with a halo of attraction. It 
 seems wonderful that an only child, so cherished 
 and adored, should have been able to persuade 
 his parents to consent to such a wild expedition. 
 But they would seem at all times to have had 
 the most unbounded confidence in him, and 
 conviction that his impulses were not to be 
 restrained, nor his conduct made the subject of 
 parental dictation.
 
 DIVERSE COUNSELLORS. 33 
 
 It is very probable that their friends con- 
 demned Sir Anthony and his wife for their fond 
 submission and concurrence in all Lowry's vaga- 
 ries, as no doubt they censured his want of 
 formal education and the irregularity of his 
 training. On this particular occasion one of 
 them at least seems to have spoken out. " My 
 approval of your retaining Lowry in Ceylon was 
 never meant to extend to such an excursion as 
 that which he has undertaken to Nepaul, which 
 can hardly improve his legal prospects, financi- 
 ally or professionally," says one of the most 
 trusted counsellors of the family. Another friend, 
 however, highly disapproves Lady Oliphant's de- 
 sire to retain him by her side, and especially 
 that she should tell him his father approves 
 while she does not, thus raising a feeling of 
 conflict in his mind. " Let him alone," this 
 lady says. Thus it was evident that there were 
 debates on the question. But the young man's 
 wishes carried the day. He left Ceylon with 
 his new friend in December 1851. The result 
 of the expedition was a book, the first of many 
 vivid sketches of adventure, in which, as hap- 
 j)ened to him in his general good luck on more 
 than one occasion, he had an entirely new field to 
 explore. What is more important, however, for 
 our present purpose, is that it brings us his own 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 34 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 account of himself in a series of letters, carefully 
 marked by his mother's hand No. 1, 2, &c., in 
 which the story of his first adventure by himself 
 in the world is told. The little narrative begins 
 with a sketch of a fellow-passenger in the steamer 
 in which he leaves Ceylon, whose character he 
 conceives to be something like his own, for which 
 idea it is worth while to quote it. 
 
 " He is a pleasant enough fellow as a com- 
 panion, but abominably selfish and a thorough 
 charlatan. His faults in the latter respect are 
 something like mine — in fact, I saw that I might 
 well take warning from him. His interest was 
 the first thing which he considered, and he was 
 rather unscrupulous in making everything sub- 
 servient to it. He toadied me like fun. and 
 thinks I don't see through him. But I must not 
 l^e so dreadfully uncharitable, though I could 
 not but be struck by the almost providential 
 neighbourhood of a man who seemed myself 
 exaofoferated." 
 
 OC5 
 
 Laurence must have corrected early these 
 faults, like the "besetting sin" of " cribing," of 
 which he accuses himself on an earlier occasion. 
 Certainly, self-interest was the last thing that 
 his worst enemy could lay to his charge.
 
 LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER. 35 
 
 " The Minister " [Jung Bahadour], he adds, 
 "is a glorious fellow, and we are great friends. 
 He amused himself all day shooting at bottles. 
 I have seen him hit three running fastened to 
 the yard-arm ; first hitting the bottle with right 
 barrel, and then the neck, which was still hang- 
 ing, with the left. He knows a little English, 
 but his stock is confined to making- love — ' Give 
 me a kiss,' and a few other jDhrases equally short 
 and sweet. We had great fun jumping, but I 
 beat his head off, whereat he was much dis- 
 quieted ; but being determined not to be done, 
 he immediately commenced hanging by his heels 
 in ropes in the most fantastic way, which I found 
 impossible, not having been, like him, shampooed 
 from earliest infancy. Oliphant Sahib being con- 
 sidered unpronounceable, I am Lowry Sahib, in 
 return for which I call the young colonel (brother 
 of Jung) Fe-fi-fo-fum Sahib, that being the near- 
 est approach I can make to his name." 
 
 Calcutta the young man found worth coming 
 to see, even if he were to go no farther, and was 
 much amused to find himself the fashion, and 
 sought after everywhere. " The idea of going 
 up to Nepaul with Jung Bahadour on a shooting 
 expedition is my passport everywhere, and con- 
 stitutes me a lion at once. Mrs Gordon takes
 
 36 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 a delight in introducing me to all the big-wigs. 
 She certainly has a great knack of making one 
 feel satisfied with one's self, and would spoil the 
 most modest young man. So you must not mind 
 my giving myself airs when I come back, unless 
 somebody takes me down a peg in Nepaul. If 
 I were going to live in Calcutta," he adds, " I 
 should not devote myself to seeing and being 
 seen in the way I do now ; but for a week I 
 think I ought to see as much of men and manners 
 here as j)ossible. I hope you are not afraid of 
 the gaiety : it is but for a short time and of no 
 very serious nature, and I make a point of being 
 alone a good deal in the morning. I hope you 
 will write me a letter of good advice, as I want 
 it now, and certainly shall by the time I shall 
 get it ; and never mind boring me — it won't at 
 all." Thus it will be seen the boy was still a 
 dutiful boy, thinking of his mother's anxieties, 
 and how much she feared that balls and other 
 vanities and perpetual society would be against 
 his spiritual advantage, notwithstanding the inde- 
 pendence and freedom of his twenty- one years. 
 
 The mode of travelling, when at last he started 
 up country, was peculiar, but it seems to have 
 been comfortable enough. He and his companion 
 went from Calcutta to Benares in "a large coach 
 which only holds two, but in which two very
 
 LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER. 37 
 
 good beds can be made up. In this, whicli is 
 very comfortable, Cavanagh and I have been 
 living for the last two days, and shall have to 
 do so for four more, making it our home both by 
 day and night. Ten coolies drag us along a very 
 good road. In the mornings and evenings we 
 walk alongside or sit on the coach-box, and if we 
 have a lazy team, drive them along in a most 
 barbarous way. Papa would be amused at this 
 specimen of Indian backwardness, being dragged 
 for nearly five hundred miles along a magnificent 
 road in a four-horse coach by men instead of 
 horses the whole way. It would have delighted 
 you, however," he adds, " for the coolies never 
 shy, stumble, nor run away, or misbehave in any 
 other way but being lazy and importunate." 
 
 On arriving at Benares he found himself in the 
 midst of the bustle of jji'oparation for the great 
 hunting-party of which everybody was talking. 
 
 " Everybody says I am lucky to get such a 
 chance of seeing sport, and fellows are making 
 all sorts of interest with him [Jung] to be 
 allowed to come too, and I daresay we shall 
 make up a formidable party. The Jung is an 
 immense lion among the native princes here, who 
 all want to go home. He took up his caste 
 (forfeited by his voyage) the day before yester-
 
 38 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 day, so I missed the ceremony ; but it only con- 
 sisted of all the party who had gone home (i.e., 
 to England), taking a bath in the presence of 
 numbers of spectators. He has three hundred 
 men of the Nepaul army down here as an escort. 
 There are six hundred elephants waiting for us 
 at Sagaulee to beat the Terai, and if they don't 
 get something out of the jungle, it's a pity. 
 Look for Sagaulee on the map : it is on the Nepaul 
 frontier, and we begin our battue from there, 
 going some miles into the Nepaul country and 
 coming back to it previous to starting for Khat- 
 mandhu." 
 
 The account which he gives his mother of the 
 books he carried with him to occupy his moments 
 of leisure is added. " I think you will approve 
 of the selection, — Guizot's 'History of English 
 Revolution,' Bourrienne's ' Memoirs,' Lord Mahon's 
 ' Life of Conde,' a Hindostanee dialogue — and 
 some of Sir A. Buller's small vols, of Paul de 
 Kock, which he has lent me." Let us hope Lady 
 Oliphant believed these last to be theological 
 treatises. 
 
 " The Jung- is as civil and kind to me as ever, 
 and I am beginning to say a word or two to 
 him in Hindostanee now. The house abounds
 
 FRIENDS IN INDIA. 39 
 
 In children, who make the most desperate noise 
 in Hindostanee without the slightest control. 
 To-night the Jung reviews his troops for the 
 benefit of the General, and we are all going to 
 see it, as they say it is a curious sight. He 
 showed me his dogs to-day, also his falcons, so 
 you may imagine me imhooding my bird as in 
 the olden days." 
 
 The final scene of the hunting-party was only 
 reached after various other detentions on the 
 road among friends who sprang up upon the 
 young man's path everywhere : old soldiers who 
 had been at school with papa, younger ones who 
 had got their cadetships from Uncle James, or 
 who had married somebody's sister in one or 
 other category, or who knew Perthshire and all 
 the people there, or who had received the hospi- 
 tality of Lady Oliphant at the Cape, — those con- 
 tingencies which seem to happen so much more 
 readily in India than anywhere else. Laurence 
 makes special note of the young ladies, who were 
 generally pretty, and always lively and delightful, 
 and with whom he felt himself entitled to flirt 
 with much vehemence, since a single evening was 
 the limit of his intercourse with them. " I have 
 taken to making love furiously, as I know I am 
 going away immediately," is the unprincipled con-
 
 40 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 fession he makes ; and he begs his mother not to 
 be afraid of his proceedings in this respect, which 
 would seem to have been a weakness of hers. It 
 was after a ball, and a tender leave-taking at two 
 o'clock in the morning, that the young man flung 
 himself into his palanquin and slept " far into the 
 following day," while his bearers jogged along, 
 carrying him to his destination. 
 
 " We found the Jung encamped in a pictur- 
 esque spot. The scene altogether was very en- 
 livening : four thousand men, with elephants, 
 horses, camels, bivouacking in a large mango- 
 grove, with our hut pitched near the Jung's, who, 
 when we arrived, was out shooting. We soon 
 joined him on a gorgeously attired elephant 
 provided for our use, and found him on a still 
 more handsomely got - up one, his brothers on 
 another. But I must tell you about his little 
 bride, who was with him, a pretty little girl of 
 thirteen or fourteen, almost as fair as a European, 
 and as he calls her ' My beautiful missis.' She is 
 the daughter of the Coorg Rajah, and was be- 
 trothed to Jung in Benares. He seems very 
 fond of her, and kind to her, and she looks very 
 happy. 1 like him more and more. He is so 
 thoroughly European. To give you an instance 
 of it. One day, while calling on him, the Rajah of
 
 RECEIVING THE NATIVES. 41 
 
 Bhurtpore was announced, so his guard turned 
 out, and the gentleman was received by Jung, 
 and led to a couch with due honour, when after 
 a complimentary speech on both sides, Jung said 
 to him, ' Your Highness must excuse me, as I 
 have important business with these gentlemen,' 
 pointing to us, therewith coolly leading the Rajah 
 with equal state to the door. He came back a 
 moment after, laughing and rubbing his hands, 
 saying, ' That's the way to get over an interview 
 with one of these natives.' Of course he had no 
 business whatever with us. He is making; his 
 little betrothed shake hands, and behave other- 
 wise quite like a European lady, and instead of 
 shutting her up, she always goes about with him. 
 We march ten miles a - day, starting out at a 
 quick march with his troops and band, which is 
 a very large one and plays English tunes. The 
 Jung always takes his gun with him, and shoots 
 every cockyolly bird he comes across. You may 
 imagine, therefore, how much I am enjoying my- 
 self. The game consists of quails, hares, and 
 partridges. The Jung sends us our dinner, 
 which consists of rice boiled with ghee, and 
 eighteen or twenty other condiments, served in 
 leaves and scented, so that one feels as if one 
 were eating greasy smells. We have conse- 
 quently come to the determination of accepting
 
 42 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 Jung's dinner, but of providing ourselves with 
 something edible as well as odoriferous. The 
 chutney smells exactly like the young colonel ; 
 it is a very nice smell, but one does not like it 
 to get further than one's nose. I have found 
 out the philosophy of travelling. In travelling 
 you are much more likely to have excitement of 
 one sort or another than leadinof a humdrum 
 life ; but as happiness consists in anticipation, 
 all you have to do is continually to anticipate 
 excitement and you will always be happy, where- 
 as in the other case excitement is so very un- 
 likely that you can't work yourself up to the 
 anticipation of it. Then there is intense en- 
 joyment in eating even ghee and smells when 
 you have gone twenty-four hours without eating 
 anything, also in sleeping when you have been 
 two nights awake — all pleasures to which you 
 are a stranger." 
 
 After this there comes a sudden digression, 
 caused by the happy accident of falling into 
 a great picnic party which was spending a few 
 days in tents at no great distance from the 
 " Jung's " encampment — of all the amusements 
 of which young Laurence and his companion 
 were made free, and which suggests the start- 
 ling question in his next letter, " How would
 
 YOUXG LADIES. 43 
 
 you like a Roman Catliollc daughter-in-law?" 
 I have already said that young ladies were 
 much in the thoughts of this traveller of 
 twenty-one, and he had already intimated with 
 much delight that he alone could " polk " of 
 the assembled party, and therefore had it all 
 his own way. He enlarges for a page of this 
 letter upon the particular lady in question, 
 who was not only very pretty but very sensible, 
 clever, and lady-like, and would not be flirted 
 with at any price, which, adds this experienced 
 youth, " made it so dangerous. I began by try- 
 ins: for fun to cut out two fellows who were 
 rivals, and I succeeded so triumphantly that it 
 became nearly earnest, to the disgust of one, who 
 cut me dead at last ; but we made it up when we 
 killed the tiger yesterday. If you knew how 
 much I am envied you would excuse my conceit, 
 which is becoming unbearable." It is perhaps 
 the reaction from this delightful sensation of 
 triumph that makes him a little discontented 
 M'ith his real host, the Jung, when he rejoins the 
 camp. 
 
 " The Juno- has not behaved well to us in 
 the shooting line, and we are rather cool with 
 him on that account. He makes arrangements 
 for us to go out with him, but being a very
 
 44 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 jealous sportsman, has contrived twice to give 
 us the shp with his elephants," which leads the 
 young men to the resolution of setting off on 
 horseback by themselves to Khatmandhu and 
 abandoning the party. " Travelling in India," 
 Laurence adds, " is totally different from travel- 
 ling in any other country. The comfort and 
 pleasure of being made at home in a nice house 
 with nice people, instead of going to an inn, is 
 not to be told. By so doing one is per- 
 petually thrown with new people, who have to 
 be learnt — as is also the knack of making your- 
 self agreeable in the shortest possible time. 
 There are certain hobbies and subjects which 
 every one has in India, and in which I am be- 
 coming perfect, having of course no particular 
 opinion on them myself, ' but what master likes.' 
 Then the change of climate and scene puts one 
 in good health and spirits, and the numerous 
 little trials of temper that' one undergoes tend 
 to make one a philosopher. I rarely get further 
 than looking a little sulky now and then at a 
 man whose neck I should like to wring slowly. 
 The Nepaulese are excessively stupid, and hor- 
 ribly good-humoured, so I can't do anything else 
 with them ; but the Hindostanees are sulky and 
 alive to ridicule, so I get on very well with bully- 
 ing them jocosely. . . . The next best thing to
 
 ELEPHANT-HUNTING. 45 
 
 having repose of mind is looking as if you had it, 
 and I often wish I had a pleasant expression of 
 countenance in my pocket, which I could fasten 
 on my face when ^Vanted." 
 
 This letter — which is tinged with a certain shade 
 of discontent, with an " I am not so full of the 
 young lady " at the end — after a few days' in- 
 terval is however reopened in great excitement 
 to narrate " the most magnificent day's sport I 
 ever had in my life." 
 
 " We started early this morning elephant - 
 catching, but did not come up with the herd till 
 two o'clock. I insisted upon going, much against 
 the Minister's [Jung's] wish, who said it was im- 
 possible for me to do it : however, saying he was 
 no longer responsible, he gave me an elephant on 
 which was nothing but a sack of straw lashed 
 firmly on, with a loop of rope to hold by. Taking 
 ofi" cap and shoes, I was told to stick to this 
 through thick and thin, throwing myself ofi" the 
 elephant when passing under branches, and hold- 
 ing on with my hands to swing myself on him 
 again. Two regiments with a lot of elephants 
 had been sent to beat the jungle ; and when the 
 herd appeared, about a hundred more, on one of 
 which I was, started in full pursuit. Besides
 
 46 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 holding on, I had to thrash the elephant with 
 a spiked piece of wood : you may imagine it was 
 no joke, seeing a bough before you which grazed 
 your hands and arms passiiig, not six inches 
 above" the elephant's back, the mahout doing 
 likewise. It was certainly the most violent 
 exertion I ever underwent, and once the elephant 
 came down a tremendous trip on his nose, which 
 nearly dislocated every bone in my body. On we 
 rushed, regardless of everything. A pack of a 
 hundred elephants in full cry is a curious sight, 
 with two nearly naked men on each, swaying 
 about like bolsters, now on one side, now on the 
 other, or slipping down to the root of the tail and 
 holding on by the crupper. We got two (wild) 
 elephants separated, and followed them close, 
 when suddenly I was enveloped in smoke, and 
 very much astonished by a dozen or more guns 
 let off in my face. The elephants had doubled 
 back, and this was a salvo from a lot of soldiers 
 hidden in the grass, who immediately afterwards 
 threw away their guns and made for the trees. 
 But the elephants were so bewildered by the 
 smoke and hot pursuit, that they kept on until 
 they thought it time to turn and charge, which 
 they did, but took nothing by their motion, our 
 elephants standing like rocks, while the others 
 were belabourino- their sides and backs with their
 
 A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE. 47 
 
 trunks. Finding- there was no help for it, they 
 tried to bolt ; but that was not so easy, each of 
 them, in the meantime, having had two nooses 
 thrown i-ound their necks, which four elephants 
 were all pulling different ways. They were two 
 mothers with two little ones, and the poor little 
 things got dreadfully jostled, and roared vehe- 
 mently upon being separated from their mothers. 
 I am the only Eurojoean that has ever attempted 
 to follow, and Sir Henry Lawrence is the only one 
 that has even seen anything of one from a dis- 
 tance, and the Jung says that was nothing to 
 this. He would call me a brick if he had a Ne- 
 paulese'word for it. You need not be afraid of 
 my going out again ; there is not the slightest 
 chance of it, as we leave the elejDhant country the 
 first thing in the morning." 
 
 After this high point of excitement the narra- 
 tive drops to lower levels. At Khatmandhu, 
 when the travellers reached it at last, things were 
 not so well with the Jung as had been hoped, and 
 Laurence and his companion, though with much 
 reluctance, released him from a promise he had 
 made to allow them to explore the country — a 
 privilege never yet granted to any European, and 
 likely to do the Minister harm if he 23ermitted it. 
 " He finds his position here anything but satisfac-
 
 48 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 toiy ; the Durbar look suspiciously upon him, as 
 being a friend of England, an idea which many 
 little circumstances have tended to confirm ; so 
 the Jung's head is not likely to remain long on 
 his shoulders, notwithstanding the cool way he 
 orders everybody about, from the king down- 
 wards. This we remarked at Durbar yesterday, 
 when he had his most devoted followers close be- 
 hind his chair with double-barrelled rifles (loaded), 
 while the men he was afraid of were just in front 
 of him." The excitement of the journey was 
 thus cut short, as well as the young travellers' 
 hopes of exploring an altogether new country, 
 and having really something worth writing about. 
 Nothing remained for it, accordingly, but to push 
 on along the beaten ways, and join Lord Gros- 
 venor's party, which had been circling Laurence's 
 line of voyage for some time without ever coming 
 to an encounter. It is needless to follow him in 
 his detailed journeys, or even in the mixture of 
 diffidence and self-confidence with which he drives 
 up " with a carriage full of luggage " to the house 
 of a stranger to whom he has no tie except a 
 letter of introduction in his pocket, thinking it 
 " an unparalleled piece of impudence," yet con- 
 soled bv the thouofht that "it is the custom in 
 India " : no need to say that he is always re- 
 ceived with open arms.
 
 SELF-EXAMINATION. 49 
 
 There are, however, some bits of more serious 
 thought in these letters, and occasionally scraps 
 of self- analysis, called forth evidently by the 
 pious mother's questions anent her boy's spiritual 
 state. It is difficult, he says, to practise habits 
 of self-examination riding upon an elephant, 
 with a companion who is always talking or 
 singing within a few feet ; but it is otherwise 
 in a palkee, which " is certainly a dull means 
 of conveyance," but " forces one into one's self 
 more than an3^thing." The result of Laurence's 
 self-ponderings is, that he discerns his great 
 weakness to be " flexibility of conscience, joined 
 to a power of adapting myself to the society into 
 which I may happen to be thrown." 
 
 " It originated, I think, in a wish to be civil 
 to everybody, and a regard for people's feelings, 
 and has degenerated into a selfish habit of being- 
 agreeable to them, simply to suit my own con- 
 venience. I think I can be firm enough when I 
 have an object to gain, and have not even the 
 excuse of being so easily led as I used to think. 
 I am only led when it is to pay, which is a most 
 sordid motive — in feet, the more I see of my 
 own character, the more despicable it appears, a 
 being so deeply hypocritical that 1 can hardly 
 trust myself; hence arose a disinclination ever to 
 
 VOL. I. ' D
 
 50 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 speak about myself. How blind one is to one's 
 own interest not to see that, putting it on one's 
 own ground, it would pay much better to l)e 
 an upright God-fearing man than anything else ! 
 Fortunately religion is a thing that one cannot 
 acquire from such a motive, or 1 am sure I should 
 have done so before this." 
 
 No doubt that their son should make such a 
 confession, or any confession breathing of self-dis- 
 satisfaction, would be agreeable to the parents — 
 to the Judge, who had spoken naughty words 
 and been so sorry for them, and to the anxious 
 religious mother, always longing after his spiritual 
 advantage. But perhaps Laurence felt that he 
 had been a little hard upon himself. He ends by 
 hoping " there is no humbug in it. It is honest 
 as far as I know, but dont helieve in it iinj^Iicitly," 
 he says ; w^hile in another letter he shows himself 
 disposed to defend the "flexibility" of which he 
 had just accused his own character and conscience. 
 He is aware of " having Ferentcz's [an uncle] 
 knack of making myself agreeable," but thinks it 
 is to a great extent without any harm in it. 
 
 " If an old general likes to hear himself speak, 
 why should you not look interested, however 
 l)ored you may feel ? why should you not take
 
 ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN. 51 
 
 an interest in iDoor Mrs So-and-so, who has gone 
 wrong, or been beaten by her husband, if Mrs 
 General does ? I got a tiffin out of an old 
 couple at Benares simply in that way, and C. 
 says, ' Why, I never saw such a fellow as you, 
 Oliphant ; you are a favourite everywhere im- 
 mediately.' I do not give myself any credit for 
 it, mind ; on the contrary, nothing is easier, and 
 I inherit it from your side of the house evidently. 
 But the tendency I see to be bad in fact." 
 
 One may perhaps be inclined to wish that this 
 tendency, to be agreeable and sympathetic, and 
 to look interested even when you are bored, 
 were a little more general ; but it is curious to 
 find that a man, specially distinguished for tak- 
 ing his own independent way in life, and that a 
 most individual, not to say eccentric, one, should 
 have been alarmed by his own early inclination 
 to be all things to all men — a delightful faculty, 
 however, which he retained, in the midst of a 
 life more unfettered by other peoj^le's opinions or 
 by any conventional rule than almost any other 
 of his generation, to the very end. 
 
 There is nothing more charming in these 
 youthful letters than the cordial and genuine 
 response of this spoiled child to the affection 
 lavished upon him. His mother's advices are not
 
 52 BEGINNING LIFE. 
 
 only received well, but asked for with a sincerity 
 that cannot be doul^ted — a very unusual trait in 
 a young man of twenty-one ; and the chance 
 references to his father, still papa to the home- 
 loving young adventurer, are always delightful. 
 Had papa but been there, he and Lowry would 
 have waited for no escort, feared no harm, but 
 set off lightly on foot through the prohibited 
 Nepaul. There is no such travelling companion, 
 the young man says, as papa. The men of his 
 own aofe are as nice fellows as can be, whom he 
 delights to emulate in every bodily exercise, to win 
 a genial triumph over either in the elephant-hunt 
 or the new polka, making a friendship for life 
 even out of a ball-room rivalry ; but, after all, 
 there is nobody like his father for real com- 
 panionship. Nor is there anybody so acute as 
 the Judge in appreciation of character, — a power 
 of which so many people are destitute, but which 
 Lowry modestly concludes he has himself in- 
 herited, as he has inherited the knack of pleasing 
 people from his mother's side of the house. His 
 eagerness to get home, to have post-horses or- 
 dered for him on the Kandy road, to lose not 
 a moment in reaching his mother's side, shows 
 how little the adoration of that home had spoiled 
 him. Thus ended the young man's first essay 
 of independent life, — a sufficiently wild flight to
 
 END OF THE HOLIDAY. 53 
 
 be the first, and a most characteristic one. He 
 had been filling the position of private secretary 
 to his father since the return of the family from 
 Europe three years before, at, he somewhere says, 
 the exceedingly liberal salary of £400 a-year. 
 And it was on his savings that he accomplished 
 the rapid and brilliant rush through India which 
 was the beginning both of his life of adventure 
 and of his literary career.
 
 54 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE BAR THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 It was perhaps scarcely possible that after such a 
 taste of freedora, and of the social life for which 
 he was so admirably constituted, the young man 
 should settle down again at Ceylon to his irreg- 
 ular bar practice and existence of official routine. 
 He had already felt the difficulty of being called 
 upon to plead " before papa," which lessened his 
 sphere, and he was also aware that his knowledge 
 of law was imperfect for one who intended to 
 adopt that profession (which, besides, he hated). 
 Accordingly but a few months elapsed before his 
 mind was ffiially made up to quit Ceylon, and try 
 his fortune in the greater world. The time was 
 approaching at which Sir Anthony would be able 
 to resign his appointment, and retire from public 
 work, and it was decided that Lady Oliphant 
 should accompany her son home, en attendant the 
 ha23py period fixed for the Judge's retirement ; for
 
 VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. 
 
 it was evidently feit to be inexpedient that Lau- 
 rence should lose any more time in qualifying him- 
 self for the more serious work of life. Perhaps 
 some parental, or rather maternal, anxiety about 
 the health of the beloved boy had been alleged 
 to friends as a reason for this step, for I find a 
 letter to Sir Anthony from a friend in Gibraltar 
 who goes out to the steamer to greet the travel- 
 lers in passing, and who announces that " Lowry 
 looked anything but delicate. I should judge 
 him a great, stout, eleven-stone fellow, able to 
 give me a thoroughly good thrashing on an emer- 
 gency." Stout, in the sense which the word 
 generally bears, he never w^as, but well knit, 
 active, and muscular, with that promptitude of 
 eye and observation which are the most admirable 
 of additions to strength and courage. His own 
 letters to his father left behind in Ceylon are 
 admirable, full of playfulness and graphic descrip- 
 tion, a little more free and less serious than those 
 to his mother, dashed off with a flying pen, and 
 full at first of all the humours of the little sea- 
 society on board ship, which always lend them- 
 selves to the remarks of the social critic. The 
 mother and son arrived in England in the 
 end • of October 1851, finding the gloomy sea 
 in the Channel " easily recognisable from its 
 John Bull appearance," and already " luxuriat-
 
 56 THE BAR. 
 
 ing in English fog and damp." Although he 
 knew very little of his own country, London 
 was full of friends, and before he had been more 
 than a month or two in England, he had resumed 
 a hundred old friendships and made as many new 
 ones, among his father's old companions and the 
 men of his own generation. He decided to enter 
 at Lincoln's Inn, where various people assured 
 him he might be called to the Bar very speedily in 
 consideration of his j^revious studies and practical 
 experience in Ceylon. In those days it was not 
 a matter of strict examination as it is now, and 
 to have read for a year with a barrister was suffi- 
 cient qualification. Certainly Laurence, with his 
 social tastes and the habit of succeeding without 
 severe preliminary labour, was the last man in 
 the world for the ordeal of examinations, to which 
 probably he would not have submitted, and cer- 
 tainly would not have " crammed" for. There is 
 not much evidence indeed from first to last that 
 he was greatly in earnest about this study. " I 
 think," he says, " if I get up the two or three 
 books necessary for acquiring a proj^er knowledge 
 of mercantile law, including bills of exchange, 
 together with the law of evidence, pleading and 
 real property may take care of themselves." The 
 beginning of that other most curious but most 
 wonderful branch of legal study, which consists
 
 LETTERS TO HIS FATHEK. 57 
 
 of eating dinners, is however more amusing. He 
 describes it to his father in an early letter, so that 
 it is evident he had lost no time in entering upon 
 this severe portion of his education. 
 
 "London, Nov. 24, 185L 
 
 " I have eaten some stringy boiled beef at 
 Lincoln's Inn Hall in company with three 
 hundred others, not one soul of whom I had 
 ever seen before ; but I unhesitatingly talked 
 to my next neighbour, and soon, by dropping 
 in an unconcerned manner remarks upon a tiger 
 I knocked over here, and a man I defended 
 for murder there, talking learnedly about Ceylon 
 affairs, &c., &c., incited the curiosity of those 
 whose reserve would not otherwise have allowed 
 them to notice me, too much to let them remain 
 silent. Still I felt rather verdant on first enter- 
 ing, and was only saved from sitting down at the 
 table appropriated to barristers by hearing one 
 man remark he was not going to sit there, as So- 
 and-so was his senior ; so I concluded that if he 
 was Ms senior he was most certainly mine, and 
 choosing the youngest-looking man I could find, 
 I seated myself next him." 
 
 The mother and son began their life in England 
 in a cottage at East Sheen, lent to them by one
 
 58 THE BAR. 
 
 of their many friends, where they immediately 
 found themselves much at home among a number 
 of agreeable neighbours, including the family of 
 Sir Henry Taylor, the author of ' Philip van 
 Artevelde,' whom Laurence describes as the " idol 
 of the whole neighbourhood, made love to by the 
 entire female portion of the community." But a 
 young man with dinners to eat in Lincoln's Inn, 
 and many other engagements on hand, soon dis- 
 covered that to be so far out of town was incon- 
 venient, and indeed impossible. It is with great 
 gravity and conviction that he states his prefer- 
 ence for England, meaning London, a little later. 
 
 " The longer I stay in England, the more I see 
 how necessary a residence here is for a young 
 man, who is utterly unconscious of his own ignor- 
 ance in a colony, and comforts himself by knowing 
 as much as his neighbours, which is no very 
 difficult matter. It will require no common in- 
 ducement to make me ever return to Ceylon. 
 Life is not long enough to waste the best part 
 of it by living away from all the advantages 
 Avhich civilisation affords, to break up all the ties 
 one may have formed and which can never be 
 reunited, to be destitute as well of the means 
 of imj)rovement as of common information upon 
 everyday topics."
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 59 
 
 The record, however, does not long continue 
 In this high tone, and though Laurence always 
 retained a high opinion of the uses of education 
 obtained in the way of social intercourse, he falls 
 lightly into his natural style as his story flows 
 from one dinner-party and festive gathering to 
 another. The progress of the young man, as yet 
 wise enough to listen more than talk, with his 
 lively eyes wide open, and his mind weighing 
 every novelty and taking in every information, 
 is delightful to follow. On one occasion he says : 
 " The conversation, from the beginning of the 
 dinner to the end (there being sixteen or eighteen 
 people), was exclusively confined to speculations 
 upon the future Ministers and Lord Derby's 
 policy ; indeed I have heard so much discussion 
 upon politics in general, and the capacities of 
 various men in particular, that I'll trouble you 
 rather ! and the best thing Lord Derby can do 
 is to recommend the Queen to send for me if she 
 wants advice." 
 
 In s|)ring, as in duty bound, Laurence paid 
 his respects to her Majesty, whom he found him- 
 self so well qualified to advise. " I have had 
 the honour," he says, " of pressing my lips upon 
 the fingers of royalty. I went through the 
 ordeal with considerable fortitude, following Sir 
 George Pollock. I found nearly everybody was
 
 60 THE BAK. 
 
 in uniform ; the few who were in civil costume 
 looked like servants of the royal household. The 
 Queen looked me in the face much harder than 
 I expected, and I returned the gaze with such 
 a will that I forgot to kneel, ultimately nearly 
 going down on both knees, after which, finding 
 the backing-out process rather irksome, I fairly 
 turned tail and bolted." 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into the politics 
 which he touches so lightly ; nor had he as yet 
 any personal connection with them to justify 
 a plunge into that whirlpool of which the older 
 reader will remember the agitations. The period 
 is already too old for contemporary interest, too 
 recent for history. It was the end of a long- 
 period of peace ; so long, that notwithstanding 
 the convulsions of 1848 upon the Continent, 
 many optimists were still capable of holding the 
 opinion that the reign of war was over, and 
 that under no circumstances could tranquil Eng- 
 land bind on her disused armour or draw her 
 rusty sword again. The following note upon 
 the closing of the Great Exhibition of 1851 — the 
 first step in the new emulation of arts and crafts 
 and national intercourse, which was to supplant 
 and make warfare impossible, as was fondly sup- 
 posed — carries us back pleasantly to one of the 
 happier fancies of the time. The great fairy
 
 THE EXHIBITION BUILDING. 61 
 
 palace, as it was called, in Hyde Park, the 
 temple of glass and iron, which took the public 
 imagination by storm, was still standing, though 
 stripped of its riches, and there was a great 
 movement in favour of retaining it where it had 
 been planted. It is to be supposed that public 
 taste has improved since that time, for the 
 idea of such a construction permanently estab- 
 lished in the midst of the trees of Hyde Park 
 is calculated to produce a shuddering horror in 
 most minds nowadays; but that this was by 
 no means the sentiment of the time is very 
 clear. Laurence, indeed, \A^as no authorit}^ then 
 or ever from an art point of view ; but he 
 expressed a feeling Avhich was very strong 
 in the London of his dav when he pronounced 
 energetically for its preservation. Its aspect, he 
 thought, even when despoiled of all its previous 
 attractions, ought to be well noted before any 
 proposal was entertained for its removal. " The 
 miscellaneous crowd — ragged artisans out of work, 
 with Hyde Park dandies, Belgrave Square chil- 
 dren playing with those from St Giles', and an 
 orange - woman suckling her child next to a 
 gorgeous matron who looked like a duchess — 
 would be more influential than any number of 
 petitions. It is a mixture of romping, sedateness, 
 and quiet enjoyment."
 
 62 THE BAR. 
 
 The mixture of the grave and gay in these 
 delicrhtfiil letters cannot be better shown than 
 by the extracts that follow, which give at the 
 same time an admirable picture of all the min- 
 gled experiences and aspirations of the youth, 
 half- boy, half- man, at the outset of his life. 
 The first is all gaiety, the repetition evidently 
 of a familiar subject of banter between the genial 
 father and son. 
 
 Laurence complains, April 23, 1852 : — 
 
 ' ' I can't find a single lassie that looks the least 
 as if she would do for a wife, and the article seems 
 so rare that when it presents itself I shall feel 
 bound to snap it up at once for fear of losing 
 it for ever ; so beware of hearing unexpectedly 
 of a daughter-in-law. I have been industrious 
 enough to read law until half-past ten at Charles's 
 [Pollock's — now Baron Pollock] chambers one 
 night, but I should apply myself with much more 
 of a will if I was sure of gfettinof business after 
 being called. If I was to go to the Scotch bar, 
 and you were to be made sheriff of some county, 
 we might shake on very comfortably with a farm 
 to amuse you and a railway near." 
 
 A little later there follows a pleasant and 
 amusing account of the manner in which he
 
 LETTERS TO HIS FATHER. 63 
 
 spends a day, characteristically brought in by 
 way of showing the worthlessness of the excuse 
 of business which he has just given as his reason 
 for not having written to his father. " Tom," it 
 may be explained, was an old and much beloved 
 friend, Dr Clark, once surgeon in the 7 2d High- 
 landers, and throughout his life devoted to them, 
 ^\ho shared their rooms with Lady Oliphant and 
 her son. 
 
 "My day now is somewhat as follows: I am 
 up at half-past seven to imbue my mother with 
 Foster's sound sense, which I do until half-past 
 eiffht. At nine we breakfast — viz., Tom and I 
 — my mother maintaining, in spite of a severe 
 system of bullying kept up by Tom, her ground, 
 or rather her room, where she breakfasts. Tom 
 and I talk politics all breakfast-time, our different 
 views affording ample matter for discussion, the 
 idea of a Cobden and Bright Ministry always 
 driving him frantic. I am then in a proper trim 
 for the Debates, which I read while digesting, 
 and then start for chambers, picking up Paul 
 on the way, and talking about boat - building 
 and fast men all the way to chambers, when I 
 begin to read — now on bills of exchange, vary- 
 ing it with abstracting pleadings, for which, 
 being in the Marshalls' chambers, I am particu-
 
 64 THE BAR. 
 
 larly handy. At half-past one I go into Groom's 
 and have ' coffee, brown bread and butter/ in a 
 loud nasal twang. Then say, ' "Punch" after you, 
 sir,' to any man who has got that or any other 
 paper I may want, pay fivepence, and go back 
 to chambers. Walk home with Charles at 
 half-past four discussing law, theology, or poli- 
 tics. Then pay a visit or two, now that the 
 evenings are long, and then most probably home 
 to dress and dine out, and go to a party after- 
 wards, or Royal Institution lectures, or debating 
 society, or o]3era ' according,' Now, I might write 
 to you instead of reading Foster or the Debates, 
 or paying visits ; so, as I said, want of time is no 
 excuse." 
 
 The Foster above referred to is John Foster the 
 essavist, a Nonconformist writer of considerable 
 ability, whose high reputation has suffered some 
 diminution in the course of time. 
 
 The political sentiments of a young man brought 
 up as Laurence Oliphant had been were naturally 
 somewhat vague when, fresh from his little colonial 
 world, he suddenly plunged into London ; and his 
 first exposition of his views, as made to his father, 
 are more sentimental than substantial. 
 
 "I have become a friend of the people, think
 
 WORK IN THE SLUMS. 65 
 
 that if they are only trusted they will show 
 themselves worthy of the confidence reposed, that 
 nobody has a right to iDully them or pull the 
 Crystal Palace down if they wish it to stay up, 
 and that education and kindness, so far from 
 making Chartists, would make loyal subjects." 
 
 This sympathetic feeling developed in his youth- 
 ful breast in attempts to help and serve those 
 lowest classes in London, who cal^ forth so many 
 enthusiasms and generous efforts, with so little 
 apparent result. His benevolent work began 
 by an expedition made into the slums of West- 
 minster in company with Lady Troubridge and 
 a missionary. 
 
 " Not altogether pleasant," he says, " address- 
 ing a group of thieves in Old Pye Street. Lady 
 T. seemed to think it quite natural, so I could 
 not well help myself, and insinuated to the least 
 brutal-looking of them that a meeting was going 
 to be held in the next street which they might 
 find interesting, upon which he laughed and 
 asked ' Jim ' if he heard that ; upon which Jim 
 said that he did, and that he had other meetings 
 to attend rather more to his taste than that, 
 he'd be sworn to, ' not reflect in' noways on you, 
 sir.' Whereupon, after a little chaffing among 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 THE BAR. 
 
 themselves, they decided it warn't the sort of 
 thing that would suit them, 'no offence to you, 
 ye know, sir ' ; and one man did me the honour 
 to say that he'd no doubt I meant well. So I 
 went unsuccessfully to the meeting, where I found 
 congregated fifty or sixty fellows who had come 
 in from curiosity, none of whom, to all appear- 
 ance, had ever been in a church in their lives, 
 and who either stared vacantly or chaffed and 
 made jokes, while here and there a little spar- 
 rinof-match went on." 
 
 This first attempt, in which the lively youth 
 found perhaps more amusement than was con- 
 sistent wath the desperate character of the en- 
 terprise, would not seem to have been very suc- 
 cessful. The service, as he reports it, w^as con- 
 ducted with difficulty. A hymn was sung, rather 
 to the amazement of the roughs, and the small 
 congregation was addressed by the missionaries ; 
 but as this was done not " very judiciously, they 
 soon got tired." 
 
 " Some boys began to fight, and had to be 
 lugged out by their legs and arms, creating a 
 great sensation. Some of the men seemed at- 
 tentive, however, while others made jokes, and 
 the boys who had been turned out began throw-
 
 THE PKOGEESS OF THE LAW. G7 
 
 Ing stones against the windows ; so that by the 
 time we got to the next hymn there was a con- 
 siderable row, which increased as we began it, 
 as everybody began to sing at tlie top of their 
 voices a variety of airs, amid occasional bursts 
 of laiiof-hter. When service was over, some 
 promised to come back, while others went away 
 amused ; but all through there was no absolute 
 incivility shown, which, considering the men, was 
 a great deal to say." 
 
 He had scarcely thus got himself in train, 
 however, laying out his work, his gaieties, and 
 his attemjDts at missionary exertion in the way 
 specially favoured at the time, Avhen weariness 
 stole upon him, and dissatisfaction. He dis- 
 covered that the constant dissipation of a London 
 season is absolutely incompatible with any suf- 
 ficient amount of legal or any other work, 
 " Gallops in the Park," he says, " when too fre- 
 quent, rather prevent the proper progress of 
 the law " ; and his many other engagements and 
 interests could scarcely fail to bear the same 
 tendency. The length of time required for the 
 training necessary for the English Bar also began 
 to discourage him, and the hope of more ready 
 admittance and better prospects in the North 
 seemed to afibrd an attractive alternative. He
 
 68 THE BAR. 
 
 thus announces his changed mtention in this 
 respect : — 
 
 " London, June 7, 1852. 
 
 " Thinking it nonsense not looking for myself 
 into the prospects of the Scotch Bar, and as it 
 was impossible to do so satisfactorily without 
 going there, I took a run up in the steamer 
 with Aunt Sophy, who happened to be making 
 the move at the time, and remained just thirty- 
 three hours with Anthony Murray, which I 
 employed looking over the courts and into 
 the faces of the barristers, and thought that 
 they did not express the brieflessness of Eng- 
 lish lawyers — a suspicion that was confirmed 
 upon my conferring with Robert Oliphant, who 
 said the Scotch Bar never afforded such pros- 
 pects of advancement as at this moment. 
 Anthony Murray said the same, and the result 
 was that I determined to come to the Scotch Bar 
 as speedily as possible — to effect which a Civil 
 Law examination is required ; and as attendance 
 of classes is not necessary, I am at this moment 
 cramming Justinian with a view to passing on 
 the 3d of next month, as they said that though 
 a year's study was the usual thing, if I chose 
 to stand the trial and could pass it, they did 
 not care for anything else. I have exactly one 
 month to prepare ; but it is worth making the
 
 THE SCOTCH BAR. 69 
 
 spurt, as it will be such a saving of time. 
 Exactly one year hence I shall pass, I hope, in 
 Scots Law, and be a practising advocate in 
 Edinburgh long before my terms at this hope- 
 less Bar will be completed. The prizes there 
 do not seem so far out of one's reach, and I 
 have every intention of going in for everything 
 — which I could never screw up my courage to 
 do here." 
 
 He was, however, at the same time fully re- 
 solved to keep up his terms at the English Bar 
 in spite of his Scotch practice, and retain the 
 valuable connections he had formed there. 
 
 In the meantime the little book, chiefly com- 
 posed of extracts from his diary, about Nepaul, 
 had been put together and prepared for the 
 press — though nothing is said about it in the 
 letters until its appearance is recorded. The book 
 was ready in the early spring of 1852, and con- 
 fided to "Uncle Tom" for revision. This was Mr 
 Thomas Oliphant, the youngest brother of Sir 
 Anthony, well known in connection with music, 
 and the author of some popular songs. There is 
 no information as to this gentleman's literary 
 gifts ; but in those days no one was aware, him- 
 self least of all, that young Laurence was to be 
 one of the most popular writers of his time,
 
 70 THE BAE. 
 
 and his anxious mother thought it a great 
 matter that the boy's book should be looked 
 over and licked into shape by a more experienced 
 hand. " I have handed over your manuscript 
 to Mr Murray," says the uncle, " after having 
 carefully gone through it and made such altera- 
 tions as will in many cases cause it to read 
 better. The mere unpremeditated language of 
 a diary won't do for appearing in print. It 
 gives a flippant character to the style of the 
 narrative, and is aj)t to weary the reader. With 
 such further alterations as I have no doubt Mr 
 Murray's reader will think it necessary to make, 
 the book will be very interesting, and likely to 
 do you credit." " I send you the above," writes 
 Lady Oliphant to her husband in great satis- 
 faction, " hoping it will please you to see your 
 brother's opinion of Lowry's book." Whether 
 Lowry himself was equally pleased with the 
 prospect of being subjected to the alterations of 
 "Mr Murray's reader " does not appear; but he 
 shows no such vanity about his first appearance 
 in print as is general with young authors — re- 
 garding it, so far as can be seen, from a most 
 business - like and practical point of view. He 
 sent out to his father, apparently for the use of 
 Ceylon, fifty copies, and his report of his first 
 venture is made in the most moderate terms, and
 
 HIS FIRST BOOK. 71 
 
 without any of the usual excitement of young 
 authorship. 
 
 " I shall send my book by the Queen of the 
 South," he says. " Two thousand copies have 
 already (ten days) been sold out of the three 
 thousand which formed the first edition, and 
 I have had long and favourable notices in 
 the ' Athenaeum,' ' Economist,' ' Examiner,' and 
 ' Literary Gazette,' in which papers look (date 
 about last week in May). It seems to give very 
 general satisfaction, and I hope to have another 
 edition out in a month or two." 
 
 This is all that the young writer says about 
 his first performance. It was published in a 
 cheap form, and brought him, I believe, very 
 little profit, though some praise. 
 
 In the middle of the summer of 1852 he had 
 taken up his quarters in Edinburgh, and was in 
 full progress of study and equally high spirits, 
 "cramminp-" for the examination, which was to 
 take place on the 3d of the ensuing month, with 
 great hopes of success. His preliminary steps are 
 amusing. 
 
 " I have been introduced to all my examiners, 
 and have buttered them properly, and they look 
 good-natured enough. Robert Oliphant has been 
 overwhelming me with kindness — introducing 
 me right and left, propitiating my examiners,
 
 72 THE BAR. 
 
 and puffing me splendidly as a colonial lawyer, 
 a young author, and altogether an interesting 
 young personage, that it would be folly to pluck 
 for the want of a little smattering of Latin." 
 
 His future companions are described with simi- 
 lar light-hearted satisfaction. 
 
 " The more I see of this Bar, the more I prefer 
 it to England — it is so much more snug and 
 sociable ; and though there is a considerable 
 sprinkling of snobs, yet there are some gentle- 
 men, and they shine out all the more conspicu- 
 ously, and indeed get more business on that 
 account. It is evidently the correct thing to 
 be a high Tory here, so remember I won't pledge 
 myself to any opinions." 
 
 The next event in his life was the success of his 
 Civil Law examination. 
 
 " The examiners were evidently in a much 
 greater fright of puzzling themselves than any- 
 thing else, and in the Civil Law they skimmed 
 the surface in very safe questions : decidedly 
 the most trying part was the walking in before 
 seven great fellows sitting round a table in 
 solemn wigs. However, they shook hands with 
 me with great cordiality, welcoming me among 
 them and 2:>assing me unanimously, which was 
 nothing more than they ought to have done, see- 
 ing I never made a mistake. The whole thing
 
 EDINBURGH SOCIETY. 73 
 
 did not last half an hour, and I sent a message 
 down to my mother by electric telegraph, which 
 reached her in half an hour more." 
 
 The opinion he had formed of Edinburgh 
 society in those days does not seem to have been 
 a high one, but yet he managed to console him- 
 self in many ways. 
 
 "I think Edinburgh is such a beautiful town 
 that I am fully compensated for its dulness 
 by its romance, and shall have so many friends 
 near that I can always run over to Keir, Blair 
 Drummond, Abercairney, or Ochtertyre — from all 
 which places I have received invitations — to say 
 nothing of Condie, and Freeland, only two hours 
 from Edinburgh. I think it rather an advantage 
 that Edinburgh offers no attraction in the way 
 of society. Notwithstanding this, I find myself 
 dining out every night, the last place being with 
 old Colonel Phillpott and family. Curiously 
 enough, I met at the station, all in the same 
 carriage, Algernon Egerton, Campbell of Monzie, 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and Hawkins, an 
 Indian judge, all of whom I had known, and none 
 of whom hardly knew one another. . . . Cam^obell 
 of Monzie, worn out with his week's canvassing, 
 was going for the Sunday to Monzie, and took 
 advantage of his audience to explain his principles.
 
 74 THE BAE. 
 
 which he did as if he were a Free Kirk minister, 
 thumping the side of the carriage cushion when 
 he grew vehement in his advocacy of Protestant 
 doctrines, and hy his explanations of the ' truth 
 as it is in Jesus ' seeking to impress upon us the 
 principles as they were in Monzie. He has a 
 smart, amusing way of answering, and told us a 
 story of having canvassed a man who seemed 
 adverse to give him his vote, and was in fact 
 rather grumpy and gruff in his refusal to do so, 
 whereupon Campbell said, ' But if you don't vote 
 for me, who will you vote for ? ' whereupon the 
 man said he would sooner vote for the devil ; on 
 which Campbell answered, ' Well, if your friend 
 should not come forward, perhaps you will give 
 me your vote. 
 
 > >j 
 
 In another letter he describes his experiences 
 in the office of his relation Mr Kobert Oliphant, 
 a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, and gives 
 an account of his day's work, which has a great 
 air of dilio-ence : — 
 
 & 
 
 " Everybody overwhelms me with kindness, 
 and I am in great luck to be taken into Robert 
 Oliphant's office on the free-and-easy terms I am ; 
 for I am not set down to copy useless papers, but 
 simply to learn the routine. The clerks take a
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 75 
 
 great interest in me, and explain the forms, &c. 
 I sfo to the Parhament House at nine with the 
 P. H. clerk, and see what is going on, listen to 
 cases I have previously read in the ofBce, and 
 talk to the various counsel, most of whom I know 
 now. Moreover, it is useful to be known and 
 seen often about those purlieus. After an hour 
 or two there I come down to the office, where I 
 remain till four, when I go and attend the Con- 
 veyancing class of Professor Menzies. I don't 
 think lectures do one much good. I can get up 
 more in a given time by reading ; so I have given 
 up the Scots Law. . . . There are really no 
 clever men at the Bar now coming on, but the 
 juniors are a remarkably nice set of fellows. The 
 Lord Advocate, Inglis, is a very sharp chap and a 
 good speaker, and out and out the cleverest man 
 at the bar. So that there is a great opening, and 
 Robert Oliphant j^romises he will give me business 
 as soon as I am called, so that it will be my own 
 fault if I do not get on. Everything seems much 
 simpler than in England, and business is carried 
 on in a nice familiar style, of which the following 
 dialogue is a sort of sample : — 
 
 " Mr Mackenzie, loq. — There is a case just 
 precisely similar to this one, my lord, I might 
 say upon a' fours with it, which ye'll find in 
 Dunlop, but I'll no' trouble ye with it i' the
 
 76 THE BAR. 
 
 1100. . . . Your lordship '11 maybe no' sit to- 
 morrow ? 
 
 " Lord Rohertson. — And why not, Mr Mac- 
 kenzie ? I think I'm as well sittin' here as any- 
 where else ? 
 
 " Mr Mac. — I was thinking, it being a partic- 
 ular occasion, out of respect for his Grace's 
 interment 
 
 " Lord Boh. — I'm no' wanting in respec' for the 
 Duke ; but I'd sooner be here than at the funeral, 
 and I'll just sit as usual." 
 
 Many readers wiU remember the jovial and 
 
 jocular judge, the 
 
 " Lord Peter, 
 Who feared not God nor man nor metre," 
 
 who is the hero of this story, — one of the last 
 Lords of Session by whom " braid Scots " was 
 still occasionally spoken. 
 
 Laurence and his mother, who had accompanied 
 him, occupied during their residence in Edinburgh 
 at this time rooms in North Castle Street, a 
 locality rendered classical by the long dwelling in 
 it of Sir Walter Scott. Sir Anthony Oliphant 
 had all a Scotsman's admiration and half-senti- 
 mental longing for Edinburgh as a residence, 
 and his son's exhortation, " Do come home," had 
 doubtless all the more force as coming from that
 
 HIS "blackguards" IX WESTMINSTER. 77 
 
 romantic and beloved city. " We should all be 
 much more comfortable," the young man adds ; 
 " and," recurring to the old joke, " I could begin 
 to look out for a wife under your auspices. I 
 don't see any likelihood of finding one for myself" 
 Shortly after, however, we find him again in 
 London, whither he went periodically to " eat his 
 terms," and where he recurs to the " black- 
 guards," his proteges in Westminster. The move- 
 ment on behalf of reformed or reformable thieves 
 was then in an acces of energy, taken up vigor- 
 ously under the patronage of Lord Shaftesbury, 
 with much accompaniment of midnight meetings, 
 and a considerable amount of excitement. Among 
 other incitements to a life of industry, a number 
 of these men had been set to cutting wood for 
 firewood, and Laurence was much concerned to 
 prove that in patronising this effort the public 
 in general was not incurring the reproach of 
 taking bread out of honest people's mouths. 
 
 " If we make a man who has hitherto been dis- 
 honest, honest, instead of being a burden to the 
 State, he is a supporter of it, and a cheaper article 
 in that ca^Dacity in the long-run, though it may 
 cost something to make him honest. That strange 
 obliquity of moral vision which makes a large 
 portion of the community Tories, prevents them
 
 78 THE BAR. 
 
 from apprehending this. The problem is evidently 
 ' How is a reformatory not a premium on vice ? ' 
 We are now experimentally solving it. It seems 
 to me that there should be some place where, 
 when a man is bankrupt in character, he might 
 go and get whitewashed — some probation through 
 which when he passes he should come out regis- 
 tered A 1 in point of respectability. At present 
 if a man sinks below a certain level in this 
 country, unless some one takes him by the hand, 
 no individual efforts on his part will raise him 
 above it." 
 
 One of the meetings which followed the in- 
 dustrial experiment is described as follows : " The 
 whole thing was very striking ; and I felt, while 
 a whole room full of the worst characters in 
 London were singing ' God save the Queen ' or 
 ' I will arise,' that I ought to have wept, and 
 that you certainly would have. It is so difficult 
 to realise the depravity of the men who are so 
 innocently employed, and in whose countenances 
 you can detect the hard lines which a vicious life 
 has imprinted, but which are raj^idly becoming- 
 softened by their voluntary subjection to a life of 
 restraint and honest industr3^ It is the most 
 interesting thing I have ever seen." 
 
 In the August of 1852 Laurence made use of
 
 A VACATION RAMBLE. 79 
 
 his first vacation in a Continental tour most 
 happily and fortunately directed, at first designed 
 as a mere expedition in pursuit of sport, but turn- 
 ing afterwards to much more important issues. 
 His companion was Mr Oswald Smith, one of the 
 great banking family of Smith, Payne, & Smith, 
 between whom and the Oliphants there was an 
 old family connection, which had introduced Lau- 
 rence to the house of a member of the firm, on 
 his first arrival in England. The youth who thus 
 accomjDanied him in one of his earliest adventures, 
 contributed, nearly half a century after, a brief 
 but interesting memoir of his lifelong friend to 
 one of the Magazines on Laurence's death' — and 
 naturally this boyish expedition occupies a large 
 place in it. Mr Smith is perhaps unduly con- 
 temptuous of the gifts as a sportsman of one who 
 had ranged the jungles of Ceylon in his boyhood, 
 and hunted elephants with Jung Bahadour ; but 
 that the young man, already familiar with such 
 exploits, should look for a fresh and unhackneyed 
 field, something less tame than a moor in Scot- 
 land or the banks of a Norwecdan fiord, was natural 
 enough ; and he was also in search of " something 
 to write about " — a very legitimate object, if seldom 
 so honestly avowed. " The only part of Europe 
 within reach fulfilling the required condition," 
 Laurence himself says in the ' Episodes,' " seemed
 
 80 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 to me the Russian Laj)land : for I heard from an 
 Archanofel merchant that the Kem and other 
 rivers in that region swarmed with guileless 
 salmon who had never been offered a fly, and 
 that it would be easy to cross to Spitzbergen to 
 get a shot at some white bears." 
 
 As it turned out, this chance project proved of 
 the very highest importance in the young adven- 
 turer's life, and set him well afloat upon the career 
 of public service, tempered with personal fancy, in 
 which so many years were to be passed. When 
 the two young men reached St Petersburg they 
 were allowed to go no farther in their equipment 
 as sportsmen — though whether by actual prohibi- 
 tion, or because of the excessive duty demanded 
 on their fishing-gear and equipments, is not quite 
 clear. Mr Smith adds that they were too late 
 in the year to go north with any chance of sport. 
 " It may give some idea," he says, " of Oliphant's 
 sanguine and imaginative character, to record 
 that his plan for future proceedings was to dis- 
 embark on the right bank of the Volga at Tsait- 
 sin, not far from Astracan, and ride over the Don 
 Cossack steppe, four hundred miles, to Taganrog, 
 on the Azof Sea." They did do something like 
 this, driving in rude native carriages, and finally 
 reached the Crimea, then an unknown and un- 
 explored peninsula, and the mysterious city of
 
 SOMETHING TO \yRITE ABOUT. 81 
 
 Sebastopol, of which many legends, but no de- 
 finite and clear information, had reached the 
 world. It was known that Russia was there 
 establishing- an arsenal and headquarters of war, 
 from which she would be able to descend upon 
 Turkey and overawe Europe ; that the entry 
 was forbidden to strangers, and any attempt to 
 make acquaintance with the place dangerous ; 
 — all excellent reasons why the young travellers 
 should push their way thither, which they did 
 after all without much difficulty. Thus the 
 " something to write about " was most success- 
 fully attained. 
 
 We find a full account of this journey in the 
 letters to Lady Oliphant, beginning with the very 
 first steps from home. At Berlin they paused for 
 a day or two, and Laurence takes the opportunity 
 to express his satisfaction with his travelling com- 
 panion, in a charming and playful note full of boyish 
 appreciation and fun. "It is a great thing having 
 with one so handsome a young Engliinder, as all 
 the pretty girls look our way, and I am humble 
 enough to be quite content with the side-glances 
 I thus get, he being quite unconscious of his own 
 attractions." It may be added that Laurence was 
 by no means unqualified " to please a damsel's eye " 
 in his own person, and was almost certain to be, 
 under any circumstances, the most entertaining 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 and attractive person in his neighbourhood wher- 
 ever he was. 
 
 " The first thing that astonishes you as you 
 land are the droskies and their drivers. The former 
 are only capable generally of holding one person 
 besides the driver, behind whom the passenger 
 sits cross-legged, somewhat in that way [a sketch 
 is here given], if you can understand this illus- 
 tration. The latter are rigged up in caps like 
 this [with another sketch], and long dressing- 
 gowns, and longer red beards, and always give 
 you the benefit of their flavour as you sit behind 
 them. The chief difliculty, however, consists in 
 maintaining your seat over the pavement, which 
 is execrable. In fact, the only things that are 
 old in the town are the droskies and the pave- 
 ment — everything else wears an unpleasantly new 
 and fresh appearance ; and the builders of the 
 city have fallen into the mistake, though it is one 
 on the right side, of leaving the sj^aces in front 
 of the public buildings immensely large, so that 
 the stray man or drosky which you see wander- 
 ing about them gives one the impression of the 
 city only being half full. Still I have never seen 
 anything to equal the coup cVceil from the bridge, 
 facing the Izak Chin-ch and the Winter Palace, 
 certainly the finest of royal residences in Europe.
 
 LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER. 83 
 
 The Neva is as broad as the Thames, and beauti- 
 fully clear, and the quays are handsome and sub- 
 stantial : however, Murray's handbook describes 
 the town much better than I can, and unless we 
 have some adventures up country, I shall have 
 nothing- to write about." 
 
 In spite of this fear, he manages as usual to 
 give a very picturesque account of their evening 
 visit to the Mineral Waters, whither they w^ent in 
 a steamer : — 
 
 " Shooting through bridges, the arches of 
 which were so small that you could easily touch 
 the key- stone as you stood on deck, or, lean- 
 ing over either side, touch the stone buttresses : 
 it required the most beautiful steering ; I don't 
 think there was six inches to spare in any 
 direction. Our boat-load consisted of a crowd 
 going up to the Mineral Waters, a place of even- 
 ing resort during the summer months, and which 
 was as beautifully got up as Vauxhall. However, 
 it was too like it to be interesting : the display 
 of fireworks at the end was grand enough. We 
 went to see a ceremony in the Greek Church the 
 other night, and the prostrations beat those of 
 the most devout and enthusiastic of Mussulmans. 
 It was a very picturesque sight to see the men
 
 84 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 tossing their long hair and beards about as they 
 flung their heads up and down." 
 
 The next day, after driving to a place called 
 Gorilla, where they slept, they " mounted horses 
 which had been sent out there for us, and rode 
 eight miles to Krasnoe-Selo plain, where the 
 Emperor was to manoeuvre 80,000 men, a grand 
 sham fight with the whole Russian army, to close 
 the summer inspections." 
 
 " The whole way to the ^^lains the white tents 
 of the camp extended, and when we reached a 
 rising ground we had a magnificent view. On 
 a knoll near us was the Emjieror with a bril- 
 liant stafi*, which any Englishman in uniform 
 might join unasked : unfortunately we were 
 obliged to keep a respectful distance, but saw 
 none the worse on that account. 40,000 men 
 under Sidigri advanced, and after some hard 
 cannonading with 40,000 under the Emperor, and 
 a great deal of dashing about of cavalry and 
 horse-artillery, drove the opposite hosts behind 
 some further trenches. Altogether I never had 
 so good an idea of a battle before. Sometimes 
 the whole mass was moving at once, and the 
 position in which we were enabled us to see 
 everything perfectly. The most beautiful corps
 
 A SYSTEM OF SELF-EDUCATION. 85 
 
 were the Circassian hoi'se, covered with armour, 
 and the Cossacks, with their long beards and spears 
 dashing in all directions. We were nearly carried 
 away by a charge of hussars, and only escaped by 
 sheltering ourselves behind a friendly house." 
 
 On the following day Laurence announced the 
 definite change of their plans, about which they 
 had been uncertain ; but " the custom-house has 
 most kindly helped us out of our dilemma by 
 deliberately and coolly charging us £15 duty on 
 our rods and guns, which our prudence at once 
 prevented our thinking of paying." This, how- 
 ever, he thinks he can avoid, according to the 
 advice of the Financial Minister, by taking them 
 to Finland, a country which he has determined 
 to visit, and which is not yet under the Russian 
 custom laws. " So that we are not altogether 
 sold ; but meantime, as there is no such hurry 
 now that we have given up the shores of the 
 White Sea, we are first going to take a run 
 down to the grand fair of Nijni Novgorod, and 
 spending a couple of days en retoicr at Moscow." 
 He regards this extra expenditure as justifiable, 
 as he looks upon his journey as " a distinct system 
 of self-education." 
 
 Thoutrh I must own that I have not been
 
 8G THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 able to find out much that is really inter- 
 esting in a country and government which 1 
 have always looked upon as likely to afford 
 more information than any other in Europe, 
 further than the palpable hindrance which the 
 policy of the Government offers to any thing- 
 like advancement or civilisation where it is most 
 needed. I don't think we have anything to fear 
 from Kussia : its gigantic proportions render it 
 so unwieldy, and the people are so barbarous, 
 that we shall always have the same advan- 
 tages which our enlightenment gives us over 
 the Eastern nations. I look upon it as little 
 better than China : the only difference is that 
 usually barbarous nations hold civilised nations 
 ill respect, which, to judge from the way they 
 bully you in the custom-house, Kussia does not." 
 
 The next letter is dated from Moscow, "this 
 most charming of cities." 
 
 " If ever there was a town that would bear to 
 be written about it is this, decidedly ranking with 
 Khatmandhu or Cairo in general novelty, while it 
 is far before either in its particular objects of 
 interest. . . . The Kremlin itself is the most 
 unique and picturesque assemblage of churches 
 and ^^i-i-hices of ancient and modern art, and of
 
 NIJNI NOVGOROD. 87 
 
 Eastern and Western architecture, that could be 
 found anywhere collected in so small a compass, 
 and so happily grouped together. The gilded 
 domes and cupolas might be in the Punjaub, 
 while the palace which they adjoin might be in 
 Paris. The church of St Basil is perfectly unlike 
 anything old or new, occidental or oriental, and 
 forms a most strikino- foreo-round to one of the 
 views of the Kremlin, which I hope some day to 
 show you." 
 
 After this a forty-eight hours' diligence journey 
 brought the two friends to Nijni Novgorod, where 
 the great fair was going on. 
 
 "Your letter reached me in the shop of Aaron, 
 a Jew from Bukharia, who was regaling us ^^'ith 
 almonds, dried peas, and raisins in his warehouse 
 in the great fair, and displaying the wonders that 
 come from that part of the world. Indeed it would 
 be difficult to think of a part of the world that did 
 not contribute something to this Russian empo- 
 rium, and I have no doubt that before I have 
 done exploring I shall find a coir - mat and 
 perhaps a Moorman to sell it me. ... I was 
 rather disappointed in seeing no Chinese, and, in 
 fact, not quite as great a variety of costume as I 
 expected ; but the variety of goods disposed for
 
 88 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 sale compensates in a great measure for this, and 
 though not so striking at first, is as satisfactory 
 when one comes to examine the shops and over- 
 haul their contents." 
 
 By some mistake of the steamboat company's 
 agfent, Laurence and Smith were detained at 
 Nijni Novgorod two days later than they ex- 
 pected, and consequently outstayed the first 
 freshness of interest. In his next letter he 
 complains — 
 
 "It is a great bore, when one wants to do as 
 much as possible in a given time, to be kept in 
 a place after you have seen as much as you 
 want of it. Nor can I make as good use of 
 my time as I might. I am very much left to 
 myself to pick up my information as I best can, 
 and that is only by my eyes, since the merchants 
 are too busy to attend to one, and too stupid to 
 give any valuable information upon matters that 
 from their vocation they ought to know some- 
 thing of. To-day, therefore, having seen every 
 part of the fair, we took to drawing, and found 
 some lovely views. The old town overhangs the 
 Volga most picturesquely, and from the cliffs an 
 extensive view is obtained in all directions, and 
 a very interesting one over the flat on which the
 
 WORTH A JOURNEY FROM ENGLAND. 89 
 
 fair is situated, quite unlike anything I ever saw 
 before. The view was too difficult and compli- 
 cated for me to attempt : the two rivers Oka 
 and Volga looked alive with human beings, as 
 well as the peninsula on which 150,000 people 
 are hived like bees. ... I would not have missed 
 this fair on any account, though I would not 
 advise everybody to make the journey from 
 Moscow exjjres — whereas I should almost say 
 my father would consider it worth a journey from 
 England alone." 
 
 He goes on : "I must tell you what we pro- 
 pose doing, instead of hovering in a desultory 
 way about the fair, having already occupied half 
 the day in writing a description of it, which 
 differs so much from that given in Murray's 
 handbook that I don't think he will approve it 
 at all. First, then, there being two companies 
 of steamers lately started on the river for the 
 purjDose of towing barges up and down it, and 
 not of carrying passengers we are going to take 
 advantage of them, but must submit to the in- 
 convenience of going slowly, and of starting on 
 no fixed day, but when the barges are ready. 
 Still, as the accommodation is most comfortable, 
 and as nobody that I know except the inhabit- 
 ants of this part of the world has been down 
 the Volga, we are going to try it, hoping that
 
 90 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 it may pay in the way of interest. The river 
 being low, we shall not go very fast, and shall 
 probably not get to Zaritzen, our point of de- 
 barkation, under ten or twelve days, during 
 which time we must amuse ourselves as best we 
 can. I regret that I did not buy some solid 
 books at Moscow, l^ut I did not then anticipate 
 wanting one. You will see in the map that 
 where the Volga takes its last bend towards the 
 CasjDian, the Don approaches within fifty or 
 sixty miles of it, and trends away to the Sea 
 of Azof. Here we cross, and embarking in a 
 boat, glide down this river, if we find it practic- 
 able and convenient (there being no steamer) to 
 Taganrog. At any rate, there is a post-road if 
 we prefer it. Then a steamer will take us on 
 to Kertch, from which place we ride through the 
 Crimea to Sevastopol, and then via Odessa to 
 Vienna and home. . . . The Crimea, at any rate, 
 I know to be well worth seeino-. We should 
 have liked Astrakhan and the Caspian, and 
 across via Tiflis, but have no time ; and Astra- 
 khan is a mere Russian town, not half so well 
 worth seeino- as one would imayine from its 
 name." 
 
 The next letter is written on the Volga, which, 
 in his usual enthusiastic way, he describes as
 
 ON THE VOLGA. 91 
 
 "this most magnificent of rivers." The account 
 of their hfe on board the steamer is given at 
 length : they Avere the only passengers. 
 
 " We have exclusive possession of the after- 
 part of a ship, having a sumptuous cabin, a nice 
 dining-room on deck, and a good storeroom for our 
 necessaries. It was rather an interestinsf matter 
 providing for the start ; for not having a servant, 
 we w^ere obliged to make our purchases ourselves, 
 and rushed about buying bread and meat and 
 groceries, ultimately attaining a considerable 
 proficiency in making bargains. We fortunately 
 have the use of the captain's cook, but do every- 
 thing else ourselves, and are expert in laying the 
 table, giving out the necessary stores, and econo- 
 mising our small means. Hardly anything is to 
 be procured at the villages on the banks. This 
 morning we made a tour of inspection of our 
 larder, and found thirty out of fifty hard-boiled 
 eggs had been broken and Avere bad, and the 
 ham had been put in a damp place and got 
 mouldy : however, we hope to make something 
 of it ; but the eggs, alas ! are gone for ever. The 
 experience which we have gained in sundry do- 
 mestic matters, however, will be useful to us 
 hereafter, if we marry unfortunately — as my 
 father did."
 
 92 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 This latter little j^iece of espieglerie, as well 
 as the continued and delightful references to 
 his father, are very characteristic of the terms on 
 which the young man stood wdth both his ador- 
 ing parents. 
 
 After complaining that the speed of the voyage 
 down the Volga w^as not quite regular, as the 
 barfifes sometimes drew more water than the 
 steamers and ran aground, when " we lug away 
 for a considerable time to get them off," he goes 
 on : — 
 
 " The river is so low that we shall take 
 longer to get to Zaritzen than I anticipated, 
 and I may as well warn you in time not to 
 expect me home before the 20th October. I 
 shall be anxious to hear at Odessa what news 
 from Ceylon. Our voyage down the Don I look 
 forward to with great pleasure. The whole tour 
 will be a novel one, and I hope it may furnish 
 sufficient incidents and matter to be interesting 
 in some shape or other to the public. 
 
 " We are at this moment hard and fast on a 
 pericarte or sandbank, and there is no telling 
 how long we may remain where we are. Yester- 
 day we stuck on one for nine hours. When we 
 pass this one, and another one or two, our diffi- 
 culties will he over, and we shall get rapidly on.
 
 ON THE VOLGA. 93 
 
 We are towing two immense barges, each 320 
 feet long, and the current is eternally setting 
 them on the shallows, much to our disgust. 
 However, this is not called a passenger steamer, 
 and we were prepared for these delays, so we 
 cannot grumble : besides, except for the tem- 
 porary annoyance caused by them, we could not 
 be more delightfully comfortable. Our existence 
 approaches to perfection to my mind — gliding 
 quietly along under high wooded l^anks, past 
 romantic glens and picturesque villages, along 
 the noblest river in Europe ; the days beautiful, 
 the climate bracing, the thermometer ranging be- 
 tween 52° in the morning and 72' in the middle 
 of the day ; with a walk and a sketch of an after- 
 noon when we stop to take in wood. We have all 
 the elements of a comfortable existence except 
 clean linen. Our larder certainly is not very 
 extensive, and we are most abstemious in the 
 matter of drink, taking nothing but tea and 
 Volga. Still, there is a considerable pleasure 
 in laying one's own table-cloth, and bringing out 
 one's stores, and eating them in contentment. 
 
 " I do not remember ever having read an ac- 
 count of this part of the world, or of the country 
 of the Don Cossacks, through which we are going. 
 Many of the villages here are composed purely of 
 Tartars, and they are as uiilike Russians as Eng-
 
 94 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 lish — in fact, they remind me more of the Bootyas 
 in NejDaul than any other people. Their dress is 
 very curious, and the women wear gold coins in 
 their hair and silver breastj^lates. The men 
 look just like what Chinese gipsies would be, if 
 such animals existed, swarthy instead of copper- 
 coloured, with Chinese features." 
 
 Sometimes they see " a train of seven or eight 
 barges wind slowly up the river tugged by a 
 huge leading barge containing 150 horses and as 
 many men, the latter employed in laying out 
 anchors ahead, the former in going round a cap- 
 stan as they would in a threshing-machine, and 
 warping the barges up to the anchors." 
 
 " You will be glad to hear," he adds, " that we 
 have at last overcome or undergone all pericartes, 
 and that we are getting merrily along, with bright 
 sunshiny days. This afternoon we hope to arrive 
 at Simbirsk, a town which ought to be marked 
 on the map as the capital of a province. I en- 
 joyed my ramble over the old Tartar capital very 
 much, and had a very magnificent view from the 
 Kremlin walls. I hope the waiter to whom I 
 confided my letter posted it, as it contained much 
 information which I cannot now repeat. ... I 
 shall not write again after leaving Simbirsk until
 
 END OF THE FIRST STAGE. 95 
 
 I get to Taganrog. I have got so much to draw 
 and so much journal to write and so little to tell, 
 that I shall do no more now than repeat that I 
 could not be hap^Dier or enjoying myself more." 
 
 This last threat is not exactly carried out, as 
 we find Laurence writino- ao-ain from Saratov. 
 He complains, though not angrily, of the frequent 
 delays when detained " by people Avho do not 
 understand expedition or regularity, and at whose 
 mercy we must be so completely." These vexa- 
 tions were, however, balanced by the amiability 
 of his companion, who never complained, though 
 he had a perfect right to do so, seeing that he 
 came out for a sporting expedition, and had been 
 carried off instead to explore unknown wilds, 
 much more satisfactory to Laurence, whose desire 
 to find " something to write about " was never 
 absent from his mind. 
 
 At last, on the 20th of September, the friends 
 arrived at Taganrog, having finished the still 
 more exciting land journey. 
 
 "It is with feelings of unmitigated satisfac- 
 tion that I date my letter from here, after 
 having accomplished in five days and nights 
 one of the most wild, uncouth, and unfre- 
 quented journeys that even Russia can boast.
 
 96 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 I confess that the prospect of a steppe jour- 
 ney through the country of the Don Cossacks 
 was a httle appalhng to us, not knowing a 
 word of the language, or able to find a single 
 person who had ever been on the road or could 
 give us any information upon it. Our scheme 
 for going down the Don was quite impractic- 
 able with our limited time, and so we decided 
 to buy a carriage at Dubofskoi, where we left 
 the steamer, and get across somehow from the 
 banks of the Volo-a to the shores of the Sea of 
 Azof: there was no alternative between doing 
 this and going on to Astrakhan und then across 
 the Caucasus by Tiflis, which would have taken 
 an indefinite time. Fortunately, even at such an 
 out-of-the-way place as Dubofskoi, we found a 
 carriage, for which we had to pay about £11, 
 and launched ourselves upon the steppe. It was 
 a sort of post-road, and every fifteen or twenty 
 miles was a wooden hut, with a sort of kraal for 
 horses behind. The country was like the sea, 
 with a heavy ground-swell on and calm surface, 
 being covered with a short dry grass. Often for 
 miles not a creature was seen ; sometimes bullock- 
 carts passed us, or a wild Cossack galloped by on 
 horseback, and here and there latterly villages 
 came pretty thick, with round houses like the 
 haystacks with which they were always sur-
 
 ACROSS THE STEPPE. 97 
 
 rounded, and from which you could hardly dis- 
 tincrulsh them, or rag-o-ed - lookino- cabins like 
 those in an Irish village, from which issued wild 
 independent - looking unshaven creatures. The 
 road was often a mere track across the grass, and 
 the country presented the exact same appearance 
 for so long a time as to become quite wearisome. 
 On arriving at a station, we generally saw no one 
 but a woman or a child or two, one of whom w^ent 
 and called a man, who immediately mounted on 
 one of our last team and galloped across the 
 steppe, bringing back in half an hour or so six or 
 eight horses, which he drove into the kraal at 
 full gallop, selected three, took half an hour or 
 more to harness them, and then went off with us 
 at a full gallop. Luckily the road was generally 
 smooth, but we occasionally dashed down ugly 
 places, the result of which was that at last one 
 of the wheels was so near coming off that we had 
 to stay a night at a post-station — a rest we were 
 not sorry to take, though it was on a wooden 
 stretcher ; but a sheepskin I bought has on 
 sundry occasions made a capital mattress, only 
 it retains the fleas for a long time. Our great 
 stand-by was the samovar, or hot-water urn for 
 making tea, with which the poorest peasant is 
 always supplied. Except a little meat at start- 
 ing, we lived entirely on hard-boiled eggs, rusks, 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 THE EXPEDITION TO RUSSIA. 
 
 and cheese, comforting ourselves with some 
 capital tea which Ave bought at Nijni. Not a 
 thing besides hot water was to be j^i'ocured the 
 whole way, but the people were very civil, though 
 rough and barbarous : they seemed honest, but I 
 saw so few of them I could not judge much about 
 them one way or another. . . . Altogether, 
 though the country was as uninteresting as an 
 Egyptian desert, and we were dead beat and as 
 universally shaken and nearly coming to pieces 
 as our carriage, yet there is some satisfaction in 
 having successfully made so outlandish a journey 
 alone. . . . Luckilv our carriao-e stood it wonder- 
 fully, another wheel just coming off as we entered 
 the inn-yard." 
 
 At Taganrog the two young men heard to 
 their dismay that instead of tAvo steamers a- week 
 to Kertch there was but one a fortnight, an ar- 
 rangement which seemed to make the journey so 
 painfully and courageously performed a failure 
 as to its final object. It is almost sulkily, though 
 Avith the natiA^e humour, someAvhat angry this 
 time, peeping through, that Laurence complains : 
 '• Everything is badly arranged in this country ; 
 nobody knoAvs anything, and every piece of infor- 
 mation relative to travelling has been invariably 
 quite Avrong. I had hoped to see the Crimea
 
 RUSSIAN REPORTS. 99 
 
 quite comfortably, and now doubt whether we 
 shall have time to do it at all ; but everybody says 
 it is the thing most well worth seeing in Kussia, 
 which will rather reconcile me to missing it, as 
 most probably this is a lie too." 
 
 I am sorry to say that here the letters end : 
 and the reader must be referred for the further 
 course of the journey and the inspection of Sebas- 
 toj)ol which followed — by no means of such 
 eno-rossinii" interest now as it was then — to the 
 narrative published in the following year. The 
 purpose of finding something to write about was 
 most triumphantly fulfilled, if not the sporting 
 exjDedition, which Avas to one of the travellers, 
 at least, so much less important. We can only 
 hope that Mr Smith too was consoled for the 
 big game he did not shoot, and the salmon he 
 did not catch, by the humours and wonders of 
 this \vild extraordinary journey.
 
 100 
 
 CHAPTEE lY 
 
 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 It is needless to explain how extremely im2:)ortant 
 this boyish expedition — lightly undertaken indeed, 
 yet not without that shrewd and clear-sighted 
 apprehension of coming events which, Avith all 
 the gaiety and all the daring love of adventure, 
 love of fun, eager pursuit under all and through 
 all of new experiences, both in life and thought, 
 was an inherent part of Oliphant's many-sided 
 nature — was in the story of his life. The Crimea 
 was a country unknown, and Sebastopol a wonder 
 and mystery even while all the elements were 
 working together to precipitate our troops upon 
 its shores. " In the middle of this century," says 
 Mr Kinglake,^ in the beautiful description of the 
 
 1 These lines were written while that accomplished historian and 
 traveller was still with us, and when the hope of his ever-kind and 
 ready interest was i:)resent with the writer, as his friendshij) and 
 sympathy had always been with the subject of this memoir. There 
 have been many voices to recall the wonderful force of that unique
 
 THE 'RUSSIAN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA.' 101 
 
 Chersonese peninsula with which his history opens, 
 " the peninsula which divides the Euxine from the 
 Sea of Azoff was an almost forgotten land, lying 
 out of the chief paths of merchants and travel- 
 lers, and far away from all the capital cities of 
 Christendom. Karely went thither any one from 
 Paris, or Vienna, or Berlin : to reach it from Lon- 
 don was a harder task than to cross the Atlantic ; 
 and a man of ofEce receiving In this distant pro- 
 vince his orders despatched from St Petersburg, 
 was the servant of masters who governed him 
 from a distance of a thousand miles." 
 
 This was the distance which the young explor- 
 ers had traversed ; and in the course of the next 
 year their experiences were laid before the public 
 in the book called the ' Russian Shores of the 
 Black Sea,' which was really almost the only work 
 in which the British reader could ascertain what 
 was the country, and what the special dlfticulties 
 of the war upon the verge of which Great Britain 
 was now trembling. That it was received with 
 extreme interest, and at once secured the general 
 attention, is clear from the fact that on the 4th 
 of March 1854 a fourth edition was called for and 
 
 and elaborate study of modern warfare which tilled his later life, 
 and the airy and sparkling record of picturesque travel which con- 
 ferred a blaze of fame upon his youth. The gentleness of his age, 
 the tenderness of his sympathy, his ever-indulgent criticism and 
 delightful i^raise, are recollections still more intimate and dear.
 
 102 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 in the press. By this time the fact that such a 
 book existed, and that two young men in London 
 had penetrated into these unknown but so impor- 
 tant regions, seems to have slowly arrived at the 
 consciousness of the authorities, and on a memor- 
 able day Laurence was raised into sudden excite- 
 ment and a fever of hojDes and expectations by a 
 summons to the Horse Guards, to meet the gen- 
 erals who were anxiously employed in the con- 
 struction of plans for the campaign, in order to 
 give them all the information he could on the 
 sul)ject. He talks in one letter of " Oswald rush- 
 ing in waving a letter over his head," and on 
 another occasion of " a mounted orderly " who 
 rattled up to his door, dazzling all the lodging- 
 houses in Half-Moon Street, with a mission from 
 these presit men. The summons was to the effect 
 that " Lord Raglan wanted to see me at once." 
 He communicates this briefly to his father as 
 follows : — 
 
 " I accordingly joroceeded to the Ordnance, 
 where I found not Lord Rag-Ian, but Lord de 
 Ros, who questioned me minutely about Sebas- 
 topol. I gave him all the information I could, 
 and sent him my sketches, extracts from my 
 journal, and everything I could think useful. 
 There were a couple of old Engineer Colonels
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 103 
 
 (one of tliem afterwards identified as Sir Jolm 
 Burgoyne), all three poring over a chart of the 
 Crimea. They are evidently going to try and 
 take Sebastopol, and I recommended their land- 
 ing at Balaclava and marching across, which I 
 think they will do. Lord de Bos was immensely 
 civil. I think Lord Baglan ought in civility to 
 make me his civil secretary. It would be great 
 fun. I met Lord de Bos ag-ain this mornino- and 
 had a long talk with him. I did not mention my 
 anxiety to get out. It is very ticklish saying 
 anything about one's self on such occasions, and 
 I must just bide my time and qualify myself 
 — be able to answer the lash, as you always 
 say." 
 
 The excitement and eager hope produced by 
 these interviews may be imagined. It was almost 
 impossible for the young man to believe that 
 nothing would come of them. He plunged into 
 the study of Turkish, and read everything he 
 could lay his hands on to qualify himself for 
 whatever share might come to him in the tre- 
 mendous enterjDrise, for which the country, so 
 long unused to war, and with her sword more or 
 less rusty in its scabbard, was with great general 
 excitement preparing. Laurence had been, almost 
 from the moment of his arrival in Eno-land, and
 
 104 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 notwithstanding his law studies and prehminary 
 work in that profession, avowedly seeking his 
 fortune, with a keen eye upon the horizon for any- 
 thing that might turn up. He had already leaped 
 into a considerable literar}^ connection. Mr John 
 Blackwood, the editor of the well-known Maga- 
 zine, a man of remarkable literary perception and 
 insight, had at once divined an invaluable con- 
 tributor in the young writer ; and he had also 
 formed a connection with the ' Daily News,' then 
 a new paper, sparkling with literary life and 
 interest, the first competitor of the ' Times.' His 
 first arrangement with this newspaper was that 
 he should contribute articles at two guineas a 
 column ; but when he felt the wave under him 
 floating him upwards, Laurence, who had always 
 a most clear and practical business faculty, thought 
 this remuneration to be inadequate, and in the 
 same letter which describes his interview with 
 the generals he informs his father that he had 
 "called at the 'Daily News' office and said I 
 could not afford to write at two guineas a column, 
 so they offered to double it on the spot : terms 
 which I accordingly accepted, and have knocked 
 off* twelve guineas' worth last week. I cannot 
 always carry on at this rate, however, as I run 
 dry. As it is, I am obliged to write bosh occa- 
 sionally, which 1 don't like doing ; but the public
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 105 
 
 are so gullible, that it is difficult to resist the 
 temptation." 
 
 The new hope, however, carried him away from 
 all his existing interests. " I hear nothing but 
 the Eastern question talked of now," he says ; 
 " and as I am appealed to as an authority, 
 although I originally knew nothing more about 
 it than my neighbours, I have got it up carefully, 
 in order to answer expectations." He was, how- 
 ever, by no means idle in respect to charitable 
 and philanthropic engagements even during this 
 time of suspense. " On Monday I have to deliver 
 a lecture to what is anticipated to be a crowded 
 audience upon reformatory institutions ; on Tues- 
 day to make a speech at a public meeting for the 
 Belgravian Ragged Schools ; on Wednesday to a 
 large soiree to meet the swells who take an in- 
 terest in these things. Last Sunday I gave an 
 address to my blackguards at Westminster." 
 Thus his hands were full as he stood and waited 
 for fate. 
 
 The immediate decision came, as often happens, 
 in an entirely unexpected way. He had long en- 
 tertained hopes of the help and patronage of Lord 
 Elgin, with whose family, and especially wdth his 
 sisters Lady Charlotte Locker and Lady Augusta 
 Bruce (afterw^ards Stanley), Lady Oliphant had 
 warm relations of friendship ; and it was in the
 
 106 AMEEICA AND CANADA. 
 
 midst of the excitements of the Crimean question, 
 when his attention was wholly bent in another 
 direction, that these hopes suddenly came to fruit. 
 He was hanging amid alternate hopes and fears, 
 " extremely anxious to take part in the Crimean 
 campaign in some capacity or other," and ready 
 to " accept an offer of the late Mr Delane to 
 go out as ' Times ' corresjDondent, had not Lord 
 Clarendon kindly held out hopes that he would 
 send me when an opportunity offered," when pro- 
 motion came in this totally different quarter. " It 
 was while anxiously awaiting this that Lord Elgin 
 proposed that I should accompany him to Wash- 
 ington on special diplomatic service as secretary ; 
 and as the mission seemed likely to be of short 
 duration I gladly accepted the offer, in the hope 
 that I might be back in time to find employment 
 in the East before the war was over." His ex- 
 pectation was realised, as will be seen, notwith- 
 standing that the length of his absence exceeded 
 his calculations, and his position latterly was more 
 important than he had expected. Thus after fix- 
 ing all his thoughts upon the East, he was carried 
 off in an exactly opposite direction, and began his 
 active work with all the interest and excitement 
 of a rapid and special mission, in the New World, 
 with which in after-life he was to have so much 
 and so close connection.
 
 THE PARENTS AT HOME. 107 
 
 During this period of absence the letters of 
 Lady OHphant, addressed to her son in America, 
 aftbrd a companion picture to his minute and 
 careful record. The mother's anxious prayers 
 for her only child, her fears for him, her expres- 
 sions of confidence, lier intense longing for his 
 spiritual improvement and growth in grace, re- 
 veal as in a mirror the tender woman's pious and 
 sensitive soul, and her absorption in her son's 
 interests and fortunes. Still more interesting 
 and individual, perhaps (for religious longings 
 and counsels are inevitably much alike, to whom- 
 soever addressed), is the cheerful background of 
 the temporary home in Edinburgh, where her 
 husband by this time had joined her, and in 
 which the humour and good sj^irits of Sir An- 
 thony brightened the whole scene, though he too 
 could think of nothing so much as his absent son. 
 Before he left Ceylon on his final retirement 
 from ofiice, the father had communicated to his 
 wife and son his readiness to follow the fortunes 
 of the beloved boy. "I do not know," he says, 
 " that I have ever clearly expressed myself, but 
 if not, fully understand that I am quite prepared 
 to go to any place in Europe to which Lowry 
 may go, whether as attache or anything else. So 
 long as it pleases God to spare us, let us all stick 
 together." The parents remained in Edinburgh
 
 108 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 till Lowry should return from his American mis- 
 sion, waiting to see what Providence might have 
 in store for him, and fully determined to carry 
 out this purpose. One can scarcely help the 
 question, whether the lively and adventurous 
 young man would have been made much happier 
 by their determination, or if the thought of his 
 father and mother following him everywhere in 
 his erratic course might not have appeared a 
 little embarrassing as well as ludicrous. The 
 old Judge, however, repeated his intention to some 
 of his friends in Edinburgh in a more humorous 
 way. " The wdfe is buttoned to Lowry's coat-tails," 
 he said, " and I am tied to her apron-strings. I 
 am just like the last carriage in a train, w^aggling 
 after them just where they please to lead." They 
 looked forward to some permanent appointment 
 for Lowry, in London perhaps best, with their 
 own house open to all who could serve or please 
 him, and the beloved son coming and going. For 
 Sir Anthony at least this dream of happiness was 
 never to come true. 
 
 A full account of Laurence's first experi- 
 ences in diplomacy has been written by himself 
 in his ' Episodes in a Life of Adventure,' and it is 
 a very amusing chapter. The object of the 
 mission was to negotiate a commercial treaty 
 between Canada and the United States, and in
 
 A COMMERCIAL TREATY. 109 
 
 the execution of a piece of business so serious, 
 and which was supposed so unhkely to succeed, 
 Lord Elgin and his staff approached the represen- 
 tatives of the American nation with all the 
 legitimate wiles of accomplished and astute 
 diplomacy. They threw themselves into the so- 
 ciety of Washington — which in those days was 
 apparently much more racy and original than it 
 seems to be now, when American statesmen have 
 grown dull, correct, and dignified like other 
 men — with the abandon and enjoyment of a 
 group of visitors solely intent on pleasure. Lord 
 Elgin's enemies afterwards described the treaty 
 as " floated through on champagne." " Without 
 altogether admitting this, there can be no doubt," 
 Laurence says, " that in the hands of a skilful 
 diplomatist that liquor is not without its value." 
 The ambassador had been informed that if he 
 could overcome the opposition of the Democrats, 
 which party had a majority in the Senate, he 
 would find no difliculty on the part of the 
 Government. But the young secretary, keen 
 as was his intelligence, did not see his way 
 at first through the feasting and the gaiety 
 into which his chief plunged. " At last, after 
 several days of uninterrupted festivity, I began 
 to perceive what we were driving at. To make 
 quite sure, I said one day to my chief, ' I find all
 
 110 AMERICA AND CANADA, 
 
 my most intimate friends are Democratic sena- 
 tors.' ' So do I,' he replied, drily." This was the 
 young man's first lesson in statecraft. The story 
 of the expedition, as it more immediately con- 
 cerned himself, Avas communicated to his parents 
 in a series of long letters, beginning with the 
 approach to Washington : — 
 
 " We never went through a tunnel the whole 
 journey, and were therefore well able to see 
 the country. When we came to towns we 
 went slap down the main streets, there being 
 nothing to keep little children from playing 
 upon the rails, except ' Look out for the loco- 
 motive' stuck up on boards. When we get 
 to the middle of the town we stop before the 
 principal hotel, and steps are put up for us as if 
 we w^ere a coach changing horses. The houses 
 are shaded by fine old trees, and telegraph wires 
 run overhead in every direction, like bridges from 
 one cocoa-nut tree to another in Ceylon. Niggers 
 become plentiful as we get South, and we have 
 had three experiences of waiters in hotels. At the 
 Clarendon there was not a man at all. We were 
 waited on entirely by rather pretty bare-armed 
 maidens in a becoming and uniform costume ; 
 remarkably agreeal^le I thought it. They used to 
 be very attentive to me at dinner, as they saw I
 
 AMERICAN HOTELS. Ill 
 
 appreciated their charms. There were at least 
 fifty waiting every day. Then at the St Nicholas 
 we had regular civilised waiters — I am afraid to 
 say how many — but everything is done at the 
 same moment, and there is a procession of full 
 and empty dishes which takes about five minutes 
 to complete itself. Then at Philadelphia all the 
 waiters were niggers, and now we are in the land 
 of ^thio23ian serenaders. We reached Philadel- 
 phia about twelve o'clock. The scenery as we 
 approached became very pretty, the rail passed 
 along the banks of the broad Delaware, fringed 
 with bright foliage to the water's edge, and 
 clothed with islands. The wood is all of com- 
 paratively young growth ; but the country is 
 often charmingly diversified. Philadelphia is the 
 second city in the Union, and the handsomest. 
 The broad streets lined with trees, the shady 
 squares, the massive white marble houses, all 
 add to its imposing appearance. We only stayed 
 there an hour, and then went to a terminus or 
 depot, as it is called, at the other end of the 
 town. For day travelling the American cars 
 are very convenient : they are always full of 
 pretty girls, and if the scenery is not pretty you 
 can look at them, — they are always sure to be 
 looking at you. In the same carriage with us we 
 had that notorious Irish " patriot " John Mitchell,
 
 112 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 another editor of a paper, a very disreputable- 
 looking blackguard, and Routledge the cheap 
 publisher, an intelligent, pushing fellow, who is 
 come over to spy out the nakedness of the land, 
 and is going to set up a shop in the States and 
 Canada, and beat the Yankees on their own 
 ground." 
 
 Passing on through Maryland, the first slave 
 State, they spent an hour at Baltimore, which 
 is described as being " more full of niggers and 
 less of trees than the others we had seen " : this 
 time was occupied in visiting the Roman Catholic 
 cathedral. They then j^i'oceeded by train to 
 Washington, where they arrived late in the even- 
 ing. After dinner they were " energetic enough 
 to go at once to the Capitol to see the final 
 vote taken on the Nebraska Bill, a measure 
 which has caused more sensation, and is likely 
 to lead to more important results, than any 
 which has ever come before Congress." 
 
 " Considering, however, the tone of the paj)ers, 
 there was not so much excitement manifested 
 as I had anticipated. The whole place M^as 
 crowded, the galleries full of ladies, and when 
 the bill in favour of slavery was carried by 100 to 
 113, the cheering was considerable. It is likely to
 
 CONGRESS. 1 1 
 
 o 
 
 lead to totally new combinations of parties, and 
 the candidates at the next election will go to 
 the country upon the question of slavery or 
 abolition. It may jjossibly," he goes on, " lead 
 to a revolution, so strong is the feeling on both 
 sides. Members have come to Congress every 
 night armed to the teeth, and it is quite an ac- 
 cident that there has not been a row : however, 
 it is all over for the present, and there is a lull, 
 during which we hope to effect our little plans. 
 I was rather disappointed at there not being a 
 row, and only two honourable members were 
 drunk. One was obliged to be carried out, but 
 did not show any sport ; the other asked me what 
 the fools were voting about : considering the row 
 there was at the time, I should not have been 
 surprised at the question even had he been sober." 
 
 Laurence found the hotel at Washing-ton un- 
 comfortable, and the aspect of the place depres- 
 sing, consisting of a wide long avenue, with the 
 Capitol at one end and the President's house at 
 the other. In fact, as he says of it, " it is a town 
 without a population, and exists only by virtue 
 of its being the seat of Government." He found 
 his time also a good deal taken up, not with 
 actual official work, but with much moving about, 
 in constant attendance on Lord Elgin. The 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 Queen's Birthday, however, broke the monotony 
 a httle. 
 
 " There was a grand flare - up at Crampton's, 
 at which all the beauty and fashion of Wash- 
 inerton were assembled. There were numbers 
 of pretty girls, who were delighted at getting 
 hold of Mr Oliphant, ' the traveller,' for by that 
 term I am always introduced, and I found it 
 difiicult to be free and easy enough to please 
 them. For instance, one carried me off to a quiet 
 bench in the o-arden, and because I did not sit 
 down, but stood respectfully talking, she got up, 
 saying, ' Well, if you won't sit down alongside 
 of me, it's no use my sitting here all night.' I 
 need not say that after such an invitation I ex- 
 erted myself in a way which won her affections 
 ' slick off".' Notwithstanding which, I was rather 
 astonished when, being seduced by her into a 
 waltz, the only one in which I indulged, a fellow 
 came up and took ' a twist with my gal.' I 
 asked whether that was the custom, and was 
 assured that I had nothing to complain of. 
 Another girl whom I took in to supper asked for 
 ice, so I gave her some, and could only find a 
 fork, which I handed to her, on which she said, 
 ' Fancy eating ice with a fork ! ' However, I paid 
 her off by handing her a huge table-knife, and
 
 AMERICAN YOUNG LADIES. 115 
 
 pointincr in justification to a lady who was ladling 
 in cream in a way frightfully dangerous to behold. 
 Most of the young ladies I was introduced to 
 asked me to call upon them. Yesterday we had 
 a great day in the Senate, and there is to be 
 some serious squabbling there to-day, which I 
 am going up with Lord E. to hear." 
 
 The interesting part of American politics at 
 this time would appear to have been the " rows " ; 
 and diplomatic work with Lord Elgin could not 
 have been very fatiguing, since, as he says, they 
 were engaged every night for a week, and " the 
 serious business of our visit is not yet in train." 
 Laurence, however, entertained no doubt of his 
 own diplomatic abilities when they should be 
 called for. 
 
 " I have been engaged making arrangements 
 for interviews with Ministers all the morninof, 
 and my diplomatic powers are considerably in 
 request, as they are 'cute dodgy fellows, and 
 have always got a sinister motive in the back- 
 ground, which it is sometimes difficult to discover. 
 To-morrow, I suppose, we shall be hard at it : I 
 shall be delighted. At the same time, this is a 
 most relaxing and depressing place, close muggy 
 air — Kandy temperature exactly — and streets
 
 116 AMEEICA AND CANADA. 
 
 silent and lifeless. The last place in the world, 
 notwithstanding the pretty girls, that I should 
 choose as a residence. I am going to join their 
 riding-parties if I have time, and will get to 
 know them ' to their middle initials,' the height 
 of Yankee intimacy." 
 
 The next letter, also from Washington, is dated 
 the 28th May, and, stimulated by the receipt of 
 a letter from his mother, is full of grave personal 
 subjects. He finds himself in a difficult position, 
 delighted and grateful for the expression of her 
 increased confidence in him, and her joy at the 
 proofs she receives of his changed and improved 
 character ; but at the time tormented by the 
 thought that while he would not by throwing 
 doubt on these proofs take away any of her 
 consolation, he could not persuade himself that, 
 though he was a little the better for his experi- 
 ence, there was any real cause for self-gi^atulation. 
 
 " My experience," he says, " has always been 
 very slow indeed, and while I recognise that 
 an important change has been going on in my 
 sentiments upon many things, still I feel as much 
 embarrassed and perplexed as I ever did. Not 
 that I am rendered in any way so miserable as 
 I used to be, nor that I ever experience those
 
 THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE. 117 
 
 violent revulsions of feeling ; but wherever there 
 is a struggle there must be times of depression. 
 It is a merciful thing that I take very little plea- 
 sure in that gaiety in which I am obliged to mix, 
 and by which formerly I should have been intoxi- 
 cated. And perhaps the pleasure of life seems 
 much diminished by the reflection that one must 
 be in a dangerous condition if one is not sacrific- 
 ing some favourite passion, however much it may 
 be changed by the progress of time, &c., &c. I 
 heard this morning an admirable sermon, and one 
 M^hich was peculiarly applicable to me, in answer 
 to my desire that I should hear something to 
 stimulate to more vigorous resistance — upon ' one 
 thing thou lackest.' My difficulty is to realise 
 divine things sufficiently to encourage me. The 
 strongest incentive I have to follow my convic- 
 tions upon such subjects is the inward peace and 
 comfort which doing so has always brought to 
 me, and the opposite effisct of indulging myself 
 Therefore upon the lowest grounds I am disjDosed 
 to practise self-denial. In my present capacity I 
 am not engaged in any work of benevolence or 
 charity by which I could, as it were, support my- 
 self. And though, no doubt, by my example I 
 might glorify God, it is a much more difficult 
 matter to do so in a ball-room at the French 
 ambassador's, surrounded by as unthinking a
 
 118 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 throng as ever tripped the hght fantastic, than 
 down in Westminster surrounded by M'Gregor, 
 Fowler, & Co. At the same time, I never saw 
 more clearly the possibility of living in the world 
 and not being of it. At present I am as satisfied 
 that it is my duty to go to balls as to go to the 
 Sunday - school was, provided I go in a right 
 spirit ; but it is easy to theorise. Perhaps I shall 
 have an opportunity of testing my resolution in 
 a very simple matter, about which nevertheless 
 you have often expressed yourself — the matter of 
 champagne. In Edinburgh I did not think it 
 worth the sacrifice ; but, as is often the case, one 
 is forced into a line of conduct by the additional 
 force of the temj^tation. It was only this morn- 
 ing that I felt the duty of putting the restraint 
 upon myself of total abstinence, from my yester- 
 day's exjDcrience, which was as follows : — 
 
 "At two o'clock our whole party went to a grand 
 luncheon at a senator's. Here we had every sort 
 of refreshing luxury, the day being pipingiy hot, 
 and dozens of champagne were polished oft'. Sev- 
 eral senators got screwed, and we made good use 
 of the two hours we had to spare before going 
 to the French ambassador's matinee dansante at 
 four. Here the same thing went on, with the 
 addition of a lot of pretty girls whom I had 
 before met, and who bullied one to dance, and
 
 CHAMPAGNE. 119 
 
 were disgusted if you did not flirt with them. 
 Everybody drinks champagne here, and there 
 was a bowl on the table in which you might have 
 drowned a baby, of most delicious and insinuat- 
 ing concoction. Then there were gardens, and 
 bouquets, and ices, and strawberries, and bright 
 eyes till six, when we had to rush off and dress 
 for a grand dinner at a governor's. Here we had 
 a magnificent repast. The old story of cham- 
 pagne, besides a most elaborate and highly got 
 up French-cookery dinner, lasting from seven till 
 ten, when we left the table, having been eating 
 and drinking without intermission since two. 
 We then adjourned with a lot of senators to 
 brandy-and-water, champagne, and cigars till 
 twelve, when some of us were quite ready to 
 tumble into bed. Now I have no doubt you are 
 perfectly horrified, and picture to yourself your 
 inebriated son going to bed in a condition 3^ou 
 never thought possible ; but, on the contrary, 
 yesterday was a most jDi'ofitable day to me. In 
 the first place, though I did not restrain myself, 
 I did not in the slightest degree exceed. I did 
 not touch anything else hut champagne, and 
 stopped exactly at the right moment. I felt all 
 through that I was in a position not of my own 
 seeking, and that if it was agreeable to me it was 
 because I myself was at fault. I felt that it was
 
 120 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 only not positively disgusting because I partici- 
 pated, and that if I had not touched a thing I 
 could not but have been excessively bored. I 
 have therefore resolved never to touch another 
 drop of champagne while in Washington, not 
 because I took too much, but because I see that 
 whether I am doing right or wrong depends 
 entirely upon the spirit in which I participate 
 in these things. It is necessary to the success 
 of our mission that we conciliate everybody, and 
 to refuse their invitations would be considered 
 insulting. Lord Elgin pretends to drink im- 
 mensely, but I watched him, and I don't believe 
 he drank a glass between two and twelve. He 
 is the most thorough diplomat possible, — never 
 loses sight for a moment of his object, and while 
 he is chaffing Yankees and slapping them on the 
 back, he is systematically pursuing that object. 
 The consequence is, he is the most popular 
 Eno-lishman that ever visited the United States. 
 If you have got to deal with hogs, what are you 
 to do ? As Canning said of a man, ' He goes 
 the whole hog, and he looks the hog he goes,' 
 which is precisely a description of this respectable 
 race ; but I have no occasion even to pretend to 
 drink their wine, and I shall therefore not do it. 
 I was perfectly well this morning, but Sir Cusack 
 Eoney and Hincks are both laid up — jDoor Sir Q.,
 
 A JOYOUS TEMPERAMENT. 121 
 
 as we call him, fairly knocked up, or rather down, 
 by such unaccustomed proceedings. As I said, I 
 am so far grateful to it all if it is the means of 
 making me form resolutions and sticking to them, 
 which less prominent dissipation, such as that of 
 Edinbuigh, would never have done. 
 
 " But a far more difficult matter than the cham- 
 pagne is the young ladies. My natural tempera- 
 ment not being amorous but very joyous, I get too 
 boisterous, or rather reckless, in flirting, for simple 
 fun. Therefore, though there is no absolute com- 
 mand against other than idle words, which is one 
 none of us can very strictly apply, yet I feel that 
 I have been talking an amount of nonsense of 
 which my conscience is ashamed, and the effect 
 of a whole afternoon spent in the way I have 
 described, which would formerly be to distract 
 and unsettle me, has been to sober and solemnise 
 me, and to make me think how I am to meet the 
 difficulties opposed to me. Under other circum- 
 stances, I should keep away from the drinking — 
 this would be no sacrifice ; from the ladies it 
 would be one that I could easily make. I should 
 call upon the missionaries if I was going to live 
 here, and em]3loy myself as I did in London ; but 
 I am called upon to join in everything, and 
 my conscience would not in the slightest degree 
 twit me for doing so, provided I was all the time
 
 122 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 bored instead of pleased. The test of the thing 
 is whether I like it, and though I cannot say I 
 do, I very soon would, and therefore " it is I must 
 be especially watchful, while it would be compara- 
 tively easy for me to form and keep resolutions : 
 and I have enjoyed the quiet of to-day and the 
 sermon, which was very comforting, though it 
 inculcated a serious lesson. I am glad you spoke 
 about the tobacco, but at present there is no fear 
 of that ; Lord Elgin hates smoking, and I do not 
 like it in this jovial soil of parties. I have not 
 smoked half-a-dozen cigars since leaving England, 
 and every one has been a solitary one, when I 
 wanted to comj)ose myself and think. I think it 
 prostitutes tobacco to drink and talk over it. 
 However, I shall never care really about it, and 
 it is very seldom that I am in the humour — 
 generally when I am disgusted with myself; and 
 I am more self-satisfied, or to speak more truly, 
 have more tranquillity than I used to have, and 
 do not need soothing. Your letter was worth all 
 the ciofars in the world." 
 
 After what he himself termed " this lonof con- 
 fession," the letter turned to business. He had 
 received much applause in America on the subject 
 of his book, and had begun to inquire within 
 himself v/hether he could write a book which he
 
 A BOOK OX AMERICA. 123 
 
 felt ought to be written — namely, a philosophical 
 treatise on the American constitution, with the 
 chief heads of " slavery, federalism, and the great 
 questions upon which, sooner or later, the Union 
 must fall to pieces." This, by the way, in 1854, 
 was not a bad prophecy for a young man, who 
 had not been in the country a month. " The 
 fallacies of the form of government," he says, 
 "are only dawning on me, and I should require 
 a long course of reading and observation before 
 entering ujDon so serious a task ; but it would be 
 the most interesting topic possible, and one which, 
 when it does force itself upon public attention, 
 will engross the whole world." Right as he was 
 in some of his prognostics, he had no time to 
 give to this work, though he left the subject with 
 a whimsical regret, " It would be a great thing to 
 have another book out in the nick of time." 
 
 One more letter which followed from Wash- 
 inofton was filled with a sort of chronicle of the 
 days between 31st May and 5th June. He had 
 at last got to work, though it was while waiting 
 for Lord Elgin to give him something to do that 
 he took the opportunity of writing his letter. 
 
 " I was occupied the greater part of yesterday 
 in writing officially. I am afraid I make a bad 
 secretary : my forte does not lie in business mat-
 
 124 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 ters. In fact, I should be the head of the dejDart- 
 ment, not the clerk. It is so fearfully hot and 
 relaxing that one is not disposed for hard work. 
 I have not much new to tell. We dine out as 
 usual, and the dinners last three hours as usual, 
 and I generally get between two senators, one of 
 whom pours abolitionism in my ear, the other, 
 the divine origin of slavery. The politics of this 
 country are most complicated, and difficult to 
 understand ; there are so many different parties, 
 rejoicing in so many different names. There are 
 the Whigs, and Democrats, and Filibusters, and 
 Hard Shells, and Soft Shells, and Free-Soilers, and 
 Disunionists, and Federalists, — all of whom expect 
 you to understand at once their distinctive char- 
 acteristics. I have not time to 'post myself up 
 in all these matters, nor to see sights — in fact, 
 America would be a great deal more difficult to 
 write about than Kussia, its constitution being so 
 much more complicated, and its joractical working 
 so very different from its theory." 
 
 This conclusion, however, does not hinder him 
 from indicating his opinion on various points : 
 as, for instance, that whereas the President should 
 be one of the first men in the country, he was 
 in fact, as a rule, a mere cipher in point of in- 
 tellect ; and that bribery and corruption prevailed
 
 LORD Elgin's method. 125 
 
 as universally as in Russia, though in a different 
 way. Many American writers, in days since 
 Laurence's letters were written, have pointed 
 out this tendency and opening to corruption as 
 the great inherent fault in their constitution. To 
 investigate such a serious question, however, so 
 as to find out its real cause, required more time 
 than Laurence could give to it, as " now that 
 Colonel Bruce, and Sir Cusack and Lady Eoney 
 have gone, and Hamilton is laid up in New 
 York," he remained the only companion of Lord 
 Elgin, and could go nowhere on his own account ; 
 so that he would seem to have given up the idea 
 of writinof a book. 
 
 " There is a great deal of self-denial involved 
 with the conscientious discharge of my duties, 
 and I am obliged to decline invitations to riding- 
 parties, &c., &c., and take a sober stroll instead — 
 all very good discipline, no doubt. It is a very 
 great advantage to me, being behind the scenes 
 in a matter of this kind, and seeing how an able 
 man like Lord E. manages affairs. I compare 
 him with papa. They have a good many points 
 of similarity in their way of venting their indig- 
 nation and fuming, and yet never acting im- 
 pulsively. I occasionally take a look in upon 
 Bury, who is living in another hotel : it is
 
 126 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 jDleasant to look upon a kent face. I think It 
 very possible that, now that Colonel Bruce has 
 left Canada, I may act as Lord Elgin's private 
 secretary there. However, that is only a suppo- 
 sition on my part : nothing has been said to me 
 about it, so don't mention it ; of course I should 
 be glad to be employed in any way. ... I am 
 keeping all the accounts, and I think there must 
 be a mistake somewhere, as I have expended and 
 received some hundreds of dollars, and they come 
 right exactly, which is most strange and un- 
 expected. 
 
 " The other night I was dining out with rather 
 a singular houseful of people : the master of the 
 house was a senator, a methodist preacher, and a 
 teetotaller ; consequently, although it was a party 
 of twenty people, we had nothing to drink but iced 
 water. His wife, who unfortunately was not there, 
 is a spirit medium, and in constant communication 
 with the nether, though she calls it the upper, world. 
 Her daughter, who sat next me at dinner, is a 
 Bloomer, and never wears any other costume ; she 
 has an ugly sham1:)ling figure, and cuts the most 
 absurd appearance : her husband is an avowed and 
 rampant infidel, so that altogether it was a very 
 odd if not instructive assemblage. I don't know 
 how they all manage to get on together. For the 
 preacher must look upon his son-in-law as a viper,
 
 PEOPLE HE MEETS. 127 
 
 and the son-in-law must look upon his mother as 
 an impostor, and they must all look upon his wife 
 as a fool — while she takes very good care to show 
 the world that she wears the breeches." 
 
 Many other amusing notes follow as to the 
 people he meets. On one occasion the gentleman 
 sittinof next him volunteered the information that 
 he (the speaker) was a singular man, and related 
 his history ; how, left without a farthing at seven 
 years old, he managed to pay for his own educa- 
 tion out of his earnings, qualified as a barrister 
 at the age of twenty-one, being then the proud 
 owner of just 2 dollars 50 cents in the world, and 
 owing 500 dollars ; how, being not yet thirty, he 
 had already lost wife and child, and was looking 
 out for another bride to go with him on a journey 
 to Europe, to study the politics of other countries 
 before he came back to embark upon a political 
 career in his own. On the morning of the day 
 on which Laurence wrote, his companions were 
 of a still more remarkable kind. 
 
 " On one side of me was the governor of the 
 new Territory of Washington, which lies to the 
 north of Oregon, upon the North Pacific, and is 
 seventy days' journey from this place : on the 
 other side was a senator from Florida, who gave
 
 128 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 me some curious information about those parts. 
 Then I made great friends with the celebrated 
 Colonel Fremont, who is a splendid fellow, and has 
 been more nearly starved to death, and more often 
 in that predicament, ' than any other man in 
 creation, don't care where you look for him.' 
 Then there was Colonel Benton, who is writing a 
 great work, and is ' quite a fine man ' ; and Mr 
 Senator Toombs, who is to be president some of 
 these days ; and the governor of Wisconsin, whose 
 government has increased in population, within 
 ten years, from 30,000 to 500,000, and who met 
 a man the other day who had travelled over the 
 whole globe, and examined it narrowly with an 
 eye to agricultural capabilities, and who there- 
 fore was an authority not to be disputed ; and 
 this man said that he had never, in any country, 
 seen fifty square miles to equal that extent in the 
 State of Wisconsin, and therefore it was quite 
 clear that the spot was not contained in creation. 
 As other provincials have informed me that their 
 respective States are each thus singularly gifted, 
 I am beginning to get puzzled as to which really 
 is indisputably the most fertile spot on the face 
 of the habitable oflobe, 
 
 " I have every hope that we shall polish off our 
 treaty to-morrow, in which case we shall retire 
 in the evening, covered with glory. It is a
 
 SUCCESS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS. 129 
 
 most exciting operation, and for the last few 
 days, as matters have approached a crisis, I 
 have been at it from morning till night, and 
 then dreaming: about it. The alternation of 
 hope and fear is most trying, as new difficulties 
 are suggested, and methods of solving them pro- 
 posed, and new concessions gained, and the old 
 Secretary of State bamboozled. Hincks goes 
 away to-day, and Lord Elgin and I will be left 
 alone. There are so many fellows opposed to the 
 treaty, and so much underworking, that it re- 
 quires considerable 'cuteness and caution to man- 
 age matters ; but Lord Elgin is a match for them, 
 and it is a pleasure to see how^ he works the matter. 
 It would be of advantage to a fool, and of course 
 it is invaluable to a clever cove like me, who is 
 given to appropriating other men's dodges." 
 
 While all this serious and exciting business was 
 proceeding, the dinners and matinees dansantes 
 seem also to have gone on as continuously as 
 ever, and " the soft balmy evenings in pretty 
 gardens, with fruits and ices, and ' quite a clever 
 piece ' for a companion, are enjoyable enough." 
 The next letter is dated the 7th of June, the 
 last having ended on the 5th, and was written at 
 New York, where he had arrived after the suc- 
 cessful issue of the negotiations at Washington. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 " We are tremendously triumphant ; we have 
 signed a stunning treaty. When I say we, it was 
 in the dead of night, in the last five minutes of 
 the 5th of June, and the first five minutes of the 
 6th day of the month aforesaid, that in a spacious 
 chamber, by the brilliant light of six wax-candles 
 and an argand, four individuals might have been 
 observed seated, their faces expressive of deep 
 and earnest thought, not unmixed with cunning. 
 Their feelings, however, to the acute observer 
 manifested themselves in different ways ; and 
 this was but natural, as two were young and 
 two aged, — one, indeed, far gone in years, the 
 other prematurely so. He it is whose measured 
 tones alone break the solemn silence of midnight, 
 except when one of the younger auditors, who 
 are intently poring over voluminous MSS., in- 
 terrupts him to interpolate ' and ' or scratch out 
 ' the.' They are, in fact, checking him ; and the 
 ao-ed man listens while he picks his teeth with 
 a pair of scissors, or clears out the wick of the 
 candle with their points and wipes them on his 
 hair. He may occasionally be observed to wink, 
 either from conscious 'cuteness or unconscious 
 drowsiness. Attached to these three MSS. by 
 red ribbon are the heavy seals. Presently 
 the clock strikes twelve, and there is a doubt 
 whether to date it to-day or yesterday. For a
 
 "the venerable file." 131 
 
 moment there is a solemn silence, and he who 
 was reading takes the pen, which has previously 
 been impressively dipped in the ink by the most 
 intelligent of the young men, who appears to be 
 his secretary, and who keeps his eye warily upon 
 the other young man, who is the opposition sec- 
 retary, and interesting as a specimen of a Yankee 
 in that capacity. There is something strangely 
 mysterious in the scratching, of that midnight 
 pen, for it is scratching away the destinies of 
 nations ; and then it is placed in the hands of 
 the venerable file, whose hand does not shake, 
 though he is very old, and knows he will be 
 bullied to death by half the members of Con- 
 gress. The hand that has used a revolver upon 
 previous similar occasions does not waver with 
 a pen, though the lines he traces may be an 
 involver of a revolver again. He is now the 
 Secretary of State ; before that, he was a judge 
 of the Supreme Court ; before that, a general in 
 the army ; before that, governor of a State ; before 
 that. Secretary at War ; before that, minister in 
 Mexico ; before that, a member of the House of 
 Representatives ; before that, an adventurer ; be- 
 fore that, a cabinet-maker. So why should the 
 old man fear ? Has he not survived the changes 
 and chances of more diiferent sorts of lives than 
 any other man ? and is he afraid of being done
 
 132 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 by an English lord ? So he gives us his blessing, 
 and we leave the old man and his secretary with 
 our treaty in our pockets." 
 
 This letter was finished at Boston in the middle 
 of the continued journey. Laurence had been 
 sent on at once to New York, where he was kept 
 awake all night by a demonstration in favour of 
 a senator in the same hotel, so that the vigil con- 
 sequent upon the completion of the treaty was not 
 his only one. After this he travelled on " through 
 lovely country, wooded and watered and smiling, 
 up glens in the railway, which in these countries 
 prefers going up and down hill to going through 
 tunnels, and going past lakes embedded in foli- 
 age, with pretty villages of white wooden houses 
 inhabited by prim descendants of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers — and so on to this city, more like an Eng- 
 lish commercial emporium than any other in the 
 States ; and to-morrow we undergo a grand tri- 
 umphal reception at Portland, and next day 
 another at Montreal, and next day another at 
 Quebec, all which I hope to find time to tell you 
 of in my next. Meanwhile Lord Elgin is re- 
 joicing in the prospect of about six speeches 
 a-day, and I in hopes of amusing myself, which, 
 indeed, I have been doing very fairly all along. 
 We have got Sir Cu. and Lady Roney, and in
 
 RECEPTION IN CANADA. 133 
 
 addition to them a Sir Henry and Lady Caldwell, 
 in our party." 
 
 The details of description which he continues 
 to give as he passes along may be less interesting 
 to the sophisticated reader, who since then has 
 heard so much of America ; but they are at least 
 brief and graphic. Portland, where the party 
 " arrived under a salute, and went in procession 
 to the house of one of the leading citizens," 
 Laurence described as " lovely." " The situation 
 of Portland is very striking, on a high promon- 
 tory which overlooks an immense bay, on which 
 upwards of three hundred islands are dotted ; 
 while towards the interior a richly wooded and 
 fertile country stretches aw^ay to the base of the 
 White Mountains, 6000 feet high. The town is 
 well laid out — every street an avenue of noble 
 trees, and the houses substantially built. It is 
 destined before long to rival Boston, and will 
 form the main outlet for Canadian produce. This 
 treaty will be the making of it ; and the in- 
 habitants no doubt felt that they could not 
 sufficiently honour the man who had done more 
 for their town than anybody else." 
 
 The festivities here consisted chiefly of a great 
 banquet, at which " Lord Elgin delighted them 
 with his happy speeches " ; and " I distinguished 
 myself in responding to a ' sentiment ' of a liter-
 
 134 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 ary character with which my name was coupled." 
 The entrance of the Mission into Canada after 
 this partook of the character of a royal progress, 
 with triumphal arches, cheering crowds, and wel- 
 coming speeches at all the stations. But at 
 Montreal, "where the population is somewhat 
 uncertain in its loyalty," their reception was by 
 no means so demonstrative — although the people 
 " behaved very decently " on the whole. From 
 Montreal a special steamer carried the party on to 
 Spencer Wood, the viceregal residence, of which 
 Laurence gives an enthusiastic description. He 
 writes on the verandah into which his rooms 
 open, " enjoying a Mediterranean air and more 
 than a Mediterranean view " : — 
 
 " Spexcer "Wood, June 14, 1854. 
 
 " From the verandah extends a lawn studded 
 with noble trees to the edge of a steep wooded 
 bank, and among the trees rise the tapering 
 masts of ships, which look as if they were 
 eccentric branches. They are lying in the St 
 Lawrence, two miles broad, and filled with craft 
 of all sizes. It is at once peaceful and busy, 
 and I prefer it to the sea, as in an epicurean 
 point of view it is disturbing to see anything 
 like commotion ; but quiet life is perfect. The 
 opposite bank of the St Lawrence is precipitous
 
 QUEBEC. 135 
 
 and well wooded, with villages at the base, or 
 climbing up valleys or perched upon the edge, 
 and churches prominent and picturesque. When 
 I am tired of looking at the point of view over 
 this lovely scene which my window affords, I 
 stroll down a broad long avenue of magnificent 
 trees ; and then, turning through a thick copse 
 by a winding path, I come upon a little wooded 
 gorge, down which a noisy brook tumbles; and 
 I follow that till it gets too impetuous for my 
 sentimental system, or for the proper construc- 
 tion of the path, which there comes out abruptly 
 upon the edge of a precipice where a summer- 
 house is perched, from which you can look up 
 and down the river for miles. In one direction 
 the swelling banks, of the most brilliant green, 
 are dotted with houses, for the whole country 
 is thickly inhabited ; on the other, a lofty pro- 
 montory is crowned with the fortifications of 
 Quebec, standing out into the river as if to 
 guard the beauties that are beyond. The bay 
 formed by the promontory on which I am, and 
 that on which the Fort stands, is filled with 
 wood. It is at once an island of planks and a 
 forest of masts ; and as I lie listening to the 
 sound of the busy world, the songs of the sailors 
 and the clang of hammers, the laughter of chil- 
 dren and the rushing of the stream, I can enjoy
 
 136 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 hief to perfection ; and I am afraid I have 
 insensibly wasted some valuable time in allow- 
 ing my senses to have the benefit of all these 
 charms. Lord Elgin thinks I am the most 
 romantic of authors, whereas I am rather sur- 
 prised to find that I can now enjoy what I 
 never before really appreciated, and I rejoice in 
 the discovery of a new faculty of enjoyment and 
 a fitting place to exercise it in. To be sure, I 
 have had more to think about within the last 
 few days than I ever had at any former period 
 of my life — or at any rate, I have thought ex- 
 ternal circumstances worthy of more considera- 
 tion than I am in the habit of doinsf. With 
 one's sense of resjjonsibility grows also the im- 
 portant reflection of its proper exercise, and I 
 look upon moments of quiet as more necessary 
 to fortify one to join in the racket of life, just 
 in proportion as that racket is universal and 
 becomes more distracting:. I therefore recomiise 
 in the charms of Spencer Wood and the valley 
 of the St Lawrence a legitimate source of com- 
 fort and support, intended for my benefit just 
 when I most need it." 
 
 These somewhat solemn reflections, by which 
 the young man excuses his love of loitering in 
 a beautiful scene, are amusing enough ; but the
 
 NEW APPOINTMENT. 137 
 
 intimation at the end of his letter of the new 
 position in which he suddenly found himself was 
 enough to warrant the solemnity. 
 
 " My book has obtained for me all through our 
 tour considerable notoriety, and I was immensely 
 made of by the citizens of Portland and else- 
 where. Here, too, where novelties are rare, I am 
 an object of some curiosity, and am in consequence 
 rather nervous at the prominence of my position 
 — and which was so totally unexpected. I think 
 I had just heard of it as I closed my last letter 
 to you. Know, then, that I am now Superin- 
 tendent - General of Indian Affairs, having suc- 
 ceeded Colonel Bruce in that office, and having 
 as my subordinates two colonels, two captains 
 (all of militia), and some English gentlemen who 
 have been long in the service, and who must look 
 rather suspiciously at the ' Oriental Traveller's ' 
 interposition. However, I hope to get on pretty 
 well, notwithstanding I already contemplate row- 
 ing one of the colonels and turning him out if he 
 is not more attentive to his duties." 
 
 The appointment of so young a man, not even 
 a member of the Civil Service, and entirely new 
 to Canada and its needs, was evidently by no 
 means a popular one, if we may trust the cut-
 
 138 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 tings from Canadian papers which accompany 
 these letters ; and caused great talk of favourit- 
 ism, and the sacrifice of the public service to 
 private motives. He himself, however, was full 
 of great intentions on the subject, and a deter- 
 mination to do his duty. He writes in a sub- 
 sequent letter that he has not been fully em- 
 ployed, and is disgusted by the waste of time. 
 
 " Spencer "Wood, J%dy 7. 
 
 " However, it is not altogether lost, for I have 
 been revolving great projects in my brain. One 
 is to remodel to a great extent the Indian De- 
 partment, and the whole system upon which the 
 Indian tribes are at present managed. However, 
 it must be done w^ith caution and well matured, as 
 I suspect the Government will not readily assent 
 to my view^s, which are a little arbitrary and des- 
 potic. Then I am going to compile information 
 for a book which I have been planning. It is to 
 be a sort of treatise on constitutional government, 
 contrasting this country with the United States, 
 showinof the abuses of the latter and the advan- 
 tages of responsible government. I have got 
 such great advantages here in the way of mate- 
 rial, that I do not like to let the opportunity slip. 
 At the same time, it is such a tremendous under- 
 taking, and I commence it in a condition of such
 
 LITERARY PLANS. 139 
 
 abject ignorance, that I have not as yet plucked 
 up courage to face it. Moreover, it is a nervous 
 operation to risk one's recantation upon so grand 
 a theme. However, success will be all the more 
 glorious, and I shall not be in a hurry, but digest 
 and compile slowly ; and then, when the great 
 crash comes in the States which is inevitable, I 
 will try and turn out a few notions on the crisis 
 at the nick of time. If the crisis does not come, 
 I shall put my information into an anonymous 
 form, rather than publish anything with my 
 name that is not paramountly interesting. If 
 Aunt M. and others wish to know whether my 
 appointment is permanent, pray say that I am 
 most thankful it is not. Nothing can be a 
 greater curse to a young man wishing to get 
 on than a permanent appointment. It is cer- 
 tainly not the quickest way to get up a ladder 
 to establish one's self on the lowest step." 
 
 And here is a piece of precocious youthful wis- 
 dom, perhaps not quite so wise as that above 
 quoted. It is given with the absolute certainty 
 which members of the human race possess at 
 twenty-five. " No man who has been the editor 
 of a Government paper for twenty years can 
 retain his honesty. You see how the 'Times' 
 has been obliged to go into opposition : they were
 
 140 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 losing their influence fast. Nothing is more es- 
 tabhshed than the fact that the newspaper which 
 exerts the greatest influence in a country must 
 be in opposition. It is also sure of a larger cir- 
 culation, because Government supporters are ob- 
 liged to take it to see what is said, and the 
 opponents take it because they agree with it. 
 
 " I confess," adds the young man, going back 
 to questions less abstract, " that I am rather fas- 
 cinated with the new world. There is such 
 scope for great political chances and changes. 
 Now that we have got reciprocity, there can be 
 no doubt that Canada is best ofi* as she is, in spite 
 of all the nonsense that ass Ellenborough talked. 
 It is a great comfort to feel that if the old world 
 does not pay we can fall back upon the new. 
 There is plenty of room, and great facilities for 
 becominof rich." 
 
 Another letter, however, from the paradise of 
 Spencer Wood, where his mind w^as full of so 
 many projects, both practical and visionary, is 
 of a very diflerent tone. It is like the opening 
 of a door in the secret chamber of the young 
 man's heart and thoughts, at which his mother 
 was continually knocking, anxious above all 
 things to know how his mind stood in respect 
 to the momentous matters of religion, in which, 
 from his earliest childhood, she had desired con-
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS. 141 
 
 tinual confidences. I do not know what Lady 
 Oliph ant's distinctive views were at this time. 
 They were, perhaps, a httle open to the influence 
 of the prevaihng preacher who interested and 
 instructed her ; but they were always full of 
 profound and emotional piety, and her strongest 
 desire was that her son should be like herself, 
 placing sacred subjects in absolute pre-eminence 
 both in his thoughts and life — and that he should 
 tell her so. He writes on a Sunday morning, 
 when "kept back by a wet day from going to 
 
 church." 
 
 " Spencer Wood, July 9. 
 
 " Just now, however, the sun has burst forth 
 from behind the clouds, and makes nature here 
 look more lovely than ever. While enjoying it 
 just now, I was struck with the congenial senti- 
 ments expressed in the Psalm to which I was re- 
 ferred in Bogatsky, the 143d : they seemed ex- 
 actly to exjDlain my feelings. The more sensible 
 one is of the magnificence of the works of crea- 
 tion, the more incompetent one feels to live 
 worthily of the author of them, and a sort of 
 feeling of desolation is induced, which David 
 evidently sympathised with. There is a hope- 
 less lonffina" to be assimilated to the Creator, no 
 doubt increasing in intensity in proportion as one 
 appreciates His works ; and in spite of any com-
 
 142 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 binations of external circumstances which, so far 
 as the world is concerned, seem enough to make 
 one perfectly happy and contented, the very fact 
 of one's being capable of a certain degree of en- 
 joyment makes one desire a still higher order. 
 Of nothing am I more certain than of the incom- 
 petency of any earthly gratification affording hap- 
 piness just on the same principle : it is always 
 accompanied with an indefinable longing for 
 something more, just as when one contemplates 
 nature and enjoys it most keenly, the soul begins 
 to thirst after God as a thirsty land, and ' the 
 heart within is desolate.' David evidently 
 looked upon nature as an appointed means of 
 elevating the soul. So many of his aspirations 
 have their origin in this ; and in admiring God's 
 works nothinof can be more natural than an 
 ardent desire to be imbued as largely as possible 
 w^ith the same spirit that breathes in them. 
 'Thy spirit is good.' As I think I said in a 
 letter some time ago, w^e do not half appreciate 
 the influence of the Spirit. I am perhaps inclined 
 to give it too prominent a place, my natural in- 
 clination being to overlook the Second Person as 
 the only recognised means of obtaining the Third. 
 But that is just where my faith is most severely 
 tried. Everything around me testifies to the 
 existence of a Being who is all-pervading ; but
 
 THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 14 
 
 o 
 
 the Son is nowhere visible, and does not, so to 
 speak, force Himself upon the senses. It is a 
 totally different act of the mind which is required 
 to accept Him as a positive fact. To speak in 
 old Erskine's phraseology, the subjective Tally is 
 wanting, which, in the Deity and His Spirit, as 
 manifested in nature, is so readily found. How- 
 ever, I have rather wandered from the original 
 idea, which presented itself forcibly on reading 
 the Psalm ; and it is worthy of observation that 
 David had not only the subjective as regards God 
 in nature but in Christ, and that by an act of 
 faith infinitely more difficult than ours, as it was 
 prospective. This want on my part is therefore 
 the result, doubtless, of a small measure of the 
 Spirit, and I have the most perfect confidence 
 that if I earnestly desire to be taught and con- 
 firmed on this point, the- Spirit will eftectually 
 operate. At present, with the small measure I 
 as yet possess, and the pertinacity with which I 
 grieve and offend it in spite of its remonstrances, 
 I can scarcely expect to make any rapid progress ; 
 but I think you will understand from what I have 
 said how the 143d Psalm should chime in with my 
 feelings, and be comfortino- in showincr how a man 
 of David's spirituality was occasionally led to 
 lament over his own weakness while meditating 
 on God's works. You used to say that the more
 
 144 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 I was favoured by external circumstances, the 
 more I grumble and am discontented with myself. 
 I think even after David was a king he was occa- 
 sionally affected in like manner, and were it not 
 so, one would be disposed to think that one was 
 deserted altogether, and left to one's own evil 
 devices." 
 
 While thus, however, opening his heart to his 
 mother in the way she most eagerly desired, he 
 was very anxious not to give her too high an idea 
 of his spiritual progi^ess, or represent himself as 
 better than he felt himself to be ; and in the end 
 of the same letter, continued some days later, he 
 protests against her too delighted reception of 
 such spiritual confidences. 
 
 " I think you overrate my progress, and give 
 way to your natural impulses too much in the ex- 
 pression of such ardent rejoicings. I only hope 
 they will not be turned into mourning. I am of 
 course very glad of anything that reconciles you 
 to our separation ; but at the same time feel my 
 own weakness too much to desire that you should 
 repose too much confidence in my resolutions, or 
 anticipate too great results from what I wrote. 
 This is just one of the reasons which make me 
 hesitate about expressing so very much. It would
 
 AN UNGRATEFUL LECTURE. 145 
 
 be far better for you not to form extravagant 
 expectations, than having formed them to be 
 disappointed. However, I do not mean that you 
 should not be grateful with all humility, or that 
 it is not natural, if you feel comforted during 
 my absence, that you should say so ; only you 
 must remember that the effects of it might be 
 to produce a spirit of self-satisfaction in me, or 
 a desire to write more of the same comfortable 
 doctrine w^ien I don't feel it, with many other 
 bad effects — to say nothing of the dreadful reac- 
 tion which is always possible, and which is indeed 
 inevitable when any one emotion is allowed an 
 undue influence. There is a most uno-rateful 
 lecture to return to such an affecting outpouring 
 as few sons, I am sure, ever received ; but how- 
 ever agreeable it may have been at the time, 
 the danger of going to extremes in these matters 
 struck me too forcibly not to make me feel war- 
 ranted in telling you, as you always ask me to 
 do so." 
 
 The important post to which he had been ap- 
 pointed, and which carried him into untrodden 
 ways, and put the affairs of the Canadian Red 
 men into his youthful keeping, with no experience, 
 and only his native intelligence, shrewdness, and 
 keen perception of human character to guide him, 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 gave him material for an interesting and amusing 
 book, ' Minnesota and the Far West,' jDubhshed 
 immediately after his return, and for some further 
 recollections published in the ' Episodes in a Life 
 of Adventure,' which make it unnecessary to 
 enter largely into them here. In the carrying 
 out of this work, he had to travel far into the 
 depths of the country, and to meet with many 
 novel experiences. " This duty," he says, " was 
 eminently to my taste. It involved diving into 
 the depths of the backwoods, bark - canoeing on 
 distant and silent lakes or down foaming rivers, 
 where the fishing was splendid, the scenery most 
 romantic, and camp -life at this season of the 
 year, for it was the height of summer, most en- 
 joyable." It was a prolonged picnic, with just 
 enough duty thrown in to deprive it of any char- 
 acter of selfishness. At nearly all the stations 
 there was a school or mission-house of some kind, 
 and here the meeting of the warriors and young 
 braves with their " father " (himself) took place, 
 — " and as I had barely attained the age of 
 twenty -five when these paternal responsibilities 
 were thrust upon me, the incongruity of my re- 
 lation towards them, I am afraid, presented itself 
 somewhat forcibly to the minds of the veterans 
 on these occasions." The most important result 
 of his work amono- them seems to have been, as
 
 A SECOND TREATY. 147 
 
 in the case of the work in Washington, the 
 signing of a treaty. Two State negotiations 
 more different than that between Great Britain 
 and the United States, and that by which the 
 poor Indians gave up for a substantial con- 
 sideration the land previously allotted to them, 
 but which their wandering habits prevented them 
 from making any proper use of, could scarcely 
 be. But the young diplomatist found interest in 
 both. 
 
 The latter part of Lord Elgin's viceroyalty was 
 full of stirring Colonial politics, changes of Minis- 
 try and much political commotion ; and when the 
 young Superintendent of Indian Affairs returned 
 to Quebec from his voyage to the West, it was 
 to resume the duties of his Excellency's private 
 secretary in troubled times — the trouble, how- 
 ever, doing- little more than add a zest to the 
 work, and a little excitement to life. " My posi- 
 tion here is very agreeable," he writes ; "I have 
 pleasant alternatives of excitement and tranquill- 
 ity, always plenty to occupy me, a climate which 
 agrees with me better than any other I ever was 
 in ; and in many ways I think I am gaining much 
 valuable experience. 
 
 " I found no less than ten official letters, besides 
 the English mail, awaiting me this morning. I
 
 148 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 had moreover four appointments of gentlemen 
 wanting interviews, a lot of incidental coves to 
 stave off from his Excellency, which I flatter my- 
 self is the part of the business I excel in most. 
 They always leave infinitely better pleased than 
 if they had had their interview. My life is much 
 like that of a Cabinet Minister or Parliament- 
 ary swell, now that the House is sitting. I am 
 there every night till the small hours, taking 
 little relaxations in the shape of evening visits 
 when a bore gets up. That keeps me in bed 
 till late, so that breakfast and the drive in (from 
 Spencer Wood), &c., detain me from the office 
 till near one. Then I get through business for 
 the next three hours — chiefly consisting of draft- 
 ing letters, which in the end I ought to be a 
 dab at. I have three bell-ropes hanging at my 
 right hand communicating with my two depart- 
 ments and the messengers. I also append my 
 valuable signature to a great deal without know- 
 ing in the least why, and run out to the most 
 notorious gossips to pick up the last bits of news, 
 political or social, with which to regale his Ex- 
 cellency, wdio duly rings for me for that purpose 
 when he has read his letters and had his inter- 
 views. Then he. walks out with an A.D.C., and 
 I go to the House. There I take up my seat on 
 a chair exclusively my own next the Speaker,
 
 THE DEMUEE SECRETARY. 149 
 
 and members (I have made it my business to 
 know them nearly all) come and tell me the 
 news, and I am on chaffing terms with the Op- 
 position, and on confidential with the Ministeri- 
 alists. If I see pretty girls in the galleries who 
 are friends of mine (the galleries are always full), 
 I go up there and criticise members and draw 
 caricatures of them, which they throw down into 
 members' laps neatly folded, who pass them to 
 the original, — by which time I have regained my 
 seat, and the demure secretary remains pro- 
 foundly political and unsuspected. I find noth- 
 ing so difficult as keeping up my dignity, and 
 when the Bishop or a Cabinet Minister calls, I 
 take their apologies for intruding as if I was 
 doing them a favour. I am afraid of hazarding 
 a joke unless I am quite sure it is a good one. 
 I suppose the dignity of the office was so well 
 sustained by Bruce, that they are scandalised 
 by a larky young cove like me." 
 
 More serious matters, however, mingled with 
 the fun with which the gay young secretary 
 diversified his life. On the day after a great 
 picnic, terminating in an impromptu dance which 
 was his suggestion, and which accordingly he 
 devoted all his faculties to carry out successfully, 
 he describes himself as "fairly done up."
 
 150 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 " The Ministers were determined to push 
 through the answer" (to the Governor's speech 
 from the throne), "in order that by large majori- 
 ties they might influence the election of the new 
 Ministers in Upper Canada ; the Opposition were 
 determined to defeat that object : so it was a 
 question of who would sit it out. The conse- 
 quence was a debate of twenty-two hours. I had 
 dined out and gone to an evening party, and 
 then went to the House and remained till half- 
 past four, when Mackenzie the quondam rebel 
 got up to make a rambling speech which I hear 
 lasted for four hours ; but I left, and when I 
 returned at one in the afternoon I found the 
 House still sitting, so you see Parliament is not 
 a mere sham in this country, and its value is 
 properly appreciated. On Thursday we had a 
 succession of grand doings, beginning at twelve, 
 accounts of which you will see in the papers. 
 Lord Elgin made a magnificent oration in French : 
 it is really a pleasure to be attached to such a 
 man, so stunning in certain respects. It created 
 a great sensation. The whole thing was novel 
 and exciting : first the reception by a dozen 
 purple episcopates in the Archbishojj's jDalace, 
 and then the opening of a Koman Catholic 
 college by his Excellency. Your liberality would 
 not quite come such a stretch as that. There
 
 POLITICS AND SOCIETY. 151 
 
 were some thousands of people assembled. Some 
 of the Protestants here are highly disgusted, but 
 I highly approve. No sooner was this proceed- 
 ing over than we received the dutiful answer to 
 the address from the Commons, which was an echo 
 of the Governor's speech, and a great triumph 
 to him after all the abuse that has been lavished 
 upon him. The answer has been carried through 
 the House by overwhelming majorities. After 
 that we received a quantity more of purple 
 ecclesiastics. All this time I had been in full 
 dress, white tie, &c. Then to the House till 
 dinner, when I dined with Mr Primrose, Lord 
 Posebery's brother, who afterwards had a ball, 
 where I remained till pretty late. Not the best 
 preparation in the world for our own ball at 
 Spencer Wood to-night ; but I shall cut some of 
 that by staying in the House to see the Eecipro- 
 city Treaty through. It was read last night for 
 the first time. However, the Governor says the 
 success of the ball depends upon me. I have in- 
 troduced four new dances into Quebec. What 
 an enviable reputation to have, and how aston- 
 ished my Edinburgh friends would be ! and yet 
 I don't care nearly so much for gaiety as I used 
 to do. Only whatever I undertake I like to 
 carry out with a will ; and if we are to leave 
 Canada with a flare-up after eight years of the
 
 152 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 most successful administration that any Governor 
 ever had, I will do my best." 
 
 " Society here is really very agreeable," he 
 adds. " There are no sets or jealousies, but 
 everybody is on excellent terms and very good- 
 natured." As usual, he was specially interested 
 in one portion of society. I do not know if the 
 peculiar institution hereafter described has found 
 a place in any other record : " The girls are for 
 the most part lively and pretty, with a deal of 
 French in them, which prevents their having a 
 taste for solid information, but makes up for it by 
 giving them plenty of small talk and fascinating 
 manners. I go upon the principle of dispensing 
 my favours so liberally that my attentions cannot 
 be said to be particular, though that is not at all 
 the fashion. Every girl has what is called her 
 muffin, — some devoue, who never leaves her side, 
 dances with her always when he is not sitting 
 with her in a dark corner, and behaves as if he 
 were engaged. This, however, is not the case, 
 nor is it expected. It is quite an understood 
 thing that he is her muffin and she his, not her 
 future husband, and curiously enough no harm 
 ever comes of it. Sometimes it ends in marriage, 
 but never in anything else." 
 
 There is a great deal about these young ladies
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FEELING. 153 
 
 in the letters, especially as his time draws towards 
 an end ; and he becomes full of questions as to 
 his conduct, — whether he has kept up to his own 
 standard, whether it would be possible for him to 
 keep up to it if he stayed longer, and how his 
 young successor, with whom he has had many 
 confidences on the subject of religion — some- 
 times feeling that his advices do the young man 
 good, sometimes that his inconsistencies do him 
 harm — will be able to Avithstand the many tempta- 
 tions of society. For Quebec society, with that 
 delightful mixture of French ease and lightness, 
 with the charms and frankness of the ladies, the 
 good-humour and freedom and friendliness of all 
 around, is sadly against serious thought : and as 
 he half impels and half is impelled by his chief 
 into the blaze of entertainment and gaiety which 
 is wanted to make a brilliant conclusion to Lord 
 Elgin's administration, his doubts and tribulations 
 grow more and more. " Lord E. says he never 
 knows what I am at, at one moment going to the 
 extreme of gaiety, at another to that of disgust 
 and despondency. All he wishes is in a good- 
 natured way to anmse people ; and he therefore 
 can hardly sympathise with my reactions every 
 now and then, which arise from my being too 
 well amused myself. He sees my twinges of con- 
 science, and asked me the other day whether I
 
 154 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 was going to lay all the sins I seemed so much 
 oppressed with at his door ? At another he said, 
 " All these comments of yours upon our proceed- 
 ings distress me very much. After all, we are 
 only amusing people, and if you have got any- 
 thing to repent of, I wish you'd wait and do it on 
 board ship." Then after an outcry, which is not 
 at all intended to be humorous, " Flesh and blood 
 can't stand the temptation of such hosts of 
 charming girls ! " the young secretary comments 
 somewhat demurely as follows : — 
 
 " There is a class of sins which are very diffi- 
 cult to resist, because you cannot put your finger 
 upon the exact j)oint where they become sins. 
 Now, for instance, a certain degree of intimacy 
 with young ladies is no harm ; and it is difficult 
 to define where flirting begins, or what amount 
 even of joking and laughing, though perfectly 
 innocent, is not expedient, and one gets led im- 
 perceptibly on without feeling the harm that is 
 being done to both parties until it is too late. 
 As I told you before, I am not in any degree in- 
 volved in anything : but I daresay I should be if I 
 stayed ; or as an alternative, become more utterly 
 heartless in those matters than I am already." 
 
 These scruples being set to rest, or at least
 
 WINTER IN CANADA. 155 
 
 temporarily silenced by being put into words, he 
 gives a most lively descrij^tion of the setting in 
 of winter, which he had much desired to see before 
 leaving Canada — a wish which was gratified by 
 means of various unforeseen ministerial changes 
 which delayed Lord Elgin's departure. De- 
 scribing these changes, and lamenting the dis- 
 appointment to his eagerly expectant parents in 
 consequence, he adds : — 
 
 " Meantime I am revelling in the first burst 
 of winter and its attendant novelty. I would 
 not have missed it for the world. My office 
 window looks upon the Place d'Armes, a 
 large square. On the one side is the plat- 
 form overlooking the river, forming the pro- 
 menade in summer ; on the other the main 
 street. Parliament House, &c., opposite gardens. 
 The day is mild and calm, and the snow half 
 a foot deep. Not a wheeled vehicle is to be 
 seen. Cabstands all sleighs, no two alike in 
 shape. Round the Place sleighs with tandems 
 or pairs, full of ladies mutfied up in furs, with 
 buffalo-robes streaming behind, dash about rapidly 
 over the crisp snow, making a merry accompani- 
 ment to its crunching with their bells, the occu- 
 pants looking prettier than ever. Single men 
 dashing about in swell turn-outs, from which I
 
 156 AMERICA AND CANADA. 
 
 must say Bury with his blood horses bears the 
 palm. They go round and round, cut out and in, 
 and then dash away through the Fort gates into 
 the snow - clad country. With a pleasant com- 
 panion nothing could be more exhilarating. 
 Some of the faster young ladies are picked up 
 by the most insinuating young men and driven 
 tete-a-tete, so snug and confiding. I had a charm- 
 ing mufiin yesterday. She is engaged to be 
 married, so don't be alarmed. By changing 
 every day you are quite safe. It does not do 
 to be particular ; besides, as you may suppose, 
 the nicest won't go even with their most par- 
 ticular friends unless there is a picnic or a 
 sleighing party, though why it is more correct 
 or less dangerous then, I cannot exactly say. 
 
 " From the platform the scene is extraordinary ; 
 the river full of floes of floating ice, which collects 
 in the bays, and surges up into fantastic masses. 
 People cross in canoes, and when they get to a 
 floe, the boatmen jump on it and haul the canoe 
 over, the occupants remaining still. I watch 
 them from the platform. The most exciting 
 part of sleighing is turning corners. Unless you 
 know the dodge you are sure to upset, but it is 
 only into the snow, and no harm is done. I have 
 not been upset yet, and always go like the wind."
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY. 157 
 
 One of the most pleasant things in these letters 
 is the character — always wholly admired, not al- 
 ways comprehended — the remarkable figure of the 
 chief, his Excellency, w^io is sometimes called, in 
 puzzled familiarity, " a queer fish," but whose 
 boundless ability, his skill, his command of every 
 resource, his plans never fully expounded, gradu- 
 ally dawning by degrees on the young disciple's 
 brilliant intelligence, his sympathy yet authority, 
 come out before us in a hundred minute touches 
 under the hand of the writer, all unconscious 
 that he is making any such portrait in the letter 
 he dashes off to his mother punctual as the 
 post, before he touches his official work. It is, 
 of course, imperfect, and in a manner accidental ; 
 but it is admirably vivid and true. I am not 
 aware if any memoir of the late Lord Elgin has 
 been given to the public ; but if not, the letters 
 I have quoted would afford much admirable 
 material to assist in such a memorial.
 
 158 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 Laurence returned home early in 1855, to find 
 his parents awaiting him in London. His own 
 prospects, however, were so unsettled — the en- 
 gagement with Lord Elgin terminating on the 
 withdrawal of the latter from office, though to 
 be renewed at a later period — that no definite 
 home was established in London ; and the family, 
 thus reunited, would seem to have contented 
 themselves in lodgings, now in one street, now 
 in another, — not a very comfortable mode of life. 
 And it is apparent that the Chief- Justice of 
 Ceylon, accustomed to so full an existence and 
 to occupy a very important position in his own 
 sphere, felt himself considerably out of his ele- 
 ment in London, where at first he had not even 
 the comfort of a club where he could meet his 
 old friends, these institutions being less neces- 
 sities of life in those days than they are now.
 
 IN SUSPENSE. 159 
 
 And not ininaturally Laurence, after his brief 
 but brilliant experience of public life, found it 
 difficult to content himself without occupation 
 and with the doubtful prosj^ects before him. 
 His mind returned with a bound to its former 
 aspirations in respect to the Crimea, and to the 
 plan he had conceived of making a diversion in 
 the Caucasus, and thus drawing away the atten- 
 tion of Russia to a country which it was of so 
 much importance to her to overawe and secure. 
 He had declined an offer made to him to remain 
 in Canada as secretary to Sir Edmund Head, 
 the successor of Lord Elgin, in the spirit of his 
 own axiom that a man who means to climb a 
 ladder does not establish himself on the lowest 
 step. I am told that he also declined a small 
 governorship in the West Lidies, probably, if 
 this is true, for the same reason ; but to re- 
 main inactive, waiting upon fortune, was impos- 
 sible to him. The plan which he had reluc- 
 tantly resigned in order to accompany Lord 
 Elgin now came back to his mind with double 
 force ; and he soon found an 02:)portunity to 
 explain and press his views. " I proposed," he 
 says, " to Lord Clarendon that I should under- 
 take a mission to Schamyl, for the purpose, if 
 possible, of concocting some scheme with that 
 chieftain by which combined operations could be
 
 160 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 carried on, either with the Turkish contingent, 
 which was then just organised by General Vivian, 
 or with the regular Turkish army." He never 
 ceased to believe that great things could have 
 been done had this plan been carried out, — that 
 the fall of Kars might have been averted, and 
 most sensible assistance given in the carrying 
 out of all the objects of the war. He had 
 scarcely got back to London, plunging again into 
 all the excitement of that momentous time when 
 the Crimea and the struggle going on there was 
 the universal topic, than he flashed forth a pam- 
 phlet on this subject, calling the general atten- 
 tion to his project. Perhaps Lord Clarendon, 
 then no doubt harassed with many suggestions, 
 considered it the easiest way at last of getting 
 rid of the eager young man, whose arguments 
 were unanswerable and his perseverance bound- 
 less, to send him off to the heart of the diplo- 
 matic strife at Constantinople, and thus transfer 
 the trouble of settling the question to other 
 shoulders than his own. " He determined to 
 send me with a letter to Lord Stratford de Red- 
 cliflPe, authorising him to send me to Daghestan, 
 in the Eastern Caucasus, where Schamyl had 
 his stronghold, for the purpose of making cer- 
 tain overtures to him, at his lordship's own 
 discretion."
 
 DEPARTURE FOR THE CRIMEA. 161 
 
 It is difficult not to believe that Lord Claren- 
 don's sanction to the journey which Laurence 
 was so eager to undertake was more in the nature 
 of a permission, accompanied by an introduction 
 to Lord Stratford, than anything more authori- 
 tative. The young man, however, took it in 
 a weightier sense, and set out in the highest 
 spirits, accompanied by his father, whose delight 
 in escaping from the uncongenial crowd of Lon- 
 don, and in the prospect of exciting scenes and 
 experiences, seems to have been even greater 
 than that of his son. A compunction momen- 
 tarily clouded the mind of Laurence at the 
 thought of the mother left alone behind, with 
 the chief objects of her existence both gone : but 
 he comforted himself with the thought of the 
 visits to kind friends which she was about to 
 pay in the meantime, and the ministrations of 
 a kind and dear Lucy, a favourite niece, who 
 w^ould console her ; and also with an immediate 
 effort to keep her amused by the most lively 
 account of the journey, and everything that he 
 and " Papa " said and did. Papa appears in an 
 altogether delightful light in this history. Of 
 course he picks up the greatest snobs on board 
 to be kind to, as Lady Oliphant will understand 
 — he keeps his end of the table full of jokes and 
 mirth, he enjoys everything with the freshness 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1G2 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 of a boy, and with still more clelighful freedom 
 and pleasure in novelty than even his son ex- 
 periences. Laurence, indeed, becomes for the 
 time middle-aged and serious in presence of his 
 father's insouciance and charming boyishness. 
 The pair take the steamer at Marseilles for 
 Constantinople, and find themselves at once 
 drifted into the war atmosphere. With them 
 in the ship is " Captain Speke of the Turkish 
 Contingent, formerly East India Company's ser- 
 vice, who was speared in nine places on the coast 
 of Africa, where Burton, with whom he was, was 
 also wounded and their other companions killed. 
 Of course he is dying to go back and try again, 
 but is going to take a turn to Sebastopol first." 
 This is all that Laurence says of the great 
 traveller. It is curious thus to meet undistin- 
 guished, before the events that made him famous, 
 passing across our vision for a moment, so well- 
 known a fio'ure. Another of more heroic mould, 
 Gordon, Laurence encountered in the trenches 
 before Sebastopol, but unfortunately there is no 
 record of that meeting. 
 
 Lord Stratford was not found at Constantinople, 
 and the travellers accordingly followed him in the 
 blazing August weather, up the Bosphorus to 
 Therapia. The little steamer, which now fusses 
 so noisily yet so peacefully from village to village
 
 THEE API A. 163 
 
 along the shores of that glorious strait, breathed 
 nothing but gunpowder in those exciting days. 
 " The occupants of the boat were all Crimean 
 officers ; none we actually knew, but we found 
 plenty of mutual acquaintance. It was exactly 
 like dining at a mess. Old friends met and 
 talked over their wounds and their dangers — some 
 bovs of seventeen who have i-'one throuo-h the 
 whole thing, and were only anxious to get back. 
 One man would come and say, ' How are you, old 
 fellow ? ' and the old fellow, not remembering him, 
 would add, ' Were you not in the night attack ? ' 
 and then they would talk over old scenes, not 
 havmg seen each other since parted by cannon- 
 balls on that eventful nie-ht." At the house of 
 the English ambassador at Therapia, Laurence 
 was received with great kindness by Lord 
 Stratford, who talked to him much about the 
 war, taking the eager young diplomatist into his 
 confidence, and no doubt glad to hear from a new 
 witness so brilliantly observant and free from 
 officialism what was said and thought at home, 
 where already he had been misrepresented. The 
 ambassador ended by inviting his visitor to go 
 with him to the seat of war, Avhither he was just 
 about to start in his yacht in order to bestow 
 sundry decorations. Amid all his kindness and 
 confidential talk, he would not, however, say
 
 164 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 anything about the mission to Schamyl, which 
 Lord Clarendon had left " to his lordship's discre- 
 tion." DisajDpointed by this, yet pleased and 
 flattered by the place thus offered to him among 
 Lord Stratford's immediate surroundings, Laurence 
 resolved to accept his ofler. " On the way," he 
 says, " I shall have plenty of time for imbuing 
 Lord S. with my own notions, and if he does 
 not succumb to my diplomacy in the end, I shall 
 consider myself too stupid to cope with Schamyl, 
 and be consoled." 
 
 "As I look out of my bedroom window," he 
 adds, " I see nothing but confusion ; the M^iole 
 quay covered with French troops grouped round 
 their knapsacks, and going off in boats to the 
 steamers, while bullock-waggons containing heavy 
 baggage wheel along the water's edge, and busy 
 steamers of all sizes are passing up and down the 
 Bosphorus in such numbers that people never look 
 at them." The traveller of the present day, who 
 has felt how much the lovely peacefulness of those 
 beautiful shores is enhanced by the stream of 
 vessels of all descriptions that go up and down 
 from the Black Sea to the more peaceful waters 
 of Marmora and the busy port of the Golden 
 Horn, will be able to form some small idea of the 
 commotion and excitement of that moment, when 
 the white sails and peaceful fleets of trade were
 
 LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 165 
 
 swept out of the straits, and the transports and 
 ships of war, bound to and fro to replenish the 
 ranks with fresh troops and bring back the 
 wounded and fever-stricken, were all that were 
 visible. Yet even in the midst of this absorbing 
 commotion, the young self-sent envoy, palpitating 
 with eager projects, had time for affectionate and 
 serious thought. 
 
 " I need not say that you are never absent from 
 my thoughts, in the midst of all my plans more than 
 ever ; feeling how deeply you are interested in 
 every one of them, and above all feeling how 
 anxious you must be. I find myself, therefore, 
 referring to you mentally at every moment, and 
 the only thing that gives me anxiety is the fear 
 that you may be so worried and anxious as to 
 interfere with your health. Just in proportion as 
 my present life is one to cause you anxiety do I 
 constantly recur to you. When I was gay and 
 thoughtless in Canada, I did not think half so 
 much about you as now when I have got more 
 weighty matters in hand. I hope you quite see 
 the propriety of not missing such an opportunity 
 of conferring with Lord S. as my voyage with him 
 to the Crimea offers. I have been lying on my 
 back for an hour reading and praying. I think it 
 has done me good and strengthened my faith.
 
 166 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 I feel ready for anything that God may see fit, — 
 for disappointment, I hope, as well as success." 
 
 It is impossible not to feel that now and then 
 his mother's call upon him for spiritual confidences, 
 and a report of all his thoughts, gave the young 
 man a certain impatience, and that he satisfied 
 her desire for information as to the state of his 
 soul, sometimes with utterances which must have 
 startled her, sometimes with attempts, not very 
 successful, to fall into the more ordinary vein of 
 religious musings. And there is always apparent 
 a little relief in getting back to the things of this 
 world, which it was more easy to treat. " I hope 
 to get Sir E. Lyons and General Simpson to see 
 the propriety of a Circassian expedition," he sa.js, 
 carried away from his halting religious revelations 
 to the more eager tide of his hopes, " and if so, 
 shall insist upon l^eing accompanied by a strong 
 military force, which will give a weight to m}^ 
 representations which would be wanting to a 
 solitary agent." It is evident from the uncer- 
 tainty and anxiety of these utterances that Lord 
 Clarendon's recommendation to Lord Stratford 
 must have been more a favouralDle one of a 
 remarkable and highly gifted young man, than 
 anything in the shape of official instructions to 
 the ambassador.
 
 THE BREATH OF WAE. 1G7 
 
 His next letter is dated from Kamiesch 
 Bay, and gives a curious sensation of the very 
 atmosphere and breath of war. " Long before 
 we saw land we saw the vivid flashes of the guns, 
 and heard the reports when we got nearer : a 
 heavy cannonade was kept up all night. Very 
 curious," he adds, "to be rigging out in ball 
 costume (to dine in the Royal Albert, the Ad- 
 miral's ship) to the sound of the booming guns 
 of the bombardment. After dinner we watched 
 the bombardment from the stern of the vessel, — 
 sometimes the flashes rapid and close together, 
 and the noise of the cannonading very great ; at 
 others it died away for a time." With their 
 glasses they could see the shells whizzing through 
 the air, falling in the trenches, and the rush of the 
 soldiers in all directions. Few spectacles could 
 be so excitino-. In the meantime Laurence had 
 given the ambassador his pamphlet to read, with 
 the opinions of which Lord Stratford expressed 
 his full agreement. " He has done everything 
 but promise to send me to Schamyl," the young 
 man adds ; " that he staves off, and says he will 
 think about it, &c. Though he can show no good 
 objections, still he does not take to the scheme 
 kindly." Laurence was not yet experienced 
 enough to understand how diflerent a thing it 
 was to silence a statesman in argument, so that
 
 168 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 he could " show no good objections," and to get 
 him to take in hand a visionary though hopeful 
 
 scheme. 
 
 Arrived at the camp, Laurence describes to 
 his mother the innumerable lines of tents, some 
 miserable indeed, some comfortable enough, in 
 which he finds as best he can a friend here and 
 there, and snatches an exciting taste of this life 
 of the camp, in which every pulse of existence 
 was at the highest pressure, all the more stormy 
 and strong in their beating from the constant 
 disaster about, and the frequent carrying past 
 of strings of dying and wounded men. The per- 
 petual sound of the guns soon becomes familiar. 
 " Since I have been here there has not elapsed 
 a single minute, either by day or night, in which 
 I have not heard the report of cannon." One of 
 his objects while he roams among the lines is to 
 find a tent for " Papa," from whom he has been 
 obliged to separate in consequence of his invi- 
 tation to accompany the ambassador, but who 
 followed him to the camp, and remained a most 
 interested and excited spectator of the extra- 
 ordinary life there, after Laurence himself had 
 hurried on to further and more wonderful ex- 
 periences still. 
 
 On board the Eoyal Albert, on the occasion 
 of the dinner-party which took place, while sky
 
 SENT TO CTRCASSIA. 169 
 
 and water thrilled with the extraordinary sen- 
 sation of shot and shell, Laurence had met 
 the Duke of Newcastle, who had planned some 
 sort of visit to the Circassian coasts, and who 
 immediately invited the young man to join him. 
 It is curious to note how, as soon as he appears 
 on the scene, this irresistible young man connects 
 himself with all that is highest and most influ- 
 ential near him. He seems to have kept the 
 Duke's proposal in reserve as a sort of jpis aller, 
 not without a practical consciousness that an in- 
 vitation from an ex-Minister and influential poli- 
 tical personage was not one to be neglected, yet 
 more intent upon his own plan than on any kind 
 of social promotion. At last, scarcely because 
 convinced by Laurence's reasoning, yet perhaps 
 yielding a little to the influence of his strong 
 conviction, Lord Stratford sent Mr Alison, one 
 of his own stafP, on a special mission to Cir- 
 cassia in H.M.S. Cyclops, with instructions to 
 confer with Mr Longworth — the agent in charge 
 of British interests along the coast-line, where 
 many forts and villages had been taken from the 
 Russians — upon the possibilities and advantages 
 of a diversion such as was proposed ; and, as 
 Laurence believed, to consult as to the practic- 
 ability of his own anxiously desired mission to 
 Schamyl. As this latter, however, never came
 
 170 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 to anything, it may be permitted to the reader 
 to beUeve that the ambassador was glad to occupy 
 the eager young apphcant by packing him off in 
 attendance upon this envoy, and thus keeping 
 him amused at a distance while grave questions 
 were being- discussed. 
 
 Laurence set out with high hopes, thinking that 
 at last his somewhat quixotic and adventurous 
 purpose was in a fair way of being carried out. 
 And for the next three months he was kept 
 cruising about the coast, now feeling his object 
 almost within his reach, now further off from it 
 than ever. He was in the midst of a little group 
 of officials who were by no means sorry to have 
 the help of his ready wit, and who enjoyed his 
 cheerful company, but there is no appearance 
 that his plan was ever taken into serious con- 
 sideration at all. As time went on, and doubts 
 on this subject began to cross his mind, he took 
 great pains to justify himself to his mother for 
 going on with an adventure which was evidently 
 very pleasing in itself, though it did not carry 
 out his intentions. " Besides writing to you," he 
 says, " I have got the ' Times ' to write long 
 letters to. I look upon this as a great duty, 
 because it brings me in lots of tin, and it is the 
 only way I can justify my present life. I feel 
 that in no other way could I be making so much
 
 (( 
 
 LOTS OF TIN.' 171 
 
 money by my own efforts." This most excellent 
 reason for continuing in a position so agreeable to 
 him Laurence puts forth, however, with so many 
 repetitions, that we feel he is not himself quite 
 satisfied with it, perceiving no doubt that, notwith- 
 standing the " lots of tin," and the still more con- 
 solatory sense that he was the only Englishman 
 who could give the British public any real infor- 
 mation on the subject which he felt to be so 
 important a one, he was not at all carrying out 
 the great plan of public benefit and private am- 
 bition with which he had started. 
 
 Amid all the adventures and excitements of 
 this strange life, however, he always found time 
 to gratify his mother by that report of his more 
 serious thoughts, and the progress of his spiritual 
 life, for which she was always asking. 
 
 '' I am constantly thinking about these things," 
 he says. " I am afraid, however, I generalise 
 too much, and am rather getting into a way of 
 overlooking ceremonies. I cannot but think that 
 if a man tries to act honestly and uprightly and 
 singly, the details of the thing are of compara- 
 tively little importance ; but then I also find that 
 you need the details as helps. It is a great 
 mistake to attach the importance we do to the 
 inherent virtue of these details, and misleads us.
 
 172 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 Let every man find out which details help him 
 most, and adhere to them. Looked on in this 
 light, I think Sunday is a valuable detail. I look 
 upon your letters as a detail to help me : the day 
 I get them is much more of a Sunday to me than 
 any other. 
 
 " I feel strongly the love of God for me, and 
 thankfulness to Him, and great fear of offending 
 Him. I only do not always think that I am 
 offending Him, when you and others would think 
 that I did. The more I think of Him, the more 
 glorious does His service appear, and I dread that 
 I might fall into sin, and am sorry that I do not 
 keep a strict watch on my conversation, and I 
 do not think He hides Himself from me when I 
 pray." 
 
 " When one is knocking about and seeing so 
 much," he adds in another letter, " one does not 
 always, when the mail is going out, feel able to 
 write seriously or thoughtfully. Besides, when I 
 am happy, I am sorry to say I am more contented 
 with myself, and I often think it is difficult to 
 know how much of one's anxiety about the future 
 depends upon one's troubles in the present : when 
 these are removed, one is apt to think less of 
 one's soul. Innocent amusement is the most 
 deadening of anything. Frantic gaiety brings 
 its stings of conscience, but calm enjoyment
 
 LOVE OF THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 173 
 
 produces a permanent hief which should be 
 watched." 
 
 It is seldom that so keen a piece of self-obser- 
 vation as the above comes from the pen of a young- 
 man enjoying to the full, as he was doing, all the 
 delio'hts of a life of adventure. He adds, on 
 another occasion, some remarks on the subject 
 of the conversion of a friend to Eoman Catholic 
 belief, which throws a light of another kind on 
 after-incidents of his own life. " It is because he 
 has not a strong will of his own that he wants to 
 be dictated to on points of faith. Whately says 
 it is the greatest exercise of man's private judg- 
 ment to submit it to another. It is only the exer- 
 cise of a weak judgment." These are very strange 
 words to come from one who in after-years put 
 this abnegation of judgment to so strong a proof 
 He describes himself as always having had " a 
 mania for finding out what people believe," and 
 holding theological discussions with many of the 
 people with whom he is thrown into contact to 
 this end. " He has a creed of his own," he says 
 of one friend ; " but, like most people, has never 
 really and philosophically considered the Bible." 
 In another he comments on the " calm Episco- 
 palianism " of a man who contents himself with 
 externals, and does not trouble himself with
 
 174 THE CEIMEA. 
 
 thinking, — a state of mind for which the hvely 
 spectator finds a great deal to be said. 
 
 Thus he occupied the time of inaction, cruis- 
 ing in the Cyclops, running errands from one 
 port to another, complaining occasionally of want 
 of occupation, yet in constant activity, picking 
 up every scrap of information that came in his 
 way, and resolving to learn Circassian, to perfect 
 his studies in Turkish, and generally to qualify 
 himself as the only Englishman thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the subject. At this time he was 
 still certain that Circassia was the key of the 
 position, ' and that the current of the war would 
 necessarily flow thither as the best way of efiec- 
 tually crippling and checking Russian advance. 
 So far as he himself was concerned, his idea was 
 that, if he knew the language, and " got up the 
 country thoroughly," Government would not be 
 able to do without him, " either here or in Par- 
 liament " ; while he always continued to hold the 
 conviction that, but for the premature conclu- 
 sion of the war, Circassia would certainly have 
 been the next point of operations, and the most 
 effectual. 
 
 It gave a little renewed impetus to his thoughts 
 and plans when, first, Omar Pasha, at the head 
 of a Turkish force, supplemented by English 
 artillery, appeared on the scene ; and secondly,
 
 "an independent swell." 175 
 
 the Duke of Newcastle, still bent upon some brief 
 expedition upon Circassian territory. There were 
 many consultations between the Turkish general 
 and the English officials, in which Laurence took 
 a part, pleased, as he says, " to have to give my 
 opinion as an independent swell " ; and for a time 
 it seemed possible that Omar might take the 
 matter into his own hands, and that the mission 
 to Schamyl, or if not to Schamyl, at least to 
 Schamyl's brother-in-law, the Naib of the Western 
 Caucasus, might still come into effect. But Omar 
 changed his mind at the last moment, when the 
 eager young would-be envoy was actually in the 
 saddle, and the only real result of his schemes 
 was a hunting expedition of a few days with the 
 Duke of Newcastle's party, into the country 
 which Laurence had so hoped to revolutionise. 
 Li his account of this he says : " The Circassians 
 are delighted to receive us ; but it is not easy 
 to make a duke go ahead enough to please me." 
 And indeed there is something almost ludicrous 
 in the idea of the grave middle-aged statesman, 
 weary with the cares of office and the troubles 
 of life, pricked on by this fiery boy in the full 
 tide of his own young unreasoning ambition and 
 impulses, always endeavouring to push his leader 
 forward, and convert the hunting-party into a 
 political mission.
 
 176 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 " Of course, as every step is on ground never 
 before traversed by Europeans, every stej) was in- 
 teresting ; and the scenery was beautiful, but the 
 roads dreadful, — up almost perpendicular moun- 
 tains and along the brink of precipices. The 
 weather was heavenly all the time, and I would 
 have given the world to go over the snow moun- 
 tains, instead of contenting ourselves with getting 
 to the base of them." The party had, however, a 
 grande chasse at Prince Michael's, in which they 
 did not kill much, but found it " very good fun." 
 " I live a most vagrant life," he adds ; " I just 
 sleep where I happen to be when night comes on, 
 — one night on board the Highflyer (the Duke's 
 ship), the next on board the Cyclops, the next in 
 Prince Michael's palace or shooting-box, the next in 
 a hut." I have been told that during this period, 
 when the eager young man was straining at his 
 leash, eager for fun and occupation, he proposed 
 to the captain of the Cyclops to make a sudden 
 raid into a certain nook in shelter of an island, 
 where he had discovered that a Kussian man-of- 
 war had put in secretly for repairs, — replying to 
 the sailor's remonstrance that he would be dis- 
 obeying his orders by doing so with a " What 
 would that matter ? Everything is pardoned to 
 success." 
 
 However, dukes and schemes of all kinds passed
 
 "did not expose himself at all." 177 
 
 away, and there remained only Omar Pasha with 
 his army, still holding- out the hope of that cam- 
 paign which Laurence had always looked forward 
 to as the most effectual step that could be taken. 
 He set out with the vanguard in great excite- 
 ment and delight, slightly tempered by com- 
 punctions as to his mother's alarms, and fears 
 lest this should be thought something very dif- 
 ferent from the hopes with which he started ; 
 yet much consoled by the letters to the ' Times,' 
 which brought in " lots of tin," and kept the 
 country supplied with information which no other 
 Englishman could give. The Turks proved them- 
 selves excellent soldiers, and the scattered Rus- 
 sian forces left in Circassia fell back before them, 
 only attempting an engagement on the banks 
 of the Ingour river, in which Laurence was more 
 actively engaged than he liked at first to con- 
 fess. His first account to his mother gives the 
 imjDression of great caution on his part. He 
 " did not expose himself at all " — taking refuge 
 in a hut, upon the roof of which, it is true, the 
 bullets fell like rain, but where he professes to 
 have been quite safe. The only moment of risk 
 was "when I got your letter of 11th October, 
 which was given me on the field by an officer 
 just arrived from Constantinople, and in which 
 you wonder when and where I would receive it. 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 There was a pretty brisk shower of missiles flying 
 about, and I lay down under a bank and read it. 
 On one side our great guns were blazing away, 
 on the other the wounded were being carried 
 past. Altogether it was about as odd a place 
 to receive a letter in as you could have chosen. 
 However, be thankful that I never was better 
 in my life, barring that I have had nothing to 
 eat for thirty-six hours except your letter (which 
 I devoured) and a biscuit." 
 
 In another letter he is led on to mention " my 
 battery," and this elicits the following anecdote : — 
 
 - " By the by, I never told you I had made a 
 battery. Skender Pasha, the officer in command, 
 thought I was an officer from my having a regi- 
 mental Turkish fez cap on, and asked me if I 
 knew where a battery was to be made about 
 which he had orders. It so happened that I did, 
 because I had been walking over the ground with 
 Simmons in the morning ; so Skender told ofl" a 
 working party of two hundred men, with two 
 companies of infantry and two field-jDieces, put 
 them under my command, and sent me off to 
 make the battery. It was about the middle of 
 a pitch-dark night, slap under the Russian guns, 
 about two hundred yards from them. Luckily 
 they never found us out, we worked so quietly. I
 
 MADE A BATTERY. l79 
 
 had to do everything, — hne the wood with sharp- 
 shooters, put the field-pieces in jDosition, and place 
 the gabions. Everybody came to me for orders 
 in the humblest way. In about three hours I had 
 run up no end of a battery, without having a shot 
 fired at me, while Simmons,^ who was throwing up 
 a battery a few hundred yards lower down, had a 
 man killed. Both these batteries did cr-ood ser- 
 vice two days after. The difficulty was, none of 
 the officers with me could speak anything but 
 Turkish. Afterwards Skender Pasha was speak- 
 ing to Simmons about it, complaining of the Avant 
 of interpreters, and instancing the English officer 
 who made the battery not having an interpreter ; 
 so Simmons said, ' Ce n'est pas un officier, ce n'est 
 qu'un simple gentleman qui voyage,' which rather 
 astonished old Skender. I think Simmons looks 
 on the ' Times ' corresjDondent with a more fav- 
 ourable eye since that experience. 
 
 " I assure you it is quite an act of self-denial 
 on my part leaving the army. I have no doubt 
 I could get a command if I stayed ; but don't 
 be in the least alarmed. I have not the re- 
 motest intention of turning soldier, and only did 
 that for fun and because of the consequences ; 
 besides, I knew if we worked quietly they would 
 never find us out. They were rather astonished 
 
 ^ Now General Sir J. Lintorn Simmon.s, G.C.M.G.
 
 180 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 at dayl^reak to see a battery mounting a couple 
 of guns staring them in the face, and began to 
 pound away at it with their rifles ; but it was 
 too late, and they got as good as they gave. 
 Simmons had described to me in the morning 
 exactly where the battery was to be made, and 
 how to make it. So the whole thing- turned out 
 very fortunately." 
 
 In case the mother at home should think that 
 those fortunate and fortuitous accidents which 
 made it happen that Laurence should know all 
 about the battery, and be thus able to act upon 
 an emergency, implied any inclination to risk 
 himself, he hastens to reassure her on this point. 
 " I hope you give me credit for prudence now," 
 he says, " and will trust me. I assure you I was 
 in a horrible fright of getting shot, entirely on 
 your account, and I don't recommend a man to 
 come to fight if he has got anybody at home who 
 loves him. I don't think he can do his duty. If 
 it had not been for you, I should have taken an 
 active part in the affair. Altogether, though it 
 was in some respects a horrible experience, I am 
 glad to have seen it," This was the only real 
 passage of arms in the whole campaign, and a 
 long pause ensued at Sugdidi, where Laurence's 
 reports turn again to less exciting matters, and
 
 PLUNDER. 181 
 
 to his own thoughts. The external hfe of the 
 camp is thus graphically described : — 
 
 " I am very jolly here in Sugdidi — such a pretty 
 place — only we can't plunder. It is a great temp- 
 tation. I don't wonder at soldiers going to all 
 lengths. One does not feel it is a bit wrong. I 
 put a fine cock in my pocket this morning. I 
 would have given his owner anything he asked if 
 I could have found him ; but if we don't forage 
 we g-et nothino: but rice and biscuits to live on. I 
 should not plunder anything but food, and that I 
 don't call anything. I am not sure," he adds, "that 
 I am not happier, occupied as my mind is now. It 
 is when I have time to think much that doubts 
 arise. When I just say my prayers and read a 
 text earnestly, and then go and gallop about and 
 am in hard healthful exercise, I feel much better 
 in mind and body. I feel my mind much more 
 innocent and less bothered and perplexed ; but I 
 am afraid this is wrong, and that one's occupations 
 ought to be God's work, and not what papa calls 
 playing ones self." 
 
 I may be permitted to add one more of the 
 common-sense and reasonable views of religious 
 life, in opposition at once to the conventionality 
 of many of the so-called evangelical tenets, and
 
 182 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 of much of his own after-thoughts, which are to 
 be found scattered through these letters. " I 
 wish," he says (a desire in which I am unable 
 to follow him), "that the whole Bible was like 
 David's compositions, and that such texts as ' If 
 I pleased men I should not be the servant of 
 Christ,' were not in it." 
 
 " It appears to me that to be a faithful servant 
 of God, it is not necessary that one should be dis- 
 pleasing to His creatures ; and that, constituted 
 as they are, he pleases them most who, by an 
 upright, straightforward conduct, pleases God 
 most. The world does not like wicked men, and 
 those points in which Christians displease the 
 world are those wdiich are involved in the peculi- 
 arities of the system, so to speak, which do not 
 really affect a man's moral conduct. . . . There 
 is not a single thing which my reason tells me 
 I ought to do, which if I did people would find 
 fault with. I am not in the least ashamed to 
 say, even in the most dissipated society, that I 
 believe immorality, which is regarded as the most 
 venial of all sins, is wrong ; but I am ashamed to 
 say that I think going out shooting on Sunday is 
 wrong, simply because I cannot understand why 
 it should be, though I admit that it may be a 
 valuable exercise of self-denial occasionally, and
 
 CAMP THOUGHTS. 18 
 
 o 
 
 that Sunday may be what I said the other day 
 — a very useful detail. I am afraid you will 
 think from this that I am in an unsatisfactory 
 state of mind ; and so I am — chiefly, I think, 
 because I do not feel satisfied with holding views 
 different from many who I think are spiritually 
 enlightened. These, at least, are my camp 
 thoughts, and you asked me always to write 
 what I was thinking. But you may imagine 
 mine is not a life now to foster thought ; and 
 if I had never led any other, I daresay I should 
 have been as good an Episcopalian as Ballard,^ 
 and perhajDS he is on that . account the happier 
 of the two," 
 
 I think very few writers on religious subjects 
 have recognised the fact that many utterances 
 in the Bible of this description relate to a totally 
 different state of affairs from any existing among 
 ourselves, and that a man who makes it apparent 
 that he serves God truly is in no sense an unpop- 
 ular man on that account. Indeed in most cases 
 it is quite the reverse, and goodness is the best 
 passport to universal respect. It pays, as Laurence 
 would have said — which is perhaps less acceptable 
 
 1 Colonel John Archibald Ballard, C.B., commanding the artillery 
 attached to Omar Pasha's army, with whom much of Oliphant's time 
 was spent during this period, and for whom he had a high regard.
 
 184 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 to many minds than the idea that it naturally 
 involves persecution. 
 
 Here is another scrap which no doubt made the 
 heart of the mother thrill with grateful pleasure, 
 yet the overpowering sense of danger escaped. 
 He has been describing the shooting of a spy. 
 
 " A sinofle execution like this has far more ef- 
 feet upon me than when I see the ground strewn 
 with dead bodies. One then somehow forgets 
 they are men ; and when we had a little quiet 
 rifle-shooting on the banks of the Ingour before 
 the battle, I looked at the men opposite as if 
 they had been deer, and adjusted our fellows' 
 sights for them, and watched the effect of the 
 shots without the slightest feeling of compunc- 
 tion. Once, when I was sketching the river, and 
 a fellow took a pot-shot at me, I took a rifle to 
 return it from a man near ; but then I remem- 
 bered my promise to you, and his humanity, and 
 crept away. The fellows Omar sent to sketch 
 the river funked it ; so I did a good deal in 
 that line — crawling about on my hands and 
 knees among the bushes, and flattering myself 
 I was not seen. Whenever I was informed of 
 this fact by the whizz of a Minie, I mizzled ofl" 
 to a safer place. I tell you all this instead of 
 at the time, because the fighting is over ; and
 
 HIS CONSCIENCE NEVER SATISFIED. 185 
 
 SO you have no cause to fear a recurrence of this 
 amusement. But it was very exciting, with the 
 satisfaction, at the same time, of being really of 
 use. It was really sketching under difficulties." 
 
 Then the pendulum of thought swings back 
 again to those subjects of which his home letters 
 are always full. He accuses himself over again 
 of being moved by his present conditions at the 
 moment, to piety or the reverse. When he is 
 in trouble, he is seized with " a sulky fit of 
 devotion." " Because, remember," he continues, 
 "my religion at those times is not of a happy 
 character ; but I am gloomy and disgusted when 
 I am trying to go to religion for comfort. Some- 
 how or other something ought to come of it all, 
 for I am always thinking of the subject in some 
 shape or other. My conscience is never satisfied 
 with my conduct, nor my understanding with my 
 belief, so that altogether I live in a state of in- 
 ternal conflict and argumentation ; and I Avould 
 desire nothing more earnestly than to be a de- 
 voted Christian. I admit that it involves giving 
 up much that I now cling to ; but I think I 
 would not regret giving them up. The best 
 prescription I can think of is to live a month 
 Avith Ernest Noel ; intercourse with him seemed 
 to do me more good than anything else." It
 
 186 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 is seldom that the conflicting thoughts of a 
 young man are thus clearly, and with so little 
 conventional restraint, laid before another. 
 
 The campaign was brought to an end in the first 
 place by the retreat of the Russians, afterwards 
 by the disastrous news of the fall of Kars, which 
 there had still been a hojDe of recovering ; and 
 finally, which was in the eyes of Laurence almost 
 as great a disaster, by the sudden and unsatis- 
 factory peace. And at last he is able to comfort 
 his mother with news of his approaching home- 
 coming, and of his projects for work and patience, 
 and the conviction that an established position of 
 one kind or another must await him. " I do not 
 think that, though my prospects are no more 
 definite than they were, I shall be so miserable 
 and unsettled. I feel more of a philosopher. I 
 have satisfied myself about this question, and 
 intend to be independent. I can write what I 
 know and other people don't. If there is a 
 general election, I shall certainly try hard to get 
 in, but I hate the idea of asking anybody for 
 anything now. I think I can get on in spite of 
 them." 
 
 It was the very end of the year before Laurence 
 got home from this brilliant, exciting, and entirely 
 ineflPectual journey. He had made many new ac- 
 quaintances, both in places and people, and heard
 
 AGAIN IN SUSPENSE. 187 
 
 a great deal which he expected to be superhitively 
 useful to him, but which, excejDt in so far as it 
 suj^plied material for a book, was of scarcely any 
 utility at all. But he was no nearer a definite 
 mode of establishing himself in life than he had 
 been when he set out. He returned after an ill- 
 ness — cauffht in the wet and cold of the tents 
 and the hardships of the march, which was in 
 reality a retreat, " not before the enemy but the 
 weather," and attended by many dej)ressing and 
 wretched details, — in the last days of 1855 or 
 bearinninof of 1856. He came home in the vein 
 I have quoted, determined to make his own way 
 and ask nothing from anybody, and with his 
 mind divided between the diplomatic service and 
 Parliament — a career towards which he had al- 
 ready directed his thoughts. I think it was dur- 
 ing this period that he first contested the Stirling- 
 burghs, though without success ; but of this in- 
 cident I find no details. 
 
 This waiting, however, for something to turn 
 up, Micawber-like, as he himself describes it, 
 was so little to his mind, that in the follow- 
 ing summer he was again on the war - path, 
 seeking employment, adventure, or whatever 
 might befall him. Unfortunately (though per- 
 haps it is as well for the space at my dis- 
 posal), I have not succeeded in obtaining any
 
 188 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 of the letters of this period, so that it can 
 only be traced through those recollections which 
 he thought fit during his life to give to the 
 public. From these it would appear that, not- 
 withstanding all his philosophical resolutions, his 
 impatience of his own want of progress soon 
 reached a great height, and that he was ready 
 for anything that involved movement and activ- 
 ity, finding himself no doubt at the same time 
 more or less independent, so long as he had some- 
 thing novel and strange to tell, by reason of 
 that connection with the ' Times,' which made 
 the wildest wandering profitable. Accordingly, 
 he left England again in the course of the sum- 
 mer of 1856, at first in company with the well- 
 known Mr Delane of the ' Times,' to Avhom " I 
 was able," he says, " to act as cicerone on our 
 arrival at New York," and whose enjoyment of 
 the society and ever - abounding hospitality of 
 that capital was no doubt much enhanced by 
 the popularity and universal acquaintanceship of 
 his young companion, whose previous experiences 
 as Lord Elgin's brilliant secretary were still re- 
 cent. What the business was in which the 
 young man was engaged, I am not aware ; but 
 he speaks of it in a letter to Mr Leveson-Gower 
 as likely to put a thousand pounds in his pocket. 
 When this was accomplished, Laurence Avent on
 
 IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 189 
 
 upon his adventurous way, and, with a keen 
 scent for excitement to come, turned his steps 
 to the Southern States, with the idea, first, 
 of making- himself acquainted on the spot with 
 the workings of slavery, as well as with the 
 jDeculiar social conditions of that section of the 
 American world. " From what I saw and 
 heard," he says, "it was not diflicult to pre- 
 dict the cataclysm which took place four years 
 later, though the idea of the South resorting to 
 violence was scouted in the North ; and when, 
 upon more than one occasion, I ventured to sug- 
 gest the possibility to Republicans, I was invari- 
 ably met by the reply that I had not been long- 
 enough in the country to understand the temper 
 of the people, and attached an importance it did 
 not deserve to Southern ' bounce.' " His visit to 
 that old-new world of the plantations — the patri- 
 archal households and primitive innocent com- 
 munities, bound by a hundred ties to their head, 
 which every picture, even of the most eager 
 Abolitionist character, permits us to see in the 
 slave-holding States, though neutralised by the 
 horrible possibility of a traffic in human flesh and 
 blood — was full of interest to him. 
 
 Laurence found his way as usual among " the 
 best people," and his stay at New Orleans was 
 " one of unqualified enjoyment." But it is a
 
 190 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 practical evidence of his extreme impatience with 
 the as yet undetermined hnes of his own hfe, 
 that he should have been attracted by the idea 
 of an expedition to which the nickname " fili- 
 buster," one of the most felicitous coinages of 
 Americanism, was applied — a word of nonsense, 
 aptly expressing with humorous scorn, yet im- 
 partiality, the sound and fury, the big intention 
 and pretence, of the modern pirate, half-swagger, 
 half-serious meaning. That Laurence Oliphant, 
 who was still well within the reach of good 
 fortune at twentv-seven, and who was soon to 
 fill a res23onsible and important place in actual 
 diplomatic service, should have " accepted a free 
 passage to Nicaragua in a ship conveying a rein- 
 forcement to Walker's army," and should have 
 carried ' ' strong jDcrsonal recommendations to that 
 noted filibuster," is one of the most curious 
 events in his career. This strange step was 
 taken chiefly, no doubt, " for fun," as when he 
 made his battery, — but also a little, we can scarce- 
 ly doubt, from feelings much more serious, and 
 originating in one of those fits of partial despair 
 and disgust with his surroundings, and the lack 
 of advancement, which has been the cause of so 
 many wild enterprises. Walker was requested 
 by his agent, Mr Soule, in New Orleans, " to 
 explain the political situation to me, in the hope
 
 A FILIBUSTER. 101 
 
 that, on my return to England, I might induce 
 the British Government to regard his operations 
 with a more favourable eye than they had hither- 
 to done. The fact that if I succeeded I was to 
 be allowed to take my pick out of a list of con- 
 fiscated haciendas, or estates, certainly did not 
 influence my decision to go, though it may 
 possibly have acted as a gentle stimulant ; but 
 I remember at the time having some doubts on 
 the subject, from a moral point of view. I re- 
 member spending Christmas Day in high spirits 
 at the novelty of this adventure ujDon which I 
 was entering." The Christmas before he had 
 been at Trebizond, just emerging from the hard- 
 ships of Omar Pasha's campaign. But during 
 all the vicissitudes of his Circassian adventures, 
 he had more or less the prestige of a member of 
 the British diplomatic service. Now, however, 
 in strange contrast to that reflected dignity, 
 he was setting forth on what was distinctly a 
 piratical undertaking, amid a crew of armed ad- 
 venturers, invaders, bent on conquest. It was a 
 singular change, and one which we can scarcely 
 suppose could sit easily upon his mind in moments 
 of seriousness ; but the fun and novelty, with per- 
 haps something of the underlying impatience and 
 disgust of the ordinary which had driven him 
 from London, carried the day.
 
 192 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 This adventure, however, was doomed to be 
 but short ; and much in the way in which a 
 naughty prince, in a romance, would be arrested 
 and conveyed back to his proper sphere, Laurence 
 was shaken loose from his companions and carried 
 off to his natural surroundings. When the fili- 
 buster ship came to the mouth of the San Juan 
 river, its progress was impeded by "a British 
 squadron lying at anchor to keep the peace," 
 from one of the vessels of which a boat was soon 
 pulling towards them. " A moment later Captain 
 Cockburn, of H.M.S. Cossack, was in the captain's 
 cabin making most indiscreet inquiries as to the 
 kind of emigrants we were. It did not require 
 long to satisfy him ; and as I incautiously 
 hazarded a remark which betrayed my nation- 
 ality, I was incontinently ordered into his boat 
 as a British subject, being where a British sub- 
 ject had no right to be. As he further announced 
 that he was about to move his ship in such a 
 position as would enable him, should fighting 
 occur in the course of the night, to fire into both 
 combatants with entire impartiality, I the less 
 regretted this abrupt parting from my late com- 
 panions, the more especially as, on asking him 
 who commanded the squadron, I found it was a 
 distant cousin. This announcement on my part 
 was received with some incredulity, and I was
 
 RESTORED TO SOCIETY. 193 
 
 taken on board the Orion, an 80 -gun ship carry- 
 ing the flag of Admiral Erskine, to test its vera- 
 city, while Captain Cockburn made his report of 
 the Texas and her passengers. As soon as the 
 admiral recovered from his amazement at my 
 appearance, he most kindly made me his guest, 
 and I spent a very agreeable time for some days, 
 watching the emigrants disconsolately pacing the 
 deck." 
 
 Thus our young man " fell on his feet " wher- 
 ever he went, and instead of suffering at all for 
 his wild and unjustifiable undertaking, found him- 
 self in excellent and amusing quarters, restored 
 to all the privileges of his rank, — the admiral's 
 cousin at sea being as good for all purposes as a 
 king's cousin ashore. The moral of which would 
 seem to be that, when you have a habit of getting 
 into risky positions, the best thing in the world 
 is to belong to a good Scotch family of " kent 
 folk," with relations in every department of her 
 Majesty's service both at home and abroad. 
 
 He would seem, however, though the letters 
 fail at this period, to have been in a state of no 
 small depression about his prospects, and more 
 than usually sick of the uncongenial position of 
 waiting till something should turn up, and be- 
 sieging his official friends with applications, which 
 is the usual position of a young man seeking 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 THE CRIMEA. 
 
 advancement — or at least was, before the public 
 services were ruled by examinations as at present. 
 That he should have made such an expedition at 
 all is a proof at once of the extraordinary detach- 
 ment and independence of mind which afterwards 
 made his life so remarkable, and of great impa- 
 tience and dissatisfaction with ordinary circum- 
 stances, as well as of the love of adventure, which 
 was always a leading trait in his character. He 
 was so far independent that he had the means of 
 moving about at his pleasure without any ab- 
 solute necessity to work for daily bread, — a fact 
 which gives wings to impatience, and makes every 
 sudden movement practicable. His hot impulses 
 were, however, stayed by the excellent expedient 
 of legitimate occupation a few months after his 
 return from his filibustering ; and in the month 
 of April 1857 he set out with his old friend and 
 chief, Lord Elgin, on his mission to China, occu- 
 pying the post of private secretary once more.
 
 195 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to enter further into the 
 history of the operations in China than is wanted 
 to explain the part which Laurence took hi them. 
 He has himself left a history of the mission and 
 all its performances, in a narrative published im- 
 mediately after its termination. Its importance 
 in modern history was much greater than was 
 even anticipated, seeing that it was not only the 
 beginning of legalised and comprehensible deal- 
 ings with China, but in some degree the means 
 of discovering, diplomatically, and adding to the 
 variety of Nature, the heretofore half fabulous, 
 yet in reality most intelligent, wide-awake, and 
 progressive, empire of Japan. The position of 
 Laurence was still unofficial. He was not a re- 
 cognised servant of the Foreign Office or member 
 of the diplomatic service. Probably it was part 
 of the disadvantage of his irregular education.
 
 196 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 and partly of those independent ways and opin- 
 ions which had always been characteristic of him, 
 that he never seems to have made any attempt 
 to constitute himself a regular member of this 
 profession which would seem to have been so 
 completely congenial to him. But there was 
 still at that time an accidental character about 
 that service, and chances for the man who was 
 jDroved capable, which were probably much more 
 attractive to him than the routine of a public 
 functionary. 
 
 I have been told by one of the other mem- 
 bers of the exjjedition, Sir Henry Loch, then 
 an attache serving his apprenticeship in the 
 service in which he now occupies so distinguished 
 a position, that the first appearance of Oliphant 
 among the group of young men in attendance 
 upon the Minister was somewhat startling to 
 those gilded youths. He began to talk, as they 
 loung'ed about the deck with their cig'ars, of 
 matters spiritual and mystical, singularly different 
 from the themes that usually occuj)y such groups. 
 They asked each other what strange comrade 
 they had here when they talked over the new 
 addition to their party. It would seem to have 
 been the then quite new development of what, 
 for want of a better name, people call spiritual- 
 ism, or more vulgarly, spirit-rapping, which was
 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHTS. 197 
 
 the subject of the talk about the funnel in the 
 soft tropical night. I find, however, no trace of 
 this in the letters, which give a wonderfully clear 
 view of what Laurence was thinking, and of the 
 point in his religious history to which he had now 
 come — which, as the reader will see, occupied his 
 mind very much even amid all the excitements of 
 the expedition. He would seem, during the in- 
 terval between this and his former secretaryship 
 in Canada, to have completely burst the strait 
 bonds of his mother's evangelical views, then 
 holding him but lightly — as it seems inevitable 
 that a lively young mind awakening to demand 
 a reason for everything should do : and had now 
 come to something like a tenable foundation for 
 his personal belief — which differed much from that 
 in which he had been trained, yet which he was 
 very anxious to prove to be a most real rule of 
 life. Thus the expedition, which was so brilliant 
 and important, and out of the records of which 
 he made a book so readable, interesting, and 
 amusing, is associated in his private history with 
 the rising of religious thoughts and convictions 
 which ripened in the monotony of the many in- 
 tervals of waiting which came between the excit- 
 ing episodes of his life. Nothing can be more 
 curious than to see — between the fighting and the 
 exploring, which he enjoys like a schoolboy, al-
 
 198 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ways somehow finding himself in the front, always 
 gay, amusing, and amused — the student retired 
 in his cabin, hearing nothing but the monotonous 
 swish of the waves, and pondering the ways of 
 God to man, and especially the mistaken, confus- 
 ing, and derogatory interpretations given by all 
 human systems of these wonderful ways. Some- 
 times his own views are very strikingly ex- 
 pressed ; but it is not necessary that the reader 
 should ag-ree with him in order to be interested 
 in this curious second side of the versatile, de- 
 lightful, gay, and adventurous young man, who 
 was ready for everything — the ball-room and the 
 council - chamber and the smoking - room, while 
 still most warmly attracted of all by the book 
 of theology which awaited him all the time in his 
 retirement. 
 
 His parents would seem to have been estab- 
 lished in the neighbourhood of London — I ima- 
 gine at Spring Grove, a house within reach of 
 his uncle's house at Wimbledon — when he left 
 England ; and to his mother it was always like a 
 rending asunder of soul and body to part with 
 him. He sends her a note from the Indus, the 
 steamer in which he had set out to join the 
 mission at Alexandria, hoping that she is not 
 letting herself be miserable. " There are numbers 
 of partings going now," he writes, "and weeping
 
 EAILWAYS IN EGYPT. 199 
 
 parents going on shore ; so you are not alone." 
 At Alexandria, where the new overland route 
 and the railway across the desert had just been 
 put in operation, he does not enter into any 
 details about the place, which was already 
 familiar both to himself and his correspondent, 
 but makes an amusing note on the subject of the 
 train coming in from Cairo, " quite a sight." 
 " There was a harem carriage, and Arabs were 
 clinging like flies to all parts, crowding the roof, 
 and even perched upon the buffers. They jumped 
 off like frogs long before the train stopped, I 
 believe a good many are killed monthly ; but 
 they are chea,p here, and certainly take kindly to 
 steam locomotion." At Cairo " we go about in 
 grand style. Lord Elgin in a state carriage, with 
 four grey horses, and a whole posse of horsemen 
 and running footmen, who at night carry blaz- 
 ing torches, making the whole procession very 
 picturesque. We follow behind in two other of 
 the Pasha's carriages, accompanied by sundry 
 beys and swells." At Galle, where on their 
 arrival the well - known place brought many 
 recollections to the traveller's mind, they were 
 met by the news of the breaking out of the 
 mutiny in India, which, however, does not seem 
 to have at once disturbed either the secretary or 
 his chief, as after-records announce. The mis-
 
 200 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 sion went on, with a faint fear that this new 
 contingency might interfere with the pubhc in- 
 terest in China, but apparently no graver appre- 
 hensions : until further and worse news met 
 them at Singapore, the next halting - place in 
 their journey. 
 
 Lord Elgin has always received great credit 
 for changing, on his own responsibility, the 
 destination of the troops who met him there — 
 the small expeditionary army, without the sup- 
 port of which his mission could do nothing — 
 and sendinof them on to India instead, thus 
 affording the most valuable aid at an import- 
 ant moment. The extreme embarrassment and 
 difficulty brought upon himself by this step has, 
 however, received little notice, magnanimity in 
 such a matter being generally, like virtue, its 
 own reward. Laurence takes, however, even 
 this credit from his chief, by an intimation 
 that the troops were ordered to China by 
 Lord Canning, to the dismay of the plenipo- 
 tentiary, thus deprived of his army. It is 
 difficult to come to the exact truth even on 
 such a public matter ; for I have been assured by 
 another member of the mission, not only that 
 Lord Elgin took the initiative, but that it was on 
 the advice of himself, as knowing India, that his 
 lordship did so ! There is, however, no doubt as
 
 LORD ELGIN AT SINGAPORE. 201 
 
 to the next step, which was that Lord Elgin, 
 finding his own position thus diminished, and 
 moved by the tremendous difficulty and danger 
 of the crisis, himself followed the troops to 
 Calcutta to give Lord Canning his support, and 
 that, still more effectual, of a naval brigade from 
 the Shannon and Pearl. That there was some 
 policy in this movement, as well as a chivalrous 
 postponement of the interests of his own mission, 
 was perhaps more apparent at the time to the 
 members of the mission, thus arrested, than it was 
 to the general public. Lord Elgin was consoled 
 by a patriotic address from the merchants of 
 Singapore, whose interests were much concerned 
 in the success of his expedition, yet who concurred 
 wisely and sympathetically in the delay. As 
 these excellent men were not of a literary turn, 
 they had recourse to Lord Elgin's young secre- 
 tary, who had already made himself universally 
 popular in the community, to write their address 
 for them, — a circumstance which did not in the 
 least detract from its perfectly genuine character, 
 but which Laurence related with much amusement 
 to his mother at home. 
 
 Nothing more self-denying than the step thus 
 taken could have been. It involved not only the 
 absence of all the prestige surrounding a splendid 
 expedition, but the surrender of the fine ship and
 
 202 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 comfortable quarters provided for the envoy and 
 his staff, and much miserable uncertainty, delay, 
 and humiliation. And though they were received 
 at Calcutta on their arrival with the greatest en- 
 thusiasm, the secretary's letters do not convey 
 the idea that the magnanimous visitor had any 
 great recompense for his sacrifice. " He scarcely 
 sees a soul, and leads a dreary life in that dreary 
 pile," says the young man, who is for his own 
 part somewhat astonished to see the calm of Cal- 
 cutta, the usual show of beauty and fashion on 
 the ordinary promenade, and the usual hospitali- 
 ties going on — a thing, no doubt, inevitable, but 
 always jarring upon the nerves of the spectator. 
 He himself, however, as a spectator, shared this 
 calm. There is no appearance in his letters of 
 excitement, though he was surprised by the ordi- 
 nary look of everything around him. In the 
 same house in which he was lodged were two 
 ladies lately escaped at the risk of their lives, 
 and under remarkable circumstances, on the eve 
 of a massacre ; but who drove out with himself 
 and a friend in their buggies for the evening 
 drive as if nothing had happened — curious com- 
 posure of human nature, which assimilates the 
 most wonderful events, and takes tragedy itself 
 into the common current of every day 1 
 
 The Chinese mission, however, were outsiders,
 
 AN ARRESTED EXPEDITION. 203 
 
 and had nothing to do ])ersonally with the 
 Indian crisis. And when they returned again 
 to the scene of their own duties humbly in a 
 P. & O. steamer — the Ava — without any of the 
 pomp of the splendid man-of-war, to kick their 
 heels in Hono--Kono- and wait until a detach- 
 ment of 1500 soldiers should be sent to them 
 from England, to fill the place of the 5000 men, 
 soldiers and sailors together, whom they had 
 parted with to India, it is little wonder if they 
 were discouraged. The excitement of a great 
 sacrifice is apt to have a contre-coup of vexa- 
 tion and depression. " We have sunk into such 
 insignificance, and are in such a fix without an 
 army," Laurence wrote on his return to Hong- 
 Kong, " nor are the speeches of Sir C. Wood 
 and other members of the Government very en- 
 couraging. How they expect Lord Elgin to carry 
 out the same policy without any army which he 
 was instructed to do with one, is not very clear." 
 He adds, with a little amusing malice, " I have 
 one consolation, that you w^ill be much more re- 
 lieved thinking of me living cooped up in a 
 ship in harbour for the next three months, 
 where there are neither women nor Chinese, 
 than if I were doing anything else." It is ap- 
 parent throughout that Lady Oliphant largely 
 shared what is supposed to be a general feel-
 
 204 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ing with mothers, against the intrusion of love 
 into the hearts of their sons. She upbraids him 
 sometimes as being heartless, when some instance 
 of inadvertent fascination on Laurence's part 
 rouses her pity for the lady whom he has loved 
 and ridden away. Indeed it would appear to 
 have been the truth that our young diplomat, 
 always addicted to making himself agreeable, 
 was still more so where ladies were concerned ; 
 and, whether by means of polkas or theological 
 discussions, was wont to work considerable havoc 
 upon his way through the world. His mother 
 is glad to hear that he is in a place where such 
 intercourse is impracticable ; but Laurence him- 
 self does not like it. It is to be said for him, 
 however, that he always informs her of his amuse- 
 ments in this way, keeping her, no doubt, in a 
 flutter of alarm which he was apt to enjoy. 
 
 Yet with all this, these letters, which are so 
 confidential, so full of the comradeship and equal- 
 ity which is rare between parents and children 
 (there was, as I have said, only some eighteen 
 years' difference in their age), so free in discus- 
 sion and remark — continue to be filled above 
 everything else with his religious views and feel- 
 ino-s : the revelation of what he has come to in 
 the way of conviction after much struggling, and 
 tortures of doubt — and his indignant disapproval
 
 THE LIGHT OF EEASON. 205 
 
 of the hackneyed types of Christianity with 
 which he is acquainted. His first letter on this 
 subject is in answer to an expression of much 
 dissatisfaction on her part as to his views. 
 
 " Hong-Kong, Ath July [1857]. 
 
 "All that related to J. pained me much, but 
 so did that which related to myself. I thought 
 you understood that it was no obstinacy on my 
 part which compels me, before adopting a faith, 
 to judge of the merits of its claim by the light 
 God has given me. It is no light thing attribut- 
 ing to the Deity a Avork containing much that 
 appears derogatory to His dignity. Nor is there 
 any means whatever of knowing whether it is His 
 or not, except by an exercise of the means He has 
 given us. I do not in the least set up my reason 
 -against His, but against my fellow-creatures', who 
 tell me to accept a book as from Him upon no 
 better evidence than I myself possess, the chief 
 reason being that it is better than any other, 
 which I am quite ready to admit ; but I feel 
 that I should be sinning seriously against Him 
 were I not very jealously to guard against adopt- 
 ing any system which involved what I consider 
 deffradino- to Him, without overwhelming evi- 
 dence of its authenticity. Such evidence must 
 of necessity be supernatural, as everything com-
 
 206 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ing through mortal agency is, prima facie, from 
 the very nature of things, imperfect. I do not 
 like to dwell on a subject which I know is pain- 
 ful to you, and I am afraid you will never under- 
 stand what I mean, or, after all I have said to 
 you, you would never have used the old argu- 
 ments about not exercising my reason on what 
 I do not understand. I certainly do not under- 
 stand God's dealings with man, nor am I so 
 presumptuous as to suppose I ever shall ; but 
 if I did not exercise my reason, there would be 
 nothing to prevent my accepting the Koran or 
 any other system of theology my fellow-creatures 
 might assure me was right, and deny me the 
 privilege of judging for myself You say you 
 would be glad if I could give up my .career for 
 God's service. I would willingly go into a dun- 
 geon for the rest of my days if I was vouchsafed 
 a supernatural revelation of a faith ; but I should 
 consider myself positively wicked if upon so mo- 
 mentous a subject I was content with any assump- 
 tions of my erring and imperfect fellow-creatures, 
 when against the light of my own conscience. 
 
 "With regard to prayer, I have lately been 
 askinsf for thino^s, because I could not endure, 
 as it were, merely stating my case, and I felt so 
 strongly what you say about answers ; but it 
 has been, and is, with a strong feeling of doubt
 
 DIFFICULTY ABOUT PRAYER. 207 
 
 and disquietude that I am dishonouring Him 
 by supposing I can influence Him in anything. 
 However, I have too strong a sense of His love 
 to think it can be displeasing to Him ; and the 
 instinct seems so deeply implanted in one to do 
 so, though I think it is only the instinct of a 
 low spiritual creature, and when one gets further 
 advanced one will not need it. However, it is 
 no pleasure to me to be thus distracted with 
 doubts and difficulties, and therefore pray do 
 not think I am doing it from a spirit of pride 
 or 'opposition. I am really anxious to know and 
 do what is right, though the circumstances of my 
 present life are unfavourable ; and, moreover, I 
 do not attach importance to the infraction of 
 what are really the conventionalities of the 
 Christian world. I may appear to be irreligious 
 because my religion does not consist in the same 
 course of action, and my standard is different. I 
 do not say that I act up to it, but I think if I 
 did I should shame the professing Christian, My 
 faith is not strong enough to bring me up to my 
 standard, but I hope it may be some day. 
 
 ' ' I quite agree in Avhat papa says about the 
 spiritualist's God. I felt it myself It removed 
 Him too far off". But, on the other hand, what 
 papa calls God's invention of Christ does not re- 
 move the difliculty : it substitutes another being,
 
 208 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 whose merit is that you are to think of Him as 
 God. The moment you think of Him as God, 
 He is as far away as ever, besides the dire con- 
 fusion which such a mixture immediately raises 
 in the mind. I never from my earhest day could 
 get over that difficulty, and always found myself 
 instinctively yearning for the fountainhead, and 
 overleaping all intermediate beings. However, I 
 am glad you wrote, because it stirs me up. I get 
 too distracted sometimes by my mode of life, and 
 do not think so much as I ought. In order to 
 keep up the proper peace of mind, one ought to 
 be constantly thinking, and not contented with a 
 morning and evening ejaculation. I would sooner 
 go to the stake than do violence to what I believe 
 to be the yearnings and whisperings, weak and 
 imperfect no doubt, of my divine nature." 
 
 He returns to the subject of prayer on another 
 occasion, quoting a passage from Francis NcM'-man 
 to illustrate his position. " So," he adds, " because 
 I pray I do not feel that I can influence God, but 
 that in expressing my desires I am holding 
 almost the only communion which is open to 
 me, giving Him, as it were, all my confidence, 
 as the most pleasing homage I can do Him, 
 and the fullest recognition I can make of His 
 love and beneficence, and the interest He has
 
 NO CRITIC. 209 
 
 in my happiness and welfare." This is little 
 more than a modern expression of the same 
 sentiment which John Knox stated, in far 
 stronger and more eloquent words, when he 
 described prayer as "an earnest and familiar 
 talking with God." Laurence, however, had 
 not, I fear, notwithstanding his many qualities, 
 that preference for the best and highest in 
 literature, either sacred or profane, which we 
 expect to find in a mind so well endowed. 
 Theodore Parker is the fount from which he 
 chiefly draws in these religious speculations, and 
 he finds pleasure in Longfellow which Tennyson 
 does not convey. It is not necessary to be a 
 critic because a man is full of native • ability 
 and force of mind. The juxtaposition of these 
 two names in poetry, with a preference for the 
 former unhesitatingly and strongly expressed, 
 will make most readers smile : but it would 
 be vain to claim for him a perfection which he 
 did not possess. Perhaps his early association 
 with America, in the first independent opening 
 of his mind, may have had something to do 
 with it ; perhaps his imperfect education, which 
 fed him upon " good " books, and shut up to 
 him the highest sources of poetical imagination. 
 Some one, I do not remember who, tells of the 
 excitement and delig-ht with which he discovered 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 210 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 Shakespeare, who had been unknown to him — 
 comhiof back and back to tell his amused friends 
 of some new wonder in the book which they had 
 recommended to him in the dearth of other 
 reading. It is well to know that he was capable 
 of being thus stirred : he was not capable, it is 
 evident, of judging the respective magnitudes of 
 the lesser lights. 
 
 The subject of religion, however, is far the 
 most important to him, and continually in his 
 thoughts. His feelings on this subject are 
 saddened by the consciousness that his corres- 
 pondent will not enter into them, but rather 
 blame him for his views on many matters of 
 faith. • " A transition state," he says, " such as 
 I am in, is never a favourable one ; but I do hope 
 that I am o-ettinof hold of somethingf. I have 
 learnt, however, to believe in nothing which I 
 cannot see manifested in life. The influence of 
 early life, and the constraints Avhich one set of 
 opinions imposed, are loosened. Though another 
 set of opinions may involve precisely the same 
 restraints, time is required to ripen their in- 
 fluence. Of course, a man cannot bring a faith 
 to bear upon his life and conversation until he 
 has got a very firm hold of it." 
 
 The one point upon which he is assured is that 
 this is his only test. He sees all round him men
 
 CHRISTIAX FAITH AND CHRISTIAN PRACTICE. 211 
 
 who are very nice fellows, who would be horrified 
 not to be called Christians, but in whom religion 
 of any kind is as little apparent as if they believed 
 nothing. " I am a thorough Christian," he says, 
 " so far as my reverence for and belief in every 
 moral principle Christ has jDropounded is con- 
 cerned ; but I am utterly opposed to the popular 
 development of Christianity, — indeed I think it 
 quite inconsistent with His teaching. I never 
 felt so deep an interest in any subject, and am 
 thankful for the leisure I have had to read and 
 think of it." The same sentiment appears again 
 and again. " Those who have seen war," he 
 says, " can best appreciate the value of Christ's 
 ' Blessed are the peacemakers.' 
 
 " If that was to be the aim of the diplomatist, 
 his would be the noblest of professions. My 
 natural man is intensely warlike, which is just 
 as low a passion as avarice or any other. I 
 went last Sunday to church to hear a parson, 
 with a Crimean medal on his surplice, preach 
 between a lot of 6 8 -pounders on 'Fear not man 
 that can kill the body, but fear Him who can 
 cast both body and soul into hell,' and I won- 
 dered what sort of morality you could expect 
 from men whose occupation was the destruc- 
 tion of their fellow-creatures, to the conscien-
 
 212 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 tlous discharge of which they were to be urged 
 by their fear of an avenging Deity, the Creator 
 of them all. One would think even a sailor 
 would discern the impossibility of elevating his 
 moral nature by the application of two such 
 principles as cruelty and fear." 
 
 It is not my part to point out the fallacy as well 
 as the strong par^* pris of these remarks : they 
 are intended to show the workingf of the mind, 
 which it is my business to delineate in its weak- 
 ness as well as in its strength. 
 
 " The more I consider my own nature," he 
 adds, " the more I see the tremendous power 
 a creed ought to contain within itself to be- 
 come a living principle. A flaw here or there 
 does infinite mischief. In order to prevail over 
 the tendency to evil, it must invade with over- 
 whelming force a man's whole nature, obliging 
 him by its purity, and the strength of its 
 appeal to his convictions, to recognise its truth ; 
 but if his moral instincts discover the slightest 
 flaw, the M^hole fabric goes by the board, and 
 he has hard work to make up the leeway, 
 which the absence of the old faith and the 
 struDfofle foi- the new involves. I can well 
 understand any man giving up in despair the
 
 ADVANCING FAITH. 213 
 
 hope of finding a creed containing' elements 
 powerful enough to govern him absolutely. It is 
 a long time before he gets over a sort of repug- 
 nance at the very idea of the old one, and rec- 
 ognises again all that is good and beautiful in 
 it. 1 do think that God satisfies every man's 
 craving in this respect in time, if he keeps on 
 fighting and groping." 
 
 It is very seldom that we have the spectacle 
 of a mind thus seethinof with dissatisfaction and 
 eager desire after a better way, so curiously un- 
 philosophical in his philosophy, and so penetrated 
 in the midst of his revolt by sentiments of rever- 
 ential and strongly realised faith. Here is a 
 very interesting exposition of his standing ground 
 and its disadvantao-es : — 
 
 " In looking upon my own state and experience, 
 I find to the good that I have made certain ad- 
 vances towards a faith which no doubt influences 
 my life perhaps not more than my life used to 
 be influenced before ; but the difierence is that 
 formerly my life depended not upon the sincerity 
 of my moral convictions, or even on my fear of 
 oftending God, but entirely on the fear of making 
 you miserable. Had that check ceased to exist, 
 I have no doubt I should have gone to the
 
 214 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 bad. The old associations and habitual restraints 
 might have held me in for a short time, but very 
 short, and the end would have been utter reckless- 
 ness or defiance. Now that is all changed, and 
 although, as I say, my present life may not be 
 better than my past, still it is founded on a dif- 
 ferent basis, and, I trust, will go on improving, 
 irrespective of any mundane event. That, I say, 
 I find to the crood. To the bad I have to lament 
 an entire looseness in my moral tone and con- 
 versation, for which I can perfectly account, but 
 which I find it most difficult to overcome. It 
 arises from the contempt I feel (but which is 
 wrong) for professors of a creed which has no 
 power over them, but all the dogmas which I 
 am blamed for not subscribing to. When men 
 who keep harems go to church regularly, and 
 blame me for not going with them, I am apt to 
 confound the faith with the individual, and swear 
 at the whole concern. And so, because I do not 
 confess to a good deal that seems to be hollow in 
 the practice of a popular theology, I am put down 
 as being without religion, and so lose any influ- 
 ence which, did I refrain from this, I might have, 
 besides giving a totally wrong impression of my 
 real convictions. But it is a mistake to con- 
 found religion with theology. It is the fashion to 
 regard the former as springing from the latter,
 
 REFLECTING THE MIND OF GOD. 215 
 
 whereas if you have the former it makes Httle 
 difference what you profess as the latter. 
 
 " But do not think I confound the Christian 
 rehgion with the practice which its professors 
 follow, in accordance with a theology they have 
 deduced from it. The Bible is a very different 
 thing from the popularly received traditionary 
 interpretation of it which rests on human reason. 
 I quite believe in its inspiration, but in a parti- 
 cular wav. I had first thought of an illustra- 
 tion when I found an almost exactly similar one 
 in Morell. He proves, by a very well - argued 
 and elaborate process, that revelation and intui- 
 tion are the same thing. I had long arrived at 
 that, but did not know how, until he proved it. 
 Theodore Parker has the same ; but my notion 
 is this, that supposing a man's whole moral nature 
 was in perfect harmony, and his spiritual intelli- 
 gence perfect, his mind would be like a perfectly 
 calm lake upon which would be accordingly 
 reflected the mind of God ; but the moment the 
 surface is disturbed the image becomes imperfect, 
 the amount of the imperfection depending ujDon 
 the amount of the disturbance. Now, according 
 to my view, the minds of Christ and of His apos- 
 tles were in that state of almost perfect spiritual 
 repose. They reflected more accurately than was 
 ever done before or since the mind of God :
 
 216 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 that is, the apostles caught their repose from the 
 mind of Christ — but you see in them the imper- 
 fections of a disturbed moral nature. Peter and 
 Paul quarrel, and attach importance to things 
 strangled and to circumcision — that is, the surface 
 was ruffled by old prejudices, undue spiritual en- 
 thusiasm, strong passions, &c. — and so fail to give 
 that perfect image of the mind of God. We may 
 perceive these imperfections, though very far from 
 having minds so spiritually enlightened as theirs, 
 just as you can tell the faults of a picture without 
 being an artist. I feel sure that as men's minds 
 become more enlightened, and they begin to re- 
 ceive those revelations which the apostles did 
 themselves, they will no longer accord their writ- 
 ings the infallibility which they do not claim 
 (they only claim inspiration, which, as I say, they 
 certainly had, and which I trust others may yet 
 have). The goodness of the inspiration must de- 
 pend upon the medium. The purest inspiration 
 may be polluted. If the channel is a sewer, it 
 does not matter how clear may be the spring ; so 
 in the Old Testament we find all sorts of people 
 chosen as mediums ; but of the value, for instance, 
 of Solomon's inspiration we must judge for our- 
 selves. It is in accordance with the divine plan 
 always to make use of human means, with all 
 their imperfections, and I see no reason to sup-
 
 UNSUITED FOR PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRIES. 217 
 
 pose that the Bible is the only thing that ever 
 came through human instruments that does not 
 partake of their imperfections, more especially 
 when the internal evidence that it does so is 
 irresistible to my mind." 
 
 He adds, that in the midst of the rising excite- 
 ment of an approaching crisis, which in former 
 times w^ould have occupied him wholly, he feels 
 himself much more interested in metaphysical 
 questions than in the bombardment of Canton, 
 or anything that can happen. His guides in these 
 researches seem to have been Theodore Parker, 
 to whom he constantly refers, and Mr Morell, 
 whose ' History of Philosophy ' had recently made 
 an impression upon the public attention which 
 has not proved permanent. It is unfortunate 
 that a mind so active, yet which was never with- 
 out a certain confusion in these matters — which, 
 curiously enough, he proclaims at this period as his 
 favourite study — should not have been under 
 more thorough and trustworthy guidance. It 
 seems a paradox, yet it is one of which there are 
 many examples, that when a mind essentially 
 practical, with a special literary gift of clear 
 narrative, involves itself in metaphysical subjects, 
 this strange confusion is often the result. General 
 Gordon is another example of a heroically keen 
 intelligence in practical effort and dealings with
 
 218 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 men, which yet JDecame hopelessly clouded and 
 bewildered in theological matters, wandering in 
 a fog of chaotic thought, and substituting subject 
 for object, and vice versd, with a boldness which 
 is also heroic, though sadly perplexing to the 
 reader. Laurence Oliphant's religious theories at 
 this moment, when he pursued them hotly in his 
 cabin, amid all the curious surroundings of an 
 expedition which was at once diplomatic and 
 military, will show how ready his mind was for 
 the influences which afterwards took possession 
 of it, — how superficial in theory, how heroic in 
 determination to follow out his conclusions to 
 whatever end they might lead. 
 
 Meantime, as he says, the plot was thickening 
 around, and had it not been for this preoccupa- 
 tion with metaphysics and the religious question, 
 " I ouo-ht now to be in an intense state of excite- 
 ment. 
 
 " Wade has gone up the river with a flag of 
 truce and Lord Elgin's ultimatum to Yeh. I 
 volunteered to go ; but he was quite right not 
 to send me, not being a Chinese scholar, though 
 I beirsed hard. The Admiral has drawn a cordon 
 close round Canton, and is to occupy the island 
 of Homan, immediately opposite the town, to- 
 morrow. The French fleet has gone up the river
 
 A DAY OF HUMILIATION. 219 
 
 to take part in the blockade. The 59th and 
 artillery go up with the General ; in a day or 
 two we shall have ujd wards of GOOO men as a 
 land force, half red jackets and half blue, includ- 
 ing the French. If Yeh does not give in, they 
 will take Canton on Tuesday week, the 2 2d, prob- 
 ably. I do not anticipate any great difficulty 
 even if he holds out ; but the bazaar rejDort here 
 is that he is in a horrid fright, and going to give 
 in and come to terms. I hope he may, for in case 
 of bombardment of a town containing a million 
 of people, the slaughter of innocent women and 
 children and people generally will be dreadful. 
 However, the bishop has appointed a day of 
 humiliation for the Indian business ; so we are 
 to humble ourselves to-day, and make uj) for it 
 next week by sending a few thousands of our 
 fellow-creatures into the next world." 
 
 On a similar subject he enlarges at more 
 length in a following letter : — 
 
 " I see you have been having a great day of 
 humiliation. I am very strongly opposed to this, 
 as very derogatory to God and reflecting upon 
 His love. He has created a universe with cer- 
 tain laws ; all violation of these laws implies 
 misery — a misery which is ordained to teach men
 
 220 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 to improve themselves. The child trying to walk 
 tumbles and hurts its nose. It was no judgment 
 on the child that it fell : it was a wise law that 
 provided a misery, and its humiliation consisted 
 in keeping its legs straight for the future. It is 
 a mockery to say you are sorry, and go and do 
 the same again ; and a sin to think that God 
 acts by fits and starts as we do, with a judg- 
 ment here and there, as if the whole thing was 
 not obedient to fixed and certain laws. The gen- 
 eral notion is that you are appeasing an angry 
 Deity, which is the worst of all." 
 
 It is curious that this very hancd though plau- 
 sible view of national prayer, the frequent utter- 
 ance of the superficial thinker, had been already 
 met and answered by himself in the individual 
 point of view a few letters before, as above 
 quoted. After so many details of these opinions 
 as to the demerits of Christians and merit of 
 Christianity, and his own uncomfortable sub- 
 stitution of the one for the other, which is ver}^ 
 much what they come to, the reader will be 
 refreshed by his thoughts upon another subject 
 — one, too, of the greatest importance to him 
 in after-life, and of which it is apparent here he 
 already held the germ. His mother's letter had 
 informed him of the death of their friend Dr
 
 DEATH. 221 
 
 Clark, which he says gave him at first a painful 
 shock : — 
 
 " We have heen so accustomed to surround 
 death with horrors, and to be selfish in our sor- 
 row, that news of the departure from the world 
 of any one we love gives us quite a different 
 feeling from what it ought. No doubt this partly 
 arises from an uncertainty whether we shall ever 
 meet again, and a want of faith in the love of 
 God, who, I feel certain, will never separate 
 people for long who love one another. In the 
 meantime, I have no doubt Tom is often present 
 with us, it is possible exercising some influence 
 for good over our lives ; at all events, the loss is 
 only on our side, and that for a short time : so 
 that I cannot talk of poor Tom, or call the news 
 sad — I only feel the very earthly feeling of regret 
 that when I get back I shall not see his dear 
 kind old face, or hear his favourite greeting, into 
 which he used to throw so much love and in- 
 terest, of ' Well, boy ! ' The very feeling which 
 will perhaps make the tears come into your eyes 
 as you read this, as they have into mine as I 
 write, only shows what a softening influence love 
 is. and what a beautifying effect it would have 
 on our lives if we could feel more universally for 
 our fellow -creatures what we feel for Tom."
 
 222 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 In a similar way he discusses the feeUng of 
 thankfuhiess for his escape from drowning, of 
 which he tells her : — 
 
 " As far as you are concerned, I often think 
 if I have a narrow shave that it is perfectly 
 legitimate the feeling should he one of thank- 
 fulness. I should feel the same ahout you, but 
 not about myself. The reason I feel it about 
 you, and you about me, is because we are both 
 selfish in respect to one another ; but thankful- 
 ness on the part of the individual himself at 
 beinof saved from death seems to me the most 
 wretched mundane sentiment possible, to say 
 nothing of its being dishonouring to God. If 
 we are always thankful for being kept alive, it is 
 very evident that we must regard His qlispensa- 
 tion of death as a hardship to be disgusted with 
 whenever it comes. As if He were not to be 
 trusted to keep us in this world or send us to the 
 next in His own good time I I am not in the 
 least a fatalist : I should struggle in the water to 
 the last gasp ; but when it did come, as I feel 
 now, I should be perfectly satisfied. I have 
 the most unbounded confidence in the universal 
 economy of things, and I don't like implying 
 that God could be guilty of an act of caprice or 
 injustice by being thankful for His sparing me,
 
 THE GERMS OF FUTURE BELIEF. 223 
 
 when, if He did not, I should not be entitled 
 to complain." 
 
 Nothing can be more interesting than these 
 indications of the way in which the thoughts of 
 the young man, amid surroundings so little con- 
 genial to any prolonged process of thinking, were 
 occupied. It would be vain to pretend that they 
 were either original or profound ; indeed they are 
 throughout pervaded by the curious confusion 
 between Christianity as a religious system and 
 the shortcomings of its professors, — as if it w^ere 
 incumbent upon a thinking man to abjure the 
 faith in order to protest against the faults of 
 those who failed to obey it, which we have 
 already pointed out. But they are interesting 
 as showing how early and how independently the 
 germs which were so to develop in after-life had 
 gained possession of his mind. His views upon 
 that inspiration, which was the same as intuition, 
 and the consequent subjection of every actual 
 truth to the feeling and instinct of the believer ; 
 his determination that every influence should 
 be judged according to its practical power over 
 himself — even his views in respect to the parting 
 of death, and the attitude we ought to hold to- 
 wards it, — are all germs of the faith which after- 
 wards led him to so many singular steps. They
 
 224 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 are interesting in this respect as well as for 
 themselves, — unusual matter to occupy the mind 
 of a young man in his circumstances. He was 
 approaching his twenty -ninth birthday, and his 
 life hitherto had been one of almost wild adven- 
 ture, continual movement, and restless occupation. 
 On the other hand, however, there was plenty 
 of adventure to record. He took a share in 
 everything, whatever was going on. When a 
 flag of truce was sent up the Canton river with 
 Lord Elgin's ultimatum, he volunteered, as has 
 been said, for the duty ; and though he agreed 
 that it was better left in the hands of Wade, who 
 was a Chinese scholar, than in his own, yet he 
 " begged hard," as he says, to have the errand. 
 When Captain Sherard Osborn went off in the 
 Furious to Manilla, Laurence got permission to 
 accompany him, to vary the monotony of the long- 
 waiting at Hong-Kong; but here a difficulty 
 arose. " Sherard Osborn," he writes, " is the 
 fellow whom I pitched into so furiously at the 
 Geographical about the Sea of AzoflP, so I may not 
 get him to take me ; " but Captain Osborn was 
 magnanimous, and did not recall this old score. 
 The most amusing thing in the journey is the 
 description of High Mass in the cathedral at 
 Manilla, which " was a most grotesque perform- 
 ance."
 
 A MUSICAL MASS. 225 
 
 " The troops marched Into church, filling" nearly 
 the whole of it, and six men with swords drawn 
 took up a jDOsition on the altar platform to 
 present arms to the priest. The band was 
 immediately below this, and opened proceedings 
 with a very pretty deux - temps waltz. They 
 principally played polkas and waltzes, sometimes 
 kneeling, sometimes standing, — the men crossing 
 themselves in quick time, making a sort of polka 
 step on their faces with wonderful rapidity. I 
 tried crossing myself in quick time, but made a 
 mess of it. The whole thing lasted about half 
 an hour, and consisted entirely of music. The 
 officiating priest was a black man, who never said 
 anything, and only occasionally elevated the 
 Host, and turned round to bless the congregation 
 in pantomime." 
 
 After long inaction and various attempts at 
 negotiation, the united forces found themselves 
 compelled to proceed to the bombardment of 
 Canton, which was taken with the greatest of 
 ease and the utmost rapidity, scarcely any re- 
 sistance being made. Laurence and some of the 
 other non - combatants watched the proceedings 
 from an eminence close by, on a hill used as a 
 cemetery, where they found " shelter from the 
 flying balls in a deep little grave." " Un- 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 226 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 fortunately," he says, " the very imperfection 
 of their modes of defence is the greatest 
 danger in Chinese warfare. If you are alone 
 in the midst of a silent turnip - field, you are 
 as likely to be hit as if you were immediately 
 under the walls with an attacking party, for they 
 have no idea of taking aim, and their rockets go 
 shying about in all conceivable directions." He 
 had seen " a brave young fellow killed by one 
 of these wild j)rojectiles within five or six yards 
 of him," but still it was difficult to believe there 
 was any danger, they were so few and far 
 between. 
 
 " This sort of thing went on until half-past 
 eight, when the Braves made an attack on our 
 extreme right, of which we had a caj)ital view ; 
 but we were soon diverted from looking at this 
 by the cheers in front, and we saw the scaling- 
 ladders up, and our fellows clustering like bees 
 into a hive. We immediately bolted down to join 
 them, and in five minutes stood upon the city 
 wall, deserted by every vestige of a Chinaman, 
 except those that were lying dead along the 
 parapet. We had a magnificent view of the 
 vast city, with its million of inhabitants, at our 
 feet, not showing a sign of life. Not a living 
 creature was to be seen throughout its whole
 
 THE LIMITS OF SELF-DENIAL. 227 
 
 extent. The streets, to be sure, are so narrow 
 that you can't see far into them ; but when you 
 did, you only saw dead or occasionally wounded 
 people. I went down with the General to the 
 other end of the wall, a mile and a half distant, 
 where they were potting at our fellows from the 
 tops of houses, and while I was there poor Bower 
 of the 59th was wounded — I fear mortally. How- 
 ever, it was their last effort. We made this our 
 advanced post in this direction. I wanted to get 
 back with all my news to Lord Elgin. I took 
 advantage of a party going to open up a new 
 communication, got down to the river, and was 
 on board the Furious in time, as you know, to 
 catch the post by about five minutes." 
 
 He defends himself some time later, when he 
 has had time to receive letters from home blam- 
 ing him for thus unnecessarily exposing himself 
 at Canton, in an amusing way. He was wrong, 
 he allows. " But it involves a greater act of 
 self-denial than any I know to refrain from going 
 to see anything approaching to a fight. And 
 though in principle I utterly disapprove of war, 
 when it comes to ' Away there, second cutters ! ' 
 human nature can't resist jumping in, whatever 
 good resolutions one may have formed to the 
 contrary."
 
 228 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 It Is unnecessary to follow the course of the 
 expedition, which was still exposed to extra- 
 ordinary delays, even after this aj^parently de- 
 cisive step. Laurence cannot refrain from a 
 temptation still greater than that of war- 
 fare — a little abuse of the spirit of revenge, 
 which he found so strongly developed among 
 so-called religious persons. He tells his mother 
 that the missionaries at Shanghai, where the 
 expedition went after reducing Canton to the 
 most prostrate subjection, were revolted by the 
 mildness of Lord Elgin's measures. " Like Lord 
 Shaftesbury, they are truly English, and grumble 
 at our not having murdered Yeh and given 
 Canton over to pillage and slaughter. As a 
 general rule, one thinks that justice ought to 
 be tempered with mercy ; but they would have 
 vengeance tempered with justice ! " It is well to 
 add, however, that the " parson with a Crimean 
 medal pinned on his surplice," who had made him 
 angry by preaching on hell, turned out " a very 
 nice fellow " when they watched Canton together 
 from amona: the tombs. But Laurence was little 
 favourable to missionaries in general, and felt 
 with many others that the good incomes, good 
 houses, and worldly comfort of men who were 
 supposed to be sacrificing everything for Christ's 
 work, were jarring circumstances, to say the
 
 THE JESUITS AND THE MISSIONARIES. 229 
 
 least. His comparison between the Jesuit schools 
 at Shanufhai and those of the Protestant mis- 
 sionaries was perhaps touched with the same 
 prejudice, yet no doubt had truth in it. Of 
 the first, he says : — 
 
 " I was struck with the intelligent expression 
 of the youths' countenances, and the apparent 
 affection they had for their teachers. Instead 
 of cramming nothing but texts down their 
 throats, they teach them the Chinese classics, 
 Confucius, &c., so as to enable them to compete 
 in the examinations. The result is, that even 
 if they do not become Christians, they have al- 
 ways gratitude enough to protect those to whom 
 they owed their education, and perhaps conse- 
 quent rise in life. I also went over a school 
 with the Bishop. The contrast was most strik- 
 ing. Small boys gabbled the Creed over in 
 what was supposed to be English ; but in one 
 instance Lord Elgin was profoundly persuaded 
 it was Chinese. They understood probably about 
 as clearly as they pronounced. Then, instead of 
 the missionaries living among them and identify- 
 ing themselves with the boys, they have gor- 
 geous houses, wives, and families. A missionary 
 here with a wife and four children gets a house 
 as big as Sjjring Grove rent free, and £500
 
 230 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 a-year : and that is called giving up all for the 
 sake of the heathen ! " 
 
 The difficulties under which the expedition had 
 to be carried out throw a curious light upon the 
 hindrances, unsuspected by the general public, to 
 which even the most important public work is 
 exposed. Thus Ijetween two and three months 
 were lost at Hong-Kong, while the forces sent out 
 from England to replace those carried off to India 
 were on the way. And again, at the mouth of 
 the Peiho the whole mission was arrested for a 
 month by the blunder or obstinacy of the 
 admirals, who would not furnish gunboats which 
 could cross the bar and ascend the river. I may 
 quote one amusing incident of the subjection of 
 the town of Tientsin, in which the private nar- 
 rative of the letters is even more picturesque 
 than that afterwards published. The town had 
 capitulated, but was unfriendly and apt to do 
 or say something disagreeable Avhen occasion 
 served. Thus two of the captains of the fleet 
 were insulted on a visit they paid, without escort 
 or alarm, to some of the shops and streets. A 
 detachment of a hundred marines was sent to 
 punish the offenders, but on reaching the town 
 found the gates closed against them. Laurence, 
 generally to be found by some lucky accident
 
 TAKING A TOWN. 231 
 
 wherever anything was going on, had accom- 
 panied them on horseback. 
 
 " Osborn and I, however, discovered a scalable 
 place where a house was built against the wall ; so 
 we took three blue-jackets, and with Drew got on 
 the roof and thus scrambled on to the wall, the 
 bricks being decayed so as to give us something 
 to hold to. Then with bayonets and revolvers 
 drawn we rushed down with a frantic yell ujDon 
 the unsuspecting crowd collected at the gate, 
 thinking they had succeeded in barring us out. 
 They took to their heels, struck to a panic by the 
 six barbarians, and we smashed the bar of the 
 gate and let the warriors in, with whom we 
 paraded the town, making six prisoners at the 
 place where the outrage was committed." 
 
 The commissioners from the Emperor, obtained 
 after much difficulty to settle the treaty, which 
 for the first time admitted foreign traders, as a 
 right, to the Celestial Empire, met Lord Elgin 
 at this town, — Laurence in the meanwhile hav- 
 ing been much occupied in " collecting from old 
 treaties and other sources all the points " that 
 could be employed in the new. The other 
 special missions upon which Laurence was him- 
 self engaged — such as that to Soochow, Nankin,
 
 232 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 and some others — are fully recorded in his book. 
 The private narrative adds little, except on the 
 former occasion an account of his troubles with 
 a vapouring French consul, who was the adviser 
 of his colleague the French secretary, but exceed- 
 ingly unpopular as well as injudicious. Having 
 achieved the treaty, the expedition went to 
 Japan, returning to Shanghai and Canton for 
 the final ratification. In the hurried and brief 
 visit to Japan there was nothing but pleasurable 
 excitement before them, — the first discovery, so 
 to speak, of a wonderful new nation, the wonder 
 and enio-ma of modern times. In the second 
 volume of Laurence's ' Narrative ' there will be 
 found full details of this visit ; but in his letters 
 it has very little space, partly, I think, because, 
 like all the rest of the mission, he had become 
 very tired of his banishment, and in the hope of 
 a speedy return home put ofi" his descriptions of 
 the unknown country till he should be able to 
 give them by word of mouth. " We were all 
 enchanted with Japan," he says, writing from 
 Shanghai on their return. 
 
 ''Sept. 1, 1858. 
 
 " At Sinoden we heard from the American 
 consul that in consequence of the moral effect 
 of our having forced the Chinamen into a treaty.
 
 JAPAN. 233 
 
 he had just been able to conclude one at Yeddo ; 
 so we proceeded there, and the Japanese saw for 
 the first time in their lives four foreign ships 
 anchor off the capital. They were most civil, and 
 gave us a capital lodging on shore in a temple. 
 Six commissioners were appointed to treat, and I 
 never ceased regretting that you had prevented 
 me from learning Dutch at the Cape in consider- 
 ation of my morals, though I daresay I should 
 have forgotten it — as it was the only medium of 
 communication here, and we had to make use of 
 the American interpreter. I had a considerable 
 finger in the pie nevertheless, Lord Elgin very 
 kindly letting me take as prominent a place as 
 circumstances would permit. The commissioners 
 were capital fellows, and so different from the 
 Chinese, so full of animation and life, and very 
 go-ahead. They are the most good - temjDered 
 people I ever met, and Japan is the only country 
 I was ever in where there is no poverty and 
 beggars are unknown. Much as I should hate 
 going to China in any capacity, I would willingly 
 go to Japan, and I am sure, were I to get the 
 appointment of Consul-General there, you and 
 papa would like it. Of course all this has fur- 
 nished me with plenty of material for my book." 
 
 His mind, it must be added, was at this mo
 
 234 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ment, as the work of the mission was nearly over, 
 again much occupied by thoughts of a permanent 
 appointment. One of those which were spoken of 
 was the appointment of Governor of the Straits 
 Settlements, to which he was inclined ; but it is 
 evident that he would gladly have accepted any 
 fitting post in his anxiety to attain a settled posi- 
 tion in life. To be Secretary of Legation at a 
 foreign capital would have been in some respects 
 still more congenial. A wife, which he had for 
 years decided half in jest and half in earnest to 
 be the first necessity of all, is also spoken of On 
 the other hand, " I sometimes think I will throw 
 up all my present ambitions, try and find some 
 one with three or four hundred a-year, and settle 
 down in a small way at a European capital to 
 work out my own problems. After all," he adds, 
 " there is no such happiness as living in one's own 
 world of thought. At present my thoughts run 
 on aniseed, almonds, beans, heche cle mer, and so 
 on through all the tariflf. What ennobling and 
 elevating subjects for contemplation ! " At the 
 moment when he thus expressed himself, he was 
 discussing point by point with the Chinese Com- 
 missioners the details of duties and imports, and 
 very weary of his work. 
 
 The snatches of gaiety which broke the routine 
 of tedious life furnish some amusing incidents to
 
 OCCASIONAL GAIETIES. 235 
 
 the narrative, but very often are weighted with a 
 moral, and many assaults upon the manners of 
 the mercantile communities. At one place the 
 ball came to its conclusion in an effective surprise. 
 " Lord Elofin and I finished with a reel for the 
 edification of the public, took a tender farewell 
 of society, and embarked during the small hours 
 of the morning, so that when the world awoke 
 next day we were no more to l)e seen." At an- 
 other place the company was devote, and a differ- 
 ent kind of entertainment was necessary. 
 
 " The King- of Denmark's fiddler has been here, 
 and we had music and singing for Mrs M. and other 
 non-dancing ladies ; but when they left we danced 
 till a late hour. Lord Elgin stumped Mrs M. 
 by asking if that were not the time for dancing 
 mentioned by Solomon, and what hour of the day 
 she thought he would approve ? She denied that 
 he said there was a time for dancing, but has 
 since found chapter and verse, and has given in, 
 but evidently thinks Solomon was wrong. The 
 Bishop and his wife are becoming dabs at bil- 
 liards ; but the other night when the missionaries 
 were dining' he would not allow the billiard-room 
 to be lighted, though he is generally the last to 
 leave it. Woe unto you Evangelists and Pusey- 
 ites, hypocrites ! To abstain from dancing, and
 
 236 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 love to be seen in fine bonnets at church, and at 
 the head of subscription hsts ostentatiously [here 
 follows a long tirade]. . . . There is a sudden 
 explosion for you, which has taken me as much by 
 surprise as you. Poor Bishop ! I don't mean to 
 abuse him. I think by the way he button-holes 
 me, and talks confidential platitudes to me in 
 corners, that he rather likes me. He constantly 
 excuses the missionaries for going into the country 
 against treaty, &c. , though I carefully refrain from 
 reflecting on them ; so I suppose it is his own con- 
 science. I believe he is a good man. He confirms 
 to-day a lot of middies who have been prepared 
 for the ceremony by our convivial parson, and who, 
 though nice young fellows, are some of them such 
 scamps that their sponsors must be immensely 
 relieved by the load that will be lifted from 
 their shoulders." 
 
 Laurence is never happier than when he sends 
 a flying shaft thus at the " worldly holy," against 
 whom afterwards, in ' Piccadilly,' he poured forth 
 his keenest satire. He tells his mother after- 
 wards that he had nearly embroiled himself with 
 the lady mentioned above, for laughing at a 
 society for Biblical discussion among the ladies, 
 one member of which had distinguished Bishop 
 Heber as a descendant of Heber the Kenite. " I
 
 li 
 
 WORSE THAX A COLONY. 237 
 
 said that as a lawyer I was superior to all clergy 
 as an interpreter of texts, and suggested that I 
 should be elected permanent referee to the ladies — 
 with other foolish nonsense," he writes, repentant, 
 having made his peace. But the society of these 
 seaports, " worse than a colony," as he says, grew 
 more and more intolerable to him as the days lin- 
 gered on. " The men think of nothing but tea. 
 silk, and ojDium ; the women are too apathetic to 
 care even for gaiety and crinoline. We are going 
 to make a spasmodic attempt to amuse them with 
 a ball ; but Fitzroy is in despair, for only eight 
 ladies have accepted and 120 men ! " 
 
 Meanwhile his metaphysical thinkings and 
 readings go on, and he has a mingled disap- 
 pointment and delight in finding the meta- 
 physical and religious work he had intended 
 to produce forestalled by Mr William Smith's 
 ' Thorndale,' in which he has been " revellino-," 
 and which " represents my own ideas and con- 
 dition of mind better than anything I could my- 
 self give." " Mind you read every word of it to 
 papa," he repeats, " and think over it the while, 
 and of me, when you read the chapter called 
 ' Childhood,' as I did of you." 
 
 He is afterwards astonished and delighted, 
 " after what I wrote to you about ' Thorndale,' 
 that just as I should be making you a present of
 
 238 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 a copy of it, I should receive one with your dear 
 handwriting on the title-page ! " Another book 
 which he had read with pleasure was a very 
 different one, Miss Marsh's ' Hearts and Hands,' 
 an account of her mission among the navvies. 
 He wonders, not unnaturally, whether his com- 
 plicated religious system would have any influ- 
 ence upon such people ; but comforts himself by 
 the thought that a complicated system need not 
 be less true than a simpler one, and that those 
 who act by reason are less likely to be back- 
 sliders than those who are moved by enthusiasm. 
 Their progress may be slow, but it is sure. 
 
 " In my own case it is awfully slow ; but then 
 consider the difficulty of having to build away for 
 one's self and fight against prejudice existing in 
 every form around, and compare my condition 
 with that of the worldly man who becomes a 
 ' converted Christian.' He flings himself at once 
 into the religious world, where he is supported 
 and taught and cared for, his difficulties explained 
 and his faith strengthened, and sails smoothly 
 and easily down the stream. To put it in the 
 form of an equation, he is to me as is a Roman 
 Catholic to him. He thinks the Roman Catholic 
 has his religion done for him, I think the Prot- 
 estant has his religion done for him. So different
 
 "setting up his reason." 239 
 
 is religion in these days from what it was in the 
 days of Christ, that the worldly man does not 
 persecute the saint, but the saint persecutes the 
 worldly man. It requires infinitely more strength 
 of mind and moral courage to come out from the 
 religious world and to be separate, than to come 
 out from the worldly one." 
 
 This perpetual assault against the religious 
 world may be explained by the fact that the 
 exterior conventionalities of that world had been 
 more or less always present, overshadowing his 
 life, until the young man emancipated himself 
 from them. It would have been perhaps more 
 wonderful had he lived to perceive nowadays 
 that in many circles the greatest courage and 
 strength of mind is required from those who pro- 
 fess any belief at all. He defends himself once 
 more from the accusation of " setting wp his 
 reason," which his mother had brought against 
 him. 
 
 " You must remember that the fact that we 
 believe many things we don't understand does 
 not prove that when we don't understand a thing 
 we should believe it. We have only our reason 
 to decide for us the cases in which it voluntarily 
 allows itself to be suspended. It preaches faith
 
 240 THE MISSION TO CHINA, 
 
 equally in your case as in mine, only I require 
 stronger grounds to influence me than you do. 
 But I think that it is a mistake to hold on 
 to it too long. I have long since taken refuge 
 in my intuitions." 
 
 E-eason, tempered by intuition, was thus the 
 rule to which he had attained, alone and without 
 spiritual guidance of any kind. The reader will 
 perceive that thus the doors of his heart were 
 wide open, so that any interpreter who com- 
 mended himself, if that were possible, to both, 
 might enter in. 
 
 His return home after this, the longest absence 
 from his parents which he had ever undergone, 
 was a very mournful one. For the dear " Papa," 
 whom he rarely called by any but that tender 
 childish title, died suddenly a short time before 
 the expedition came back. It Avas, I think, at 
 one of the ports of Ceylon — a place so associated 
 with him — that Laurence received the news. 
 Sir Anthony's death was entirely unexjDected, 
 and occurred, I believe, at a dinner-party to 
 which he had gone in his usual health. I have 
 been told that, being at sea at the time, Laurence 
 came on deck one morning and informed his 
 comrades that he had seen his father in the 
 night, and that he was dead — that they en-
 
 DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 241 
 
 deavoured to laug-h him out of the impression, 
 but in vain. The date was taken down, and 
 on their arrival in England it was found that 
 Sir Anthony Oliphant had indeed died on that 
 night — which would be a remarkable addition, 
 if sufficiently confirmed, to many stories of a 
 similar kind which are well known. He always 
 appears in his son's letters and in his wife's 
 in the mos't eng-ao-ino- lio-ht — a cheerful and 
 bright spirit interested in everything about 
 him, as curious of novelty and excitement as 
 his own son was, delighting to find himself 
 in the heart of everything that was going 
 on. The jokes about " the darling," in which 
 he indulged in the earlier Colombo days, half 
 hiding under a humorous pretence at jealousy 
 the delight and pride in the beloved boy, which 
 he felt as warmly as the mother did, and his 
 readiness to follow Lowry wherever his fortunes 
 led him, are as lovable and delightful as is the 
 confidence of Laurence in papa's comprehension 
 and sympathy and the charm of his companion- 
 ship. The mother and son discuss him indeed 
 sometimes as mothers and children will do, as if 
 he were a big schoolboy, whose pranks are charm- 
 ing, but whose health and comfort has to be 
 looked after by more careful heads than his own ; 
 but in his judgment on serious matters his son 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 had always the fullest reliance, and the highest 
 testimony his wife could give to the excellence of 
 the new tenets she adopted in later days was 
 that " our beloved Sir Anthony " would have 
 found comfort in them. 
 
 He would not seem, however, to have exer- 
 cised much guidance, but rather to have allowed 
 himself genially to follow Avhere his boy's er- 
 ratic steps led — now to the Crimea, now to 
 the Stirling burghs, where papa's electioneering 
 was most lively and active. The only " No " 
 which seems ever recorded of him is when Lau- 
 rence, young and sanguine, made a demand for 
 money to invest in America — to which Sir An- 
 thony replied with the dry but admirable advice 
 that his son should save anything he could from 
 his official salary and invest that. This advice 
 was so far taken that Laurence became the pos- 
 sessor of " a town lot " in the city of Superior, of 
 which he afterwards made the admirable use of 
 establishing upon it a friend who was under the 
 shadow of severe misfortune, and for whom a 
 refuge was thus obtained. It brought in, how- 
 ever, save in this way, no profit to its proprietor. 
 
 Sir Anthony's death made the union between 
 mother and son more close and all-absorbing than 
 ever ; but it did not bind the active and restless 
 young man to England, a result for which his
 
 IMPATIENT MERIT. 24 
 
 o 
 
 spirit of adventure Is not alone to be blamed. 
 For he neglected no effort to establish himself 
 In the diplomatic service nearer home, and It is 
 evident that it was the prick of injured feeling, 
 the sickness at heart of continual disappointment, 
 the spurns which patient merit has to accept. If 
 not of the unworthy, at least of the official world, 
 which drove him agfaln and ao^ain from EnMand. 
 It was Indeed impatient merit in Ollphant's case. 
 He would not wait kicking his heels outside the 
 doors of the Colonial or Foreign Office. It was a 
 necessity with him to be doing, if not one thing- 
 then another. Both his active temperament and 
 the state of his mind in respect to religious and 
 other matters fomented this impatience. He ex- 
 plains it to his mother by the following excellent 
 reasons, while also apologising to her for not 
 writing of his " interior," which was what she 
 always most desired : — 
 
 " So long as I have anything to Interest me, I 
 keep myself so fully occupied and usefully em- 
 ployed that time passes pleasantly and profitably, 
 and I do not compromise myself; but when I 
 have nothing to do except to be consistent In 
 hours of temptation which are constantly recur- 
 ring, and have no employment to absorb me, I 
 go with the stream, having an utter want of
 
 244 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 self-denial. I find the only substitute is occupa- 
 tion, and that I cannot have on circuit, as it 
 must be engrossing, which law is not. The con- 
 sequence is, that I am in low spirits unless I am 
 actively engaged." 
 
 It is characteristic of his breedino- and the 
 perpetual self-examinations to which he had been 
 made to subject himself, modified into a curiously 
 unusual vein by the originality of his own mind, 
 that he should go on from this into a lament over 
 the incongruity of his mental and moral position : 
 
 " I find it impossible to divest my conversation 
 and conduct of that frivolity which marks the 
 worldly mind, and which gives the lie to any 
 sudden outburst of morality I may think it neces- 
 sary to assume. Nobody could conceive how 
 deeply I feel the reality and truth of religion 
 from my conduct, considering the force of my 
 convictions and the occasional earnestness of my 
 prayers. In days when I was almost insensible 
 to religion of any sort, or had any principle ex- 
 cept my love for you, I was infinitely less cajDable 
 of evil than I am now ; but now that I begin to 
 delight in the love of God after the inward man, 
 the law of my members seems moved into activity. 
 As this said law always gets the best of it, you
 
 THE WEAKNESS OF THE FLESH. 245 
 
 will perceive that I must be harassed in propor- 
 tion as the struggle is great. However, I could 
 go on theorising for hours ; and now that I come 
 to read it over, I daresay it is all humbug from 
 beginning to end, and that is another reason why 
 I don't like writing this sort of stuff. How am 
 I ever to be satisfied, after analysing my feel- 
 ingfs, that I am riMit ? It seems to me one of the 
 most fruitless occupations in the world. It does 
 not appear to me that the human mind is en- 
 dowed with faculties adequate to the task. It 
 instinctively knows its own weakness, but it is 
 not competent to say where that weakness lies 
 or how it may be cured, or else it would be 
 competent to cure it, which it certainly is not. 
 If a divine power is necessary to overcome the 
 depravity of one's human nature, a divine reve- 
 lation is necessary to enable one to discern 
 wherein that depravity precisely consists. There- 
 fore, as I said before, I may be all wrong, with 
 which consideration you must comfort yourself; 
 also with feeling that I have relieved my mind 
 by writing all this, whether it is nonsense or 
 not." 
 
 One cannot but feel a half-amused sympathy 
 for the mother, thus tantalised by revelations in 
 which there was so much which must have satis-
 
 24G THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 fied her craving for information respecting her 
 son's innermost thoughts, and so much that must 
 have puzzled and confounded her. How far did 
 the boy mean what he said ? and how far was 
 it humbug, as he says ? All the pages of theo- 
 risino- which he addressed to her — his bold criti- 
 cisms of the things she reverenced most, and 
 breakings - off into new paths — never, however, 
 discouraofed her : until the time came when thev 
 both beheld the new light, as it seemed to them, 
 together, and all qualms on the one side and un- 
 certainties on the other were swept away. 
 
 After his two years' service in China, it was 
 natural to suppose that his hoj)es of definite and 
 permanent employment would have been realised ; 
 but either the Foreign Office did not think so, or 
 its slowness of operation and prejudice in favour 
 of those who had entered its service in the usual 
 way made its authorities impervious to the claims 
 of the brilliant young interlojaer, who had, though 
 so successful and valuable a public servant, leaped 
 into the service rather by private favour of a 
 friendly plenipotentiary than in the legitimate 
 way. At all events, he had got tired of waiting 
 by the end of the year, and in the early beginning 
 of 1860 we find him plunged into a new excitement. 
 Probably he had remained more or less a sympa- 
 thiser with Italy since the time when he took
 
 ON REVOLUTION INTENT. 247 
 
 a delighted share in all the mischief going 
 on, a dozen years before, when he was a boy 
 travelling with his parents ; but there is no 
 indication to show us what it was which made 
 him suppose that he could do something to stay 
 the course of events, when just at the crisis of 
 the fate of Nice and Savoy he rushed out of 
 London and threw himself into the excitement 
 of Italian politics in Turin — where the cession 
 was being reluctantly carried through — and Nice, 
 where he actually hoped to have reversed the 
 order of things, and roused the languid popula- 
 tion to resistance. It is curious to find him 
 discussing sentimental methods and quoting the 
 'Biglow Papers': "I don't believe in principle, 
 but oh I du in interest ! " in respect to national 
 action, while setting out on the most romantic 
 piece of knight-errantry in his own person. His 
 journey to Nice and Turin had, of course, two 
 aspects ; and he scarcely discloses even in his de- 
 lightful after-narrative, published when all neces- 
 sity for secrecy was over, the daring hope he had 
 of becoming himself an important agent in the 
 matter, and perhaps saving the provinces which 
 Italy, not yet consolidated into a great nation, 
 was compelled to sacrifice to her great and noble 
 aim. To ordinary eyes it was pure love of ad- 
 venture, tempered by the pursuit of "copy" and
 
 248 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 material for articles, chiefly in ' Blackwood,' which 
 carried him forth ; and he is profuse in his ex- 
 planations to his mother that the fifty pounds 
 he would make by two articles was quite justi- 
 fication enough for the brief crusade, lasting only 
 a month, u]Don which he set out in high hopes. 
 
 Leaving Paris, Laurence found himself, to his 
 great annoyance, yet amusement, in the same 
 carriage " with some frowsy parties enveloped in 
 tobacco-smoke," who turned out to be the very 
 deputies from Nice, returning from their inter- 
 view with the Emperor, whom he was bent on 
 overcoming ; but with whom he became so friendly, 
 picking their brains of any political secrets to be 
 found there, that he was taken for one of them 
 by an official who came to the railway to pay 
 his respects to the deputation. " He made me 
 a low bow, which I returned with all the dignity 
 becoming a man who has just sold his country." 
 In Savoy he found enough of patriotic feeling 
 and smoulderino- undirected enthusiasm to fill 
 him with high hopes ; and his first resolution, 
 after egging up these local patriots to resistance, 
 was to write letters to every member of the Par- 
 liament in Turin, urging them to delay the rati- 
 fication of the treaty, — a tremendous step to be 
 taken by a young man on his own responsibility. 
 His earnestness and conviction that something
 
 IN TURIN. 249 
 
 might actually be done In this way was not 
 unmingled with levity. "It is great fun," he 
 writes, " to have another object than churches 
 and picture-galleries ; " but he was not the less 
 seriously disappointed and humiliated when he 
 found that things had gone too far, and that all 
 his eloquence, excitement, and inspiration could 
 not produce the effects he had desired. 
 
 His acquaintance with diplomatic society carried 
 him at once to the heart of affairs in Turin, and 
 made him acquainted with all the now historical 
 details of that great era in Italian history. He 
 met and dined with Cavour, whom he describes as 
 " a thick-set solid man, with a large square head 
 and spectacles, an able, mathematical, practical 
 sort of head, without chivalry, principle, or genius," 
 — a harsh judgment, which he afterwards saw cause 
 to alter. But his chief Interest was Garibaldi, by 
 whose aid alone any operation like that of which 
 he dreamed was practicable. The Imj^atlence of 
 the young man, used to constitutional methods, 
 and conscious of the efficacy of popular agitation, 
 with the still bewildered patriots, who were quite 
 unable to employ such new tools. Is characteristic. 
 
 " Why I should take such Intense Interest In 
 affairs that don't concern me I don't know, except 
 that I cannot stand by and see a good cause ruined.
 
 250 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 and such blackguards as the Emperor carrying 
 all before him, without wagging a finger. And 
 these people, with all their patriotism, are so 
 childish and unpractical, Garibaldi worst of all. 
 I have got him regularly in tow, but cannot din 
 the only practicable plan for the salvation of his 
 country into his head. He is the most amiable, 
 innocent, honest nature possible, and a first-rate 
 guerilla chief, but in council a child. The worst 
 of him is that he puts his trust in anybody, and 
 unless you stick to him you lose your influence ; 
 but he has a name with the people that may be 
 turned to any account." 
 
 The zeal of the young self-sent emissary seems 
 to have been able to inspirit the drooping party 
 of disconsolate Nizzards so far as to procure the 
 proposal of a resolution against the annexation, 
 in Parliament, by Garibaldi, Laurence himself 
 drawinof it out. But "it is of no use, I feel 
 certain," he says ; " they can neither work pop- 
 ular movements nor parliamentary tactics." That 
 the malcontents should never have thought of 
 calling a public meeting at Nice, where the 
 people might have expressed their feelings, fills 
 him with indignant astonishment. Failing these 
 constitutional methods, remained the romantic 
 one of seizing- and breakino- the ballot - boxes
 
 AT NICE. 251 
 
 when the votes were collected, so as to make 
 another ballot necessary, and thus gain a little 
 time, which would seem to have been fully 
 planned by the energetic young revolutionary. 
 But this promising plan was abandoned by the 
 distraction of Garibaldi's thoughts toward Sicily, 
 as may be seen in the ' Episodes.' The young 
 man promises to his mother to " keep out of the 
 row " ; but we know what such undertakings come 
 to in the case of an individual who had confessed 
 that it was beyond human nature to hear that 
 a fight was going on, and not rush out to see 
 it. And what the Foreign Office would have 
 thought of a possible Secretary of Legation 
 breaking the ballot-boxes at the head of a party 
 of Garibaldian red-shirts it would not be difficult 
 to predict. Thus, perhaps, according to his pre- 
 vailing conviction, it was all for the best that 
 he should have been compelled to add, in deep 
 disappointment, " There is not the slightest chance 
 of a row — the people are like sheep." 
 
 " The business here has gone off with the usual 
 flatness. Still I am glad to have seen it, and to 
 have known the villanies that have been perpe- 
 trated under the pretext of universal suffrage." 
 The whole thing- was a sham of the most trans- 
 parent character. A popular leader like Gari- 
 baldi oueiit to have turned the tables. A little
 
 252 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 more of Walker in his composition would have 
 settled the matter." Always philosophical, how- 
 ever, and remembering- now that the affairs of 
 Italy did not really concern him in the least, 
 Laurence consoled himself by thoughts of the 
 pounds which would be brought in by two articles 
 in ' Blackwood,' which were more than his expedi- 
 tion had cost him altogether. 
 
 He seems to have travelled much this year, 
 since we hear of him two or three months later 
 in Montenegro, where various amusing incidents 
 happened to him, related in the ' Episodes ' ; and 
 after that in Naples, where he was once more 
 received by Garibaldi, by that time victor of 
 Sicily, and about to round out the new-formed 
 Italian kingdom by the magnificent present of 
 the ancient Regno, the only royal state in the 
 peninsula. Laurence relates that he was accom- 
 modated on this occasion in the very j)alace and 
 bedchamber of King Bomba himself, "in a bed 
 so gorgeous with its gold and lace and satin, that 
 I doubted whether the king himself did not keep 
 it for show. However, it turned out a very good 
 one to sleep in," adds the light-hearted traveller, 
 whose next night's rest might be in a brigand's 
 hut or in the close little cabin of a felucca, for 
 anything he knew or cared. 
 
 It was in one more out of the way still, in the
 
 APPOINTED CHARGE D'AFFAIRES AT YEDO. 253 
 
 paper chamber of a Japanese temple, that for ahnost 
 the first time in all his adventurous career we find 
 him in absolute peril of his life. Notwithstanding 
 what seems at the first glance the rapid advance 
 and invariable success of his life, Laurence had 
 not been as yet, as I have already had occasion to 
 remark, distinguished by Government patronage. 
 When the appointment as First Secretary of 
 Legation at Japan was offered to him, it was thus 
 a most important step in his career : though pos- 
 sibly, as it was to replace a gentleman murdered 
 barbarously in China, and involved danger to life 
 as well as a very distant exile out of the world, 
 it was not eagerly sought after by the usual can- 
 didates. To Laurence, however, whose experi- 
 ences of Japan in his former brief visit with 
 Lord Elgin — when all was novel and fresh, and 
 the stranofers were received with naive enthu- 
 siasm before any complications had arisen — were 
 all delightful, the offer, as he says, was " ex- 
 tremely tempting," especially as it was in reality 
 the first really official appointment which he had 
 held. He arrived in Yedo (I adopt his own spel- 
 ling of the word) in the end of June 1861, the 
 Minister, Sir Kutherford Alcock, then Mr Alcock, 
 being at the time absent, which constituted 
 Laurence for the time being charge cVaffaires. 
 His usual correspondence with his mother here
 
 254 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 unfortunately falls me ; but I am permitted to 
 quote from a letter addressed to the Duchess 
 of Somerset, which gives a very vivid repre- 
 sentation of the state of affairs, and shows 
 the changed condition of the Japanese mind 
 towards the powerful invaders whom they had 
 previously received with so much cordiality. This 
 letter was written only a few days before the out- 
 rage which so conij^letely changed his prospects. 
 
 " Yedo, Juhj 2 [1861]. 
 
 " I am at present luxuriating in that feeling of. 
 repose which arises from having arrived at one's 
 journey's end, and am agreeably surprised with 
 the aspect of my future abode. Mr Alcock is 
 still away, so that I found myself locum tenens 
 immediately on my arrival. The important ques- 
 tions which are pending are of course left over 
 until his return, and things are going on quietly 
 enough, in so far as one's personal safety is con- 
 cerned. That we shall have ultimately to join 
 issue with the Japanese no one can doubt who 
 watches for a moment the tone of their diplomacy ; 
 but I shall be able to write to you at more length 
 upon that subject when I have been here a little 
 longer. We expect the Admiral in a week or ten 
 days, and I trust that when he comes he will see 
 the expediency of keeping a large force in these
 
 INTOLEEABLE CONDITIONS. 255 
 
 parts. At present we have only one despatch 
 gunboat for the whole of Japan. So far as we 
 are concerned here, with a due amount of prudence 
 and submission to Government restraint, there is 
 no reason why any disturbance should arise ; but 
 at Yokohama, only seventeen miles off, there are 
 upwards of a hundred Europeans, and their pa- 
 tience under the galling restraints to which they 
 are subjected cannot always be counted upon. 
 
 " I can imagine few places of residence more de- 
 lightful than this, if that one all-pervading draw- 
 back of Government surveillance were removed. 
 In fact, a State prisoner would consider himself 
 in clover, but a free-born Briton cannot reg-ard 
 matters in the same light. At Yokohama these 
 restraints are much mitigated, and people may 
 ride and walk where they like unattended ; but 
 we here are never for a moment unwatched. 
 The beauty of our pleasure-grounds, which con- 
 sist of twenty or thirty acres of garden, wood, and 
 water, is quite destroyed by the fact of three 
 hundred guards being posted in them. If my 
 servant runs after a butterfly, a two-sworded 
 official runs after him ; and one post completely 
 commands my rooms, so that my every act is 
 noticed. As the whole is enclosed by a palisade, 
 every gate is guarded. We are never attended 
 by less than eight when we go out ; these scramble
 
 256 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 over the country after us, and prohibit our stop- 
 ping to sjDeak to the i^eople, much more to shop 
 in the town. Indeed there is no inducement to go 
 into the town after one is famihar with it, as the 
 streets are crowded and the chances of colhsion 
 greater. As a general rule, our guardians exer- 
 cise their functions with civility. When they 
 are impertinent, as sometimes happens, one has 
 to submit as one would to one's jailer. All this 
 is rather trying, and is a useful exercise of temper. 
 "It is due to Mr Alcock to say that his 
 retirement to Kanogan produced a good effect, 
 though it was a bold stroke, as, if the Govern- 
 ment had not yielded, there was no escape from 
 the dilemma. Practically one is perfectly safe if 
 one is prudent, submits to discij)line, and is 
 respectful in one's bearing when one meets the 
 native grandees or their retainers. For instance, 
 on a narrow path the Englishman, if he desires 
 to avoid a collision, makes way for the grandee's 
 servant. Then there is no occasion to go out 
 after dark, or to resent insulting expressions from 
 intoxicated Yacomins. With entire humility one 
 is in no danger whatever, and a truly sincere 
 Christian who exercised the hio-hest of Christian 
 graces might live here in perfect safety all his 
 life. All my old friends have disappeared from 
 the scene. One, who was an especial favourite
 
 THE "happy despatch." 257 
 
 of mine when I was here last, ripj)ed himself up 
 a short time ago ; and two of the other commis- 
 sioners are disgraced, and it is supposed have 
 followed his example. This was all on account 
 of their friendship for foreigners. A man told me 
 that he was struck by the subdued expression of 
 my friend's countenance the other day when he 
 went to see him ; but he had no suspicion that 
 that high-spirited individual intended to put an 
 end to himself He had, in fact, already sent out 
 cards of invitation for a ' happy despatch ' party, 
 and at the most jovial moment of the banquet 
 he addressed his friends in a few telling words, 
 and vindicated his honour in their presence. 
 
 " Every one, down to the lowest interpreter, who 
 has had anything to do with the introduction 
 of the foreigners, has disappeared or been dis- 
 graced, and the hostile nobles do not hesitate to 
 say that they are only waiting till they are better 
 drilled and organised to go to war with us. In 
 fact, they pay us the compliment of saying that 
 we are the only nation they can go to war with, 
 as we are the only nation from whom they can 
 learn anything." 
 
 This state of affairs was evidently an impossible 
 one to last ; but its conclusion, so far as Oliphant 
 was concerned, though most alarming and nearly 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 258 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 tragical, was not a public outrage, but one that 
 might have happened in any unsettled country, 
 the work of a handful of unauthorised ruffians ; 
 and the guard, whose inquisition was so intolerable 
 to the gentlemen cooped up in the lodging which 
 was thus made into a prison, seem to have 
 defended them faithfully at the cost of several 
 lives. The attack, which was of the most highly 
 dramatic character, is perhaps one of the best 
 known incidents in Oliphant's life. He has de- 
 scribed it in the most vivid manner in his 
 ' Episodes ' : and the letter in which he com- 
 municated the event to his mother, though with 
 a few characteristic and individual touches of 
 private sentiment, differs little from the after- 
 narrative, and bears marks in its broken sen- 
 tences and hurried contractions of the difficulty 
 with which he still wrote. He had been only 
 about a week in discharge of his functions, and 
 had just been relieved of his responsibility as 
 chief of the embassy by the arrival of Mr Alcock, 
 when one night, having sat late to look at a 
 comet, most fortunately, as it happened, Laurence 
 was startled by various sounds, — the barking of a 
 dog which he had attached to himself by kindness 
 (which was a way he had with dogs as well as 
 men), and which slept at his door, the sound of 
 the rattle used by the JajDanese watchmen, and
 
 THE JAPANESE ROBBER. 259 
 
 other suspicious noises. Jumping up in the dark, 
 he could find no weapon handy but a hunting- 
 crop with a heavily weighted handle, with which 
 he rushed out into the narrow passage on which 
 his room opened, calling several members of the 
 leo^ation as he Avent. 
 
 " Just as I turned the corner I came upon 
 a tall black figm^e, w^ith his arms above his 
 head, holding a huge two-handed sword. As 
 the only light came round the corner from R.'s 
 room, I could only see indistinctly that the 
 figure had a mask on, and seemed in armour. 
 Short time for observation, had to dodge the 
 sword, and get back a step to get at him with my 
 whip, yelling loudly. It seemed like a nightmare, 
 meeting: a hug-e black ficrure comintr in the nio-ht 
 into your house to take stealthily your blood, 
 whom you had never harmed. He made no 
 sound : we were at it for a minute or two. I 
 could not hope to do him much harm : my only 
 object was to keep him at bay until somebody 
 came ; nobody did. I soon got a cut in the right 
 shoulder, and then managed to entangle his sword 
 in the handle of the whip — it has the marks. I 
 could not see his blows, as it was dark ; but at 
 length one came down on my left arm, which 
 I instinctively had kept over my head as a guard.
 
 260 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 At the same moment Morlson, who had time to 
 load a pistol, opened his door and fired. The man 
 dropped, but another fellow rushed at Morison 
 and cut him over the head ; then both got back 
 round the corner, the man on the ground only 
 floored, the other fatally wounded. Morison and 
 I retired." 
 
 This is the first breathless account of the sudden 
 fight in the dark. When the two wounded men 
 fell back on the room in which two or three of 
 their fellows were now gathered after a hurried 
 search for arms, and in which there was a feeble 
 light, an interval of terrible suspense occurred. 
 Bligh, Oliphant's servant, had dashed through 
 the paper partition of his room, to join the party 
 with his double - barrelled g-un : all the arms 
 that could be mustered besides were two re- 
 volvers and a sword, and with these means of 
 defence, paper walls and screens their only 
 shelter, and two wounded men to hinder any 
 escape, the little group stood listening for the re- 
 newed attack. Fortunately, however, the guards 
 outside were faithful, and the assassins were 
 successfully driven back, although fighting went 
 on durinof the whole course of the anxious 
 night. Next day Laurence, whose wounds had 
 been bound up l^y Mr Alcock, was conveyed
 
 " TRUSSED LIKE A FOWL." 261 
 
 to the gunboat in the harbour, the Ringdove, 
 " escorted by Alcock and whole mission, file of 
 blue-jackets, second of Yacomins, all armed to 
 teeth, a most pic. procession," writes the sufferer, 
 his eyes open under all circumstances. " One's 
 collar-bone sewn up prevents use of right arm 
 yet ; other hurts are left arm, two cuts above wrist. 
 Doctors promise better in three weeks." This was 
 scribbled on the 10th of July, four days after the 
 event. On the 11th he goes on: "Better: first 
 three days both arms had to be strapped across 
 chest. Bligh fed me and nursed me in the ten- 
 derest manner ; but I alone here, captain and men 
 on shore. Sleeping on back, with thermometer 
 at 85°, trussed like a fowl, is difficult, but we are 
 jolly." After some discussion of the position, the 
 following note is added at the end : — 
 
 " My only thought that night was for you : for 
 mvself I am glad ; it made me know I could face 
 death, which at one time seemed inevitable. I 
 found my creed or philosophy quite satisfactory. 
 I take everything as in the day's work, and that 
 is why in one sense I do not feel thankful like 
 others. I have such a profound feeling of being 
 in God's hands, and having nothing to do with 
 my own fate, that gratitude even would be pre- 
 sumption. If killed, I have no doubt my first feel-
 
 262 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ing- in the other world would be one of relief; just 
 as my first feeling* at not being killed was one of 
 relief too. It seems to me to make no difference : 
 whatever is, is best ; and I feel I could realise this 
 amid considerable pain. Since wounded do not 
 wish to complain ; acquiescence during short stay 
 here no great heroism. I do not know that I 
 should say so always ; but as yet I can, and I see 
 it is the right thing. It must all end ; one has 
 only to hold on, and feel sure that the use and 
 object of it all will be evident. Meantime to do 
 the right thing : 
 
 Live I, so live I 
 To my Lord heartily, 
 To my Prince faithfully, 
 To my neighbour honestly, 
 Die I, so die I. 
 
 " If God is good, it must all come right in the 
 end. I never doubt Him. I have got ' Thorn- 
 dale' on board, which is a most comfortable 
 book." 
 
 Four days later, he wrote that he was able to 
 move his fingers, and the stitches were taken out 
 of his shoulder ; and describes the cook, who in 
 running away had received two dreadful gashes 
 in the back, and could only lie on his stomach. 
 " Very lucky I did not turn round to bolt," he
 
 ALTERNATIVE WITHDRAWAL OR FIGHT. 263 
 
 says ; "if so, must have been cut down from 
 behind. I owe my Hfe to Morison coming up 
 when he did, and K. and L. owe their lives to 
 my stopping- the two men who were hurrying 
 along the passage within three yards of their 
 doors." His opinion was that after this assault, 
 which the Japanese elaborately made out to be 
 an expression of private hatred alone, and entirely 
 unconnected with any official, the British Govern- 
 ment had but two courses before it — the one 
 a war with Japan, the other withdrawal at once 
 and summarily. " I don't depart from my old 
 theoretical views. The result of our forcing our- 
 selves u^Don people who never wanted us, has 
 been to place us in the dilemma from which the 
 only escape is one or other of the courses I have 
 proposed. If we are withdrawn, I shall feel very 
 much my tail between my legs ; if we go to war, 
 I shall go in for looting daimios' palaces and feel 
 a blacko'uard ! " 
 
 Laurence discovered afterwards that the un- 
 accountable ineffectiveness of his encounter with 
 the Japanese ruffian was fully explained by 
 the fact that the blows on both sides were ren- 
 dered comparatively harmless by a great beam, 
 which neither saw in the darkness, immediately 
 over their heads, and on which the sword and 
 hunting-whip respectively had expended their
 
 264 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 blows. It was discovered to be slashed and 
 dinted with the sword-cuts which ought to have 
 killed the combatant on one side, and the blows 
 which ousfht to have felled the assailant on the 
 other. But for this it is almost impossible that 
 Oliphant in his night-dress, with his loaded 
 whip -handle, standing against an antagonist 
 in a mail - coat and with a sword, could have 
 escaped with his life. But in the meantime 
 the all - important moments during which he 
 kept back the assassins decided the failure 
 of the attempt. "I believe our escape was 
 mainly owing to the determined manner in 
 which your son kept our assailants at bay for 
 some time, till our guards came up," wrote one 
 of the attaches to Lady Oliphant ; and I am 
 tempted to quote entire the letter of Bligh the 
 servant, who was ready to stand by his master to 
 the death, but who chilled the very blood in his 
 veins by his tragic w^hisper when the little group 
 stood waiting for the rush which they expected 
 every moment, " Do you think, sir, they Avill 
 torture us before they kill us?" Half fainting 
 from loss of blood, unable to defend himself 
 further whatever might happen, and with the 
 certainty in his mind that escape was impossible, 
 Laurence was lying in a chair, too dizzy and 
 weak to mind what was happening, when all
 
 bligh's letter. 265 
 
 the blood remaining in his body was brought to 
 his brain by these words. "This horrible sug- 
 gestion brought out a cold perspiration," he says ; 
 "and I trust I may never again experience the 
 sensation of dread with which it inspired me." 
 Bhgh's letter, however, was more considerate 
 than his speech. 
 
 " Lady Oliphant, — Believing a letter from me 
 just now would be acceptable, I take the earliest 
 opportunity. I have already disobeyed your com- 
 mands in not writing before, for which I crave 
 pardon, and can only now say a few words about 
 the late occurrence. It was a very cowardly 
 assault, but fortunately without the results in- 
 tended. You may be quite comfortable about 
 my master, whatever you hear to the contrary. 
 He has a slight wound on the shoulder, the right 
 side, and a cut on the left arm just above the 
 wrist, which I am very glad to say are doing 
 wonderfully well ; and am very happy to add 
 my master's health is excellent, which, combined 
 with the care of the kind and attentive surgeon 
 of the Eino-dove, with all due allowance for such 
 wounds, within three weeks or one month my 
 master will be himself again. He is very irrit- 
 able at not having a more deadly weapon than 
 the hunting-whip, so as to have floored his op-
 
 266 THE MISSION TO CHINA. 
 
 ponent. I believe had it not been for my master 
 stopping- the fellows when he did, so gallantly 
 and quite unsupported, we should have had a 
 different tale to tell. I may add, three or four 
 of the fellows were killed and as many taken. 
 
 " Hoping this short letter will meet your appro- 
 bation, I beg to remain, your ladyship's humble 
 servant, Samuel Bligh." 
 
 This good fellow had been engaged in hel^^ing 
 his master to form an entomolopfical collection for 
 the British Museum, — " running after butterflies," 
 as Laurence describes. They had found a rare 
 beetle, to their pride and joy, a day or two be- 
 fore ; and the tragic, half-seen, black figures, in- 
 vading the sleej)ing house in the dark, gave note 
 of their stealthy coming to Bligh by stumbling 
 over the tray full of sharp pins upon which the 
 insects were impaled — a curious mixture, half 
 comic, as so many tragic occurrences are. 
 
 It was considered right that Laurence should 
 return home with the news of the condition of 
 the embassy, and the necessity for taking some 
 decided steps to secure their safety and dignity, 
 or withdrawal — as soon as he was able to travel. 
 He had a curious commission on his way — to find 
 out and warn off a Russian man-of-war, whicli 
 had stolen into a secluded island-harbour in the
 
 RETURN HOME. 267 
 
 face of all treaties, and was then ensconced guilt- 
 ily in the shelter of the endless windings of the 
 waters, surveying and jDreparing for anything that 
 might happen in the future. Laurence was so far 
 recovered that he was able to carry out this com- 
 mission with his usual coolness and success, and 
 caught the Russians, without warning, in this 
 curious secret employment. He returned home 
 within a few months from the time he left Lon- 
 don, and he never again returned to the diplo- 
 matic service. He had only been about ten days 
 in his post : this was all the actual and formal 
 employment given him directly by the Govern- 
 ment, without the intervention of any such power- 
 ful and friendly patron as Lord Elgin.
 
 268 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 POLITICAL ADVENTURE — SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 Notwithstanding the consequences of his wounds, 
 which he felt for some time — indeed lie never fully 
 recovered the use of his left hand, several of the 
 fingers of which were permanently disabled — it 
 was not for long that Laurence could persuade 
 himself to keep still and recover his strength in 
 quiet. It is difficult to make out, from any cer- 
 tain information, whether he had some mission of 
 inquiry in hand, either from the Government or 
 the ' Times,' or was merely working on his per- 
 sonal impulse, with that thirst to know all the 
 intricacies of foreign politics which was always 
 strong in him, when he set out again, in the 
 leisure of his sick-leave, on a journey much more 
 serious than the usual wanderings of convales- 
 cence. I believe, however, I am right in saying 
 that many, if not all, of his apparently personal 
 travels at this period of his life were in reality
 
 THE PRINCE OF WALES. 269 
 
 charged with a pohtical object, and that his 
 wildest wanderings and farthest afield were in 
 the public service. It was his luck — a kind of 
 good fortune which was constantly befalling him 
 — to encounter at Vienna the Prince of Wales 
 and his suite, then, in the beginning of 1862, 
 on their way to the Holy Land, and to be in- 
 vited to accompany them for a portion of their 
 way, as far as Corfu. The Prince of Wales was 
 then a very young man, and his character as yet 
 unknown to the nation, which has learnt to know 
 and esteem its fine qualities since then ; and it is 
 interesting to read the early estimate of the royal 
 youth formed by so keen an observer : — 
 
 " As I had already been to all the places on the 
 Adriatic coast at which we touched, and was able 
 to do cicerone, I spent a most pleasant ten days, 
 at the same time doing a little quiet political 
 observation. I was delighted with the Prince, 
 and thought he was rarely done justice to in 
 public estimation : he is not studious nor highly 
 intellectual, but he is up to the average in this 
 respect, and beyond it in so far as quickness of 
 observation and general intelligence go. Travel- 
 lino- is, therefore, the best sort of education he 
 could have, and I think his development will be 
 far higher than people anticipate. Then his tem-
 
 270 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 per and disposition are charming. His defects 
 are rather the inevitable consequences of his posi- 
 tion, which never allows him any responsibility, 
 or forces him into action." 
 
 From Corfu Laurence crossed over the main- 
 land within the line of those blue mountains of 
 Albania, which rise with so much soft majesty 
 over the sea. The country was then, as perpet- 
 ually in its history, distracted with wars and 
 tumults, little comprehensible to the rest of the 
 world ; but which he was of opinion would one 
 time or another force themselves upon the general 
 consideration, — an opinion which those who are 
 acquainted with the commotions and revolutions 
 going on in the out-of-the-way corners of the 
 earth are very apt to entertain, since it seems 
 incredible that matters so momentous on the 
 scene of operations should not affect sooner or 
 later the larger mass of the body politic, the 
 band of nations which make up what we call the 
 world. " I was very much struck," he says, 
 " with the popular ignorance which prevailed in 
 this country in regard to the revolt in Bosnia 
 and Herzegovina, which finally led to the Kusso- 
 Turkish war. At the outbreak of that movement, 
 the press, so far as I i-emember without an ex- 
 ception, assumed that it was a revolt of Chris-
 
 IN UNKNOWN LANDS. 271 
 
 tians against Turks, and I found the same im- 
 pression existed even among members of the 
 Cabinet ; the fact being that it was an agrarian 
 rising of Slav Christian peasants against Slav 
 Moslem landlords, very much analogous in many 
 aspects to our own landlord and tenant question 
 in Ireland." 
 
 He does not, however, tell us on which side 
 were his own sympathies, though he speaks of 
 being the guest, in Herzegovina, of one of the 
 landlords thus described. Whether it was with 
 this rural dignitary, or with some expedition 
 on the other side, that he himself went out to 
 taste that whiff of war which he could never re- 
 sist, there is no information. " We went out one 
 day to do a little skirmishing," he says in the 
 letter already quoted ; " but we found the enemy, 
 who had occupied the place in force the day be- 
 fore, had retired, so we had a ' walk over.' I 
 found a great deal that was of political interest 
 going on, or rather germinating, and indited a 
 despatch accordingly. Nothing can be w^orse 
 than the present condition of the Turkish pro- 
 vinces, and when taken in connection with the 
 row, the prospect looks bad." 
 
 He was not then aware how much he would 
 have to do with the Turkish sway in after-years, 
 nor was he yet personally acquainted with that
 
 272 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 exasperation which it seems capable beyond all 
 other governments (which is saying a great deal) 
 of raising- in the mind. The followino- curious 
 anticipation would seem to have referred to some 
 project of State which was never carried out : 
 " I do not see how Venice is to be freed except 
 at the price of the Ionian Isles. I know you 
 don't care about that ; but I think it is hardlv 
 fair that while the Emjoeror makes by freeing 
 Italy, we should lose by the same transaction." 
 Does this, one wonders, refer to some passing pro- 
 ject of handing over the islands to Austria as a 
 compensation for the loss of the Yeneto : which 
 changed into a determination to give them away 
 to somebody, as often happens when a present is 
 determined upon, and the first proposed recipient 
 fails ? 
 
 This expedition concluded with several amusing 
 adventures, all set forth in the most charming 
 way in cha23ter xii. of the ' Episodes.' On his 
 way through the wild region of the Abruzzi, 
 then scarcely known to travellers, and unsafe 
 without a strong escort, he received in one in- 
 stance an enthusiastic reception as the supposed 
 nephew of Lord Palmerston ; and in another came 
 upon a most curious official, in the shape of the 
 wife of the English vice-consul, who had been 
 for some time exercising such small duties as
 
 ENGLISH CONSULS AND COLONISTS. 273 
 
 appertained to his office, the husband having 
 deserted her and his post simultaneously. But 
 naturally this strange substitute was unable to 
 act in the political business which Oliphant had 
 in hand. It was here, too, in the little port of 
 Manfredonia, that he received the following in- 
 vitation : " Miss Thimbleby requests the pleasure 
 of English gentleman's company to tea to-night 
 at nine o'clock. Old English style ; " and accept- 
 ing it, found a quaint little fossil of an English- 
 woman, " very old, well on in the nineties," " a 
 little old woman like a witch," with whom he 
 drank tea solemnly, and to whom no doubt he 
 made himself as delightful as if she had been 
 young, beautiful, and a duchess. She was a 
 sister of Mrs Jordan the actress, of all people 
 in the world. 
 
 In a prison in one of the little towns which 
 he visited, and where the captured brigands were 
 the chief object of curiosity, Laurence saw " the 
 beautiful wife of a notorious chief of one of the 
 bands, who had been captured dressed in man's 
 clothes, and using her pistol with such effect 
 that she seriously wounded a soldier before she 
 was taken prisoner," — which incident no doubt 
 suggested to him the extremely amusing story 
 of the " Brigand's Bride," published some time 
 afterwards in ' Blackwood's Magazine,' and re- 
 
 VOL. 1. S
 
 274 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 printed in a little volume called ' Fashionable 
 Philosophy.' It is not a tale which professes to 
 be authentic ; but the humorous dare-devil of the 
 story has a sufficient family resemblance to our 
 active explorer — who pushed his way everywhere, 
 feared nothing, and delighted above all in strange 
 and novel experiences of humanity — to make 
 him interesting, even with the fantastic acces- 
 sories of the air-gun, and the wondering tim- 
 orous population which is done to the life. It 
 is easy to imagine Laurence himself seated, like 
 his hero, outside the chemist's door, the usual 
 gossiping - place of the provincial Italian, with 
 the notary and doctor and priest and the 
 Sindaco of the little town, acute but ignorant, 
 hanging upon his lips, knowing nothing of 
 England but its greatness and the eccentricity 
 of the Inglese, and Palmerston the fetich of 
 the age ; and receiving all the wonderful stories 
 told them with a faith tempered by surprise, 
 and the keenness of that Italian intelligence 
 which understands humour better than any 
 other Continental nation. The reader would 
 do well to take in the wild fun and extrava- 
 gance of this story to the more sober record, 
 not as fact, but as a most amusing and vivid 
 illustration of the wanderer's possibilities, and 
 of that characteristic rural yet urban life. Now-
 
 GIVES UP THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE. 275 
 
 adays the traveller on his rush to India passes 
 Foggia and the other little towns of the coast 
 at something as near express speed as is pos- 
 sible in Italy — and no doubt they must have 
 gone through certain revolutions in consequence ; 
 but the gossips still sit round the apothecary's 
 door in the soft evenings, although some smat- 
 terings of knowledge may have penetrated, with 
 much politics and the newsj)aper, into their anti- 
 quated society. 
 
 On his return from this expedition it became 
 necessary for Laurence to decide whether he 
 should or should not return to his post in Japan. 
 The alternative was to do this or to retire alto- 
 gether from the diplomatic service, and all the 
 hopes involved in it. " It was with great regret," 
 he says, " that I found myself compelled by family 
 considerations to adopt the latter alternative, and 
 abandon a career which had at that time peculiar 
 attractions for me, and in Avhich, considering my 
 age, I had made rapid progress." Had he re- 
 turned to Japan, it would have been to the highly 
 important position of charge d'affaires, which 
 could not have failed to lead to continuous and 
 profitable employment, and represented indeed 
 the ball at his foot so far as diplomatic service 
 was concerned ; but there can be little doubt 
 that the anxieties of his mother, after the dreadful
 
 276 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 experience she had passed through at the time of 
 his wound and illness, were not to be trifled with, 
 and that it was in consideration for her very 
 natural feelings that he gave up the far-distant 
 and dangerous post. 
 
 It was one thing, however, to give up Japan, 
 and another to give up the travel and adventure 
 which were his very life ; and accordingly not 
 many months had elapsed before he was afloat 
 again. " In January 1863 the Polish insurrection 
 broke out ; and as," he says with frank humour, 
 " I had by this time acquired a habit of fishing 
 in troubled waters, I determined to go and see 
 it." Once more I must refer the reader to the 
 ' Episodes ' for the account of this interesting 
 historical event. The evolutions of foreign poli- 
 tics are always diflicult to follow, and the diffi- 
 culty is largely increased when it is the outs 
 and ins of popular feeling and the policy of an 
 insurrection, even when so important as to be 
 called a national movement, that are in question. 
 Laurence penetrated into the councils of the un- 
 fortunate Poles, who were playing so tragic a 
 game, and into one of the camps of the insurgents, 
 a stray corps, pathetically small and defenceless, 
 but animated by such a fire of enthusiasm as 
 kindled the very heart of the spectator, open as 
 that was to all generous sympathies. He made
 
 THE POLES IN THE FIELD. 277 
 
 this visit at peril of his Hfe, with a perfect con- 
 sciousness that the Cossacks were very Httle 
 discriminating, and would not have stopped to 
 inquire what a wandering Englishman had to do 
 dans cette galere, or to respect his nationality, 
 had they chanced to come upon the little agitated 
 party who had escorted him to the camjj. He 
 must, however, have had that confidence in his 
 own fate which a man who has made a hundred 
 hairbreadth escapes naturally has. 
 
 His picture of the camp in the woods, almost 
 w^ithin hearing of a Russian army, where every 
 man held his life in his hands, is singularly im- 
 pressive and interesting. When the whole party 
 united in the Polish national song, the effect was 
 overwhelminof. 
 
 " When all joined in the grand prayer to God 
 which forms the swelling chorus, and the men, 
 with swords drawn, uplifted their arms in sup- 
 plication, the tears streamed down the cheeks of 
 the women as they sang, for they remembered 
 their sisters slain on their knees in the churches 
 at Warsaw for doing the same, and bloody 
 memories crowded on them, as, with voices 
 trembling from emotion, they besought, in solemn 
 strains, the mercy of the Most High. The scene 
 was so full of dramatic effect that I scarcely
 
 278 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 believed in its reality till I remembered the 
 existence of six thousand Russian soldiers in the 
 immediate neighbourhood, who were thirsting for 
 the blood of this little band of men and women. 
 There was something practical in this considera- 
 tion calculated to captivate a mind too prosaic to 
 be stirred by theatrical representations ; for I 
 confess I find it generally more easy to delude 
 myself by believing in the sham of a reality, than 
 in the reality of a sham. However, upon this 
 occasion he must have been a most uncompromis- 
 ing stoic who was not touched and impressed." 
 
 I quote the above passage chiefly from the 
 curious little bit of self-disclosure which betrays 
 the Scotch nationality of a man so cosmopolitan. 
 Many Englishmen, and almost every Scot, will 
 sympathise with this suspiciousness in respect to 
 theatrical circumstances and instinctive horror of 
 the sham, which sometimes reacts upon his ap- 
 preciation of the true. That this keen intuitive 
 criticism should exist in a spirit open to every 
 enthusiasm and full of sympathy, in this particular 
 case, may astonish those who are not familiar with 
 that remarkable and most interesting develop- 
 ment ; and it all throws a very singular light 
 upon his own after-career. 
 
 In the course of the same year, after a brief
 
 THE DOWNFALL OF THE POLES. 279 
 
 return to England, Laurence once more set out 
 for the same distant and little - known region. 
 The portion of his correspondence which refers 
 to this period of his life has not fallen into my 
 hands ; but there is no doubt that all these re- 
 peated journeys had their distinct j)olitical object, 
 and were far from being the mere adventures they 
 seem. Only a short time had elapsed since his 
 previous visit, and yet it was long enough to 
 permit the downfall of the Polish hopes, the im- 
 prisonment and death of many of the friends who 
 had then received him, and the all but suppression 
 of the revolt. As it still lived, however, in out- 
 of-the-way corners, and still entertained pathetic 
 hopes, never to be fulfilled, of French or English 
 intervention, the deep interest which Oliphant 
 felt in the brave men who had welcomed him so 
 kindl}', impelled him to another visit, though the 
 expedition was full of risk. He was accompanied 
 by a friend, the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, and their 
 object was to penetrate into the Russian prov 
 inces of Volhynia, where it was believed that 
 revolution was smoulderino- if not vet accom- 
 panied by any perceptible blaze. It is curious 
 that he should thus have made his way over 
 ground which, many years after, he was again 
 to traverse in the interests of the Jews — a ^Deople 
 who did not in anv deu-ree commend themselves
 
 280 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 to him during this first journey. The attempt to 
 penetrate into the disaffected province was, how- 
 ever, wholly ineffectual ; and after some adven- 
 tures, which are amusing enough in the narra- 
 tive though far from amusing in the experience, 
 the Eneflishmen were turned back, and made a 
 masterly retreat to Jassy, where, on the invita- 
 tion of a nun encountered in a box at the opera 
 — a most remarkable scene for such a meeting — 
 Laurence and his companion made a most amus- 
 ing and picturesque tour in Moldavia, proceeding 
 from one convent to another, each more piquant 
 and interesting than the one preceding it, in 
 which companies of recluses lived in the most 
 liberal and uncontrolled manner, the nuns, like 
 Flemish Beguines, in little cottages picturesquely 
 grouped together, and both monks and nuns sur- 
 rounded by blooming gardens, and much that was 
 calculated to make life agreeable. This was j^er- 
 haps the only detour among many journeys which 
 had no political meaning, though it furnished a 
 most agreeable article for ' Blackwood ' and a de- 
 lightful chapter in the ' Episodes.' 
 
 At the end of this pleasant break in his excit- 
 ing life, he turned his steps northwards in another 
 direction where trouble was brewing, always the 
 greatest attraction, notwithstanding his keen en- 
 joyment of every novelty in human life. This
 
 SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 281 
 
 time it was to Schleswig-Holstein, then enveloped 
 in the smoke and fumes of a contention which no- 
 body at least within our four seas understood, 
 that he went to study the disj^uted succession 
 and all the questions involved. "As confessedly 
 it was one which the British statesmen of the 
 day considered beyond their comprehension, and 
 as the British public never even tried to under- 
 stand it, it was no wonder that our policy was 
 mistaken throughout. When a question has more 
 than two sides, the popular intelligence fails to 
 grasp it. As most questions of foreign policy 
 have generally three at least, and sometimes 
 more, and as Ministers are compelled to adopt 
 the popular view if they wish to retain office, 
 the foreign policy of England is usually charac- 
 terised by a charming simplicity, not always con- 
 ducive to the highest interests of the country." 
 
 The question in this case was a triangular one, 
 the little Schleswig - Holstein desiring its own 
 sovereign and a peaceable small independence, 
 while spectators at a distance considered the con- 
 flict to be one between the Danes and Prussians 
 for the possession of a coveted morsel of which 
 the nationality was just doubtful enough to give 
 to each a certain claim. In the distant eddies 
 of opinions in those days I remember that the 
 French Government was warmly censured for not
 
 282 POLITICAL ADVENTURE. 
 
 takinof enerofetic action on behalf of the Poles, 
 their traditionary allies and j^^'oteges, while Great 
 Britain was equally blamed for not interfering 
 to defend the rights of the Danes. I recol- 
 lect overhearing upon the deck of a steamboat 
 on the lake of Como an animated discussion on 
 the subject between some Italian gentlemen, 
 whose enero-etic denunciation of the British Gov- 
 ernment as " un governo infame," in consequence 
 of their desertion of Denmark, was loud and 
 vigorous. Laurence, however, held a very dif- 
 ferent view : his sympathies were with neither of 
 the greater contending parties, but for the Duke 
 of Sonderburg-Augustenburg, whose claims were 
 overlooked on both sides. 
 
 This was the last of these purely political 
 adventures in which a thirst for information, the 
 desire of novelty and excitement, and a certain 
 ambition to know thoroughly and make himself 
 an authority upon the most complicated ques- 
 tions of European politics, were the ostensible 
 motives. Though he is always individual and 
 interestino- in whatever he writes, the hundred 
 little personal revelations of his private corres- 
 pondence are wanting in these bustling but un- 
 productive years, in which he seems to have 
 worked off a great deal of superabundant energy, 
 and gradually calmed and settled down into a
 
 A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. 283 
 
 state of mind adapted to residence at home, and 
 the routine of ordinary EngUsh Hfe. He was 
 now, in 1864, when he returned to England from 
 the battle which settled the fate of Schleswig- 
 Holstein, a man of thirty-five, in the height of 
 life and faculty, with an extraordinary knowledge 
 of the world and mankind. The reader may 
 think, perhaps, that such experiences as those of 
 Japan and Circassia were not entirely adapted 
 to form him for the localities of Mayfair and St 
 Stephen's. It must, however, be remembered 
 that between his journeys there had interposed 
 on many occasions a slice of society, usually at 
 its most animated and gayest moment ; that he 
 knew everybody at home as well as abroad, — 
 British Ministers as well as Chinese mandarins, 
 literary circles as well as political, and fashion- 
 able circles better than either ; that he had 
 friends everywhere, among both small and great, 
 and was acquainted with English life to its 
 depths, but especially with the representative 
 classes which we call the "world," — and in 
 which the brightest intelligence and grace, as 
 well as the most perfect frivolity and foolish- 
 ness, are to be found. He knew these classes, 
 understood their importance and their worth, 
 and scorned their social superiority while esteem- 
 ing it, in full consciousness of the paradox which
 
 284 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 existed both in them and in himself. He saw 
 through every social pretence with the keenest 
 glance of intelligence and humour, and never 
 hesitated to impale any offender upon his shining 
 spear, or laugh at any absurdity ; yet instinc- 
 tively held by that world to which, satirist and 
 revolutionary as he was, he belonged, and felt 
 himself at home in it, as he never was in less 
 distinguished but j30ssibly more genuine spheres. 
 This curious distinction was never more clearly 
 evidenced than in Laurence Oliphant's life. He 
 was not rich : his ancient race had never been 
 of great pretensions, or with claims beyond the 
 modest gentlehood of the county to which it be- 
 longed : yet his standing-ground throughout his 
 life was that of society ; and the world of fashion, 
 though he mocked it continually, and shot a 
 thousand darts at its mannerisms and follies, 
 was, after all, his natural sphere. 
 
 It was in the year 1864 that Laurence re- 
 turned home more or less " for good," with the 
 determination of finding, if possible, settled em- 
 ployment in England, or at least carving out 
 some occupation for himself which would permit 
 him to have a settled home there, and relieve and 
 cheer his mother's loneliness. I think her com- 
 fort must have been his great motive in this 
 determination, and perha^DS, too, a little disgust
 
 HIS OCCUPATIONS AT HOME. 285 
 
 with the pubhc service in distant parts of the 
 earth, where the best efforts of one representa- 
 tive of England were apt to be altogether dis- 
 credited by the actions of another, or by mis- 
 adventure, or by Government neglect, as happened 
 in the case of Lord Elgin — whose proceedings were 
 subjected to endless animadversion as incomplete 
 and unsatisfactory, as soon as the next difficulty 
 with China arose. The interval which elapsed 
 between Oliphant's return from his late wander- 
 ings and his election to Parliament was most 
 actively and fully taken up, although he held 
 no appointment ; and what between literature, 
 society, lectures — which he seems to have given 
 in many places, generally with a view to the 
 future election — and visits, his mind at this 
 time was fully occupied. He had always, or 
 almost always, a book preparing for the press, 
 always a round of country-houses attending his 
 leisure, always a hundred engagements in town. 
 I find a succession of letters recounting the ex- 
 periences of one autumn, which I at first concluded 
 to belong to this period, difficult as the chron- 
 ology is always, for his correspondence as usual 
 is completely destitute of dates, but which in 
 reality belongs to the conclusion of 1859, after 
 his first China expedition. However, it does 
 very well as an example of how his autumns
 
 286 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 were generally spent, and the reader will, I 
 hope, admit the retrospective glance. 
 
 He was coquetting with various constituencies 
 at the time, in a series of experiences, repeated 
 a few years later ; hoping to move the heart of 
 Glasgow, but not unwilling to content him- 
 self with Greenock, and with a steadfast eye 
 upon the Stirling burghs, as the sober cer- 
 tainty upon which he could always fall back. 
 His letters are full of amusing sketches of the 
 people among whom he moved ; from the lively 
 and distinguished visitors in country-houses to 
 the chance companions he picked up in railway 
 carriages, of one of whom, for example, he writes : 
 "Had a delightful journey, my companion being 
 a young man from London in the wholesale 
 woollen and stuff trade, from whom I derived 
 much useful information." This " delightful jour- 
 ney " carried him to Sir James Clarke's house of 
 Birk Hall, where he met "a most learned and 
 delightful party (including Professor Owen, Sir 
 Charles Lyell, and various others of the same 
 calibre), all savants of the first water, and con- 
 sequently most agreeable and entertaining so- 
 ciety. I wish I could always live in it." The 
 leap from the young man in the woollen trade 
 to these high potentates is long enough ; but 
 they were equally interesting to his always eager
 
 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION?. 287 
 
 and lively intellioence, and nothing could give a 
 better idea of his universal interest in human life 
 and character. 
 
 The occasion on which he met this deliofhtful 
 party was a meeting of the British Association 
 at Aberdeen, where he took a considerable share 
 in the proceedings, along with Captain Sherard 
 Osborn, Captain Speke, and other travellers of 
 authority, and read a paper in the Geographical 
 Section upon Japan, which was at the period his 
 special subject. He gave as usual a brief, but 
 lively, description of this to his mother in London : 
 
 " I wish you had cared as little for the ordeal of 
 reading a paper as I did. There was nothing on 
 earth to be nervous about. The hall was crowded 
 to the door, and they listened with great atten- 
 tion for the forty minutes which my paper lasted, 
 and cheered me vociferously when it was over, 
 so I suppose it pleased them. I have promised 
 to lecture at Leeds on the state of our political 
 relations with China. If I can't say what I 
 want in the House of Commons, I must find 
 some other place. I will get it fully reported 
 in the ' Times.' " 
 
 Other proposals to the same effect poured upon 
 him. He was asked to Glascrow to discourse : 
 
 o
 
 288 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 at one time to the merchants in the Chamber 
 of Commerce, "who are coming in a select body 
 to hear me, a regular business lecture," " no 
 ladies admitted," he adds regretfully ; at another 
 to the Youncr Men's Christian Association. " I 
 shall have treated Japan in every variety of way 
 before I have done," he says. He had also 
 lectures to deliver at Dunfermline, at Stirling, 
 at Greenock, and was invited by the Philo- 
 sophical Institution in Edinburgh to deliver two, 
 all on the same subject of Japan. The last 
 proposal was accompanied by an offer of <£20 
 for the two lectures, which does not seem a 
 large sum, but which he considers " not to be 
 despised." He was also moved by the fact that 
 " only distinguished men lectured there, and the 
 audience is large and important." " I never ex- 
 pected to turn popular lecturer," he says ; "I 
 have not sought to be jDushed forward in this 
 way, but seeing that I am without any special 
 occupation in London, I think I ought to do 
 what comes to my hand." He had, besides, the 
 strong inducement of a desire " to get hold of 
 Glasgow," " which would give me a position in 
 the House of Commons," he says, " above what 
 a young man could expect." And indeed there 
 seem to have been vague negotiations on this 
 subject, invitations to stand from " a Glasgow
 
 AT GREENOCK. 289 
 
 body," whom he evidently considered without 
 sufficient authority. Laurence desired nothing 
 more than to be asked to stand ; but he was 
 wise enough not to commit himself, even on the 
 warrant of his enthusiastic reception, and the 
 compliments of the Glasgow potentates, while 
 the fumes of his lecture were still in their heads. 
 At Greenock he had an amusing experience, which 
 I think he describes in one of his books, but of 
 which I will quote the report to his mother, at 
 first hand. He was disappointed and half offended 
 on arriving to find no one in waiting to meet him, 
 and to have to find his way by himself to the 
 hotel. 
 
 " However, the secretary came at last to show 
 me the way to the Free Kirk where I was to 
 lecture. Dunlop was not in the chair, having 
 been detained in Edinburgh, so the sheriff pre- 
 sided instead. I was somewhat dismayed to find 
 myself mounting the steps of a very high pulpit, 
 and looking down upon the upturned faces of 
 about twelve hundred people, who crammed the 
 church to overflowing ; still more dismayed to 
 hear the minister, who occupied the precentor's 
 desk beneath me, call upon the congregation to 
 join him in prayer — which was a very long one, 
 a great part of it personal to myself, and asking 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 290 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 a blessing upon the discourse I was about to 
 enter upon. T began to think I would try my 
 hand at a sermon, as the lecture I was going to 
 give was likely to be far too full of jokes to be 
 appropriate to the occasion. However, I dis- 
 coursed at starting on Japan as a field for mis- 
 sionary enterprise, and then, finding I had a 
 sympathetic audience, I was more light and 
 airy, until at last I kept them all in a highly 
 amused condition. I looked over my red pulpit 
 cushion and saw the old minister giggling im- 
 mensely. Altogether I think it was the most 
 successful lecture I have given. I despise even 
 notes now, and find practice is improving my 
 delivery. Nor did I feel the least fatigued. 
 Four of the leading people were profuse in their 
 apologies afterwards for the coolness of my re- 
 ception, which they declared was a mistake. I 
 am to go a round of visits with one of them 
 this morning." 
 
 These coquettings with the busy towns and 
 cities of the west of Scotland did not, however, 
 come to anything ; and when the decisive moment 
 arrived, it was to Stirling, where his name itself 
 was a recommendation and his family so well 
 known, that he turned. He had already con- 
 tested these burghs, unsuccessfully but hope-
 
 t< r, . T^ » " 
 
 PAPA IN STIRLING. 291 
 
 fully, before going to China — an incident of 
 which I find scarcely any record except of the 
 mere fact, and that he had much enjoyed the 
 business of canvassing, in which his father, 
 also greatly amused and excited, as was the 
 character of the family, had helped and accom- 
 panied him. His reflections on this subject, 
 on a renewed visit to Stirling, are touching 
 and full of feeling-. He sfives an account of a 
 brief visit to Stirling on his way to Broomhall, 
 the home of Lord Elgin, and his meeting with 
 his former agents : — 
 
 " They declare they can bring me in against 
 Caird next time, if I wish it. The few of my 
 old supporters whom I saw are most enthusi- 
 astic. I have a strong body of friends in Stir- 
 ling. I feel quite melancholy in renewing all 
 these associations, however : they recall papa so 
 vividly to my mind. He has been so warmly 
 mentioned by several persons to me. They got 
 to like him so much. M'Farlane says that the 
 look of him as he walked down the street ofot 
 me votes." 
 
 This pretty and very Scotch touch of affec- 
 tionate hyperbole is affecting, between the smile 
 and the tear, and was no doubt spoken with
 
 292 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 water in the eyes of the plain Stirling "writer" 
 so unexpectedly poetical. 
 
 As a backgi'ound to these public appearances, 
 comes a lively and shifting panorama of Scotch 
 country-houses, in which there are many vivid 
 glimpses of individual character and manners. 
 Laurence was not superior to gossip on occasion, 
 as perhaps it is impossible for a man so full of 
 interest in his fellow-creatures to be ; but he had 
 not time or inclination to send to his mother any- 
 thing more than a rapid apergu here and there 
 of the individualities with which he was brought 
 into contact. There is but one case, I think, in 
 which a private and painful imbroglio of real life 
 is referred to ; and in that case both mother and 
 son were actively employed in smoothing doAvn 
 and clearing up the unfortunate difficulty, in the 
 course of which the young man gives vent to 
 various judgments upon the impossibility of Pla- 
 tonic attachments, for instance (afterwards the 
 chief doctrine and belief of his life), which are 
 very authoritative and decided ; but offers him- 
 self, as few men would be likely to do, as the 
 agent to bring " the man," the disturber of do- 
 mestic happiness, to reason, and to convince him, 
 not without reference to his own (Laurence's) 
 private experiences, of the necessity of absolute 
 withdrawal.
 
 "a walk with the lassies." 293 
 
 I am happy to say, however, that, in con- 
 tradistinction to so many series of correspon- 
 dence that have been made open to the world, 
 there is no scandal, no piquant stories, no indis- 
 cretions or betrayals, in these ever lively and 
 graphic letters. If he sometimes speaks In his 
 books as if he believed all society to be corrupt, 
 he finds, as a sane and wholesome man should do, 
 no trace of corruption in the households that re- 
 ceive him — nothing but points of character, cheer- 
 ful indications of identity, something to like and 
 to please everywhere. As usual, the young ladles 
 call for a great deal of his attention, and " a walk 
 with the lassies " in the afternoon, after he has 
 got through his work, was a very favourite amuse- 
 ment. Indeed there is a little glamour of easy 
 sentiment in his eyes as he goes from one circle 
 to another, always ready for a touch of pleasant 
 emotion, and by no means unwilling to be awak- 
 ened to deeper feelings. " I am deeply in love 
 wdth them all," he says of a bevy of pretty sisters, 
 which no doubt was consolatory to the mind of 
 the mother, always uneasy on this point. One 
 lady, whom he had already admired and specu- 
 lated a little upon. Is more particularly discussed. 
 Some one has been describing her to him in the 
 highest terms. " She has a charming disposition, 
 thoroughly unselfish — but muckle hands and feet !
 
 294 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 What is that, you will say, to good mental quali- 
 ties ? I don't think she is the least brilliant, but 
 with very good common-sense. In fact, she would 
 suit you perfectly. As for myself, I despair of 
 finding any one ; probably when I do, she will be 
 an aversion unto you." 
 
 While thus living with his work and his lec- 
 tures, and his afternoon walk with the "lassies" 
 of the house, his reports of himself are exceedingly 
 cheerful : " Whenever I can dispose of my time to 
 my own satisfaction between innocent recreation 
 and profitable employment, I am happy ; but, 
 when employment is wanting, the recreation often 
 ceases to be innocent, ' Satan finding some mischief 
 still,' &c. And when the recreation is wanting, 
 as in Edinburgh, I become low-spirited and de- 
 pressed." 
 
 The light-hearted reports of his letters inform 
 us — at second-hand througfh his mother — of such 
 incidents as his performances at a tenants' ball in a 
 house where he " danced reels violently till 3 a.m., 
 and woke so fresh at seven that I wrote my book 
 till eleven o'clock, when the rest of the knocked- 
 up world at last came to breakfast " : how he 
 gravely interviewed a young man in an office who 
 " wants me to put him in the same line of life I 
 have followed myself, as he hates the writer's 
 desk ; but I don't know how that is to be done."
 
 NORMAN MACLEOD A TRUMP. 295 
 
 How he discusses theology everywhere whenever 
 he has a chance, " exchangmg 'Thorndale' with 
 Lady A. for two of Maurice's works " ; and finding 
 a great savant " utterly off the line in secret, and 
 confirmed by recent geological discoveries, but he 
 is afraid to publish. I urged him strongly to go 
 in for truth, mat ccelum. He said, ' Nobody with 
 less than £3000 a-year can afford to hold my 
 views,' " which does not say very much for the 
 philosopher. All this shows the versatility of 
 mind with which he leaped lightly from one sub- 
 ject to another, with a lively interest in all. He 
 was not disposed, I am sorry to say, to church- 
 going, professing " a terrible tendency to ague in 
 the draughts of country churches, but not saying 
 anything about a much greater dread which I have 
 of country parsons." Once at a service of the kind 
 called Puseyite in those days, he declared it to be 
 " like badly got-up Buddhism." He describes a 
 popular clergyman of the time as " a man with 
 the mind of a woman and the voice of a trumpet, 
 very aggravating but amiable." But on the occa- 
 sion of a visit to Glasgow, he declares with much 
 w^armth, " Norman Macleod is a trump. He and 
 Guthrie are the only decent parsons I know." His 
 enjoyment of the life thus described is very 
 clearly set forth in one of his letters, and all its 
 delights, not without a little natural complacence,
 
 296 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 while yet he anticipates with philosophy the need 
 for settling down in a more humble way : — 
 
 " My life is necessarily (in general) a good deal 
 made up of excitements and reactions ; for in- 
 stance, just now here I am scarcely able to turn, 
 for a press both of business and pleasure. Half-a- 
 dozen lectures to prepare, proofs constantly to cor- 
 rect, and book not yet finished. Charming women 
 at hand when I am inclined for a cosy chair in the 
 drawing-room and a touch of the aesthetic. Any 
 amount of game merely for the trouble of strol- 
 ling through a few turnip-fields : A. and I killed 
 twenty - one brace of partridges the day before 
 yesterday. Any number of horses to ride — all 
 the more to be appreciated after two years of 
 filth, heat, and absence of social and intellectual 
 enjoyment. But I hope I shall not be such a 
 goose as to growl at London because I have en- 
 joyed myself here. If I see my way to being com- 
 fortably independent, and am allowed that amount 
 of personal liberty which, from being so much my 
 own master, I am accustomed to, I think you will 
 find me a happy and contented companion in our 
 lodging, even though occupation and pleasure are 
 both suddenly slack. I should be more than un- 
 grateful if I were not thankful for the blessing 
 of having you to share it with me."
 
 MOTHER AND SON. 297 
 
 That this sentiment was thoroughly sincere, 
 every line of his letters testifies ; but yet there 
 were times when his mother's continual anxiety 
 to have his "serious thoughts," as well as the 
 lighter record of his sayings and doings, com- 
 municated to her, brings a momentary touch of 
 half-comic irritation. "You must be philosophi- 
 cal as to the condition of my spiritual being," he 
 says ; and while telling her of one after another 
 of the great ladies, his friends, who desire to 
 make her acquaintance, and whose somewhat 
 puzzled admiration of the close bond between 
 mother and son is apparent, he adds an amusing 
 story told him by one of them, of a certain old 
 Lady Campbell who had, like Lady Oliphant, one 
 dearly beloved and perfect son but no more. 
 " One day at prayers, when the minister was 
 saying, ' For there is no good in us, and we are 
 every one of us miserable sinners,' she was heard 
 audibly to protest, ' Oh, no' my Airchy, no' my 
 Airchy ! ' " The application was easy. 
 
 The year 1865, however, forms a definite era 
 in his life. His wanderings, his vagaries of mind 
 and thought, even his impatience with the im- 
 perfections of so-called religious persons and de- 
 sire of finding some better way, had plunged him 
 during the two or three previous years more and 
 more, whenever it was within his reach, into the
 
 298 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 excitement of society, which was at once an anti- 
 dote to the restlessness of thought, and which 
 the attitude he repeatedly compares to that of 
 Mr Micawber, of waiting- for something to turn 
 up, made a necessity to him. For where was he 
 to find the patron, the appointment on which his 
 mind was set, save among the gTeat personages, 
 holders of power and influence, who were to be 
 met with there? I do not pretend to be able 
 to give a history of his social experiences during 
 the intervals when he reappeared in London, al- 
 ways with the eclat of some new performance or 
 event — the successes of China, the hairbreadth 
 escape of Japan, the mysterious politics of mid- 
 Europe — something always fresh and unknown, to 
 surround him with attraction. Probably it in- 
 volved episodes of another kind from those of 
 adventure, and in which his heart was more 
 deeply concerned ; and it is by no means un- 
 likely that, on the eve of a great religious 
 change, the current of his life may have run 
 more high in other directions, and the impetus 
 of existence at its fullest force have carried him 
 further than conscience approved — thus adding a 
 deeper need to the necessity always felt of a new 
 foundation, and a sharper point to his prevailing 
 consciousness of the imperfections in him and 
 about him, the hollowness of social pretences.
 
 THE STIRLING BUEGHS. 299 
 
 and the cliiBculty of holding the right way in a 
 society which condoned moral failure so easily, and 
 was only inexorable to poverty and social defeat. 
 
 In this year, however, these wanderings and 
 waitings came to an end, and Laurence's election 
 as member for the Stirling burghs fixed his resi- 
 dence in town, and seemed to all his friends the 
 beffinninof of a brilliant and useful career. That he 
 had every endowment and faculty likely to make 
 his new position a satisfactory one need scarcely 
 be said. He was no recluse, likely to be intimi- 
 dated by that so-called " august assembly,"' — he 
 had full habit and usage of the world, and was 
 thoroughly acquainted with the atmosphere of 
 political life. The reasons which brought about 
 another result, and the disappointment of many 
 of the hopes conceived by his friends, if not 
 by himself, will become apparent further on. I 
 cannot doubt that he was pleased with the new 
 beginning of life, at least in its first stage. It 
 had been in his mind from the very commence- 
 ment of his career as the alternative to the life of 
 diplomacy, which was what had commended itself 
 to him most. And he took it up heartily, hoping 
 to play an important part in the history of his 
 country. He had contested the Stirling burghs 
 once, if not twice, before, — the first time while 
 still very young, in his father's lifetime, before
 
 300 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 the China expedition, — and he had many humour- 
 ous stories to tell of the incidents of his canvass- 
 ing. One of these, of which a friend tells me, 
 describes how he was taken to one person of in- 
 fluence after another, the most important of all 
 being a cobbler, ensconced in a dark little shop 
 approached by two or three steps leading down- 
 wards below the level of the street. Here he 
 underwent the process of "heckling" with much 
 severity, and was put through his political cate- 
 chism so entirely to the satisfaction of the shoe- 
 maker politician, that he smote the candidate 
 upon the shoulder in the intensity of his satis- 
 faction, exclaiming, "You're the billie for me!" 
 This event was to all appearance and human 
 likelihood the beginning of a mature and estab- 
 lished life. It was in reality no such thing, but 
 only a transition period — a temporary pause and 
 point between the life which he had lived like 
 other men, and another so unique and extra- 
 ordinary as to separate him from all his fellows. 
 But this time of transition was in itself signal- 
 ised by so much that was brilliant and remarkable 
 in the development of his mind and genius, as to 
 form a special and most important chapter in his 
 career. His intellect seemed to have reached a 
 sudden climax of energy, wit, and power, and his 
 whole nature burst forth in an overflow of gifts
 
 A NEW DEVELOPMENT. 301 
 
 which hitherto had been restrained in channels 
 inappropriate to their full exhibition, — in a kind 
 of riot of fancy, fun, and satirical brilliancy and 
 insight, of which he had given scarcely any in- 
 dication before. 
 
 This extraordinary new outburst, in which all 
 the fire of contending elements long smouldering 
 in him rose into sudden flame, was preceded by 
 an undertaking, briefly alluded to in the ' Epi- 
 sodes,' and very unique in its way, which may 
 be taken more or less as the conclusion of his 
 entirely mundane career. He had never been 
 one of the " worldly holies " of his own brilliant 
 classification, nor was he ever at any time reck- 
 oned among those who afiect superiority to the 
 world, and thank God that they are not as other 
 men ; but yet the distinction between the two 
 portions of his life is very marked, though as para- 
 doxical as ever. He was never so cynical in ex- 
 pression, so dazzling in satire, as when his whole 
 life was disorganised by the new impulse which 
 moved him to live for humanity and take love for 
 the race of mankind as his only inspiration ; nor so 
 wild in his apparent vagaries as when he first be- 
 came conscious of an anchor in the unseen, and a 
 certainty of conviction and established standing- 
 ground. 
 
 It was, however, before he had altogether
 
 302 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 opened to this new development that the sin- 
 0-ular and romantic (if such a word can be 
 appHed in such a sense) Httle venture of the 
 'Owl' — projected in laughter and high spirits, 
 and carried out as an excellent joke by every- 
 body concerned — was tossed into the mystified 
 and astonished world. He explains its first be- 
 o-inning by a few words in respect to the excep- 
 tional position he had made for himself by his 
 perpetual travels and political adventures. He 
 had friends everywhere throughout the civilised 
 (and indeed we may add the half-civilised) world, 
 and in all the quarters which he had visited and 
 studied, plunging into the troubled waters when- 
 ever he had a chance, and mastering every polit- 
 ical combination he could push his way into ; 
 and from these friends over all the world he 
 was in the habit of receiving communications 
 on the exciting subjects which had brought them 
 together. "For instance," he says, "a confer- 
 ence was at that time sitting in London on the 
 Schleswig-Holstein question, consisting of pleni- 
 potentiaries of all the European Powers who had 
 been parties to the Treaty of London, the pro- 
 ceedings at which were kept absolutely secret ; 
 yet a few days after each meeting, I received 
 from abroad an accurate report of everything that 
 had transpired at it — and this, I hasten to say,
 
 A LITTLE DINNER. 303 
 
 through no one connected with our own Foreign 
 Office. I felt bursting with all sorts of valuable 
 knowledge, with no means of imparting it in a 
 manner which suited me." 
 
 It was in these circumstances that " a little 
 dinner" was given at a little house in Mayfair, 
 the residence of ladies who were oreat friends 
 of Oliphant's, and through him exceedingly hos- 
 pitable to various other young men of his im- 
 mediate intimacy, all in the fullest current of 
 society and energy of life. I have heard one of 
 them say regretfully that such conversation as 
 that of this little salon — in which every man did 
 his best to shine, and to win the smile of a 
 hostess full of wit and brilliancy, and capable 
 herself of a full share in the hon mots that flew 
 about, and the discussions that took place be- 
 tween whiles — it has seldom been his lot to hear. 
 Amid the brilliant talk on this particular occa- 
 sion it was suggested by some one " that a little 
 paper should be started by way of a skit, in 
 which the most outrageous canards should be 
 given as serious, and serious news should be 
 disguised in a most grotesque form." No doubt 
 the merry party began its composition on the 
 moment, with all the eagerness of a new amuse- 
 ment, and the canards made their first flight 
 over the bright dinner-table, with an additional
 
 304 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 touch of colour laid on to each wing as they flitted 
 from convive to convive. They had the means 
 not only of dazzling and mystifying a dull public, 
 but also of getting at that public, which often 
 fails to such amusing projects ; for one of the com- 
 pany was Sir Algernon Borthwick, who " kindly 
 undertook to print the absurd little sheet." 
 
 The gay conspirators watched, with all the 
 gusto which attends a mystification, to see how 
 the jest took. And it took like wildfire. The 
 world got note of it while it was still damp 
 from the press, and soon in all the circles they 
 frequented, amid affairs of state, and the last 
 great scandal or discovery of the day, there rose 
 a murmur of inquiries, of guesses, and discussions 
 about this little droll solemn invader of society, 
 which knew everything, and had the secrets of 
 the Foreign Office at its finger-ends, and con- 
 founded and tantalised everybody with its ex- 
 traordinary acquaintance with life and events. 
 It was the most excellent joke to the young 
 men. When they saw carriages thronging the 
 street in which was the little shabby office from 
 which the ' Owl ' was issued, they stole aside into 
 corners to laugh till they could laugh no more — 
 and in the evening eyed each other over the shoul- 
 ders of the fashionable mob with twinkling eyes, 
 while all the great men and all the fine ladies
 
 THE 'owl.' 305 
 
 asked each other, What was the ' Owl ' ? Who 
 had communicated to it those startKng secrets ? 
 Where did it get its information ? When the 
 plotters discovered that they were actually mak- 
 ing money by the jest which they all enjoyed 
 so thoroughly, their amusement and satisfaction 
 became more piquant still ; but in faithful ad- 
 herence to their original principle, they deter- 
 mined to spend their profit gaily, — not putting- 
 it away in any dull banking account, but dedi- 
 cating it to a weekly dinner of the most sumptu- 
 ous description, and other "larks." One of the 
 surviving members of this brilliant band tells 
 me of a great entertainment offered by the Owls 
 to all the " smart " ladies of their acquaintance, 
 when jewelled gifts were hung among the flowery 
 ornaments on the table, and all was harmony 
 and splendour, the whole defrayed by the fun 
 and wisdom of the eccentric journal, which 
 appeared when it pleased, always affording 
 society a new surprise. It is scarcely necessary 
 to say, however, that Laurence Oliphant did not 
 follow the career of this wild little bandit of the 
 press for any long continuance. He was a large 
 contributor to the first numbers, and continued 
 until the tenth. Then, or soon after, he found 
 the other contributors in the mind to adopt a 
 more business-like arrangement for what was in 
 VOL. I. TJ
 
 306 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 the beginning pure sport, and he retired alto- 
 gether from the undertaking. It continued its 
 career, I beheve, for some years, appearing more 
 regularly, although only during the season, and 
 falling into more ordinary lines ; for, to be sure, 
 neither mystification nor "larks" could continue 
 for ever. 
 
 Perhaps it was the success of this venture, so 
 far out of the usual decorous habitudes of the 
 press, which had not then fallen into the evil 
 ways of " Society " papers, which turned the 
 thouo-hts of Laurence to another use of the re- 
 markable gifts of social satire and criticism, which 
 probably he himself became acquainted with in a 
 sort of surprise as well as his readers. Even in 
 the letters I have quoted, though they are al- 
 ways full of humorous touches, there are perhaps 
 fewer shafts of satirical description than could 
 be extracted from half the confidential letters 
 written from country-houses in any autumnal 
 season. And the books he had hitherto published 
 were entirely descriptive and political, full of 
 information and facts, though handled with so 
 light a hand, and pervaded by such an airy wealth 
 of amused and amusing observation, that they 
 read, as people say, " like a novel." But it was 
 altogether a new beginning when the traveller, 
 the diplomate, the serious spectator of distant
 
 ithuriel's spear. 307 
 
 countries and political intrigues, suddenly per- 
 ceived that round about him — within the radius 
 of that mile of streets in which, for a part of the 
 year, there lives and feasts and dances and talks, 
 a community quite unconscious, in the simplicity 
 of its assumption, of any arrogance in calling itself 
 the World — lay boundless material for satire and 
 fancy. The inconsistency of people calling them- 
 selves Christians had long been a favourite subject 
 of indignant remark and criticism to Laurence, as 
 has been repeatedly noted already — perhaps too 
 favourite a subject, since to judge a system, and 
 particularly a belief, not on its own merits but 
 on those of the people who profess it, is scarcely 
 either fair or loofical. But when or how it first 
 occurred to him, with a flash of sudden inspira- 
 tion, that he possessed, hitherto unnoticed in his 
 armoury, a sharp - edged weapon of the kind of 
 Ithuriel's spear, upon which he could pick up and 
 exhibit, impaled uj^on its shining point, not only 
 to the world but to themselves, the masquerades 
 of society, I have been unable to discover, unless 
 the ' Owl ' was the instrument of revelation. In 
 his letters to the editor of ' Blackwood's Magazine,' 
 in which the first number of ' Piccadilly,' pub- 
 lished as a serial in that Maofazine durino- the 
 summer of 1865, appeared, the doubtful character 
 of the entirely new venture — whether it would be
 
 308 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 successful or not, whether it might merit success, 
 how the world would receive it — are discussed 
 with all the uncertainty of a beginner. It had 
 occurred to me as quite possible that it was the 
 suggestion of the able and far-seeing editor re- 
 ferred to, the late Mr John Blackwood, whose 
 literary perceptions (though he never touched a 
 pen save to write letters) were singularly trust- 
 worthy, which directed Oliphant to the un- 
 thouffht-of medium of fiction. And I find on 
 inquiry that this was indeed partly the case, Mr 
 Blackwood having mentioned to him a similar 
 project on the part of J. G. Lockhart, the son-in- 
 law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott, which 
 probably acted as a spark to the ready fire of 
 Laurence's as yet undisclosed thoughts. The 
 first intimation of the work occurs as follows : — 
 
 "London, Jan. 24, 1865. 
 
 " I enclose the MS. according to your wish. 
 I am glad you think I might succeed in this 
 kind of work. You will see from reading it 
 what my idea was, one entirely ' novel,' and 
 which could only be done in a serial — that is, 
 to write a novel in the form of a contemporane- 
 ous autobiography, in which I should parody the 
 incidents of the month, make my hero make 
 speeches on public questions in the House of
 
 'PICCADILLY.' 309 
 
 Commons, stay in country-houses, flirt, shoot a 
 la Burnaby if need be, lecture, argue, &c. But 
 the difficulty is the plot : I cannot proportion the 
 importance of the plot and the opinions. I am 
 always losing sight of the former, being extremely 
 full of the latter. Then they are what would be 
 called extravagant in many points, and I don't 
 know that you would like to publish them. I 
 feel disposed to go in against most of the popular 
 ideas of the day, and utterly ignore existing pre- 
 judices on many serious matters ; therefore the 
 chief aim would be to point a moral, with a ven- 
 geance. I am afraid of doing it too seriously, 
 and yet I don't want to bring it into ridicule by 
 too much burlesque. . . . The whole thing is 
 an experiment, not only in its chronology, but in 
 its other features. In the first place, it is a cari- 
 cature, and not intended to be quite natural or 
 possible. I look upon it as the highest form of 
 art to supplant the natural with the imaginative ; 
 but of course it runs the risk of failing by reason 
 of its extravagance. My difficulty in the present 
 undertaking is to keep the grotesque element 
 within bounds : it is like a strong spice, the 
 flavour of which easily overpowers. As a sort of 
 qualification to this, I have determined on mak- 
 ing Vanecourt more or less mad. In this char- 
 acter he becomes intensely interesting to draw,
 
 310 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 and the play of his mind is a good study. More- 
 over, it enables his opinions and acts to be ex- 
 travagant and inconsistent always, based, never- 
 theless, upon truth and rectitude, which two 
 principles are so extremely dry and distasteful 
 that nobody would care about a novel conveying 
 such an old-fashioned moral unless it were put 
 in some newfangled form. Nevertheless, I am 
 quite sure the first parts, at all events, will 
 mystify the public, and set up everybody's back. 
 I shall consider it only a success if it is the best 
 abused novel out. I see some of the reviewers 
 think it is O'Dowd." 
 
 That all plans of this kind are much modified 
 in the progress of the work is very rapidly percep- 
 tible. In no operation is the solvitur amhulando 
 so strikingly manifested. " The best laid schemes 
 o' mice and men" go astray nowhere so com- 
 pletely as in the working out of fiction. Only 
 a few weeks have elapsed when Laurence writes 
 again : " I get so interested in writing it that I 
 feel it difficult to keep it waiting for events, so 
 that the contemporaneous element will perhaps in 
 course of time give way to the story, but that 
 won't matter." As a matter of fact, neither the 
 contemporaneous element (so soon out of date and 
 forgotten) nor the story are the points that took
 
 THE WHOLLY WORLDLY AND WORLDLY HOLY. 311 
 
 all readers by storm In ' Piccadilly.' The start- 
 ling types of character — the worldly holy and 
 the wholly worldly : Lady Broadhem, with her 
 high principles in religion and her absolute, al- 
 most innocent, obtuseness to the first principles 
 of honesty in speculation ; the Stock Exchange 
 fashionable, Spitfy Goldtip, jDerha^^s the earliest 
 revelation of that strange nondescrijDt and auda- 
 cious schemer ; the bold yet abject parvenus ; the 
 mob of fashion, carried hither and thither as the 
 secret impulse was given — were its greatest at- 
 tractions. Even the muscular colonial Bishop, 
 Joseph Caribbee Islands, the curious American 
 (a type very rampant in those days, now obso- 
 lete), and the converted Hindoo, though exceed- 
 ingly amusing, were less heeded, being less tre- 
 mendous in their exposition of reality and sham, 
 than the other terrible yet airy sketches, so light, 
 so powerful, almost tragical in satire, so true to 
 life. 
 
 " The fact is," the author adds, " that the 
 class which would appreciate it are not a maga- 
 zine-reading class. If it went down at all, it 
 would be entirelv amono^ the fashionables, who 
 never read serials or much else, and who would 
 read this because it came home to them. It 
 would go exactly Avhere the ' Owl ' did, to the 
 young ladies and people who never read news-
 
 312 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 papers. When it got well talked of by the heau 
 monde, the ' middles ' would buy it — not because 
 they would understand it, but because it would 
 be the correct thing." Perhaps he was a little 
 contemptuous here, as not unfrequently happens, 
 of the " middles," among which highly indefinite 
 and widely extended class there are plenty of 
 Lady Broadhems, and the worldly holy flourish 
 largel}''. But it was Society which was hit, and 
 in the very centre of the shield. 
 
 " As for hurting me in the House, nothing," 
 he says, " can hurt me, provided what I do is 
 from a right motive. My only fear about my 
 motive in this instance is that I may have a 
 lurking vanity in it ; but the motive I try to 
 have is to wake people up, and make them either 
 believe or disbelieve, and not go on humbugging 
 with Providence any longer. If I am single and 
 earnest in this, I defy all efforts to injure me 
 anywhere." "I do feel that the times are so 
 bad that they require exposure." These argu- 
 ments in defence of his book are taken from 
 letters to his publisher, who, it is curious to 
 find, hesitated to republish as a book this ex- 
 traordinarily brilliant work, to my mind the most 
 powerful of all Oliphant's productions. "It is a 
 great tax upon your friendship," Laurence says, 
 " to ask you to do what you feel so disagreeable.
 
 DELAY OF PUBLICATION. 313 
 
 This has weighed very much with me ; but as 
 you say, ' If you are very much bent upon it, I 
 am wilhng,' I confess I am." This hesitation, 
 afterwards justified by the fact that ' Piccadilly,' 
 though a great literary success, was scarcely so in 
 a commercial point of view, had its share in keep- 
 ing back the republication of the book, which — 
 notwithstanding the effect it produced on its ap- 
 pearance in ' Blackwood's Magazine,' even when its 
 daring assault upon the world was broken by the 
 intervals of publication, and it was still possible 
 for the Solomons of the newspapers to " think it 
 was O'Dowd " — was not produced in a permanent 
 form until five years had come and gone, bring- 
 ing with them many strange revolutions, and 
 none more strang-e than those which had taken 
 place in the fortune of the author. That extra- 
 ordinary crisis in the meantime altered every- 
 thing for him, — who was, at the time ' Piccadilly ' 
 was first printed, the man we know, newly 
 elected member of Parliament, one of the first 
 authorities upon foreign politics, the favourite of 
 society, the friend of all that was best and high- 
 est in England, a courted guest, a brilliant ^\^:iter 
 and still more delightful conversationalist, capable 
 almost of any advancement : and who was, at the 
 time of its republication, no more than a visitor 
 in the brilliant circles Avhich had before been his
 
 314 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 home, with hands hardened by manual toil, a 
 career thrown back into the regions of the acci- 
 dental, and all advancement, as the word is gen- 
 erally understood, put away from both life and 
 possibility. How such a wonderful change took 
 place has now to be told. The reader who has 
 followed his career so far will be able to foresee 
 that it was at all times a possible thing that 
 this might happen, and that the latent spark 
 of the revolution had been lying for years in 
 his heart, awaiting the hand that should stir it 
 into life. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
 
 
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