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The Society of London. 
 
 (LA soci£t£ BE LONBRES.) 
 
 BY 
 
 COUNT PAUL VASILI. 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER 
 
 17 TO 27VANDEWATER STREET. 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 St. Petersburg, April, 1885. 
 
 My dear young Friend,— I promised you some letters Irom 
 LoneloD, and here they are, rather sooner than 1 wished to send 
 them, tor 1 did not think of publishing them until next autumn. 
 But events are taking place so rapidly in England, ana 1 ;vas afraid 
 everything would soon be looking so different, that by the action of 
 one of those sudden changes which Prince Bismarck describes as 
 " the psychological moment," the sketches I was quietly finishing 
 at home would be rendered out of date. 
 
 In these letters about London you will not find anything analo- 
 gous to the letters on Berlin and Vienna; for those cities have noth- 
 ing in common with the English metropolis. The United Kingdom 
 is different in origin, manners, and ideas from the Continental 
 countries, and is separated from them by difference of development 
 and bv special transformations, much more widely than by the in- 
 tervening ocean. 
 
 In London we find a society made up of contrasts; a medley of 
 modern ideas and antiquated prejudices, intellectual advancement 
 and stolid customs, unequaled material progress, and stubborn 
 moral opposition. 
 
 The subject is so complex that to do it justice would require a 
 voluminous work, such as our fathers used to wrile, but which 
 neither you nor I would have time or patience to read. 
 
 Paul Vasili. 
 
 [Though the facts in this book come from Count Vasili 's personal 
 knowledge, observation, and inquiries, all from English sources, 
 he is indebted to the following for some information: 
 
 Some of the remarks on the rurf are derived from Lord Cadogan's 
 pen; on the newspapers, from Charles Pebody (" English Journal- 
 ism "); on music, from "La Musique au Pays des Brouillards." 
 A few of Jehu Junior's portraits have also completed the Count's 
 personal information. Three political portraits owe a part of their 
 facts to the clever studies of Mr. Frank H. Hill.] 
 
6 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 portrait drawn of her Majesty during her lite-time must be in many 
 respects a contradiction and a paradox. 
 
 Her Majesty Queen Victoria is the daughter of the Duke of Kent, 
 the younger brother of William IV. and of George IV., neither of 
 whom left direct heirs. 
 
 The British Constitution holds the Queen infallible, inviolable, 
 and above the law. She has all rights, absolutely, but she does not 
 practically exercise them. She has to govern through her Ministers. 
 Her Majesty's private life is devoted to the cherished memories of 
 the past. 
 
 She resides at Windsor, at Osborne, or at Balmoral alternately, 
 and rarely visits the capital. 
 
 The Queen thoroughly understands politics, and is highly in- 
 formed. She has been well taught by Sir Robert, Peel, Lord Rus- 
 sell, Lord Palmerston, Lord Beaconsfield. and Mr. Gladstone. Her 
 mind was formed and guided by the wisdom and prudence of 
 Prince Albert, and she is a competent authority on every subject to 
 which she gives her attention. 
 
 Diplomatists and politicians who have opportunities of observing 
 them, are stiuck by the extent of her knowledge, the clearness of 
 her views, and her wonderful memory. 
 
 Queen Victoria is the model of a constitutional sovereign ; but she 
 intrusts to the Prince of Wales all the representative duties of her 
 position. Her Majesty only gives private receptions to a few official 
 visitors, or to persons of distinction on their travels. 
 
 The days are, indeed, far past when the young Queen gave garden- 
 parties in Buckingham Palace to more than six hundred guests; 
 when on rainy afternoons every one had to beguile the time by nar- 
 rating some amusing anecdote; or when her Majesty, with her hair 
 powdered, excited universal admiration at a famous fancy ball by 
 her graceful dancing of a minuet; or when she carelessly carried off 
 the keys of the official dispatch-boxes when she went foraride, and 
 lost them on the road, so that a squad of policemen had to be sent 
 to search for them, to the amusement of all London. There re- 
 mains but one sole trait in the character of the Queen that recalls 
 those former days. It is when at the gillies' ball her Majesty ap- 
 pears with all her household. 
 
 She is \ery fond of Scotland and her dear Highlanders; the hum- 
 blest among them are her friends. She treats them with kindness, 
 and they return it by affection. There everything is familiar to her, 
 from Geldershiel and Glassaltshiel glens to the lakes and peaks of 
 Graig Govan. There she is interested in everything, delighted at 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 7 
 
 everything, attached to everything, especially to her two dogs, 
 * ' Sharp ' ' and ' ' JSToble. ' ' 
 
 Peasants drink to her health by the road-side, and John Brown 
 used to answer them with the frank Scotch bluntness that was a 
 feature in his honeat character. As I have mentioned his name, 1 
 will add a touching detail. When John Brown lost his father (a 
 small farmer), the Queen went herself to console the poor blind 
 widow, sat beside her in her kitchen among the relations of the de- 
 ceased, took part in the prayers and in all the traditional and primi- 
 tive customs of the simple mountaineers, sharing their grief as if 
 she had lost a member of hei own family. Quite lately she attended 
 the funeral of Willie Blair, her old Highland fiddler, who died at 
 ninety years of age, and she ordered a monument to be erected to 
 him in the church-yard at Crathie. 
 
 The Queen leads a perfectly simple, indeed rustic life, at Bal- 
 moral ; etiquette no longer reigns, but, freedom is unrestrained. 
 
 Her Majesty is awakened every morning by the bagpipes of her 
 Highlanders. 
 
 The Queen detests smoking, and the practice is strictly prohibited 
 at Windsor Castle. 
 
 What would she have said if she had found herself in the position 
 of Lady Shaftesbury, who, having taken Garibaldi into her boudoir 
 after dinner, saw him coolly light a cigarette as a matter of course, 
 without asking her permission? Smokers have no pity, ana you are 
 probably aware that the Vienna Conference had to be interrupted 
 tor an hour to allow the French and Turkish embassadors to go out 
 and smoke. 
 
 At great official ceremonies the Queen seldom appears, and when 
 she has to make a speech— on presenting colors to a regiment, or on 
 decorating some hero— she dislikes the exertion extremely. 
 
 When she does consent to show herself to her people, she always 
 occupies an open carriage, whatever the weather may be, so as not 
 to disappoint the faithful subjects who have collected to see her. 
 
 The greatest part of the Queen's day is occupied in exercise ia the 
 open air, driving and walking. 
 
 She receives a few political persons, especially the Prime-minister, 
 the Duke of Richmond, her friend and adviser, and more frequently 
 still her Secretary, thj worthy General Ponsonby. A Cabinet mes- 
 senger is dispatched to her after eacn Council, even if she is at the 
 far end of Scotland, and the Prime minister's day's work is always 
 terminated by a letter to the Queen. When any great event or crisis 
 
O THE SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 
 
 occurs, her time is occupied in receiving and dispatching telegrams. 
 She leads, works, and writes a great deal. 
 
 The musical evenings she used to enjoy with two or three friends 
 are things ot the past; but it she has given up music, she has not 
 entirely abandoned the fine arts. A short time ago Mr. Green, the 
 famous water-color painter, was summoned to Balmoral to give the 
 Queen lessons in drawing, and remained therefor some months. At 
 her first lesson she said, very simply, as she took up her pencil. " 1 
 feel so nervous." Although she is a good judge of the works of 
 others, the Queen paints and draws only pretty well, and her unpre- 
 tending writings will not shed a great luster upon English literature. 
 Her works are revised by Sir Theodore Martin, the well-known 
 author of " The Life of the Prince Consort." 
 
 TVhen the Queen wishes to show her sympathy with any institu- 
 tion, she presents it with a copy of her " Journal of Our Life in the 
 Highlands." 
 
 Of her three royal residences the Queen prefers Balmoral. She 
 has had a cross in memory of the Princess Alice and an obelisk to 
 the Prince Consort erected there. She is much influenced by the 
 place that she inhabits, and is a totally different person at Balmoral 
 and at Windsor. At Balmoral she recalls the sweetest memories of 
 her life, and again sees in fancy the old building, with its small 
 rooms. In the old billiard-room the Queen was constantly obliged 
 to rise from her seat to let the players pass. 
 
 1 can not leave the subject of Balmoral without alluding to the 
 well-known John Brown, who was both a servant and an adviser to 
 his royal mistress. John Brown is dead, and the Queen has raised 
 a statue to him under her windows, and devoted some pages of her 
 second book to his memory. To my mind there is something very 
 touching in the esteem and confidence bestowed by the sovereign 
 upon her faithful servant, whose devotion was a ray of light upon 
 her saddened life. 
 
 SECOND LETTER 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY. 
 
 If 1 were to enumerate the various members of the royal family 
 — the children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, neph- 
 ews, nieces, and collateral princes and princesses — 1 should bore you 
 as effctually as 1 bored you with the long list of the Austrian arch- 
 dukes in my letters on Vienna. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 9 
 
 The Prince of Wales stands by every right in the first place, and 
 no one could fill it better, vvith a more charming presence or a more 
 gallant mien. 
 
 His character is a contrast to that of the genuine Englishman. 
 He bears a resemblance to Henry V., as Shakespeare depicts that 
 piince. He is tond of pleasure, has high spirits, and is interested in 
 everything worthy of interest. 
 
 If, on the one hand, the Prince of Wales is a man of a former age, 
 he is, on the other, perfectly modern; he is a Parisian living in Lon- 
 don; he loves the Boulevard, and conversation full of wit and 
 repartee, in which he plays his part to admiration. 
 
 He is admittedly the finest and first gentleman of the United King- 
 dom, and it he claims, as he is said to do, the title of the first gen- 
 tleman in Europe, that claim, though great, is not excessive. 
 
 His courtesy is exquisite, his grace of manner is irresistible; he 
 throws himself entirely into the matter that for the moment occupies 
 his attention, and makes each favored person to whom he speaks 
 believe that he is an object of especial considera: ion. But the future 
 King of England is chiefly distinguished from many of his country- 
 men by his complete fieedom from arrogance. 
 
 His friends say that with them he forgets his rank, but it is only 
 on the condition that they remember it; and his familiarity with 
 others is not theirs with him. 
 
 Possessing perfect tact himself , he never forgives the want of it, 
 and knows how to remind those around him cf what is due 1o him. 
 One evening while the Prince was playing billiards, an equeiry 
 quietly slipped off, and the Prince, leaving him time to undress and 
 go to bed, suddenly affected to observe his absence, and sent for him. 
 He is kind-hearted, and incapable of resentment, but at the moment 
 of an offense he is severe. It is needless to say that the Prince of 
 Wales is the best-dressed man in England, and that no fashion is a 
 success unless he introduces it. He has the rare talent of uniting 
 extreme refinement and simplicity. 
 
 ]\'o man in public lite works harder than the Prince of Wales. 
 He is constantly receiving deputations, celebrating anniversaries, 
 presiding at banquets of all kinds, and charities of every description. 
 Condemned to gigantic luncheons, monster dinners, and intermin- 
 able suppers, he yet rarely refuses an invitation. He passes a few 
 pleasant hours every day at his club, opposite JMarlborough House. 
 He is interested in every kind of sport, and is one of the best shots 
 living. He may indeed be called a virtuoso of the gun. He fre- 
 quently attends the House of Commons, inaugurates monuments, 
 
10 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 opens exhibitions, unveils statues, and he has laid first stones enough 
 to construct a stately edifice. He holds levees, gives official balls, 
 in fact bears all the penalties and accepts all the ceremonial tasks of 
 royalty. 
 
 Fortunately for the Prince, politics are forbidden by the Consti- 
 tution, for he might have been induced to form a personal party, 
 and that must always be a party of intrigue. The Prince has never 
 lent himselr to any manifestation of opinion, and has never been 
 carried away by any political current. He attends the meetings of 
 Parliament in order to learn, and studies the papers carefully, but is 
 satisfied always to remain a spectator. Apart from politics, he in- 
 terests himself warmly in every public movement, and especially in 
 all social improvements. The condition of the laboring and poorer 
 classes occupies much of his time and thoughts, and he has set a 
 noble example to all land-owners by facilitating the sale of land to 
 laborers on his own estates. The present farming system in Eng- 
 land is so pernicious that it contains the germ of an agrarian revolu- 
 tion. The Prince has the good taste never to say, " When 1 am 
 king," but " If ever 1 am king." 
 
 His eldest son, Prince Albert Victor of Wales, is still a boy at 
 twenty-one years old. 
 
 This tardy development may, however, be deceptive, and the 
 Queen herself observed lately thai the Prince of Wales and the 
 Duke of Edinburgh were exactly the same at his age, and that he 
 reminded her strongly of them. 
 
 The Prince of Wales has had his two sons brought up at sta and 
 they are consequently genuine sailors, ignorant of the pleasures of 
 town life. 
 
 The daughters of the Prince are brought up in the most simple 
 manner. The three sisters occupy one large bedroom, furnished 
 very plainly; they lead so quiet a life that they are still children, al- 
 though the eldest is seventeen years old. They are conslantly with 
 their mother, forming a charming group, and a fitting frame for 
 her gracious presence. They are very distinguished in manner, very 
 graceful, and extremely well educated. 
 
 The lives of these five children have been passed in simplicity that 
 does honor to the good sense of their parents. 
 
 The Princess of Wales, the daughter of the King of Denmark, is 
 fascination itself, and is much beloved by all classes of English 
 people. 
 
 The Princess, who is amiable, and of a gentle, quiet nature, is 
 the type of character most admired ia England, 
 
JfflS SOCIETY OF LONDON. H 
 
 She is a devoted wife and mother; sympathetic without famili- 
 arity; prudent without prudery; dignified without haughtiness. 
 She was brought up as she is now bringing up her own children, 
 with the greatest simplicity. 
 
 Her love of children, her respect for old people, her compass on 
 for the unfortunate, her ready generosity, are truly admirable 
 qualities. 
 
 The Princess is an excellent musician; her taste is refined, she 
 dresses wonderfully well, and always suitably to Ihe occasion. Al- 
 though "he is now forty years old, she has the secret of perpetual 
 
 y °She has not inherited the ability of her mother, Queen Louise of 
 Denmark; her intelligence is not striking, and she does not care for 
 clever people 
 
 However, she more than atones for this by the possession of a 
 oualitv rarer than the Phenix itselt-sbe never speaks ill of any- 
 body therefore she has not an enemy. Her most intimale friend .s 
 her lady-in-waiting, Miss Knollys. 
 
 The Queen's second son, the Duke of Edinburgh, ,s the fiddler of 
 the Cour,; he was born with an oar in one hand and a viohn m 
 he other The Prince has traversed the whole world, and enjoyed 
 every kind of pleasure-physical, intellectual, and artistic. 
 
 He is a handsome man, but has not the charm ot the Prince of 
 Walesffor, unlike him-not the only point of difference between 
 them— he despises dress and elegance. . 
 
 The Duke of Edinburgh is a true sailor, frank of manners and 
 blunt of speech. He is a good shot, and very expert at al bodily 
 exercises He plays the violin to his sailors, and at chanty con- 
 certs, especially in the Albert Hall, before a large audience of per- 
 sons An amateur orchestra has even been organized tor h.m, and 
 meeis every week under the direction of Mr. Mount. 
 
 The Duchess ot Edinburgh, the daughter ot our Czars, suffers 
 from the rather infeiior position that she occupies in London She 
 s considered haughty, but she is only proud, and she has not been 
 able to accustom herself to English manners, although she has made 
 many efforts to do so. 
 
 She is very amiable, a very brilliant talker, loves argument, and 
 holds her own with skill. With her cleverness and information 
 boh tar beyond the average, she naturally disdains foolish and 
 Mvolous society, and she has succeeded in makmg her home so 
 blight and attractive that her husband gladly stays there. 
 
12 THE SOCIETY OP LONDOK. 
 
 The Duke and Duchess have few friends. They are not very 
 popular, and live in comparative retirement. 
 
 Count Adlerberg, the secretary of the Russian embassador, is al- 
 most their only intimate friend. 
 
 The Queen's third son, the Duke of Connaught, represents the 
 army, and is much liked in society. In Egypt he proved himself 
 to be a good soldier and a great disciplinarian, and he had the good 
 taste to sink his rank, to submit to orders, to bear the drudgery, 
 and help in the roughest work of the campaign, entering intelli- 
 gently into all the requirements of the service, and never allowing 
 any exception to be made in his favor. Like all the Queen's chil- 
 dren, he has musical tastes, and plays the instrument suitable to his 
 profession — the drum. 
 
 The Duke of Connaught will probably one day preside at the 
 Horse Guards, which means that he will become Commander-in- 
 chief of the army when the Duke of Cambridge vacates the post. 
 This dignity is always conferred on a member of the Royal family, 
 and the Duke of Connaught will be worthy of it. 
 
 There is nothing particular to be said about the Duchess of Con- 
 naught, except that she is very amiable and generally liked. 
 
 The Queen's fourth son was that lamented Prince Leopold, who 
 was so prematurely snatched away by death. 
 
 His widow, the Duchess of Albany, a German princess, is very 
 fond of the country; its rural pleasures have greater attractions for 
 her than London society. It is not possible to call her pretty, but 
 her health is superb, and she is so kind and good that everybody 
 likes her in spite of her homely ways. 
 
 Princess Christian is an excellent woman, who takes a great in- 
 terest in educational matters. 
 
 The Princess Louise is more artistic than her sisters; she is also 
 more self-willed, and has a romantic disposition. She is married to 
 the Marquis of Lome,, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll. 
 
 The Marquis gained much popularity during his five years of 
 office in Canada: he has admirable qualities as a governor and states- 
 man. His character is lofty, noble, and true; and his blameless life, 
 his liberal opinions, his love of right, his equable and conciliatory 
 temper, and his intelligent and disinterested love of work have won 
 golden opinions for him from all. 
 
 The Princess Beatrice, the Queen's youngest daughter, has artist- 
 ic tastes, is an excellent musician, and paints well. She is well- 
 read, and possesses some literary ability. She is about to marry 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 13 
 
 Prince Henry ot Battenberg. Tire young Prince is an ..(Beer in the 
 
 "q"* given irer consent to this marriage only on the 
 coIwio Q n of her daughter remaining near her; apartments .are being 
 prepared tor the young couple at Windsor, and it is said the Queen 
 means to make her new son-in-law her private secretary. 
 
 Th o»lT princes of the blood royal are, first, the Commander- 
 in-chief of the army, the Duke of Cambridge, the cousin of the 
 OuTen A genuine old soldier, a stanch upholder of the Const.*- 
 Hon of his country very jealous ot his authority, highly competent 
 on afi ^liaTqu stions he has always been able to hold his own 
 agant'very minister of warwhohas tried to subordinate the Horse 
 Gu rds to Pall Mail. It must be added, however, that he rs not ab 
 ways consu.ted, and that he is sometimes very much surpris d .to 
 find the changes that have been made in the army w thout ins 
 knowledge Th. Duke of Cambridge is popular in society His 
 "he Princess Mary, married the Duke of Teck, a son of Duke 
 Alexander ot Wllrtemberg and Countess Rliedey, who received the 
 title of Countess Hohenstein on her morganatic marriage. 
 
 The Duke of Teck is a handsome man, a good horseman, and a 
 Jat favorite in English society. The Duke and Huchess have 
 several children. They no longer reside in England. 
 
 The Duchess of Cambridge resides at St. James s Palace. T s 
 venerable lady reminds one of the witty saying of Aubet, V.e.lbr 
 est encore le seul moyen qu'on ait tiouve de vivre. 
 
 1 w ffi pass over in silence the son of the ex-King of Hanover th 
 Duke of Cumbetland, who lives in Austria, and the Duchess ot 
 Mecklenburg-Strelitz. 
 
 THIRD LETTER. 
 
 THE COURT. 
 
 Sn.es Prince Albert's death, the Queen having retired from the 
 wld the Court gradually dispersed, and a new circle was formed 
 
 TerKrrr P r^e?b°;reflldren at lev.es, drawing- 
 
 I0 Zr^ £££ ^es rise to amusing incidents, and a good 
 ma ny droll stories might be told, such as that of the Amencan _who 
 Zeared at a levee in a short jacket, yellow waistcoat, and black 
 cravat having made a bet that he would be presented to her 
 
14 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOH. 
 
 Majesty in this unorthodox costume. When he was refused ad- 
 mittance, the United States Minister, Mr. Dallas, actually took the 
 part of his eccentric countryman, and they both left the Palace in 
 anger. 
 
 Besides the Drawing-room and Levee, which eveiybody who is 
 anybody may attend, there is an inner circle, which 1 will call the 
 Younger Court. This is very select, and graced by some rare beau- 
 ties. 
 
 Except a few parties and little dinners in town, the Prince receives 
 principally at Sandiingham. ]n the hunting-season about twenty 
 guests at a time are honored by invitations, and generally stay for a 
 week. They find themselves in a luxurious mansion, surrounded 
 by lovely gardens, the very walls smiling with blight welcome, and 
 the young and handsome hosts beaming with genial hospitality. In 
 no home in the king !om is a guest so sure of a gracious reception as 
 at Sandringham. The Princess herself conducts the ladies to their 
 rooms, and the Prince superintends every detail of his house. 
 
 Both fulfill their duties with an attention, a kindly care, and real 
 anxiety for the welfare of their visitors, that the master and mistress 
 of every house, however great or however small, would do well to 
 imitate. Among the little things that struck me, I must mention a 
 book in which the arrivals and departures of guests, their usual 
 habits, special requirements, etc., are entered with the scrupulous 
 exactitude of a merchant's ledger. How different from most royal 
 residences in Europe! 
 
 The invitations tor the end of autumn are, of course, tor pheasant 
 and partridge shooting. 
 
 Men who do not shoot accompany the ladies in wagonettes, and 
 betake themselves to a vast tent erected in the grounds for the enjoy- 
 ment of an elegant luncheon with the sportsmen. 
 
 The evenings at Sandringham are devoted to playing at cards or at 
 skittles, with pretty little skittles fit for the use of ladies. 
 
 Sunday is divided between church going and visiting the Prince's 
 zoological garden. It only contains bears and dogs, but there are a 
 large number. The Princess is very fond of animals, and takes 
 great care of them, feeding her favorites with her own hands. She 
 is always surrounded by a number of dogs, and never travels with- 
 out them; the footmen and ladies' maids have their arms full of 
 them, and as some of the animals are always trying to escape, they 
 give plenty of trouble. 
 
 A fete, something like the gillies' ball in Scotland is given on the 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 15 
 
 Prince's birthday. All the Royal tamily, their attendants, and vis- 
 itors dance with their servants. 
 
 The Prince surrounds himself at Sandringham by remarkable 
 people of every kind; literary men, artists, journalists, directors of 
 exhibitions, constructors of railways, engineers, inventors, learned 
 men, politicians of every shade of opinion, and clever women— every 
 one who is distinguished in any way, or who has any claim to con- 
 sideration, is welcomed to his charming abode. 
 
 From this lively circle all scheming is scrupulously banished; the 
 Princess can not endure gossip, and at Sandringham no one vent- 
 ures to calumniate his neighbor. The least attempt at scandal or 
 insinuation is immediately and somewhat impatiently rebuked. 
 
 The Prince has a small circle of intimate friends, his habitual 
 guests, and whom he also visits. The principal members of this little 
 group are the Duchess of Manchester, the Duke and Duchess of 
 Sutherland, Lady Aylesbury, Lord and Lady Dudley, Lord and 
 Lady Spencer, Lord and Lady Charles Beresford, Lord and Lady 
 Alington, Lord Cadogan, Lord and Lady Dalhousie, Lord and Lady 
 Carrington, Lady Lonsdale, Lady Mandeville, M. and Mme. de 
 Falbe, the new Lady Londonderry, etc., etc. 
 
 The Duke and Ducbess of Sutherland possess one of the oldest 
 names and largest fortunes in Great Britain. They live at Stafford 
 House, a wonderful edifice, copied from the Barberini Palace in 
 Rome; its hall and staircase are among the artistic curiosities of 
 London. This does not, however, imply that the owners are people 
 of artistic taste. Nothing can surpass the sumptuous magnificence 
 of the fetes given by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. 
 
 The Duke possesses the most beautiful equipages in London, but 
 drives a plain vehicle with one horse. He is very "odd," very 
 proud, and supremely indifferent; but he enjoys great popularity on 
 account of the sympathy that he bestows on the weak and op- 
 pressed, and the liberality with which he gives money for charitable 
 purposes. In politics his opinions are Liberal. 
 
 The Duchess, who has been very beautiful, patronizes the Blue 
 Ribbon Army, and holds temperance meetings in the most beautiful 
 drawing-rooms in the world. 
 
 Lord Spencer, the Viceroy of Ireland, is chiefly distinguished by 
 an astonishing beard— a beard so gigantic that his friends think it 
 funny to say he can hide himself behind it, and say he is not at 
 home. 
 
 Lady Spencer, a perfect type of the grande dame, is called 
 " Spencer's Faery Queene " by her Irish admirers. She is lively, 
 
16 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 
 
 clevei, and amiable; she dresses to perfection, wears marvelous 
 jewels, is well-read, and a delightful talker. 
 
 Gladys, Lady Lonsdale, is one of the loveliest women in London. 
 She takes an interest in everything — arts, science, politics; surrounds 
 herself with clever people; and, regardless of their rank, admits 
 Bohemians of the pen and pencil. She has taste, some reading, 
 and very high aspirations— indeed a varnish of all things; and 1 
 should no more allow myself to criticise the depth of her knowledge 
 than the size of her feet. 
 
 At the moment 1 write to you, a marriage between Lady Lons- 
 dale and Lord De Grey is announced. 
 
 Her rival, Lady Londonderry, is also a beauty, and very fascinat- 
 ing, although her haughty manners give offense to those who would 
 otherwise be her friends. Lady Londonderry is an excellent hostess, 
 and takes a great interest in sport. 
 
 Lady Cadogan is among those women of whom it is said, with 
 serene indifference, that they are "perfectly charming." Lord 
 Cadogan must appear among the sportsmen, a role in which he dis- 
 tinguishes himself. At the lounger Court he holds a secondary 
 rank. He possesses some literary ability. His house is pleasant, 
 he gives good dinners, and his invitations are much prized. 
 
 Lady Mandeville can not be described in negations; her qualities 
 are all of a positive kind, and so much good and so much ill is said 
 of her that she becomes interesting at once. She is clever and pretty, 
 but has no taste in dress. She is an American, but has Spanish 
 blood in her veins. She is called " the pretty Lady Mandeville " — 
 but she is bewitching rather than pretty. She is a good musician, 
 and very intimate with the greatest artists, especially in faris. 
 
 Viscount Mandeville, her husband, is the eldest son of the Duke 
 of Manchester. Viscount Mandeville has sat in Parliament as a 
 Conservative, but the reporters never seem to have noticed his pres- 
 ence. He is an excellent shot and a good horseman. 
 
 Lord Dudley, of whom more hereafter, went once to the House 
 f Lords, on taking his seat, and made a short speech. Since then 
 he has been so occupied with foreign princes, religion, pictures, 
 social meetings, the opera, etc., that he has never found time to re- 
 appear there. He has a reputation for munificence, and a gigantic 
 fortune. 
 
 Although paralyzed, Lord Dudley never misses a single represen- 
 tation at the Italian Opera during the season, and at his country- 
 houses he receives royal and princely guests, He possesses a re- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 1? 
 
 markable gallery of pictures, and often lends his house to artists for 
 their concerts.* 
 
 I have never known a more perfect woman than Lady Dudley, 
 and I can not speak of her without emotion. She is the petted 
 child of London society. She is supremely beautiful, and admired 
 by all who approach her; but no breath has dared to assail her repu- 
 tation, and she has made her home noble and respected. Her de- 
 votion to her husband is sublime; she has never left him foi an 
 hour since he has been struck down by illness. With every great 
 and noble quality, she has also the more humble ones. Her power 
 of organization is wonderful. She is an excellent manager, and 
 understands business as well as any man. 
 
 The Earl ot Dalhousie, commander of the " Britannia, " was a 
 brave sailor, very remarkable on boaid ship; but he was so impru- 
 dent as to try and turn himself into a politician, and even his up- 
 rightness and the sincerity of his Liberal opinions have been power- 
 less to secure his success. He has met with nothing but defeat in 
 the political world. He is a very honorable man, and the worthy 
 representative of an illustrious family. Like many other philan- 
 thropic landlords, Lord Dalhousie has remitted the rents of his 
 tenants in tines of distress. 
 
 The Countess ot Dalhousie is a very beautiful and bewitching 
 woman, but she has one great defect: she is not natural. All her 
 gestures, all her movements are artificial. Her want of tact, a 
 social virtue which means keeping one's self in the background, has 
 alienated many of her friends. 
 
 Lord Alington, whom his friends call " Bunny," bursts into a 
 room like a gust of wind; he is the life and soul of society; he is 
 gay, happy, sprightly, never without a bit of news, quite equal to 
 inventing some if there is none to hand, and a capital story-teller. 
 He is an inveterate sportsman, and divides his time between the turf, 
 wheie he has hitherto won neither money nor popularity, and the 
 meritorious task of amusing his friends. Disraeli called him " the 
 champagne of society." 
 
 Lord and Lady Alington's dinners are the best given in London, 
 except those of Lord and Lady Cadogan. The Prince of "Wales is 
 a frequent guest at these banquets, and does honor to them with his 
 heartiest appetite. 
 
 The Duchess of Manchester, who is known as the Duchess, was 
 
 * The sudden death of the Earl of Dudley took place while this work was in 
 the press, 
 
18 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 universally admitted to be the best-dressed woman in England, and 
 her taste is certainly unrivaled. She has been one of the greatest 
 beauties of the century, and well worthy of all the homage rendered 
 her; for to the charms of her person she added intellectual powers. 
 The tew political gatherings she has held, such as the farewell din- 
 ner to Lord Duiferin, make me regret that she has not a political 
 salon ; it would be a Court and a Parliament in one. 
 
 The Duchess is both too prudent and too high-minded to speak ill 
 of her neighbor. She excels in making other people talk without 
 committing herself. She knows all Europe, and if her fortune al- 
 lowed it, she would have the most varied and the most brilliant cir- 
 cle in the whole world. 
 
 The Duke, her husband, now passes a great part of his life in 
 Australia, and is known for the efforts he makes to amalgamate all 
 the races of the British Empire. He is an ardent politician, with 
 very decided views. 
 
 The Duke borrows his opinions from no one; they are all the off- 
 spring of his own mind, and he is wedded to them. He is frank, 
 simple, without pride, without affectation of any kind, and a pleas- 
 ant companion. 
 
 1 shall conclude this letter with a few words respecting the 
 Dowager Lady Aylesbury, or, as she is called in the English style, 
 Maria, Marchioness of Aylesbury. This strange personage, who is 
 much liked by the Princess of Wales, and indeed by the whole 
 Court, possesses astounding energy. She is a human whirlwind, 
 and has discovered the secret of perpetual motion; in fact, 1 am not 
 sure that she is not to be found in two or three places at onc^. If 
 a party were given without her, 1 believe she would instantly ex- 
 pire. She is more original than the great Irving and the astonishing 
 Sims Reeves. Yet she is a true, great lady, with a kind heart and 
 a generous hand, and much beloved. She knows everything and 
 amuses everybody; the mere sight of her is enough to drive away 
 low spirits. 
 
 As soon as August begins, Lady Aylesbury has to start on the 
 round of visits that fill her engagement-book, and for six months 
 she goes from one country-house to another, bringing life and ani- 
 mation wherever she appears, aud making herself most welcome. 
 Her seventy-four years have in no wise quenched her spirits. 
 
 But 1 must cease, or I shall fill a whole letter with Lady Ayles- 
 bury, and you would never stop me, she is so amusing, 
 
THfi SOCIETY OF LONDOH. 19 
 
 FOURTH LETTER. 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 Inclusive of all the sinecures on the Civil List, nine hundred 
 and thirty-one persons (not including domestics) are attached to the 
 service of Queen Victoria. The mere enumeration of their titles is 
 interesting. 1 will only take as a specimen the Lord Chamberlain's 
 department. The noble lord is at the head of all the Queen's officers, 
 except those belonging to the bedchamber. He has such a number 
 of functions that he could not fulfill them it he were not piovided 
 with a strong staff of subalterns. 
 
 The happy occupier of this post is at present Lord Kenmare. Born 
 a courtier and a Catholic, Lord Kenmare is devoted to the Court 
 and his creed. In politics he is still waiting for his opportunity. 
 Loid Kenmare is an agreeable companion and a good shot, and 
 knows how to be dignified when occasion requires. 
 
 The mission of the Vice-chamberlain is to assist the Chamberlain, 
 but he transfers this heavy burden to the Comptroller of Accounts, 
 who passes it on to an inspector; the inspector gets it done by three 
 clerks, aided by a number of assistant clerks. After the Chamber- 
 lain comes the Queens treasurer and private secretary; the latter 
 post is occupied by General Sir Henry Ponsonby, who is much liked 
 and greatly respected. His position is a delicate and most impor- 
 tant one, although its duties are accomplished in an unobtrusive man- 
 ner that deprives them of public appreciation. Sir Henry Ponsonby 
 was f oimerly one of Prince Albert's equerries. He is fifty-eight 
 years of age, and has been the Queen's secretary tor fifteen years, 
 and for seven the keeper of her privy purse. The latter function 
 entails a task on him which he .performs very conscientiously, viz., 
 that of receiving all the petitions for relief addressed to her Majesty. 
 About a thousand of these are admitted to consideration every year. 
 
 It ma\ be said that Sir Henry Ponsonby is a power in the State; 
 his perfect knowledge of the machinery of Government, and his not 
 less valuable acquaintance with the character of the Queen, her 
 wishes and her opinions, the necessity tor all matters passing through 
 his hands, have created an exceptional position for him, and give 
 him great importance with the party in power. His opinion is al- 
 ways listened to, and he is often consulted about the matters to be 
 submitted to the Queen. 
 
20 THE SOCIETY OP LOHDOtf. 
 
 The duties of a master of ceremonies, an assistant master, a mar- 
 shal, eight aides-decamp, eight lords-in-waiting, assisted by a num- 
 ber of supernumeraries, are to eat the Queen's dinners, and to make 
 up a proper number at her table. Afterward come four gentlemen 
 ushers of the privy chamber, one black-rod, three gentlemen ushers 
 with substitutes, who really do the work,, tour grooms of the privy 
 chamber, who on grand occasions stand on the staircases or in cor- 
 ridors where the Queen is to pass, eight gentlemen ushers, and eight 
 sergeants-at-arms. The Master of Ceremocies, General Sir Francis 
 Seymour, was the attendant shadow ot Prince Albert, and got the 
 nickname of Albertazzi. He is a brave soldier, whose sight was in- 
 jured in the Crimea, so that ever since he has worn an eye-glass in 
 one eye; this gives a stern appearance to the most amiable of men. 
 Sir John Cowell, Master of the Queen's Household, is the former 
 tutor of the Duke of Edinburgh, a man very much respected, and 
 whom her Majesty calls " The Pope." 
 
 There are a crowd of other dignitaries— heralds, bodyguards, 
 pages, inspectors, the master of the tennis court, the Queen's boat- 
 man, the keeper of the swans, the grand falconer, etc. The list is 
 so long that 1 must cut it short and hasten to speak of the ladies. 
 
 The ranks of the ladies-in-waiting, ladies of the bedchamber, etc., 
 are recruited from among the noblest families of the English 
 aristocracy . 
 
 The Mistress of the Robes, whose prerogatives correspond to those 
 of the Lord Chamberlain, and whose office must be conferred by 
 the Government, is now the Duchess of Roxburghe, daughter-in- 
 law to the Do wagei -duchess, who is the Queen's most intimate 
 friend. Afterward come the maids of honor and ladies-in-waiting 
 to her Majesty, her favorites among whom are the Dowager-mar- 
 chioness of Ely, the Dowager-duchess of Athole, and Jane, Lady 
 Churchill. 
 
 The Queen is much attached to the Marchioness of Ely. 
 
 The Duchess of Athole, a Scotchwoman, also stands high in the 
 Royal favor. 
 
 Lady Churchill, who is a great favorite with the Queen, is a very 
 distinguished and amiable person. 
 
 1 will once more mention the Queen's faithful friend and adviser, 
 the Duke of Richmond, for whom she has great esteem. In the 
 world the Duke and Duchess are not much known, for they mix 
 but little in society ; perhaps they feel themselves too old-fashioned 
 for the present day. 
 
 One word in conclusion about a strange personage who may be 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 2 1 
 
 seen everyday taking his solitary walk in St. James's _Park, and 
 wfo believes himself to be tbe Duke ot f oueeste, Tb, o d g ^ 
 tleman who looks about eighty years ot age, is ™ n f rf ""yJ lke 
 George IV . and still wears the costume ol that period. He says, 
 with smeere conviction and tbe greatest calmness, to anynody who 
 ;" 1 e to him, that, as Duke of Gloucester, he ought to have 
 luoceadod William IV., but that, out of deference and gallantry 
 he TaToaaed his righis to Queen Victoria. Every year, on the 
 Queen's birthday, he goes to Windsor, and some one belonging to 
 ,h Telle gives h m a dinner in the best hotel of the place when be 
 drinks to the health of her Majesty with a gravity that ,s at once 
 e mfcal and touching. He is firmly convinced that at he death 
 tbe Oueen he is to ascend the throne. It may be, after all, that he 
 ha^omesortof indirect relationship to the royal family. Except 
 to tZdelusion he is perfectly sane, and he is allowed undtspuced 
 liberty. 
 
 FIFTH LETTER. 
 
 THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE PKINCE OF WALES. 
 
 Wong those attached to the household ot the Prince of Wales 1 
 m " mention .he Marquis of Hamilton. Lady Ham, itom who 
 ^eganee of manner is proverbial, is especially intimate with the 
 Princess of Wales. Lord and Lady Suffield are very much re- 
 suected and that is all 1 have to say about them. 
 
 M Co^kerell one ot the grooms of the bed-chamber, is a walking 
 enfyclop'dia 1 awit whose brilliant jokes would make asaint 
 Si Four equerries are attached to the service of he Prince; 
 rot tblse are Col. Stanley Clarke, f °f»*>f ^„f S 
 of Wales when she travels without her husband, and Col. Elis, 
 etuaTte ?n!ll matters ot taste. He is consulted on every question 
 of improvement, decoration, ornamentation, furniture, hangings, 
 Ptp and is called " the artistic equerry." 
 
 Col T esdale was in the Crimea, and gallantly defended Lars. 
 Every' year, on the anniversary of the siege, his health IB drunk. 
 
 The lourth equerry is Mr. Wilson, a capital fellow and a delight- 
 
 1U Th e m Mal°r n of the Horse, Colonel Kingsco.e, is distinguished for 
 his taste tor agriculture. He is a very handsome man, very d.stni- 
 
 ^toSaTthe Duke ot Beaufort, possess, the finest 
 stud in England, and shall have a place in my letter on sport. 
 
%% THE SOCIETY OF LOHDOtf. 
 
 The Prince's librarian and German secretary, Herr Hokmanh, is 
 an earnest, learned man, who seldom speaks; but when he does, he 
 is a most animated auct amusing talker. 
 
 Mr. Francis Knollys may be called the fag of the Piince's house- 
 hold; he has to bear all the discontent and ill humor of those who 
 have not succeeded in getting an invitation, or who have been re- 
 fused some request. As private secretary to the Prince, he is sup- 
 posed to De the willing instrument of all omissions and disappoint- 
 ments, while, in reality, the Prince keeps his own list, indicates the 
 persons to be invited, and controls everything that is done in his 
 name. Such a position as that held by Mr. Knollys is very diffi- 
 cult; and although he is goodness, kindness, and amiability per- 
 sonified, he has to bear a good deal of reproach. 
 
 The Prince has a tew friends, among whom Mr. Charles Hall, 
 Admiral Sir Harry Keppel, Mr. Christopher Sykes, Lord Charles 
 Beresford, and Sir Charles Carrington are equally favored. 
 
 Mr. Charles Hall is an excellent lawyer, but not exactly a courtier, 
 in spite of his conscientious and persevering attempts to transform 
 himself into one. 
 
 The gravest, and, at the same time, the most amusing man in the 
 world, is Mr. Chiistopher Sykes, the Prince's best and most faith- 
 ful friend. His intense earnestness in the Jeux innocents, which 
 the royal pair much affect, is comical to th2 last degree, and nothing 
 is so funny as his gravity. He is an indispensable person on every 
 visiting list, and not to know him would prove that you had never 
 set foot in an English drawing-room. He is a great favorite with 
 the ladies. He belongs to the best clubs, gives exquisite dinners 
 and sumptuous entertainments at Doncaster, where his hospitality is 
 unrivaled. If he has a defect, it is that he is too perfect a courtier; 
 but that is his nature, and does not, 1 think, explain his constant 
 melancholy, for his cordial appreciation by the Prince and Princess 
 is well known. 
 
 Sir Dighton Probyn, comptroller and treasurer to the Prince, 
 made a romantic marriage. He went to India, leaving behind a lady 
 whom he loved, and when he returned to England thirty years later 
 he found her faithful to the memory of her early love, and still will- 
 ing to marry him. He was the first to decorate his house with the 
 blue china that has since become so fashionable. He is a great 
 sportsman and a perfect Hercules. At the time of the Prince's visit 
 to India, a native showing some hostile intentions, Sir Dighton 
 seized him by the throat and hurled him out of the crowd. 
 
 The Princess of Wales, as 1 have already said, has Miss Knollys 
 
THE SOCIETY OE LONDON. 23 
 
 to. her lady-in-waiting and particular friend. Among the other 
 adiefof her household 1 will only mention Lady Macclesfield on 
 account ot an anecdote that 1 wish to tell you When *£**% 
 of the Princess was expected, preparations had been made at Mart- 
 borough House, hut the event took place .ather prematurely wh e 
 the Princess was at Frogmore. She had been out looking at the 
 Uatfrs, when she was taken suddenly ill. There was nedher nurse 
 nor doctor at hand, ana Lady Macclesfield had to act as both until 
 a doctor was procured from Windsor. 
 
 All the Queen's children are fond of the theater, and go here 
 frequently The Prince and Princess of Wales may be sard to be 
 the special patrons of the drama, for they take much interest in it. 
 and give it their countenance and support. During a representa- 
 tion tlae Piiuce is absorbed in the piece. The Princess ,s less inter- 
 ested, and divides her attention between the stage and the house. 
 
 SIXTH LETTER. 
 
 THE PRIME-MINISTER. 
 
 In order to form a correct opinion ot Mr. Gladstone whom his 
 fanatical admirers have named "the Grand Old Man," and the 
 working classes call "the People's William," it is necessary no 
 only to study his remarkable character in its successive phases and 
 taLalternetloae of government end opposition, but also. o complete 
 one's observation by a supplement judgment of his rival, Lord 
 Beaconsfield It is impossible to speak ot the one without speaking 
 rftbTother, and their antagonism, which is imputed to party 
 rivalry really originated in the diversity of two natures marked by 
 moral and physical contrasts, which must necessar.ly nave forced 
 them into opposite lines ot action. _ 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield, thin, slender, and aristocratic, a single lock of 
 hair on his forehead, his eyes dimmed with weariness and thought 
 his month contracted by painful struggles and lost illusions, had 
 the languid gait of a man whose strength has been exhausted by in- 
 cessant mental activity. Mr. Gladstone, on the contrary, has bold 
 features a grand, commanding brow, an air of authority, a resolute 
 mien- yet, strange to say, although he is often carried away by irre- 
 sistible impulses, he has not the boldness ot bis adversary. His 
 opinions are moderate, his projects prudent. His experience , ot 
 affairs makes him very useful in all questions of home politics But 
 he has no flights of fancy; heioflows the march ot events and )o<*9 
 
24 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 
 
 on at the accomplishment ot a fact as a scientific man watches tue 
 development ot a germ, in order to classify it. In short, he has no 
 creative power. He does not direct politics, but submits to them 
 like the mass of mankind, and thus he is logically diiven to con- 
 form to the ruling opinion of the nation. He is a genuine opport- 
 unist, and it has been said of him that he is a mixture of Cromwell 
 and Gambetta. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone is not, like Lord Salisbury, the apostle of a definite 
 fixed opinion, nor, like Mr. Bright, the advocate ot change of 
 opinion so soon as a better has been found; but at heart, and uncon- 
 sciously, he is governed by this latter theory of pure opportunism. 
 He follows the stream without ever being above it, like Mr. Bright, 
 or below it, like Lord Salisbury. He excels in giving a legislative 
 torm to the policy adopted by the nation, in establishing order 
 among complex and multiplied details, and in producing from them 
 a clear, skillfully-drawn-up whole, and in getting it accepted by 
 Parliament by dint of his inexhaustible resources of explanation 
 and argument. 
 
 Instead of governing the country by Parliament, he governs Par- 
 liament by the country. 
 
 He has a great mind, is always eager to learn, capable of confess- 
 ing his past errois with candor, and avowing his incompetency in 
 questions that he has not studied; he willingly accepts advice (Stuart 
 Mill was much valued by him), and he listens to that of Mr. Bright. 
 He loves progress, possesses a certain enthusiasm for humanity, it 
 a great partisan of Free-trade, of equality of religions and sects, of 
 a wide extension of the suffrage and independent voting. He is 
 patient and scrupulous, indefatigable in agitation. In the latter' he 
 resembles Gambetta. His eloquence is impulsive, grand, powertuls 
 bitter, and merciless to all the errors of his opponents. But all the 
 qualities which he displays in opposition seem to vanish the momen, 
 he assumes power. In grave questions he then appears undecided 
 and ambiguous; the extreme fluency of his speeches can not conceal 
 the confusion of his ideas, nor any amount of vehemence cover the 
 real hesitation of his mind. Very fertile in resources, and always 
 ready to vindicate himself, he has the support of the people, but 
 rather from taste and instinctive liking chan from any well-founded 
 admiration. He has been called a Revolucionary, but that he is 
 not; and he has also been accused, though falsely, of being at the 
 same time a friend of the Jesuits and the Internationalists. It has 
 even been said that he was a mysterious link between those two en- 
 §mies of Church and State, 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 
 
 25 
 
 He is an honest man, without any regaid tor parties, uninfluenced 
 by personal considerations. His noble, upright life was formerly 
 rigidly ruled by sincere convictions; but into the rectitude ot his 
 intelligence, into the loftiness of his soul, popularity has cast strange 
 elements that have diverted him from his original path. Proud and 
 irritable, even haughty, too conscious of his own great worth, he 
 has gradually fallen into exclusiveness, has become devoted to sys- 
 tem, and intoierant, so that his patriotism, hitherto so pure, has 
 
 been impaired. --Ji. *t 
 
 The rather limited horizon oE his ideas would have made him the 
 head of a party that was stationary, or only slowly dragged along by 
 the current of progress. He would have been an apostle ot calm 
 and abnegation, a resolute partisan of social and political economy. 
 This unrivaled financier, but a Scotchman-and consequently with 
 narrow views on economic questions-was he really the man whom 
 the Liberals should have chosen, and intrusted with the vast desti- 
 nies of their programme? 
 
 His adversaries dispute his right to the title of statesman, and 
 assert that his intellectual weight as a scholar and a philosopher pre- 
 ponderates over his powers as a ruler; that his politics are theoret- 
 ical while Lord Beacousfield's were practical; that his success is due 
 to his eloquence, his dexterity in Parliamentary conflict, and his 
 sympathetic manners. . 
 
 In serious struggles, when his interest or that of his party is at 
 stake he can condense his arguments, usually too diffuse, and make 
 a concise speech. When he wants to elude a direct reply, few men 
 can wander from the point more cleverly than he. With less 
 subtlety less skill, less power of oratory, many of his mistakes 
 would have been avoided. Facility of expression is with him a 
 dangerous gift; his language is elevated, majestic, and, except in a 
 few & rare cases, vague, without precision. It is veiled in a kind of 
 - cloud that deceives the orator himself as well as his audience. He 
 * has been sometimes known to lose himself in digressions so foreign 
 ' to the matter in hand that he has suddenly taken refuge in argu- 
 ments flagrantly contradictory ot his fundamental doctrines. So 
 that he arrives at the demonstration he is seeking, the means by 
 which he gets there matter little to him; thus his conclusions are 
 sometimes a total inversion of his propositions. He has also often 
 injured his own cause, and both his enemies and his friends are jus- 
 tified in their judgment on him. Earl Russell, whom he replaced as 
 head of the Liberal party, accused him ot having, by his foreign 
 policy " tarnished the national honor, injured the national interests, 
 
26 THE SOCIETY OF LOXDOtf. 
 
 and lowered the national character." He is also reproached with, 
 never knowing at what resolution to stop, and with being tne dan- 
 gerous chameleon of a party. Many members of that party repudi- 
 ate his policy. 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield was especially pitiless to him, and defined him 
 as " a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his 
 own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can 
 at all times command an interminable, an inconsistent series of argu- 
 ments to malign his opponents and to glorify himself." It is a curi- 
 ous thing that he is generally reproached with the want of sagacity 
 of which he accused the French nation in the articles that he wrote 
 during the war of 1870. What can not be disputed is his personal 
 worth, his marvelous scientific acquirements, his profound and 
 skillful writings, which place him in the first rank of scholars, think- 
 ers, and authois. At twenty-tnree years of age, after a journey in 
 Italy, the first essays that he published were so remarkable that they 
 awakened general sympathy and attention. 
 
 In this portrait many harsh estimates of a man who is yet 
 worshiped like a demi-god are reproduced. Let us try to disentangle 
 the true faults, amid the rancor and jealousy of party. Here comes 
 naturally the chasse-croise of the two policies, and of the two minis- 
 ters who have in turn governed England since 1868. In the begin- 
 ning, the present chief of the "Whigs was a Tory, and Lord Beacons- 
 field, who afterward became the leader of the Tories, was a Liberal. 
 Mr. Gladstone called himself a Conservative, but he deceived him- 
 self; Liberalism was the very ground- work of his character, and in 
 his first writings, full of warmth and enthusiasm, it is impossible 
 not. to detect the inevitableness of a speedv conversion. His com- 
 panion, who traveled with him in Italy, said at the time, " Tne depth 
 of Radicalism that unconsciously exists in this young head can not 
 be doubted." His conversion was only the sudden discovery of his 
 true tendencies. 
 
 Can the same be said of Lord Beaconsfield, then simply Mr. Dis- 
 iaeli? It must be admitted that it can not. In the middle of an 
 election, seeing that his Liberal candidature in Kent was going to be 
 a failure, he boldly went and offered himself to the Conservath es of 
 another county. The audaciousness of the thing was complete, but 
 Mr. Gladstone's adversary never hesitated at any act of audacity or 
 startling boldness. He then wore long; ringlets, and was bedizened 
 witn jewelery. Handsome, and a " dandy," he pleased the aristoc- 
 racy by his elegant manners, and charmed them by his romantic 
 style Feeling himself more at home in this circle, where he wag 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 27 
 
 warmly welcomed and helped on, he never again quitted it. Mr. 
 Disraeli always mingled a little charlatanism with his politics, or let 
 us rather say a little romanticism. He made a kind ot literature 
 which enchanted the foolish and added to his prestige by adorning 
 common things with grand words. You will remember the sonorous 
 phrase that he brought back from the Congress of Berlin, " Peace 
 with Honor!" 
 
 Up to this point the advantage is with Mr. Gladstone; let us now 
 enter into the details of the political career of the present Prime- 
 minister, and see him at work. His political horizon is bounded 
 by the United Kingdom ; beyond the British Isles he can see nothing. 
 The famous doctrine ot non-intervention, which for the last forty 
 years has been preached in Europe, never nad a more valiant cham- 
 pion than Mr. Gladstone, except, perhaps, Louis Philippe. His 
 contempt for foreign policy has made him sacrifice the interests of 
 his country abroad. He is not an admirer of the colonial power of 
 Great Britain— he says so frankly to any one who will listen to him 
 — and a few years ago he ventured to write in the " Nineteenth cent- 
 ury " that " the turn of America had come, and that England must 
 resign herself to descend to the level of Holland." 
 
 His foreign policy, founded on such principles, was bound to be 
 logical ; in fact it is summed up in its chief features by the loss of 
 the Transvaal and Afghanistan, by the strained relations with 
 Europe, estranged by him, and by his disastrous campaign in Egypt. 
 All this is indeed the work of a non-interventionist, but also of a 
 weak strategist in the conflict of nations. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has been more successful in his home government. 
 He has skillfully reconciled public needs and taxation; he has abol- 
 ished the disgraceful "purchase" system that reflected upon the 
 honor of the British army. He has opposed drunkenness by a law 
 severely enforced, although still insufficient, on the hours of closing 
 public-houses. He sent the Prince of Wales to India to soothe the 
 legitimate discontent, and to rekindle the sympathies ot a people 
 whom his pity, too slowly moved, had left to struggle with a ter- 
 rible famine. 
 
 Ireland owes to him a most equitable measure, the disestablish- 
 ment of a Protestant Church in a Catholic country. 
 
 Among the real reforms of Mr. Gladstone may be cited the Fran- 
 chise bills. By giving the right ot voting even to the lowest strata 
 of the population, and by resting the vote on the basis ol taxation 
 and of property, he has infused fresh blood into the effete body of 
 electors, 
 
28 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 His administration has not been always free from tentative efforts, 
 and here, as elsewhere, there are inconsistencies to record. He 
 has, therefore, not been spared proposed votes of censure. In 1872 
 he escaped one with some difficulty, when the indignant House ac- 
 cused him of having violated the laws, and exercised patronage in 
 the nomination of Sir Robert Collier to the Judicial Committee of 
 the Privy Council. He was accused the following month by the 
 Parliament and by the University of violating the statutes by ap- 
 pointing Ihe Rev. W. W. Harvey to the Rectory of Ewelme. Some 
 of his tergiversations are flagrant. After having strongly opposed 
 the admission of Jews to Parliament, he strongly supported the bill 
 that Lord Russell brought forward a few months later to admit 
 them. Shoitly after a magnificent discourse in favor of liberty of 
 speech, he adjured the House, on the 11th of June, 1880, to refuse 
 it to Mr. O'Donnell, who wished to put a question to 1he Govern- 
 ment concerning the new French Embassador, M. Challemel-Lacour. 
 How many times after having made a vote a Cabinet question has 
 he submitted to do without it and to remain in powei ! 
 
 Unlike Count Bismarck, he does not possess the art of ruling men 
 whom he fears, or who may offer some opposition to his policy; so 
 he lulls them into security and deceives them. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone may be summed up in a few words. He is ex- 
 cellent in home government, but fatal in foreign affairs. 
 
 With bis intimate friends he is a charming talker; he listens, and 
 speaks with grace and discretion, and even when he has a right to 
 make an assertion on some learned question, he does it without 
 pedantry. 
 
 This old man of seventy-five still wields the woodman's ax in his 
 moments of leisure, and one of his little vanities, often mentioned, 
 is to cut down a tree in the presence of his guests at Hawarden. 
 He is frequently presented with an axe. 
 
 He is a sturdy pedestrian, thinks little of walking ten or twelve 
 miles, and in spite of dynamitards goes about the streets of London 
 on foot. A short time ago he was nearly run over while he' ping a 
 blind man to cross Piccadilly. 
 
THJB SOCIETY OF LONDON. 29 
 
 SEVENTH LETTER. 
 
 THE MINISTRY. 
 
 The contention that always existed between Lord Beaconsfield and 
 Mr. Gladstone assumed epic proportions at certain moments. 
 Rather more than five years ago Lord Beaconsfield, thin King he 
 held tne country in his hand, fancied the time well chosen for dis- 
 solving Parliament and calling a general election. He was so cer- 
 tain of finding himself called to the head of affairs for the next 
 seven years that he forced that conviction on the minds of two very 
 different men, Prince Bismarck and M. Gambetta. 
 
 Two women only, Mme. de Novikoff, in Moscow, and Mme. 
 Adam, in Paris, predicted Mr. Gladstone's triumph, in spite of his 
 personal doubts. Mme. de Novikoff founded her opinion on the 
 conviction that the thirty-two seats lost by the Liberal party during 
 Mr. Gladstone's last administration could not be definitely lost. 
 Lord Beaconsfield forgot that in 1874 his victory was due to the 
 fact that " beer " and V Bible," that is, the army of publicans, and 
 the not less formidable army of sectarians, had made common cause 
 with each other. The former yielded to an impulse of ill-humor; 
 the latter, tired of the Liberals, who had irritated them by the 
 Education Bill and the School Board, wanted to try the Conserva- 
 tives. Mme. Adam, at the time of Mr. Gladstone's visit to Paris, 
 said, in a conversation with him at M. Girardin's, that Lord Bea- 
 consfield would be led to make the election on an Imperial question, 
 and that whatever sophistry was employed, England would never 
 understand monarchy except in the royal form. At the conclu- 
 sion of this interview Mme. Adam had a discussion on the same 
 subject with M. Gambetta, who was supporting the cause of Lord 
 Beaconsfield in the " Republique Francaise," as Prince Bismarck 
 was doing at Berlin. 
 
 " You are wrong," said M. Gambetta, " to support Mr. Glad- 
 stone; he will be beaten to a mummy." 
 
 "1 believe in Mr. Gladstone's success," she asserted, "and 1 
 maintain it in all that I write. Besides, 1 run much less risk with 
 him than you do with Lord Beaconsfield. It Mr. Gladstone is 
 beaten, 1 am beaten with a Liberal; that is to say, with a friend. 
 If you are beaten with Lord Beaconsfield, that is much more seri- 
 ous; for you are beaten with an enemy." 
 
30 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 At the moment of the elections a sudden change took place in 
 public opinion. Mr. Gladstone aroused the Liberal North, and 
 carried it along with him. Orators of his party devoted themselves 
 to magnifying to the electors the errors of the Ministers in power— 
 a very easy task, and one that seldom fails of its effect. 
 
 The Tory orators themselves, those who felt the loss of their 
 votes, lent their aid. Truths kept seciet during the sessions of 
 Parliament were disclosed by the malcontents, and the Liberals as- 
 serted that their enemies, by not contradicting their assertions, con- 
 firmed the truth of them. The sores of the State thus laid bare 
 converted a certain number of voters, and the Liberals were victo- 
 rious. 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield died a short time afterward of grief at finding 
 himself abandoned by his party. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, called to form a Ministry, found himself face to 
 face with the bravos who had fought for him, and now held out 
 their hand, claiming their share of the spoil. The formation of a 
 Cabinet, in presence of the avidity of parties, was very difficult. 
 It was necessary to satisfy the Center, the Left, and the Radicals. 
 Sir Charles Dilke, the most popular among the Radicals, was 
 thought of: but it was perceived that Chamberlain, the Republican, 
 an ally of Sir Charles Dilke, had already been admitted. Sir 
 Charles Dilke ceded the place, but was brought in later, when the 
 Cabinet had progressed so far that several of its members were left 
 behind it. 
 
 These desertions were: the Duke of Argyll, who refused his as- 
 sent to measures tending to injure lauded proprietors; Mr. Foister, 
 the Chief Secretary for Ireland, who would not sanction the Gov- 
 ernment's purchasing obedience to the law; Mr. Bright, who dis- 
 agreed with Mr. Gladstone on the Eastern Question. 
 
 The Ministry may be said to be entirely composed of men of 
 mark. Lord Beaconsfield nearly always surrounded himself witn 
 incompetent nonentities, who were eclipsed by his genius, and who, 
 if the} 7 were not able assistants, had at least the advantage of being 
 obedient auxiliaries. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, surrounded by men of worth and resolution, 
 whom he can not eject, governed by the necessities of parties, 
 driven into a corner by the princes of finance, who have their tools 
 even in the ministerial ranks, finds both resources and obstacles 
 around him; but, as he is as authoritative as his rival, he sometimes 
 comes into conflict with persons who refuse to obey him. The first 
 Lord of the Treasury, or Prime-minister, is, however, the highest 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 31 
 
 expression oi the executiv%power. All the departments are under 
 his control— even the nominations made by other members of the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 The essence of the Cabinet being Liberal, and the Government, 
 by the natural force of things, becoming more and more democratic, 
 the mind of its members, ruled by individualism, resists its chief. 
 
 The struggle for power between the present Prime- minister and 
 Lord Beaconsfield always turned upon the laws ot Franchise. In 
 1857 Mr. Gladstone had proposed a reform, but he took care to for- 
 mulate it in such a fashion as not to include factory hands, whose 
 votes were usually acquired by the Conservative party. Disraeli, 
 a shrewd politician, beating his adversary with his own weapons, 
 proposed to extend the bill, and thus, in a sense, made it more 
 Liberal, and gave himself all the honor of the reform, wniie it 
 served the interests of his party. Mr. Gladstone has just taken his 
 revenge; to divert attention from his unfortunate foreign policy, he 
 has profited by the agitation which stirs the masses from one end of 
 England to the other. 
 
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs is Lord Granville, and before 
 speaking of him 1 must tell you a curious fact. In England, just 
 as the First Lord of the Admiralty is never an admiral, nor the 
 Secretary of State for 'War a general, so the head of the Foreign 
 Office is never an embassador, and has never represented a country 
 in the capitals of Europe. Thus the English Minister, not having 
 any experience acquired on the spot, is ill-acquainted with the home 
 politics of other countries. It is true that this leaves him n ore in- 
 dependent, but perhaps it is one of the causes of the political egotism 
 with which England is reproached. 
 
 Lord Granville is a bond of union between parties, which he 
 knows how to conciliate, between the colonies and the metropolis, 
 which he has closely united, between England and Europe, whose 
 relations he has greatly improved. He is to be thanked for the ces- 
 sation of the busy-body policy of Lord Palmerston, with his mania 
 for constant interference, and for having withdrawn into a wise 
 reserve. He is a man of the world, even in politics, and has been 
 called "the minister of good manners," the " court politician," and 
 the "drawing-room statesman;" he has a gentle, caressing voice 
 that he never raises or forces, even when savins the hardest and 
 most cutting things; he never takes a combative tone, even to 
 disarm or stab an adversary. He uses the weapon of speech with 
 affability, almost with solicitude; he insinuates a sarcasm or inflicts 
 a censure with perfect courtesy; no one knows better than he how 
 
32 THE SOCIETY OF LOtfDOtf. 
 
 to oil the machinery of politics, and treat difficult affairs with per- 
 fect grace. He is a man of prompt and decisive action, who can 
 get rid of useless obstacles at a blow; he is just and firm, and to his 
 slow patience, nearly allied to genius, he owes his success as a diplo- 
 matist and as Liberal leader of the Upper House. His eloquence is 
 not admirable, nor is his learning extraordinary^ but his conciliatory 
 qualities give him an exceptional place wherever he goes. 
 
 Lady Granville is a very great lady. She is seen to the greatest 
 advantage on the evenings of the receptions at the Foreign Office, 
 when at the top of the grand staircase she receives with a stately 
 courtesy thousands of guests, for the most part unknown to her. 
 Then she is really beautiful, with her grand air, heightened by her 
 official position — this statuesque part suits hei admirably. 
 
 It is true that Lord Granville is all kindness and gallantry: he is 
 attentive to every one, and attracts the sympathies of all; his ex- 
 quisite manners, his witty conversation, make him as attractive as 
 if he was half a century younger. 
 
 Lord Derby, who presides over the destinies of the colonies, owes 
 his position to his immense fortune. He can not be accused of 
 having disturbed the political situation by any brilliant feats. He 
 is clever, and works very hard ; he asserted in 1864 that the Foreign 
 Office gave him ten houis' work a day. Since then, to do unto him- 
 self what, as a Liberal, he desired should be done unto other workers, 
 he has shortened his hours of labor and has much relaxed liis efforts. 
 Lord Derby makes good speeches, but they must be read to be ap- 
 preciated, for his voice is inaudible in the Senate. He has good 
 sense, and, still more, good luck; for it he had come into office at a 
 moment of difficulty he would never have been noticed. His 
 political career, however, began in 1848, when the people, tired of 
 great men and popular causes, only wanted to " rest and be thank- 
 ful." The public opinion accepted this unobtrusive person, who 
 believes in nothing in particular, and is too prudent and even too 
 timid ever to raise a question. It he had come in at any other mo- 
 ment, he would not have won the prestige that belongs to success in 
 youth. He is a Liberal- Conservative, or, rather, a skeptical Con- 
 servative become Liberal. The steps that he has descended in join- 
 ing the Opposition forbid his ever mounting the highest rungs of 
 the political ladder. Ihe Radicals distrust him, and the moderate 
 Liberals prefer Lord Haiti ngton and Lord Granville. He can help to 
 increase the popularity of a Liberal Ministry if he makes no part of 
 it. oi help in its downfall if he breaks away from it; but he can 
 never be at the head of it. His long intimacy with Bright has al- 
 
THE SOCIETY OE LONDOK. 33 
 
 ways remained an inexplicable mystery, unless it is their common 
 passion for angling that has united them. Well iead, but without 
 literary tastes, he takes more interest in science than in literature, 
 lie has an excellent memory, and never forgets a face that he has 
 once seen. He detests talent, and ruthlessly tramples on those of 
 his subordinates who display any intellectual superiority. His 
 creeds are elastic and doubtful; he smokes and drinks, but he is a 
 bad lider, and no sportsman. He has declined the Order of the 
 Garter. 
 
 The Marquis of Hartington, Minister of War and future Duke of 
 Devonshire, was chosen as leader of the Liberals when Mr. Glad- 
 stone retired. He has a certain influence which then seemed likely 
 to increase, but has not done so. His uprightness, his courage in 
 manifesting his opinions, give nim weight; he will never make a 
 great figure. He is not an orator, never excites enthusiasm ; he lacks 
 humor, never jokes, and in the repot ts of his speeches the stpreo- 
 t} r ped " laughter " never appears. He uses sincere and ingenious 
 arguments, but does not succeed in convincing his hearers. His 
 mind is vigorous and honest, but his nature is dry and cold. 
 
 In society he is sometimes observed to laugh, but he was not made 
 for the fashionable world, and he does not care to make himself 
 agreeable in it. He is recognized everywhere by the way he wears 
 his hat, forced down over his eyes. 
 
 Sir Charles Dilke is the Gambetta of England: his clamorous 
 beginning, his appeals to the Republic, will be remembered. But 
 on taking his share of the heavy burden of power ne shook off some 
 of his principles, and of his Radicalism has retained only a few ad- 
 vanced opinions on agrarian questions, matters of education, and 
 separation of Ohurcii and State. He made a great noise to frighten 
 people, and they were afterward very much obliged to him for hav- 
 ing reassured them. 
 
 A clever politician, a man with real governing power, Sir Charles 
 Dilke is one of those men who become greater as they rise, and he 
 will be one of those who make England illustrious. He has become 
 very diplomatic, and makes evasive answers so cleverly that they 
 are quite models in their way. Courteous to his adversaries, fortu- 
 nate in his undertakings, an advocate of peace, he enjoys general 
 esteem. An indefatigable worker in all matters of thought, a highly 
 informed man with just views and sound judgment, he has written 
 Borne remarkable works, especially " Greater Britain," an unrivaled 
 book on the colonies. 
 
 The President of the Board of Trade ; Mr. Chamberlain, is a, 
 g . 
 
34 THE SOCIETY OF LOSTDOH. 
 
 Kadical Republican ot a similar tone to M. Clemenceau, and Mr. 
 Gladstone has taken him into the Cabinet to secure the large 
 majority that he has at his disposal, and to flatter an adversary who 
 was more dangerous in his place in the House than in the council of 
 the Ministers. However, in spite of his official position he has not 
 feared to asR for an appeal to the people to settle the question of the 
 separation of Church and State. In Parliament lie is ill at ease, but 
 before his constituents he recovers himself; and nothing can be 
 more curious, 1 will even say amusing, as it is not of our own 
 country 1 am speaking, than to hear a Minister make revolutionary 
 speeches. His programme h brief and definite: universal suffrage, 
 equality of electoral districts, remuneration of members of Parlia- 
 ment, and disestablishment of the Church. Mr. Chamberlain has 
 no political past, and his fall may be as sudden as his elevation. He 
 has made many enemies while in office; his Bankruptcy Bill was 
 not a success; he has offended the ship-owners, who detest him; he 
 is an embarrassment to the Ministry, unpopular among the working 
 classes, and looked upon with suspicion by members of the Church. 
 
 And yet he is a charming man very amiable, and much liked in 
 society. He loves flowers, and what flowers do you suppose? The 
 most beautiful, the most aristocratic, the most rare and costly — 
 orchids! He cultivates every variety at his country-house, and has 
 one of the finest collections in Europe. 
 
 The Home Secretary, Sir W. Vernon Harcourt, a former jour- 
 nalist, is known for his articles signed " Historicus," which pro- 
 voked America. He treats his opponents with supreme indifference. 
 A decided Liberal, and enjoying a certain popularity in Parliament, 
 he has a strong intellect and is keen and witty. Very agreeable in 
 society, a living collection ot anecdotes, he has a political salon of 
 no great importance. 
 
 Lord Selborne, Lord High Chancellor and President of the Upper 
 House, is like the poets who live with their feet on earth and their 
 head in heaven, a man of exalted piety, of austere virtue; his pure 
 disinteiesteduess in the midst of the pettiness and meanness of par- 
 ties makes him resemble Mr. Chamberlain's orchids that crow on 
 the rugged bark of trees, and wnose bed is made of bioken crockery. 
 
 1 have already spoken of Lord Spencer, the Viceroy Df Ireland. 
 The Irish do justice to his manly qualities, even though they resist 
 his policy. He is an excellent administrator and a man ot honor. 
 
 Mr. Childers, Chancellor of the Exchequer, began by being First 
 Lord of the ii.dmiralty, w T hich is a kind of trial or apprenticeship 
 for the Ministry. He is put forward on all grand occasions. He 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDON". 35 
 
 holds himself upright and has a very imposing deportment; he 
 wears a handsome white beard. 
 
 Lord Northbrook, First, Lord of the Admiralty, recently went to 
 India, of which country he once was Viceroy, but he did not find 
 any opportunity of distinguishing himself there. He belongs to the 
 honorable house of Baring. As a Minister there is nothing excep- 
 tional about him but his receptions. Lord Noilhbrook is a widower, 
 and Lady Emma Baring, his charming daughter, does the honors 
 of the Admiralty. 
 
 The new Postmaster-general, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, is an excellent 
 speaker— one of the best and strongest champions of the Govern- 
 ment, one of the most formidable adversaries of the Lords because 
 of the justice and clearness of his arguments; but he will not efface 
 the memory of Mr. Fawcett, his very clever predecessor. 
 
 Mr. Mundella, Vice-president of the Committee of Council on 
 Education, whose functions closely correspond to those of our Min- 
 ister of Public Instruction, was, as a child, a poor factory boy, earn- 
 ing three-and-sixpence a week; now lie is a Minister of merit. His 
 knowledge certainly, has some gaps in it, but he can take the initia- 
 tive, and has views of hia own. His thoughts, sometimes a little 
 obscure, have the freshness, the flavor, the healthy aroma of a fruit 
 that has not beeu forced in an artificial soil. 
 
 Lastly comes Mr. Trevelyan, the nephew of Macaulay, ex-Secre- 
 tary ot State foi Ireland and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 In the present Ministry he is the type of the man who is always 
 ready. He is prepared at any moment to speak with intelligence 
 and authority on no matter what subject. My horoscope ot him is 
 that he will one day he leader of the Liberals and Prime-minister. 
 An active, restless politician, he has a passion for work, and his 
 lite is not long enough for all his occupations. He succeeds in 
 everything he touches (except In Ireland), and therefore people take 
 advantage of this, and overwhelm him with work. Always talk- 
 ing, writing, interrogating, moving, running, walking, persuading, 
 organizing, this valuable politician, who is not yet forty-six years 
 old, writes, reads, makes speeches, indites leaders for newspapers, 
 issues manifestoes and addresses, finds remedies for everything, 
 and employs all his skill in getting them applied. He supports 
 every bill that tends to the suppression of alcoholic drinks. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF 1XWDOK. 
 
 EIGHTH LETTER. 
 
 PARLIAMENT. — THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 In Parliament the antagonism between Whigs and Tories, Liberals 
 and Conservatives, has lost its primitive simplicity; the Liberals 
 have produced the Radical party, and the Conservatives have to 
 reckon with what is called the Fourth Party. 
 
 Besides these groups, the two latest of which will one day be the 
 most important, the Parliamentary battles ot the future being 
 bound to take place between the Radicals and tne Fourth Party, 
 there has been growing up in Parliament an obstructionist or Irish 
 party. 
 
 The old Tories are disappearing. The former Lord Derby was 
 considered to be their last representative, but Lord Salisbury may 
 more truly be called the latest survivor of that great party. There 
 will always be Conservatives, but there will never be Tories any 
 more. The new generation is trying to effect a reconciliation with 
 members in the ranks of the enemy, and to form a mixed party 
 that may be called Conservative-Libeial, a center which will become 
 a force in the State, and that already iucludes Lord Derby and 
 Lord Sherbrooke among the Peers, Mr. Goschen and Mr. Forster in 
 the Commons, and a good many dissenters Irom the extreme of 
 both parties. 
 
 Lord Randolph Churchill will probably soon join this battalion, 
 for he is in opposition to many of his own party, and may be in- 
 scribed on the evolutionary list as a Radical-Conservative. 
 
 1 should not be sui prised it he met Sir Charles Dilke in this 
 center party one day; for being a Radical at the outset, but already 
 left behind by the irreconcilables, he has wisely planted his tent 
 among the Liberals. 
 
 In this center the independent members are found, those who 
 have a personal ambition, and who do not seek for favors. Capi- 
 talists and brewer* brlong to it. Nearly all those who sell alcoholic 
 beveraces are Conservatives, while teetotalers aie generally Liberal: 
 beer is Conservative; tea, Liberal. 
 
 We also find gravitating toward this center undecided members 
 who are seeking their way, and still hesitate between the attractions 
 of the two parties. 
 
 You do not expect me, I imagine, to explain to you "what sep- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 37 
 
 urates Liberals fioiG Conservatives. To define their limits is quite 
 beyond my power, and 1 have never known an English elector who 
 could explain to me rationally why he belonged to one party ratter 
 than to the other. Liberal does not mean Republican, and many 
 poople are Conservative who have nothing to " conserve/' The 
 more I see ot their operations, the less am 1 able to distinguish be- 
 tween them, especially iiom the views of their representatives. 
 There is rather a difference of personal opinion and ol political an- 
 tagonism than of questions of reiorni an:i of true national interest, 
 and the proof ot this is that the two parties when in power ob- , 
 tain identical results. .. . . ' 
 
 If one were to diaw up a list of the differences and simdanties 
 of opinion of Whins and Tories in the past, and the means employed 
 by each for getting up agitation, earnest methodical England, and 
 the admirable English Pa.liamentary system, that so far surpasses 
 all European Paihaments, would become subjects of universal 
 amusement. English parties are saved from being regarded with 
 ridicule not by the width of the gulf that separates them, but bv the 
 passion that leading nun infuse into politics, and the gigantic efforts 
 they make. That passion and those efforts inspire ihe people with 
 the idea that the obstacle between the two representative parties is 
 ten ibly difficult to clear. 
 
 lundeistand the feeling of caste in the Conservative party, and 
 the interest the aristocracy have in maintaining their privileges. Wo 
 doubt they can gain nothing by oversowing the past, and destroy- 
 ing every "vestige of it; but a Conservative publican appears to me 
 highly comical, unless the said publican is the happy but unenviable 
 recipient of electioneering favors. Colonial expansion, springing 
 from internal difficulties, and furnishing a sourct of coveied employ- 
 ment makes the basis ot Tory polities. Liberals are supposed to 
 represent social retoims and the democratic part ot the nation. , 
 
 As 1 have mentioned the Fourth Party, 1 must tell you what it 
 is About five years ago, a parly of advanced young Conservatives 
 constituted and established itself. Disgusted by the increasing de- 
 generacy of the old Tory party, after the defection of S r Robert 
 Peel and irritated at the oliga.chical tyranny ot Sir Stafford Norih- 
 cote' Sir Richard Cross, and their associates. Lord Randolph 
 Churchill and a few of his friends lesolved to throw off the yoke. 
 They set energetically to work, traced out a line of conduct, and 
 heroically bore the combined attack of their adversaries and of their 
 iurious co-Conservatives, and gained a victory over Sir Stafford 
 Hortkcote, Mr. Foster, and the Chahman of Committees. At the 
 
38 THE SOCIETY OF LOSTDOH. 
 
 end of the session they had taken up their position; the oligarchy 
 was destroyed; the old Tories had thenceforth to reckon with the 
 young ones; the Fourth Party was formed. The principal members 
 were Lord Randolph Churchill, its creator and leader; Sir Druin- 
 montl Wolff, a skillful diplomatist; Mr. Balfour, a hard worker, 
 and the resolute champion of property; and Mr. Gorst, an organizer 
 and a lawyer. Mr. Balfour has lately shown some signs of falling 
 off; but whatever happms, the Conservative party of the future has 
 a name; it is called a Conservative Democracy. 
 
 Tne present Speaker of the House of Commons is the son of the 
 great Sir Robert Peel, who brought about the abolition of the corn- 
 laws, the first great triumph of free-trade. 
 
 Other candidates have been i ejected for various reasons, and Mr. 
 G>>sohen, who had some chance, refused the post of honor in order 
 to preserve his independence. Mr. Peel is a moderate .Liberal; he 
 had not made himself known as a politician, and was not worn out. 
 For nineteen yeais he has paid unwearied attention to the Secre- 
 tary's woik of the different ministries, and he is thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with official business. He is a wise, earnest man, without 
 any peisonal ambition, full of tact and energy, and firm without 
 obstinacy. His impartiality commands respect, and the only re- 
 proach that can be directed against him resembles praise; it is, that 
 from the strength of his convictions, and his periect independence, 
 he is not accommodating, and that he carries firmness to the point 
 of disdain for its results. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote, the leader of the Conservatives, is no 
 longer young, and the moment is approaching when he must cede 
 his place If Mr. Edward Stanhope's health permitted, although he 
 is thought too modest, he would be designated as the successor of 
 a superannuated chief. But a star of the first magnitude is appear- 
 ing in the Conservative party, Lord George Hamilton. He is thirty- 
 nine years of age, and is well thought of by all sections of the Con- 
 servatives; he is distinguished in manners, but, above all, he is the 
 favorite of Lord Salisbury, whose voice is predominant in matters 
 regarding the internal organization of the party. In the ranks there 
 is also Sir Hardinge S. Giffard, a lawyer of great merit; his talents 
 elevated him to the post of Solicitor-general under the late Govern- 
 ment. 1 doubt whether he will ever make a statesman; but, on the 
 other hand, he is a practical orator, and might be chosen. 
 
 There is also Mr. Gibson, but he is an Irishman and a lawyer. It 
 is true that Lord Cairns, who was on the point of becoming the 
 leader of the Conservative Lords, was also a lawyer and an Irish- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 39 
 
 man. Mr. Gibson is still young; he is clever and energetic, a man 
 of tact and moderation, although every inch a Conservative. Lord 
 Salisbury can scarcely surpass him in eloquence, and he has the art 
 of rousing enthusiasm. 
 
 The Liberal party, if it were to lose Mr. Gladstone, would rot 
 lack leaders. The person at piesent most clearly designated for that 
 dignity is the Marquis of Haitington— a faint reflection of lis chief. 
 Among the Radicals it would not be difficult to rep'ace Mr. Cham- 
 berlain, and the obstructionists have any number of leaders. 
 
 In the Parliamentary drama many curious scenes are enacted: if 
 Liberal malcontents are seen drawing near to the Conservatives, 
 more than one Conservative will make his court to Mr. Gladstone 
 to obtain a " shelf " in the Upper House; for it is at the suggestion 
 of the Prime-minister that the Queen creates peers. On the other 
 haud, the strength of the Tories often comes from the weakness of 
 the Liberal leaders, who are secretly their allies. Mr. Goschen has 
 frequently saved the Conservatives from themselves. Political evo- 
 lution is perfectly admitted, and most of the politicians who have 
 become Prime-ministers have sat on both sides of the House. One 
 of the most curious cases of political evolution is that of Mr. Mar- 
 riott, member for Brighton, who, not being able to settle himself 
 comfortably on the left, suddenly declared that he was deserting the 
 Liberal, and going to fight under the Conservative banner. He 
 therefore resigned his seat, and presented himself again before his 
 constituents; and now comes the extraordinary pait of the story, 
 the electors had changed their opinions with him, and they re-elected 
 him. 
 
 Another Parliamentary curiosit}' is patronage. A patron recruits 
 volunteers, and attaches them to himself by paying the expenses of 
 their election, and their vo*es then belong to him. The Jate Earl 
 Fitz- William commanded fifteen of these mercenaries. 
 
 Among the Irish obstructionists, some look upon the position of 
 a member of Parliament as lucrative; for, having settled the ques- 
 tion of emoluments in their own favor, they receive a salary from 
 their constituents. This explains why Mr. Parneli is assailed by 
 the offer of service from so many aspirants to membership, and 
 these requests are not made only by patriots of the " si-ter isle," but 
 frequently also by Radical cockneys. This is not at all displeasing 
 to Mr. Parneli; he considers their assistance less dangerous to the 
 Irish cause than that of the red-hot politicians of his own country. 
 
 1 have already described Mr. Gladstone's attitude in Parliament; 
 his eloquence does not always carry by main force the bills that he 
 
40 THE SOCIETY OF LOSTDOtf. 
 
 presents, and when he is not followed in a question, his adversaries, 
 and even his iriends, show him no pity. But an adverse vote 
 scarce!}' seems to touch him. In the sittings of the 26th and 27ih of 
 April, 1883, he was beaten over and over again by a powertul ma- 
 jority; but this did not disturb him at all. On the 12h of May, 
 1882, he even susiained a total defeat, after having threatened to 
 dissolve the House; but when beaten and driven into a corner about 
 the dissolution h? put it off and resigned himself to the tacts. 
 
 He leaves his colleagues the initiative in their several departments, 
 but in general politics he directs them absolutely. 
 
 The labors ot the English Parliament are verv severe: two hours 
 of each sitting aie wasted in questions asked by members who are 
 longing to read their own names next morning in the local news- 
 paper, and want to prove to their constituents that they are some- 
 thing more than voting machines. 
 
 This Government has been almost entirely occupied with Ireland 
 and Egypt. A #hole session was devoted to the liish Land Bill; 
 another was taken up by the Bill on Electoral Reform; and probably 
 the whole of the present jear will not suffice for the Redistribution 
 of Seats Bill. # 
 
 Side by side with these bills there are always laws in suspense that 
 have been presented every session for an indefinite period. Such, 
 for example, is the " Deceased Wife's Sister Bill." It would be 
 idle to enumerate all the projected laws that are waiting for the 
 sanction of Parliament, from the decimal system and woman's 
 suffrage to municipal reform and a bill on the navy; but the most 
 urgent of all, and the one that would most expedite the solution of 
 the others, would be the reform of Parliament itself, for in its pres- 
 ent condition its operation is almost paralyzed. An amusing bill, 
 brought forward at least once a year, is for the abolition of the 
 grating in Iront of the ladies' gallery. Parliamentary debates being 
 ptivate. and " strangers " having no right to be present, a member 
 can alwa3 r s have a gallery cleared by calling the attention of the 
 Speaker to the tact that there are " strangers " present. In order not 
 to subject the ladies' gallery to this it was hidden by a grating. 
 Once moie, by 131 votes against 75, the House has rejected the bill. 
 This arrangement only exists in the House of Commons; the Lords 
 are not so easily agitated by the sight of fair faces. 1 will mention 
 the customary white-bait dinner which every year brings the mem- 
 bers of Parliament to Greenwich at the close of the summer session. 
 At this dinner arose the symbolic custom of giving a wooden spoon 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 41 
 
 to the minister who, during the year, had been involved in the fewest 
 divisions in the House of Commons. 
 
 NIOTH LETTER. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS. si 
 
 I F you Have observed the conflict that arose last year between j. he- 
 HouTof Lord, and .he House ot Commons, you are aw are ha 
 nothins: could exceed the unpopularity of the former. Public tee 
 K a— a.most to exasperation, and for a t me ft. cry h e^ 
 ened to be " Down with the House ot Lords! All opposition 
 otl el by the House of Lords to the House ot Commas assumes, 
 as w. can easily understand, irritating proportions: tor 'hen con- 
 Lire not questions ot vulg»r matters, of the balance of.he Budg- 
 et leimposuion of taxes, the voting of supply, etc. The Lo»er 
 
 Commons; but these are vital organic questions winch concern 
 imeett of classes and provoke the most violent par y smte. 
 
 One more the accusation was brought against the Lords by the 
 J ority of Lncnish people, " They Have learned nodnng, an for- 
 Z ten noUiing " How could they torget. in rejecting the bill for 
 e, o orm r -m, that an analogous situation fad led to revolt m 
 1 m" Then they were pursued and Insulted, stones were th own 
 at tieirlariages their lives were in danger, and they were obliged 
 at their ca " la " e . was arouse(1 tllis i\ me , but with the 
 
 LTenc hat , ,"ere the voices of orators, a more ,errd»e 
 Jeanon tl an stones, instead ot striking at their persons, aimed at 
 ,he very principle ot their political existence, took the place of up- 
 
 r0 Tl, a e'Lords are" once an hereditary assembly and a body of great 
 Hud d proprietors, who share the soil ot England between theim 
 Does not .he veiy lonnula " hereditary assembly -■ imply a primary 
 "2 j son of a great legislator is not necessarily a great 
 
 ordimrv learned professions the transmission ot peculiar talent is 
 ^2*SS. \v M ati G »ias e aom.r, 1 Bsmhsible;an a) Uo W ever 
 
 Xvi a polUicL may be, however mighty a soveieign, they can 
 
42 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 not cast the brain of their offspring into the same mold. Heredity 
 js, therefore, a source of weakness, for it opens Ihe doors of an as- 
 sembly that should be the temple of wisdom, justice, and right, 
 where laws become vital forces, to mediocrity and to incapacity. 
 
 The agrarian question arising from the monopoly of the laud ten- 
 tire leads to siill greater evils than heredity. The remedy for pau- 
 perism, and for most of the social problems, is in the hands of the 
 Lords, just as revolution, that weapon of the people, is in the hands 
 of the masses. And it may be predicted with certainty, that if a 
 revolution e\er lakes place in England it will not be a political one. 
 Public opinion, and the means of agitation possessed by the people, 
 are powerful enough to overthrow a ministry or to secure a dissolu- 
 tion of the House of Commons. But the imminent revolution, and 
 one that would look like legit inate vengeance, is agrarian. 
 
 Who cau not perceive the danger incurred by society at large from 
 an assembly of legislators who have the light to reject every law of 
 reform concerning property? But it would take a volume to make 
 you understand how important this right of rejecting laws becomes 
 in the hands of the Lords. The existence and not only the prerog- 
 atives of the English aristocracy rest on the possession of land, and 
 on the seigneurial authority it gives over all who are supported by 
 the land. Every agrarian law is therefore a menace to them, per- 
 haps even a sentence or death, and yet it is from them that the sanc- 
 tion of such a law is expected! 
 
 The opposition of the Lords to the Franchise Bill was only log- 
 ical; for the vote, by giving a share of power to the lower classes, 
 puts into their hands legal weapons for the destruction of the privi- 
 leges ot the aristocracy. The Lords— ana how could anything else 
 be expected?— represent only theii own interests, in entire opposition 
 to those ot the people. All progress is for them a terror and a dan- 
 ger; tiiey therefore constantly oppose it, ana have kept back the 
 
 . march of progress in the sense of reforms for at least a hundred 
 
 •years. 
 
 "( Most ot the members of the House of Peers know nothing of pub- 
 
 "lie affairs, and only come down to the House when it is a question 
 of rejecting in a body some law that has been proposed. The con- 
 dition ot Ireland is largely due to the Lords. In 1848 and 1854 the 
 Lords opposed all the agrarian laws brought iorward in favor of 
 that country, and they have pursued the same policy ever since, 
 mercilessly reje* line all that injured their personal interest, and, 
 worse still, affected their prejudices and their intolerance. Nothing 
 is ever got from them but capitulation; never one of those grand 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 43 
 
 acts that do honor to an assembly, that make a body illustrious, and 
 spare a nation the shocks which endanger not only its physical but 
 its moral existence. Formerly when a law passed the House of 
 Commons the question used to be, "What will the Lords do?" 
 Now it is only asked, " What shall we do with the Lords?" Has 
 this aucient, noble, and powerful English aristocracy exhausted all 
 its powers of resistance? Will it put itself in oppo.i'ion to the force 
 of democratic feeliug, or will it show true greatness, as the nobles 
 did in the early days of the French Revolution, or as our Russian 
 aristocracy did at the time of the emancipation of the serfs? Will 
 it be wise and disinterested enouuh to accept progress rather than 
 wait and have the concession wrung from it? 
 
 The House of Lords has time tor reflection; for the palace where 
 it sits will not fall down at the sound of the popular trumpets so 
 easily as the walls of Jericho fell. 
 
 » Titles exercise in England a fascination quite unknown elsewhere. 
 At gi. at festivals the poorest people assemble in crowds to watch 
 all the wealth and luxury pass by, an.l many a foreigner, like my- 
 self, who has been tempted to speak to some ragged individual, has 
 received the proud reply, " These are our Lords." 
 
 Tbis weakness for a title is such that the politics of a vacillating 
 enemy can readily be settled by th3 promise of a peerage. Three 
 hundred and two baronetcies have been created since 1830. and two 
 hundred and twenty-five were given to Liberals as a reward for their 
 change of party. In 1831 the agitation against the House of Lords 
 had decreed its downfall. The noble Peers were not the first nor 
 will they be the last who preferred lo sulmit rallier than resign. 
 This time the conflict, of public opinion against the Lords has 
 assumed a form, become a society, and taken a threatening name- 
 that of the " National League for the Abolition of the Hereditary 
 House." At the head of this league are some d. lermined men. Sir 
 Wilfrid Lawson, Labouchere, Burt, and many others; but so. long 
 as the Government has at its head men like Hartington, Harcourt, 
 Granville, and Derby, the Peers may continue to look down upon 
 the people from the heights of their haughty security. " W here we 
 are," they say, " we see the masses as it from a balloon, and they 
 look very small "—a figure of speech that the people have been quick 
 to use in a contrary sense, for they assert that seen from below the 
 balloon looks smaller still. 
 
 If the days of the House of Lords are not yet numbered, its years 
 most decidedly are. It is an ancient edifice that rests only upon the 
 Shifting sands of privilege and of class interests; and as slight 
 
44 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOH. 
 
 storms have already made it shake and tremble, a tempest will com- 
 pletely overthrow it. 
 
 When a member of the House of Commons passes to the Upper 
 House, whether from his new surroundings, or trom the extreme 
 honor, or from the indifference ot a satisfied ambition, he inevitably 
 lo«es any talent he has previously possessed. Tims Mr. Robert 
 Lowe, a weighty orator in the Commons, became Lord Sherbrooke, 
 and has forever after held his peace in the House of Lords. 
 
 The presidency belongs by right to the Lord Chancellor; but he 
 has not t lie power ot the Speaker of the H< use of Commons, he is 
 only an ornarmntul decoration. Seated on the woolsack, dressed 
 up like a figure in a puppet-show, with a long, grotesque wig, he is 
 the only Minister who must necessarily be a memter ot the Upper 
 House. Unless they are peers, the other ministers can only enter it 
 as visitors. Is it not strange that even the President of the Coun- 
 cil, even a Minister of Agriculture, interested in an agrarian ques- 
 tion, may no" come and in sue the voice of the Government heard 
 outside the assembly to which they belong? 
 
 1 will mention a few of the most interesting among the Lords. 
 
 The Duke ot ATgyll, a Scotchman, fills his exalted position in the 
 Upper House, in society, and in the world of literature brilliantly. 
 He does not speak in the House, he preaches, and gives a stiong 
 Scottish tone to all his discourses. But in literature the fighting- 
 cock element in him asseits itself; he is always ready for combat, 
 and rushes to the attack at the slightest provocation. He makes war 
 on other people's works, but does not produce many himself. He 
 is a Presbyterian, and may even be called a theologian. He has a 
 cultivated, active, inquiring miud, with great strength of character, 
 but with a polemical disposition that he sedulously cultivates. Lord 
 Granville and he are at the head oi the Liberal party ot the Upper 
 House. The Duke is also the father-in-law of Princess Louise. 
 
 The Duke of Richmond is a handsome man, sixty-one years ot 
 age, simple and unaffected, without pride, withabright, genial face 
 and pleasant manners, very frank and distinguished, a grand 
 seigneur, but very obstinate in his opinions. 
 
 Those who meet him in the country might easily be misled by ap- 
 pearances to take him fur some good, honest farmer; but fte is one 
 of the grandest persons of the British aristocracy, and the friend 
 and adviser of the Queen. He possesses a baronetlf^WB^earldom, 
 two duchies, the title of Hereditary Constable of the castle of In* 
 verness, etc., etc. A man of high principle and impartial in his 
 judgment, he was chosen as leader to the Conservatives, but was 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDOH. 45 
 
 found too prudent. He is, in fact, more moderate and less hasty 
 than Lord Salisbury. 
 
 Lord Caiins, formerly Lord Chancellor, who has ]ust died, was a 
 very reliaious man, like his successor. 
 
 The Mar -mis of Ripon has just come back from India, and re- 
 sumed his Dlace in the House of Lords. With Lord Northbrook 
 and Lord Ly'ton, he makes the third ex-Viceroy now sitting there. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury's long lite has been passed in endeavoring to 
 ameliorate the condition of the working classes. He is a stanch de- 
 tender of the Church. He has declared in the House that he might be 
 I called " a man who has never been influenced by party motives. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk, a descendant of a royal line and Hereditary 
 Earl Marshal, is chiefly remarkable for his open desertion of the 
 Liberal party on account of the agricultural laws proposed by Mr. 
 
 Gladstone. 
 
 Lord Hampden, formerly Sir Henry Brand and for many years 
 Speaker of the House of Commons, is a model ot honor and impar- 
 tiality no one was ever better fitted to exercise the authority that 
 rightly belongs to a great character and a great position. He had 
 no enemies, although he «as the .error ot uumly members When 
 last year he resigned and was made a Peer, .he House voted him as 
 a recognition of his long services a pension of £4000 a year 
 
 Among the extraordinary Peers is Lord Tennyson, the Poet- 
 
 laureate. . „ 
 
 But 1 must slop, although there are many interesting figures 
 among these noble lords. We shall meet them elsewhere in society 
 and amid their sports, sol will conclude .his letter with the Duke of 
 Westminster. He is the possessor of such a fortune that a large 
 family could live for a year on his income tor a day. 
 
 TENTH LETTER. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS. 
 
 Lord Salisbury is one of the most interesting and striking fig- 
 ures in .he present political world, and his struggle against all the 
 tendencies of the time inspires a certain curiosity uingled with re- 
 spect He has in the higl est sense of the term, asort ol Don Quix- 
 otism that makes this great Conservative leader seem like a eiant of 
 olden times, valiant and bold. He is constantly striving against 
 demociacy, although he knows perfectly well that it must be victo* 
 
46 THE SOCIETY OE LONDON. 
 
 rious in the end, and so he appears to be a warrior fighting for honor 
 only. Sarcastic, bitter, and haughty, never compromising the con- 
 victions which exclude him from the chance of power, he is well 
 fitted lo be at the head ot a party of resistance. But how he must 
 suffer at having Buch a limited sphere o£ action, at being only the 
 head of a coterie when his stature is that of the chief of a counter 
 revolution? If he hail not to struggle against Radicalism, the vult- 
 ure ot this modern Prometheus; if monarchy, which is his f ait h, 
 were never in danger, he might make a wise and benevolent Minis- 
 ter ot a despotic Government. Hisgreul integrity, his contempt for 
 all compromise, all accommodatiDn, gives him a sort of frankness 
 that is almost cynical. He sees the danger and denies it; he con- 
 ceives the remedy and rejects it; and he would bung everything 
 into court rather than submit to a solution imposed by events. The 
 Lords applaud his severely just ciiticisms, his attacks upon the Min- 
 istry, whose errors he pitilessly exposes, but if he were in power he 
 would certainly do worse than they have done. He carries on the 
 tradition ot resistance and rivalry that made Wellington struggle 
 against Grey, Peei against Russell, Disraeli against Gladstone. 
 There is not a Conservative more conservative than he. An enemy 
 to all the tendencies of modern society, always throwing himself 
 into ihe breach, he is the champion of existing institutions, not be- 
 cause he thinks them just or reasonable, but simply because they ex- 
 ist; this is his favoiite argument. Possessing an analytical and pro- 
 found minfl, and a style tormed by great literary research, he forms 
 his sentences finelv; bu1 he U so true, so sincere, that he constantly 
 •scapes from these artificial forms, and yielding to the impulse of 
 his nature, pours forth his invective and his sarcasm, unpolished and 
 unmitigated. 
 
 Having a horror of the French Revolution, and insisting thai Eng- 
 land ie great because she has resisted revolutionary ideas, he refuses 
 to see that what has saved his country from modern calamities is not' 
 the obstinacy behind which he intrenches himself, but the timely 
 concessions made b} r his predecessors. 
 
 Out of Parliament Lord Sa'isbury is a perfect man of the world, 
 and his political salon is eage'ly frequented. He receives much, 
 but always a set chosen by himself and belonging to the highest so- 
 ciety. He has two country-houses, one near Dieppe and the other 
 at Hatfield, where, like the Prince of Wales, he gives garden-parties. 
 Among the Liberal leaders of the Upper House is Lord Granville, 
 whom 1 have already mentioned to you among the Ministers. In the 
 House of Commons Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Randolph 
 
4-7 
 THE SOCIETY OE LONDON. 
 
 are several members o the preen ^ leader> mu8t 
 
 John Bright, who w. bout bem Norlhcole , lhe chiet of .he 
 
 certainly be mentioned, fc «J »» on a colork . s6 poll . 
 
 Conservative party in the Hon e « parl iamen.ary for- 
 
 tician, with a great knowledge of busme » esteem 
 
 ot hi. opponents .but ~ l „ his pa ,, y , and is happy 
 
 entions man he Inlfl lh * . du ^ ^ some qu 
 
 when they accord with bis duties . s galis _ 
 
 as a statesman, bu. be ,s not an orator ! « » ^ ^ 
 hury, find opportunities or eloa en e .n ^ ^ ^ 
 
 No one understands the value «' c gentleman, 
 
 Stafford Northcote. He is not * ^J'^i sense 8 of honor 
 kindly, sensible, and of sound J» nt a * f a ,„ ot . few 
 ,ules all his actions, and hts word s a c.ed P 
 
 all his movements. fiye r8 of ag e, Lord Kandolph 
 
 c rsurt:iv?:;rr fLowiedge « «.. r * 
 
 a 1^;oseehim—g, r .a ? e^ 
 lng , and insulting the : augua «* * ^ iQ (he flght> 
 
 br0 ad views and > amb. ,ou. H h ^ tUat 
 
 he bas a great future before him i passi0Da te but not a 
 
 can banish him «^J^*^i%, it, g-t ability 
 vulgar speaker, be bas, when ne c iend a taUhhl i 
 
 S g r2n=rr:-. His witeis a pretty 
 
 Xradversaries of «*^SS 
 Kg ard him as aserious ^'^J,^^ oppi)S i,ion read- 
 structionisf, bu in he eye. ^ J ^ t „ g l0 eTery . 
 
 n , become, obstruct on He 'S also . rri|ates trom the 
 
 thing, of being factious; bm t he so ^ _ ^ ^ 
 
48 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 the affairs of Ireland. He has just brought forward a question 
 upon the reform ot the staff m ministerial establishments asserting 
 that the Foreign Office is a nest of idlers, the War Office a refuge 
 for fools, the Admiralty a herd of incapable*, and the employes in 
 general an army of impotent men all too well paid. Will he remem- 
 ber this when he is a Minister? as, in spite of his opposition to Lord 
 Salisbury, he certainly will be in ilie first Conservative Cabinet 
 
 John Bright is not the leader of a clique, but one ot the greatest 
 leaders of public opinion. The member for Birmingham, the Lan- 
 cashire Quaker, the srreat manufacturer, now seventy-three years of 
 age, is one ot the greatest figures in the political woi Id. JNomanhas 
 ever been more calumniated, but neither has any man ever beeu more 
 praised, more beloved. He has been at once the scape-goat and the 
 idol ot his countrymen. His leonine head., his noble and impc sing 
 appearance, attract immediate attention; his movements are quick 
 and decisive, his glance is keen and prompt. He is acknowledged 
 even by his enemies to be a politician of the first rank, and the 
 House fills at once if he is aoiug to speak. He begins hesitatingly 
 and in a conversational tone, but gradually becomes animated, as if 
 inspired by the sound of his own voice. A practical man, he makes 
 others see what is so clear to himself; a clever and eloquent orator 
 his diction is very correct, though he does not make phrases; and 
 his resonant voice, his grand manner, his choice of fitting words 
 his tact in graduating the effect, his convincing logic, his sagacity,' 
 his good sense, his humor, his presence of mind, his heartiness, his 
 outbursts of contempt and indignation, all contribute to make an ex- 
 ceptional man of him who rules other men by virtue of his own 
 unequaled merit. He is always master of himself, does not borrow 
 trite quotations from Latin authors, out if he makes one at all, takes 
 it from English literature, which he has entirely mastered'. His 
 speeches have a vague flavor of Puritanism; sometimes he allows 
 himself to hide his moderation under apparent violence, but the pre-f 
 cision of his thought brings him back to his own simple expressions. 
 Gifted with extreme penetration, and fertile in resources, if he had 
 created a Cabinet it would have been a hard-working Cabinet; and 
 the Radical tendencies that are imputed to him would have 'been 
 tempered by the marvelous judgment that always enables him to 
 find the key to a situation, the solution of a difficulty. As a mem- 
 ber of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet he was somewhat thrown into the 
 shade, and was an ornament to the Ministry rather than the life and 
 soul of it. He was offered a seat in the Cabinet because he is a 
 power in the country, and commands an immense number of votes; 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 49 
 
 many other posts have been offered him, but he has no love ot 
 Zer and there can be no greater erro. than to look npon h m as 
 a demagogue, as some people do, and to assert Ifcut he sympathy 
 thh Stionists. His name is connected with the abohuon ot e 
 To n-laws and ehnreh rates, and with .he Hindoo policy. H avert- 
 eu wa with America by ge.tmg the Alabama qu^on settled by 
 arbitration, and he is an advocate tor the Channel tnnnel. . 
 
 I 
 ELEVENTH LETTER. 
 
 ENGLISH POLITICS. 
 
 No. i.—Home Politics. 
 T HW Fntflish have an invicible beiief in their national supremacy, 
 a b?ndlmn the superiority ,-t their Constitution. They 1ft. U, 
 ma e a - »t their power abroad and .heir liberty at home. No 
 doubt Sand as a nation, benefiting by her insular position, ree 
 f rSorae neighbors, dors escape the constantly arrs.ug dan- 
 ^uTth^£nUnen..l countries at every moment-, but has 
 Te 1 to tear c e , tain social disturbances within her boundaries 
 which may prove the more serious because they have not the natural 
 
 °Clt"lrved her aristocratic omnipotence, while most 
 Emop an countries have been gradually transformed by democracy: 
 tat wl 1 not the natura. expansion ot things soon try Englanc I by a 
 fir hat seems definitely incompressible? Has toe old e I.fice of 
 heCon!titutiona«ufflcientlv firm basis in the aristocracy to rests 
 Z pr'su- oMhe mob? This is a grave question which 1 can not 
 
 ^t^J^S** ot the Constitution have been plastered 
 l^Tw Liberal laws; but from certain signs, and smce the 
 0V6r , nroveTheemse ves a t0 be capable of disputing, and yet respect- 
 ZtXZ t is ev den- that the/will one day throw off ,he tyranny 
 imposed on pubiic opinion by the old English formula,- an estab- 
 
 S « S™*z> added to tkose ttey altead " P0SSess ' may 
 
50 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 tell with decisive weight in the downfall of worn out institutions. 
 What makes the strength and the constitutional safety of England 
 is, that the will of the nation is more powerful than that of parties, 
 and when this will, now supported only by the middle class, by mer- 
 chants aud manufacturers, is supported by the entire mass of the 
 people, the aristocracy, which has liiiheito been a bulwark against 
 revolution, will learn the truth that a nation belongs to itself, and 
 not to a sovereign or to a privileged class. 
 
 When* I read the speeches of politicians delivered in obscuie vil- 
 lages, it is evident to me that the established authority is in that 
 transition state which makes it necessary to consider and conciliate 
 the people, because they are becoming formidable to it. Men of 
 note have already uttered the word— Republic, and the English, the 
 most law abiding people in the world, are exactly fitted to realize 
 the model of that form of government whose only ideal superior is 
 the ideal of the law. 
 
 The aristocracy, the so-called bulwark of the Constitution, but 
 in truth the fortress of its own interests only, completely nullifies 
 that liberty of which the English people are so proud, rendering it a 
 disguised form of serfdom? The aristocracy remains at the head 
 of all the great State manifestations, it accepts or rejects laws in the 
 House of Lords, and two thirds of the soil, as well as all titles and 
 dignities worth having, belong to it. 
 
 The people, it is true, have many liberties on paper, but they are 
 fictitious, and will never be true and substantial so long as they de- 
 pend upon the aristocracy. Thus, tor example, a workman may 
 offer himself as a member of Parliament, but his want of money 
 practically places an insuperable barrier in the way of his ambition, 
 for votes are bought in spite of the ballot, and every election costs 
 a little fortune. 
 
 Nothing is more easy than to evade the Corrupt Practices Bill; 
 electoral corruption can be practiced in a hundred ways, and under 
 skillfully disguised forms. 
 
 Another insurmountable obstacle to poor candidates, and one that 
 effectually excludes a working-man from the House, is thenon-pay*. 
 ment of members of Parliament. 
 
 The sale of commissions has been stopped, and the paid soldiers 
 who compose the voluntarily recruited army of Great Britain may 
 henceforth aspire to the honors of hieh command. There again, 
 however, facts bar the road to fortuneless men: commissions are 
 given to the younger sons of good families, tor those persons must 
 be placed either in the Army, the Navy, the Civil Service, or the 
 
iHE SOCIETY 02 LONDOH. 51 
 
 Church-natural resources for all aristocrats without fortune, what- 
 ever may be their aptitude or capacity. The ordinary soldier, there- 
 fore can only get on with great difficulty, even it he ever gets on at 
 all England is a country of sinecures, governed by the same class 
 to-day who governed it in the Middle Ages; it is in the hands of an 
 oligarchy, tor the upper circle of the aristocracy rules the rulers 
 
 This concentration of power has led to an agrarian situation that 
 must be redressed, ami is the most iormidable difficulty with which 
 the Government is conironted. The condition of English laborers 
 is heartrending, and excites the deepest pity. 
 
 Toward <he end of the last century there were 250,000 farmers 
 owning portions of land; but in 1793 the English aristocracy ter- 
 rified at the possible contagion of the revolutionary movement m 
 France, and fearing the power of these small rural proprietors, 
 gradually bought up all their land, and concentrated the soil in its 
 own hands. Having thus depiived the people of their real means of 
 independence, the Lords made up for this monopoly by apparent 
 concessions and pretended privileges. In 1832 there were only 82 000 
 land-owners, and now 250 great noblemen possess the halt of Eng- 
 land and three quarters of Scotland. Land is the basis of power, 
 and 'therefore of liberty; it is the strength of the proprietor, but it 
 means dependence to the tenant. Can a dependent ever have any 
 other opinion than that of his Lord? When the soil is owned in- 
 stead of being rented, the infinite subdivision of land becomes one 
 of the solutions of pauperism, as we are taught by the laws of 
 Lvcurgus, by the famous agrarian laws of the Gracchi, and by the 
 example of the United States, Switzerland, and France. Here then 
 is an important and serious problem, constantly brought forward 
 by the Liberal ministers, and as constantly contested, adjourned, 
 distoried, and rejected by the Peers, whose very existence is threat- 
 ened by land reform. The system by which one man is enriched 
 at the expense of thousands of miserable toilers is a very dangerous 
 element in the present internal condition of Great Britain. After 
 this question necessarily comes that of pauperism, a malady which, 
 together with drunkenness, is preying upon England. ^ 
 
 Although the amount of personal and voluntary chanty is incal- 
 culable, and greatly lightens the burdens of the Government and the 
 municipalities, in spite of the thousands of pounds given to hospitals, 
 and to all institutions for the prevention and relief of destitution 
 pauperism is far from diminishing. The remedy is not to be found 
 in charity, however lavish it may be; it can only be affected by con- 
 stitutional reforms; and those the English, Jike other European 
 
5% THE SOCIETY OF LONDOtf. 
 
 Governments, do not study. They only gaze with indifference or 
 incapacity on the ever-spreading leprosy of destitution. Most of 
 them deny the danger in its social aspect; it is nevertheless one with 
 which they will have to reckon before long. 
 
 As for drunkenness, the laws enacted against that public vice are 
 powerless, and the reason is plain enough: the legislators have not 
 limited the constantly increasing number of public-houses. More 
 than one parliamentary soiial reformer has proposed remedies for 
 this malady, which is both epidemic and contagious, but none have 
 been listened to. The temperance societies have been more fortu- 
 nate, and have succeeded, to a certain extent, where the imperfect 
 laws had failed. 
 
 1 should have to touch on a great many other points if I were to 
 indicate all the reforms necessaty in the magistrature, in the ad- 
 ministration of justice, in the codification of practical laws to re- 
 place the. voluminous archives of piccedents and customs — all so 
 much waste paper — that fill the libraries of the Inns of Court. 
 Municipal organization would have to be entirely reconstituted. 
 The English navy can no longer rank as the first in the woild, and 
 the army is everywhere acknowledged to be inadequate. 
 
 The Radical party, of which 1 have ppoken. gains recruits from 
 day to day, and must in the end force its programme upon the seri- 
 ous attention of the governing powers. The recent advance in elec- 
 toral reform opens such a vast field to democracy in the future that 
 1 must leave it and its results to the writers of the future. 
 
 As 1 have to limit myseif to the space of a letter, 1 will close my 
 brief remarks on the home politics of England by the burning ques- 
 tion of free-trade and taxation. Free-trade has made England the 
 greatest market in the world, and to that the United Kingdom owes 
 the public wealth acquired during the last forty yeais. The prod- 
 ucts of all countries pass through England, and in being negotiated 
 there, leave a part of the r value behind them; thus has colossal 
 weath been accumulated. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of this bewildering commercial activity 
 by the gigantic transactions of the Clearing house, the average of 
 which was every week of the year 1871, £92,061.365; and the public- 
 revenue was increasing every day, although the duties were being con- 
 tinually lessened. The export trade was something marvelous, ?.nd 
 irom the most distant corner* of the world all who wished to effect 
 great loans and to start gre^t companies came to this golden market. 
 The merchant navy was as great as that of all other countries put 
 together, and the colonies shared the ever-increasing prosperity. 
 
THE SOCIETY OE LONDON. 
 
 A curious feature iu this state of .Mugs is that fbi ***>»** 
 nothing <o do will, it, except iu having voted free-.rade and ap- 
 proved o the grea. Cobdeu. The vast result was ou the contrary 
 S, due to. he absence of Stole interference in commerce and 
 manufactures; the Smte was nei.ber the constructor nor adm.n s- 
 ™ or of railways, uor .he or.at.tor of maritime compau.es- . and 
 loll" to do with -he execution of public wo.ks or w.,1. t affic, 
 evev.hh, g was originated and earned out by pnva.e enterpr.se. 
 
 Bu " check came. The smok markets are now encumbered, .he 
 inceln- p'aucion finds fewer outlets, and ever-increasmg com- 
 petiuon makes profile inflnitesimally small, so that w,,h all her 
 we h England's threatened with a dangerous commerc.a, ens . 
 his state of Ihings two parties have a.isen: .he parly of .r- 
 I ra d which demand! protective duties to a certain extent and ^ he 
 mrlv of free-trade, which proposes the suppress.on of al .he exist- 
 ing ens om dues, nd wishes ,o make the whole of England a free 
 port The a.m of an iu.el.igent pohcy should be to open eveiy on t- 
 fet o remove all obs.acles, and to raise taxes only from f..i ones 
 aire dy acquired and results already ob.ained. The cotoms form 
 an impediment to many branches ot commerce, and to freedom of 
 commerc™: general, and .he experience of Ihese years of tr-al has 
 Zv« hat it might be abohshed. Each time that the du y has 
 Zl .moved Irom an ar.iele of commerce .he profits upon . have 
 leased, and it is ce.tain that .he idea, of trade ,s ^^ 
 all fiscal restriclious. What a glorious spectacle it all he c uslom 
 houses ot Europe were U, disappear simullaneonsly! The pnncipal 
 resou-s of Z revenue are the income-tax and the Que,, , . axes ; 
 the other taxes go inlo the municipal cotters. The English ex 
 eheq, er s suppbed by taxation; it has no recourse to exped.enls or 
 I loans. Tie income-tax, which was fivepeuce ,n the P™° d . >* 
 he n raised this year to sixpence, in order to supply the defie.t 
 caused by the Egyptian expedition* In very urgent cases the 
 T asury is ues bonds at short date-, this is a kind of lemporary 
 loan The income-tax, although vexatious iu its form, .s much 
 airer than the taxes .hat press upon labor and producuon ; ^ 
 income-tax costs less to collect than indirect taxes, for the la. e. e 
 «£. a complicated mechanism which absorbs part of the produce; 
 w le the income-lax, collected iu a very simple manner, goes d - 
 Teclly into the cotters ot the State without any apprec.ahle dtm.au- 
 tion. 
 . An increase to eightpenee forms « ittm in Mr. Childers's recent Budget. 
 
54 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 
 
 Indirect taxation reminds me of the old toll bar gates, where the 
 amount received exactly represented the salaries of the men who 
 kept them. In England the partial suppression of indirect taxation 
 has especially benefited the upper and the middle classes. What 
 remains of this tax especially falls upon the poor man's articles of 
 ordinary consumption: beer, tea, tobacco, etc. Those articles are 
 still heavily taxed, while objects of luxury have been freed. Limit- ; 
 ed purses buy in small quantities, and thus pay more dearly than it 
 they could lay in large supplies or vary the articles of consump- 
 tion; so it may be said that direct taxes are paid by the rich, and 
 indirect taxes by the poor. 
 
 I will not speak of the rural districts, which are most unfairly 
 burdened; this comes into the agrarian question, which must in- 
 evitably be the " delenda est Carthago " of the home policy of Eng- 
 land, and has a distinguished champion in the person of Sir Stafiord 
 Northcote. 
 
 11.— Foreign Policy. 
 
 From the moment that England alone no longer supplies Ihe 
 markets of the world, when the improvement of foreign ports de- 
 prives her of her formely unique position, when her imports increase 
 as fast as her exports diminish, when her great rival, America, 
 competes with her everywhere abroad, and even at home, the com- 
 mercial policy of England— a vital policy that necessarily overrides 
 every other consideration — must inevitably be a colonial policy. 
 
 The geographical position of the United Kingdom, standing like 
 a sentinel in the ocean, on the road to all the great distant con- 
 tinents, its natural defenses, which isolate it from the schemes and 
 ambitions of Europe, its enormous internal development, its multi- 
 tude of ports in the four seas, the extent of its navy, the nautical 
 aptitude of its people — all have given England an exceptionally ad- 
 vantageous position with regard to a colonial policy. 
 
 England has only one natural enemy, whose insidious policy is 
 always battling her own — that enemy is Russia. England is only 
 interested in other nations in proportion to their influence in Eastern 
 affairs, with which she is always occupied. Hitherto her colonies 
 had given her little trouble; but now — and here 1 recognize the 
 working of Providence — Mr. Gladstone's advent to power has 
 struck a vigorous blow at the roots of the colonial tree. 
 
 At the very moment that the colonies of England are causing so 
 much anxiety, how is it that Euiope is seized with the idea of cut- 
 ting up the globe, and of making a number of little colonies? The 
 
55 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 
 
 re9 „lt is very « - « &£*££ ^fn" S 
 could, reduce England to >^"^Sevvoula like be: to 
 master all her forces ,n order to ^™ M n0 turlUer oppo r- 
 rdinquish. At tins moment Mr G™ ^.^ He 1)a3 to 
 tuuitytor the application of bis a o V c watcll> suspect, or 
 
 pursue a policy of necessity, ^^"^ , lie fa „ ott English 
 coa, Germany, who is now »>^W~J*' side by siue with 
 possessions. Besides the Ge rmanm <™^ e G( f rmans a „a 
 
 were never able to conquer. Foreigu offlce 
 
 The colonies, threatened on all sides na offlce ^ 
 
 with imperious demands for protection * ° ^ 
 
 rtta by asking them '«r »W.e» to o-mnnj Egyp ^ ^ ^ 
 
 " The vicinity o£ the Germans h. ,ir a d 
 
 cunation lor independence for s INp rtm £ ^ and 
 
 ing among the people who ^ " e the molbe r-country. 
 
 want to escape from the . « .~ o co ,onies, peo- 
 
 just as it has happened in America, lb , |oltam . and be - 
 
 plcct with .be sons o ^^'^StQtW. new country, 
 come colonial patriots, hmmng ge^ » o£ Lord 
 
 Mr. Gladstone is much °»™^wef<* the advantaees of their 
 Derby. The least governed colo is s we, ^ 
 
 attachment » the «^^ ^.^t. themselves 
 
 nto^^'P^^'^Ljto levy protective duties on 
 iD tact. Australia has even v ^ maMy _ 
 
 ceitain English products, in ordeopio ^ ^ 
 
 The United States much desire. t bat ^ Irom Eng- 
 
 Union. A powerful Irish colon » - fis , iuae . 
 
 • land, and the country -,^»»« w tohe W « Viceroy, asserted 
 
 pendcnce. The Marquis of Lome, when he wa 
 ' Lt the opposition to the taco.po ^^ ch Canadian8 . 
 
 boring States was due only to the in «»^» „ , cause ot so 
 
 a Russian invasion, Wolseley . un» to «pe^ ^^^^ 
 aan, the turbulence in « ^he nev ^ ^ ^ rf 
 
 ing agrarian questions, have biougm uie 
 
56 IH E SOCIETT OF LONDON. 
 
 a dangerous political crisis, as well as a dangerous commercial 
 cn,s Solicitude ior home affairs has at this" moment"™ 
 place to imperial cares. Every sore is now smaHing- the whole 
 couniry admits the disorganization of thearmyand tbelnsuffll C y 
 of the navy, the sense of help.essness and hnmiliation exasperates 
 U, ^accuses its favorite Minister of failing to protect its SoT 
 
 During the five years that Mr. Gladstone has been in power hi, 
 ndversaiies accuse him of having alienated Euiope, and Weakened 
 all the possessions of the Empire. "veaaenca 
 
 He began, they say, by imitating Austria. In a short time he' 
 estranged France. Denmark, Turkey, and India, where h is Tesda 
 t-on left m,l tons of people to die of famine. 1 uow give he views 
 
 1 ca^takl? ?*** h ™™' * *»«* the* complains 
 1 can best make you understand the double side of English politics 
 questions. Every affirmation of Lord Beaconsfleld implies an ga 
 Hon of Mr. Gladstone, and vice vend. S 
 
 At the Conference at Berlin, in June, 1880, to settle the Grecian 
 
 M ° Gild tone" 1 T Per ° ( PriDCC BiSmarCk > W "° ™* »5™ 
 Mi. Gladstone .or havmg ousted his rival, was used by the Tories 
 
 oartv'wt' •, I"" diP '° ma ' iC WeakDeSS <*«» *« o/,he Jbe a 
 party; while ,t was only, ,n reality, a confirmation of his victory 
 over themselves. One of the crimes of which Mr. Gladstone fcac 
 
 con '". ,', S °c° d " Wi " '° GreeCe ' He is "V™^ "«" haTng en 
 couraged the Government of Athens to raise a loan and to creafe an 
 atmy and with having afterward prevented Greece from making 
 use of the means that he himself had advised. 1, is forgotten that 
 France, influenced by Turkey, Germany, and Austria, fad ml 
 while withdrawn her moral support from Greece, ana that England 
 alone could not sustain that country. She cflfl'so long e ZT t t 
 injure her relations with those three Powers 
 After his fall from power, Lord Beaconsfleld condemned every' 
 
 ass :! XTpt::,— 7 with viru,ence - ~ %%. 
 
 precise declaration, "The G,ads,one Cabin i wilt noi 2 w ." 
 
 i r - n a "IT be (iire ' ;ed irom p " b,ic •«••" K«£ 
 
 Ho, I' ,, J, 7 ' " S '°™ ot earcasm ue was received in the 
 House the day after the bombardment of Ataandri^a bP X d ! 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 57 
 
 ment all the more unjustifiable as a conference was at that moment 
 going on at Constantinople! 1 must, in justice, say, however, that 
 in all this Egyptian affair Mr. Gladstone's hand was forced by the 
 "Princes ot Finance." The Toiies assert that Mr. Gladstone 
 moves as the policy ot Lord Beaconsfield leads him; but how could 
 i! be otherwise, in a fixed position, with the same surroundings, and 
 dealing with the same interests? For instance, after Mr. Gladstone 
 had in iiis speeches condemned the acquisition of Cyprus, was he 
 wrong in making the best use of it? After he had declared to the 
 Sultan that he would oppose all interference by him in Egypt, he 
 was forced by circumstances to return toLoid Beaconsfield 's policy, 
 and to declare that Turkish intervention would be the wisest meas- 
 ure. Tossed about in a position imposed upon him, but not created 
 by him, he alternately alienates the Sultan and asks for his good 
 offices; then threatens him, and prevents his ships being sent to 
 Egypt at the time of the bombardment; and later still, when the 
 Mahdi appears to be triumphant, he turns to this same Sullan, and 
 asks him to send an Ottoman force to Egypt to crush the rebel. All 
 these contradictory proceedings were imposed upon him by events. 
 It may t>e asserted that England has never approved ot the war in 
 the Soudan. When Mr. Goschen, iepresenting the English bond- 
 holders, went about the country preaching this crusade, he was 
 asked, " Are we going to be so loolish as to fight and make enor- 
 mous sacrifices of men and money, in order that the Egyptians may 
 be spoiled for ihe benefit of a few bond-holders?" The Soudanese 
 question has served as a fruitf ul^ theme for the enemies of Mr. 
 Gladstone; his delays and his half measures have given the Mahdi 
 some very easy victories. A war that is thought listless is always 
 feebly organized, and the Eaglish only went on with this war in the 
 Soudan because it seemed necessary to maintain the prestige of the 
 English in the eyes of the Mussulman population ot India. Eng- 
 land is but seeking a pretext to retire, and she will perhaps find it 
 in the necessity for defending her Indian Mussulmans against Rus- 
 sia. The Mahdi, intoxicated with his success, declares he will taKe 
 Egypt from the English, but those who consider the position coolly, 
 count upon the perfidy and treacheiy natural to the Soudanese to 
 relieve them of the Mahdi. c 
 
 In this affair of the Soudan a curious part is being played by Italy, 
 and, in spite of their well-known diplomatic skill, the Italians seem 
 in great danger ot gaining nothing but suspicion and embarrassment 
 at Massowah. No doubt the English were flattered to see them com- 
 ing to their.assistance; but sudden changes of opinion are very fre- 
 
58 THE SOCIETY OF LOHDOtf. 
 
 quent and very easy in England! The Cabinet of Rome, deceived 
 by the selfish policy perfidious Albion is forced to pursue, will cer- 
 tainly discover before long that much disappointment awaits it in 
 the Soudan. 
 
 To whatever side Mr. Gladstone turns, or however he may act, he 
 is entangled in the meshes of Lord Beaconsfield's policy, and can 
 only find an itsue to his present difficulties in soire utter contradic- 
 tion of hi& own opinions. When, with practical wisdom, he accepts 
 iacts thrust upon him by previous facts, he is accused of contradict- 
 ing himse 1 !; and when he resists circumstances that he has not 
 brought about, it is asserted that his only object is to destroy all his 
 rival has created. For Mr. Gladstone the dilemma is this: he must 
 either, against his own inclination, exact considerable sacrifices from 
 England, and reconstitute her Colonial Empire, or he must lose this 
 Colonial Empire that he ihinks fatal to her, and thereby incur the 
 malediction ot ihe country. 
 
 But in asking the good offices of Germany, is not Mr. Gladstone 
 addiug another danger to those that already menace him? Whatever 
 he may do. the policy of a Liberal Cabinet will never please the Iron 
 Chancellor so well as the policy of a Tory Cabinet, and the resigned 
 submission of Mr. Gladstone will never make Bismarck forget the 
 ready complaisance ot Lord Beaconsfield. 
 
 A rupture between England and Germany is inevitable. Prince 
 Bismarck pursues his obvious intention of absorbing Holland in Ger- 
 many: this wiih one stroke would give him the Dutch colonies, and 
 place a formidable rival to England at the very doors of India and 
 Australia. This danger England has brought upon herself, and it 
 is probably now too late to escape it. If she had chosen to do so, 
 she could have prevented Sadowa and Sedan, and united Germany 
 would not now exist. Austria asked nothing better than to join 
 with England and prevent the Schleswig campaign; but she could 
 not venture to act alone. The Queen opposed the Austrian alliance, 
 fearing to have to draw r the sword against her good friends the Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 The foresight of England seems to be restricted to special sub- 
 jects, and Lord Palmeiston, the author of the hereditary policy of 
 England, did not foresee, when he enfeebled the Netherlands by 
 making the kingdom of Belgium, what burdens he was leaving to 
 his successors by the treaties of 1831 and 1839. He was aiming at 
 France, whom he called the "natural enemy" of England, and 
 was concentrating all his efforts on the frustration of French policy. 
 It was not until afterward that he came back to her aud held out his 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 59 
 
 hand, when he perceived thai she might be a useful friend, and that 
 the danger was in Prussia. 
 
 If Mr. Gladstone is at the present time following the early policy 
 of Lord Palraerston, he will soon find out what it costs him. Acts 
 of deference to Prince Bnmarck always run the risk of being looked 
 upon by Fiance as acts of hostility toward herself. 
 
 111.— The Indian Question. 
 
 "Europe will either be Republican or Russian," said Napoleon, 
 and both alternatives seem to be realizing themselves; foi Europe is 
 gradually becoming Republican, while the power of Russia increases 
 from day to day. If she succeeds in taking India and Constantino- 
 ple, she will hold the supremacy of the world. It is said that all the 
 different i nces composing the Russian Empire are without cohesion, 
 and therefore prepare the way for its dismemberment; but this is 
 not so. The nations to vshom they offer themselves as liberators, 
 and whom they carry with them on their onward march, the very 
 form of their aristocracy, their Asiatic instincts, bring them nearer 
 to those whom Western people call barbarians. 
 
 In the East, Russia claims to have a sacied mission; and it is well 
 known with what religious fervor she follows the line of conduct 
 traced out by Peter the Great, whose will is to the Russians, as 
 Murray says, "the charter of Russian Imperialism.'' Until now 
 Gladstone always understood the necessity of friendly relations be- 
 tween England and Russia, and when he married the Duke of Edin- 
 burgh to the daughter of the Czar, he accomplished an action of 
 great political importance. But in our day royal unions have only 
 a platonic influence, if they are not supplemented by friendship be- 
 tween nations. Mr. Gladstone proved what his opinion was by 
 signing the humiliating treaty of London in 1871, which seemed to 
 establish the agreement between England and Russia on a defini- 
 tive footing. 
 
 Following out the system which made his policy a direct contra- 
 diction of that of Lord Beaconsfield, when the war in the East be- 
 gan, Mr. Gladstone, remaining faithful to Russia, preached a cru- 
 sade in its favor, while Lord Beaconsfield used ever}' means 
 suggested by his enmity to provoke an anti-Russian agitation in the 
 United Kingdom, and skillfully stopped the Russians at the gates of 
 Constantinople. At that moment the war in Afghanistan broke out, 
 and Lord Beaconsfield inflamed it, hoping that the outbreak would 
 spread as far as the Russian possessions, and that the whole of 
 India would rise against the " Colossus of clay." 
 
60 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 So soon as Mr. Gladstone came into power again, he caused the 
 evacuation of Candahar— an unpardonable mistake, by which the 
 £19,500,000 the war had cost was entirely thrown away. But India 
 continued to be disturbed; ils people, who are apparently so calm, 
 do not, when seized by tne fever ot revolt, recover quickly from the 
 excitement. The Afghans, especially, are a nation of warriors, like 
 all mountaineers, every man knows how to handle a gun, and de- | 
 lights in using it. In time of war, devotion to their country, or 
 love ot independence, will produce innumerable soldieis everywhere 
 for the defense of their narrow frontier passes. But these small 
 bodies ot troops are without organization, and although they can 
 defend their defiles, they disperse so soon as they find themselves 
 exposed to European armies. You remember, no doubt, what was 
 the question of the moment when General KomarofI entered 
 Afghanistan. An Anglo-Russian Commission was charged with 
 the delimitation of the frontier, under the direction of Sir Peter 
 Lumsden, on the English side, and the dilatory behavior ot this 
 Commission had somewhat injured the prestige of Great Britain; 
 but whose fault was that? 
 
 The t>me of this definition of the frontier was identical with the 
 taking ot Khartoum by the Mahdi; and if Russia had not been with- 
 held by respect tor the misfortunes of her friend and ally, Mr. 
 Gladstone, she might have profited by the deft at of England, and 
 could have entered Afsrhanis'an without difficulty. Instead of let- 
 ting their vanguards encamp at Penj-deh, and keeping them back at 
 the liver Murgab, they could have cleared the pass of the Sobat, 
 which is the key of Berat, as Herat is the key ot India. The road 
 is the same as that which has been followed from times immemorial 
 by the hordes of the north who have overrun Hindostan. They 
 took Tashkend in 1864, Bokhara in 1870, Khiva in 1873, Khokand 
 in 1876, then Merv and fc'arakhs, and they will take Herat in the 
 same manner. 
 
 When they march toward India, they march with certainty, and 
 the people offer Jess and less resistance as they approach. Every- 
 where thes make roads, construct railways, put up telegraph lines, 
 and soon they will be able to transport a hundred thousand men to 
 Merv in six days. Russia occupies the Khanate of Khiva, and has 
 incorporated it. Khiva and Merv are united, and together form a 
 government that may become the head-quarters of many future con- 
 quests. The Khan is a descendant of the famous Tamerlane, and 
 acknowledges himself a tributary ot the Czar, wno to all his other 
 titles will soon add that of Emperor of Central Asia. The day is 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 61 
 
 perhaps not far distant when the coronation of the Russian Emperor 
 will take place at Samarkand in the presence of all the khans and 
 emir3 who are under the Russian protectorate. Samarkand is at ttie 
 veiy gates of Cashmere and Lahore, and there are only the mount- 
 ains of Bolor to cross to get into India. 
 
 In Afghanistan the Russian parly is considerable, and the agita- 
 tion in their favor very active. The Tjsbegs at Cabul preach separa-( 
 tion from England, and the Sumites and Turcomans are ready to 
 play the part of liberators by coming to the help of the Afghans. ' 
 The population of Herat calls for the Russians, and the complaints 
 of certain races in India against England are turned to good ac- 
 count. The Emir Abdurrahman would, perhaps, not be disinclined 
 to retaliate on the English for their recent occupation, if the Rus- 
 sians would help him to do so. Their troops would have an easy 
 victory as soon as they appeared: in many places they would be re- 
 garded as deliverers rather than as enemies. 
 
 In the Khan of Khasgar, who has at his disposal 40,000 men, 
 well armed and well trained, Eneland certainly has a faithful ally, 
 a friend disposed to bar the road to the Russians: but a few thou- 
 sand Chinese would be sufficient to quiet him. No doubt, if India 
 belonged to England body and soul, and was full of grateful sub- 
 jects, she could easily rind sufficient resisting force in them; but in- 
 stead of this, she is deeply haled, and at any moment might have to 
 face a Nana Sahib and an insunection as lormdiable as thai of 1857. 
 The silent detestation of the victims of her unforgolteu spoliations 
 is all unappeased. India includes two distinct elements — the Hindoo 
 and the Mohammedan; and 1 think it is Du Vivier who says, " at 
 the head of its fauna India possesses two predominant species, the 
 elephant and the tiger." The one is " mild," like the Hindoo, and 
 bears the yoke; the other, like the Mohammedan, is always ready to 
 abandon itself to fils of blind fury, and has never exhausted its ( 
 stores of rage. The rebellion in the Soudan and the success of their 
 fellow-Mohammedans emboldens tUem. They detect signs of weak- 
 ness in England, and begin to follow the onwaid march of Russia 
 with the greatest interest; not because they would pieter the rule of 
 Russia to Biitish rule, but because they would delight to see their 
 oppressors overthrown. 
 
 Revolutionary pamphlets are read aloud in the bazaars to groups 
 of fanatics. The rajahs detest English officials, who are firm and 
 just, ] admit, but offensive and haughty, and 'hey feel themselves 
 more at ease with the Russians, who allow their customs, tolerate 
 their vices, and are more indulgent to Oriental corruption. In fact, 
 
62 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 the Russian character harmonizes better with Asiatic tastes than is 
 possible to English formality. Their loquacity and bright imagin- 
 ation pleases the Hindoos better than the reserve and stillness of the 
 English. The proud and haughty children of the sun hate to be 
 ruled by mere administrators, and Russian women are received at 
 the court of the rajahs as friends, while English women are treated 
 as strangers. 
 
 Kussia expends immense sums of money in quietly purchasing the 
 Asiatic chiefs. India swaims with her emissaries, who sow disaffec- 
 tion among the native races, excite discontent agaiust the English 
 Government, stir up the pride of the Hindoos, persuade the victims 
 of oppression to revolt in order afterward to proffer their help, and 
 have used the incapacity of the Viceroy to deceive the vigilance of 
 England. Of the thousands of addresses of sympathy and regret 
 sent to Lord Ripon on his leaving India, the greater part were drawn 
 up by the secret agents of Russia to reassure the United Kingdom 
 as to the loyally of its Hindoo subjects, ami to entice the Viceroy 
 through his vanity into saying, as he did say at the moment of his 
 departure, that the country had never been more attached or tran- 
 quil. In short, the Russians sigh for the sun of India, and the height 
 of their ambition is to see the standard of the Czar hoisted at Gov- 
 ernment House. 
 
 TWELFTH LETTER. 
 
 THE IRISH QUESTION. 
 
 Beforc 1 discuss the Irish question 1 wish to say a word to those 
 who have ignorantly called it a war of races. If 1 could enter upon 
 an ethnological treatise I should be able to prove that half England 
 is of the same origin as Ireland, and the appellation " Anglo-Saxon 
 race," which really makes England a German colony, is as errone- 
 ous as it is wrongly interpreted. The two words, "Anglo" and 
 " Saxon," are almost a repetition of each other, for the Amgles are 
 the people who came from the Don, and became the Saxons, and 
 the Danes of Schleswig, who afterward invaded Norway; and later, 
 under the name of Scandinavians, Scotland and the east of Eng- 
 land. In reality, these two words are only one, and Anglo-Sajron is 
 a pleonasm, just as England— land of the Angles— is too exclusive 
 a term; for the country is peopled by Latin, Celtic, and Scandi- 
 navian races. The Normans invaded the south of the country, but 
 the west, from Cornwall to the extremity of the Highlands of Scot- 
 
THE SOCIETY OP LONDON. 63 
 
 land, belongs, like Ireland, to the Celtic race. It is not, therefore, 
 the antagonism of races that has caused the oppression ot Ireland; 
 it is rather an anlagonism of caste, a war at first of interest and now 
 of passion, excited by these injured interests. Like nearly all the 
 internal conflicts which rend countries governed by a powerful 
 nobility, it is a war oi caste, and Ireland has its most formidable 
 enemies in its own aristociacy. 
 
 This conflict between the aristocratic owners of the soil and the 
 people who rent it also threatens England nearly. The malcontents 
 are even beginning to raise their heads in Scotland— a tranquil 
 country, hitherto guarded by only 3320 policeman, while Ireland 
 requires 25,000. The desire for properly is showing itself among 
 the little farmers ot Skye and Lewis, and the laborers of Tiree 
 threaten to take possession of the land by force it their claims are 
 not listened to. This is the beginning of a gieat movement, which, 
 before long, will embrace all the north of England, where a Laud 
 League is already formed, as in Scotland and in Ireland. 
 
 I can only give you the broad outline of the origin of the revolts 
 and the oppression which have made a bleeding victim of Ireland. 
 
 A great many books have been written on the subject, and 1 advise 
 you to read the last, " La Question lilandaise," by Mr. Herve. 
 Every one knows what Ireland suffertd under Elizabeth, and no 
 more unhappy nation ever struggled with greater heroism against a 
 more cruel despotism. Until the time ot Elizabeth, Ireland was a 
 vassal only in name, and under Henry VIII. she even possessed a 
 National Parliament. Elizabeth, in spite of the letters-patent that 
 her father had granted to the chiefs ot the Irish Parliament, in order 
 to reconcile them by securing their possession of the land, destroyed 
 the tradition of this intelligent policy. Regardless of acquired 
 rights, and of her father's promises, she parceled out the grants of 
 land, and gave or sold them to English colonists. 
 
 Cromwell came, and crowned the work of spoliation by having 
 the malcontents massacred. Then he peopled the north of the 
 island with foreigners, to whom grants of land had been made, thus 
 sowing the seeds of the fatal discord, which has lasted to our own 
 day, between the Catholics and the Orangemen. 
 
 The heart-rending history of the subjugation of Ireland has been 
 one long martyro'ogy for the unfortunate sist;r island, a lugubrious 
 tale ot moral and physical suffering, a perpetual death struggle, 
 prolonged by Ireland's amazing vitality. 
 
 Whether England understands and admits it or not, she will not 
 
G4 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 find a nation in the whole world who does not stigmatize these crimes 
 in her history, and fe*l the deepest sympathy for Ireland. 
 
 An apparently benevolent reaction has taken place in our day, 
 and timidly tried to iniliate an era of reparation for the wrongs of 
 the miserable country. Unfortunately, nearly all the bills proposed 
 in its favor have been successively and systematically rejected by the 
 House of Lords. Ireland has its representatives in Parliament; but 
 the little band, always looked upon with suspicion, imprisoned, ex- 
 pelled, crushed by an arbitrary majority, can not secure redress for 
 her wrongs and the recovery of her liberties. 
 
 There are two forces whose indomitable power will, in the end, 
 triumph over the cruelty and resistance of England; these are 
 national feeling and religious faith. Among the few concessions 
 made to Ireland is liberty of conscience, and Mr. Gladstone has a 
 claim on the eternal gratitude of the Irish tor having abolished that 
 flagrauf. injustice, the English Established Church. Civil equality 
 between Catholics and Protestants, and liberty of education, have 
 also been granted them. Poor slaves, they have not yet got beyond 
 these mere preliminaries of progress! Ireland is an entirely agricult- 
 ural nation, living on the produce of its laud, and is decimated by 
 a bad harvest as if by a war. Agrarian reform is a question of life 
 and death; to it belongs the task of effacing the iniquitous work of 
 conquest, and relieving the frightful poverty due to the despotic 
 rule that grinds down these poor aliens in their own country. 
 Agrarian reform will also provide a remedy for the periodical risings 
 of the agricultural population against the land-owners. A succes- 
 sion of bills were proposed, notably the Land Act, of 1870, and that 
 of 1881, to regulate the relations between tenants and land-owners 
 in a more equitable manner, and to put some restraint on the arbi- 
 trary exactions of the latter. 
 
 These reforms allow the tenants to keep possession, in spite of the 
 land-owners, thanks to the creation of special commissions, empow- 
 ered to fix rents on the demand of the tenants. The value of prop- 
 erty having been lessened 25 per cent., the land owners claim, 
 through the Tories, an indemnity, which the Whigs reject as unfair. 
 The latter ground their refusal on the well-founded accusation that 
 for long years the land-owners have abused their rights, oppressed 
 the people, and extorted exorbitant rents. The repulsed plaintiffs 
 secretly put every obstacle in the way of the Land Commission. 
 
 Such concessions, yielded so grudgingly, leavened by so much bad 
 feeling, have not, as you may readily suppose, appeased the Irish. 
 What they demand is not the charity of a few meager laws; it is the 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 65 
 
 acknowledgment of their natural rights; and they rest the question 
 on the grounds of the deadly conflict between legal right and tradi- 
 tional right. Ireland will never be governed by English ideas. Its 
 lasting tranquillity can only be purchased by granting it a local Par- 
 liament. At the mere sound of " Home Rule " a tempest rages in 
 the two houses. 1 have talked with Mr. O'Leary, Mr. McCarthy, 
 and other Parnellites, and they all assure me that Ireland wants 
 nothing but a Parliament. That granted, there would be an end to 
 the conflict. She wants what Austria has given to Hungary, 
 Sweden to Norway, and she would accept the supremacy of the 
 Queen. Mr. Gladstone, and a good many Liberals, have been won 
 over to this just cause; but the Lords will never admit it; so the 
 struggle must go on indefinitely. 
 
 Thanks to the efforts of Grattan, Ireland possessed a National 
 Parliament at the beginning of this century, but committed the un- 
 pardonable fault of selling it (the expression is not too severe) to the 
 English Minister, William Pitt, and it was by its own vote amal- 
 gamated with the English Parliament. This was abdicating the 
 autonomy that had Deen won, and rendering fruitless the work of 
 the great patriot Grattan— who alone had opposed Great Britain, and 
 wrung from it this glorious concession. 
 
 Until the days of liberty return, tyranny goes on multiplying its 
 crimes, and is repaid by outrages of all kinds. Vanquished, patriotic 
 Ireland uses every means to make its animosity felt, and has to be 
 reckoned with as an enemy in every Imperial crisis. 
 
 The National League is growing; the two parties of Home Rule 
 and of Fenianism— that is to say, on one side la?v and order in ex- 
 change for autonomy; on the other, rehabilitation by revolution — 
 are progressing with tacit unanimity. It would be childish to assert 
 that these forces can be destroyed; in spite of the violence of all 
 kinds that Ireland has suffered for three centuries, she still exists. 
 Famine, carnage, massacre, all have failed to exhaust her. There 
 is no longer time for self-deception; a sincere policy of generous 
 reparation must at once be inaugurated by England, or all the sons 
 of Ireland will unite to deliver their mother-country. 
 
 Irish emigrants, fleeing from famine, or driven from their homes 
 because they could not pay their rent, dared the perils of the sea in 
 floating charnel-houses, in which the human cargo was lessened 
 every hour by starvation and exhaustion. They went to seek another 
 country which would be less cruel to them.. They landed on the 
 shores of Canada and of the United Slates, with hatred of England 
 in their hearts, but also a burning love for their Irish home. A 
 3 
 
66 THE SOCIETY OE EOHDOH. 
 
 miserable seed for the harvest of the future did devastated Ireland 
 cast on a foreign shore! From this seed Fenianism has sprung. 
 The tares have mingled "with the wheat; and from across the ocean 
 that bore these despairing emigrants will come revenge upon their 
 oppressors. 
 
 Tlie opportune moment will be decided by some agrarian agita- 
 tion in Scotland, a revolt in India, or a foreign war. On that day, 
 my noble Lords, where will you find means of resistance? It will 
 then be too late, and the question will be settled by revolution, since 
 you would not allow it to be solved by law. But the time has not 
 yet come for entire deliverance, and until Ireland belongs to the 
 Irish, India to the Indians, and Egypt to the Egyptians, England 
 will continue to rule her states and her colonies. Ireland might be 
 easily quieted now if Home Rule were granted her; but would a 
 loc:»l Parliament be a lasting remedy? It may be doubted. Reforms 
 will not suffice until the old rancor, the inveterate enmity constantly 
 stirred up by agitators, is entirely destroyed. 
 
 The great agitator, Mr. Parnell, is considered by the Irish as a 
 second Liberator. A true Spartan, utterly indifferent to the pleas- 
 ures ot lite, he is chief of the Home Rulers, and the one most feared 
 by the English Parliament as an " irreconcilable." It was he who, 
 at Cincinnati, in 1880, made this declaration to his American 
 brethren, " No one of us will be satisfied until we have destroyed 
 the last link that binds Ireland to England." 
 
 An orator by the force of his convictions rather than by natural 
 eloquence, he is only entirely himself when addressing his con- 
 stituents, an ever-increasing body; forthe whole of Ireland contends 
 for him at each election. He can do much good or much ill to his 
 country. The journal " United Ireland n is his organ. The 
 Ministers recognize his power, and treat him with deference, even 
 with consideration. 
 
 In a previous letter 1 had an opportunity of mentioning Lord 
 Spencer, the Viceroy or Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Among the 
 chief secretaries who have governed Ireland, Mr. Forster and Mr. 
 Trevelyan have made the deepest impression; but what can a Minis- 
 ter do when the laws that he enforces are tyrannical laws, mere 
 engines for the oppression of the people whom he governs? 
 
 The present Minister is Mr. Bannerman, a person of moderate 
 abilities, who talks little, but work3 hard; he is rich, superior to 
 temptations, practical and just. He is a Scotchman and a Liberal. 
 Mr. Trevelyan wis sensitive, Mr. Forster susceptible; but Mr. Ban- 
 nerman possesses a serenity quite above provocation, though he 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOH. 67 
 
 allows no one to intrude or encroach upon him; and it would be 
 dangerous to try to bribe hirn. He has courage and good-sense, but 
 his heart is as hard as bis head is strong, and he is utterly incapable 
 of eathusiasm. 
 
 Th* Irish are a sociable, intelligent, and witty people, gifted with 
 marvelous elasticity and a sympathetic, generous nature; very clear - 
 Sighted, and endowed with a spirit of organization and administra- 
 tion, but indolent and uncertain. The upper classes in Ireland are 
 well educated and very agreeable in society. 
 
 The English justly appreciate the intellectual value of their neigh- 
 bors, and take its great men from the Emerald Isle, without regard- 
 ing themselves as its debtors, for they carefully ignore the source of 
 their wealth. Among the illustrious dead, hew many names ot 
 Irishmen can one enumerate without a moment's thought, such as 
 Wellington, Sheridan, Swift, Moore, and Goldsmith! Lord 
 Dufierin, Lord Charles Beresford, and Lord Wolesley are in men's 
 mouths to-day, while many leading journalists, eloquent preachers, 
 distinguished men in all the professions, are natives of Ireland. 
 
 THIRTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 THE MEN OF THE DAY. 
 
 In this letter 1 am about to speak of some leading politicians, not 
 included in any previous group, of remarkable men in the army 
 and navy, and of a few other people. 
 
 To begin with, I will take Mr. Forster, ex-Secretary of State for 
 Ireland, the most variable weathercock in a political world; the 
 word " tergiversator " must have been invented for him. Starting 
 as a Radical, he has gradually become a link between Conservatives 
 and Liberals. The world begins and ends for him in the House of 
 Commons, or, at most, does not extend beyond the Lords, and w hen 
 he is busy in getting a law passed, he thinks only of the success of 
 the moment, and troubles himself very little about the effect the law 
 will have when it is in operation; yet he has proposed some useful 
 measures, the Education Bill in 1870, and the Ballot Bill in 1872. 
 He speaks well without being an orator, and under an air of simple 
 good-nature conceals strong common sense, practical sagacity, and 
 consummate skill. 
 
 His wife is charming, amiable, and refined, and the diplomatic 
 world crowds her drawing-room, 
 
68 THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 
 
 Although Lord Dufterin has just left us, to govern India, the im- 
 portant part that he has played makes him so prominent, and the 
 task that he is now fulfilling is so closely allied with the greatest 
 interests of England that 1 can not be silent about the ex-Viceroy of 
 Canada, the ex-Embassador at St. Petersburg, Constantinople, etc. 
 
 A liberal, generous, keen politician, a born leader, clever, and 
 patient, very popular, a consummate administrator, he is distin- 
 guished in everyway, and has everywhere acquired respect and 
 esteem. He captivates those whom he governs by the charm of bis 
 manners, by his generous hospitality, his exquisite courtesy, his im- 
 partiality, his upright principles. Nothing escapes him; in Canada, 
 he studied the country and its resources thoroughly; in London he 
 has raised the tone of society, and gained the name of " our only 
 diplomatist." In a new country he quickly takes the measure of his 
 adversaries, and fights them with their own weapons. His experi- 
 ence in Russia, Turkey, and Egypt has well prepared him for India. 
 An indefatigable worker, he does everything himself with the help 
 of a single private secretary. He has sound -judgment and perfect 
 tact ; he polishes and repolishes his speeches until they are models 
 of literary excellence, and at this moment is writing a book on Rus- 
 sia, which will certainly be very interesting. His courage equals 
 his energy, and if he had been appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland 
 many disasters would have been avoided and many improvements 
 effected. As a man he is eclectic, original, eccentric; very English 
 in appearance, with a deceptive Mephistopheles air; an eye-glass is 
 always in his eye. His after-dinner speaking is unrivaled, and he 
 knows how to make a compliment in a few words worth more than 
 volumes. Thus he thrilled old Moltke with pleasure by saying, " I 
 have shaken hands with Wellington, and now I am shaking hands 
 with the greatest soldier living." 
 
 His receptions are rigorously select, and never exceed two hun- 
 dred guests. At his soirees charades are often acted, and he takes a 
 brilliant part. He is a wonderful story-teller, and occasionally con- 
 descends to a comic style. He is very popular wherever he goes, 
 and much liked bj all who know him. Lord Dufferin is certainly 
 an ornament to Ireland, and in India he may accomplish great things 
 if circumstances are not too strong for him. He is not yet sixty 
 years old. 
 
 Now 1 will speak of Bradlaugh; although after the elegance and 
 distinction of Lord Dufrerin, you may think him a vulgar topic. 
 Bradlaugh is the most advanced man in the country, and nas been 
 compared to Danton. If he has the same power, the same tragic 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDON. 
 
 69 
 
 gayety in the midst of national troubles, lie has a great deal moie 
 cunning. Formerly a dragoon, then a solicitor's clerk, he made 
 himself known by his lectures on atheism, Malthusianism, and re- 
 publicanism. His physical strength, and his unlimited audacity, 
 have given him great influence with the masses; his profound faith 
 in himself and in his mission compels their admiration. He is a 
 powerful speaker, but delights in quibbles, and is more of a lawyer 
 than a statesman. In Parliament he is an enfant terrible, whose 
 mouth must be shut at every moment to prevent his making revela- 
 tions which would convulse the House with horror and indignation. 
 His programme is simple: Disestablishment of the Church, abolition 
 of monarchy, universal suffrage, nationalization of the land, sup- 
 pression of the aristocracy. You know how the House has treated 
 him as a reprobate, suspended, and excluded him. Not being per- 
 mitted to take the oath, he sits at the door like an outsider, not 
 among the other members. He has a keen, observant mind; his 
 eccentricity is only on the surface; and in any great social agitation 
 1 should not wonder if he took the lead. 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Lawson— a Radical—the inveterate enemy of alcohol, 
 has not precisely a " holiday " face; pwblic-houses are a horror to 
 him, and* every year the anti-beer baronet brings forward a " Per- 
 missive Prohibition Bill," tor the entire closing of public-houses on 
 the Sabbath clay. 
 
 Sir Thomas Brassey is the son of a great financier, great con- 
 structor of railways, and great philanthropist, who was one of the 
 most upright, the most honorable, and the most benevolent men of 
 his time. °He employed nearly 80,000 workmen at a time, and con- 
 structed railways costing £17,000,000. His life was most exemplary. 
 His son, Sir Thomas Brassey, passed his childhood in France. He 
 is a devoted son, well-informed, practical and useful, and a re- 
 markable book, " Work and Wages," proves him to be a capable 
 writer. His place in Parliament is enviable; the justice of his 
 views with regard to the relations of Labor and Capital is much ap- 
 preciated; while his acquaintance with all maritime matters, ports 
 and docks, makes him valuable. Although he is not an orator, he 
 is always listened to with attention. He sits among the Liberals, 
 and has recently been appointed Secretary of the Admiralty. He is 
 an excellent amateur sailor, and considered the best pilot in Eng- 
 land. He has made a voyage round the world in his own boat, the 
 ♦' Sunbeam." He is affable and sociable, although he always seems 
 preoccupied with some mental labor, and looks absent or pensive. 
 
 Lady Brassey is a person of wide sympathies and great talent. 
 
70 THE SOCIETY OE LONDON". 
 
 She interests herself much in the question of the emancipation of 
 women, and presides at meetings held on this subject. She writes 
 well, and has published a very interesting nautical diary. 
 
 Before leaving the politicians, t wish, in the name of humanity, 
 to pay a tribute of admiration and gratitude to that great, good man, 
 Mr. Plimaoll. While others are busily inventing means for destroy- 
 ing their fellow-creatures, Plimaoll, by a law, forcibly extorted from 
 Parliament, has saved the lives of thousands of obscure heroes of 
 the sea. But he is dreaded for his truth-telling, and has not been 
 re-elected. His powerful and eloquent book is an outburst of feel- 
 ing from a generous heart. 
 
 1 now turn to the army. The English army has at its head two 
 generals, round each of whom stands a group of partisans— Gen- 
 eral Roberts and Lord Wolseley, with their respective followers, the 
 Robert ists and the Wolseleyites. Much jealousy and many passions 
 rage under cover of these two names. There are several brave 
 officers whom I should like to name, but the stir that has been made 
 about these two generals forces n:e to speak especially of them. 
 
 General Roberts, a man pf extraordinary energy, has a very fine 
 head, and very haughty way of holding it. He can not be exactly 
 said to be a born soldier, and yet he possesses all the qualities that 
 command success. He demands from his men all that they can 
 give, but never more, and succeeds iu attaching them to him. His 
 brilliant campaign in Afghanistan displayed all his military talents, 
 and although he has learned much by experience, yet he owes some- 
 thing to chance. He is very popular in the army, and the Queen 
 likes him very much, and has given him several proofs of her re- 
 gard. 
 
 Lord Wolseley of Cairo, the conqueror of the King of Dahomey, 
 the hero of Tel-el-Kebir, the commander-in-chief of the army in the 
 Soudan, is the most restless of men. The Ashantees called him 
 " the man who never slops." He has won his position inch by inch, 
 and has great military ability. Unlike General Roberts, he is al- 
 ways ready to receive a new idea, to weigh it and to assimilate it; 
 but he is headstrong, arbitrary, intolerant, vindictive, and unjust, 
 and he can not endure contradiction. He possesses an iron frame 
 and a determined will. He is not more lenient to himself than to 
 others. When he was in Cyprus he was attacked by fever, but — 
 more indomitable than the malady — he mounted his horse, and in 
 spite of his weakness and the trembling of the ague, holding on as 
 well as he could in his exhausted condition, he galloped round the 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON-. 71 
 
 island to the amazement of every one. The shaking, the heat, and 
 the fatigue caused a reaction, and he was cured. 
 
 Like Louis XIV., Napoleon, and Wellington, Wolseley is a keen 
 judge of men, and chooses those who will serve himself best. He 
 is liked by his own partisans, but detested by a great part of the 
 army; and the Roberlists, in spite ot their patriotism, feel little re- 
 gret for his recent failure. He also has a good many enemies in the 
 navy. In private life he has agreeable manners. He is short in 
 stature, but his head is well shaped. He is over fifty, and was born 
 in Ireland. He married one of the prettiest Canadians ever imported 
 into England. 
 
 The most popular of the foreign princes in the service of England 
 is Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, brother of Prince Gustavus of 
 Saxe Weimar, whom I mentioned in my letters from Vienna." I 
 can not speak ot Prince Edward and Prince Gustavus without re- 
 calling the S3 mpathetic face of another brother, Prince Hermann, 
 who lives at Stuttgart. He is a man of exceptional moral worth, 
 perhaps the most admirable prince in Europe, and 1 admire and 
 love him tor the largeness and nobility of hs mind, and the warmth 
 of his heart. 
 
 Prince Edward is a naturalized Englishman, and was born during 
 his mother's residence at Bushey Park in 1823. Her sister, Queen 
 Adelaide, widow of William IV., having no children, adopted the 
 young prince, undertook his education, brought him up as her own 
 son, and made a thorough Englishman of him. He entered the 
 Grenadier Guards, -find served as captain during the Crimean War, 
 taking part in the battles of Alma and Balaklava. He lose to the 
 rank of General of Infantry, and will soon receive the rank of 
 Field-marshal. He is now Governor of Portsmouth. 
 
 His wife, a sister of the Duke of Richmond, is a very great lady, 
 and does the honors of her house like a queen. She has a large 
 share in the popularity of her husband. 
 
 The navy boasts of many great men, but I will only mention 
 Admiral Lord Alcester and Lord Charles Bereslord, whose names 
 are intimately connected with the Egyptian campaign. 
 
 Lord Alcester, Commander of the Channel Fleet, is sixty-four 
 years of age. He was intrusted with the bombardment of Alex- 
 andria. He is one of those rare men who have the good-fortune to 
 eucceed without making enemies. He is every man's friend, and 
 never having wounded or offended any, he is extremely popular in 
 the navy, where popularity is difficult to win. He enjoys the con- 
 fidence of his subordinates, and he could lead them everywhere. 
 
72 THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOlf. 
 
 His fine figure, that looks so well in his admiral's uniform, as he 
 paces the quarter-deck, has got him the nickname of " the Swell of 
 the Ocean." Much liked in society, he has a large circJe of friends, 
 and his epistolary taste leads him to keep up a very active corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 A glorious career may be predicted for the gallant tar, Lord 
 Charles Beresford, whose services as commander of the " Condor " 
 are still fresh in every one's memory. Frank and simple, of a gen- 
 erous, open disposition, he is always ready to do noble deeds, and 
 has more than once risked his life to save the lives of the humblest 
 men who were drowning, and whom no one else on board would 
 have assisted. In any danger he is always well to the front. He is 
 a great friend and favorite of the Prince of Wales, and went with 
 him to India as naval aid-de-camp. He will one day have the 
 command of the Mediterranean Fleet. He is much regretted in 
 Parliament, where he sat for six years. His speeches— careful, but 
 not pedantic, earnest, and unaffected— were distinguished for their 
 tact and good taste, and he is as much at home in the House as on 
 the deck of his ship. He is a moderate Conservative. 
 
 In the first campaign in Egypt Lord Wolseley did not give Lord 
 Charles Beresford the position he deserved. After services so brill- 
 iant and so decisive, he had a right to the first rank in the staff of 
 the Khedive. But he has the future before him. In the campaign 
 of the Soudan he has done wonders, and Lord Wolseley has com- 
 plimented him in the presence of the whole army. 
 
 In the expedition across the desert Lord Charles found himself 
 admiral of a fleet of camels. An amusing incident is his finding, 
 in one of his first campaigns, a little Chinese boy, who became his 
 servant, and was one of the most comical little creatures ever seen. 
 Lord Charles Beresford's wife is one of the prettiest and most 
 charming women in London. 
 
 Col. Henderson, the head of the police, is a curious and interest- 
 ing person. He has occupied a number of positions which most 
 people would not have considered very delightful. He was sent as 
 Government Commissioner to settle the boundaries of Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick; tvas almost killed and remained for five day*' 
 without food. Next he was sent to New South Wales as head oi 
 the Convict System there; afterward he was made Director and In- 
 spector-general of London Prisons. He is now at the head of the 
 police force, a post that he fills as if he had been specially made by 
 Heaven for the purpose. There is not a policeman who does not 
 respect and love him. He is a loyal-hearted kindly man, quite un- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDOH. ?3 
 
 suspicious; so that in bis presence no one feels inclined to make 
 mysteries, but becomes frank and confidential. He has never be- 
 trayed a professional secret; and yet what curious memoirs he could 
 write! He is an artist of some merit, and a pleasant companion. 
 
 One word about the Attorney-general, Sir Henry James. He is 
 the most witty man in London. 
 
 Who does not know the Director of the South Kensington Mu- 
 seum, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, the author and organizer of all the 
 great exhibitions in which England has taken part? Fifty-six years 
 of age, the son of a sailor, plain-dealing, obliging, with frank, agree- 
 able'manners, and a kindly nature, a hard worker, a great linguist, 
 and thoroughly well acquainted with his Museum. 
 
 Let us now talk of the best known and most envied woman in 
 the three kingdoms, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Her grandfather, 
 a Scottish Lowlander, married, for his second wife, the celebrated 
 actress, Miss Mellon, afterward Duchess of St. Albans, who, at her 
 death, left all her fortune 10 Miss Angela Burdett, who thus became 
 the richest heiress in London, and had to reject many aspirants to 
 her hand. She was, however, a woman of good -sense, judgment, 
 and energy, and she skillfully piloted her way, avoiding rocks and 
 shoals, and took for her companion and ally a Mrs. Brown, who 
 remained faithful to her all her life. 
 
 The Baroness was a friend of Napoleon III. Her fortune is very 
 large, and she devotes much of it to good works. She has founded 
 a bishopric, and built Columbia Market; indeed, her benevolence 
 and her generosity are as inexhaustible as her wealth. She has been 
 the patroness and friend of many men who have since become 
 eminent—Sir James Brook, the Rajah of Sarawak, Henry Irving, 
 etc. With an impulsive nature, and much warmth of heart, she 
 has also great sagacity and self-control; she is remarkably well in- 
 formed, and keeps herself cm courcmt of every subject. 
 
 When she gives f^tes it is done rightly royally. One day she in- 
 vited the whole of the Belgian volunteers. 
 
 About six years ago she lost her faithful companion, and the 
 death of this valuable friend induced her to alleviate her solitary 
 existence by marrying her secretary, Mr. Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett is 
 a handsome man, tall, and well made, with regular features, and a 
 very agreeable face. Mr. Bartlett is sagacious, energetic, and in- 
 telligent. He understands the importance of his position as the 
 husband of the Baroness. His wife is saluted by the people as if 
 she were a queen. 
 
74 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 FOURTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 powers in the state. 
 
 Clubs— the Press. 
 
 The mass of the people imagine that a State is ruled by means ot 
 great institutions, but in reality a State is governed by influences; 
 and the men who bear official titles, and are seen and judged and 
 considered responsible by tne public, are only the outward manifes- 
 tation of all that acts upon them. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone made war in Egypt under the pressure of the 
 capitalists. 
 
 flow many statesmen, like Lord Hartington, form their will on 
 the will of another! How many obey occult influences! How 
 many are the slaves of interests foreign to that of the State— in- 
 terests of money, family! 
 
 Under cover of social customs, political salons play a very active 
 part in London Parliamentary life. 
 
 1 have already spoken of the principal political salons of London: 
 that of Lord Spencer is the most attractive; Lord Granville's is too 
 official; and the receptions ot Sir W, Vernon Harcourt are dull. 
 Lord Salisbury and Sir Algernon Borthwick have scions that are 
 largely attended. 
 
 Many influences make themselves felt in politics; there is the in- 
 fluence of the Church, the influence of the universities, the influence 
 of leagues, agrarian leagues, peace parties, parties of arbitration, Df 
 education, etc., which constantly harass the ministers. 
 
 But the great authority that governs England — a power unknown 
 in other countries — is the influence of the Clubs and the Press. 
 
 1 will not try to give you a description ot all the clubs; it would 
 fill volumes; I will only sketch the political clubs. 
 
 Clubs.— The role played by clubs in England in no way resembles 
 that which belongs to those institutions on the Continent. They 
 represent every opinion, all social wants and all pleasures. There 
 are clubs political, diplomatic, literary, dramatic, financial, naval, 
 military, etc.— the list is a long one. There are also philanthropic 
 clubs, religious clubs, clubs for workmen and clubs for women. I 
 am silent upon those that only belong to sports, music, art, etc., and 
 those that have no special aim. 
 
 The most interesting club of all, that which makes and unmakes 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. . 75 
 
 men, the occult force that governs England, is the political club. 
 The Carlton Club, fortress of the Tories, and the Refoim Club, the 
 intrenched camp of the Liberals, form the antechamber to Parlia- 
 ment. Laws are there discussed, decisions taken, lines of conduct 
 decided on before arriving at the Palace of Westminster, which has 
 itself been called " The Great Western Club." There meetings are 
 held by gioups of politicians, and the policy of the country is 
 planned. A leader ot Parliament never fails a meeting of his party 
 at the club, although he may not be present at 1 he sitting of the 
 House. 
 
 A little incident will prove how jealous the clubs are of the integ- 
 rity ot their principles. Mr. Carvell Williams, the champion of the 
 party for the separation of Church and State, having tried to enter 
 the Reform Club, was blackballed for his political opinions. The 
 club wished to show that the principle of (he separation of Church 
 and State did not form a part of the programme of its party. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone laid, a short time ago, the first stone of the National 
 Liberal Club in Northumberland Avenue, which already counts 
 about 3500 applicants in the provinces, and 2000 or 3000 in London.' 
 The aim of these two clubs is not to have, as formerly, a kind of 
 choice restaurant, but to create a center, where electors can ex- 
 change their opinions, members meet their leaders, where the party 
 can hold its meetings, and debate its resolutions— a kind of grand 
 preparatory council, a chamber of opinion, head-quarters whence 
 orders will be issued. 
 
 There are many other clubs besides those 1 have mentioned. The 
 Conservatives have the Conservative, the Beaconsfield, the Junior 
 Carlton, the St. Stephen's, etc. ; the Liberals the Devonshire, of 
 which Lord Harticglon is the President, the Cobden, etc. There is 
 also the St. James's, trie club of embassadors and the diplomatic 
 world, and a number of others, including a Fiench club, " La So- 
 ciete Nationale Francaise," that is in a very prosperous condition. 
 
 The clubs have long governed the country; they were the hot- 
 beds of politics; newspapers got their inspiration from them, and 
 echoed their ideas, deciding ail questions after them ; and the prov- 
 inces received their opinions ready-made from the journals, which 
 had taken theirs from the clubs. Now a new movement of decen- 
 tralization has begun; politicians have reversed the old custom, and 
 instead of shutting themselves up in their clubs, they go to their 
 counties, make speeches, listen to and consult the people, and then 
 come back and make their wants known in London. It is a rever- 
 sion of things that has been very salutary to the country, and it is 
 
70 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 due especially to Mr. Gladstone, the propagator of this principle, 
 for which reason he is all-powerful in the provinces. The influence 
 of the political clubs is, however, still very great; they remain the 
 basis of operation for the maneuvers of each Parliamentary group ; and 
 the politicians and leading journals, feeling the common danger to 
 their influence, have become reconciled to each other, and coalesced. 
 
 The Press.— The Continental Prets gives no idea whatever of the 
 English Press. It is impossible to conceive its importance without 
 having made a special study of it. The Press everywhere holds the 
 hrst place, and it is not, as it has been called, the fourth estate, but 
 the first. It is the Press that governs England; a great journal like 
 the " Daily Telegraph" is as powerful as Mr. Gladstone, and the 
 " Times " is more powerful than both Houses of Parliament. 
 
 The Press has a legislative initiative to which Parliament submits; 
 it inspects and controls the Ministry, and fulfills the functions of the 
 Ministers themselves. It has become the best of embassadors, and 
 is justly called " the grand inquisitor of the nation." The journals 
 compose a popular Parliament—a court of justice, a school of criti- 
 cism on all the questions of the day, politics, morality, religion, 
 taste, fashion, etc. And as advertising plays a considerable part in 
 English lite, the newspaper is the greatest merchant in all England. 
 To what does the Press owe its power, which dates from the Re- 
 torm Bill of 1813? To the following causes: 
 
 Journals of party, of conflict and of recrimination have almost 
 disappeared; the organs of any value are bought by companies, and 
 do not belong to an}' particular Minister or member, or to any special 
 Parliamentary group. They have their individual tone, but are 
 completely independent. This is the secret of their power; and one 
 of the causes of that independence is that no article is signed. 
 
 The English Press has a high position, and is entitled to the re- 
 spect of all for its perfect honor. The journalists are able men, 
 who inspire their readers with absolute confidence, never bringing 
 each other into disrepute by injudicious attacks. Personalities be- 
 tween journalists have ceased, and duels are unknown. Thanks to 
 its system of correspondence all over the world, the English Press is 
 usually better informed than the Ministers themselves, and is less 
 exposed to being misled by ignorant, interested, or mistaken em- 
 bassadors. Its leading articles are like Ministerial speeches. It 
 seizes upon all great ideas, treats them with dignity, elevates them, 
 makes the country take an interest in them, and forces them upon 
 the legislators. It was the Press that fought the battles of the Corn- 
 laws, Free-trade, and nearly every other great reform. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 7t 
 
 It may almost be said that the English Press has organized Eng- 
 land, and that in the accomplishment of this work it discovered its 
 own power. Sir Robert Peel- often said that, supported by the 
 Press, he could defy Parliament. 
 
 How many times Members and Ministers have found their policy 
 and materials for their speeches in the arguments of the " Times!" 
 
 A few years ago the journals were not the leaders ot public opin- 
 ion, they only expressed it; but the Press became independent, and 
 suffering no tutelage from Government or Parliament, assumes the 
 glorious responsibility of leading opinion, and with a phalanx of 
 such remarkable men at its head, no one contests its right to be the 
 pioneer ana scout. 
 
 The Press has destroyed the secret life of courts, parliaments, 
 embassies, finance, business, etc.; everything is now done in broad 
 daylight, and everything is open to the reporter. Tne society 
 papers have their moral influence, like tne political and social satires 
 of the comic journals; and let us add that the English Press shows 
 more tact and good taste than the public itself. 
 
 The monopoly of the guidance of public opinion does not belong 
 entirely to the great London newspapers. Every town now has its 
 daily papers, which have followed the example ot those of the 
 metropolis, and are as mucn respected and listened to. The pro 
 vincial press is as rich and as well informed as that of London. 
 The " Manchester Guardian," tor instance, makes nearly £40,000 a 
 year, and rivals the " Times." The influence of the London news- 
 papers upon the provinces has therefore diminished, especially since 
 politicians, escaping from the too exclusive atmosphere of the clubs, 
 have addressed themselves directly to the country, and instead of 
 dictating to it, learn its actual needs and wishes. 
 
 FIFTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 JOURNALS AND JOURNALISTS. 
 
 In London the press enjoys unlimited liberty, but has the good taste 
 and prudence not to abuse it. Only the " Society " journals are 
 ever prosecuted, and to them the process is a good advertisement. 
 
 There are in London several hundred newspapers; these may be 
 divided into — 
 
 Large and small daily papers. 
 
 Special journals, local, comic, illustrated and society papers. 
 
?8 THE SOCIETY OP LONDON". 
 
 Reviews and magazines. 
 
 Miscellaneous publications. 
 
 The most important daily papers are, the " Times," the " Daily- 
 Telegraph, " the "Standard," the "Daily News." the "Morning 
 Post," the " Daily Chronicle," the " Pall Mall Gazette," the " St. 
 James's Gazette," the " Globe," and the " Echo." 
 
 The " Times," which is the greatest European newspaper, for a 
 long time enjoyed absolute sovereignty; but now it has rivals in the 
 journals that I have just named. It belongs to no political party, 
 and in order to preserve its entire independence and its neutrality, 
 it keeps aloof from politicians in office. « The " Times " is especially 
 the business journal— 1 he organ of the city. For two generations 
 its authority has prevailed in all Parliamentary and legislative 
 questions; it is still an oracle for nine persons out of ten, and when 
 it gives its opinion in a discussion, the cause that it supports is won. 
 All foreign journals anatyze or reproduce its articles, and in certain 
 countries the policy of the " Times " is looked upon as the policy 
 of England, and is accepted or disputed by friends and foes in the 
 form given it by the journal of the city, tn India, Cairo, and Con- 
 stantinople, the " Times" lays down the law with regard to the 
 Eastern question and its connection with the interests of England. 
 
 All the most eminent writers of the political and literary world 
 have contributed to the "Times;" and even serious authors, who 
 generally prefer to write in the reviews rather than in newspapers, 
 have always made an exception in its favor. Barnes used to read 
 the leading reviews with great care, and whenever he discovered a 
 man of mark would attach him to the staff of the " Times." Now 
 the great rival organs have contributors who equal those of the 
 " Times;" but no other pnper has the prestige that gives such im- 
 portance to everything published in it. It is the only journal that 
 costs threepence, all the others being sold at a penny. 
 
 The " Daily Telegraph " is next, if not equal, in importance to 
 the " Times." It has shown intelligence in the choice of its con- 
 tributors, and was the means of introducing George Augustus Sala 
 — the most original and perhaps the most popular of English jour- 
 nalists. It was the " Daily Telegraph " that sent Stanley to explore 
 Africa, and Mr. George Smith, the archaeologist, to excavate Assyria 
 and Mesopotamia, where he found marvels, and among other things 
 the Assyrian narrative of the deluge, it is a curious fact that the 
 " Daily Telegraph " came as a bad debt into the hands of Messrs. 
 Levy & Lawscn, who now owe the greatest part of their fortune to 
 it. Formerly Liberal, it has become Conservative, or Libeial-Con- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOSTDOH. 79 
 
 servative, and it is asserted that this conversion was effected by 
 Lord Beaconsfield. It is a journal of the highest value, admirably 
 well-informed, prudent, thoughtful, and analytical in its opinions, 
 and it possesses great authority. 
 
 The "Standard," the champion of Protestantism, the defender 
 of the Ihrone and of the Constitution, had long been simply an echo 
 of the Conservative leaders, the reflection of Lord Derby and 
 Disraeli; but since Mr. Mudford has been at its head, it has become 
 an independent Conservative. Like the " Telegraph," the " Stand- 
 ard " is a paper of the first rank, and any one interested in politics 
 is bound to read it, for all questions are thoroughly discussed in it_ 
 If a journal were not now independent, it would soon find itself 
 without readers. The time has passed when Pitt bought the 
 " Courier," tried, but in vain, to buy the " Times," and founded 
 the " Sun " to serve his party. 
 
 The " Daily News/' called by Mr. Chamberlain the organ of the 
 Dissenters, is now threatened with the withdrawal of their patron- 
 age, for they accuse it of not taking sufficient interest in them, and 
 of too great leniency toward the Established Church. The " Daily 
 News "can afford to disregard these reproaches. It is the organ 
 of Gladstonian Liberalism, though it does not hesitate to attack the 
 Cabinet when errors are committed. Its success has greatly in- 
 creased since the Franco-German war, as Mr. Robinson, its editor, 
 had the good fortune to secure the services of Mr. Archibald Forbes, 
 who has raised it to the unique position it now occupies. Another 
 contributor, Mr. Labouchere, voluntarily stayed in Paris during the 
 siege, and sent such remarkable accounts of it that they greatly added 
 to the success of the journal. The " Daily News " is the most 
 important of the Liberal organs; it therefore does not love Lord 
 Randolph Churchill, and reduces his speeches to ten lines. It has 
 boasted a number of celebrated contributors. Mr. Frank H. Hill's 
 '* Political Portraits " do honor both to the writer and to the journal 
 that published them. 
 
 The " Morning Post," a, journal of the fashionable world, is di- 
 rected by Sir Algernon Borthwick, an eminent writer and good 
 speaker. It was formerly the organ of Lord Palmerston and Na- 
 poleon 111., which proves the good understanding that existed be- 
 tween these two. Created in 1772, it is the oldest of the London 
 newspapers. It is independent, although it has always supported 
 the Throne, the Church, the rights of property, and the aristocracy, 
 to which it entirely belongs. The "Morning Post" always has 
 special and very valuable information on diplomatic affairs, Sir 
 
80 THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOtf. 
 
 Algernon Borthwick has studied politics abroad, and is much im- 
 bued with French ideas. He is a perfect man of the world, with 
 polished manners, and is much liked and esteemed. 
 
 The " Pall Mall Gazette " was originated as an eveniug paper, 
 and with the idea of applying the system of reviews to newspapers. 
 It was Conservative; but four years ago Mr. John Morley, a nephew 
 of the proprietor, inherited the journal, and had the audacity to 
 transform it the very next day into a Radical organ. He lost many 
 of his leaders, but found a great many more; and it has now be- 
 come the special organ of cultivated and independent Radicalism. 
 It was, and still is, a journal written by gentlemen for gentlemen. 
 It was the first to call attention to the detective state of the navy. 
 Mr. John Morley, M. P., an extremely agreeable and very distin- 
 guished man, is one of the ornaments of his profession, and does 
 honor to it. 
 
 The " St. James's Gazette " is an excellent journal of criticism, 
 politics, and social facts. 
 
 1 must pass in silence over hundreds of journals in London, and 
 only mention a few of the most interesting publications, such as 
 " Truth," the " Referee," the" Sunday Times," the " World," the 
 " Athenaeum," " Tit Bits," the " Stage," a theatrical journal that 
 gives twenty-four pages of news for twopence, and the "Era." 
 Must I remind you of the pomic illustrated journals, such as 
 "Punch," "Judy," "Fun," "Funny Folks," etc.? "Punch" 
 has been fortunate enough to possess for more than thirty years the 
 rival of Gaivarni, the charming artist Du Maurier. 1 must give 
 special mention to the best and most satirical society paper, " Van- 
 ity Fair," in which a portrait caricature of one of the celebrities of 
 the day appears every week, signed " Ape " ( Pelegrini) and " Spy " 
 (Leslie Ward); these are masterpieces of drawing and humor. The 
 journal is edited with tact and skill by Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles, 
 who signs "Jehu Junior" to the excellent articles vvrtiten by his 
 hand. " Vanity Fair " is the most amusing society journal in ex- 
 istence, and 1 have been glad to borrow some excellent things 
 from it. 
 
 The reviews are to newspapers what the House of Lords is to the 
 Commons, a moderating power. The" Edinburgh," " Quarteily," 
 "Contemporary," "Westminster," "Nineteenth Century," and 
 the " Fortnightly " reviews are great and powerful organs, known 
 all over the world. The " Saturday Review " sets an example ot 
 complete independence; like the " Times," it even excludes from 
 its statT politicians in office, to whatever party they belong. It pos- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON" 81 
 
 sesses the best pens of Oxford and of Cambridge, of the Temple and 
 of Lincoln's Inn, of the Church and of the State. The " Specta- 
 tor " is a formidable rival to it. 
 
 English journals have no feuilletons. Before telegraph communi- 
 cation the rivalry in the press consisted of how to obtain and pub- 
 lish dispatches from India in the quickest manner. Now telegraphs 
 and railways have combined to satisfy the requirements of English 
 readers at a low rate. A wire to India only costs the journals £40 
 a month, and they have the right to send a hundred words for a 
 shilling. The London newspapers, in order to compete with those 
 of the provinces, have united to send special trains at o a.m. that 
 carry the earliest issues in all directions. I may add that the press 
 has its agencies, the Central News Agency, the Press Association, 
 and Reutei's Telegraphic Service, and its headquarters are Fleet 
 Street and the Strand. 
 
 Journalism, although so honored in England, does not lead to any- 
 thing, and opens no door, especially not that of Parliament. The 
 journalists remain anonymous and unknown, and never openly take 
 part in any public struggle; they have general rather than personal 
 prestige, and except for the proprietors of large journals, their pro- 
 fession does not lead to fortune. Tne journalists sitting in Parlia- 
 ment do not owe their position to their pens. 
 
 Mr. George Augustus Sala is the roost popular journalist in Lon- 
 don. Be has been an author, engraver, lecturer, critic, caricaturist, 
 and pantomime writer. Hard-working, energetic, possessing a'l 
 kinds of talents, he devoted himself to journalism, and as corre- 
 spondent to the "Daily Telegraph" his reputation was instantly 
 made. He is the most witty and the most amusing writer in the 
 world; he depicts all that he sees in an animated, striking manner, 
 and lends new interest to the most ordinary subjects. He is a very 
 amiable man, with a great mind and a great heart, aud his knowl- 
 edge is perfectly encyclopedic. 
 
 But the most extraordinary person among journalists is Mr. Arch- 
 ibald Forbes. At first sight you would take him for a German 
 officer, with his white helmet, white jacket and breeches, and high 
 boots, a knapsack, and large field-glasses, and a pipe stuck in his 
 waistband. The son of a Scotch clergyman, with a passion for ad- 
 venture, he first entered the army, when he wrote very curious de- 
 scriptions of military life, and afterward he became a journalist. He 
 is the most perfect type of the war correspondent. 
 
 He witnessed the Indian famine, and afterward went to India 
 
82 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 with the Prince of "Wales. He followed the Carlist war, and the 
 war in Servia, also the campaigns in Ashantee and Zululand. 
 
 Mr. Forbes's writings are not raeie reporting, but historical docu- 
 ments. He has described royal visits, explosions in mines, battles, 
 shipwrecks, and sieges, and he has risked his lite a hundred times. 
 He passes about two years out of seven in London. He is a widower, 
 and has two charming daughters. 
 
 From time to time he gives lectures about his distant enterprises, 
 and 1 have often gone to London on purpose to enjoy the treat. 
 
 Mr. Burnand, the editor of "Punch," the prolific author of a 
 number of burlesques and the adapter of a great many French pieces, 
 is an ardent Catholic. He is a very brilliant man. and a hard 
 worker; he has almost transformed " Panch," and his "Happy 
 Thoughts " are some of the most amusing that Lave ever been pub- 
 lished. He has a dozen children, many triends, and no enemies. 
 
 Mr. Edmund Yates, the founder of the " World," was for many 
 years employed at the Post-office. He has written some novels and 
 his Dwn memoirs, edited " Temple Bar Magazine," given very suc- 
 cessful lectures in America, and traveled a great deal in Europe as 
 correspondent of the " New York Herald." 
 
 Who does not know Mr. Labouchere, the editor of " Truth " aud 
 member of Parliament, who wants to suppress the Monarchy, the 
 Church, and the Lords? Many people try to appear better than 
 they are; Mr. Labouchere endeavors to give a formidable idea of 
 himself; he is a kind, generous, warm-hearted man. His conver- 
 sation is most attractive most, brilliant, and most amusing. He is 
 fifty-three years old, and entered the diplomatic circle before trying 
 journalism. He has been editor of newspapers and manager of 
 theaters. In Parliament he is a new Juvenal, and much dreaded. 
 He has undertaken great commercial aud financial speculations. 
 
 Baron Reuter is a German: he established his first telegraphic 
 agency at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1849, and came to London in 1851, as 
 soon as the first submarine cable was laid. His success dates from 
 the day when he gave the threatening speech of Napoleon 111. to 
 the Austiian Embassador— preliminary to the war in Italy— to Lon- 
 don an hour after it had been made. 
 
 Now he has not only the monopoly of the foreign news of the entire 
 woild, but no other agency can compete with him. In the smallest 
 towns he has agents in communication with ministers, bankers, 
 governors, all those who furnish news; and this man, who holds in 
 his hand the telegraphic wires of all Europe, who knows before any 
 one all the political and financial news of the world, yet has never 
 
THE SOCIETY OE LONDOH. 83 
 
 used this mighty machinery tor any personal end. What greater 
 praise can be awarded him? 
 
 During- the Franco-Prussian war, Berlin learned through him the 
 triumphs of the German army. A naturalized Englishman, he was 
 created a baron by a German princ3 in gratitude lor his services. 
 Respected, rich, powerful, he is most popular in society. His wife 
 is amiable and hospitable. English society has made the Baron 
 warmly welcome, and he returns its good-will by great affection 
 for England. 
 
 SIXTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 LITEKA11Y AND SCIENTIFIC MEN. 
 
 Scientific men are scarcely to be found in society, not because 
 it is closed to them, but these learned people are very independent, 
 and detest fashion. They whose genius directs human thought can 
 not find any pleasure in drawing-rooms. Study is their reward, and 
 also their only pleasure. Darwin, a simple, unassuming man, whose 
 irind influenced the whole world, did not even appear at the Royal 
 Society or at most, only went there once a year. He preferred his 
 little paradise at Down, in Kent, and the society of his children 
 and his books. r , 
 
 The Royal Society has not the solemnity of the Societe de trance; 
 it is a kind of scientific club, and, like all English institutions, more 
 private than official. The number of members is unlimited, and 
 they do not receive any salary; but, on the contrary, pay a subscrip- 
 tion in order to belong to it. 
 
 They are not troubled by any uniform, and know nothing of 
 badges, precedence, or restrictive regulations. Except that its ad- 
 vice is asked by the Government on rare occasions, when there is a 
 question of some scientific mission, the Royal Society has nothing 
 to do with the State. It has about 600 members, and makes itself 
 known to the public by publishing at its own expense " Philo- 
 sophical Transactions." The members of the Royal Society are 
 worthy citizens, who meet once a week at about halt-past eight in 
 the evening, and religiously retire before twelve o'clock. 
 
 The Royal Institution is very fashionable. The lectures given 
 there are well attended, and offer an intellectual treat, for they are 
 delivered bv the gieatest scientific men in England. . 
 
 Besides the meetings of the Royal Institution, there are those of 
 the Birkbeck, of the British Association, etc.; a mere list of their 
 names would take me too long. 
 
84 THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 
 
 Among lecturers, Professor Tyndall is the favorite, and occupies 
 at the Royal Institution the room formerly inhabited by Faraday and 
 Davy. He is well known in Switzerland, where he makes scientific 
 researches every year among the glaciers. Those who have not the 
 good fortune to be admitted to his lectures, or who liave not climbed 
 mountains with him, have never seen him; for these are the only 
 occasions when he can be found out of his laboratory. These 
 apostles of science for the love of science are the true type of the 
 English savant; and in their society you breathe an atmosphere of 
 honor, integritj', and of untiring work. The greatest simplicity 
 rules their lives. To describe one is to describe them all, and 
 though 1 could talk to you about Siemens, Ferguson, Huxley, Sir 
 Joseph Hooker, and many more, I will content myself with a few 
 words about Proctor and Sir John Lubbock, two irery interesting 
 types. 
 
 Professor Proctor, the great astronomer, is Secretary to the Royal 
 Cosmographical Society. He has given lectures in Australia and in 
 America. He is only forty-six years of age, but has written much 
 and produced much. He is the editor of " Knowledge." 
 
 Sir John Lubbock, the patron of ants, is a very inteiesting person, 
 member aDd presideut of several scientific societies; mostly highly 
 thought of in the commercial world (he is a banker), in the political 
 world (he is an M.P.), in the learned world (he is a naturalist), in the 
 literary world (he is the author of a remarkable book on the origin 
 of civilization and the primitive condition of man); honors and titles 
 have fallen at his feet without his having sought ihem; they are 
 simple tributes of respect and admiration. 
 
 He loves flowers, children, bees, ants— everything liliputian in 
 nature; the weak are the constant objects of his solicitude. A 
 benefactor to clerks, he promoted the bank holiday, or holiday gi^en 
 four times a year to all clerks and assistants, and called in his honor 
 " Saint Lubbock." His studies on ants are as interesting and amus- 
 ing as a novel. 
 
 In politics, Sir John Lubbock, who represents the University of 
 London, is Liberal, but moderate in his views. He does not seek 
 the overthrow of the English Church or the House of Lords, or of 
 any established institution. He is just, upright, and independent; 
 considerations of party have no influence with him. 
 
 What can 1 say of literary men in so short a space? They deserve 
 special study and an entire volume. Drama and fiction have many 
 writers, and the women who use the pen occupy a brilliant place in 
 the phalanx, The novels of the late George Eliot, Miss Braddon, 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON 85 
 
 Mrs Henry Wood, Mrs. Oliphant, and of many others, are well 
 known all over the Continent. Death has lately made great gaps in 
 the world of literature, and struck down Darwin, Anthony Trollope 
 George Eliot, Thackeray, Carljle, and a tew years ago Dickens and 
 
 St Wilkie Collins may be called the inventor oi the sensational novel. 
 His plan is to pique curiosity and excite surprise, enchaining the 
 reader to every page, and forcing him to go on, even against his 
 will to the end of the hook. The plot of his novels is a labyrinth. 
 Who does not know " Armadale," " No Name," " The Woman in 
 
 White," etc? . . 
 
 In London there are a considerable number of novel-writers, most 
 of whDin have ability, and many talent of the highest order. 
 
 Poetry possesses Lord Tennyson, the Poet -laureate, a favorite with 
 the Queen the Court, and the aristocracy; but who has the great 
 defect ot being too English, and of wrapping himself in supreme dis- 
 dain for everything that is not BritiBh. He looks sadly upon things, 
 and writes without enthusiasm or passion. The beautiful and true 
 act upon him, but never take possession of him; and he is still in- 
 spired by the tables of history, of which, 1 think, we have already 
 heard enough; and though he loves great heroes, he is not himse f 
 great enough to measure them. He has a perfect style and complete 
 mastery over the English language. m 
 
 It mav be said that Tennyson had prepared the way for Kuskm- 
 that strange and mighty critic, who makes or ruins an artist with 
 the stroke of his pen. Ruskin has exercised on his generation an 
 influence as wide and more deep than that of Carlyle. In matters 
 of taste, and in the art ot the beautiful, Carlyle suggested many 
 problems, but Ruskin nas solved them. Ruskin is an Olympian 
 without being so archaic as Tennyson. His spirit lives in light, and 
 his ideal is not that of our time. He has the antique passion lor the 
 beautiful For moie than half a century he has been preaching his 
 crusade, and the ignorant masses are guided by him, as by a 
 beacon He leads them toward the dawn, but does not enlighten 
 them- charms, but can not convince them; the cultured alone, the 
 elect,' appreciate his criticisms and admire them, though they are 
 sometimes rather harsh. 
 
 Browning, the antithesis of Tennyson, is always looking forward, 
 
 thirsting for progress, longing for the ideal. His dreams even go 
 
 beyond what he can accomplish, he tiies to drag inert humanity 
 
 along with him, and each ol his lines says distinctly, " Follow me. 
 
 Among English poets some turn to the past, others to the future; 
 
86 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 but they all do their utmost to raise the moral level of the nation by 
 their generous aspirations. 
 
 Poets and literary men are much thought of in society, and most 
 of them become rich; tor English publishers are intelligent men, 
 who lea ?e a large share of the profits to a "well- known writer. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 PAINTERS AND THEIR STUDIOS. 
 
 During the last thirty years art has made great progress in Eng- 
 land, and the movement that produced it has been increasing in 
 force every day since 1851. Owing to the impetus then given by 
 the first International Exhibition the fine arts have begun to shed 
 their beneficent influence over the whole of Great Britain. In Lon- 
 don the two principal temples of art are the Royal Academy, in 
 Piccadilly, and the Schools of Art at South Kensington. The Royal 
 Academy is not a state institution, but is governed by a council com- 
 posed of the principal artists of the country. It holds two exhibi- 
 tions every year; one in the summer for the works of modern 
 artists, the second during the winter, of paintings and drawings of 
 the old masters, and of deceased English artists. The success of 
 these exhibitions has become so great that the Academy received last 
 year the sum of £21,000 for shilling admissions. 
 
 The instructions to pupils, given gratuitously by the A.cade- 
 micians, include drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture. 
 
 In 1835 a commission was named in Parliament, on the proposal 
 of Mr. Ewart, member for Liverpool, to study the best means of 
 spreading a taste and knowledge of the fine arts. A school vras 
 opened in 1837, and in 1841 the Government decided to establish 
 schools of design in all the manufacturing districts, and a depart- 
 ment of practical arts was created under the superintendence of Sir 
 Henry Cole, who worked for twenty years at the formation of the 
 admirable and unique museum at South Kensington. 
 
 The Queen, on opening Parliament in 1853, urged the importance 
 of giving free scope to cultivation of the fine arts. In lbi4, £1295 
 was spent in Paris on an artistic collection for the School oi De- 
 sign, and £5000 was devoted to the purchase of the best produc- 
 tions of the Exhibition of 1851. The Prince Consort also bought 
 the ground on which the South Kensington Museum now stands. 
 
 There are now 160 schools of art in England in connection with 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 87 
 
 tliis Museum, not counting the multitude of private schools that 
 have been opened for the study of the fine arts. Painting has at 
 length won its rightful place; rich Englishmen all possess a picture- 
 gallery, and a castle without one would do little honor to itB owner. 
 Painters are highly thought of, and received in the best society; and 
 the most celebrated artists live in luxurious, indeed princely, man- 
 sions. 
 
 Fashionable visits to the studios take place on Sunday; and there 
 is even a special " Studio Sunday," a month before the opening of 
 the Academy, when a pilgrimage is made to the studios of favorite 
 artists. 
 
 Among the most distinguished representatives of English art are 
 Sir Frederick Leighton, President and Trustee of the Royal Aca- 
 demy; John Everett Millais, Edward Poynter, G. F. Watts, Alma 
 Tadema, Frank Holl, Edwin Long, Herkomer, Hunt, Fildes, 
 Burne-Jone^, Boughton, Whistler, Pettie, Ouless, W. Crane, 
 Cooper, etc. 
 
 Sir Frederick Leighton is, as " Jehu Junior " says, " one of those 
 delicate natures who have succeeded so well in driving out the sav- 
 age from our human clay that nothing but the refined gentleman 
 remains." He is a highly accomplished man, the first painter in 
 England, an eminent sculptor, as the distinction he won at the Paris 
 Salons proved. An admirable speaker, a great linguist, an exquisite 
 musician, this gifted artist is also a remarkable tactician, and did 
 honor to the artists' corps of volunteers, of which he was colonel. 
 He is a member of the lnstitut de France. He is disinterested and 
 unassuming, and for his fellow-artists he expresses nothing but 
 praise and admiration. He speaks of Gainsborough with religious 
 enthusiasm; and he once spoke to me of the regret with which he 
 had seen in the Bohemian quarters of the Luxembourg in Paris 
 painters of extraordinary talent, who were prevented by poverty 
 from taking their proper place in the world. 
 
 Sir Frederick, although rather gray, is in the prime of life. He 
 has studied in all the schools of Europe, especially in Italy. When 
 talking with him his courteous manners and his perfect accent make 
 you think that he is a Parisian, and you fancy you have met him in 
 the Rue de l'Ouest; but suddenly you say, " No, he is an Italian— a 
 son of the Capitol; 1 remember having seen him lounging along the 
 Coiso;" or you may have observed him in the Mosques, or at the 
 Alhambra; for this great traveler has been to all the cradle-lands of 
 art, as far as Persia and the country of the Moors. 1 must tell you 
 about the palace he has built for himself in the Holland Park Road 
 
88 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 —a temple of taste, which even Ruskin might praise. In the en- 
 trance-hall every inch of walls and ceiling is adorned by some work 
 of art, and the floor is inlaid with mosaics of subdued coloring. A 
 large vestibule connects this hall with a sanctuary of art, where one 
 gazes with delight on columns of iare marble, friezes of raised gold, 
 window -frames of marvelous carved wood from the East, walls 
 with precious stuccoes, a vaulted ceiling, from whose center hangs 
 an enormous Eastern chandelier. A thousand other objects attract 
 notice, and the artistic effects of light capriciously shed on the walls 
 of varying blue are simply fairy-like. The walls of the rooms on 
 the ground-floor are hung with pictures by Corot, Constable, and 
 Daubigny; their contents are porcelain from Persia, vases from 
 Rhodes, Japanese hangings, Turkey carpets, and many treasures of 
 the East. 
 
 A fine staircase, adorned with rare pictures, leads up to the first 
 floor. Here is a delicious Arabian room; and passing by works of 
 Delacroix, Watts, Tintoret, Sebastian, Del Piombo, etc., one 
 reaches the great studio, where the gems of this museum are ac- 
 cumulated. But there 1 must stop, and can only hope that you will 
 one day inspect it for yourself, and enjoy the exquisite courtesy of 
 its owner. 
 
 One last word. A man maybe known by his books; and Sir 
 Frederick Leigh ton has in his library the masterpieces of all lan- 
 guages, from Aristotle, Pliny, and Terence, to Goethe and Victor 
 Hugo. He has painted the great frescoes in South Kensington 
 Museum, also many well-known pictuies and admirable mural 
 decorations. His statues are life itself, and he is at this moment 
 working at a very fine figure. 
 
 Close by is the studio of Mr. Watts, the head of the English 
 idealistic school, and very well known besides as a painter of por- 
 traits, which really seem to live, speak, and move. 1 saw an excel- 
 lent one of M. Thiers. Mr. Watts was a great friend and protege 
 of Lord Holland. His first work that attracted notice is the one at 
 Westminster, " Caractacus and his family taken prisoners to 
 Rome." 
 
 Whoever you are, you may knock at the door of Mr. Watts's 
 house, and will be admitted with the simple formality of signing 
 your name in the visitors' book. You enter a square hall contain- 
 ing a hundred or so of pictures by Mr. Watts. If you desire to see 
 him, you then go up to his studio, and two great pictures dawn 
 upon your view, "Death and Love," and " Love leading Life." 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOHDOH. 89 
 
 Both of these form a good expression of his theories, his prefer- 
 ences, and his genius. 
 
 At the request of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, 
 he sent fifty of his pictures there— quite a little exhibition in them- 
 selves. 
 
 1 will now take you to the princely abode of Mr. Millais, the mas- 
 ter of the realistic school, and a famous genre painter. The im- 
 mense hall, crowded with treasures, is marvelous. A gigantic stair- 
 case leads to the landing-place of the first floor, where a seal in 
 bronze coming out of a marble basin spouts water from its nostrils. 
 The studio is vast, oblong, very high, well lighted and luxuiious, 
 and always contains a few pictures and some life-like portraits. 
 
 Mr. Millais was born at Jersey, and brought up at Dinau, where 
 at five years of age he astonished the garrison by his military 
 sketches. His style is his own; he has applied all his intellect to 
 art, and frequently repeats that painting is nothing without thought. 
 Struck by what he called the infidelity to nature in modern art, he 
 formed with Hunt and Kosetti a pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and 
 they added to their signature on their pictures the letters "P. R. 
 B." But he soon saw there was more affectation than truth in the 
 new school, and abandoned his protest. The signature of the three 
 letters only appears on three of his piclures. 
 
 Millais is kind to young aitists. A painter, uncertain about him- 
 self, went one day to see him, and asked if he would not do better 
 to turn farmer. Millais put a sum of money into his hand, and re- 
 plied, " Work!" A short time after the young man finished a pict- 
 ure that was admired even by the severe critic Ruskin. 
 
 Millais is as popular as his work is celebrated, and everybody 
 knows " Chill October," "Sir "Walter Raleigh," and others that 
 are masterpieces and true poems. He is an agreeable man, and 
 welcomed in the highest society. 
 
 Now we go to Regent's Park, and arrive at a house that 1 need 
 ' not name, foi it has been described so many times that you will 
 recognize it at once. The owner of this very original dwelling is 
 the kindly artist Alma Tadema, a simple, good-natured, communi- 
 cative, unceremonious Dutchman. 
 
 On the Italian fagade of the great square house is a frieze of por- 
 celain, and the Latin word salve. On the left are two rooms; in 
 the first a piano, some pictures, and a charming portrait of Mrs. 
 Tadema; the second room opens into a conservatory adorned by a 
 bust of the painter's charming wife, executed by Dalon. On the 
 right a room, or rather a little museum, with a curious Japanese 
 
90 THE SOCIETY OE LONDOH. 
 
 painting on silk, more than two yards long, Lansing on the wall; 
 above it ten old escutcheons in carved wood, the arms ot tne Cor- 
 poration of Tailors of Ley den: the window is formed of pretty Dutch 
 panes. In the dining-room the large-patterned paper blends so har- 
 moniously with the painted ceiling that the transition can scarcely 
 be discovered. Above the chimney-piece is a full-length portrait of 
 one of Alma Tadema's daughters. Beyond is a large and beautiful 
 garden. 
 
 Let us go upstairs. The walls of the staircase are covered with 
 photographs of the artist's works. On the first floor we enter a lit- 
 tle drawing-room all in gold, but of a dull harmonious lone. A 
 mirror with a silver frame and several other objects stand out in re- 
 lief from this well-designed background. The mantel-piece is 
 adorned with a pretty bronze figure of Mrs. Tadema lying on a couch. 
 The window is made of a multitude ot little divisions filled with 
 semi-transparent panes of Mexican onyx. But the wonder ot this 
 drawing-room is a piano that the artist himself has designed, It is 
 a mixture of delicately blended colors and of exquisite and varied 
 carving. On the sides there are bass-reliefs, and at the lower end 
 of the piano a bead of Orpheus in silver. 
 
 Open the instrument and a surprise awaits you ; it contains a treas- 
 ure, tor it is lined on the inside witli vellum as white as ivory, and 
 this is covered with autographs of all the most eminent artists in 
 Europe. Alma Tadema is an excellent musician. 
 
 We next enter an eastern boudoir, a kind of divan, with a parquet 
 in black and white. At last we reach the studio, a large room en- 
 tirely painted in the Pompeian style, with pillars, frescoes, etc., 
 and containing the reproduction of the Library of Herculaneum. 
 It is here that the master receives. 
 
 Alma Tadema is a pupil of Leys, the great painter of Antwerp, 
 and has lived in London for fifteen years. He was the first to color 
 the nails of his studio, and dispelled the prejudice that they ought 
 always to be of a uniform gray. He was at that time painting 
 " The Education of the Children of Clotilde," and be used to try 
 effects and practice upon the walls, which were soon covered with 
 " Merovingian " costumes. 
 
 His wife is also a distinguished artist; she is very charming, and 
 laminds me of another artist, the wife ot Tinant, the sculptor, and 
 mother of the young caricaturist, Robert Tinant, who died so young. 
 
 Alma Tadema is leaving his present house for that formerly occu- 
 pied by the French painter, Tissot. 
 
 Alma Tadema has produced about two hundred and fifty pictures 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDOK. 91 
 
 in oil or water-colors; and since his picture of the " Pyrrhean 
 Dance," has taken a foremost place in London. 
 
 One Hi tie anecdote about him. A young man went one day to 
 his studio and asked him to give him lessons; he replied that he did 
 not take pupils, and advised him to continue bis studies by travel, 
 When the young man returned, be renewed his request. " Well," 
 said the artist, " Ivvlli give you lessons in this way: you shall name 
 the subject for a picture; I will paint it in your studio while you 
 look on, and then you shall buy it." 
 
 This was done, and the young man profited so well by the lessons 
 that he was enabled to paint the charming portrait of Mrs. Tadema 
 which 1 have already mentioned. The picture painted under these 
 condiiions was " The Artist's Model," and was exhibited last year 
 at the Paris Salon. 
 
 A very curious person is Mr, Whistler, the American painter, but 
 an agreeable man, He studied at Paris, where his first picture, 
 " The Wbite Girl," will be remembered. He has painted in a 
 house at Kensington an entire room, called the " Peacock " room 
 — amarvelous piece of work. His drawing is much like that of 
 Rembrandt, but he is reproached with never finishing his pictures; 
 yet they are full of truth, and he only copies from nature. He is a 
 correct draughtsman and has a true sense of color. 
 
 Poynter has exercised great influence on decorative art, and effect- 
 ed much good, especially as director of the Fine Arts at the Soutb 
 Kensington Museum. 
 
 I lerkomer, whose hair and beard look as if they were blown by 
 the wind, is a Bavarian, thirty-six years of age, with a fine head, 
 and great enthusiasm, He is a rapid worker, an excellent painter, 
 and a very interesting man. Born in America, the son of poor 
 parents, he came and established himself in London, and is now a 
 naturalized Englishman. A painter, sculptor, and even a good 
 blacksmith, he is clever at everything; does not smoke or drink, and 
 has made a large fortune. He is a clever and kindly critic, and a 
 gay, generous companion. 
 
 Carl Haag, also a Bavarian, is at the head of painters in water- 
 colors, a great favorite at the Court, and a conscientious artist, wbo, 
 having traveled much in the East, can see nothing but the East, 
 paint nothing but the East, and lias built himself an extremely curi- 
 ous studio of Egyptian bric-dbrac. 
 
 I should like to have spoken to you of Frank Holl, Hunt, Cooper, 
 Beyle, whose fine " Apple Blossom " is so attractive, but 1 must re- 
 
92 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOST. 
 
 frain, and must also neglect the sculptors, or this letter wili never 
 end. 
 
 Every one knows the woman washing a child, called here " The 
 Din y Boy," and the two ragamuffins disputing over the sale of a 
 newspaper to a passer-by, "1 am first, sir." These very popular 
 works are by Focardi, the sculptor, who has executed many others 
 and is very successful in London. 
 
 One word also ot anotlier sculplor, Count Gleichen, a nephew of 
 the Queen, whose real name is His Serene Highness Victor Ferdi- 
 nand Franz Eugene Gustave Adolphe Constantin Frederic de 
 Hohenlohe-Langenburg. He is a plain-dealing man, frank and 
 open, very much liked; he began his career in the navy, and dropped 
 his title ot admiral for that of sculptor. He served in the Crimea, 
 and was wounded three times. He married the daughter of Admi- 
 ral Seymour, and from that time abandoned the title of prince and 
 uses the unassuming appellation ot Count Gleichen. He lives at 
 Windsor Castle, of which he is Governor. He has executed works 
 of great merit, and among others a bust of Mary Anderson, last year. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH LETTER. 
 
 THEATERS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Forty years ago the drama scarcely existed in Londou, but 
 French pieces have been translated, and the taste for the theater 
 has gradually been developed. Dramatic authors have improved; 
 a few possess very great talent. Formerly theaters were to be 
 let everywhere, but now they are competed for. A theater is let in 
 England exactly like a house, on lease by the year, the month, the 
 week, or even for a single performance. The manager is sometimes 
 an author, but more frequently an actor. 
 
 The fraternity of adapters has given rise to that of imitators, who, 
 for want of time and talent, copy and pilfer foreign pieces without 
 scruple. 
 
 There is no society with the power of imposing a uniform author's 
 fee on theaters; the authors make their own arrangements with the 
 managers, and the society that does exist only aims at obtaining the 
 sums agreed upon. Every author fixes the price of his piece as he 
 chooses. 
 
 A good dramatic author can earn much money in England, but 
 three quarters of them have other occupations. The national En- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 93 
 
 glish theater lives on its rather limited repertory. I will not speak 
 ot the universal Shakespeare— the colossus who rules the world. 
 The last century gave the theater the comedies ot Sheridan; more 
 recently I here has been a great numbei of dramatic writers of in- 
 disputable talent — Boucicault, Petitt, Conquest, Sims, Herman, 
 John Taylor, etc. 
 
 At the present time one of the most powerful dramatic authors is 
 unquestionably Mr. Sims, who seems to have undertaken to revolu- 
 tionize the English stage. He passes his life in studying the social 
 strata of this new Babylon called London, and may be seen every 
 morning in the very poorest quarters, mingling with vagrants, 
 scamps, riffraff— the very dregs of society. Poverty, theft, uu 
 blushing infamy, or cowering shame, nothing is unknown to him. 
 
 Owing to tbe rich harvest that he gathers, his dramas give us 
 heart-rending realistic scenes, where he mingles the evil of the upper 
 classes and the evil of the mob in order to compare and stigmatize 
 them all, and depicts generous self-sacrifice and greatness of soul 
 contrasted with the poorest surroundings. He puts aside the con- 
 ventionality of the drama, and cares only for what is real. 
 
 Mr. Sims will certainly win a place in London similar to that 
 occupied in France by Dumas and Sardou, and although the last 
 comer, he is the favorite and most fashionable. 
 
 English comedies, not having the resource of guilty love, are apt 
 to be insipid. The dramas are, however, fine when they deal frank- 
 ly with the national virtues and vices. Money, which plays so 
 great a part in England, becomes the motive of adventurers of every 
 kind— usurers, swindlers, thieves, burglars, etc. — and the scenes are 
 rapid and amusing. 
 
 The English have not yet a dramatic literature of their own. 
 When they can venture to exhibit English society as it really is, 
 they will find an inexhaustible supply of excellent pieces in real life. 
 
 In consequence of ihe exorbitant demands of singers, the Italian 
 opera is for the moment not to be heard in London. There have 
 been several attempts at a French theater. M. Mayer has revived 
 the short French seasons, and this year has had a winter sea3on. 
 His success must be attributed to his choice ot artists: Jane Hading, 
 who made all London iun after her; Jane May, who was much ad- 
 mired; the graceful, lively, fascinating Rose Lion, who played in 
 every piece; and Mademoiselle Gerfaut, who became known in the 
 " Pattes de Mouches," and at once took the first rank with these 
 other three. The men-Shey, Didier, Colombey— are worthy of 
 the best days ot the French stage, 
 
94 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 The most talented actors are Irving, Wilson Barrett, Madame 
 Modjeska, Mrs. Kendal, and Ellen Terry. Nothing is more com- 
 ical in London than the comic actors, and nothing worse than those 
 who play the lover. Lionel Brough, Anson, PauUon, Roberts, ami 
 Toole would make the fortune oi the Paiis Palais Royal. 
 
 The chorus singers are geneially pretty, and there is au increasing 
 number of young, fascinating, and clever .11 tistes, such as Florence 
 St John, Kale Munroe. Violet Canieion, Nellie Power, Miss F r 
 Useue, and Lillian Russell. 
 
 The pieces are put upon the stage with lavish decoration and v\iih 
 charming effects of light. 
 
 In short, like music and painting, the dramatic art is developing 
 rapidly, and makes fresh strides every day. There is no national 
 school of dramatic art in London, so that much talent is lost for 
 lack of training, and many persons act who have not the least idea 
 of their art; but progress is evident, although it is made at random 
 Most of the theaters have done away with the necessity of bnyi g 
 a programme, and of leaving your gieat-coat in the cloak 100m. 
 When you have paid for your ticket you need not pay for anything 
 else. Gratuities are forbidden, programmes are presented, the mis- 
 ery of narrow benches and of greedy box-keepers is unknown; the 
 cloakroom is tree, and the manager posts up everywhere "Ki» 
 
 NINETEENTH LETTER. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Nowhere is so much music heard as in London— from the music 
 in the streets to great concerts that are not confined to the uumerous 
 halls built on purpose for them, but invade the drawing-rooms of 
 great houses, where a guinea is charged for the privilege of admis- 
 sion. English ears seem never tired; and besides all this, schools 
 and town-halls are used for concerts, 
 
 London has no Conservatoire, though there are, it is true, a num- 
 ber of Schools of Music— the Royal College, the Royal Academy, 
 the Guildhall School, and others; but these are all either private 
 undertakings or societies; the lessons are very expensive, and the 
 teaching leaves much to b? desired. For example, the Sol-fa and 
 Theory of Music are not obligatory, and a scholar may receiy; 
 honors and distinctions who can not read a line of music a! si-hi, 
 or beat the time of a single bar, 
 
THE SOCIETY OP LONDOH. 95 
 
 The winners of prizes and medals at these schools would not be 
 allowed to compete for a prize in a Conservatoire on the Continent. 
 If they wanted to do so they would have to begin their studies over 
 again. 
 
 The Royal College still wants a hundred thousand pounds, and 
 is begging for money on all sides. But for all that concerns these 
 institutions, and English music in general, 1 refer you to a very fair, 
 well-written book, which is none the worse lor being also amusing — 
 " La Musique au Pays des Brouillards." 
 
 The Guildhall School of Music is supported by the Corporation 
 of the City. The school has from two to three thousand pupils, to 
 whom a very small amount of teaching is allotted. The length of 
 the lessons will give you an idea of this — twenty minutes a week! 
 
 There are plenty of private professors, but jrood ones are very 
 scarce. The Grammar of Music is unknown in London, and no 
 pupil would submit to being forced to learn it. The Sol-fa is here 
 called Harmony. It you ask a young lady to beat the time of a 
 piece she tells you that she is not going to be the leader of an or- 
 chestra. Singing is even more badly taught; the Sol-fa is not con- 
 sidered to have anything to do with it, and, except by a few foreign 
 protessois, vocalization is not taught. It is not even necessary to 
 ask whether you have a voice; you want to sing, and you sing, 
 never mind how. You need not even give yourself the trouble of 
 bringing out your voice, or ot cultivating it. 
 
 Among professional musicians there are many of great talent — 
 Mackenzie, Dr. Stanford, etc.— who have succeeded Balfe and 
 Sterndale Bennett; there are also classical composers like Macfarren 
 and Cowan. The latter, whom the German masters are proud to 
 call their pupil, ha3 written some remarkable symphonies, oratorios, 
 and even an opera, which place him in the first rank of modern com- 
 posers; indeed his Scandinavian Symphony is a chef d'muwe that 
 will remain a standard work. There are also composers of light 
 music: Sullivan, who writes' very pretty romances, gay little operet- 
 tas, and now and then serious music; Strada, a delightful composer, 
 who will soon be the most fashionable musician, and will, 1 think, 
 shine at the the theaters of Paris. His " Boutade," so popular in 
 England, is the mosi original and charming piece that has ever been 
 written for that unaccommodating instrument — the piano. There 
 is also Ivan Caryl 1, who, while waiting to be recalled to Paris, is 
 making a position as a writer of operettas in London. I pass by 
 many others, and perhaps the best, for the list might be a long 
 one. The favorite musicians are mostly Germans, who, indeed, are 
 
96 THE SOCIETY OF LOHDOiir. 
 
 put at the head of every institution here, and who come from every 
 quarter of Germany. 
 
 The invasion began with Sir Julius Benedict, a pupil of Weber, 
 and leader oi the orchestra at the Opera at Vienna, and afterward 
 of Saint Carlo. 
 
 He came to London at thirty years of age, and has composed an 
 opera and various pieces. He was knighted by the Queen, and, at 
 the age of seventy-eight, married for the second lime. Benedict is 
 at the head of the musical world in England, and has always been 
 popular iu society.* 
 
 TWENTIETH LETTER. 
 
 THE CITY AND THE LORD MAYOR. 
 
 You know that a part of London near the center and entirely de- 
 voted to national and international business is called the City; an 
 enormous mart, where, in thousands of agency offices, occupied 
 from cellar to the root by business, all the commerce of England is 
 centered. There the most colossal enterprises are planned and pro- 
 jected. This separate little corner, unique in the world, is still 
 ruled by institutions of the Middle Ages, and exhibits a curious 
 combination of progress and feudality, which makes it resemble a 
 car dragged in opposite directions by two teams of horses. 
 
 The City is under the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor— a magis- 
 trate chosen for a year from among the richest merchants who have 
 reached the rank of Alderman and Sheriff. Outside the City the 
 Lord Mayor is nobody. His palace — the Mansion House, opposite 
 the Exchange and the Bank— has Guildhall for a branch establish- 
 ment, a temple of justice, exclusively reserved for the culprits of 
 the City. 
 
 I do not intend to describe the City in its commercial aspect, but 
 only to depict what is supposed to be its society. 1 therefore leave 
 men of business, who, indeed, do not exist after their hours of 
 work, but shaking off the dust of their offices, belong to another 
 world. All these merchants love their old City, and from time im- 
 memorial have formed a real court round their sovereign the Lord 
 Mayor. 
 
 The organization of the City is as follows: about one fifth of the 
 men of business who have their offices there have to elect a Munici- 
 
 * Since this writing Sir Julius Benedict has died. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDOH. 97 
 
 pal Council ot 206 members, generally chosen from the leading 
 merchants. This Council includes twenty-six aldermen, each at 
 the head of one ot the twenty-six quarters of the City; then come 
 the Sheriffs, and finally the Lord Mayor, elected from the two 
 aldermen who have been chosen Dy the Liveiymeu. or members of 
 the corporations. 
 
 It is then that the masquerade of the 9th of November takes 
 place, when the Lord Mayor goes to be installed in his office— for- 
 merly at Westminster, and now at the New Law Courts— accom- 
 panied by a procession, that has preserved its medieval character. 
 
 The Common Council is absolute master, and suffers no control; 
 the Government has nothing to do with it. The Lord Mayor is 
 absolute in his City; the Queen could not cross it without his per- 
 mission, and the Guards would not dare to enter without his au- 
 thority. 
 
 Besides this official organization, the heads of each trade have 
 united and formed corporations, that, from donations, bequests, 
 etc., are richer than many of our municipalities. These corpora- 
 tions possess land that in the course of centuries has acquired enor- 
 mous value. The fortune accumulated in their hands is employed 
 in founding schools, colleges, asylums, hospitals; building markets, 
 giving scholarships, and even, as you see, in an Academy of Music, 
 all within sound ot Bow Bells— that is to say, within the boundaries 
 of this little kingdom of shop-keepers. The wealth of the corpora- 
 tions is so gigantic thai, some of their superfluous funds are dis- 
 tributed to other charities, or to poor institutions; but the establish- 
 ment thus created, and the charities they dispose ot, are always for 
 the benefit of their own members who have fallen into poverty, or 
 who need assistance. 
 
 The corporations are divided as follows: the Court, which ad- 
 ministers the tunds, and the Livery (this word indicates that the 
 latter have the right to wear the costume ot the corporation). The 
 members of the Court are elected from among the Liverymen. 
 When a place is vacated by death, the choice ought to fall in order 
 of seniority on persons who belong to the trade of the corporation; 
 but this is not done, and young members who do not belong to the 
 business are often chosen, provided they are rich and influential. 
 The corporations were supposed to admit only persons of their own 
 profession, but the sons ot former merchants were afterward ac- 
 cepted; thus persons who had nothing to do with business could 
 obtain this right, either by election, or for the modes! sum of £100. 
 Much value is set on belonging to one of these associations, and the 
 4 
 
98 THE SOCIETY OE LONDOtf. 
 
 Prince of Wales himself is a member of the Corporation of Tailors. 
 These corporations used to be called Guilds, whence the place 
 where they meet receives the name of " Guildhall." Some of them, 
 such as the Crossbowmen, Ropemakers, etc., are now only tra- 
 ditional, their trades having disappeared; but they still exist as cor- 
 porations. 
 
 Besides their philanthropic institutions and other good works, 
 these societies manifest their existence ty the dinners tbey give, 
 and should the Municipal Government be changed there is at least 
 this consolation for them, the dinners may continue. Great wealth 
 is displayed at these magnificent repasts. 
 
 Conscious of the accomplishment of a great duty, the merchants 
 of the City of London dine with the solemnity of priests performing 
 theii sacred functions. 
 
 Another souvenir of feudal times are the Inns of Court, of which 
 there are four: the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which 
 used to belong to the Knights Templars; Lincoln's Inn, which was 
 the property of the Black Friars; and Gray's Inn, the primitive xesi- 
 dence of Lord Gray, Once inns in reality, as students destined to 
 the Law were formerly obliged to live there for three years, as stu- 
 dents at Oxford and Cambridge still have to do, residence gradually 
 became optional, and now students no longer Jive there at all, and 
 the buildings are converted into lawyers' offices. But the students 
 are still obliged to dine six times in a term in one of the special halls, 
 where the table on the left is reserved for them, while the table on 
 the right belongs to the barristers, who are not obliged to attend. 
 Every one admitted to these fraternal feasts has to wear his wig 
 and gown; even the waiters are still dressed up in their last-century 
 costumes. The aim of these dinneis, it appears, or rather the tra- 
 ditional intention of them, is to make sure of the presence of the 
 students in London. These Inns resemble veritable monasteiies, 
 with their refectory, library, gardens, lodge-porters, and gates that 
 are closed at ten o'clock. 
 
 Ihe Inns of Chancery are old colleges which have become 
 societies of solicitors, who also only meet in order to dine. 
 
 The Freemasons also have their temples in the City, but they are 
 only restaurants, and the monthly meetings take place round a 
 dinner-table. Charity is the only mission of Freemasons in Lon- 
 don, and they rival the City corporations in lavish generosity. Dur- 
 ing the last eleven years they have given £350,000 to three Masonic 
 Institutions. 
 
 Any pretext for giving a dinner is welcome to the Lord Mayor. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDON". 99 
 
 First there is a certain number of official banquets, like that of the 
 9th of November, his coronation day; then dinners given to the 
 winners of the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race, to various societies, 
 to extraordinary .embassadors, to noble foreigners, to members of 
 Congress, etc. At these banquets an infinite number of speeches 
 are made, the "English excelling, as you know, in this kind of after- 
 dinner eloquence. Ladies are admitted to most of the dinners at the 
 Mansion House, even though they are forbidden other gastronomic 
 exhibitions. 
 
 1 have not exhausted all the gayeties of the city by a long wuy, a 
 biography of all the Lord Mayors would be one of the most delight- 
 ful books in the world. But, however unwillingly, 1 must end 
 this letter, to which 1 might have given the title of " Dinners." 
 
 TWENTY FIRST LETTER. 
 
 THE MIDDLE CLASS. 
 
 1 have little to tell you about the middle class, except that it apes 
 the aristocracy, but has fewer vices and more prejudices. 
 
 " God and my right!" This is the motto of the Englishman, to 
 whatever class he may belong, and my right comes first, and God 
 afterward! A nation that defines itself by a coarse expression of 
 care for personal interest, and for nothing else, how can it be any- 
 thing but selfish? An Englishman will never inconvenience him- 
 self in order not to inconvenience his neighbor. Many of them com- 
 plain of this, but foreigners are the greatest sufferers from it. Yet 
 it is wrong to say that the English are coaise and rude. Ill-educated 
 Englishmen are so, and such may be found in the highest aristoc- 
 racy. Well- educated Englishmen are coldly and punctiliously 
 polite in an undemonstrative, calm way. This politeness exists even 
 in the lowest classes, and there are many workmen with better man 
 ners than some lords. The worst impression of Englishmen is given 
 by their utter indifference to one another, and to every one whom 
 they do not know. 
 
 Prejudices are especially long-lived in England. One of these 
 prejudices of English people is their love of dress. They must be 
 en toilette; they dress when they get up, aud know nothing of the 
 delights of a .dressing-gown and slippers. In the evening, at an 
 hour when we resume those cherished garments, consecrated to ease 
 and intimacy, they dress themselves up as if for parade or a village 
 procession, 
 
100 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 This would be all very well when receiving guests; but no, Mon- 
 sieur has no one with him but Madame, 01 perhaps he is dining ab- 
 solutely alone, and yet he will put on evening-dress before sitting 
 down to table. You will not believe me, but 1 swear that 1 have 
 seen it. 
 
 It is undeniable tnat the English are cold people; yet they are very 
 fond of pleasure, and spend money on it recklessly; but they take 
 it in such an undemonstrative way that it seems extremely comical 
 to us to hear them utter the customary phrase, " 1 enjoyed myself 
 immensely." 
 
 .Besides the defective national education, there is very great igno- 
 rance, not of what is to be learned from books, for therein they are 
 better informed than we are, but ignoiance of the ordinary affairs 
 of life, of the things learned no one knows how. It is the educa- 
 tion that comes from things around us, from the outer world, from 
 travel, and from general ideas that gives the polish to conversation 
 among Russians, French, and Austrians, which, without any pro- 
 fundity, enables them to shine in society. 
 
 As 1 have mentioned education, 1 will say one word more about 
 it. Among the aristocracy young girls are taught by a resident 
 governess and various professors, and sports, especially riding, are 
 regarded as important studies. Schools are chiefly used by the mid- 
 dle class, and there are some very good ones; but the majority are 
 cramped by routine. When a lady engages a governess, she requires 
 from a poor young girl everything that a human being could learn 
 in a long life-lime — Latin, foreign languages, arts and sciences, every 
 accomplishment; and her requirements are as great as the salary she 
 offers is small. The Phenix that a middle-class family requires is 
 probably offeied £25 a year. 
 
 \oung men have excellent schools, and complete their education 
 at the celebrated Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edin- 
 burgh. But even there sports are considered as important as study; 
 and to be first at foot-ball, cricket, or* boat-race, is quite as credita- 
 ble as to win a scholarship or to take a degree. 
 
 In sports the English are the masters of the world. Facts are 
 more agreeable to their minds than thoughts, and their numerous 
 talents are rather solid than brilliant. But they have one good 
 quality, the opposite to our national defect— they never speak witn- 
 out thinking. The national character can be best sudied in the mid- 
 dle class, for '.here extremes, either of vice or virtue, do not exist. 
 England is, in short, a fine, great, and generous nation, exceedingly 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 101 
 
 hospitable, and the populai prejudice against her in Russia and in 
 France is profoundly unjust 
 
 Although formality reigns everywhere, there are some pleasant 
 salons, and the middle class, which occupies a great position in 
 London, offers much amusement to foreigners, and makes them very 
 welcome, provided they are people of culture. 
 
 More money is spent on visitors here than anywhere else; there 
 are more receptions given than in Russia or in France, and many 
 people keep open house to their friends. Wealthy families receive 
 every week, or at least every month, and crowd to all places of 
 amusement. 
 
 The English middle class does not possess estates, but each family 
 rents a house in the country for the season, or goes to the sea-side. 
 No one passes the whole year in London; the first sunshiny day 
 produces a longing for " a little change," and an entire family packs 
 up its trunks and departs. All the watering-places are not equally 
 fashionable. Brighton attracts the fashionable world from October 
 to December; in the winter people go to Eastbourne, Ventnor, 
 Torquay, Bournemouth, and in the autumn to Hastings, Folkestone, 
 or Scarborough. Margate aad Ramsgate are much less elegant, and 
 Southend, though it is a delighiful little place, is only visited by 
 people of slender means. 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND LETTER. 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 In a city like London— the richest in the world, and where the 
 
 conditions of fortune do not always accord with position and birth 
 
 society is a very vague expression. The English themselves divide 
 it into two parts, nobility and gentry, but between these two terms 
 it is very difficult to decide the exact limits. 
 
 England has several kinds of nobility: the grand old nobility of 
 land and of the sword; then the aristocracy of money. In a country 
 where every man is the maker of his own fortune it is natural that 
 there should be a great many titled parvenus. Then come the small 
 fry— the modern lords, the new baronets, and knights. 
 
 The " gentry " necessarily includes members of the fashionable 
 world who have no titles, and the upper middle class, great finan- 
 ciers, men who have made large fortunes; for if money does not 
 make happiness it at least procures a very comfortable place in the 
 world. 
 
102 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOtf. 
 
 The great number of people possessing large fortunes has caused 
 divisions and distinctions that are extremely amusing. It is per- 
 fectly natural that a man possessing a hundred to a hundred and 
 fifty thousand pounds a year could not receive a poor fellow who 
 had not more than a thousand a year—quite a beggarly sum in Lon- 
 don. There would be too much difference in the entertainments 
 given and received. The upper middle class delights in luxury and 
 elegance, and only differs from the aristocracy by lack of title; the 
 lower middle class is composed of men with modest incomes (from 
 two to four thousand a year), of City merchants, lawyers, doctors, 
 etc. 
 
 Below the upper and lower middle class there is a succession of 
 divisions and subdivisions urtil you reach lodging-houses, furnished 
 apartments, and shop parlors. It is a curious thing that there is 
 much similarity in all these classes with regard to entertainments, 
 with more or less etiquette as the rank of the host requires, and, as 
 usual, the lower you go the more amusement is to be found. 
 
 These are the customs of society as regards parties: The invita- 
 tions are given on a printed card with nothing but " Mrs. X. at 
 home " on such a day. If it is a ball, there is the word " dancing " 
 in the corner; if a musical evening, "music," and sometimes 
 " theatricals;" for society in England has a mania tor drawing-room 
 performances, without much regard to the talent of the performeis. 
 
 The card also often bears the information that Mrs. X. is "at 
 home " every Tuesday, or every Sunday (Sundays are getting very 
 fashionable), or the first Monday in every month, etc., and that 
 means that except on this paiticular day she does not want to see 
 you. Every lady has her weekly or monthly "day," when her 
 friends appear for a few minutes, drink a cup of tea, revile their 
 neighbors, complain of their servants, and criticise the toilets of their 
 dearest friends. 
 
 The great defect of English society is the want of sociability; 
 aftei six o'clock in the evening no one ventures to knock at his 
 neighbor's door, unless he has been specially invited. The charm 
 of intimacy is lost in this isolation and in the crush of overcrowded 
 parties. In the summer any one who possesses a garden is delight- 
 ed to turn the " at home " into a " garden-party." Invitations are 
 given for the afternoon, just the same as for the evening, but there is 
 very seldom any dancing at the receptions that are held between 
 four and seven o'clock. 
 
 In each house you find two large rooms, one devoted to the in- 
 evitable music, and the other to refreshments; this 100m is literally 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LOKDON". 103 
 
 besieged. Tea, coffee, lemonade, claret-cup, sherry, port, fruit of 
 all kinds, cakes, sandwiches, ices, and sometimes champagne— every- 
 thing is to be found there! 
 
 In the drawing-room, so soon as an audience is assembled, one 
 piece of music follows the other without leaving you time to make a 
 single observation, or to answer a single question. It is a cueli-cuelo 
 of amateurs who set your teeth on edge, and of professionals of all 
 kinds. Singers are generally listened to, however dreadful they 
 may be, and you can not imagine how dreadful they are unless you 
 have heard young girls who think they can sing after a dozen les- 
 ions, aud men who sing without any lessons at all, people who never 
 go out without their music, even to make a call, without style, 
 without voice, without time, and without mercy, sighing forth ro- 
 mances in a perfectly unintelligible language. An Italian said to 
 me the other day, " In our country, if an animal were to make a 
 noise like that, we should wring its neck." 
 
 As for the piano, it is understood to be a machine to set people 
 talking, and as soon as the first notes are heard, conveisation begins 
 on all sides, and is only checked by the last chord. 1 heard a lady 
 say to another after an artist had played very brilliantly, " She made 
 such a noise we couldn't hear ourselves speak." 
 
 Evening parties never begin before ten o'clock t and in the higher 
 circles they are soon over; every one has gone before twelve 
 o'clock, unless it is a ball. These receptions often follow a dinner, 
 and form a pleasant conclusion to it. 
 
 In the middle class, especially in its lower circles, parties are kept 
 up very late, and the horrible music goes on forever. Between eleven 
 and twelve the lady of the house makes a quiet little sign to the 
 gentlemen, and understanding what that means, each one offers his 
 arm to a lady, and takes her to the supper-room, where a magnifi- 
 cent repast awaits them— meat, poultry, salmon, tongue, sandwiches, 
 creams, cakes, fruit, etc. 
 
 The soiree continues after the supper, and very often ends with a 
 dance, when tired or useless people depart. 
 
 At garden-parties the scene is very much the same, only it takes 
 place in a garden, and there are often games — croquet, lawn-tennis, 
 etc.; but the music— the frightful music— that is never excluded! 
 A rival to music has lately appeared and become terribly popular, 
 it is recitation. The infatuation is the more unfortunate as the re- 
 citers have not the slightest idea of articulation or of elocution, 
 make the most extraordinary gesticulations, utterly inappropriate 
 
104 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 to their subject, and always choose long pieces, either very silly or 
 horribly dramatic. 
 
 1 have not wished to drag you through the maze of all the clubs, 
 but 1 must say one word about the New Club, where the fashion- 
 able world assembles, including ladies, the only society club that 
 has ever succeeded. The New Club, founded 1 wo years ago, has 
 now 600 members; music is given every evening— real music. 
 There is daocing two or three times a week, and charming little 
 oyster suppers are given after the play. Dramatic representations 
 by the first actors also take place on Saturday at midnight; Saiah 
 Bernhardt, Judic, and most of the French actors who came to Lon- 
 don, often took part in these. 
 
 The Bachelors' Club, where ladies are admitted to dine, is very 
 inferior to the New Club. 
 
 TWENTY -THIRD LETTER. 
 
 COUNTRY-HOUSES. 
 
 The origin of many aristocratic families is by no means glorious; 
 the descendants of the old aristocracy of the sword are now rare. 
 Many whose titles date from the reign of Queen Anne and the time 
 of the Georges were only the sons of courtesans or of people of the 
 lowest class, and have been raised more by the changes of time than 
 by their own desert. 
 
 Sir Philip Francis, as Lord Malmesbury tells us, undertook to 
 destroy every line of succession, by proving clearly that not a single 
 English nobleman was the descendant of his ancestors; and no 
 doubt, if too closely examined, many genealogies would fall to pieces 
 like a house of cards. 
 
 The aristocracy of finance replaced the aristocracy of the sword; 
 titles are more fairly obtained in our days, and the private life of 
 the nobility is purer. 
 
 Among noble politicians are Lord Rosebery and Lord Stanhope; 
 the latter is a Conservative, and enjoys universal esteem. Then 
 come the circles of Sir Arthur Hayter, a Liberal, of Lord Harting- 
 ton, and of the Duke of Sutherland— though the Duke is more in- 
 terested in social questions than in politics. The financial circles 
 are those of the Rothschilds, of Mrs. Oppenheim, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, 
 etc. Among other fashionable salons 1 must mention those of the 
 Duke of Westminster, the Maichioness of Santurce, Sir Allen 
 Young, of Mr. Harford, and Sir Algernon Borthwick, the propri- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 105 
 
 etor of the " Morning Post," who is so well known in Paris. A8 
 for musical circles, like that of the charming Lady Folkestone, it 
 would take more than a life-time to count them. 
 
 There are also some leaders of society who lend their houses for 
 meetings, and devote themselves to some special work, like the 
 Duchess of Sutherland, whom 1 have already named, the patroness 
 of teetotalers and the Blue Ribbon Army. Then come vegetarians, 
 spiritualists, anti-vaccinationists, anti-vivisectionists, cremationists, 
 theosopbic circles, like that of Mr. Sinnett, aesthetic ones, like that 
 of Mr. Oscar Wilde, and those more practical and more charitable 
 ones devoted to the protection and emancipation of women. Vis- 
 countess Harberton, Lady JBrassey, Mrs. Fawcett, and Mrs. Stuart 
 Mill, are at the head of this movement, while the Princess of Wales, 
 Miss Florence Nightingale, Viscountess Strangford, preside over 
 the meetings of the Red Cross Society, which take place at Lans- 
 downe House, the residence of Lord and Lady Rosebery. 
 
 It is in his country- house that the English aristocrat displays lux- 
 ury unrivaled in all Europe. 1 should like to give you a full de- 
 scription of life in these great country-houses, but it would take a 
 volume to do justice to the theme. 
 
 Every great English house has its legend, and 1 am sorry that I 
 can only mention the names of the most remarkable among them. 
 The vast and sumptuous domain of Trentham is the residence of 
 the Duke of Sutherland; Lord Bath occupies Longleat, the 
 finest example of the Elizabethan style; Lord Hardwick pos- 
 sesses Wimpole; the Duke of Westminster, Eaton Hall, the most 
 modern of houses, and utterly tasteless, although it possesses 
 everything that comfort and luxury can devise. Blenheim be- 
 longs to the Duke of Marlborough, The three finest seats in York- 
 shire, and built about the same time, are: Castle Howard, the seat 
 of the Earl of Carlisle ; Duncan Park, recently burned, the seat of 
 Lord Faversham ; and Harewood, that of Lord Harewood. 
 
 The loveliest park of all these lordly domains is Normanton, the 
 property of Lord Aveland. Warwick Castle, seated on a rock, and 
 believed to have been built by the famous Warwick, the King- 
 maker, belongs to Lord Warwick, and is unrivaled in its beauty, 
 except, perhaps, by Windsor Castle. It has towers 147 leet high, 
 state apartments more than 300 feet long, and the celebrated War- 
 wick vase of white marble, found at Tivoli, that will hold 163 
 gallons. 
 
 Goodwood, well known for its celebrated races, belongs to the 
 Duke of Richmond; Chatsworth to the Duke of Devonshire, the 
 
106 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 father of Lord Rartington. Witley Court is the residence of Lord 
 Dudley; Badminton, of the Duke of Beaufort; Lowther, of Lord 
 Lonsdale; Arundel Castle, of tbe Duke of Norfolk; and Aluwick, 
 of the Duke of Northumberland. 
 
 Very curious feles are sometimes given at these country-houses. 
 Thus at Southam-de-la-Bere, the late seat of Lord Ellenborough, an 
 ancient custom was revived in tbe month of Februar}'". Miss Sergi- 
 son, as Queen Elizabeth, received her guests in state, surrounded by 
 courtiers, banners and heralds. A lord of misrule was crowned with 
 pomp, and led the revels; there was a masquerade and dancing- 
 St. George and the Dragon, the Princess Rowena and the wassail, 
 bowl, Druids and mistletoe, wooden horses, and at ournament pre- 
 sided over by the queen, a yule-log, and Ihe procession of the boar's 
 head at the beginning and at the end of the entertainment. 
 
 ]n the month of August last Lady Archibald Campbell g >ve, at 
 Coombe House, Kingston, a dramatic representation that had to be 
 repeated three times, and which all London rushed to see. Behind 
 her gardens are woods that she transformed into a natural stage, and 
 acted in the open air Shakespeare's " As You Like It," four acts of 
 which take place in a forest. Light hangings fastened to the brauches 
 of the trees protected the audience from the burning rays of the 
 sun; mosses and ferns replaced tbe footlights, side scenes and back- 
 ground were all natural, and had long vistas that the nature of the 
 spot admiiably lent itself to. The entrances and exits, the gradual 
 retreat of the actors among the trees, the sound of voices, dying 
 away in the distance, the strange effect of the choruses in the forest, 
 the rays of soft light breaking through the somber foJiage, the gen- 
 tle sounds of the country, the cries of birds, the rustling of the 
 leaves, stirred by alight breeze, the perfume of this living, animate* 
 nature, all combined to make a fairy scene. 
 
 Lady Archibald played Orlando, and a few amateurs took part, 
 but the principal characters were intrusted to well-known actors. 
 
 When there is no f^te going on at a country-house the day passes 
 somewhat in this fashion. From 9.30 to 10.30 people come down 
 to breakfast, and as soon as the mistress of the house appears no one 
 else is waited for. After breakfast the party separates, and each 
 person occupies himself as he likes best until two o'clock. The 
 ladies write letters, or collect in the drawing-room with their needle- 
 work; the gentlemen walk about and amuse themselves as best they 
 can. At two o'clock luncheon is served, at three the carriages ap- 
 pear — wagonettes, landaus, victorias, saddle-horses, etc., etc. Each 
 one chooses the mode of locomotion that suits him best, and off they 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 107 
 
 go. At five o'clock every one is back again for tea, over which they 
 gossip till 6.30; then they dress for the seven o'clock dinner, and 
 the evening is devoted to music, whist, conversation, and work: 
 nothing can be more simple. 
 
 TWENTY -FOURTH LETTER 
 
 THE DIPLOMATIC BODY. 
 
 Duking the last thirty years great changes have taken place in the 
 Diplomatic Service. Embassadors are now little more than em- 
 ployes, except in the case of Russia; she still has diplomats, and 
 uses them. Jn London the foieign embassadors are changed so often 
 that they have not time to make their way in society, and society 
 has not time to know them. Those who give large parties succeed 
 in making a position for themselves, but except M. Van de Weyer, 
 Count Karolyi, and M. de Staal, few embassadors have become 
 intimate with the members of the English aristocracy. 
 
 M. and Mme. de Falbe, of the Danish Embassy, are friends of the 
 Princess of Wales on account of their nationality. M. Waddington 
 has not succeeded in society, and the French- embassadors are so 
 often changed that they only enjoy a momentary popularity, even 
 when they obtain so much. Count Herbert Bismarck and Count 
 Pourlales have an important place in society. The embassadors 
 live in a world of their own, an official world. The senior embas- 
 sador in London, who therefore has the right of precedence, is 
 Musurus Pasha, seventy-seven years of age, and since 1851 the rep- 
 resentative oi the Ottoman Porte. Born in Candia, he was governor 
 of Samos, and bad a sufficiently stormy youth. His skill and energy 
 won him the post of embassador at Vienna, and afterward at Lon- 
 don. He came here during the Crimean War, and managed so 
 well that he was made embassador in 1856 was decorated at the 
 conclusion of the negotiations at Paris, and received the title of 
 Pasha on the occasion of the Sultan's visit to London. The oppo- 
 sition of the Porte to the conclusion of the Protocol of the Powers, 
 drawn up in 1877 at the Conference at Constantinople, is attributed 
 to his influence. He is a man who sleeps with one eye open, and 
 that eye is always turned to the Black Sea. Very active, in spite 
 of his languid manners, he is the most important embassador in 
 London with regard to the interests of England in the East. 
 
 After him must come Count Munster, the embassador who iepre- 
 
108 THE SOCIETY OE LONDON". 
 
 sents Germany, but is more English than German, for he was born 
 in London, and his children are also English born. He may be 
 seen twice a day driving in Rotten Row; he has very good horses 
 and a four-in-hand, and takes more interest in sport than in diplo- 
 macy. Brought up in English habits, he has never lost them, al- 
 though he was educated at Bonn. 
 
 The next in order is Count Karolyi, but as Embassador of Austria 
 he has rattier an insignificant part to play. The Countess is a re- 
 markable woman and universally respected. She is of the true 
 Hungarian type, with grand manners and the carriage of an 
 empress. 
 
 Count Nigra, known to all Paris as the " Chevalier Nigra," has 
 recently come to London. Serving as a volunteer, he was wounded 
 at the battle of Rivoli, and as a secretary of Cavour's he has been 
 intrusted with so many different missions that he may be looked 
 upon as a diplomatist of the old school. 1 know him veiy well, and 
 have seen him more than once in Russia, where he was sent imme- 
 diately after he left Paris in 1876. Wherever he goes he does good 
 to Italy, and his embassy to France was very advantageous to his 
 own country. Clever, patient, and attracti ve, he has a clear, reso- 
 lute mind, has the right idea at the right moment, and foresees 
 events with the greatest accuracy. 
 
 In London Count Nigra is much liked, and is esteemed as a 
 writer, an orator, and a savant. His works on the dialects of popu- 
 lar Italian poetry are much valued. The action of his Government 
 on the Red Sea will give Count Nigra an important part to play in 
 London. 
 
 1 need not sketch the portrait of M. Waddington, the French 
 Embassador in London. Having an English father, having been 
 educated in England, and being a Protestant, this accomplished 
 diplomatist of fitty-seven years of age could not fail to be persona 
 grata to the English public. 
 
 Count Pourtales, with his bright, intelligent little face, "little 
 Pourtales," as the ladies call him, is the member of the French 
 Embassy who is most popular in society. 
 
 M. de Staal, the Russian Embassador, is a person of charming 
 manners and the most perfect courtesy; in choosing; him M. de Giers 
 knew what he was about. Very well informed, accustomed to 
 society, with a great experience of business, at once master of him- 
 self and possessing much influence with others, a graduate of the 
 University of Moscow, he was secretary to several embassies, in 
 1869 was named Chamberlain of the Court, and subsequently was 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDOtf. 109 
 
 minister at "Wurternburg. He only arrived in London a few months 
 ago, but conquered society at once. M. de Staal has the most ex- 
 quisite politeness and imperturbable urbanity. He excels in the art 
 ot persuading, and is just the fascinating person required at this 
 difficult moment to appease the irritation that has arisen between 
 the two countries, to make himself agreeable to the English people, 
 please society, &nd perhaps prevent war. De Staal is an exquisite 
 talker, and no one listens so well or has such a graceful manner of 
 appearing to share your opinions. 
 
 Except Prince Malcolm Khan, the other diplomatists are Ministers 
 or cliarges-cV affaires, with comparatively little importance in the 
 politics of to day; but the Persian Minister is interested in the burn- 
 ing questions of the moment, and has frequent interviews with 
 Lord Granville. The Prince is a clever diplomatist, deliberate and 
 prudent; he listens before he speaks, and he speaks with great judg- 
 ment and good ?ense. 
 
 Although his country has not hitherto been concerned in the 
 politics of Europe, Prince Malcolm Khan has held an important 
 position in England, since the visit of the Shah. He is, indeed, a 
 faithful representative of his sovereign, and has rendered great serv- 
 ices to his country. Persia may soon have to play a part in the con- 
 flict in Afghanistan, and its embassy in London may acquire con- 
 siderable importance. Malcolm Khan is such a far-seeing diplomatist 
 that, without knowing him personally, 1 consider him one of the 
 real politicians of Persia, who prefer an alliance with Kussia to a 
 rupture, and who understand that the weak always obtain more 
 from a friend than from an enemy. In society the Prince displays 
 the most agreeable manners, and has all the dignity of his rank 
 without any haughtiness. His wife is the personification of grace, 
 and their house is most hospitable. The Princess is young, love- 
 ly, enthusiastic, and brilliant. 
 
 Her daughter, a brunette, a charming contrast to the pale beauties 
 of the North, is a true little princess. She is well educated, and 
 gifted with exquisite tact, delicacy, and good taste. 
 
 1 will not speak of the Belgian Minister, whose task is easy so 
 long as Antwerp is not menaced; of the Dutch Minister, or of Mr. 
 Russell Lowell, a charming, humorous American, more of an author 
 than an embassador. There are others, also, who would not in- 
 terest you. 
 
 In English politics, money, the universal factor, plays, as it does 
 everywhere, and perhaps more than it does anywhere else, a very im- 
 portant part. Financiers are the real sovereigns of modern Europe, 
 
110 THE SOCIETY OP LONDOK. 
 
 and, except in Russia and Germany, it is they who make peace and 
 war. 
 
 Napoleon said that England was a nation of shop-keepers. Some 
 people take this as an insult, others as a compliment ; but however 
 we take it, the remark is just, and a fitting homage to the practical 
 nature of the people. Every Englishman, from the meanest to the 
 mightiest, is a born man of business, and knows how to profit by 
 opportunities that others would allow to escape. The aristocracy 
 no longer hesitates to take part in manufactures and in commerce. 
 In London the Jews rule all the markets; the City is entirely in 
 their hands. 
 
 The aristocracy of finance, as represented by the Barings, and 
 especially by the Rothschilds, is equal to the nobility of the sword, 
 and society opens its doors to it. Some alliances have been made 
 between the ancient families and the great bankers. The most im- 
 portant one hitherto is the marriage of Lord Rosebery with Miss 
 Rothschild. The chiefs of English finance live in a brilliant, osten- 
 tatious manner, and spend their money as they gain it, in a large 
 way. 
 
 Great brewers and great builders patronize public houses, theaters, 
 and other more or less fortunate speculations. Commerce has noth- 
 ing to do with the highest banking business; paper is discounted 
 and sold to houses that are simply called merchants, like Mr. 
 Layard, Mr. Devaux, etc. 
 
 Among the princes of finance, the dynasty of the Rothschild has 
 become the reigning house, or I ought rather r,o say that the Roths- 
 childs, with their different branches, have founded a " United 
 States " of money. It was the Rothschilds who, when consulted 
 by Lord Beaconsfield about his intention of buying £25,000,000 
 worth of shares in the Suez Canal, kept the money ready for him, 
 and thus enabled him to accomplish his unexpected and audacious 
 stroke of policy by telegraph, and in a few hours. 
 
 There are from fifteen to twenty names to be mentioned in the 
 aristocracy of finance— the Rothschilds, Baring, Goschen, Oppen- 
 heim, Bischoftsheim, etc. 
 
 The Rothschild family in London, as everywhere else, stands at 
 the head of financial society, and has one of the best positions iu the 
 great world, the artistic world, and on the turf. The Rothschilds 
 are everywhere, and they aie everything. 
 
 Ferdinand and Alfred Rothscnild enjoy a real sovereignty, and 
 are admired, as they deserve to be, for their royal munificence. 
 They give magnificent fetes, and their houses, their country-seats, 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 
 
 see. *:™ ztrsz u -» - - - 
 
 year, of age. H.s mother, a ™> "^ me one day> that 
 
 study at Cambridge, and was anx, us, a, be to ^ 
 
 her son sbeuld have a modern mmd jj^, ajtectors ot Uie 
 father, and has become one of the most in prinul pal 
 
 Bank of England, and Consul-gene aK for An tr a- HI ^ 
 c ,utyis to represent.be Rothsch, d tarn y m oc "^ ,„_ 
 
 m arvclo»sly well, rece.vug ^ n< ^." , "™ m . = he is an aumi- 
 lle knows everybody, and everybody knows 
 
 ruble host. 
 
 rrC^-^t^rL'veJgeuerous, agree- 
 
 "rribert Bassoon Ihave -^^"SK 
 childs _ is the descendant of» o d Jew. ^ ^^ ^ ^ 
 
 for a long time resident at Bagdad ^ 
 
 attracted Sir Albert Saloon to t cm n,y ^ „ ^ ^^ 
 he soon became a Nabob. Atoei almshouses, and 
 
 «t India," and in Bombay be «*^W*™ Then be came 
 
 mag n, fl cent mansimi * »- ^ ^ tbis amiabl , calm 
 Jt^SST £3* Ly to do g ood and e.erclse 
 Pr Tbe Chl^inis, **> came from Holland, owe their fortune 
 
112 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 to the establishment of a line ot pigeons between Paris and Amster- 
 dam. 
 
 1 have already spoken of Mr. Baring, Lord Northbrook, whose 
 honored name, like that of all his family, has always been a credit 
 to the highest ranks of English finance. The whole world is ac- 
 quainted with the great financial operations of the Barings, and the 
 history of their millions is well known, from those lent to Louis 
 Philippe down to our own day. They are bankers to the Queen. 
 
 Viscount Baring, Lord Northbrook's only son, is thirty-four years 
 of age; he has served in the Rifle Brigade, and then in the Grenadier 
 Guards; and wtien his father was Viceroy of India he accompanied 
 him as aid-de-camp. When he returned to Europe he devoted him- 
 self to politics, and entered Parliament as a Liberal: and although 
 he has not yet proved himself either an orator or a statesman, he is 
 popular. 
 
 I come once more to Mr. Goschen. In Parliament he is the type 
 of a model man of business, and one ot those rare authors who suc- 
 cessfully practice what they write. This he has done in the case of 
 his " Theory of Foreign Exchanges." Too intelligent to persist in 
 an opinion that meets with resistance, he is a sort ot rallying-point 
 in tie House of Commons, neither a Conservative nor a Liberal, 
 though he calls himself an Independent Liberal. His opinions ex- 
 ercise great authority, from the acknowledged ability and good- 
 sense on which they rest. A man of the world, with courteous man- 
 ners and attractive conversation, he is perfect on all points of social 
 intercourse. 
 
 The Goschens are descended from a German family, which founded 
 in London the well-known bank of Fruhliug and Goschen; there 
 aie no more Friihlings now, and the bank is managed by the three 
 brothers of the ex-Minister, all three very distinguished men. 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH LETTER. 
 
 SPORT. 
 
 An Englishman is a born sportsman, and from the beginning to 
 the end of his life practices some of these physical exercises that 
 build up his vigorous constitution. The boy at school has foot-ball 
 and cricket, young girls play at tennis and at croquet; and the fair 
 daughters of Albion are most graceful when throwing the ball and 
 handling the racket. 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 113 
 
 When the boy becomes a man he still plajs cricket, and in sum- 
 mer all London society assembles at " Lord'B," and watches every 
 stroke of the game with an interest that 1 must confess myself in- 
 capable of understanding. On the evening before the great cricket 
 matches, people send their carriages to take possession of a good 
 place, and on the grand day spend many hours watching the rather 
 innocent little game of throwing a ball at three little posts stuck in 
 the ground, while the other side tries to send it away. The princi- 
 pal players are well known, and are treated like victorious generals 
 on a field of battle, and a ball vigorously sent back by the opponent 
 is gieeted with rounds of applause. 
 
 In London everybody rides, from the youngest to the oldest, and 
 children who can hardly walk are taken out on horseback by their 
 grooms. A foreigner in London should never tail to go to Hyde 
 Park in the morning, when all the youug Amazons of fashionable 
 society display their equestrian skill. Fishing is as eagerly practiced 
 as hunting, and a good fishing lets for a very high price. Trout 
 and salmon are very abundant, and are the delight of a great num- 
 ber of ardent sportsmen. 
 
 The most popular English sport is hunting. One example will 
 enable you to form an idea of the vast scale in which it is carried 
 on. The Duke of Beaufort has the greatest number of race- 
 horses, and possesses more stables than any one in England. In the 
 hunting-season he has from sixteen to twenty horses out every day, 
 and not one of them is saddled more than twice a week. You 
 should see his house at Badminton to understand what hunting 
 means. He has three packs of hounds, each of twenty-two couples 
 — that is to say, a hundred and thirty-two dogs. 
 
 Hunting with the hounds is better in England than in any other 
 country. There are 145 packs of fox-hounds and 115 packs of har- 
 riers; in Scotland, eight of the first and one of the second; in Ire- 
 land, eighteen of the fiist and thirty-seven of the others. And if 
 you count the dogs kept for stag-hunting, there are 340 packs in 
 England— that is to say, 11,000 couples of dogs, that with the hunts- 
 men, grooms, etc., cost £600,000 a year. 
 
 Among a people so pre-eminently nautical, regattas naturally hold 
 a prominent place, and there are few rich Englishmen who do not 
 possess some sort of boat— a yacht, a sailing-boat, or at least a row- 
 ing-boat. The English are the best swimmers in the world. You, 
 no doubt, remember the exploits of Captain Webb, who swam across 
 the Strait of Dover, and afterward met his death in the rapids 
 of Niagara. No one can beat an Englishman at managing a 
 
114 THE SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
 
 boat. There are excellent institutions in England for the protec- 
 tion of shipwrecked people, admirably maintained by the personal 
 courage of the sailors. 
 
 The great naticnal nautical display is the famous boat-race be- 
 tween Oxford and Cambridge. The students of these two universi- 
 ties elect from amoDg themselves their captain and their crew; and 
 after a trial of a few weeks on the Thames, the race takes place on 
 the Saturday before Passion Week at the south-west of London, in 
 the presence of an excited, clamorous crowd. Oxford takes for its 
 symbol dark blue, while pale blue represents Cambridge, and during 
 the week that precedes the lace every Englishman wears the color 
 of the side he is backing. Coachmen put a blue bow on their whips 
 and a cockade of the same color on their horses' heads; women 
 wear dresses of the favorite color, and men put on cravats and 
 little bits of ribbon to indicate their party. Yachts and boats of all 
 kinds follow the raee, and the river is crowded with thousands of 
 small craft. The telegraph announces the result to journals that 
 are ready to appear the moment the result is known. Haidly a 
 minute after the conclusion of the race, flags of the victorious color 
 are hoisted in town. Cheers rend the air, and the trains that take 
 and carry away the crowd of spectators are packed as tightly as a 
 box of sardines. It is a universal holiday; eveiybody is either Ox- 
 ford or Cambridge, and in the evening the two crews dine with the 
 Lord Mayor. 
 
 The Boat-race, as it is called, and the races at Epsom are the two 
 most popular sporting tournaments. On the Derby Day all busi- 
 ness is suspended, and even the City is deserted. 
 
 Ascot serves as a srrand display of dress. The Prince of Wales 
 goes semi-nfficially, and is present at the races during the whole 
 of Ascot week. 
 
 The Goodwood course belongs to the Duke of Richmond, and 
 was formerly private. 
 
 Nearer London there are Sandown and KemptonPark races, and 
 finally the Derby, which all Parisians know nearly as well as their 
 Bois de Boulogne. 
 
 There are also the Liverpool races, when Lord Sefton holds his 
 great receptions at his mansion of Croxteth. 
 
 I must mention Punchestown races in Ireland, and then pass over 
 all the less important ones. 
 
 Among the numerous racing-circles the most important are those 
 of Lords Zetland, Cadogan, Alington, Falmouth, Rosebery, Hast- 
 ings, Londonderry, Lascelles, Hartington, Suffolk, March, West- 
 
THE SOCIETY OF LONDON". 115 
 
 moreland, and ot Mr. James Lowtber; of the Dukes of Portland, 
 Westminster, St. Alban's, and Hamilton; and, finally, those of 
 Rothschild, Sir George Chetwynd, Mr. William Gerard, Mr. Chap- 
 lin, Mr. W. Craven, Geueral Owen Williams, Captain Machell, and 
 Caroline, Duchess of Montrose, who enters under the name of 
 " Monsieur Manton." 
 
 All sportsmen knew Admiral Rous, whose pen has so well de- 
 lineated these "horsey" conflicts and who was called the "Dic- 
 tator of the Turf." Lord Cadogan has written excellent things 
 on the same subject, and may be said to have succeeded him. He is 
 one of the stewards of ihe Jockey Club. 
 
 The Jockey Club consists of seventy members, fifty-seven of 
 whom belong, or have belonged, to one of our two legislative 
 bodies, while twenty have held office as Ministers of the Crown. 
 There is some difficulty in getting stewards; for Ministers in office 
 can not find time for it. But those who are out of office might cer- 
 tainly accept the post, as General Peel and the late Lord Derby have 
 done. 
 
 Lord Cadogan has tried to save racing from the discredit and deg- 
 radation with which it i3 threatened, and there is now less jobbery 
 and immorality than there used to be; but the evil is still very 
 great. To remedy it, a legislation for the turf, that would extend 
 and support the authority of stewards in everything that concerns 
 the arrangement of races, is wanted. At present the system uni- 
 versally adopted of giving power to the organizers of races and to 
 jockeys much injures the authority of the Jockey Club, which is a 
 kind of Parliament of the Turf. The stewards alone ought to make 
 the arrangements and fix the dates of the meetings. The Jockey 
 Club replies to all attacks made upon it by facts and statistics. In 
 1874 there were 1873 races, in which 1965 horses took part. In 
 1884 there were 1615 races, with 1982 horses. The first took place 
 on 130 courses, and were the object of 185 meetings; the last on 65 
 courses only, corresponding to 136 meetings, which proves the suc- 
 cess of the efforts made by the stewards of the Jockey Club to pre- 
 vent the multiplication ot race-courses. 
 
 At the last Derby, when the officers of the Horse Guards alone lost 
 £75,000 , the book-makers won £225,000 by collusion with the 
 jockeys, who, not being able to bet on their own horses, back the 
 horses they are not riding, and keep back their own to make their 
 favorites win. 
 
 When the Jockey Club detects these frauds they are punished 
 severely; but it is very difficult to discover and to prevent them. 
 
116 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 
 
 Fred Archer himself, the most celebrated jockey in England, 
 who is called *' the tinman," has won about 1500 races, more than 
 £120,000. 
 
 Here 1 must conclude. 1 have nothing extenuated, or set down 
 aught in malice respecting the World of London, in which, as in 
 every '• world " all over the " wide, wide " one, there is much to 
 condemn and much to admire. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 1876 Under the Lilies and Roses. By 
 Florence Marryat (Mrs. Fran- 
 cis Lean) 10 
 
 277 The Surgeon's Daughters. By 
 
 Mrs. Henry Wood. A Man of 
 His Word. By W. E. Norris. 10 
 
 278 For Life and Love. By Alison. 10 
 
 279 Little Goldie. Mrs. Sumner Hay- 
 
 den 20 
 
 280 Omnia Vanitas. A Tale of So- 
 
 ciety. By Mrs. Forrester 10 
 
 281 The Squire's Legacy. By Mary 
 
 Cecil Hay ..... 15 
 
 282 Donal Grant. By George Mac- 
 
 Donald 15 
 
 88* The Sin of a Lifetime. By the 
 
 author of " Dora Thorne "... 10 
 «3*4 Doris. By " The Duchess " . . 10 
 
 NO. PRICE, 
 
 285 The Gambler's Wife 20 
 
 286 Deldee ; or, The Iron Hand. By 
 
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 287 At War With Herself. By the 
 
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 288 From Gloom to Sunlight. By 
 
 the author of " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 289 John Bull's Neighbor in Her 
 
 True Light. By a "Brutal 
 Saxon " 10 
 
 290 Nora's Love Test. By Mary Cecil 
 
 Hay 20 
 
 291 Love's Warfare. By the author 
 
 of " Dora Thorne ". 10 
 
 292 A Golden Heart. By the author 
 
 of " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 293 The Shadow of a Sin. By the 
 
 author of "Dora Thorne ". ., 10 
 
 294 Hilda. By the author of " Dora 
 
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 295 A Woman's War. By the author 
 
 of " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 296 A Rose in Thorns. By the au- . 
 
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 297 Hilary's Folly. By the author 
 
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 298 Mitchelhurst Place. By Marga- 
 
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 299 The Fatal Lilies, and A Bride 
 
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 300 A Gilded Sin, and A Bridge of 
 
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 301 Dark Days. By Hugh Conway. 10 
 
 302 The Blatchford Bequest. By 
 
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 303 Ingledew Plouse, and More Bit- 
 
 ter than Death. By the author 
 of " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 304 In Cupid's Net. By the author 
 
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 305 A Dead Heart, and Lady Gwen- 
 
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 thor of " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 306 A Golden Dawn, and Love for a 
 
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 307 Two Kisses, and Like No Other 
 
 Love. By the author of "Dora 
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 308 Beyond Pardon 20 
 
 309 The Pathfinder. By J. Feni- 
 
 more Cooper 20 
 
 310 The Prairie. By J. Fenimore 
 
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 311 Two Years Before the Mast. By 
 
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 312 AWeekinKillarney. By "The 
 
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 313 The Lover's Creed. By Mrs. 
 
 Cashel Hoey = . . ■ IB 
 
 314 Peril. By Jessie Fothergill 20 
 
 315 The Mistletoe Bough. Edited 
 
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 316 Sworn to Silence; or, Aline Rod- 
 
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 817 By Mead and Stream. Charles 
 
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 118 The Pioneers; or, The Sources 
 
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 Fables. Bv R. E. Francillon. 10 
 §20 A Bit of Human Nature. By 
 
 David Christie Murray. ...... 10 
 
 821 The Prodigals : And Their In- 
 
 heritance. By Mrs. Oliphant 10 
 
 822 A Woman's Love-Story.... 10 
 
 323 A Willful Maid. . ... 20 
 
 824 In Luck at Last. By Walter 
 
 Besant.. 10 
 
 825 The Portent. By George Mac- 
 
 donald.,,.,,.. 10 
 
 826 Phantastes. A Faerie Romance 
 
 for Men and Women. By 
 George Macdonald. 10 
 
 827 Raymond's Atonement. (From 
 
 the German of E. Werner.) 
 By Christina Tyrrell... ,„... 20 
 
 828 Babiole, the Pretty Milliner. By 
 
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 628 Babiole, the Pretty Milliner. By 
 
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 829 The Polish Jew. By Erckmann 
 
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 830 May Blossom ; or, Between Two 
 
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 331 Gerald. By Eleanor C. Price.. 20 
 832 Judith Wynne. A Novel . .20 
 333 Frank Fairlegh ; or, Scenes 
 
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 834 A Marriage of Convenience. By 
 
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 335 The White Witch. A Novel.. . 20 
 
 336 Philistia. By Cecil Power ..... 20 
 
 837 Memoirs and Resolutions of 
 
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 Including Some Chronicles of 
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 MrsAOliphant. .' 20 
 
 838 The Family Difficulty. By Sarah 
 
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 839 Mrs. Vereker's Courier Maid. 
 
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 840 Under Which King? ByComp- 
 
 tonReade 20 
 
 341 Madolin Rivers; or. The Little 
 
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 By Laura Jean Libbey . ...... 20 
 
 342 The Babv, and One New Year's 
 
 Eve. By " The Duchess " . . . . 10 
 
 843 The Talk of the Town. By 
 
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 844 "The Wearing of the Green." 
 
 Bv Basil 20 
 
 345 Madam. By Mrs. Oliphant.... 20 
 8±6 Tumbledown Farm. By Alan 
 
 Muir.. 10 
 
 847 As Avon Flows. By Henry Scott 
 
 Vince... 20 
 
 B48 From Post to Finish. A Racing 
 
 Romance. By Hawley Smart 20 
 
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 349 The Two Admirals. A Tale of 
 
 the Sea. By J. Fenimore 
 Cooper 90 
 
 350 Diaua of the Crossways. By 
 
 George Meredith 10 
 
 351 The House on the Moor. By 
 
 Mrs. Oliphant , . . 20 
 
 352 At Any Cost. By Edward Gar- 
 
 rett If 
 
 353 The Black Dwarf, and A Leg. 
 
 end of Montrose. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott 20 
 
 354 The Lottery of Life. A Story 
 
 of New York Twenty Years 
 Ago. By John Brougham... 20 
 
 355 That Terrible Man. By W. E. 
 
 Norris. The Princess Dmgo- 
 mar of Poland. By Heinrich 
 Felbermann 10 
 
 356 A Good Hater. By Frederick 
 
 Boyle 20 
 
 357 John. A Love Story. By Mrs. 
 
 Oliphant 20 
 
 358 Within the Clasp. By J. Ber- 
 
 wick Harwood , 20 
 
 359 The Water-Witch. By J. Feni- 
 
 more Cooper 20 
 
 360 Ropes of Sand. By R. E. Fran- 
 
 cillon ... 20 
 
 361 The Red Rover. A Tale of the 
 
 Sea. By J. Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 362 The Bride of Lammermoor. 
 
 By Sir Walter Scott. . . 20 
 
 363 The Surgeon's Daughter. By 
 
 Sir Walter Scott 1« 
 
 364 Castle Dangerous. By Sir Wal- 
 
 ter Scott...... 16 
 
 365 George Christy; or, The Fort- 
 
 unes of a Minstrel. By Tony 
 Pastor. 20 
 
 366 The Mysterious Hunter; or, 
 
 The Man of Death. By Capt. 
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 367 Tie and Trick. By Hawley Smart 20 
 
 368 The Southern Star ; or, The Dia- 
 
 mond Land. By Jules Verne 20 
 
 369 Miss Bretherton. By Mrs. Hum- 
 
 phry Ward 10 
 
 370 Lucy Crof ton. By Mrs. Oliphant 10 
 
 371 Margaret Maitland. By Mrs. Oli- 
 
 phant 20 
 
 372 Phyllis' Probation. By the au- 
 
 thor of " His Wedded Wife ". 10 
 
 373 Wing-and-Wing. J. Fenimore 
 
 Cooper 20 
 
 374 The Dead Man's Secret ; or, The 
 
 Adventures of a Medical Stu- 
 dent. Bv Dr. Jupiter Paeon.. 20 
 
 375 A Ride to Khiva. By Capt. Fred 
 
 Burnaby, of the Royal Horse 
 Guards.... .... 20 
 
 376 The Crime of Christmas-Day. 
 
 By the author of " My Duc- 
 ats and Mv Daughter 10 
 
 377 Magdalen Hepburn; A Story 
 
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 By Mrs. Oliphant .*.„*.. 20 
 
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 On Horseback Through Asia 
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 411 A Bitter Atonement. By Char- 
 
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 412 Some One Else. Ey B. M. Croker 20 
 
 413 Afloat and Ashore. By J. Feni- 
 
 more Cooper 20 
 
 414 Miles Walliugford. (Sequel to 
 
 " Afloat and Ashore.") By J. 
 Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 415 The Ways of the Hour. By J. 
 
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 416 Jack Tier ; or, The Florida Reef. 
 
 By J. Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 417 The Fair Maid of Perth; or, St. 
 
 Valentine's Day. By Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott 20 
 
 418 St. Ronan's Well. By Sir Wal- 
 
 ter Scott 20 
 
 419 The Chainbearer ; or, The Little- 
 
 page Manuscripts. By J. 
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 420 Satanstoe; or, The Littlepage 
 
 Manuscripts. By J. Fenimore 
 Cooper 20 
 
 421 The Redskins; or, Indian and 
 
 Injin. Being the conclusion 
 of The Littlepage Manu- 
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 422 Precaution. J. Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 423 The Sea-Lions; or, The Lost 
 
 Sealers. J. Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 424 Mercedes of Castile; or. The 
 
 Voyage to Cathay. By J. 
 Fenimore Cooper 20 
 
 425 The Oak Openings; or, The Bee- 
 
 Hunter. J. Fenimore Cooper. 30 
 
 426 Venus's Doves. By Ida Ash- 
 
 worth Taylor 20 
 
 427 The Remarkable History of Sir 
 
 Thomas Upmore, Bart., M.P., 
 formerly known as " Tommy 
 Upmore." R. D. Blackmore. 20 
 
 428 Zero : A Story of Monte-Carlo. 
 
 By Mrs. Campbell Praed 10 
 
 429 Boulderstone; or, New Men and 
 
 Old Populations. By Wiliam 
 Sime 10 
 
 430 A Bitter Reckoning. By the 
 
 author of "By Crooked Paths" 10 
 
 431 The Monikins. By J. Fenimore 
 
 Cooper 20 
 
 432 The Witch's Head. By H. Rider 
 
 Haergard 20 
 
 433 My Sister Kate. By Charlotte 
 
 M. Braeme, author of " Dora 
 Thorne," and A Rainy June. 
 By "Ouida" 10 
 
 434 Wvllard's Weird. By Miss M. 
 
 E. Braddon 20 
 
 435 Klytia : A Story of Heidelberg 
 
 Castle. By George Taylor.. . . 20 
 
 436 Stella. By Fanny Lewald 20 
 
 437 Life and Adventures of Martin 
 
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 438 Found Out. Helen B. Mathers. 10 
 
 439 Great Expectations. B}- Chas. 
 
 Dickens 20 
 
 440 Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings. By 
 
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 441 A Sea Change. By Flora L. 
 
 Shaw 20 
 
 442 Ranthorpe. By George Henry 
 
 443 The Bachelor of The Albany". '. 1C 
 
 444 The Heart of Jane Warner. By 
 
 Florence Marryat 
 
 445 The Shadow of a Crime. By 
 
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 446 Dame Durden. By " Rita " . . . . 20 
 
 447 American Notes. By Charles 
 
 Dickens 20 
 
 448 Pictures From Italy, and The 
 
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 449 Peeress and Player. By Flor- 
 
 ence Marryat 20 
 
 450 Godfrey Helstone. Bj' Georgiana 
 
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 452 In the West Countrie. By May 
 
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 454 The Mystery of Edwin Drood. 
 
 By Charles Dickens 20 
 
 455 Lazarus in London. By F. W. 
 
 Robinson 20 
 
 456 Sketches by Boz. Illustrative of 
 
 Every-day Life and Every-day 
 People. By Charles Dickens. 20 
 
 457 The Russians at the Gates of 
 
 Herat. Bv Charles Marvin . . . 
 
 458 A Week of Passion ; or, The Di- 
 
 lemma of Mr. George Barton 
 the Younger. By Edward Jen- 
 kins 20 
 
 459 A Woman's Temptation. By 
 
 Charlotte M. Braeme, author 
 of " Dora Thome " 20 
 
 460 Under a Shadow. By Charlotte 
 
 M. Braeme, author of " Dora 
 Thorne" 20 
 
 461 His Wedded Wife. By author 
 
 of " Ladybird's Penitence ".. 20 
 
 462 Alice's Adventures in Wonder- 
 
 land. By Lewis Carroll. With 
 forty-two illustrations by 
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 463 Redgauntlet, Sir Walter Scott. 20 
 
 464 The Newcomes. By Wm. Make- 
 
 peace Thackeray. Parti 20 
 
 465 The Earl"s Atonement. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 " Dora Thorne " 20 
 
 466 Between Two Loves. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 "Dora Thorne" 20 
 
 467 A Struggle for a Ring. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 " Dora Thorne " 20 
 
 10 
 
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 468 The Fortunes, Good and Bad, 
 
 of a Sewing-Girl. By Char- 
 lotte M. Stanley 10 
 
 469 Lady Darner's Secret. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 "Dora Thorne" 20 
 
 470 Evelyn's Folly. By Charlotte 
 
 M. Braeme, author of " Dora 
 Thorne " 20 
 
 471 Thrown on the World. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 " Dora Thorne " 20 
 
 472 The Wise Women of Inverness. 
 
 By William Black 10 
 
 473 A Lost Son. By Mary Linskill. 10 
 
 474 Serapis. An Historical Novel. 
 
 By George Ebers 20 
 
 475 The Prima Donna's Husband. 
 
 By F. Du Boisgobey 20 
 
 476 Between Two Sins. By Char- 
 
 lotte M. Braeme, author of 
 " Dora Thorne " 10 
 
 477 Affinities. A Romance of To- 
 
 day. By Mrs. Campbell Praed. 10 
 
 478 Diavola; or, Nobody's Daughter 
 
 By Miss M. E.Braddon. Parti. 20 
 
 478 Diavola; or, Nobody's Daughter 
 
 By Miss M. E.Braddon. Part II. 20 
 
 479 Louisa. By Katharine S. Mac- 
 
 quoid 20 
 
 480 Married in Haste. By Miss M. 
 
 E. Braddon 20 
 
 481 The House that Jack Built. By 
 
 Alison 10 
 
 482 A Vagra nt Wife. By F. Warden 20 
 
 483 Betwixt My Love and Me. By 
 
 the author of "A Golden Bar " 10 
 
 484 Although He Was a Lord, and 
 
 Other Tales. By Mrs. For- 
 rester 10 
 
 485 Tinted Vapours. By J. Maclaren 
 
 Cobban 10 
 
 486 Dick's Sweetheart. By "The 
 
 Duchess " 20 
 
 487 Put to the Test. Edited by Miss 
 
 M. E. Braddon 20 
 
 490 A Second Life. By Mrs. Alex- 
 
 ander 20 
 
 491 Society in London. By A For- 
 
 eign Resident 10 
 
 492 Mignon ; or, Booties' Baby. By 
 
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 493 Colonel Enderby's Wife. By 
 
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 494 A Maiden All Forlorn, and Bar- 
 
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 500 Adrian Vidal. By W. E. Norris. 20 
 
 501 Mr. Butler's Ward. By F. 
 
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 502 Carriston'sGift. By Hugh Con- 
 
 way, author of "Called Back " 10 
 
 504 Curly: An Actor's Story. By 
 
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 My Poor Wife. By the author 
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 505 The Society of London. By 
 
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