365 Maxwell's (Sir Herbert). MEMOIR of 
 of the RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR CHARLES 
 
 t-SS^W ' ' Portraits - 8vo ' cloth 
 
 ( ^,M 
 
THE HONOTJKABLE 
 
 SIE CHAELES MUEEAY, K.C.B. 
 
THE HONOUBABLE 
 
 SIR CHARLES MURRAY, K,C,B, 
 
 & JHemoir 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 SIE HEBBERT MAXWELL 
 
 1 1 
 
 BART., M.P., F.R.S., ETC. 
 
 5' alel TroAAd 
 
 PLUTARCH, Solon, c. 31. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBUEGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCXCVIII 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 
PREPACK 
 
 IT is sometimes said, perhaps not without reason, 
 that in these days we are over-fond of compiling 
 biographies, and that a man ought to have touched 
 a definite degree in the scale of achievement, 
 distinction, or merit before the public are invited 
 to peruse his memoirs. It may be so, though some 
 difficulty might be found in fixing that degree. 
 It is not probable that the world is too full as yet 
 of personal annals. He who is most grateful to 
 Tacitus for the too brief narrative of his father- 
 in-law, Cnseus Julius Agricola, and for the light 
 which it throws on the extension of the empire 
 of Home, as well as for the information it conveys 
 of personal traits and social habits, will be most 
 apt to sigh over the absence of all record con- 
 cerning consuls and generals less famous than 
 
 I 
 
 513948 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Agricola, but perhaps of integrity and energy 
 not inferior to his. 
 
 The British Empire, far exceeding that of Im- 
 perial Home in extent and population, possesses 
 many characteristics in common with it, and British 
 rulers have many lessons to learn, even at this day, 
 from Roman precedents. The personal characters 
 and habits of the men charged with the conduct of 
 our affairs at foreign Courts have a vital bearing 
 on the stability of our empire : when one of these 
 has united to the office of diplomatist the parts of 
 scholar, traveller, courtier, and sportsman ; when 
 he has added to the natural advantage of birth in 
 one of the oldest houses of our aristocracy, a charm 
 of manner and conversation which endeared him to 
 all his acquaintance ; when he has lived far beyond 
 the average human span in constant intercourse 
 with the most cultivated minds of his country, 
 and maintained throughout the high ideal of a 
 Christian gentleman, then I think that no apol- 
 ogy will be exacted for preparing a brief record 
 of his years. 
 
 It must be confessed that this has been at- 
 tempted under many disadvantages. Sir Charles 
 Murray, like many of us who have less to record, 
 sometimes began to keep a journal, but seldom 
 persevered for more than a few days. In vain his 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 friends urged him in later life to undertake writing 
 out the reminiscences with which his mind was so 
 plentifully stored. It was not till he had passed 
 fourscore years that at Lady Murray's earnest 
 request he was persuaded to commit to paper a 
 personal narrative. The book is now before me 
 a promising quarto alas ! all but the first twenty 
 pages remain blank. In the last year of his life, 
 when penmanship had become too great an effort, 
 he was induced to begin afresh, dictating the 
 record to his niece. This also came to no good : 
 it is perhaps the noblest natures which have 
 least taste for autobiography talking of them- 
 selves. 
 
 Unwilling that the events of such a good and 
 actively useful life should pass utterly into oblivion, 
 Lady Murray has committed to me the task of 
 gathering out of the scattered papers which remain 
 something like a connected narrative. In attempt- 
 ing this I have been confronted with the great dis- 
 ability of not having known personally the subject 
 of the memoir, nor has it been possible to repair 
 this in any appreciable degree by the help of Sir 
 Charles's most intimate friends, nearly all of whom 
 have passed away. To some of those who knew 
 him in his later years his son, Mr Charles Murray, 
 M.P., Mr Eeginald Smith, and Mr Reginald Lucas 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 I am indebted for much assistance, and offer 
 sincere thanks. But no writer ever felt more 
 keenly than I do that 
 
 " None can truly write his single day, 
 And none can write it for him upon earth." 
 
 Such as it is, this sketch of Sir Charles Murray's 
 long life is offered in the hope that it may afford 
 interest, not only from his own character and work, 
 but from his association with leading men and a 
 
 distant past. 
 
 HERBERT MAXWELL. 
 
 MONREITH, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS (1806-1822). 
 
 The House of Moray Childhood Samuel Rogers Letters 
 from S. Rogers The home at Glen Finart Paris after 
 Waterloo 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS (1815-1822). 
 
 Eton Edinburgh society Lord Eldon Fonthill William 
 Beckford Neighbours at Hamilton Sport in Arran The 
 old style ... ... 36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LIFE AT OXFORD (1822-1830). 
 
 At a private tutor's Letter from Eraser Tytler John Henry 
 Newman An escapade All Souls A poet's prescription 
 A lawyer's prescription Letter from Lord Brougham 
 Hon. Henry Murray . . . . . .52 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD (1830-1834). 
 
 A tour in Germany Visit to Goethe Correspondence with 
 Carlyle Unsuccessful contests A leak ! A disabled ship 
 Detained in the Azores Nugse Washington's tomb 
 American correspondence The evils of slavery Tour in 
 the West 71 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES (1835). 
 
 Lexington The wild West American hospitality The Paw- 
 nee village A quarrel between brothers Eed Indian 
 character Pawnee dandies A cruel horse -master The 
 "medicine-tube" Alone in the wilderness Finding their 
 way home The Kansas once more Inhospitable weather 
 On their old trail 96 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED (1835-1837). 
 
 The Irish in America Cuba in 1835 Lake Otsego Murray's 
 * Travels ' The fate of the Red Men Chateaubriand's opin- 
 ion Author and publisher Sir Charles Vaughan's letters 
 Miss Elise Wads worth 125 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE (1837-1838). 
 
 Letter from S. Rogers Murray accused of turning Tory Elec- 
 tioneering experience The poll for Lanarkshire Journal 
 at Court Confidential correspondence . . .148 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JOURNALS, ETC. (1838-1844). 
 
 Geological news Delicate negotiations Successful diplomacy 
 Letters from Lord Douglas Journal at Court The Czar's 
 visit to England Political forecast Official espionage . 165 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY (1844-1848). 
 
 The 'Prairie Bird' Eraser Ty tier's '.History 'Eraser Ty tier's 
 letters Murray's literary gifts Enters the diplomatic ser- 
 vice Death of Lady Dunmore Mohammed Ali Massacre 
 of the Meinlooks Mohammed's treachery Mohammed's 
 method of rule Harriet Martineau Murray as a slave 
 purchaser . . . . . . .193 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST (1849-1857). 
 
 Murray's first love The song of Ah-to-meno 'Horizons 
 Celestes ' Letter from Fenimore Cooper Service in Egypt 
 First hippopotamus in England Appointed to Persian 
 Mission Persian affairs The Shah's letters The Persian 
 imbroglio War with Persia Letters to his brother 
 Persian treaty of peace Murray's defenders in Parliament 
 Mistaken economy Antelope hawking Voyage on the 
 Euphrates Persian journal Sadr Azem . . . 231 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN (1850-1867). 
 
 Second marriage The Schleswig-Holstein difficulty Specula- 
 tions about heaven An Italian's equivoque Letter from J. 
 L. Motley Solvency of United States Hans Andersen and 
 Stirling Maxwell Appointed Minister at Lisbon . . 285 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE (1867-1882). 
 
 The throne of Spain Dom Fernando Spanish intrigue 
 Wanted, a king Overtures to Dom Fernando Letters from 
 Lord Ly tton Letters from Sir W. Stirling - Maxwell 
 Murray retires from public life Purchase of Oaklands 
 Hall Letter from Hon. Mrs Norton Letters to his wife 
 Letter from Dean Stanley . . . . .302 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOME LIFE (1882-1892). 
 
 Letters to his wife Correspondence Philological discussions 
 Last visit to Dunmore Early recollections Kogersiana 
 Letter from Cardinal Manning Letter to his younger son . 337 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LAST YEARS (1892-1895). 
 
 N earing the end Some perplexing letters Note on the Ash- 
 burnham Collections Two French journalists Sadi and 
 Shakespeare Incidents in Egypt Biblical criticism 
 Criticism of Professor Drummond Problems of religion 
 The Athanasian Creed . 354 
 
 INDEX . . 375 
 
LIST OF PORTRAITS. 
 
 THE HON. CHARLES AUGUSTUS MURRAY . . Frontispiece 
 
 THE HON. MRS MURRAY Facing p. 238 
 
 THE HON. CHARLES AUGUSTUS MURRAY \ 
 
 AT*THE AGE OF FIFTY-SIX V Between pp. 286 and 287 
 
 THE HON. EDYTHE MURRAY j 
 
 THE HON. SIR CHARLES AUGUSTUS MURRAY, K.C.B. Facing p. 354 
 
THE HONOUKABLE 
 
 SIR CHARLES MURRAY, 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 1806-1822. 
 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 IN primitive times, and in the earlier stages of 
 the history of every nation, the convenient ex- 
 pedient of surnames to denote the members of 
 separate families was not adopted. The utmost 
 that was done was to distinguish between in- 
 dividuals bearing the same personal appellative 
 by mentioning their father's name, as in the 
 case of the two apostles James the son of Zebe- 
 dee and James the son of Alphseus, or in that 
 of the four kings of ancient Alban, all named 
 Constantine, and distinguished in the chronicles 
 by the patronymics of Mac Fergusa, Mac Cinaeta, 
 
2 T : ilNEAUE,: PARENT AGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 Jlac .-A^^anfl M4<c Quilen the sons, respectively, 
 of Fergus, Kenneth, Hugh, and Cullen. 1 Some- 
 times a " to-name ' was added to the personal 
 name, denoting the office, calling, or some char- 
 acteristic or peculiarity of the individual ; and to 
 these, as well as to patronymics, may be traced 
 many of the surnames in use at this day, having 
 been adopted as the common designation of 
 members of one family when, about the four- 
 teenth century, the increase of population in 
 this country, and wider intercourse, rendered 
 surnames of some sort a necessity. But with 
 the growth of feudal institutions, involving the 
 personal possession of lands which had hitherto 
 been held in common by the clan or sept, well- 
 to-do persons came by a natural process to be 
 known by the name of their territorial possessions. 
 Thus when Freskin, a Frieslander or Fleming, 
 became possessed of extensive lands in the east 
 of Scotland in the twelfth century, he required 
 no second name to distinguish him among the 
 Norman and Anglian magnates with whom it 
 was the policy of David I. to replace the Celtic 
 toiseachs. But his son, having received the 
 baptismal name of William, was not so easily 
 to be recognised. The Norman Conquest had 
 
 1 Synchronisms of Flann Mainistreach, an Irish MS., A.D. 1014-1022. 
 
THE HOUSE OF MORAY. 3 
 
 brought that name into such fashionable repute 
 that in 1173 Sir William de St John and Sir 
 William Fitz Hamon gave a dinner-party at the 
 Court of Henry II. to which only knights bearing 
 the name of William were invited. No fewer than 
 one hundred and twenty guests sat down to 
 table. So William the son of Freskin having 
 great possessions in the province of Murmhagh l 
 or Moray, it was natural that he should become 
 known officially as Gulielmus de Moravia, and 
 familiarly as William of Moray. 
 
 From this William of Moray the Scottish 
 houses of Tullibardine and Abercairney trace their 
 descent. William Murray, second Earl of Tulli- 
 bardine, married, first, in 1602, Cecilia, eldest 
 daughter of Sir John Wemyss of that ilk ; and 
 second, Lady Dorothea Stewart, eldest daughter 
 of John Stewart, fifth Earl of Athol. On the 
 decease of this earl without male issue the earl- 
 dom reverted to the Crown ; but John Murray, 
 eldest son of the Earl of Tullibardine and Lady 
 Dorothea, afterwards obtained a new grant from 
 Charles L, whereby in 1629 he became first Earl 
 of Athol of the house of Murray. He was suc- 
 
 1 Pronounce " Muragh " a Gaelic compound, signifying land 
 beside the sea. The Manx word mooiragh is used at this day to 
 denote "a waste by the sea," and there are several seaside farms 
 in Lowland Scotland called Morrach. 
 
4 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 ceeded by his son John, who in 1676 was created 
 Marquis of Athol. He married Lady Amelia 
 Stanley, only daughter of James, seventh Earl 
 of Derby, by his famous countess, Charlotte de 
 la Tremouille. The marquis's eldest son, John, 
 was created Duke of Athol in 1703 ; his second 
 son, Lord Charles Murray, Master of the Horse 
 to Queen Mary, having been raised to the peerage 
 in 1686 by the titles of Lord Murray of Blair, 
 Moulin, and Tillymott, Viscount Fincastle, and 
 Earl of Dunmore. Fourth in descent from this 
 earl came George, fifth Earl of Dunmore, born 
 in 1762, and created a peer of the United King- 
 dom in 1831 as Baron Dunmore of Dunmore. 
 He married on 3rd August 1803 Lady Susan 
 Hamilton, daughter of Archibald, ninth Duke of 
 Hamilton, by whom he had three sons Alex- 
 ander Edward, who succeeded him in 1836 as 
 sixth Earl of Dunmore ; Charles Augustus, the 
 subject of the present memoir ; and Henry An- 
 thony, afterwards Rear -Admiral in the Royal 
 Navy. 
 
 Charles Augustus Murray was born on 22nd 
 November 1806. Prince Augustus Frederick, 
 Duke of Sussex, sixth son of George III., stood 
 sponsor to him, being his uncle by marriage with 
 Lady Augusta, daughter of the fourth Earl of 
 
CHILDHOOD. 5 
 
 Dunmore. The earliest historic allusion to the 
 child occurs in a letter to his mother, then Lady 
 Susan Fincastle, from Samuel Rogers. It is a 
 long letter, for in those days letters had to be 
 made to compensate for heavy postage by being 
 filled in every corner of the large sheets with 
 news of every description. Here is an extract 
 from it : 
 
 Samuel Rogers to the Countess of Dunmore. 
 
 " WOOLBEDING, November 8th, 1807. 
 
 " I hope the little boys are growing all day long 
 they have now, you know, nothing else to do. 
 What an age it is since Mr M. 1 threw his little 
 round person into the sofa in Berkeley Square ! 
 He and his brother Charles together must now 
 be more than a match for the turkey-cock, and 
 must by this time be learning to dance, ride, 
 and flirt with the ladies, as men of fashion ought 
 to do. . . . Pray kiss them both for me, though 
 Mr M. has now, I daresay, no recollection of any 
 of us. ... 
 
 "You are so kind as to ask after my poem. 
 It was in the press the other day, when, as good 
 luck would have it, a fire broke out at the printer's, 
 and consumed it among other precious MSS. Per- 
 haps you will ask how I have spent the summer 
 in visiting about, I believe. I could almost 
 wish I had gone to Tunbridge, if it was but to 
 see Mary Godfrey's pas seul upon the Pantiles." 
 
 1 Alexander Edward Murray, afterwards sixth Earl of Dunmore. 
 
6 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "ST JAMES'S PLACE, May Day, 1808. 
 
 " I saw a young man yesterday who has just 
 spent a month with Madame Potocki while Lord 
 D. was there (who is now gone, he says, to 
 Vienna). By his account she is a very beautiful 
 woman of fifty, her children are cherubs, and she 
 lives in a style of magnificence of which we have 
 no idea. Apropos of cherubs, so Mr Murray is 
 no longer one he is a man grown, it seems, and 
 buttons his coat and wears his hat as fiercely as 
 other men. Well, I shall never forgive him if 
 he loses a look he had once but that is impos- 
 sible. And his little words, ' No, mama Yes, 
 mama How d'ye do, horses ? ' are they as sweet 
 as ever? As for his brother-Cupid, your picture 
 of him makes me mad to see him ; but whenever 
 that great event takes place, we shall meet, alas ! 
 like two strangers from distant planets. Poor 
 little M. himself must have now no more remem- 
 brance of our friendship than of those he con- 
 tracted some years ago in a pre-existent state. 
 Pray, what is his father the Laird about just 
 now ? Is he walking deck or is he climbing a 
 mountain ? Is he draining or planting, or enclos- 
 ing or damming or building ? Everybody I meet 
 has received a letter from him as long as the 
 road to Edinburgh. Seriously speaking, I do be- 
 lieve he never vouchsafes a line but to Lady 
 Barbara, who is as proud of it as Lucifer, and if 
 it was not for you who give signs of life now and 
 
SAMUEL ROGERS. 7 
 
 then, we might conclude he had gone to explore 
 Africa or the moon, or anything else." 
 
 The friendship between the Fincastles and 
 Samuel Rogers was very close and enduring. The 
 following notice of the poet occurs among the frag- 
 mentary notes which Sir Charles Murray, at the 
 repeated instance of his family, began to put to- 
 gether in his eighty-sixth year : 
 
 " One of the earliest things that I can recollect, 
 when I was, I suppose, six or seven years old, 
 was a visit from a very dear and old friend of my 
 parents Samuel Rogers, the poet who has him- 
 self recorded that visit in some very pretty lines, 
 which have since been reprinted in the well-known 
 volume called c The Pleasures of Memory/ ' 
 
 At that time Lord and Lady Fincastle rented 
 a lovely place, Glen Finart, on the northern shore 
 of Loch Long, in Argyleshire. The Highlands had 
 not come into fashion yet, though the tide of 
 tourists was shortly to begin to flow the ' Lay 
 of the Last Minstrel ' having been published 
 in 1805. But so far, whatever curiosity people 
 might have to explore the mountainous west was 
 severely kept in check by the physical difficulties 
 of travel. To realise how complete was the 
 seclusion of Glen Finart in those far-off days, one 
 
8 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 has to remember that there were no steamers on 
 the Clyde. Access to civilisation lay through the 
 port of Greenock, which could only be reached 
 from Loch Long by rowing or sailing boats. 
 
 In this delicious isolation the Fincastles used to 
 spend their summers, returning to their house in 
 Lower Berkeley Street for the London season, 
 which, by the rational and enviable disposal of 
 fashion, was then held in the winter months. 
 There was also a short season at Tunbridge Wells 
 in autumn, where they went sometimes. Rogers 
 kept Lady Fincastle well informed of what went 
 on in her absence in social and literary circles, and 
 some of his tattle refers to well-known people. 
 Some of his letters are dated only with the day of 
 the week, but others it is possible to quote from in 
 chronological order. 
 
 Samuel Rogers to the Countess of Dunmore. 
 
 "WooLBEDiNG, November 8th, 1807. 
 
 " This is a very pretty place : a river runs along 
 a narrow valley, overhung with woods, and above 
 these rise the South Downs, which in hazy and 
 cloudy weather, though you won't believe it, affect 
 to look like people of consequence, I had almost 
 said like some of your mountains. But pray how 
 do you pass your time ? in longing to return among 
 us, I hope ; but you will come in the spring at all 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 9 
 
 events, I know you will ; for what will become of 
 me when I have nobody to walk with, nobody to 
 call upon ? I saw a very pretty picture in St 
 Martin's Lane the other day, but you are now out 
 of harm's way, and are in no danger any fine morn- 
 ing of an inundation of Saints, Angels, and Holy 
 Families. ... I hope the harp is now standing out 
 of its green baize. How do the zephyrs of the north 
 agree with it ? not so well, I hope, as those of the 
 south. You must have heard much of Casimir ; he 
 is a prodigy and his notes are wonderful, but he 
 wants a something which I doubt whether he will 
 ever acquire. Pray do those who have it keep 
 it all to themselves ? I suspect they do. . . . 
 The Berrys are gone to Strawberry Hill, but 
 Lady Donegal has no thoughts of leaving town 
 till August. T. Moore 1 is again among us, and 
 sings as sweetly as ever ; his new songs are very 
 pretty. Apropos of voices, Susan B. is returned 
 in great perfection. It made some very extra- 
 ordinary flights last Monday evening. So a new 
 lover has appeared above the horizon there. 
 Guess perhaps you know or perhaps there is 
 nothing in it ; but if fixed and melancholy looks, 
 short sighs, and continual silence mean anything 
 I daresay you know whom I mean, Lord G. L. 
 The lady does not appear to answer any one of 
 the signals, but his sisters, particularly Lady H., 
 lay a strong siege. Lady H., as Knight says, 
 makes love much better than her brother. . . . 
 Lady E. and the Blakes are roosting again in St 
 James's Place. Lady E. has been ill, but is now 
 
 1 Tom Moore, the Irish poet. 
 
10 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 revived, and the world gives her a suitor, Mr 
 Elliott. He is always there, and there are strong 
 symptoms of it. Their house is small and dark, 
 and contains themselves, a dog or two, a little 
 girl, a cat, and a pair of turtle-doves. So that 
 nothing goes on but barking, crying, laughing, 
 mewing, and cooing all day long. Honoria looks 
 handsomer than ever the Holy Roman, just as 
 she used to do. Lady Clifden l is shut up with 
 a cold, and receives visitors every evening from 
 nine till twelve. Caroline 2 is really growing 
 almost pretty. Lord Clifden 3 is busy in planning 
 repairs in Hanover Square. T. Hope 4 has bought 
 a house, Deepden, near Dorking, once belonging 
 to the Duke of Norfolk. It is large, with but 
 little land round it, in a very pleasant country. 
 She is still very low and far from in health. 
 There are two whole lengths of her in the Ex- 
 hibition, one with the little boy. We had our 
 Academy Dinner yesterday, and I wished for Lord 
 Fin. . . . Heigho ! when will you stop your cur- 
 ricle to give me another gingerbread-nut under 
 the old paling ? 5 I have read * Corinne,' and like 
 it with all its faults. The Frenchman is delight- 
 ful. Have you read c Marmion ' ? One thing is 
 so revolting the walling-up of Constance ; no- 
 
 1 Lady Caroline Spencer, daughter of third Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 2 Died unmarried in 1814. 
 
 3 Second Viscount ; died in 1836. 
 
 4 Thomas Hope, Esq., author of ' Anastasius,' &c. His third son, 
 the late Eight Hon. A. J. Beresford Hope, M.P., succeeded by the 
 will of his stepfather, Viscount Beresford, to the estates of Bedge- 
 bury in Kent and Beresford Hall in Stafford. 
 
 6 At Tunbridge Wells. 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 11 
 
 body here will believe it. Do you ? Every miss 
 insists on her appearing again, and I really believe 
 many expect her to revive in a second part. I 
 praised it to the Duchess of Gordon, 1 and found 
 I was wrong ; she shakes her head whenever I 
 mention it. She grumbles on still, and will to 
 the end of the chapter. Columbus 2 thanks you 
 for all your kind inquiries ; he shall wait quietly, 
 he says, for your return. So Mrs Radcliffe has 
 come to life again with a novel in her hand. 
 Aren't you dying to read it ? Mr Cholmondeley 
 has let his house here, and calls himself a country 
 gentleman. Mrs C. is now at Brighton on account 
 of the little girl, who is thought to be in a poor 
 way. Poor Lady Donegal and her ophthalmia ! 
 She entertained three or four leeches every day 
 while it lasted. The Shaftesburys are making 
 magnificent preparations. The plate Lord S. 
 bought at Naples for 300 is the handsomest 
 I ever saw three vast dishes and three ewers 
 richly sculptured like the shield of Achilles, with 
 battles, processions, &c. I saw it at Rundall's 
 yesterday. The Spencers, as you know, have left 
 town and let their house, and their absence casts 
 a damp upon everything. What a pitiful worth- 
 less thing money is ! and yet who can do without 
 it ? S. is now at Lord John Townshend's, and 
 Mrs S. is at Brighton. Lady Elizabeth Loftus is 
 nursing her little boy in Wimpole Street, and is 
 very happy." 
 
 1 Jane, daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, a celebrated 
 wit and beauty ; died in 1812. 
 
 2 Rogers published his poem 'Voyage of Columbus' in 1812. 
 
12 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " LONDON, Monday. 
 
 11 1 am resolved for the future to fire no more 
 broadsides at friend or foe. A little small - shot 
 now and then that I am up to but a formal 
 sheet of quarto paper confounds and annihilates 
 me. Not that I would have others follow my 
 example T acknowledge my weakness with con- 
 fusion of face pray encourage me by your con- 
 duct to better things. So you have been basking, 
 I hear, under the Hock, while we have been freez- 
 ing into icicles. Your gaieties at Hamilton I heard 
 much of from Lady O., but your vie privee in 
 the Glen to me far more interesting I can 
 only get from yourself. Now pray don't think 
 of playing the Nurse (a character, I own, you 
 must fill to perfection) at Hamilton or Edinburgh, 
 but pray, pray keep your word and come at 
 Easter to London - town. Remember two years 
 are long enough in all conscience a few more 
 such fits of absence and where shall we all be ? 
 What are you doing ? are you reading the ( Cor- 
 sair,' the ' Giaour,' Miss Edgeworth, or Mme. de 
 Stael ? Mme. D'Arblay's novel begins as a novel 
 should : * It was in a dark night in the month of 
 November.' But when are we to have it ? Nobody 
 knows. What a world is ours ? And what is to 
 happen next ? ' C'est le commencement de la fin,' 
 says Talleyrand, and so it seems. ' I know him,' 
 says Lucien, speaking of his brother ; ' I always 
 said he would blow the bubble till it burst.' All 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 13 
 
 talk of peace one way or another, and all are 
 preparing to visit Paris, and that great ice-house 
 Switzerland, and the Eternal City, and the fire- 
 work at Naples in plain English, to leave home 
 and go abroad. So pray come in time, for I will 
 of your party and no other. As to Fin, how he 
 must triumph in the fulfilment of all his predic- 
 tions ! and how small we shall all feel before him I 
 My summer was passed I don't know how in 
 other people's houses at Hampden, Bow -wood, 
 Bulstrode, Woolbeding, Althorpe, and Middleton : 
 I am now at home, and against you arrive, I shall 
 write over my door ' Accommodation for Private 
 Families.' Remember I have three very decent 
 chambers, and there are excellent hotels in St 
 James's Street to receive my overflowings. As 
 for Charles and Henry, I have a coal-hole just 
 to their taste, and the river is at hand for Fin 
 the less. I would send you my budget of news 
 - such as it is ; but perhaps the news of to- 
 morrow will contradict it all, and Lady Donegal 
 is now giving it to you in a much better manner. 
 So pray remember me very affectionately to the 
 chief and his two sons (Johnson and Crib), and 
 believe me to be, ever and ever yours, 
 
 " SAMUEL ROGERS." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " LONDON. 
 
 " Lady Donegal came from Tunbridge to Davis 
 Street on Thursday last, and in a week goes to 
 Lady Shaftesbury for a month. Lady Chatham 
 
14 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 has just given up the house. Lady Ellenborough 
 is now at Brighton, and stays there till after 
 Christmas. She is said to look very ill. Lord 
 Warwick has been among the agremens of Tun- 
 bridge this summer ! Souza has been constant to 
 Worthing. Spencer has spent the best part of 
 his summer at Gilwele. His spirits are not as 
 they used to be, and I wish we could remove 
 the cause with all my heart. I confess I am not 
 very sanguine with regard to Drury Lane. So 
 Susan Beckford has accepted Lord Henry Petty, 
 and Lady Donegal Lord Mount Edgcumbe ! How 
 entertaining the newspapers are just now ! The 
 Clifdens left Tunbridge on Saturday ; Lady C. 
 was in her old house, it seems. Mrs Spencer 
 looks better than ever she did, and exhibits her 
 Tunbridge donkey every morning in a kind of 
 car or cart that runs on three wheels she looks 
 for all the world like a sorceress in a pantomime. 
 The day has turned to rain, and how do you think 
 Mr and Mrs Spencer are employed at this moment ? 
 in playing at battledore and shuttlecock in my 
 room ! I can hardly write for the noise. What I 
 have written I don't know, and I have not the 
 courage to read it, but I know you will take it 
 all as it is meant, and believe me when I assure 
 you how sincerely and gratefully I am yours, 
 
 "SAMUEL KOGERS." 
 
 "Pray kiss them both for me, though Mr M. 
 has now, I daresay, no recollection of any of us. 
 
 " How did you bewitch Caroline Chinnery ? 
 Her friendship for you is a passion. She dreams 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 15 
 
 of nobody else, but she can make others dream of 
 her, for she used to play her harp every morning 
 under my window between seven and eight o'clock. 
 " Poor Mrs Hope was greatly affected by the 
 loss of her mother. Mr H. was travelling in 
 Devonshire at the time, and when he returned, 
 as he did instantly, to Ramsgate, he found her 
 confined to her room : they are now at Gatton. 
 She knows nothing of the Criticism in the ' Edin- 
 burgh Review ' ; he told me he should not mention 
 it to her, he knew it would vex her so. He affects 
 to carry it off, but I can see he is hurt by it. ... 
 Mrs Spencer desires her best love to you. ' I 
 wish, I wish she was coming back,' were her 
 words on the stairs just now. Once more adieu. 
 I have still a thousand things to say, though at 
 first I thought I had nothing." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " ST JAMES'S PLACE, May Day, 1808. 
 
 " I have really held my tongue so long I don't 
 know how to speak or what to say. You know a 
 mother, and so do I Mrs Bouverie who looks up 
 her girls when they have a letter to write, and I 
 wish I had an old housekeeper who would do me 
 the same kindness. You would suffer much by it, 
 and the other day you had a great escape. M. 
 Godfrey was all fire and fagot at your long silence, 
 and in the true spirit of knight-errantry I had just 
 resolved to redress her wrongs, when an epistle 
 arrived and saved you from a packet as large as a 
 mortgage- deed. If I have not assailed you sooner 
 
16 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 it is not for want of a Flapper. M. G.'s first 
 question, morning, noon, and night, in parks and 
 streets and crowded assemblies, is, ' Have you 
 written to Lady Susan ? ' Their description of 
 Tunbridge last year is most provoking. Can you 
 believe it was delightful ? I never will. Viotti 
 offered to go if I would, and yet he swears he 
 will never enter the doors in Berkeley Street till 
 your harp is again in the drawing-room. We 
 were very sorry to hear you had all been ill." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "LONDON, July IZth. 
 
 " A thousand thanks, my dear friend, for your 
 kind letter, and a thousand more to your divine 
 Susan 1 for all her kindness. Many a time in the 
 dead of the night have I addressed a letter to her, 
 but it was all gone before daylight, and twice have 
 I taken up a pen for the purpose, but my evil 
 genius prevailed, and I was called off by a knock 
 at the door, and his sudden appearance in the 
 shape of some dandy. The other day I said to 
 Spencer, ' How is it that all our old friends have 
 dropped away from us one by one ? ' ( Not the 
 Dunmores,' he said ; ' they are still as much our 
 own as ever.' . . . The Lansdownes are once more 
 among us, and full of Italy. Lady Jersey is at 
 Paris, and Lady Orford established at Calais. She 
 was in London for a few hours the other day, but 
 I did not see her. Why did you not come this 
 spring? We have had Talma, and Crabbe the 
 
 1 Lady Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Newcastle. 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 17 
 
 poet, the Waterloo Bridge and the Sapient Pig. 
 Lord Webbe paid us a long visit, and was my great 
 comfort. To-morrow I set off for Paris for three 
 weeks with Lalla Hookh : if I am not surfeited 
 there or drowned by the way, you may perhaps 
 see me notwithstanding I do not despair but 
 at all events I will write to the Lady of the Glen. 
 God bless you and yours." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "ULLESWATER, August 13th, 1812. 
 
 " Pray, where are you at this moment ? I am 
 sitting at an oak table in the little village of 
 Patterdale, the lake in full view, and all the world 
 out a-haymaking up and down the valley, not ex- 
 cepting the King himself for you must know 
 Patterdale is a kingdom, and has a king of its 
 own ! He is now without coat or waistcoat on the 
 margin of the lakes, attended by their Royal High- 
 nesses the Princesses, while the Reverend Rector, 
 in the same cool costume, is in solitary dignity 
 (unattended even by his clerk) tossing about his 
 own hay in the churchyard and such a church- 
 yard ! the only things to be seen in it are a yew 
 and a sun-dial, not so much as a stone being there. 
 The Rector's father and grandfather sleep side by 
 side under the green turf. 
 
 " Now, pray, pray tell me what are your motions 
 and by what signs you are to be found ; and pray 
 write me a line (if but a line) as soon as you receive 
 this, directed to me under cover to the Earl of 
 Lonsdale, Lowther, Penrith, Cumberland. 
 
18 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " LOWTHER, August 22nd, 1812. 
 
 " Many, many thanks for your kind letter, which 
 I have this instant received. To tell you the truth, 
 I have been hovering on the frontiers of this king- 
 dom till I thought I could catch you in yours, and 
 am now in a very strong part of a very strong and 
 well-garrisoned Border castle. You mentioned the 
 beginning of September as the best season for my 
 incursion, and it is my intention to spend a week 
 or ten days here and then travel night and day till 
 I arrive in the Glen, where I certainly wish to 
 make my first and principal sejour, as, to deal 
 plainly with you, you are the people I mean to 
 quarter myself principally upon. On the 5th or 
 6th of September, therefore, you may depend upon 
 seeing me, or perhaps sooner, if I thought you were 
 at home. To make sure, I shall direct this letter 
 to Hamilton, from which, of course, it will be for- 
 warded if you are gone. I hope you have received 
 one which I addressed to the Glen about a fort- 
 night ago." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "HowicK, November 12th, 1812. 
 
 " Could I send you as many thanks as there are 
 miles between us at this moment, I could not tell 
 you half I feel ; so I will say nothing and only pro- 
 ceed to relate that I went on to Edinburgh when I 
 left you, and after staying three days there (one of 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 19 
 
 which, a very brilliant one, was spent at Roslin), I 
 continued my journey to Dunbar, where I passed 
 two more, and then to Howick, where I still am, 
 and where I have been made happy by your letter. 
 I was rejoiced to hear that the sick were better, 
 and hope you found Charles and Henry well and 
 jumping for joy. Pray give each of them a kiss 
 and a blow for me, and tell them I mean to get 
 very strong against I meet them again in battle. 
 Pray also remember me very affectionately to F. 
 You will not perhaps believe me when I say so 
 but it is not the less true for that, and say it I 
 must that I left you with a heavy heart. Had I 
 found Mary and her little Court in Holyrood had 
 I supped now and then with her and Bizzio there 
 in her little chamber any night but one I might 
 have heard very sweet music, not, however, I am 
 very sure, such as would have pleased me half so 
 well ; and as for the kindness with which it was 
 given, like everything else on that and other sub- 
 jects I will be silent, for I know you have both of 
 you your reward. Kindness is like mercy ; it is 
 twice blessed- it blesseth him that gives and him 
 that takes. I am very sorry indeed that vile 
 visitor of yours still continues to torment you, 
 but hope you are now as well as I mean to be. 
 Just now I have the very worst of colds. Thank 
 you again and again for what your good nature 
 has led you to say of a voyage now as familiar to 
 everybody as one from London to Gravesend." 
 
20 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " LONDON, February V&th, 1813. 
 
 " Upon my return from the North Pole I found 
 your letter upon my table, and a most welcome 
 welcome it gave me. It told me you were all well 
 and had not quite forgot me, and it came from you 
 from Glenfinart and by the packet from Arden- 
 tinnie Point, that packet which I have watched so 
 often on its way along the opposite shore. Heigho, 
 the scene is changed, but I flatter myself / am not 
 at least my heart tells me so, and it has not 
 often deceived me, though we are told ' it is deceit- 
 ful above all things.' There are you at this moment 
 after a game at play with Charles and Henry on 
 the carpet, sitting at the tea-table in peace and 
 quiet, the Thane unplaided and exploring with 
 curious eye the columns of his newspaper, the harp 
 by the closet door, and a book of travels lying 
 open on the sofa. Here am I, on the other hand, 
 dressing for a dinner at Lord Stafford's, where I 
 shall meet nobody I shall wish to see and at a 
 loss to say whether I shall conclude the evening at 
 Lady Barrington's waltzing-party or Lady Davy's 
 conversazione, from either of which I shall be sure 
 to return tired and not sleepy, stuffed in body, 
 starved in mind. So Miss Berry is writing a par- 
 allel between the manners of the age of Louis XIV. 
 and our own. ' Miss B. writing upon manners 
 indeed ! ' says her friend Lady Spencer. Lyttelton 
 is a most attentive wooer and much mitigated, 
 though his dialect is as extraordinary as ever. 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 21 
 
 ' Tip us your daddle/ was his introductory speech 
 the other day to Lady Sarah before dinner. He 
 seems, however, as far as I can judge, a little 
 under awe of Lord S. Lord M. leaves London in 
 April. Lady Loudon is assembling her cortege, 
 and some bouncing young ladies from the north 
 are already under her roof. Indeed their dinner 
 resembles very much what I should conceive to be 
 in an Indiaman. I am very sorry that Moore has 
 no appointment under Lord M. So, entre nous, 
 the Lady behind Grosvenor Place Chapel has a 
 new lover, and I most sincerely wish you joy upon 
 the event, though it gave some disturbance to a 
 friend of ours, and I believe was the cause of a 
 gravity which I could not account for at Hamilton. 
 The new favourite, as you must have heard, is 
 the Childe. Lady C. L. is in sad retirement at 
 Brocket; it began at Cheltenham. As I am a 
 little in the secret (I am sure with no wish of 
 mine) I should say nothing about it. At Howick 
 I passed a fortnight, and I flatter myself we 
 parted with mutual regret. I then proceeded 
 with all alacrity to Castle Howard and Crewe, 
 and arrived in this wicked town with as little 
 emotion as if I had left it the day before. Little 
 Fin is growing fast out of his name, but his 
 countenance is the same as ever, and so is his 
 voice. Indeed, except in height, I never saw a 
 boy so little changed. When I asked him what I 
 should say, he said, ' Give my love to papa and 
 mama, and Charles and Henry, and tell them I 
 am very well and very happy/ and so I daresay 
 he has told you himself. Lady Donegal has had 
 
22 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 a violent cold and inflammation, but is now about 
 again. Waltzing is again in fashion, and to be 
 at Mrs Hope's to-morrow and at Lady Cowper's 
 that day week. Now, have not I shown my for- 
 bearance, not yet to have scolded you for your 
 cruel, cruel determination against us ? It has filled 
 us all with sadness, and if you could but hear the 
 lamentations, you would think us amiable if not 
 attractive. Above all, it is the greatest affliction 
 to me, and what to do I don't know, as every year 
 I grow worse and worse, and see clearly that I 
 must soon renounce all my acquaintance and live 
 only with such friends as will endure me. Fare- 
 well ! Pray mention me once a-day at least to 
 Charles and Henry, for I believe I shall break my 
 heart if you stay away till they have forgotten 
 me. ... S. R. 
 
 " Mrs Hope has put off her waltzing on account 
 of the bursting of a blood-vessel in her ear they 
 say from excessive boring ; but after what passed 
 at Hamilton I like nothing of the kind. Pray 
 remember me to Lord Webbe, if with you. I shall 
 envy him his conversations under the sunny rock. 
 How I like Lord Archibald's manliness in Par- 
 liament ! " 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "LONDON, July 12th, 1825. 
 
 " Well, as L threatened you with another line, 
 I must keep my word with myself, whatever it 
 cost you ; so pray mount your donkey and set out 
 with me last August, and embark with me on the 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 23 
 
 1st of September in the Psyche packet. To be 
 serious, I have done a great deal since we parted 
 at the Temple of Concord. 
 
 " The Hopes in less than a month start, bag and 
 baggage, for Italy. When shall we all meet again ? 
 Poor Mrs Spencer is still in a very dangerous way, 
 I fear. She is in Curzon Street, but I have not 
 yet seen her. The Berrys go in a day or two to 
 Tunbridge, and the streets are almost as empty as 
 those of Pompeii. You see I have not travelled in 
 vain ; all my similes, I promise you, shall hence- 
 forth and for ever be drawn from the kingdom of 
 Naples. What strange times we live in ! What 
 times indeed, as Jekyll says, must those be which 
 Wraxall calls his own ! I dined the other day in 
 Grosvenor Place, and was treated with primavera 
 and a thousand delights. If Angus is beautiful, 
 his sister is half divine, so the race is in no danger 
 of being lost. London has swarmed with poets 
 this spring. Moore only was absent, who has 
 actually sold his poem for three thousand pounds. 
 What do you think of Lord Aberdeen's marriage, 
 and of your own discernment ? The little girl who 
 looked so glum in a back drawing-room in Meri- 
 vale may charm dukes and dandies yet unborn 
 before she dies. Lady Jersey still sits up, nor do 
 I believe she ever means to confine herself while 
 there are people in town to talk to. Her evenings 
 are now the only things going, and last every 
 night till two in the morning. Lord Erskine is 
 in Paris, the gayest of the gay. What a strange 
 assemblage of people was at Home ! Lady West- 
 morland's doings and Ward's sayings eclipsed the 
 
24 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 Pantheon and the Coliseum altogether. Of the 
 Princess of Wales, and Lady Orford, and King 
 Murat, and my dearest best friend the Archbishop 
 of Tarentum, on whose table at dinner were regu- 
 larly served up every day his two living cats, ..." 
 
 And so on, all the passing incidents which 
 make up the fabric of life and friendship. Some 
 passages, indeed, in these letters seem to betray 
 a deeper, warmer feeling than friendship, as if in 
 the past Rogers had nourished hopes which had 
 never been fulfilled. The suspicion of this is sug- 
 gested by the opening sentence of one of the 
 earlier letters quoted from above : 
 
 " Well, write I must though I have nothing 
 to say, but that you are almost always in my 
 thoughts, as indeed you are. Day after day have 
 I resolved to tell you so, but I was really at a loss 
 how to begin, and now I will, whatever happens. 
 Here am I in my bed-chamber at Woolbeding, 
 and Spencer 1 is at this moment sitting in the 
 
 1 William Spencer, a poet little remembered now, but once very 
 popular for his vers-de-socitft& He was a constant visitor of the Fin- 
 castles, and Sir Charles Murray has left in one of his note-books an 
 account of how Spencer's best -known poem Beth Gelert came 
 to be written : " He was travelling in Wales with his wife and 
 another lady, whose name I forget, and they arrived at Bettws- 
 y-Coed, at the foot of Snowdon, associated with the name of Beth 
 Gelert. Mrs Spencer and her lady friend agreed they must contrive 
 to make the poet write a ballad connected with the legend. They 
 managed to get him into a room on the upper floor of the little inn, 
 and, throwing open the little window, called his attention to the 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 25 
 
 next room (I hear his solitary step), where I have 
 just spent a very pleasant half- hour in talking 
 about your Ladyship, among other people." 
 
 And here is a significant sentence from the 
 same letter : 
 
 " Do you know, I have often thought since that 
 I did very wrong in leaving town before you, and 
 many a time have I wished to recall the two or 
 three days you spent there after I was gone, but 
 (shall I own it ?) at the time I was rather glad 
 than otherwise. I shall never wish to survive 
 those I love best, and though I was unwilling to 
 acknowledge it myself then, I almost felt the thing 
 like an escape. Pray remember me most affec- 
 tionately to Lord F. I little thought I should 
 ever have found such a friend so late in the day. 
 You, I know, I can tell what I feel about him, for 
 you will understand me ; but I can assure you, my 
 dear Lady Susan, my eyes often fill while I am 
 thinking of his kindness to me." 
 
 And again 
 
 "So S. [Spencer], I find, is writing to you to-day, 
 
 beauty of the view that it commanded. Meanwhile one of them pro- 
 cured from below a sheet of paper, pens, ink, &c. Having placed 
 these utensils surreptitiously in the room, they ran to the door and 
 locked it from the outside, and then they called to him, telling him 
 that he should have no luncheon, or meal of any kind, until he had 
 written a ballad illustrative of the local legend. But, finding that 
 he could not induce them by any entreaties to open the door, he 
 set to work to write the ballad necessary for his liberation." 
 
26 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 and our letters are to bear each other company in 
 the Falkirk bag. Over many a hill and valley 
 will they travel together, but mine, if it had its 
 choice, would have taken its flight alone, from 
 motives too selfish to mention. I must use his 
 seal, for I have made a holy vow not to wear mine 
 till I have bought a chain for it. Alas ! alas ! I 
 lost one but last week from Lady Elizabeth's 
 ribbon." 
 
 Eighteen years later, after returning from a 
 trip on the Continent, the same allusion may 
 be traced : 
 
 " I sailed on the Lake of Geneva, visited Ferney 
 and Gibbon's terrace, and the rocks of Meillerie 
 and the Isle of St Pierre, walked on the sea of ice, 
 gathered grapes to the guitar in an Italian vine- 
 yard, and ate ice by moonlight in St Mark's Place 
 at Venice. I passed half an hour at Petrarch's 
 tomb, and Tasso's, and Ariosto's, and Raphael's, 
 slept in the convent at Vallombrosa, saw a nun 
 take the veil, exchanged a word or two with the 
 Pope, toasted a muffin on Vesuvius, wore a mask 
 in a carnival, and wandered at sunset in the 
 temples at Psestum, and I brought back with 
 me the same heart I went out with, filled with the 
 same remembrances, the same affections, and the 
 same ardent wishes for the same people, whatever 
 they may think to the contrary. Yes, the letters 
 on the rock may grow dimmer and dimmer, and 
 wear out altogether, but there are some impres- 
 sions that never can ! " 
 
LETTERS FROM S. ROGERS. 27 
 
 Long afterwards, when Rogers was growing old, 
 the expressions are as tender as ever. The allu- 
 sion in the postscript is to the "Cupid" of 1808, 
 then on a voyage to America : 
 
 "May 1834. 
 
 " A thousand, thousand thanks for a letter 
 which at once made me sad and merry at heart. 
 Why have a few scratches made by a goose-quill 
 or a bit of steel such a strange effect upon one ? 
 Yes, come I must and I will. As poor Warwick 
 Lake used to say, ' When shall we set off ? ' If 
 health is mine and health is yours, in July I hope 
 at farthest ; but I will write again and feel your 
 pulse about it. How could that be done, would 
 Mr Shandy say, ' when so many hills and valleys 
 and rivers are between us ' ? Yes, it can be done, 
 and I know it from the effect a certain thrill that 
 came when I broke the seal of a certain letter. 
 Remember me very affectionately to the Thane, 
 and believe me to be, yours ever and ever, 
 
 " SAMUEL ROGERS. 
 
 " P.S. Poor Charles. He is now on the 
 Atlantic. Well, he wears a talisman that makes 
 everybody love him, so I don't care if he escapes 
 shipwreck." 
 
 The latest of the letters in the little packet 
 before me can only be read in the light of those 
 that went long before : 
 
 " I need not tell you what I felt when I broke 
 
28 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 the seal of your letter. Not that I broke the seal, 
 for it told me at once when and where I found 
 two friends the best the kindest the truest I 
 ever found or shall ever find on this side of the 
 grave ! May God eternally bless you ! S. R. 
 
 " January 18th, 1837." 
 
 It is true that Rogers was very ugly so ugly 
 that Sydney Smith rather coarsely advised him, 
 when having his portrait painted, to be taken 
 in the attitude of prayer, with his hands over his 
 features. But who knows what depth of feeling 
 may have been masked by that cadaverous coun- 
 tenance ? A Greek profile is not an indispensable 
 index to a tender heart. 
 
 The visit paid by Rogers to Glen Finart, re- 
 ferred to by Charles Murray in his notes, was 
 paid in 1812. 
 
 " You once asked me," he wrote to Lady Fin- 
 castle, after his return to England, " if I kept a 
 journal in the Highlands. I will now own to you 
 I began one, and as you expressed some curiosity 
 on the subject, I will punish it as it deserves, not 
 after the fashion of Barbe Bleu, but in a way per- 
 haps little less severe. My diary ends providen- 
 tially with the first day, and here it is." 
 
 Here follows the poem afterwards published in 
 ' The Pleasures of Memory,' beginning 
 
THE HOME AT GLEN FINART. 29 
 
 " Blue was the loch, the clouds were gone, 
 Ben Lomond in his glory shone," &c. 
 
 Neighbours at Glen Finart were few and dis- 
 tant. Some of them must have afforded a de- 
 lightful contrast to the crowded acquaintanceship 
 of London. 
 
 " I remember very well," writes Sir Charles in 
 his notes, " a visit we had from an old Highland 
 laird named Fletcher of Beamish, 1 who lived about 
 fourteen or fifteen miles over the hills between us 
 and Inverary. His manners were very primitively 
 rough, and his stock of English was very scant. 
 He paid a morning visit, and the drawing-room 
 door was thrown open just as my mother was in 
 the middle of a piece that she was playing on the 
 harp. Of course she got off the stool on which 
 she was playing to come and meet him, but, in 
 a very uncouth way, he led her back towards the 
 harp, intimating that she should go on with what 
 she was doing. As a matter of course, he had 
 never seen a harp before, and, after she had 
 played a few bars, he put his hand upon her 
 wrist, and, drawing it away, said, * Thank ye, my 
 lady, I only wished to hear what kind o' noise 
 she made.' Lunch having been announced, of 
 course he was invited to go into the dining-room, 
 and he looked, with some surprise, at the display 
 of fruit on the table. We had no hothouse fruit 
 at the glen, but a supply was sent every fortnight 
 
 1 In a duplicate memorandum he is mentioned as the Laird of 
 Auchnashalloch. 
 
30 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 from Dunmore Park, where my father had no 
 house, but an excellent garden. After he had 
 despatched the solids, he pointed to a dish on 
 which there were three or four very fine peaches, 
 and he said, ' What kind of an apple is yon ? ' 
 So my mother told him that we called it a peach, 
 and he said, c Well, I'll just tak yen to taste.' 
 He accordingly took a peach and stuck half of 
 it into his mouth, and bit hard into it. The 
 juice ran out of the sides of his mouth, and he 
 said, ' Oh, it's a gran' apple ; but siccan a pip 
 as it's got ! ' " 
 
 Ardgowan, the beautiful home of the Shaw 
 Stewarts, on the Clyde, was not very far distant 
 from Glen Finart by water, and the Murray boys 
 spent much of their time there. Sir Michael 
 had three daughters little girls to whom the 
 three brothers promptly betrothed themselves. 
 Dis aliter visum. Margaret, the eldest, became 
 Duchess of Somerset ; Catherine married Captain 
 Osborne of the 6th Inniskillen Dragoons ; and 
 Helenora, the youngest, 1 married Sir William 
 Maxwell of Monreith. 
 
 Sir Michael's second son, Houston, made a 
 great impression on Charles. He died in 1875 
 as Admiral of the Fleet Sir Houston Stewart, 
 G.C.B., leaving a son, also Admiral Sir Houston 
 Stewart, G.C.B., whose son, Houston, gave high 
 
 1 Mother of the compiler of this memoir. 
 
PARIS AFTER WATERLOO. 31 
 
 promise of winning similar honours in the third 
 generation, but met an early death in 1884 when 
 serving with the Naval Brigade in the Soudan. 
 
 Lord Fincastle succeeded his father as fifth 
 Earl of Dunmore in the spring of 1809, but as 
 there was no house in the fine demesne of Dun- 
 more Park, they continued to live at Glen Finart 
 till it was time to send the boys to Eton. Stirring 
 times they were, though the echoes of Waterloo 
 sounded faintly in lonely Loch Long. The fol- 
 lowing letter to Lady Dunmore from her inde- 
 fatigable correspondent, Rogers, is one of many 
 that must have been eagerly perused in that 
 eventful year : 
 
 " October 13th, 1815. 
 
 At breakfast, with grapes and peaches and 
 strawberries almost as delicious as yours. 
 
 " I made a vow I would write to you from 
 Paris, and write I will though I have little to 
 say. I spent the 14th at sea between Dover 
 and Calais, and I wish you could have seen 
 Frederick North in his banyan, and attended by 
 his Athenian, distributing lavender-water among 
 some Irish ladies who were expiring very loquaci- 
 ously in the cabin. My journey lay through 
 Arcadia. The first day was Sunday, and the 
 church bells came over the hills from every 
 quarter, and before almost every post - house 
 there were children dancing and singing in the 
 road for the chance of a sou, nor did I see a 
 
32 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 tent or a soldier until I came to Amiens, where 
 the English officers were preparing a fete for the 
 ladies. At Breteuil I asked the price of pigeons 
 in the market, and they were 2d. apiece ; no sign 
 of famine, you will say. Here are soldiers every- 
 where, and strange it is to see English uniforms 
 at the corner of every street. A poor fellow 
 in a jacket accosted me the other day in a 
 Babylonish dialect. At last I said in despair, 
 * Are you an Englishman ? ' ' Thank God I am, 
 sir,' he answered very briskly. The Bois de 
 Boulogne is full of English tents. As you drive 
 through it, it looks like a fair, and sorry am I 
 to say that the axe is very busy in their hands. 
 I have been called off to the window by a shout 
 it was the good King bowing from the balcony, 
 as he came from mass, to his loving subjects. 
 Some say he will stay Lord Kinnaird thinks 
 he will go with the first wind after the Allies. 
 The Comte de Mosebourg gave the most splendid 
 balls and dinners at Naples. He was Secretary 
 of State under Murat. Going into Vary's, I found 
 him dining at a table there in the crowd, and he 
 lives in a troisieme in one of the darkest streets 
 in Paris. Such are the changes in this world. 
 I sat down in the cafe near him, and who should 
 tap me on the shoulder but Lady Caroline Lamb. 
 She had come in alone, and her freaks here are 
 as wonderful as in London. I am myself just now 
 enrhume, but my windows console me a little for 
 my confinement. They command the Tuileries 
 and the Tuileries Gardens, full of statues and 
 orange -trees, and groups of loungers and news- 
 
PARIS AFTER WATERLOO. 33 
 
 paper-readers. I hope, however, to be released 
 to-morrow, and to see Talma and Mile. Mars in 
 the ' Partie de Chasse de Henri IV.,' as I deny 
 myself Mile. Goselin's dancing in ' Psyche ' to- 
 night, and the 'Pia Valeuse,' which last has now 
 run 85 nights, drawing francs and tears innumer- 
 able. The theatres seem not to have been painted 
 since the Peace of Amiens all are dingy, but 
 the acting admirable. The cuisine is certainly en 
 decadence. So at least say the judges. The 
 Gallery is now, alas ! full only of pedestals and 
 picture-frames the swallows are literally on the 
 wing there and it looks like an auction -room 
 after a sale. A scene of still greater confusion 
 is the Austrian Barrack, where the Venus, the 
 Apollo, the Transfiguration, and a thousand preci- 
 ous things, are huddled together. They say the 
 French show no feeling, but the melancholy groups 
 assembled in the Place de Carrousel to gaze at the 
 Venetian horses for some days before they were 
 taken down by our engineers, and those now as- 
 sembled round the Column with the same sad pre- 
 sentiment, would affect even F. a little. ' They 
 won't rob us of everything,' said an old gentleman 
 to me in the crowd ; ' they would take away the 
 city of Paris if they could ! ' There is a caricature 
 of the Duke of Wellington in circulation with great 
 moustaches, inscribed M. Blucher, and I fear we 
 are growing very unpopular. My reading, alas ! is 
 confined to plays and farces, which I read before I 
 go to the theatre, because they talk so damned fast 
 there, as Dangle says in the ' Critic,' that I can't 
 understand a word they say. I was very agreeably 
 
 c 
 
34 LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY DAYS. 
 
 surprised to find in the Rue de Grenelle a very 
 delightful English family the other day, and theirs 
 is the only house I have been in Mrs Ann Scott 
 and her son and daughter and who do you think 
 I introduced there but Glasserton Stewart under 
 a magnificent pair of whiskers. He came with a 
 King's messenger from Turin to see the Gallery, 
 but it has vanished like the Palace of Aladdin, 
 and he came only to empty walls. He returns 
 next week to Florence. He was at Genoa when 
 Lady Jane Montague died, and at Naples he saw 
 the last of poor Eustace, events that have thrown 
 a shade over our Italian town. As I came out 
 of Rochester, who should be driving into it but 
 poor Lady Shaftesbury ; but we were both driving 
 so fast that I had only a glimpse of her, though 
 I made what noise I could. I dined with Lady 
 Barbara just before her confinement. I have said 
 so much about nothing, I have no room for real 
 things. I am not sure I should like to see the 
 parting between you and Charles 1 strange it is, 
 as you observe, that a mother's nerves should be 
 strung to quiver for people so passionately fond 
 of enterprise and danger, and that all her business 
 should be to prepare them for leaving her. Ever 
 and ever yours, S. R/." 
 
 His next letter comes the following year, de- 
 ploring business which prevented him coming to 
 Glen Finart : 
 
 " I have a line from Lord Byron : he is on the 
 
 1 Who was just going to school. 
 
LETTERS OF S. ROGERS. 35 
 
 Lake of Geneva, and, like another St Preux, was 
 nearly cast away the other evening under the 
 rocks of Maillarie. He has read ' Glenarvon ' and 
 finished another canto of ' Childe Harold,' and a 
 smaller poem or two, and sets off for Italy im- 
 mediately. Madame de Stae'l has also written 
 three vols. for you. The two first are on France, 
 the last on England." 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 1815-1822. 
 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 THE journey to Eton from Dunmore was a for- 
 midable affair for young Charles, who never, 
 to the end of his life, succeeded in going to sleep 
 in a carriage. The fastest travelling from Dun- 
 more to London occupied three days and two 
 nights, and, on account of his inveterate sleep- 
 lessness in a coach, the boy was generally sent 
 by the Leith smack to the Thames. In Edin- 
 burgh he was taken in charge by his father's 
 estate agent, Mr Tait, and formed a close friend- 
 ship with his two sons, of whom the second 
 afterwards became Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Eton boys of to - day perhaps do not realise 
 the ease of transit they enjoy eight hours from 
 London to Edinburgh in a saloon furnished like 
 a boudoir though they may regard somewhat en- 
 
ETON. 37 
 
 viously the large inroads which the old-fashioned 
 travelling sometimes made on the school - time. 
 On one occasion the smack in which Charles, 
 bound for school, embarked at Leith, was blown 
 over to the coast of Norway, and it was a 
 fortnight before she landed him again, not in 
 London, but in Leith ! 
 
 Notwithstanding such impediments as this to 
 consecutive study, Charles Murray acquired a 
 pretty turn for Latin verses, the making of 
 which was really nearly all a boy could learn 
 at Eton in Keate's day. Sometimes the exer- 
 cises were varied by practice in English verse ; 
 and once a-week an afternoon was devoted to 
 what was called an extempore, though the sub- 
 ject was set at 2 P.M. and the lines (which were 
 not to exceed four) had not to be shown up 
 till two hours later. On one occasion the sub- 
 ject set was Horace's Insanire omnes. On this 
 a very shy, quiet boy, whom nobody suspected 
 of capacity for a joke, sent in the following 
 stanza : 
 
 " Old Horace says 'All men are mad,' 
 And so they are, I think. Egad ! 
 Surely the man must be a fool 
 Who sends his son to Eton school." 
 
 Charles's elder brother, Lord Fincastle, was also 
 
38 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 at Eton, but afflicted with great shyness, especi- 
 ally with ladies. Charles, who never suffered 
 from that complaint, has left on record his device 
 for curing him. The two lads were at a party in 
 the house of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart in Edin- 
 burgh, a town which was famous for gaiety in the 
 early part of the century. 
 
 " I wished to make him known to a very pretty 
 young lady, with whom I was myself talking, and 
 I hit upon a device for removing the usual for- 
 mality of an introduction. Accordingly, before 
 performing that ceremony, I said to my brother, 
 1 Miss - - is very pleasant in conversation, but 
 she is very deaf ; ' and a few minutes afterwards 
 I went across to her and asked her if she would 
 let me introduce my brother. Upon her saying 
 that it would give her very great pleasure, I said, 
 ' 1 should warn you that he is very deaf.' After 
 this I performed the introduction, and went to 
 the farther part of the room to watch the result. 
 As I expected, I saw him approach his mouth 
 to her ear and shout out something, probably an 
 insignificant remark. She was startled, but in 
 making her reply also put her mouth very near 
 to his ear, and shouted a few words in answer. 
 Both seemed very much surprised, but before long 
 one had occasion to say, 'You needn't talk so loud, 
 I'm not deaf ' Oh, I'm very glad to hear it, but 
 my brother told me you were very deaf.' Then 
 she said to him, ' He told me the same of you ! ' 
 The result was a hearty laugh, the absence of all 
 
EDINBURGH SOCIETY. 39 
 
 shyness, and in a few minutes they were laugh- 
 ing at the mischief-maker, who had obtained his 
 object." 
 
 Edinburgh society, though small, was very lively, 
 and the literary activity of certain coteries has 
 perhaps had no parallel in a town of equal size. 
 Jeffrey had steered the ' Edinburgh Review ' to 
 a brilliant position ; Lockhart and John Wilson 
 between them had launched ' Black wood's Maga- 
 zine' to the attack, with a memorable display of 
 fireworks ; the Waverley Novels, not yet avowed 
 by their author, were confidently attributed to 
 one hand after another. Charles Murray pre- 
 served notes of some of the incidents which 
 amused him at the time. Some of the stories 
 invite repetition, though this may possibly not be 
 the first time they have appeared in print : 
 
 " A certain Scottish peer had long desired to 
 obtain the honour of the Order of the Thistle, 
 one of which happened to be then vacant. For 
 a considerable time he canvassed all the persons 
 whom he thought likely to have it in their power 
 to assist him in attaining his object. He was 
 very sanguine of success ; but while the Law 
 Court was sitting at Edinburgh, of which Harry 
 Erskine was a member, intelligence came in to 
 the effect that Lord S. had been unsuccessful. 
 As soon as the report was read to the assembled 
 
40 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 advocates, Harry Erskine wrote two lines on a 
 slip of paper and threw it over the table to one 
 of his brother-advocates. The two lines proved 
 to be in reference to Lord S. as follows : 
 
 " ' "When he heard the thing was settled, 
 Not being thistled he was nettled.' l 
 
 " There were some amusing incidents occurred 
 when, between the year 1820-30, King George 
 IV. took it into his head to pay a visit to Edin- 
 burgh, and, by way of rendering himself popular, 
 he dressed himself in full Highland costume on 
 the occasion of his receiving the Provost and 
 the Bailies in state. These worthies had been 
 informed that, after the reading of their loyal 
 address and receiving his Majesty's gracious reply, 
 they were to retire, kissing hands as they with- 
 drew. Accordingly they defiled, as they went 
 out, kissing their own hands to their astonished 
 Sovereign." 
 
 1 Another impromptu by Henry Erskine is preserved in these 
 notes. A case on which Erskine was engaged was being tried by 
 Lord Cringletie, who, in mitigation of the offence of which the 
 defendant was accused, referred to the force of circumstances under 
 which he had acted, and more than once quoted the proverb, 
 "Necessity has no law." Erskine passed a slip of paper to his 
 neighbour with these lines pencilled on it : 
 
 "Necessity and Cringaltie are suited to a tittle, 
 Necessity has no law, and Cringaltie has little." 
 
 The English equivalent to this story may be found in Samuel 
 Eogers's ' Table-Talk ' : " Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton) was 
 stating the law to a jury at Guildhall, when Lord Mansfield inter- 
 rupted him by saying, ' If that be law, I'll go home and burn my 
 books.' ' My lord,' replied Dunning, * you had better go home and 
 read them ' ! " 
 
LORD ELDON. 41 
 
 King George's visit was the cause of some in- 
 convenience to Lord and Lady Dunmore. Queen 
 Anne had bestowed on the first Earl of Dunmore 
 a suite of apartments in Holyrood Palace, which 
 had remained in the family as a possession by 
 what Scottish lawyers call " tacit relocation " ever 
 since. On this occasion the king, probably with 
 an eye to future sojourns in the Scottish capital, 
 caused the apartments of the Duke of Hamilton, 
 Hereditary Keeper of the Palace, to be added 
 to the royal suite, and bestowed on the Duke 
 the rooms previously occupied by the Dunmores. 
 
 The new house at Dunmore had just been com- 
 pleted from the designs of Wilkins of Cambridge, 
 who was also the architect of Lord Rosebery's new 
 house at Dalmeny. At the last-named place con- 
 stant sociable gatherings took place, at which 
 many Edinburgh and other notables assembled 
 from time to time. Among these appears the 
 name of Lord Chancellor Eldon, then a very old 
 man, whose pleasantries seem to have been rather 
 of the bludgeoning, Johnsonian type. 
 
 " One of the numerous Dundases well known in 
 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh had the preced- 
 ing year exhibited a collection of pictures which 
 he had lately purchased in Germany, previous to 
 their being transferred to his private residence. 
 
42 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 It happened that one of the guests at Lord Rose- 
 bery's table mentioned his intention of visiting the 
 Continent for the purpose of making some addition 
 to his own collection of paintings, and he asked 
 Lord Eldon if he could give him any suggestions 
 as to where he had better begin his search. Lord 
 Eldon replied, ' I think he had better go to Dus- 
 seldorf.' 'And why to Dusseldorf?' said the in- 
 quirer. ' I think you might find something good 
 there, as our friend Dundas went there last year 
 and bought all the d d trash in the place.' ' 
 
 This Mr Dundas shared the passion which dis- 
 tinguished James IV. for amateur dentistry. It 
 was said that whenever his wife engaged a new 
 housemaid or kitchenmaid, Dundas used to offer 
 her a sovereign to be allowed to draw one of her 
 teeth. 
 
 " Lady Rosebery, who was a sister of Lord 
 Lichfield's, a handsome person, and an excellent 
 hostess, was very fond of playing the harp as an 
 accompaniment when singing. One favourite song 
 a Hussian air with Russian words she played 
 and sang so frequently that I can remember the 
 words to this day. On one occasion when she was 
 singing it a Russian attache, who happened to be 
 sitting next to me, whispered to me, ' Does Lady 
 Rosebery understand Russian ? ' I replied. ' Cer- 
 tainly not ; but why do you ask me ? ' ' Because,' 
 said he, ' the words she is singing are most atroci- 
 ously improper. Somebody ought to tell her.' 
 
FONTHILL. 43 
 
 " I need scarcely add that I took the earliest 
 opportunity of doing so, and the song was never 
 repeated." 
 
 Much of Charles Murray's early recollection is 
 connected with Hamilton Palace and visits to his 
 uncle there. The Duke of Hamilton 1 impressed 
 him as a fine specimen of the old grand school, 
 retaining not only the manners of a bygone court 
 but some of the peculiarities in dress. He con- 
 tinued to wear a wig, tied with a ribbon behind, 
 long after that fashion had been discarded. 
 
 " Of the Duchess I hardly trust myself to write, 
 so gifted she was with talents of various kinds, but 
 most of all in music. She had a magnificent voice 
 of three perfect octaves, and her scientific know- 
 ledge of music was as remarkable as was her 
 intuitive feeling. I may add that many of her 
 gifts above alluded to were inherited from her 
 father, William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey, one 
 of the most extraordinary men in some respects 
 that it has been my chance to meet in life. 
 Before he was twenty he had written in French, 
 and published, the oriental novel of ' Yathek/ 
 which was for many years to be found in almost 
 every drawing-room in England or France. Some 
 literary pirate having published of course without 
 authority a translation of it, Beckford published 
 his English version of it. In respect of music I do 
 
 1 Ninth duke, died in 1819. 
 
44 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 not know whether he ever knew a single note, 
 but I have often seen him sit down at the piano 
 and play a succession of the wildest and most 
 extravagant unpremeditated compositions. 
 
 " I remember on one occasion an article had 
 lately appeared in one of the magazines describing 
 the nature of the sovereign succession in Thibet, 
 and how the spirit of the dying ruler was supposed 
 to pass into the body of his successor. Beckford, 
 taking the bass and sitting beside his daughter at 
 the piano, said in French (which he always spoke 
 to her), * Now, Susan, well suppose that the Grand 
 Lama is just dead, and that his spirit has passed 
 into the body of a little child. Now we'll have 
 the scene.' 
 
 "A remarkable performance ensued. There 
 they sat at the piano together, the father and 
 the still beautiful daughter, whose face, like her 
 soul, was all music, he making the most grotesque 
 faces in the world, as he suggested in a single 
 word the successive changes of his piece she 
 playing the tenor and he the accompaniment on 
 the bass notes of the instrument. First was a 
 solemn dirge for the death of the old lama then 
 a march intended to describe the procession of 
 grave senators and sages to the assembly where 
 the successor to the deceased prince was to be 
 proclaimed then a solemn strain describing the 
 discussions and divinations of the assembly then 
 a grand chorus announcing the result and the 
 proclamation of the infant successor. All this 
 was improvised without any other guide than an 
 occasional glance at one another, while their duet, 
 
WILLIAM BECKFORD. 45 
 
 expressive of a whole series of incidents, continued 
 without a hitch. Presently Beckford, breaking 
 off, remarked to his daughter, ' A present, a toi ! ' 
 Upon which, after a solemn pause, she began a 
 soft solo in the treble, which she presently accom- 
 panied with her voice, singing, ' Le Grand Lama 
 vient de dire ta-ta ! ' l 
 
 " I may here add a humorous little story that 
 the Duchess herself related to me, connected with 
 her girlish days at Fonthill Abbey. There were 
 several peacocks and peahens that used to pro- 
 menade about the lawns and terraces adjoining 
 the house, and her father took it into his head 
 to learn and practise in a back-room of the house 
 the shrill cry of a peacock. He knew that when 
 the peacock on one side screamed loud, another 
 peacock on the opposite side of the house gener- 
 ally screamed in defiance. One morning, when 
 he felt pretty sure that he had learnt his lesson 
 correctly, he went out, and hiding behind a cedar- 
 tree, he gave his peacock cry : to his great de- 
 light, the peacock on the opposite side of the 
 lawn screamed defiantly. Immediately after this, 
 which occurred just before breakfast, he came 
 into the breakfast-room, saying with triumph to 
 his daughter 
 
 " ' And, Susan, the other peacock answered 
 me!' 
 
 1 " In the evening Beckford would amuse us by reading one of his 
 unpublished works ; or he would extemporise on the pianoforte, 
 producing the most charming and novel melodies (which, by the 
 bye, his daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, can do also)." Eogers's 
 Table-Talk, p. 217. 
 
46 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 " To his great annoyance, instead of congratu- 
 lating him on his success, his daughter only burst 
 into a loud fit of laughter. Rather provoked at 
 this, he said 
 
 " ' Well, I think you might have congratulated 
 me!' 
 
 " And then, though still hardly able to speak 
 for laughing, she said 
 
 " ' Why, papa, / was the peacock that answered 
 you ! ' " 
 
 Lord Eldon figures characteristically in these 
 reminiscences of Hamilton Palace. Phrenology 
 was a fashionable craze for some years, and 
 among those most bitten with it was a neigh- 
 bouring laird, Mr Hamilton of Dalzell, 1 a very 
 old gentleman. Sitting opposite to Lord Eldon 
 one night at dinner, and fixing his eyes on the 
 great lawyer, Hamilton suddenly asked him 
 
 " Have you ever read Dr Spurzheim's two great 
 volumes on phrenology ? " 
 
 "No, sir," replied Lord Eldon, "and I'd be 
 ashamed to own it if I had." 
 
 Which cast rather a damp over the discussion 
 in which Hamilton was burning to engage. 
 
 " In the earlier part of this century the article 
 which we call the ' dessert-spoon ' was not known 
 in Scotland : the two houses in which it was first 
 
 1 Father of the present Lord Hamilton of Dalzell. 
 
NEIGHBOURS AT HAMILTON. 47 
 
 introduced were Hamilton and Dalkeith. Before 
 that, there was no spoon known between the table- 
 spoon and the teaspoon. Bearing this in mind r 
 we proceed to the following incident. A rough 
 country squire, dining for the first time at Hamil- 
 ton, had been served in the second course with a 
 sweet dish containing cream or jelly, and with it 
 the servant handed him a dessert-spoon. The laird 
 turned it round and round in his great fist and 
 said to the servant 
 
 " ' What do you gie me this for, ye d d fule ? 
 
 Do ye think ma mooth has got any smaller since a 
 lappit up my soup ? ' 
 
 " At one of these dinners there was a Russian 
 prince, whose name I forget, and who sat on the 
 right hand of the Duchess. At the close of the 
 first course a servant brought round a plate on 
 which were a dozen little square pieces of toast 
 with a delicate morsel, apparently of meat, upon 
 each, which he elicited from the Duchess to con- 
 sist of the inside of a woodcock, and considered 
 a great delicacy. Unconscious that the plate 
 was to go round, he took it from the hands of 
 the servant, placed it before him, and deliberate- 
 ly ate up the whole of it, saying that he found it 
 excellent ; but he ascertained that the delicate 
 meat upon the toast was not termed in polite 
 circles the 'stomach/ but was called the 'trail.' 
 Whether that particular dish or any other disagreed 
 with his digestion I know not, but it happened 
 that the same night, a little before midnight, the 
 Duke heard the footsteps of his guest walking up 
 and down in the passage adjoining the rooms in 
 
48 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 which they both slept. The Duke lit a candle, 
 opened his door, and went up to his guest, and 
 inquired whether he was suffering any pain ? and 
 the latter replied 
 
 " ' Yes, I have got a very bad pain in my trail. 9 ' 
 
 Walter Scott was one of the acquaintances 
 whom Charles Murray made at Hamilton. He 
 left the poem Cadzow Castle as a memento of his 
 visit, little dreaming, perhaps, how famous the 
 whole neighbourhood was to become by his pen. 1 
 Henry Brougham and Chief - Justice Denman are 
 others of note whose names appear. 
 
 " It was during one of these visits to Hamilton, 
 Brougham and Denman being both guests at the 
 time, that my uncle asked me to go over to Lanark 
 and show them an establishment that was then 
 making a great sensation in Scotland. I allude to 
 the Educational Institution of the well-known Mr 
 Owen. He was one of those visionary individuals 
 who held that the human mind and human char- 
 acter in childhood were perfectly free from vice of 
 any kind, and that a careful education could mould 
 the youth of both sexes into a state of perpetual 
 innocence. The establishment was upon a large 
 
 1 Cambusnethan, in the immediate neighbourhood of Hamilton, 
 is the original of Tillietudlem Castle in ' Old Mortality.' The crowds 
 of tourists who visit it at this day take their tickets, not for Cambus- 
 nethan, but for Tillietudlem perhaps an unrivalled instance of the 
 power of a novelist to influence the prosaic details of railway man- 
 agement. 
 
SPORT IN ARRAN. 49 
 
 scale ; and the pupils, boys and girls, took their 
 lessons together between the ages of seven and 
 seventeen. Owen was a plausible fellow, and de- 
 scribed his system and his course with great 
 volubility to the two distinguished lawyers above 
 mentioned. I watched them during the interview, 
 and I could see that Brougham listened to his ex- 
 planations with considerable interest, while Den- 
 man d d Mr Owen from the first as a complete 
 humbug. I regret to be obliged to add that a 
 few years later the fact of half-a-dozen of the girl 
 pupils proving enceinte caused Mr Owen to be 
 driven out of the place by the indignant popula- 
 tion. I may add that, curiously enough, I found 
 the same charlatan, Owen, in the United States, 
 conducting a school near Philadelphia, but I never 
 heard any more of his success or failure." 
 
 Shooting, in the first quarter of the century, 
 had not become the arduous, semi - professional 
 business with which we are familiar ; nevertheless, 
 Charles Murray used to bring out his flintlocked 
 " Joe Manton" with as much pride and as much 
 confidence that it was a perfect firearm, as any 
 modern youth can feel in his two or three ham- 
 merless breechloaders fitted with ejectors and all 
 the latest improvements. Nowhere had he a finer 
 field for its exercise than in the Isle of Arran, that 
 princely possession of the Dukes of Hamilton, 
 and space must be found for his eulogy on a game- 
 keeper of the old school :- 
 
 D 
 
50 SCHOOL-TIME AND HOLIDAYS. 
 
 " The kennels, which contained somewhere be- 
 tween fifteen and twenty pointers and setters, 
 were under the charge of old George Croll, whom 
 I have always considered the most perfect dog- 
 breaker I ever knew. The greater part of his 
 system of dog-breaking was done in the kennels 
 themselves, which were admirably clean and roomy. 
 The whip seemed to me to be almost unknown in 
 his system, and when he opened the door and 
 entered, the dogs all flocked round him, wagging 
 their tails with joy and affection. But the moment 
 he raised his arm pointing upwards, every dog lay 
 down immediately in the spot where he was, and 
 when he let them out for a run, whether they ran 
 near or far, as soon as he whistled and beckoned, 
 every dog immediately lay down where he was. 
 There was one dog whose remarkable sagacity has 
 remained imprinted indelibly on my memory. It 
 was a small smooth pointer, called ' Peter ' ; of 
 course it had been exercised with the other dogs 
 along the roads or the sea-shore, but it had never 
 smelt a grouse or been taken out on the hills till 
 the day that George Croll took him out with me 
 to see what he would do. I may mention that 
 rain had been falling and the ground was wet, 
 and consequently most of the birds were on foot. 
 We had scarcely been on the moor five minutes 
 before we saw Peter going very slowly forward 
 and trembling with excitement. George Croll 
 encouraged and patted him, but could hardly get 
 him to advance, and at last he said to me, ' The 
 birds have been here, but they are on foot, and 
 running before us/ With difficulty we persuaded 
 
THE OLD STYLE. 51 
 
 Peter to go on, his master patting him all the 
 time, and after a few minutes the covey rose, out 
 of shot, before us. This was a very hard trial. 
 We continued our walk over the moor, and then 
 Peter, after a few turns to the right and left in 
 search of a fresh scent, came again to a point ; the 
 same thing recurred, the birds were restless, and 
 got up out of shot. Peter seemed to think that 
 the birds were making fools of us, but he went off 
 to the right as fast as possible, described al half- 
 moon till he got three or four hundred yards in 
 front of us, and then came slowly traversing the 
 ground towards us. Thus, if there were any birds, 
 Peter had got them between him and us, and, sure 
 enough, he had out-manoeuvred the grouse, for he 
 had got them between. They rose and came over 
 my head, and I killed a brace the first grouse 
 that ever had been shot to Peter." 
 
 It is vain to sigh for the old leisurely kind of 
 shooting. Men with breechloaders cannot be got 
 to give a dog time to exercise his wits : they walk 
 on without a pause after a shot, and the dogs, 
 which have the same faculties and sagacity as of 
 yore, have no chance of bringing them into play. 
 But it is pleasant to get a glimpse of moorland 
 sport as it was before the days of flurry and big 
 bags. 
 
52 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1822-1830. 
 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 AFTER leaving Eton in 1822 Charles Murray spent 
 two years at a private tutor's preparing for Ox- 
 ford. It was to this tutor, the Bev. Mr Hichings, 
 vicar of Sunninghill, that he gratefully ascribed 
 the strong love for the classics which he main- 
 tained through life. But the reminiscences which 
 he began to put together in 1892 had been carried 
 little further than his school-days when he died 
 in 1895. A few notes of his life at Sunninghill, a 
 few stories of his college companions, and still 
 fewer of his own doings at Oriel College, Ox- 
 ford, form the only semblance of a consecutive 
 narrative of the time after he ceased to be an 
 alumnus of the redoubtable Dr Keate at Eton. 
 The only fellow - pupil at Sunninghill of whom 
 
AT A PRIVATE TUTOR'S. 53 
 
 he has left any mention is Henry Hope of the 
 Deepdene. 1 
 
 " He was a good sort of lad, quick-tempered, 
 and very ugly, owing to a large, ill-shaped mouth. 
 For some time I took to calling him Boccaccio, 
 which rather pleased him, as he knew it to be the 
 name of a distinguished author ; but on one un- 
 lucky day he took up an Italian dictionary that 
 happened to be lying on the table, and in turning 
 over the leaves he came to ' Boccaccio, a wide, 
 ugly mouth.' In a moment of rage he threw at 
 my head a beautifully bound book that he was 
 reading : I ducked my head, and the poor book 
 went into the fireplace behind my chair. This 
 did not improve his temper ; but the incident had 
 no further consequences, except that I never 
 called him by the great Italian's name again." 
 
 Murray's favourite amusements at Sunninghill 
 were walking, and driving the London coach. 
 His pedestrian powers must have been somewhat 
 remarkable. On being invited to Deepdene, the 
 home of his friend Henry Hope, he walked over 
 there in time for luncheon, a matter of some five- 
 and-twenty miles. 
 
 Letters from Patrick Eraser Tytler (already dis- 
 tinguished as a man of letters, though his prin- 
 
 1 Uncle of the present Mr Philip Beresford Hope. He was after- 
 wards one of Murray's opponents on the hustings of Marylebone. 
 Both of them were beaten. 
 
54 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 cipal work, ' The History of Scotland/ did not 
 appear till five years later) show that Charles 
 Murray at the age of seventeen, just before he 
 went to Oxford, had already given evidence of 
 ability beyond the common. Tytler was fifteen 
 years his senior, yet he wrote to him as a man 
 does to his intellectual equal. 
 
 P. Fraser Tytler to the Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 " MOUNT ESK, BY LASSWADE, 
 July 26th, 1823. 
 
 "MY DEAR CHARLES, Notwithstanding your 
 pathetic appeal in the words of Penelope 'nil 
 mihi rescribas, attamen ipse veni ' ipse is sin- 
 cerely sorry to say that at this moment he cannot 
 come to Dunmore. This is to him the more sad 
 since nothing could have given him more real 
 pleasure, Dunmore being delightful always, and 
 not the least so when it is illuminated by your 
 sallies, whether classical or diplomatic, in your 
 character of Charles Murray the scholar, Charles 
 Murray the charge d'affaires, or, to sum up all, 
 Charles Murray the madcap. But to be serious 
 and to come to my reasons. I have the misfortune 
 to have a sister who is just going to be married, 
 and till that solemn event has taken place I can- 
 not leave this cottage of ours. Lord Dunmore 
 may recollect perhaps that I once sent him some 
 views in the Himalaya range of mountains in 
 India : they were the production of my cousin 
 
LETTER FROM ERASER TYTLER. 55 
 
 James Fraser, who was then the partner of a 
 mercantile house at Calcutta. He has been a 
 great traveller, and is an uncommon fine fellow, 
 and having returned with a sufficient, though not 
 large, fortune, is about to marry my youngest 
 sister, to whom he has been attached since his 
 youth up for ten years. There's patriarchal and 
 primitive constancy for you. Mercutio, whose 
 heart, I take it, is a riddle in all senses, both 
 physically and morally at jam satis et plusquam 
 satis de matrimonio. I like to leave the subject, for 
 I am an abandoned literary bachelor, fond of my 
 own fireside, my old books, my own private com- 
 forts, and what I believe is the most fatal symp- 
 tom of all, I have thoughts of taking into 
 keeping (no impropriety) a teapot, and making 
 my own tea at a little table in the library this 
 is what may be called innocent profligacy. Per- 
 haps you would like to know what I am about ; 
 but first, before I give way to egotism, let me say 
 that I saw some letters and read some verses of 
 a certain young scholar when I was last at Dunmore 
 which gave me the greatest pleasure, and that 
 with the talents which are possessed by this 
 anonymous individual, and the ardour for class- 
 ical literature which he seems to enjoy, it will be 
 entirely his own fault if he does not, one day, 
 distinguish himself in no common way. Indeed, 
 seriously, Charles, I look to see you very high, 
 and the more that I am at Dunmore, the more 
 keenly do I anticipate the delight which your 
 success will give to those who love you best. 
 " I have lately been reading a good deal upon 
 
56 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 a very interesting subject the revival of Greek 
 letters in Italy, in the latter part of the fourteenth 
 and beginning of the fifteenth century. There 
 is a fine chapter in the last volume of Gibbon 
 upon the subject, and something in Roscoe's Life 
 of Lorenzo de Medici and Shepherd's Life of 
 Poggio, but for full information you must go to 
 the original authors themselves, whose names are 
 too long and too hard to come in here. This I am 
 now attempting, and it has opened a scene of 
 literary genius and exertion of which before I had 
 formed no conception. It is delightful and wonder- 
 ful to see old Homer, and Euripides, and ^Eschylus 
 wakening from their long sleep of seven hundred 
 years and resuming the lyre, and re-civilising the 
 barbarians of these dark ages." 
 
 Murray has left a few notes about his early 
 Oxford days which do not give one the idea of 
 very sedulous study. His tutor for several terms 
 was Newman, and it is strange how completely 
 that gentle, thoughtful mind failed to secure the 
 affection of these terrible youngsters. 
 
 " He never inspired me, or my fellow-under- 
 graduates, with any interest, much less respect : 
 on the contrary, we disliked, or rather distrusted, 
 him. He walked with his head bent, abstracted, 
 but every now and then looking out of the cor- 
 ners of his eyes quickly, as though suspicious. 
 He had no influence then : it was only when he 
 became vicar of St Mary's that the long dormant 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. 57 
 
 power asserted itself, and his sermons attracted 
 hundreds. 1 
 
 " I well remember one trick we played him. I 
 was up to him for Greek. At lecture he was 
 quiet, and what I should call sheepish ; stuck to 
 the text, and never diverged into contemporary 
 history or made the lecture interesting. He 
 always struck me as the most pusillanimous of 
 men wanting in the knowledge of human nature ; 
 and I am always surprised, and indeed never can 
 understand, how it was he became such a great 
 man. I never heard him preach. 
 
 " We were a merry set of youngsters, fond of 
 singing late into the night over suppers. The 
 songs were not classical, but, I am ashamed to 
 say, generally very noisy. They disturbed New- 
 man, who liked quiet ; but instead of coming him- 
 self and asking us to be earlier and quieter, he 
 sent a porter, whom we sent to the devil. It 
 showed either his cowardice or his want of human- 
 ity. If we were nois}f, we were all of us gentlemen, 
 and not one of us would have rebelled if he had 
 spoken to us himself. As it was, he stuck up a big 
 bell outside his room, about twelve feet from the 
 ground. At nine o'clock or so, if we began to 
 shout, he pealed this bell to summon the porter 
 to tell us to be quiet. This was too much. I 
 
 1 In his recent memoirs of Cardinal Manning, Mr Purcell quotes 
 him as having remarked of Cardinal Newman : " I never was, like 
 Newman, a student or a recluse. Newman, from the beginning to 
 the end, was a recluse at Oriel, Littlemore, and Edgbaston ; but T, 
 from the beginning, was pitched head over heels [sic] into public life, 
 and I have lived ever since in the full glare of day " (vol. i. p. xiii). 
 
58 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 said I'd have the bell down ; the others all chaffed 
 me, and said I shouldn't. It was impossible to do 
 it alone, but not one of them would join me. At 
 last Lord Malmesbury's brother, Harris, a lieu- 
 tenant in the navy, who was up on a visit, volun- 
 teered, and we laid our plans. Next night we 
 brought a ladder and a pickaxe. The fellow had 
 had the bell fixed in with nails some five inches 
 long, and we took it in turn to hold the ladder 
 and to pick at the nails. Of course Newman must 
 have heard us, and if he had been anything of 
 a man, he would have come out of his room and 
 caught us red-handed ; but he was too pusillan- 
 imous for that, and we were allowed to finish 
 our work in peace, so far as he was concerned. 
 Unluckily for me, though, as I w r as coming down 
 with the great bell and its fixtures in my arms 
 my foot slipped, and I fell, spraining my ankle. 
 Of course next day there was the devil of a row, 
 but no one was sent down. No one was put on 
 his honour to say who was the culprit, and Harris 
 left for his ship. The old Dean Tyler my tutor, 
 and a great friend of mine, came and sat by my 
 bed where I was kept ' by an accident,' and I saw 
 by the twinkle in his eye that he knew all about 
 it, but he kept his counsel, and as it was the end 
 of the term the thing blew over. But Newman 
 never put up his bell again." 
 
 Si peccas, pecca fortiter a classical maxim to 
 which undergraduates of those days acted up with 
 some spirit. One of Murray's Oxford friends w r as 
 
AN ESCAPADE. 59 
 
 Lord Edward Thynne, son of the second Marquis 
 of Bath, and afterwards M.P. for Frome, a very 
 handsome but dissolute young fellow. He and 
 Murray, having been " gated " for some minor 
 offence, determined to eclipse it by a more heroic 
 one, and bet that they would ride to London, sixty 
 miles, and back in one day. Having arranged for 
 relays at Henley and Maidenhead, they started 
 from Oxford about 8.30 A.M., changed their clothes 
 at a hotel on arriving in London, mounted two 
 hacks, and trotted off to the Park, where they saw 
 many friends. Then they dined quietly at a club, 
 saw the first act of a play at some theatre, and, 
 allowing themselves three hours to cover the sixty 
 miles in returning, galloped off at nine o'clock. 
 
 " It was a pitch-dark night, and tearing down 
 Henley Hill we shouted to each other, ' Are you 
 all right ? ' ' Yes ; he's not down yet expect he 
 will be in a minute ; ' but no ! we arrived back at 
 the College gate three minutes to midnight, and 
 were received with vociferous cheers by our friends, 
 who were waiting supper in case we got back. I 
 regret to say one of the horses ridden by Thynne 
 a much heavier fellow than I died from the effects 
 of the pace." 
 
 Fragmentary notes remain of other and less 
 creditable episodes and escapades. These were 
 
60 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 the days when most youngsters of breeding 
 thought it necessary to qualify as " bucks " and 
 men of "the ton" by the rapt of bell-pulls and 
 door-knockers. Sidney Herbert l had been a com- 
 panion of Murray's at Eton, and to him Murray, 
 on leaving Oxford, left a large collection of these 
 objects, among them Newman's bell ! But dur- 
 ing his undergraduate days he excelled also in 
 athletics of a less spasmodic order. He was an 
 ardent tennis-player ; he won the chief prize in 
 the University a silver racquet and retaining 
 it against all competitors for three years, became 
 the possessor of it for ever. "This," he wrote 
 shortly before his death, "is the only incontest- 
 able distinction that I can claim to have achieved 
 in my long life." 
 
 There are many traces, also, of more scholarly 
 tastes than these. The ink has wellnigh faded 
 away in Murray's earliest commonplace book, but 
 it is still possible to decipher verses in Greek, 
 Latin, and English, of which the following alcaics 
 a rendering of Milton's ode to Echo in " Comus " 
 written at the age of nineteen, may stand as a 
 single example of many, though the author has 
 scribbled a note to the effect that none of these 
 
 1 Afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea, and father of the present Earl 
 of Pembroke; died in 1861. 
 
ALL SOULS. 61 
 
 verses are " worth the trouble of transcribing, 
 much less of printing " : 
 
 " nympha dulcis, nympha recondita, 
 Dulcissima Echo ! tardiflui tenet 
 Quam ripa Mseandri virescens 
 Aeria redimita concha, 
 
 Valle in reducta quam violaria 
 Odora pingunt, purpureum decus, 
 Qua tristis infaustos amores 
 Nocte tibi Philomela deflet. 1 
 
 Die si latescunt, par ubi amabile 
 Narcissinae queis forma simillima, 
 Die si latebras his cavernaa 
 Floriferse, dea, praebuisti. 
 
 Yocale numen, terrigena ! o preces 
 Ne sperne nostras, sic doceas nove 
 Elata, sic sedes deorum 
 
 Dulcisono resonare cantu." 2 
 
 After he had been more than two years at Oriel, 
 Murray passed from Newman's care, and Dean 
 Tyler then became his tutor. He got on better 
 with him, and formed the ambition to be elected 
 a Fellow of All Souls. A vacancy occurring there 
 before he was twenty-one, he spoke to Tyler about 
 it, who said it was out of the question, because 
 Murray had not even looked at Theology or Logic. 
 
 1 Plangit would surely sound better than deflet. 
 
 2 Many years later, in 1840, Murray sent these verses, with two 
 or three alterations, to Dr Hawtrey of Eton, who said he preferred 
 Sapphics, and returned a version in that metre. 
 
62 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 " The Dean went every day for long walks, and 
 I said to him, ' If you will allow me, sir, to accom- 
 pany you on your walks, I could learn logic from 
 you then.' He agreed, and that was how I learnt 
 all the logic I ever knew I never opened a book. 
 The schools came off, and I went up merely to 
 pass. This I did, and the examiners were kind 
 enough to offer me a 4th class honour, which I 
 refused, as I said people would only say, ' He went 
 in for honours and only managed a fourth.' When 
 my age was objected to I claimed my privilege as 
 son of a Peer, and I was elected. In those days 
 the reading colleges said of us (at All Souls) 
 Bene nati, bene vestiti, moderate docti. This is 
 changed nowadays so far as the learning goes, 
 but I doubt if, socially, All Souls has gained much 
 by it." 
 
 About this time Murray seems to have contem- 
 plated taking seriously to literature, for there is 
 a letter (with a characteristically long postscript) 
 to him in 1826 from Samuel Rogers, whom he had 
 consulted on a projected poem on Trajan's pillar. 
 
 " Two of a trade, my dear Charles, can never 
 agree ; but we, I hope, shall be an exception to 
 the rule. Read Eustace Forsyth, and all the 
 travellers on the subject, not forgetting Kotze- 
 bue, who has published his travels and is very 
 poetical in his prose when he visits those cities 
 of old. With every five grains of Pompeii mingle 
 three of Vesuvius, and with so much of the com- 
 
A POET'S PRESCRIPTION. 63 
 
 bustible as you have in your composition, you 
 will be sure of a rocket that will leave all the 
 rest below. Ever yours, SAMUEL ROGERS. 
 
 " P.S. Goethe in his Life visits Vesuvius, and 
 I think Pompeii. In Dr Clarke's Memoirs there is 
 also a very lively account of the mountain. When 
 you have read these and also Gray's lines, ' Nee 
 procul infelix se tollit,' &c., take two or three 
 strides up and down your room, and the work will 
 be done in a twinkle. 
 
 " Mem. Let it be at early dawn, at the hour 
 Milton rose for the purpose, and after an early 
 going to bed and spare fast. ' Spare fast, that oft 
 with gods doth diet,' is a far better friend on such 
 an occasion, whatever some may say to the con- 
 trary, than the very best champagne, sweet or 
 dry. There is a poem written six years ago, 
 which I have rather run through than read, but 
 which has some strong tempesta-kind of painting 
 in it. It is called 'The Last Days of Hercula- 
 neum,' and was published, I believe, by Baldwin. 
 If you read it, throw it aside before you begin. 
 
 "It is unnecessary to remind you of Pliny's two 
 letters on the subject." 
 
 It is difficult to discern in the fragmentary notes 
 and shreds of correspondence which have been pre- 
 served, any definite purpose for the disposal of his 
 life, either on the part of Charles Murray himself 
 or of his parents. 
 
 The following rather remarkable letter, written 
 in 1828 by Lord Brougham to Lady Dunmore, 
 
64 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 seems to indicate a destiny that was contemplated, 
 but never fulfilled, though the precepts may re- 
 main of service to others. Although Murray be- 
 gan to read for the Bar with Mr Nassau Senior, 
 he never practised. 
 
 Lord Brougham to the Countess of Dunmore. 
 
 "Now you of course destine him for the Bar, 
 and assuming that this, and the public objects 
 incidental to it, are in his view, I would fain 
 impress upon you, and, through you, upon him, a 
 truth or two which experience has made me aware 
 of, and which I would have given a great deal to 
 have been made acquainted with earlier in life, from 
 the experience of others. First, that the founda- 
 tion of all excellence is to be laid in early applica- 
 tion to general knowledge is clear; this he already 
 is aware of: equally so it is (of which he may not 
 be so well aware) that professional eminence can 
 only be secured by entering betimes into the lowest 
 drudgery, the most repulsive labours, of the pro- 
 fession. Even a year in an attorney's office, as 
 the law is now practised, I should hold not too 
 severe a task, or too high a price to pay, for the 
 benefits it must surely lead to. But at all events 
 the life of a special pleader I am quite convinced 
 is the thing before being called to the Bar. A 
 young man whose mind has once been imbued 
 well with general learning and acquired classical 
 propensities, will scarce sink into a mere drudge- 
 he will always save himself harmless from the dull 
 
A LAWYER'S PRESCRIPTION. 65 
 
 atmosphere he must live and work in, and the 
 sooner he enters it, the sooner he will emerge from 
 it, and arrive at eminence. 
 
 " What I wish to inculcate, especially with a 
 view to the great talent for public speaking which 
 your son happily possesses, is that he should culti- 
 vate that talent in the only way in which it can 
 reach the height of the art ; and I wish to turn his 
 attention to two points. I speak on this subject 
 with the authority both of experience and observa- 
 tion. I have made it very much my study in 
 theory ; have written a great deal upon it which 
 may never see the light, and something which has 
 been published ; have meditated much and con- 
 versed much on it with famous men ; have had 
 some little practical experience in it, but prepared 
 myself for much more than I ever tried, by a 
 variety of laborious methods reading, writing, 
 and translation, composing in foreign languages, 
 &c., &c. ; and have lived in times when there were 
 great orators among us, therefore I reckon my 
 opinion worth listening to ; and the rather because 
 I have the utmost confidence in it myself, and 
 should have saved a world of trouble and much 
 time had I started with the same conviction of its 
 truth. The first point is this, the beginning of 
 the art is to acquire a habit of easy speaking ; and 
 in whatever way this can be had (which individual 
 inclination or accident will generally direct, and 
 may safely be allowed to do so), it must be had. 
 Now I differ from all other doctors of rhetoric in 
 this : I say let him first of all learn to speak easily 
 and fluently, as well and as sensibly as he can, no 
 
 E 
 
66 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 doubt, but at any rate let him learn to speak ; 
 this is to eloquence and good public speaking what 
 the being able to talk in a child is to correct 
 grammatical speech. It is the requisite founda- 
 tion, and on it you must build ; moreover, it can 
 only be acquired young, and therefore let it by 
 all means, and at any sacrifice, be gotten hold of 
 forthwith. But in acquiring it every sort of 
 slovenly error will also be acquired. It must be 
 got by a habit of easy writing, which, as Wynd- 
 ham said, proved hard reading ; by a custom of 
 talking too much in company ; by debating in 
 speaking societies with little attention to rule, 
 and more love of saying something at any rate 
 than of saying anything well. I can even suppose 
 that more attention will be paid to the matter in 
 such discussions than to the manner of saying it ; 
 yet still to say easily ad libitum, to be able to say 
 what you choose, and what you have to say, this 
 is the first requisite, to acquire which everything 
 else must for the present be sacrificed. 
 
 " The next step is the grand one to correct this 
 kind of easy speaking into chaste eloquence ; and 
 here there is but one rule, which I earnestly en- 
 treat your son to set daily and nightly before him 
 the great models. First of all he may look to the 
 best modern speeches, as he probably has already 
 Burke's best compositions, as ' The Thoughts on 
 the Cause of the present Discontents/ ' Speech on 
 American Conciliation,' and c On the Nabob of 
 Arcot's Debts ' ; Fox's ' Speech on the Westmin- 
 ster Scrutiny,' the first part of which he should 
 pore over till he has it by heart ; ' On the Eus- 
 
LETTER FROM LORD BROUGHAM. 6 7 
 
 sian Armament,' and ' On the War of 1803,' with 
 one or two of Wyndham's best, and very few, or 
 rather none, of Sheridan's. But he must by no 
 means stop here if he would be a great orator ; 
 he must at once go to the fountainhead, and be 
 familiar with every one of the great orations of 
 Demosthenes I take for granted he knows those 
 of Cicero by heart. They are very beautiful, but 
 not very useful, excepting perhaps the ' Milo ' or 
 the ' Pro Ligario,' and one or two more ; but the 
 Greek must positively be the model, and merely 
 learning it, as boys do to know the language, 
 won't do at all. He must enter into the spirit 
 of each speech, thoroughly know the positions of 
 the parties, follow each turn of the argument, and 
 make the absolutely perfect and most chaste and 
 secure composition familiar to his mind. His taste 
 will improve every time he reads and repeats to 
 himself (for he should have the fine passages by 
 heart), and he will learn how much may be done 
 by a skilful use of a few words, and a vigorous 
 rejection of all superfluities. In this view I hold 
 a familiar knowledge of Dante next to Demos- 
 thenes. 
 
 "It is in vain to say that imitations of those 
 models won't do for our times. First, I don't 
 counsel any imitation, but only an imbibing of 
 the same spirits. Secondly, I know from experi- 
 ence that nothing is half so successful in these 
 times (bad though they be) as what has been 
 formed on the Greek models. I cite a very poor 
 instance in giving my own experience ; but I do 
 assure you, that both in courts of law and Parlia- 
 
68 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 ment, and even to mobs, I have never made half so 
 much play (to use a very modern phrase) as when 
 I was almost translating from the Greek. I com- 
 posed the peroration of my speech for the Queen 
 in the Lords after reading and repeating Demos- 
 thenes for three or four weeks, and I composed 
 it twenty times over at the very least, and it 
 certainly succeeded in a very extraordinary de- 
 gree, and far above any merits of its own. This 
 leads me to remark that though speaking without 
 writing beforehand is very well until the habits of 
 easy and fluent speech are acquired, after that he 
 can never write too much : this is quite clear. 
 It is laborious, no doubt, and it is more difficult, 
 beyond comparison, than speaking off-hand, but 
 it is necessary to perfect oratory, and at any rate 
 it is necessary to acquire the habits of correct and 
 chaste diction ; but I go further and say, even to 
 the end of a man's life he must prepare, word for 
 word, most of his fine passages. 
 
 " Now would he be an orator or no ? In other 
 words, would he have almost absolute power of 
 doing good to mankind (in a free country) or 
 would he not ? If he wills this, he must follow 
 these rules." 
 
 From all which it is clear that Brougham held 
 that if poets are born, orators must be manu- 
 factured. 
 
 Charles Murray's younger brother, Henry, was 
 a sailor, and on the occasion of his return to sea, 
 Charles, still an undergraduate, writes somewhat 
 
HON. HENRY MURRAY. 69 
 
 enviously of the midshipman's active life, and be- 
 trays little relish at his own prospect of a legal 
 career : 
 
 Hon. diaries Murray to his Brother. 
 
 " ORIEL COLLEGE, Sunday [1829 ?]. 
 
 " MY DEAR HARRY, As it is decreed that we 
 are not to meet again before your departure for the 
 other world, we must wish one another good-bye 
 as well as we can per post ; and, in truth, although 
 it is not agreeable that we should not meet, yet I 
 believe it is just as well that it should be so, for 
 however melancholy it is writing to bid farewell, 
 it is not quite so sad as uttering the word in per- 
 son ; and you and I love one another too well to 
 need any reiteration of expressions of affection ; 
 so you must suppose me now shaking your great 
 mutton fist as cordially as I possibly can. . . . 
 I have been trying to think what sort of animal 
 you will be when I see you again ! ' Monstrum, 
 horrendum/ &c., you will be six feet four, the head 
 of a bull with a capacious grog-dish in front ; in 
 fact I expect to see you a young Sir F. Living- 
 stone, and you will find me a blear-eyed, pale- 
 faced, threadbare- coated pedant, or else a snivel- 
 ling, sneaking, smirking lawyer, with papers and 
 deeds in the home view, fees in the background, 
 and a full-bottomed wig in the distance. Oh 
 Harry ! how some of the old Murrays and Atholes 
 would start at this ; but such is the state of the 
 world, and we younger brothers must salt our own 
 porridge or nobody else will do it for us. So take 
 
70 LIFE AT OXFORD. 
 
 care of yourself, my honest fellow, and take my 
 advice, while you are a drudge, make the most of 
 it, drudge to some purpose, for you can have but 
 little fun in your present situation ; so get all the 
 good you can out of it first, and then you will 
 have time to enjoy yourself when you have got 
 out of it." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1830-1834. 
 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 THE broken records which enable us to trace the 
 boyhood and youth of Charles Murray down to 
 the time when he took his degree in 1830, cease 
 altogether for some years after that. The few 
 who still remember him at that time speak of 
 the extraordinary charm of manner which he 
 possessed, his magnificent physique and handsome 
 countenance. With the capacity for enjoyment 
 afforded by perfect health and a sociable dis- 
 position, with the means of indulging it without 
 any necessity for labour of hand or head, this 
 young Fellow of All Souls might have drifted 
 down the easy tide with other light - hearted 
 voyagers, tennis-playing, shooting, dancing only 
 conspicuous among his comrades for the ease, 
 sometimes the elegance, of his society verses. 
 
72 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 What wonder if his purpose of reading for the 
 Bar faded into the background, and that till the 
 age of three-and-thirty he lived as a man about 
 town for half the year, and spent the other half 
 in field-sports and other rural delights. There is 
 evidence in some of his note-books that Murray 
 sometimes looked back with regret to the years so 
 pleasantly squandered : witness the following re- 
 flection on Charles Darwin, made when the writer 
 was within sight of the end : 
 
 " Of all the scientists who have ever lived, few 
 have equalled Darwin in the laborious industry 
 with which he carried on his investigations, even 
 employed on subjects that might have seemed of 
 secondary importance, when compared with those 
 which led up to his great work on the ' Origin of 
 Species ' and others by which his name has become 
 immortalised. He spent eight years in examining, 
 describing, and classifying one species of insect, 
 the Cirrhipedce (Barnacles), and yet his labours 
 embraced the whole field of geology, physics, 
 botany, &c., and this is more surprising that 
 throughout nearly the whole time that these 
 labours continued, they were constantly inter- 
 rupted by bad health, attended by such pain 
 and weakness as to compel him to suspend 
 them." 
 
 One sentence in a letter written to a friend 
 when he was twenty -seven shows his opinion on 
 
A TOUR IN GERMANY. 73 
 
 work in the pursuit of science. " I trust that I 
 shall always act as I now feel and think, that 
 a man who dares to waste one hour of time has 
 not discovered the value of life." It is humiliating 
 to remember how many young men of his then 
 age and standing in life are busily employed in 
 devising means for killing that time which he 
 considered so precious ! 
 
 Luckily Murray's nature was too strenuous, his 
 habits too active, to allow the enervating round 
 of fashionable life to become a habit with him. 
 He was no doubt inspired to exert his natural 
 faculties by frequent intercourse with leaders in 
 letters and politics, not only at his father's house, 
 but at that of Samuel Rogers, at whose celebrated 
 breakfasts there was always a place reserved for 
 Charles Murray. And so it came to pass that 
 in 1830, when travelling in Germany to acquire 
 the language, although unfurnished with any 
 written introduction, he was able to secure the 
 attention of Goethe, then Prime Minister of the 
 Grand Duchy of Weimar. A meeting which 
 made so deep an impression on the young 
 traveller's mind had best be given in his own 
 words, which have been preserved in the follow- 
 ing memorandum : 
 
 " Having passed the night at Weimar, I ordered 
 
74 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 the horses to be ready to continue my journey ; 
 but before starting I told the landlord that I was 
 most anxious to see the great poet of Germany, 
 who was then Prime Minister at the Court of 
 Weimar. He told me that a similar wish was 
 frequently expressed by travellers from every 
 country passing through Weimar, but that the 
 Minister never acceded to it, excepting in the 
 case of persons bringing him letters of introduc- 
 tion from great personages or intimate friends. 
 Nevertheless, I would not give up my object 
 without making an attempt to attain it, so I sat 
 down and wrote a note to the great man, the 
 contents of which I need not record here, even 
 if I could remember them. Suffice it to say that 
 they were as persuasive as I could make them, 
 and with my note in my hand I drove to Goethe's 
 house. Having gained admittance, I requested 
 the servant who opened the door to take my 
 note to his Excellency. While he was executing 
 this commission, I looked around the entrance 
 hall, where a bust of Byron occupied a prominent 
 place opposite the door, and awaited anxiously 
 the result of my audacious attempt. To my great 
 surprise and joy he returned saying that he was 
 instructed to conduct me to his Excellency's study. 
 When I entered it he was sitting at his writing- 
 table. I will not attempt to retrace here a portrait 
 of the great poet's features. They are too well 
 known from existing pictures, busts, and prints 
 to require it. I need only say that, although 
 upwards of eighty years had left their indelible 
 traces on his countenance, it was still one of the 
 
VISIT TO GOETHE. 75 
 
 most striking that had ever met my eyes. Rising 
 from his seat, he gave me his hand, and with a 
 good-natured smile, which put me at my ease at 
 once, and satisfied me that he had not taken 
 offence at my unauthorised note, he motioned to 
 me to be seated, and asked me what was my 
 object in visiting Germany. After a few minutes' 
 general conversation he pointed to a large volume 
 lying before him on the table, and said 
 
 " ' It is curious that when your visit was an- 
 nounced to me, I was engaged in making a few 
 notes on your Old English literature. Is that a 
 subject that has ever engaged your attention ? ' 
 
 " To this I was fortunately able to make an 
 affirmative reply, as I had not long before, when 
 at Oxford, spent some time in the study of Anglo- 
 Saxon, and was, moreover, well up in Chaucer, 
 which enabled me to elucidate a few old words 
 and phrases which he had marked as requiring 
 explanation. This circumstance evidently gave 
 him pleasure, and he asked me whether I could 
 not defer my departure for a day or two, adding 
 that his daughter-in-law, Madame de Goethe, had 
 a few friends coming to her in the evening, and 
 that he should like to introduce me to her and 
 to them. It is needless to say that I gladly 
 acquiesced ; and I spent two days agreeably in 
 Weimar, passing half an hour of each morning 
 with Goethe, and the evenings in the salon of 
 Madame de Goethe, where I met all the best 
 of Weimar society. On the third morning, when 
 I went to take leave of the poet, after thanking 
 him for all his kindness to me, I ventured to ask if 
 
76 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 he would complete it by writing for me a stanza 
 which I might keep as an autograph memento 
 of my visit. After a minute's reflection he wrote 
 for me the following quatrain : 
 
 " ' Liegt dir Gestern klar und offen, 
 Wirkst du heute kriif tig treu ; 
 Kannst auch auf ein Morgen hoffen, 
 Das nicht minder gliicklich sey.' 
 
 " I must add, alas ! that after my return to 
 England I put away this autograph so carefully 
 that, on coming back from the United States, 
 where I spent the years 1834-5-6, I never could 
 find it again, though the stanza was indelibly 
 engraven on my memory. In 1869, nearly forty 
 years after my visit to Goethe, never having 
 met with the above quatrain among his pub- 
 lished works, I sent the stanza with a note to 
 Carlyle, asking him whether it was to be found 
 among Goethe's printed works. 
 
 " This note elicited the following reply : 
 
 5 CHEYNE Row, CHELSEA, Nov. 23, 1869. 
 
 DEAR SIR CHARLES, Your agreeable letter from Lisbon 
 found me yesternight, and I was happy to be able to throw 
 some little light on your Inquiry. The Goethe quatrain, 
 given you in those interesting circumstances, and afterwards 
 lost, has hung here in facsimile of Autograph, attached to a 
 lithograph portrait of Goethe, for about forty - five years 
 now, and always regarded as one of the Penates of the 
 House. Where this lithograph Portrait was got I cannot 
 now recollect, but I think it must have been from Ham- 
 burg in 1826 as the readiest attainable Portrait of Goethe 
 and in German Printshops most probably it is still on 
 sale as such. It does tolerably resemble, though quite 
 without flattery, an earnest, patient heavy-laden old man, 
 cheeks hollow, upper front teeth gone, &c. Bendixen and 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH CARLYLE. 77 
 
 Vogel, names unknown to me, are Painter and Engraver. 
 Length of the Print, epigraph and all, is about 14 inches ; 
 epigraph itself about 3 inches. It was from this portrait 
 that I took your quatrain, translated it, printed it some- 
 where, not as the barbarous timber-headed Editor gives it, 
 but accurately, thus : 
 
 Know'st thou yesterday, its aim and reason ? 
 Work'st thou well to-day for worthy things ? 
 Calmly wait to-morrow's hidden season, 
 Need'st not fear what hap soe'er it brings. 
 
 The original and your remembrance of it differ only in one 
 monosyllable, ' frey ' instead of ' treu ' important only for 
 the rhyme and the Hand is evidently Goethe's in good 
 strong Eoman letters facsimile completely correct date, 
 Weimar, 7th Nov. 1825. Not having the Index to my 
 Goethe's ' Werke,' the final Gotta one, I cannot at once as- 
 certain whether these lines are in Goethe's printed works or 
 not, though I rather think they are. If you wish it ascer- 
 tained, I will with pleasure have that done. 
 
 If you return to London while I continue here, pray call 
 and see the picture and me. Glad of this pleasant, unex- 
 pected passage between us, and begging always a place in 
 your remembrance, I remain, yours sincerely, 
 
 T. CARLYLE. 
 
 P.S. 
 
 "ZAHME XENIEN. 
 
 " Liegt dir Gestern klar und offen, 
 Wirkst du heute kraftig frey : 
 Kannst auch auf ein Morgen hoffen, 
 Das nicht minder gliicklich sey," 
 
 is in Goethe's 'Werke,' 1828, Ausgabe letzter Hand, vol. 
 iv. p. 337. I have had it by heart for some forty years 
 past, as also the one opposite to it on p. 336 
 
 " Halte dich im still en rein, 
 Und lass es um dich wettern ; 
 Jeh mehr du fuhlst ein mensch zu seyn, 
 Desto ahnlicher bist du den gottern." 
 
 Both in Section 4 of ' Zahme Xenien/ at the end. T. C. 
 
78 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 " In respect to the sentence in Carlyle's letter in 
 which he states that ' frey ' instead of ' treu ' is 
 important only for the rhyme, I must state my 
 conviction that in the quatrain as given to me by 
 Goethe (and which we now know had been com- 
 posed three or four years before) the second line 
 ended with ' treu ' and not ' frey,' and with all due 
 deference to the high authority of Carlyle, I 
 venture to affirm that in that place ' treu ' is better 
 in sense, and as good in rhyme as ' frey.' More- 
 over, it is more actually represented by Carlyle's 
 own translation, ' Work'st thou to-day for worthy 
 things,' where ' frey ' seems a mere expletive with 
 little meaning. With respect to the rhyme, any 
 German scholar who takes an interest in the ques- 
 tion may easily satisfy himself that (at least in 
 Goethe's opinion) the one word is as permissible as 
 the other, for he will find in the minor poems of 
 Goethe scores of passages in which the diphthong 
 * eu ' is made to rhyme with ' ei ' and ' ey.' Several 
 of these are now before me in the ' Xenien,' 
 ' Freude ' rhyming with ' Beide,' ' Scheu ' with 
 ' sey,' ' treu ' with ' vorbei.' " l 
 
 The intercourse thus established between Mur- 
 ray and the philosopher of Chelsea continued till 
 Carlyle's last years of decrepitude. 
 
 It was natural that the scion of an old Whig 
 house, not being under the necessity of working 
 for a livelihood, should allow himself to be drawn 
 
 1 The disputed line is quoted by Julius Hare in ' Memorials of 
 a Quiet Life' (vol. i. p. 429) as ending " heute froh und frey." 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL CONTESTS. 79 
 
 into the vortex of politics. Murray attained 
 manhood in the years when the Reform agitation 
 was approaching its height. When the last un- 
 reformed Parliament was dissolved in 1832, he 
 offered himself for election for the Falkirk Burghs, 
 but without success, standing second on the poll, 
 between a Tory and a Radical. The following 
 year, 1833, on a vacancy occurring in the repre- 
 sentation of Marylebone, he accepted an invitation 
 to stand in the Whig interest for that borough. 1 
 A " Conservative -Whig" he called himself, and 
 as such received at first the support of the Tory 
 committee against the only other man in the field, 
 a Radical. But his sentiments on Free Trade in 
 general, and the Corn Laws in particular, were 
 too far advanced for the Tories, who deserted 
 him and nominated a candidate of their own 
 party, Mr Henry Beresford Hope, Murray's old 
 companion at Sunninghill. The result of this 
 manoeuvre was the return of an out-and-out 
 Radical. 
 
 After this double reverse, Murray sought con- 
 solation in travel. Europe was not wide enough 
 to satisfy his craving for adventure and extended 
 
 1 In his notes Sir Charles states that it was in 1837, on the eleva- 
 tion of Mr Portman, the member for Marylebone, to the peerage, 
 that he first contested that seat ; but I have before me his printed 
 address to the electors of that borough dated 1833. 
 
80 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 knowledge ; he longed to explore the New World, 
 at that time so much more remote from the Old 
 one than it is reckoned in our day. A question 
 had arisen about his father's title to some pro- 
 perty in Virginia, the deeds of which, in the 
 fourth earl's name, 1 had been found in the 
 Capitol at Washington. Charles Murray was 
 therefore commissioned to visit and report on 
 the lands. Accordingly on 18th April 1834 he 
 embarked at Liverpool on the American ship 
 Waverley, of 530 tons, bound for New York. 
 There occurs a reference to his departure in a 
 letter from Rogers to Lady Dunmore. 
 
 " The young girls of this village [London] sigh 
 and soften their voices when they mention him, 
 as they often do in a corner to me. To them 
 he is a creature of romance, though to their 
 mothers the most dangerous of all detrimentals." 
 
 Four years had still to elapse before the Sirius 
 and Great Western, pioneers of ocean steam navi- 
 gation, were to begin the Atlantic passage at 
 the modest speed of eight or nine knots an hour, 
 and the voyage which a modern " ocean grey- 
 hound" may be reckoned to accomplish in a 
 little less or more than six days, in William 
 lY.'s reign depended on the direction and force 
 
 1 The third Earl of Murray had been Governor of Virginia. 
 
A LEAK ! 81 
 
 of the wind. In this respect the passengers on 
 board the Waverley were unlucky beyond the 
 average. The ship fared well for the first seven 
 days, making her eight knots under press of 
 canvas before a fresh easterly breeze ; but on 
 the 27th the wind shifted north-west, blowing 
 hard, and the vessel was hove to. On the 
 evening of May 1, the gale having passed away, 
 Murray was playing draughts in the saloon, 
 when a fellow-passenger, the only one who had 
 crossed the Atlantic before, rushed up and, 
 grasping his arm, exclaimed, " Sir, the ship has 
 sprung a leak ! " 
 
 "I defy any writer to describe exactly, or any 
 reader to understand, the first sensations occa- 
 sioned by an announcement of this nature, unless 
 he has experienced them ; for each succeeding 
 suggestion, as the mind glanced over it with the 
 rapidity of lightning, only seemed to magnify the 
 peril of our situation, and almost to shut out hope : 
 we were about 1200 miles from Liverpool and 
 much more distant from New York, a high sea 
 running, and only provided with boats which, in 
 a calm, might contain one-fourth of the number 
 on board." l 
 
 Everything under such circumstances depends 
 
 1 Travels in North America. By the Hon. C. A. Murray. Third 
 ed., vol. i. p. 10. 
 
 F 
 
82 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 on the nerve and knowledge of the ship's captain. 
 The Waverley was well commanded : Captain 
 Phillips allowed no confusion ; the pumps were set 
 steadily to work ; all the able-bodied men on board, 
 both crew and passengers, were divided into gangs 
 of eight, to relieve each other at the task. But 
 as the wind was westerly, the ship was put about 
 and all sail was made for the nearest European 
 port. The pumps proved wholly inadequate to 
 cope with the leak : so poorly found was the 
 Waverley in this respect, that only four men could 
 work at once ; and on the morning of the 3rd it 
 was found that the water was deepening in the 
 hold. The cargo was chiefly pig-iron, the pressure 
 of which had started one of the timbers, so it was 
 determined to ease the ship by heaving it over- 
 board. Twenty tons of crockery and seventy of 
 iron had been disposed of by nightfall. The ship's 
 course had been altered once more for the Azores, 
 owing to the wind having veered to the north ; 
 but in the evening a heavy south-west gale arose, 
 with fierce hail - squalls ; the sea ran mountains 
 high. Captain Phillips declared that in twenty- 
 two years' experience of the Atlantic he had never 
 encountered such weather. 
 
 The pumps would hardly work, owing to the 
 rolling of the ship; the storm -jib was blown to 
 
A DISABLED SHIP. 83 
 
 pieces, and the Waverley scudded under bare poles 
 towards the north-east a direction contrary to 
 that in which lay their only hope of making a 
 harbour. The condition of the Waverley was 
 almost past hope ; nevertheless she weathered that 
 night, and during the afternoon of the 4th the 
 wind moderated, though a terrible sea was still 
 running. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 5th, having been 
 seventeen days at sea, they made a sail on the 
 weather-bow, which proved to be an East India- 
 man bound for London. She was short of water 
 and provisions, and having still twelve hundred 
 miles to run, could only offer to take off a dozen 
 or so of the Waverley' s complement. Then arose 
 some hubbub among the passengers, of whom 
 several were ladies, whether they should stick 
 to their disabled vessel, or abandon the voyage 
 and return in the Lady Raffles to England. Some 
 of them consulted Murray in their anxiety : he said 
 that he had no hesitation, and intended to remain. 
 A number of Irish emigrants on board about 150 
 of them crowded aft towards the quarter-deck 
 to see how many were going to leave the ship. 
 They were within very little of becoming un- 
 manageable, when one of them called out, " We'll 
 just see what the young Scotch lord does : if he 
 
84 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 stays, it's all right." Of course Murray stayed, 
 and, after putting off some of the passengers upon 
 the other ship, these fellows went cheerily back to 
 the labour of pumping and heaving out cargo. 
 
 There was an anxious half-hour later, however, 
 when the steerage passengers, aching from their 
 hard work, began clamouring for spirits, which the 
 captain resolutely refused. A gang of Irishmen 
 declared they would not go to the pumps without 
 whisky. Firearms were loaded in the cabin to pro- 
 tect the spirit-room. The captain of the gang, a 
 young Welshman, floored with his fist the first of 
 the mutineers, and the second also. He told the 
 next that there was no hope of whisky, but that a 
 few more minutes' delay might send them all to 
 the bottom. They went sulkily to the pumps, but 
 when Murray jumped down among them and set 
 to work, they all joined in, and there was no 
 more trouble. On the morning of the 9th they 
 were safely off Fayal, their cargo lost, their ship 
 disabled, but every life preserved. 
 
 It took more than a month to refit the Waver- 
 ley leisure which Murray made use of in ex- 
 ploring the various islands in the Azores group. 
 Indeed there is nothing that strikes the modern 
 reader more forcibly throughout his narrative than 
 the tolerance of detention, and the absence of all 
 
DETAINED IN THE AZORES. 85 
 
 that hurry and fuss which seem inseparable from 
 the movements of latter-day tourists. The Portu- 
 guese islanders, indeed, appear to have become 
 rather bored by their British visitors. The Irish 
 emigrants especially, having quarrelled with the 
 boatmen in the harbour, were engaged in more 
 than one serious affray, and Murray himself in- 
 curred the vengeance of a Portuguese shopkeeper 
 by felling a dog which flew at a lady with whom 
 he was walking. The dog died, and his owner 
 vowed that Murray should die also. A friendly 
 townsman warned him not to go out after dark, 
 upon which Murray marched straight into his 
 foeman's shop and taxed him, through an inter- 
 preter, with having threatened to take his life. 
 
 " I said it, and I meant it," replied the fellow, 
 sullenly. 
 
 " In that case," replied Murray, " let me inform 
 you that I always carry a brace of pistols " (which, 
 in fact, he never did), "and the first time I 
 see you out after sunset, I shall shoot you." 
 
 There was no more trouble on the score of 
 the dead dog. 
 
 Once more afloat, towards the middle of June, 
 the unlucky Waverley encountered further delay, 
 this time from persistent calms. The ordinary 
 voyage from Fayal to New York was reckoned 
 
86 TRAVELS IN EAELY MANHOOD. 
 
 at sixteen days, but on this occasion the ship 
 drifted about for six weeks, during the last ten 
 days of which the rations were limited to mouldy 
 biscuit, salt junk, and a very short allowance of 
 filthy water, and went into quarantine at Staten 
 Island on 26th July fourteen weeks and two 
 days after leaving Liverpool. Of such were the 
 vicissitudes of a tourist when our fourth William 
 was king. 
 
 Murray has left a minutely detailed account of 
 his first impressions of New York, 1 which is not 
 without the interest of contrast to readers who 
 know the place as it is now. Sir Charles Vaughan, 
 British Minister in the United States at the time, 
 received the traveller with amazement, for it was 
 confidently believed the Waverley had gone to 
 the bottom. 
 
 Among the nugce preserved in Murray's various 
 note-books, there are many traces of his American 
 experience which find no place in his published 
 Travels. Of these the following may serve as a 
 sample. During his stay in New York he made 
 great friends with a fair one of very tender years, 
 on whom, by reason of the length of her hair, he 
 bestowed the name of Absolomina. She returned 
 his affection, and, in turn, used to call him grand- 
 pere. Being invited to tea in the young lady's 
 
 1 Travels, vol. i. 
 
NUG^E. 87 
 
 schoolroom one evening, and arriving rather late, 
 Murray found that she had retired to bed. As 
 she had told him that she did not believe he could 
 put two rhymes together, he left the following 
 jingle for her on the next morning, in which it 
 must be admitted some technical difficulties have 
 been overcome : 
 
 " Oh ! Lady of the flowing hair, 
 How could you yester-evening dare 
 (Having invited me to share 
 At nine your tea-and-toasty fare) 
 To court the god of slumber, ere 
 My foot was heard upon the stair 1 
 I entered looked you were not there ; 
 Around I with surprise did stare 
 At empty room and vacant chair, 
 And wondered where on earth you were. 
 Then came your father to declare 
 He'd begged in vain you would but spare 
 One hour from sleep. The pretty pair, 
 Which, from beneath your forehead fair 
 Spread, with their lustre soft and rare, 
 For careless hearts a dang'rous snare, 
 No more fatigue or light could bear, 
 And, sinking on their ' fringed lair,' 
 Forgot at once me tea and care. 
 You thought I could not rhyme ! I swear 
 For polished style and graceful air, 
 That Milton's Muse or Shakespeare's ne'er 
 (Shakespeare's, forsooth ! a vulgar player) 
 With mine might venture to compare 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonair. 
 Of this you're now perhaps aware : 
 Lovely Absolomina ! Fare- 
 you-well, and, in your gentlest prayer 
 To Heaven, remember old Grand-pere." 
 
88 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 In an expedition up the Hudson river Murray 
 was delighted to find a fellow-passenger in Feni- 
 more Cooper, whose acquaintance he had made at 
 one of Rogers' s breakfasts, and whose romances of 
 Indian life were then greatly in vogue. Later in 
 the autumn he went on a shooting expedition into 
 the west of Virginia, encountering some original 
 characters, in what was then a semi-civilised dis- 
 trict. One of these was a certain Colonel M., 
 whose acquaintance he made in Leesburg, known 
 as the victor in one of the fiercest duels ever 
 fought. The colonel having quarrelled with his 
 cousin, a general, and equally a fire-eater, knocked 
 him down. A challenge was the inevitable result, 
 the choice of weapons being left to the colonel, 
 who proposed that he and his adversary should 
 sit on the same barrel of gunpowder, and each 
 apply a match to it. This was declined by the 
 general, as also a suggestion that the cousins 
 should leap hand in hand from the top of the 
 Capitol ; but the third proposal, that they should 
 fight with musket and ball at ten paces, was ac- 
 cepted. They met ; the general was shot through 
 the heart, while the colonel got off with a shat- 
 tered wrist. 
 
 British visitors to America used to be prone, 
 perhaps a few are so still, to look with prejudice 
 
WASHINGTON'S TOMB. 89 
 
 on an English-speaking nation who betray un- 
 familiar traits. Sixty years ago the remembrance 
 of mutual resentment was still green between the 
 two nations ; but Murray's eager, fresh intelligence 
 was captivated by a great deal that he observed in 
 the vigorous young community. He was shocked, 
 indeed, at the neglect with which the tomb of 
 George Washington at Mount Vernon was treated 
 at that time, but this only inspired him to a 
 panegyric on the national hero. 
 
 " The memory of Washington is dear to, and 
 revered by, not only America, but mankind ; and 
 mankind had a right, according to all the rules of 
 good taste, good feeling, and good example, either 
 that the illustrious dust should have been allowed 
 to remain in the simple mound where it first slept, 
 shadowed by the melancholy boughs that first 
 waved over it, . . . or, if it had been removed, it 
 should have been to a sepulchre worthy of its 
 name and glory. ... To no one who has ever 
 lived is the glorious Periclean elegy of irao-a yrj 
 ra</>os 1 more applicable than to Washington. . . . 
 The fame and glory of the illustrious dead can 
 neither be diminished nor tarnished by the neglect 
 of their countrymen; but does that palliate or 
 excuse such neglect ? " 2 
 
 Very different such honest criticism from the 
 carpings of the ordinary globe-trotter ; and so the 
 
 1 The whole earth his tomb. 2 Travels, vol. i. p. 119. 
 
90 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 American public felt it to be when Murray's book 
 was published, though they were not less jealous 
 of criticism by " Britishers " in those days than 
 they are now, as may be seen from the following 
 letter to Murray from the President of the United 
 States : 
 
 "ALBANY, August 5tk, 1836 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I was highly gratified to re- 
 ceive your kind note, and thank you sincerely for 
 the obliging expression of respect and friendship 
 which it contains. The satisfaction you have re- 
 ceived from our short acquaintance has, I assure 
 you, been more than reciprocated on my part. 
 Casual visitors from your country to this are un- 
 fortunately so seldom desirous of seeing things here 
 as they really are, or at least give themselves so 
 little trouble to do so, and the right disposition in 
 this regard having been so marked in you, I have, 
 I confess to you, been not a little anxious about 
 the result of your observations. My anxiety on 
 this account, relieved in part by the general justice 
 and frankness of your conversation, is now entirely 
 removed by the generous and liberal sentiments of 
 your note. No one could reciprocate more cordi- 
 ally than I do your wishes for a long continuance 
 of the friendly relations at present so happily 
 existing between our respective countries, and 
 you may rest assured that nothing that I can do 
 to promote that object shall be neglected. 
 
 " Do me the favour to make my best respects to 
 Lord Lansdowne and Palmerston when you happen 
 to see them. 
 
AMERICAN CORRESPONDENCE. 91 
 
 " Accept my prayers for your safe return to your 
 friends, and believe me to be very truly yours, 
 
 "M. VAN BUREN." 
 
 This was written before the publication of the 
 'Travels'; but that the impression remained the 
 same afterwards is shown by the following letter, 
 written from Mexico by Waddy Thompson : 
 
 " I have just finished reading of your book of 
 travels in the United States ; and feeling that I am 
 your debtor for the happiness which it has afforded 
 me, I hasten to acknowledge the debt. It is 
 greatly to be regretted that the English trav- 
 ellers who have written books about the United 
 States have been for the most part of a class who 
 could not obtain admittance (as they did not 
 deserve it) into the better circles either in the 
 United States or in their own country, and their 
 books are not unfaithful pictures of what they 
 saw. Mrs Trollope's book, for example, is a most 
 accurate description of that portion of our society 
 into which alone could a vulgar woman as she is 
 obtain an admittance. From gentlemen like your- 
 self and Lord Morpeth we have nothing to fear 
 but just criticism, and that is really a thing not to 
 be deprecated, more especially when administered 
 as you have done it, in that spirit in which ' a 
 father chasteneth his children.' 
 
 " I do not use too strong a word when I say to 
 you that I love the man who can see everything in 
 a foreign land as you have seen and described ours." 
 
92 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 It was for the institution of slavery that Murray 
 reserved his sternest displeasure, although he ad- 
 mitted that " from what I had seen of the social 
 qualities of the gentlemen at whose houses I was 
 a visitor [in Virginia], I was rather gratified than 
 surprised to witness the comparative comfort and 
 good usage enjoyed by their slaves." Their 
 clothing, food, and lodging were suitable to the 
 climate and their work. 
 
 " During the days that I spent in the neigh- 
 bourhood I did not see any corporal punishment ; 
 but each overseer was armed with a cowhide ; 
 and one, with whom I had a long conversation 
 regarding the detail of his occupation, informed 
 me that he was obliged constantly to use the 
 lash, both to men and women ; that some he 
 whipped four or five times a -week, some only 
 twice or thrice a -month ; that all attempts to 
 make them work regularly by advice or kindness 
 were unavailing, for their general character was 
 stubborn idleness ; and that many who were 
 cheerful, and even appeared attached to the 
 family, would not work without occasional hints 
 from the cowhide." 
 
 This overseer believed that slave labour was 
 most extravagant, partly from the prime cost (the 
 price of an able-bodied negro being, on an average, 
 150), partly from the cost of maintenance, and 
 
THE EVILS OF SLAVERY. 93 
 
 partly owing to the perpetual loss by disease or 
 accident, death or running away. He was sure 
 more revenue might be obtained if his employer's 
 estate were let under lease. 
 
 But it was not because of the physical hard- 
 ships of the slaves, nor on account of the waste- 
 fulness of slave labour, nor yet by reason of the 
 horrors of the ocean traffic in human cattle, that 
 Murray declaimed most vehemently against the 
 system. He was a staunch Whig, and the worst 
 feature in his eyes was the necessity for keeping 
 these creatures in the grossest ignorance, for 
 excluding them even from the knowledge of the 
 sentiment lying at the root of all self-improve- 
 ment and self-respect the love of liberty. 
 
 Murray spent most of the winter in Washing- 
 ton, and an unpublished reminiscence of his sojourn 
 there remains among his private notes. It is, per- 
 haps, not particularly edifying, but it serves to 
 show the kind of frame in which his gentle, culti- 
 vated nature was lodged. 
 
 " When I arrived at Washington on my travels 
 through America, some foolish friend of mine talked 
 about my various feats of strength, such as bending 
 and breaking pokers over my arm, and above all, 
 of putting my fist through a closed door. This 
 annoyed me rather, but the climax came one 
 
94 TRAVELS IN EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 evening at a big party. There was amongst the 
 guests a little Dutchman, who pooh-poohed the 
 idea of its being possible to put a fist through 
 the panel of a door, upon which my friend, who 
 had more loyalty than tact, grew very angry, 
 and made a bet that I would not only do it, 
 but would do it then and there. When I was 
 told this, I flatly refused ; but they urged that 
 my friend would lose his money, and so forth ; 
 so with much reluctance I went up to the lady 
 of the house and told her the facts of the case, 
 and added, ' If, madam, you are kind enough to 
 allow me to make this experiment, I will nat- 
 urally hold myself responsible for any harm that 
 may be done to your door, and will send an up- 
 holsterer to remedy it in the morning.' She 
 looked rather astonished, but very good-naturedly 
 said I might try my hand on her door. I waited 
 till nearly every one had gone in to supper and 
 the room was almost empty ; then carefully shut- 
 ting the door, I planted myself firmly, brought 
 my fist against the panel, and, as usual, through 
 it went, amidst great applause. Unluckily, at 
 that moment a footman happened to be bringing 
 up a great pile of plates to the supper - room, 
 when just as he passed the door, through came 
 my fist and forearm, caught him right in the 
 chest, and felled him and his pile of plates w r ith 
 a mighty crash to the ground. You can imagine 
 the hideous noise. Every one came rushing out 
 to see what the deuce was going on, and found 
 me, very shamefacedly, the culprit. Next day, 
 to my great annoyance, all Washington was ring- 
 
TOUR IN THE WEST. 95 
 
 ing with the story of the rough-and-ready English 
 cub, who came to evening parties and broke doors 
 and knocked down footmen. Meantime the Dutch- 
 man, seeing I had so easily done what my friend 
 had claimed I should do, turned round and declared 
 that after all it was perfectly easy he could do 
 it himself. I said nothing, as his bumptiousness 
 annoyed me. Of course it is a great deal a 
 knack, as well as strength ; but the knack must 
 be known, as the Dutchman found to his cost. 
 He bared his arm and hit out at the door, but 
 the door remained uninjured, while his wrist broke 
 instead ; so he lost his money, and got a nasty 
 arm into the bargain." 
 
 In spring Murray revisited the West, taking in 
 his tour Richmond, Jamestown, and Norfolk. He 
 spoke gratefully, and even enthusiastically, of the 
 simple hospitality which he encountered every- 
 where. Returning in April to Washington, he 
 started again in May for Baltimore, crossed the 
 Alleghanies in the rope-railroad a great marvel 
 in those days passed through Pittsburg, em- 
 barked on the Ohio, and came near ending his 
 days at Cincinnati, where, being attacked by 
 cholera, he made and forwarded his will to the 
 British Legation at Washington a document 
 which he had the satisfaction of reclaiming and 
 tearing up the following year. 
 
96 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 1835. 
 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 ONCE more re-established in health, Murray, re- 
 suming his travels, sailed up the Ohio to Louis- 
 ville, and, as an instance of the discriminating 
 nature of his criticism, there may be quoted his 
 remarks on that town : 
 
 " Louisville is an active and thriving town, 1 but, 
 like all the others in the West, wretchedly lighted 
 and paved at present. It is necessary to mark 
 these two words, as in this most wonderful portion 
 of this most wonderful continent, observations of 
 a condemnatory nature are not likely to be true 
 for more than twelve months." 2 
 
 In passing through Lexington he was delighted 
 
 1 The population of Louisville at the time of Murray's visit was 
 under 11,000 ; in the census of 1880 it stood at 123,758. 
 
 2 Travels, vol. i. p. 184. 
 
LEXINGTON. 97 
 
 at meeting Harriet Martineau ; and here again one 
 is struck by the true liberality of Murray's mind, 
 for nothing could be more directly opposed to his 
 profound attachment to religious doctrine, con- 
 spicuous even at this early age, than the avowed 
 scepticism of this writer. 
 
 " This lady's writings," he says, " are too well 
 known to require any comment on them here. I 
 differ from many of her opinions, but nobody can 
 deny her possession of great talent, or refuse her 
 the merit of writing in a clear, concise, and elegant 
 style ; moreover, her conversation is agreeable, 
 lively, and varied, displaying a mind both strong 
 and original, a judgment very decisive, though not 
 without prejudice, and a quickness of observation 
 and comparison that render her an entertaining 
 as well as an instructive talker." 1 
 
 His host at Lexington was the celebrated Ameri- 
 can statesman, Henry Clay, then in the zenith of 
 his reputation, although he had been twice de- 
 feated in contests for the Presidency Murray 
 had already heard this famous orator during a 
 debate in the Senate, and was greatly impressed 
 with his voice and manner, which produced on 
 him " that most powerful of all effects a convic- 
 tion that, if provoked, the lion could roar yet 
 more terribly." How commonly is this grace of 
 
 1 Travels, vol. i. 
 G 
 
98 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 oratory neglected ! How seldom does one hear a 
 speech delivered without the impression that the 
 orator is launching all the thunder of which he is 
 capable ! 
 
 In Mr Clay's house Murray made the acquain- 
 tance of a young German called Vernunft, also on 
 his travels. They struck up a friendship, and re- 
 mained fellow-travellers for many months. Re- 
 turning to Louisville, they passed down the Ohio 
 to St Louis, where Murray was anxious to see 
 some society, with the help of General Clarke, a 
 well-known writer, traveller, and authority on 
 Indian affairs. But finding that a steamer was 
 on the point of starting for the upper ^Missouri, 
 Vernunft and Murray agreed not to lose this 
 chance of penetrating the wilderness, hurriedly 
 purchased an outfit for camping, and in a few 
 hours were on their way to Fort Leaven worth, 
 then the westernmost military post of the United 
 States. Here at last the Fellow of All Souls 
 encountered the chance of adventure for which 
 he had hitherto pined in vain. 
 
 To understand the position, one must call to 
 mind the vast advance of white population which 
 has taken place since 1835, and the dwindling to 
 insignificance of the once powerful and multi- 
 tudinous Red Indians. At the time of Murray's 
 
THE WILD WEST. 99 
 
 tour the total area of settlement in the United 
 States was not much more than 600,000 square 
 miles ; it now amounts to more than three times 
 that figure. The vast stores of mineral wealth in 
 Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, and California lay un- 
 suspected under virgin forest ; the Choctaw and 
 Chickasaw nations blocked advance westward in 
 Mississippi State, though the white population had 
 spread up the valley as far as the present site 
 of Kansas city. Over the unreclaimed lands the 
 Red Indians still hunted and fought, no one at 
 that time foreseeing their approaching fate. Those 
 sounding floods and slumbering lakes, those tower- 
 ing cones and winding canons, those immemorial 
 forests and flowery plains above all, the pic- 
 turesque, mysterious tribes, by describing whose 
 high attributes, as well as their dauntless ferocity, 
 Fenimore Cooper had fired the imagination wher- 
 ever the English language was read such was 
 the scenery and such the people among which the 
 very atmosphere seemed charged with materials 
 for adventure. 
 
 Judge, then, of Murray's enchantment when, on 
 the 4th July, Commemoration Day, being seated 
 at dinner with the officers of the fort, the arrival 
 was announced of one hundred and fifty Pawnees. 
 A dozen of their principal braves were at once 
 
100 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 invited into the mess-room: no whisky - sodden, 
 degraded wretches these, like the Kickapoo tribe, 
 who lived nearest to the frontier, but unspoiled, 
 genuine sons of the forest, in deerskin leggings, 
 buffalo-skin cloaks, bead necklaces, and earrings. 
 Few of these men had ever been in a white settle- 
 ment before, or even seen a chair or table ; yet 
 their self-possession and intuitive tact were perfect : 
 they shook hands all round, seated themselves at 
 table, sipped Madeira and smoked cigars without 
 betraying a sign of wonder or committing the 
 slightest absurdity. 
 
 " I do not think there was a countenance among 
 them that could be pronounced handsome, though 
 several were pleasing and good - humoured ; but 
 the prevalent character of their expression was 
 haughty, impenetrable reserve, easily distinguish- 
 able through the mask of frank conciliation which 
 their present object rendered it expedient for them 
 to wear." x 
 
 In short, Murray was completely captivated : 
 a visit to their encampment brought him to the 
 hasty resolution of accompanying these Pawnees 
 in returning to their " nation." Vernunft required 
 little persuasion. With some difficulty they secured 
 the services of a lad to lead the packhorses, and 
 
 1 Travels, vol. i. p. 210. 
 
AMERICAN HOSPITALITY. 101 
 
 of an Indian who could speak excellent Pawnee, 
 execrable French, and no English, to serve as 
 their only means of oral communication with 
 their Redskin friends. Besides these, there was 
 Murray's Scots valet, who, though excellent in 
 his own sphere, could hardly be blamed for 
 ignorance of what was required in the backwoods. 
 I have said that Murray often referred grate- 
 fully in his subsequent volumes to the hospitality 
 he received everywhere in the United States ; 
 but I am indebted to one of his note-books for 
 a token of the kindness of his American friends 
 at Fort Leavenworth. He, Vernunft, and the 
 Scots valet had spent nearly a week there, and 
 before leaving he asked the messman to render 
 his bill, which was done in the following graceful 
 manner : 
 
 To six days' board . . .$000 
 
 ti five nights' lodging . . 000 
 
 ii feeding dogs . . . . 000 
 
 H making four bags . . . 000 
 
 ii washing 13 pieces . . . 000 
 
 
 
 For several days Murray and Vernunft rode 
 with the Indians, always in "Indian file," in a 
 north-westerly direction, heartily enjoying life in 
 the open and the glorious scenery, but much dis- 
 
102 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 appointed in the scarcity of game, on which they 
 relied for supplying their larder. On July 16 the 
 course was altered west-south-west, and the long 
 march began to tell on their horses, nearly all of 
 which had sore backs. After riding for nearly a 
 fortnight, they overtook the Pawnee 1 "nation," 
 that particular nomad branch of the Pawnee 
 Indians to which Murray's braves belonged, en- 
 camped on a wide prairie. 
 
 " Our approach excited some curiosity and in- 
 terest. The families of those who had been to 
 the fort placed themselves in or near our path ; 
 and as the husband, father, or brother came near, 
 the little kindred group would withdraw to a 
 retired spot and indulge those feelings of curi- 
 osity and affection which nature has implanted 
 as strongly in the bosom of the savage as of the 
 civilised man. I witnessed with much pleasure 
 the meeting of my old chief, Sa-ni-ts-rish, with 
 his wives and children, which took place under 
 a knot of fine trees a little to the right of 
 our path. I could read in the glistening eyes 
 of the women, and in the glad faces of the 
 children, that the old man was a kind husband 
 and father ; and if the features of the parties 
 had not been so totally devoid of anything like 
 beauty, the family picture would have been as 
 picturesque as it was interesting." 2 
 
 1 Now written Pani by American ethnologists. 
 
 2 Travels, vol. i. p. 230. 
 
THE PAWNEE VILLAGE. 103 
 
 Murray and his attendant were accommodated 
 in the skin tent or summer lodge of Sa-ni-tsa-rish, 
 while Yernunft and the other attendant were 
 hospitably lodged with another brave. There 
 were about six hundred lodges in the village, 
 each of which contained, in addition to its human 
 complement, an average of seven dogs. "It is 
 needless to suggest," observes Murray, ' ' the grand 
 effect of a dog-chorus at midnight in the Pawnee 
 village ! " At last he had attained his desire. 
 Civilisation, so far as his own environment of 
 many hundreds of miles was affected, was as 
 though it had never been. 
 
 Though this assemblage of lodges was called a 
 village, it was in fact no more than a flying camp, 
 and the next morning after the arrival of the 
 Europeans the whole affair was packed up and the 
 " nation " resumed its march. On July 22 Murray 
 witnessed a sight which living man shall never see 
 again. "Taraha! taraha!" was the cry: buffalo 1 
 had been found some fifteen miles off, and about 
 a thousand braves 2 mounted in hot haste and set 
 
 1 The American buffalo (more properly bison, Bos taurus), which 
 swarmed in countless numbers until thirty years ago, is now believed 
 to be totally extinct in a wild state, the only living representatives 
 of the species being a small herd preserved in the Yellowstone Park. 
 
 2 The Pawnees have wellnigh shared the fate of the buffaloes. 
 This brave nation lived at almost constant warfare with the Dakota 
 Indians. The Dela wares defeated them badly in 1823 ; smallpox 
 
104 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 off in pursuit. Then ensued great and reckless 
 slaughter, followed by a feast which Murray was 
 ill able to enjoy, because the only frying-pan he 
 possessed had been smashed, and Indian notions 
 of cooking were very sketchy. 
 
 Scarcely more exciting was the cry that went 
 forth the same evening " Men have been seen ! " 
 on a runner from the out-pickets bringing news 
 of a band of Arikarees, a hostile branch of the 
 Pawnees, noted horse-stealers. The camp stood 
 to arms, the braves yelled war-songs, women chat- 
 tered, children screamed, dogs howled ; all night 
 long the hubbub raged, of which the enemy took 
 advantage by stealing twenty-two horses during 
 the darkness. A few nights later the camp was 
 again attacked, this time by a band of 150 or 200 
 Cheyennes, 1 but these were easily beaten off. 
 
 On the whole, however, the tribe suffered little 
 molestation : for their human enemies, as for them- 
 selves, this was the season of plenty the hunter's 
 harvest and all over the far-stretching west the 
 Red Men were busy pursuing buffalo. For a few 
 
 afterwards wrought havoc among them, and in the American census 
 of 1880 they were numbered at no more than 1440 all told, living on 
 a reservation in the Indian territory. 
 
 1 A tribe of the Algonquin family, now numbering only some 3000. 
 In physique and mental powers they are said to excel most other 
 Indians, but they do not seem amenable to civilisation, and live by 
 war and hunting. 
 
A QUARREL BETWEEN BROTHERS. 105 
 
 weeks the novelty and freedom of the life and the 
 exciting sport kept Murray and his German friend 
 from wearying for the comforts of home and civili- 
 sation. 
 
 A small band of Otoes, 1 who, though a branch 
 of the hostile Dakotas, were friendly to the Paw- 
 nees, joined the encampment during this season, 
 and were permitted to hunt with the nation. 
 Their chief, lotan, spoke a little English, and 
 Murray became interested in him, although with 
 his English he had contracted an unhappy taste 
 for ardent spirits, of which the Pawnees were 
 wholly free. lotan had lost his nose under cir- 
 cumstances which form part of Indian history, 
 and were recounted to Murray by an eyewitness, 
 lotan quarrelled with his elder brother, the chief 
 of the tribe, probably about buffalo, of which the 
 sacra fames embittered many friends. This 
 brother sprang suddenly on lotan one day and 
 bit off his nose. True to the national etiquette, 
 lotan suffered no other muscle of his countenance 
 to move, though he must have felt that his brother, 
 in depriving him of a convenient adjunct to expres- 
 sion, could scarcely plead .the excuse that it was 
 any use to himself. He went to his lodge, washed 
 
 1 The remnant of this tribe now inhabit a small reservation in 
 Nebraska, in common with what is left of the Missouries. Together 
 they number less than 500 souls. 
 
106 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 his face (an extraordinary proceeding in Otoe 
 circles), carefully loaded his rifle, stalked his bad 
 brother, and shot him dead. Thereafter he sur- 
 rendered himself to be judged by the Council of 
 Braves, who unanimously elected him chief in 
 place of the defunct. 
 
 In spite, however, of the constant interest which 
 Murray found in studying the character, the man- 
 ners, and the language of this primitive people, 
 the situation was not without its drawbacks, which 
 became more pressing and more numerous as the 
 sense of novelty wore off. Truth to tell, the noble 
 savage proved far from immaculate, either in per- 
 sonal habits or in morals. There were certain 
 points in each to which Fenimore Cooper had 
 given no prominence in his romances of Indian 
 life. To put it plainly, a Pawnee encampment, 
 both inside and outside the lodges, with its 
 crowded population of human beings, horses, 
 and dogs, was indescribably filthy, and Murray 
 offers a few graphic details as some excuse for 
 the longing he soon felt to get back to Fort 
 Leavenworth. 
 
 "It is not a pleasant thing to comment upon 
 nastiness of any kind ; but a few trifles, of daily 
 occurrence, may be necessary to rescue my com- 
 panion and myself from the charge of caprice. 
 
RED INDIAN CHARACTER. 107 
 
 Imprimis : every article within the lodge (includ- 
 ing my own. skin, jacket, and shirt) was covered 
 with vermin. These insects are, as is well known, 
 of two species the one frequenting the hair, the 
 other the body. The former of these are con- 
 sidered by the Pawnee naturalists as Pedicularis 
 esculentus ; for whenever the squaws are unem- 
 ployed in severer labour, they enjoy a feast of 
 this kind, gathered either from the hair of their 
 children or of each other. For many successive 
 weeks I have observed them pass from half an 
 hour to an hour of every day in this manner, 
 and they really seem to eat this filthy vermin 
 with no small satisfaction ; but I have been told 
 by traders that they will not eat them from the 
 heads of the whites/' 1 
 
 As for the moral character of the Red Indian, 
 before it was affected for good or ill by contact 
 with the white man, it is melancholy to find that 
 in this also disillusion awaited the travellers. 
 For the old chief, Sa-ni-tsa-rish, with whom he 
 lodged, Murray indeed conceived a warm affec- 
 tion and was able to entertain genuine admiration. 
 He relates several traits of his generous and lofty 
 character. But as for the rest, let him, no pre- 
 judiced critic, speak in his own words : 
 
 " Every hour that I spent with the Indians 
 impressed upon me the conviction that I had 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 8. 
 
108 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 taken the only method of becoming acquainted 
 with their domestic character. Had I judged 
 from what I had been able to observe at Fort 
 Leavenworth, or other frontier places, where I 
 met them, I should have known about as much 
 of them as the generality of scribblers and their 
 readers; and might, like them, have deceived 
 myself and others into a belief in their ' high 
 sense of honour,' their hospitality, their open- 
 ness and love of truth, and many other qualities 
 which they possess, if at all, in a very moderate 
 degree. And yet it is no wonder if such impres- 
 sions have gone abroad, because the Indian, among 
 whites, or at garrison, trading post, or town, is as 
 different a man from the same Indian at home as a 
 Turkish mollah is from a French barber. Among 
 whites he is all dignity and repose : he is acting a 
 part the whole time, and acts it most admirably. 
 He manifests no surprise at the most wonderful 
 effects of machinery is not startled if a twenty- 
 four pounder is fired close to him, and does not 
 evince the slightest curiosity regarding the thou- 
 sand things that are strange and new to him ; 
 whereas at home the Indian chatters, jokes, and 
 laughs among his companions frequently indulg- 
 ing in the most licentious conversation ; and his 
 curiosity is as unbounded and irresistible as that 
 of any man, woman, or monkey on earth. 
 
 " Truth and honesty (making the usual excep- 
 tions to be found in all countries) are unknown or 
 despised by them. A boy is taught and encouraged 
 to lie and steal, and the only blame or disgrace 
 ever incurred thereby is when the offence is de- 
 
PAWNEE DANDIES. 109 
 
 tected. I never met with liars so determined, 
 universal, or audacious. . . . But from all these 
 charges I most completely exonerate my old chief, 
 Sa-ni-tsa-rish. Nature had made him a gentleman, 
 and he remained so, in spite of the corrupting ex- 
 amples round him." 1 
 
 Unsatisfactory though they were, these Red 
 Men, from an ethical point of view, in appearance 
 they fulfilled a very high assthetic ideal. They 
 were always picturesque, whether attired in gor- 
 geously painted buffalo robes, or in blue-and- white 
 blankets which floated behind them as they gal- 
 loped, or in the extreme of Pawnee dandyism 
 in scarlet cloth, with glittering beads on arms 
 and necks. Nothing seems more sensitive to cor- 
 ruption by contact with civilisation than the 
 aesthetic instinct, often unerring, of primitive 
 races. These Pawnees were absolutely unsophis- 
 ticated : the only alteration they had made in 
 their hereditary habits was the substitution, in 
 part, of cheap Birmingham firearms for bows and 
 arrows and spears, yet the hundred and fifty 
 braves who had formed the deputation to Fort 
 Leaven worth had each received the present of a 
 common English round hat. These they con- 
 sidered "great medicine," and strutted about on 
 
 1 Travels, vol. i. p. 249. 
 
110 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 feast days wearing them, still wrapped in brown 
 paper and string, on the top of their other 
 finery, or, when the weather was warm, as their 
 sole article of clothing. 
 
 Before resuming the narrative of Murray's pil- 
 grimage, I must quote one more page from his 
 work, containing, as it does, a picture so char- 
 acteristic of these Children of the Waste : 
 
 " The son of Sa-ni-tsa-rish was a great Pawnee 
 dandy : we had hunted antelope and elk several 
 times together, and I always considered him very 
 quiet and good-tempered. He used to call me his 
 brother ; and while we were going to or returning 
 from a hunt, would teach me Pawnee words and 
 phrases. He was now holding in his hand a kind 
 of Mexican bridle, which he wished to put over 
 the head of his horse ; but the latter, a fine, half- 
 broken animal, backed, and would not let him 
 approach. With the foolish violence common 
 among Indians on such occasions, he stood directly 
 before it, hauling hard upon the laryette. Of 
 course this made the animal pull against him and 
 back still further, when, with a sudden movement 
 of rage, he drew his scalp-knife, sprang at the 
 horse like a tiger, and buried the blade in its eye. 
 
 " The old chief was standing by, looking on with 
 the imperturbable nerves of an Indian : he neither 
 spoke a word nor moved a muscle, because the 
 young man was grown up, and was among the 
 warriors of the tribe ; but I could not resist saying 
 
A CRUEL HORSE-MASTER. Ill 
 
 to him, ' That was not good.' The chief answered 
 gravely, ' No.' I then turned to observe the son. 
 As soon as he became sensible of what he had 
 done in a moment of passion, he was vexed and 
 ashamed, but too haughty to show it ; and, walk- 
 ing to a spot about twenty yards distant, throwing 
 his scarlet blanket over his shoulder, he drew him- 
 self up to his full height, and there stood a 
 motionless statue. The camp moved on, 1 and long 
 after the last straggler had left the place, I saw 
 him standing in the same attitude on the same 
 spot. The poor horse was led off by one of the 
 boys ; and as I saw the heavy drops of blood 
 coursing each other down his innocent nose during 
 all the march of that day, while the hanging head, 
 the flapping ears, and the trailing limbs showed 
 the acuteness of his sufferings, I wished to ter- 
 minate them by putting a musket-ball through his 
 head ; but it would not have been prudent to ask 
 permission to do so. I went on my way, sickened 
 with disgust at the cruelty of the young chief. 
 He felt, however, though he would not display 
 them, both sorrow and shame, for he kept aloof 
 from the band all day." 2 
 
 By the middle of August, Murray and Vernunft 
 felt that they had experienced quite enough of 
 Indian life. They had fulfilled their purpose of 
 spending a few weeks in observing the Red Man 
 at home, and the advancing season, as well as 
 
 1 This incident occurred at the beginning of a day's march. 
 
 2 Travels, vol. i. p. 332. 
 
112 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 sundry circumstances which had arisen, warned 
 them that it was high time to make a start 
 homewards. But Fort Leavenworth lay many 
 hundreds of miles to the east, across the pathless 
 wilderness : fresh horses were a necessity, for 
 which their remaining articles of exchange hardly 
 sufficed as a fair value, let alone such fancy prices 
 as the growing rapacity of the Pawnees, now 
 only too evident, might exact. Then a guide or 
 guides were indispensable, and none were forth- 
 coming ; added to which the Indians were as 
 jealous of any independent party traversing the 
 prairie at the risk of setting the all - important 
 buffaloes on the move, as any Highland stalker 
 could be of trespassers in his forests. 
 
 In short, it became apparent that the travellers 
 were on the brink of an awkward predicament. 
 Every wandering "nation" could not be expected 
 to be as friendly towards inquisitive whites as 
 the Pawnees had proved ; and even among the 
 Pawnees signs were not wanting of a disquieting 
 character. Sa-ni-tsa-rish had been superseded 
 in command of the nation by the chief of the 
 Grand Pawnees an allied and senior tribe, which 
 had joined forces with Murray's Indians for the 
 better bullying of buffaloes. This picturesque per- 
 sonage evidently regarded the European travellers 
 
THE "MEDICINE-TUBE. 113 
 
 as promising subjects for exploitation : Murray's 
 " medicine-tube," or stalking telescope, was far too 
 remarkable an instrument to be viewed with in- 
 difference, and the grand chief soon caused him to 
 understand that it was extremely bad taste that 
 he a white chief should continue to lodge with 
 Sa-ni-tsa-rish, and offered him quarters in his own 
 lodge. Murray, however, excused himself, and 
 the jealous potentate closed the colloquy with an 
 angry " Ugh ! " and an expression of countenance 
 the reverse of amiable. Other eyes had dwelt 
 with longing on the " medicine-tube," as well as 
 on Murray's fine double - barrelled Purdey rifle, 
 decidedly more desirable than the thirty-shilling 
 " trade " single - barrel, which formed the usual 
 artillery of a brave ; and more than once Murray 
 and Vernunft found themselves followed in a very 
 suspicious manner, when, strolling outside the in- 
 tolerably filthy camp, they sought to enjoy the 
 balmy evening air. 
 
 An exceedingly awkward incident occurred on 
 12th August 1835. After interminable haggling 
 and disappointment, the travellers had got together 
 guides and horses, and started on the homeward 
 track the day before. Vernunft had been disabled 
 by a fall from a brute of a horse with which a 
 cunning brave had " stuck" him ; and Murray, full 
 
 H 
 
114 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 of thoughts of the sport that opened that day on 
 the far-away Scottish moors, set out alone to get 
 some fresh meat. After a long walk, he descried 
 a single buffalo grazing on a hill-top, which, by a 
 difficult stalk, he approached within eighty yards. 
 Just as he was raising himself slightly to take aim, 
 the report of a rifle rang out, and a bullet hummed 
 at what seemed a very short distance over his 
 head. A Pawnee gentleman had been stalking 
 something : whether it was the buffalo or himself, 
 Murray could not swear to, though he had 
 a strong suspicion. At all events, when the 
 Pawnee, having explained how he missed the 
 buffalo, began to reload, Murray stopped him 
 sharply, saying that it was quite unnecessary, 
 seeing that he himself had two barrels undis- 
 charged. Certainly this was not exactly the 
 company in which a stranger would care to lose 
 his way, yet this is exactly what happened. 
 Murray was completely out of his bearings, 
 and at nightfall had to accompany his dubious 
 acquaintance to a small encampment of Pawnees 
 eight or ten miles off. 
 
 " I now found myself in a very unpleasant pre- 
 dicament. My life, indeed, was not in much 
 danger, because I might, probably, have been 
 permitted to accompany these Indians to the 
 
ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS. 115 
 
 Pawnee villages on the Platte, where I might 
 have waited until some trading party should go 
 down the Missouri ; but my condition, in this 
 case, would not have been very enviable. With 
 neither horse, clothes, nor blanket, and with a 
 very small stock of ammunition, I was certainly 
 not well equipped for a long journey and residence 
 with the Pawnees ; neither did I think that my 
 own party could get on very well without me, 
 as Vernunft was crippled, and none of them were 
 hunters. So I determined to sally forth and seek 
 them at all risks." 1 
 
 It was now dark, but the sky was clear, and 
 Murray, taking his bearings by the pole-star and 
 the door of the lodge, which, according to invari- 
 able Indian custom, faced due east, set off alone in 
 search of his party. He affected great confidence 
 before his Pawnee hosts, who believed he was 
 making " great medicine," but in truth his hopes 
 were low : he had been walking all day ; he had 
 nothing between himself and starvation but two 
 or three slices of buffalo-beef hung to his belt, 
 nothing between his skin and the cold night but 
 a dirty calico shirt. By almost incredible luck, 
 after travelling for some hours through a hilly 
 tract of country he discerned the glimmer of a 
 camp-fire. Approaching it stealthily, lest it might 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 36. 
 
116 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 come from a party of strange Indians, he found to 
 his great relief that it was his own comrades. 
 
 But the travellers were only at the beginning of 
 their troubles. At the close of the second day's 
 march their Pawnee guides mutinied and refused 
 to proceed. To punish them as they deserved 
 would not have been prudent ; they would have 
 deserted instantly, and probably would have 
 returned with a strong party to raise the scalps 
 of the Palefaces. So Murray, making the best 
 of a bad business, ordered them out of the camp, 
 " and they slunk off, leaving us seated with great 
 dignity and apparent ease." 
 
 The dignity may have been real, but ease was a 
 hollow show ; and the difficulties thrown upon 
 Murray, on whom now devolved the duties of 
 guide, may be realised from the following descrip- 
 tion of the first day's march : 
 
 " Never since we entered the prairies of the 
 West had we been entangled in such a labyrinth 
 of steep, irregular, and broken ridges as those 
 which obstructed our progress. As soon as one 
 height was attained, another and a higher rose 
 before us. In the ascent the packs slipped over 
 our mules' and horses' tails ; in the descent, over 
 their necks and ears. It was in vain that I halted 
 my party and rode to the right and left ; I could 
 find no practicable escape from the tumultuous and 
 
FINDING THEIR WAY HOME. 11 7 
 
 confused mass of hillocks, which were not (as is 
 usually the case with the heights in the western 
 prairies) in a regular succession of ridges, like the 
 Atlantic in a gale of wind, but like the short, 
 broken, irregular seas raised by heavy squalls from 
 opposite quarters in the Irish Channel. 
 
 " I soon found that the shades of night would 
 overtake us in this disagreeable situation unless I 
 again directed our course to Snake river, which I 
 reluctantly did, and we encamped at a place not 
 more than four or five miles south-east from the 
 spot where the guides had left us." l 
 
 To add to the hazard of their situation, a terrific 
 thunderstorm, with torrents of rain, raged through- 
 out the night, drenching the whole party and 
 causing great suffering from cold, for of course 
 they had neither tent nor Indian lodge to pro- 
 tect them. 
 
 " When I reflected upon the strange contrast of 
 our present mode of life, as compared with our 
 usual habits in society ; when I reflected what 
 severe colds are produced by sitting for an hour 
 with wet feet, or sleeping in shirts only rather 
 damp, and then looked upon our present party, 
 after we had been lying for seven or eight hours 
 without a fire and perfectly soaked through, I 
 could not help feeling surprised, and I hope I may 
 add grateful, for the health we had enjoyed and 
 still preserved." 2 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 52. 2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 53. 
 
118 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 Perhaps even in stranger contrast than that 
 which their physical surroundings presented to 
 the native environment of these white men, ap- 
 pear some of the reflections which Murray noted 
 in his diary as they passed through his mind. 
 Each night as they advanced a watch had to be 
 set, for if any Indian horse-stealers had made 
 a successful raid, their situation would have been 
 desperate indeed. Wrapped in his buffalo robe 
 during his tour of duty one starlit night, this 
 British dandy kept himself awake by repeating 
 the opening lines of the ' Agamemnon ' of 
 chylus : 
 
 ere/a? 
 
 OS Si/crjv, 
 
 acrrpcov /cdroiSa vvicrepwv o/jbrfyvpiv, 
 /cal rovs (fiepovra? %et//,a KCLI 6epos /SpoToc 
 L>9 Swdaras e^Trpeirovra^ aWepi. 1 
 
 For a week Murray guided the little party of 
 four (including himself) towards the Kansas river, 
 which it was his main object to strike. Luckily 
 none of the others was strong enough to dis- 
 pute his ruling, for had any difference of opinion 
 arisen, they would almost certainly all have per- 
 ished in the wilderness. There was some mur- 
 
 1 " Stretched on the ground like a dog, gazing at the starry hosts 
 of night, those brilliant rulers shining forth in the heavens, and 
 bringing to mortals the changes of summer and winter." 
 
THE KANSAS ONCE MORE. 119 
 
 muring on August 20th, when the leader, on 
 emerging from a wooded valley, struck out in a 
 direction exactly contrary to that which his fol- 
 lowers judged the right one. Murray carried a 
 compass, but he had become so accustomed to 
 guide his course by the sun that he led straight 
 on in a northerly direction without consulting 
 the instrument. He overheard his Scottish ser- 
 vant grumbling to the American lad, " Where 
 on earth is he taking us now ? Why, we are 
 going back exactly where we came from." Mur- 
 ray turned and asked him to point out the direc- 
 tion in which lie thought Fort Leavenworth lay. 
 The man did so ; on which his master pulled out 
 the compass, and showed him that he was point- 
 ing south - west, in the direction of Santa F 
 and the Gulf of California. 
 
 It was a joyful moment when Murray, on the 
 following day, riding as usual some distance ahead 
 of the others, drew rein on a hill-top, and beheld 
 a long bending line of sloping woods, already 
 tinged with the glow of early autumn. Throwing 
 himself from his horse, he rendered thanks to 
 the Almighty, for he felt that the worst of the 
 danger was past. They were still in the unaltered 
 wilderness, soaked in every thread they wore by 
 persistent rain, but he felt sure that the winding 
 
120 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 valley before him was the course of the Kansas 
 river, which he knew ran athwart the true line 
 of march to Fort Leavenworth. For some days 
 they had been endeavouring to follow an old 
 Indian trail, but this had been so completely 
 obliterated from time to time that when they 
 picked it up again they had no assurance that 
 it was the right one. There were also several 
 crossing and parallel trails. Now, however, Mur- 
 ray thought that they had proof of the correct- 
 ness of the clue to the labyrinth ; but still the 
 river had to be crossed, and this was no simple 
 matter in its flooded condition. 
 
 " Of course my office of guide left me no choice 
 as to whether I should try and discover the ford ; 
 though the experiment was not agreeable, as the 
 river was from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred yards wide, and so swollen and muddy 
 from the present and the late rain that it was 
 not easy to ascertain its depth except by sound- 
 ing. I must confess that I am but an indifferent* 
 swimmer in a strong stream, although I did not 
 on this occasion feel any doubt of being able to 
 get across. Arming myself with a long pole, and 
 throwing off my jacket, I went in. I was soon 
 over the middle ; before I got half-way across I 
 was up to the chest, and could not keep my feet 
 owing to the strength of the current ; so I struck 
 
INHOSPITABLE WEATHER. 121 
 
 out, swam a few strokes, and tried again for the 
 bottom, but could not touch it. I therefore 
 thought it better to swim till I was near the 
 bank : I did so, and came safe to land. After a 
 tedious search for the trail, I found it about three 
 hundred yards below the place where I had crossed. 
 I now entered the water again, and with some 
 trouble made out the ford, and returned to con- 
 duct my companions and the baggage. By feel- 
 ing the way carefully with my pole, and winding 
 along a kind of ridge which appeared to be in the 
 bed of the river, I was able to get them over with- 
 out their getting wet much above the middle." 
 
 The nights of August 22nd and 23rd were the 
 most miserable the travellers had hitherto en- 
 dured. The rain descended without pause ; every 
 stick in the forest was soaked, and their utmost 
 exertions hardly succeeded in producing the sem- 
 blance of a fire. 
 
 " Instead of a blaze, it emitted a kind of sulky, 
 cheerless glare ; and instead of heat, a hissing, 
 frizzing sound, with volumes of smoke. We were 
 lying in the same clothes in which we had crossed 
 the river, and the rain was so continuous that we 
 were actually in puddles of water. Buffalo skins, 
 when thoroughly drenched, are the most cold, 
 soapy, comfortless covering that can be used ; so 
 that I was warmer when wrapped only in my 
 
122 ADVENTURES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 light Highland plaid than under the thickest 
 robe in our collection." l 
 
 Moreover, the personal wardrobe of the party 
 had become of a most honorary kind. Vernunft's 
 last pair of trousers had vanished from the effect 
 of constant riding ; he had no stockings, and his 
 nether limbs were covered only by a pair of wash- 
 leather drawers and mocassins, while a tattered 
 blanket thrown over his shoulders concealed all 
 that remained of what were once jacket and 
 shirt. 
 
 "I was sitting with an old woollen coloured night- 
 cap on my head, a faded shirt of printed calico, 
 . . . while my nether man was protected by a pair 
 of coarse corduroy breeches, without drawers, and 
 plastered to my skin with wet ; grey worsted 
 stockings full of holes, and shoes full of water." 2 
 
 On the third day after crossing the Kansas 
 it became apparent to Murray that they were 
 following the wrong trail. He made up his 
 mind that they had struck the Kansas nearly 
 one hundred miles lower than the point where 
 they had crossed it in the outward journey, 
 a conclusion which was justified in a singular 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 85. 2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 86. 
 
ON THEIR OLD TRAIL. 123 
 
 manner on the following day, August 25th. A 
 large cross-trail ran at right angles to the north- 
 erly course they were pursuing. Murray was of 
 opinion that it was their own trail which they 
 had made in the beginning of July. The Amer- 
 ican lad agreed with him, but Vernunft and the 
 Scotsman were of a contrary opinion. Murray 
 set off alone to explore it, and try to pick up 
 some remembered landmarks. He had not ridden 
 more than two hundred yards when, observing 
 a small white object in the brake not far from 
 the path, he dismounted to examine it. It proved 
 to be a scrap of the advertisement sheet of the 
 Times newspaper. He rode back with it in 
 triumph to his comrades, and immediately they 
 struck into their old trail, with lighter spirits 
 than they had felt for a fortnight, though nine 
 long days' marches still lay between them and 
 anything approaching to comfort. 
 
 It is unnecessary to trace their adventures 
 further in this place, though every page of the 
 original narrative is full of vigour and interest. 
 Picking up a brace of prairie-hens here, a badger 
 there, to eke out their scanty larder, for elk and 
 deer were hardly ever even seen, and Murray's 
 duties as guide left him little strength to devote 
 
124 ADVENTUKES AMONG THE PAWNEES. 
 
 to stalking them, they arrived safely at Fort 
 Leavenworth on September 3rd, where they once 
 more enjoyed the luxury of exchanging saluta- 
 tions in their own language. 1 
 
 1 George Catlin, whose work on the North American Indians re- 
 mains the standard authority on the subject, has the following note 
 to his chapter on the Pawnees (vol. ii. p. 25) : " Since the above was 
 written I have had the very great pleasure of reading the notes of 
 the Hon. Charles A. Murray, who was for several months a guest 
 among the Pawnees ; and also of being several times a fellow-trav- 
 eller with him in America, and at last a debtor to him for his 
 signal kindness and friendship in London. Mr Murray's account 
 of the Pawnees, as far as he saw them, is without doubt drawn 
 with great fidelity, and he makes them out a pretty bad set of 
 fellows. . . . There is probably not another tribe on the continent 
 that has been more abused and incensed by the system of trade and 
 money-making than the Pawnees. Mr Murray, with his companion, 
 made his way boldly into the heart of their country, without guide 
 or interpreter, and I consider at great hazard of his life. ... I 
 congratulate him on getting out of their country as well as he did." 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 1835-1837. 
 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 MURRAY, it might be supposed, had seen enough 
 of the Red Men and their ways to satisfy him 
 for one season, but his ardour and energy were 
 indefatigable. He spent several days at Fort 
 Leavenworth in visiting villages of Kickapoo and 
 Powtawatomie Indians, and collecting vocabularies 
 of their language. These tribes had become sadly 
 debased by their intercourse with white Christians, 
 and had exchanged most of their free, wild traits 
 for habits the reverse of exemplary. 
 
 "I know not why it is," writes Murray, "but 
 there is no human being (except a woman) that 
 affects me with such inexpressible pity and disgust, 
 when under the influence of liquor, as an Indian. 
 I know this is unphilosophical, because it certainly 
 is a greater disgrace and debasement to a white 
 
126 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 man. Still, I then feel my pity lost in my disgust ; 
 while in the case of an Indian (although I have 
 lived too long among them to believe any more 
 tales of their innocence, simplicity, &c.) my fancy 
 fondly clings to the delusion of that state ' when 
 wild in woods the noble savage ran.' Thus, 
 when I see him grovelling in the dirt, with a 
 helpless body and a reeling brain, and uttering 
 thick and half-choked sounds, I cannot help think- 
 ing, ( We have done this ! we, who boast of our 
 civilisation we, who pretend to spread abroad the 
 refinement of art and science, and the purity of 
 the Gospel among the nations we have reduced 
 the eagle eye, the active limb, the stately form of 
 our red brother to the grovelling, swinish animal I 
 now see before me.' Of all the plunderers, thieves, 
 and landsharks on earth, there are none that 
 I more detest, none that will hereafter have a 
 heavier charge against them, than those settlers 
 and traders in the West (whether British or 
 American) who cheat the Indians of three 
 hundred per cent in every bargain by making 
 whisky the medium of purchase, knowing, as 
 they well do, that it leads to the degradation, 
 the misery, and, ere long, the extirpation of the 
 purchasers." 1 
 
 Having returned to St Louis, Murray started 
 again to visit the lead -mines and other places on 
 the Upper Mississippi. Here he came in contact 
 with a white population before whose drunkenness 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 189. 
 
THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 127 
 
 and abandonment of all restraint his Pawnee 
 friends shone as models of domestic and social 
 virtue. He speaks of the Irish miners as a very 
 numerous and troublesome body. Whig as he was 
 by training and inclination, Murray was far from 
 satisfied with the government of Ireland by Great 
 Britain ; but he describes himself quite unable to 
 indorse the opinion that Irish turbulence owed 
 its origin, as many believed, to defects in the 
 Constitution and its administration. 
 
 " It may be partly so ; but no more. The 
 Irish in America in every State from Maine to 
 Louisiana where they certainly are not oppressed, 
 and are free from tithes, from heavy taxes, from 
 ecclesiastical burthens, from want, in short from 
 every subject of complaint and grievance in Ire- 
 land, are still the most improvident, quarrelsome, 
 turbulent population on this continent." l 
 
 That these words were written more than sixty 
 years ago does not render them less worthy of 
 consideration now, when every grievance of which 
 Irishmen complain, except the maintenance of the 
 Union, has been generously dealt with in the 
 Imperial Parliament, yet the complaints remain as 
 bitter and as constant as ever. 
 
 At Dubuque, on the Platte, now a large manu- 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 179. 
 
128 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 facturing town, then a mining village with plenty 
 of drinking-bars, and one small, low room where 
 divine service was conducted occasionally, Murray 
 attained some distinction by daring the bully of 
 the place. A tall, stout fellow, with an evil 
 countenance, this worthy was a great boxer, but 
 was not squeamish about resorting to less chival- 
 rous methods of revenge, for he had stabbed more 
 than one man within the previous ten days. 
 Murray was sitting reading in a bar when this 
 fellow entered and ordered him out of his way, as 
 he wanted a drink. Murray calmly told him to 
 walk round, as there was plenty of room. The 
 bully looked amazed, but, to the surprise of the 
 landlord and his other customers, he did as he 
 was bid and took his dram quietly. 
 
 Murray's next experience of the wilderness was 
 in company with a hunting party of Winnebago 
 Indians ; but they were bad companions, being 
 jealous of the white hunters, and doing all in their 
 power to spoil their sport, even to firing the woods 
 and prairies, so as to drive off the game, and, 
 if possible, to grill their rivals in the chase. 
 
 Christmas was spent in New Orleans, after 
 which* Murray paid a visit to Cuba, and some of 
 his observations on that island are not without 
 interest in relation to recent events. 
 
CUBA IN 1835. 129 
 
 " The military force in Cuba is greater than I 
 could have imagined, considering the state of 
 its mother - country ; indeed I very much doubt 
 whether the Queen could bring into the field as 
 large a body of troops in Spain as her powerful 
 deputy commands in Cuba. As far as I am able 
 to collect, he has nearly twenty - five thousand 
 regular troops and forty thousand militia." 1 
 
 After exploring the island of Cuba, Murray re- 
 turned to the mainland and passed some very 
 agreeable weeks in the Southern States ten days 
 at Charleston were especially festive, a week at 
 Baltimore, and so to Philadelphia, " which has 
 always been my favourite of all the American 
 
 1 Cuba was taken by the British under Lord Albemarle in 1762, 
 but was restored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris in the following 
 year. As an example of contrast in the method of administering 
 colonial possessions, this Spanish colony may be compared with the 
 British empire in India. In Cuba not only have the aborigines been 
 completely exterminated by the conquerors, but the present native 
 population has been deprived of political, civil, and religious liberty, 
 the government being administered wholly by officials sent from 
 Madrid. A population of less than a million and a half settled on 
 an area of 45,883 square miles has been in a chronic state of in- 
 surrection since 1829. 
 
 In British India and Burmah there is a population of upwards of 
 240,000,000 (exactly double Gibbon's estimate of the Roman empire 
 at the height of its power), on an area of about 1,500,000 square 
 miles. Of these persons only 250,000 (less than 1 per thousand) are 
 Europeans or of European blood. The policy has been to preserve 
 perfect religious liberty, to regard race as no disqualification for 
 political or civil responsibility, and to respect the authority of native 
 rulers who govern peaceably and well. The British garrison consists 
 (in 1895) of 74,299 British troops and 129,963 natives. 
 
 I 
 
130 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 cities : there is more quiet and leisure, more symp- 
 toms of comfort, than elsewhere. It contained 
 many of my friends, and in the beauty of its 
 women it yields to no place that it has yet been 
 my lot to visit." 1 
 
 Subsequently he made a journey to the Alle- 
 ghanies, once the territory of the proudest and 
 most powerful of all the Indian nations the 
 Lenni Lenape, or Delawares. 
 
 " Alas ! I have seen the remnant of that tribe 
 which once numbered its warriors by thousands. 
 The white man has pressed and pushed them gradu- 
 ally westward, and their small village is now near 
 the junction of the Kansas with the Missouri, some 
 hundreds of miles to the north-west of St Louis. 2 
 In dress and agriculture they are half civilised, 
 but in heart and spirit they are still Indians, still 
 brave and haughty ; and being better armed than 
 the western tribes, and more accustomed to the 
 use of the rifle, a small party of them go annually 
 to the Rocky Mountains to hunt, and they have 
 given several signal defeats with unequal force to 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 275. At the time of Murray's visit Philadel- 
 phia numbered about 140,000 inhabitants. It is still, as it was then, 
 the second city in population of the United States, containing about 
 one million inhabitants. 
 
 2 Various removals took place subsequent to this date, until in 
 1866 the survivors broke up their tribal organisation, accepted lands 
 in severalty, and became civilised, prosperous citizens. The Dela- 
 ware Indians now amount to not much more than one thousand 
 souls. 
 
LAKE OTSEGO. 131 
 
 bands of the Pawnees, Rickarees, and Blackfeet, 
 by whom they have been attacked. I do not 
 believe they would now muster two hundred 
 warriors. Human nature cannot help giving a 
 momentary sigh at their gradual approach to 
 extinction." l 
 
 Modern travellers, rushing through the United 
 States in Pullman cars, certainly enjoy such ease 
 and economy of time as were undreamt of sixty 
 years ago. On the other hand, the impressions 
 they receive of the scenery are far more fugitive, 
 their intercourse with the inhabitants far less 
 intimate, than those brought about by the old 
 system of locomotion. Murray preferred to per- 
 form his journeys on horseback, except where he 
 availed himself of river steamboats. 
 
 " From Albany I proceeded on horseback to 
 Lake Otsego, a distance of fifty-four miles, which 
 I easily performed on my active nag in less time 
 than the coach, which started at the same hour, 
 although it had three or four relays of horses, so 
 deep and muddy were the roads. Indeed, I have 
 no hesitation in saying that it was far less fatigu- 
 ing to ride those fifty miles than to have performed 
 them in the stage." 2 
 
 At Lake Otsego, once the country of the famous 
 Mohawk Indians, he spent several days with an 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 308. 2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 323. 
 
132 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 English widow, whose husband had built a regular 
 English country-house in this lovely spot, and 
 enjoyed himself in fishing and other sport. But 
 what impressed itself most on Murray's memory 
 was an afternoon spent with " the Walter Scott 
 of the Ocean," as he terms Fenimore Cooper. The 
 works of this once popular writer have been ousted 
 from the high place which they at one time shared 
 in the estimation of English schoolboys in common 
 with those of Marryat and Mayne Reid ; but there 
 is no doubt that such degree of forbearance as the 
 Indian tribes have experienced at the hands of the 
 ever - advancing whites is chiefly owing to the 
 romantic interest with which Cooper invested the 
 Red Man by his long series of fascinating novels. 
 Murray had experience of the seamy side of Indian 
 life ; yet he, too, was deeply penetrated by the sin- 
 gular contrast between the high intellectual powers 
 of this people and their rude, arduous existence. 
 He discerned their defects, but he also perceived 
 much to admire. If they were often treacherous, 
 mendacious, and avaricious, he recognised these 
 qualities as not unknown in European races ; and 
 to some individuals among the Indians, such as 
 the Pawnee chief Sa-ni-tsa-rish, a lofty morality 
 seemed to come naturally ; while as a nation they 
 were singularly brave, patient of pain and fatigue, 
 
MURRAY'S 'TRAVELS/ 133 
 
 and exceedingly affectionate. So in after-years, 
 and in a very different scene, Murray published 
 a romance, ' The Prairie Bird/ in which he presents 
 some of the characters he met, and describes some 
 of the incidents which he had witnessed or heard 
 of, in his wanderings among the Indians. This 
 book went through many editions : it is still to 
 be found on railway bookstalls in this country, 
 and has proved a special favourite with American 
 readers. But there falls first to be noticed the two 
 volumes of ' Travels in North America ' from which 
 such liberal quotations have been made in the fore- 
 going pages. 
 
 This book also found much favour with readers. 
 It was first published by Bichard Bentley in 1839, 
 and dedicated to the Queen. It is interesting, 
 bearing in mind the significance of the Diamond 
 Jubilee celebrations of 1897, to read one sentence 
 in the brief dedicatory epistle addressed to the 
 youthful monarch who had just ascended the 
 throne, containing as it does a prophecy and a 
 prayer, both of which have been fulfilled far more 
 literally and completely than their writer can have 
 foreseen. 
 
 " It has been customary to clothe a dedication in 
 the language of panegyric : I will not presume to 
 follow the tempting precedent. Your Majesty's 
 
134 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 qualities will be attested by an Empire, and be 
 recorded by History. Nevertheless, I trust I may 
 venture, unblamed, to express on this occasion my 
 earnest desire and my heartfelt prayer that your 
 reign may be long and happy, and that Britain 
 will hereafter look back with regret and pride on 
 a Sovereign who blended the wisdom and energy 
 of Queen Elizabeth with the more winning and 
 attractive attributes of her sex." l 
 
 A. bold aspiration about a girl of nineteen, yet 
 one which it is impossible that events should have 
 more amply justified. 
 
 Allusion has been made already to the apprecia- 
 tion bestowed by American readers on an author 
 who passed such kindly, yet wholesome, criticism 
 on the people among whom he was travelling. 
 One more quotation may be made from Murray's 
 pages, because it may be applied as usefully as 
 when it was written to the present mutual atti- 
 tude of English and Americans, and illustrates the 
 large-minded discernment of the writer : 
 
 "There remains one more American character- 
 istic, frequently noticed by travellers, on which I 
 wish, in conclusion, to offer a few observations. 
 I allude to the national vanity with which the 
 Americans are usually charged by English writers. 
 Its existence and prevalence I admit ; but I am 
 
 1 At the time these words were written Murray was Master of the 
 Queen's Household. 
 
THE FATE OF THE RED MEN. 135 
 
 very far from viewing it as a heinous offence, or 
 as deserving the animadversion which has been so 
 generally bestowed upon it. In truth, I know not 
 any nation that has ever been distinguished in 
 history, where this has not been a national char- 
 acteristic ; and certainly it has never been carried 
 to a greater height than in Britain. There is not 
 a popular poem, or ballad, or proverb, in which our 
 superiority over every other people is not set forth ; 
 neither is there a sailor in our fleet who does not 
 believe that one Englishman is equal to three 
 Frenchmen, as certainly as that three and one 
 make four. Look, again, at the gallant nation 
 last named, and see in their drama, in their 
 ballads, in their proclamations, whether it is not 
 assumed as an indisputable fact that, of the hab- 
 itable earth, France is the mistress Paris the 
 capital." l 
 
 Fifteen years later, in 1854, a third edition of 
 the ' Travels ' was called for, in the introduction 
 to which Murray makes mournful reference to 
 the fate which had overtaken his Pawnee friends 
 in the interval : 
 
 "That portion of the Journal which refers to 
 my residence with the Pawnee tribe of Indians 
 possesses a melancholy interest from the fact that 
 the unlucky band with whom I travelled and 
 hunted the bison have since been swept away 
 from the face of the earth. Some years after I 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 303. 
 
136 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 left them the smallpox desolated the tribe, and 
 while many of the warriors were prostrated by 
 its effects, they were attacked by their hereditary 
 enemies, the Dakotas, or Sioux, who, sparing 
 neither man, woman, nor child, completed the 
 destruction which the malady had commenced. 
 Many years will not elapse before the other 
 Indian tribes on the North American continent 
 will melt away like the snow in spring ; and it 
 is more than probable that before the termination 
 of this century not a single bison, nor a single 
 descendant of the Red lords of the soil, will remain 
 between the Mississippi and the Pacific. 1 The 
 philanthropist, the philologer, the antiquary, and 
 the lover of the romantic, may sigh over the hard 
 necessity of civilisation, which seems destined to 
 overwhelm in oblivion all records of these inter- 
 esting tribes ; but the onward march of the Anglo- 
 Saxon with the rifle and steam, and commerce in 
 his train, will not be stayed. Before long the 
 fierce and warlike Dakotas and Blackfeet, Up- 
 sarokas and Comanches, whose tomahawks have 
 drunk the blood of their enemies for centuries past, 
 will either be destroyed altogether or be reserved 
 for the still harder fate of cringing submissively 
 at the feet of the once-despised Paleface, like the 
 half-civilised Indians on the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi, and occasionally shooting a deer or a wild 
 turkey, to be exchanged for a bottle of that whisky 
 
 1 This foreboding has been fulfilled literally in the case of the 
 bison ; but the Indians, though they have greatly declined and de- 
 teriorated, still numbered over 400000 in the United States and 
 British Possessions when the census was taken in 1880. 
 
CHATEAUBRIAND'S OPINION. 137 
 
 which is known among the wilder tribes of the 
 Far West by the name of ' fire-poison.' " l 
 
 The volumes of Travels were very well received, 
 as indeed they deserved to be, for to this day 
 they remain a vivid and accurate picture of scenes 
 which can never be witnessed again. Here is 
 testimony from another American traveller, Fran- 
 ois Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, in a letter 
 to Charles Murray's cousin, the Princesse de la 
 Tremouille : 
 
 " PARIS, 20 Amil 1841. 
 
 " J'ai commence a lire avec le plus grand plaisir 
 les travels de 1'Honorable Ch. Murray, que vous 
 avez eu la bonte de rn'envoyer. Tout le monde, 
 quoiqu'en dise votre extreme politesse, a le droit 
 d'ecrire apres moi ; d'ailleurs, comme vous le re- 
 marquez, madame, 1'Amerique a change de face 
 depuis mes voyages ; il n'y a que mon Itineraire a 
 Jerusalem qui ressemble encore a ce que j'ai vu, 
 parceque dans 1' Orient I'homme et la terre sont 
 immobiles." 
 
 Labourdonnais having read this letter, returned 
 it with a shrug, observing, " C'est le seul ouvrage 
 qu'il aura lu avec le plus grand plaisir qui n'est 
 pas ecrit par lui-m^me ! " 
 
 No sooner did the ' Travels ' prove a success 
 than the time-worn question of division of profits 
 
 1 Travels, vol. ii. p. 2. 
 
138 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 arose. How it was decided there is no means of 
 knowing now, but a letter from Fraser Tytler, 
 the historian, explains the nature of the contro- 
 versy : 
 
 P. Fraser Tytler to Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 " 34 DEVONSHIRE PLACE, 
 Wednesday, IQth Nov. 1843. 
 
 " I have received and read with care the two 
 agreements with your Bookseller. Nothing, I 
 think, can be clearer than the First on the im- 
 portant point of the property of the ' Travels ' 
 being yours, after Bentley has either printed and 
 sold off, or declined a second Edition. And since 
 the first Edition is now out of print, he must 
 give you a direct and definite answer on the 
 point. Whether the reprinting some sheets with 
 a new Title-page, a pious fraud not unfrequently 
 resorted to by bibliopolists, be called a new Edition 
 or no, the case is not altered as to his obligation 
 either to publish a new Edition himself, or, by 
 declining it, to set you free, that, if you think fit, 
 you may publish it elsewhere. 
 
 " By the agreement the first Edition was to run 
 to 1250 copies : price to be paid, 300. The 2nd 
 Edition, according to Mr Bentley's option, was to 
 be either of 1000 copies, price 200, or of 750 
 copies, price 150, or of 500 copies, price 100. 
 But it having struck Mr B. that perhaps it would 
 be a better speculation to make the First Edition 
 1500 copies instead of 1250, there is a Memor- 
 
AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. 139 
 
 andum I see added in which you permit him to 
 print, if he pleases, 250 copies more, which are 
 to be accounted part of the First Edition, and 
 for which, on the sale reaching to 1450 copies, 
 he is bound to pay you 50 in addition to the 
 300. 
 
 " Now what I want you to tell me is Whether 
 he did this, and whether you have received from 
 him 350 ? If the book is out of print, he most 
 probably has done it. What I suspect he did 
 (and I believe under the memorandum he was 
 entitled to do it) was that at once he threw off 
 an edition of 1500, and that not selling the last 
 part of them very readily, he got you to correct 
 some little errors or misprints and, printing a new 
 Title-page, called it the 2nd Edition. In any case 
 he is bound, the book being out of print, to give 
 a decided answer to your letter accepting or 
 declining a new edition. 
 
 "As to the second agreement it is equally clear 
 that you have sold the whole property of the little 
 ' Prairie Bird ' 1 for Four Hundred Pounds which 
 I regret, and beg you never to do with any other 
 feathered fowl again for she may, and I have 
 little doubt she will, prove a Phoenix, and then 
 Bentley will have the profit of her melody, instead 
 of you, 
 
 " ' "Who imp't her wing, and sweetened all her songs/ " 
 
 The ' Prairie Bird ' did not appear till after a 
 considerable change had come over Charles Mur- 
 
 1 Murray's Indian romance. 
 
140 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 ray's prospects. The following extracts from 
 letters written to him by Sir Charles Vaughan 
 contain the only references I can find to a certain 
 event which, though it receives no mention in 
 the ' Travels/ was the most important episode in 
 which he bore a part. Vaughan was a Fellow 
 of All Souls, and had been British Minister at 
 Washington when Murray first went to the 
 United States, but had returned to England 
 before the latter brought his wanderings to a 
 close. The first three extracts are from letters 
 sent out to Murray in America : 
 
 Sir Charles Vaughan to Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "ALL SOULS, 4th November 1835. 
 
 " Our election terminated late last night, when 
 we chose Mr Francis Hastings Doyle 1 (a candidate 
 I recollect in 1832) ; Mr Grimstone, a son of Lord 
 Verulam and member of Parliament for St Albans ; 
 Mr Howard, Lord Suffolk's son ; and Mr Charles 
 Harris, Lord Malmesbury's son. We had fifteen 
 candidates, amongst whom there was a son of Lord 
 Talbot's and a son of Lord Harris, who commanded 
 in India ; Mr Dean, a son of the Commissioner of 
 Excise ; Mr Ridley Colborne. These are the only 
 names likely to be of any interest to you. . . . 
 
 " I have had the greatest difficulty in answering 
 the thousand inquiries made of me about yourself. 
 
 . 1 Afterwards Sir Francis Doyle, Bart., Professor of Poetry in the 
 University of Oxford, 1867-77 ; Commissioner of the Customs, 1869-83. 
 
SIR CHARLES VAUGHAN's LETTERS. 141 
 
 I have told them of all your hairbreadth escapes 
 per mare, per terras, your average of game, twenty 
 buffaloes a-day brought down by your own rifle, 
 your hunting excursions in the prairies the treach- 
 ery of the Pawnees the singular acuteness which 
 you discovered in striking the Missouri. I was 
 then questioned about your excursion after gold- 
 mines in Virginia of which I told them I knew 
 nothing." 
 
 " DOVER, 5th March 1836. 
 
 " The weather was bad yesterday at sea and not 
 very good to-day, but we hope to get over to 
 Calais to-morrow morning. 
 
 " Your letter, which I received before I left 
 London, did not appear to be written in good 
 spirits, nor did it contain any satisfactory infor- 
 mation about your future views. I wish you well 
 in for diplomacy : you will not be happy till your 
 way of life is decided upon and entered upon, and 
 do not let your spirits be depressed by your disap- 
 pointment at New York ; you must shake that off, 
 or you are not in a state to enter manfully in 
 pursuit of usefulness and fame so much for the 
 twaddle of a sexagenarian celibate." 
 
 "LONDON, Vlih April 1836. 
 
 "As to political news from England, you will 
 obtain that from better sources than such as are 
 accessible to me. Never was the country in a 
 more prosperous and flourishing condition. The 
 new Poor Laws have mended greatly the con- 
 dition of the agricultural part of the population, 
 
142 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 and since the meeting of Parliament the expec- 
 tations of increased power on the part of the 
 Conservatives have been completely disappointed. 
 The session of Parliament has been distinguished 
 by great application to business, by judicious con- 
 duct on the part of the Administration, and the 
 decided junction of Lord Stanley and Sir James 
 Graham with Sir Eobert Peel has not made any 
 serious impression. I see no reason why you 
 should not congratulate yourself upon your ab- 
 sence from England during the last year or two. 
 When you return you will be able to form a 
 very correct judgment of the state of political 
 parties, and take up your public career in the 
 path most congenial with your own feelings and 
 your old connections. I venture to predict that 
 you will not hastily recede from the Whigs. As 
 for myself, I have been so much a stranger in 
 my own country that the asperities of party are 
 so offensive to me, that I am a Whig in the 
 company of Conservatives, and a Conservative 
 in the society of Whigs, in all cases, all times, 
 and all occasions detesting the Radicals. . . . 
 " I have been passing the Easter holidays at All 
 Souls : our party varied from eight to seventeen 
 a rubber at whist every evening good fellowships 
 expected, as a heavy fine was paid on a lease re- 
 newed. I hope that you will save your sealings, 
 as I proposed when College offices were disposed of 
 that you should be named cus. ioc. alias keeper 
 of the jewels, and you were accordingly registered. 
 The College is being repaired ; .they are removing 
 decayed stone from the tower of the staircase lead- 
 
SIR CHARLES VAUGHAN's LETTERS. 143 
 
 ing to my rooms, and facing it with bath stone, and 
 not before it was absolutely necessary. . . . 
 
 " The tranquillity of Oxford has been lately 
 ruffled owing to Lord Melbourne having appointed 
 Dr Hampden Regius Professor of Divinity. The 
 leading divines amongst the resident members have 
 publicly declared that the doctrines which he 
 preached in some Bampton Lectures are not ortho- 
 dox. Dr Hampden replies that there is a wide 
 difference between the Apostles' Creed, which con- 
 tains only facts from the Holy Scriptures, and the 
 scholastic deductions from those facts contained in 
 the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds." 1 
 
 " ALL SOULS, Vlth December 1836. 
 
 " It has been agreed to celebrate on the 10th of 
 February next the foundation of the College, on 
 that day four hundred years ago. We are to have 
 service in the Chapel at eleven o'clock, and a grand 
 feast in the Hall, and all those who have been 
 Fellows of the College are to be invited to attend. 
 You must come up on that occasion, as it was ob- 
 served that it would be impossible for any actual 
 Fellow within the three kingdoms of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland to absent himself on that 
 occasion. . . . 
 
 " I do not at all like the complexion of your last 
 letter. It seems that all your pleasing dreams of 
 future life will be disagreeably dissipated by the 
 late change in your political and pecuniary interests. 
 
 1 Dr Hampden was twice formally censured by the University of 
 Oxford for heterodox doctrine in 1836 and in 1842. 
 
144 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 It is very natural in that case that you should fall 
 back with intense interest upon the object of your 
 regard in the United States. Remember, however, 
 that is not the state of mind in which a man ought 
 to come to a final decision. Ninon de 1'Enclos used 
 to thank God every night for the good sense with 
 which He had blessed her, and prayed for protec- 
 tion against the follies of her heart : distrust your 
 judgment in worldly concerns when the heart is 
 troubled." 
 
 "63 CURZON STREET, MAYFAIR, 
 13^ January 1837. 
 
 " I received this morning your confidential letter 
 of the 10th inst. I like exceedingly your chance 
 of getting into the Diplomatic service, and I am 
 sure that you ought not to hesitate one moment 
 about taking the Secretaryship of Legation at 
 Washington, if your friends can by any possibility 
 secure it for you. As to your diffidence about 
 accepting the appointment because you have not 
 gone through the business of an attache, the art in 
 being a good attache consists in diligence and dis- 
 cretion, in learning to cipher and decipher, and in 
 writing a good hand. I think that you will soon 
 begin to wish that you were in some profession. I 
 am of opinion that political life should be taken up 
 as an appendage to the law, the army, the navy, or 
 diplomacy, and then you will always have more 
 than one string to your bow. But nothing surely 
 could meet your wishes more completely than re- 
 turning to the United States in an official capacity 
 which will leave you to your speculations in land 
 and love during three or four summer months. I 
 
SIR CHARLES YA.UGHAN's LETTERS. 145 
 
 do not enter into your feelings about Buchanan : l 
 you cannot take from him that which he has so 
 little chance of ever obtaining. He will go with 
 me to Constantinople, and the difficulty is to agree 
 upon the title he is to have in the Embassy. Lord 
 Palmerston will not be in town till to-morrow 
 evening. ... In short, my advice to you is, seize 
 the Washington Secretaryship if you possibly can. 
 But do not, until you are gazetted, relax in the 
 slightest degree in your exertions to get into 
 Parliament. The better your prospects in the 
 burgh you allude to, the more likely are you to get 
 the diplomatic appointment ; and you have plenty 
 of time to turn about before any dissolution of 
 Parliament can take place. If I pick up any 
 rumours about your appointment by Lord Palmer- 
 ston, I will write to you. If your name is men- 
 tioned before me, as being likely to be so named, I 
 shall be prepared to give you a good hearty lift by 
 swearing that it would be the appointment of all 
 others agreeable to the Americans. 
 
 " I dined with your friend Rogers yesterday 
 what a good house, and what a good dinner, and 
 what a good man ! " 
 
 "42 CURZON STREET, MAYFAIR, 
 2lst January 1837. 
 
 " I am really distressed to find myself obliged to 
 tell you that I cannot execute your commission of 
 seeking an interview with Lord Lansdowne, and 
 explaining to him your wishes and views. In the 
 first place, I hardly know him ; and in the next, I 
 
 ' l Afterwards the Right Hon. Sir Andrew Buchanan, G.C.B., 
 Minister at St Petersburg, &c. 
 
 K 
 
146 AMERICAN TRAVELS CONTINUED. 
 
 cannot venture in any shape to appear, directly or 
 indirectly, as a solicitor for a friend who is a candi- 
 date for employment under Lord Palmerston, be- 
 cause he has kindly permitted me to interfere with 
 his patronage in the Mission upon which he did me 
 the disinterested service to appoint me, by allow- 
 ing me to take Buchanan with me. It is not many 
 days since I was obliged to tell my old friend Sir 
 Hurford Jones, who wished me to get Lord 
 Palmerston to allow his son to go with me as an 
 attache to Constantinople, that I could not open 
 my lips upon the subject to Lord Palmerston, who 
 had already allowed me to rob him of one appoint- 
 ment. Besides, I do not think that Lord Lans- 
 downe would think that you had made a prudent 
 choice of a friend to communicate with him, when 
 you send me to him, at best considered but a 
 doubtful friend of the Administration, in preference 
 to a host of powerful connections which you have. 
 Again, Lord Palmerston would sturdily resist the 
 presumption of a ci-devant Minister in the United 
 States venturing to tell him who should be em- 
 ployed there. I do heartily wish not only for 
 your sake, but for the interests of our Mission at 
 Washington, that you were there as Secretary of 
 Legation, as I hear that my successor shuts him- 
 self up, shows no disposition to mix with the 
 Americans, or do anything but save money. . . . 
 " I am not surprised at the decision which has 
 been sent you by the family in America. I never 
 knew an offer made by an Englishman to an 
 American, that the separation from the family 
 and country was not made an almost insurmount- 
 
MISS ELISE WADSWORTH. 147 
 
 able difficulty. Two or three years' residence in 
 the United States as Secretary of Legation might 
 remove that difficulty, by removing the father in 
 the course of nature ; but you may rely upon it 
 that the fortune of the daughter would be made 
 contingent upon her remaining in America. You 
 are not in a state yet to endure the cold and 
 heartless counsel of a sexagenarian bachelor like 
 myself, or I should tell you never mind ! you are at 
 perfect liberty once more to set your sails and take 
 a new departure for some other port." 
 
 The reference in the last paragraph quoted, 
 and in other parts of these letters, is to Miss 
 Elise Wads worth, daughter of a wealthy Ameri- 
 can gentleman, with whom Charles Murray had 
 fallen deeply in love while a guest at Geneseo, 
 Mr Wadsworth's country house near Niagara. 
 The young lady returned his passion ; but owing 
 to circumstances which will be more fully ex- 
 plained hereafter, Mr Wadsworth not only 
 refused his consent, but strictly forbade his 
 daughter to hold any communication with her 
 lover. His commands were obeyed ; but in fol- 
 lowing Murray's fortunes henceforth, it must be 
 understood that he remained unwavering in his 
 attachment, true to his plighted troth, though, 
 apparently, without the faintest hope of ever 
 realising his dream. 
 
148 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1837-1838. 
 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 VAUGHAN'S advice to keep political work as a 
 second string to his bow was not disregarded by 
 Murray, and circumstances soon arose which made 
 it for a time the first. Here is a glimpse of what 
 had been going on in the fussy, crowded world 
 while he had been working off superfluous energy 
 in the solemn backwoods and lonely prairies of 
 the West:- 
 
 Samuel Rogers to the Countess of Dunmore. 
 
 " HOLLAND HOUSE, December 6th, 1834. 
 
 " When I arrived I found the world in a hubbub! 
 Six Ministers dined at Holland House on the Fri- 
 day and dispersed, not knowing they were out of 
 office. At night Lord Palmerston called at the 
 Treasury and asked if Lord Melbourne was re- 
 
LETTER FROM S. ROGERS. 149 
 
 turned from Brighton. He was shown in, and 
 he found Lord Melbourne just alighted and in 
 his travelling-cap, sitting in a large room, his 
 room of business, with two candles just lighted 
 on the table. ' What news ? ' said Lord Palmers- 
 ton. ( News ! ' said Lord Melbourne in his bluff 
 manner ; ' read that/ and he put into his hand a 
 paper giving a summary of what had passed. A 
 Cabinet was summoned to meet at twelve on 
 Saturday, but till then few of them knew it but 
 from the papers. And who sent it to the papers ? 
 It is believed to be H. B., 1 who had seen Lord 
 Melbourne after Lord Palmerston had left him. 
 If you only read the ' Globe/ you can know little 
 of the vagaries of Brougham, which fill the ' Times ' 
 and the ' Courier ' but perhaps you do best to 
 trouble yourselves little about such matters. . . . 
 " To return to politics the long and short of 
 the matter I believe to be this. The K. is very 
 
 honest, but very . The two persons he looks 
 
 up to most are Lord Grey and the Duke, and not 
 having one, he calls in the other not that he dis- 
 likes Lord Melbourne. The Church reforms in 
 prospect and the mountebank tricks of the Chan- 
 cellor have certainly had something to do with 
 it. B. had drawn him into a long correspondence 
 through Sir H. Taylor ; he thought he must answer 
 his Chancellor, though heartily sick of it, and it 
 wore him out : but Peel will be here in a day or 
 two, and we shall know more. If the fair Eliza 
 comes to town, I hope she will acknowledge me 
 in public places. But I thought she was to em- 
 
 1 Lord Brougham. 
 
150 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 hellish Paris. I am delighted to think that 
 Charles is going on well. ... I have been here 
 for some days, and living with ex-Ministers, but 
 they have now nothing to tell us. Some say there 
 will be a dissolution immediately and some say not. 
 Peel, I should think, will in the first instance try 
 to make a mixed Ministry, and sound Stanley 
 but we shall soon know." 
 
 On returning from America in 1836, Murray 
 found himself accused of having altered his polit- 
 ical opinions, which gave rise to the following 
 correspondence with Lord Stanley i 1 - 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to Lord Stanley. 
 
 "DUNMORE, September 21st, 1836. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD STANLEY, Since my return to 
 this part of the world I have been much plagued 
 (as every one must expect to be who has ever been 
 seen upon electioneering hustings) with reports re- 
 specting my proposed canvas of one or two seats for 
 Parliament, and with other rumours regarding my 
 opinion, &c., &c. Among these the most current is 
 that I am turned Tory, and it is founded mainly 
 upon a sentence in a letter of mine quoted by you 
 in the House of Commons. It is desirable both 
 for the preservation of my character for consist- 
 ency, as well as in the event of my wishing here- 
 after to embark again in politics, that I should 
 have the means of contradicting these absurd 
 
 1 The " Rupert of Debate," afterwards fourteenth Earl of Derby. 
 
MURRAY ACCUSED OF TURNING TORY. 151 
 
 reports, and I regret that I omitted to keep a 
 copy of the said letter, which I would certainly 
 have done had I suspected that it would rise up 
 in judgment against me. However, it is possible 
 that you may have preserved it : if you have done 
 so, pray send me either it or a copy. As far as I 
 can remember, I simply stated that I had gone out 
 to America an opponent of universal suffrage and 
 vote by ballot ; that all which I had there ob- 
 served had confirmed this opinion, that I had gone 
 out and remained still a good Whig, &c. This, as 
 far as I can remember, was the substance of my 
 letter, and if you will forgive me for troubling you 
 on a matter which has probably almost escaped 
 your recollection, I shall be obliged if you will 
 confirm or correct as far as may be in your power 
 my present impressions of what I then wrote." 
 
 Lord Stanley to the Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 " BALLYHISTEEN, October 1st, 1836. 
 
 " MY DEAR MURRAY, I am almost ashamed to 
 see your handwriting again, never having written 
 to thank you for your very long and interesting 
 letter from America, which letter, I am sorry to 
 find, has been the means of putting you to any 
 inconvenience. I have a copy of it, but not here, 
 nor can I get at it until I go up to town, as it is 
 locked up among my papers there. I think, how- 
 ever, on reference to the Mirrors of Parliament 
 you will find that in quoting your authority on 
 the subject of the ballot, to which alone I referred, 
 I quoted it, without naming you, as that of a per- 
 
152 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 son who had invariably entertained Liberal opinions 
 (at least what used to be considered Liberal opinions 
 at the time I was speaking), and I am quite certain 
 I let fall nothing which could imply a suspicion of 
 your having been in the smallest degree inconsis- 
 tent. I doubt if I showed your letter to any one ; 
 but I recollect a remarkable expression in it, in 
 speaking of the ballot and universal suffrage, l that 
 if you had come out a Radical, what you had seen 
 might have made a Tory of you having come out 
 a Whig, you still remained one,' or something to 
 that effect. When I return to town I will look 
 out the letter and send you a copy, and I hope we 
 are not the least likely to have any occasion for 
 canvassing before that time." 
 
 Murray has left an account of his third and 
 last disappointment in attempting to enter Par- 
 liament : 
 
 " On returning from America my first visit was 
 to my uncle, the Duke of Hamilton. It was a 
 short time before a general election my uncle, 
 Lord Archibald, had just died. He had repre- 
 sented the county of Lanark for thirty years in 
 the Whig interest moreover, he had made me 
 heir to his very small possessions ; so when I re- 
 appeared at Hamilton, a number of the leading 
 gentry met together, and after talking over the 
 matter, came to me to say that they would gladly 
 give me their votes if I would contest the election ; 
 that I was a very suitable person, and with the 
 
ELECTIONEERING EXPERIENCE. 153 
 
 Duke's influence and Lord Archibald's name to 
 back me up, my election was a certainty. I told 
 them that of course all depended upon my uncle. 
 He, however, did not care to incur the expense, 
 and refused his consent, though it was represented 
 to him that it would be a great pity to allow such 
 an important seat, held so long by the Whigs, to 
 go over uncontested to the Tories, which it would 
 undoubtedly do, as the leading men who had asked 
 me to stand would give the Tory candidate their 
 votes rather than have a possible Radical. My 
 uncle was firm ; so I, burning to get into the House, 
 determined to have a venture on my own account. 
 I made my inquiries, and found there was a likely 
 seat going at Lichfield. 
 
 " Without saying a word to any one, I went 
 down and got hold of some of the head tradesmen, 
 &c., who made up the greater part of the influential 
 voting population. I presented myself to them, 
 and on counting noses carefully, I saw I was pretty 
 safe. Then and there I organised committees, 
 agents, &c., and set the whole machinery going, 
 congratulating myself mightily that I should owe 
 my seat to no one. Meantime Lord Melbourne 
 had been informed of the state of affairs in 
 Lanark, and wrote to the Duke a most urgent 
 letter, saying the Duke had always held himself 
 before the world as a staunch Whig ; that now 
 the moment, and a most important one, had 
 arrived for giving a proof of his assertions and 
 doing his party a real service, surely he did not 
 mean to fail them, and so forth. This so worked 
 on the Duke that ten days before the General 
 
154 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 Election he wrote off to me, telling me of the press- 
 ing letter he had received from Lord Melbourne, 
 which had finally prevailed upon him to change 
 his mind, and that I was therefore at once to go 
 north and do all I could to keep the seat. 
 
 " You can imagine my anger and dismay. 
 
 " I wrote a very sharp letter back to my uncle, 
 telling him in so many words that owing to his 
 shilly - shallying all the principal voters had 
 engaged themselves elsewhere, and that I had 
 practically won a seat for myself. I received an 
 answer to the effect that it was my duty to do my 
 best for Lanark, that he felt sure only a few of the 
 leading men had gone over, &c. I was in a great 
 rage, but did the only thing that seemed possible 
 under the circumstances viz., I called all my 
 committees at Lichfield together, put the case 
 before them, said if they held me to my word I 
 was bound to them ; if not, and they were good 
 enough to trust me so far, I would supply another 
 man, who, though he was not over -clever, and 
 would not make speeches for them, could be relied 
 upon to vote straight. They behaved splendidly, 
 regretted my having to leave them, but quite 
 understood the state of the case, and accepted my 
 offer of a substitute. And this is the most 
 amusing part of the story : Alfred Paget was the 
 man I had in my mind a sporting fellow with 
 no ideas about politics. . . . But his family had 
 property near Lichfield, which gave him a raison 
 d'etre, as it were ; and, moreover, his family were 
 staunch Whigs, so I knew Paget would never vote 
 for the Tories. He was yachting at the time, and 
 
THE POLL FOR LANARKSHIRE. 155 
 
 had no idea in the world of what I was doing 
 with his name. But the long and short of it was 
 that they elected him, uncontested, and he never 
 did an hour's canvassing, nor had his electors ever 
 set eyes on him, and he, hadn't a notion he was 
 a candidate for Parliament till he found himself 
 elected. 
 
 " I was thus free to go and make the best of 
 what I felt was a very thankless task in Lanark ; 
 so, saying good-bye regretfully to Lichfield, I made 
 my way there. I had enough to do in the few 
 days left me. I rode all over the country, forty or 
 fifty miles a-day, speaking at five different places 
 in twenty- four hours, organising a campaign in 
 a little over a week, that ought to have lasted 
 months. I worked harder in those days than ever 
 in my life before or since; for although I felt it 
 was only a forlorn -hope, still, once in for it, I 
 grew keen and fought with a will. My uncle and 
 aunt were in Italy, and I lived in a corner of 
 the Palace at Hamilton. On the night the poll 
 was to be declared, I gave a dinner to my 
 staunchest adherents ; and whilst at it, a mes- 
 senger arrived, having ridden post-haste to tell 
 the result, which was that I had been elected by 
 one vote ! 
 
 " My friends hurrahed, drank my health, and 
 made the devil of a noise. As soon as I could 
 make myself heard, I said, ' For heaven's sake, 
 don't be too sure ! this is a deal too close to be 
 pleasant.' And sure enough, in a little while a 
 second messenger galloped up to the Palace, 
 covered with mud, having ridden as hard as he 
 
156 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 knew to try and stop the first report, for the 
 truth was, I was beaten by one vote. 
 
 " It was about the most aggravating thing ever 
 known, as it was so clearly a case of throwing 
 away a good cause by % shilly-shallying. I had a 
 try to make a double election of it ; for it turned 
 out that one of my uncle's most important tenants 
 had gone in to record his vote, and was told his 
 name had been struck out as ' dead/ In vain he 
 protested he was wholly alive. The sheriff, or 
 whatever the man is called who sits by while the 
 votes are recorded, ruled that all mistakes had to 
 be rectified before the day of the poll, and his vote 
 was not allowed ; nor was I able to get this 
 judgment reversed. 
 
 " So ended my attempts to gain a hearing at St 
 Stephen's. 
 
 " But my efforts were not unrewarded. Lord 
 Melbourne, on hearing the story, was so sorry for 
 me, and sympathised so much with me, that he 
 looked about to see if he could not give me some 
 non- political appointment. There was a vacancy 
 as Groom-in-waiting, which he offered me. The 
 Queen had just come to the throne, and there was 
 a kind of romance about so young a girl in such a 
 position, and I gladly accepted. I only filled the 
 post for about four months, as then I pushed to 
 the top of that tree and was made Master of the 
 Household, which position I filled for nearly seven 
 years." 
 
 Some passages in a journal which Murray be- 
 gan and kept diligently for nearly three weeks 
 
JOURNAL AT COURT. 157 
 
 are worth reprinting, containing, as they do, 
 original observations about those early days of 
 Queen Victoria's reign which must always pos- 
 sess a pathetic interest for her subjects : x 
 
 "WINDSOR CASTLE. 
 
 "Sept. 6th, 1837. Drove my American ponies 
 down from London, astonishing the natives with 
 their uncommon speed, and with the slight, spider- 
 like appearance of my carriage. Arrived at two 
 o'clock. Made my way to Lord Cunynghame 
 (Chamberlain) and Lilford (Lord - in - Waiting) ; 
 placed myself with them in the corridor through 
 which her Majesty was to pass in descending 
 to mount her horse. Here I was presented and 
 kissed hands, after which I joined the cavalcade, 
 consisting of twenty - five or thirty equestrians, 
 and we made a promenade about the Great Park 
 for two hours. There was little or no form or 
 ceremony observed as to precedence. The Queen 
 rode generally in front, accompanied by the Queen 
 of the Belgians and King of do., the Duchess of 
 Kent, and now and then she called up Lords 
 Cunynghame, Wellington, or Melbourne to ride 
 beside her. Her Majesty's seat on horseback is 
 easy and graceful, and the early habit of com- 
 mand observable in all her movements and ges- 
 tures is agreeably relieved by the gentle tone 
 of her voice, and the natural playfulness with 
 which she addresses her relatives or the ladies 
 
 1 The whole journal, so far as it extends, has already been printed 
 in the * Cornhill Magazine.' 
 
158 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 about her. I never saw a more quick or observ- 
 ant eye. ... I had some conversation with 
 the Duke of Wellington upon national character, 
 chiefly that of the English and the German. 
 His opinion of the latter I found to be very 
 high, as was also his estimation of the domestic 
 policy of Prussia. On the subject of emigration 
 from this country to America, I do not think 
 his views so enlightened as I should have ex- 
 pected. . . . During the evening her Majesty 
 conversed with her principal guests. She also 
 played two games of draughts with the Queen 
 of the Belgians, both of which she gained. . . . 
 There was a whist-table consisting of the Duchess 
 of Kent, the King of the Belgians, Duke of Wel- 
 lington, and Lilford. . . . 
 
 "Sept. 7th. . . . We rode out at half-past 
 three, and my pony Blackbird excited much ad- 
 miration by his speed and action. The Queen 
 asked me his origin, history, name, &c., and 
 laughed very much when I told her that I had 
 christened his black companion Jim Crow. Her 
 countenance when smiling is most delightful to 
 look upon, so full is it of simplicity and cheer- 
 fulness, while there is always a something in- 
 expressible which would check familiarity and 
 annihilate impertinence. 
 
 " The Duke of Sussex arrived before dinner. 
 . . . After dinner a whist-table was made, at 
 which I made my debut as a player : the party 
 consisting of the Duke of Sussex, the King of 
 the Belgians, and the Duchess of Kent. We 
 changed partners several times, the two former 
 
JOURNAL AT COURT. 159 
 
 playing a middling game : the Duchess is not a 
 good player, but she laughs so good-humouredly 
 at her own blunders and losses that no partner 
 could get angry with her at shilling whist. 
 
 " When our table broke up, I went and stood 
 over our young Queen, who was playing draughts 
 with the Queen of the Belgians : it was a very 
 long game, and had reached a very important 
 crisis. I got so interested that, when her 
 Majesty made one very bad move, I groaned 
 audibly : she looked over her shoulder, and laughed 
 very much when she saw me. She asked me more 
 than once what she ought to play, and I told her, 
 perhaps wrong ; and more than once I fear I spoke 
 when I was not asked. . . 
 
 " Sept. 9th. . . . We rode out at four, and 
 as the King and Queen of the Belgians were of the 
 party, we went rather slow. . . . Our Queen's 
 manner to King Leopold is most respectful and 
 affectionate ; indeed her manner to every one 
 is perfectly winning and appropriate, and her 
 countenance lights up into the most agreeable 
 and intelligent expression possible. . . . After 
 dinner the usual whist -table was set, the only 
 change in the party being the Duke of Cambridge, 1 
 who arrived to-day. He talked all dinner-time 
 without ceasing, and not less constantly during 
 the whist - playing. I never heard such a con- 
 tinued flow of spirits and words ! The 
 Lord Chancellor, Melbourne, Palmerston, Albe- 
 marle, &c., were of the party this evening. . . . 
 
 "Sept. llth. ... At dinner I had a very 
 
 1 Son of George III. 
 
160 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 interesting conversation with Baroness Lehzen, 
 who has been for many years her Majesty's gov- 
 erness and preceptress. I know nothing more 
 creditable to herself and to her illustrious pupil than 
 the fact that one of the first acts in her reign was 
 to secure and retain her preceptress in an honour- 
 able situation about her own person. Her Majesty 
 treats the Baroness with the most kind and 
 affectionate confidence, and the latter tells me 
 that she has carefully copied every letter of 
 private correspondence with her young mistress, 
 both before and since her coming to the throne, 
 but that, since she has been a Queen, her Majesty 
 has never shown her one letter of Cabinet or State 
 documents, nor has she spoken to her, nor to any 
 woman about her, upon party or political questions. 
 As Queen she reserves all her confidence for her 
 official advisers, while as a woman she is frank, 
 gay, and unreserved as when she was a young 
 girl. . . . 
 
 " Sept. 17 th.- . . . After dinner her Ma- 
 jesty played chess with the Queen of the Belgians. 
 On this occasion her Majesty put my counsel in 
 requisition from the beginning ; and alas ! I ate 
 more dirt than on the preceding night. Whether 
 it was that my thoughts wandered too much from 
 the game to the interesting young person playing 
 it to her position, her destinies, her future or 
 that I really am a very bad player, I know not ; 
 but sure am I that I recommended two or three 
 successive blundering manoeuvres to her, and sub- 
 jected her to a most complete defeat. . . . 
 
 "Sept. 18th. This morning their Belgian Majes- 
 
JOURNAL AT COURT. 161 
 
 ties took their departure, and I am sure that our 
 Queen's regret and grief at the parting was sin- 
 cere. She has a quiet esteem and affection for her 
 uncle ; and his young queen being nearly her own 
 equal in rank, station, age, &c., rendered her the 
 only companion with whom she could entirely 
 lay aside the Queen and { play at will her virgin 
 fancies/ . . . 
 
 "Sept. 2Qth. . . . At four we rode in the 
 Great Park. The Queen was mounted on Emperor, 
 a fine chestnut horse, very spirited, and, on one 
 account, not fit for her to ride. As Lord Mel- 
 bourne's steed was fidgety, I proposed to lend him 
 Blackbird and take his curveting animal instead. 
 As Blackbird could not speak, the change was 
 effected, although he had two or three stone more 
 to carry ; but Lord Melbourne was enabled to ride 
 by the Queen and talk quietly to her." 
 
 In his novel rdle of young courtier, Murray 
 has committed little of le dessous des cartes to 
 this fragment of journal, which ends abruptly 
 with the month of September. But that he 
 found it as needful to steer a careful course 
 among the rivalries and jealousies of the British 
 Court as he had learnt to do among the lodges 
 of the Pawnee braves, may be understood from 
 some of his correspondence at this period. If 
 this narrative were one of the days of Queen 
 Elizabeth, many of these letters might be printed 
 in full, and be found entertaining reading ; but 
 
162 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 as yet most of them must be treated as for- 
 bidden fruit. Readers of Charles Greville's gos- 
 sip will be aware that the position of the young 
 Queen in the first years of her reign was not 
 without its difficulties and risks. The domestic 
 history of her immediate predecessors had not 
 been altogether exemplary. To break with the 
 traditional laxity of the English Court, and 
 to set up a standard of social life loftier and 
 purer than anything hitherto attempted, or even 
 imagined, called for the exercise of tact and 
 resolution in a degree which few people could 
 have expected to be at the command of a Prin- 
 cess not yet out of her teens. Yet a grateful 
 nation, and all the world besides, know that 
 these qualities were forthcoming, and that the 
 thing was done. 
 
 Among the friendships which Murray formed 
 at Court, none seems to have been more intimate 
 while it lasted than that with Lady Mary Stop- 
 ford, 1 lady-in-waiting to the Queen's mother 
 the Duchess of Kent. It was brief, indeed, for 
 Lady Mary died in 1839, but the alliance was 
 very close, and directed against the encroach- 
 ments of a certain Court official, whom there is 
 no occasion to name, but whose identity may 
 
 1 Daughter of the third Earl of Corn-town. 
 
CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 163 
 
 easily be fixed by anybody who has studied the 
 domestic annals of the time. Lady Mary wrote 
 constantly to Murray during the times of his 
 absence from his official duties ; and while there 
 is plenty of evidence of those heart - burnings, 
 anxieties, and competition for place and favour, 
 from which no Court ever can be free, she be- 
 trays no eagerness on her own account, but only 
 for the young Queen that she may be protected 
 from the machinations of interested schemers ; 
 and for Murray that he may obtain the ad- 
 vancement which Lady Mary believed not only 
 that he deserved, but that it was to the ad- 
 vantage of the Royal household he should ob- 
 tain. 
 
 One amusing feature in these letters is, that 
 all the principal characters about the Court are 
 referred to under pseudonyms. Lady Mary her- 
 self signs Judy Iscariot, to "puzzle the post- 
 office," as she explains ; the Queen is called Nike; 1 
 Lord Melbourne wears the transparent disguise 
 of "the Great M."; Murray is addressed as "the 
 Good M." or "M. minor," and so on. Lord Pal- 
 merston's visits and his endless stories were al- 
 ways a source of amusement in a circle more 
 replete with worth than with wit. But even 
 
 1 The Greek Nt/oy, equivalent to Latin Victoria. 
 
164 POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE. 
 
 at this distance of time it would strain, if not 
 break, confidence to print letters intended only 
 for one pair of eyes. They are made up of just 
 such easy, careless, loyal gossip as a clever girl 
 might write to a man not much more than her 
 own age, whose heart, as she well .knew, had 
 been committed to the keeping of another a 
 knowledge which defended their intercourse from 
 the inevitable restraint which would have loaded 
 their pens and lips under different circumstances. 
 
165 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 1838-1844. 
 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 IT is a trite observation that the reign of Queen 
 Victoria synchronises with a period of progress 
 and change such as the world has never before 
 seen. People were scarcely conscious at the time 
 of the magnitude of the operations which were 
 beginning to take place. The first railway con- 
 necting London and the provinces was opened in 
 1838, connecting the Metropolis with Birmingham, 
 and in the four succeeding years the chief existing 
 trunk lines of Great Britain were begun. Had 
 Murray foreseen the extent of the revolution thus 
 initiated in the habits and environment of our 
 people, he would certainly have made some notes 
 at the time, for he had a quick, observant mind 
 and a ready pen. But such observations and 
 speculations as he committed to paper must have 
 
166 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 been written in letters to friends, hardly one of 
 whom now survives. Here and there among his 
 papers occur fleeting allusions to the new modes of 
 travel, as, for instance, in the following extract : 
 
 Samuel Rogers to the Countess of Dunmore. 
 
 "LOWTHER, Sept. I0tk[c. 1841]. 
 
 "I set out the day after you were so kind as 
 to call, and arrived in the evening at Lancaster, 
 the giant that had transported me so far not 
 having crushed me in his impetuosity or scalded 
 me to death. There I found, or rather was found 
 out by, the little Duchess of Buccleuch, who had 
 travelled all day in my tail, and if I can contrive 
 it, I will pass a day or two at Drumlanrig before I 
 return. But my only purpose in coming was once 
 more to visit a brother versifier, Wordsworth, and 
 also these old and kind friends. Alas ! I found 
 him sitting for his picture, and here I am waiting 
 for him, day after day." 
 
 Physical science was in full movement ; the 
 venerable diluvial theory in geology was just 
 beginning to yield to systematic research. Here 
 is an early mention of glacial action : 
 
 Dr Auckland to Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "OXFORD, 17 Nov. 1840. 
 
 " Allow me to present you with a true state- 
 ment of the condition of the world which smashed 
 
GEOLOGICAL NEWS. 167 
 
 my Hysenas and Elephants, and immediately pre- 
 ceded the appearance of existing species upon our 
 Planet. I have recently been going over much 
 of Scotland, and find everywhere the Remains of 
 Moraines and scratches on the hard Rocks which 
 formed the Bottom of the Glaciers those which 
 Sir T. Hale attributed to Diluvial Action. For 
 Diluvial we must read Glacial, and the facts 
 remain intact. I inclose a copy which I will 
 thank you to present in my Name to H.R.H. 
 Prince Albert." 
 
 Other letters from Dr Buckland inform Murray 
 of the latest discoveries of fossil remains, notably 
 the Megalornis of New Zealand. 
 
 During his life at Court, Charles Murray was 
 able to be of some service to his friends. Here 
 is a letter announcing promotion to his brother 
 Henry : 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to Lieut, the Hon. 
 Henry Murray, R.N. 
 
 "BUCKINGHAM PALACE, June 29, 1838. 
 
 " With unfeigned hearty pleasure I announce 
 to you that you are made. I saw Lord Melbourne 
 yesterday afternoon at the Coronation, when he 
 said to me, ' Well, Mr Murray, I have made out 
 your brother's commission.' Says I, 'A thousand 
 thanks, my Lord ; pray give me your hand to 
 shake/ When that was over I wished to sound 
 him upon a subject which you have once or twice 
 
168 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 touched sorely upon, so (having him well jammed 
 up in the Abbey among feathers and diamonds 
 and coronets where he could not move) I went on, 
 ' 1 trust, my Lord, he wijk do no discredit to your 
 kindness.' His answer ^was, ' I am sure he will 
 not he is an excellent *, officer,' and one or two 
 more sentences in the same strain. Your promo- 
 tion will be published in a few days. How or when 
 you are to get this scrawl I know not ; but I hast- 
 ened to tell my mother, who came to my rooms at 
 the Palace to see the procession and fireworks : she 
 wept tears of joy. In the evening, after dinner, I 
 went and told Lord Melbourne, adding a few words 
 of thanks for the kind interest he had taken in 
 your prospects : his answer was, ' I am very glad 
 he has got it, and he deserves it, for he's a devilish 
 good officer.' I give it to you in his own words. 
 They have postponed to you on this occasion, 
 therefore if you have any political ^fcias put it in 
 your pocket ; keep and raise the high character 
 you have got* serve the Queen and the Govern- 
 ment of your country faithfully, and with God's 
 blessing I may yet live to drink a glass of Madeira 
 with Admiral Murray ! I have no time to add 
 more, except that the Coronation went off admir- 
 ably, and that our loved and honoured Sovereign 
 went through her part of the ceremonial with all 
 the modest grace and dignity for which she is 
 distinguished. God bless you, my dear Com- 
 mander I have not written so long a private 
 letter for a month ! " 
 
 Murray was, not long after, engaged in the for- 
 tunes of another relative his cousin, the Marquis 
 
DELICATE NEGOTIATIONS. 169 
 
 of Douglas in a far more delicate business than 
 mere promotion. It seems that the Princess Mary, 
 youngest daughter of Charles, Grand .Duke of 
 Baden, having a romantic admiration for Scotland 
 and the Scots, and hearing that Lord Douglas was 
 reputed one of the handsomest men, not only of 
 that nation but in Europe, had set her heart on 
 becoming his wife. Overtures were made on the 
 part of her Royal parents with the view of arrang- 
 ing a marriage. From a worldly point of view, no 
 alliance could have been more brilliant : the cir- 
 cumstances also were somewhat romantic, and the 
 Duke of Hamilton greatly desired that his son 
 should at least accord the lady an interview. But 
 Lord Douglas had views, perhaps reasons, of his 
 own. He stoutly refused at first to entertain any 
 proposal, or even to wait upon the lady. The fol- 
 lowing extracts from one side of a correspondence 
 will indicate how Charles Murray's services were 
 enlisted, and how, apparently, he succeeded in 
 overcoming his cousin's reluctance to yield him- 
 self prisoner : 
 
 Tenth Duke of Hamilton to his Nephew, 
 Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 " HAMILTON PALACE, October 29^, 1839. 
 " I have received, my dear Charles, your letter, 
 with its enclosure, intended to be sent to my son. 
 
170 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 I almost wish it had been sent to him without my 
 having heard anything of the matter. You must 
 know (even better than I can) what effect any 
 communication of yours may have upon Angus's 
 conduct. He requires to be treated with great 
 caution and judgment, and is not easily to be 
 directed. What effect the style of letter you 
 have written may produce I cannot tell, but I 
 have been cruelly and painfully wounded to think 
 that my son would not even gratify me so far as 
 to see the person in question, without any obliga- 
 tion of any sort being annexed to such a measure. 
 I make no difficulty in declaring that I am most 
 anxious that he should inform himself of the 
 family, the person, the character, &c., &c., and 
 before he objects to what might possibly be most 
 desirable. If, upon further investigation, diffi- 
 culties or disagreements arise, let him retire out 
 of the field. This is all I have sought for : if you 
 can obtain it you will, I think, do him a great 
 service. You are the best judge how far you can 
 interfere, with effect, in so delicate a piece of 
 business. 
 
 " I am obliged to you for the part you have 
 taken in this business, and you see it in its proper 
 light. The prospect is too flattering for any sen- 
 sible man to turn away from without giving it a 
 thought. 
 
 "P.S. You might be sure that I should have 
 returned you your letter, as, after the part I 
 have already taken, it would be quite out of the 
 question that anything should be forwarded by me 
 or through my means." 
 
DELICATE NEGOTIATIONS. 1*71 
 
 Lieut. -Colonel Stepney -Co well 1 to Hon. 
 Charles Murray. 
 
 "SENIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB, 
 Nov. 2nd [1842 ?]. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, So perfectly do we coincide in 
 our views in conducting the matter I am interested 
 about, that immediately on reaching town I wrote 
 to the Duke to tell him I had been down to you, 
 as a relation and friend of Lord Douglas, to enlist 
 your interest with him on our behalf, as I conceive 
 no step should be taken in the matter without the 
 Duke's knowledge and approbation. But as he 
 has failed with his son, how far forwarding your 
 letter to the Marquis through his father's hands 
 is advisable, you know best. I hope you will not 
 be easily discouraged at a rebuff, but will return 
 to the charge. If it were possible for you to see 
 him, it would be far better than writing, should 
 the reply to your letter prove unsatisfactory. A 
 young, good-looking, elegant, highly accomplished 
 lady of the oldest royal house in Europe, whose 
 mind is filled with a German enthusiasm for Scot- 
 land and the Scotch, and who has heard Lord 
 Douglas's appearance, manners, and qualities much 
 and favourably spoken of this lady, with the con- 
 sent of her royal parents, throws down the glove 
 to the Marquis surely chivalry and courtesy 
 should make him take it up, as in so doing he 
 
 1 Afterwards Sir John Stepney Co well- Stepney, having taken the 
 additional surname of Stepney by royal licence in 1857, and having 
 been created a baronet in 1871. He died in 1877. He seems to have 
 acted as plenipotentiary for the royal house of Baden in this matter. 
 
1*72 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 binds himself to nothing, any more than the lady. 
 He is only asked to look upon her ! and as the 
 Duke said to me in Portman Square, ' Had it been 
 my case as a young man, curiosity would have in- 
 duced me at least to pay the lady a visit/ I will 
 keep Lord Douglas's refusal in my hands as long 
 as in decorum I decently can, in hopes of a change 
 in his views, which I still hope, through your 
 means, may be accomplished. At the same time, 
 I need not tell you that royal personages do not 
 like to be kept waiting. Pray let me hear from 
 you, and do your utmost. The Duke is most 
 anxious. Her family approve, and there are other 
 circumstances I am not at liberty to name, which in 
 every way would render the thing most desirable. 
 Address to me to Mannheim, should you not hear 
 before I sail, which will be on the 7th inst. . . . 
 
 "P.S. Should the Marquis consent to a trip on 
 the Continent for a week to look about him, let 
 him come to me at Mannheim, and I will then go 
 on with him to where the family in question may 
 be. The Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia will 
 be at Darmstadt the latter end of this month, 
 and fetes will be given. No one will remark the 
 Marquis's travelling in the neighbourhood of the 
 Princess." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " BROOKS'S CLUB, November 5, 1842. 
 
 "I have just heard from the Duke, who ap- 
 proves of the step I have taken in requesting you 
 to use your influence with Lord Douglas to get 
 
SUCCESSFUL DIPLOMACY. 173 
 
 him to consent to an interview with the lady I 
 spoke of, and goes on to say, 'You may easily 
 suppose that I am inclined to catch at any circum- 
 stance that may lead to such a result,' and further 
 adds to me, ' You did most properly and judici- 
 ously in requiring that, in any communication 
 made to the Marquis, neither your name nor mine 
 should appear. Perhaps the flutter of youth may 
 succeed ere long to the solidity of the man/ &c., &c. 
 I now must leave the rest to you. I certainly 
 wish, were it possible, that you could see Lord 
 Douglas, but of course you will act for the best." 
 
 The next letter shows that the forces combined 
 against Lord Douglas prevailed, and that he had 
 bowed dutifully to his fate : 
 
 The Marquis of Douglas to the Hon. 
 Charles Murray. 
 
 " LONDON, 3rd Jan. 1843. 
 
 " MY DEAR CHARLIE, I leave town to-morrow 
 morning for Scotland, and write you these few 
 lines before starting to consult you upon a subject 
 which interests me very much. As you know, I 
 am now in this country making preparations for 
 my marriage. I feel most anxious to have an 
 opportunity of paying my respectful homage to 
 the Queen before I return to Germany. I am 
 on every account anxious to perform this duty, 
 both from my own feelings of dutiful loyalty, and 
 also by the express desire of the Grand Duchesse 
 de Bade. Having been most cordially received 
 
174 JOUKNALS, ETC. 
 
 by all the illustrious relatives of my fiancee, 
 nothing could enhance my satisfaction so much 
 as the countenance of my own Sovereign. I am 
 perfectly aware that, not being a Peer, I have no 
 right to ask an audience ; and as at this time 
 of the year there are no levees or ordinary occa- 
 sions on which I could pay my respects to her 
 Majesty, I feel that under the circumstances I 
 cannot well apply through any official channel. 
 I have therefore written to you as a cousin to 
 inquire whether there is any course you could 
 suggest by which the above object might be 
 attained without any breach of etiquette or the 
 slightest appearance of intrusion on my part. . . . 
 "I repeat again that I am most anxious to pay 
 my loyal homage to the Queen, but have too much 
 of the old spirit of my ancestors to wish to force 
 myself even upon the Queen of these realms." 
 
 The next letters were written after the mar- 
 riage had taken place at Mannheim, and are 
 chiefly taken up with commissions to buy horses 
 for the young couple : 
 
 " VENICE, March 26th, 1843. 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear that there is such 
 difficulty in getting together a team of brown 
 horses. However, it is not to be wondered at, if 
 there are so many amateurs of good taste who 
 share my admiration for brown. If you think 
 it possible to procure five very nice bloody (as 
 dealers say) bays, for road-work at this time of 
 the year, when people are all looking out for 
 
LETTERS FROM LORD DOUGLAS. 175 
 
 horses, I am of opinion that you had better buy 
 for me. . . . You are, however, a better judge 
 of this, as I am a perfect novice and a regular 
 ignoramus with regard to carriage-horses, jobbing, 
 &c., &c. Do what is best, my dear coz ; I trust in 
 thee. . . . Mind you get some nice ponies for my 
 Sposa, otherwise she will never forgive you. She 
 desires to be remembered to her (as yet unknown) 
 
 cousin." 
 
 "VENICE, April 8th, 1843. 
 
 " I have just this instant received your letter 
 of the 29th, my dear Charlie, and am glad to 
 hear that in spite of the low tone of your last 
 letter in horse - dealing matters, you have suc- 
 ceeded in buying me three brown horses. I trust, 
 with the aid of my coachman, you will be ere 
 long enabled to buy the other two. ... I never, 
 as you know, liked London much, even in my 
 dissipated bachelor days. I assure you now, as 
 a shady and respectable member of society, I do 
 not think my liking for town will be at all in- 
 creased. You will be glad to hear, my dear coz, 
 that my wife and I have not yet pulled each 
 other's ears, and we enjoy Venice, its gondolas, 
 its pictures, and its recollections of days gone by, 
 with renewed pleasure every hour. By the bye, 
 Marie begs me to tell you that your ears stand a 
 chance of being pulled (I shall not say by whom) 
 if you do not get her three very nice ponies." 
 
 " MANNHEIM, November 5th t 1843. 
 
 " Will you be kind enough to call at Barker's, 
 
176 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 the coachmaker's, and desire him to commence 
 building instanter a Chariot Dormeuse for me, 
 with a seat behind and a hood over the said seat. 
 ... Of course I wish the carriage to be as good 
 as can be made the colour dark blue and the 
 inside lined with crimson. ... I cannot say how 
 happy I feel at the prospect of devoting my 
 life to the object of my choice you will agree 
 when you see and know her. Farewell, my dear 
 Charlie." 1 
 
 In 1844 Murray made another spasmodic 
 attempt to keep a journal. It records some 
 events in the visit of the Emperor Nicholas to 
 England : 
 
 " June 1st, 1844. Memorable day and memor- 
 able month in the history of Queen Victoria's 
 Court ! About 5 P.M. the King of Saxony arrived. 
 ... I had not much time to attend to his 
 Majesty, being ordered to go down to Woolwich 
 to consult Baron Brunow about the arrangements 
 for the reception of his Imperial master, the Au- 
 tocrat of All the Eussias. Poor Buckingham 
 Palace ! daily abused as being totally unfit to 
 lodge its habitual inmates, and now doomed to 
 take in an Emperor and a King extra, with 
 all their agreeable accompaniments of valets, 
 jagers, trunks, imperials, uniforms, Cossacks, and 
 interpreters ! 
 
 " I found Brunow sitting with Benkhausen, 
 
 1 The eleventh Duke died in 1863, and his widow in 1888. 
 
JOURNAL AT COURT. 177 
 
 the Russian Consul, at the ' Ship/ in ' the worst 
 inn's worst room/ He was not in a good humour, 
 for the mutton - chops were tough, and melted 
 butter was cold, and the cold butter hot, and 
 he had the dismal prospect of sleeping in that 
 vile posada far from the consoling embraces of 
 Madame B. 
 
 " Having transacted what business I had to do, 
 I returned to my duties at the Palace, and at the 
 usual hour went to bed. I was awakened out of 
 my first sleep by the noise of some one walking 
 about my room. * Who's there ? ' I called, sitting 
 up in bed. The intruder continued to grope his 
 way in the dark. ' It's me/ he replied. ' Who's 
 me ? ' ' Ah, Murray ! it is Brunow ; the Emperor 
 is come.' ' Where is he ? ' * At my house, and 
 here is an autograph letter from him to the 
 Prince.' l Having promised to deliver the illus- 
 trious despatch as early as possible, I congedie'd 
 my diplomatic disturber, and in ten minutes fell 
 asleep and dreamt of emperors and kings as plenti- 
 ful as cauliflowers. 
 
 " June 2nd. At half-past eight I waited on the 
 Prince in his dressing-room and delivered the 
 letter. I had learned that the Emperor was to 
 attend his chapel at 10, whilst our Queen's church 
 service was at 12. The question now arose how 
 the great visitor was to be received and presented. 
 After a few minutes' deliberation the Prince said, 
 ' As the Emperor has thought fit to surprise us, 
 we will pay him off with his own weapons : order 
 round a carriage and my equerry to attend me as 
 
 1 Prince Albert. 
 M 
 
178 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 soon as possible ! At a quarter-past nine we were 
 in the carriage and drove to Ashburnham House. 
 Great was the confusion and surprise occasioned 
 by the Prince's unexpected arrival, but the Gor- 
 dian knot of the diplomats was fairly cut : the 
 ceremonies of the presentation were dispensed 
 with, and the Emperor embraced the Prince 
 heartily at the foot of the stairs in the hall, after 
 which he led him into his own room apart. Dur- 
 ing their confab I renewed my acquaintance with 
 Count Orloff, who had been in England with the 
 Hereditary Grand Duke, and whose Herculean 
 figure now showed decided symptoms of increasing 
 embonpoint. From him I had scarcely time to 
 gather the names, rank, office, &c., of the different 
 parties whom we were to lodge in the Palace, when 
 the Emperor came out, leading the Prince by the 
 hand. 
 
 " I had not seen his Majesty since my visit to 
 Ems in 1840, where my first view of him had been 
 under circumstances very unfavourable to the dig- 
 nity of his appearance, for he was riding a jackass, 
 with the Empress at his side, and a small tail of 
 courtiers in the rear. Now, he seemed to me, like 
 his favourite Orloff, to have gained in embonpoint, 
 and to have lost some of the hair from the top of 
 his head, but was still a noble, princely-looking 
 man of six feet three inches, and every inch a king. 
 
 " His countenance is remarkable for its straight- 
 forward, open expression of features ; at the same 
 time there is a roving, restless movement of the 
 eye, indicative of a spirit rather unquiet and ob- 
 servant than suspicious. . . . 
 
THE CZAR'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 179 
 
 " I had little leisure to observe what passed 
 during the remainder of the day, my time being 
 taken up in endeavouring to make twenty servants, 
 who could speak neither English, French, nor Ger- 
 man, understand our groom of the chambers and 
 his assistants as to the locality of their respective 
 master's rooms. 
 
 " June 3rd. Moved to Windsor Castle which 
 was transformed into the Tower of Babel, the 
 Emperor and his suite having brought with them 
 eight or ten more servants than had been men- 
 tioned in the paper given to me by Orloff. All 
 these fellows wanted to have rooms close to their 
 master's ; and when some of them found that they 
 could not be lodged in the Castle, and others that 
 they would be 100 yards distant, they sputtered 
 and swore and jabbered in every discordant dialect 
 of the Lithuanian and Slavonic tongues. After 
 preparing a grand state bed for the Emperor, we 
 were shown by his first valet a great sack, seven 
 feet long by four broad, which we were requested 
 to fill with clean straw, that being the only bed on 
 which his imperial limbs ever reposed. Half-a- 
 dozen of his Majesty's servants bivouacked in a 
 large adjoining room, which was fortunately un- 
 occupied, where they spread on the floor 150 pack- 
 ages and slept among them, some serving for beds 
 and others for pillows, according to their size and 
 shape. It wanted twenty minutes only to eight 
 when I got them all stored away, with the excep- 
 tion of two whiskered feldjagers, who grumbled 
 incessantly while I remained ; so I ordered a 
 servant to look after them and bring them what- 
 
180 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 ever they might want, and I went to my room to 
 dress. I had not been there five minutes before 
 the Prince sent for me to receive instructions about 
 marshalling the guests for dinner. This was not 
 a very easy process, there being upwards of fifty, 
 many of them of high rank ; nevertheless it went 
 off pretty well, and the table in the Waterloo 
 Gallery never looked better since it was a table. 
 I had placed about the person of the Emperor one 
 of the Queen's principal pages, named Kinnaird, 
 who had attended him when he visited this country 
 in 1817, and whom he had not seen for twenty- 
 seven years. When the Emperor entered the 
 luncheon-room this day at two with the Queen, the 
 Prince, and the King of Saxony, Kinnaird was 
 standing behind the chair appointed for him. The 
 Emperor fixed his eye upon him for a moment and 
 said, ' I remember you very well ; you attended me 
 when I was here before/ ' I had that honour, your 
 Majesty ; ' on which the Emperor walked across the 
 room and shook hands with him. Kinnaird was 
 ' dumfoundered/ and it may be imagined he had 
 various jests and jokes to hear from the other 
 servants below stairs, who declared that they 
 should now be afraid to touch a hand that had 
 been shaken by the Czar's. The evening was dull 
 and formal enough, and the Royalties retired about 
 eleven. 
 
 " On entering his apartment the Emperor ob- 
 served Kinnaird, whom he desired to come in and 
 shut the door, after which he carried on the follow- 
 ing conversation with the astonished page : ' Kin- 
 naird, many years have passed since I was last 
 
THE CZAR'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 181 
 
 here ; I was very young then, and we saw some 
 merry scenes together. I am now a grandfather. 
 I suppose you think I am a happy man because I 
 am what people call a great man, but I will show 
 you wherein my happiness consists/ So saying the 
 Emperor opened a travelling-desk, and showed to 
 the page miniature portraits of the Empress and 
 the Princesses. ' There,' said he ' there are the 
 sources of all my happiness my wife and children. 
 Perhaps I ought not to say so, but there is not a 
 better nor a handsomer young lady in St Peters- 
 burg than my daughter the Princess Olga. These 
 are the sources of my happiness/ With, these 
 words the Emperor closed the box and permitted 
 Kinnaird to retire, who was so astounded and taken 
 by surprise that he could scarcely speak, and when 
 he related to me the above particulars the tears 
 stood in his eyes. It was too much for him to be 
 thus made the depository of the private feelings 
 of the Czar, and the man was really overcome 
 by it. 
 
 "June 4:th. After breakfast, went up to the 
 Grand Stand to prepare for the reception of the 
 Royal Party. Never saw the Ascot Tuesday so ill 
 attended, although the weather was fine and there 
 was an Emperor besides a King in prospect. The 
 reception of the Royal Party was, like the attend- 
 ance, meagre. It did not appear to me that there 
 were more than three or four thousand persons 
 present, and people never make a ' good noise ' 
 unless they are in large masses, so the cheering 
 sounded flat and feeble. After the third race (for 
 a gold vase) the Emperor, the King of Saxony, 
 
182 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 and the Prince went suddenly down upon the 
 course to look at the winner, without giving us a 
 moment's notice of their intention ; and though 
 there was an ample force of police upon the field, 
 it was soon evident that there were not enough on 
 the spot to repress the universal curiosity ' to see 
 the Emperor.' They ran and jumped and pressed 
 forward with such uncontrollable violence that we 
 were soon fairly mobbed, and had almost to fight 
 our way back to the stand. The police made 
 every exertion to keep the crowd off from the 
 Emperor and Prince, who were close together, but 
 the poor King of Saxony was for a minute jostled 
 and separated from them. ... In the evening I 
 went down for half an hour to see the Etonians 
 start for their annual regatta, and regretted being 
 compelled to return to hot rooms and gold plate, 
 instead of accompanying the ' lusty youth of 
 England' to Surley Hall. Even into the short 
 time that I stayed I found means to crowd many 
 dreams and remembrances of early days ; and as 
 one of the rowers, a fine stout lad of seventeen, 
 jumped up behind a barouche to receive a kiss 
 from his lovely sister before getting into his boat, 
 I looked at him with a feeling of sadness mingled 
 with envy, and rode away to the Castle to join in 
 festivities to the gaudy splendour of which my 
 heart was ill attuned. How it did ache that 
 evening ! How often has it ached at that table ! 
 But its unknown and unnoticed yearnings have 
 been smothered in military music, frivolous talk, 
 and champagne. It does me no good to record 
 
THE CZAK/S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 183 
 
 or dwell upon them, so I will lay down the pen for 
 to-day. 1 
 
 " June 5th. We had a review this morning of 
 the Household regiments, two batteries of artillery, 
 and a regiment of infantry. The sun was very hot 
 and the ground very hard, and the whole went off 
 with the usual quantum of glitter, noise, dust, 
 admiration. There was, however, one contretemps 
 which occasioned no little comment afterwards. 
 The Queen was present herself, and had brought 
 the little Prince and Princess with her, it having 
 been distinctly arranged by the Duke, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, 2 that on this account the artillery 
 guns were not to be fired. By some mistake on 
 the part of the aide-de-camp a contrary order 
 was given, and bang, bang went the heavy guns 
 at no great distance from the Royal carriages. 
 The Duke was furious, and stormed at the aide-de- 
 camp and the artillery in a most violent manner. 
 When the Prince tried to pacify him by saying it 
 was doubtless a mistake, he replied, ' It is very 
 good of your Royal Highness to excuse it, but 
 there should be no mistakes : military orders 
 should be punctually obeyed, and, by God ! so 
 long as I command the army they shall be 
 obeyed ! ' The Emperor was astonished, and the 
 suites looked at each other with blank faces, while 
 the artillery were ordered off the manoeuvring- 
 ground. Not the least amusing spectacle of the 
 
 1 The reference, of course, is to Murray's attachment, apparently 
 hopeless at that time, to Miss Wadsworth. 
 
 2 The Duke of Wellington. 
 
184 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 day was W., ' the wicked Earl,' who had trans- 
 formed himself into an aide-de-camp, and, clad in a 
 very fine yeomanry uniform, galloped to and from 
 the Duke with messages, orders, &c., whilst the 
 real aides-de-camp remained unemployed behind 
 him, not knowing whether to laugh or to be angry 
 at the noble volunteer's dienstfertigkeit. . . . 
 
 " June 6th. There was an attempt made by a 
 mad or hot-brained Pole to enter the Emperor's 
 room. This object he purposed to effect by per- 
 sonating a tailor from whom a pair of trousers had 
 been ordered for his Imperial Majesty. He offered 
 Snip a large sum of money if he would allow him 
 to deliver these in his stead, and the latter, sus- 
 pecting something wrong, found secreted about his 
 person a long thin knife or stiletto. This incident 
 did not tend to diminish our anxiety or sense of 
 responsibility for the personal security of our Im- 
 perial guest, and in spite of the frank and princely 
 agrement of his manner and the gaieties to which 
 his visit gave rise, I, for one, wished him with all 
 my heart safely back again on the other side of 
 the Channel. 
 
 " June 7th. Returned from Windsor to Buck- 
 ingham Palace, and was again devoured by the 
 Cossacks, Uhlans, &c., of the Imperial suite. Such 
 a packing and unpacking I never beheld : three 
 royal corteges moving at once from the same house, 
 besides about a score of private carriages leading, 
 made the great quadrangle look like a barrack- 
 room or the marching out of a regiment. . . . 
 
 " June 8th. Sightseeing during the day and 
 the Opera in the evening. At the close of the 
 
THE CZAR'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 185 
 
 first act there was a cry for ' God save the Queen ! ' 
 which was received with a burst of applause so 
 loud and unanimous that the whole corps drama- 
 tique had nothing for it but to come forward, 
 dressed as they were, and obey. It was really 
 a very fine sight, for the house was crowded to 
 excess and every creature in it stood up, so that it 
 looked like one enormous animated mass, impelled 
 by one spirit, and that spirit which is nowadays 
 becoming very lifeless and unfashionable in all 
 ranks of life loyalty. 1 
 
 "After the Queen had acknowledged the oft- 
 repeated cheers by curtseying to the several parts 
 of the house, the orchestra struck up at once the 
 Russian hymn, on which the Queen led forward 
 the Emperor, who bowed his acknowledgments to 
 the house, and, stooping over her Majesty's hand, 
 kissed it with much grace and dignity. 
 
 " June 9th, Sunday. This morning we were 
 all very busy again with preparations for the 
 Emperor's departure, and I had several interviews 
 with Count Orloff and Baron Brunow on the sub- 
 ject of the cadeaux d' usage to be left by his 
 Majesty. It was rather an awkward matter for 
 me to speak of (although I was desired merely to 
 give a memorandum of the presents that had been 
 given by the King of Russia on his visit), because 
 my own name appeared on the list : however, I put 
 myself down on the second class or boite a chiffre, 
 which was a modest untruth, the King having 
 
 1 Perhaps no more direct testimony than this, read in the light of 
 the later years of her reign, could be borne to the extent of the 
 Queen's personal influence in attaching all classes to the Crown. 
 
186 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 given me a snuff-box with his portrait. Orloff 
 showed the list to the Emperor, who approved it 
 throughout until he came to my name, when he 
 said, ' Non, non, je veux que M. Murray regoive 
 une boite a portrait : c'est lui qui a fait le plus pour 
 nous/ This I had from Orloff 's own lips when he 
 gave me the box, which was surmounted by a very 
 good miniature of the Emperor set in diamonds. 1 
 
 " I had a long conversation with Orloff, whose 
 character is in some respects as extraordinary as 
 his position an illegitimate descendant (grandson) 
 of Catherine's favourite. He inherits the enormous 
 personal strength and stature for which the name 
 is so well known in Europe, and although he has 
 no recognised ministerial office in the Russian 
 
 1 Forty years after this date, Murray added the following note to 
 this entry : " I have not noted here the several private conversations 
 that I held with the Emperor in his bedroom at Windsor. It was 
 my duty to attend him to his apartment every night after the Queen 
 and her attendants had retired. On three successive evenings he 
 invited me to follow him into his bedroom. In these tSte-d-tete con- 
 versations he spoke to me upon a variety of subjects with what 
 seemed unrestrained openness, and frequently alluding to the diffi- 
 culty of his own position in the world, being often obliged to do 
 things that he would fain have left undone, and repeatedly assuring 
 me that his only real happiness was in the bosom of his family. I 
 know not why he had selected me as the confidant of these pens&s 
 intimes, but he frequently afterwards gave me proof of his continued 
 regard. Two or three years later, when I was Secretary of Legation 
 at Naples, the Czar paid a short visit to the King, and declined to 
 receive the Corps Diplomatique ; but he learned that I was there, 
 and ordered Orloff to invite me to his room at the palace, and 
 while I was there his Imperial Majesty came in and conversed 
 with me with his former friendly affability, but he received no other 
 of the Corps Diplomatique ! " 
 
THE CZAR'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 187 
 
 Government, he is in fact the right hand and 
 the mouthpiece of the man who unites in himself 
 all the functions, legislative and executive, of the 
 State. He is a soldier of bold, determined charac- 
 ter, and resembles his master not a little in that 
 frank, plain-spoken fearlessness which avows its 
 object and goes straight forward towards it, with- 
 out heed of difficulties, but not without a tolerably 
 sagacious calculation of consequences. 
 
 " He seems much struck by the quiet, undemon- 
 strative efficiency of our metropolitan police, re- 
 specting which he said to me, c Whatever you do, 
 beware of impairing that force : you are every year 
 collecting together in your great towns innumer- 
 able multitudes and masses, amongst whom there 
 must every now and then arise discontent and 
 outbreaks. Collision with the military is very 
 dangerous in England, even if you had soldiers 
 enough, which you have not ; but this police force, 
 if well organised, will continue to be a permanent 
 safeguard.' I left the Count with the impression 
 that he is a very open, frank, straightforward, and 
 withal a sagacious man, and a very useful servant 
 of an autocratic lord. Certainly, so far as generous 
 liberality can win golden opinions, no man ever 
 better deserved popularity in one week than the 
 Emperor during his stay in England, for besides 
 the 500 per annum at Ascot (equal to a donation 
 of 15,000), he ordered 1000 to be given to the 
 Fund for Distressed Foreigners, 500 each to the 
 National Monuments of Nelson and Wellington, 
 and other acts of munificence upon a similar scale. 
 Various are the rumours abroad as to the real 
 
188 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 motives of his visit : the most obvious and natural 
 is probably nearest the truth viz., a wish to culti- 
 vate a good understanding with England, and to 
 counteract the preponderating influence which the 
 trip to the Chateau d'Eu and other late occurrences 
 had tended to confer on France in respect to the 
 Court of St James's. Moreover, as we are ex- 
 pecting a visit from the King of the French this 
 autumn, the Emperor by his popular manners and 
 profuse generosity has rendered the game more 
 difficult for the former to play here with success. 
 The French press is very angry and bitter on this 
 subject, and those are not wanting who say that 
 the ' movement' party will not allow his Majesty to 
 return our Queen's visit. Nous verrons. . . . 
 
 " The Czar went through the ceremony of leave- 
 taking with the frank courtesy which is charac- 
 teristic of his manners. After coming down the 
 staircase into the Marble Hall, he bowed over the 
 Queen's hand and kissed it ; he kissed also the 
 hand of the Duchess of Buccleuch, and shook 
 hands with all the ladies-in-waiting, as well as 
 with the great officers of State, who were drawn 
 up to pay their devoirs at his departure. He 
 had almost reached the door when his quick eye 
 detected me, who had placed myself, as became 
 my rank, somewhat in the rear of the above-named 
 grandees : he returned immediately and gave me 
 his hand, saying in English, ' I thank you with 
 all my heart,' which acknowledgment of such slight 
 service as I had been able to render to himself 
 and his suite was very gratifying to me. It was 
 the first time during his stay that he had ad- 
 
POLITICAL FORECAST. 189 
 
 dressed me in English, as on all other occasions, 
 here or at Windsor, he spoke to me in French, 
 and once only in German. He stood up in the 
 carriage bowing to the Queen until it drove off, 
 and I read amiss the countenances of all the by- 
 standers if he did not leave behind him the im- 
 pression that as a man, and one no longer in the 
 bloom of youth (48), they had rarely encountered 
 one of more high bearing and courteous chivalrous 
 deportment : as a monarch I have no space in this 
 day-book to discuss his qualities. . . . 
 
 " June 24:th. Heavy clouds are gathering in 
 the horizon, which threaten at no distant date 
 to break up the great Conservative party, and 
 with it Sir Robert Peel's Administration ; for 
 while on the one hand he is distrusted and dis- 
 liked for his Liberal opinions by the old Tory 
 clique, the followers of the Buckingham and New- 
 castle school, he is equally out of favour with 
 that restless and unmanageable division of his 
 army who, under the name of ' Young England/ 
 daily inflicts its crude sophistries on the House 
 of Commons, with no other apparent principle in 
 common than a desire to find fault with every- 
 thing, and to alter the poet's dictum into 'What- 
 ever is, is wrong.' The fact is, that Sir Robert, 
 though a man of infinite skill and sagacity in 
 managing the House, has not the art of gaining 
 and retaining the confidence or attachment of its 
 individual members. He is conscious that his 
 opinions are in general much more 'liberal' than 
 those of the great body of his supporters, and 
 that they would desert his standard immediately 
 
190 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 if they had any other leader under whose banner 
 they could hope for success. This consciousness 
 prevents him accordingly from consulting them 
 much in the formation of his measures, and they 
 of course complain that they are called upon sud- 
 denly to support his views, which have not been 
 explained to them, and from which perhaps many 
 of them dissent. Moreover, Sir Robert is well 
 aware that the English are in the main so aristo- 
 cratic a people that, in the tone of high and in- 
 dependent rule that he has assumed, they will not 
 forgive his want of ' gentle blood,' and they will in 
 his case exclaim loudly and rebel against a course 
 of conduct which they would patiently have en- 
 dured from a Howard, a Stanley, or a Plantagenet. 
 "June 2,8th. The Government is no sooner 
 out of the frying-pan than it is in the fire ! For 
 the last few days all London has been ringing 
 with complaints against Sir J. Graham on account 
 of his having caused to be opened at the post- 
 office some letters belonging to one Mazzini, a 
 leading emissary of the movement party in Aus- 
 trian Italy, now hatching plots to revolutionise 
 that country and throw off the Austrian yoke. 
 At the request of the Government at Vienna the 
 Home Secretary caused several letters to and 
 from this individual to be opened, at which act of 
 ' tyranny,' ' iniquity,' and ' espionage,' that many- 
 headed monster the Liberal press is now declaim- 
 ing throughout the land with virtuous indignation, 
 which is loudly responded to by honest John Bull, 
 the initial B of whose name ought certainly to 
 have been a G. 
 
OFFICIAL ESPIONAGE. 191 
 
 "I do not blame the Liberal press, or Mr T. 
 Buncombe, or the Radical party in general, for 
 badgering Sir James on this occasion ; 'tis their 
 vocation to 'stablish a row and work upon it, 
 and a finer opportunity for ranting declamation 
 could not be found : but the impudent, hypo- 
 critical effrontery of the leaders of the present 
 Opposition in respect to this matter does, I con- 
 fess, astonish me. For Lord J. Russell, Lord Pal- 
 merston, &c., to get up in their places in Parlia- 
 ment and inveigh against the Home Secretary 
 in the bitterest terms for doing that which they 
 well know has been done by every one holding 
 office for the last century this must indeed have 
 required the assurance of a practised lawyer or 
 a party leader. I have good reason to believe 
 that Lord J. Russell has been compelled to resort 
 to this disagreeable but unavoidable measure more 
 frequently than any man living, and I have been 
 told by a person equally accurate and well-in- 
 formed that, during one part of Lord John's Ad- 
 ministration, he opened and read the greater por- 
 tion of the letters written to and by his friend, 
 Daniel O'Connell, the great Liberator ! 
 
 " Baron Stockmar told us an amusing anecdote 
 also at dinner yesterday, illustrative of the same 
 truth. During the year 1830-31, when Lord Pal- 
 merston was at the Foreign Office, he (Baron 
 Stockmar), as confidential secretary to the King 
 of the Belgians, had occasion to transmit to the 
 king from time to time letters and despatches 
 upon secret and important matters connected with 
 the serious questions then in agitation on the 
 
192 JOURNALS, ETC. 
 
 Continent. His usual practice was to intrust 
 these to messengers, but upon one or two occa- 
 sions, when no messenger was at hand and the 
 contents were not of vital consequence, he sent 
 them through the Foreign Office, although he 
 knew that tricks were sometimes played in 
 Downing Street as well as in Paris and Vienna. 
 On one occasion he happened to go into the 
 Bureau des Affaires iltrangeres at Brussels, where 
 he saw a large parcel of his own despatches tied 
 together. He had the curiosity to examine them, 
 and on close inspection discovered that those sent 
 through the Foreign Office had been opened and 
 resealed with a seal not very cleverly made 
 to imitate his own. He took no notice of this 
 at the time, but on the next occasion of his send- 
 ing a despatch through our Foreign Office sent 
 it open, and accompanied it with a polite note 
 to Lord Palmerston, stating that he did so to 
 save his Lordship the trouble of opening and re- 
 sealing it." 
 
193 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1844-1848. 
 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 COURT duties, though severe enough at times, 
 were intermittent, and left Murray with uncertain 
 leisure to dispose of. During his tenure of office 
 as Master of the Household he kept up his literary 
 acquaintances, and, besides preparing his volumes 
 of travels, occupied his pen in various ways. 
 
 It is well known that the Queen's betrothal to 
 Prince Albert of Saxe-Gotha did not command 
 universal approbation when it was announced. 
 He was suspected of being a Roman Catholic, or 
 at least of belonging to a Roman Catholic family, 
 and the position of that family among European 
 courts was believed to be inferior to that which 
 ought to be secured in the Queen's choice of a 
 consort. To help to dispel these doubts, Murray 
 wrote and published an anonymous pamphlet in 
 
 N 
 
194 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 1840, addressed to his fellow-countrymen, showing 
 that not only was the house of Saxe-Coburg Pro- 
 testant, but that their ancestors, the Princes of 
 the Ernestine line, were those who had, in fact, 
 done and suffered most in the cause of the Luth- 
 eran Reformation ; that owing to their exertions 
 in that cause they had forfeited the Electorate, 
 and that their existing subordinate position in 
 comparison with other royal houses was the con- 
 sequence of their fidelity to Protestantism. To 
 this pamphlet was prefixed a pedigree showing 
 the descent of Prince Albert from Wittekind I. of 
 Saxony in A.D. 807 ; and it ends with a spirited 
 appeal to the people to turn a deaf ear to idle 
 reports, and to offer the Prince a fair opportunity 
 of developing the qualities of his character. 
 
 Besides this ephemeral, but useful, effort, Murray 
 was engaged during these years in the preparation 
 of a romance suggested by his American experi- 
 ence. Fashion in fiction changes as lightly as in 
 any other product of civilisation ; what holds the 
 imagination of one generation in thrall is often 
 flung aside by the next. But the ' Prairie Bird/ 
 as already mentioned, has run through many 
 editions : it is still a favourite with our schoolboys, 
 and perhaps still more so with those of the United 
 States. It is a romance of that kind which Feni- 
 
THE 'PRAIRIE BIRD.' 195 
 
 more Cooper succeeded in making so popular, 
 the stirring novel of adventure among Bed In- 
 dians, which in the 'forties and 'fifties divided 
 every school playground into Mohicans and Dela- 
 wares, Pawnees and Iroquois. It deals with the 
 fortunes of two English families emigrating to the 
 west, on the confines of the Paleface settlement, 
 and tells of the perpetual border warfare between 
 the rival races. The daughter of one of these 
 families is carried off in early childhood by the 
 Delawares, grows up in their lodges, and becomes 
 the adopted daughter of the great chief. The son 
 of the other house, Reginald Brandon, in whom it 
 is not difficult to trace some of the traits of the 
 author, many years afterwards goes on a hunting 
 expedition with an Indian party, sees this mys- 
 terious Prairie Bird, and straightway falls in love. 
 Through a series of thrilling adventures, involving 
 many delightful pictures of forest and prairie life, 
 and reflections of Indian habits and character, the 
 reader follows the young people to a felicitous con- 
 clusion and explanation of much misunderstanding. 
 The ' Prairie Bird ' is not, perhaps, exactly the 
 kind of novel which is in most incessant vogue at 
 the present day : it is a story of action, of hair- 
 breadth 'scapes by land and water, of bloody 
 encounters and scalp - raising, and of somewhat 
 
196 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 melodramatic love-making. The " sex problem " 
 does not come up in the remotest degree. Never- 
 theless, it is very good and exciting reading, even 
 to those who are not in the secret of its composi- 
 tion. But it acquires an additional and romantic 
 interest when it is understood that the novel was 
 designed and executed as the sole expedient by 
 which the author could communicate his feelings 
 to the object of his affection. Forbidden by Mr 
 Wadsworth to correspond with his daughter, no 
 commands could prevent Murray from availing 
 himself of literature as a channel of intercourse. 
 Oolita the Prairie Bird was the name he had 
 given his lady-love ; none but she understood it 
 none but she could respond to the sentiments put 
 by the author in the mouth of his hero none but 
 she interpret the significance of a story of true love 
 overcoming apparently insuperable obstacles. 
 
 Apart from this hidden significance, not the 
 least interesting part of the ' Prairie Bird ' is con- 
 tained in the notes, as is the case with some of 
 the Waverley Novels. Probably few people are 
 aware, for instance, that the term " Tammany," so 
 familiar in connection with the municipal affairs 
 of New York, is a corruption of Tamenund the 
 name of an ancient chief of the Delaware In- 
 dians, whose traditionary fame was so great that 
 
THE c PRAIRIE BIRD.' 197 
 
 he became, as it were, their patron saint, and his 
 name was conferred on any individual whom the 
 tribe desired to honour in a special manner. 
 
 P. Fraser Tytler to Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "34 DEVONSHIRE PLACE, 1844. 
 
 " I finished ' Prairie Bird ' yesterday, and not 
 only I, but our house here (the ladies of which 
 are probably better judges), have been deeply 
 interested and much delighted with it. I will 
 not enter into any enlarged criticism, although 
 I have materials enough, for I read it slowly and 
 marked many beautiful passages and situations, 
 but I must say that the tale in its tendency, 
 its descriptions, and its story is a very delight- 
 ful one, and in the course of it I often felt happy 
 and gratified that its author was a dear and old 
 friend. I mean to attempt a little critique or 
 review of it, but whether I shall succeed or ac- 
 complish anything bearable or printable is quite 
 uncertain. The style to which I have been so 
 long habituated is so very different from the light 
 airy manner which pleases in periodical criticism. 
 As to Gowrie I was quite amused at your energy 
 in thinking of instantly attacking a new subject, 
 but much as I admired e Prairie Bird, 7 the thought 
 that arose oftenest to my mind was that its author 
 was fitted for graver and greater things, and that 
 there was a power of pure and accurate thought, 
 of picturesque description, and of an easy unaffected 
 style, which, if brought to bear on a high subject, 
 
198 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 would bring out something destined to strike its 
 roots deep. It runs in my head that some eight 
 or ten years ago I read a novel founded on the 
 Gowrie Conspiracy, and written, I think, by the 
 Radical female editor of Tait's ' Edinburgh Maga- 
 zine,' Mrs Johnston. It made some little noise at 
 the time, and was superior to the common run of 
 such works." 
 
 " Feb. 26th, 1844. 
 
 " I saw young Murray of Albemarle Street on 
 Saturday, and on sounding him about the Heview 1 
 of 'Prairie Bird/ he said he had heard it very 
 highly commended, and seemed disposed to do 
 everything possible or in his power, but referred 
 me to Lockhart as the sole manager of such a 
 matter. On speaking of the talents and energy 
 shown in the ' Travels ' and of the power of writ- 
 ing in the novel, he said he wondered you did 
 not attack some greater theme, and on my ex- 
 plaining how little time you had for anything 
 like continuous study, he said, ' Why should not 
 Mr Murray occasionally write a review himself; 
 it would be a pleasant occupation.' I mention 
 this in case you should incline to think better 
 of the idea. I cannot speak from much personal 
 experience, but I know many eminent men who 
 have made review - writing a pretty profitable 
 business." 
 
 "April I5tk, 1844. 
 
 "I have received a letter from my old friend 
 
 1 For the ' Quarterly,' of which Lockhart was editor. 
 
THE 'PRAIRIE BIRD.' 199 
 
 Alison 1 saying he will be delighted to write a 
 review of ' Prairie Bird ' for Black wood, if he will 
 consent to take it ; but that he has found the 
 odium and jealousy subsisting between booksellers 
 so great that it is quite probable he (Blackwood) 
 may not choose to insert it. He mentions that he 
 had written some years ago a review of my History 
 for ' Blackwood's Magazine/ which Mr Ebony, as 
 he was nicknamed, did not choose to insert from 
 jealousy of his rival bookseller Mr Tait. This is 
 a bit of the secret history of literature which is 
 somewhat new and amusing." 
 
 Fraser Tytler, being an intimate friend of 
 Murray, may be suspected of partiality in his en- 
 thusiastic approval of the book, but here is a piece 
 of independent testimony from another and greater 
 historian, with whom Murray at that time does 
 not seem to have been acquainted : 
 
 A. Alison to his Sister. 
 
 " We have all been reading with unmixed delight 
 the ' Prairie Bird,' which more than realised your 
 own eulogium. It has equally wiled me from 
 Dante and Freddy from ' Old Mortality,' and the 
 only annoying thing about reading the work is 
 that the volumes are in such request by the whole 
 household that there is always a difficulty in 
 getting the one you want. It is wonderful how 
 superior it is to Mr Murray's ' Travels in America ' ; 
 
 1 The historian. 
 
200 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 this is his true vein. Many of his descriptions, 
 both at land and sea, are fully equal to Cooper, 
 and in the delineation of European elegance and 
 refinement he is greatly his superior. But what 
 strikes me most is the pure and upright feeling 
 which pervades the work a feeling very different 
 from what is usually acquired in the precincts of 
 Courts : perhaps it was the experience of that 
 which drove him, like Rousseau, to the desert. I 
 have seen no work for years which has taken such 
 a hold of my imagination as it has done. Elizabeth 
 says every morning at breakfast she feels as if she 
 had parted with old friends, now that she is no 
 longer with War Eagle and Wingemund. I hope 
 he will continue to work the vein he has thus 
 happily found out ; for the food of the fashionable 
 world in England is pretty nearly exhausted, and 
 it will be a great thing to get a British Cooper to 
 give us, instead of mawkish Commonplace, the fresh 
 scenes and deep feelings of the Prairie." 
 
 Murray used to write at high speed, and often re- 
 gretted that he could not follow his friend Rogers's 
 example and spend more time in revising. 1 
 
 1 " During my whole life I have borne in mind the speech of a 
 woman to Philip of Macedon : ' I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip 
 sober.' After writing anything in the excitement of the moment 
 and being greatly pleased with it, I have always put it by for a day 
 or two ; and then, carefully considering it in every possible light, I 
 have altered it to the best of my judgment, thus appealing from my- 
 self drunk to myself sober. I was engaged on the ' Pleasures of 
 Memory ' for nine years ; on * Human Life ' for the same space of 
 time ; and * Italy ' was not completed in less than sixteen years." 
 (Rogers's * Table-Talk,' p. 19.) This leisurely system is in curious con- 
 
FRASER TYTLER'S HISTORY. 201 
 
 William Beckford ("Vathek") to Hon. 
 Charles Murray. 
 
 " LONDON, 2nd July 1839. 
 
 " I will not lose a single moment, my dear sir, 
 
 in thanking you for a delightful and rare present 
 
 two unvamped-up, unaffected volumes glowing 
 
 with life and truth. Believe me most faithfully 
 
 yours, W. BECKFORD." 
 
 Fraser Tytler, shortly before these letters were 
 written, had brought his ' History of Scotland ' to 
 a conclusion, and had availed himself, as the follow- 
 ing extracts show, of his younger friend's judgment 
 in style : 
 
 P. Fraser Tytler to the Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "November 13, 1843. 
 
 " I send along with this the ' Conclusion ' of the 
 History, which you so kindly promised to recast 
 and alter." 
 
 "Nw. 20th, 1843. 
 
 "You have laid me under great obligations by 
 your criticism and the kind pains you have taken 
 with my two last pages. It is a great thing to 
 have a fresh eye to look over one's manuscript, 
 but still better and rarer to have a fresh eye 
 guided by a pure and just taste ; and this, without 
 
 trast with that under which ' Peveril of the Peak,' ' Quentin Dur- 
 ward,' and ' St Roman's Well' were given to the press within a single 
 year. 
 
202 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 any flattery, but speaking in the c beaten way of 
 friendship/ I think you have. I have adopted all 
 your alterations and the whole passage No. 2 as 
 you have recast it, beginning ' and if now destined 
 in the legitimate course of royal succession to lose,' 
 &c. As to the ' sunshine,' I was for a moment 
 a little doubtful, but I ended by feeling that you 
 were right, and extinguished it." 
 
 " Nov. 2lst. 
 
 " It is a singular coincidence that in speaking to 
 my sister a few nights ago about the c Prairie Bird,' 
 I could not help saying that you had talents for 
 far higher works ; and now, strange to say, scarce 
 had the words escaped me when your letter comes 
 with a sketch of your new History of Windsor 
 Castle a subject which, it strikes me, if treated as 
 you would treat it, combining the true with the 
 picturesque and the romantic waving your his- 
 toric wand and calling up Windsor with its Saxons, 
 lords, and villeins then Windsor under the Con- 
 queror and his Normans then peopling its halls 
 with the mighty shades of the Henrys, and the 
 Edwards, the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Stuarts, 
 and the Royal House of Hanover in short, Wind- 
 sor as you yourself describe it with all its his- 
 torical, architectural, and chivalrous associations 
 clustering round the grey walls over which so many 
 centuries have swept, why, I do say (to bring this 
 unmanageable sentence to a close) Windsor Castle, 
 so treated, and its history thus written, would make 
 one of the most attractive and interesting books 
 that could possibly be conceived." 
 
FRASER TYTLER'S LETTERS. 203 
 
 " 34 DEVONSHIRE PLACE, 28 Nov. 1843. 
 
 " The news of your recovery gave me the sin- 
 cerest pleasure : . . . but do not be too soon well 
 or fly again at ox-fences or five-barred palisades 
 till you are perfectly sound. Meanwhile our liter- 
 ary correspondence is getting so complicated that 
 I scarcely know where to resume it the History 
 of Windsor the Duplicates in the British Museum 
 which we are plotting to remove to the Queen's 
 library the portraits of Bothwell (Mary's infam- 
 ous husband), about which both Her M. and the 
 Prince spoke to me and the best mode of drawing 
 up a catalogue and forming an interesting arrange- 
 ment of the historical miniatures and portraits in 
 the Royal Collection, all these points have been 
 more or less occupying my mind, and had it not 
 been for the constant intrusion of those malapert 
 imps, the printer's devils, with the sheets of vol. 
 ix., 1 would have been long ere this resumed. To- 
 morrow I get the last sheet of the text of my 
 volume, which you must allow me to send that 
 you may give it one glance ; for you may already 
 say to its closing strains quorum pars magna 
 fui. ... As to the History of Windsor I am 
 afraid I must plead Johnson's candid apology 
 ' Sheer ignorance, sir ! ' and yet, such is the super- 
 ficial nature of modern histories and historical 
 antiquaries that one can scarcely argue that be- 
 cause Pote and Pine have found little or nothing 
 nothing is therefore to be found. As to the 
 difficulty in the research for materials that need 
 
 1 Of his * History of Scotland. 3 
 
204 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 not deter you ; for I should gladly quarry, whilst 
 you are polishing and breathing life into the 
 marbles ; and these pursuits have become so much 
 a second nature to me that labor ipse voluptas. 
 . . . Meanwhile, if these Royal progresses leave 
 you a moment's leisure, think of other historical 
 subjects. There is nothing pleasanter than these 
 literary dreams. What would you say to a series 
 of Lives of Eminent Men, chronologically arranged, 
 written something after the manner of Plutarch 
 i.e., more of biography in them than dry history, 
 and written with a view to the education of that 
 dear young Prince 1 to whom this country looks 
 with such deep interest and affection, and on 
 whose 'nurture and admonition' so much of its 
 happiness may depend. I remember that, when 
 writing the lives of Henry VIII. and Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh, it often struck me that a biographical 
 series on a more compressed plan . . . would be 
 ... a very interesting and popular work. . . . 
 On calling at Mr Seguier's the other day ... I 
 found that the curious picture of Lord and Lady 
 Lennox at Darnley's tomb, which we rescued from 
 its decaying condition at Hampton Court, had 
 been cleaned and sent back to Windsor. The in- 
 scriptions, you may remember, had been mutilated 
 some intentionally, some by decay and must 
 be restored, which can be done, partly from a MS. 
 copy of them which I took, partly from the old 
 print which I had the honour of presenting to Her 
 Majesty by your directions at the time, and which 
 was engraved before the mutilation took place." 
 
 1 H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 
 
MURRAY'S LITERARY GIFTS. 205 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "4th Dec. 1843. 
 
 " Very far indeed am I from thinking you 
 hypercritical. On the contrary, you do me the 
 greatest service, and I draw upon your patience 
 and acumen again by asking you to give a last 
 look to my last sentence. 1 You will see that 
 all your suggestions are adopted. I would fain 
 hope it will now do, but one cannot perhaps be 
 too fastidious in these last touches, though it is 
 also a great matter to know when to stop. . . . 
 It is in these things that a true friend is a 
 treasure." 
 
 The projected History of Windsor Castle never 
 went beyond the region of intention. There is 
 no doubt that Murray possessed an enviable lit- 
 erary facility, and, had he been dependent on his 
 own exertions for a living, might have realised 
 a handsome one without much difficulty. His 
 portfolios are full of scraps and unfinished drafts, 
 both in prose and poetry ; and the knowledge he 
 acquired of various languages (he was able to 
 read and converse in no fewer than fifteen) proves 
 that he must have applied much of his leisure 
 to hard study. During all his life he was keenly 
 interested in past and present literature. Here 
 
 1 The closing paragraph of the ' History of Scotland.' 
 
206 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 is a funny little formal acknowledgment of his 
 criticism, which a friend had passed on to the 
 author of the subject thereof: 
 
 " RYDAL MOUNT, 24 Nov. 1844. 
 
 " The praise is discriminating ; whether deserved 
 or no is not for me to determine ; but I may be 
 allowed to express my gratification in learning 
 from Mr M.'s letter that poetry, certainly not 
 composed with any view to please the higher 
 ranks of society, has made so lively an impression 
 upon the mind of one whose life appears to be 
 passed mainly in the presence or precincts of a 
 Court. Believe me, truly yours obliged, 
 
 "Wn. WORDSWORTH." 
 
 But the sphere of Murray's official duties was 
 not favourable to the concentration of effort which 
 alone leads to eminence in letters, and he was 
 soon to be called to a more varied field of activity. 
 
 The following trifle in one of Murray's common- 
 place-books bears the date 1844, and a note ex- 
 plains that the occasion of it was during a visit 
 to the Archbishop of York at Nuneham, where 
 the attentions paid by a certain sexagenarian 
 bachelor, Mr Young, to a damsel of sixteen, Miss 
 Elizabeth Johnstone, caused a good deal of merri- 
 ment among the other guests. The lines were 
 
ENTERS THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE. 207 
 
 supposed to have been found in Mr Young's room 
 after his departure : 
 
 "ELIZABETH, OR YOUNG'S NIGHT THOUGHTS. 
 
 (NEW STYLE.) 
 
 What's in a name ? 
 
 "So Juliet said, but Juliet was a fool, 
 A childish miss, untaught in Cupid's school. 
 What other sound or word could e'er express 
 The charms suggested by the name of Bess ? 
 Whether I lay a guinea or a tizzy 
 That none on earth is half so fair as Lizzy, 
 Or sing in Tuscan strains the mille vezzi 
 Of thy leggiadra sembiante Betzy, 
 Or tell, in homelier phrase, the tears that wet 
 My cheek when thinking of my absent Bet, 
 Through all the changes of that magic name 
 Her form I see her image still the same. 
 Sometimes I strive, with love-suspended breath, 
 To syllable thy name Elizabeth : 
 Vain, vain attempt ! too soon there will arise a 
 Half -broken sigh, that cuts it to Eliza ; 
 Or, whispered low, like Zephyr through the trees, 
 Dies in the softened murmur of Elise. 
 In short sweet name of Carthaginian Dido ! 
 ^Eneas never loved thee half as well as I do." 
 
 In 1845 Murray resigned the Mastership of the 
 Queen's Household, which he had held for nearly 
 eight years, on being appointed Secretary to the 
 British Legation at Naples. He was also made 
 extra Groom-in- Waiting to the Queen, an appoint- 
 ment which he continued to hold to the end of his 
 
208 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 life. Not a trace remains in his papers of record 
 of his sojourn in Italy ; but it was marked for him 
 with peculiar melancholy by reason of the death 
 of his mother, the Countess of Dunmore, on 24th 
 May 1846. 1 Two characteristics distinguished this 
 family the parents and three sons in a peculiar 
 degree, namely, their deeply religious feeling, and 
 their intense unclouded affection for each other. 
 I have not thought it expedient to give many ex- 
 tracts from private letters in evidence of the first, 
 though it runs constantly through all their corre- 
 spondence, side by side with the affairs of every- 
 day life. However, it is impossible to understand 
 rightly a man's character without apprehending 
 his feelings towards religion, and the degree in 
 which his happiness depended on those nearest 
 of kin, both of which may be illustrated by these 
 passages from letters written after his mother's 
 death by Charles's sailor brother Henry : 
 
 Capt. the Hon. H. Murray, R.N., to 
 Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 " 24th May 1846. 
 
 " However much prepared for the worst, such a 
 blow must come with a fearful power of desolation. 
 Yet upon how few can it fall so lightly as upon 
 
 1 The Earl of Dunmore died shortly after Charles Murray's return 
 from America in 1836. 
 
DEATH OF LADY DUNMOKE. 209 
 
 us ! It is our blessed privilege to feel that every 
 emotion of sorrow, however natural and unavoid- 
 able, must be tainted with weakness and selfishness, 
 for we have the clearest ground for the assurance 
 that for her to die is gain. We mutually feel that 
 the grace of faith was most brightly developed in 
 her. We mutually feel that Christ was indeed 
 precious to her soul, and why ? because we beheld 
 in her the good fruit of those goodly trees of 
 righteousness. There was no asceticism which 
 took a gloomy view of religion. The bright rays 
 of pure love pervaded everything, not only throw- 
 ing a mantle of cheerfulness over all the innocent 
 endearments and amusements of social life, but 
 throwing the same mantle over all the duties of 
 spiritual life. 
 
 " ' God is love ' was the bright motto inscribed 
 upon her heart, and in the eye of faith it was ever 
 raised before her as the sacred banner under which 
 every faculty was marshalled and pressed forward 
 continually in the glorious struggle of ' Holiness 
 unto the Lord.' " 
 
 "12 PORTMAN SQUARE, June 1846. 
 
 " Here I am in the first step of my wanderings. 
 Last evening I gathered all our little household 
 together, and read them from the xi. Ezekiel, ' Thus 
 saith the Lord Almighty, Yet will I be to them 
 as a little sanctuary in the countries where they 
 shall come,' and ending ' they shall be my people, 
 and I will be their God/ I endeavoured to say a 
 few words to them upon the subject, and, by God's 
 
 o 
 
210 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 grace, bring it home to them with comfort and 
 profit. This morning at eleven we all read the 
 63rd Psalm together, and had our little prayer and 
 parted such a parting, all, all so saddened. And 
 well they might be, for when will they again have 
 the same happy experience in any other house? 
 ' How blessed a thing it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity ! ' 
 
 " I w^rite all this to you, the only one left of the 
 joyous five that once composed our unbroken family 
 circle, because I know it will give you pleasure to 
 feel that to the last I endeavoured to keep our 
 mother's house what it ever had been, a house of 
 prayer. Who can tell the rending of the heart- 
 strings at leaving a home where the grace and 
 goodness of God had been so long and so 
 abundantly vouchsafed, where every new day 
 brought a new blessing, and where I knew the 
 effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous mother was 
 so continually ascending ? " 
 
 After nearly a year spent at Naples, Murray re- 
 ceived in 1846 the appointment of Consul-General 
 in Egypt. A remarkable man, Mohammed Ali, 
 was then the Sultan's Viceroy in that country. 
 Murray was deeply impressed by his powerful, if 
 somewhat unscrupulous and tyrannical, character, 
 and compiled an interesting memoir of him, which 
 is too long for insertion in this place, but a few 
 extracts may be given in order to show the sort 
 
MOHAMMED ALT. 211 
 
 of ruler with whom the British Consul- General 
 had to do : 
 
 "In the closing years of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury a man, half trader, half soldier, began to 
 distinguish himself in the wars of Egypt. His 
 extraction was humble, but though indigent and 
 meanly descended, though ignorant of everything 
 beyond the rough life of a Turkish guard-house, 
 and the chicaneries of a petty trade, the ad- 
 venturer had no sooner been placed at the head 
 of a body of troops than he showed himself born 
 for conquest and command. Among the crowd 
 of Osmanlis and Memlooks who were then strug- 
 gling for the perilous inheritance of the Pharaohs, 
 not one could compare with him in the qualities 
 of the captain and the statesman. He became a 
 general ; he became almost a sovereign. Out of 
 the fragments of old provinces which had gone to 
 pieces in the general wreck of Turkey, he formed 
 for himself a compact and vigorous State. He 
 created a power mightier than that which the 
 arms and sympathies of Europe reared on the 
 ruins of ancient Greece ; mightier than that to 
 which Ypsilanti, with the aid of Russian arms, 
 vainly aspired upon the Danube. 
 
 " The State he had rescued from anarchy, he 
 ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance of 
 Abubekir or Hyder AH. Rapacious and untaught, 
 he had yet enlargement of mind enough to per- 
 ceive how much the prosperity of subjects adds to 
 the strength of Government ; and if sometimes 
 
212 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 mistaken in the method he adopted for attaining 
 this object, he was always consistent in its pursuit. 
 Out of a frightful confusion he educed at least an 
 imperfect order. He was an oppressor, but he had 
 the merits of protecting his people from all oppres- 
 sion but his own, and afforded them a security 
 that they had not enjoyed for many ages. Such 
 was Mohammed Ali, founder of the modern Vice- 
 Royalty of Egypt, and one of the greatest Mussul- 
 man captains who has existed since Tarik gave 
 his name to the heights of Calpe, and the stern 
 retribution exacted for a lady's dishonour brought 
 confusion to the banners of Roderick." 
 
 Mohammed Ali was born in a peasant's family 
 at Cawala, a small town of Roumelia, in 1769, 
 the same year that gave birth to the Duke of 
 Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. His bright, 
 intelligent nature brought him under the notice of 
 a French merchant at Cawala, who took him into 
 his household and taught him the principles of 
 trading. 
 
 " The inhabitants of a village in the district 
 of Cawala refused to pay a tax imposed upon 
 them, alleging, probably with perfect truth, that 
 it had already been levied. This tax was the 
 hated haratch, an impost as detested as that 
 which called forth the blow of Wat Tyler, or that 
 which estranged the hearts of the Roman populace 
 from Rienzi. It was a sort of poll-tax, paid only 
 
MOHAMMED ALL 213 
 
 by the Christian subjects of the Porte, and was a 
 perpetual source of difficulty. It was hated by 
 the Rayahs, partly from the humiliation attached 
 to it, and partly from its injustice. It was par- 
 ticularly obnoxious in Roumelia, where three- 
 fourths of the inhabitants were Christians. ... It 
 is probable that in ordinary times the Governor 
 of Cawala would have ceased to press his claims, 
 whether just or otherwise. . . . But on this oc- 
 casion his necessities were pressing, and he was 
 determined that the tax, whether due or not, 
 should be paid. While he still hesitated what 
 course to take, Mohammed Ali offered his services, 
 and with that boyish ardour which troubles itself 
 little with consequences, bluntly declared that 
 he would soon contrive to bring the refractory 
 villagers to reason. The Governor, half surprised 
 and half amused at the vaunt, but being at his 
 wits' end, placed a handful of troops under the 
 young man's orders, and gave him authority to 
 act as he pleased. 
 
 " His mode of proceeding was marked by all 
 that energy and decision which has usually 
 signalised the first exploits of successful military 
 adventurers. It was bold, artful, and character- 
 istic. It illustrated vividly also the conduct of 
 the Turkish Government of Roumelia at the time. 
 It was a rule which had turned one of the most 
 smiling gardens of the ancient world into a wilder- 
 ness for the fox and the jackal ; which had caused 
 the grass to grow in the streets of those beautiful 
 cities that were the delight of Hadrian, and where 
 Amurath I. and his successors had forgotten even 
 
214 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 the palaces of the Bosphorus. It was a rule that 
 had made the calling of an avenger and a robber 
 the most popular that could be followed by the 
 descendants of those Thracians whose valour had 
 once been the boast of Home, who had fought 
 under Belisarius and Phocas for the fast-fading 
 glories of the great empire, and who had rallied 
 loyally round even the last impotent princes who 
 swayed the sceptre of Constantine." 
 
 In short, Mohammed Ali combined strategy with 
 force in the most approved manner, and the tax 
 was wrung from the luckless villagers. This 
 success secured Mohammed's appointment to the 
 Governor's palace - guard, rapid promotion, and 
 marriage with a relative of the Governor. In 
 the war which broke out with the French in 1789 
 and ended in their expulsion from Egypt, Moham- 
 med distinguished himself, and rose from post to 
 post, till he attained that of Brigadier - General. 
 He had acquired the full degree of popularity 
 which an army usually accords to a successful 
 general, which he did not scruple to turn to the 
 purposes of his own ambition. He led his soldiers 
 in revolt against Khosrow Pasha, the Sultan's 
 lieutenant in Egypt, and in 1806, being then 
 thirty-seven years of age, was appointed to the 
 post from which he had driven Khosrow Pasha 
 
MOHAMMED ALL 215 
 
 and his successor Khoorshid. To explain such a 
 monstrous reward of rebellion, it is only necessary 
 to mention that it was accomplished by the ordin- 
 ary methods of Turkish administration namely, a 
 display of military force and a handsome bribe to 
 the Sultan. 
 
 Nevertheless, this was the best thing that could 
 happen to Egypt at this time. It gave the land a 
 strong and sagacious ruler, able and willing to re- 
 deem it from the anarchy and poverty to which 
 centuries of Turkish misrule had reduced it. But, 
 having seized the power, a weaker man than 
 Mohammed Ali might well have shrunk from the 
 means necessary to keep it. One incident, which 
 took place in 1811, may be told in Murray's own 
 words : 
 
 "While at Suez superintending the preparations 
 for the Arabian expedition, the Viceroy received a 
 letter from Mohammed Saz, his Kehia Bey, telling 
 him that the Memlooks intended to waylay him on 
 his return to Cairo. Instead, therefore, of remain- 
 ing at Suez as long as he had intended, he left it 
 that night on a swift dromedary, without letting 
 any one know whither he was going, and reached 
 Cairo with only four attendants by daybreak next 
 morning. This intended treachery, and another 
 plot revealed to him about the same time, deter- 
 
216 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 mined Mohammed All to be beforehand with them. 
 He was indeed thoroughly alarmed, and he laid his 
 plans for the destruction of his enemies with all 
 the craft and determination of his character. The 
 Arabian expedition was ordered to be hastened by 
 every possible means, and the investiture of Too- 
 soon Pasha with the command of the army was 
 assigned as the prelude to its immediate departure. 
 "An early day was fixed for this ceremony, and 
 all the principal officers were commanded to attend 
 at the Citadel to witness it. The Memlooks were 
 also invited to be present. It was on the morning 
 of the 1st of March 1811, the season when the hot 
 south winds begin to blow, and the heat even in 
 the early morning becomes intolerable to Euro- 
 peans, that the Memlook Beys rode for the last 
 time prancing and glittering along the streets of 
 Cairo. There were still some fine fellows among 
 them from an oriental point of view. There were 
 men in that magnificent throng who would have 
 galloped gaily up to certain death ; who looked 
 upon a battle as a sport ; who possessed rude 
 virtues, generosity, hospitality, even friendship ; 
 who protected those they loved, and whose affec- 
 tion was easily gained. There were in that bril- 
 liant crowd men of gallant soldier natures with 
 open hands and frank tongues ; men full of jests 
 and racy humour ; good mimics and lusty boon 
 companions. The fatal days of Cholrakhyt and 
 the Pyramids had decimated them. Their body 
 was corrupted by the admission of three or four 
 Frenchmen. But they still numbered four or five 
 
MOHAMMED ALL 217 
 
 thousand horsemen, and, of these, 470 of their best 
 men now rode in state to witness the investiture of 
 the Viceroy's son. 
 
 " Chakyn Bey was the first who appeared at the 
 head of his household ; the other Beys followed, 
 and the Viceroy received them with great pomp 
 and courtesy in his great hall of audience. The 
 coffee and conversation of the East beguiled the 
 time during the ceremony. When it was over the 
 signal for departure was given, and the Beys took 
 horse to form part of a magnificent procession to 
 the camp. 
 
 " A punctilious etiquette was enforced, and every 
 one was compelled to take the place assigned to 
 him by his rank. A corps of the famous Dehlis, 
 whose reckless courage was the pride of Egypt, 
 opened the march. They were commanded by 
 Ouzoun Ali. Then came the Agha of the Janis- 
 saries, the Odjaquelys, the Yoldaches, and Saleh 
 Kock with his Albanians in their white fustanellas. 
 In the centre rode the Memlooks, led by Solyman 
 Bey al Baout, renowned for his gigantic stature, 
 and for the inimitable address with which he 
 managed his horse and sabre. The main body of 
 the infantry, the cavalry, and the civil authorities 
 followed. So the column moved towards the gate 
 of El Azab, opening upon the Square of Roumeleh. 
 
 "The road leading thither is now so changed 
 that were a Memlook to return to life, he would 
 not recognise the spot where he was trapped. 
 But a credible witness, who was present on that 
 dreadful day, relates that it was a winding and 
 
218 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 narrow pathway cut in the rock, and flanked by 
 high houses and fortifications. Sharp turns arid 
 angles made it impossible for two horsemen to 
 ride abreast ; the ground was broken and rugged. 
 No sooner had the Dehlis, Janissaries, and Al- 
 banians passed the gate of El Azab than Saleh 
 Kock ordered it to be closed, and communicated 
 to his men the Viceroy's orders for the massacre 
 of the Memlooks. The Albanians immediately 
 faced about, and their light active figures were 
 seen ascending the rock with the agility of goats. 
 The suspicion of treachery immediately flashed 
 across the minds of the Beys, but escape or resist- 
 ance were alike impossible. A volley of musketry 
 from above revealed the horror of their position. 
 On this preconcerted signal the troops in the rear, 
 posting themselves in the neighbouring houses and 
 behind walls, opened a murderous fire. Men and 
 horses fell under a shower of balls. No courage 
 could avail against an invisible enemy. In vain 
 the Beys turned to fly, hoping at least to regain 
 the Citadel and sell their lives dearly. They 
 could neither advance nor retire ; wherever they 
 moved they were picked off by the sharp-sighted 
 Albanians. Their horses, maddened by the shouts 
 and firing, became unmanageable, slipping and 
 falling at every plunge. Some of the Beys rolled 
 themselves to the ground and endeavoured to 
 disentangle themselves of the mass of clothes in 
 which they were enveloped; but the unseen enemy 
 shot them as they lay tumbling about on the 
 ground. Chakyn Bey fell pierced with balls before 
 
MASSACRE OF THE MEMLOOKS. 219 
 
 the gates of Saladin's palace. His body was 
 dragged through the streets with a cord round its 
 neck. Solyman Bey el Baoub found his way, 
 bleeding and half-naked, to the Viceroy's palace : 
 there, gaining the harem, he implored the im- 
 memorial right of sanctuary in words dear to 
 many generations of fugitives and captives Fy 
 ard el Harem (' under the protection of the 
 women'). But he was dragged away by the 
 prince's orders and beheaded with a ruthless 
 ferocity, such as only fear could have inspired. 
 Of all who had ridden up to the Citadel in the 
 pride of health and strength, Emin Bey, who 
 leapt his horse over a gap in the wall, was the 
 only one who escaped. 
 
 "It is said that hardly had the cortege begun 
 to defile when Mohammed Ali became unquiet. 
 His uneasy movements betrayed his emotion. 
 When he heard the first discharge of musketry 
 his agitation increased to a degree quite uncon- 
 trollable. He grew pale and trembled. Perhaps 
 he feared that his orders would be executed by 
 faltering hands, and that a bloody struggle might 
 end in his own ruin and murder. Perhaps he 
 repented. The sight of wounded prisoners and 
 trunkless heads soon dispelled all apprehension 
 for his own safety, but could not restore com- 
 posure to his face nor to his mind. At length the 
 Genoese Mendrici, one of his physicians, entered 
 the apartment where he sat, and approaching 
 him said, with a gay air, such as only an Italian 
 could have assumed under such circumstances, 
 
220 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 ' The affair is over ; this is a happy day for your 
 Highness.' The Viceroy replied nothing, but his 
 silence was expressive, and opening his parched 
 lips, he gasped out a call for water. 
 
 " The houses of the Memlooks were given up to 
 plunder. They were stricken down, buying and 
 selling, feasting and marrying. Immense spoils 
 were found. Orders were given to exterminate all 
 who could be found in the city. Punishment was 
 denounced against any one known to harbour 
 them or to facilitate their escape. For two whole 
 days the pillage went on unchecked. Then the 
 Viceroy, in his robes of ceremony, made a solemn 
 procession through the city and put an end to the 
 sack. Those who escaped the general massacre 
 were permitted to retire where they pleased, and 
 to remain unmolested. It is said that about four 
 hundred and forty, with their chief Ibrahim Bey, 
 were murdered in the Citadel. In the city and 
 the country it is supposed that no less than twelve 
 hundred more were sacrificed." 
 
 It may be asked how Murray could look with 
 calmness, even with admiration, on the author of 
 such a fearful enormity a crime of which, when he 
 went to Egypt, he heard from the lips of men who 
 had witnessed it in all the hideous details. Murray 
 could only say that the destruction of the Mem- 
 looks was a reform necessary to all other reforms : 
 they frustrated all Mohammed Ali's plans ; they had 
 
MOHAMMED'S TREACHERY. 221 
 
 twice attempted his assassination ; he had to play 
 the game according to their rules or lose it. 
 
 "It is clear that Mohammed Ali had been guilty 
 of a great crime. The offence cannot be vindicated. 
 Yet in order that the censure may be justly appor- 
 tioned to the transgression, the circumstances of 
 the criminal and of the time must be taken into 
 consideration. The destruction of the power of 
 the Memlooks was a reform necessary to all other 
 reforms. Their rule was tainted with all the vices 
 of oriental despotism, and with all the vices in- 
 separable from the dominion of race over race. 
 The conflicting pretensions of the chiefs had pro- 
 duced a series of crimes and disasters such as can 
 hardly be found elsewhere in the history of the 
 world. A succession of dissolute Sangiacs, sunk 
 in indolence and debauchery, rioted away life, eat- 
 ing opium, fondling concubines, and listening to 
 buffoons, or they roused themselves only to indulge 
 in wholesale murders. The wealth of all Egypt 
 would not have purchased their allegiance to any 
 Government ; no benefits could conciliate, no com- 
 pact could bind them. 
 
 " Oriental politics are a fearful game. Mohammed 
 Ali was not only struggling for empire, but for life 
 and liberty. Fear is the most cruel of passions, 
 and he was beset by powerful, wily, and implacable 
 enemies. He had been for some time at peace 
 with them, when they had twice tried to murder 
 him, and had frustrated all his plans. He knew 
 that to temporise with them was useless, and to 
 
222 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 punish them impossible. Where there is no law, 
 there will always be violence. There must be some 
 check on strong and reckless men. There was not 
 one among the Beys who, in a sound state of society, 
 might not have been tried and executed as a trait- 
 orous disturber of the public peace. They were 
 far worse than the Scottish chiefs who provoked 
 the massacre of Glencoe. They were more dan- 
 gerous than the nobles of the League who dis- 
 tracted the Government of the last Yalois. Their 
 horse, their clothes, their strength, their fine arms, 
 have invested them with the same kind of romance 
 which lingers around the splendid Cavaliers who 
 charged with Rupert at Edgehill, and the noble 
 gentlemen whose harness shone at Ivry round 
 Henry of Navarre. But they were in reality little 
 better than a horde of savage and illiterate men- 
 at - arms, who cared for nothing but booty, no 
 matter whence it came. It was dangerous for the 
 Viceroy to hold terms with them. It was still 
 more so that he should be known to have been 
 defied. The favour of the Porte always went to 
 the strongest : in an instant the Albanians, who 
 were ready to murder for him while prosperous, 
 might be hired to slay him, if good fortune de- 
 serted him for a single day. He could not eat 
 without the dread of being poisoned. Let those 
 who have never been compelled to make a choice 
 between innocence and greatness, crime and ruin, 
 pass judgment upon him ; while others are content 
 to remember how far from the path of right the 
 best natures have been hurried by the promptings 
 
MOHAMMED'S TREACHERY. 223 
 
 of fear and the lust of dominion. If judged wholly 
 by our notions, the massacre of the Beys was in- 
 deed an act of inhuman treachery. But it cannot 
 be looked upon with the same feelings of horror 
 that we attach to similar crimes which have been 
 perpetrated by Christian princes the butchery 
 of the Swedish nobility by Christian II. , and the 
 slaughter of the Templars by Philip the Fair : it 
 more nearly resembles the destruction of the 
 Janissaries, which was effected some years later 
 at Constantinople. 
 
 " If judged, then, by the public opinion of his 
 countrymen and co-religionists, the Viceroy would 
 be at once absolved. It is not saying too much to 
 assert that there was perhaps not a man in author- 
 ity, from Bayazid to Candia, who would have 
 hesitated for a moment to act as he did. Moham- 
 medans are not educated on the same principle as 
 we are. They are accustomed from infancy to 
 bloodshed, and punishments such as make our 
 Christian nature shudder. They kill remorselessly 
 without passing among each other for ferocious or 
 cruel. A man who will order his servant to jump 
 into the sea to save a locust from drowning would 
 put out the eyes of a political rival, or maim and 
 torture him to death, without compunction. The 
 religion of Mohammed is of the sword and not of 
 peace. It has always consecrated the violence 
 and legalised the excesses of conquerors. The fall 
 of the Beys was an inestimable boon to Egypt : 
 the fall of Mohammed Ali would have rendered 
 her future hopeless." 
 
224 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 Murray claimed for Mohammed All that he was 
 a great ruler, not that he was a good man : 
 
 " Not a single great ruler in history can be 
 absolved by a judge who fixes his eye inexorably 
 on one or two unjustifiable acts. With respect to 
 the murder of the Memlooks, the charge against 
 Mohammed Ali, when fairly considered, will amount 
 to this, that he was neither better nor worse than 
 other persons of his age and country ; that the 
 founder of a new dynasty in the East can hardly 
 escape some cruel acts ; and that he formed no 
 exception to the common rule." 
 
 As to the internal administration founded by 
 Mohammed Ali, Murray admits that in many re- 
 spects it was faulty ; but it was infinitely better 
 than anything that had preceded it since the be- 
 ginning of Turkish rule. 
 
 "Whoever seriously considers what it is to con- 
 struct from the beginning, in a country which had 
 been for centuries the scene of rapine, violence, 
 and anarchy, the whole of a machine so vast and 
 complicated as a Government, will allow that what 
 Mohammed Ali effected deserves great praise. No 
 Mussulman sovereign, since the brilliant domina- 
 tion of the Arabs in Spain, can be compared with 
 him. His justice and toleration were fully equal 
 to that of Saladin. His enlightenment surpassed 
 that of the most famous of the Caliphs of Bagdad. 
 Defective as was the police, heavy as were the 
 
MOHAMMED'S METHOD OF RULE. 225 
 
 public burthens, the oldest men in Egypt could 
 not recollect a time of equal security and general 
 prosperity. For the first time since the reign of 
 Arnasis the province was placed under a governor 
 strong enough to prevent others from robbing, 
 and not inclined to play the robber himself. The 
 thanks of the traveller and the stranger are also 
 surely due to him who has made Egypt almost as 
 safe as Yorkshire, and far safer than some of the 
 counties in Ireland." 
 
 Of Mohammed Ali's personal methods of admin- 
 istration many curious anecdotes are given. Here 
 is one which he used to tell to Murray as reflect- 
 ing creditably on his own sagacity as a ruler : 
 
 " Stopping once upon his way from Alexandria 
 to Cairo, and having determined upon making a 
 canal, he sent for the chief engineer of the prov- 
 ince. Having given him the length, breadth, and 
 depth of the canal required, he asked the engineer 
 in what space of time he would undertake to make 
 it. The man took out his pencil and paper, and 
 having made his calculations, answered that if the 
 Pasha gave him an order on the governor of the 
 district for the labour required, it might be finished 
 in a year. The reply to this was a signal to the 
 Pasha's servants to throw the engineer on his back 
 and give him two hundred blows with a stick on 
 the soles of his feet. This ceremony being con- 
 cluded, ' Here,' said the Pasha, ' is an order for the 
 
226 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 number of labourers you may require. I am going 
 to Upper Egypt ; I shall come back in four months ; 
 if the canal is not completed by the day of my re- 
 turn, you shall have three hundred more. The 
 work/ he would add, with much self-complacency, 
 6 was punctually executed.' " 
 
 Undoubtedly, such a system was liable to intol- 
 erable abuse in the hands of subordinates. For 
 instance, on one occasion a quantity of plate was 
 stolen from Mohammed Ali's palace at Shoubrah ; 
 the sheik of the Arabs and the ghafirs, or watch- 
 men, in the neighbourhood were thrown into prison 
 and severely flogged for supposed dereliction of 
 duty. The unhappy sheik declared that if he 
 were set at liberty he thought he might catch the 
 thieves, but that he could do nothing so long as 
 he was kept in chains. Accordingly, being set 
 free, he went straight to the slave-market and 
 bought a couple of negroes lately imported from 
 the interior, who could not speak a word of 
 Arabic. Next the sheik, having arranged con- 
 venient " testimony " with some of his comrades, 
 brought the negroes to the palace and accused 
 them of having stolen the plate. Mohammed Ali 
 ordered them to be bastinadoed till they confessed, 
 and if they would not confess, they were to be 
 
HARRIET MARTINEAU. 227 
 
 hanged. The poor wretches, wholly ignorant of 
 what was going on, thought they had been 
 brought into the service of the palace, and were 
 very well pleased, till they found themselves sud- 
 denly thrown down and cruelly beaten. Being 
 unable to confess anything, half an hour later 
 they were swinging from the trees at the back 
 of the palace ; the sheik and his comrades went 
 free, and oriental justice was appeased. 
 
 In Egypt Murray renewed acquaintance with 
 Harriet Martineau, whom he had met in America 
 many years before, and he has left the following 
 note about her visit : 
 
 " Of all the women whom I have known or met 
 in society, certainly Miss Martineau was one of the 
 shrewdest in her observation and practical in her 
 deductions. Her intellect is what we men are 
 pleased to term ' masculine,' and her style remark- 
 able for clearness and vigour." 
 
 Nevertheless, she was not infallible. 
 
 " One afternoon we met at the villa of my old 
 friend S. W. Larking, on the banks of the Mah- 
 moudieh Canal. In the course of our stroll through 
 the garden we came to a small gate across one of 
 the gravel walks, the pattern of which was new to 
 Miss Martineau, who was walking in front. She 
 
228 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 stopped, and, looking at the little gate in an atti- 
 tude of intense admiration, exclaimed, ' How truly 
 oriental ! what wonderful taste these Easterns have 
 in design ! ' She went on, and as Larking and I 
 followed through the gate, he whispered to me, ' I 
 got it out last week from Birmingham ! ' ' 
 
 Bearing in mind Murray's early and consistent 
 hatred of slavery, it was a curious combination of 
 circumstances which rendered him the purchaser 
 of one slave, at least, for the British Government. 
 It came about in this way. A slave-girl, an Abys- 
 sinian Christian, having fallen into wretched health 
 and apparently dying, was thrust into the house 
 of an English resident at Cairo by a slave-dealer 
 who was just starting on a journey and despaired 
 of making any profit out of her. The English 
 family treated her well and restored her to health, 
 so that when the dealer returned from his journey 
 and found the girl in a thoroughly marketable 
 condition he promptly claimed his property. 
 Naturally the Englishman refused to surrender the 
 girl who had come under his roof by no culpable 
 act either of his or hers ; but the Egyptian Gov- 
 ernment supported the dealer's claim, which was 
 according to law, and threatened to send a com- 
 pany of soldiers to enforce it. The English gentle- 
 man appealed to Murray, who could not interfere 
 
MURRAY AS A SLAVE PURCHASER. 229 
 
 directly, as he could not assume that the dealer 
 would maltreat the girl. He therefore applied for 
 instructions, and received the following character- 
 istic reply from " Old Pam." : 
 
 Viscount Palmer ston to the Hon. C. A. Murray. 
 
 " FOREIGN OFFICE, August 5, 1848. 
 
 " I have in reply to state to you for your guid- 
 ance, that if the slave-girl had been brought to the 
 Consulate, we might have claimed a right to retain 
 her, because the Consulate might have been alleged 
 to be invested with the freedom-conferring qualities 
 of British soil ; but as she was left at the house of 
 a British subject liable to the laws of the country, 
 and as slave property is part of the Egyptian law, 
 I fear it would be difficult to maintain that the 
 slave-merchant is not by the law of Egypt entitled 
 to have back his slave, or be paid for her. 
 
 "But it would be impossible to sanction the 
 surrender of the slave ; and therefore I hereby 
 authorise you to pay to and charge in your 
 accounts with this office a fair price for the girl, 
 and then the British merchant may retain her in 
 his service as a free servant, paying her the proper 
 rate of wages. 
 
 " The price to be paid should be the value of the 
 girl as she was when sent to the merchant's house, 
 and it seems to me that 30 would be too much ; 
 15 or 20 would be quite enough. But you may 
 settle this as best you can. I am, &c., 
 
 " PALMERSTON." 
 
230 LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY. 
 
 The Hon. C. A. Murray to Viscount Palmer ston. 
 
 " CAIRO, Nov&mber 4, 1848. 
 
 " Agreeably to your Lordship's directions, I shall 
 pay the amount requisite for the liberation of the 
 said slave-girl namely, 35 sterling and charge 
 the same in my account with the Foreign Office for 
 the current year." 
 
231 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1849-1857. 
 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 IT was during his residence in Egypt that the 
 romance of Murray's early life was brought to a 
 conclusion. It may be told in few words. 
 
 Mr Wadsworth, the wealthy owner of Gen- 
 eseo, in the United States, died in 1849. 1 It is 
 not clear whether Murray heard of this directly, 
 
 1 Mr Wadsworth was a self-made man. Murray, in his volume 
 of Travels, describes with enthusiasm the splendid estate he had won 
 for himself in the fertile valley of the Geneseo : " Yet this scene, 
 extraordinary and interesting as it was, possessed less interest to a 
 contemplative mind than the venerable and excellent gentleman who 
 had almost created it; for it was now forty -four years since Mr 
 Wadsworth came as the first settler to this spot, with an axe on 
 his shoulder, and slept the first night under a tree. After this 
 he lodged in a log - house ; subsequently in a cottage ; and he is 
 now (1834) the universally esteemed and respected possessor of a 
 demesne which many of the proudest nobility of Europe might 
 look upon with envy, where he exercises the rites of hospitality, 
 in the midst of his amiable family, with a sincerity and kindness 
 that I shall not easily forget." 
 
232 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 but at all events there remains in his own hand- 
 writing an account of what happened thereafter. 
 When at Dresden in 1864 he received news that 
 James Wadsworth, the brother of his first love, 
 had fallen in one of the battles of the great Civil 
 War. That event brought vividly before him 
 the story of thirty years of his life, so vividly 
 that he told it frankly as follows to the love of 
 his later years : 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray, C.S., to his Wife. 
 
 " EISENACH, 26th May 1864. 
 
 " After I sent off my letter to you by to-day's 
 post, I took a long walk in these beautiful hills 
 and woods. . . . Do you remember where we got 
 out of the carriage and went up a narrow winding 
 valley full of high beech-trees and steep over- 
 hanging cliffs? We only went up a small part 
 of it, for it was too far for you to walk, but I 
 followed it for miles up to the very head, where 
 it opens out upon a wild elevated chase from 
 which one looks down upon the Castle of Wartz- 
 burg on this side, and over leagues of the Thur- 
 ingian Forest on the other. The beauty of that 
 walk is indescribable, and in the deep silence of 
 those enormous beech -groves I reviewed all the 
 events of my life connected with poor James 
 Wadsworth. I remembered how I had first seen 
 him in New York, when he was just starting for 
 a tour in Europe with his young wife : he was 
 about twenty - five and she about twenty, and 
 
MURRAY'S FIRST LOVE. 233 
 
 was, I think, the most perfect and faultless speci- 
 men of female beauty that ever I saw in my life. 
 I gave them letters to Lord Lansdowne and others 
 in London, and he gave me a letter for his vener- 
 able father at Geneseo. It was there that I met 
 his sister, and I believe that in less than a fort- 
 night our fates were sealed. She was less beauti- 
 ful, but more intellectual, more winning and 
 attractive (at all events to me), than his wife. 
 I visited them again before leaving America, and 
 our former ties were confirmed and riveted. Then 
 came a protracted correspondence of parents, 
 mine would not hear of my abandoning my coun- 
 try and settling in America, and her father would 
 not hear of his only remaining daughter leaving 
 him to settle in England. Moreover, if he had 
 allowed it, I believe her sense of filial duty would 
 have prevented her from availing herself of the 
 permission. The letters on both sides became more 
 peremptory, and at last the whole engagement 
 was broken off, and all communication between 
 us positively forbidden. For fourteen years, during 
 which she refused several of the highest and best 
 offers in America, did she keep her pure steady 
 love in her heart unchanged by time and unsup- 
 ported by hope, and it was only after her father's 
 death, when we met accidentally in Scotland, that 
 I learnt that I could still claim her as my own. 
 . . . You know the rest of her short and sad 
 story. For a week after little C. 1 was born she 
 nursed him, oh with what joy and love ! . . . She 
 said to me suddenly, e Charlie, is this death ? ' I 
 
 ] Charles James Murray, Esq., M.P. for Coventry. 
 
234 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 could not speak, for I knew there was little hope ; 
 then she desired that all others might leave the 
 room, and she made me come, and she kissed me 
 and comforted me, and told me that the one year 
 of unbroken happiness that we had spent together 
 was worth a lifetime, and that not one word of 
 unkindness or cloud of doubt had ever come be- 
 tween us. Then she took my hand in hers and 
 said to me solemnly, ' Promise me that when you 
 have recovered from this blow you will marry again. 
 I want you to be happy again in this world, and 
 you never can be so without a wife whom you 
 can love/ I need not tell you that my lips were 
 unable to utter any such promise ; but I turned 
 her thoughts again to the horizon celeste, and I 
 read her the communion and other prayers, and 
 as her life-blood was ebbing away she repeated 
 faintly after me the Lord's Prayer as far as ' Thy 
 will be done,' when with a sweet smile upon her 
 face her spirit returned to her Father and her 
 God ! Why do I repeat all this to you, my sweet 
 darling? Why, because you are part of myself, 
 and poor James Wadsworth's death has brought 
 it all home to me to-day in my solitary walk, 
 and all that is in my thoughts and heart should 
 be unburthened to you, blessed darling, whom 
 God has given to me to be my joy and comfort, 
 the future of all my sad memories as well as of 
 my present happiness ; and if her beautiful spirit 
 can see what now passes on earth, she too will 
 bless you, Mavourneen, for realising her last 
 earthly wish concerning me, and for your sweet 
 tender affection for her child." 
 
THE SONG OF AH-TO-MENO. 235 
 
 I have stated in a former chapter that, during 
 these long years of waiting, Murray held no com- 
 munication with Miss Wadsworth, save indirectly, 
 through the channel of his published romance 
 the ' Prairie Bird.' There was a single exception 
 to this silence. The following Indian poem was 
 translated by him from the Delaware and sent to 
 Miss Wadsworth, to whom the significance no 
 doubt was perfectly clear : 
 
 SONG OP AH-TO-MENO OR WOUNDED EAGLE. 
 
 Ah-to-meno lies on the far Prairies ; he puts his ear to the 
 ground, he hears the tread of horses and the voices of the 
 Chiefs, but he hears not the Song of Oolita. 
 
 Where is the soft-voiced Prairie-bird? Is she silent from 
 sickness 1 Perhaps her heart is changed ; perhaps she whispers 
 to another warrior, and the wind brings not the sound to 
 Ah-to-meno. 
 
 The wounded Eagle's wigwam is cold, an arrow has struck 
 him deep, he has gone to smoke the pipe of peace among great 
 chiefs of a far tribe, but he is a Delaware ; his heart is strong ; 
 he can hear the mocassin of a creeping Sioux ; he can see the 
 squirrel if he stirs a twig on the highest hemlock then let the 
 Prairie-bird sing at the door of her lodge, Ah-to-meno's ears 
 are open. 
 
 Oolita is still silent : is she sad, let her look up to the 
 Manitto ; he is good, he will pity Oolita and make her face 
 bright. 
 
 Ah-to-meno dwells with the chiefs of the tribe ; among their 
 lodges he is welcome ; their daughters have eyes like the ante- 
 lope, and their tongues are like the mocking-bird, but the 
 wounded Eagle remembers the soft voice of Oolito. 
 
 AH-TO-MENO NEVEE FOEGETS. 
 
236 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 That is the whole touching tale fifteen years 
 of constancy almost destitute of hope, and without 
 a syllable of direct intercourse, written or spoken ; 
 an unexpected meeting ; a year of perfect happi- 
 ness ; a crushing blow ; eleven years of solitary 
 mourning, mitigated only by the duties of an in- 
 cessantly active life and the care for his child ; 
 then happiness once more ; union with another, 
 with whom, to the end of his days, Murray lived 
 in perfect harmony and love. 
 
 Human relations of this nature are delicate 
 matter for a stranger's hand. Discretion is prone 
 to err in resolving what to reveal and what to 
 withhold ; yet the story of Murray's life would be 
 incomplete without a reference, however brief, to 
 the peace which he found in his second marriage. 
 From a long series of letters to Lady Murray 
 which are before me it will suffice to make a 
 single other extract from one written the day 
 before that quoted from above, which may serve 
 to show the nature and extent of the confidence 
 which existed between them and endured to the 
 end. Murray had been reading a French book, 
 ' Horizons Celestes/ which was a favourite of his 
 wife. 
 
' HORIZONS CELESTES.' 23*7 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 " EISENACH, 25^ May 1864. 
 
 " I have been reading your ' Horizons Celestes/ 
 my darling, for an hour. There are thoughts 
 and expressions of almost unearthly beauty, and 
 somehow I can scarcely imagine it written by a 
 Frenchman ! In some respects I feel with shame 
 that the writer is too good for me, and that his 
 spirit soars into regions where I would fain follow 
 him, but cannot ! Some of his reasonings which 
 I can follow must be taken with a certain reserve ; 
 as, for instance, where he reproves, as human 
 weakness and infidelity, feelings which are really 
 a natural and necessary result of the circumstances 
 in which God has placed us in this world. Speak- 
 ing of our once loved but long since dead, he says, 
 4 Si Ton venait vous dire, "II est la!" vous vous 
 trouverez plus embarrasse que ravi.' Very often 
 this would happen ; but, as I maintain, not from 
 any untruthfulness or degradation in our nature. 
 Suppose a son who is deeply and devotedly fond 
 of his father, and that father, who is a prince or 
 man of great possessions, dies when the youth is 
 eighteen ; say that after five years he married, has 
 children, and suppose that five years again after that, 
 when he has formed all these new ties and accus- 
 tomed himself to the discharge of all the duties of 
 his position, some one could enter and say to him, 
 ' Your father is alive again, and is at the door/ 
 would he not naturally be ' plus embarrasse que 
 ravi ' ? Or take my own case. You will not doubt 
 that I loved Charlie's mother; you know that I 
 
238 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 loved her for fifteen years before we were married; 
 you have often let me speak to you of her endear- 
 ing qualities, and you know that I still love and 
 revere her memory as that of a saint in heaven ; and 
 how, when, after years and years of solitary exist- 
 ence, God has blessed me with the precious love of 
 Mavourneen, and that our daily thoughts, habits, 
 and affections are interwoven with each other, 
 could it be any reproach to me to say that, if some 
 supernatural influence were to come to me and 
 say, ' Elle est la ! ' I should be ' plus embarrass^ 
 que ravi ' ? The truth is, ... those authors 
 who depict and describe the feelings with such 
 eloquent analysis often forget, what God never 
 forgets, how they are necessarily coloured, modi- 
 fied, and controlled by the events and circum- 
 stances amidst which Providence has cast our lot. 
 M. de W., the Minister here, has just called and 
 kept me half an hour in conversation, thereby 
 bringing down my thoughts from ' les horizons 
 celestes ' to a ' horizon prochain,' including of 
 course Schleswig-Holstein, anent which matter, 
 if to-day's telegrams are true, poor Denmark's 
 prospects from the Conference are darker than 
 ever ! " 
 
 Returning now to the year 1850 Murray mar- 
 ried Miss Elise Wadsworth, "the Prairie Bird," 
 on 12th December: on 8th December 1851 she 
 died after giving birth to her son. Mrs Murray 
 had inherited a very large share of her father's 
 wealth, which she left by will to her husband. 
 

 
LETTER FROM FENIMORE COOPER. 239 
 
 Owing, however, to the nature of American law, 
 which prohibited aliens inheriting property in the 
 States unless they become naturalised citizens, 
 Murray found himself debarred from any advan- 
 tage under this will : his late wife's fortune passed 
 to her brothers. These gentlemen, with singular 
 generosity, exerted themselves successfully to ob- 
 tain a special Act of Congress, waiving in the case 
 of Charles Murray the obligation to become nat- 
 uralised, and enabling him to enter upon posses- 
 sion of the whole property of his American wife. 
 
 Changes were already beginning to make the 
 United States, as Murray knew them, hardly to 
 be recognised. 
 
 J. Fenimore Cooper to the Hon. Charles 
 Murray, C.B. 
 
 " COOPERSTOWN, Oct. 23rd, 1850. 
 
 " We are ( progressing,' as we Americans say, 
 at a famous rate. New York must have doubled 
 its population, nearly, since you saw it, and has 
 quadrupled its show. Really good houses are 
 built, such as would be so considered in any town 
 in Europe. Mother Trinity has disappeared, and 
 a substitute has been raised in her place which 
 ranks with the new church edifices of England. 
 It has a little too much of the partridge in the way 
 of tail, having just so many feet, and no more, for 
 its length. 
 
240 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 "Taking all things together, I regard New 
 York as the most remarkable town in the world. 
 I can distinctly recollect it, a place of 50,000 souls, 
 and now it has a suburb of more than 100,000 ! 
 Trade is driving all before it, and has fairly in- 
 vaded Broadway. The Globe, the Clarendon of 
 your time, is turned into stores, and the City 
 Hotel has been laid in the dust. 
 
 " Talking of the dust, which is so shortly to be 
 my portion, one of the most painful of my recol- 
 lections of my own travels is the great number of 
 dead among the acquaintances I made. At one 
 time it really seemed as if to know me was to die. 
 Some remain, however, and among them is the 
 noble-hearted Rogers. If you ever see him now, 
 tell him that we all love him and often speak of 
 him. I daresay my wife prays for him. . . . 
 
 " There is a good deal of trembling in our body 
 politic, but I think nothing will come of it just 
 now. The South has too much at stake to risk, 
 and every day it loses, increases the disparity 
 of the forces. . . . What we are to do with 
 the blacks, God knows ; but we shall never amal- 
 gamate. . . . 
 
 " Now I must tell you a little about the ' knock- 
 ings/ In one word, they are the most extraor- 
 dinary things I have ever met with. All attempts 
 at explanation are failures. They are not confined 
 to one family, or one place, but have been heard 
 in fifty places. Bancroft stood on one side of 
 a door and I on the other, each with a hand on 
 the panels. To me he seemed to be knocking all 
 over the door, and vice versd. Both of us felt the 
 
SERVICE IN EGYPT. 241 
 
 vibration of the door, which was one of our own 
 choosing, and where the ' ladies ' were strangers. 
 I am inclined to think more exists than is dreamt 
 of in our philosophy. I am not cracked, but as 
 cool and clear-headed as I ever have been, but no 
 more believe that the f ladies ' produced the knock- 
 ings I heard than I believe that you and I are 
 Turks. Depend upon it, it is the great mystery 
 of our time. . . . Adieu. Very truly yours, 
 
 " J. FENIMORE COOPER." 
 
 During his administration in Egypt Murray 
 earned the complete confidence of the British 
 residents, which was testified by the presentation 
 in 1852 of an illuminated address to him in 
 "the triple capacity of Minister, Magistrate, and 
 Friend." The course of affairs in Egypt, even 
 before the existence of the Suez Canal had 
 rendered that country the highroad to India, 
 and letters from Lord Dalhousie, the Governor- 
 General, show how much he relied on Murray's 
 judgment and knowledge of oriental people : 
 
 The Earl of Dalhousie to Hon. Charles 
 Murray, C.B. 
 
 "GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA, 
 April 18th, 1848. 
 
 " MY DEAR MURRAY, The news brought by the 
 mail of February 24th, and confirmed and enlarged 
 by this one, are such as to suggest the keeping 
 
242 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 one's eyes as wide open as they will go. News 
 from your part of the world will be of especial 
 importance. You will not think me needlessly 
 troublesome, therefore, if I ask you to do me the 
 favour of sending me privately, as you may see 
 occasion, a line or two, to let me know what facts 
 or what symptoms there are in and about the 
 Mediterranean. You will know very well what 
 sort of intelligence I want. Let it be ever so short, 
 it will be acceptable and valuable." 
 
 "June 2nd, 1852. 
 
 " I rejoice that you have remained at your post. 
 Whatever the issue may be, people would have 
 said that it would have been better if you had 
 been there. Indeed you truly say that ' we have 
 lippened l aye to Providence ' ; Lord Derby seems 
 as ready as his predecessors to add, like the old 
 song, ' and sae will we yet ' ! " 
 
 " April 3rd, 1853. 
 
 " The pleasure I had in learning that you were 
 again in Egypt was short - lived. You have 
 thoroughly earned the promotion which you tell 
 me you are immediately to get ; but I shall very 
 sincerely regret its effect in your removal from 
 Cairo and from your care of our interests there, 
 while everything for which your presence would be 
 valuable is still in so unsettled a state. There is a 
 French frigate with a steamer and an admiral 
 going up the Red Sea now what business can 
 they have there ? and yet I have no right to ask 
 
 1 Trusted. 
 
FIRST HIPPOPOTAMUS IN ENGLAND. 243 
 
 the question. You will of course know what their 
 professed object is and will divine their real one, 
 and I should be glad to know if it is anything 
 special." 
 
 " August 3rd, 1853. 
 
 " Naturally I feel a good deal of anxiety until 
 this Russian business is settled, but I cannot think 
 it possible that the Emperor can really go to war 
 against such odds and with so bad a case. If he 
 does, he is mad as Saul." 
 
 Perhaps the event by which the British public 
 at home have most cause to remember Murray's 
 Consul-Generalship is the important part he took 
 in securing a hippopotamus for the Zoological 
 Society the first that had been in England 
 since the tertiary age of geology, and the first 
 in Europe since the early Roman empire. Murray 
 persuaded the Viceroy, Abbas Pasha, to send a 
 party of hunters in July 1849, specially organised 
 for the purpose, to capture a calf on the White 
 Nile. This they effected on the island of Obaysch : 
 the baby hippopotamus travelled down many 
 hundred miles, escorted by a company of infantry, 
 to Cairo, where it was safely delivered to Murray 
 in the month of November. By the friendly co- 
 operation of the Peninsular and Oriental Company 
 a chamber was constructed on their steamship 
 Ripon, in which the hippopotamus was conveyed 
 
244 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 to England, and deposited in the Zoological 
 Society's Gardens on 25th May 1850. Obaysch, 
 for so he was named after the place of his capture, 
 was supplied with a mate, Adhela, in 1853, and 
 lived twenty -eight years in Regent's Park, dying 
 in 1878. Mr Philip Lutley Sclater, the present 
 secretary to the Society, remembers Murray fre- 
 quently visiting his old pet, shouting to him in 
 Arabic, when the enormous creature would come 
 towards him, grunting loudly in recognition of one 
 of his earliest friends. Murray makes allusion to 
 this achievement in a journal kept during part of 
 his time in Persia. His party had encountered 
 lions on the journey from Bazrah to Bagdad. 
 
 "March 20, 1857. ... So there are lions 
 here, despite my incredulity. So there are also 
 in London, Paris, and everywhere else ! I was 
 one myself for a short time i.e., when I brought 
 over to England the first hippopotamus that had 
 been seen alive in Europe since the earlier days 
 of the Roman empire, and I was called Hippo- 
 potamus Murray, a more noble sobriquet after all 
 than ' Bear ' Ellice, ' Poodle ' Byng, and others 
 that I have known to have their lion day in 
 London viz., 'Bull' Townshend, 'Bum' Gordon, 
 'Tiger' Bailey, &c., &c., with many others, not 
 to mention lionesses and cubs. Egypt has many 
 memories for me. I rendered at least three public 
 services there one to science, one to politics, and 
 
APPOINTED TO PERSIAN MISSION. 245 
 
 one to commerce. I brought the hippopotamus 
 out of it alive to Europe ; I kept the cursed tan- 
 zimat [legalised anarchy] out of it, in spite of Sir 
 Stratford Canning and the Sublime Porte ; and I 
 brought the railway into it, in spite of French 
 and Turkish intrigues." 
 
 In 1853 Murray finished his seventh year of 
 office in Egypt, and was appointed to Berne as 
 Minister to the Swiss Confederation. Being home 
 on leave in August 1854, Lord Clarendon, the^ 
 Foreign Secretary, sent for him and offered him 
 the mission to Persia. Murray hesitated. He 
 had been long away from England ; and if he 
 went to Persia he must leave his motherless child 
 behind him. He stated the grounds of his reluc- 
 tance to Lord Clarendon, who seemed vexed, and 
 observed that " as her Majesty's Government had 
 paid him the compliment of appointing him be- 
 cause they thought him the fittest man to be 
 sent on the occasion, he considered it his duty 
 to accept it." 
 
 The impression on Murray's mind was, that if 
 he intended to remain in the diplomatic service, to 
 persist in his refusal would be fatal to his pros- 
 pects. Therefore, after taking a day to consider 
 it, he accepted the appointment, and leaving his 
 boy in the good keeping of the Dowager-Duchess 
 
246 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 of Hamilton, he set off for his new sphere of 
 labour as Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary to 
 the Court of Persia. Here was an admirable 
 opportunity, duly appreciated by him, of increas- 
 ing his knowledge of oriental languages and 
 literature ; but circumstances rendered Tehran 
 anything but a bed of roses for the British 
 Minister at that time. 
 
 England was at war with Russia, and although 
 the chief stress of that war lay in the Black 
 Sea, an advance might at any time be directed 
 on the North - West frontier of India, which 
 Russia, according to her traditional policy, had 
 been steadily approaching for years. Hence it 
 was the policy of the British Government to aim 
 at maintaining the independence of Persia, in the 
 event of its being threatened by Russia, and, on 
 the other hand, to restrain Persia from renewing 
 her former attacks upon Afghan territory. 
 
 The state of affairs, then, when Murray went 
 to Tehran at the close of 1854, was this. Persia, 
 which had occupied Herat in 1852, had entered 
 into a treaty with Great Britain to evacuate that 
 city, to refrain from exercising any rights of sov- 
 ereignty in Afghan territory, and from sending 
 troops to Herat, except when troops from with- 
 out should attack that place. Persian foreign 
 
PERSIAN AFFAIRS. 247 
 
 policy had assumed its normal character of a 
 simultaneous flirtation with the Governments of 
 Russia and Great Britain, Russia being for the 
 moment the favoured swain. 
 
 The Shah, however, was a puppet in the hands 
 of his ambitious Premier, the Sadr Azim, who, 
 in order to maintain control of his royal master, 
 encouraged him in debauchery and drunkenness, 
 and meanwhile kept his eyes intently fixed on the 
 coveted territory of Herat, awaiting the first op- 
 portunity which might present itself of seizing it. 
 
 Such an opportunity arose before Murray had 
 been a year at Tehran. An insurrection took 
 place in Herat; the reigning prince, Synd Ma- 
 hommed, was killed, and Yuzoof Khan became 
 ruler in his place. Under the circumstances the 
 presence of a British Minister in Tehran became 
 exceedingly irksome to the Shah and his Min- 
 ister. At all hazards he must be got rid of, and 
 oriental diplomacy was at no loss for means to 
 bring about his disgrace. In June 1854, before 
 Murray's appointment to Tehran, Mr Thomson, 
 the Secretary to the Mission, had appointed one 
 Meerza Hashem Khan to be First Persian Sec- 
 retary to the Mission. This Meerza Hashem, who 
 had been formerly in the Shah's service, and had 
 married a lady of the royal family of Persia, had 
 
248 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 earned the displeasure of the Sadr Azim, and 
 had sought privilege of sanctuary in the British 
 Mission. Ten weeks after his appointment, the 
 Persian Government intimated their disapproval 
 of his employment in the Mission. Murray on 
 his arrival, in order to please the Court of Tehran, 
 removed Meerza Hashem from the secretaryship, 
 and appointed him British agent at Shiraz. To 
 this also the Shah's Government objected, refusing 
 to recognise Meerza Hashem as British agent, 
 and made his appointment the pretext for formu- 
 lating odious charges against both Murray and 
 Mr Thomson, whom they accused of having im- 
 proper relations with Meerza's wife. This lady 
 was seized and imprisoned, which was a violation 
 of the rights enjoyed under treaty by the mem- 
 bers and employees of the British Mission. Mur- 
 ray demanded her release, and an apology for the 
 false charges made against him and Mr Thomson. 
 The temper of the Persian Government may be 
 understood from the following autograph of the 
 Shah to his Prime Minister : 
 
 The Shah to the Sadr Azim (autograph). 
 
 (Translation. ) December 1855. 
 
 " Last night we read the paper written by the 
 English Minister Plenipotentiary, and were much 
 surprised at the rude, unmeaning, disgusting, and 
 
THE SHAH'S LETTERS. 249 
 
 insolent tone and purport. The letter which he 
 before wrote was also impertinent. We have also 
 heard that in his own house he is constantly 
 speaking disrespectfully of us and of you, but 
 we never believed ; now, however, he has intro- 
 duced it in an official letter. We are therefore 
 convinced that this man, Mister Murray, is stupid, 
 ignorant, and insane, who has the audacity and 
 impudence to insult even Kings ! From the time 
 of Shah Sultan Hossein (when Persia was in its 
 most disorganised state, and during the last four- 
 teen years of his life, when, by serious illness, he 
 was incapacitated for business) up to the present 
 time, no disrespect towards the Sovereign has 
 been tolerated either from the Government or its 
 agent. What has happened now that this foolish 
 Minister Plenipotentiary acts with such temerity ? 
 It appears that our friendly Missions are not 
 acquainted with the wording of that document ; 
 give it now to Meerza Abbas and Meerza Malcum, 
 that they may take and duly explain it to the 
 French Minister and Hyder Effendi, that they 
 may see how improperly he has written. Since 
 last night till now our time has been passed in 
 vexation. We now command you, in order that 
 you may yourself know, and also acquaint the 
 Missions, that until the Queen 1 of England her- 
 self makes us a suitable apology for the insolence 
 of her Envoy, we will never receive back this 
 her foolish Minister, who is a simpleton, nor 
 accept from her Government any other Minister." 
 
 1 The exceedingly objectionable term " Malikeh " is used in the 
 original. 
 
250 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 Shortly before the time that this firework was 
 discharged, Dost Mahommed, ruler of Cabul, ad- 
 vanced against Candahar, which afforded a pre- 
 text for the Persian Government to disregard 
 the treaty of 1853 and to lay siege to Herat. 
 
 Meanwhile Murray's request for the release of 
 Meerza Hashem's wife having been refused, and 
 the offensive insinuations regarding her relations 
 with the British Minister and Secretary having 
 been publicly repeated, Murray determined to 
 strike his flag and retire from Tehran. This ex- 
 treme step received the approval of Lord Clar- 
 endon, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
 Murray therefore withdrew with the British Mis- 
 sion to Tabreez, in Turkish territory, leaving Mr 
 Stevens as Consul to act in his absence. But 
 this also displeased the Shah, who wrote as fol- 
 lows to his Prime Minister : 
 
 The Shah to the Sadr Azim (autograph). 
 (Extract translated.) 
 
 " MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. November 22, 1855. 
 
 " I have seen the British Minister's letter, and I 
 am aware of his intention to leave, and of his re- 
 quest for a Mehmandar. Indeed, if the advantages 
 which are to accrue to us from the residence of a 
 British Minister here are those which we see, it is 
 for the benefit of both Governments that he should 
 
THE SHAH'S LETTERS. 251 
 
 quarrel and depart. Whenever I contrast my own 
 sincerity to the British Government, and the ex- 
 pectations which I entertain at heart from their 
 friendship with the conduct of the Mission, I am 
 drowned in a sea of amazement. . . . With regard 
 
 O 
 
 to what he has written, that he will leave a Consul 
 here, if by Consul he means Mr Stevens, whose 
 proceedings and mischief-making, while living in 
 Tabreez, would fill ten books, and whose proceed- 
 ings here are just what you now see when Mr 
 Murray, as Minister Plenipotentiary, has become 
 the cause of coolness and misunderstanding in this 
 way between the two Governments, what are we 
 to expect, and what confidence can we have in a 
 person like Mr Stevens, notorious for his mischief- 
 making? If the British Minister goes, let him 
 take with him Mr Stevens ; let him place some 
 one else in his place. Send a copy of this auto- 
 graph in answer to the Minister's letter, and pre- 
 pare the details of his conduct for the information 
 of the British Ministers, together with the real 
 truth of the question. If the British Minister 
 desires the humiliation of this Government, of 
 course we, so long as we have the power, will not 
 submit to any indignity." 
 
 It is obvious that the policy and intentions of 
 the Persian Government at this time rendered 
 the presence of any British representatives what- 
 soever at Tehran exceedingly inconvenient. Con- 
 sul Stevens, however, remained, and continued 
 to send reports on the course of events to the 
 
252 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 British Foreign Office, Lord Clarendon having 
 instructed him (May 15, 1856) to "abstain from 
 all communication, direct or indirect, with the 
 Persian Government." 
 
 On the same day Lord Clarendon replied 
 through Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe, Minister at 
 Constantinople, to overtures on the part of the 
 Persian Government for the return of the British 
 Mission to Tehran, provided Mr Murray were 
 recalled and another Minister sent in his place. 
 
 The Earl of Clarendon to Lord Sratford 
 de Redcliffe. 
 
 "FOREIGN OFFICE, May 15, 1856. 
 
 " Her Majesty's Government have no wish to 
 prolong, unnecessarily, an estrangement which was 
 created by the acts of the Persian Government ; 
 but they cannot consent to accept an inadequate 
 reparation from that Government. They require 
 that it should be made by the Persian Minister, 
 who was the author of the wrong ; that it should 
 be ample in its character, and brought publicly to 
 the knowledge of the inhabitants of the capital. 
 
 " In the next place, although, if any well-founded 
 objections of the Persian Government to the em- 
 ployment of Meerza Hashem as Agent, at Shiraz, 
 of the British Mission, had been duly brought 
 before them by that Government, her Majesty's 
 Government might have refrained from sanction- 
 ing his appointment ; yet as no sufficient explana- 
 
THE PERSIAN IMBROGLIO. 253 
 
 tion has been given of the reasons on account 
 of which the Persian Government made their 
 objection, and as the Persian Prime Minister has 
 thought fit to impugn the motives of her Majesty's 
 Minister for insisting upon the employment of the 
 Meerza at Shiraz, her Majesty's Government must 
 now require that Meerza Hashem should proceed 
 to Shiraz as Agent of the British Mission, his wife 
 being at once restored to him. 
 
 " If the course which the Persian Government 
 may determine to take on this matter should 
 admit of the return of her Majesty's Minister to 
 Tehran, her Majesty's Government will consent 
 that the whole of the correspondence between her 
 Majesty's Mission and the Persian Government, 
 in regard to the appointment of Meerza Hashem, 
 should be mutually withdrawn and be cancelled ; 
 but her Majesty's Government will expect and 
 require that when the British flag is again hoisted 
 over the residence of the British Mission, the re- 
 conciliation which will have been effected between 
 the two Governments shall be made known to the 
 inhabitants of Tehran by a salute of twenty-one 
 guns, to be fired in honour of the British flag. 
 The Sadr Azim must also immediately afterwards 
 pay a visit of ceremony to her Majesty's Minister, 
 who would return that visit the next day. 
 
 " Your Excellency will communicate to the Per- 
 sian Charge d' Affaires, for the information of his 
 Government, the observations contained in this 
 
 despatch." 
 
 jr 
 
 It will be observed that Murray himself had not 
 
254 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 been responsible for that which had been made 
 the chief subject of complaint against him, the 
 appointment of Meerza Hashem as first Persian 
 Secretary to the Mission, seeing that Hashem's 
 appointment had been made before Murray's ar- 
 rival in Tehran. 
 
 On the same day, May 15, instructions were 
 sent by Lord Clarendon to Murray to proceed 
 with his Mission to Bagdad. By this time the 
 Persian troops had invested Herat. 
 
 On June 23rd Lord Stratford de Bedcliffe pre- 
 pared an ultimatum to be presented to the Shah, 
 of which the first article stipulated that the Sadr 
 Azim was " to write in the Shah's name a letter 
 to Mr Murray, expressing his regret at having 
 uttered and given currency to the offensive im- 
 putations upon the honour of her Majesty's 
 Minister " ; that Mr Murray should be received 
 on his return to Tehran by persons of high rank, 
 who should escort him to his residence ; and that 
 the British flag should then be hoisted with a 
 salute of twenty-one guns. The remaining articles 
 provided for the withdrawal of Persian troops from 
 Herat, and that the question of Meerza Hashem 
 and his wife should subsequently be submitted to 
 a convention. 
 
 No notice having been taken of this ultimatum, 
 
WAR WITH PERSIA. 255 
 
 instructions were sent from the Foreign Office to 
 the India Board 1 directing the despatch of an 
 expedition to the Persian Gulf. On November 
 1st, 1856, proclamation of war between Great ' 
 Britain and Persia was made. The British fleet 
 bombarded Bushire in the Persian Gulf on De- 
 cember 17th, and the land forces under General 
 Stalker came up in time to receive the surrender 
 of the garrison. On January 15th, 1857, General 
 Outram left Bombay with a strong force and 
 landed at Bushire on the 27th. He encountered 
 the Persian army under Soojah-ool-Moolk near 
 Kooshab on 8th February, and completely de- 
 feated them, and again at Mohammerah on 24th 
 March. Meanwhile a treaty of peace had been 
 signed at Paris between the Queen of Great 
 Britain and the Shah of Persia, which was after- 
 wards ratified at Bagdad on 2nd May. In this 
 treaty reference was made to a separate note, 
 which provided that full reparation should be 
 made to Mr Murray for the personal affronts 
 offered to him, that the Shah's apology should 
 be transmitted through the Sadr Azim to Mr 
 Murray, that all imputations against Mr Mur- 
 ray should be withdrawn, and that he should be 
 
 1 It will be remembered that the Government of India was still in 
 the hands of the East India Company, under the Governor- General 
 in Council. 
 
256 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 invited by the Shah to return with the Mission 
 to Tehran. 
 
 Now this dispute has been reviewed at some- 
 what greater length than it may seem to deserve, 
 considering the lapse of years since it was settled ; 
 but Murray's conduct at the time was sharply 
 criticised in the British press and in Parliament, 
 and the ugly stories circulated by the Sadr Azim 
 and his agents received some degree of credence 
 in this country. 1 ^ 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to Capt. Hon. Henry 
 Murray, R.N. 
 
 " OOROOMIAH, 5tk April 1856. 
 
 " By the last papers that reached me at Tabriz, 
 I learnt that some of the London journals had 
 begun to abuse me ; among others, the * Times/ 
 saying that I had broken off the good under- 
 standing between two allied countries on account 
 of a foolish dispute about a woman. These wise 
 men writing in their garrets in the City or the 
 Strand, scatter their thunders over the earth, and 
 condemn, without the slightest knowledge of causes 
 or events, those who are at a distance conscien- 
 
 1 While preparing this memoir I received an illustration of how 
 easily dirt sticks if enough of it is thrown. Speaking to a gentleman 
 who had known Mr Murray slightly in his later years, I asked if he 
 could tell me anything about the origin of the Persian quarrel. 
 " Oh yes," he replied ; " let me see ! Murray got mixed up with some 
 woman there, didn't he ? I don't remember much about it, but I am 
 pretty sure there was a woman at the bottom of the trouble." 
 
LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER. 257 
 
 tiously endeavouring to uphold the honour and 
 interest of England, and the placid citizen seated 
 at his cosy breakfast-table cries ' Amen ! ' to their 
 unjust sentence. They know as much of Persia as 
 I know of the moon ; they write as if laws, usages, 
 and conventional modes recognised in Europe were 
 current here, and as if a Mirza appointed by the 
 British Mission were like an attorney or scribe 
 engaged by a Foreign Mission in London. The 
 doctrine of protection and sanctuary as accorded 
 to the British and Russian Missions here for fifty 
 years past, which (whether founded in right or in 
 error) has been held inviolate and has saved the 
 lives of hundreds of Persians, among others that of 
 the present Sadr Azem himself, is to these sarcastic 
 gentlemen a rock of offence, and / ought to have 
 been the first to give up to insolent and arrogant 
 demand a privilege enjoyed by all my predecessors 
 and my present colleagues. They are ignorant of 
 facts which must come out if the correspondence 
 is laid open by Parliamentary inquiry ; such, for 
 instance, as that for weeks and months the Per- 
 sian Government had refused me redress for the 
 injuries complained of by our subjects, and for 
 direct affronts offered to the Mission in the mal- 
 treatment of my servants ; that the Sadr Azem, 
 secretly on an understanding with the Russian 
 Charge d'affaires, had insulted the English and 
 the French Governments by a pretended proposal 
 of active alliance against Russia, the draft of 
 which proposed treaty was in the hands of the 
 Russian as soon as, if not before, it reached us ; 
 nay it was translated to M. Bouree by the Sadr's 
 
 R 
 
258 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 confidential secretary, the son of the first interpreter 
 to the Russian mission : it was on discovering this 
 fact, and on ascertaining that in spite of my re- 
 monstrances this individual continued to be the 
 confidential go-between of the Sadr and M. Bouree 
 in all their communications, that I felt convinced 
 that the first was playing us false, and the second 
 either infatuated or false to English alliance, I 
 could not tell which. Motives are not within 
 the sphere of man's cognisance ; it was enough 
 for me to know that from that time I could neither 
 trust the Sadr nor my colleague." 
 
 " BAGDAD, May 8th, 1856. 
 
 " Here I am once more, dear Hal, in the city of 
 the Caliphs, having plunged at once from the snows 
 of Kurdistan into this burning plain, with a ther- 
 mometer already at 98 in our coolest room, and 
 knowing that it must soon rise to 120. I am 
 thankful, however, to be able to add that none of 
 my party have suffered in health, and that flies 
 and perspiration are our worst grievances. Since 
 I last wrote to you several posts have arrived from 
 England, but not one word from the Foreign Office 
 about the rupture with Persia, nor any intimation 
 of the views or intentions of her Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment. You may well believe that this pro- 
 tracted apathy on their part has caused me the 
 greatest mortification, as it will assuredly be pro- 
 ductive of most disastrous consequences to the 
 interests of Great Britain in Asia. Had her 
 Majesty's Government, immediately after approv- 
 ing my conduct in withdrawing the Mission from 
 
LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER. 259 
 
 Tehran, sent out an energetic despatch, peremp- 
 torily demanding reparation for the repeated 
 insults offered by the Persian Government to the 
 British flag, with a distinct intimation that if 
 refused coercive measures would be adopted, I 
 know it as certainly as that two and two are four, 
 the Persian Government was prepared to concede 
 all our demands at once. I should have gone back 
 to Tehran with increased strength and influence, 
 and not a Persian soldier would have marched in 
 the direction of Herat. Now, by wasting four 
 months in silence and inaction, our Government 
 has given currency to the falsehoods and slanders 
 circulated by the Sadr Azem against myself and 
 the Mission, one of which was that the rupture 
 which had taken place was a paltry personal 
 quarrel with myself, and no way affecting the 
 relations of the two countries. Has not the con- 
 duct of our Government been such as virtually 
 to corroborate this statement ? Is not the British 
 public, indeed the whole world, justified in in- 
 ferring that if the British Government really felt 
 itself injured and insulted by that of Persia, they 
 would within four months express some dissatis- 
 faction, and demand some reparation ? Is it not 
 quite natural that the Press, the gossips in private 
 circles, and the talking busybodies in Parliament, 
 should all fall upon me as an indiscreet embroiler 
 of our friendly relations with a foreign Power ? 
 The general grievance-hunter and calumniator of 
 the absent, whom the public in England look upon 
 as an oracle in all political questions in Asia, be- 
 cause he was an energetic excavator of antiquities 
 
260 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 at Nineveh, gets up in his place in Parliament 
 and pronounces me ignorant of the customs and 
 language of Persia, makes a fine tirade upon the 
 insignificance of the Mirza Hashem dispute, and 
 throws mud at me in order to dirty the Govern- 
 ment. Lord Palmerston answered him, it is true, 
 but gave none of the details necessary to contra- 
 dict his statements and to remove the impression 
 made by his speech on the public mind. The 
 newspaper critics of course follow in the same 
 strain, although in truth Mr Oracle Layard knows 
 no more of Persian affairs than I do of those of 
 Brazil. He once made a rapid march through 
 the country, I believe, on his way from India to 
 Constantinople, but he never resided in it, and 
 knows absolutely nothing of its politics, laws, or 
 institutions. He gravely tells his hearers that we 
 have no right to appoint any agent at Shiraz, not 
 knowing that we have had one there for a score of 
 years, whose functions (such as they are) have been 
 a score of times admitted and recognised by the 
 Persian Government, and in appointing Mirza 
 Hashem to that post we merely changed him for 
 another Mirza, also a Persian Government. Mr 
 Layard also told his hearers that the Shah had by 
 Moslem law a perfect right to take Mirza Hashem's 
 wife from him and seclude her elsewhere, whereas 
 if Mr Oracle had known the first rudiments of 
 Moslem law, he would have known that, according 
 to it, no earthly prince or potentate can separate 
 a wife from her husband without the consent of 
 the latter : a married woman might indeed be 
 imprisoned by a decree of the Moshtehids i.e., 
 
LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER. 261 
 
 chiefs of religion if adultery can be proved 
 against her, but that must be the result of a 
 regular trial, and must be substantiated by the 
 positive evidence of ddictum flagrans, given by 
 three witnesses. It is needless to add that in 
 this case, although the poor woman was belied, 
 calumniated, and imprisoned by the Sadr Azem, 
 there was no proof of adultery adduced, or even 
 attempted. The latter fact has caused me no little 
 surprise, considering the unscrupulous nature of 
 the Sadr's character and conduct ; for just as he 
 compelled some of the Ulema to seal and subscribe 
 his lies against me, he could in Tehran have easily 
 obtained a dozen witnesses to swear that they had 
 seen Mrs Mirza Hashem in my bed or in that of 
 my groom. Naturally enough, the uncontradicted 
 dicta of the Nineveh oracle are received as gospel 
 by the newspaper writers, and the consequence is 
 that I have already seen in the ' Times,' the ' Home 
 News,' the Indian papers, &c., that I know nothing 
 of Persia or the Persian language, and that in this 
 foolish quarrel the Mission is all wrong and the 
 Persian Government all right. Strange world ; 
 for the fact is, that one of the reasons which made 
 the Sadr dislike me and try to get rid of me was 
 because I had begun to hold tte-a-t$te interviews 
 with the Shah, at which neither he nor any of his 
 spies were present. It is of comparatively little 
 importance that my conduct and qualifications 
 should be for a time misrepresented, because some 
 day or other the truth must come out, and my 
 skin is not so thin but that I can eat heartily and 
 sleep soundly under the 'slashing' articles and 
 
262 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 speeches, whether uttered by oracular newspapers 
 or senators ; but the injury already done to the 
 public service by the silence and inaction of our 
 Foreign Office is very great, and is daily increasing." 
 
 " BAGDAD, April 5th, 1857. 
 
 " I was truly glad to find here, on my return from 
 the Gulf, your letter written from the dear old shop 1 
 on the 10th, and could not help thinking of the 
 merry hours we have often spent on that day en- 
 livened by Rob of Carnock's fiddle the reel the 
 country dance the whisky-toddie, and Bab at the 
 Bowster as the grand finale ! and now your pow's 
 as frosty as was that of the " dear old white head " 2 
 in those days, and I am a fusty old diplomat- 
 baited by the Sadr Azem, the ' Times/ and the devil. 
 Well, well, the past cannot be recalled : if it could, 
 I should try to recall many acts of folly that I have 
 committed, and among them all perhaps the great- 
 est, the having allowed myself to be persuaded to 
 come out to this nest of intrigue, falsehood, and 
 villany comprehended in the word Persia. It is 
 really monstrous that England, France, Kussia, 
 and other civilised Powers should talk of the 
 * honour ' of the Shah, and treat with him as if 
 he were a Prince within the pale of civilisation." 
 
 It is true that Lord Palmerston vigorously de- 
 fended in Parliament the attacks made on the 
 British Minister at Tehran, on whom was laid the 
 whole blame of the Persian war. But Murray 
 complained, not without reason, that the discredit- 
 
 1 Dunmore. 2 His father. 
 
PERSIAN TREATY OF PEACE. 263 
 
 able rumours which had been set afloat about him 
 might have been disposed of at once by publishing 
 the whole correspendence. 1 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray, C.B., to Earl Cowley. 
 
 " BAGDAD, April 23rc?, 1857. 
 
 " I can honestly congratulate you on your 
 treaty, which seems to me satisfactory and compre- 
 hensive. The general feeling in England against 
 the war with Persia seems to be owing to the (to 
 me inexpressible) conduct of our Government, in 
 withholding from the House of Commons and the 
 country all information as to the course and 
 events which compelled me to withdraw the Mis- 
 sion from Tehran. A gossiping press and a gossip- 
 ing public have spread far and wide the story of 
 Mrs Hashem, and the country knows nothing 
 further on the subject ! What wonder, then, that 
 all classes should be ' dead against ' a quarrel said 
 to have originated about so trifling a question ? 
 John Bull, it is true, hates war and war taxes ; but 
 he does not like to have his representatives and his 
 flag abroad treated with insult and contempt : and 
 if the Government had laid the correspondence 
 before Parliament at or before the opening of the 
 session, and the country had been made aware 
 that for months I had been made the object 
 of unprovoked and oft -repeated insults by the 
 Persian Government ; that British subjects had 
 
 1 This was done after the conclusion of peace, and the above con- 
 densed narrative of events is drawn from the Foreign Office blue- 
 book containing the correspondence, "Affairs of Persia, 1857." 
 
264 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 been injured in their persons and property ; that 
 one of my servants had been beaten by some of 
 the Shah's attendants ; that another's house had 
 been broken into, himself beaten, and his property 
 stolen ; that the Mission had been, for the first 
 time during a series of years, excluded from its 
 accustomed seat at two national solemnities ; that 
 the Queen's name had been mentioned by a 
 prince of the blood at a public dinner in terms 
 too filthy to be repeated ; and that for each and 
 every one of these indignities all redress and in- 
 demnity was obstinately refused, if the public 
 had been aware of all these facts, they would 
 then have known that the seizure and imprison- 
 ment of our Mirza's wife, and the gross and 
 offensive calumnies with which they accompanied 
 that outrage, were only the last drops poured 
 into a cup already overflowing, and that if I did 
 not wish to be kicked out of Tehran, I had no 
 choice but to withdraw from it. 
 
 " The fact is, the Sadr wished to organise his 
 expedition against Herat ; my presence at Tehran 
 was an obstacle thereto ; so I was to be worried, 
 insulted, and calumniated until I should be com- 
 pelled to go. If all these facts had been before 
 the public, do you think there would have been 
 the same indifference to the origin of the quarrel, 
 and the same disposition to treat it with the 
 ridicule that now exists ? That our Government 
 have damaged themselves by this silence seems 
 to me clear ; that they have damaged me by it is 
 beyond a doubt ; for the public, both in and out of 
 England, have been taught to look upon me as a 
 
MURRAY'S DEFENDERS IN PARLIAMENT. 265 
 
 sort of hasty, petulant brouillon, who jeopardised 
 the gravest interests from personal pique/' 
 
 Lord Clarendon defended his envoy as loyally 
 in the House of Lords as Lord Palmerston had 
 done in the Commons, and Murray was duly 
 grateful, although tickled by some of the argu- 
 ments put forward in his defence. 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to the Earl of Clarendon. 
 
 " I was much amused at the debate in the House 
 of Lords in which Lord Ellenborough attacked, and 
 you defended, my humble self; and I think you 
 will laugh too when I tell you what caused my 
 mirth. . . . You took up the cudgels manfully 
 in defence of my appointment, and stated (as your 
 speech was reported in the paper which I read) 
 that I had been selected because I had ' resided 
 six years in India and spoke the Arabic language/ 
 Now as I happen never to have been in India, and 
 as Arabic would be about as useful a language to 
 possess at Tehran as German at Madrid, I thought 
 it probable that some noble lord would get up and 
 give you a broadside. However, they seem to 
 have been perfectly satisfied, and held their peace ! 
 If any noble or learned lord in future should 
 impugn my polyglot character in your presence, 
 pray remember that I can read and converse 
 tolerably in Persian and Turkish, the two lan- 
 guages current at Tehran." 
 
 Murray resumed his duties at Tehran, and was 
 
266 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 soon on the best of terms with both the Shah and 
 the Sadr. But he had suffered so severely from 
 dysentery at Bagdad that he was reluctantly com- 
 pelled to write home for a year's leave of absence : 
 
 " I say most reluctantly, because the Shah, 
 having become convinced of all the Sadr's pecu- 
 lations, extortions, and other delinquencies, had 
 dismissed and disgraced the all-powerful Minister. 
 His Majesty then sent for me, and conversed with 
 me frequently, confidentially, and tete-a-tete, on 
 the best means of carrying on the affairs of his 
 Government." 
 
 It might be difficult to calculate how much of 
 this improvement in Murray's relations with the 
 Shah was owing to the removal of a serious dis- 
 ability which the British Foreign Office had, for 
 the first time, imposed on the Queen's represen- 
 tative at an oriental Court. It had been the 
 immemorial custom for embassies and missions to 
 present themselves before the monarch and his 
 chief Ministers with their hands full of gifts. The 
 Eastern mind was, and perhaps still is, incapable 
 of realising diplomatic relations without the inter- 
 change of presents, and Murray knew enough of 
 the customs of Asiatics to cause him to remon- 
 strate vigorously when it was announced to him 
 on his appointment that in future no provision 
 
MISTAKEN ECONOMY. 267 
 
 would be made to comply in this respect with 
 these customs. Perhaps it was pressure by the 
 Treasury perhaps the irksome task of defending 
 in the House of Commons, session after session, 
 the vote for Secret Service money perhaps it was 
 an attempt to import a loftier spirit into negotia- 
 tions with foreign Powers, whatever was the 
 cause, the Foreign Office turned a deaf ear to 
 Murray's representations, and he had to present 
 himself empty-handed before the Shah and the 
 Sadr, which had a shabby appearance compared 
 with the profusion of gifts brought by the re- 
 presentatives of France and Russia. But before 
 he left Tehran this humiliating condition was 
 removed, which contributed, no doubt, to the re- 
 establishment of good understanding. 
 
 In addition to this apparently childish considera- 
 tion, Murray was convinced that, in dealing with 
 oriental Governments, nothing is gained and many 
 risks incurred by beating about the bush. The 
 Eastern mind is exceedingly credulous ; Ministers 
 and masses alike are easily persuaded that patience 
 shown out of courtesy by a European Power to the 
 interminable prolixy of oriental diplomacy arises 
 from fear. To the huge mass of papers referring 
 to these events in Tehran is affixed a note in 
 Murray's handwriting to the following effect : 
 
268 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 "It is curious to remark that the Whig Govern- 
 ment in 1857 committed precisely the same blunder 
 in Persia that the present Government in 1883 
 have committed in Egypt. They both lost a golden 
 opportunity by unjustifiable hesitation and delay. 
 After spending upwards of three million pounds 
 and a number of human lives in war, they obtained 
 from Persia exactly the same apologies and indem- 
 nities that I had asked for before I left, and which 
 I could have obtained without the loss of a guinea 
 or a man, if they had sent one single firm and de- 
 cided despatch. The blunders of the Gladstone 
 Cabinet in Egypt of a similar kind are too recent 
 and well known to require recapitulation." 
 
 Before concluding this notice of Murray's ser- 
 vice in Persia, a few extracts may be given from 
 his journals. Owing, probably, to the unwelcome 
 leisure thrust upon him during his enforced exile 
 from the Persian Court, these journals were more 
 regularly kept than it was the custom of the 
 writer to do, and they contain many vivid and 
 amusing passages of sport and travel, as well as 
 commentary on those books which Murray, at all 
 times an avid reader, carried with him. 
 
 " I was accompanied on this trip by my attach^ 
 Lord S. Kerr, 1 and by Timoui Mirza, the youngest 
 of the Persian princes who visited England about 
 the year 1835. He was then, and still is, a hunter 
 second only to Nimrod himself. 
 
 1 The present Marquis of Lothian. 
 
ANTELOPE HAWKING. 269 
 
 " Chi this occasion he brought with him his 
 hawks and his greyhounds, and I had an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing for the first time the interesting 
 sport of hawking the antelope. The chief interest 
 of the sport consists in training the hawks and the 
 greyhounds together, so that they should know 
 each other and work together, so that whatever 
 may be the number of the herd both should always 
 single out the same antelope. These animals are 
 of a different species from those in the Arabian 
 desert, being much larger and more fleet, so that 
 no unassisted greyhound can take them. The 
 males have long straight horns, and the females 
 none at all, so that the hawk always singles out 
 the latter, being taught by experience the danger 
 of striking the head of a male when going at full 
 speed. The method of hunting is as follows : the 
 hunter holds one or two greyhounds in a slip, 
 generally tied to the pommel of his saddle the 
 hawk, hooded, is on his wrist : as soon as he sees 
 the antelope, he approaches them sidelong at a 
 slow pace, and if he can succeed in gaining the 
 windward of them at a distance of three or four 
 hundred yards, he rides at full speed towards them, 
 hallooing to his dogs. As soon as he is sure that 
 they are the game, he slips them, and as the ante- 
 lopes scarcely ever go off at their fullest speed be- 
 fore the dogs are tolerably near them, the hunter 
 gallops onward and unhoods the hawk, which 
 no sooner descries the antelopes than he pursues 
 them, and wheeling for some time around and 
 over them, he stoops on a female and strikes her 
 on the head, beating her about the eyes with his 
 
270 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 wings : meanwhile the well-trained greyhound, as 
 soon as the hawk has passed him and is in pursuit 
 of the quarry, has no more eyes for the antelope ; 
 he looks only at his feathered ally in the air, fol- 
 lows him in all his turns, and at last arrives in 
 time to seize the luckless doe, which, being tor- 
 mented by the hawk's talons and wings, falls an 
 easy prey. If the wind is high, the antelope, 
 always running against it, can generally escape 
 the hawk ; but if the day be still, and both hound 
 and hawk good, she can rarely escape. The train- 
 ing of the hawk is as various as their size and 
 species : some are trained to take the hare and the 
 bustard, others the heron and crane, others the 
 partridge and black pheasant ; while the smallest, 
 swiftest, and boldest of the falcon tribe, the shahyn 
 in Persia, will sometimes strike in mid-air the 
 Jcerajorsh or black eagle, the deadly enemy of his 
 race, and fall headlong with his gigantic adver- 
 sary. Most of the other hawks have such a dread 
 of the Jcerajorsh that if one is visible, at whatever 
 distance in the sky, they will not fly even at their 
 favourite game. 
 
 "March 6th, 1857.- . . . Heavens! what a 
 place is this Makel, the very paradise of fleas ! not 
 like the ignoble vermin sung by Burns ' who creep 
 and sprawl and sprattle,' but joyously jumping and 
 swarming like locusts ; on the bed, in the bed, on 
 the floor, and on the table ; in every article of 
 clothing they find a haunt and a playground. " 
 
 He was travelling along the Euphrates with a 
 strong Turkish escort, which failed to give him 
 
VOYAGE ON THE EUPHRATES. 271 
 
 much sense of security against marauding bands 
 of Arabs : 
 
 "March 12th.- ... As a specimen of the re- 
 spect paid by the Arabs to the Turkish authority, 
 I may note that yesterday a boat arrived at Basrah 
 from Bagdad, and as it was laden with wood for 
 the service of our Government steamer, the Consul- 
 General had obtained a firman addressed to all the 
 Arab sheiks on the banks of the Tigris, by the 
 Pasha of Bagdad, setting forth that the said boat 
 was to be exempt from all tolls, duties, charges, &c. 
 Be it remembered, too, that the aforementioned 
 Pasha is his Highness the Governor-General of all 
 Mesopotamia, and heaven knows how many dis- 
 tricts beside, with a salary exceeding that of the 
 Governor- General of India. When the boat, de- 
 scending the Tigris, reached the place where the 
 above Mohammed resides, one of their sheiks came 
 out to demand the customary toll. The captain 
 exhibited his Highness's firman of exemption ; the 
 Arab spat on the document, saying in a stern voice, 
 ' There is my answer to your firman now pay.' 
 Such is Turkish Government in 1857 ; such is the 
 result of the tanzimdt which were to regenerate 
 Turkey and reinvigorate ' the Sick Man ' ; and such 
 the state of the Arabs who are duly mentioned in 
 his Highness's annual reports to Stamboul as being 
 perfectly quiet and obedient to the orders of the 
 Sublime Porte ! Sublime Farce ! Sublime Humbug ! 
 
 "March 13th. ... I finished to-day the 
 second reading of Bulwer's * Ernest Maltravers,' 
 and its continuation, ' Alice, or the Mysteries.' 
 
272 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 Although this work is written in many places with 
 Bulwer's usual force and eloquence, and though the 
 author tells us in the preface to the later editions 
 that he considers it the most complete and carefully 
 written of his works of fiction, there are many 
 points in it that I do not like. That a disgusting 
 brute, a burglar and murderer such as Luke Darvil, 
 should have a daughter, pure, innocent, and show- 
 ing every mark of highbreeding in mind, character, 
 and form, such as Alice was, may be pronounced, if 
 not impossible, certainly too improbable, for a tale 
 of fiction. It would have been easy and more 
 natural had the brute stolen her in early childhood 
 from some more respectable parents. The meta- 
 physical and political discussions in the book are 
 too frequent and too tedious. Lord Doltimore's 
 character and relations with his wife are a broad 
 caricature of a certain peer living at the time that 
 the work was published, and whose name the 
 author has taken with the change of one single 
 letter in it. ... If this be nature, it is not the 
 nature that Scott and Shakespeare have studied 
 and painted ! nor is it less offensive in my eyes to 
 see a low intriguing scoundrel and swindler and 
 forger like Lord Vargrave introduced on the stage 
 as a British Peer a leader of a political party and 
 a British Cabinet Minister in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. If a Chartist were to write a novel purposely 
 to degrade the aristocracy, and were to draw such 
 a portrait regardless of all probability or truth, it 
 would not be surprising ; but one does not expect 
 it from an M.P. and a gentleman who traces his 
 ancestry to the Conquest. 
 
VOYAGE ON THE EUPHRATES. 2*73 
 
 "March 1 6th. . . . Just at the bend of the 
 river where the Hy enters it from the Tigris is 
 a small date-grove, which was once a garden, 
 perhaps they may call it so still, for here and 
 there are a few peach and pomegranate trees and 
 a few old vines, untrained, spreading their long 
 arms in all directions as if supplicating for nurture 
 and support. Thither I bent my steps, for the 
 little grove was tempting at this season of early 
 spring ; the trees were just throwing out new buds, 
 blossoms, and leaves, and half-a-dozen merry wood- 
 peckers were rapping their sharp beaks against the 
 bark, and showing their bright plumage as they 
 hovered over the stream or flew from branch to 
 branch of the palms. One solitary little flower 
 caught my eye, the first-born of spring ; anywhere 
 else I should have welcomed it as a friend, but 
 here I looked angrily on it as the forerunner of 
 burning heat and scorching sun. Suddenly my 
 ear was arrested by the sound of a boy's voice 
 carolling an Arab ditty at the utmost stretch of 
 his youthful lungs to the accompaniment of a 
 creaking water-wheel, which two yearling cows 
 were turning under the songster's direction for 
 the purposes of irrigation. I drew near unper- 
 ceived and watched him : how merrily the urchin 
 sang as he stood on a little mound of clay, while 
 his two patient companions came and went over 
 a space not more than eight or nine feet in length. 
 Instinctively, or rather habitually, they stopped 
 a few seconds at each turn, first to let the leather 
 buckets receive the water and then discharge, a 
 palm -stick in the boy's hand occasionally quick- 
 
274 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 ening the apprehension of their duty. Oh ye 
 Sybarites, of whatever age or sex, who live in 
 the luxuries of city life and yawn with satiety 
 and ennui, when the bounty of heaven has placed 
 within your reach such abundant variety of occu- 
 pation and enjoyment, come hither and take a 
 lesson from this Arab boy ! From morn till eve 
 his buckets fill and are emptied ; his mute com- 
 panions pass and repass in that circle of three 
 yards, which circumscribes all his day's occupation 
 and enjoyment ! Look at his ruddy brown cheek, 
 his bright sparkling eye, listen to his merry carol, 
 and blush for your insensibility and ingratitude ! 
 
 "March 21st. . . . Another strange feature 
 in this extraordinary genius [Lord Byron] was his 
 total incapacity to form an opinion on the merit 
 of his own productions. Not to dwell upon the 
 well-known instance in his early days when he 
 sent to his literary friends for publication a dull 
 paraphrase on Horace's Art of Poetry, that would 
 have been itself assuredly damned, and have 
 dragged him down with it, if anything could 
 have done so ; and forwarded to them at the same 
 time a wild broken fragment in the Spenserian 
 stanza, which they were instructed to read and 
 then burn, as being good for nothing ! The former 
 fortunately fell into the river Lethe, and was 
 drowned ; the latter fell into the hands of Mr 
 Dallas, and was saved it was ' Childe Harold ' ! 
 This may not be so incredible at twenty-three, 
 but what shall we say to the poet who, after he 
 had completed 'Childe Harold,' 'The Corsair,' 
 ' Bride of Abydos,' ' Manfred,' ' Don Juan,' and 
 
VOYAGE ON THE EUPHRATES. 275 
 
 all the other immortal productions of his pen, 
 repeatedly named his translation of Pulci's 
 ' Morgante ' as his greatest work/ the ' best 
 thing he had ever done/ and only one year 
 before his death designated it as ' the best trans- 
 lation that ever was or will be made.' If a man 
 of such splendid genius, joined to a sagacious 
 observation of the world and mankind, could be 
 thus blind to the merits of his own productions, 
 what wonder is it if 'we petty men 7 are blind 
 to our own faults and failings? 
 
 "26th March. Read this morning for the second 
 time Macaulay's remarkable review on Basil Mon- 
 tague's edition of Bacon, and it set me a-thinking 
 on the inconsistency of human nature and the fal- 
 lacy of human judgment. With what a merciless 
 hand does the critic contrast the enlarged views, 
 the all-grasping knowledge, and the profound saga- 
 city of the philosopher with the time-serving pli- 
 ancy of the courtier, the corruption of the judge, 
 and the selfish ingratitude of the man ! with w r hat 
 an acute and unsparing pen does he show up the 
 blind partiality of the editor and biographer in 
 slurring over and palliating the acts of meanness 
 and servility of which his hero had been guilty. 
 With what admirable truth and eloquence does he 
 portray the effects which prejudice and partiality 
 produce in warping human judgment, and what 
 dangerous snares they are in the path of the bio- 
 grapher or historian ! and yet this same accom- 
 plished critic, while ' pulling the mote out of his 
 brother's eye/ writes his own ' History of England' 
 in a spirit of partiality, or rather partisanship, so 
 
276 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 transparent that with all its merits of style, de- 
 scriptions, and illustration, it deserves rather to 
 be called a l Defence of the Whigs ' than a ' History 
 of England.' A popular book it is and always must 
 be, in common with everything written by the same 
 gifted pen, but it never will be a guide to the future 
 historian or to the candid student of our political 
 history. ... It would appear that minds of the 
 most opposite character are equally liable to fall 
 into this snare at least it has perverted the judg- 
 ment of the pompous, prosy, and ponderous Alison 
 as much as it has that of the excursive, eloquent, 
 and brilliant Macaulay. Of these later times, the 
 only historian I know totally free from this charge 
 is P. F. Tytler in his ' History of Scotland' a 
 heavy book, I grant, and written in a dry style ; 
 but his only object was truth, and to the ascer- 
 tainment and portrayal of that he sacrificed every 
 other consideration." 
 
 Whatever merit may be attached to these medi- 
 tations in the wilderness, they must be credited 
 at least with impartiality, for Murray was person- 
 ally acquainted with all these historians Macau- 
 lay, Alison, and Fraser Tytler and was an intimate 
 friend of the last. Perhaps the key to his tone 
 may be supplied in a note attached to the previous 
 day's entry "Never write or do anything else 
 when you are bilious." 
 
 " 28th March. This morning read before break- 
 
PERSIAN JOURNAL. 277 
 
 fast Macaulay's review of Gladstone's ' Church and 
 State.' How strange that a mind so exercised in 
 reasoning and disquisition as Gladstone's should 
 have failed to see the glaring fallacies into which 
 his High Church doctrines have led him ! Strange 
 also that Macaulay, in combating with varied argu- 
 ment and illustration the proposition that the rul- 
 ing power in a State is bound to inculcate and 
 enforce on his subjects the form of religion that 
 he conscientiously believes to be the best, should 
 have omitted to instance Saxony, a Protestant 
 country, indeed the cradle of Protestantism, which 
 is now governed by a king who (with all his family) 
 is a Roman Catholic, and Belgium, a Roman Catho- 
 lic country, which is now governed by a Protestant 
 king. Is it not obvious that if either or both of 
 these princes were to adopt Gladstone's tenets, 
 he or they would be very shortly deposed, and 
 their kingdoms become a prey to civil war and 
 anarchy ? " 
 
 This journal, with its vivid reflections of ori- 
 ental strategy, diplomacy, and social life, repeat- 
 ing themselves from age to age, interspersed 
 with reflections on men and books, is perhaps 
 the best, though not the only, literary work with 
 which Murray kept ennui at bay during months 
 of forced inactivity. His Egyptian experience, 
 still fresh in his memory, was the source whence 
 he drew a novel written at this time ' Hassan, 
 or the Child of the Pyramid.' The means of 
 
278 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 familiarity which so many English readers enjoy 
 with Egyptian life and scenery did not exist in 
 those days : the Nile is as accessible now to 
 pleasure-seekers as the Rhine was then, and this 
 may have shorn ' Hassan ' of much of the popu- 
 larity with which it was received nearly forty 
 years ago. The most permanent feature of in- 
 terest in the book is the description of Mohammed 
 Ali, drawn from life. 
 
 In a memorandum prepared by Murray of his 
 service in Persia, there is an amusing account of 
 his final relations with the wily Sadr Azem. 
 
 "It is not my intention to record here all the 
 events that occurred during my residence in Persia, 
 nor even all the successive injuries or insults to 
 myself or to the British flag, which led to the 
 rupture between the two countries ; but any sketch, 
 however slight, would be incomplete without some 
 notice of the character and proceedings of the 
 man who represented in his own person all the 
 departments, deliberative and executive, of the 
 Government with which I had to deal. The 
 Sadrazem Mirza Aga Khan was at this time 
 between forty - five and fifty years of age ; but 
 his long face, with a long Persian cap above it 
 and a long flowing beard below it, gave him the 
 appearance of being older than he really was. He 
 was an admirable specimen of the modern Persian 
 of the upper class : grave and dignified in appear- 
 
SADR AZEM. 279 
 
 ance when in company, yet his manner and con- 
 versation were both easy and agreeable in tSte-d-tete. 
 He had a great deal of drollery and wit, though 
 the latter tended towards obscenity when not 
 checked by the presence of some one before whom 
 he was obliged to act his part. I know not which 
 was most constantly between his lips, falsehood 
 or his kalian, for he smoked from early morning 
 till late at night without ceasing. He was an 
 adept in every form and species of lie the figur- 
 ative, the implied, the circumstantial, and the 
 direct : all these he told with a readiness, fluency, 
 and bonhomie that were really charming, and 
 he took care that this talent should not rust for 
 want of practice. Let one illustration of this 
 suffice, selected out of a hundred I might record. 
 Not many weeks after my arrival, I had gone to 
 pay him a visit and to talk over with him some 
 affair of little moment. While smoking our kalians 
 tete-a-tete, he took occasion to offer me some friendly 
 counsel and warning in the following language : 
 ' As you have not been very long in our country, 
 let me give you this friendly information that 
 all Persians are naturally and habitually liars/ 
 (As a Kajar, perhaps his Highness considered him- 
 self to be, properly speaking, a Turk.) ' You 
 must not believe a word of what they may tell 
 you. Whilst you remain here, if ever you want 
 accurate information on any subject whatever, 
 always come to me ; I will never tell you any- 
 thing but what is strictly true/ And as I ex- 
 pressed myself duly grateful for his kindness, he 
 added an asseveration the weight and solemnity 
 
280 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 of which no man who has not been in the East 
 can appreciate. Passing his hand caressingly down 
 his flowing jet-black beard, he said, ' Remember 
 that for every falsehood that I tell you while 
 you reside in Persia, I will give you leave to 
 pluck a hair out of this beard/ 
 
 " It was about a year after this conversation 
 that the following incident occurred : An Indian 
 British subject residing at Kirmanshah had sold 
 to the Governor, or some of the principal author- 
 ities in that town, a certain number of valuable 
 Cashmere shawls, for which, notwithstanding re- 
 peated applications, he had been unable to obtain 
 payment. His patience being exhausted, he ap- 
 plied to me to obtain an order from headquarters 
 for the settlement of his claim. As his memorial 
 was accompanied by all the requisite pieces justifi- 
 cative* including even a note bearing the Prince- 
 Governor's seal, and acknowledging the debt 
 eighteen months back and promising early pay- 
 ment the case was as simple a one as could well 
 be presented. I took the papers with me to the 
 Sadrazem and submitted them to his personal in- 
 spection. As he could not dispute their genuine- 
 ness, he told me that he would write to the 
 Prince-Governor and order the money to be paid 
 immediately. Two or three months elapsed when 
 I received another letter from the merchant, in- 
 forming me that he had not received a farthing, 
 and in answer to his applications could obtain 
 nothing but a repetition of vague promises. Armed 
 with this letter, I went again to the Sadr and 
 expressed my regret and displeasure at the non- 
 
SADR AZEM. 281 
 
 fulfilment of the promise made to me respecting 
 this case. The Sadr, with well-feigned symptoms 
 of surprise and anger, broke out into violent abuse 
 of the Governor of Kirmanshah calling him the 
 son of a burnt father and other injurious epithets, 
 vowing at the same time that he had given the 
 strictest orders months before for the immediate 
 settlement of this claim. He then turned to me, 
 and, with an air of perfect courtesy and candour, 
 expressed his regret at what had taken place, 
 adding, 'At all events, there shall be no further 
 mistake now.' He then called for one of his 
 secretaries, and dictated to him in my presence 
 a letter to the Governor, ordering to settle this 
 claim without an hour's delay ; and, having affixed 
 his seal, he handed me the note, saying, 'Mashallah, 
 you can read Persian. Is this clear enough ? Are 
 you satisfied now ? ' 
 
 " On my answering in the affirmative, he de- 
 livered the letter in my presence to the Secretary, 
 saying, ' You will order a khupper [mounted 
 courier] to go off immediately with this letter 
 to the Governor of Kirmanshah.' His Highness 
 then turned to discuss some other matters with 
 me over a kalian. 
 
 11 A few weeks had elapsed since this conversa 
 tion, when a rough - looking Kurdish horseman, 
 whose appearance denoted that he had made a 
 long and hard journey, presented himself at the 
 Mission gate, and expressed a wish to see me. 
 I ordered him to be introduced, and summoned 
 my Persian Mirza to be present at the interview. 
 The purport of his tale was that he belonged 
 
282 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 to a tribe that had long been in revolt against 
 the Persian Government, the chief of which had, 
 on a previous occasion, some years previous to 
 my arrival, been indebted to the good offices of 
 the British Mission. This chief, having been 
 lately on a marauding expedition near Kerman- 
 shah, had intercepted a courier of the Sadr- 
 azem's, riding in all haste to that city. The 
 Kurds, who had hoped that he was a bearer of 
 some treasure, were disappointed at finding on 
 him nothing but two or three letters addressed 
 to the Prince - Governor ; these they had seized, 
 and dismissed the man uninjured. On examin- 
 ing one of the letters, they discovered (although 
 their skill in handwriting was but small) that 
 the words Eltchy Anglyz, ' English Minister,' 
 occurred more than once ; so the chief, anxious 
 to requite the former kindness of the Mission, 
 and thinking that the letter might have some 
 interest for me, sent off a horseman with orders 
 to deliver it into my hands. Having ordered 
 the man some refreshment and made him a small 
 present, I dismissed him with a note of acknow- 
 ledgment to his chief, and proceeded, with my 
 Mirza, to examine the letter. It proved to be 
 a note in the Sadrazem's own hand, and sealed 
 with his private seal, to the Prince- Governor, in- 
 forming His Highness that on a late occasion he 
 had been obliged by the importunities of the 
 British Minister to send him official instructions 
 to settle the claims due to a troublesome fellow, 
 an English merchant, but that this had only 
 
SADR AZEM. 283 
 
 been done to stop the mouth of the British 
 Minister, and that His Highness was at liberty 
 to pay the money or not to pay it in short, 
 to put off his creditor with any excuse that he 
 might find convenient. 
 
 "A few days later, with this precious note in 
 my pocket, I went to call on the Sadr, and asked 
 for an interview. As soon as kalian and coffee 
 had been presented, and we were left tete-a-tete, 
 I said to him 
 
 " ' Does your Highness remember telling me 
 soon after my arrival that I might always rely 
 upon your truthfulness, and that you would 
 permit me to pluck out from your beard one 
 hair for every falsehood that you might tell me 
 during my stay in Persia ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, I remember it well/ said he ; ' and what 
 then ? ' 
 
 "'Only,' I replied, 'that if I had availed my- 
 self of your permission, your Highness would not 
 now have one hair left in your beard ! ' 
 
 " He laughed at this sally, but declared, with 
 renewed asseverations, by the head of the Shah, 
 by the life of his son, and others equally sacred 
 in the eyes of Persians, that he had always told 
 me the truth and had never deceived me. 
 
 " ' Does your Highness know this handwriting 
 and this seal ? ' said I, drawing the note out of 
 my pocket. I watched his face while he looked 
 at it, denial was impossible : without the slight- 
 est appearance of shame or confusion, he looked 
 up at me with a good-humoured smile and said, 
 
284 MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN THE EAST. 
 
 * Well, you are a clever fellow ! How on earth 
 did you get possession of this ? ' 
 
 "It was almost impossible to be angry with 
 such imperturbable and good-humoured effrontery ; 
 nevertheless, it was almost equally impossible to 
 transact business of any importance with such a 
 
 man." 
 
285 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1859-1867. 
 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 IN March 1859, the transfer of the Persian Mis- 
 sion from the Foreign Office to the Indian Depart- 
 ment having been effected, Charles Murray placed 
 his resignation in the hands of Lord Malmes- 
 bury, and was appointed Minister at the Court 
 of Saxony. Shortly after he had taken up his 
 duties there, Lord John Russell, who had become 
 Foreign Secretary on the fall of Lord Derby's 
 Administration, wrote as follows : 
 
 "PEMBROKE LODGE, October 26th, 1859. 
 
 "DEAR CHARLES MURRAY, Should you like 
 to accept the appointment to Stockholm, which 
 will be vacant next month ? Your present Court 
 is a very small one, and although there is a 
 Charles XIII. instead of XII. , still Charleses count 
 for something in the world. However, let me 
 know your wishes. . . . Yours truly, 
 
 "J. RUSSELL." 
 
286 DBESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 Murray, however, did not avail himself of this 
 invitation. He continued at Dresden, though he 
 returned to London in 1862 on the occasion of 
 the visit to Great Britain of the Viceroy of Egypt, 
 whom he was specially appointed to attend. 
 
 Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.? to 
 Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, June 1862. 
 
 " MY DEAR MURRAY, I do not feel quite sure 
 whether it would be an act of courtesy or pre- 
 sumption were I to ask the Viceroy of Egypt to 
 honour my wife and me with his company to 
 dinner; but as, on the whole, the fault of being 
 officious may be slighter than that of neglect, I 
 venture to ask you, as I believe you have taken 
 some charge in connection with his movements, 
 whether you think I might with propriety and 
 agreeably to his convenience forward such an 
 invitation. ... If you can answer me in the 
 affirmative, you will, I daresay, have the kindness 
 to mention what suite of Easterns he has in 
 attendance. Pray forgive this trouble, and believe 
 me sincerely yours, W. E. GLADSTONE." 
 
 Murray's decision to remain at Dresden proved 
 to be a momentous one. The intimacy which 
 had long existed between him and the family of 
 Lord and Lady Castletown bore fruit which can 
 
 1 At that time Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
.. -' / / 
 
SECOND MARRIAGE. 287 
 
 have been little foreseen by any of them. His 
 solitary, desolated life was restored to him, bright 
 once more and full of tender anticipations, by the 
 fate which won for him the affections of the Hon. 
 Edythe Fitz- Patrick. This event, the marriage 
 which followed on November 1st, 1862, and the 
 years of tranquil happiness which ensued, combine 
 to throw a formidable obstacle in the way of Mur- 
 ray's biographer. There is an end to the journals 
 which he used to resume from time to time as a 
 relief from loneliness. Letters there are, to be 
 sure. But the letters of a man to his betrothed, 
 still less, perhaps, those to a young wife, are not 
 those which he would choose to lay open to the 
 public, or that the public would most care to 
 peruse. 
 
 It is true that among these letters are many 
 reflections of the mind of the writer, cultivated, 
 experienced in the world, yet deeply religious, yet 
 again critically dissatisfied with much that is 
 taught by religious people. The letters to his 
 betrothed are the outpouring of such a mind, long 
 pent up and feeding on its own thoughts, rejoicing 
 now in the solace of communion with a fellow- 
 spirit, with whom Murray was not ashamed to 
 discuss the profoundest spiritual problems, to 
 whom he delighted to impart shrewd criticism. 
 
288 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray, C.B., to Hon. Edythe 
 Fitz-Patrick. 
 
 " 2lst September 1862. 
 
 " I have just returned from St George's, where 
 I heard one of the stupidest sermons ever preached. 
 It was on the ten lepers referred to in the gospel of 
 the day, and such a mess as the poor man made of 
 it I never heard. He spoke of leprosy as a disease 
 peculiar to the Jews before the Christian era, and 
 evidently did not know that it exists to this day 
 in Asia in all its horror. I have a very kind note 
 from old Lord Lansdowne, to whom I notified our 
 engagement, and he wishes to know when and 
 where the marriage is to take place. I wish I 
 could tell him the day, Mavourneen, I do so long 
 to have it fixed ! " 
 
 "It is true that, owing to the early teaching of 
 the best of mothers, and an excellent education, and 
 an inquiring mind not always averse to study 
 even in youth, I have acquired no small know- 
 ledge on most of the subjects connected with our 
 religious belief. Few have known better than I 
 the path of duty on the grounds of Faith ; but, oh 
 Edythe, my life and my conduct have fallen so far 
 short of my knowledge, that while you in your 
 fondness are clothing me with the attributes of a 
 saint, conscience tells me but too plainly that I 
 have been one of those whom the Scripture de- 
 scribes as ' deserving to be beaten with many 
 stripes.' " 
 
THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN DIFFICULTY. 289 
 
 " CLARIDGE'S, 16th October. 
 
 " Mavourneen, a curious thing I have found out 
 is that Love, which sweetens everything else in 
 life, turns claret sour ; but this is an enigma that 
 I can only explain to you when we meet ! " 
 
 Of the course and nature of his official duties 
 at Dresden few traces remain among Murray's 
 papers. The dispute about Schleswig-Holstein, 
 whereby gallant Denmark, misled by reliance on 
 the implied support of Great Britain, was plunged 
 into an unequal combat with Prussia and Austria, 
 distressed him very much, in common with most 
 well-informed Englishmen, who saw the honour 
 of their country jeopardised by the abandonment 
 of the Danish cause. Yet he acknowledged how 
 impracticable was the claim of Denmark. 
 
 " The union of the Duchies," wrote Murray to 
 his wife in 1864, "under the nominal sovereignty 
 of the King of Denmark, but with a German 
 population, laws, and institutions, and under the 
 immediate protection of the Confederation, is an 
 absurdity, and if it were now established would 
 not last three years." 
 
 References, however, to politics are rare in the 
 letters written to his wife during her brief 
 absence from Dresden. Rather he seemed dis- 
 posed to discuss with her books that he had been 
 
 T 
 
290 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 reading and problems suggested by them. Here 
 are his comments on a French writer's speculations 
 about a future state of happiness : 
 
 " He is doubtless successful in disparaging, al- 
 most ridiculing, the notions hitherto entertained 
 of our future heaven by many of the wisest and 
 best men, heathen and Christian ; but I cannot 
 say that I think his own notions more happy 
 in their conception, excepting as regards himself 
 individually. He (or perhaps she) is evidently of 
 a pious, contemplative, poetical turn of mind, one 
 who has lived a pure and good life (humanly 
 speaking), one who has had one object of his deep, 
 abiding, and absorbing affection and had lost it. 
 Thus his heaven is imagined as a beautiful repe- 
 tition of this life, with its recollections all vivid, 
 its memories all preserved, and its one great love 
 renewed in everlasting youth and purity, and in 
 the brightness of the Eternal Presence. This is 
 truly a grand and inspiring vision ; but to how 
 many of the millions on earth is it applicable ? 
 Take the case of S. B., the daughter of a worth- 
 less profligate father and a drunken ill-tempered 
 mother : she is neglected, ill-used, perhaps beaten 
 by both ; but by means of a school, a relative, 
 a friend, Providence has endued her with a pure 
 and patient spirit and a mind partially cultivated. 
 She is then perhaps married to a man who proves 
 as worthless and profligate as her parents, and 
 she passes a life of constant suffering and misery 
 till God in His mercy removes her from it. What 
 
SPECULATIONS ABOUT HEAVEN. 291 
 
 is her heaven to be ? Where for her are the sweet 
 recollections, the tender memories, the loves and 
 endearments of her earthly life to be renewed 
 above ? 
 
 " But without taking such an extreme picture, 
 take the honest, ignorant boor who has passed 
 his whole life at the side of the cart or the tail 
 of the plough, who can neither read nor write, 
 and who can scarcely understand half the parson's 
 sermon, though he follows its precepts to the best 
 of his ability. Where for him are the earthly 
 associations or memories that can be expanded 
 into an eternity of happiness for an immortal soul \ 
 In this, and in scores of other instances of men, 
 women, and children, I find our author's notions 
 on this subject quite as wide of any satisfactory 
 conclusion as those of any of his predecessors. 
 Indeed, how could we expect that any uninspired 
 mortal could succeed in a task in which the most 
 beloved and most loving of the apostles has (with 
 reverence be it spoken) so signally failed ? for no 
 human spirit can imagine eternal happiness to 
 consist in the endless unvarying repetition of the 
 scene portrayed in the fourth chapter of the Rev- 
 elation. Our best course is to content ourselves 
 with the assurance that Omnipotence can make 
 us perfectly and eternally happy, and Almighty 
 Mercy has promised that He will do so. May 
 we not leave the how in His hands ? " 
 
 One cannot but smile at the reluctance of this 
 energetic, active, enterprising mortal to accept the 
 
292 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 prospect of heaven as a never-ending rehearsal of 
 the ceremonies described in the fourth chapter 
 of the Apocalypse. 
 
 Though profoundly reverent towards spiritual 
 things, Murray could not bring himself to inquire, 
 with any degree of patience, into what is com- 
 monly called spiritualism : 
 
 " I need not tell you, darling, that I abominate 
 all the spirit-rapping race : I have never heard of 
 any good or scientific truth coming from it, and I 
 have heard of a great deal of moral and mental 
 evil resulting from it. God's world, as He has 
 made it appreciable by our senses and by our un- 
 derstandings, is vast enough and wonderful and 
 lovely enough to occupy all our best and highest 
 faculties during the longest life granted to man. 
 If we wish and endeavour to extend the flight of 
 our thoughts beyond its boundaries, our strivings 
 should be upward toward Him and his Holiness, 
 and not to plunge into the dangerous unrealities 
 of demonology." 
 
 The following, written in 1865, illustrates Mur- 
 ray's old-fashioned observance of the Lord's Day, 
 and at the same time reveals the quaint notions 
 which prevail in certain European quarters regard- 
 ing the principles governing the British newspaper 
 press : 
 
 " Last night, after dinner, they all went to the 
 
AN ITALIAN'S EQUIVOQUE. 293 
 
 Opera, while (as it was Sunday evening) I de- 
 clined : so I went into the garden, and spent my 
 evening till dark with you and my cigar under the 
 great leafy horse-chestnuts. Then I read a little, 
 and went to bed early, having to be called at 5. 
 Is it not strange that the Duke, 1 who knows me 
 so well, and knows that I never go to any play 
 on Sunday, should just have selected the 29th as 
 the only day that he could see me ! H.R.H. told 
 me some queer things, if true (and . . . his 
 information is generally very good) viz., that at 
 the commencement of this Schleswig - Holstein 
 war the Danish Government had been advised 
 to put a gold muzzle on the English press, and 
 had expended 100,000 thereon! He named all 
 the papers bought, and the share of the Times ' 
 was 16,000 ; he had advised the Prince of Augus- 
 tenborg to secure it by giving 20,000, but he had 
 declined." 
 
 King John of Saxony, who reigned 1854-73, was 
 a distinguished man of letters. Murray records 
 how an Italian litterateur, on being presented to 
 the Saxon Minister at Naples, exclaimed enthu- 
 siastically : " Ah, monsieur ! je suis charme de 
 trouver occasion de vous exprimer le profond 
 respect que je ressens pour Sa Majeste votre 
 souverain." (A low bow from the Minister.) " Je 
 1'ai toujours consider e comme le premier dentiste 
 de 1' Europe." Consternation on the part of the 
 
 1 Ernest II., Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. 
 
294 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 Minister till it flashed upon him that a compli- 
 ment was intended to his royal master's accom- 
 plishment as a translator and annotator of Dante, 
 and that the literary gentleman had been bearing 
 tribute to his rank as a Dantiste. 
 
 The tremendous strain of the great Civil War 
 in America caused much anxiety to the holders 
 of American securities. The bulk of Murray's 
 property being of that nature, he took counsel 
 with Mr Motley, the historian, who was then 
 United States Minister at Vienna. His reply is 
 exceedingly long and detailed, but part of it may 
 be quoted, circumstances having amply justified 
 the confidence which Motley entertained as to the 
 resources of his country, though it is possible to 
 see that he underestimated the rate at which the 
 wealth of Great Britain was to accumulate : 
 
 John Lothrop Motley to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 "AMERICAN LEGATION, VIENNA, 
 IQtk May 1864. 
 
 " DEAR MURRAY, You ask me as to the sol- 
 vency of the United States, whatever may be the 
 amount of their debt at the conclusion of the 
 war. Of course I shall only speak of the country 
 as a whole. My own faith as to that point has 
 been perfect ever since the war fairly began. The 
 overthrow of the Union is to my mind an impos- 
 sibility ; the suppression of the mutiny and the 
 
LETTER FROM J. L. MOTLEY. 295 
 
 annihilation of its sole cause negro slavery I 
 consider certainties : I don't argue this. It is 
 nothing to me at this moment how many or how 
 few people at home or abroad share this conviction. 
 I can conceive of no other result, and I simply 
 take it as a postulate in answering your questions, 
 because any speculations as to the condition of the 
 country, supposing it to be ultimately broken up 
 into two or three dozen States or groups of States, 
 are to me entirely without interest as much so 
 as disquisitions as to the future of Mexico or Lap- 
 land. The solvency of the American Republic de- 
 pends, of course, upon its stability and its will to 
 pay its debts. As to its ability. The united 
 commonwealth is the richest country that ever 
 existed ; in the three elements of production 
 labour, capital, land of which the wealth of all 
 nations consists, nothing like the expansiveness 
 seen in the United States was ever heard of. 
 
 " 1. Labour. The population, with the excep- 
 tion of a few scattered individuals, belongs entirely 
 to the producing classes, and doubles itself every 
 twenty-two years. In Europe, especially in the 
 two leading nations, France and Great Britain, 
 population increases in a steadily diminishing ratio ; 
 every decade shows a less proportionate increase. 
 Thus, in round numbers, in the first year of this 
 century the population of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land was sixteen millions ; it is now about thirty 
 millions, not having quite doubled since the year 
 1800. At the same epoch the United States had 
 about five millions ; they have now about thirty- 
 five millions, having increased sevenfold. 
 
296 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 " 2. This increase of labour would, of course, be 
 a danger instead of a source of strength if the 
 other elements of wealth did not expand propor- 
 tionately ; but Capital increases with still more 
 astonishing rapidity. In ten years, between 1850 
 and 1860, the capital of the United States in- 
 creased about 129 per cent; in the same period 
 the wealth of Great Britain and Ireland increased 
 about 35 per cent. 
 
 " The actual valuation of the two countries 
 shows (in round numbers) in Great Britain and 
 Ireland at the present moment considerably more 
 than double the capital of the loyal States, but the 
 annual production of the loyal States is greater 
 than that of Great Britain and Ireland. The 
 figures are 
 
 Value of real and personal property in the year 1863 in 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland . . 33,403 million dollars. 
 
 Value of same in the loyal States . 14,000 ,. n 
 Product of the year 1863 in G-. B. 
 
 and Ireland 3,340 n .. 
 
 ii n n Loyal States 3,719 n n 
 
 Great Britain is probably the richest country in 
 the world at this moment, but it is easy to cal- 
 culate from these data in how very few years the 
 United States will be a far richer one. 
 
 " 3. But this unexampled increase of labour and 
 of capital might be appalling, were the future of 
 the country cramped for want of those natural 
 agents without which no wealth could exist, and 
 which are massed under the general term land, as 
 the third factor of national prosperity. The terri- 
 tory of the United States is about as large as that 
 of all Europe, and is even richer than that in 
 
SOLVENCY OF UNITED STATES. 297 
 
 mineral resources, fertility of soil, internal naviga- 
 tion, and in many artificial improvements, such as 
 canals, railways, and labour-saving machines. Our 
 system of inter-colonisation, by which the popu- 
 lation distributes itself when necessary over a wide 
 surface without expatriation and without losing 
 the power of concentrating itself when desirable, is 
 a phenomenon altogether new in history. Thus 
 we have land enough for a population of 400 
 millions without crowding more than people are 
 now crowded in England : when that limit is 
 reached other problems may arise, and may be 
 solved by those who come after us. We have 
 enough for a century or two. 
 
 " So much for the wealth of the United States 
 Commonwealth ; so much for its ability to pay its 
 debts my tailor might as well doubt my ability 
 to pay his very modest bill at the end of this 
 year. . . . 
 
 " Whenever I have anything to invest I always 
 buy United States bonds : the interest being paid 
 in gold makes it about a ten per cent investment. 
 As I don't expect a higher rate than that, and 
 know no better security than the promise of the 
 United States Government, I am content. Others 
 may prefer the stocks of the new Mexican empire 
 or of Jeff Da vis's Confederacy I am quite willing. 
 Ten per cent a -year is a high interest for a strong 
 Government to pay, but not extravagantly so when 
 it has such a tremendous insurrection to deal with. 
 -Yours truly, J. L. MOTLEY." 
 
 In 1866 Murray, having completed seven years 
 
298 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 at the Court of Saxony, was appointed Minister at 
 that of Copenhagen, receiving, in recognition of his 
 past services, promotion to the rank of Knight 
 Commander of the Bath (he had been C.B. since 
 1848). Among the private letters of this period 
 some are from well-known people. With charac- 
 teristic energy Sir Charles, now in his sixtieth 
 year, set himself to learn the Danish language. 
 " I admire," writes Lord Stanley, Foreign Secretary 
 in 1867, "your energy in learning Danish. It 
 ought to be easy to one who knows German and 
 the older forms of English ; but the literature is 
 not extensive." 
 
 Of course Sir Charles and Lady Murray made 
 the acquaintance of Hans Christian Andersen, then 
 at the height of his popularity. He used often to 
 visit the British Legation and read to them his 
 stories in Danish. 
 
 Hans Christian Andersen to the Hon. 
 Lady Murray. 
 
 "COPENHAGEN, November 1867. 
 
 " I knew and loved these countries [England 
 and Scotland] before my feet trod them. With 
 Marryat's ' Jacob Faithful' I had long before 
 sailed up the Thames ; by Dickens I was led 
 into London's narrow lanes, and I listened to 
 the throbbing hearts there ; and in 4 Night and 
 
HANS ANDERSEN AND STIRLING-MAXWELL. 299 
 
 Morning ' Bulwer opened to my gaze the rich 
 landscape, with its towns, its churches, and its 
 villages. 
 
 " I was at home on Scotland's mountains, and 
 familiar with its deep lakes, lonely paths, and 
 ancient castles : Walter Scott's genius had wafted 
 me thither ; Walter Scott's beneficent house had 
 extended to me the spiritual bread and wine, so 
 that I forgot the earthly. 
 
 " I was intimate with Shakespeare's land and 
 Burns's mountain before my corporeal eye beheld 
 them, and when at length I visited them I was 
 not received as a stranger. Kind eyes regarded 
 me, friends extended the hand to me. Elevated 
 and humbled at the same time by so much happi- 
 ness, my heart swelled with gratitude to God." 
 
 Mr Stirling of Keir, better known in later years 
 as Sir William Stirling - Maxwell, had recently 
 succeeded to his uncle's baronetcy. 
 
 Sir William Stirling -Maxwell, M.P., to the 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " HOUSE OF COMMONS, March 20, 1866. 
 
 " Thanks for your kind note of congratulations. 
 I did not take my uncle's baronetcy at once, be- 
 cause of the rarity of female descents of baron- 
 etcies, and because, although he was advised that 
 his went in the female line, I thought it safer to 
 lay the case before the Lord Advocate and other 
 counsel, who gave their opinions to the same effect 
 
300 DRESDEN AND COPENHAGEN. 
 
 as the former advice, only two months ago. My 
 mother's family, 1 now come to an end in the male 
 line, was a good old stock, of which any relic is 
 interesting and valuable to those sprung from it. 
 
 " The Reform Bill is, as you may suppose, the 
 general topic of talk and speculation. . . . John 
 Bright, having seen his error in being wheedled 
 into opposing the Derby Bill, was, or affected 
 to be, in the secrets of the Government, and 
 announced that he w T armly approved. ' Warm 
 approbation' from Bright was enough to ensure 
 the Bill a cold reception from both Whigs and 
 Tories. ... So far Gladstone has led the House 
 with great good -temper, prosperity, and success, 
 but his rank and file, and some of his colleagues, 
 seem to like him none the better on that account. 
 Lord Russell looks rather shaky, as if he ' couldn't 
 be thankful ' ! If he could but have consented to 
 do so on the front red bench of the Lords, he 
 might, in the dearth of popular idols, have ripened 
 into a Palmerston." 
 
 Colonel George Grey to the Hon. Sir Charles 
 Murray, K.C.B. 
 
 " OSBORNE, Aug. 7, 1867. 
 
 " I yesterday sent to the Foreign Office by the 
 Queen's command a copy of the Prince's ' Early 
 Years,' to be forwarded to you by the first oppor- 
 tunity. You will find it recorded in the first 
 page as a gift from H.M. to you, in her own 
 handwriting. It is having a great sale, though 
 
 i Maxwell of Pollok. 
 
APPOINTED MINISTER AT LISBON. 301 
 
 there are some few, like Higgins, Reeve, & Co., 
 who sneer, and say there is something unbecoming 
 in a woman laying bare the inmost recesses of 
 her heart in this manner. It has been well re- 
 ceived by the immense majority, and has gone 
 far, as all admit, to restore the popularity, of 
 which, by her long seclusion, the Queen had 
 lost a good deal. If the volume is calculated 
 to do good by the example of such a character 
 as the Prince's, why is the advantage of being 
 able to study it to be reserved for our posterity ? " 
 
 Agreeable as Danish society must always be 
 to educated Britons, and varied though the inter- 
 ests were which the Murrays found in Copenhagen, 
 the experience of a single winter was enough to 
 convince Sir Charles that the climate was too 
 severe as well for his wife's constitution as for 
 his own, long accustomed to sub -tropical skies. 
 Accordingly, on a redistribution of posts taking 
 place, and a vacancy occurring in the British 
 Legation at Lisbon, he applied to Lord Stanley 
 and obtained that appointment, although it could 
 not be considered in the light of professional pro- 
 motion from Copenhagen. 
 
302 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 1867-1882. 
 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 THE affairs of Portugal during Sir Charles 
 Murray's term of office at Lisbon were not of 
 such a stirring nature as to merit record in 
 these pages. But the neighbouring kingdom of 
 Spain was in such a critical condition as to attract 
 the attention of all the great Powers at this time, 
 and Sir Charles was employed by the British 
 Government to undertake delicate negotiations 
 with a view to bringing about a succession to 
 the Spanish Crown which might conduce to the 
 general peace of Europe. 
 
 It is well known that these, as well as other 
 negotiations, fell through, and that the Spanish 
 succession, as ultimately decided, formed the pre- 
 text for France going to war with Germany in 
 1870. It would therefore serve no good or inter- 
 
THE THRONE OF SPAIN. 303 
 
 esting purpose to retrace the various steps in this 
 diplomatic labyrinth. It is sufficient to say that 
 Great Britain had no special or general interest 
 in any dynasty : the only concern of her Ministers 
 was to further such developments as might keep 
 the other Great Powers in good -humour. "The 
 pressing want of Spain at this moment," wrote 
 Lord Clarendon to Sir Charles at the beginning 
 of 1869, "is a king: if the throne were occupied 
 by a sovereign who commanded the confidence and 
 respect of the nation, rivalries and angry passions 
 would subside, and order would be soon restored." 
 The difficulty was to find such a sovereign, 
 and Sir Charles was directed to sound Dom 
 Fernando, the father of the King of Portugal, 
 to ascertain if he would reconsider his decision 
 to decline to become a candidate for the Spanish 
 throne. 
 
 " The Emperor Napoleon III.," continued Lord 
 Clarendon, " maintains the strictest neutrality, 
 and has not to any one expressed even a wish 
 respecting the form of Government that is to be 
 established in Spain ; but as he cannot desire a 
 Republic or the Duke de Montpensier on his fron- 
 tier, it is fair to infer that he would be glad to 
 see Dom Fernando on the throne. No Italian 
 Prince would find favour either in Spain or in 
 France." 
 
304 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 Sir Charles reported at considerable length his 
 interview with Dom Fernando, with whom he was 
 on very friendly terms, and concluded with a 
 sketch of that Prince's appearance and manner : 
 
 " The manner of Dom Ferdinand during this 
 interview reminded me forcibly of that of his 
 uncle King Leopold, when I held with him, 
 nearly thirty years ago, a conversation on a matter 
 similarly delicate. There was the same slow, care- 
 ful enunciation, and an air of bonhomie mingled 
 with a certain grave slyness in the expression of 
 the countenance which left you with the impres- 
 sion that there was something in reserve beyond 
 what he thought fit to tell you. That 'some- 
 thing ' in the present instance I take to be that 
 beneath the unimpassioned coolness, not to say 
 indifference, which he exhibits, ambition within 
 him is dormant, not dead ; and that, despite the 
 struggle that it would cost him to give up his 
 present life of agreeable, artistic leisure and enjoy- 
 ment, if he were really invited to that throne by a 
 decided majority of the Spanish nation his present 
 nolo episcopari would not be found irrevocable." 
 
 Earl of Clarendon to Hon. Sir Charles 
 Murray, K.C.B. 
 
 " FOREIGN OFFICE, February 8tk, 1869. 
 
 " MY DEAR MURRAY, You executed my com- 
 mission very promptly and well, and I am sorry 
 you did not have the success you deserved. 
 
 " I can't wonder at the ex-king's determination 
 
DOM FERNANDO. 305 
 
 not to jump into such a hornet's nest as Spain, 
 but he would do a real service to this unfortunate 
 country if he would reconsider his decision, and 
 Europe would be much obliged to him. If he 
 was invited by the Spanish Cortes in a manner to 
 make him feel that he might reckon upon the con- 
 fidence and support of the country, he might 
 accept experimentally. He would retain his pal- 
 ace at Cintra and suspend his enjoyments and 
 occupations there until he saw whether the neigh- 
 bouring throne would suit him. He would be in 
 much the same position as King Leopold, who 
 always told the Belgians that he didn't want them 
 and that they didn't want him, so they had only 
 to say the word and he would immediately start 
 for Claremont. King Ferdinand might in the 
 like way announce this if he and the Spaniards 
 didn't like each other. They have only to make 
 it known by a vote of the Cortes, and he would 
 bow to it directly without any one having a fear of 
 civil war on his account. There would be some- 
 thing new, which would not, I think, be unpopular, 
 in a sovereign entering on his duties upon such 
 terms with his subjects. The acceptance by King 
 Ferdinand would place the Emperor Napoleon 
 under just obligation, and he might rely on all 
 the support that France could afford. If you 
 think it absolutely useless, do not trouble him any 
 more, but if there is a loophole, pray intrust the 
 above considerations to him. 
 
 " I have been detained so long at the Cabinet 
 that I can write no more. Yours very truly, 
 
 " CLARENDON." 
 
306 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 Lord Howden to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " BAYONNE, 23rd May 1869. 
 
 " This is the day of the elections in France, and 
 nobody has any idea of how they will turn out. I 
 think there is little doubt that Government will 
 have a considerable numerical majority, but the 
 minority will be very violent and very incon- 
 venient, deriving daring and strength from a 
 discontent (or disgust if you prefer the word) 
 which exists in the country, and from a general 
 excitement very different from the complete apathy 
 which characterised the elections of 1863. The 
 Emperor has lately entertained ideas of dynastic 
 danger which never tormented him before. He 
 has been much acted on by Marshals Niel and 
 Bazaine, and they say even Macmahon, and I am 
 not without fear that an unruly Chamber might 
 produce a wish for war as a derivative. 
 
 " H." 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to the Earl Granville. 
 
 "CINTRA, July I0th, 1870. 
 
 " I happened to be calling on his Majesty some 
 time ago, I forget the precise date, but it was just 
 after General Prim had distinctly stated in answer 
 to an interpellation in the Cortes, ' The Govern- 
 ment had given up all idea of King Ferdinand as 
 a candidate, and that no communication had been 
 held with him in that sense since last year/ 
 ' What a liar that fellow is ! ' said his Majesty to 
 me; 'why, I have now in that bureau a letter 
 
SPANISH INTRIGUE. 30*7 
 
 from him lately received, in which he urges me to 
 reconsider the refusal which I have been obliged 
 to repeat more than once : by making it public I 
 could expose him to all Europe, but it is not worth 
 while.' 
 
 " Now follows a circumstance more extraordinary. 
 Yesterday evening at the Palace of the Ajuda, 
 while the Council was being held, the Duke of 
 Saldanha took King Ferdinand aside, and pressed 
 him most urgently to proclaim himself a candidate 
 for the Spanish crown, assuring him that success 
 was certain, and that it would be the means and 
 the only means of avoiding the risk of civil or 
 European war. c Why, Duke,' said the King in 
 astonishment, ' not only have I on former occa- 
 sions given you my reasons for declining this 
 honour when my name seemed to carry with it 
 greater probabilities of success than that of any 
 other candidate, but assuredly you would not have 
 me to appear now in the field in opposition to my 
 own son-in-law, who has just received and accepted 
 General Prim's offer, and in regard to whom you 
 have published the General's telegram informing 
 you that if his success is prevented, he will pro- 
 claim a republic.' ' Oh,' replied the Duke, ' if 
 your Majesty will only authorise me to say that 
 you accept, / will easily arrange all that with 
 Prim' 
 
 " I do not know how it strikes you, my dear 
 Lord, but there is to me something inexpressibly 
 offensive, not to say disgusting, in seeing these 
 two plotters, the one a selfish military adventurer, 
 the other (as Lear says of himself) ' a very foolish 
 
308 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 fond old man,' self - constituted premier by a 
 treasonable coup -de-main, setting at nought the 
 opinions of the people's representatives in two 
 countries, professing to be under constitutional 
 government, and bargaining and jobbing and 
 chaffering about the crown of Spain as if it were 
 a bauble, the only use of which was to swell their 
 own self-importance. Last year I had, by Lord 
 Clarendon's private instructions, several confiden- 
 tial interviews with King Ferdinand on this sub- 
 ject, the result of which I periodically reported 
 to Lord Clarendon ; but though his Majesty's 
 language was always firm and consistent in the 
 negative, I never left him without an impression 
 (and it is one that I still entertain) that his 
 refusal was owing to the quarter from which the 
 offer came : he would not accept the Crown from 
 the hands of Prim and his associates, even al- 
 though they might have been able to back their 
 offer by obtaining a majority for it in the Cortes ; 
 but if he had been called for by the unmistakable 
 voice of the nation, plainly expressed in the 
 Chambers and elsewhere, I am of opinion that 
 notwithstanding all the weighty reasons that 
 were in the opposite balance, he would not have 
 refused to obey the call. Nothing that his Ma- 
 jesty ever said to me in words authorised me 
 to draw this inference, and yet I am sure it is 
 a correct one. . . . 
 
 " From a despatch, of which Lord Clarendon 
 sent me a copy some weeks ago, addressed by Mr 
 Layard to the Foreign Office, I regret to find 
 that I have formed so different an estimation of 
 
WANTED, A KING. 309 
 
 General Prim's character from that which is held 
 by Mr L., who speaks of the General as a man 
 on whose candour and frankness he is able and 
 disposed to rely. As Mr L. has much better 
 opportunities of judging from personal intercourse 
 and observation, and as it is of much more con- 
 sequence to you that his opinion on that point 
 should be correct, I hope it may prove so. I 
 have given you some of the grounds on which 
 mine has been formed." 
 
 The Hon. Sir Charles Murray to Earl Granville. 
 
 " LISBON, 9th August 1869. 
 
 " On most political subjects the Portuguese as a 
 nation are extremely indifferent, but on this one 
 they are, at least for the present, firmly and deter- 
 minedly in earnest. They believe that to them 
 annexation to Spain would be absorption, and the 
 loss of their independence and of their place among 
 the nations. Such being the state of feeling in 
 Portugal, it is easy to imagine how difficult it 
 must be for King Ferdinand, who has much regard 
 for and is respected by the land of his adoption, to 
 take a step which would not only be a break-up of 
 all. his domestic ties and habits of life, but which 
 he must well know to be intended by those 
 who urge him to it, to be a step towards that 
 Iberian union which is now so obnoxious to Por- 
 tugal. Another obstacle scarcely less grave seems 
 to me the fact that (so far as I am able to learn 
 here) the Spanish nation has not recently, either 
 through its Government or its Cortes, expressed 
 
310 LISBON AND KELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 openly any wish to offer the crown to King 
 Ferdinand. I am not aware whether General 
 Prim carries in his pocket such a majority in 
 the Cortes as to enable him to say to King 
 Ferdinand, ' Say yes, and I will place the crown 
 on your head ' : if he does not, it would seem 
 scarcely consistent with King Ferdinand's char- 
 acter, position, and rank to enter the lists as a 
 competitor with the Alphonsists, the Republicans, 
 the Montpensierists, and other parties, for a crown 
 which he has repeatedly declared that he does not 
 covet." 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to Earl Granville. 
 
 "CiNTRA, August lltk, 1870. 
 
 " M. de Los Rios, the Spanish Minister at this 
 Court, was instructed by General Prim to renew 
 formally to King Ferdinand the offer made to him 
 last year, with an assurance that every reasonable 
 condition he might wish to make would be com- 
 plied with, and that it was the only remaining 
 chance of saving the peninsula from civil war 
 and long years of trouble and disorder. King 
 Ferdinand, though still unwilling to leave his 
 home and the land of his adoption for so uncer- 
 tain and dangerous a position, replied that he 
 would reconsider his former decision, provided that 
 certain preliminary conditions, personal and politi- 
 cal, were complied with. The personal conditions, 
 the necessity for one of which has arisen in the 
 course of the last twelve months, were the position 
 to be accorded to his wife, Countess Edla ; and the 
 
OVERTURES TO DOM FERNANDO. 311 
 
 other that (while leaving the amount of his civil 
 list to the liberality of the Spanish Cortes) he 
 should be assured, in the event of circumstances 
 compelling him to abdicate, of an appanage or life 
 income equal in amount to what he enjoys here, 
 and which he must resign if he goes to Spain. 
 I do not think that any serious difficulty occurred 
 as to the acceptance of either of these conditions, 
 though it is obvious that at best they offered 
 King Ferdinand but very imperfect security ; for 
 although it might be stipulated that the Countess 
 should enjoy her proper social rank, but without 
 any political position, no stipulation of the kind 
 could compel the proud Duchesses and Marquesses 
 or Condessas of Spain to frequent her salons or 
 invite her to theirs ; and with respect to the life 
 income, it cannot be supposed that if the King 
 Ferdinand were obliged to abdicate, either by the 
 success of a competitor or by the proclamation of a 
 republic, he would ever receive a dollar of this 
 stipulated appanage. The political conditions 
 which the King wished to establish were that he 
 should be invited by two-thirds of the Cortes, that 
 the absolute independence of Portugal should be 
 guaranteed, and the insertion of a clause in the 
 Act of his own election to the sovereignty to the 
 effect that the crowns of Portugal and Spain should 
 not be worn by the same king. The first of these 
 General Prim declared to be impossible in the 
 present divided state of the Cortes and of the 
 country, so it was laid aside ; the independence 
 of Portugal willingly guaranteed in words ; but 
 the third and last was declared to be unconsti- 
 
312 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 tutional and impossible to accept. So for the 
 present the negotiations are interrupted. The 
 truth is, that on these two last points the desires 
 and wishes of the two respective parties to the 
 negotiation are opposite. King Ferdinand knows 
 that in all human probability the Iberian Union is 
 only a question of time, and will sooner or later be 
 effected; but he also knows that it is a prospect 
 deprecated by and hateful to nineteen-twentieths 
 of the population of Portugal, the only political 
 question on which they feel strongly and almost 
 unanimously. ... The King was very anxious to 
 learn from me the views of the Queen and of her 
 Majesty's Government on the subject of his accept- 
 ance of the Crown of Spain and on that of the 
 Iberian Union ; but as you have not written to me, 
 either privately or officially, a single line on either 
 of these topics, I was obliged to be very guarded, 
 and I fear unsatisfactory, in my replies." 
 
 King Ferdinand's decision proved irrevocable ; 
 at least the necessary preponderance of Spanish 
 public opinion was not forthcoming. The crown 
 was offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern- 
 Sigmaringen, with the result of a European war, 
 which it had been the earnest desire successively 
 of Lord Clarendon and Lord Granville to avert. 
 
 Nobody ever anticipated the requirements of 
 a biographer in a less degree than Sir Charles 
 Murray. It seems never to have entered his 
 head that he should form the subject of a 
 
LETTEBS FROM LORD LYTTON. 313 
 
 memoir ; hence little help can be had now from 
 his correspondence, of which only those fragments 
 have been preserved which referred to negotia- 
 tions, and literary or artistic questions, of which he 
 wished to keep memoranda. Nevertheless, among 
 the few letters which remain there are some which 
 are still of interest, either by reason of the writers 
 thereof or from reference to passing events. 
 
 The Hon. R. Lytton (afterwards first Earl of 
 Lytton *) to the Hon. Charles Murray. 
 
 "MADRID, June 6tk, 1868. 
 
 " You must indeed have been thinking me dead, 
 if not in the flesh, at least in the spirit of grati- 
 tude, all this while ; but I yet hope that you will 
 pardon my many previous sins of omission in con- 
 sideration of the great anxiety and fatigue which 
 are my excuse for them, when I tell you that the 
 whole of our household, iny wife, self, the two 
 children, the two nurses, have been a tour de role 
 on the sick-list ever since our arrival here. . . . 
 
 " First about ' Gil Bias.' I find that there is no 
 edition of this book to which literati here attach 
 more value than to any other. They regard the 
 book as the translation of a French translation 
 from a last Spanish original. I had therefore 
 commissioned a bookseller to get an edition of 
 the book, having regard only to the excellence 
 of type and paper, since the text of all editions 
 
 1 Known in literature under the pseudonym of " Owen Meredith." 
 
314 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 is said to be the same. But on the morning after 
 I had done so, Lady Murray's letter to my wife 
 arrived, and I at once countermanded the order. 
 
 "As regards the Spanish Academy Dictionary, 
 I have ascertained from members of the Academy 
 here that they are at this moment engaged on a 
 new edition of this dictionary which they hope to 
 have finished in about six months. . . . 
 
 " By the way, I must tell you an anecdote which 
 I mean to send to M. Arnold, as he is the great 
 advocate for the establishment of an Academy in 
 England. Salamanca had built a new sort of 
 boulevard here which was to have been called 
 Honda del something or other ; but wishing to 
 pay a compliment to Narvaes, he altered his mind 
 and called it Boulevard de Narvaes : whereupon 
 the Academy writes officially to the Municipality 
 pointing out that the word boulevard is not 
 Spanish, but an authorised Gallicism, and in- 
 structing the Municipality to efface the word 
 from the sheet and replace it by Honda. The 
 Municipality replies that it cannot make the re- 
 quired change without higher authority. The 
 discussion is referred to the Government, and at 
 present a sharp correspondence is still going on 
 between the Ministry of Public Works, the Min- 
 ister for Education, the Academy, and the Town 
 Council, on the subject of the word ' boulevard/ 
 
 " We are tolerably comfortable here, and have 
 the advantage of being close to the Museum, 
 where I intend to pass all my mornings by-and-by. 
 As yet, however, I have had no time to do any- 
 thing I like doing, though we have indeed been 
 
LETTERS FROM LORD LYTTON. 315 
 
 going the round of a vicious circle of dinners and 
 evening parties, which have brought me entirely 
 to the conclusion of the philosopher who said that 
 life would be a tolerably pleasant thing if it were 
 not for its amusements. I find Madrid much more 
 sociable than Lisbon. The town itself, too, is 
 handsomer and more civilised. Though horribly 
 dear in the price of all things, yet by paying for 
 it you can get nearly all you want, which is not 
 the case at Lisbon. There is less dearth of 
 verdure here, too, than I expected to find. Be- 
 sides the Retiro, which is really a fine public 
 garden in the heart of the town, the Casa de 
 Campo and the Florida just outside the gates 
 Galera are full of charming walks and drives. 
 Altogether, I think Madrid has been underrated 
 by those, at least, from whom I derived my first 
 impressions about it. The Gallery is glorious, and 
 half of what Ford in his handbook says of its 
 contents is singularly untrue. Many of the pic- 
 tures which he describes as ruined by cleaning and 
 restoring have obviously never been touched, and 
 are in perfect condition. One Titian in especial 
 which he says has been scraped to pieces is in a 
 deliciously pure state, with every trace of the 
 master's brush as fresh as can be. The Raphaels 
 doubtless are the worse for the restorers, but I 
 doubt if they were ever worthy of their reputation. 
 Like many others of Raphael's most celebrated 
 pictures, they are hard, flat, bricky things, and I 
 can't believe that the colouring of them could at 
 any time have been much less unpleasant than it 
 is now. The king of this Gallery is certainly 
 
316 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 Velasquez. By Jove ! what a marvellous fellow 
 he is ! There is scarcely any paint on his canvas, 
 yet the effect is nature itself, and the facility 
 equal in all ways to that of Eubens. No man 
 could have painted the ' Weaving Women' who 
 had not painted immensely before. Yet how few 
 pictures of Velasquez are there even here. I 
 wonder what has become of the rest? hundreds 
 of them must have been destroyed. I see English 
 people sometimes in this Gallery, women especi- 
 ally, hurrying past Velasquez, turning their faces 
 contemptuously from Rubens, looking timidly at 
 Titian, and standing in sham ecstasies before a 
 prim, ill-drawn Fra Angelico in distemper, for 
 hours. It almost makes me wish that Ruskin 
 had never been born. 
 
 " There is a fair Italian theatre here just now : 
 I have only been to it once to see a badly written 
 drama by some Neapolitan author unknown to me, 
 though not to fame I suppose. Rossi the actor, 
 however, appears to me to have some excellent 
 qualities about him, spoilt like all Italian acting 
 by exaggeration, too much declamation, and too 
 little by-play. But I am told he is very good in 
 ' Othello/ which I hope to see him in. Do you 
 know anything of him ? The Opera here appears 
 to be excellent. The theatre itself one of the 
 finest I ever saw. The season is over now, how- 
 ever, and I only visited it once before the opera 
 season closed, and once after on a gala night given 
 by the Queen in honour of her daughter's mar- 
 riage, to see a play of Lope de Vega, which I 
 found intolerably dull doubtless because I could 
 
LETTERS FROM LORD LYTTON. 317 
 
 scarcely understand a word of it. ... Your con- 
 versation with Avila about Mr L.'s case amuses 
 me very much. J'y reconnais mon homme, 
 though Avila is far less dilatory and evasive than 
 any other Portuguese Minister I ever had to deal 
 with. But the policy of all of them is ' cunctando 
 non restituere rem.' If you settle the L. case 
 with Avila (as I hope you will), you will certainly 
 be able to congratulate yourself on having settled 
 a case which is at least twenty-five years old, and 
 which all our previous members have failed to 
 move a step forward. 
 
 " Oh ! I must tell you that during two days of 
 cold and cough which sent me to and kept me in 
 bed, I re-read with immense pleasure the ' Prairie 
 Bird.' I had not seen it since I was a schoolboy, 
 and it was almost a new book to me. It is full of 
 ( go,' and the true vivida vis of narrative interest 
 carries one on with it at a hand-gallop. How 
 very few of our first-class writers since Scott (who 
 certainly had it supereminently) either have or use 
 the gift which you evidently possess in a high de- 
 gree of ' telling a story ' ! The story of Dickens's 
 novels is always badly put together ; his effects, 
 wonderful in themselves, come one after the other, 
 but rarely one out of the other. Thackeray has 
 scarce any story at all, and such story as he has 
 he talks of he doesn't tell it. I wish you would 
 do for the savages of London, Paris, and the 
 fashionable watering-places what you have done 
 for the savages of North America. Would a 
 modern c Gil Bias ' be impossible, if there were 
 but a modern Le Sage ? 
 
318 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 " I am afraid that this scrawl will be quite illeg- 
 ible. It has been interrupted, broken off, and 
 recommenced a dozen times since I began it, and 
 meanwhile I have received your telegram about 
 ' Don Quixote/ Unlike l Gil Bias/ I find an em- 
 barras de choix about the editions of this book, of 
 which there appear to be multitudes, each hotly 
 extolled or decried by the bibliophili. Your tele- 
 gram only reached me yesterday afternoon, and 
 already I have a long list of them. There is no 
 lack of small editions, of which I will forward you 
 the best I can get in a day or two. The Diction- 
 ary and the Comedies are already on their way to 
 you. 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! Labouchere 1 as a reformer of 
 abuses is a wonderful spectacle, but nowadays 
 men seem to be valued less for what they are 
 than for what they call themselves. It reminds 
 me of the story of an Englishman who advertised 
 for a French governess for his daughter. A ballet- 
 dancer presented herself. ' I speak the purest 
 Parisian, am lively and intelligent, just the person 
 for the place.' 'Yes, but a danseuse impossible!' 
 ' Mais qu'est ce que ca fait, monsieur; je changerais 
 le nom ! ' . . . 
 
 " The other night I met here one of those very 
 old chamberlains of your very old Infanta Isabel : 
 I believe he has come here with a letter from the 
 Infanta to the Queen of Spain about her daughter's 
 marriage, but he lost his overcoat with the letter 
 at the station or in the train. The coat was even- 
 tually found, but not the letter, I am told." 
 
 1 H. Labouchere, Esq., M.P., formerly in the diplomatic service. 
 
LETTERS FROM LORD LYTTON. 319 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " VIENNA, 24th April 1872. 
 
 " We thank you, dear Sir Charles, very sincerely 
 for your kind and welcome letter. Our 'young 
 Astyanax, the hope of Troy,' and his dear mother 
 are both of them going on well. Judging of the 
 physiognomy of this remarkable baby 1 (of course 
 we think him remarkable), I should say he must 
 be about seventy-six years of age, and naturally 
 very tired of life, but resigned to the boredom of 
 it, which he supports with a sort of clerical dignity 
 and a look which seems to say to all visitors : ' I 
 am sorry to receive you in this fashion, but you 
 will understand that I am obliged to try and look 
 like a baby, as it would not be convenable for Mrs 
 Lytton to be supposed to have given birth to a 
 ready-made bishop.' 
 
 " I rejoice to think that there may be really a 
 chance of our meeting somewhere this year. My 
 own plans are rather complicated, and subject of 
 course to higher powers. But an attack of pleurisy 
 which I had this winter has left me rather shaky, 
 and the doctors tell me it is absolutely necessary 
 I should pass next winter in a warmer climate. 
 That is easier said than done. I had intended to 
 take no leave this summer, in order to secure a 
 long one for the winter ; but I think that in July 
 I shall be obliged to go to England for a month to 
 see my father, and, as Edith is not in a locomotive 
 condition just now, I shall leave her with the chil- 
 dren at a house we have taken in the country near 
 
 1 Henry Meredith Edward, died 1st March 1874. 
 
320 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 here for the summer. The whole of the month of 
 June, however, I expect to pass (also alone) at 
 Carlsbad, being in much want of the waters there. 
 What German bath do you think of going to ? is 
 there any chance of our meeting there ? For gout, 
 liver, and stomach, &c., Carlsbad is sometimes most 
 efficacious, but I hope you suffer from none of these 
 plagues. I have a liver which I should be very 
 glad to exchange with some one else's. Perhaps 
 I may have a glimpse of you in England later ? I 
 wish the diplomatic fates had left us longer with 
 you at Lisbon. 1 I should be much tempted to re- 
 visit those glimpses of the moon next winter if 
 they were not so difficult to get at, and my house- 
 hold gods so difficult to move. As it is, if we can 
 get away from Vienna when the terrible Vienna 
 winter begins, I think we shall probably hibernate 
 in Italy somewhere. I suppose the Vienna Exhibi- 
 tion for '73 will hardly tempt you here ? The 
 sentiment with which the prospect of it inspires 
 me is a strong desire to get away from this place 
 before it begins. . . . You would hardly know 
 Vienna again, if you have not seen it lately. It 
 is much increased in size, and now one of the hand- 
 somest and certainly quite the dearest capital in 
 Europe." 
 
 Sir William Stirling- Maxwell to Hon. 
 Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 "R.Y.S. ITA, OFF PORTSMOUTH, May 27, 1872. 
 
 " I should like very much to see your pictures 
 
 1 Mr Lytton had been First Secretary of Legation at Lisbon under 
 Sir Charles. 
 
LETTERS FROM SIR W. STIRLING-MAXWELL. 321 
 
 by Henri Bles. . . . Your story about the added 
 figures is very curious, and I daresay quite true. 
 We should hardly nowadays take such liberties 
 with good pictures 100 years old, but such things 
 have been done. 
 
 " We spent Easter at Castlehill (Lord Fortes- 
 cue's), and there F. showed me a good portrait by 
 Lely of the Duchess of Portsmouth, to which the 
 following history attached. In his boyhood and 
 youth the lady in question was known as the wife 
 of Lord Clinton, who rebuilt Castlehill about 1740 
 or so. Some twenty or thirty years ago his father, 
 the late Lord F., had a painter there to look at the 
 pictures and do some restoration. Lady Clinton 
 wanted cleaning, and in the course of the operation 
 the artist said he believed there was another face 
 underneath. Lady C. was very ugly, and there 
 was another portrait of her in the house. So the 
 cleaning was continued, and her ladyship vanished, 
 leaving the fair La Querouaille in her place ! It is 
 supposed to have been a piece of economy on her 
 lord's part to use up an old Lely in this way instead 
 of having a new portrait painted." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " KEIR, DUNBLANE, December I6th, 1872. 
 
 " Nothing stirring here except the Kincardine- 
 shire and Forfarshire elections, by which it would 
 appear that to be a landed proprietor in Scotland 
 is in itself a disqualification, in the eyes of farmers, 
 for a Scotch seat. I should be very grateful to any 
 one who can tell me the cause of this obvious feel- 
 
322 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 ing of clan disaffection, not to say hatred. The 
 causes commonly alleged are Game and Hypothec. 
 The first may here and there have some effect 
 where there is game, but as the rule is that there 
 is no game, it cannot be a general cause. In the 
 second I do not myself believe at all, except in the 
 case of some capitalist farmers who see in the aboli- 
 tion of the law an opportunity somewhat better 
 than they have at present of getting farms cheaper, 
 and (in the case of the very large ones) even at 
 their own price. But that it is not generally hate- 
 ful I think my own experience as a candidate is 
 worth something. I proposed myself in favour of 
 trying the amended law for hypothec, and repeal- 
 ing it if found unsatisfactory, and the result was 
 that I was never asked a question on the subject 
 either by friend or foe. If the alleged causes can- 
 not be the real ones, it is only the more certain 
 that some other cause, and that a very real one, is 
 at work. He would do good service who should 
 discover and show how it is to be removed. 
 
 " I am amused in Thiers' evidence about the 
 affairs of 1870 at the shrewd dig in the ribs the 
 little man in his dire distress and extremity con- 
 tinued to administer to Granville and Gladstone. 
 They offered to forward a proposal to Bismarck for 
 an armistice, if it was to be understood they were 
 not to recommend it. ' Are the position and func- 
 tions of England that of a post office ? ' It is not 
 only a post office in foreign affairs, I fear, but an 
 office at which a stick thrown at the window will 
 bring handsome payment of the toll ! " 
 
LETTER FROM LORD LYTTON. 323 
 
 Lord Lytton 1 to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " KNEBWORTH, 29tk May 1873. 
 
 " My delay in thanking you for the great plea- 
 sure I owe to your delightful and most kind letter 
 is an indirect answer to one of its friendly queries, 
 being a proof that instead of increased leisure, 
 increased business and trouble of all kinds has 
 fallen to my lot ; for within the last three months, 
 by heaven, I have nearly worked the head off my 
 shoulders and the legs off my hips ! A thousand 
 reasons, all excellent (at least I think so, since I 
 have adopted them), but too complicated for ex- 
 planation or even recital in this shabby scrap of 
 a note, decided me not to relinquish immediately 
 the old trade to which I have been for upwards of 
 twenty years apprentice, and of which I am now 
 the gods be thanked sufficiently independent in 
 a pecuniary sense to be able to decline many posts 
 which a year ago I should have felt bound to 
 accept. Lord Granville had considerately given 
 me unlimited time to set my private affairs in 
 order before joining my present posts at Paris ; 
 but as Lyons wanted to come to England, and 
 was afraid of rousing the wrath of the barbarous 
 gods of the British Press if we were both of us 
 absent at the same time, and anything were in the 
 meanwhile to happen at Paris, I had to hurry over 
 there to relieve guard, and whilst there, what with 
 my own business and that of the Embassy, I was 
 as restless as Noah's dove, though, unlike the 
 dove, I had left my olive branches behind me. It 
 
 1 Lord Lytton succeeded his father in January 1873. 
 
324 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 was there, in a perfect Sahara of official routine, 
 that your letter, ' breathing of Flora and the coun- 
 try green/ reached me like a whiff of sweet air 
 musical with the harp notes of Apollo, and fresh 
 from the pines of Mount Ida. You see how im- 
 possible it is for a diplomatist in these dry days to 
 unloose from himself the ligatures of red tape, even 
 though he bring back to the halls of Vathek a 
 culture as long as, and a heart far longer than, 
 Beckford's. You thought to send me a packet of 
 Cintra flowers, and your packet contained guess 
 what a huge quantity of india-rubber bands, 
 enough to keep within bounds the official corre- 
 spondence of half-a-dozen embassies ! The unin- 
 tended gift was perhaps more appropriate than 
 the intended one. ... It has cost me a heroic 
 wrench to resist the almost overpowering tempta- 
 tion to settle down for the rest of my days in this 
 dear old home of my boyhood, which I never quit 
 without a pang, nor return to without an ineffable 
 sense of refuge and repose. The life I should na- 
 turally lead here half student, half country gentle- 
 man is certainly the life most congenial to me ; 
 but could my dear father have foreseen the prema- 
 ture and terrible bereavement which has given me 
 the option of leading such a life, I believe he would 
 have cancelled the decision I have forced upon 
 myself, against all my natural inclinations, to con- 
 tinue in my profession for the present. He has, 
 however, left me voluminous materials for his 
 biography. To write that biography I now regard 
 as the chief duty of my future life, and if I find 
 professional duties incompatible with the fulfilment 
 
LETTER FROM LORD LYTTON. 325 
 
 of this one I shall resign not, however, till I have 
 made the trial. 
 
 " I have a book of my own (two new volumes of 
 verse) in the press, and nearly ready for publica- 
 tion. I should like to send it you whenever it 
 comes out. But its progress is at present some- 
 what impeded by an obligation I have undertaken 
 to complete this year a collected edition of my 
 father's speeches, with a short prefatory sketch of 
 his political life. 
 
 " I could not resist the temptation to show your 
 letter to Forster, who is, as I knew he would be, 
 delighted by all you say of his book about Dickens. 
 There is just now a direful controversy being waged 
 between Hayward, Mr Crosbie (the ex -diploma- 
 tised), and Stopford Brooke (the popular preacher) 
 over the dead body of poor Mill. . . . 
 
 " What a gdchis in France ! The only thing 
 upon which one can congratulate the French is 
 the ease and rapidity with which they are clear- 
 ing off their heavy war indemnity. But even this 
 is rather like congratulating a man with diabetes 
 on the quantity of sugar he produces." 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 " OEZNHAUSEN, 4th September 1873. 
 
 " What a pretty note you sent me from Mme. de 
 R. ! I think in the way of style there is nothing so 
 perfect as a letter written by a cultivated French- 
 woman ! They have a trick or knack of expression 
 that ' gives to airy nothing ' not only a semblance 
 but a substance of beauty ! We English can write, 
 
326 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 according to the feeling of the moment, a thought- 
 ful, a droll, an earnest, a tender, or a loving letter 
 these form indeed the substantial food of corre- 
 spondence ; but we cannot make the light impal- 
 pable soufflee that is the glory of the French- 
 
 woman's cuisine ! " 
 
 Lord Lytton to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " KNEBWORTH, July Vlth, 1874. 
 
 " Your very kind letter adds to the temptations 
 of life, and could I increase its capacities in like 
 measure, the result would be an additional pleas- 
 ure to myself. But to a stone nymph who, fixed 
 to a garden fountain, can only spout so many 
 gallons of water per diem, what avail is an in- 
 vitation from the neighbouring mountain to come 
 and drink her fill at the head-spring ? For the 
 rest of my short and uncertain stay in England, I 
 fear I am tied and tethered to Knebworth. I came 
 home this year to settle, if possible, a mass of 
 personal business still unsettled and claiming daily 
 attention. I am living too in daily fear of a 
 summons from Lyons to relieve guard at Paris, 
 now that the political madhouse at Versailles is 
 dispersed, and yet I am engaged to receive a suc- 
 cession of kinsfolk at Knebworth up to the 15th 
 of August. If my stay in England survives that 
 date, and if you are then still in town, I will most 
 gladly avail myself of your kindly offered hospi- 
 tality ; but I cannot before then extricate myself 
 from the web I have woven around me here, and 
 you talk of soon flitting to rejoin the seagulls. 
 
MURRAY RETIRES FROM PUBLIC LIFE. 327 
 
 What seagulls ? Iberian or Britannic ? I wish I 
 could get to the sea myself, for I much feel the 
 want of sea-air and sea-bathing, but I cannot stir. 
 Shall you be passing through Paris this winter ? if 
 so, I shall hope to see you there. But in any case 
 my present home-sickness is so strong that I can- 
 not face the prospect of any long continuation of 
 official exile, and as I presume that neither do you 
 intend, pro bono publico, to leave your English 
 home permanently uninhabited, I shall look for- 
 ward to other opportunities of meeting on British 
 soil, and seeing all the treasures you have collected 
 at Oaklands, when I have cast my diplomatic skin." 
 
 Lord Lytton's intention to abandon diplomacy 
 in favour of residence at Kneb worth was never 
 carried out. He died in 1891 as British Ambas- 
 sador in Paris, after discharging the office of 
 Governor - General of India from 1876 to 1880. 
 His first appointment as chief of a Legation was 
 to the Court of Lisbon, vacated by the retire- 
 ment of his friend, Sir Charles Murray, from the 
 service. 
 
 This took place in the autumn of 1874. 
 
 The Earl of Derby to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " FOREIGN OFFICE, October \kth, 1874. 
 
 " I need hardly say that I have received with 
 sincere regret the expression of your determina- 
 tion to retire from our service, but I cannot con- 
 
328 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 tend against the valid reasons which you put 
 forward for preferring a private life. You will 
 carry with you into retirement the conscious- 
 ness of duty efficiently discharged during a long 
 series of years, and we shall console ourselves 
 with the hope of seeing more of you when your 
 residence is fixed in England. 
 
 " I can well understand that the Peninsula 
 should not be a pleasant residence just now, and 
 I see not the slightest prospect of early improve- 
 ment. I shall not make your intention public 
 until I hear from you officially. Believe me, 
 very sincerely yours, DERBY." 
 
 Sir Charles at the time of his retirement had 
 completed his sixty-eighth year, and though still 
 vigorous, it was not unnatural, nor did it arise 
 from indolence, that he should incline to spend 
 his remaining years in the retirement of a home 
 which he was so capable of enjoying. His dip- 
 lomatic career, through the vicissitudes of pro- 
 motion, had scarcely fulfilled to him the promise 
 of its outset. Sir Charles referred to this dis- 
 appointment in a letter to Lord Stanley in 1867, 
 when he was asking for an exchange that should 
 spare him another winter at Copenhagen, which 
 he dreaded : 
 
 " I had indulged a hope that as the transfer of 
 the Persian Mission to the Indian Department, 
 when you presided over it in 1859, had been the 
 
PURCHASE OF GARLANDS HALL. 329 
 
 cause of my being tumbled down to the bottom of 
 the diplomatic ladder when I had climbed half-way 
 up it, you would now have been glad to fulfil the 
 expectations which the frank and friendly answers 
 to my letters had led me to entertain, and that 
 even if you had felt yourself called upon, for 
 reasons into which I have no right to inquire, to 
 give the posts at Constantinople and in Italy to 
 two of my colleagues who are both my juniors by 
 five years as Ministers, you would not, after I had 
 asked urgently for a removal, have sent another of 
 my juniors to Lisbon without giving me the offer 
 of it." 1 
 
 This is the only passage In the whole of the 
 papers examined by me which betrays the slightest 
 feeling of disappointment. Murray's nature was 
 far too sunny and versatile to allow any such 
 feeling to rankle, and he retired in 1874 to live 
 on his own means, supplemented by a thoroughly 
 well - earned pension, to devote himself to the 
 society of his wife and boys, and to indulge his 
 literary tastes with greater freedom than he had 
 ever enjoyed before. He purchased Oaklands 
 Hall, near Kilburn, and set to work to enlarge the 
 house and store in it his books and pictures. 
 There are few papers remaining after this period 
 to illustrate his daily life and habits, except letters 
 
 1 The offer of Lisbon was subsequently made to and accepted by 
 Murray. 
 
330 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 to his wife, when he was absent from her on visits 
 to Continental baths and other health - resorts, 
 and occasional letters from friends, generally on 
 literary subjects. 
 
 The following letters, undated, must have been 
 written by Mrs Norton a few weeks before the 
 death of her husband in February 1875, when the 
 Murrays were touring in the Mediterranean : 
 
 The Hon. Mrs Norton to Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " NAPLES, January 1875. 
 
 "I thank you so for your kind note. You do 
 not know that the sole survivor'*- of my three 
 beautiful sons lives in the island of Capri, and has 
 lived there these twenty years, off and on. Some- 
 times I come to see him, sometimes he comes to 
 see me, but his only adopted home is this little 
 island which appears and disappears fitfully to 
 our view, at present, like Gwendolen's castle in 
 Walter Scott's (little, read, but lovely) ' Triermain.' 
 
 " My eldest son 2 was here as first attache to 
 kind old Sir William Temple. The younger l went 
 and inamorated himself of a Capriote, and married 
 her, to the extreme fury of his father's family. At 
 first they would not permit him to return to 
 England, or help him to enter any profession (with 
 the usual wisdom of angry people). Now that he 
 stands in direct succession to the peerage, they 
 
 1 Thomas Brindsley Norton, afterwards fourth Lord Grantley. 
 
 2 Died in Paris in 1859. 
 
LETTER FROM HON. MRS NORTON. 331 
 
 have tried once or twice to wean him from Capri ; 
 but he is in wretched nervous health, and always 
 glides back again into his sunny lair. 
 
 " There is my tie to Naples. The weather has 
 been bad, and I have not yet crossed to Capri ; 
 but in this same hotel are poor Lady Anna Max- 
 well's 1 sisters, her husband, and John Hamilton 2 
 (who married the youngest), for friends and com- 
 panions. You were almost the last visitors at 
 Keir, I think, with your beautiful child, 3 of whom 
 she wrote me a long description, before the time 
 of the dreadful tragedy of her death. Her good 
 constitution bore the torture of burns and the 
 amputation of three fingers of the left hand for 
 a whole fortnight, with good promise of recovery, 
 before she suddenly sank and died. 
 
 " Sir William is much broken and out of health 
 himself. 4 He goes away, I believe, in a couple of 
 days on his way by Florence to England. 
 
 "I go to Capri for a week as soon as the 
 boatmen believe in their Neapolitan weather. I 
 scribble all this in case you call after we are 
 gone out. . . . 
 
 "As to growing old, I don't believe in it. I 
 agree with Marie Kalerzi, who said, ' On n'en 
 saurait rien, si ce n'etait pour les autres : les 
 autres vieillissent.' But it is respectable and 
 
 1 Wife of Sir William Stirling - Maxwell. She died, after an 
 accident from fire, in December 1874. 
 
 2 Created Lord Hamilton of Dalziel in 1886. 
 
 3 Cecil Murray, died in 1896. 
 
 4 Sir William Stirling-Maxwell married Mrs Norton in March 
 1877, and she died in June following. 
 
332 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 proper to have a little gout, that one may not 
 seem to flout the old age of ' les autres.' Yours 
 always most truly, CAROLINE NORTON." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "HOTEL SIRENE, SORRENTO, Sunday [1875]. 
 "My grandson 1 is too young for ' tochers,' but 
 not for introductions. He is sprouting a little 
 absurd moustache (which I believe he shaves), 
 and is a courteous and music-loving youth. He 
 already nestles in the arms of Grtiner, 2 whose 
 kindly notice I petitioned for on the strength of 
 friendship with some of my friends long ago. His 
 name is Richard Brinsley Norton, and his address 
 is at Herr Baron Fuickenstein's (which sounds like 
 a chamberlain in one of Offenbach's opera-boujfes), 
 at 12 Winckelmann Strasse, in Dresden. I send 
 you this note in the most roundabout way, fear- 
 ing if I direct (as any simple Christian might) to 
 your residence at Rocca Bella, and you should have 
 left that pirate nest by the sea, it would never be 
 forwarded. ... I cannot help thinking all the 
 drainage and alterations going on at Naples make 
 it unhealthy. It reminds me of Edmond About' s 
 remarks on the superfluity of repairs of churches, 
 houses, roads, and bridges everywhere. ' Part out 
 on voit la rage du mieux,' says that delightful 
 writer ; and I wish the ' mieux ' (of which Naples 
 stood in great need) were not in such a state of 
 transition." 
 
 1 The present Lord Grantley. He had just been appointed attach^ 
 at Dresden. 
 
 2 Professor Griiner, Librarian of the Royal Library at Dresden. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 333 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 "TOUGH-MEAT AND SKIM-MILK HOTEL, 
 EASTBOURNE, 1875. 
 
 " I have been reading the ' Standard' of yester- 
 day during breakfast, and saw there a notice of 
 a book by a Mr Drummond (brother of Lord 
 Strathallan), describing his sporting tour of Jive 
 years in S. Africa ; and the number of lions, 
 elephants, rhinoceros, and other wild animals, as 
 well as buffaloes, antelopes, &c., &c., which, during 
 that time, by his own account, he has slaughtered 
 by hundreds if not by thousands, seems almost 
 incredible ! The newspaper critic thus finishes his 
 article : ' A score or two of hunters as unsparing 
 and indefatigable as Mr D. would soon annihilate 
 the game of a whole continent/ . . . This tallies 
 with what I saw and read forty years ago in the 
 Far- West prairies, amid those vast herds of buf- 
 falo which pasture there. The Indians (savages !) 
 kill exactly what they require for their food, 
 dress, and tents, while the white men (Christian 
 sportsmen and civilised traders) slaughter them 
 by thousands to take the buffalo tongues and 
 hides, leaving the carcasses to be devoured by 
 wolves and vultures." 1 
 
 1 Such was Murray's impression, derived from his experience with 
 the sportsmanlike Pawnees ; but the general run of Indians were no 
 whit less bloodthirsty than the white men. Catlin ( ( North American 
 Indians,' vol. i. p. 256) describes scenes of almost incredible butchery, 
 and foretells, so far back as 1840, the ultimate extinction of the bison. 
 He relates how, when he was on the Upper Missouri, six hundred 
 mounted Dakotas started after a huge herd at noon, returning at 
 
334 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 " AIX-LES-BAINS, September 25ZA, 1875. 
 
 " Yesterday evening I tried to console myself for 
 your absence from my dinner-table by inviting two 
 very agreeable elderly persons to share my meal. 
 They made themselves so agreeable that I did 
 not require to utter a word ; I had only to listen 
 to their lively and witty sallies. The lady was 
 much the older of the two, and both in the earlier 
 and middle portions of her life had been rather 
 too celebrated for her gallantries ; but now that 
 her advanced age had reduced those to matters 
 of memory, and she was living perforce a respect- 
 able life, I naturally expected that, if she alluded 
 at all to those discreditable bygone days, it would 
 be with some expression of satisfaction at the 
 change that time had wrought in her way of life. 
 You may imagine, then, my surprise at hearing 
 her say in regard to those old days, ' Qui m'aurait 
 propose une telle vie (comme celle que je mene a 
 present) je me serais pendue ' ! Now I know you 
 are dying to learn the names of this old couple, 
 so I will satisfy your curiosity St Evremond and 
 Ninon de 1'Enclos. If you get this before you 
 leave, bring my cigars with you. Remember, 
 when you come to the frontier and the visite 
 des bagages, to curb that little spirit of im- 
 patience which is apt to break forth in you at 
 
 sundown with no fewer than fourteen hundred fresh buffalo tongues, 
 which they sold to the Hudson Bay traders for a few gallons of 
 whisky. The carcasses were left where they fell, to be devoured by 
 wolves. 
 
LETTER FROM DEAN STANLEY. 335 
 
 sight of a French official. Don't forget that the 
 more you irritate them the deeper will their paws 
 go into your box ; and if they find the box of 
 baccy, you must prepare a petite scene de comedie 
 with Marcelline turn suddenly upon her, and ask 
 her how she dared to bring cigars for her husband 
 in your box, and thus, on paying the duty, you 
 may save them." 
 
 Perhaps there never was a less legible hand 
 than that of the writer of the following, which 
 must therefore be taken "errors excepted": 
 
 Dean Stanley to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " DEANERY, WESTMINSTER, Good Friday, 1878. 
 
 "It so happens that Farrar (who is now my 
 neighbour and colleague as Canon of Westminster) 
 has written an essay on this very subject of Matt, 
 xix. 24, which contains all the information which 
 you desire. ... It there appears (l) that the 
 proposal to turn camelus into a cable is quite 
 unwarrantable ; (2) that the use of ' needle's eye ' 
 to express an impossible passage for a huge 
 creature is proverbial amongst the Rabbinical 
 writers for chimerical projects, usually not in con- 
 nection with a camel, but an elephant. There- 
 fore no further illustration is needed. 
 
 " But (3) the illustration which you mention 
 of the wicket -gate of a town is given in Lord 
 Nugent's. . . . This I imagine is the book in 
 which you saw it, and to which the c Family 
 
336 LISBON AND RELEASE FROM SERVICE. 
 
 Herald ' alludes. The town where he reports him- 
 self to have seen a gate so called is not Jericho 
 (which in its modern state of sporadic ruin has 
 no gates), but Hebron. Farrar also refers to Sir 
 
 J. Ch 's ' in Rome.' But the most 
 
 precise and interesting account is from a nameless 
 traveller whose letter he quotes, who in 1835 saw 
 a camel trying to push through a gate, so called, 
 in the house of a Jew in Morocco. 
 
 " Old David Morier, who died this year, had a 
 Bible annotated with oriental references to customs 
 in Persia and elsewhere, by his brother Hadji 
 Baba. If you would like me to look at this or 
 
 I will do so. I think that the name of 
 
 the gate probably sprang from the same run of 
 thoughts that produced the proverb. I never fill 
 [? fall or fell] in with anything of the kind myself. 
 Yours sincerely, A. P. STANLEY." 
 
337 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 i 
 
 1882-1892. 
 HOME LIFE. 
 
 IN 1882 the Hurrays abandoned the home at 
 Oaklands Hall, which they had occupied for 
 eight years, and went to the Grange, a beautiful 
 house near Old Windsor, which they had built for 
 their son Cecil. 
 
 There is a letter early in that year from a famous 
 old sportsman, Horatio Ross, then in his eighty- 
 first year, enclosing a card target showing his 
 practice at fifty yards with a rook-rifle. He exults 
 with the glee of second boyhood over the steadi- 
 ness of his octogenarian eye and hand, and advises 
 Sir Charles to take to rifle-shooting as an agree- 
 able pastime for old age. 
 
 During the autumn of 1882, and occasionally in 
 subsequent years, Lady Murray's health prevented 
 
 Y 
 
338 
 
 HOME LIFE. 
 
 her accompanying Sir Charles to Baden-Baden and 
 other baths recommended for his increasing in- 
 firmity ; but always when separated from her, his 
 
 Horatio Ross's Card Target. 
 
 letters were almost daily. The sudden death of 
 Lady Murray's aunt suggests some serious reflec- 
 tions on the uncertainty of life : 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 339 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 " BADEN-BADEN, 28^ Sept. 1882. 
 
 " There is a curious Persian allegory on this sub- 
 ject by my friend Sadi, in which he is presenting 
 human life under the familiar image of a caravan- 
 journey, the conductor of which is the Angel of 
 Life and Death. After a halt or rest, he suddenly 
 orders the tents to be struck, and the trumpets to 
 sound and drums to beat, for the onward march. 
 The foolish and careless traveller in the company 
 says, ' I cannot find my boots ; I have not packed 
 up my travelling-bag ; I have not passed my girdle 
 round my loins ; I am not ready to start/ But the 
 relentless angel passes on with the caravan, leav- 
 ing behind the thoughtless traveller, whose fate 
 will probably be to perish in the desert for want of 
 guide, water, and friendly aid. ' Wherefore,' adds 
 Sadi, ' man ! keep your travelling - bag always 
 packed and your loins always girded/ A greater 
 than Sadi has given the warning almost in the 
 same words." 
 
 "BADEN-BADEN, 4tk October 1882. 
 
 " CARISSIMA, We had some happy days at 
 Oaklands together, for which we ought to be 
 thankful, and I am glad to think that if we are 
 spared we shall still have at the Grange. . . . 
 
 "The dinner yesterday at the Emperor's 1 was 
 rather a slow affair in respect to liveliness, but 
 its brevity in respect to time would have satis- 
 fied even you. We sat down at 5 and rose from 
 table at 6 ! fancy losing the best hours of the 
 
 1 Of Germany. 
 
340 HOME LIFE. 
 
 afternoon in a stuffy dining-room ; and as there 
 was no theatre open and no soiree anywhere, how 
 were the diners in evening dress expected to kill 
 time from 6 to 1 1 ? Those are occasions on which 
 the smoker of a big cigar has some advantage over 
 his fellow-creatures, but to fill up the space of 
 time, or even the half of it, one would require to 
 have a cigar as big as a trumpet, and to be a 
 smoker like the P. of W." 
 
 Sir Charles's son, Cecil, was now seventeen 
 His education had been the object of his father's 
 tender solicitude, and already Sir Charles was 
 enjoying the reward of recognising in the lad a 
 love of learning and literature not less intense 
 than his own. Graceful little passages of classical 
 correspondence passed between them ; here is a 
 ''bulletin for Cecil" about his father's health: 
 
 " BADEN-BADEN, May 31st, 1883. 
 " Grata oculis avidis advenit epistola Mammae, 
 
 Supremum ut tetigit Maia venusta diem. 
 Paulatim exosum domuit Lavillia morbum, 
 Debilis et calanmni dextra tenere valet ; 
 Surrectusque toro calida de fonte salubres 
 Haurire incipiam eras redivivus aquas. 
 Mille mei labris dulci des oscula matri, 
 
 Sisque memor nostri Caecile care. Vale ! " 1 
 
 1 Welcome to my hungry eyes came your mother's letter, just 
 as lovely May reached its last day. Laville [gout medicine] has 
 gradually overcome my odious ailment ; and, having risen from 
 [sick-] bed, I shall presently drink as a convalescent the wholesome 
 waters of the hot spring. Give a thousand kisses from my lips to 
 your mother, and ever remember me, dear Cecil. Farewell. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 341 
 
 It was not only with the literary part of his 
 son's education that Sir Charles occupied himself 
 incessantly : 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to Mr Reginald Smith. 1 
 
 " VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, May 3rd, 1883. 
 
 " I forget whether I ever showed you a commen- 
 tary on the Psalms that I wrote a year or two 
 ago for my wife and Cecil, with a view to explain 
 to them the general construction of what is called 
 the Book of Psalms, and also some of the more 
 obscure passages, in some instances rendered so 
 by defective translation. I worked through the 
 whole book in Hebrew, and of course in my com- 
 mentary took a great many hints from Perowne's 
 excellent work. ... I was first led to make this 
 commentary by a feeling of dissatisfaction that 
 came over me when I found how often, in re- 
 peating the Psalms in church, I did so rather 
 like a parrot than a reasonable being, and that 
 many of the verses conveyed no intelligible mean- 
 ing to my mind. I believe there are hundreds of 
 educated persons who, if they would examine their 
 consciousness in this matter, would find themselves 
 in the same predicament." 
 
 Lord Lytton to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " KNEBWORTH, 19 April 1883. 
 
 " Of course I entirely agree in all you say 
 about India and the JEwigblinde at home. I be- 
 lieve that Ripon's ambition is to be remembered as 
 
 1 Of Messrs Smith, Elder, & Co. 
 
342 HOME LIFE. 
 
 the Gladstone of Hindustan. The Natives call 
 him the God-man, and the wind of their hurrahs 
 seems to have got into his head never, I think, 
 a very strong one. 
 
 " I will re-read my little fable by the light of 
 your friendly criticism ; but don't you think 
 ' sloping tugged by swelling, &c./ has unpleasant 
 sound ? " 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "25 April 1883. 
 
 " I am afraid I am impenitent and impenetrable, 
 but the description of a ship urged by her sails 
 seems to me untrue. With the verb ' to urge ' I 
 can only associate the idea of impulsion, which is 
 inapplicable to the action of a ship's sails. You 
 1 urge the flying ball ' when you throw it or hit it 
 with a bat. You urge the pace of a horse when 
 you whip or spur him ; and you urge a cause or an 
 argument when by word or deed you push it for- 
 ward. But the horse does not urge the coach to 
 which he is harnessed ; he pulls it. The loco- 
 motive does not urge the train ; it draws it. The 
 wind urges the sails of a ship, but they do not 
 urge the ship, they pull it. The ship is not 
 pushed forward by them ; it is pulled forward. I 
 employed the word ' tug ' as rather stronger than 
 ' pull,' to imply the straining of the sails upon the 
 cordage, the masts and the spars to which they 
 are attached, under the pressure of a stiff breeze." 
 
 In the autumn of 1883 Sir Charles, in order 
 to transact some business connected with his 
 
PHILOLOGICAL DISCUSSIONS. 343 
 
 American property, revisited the United States, 
 after forty-six years' absence. Naturally he was 
 as much amazed as interested by the great 
 changes which had come over once familiar scenes. 
 Returning to Europe, he resumed correspondence, 
 chiefly on philological matters, with various 
 learned men. Most of this is too technical to 
 be of general interest, but occasionally amusing 
 passages and allusions occur. 
 
 Professor Max Milller to the Same. 
 
 "MALVERN, 23rd Dec. 1883. 
 
 " In German iren is a denominative termination, 
 not borrowed from the French, but used too 
 freely to make foreign verbs conjugable. The 
 termination able is a case in point. It is of course 
 applicable to Romance words only, but we now 
 talk of ' understandable/ * knowable,' &c. We get 
 into habits, and when we are taken to task, we 
 say what a bootmaker in a Swiss village once said 
 to me, when he had made me a pair of boots on 
 the one last which he possessed, ' Cela vous va 
 rudement bien ' ! " 
 
 Lord Acton to the Same. 
 
 " CANNES, April 1885. 
 
 " Of the two most extraordinary coincidences I 
 ever knew, one happened to myself. I was at 
 Lucerne with my son, having left Lady Acton 
 here. We were driven away by bad weather, and 
 
344 HOME LIFE. 
 
 resolved to sleep at Lausanne. There, at the 
 Hotel Eichemont, I found a telegram from Lady 
 Acton, who had not heard of our plan, but read 
 Lausanne for Lucerne on my despatch from the 
 latter place. 
 
 " The other is 200 years old, but has escaped 
 notice. Sir Edmundsberry Godfrey was found 
 lying dead under Primrose Hill, which was [then] 
 called Greenberry Hill. Three men were hanged 
 for it, and their names were Green, Berry, and 
 Hill." 
 
 Hon. Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 " BATH, 1885. 
 
 " CARISSIMA, My first whole day of solitude 
 is drawing to a close, and ennui, that terror of 
 fine ladies and gentlemen, has not yet invaded 
 me ! . . . I have invited Keats to pass an 
 hour with me. He is not, in my opinion, to be 
 classed in the first rank of poets ; still, with the 
 exception of some of Wordsworth's and Milton's, 
 his sonnets are perhaps the best in our language. 
 I suppose it is heresy to say so, but I never could 
 bring myself to consider Shakespeare's Sonnets as 
 worthy of his great dramatic reputation ! Some 
 day I must read them again and see whether I 
 condemn this opinion as erroneous." 
 
 In the following year Sir Charles revisited his 
 old home at Dunmore. 
 
LAST VISIT TO DUNMORE. 345 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "POLMAISE CASTLE, STIRLING, 
 Oct. 3rd, 1886. 
 
 " Yesterday the weather was lovely, and Mrs 
 M. 1 drove me to Dunmore with Mrs A. The old 
 housekeeper knew me, not from old times, but from 
 our last visit, and we went all over the house, 
 which, although of course wearing a cold, deserted 
 look from being so long uninhabited, was very 
 clean and tidy, and might be made again comfy in 
 a very few days. You may imagine what old re- 
 collections the visit evoked, especially the library, 
 where the old books repose on their old shelves, 
 uncovered by glass or paper, and many of them 
 exactly in their old places ; so that I could see the 
 book which my father took down and read by the 
 fireside. My mother's boudoir, which had been so 
 pretty and cosy, was quite meconnaissable from the 
 changes made in it during successive occupations ; 
 but I went on to the room beyond, which my 
 parents occupied during the latter years of my 
 father's life, and where he breathed his last exactly 
 fifty years ago (1836). Thence we went through 
 the wood, which looked as beautiful as ever, and the 
 garden, and to the dear old tower and church. I 
 found a few faded flowers and chaplets on my elder 
 brother's tomb : who placed them there I know 
 not, but the whole scene and its associations moved 
 me exceedingly, and called up feelings and recollec- 
 tions which you can more easily imagine than I 
 describe ! Mrs M. was very kind, and showed 
 
 1 Mrs Murray of Polmaise. 
 
346 HOME LIFE. 
 
 great tact in leaving me, both in the house and 
 at the church, for several minutes alone." 
 
 " AIX-LES-BAINS, July 24*A, 1887. 
 
 " CAKISSIMA, I sit down this Sunday evening 
 to have a little after-dinner chat with you, having 
 enjoyed a most delightful afternoon drive round 
 the borders of the lake. You can hardly imagine 
 the pleasure I derived from the soft fresh air and 
 the lovely scenery : besides this, I had the com- 
 fort of a most cheering companion guess who ? 
 male or female, young or old ? None other than 
 my old friend Gray, the author of the ' Elegy,' 
 whom I had evoked from the recesses of my old 
 cobwebbed memory, to express and share my 
 feelings. Do you remember his fragment of an 
 1 Ode to Vicissitude, an invalid's first outing on a 
 fine spring day ' ? 
 
 * Now the rosy morn aloft 
 Waves her dew-bespangled wing,' &c. 
 
 ... I think the last four lines on the skylark 
 are beautiful, and quite worthy of being placed 
 beside Shelley's masterpiece on the same subject. 
 It is the fashion in the present days of advanced 
 criticism to decry Gray as a poet, but his ' Elegy ' 
 will last as long as the English language, and will 
 be remembered when Swinburne will be forgotten 
 before twenty years shall have passed over his 
 grave. If to be unintelligible to ordinary minds 
 is the great aim and merit of poetry, then K. 
 Browning is a great poet, and Homer, Virgil, 
 Shakespeare, Burns, &c., &c., are not." 
 
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 347 
 
 " AIX-LES-BAINS, June 26th, 1887. 
 
 " You must not think that I am dull for want of 
 society : the cure, your letters, and a few old friends 
 like Gray, Sadi, &c., together with lots of novels 
 while I am lying down, fill up my time completely 
 and pleasantly. I think I must have swallowed 
 nearly a dozen volumes of Tauchnitz since you 
 left, some few of them amusing from their plot 
 and descriptive merit, the greater part amusing 
 (though not so agreeable) from the wonder thereby 
 excited that any one should have dared to publish 
 such rubbish, and that Tauchnitz had accepted it ! 
 The grossest as well as the commonest blunder of 
 these second- and third-rate novelists is their per- 
 sistent introduction of dialogue among their dram, 
 pers. They begin by describing Mr A. as a man of 
 brilliant wit in conversation, Lord B. as a poetical 
 genius, Mr C. as a profound scholar and critic, and 
 when in the second volume these persons appear 
 on the stage to exhibit their announced qualifi- 
 cations their conversation is nothing but the 
 dullest commonplace trash." 
 
 In his later years Sir Charles Murray was 
 easily induced to talk of his early days, and 
 much younger men than he enjoyed his reminis- 
 cences, which formed a link with a far-off past. 
 Mr Reginald Lucas, a friend and contemporary 
 of young Cecil Murray, used to get him to talk 
 of Rogers' s breakfast - parties. Sir Charles ob- 
 served that proceedings there generally depended 
 
348 HOME LIFE. 
 
 on whether Macaulay or Sydney Smith got the 
 start. One or other always took the lead and 
 kept it. On one occasion Murray was sitting 
 next Sydney Smith when Macaulay began, and 
 went off at score. After controlling himself for a 
 considerable time, Smith threw himself back in his 
 chair, exclaiming, " If only the man would sneeze, 
 I might have a chance." l Sir Charles told Mr 
 Reginald Smith, who, as a young man, knew him 
 well in his last years, that the secret of Sydney 
 Smith's jokes lay in his inimitable facial expression. 
 
 The same could not be said of another illus- 
 trious character in that circle. Walking with 
 Mr Reginald Smith one day down Pall Mall, Sir 
 Charles said as they passed the "Rag" : " I recollect 
 dining at a large party there long ago. Somebody 
 sitting next me asked, ' Who is that man opposite 
 with an extraordinarily stupid face ? ' ' That/ I 
 replied, ' happens to be Sir Walter Scott ! ' ' 
 
 About Rogers there is the following in one of 
 Sir Charles's note-books : 
 
 " It has often been asserted verbally and in 
 
 1 There are many allusions in T. Moore's journals to these gather- 
 ings and similar parties in other houses. Thus "Dined at Lord 
 Lansdowne's : company Lord Auckland, Macaulay, Eogers, Schlegel, 
 Charles Murray, &c. Rogers seated next Schlegel, and suffering 
 manifest agony from the German's loud voice and unnecessary use 
 of it." 
 
KOGERSIANA. 349 
 
 print that Rogers was in the habit of making 
 puns and jeux de mots, and nothing can be further 
 from the truth. But one or two of the bons mots 
 are, I believe, justly attributed to him, as, for 
 instance, the epigram on the well-known Ward 
 Lord Dudley which was the distich : 
 
 ' Ward has no heart, they say 
 But I deny it ; 
 He has a heart and gets his speeches by it ! ' ' 
 
 This was written in revenge for Ward's severe 
 handling of the "Pleasures of Memory" in the 
 ' Quarterly.' And another incident : 
 
 " Rogers was going to Cambridge by the coach, 
 and he was sitting on the box by the driver, and 
 was annoyed at seeing that their progress was slow, 
 and that other coaches passed them. He asked the 
 driver, ' What's the name of this coach that you're 
 driving ? ' 
 
 " The man answered, ' It's called the " Regu- 
 lator."' 
 
 " ' Ah, I see,' said Rogers, ' it's very well named 
 for all the other coaches go by it.' ' 
 
 Mr John Murray (the publisher) to 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 " 50 ALBEMARLE ST., Nov. 2nd, 1888. 
 
 " I am very glad you happen to have been so 
 attracted by the article in last ' Quarterly ' on Sam 
 Rogers ; among other reasons, because it has drawn 
 from you so long and pleasant a letter to me. We 
 
350 HOME LIFE. 
 
 do not often tell the names of writers in the 
 6 Q. R.,' but in this case I am happy to be able to 
 make an exception, and to inform you that the 
 writer of the paper is my old friend, and I daresay 
 yours also, Lady Eastlake. To my mind the 
 character she gives of Sam is a little couleur de 
 rose. She has sunk all his ill-natured sayings and 
 doings, of which I know something. I have in 
 my possession Byron's savage verses about him 
 a retort for certain sayings and doings against 
 Byron which excited the poet's ire in no moderate 
 degree." 
 
 It was inevitable that, retaining as he did all 
 his faculties and love of cultivating society to the 
 end of his long life, Sir Charles should have been 
 urged very frequently, especially by those who 
 possessed the publisher's instinct, to compile his 
 reminiscences. 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to Mr Reginald Smith. 
 
 " VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, Jan. 24th, 1889. 
 
 " DEAR REGINALD, It is rather curious that 
 your suggestion of my trying to cook up my 
 reminiscences should have reached me only a few 
 days after I had received a similar one from my 
 wife and Cecil, urging me to write something in 
 the shape of an autobiography. I feel, however, 
 that my memory is not equal to the task, it is 
 wofully defective now ; and though I have known 
 many interesting persons, and have been witness 
 
LETTER FROM CARDINAL MANNING. 351 
 
 to many interesting events, in my long life, I 
 have played such a secondary part in the drama 
 that I do not think my record could have any 
 interest to the public in general. ... I could only 
 attempt an introductory chapter giving my boy- 
 hood and college life ; then I would hand over all 
 my MSS., diaries, and memorandum-books at my 
 death to my wife, Cecil, and you, and any others 
 you might select, with full authority to burn, 
 destroy, or publish, as you might think fit." 
 
 He told Mr Lucas he had always been far too 
 lazy to keep a regular journal, but to the last his 
 pen was active in correspondence either with those 
 he loved, or with those with whom he loved to 
 discuss intellectual subjects. He often expressed 
 distress, as an old Whig, because of the ways into 
 which the Liberal party had been led. Writing 
 in 1889 from the Travellers 7 Club to Mr Eeginald 
 Smith, he tells him that he had spent " three 
 days with an old friend, Mr Duncan, who beats me 
 in antiquity by three years ; but he is as deaf as a 
 post, or as a Home Ruler is to argument." 
 
 Here is an echo of early days : 
 
 Cardinal Manning to Hon. Sir Charles Murray. 
 
 "ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, 
 Dec. 28, 1889. 
 
 "If I am not mistaken, I remember you, and 
 your countenance, as clearly as if I had seen you 
 
352 HOME LIFE. 
 
 yesterday. The last time, I think, I saw you 
 playing tennis at Oxford. There are few of our 
 day surviving. A day ago I heard from Glad- 
 stone, whose health and vigour are wonderful. . . . 
 Not many men can play with 65's and 70's as we 
 can, and I hope that you are as strong as your 
 handwriting implies." 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Wife. 
 
 "VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, 1890. 
 
 " I showed Sir Joseph Crowe the sketches in 
 your portfolio to-day. ... I fear we have not got 
 his Life of Raphael. He tells me that it cost him 
 more than four times the labour and time that the 
 Life of Titian did. It is a curious, I might say a sad 
 thing, to see a mind so gifted to develop, appreci- 
 ate, and describe all these works of the highest art, 
 obliged now to devote itself entirely to the details 
 of national commerce and trade." 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 "PARIS, 28th Nov. 1891. 
 
 " I have read Mrs Oliphant's Life of her cousin 
 Laurence Oliphant, one of the most extraordin- 
 ary creatures that ever lived, combining in himself 
 energy, wit, fun, satire, love of adventure, with a 
 depth of religious mysticism bordering on insan- 
 ity, yet always accompanied by a heroic motive of 
 self-sacrifice." 
 
 Cecil Murray having made excursions into litera- 
 
LETTER TO HIS YOUNGER SON. 353 
 
 ture, his father writes hoping that he might see a 
 French story he had just published : 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to his Son Cecil. 1 
 
 "MACKELLAR'S HOTEL, LONDON, 
 July 1892. 
 
 " I wish to suggest to you the motif 'for another 
 that has occurred to me, which I think you might 
 extend into something at all events new. I would 
 call it ' La Complainte d'une Oie.' Of course I only 
 pretend to give you the heads and the suggestions : 
 the ancient ancestry of the goose visiting Egypt 
 from the northern climes of Scythia her superior- 
 ity over man the ' animal impulse ' of Pythagoras 
 then the saviour of the Homan Capitol from the 
 Gauls, with the cruel rites which followed. Then 
 in later times the quills from their wing which 
 transmitted for certain the words and thoughts of 
 poetry, historians, &c., &c. then the petites oies 
 of Louis XIV. 's time as recognised love-tokens ; 
 while in compliment to their wing all writers have 
 been designated as hommes de plume, whilst in 
 these later days their higher vocation has been 
 degraded into . . . Gillott's steel pens ! If you 
 cannot make out a c Complainte de Toie/ your im- 
 agination must be asleep or paralysed by Schwal- 
 bach water." 
 
 1 Mr Cecil Murray died at sea, under most painful circumstances, 
 on June 3rd, 1896, the first anniversary of his father's death. 
 
354 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1892-1895. 
 LAST YEARS. 
 
 THE sands were running low. 
 
 To many who wintered at Cannes a few years 
 ago must the remembrance be fresh of the hand- 
 some white-haired old gentleman, with his kindly 
 greeting ever ready to welcome an acquaintance, 
 and his old-fashioned courtliness of manner. Ambi- 
 tion so much of that as he had ever cherished 
 was long since dead ; memory was still quick, 
 stretching back into a world which few men living 
 could have recognised. Still Sir Charles read much 
 and studied, wrote much to his friends at a distance 
 a fast dwindling band and enjoyed the pres- 
 ence of those who chanced to be at hand. 
 
 But bodily infirmity was creeping on. 
 
 Of his sons, the elder had long ago made a career 
 
NEAKING THE END. 355 
 
 for himself first in diplomacy, then in Parliament 
 and had been married for twenty years : l the 
 younger had given bright promise of distinction, 
 and for him Sir Charles's hopes were high. Lady 
 Murray's health was the occasion of constant con- 
 cern to him, yet she was almost always able to be 
 with him, and he never ceased to express his grati- 
 tude for the companion which he had found after 
 so many years of solitude. On his last birthday 
 they happened to be separated, and these are per- 
 haps the last words he ever penned to her : 
 
 " VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, 23rd Nov. 1894. 
 
 " CARISSIMA, Dupuy sent me in some beautiful 
 flowers; so my table, rooms, &c., were all bright, 
 with a brilliant sun, and nothing was wanted to 
 enlighten my 89th birthday but the presence of 
 the dear faces at Florence, and that was compen- 
 sated for by the receipt of your dear letter. Ever 
 your own, C. A. M." 
 
 They spent the winter of 1894-95 together at 
 Cannes as usual, and started on the homeward 
 journey in the last week in May. During what 
 was intended to be a short halt in Paris, Sir 
 Charles became affected with a drowsiness very un- 
 usual in him. The doctor who was called in saw 
 
 1 Mr C. J. Murray, M.P., married in 1875 Lady Anne Finch, only 
 daughter of the Earl of Aylesford. 
 
356 LAST YEARS. 
 
 nothing to cause anxiety, save that any sign of 
 weakness in a man of fourscore and eight years 
 was to be dealt with very carefully. For a week 
 he remained subject to this occasional drowsiness, 
 but on Saturday, June 1st, he told his valet to 
 pack his things, as he was resolved to start for 
 England on Monday. 
 
 When that day arrived Mr Charles Murray had 
 come, summoned by telegram. He and Lady 
 Murray were with Sir Charles at noon on Monday, 
 3rd June 1895. None other was in the room, the 
 younger son, Cecil, having left with a message to the 
 doctor, when quietly peacefully the frail bond 
 was severed and Sir Charles Murray was no more. 
 
 In the course of this narrative I have refrained 
 (lest the left hand should learn what the right 
 had been doing) from quoting any of the numerous 
 allusions in Sir Charles's letters to various bene- 
 volent schemes in which Lady Murray was con- 
 stantly occupied. It may be permitted, however, 
 to mention in this place that, in memory of her 
 husband and only child, she has this year (1898) 
 founded and endowed at Antibes a Best Home for 
 brain-workers artists, writers, musicians where, 
 for a very moderate payment, they may enjoy the 
 boon of repose and retirement under a Southern sky. 
 
SOME PERPLEXING LETTERS. 357 
 
 In preparing a narrative, however severely con- 
 densed, of the life of one lately departed, it is an 
 important, and not the least arduous, part of the 
 work to decipher masses of correspondence and 
 other manuscript. In the present instance, as has 
 been mentioned elsewhere, very little of Sir Charles 
 Murray's side of the correspondence has been pre- 
 served ; at least, very little has been at the dis- 
 posal of his biographer, for the reason that, except 
 his wife, nearly every one of his intimate corre- 
 spondents had preceded him to the grave. Never- 
 theless, the man's character is reflected almost as 
 faithfully in the general tone of letters addressed 
 to him as in those written by him. It came, there- 
 fore, as a puzzling surprise to find in a bundle of 
 letters in the hand of a certain distinguished tra- 
 veller, now no more, raillery, quotations, and allu- 
 sions of a kind totally different from anything that 
 had transpired elsewhere. It is not implied that 
 they were in themselves objectionable or malici- 
 ous, but they were such as it was impossible to 
 reconcile with the lofty and large-minded nature 
 revealed in the rest of the correspondence. There 
 was nothing to indicate to whom these letters 
 were addressed, save that they were marked on 
 the outside "- - to C. A. M." 
 
 This discovery caused the compiler of these 
 
358 LAST YEARS. 
 
 pages no little perplexity even some dismay; 
 for it became obvious that, if Murray had num- 
 bered the writer of these letters among his familiar 
 correspondents, the estimate of his character which 
 had been shaping itself must undergo very ex- 
 tensive review. Was it possible that certain 
 parts of Sir Charles's correspondence had been 
 intentionally destroyed, and only those parts pre- 
 served which would best bear the scrutiny of a 
 stranger ? 
 
 Presently the mystery was solved. 
 
 A closer examination of the papers, after an 
 interval of some days, revealed beyond any doubt 
 that they had not been addressed to Sir Charles 
 Murray, but to another individual altogether, by 
 whom they had been forwarded to Sir Charles, 
 on account of a quantity of interesting oriental 
 lore which they contained. 
 
 Although, as he confessed himself, unsuccessful 
 in many attempts to keep a consecutive journal, 
 and careless, perhaps intentionally so, in preserving 
 letters, Sir Charles Murray left a considerable 
 number of interesting memoranda and drafts of 
 study. There are several commonplace - books, 
 each of which was originally intended for a separ- 
 ate subject, such as comparative philology, com- 
 mentary and criticism on Scripture, Persian or 
 
NOTE ON THE ASHBURNHAM COLLECTIONS. 359 
 
 Arabic proverbs, poetry, original and otherwise, 
 &c. These were generally written only on one 
 side of the page, the verso being left blank. On 
 these blank sides have been jotted down a num- 
 ber of anecdotes and quotations, sometimes illus- 
 trating the matter on the opposite page, at others 
 strangely in contrast with it. The following, for 
 instance, occurs with the date 1888 attached, in a 
 volume of manuscript notes and studies in Persian 
 literature compiled many years previously : 
 
 " I had a curious conversation lately with Lord 
 Ashburnham, the sale of whose collection of MSS. 
 caused so much discussion in the press in 1886-87. 
 He offered one large group to the British Govern- 
 ment for 7000, who refused to purchase at that 
 price. He sold them to a foreign purchaser for 
 8000 ; then he got them back again in exchange, 
 and afterwards sold the same group to the British 
 Government for 45,000 ! 
 
 " Still more curious is the history of a splendid 
 suit of armour in the finest Milan steel, inlaid with 
 gold, said to have belonged to Francois I er> It was 
 in the house of one of the Rothschilds at Paris, 
 and Madame de Rothschild said that it annoyed 
 and startled her in the place where it stood, so the 
 Baron sold it to the late Lord Ashburnham for 
 1000 guineas. A great Jew dealer in antiquities 
 often came to Lord Ashburnham with a view to 
 purchase it, and Lord Ashburnham, to get rid of 
 his importunity, told him he should not have it for 
 
360 LAST YEARS. 
 
 less than 4000 guineas. To his surprise the dealer 
 closed with the offer, carried it off, and within 
 forty-eight hours sold it to Sir R. Wallace for 
 12,000. Afterwards it was deposited at the Pan- 
 technicon while Sir Richard's house was being re- 
 built ; and in the great fire which took place at 
 that establishment, it was so mauled, blackened, 
 and broken, that among the ruins it was sold for 
 12. The crafty fellow who bought it spent much 
 labour in mending, burnishing, and setting it up 
 again, and Lord Ashburnham told me that the 
 man had sold it again in Paris for several thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 " N.B. Lord Ashburnham told me that he had 
 already sold MSS. to the extent of 93,000, and 
 that he had a considerable quantity left ; so his 
 father must have been a most industrious and suc- 
 cessful collector." 
 
 Here is another jotting from the same book, 
 owing, apparently, to Murray having made the 
 acquaintance of one of the characters referred to 
 during his service in Egypt : 
 
 " Emile de Girardin was the natural son of the 
 Marquis de Girardin, by whom he was not re- 
 cognised until he had begun to make himself a 
 name in literature. 
 
 " His first attempts at making a living by his 
 pen were not successful, but he had been fortunate 
 in making the acquaintance, and afterwards se- 
 curing the intimacy and friendship, of Latour- 
 
TWO FRENCH JOURNALISTS. 361 
 
 Mezerai, the prince of Parisian viveurs and 
 dandies, who occupied a place in the society of 
 the French capital similar to that filled about 
 the same time by Count d'Orsay in London. In 
 his early days de Girardin, in a mood of melan- 
 choly brought on by poverty and disappointment, 
 wrote, in imitation of the style of Rousseau, his 
 first work called 'Emile.' It fell quite flat, and 
 brought the author neither money nor fame ; so 
 in despair he was trudging off to the banks of 
 the Seine, when he met Latour- Mezerai. 
 
 " ' Ou allez vous ? ' asked Mezerai. 
 
 " ' Me noyer/ replied Emile. 
 
 " ' Serieusement ? ' 
 
 " ' Oui ; tres serieusement.' 
 
 " Mezerai, having ascertained the cause of his 
 young friend's depression, comforted him as best 
 he could, and cheered him with a hopeful assur- 
 ance of the future ; but, not having any pecuniary 
 resources wherewith to start his encouraging pro- 
 jects, he suddenly exclaimed 
 
 " ' Tiens ! nous allons fonder un journal.' 
 
 " ' Avec quoi ? ' asked Girardin. 
 
 " ' Avec rien.' 
 
 " Sans le sou?' 
 
 " 'Oui; sans le sou/ 
 
 " ' Qui 1'ecrira ? ' 
 
 " * Personne et tout le monde.' 
 
 " ' Et comment s'appelera t-il ? ' 
 . " ' Le Voleur ' / 
 
 "And thus, with sharp wits and scissors, did 
 this audacious couple hunt up and cut out extracts 
 from recent publications of every kind, and re- 
 
362 LAST YEARS. 
 
 publish them in a cheap journal bearing the above 
 name. It became a great success, and de Girardin 
 soon followed it by others of a better stamp, 
 till he became the greatest journalist in France. 
 Latour-Mezerai, after being for a long time the 
 lion of Parisian salons, died at last as Prefect 
 of Algiers." 
 
 It is possible that an amusing story about 
 Mr A. Solomon, R.A., may have found its way 
 into print elsewhere : even if so, it seems worth re- 
 peating. His picture, " Waiting for the Verdict/' 
 Attracted much admiration when it appeared in 
 the Academy Exhibition ; but as Solomon had not 
 yet been admitted an Associate, he had not the 
 privilege of being hung on the line, and his work 
 was " skyed." Thomas Landseer was gazing in 
 delight on the picture when a bystander remarked 
 to him, " There is Solomon in all his glory." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," replied Landseer ; " but " (point- 
 ing along the line of privileged pictures), " not 
 R.A.'d like one of these." 
 
 The above stories certainly have no reference to 
 the analysis of Sadi's poetry and texts of the Koran, 
 among which they find a place. But sometimes 
 the connection is clear, as in the following in- 
 stance, which occurs among some pages devoted 
 to the study of the metaphorical use of terms 
 among different races. 
 
SADI AND SHAKESPEARE. 363 
 
 In the midst of a discussion of the various mean- 
 ings of the word " bar " in English, Murray pauses 
 to tell about something which happened to an 
 acquaintance whom he made in New York in 
 1834. This gentleman, Mr B., when he first came 
 to New York many years before, had gone two 
 or three times into the bar of the City Hotel, 
 where he was served by the barman among the 
 customers. 
 
 One fine afternoon, after a rainy morning, Mr B. 
 strolled into the bar, and, after taking his glass, 
 handed his umbrella to the barman, asking him to 
 take care of it for a few hours. In the course of 
 the afternoon Mr B. received the offer of a lucrative 
 appointment in Cuba, which he accepted. The 
 vessel was on the point of sailing, and Mr B. had 
 to start at once. It was twelve years before he 
 returned to New York, when, strolling into the 
 City bar one morning, the barman, after looking 
 steadily at him for a minute, said, " How do you 
 do, Mr B. ? here's your umbrella ! " and handed it 
 to him across the counter. 
 
 Scripture was the subject of Sir Charles's life- 
 long and daily study, but he was hardly less 
 constant and regular in his devotion to Homer, 
 the Persian Sdi, and Shakespeare. Hardly an 
 event of moment could pass without finding its 
 
364 LAST YEARS. 
 
 reflection for this faithful student in the works of 
 one of these poets. 
 
 During the disturbance in Parliament about Mr 
 Bradlaugh taking or not taking the oath, Murray 
 jots down that this is how the question was 
 viewed by Shakespeare (if Shakespeare wrote 
 6 Pericles ')- 
 
 " 111 take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath ; 
 Who shuns not to break one, will sure crack both." 
 
 And here is a translation of one of Sadi's moral 
 
 lessons : 
 
 THE DROP OF KAIN. 
 
 " FalTn from a passing cloud, a drop of rain 
 With humble awe beheld the ocean plain. 
 ' What place ? what sea is this 1 and what am I ? 
 If this is Being, I'm Nonentity ! ' 
 The modest drop, thus murmuring, self-abased, 
 Was by an oyster's venturing shell embraced : 
 Cherished by Fate, soon shone the watery gem, 
 A pearl upon a regal diadem. 
 Thus was Humility with glory crowned 
 It sought a hovel, and a palace found." 
 
 A thorough acquaintance with oriental lan- 
 guages, and his familiarity with their idioms, 
 enabled Sir Charles to appreciate and enjoy 
 many expressions of which one who had to rely 
 on the services of an interpreter would have 
 missed the point. Thus one day when riding 
 with Sir Charles Napier, then on his way back 
 
INCIDENTS IN EGYPT. 365 
 
 to England through Egypt, Murray received a 
 summons by a mounted cawass to attend the 
 Viceroy immediately. He asked the General to 
 ride slowly on towards Alexandria, where they 
 intended to inspect the French fortifications, and 
 went off to his interview. When it was over 
 he galloped after the General, but on coming to 
 a projecting bastion where the road divided he 
 was uncertain which to follow. Murray asked 
 an Arab sentry if he had seen a Frank horse- 
 man pass, and which road he had taken. The 
 man reflected a moment and replied, " Yes, I saw 
 one dbou mouqudr, and he took that road." Now 
 abou mouqudr means " father of beaks," and might 
 be applied either to an eagle or to a man who, 
 like Sir Charles Napier, was remarkable for his 
 aquiline nose. 
 
 On another occasion, in 1852, he witnessed a 
 strange instance of superstition at Cairo. A cer- 
 tain sheik, in high repute as an astrologer, was 
 invited to discover a treasure supposed to be 
 buried at a place called the Seven Girls, about 
 two miles south of the city. Having inspected 
 the spot, he declared that there was no treasure 
 there, but that the soil was of such peculiar vir- 
 tue that anybody who rolled in the sand would 
 be cured of any disease he might have. 
 
366 LAST YEARS. 
 
 " The report spread like wildfire, and soon 
 crowds were seen hurrying to the spot to roll 
 off their infirmities, thousands of all ages and 
 of both sexes : the road from the city to the 
 Seven Girls was as densely thronged from sun- 
 rise till the afternoon as the Epsom road on the 
 Derby day. Among others a fat Turkish Bey 
 went out there in his carriage, and rolled about 
 in the dust till he vomited : naturally he felt 
 relieved, and loudly proclaimed the efficacy of the 
 cure. I was much amused at seeing dozens of 
 fellahs, with real or imaginary diseases, rolling 
 about in all directions until they grew giddy and 
 stupefied, sensations which they attributed to the 
 magic power of the earth beneath them." 
 
 Murray's love of language led him to a close 
 study of the original of the Scriptures, and his 
 knowledge in Hebrew and familiarity with Greek 
 caused him to scrutinise closely some of the best 
 known passages in the Bible. Among other things 
 he pointed out the confusion which has arisen in 
 both languages between words signifying " spirit " 
 and " wind." For instance, in Psalm civ. 4, he 
 held the splendid verse, " Who maketh His angels 
 spirits ; His ministers a flaming fire," to be a 
 faulty rendering : 
 
 " As all the context is laudatory description 
 of the wonders of creation, it would seem a more 
 apposite and faithful version to read, ' Who maketh 
 
BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 367 
 
 the winds His messengers, and the flaming -fire 
 [lightning] His ministers.' Our Biblical version 
 follows the Septuagint ; but I think Gesenius 
 right in preferring the latter rendering, which 
 is certainly nearer to the simple meaning of the 
 Hebrew text, especially in respect to the word 
 'winds,' which our translation renders by 'spirits.' ' 
 
 Of greater importance, because more seriously 
 disguising the sense of the original, seemed to 
 Murray the liberty which English translators have 
 taken with one of the grandest verses in the New 
 Testament " The wind bloweth where it listeth," 
 &c. (John iii. 8) : 
 
 " This translation, although the authors of the 
 Revised Version have retained it in the text, and 
 although it is supported by the authority of 
 Luther, I hold to be decidedly erroneous, on the 
 ground that it renders the Greek word Tn/ev/xa in 
 the beginning of the verse by the word 'wind/ 
 and in the latter part of the same verse by the 
 word * spirit,' a liberty which I do not think any 
 translator is justified in taking. ... It is to be 
 observed that there is not another instance in any 
 of the writings of St John, nor indeed in the whole 
 New Testament, in which Trvev^a is, or can be, 
 rendered as ' wind.' This, in my mind, is decisive 
 of the question. 
 
 " The Roman Catholic Testament, following the 
 Latin Vulgate, translates literally, and I believe 
 correctly, ' The Spirit breatheth where He listeth, 
 
368 LAST YEARS. 
 
 and thou hearest His voice.' Quvr) signifies pro- 
 perly and etymologically e the voice/ and not the 
 sound of wind." 
 
 Sir Charles acknowledged that, in many re- 
 spects, the Revised Version was a valuable im- 
 provement on the Authorised Version ; but in 
 some passages he regarded it as the reverse. One 
 of these he considered to be Mark v. 36 : "As soon 
 as Jesus heard the word that was spoken," which is 
 an exact rendering of the original Greek. This is 
 altered in the Revised Version into : " Jesus not 
 heeding the word spoken," with the marginal 
 alternative of " overhearing " ; both of which, in 
 Murray's judgment, were incorrect. 
 
 The following passages from a criticism on Pro- 
 fessor Drummond's * Natural Law in the Spiritual 
 World ' illustrate the deep and constant thought 
 which Sir Charles devoted to the problems of 
 religion. 
 
 Hon. Sir Charles Murray to the Dowager 
 Lady Castletown. 
 
 " VILLA VICTORIA, CANNES, Feb. 24, 1884. 
 
 " . . . In spite of the many disputable tenets 
 that it maintains, and the doubtful analogies by 
 which it illustrates them, I think it is a book that 
 you may read both with interest and improvement. 
 . . . The object of the work is undeniably good ; 
 
CRITICISM OF PROFESSOR DRUMMOND. 369 
 
 . . . the author's knowledge of science is apparently 
 extensive, as is also his acquaintance with the writ- 
 ings of Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Harrison, and all 
 the modern school of evolution, biology, and the 
 other ' ologies,' treated by writers who are termed 
 the ' advanced thinkers ' of the day. I must own 
 that I neither study them much nor respect their 
 opinions, which seem to me to tend generally to 
 scepticism, and such thinkers as Bacon, Barrow, 
 Milton, Pascal, Newton, &c., &c., are quite ' ad- 
 vanced ' enough for me ; but the author's studies 
 and reflections, instead of leading him to scepti- 
 cism, have led him to a Christian creed so high 
 that it is difficult to follow him. ... It seems to 
 me that in his illustrations in the field of natural 
 history some of the author's statements are inac- 
 curate, . . . While stating that life cannot be 
 given from without, but is permanently fixed and 
 rooted in the organism of every living thing, he 
 says ' the life is in every plant and tree, inside its 
 own tissue,' but he forgets that without the oxygen 
 of the air that feeds the leaves, and the earth- 
 moisture that nourishes the roots, the plant could 
 have no life at all. Numerous errors of this kind 
 are to be found in the volume : it is better to pass 
 them by and consider some of the more important 
 parts of his general argument. . . . The author 
 works out this distinction between the moral man 
 as dead, and the spiritual man as alive, at consider- 
 able length. . . . If we are to admit, as this author 
 maintains, that there is the same organic and 
 essential difference between a spiritual and a moral 
 man that there is between a man and a stone the 
 
 2 A 
 
370 LAST YEARS. 
 
 one being alive and the other dead we should 
 shut out from the doors of Heaven probably 90 
 out of 100 struggling, praying, striving, falling, 
 again rising, sincere but frail Christians, who, 
 according to this hard-and-fast line of distinction, 
 have been dead and alive again several times. 
 Again, if there can be no eternal life for any man 
 except for him ' who lives in Christ and Christ in 
 him ' what are we to say of the lot ordained for 
 the thousands of millions who have lived, now live, 
 and yet will live on this earth, who have never 
 even heard of the name of Christ ? . . . No man's 
 creed would seem to me either reasonable or Scrip- 
 tural which should exclude for ever from the 
 Golden Gates of the Eternal Life hereafter such 
 men as Homer, Socrates, Aristides, Plato, &c., &c." 
 
 Devout though he was and profoundly reverent, 
 Murray, although ready to accept articles of faith 
 which were beyond his understanding, would 
 never yield assent to those that were contrary 
 to it. 
 
 " Belief is an act of the understanding, not of 
 the will, and whatever amount of argument or 
 apparent evidence might be presented to me to 
 prove that God was unjust, or that two and two 
 made five, I could not believe it by any effort of 
 will. It is therefore useless for any human law- 
 giver or Church to endeavour to enforce a dogma 
 upon any one whose conscience and understanding 
 repudiate it. I think it has been an act of repre- 
 
PROBLEMS OF RELIGION. 371 
 
 hensible unwisdom on the part of the Church of 
 England to oblige its ministers to read the so- 
 called Athanasian Creed on stated days in church, 
 seeing that it is a well-known fact that ninety-nine 
 out of every hundred of the laity cannot under- 
 stand it ; and that nine out of ten of the better 
 educated, who have examined and studied it, hold 
 it in aversion. These last regard it as a creed 
 composed by some unknown author three or four 
 hundred years after the Christian era, in which, 
 after a laboured and wordy attempt to fathom the 
 unsearchable and define the incomprehensible, 
 more than half the Christian world is consigned 
 to perdition by the declaration, that whosoever 
 does not faithfully believe it, cannot be saved." 
 
 To how many earnest worshippers must the 
 same difficulty have occurred ; but how few have 
 the moral courage to face it ! 
 
 It is impossible that any honest religious thinker 
 in these times can refuse to examine the authority 
 for the doctrine of everlasting punishment, which 
 becomes the more repugnant to human ideas of 
 justice in proportion as those ideas are based on 
 the doctrines of Christ and permeated by the 
 spirit of His teaching. One turns over the pages 
 of these note - books, therefore, confident that 
 Murray will have something to say about it, and 
 curious to know how it presented itself to his frank 
 and simple nature. He faces the problem boldly 
 
372 LAST YEARS. 
 
 enough : he admits that we have exactly the same 
 authority for believing in the eternity of punish- 
 ment as in the eternity of bliss ; he brushes aside 
 all significance in the apparent distinction indi- 
 cated in Christ's own words, " These shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
 life eternal" (Matt. xxv. 46), by showing that it 
 is an arbitrary one created by the translators, the 
 word in the original Greek aiuviov being the 
 same both for "everlasting" and "eternal"; and 
 he discusses various authorities on both sides at 
 considerable length. 
 
 The Hon. Sir Charles Murray to the Dowager 
 Lady Castletown. 
 
 " THE GRANGE, OLD WINDSOR, Nov. 1, 1885. 
 
 " For myself, I shun all dogmatic utterances 
 about a future state, even when they pretend to 
 be founded on the book of Revelation, or other 
 isolated texts of Scripture, as I think they come 
 under the denomination of those curious ques- 
 tions which St Paul taught us to avoid. The 
 holding of doctrines and dogmas has been the curse 
 of Christianity since its foundation. . . . Two- 
 thirds of the heresies that divided the primitive 
 Church were founded on the contested acceptation 
 of single texts. Not to mention scores of minor 
 heresies (so - called), the two great Churches of 
 the East and of the West, with many millions 
 
THE ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 373 
 
 of followers attached to them, were separated, 
 and have remained ever since irreconcilably separ- 
 ated, upon the question whether the Holy Spirit 
 proceeded from God alone, or from God and Jesus 
 Christ. Surely angels might weep to see Chris- 
 tians nominally the followers of the holy and 
 sinless Jesus not only wasting their time for cen- 
 turies, but shedding each other's blood, in disput- 
 ing over verbal differences such as this ! . . . I am 
 a member of the Church of England, having been 
 baptised in it, and I hold to it in preference to 
 any other Church, . . . although there are several 
 things in its Liturgy which seem to me serious 
 errors ; among others compelling its clergy to read 
 in church the so-called Athanasian Creed on stated 
 occasions. I have no objection to any man, lay 
 or clerical, who approves it and thinks he under- 
 stands it, reciting it for himself; but I do not 
 think that any Church, calling itself a Reformed 
 Church, has a right to order its clergy to read as 
 a creed necessary to salvation, a document writ- 
 ten by some French or Spanish bishop five or six 
 hundred years after the Christian era, dubbing 
 it by the name of St Athanasius, and ending by 
 the monstrous declaration that whoever does not 
 believe it faithfully cannot be saved words that 
 exclude from salvation three-fourths at least of the 
 Christian community on earth." 
 
 Sir Charles Murray, than whom no man ever 
 gave more earnest thought to problems of which 
 the solution lies beyond the grave, declined to 
 
3*74 LAST YEARS. 
 
 pronounce a definite opinion on them. Neverthe- 
 less, the tendency of his judgment is revealed in 
 the following sentences from one of his note- 
 books : 
 
 "It is remarkable that Bishop Thirlwall, the 
 profoundest English thinker and theologian of this 
 age, never made this question the subject of one of 
 his sermons or charges to his clergy. But there is 
 a short letter of his extant to Professor Plumptre, 
 in which he thanks him for his admirable sermon 
 on the ' Spirits in Prison,' and terms it ' one of 
 the most valuable gifts the Church has received in 
 this generation.' 1 Now that sermon of Plumptre's 
 was directed forcibly and specially against the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment. If Thirlwall be 
 mistaken mallem cum Platone err are ! " 
 
 1 Thirlwall's Letters, p. 334. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abercairney, the house of, 3. 
 
 Absolomina, verses to, 87. 
 
 Acton, Lord, letter to Murray from, 
 343. 
 
 Adventures among the Pawnees, 
 96 et seq. 
 
 Ah-to-meno, the song of, 235. 
 
 Albert, Prince, Dr Buckland and, 
 167 reception of the Emperor 
 Nicholas by, 177 et seq. Mur- 
 ray's pamphlet on religious tenets 
 of, 193 et seq. 
 
 Alison, Sir Archibald, criticism of 
 'The Prairie Bird' by, 199 et 
 seq. 
 
 Alleghanies, a journey to the, 130 
 et seq. 
 
 Andersen, Hans Christian, meeting 
 of Murray with, 298 letter to 
 Lady Murray from, ib. et seq. 
 
 Antelope hawking in Persia, 269. 
 
 Ardgowan, visits of the Murrays 
 to, 30. 
 
 Arran, sport in, 49 et seq. 
 
 Art of public speaking, Lord 
 Brougham on the, 65 et seq. 
 
 Ascot Tuesday, an, 181 et seq. 
 
 Ashburnham, Lord, the collection 
 of MSS. of, 359 a splendid suit 
 of armour belonging to, ib. 
 prices paid for MSS. of, 360. 
 
 Augustus Frederick, Prince, spon- 
 sor to Charles Murray, 4. 
 
 Azores, Murray's stay in the, 84. 
 
 Baden, Princess Mary of, romantic 
 
 marriage of, 169 et seq. 
 Beckford, William, anecdote of, 44 
 
 extraordinary gifts of, 43 et 
 seq. amusing story concerning, 
 45 et seq. letter to Murray 
 from, 201. 
 
 Bentley, Mr, publishes Murray's 
 'Travels,' 138. 
 
 Bright, Mr John, attitude of, re- 
 garding the Reform Bill of 1867, 
 300. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, friendship be- 
 tween Murray and, 48 letter to 
 Lady Dunmore from, 64 et seq. 
 Samuel Rogers on the vagaries 
 of, 149. 
 
 Buchanan, Sir Andrew, G.C.B., 
 145. 
 
 Buckland, Dr, and Prince Albert, 
 167. 
 
 Buffalo hunting in the Far West, 
 163. 
 
 Bulwer, Murray's criticism on the 
 novels of, 271 et seq. 
 
 Bushire, bombardment of, 255. 
 
 Byron, Lord, remarks by Rogers 
 on, 12, 34 et seq., 350 criticism 
 by Murray on, 274. 
 
 Cadzow Castle, occasion of Scott's 
 
 ballad of, 48. 
 Cairo, an incident of superstition 
 
 at, 365 et seq. 
 Cannes, Murray's stay at, 354 et 
 
 seq. the Rest Home endowed 
 
 by Lady Murray at, 356. 
 Carlyle, letter to Murray from, 76 
 
 et seq. lifelong intimacy between 
 
 Murray and, 78. 
 Castletown, Dowager Lady, letters 
 
376 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 from Murray to, 368 et seq., 372 
 et seq. 
 
 Catlin, George, account of the 
 Pawnees by, 124. 
 
 Chateaubriand, favourable opinion 
 of Murray's 'Travels' held by, 
 137. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, letter to Lord 
 Stratford de Redcliffe from, 252 
 et seq. his instructions to Mur- 
 ray during the difficulty with 
 Persia, 254 defends Murray in 
 the Persian imbroglio, 265 letter 
 of Murray to, ib. on the Spanish 
 succession, 303 letter to Murray 
 from, 304. 
 
 Clay, Henry, entertains Murray at 
 Lexington, 97. 
 
 Cooper, Fenimore, Murray's meet- 
 ings with, 88, 132 novels of 
 Indian life by, ib. letter to 
 Murray from, 239 et seq. 
 
 Copenhagen, Murray offered ap- 
 pointment of British Minister at, 
 285. 
 
 Cowley, Earl, letter from Murray 
 to, 263 et seq. 
 
 Crowe, Sir Joseph, life of Raphael 
 by, 352. 
 
 Cuba, visit of Murray to, 128 
 Spanish administration of, 129. 
 
 Dalhousie, Earl of, letters to Mur- 
 ray from, 241 et seq. 
 
 Dalmeny, social gatherings at, 41. 
 
 Darwin, remarks by Murray on, 
 72. 
 
 David I., policy of, regarding feudal 
 proprietors, 2. 
 
 Delawares, country of the, 130. 
 
 Denman, Chief-Justice, friendship 
 between Murray and, 48. 
 
 Denmark, Murray on the war be- 
 tween Prussia and Austria and, 
 289. 
 
 Derby, Earl of, letter to Murray 
 from, 327 et seq. 
 
 Douglas, Lord, Princess Mary of 
 Baden's romantic attachment to, 
 169 story of the betrothal of, 
 ib. et seq. marriage of, 174 
 letter to Murray from, 175. 
 
 Doyle, Sir Francis Hastings, 140. 
 
 Dresden, appointment of Murray 
 as British Minister at, 285. 
 
 Drummond, Prof. Henry, criticism 
 by Murray of ' Natural Law in 
 the Spiritual World' by, 368 
 et seq. 
 
 Dubuque, an incident at, 127 et seq. 
 
 Dundas, Mr, Lord Eldon and, 41 et 
 seq. amateur dentistry of, 42. 
 
 Dunmore, Countess of, letters from 
 Samuel Rogers to, 5 et seq., 8 et 
 seq., 31 et seq., 80, 148 et seq., 166 
 letter from Lord Brougham to, 
 64 et seq. death of, 208. 
 
 Edinburgh, gaiety of society in, at 
 the beginning of this century, 
 39 literary activity of, ib. 
 stories of society of, 39 et seq. 
 
 Egypt, Murray Consul-General in, 
 210 success of Murray's admin- 
 istration in, 241. 
 
 Eldon, Lord Chancellor, pleasan- 
 tries of, 41, 42. 
 
 Erskine, Henry, instances of the 
 wit of, 39, 40. 
 
 Eton, Charles Murray at, 36. 
 
 Euphrates, a voyage by Murray on 
 the, 270 et seq. 
 
 Falkirk Burghs, Murray's parlia- 
 mentary candidature for, 79. 
 
 Fernando, Dom, of Portugal, de- 
 scription by Murray of, 304 
 proposed candidature for the 
 Spanish throne by, 305 et seq. 
 
 Fincastle, Lady. See Dunmore, 
 Countess of. 
 
 Fincastle, Lord, succeeds his 
 father as Earl of Dunmore, 31 
 a practical joke by Charles 
 Murray at the expense of, 37 
 et seq. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Hon. Edythe, married 
 to Sir Charles Murray, 287 
 letters from Murray to, 288 
 et seq. 
 
 Fletcher of Beamish, anecdotes re- 
 garding, 29 et seq. 
 
 Fort Leavenworth, Murray's stay 
 at, 101, 125. 
 
 Fort Lexington, visit of Murray to, 
 96 Murray's host at, 97. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 377 
 
 Gamekeeper, a, of the old school, 
 49 et seq. 
 
 George IV., amusing incident on 
 visit to Edinburgh of, 40 
 changes made on the apartments 
 at Holy rood by, 41. 
 
 Girardin, Emile de, literary works 
 of, 360 anecdote of, ib. et seq. 
 
 Gladstone, Mr, 'Church and State' 
 by, 277 letter to Murray from, 
 286 attitude of, regarding the 
 Reform Bill of 1867, 300. 
 
 Goethe, meeting of Murray with, 
 73 description by Murray of 
 an interview with, ib. et seq. 
 autograph given to Murray by, 76. 
 
 Granville, Earl, letters from Murray 
 to, 306 et seq. 
 
 Grey, Colonel George, letter to 
 Murray from, 300 et seq. 
 
 Hadji Baba, a Bible annotated by, 
 336. 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of, old-fashioned 
 manners of, 43 letter to Murray 
 from, 169 et seq. 
 
 Hamilton, Mr, of Dalzell, Lord 
 Eldon and, 46. 
 
 Hampden, Dr, 143. 
 
 ' Hassan, 3 Murray's novel entitled, 
 277 et seq. 
 
 Herbert, Hon. Sidney, 60. 
 
 Hope, Henry Beresford, friendship 
 between Murray and, 53 Mur- 
 ray's rival for the parliamentary 
 representation of Marylebone, 79. 
 
 1 Horizons Celestes,' criticism by 
 Murray of, 237. 
 
 Howden, Lord, letter to Murray 
 from, 306. 
 
 Indians, the Red, manners of, 106 
 et seq. character of, 107 et seq., 
 132 et seq. effects of the liquor 
 traffic on, 125 et seq. decay of, 
 136. 
 
 lotan, story of the Indian chief, 
 105 et seq. 
 
 Irish in America, character of the, 
 127. 
 
 Journals, extracts from Murray's, 
 157 et seq., 176 et seq., 268 et seq. 
 
 Kinnaird, Mr, conversations of the 
 Emperor Nicholas with, 180 et 
 seq. 
 
 Kooshab, defeat of the Persians by 
 the British at, 255. 
 
 Labouchere, Mr, remarks by Hon. 
 Robert Lytton on, 318. 
 
 Lanarkshire, Murray's parliament- 
 ary candidature for, 152 et seq. 
 
 Landseer, Thomas, story of, 362. 
 
 Layard, Mr, attitude of, regarding 
 the Persian war, 260. 
 
 Lehzen, Baroness, 160. 
 
 Lexington. See Fort Lexington. 
 
 Lichfield, parliamentary candida- 
 ture by Murray for, 152 et seq. 
 
 Lisbon, appointment of Murray as 
 British Minister at, 301 Mur- 
 ray's diplomatic service at, 303 
 et seq. 
 
 Louisville, description of, by Mur- 
 ray, 96. 
 
 Lytton, Hon. Robert, letters to 
 Murray from, 313 et seq., 323 et 
 seq., 341 et seq. on the Spanish 
 Academy of Science and Letters, 
 314 Madrid described by,3l5 
 on the art of Velasquez, 316 on 
 the acting of Rossi, ib. criticism 
 of ' The Prairie Bird ' by, 317. 
 
 Lytton, Lord. See Lytton, Hon. 
 Robert. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, Murray's opinion 
 of, as a writer, 275 as a poli- 
 tician, 277 anecdote of, 348. 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, letter to Murray 
 from, 351 et seq. 
 
 ' Marmion,' remarks by Samuel 
 Rogers on, 10. 
 
 Martineau, Harriet, meeting of 
 Murray with, 97 Murray's 
 second meeting with, 227 
 intellectual characteristics of, ib. 
 
 Marylebone, Murray's parliament- 
 ary candidature for, 79. 
 
 Mazzini, outcry in London on be- 
 half of, 190. 
 
 Meerza Hashem Khan, appointed 
 British Agent at Shiraz, 247 
 is cause of the quarrel between 
 Britain and Persia, 248. 
 
378 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Memlooks, massacre of the, 215 et 
 seq. 
 
 Milton's ode "To Echo," Murray's 
 translation into Latin verse of, 
 61.' 
 
 Mohammed Ali, birthplace of, 212 
 intellectual capacity of, ib. 
 incident in the career of, 213 
 energy and decision of, ib. pro- 
 moted by the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, 214 appointed Brigadier- 
 General, ib. appointed governor 
 of Egypt, ib. a strong and sag- 
 acious ruler, 215 plot by the 
 Memlooks against, ib. massacre 
 of the Memlooks by, 216 et seq. 
 Murray's opinion of, 221 inter- 
 nal administration founded by, 
 224 anecdotes regarding, 225 
 et seq. Murray's lifelike por- 
 trait of, in ' Hassan,' 278. 
 
 Mohammerah, defeat of the Per- 
 sians by the British at, 255. 
 
 Moore, Thomas, allusions by Rogers 
 to, 9, 23. 
 
 Moray, Sir William, official name 
 of, 3 families descended from, 
 ib. 
 
 Morier, David, Bible annotated by 
 Hadji Baba possessed by, 336. 
 
 Motley, John Lothrop, letter to 
 Murray from, 294 et, seq. 
 
 Miiller, Prof. Max, letter to Murray 
 from, 343. 
 
 "Murmagh" or Moray, province 
 of, 3. 
 
 Murray, George, Earl of Dunmore, 
 4 wife of, ib. sons of, ib. 
 
 Murray, Hon. Cecil, tender solici- 
 tude of his father for, 340 et seq. 
 death of, 353. 
 
 Murray, Hon. Henry, letters from 
 Sir Charles Murray to, 69 et seq., 
 167 et seq., 256 et seq. letter to 
 Murray from, 208 et seq. 
 
 Murray, John, Earl of Dunmore, 
 becomes Duke of Athol, 4. 
 
 Murray, Lord Charles, titles of, 4. 
 
 Murray, Mr John, letter to Murray 
 from, 349. 
 
 Murray, Sir Charles Augustus, birth 
 of, 4 his sponsor, ib. earliest 
 historic allusion to, 5 descrip- 
 
 tion of Glen Finart by, 29 et seq. 
 goes to Eton, 36 incident 
 that happened to, on a sea jour- 
 ney to London, 37 his skill in 
 writing Latin verses, ib. practi- 
 cal joke by, at the expense of his 
 brother, 38 visit of, to Hamil- 
 ton Palace, 43 his acquaint- 
 ance with Sir Walter Scott, 48 
 shooting experiences of, 49 
 at Oxford, 52 letters from P. 
 Eraser Tytler to, 54 et seq., 138 
 et seq., 197 et seq., 201 et seq. 
 friendship with Henry Hope, 56 
 anecdotes of Newman by, ib. 
 et seq. friendship with Lord 
 Edward Thynne, 58 et seq. 
 riding feat by, 59 a companion 
 of Sidney Herbert, 60 his excel- 
 lence as an athlete, ib. scholarly 
 tastes of, ib. has Dean Tyler as 
 tutor, 61 letter from Rogers 
 to, 62 reads for the Bar, 64 
 letters to his brother from, 69 et 
 seq., 167 et seq., 256 et seq. 
 splendid physique of, 71 re- 
 marks on Charles Darwin by, 72 
 
 on the value of work, 73 
 active habits of, ib. social in- 
 terests of, ib. meets Goethe at 
 Weimar, ib. letter from, de- 
 scriptive of an interview with 
 Goethe, ib. et seq. letter from 
 Carlyle to, 76 et seq. his life- 
 long intimacy with Carlyle, 78 
 
 unsuccessfully contests Fal- 
 kirk Burghs and Marylebone, 79 
 visits America, ib. incident 
 on the voyage to America, 81 et 
 seq. account of New York by, 
 86 verses to a child by, 87 
 makes an expedition up the 
 Hudson river, 88 meets Feni- 
 more Cooper, ib. panegyric on 
 George Washington by, 89 let- 
 ter from the President of the 
 United States to, 90 hatred of 
 slavery by, 92 remarks on the 
 town of Washington by, 93 et 
 seq. revisits the Far West, 95 
 
 his adventures among the 
 Pawnees, 96 et seq. meets Har- 
 riet Martineau, 97 entertained 
 
INDEX. 
 
 379 
 
 by Henry Clay, ib. adopts Ver- 
 nunft as a fellow-traveller, 98 
 his impressions of Pawnee braves, 
 100 is entertained by the Paw- 
 nee "nation," 102 engages in a 
 buffalo-hunt, 103 his friendship 
 with a Red Indian chief, 105 
 has unpleasant experiences in an 
 Indian camp, 106 et seq. de- 
 scription of the Pawnee tribe by, 
 110 et seq. attacked on the 
 plains, 114 lost in the wilder- 
 ness, 1 15 et seq. at Fort Leaven- 
 worth, 125 condemns the liquor 
 traffic among the Red Indians, 
 ib. et seq.&t St Louis, 126 
 on Irish lawlessness, 127 in 
 New Orleans, 128 visits Cuba, 
 ib. at Philadelphia, 129 makes 
 a journey to the Alleghanies, 130 
 at Lake Otsego, 131 meets 
 Fenimore Cooper a second time, 
 132 romance of 'The Prairie 
 Bird' by, 133, 194 'Travels in 
 North America ' by, ib. dedi- 
 cates his ' Travels ' to the Queen, 
 ib. on American characteristics, 
 134 favourable reception of his 
 ' Travels,' 1 37 Chateaubriand 
 on the ' Travels' of, ib. letters 
 from Sir Charles Vaughan to, 140 
 et seq. love - affair with Miss 
 Wadsworth, 147 returns from 
 America, 150 correspondence 
 between Lord Stanley and, ib. et 
 seq. makes a third attempt to 
 enter Parliament, 152 et seq. 
 observations by, regarding the 
 early days of the Queen as a 
 sovereign, 157 etseq. his friend- 
 ship with Lady Mary Stopford, 
 162 intermediary in the be- 
 trothal of Lord Douglas to Prin- 
 cess Mary of Baden, 169 et seq. 
 letters from Lieut. - Colonel 
 Stepney- Cowell to, 171 et seq. 
 letter from Lord Douglas to, 175 
 extracts from journal of, on the 
 visit of the Emperor Nicholas, 
 176 et seq. on Government 
 difficulties, 190 et seq. literary 
 acquaintances of, 193 publishes 
 a pamphlet with reference to the 
 
 Queen's betrothal to Prince Al- 
 bert, ib. plot of 'The Prairie 
 Bird' by, 195 et seq. letter 
 from William Beckford to, 201 
 literary facility of, 205 letter 
 from Wordsworth to, 206 
 humorous poem by, 207 re- 
 signs the Mastership of the 
 Household, ib. appointed Secre- 
 tary to the British Legation at 
 Naples, ib. appointed extra 
 Groom - in -Waiting, ib. letter 
 from Capt. the Hon. H. Murray 
 to, 208 et seq. appointed Consul- 
 General in Egypt, 210 descrip- 
 tion of Mohammed Ali by, ib. et 
 seq., 215 et seq., 221 etseq. on the 
 massacre of the Memlooks, 221 
 et seq. defence of Mohammed 
 Ali by, 224 et seq. anecdotes 
 of Mohammed Ali by, 225 
 et seq. interview with Harriet 
 Martineau, 227 purchases the 
 freedom of a slave, 228 letter 
 from Lord Palmerston to, 229 
 letter to Lord Palmerston 
 from, 230 letters to his second 
 wife from, 232 et seq., 288 et 
 seq., 325, 333 et seq., 339 et seq., 
 344 et seq., 352, 355 translation 
 of an Indian poem by, 235 
 marries Miss Wadsworth, 238 
 letter from Fenimore Cooper to, 
 239 et seq. capable administra- 
 tion in Egypt of, 241 letters 
 from the Earl of Dalhousie to, 
 ib. et seq. secures the first hip- 
 popotamus for the Zoological 
 Society, 243 et seq. appointed 
 British Minister at Berne, 245 
 appointed Envoy to the Court of 
 Persia, ib. diplomatic work in 
 Persia by, 248 the Shah of 
 Persia and, 250 letter to Earl 
 Cowley from, 263 et seq. letter 
 to Earl of Clarendon from, 265 
 on the Oriental character, 267 
 on the novels of Bulwer, 271 
 et seq. description of a Persian 
 rural scene by, 273 on Byron, 
 274 on Macaulay, 275, 277 
 on Tytler's ' History of Scotland,' 
 276 on Gladstone's ' Church 
 
380 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 and State,' 277 novel of Has- 
 san' by, ib. on the character of 
 Sadr Azim, 278 et seq. appointed 
 British Minister at the Court of 
 Saxony, 285 offered the appoint- 
 ment of British Minister at the 
 Court of Sweden, ib. letter from 
 Mr Gladstone to, 286 second 
 marriage of, 287 on the war be- 
 tween Denmark and Prussia, 289 
 religious views of, 290 et seq. 
 on spiritualism, 292 letter from 
 John Lothrop Motley to, 294 et 
 seq. receives the rank of K.C.B., 
 298 leaves Denmark, ib. 
 meets Hans Christian Andersen, 
 ib. letters from Sir William 
 Stirling - Maxwell to, 299, 320 
 et seq. letter from Colonel 
 George Grey to, 300 et seq. 
 appointed British Minister at 
 Lisbon, 301 diplomatic duties 
 at Lisbon of, 303 et seq. letter 
 from Lord Clarendon to, 304 et 
 seq. letter from Lord Howden 
 to, 306 letters to Earl Granville 
 from, ib. et seq. letters from 
 Hon. Robert Lytton to, 313 et 
 seq., 323 et seq., 341 et seq. 
 letter from the Earl of Derby to, 
 327 et seq. retires from diplo- 
 matic life, 328 goes to reside at 
 Kilburn, 329 letters from Hon. 
 Mrs Norton to, 330 et seq. 
 letter from Dean Stanley to, 335 
 et seq. home life of, 337 et seq. 
 letter in Latin to his grand- 
 son, 340 letters to Mr Reginald 
 Smith from, 341, 350 et seq. 
 revisits the United States, 343 
 letter from Prof. Max Miiller 
 to, ib. letter from Lord Acton 
 to, 344 et seq. reminiscences of 
 Samuel Rogers by, 349 et seq. 
 letter from Mr John Murray to, 
 349 on modern Liberalism, 351 
 letter from Cardinal Manning 
 to, ib. infirmities of old age 
 come upon, 354 death of, 356 
 character of, 357 memoranda 
 left by, 358 extracts from a 
 MS. volume by, 359 et seq. 
 translation of a poem of Sadi's 
 
 by, 364 knowledge of Oriental 
 languages possessed by, ib., 366 
 New Testament interpretations 
 by, 367 et seq. letters to Lady 
 Castletown from, 368 et seq., 372 
 on dogma, 370 on everlast- 
 ing punishment, 371 on Bishop 
 Thirlwall's views, 374. 
 Murray, William, Earl of Tulli- 
 bardine, 3. 
 
 Napier, Sir Charles, story of, 364 
 et seq. 
 
 Naples, appointment of Murray to 
 the British Legation at, 207. 
 
 Napoleon III., attitude of, regard- 
 ing the Spanish succession, 303. 
 
 New York, Murray's impressions 
 of, 86 description of, by Feni- 
 more Cooper, 240 story of a 
 punctilious waiter in, 363. 
 
 Newman, John Henry, tutor to 
 Murray at Oxford, 56 et seq. 
 
 Nicholas, Emperor, of Russia, ac- 
 count by Murray of visit to 
 England of, 176 et seq. present 
 given to Murray by, 186 leave- 
 taking of, 188 personal acknow- 
 ledgment to Murray by, ib. 
 
 Norton, Hon. Mrs, letters to Mur- 
 ray from, 330 et seq. 
 
 Nuneham, an incident at, 206. 
 
 Obaysch, capture of the hippopota- 
 mus named, 243. 
 
 Oliphant, Laurence, Murray's opin- 
 ion of, 352. 
 
 Oliphant, Mrs, Life of Laurence 
 Oliphant by, 352. 
 
 Orloff, Count, Murray meets, 178 
 personal appearance of, 186 
 et seq. 
 
 Otoes, anecdote of a chief of the, 
 105. 
 
 Outram, General, defeats the Per- 
 sians, 255. 
 
 Owen, Robert, the Educational In- 
 stitution of, 48 et seq. 
 
 Oxford, Murray at, 52 et seq. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, anecdote of, 191 
 letter to Murray from, 229 
 letter from Murray to, 230 de- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 fence of Murray's Persian di- 
 plomacy by, 262. 
 
 Paris, state of, after Waterloo, 31 
 et seq. treaty between Britain 
 and Persia concluded at, 255. 
 
 Pawnees, the, adventures of Murray 
 among, 96 et seq. descriptions 
 of, 100, 109 et seq. extinction 
 of, 135. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, as a politician, 
 189 et seq. 
 
 Persia, British policy regarding, 
 246, 272 ineptitude of the Shah 
 of, 247 an insurrection in, ib. 
 Murray's diplomatic work in, 
 248 et seq. a rural scene in, 273. 
 
 Philadelphia, favourable impression 
 upon Murray of, 129. 
 
 * Prairie Bird, ' publication of the, 
 133 characteristics of, 194 et 
 seq. favourable criticisms of, 
 197 et seq. 
 
 Public speaking, Lord Brougham 
 on the art of, 65 et seq. 
 
 Radcliffe, Mrs, 11. 
 
 Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, letter 
 from the Earl of Clarendon to, 
 252 et seq. prepares an ultima- 
 tum to Persia, 254. 
 
 Review, a royal, 183. 
 
 Rogers, Samuel, letters to Lady 
 Susan Fincastle (Countess of 
 Dunmore) from, 5 et seq., 8 et 
 seq., 31 et seq., 80, 148 et seq., 
 166 friendship between the Fin- 
 castles and, 7 on London social 
 affairs, 8 et seq. on Byron's 
 poems, 12 on Madame D'Arb- 
 lay's novels, 6. description of 
 Patterdale by, 17 description 
 of a journey to Edinburgh by, 
 18 description of a tour in 
 Wales by, 25 a tour on the 
 Continent described by, 26, 31 
 et seq. on French patriotism, 
 33 on Lord Byron, 34 et seq. 
 letter to Murray from, 62 
 his patient revision of his literary 
 work, 200 anecdotes of, 348 et 
 seq. 
 
 Ross, Horatio, remarkable skill in 
 shooting of, 337 et seq. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, letter to Murray 
 from, 285 attitude of, regarding 
 the Reform Bill of 1867, 300. 
 
 Sadi, translation of a poem by, 364. 
 
 Sadr Azim, letters from the Shah 
 to, 248 et seq., 250 et seq. 
 maligns Murray, 256 references 
 
 - by Murray to, 257, 259, 262 
 account of, by Murray, 278 et seq. 
 
 Sa-ni-tsa-rish, Murray's visit to the 
 Pawnee chief called, 103 char- 
 acter of, 107 et seq. 
 
 Saxony, appointment of Murray as 
 Minister at the Court of, 285 
 anecdote concerning King John 
 of, 293. 
 
 Schleswig-Holstein difficulty, the, 
 289. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, acquaintance of 
 Murray with, 48 ballad of Cad- 
 zow Castle by, ib. 
 
 Shah of Persia, the, ineptitude of, 
 247 letters of, 248 et seq., 250 
 et seq. 
 
 Shaw Stewart, Admiral Sir Hous- 
 ton, 30. 
 
 Shaw Stewart, Sir Michael, resi- 
 dence of, 30 daughters of, ib. 
 
 Slavery, the institution of, in 
 America, 92 Murray's vehe- 
 ment condemnation of, 93. 
 
 Smith, Mr Reginald, letters from 
 Murray to, 341, 350 et seq. 
 
 Smith, Rev. Sydney, anecdotes of, 
 28, 348 secret of the wit of, 
 348. 
 
 Solomon, Mr A., R.A., anecdote 
 regarding, 362. 
 
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 Stanley, Dean, letter to Murray 
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 to, 150 et seq. letter to Murray 
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 Earl of. 
 
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 letters to Murray from, 171 et 
 seq. 
 
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