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EECOLLECTIONS 1832 to 1886
Vol. n.

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RECOLLECTIONS 1832 to 1886
BY THE EIGHT HON.
SIE ALGEENON WEST, K.C.B.
WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
IN TWO VOLUMES
YOL. IL
SECOND EDITION

LONDON
SMITH, ELDEE, & CO., 15 WATEELOO PLACE
1899
[All rights reserved]

CONTENTS

THE SECOND VOLUME
CHAPTEE XI
1871-1872
Proposal to enter Parliament for Coventry on Sir Henry
Bulwer's Elevation to the Peerage — Dinner at Edward
Levy's — Henry James's Quotation — Episodes of the Ses
sion — Visits to Nocton and Somerley — My Last Shooting-
Party — Tom Price's Appetite — The Prince of Wales's
Illness — Sir "William Bovill and the Forged Letter — Fare
well Dinner to Lord Northbrook — Lord Dufferin's Ap
pointment as Canadian Viceroy — Mrs. Norton — Disraeli and
Mr. Brand — A Historic Ghess-Board — Sir John Rose and
his Wife — Hooker and Ayrton — The ' Collier Scandal ' —
Advantages of a Cabinet of Private Secretaries — My Ap
pointment as Commissioner of Inland Revenue — Regret
at leaving Mr. Gladstone — His Appreciation — Tribute of
the ' Times ' — Proposed History of the 1868 Government
— Mr. Gladstone's Advice 

CHAPTEE XII
Me. Gladstone  21

V] EECOLLECTIONS CHAPTER XIII
1872-1875 PAGE
Chesterfield Street in 1872 : Historical Associations — Watts's
Studio : the Cosmopolitan Club — The Board of Inland
Revenue : Herriea and Stephenson — Visit to Paris : Traces
of the Siege — Visit to Studley in January 1873 — Dicky
Doyle — Deaths of Bishop Wilberforce and Lord Westbury
— Royal Commission on Judicial Establishments — First
Visit to Hawarden — Mr. Gladstone and Tree-feUing — Sir
Prederick Abel's Experiment — Mr. Gladstone on the
Extravagance of the Indian Council — His Defeat on the
Irish Education Bill— The Election of 1874 — Retrospect
of the Government of 1868-1874 — Fire at the Pantechni
con — Froude and Kingsley — Holidays at Datchet — Lord
Granville on Landscape Gardening — Death of Lady Caro
line Barrington — Residence at Wimbledon and Fairmile
Common .......... 44
CHAPTER XIV
1875-1879
Mr. Gladstone's Motive in Retiring from the Leadership —
Lord Granville on the House of Lords — Visit to Tintagel
— Dinner with the Archbishop of Canterbury^Hawker of
Morwenstow — Sir George Trevelyan's ' Life of Macaulay '
— Mr. Gladstone on Croker in the ' Quarterly ' — Lord
Lyttelton's Death — Mr. Gladstone's Speech at Black
heath on the Bulgarian Atrocities — His Literary Conver
sations — Mr. Gladstone's Hat — Verger the Phrenologist
— Mr. Gladstone's Use of Unparliamentary Language —
His Letter to Mr. Herries — My Appointment as Deputy-
Chairman of the Inland Eevenue Board — Visit to Hawar
den in 1878 — Mr. Gladstone's Estimates of Forster and
Lowe — Lord Lawrence and Lord Lytton — Anecdote of
Sir Drummond Wolff — Mr. John Murray on Successful

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME YU

7'AKK

Authors — Stamp Reform: My Victory over Welby —
Letter from Mr. Lingen — Marriage of the Duke of Con-
naught — Visit to Studley  70

CHAPTEE XV
1880
Announcement of the Dissolution — Mr. Gladstone's Second
Midlothian Campaign — Herbert Gladstone's Candidature
for Middlesex — Letters from Mr. Gladstone — Adam's
Prophecies of Victory — Mr. Bright's Tribute to Mr. Glad
stone — Lord Beaoonsfield's Comment on the Tory Debacle
— Mr. Gladstone sent for to Windsor — The New Beer
Duty — Mr. Gladstone's Enthusiasm for Finance : his
Wonderful Memory — Mr. Watney's Testimony — Appoint
ment of my Son Horace as Private Secretary to Mr.
W. E. Forster — His Experiences in Dublin — The Arrest
of Mr. Parnell : Elaborate Precautions — Mr. Forster and
his Eevolver — His Dislike of Police Protection — Anecdote
of Judge Barry — Narrow Escape of Mr. Forster at West-
land Bow in March 1882— Father Healy's Wit— An
Indignant Archbishop ....... 95

CHAPTER XVI
1880-1881
Correspondence with the Eipons — Letter from Lord Sher
brooke — Mr. Gladstone on the Beer Duty Bill and the
Board of Inland Eevenue — All-night Sitting in the House
— Companionship of the Bath : Mr. Gladstone's Letter —
Trip to the Eiviera with Sir John Eose — A Parisian Din
ner — Nice and Monte Carlo — Sir John Eose's Britannic
Mood — lU-health and Besignation of Herries — Appointed
Chairman of Inland Eevenue Board — Letter from Sir
Ealph Lingen — Eetirement of Alfred Montgomery — His

VUl EECOLLECTIONS
P.4GE
Career and Personal Charm and Wit — ' Not one of the
Public ' — Eebuke to a Private Secretary— Trip to Corsica
in the ' Pandora' — Visit to the Pietri Family — Ajaccio —
Expeditions in Sardinia — Eeturn to Walmer . . . 124

CHAPTEE XVII
1882-1883
Site and History of Wanborough — Changes in the Govern
ment — Eesignation of Forster — Lord Frederick Caven
dish's Appointment — News of the Phoenix Park Murders
— Funeral at Chatsworth — Mr. Gladstone at the Guildhall
— Arrest of Mr. Parnell — Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr.
Gladstone — Visit to Hayes — Lord Eandolph Churchill on
the Inland Eevenue Board — Mr. Gladstone's Defence —
Harry Keppel's Eeminiscenees of Lord Saltoun — Origin
of Sailors' Blue Collars — Invitation to join the Cruise in
the ' Pembroke Castle ' with Mr. Gladstone — Start from
Barrow — Miss Laura Tennant — In Scottish Waters —
Arrival of Sir William Harcourt and Sir Andrew Clark —
The Laureate's Beading — Question of his Peerage — Visit
to Kirkwall — Mr. Gladstone's Speech — Across the North
Sea in a Fog — Talks with Mr. Gladstone — Landing at
Christiansand — Copenhagen — Dinner at the Palace —
Visit of the Eoyalties — The Princess of Wales and Tenny
son — Eeturn Home — Miss Tennant's Charm — Her Visit
to Wanborough  147

CHAPTEE XVIII
1884
Mr. Gladstone on Free Trade and Protection — Anecdotes of
Lord Lytton — General Gordon's Mission to the Soudan —
Meeting at the War Office — Gordon's Demand for Zebehr
— Lord Acton's Library — Panizzi's Last Days — Conver-

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME ix

sations with Mr. Morley and Lord Acton — Mr. Gladstone's
Portrait at Somerset House — Funeral of the Duke of
Albany — Lord Lyons and George Sheffield — Conversations
with Lord Granville — Cabinets and Gossip- Earthquake
in London — Lord Granville at Wanborough — Mr. Glad
stone on Seceders — Letters from Sir Erskine May and
Sir John Lambert — Anecdote of Bishop Percy and Mr.
Justice Maule— Mr. Gladstone on Lord Eandolph Churchill
— Liberals improved as Speakers by Seoeesion — Mr. Glad
stone's Height — Dynamite Explosions in London — Mr.
Browning's Story of Euskin — Mr. Gladstone's View of
Froude's ' Carlyle ' — Tenniel on the ' Punch ' Cartoons —
Charles Clifford's EecoUections of Eogers and the GreviUes
— Hallam Tennyson's Wedding — A Thursday Breakfast
with Mr. Gladstone — The Lords and the Franchise —
Death of Lady Halifax — Welby's Suggested Inscription
for Mr. Gladstone's Bust — Miss Tennant and her Sister
visit Wanborough — Lord Northbrook's Mission to Egypt
— His Quixotic Loyalty — Mr. Gladstone and Abraham
Hayward — Death of Lord Ampthill  176

CHAPTEE XIX
1884-1885
Dinner at Brooks's — Mr. Gladstone on Lord Lytton — His
Views on the ChUtern Hundreds and on Mr. Parnell —
Sir William Harcourt on Disraeli's Eeform Bill — Visits
to Netherby and the Glen — Mr. ChUders as Chancellor of
the Exchequer — Sir Charles Trevelyan's Dispute with Mr.
James Wilson — -Introduction of the Franchise Bill — Con
flict between the two Houses — Death of Mr. Fawcett —
Labourers' Views of the Franchise — Lord Dufferin starts
for India — Negotiations with Walter Northcote — ^Seoret
Meeting between Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Glad
stone — Letter from Mr. Leonard Courtney — Death of

X EECOLLECTIONS

Mr. Henley — His Views on Asylums — Conversation with
Mr. Charles Villiers — His Views on Social Morality,
Money-making, Protection — Huskisson's Eemark on Peel
— Croker's ' Memoirs ' — Guizot's View of Croker — The
Duke of Wellington's Policy — Mme. Jane Hading in
the 'Maitre de Forges' and 'Frou-Frou' — Anecdote of
Charles Mathews — Letter from Lord Aberdare — Walter
Northcote's Eeport — News from the Soudan — Explosion
in the House of Commons  295

CHAPTER XX
1885
Sir Charles Brownlow on the Afghan Business and Lord
Lytton — Lord Granville on the Situation — News of the Fall
of Khartoum — Colin Keppel's Hereditary Pluck — Lord
Eosebery and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre join the Cabinet — Death
of General Earle — Mr. Gladstone's Depression — Small
Government Majority — Mr. Gladstone on Old Testament
Characters — On Cromwell and Buonaparte — Mr. Glad
stone's Bet about Lord Overstone's Probate — Mr. Childers'
Budget — General Gordon's Estimate of Lord Granville,
Lord Hartington, and Sir Charles Dilke — Budget Difficul
ties — Negotiations with the Great Brewers — Marriage of
Miss Laura Tennant — Defeat of the Government on the
Second Beading of the Budget Bill — Letter from Sir
Stafford Northcote on the Inland Eevenue Eeport — Inter
view with Sir Michael Hicks-Beach — Sir Peter Lumsden —
Letter from Mr. Gladstone on the Inland Eevenue Eeport — •
His Tribute to the Board — Mr. Gladstone's Versatility —
His Knowledge of Music — Eeminiscenees of Jenny Lind —
Cardinal Manning on Mr. Gladstone's Eetirement — Com
mission on Trade Depression — Letters from Lord Iddes-
leigh and Lord St. Cyres — Visit to Copt Hall — Election
Talk at the Cosmopolitan — Dinner at Mr. Armitstead's —

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME xi

PAGE

Election Eeturns — Dinner at Brooks's — Henry James's
Stories of Lord Eandolph — Conversation with Charles
Villiers — His EecoUections of Bygone Celebrities. . . 231

CHAPTEE XXI
JANUAEY-JUNE, 1886
Mr. Gladstone's mauvaise dizaine de jours — Defeat of the
Government — Mr. Gladstone's Summons to Windsor —
Miss Mary Gladstone's Wedding — Sir William Harcourt
Chancellor of the Exchequer — Letter from Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach — The New Cabinet — Contretemps about
Lord Granville — Eiots of the Unemployed — Financial
Conversation with Mr. Chamberlain — First Interview
with Sir William Harcourt — Deaths of Lord CardweU
and Napier Sturt — Lady Georgiana Grey — The ' Cottage
Budget ' — Cabinet Troubles — Mr. Gladstone's Home Eule
Speech — Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone — Illness and
Death of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton — Letter from Sir Erskine
May — Conversation with Sir Henry James on the Irish
Question — Mr. Gladstone's Indomitable Spirit . . . 257

CHAPTER XXII
JUNE-JULY, 1886
Mr. Gladstone's Sanguine Temper — Scene in the House^
Speeches by Mr. Goschen, Mr. Parnell, Mr. Cowen, and
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach — Mr. Gladstone's Eeply — The
Division : Delight of the Unionists — Mr. Gladstone at
Coombe Wood : his Opinion of the Inland Eevenue and
Customs Board — Mr. Gladstone's Desire to help Lord
Salisbury — Eesignation of Mr. Adam Young: Appoint
ment of Lord St. Cyres as Deputy Chairman — Letters
from Lord Iddesleigh, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Glad-

XU EECOLLECTIONS

stone — Farewell Dinner at Downing Street — Quotation
from Sidney Herbert — Lord Herschell's Visit to Wan
borough: his Anecdotes — Lord Eandolph Churchill
appointed Leader and Chancellor of the Exchequer . . 279

CHAPTER XXIII
JULY-DECEMBEE, 1886
Lord Eandolph and the Old Officials — Their Dismay and
Eeconciliation — Interviews in the Board Boom and at
Connaught Place — The ' Fourth Party Sofa '^-Lord Ean
dolph and the Decimals — His Assiduity and Concentra
tion — Propositions for the Budget — Economy his Euling
Idea — His Visits to Somerset House and the Custom
House — His Sudden Eesignation — His Personal Eolations
with his Opponents and Mr. Gladstone — His Attacks on
Mr. Gladstone's Transvaal Policy and subsequent Eetrac-
tation — His Sense of Humour and Gifts as a Phrase-coiner
— Mr. Gladstone's Letter to his Mother — Mr. Gladstone
at Wanborough : Writes his Farewell Address on leaving
Office — Deputation from Guildford — Visit to the Italian
Lakes — Death of George Barrington — Lord Granville's
Anecdotes of Charles Greville — Mr. Ealston at the
Holborn Eestaurant — L'Envoi  293
INDEX  317

ILEUSTEATIONS to
THE SECOND VOLUME
The Eight Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P. Frontispiece
Waiting for the Verdict  to face page 12
Alfred Montgomery  „ 140
The Honourable Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton . „ 174
From a draining by ihe Marchioness of Granly.

EECOLLECTIONS CHAPTEE XI
1871-1872
Proposal to enter Parliament for Coventry on Sir Henry Bulwer's
Elevation to the Peerage — Dinner at Edward Levy's — Henry
James's Quotation — Episodes of the Session — Visits to Nocton
and Somerley— My Last Shooting-Party — Tom Price's Appetite
— The Prince of Wales's Illness — Sir William Bovill and the
Forged Letter — Farewell Dinner to Lord Northbrook — Lord
Dufferin's Appointment as Canadian Viceroy — Mrs. Norton —
Disraeli and Mr. Brand — A Historic Chess-Board — Sir John
Eose and his Wife — Hooker and Ayrton — The ' Collier Scandal '
— Advantages of a Cabinet of Private Secretaries — My Appoint
ment as Commissioner of Inland Eevenue — Eegret at Leaving
Mr. Gladstone — His Appreciation — Tribute of the ' Times ' — Pro
posed History of the 1868 Government— Mr. Gladstone's Advice.
In 1871 Sir Henry Bulwer, the younger brother
of Lord Lytton, was raised to the Peerage as
Lord Dalling, and consequently vacated his seat
in the House of Commons.
I was talking to Mr. Gladstone at that time
as to who would follow Greorge Grlyn as Whip
when he succeeded to his father's title. Shortly
VOL. II. B
c

EECOLLECTIONS 1871-

afterwards, when I had returned to Downing
Street, George came and proposed to me, from
Mr. Gladstone, that I should go into Parliament
for Tamworth, which Sir Henry Bulwer would
vacate, and succeed him as Whip. It did not
take me a moment to see and say how the res
angusta domi would make such an idea impossible ;
but it took many moments and many days to put
out of my head a proposal which, had it been
practical, would have given me and my wife the
greatest pleasure — for Parliament then repre
sented the height of my ambition.
On May 6 I dined at an interesting literary
dinner at Edward Levy's, who was the editor
of the ' Daily Telegraph.' Among the guests
were two men whom I was very glad to see —
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Wilkie Collins.
Henry James, who had not been very long in
Parliament, was also there. On the previous
Wednesday he had made an excellent speech
on the question of Eemale Suffrage, in which
he had told Mr. Gladstone, who I suppose
he thought was coquetting with the subject,
that fame had no present and popularity
no future. Henry Caloraft was there, who

1872 LOWE'S MATCH TAX 3
did not know who Henry James was, and
in spite of my kicks under the table, found
fault with the speech, saying that the speaker
had cribbed a quotation from Southey and
pretended it was his own. This was more
than Henry James could bear, and he told us,
to Henry Calcraft's surprise, that he had not
attempted to pass the quotation as his own,
but had stated it was Southey's. He was very
good-natured, however, about it, and we all
parted the best of friends.
It had not been a happy session. Abolition
of Purchase in the Army, good in itself, had been
carried by the very high-handed proceeding of
a Eoyal Warrant. Mr. Lowe's Budget, which
had great merits, had to be withdrawn. Nothing
could be more astute than the means adopted
to ensure the defeat of his match tax. All the
girls employed in the business were summarily
dismissed from their employment, and were, by
the manufacturers, put into vans, which formed
a procession on the Embankment. People were
always ready, without inquiry into facts, to take
the sentimental view of the question, and the tax
was abandoned ; indeed, it might be said that the
B 2

EECOLLECTIONS 1871-

Budget was withdrawn, and with it Mr. Bruce's
admirable Licensing Bill, which succeeding
generations have had bitter cause to regret.
We were interested and amused by the pro
gress of the Tichborne trial, the Franco-German
war was perpetually before us, and the cowardly
horrors of the Commune were in full blast.
M. Thiers came over here and had an inter
view with Lord Granville, who after a time was
struck by the absolute silence with which he
received his remarks ; but he found that, over
come with the fatigues of his journey, the old
diplomatist was wrapped in a deep slumber,
from which he was only awakened by a not
altogether unintentional fall of the fire-irons.
It was at Nocton, in the early seventies,
where for the last time I took part in a great
battue. After dinner the head of game shot by
each gun was brought into the dining-room. I
hung my head as the numbers were read out,
and determined never to shoot again. My case
was not unlike what happened to Mr. Frank
Sneyd, who was not very successfully pheasant-
shooting, when he heard the head keeper shouting
out to his various subordinates : ' No hens to be

1872 TOM PEICE

shot in these spinneys. You need not tell Mr.
Sneyd.' That, I beheve, was his last day's
shooting ; and for reasons equally obvious I
gave up the noble sport.
At Somerley we used constantly to meet
Tom Price, a great friend of the Barrington
family, a fine rider, and very greedy.
One day, eating a good dinner, he said :
' This is my idea of heaven.' ' Yes,' said a
neighbour ; ' such a dinner as this, without
money and without price ! '
He always reminded me of the greedy man
who, coming downstairs in the morning before
breakfast, said, 'Food has not passed my lips
since last night, and to-morrow will be the third
day.' But he had many good qualities.
It was in December 1871 that the Prince
of Wales was seized with a severe attack of
typhoid fever, and his death was expected from
day to day. Mr. Gladstone was summoned to
London, and I came up from Somerley, where
I was staying, to meet him in the dull, dark
days of a London winter. We anxiously waited
for news, every moment expecting the Prince's
death. He, however, happily recovered, and

6 EECOLLEOTCONS 1871—
early in 1872 there was a great ceremony of
thanksgiving in St. Paul's Cathedral, where, as
Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber, I had
to receive the Speaker of the House of Com
mons at the door and take him to his seat. I
then stood by him and Mr. Gladstone, just in
front of the royal pew.
The celebrated Tichborne case was proceed
ing in January 1872, when Sir William Bovill,
Chief Justice of Common Pleas, in whose court
it was being tried, wrote to me as follows :
Sessions House, Westminster :
January 15, 1872.
' Dear Sir, — The enclosed letter has every
indication of being genuine, but before taking
any notice of it I shall be glad to know from
you by my messenger whether it is a genuine
letter and bears your actual signature.
' Yours faithfully,
'Wm. Bovill.'
Algernon West, Esq.,
Secretary to the Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
10 Downing Street : January 13, 1872.
' Sir, — I this morning received directions
from Mr. Gladstone, who is at present out of

1872 A FOEGED LETTEE 7
town, to communicate with you in reference to
the protracted trial over which you preside.
Mr. Gladstone says :
' " In common with several of my colleagues,
with whom I spoke on the subject when last in
town, I have regarded with painful feelings the
course of proceeding in the (Tichborne) case.
The administration of justice is a matter of
great and common concern, and the process of
obtaining justice ought to be cheap, easy, and
effectual. Here the latter is so much the
reverse, that not only may a public scandal be
caused at home, but we cannot fail to become a
bye- word to all civilised nations."
' Mr. Gladstone adds that he is aware you
are not in any sense responsible for a state of
things which is a blot upon our civil jurispru
dence, but he thinks that an early and public
expression of your and perhaps his opinion,
from the high position you occupy, would tend
to remedy a state of things which threatens to
result in a virtual denial of justice ; and that
the resumption of the trial would be a not
unfitting opportunity for this expression of
opinion.

8 EECOLLECTIONS 1871—
' I am to add that Mr. Gladstone would
himself have written were he in town, as he
desires this letter to be considered official.
' I have the honour to remain. Sir,
' Your very obedient servant,
'Algebnon West.'
The Lord Chief Justice Bovill.
I went down to Westminster Sessions
House, and found that on the receipt of this
very obvious forgery Sir WiUiam had sum
moned all the judges within reach, to consult
on this- unprecedented interference with the
judicial bench. One of the learned judges,
however, wiser than his fellows, suggested that
it might possibly be better to inquire if the
letter was really authentic before considering
the grave constitutional question. Of course
I said it was a forgery ; but I was never able to
discover its author, or how he succeeded in
obtaining the Treasury official note-paper on
which the letter was written. It was of Sir
WiUiam that Serjeant BaUantine is reported to
have said that ' with a little more experience
BoviU would be the worst judge on the bench.'

1872 DINNEE TO NOETHBROOK 9
In March General Ashburnham, a great friend
of ours, whom we constantly met at Frognal,
died. I was anxious to get something at the sale
of his furniture as a memento, and I chose an
armchair which I pointed out to Lord Granville,
who said it was unfortunate, as he particularly
wanted it ; so I innocently gave way, and in the
evening the chair arrived at our house, with a
note from Lord Granville saying it was to be
Horace's, as a recollection of his old friend
'T. A.'
In March 1872 I got up a great farewell
dinner to Northbrook on his departure to India
as Governor- General. It was held at the Buck
ingham Palace Hotel, and was an extraordinary
success, Dufierin proposing Northbrook's health
in language of exquisite felicity.
In April Lady Caroline Barrington was in
charge of the Prince and Princess of Wales's
children at Chiswick, and our children, Con
stance and Bill, went to stay there with them.
We spent some evenings in that historical house,
and saw the room in which Charles James Fox
died.

10 EECOLLECTIONS 1871—
About this time Dufferin offered me, through
my wife, the clerkship to the Council of the
Duchy of Lancaster, which, after some considera
tion, I declined, as I felt that it would be too
much of a backwater, and that my prospects of
advancement would not be improved by accept
ing it.
Dufferin wrote : ' It is very vexatious to
think that the one bit of patronage that I have
ever had at my disposal, instead of going to a
dear friend and one so eminently qualified to
hold it, should fall into the possession of a
stranger to me.'
Just after this, Dufferin went to Canada as
Governor- General, to his great delight ; and Mr.
Gladstone became provisionally Chancellor of
the Duchy.
It was in May that, dining at the Dufferins
before he started, we met for the last time the
beautiful Mrs. Norton ; but she was not alone in
her beauty, for others of the Sheridan family
were there (Lady Hermione and her lovely
daughters) to enter into competition with her,
with all the glorious advantages of youth.
On Mr. Denison's retirement from the

1872 ME. BEAND 11
Speakership in 1872, Mr. Brand was elected.
When Mr. Disraeli was acquainted with the
choice of the Government, he is reported to
have said : ' I dare say he is a very good man,
but I don't happen ever to have seen
him.' The choice was soon justified, and Mr. Brand
filled his high office with judgment and dignity.
I once asked him if he had ever known or heard
of money passing in our time for the vote of. a
member. He said : ' No, never. The nearest
approach to it I have ever known was our find
ing a suit of clothes for an M.P. who stated that
without them he would not be able to attend the
House at a critical division.'
On Saturday, June 15, a hot day, the Cabinet
was summoned at 11 o'clock to await the deci
sion of the Alabama Court from Geneva. After
they had been waiting in vain for some hours.
Lord Granville put his head into my room and
said : ' We shall inevitably quarrel if we are
kept much longer waiting with nothing to do.
Can you get me a chess-board ? ' I went
downstairs and found my daughter Constance
had one, which I produced, and on which Mr.

12 EECOLLECTIONS 1871—
Forster and Lord Granville played for hours
on the terrace, the rest looking on.
This episode, depicted by the clever pencil of
the late Mr. Fairfield in the sketch reproduced
opposite, is narrated in Forster's biography, and
I am still the happy possessor of the historical
chess-board. The Cabinet sat till dinner time,
but the news never came till Sunday.
It was during the process of the Alabama
difficulties that I made the acquaintance of Sir
John Eose. He had had an interesting and varied
career, having begun life as a local schoolmaster
in Canada, and had fought in the rebellion of 1837
as a volunteer, after which, having been called to
the Bar in 1842, and practising at Montreal, he
became the leading authority in Commercial
Law. Later on he was made Solicitor-General
and Minister of Public Works, and in 1864 was
appointed commissioner for the negotiation of
the Oregon claims. In 1869 he was made
special commissioner in connection with the
Alabama claim, and assisted in the settlement
happily effected by the Washington treaty of
1870. While the latter negotiations were going on

• ii

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WAITING FOR THE VERDICT.

1. Mr. Goschen.
3. Mr. Cardwell,
3. Jin. H. A. Bruce.
4. Duke oe Arsyll.
5. Marquiss oe Kipon.
6. Marquess oe Hartixgtox.
7. VisooUHT Halifax.

8. Earl op Kimberley.
9. Mr. GfLADSTONB.
10. Eabl Granville.
11. Mb. W. B. Porstkb.
12. Lord Hatherley,
13. Mr. Stansfeld.

1872 SIE JOHN AND LADY EOSE 13
we were in constant confidential communica
tion, and the acquaintance then formed with
Sir John and Lady Eose ripened into a friend
ship only ending with their deaths, which,
curiously enough, were both very sudden. I was
out driving with her at Loseley only a few days
before she died ; and on the very day, some years
later, that I received a letter from him, begging
me to join him in Scotland, came the news of his
death, which occurred whilst stalking in the Duke
of Portland's forest at Langwell. There was no
pain to him in his death ; that was reserved to
us, for a better or kinder friend never lived.
Dr. Quain told us afterwards that he had a weak
heart, and should not have gone out stalking.
He was buried in the cemetery at Guildford, and
laid by the side of his wife, many of his friends
following him to the grave with aching hearts.
As for Lady Eose, I have in a long Ufe met
many women I thought clever, but never one
so clever as she was, or with such a genius for
society. One evening after dinner we went into their
drawing-room at Loseley, the ceiling of which
was decorated with a cockatrice on each p^el.

14 RECOLLECTIONS 1871—
' I don't know,' said Welby, ' what a cockatrice
is.' 'I little thought,' I said, 'that a gourmet
like you would avow your ignorance of the
existence of a "poulet au riz." '
In this year there was published a scurrilous
pamphlet entitled ' What does she do with it ? '
by ' Solomon Temple,' reflecting on the Queen
and the Civil List. It was supposed to have
been written anonymously by someone in a high
position, and I had a great deal of work in con
nection with answering all the charges made ;
but the answer was complete.
I was also concerned in some very compli
cated negotiations between Mr. Hooker, the
Director of Kew Gardens, and Mr. Ayrton, the
First Commissioner of Works, who had quar
relled. Ayrton had an evil tongue, but I confess
that I thought him the more reasonable man of
the two. He was complimentary to me in the
House of Commons when the subject was dis
cussed ; and on Mr. Bernal Osborne sneering at
my attempt to make peace, Mr. Gladstone spoke
most eulogistically of the part I had taken in
the matter.
Before the session was over arose what was

1872 THE COLLIEE SCANDAL 15
unfairly called the Collier scandal, for which
Mr. Gladstone could only justly be blamed as a
consenting party.
In a previous session a Bill had been
passed by which it was enacted that no one
should be appointed a Lord of Appeal without
having first served as a Judge in the Common
Pleas. It was proposed now that Sir Eobert Collier
should be passed straight through the Common
Pleas, thus complying with the letter of the law
only. I foresaw that Mr. Gladstone would suffer
heavily if this were done ; and though it was no
particular business of mine, I implored George
Glyn to interpose. He only said : ' I suppose
you know better than Mr. Gladstone.' ' Well,
at any rate,' I answered, ' I am what Sydney
Smith used to call a "good foolometer." ' And
I went up and argued the case with Mr. Glad
stone, who was most kind and attentive, but did
not see it with my eyes, and the most was made
of what was not a scandal but a grave error.
It had not even the elements of a job in it,
for Sir Eobert Collier was a great loss to the

16 EECOLLECTIONS 1871—
Government as a law adviser, and the seat he
held was lost to the Liberal party.
Then followed another mistake, which was
naturally taken advantage of by the Opposition :
Mr. Harvey, a Cambridge man, was appointed
to the Eectory of Ewelme. The statutes laid
down that the Eector must be a member of the
Oxford Convocation, but he had been educated
at Cambridge, and was only subsequently made
a member of the Oxford Convocation to satisfy
the statute.
These two events, small in themselves, did
enormous damage to the Government.
Bobsy Meade used humorously to say that if
everything were submitted to a cabinet of private
secretaries, most of the blunders committed by
Government would be avoided. Of course he
said it jokingly, but in the joke lay some truth
on the principle that ' onlookers see rpost of the
game.' One evening in August we had been dining,
as we often did, in the garden of Downing Street,
and were standing on the terrace when Mr.
Gladstone told me that he proposed to appoint
me in poor Sir Alexander Duff-Gordon's place

1872 ME. GLADSTONE AS MASTEE 17
to a commissionership of Inland Eevenue. As
public speakers say, it was ' with very mingled
feelings ' that I received the announcement. It
was a very sad moment to feel that my private
secretaryship was drawing to a close. Next to
being in the Cabinet, to be private secretary to
a great leader like Mr. Gladstone is, in my
opinion, the most desirable of offices — provided
the private secretary enjoys, as I am happy to
say I did, the absolute confidence of his master.
No one ever before had one so kind, so trust
ing, and so generous — I will not say considerate
in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but
thoroughly appreciative : he worked hard him
self and always expected that those under him
should do so too.
After nearly four years of delightful and con
fidential intercourse with the greatest man of this
or probably any other age, the end was indeed
inexpressibly sad. During that time he had
always let me talk to him freely on every subject.
He had argued matters with me often as an equal,
with great earnestness, yet, with all his know
ledge and experience, modestly, and ever ready
to make allowances for the many shortcomings
VOL. II. c

18 EECOLLECTIONS 1871-
with which I must often have tried him. And
yet throughout that period I never knew him lose
his temper, and cannot recollect a hard thing he
ever spoke of his bitterest opponents, or even of
friends who deserted and vilified the man upon
whom they had fawned, though he had covered
them with honours and titles.
I lay the flattering unction to my soul that
he was a little sorry too, for he wrote to Her
Majesty as follows :
' Mr. West obtains a well-deserved reward for
much arduous labour admirably performed ; but
the office he takes is a working one and absolutely
requires the surrender of the private secretary
ship, to Mr. Gladstone's great concern and not
small embarrassment.'
The ' Times ' also commented on my appoint
ment in the following appreciative terms :
' None who do not know can form an adequate
idea of the responsibility necessarily thrown upon
the private secretary of a Cabinet Minister, or
the anxiety and labour the office entaUs; the
salary would not repay a second-class clerk in
a great mercantUe establishment, and until a
proper provision is made for this highest kind of

1872 LETTEE EEOM ME. GLADSTONE 19
confidential service, such appointments as that
now conferred upon Mr. Algernon West must be
regarded as only a tardy repayment for good and
hard work insufficiently rewarded.'
Towards the end of the session I asked Mr.
Gladstone to look through a history I had
written of Sir Charles Wood's India,n Adminis
tration ; and sought his opinion as to whether I
should make an attempt to write something on
the same lines about the 1868 Government.
He promised to read it and tell me what he
thought, a promise which he fulfilled in the
following letter : Hawarden Castle, Chester :
August 21, 1872.
' My dear West, — I have read your book on
Lord Halifax's Indian Administration with great
interest, and I am indebted to it not only for
much information, but for a far fuller and greater
view of his merits as an Indian Minister.
' Your question to me, I think, was whether
I thought (after reading it) that you were com
petent to write a narrative of the principal pro
ceedings of the present Government — or of its
c 2

20 EECOLLECTIONS 1872
Irish legislation. Correct me if I do not report
your inquiry accurately.
' I should answer without doubt in the affirma
tive. But I think there is one danger against
which you would require to be more on your
guard than was necessary in dealing with the
unimpassioned question of India. You would
have to expel from your mind for the time the
spirit of sympathy and friendship and to place
everything as far as possible in an abundance of
daylight. The danger I refer to besets you not
as A. B. W., but as a contemporary writer.
These narratives close on the heels of the event
are very difficult, though not impossible. If you
succeeded in your second task as well as in the
first, it would do you much honour.
' Yours sincerely,
' W. E. Glabstokb.'

Mb. Glabstonb 21

CHAPTEE XII
ME. GLADSTONE
And so the time was come when I should have
to leave the great Prime Minister who was
' not in the roll with common men ' — who
had won success almost from his cradle ; at
three years old, as he often told me, he had
babbled out a few lisping words standing on
his father's dining-table, on the occasion of
Mr. Canning's successful election for Liverpool
in 1812. At Eton, the friend of Lord Canning,
Milnes Gaskell, Hope Scott, Gerald Wellesley, and
Arthur Hallam, he had foreshadowed his future
career ; at Oxford, in competition with a larger
body of distinguished men, he had taken the
highest honours ; when only twenty-three years
of age he had entered Parliament on the Duke
of Newcastle's recommendation, and after a hard

22 EECOLLECTIONS Mr.
fight had reconquered for the Tory party the
borough of Newark. He soon attracted more
attention than usually falls to the lot of the
young members of the House of Commons, and
Mrs. Gladstone told me of a letter written by
William IV. to Lord Althorp and published in
his Life, in which the King had noticed and
admired an early speech of her husband's.
In Peel's great Government of 1841 Mr.
Gladstone, who had been a Junior Lord of the
Treasury in 1834-35, became Vice-President of
the Board of Trade, and was informed by the
Prime Minister that he would learn everything
connected with the business of his department
from the President, from whom, Mr. Gladstone
has frequently told me, he learnt absolutely
nothing; but from his own application and
labour he learnt much, and amongst other things
the blessings likely to accrue to the country by
the abolition of protective duties on corn.
At the Board of Trade some Chinese de
spatches came before him, in which the Prime
Minister of that country argued that foreign
ships should not be admitted to Chinese waters ;
but, he added, ' some of these ships conveyed

Gladstone ME. GLADSTONE'S EAELY CAEEEE 23
corn, and it would be madness to exclude what
would cheapen the food of the people from their
ports.' And these words of Oriental wisdom had
influenced Mr. Gladstone's mind in the direction
of Free Trade.
In 1843 he first entered the Cabinet as
President of the Board of Trade, a position
which he resigned in 1845 on the Maynooth
question, Disraeli declaring that his career was
over. With advancing years, we learn, too late
perhaps, the folly of all, particularly political,
prophecies. In the September of 1845 Mr. Gladstone —
who had vacated his seat for Newark, disagreeing
on the question of Free Trade with the personage
then called the Patron of the Borough, the Duke
of Newcastle — re-entered the Cabinet as Secre
tary of State for the Colonies without a seat in
Parliament. In 1847 he had become member for the
University of Oxford.
He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
Governments of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Pal
merston, at whose death he had led the House
of Commons; he had shown himself to be

24 EECOLLECTIONS Me.
an accomplished orator : the mellowness and
modulation of his voice, tinged with the slight
Lancashire burr which never deserted him, had
already delighted and fascinated the House of
Commons. Trevelyan, in his ' Life of Lord Macaulay,'
has told us how in the early morning, when Mr.
Disraeli, having replied at the close of the debate
on the Budget of 1852, sat down, ' one greater
than he arose — Mr. Gladstone bounded on the
floor amidst a storm of cheers such as the walls
of Parliament had never heard. His oration in
a single day doubled his influence in Parliament
and his popularity in the country ' — all this was
known to the veriest tyro in political knowledge ;
but notwithstanding his great reputation, all his
successes, and all his triumphs, he was still in
1868 looked upon by those who belonged to what
were then called ' the governing families ' of the
country, with the notable exception of Lord
Granville, and perhaps Lord EusseU, as an ' out
sider,' so to speak. I recollect one of them
saying to me: 'He is a wonderful man, no
doubt ; but so is a Japanese conjurer.'
A great Yorkshire squire described him in

Gladstone ME. GLADSTONE'S OPPOKENTS 25
hunting slang as ' not having been bred in their
kennel.' ' If Mr. Gladstone,' wrote a Whig magnate,
' thinks he can lead the House of Commons with
the force of the millions without the goodwill of
the ten thousand, he will find his mistake.'
Mr. Bagehot, a keen political observer, had
said it was impossible to calculate what his
future course would be. His great Budget had
been described by an old Whig as ' Oxford on
the surface, and Liverpool below.'
The Tories feared and hated him; the
Church, with a few notable exceptions, opposed
him ; Oxford University had thrust him out ;
the old Whig party had not forgotten his oppo
sition in past years ; the Nonconformists disliked
his Church views. Even in his financial triumph
of 1860 they of his own household were opposed
to him. The readers of Greville's ' Memoirs '
will recollect how ' Clarendon shook his head,
and pronounced against the French Treaty, and
the " Times " thundered against it.' Lord Pal
merston and Sir George Cornewall Lewis were
always secretly, when not openly, opposed to
him on matters of finance. Charles Greville,

26 EECOLLECTIONS Me.
himself no mean representative of the govern
ing families, described him in 1860 as having
' a fervent imagination which furnishes facts
and arguments in support of them : he is an
audacious innovator because he has an insatiable
desire for popularity, and in his notions of
government he is a far more sincere Eepublican
than Bright, for his ungratified personal vanity
makes him wish to subvert the institutions and
the classes that stand in the way of his am
bition.' And yet so overwhelming was his personality
and his force that he was in 1868, by the voice
of the people, chosen to be Prime Minister by an
enormous majority of the votes of his country
men. As John Morley tells us. Dr. Johnson
said of the elder Pitt, ' he was a minister given
by the people to the King,' and rarely as, we are
told, it happens, ' Parliamentary life admitted the
autocratic supremacy of his original intellect.'
If this be true, Mr. Gladstone was only reaching
his zenith at nearly sixty years of age ; and at
the time of his becoming the most powerful
Prime Minister of our day, I had had the rare
good fortune to be associated with him, and had

Gladstone MINISTEE AND SECEETAEY 27
the opportunity, at any rate, of seeing behind
the veil of his wonderful and subtle character.
From that hour there remained, and will ever
remain with me, an intense love and admira
tion of his enormous powers, of his marvellous
memory, of his splendid oratory, of his personal
kindness, and of his touching modesty.
It was soon after my first acquaintance with
Mr. Gladstone that he told me how impossible
it was for a Minister and his secretary adequately
to perform their respective duties unless there
was established between them such an absolute
confidence as in a happy domestic life should
exist between a man and his wife. I hope I
have never betrayed that confidence which he so
fully bestowed on me, and which extended to
the last days of his existence. After all the long
years of close intimacy, private and official, I
have never felt capable of adequately depicting
a hundredth part of his complex character, so
great and so vast, that to understand it is
necessary to divide it.
-^Through every phase, in every action and
every thought was abundantly apparent a deep
sense of religion ; indeed, it was to his life what

28 EECOLLECTIONS Mr.
the Nile is to Egypt, what sunshine is to the
world. Languor was not in his heart.
Weakness was not in his word.
Weariness not on his brow.
He was possessed of an imperious vitality, and
what Burke called a ' quadrumanous activity'
which penetrated into every office of the State ;
and through it all stood out his old conservatism
in the truest sense of the word : his devotion to
old traditions and constitutional forms ; his
loyalty to the Crown ; while with this devotion
was joined a courtesy most reverential to the
Queen, and an affection for the royal family which
was most touching. The world perhaps does not
know that it was largely owing to his negotia
tions as leader of the Liberal party that the
Eoyal Grants were so satisfactorily arranged in
the House of Commons in 1889.
William Gurdon, who had been my colleague
and knew him well, said that he approached
every new question, first from a Tory point of
view, and after some consideration would come
round to seeing it from a Liberal point of view^
Even in small details his conservatism was

Gladstone HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MEN 29
apparent. George Lefevre once told me that
when as First Commissioner of Works he put
before Mr. Gladstone his plan for the widening
of Parliament Street, the latter deprecated very
strongly the destruction of King Street, simply
because it was an ancient landmark of London,
and should be preserved for that reason.
It has been said and repeated a hundred
times that Lord Beaoonsfield understood men,
but that Mr. Gladstone understood mankind ;
as Monckton Milnes said of the first : ' Knew
not mankind, but keenly knew all men ; ' and of
the latter : ' Knew naught of men, but knew
and loved mankind.'
I have my own doubts as to the truth of
this generally accepted proposition, for from
numberless conversations with him, I was able
to see how shrewd was his criticism and appre
ciation of public men. He always, I admit,
took the highest view that was possible, and
believed in them till he was persuaded to the
contrary. Talking on this subject long after his de
parture from the Liberal party, Mr. Chamber
lain said Mr. Gladstone was no judge of men ;

30 RECOLLECTIONS Mb.
but then he generously added : ' When a man is
on a high eminence he looks down and sees men
moving below him, but from his great height he
does not distinguish between those that are tall
and those of lesser stature.'
As an instance of his Parliamentary intuition
and judgment of character I may notice that
when the game of obstruction began to be
practised in the House of Commons by some of
the Tory left wing, a friend walking home with
Mr. Gladstone asked him if he did not think it
very serious.
' Not at present,' he said ; ' for these obstruc
tionists are all au fond gentlemen, and will not
press it to extremity; but their example may
be followed in the future by less scrupulous
men, and then it may become dangerous.'
It was an intuition that made him select
Sir Stafford Northcote, then an unknown man,
as his private secretary, and he was the first to
introduce him into Parliament as member for
Dudley, a seat then controlled by Lord Ward,
a Peelite. He was also the first to appreciate the
budding quaUties of Lord Eandolph ChurchiU,

Gladstone HIS POWEES OF APPEECIATION 31
while five of the most successful and prominent
politicians ^ of the present day were all intro
duced into high office by Mr. Gladstone.
Lords Hampden and Peel, as Speakers, testify
to his keen discernment of their qualifications ;
while among permanent officials I may surely
point to Sir Eobert Herbert, Sir Arthur God-
ley, and Mr. Theodore Walrond, who were all
brought into the Civil Service by him, and to
Lord Lingen and Lord Welby, who were both
placed in the highest positions by his selection.
To say that Mr. Disraeli — who at once fasci
nated and delighted the Court and the populace
with his idea of an Empress of India ; who at
the time of the Treaty of Berlin tickled the
imagination of the people with visions of Orien
tal imperialism ; who became the most popular
Minister of the century, and almost its idol —
was ignorant of mankind, seems to me to be
almost grotesque.
Mr. Gladstone has been accused of being
intolerant of those who differed from him, and
of brushing aside with an energy approaching
^ Lord Eosebery, Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Chamber
lain, and Mr. John Morley.

32 RECOLLECTIONS Mr.
to rudeness objections made to his own plans.
This may have been quite true, when his mind
was once definitely made up ; but I have never
known a man who, while any matter was being
discussed, was so patient in hearing and sifting
objections to the bottom until he thought the
truth was reached. And then he had a splendid
boldness in dashing difficulties aside, thus fol
lowing Lord Bacon's advice that in council it is
good to see dangers — in execution not to see
them. He acted on that famous maxim that a
statesman should doubt to the last, and then
act as if he had never doubted. In the hour of
action he was like a great commander who,
having matured plans after careful considera
tion, sees before him his enemy's citadel which
he means to take, and becomes regardless and
even scornful of timid counsels and timid ad
visers who point out to him ambuscades and
obstacles which he means to, and does, over
come. The comparison holds good in another as
pect. Like many political personages, he has
been accused of being heartless. Would not
that criticism equally hold good in the case of

Gladstone HIS ENTHUSIASM 33
any great and successful general who in the
fury of the battle sees his comrades shot down
by his side, but has no time to waste in idle
lamentations ; indeed, he envies them the
glorious opportunity of laying down their lives
in the service of their country ?
My own belief is that Mr. Gladstone early
realised the fact that 'life has nobler uses than
regret.' He believed that in every step he took
throughout his career he had acted to the best
of his abilities, and that there was no time to
waste on idle retrospections.
His aim and work lay before him ; and, like
Colonel Hay's hero,
He saw his duty a straight, sure thing.
And went for it there and then.
He was
One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward;
Never doubted clouds would break ;
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph ;
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake.
The intense enthusiasm with which he
entered into the subject and the object of the
moment was apt to dim, if not obliterate, the
little loves and affections which crowd the life
VOL. II. D

34 EECOLLECTIONS Mr.
of smaller men. The execution of his great
work was the one thing in his eyes, and the
instruments and tools he used were dearer to
him than anything else ; and the men associated
with him at the moment were always greater
than the men who had passed away. He
became absorbed in the task, whatever it might
be, which he had set himself to do ; he was
not one of those who, having put their hand to
the plough, knew what it was to turn back.
Mr. Lowe said to a friend of mine : ' Glad
stone possesses no ideas — his ideas possess him '
He would strongly condemn what he thought
wrong, but he never imputed a bad motive to
anyone, and his masterful temper was singu
larly combined with a proud modesty, which
led him to shrink from any honour conferred
upon himself ; for here was the greatest Prime
Minister of his day, who had created Dukes
and Marquises, Earls and Viscounts and Barons
galore, who had showered Garters and Eibands
and Stars, who had bestowed Archbishoprics
and Bishoprics, Viceroyalties, and Secretary
ships of State — a commoner, without any title
and without any rank.

Gladstone A ' GREAT COMMONER ' 35
We all know how, among :the decorated
statesmen who formed the dazizling assembly
in Vienna, Talleyrand remarked of Lord Castle
reagh, who attended the conference without
any decoration : ' II est bien distingue.' And
so it was with Mr. Gladstone, he was ' bien
distingue;' as Macaulay said of Hampden:
' He was one of those great commoners whose
plain prefix of " Mr." has to our ears a more
majestic sound than the proudest of the feudal
titles.' Genius has been described in a thousand
ways ; but his genius it was to raise everything
he touched to a higher level, and to leave the
impress of his intellect on every person and
every subject with whom he came in contact.
The late Lord Dalhousie, for whom Mr.
Gladstone entertained a great affection, said to
me that he had done infinite harm to him and
his contemporaries by establishing a level so
high as to make it impossible of attainment ;
yet I am sure he was the last man who would
have wished ' to pare the rnountain ' to the
plain.' ¦
Though Mr. Gladstone Was' consumed with
D 2

36 RECOLLECTIONS Me.
a devouring passion for liberty throughout the
world — from the moment when in opening the
doors of the dungeons to the Neapolitan pri
soners he struck the first note of Italian inde
pendence, to the last moment of his life when
he vainly raised his voice in behalf of the
oppressed and murdered Armenians- — foreign
politics could rarely distract his attention from
the more engrossing subjects of domestic and
more especially financial importance ; and so
far did this distaste permeate his character that
he was often lacking in sufficient appreciation
of the heroic deeds of our sailors and soldiers,
which fascinate at all times and seasons the
belligerent imaginations of the most peaceful of
Englishmen. Mr. Gladstone's liberality, little heard of,
while never exceeding the bounds of his income,
was very great, and was curiously accompanied
by his love of small economies — his determina
tion to have the proper discount taken off the
price of his second-hand books, his horror of a
wasted half-sheet of note-paper, which almost
equalled his detestation of a wasted minute ; for
his arrangement of every hour of the day, and

Gladstone HIS HUMOUR 37
for the occupation of that hour, was extra
ordinary. There was never in his busy life an
idle dawdle by the fire after luncheon, or a doze
over a novel before dinner. Sauntering, as
Lord Eosebery said, was an impossibility to
him — mentally or physically; a walk meant
four miles an hour sharp, and I remember his
regretting the day when he could only go up
the Duke of York's steps two at a time. When
about to travel he would carefully pack his own
despatch-box, so that the book or paper he was
reading was uppermost and ready at a mo
ment's notice to his hand.
In the ordinary acceptation of the phrase,
Mr. Gladstone might be described as wanting in
humour, but he certainly was not deficient in
the rapier-like skill which he employed in the
brightest of badinage (or may I call it chaff ?) in
the House of Commons.
If he was not ready to appreciate the fleeting
witticisms which float around society, there
were simple stories which he would tell and
laugh at with a childlike enjoyment.
Two contradictory anecdotes of his humour
and his want of appreciation of a joke occur to me.

38 RECOLLECTIONS Mr.'
'Look,' he said to his colleagues on the
Bench, ' at those two men ; which is the uglier ? '
They gave their opinion.
' No,' said he ; ' you do not approach the;
question from the proper point. If you were tO
magnify your man he would, on a colossal scale,
become dignified and even imposing ; but my
man, the more you magnified him the meaner he
would become.'
The Admiralty got into a great scrape by
sending a condemned transport called the ' Me-
gsera ' to sea in spite of a report of unseaworthi
ness ; she sprang a leak and was beached.
During the debate which arose on it, Mr.
Goschen, then First Lord of the Admiralty,
tried to justify himself by emphasising the fact
that the leak was very small.
Lord Young, who was Lord Advocate at the
time, sat next Lowe, and said : ' It is lucky it is
a little one, because he'll have to swallow it.'
Lowe repeated it to Mr. Gladstone, who
never smiled, and evidently showed his want of
appreciation of the joke, or disapproval of its
frivolity at such a moment.
As a talker, he would pour out floods of in-.

Gladstone HIS MODESTY 39

formation and eloquence, even on small points,
probing deeper than anybody could desire into
the origin of every subject, illustrating Joubert's
axiom : ' To occupy ourselves with little things as
with great, to be as fit and ready for the one as
for the other, is not weakness and littleness but
power and sufficiency.' But he would frequently
become too much absorbed in the question to
possess the gift of the conversationalist, whose
highest art it is to give and take, and toss the
ball to and fro lightly across the table, and be
' not only witty in himself, but the cause that
wit is in other men.'
The subject was never difficult to find ; what
ever it was, he was prepared fully to dilate on its
minutest details.
Nothing demonstrated his modesty more than
his criticism of sermons. It was constantly my
lot to go to church with him, and I only once
recollect his criticising adversely, as we lesser
men habitually do, the sermon that he heard.
' A very notable sermon,' he would say to me ;
or, ' A very remarkable reference that he made
to Isaiah,' and so on. Once only, coming away
from the Chapel Eoyal, he exclaimed against tt

40 RECOLLECTIONS Mr.
very beautiful sermon of Mr. White's of the
Savoy, ' because,' he said, ' he has excited my
brain by his quotations, and given me anything
but the rest which is what I want and expect to
find in church.'
Mr. Gladstone never omitted attending ser
vice twice every Sunday, and used always to
hold me in small repute in being, as he termed
it, a ' once-er.'
Lord Eosebery, in his 'Life of Pitt,' tells us
of a discussion which took place as to the quality
most required in a statesman. One said elo
quence ; one knowledge ; one toil ; and Pitt said
patience. Surely Mr. Gladstone was endowed with all
these qualities, but the fairy that presided at his
birth denied him the gift of proportion.
He would often use the strength of a steam
hammer to break a nut ; he would treat a stupid
interruption in a debate by an insignificant
member of Parliament as solemnly as a weighty
argument from a distinguished opponent; he
would compare Lord Althorp to Oliver Crom-
weU, and I am not sure that he would not give
the pre-eminence to the former.

Gladstone HIS POWER OF BELIEF 41

I never feared to approach and even to
remonstrate with him on any important subject,
but I was terrified at the look and words of
intense annoyance which were sure to be elicited
by some silly little request from an ardent
admirer to put his signature to a photograph or
a book. Sir Edward Hamilton, in his excellent mono
graph on Mr. Gladstone, talks of his credulity,
and he certainly possessed an extraordinary gift
of believing, and sincerely believing, what he
wanted to believe. Indeed, the secret of his
success was largely owing to his moral earnest
ness. This was the power by which, more even
than by his oratory or his intellect, he swayed
the masses of his fellow-countrymen.
Nobody could come within reach of him
without feeling that he was profoundly pene
trated himself with the truth of everything he
said. In 1875, when he had temporarily resigned
the leadership of the Liberal party to Lord
Hartington, Mrs. Neville Lyttelton told me he
was dining on Sunday with Mrs. Stuart-Wortley,
in a state of spirits almost childish, for I suppose

42 EECOLLECTIONS Me.i
he really thought at the moment that he had
retired from active politics. He told her how
he had attended service in the Chapel Eoyal,
probably for the last time, as he connected it
with Parliamentary life, and he felt inclined to:
say coming out of the door :
Good-bye, church ; good-bye, steeple ;
Good-bye, parson ; good-bye, people.
A lady who lived at East Sheen recollected
about that time his going down to Lord Leven's
and rolling down a grass bank, in the very
abandonment of his joy.
Indeed, he always believed in his retirement.
Long before that came he said to a neighbour
at dinner : ' My great wish is to be out of all the
strife. At my age I ought to be one of those
" whose faces are set towards Zion, and who
go up thither ; " this is only a preparatory
school — only a preparatory school.'
M. des Jardins, at the annual meeting of the
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in
Paris, said :
' Mr. Gladstone might have sat here at his
choice among our philosophers, our historians,

Gladstone HIS VEESATILITY 43
our jurists, our economists, or our moralists.
He summed up in his person all the Moral
Sciences ; better still, he carried out the doc
trines which he professed. Even while in office
he knew how, if necessary, to set the right of
mankind above British interests.'
To this I may add, without fear of contra
diction, that he was a scholar, financier,
theologian, administrator, and orator of the
highest order ; unrivalled as a Parliamentary
tactician; while one of his chief claims to the
admiration of posterity will be that he was
able at will to excite the enthusiasm, rouse the
sympathies, and call forth the love and the
hatred, both alike passionate, of his fellow-
countrymen. That Mr. Gladstone's political Ufe has been
advantageous to our country I cannot doubt,
but posterity alone can decide ; of this, how
ever, I am sure, that it wiU be ' counted to him
for righteousness,' for it is the struggle and not
the victory that constitutes the glory of noble
hearts.

44 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-

CHAPTEE XIII
1872-1875
Chesterfield Street in 1872 : Historical Associations — Watts's
Studio : the Cosmopolitan Club — The Board of Inland Eevenue :
Herries and Stephenson — Visit to Paris : Traces of the Siege —
Visit to Studley in January 1873 — Dicky Doyle — Deaths of
Bishop Wilberforce and Lord Westbury — Eoyal Commission on
Judicial Establishments — First Visit to Hawarden — Mr. Glad
stone and Tree-felling — Sir Frederick Abel's Experiment — Mr.
Gladstone on the Extravagance of the Indian Council — His
Defeat on the Irish Education Bill— The Election of 1874—
Eetrospect of the Government of 1868-1874 — Fire at the Pan
technicon — Froude and Kingsley — Holidays at Datchet — Lord
Granville on Landscape Gardening — Death of Lady Caroline
Barrington — Eesidenoe at Wimbledon and Fairmile Common.
In 1872 we took up our abode in Chesterfield
Street, still charming, though not the Chester
field Street of my earliest recollections, with
Chesterfield House peopled by the Duke and
Duchess of Abercorn and their beautiful
daughters ; the house, as Lord Chesterfield
called it, of canonical pillars, which were
brought from Canons, the seat of the Duke

1875 CHESTEEFIELD STREET 45

of Buckingham, near Edgware, but now, in
the miserable greed for money, shorn of its
lovely garden and its ancestral rookery. Close
by was the house where the great Disraeli,
Lord Beaoonsfield, breathed his last, and
where Becky Sharp was found on that un
lucky night by poor Eawdon Crawley in the
arms of Lord Steyne. There, too, is what
I have always rightly or wrongly imagined
to be Thackeray's Lady Whittlesea's Chapel,
where Charles Honeyman preached in the
morning, and coughed in the afternoon ' for the
women like a consumptive parson.' At any rate,
it has its historical reminiscences ; for, if it is
not the building, it is the spot on which the
Chapel stood where the Duke of Hamilton
married the beautiful Miss Gunning at midnight.
The historical Misses Berry's house. No. 8,
is still as it was in the days when their salon
was famous, and their drawing-rooms crowded
with the most brilliant society of London.
Chesterfield Street itself was where Beau
Brummell lived, the famous dandy of the
Eegent's time ; and later on was the abode of
another dandy, with none of the faults of his

46 RECOLLECTIONS 1872-
predecessor, Alfred Montgomery, who, unlike
Brummell, accumulated friends as he advanced
in years, and whose death was bitterly regretted
by them all.
There at the corner is Watts's old studio, one
of the great walls of which is covered with a
life-size fresco taken from a story of Boccaccio's
(' The Spectre Huntsman '), where a nude young
woman, as a punishment for having jilted her
lover, is pursued by furies and wild dogs, he to
whom she had behaved so badly in her life
bringing a party of friends to see the fate of this
poor hunted girl. The room is now the abode
of the Cosmopolitan Club, and it was a standing
joke of Stirling-Maxwell's to say to any inquirer
into the subject of the picture, ' You have no
doubt heard of Watts's hymns ; that is one of his
hers.' It is a remarkable Club, which originally, in
1851, met in Eobert Morier's rooms in Bond
Street. The original list of members contained
the names of Eobert Lowe, Layard, Harcourt,
Watts, Euskin, Venables, Brookfield, Spedding,
Palgrave, H. PhiUips, and Arthur Eussell ; it
meets only on Wednesdays and Sunday nights,

1875 THE COSMOPOLITAN CLUB 47

when painters and politicians, officials, soldiers,
and literary men assemble for a talk and a
friendly pipe.
Visions of departed evenings rise in my
recollection — when I have seen Alfred Wigan
delight us all with his impersonation of the
strong man or the bounding brick of Babylon,
and Juhan Fane give us wonderful impersona
tions of Eachel in her famous rdle of Adrienne
Lecouvreur. There I saw Motley, Millais,
Monckton Milnes, whom Carlyle called ' The
Perpetual President of the Heaven and Hell
Amalgamation Society,' and heard Tom Taylor
tell us how in his drive into London from Clap-
ham he had been told by the omnibus driver,
' It seems to me, sir, that society's pretty well
nigh at a end in Paris.' ' How so ? ' said Taylor.
' Well,' he continued, ' I was reading in the
paper last night that they were making barricades
of omnibuses, and I thinks to myself, when they
do that society's pretty well nigh at a end.'
It was on his return from this Club that Mr.
Bonteen was murdered in Lansdowne Passage
in TroUope's novel of ' Phineas Eedux.'
Here I have seen Tom Hughes of Eugby

48 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
renown smoking his old pipe, and George
Barrington his cigarette ; Laurence Oliphant,
just back from the Lake of Tiberias ; Browning
and Tennyson, between whom no spark of
jealousy existed ; Millais and Thackeray, who
never took in the spirit of the place when he
said, ' Here everybody is, or is supposed to be,
a celebrity. Nobody ever says anything worth
hearing, and everybody goes there at midnight
with a white choker, to appear as if he had been
dining with the aristocracy.'
These are to the present generation only
ghosts — simulacra. On what shore tarry they
now ?
In August 1872 I took my seat at the
Board of Inland Eevenue, consisting then of Sir
William Stephenson, chairman ; Mr., afterwards
Sir Charles Herries, deputy chairman (son of the
former Chancellor of the Exchequer) ; Mr. Alfred
Montgomery and Mr. Eoberts, commissioners ;
but it was conceded that I might continue to
assist Mr. Gladstone till the end of the session,
or at any rate till my successor was appointed.
It was ultimately decided that Frederick Caven
dish should undertake the office.

1875 VISIT TO PARIS 49
Sir W. Stephenson at once told me that I
held an office where it was possible to do very
little or a great deal. He recommended the
latter course, and I soon found that he and
Herries provided me with every possible oppor
tunity of learning my work. Two better men
were never yoked together in the management
of a great Department : Sir William Stephen
son's calm judgment, cool temper, and good
sense made him an admirable chairman ; while
Herries, a scholar, a lover of detail, and a
beautiful writer, supplied all that the chairman
lacked. In October my wife and I went for a short
holiday to Paris, where we were to meet Sir
Eeginald Welby, and to see what appeared to
us to be the wrecked remains of that City of
Pleasure. While there we drove to the Pont de
Neuilly and back through the Bois, contem
plating the ruins and desolation of the siege and
the Commune. Nearly all the houses were
destroyed, though new ones were rapidly rising
from the ruins. All the fine trees in the Bois
near Paris had been cut down.
We saw Descl^e at the Gymnase, and
VOL. II. E

50 RECOLLECTIONS 1872-

' Eabagas,' a skit on Gambetta, and Sardou's
' Patrie.' Welby was a wonderful guide over
the battlefields of the Marne. One day, after
having breakfasted at the Pavilion Henri Quatre
at St. Germain, we walked on the terrace
where the German Emperor and his staff were
standing when a shot, fired from Mont Valerien,
struck the wall below their feet. We went to
St. Cloud in a carriage, the driver being dressed
in the old postillion fashion ; here the demolition
was terrible ; we saw a wall, all that was stand
ing of a house, and a birdcage pathetically
hanging on it still. In one house over the door
was an unexploded shell stuck fast in the
plaster. In the Eue du Bac and the Palais
Eoyal and the Hotel de Ville were terrible
evidences of what Paris had suffered. Another
day we visited Versailles, breakfasting at the
Hotel des Eeservoirs, and visiting the Palais
where, in the Galerie des Glaces, the King of
Prussia had been declared Emperor. Passing
by the Prefecture, we saw Thiers coming out for
his afternoon drive, the only occasion on which
I had ever seen him. M. Thiers, by the way,
once met an old college friend who said, ' Well,

1875 VISIT TO STUDLEY 51
what have you been doing since we parted?'
' J'ai ete ministre,' said Thiers. ' Protestant ? '
replied his friend. Such is fame.
I had some revenue business to transact
with the Governor of the Bank, the Vicomte de
Pleurae, and much regretted the inadequacy of
my French, but consoled myself with the
thought that, bad though it might be, the
Vicomte could not speak a word of English.
When I was Mr. Gladstone's secretary and
living in Downing Street, my name was put on
the list of those who had the privilege of driving
down Constitution Hill. Soon after the Tory
accession my wife was stopped by the Park-
keeper and told that our name was removed
from the list by the Home Secretary without
any communication with us, which was a strong
order. We mentioned this to Sir Thomas Bid-
dulph, the Queen's Privy Purse, and shortly
after had the pleasure of receiving a notifica
tion from the Home Secretary that he had
received Her Majesty's orders to grant us the
right during life.
In the end of January 1873 we joined a
large party at Studley for the coming of age of

52 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
Lord de Grey. There was nothing approaching
to architectural beauty in the house, but there
was a fine ball-room ; and, as all the world knows,
within a mile of it is the most glorious ruin in
England — Fountains Abbey. Close to it is a
beautiful old house, so beautiful that one marvels
at the curious taste that could build in its
vicinity a house like the one that glories in the
name of Studley Eoyal.
The party was a great success, and the host
and hostess, young, clever, and charming, did
everything to make it so. Among the guests
was ' Dicky Doyle,' the clever caricaturist, son
of a clever caricaturist father, ' H. B.' By this
time he had abandoned his manners and customs
of ye Englishe, and his ' Diary of Mr. Pips,'
and had already taken to sketches of fairyland,
many of which were in Lady Eipon's boudoir ;
he was of a singularly simple character, full of
dry and good-natured wit and companionship.
On June 18, as Gentleman Usher, I had to
go down officially to Dover to assist in the
reception of the Shah of Persia. There was a fog
hanging over the Channel as we arrived, but it
became less dense as the sun became more

1875 DEATH OF BISHOP WILBEEFOECE 53

powerful, and the ships of the Channel Squadron
appeared, one by one, out of the mist, and
saluted — a lovely sight. We returned by special
train to Charing Cross with the Granvilles to
their house in Carlton House Terrace, to see the
procession pass. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm
broke and soaked everybody and everything.
In the middle of July we had been spending
our Sunday at Englemere, Bobsy Meade's place,
near Ascot, and on getting our newspapers
learnt the sad news of the Bishop of Winches
ter's death. He was riding over from Dorking
to Holmbury with Lord Granville, when his
horse put his foot in a rabbit-hole, and fell
(killing him on the spot), in a lovely grass valley
near Holmbury. It was a curious coincidence
that, after he had started in the morning, he
returned, asking for his glasses, 'for,' he said, 'I
am going this afternoon to such a beautiful
country.' I had been much in contact with him when
Mr. Gladstone's Secretary. I recollect on one
occasion his telling me how dearly the public
like a bit of nepotism, and illustrated it by saying
that when he was at Oxford a good living in his

54 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
diocese fell vacant ; he wanted some new blood,
but feared the outcry of the clergy in the diocese.
At last he appointed his own son, and not a word
was said.
We were spending a long holiday at Walmer
in 1871, when he arrived and delighted us all
with his stories.
One I remember was of Talleyrand, who was
transacting business with the Emperor, when
the latter suddenly turned to him, and said : ' I
have lately been subject to fits, which I am
anxious to conceal. I feel as if I were going
to suffer from one now ; if it should be so, keep
the fact from everyone.'
A minute later the Emperor fell back in his
chair, becoming livid. At that moment Talley
rand was alarmed by a knock at the door, land
an A.D.C. said he had brought a message from
the Empress. Talleyrand said the Emperor was
engaged at the moment, and could not be
disturbed. The A.D.C. angrily retired, and
Talleyrand went back to the Emperor, only to
find him apparently dying. In great terror at
his own position, he heard a loud knock at the
door and found the Empress, annoyed at the

1875 DEATH OF LOED WESTBUEY 55

failure of her messenger, demanding admission.
Talleyrand audaciously gave her the same
answer he had given to her A.D.C, and giving
himself up as lost, returned to find the Emperor's
pulse beginning to beat. I am bound to say that
one of the party, who was a bit of a cynic, went
on whispering at each story, ' Absolutely untrue,'
' A complete fabrication,' and so on.
On the very day after the Bishop's death
died Lord Westbury, who had been Lord
Palmerston's Chancellor, a man of great ability,
a clever lawyer, utterly unscrupulous, with as
bitter a tongue and vitriolic a wit as ever cursed
their possessor. He and the Bishop had many
acrimonious disputes in the House of Lords,
originating with Lord Westbury's applying the
word ' saponaceous ' to the Bishop, who was
always called ' Soapy Sam.'
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lowe,
asked me to serve on a Eoyal Commission,
appointed to inquire into the Administration
Departments of the Courts of Law, an offer
which I gladly accepted as giving me some
work beyond my own department.
Lord Lisgar was our chairman; Baron

56 RECOLLECTIONS 1872-
Bramwell, W. Law, George Trevelyan, and Mr.
Eowsell were also on the Commission.
We worked hard and proposed many reforms
which bore fruits in the High Courts of Judi
cature Bill. We recommended that a committee
should be appointed to give effect to further
reforms, and when the Tories came in they
appointed it, leaving out Bramwell, Trevelyan,
and myself !
Various causes, and the desire to get free
from secretarial work when we did get a holiday,
had postponed our first visit to Hawarden till
1873. The place has been described so often that it
it is needless to go over ground so thoroughly
known to everybody interested in it.
The life was very simple and somewhat old-
fashioned — good plain food, regular and early
hours ; Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone going to church
every morning at eight and returning to break
fast ; then came a little talk, after which Mr.
Gladstone went to work in his library, to
which he kindly invited me, and showed me
his correspondence ; a plain luncheon followed,
and then a good walk through a beautifully-

1875 LIFE AT HAWARDEN 57

wooded park tossed about in various undulating
glades. In those days he had no favourite dog,
and so the talks were long, uninterrupted, and
of course intensely interesting about men and
all sorts of subjects ; but rarely was a walk
finished without some allusion to the height or
circumference of the bole of a tree, in which
he took a personal interest. Then always five
o'clock tea and more reading till dinner, when
he held forth on all subjects ; but the one that
delighted me most was when he got on to old
recollections and memories of Lord Aberdeen,
Sir Eobert Peel, and even so far back as Eton
days under Keate.
It was at a dinner held in this year, where
Sir Henry Storks^ and Lord Essex were present,
that the conversation turned on tree-felling, on
which Mr. Gladstone, of course, was a great
^ Sir Henry Storks, who was a very distinguished soldier and
Clerk to the Ordnance, committed the error of going into Parlia
ment at the age of seventy-two.
One night George Glyn asked him to stay for a division, and in
those days the House sat often till three or four o'clock in the
morning. ' Yes,' he said, ' I wUl ; but, my dear George, there is never a
morning when I shave myself before my looking-glass that I don't
say : " Good-morning, yon d  d old fool." '

58 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
authority. He had often told me that if other
trades failed he would be able to gain full wages
as a timber-cutter. Sir Henry Storks said he
thought that for the future trees would be cut
down by placing a ring of guncotton round
them, and offered to take Mr. Gladstone down
to Woolwich to show him some experiments.
Time passed, and no vacant afternoon could be
found for the expedition, which Mr. Gladstone
regretted. He was told that Sir Frederick Abel was pre
pared to show him the result of the guncotton
necklace on a mast to be erected in the garden
in Downing Street, which I went to witness.
Sir Frederick undertook that there would be
no noise or disturbance of any kind. When I
arrived at the gardens I found Ayrton, then
First Commissioner of Works, who was not a
behever in scientists, protesting against the
experiment. On Sir Frederick Abel's assurance, however,
the experiment took place, and, after being
nearly deafened by a terrific report, I found
myself under a shower of broken glass, which
feU from the skylight in the First Lord's house.

1875 LETTER FEOM ME. GLADSTONE 59
All the adjoining windows that were open were
destroyed, and, contrary to the common belief^
those that were shut escaped the almost uni
versal smash, the noise of which was heard in
Hyde Park.
There was only one person who rejoiced, and
that was the triumphant Ayrton. Theories were
exploded as well as guncotton.
On December 10 Mr. Gladstone wrote to
me asking me for some remarks on the extrava
gance of the Indian Council, about which we
had conversed at Hawarden :
Hawarden Castle, Chester : December 10, 1873.
' My dear West, — You gave me a kind of
promise to supply me with materials for the
purpose of showing that the India Office is less
economical in administration (perhaps also in
its composition) than our Government generaUy
is, or than Treasury principles, so to call them,
would require.
' I have at present only a strong, a very strong,
suspicion but no particulars. If you could
supply them I think it would be of great use in
a not improbable contingency.

60 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-

' In my opinion it would be of great advan
tage that one place at the Council Table
should be filled on the nomination of the Board
of Treasury ; and that the person so appointed
should be invested with the title to record his
reasons officially against any proposed expendi
ture where he considers it to be contrary to any
rule established for Imperial administration.
' Yours sincerely,
' W. E. Gladstone.'
Mr. Lowe had wished me to be appointed as
a councillor, and I wrote him a long letter in
answer, which is too personal to publish here.
Mr. Gladstone was defeated on his Irish
Education Bill by a curious combination of
Tories, Eoman Catholics, and discontented
Liberals, and at once resigned; but the Con
servatives were not ready, and cleverly contrived
to keep Mr. Gladstone in office.
One Sunday I met Mr. Gladstone at the
Chapel Eoyal, and had a talk with him about
recent elections which had gone against the
Government. The next day he had a bad cold and was

1875 ELECTION OF 1874 61
kept in bed for a short time. Here it was that
he hatched his plot of a dissolution. Coming
home from a dance at Sir William Stephenson's,
I found a note from Gurdon telling me what was
to appear next morning — the dissolution and the
proposed abolition of the income tax. Nothing
could exceed the popularity of the movement at
the moment, and I received quite an ovation at
the Cosmopolitan a few days afterwards.
Then came the disastrous election of 1874 —
a wholesale defeat, horse and foot — and it
became a matter of consideration whether or
not the Government should meet Parliament or
resign. Mr. Gladstone wrote on the subject of his
arrangements to me :
10 Downing Street, Whitehall : February 10, 1874.
' My dear West, — Many thanks for your
useful note.
' (1) I see no reason why a vote of credit
should not be given at any time after a new
Ministry was constituted in its main offices, say
March 20 or 22 ; the Easter holidays need not
begin until April 1, 2, or even 3. This could be

62 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
done by the Secretary to the Treasury, perhaps
even by the outgoing Government.
' (2) I think it would be found that in 1852
and 1858 the Government, taking office in Feb
ruary, required a very short time to make up its
mind about the Estimates, and I should not
have thought it impossible that the Estimates
could be laid, on the responsibiUty of the new
Government, in Passion Week, but neither
would it be necessary. ' Yours ever, 'W. E. G.'
I had accordingly the pleasure of going into the
whole question of dates and possibilities and
precedents since the Duke of Portland's time in
1807, with that most charming authority on all
Parliamentary knowledge. Sir Erskine May,
Clerk to Parliament.
Coming home one February evening, I was
met by my wife, who told me that as she was
driving back by the Park, near Knightsbridge,
there were great sparks from some huge fire
falling around her ; so we instantly started forth
in the direction of the blaze, which we could

1875 A HISTOEIC FIEE 63
now plainly see was somewhere in Belgravia.
We reached Wilton Place, and were admitted
into the house of Lady Georgiana Bathurst,
from whose windows the fierce flames of the
Pantechnicon were painfully glaring. The win
dows grew so hot that it was impossible to touch
the glass with our hands. Lady Georgiana was
crippled with rheumatism, and arrangements had
to be made for her removal, in case the flames
spread to her house, which happily they did not,
and we, having some people dining with us in
Chesterfield Street, were obliged to return ; but
after dinner Sir Eeginald Welby and I returned
to see the end of one of the biggest conflagra
tions of our day. The sky seemed ablaze, and
the modern Calphurnia might have said : ' The
heavens themselves blaze forth the death of
Princes,' for within three days Mr. Gladstone's
great Government of 1868-74 had ceased to
exist. Never was there a Government to com
pare with that of Mr. Gladstone's of 1868.
The Irish grievance of a dominant Protestant
Church of the minority was abolished. National
Education was established. Purchase in the

64 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
Army was done away with. The Ballot Bill
for the protection of voters was passed into
law. The foolish Ecclesiastical Bill was re
pealed. The Alabama Arbitration opened up a
vista of peace instead of war to the nations of
the world. Neutrality was maintained through
out the terrible Franco-German war ; while
on his defeat Mr. Gladstone left a surplus of
6,000,000Z. to his successor, after having reduced
taxation and paid off 26,000,000Z. of the National
Debt. In all this work Mr. Gladstone was the
guiding and presiding genius, and it was not
wonderful that he spent his majority.
Before this had come, however, I had ceased
to be his Secretary and had become a Com
missioner of Inland Eevenue ; but on his return
to office he kindly allowed me to see all his
correspondence, though, of course, I took no
part in political work.
Notwithstanding the performances of the
1868-74 Government, Froude so far forgot the
duties of the historian in the party man, that
he deliberately stated that Mr. Gladstone's
Government had nothing to show but revolu-

1875 FEOUDE AND KINGSLEY 65
tionary measures in Ireland, which had hitherto
been unattended by success : Voild comment on
ecrit Vhistoire!
The following lines, which were suggested
by certain utterances of Froude and Kingsley,
might fittingly be quoted here :
Froude informs the Scottish youth
That parsons never tell the truth ;
At Cambridge Canon Kingsley cries
That history's a pack of lies.
Such statements how can we combine ?
This perhaps explains the mystery,
Froude thinks Kingsley a divine.
And Kingsley looks to Froude for history.
In the summer we let our house in Chester
field Street to Mr. Stanley, and took a house at
Datchet till the late autumn, when we went
to Hill House, and spent much of our time
on the river; the C. Hambros, Monty Corry,
Welby, and the Charles Stephensons and Lord
Morley constantly making up the crew of a
famous four oar of Welby's.
When we were staying at Walmer, Lord
Granville was very anxious that our eldest son,
Horace, should serve an apprenticeship to Mr,
Thomas, the famous landscape gardener, argu
ing he was the only man at the head of the
VOL. II. p

66 EECOLLECTIONS 1872-
most charming profession in the world, and
that he had no one to fill his place, when he
should grow older.
He wrote on the subject to Mr. Thomas,
who answered : ' Once bitten twice shy. I have
tried one gentleman and will never try another.'
But Lord Granville would not abandon the
idea, and afterwards wrote to me the following
letter : Walmer Castle, Deal : September 23, 1874.
' My dear West, — I have been thinking over
my failure with Thomas, respecting your boy. I
regret it, as Thomas himself told me that there
was hardly any one in his profession, notwith
standing the passion all classes in this country
have for improving or spoiling the parks and
gardens which they inherit, buy, or erect.
' Thomas has the advantage of being a
gentleman, not shy, and pleasant ; but he is
evidently not a clever man. If he took your
son the advantage would rather be in the
connection and the succession than in the
learning. ' There are some great landscape gardeners
m France — the man who made the new Bois de

1875 LOED GRANVILLE ON GARDENING 67
Boulogne, and others who have been employed
by the La Eochefoucaulds, etc.
' In all probability they have more know
ledge of the principles of their art than Thomas,
and at least as much taste ; they would pro
bably be more accessible to a premium, par
ticularly with an Englishman, who would not
become a rival in France, and might introduce
them to a connection in England. They would
teach French for nothing.
' If your boy has a turn for drawing and
construction, after a year or two of study of
French gardening and landscape gardening, an
architect like Devey might make use of him for
the outdoor part of his work, and he might push
himself into the tolerably lucrative and very
pleasant occupation of the English " Le Notre "
of the generation.
' It is not clear that Thomas might not be
too glad to get hold of him at the end of that
time. — Yours,- ' GeAN VILLE.'
Later on the same dear friend asked Mr.
Devey to give our youngest son a chance of
entering the ' delightful profession ' of an archi-

68 RECOLLECTIONS 1872-

tect, which he did ; and though Mr. Devey's
early death sundered the friendship which was
begun so auspiciously between them, the educa
tion our son had received from him remained,
to which I am sure he will attribute a great
part of his present success.
In the spring of 1875, Lady Caroline
Barrington, my wife's mother, caught a chill,
and died at Kensington Palace. Lady Caroline
Barrington was the third daughter of Charles,
Earl Grey. In 1827 she was married to Captain
Hon. George Barrington, E.N., who was a Lord
of-the Admiralty in Lord Grey's Administration.
He died in 1835, and Lady Caroline had lived
with her father at Howick until she was ap
pointed Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen,
and took up her residence at Windsor. She
subsequently became Lady Superintendent on
Lady Lyttelton's retirement from that post.
Nothing could exceed the kindness of all the
royalties, who were devoted to her. The Prince
of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Louis
of Hesse, the Duke of Connaught, and Prince
Christian attended her funeral at Kensal Green.
We let our house in Chesterfield Street and

1875 FAIRMILE COMMON 69

took the new house at Wimbledon, which
belonged to Dr. Sandwith, one of the heroes of
Kars. Charles Barrington came and lived here
with us till the autumn, when we moved further
-off and took a little place near Fairmile Common,
Esher. One evening we were standing on the road
when we heard the shuffling steps of an old man
passing by ; as soon as he had done so he sank
on the bank, and on our going to his assistance he
said : ' I mostly 'as a fit going up 'ill.' I asked
him where he was going, and he replied : ' Down
there towards Cobham.' I, trying to cheer him,
said : ' That's all right, as it is down-hill all
the way.' 'Ah ! ' said he ; ' that's the worst of
it ; I always pitches on my 'ead going down 'UI.'
And yet he had in that hilly country been out
for a long day's pleasuring !
Lady Eose, who of all the women I ever
knew was the brightest and most witty, was much
amused at this story, and told me that, asking a
poor woman once how her husband was, the
reply came : ' Oh, he is better to-day ; and indeed,
I have always remarked that if he gets through
May, he generally lives through the rest of the
year.'

70 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-^

CHAPTEE XIV
1875-1879
Mr. Gladstone's Motive in Eetiring from the Leadership — Lord
Granville on the House of Lords. — Visit to Tintagel — Dinner
with the Archbishop of Canterbury — Hawker of Morwenstow — ¦
Sir George Trevelyan's ' Life of Macaulay ' — Mr. Gladstone on
Croker in the ' Quarterly ' — Lord Lyttelton's Death — Mr. Glad*
stone's Speech at Blackheath on the Bulgarian Atrocities — His
Literary Conversations — Mr. Gladstone's Hat — Verger the
Phrenologist — Mr. Gladstone's use of Unparliamentary Language
— His Letter to Mr. Herries — My Appointment as Deputy-
Chairman of the Inland Eevenue Board — Visit to Hawarden in
1878 — Mr. Gladstone's Estimates of Forster and Lowe — Lord
Lawrence and Lord Lytton — Anecdote of Sir Drummond Wolff
— Mr. John Murray on Successful Authors — Stamp Eeform :
My Victory over Welby — Letter from Mr. Lingen — Marriage of
the Duke of Connaught — Visit to Studley.
Me. Gladstone retired from the Leadership of
the Opposition in the House of Commons,,
partly from a desire of rest, but mainly I think
from his disUke of daily confronting Mr. DisraeU,
a man so utterly opposed to him, not only in
politics, but in thoughts, tastes, and desires,.
It was necessary to choose a leader, and it lay

1879 VISIT TO TINTAGEL 71
between Mr. Forster and Lord Hartington ;
naturally the House of Commons preferred the
Duke's son. Lord Granville told me very truly,
that while the House of Lords daily sank in
the estimation of the country, the love of the
individual lord increased in proportion.
In February there was a question of my
transfer from the Board of Inland Eevenue to
the Under- Secretaryship of the India Office,
which Mr. Gladstone rather favoured; but it
was settled otherwise.
In the autumn we paid a visit to Lady
Hayter, who had inherited from Mr. Cook, the
editor of the ' Saturday Eeview,' a cottage at
Tintagel, which in those days was over twenty
miles distant from a railway station. In this
far-off county, the Bodmin and Wadebridge line
was one of the first opened to the pubUc by the
London and South- Western Eailway Company,
in the room of whose chairman may be seen a
picture of the train and its open carriages ; in
front of the engine and between the buffers sat
a man whose business it was to get down and
open the gates. It was a great charm to us
jaded Londoners to get to this wild country.

72 EECOLLECTIONS ' 1875-
On our way we passed through one of the pre^
Eeform close boroughs of Cornwall — Camelford
— which had the honour of returning Lord
Henry Petty, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, and
Henry, afterwards Lord Brougham.
All our time was spent in expeditions to
King Arthur's Castle, to Eough Tor, Brown
Willy and Slaughter Bridge, near the scene
of that great battle in the west, where rumour
says King Arthur lies buried.
When staying here we got a message from
the genial rector, saying that the Archbishop of
Canterbury was coming to pass the night at his
house, and asking the whole party to meet him
at dinner, and to bring all our servants to wait.
We were a joyous party, and all day long we
had a misgiving that we should indecorously
laugh at the wrong moment. The hour and the
dinner came, and all went smoothly until a
fine dish of Cornish junket appeared in Mr.
Kinsman's best china bowl ; which, however?
had been mended. Just as my servant was
handing it, the piece broke away, and the whole
junket poured over our host's best evening coat.
' God  ' he exclaimed ; and then in a tone

1879 HAWKER OF MORWENSTOW 73
subdued in deference to his guest, ' bless the
Queen ' — whereupon we all burst into uncon
trolled laughter, and the rest of the evening was
most merry.
During one of our visits we were tempted to
pass a night at Bude, and to drive over the
following day to a sale at Morwenstow, the
house of the Eev. Eobert Hawker, who had
recently died. In early manhood he had married
an old lady, who paid the expenses of his
education at college ; and in late life turned the
tables by marrying a very young wife. He was
eccentric in his dress, his manners, and his
ways, and worked hard in rescuing victims of
the savage wreckers of the Cornish coast. He
was also a poet, and was the author of
And shall Trelawney die ?
And shall Trelawney die ?
Then thirty thousand Cornish boys
Will know the reason why.
The miners from the caverns re-echoed the
song: Then twenty thousand underground
Will know the reason why.
These lines were quoted by Macaulay in his
' History ' as being an old Cornish ballad. On

RECOLLECTIONS 1875-

discovering that this was a modern song of
Mr, Hawker's, instead of a real song of Cornish
miners, at the time of the trial of the seven
bishops, Macaulay must have been as dis
appointed as I was on finding that the ' Wear-
in' of the Green ' was not a revolutionary
ballad of 1798, but, in the form we know it, was
evolved from the quick and poetical brain of
Boucicault, for his play of the ' Colleen Bawn.'
In the beginning of the year 1876, George
Trevelyan's delightful ' Biography of Lord
Macaulay ' appeared. In it there were some
very severe remarks on John Wilson Croker,
which were shown to his widow, who was our
next-door neighbour; she was naturally un
happy, and to please her I wrote to Trevelyan,
who was very kind, and promised to expunge
the objectionable passages from his next edition,
regretting their insertion. I also, at Mrs.
Croker's request, saw Mr. Gladstone and got his
authority to ask Mr. John Murray if he would
insert an article in the ' Quarterly ' on the
biography, in which Mr. Gladstone said he
would put Croker in a truer position.
In talking over Lord Macaulay's character

1879 MR. GLADSTONE AND LORD LYTTELTON 7 b
Mr. Gladstone remarked that he never had any
idea of proportion and often would absolutely
despise an opponent whom the world thought
was nearly his equal ; and this was the case
with Croker, who was, no doubt, a formidable
antagonist. Mr. Gladstone wrote his article,
which, while most complimentary to Trevelyan's
' Biography,' had the merit of making poor Mrs.
Croker satisfied.
Going to him one morning I learnt that
Lord Lyttelton, in a fit of depression, had
destroyed himself. Mr. Gladstone, whose life
long friend he had been, was deeply grieved ; he
told me how he partly laid the blame at his
own door, for he had met him a day or two
before at dinner, and had made a suggestion to
him to commence a Concordance of the Odyssey,
as he was the only person who could do it satis
factorily. ' I did not,' he added, ' press it upon
him as vigorously as I should have done, for,
had I succeeded, the work would have interested
him and occupied his attention and perhaps
might have saved him from himself.'
It was in this year that Mr. Gladstone was
the mouthpiece of the nation in denouncing the

76 RECOLLECTIONS 1875-
massacres known as the Bulgarian atrocities,
and I heard him address a meeting of 10,000
people at Blackheath, where I went with Lord
Carrington and my son Horace, and shall never
forget the effect of his magic voice and delivery.
There was a knot of people bent on interrup
tion, who, in little more than a few moments,
were reduced into unwilling silence, and soon
after into rapt attention and enthusiastic
applause. We were now living at Kensington Palace,
and Mr. Gladstone, having no London house,
came with Mrs. Gladstone to pay us a visit.
We had in his honour many pleasant little
political dinners, which reminded us of our
dinners on Thursdays when we were in Downing
Street, of which only the memory remains.
But it is a bright memory of Mr. Gladstone as
the central figure, ever brimming over with
earnest talk, to which the whole dinner party
listened with rapt attention.
Thus I remember how Mr. Gladstone, in
comparing George Eliot and Walter Scott,
remarked on the unsatisfactory nature of all
the former's marriages.

1879' ME. GLADSTONE'S MEMOEY 77
' But,' said Mrs. NeviUe Lyttelton, ' Scott's
are so colourless.'
' Colourless,' he said, ' what do you say to
Meg Merrilies, and Eebecca ? '
' Neither were married,' said Mrs. Lyttel
ton. Mr. Gladstone did not answer, but went
on to say :
' How well I recollect, as a boy, lying on
my stomach on the grass, reading Walter
Scott's novels as they came out in numbers ! '
After one of his great speeches he asked
Mrs. Lyttelton after Mrs. Clive, instead of her
mother, Mrs. Stuart-Wortley, and, detecting his
mistake, he groaned over what he called 'the
lamentable state of his memory.'
' But,' she said, ' through all your long
Liverpool speech, you never referred to a note.'
' Ah,' he said, ' of course if I make an effort
I can remember.'
Mr. Gladstone constantly told us that nearly
every year he was obliged to have his hat
enlarged. ' I always stick to mine,' he said, ' as
there are only two men whose hats I could ever
get on my head — one the Duke of Newcastle's,
the other Lord Stanhope's. The latter was a

78 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-
very remarkable man, though not conspicuous
in Parliament, and a staunch friend. We entered
Parliamentary life together as followers of Sir
Eobert Peel; we afterwards diverged, but it
never affected our friendship.'
Lord Stanhope was responsible for taking
him to a man called Verger, who, he said,
classified qualities according to certain bumps
on the skull by placing one hand on the head,
and his other on some conducting medium with
corresponding circles, and thus defined the
character. Mr. Gladstone rather believed in
him, as he told him how many qualities he was
deficient in, among others in the retention and
memory of faces, which was true.
In June 1877 I met Mr. Gladstone at dinner
at Mrs. Milbank's, and repeated to him what
Lord Beaoonsfield had told Sir William
Stephenson on his recommending Mr. Herries
as his successor : ' These appointments should
be considered not as official promotions but as
political prizes,' and, therefore, I considered our
chances of succession small. ' D  n him,' said
Mr. Gladstone ; and this, after a long and close
intercourse, was the first of only two occasions

1879 QUOTATIONS IN THE HOUSE 79
on which I ever heard him make use of an
unparliamentary expression.
On the second occasion he was talking of
oratory in the House of Commons, and re
gretting that classical quotations were no longer
appreciated. He instanced Pitt's quotation
from Virgil in his speech on the slave trade,
which he considered one of the most apposite he
knew, and added : ' If a quotation were made in
the House now, they would not care about it
a d  n.'
The quotation, and the words .preceding it
which I have referred to, ran as follows :
' Then also will Europe, participating in her
(Africa's) improvement and prosperity, receive
an ample recompense for the tardy kindness (if
kindness it can be called) of no longer hindering
that continent from extricating herself out of
the darkness, which in other more fortunate
regions has been so much more speedily dis
pelled :
Nos primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis :
lUic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.'
It was at the end of June that Lord Beacons-
field gave the chairmanship of the Board of

80 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-
Inland Eevenue to Herries, and this was the
note he received from Mr. Gladstone on his
appointment : 73 Harley Street : June 19, 1877.
' Dear Mr. Herries, — I hope I do not take
an undue liberty in congratulating you on your
arrival at the head of your great Department.
' My long-continued official relations with
you enable me in some degree to bear willing
testimony to the wisdom and justice of the
selection which the Government have made.
' You follow a series of admirable chiefs, and
I feel assured you will be able to maintain the
high level of the tradition.
' In all my many transactions with the Board
of Inland Eevenue, I found continually increasing
reason to admire the sound and enlightened
spirit of the Department ; and I do not recollect
so much as a single instance either of rashness
or of slackness in the transaction of that mass
of business which it was my duty and my
pleasure to carry on by their aid.
' W. E. Gladstone.'
The appointment of Deputy was kept in

1879 LETTEE FEOM ME. GLADSTONE 81
abeyance, though, of course, I discharged the
duties of the place until the end of the session.
On my asking Lord Beaoonsfield's secretary
whether there was any chance of the appoint
ment being completed, he said : ' It is difficult
to say when one of my chief's mottoes is :
" Depend upon it delay is the secret of suc
cess." '
On August 13, I heard from Lord Beacons-
field offering me the appointment of Deputy, and
Walter Northcote, Sir Stafford's eldest son, was
appointed in my place. Mr. Gladstone wrote to
me the following letter :
Hawarden Castle, Chester : August 15, 1877.
' My dear West, — I send you on the part of
all here a line of hearty congratulation, and I
also congratulate the public on an appointment
so conducive to its interests.
' I have always looked on the Board of Inland
Eevenue as nearly approaching---so to speak —
the ideal, and I am sure it will not degenerate
under present circumstances.
' Smith must be a loss to you ; and it is
•uncertain till he is further proved what gain he
VOL. II. a

82 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-.

will be to the Admiralty. Stanley is clever, but
can an heir to the earldom of Derby descend to
the saving of candle-ends, which is very much
the measure of a good Secretary to the Treasury ?
' Pray remember us if you come northwards,
and believe me, most sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'
In the following November we paid a visit to
Hawarden ; and after dinner Mr. Gladstone dis
cussed at great length the difficulties attending
the formation of a new Liberal Government. It
is always supposed that Mr. Gladstone did not
understand men ; but if he did not, he could
nevertheless make very shrewd guesses as to
their capabilities, erring, no doubt, too often on
the lenient side. Mr. Lowe he considered a
man fitted by nature for offence rather than
defence, stronger in opposition than in office.
He was always impressed with the ability and
honesty of Mr. W. E. Forster ; but he was weU
aware that with them was ' combined a strong
ingredient of vanity and want of tact. I think
it was Bishop Wilberforce who said that if any
man prided himself more especially on one

1879 INDIAN POLICY 83'
quality, the chances were strongly in favour of
his being deficient in it.
It was about this time that Lord Lawrence,
with all his authority, had been denouncing Lord
Lytton's unhappy policy in regard to Afghani
stan, which led to such disastrous results.
Notwithstanding Lord Salisbury's positive
assurances that no attempt had been made to
force an envoy on the Ameer, that our relations
with him had not since last year undergone
any material change, and that his feelings were
in no way embittered towards the British Govern
ment, Lord Lawrence endeavoured to raise the
country against the policy of Lord Lytton, who
said that the opinion of his private secretary was
worth twenty Lawrences. With this object a
Committee was being formed, and while I was
at Hawarden a telegram arrived asking Mr.
Gladstone to join it.
Personally he was inclined to accede to the
proposal, and thus give a cue to the party ; but
he ended by consulting Lord Granville, though
he thought him apt to take too many people into
his confidence ; so unlike, he said, to Peel, who
only took a very few. G 2

84 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-^
Lord Grey and Lord Halifax had written,
the former vigorously, favouring an agitation
for the summoning of Parliament ; but Lord
Granville, while approving of the object of the
Committee, was opposed to Mr. Gladstone or
himself being members of it.
After this the conversation reverted, as it
so often did, to his early conceptions of Peel,
who except on a few points was essentially
Liberal, indeed far more so than Palmerston
ever was.
He thought O'Connell, excep't perhaps
Mirabeau, the greatest demagogue that ever
lived, and in that way superior even to
Bright. We then turned to another favourite subject
of his, and naturally of mine — the Inland
Eevenue Department. He laid down as an
axiom that the Chairman of. that Board should
always, in forming his estimates, be guided in
forecasting the revenue for the coming year by
what, humanly speaking, he was sure of getting ;
and it was the duty of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to accept it. He never but once, in
his nine years' experience as Chancellor of the

1879 DEUMMOND WOLFF 85
Exchequer, ventured to alter estimates given
him by the Chairman of the Inland Eevenue
Board, and in that instance only differed from
him as to how much revenue would be lost by
altering the incidence of the income tax.
I often wonder at the closeness with which
revenue estimates for a coming year are made.
In the eleven years during which I was Chairman
of the Inland Eevenue Board — thanks to the
efficient help of my advisers — the returns ex
ceeded my estimates only by 500,000Z. on an
average. Incidentally Drummond Wolff came under
discussion, and I told Mr. Gladstone that, with
one exception, I did not believe Wolff bore
animosity to anyone. As an instance of his
diplomatic talent, I told Mr. Gladstone that I
was once sitting with Wolff in the portico of the
Athenaeum when a notorious bore appeared.
Wolff was equal to the occasion and shook
hands with him warmly, saying : ' Good-bye
good-bye.' The bore was so taken aback that
he speedily retreated.
The next day arrived Lord Bath and Mr.
Dodson at Hawarden ; the former, whom I had

86 RECOLLECTIONS 1875-
always known as a Tory, had come over on the
Eastern question, and, like all converts, was
more Liberal than the Liberals.
Mr. John Murray came in time for dinner,
and there was interesting publishing talk. Mr.
Murray told us that Sir Walter Scott was, in a
money point of view, the greatest English author,
but successful only after his death ; and it was
sad to think how httle he and his family made
out of his writings, though probably not less than
400,000L had been reaUsed from first to last.
Then came in order Charles Dickens, Tenny
son, and Macaulay.
Shortly after I returned to London and
Somerset House, I received a long letter from
Mr. Gladstone on the subject of income tax
statistics, which he said he was sure, ' from the
high organisation of your Department,' I should
be able to answer. He was careful to add :
' My object is purely non-political, at least
not against the Government. I think I see my
way towards estimating the relative effects of
raUways, etc., on one side, free trade on the
other, in promoting wealth, which I think has
never been done.'

1879 MR. GLADSTONE AND JOBS 87
It is always a new source of wonder to me to
think of how inexhaustible Mr. Gladstone's
energies were.
Lord Hampton, at an advanced age, had
recently been appointed Chief Commissioner of
the Board of Civil Service Commissioners. His
appointment at the time was looked on as a job,
and Mr. Gladstone, to whom a job was like a
red rag to a bull, thought so also; Sir Ealph
Lingen, then Secretary to the Treasury, had
proved to me that Sir Stafford Northcote had
acted on his advice, and with the best motives.
I sent the papers and explanation to Mr. Glad
stone, who, it appears, had also heard from Sir
Stafford :
' Many thanks,' he says, ' for the figures re
Hampton. Northcote spontaneously supplied
the particulars contained in the letter within,
which I thought you might like to see. Here
upon I withdraw the word " job." '
Up to January 1881 the penny postage
stamp could only be used for postal and not
the ordinary inland revenue purposes, such as
receipts, etc. It seemed to me that numerous
involuntary evasions of this duty took place.

8S EECOLLECTIONS ' 1875-
simply because people in the transactions of
ordinary business did not always have the
revenue stamps by their side, and I made a pro
posal to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that
one stamp should be made to meet both postage
and revenue purposes. The Secretary of the
Treasury, now Lord Welby, in the interests of
statistical accuracy opposed it. Mr. Gladstone
sent for us and told us we were to enter the lists;
and tilt, and he would act as assessor. After
some argument Mr. Gladstone awarded me the
palm, and the change was ordered to take effect.
Henry Northcote sent me the following decree
on hearing of Welby's defeat : ;
' Libbete,
' FbATEE- [sta/inps2 NITE,
' Egalite.
' De par la Eepublique une et indivisible.
' Les soussignes out juge convenable de pub-
lier le Decret suivant : ;
' Le citoyen Welby, representant de I'ancienne
faction aristocrate intitul^e Whig, ayant et6
d^nonce comme suspect d'avoir parle centre la

1879 TILT WITH WELBY 89
fusion fraternelle des timbres ci-joints, est con-
damne par ce present aux peines suivantes.
' Les biens du citoyen Welby seront affectes
aux besoins particuliers des membres du Comite
du Salut Public soussignes, moyennant la somme
de vingt-cinq shillings (monnaie anglaise) dans
laquelle le citoyen Welby se trouve actuellement
debiteur a la Deesse de la Eaison par les mains
du citoyen J. A. Kempe.
^ En outre le citoyen Welby est serieusement
prevenu de se garder bien de faire aucune recla
mation centre cet arret sous peine d'etre con-
damne comme contumace et d'avoir la tete
tranchee par le bourreau public, le citoyen F. Bi
Garnett, sur la Place Somerset House.
' Vive la Eepublique !
Istamp]
' Vu et approuve, ' Eobespieeke.'
(Signe) Eobespieebe. Heebies. •
Danton. West.
Maeat. Montgomeey.
COLLOT d'Heebois. Keith Falconee.
St.-Just. Noethcotb.

90 RECOLLECTIONS 1875-
When Deputy-Chairman of the Board of
Inland Eevenue, I was deeply occupied with the
administration, and to my no small delight I
received the following letter from Mr. Lingen,
who was the distinguished Secretary of the
Treasury, and my pleasure was added to by
Mr. Gladstone's approval :
Treasury : February C, 1879.,
' Dear Mr. Algernon West, — Some figures
which I occupied the greater part of last Sunday
in getting out, bring out this most satisfactory
result, that, excluding a temporary and not
excessive addition to the non-effective change,
you were able — (1) To improve the emolument
of your outdoor service — a necessity long accu
mulated and postponed till the latest moment
that the safety of the revenue admitted — to the
extent of 80,000Z. per annum nearly ;
' (2) To make the sarae sort of change and
for the same reasons in your Legacy and Succes
sion Duties Office ;
' (3) To reform and stamp with a professional
character your Solicitors' Office ;
' (4) In all your Departments to provide for

1879 LETTER FROM LINGEN 91
the introduction of the Playfair scheme, by well-
considered present arrangements.
' All this for an addition of no more than
10,000Z. a year to your vote. It gave me sincere
pleasure to call the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
notice to these figures yesterday — who expressed
his warm satisfaction vrith them — and to tell
him that nineteen-twentieths of this good admin
istrative work was personally due to yourself,
supported by your Board. ' Very truly yours,
'E. E. W. Lingen.'
Algernon West, Esq.
To this I returned the following reply :
Board of Inland Eevenue : February 6, 1879.
' My dear Mr. Lingen, — I must thank you
very warmly and sincerely for your letter of to
day, which, I think, has given me more pleasure
than any letter I have ever received on official
matters, and I must also thank you for the
generous and kind thought which made you
write it.
' I wish I could end here without repudiating,
as I must in all fairness, the share you allot me
in the reorganisation of our offices.

92 EECOLLECTIONS 1875-

' For my own part I can onlyjtake a small
proportion, for without the approval and cordial
co-operation of my Chairman, and the help we
got from our secretaries and assistant-secretaries
in the office, I could have done very little. You
must let me consider your letter therefore as an
approval of the work of our Board, and in that
sense I will not be one atom the less grateful to
you for it.
' I am sure we should be ungrateful if we did
not thank you for all the patient labour you have
incurred in our behalf, and all the help we have
always had from you. 'Yours very truly,
'Algeenon West.'
E. E. W. Lingen, Esq., C.B.
I could not resist the pleasure of sending this
correspondence to Mr. Gladstone, who said in
answer : Harley Street : March 24, 1879.
'My dear West, — I need not say, and yet
cannot help saying, that I have read these letters
with much pleasure, but with no surprise.
' Ever yours sincerely, ;
'W. E. Gladstone.' .

1879 DUKE OF CONNAUGHT'S WEDDING 93

In May I took my daughter, Constance, to
Windsor, where I was in waiting, to the Duke of
Oonnaught's wedding. The Duke himself and
his pretty bride, with a childish little pout as if
S^he were going to cry, on the arm of her father,
the Eed Prince, in a very red uniform — all made
a pretty picture.
Of all the sights I have ever seen, and they
have been many, nothing ever smiles on me so
much as a religious ceremonial in St. George's
Chapel, with the music, the painted windows, and
the antiquity of the heraldic banners, which for
the moment, at any rate, make one think that
the Knights of the Garter may be proud of their
Order for other reasons than that ascribed to it
by Lord Melbourne.
In the autumn we paid a visit to Studley,
and were entranced with the beauty of Fountains
Abbey. From there we went to Castle Howard
— then occupied by Lord and Lady Lanerton
— the magnificent palace, built by Vanbrugh,
approached by a fine avenue of clumps of trees
converging on an obelisk raised in honour of
the great Duke of Marlborough, with splendid
fountains and garden statuary ; and inside,

94 RECOLLECTIONS 1879
the splendid picture of the three Marys — the
largest place, next to Blenheim, which I had
ever seen. We missed our connection at Thirsk
and travelled with the inspecting engineer,
whose coach only was attached to the engine,
which to us was rather exciting.

1880 95

CHAPTEE XV
1880
Announcement of the Dissolution — Mr. Gladstone's Second Mid
lothian Campaign — Herbert Gladstone's Candidature for
Middlesex — Letters from Mr. Gladstone — Adam's Prophecies of
Victory — Mr. Bright's Tribute to Mr. Gladstone — Lord
Beaoonsfield's Comment on the Tory Debacle — Mr. Gladstone
sent for to Windsor — The New Beer Duty — Mr. Gladstone's
Enthusiasm for Finance : his Wonderful Memory — Mr. Wat
ney's Testimony — Appointment of my Son Horace as Private
Secretary to Mr. W. E. Forster — His Experiences in Dublin —
The Arrest of Mr. Parnell : Elaborate Precautions — Mr. Forster
and his Eevolver — His Dislike of Police Protection — Anecdote
of Judge Barry — Narrow Escape of Mr. Forster at Westland
Eow in March 1882 — Father Healy's Wit — An Indignant
Archbishop.
On March 8 the secret of the dissolution was
publicly known. As a splendid instance of
that inviolable honour which pervades the Civil
Service of this country, I may tell the following
anecdote :
On the day preceding the announcement,
an official friend of mine, from his intercourse

96 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
with Sir Stafford Northcote, then Chancellor of
the Exchequer, became aware of what was
going to happen. On his way home from the
Treasury, he met a great friend of his not
blessed with an income which exceeded the
bounds of avarice, who was a candidate for an
English borough, and who told him he was
going abroad that evening, and yet my friend
ielt so bound by honour not to divulge a secret
which had come to him through official sources,
that he let the other start with the full know
ledge that on arrival at his destination he would
receive the news that would necessitate his
immediate return. Some there were who said
his conduct was Quixotic ; others, who rever
enced the sacred traditions of the Civil Service,
knew that he was right.
In March 1880 Mr. Gladstone threw him-
>self with unabated energy into his second Mid
lothian campaign. The enthusiasm he created
^was unflagging, and it was a sore moment for
me, tied by official restraints, to have to refuse
an invitation from Lady Eosebery to join the
.party at Dalmeny,
In the midst of the campaign Herbert

1880 IIEEBEET GLADSTONE'S CANDIDATURE 97
Gladstone was asked to stand for Middlesex.
It was a splendid opening, of which he availed
himself. My two sons, Horace and Eeginald,
attended his meetings and helped him. Mr.
Lowe, whom I met during the contest, assured
me that Herbert spoke as well or even better on
the platform than his father had spoken at his
age. I wrote to Mr. Gladstone saying how anxious
I was that Herbert should not let slip such an
opportunity, and he answered me from Dalmeny,
saying :
'A quiet, sober-minded man like me is
necessarily bewildered at your audacious pro-
peedings. Tell Herbert, if you see him,
he is constantly in my mind ; and I am so
delighted, though not surprised, to hear that
he has done well in speaking. Tell him to
take opportunities of expressing loyalty to
Granville and Hartington. Enthusiasm here
is at fever heat, and the meetings, especially
the great meetings, are better than in No
vember.' Herbert was evidently much in his thoughts,
for at the end of the week he wrote : .
VOL. II. H

98 RECOLLECTIONS 1880
Dalmeny Park, Edinburgh : March 27, 1880.
' My dear West, — I have in my mind the
possibility that the London elections may go ill,
and this may be used to discourage Herbert.
' In such case it may be well to provide him
with the means of showing by facts that London
does not always represent the country.
' Without referring to other occasions, the
election of 1841 would, I think, prove this. My
recollection is that the Conservatives were then
successful in the City, but were in a very small
minority of the Metropolitan representatives,
while they were in a majority of eiglity odd from
the entire country. This would not be difficult
to ascertain by reference ; will you, if you can,
kindly do it, and send him the result. I have
not named the matter to him.
' Experience has shown that you judged well
and wisely in encouraging him to stand. Had
I been on the ground, my heart might have
failed me, but I would not have stood in his
way. The accounts of him give me intense joy,
but no surprise. I think his face is worth a
thousand votes.

1880 LETTERS FEOM MIDLOTHIAN 99
' My election here is considered a moral cer
tainty. The enthusiasm is ungovernable ; it has
done us mischief in causing the Sheriff to post
pone the election ; he was sincerely afraid of
violence had he fixed Saturday — a great bore.
' On Monday I expect to decide finally my
public movements.
' A thousand thanks for all kindnesses, your
sons' included. ' Yours ever, ' W. E. Gladstone.'
A few days later I received the following :
Dalmeny Park, Edinburgh : AprU 1, 1880.
' My dear West, — Our enthusiasm keeps at
boiling point, and our computations are all to
the good. For Midlothian the only doubt in my
mind (but I am sensible of the difference between
objective and subjective certainty) is between a
middling and a really good majority.
' However, England seems less dependent
than I had supposed on Scotch teaching.
' Yesterday well bore out your anticipations.
We are only getting the first telegrams of to
day as I write. It will surprise me now if the
H 2

100 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
Government survive, and it is much to be wished
that if they fall they may fall heavily. As con-.
versely I was tempted to hope that if beaten we
should be decisively beaten.
' Wretched City ! If anything, it should be
financial. What a tale I could tell of it as a
financial authority !
' My last Midlothian speech stands for to
morrow. Continue to give Herbert a kindly
glance. ' I look upon yesterday as a dies alba, and as
an historic day.
' What are your present expectations ? You
will not, I fear, have this until Friday morning.
' Many thanks for all your trouble, and for
the abstract. ' Yours sincerely, ' W. E. Gladstone.'
Willie Adam had succeeded George Glyn
(who had become Lord Wolverton) as Liberal
Whip. Never was there such a prophet of the
victory which was coming in 1880. He never
varied in what I thought his exaggerated views
of the coming triumph, to which he. largely

1880 FOEECASTS and EESULTS 101
contributed by his aptitude for organisation and
by his great popularity.
When the elections began we used often to
dine together at Brooks's, and telegram after
telegram used to pour in, giving news of fresh
gains. ' If you want a seat,' he said, ' you have
only to go to Scotland, say you were Mr. Glad
stone's secretary, and you would walk in ! '
But amidst all the Liberal successes came
the sad news of my brother's defeat at Ipswich.
I had ventured to make a forecast of the
elections, which I sent to Mr. Gladstone. On
April 11 he wrote from Hawarden, where he had
returned after his Midlothian campaign, saying :
' My dear West, — What wonders ! Even
your cheerful calculations left far in the rear.
' Yours ever, 'W. G.'
Then came the rush of the election, triumph
after triumph, victory over victory, throughout
the length and breadth of the land.
Goschen repeated a story at Eipon which
I had told him.

102 EECOLLECTIONS 1880

I was dining at Lady Eipon's, and was told
by John Bright that he had met a lady recently
who had loudly abused Mr. Gladstone to him.
Mr. Bright said : ' Madam, have you any
children ? If so, show Mr. Gladstone to them,
and if you can get him to shake hands with
them, they will in after days thank you for
having shown them the greatest, the noblest,
and the purest of British statesmen.'
In a letter in which he acknowledged the
loan, Mr. Goschen said, ' I thought it a good
story for a large audience, and dragged it in by
the heels.'
Miss Agnes Hope told me that she was
staying at Hatfield during the Tory debacle of
1880, and heard Lord Beaoonsfield say to some
of the young men : ' Ah, this is only an episode
in your life ; it is the end of mine.'
While the elections were proceeding, Welby
gave us a dinner at the Garrick Club to celebrate
the engagement of our friend Bobsy Meade to
Miss Grenfell.
Dining one night shortly after the election
was over with Mr. Gladstone in Harley Street,
and before anything was known as to the

1880 LOED BEAOONSFIELD EESIGNS 103

resignation of the Tory Government, I sug
gested that when he came in as Chancellor of
the Exchequer he should repeal the malt tax and
impose a beer duty.
' Can it be done ? ' he said.
' Of course it can,' I replied ; 'it is in
operation in the United States now; we could
inquire how it is done there.'
Mr. Gladstone was doubtful as to whether
he should be in office at all.
Soon after this Lord Beaoonsfield resigned,
and first Lord Granville and then Lord Hart
ington were sent for to Windsor. The former
realised at once that the only man the country
wanted was Mr. Gladstone ; the latter, after a
vain attempt to form a Cabinet, declined 'the
task. On one of these evenings I was coming
honae from dinner and overtook Lord Granville,
and walked with him, discussing what was
going on, until we got near his house in Carlton
Terrace. Just as we got there a hansom drove
up furiously to the door, and two men said they
must see Lord Granville. The servant said it
was impossible. ' They said they would not go

104 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
away till they had got some news, and there
they stood. I left Lord Granville and went for
a policeman, whom I could not find, but meeting
Wolverton, we returned, to find the men still
there, who were only got rid of with difficulty.
They were touts for the Press, and had been
hanging about all day.
The next morning Mr. Gladstone was sent
for to Windsor, and accepted the combined
offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, The following morning
I was sent for to Harley Street, where I found
him at work.
' Send your inspectors at once to the United
States,' he said, ' about the beer duty.'
' I now think we can do it without that,'
I said, and we did it, thanks to Mr. Gladstone's
wonderful powers of perception and persuasion
and to Mr. Young's (who was then Secretary to
the Board of Inland Eevenue) knowledge and
power of imparting details.
Mr. Herries, the Chairman of my Board,
was ill during all the preliminary investigations
into the possibilities of the conversion of the
malt tax into a beer duty, and consequently I

1880 THE BEEE DUTY 105

had the great advantage of dealing direct with
Mr. Gladstone, and learning myself his wonderful
mastery of detail, his clearness and his accuracy.
Luckily for me I had as a coadjutor Adam
Young, a splendid type of the foremost of civil
servants, who was able to give Mr. Gladstone
all the minute details of the malt duty which
he had asked for, from the time the barley was
growing in the fields to the moment when it
was finished beer.
Visiting Whitbread's great brewery one day
with Mr. Young, I was wondering how success
ful the new beer duty would prove, when he
answered good-naturedly : ' Our business is to
inspect the brewery ; do not let us waste time
in thinking of what is going to happen in the
future,' a habit and control of mind which must
have contributed largely, I think, to his success.
One Sunday Mr. Gladstone met my daughter
coming out of the Chapel Eoyal, and asked for
me ; hearing I was away, he said he must trust
her with a great secret about the malt duty, and
gave her papers which she refused to speak of
even to my wife, and, I believe, sat on till my
return.

106 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
Mr. Gladstone himself revelled in financial
discussions, in which he was so splendid a
master and I so inapt a pupil. When one day
we arrived to keep an appointment with him,
we found him engaged on some question of
foreign affairs with, if I recollect rightly, a
colleague and an ambassador, whom he got rid
of, glancing at the clock and saying as he rose :
' Now I must go to those dear malt people.'
Mr. Gladstone's memory was simply mar
vellous ; he one day began the conversation by
assuming that under the malt tax the profit of
the maltster was 3 per cent, on the quarter of
malt. I interrupted him by saying it was 4 pet
cent. ' Surely,' he said, ' you told me it was
3 per cent, or how could I have got it into my
head.' I was sure of my ground, so with some
firmness I maintained my position. Turning to
Mr. Young, Mr. Gladstone said : ' Can you
recollect as far back as 1832 ? ' ' Yes,' said he,-
' and the profit was then reckoned at 3 per cent.
per quarter.' ' Ah,' said Mr. Gladstone, much re
lieved, ' I now see how I got that figure into my
head ; I was elected member for Newark in that
year, and I studied the Malt Question then.'

1880 DEFEAT OF THE BEE WEES 107

Fifty years ago — what a memory !
After his great Budget speech, introducing
the abolition of the malt tax and the substitu
tion of the beer duty, he left the details of the
Bill to be drafted by Mr., now Sir William,
Melvill, the solicitor to our Board, and the
details to Mr. Adam Young and myself. The
care that was given to it, and a few meetings at
Downing Street with Mr. Gladstone, settled all
difficulties, and the Government won an easy
victory in the House on a division raised by the
brewers as to the specific gravity, though Sir
Stafford Northcote, who knew nothing of the
technical question, supported them.
Mr. Watney, the great brewer, who had
worked the business himself as an operator, and.
was thoroughly acquainted with all its techni
calities and details, was chosen to fight the
various clauses and to insert amendments when
the Bill was in Committee.
When Mr. Gladstone had answered and
defeated a few of those which stood on the
paper, Mr. Watney rose from his place, put his
hat on, and came to me under the gallery, saying :
' It is no use my going on ; Gladstone knows

108 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
more of my business than I do myself ; he's a
wizard and I shall leave the House,' which he
proceeded to do.
During the progress of the Budget a mistake
was made from the fault of a change not having
been made in the original estimate. I was very
miserable about it, and after breakfasting with
Mr. Gladstone I said how sorry I was. He at
once said : ' I don't put any of the blame on you,
but even if I did I should not forget the part
you took in originating the change of duty.'
Mr. Gladstone often told me it was the
greatest financial revolution he had ever wit
nessed, and frequently testified to the ability of
my Department in bringing it to so successful a
conclusion. Sam Whitbread, who, of course,
was deeply interested in it and knew the diffi
culties of the change, often told me he marvelled
how it had been possible.
One day I was at Lord Eipon's house, and
Forster, who was with him, asked me to speak to
him ; to my surprise he asked me if my eldest
son Horace would become his assistant private
secretary. I replied that all I could say of him
was that, though he was very young and had

1880 ME. FOESTEE 109

had no experience, he was a gentleman and
would do his best, and that I should be glad
if on this understanding he would take him.
He had already been offered a similar place
by Lord Northbrook, but that was out of friend
ship for me, and this, I thought, would be better
for him. At first he was put to work far too
difficult for anyone without any experience and
he made some natural blunders, but it was not
till he had gone to Ireland with Forster that his
real value came out. On Forster's return, he
told me that no words could express the comfort
he had been to him, or his charm and popu
larity, which indeed, I heard on all sides. He
continued with him through all the terrible
dangers and troubles of the time, till the Chief
Secretary's resignation.
Forster was a Eadical of the Eadicals, with
a strong infusion of Socialism, which he showed
in dealing with the men in his employ. Out-
Avardly rough, as if hewn from a rock, he
had a vein of tenderness deep down in his
heart. He entered upon his Irish office full of
hope of what he was to do in reconcUing the

110 EECOLLECTIONS 1880
Irish, and gaining their hearts ; why he failed,
it is too early to determine.
The following is from my son's recollections
of his time in Ireland with him :
' Mr. Forster was appointed Chief Secretary
to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 1880, and
made me his private secretary in April of that
year. ' The Land League had obtained such a hold
throughout Ireland that he decided strong
measures were absolutely necessary, unless the
Irish Executive were to allow the leaders of the
Land League to govern the country, and in
consequence arrests were made throughout Ire
land. Some of the most important of these
were Davitt and Healy. Matters were in a very
critical state, and it was a fight between the
Land League and the Irish Government as to
which was to have the upper hand. Special
resident magistrates were appointed, and troops
were drafted into all the disturbed districts. In
spite of all these measures matters became
worse, and in October 1881 Mr. Forster con
sidered it necessary that Parnell should be
arrested. This was kept most secret ; a special

1880 MR. PAENELL'S AEEEST 111

meeting of the Cabinet was summoned, and Mr.
Forster went over to London by the night mail
to attend the meeting the next morning, leaving
a few officials who were in the secret to make
all the preparations necessary for the arrest,
should he obtain the sanction of the Cabinet.
Parnell was to address a meeting in Wicklow
the same day, and was to stay in Dublin that
night. The telegram came from Mr. Forster
after the meeting of the Cabinet, telling us to
have everything ready, and I remember dining
that night at the Club, and sitting with Colonel
Talbot, the head of the Dublin Metropolitan
Police, after dinner, when he got the report that
Parnell had returned from his meeting and was
at his hotel. Mr. Forster was on his way back
to Dublin, and everything was arranged that, on
his arrival the following morning, he should
drive at once to the Castle, sign the warrants,
and then go on to the Chief Secretary's Lodge.
Mr. Forster arrived at Westland Eow at eight
o'clock, and was out at the Chief Secretary's
Lodge at nine o'clock, having signed the war
rants on his way, and at 9.30 we received a mes
sage saying Parnell was lodged in Kilmainham.

112 ' EECOLLECTIONS 1880
We drove into the Castle at 10.30 and got
in before anyone heard of the arrest, which
did not become generally known until about
twelve o'clock. Sir Thomas Steele, fearing
serious riots, drafted artillery, cavalry, and
infantry into the Castle yard, and no outsider
was admitted. About seven o'clock we drove
back to the Chief Secretary's Lodge with an
escort. The police were doubled all round the
house, and six troopers of the Scots Greys were
put into the stables in case of emergency, and
during this state of affairs I remember at about
ten o'clock one night a Constabulary orderly
came out with a telegram from Clifford Lloyd,
stating that serious riots were taking place in
the west, and about half an hour later a Dragoon
orderly arrived with a telegram from the Queen.
We could not decipher it, as the Foreign Office
cipher was always kept in the Private Secre
tary's room at the Castle. Mr. Forster was
dead tired, and I told him that I would go into
Dublin and decipher it, and if there was any
thing to be done I would call him when I
returned. I changed my things and started to
ride into Dublin. When half-way through the

1880 AN ADVENTUEOUS EIDE 113
Phoenix Park I began to overtake the Dragoon
orderly, who, in very forcible language, asked
me who I was and my business, at the same
time warning me not to come too near him. I
gave an explanation which satisfied him, and on
coming up with him I asked the reason for his
apparent alarm, when he told me that riots were
going on in Dublin, and he had had to get out
of the town by a roundabout way, so as to avoid
the mob, and advised me to look out for myself.
I went on cautiously, trusting that if I saw any
cause for alarm I could turn round, having no
uniform which would attract attention. I
reached the Castle gates without meeting a
soul, but had to yell pretty loudly before I was
admitted. Once inside, I inquired of the Con
stabulary officer what had taken place, and was
horrified to hear that the unfortunate Con
stabulary orderly who had carried Clifford
Lloyd's telegram, had been stoned by the mob
and was only dragged through the gates partly
alive. It appeared that when he had been sent
¦out everything was quiet — the riots did not com-
jnence until half an hour afterwards ; conse
quently on his way back he knew nothing, not
VOL. II. I

114 RECOLLECTIONS 1880
having met the Dragoon orderly with the
Queen's telegram, who, as I have already said,
had come by a different route. I fortunately had
come behind the rioters, as they had gone on in
front of me, and turned down Sackville Street.
' All through this time it was well known that
Mr. Forster's life was in serious danger, and of
course threatening letters were not wanting,
some of them genuine, the majority rubbish.
It is a matter of history how marvellous were
his escapes from that dangerous gang, who
afterwards murdered poor Lord Frederick
Cavendish and Mr. Burke.
' As I had the privilege of living with Mr.
Forster at the Chief Secretary's Lodge, I con-*
sidered it my duty to accompany him always
when going into the Castle or returning home
at night ; and in Dublin, if ever he went round
to the Club for a rubber of whist before going
back to dinner, either I or my colleague, Mr.
Jephson, would go with him. Acting under
the advice of the police, we always carried
loaded revolvers, and well do I remember an
amusing incident arising out of this. On Mr.
Forster's return from the Cabinet meeting i&

1880 ME. FOESTEE'S REVOLVER 115
which I have already alluded, he said to me in
his study the following morning : "I bought a
revolver yesterday in London, but it seems to
me to be very awkward to get at." He then
struggled with his inside breast-pocket and
dragged out a cavalry "bull-dog" loaded in
every chamber, with the muzzle pointing up
wards. I persuaded him to let me take it and
put it away, and I gave him in exchange the
ordinary-sized " bull-dog ; " and with that he
and I used occasionally to go out into the kitchen
garden, put up a target, and have a shooting
match by way of getting our eyes in.
' All -this time a special detective followed
him about, and I did not envy him the long
hours he had to sit on his wooden chair outside
the door of Mr. Forster's room at the Castle.
We also had two mounted police who would
always follow the carriage in going and re
turning from the Castle ; and I remember one
evening, driving home in the dark, how Mr.
Forster, who was more than usually bothered
and worried over the Irish troubles, turned round
to me and said : " Are those fellows following
me?" On hearing they were, he said : "Tell

116 RECOLLECTIONS 1880
them to go home ; I don't mind if they do
kiU me."
'But I was able to dissuade him from this
course by pointing out that he would be putting
the : policemen in a wrong position, as, if any
thing happened to him and they had turned
back, they would be blamed ; so afterwards he
put up with them, although it was naturally
irksome to him.
'A sensational incident, which began in a
silly practical joke, of which I now feel rather
ashamed, took place on Christmas night. After
we had gone to the smoking-room, instead of
sitting quietly and chatting as might be ex
pected, somehow we began " bally-ragging "
(Mr. Forster had gone to bed), and from that I
ran out of the front door into the garden,
chased by the rest ; but a watchful policeman,
hidden behind a tree, and unaccustomed to
scenes of frivolity, rushed out and captured me,
much to the amusement of those following.
The pohceman, seeing the position of affairs,
apologised and retired. However, the spirit of
the fun had fled, and everyone was returning
to the house, when I complained bitterly to the

1880 A RISKY PRACTICAL JOKE 117
policeman who was usually at the Lodge of the
excess of zeal shown by his colleague. He
sympathised with me, and, entering into the
spirit of the thing, said : " He's new to the
business ; it's his first time out here." Then
suggested : " Look here, sir, you see him now
in the moonlight, walking up and down by the
haha. Well, put on my hat and coat, and see
if you can pass him. I dar'n't give you the
pass-word, but when he challenges you, say
you're the Inspector, and I'll see no harm comes
to you." I slipped on the coat and hat, and off
I started by a roundabout way so as to ap
proach the policeman on the path by the haha ;
the remainder of the party, with the friendly
policeman, crept along under the cover of the
bushes to within as near their object as was
safe, where they waited listening to the police
man pacing up and down on the gravel path ;
before long other steps were heard approaching,
and then the challenge of " Who goes there ? "
rang out, and was immediately answered, " The
Inspector; " and to the onlookers' astonishment
they saw the policeman stand aside and salute,
while " the Inspector " continued to march on.

lis RECOLLECTIONS 1880
At a corner of the garden under the shadow of
the trees the parties all met, and the originator,
fired with the success of the venture, said : " Go
on, sir, and you'll meet the patrol."
' I, flushed with success, continued to march
on through a bit of a coppice, when I again
suddenly received a challenge from behind the
trees, and immediately answered, as before :
" The Inspector." But this time the words were
hardly out of my mouth when I was roughly
seized by the collar of my borrowed coat, and a
bare sword placed across the back of my neck,
and the point of another policeman's sword at
. my throat, with the question : " Who the 
are you? "
' The friendly policeman hereupon thought
things were getting a little serious, and, hoping
to save bloodshed, rushed out from his hiding,
exclaiming : " It is Mr. West, of the Lodge ; for
God's sake do him no harm."
' The two police officers could not make it
out, and one retained his hold on me, with his
sword pressing my neck, while the other arrested
the policeman without his hat and coat ; then
came explanations, etc., and we were both

1880 JUDGE BARRY'S RETORT 119

released, but the two constables who had
arrested me said :
' " You may thank your stars, sir, there was a
moon, or we should have cut you down first
and asked questions afterwards, as the moment
you said you were the Inspector, in reply to our
challenge, we knew it could not be as it was not
his footstep we had heard, and seeing you in
a policeman's uniform we thought something
must be up."
' About this time, I think it was, Judge Barry
came over to dine, and I can see him now,
standing with his back to the fire before dinner
in the drawing-room, and Mr. Forster, who was
late back from the Castle, coming in saying :
' " Well, and how's that God-forsaken County
Galway of yours going on ? "
' He replied with a twinkle in his eye, and his
strong Irish brogue :
' " Not God-forsaken, Mr. Forster, but Govern
ment-forsaken county."
' One other event showing the great risk Mr.
Forster ran of having his life taken came under
my personal notice.
'It was in March 1882 Avhen Mr. and Mrs.

120 RECOLLECTIONS 1880
Forster were to return to London for the Par
liamentary session. Mr. Forster, as usual, had
gone into the Castle in the morning, and was to
join Mrs. Forster and his daughters at Westland
Eow Station in the evening, and travel by the
night mail. When we arrived at the Castle,,
Jephson, who lived at Bray, asked Mr. Forster
to go down with him by an earlier train and
dine with him at the Yacht Club ; but Mr.
Forster said he did not think he should have
time. ' The day wore on, and as usual we were very
busy, when about half-past five Mr. Forster's
bell rang and Jephson went in to him, and,
coming back to our room, said :
' " The Chief is coming down v^dth me to dine
at the Yacht Club before going on board the
boat," and left me one or two things to do that
he might catch the train with Mr. Forster, who
asked me to meet Mrs. Forster at Westland
Eow, and tell her he would meet her on
board. ' I dined at the Club in Dublin and met Mrs.
Forster at the station, where I took the tickets,.
and at the time I noticed there was a very large

1880 FATHEE IIEALY 121

crowd : indeed, it was with difficulty I managed
to get to the booking office, and on going on the
platform it was with still more difficulty I
helped Mrs. Forster to the carriage reserved for
the Chief Secretary ; and when we were in,
there was a continuous crowd with many in
quiries as to " W^here was the Chief Secretary ? '*
' At the time I put this down to mere curiosity,
but afterwards, at the trial of the " Invincibles,"
it came out that they were there with the in
tention of murdering him ; and they got a large
crowd to attend to facilitate their escape after
the foul deed should have been done.
' During the time I was in Dublin I came
across many interesting people, amongst them
Father Healy, so well known for his witty
sayings and amusing stories. One of them I
remember about a very tall young lady, called
Miss Lynch :
' " Nature," said he, " gave her an inch and
she took an ell."
' On one occasion, when walking with a friend
from Dublin to Bray, his friend called his atten
tion to some small girls bathing in the sea, with
the remark :

122 EECOLLECTIONS 1880

' " What wretched spindle-shanks they have
for legs ! "
' Father Healy answered, " Sure and you
wouldn't expect such heifers to have calves ! "
' One story, though against myself, may be
worth telling ; When first I went to Mr. Forster
I used generally to be given the less important
correspondence to attend to, and I remember
noticing one morning, on arriving at the Irish
Office, the uninteresting looking letters which
were on my table. I opened one, written in a
bad handwriting, covering two sheets of fool
scap, giving the writer's views on the Irish
Question, and suggesting many remedies. The
letter began: "Dear Sir," and ended up,
"Yours faithfully, J. Ebor," and somewhere
in the corner was the word "York."
' After reading the letter, I did not think
it was worth troubling Mr. Forster with, so
acknowledged it in the usual way, and stated
that the matter would receive attention. I
addressed the reply to " J. Ebor, Esq., York,"
thinking at the time that the address was scanty,
and that probably it would come back to me
through the Dead Letter Office. I should not

1880 <J. EBOE, ESQ.', 123
have thought anything more of the matter, but
two days later I received an indignant letter from
" J. Ebor," informing me that he was the Arch
bishop of York, and he thought it gross ignorance
for anyone in the position of a private secretary
not to know the usual signature of the Archbishop
of York. I wrote a long letter full of apologies,
which I only hope pacified his Grace's indigna
tion.'

124 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-

CHAPTEE XVI
1880-1881
Correspondence with the Eipons — Letter from Lord Sherbrooke —
Mr. Gladstone on the Beer Duty Bill and the Board of Inland
Eevenue — All-night Sitting in the House— Companionship of
the Bath : Mr. Gladstone's Letter — Trip to the Eiviera with Sir
John Eose— A Parisian Dinner — Nice and Monte Carlo — Sir
John Eose's Britannic Mood — Ill-health and Eesignation of
Herries — Appointed Chairman of Inland Eevenue Board —
Letter from Sir Ealph Lingen — Eetirement of Alfred Mont
gomery — His Career and Personal Charm and Wit — ' Not one
of the Public ' — Eebuke to a Private Secretary — Trip to Corsica
in the 'Pandora'. — Visit to the Pietri Family — Ajaccio —
Expeditions in Sardinia— Eeturn to Walmer.
In May I went to Charing Cross to see Eipon
off as Governor-General of India, and met him
and Northbrook on the platform ; the latter said,
alluding to me : ' He was my best correspondent
when I was in India.' So Eipon begged me to
write to him as I did to Northbrook. I did
so till later in the year, when Lady Eipon
joined him in India; I then transferred my

1881 LETTEE FROM LOED SHEEBROOKE 125
correspondence to her, and we kept it up regu
larly nearly every week during her absence.
When I first had joined the Board of Inland
Eevenue, I studied Sir Stafford Northcote's
' Twenty Years of Financial Progress,' and set
myself, by way of an educational process, to
write twenty years more. I sent what I had
said of Mr. Lowe's chancellorship to him, and
received from him the following letter : —
July 11, 1880 : 34 Lowndes Square, S.W.
' My dear West, — I have, as you may well
believe, read your paper with the greatest
pleasure. I have no criticisms to offer, but am
very much obliged to you for all the trouble
which you have taken to put my proceedings
fairly before the public. The only other person
who has ever, as far as I know, said a good word
for me was Mr. Noble. I was, if I must confess
the truth, so much disgusted at having the
crowning result of all my labours taken from me,
as if my work had been a complete failure, that
I have purposely avoided finance as a subject
on which I might speak unadvisedly with my
lips, and am consequently quite unable to offer

126 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-
any advice or suggestion. Your account coin
cides exactly with my own impressions.
' With many thanks for the pleasure you have
given and, I may add, the justice you have
done me, believe me, ' Very truly yours
' Sheebeooke.'
Encouraging as this was, I never had the
audacity to publish what I had written.
The Beer Duty Bill was passed without much
further discussion, and in August Mr. Gladstone
wrote to Herries and myself :
August C, 1880.
' Dear Mr. Hetries, — I avail myself of one of
the earliest moments of returning capacity for
business to write to you.
' Let me first thank you for the great ability
and no less conspicuous patience with which you
have assisted me in the rather arduous matter
of our Inland Eevenue Eegulations.
'Will you also perform for me the very
pleasing duty of conveying my thanks to those
who haive assisted you and me from the day
when we first opened the subject until now.

1881 LETTER FROM MR. GLADSTONE 12 i

' I can only say that I have been always accus
tomed to look back on the business transacted
with the Inland Eevenue Department in former
years as coming nearest among all my experience
to what I should consider a model on their side
of good public service, and that that experience
of former years has been completely revived in
the transactions of the last three months.
' W. E. Gladstone.'
10 Downing Street, Whitehall : August 6, 1880.
' My dear West, — I have written a note to
Mr. Herries in the terms of which you are
officially included ; but when I am a little better
and more free, I must either orally or by letter
give you a separate word on the subject of good
service done in connection with the malt and
beer duty. ' Believe me, ever sincerely yours,
'W. E. Gladstone.'
' I must tell you the pleasure it has been to
me that you should have had so large a share in
the initiation and execution of this great change,
certainly the largest that has ever been under
taken by your Department, .except the putting

128 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-
on the income tax, and I am not sure that it is
not greater than that.
' The value of your initiation aiid first work
ing of it was very great. 'W. E. G.'
Of the success of that measure it is impos
sible to speak too highly. There has never
arisen a proposal for a change in the Act, which
speaks volumes for the ability of the draftsman,
Mr. MelvUl.
There is great simplicity in its working, and
the tax, being on the finished article instead of
the raw material, has been a vast improvement.
The financial effect (for those interested in
figures) has been as follows ;
Duties equivalent to the present
beer duty, viz. : — Malt and
sugar used in brewing and
brewers' tax : Average for
five years to September 1879 £8,730,000
In the last financial year the
beer duty (which was in
creased by 6d. a barrel in 1895)
produced .... £11,826,129

1881 ALL-NIGHT SITTING 129
In this month there was an all-night sitting
in the House of Commons, from four o'clock one
day till one o'clock the next day. On one or
two occasions I went down to see the House
still sitting, as a curiosity. I was present in
the House when all the Irish members were
named and expelled — a melancholy sight, which
I shall never forget.
In August Mr. Gladstone asked me to go
with him on his trip in the ' GrantuUy Castle,'
but I thought I ought not to go away, as my
Chairman, Herries, was ill.
In October Mr. Gladstone gained his great
triumph over the Turk, whom he caused to
evacuate the Dulcigno district by a threat of
taking Smyrna — the European concert lasted
just long enough.
In that month I was walking across the
Horse Guards Parade with Mr. Gladstone,
when he asked me if he might submit my
name to the Queen for the honour of the
Companionship of the Bath. I told him I
was flattered by his offer, but for several
reasons I would rather decline it. We then
parted, but on the next day I received the
VOL. II. K

130 EECOLLECTIONS 1880-
foUowing letter, which, of course, overcame my
refusal : 10 Downing Street, Whitehall: October 4, 1880.
' My dear West, — I think the enclosed ought
to remove any scruples you have about accepting
the Order.
' If you do not care to be congratulated on
becoming a Companion, you will, I know, be
willing to accept congratulations (which are
hereby conveyed, and conveyed in large measure),
on your having further earned the marked appre
ciation and high approval of the great and dis
tinguished man.
' This, I know, will be a pleasure to you, and
it is a pleasure, a great pleasure, to me to wish
you joy accordingly. ' Yours always sincerely,
'E. Hamilton.'
10 Downing Street, Whitehall : October 4, 1880.
' My dear West, — I hope you will allow me
to submit your name to the Queen for a Com
panionship of the Bath, which is, as you know,
the first step on the ladder of the Order.
' I think that such an acknowledgment is

1881 TRIP TO THE RIVIERA 131
due to the high quality and very considerable
length of your service for the State and to its
agents in very responsible positions, to which no
one can bear either a better-informed or a warmer
testimony than myself.
' As a friend I have great pleasure in making
this proposal, and as a Minister I am especially
gratified to make it at a time when you have
given such marked and efficient aid in the intro
duction and adoption of a change which I hope
may remain memorable for good in the annals
of your Department.
' Believe me, sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'
In December I started from Charing Cross
with Sir John Eose for a trip on the Eiviera.
In our carriage was Mr. Stephen, now Lord
Mount Stephen, and some others, who were
going over to Paris on matters connected with
the Canadian Pacific Eailway. On our way
Mr. Stephen received a telegram from some
great financier in Paris, asking all the party,
in which Eose and I were included, to dine
with him that evening. On our arrival I swore
K 2

132 EECOLLECTIONS 1880-
that nothing should induce me to go unless
I was allowed to dress. We were received at
the station by a very smart gentleman, who
received my protestations by throwing open his
surtout and showing himself in spotless linen
and a very beautiful frock coat : declared he was
not dressed, and no one would be. I was very
miserable, for dinner to me without change of
clothes was always most unappetising, and after
a long journey it was horrid. However, carriages
were waiting, and we were bundled into them
and driven to a gorgeous villa in the Pare
Monceau, where we found, to make us more
uncomfortable, everybody en grande tenue, and
most of them decorated. The banquet was like
one of those described by Dumas in ' Monte
Cristo.' We were received in a nearly unfur
nished room covered with beautiful tapestries,
which noiselessly parted and showed us a table,
a mass of flowers and silver. Every guest had
seven wineglasses, and I verily believe, in spite
of his protestations, that Eose drank seven
wines. It was my first experience of such- a
Parisian dinner. ~ After it the host and his son
handed us coffee and cigars.

.1881 ON THE RIVIERA 138
The following evening Eose and I started for
Nice, where we arrived about five o'clock the
next afternoon, and were cordially received by
Lady Eose, her daughter, Mrs. Stanley Clarke,
and Mr. J. S. Morgan.
It would have been impossible to have desired
a, more agreeable party.
We were lodged at the Grande Bretagne.
One day we went to Villefranche ; on another
we dined at the Eeserve and made acquaintance
with Thackeray's historical Bouillabaisse, of
which I was not worthy ; and the next day Sir
John and Lady Eose made that beautiful drive
along the seashore to Monte Carlo, a very
paradise of sinners. The Mediterranean was
dazzlingly blue, and the sun entrancingly warm ;
but what creatures of moods we all are, men and
women alike! Many is the laugh we had in
after times at Eose's Britannic mood that day.
Three remarks throughout that romantic drive,
and three only did he make : (1) ' What a
beastly glare ! ' (2) ' What a hideous tree a
palm is ! ' (3) ' I wish that d  rd dog would
gtop barking.'
We chaffed him good-naturedly, and X

134 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-
paraphrased Macaulay's ' Ode on a Yorkshire
Jacobite : '
To my dear wife I sacrificed with pain,
Comfort and home, business and hopes of gain.
Saw Lombard Street in each Loinbardian plain
And wept by Arno for my Bank again.
We stayed three or four days at Monte Carlo,
and on to San Eemo and Geneva, where official
ties forced me to say good-bye to my dear friends.
The next year (1881) poor Herries' health
was beginning to fail, and the discussion of the
Budget again fell in great measure on my
shoulders. Other matters prevented Mr. Gladstone from
having the time necessary for a thorough re
vision of the death duties, but he dealt partially
with the probate, not accepting my earnest
advice that he should unify the duty, somewhat
in the way advocated yearly by Mr. Dodds. I
wrote volumes on the subject, and my only
satisfaction was in knowing that afterwards
Mr. Gladstone acknowledged to me that I had
convinced him that I was right. This he
repeated to me again on board the ' Pembroke
Castle ' in 1883.

1881 APPOINTED CHAIEMAN 135
Herries' health had broken down under his
weight of responsibility in the spring, and he
never sufficiently recovered to come back to
work. A position of a deputy or a locum tenens
is not an enviable one, but my responsibilities
had been lightened and my work had been
rendered more easy, not only by the generous
support from the best of all Departments, but
by the constant intercourse with Lord Frederick
Cavendish, who was Secretary to the Treasury,
and who was the pleasantest man to do business
with that I could imagine.
Late in the month I was fishing at Netherby,
when we were asked to Hawarden. After
much consideration, seeing that the question of
Herries' resignation was imminent, I felt it
better to make an excuse, to avoid any idea that
I was going there with a purpose, so my wife
and daughter went alone and I returned to
London. Going back to dinner on November 11, my
servant told me that Mrs. Gladstone had called
to congratulate me on my appointment to the
Chairmanship of the Board of Inland Eevenue !
I had heard nothing ; but in the evening I

136 EECOLLECTIONS 1880-
received this letter from Mr. Gladstone, which
the messenger had put in his pocket and for
gotten to deliver :
10 Downing Street, Whitehall : November 11, 1881.
' My dear West, — Sir C. Herries has placed in
my hands the resignation of his office, and this
proceeding, now virtually accomplished, enables
me to proceed (subject to the consideration I
have to mention) to the fulfilment of a duty
most agreeable to me, both on public and on
private grounds ; the duty of requesting you to
assume the Chairmanship of the Board of Inland
Eevenue. ' As you are aware, proposals have for some
time been before the public in different quarters,
which, if taken up by authority, might hereafter
issue in very large and important changes in the
administration of the revenue, and might involve
the making up of the existing machinery with
either the severance of what is now united, or
the consolidation of what is now separate. There
is one duty, and one only, which I think now
devolves upon the Government in reference to
this subject ; it is that of securing to itself, on

1881 ME. GLADSTONE'S LETTEE 137
every occasion of a new appointment, an absolute
liberty of action for the future. Consequently
it should be understood in your case, the first
which presents itself, that nothing in the nature
either of a vested right, or of an expectation, is
to grow out of the change I now propose, but
that the office and its conditions will remain
subject to the future pleasure of Parliament and
of the Government. You will understand my
motive in establishing this understanding, and
you also will know the spirit in which from time
to time, under our system of government, such
understandings are conceived and applied.
' I have only to add that in the event of your
acceptance I mean to propose to Mr. Adam
Young that he should take the deputy chair.
' Believe me always,
' Sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'
A. E: West, Esq.
We were naturally delighted at my appoint
ment, and that it should have come from Mr.
Gladstone. I was proud, too, at being the
youngest Chairman that had ever occupied that

138 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-
position, though after my retirement I am
happy to say that all my successors have been
appointed at an earlier age.
I was much pleased with the letters of
hearty congratulation I received from many old
friends, including Sir George Grey, Sir Charles
Wood, Sir Stafford Northcote, and Sir William
Stephenson, who had preceded Herries as
Chairman ; and one from Lord Northbrook,
recalling the early days of our official inter
course at the Admiralty. Sir Ealph Lingen's
I am tempted to reproduce : 17/11/81.
' Dear Mr. Algernon West, — I congratulate
you on succeeding to the Chairmanship of your
Board — a great position — and less likely than
ever to be an easy one.
' I am confident you will discharge the duties
with ability and courage — the latter quality
being one considerably more in request than
supplied under successive Governments.
' You and the Treasury will have the advan
tage of being able to rely on each other.
' Chamberlain's statement about the eve of
change was probably misinterpreted as a revela-

1881 ALFRED MONTGOMERY'S RETIREMENT 139
tion of Cabinet secrets. I agree with him that
it is an opinion which no reflecting and intelli
gent person can fail to hold.
' The next generation of administrators in
excelsis will not lack matter to try their mettle.
' Yours very truly, ' E. E. Lingen.'
Herries' retirement was preceded by that of
Alfred Montgomery, my oldest friend, who had
been kind to me since boyhood, and had indeed
urged upon me to go upon the Board, as he never
wished for promotion himself.
When the vacancy for the Deputy- Chairman
ship arose, he wrote to Lord Beaoonsfield
begging not to be considered as a candidate. I
was appointed with his approval, but unfor
tunately for me, Lord Beaoonsfield meeting him
a few days afterwards, said :
' My dear Alfred, I wish you had let me
nominate you for the deputy chair.'
Then came a little clouding over of our friend
ship. I knew it was not my fault and I deeply
deplored it ; but the cloud soon passed away and
our old friendship was renewed. He was the

140 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-
most genial and social of companions, with a
large and long experience of society. He had
been Lord Wellesley' s private secretary, a friend
of D'Orsay's and all the dandies of that day ;
was endowed with extraordinary good looks and a
bewitching attraction of manner which endeared
him to everybody. He was one of the old school
of officials, who never failed to brighten and
illumine all the dull details of routine work.
Walking down to Somerset House one day,
he passed through Leicester Square, where the
ceremony of opening was to take place in the
afternoon ; the gates were shut, so he walked up
to the constable on duty : ' Not open,' he said,
' sir, to the public till after two o'clock.'
' I am not one of the public,' said Alfred,
with his most magnificent manner. ' I beg your
pardon, sir,' said the constable, and the gates
flew open.
One day at the Board, a canon of the Church
wrote and asked if he must pay licence duty for
a carriage which was used only for taking his
infirm parishioners to church on Sundays.
' What do you say, Montgomery ? ' said our
Chairman. 'Oh,' answered he, with the delight-

Walker &BQlilan.ph,SD

CL^/Zred^ CLy£n.^

'o/n,e^f^.

881 MONTGOMERY'S HUMOUR 141
ful little stammer which served as an ornament
rather than a drawback to his speaking, ' tell
the canon that the Board will not insist on the
old people going to church.' Another of our
colleagues murmured, ' I -wish, people would not
ask us hypothetical questions which legally we
cannot affirm, but practically we disaffirm.' The
latter was too subtle for us to understand.
On one baking hot day the Chairman's private
secretary came into the Board-room with his
coat off. Montgomery was much shocked, and
as the secretary was leaving the room he called
him back and said : ' Mr.  , if you should find
it convenient in this hot weather to take off your
trousers, pray do not let any feeling of respect
for the Board stand in your way.'
His sense of humour and wit lasted till the
end ; one day during his illness the Prince of
Wales called on him and shortly afterwards the
Princess. On her departure he said to his
servant :
' Should the Queen call, say that I am too
tired to see her Majesty.'
Curiously enough he once told me that though
he had been in the Queen's household since her

142 EECOLLECTIONS 1880-
Majesty's accession, she had never once spoken
to him. We had another colleague who lived out of
town, and always to our amusement came up by
the 7 o'clock train, because — as he said — he liked
the engine driver. As he complained one day
of a bad headache, Montgomery said to him :
' Please do not come up to-morrow, I will do
your work and you can stay at home.'
' Oh ! ' said he, ' I can't ; I've got people
staying with me ! '
How much he felt his retirement from the
Board was shown by this short note :
5 Bolton Eow, Mayfair, W. : July 21.
' My dear Algy, — Thanks for your kind note.
' The hour of parting is indeed a sad one —
more painful than I ever thought it would be.
Indeed it must be some days before I am equal
to coming to Somerset House or saying " Fare-
weU." ' Yours affectionately, 'A. M.'
Alfred Montgomery complained of having been
bitten at a certain country house to Lord  ,

1881 CRUISE IN THE 'PANDORA' 143
who was more remarkable for his conversational
powers than his personal cleanliness :
' I have never been bitten there,' he said.
' No,' said Alfred, ' even bugs must draw the
line somewhere.'
On December 13, leaving the Board in
charge of Adam Young, I started for a trip on
Mr. Morgan's yacht ' Pandora,' which he had
hired from Mr. W. H. Smith at Villefranche.
Sir John and Lady Eose and Mrs. Mason made
up our party, but, sad to say, no Mrs. Clarke.
It would be impossible to imagine a more
delightful host than Mr. Morgan, who was
absolutely devoid of the unconscious insolence
of wealth which is possessed by many successful
millionaires. On the 17th we embarked at early dawn
and started for Bastia, in Corsica, where we
were met by the President of the Chamber of
Commerce, who apologised for not being en
grande tenue, and acted as cicerone in a dull
little, commonplace town.
The next day we reached lie Eousse, a
rugged, ruddy coast, as its name shows, with
high hills behind and olives everywhere. We

144 RECOLLECTIONS 1880-

breakfasted with the Pietri family, the head of
which was a Corsican, and private secretary to
Napoleon III. His little chMeau was two or
three miles up in the hills, surrounded with
gardens of citron and oranges ; a villa,ge and
church were perched on the summit of the
mountain. The house was approached by steps
through open verandahs. There was a small
library moderately filled with books, and many
portraits of the Buonapartes and the Paoli
families, and a very fine picture of the Pitti
Palace at Florence. All the floors throughout
the house were of brick. We were ushered into
the salon, where a magnificent dejeuner was pre
pared. One of the ladies there told us all the
history of Paoli and Corsica, of which he was
considered the liberator. The inhabitants, she
said, were still all Buonapartists at heart.
The son of Prince Napoleon was now the
one they looked to for the re-estabUshment of
the Napoleon dynasty.
We were offered wild boar and moufflon
hunting, if we would stay. They showed us a
pretty little church, and then we returned in a
very rough gale, from which, however, the yacht

1881 AJACCIO 145
was protected. They suffer terribly here from
droughts, or the inland parts would be very fer
tile. Nothing could be more interesting than
our visit to this picturesque country of moun
tains and green valleys, with fruit trees and
myrtles. Mr. Morgan is received everywhere in
France with enthusiasm, for he made the first
great loan to them at the time of the siege' of
Paris. We stayed stormbound, which drove
Eose frantic, as he really in his heart hated
yachting, or indeed being away from his dear
London ; but Lady Eose's wit and spirits never
flagged. In spite of the wind, we reached Ajaccio on
the shortest day, a day of sun and warmth.
Colonel Haggart met us at the fort and took
us all for a drive to see the birthplace and the
home of Napoleon. The furniture was old and
broken, but very fascinating. They told us that
an old woman, niece of Buonaparte, still lived
there in great poverty.
We had a stormy crossing to Terra Nuova,
passing all the glorious mountain scenery of the
Straits and the islands round Sardinia, including
a glimpse of Garibaldi's home in Caprera.
VOL. II. L

146 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
We made some expeditions by rail in Sar
dinia, and again encountered a boiling, snappy
storm on our way to Naples, with which, I con
fess, I was disappointed. The Bay equalled all
I had anticipated, but the town itself fell far
short of what I had imagined and pictured to
myself. After staying here a short time we
saw Capri and Sorrento, and revelled in the blue
seas and the dazzling sunshine. We went to
Leghorn and passed Spezzia, and there was a
talk of a hurried visit to Eome ; but I person
ally was determined not to go there till I went
with my wife, who was so looking forward to
showing me the place, where, before our mar
riage, she had spent two happy winters with
her grandmother, Lady Grey, and her mother;
and so I was glad when the yacht rolled by on
our homeward journey to Villefranche.
I went straight to Walmer, and spent long
evenings discussing the changes we were to
make at a little place called Wanborough we
had taken not far from Guildford, which my
wife was working hard to get ready for our
reception.

1883 147

CHAPTEE XVII
1882-1883
Site and History of Wanborough — Changes in the Govermuent —
Eesignation of Forster — Lord Frederick Cavendish's Appoint
ment — News of the Phoenix Park Murders — Funeral at Chats-
worth — Mr. Gladstone at the Guildhall — Arrest of Mr. Parnell —
Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Gladstone — Visit to Hayes —
Lord Eandolph Churchill on tlie Inland Eevenue Board — Mr.
Gladstone's Defence — Harry Keppel's Eeminiscenees of Lord
Saltoun— Origin of Sailor's Blue Collars — Invitation to join the
Cruise in the ' Pembroke Castle ' with Mr. Gladstone — Start
from Barrow — Miss Laura Tennant — In Scottish Waters —
Arrival of Sir William Harcourt and Sir Andrew Clark — The
Laureate's Eeading — Question of his Peerage — Visit to Kirkwall
— Mr. Gladstone's Speech — Across the North Sea in a Fog — Talks
with Mr. Gladstone — Landing at Christiansand — Copenhagen —
Dinner at the Palace — Visit of the Eoyalties— The Princess of
Wales and Tennyson — Eeturn Home- -Miss Tennant's Charm-^
Her Visit to Wanborough.
Wanboeough was an old-world manor-house,
which is described by Green in his ' Making of
England ' as being on the ' Hog's Back ' on the
North Downs, a spot which, in all probability,
has been a sacred site for every religion which
L 2

148 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
has been received into Britain from the time of
Woden, from whom it derives its name, which
was originally ' Wodenborough.'
The manor was granted by William the
Conqueror to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of
Essex, who was a Crusader of not irreproachable
morals, and was excommunicated on his death.
The Templars, proud of his achievements, yet
not daring to incur the Papal displeasure by
burying him, put his body into a coffin, and
hung it up on the trees of their garden till the
excommunication was removed, and he was
buried in the Temple Church, where his effigy
now is : the only instance, I am told, of a knight
with a flat-topped helmet.
The manor was subsequently seized by
Stephen, and given by him to Pharamus de
Bologna, who sold it to the Abbey of Waverley.
At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry
VIII. bestowed it on his Lord Treasurer and
Lord Admiral, the Earl of Southampton, in
whose time (1537) the present manor-house
was built. Adjacent to it is one of the oldest
churches in England, dedicated to St. Bar
tholomew. It was some time after our taking

1883 CHANGES IN THE GOVERNMENT 149
it that we discovered that my wife and I were
both equally descended from Lord Southampton,
through Eachel, Lady Eussell.
In the spring of 1882 changes in the Govern
ment affected me very considerably. W. E.
Forster resigned his office as Chief Secretary for
Ireland, and my son Horace, being his secretary,
fell out of official employment, though for a time
he remained with him. Everybody was sorry,
and Lord Spencer asked and obtained a clerkship
for him in the House of Commons, from Sir
Erskine May, who had already told my wife what
pleasure it would give him to help any descen
dant of Lord Grey's.
Mr. Gladstone wished Lord Hartington to
go as Chief Secretary to Ireland, but on his
refusal he determined to send his brother. Lord
Frederick Cavendish, who was then Financial
Secretary to the Treasury. It was a great
wrench to him to tear himself away from an
office which brought him into direct communi
cation with Mr. Gladstone, and from work in
which he delighted ; but the post he was offered
was one of great difficulty, and of vast responsi
bility, and I do not believe he hesitated for a

150 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
moment in his unselfish determination to do his
duty. I deeply regretted the loss he would be
to me ; and on my way to Somerset House I
called at the Treasury to say ' Good-bye,' but he
had not arrived, so I went my way feeling I
would postpone my leave-taking till his return,
for he was only going to accompany Lord
Spencer on his entry into Dublin, and to return
on the following Monday to wind up affairs at
the Treasury.
I had not been at Somerset House for an
hour, before I got a note asking me to go and
see him, which I did. He told me it was not a
real ' Good-bye,' but he did not want to go with-i
out a shake of the hand.
The Press had singularly undervalued his
character and his powers, and I was glad to find,
on returning to my office, an appreciative notice
in the ' Economist,' one of the few papers who pro
perly valued him and his appointment. I cut it
out and sent it with a note to Lady Frederick,
and on my way home I came across John Morley,
the editor, and Yates Thompson, the proprietor, of
the ' Pall Mall Gazette,' and told them how utterly
wrong they were in their estimate of the man.

1883 THE PHCENIX PARK MUEDERS 151
He had, at any rate, undertaken the post of
difficulty with courage, and a determination to
carry to that distracted country a ' message of
peace.' How it was to be received we learnt the
following day.
Horace and I had gone for Sunday to Wan
borough, where, as we were at dinner, we were
startled by the terrible news of his assassi
nation, which had been telegraphed to us from
London. On the Saturday evening, my wife and
daughter were at the Admiralty, where Lady
Emma Baring had been entertaining the Duke
and Duchess of Edinburgh and a large party at
dinner. People were still arriving, when Sir
William Harcourt came and immediately took
Northbrook aside, and told him the awful news
that had come from Dublin. They got Lord
Hartington up into the First Lord's private
room, and told him of his sad loss.
Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone had been dining
elsewhere ; he had walked home, and Mrs.
Gladstone was stopped at the door of the Ad
miralty. It was, I think. Lady Louisa Egerton,
who drove off at once to Carlton House Terrace

152 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
to prevent Lady Frederick Cavendish coming to
the party, as she had meant to do.
The news was not generally known that
night, but in one way or another a sensation of
something being wrong pervaded the people at
the party, and it broke up at an early hour.
Immediately Mr.- Forster waited on Mr.
Gladstone, and generously and gallantly offered
to go over to Ireland temporarily to administer
Lord Frederick's vacant post. This, however,
was not to be ; Sir Charles Dilke refused the
terribly responsible office, which was filled by
Sir George Trevelyan.
During Sir George Trevelyan's first visit to
the Secretary's. Lodge in Phoenix Park, he went
to the window and pushed aside the curtain,
and underneath itis folds lay the blood-stained,
coat of poor Frederick Cavendish, which had
never been removed from the room into which
his body was first brought after the murder.
I went to his funeral — the most impressive I
had ever seen — at Chatsworth, and shortly after
wards saw Lady Frederick, who gave me his
photograph, taken after his death ; there was a
sweet smile on his face, and it was difficult to
believe that he had been the victim of a

1888 MR. GLADSTONE AT THE GUILDHALL 153
violent death. A nobler, purer soul never was
released. In October I went down to the Guildhall to
see the Freedom of the City bestowed on Mr.
Gladstone. Before he began his speech I heard that
he was expecting a telegram from Dublin an
nouncing Parnell's arrest.^ It soon came, and
was evidently a relief to him, as he appeared
anxiously awaiting it. He immediately said,
in an almost painful silence :
' Within these few minutes I have been
informed that towards the vindication of the
law, of order, of the right of property, and the
freedom of the land, of the first elements of
political life and civilisation, the first step has
been taken in the arrest of the man who has
made himself prominent in his attempt to
destroy the authority of the law, and substitute
what would end in being nothing more or less
than anarchical oppression exercised upon the
people of Ireland.'
There was an outburst of cheering, which
' It has been pointed out to me by Sir Edward Hamilton that
my chronology is wrong ; Parnell was imprisoned and released
before the Phoenix Park tragedy.

154 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
saddened me when I thought of all that it
meant, and how the Irish troubles were thicken
ing around us.
The following short correspondence may serve
to illustrate the friendly personal relations which
always existed between Mr. Gladstone and his
old private secretary :
10 Downing Street, Whitehall : June 24, 1882.
' My dear West, — I observe that Northcote
and others of his friends on the front bench have
observed a temperate and Parliamentary course
in questions about Egypt, while many of the
supporters have been unruly, and their unruliness
appears to have received distinct countenance
from the speech of Salisbury last night in the
House of Lords.
'I do not like to offer public acknowledg
ments to Northcote on this ground, as I am
afraid I might increase the difficulties of his posi
tion, which it is one of my primary duties to avoid.
' If you had an opportunity of letting his son
know informally that these are my ideas I should
be obliged to you.
' Believe me, sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'

1883 MR. GLADSTONE AND SIR S. NORTHCOTE 155
June 27, 1882.
' My dear Mr. Gladstone, — I yesterday had
an opportunity of communicating to Sir Stafford
Northcote the substance of your letter to me of
the 24th. He expressed himself as much grati
fied at your recognition of the conduct of the
front Opposition Bench in trying to avoid
embarrassing the Government during the present
crisis. He is fully conscious of the difficulties
which surround the Government, and intends to
avoid, as far as possible, adding to them. Of
course, he added that he made no secret of his
disapproval of the Government policy, which
he probably will, before very long, express in
public. ' Yours,
' Algeenon West.'
Et. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.
In November we were staying with Everard
Hambro at Hayes, in Kent, the historic house
in which Lord Chatham lived and died, and
where William Pitt was born. I had often
when there walked over to church at Wickham,
where many of the Wests were buried, and
notably Gilbert West, who was a friend of Pitt's,

156 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
and to whom a great mural tablet is erected.
His house, now inhabited by Miss Brownlow
Hall, was in the village, and she, hearing that I
was at Hayes, sent me, through Mrs. Hambro, a
photograph of it, and one Sunday Horace and I
went to thank her. She lived there with her
sister, and showed us most kindly over the
house, which she had added to since Gilbert
West's time, and evidently took a great interest
in the family and the place.
On June 1, 1883, 1 went to see Mr. Gladstone
on the subject of Lord Eandolph Churchill's
motion on the recent order of my Board, for
bidding Inland Eevenue officers to use Parlia
mentary influence to obtain additional salaries ;
he said: 'Of course you are coming down to
the House ? ' I said : ' I have no intention of
doing so, as I think Lord Eandolph is quite
capable of alluding to me as Serjeant Buzfuz
did to Pickwick, saying : " Let me tell the
defendant, if he be in court, that it would haye
been more decent in him, more becoming, in
better judgment and in better taste, if he had
stayed away." But if you really insist on
my going, I will, of course.' ' Certainly,' he

1883 ME. GLADSTONE'S DEFENCE 157
said, ' you have got me into this, and must not
desert me.' So he took my arm, and we went
down to the House together, where I had to sit
under the gallery, listening to a most violent
personal attack on me and Northcote. It was
evident that Lord Eandolph was only the mouth
piece of somebody else, and had not got up his
lesson as well as usual.
Then rose Mr. Gladstone, and by his
eloquent defence more than compensated me
for the pain I had endured at Lord Eandolph's
hands. He said : ' Mr. West is a gentleman
who has risen step by step to a high position in
the public service ; and every one of those steps
has been achieved by energetic and able exer
tion. The duties of a private secretary are
most arduous, and those of a private secretary
to the Prime Minister are certainly arduous
far beyond aU others. And it was Mr. West's
merit, and nothing else, which led to his
appointment; an appointment subsequently
recognised by our political opponents, so that
he stands in the position of a gentleman whose
ability has been acknowledged by both sides of
the House.'

158 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
Complimentary words followed from Sir
Stafford Northcote, Childers, and my old friend
Sam Whitbread, the motion was defeated in a
small dinner-hour House by 120 to 37, and I
went away triumphant, and took the news to
where my wife was dining. It is pleasant to
think that in later years, when Lord Eandolph
and I came to know each other better, this inci
dent was entirely forgotten.
One day at dinner Harry Keppel, who came
to meet Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, told us that
when he was taking Lord Saltoun, as Com
mander-in-Chief, to China, he asked him
whether there was any truth in the oft-repeated
order of the Duke of Wellington, ' Up, Guards,
and at them ! ' at Waterloo.
He said, 'None,' and he ought to have known,
for there he had commanded the light companies
of the 2nd Brigade. He was standing by the
Duke when the Guards were lying down, and
he heard the Duke call up an aide-de-camp and
give him some orders, which he galloped off to
execute. On his return he saluted the Duke,
and fell back to the rear. In a few minutes the
Duke called him up, and said :

1883 HARRY KEPPEL'S STORIES 159

Did you deliver my orders to General ¦

' Yes, your Grace,' said the aide-de-camp.
' And what did he say ? '
' He said he'd see your Grace d  d first.'
The Duke took up his glass and looked in
his direction, and leant over to Lord Saltoun,
saying, ' By G  he's right.'
Harry Keppel also told us that the blue collars
worn by sailors had their origin in the dressing of
the pigtails, which Harry recollected, when a
blue cloth was put on the men's shoulders to
keep the grease off their jackets ; the pigtails
disappeared, and the coUars remained to this
day. I was at Wanborough in September when I
received a message asking me if I would join
Mr. Gladstone and his party in a cruise round
the west coast of Scotland in the ' Pembroke
Castle,' one of Sir Donald Currie's line of Cape
ships. We were to embark at Barrow. I hesi
tated, but my wife and daughter persuaded me
not to miss such an opportunity of again being
with Mr. Gladstone ; so, on September 7, after
dining with Lord Welby and Sir John Eose
at the Oxford and Cambridge Club, I started

160 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
by the midnight train from Euston to Barrow,
where I arrived at about ten o'clock on the
morning of the 8th, and, finding a brother of
Sir Donald Currie's, I went with him on board
the ship. She was Ijing in a narrow channel
by Peel Island, the captain rather anxiously
awaiting the Prime Minister, to get out of the
channel, as it was blowing pretty stiffly, and
there were only a few yards to spare when the
vessel swung at her anchor. At about five or
six o'clock Mr. Gladstone and his party came
off, under a heavy swell, in a steam tug. The
party then consisted of Mr., Mrs., and Miss
Mary Gladstone, Miss C. Gladstone and Herbert
Gladstone ; the Poet Laureate — ^Alfred Tennyson
— and his son Hallam ; Arthur Lyttelton,
Sir Donald Currie, Sir Arthur Gordon, and
others. In half an hour afterwards came Miss
Tennant, who had been kept behind, and how
she came I don't yet know ; but this I do know,
that I am grateful that she arrived, for she
became the heart and soul and glory of the
whole party, and entranced everybody, from the
sailors to the Prime Minister, with her charm
and cleverness, her good-humour, and her over-

1883 ON THE 'PEMBROKE CASTLE' 161
Howing spirits, which placed everybody at her
feet. One of the sailors whom she asked whether
he was married, looked at her and said, ' Yes,
Ma'am, I am sorry to say I am ; ' and this
she said was the highest and most subtle com
pliment she had ever received. We immediately
got under way, and proceeded to Eamsay Bay
tinder a breeze and cloudy sky, where we
anchored for the night.
On Sunday, the 9th, at 5 a.m. sleep became
difficult from the noise of weighing anchor, so
1 went on deck as we passed through the Mull
of Galloway and rounded Ailsa Craig, which
was covered with shrieking sea-birds. At about
eleven o'clock we had a full Church service in
the saloon, Arthur Lyttelton officiating, and Mr.
Gladstone reading the lessons. We passed the
afternoon in a strong breeze and heavy rain, but
the ' Pembroke Castle ' cut through the waves
with hardly any motion at all. We anchored
that night off Jura. On the 10th the rain had
ceased and the weather cleared, though it was
still blowing fresh when we anchored at Oban ;
here we were met by Sir James Eamsden, and
taken in his yacht ' Jessie ' into the bay ajad
VOL. II. M

162 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
then round to Dunstaffnage Castle, where we
landed and met Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, who
had driven there. The sun had come out bril
liantly and the little bay was lovely, and the
sea a cerulean blue. On the llth we sailed
through the Sound of Mull, passing Tobermory
and the dreaded Ardnamurchan Point, till we
came opposite Loch Hourn ; here we got into
Mr. Currie's yacht, and sailed right up into the
loch. I had a long talk to Lord Dalhousie, who
had joined our party at Oban the day before.
Nothing could have been lovelier than our sail
through the sunny little loch, covered with fish
ing boats just returned from the herring fishing.
On re-embarking on the ' Pembroke Castle ' we
repassed Ardnamurchan, and just as we were in
the midst of our tumble we were hailed by the
burly form of the Home Secretary, who stood
on the deck of a little yacht hardly big enough
to hold him ; and so at the most inopportune
moment we stopped and took him aboard, with
his son. Lulu, and then on again to Tobermory,
which we entered for dinner, before which Sir
Andrew Clark, Lady and Miss Clark joined our
party.

1883 SIR ANDREW CLARK 163
It was impossible to knoM'- Mr. Gladstone
well without becoming acquainted with his
.^sculapius, Sir Andrew Clark. A Scotsman
of pronounced opinions on most subjects, he was
rugged and dogmatic in his assertions and his
conversations on religion as well as medicine.
His admiration of Mr. Gladstone was almost as
great as Mr. Gladstone's faith in him. Many
are the good stories — too well known to be
repeated — of his emphatic directions to his
patients. He always declared that no one ever
was known to have died of old age..
Lord Granville, dining with him when Presi
dent of the Eoyal College of Physicians, asked
the company if in their long experience they had
ever known a case of cause following effect.
They all denied its possibility. ' Not even,' said
Lord Granville, ' when the doctor follows his
patient to the grave ? '
Sir William Harcourt was full of the joke
of my having been described in the newspapers
as ' The Hon. and Eev. Algernon West.' Our
party were by this time getting to know each
other well. We had settled down to our places
at dinner, though there was always a contest as

164 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
to who should sit near Miss Tennant, and we
were really sorry for any addition to our party.
Sir William directly after dinner proposed to
smoke, saying he was sure the Poet Laureate,
who had sung of
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
would not object. Mr. Tennyson, who had
given one the impression of being somewhat
farouche and rough at first, had soon softened
down. We had many pleasant conversations
together, and he had begun reading to our
small party, at the instigation of Miss Tennant,
in the smoking-room in the mornings and
evenings. He was very much offended on one
occasion by detecting Mr. Gladstone apparently
asleep during his reading ; oddly enough he pre
ferred his dramas to his other poems, though
he was fond of reading ' Maud ' and the
' Grandmother.' I never joined in the chorus of
thanks and admiration of his reading, but I think
he saw I was an appreciative listener, for he
always insisted on my being present. One even
ing the men and boys on board sang to us, a
cabin-boy calling on Mr. Gladstone and Mr.

1883 A PEEEAGE FOE THE LAUEEATE 165
Tennyson to join him in his chorus. Sir Arthur
Gordon had with him a Fiji servant, a fine-
looking fellow in costume, who showed us how
to kindle a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood
together. On leaving Tobermory we rounded Ardna
murchan, for the third time trying to get to
Staffa and lona, but it was too rough, so we
went inside Skye to Gairloch, where we arrived
at mid-day; here we all landed in the rain.
Mrs. Gladstone, Dalhousie, Miss Tennant, and
Herbert and I started walking towards Loch
Maree, but after a couple of miles carriages picked
up all but Herbert Gladstone and myself, who
returned to the ship and fished.
About this time sprang up a question as
to whether Tennyson should be made a peer
and I was intrusted with the negotiations,
which were rather amusing, and ended ulti
mately in the affair being settled and the
peerage accepted.
On arriving at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, we
were accompanied by the burgesses of the town
and saw St. Magnus' Cathedral, subsequently
going for a long drive to see a prehistoric

166 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
tomb, where ' we had luncheon ; on our return
we drove to the Kirk, where the freedom of
the town was presented to Mr. Gladstone and
Tennyson, Mr. Gladstone making a most touch
ing speech. There was something rather comic
in the chapel arrangements, and Miss Laura
Tennant, in whom the sense of humour was
always keen, could hardly control her merri
ment, but when Mr. Gladstone spoke it changed
into a phase of rapt attention, as he spoke
for himself and for the Poet Laureate : ' The
words,' he said, ' we speak have wings and fly
away ; the words of Mr. Tennyson are of a
higher order. I anticipate for him immortality.
In some distant time people will say, looking
at your roll, " The Prime Minister, who was he ;
what did he do? We know nothing about
him, but the Poet Laureate has written his own
song on the hearts of his countrymen, which
can never die." '
Nearly all the town had closed its shops in
honour of the occasion and so everybody bought
photographs at the only shop that was open, and
this turned out to be that of a Tory who had
refused to shut his.

1883 MR. GLADSTONE ON LORD LYNDHURST 167
A thick fog had now set in, which was not
propitious for crossing the North Sea, which
had been determined on, for Tennyson had sug
gested a run across to Norway. A young lady of
our party, however, thought a fog was safe at any
rate, and said she was sure that if it became
rough in mid-ocean. Sir Donald, who was so
kind, would anchor at once ! The fog lasted all
night and we suffered from the terrible sirens,
and in the morning we felt our way out, but it
came on worse and was very disagreeable, seeing
all the boats being provisioned, lights being
fastened to life preservers, fog-horn blowing, etc.
However, about eleven o'clock it cleared, and
we went ahead full speed.
I had a very long talk to Mr. Gladstone on
financial matters. Talking of Lord Lyndhurst's
life, which was being written, he said that of the
six Lord Chancellors he had sat with he thought
him the most useful as a Cabinet Minister. Once
when he was consulting him on some Parliamen
tary question connected with Lord John Eussell's
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, Lord Brougham was
present. Lord Lyndhurst was then crippled and
infirm. Lord Brougham said : ' Ah, Lyndhurst,

168 RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
how I wish I could give you some of my walking
powers in exchange for some of your brains ! '
Then we talked of how the Government had
maintained its strength after the secessions of
the Duke of ArgyU, W. E. Forster, and John
Bright ; he said the Duke being a peer had not
much weight, that Forster's obstinacy was most
extraordinary when Secretary for Ireland, and he
knew of no one instance in which he had taken.
his advice or profited by his experience ; Bright's
resignation, he said, had he shown anything but
the loyalty with which he had acted, would
have been very serious.
We passed John o' Groats, where I am told
we rolled a bit, but I was asleep, and after a*
splendid run, about mid-day on the 14th, the
sea running very high, we approached Norway,
taking on board a pilot, in the clever manage
ment of whose boat Mr. Gladstone was much
interested. About three o'clock we all landed
at Christiansand, a little town, bright, clean, and
built of white painted wood ; then we drove seven
miles through a green, prosperous, fair country to
a fiord, crossed the river hi punts, and went to see
a great steam sawmUl, where all the pine trees

1883 COPENHAGEN . 169
were sawn up and thrown into the river, where
they floated down till at certain points they were
collected and made into rafts. All the peasants
looked prosperous and well-to-do in their little
holdings. The ponies were like small Eoman
horses with high manes hogged ; on reaching
the river we got into a small passenger steamer
and returned through pretty wooded banks
to Christiansand, where we re-embarked and
sailed for Copenhagen ; we arrived there at
about half-past five on Sunday evening, Sep
tember 16, having had service going up the
Sound, past Elsinore, where I had been twenty-
eight years ago with Jervoise Smith on our
return from the Baltic. Nothing could have
been prettier than our arrival in the afternoon
sun at Copenhagen ; C. Vivian and Gosling, the
Secretary to the Legation, came on board, and
the latter took me for the Poet Laureate, and
told me how delighted the King and Queen were
to welcome me in their dominions. After dinner,
Herbert, Miss Tennant, and a little party of us
landed and went to Tivoli, which was lighted up
by the electric light and innumerable lamps on
all the trees and over all the lakes ; nothing

170 . RECOLLECTIONS 1882-
could exceed the lovely effect. The music and
the behaviour of the people were admirable. I
saw a private soldier standing there, and asked
Mr. Gosling if he was a regular or a Landwehr.
He said : ' Oh, a regular ; let me introduce you to
him, he is a nephew of the King.' I asked
him to come and see the 'Pembroke Castle,'
but he said his military studies and duties gave
him no time ; he had to serve three years as a
private. We were all invited to dine at the Palace
on the following day ; but happily it was decided
that only six should go, so Arthur Lyttelton,
Herhert Gladstone, and Miss C. Gladstone,
Miss Tennant and I, after having seen Copen
hagen all the morning, dined with Gosling and
his pretty daughters at Tivoli, where we had
an excellent dinner, charming music, and then
went to his apartments to hear music again till
near twelve o'clock, when we joined the party
from the Palace at the quay and re-embarked
with them.
Sir Donald Currie gave us a pleasant
account of the dinner at the Palace, where he
was charmed at the cleverness and simplicity of

1883 ROYALTIES ON BOARD 171
the Eoyal family — the dinner, the wine, etc.
We heard that the whole party was coming to
luncheon on board on the following day.
Next morning we all went ashore again
and bought crockery, flowers, etc., and got back
by one o'clock to see the royalties come aboard,
which was a lovely sight ; they came in great
state barges from the Eussian and Danish yachts
which were in harbour — forty-one in all. The
party included the Czar and Czarina and Czare-
witch of Eussia, and, I think, a younger brother ;
the Czar a magnificent man in uniform, the
Czarewitch a thorough Tartar-looking face, but a
jolly boy ; the King and Queen of Denmark — she
must have been very pretty — Crown Prince and
Princess and their son ; King and Queen of Greece
and their children ; Princess of Wales and Prince
Eddie and his sisters ; Princess Mary of Han
over, Prince John of Gliicksburg, etc. Never
was there such an assembly of royalties on a
ship before. They had not been on board three
minutes when the Czar had disappeared, having,
as I afterwards ascertained, got hold of the
engineer and gone to examine every part of the
ship and her machinery. Andrew Cockerell and

172 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
Miss KnoUys were in waiting on the Princess
of Wales, and reproached me for not having
gone to dinner at the Palace last night. All
the foreign Ministers in Copenhagen were there
also. I had been busy with Mrs. Vivian, at Sir
Donald Currie's request, in trying to arrange
where all the royalties should sit at luncheon,
but I avoided going down myself. The Czar
said he would rather be King of Denmark with its
peasant proprietors than Czar of All the Eussias ;
he was an object of immense interest to me as
being so personally great : the other royalties
were surrounded by constitutions, ministries,
public opinion, etc., but he could go to war
to-morrow if he liked of his own motion. At
luncheon Mr. Gladstone in a few words proposed
the health of the King and Queen of Denmark,
the King thanking him in English; he then
proposed the health of the Czar and Czarina,
the Emperor returning thanks in French.
I kept in the background, but the Princess
of Wales spoke to me and introduced me to the
King of Greece. After luncheon it was pro
posed that Tennyson should read something,
and on his saying that ' one man could lead a,

1883 HOMEWAED VOYAGE 173
horse to the water, but ten could not make him
drink,' the Princess of Wales said, ' Oh, but I
can,' and led him up to the little smoking-room,
where, surrounded by all these crowned heads,
with his great wideawake on his head, he read
the ' Grandmother.'
As soon as the royalties had disembarked we
got under way and left the harbour amid the
cheers and salutes of the Eussian and Danish
men-of-war, the sailors manning the yards. We
took some time warping our ship out, and only
caught sight of the Danish yacht steaming into
Elsinore as we passed by in the gloaming. The
weather and glass were somewhat threatening,
but we got through the windy zone and steamed
under a glorious moon across the North Sea,
arriving in the Thames on the evening of the
19th — after sighting the low-lying lands of Yar
mouth, and the fishing fleet off the Dogger
Bank — and ran up till about eight or nine o'clock,
when we anchored, meaning to get to Gravesend
early on the next morning, but a heavy fog kept
us still until ten o'clock, when we ventured up,
passing some emigrant ships, who cheered us, off
Oravesend and Tilbury Fort, where we landed

174 EECOLLECTIONS 1882-
and had a great reception. On reaching Down
ing Street I went to try to get Lord Granville
to come with Mr. Gladstone to Wanborough ;
but he was away, so our party fell through and
I went alone, to find Lady Grey there.
Our cruise had in every way been a marvel
of success. It had done Mr. Gladstone and all
of us great good as far as health was concerned,
and our visit to Copenhagen was full of interest.
I felt very grateful to everybody, and everybody
felt very grateful to Miss Tennant, who had
really been the life and soul of the whole party.
To describe her to those who never came
under her charm would be far beyond my power,
while those who knew and loved her would never
consider any description of her as adequate.
She was a woman of the greatest genius I had
ever come across : possessing a marvellous
vitality and a heart full of the real enthusiasm of
humanity, and large enough to hold the entire
world. She was not of very striking beauty, but
had a soft, appealing, and almost pathetic look of
sympathy with those she talked to. Those who
have read her unpublished stories can alone speak
of their charm and pathos. When shortly after

1883 MISS LAURA TENNANT 175
our cruise she said she was coming to Wan
borough, I deeply regretted having praised her
and spoken of her in a way which in another's
eyes could not but be extravagant. My wife
was not a woman given to sudden and violent
friendships, but Miss Laura came and conquered
her, as she had conquered all she ever met, and
my praises became only a faint echo of what my
wife thought of her.
Soon after my return we had a pleasant visit
from Lord Granville and Mrs. Stephenson, the
latter for a good long time. In October we
went to Walmer, which was as usual pleasant ;
the Eussian and Danish Ministers were there,
and one night Sir Evelyn Wood came, on his way
back to Egypt. He talked a great deal, and was
full of praise of the Egyptian soldiers and con
tempt for their officers, who, he said, were the
first to run at Tel-el-Kebir.

176 RECOLLECTIONS 1884

CHAPTEE XVIII
1884
Mr. Gladstone on Free Trade and Protection — Anecdotes of Lord
Lytton — General Gordon's Mission to the Soudan — Meeting at
the War Ofiice — Gordon's Demand for Zebehr — Lord Acton's
Library — Panizzi's Last Days — Conversations with Mr. Morley
and Lord Acton — Mr. Gladstone's Portrait at Somerset House
— Funeral of the Duke of Albany — Lord Lyons and George
Sheffield — Conversations with Lord Granville — Cabinets and
Gossip — Earthquake in London — Lord GranviUe at Wanborough
— Mr. Gladstone on Seceders — Letters from Sir Erskine May
¦and Sir John Lambert — Anecdote of Bishop Percy and Mr.
Justice Maule — Mr. Gladstone on Lord Eandolph ChurchiU —
Xiberals Improved as Speakers by Secession — Mr. Gladstone's
Height — Dynamite Explosions in London — Mr. Browning's
Story of Euskin — Mr. Gladstone's View of Froude's ' Carlyle ' —
Tenniel on the ' Puncli ' Cartoons — Charles Clifford's EecoUec
tions of Eogers and the GreviUes — Hallam Tennyson's Wedding
— A Thursday Breakfast with Mr. Gladstone — ^The Lords and
the Franchise — Death of Lady Halifax — Welby's Suggested
Inscription for Mr. Gladstone's Bust — Miss Tennant and her
Sister visit Wanborough — Lord Northbrook's Mission to Egypt
— His Quixotic Loyalty — Mr. Gladstone and Abraham Hayward
— Death of Lord AmpthiU.
On January 2, Mr. Gladstone, Frederick Leveson-
Gower, Eddie Hamilton, Henry Keppel, and

1884 TABLE TALK ON FEEE TRADE 177
Lord Morton, dined with us. Mr. Gower told
us when Free Trade was carried. Lord George
Bentinck bet him 20Z. Protection would be re-
enacted within two years. Mr. Gladstone said
that was not so absurd a bet at the time as it
appeared now ; Lord George Bentinck was alive,
and his death' made great changes. Had he
lived he would probably have coerced Derby,
and between them they would have kept Disraeli
under, and made a strong fight for Protection.
When Lord Derby left the Cabinet he said he
disapproved of Free Trade, but that when it was
carried he should do all he could to support it ;
yet in the beginning of 1849 he announced he
should do all he could to oppose it, having been
persuaded by Lord George Bentinck, whose life,
had it been spared, would have affected politics
very much.
After that the Leadership was offered to
Goulburn, who declined it, and a triumvirate
was appointed — Lord Grantham, Herries, and
Disraeli; the two former spoke for Protection,
but Disraeli threw them over and soon esta
blished himself as Leader of the Tory Party.
Neate, who was Member for Oxford City,
VOL. II. n

178 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
was a Freetrader till Protection was abolished,
then became a Protectionist, and published a
book on the subject.
Sir Eobert Peel, to his death, believed that a
strong fight would be made for Protection, ' a
womanish superstition.'
After dinner, whist was proposed by Mr. L.
Gower, but Mr. Gladstone said it might affect
his head ; he told me his constant marvel was
how well the Beer Act had worked, and said he
should like a collection of photographs of those
men with whom he had been closely associated
in official life, not M.P.'s, but Civil servants.
A few days later, at Eeginald Capel's we
again met Mr. Gladstone, and were discussing
Lord Lytton's ' Life.' Lord Essex told us how
he had met Lord Lytton at a wedding, when he
said : ' Are you come to one of these intolerable
necessities ? '
Talking of the lines supposed to be written
by the son on his father's election for Hertford
shire, which had this verse :
Who came from Hertford in a chaise.
And lavished anything but praise
Upon the Author of my days ?
My Mother.

1884 GENEEAL GOEDON 179
Lord Essex said Lord Lytton's influence with
the Press prevented their ever being published.
In the beginning of the year the Press was
clamouring for Gordon to be sent out to Egypt.
Gordon had passed a life of perpetual warfare as
an engineer in the Crimea, as a commander of the
' ever-victorious army ' in China, and as Governor
of the Equatorial Provinces of Central Africa.
In 1880 he had, oddly enough, accepted the post
of private secretary to Lord Eipon, Governor-
General of India, a post which he resigned on
reaching Bombay, and had again gone to China
at Sir Eobert Hart's request, to mediate between
Eussia and China. He then accepted the
Commandantship of the Colonial Forces at the
Cape, which he resigned in 1882. Subsequently
he entered the service of the King of the
Belgians in the Congo, from which he was
recalled by the English Government. On
January 10 a meeting was summoned of those
Cabinet Ministers who happened to be in town,
at the War Office, where Gordon was asked to
meet them.
They consisted of Lord Granville, Lord Hart
ington, Sir Charles Dilke, and Lord Northbrook.

180 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
At this meeting Gordon agreed to go to
Suakim to report upon the best means of giving'
effect to the policy of the Government. Gordon
was to act under Evelyn Baring, to which he'
made no objection. He did not think the
Mahdi's insurrection very serious, as the tribes
under him would not be ready to go very far
from their homes.
It was further arranged that Gordon was to
perform such other duties as might be entrusted
to him by the Government through Evelyn-
Baring. The ' Helicon ' was ordered to take him to
Suakim : but his original orders were extended
to enable him to go on a mission via Korosko'
on the Nile, to withdraw the garrison from
Khartoum. Gordon applied for the services of Zebehr,
the old slave-owner ; but though Mr. Gladstone
thought he ought not to refuse any instrument
required by our Agent, the Cabinet would not
face the appointment of a man with so baneful
a character. Gordon, instead of withdrawing
the garrison, reached Khartoum, where he pro
claimed the independence of the Soudan and

1884 PANIZZI'S LAST DAYS 181
sanctioned the retention of slaves, and established
•himself at Khartoum. The catastrophe that
awaited him we all know now.
On February IG I dined with my wife at Mrs.
¦Gladstone's ; Sir Walter and Lady James, John
Morley, Lord Acton, and Spencer Lyttelton were
there. After dinner we talked about libraries.
Lord Acton saying he had over 30,000 historical
volumes ; ' and,' added Mr. Gladstone, ' he knows
the exact shelf on which every volume is.' This
brought us to Panizzi, and his sad, ill days before
his death, which Mr. Gladstone attributed greatly
to the fact of his living in Bloomsbury Square,
which he did to be near his dear British Museum.
It was out of the way, and he was much worse
•off than Abraham Hayward during his later
days in St. James's, where his friends could
and did look in and cheer him up. Lord Gran
ville was calling on Panizzi and making excuses
for the rarity of his visits, when the poor
old man said very irritably, ' I hope you!ll
never come again.' But he soon recovered
. his temper, as who would not with Lord
, Granville !
A literary controversy was talked of between

182 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
Panizzi and one Mazzini, who, as Lord Acton
said, wanted in the revolutionary days to pub
lish all the manuscripts in the Vatican. His
namesake, the great Mazzini, and Saffi, who
married a cousin of mine, Miss Crawford,
wished to destroy St. Peter's, as the symbol of
Catholicism. After dinner I had a long talk with John
Morley about the state of politics and the House
of Commons. He had a high opinion of the
power and ' nimbleness ' of Lord Eandolph
Churchill, but hoped for the sake of all parties
that he would never lead any.
He regretted the failing health of Sir Stafford
Northcote, and remarked that the class of men
who made a game and an occupation of politics
alone was new.
Home with Lord Acton and talked of the
prospect of Mr. Gladstone being able to retire
from active political life, which seemed to me to
lessen as he grew older.
It was in this year that Mrs. Gladstone sent
us an engraving of Mr. Gladstone for our Board
Eoom at Somerset House, and I, as chairman,
had to thank her for it.

1884 FUNEEAL OF DUKE OF ALBANY 183
Board Eoom, Inland Eevenue, Somerset House :
March 7, 1884.
' My dear Mrs. Gladstone, — I must send you
the sincere thanks of the Board and myself for
the beautiful print that you have presented to
us of Mr. Gladstone.
' To us who have had the honour and delight
of serving under him, the value of it is indeed
great. ' To those who succeed us it will serve as a.
recollection of the greatest Chancellor of the
Exchequer that has ever lived, while to all of us
it will give a noble example and inducement to
strive and, at a great distance, humbly to follow
him in his career of unselfish devotion to public
duty.
' Algebnon West.'
On April 5 I attended officially the funeral
of the Duke of Albany at Windsor. It was a
fine sight, as all military pageants in St. George's
are. The Queen was there near the coffin,
which was borne by Seaforth Highlanders.
Somewhat of the impressiveness was taken off
by the fact of the poor Prince's health and

184 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
occupations having been so very unmilitary as
to make a military funeral very incongruous.
The sun shone out in the midst of the service,
and Chopin's music was very effective.
On coming to town, I sent my .daughter,
Constance, off with Lord and Lady Granville vid
Leatherhead, while I followed with F. Leveson-
Gower vid Gomshall to Holmbury. The whole
GranviUe family. Sir George Dasent, and Lord
Lymington were there, as well as Lord Lyons, our
Ambassador at Paris, with his ' Fidus Achates,'
George Sheffield, who did all the talking, while
Lord Lyons listened with a contented smile.
It was said that when Sheffield went away
for his holiday he took the ambassadorial chef,
leaving the kitchen-maid for Lord Lyons.
Sheffield had been a long time in the diplo
matic service, but had no ambitions beyond
Paris, where he knew everybody and was very
popular. On the nerxt morning Lord GranviUe drove
me to Dorking, where we got news of the
enormous majority on the Franchise Bill (142).
Of course it was a sore temptation to Goschen
to join the Tories, whom he might lead so easily

1884 ANECDOTES FEOM LORD GRANVILLE 185
and with whom his interests really allied him.
Lord GranviUe .told me of his rebuke to Lord
Sherbrooke, when he voted against the Govern
ment after taking a viscountcy, and how well he
took it, and how cordially he had acted since,
as loyally as Lord Aberdare and John Bright.
He told Lord Strathnairn one day a question he
was going to put in the House of Lords was out
of order. Lord Strathnairn was very indignant,
and turned his back and walked away. Lord
.GranviUe said : ' Oh, Strathnairn, did you know
Lady S  was in town ? ' Lord Strathnairn
was at once molhfied !
Talking of Cabinets, he said the one in
which secrets had been best kept was Glad
stone's first Cabinet. Mr. Gladstone followed
Sir Eobert Peel's example in always writing an
agenda for the day. He was too much a man
of business to like gossip at a Cabinet, whereas
Lord Aberdeen often sat for hours listening and
never saying a word. This Cabinet had been
very leaky. Charles Villiers and Lord Claren
don were fond of talking too much in society.
He said how few people knew what a great
man Sir George Grey was in Council ; that in

186 RECOLLECTIONS 1884
Lord Palmerston's and Eussell's Governments
he was a dictator, and used to bowl over Lord
Westbury on points of law.
Who could be Mr. Gladstone's biographer?
He would be overwhelmed by materials, and a
syndicate at least would be required to write
the life.
On April 22, at 9.20, I was awakened in St.
James's Palace by two distinct shocks of earth
quake. I thought it was Horace's dog scratching
itself under my bed, and afterwards that it was
the steam-roller, but during the day heard that
shocks had been felt very seriously in Essex.
Lord Granville was our constant and delight
ful guest at Wanborough, riding and driving all
about the country. I had hit upon a lovely spot
on the Hog's Back, in a wood overlooking the
hills away to the South Downs, which I suggested
should be bought by him on which to build a
house. He commissioned me to buy it for him,
which I did after a long correspondence with
Mr. More-Molyneux, who was the owner of
Loseley. A hundred letters from Lord Granville
lie before me, but the saddest of all was that in
which he abandoned hope of being our neigh
bour.

1884 TEA WITH THE GLADSTONES 187
Foreign Office : April 27, 1884,
' My dear Algy, — I still think the chalk pits
are the best site in England, and the most con
venient. But in a fortnight I shall enter my
seventieth year, and my building courage is
diminishing. ' You said that your friend could find no site
he liked better, and that he regretted the pits.
But this is the sort of thing people are apt to
think when they cannot get a thing.
' Would it be worth while to tell him that he
may have my rights, on payment of anything I
have disbursed in legal expenses, rents, planting,
etc. etc. ?
' If you do not want him, or if he refuses,
please do not mention my offer. ' Yours, 'G.'
On May 15 I called at Downing Street, and
had tea with Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone. He was in
good spirits and talked about the Eevenue, and
then about the debate of want of confidence.
He thought Goschen had behaved well, and he
had written to him to say so : he showed me his

188 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
answer, which was very nice ; but Forster had
made a distinct accusation against them of
acting against their consciences. I said I sup
posed it was very difficult, looking at the many
examples to the contrary, for a man to leave a
Government and to behave loyally afterwards.
JMr. Gladstone said : ' I once did so and behaved
well, and once did so and behaved badly. When
I left Peel's Government, I made a long and
strong speech for the Government on the Sugar
Duties. Peel, who rarely employed exaggerated
language, turned round and said to me, " That
was a wonderful speech."
' The other time, when I left Palmerston, I
found myself in sharp conflict with Lewis on
all matters of finance ; one of his doctrines
being that you should impose as many small
Customs duties as you could. But when I
was back with him, I found that I was still in
'conflict with -him on all such matters in the
Cabinet, and so I was satisfied that my outside
conduct was not the result of anything but con
viction and real difference.'
After Mr. Gladstone had gone to the House
of Commons, Mrs. Gladstone said he had felt

1884 NEW NEIGHBOURS AT WANBOROUGH 189
Forster's conduct very much, and it was hard
after all his loyalty to him when in Ireland,
when he knew he was a failure, and how he had
said : ' I shall swim or sink with him.'
Among our visitors at Wanborough were
Andrew Hichens and his charming wife, both of
whom were enamoured of the site Lord Granville
had chosen, and readily took advantage of the
opportunity of buying it, and erecting on it, with
the help of Mr. Devey, a beautiful house ; my
son, who was assisting him at that time, spend
ing three months there as clerk of the works.
A conversation I had with Mr. Gladstone —
already mentioned — put it into my head to make
a collection of photographs of all the distin
guished Civil servants who had been associated
with him in his official career, and put them
into a screen, which he constantly kept on his
table. I do not know whether he, or those who gave
me their photographs, were more pleased; so
many of them wrote to me appreciating the
honour. Sir Erskine May's and Sir John
Lambert's letters are only specimens of many
I received.

190 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
Board Eoom, Inland Eevenue, Somerset House :
May 19, 1884.
' My dear Mr. Gladstone, — Some time ago
you told me that you would like a collection of
photographs of those Civil servants who have
had the honour of being closely associated with
you in your official duties. I have done my
best to make this collection, which I now beg
you to accept.
' On looking over the roll of distinguished
men I feel that I owe you an apology for the
irresistible vanity that has led me to include my
self among the number.
'Algebnon West.'
10 Downing Street, WhitehaU : May 21, 1884.
' My dear West, — I hardly know how to
thank you for your most kind and most inte
resting gift. It is a noble record of a Civil
service, never, I suppose, excelled in any age or
country. Still, I am somewhat ashamed when I
think of the time and pains it must have cost
you, for which my cordial thanks are indeed
but an unworthy acknowledgment.
' Believe me, sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'

1884 ME. GLADSTONE AND THE CIVIL SEEVICE 191
MUford House, Elms Eoad, Clapham Common, S.W. ;
May 24, 1884.
' My dear Mr. West, — It was very kind and
considerate of you to send me an extract from
Mr. Gladstone's letter.
' I feel that it is a great privilege to have my
photograph associated with those of the class of
which he speaks in such commendatory terms,
and the knowledge which I have of their high
qualifications and distinguished merits enables
me to appreciate that privilege all the more.
' I shall place your letter with the many
other records which I possess of Mr. Gladstone's
singular generosity in estimating the services of
those who have had the happiness of working
under him. ' Believe me, very truly yours,
' John Lambebt.'
Algernon West, Esq., C.B. House of Commons : May 29, 1884.
' My dear West, — Pray accept my best
thanks for your kind letter, and its very inte
resting inclosure.
' Mr. Gladstone knows, and is ever ready to
acknowledge, the obligations of statesmen to

192 EECOLLECTIONS 1884

those who labour with them, silently and unob
trusively, in the government of the State.
' He could even tell you of reputations which
have been won, or sustained, in great measure
by the vigour and capacity of advisers, of whom
the world has known nothing.
' Of such services he has himself shown a
generous appreciation. His own gifts are so
transcendent that he is able to discern and
value the merits of fellow- workers, without
jealousy or grudging.
' I shall hope, some day, to be allowed to see
the " noble record " of which he speaks in terms
so flattering. ' I am, yours very truly,
' T. Ebskine May.'
Algernon E. West, Esq., C.B.
On May 22 Mr. Gladstone, Sir Farrer and
Lady Herschell, and Ellis Gosling dined with us.
Herschell told us that the Bishop of Carlisle
(Percy) was very famous for his bad dinners,
food, and drink. One day he entertained the
Bar, and the junior members, disgusted with
their scanty food and wine, became rather noisy

1884 MR. GLADSTONE ON POLITICIANS 193
at the end of the table. The Bishop remarked
on it to Mr. Justice Maule, who said :
' Yes, my Lord, it is apt to happen when
men take a little wine on an empty stomach.'
Mr. Gladstone discussed various politicians.
He thought Lord John Manners a much abler
man than was generally acknowledged by his
party. He admitted Eandolph Churchill's great
cleverness, but did not think he would be a
leader in the immediate future. If he came
into office and was rude to permanent officials,
he would have some severe lessons to learn.
Mr. Gladstone asserted as an invariable and
deplorable rule that Liberals who deserted their
party improved as speakers in Parliament :
Bernal Osborne and Lowe were strong instances
in point, and he often regretted, when Lowe was
in office, his speeches when in Opposition.
He did not know of any examples on the
other side, and he thought it was much to the
credit of the Liberal party that it still existed
after the loss of so many good men.
' As a boy,' he said, ' I was remarkably short,
and my greatest ambition, a very moderate one,
was up to fourteen to be 5 feet high : but to my
VOL. II. o

194 EECOLLECTIONS 1884

distress, on my fourteenth birthday I was only
4 feet 10^ inches, inost of my growth being after
I was sixteen, and now. I am shorter than I was
as a young' man.'
I told him that it was the natural tendency
of advancing years, and repeated a story I had
heard from 'Lowell of how when Methuselah had
attained his thousandth year his friends went to
congratulate him. He said, ' I am pretty well,
thank you, but those d  d shoe-strings wUl go
flapping in my face.'
On May 31, on my arrival at Guildford station,
I heard of two successful dynamite explosions,
in St. James's Square and in Scotland Yard, and
an unsuccessful attempt at the foot of Nelson's
monument. My son and daughter at St. James's
heard the noise,' and the housemaid, from an
upper window, saw what she thought was a light
ning flash. It is very curious how calmly people
take these outrages as matters of course !
On June 11 we dined at Mr. Gladstone's :
Frank and Lady Louisa Egerton, Lord Lome,
Mr. Bruce, Lady Sarah Spencer, Mr. Browning,
and Mr. Tenniel. .
Browning told' us a curious story of Euskin,

1884 BROWNING'S STORY 195

who, when a young man, was staying in an
obscure valley among the hills of Switzerland.
On asking why a certain field was left waste
amidst the surrounding cultivation, he was
told because it was haunted; 'for,' they said,
' aU the children, but not we, can see an old
woman sitting there under the tree.' He ridi
culed the idea, but some time later he moved to
a village some fifteen miles away, and lived with
a family who had never left their native home ;
he asked if he might take their young daughter
for a visit to the place he had left, and took a
carriage for that purpose. As he approached the
field, he said to the girl :
' Your eyes are younger than mine, tell me if
you can see anyone.'
' Nobody,' she said, ' except an old woman
sitting under the tree.'
' Well,' said he, ' what is she like ? '
' I can only see her back,' she said, and then
suddenly, with a voice of fear : ' Oh, she has
turned now, and I can see her face with two
holes where her eyes should be.'
Mr. Gladstone, talking of Froude's ' Carlyle,'
said it was a splendid argument carried on

196 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
between Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle as to whether
she should marry him, with the balance of
advantage on her side. Browning said she was
an old friend of his, but had quarrelled with him
on his return, after years of foreign travel, for
putting down her kettle on the rug in her house.
Tenniel told us that the ' Punch ' contribu
tors met each week, on a Wednesday, to settle
the cartoon for the following number ; that he
had Thursday to think it over, and Friday to
draw it, after which it went to the engraver and
was in type by Saturday ; he saw no proof and
had no opportunity of correcting his original
sketch. I asked him why Lord Palmerston was
always drawn in ' Punch ' with a straw in his
mouth, and he told me that, being a difficult
likeness to catch, they were obliged to do some
thing which the public should always recognise ;
for the same reason Mr. Bright was always drawn
as wearing a broad-brimmed Quaker's hat and
an eyeglass, neither of which he ever wore.
Mr. Gladstone said it was an odd thing that
the average duration of Ministries was as long
after as before the Eeform Bill. He was within
three weeks of equalling Palmerston, so if he

1884 AN ELECTION EPIGEAM 197

were turned out next week he would run him
very close.
I went on to the Cosmopolitan, where I had a
long talk with a distinguished Irishman, who was
strongly opposed to an extension of the franchise
as likely to lower Parliament and flood it with
men like Ashmead Bartlett, instead of men like
Henry Cowper, the former being only a platform
speaker, and the latter a sensible man who could
not speak.
Walter Northcote was dining one night at
Eathbone's. A Eadical, Sir Lyon Playfair,
was there, and described the discovery of a new
animal with a small part of its brains in its
head, and the greater part in its tail. ' Like the
Conservative Party,' said Eathbone, forgetting
Northcote's presence ; thus adding another to the
many things ' one would rather not have said.'
In June there was an election at Brighton.
Marriott, who had deserted his party, stood
against Eomer, and Godfrey Webb made this
epigram : Said Gladstone, passing Mr. Marriott :
' I sniff an odour of Iscariot.'
Said Marriott, ' He would rather sniff
Aroma fresh from Brighton cliff.'

198 EECOLLECTIONS 1884

On June 24, walking away from a house
where we had been dining, Charles Clifford told
me that he regretted not having congratulated
our host on his daughter's marriage. I said :
' That is lucky, as it is broken off ; I always
think it wiser only to squeeze a man's hand,
as that does not commit you ; it may mean
sympathy, congratulation, or condolence.'
He regretted that he had never kept a diary
all the time he had been on confidential and
intimate terms with Lord Palmerston ; and we
talked of Charles Greville's ' Memoirs,' just pub
lished, and both agreed that we had never seen
any charm in Charles Greville personally, though
he was probably more popular than his brother,
Henry, who was very exclusive bat very kind.
Clifford recollected Eogers well, who hated
most people, but Henry Greville particularly.
On coming down to an early breakfast once, at
Panshanger, he found Henry Greville.
' Are you going to town ? ' he said.
' Yes,' said Henry Greville.
' Must you go to town ? '
' Yes, I am afraid I must.'
' Then I shall stay,' snarled Eogers.

1884 BEEAKFAST WITH ME. GLADSTONE 199

On June 25 we went to Hallam Tennyson's
wedding in Henry the Eighth's . Chapel, which
was an imposing ceremony, from the historical
associations of the place and the presence of
Mr. Gladstone and many literary people, in
cluding the Poet Laureate.
In the evening I went to the Cosmopolitan
with Spencer Lyttelton and Arthur E;Iliot, where
we discussed the political line the Tories were
taking by constant repetitions of votes; of want
of confidence on the Egyptian question. ...
Mr. Gladstone still kept up his Thursday
breakfasts, and on June 26 I met there Henry
Cowper, Dalhousie, Herbert Bismarck, Sir George
Dasent, and others. : i
In talking of the Suez Canal,' ' ;and Lord
Palmerston's opposition to it, Mr. Gladstone said
he thought Lesseps' name would hereafter be
associated with Vasco de Gama and Columbus.
I heard a good story of how, at a Jewish
feast, one of the guests saw a fellowrguest put
a beautiful spoon up his sleeve. : On returning
thanks for the hospitality shown them, the man
who saw this said he regretted he had- Inothing
amusing to tell his host, but he could.show,hima.

200 EECOLLECTIONS 1884
conjuring trick. Putting a valuable spoon in his
sleeve, he said : ' Hey, presto ! you will find the
spoon in the sleeve of the gentleman sitting
opposite ' — where it was, and the speaker walked
off vyith his spoon. This reminds me of another
Jewish transaction : An old Jew, dying, said to
his two sons, ' I don't like leaving this world as
a pauper ; pray put a couple of hundred pounds
in my coffin ' — which they promised to do.
Before the funeral the one brother said : ' Have
you done what my father wished ? ' ' Yes,' said
the other, ' I have.' The first brother, being
suspicious, opened the coffin and found a crossed
cheque for 200Z. in it !
The world is all agog about what the Lords
will do on the Franchise Bill. People seem still
to hope they will have sufficient wisdom to pass
a measure sent up to them from the House of
Commons nem. con., but I have no such hope,
and think on the whole that their throwing
it out must lead to a reform much more im
portant than an immediate extension of the
franchise. On July 4 we went to Belgrave Square to
inquire after Lady Halifax, and found Lord

1884 INSCEIPTION FOE ME. GLADSTONE'S BUST 201

Halifax, who was exhausted by the heat, but
still active. He had just returned from an
attempted negotiation with the Duke of Eich
mond, as to the action of the House of Lords,
and this was the last time I saw him. Lady
Halifax died the following day, and he a year
afterwards ; thus we lost two friends who had
been kind to us through all our married life.
On Sunday, July 5, we went to George Wol-
verton's place in Coombe Wood, where we saw
Bertram Currie's bust of Mr. Gladstone, for
which he wanted a suitable inscription. I tried
Welby, who gave me the following, which Currie
thought good but too long :
Pulohrum eminere est inter illustres viros,
Consulere patriae, parcere afflictis, fera
Csede abstinere, tempus atque irse dare,
Orbi quietem, sseculo pacem suo :
Hsec summa virtus, petitur hac Coelum via.
On the 6th the Lords threw out the Eeform
Bill by 59, Lord Eosebery making an excellent
speech, and on the 10th there was a great
meeting of the Liberal Party at the Foreign
Office. A few days later we dined at Lord Granville's,
where the action of the Lords was the main topic

202 EECOLLECTIONS 1884

of conversation, but he told us that when Cete-
wayo was here he asked what the Achilles statue
was, and learnt that it was in honour of our great
General, the Duke of Wellington. He said,
turning to one of his chiefs : ' You see it was not
so very long ago since they fought, as we do,
vrithout clothes.'
On July 18 the proposed compromise was
defeated in the Lords by 50.
Miss Laura Tennant and her sister Margot
came to Wanborough, and paid us a delightful
visit, which, to me, was only marred by the
news of the death of my old friend, Jervoise
Smith, to whose sad funeral I went. Their visit
was a long one, and each day added to their
charm. On August 6 I heard that Northbrook was to
go to Egypt, for troubles there were thickening
and Mr. Gladstone had persuaded him to proceed
on a financial mission to Cairo, where, in co
operation with Evelyn Baring, he was to prepare
a report for the Cabinet. It was a great de
mand to make on the First Lord of the Admi
ralty to enter into such a difficult field, which of
course entailed his leaving naval affairs at home

1884 ME. GLADSTONE AND ABEAHAM HAYWAED 203
to other hands ; and the result was very preju
dicial to Northbrook himself.
Some time after the fall of Mr. Gladstone's
Cabinet it was discovered in a Committee of the
House of Commons that the accounts at the
Admiralty had been mismanaged, but North
brook, with a loyalty which some people thought
almost Quixotic, took the whole responsibility,
which should really not have been his, on his
own shoulders.
On the 12th I went to a country house built
by P. Ealli, on ground which Lord Granville
had once bought. Ealli reminded me of a
dinner at his house when Hayward shocked us
and Mr. Gladstone as to his views on a future
state. Sir Andrew Clark was there. The fol
lowing day Mr. Gladstone wrote twelve pages to
Abraham Hayward, who, when he was dying,
said : ' Tell Mr. Gladstone I do not die an
unbeliever.' Mr. J. S. Morgan asked me to go with him
to America for a long visit, which, of course, I
had to decline with many regrets.
On August 26 I heard of Lord Ampthill's
death at Berlin ; my friendship with him dated

204 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-

back to the days when I lodged with my brother
Eichard in Queen Street, and he used to come
and sing and play by the hour together. Two
years ago he begged me to go with him to
Carlsbad to get assured health. How delightful
will his ' Memoirs ' be one day, and his letters
from the German headquarters in the Franco-
German war, every page of which was full of
interesting accounts of his long interviews mth
Bismarck !
In September we were at Wanborough,
where Lord Granville paid us a visit. We had
long talks on Gordon's extraordinary despatches,
and heard that there was an idea afloat of Lord
Wolseley's going out to replace him in Egypt.
One evening we had a long argument as to
whether a Chancellor of the Exchequer who was
prudent in his domestic affairs would necessarily
be equally so in the affairs of the nation. William
Pitt was extravagant, but a prudent financier ;
or, as Lord Eosebery puts it, he watched over
the Treasury like Sully, and conducted his own
affairs like Charles Surface.

1885 205

CHAPTEE XIX
1884—1885
Dinner at Brooks's — Mr. Gladstone on Lord Lytton — His Views
on the Chiltern Hundreds and on Mr. ParneU — Sir William
Harcourt on Disraeli's Eeform BiU — Visits to Netherby and the
Glen — Mr. Childers as ChanceUor of the Exchequer — Sir Charles
Trevelyan's Dispute with Mr. James Wilson — Introduction of
the Franchise BUI — Conflict between the two Houses — Death
of Mr. Fawcett — Labourers' Views of the Franchise — Lord
Dufferin starts for India — Negotiations with Walter Northcote
— Secret Meeting between Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr.
Gladstone — Letter from Mr. Leonard Courtney — Death of
Mr. Henley — His Views on Asylums — Conversation with Mr.
Charles VUliers — His Views on Social Morality, Money-making,
Protection — Huskisson's Eemark on Peel — Croker's ' Memoirs '
— Guizot's View of Croker — The Duke of Wellington's Policy —
Mme. Jane Hading in the ' Maitre de Forges ' and ' Frou-Frou '
. — Anecdote of Charles Mathews — Letter from Lord Aberdare —
Walter Northcote's Eeport — News from the Soudan — Explosion
in the House of Commons.

In October everybody came up to London,
and on the 7th Eddie Hamilton and I gave a
little dinner at Brooks's, consisting of Mr.
Gladstone, Lord Spencer, Sir William Harcourt,

206 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-
Mr. Buckle, editor of the ' Times,' and Spencer
Lyttelton. The conversation at first was over my head
at any rate — St. Thomas Aquinas and Eoger
Bacon, where the Scotch got their Sabbatarian
views from, and when English pronunciation
of Latin began, probably at the time of the
Eeformation, which was a bad time for English
literature. Then about Lord and Lady Lytton,
whose ' Memoirs ' had just been published. Mr.
Gladstone said he was a curious mixture of a
Eadical and a Protectionist ; the latter prevailing
drove him to the Tories. The general moral tone
of the House of Commons he held to be much
higher since the extension of the franchise, but
offences of individual members more frequent.
Mr. Gladstone condemned the practice of
allowing Chancellors of the Exchequer to give
the Chiltern Hundreds to any Member of Parlia
ment who applied for them. In Lord Aberdeen's
Government he had tried to alter the practice,
but had only so far succeeded as to have the
words, ' in consideration of your shining virtues,'
eliminated. Mr. Gladstone said that he had a sneaking

1885 DINNEE AT BROOKS'S 207

liking for Parnell, and thought Home Eule for
Ireland would be a matter for serious considera
tion before ten years were over. Lord Spencer
told us of a curious speech of Davitt's in which
he said separation was impossible. Sir William
Harcourt amused us about Disraeli's Eeform
Bill of 1866. Delane had told him that months
before its production Disraeli had actually given
him a copy of a Bill enfranchising householders,
and that he had accepted Hodgkinson's amend
ment to include them entirely on his own re
sponsibility. Some time after, on visiting Derby on Inland
Eevenue business, I came in as one of the
audience for a good speech from Sir William Har
court ; and the following day went to Netherby,
Sir Frederick and Lady Hermione Graham's,
where I fished a great deal, with no success,
though the river was full of fish.
While we were there Lady Hermione was
sent for to her mother, the Duchess of Somerset,
who was very ill. I recollect her as the Queen
of Beauty in the Eglinton Tournament ; she
was very witty as well as beautiful. Once, hold
ing a stall at a charity bazaar, she asked Lord

208 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-
Suffolk, who was a short and fat man, to buy
something ; he declined, saying he was not the
prodigal son. ' No,' she replied, ' you are much
more like the fatted calf.'
My wife, my daughter Constance, and I went
on October 18 to pay a visit to Lady Tennant
at Glen, our first visit to a place where I was
afterwards to spend so many happy days.
It is impossible to exaggerate the charm of
the place, situated in a green valley with a small
trout stream losing itself in the woods of birch,
looking purple in autumn tints, while the
house was full of lovely pictures collected by
Sir Charles Tennant. The inhabitants it would
be idle to describe and impertinent to praise ;
but it is true to say that a happier or cleverer
family never made a country house more de
lightful. On November 1, after inspecting several
Eevenue offices and joining and again leaving
my wife at Francis Grey's at Morpeth, I returned
to London ; and on the 4th had a long interview
with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
I used always to wonder at the satire of
events that put Ward Hunt at the Exchequer in

ISrto ME. CHILDEES 209
succession to Disraeli ; but it is equally wonderful
to think of Mr. Childers as successor to Mr. Glad
stone, though, of course, from his experience at
the Treasury, where he had been instrumental in
passing the Exchequer and Audit Act, he had
gained a great knowledge of figures, of which he
was always a clear exponent. He was one of the
few who thoroughly mastered finance accounts
and the statistical abstracts, but beyond that he
hardly appeared to possess the qualifications
necessary for the office.
On reading Lord Malmesbury's amusing
' Memoirs,' his description of how he snubbed
Lord Aberdeen reminded me of a quarrel which
Mr. Gladstone had to adjust between Sir
Charles Trevelyan and Mr. James Wilson, Joint
Secretaries of the Treasury. When the inter
view was to have taken place, Wilson came
and said it was all settled. He had spoken
strongly to Trevelyan, who was thoroughly
ashamed of himself, and had promised tc
behave better in future. Two minutes after
Trevelyan came and said he had been obliged
to speak very severely to Wilson, who had
burst into tears !
VOL. II. p

210 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-
In January 1884 we heard of the fighting
in Egypt, and of the death of poor Burnaby at
Abu Klea.
The Franchise Bill was introduced by Mr.
Gladstone on February 29, the second reading
being moved by Lord Hartington.
The Conservatives protested against the
separation of Eedistribution from the Franchise
Question, Sir Stafford Northcote contending
that it was impossible to decide on a Bill
which was only a portion of a larger scheme,
but what that larger scheme was nobody
knew. Mr. Gladstone said that a knowledge of the
manner in which the new franchises would
distribute themselves was almost essential to
determining prudently the details of the plan
of redistribution. It was only when the
Franchise Bill and the Eegistration Bill had
been passed that they would be in a position
to deal justly and finally with the subject of
redistribution. Lord John Manners' amendment giving
effect to the view of the Opposition was de
feated, the Government obtaining a majority of

1885 THE FRANCHISE BILL 211
130, and the Bill being r^ad a second time
without a division.
During the progress of the Bill in Committee
the differences between the Government and the
Opposition became very much accentuated, and,
speaking at Plymouth on June 6, Lord Salisbury
said that, though he had no objection to seeing
an extended franchise accorded, in his eyes the
first essential of the whole question was re
distribution, and, speaking only for himself, he
strongly recommended the Lords to throw out
the present Bill.
In moving the third reading of the Bill Mr.
Gladstone referred to the ominous utterances
out of doors threatening the rejection of the
Bill. The attitude of the Government hitherto,
he said, had been in Shakespeare's words :
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel ; but, being in,
Bear't, that the opposed may beware of thee.
The Bill was read a third time on June 27
in the Commons, and introduced in the House
of Lords on the same day. Lord Kimberley, on
the second reading, said the Franchise Bill was
not to come into operation till January 1886, and

212 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-

that the Eedistribution Bill (which he sketched)
would be introduced next year if the Government
remained in office.
Lord Cairns moved an amendment to the
effect that the Lords would not assent to the
second reading of the Bill unaccompanied by a
Eedistribution Bill.
The amendment was carried, and progress of
the Bill thereby naturally stopped.
The conflict between the two Houses then
assumed a very threatening aspect, but an
amendment of Lord Cadogan's was eventually
adopted that it would be desirable that ParUa-
ment should assemble in the autumn to con
sider the Eepresentation of the People Bill
already presented to Parliament, in conjunc
tion with the Eedistribution Bill which Her
Majesty's Ministers had undertaken to present
to Parliament. With this the question of the Franchise
virtually closed for the Session, which was pro
rogued on August 14.
In the Winter Session a Franchise Bill
(precisely identical with the previous Bill) was
introduced and carried through various stages

1885 DEATH OF ME. FAWCETT 213

in the House of Commons, and introduced in
the House of Lords on November 13.
The Lords wished the Franchise and Eedis
tribution Bills to be considered together.
One evening I called on Mr. Gladstone, who
thought that a creation of peers would be
the necessary solution of the crisis. I still
believed in compromise. He had just come
from a visit to Lord Sherbrooke, veho had lost
his wife and was complaining of his bitter
solitude ; poor man, after having filled so large
a space in society and politics, he felt his
isolation all the more keenly.
On November 6 Fawcett died. When his
eyes were shot out he said : ' I have such faith
in the recuperative power of Nature that I will
abate no jot of my ambitions and endeavours,'
and no man ever kept his resolution more
gallantly or determinedly.
On the 8th we went to Wanborough, and
heard two stories of the labourers' view of the
franchise. Some one said to a working man : ' I
suppose you do not care for the vote ? ' ' Yes, I
do,' said he ; ' I may sometimes get a hare now,'
which was pathetic.

214 -RECOLLECTIONS 1884-

Another said : .'They say I sha'n't know
what to do With a vote now I've got it ; sha'n't
I ? I never saw a glass of sherry wine, but if I
got it I should know what to do with it,' suiting
the action to the word. '
On November 11 the Franchise Bill was
read a third time in the House of Commons
and Brooks'b was crowded, all prospects of com
promise appearing to be over. Lord John Manners
having made a strong speech.
The next day I said ' good-bye ' to Dufferin,
who was starting for India ; he begged me to
continue my weekly letters, such as I had written
to Northbrook and Lady Eipon, to Lady Dufferin
when in: India, and thus I gained for myself
many interesting letters from her during
Dufferin's viceroyalty.
On November 131 talked at Somerset House
to Walter Northcote about a compromise. His
idea was that after the second reading of the
Franchise Bill in the' House of Lords the Go
vernment should lay their Eedistribution Bill
on the table; ¦ and that the Franchise Bill should
then be allowed to pass.
I said I believed, as far as I could guess, that

1885 COMPEOMISE ON THE FRANCHISE BILL 215
the Government would close with such an offer,
and that if I had his father's authority I would
propose it. He accordingly, after seeing him,
gave me this authority :
' Sir Stafford Northcote believes if the Govern
ment introduced a Eedistribution Bill things
would go right. This is only his personal
opinion. 'W. S. N.'
I went to see Lord Granville, who, imme
diately on hearing Sir Stafford Northcote's
opinion, went across with me and consulted Mr.
Gladstone. A Cabinet was hastily summoned, and Lord
Granville desired me to acquaint Sir Stafford
that Mr. Gladstone would like an hour or so to
consider so important a communication, and
that in the meantime both he and Mr. Gladstone
thought it would conduce to a settlement if, on
tho grounds of old private friendship. Sir Stafford
would meet Mr. Gladstone for a short conversa
tion, either at our house or Lord Granville's, or
elsewhere. At five o'clock I went with Walter Northcote

216 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-

to the House of Commons, and after a consulta
tion with Sir Stafford Northcote in his private
room. Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone arranged
for a secret meeting at our house at St. James's.
In the meantime Walter Northcote put his ideas
thus :
' The Bill will be read a second time on
Monday, November 17. If when the second
reading is over on that same evening Lord
Granville says he will ask the House to go into
Committee on that day week, i.e. Monday, the
24th, and if in the other House Mr. Gladstone
gives notice either on that same Monday or else
on the next day (Tuesday, the 18th) that he will
on Thursday, the 20th, or Friday, the 21st,
introduce the Eedistribution Bill, would not
everything be settled ?
' If this proposal were made by the Govern
ment, could the other side by any possibility be
anything but satisfied, and also committed to
the passing of the Franchise Bill ? They would
have the Government Eedistribution BiU in its
formal shape before them, and could no longer
oppose the passing the Franchise Bill, at any
rate on the grounds they have hitherto taken up.'

1885 THE SECEET MEETING 217

On November 13 the Gladstones, Mr. Goschen,
the Trevelyans, Frank Baring, and Mrs. Beerbohm
Tree were dining with us, and the anxiety was
whether they would have departed in time ; but
at 10.45 all but Mrs. Beerbohm Tree had gone ;
I left her with my wife, and sent word to Sir
Stafford Northcote that the coast was clear, and
then myself let him in. The interview lasted
till nearly ten minutes to twelve. Sir Stafford
Northcote, on leaving, was not very hopeful,
but was glad negotiations had begun.
All this is described fully in ' Lord Iddes-
leigh's Life : '
' On November 13 my eldest son came to see
me, and gave me to understand that Algernon
West and he had been speculating about my
views of the position. I said to him what I had
been saying all along to Lord ToUemache, to
Mr. Peel and others, by some of whom it must
have been communicated to the Ministers, that
if the Government would introduce the Eedistri
bution Bill all would go right. He asked me
whether this might be communicated to Mr.
Gladstone as my personalopinion. I said, "Yes."
He then went away ; but in the afternoon he

218 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-

came down to the House of Commons and told
me that, as soon as West had mentioned this to
Lord Granville, he had gone over to see Mr.
Gladstone, and then desired West to acquaint
me that Mr. Gladstone would like an hour or
two to consider so important a communication,
and in the meantime Lord Granville and Mr.
Gladstone would think it most desirable if, on
the grounds of old private friendship, I would
meet Mr. Gladstone for a short conversation,
either at West's house or Lord Granville's, or
elsewhere. I said I must take a little time to
consider this request, and I went into the House
of Lords and consulted Salisbury. We agreed
that I had better hear what Mr. Gladstone had
to say. I told Walter this, who went away, and
came back with a message that Mr. Gladstone
is nervous about meeting in the daytime, as so
many people watch him.
' He dines to-night with West in St. James's
Palace ; could I meet him there about eleven
o'clock, when the guests will have gone ? I
went accordingly at eleven o'clock, and was let
in by West. I found Gladstone alone, and
remained with him about half an hour.

1885 PEOGEESS OF NEGOTIATIONS 219

' The result of this and other negotiations was
the announcement of the Government's willing
ness to communicate with the leaders of the
Opposition on the details of the Eedistribution
BiU. ' The proposed conference was accepted, and
comparative peace was restored.' ^
On the 14th I saw Mr. Gladstone, who was
fairly hopeful : but on Sunday, the 16th, he had
given up all hope that the negotiations would
be successful. On the 17th Walter Northcote (who was
also disheartened), wrote to me the following
letter :
Worlingham Hall, Beccles : Monday, November 17, 1884.
' My dear West, — I am awfully sorry, but in
truth more sorry than surprised. I feel matters
have gone beyond us, and that our efforts have
been in vain in the past, and must be so in the
future. I have heard nothing from my side, so
can only conclude that they don't want me, even
as they said they should not want me. I there
fore saw no use in coming up.
' Life of Lord Iddesleigh, ii. 207.

220 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-

' The only possible suggestion that occurs to
me is that you should once more speak to
Lord G. and ask him if you can convey any
messages. I suppose what has happened is that
we have answered you unsatisfactorily. But
you have answered us again. I suppose we
should have expected you to do so, and not
wanted to stop all negotiations.
' You know my side is prepared to receive
you, but I fear it is very hopeless, at any rate
at the present moment. The general meeting
to-morrow might prove beneficial, but it is a
very poor chance. ' Yours ever,
' Waltee Noethcote.'
On the day he wrote I went to the House of
Commons and heard Mr. Gladstone say ' that on
receiving adequate assurance that the Franchise
Bill, would be passed in the course of that
Session the Government would be willing to
make the main provisions of their Eedistribution
Bill the subject of friendly communication, and
would undertake to move its second reading
simultaneously with the Committee or soine

1885 ME. COURTNEY'S EESIGNATION 221

subsequent stage of the Franchise Bill in the
Lords.' Our plot to bring about the negotiations had
met with complete success. The Eedistribution
Bill duly reached the House of Lords and was
read a third time, and eventually became law,
but not until the Government which had intro
duced it had ceased to exist.
Early in December Mr. Courtney, I regretted
to hear, was about to send in his resignation as
Secretary to the Treasury, because his plan of
Minority representation was not adopted ; I urged
him to remain, but, as the following letter shows,
in vain : Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, S.W. : December 8, 1884.
' My dear West, — I would have acknowledged
your kind letter before, but I have been, as you
may suppose, extremely busy, and indeed I
remain so.
' I am very sorry to sever my official connec
tion with the Treasury; yet I think I may
pledge myself to continue faithful to my interest
in it. If a voice is wanted in the House I will
not be silent.

222 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-
' Assuredly my work was made lighter and
easier by your co-operation. ' Very faithfully yours,
' Leonaed Couetnby.'
On December 10 old Mr. Henley died,
almost unnoticed ; he had been in Lord Derby's
Government, when he resigned with Lord
Salisbury. Talking of asylums for the insane, Mr.
Henley once said he thought a good many people
ought to be locked up who were walking about
loose — drinkers and gamblers for instance —
indeed, he thought everybody almost ought to
be ; the only difficulty that presented itself to
his mind was who was to keep the key.
On January 3, 1885, I came up from
Wanborough, after a very happy Christmas, and
dined at Brooks's, where I met in the smoking-
room Charles Villiers, quite ready to talk on all
subjects with extraordinary vivacity. He dis
coursed on the social morality of the day, as
compared with that which existed in the days of
his youth. One thing, he said, had certainly
changed, which was that in his time it was the

1886 CONVEESATION WITH ME. VILLIEES 223
ambition of youths to be considered rouds and
mauvais sujets, and to conceal the work they
were engaged in ; whereas now those who were
at work were proud of it, and those who were
not, pretended to be busy ; and this kept them
out of mischief, to some extent, with idle women.
But what had been gained in one direction was
lost in another, inasmuch as speculation and
love of money-making had grown. The master
piece of the Queen's reign was her message to
Mrs. Garfield ^ when her husband was shot, for
the Americans are truly enamoured of equality.
Thus Blaine, the defeated candidate for the
Presidency, said they would prefer a mediocrity
to a distinguished man, and any mark of supe
riority to others would be prejudicial to his
election. Villiers regretted in every way Lowell's
departure as American Minister. I asked him
if he thought there would ever be any attempt
to return to Protection in this country. He
thought not, and referred me to a letter from
Mr. Pell, a Tory member, who had publicly
' ' Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you at
this terrible rnoment. May God support and comfort you as He
alone can ! '

224 EECOLLECTIONS 1884-
stated that any such hope would be foolishness.
He thought nothing could be made of a cry for
Protection till its advocates could point to a
Protectionist country more prosperous than we
were as Free Traders.
He disbelieved the extent to which the de
pression in trade was alleged to have gone. A
manufacturing constituent of his said that busi
ness was not slack, but that profits were small.
I told him that next year's income tax
assessments for Liverpool showed an increase,
and that Peel's income tax in 1841 brought in
for each penny 700,000?., while it was now
estimated to bring in over 2,000,000Z.
He told me that in 1828 he was present at a
meeting when Huskisson said that Peel was
sound on Free Trade, but he did not know which
way he would go on Catholic Emancipation.
I wrote this down at the time, and thought
it so strange that I repeated it to Mr. Gladstone,
Lord Granville, Lord Hampden, and George
Peel, his grandson, who told me that he was
not surprised, for he knew from papers he had
seen that Sir Eobert had said about that time
that from no one had he received such cordial

1885 GUIZOT ON CEOKER 225
support in the matter of Free Trade as from
Huskisson. Mr. Villiers then began to discuss Croker's
' Memoirs.' He could only account for his
great influence by the fact that he was a clever
writer, lived with clever writers, and pushed
himself into the society of clever men. My wife
sent me a day or two afterwards Guizot's view
of him, saying :
' You have read Croker's view of Guizot ;
here is Guizot's view of Croker :
' " Amongst all the champions of the old
English Toryism with whom I came in contact,
it was from an individual entirely disconnected
with the high old aristocracy and the Court — a
literary man in the third rank of political im
portance — Mr. John Wilson Croker, that I
derived the most complete and comprehensive
knowledge of this party. He had been for many
years a member of the House of Commons, and
Secretary to the Admiralty, but after the passing
of the Eeform Bill, which he had energetically
opposed, he left Parliament and office, and
entirely devoted himself to political and literary
criticism. Into this avocation he carried all the
VOL. II. Q

226 RECOLLECTIONS 1884-
maxims, traditions, and passions of a servant of
the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool and Lord Castle
reagh. Ever an ardent adversary ... of the
Whigs, even while admitting the necessity of
certain reforms, he was a man of unusual in
formation, of a sagacious, inquiring, vigorous,
and judicious mind ; but an incarnation of party
spirit, intractable, and resolved to defend every
thing rather than suffer the slightest encroach
ment on the general system to which he
belonged." '
The Duke of Wellington's policy was em
bodied, Charles Villiers went on to say, in the
one phrase, ' How is the Queen's Government
to be carried on ? '
Our colonial policy would get us into a mess
unless Mr. Gladstone himself tackled it; it
should now be laissez faire since w^e had got
Free Trade. Before that, our policy v*'as intelli
gible, but not so now when we gained no special
privileges from the Colonies — within the bounds
of a great and large generosity we should leave
them free.
At half-past one o'clock this man of another
age thought it time to go home !

1885 JANE HADING 227
After a day or two at Wanborough we dined
at Frederick Leveson-Gower's, and met Lord
and Lady Granville.
Lord Granville said, on the whole, he con
sidered the most agreeable man he had ever met
was Lord Alvanley.
After dinner we all went to the Cosmopolitan
Club, which I had persuaded Lord Granville to
join, and heard Lord Wolseley say that General
Gordon had written, saying it would not do to
leave Berber in our rear, which was alarming.
The next day I met Lord Hampden at break
fast at Brooks's, where we discussed Croker's
' Memoirs ' and Mr. Gladstone's probable retire
ment, and hopes that he would remain. Dilke
or Chamberlain, said Lord Hampden, would
either do later for leaders.
In the evening I went with Mrs. Beerbohm
Tree to see Jane Hading in the ' Maitre de Forges.'
I liked and admired her much, but for me, at
least, she was rather indistinct in her moments
of passion. A day or two later we saw her act
'Frou Frou,' when everybody was in tears, and
' you could have borrowed a fiver from any one
of them,' as Artemus Ward said. Q 2

228 RECOLLECTIONS 1884-
A propos of actors, let me relate the confes
sion of Charles Mathews that he was only once
bested in a repartee. Some young bloods had
been disturbing the theatre where he was acting
by loud conversation, remarks, and laughter;
they were in the stage box, and, noisily rising,
began to make preparations for their departure.
Charles Mathews said : ' The play is not over,
gentlemen, there is another act.' ' That is why
we are going,' said one of them.
The next day I had a nice letter from Lord
Aberdare on his getting a G.C.B., in which he
quoted Cicero as telling us that consideration is
the veteran's compensation for the loss of the
pleasures of youth and vigorous manhood, and a
very poor compensation it is.
I suggested about this time to Walter North
cote, who was the Deputy-Chairman of the
Board of Inland Eevenue, that he should under
take the preparation and editing of the Annual
Eeport of the Department and its work, both for
the use it would be to the public as well as him
self, for though very able he was constitutionally
indolent. He adopted the suggestion, and worked at it

1885 EXPLOSION AT WESTMINSTEE 229
con amore, making the Eeport one altogether of
a special nature, giving general information as
to the taxes under the management of the
Board. On January 21 I was sitting with Mrs.
Stanley Clarke, when Sir Charles Brownlow and
Colonel Harman came in with the news of
General Stewart's, victory in the Soudan over
10,000 of the Mahdi's . troops, but with heavy
loss on our part ; I ascertained that my nephew,
Colin Keppel, was safe, and telegraphed to Harry
Keppel, who wrote to me his thanks and joy.
On Saturday, January 24, I was coming
out of the Treasury, when I met Count Miinster,
the German Ambassador, who told me of the
explosion in the House of Commons, which I
had, oddly enough, not heard in the Chancellor
of the Exchequer's room, where I had been at
the time. I went at once with him to the
Houses of Parliament, meeting the First and
Second Commissioners of Police at the gate.
We found all the windows of Westminster
Hall blown out, and a hole at the top of the
crypt at the bottom of the steps of the great
hall, and on going through the main lobby into

230 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
the House, we found the gallery, under which I
had so often sat on the Government side of the
House, blown to pieces and the beams and glass
scattered in every direction. ' The dust of
ages,' as Sir William Harcourt said, filled the
atmosphere. Excellent news of General Stewart having
reached the Nile, came the following day, and
eclipsed in interest for the time being the explo
sion in the House of Commons.
Colin Keppel had gone on with Sir Charles
Wilson in Gordon's steamers to Khartoum.

1885 231

CHAPTEE XX
1885
Sir Cliarles Brownlow on the Afghan Business and Lord Lytton —
Lord Granville on the Situation — News of the Fall of Khartoum
— Colin Keppel's Hereditary Pluck — Lord Eosebery and Mr.
Shaw-Lefevre join the Cabinet — Death of General Earle — Mr.
Gladstone's Depression — Small Government Majority — Mr.
Gladstone on Old Testament Characters — On Cromwell and
Buonaparte — Mr. Gladstone's Bet about Lord Overstone's Pro
bate — Mr. Childers' Budget — General Gordon's Estimate of
Lord Granville, Lord Hartington, and Sir Charles Dilke — Budget
Difficulties — Negotiations with the Great Brewers — Marriage of
Miss Laura Tennant — Defeat of the Government on the Second
Reading of the Budget BiU — Letter from Sir Stafford Northcote
on the Inland Eevenue Eeport— Interview with Sir Michael
Hiclts-Beach — Sir Peter Lumsden — Letter from Mr. Gladstone
on the Inland Eevenue Eeport — His Tribute to the Board — •
Mr. Gladstone's Versatility — His Knowledge of Music — Eemi
niscenees of Jenny Lind — Cardinal Manning on Mr. Gladstone's
Eetirement — Commission on Trade Depression — Letters from
Lord Iddesleigh and Lord St. Cyres — Visit to Copt Hall — Elec
tion Talk at the Cosmopolitan — Dinner at Mr. Armitstead's —
Election Eeturns — Dinner at Brooks's — Henry James's Stories
of Lord Eandolph — Conversation with Charles ViUiers — His
EecoUections of Bygone Celebrities.
On February 1 I dined with Sir John Eose, meet
ing Lord Cathcart and Sir Charles Brownlow,

232 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
a very distinguished Indian officer, who told
us much to prove that the Afghan business,
which ended so disastrously, was wholly Lord
Lytton's doing, and was perfectly unjusti
fiable. On the 3rd Lord Granville dined with us ;
but he was low and tired. He doubted the
possibility of Mr. Gladstone's retirement at the
end of the Parliament. He would not be sur
prised if the country insisted on his forming a
new Government after the next election ; in
that case, he hoped he would take a peerage,
and so lessen his labours.
In the middle of the next night my son
Horace woke us up with the sad news he had
heard from Eeggie Brett, that Khartoum had
fallen. On February 11 I heard from Edward
Ponsonby, saying my son Horace was chosen
to act as assistant secretary to the Speaker, and
he got a nice letter from Sir Erskine May on
his appointment.
Every day the Egyptian news seemed getting
worse and worse. Three battalions of Guards
were ordered out under Sir Eeginald Gipps,

1886 LOED EOSEBERY JOINS THE CABINET 233
whom I well recollect going out as a subaltern
to the Crimea.
We saw in the papers that Colin Keppel, who
had evidently inherited his father's dash, was
mentioned in despatches as pluckily cutting out
a boat from under an Arab battery, in the rescue
of Sir Charles Wilson.
There was a rumour of Gordon's death, but
I met Mr. Gladstone looking ill and worn, who
told me that no official news had been received
of it. Lord Eosebery was appointed to the Cabinet,
holding the offices of Lord Privy Seal and Chief
Commissioner of Works, and George Shaw-
Lefevre, who had succeeded Mr. Fawcett as
Postmaster-General, was admitted into the
Cabinet at the same time.
It was impossible not to admire Lord Eose
bery for joining a ship so deep in the trough of
the sea.
We heard of General Earle's victory and death
on the Nile. What a wretched, miserable, un
necessary business all this is !
On the 21st Mr. Gladstone proposed himself
for dinner, but was dejected and low, and we

234 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
carefully avoided the subjects that were depress
ing him ; so to cheer him I talked of nothing
but finance, and the probate duty on Lord Ash-
burnham's library, for which we had to fight,
and the question of taxes on American securities.
On the 27th the Government had a majority
of only 14, Mr. Goschen and Mr. Forster voting
with the Conservatives ; the latter indulging in a
very bitter attack on his old colleagues.
It was in this month that my wife and I
heard a beautiful sermon at the Chapel Eoyal
from the Bishop of Derry (Alexander). The
subject was the question : ' Is life worth living ? '
and he placed it in the loftiest lights. It was
full of pathos and poetry, and we appreciated it
very much. But, after all, there is something
in what the witty Frenchman said: ' C'est une
question de foi(e).'
On April 23 my wife and daughter were
having luncheon with Lord Northbrook and
Lady Emma Baring at the Admiralty, when
there was an explosion in the room of a
clerk named Swainson, who had been a col
league of mine there in old days. We dined
there in the evening, and heard that it was sup-

1885 CONVEESATION WITH MR. GLADSTONE 235
posed to have been the work of a messenger,
but I do not think anything was ever proved.
I met Mr. Gladstone at dinner at the Eeform
Club, when he bet Mr. Knowles, of the ' Nine
teenth Century,' who was our host, a pound
that Lord Overstone's probate would be over
4,000,000Z. ; but it was not, and Knowles won his
bet. Lord Overstone had evidently given a great
deal of his personalty away before his death.
Mr. Gladstone, who was in one of his classical
moods, compared Lucretius to Virgil, though he
admitted that Lucretius could not have written
the Second Eclogue.
I asked him if what I had heard from Bobsy
Meade was true, that he had said there was no
really first-class character in the Old Testament.
He denied it, but recollected his conversation
with Arthur Mills on the subject. What he had
done was to compare the Old Testament with the
Greek heroes. Moses' was, undoubtedly, a very
fine character ; Joseph's very beautiful. I sug
gested Jeremiah, but he said the Greeks would
not have tolerated the horrors and cruelties
recorded in the Old Testament. Solomon was
very great. When the chapter dealing with the

236 EECOLLECTIONS - 1885
number of his wives and concubines was being
read at a mothers' meeting at Hawarden, an
old woman exclaimed : ' Lor, what privileges
them ancient Christians enjoyed ! '
Mr. Gladstone compared Hallam, in his
copious use of notes, with Macaulay, who put
everything into beautiful language, and em
bodied all his information in it.
Dante, said he, was once supposed to have
visited Oxford. He would have liked to see
Oliver Cromwell and Buonaparte pitted against
each other. He evidently did not love Oliver
Cromwell, thinking him a great man with no
distinct love of religious liberty; but then, of
course, the times he lived in must not be for
gotten. Cromwell might lie with a purpose, as
Elizabeth did, but Charles I. was a terrible liar.
On April 30 came on Mr. Childers' Budget.
It was generally well received, and I dined at a
banquet which Welby annually gave on such
occasions to the Governor of the Bank of Eng
land, and other financial authorities, at the
Garrick Club.
On May 6 we dined at the Admiralty, and
the conversation turned chiefly on Gordon.

1886 LORD COWPEE AND GOEDON 237
It was said that Gordon, after his interview
with the Committee of the Cabinet who sent
him to the Soudan, said he liked Granville and
Hartington, and would like to give each of them
a copy of the Bible, but he did not like Sir
Charles Dilke, who talked sotto voce all the time
of the conference.
One day Gordon was having luncheon with
Lady Eipon in Carlton Gardens ; Lord Cowper
was there, and on Gordon's departure he asked
who that little man was, and was much disap
pointed on hearing that it was Gordon, with
whom he had not had any conversation. He
told his brother Henry of this, who determined
he would not lose such an opportunity, so went
the next day to luncheon with the Eipons, and
hung on the lips of a man who was there. After
luncheon he said how glad he had been to have
met Gordon : ' Oh, no,' said Lady Eipon, ' that
is the doctor who is going out to India with us.'
All this time was occupied in Budget nego
tiations, mainly with the great brewers.
On the 18th Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone dined
with us, and after a talk I returned to the House
of Commons with him. The opposition to the

238 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
Budget was now daily increasing, and in a con
versation with Mr. Gladstone I offered to open
negotiations with the great brewers. Mr. Chil
ders was ill, and so Mr. Gladstone wrote my
proposals to him, and he approved of them.
¦ Immediately on hearing this I set to work
and drew up a memorandum, which I produced
to Sir Arthur Bass, and Messrs. Whitbread, AU-
sopp, Grinling and Gretton, Watney and Bonsor
agreeing, this tided over the difficulty of the in
creased beer duty.
On the 22nd we attended our dear friend Miss
Laura Tennant's marriage with Alfred Lyttelton
in St. George's.
On June 8 began the second reading of the
Budget Bill. I insisted upon Watney's speaking,
as he had promised to do, in favour of the in
creased beer duty, but all to no purpose, Eichard
Grosvenor having told me he had no majority.
Even Mr. Gladstone's admirable speech could not
redeem it. The Government were beaten by 12.^
1 Extract from Lord Iddesleigh's Journal, June 8 : — ' On the
defeat of the Government, Walter left the House with Algernon
West, and said something about this being a curious end of Glad
stone's career.' West said : ' Ah, this can't be the end now  you
wiU see him come out more energetic than over.'

1885 FINANCIAL PEOBLEMS 239
The Cabinet sat the next day, and I was
asked to consult Sir Erskine May on their
behalf, as to the effect of a House of Commons'
resolution as bearing upon the increased excise
duties on spirits. He said a resolution was
an honourable engagement and should not be
cancelled. I told this to Childers, who said
that the Cabinet had already decided to act in
a contrary direction, and give up the extra 2s.
on spirits. We were asked to dine once more, for the
last time, in Downing Street ; but alas ! were
engaged to dine elsewhere.
On June 11 I tried hard to get the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer to announce some definite
arrangement as to the duty to be collected on
spirits, but, finding it impossible, I got my col
league, Walter Northcote, to go and see his
father and settle it with him — which he did.
On that day we dined at George Trevelyan's
and I had some bets with him and Mundella as
to the composition of the new Cabinet, which I
won. Our Inland Eevenue Eeport was now com
pleted, and I sent copies of it to Sir S. North-

240 RECOLLECTIONS 1885
cote and Mr. Gladstone, and it is pleasant to
think that the report which I made Walter
Northcote undertake was wonderfully well done,
and has served as the standard work of reference
on all Eevenue subjects till this day. June 19, 1885.
' My dear Sir Stafford Northcote, — I have for
some time been looking forward to the moment
when I might send you a copy of the Eeport,
which will shortly be presented to Parliament,
of the Eevenue under our charge, and when I
might tell you that it is almost entirely the work
of your son ; the only credit I wish to take to
myself in the matter is the suggestion that he
should undertake it. I shall be much disap
pointed if you do not think that he has given
effect to that suggestion in a manner that will
do credit to us, to him, and if I may say so, to
the training he has received from you.
'You will recollect the text-book of our
Department which has always been referred to
as the Thirteenth Eeport. The new Eeport,
which I now send you in proof, will contain all
that is worth retaining of the old one, and will

1885 LETTER TO SIR STAFFORD NOETHCOTE 241
bring up the history of the Department to the
last moment.
' May I venture to take this opportunity of
expressing my sincere and deep regret, which
will be shared by the whole Civil Service, at
your departure from the House of Commons,
which will make it impossible for you ever again
personally to undertake the direction of the
finances of the country ; and at the same time
to say on public as well as private grounds how
I rejoice that, as First Lord of the Treasury, you
will still exercise a control over us, and the
duties which it will be our pleasure loyally to
perform under your guidance.
' I have not the pleasure of knowing Sir M.
Hicks-Beach, but if you think I might with pro
priety send him a proof copy of the Eeport I
would do so. ' Algebnon West.'
Sir Stafford's letter of acknowledgment ran
as follows :
30 St, James's Place, S.W. : June 20, 1885.
' My dear Mr. West, — Let me thank you
sincerely for your kind letter, and for what you
vol. II. B

242 RECOLLECTIONS 1885
are good enough to say about Walter, and about
myself. ' I have not had time to do more than take
a hasty glance at the Eeport, but I am very
much pleased to hear that you think it well
done. Your steady kindness has been of
great advantage to my son^ and I can assure
you that he repays it by warm attachment to
you. ' As for myself, I am in danger of being
killed by kindness. I hope that, whatever
happens, I may retain the connection with the
Treasury which I value so much, both on
account of the character of the work and of the
association with such men as those who work
the central and the auxiliary departments.
' I have mentioned the Eeport to Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach, who would be very much obliged
if you would send him a proof at the Carlton.
' If our Ministry comes into working exist
ence I hope to introduce you to him without
delay. ' Yours faithfully,
' Staefoed Nobthcote.'
Algernon West, Esq., C.B.

1885 A REAL RUSSOPHOBIST 243
On June 24 we went for the last time
to the Admiralty under the rule of North
brook. Among the final arrangements of the dying
Government, Sir Ealph Lingen, the Secretary to
the Treasury, became a peer, and of course
Welby succeeded him, at which I was much
rejoiced. On the 26th I had my first interview with
the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, and discussed the finan
cial position.
On July 8 I dined at the Goldsmiths' Hall,
and sat next to Sir Peter Lumsden, who had just
returned from India. He told me that he
dreaded the advent of September, as that was
the month for Eussian movements. It was im
possible for us to advance beyond Candahar, but
by the Black Sea and Taganrog we might sow
dissension among the Turcomans.
He appeared to me a real Eussophobist.
On the 10th I received a letter from Mr.
Gladstone, most flattering to my Board, to which
I at once replied ; and his letter, which I here
reproduce, along with my own reply, now stands

244 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
at the beginning of the Twenty-eighth Eeport of
the Commissioners of Inland Eevenue :
1 Richmond Terrace : July 8, 1885.
'My dear West, — This is the first day on
which I have been able to secure a quiet hour for
the examination of the Twenty-eighth Eeport of
your Board, from which I learn, without sur
prise, how much we are indebted to your
colleague, who was Mr. Northcote.
' It appears to be a most careful and most
valuable work.
' The only point of mere detail which raised a
question in my mind was the reference on p. 74
to the Act of 1853. It is there said that the
rate of income tax w^as fixed at 5d. for seven
years. I rather think this is not accurate.
' It was hardly worth while to refer to this
small point. Speaking more at large, this docu
ment reminds me that, during the whole period
of my official connection with the finance of this
country, I have had no greater pleasure than in
my communications with the Department of
Inland Eevenue. I have always found it a
model, in its heads and principal officers, of

1885 ME. GLADSTONE'S TRIBUTE 245
enlightened ability and untiring zeal. So it was
when I began to know it intimately thirty-three
years ago, and so I have found it down to the
time when I resigned the charge of finance, and
I rejoice now in closing the door of office behind
me to have a new proof through your kindness
that it is likely to be in the future what it has
been in the past.
' Believe me, always sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.'
Algernon E. West, Esq.
Board of Inland Eevenue : July 10, 1885.
' My dear Mr. Gladstone, — I cannot find
words to thank you on this Board's behalf and
my own for the generous words of approval and
encouragement which your letter of the 8th
inst. conveyed to us.
' No one in this Department will ever forget
them, and they will serve as a noble incentive to
us all to strive vigorously and honestly to keep
this Department as it was handed over to us,
worthy of the high commendation that you have
given it.
' We are grateful to you for not objecting to
the publication of your letter, and we trust that

246 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
the good effect it will have in the whole of our
Inland Eevenue service will far outweigh any
idea that we publish it from motives of personal
vanity. ' Algeenon West.'
Et. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.
On July 16 was the second reading of Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach's Budget Bill — which
from the necessities of the case was very simple
and consequently without much interest.
Arthur Eussell and Bingham Mildmay dined
with us to meet Mr. Gladstone, who was in great
force. The talk at dinner was of books ; he
praised Jesse's life of Beau Brummell as amoral
book with a lesson. He had read George Eliot's
life and saturated himself with no less than five
reviews of it.
Arthur Eussell said there were only seventeen
Positivists in England ; Mr. Gladstone said, at
any rate, on one point he agreed with them —
that marriage was absolutely indissoluble. After
dinner he talked much on his favourite subject,
the triumph of my Department. One man's
exemption, he said, was another man's taxation.

1885 ME. GLADSTONE ON MUSIC 247
Dining another night at our house he met
Andrew Hichens, no mean musician, who knew
thoroughly all the technical expressions con
nected with the art. Mr. Gladstone, to his
astonishment, talked of fugues and octaves,
crotchets and minims with entire ease. He said
that he had heard a bass voice at St. Andrew's
which reminded him of Lablache. He disap
proved of the new, or rather return to the old
notation of the Old Hundredth Psalm, in which
crotchets had been substituted for minims.
At a great function at Edinburgh, so he told
us, where 10,000 voices were singing the Hun
dredth Psalm with the usual rhythm, the band
adopted the modern rendering with disastrous
results. He told Mrs. Hichens that many years ago,
when Jenny Lind was in her glory, there were
some American singers at his house. To amuse
them he pointed out all the celebrities — Emperor
of Eussia, Princes, and Princesses, and they
were very indifferent, but when he showed them
Jenny Lind they threw up their hands with
delight. On August 12, the anniversary of our happy-

248 RECOLLECTIONS 1885
wedding-day, I went up to town in the carriage
with Cardinal Manning, who regretted that his
old friend Gladstone had not sooner retired.
He thought the Tories would gain some seats at
the next election, but lose more at the succeed
ing one, but either party must provide building
sites for the working men, with whom the earth
hunger was as keen as in Ireland. He was in
favour of my idea of taking land for taxes, and
reselling it.
On September 1 my sailor son, Gilbert, was
appointed to the ' Polyphemus,' the great ram
ming ship, which we went to see at Portsmouth.
The cabins were all below the water-line, and
were supplied with air by pumps.
On Saturday, October 3, my son Eeggie
came with his wife, and I was enjoying our
holiday when I heard from Lord Iddesleigh,
asking me to appear as a witness before his
Commission on Trade Depression, which I tried
to prove did not exist if you took England as a
whole. I was self-satisfied with my evidence,
and later found that the Commission was satis
fied also, as appears from the second of the two
letters which I here subjoin :

1885 THE TEADE COMMISSION 249
10 Downing Street, Whitehall: October 9, 1885.
' My dear Mr. West, — I am anxious if possible
to have the advantage of your evidence before the
Trade Commission next week. I don't like dis
turbing your holiday ; but we mean to try to
get through our official witnesses on Thursday
and Friday, and shall then adjourn for a fort
night before taking up the trade witnesses.
' Would Friday suit you ?
' I remain, yours faithfully,
' Iddesleigh.'
Algernon E. West, Esq., C.B.
Board Eoom, Inland Eevenue, Somerset House :
October 19, 1885.
' My dear West, — My father was very de
cidedly pleased with your evidence, which he
thought was very well given, as well as inte
resting in itself. He also said you gave it
cheerfully, and rather as if you liked doing so,
which of course made it much more agreeable
all round ; so I think you may legitimately con
gratulate yourself. Eobinson will have told you
how delighted Elliott was. ' Yours ever,
' St. Cyees.'
'P.S. — I hear we are to win 40 seats in

250 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
England by the Parnellite vote. At present in
England and Wales there are about 265 Liberals
and 211 Conservatives. Total, 476.
' The total wiU be raised from 476 to 495. If
you get 65 out of 72 seats in Scotland, and 3
out of 103 in Ireland, which is all we give
you there, I understand,' you will want 268
English seats to give a majority of 2, as
thus :
' England and Wales : Liberals, 268 ; Conser
vatives, 227=495. Scotland : Liberals, 65 ; Con
servatives, 7 = 72. Ireland: Liberals, 3; Con
servatives, 15 ; Parnellites, 85. Liberals, 336 ;
Conservatives, 334. Total Parliament, 670.
' St. C
On the 6th October my wife and daughter
and I paid a visit to Walter Burns, the son-in-
law of my old friend, Mr. Julius Morgan, at
Copt Hall, a curious old place in Epping Forest,
belonging formerly to the Conyers. Burns was
most agreeable and had an extraordinarily
original way of expressing himself. Having
been to a terribly crowded party, he told us that
if St. Paul had been there he would have been

1885 ELECTION PEOSPECTS 251
obliged to hang up his halo outside, as there was
no room for it inside.
Mr. Pennington (an artist), Mr. Poste (a
musician), and M. Archdeacon (a Frenchman),
made up our party.
We returned on the 10th, and on the llth
October I went to the Cosmopolitan, where I had
a long election talk with Herschell, who thought
Edward Grey would beat Lord Percy, and
that Sir M. Eidley and William Lowther would
be beaten in Northumberland. Hal. Howard
was doubtful ' but hopeful. Fair Trade and
Church were doing harm ; this majority would
be smaller. Harry Sturgis would beat C. Hambro
in Dorset, but Wolverton said ',No ' to the last.
Sir William Harcourt said to Horace that
he thought they would get forty majority over
Tories and Irish together. St. Cyres, who is
generally very accurate, puts the Liberal ma
jority at twenty-five. Sir Charles Tennant was
gloomy about seats in Glasgow, but behold, we
know not anything, and nobody knows any
thing !
It was in this month that we had had a
farewell tea with Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, to say

252 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
' good-bye ' to Lady Eibblesdale, who was off
to Gibraltar. Spencer Lyttelton came in fresh
from Midlothian, describing Mr. Gladstone as
full of vigour and confidence, and sure of a
large majority.
I spent the evening at Brooks's with Sand
hurst, Henry Calcraft, and others, receiving news
from the boroughs as to how the elections were
going. Birmingham had returned a solid seven.
Arthur Hayter was beaten, which I regretted,
as Parliament was the air he breathed to him.
Dilke got in by a small majority. My brother
Henry in at head of poll for Ipswich. Childers
and George Lefevre were both beaten.
Mr. Gladstone was returned by 4,000 ma
jority, Edward Grey beating Lord Percy by
1,200. On the 29th I dined with Mr. Armitstead,
Mr. Gladstone's loyal follower and friend, whose
devotion was only equalled by his hospitality.
Herbert Gladstone, Mr. Cohen, and Frank Hill,
of the 'Daily News,' were there, and I heard
some election stories, probably old :
A man tried to sell some kittens with blue

1885 ELECTION RETURNS 253
Tory ribbons on, and failed; the next day he
tried to sell them with yellow Liberal rib
bons on. 'Why,' said some one, 'they were
Tories yesterday ! ' ' Yes,' he said, ' but their
eyes are opened since then, and they have
become Liberals.'
' Will you vote for me ? ' said a canvassing
candidate. ' No,' said the voter, ' I would sooner
vote for the devil.' 'But in the event of your
friend not going to the poll I hope you will vote
for me.' The returns coming in show a Liberal
majority of forty-eight — English, Scotch, and
Welsh votes. Our cousins triumphant every
where — Edward Grey, Harry Howard, Frederick
Mildmay, and Stafford Howard, though my poor
friend, Charles Hambro, was beaten.
I still think we shaU see Home Eule in some
shape or another before the year is out, as Car
narvon seems to think.
On December 15 dined with Wolverton at
Brooks's, and afterward joined Herbert Glad
stone, Henry James, and E. W. Hamilton. I
had a long talk with, or rather listened to,
Henry James, who was great on the subject of

254 RECOLLECTIONS 1885
Eandolph Churchill. He met him at Mr.
Oppenheim's the other day, and asked him
what they were going to do. He said : ' Every
thing that will be most disagreeable to you.'
When he was crossing the Channel, Henry
James went over with him, and he was nearly
dead from sea-sickness, but at Amiens he re
covered a little. He had recently made a most
violent attack on Lord Granville, and while
still sea-green from the effects of the crossing he
observed : ' How GranviUe would like to see me
now ! '
Henry James gave a capital account of Ean
dolph Churchill's waiting at the Tory Club at
Birmingham for the result of the poll, and as
each Liberal success was announced he was
silent, till his own failure was announced, and
then he sprang up and gave them a rattling
speech on the ' Advantages of Adversity.'
Matthews, he said, was a good speaker.
They had been associates on the Oxford Circuit.
At one of his election meetings Matthews
touched on Bright very cleverly : ' I was in the
Town Hall the other night to hear Mr. Bright,'
he said. ' I was reminded of the old instrument

1885 MR. VILLIERS' RECOLLECTIONS 255
which delighted our grandfathers and grand
mothers, but which played one tune — the hurdy-
gurdy — and on listening I thought of it, and
"Oh dear! oh dear! oh'dear!"' at the same
time imitating the turning of the hurdy-gurdy.
We next discussed the Irish difficulty and how
impossible it was to find anybody in Ireland who
could be responsible for life and property there.
We also dealt with woman suffrage, and James
reminded me of our first meeting at Edward
Levy's on May 8, 1871.
After, in the smoking-room for an hour and
a half's talk with Charles Villiers, who, as usual,
was delightful with his recollections of the past ;
said George Lewis and Gladstone had differed
at Eton, at Oxford, and in Parliament ; and in
the Cabinet, after one of Gladstone's fine
speeches, George Lewis used only to say : ' I
disagree wdth everything that Gladstone has
said.' O'Connell was a greater man than Parnell.
In discussing the question of National Debt, he
said he would not be dragged into the party
details of ' fiddhng finance.'
Lord Palmerston's prophecies of the effect of

256 EECOLLECTIONS 1885
abolishing the Irish Church had come true, and
he disbelieved in the Irish ever being satisfied
with anything. Eoebuck had said, in defending
the Church Establishment, that ' the people loved
it as the place where they had been christened,
been married, and been buried ! '
/Brougham had said : ' Don't abolish it ; there
is nothing but the Church between us and reli
gion.' He said the feeling against concession
to the Irish and the Irish themselves was grow
ing fast. I had seen no proof of it.
We talked of Beau Brummell, Hayward, Flem
ing, and Charles Greville, who it was supposed
got money from his publisher for the promise of
his ' Memoirs.' They traded on the vulgarity and
snobbishness of the society they lived in. Alvan
ley and Brummell were both swindlers, the only
difference being that the first kept up the pre
miums of policies on life assurances on which he
had raised money ; the other did not. Hayward
was coarse, and Fleming was a social flaneur.
St. Cyres told me next day that his father.
Lord Iddesleigh, did not think it possible that
the Government could continue.

1886 257

CHAPTEE XXI
JANUAEY— JUNE, 1886
Mr. Gladstone's inauvaAse dizaine de jours — Defeat of the Govern
ment — Mr. Gladstone's Summons to Windsor — Miss Mary
Gladstone's Wedding — Sir William Harcourt ChanceUor of the
Exchequer — Letter from Sir Michael Hicks-Beach — The New
Cabinet — Contretemps about Lord GranviUe — Eiots of the
Unemployed — Financial Conversation with Mr. Chamberlain —
First Interview with Sir WUliam Harcourt — Deaths of Lord
CardweU and Napier Sturt — Lady Georgiana Grey — The
' Cottage Budget ' — Cabinet Troubles — Mr. Gladstone's Home
Eule Speech — Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone — lUness and
Death of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton — Letter from Sir Erskine May — •
Conversation with Sir Henry James on the Irish Question — •
Mr. Gladstone's Indomitable Spirit.
Afteb a charming little holiday at Wan
borough I came up alone, as there were still
workmen in St. James's, and found a letter from
St. Cyres, saying the Government was not likely
to last. These changes are naturally very distasteful
to permanent officials ; for when a Chancellor
of the Exchequer has once matured his plans,
it is very annoying to have them all upset and
VOL. II. s

258 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
everything begun de novo ; besides that, all the
old suggestions and ideas are continually being
brought up, and have to be discussed anew.
Furthermore, I had hoped that the Irish Ques
tion might have been set at rest by Lord Salis
bury's Government, for Mr. Gladstone had offered
to co-operate with him in any attempt to bring
it to a settlement, but his proposal had not been
accepted. On January 26 Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone,
Arnold Morley, F. Leveson-Gower, and Wolver
ton dined with us at St. James's; Mr. Glad
stone, generally a model of punctuality, kept us
waiting till nine o'clock, when he came in looking
fagged and weary, having been speaking on
Collings' amendment. He told my wife that he
had had a mauvaise dizaine de jours. He soon
returned to the House, saying as he left us
that things were looking very serious.
In the morning we learned that the Govern
ment had been defeated and would resign; I
hoped that they would be forced to remain, and
that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach would stay at the
Treasury. Mr. W. H. Smith had been sent to Ireland

1886 ME. GLADSTONE'S PLANS 259
about forty hours before the Government defeat,
and Sir William Harcourt said that his mission
had been conducted on strictly commercial lines
of small profits and quick returns.
Sam Whitbread, whom I met, thought that
Hartington would join Mr. Gladstone's new
Government, which Lord Spencer thought would
be satisfactorily formed ; of course Ireland would
be a fearful difficulty, but Mr. Gladstone's buoy
ancy, earnestness, and faith would overcome all
obstacles. I soon heard that Lord Hartington would
not join. Mr. Gladstone told me in the evening
at his house that he should form a Govern
ment for two reasons only — the first was that
the undue weight attaching to his age might
make him the most likely man to settle the
Irish Question ; the second, that he wished to
defer the inevitable split in the Liberal party as
long as possible. Chamberlain was cordially in
agreement with him now, though he feared that
he would not be able to go to the lengths he
would probably adopt. Mr. Gladstone's idea of
radicalism was bounded by the radicalism of
John Bright, s 2

260 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
That very night, after we had left Downing
Street, Henry Ponsonby arrived with the Queen's
summons to Mr. Gladstone, and Arthur Balfour
told Arnold Morley that he was sure Mr. Glad
stone would succeed in forming an Administra
tion. As we walked away from dinner one night, I
was sorry to hear from George Leveson-Gower
that the attacks in the Press on Lord Granville,
as Foreign Minister, had much annoyed him,
and that he was determined to return as Foreign
Secretary. The next day things were shaping themselves
rapidly. Eichard Grosvenor told me that Chil
ders would go to the War Office, while he him
self was to become a peer and be succeeded as
chief Whip by Arnold Morley.
On February 1 Mr. Gladstone went across
to Osborne, and kissed hands as First Lord
of the Treasury, in his third Administration ;
Wolverton dined with us, and, needless to say,
discussed very fully and freely the situation.
February 2 was a lovely Candlemas Day,
and Miss Mary Gladstone's wedding to Mr.
Drew was celebrated at St. Margaret's. We

1886 THE NEW CABINET 261
dreaded the verification of the old Latin
saying : Si sol candeseat Maria purificante
Majus erit frigus post festum quam fuit ante,
which proved to be true.
After the ceremony we all adjourned to
luncheon at Mr. Gladstone's, who asked me
whom I should propose as Chancellor of the
Exchequer. I humbly suggested Chamberlain,
but he thought that the City would be terrified
at his views of ' ransom,' while I maintained
that a few weeks of official experience would
soften the crudeness of his views. However,
Dis aliter visum, and Sir William Harcourt
became Chancellor, while Chamberlain, after
refusing to be First Lord of the Admiralty, was
relegated, unfortunately, to the Local Govern
ment Board.
In a few days I got the following kind letter
from Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, on his leaving
the Exchequer, alluding to a statement that
Chancellors of the Exchequer were in the habit
of manipulating, by hastening or retarding it,
the collection of the Income Tax, to suit the
requirements of their Budgets :

262 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
Williamstrip Park, Fairford: February 11, 1886.
' Dear Mr. West, — The returns, for which I
asked you, about the licences, have duly reached
me. Many thanks for them ; of course, my
successor will have copies sent to him also.
' I had not noticed the article in the
" Economist " about income-tax receipts. I do
not know whether it would be in your power
in any way to get the misconception set right
in a future issue of the paper ; of course, I do
not mean by any communication signed by
yourself or your colleagues. If it could be done,
I think it would be well, mainly to disabuse
people of the notion that Chancellors of the
Exchequer regulate the collection of taxes.
' I am very much obliged to you for what
you are kind enough to say about the close of
our official connection. You have helped me
very ably and loyally in more than one matter ;
and, though I never desire to get back to office,
yet if fate should have that misfortune in store
for me I hope we may again be associated, with
some more practical result than it has been
possible to achieve in seven months. — Believe
me, yours very truly, ' M. Hioks-Beach.'

1886 LOED GEANVILLE SUPEESEDED 263
On February 4 the new Cabinet was an
nounced, and I was pleased to find that, with
few exceptions, my prophecies of the personnel
of the new Government were correct.
I was delighted that Wolverton, who had
been seriously offered the Lord-Lieutenantcy
of Ireland, was to be the new Postmaster-
General, which would suit him much better.
Mr. Gladstone dined with us, but he was
very tired and worn — and no wonder, with all
the terrible annoyances inseparable from the
formation of a new Administration.
It had been settled in a most clumsy manner
that Lord Granville was to be superseded at the
Foreign Office by Lord Eosebery, a very proper
thing, no doubt ; but somehow or another Mr.
Gladstone had omitted even speaking to him
about it. I told him that there was naturally
a sore feeling on Lord Granville's part ; which
made him very unhappy. ' I am quite ready,'
he said, ' to let Lord Granville be Prime
Minister, and I will be Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and you may tell him so from me.'
But it was in vain, and Lord Granville became
Secretary for the Colonies.

264 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
On my way from Somerset House one evening
I found that there had been serious riots, from
a meeting of the unemployed in Trafalgar
Square : all the windows were smashed in Pall
Mall, Piccadilly, and Oxford Street. My wife
had been in Lady Fanny Marjoribanks' house,
where all the windows were broken.
Colonel Henderson, the Chief of the Police,
was dismissed after the Pall Mall riots, and it
was thought Childers was hard upon him ;
but men in responsible positions get all the
credit when things go right, and so must accept
the blame and the consequences when things go
wrong. I had an interesting talk with Mr. Chamber
lain on local taxation, and on a graduated
income tax. I hope I convinced him that the
latter was most inadvisable, if not impossible,
arguing that all the efforts of the Eevenue
authorities had for many years been successfully
employed in taking the tax at the fountain head,
independently of the destination of the divi
dends. This made the tax far less unpopular
than it would otherwise have been ; whereas if
it was graduated, every man's income must be

1886 THE NEW CHANOELLOE 265
investigated and taxed, and individual payments
would have to be made, which would create
widespread dissatisfaction, and make the tax
a purely voluntary one, irrespective of the
safeguards on returns under Schedule ' D.'
There were other subjects, such as house tax
and death duties, much more suited for
graduation, he agreed, and said he did not care
what it was as long as graduation was adopted
as a principle.
The next day I saw Mr. Fowler, the Secre
tary to the Treasury, and on the llth I had
my first interview with my new master. Sir
William Harcourt, who received me aux bras
ouverts as ' his guide, philosopher, and friend.'
We had a long and smoky talk.
We dined in Downing Street. Lord and
'Lady Granville and Lord Eipon were there, who
said Harcourt had already begun work by dis
cussing his Estimates. Lord Aberdeen, who
was just back from Ireland, where he had been
sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant, joined us during
the evening.
On the first day of the meeting of the new
Cabinet news came of poor Lord Cardwell's

266 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
death. His mind had latterly given way, but
he did not know it, and felt injured at the
neglect shown him by his exclusion from office.
He had been a great Minister of War, having
abolished purchase and established short service,
and for the first time in our history, a Eeserve
Army. A day or two afterwards we dined at North
brook's, where we met Sir Henry Norman, the
Governor of Jamaica, whose daughter destroyed
any illusion I might have had as to the charms of
a residence in the West Indies. Lord Derby, Sir
Ashley Eden, and Lord Brassey were there also.
I had an interesting conversation at Somer
set House with Sir James AUport, the General
Manager of the Midland Eailway, on Stamp
Duties and the advantage that would ensue from
their composition, which would induce the rail
way servants, working men, and others to invest
in small sums of Eailway Stocks as they did in
France. He said we should never see railways
really developed until low fares were adopted.
During the rate war with the Northern lines,
when you could go to York for Is. 6d., the com
panies had coined money.

1886 NAPIER STURT 267
I dined at Lord Eipon's — a large man
dinner ; sat next Herbert Gladstone, who was
very sanguine about Ireland and said that Mr.
Gladstone's letter to Lord de Vesci was an
attempt to draw Parnell. Mr. Gladstone himself
was very hopeful as to ultimate success.
The weather all this time was bearing out
the old adage, and the cold strengthened as the
days lengthened.
On March 13 we dined at Lady Harcourt's,
a large party, where we heard, for the first time,
of poor Napier Sturt 's death ; an amusing and
charming companion, always lamenting the sad
fate that pursued younger sons ; he had lately
had a command at Winchester, and had entered
into the spirit of it thoroughly, and was, I heard,
very particular about conduct and language.
I heard there was to be a petition against my
brother Henry at Ipswich, brought about by the
foolish conduct of his colleague. He was very
low about it, which I was sorry for, as no man
ever fought a battle on purity lines so well or so
pluckily. On the 15th we dined at Lady Halifax's,
and were glad to meet my wife's aunt, Lady

268 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
Georgiana Grey, then eighty-five years old,
and wonderfully young for her years. She was
a curious type of high breeding and fanciful
ideas, and was apt to be somewhat tenacious of
her opinions.
On the following day I passed a long time
with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Grafton
Street, discussing the Budget, which was, as he
said, only to be a ' Cottage Budget.' He main
tained that everything in Mr. Gladstone's
conduct was governed by two preponderating
influences — finance and theology.
Up to March 18 there was still skating in
St. James's Park, but on the next day, with
glad hearts we welcomed the beginning of
spring weather, and on the 20th I took my
daughter Constance to Wanborough to see the
cottage she had got for her Girls' Home, and
found birds singing and shrubs bursting. On
our return we dined at Lady Eosebery's, and I
sat next to Lady William Compton, who made
herself very agreeable by the interest she mani
fested in a garden at Compton Conyers, where
she was going to live. It was a pleasant con
trast to the eternal subject of politics, for I

1886 THE IRISH QUESTION 269
heard things were not going smoothly in the
Cabinet, and Chamberlain and Trevelyan would
probably resign.
On Saturday we went to Coombe Wood, in
which Wolverton had bought a house, and made
it very pretty under the artistic guidance of
Mr. Devey, the famous architect, with whom
our youngest son was working ; and on Sunday
Arnold Morley and Lord Spencer came down,
and discussed the Irish Question from every
point of view.
At the end of this long March month, I
went with my wife to see a coUection of Millais'
pictures. How wonderful that a man can be
so good and so bad ! Gladstone the finest of
modern pictures. Lord Beaoonsfield as bad as
can be.
On April 1 I met Mr. Gladstone, who, not
withstanding all the Cabinet troubles, remained
very determined to put forward his scheme
for Ireland, even if he stood alone. Eddie
Hamilton bet me 61. to 41. that Mr. Gladstone
does not carry any scheme for Ireland up to the
House of Lords.
The question was before the Cabinet as to

270 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
whether Customs and Excise were to be given
over to the Irish Government ; but happily it
was decided to keep them, before I had time
to give my opinion on a subject bristling with
difficulties. April 8 was the day fixed for Mr. Glad
stone's Home Eule speech, and as I walked
down to the House I noticed that Big Ben had
stopped rather ominously. The crowd outside
was very great, and in the Lobby tremendous,
all the Peers and under- the- Gallery people
acting exactly as we used to in a ' rouge ' at
football at Eton. The floor of the House was
filled with chairs, for the first time in Parlia
mentary history, all the way up ; many of them
having been taken from 6 a.m.
Mr. Gladstone's approach was heralded with
cheers — the whole House rising on his entrance,
except the front Opposition Bench.
He spoke for three hours and five minutes,
his voice, as it always did, getting clearer and
stronger to the end. Wolverton came home to
dinner, and to describe it all to my wife. With
him I went to the G.P.O., to see how Mr.
Gladstone's speech had been sent off to the

1886 MR. BRIGHT'S DISCONTENT 271
provinces ; we found when we got there, at
ten o'clock, that it had already been received
verbatim in every capital in Europe as well as
in New York. Then I learnt that under the
building there were stowed away 1,000 miles of
telegraph wires.
On our way home we met Lord Spencer,
who said the only alternative to Mr. Gladstone's
scheme would be strong coercion.
The next day we went to Coombe ; and
Wolverton calculated that the Government
might get a majority of twenty-five, on the
second reading of the Bill, but he was always
of a singularly sanguine temperament.
On April 12 I was busy all day upon the
Eevenue clauses for the Irish Bill, and in
the evening we dined at Mr. Gladstone's ; Mr.
Bright was there, and I thought him very
querulous, and Mr. Gladstone was rather short
with his querulousness, so altogether the dinner
was not as pleasant as usual ; but I went down
to the House of Commons and had a little talk
with George Trevelyan, v/ho was very despondent
and wondered how Mr. Gladstone could have
led the Party into such an impasse ; and with

272 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
Mr. Chamberlain, who said I should live to see
the day when finance would be the great ques
tion, and a plan I had suggested, of succession
duty being paid in kind to Local Boards, which
he approved of, might be adopted ; but Mr.
Gladstone overshadowed every financier now,
and we were always niggling'.
Edward Marjoribanks said they must keep the
Irish M.P.s in the House, as 100 votes would
depend upon their retention ; I, in' my ignorance,
should have thought the prospect of their absence
would have been a tempting bait.
On the 13th, after Harcourt's speech, which
was very rallying, the Gladstones, Wolverton,
Lady Fanny Marjoribanks, Charles Guthrie, and
Frank Mildmay dined with us, and we all went
back to the House with Mr. Gladstone. The
scheme has many enemies, but no rival, and so
' holds the field ' — and I cannot but still hope it
may pass the House of Commons, after all these
threatenings. On the 15th, the ' Cottage Budget,' which
naturally produced very little comment or con
troversy, was brought in.
On the 21st, heard to my great grief that

1886 DEATH OF MRS. ALFRED LYTTELTON 273
Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton was very ill, but on calling
at Brook Street I found Lady Eibblesdale, who
was in better spirits and said she was recover
ing ; delighted with the good news, we went off
to Wanborough for a httle Easter holiday, and
on Saturday, the 24th, to Stratton, but on the
next — Easter morning — heard that our dear little
friend had passed away : she was too angelic
and meteoric for this life, and Heaven will be
richer for her, but we much poorer.
Sir Erskine May, who had made up his mind
to retire, wrote to me in answer to a letter of mine :
Longford House, The Leas, Folkestone ; May 4, 1886.
' Dear Mr. Algernon West, — Pray accept my
hearty thanks for your very kind letter.
' The Civil Service never had so generous a
friend and patron as Mr. Gladstone, and I am
the latest example of his good-will.
' My change of destiny has not come a day
too soon, for my health has quite broken down
lately ; I have been laid up here the last fort
night, and at a time when I particularly wished
to be in town I am detained here sorely against
my wall.
VOL. II. T

274 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
'You may be well content with your son's
position and prospects. Promotion has been
slow ; but we shall soon be approaching a more
ancient stratum of official fossils.
' Yours very truly,
'T. Beskine May.'
On May 12 I called in Downing Street and
saw Mrs. Gladstone, who begged us to go in the
evening as they had a ' stiff dinner,' so we dined
at home and went there. I talked to Sir Henry
James, who told me that he had come to the
conclusion that this Irish Question must be
settled in one way or another ; Lord Hartington
did not want to take office, and they could not
trust the Tories to deal with so fearful a subject.
All the Liberals at Mr. Chamberlain's meeting,
forty-nine or fifty-two, had settled to attend the
Hartington meeting, and the result would be a
complete disruption of the Liberal party. I
asked him whether, seeing this imminent
calamity, he could not come to terms. He
said the thing was rendered much more difficult
by Mr. Gladstone's overwhelming superiority,
which rendered negotiations very difficult, for

1886 PLANS OF RECONCILIATION 275
they could not ask a man in his position to
withdraw the Bill, and they were pledged to
vote against the second reading ; but if in some
way or another the principle of autonomy could
be put forward, the majority, possibly including
Hartington, would vote for it, and on it a Bill
could be introduced and considered in the
autumn Session.
I said that it was ridiculous that he, the
cleverest lawyer in England, could not make a
bridge if this was all that was wanted. He said
it was very difficult to do so.
I spoke about this to Mr. Gladstone, who said
the people in the House of Commons were not apt
to be so modest about his superiority, but was
very much impressed at what I told him ; he did
not consider the Bill doomed while many brains
were actively engaged in endeavouring to find a
modus Vivendi, notably Mr. Whitbread. He was
clearly, I think, ready to postpone to another
Session the details of the Bill, if by accepting
this compromise the Party could be kept to
gether. Afterwards, at the Chancellor of' the Ex
chequer's and the Cosmopolitan, where I saw
T 2

276 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
Herbert Gladstone, who was, as usual, very
sanguine. On Saturday, the 15th, Mr. Gladstone came
to Coombe, where my wife and I were. He was in
one of his provoking, frivolous moods, making
a Cabinet for Hartington, which on the 17th
appeared, as he had written it, in the ' Pall Mall
Gazette,' and we could not imagine how it got
there, I put before him a resolution which St.
Cyres and I had concocted : ' That this House,
having recognised the principle of Irish autonomy
by reading for a first time t;he Bill for the Better
Government of Ireland, trusts that the present
Government, in which it reposes entire con
fidence, wiU, in a Session specially devoted to
the purpose, introduce measures for establish
ing a statutory Parliament with defined powers
at Dublin, and for securing the just rights
and liberties of all creeds and classes of Irish
men.' Mr. Gladstone said it was too late, he feared,
for conciliation, and a Government should not
proceed by resolution, which could not pledge
the House of/Comruons to a principle on the

1886 DIVERGENT VIEWS 277
first reading of a Bill. His resolutions on the
Irish Church were made when he was in Oppo
sition. Sir William Harcourt came on Sunday, and
of course talked all day and night on the Irish
Question. Great authorities differed on the possibilities
of arrangement, but the balance of opinion
seemed to me to be against it.
After Easter there was a meeting of the
Liberal party at the Foreign Office, which it was
hoped might be successful.
One night we met Northbrook at dinner, who
told me that Bright said to him that he was old
and that he hoped to be forgiven, but he could
not get over the conduct of the Irishmen in past
days to him ; Northbrook himself hoped that
the Home Eule Bill would be even now with
drawn. Edward Marjoribanks told me there were
thirty-six men who had not yet bowed the
knee to Baal and were unpledged, and still
talked of a hope for carrying the second read
ing : if not there must be an immediate disso
lution.

278 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
On June 4 Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, Paul-
ton, Edward Grey, and John Morley dined with
us, Mr. Gladstone being in great form an,d
spirits, notwithstanding all his anxieties and
troubles. Nothing seems to weigh him down.

1886 279

CHAPTEE XXII
JUNE— JULY, 1886
Mr. Gladstone's Sanguine Temper — Scene in the House — Speeches
by Mr. Goschen, Mr. Parnell, Mr. Cowen, and Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach — Mr. Gladstone's Eeply — The Division: Delight
of the Unionists — Mr. Gladstone at Coombe Wood : his Opinion
of the Inland Eevenue and Customs Board — Mr. Gladstone's
Desire to help Lord Salisbury — Eesignation of Mr. Adam
Young: Appointment of Lord St. Cyres as Deputy-Chairman —
Letters from Lord Iddesleigh, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr.
Gladstone — Farewell Dinner at Downing Street — Quotation
from Sidney Herbert — Lord HerscheU's Visit to Wanborough :
his Anecdotes — Lord Eandolph Churchill appointed Leader
and ChanceUor of the Exchequer.
In those early days of June I never heard
whether or not Mr. Gladstone anticipated defeat.
Everything pointed to it, but I do not think
that he admitted its possibility even to a great
friend who visited him at DoUis Hill, on the
Sunday week before the division, with prophetic
warnings. On the eventful Monday afternoon Arnold
Morley, visiting him in Downing Street, found

280 RECOLLECTIONS 188S
him absorbed in a French novel and somewhat
put out by the interruption.
I heard that members had secured their
seats since six in the morning, in anticipation
of the division on the Home Eule Bill, and I
was apprehensive that I might fail in getting
under the gallery, more particularly as I was
engaged on a Committee at the Treasury, and
only got away from it just in time to find myself
in the struggling crowd of Peers and ticket-
holders in the lobby of the House of Commons.
I succeeded in getting in time to hear a bitter
speech of Goschen's, followed by Parnell's
wonderfully clear and incisive speech when he
made, for the first time, his allusion to the offer
he had received from the Conservative party for
the complete autonomous government of Ireland.
He was very touching when he taunted
Chamberlain with throwing his sword into the
scale against Ireland, and dashing from the
Irish people the cup of cold water just as
it was reaching their lips — ' The first cup of
cold water that has been offered to our nation
since the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam.'
I went away for dinner, still uncertain as to
the division, and on my return found my place

1886 DEBATE ON HOME RULE 281
under the gallery taken, so I had to go upstairs
in the Speaker's gallery, where I heard a rugged
and eloquent speech from 'Joe ' Cowen, who spoke
with a strong Northern accent. It was of him
that Disraeli said he had heard he was a good
speaker, but as he did not understand his
language he was no judge.
On entering the House I saw Wolverton,
who was coming out of the chief Whip's room,
and he told me there were yet hopes of the Bill
being carried- — which added to the evening's
excitement. None really knew what the result
would be, though those behind the scenes had
become painfully aware of the probable defeat.
Then a long speech from Sir Michael Hicks-
Beach (of which we were to hear more later
on), who emphatically denied the overtures of
Lord Carnarvon, and then Mr. Gladstone rose
amidst torrents of cheers to wind up the debate.
I did not think at the commencement of his
speech that he was at his best, but he soon
warmed with his subject and was magnificent in
voice, in gesture, and delivery.
After his peroration — ' Think, I beseech
you, think well, think wisely, think not for the
moment, but for the years that are to come,

282 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
before you reject this Bill ' — the House cleared
for a division, and we in the gallery, which was
crowded to suffocation, were left in a state of
profound suspense. I myself had been sitting
next to a member who to the last minute was
undecided, and told me as he passed to the
division how he would vote.
The Bar became jammed, and Mr. Gladstone
could hardly make his way through to the front
Treasury Bench, where, with a calm face, he
commenced writing his letter on his knee to the
Queen. I had despaired of the result, and yet I
had a particle of hope from Wolverton, and
when I saw Edwa.rd Marjoribanks, as a splendid
illustration of the mens cequa in arduis^ sit
down smiling, as he whispered the result to Mr.
Gladstone, that hope, which was so soon to be
disappointed, asserted itself more strongly.
Arnold Morley came in, and with Marjori
banks stood at the left of the table, and I knew
the game was over — Ayes, 311 ; Noes, 341.
The Conservatives with their Unionist allies
seemed to have gone mad with delirious dehght.
When they knew the victory was theirs, shouts,
in which I am sorry to say the strangers in the

1886 MR. GLADSTONE AT COOMBE WOOD 283
gallery shared, went up for Mr. Gladstone and
groans for Mr. Chamberlain, and the curtain
of that momentous drama fell.
I walked home with Arnold Morley to Down
ing Street, through a surging, cheering crowd,
heard that Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone were well,
and w^ent home feeling assured that a dissolu
tion was not far off.
On June 12 I drove my daughter, Constance,
to Lady Wolverton's, Coombe Wood. Mr.
Gladstone, who was staying there, had been
occupied in writing his Address, but came to tea,
and shortly after he asked me to go with him
for a walk ; talking of his Address, he feared it
might be too long, but it was not as long as
Mr. Chamberlain's, whose name he had not
even mentioned. He had driven home the
comparison between Lord Salisbury's and his
mode of governing Ireland, the only two alter
natives, and sorrowfully admitted that he had
lost in this division a great deal of talent.
I told him that Adam Young, my deputy at
the Board of Inland Eevenue, was going to re
tire, which he regretted, thinking it a great loss.
Then he repeated what he had said to me often

284 - EECOLLECTIONS 1886
before, that he looked on the Inland Eevenue as
a model of all that was good.
The Customs Board was, and always had been,
very behindhand ; he had never had but one
suggestion from them in all his long experience,
and that was the penny duty on aU packages,
which he had at once been forced to give up and
run away from, like a dog with its tail between
its legs. He wondered at the cause of the
difference in the traditions of the two Depart
ments. John Wood and Sir Charles Pressley
were very remarkable men and excellent Chair
men of the Board.
I suggested that Lord St. Cyres should suc
ceed Adam Young as deputy, to which he at
once agreed.
He asked me about Sir Michael Hicks-
Beach as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and I
told him how pleasant our communications
were during the short time he had been in
office. He regretted there was no available financier
now. The race was becoming extinct since the
days of Peel.
Lord Iddesleigh, he admitted, had all the
principles at his fingers' ends, had knowledge,

1886 MR. GLADSTONE'S ADDEESS 285
good sense, and absolute uprightness, but was
wanting in strength.
We walked in the lovely wood above the
garden for some time, enjoying the splendid
views as if pohtics were not, but we soon drifted
again into discussing the elections, when he told
me, which I knew before, of his anxiety to help
Lord Salisbury on the Irish Question. ;
On the 14th we went to Holmbury. Mr.
Gladstone was very hopeful, and the next day
produced his Address. My only criticism was
that the world was ignorant of his offer to help
Lord Salisbury to deal with the Irish Question,
and his Address said nothing of it.
Mr. Gladstone discussed Chamberlain's plan
for bujdng all holdings under thirty acres, etc. ¦
Lord Eandolph Churchill, I heard, antici
pated that the Tories would come back 300
strong and Unionists 50.
My old friend, Adam Young, to my deep
regret, resigned his D eputy- Chairmanship ; he
was a splendid type of a Civil servant of the old
school — upright, conscientious, hard-working,
and intelligent, all his thought being in his work ;
Mr. Gladstone at once, as we , had arranged,
appointed Lord St. Cyres to be his successor.

286 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
Lord Iddesleigh wrote :
Pynes, Exeter: June 29, 1886.
' My dear Mr. West, — Let me thank you very
sincerely for your kind letter, and not for that
alone ; for your friendship and the assistance
you have given to Walter in the opening of his
career have been of immense value to him, and
have made him take a hearty interest in his
work. I hope he will long have the privilege of
working with you.
' Mr. Gladstone's letter is more than kind,
and I have been writing to thank him. I
need not say that the promotion is peculiarly
gratifying as coming from him.
' Eather envying you your quiet post of
observation in these stormy days,
' I remain, yours very faithfully, 'Iddesleigh.'
I had inquired into some little matter for
Mr. Chamberlain, who, after thanking me, adds
characteristically :
' What a pretty smash our Chief has made
of it ! It is not often given to the leader of a
party twice to bring his followers to utter grief
by an unexpected coup- de-main.''

1886 LETTER FEOM MR. GLADSTONE 287
The elections ended, as we all know, with the
defeat of Mr. Gladstone's third Administration,
and on July 13 Mr. Gladstone, probably antici
pating that Lord Salisbury would again become
Prime Miiiister and Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
wrote to me as follows :
Hawarden Castle, Chester : July 12, 1886.
' My dear West, — On the formation of the
Salisbury Government last year, I thought the
arrangement as to the First Lordship of the
Treasury highly objectionable on various grounds.
But it was not forced on the consideration of
the House, as it would be if it were renewed on
the next consideration of an Estimate, or as it
might be by any one.
' Some of the objections are palpable on the
surface. But there is one which cannot be fully
appreciated, except by persons who have had a
large experience either of my Office or of the
Foreign Office, where the Foreign Minister is
head : (1) The Government must in this country
be a Government of Departments ; and (2) There
is no one either to assist or at all check the
Foreign Minister.

288 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
' As a matter of fairness, I should be glad if,
d propos de bottes and as matter of history, you
could convey the state of my mind.
' Sincerely yours,
' W. E. Gladstone.
'P.S. — One does not at once see why
Iddesleigh might not take the Foreign Office,
especially as his health is not strong.'
On the 23rd I was asked to dine at a farewell
dinner in Downing Street : we had dined there
at their first, and now at their last party.
On my arrival I was greeted by Mr. Gladstone
as ' Sir Algernon,' the Queen having approved
of my K.C.B., which pleased me and I knew
would delight my wife.
Lord and Lady Spencer, Lady Aylesbury,
Lord and Lady Dalhousie, Carmichael, Welby,
and Eddie Hamilton were there to partake of
the funeral baked meats.
I had a discussion as to a quotation from Sidney
Herbert with Mr. Gladstone, who was always so
accurate that I was frightened, but for a wonder
found myself right. Next day I wrote to Mr.
Gladstone thanking him for the honour of my

1886 CIVIL SERVICE AND MR. GLADSTONE 289
K.C.B., and added a P.S. proving that I was
right in the quotation I had made the night
before. Board Eoom, Somerset House : July 24, 1886.
' My dear Mr. Gladstone, — A few weeks
before his death. Sir Erskine May wrote to me
saying, " The Civil Service never had so generous
a friend and patron as Mr. Gladstone."
' Having experienced at your hands such
countless acts of personal kindness, I hope you
will allow me to accept the honour you so
kindly offered me last night, not as a personal
honour to myself, but as a mark of your
appreciation of the work done by the Civil
Service, and more especially by the Inland
Eevenue branch of it, in which you have
always taken so generous an interest.
' With many grateful thanks for the honour^
the value of which is trebled as coming from
you, ' I am, yours very truly,
''Algernon West.
'P.S. — I inclose the quotation from Mr.
Sidney Herbert's speech to which you alluded
last night.
VOL. II. u

290 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
' " For it is not words that humUiate but deeds.
If a man wants to see humiliation, which God
knows is always a painful sight, he need but
look there" ' (pointing to the Treasury Bench). ^
On Saturday I went down to Wanborough
with Alfred Lyttelton and Lady Eibblesdale,
meeting my son Horace at the station, and
telling him of my new honour.
The Herschells came later. I had told my wife
that as long as he was Lord Chancellor he would
bring with him the Great Seal, not thinking
that he really would do so — but he told us it
accompanied him wherever he went ; and so
poor little Wanborough had the honour of having
the Great Seal of England under its roof. After
tea we all walked over to Puttenham — Herschell
as usual full of stories.
In addressing a forger of bank notes, sen
tenced to death, he told us how a judge had
said : ' I can hold out no hope to you of mercy
here, and I must urge you to make preparation
for another world, where I hope you may obtain
that mercy which a due regard to the credit of
our paper currency forbids you to hope for here.'
' Eight Hon. S. Herbert, November 26, 1852. Hansard, p. 613,
vol. cxxiii.

1886 LOED HEESCHELL'S ANECDOTES 291

With reference to Mr. Gladstone's cruise
with Donald Currie, some one had written :
Their places to the North were booked,
Then round the coast they hurried ;
While common folk are only ' Cooked,'
The G.O.M. is ' Curried.'
He told us of an American who had bought
some red flannel shirts which were warranted
neither to lose their colour nor shrink in the
wash. After a fortnight he went to the store
where he had purchased them, and was asked by
the shopman whether the shirts had lost colour
or shrunk. ' All I can say,' he replied, ' is that
when I came down with one of them on to
breakfast, my wife said to me, " What have you
got my pink coral necklace round your throat
for?'" He told us also of a barrister of the name of
Jones, whose loquacity Chief Justice Cockburn
vainly tried to stem — ' The time is passing,
Mr. Jones.' ' Let it pass, my Lord,' with a
wave of the hand. ' There are three cases on
the list after this, Mr. Jones.' ' I, my Lord, have
studied the list, and in not one of the three am
I or my client interested in the smallest degree.' V 2

292 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
On Tuesday we travelled up with John
Morley, who had taken a little house at Elstead,
a village not far from us. He confirmed what
Herschell had told us, that Lord Eandolph
Churchill was to be leader and Chancellor of
the Exchequer.
On July 28 Edward and Lady Fanny
Marjoribanks came, and I congratulated her on
Lord Eandolph's appointment, which she would
not at first believe, but a long talk with her
about her brother to a great extent allayed my
melancholy forebodings of his becoming Chan
cellor of the Exchequer. A few days after I heard
from Welby of his first pleasant interview
with the new Chancellor, and the next day I
saw Lord Eandolph, and was struck with his
extreme courtesy and somewhat old-fashioned
manners and dignified solemnity.

1886 293

CHAPTEE XXIII
JULY— DECEMBEE, 1886
Lord Eandolph and the Old Officials — Their Dismay and Eecon-
cUiation — Interviews in the Board Eoom and at Connaught
Place — The ' Fourth Party Sofa '¦ — Lord Eandolph and the
Decimals — His Assiduity and Concentration — Propositions for
the Budget — Economy his Euling Idea — His Visits to Somerset
House and the Custom House — His Sudden Eesignation — His
Personal Eelations with his Opponents and Mr. Gladstone —
His Attacks on Mr. Gladstone's Transvaal Policy and subsequent
Retractation — His Sense of Humour and Gifts as a Phrase-
coiner — Mr. Gladstone's Letter to his Mother — Mr. Gladstone
at Wanborough : Writes his FareweU Address on leaving
Office — Deputation from GuUdford — Visit to the Italian Lakes
— Death of George Barrington — Lord GranvUle's Anecdotes of
Charles GrevUle — Mr. Ealston at the Holborn Eestaurant —
L'Envoi.
Up to this time we old officials who had been
educated in the school of Lord Palmerston, Lord
John Eussell, Mr. Gladstone, and Sir Stafford
Northcote, regarded Lord Eandolph as an im
possible man, 'whose breath was agitation and
his life a storm on which he rode.' He was
to our eyes a visible genius, an intense and

294 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
unquenchable personality, an embodied tour de
force ; but as a serious Minister of the Crown
he was to us an impossibility. In his fierce
assaults on Mr. Gladstone he had attacked the
best friend the Civil Service ever had; and it
was a moot point which was in greater dread —
we of his entrance within the portals of a
Government department, or he of having to
associate in daily business with men whom he
curtly described to a friend as ' a knot of d  d
Gladstonians.' He was a man to whom the
words of Hookham Frere in ' Monks and Giants '
might as suitably be applied as they were to that
kindred spirit, the brave and fiery Peterborough:
His birth, it seems, by Merlin's calculation
Was under Venus, Mercury, and Mars ;
His mind with all tlieir attitudes was mixed,
And like those planets wandering and unfixed.
His schemes of war were sudden, unforeseen,
Inexplicable both to friend and foe.
He seemed as if some momentary spleen
Inspired the project and impelled the blow.
Such was the impression we had of him, not un
natural and certainly not wholly wrong. But
there were other aspects to his many-sided
nature — the reckless knight-errant of debate

1886 ATTITUDE OF THE TEEASURY OFFICIALS 295
proved at the same time a patient, strenuous,
thorough, and far-sighted administrator.
Lord Eandolph, between the fall of the Tory
Government and his return to office as Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, had made himself the
mouthpiece of an attack with a venom not his
own on the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of
the Board of Inland Eevenue. ' Those were,'
as he said, ' my ignorant days.' When he as
sumed office as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
notwithstanding the reputation he had made for
himself at the India Office, he still appeared to
the minds of Treasury officials as a Minister who
would in all probability ride roughshod over
cherished traditions and habits which were very
dear to them. That such a man, with all his
faults and glaring indiscretions, whose inclina
tions became passions, should have attached to
himself a body of men like the Civil Service of
this country, was little short of a miracle. A
Frenchman, in a conversation with Pitt at the
end of the last century, expressed his surprise
at the influence which Charles Fox, a man of
pleasure ruined by the dice-box and the turf, had
exercised over the English nation. ' You have

296 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
not,' was the reply, ' been under the wand of the
magician.' It was not long before those who
were brought into close communication vpith
Lord Eandolph fell under his magic spell. I con
fess that I, at that time Chairman of the Board of
Inland Eevenue, was as much dismayed as any
man at the prospect of his becoming Chancellor
of the Exchequer. I was soon reconciled, and I
well remember our first interview in the old
historical Board Eoom at the Treasury, the stiff
and formal cut of his frock coat — the same that
he always wore when he was leader of the House
— and the somewhat old-world courtesy of man
ner with which he received me at the door.
But it was not long before he produced the
new-world cigarette-case and the long mouth
piece, which so soon became familiar. A very
few meetings were enough to show me how
sincerely anxious he was to learn all the little
I had to teach ; and from that first hour our
acquaintance gradually ripened into a friendship
which not all the vicissitudes of his stormy life,
nor even his agonising illness, ever interrupted.
The last letter he wrote before he left England
on his sad journey was to me. In it he spoke

1886 VISITS TO CONNAUGHT PLACE 297
of our long years of friendship, of his return,
and of years to come ; but the handwriting told
how impossible that return and those future
years were to be.
Our early official meetings at the Treasury
were soon superseded by more intimate conver
sations at Connaught Place. On my first visit
there I found him in a room bright with electric
light, and the eternal cigarette in his mouth.
He was seated in a large armchair having a
roomy sofa on one side, which I afterwards
learnt was known in the family as the ' Fourth
Party sofa,' and on the other, much to my sur
prise, a large photograph of Mr. Gladstone.
Whether the photograph and the sofa were thus
placed opposite each other for the convenience
of the party in rehearsing their attacks I do not
take it upon me to say. Although Lord Eandolph
certainly had never made a study of finance, he
was not, when he became Chancellor of the
Exchequer, so ignorant of it as Charles Fox, if
the story be true which reports him to have said
that he never could understand what Consols
were — he knew they were things that went up
and down in the City; and he was always

298 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
pleased when they went down, because it so
annoyed Pitt. A story is also told of Lord
Eandolph, that a Treasury clerk put some figures
before him. 'I wish you would put these figuriss
plainly so that I can understand them,' he said.
The clerk said he had done his best, and he had,
pointing them out, reduced them to decimals.
' Oh ! ' said Lord Eandolph, ' I never could
understand what those d  d dots meant.'
But it soon became clear that besides a wonder
ful intuition, Lord Eandolph possessed many
of the qualities which had always won for Mr.
Gladstone so high a reputation as a departmental
chief — indefatigable assiduity, that energy which
Dr. Arnold said is of more value than even
cleverness, a vehement determination to learn
his subject ab ovo usque ad mala, a strong intel
lectual force, which, while it in no way interfered
with his attention to the opinions of his subor
dinates, absolutely preserved his own indepen
dence of judgment and decision. He possessed
the very rare gift of keeping his mind exclusively
devoted to the subject in hand, and impressed
on all those with whom he worked the idea that
the business on which they were employed was

1886 LOED EANDOLPH'S BUDGET 299
the only one of interest to him. For a man of
his rapid thought and excitable temperament he
was scrupulously patient and quiet in discussion ;
and from frequent conversations with him on
financial subjects I can safely affirm that no one
ever ended an official interview with him without
at any rate having arrived at a clear knowledge
of his views and intentions. No time spent
with him was ever wasted, nor would he suffer
any interruption, from whatever source it
came. In the autumn preceding the session of 1887
he knew that the duties of leadership would
absorb all his time and strength, and, like a
wise and prudent statesman, he prepared him
self for his financial statement by a performance
such as was never equalled, in getting ready and
passing through the Cabinet the Budget for the
forthcoming year. On the evening of the day
on which he carried his Budget through the
Cabinet, after describing to me how he had
done so, he said : ' There in that box are all the
materials of our Budget. They are unpolished
gems ; put the facets on them as well as you
can, but do not speak to me on the subject again

300 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
till the end of the financial year.' What that
Budget was cannot yet be told ; but it may be
fairly said that it far exceeded in importance
any Budget since Mr. Gladstone's great per
formance in 1860. It was often said that Lord
Eandolph won his popularity among the per
manent officials by his subservience to their
views. Nothing could be further from the truth ;
and when some day his Budget comes to light,
as I trust it will, it will be seen how original
were some of its provisions, and how unlike to
any plans that would probably have emanated
from the ordinary official brain.
From the very commencement of his career
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Eandolph
began his struggles for economy, his love for
which was sincere and earnest. He determined
that as long as he was responsible for the
finances of the country he would enforce it. It
has often been the subject of discussion whether
a man who is careful in his domestic affairs
would naturally be an economist in public affairs,
and vice versa. No one would ever have accused
Lord Eandolph of being a careful or even a
prudent man in the management of his private

1886 HI'S LOVE OF ECONOMY 301
concerns, but his ruling idea as ChanceUor of
the Exchequer was for economy.
In a letter he wrote to me shortly after his
resignation. Lord Eandolph said : ' The Budget
scheme we had in contemplation will now be
relegated to the catalogue of useless labour.
The essential principle of any financial policy
which I cared to be identified with was zeal for
thrift and economic reform. This was wanting,
and the scaffolding was bound to come down.'
It was the extravagance of the spending depart
ment that induced him to write that fatal letter
which could only bring about his absolute
supremacy or his resignation. No new fancy it
was that dictated it. In October 1886 he had
said that ' unless there was an effort to reduce
the expenditure it was impossible that he could
remain at the Exchequer.' Again he said : ' If
the decision of the Cabinet as to the amount of
the Estimates was against him, he should not
remain in office.' I recollect after his fall his
appealing to me and saying that I knew his
resignation was not the consequence of a
moment's irritation, but was from his delibe
rate determination that in matters financial he

302 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
would be supreme. This I was able fully to
endorse. On December 20, ever anxious to learn all he
could by personal study, he spent nearly three
hours with me at Somerset House, seeing for
himself all the working of that huge department.
The following day he went to the Custom
House, and that same afternoon to Windsor,
where he wrote the letter to Lord Sahsbury
which has since become historical, threatening
his resignation. On the evening of the 22nd
he walked down to Printing House Square and
communicated what he had done to the editor
of the ' Times.' Then, on the 23rd, I got the
sad, and startling news of his resignation. In a
note which followed close upon it, his secretary,
Mr. A. Moore, who by his ability and devotion
had contributed so much to Lord Eandolph's
fame, said : ' I have really not the heart to
write anything. Moreover, there is nothing to
add to what was said in that terribly irregular
and premature communiquS to the " Times." I
look upon the whole thing, from every point of
view — patriotic, party, and personal — as simply
an irreparable calamity.'

1886 HIS PEESONAL CHAEM 303
It is strange that a man endowed by Nature
with quick perception should not have seen
how gladly Lord Salisbury would dispense
with his services, or should have forgotten
Sir Stafford Northcote's prophecy and hope
in 1880, that a Conservative cave would be
formed on the Liberal side with Goschen in
its centre. So Lord Eandolph became officially dead,
and a cruel fate has made him one of the great
might-have-beens in the financial history of his
country, for the triumph and the harvest of the
seed he had sown he did not live to see. From
his fall to his tragic end he bore with him to
the grave much affection, much admiration, and
many regrets of true friends and political oppo
nents. He might have used the words put into
the mouth of the unfortunate Queen Mary by
Schiller : ' I have been much hated, but I have
been much beloved.'
Nothing, I am sure, is more curious in
political biography than tbe fascination Lord
Eandolph Churchill possessed over his political
opponents. Notwithstanding his exaggerated
invective, Mr. Gladstone could not altogether

304 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
resist the charm and sympathetic genius of his
younger opponent.^ He frankly and fully ad
mired Lord Eandolph's short leadership of the
House of Commons, his insight, and his dash
and courage, and he sympathised with his not
unsuccessful struggles over his beloved economy.
Modesty is not, perhaps, among the virtues
attributed to Lord Eandolph; but there was
some far-off touch of it in a letter he wrote to
me, in which he says : ' I am not so conceited
as to suppose that Mr. Gladstone could care for
or even notice any speech of mine.' But Mr.
Gladstone did notice the rising man, and, turn
ing to a colleague on the occasion of one of Lord
Eandolph's early speeches, he said propheti-
1 The friendly personal relations that prevailed between Mr.
Gladstone and Lord Eandolph ChurchUl are illustrated by an
incident which I repeat on the authority of an eye-witness. Mr.
Gladstone was replying at length to an impeachment of the Liberal
policy by Mr. Balfour, and Lord Eandolph, who was about to
foUow, was in a state of preparatory fidget. He had a glass of water
sent in, at sight of which Mr. Gladstone stooped and whispered to
Sir WUliam Harcourt, obviously declaring his need for simUar
refreshment. Lord Eandolph immediately rose, proffered his
untasted glass across the table, which Mr. Gladstone graciously
accepted, observing with genial emphasis, ' I wish that the noble
lord was always as ready to drink at my fountain-head as I am at
his,' a remark which Lord Eandolph acknowledged with a low
bow, amid the general applause of the House.

1886 EELATIONS WITH ME. GLADSTONE 305
cally : ' That is a young man you will have to
reckon with one of these days.' They met
several times, and Mr. Gladstone often spoke in
warm terms about the power Lord Eandolph
possessed of making himself loved and respected
by the various heads of departments in which
he worked, of his aptitude for learning, of
his admirable and courageous work towards
economy, of his personal courtesy and his pre
eminent qualities as a host, which could not be
exaggerated. And Lord Eandolph's admiration
for Mr. Gladstone was unbounded and sincere.
I recollect on one occasion when Mr. Gladstone
had been talking after dinner, as the men were
leaving the room. Lord Eandolph said to a
Unionist friend : ' And that is the man you have
left ! How could you have done it ? '
Dr. Johnson said : ' When I was beginning
the world and was nobody and nothing, the joy
of my life was to fire at all the established vnts,
and then everybody loved to halloo me on.'
Disraeli followed the great Doctor's example in
his attacks on Peel ; and Lord Eandolph, pro
bably with similar motives, attacked Mr. Glad
stone with an exaggeration we now all deplore.
VOL. II. X

306 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
But if Lord Eandolph was violent and even
unscrupulous at times in his attacks, when a
conviction came to him that he had been mis
taken he was generous in acknowledging it. In
language of real eloquence he had denounced
the policy of Mr. Gladstone's Government in
the Transvaal. But when years afterwurds he
was face to face with the facts on the spot, he
wrote a letter to a London newspaper which
attracted great attention at the time, and which
contained a retractation of the rash judgment he
had pronounced, so complete and at the same
time so judicious that it is well worthy of being
remembered at the present critical juncture in
our relations with that Eepublic.
' The surrender of the Transvaal [he wrote] ,
and the peace concluded by Mr. Gladstone with
the victors of Majuba Hill, were at the time,
and still are, the object of sharp criticism and
bitter denunciation from many politicians at
home, quorum pars parva fui. Better and more
precise information, combined with cool reflec
tion, leads me to the conclusion that had the
British Government of that day taken advantage
of its strong military position and annihilated.

1886 VIEWS ON THE TRANSVAAL 307
as it could easily have done, the Boer forces,
it would indeed have regained the Transvaal,
but it would have lost Cape Colony. . . .
The actual magnanimity of the peace with the
Boers concluded by Mr. Gladstone's Ministry
after two humiliating military reverses suffered
by the arms under their control became plainly
apparent to the just and sensible mind of the
Dutch Cape Colonist, atoned for much of past
grievance, and demonstrated the total absence
in the BngUsh mind of any hostility or unfriend
liness to the Dutch race. Concord between
Dutch and English in the Colony from that
moment became possible.'
A retractation so generous and hearty as this
covers a multitude of rash vituperations.
In his strongest political animosities Lord
Eandolph ever retained his sense of humour.
Indeed, I should have thought that no one could
ever have doubted his sense of humour ; yet in
the obituary notice in one of the leading papers
it was said he was totally devoid of it. Not only
had he a sense of humour, but he is one of the
few Parliamentarians who have left sayings that
have become proverbial. The elder of his col-
X 2

308 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
leagues were known as ' the old gang ; ' the
Unionists as the 'crutch of the Tory Party.'
His was the mint from which came ' the medi
ocrities with double names,' ' the old man in a
hurry,' ' the duty of an Opposition is to oppose,'
and many more.
It seems a paradox in God's providence that
a man of genius, great talent, and splendid
promise should in the prime of his life have
been stricken down by a disease which appears
cruel to us who see only through a glass darkly.
But as the late Cardinal Manning finely said :
' As in a piece of tapestry, where on one side
all is a confused and tangled mass of knots, and
on the other a beautiful picture, so from the
everlasting hills will this earthly life appear not
the vain and chanceful thing men deem it here,
but a perfect plan guided by a Divine hand unto
a perfect end.'
When present at his funeral service in the
Abbey, I could not but think sadly of what he
many times said humorously : ' Mr. Gladstone
will long outlive me ; and I often tell my wife
what a beautiful letter he will write on my death,
proposing my burial in Westminster Abbey.'

1886 MR. GLADSTONE AT GUILDFORD 309
cannot better conclude this inadequate sketch
than by quoting the words used by Mr. Gladstone
in vrriting to his poor mother :
' You followed your son at every step with, if
possible, more than a mother's love ; and, on
the other hand, in addition to his conspicuous
talents, he had gifts which greatly tended to
attach to him those with whom he was brought
into contact. For my own share, I received
many marks of his courtesy and kindness, and
I have only agreeable recollections of him to
cherish.' Early in August 1886 my wife and daughter
went into Guildford to meet Mr. and Mrs. Glad
stone, who had driven over from the Wolvertons
at Coombe. They had tea at the Guildford
Club, where they were discovered and much
cheered ; they then came on to Wanborough,
John Morley arriving, with Welby, for dinner.
Mr. Gladstone was in good spirits, saying
good finance consisted more in the spending
than the collecting of revenue. As John Morley
went away he said : ' I wonder if I should not
have been happier writing obscure philosophical
works which nobody would read on the Hog's

310 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
Back, than leading a political life.' He had
once lived there in a little house which belonged
to my uncle, Mr. Long. It was then called
Long's Hotel, but when John Morley took it its
name was changed into Morley's Hotel.
The next day my wife took Mr. and Mrs.
Gladstone to a party at Puttenham Priory, and
on my return from London Mr. Gladstone and I
walked, and talked to the old bailiff Callingham
of his early days — wheat 46s., sugar 16d., no
meat, and wages 7s. a week. And on this he
married and throve !
While at Wanborough, Mr. Gladstone wrote
his farewell address on leaving office, in the little
yellow dressing-room. He said at last every
body was now for Home Eule in some form or
another. If Parnell would accept a Parliament
in Dublin, subject to Parliament in England, it
might lead to an agreement.
We played whist in the evening, and the
next day Welby and I, who had spent the day
in London at our respective offices, came down
in the evening and rode over to meet my wife
and the Gladstones at Busbridge — where Ellis

1886 VISIT TO THE ITALIAN LAKES 311
Gosling lived with his mother, Mrs. Eamsden —
coming back by Elstead, where John Morley was
staying. On our return a deputation from Guildford,
with a sketch of the town and an address, was
awaiting us. Mr. Gladstone, who I supposed
thought of the saying, mox adorant mox lapidant,
was annoyed, and would not see them at first, so
my daughter had to receive them, and make
excuses ; but at last Mr. Gladstone was per
suaded to say a few words, which sent them
away rejoicing.
Arnold Morley came the following day, on
which Mr. Gladstone planted a golden yew, and
Mrs. Gladstone an arbor vitce, on the lawn,
which I am happy to say are flourishing to this
day. As Parliament was still sitting, I had to stay
in London till September 26, when Horace and I
started for the Italian lakes, stopping at Lucerne,
Baveno, Milan, Cadenabbia, which we thought
lovely ; then Milan, again Verona, and Venice,
in which we were much disappointed, as it
rained nearly all the time, and Horace de-

312 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
scribed our gondola journeys as if we were going
about the sewers in a hearse all day. This was,
no doubt, a libel ; but we were so depressed that
we beat a hasty retreat, and went to Bologna
and Florence, which we loved.
While at Hayes, where we went after our
return, we heard of George Barrington's death.
He was very good-looking, very agreeable, and
very popular, cultivating with great success the
pleasant role of a cosmopolitan — getting all
the best he could out of society of all nations
and men of every shade of politics, though he
was a Tory, associated in confidential relations
with Lord Beaoonsfield. His death made an
other gap in the fast diminishing number of the
dandies of St. James's Street. On November
12 I went with many of his friends to his
funeral at Beckett.
On November 16 I went to Windsor for my
investiture as a Knight Commander of the Bath,
Henry Ponsonby kindly giving General St.
George Foley and myself a little rehearsal of
the ceremony before we were ushered into her
Majesty's presence.
On the 25th Lord Granville and Sir George

1886 LOED GEANVILLE'S ANECDOTES 313

Dasent came to dinner unexpectedly. I fetched
the Eibblesdales and the Beerbohm Trees — who
were at the Haymarket— to tea, and had a most
successful evening.
Lord Granville was full of anecdotes, which
he always delivered in the most charming way.
Some were of Charles Greville's grumpiness.
Dining one night at Baron Eothschild' s, he
was asked to take in Lady .  •
' Certainly not,' he said ; ' I hardly know if I
can take myself in.'
Another evening, when sitting next to a
pretty woman, he complained of not knowing
anybody. ' But you know me ? ' she said. ' I am
Mrs.  '
' That does not make me any the wiser,' he
grunted. Madame  , discussing French and English
marriages, said to her neighbour, Avho preferred
the English custom :
' But would you not like to have the first
love of your wife ? '
' I should prefer the last,' he said.
In December, on the evening of the 15th, I

314 EECOLLECTIONS 1886
made my first public speech at a Civil Service
dinner, and was vain enough to be pleased
with it.
On entering the Holborn Eestaurant, where
our dinner was to take place, I was met by Mr.
Ealston, the Eussian scholar, with whom I had
a slight acquaintance. He told me he was to
propose the toast to which I was to reply, and
kindly suggested that I might tell him how I
proposed to begin and he would work up to it.
I was much pleased until he rose, and from for-
getfulness, I suppose, took the sentence I had
told him, word for word, leaving me at the last
moment to find a new beginning to my speech.
I forgave him more readily for some excellent
stories he told us of his travels in Eussia. On
one occasion he met a body of miserable peasants,
many of them handcuffed, being driven by sol
diers along the road like cattle. ' Who are these
prisoners ? ' he asked of the officer. ' Prisoners ! '
said the officer, ' these are not prisoners — they
are Volunteers hastening to the front !'
And now my pen must be laid aside for a
time. Voltaire it is, I think, who propounds
the axiom that a man who says all he has got

1886 L'ENVOI 315
to say must be a fool. I have not said all I
have got to say, but it does not follow that I am
not a fool, for' I may have written nothing
which is worth the reading.
When a private secretary, I avoided, on prin
ciple, keeping any diaries, for I held that the
secrets that necessarily came in my way were
not my secrets, and should never be disclosed
through any instrumentality of mine. I hope
that no indiscretions have crept into these
volumes. I trust, too, that in them will be found
nothing that can cause pain to any living soul,
although I fear on that account they will
be thought lacking in novelty and piquancy.
They tell of many things and of many people
of whom the existing generation knows little,
whose names they may have heard and that is
all But to those of an older time there may
arise from the reading of these pages old
familiar faces, old-fashioned customs which are
out of date, and places which were dear to
them in their youth.
Old stories may recall the happy times when
they were told, amid laughter and merriment,
by friends long forgotten to friends long dead.

316 RECOLLECTIONS 1886
Their brilliance passes in the telling, and cannot
return in its perfection, but the echo may
awaken some recollections of a time when we
also basked in the glorious sunshine of youth
before failures and disappointments and sorrows
came upon us.

INDEX

Abbl, Su- Fbbdeeick, ii. 58
Abercorn, Duke of, ii. 44
Aberdare, Lord, ii. 185, 228 (see
also Bruce, H. A.)
Aberdeen, Lord, i. 11, 86, 87,
109, 114, 193, 245 ; u. 23, 185,
209, 265
Abinger, Lord, i. 11, 13
Acton, Lord, ii. 181, 182
Adam, WUUe, u. 100
Adams, General, i. 134
Airey, General, i. 165
AirUe, Lord, i. 53
Airy, Sir George, i. 92
Albany, Duke of, ii. 183
Albemarle, Earl of, i. 75, 76, 93,
246, 286
Albert, Prince, i. 35, 60, 82, 236,
292
Alboni, i. 95
Alcester, Lord, i. 74
Alcock, Mr., i. 69
AUison, Mr., i. 182
AUport, Sir James, ii. 266
.\lthorp. Lord, ii. 22, 40
.\lvanley, Lord, i. 79, 227; ii.
227 256
AmpthiU, Lord, u. 203, 204
Anderson (a lieutenant of the
' SanspareU '), i._ 172
Anglesey, Lord, i. 60, 77, 115,
116, 253
Anson, General, i. 194
Anson, Mrs., i. 276

Appleton (office-keeper in Down
ing Street), i. 375
Archdeacon, M., ii. 251
Argyll, Duke of, i. 833 ; ii. 168
Armitstead, Mr., ii. 252
Arnold, Sir Arthur, i. 339
Arnold, Dr., i. 296 ; ii. 298
Ashburnham, General Tom, i.
268 ; ii. 9
Ashburnham, Lord, ii. 234
Ashburton, Lady, i. 86
Ashley, Lord, i. 252
Ashley, Evelyn, i. 289
Ashley, WiUiam, i. 321, 322
Asquith, Mr., u. 31, note
Auckland, Lord (and Bishop of
Sodor and Man), i. 54
Aylesbury, Lady, ii. 288
Ayrton, Mr., ii. 14, 58, 59

Bacon, Lord, ii. 32
Bagehot, Mr., ii. 25
Balfour, A. J., ii. 260
BaUantine, Seqeant, ii. 8
Banderet, Mr., i. 79
Baring, Lady Emma, ii. 151, 234
Baring, Evelyn, ii. 180, 202
Baring, Francis, i. 168 ; ii. 217
Baring, Sir Francis, i. 12
Baring, T. G., see Northbrook,
the present Lord
Barnard, General, i. 181, 182,
194

318

RECOLLECTIONS

Barnard, WUlie, i. 182
Barrington, Lord, i. 242, 319,
321
Barrington, Lady Caroline, i.
256, 257, 259, 261, 275, 329,
356 ; ii. 9, 68
Barrington, Charles, i. 340 ; ii.
69
Barrington, Hon. George, i. 256 ;
ii. 48, 68, 312
Barrington, Miss Mary, i. 256
Barry, Judge, u. 119
Bartlett, Ashmead, ii. 197
Bath, Lord, ii. 85, 86
Bathe, Sir Henry de, i. 174
Bathurst, Lady Georgiana, n.
63
Battersea, Lord, i. 274
Beaconsfield, Lord, i. 370 ; ii. 29,
45, 78, 79, 81, 102, 103, 139,
269, 312 (see also Disraeli,
Benjamin)
Beatson, General, i. 182
Beauclerk, Lady Diana, i. 260
Bedford, Duchess of, i. 20
Bedford, Paid, i. 249
Beiram Pasha (General Cannon),
i. 159
Bent, Eev. — , i. 51, 52
Bentinck, General, i. 128
Bentinck, Lord George, i. 258 ;
ii. 177
Bernstorflf, Count, i. 366
Berry, Misses, i. 10, 85, 328 ; ii.
45
Bertie, Captain, i. 75
Bessborough, Lord, i. 273, 361
Bethell, Sir E., see Westbury,
Lord
Biddulph, Sir Thomas, ii. 51
Bidwell, John, i. 22, 23
Bidwell, Junior, John, i. 24, 25
Bismarck, Herbert, ii. 199
Blackburn, WUUam, i. 23, 75, 78
Blackett, Mr. (editor of the
' Globe '), i. 107

Blackwood, Sir Arthur, i. 50 and
note, 53, 106, 170, 174
Blessington, Lady, i. 78, 237, 828
Bloomer, Mrs., i. 94
Boucicault, Dion, ii. 74
Bouverie, Edward, i. 16
BoviU, Sir WUUam, ii. 6, 8
Boyle, Miss Mary, i. 239
Bradford, Lady, i. 239
Bradford, Lord, i. 239
BramweU, Lord, i. 18 ; ii. 56
Brand, Mr. (Speaker of the
House of Commons), ii. 11
Brassey, Lord, ii. 266
Brett, Eeggie, ii. 232
Bright, John, i. 77, 114, 251,
308, 315, 354 ; ii. 26, 84, 102,
168, 185, 196, 254, 259, 271,
277
Brookfield, Eev. W. H., i. 98, 99 ;
ii. 46
Brougham, Lord, i. 15, 21, 327-
329 ; ii. 72, 167, 256
Broughton, Lord, i. 97
Brown, Sir George, i. 176
Browning, Eobert, ii. 48, 194,
196
Brownlow, Sir Charles, ii. 229,
231
Bruce, Henry Austin, i. 351-
353 ; ii. 4 (see also Aberdare,
Lord)
BrummeU, Beau, ii. 45, 256
Buckingham, Duke of, ii. 45
Buckle, Mr. (editor of the
' Times '), ii. 206
Buckley, Alfred, i. 124, 196, 198
Buggin, Lady CecUia, i. 274
BuUer, Charles, i. 86
Bulwer, Sir Henry, ii. 1, 2, 78
(see also DaUing,. Lord)
Bulwer-Lytton, Sir E., i. 255 ;
ii. 2
Buol, Count, i. 189
Burke, Mr., ii. 114
Burke, Edmund, ii. 28
Burnaby, Captain, ii. 210

INDEX

319

Burnaby, Edwyn, i. 92
Burnaby, E. S., i. 136, 163, 166,
174
Burns, Walter, ii. 250
Burton, Plunkett, i. 163
Bury, Lord, see Albemarle, Lord
Byng, Frederick, i. 122, 126,267,
280
Byng, George, i. 126, 258
Byron, Lord. i. 2, 9, 78

Cadogan, Lady Adelaide, i. 232,
286, 330
Cadogan, Lord, i. 107 ; u. 212
Cadogan, Arthur, i. 212, 213
Cadogan, Frederick, i. 137, 138,
141, 147, 149, 153, 177, 182,
184. 252
Cairns, Lord, i. 347 ; ii. 212
Calcraft, Henry, i. 76, 77 ; ii. 3,
252
Callander, Miss (afterwards Lady
Graham), i. 87
Cambridge, Duke of, i. 35, 239
Campbell, Sir George, i. 875
Campbell, John (of Islay), i. 124
Campbell, Sir John (afterwards
Lord), i. 12-14, 33
Canning, Lady, i. 194, 293, 294
Canning, Lord, i. 200, 253, 292
sqq. ; ii. 21
Cannon, General, i. 159
Canrobert, General, i. 162
Cantacuzene, Count, i. 151
Canterbury, Archbishop of, i.
289 ; ii. 72
Capel, Eeginald, ii. 178
Cardigan, Lord, i. 43, 120, 229
CardweU, Lord, i. 87, 869; ii.
265
Carlisle, Bishop of, ii. 192
CarUsle, Lord, i. 125, 269
Carlyle, i. 86 ; ii. 47, 196
Carmichael, Mr., u. 288
Carnarvon, Lord, i. 51, 65, 240,
320 ; ii. 258, 281

Caroline, Queen, i. 116
Carrel, Armand, i. 108
Carrington, Lord, i. 35; ii.
76
Carter, Canon, i. 8
Cartwright (dentist), i. 27
Castlereagh, Lord, ii. 85, 226
Cathcart, Lord, ii. 231
Cavendish, Colonel, i. 263
Cavendish, Lady Emily, i. 263,
277
Cavendish, Lady Prederick, ii.
152
Cavendish, Lord Frederick, ii.
48, 114, 135, 149-153
Cavendish, Lord George, i. 272
Cavendish, Lord Eichard, i. 298
Cavour, Count, i. 278
Celeste, Madame, i. 249
Cerito, i. 95, 249
Cetewayo, ii. 202
Chamberlain, Mr., ii. 29, 31
note, 138, 227, 259, 261, 264,
269, 272, 274, 280, 288, 285,
286
Chambers, Sir WilUam, i. 18
Charles I., ii. 236
Chatham, Lord, ii. 155
Chavannes de Chartel, i. 187
Chesham, Lord, i. 800
Chesterfield, Lady, i. 239
Chesterfield, Lord, ii. 44
Chetwode, i. 175
Childers, Mr., u. 158, 209, 236,
238, 239, 252, 260, 264
Chitty, Lord Justice, i. 51
Christian, Prince, ii. 68
Christian, Princess, i. 319
Christie, Captain (of the 'Orient'),
i. 192
ChurchiU, Colonel, i. 3
ChurchiU, General, i. 8
ChurchUl, Lord Eandolph, ii. 30,
157, 158, 182, 193, 254, 285,
292 sqq.
Clanwilliam, Lord, i. 84
Clarendon, Lady, i. 192, 230

320

RECOLLECTIONS

Clarendon, Lord, i. 90, 105, 192,
196, 233, 267, 319, 360; ii. 25,
185
Clark, Su: Andrew, ii. 162, 163,
203
Clarke, Mrs. Stanley, ii. 133, 143,
229
Clay, Mr. James, i. 103
Cleveland, Duchess of, i. 21, 240
CUfford, Captain (of the 'Cen
taur '), i. 207
CUfford, Charles, ii. 198
Clive, Mrs., ii. 77
Cobden, Eichard, i. 62, 251, 279,
303
Cobham, Lord, i. 2
Cockburn, Sir Alexander, i. 359,
360 ; u. 291
Cockerell, Andrew, ii. 171
Cohen, Mr., ii. 252
Collier, Sir Eobert, ii. 15, 16
CoUins, WUkie, u. 2
Colquhoun, Mr. (English Consul
at Bucharest), i. 147, 151
Compton, Lady, ii. 268
Connaught, Duchess of, ii. 93
Connaught, Duke of, ii. 68, 93
Conyngham, Mr., i. 25
Cook, Mr. (Editor of the ' Satur
day Eeview'), ii. 71
Cooke, T. P., i. 247
Corbett, Mr. and Mrs., i. 224
CornwaUis, Lord, i. 109
Corry, Henry, i. 240
Corry, Monty, i. 240 ; ii. 65
Cottenham, Lord, i. 15
Courtenay, Frank, i. 24
Courtney, Mr., ii. 221
Courvoisier (the murderer of
Lord WiUiam EusseU), i. 42
Cowen, Joseph, ii. 281
Cowley, Lord, i. 76
Cowper, Henry, U. 197, 199
Cranborne, Lord, i. 320
Cranworth, Lord, i. 11, 303
Craven, Lady, i. 90
Craven, George, i. 16

Crawford, Miss, ii. 182
Croker, J. W.,i. 197, 198 ; ii. 74
75, 225, 227
Croker, Mrs., ii. 74
CromweU, ii. 40, 236
CruveUi, i. 95, 249
Currie, Lord, i. 53
Currie, Bertram, ii. 201
Currie, Sir Donald, ii. 159, 160,
170, 291
Curzon, Leicester, i. 162, 175
Czar, The,!. 294; ii. 171, 172

Dalhousie, Lord, i. 200, 292 ;
ii. 35, 162, 165, 199, 288
Dalkeith, Lord, i. 64
DaUing, Lord, i. 102 ; ii. 1
Damer, Mrs., i. 227
Darner, Colonel, i. 227, 228
Damer, Miss Constance, i. 227
Damer, Dawson, i. 183, 184
Damer, Mrs. Dawson, i. 286
Damer, Seymour, i. 179, 182, 843
Dante, ii. 236
Dasenlt, Sir George, ii. 184, 199,
313
Davitt, Mr., ii. 207
Dawson, Colonel, i. 131, 133
Deacon, Mr. (Admiralty agent),
i. 224
De Grey, Lady, i. 320, 350
De Grey, Lord (1), i. 286, 810, 312
De Grey, Lord (2), ii. 52
Delane, John, i. 244, 245 ; ii. 207
Delawarr, Lord, i. 34
Denison, Mr., ii. 10
Denison, Mr. Beckett, i. 61
Denmark, King of, ii. 171, 172
Derby, Lord, i. 102, 103, 108,
198, 254, 278, 279, 306, 318,
829 ; ii. 177, 266
De EedcUffe, Lord Stratford, i.
323
Derry, Bishop of, ii. 234
Devey, Mr., i. 345; ii. 67, 68,
189, 269

INDEX

Devonshire, fifth Duke of, i. 272
Dew, Lieutenant Eoderick, i.
207
Dickens, Charles, i. 78, 97, 199,
300 ; ii. 86
Dilke, Sir Charles, ii. 152, 179,
227, 237, 252
Disraeli, Benjamin, i. 49, 67-69,
78, 82, 102, 103, 107, 108, 193,
236. 240, 241, 245, 254, 278,
295, 301, 303, 306, 320, 321 ;
ii. 11, 23, 24, 81, 70, 177, 207,
281, 805 (see also Beacons-
field, Lord)
Dixon, Miss, i. 280
Doche, Madame, i. 249
Dodds, Mr., ii. 134
Dodson, Mr., i. 55, 195 ; ii. 85
Dove (the murderer), i. 230
Dowse, Baron, i. 105
Doyle, Dicky, i. 245, 246 ; ii. 52
Doyle, Sir Francis, i. 366
'Drew, Mr., ii. 260
Drummond, Hughy, i. 179, 182,
209
Drummond, Maurice, i. 24, 90, 91
Dudley, Lord, i. 95, 250
Dufi; Sir M. E. Grant, i. 194
Dufferin, Lady, i. 348 ; ii. 214
Dufferin, Lord, i. 32, 87, 217,
286, 358 ; ii. 9, 10, 214
Duff-Gordon, Sir Alexander, ii.
16
Dundas, Sir David, i. 14, 53, 54,
122, 123, 201, 366
Dunkellin, Lord, i. 316
Dunmore, Lord, i. 350
Durham, Lady, i. 277
Durham, Lord, i. 264
Dwight, Mr., i. 69

Earle, General, ii. 283
Earle, Mr., i. 241
Eastwick, Captain, i. 296
Ebury, Lord, i. 106, 125, 138,
826 VOL n.

Eden, Admiral, i. 268
Eden, Sir Ashley, ii. 266
Edinburgh, Duke of, ii. 68, 151
Egerton, Frank, ii. 194
Egerton, Lady Louisa, ii. 151,
194
Eglinton, Lord, i. 250
Elcho, Lord, i. 281, 282
Eldou, Lord, i. 305
Elgin, Lord, i. 87, 194, 251, 292,
294
Eliot, George, ii. 76
EUenborough, Lord, i. 67
Ellesmere, Lord, i. 121
Elhoe, Edward, i. 262
EUiot, Captain, i. 204
Elliot, Alec, i. 171
EUiot, Arthur, ii. 199
EUiot, George, i. 102
EUiot, Henry, i. 189
EUison, Cud'die, i. 174
EUsler, Fanny, i. 249
Enequest, Mr. (English Consul
at Wisby), i. 217
Enfield, Lord, i. 246
Essex, Lord, i. 105, 326 ; ii. 57,
178
Essex, Geoffrey de MandeviU^,
Earl of, ii. 148
Eugene of Savoy, Prince, i. 281
Eugenie, ex-Empress, i. 239
Evans, Sir de Lacy, i. 15, 16,
168, 192, 193
Eyre, Governor, i. 307

Fane, Julian, ii. 47
Fane, Lady Eose, i. 139
Panshawe, The Misses, i. 9, 16
Farrer, Lord, i. 77
Fawcett, H., ii. 213
Fechter, i. 249
Ferrand, Mr. Busfield, i. 39
Pfolkes, Sir Martin, i. 2
FitzOlarence, Lord Adolphus,
74
Fitzherbert, Mrs., i. 227 Y

322

RECOLLECTIONS

Fizwilliam, Lady, i. 271, 272
Fitzwilliam, Lady Charlotte, i.
274
Fitzwilliam, Lord, i. 271-3
Flahault, Madame de, i. 88
Fleming, Mr. (Secretary to the
Poor Law Board), i. 86 ; ii. 256
Foley, General St. George, ii. 312
Forester, Cecil, i. 74
Forster, Mr., i. 861 ; ii. 12, 71,
82. 108 sqq., 114, 119 sqq., 149,
152, 168, 188, 189, 234
Fortescue, Chichester, i. 195
Fowler, Mr. (Secretary to the
Treasury), ii. 265
Fox, General, i. 2"'^ 263
Fox, Charles Ja. i. 260 ; ii.
9, 295, 297
Fox, George Lane, i. 40, 41
Freemantle, Sir Charles, i. 53
Frere, Hookham, ii. 294
Frost, Mr. (a Newport magis
trate), i. 45, 46
Froude, ii. 64, 65, 195

Galloway, Lord, i. Ill
Gardner, Lord, i. 78
Garfield, Mrs., ii. 223
Garibaldi, i. 300 ; ii. 145
Gaskell, Milnes, ii. 21
Gathorne-Hardy, Mr., i. 819
George IV., i. 227, 305
Ghika, Prince A., i. 152
Gibson, Milner, i. 251, 254
Gipps, Sir Eeginald, ii. 232
Gladstone, Mr., i. 2, 48, 56, 61,
83, 84, 87, 92, 102, 109, 110,
114, 255, 271, 279, 286, 292,
315, 316, 327, 329, 330 sqq.,
335, 836, 389, 840 sqq., 354
sqq., 361 sqq., 372 sqq ; ii. 1,
2, 5 sqq., 10, 14 sqq., 21-43,
56 sqq., 64, 70, -71, 74 sqq.,
90, 92, 96 sqq., 104 sqq., 126
sqq., 136, 187, 149, 151 sqq.,
166 sqq., 172, 176 sqq., 180

sqq., 185 sqq., 199, 201 sqq.,
205 206, 209 sqq., 213, 215
sqq., 227, 232 sqq., 243 sqq.,
252, 255, 258 sqq., 263, 267
sqq., 278, 279, 281 sqq., 291,
294, 297, 298, 300, 303 sqq.,
309 sqq.
Gladstone, Mrs., i. 331, 354 ; ii.
22, 56, 76, 135, 151, 160, 165,
181, 182, 188, 274, 311
Gladstone, Miss C, ii. 160
Gladstone, Herbert, ii. 97, 98,
160, 165, 169, '170, 252, 253,
267, 276
Gladstone, Miss Mary, ii. 160,
260
Glasse, Captain, i. 201, 202, 205,
209
Gleichen, Count, i. 148
Glyn, Lieutenant, i. 148
Glyn, George, i. 275, 288, 302,
322, 344, 348, 349, 857; ii.
1, 2, 15, 57 note (see also
Wolverton, Lord)
Glyn, G. C, i. 861
Glyn, Eichard, i. 163, 175
Glyn, St. Leger, i. 163, 246, 247
Goderich, Lord, i. 122
Godley, Sir Arthur, ii. 31
Goode (the murderer), i. 43
Gordon, Assistant Adjutant-
General, i. 172
Gordon, Commander,!. 207-9
Gordon, General, ii. 179, 180,
204, 227, 233, 237
Gordon, Sir Arthur, ii. 160, 165
Gordon, Lady Augusta, i. 106,
275
Gordon, Georgie, i. 169
Gordon, Osborne, i. 64, 65
Gordon, Lady William, i. 18
Gore, Charles, i. 236, 274
Goschen, Mr., i. 109, 315 ; ii. 38,
101, 102, 184, 187, 217, 234,
280, 308
Gosling, Mr., ii. 169, 170, 192
Gosling, EUis, ii. 311

INDEX

32c

Gough, Sir Hugh, i. 34
Goulbum, Mr., i. 47 ; ii. 177
Gower, Frederick Leveson, ii.
176-8, 184
Graham, Lady, i. 113, 114 ; ii.
207, 208
Graham, Major, i. 47
Graham, Mr. (balloonist), i. 95
Graham, Sir ]?rederick, i. 112 ;
ii. 207
Graham, Sir James, i. 46, 47, 62,
09, 70, 87, 110, 193, 217, 292
Graham, Malise, i. 112
Graham, Stanley, i. 182
Grahn, Lucille, i. 95
Granby, Lord, i. 95
Grant, Miss (afterwards wife of
Sheridan), i. 110
Grantham, Lord, ii. 177
Granville, Lady, i. 80, 88, 354 ;
ii, 53, 184, 227
Granville, Lord, i. 32," 92, 101,
126, 199, 232, 233 sqq., 262,
273, 278, 298, 335, 336, 344,
345, 347, 354, 357, 360, 361,
365, 866 sqq. ; ii. 4, 9, 11, 12,
24,53,65 sqq., 71, 83, 84, 103,
104, 163, 174, 175, 179, 181,
184 sqq., 201, 204, 215, 218,
227, 232, 237, 254, 260, 263,
265, 312, 313
Greece, Kmg of, u. 171, 172
Green (the aeronaut), i. 98
Greenacre (the murderer), i. 42,
43
GrenfeU, Miss, ii. 102
Grenfell, Charles, i. 126, 246,
280
Grenfell, Henry, i. 246, 284
Greville, Charles, i. 24, 88, 90,
265 sqq. ; ii. 25, 26, 198, 256,
313
Greville, Henry, i. 265 ; ii.
198
GreviUe, Hubert, i. 131, 135
Grey, Lady. i. 258, 261 ; ii. 146,
174

Grey, Lady (widow of Sir Henry
Grey), i. 262
Grey, Lord (1), i. 15, 30, 198,
256 sqq., 270, 271, 330
Grey, Lord (2), ii. 84
Grey, General Charles, i. 242.
259, 277, 295, 324, 350 sqq.
Grey, Sir Edward, ii. 31 note,
251-3, 278
Grey, Sir George, i. 195, 261,
262 ; ii. 138, 185
Grey, Lady Georgiana, i. 261 ;
ii. 268
Grey, Harry, i. 346
Grey, Miss Sybil, i. 324
Grimston, '^"-'\ i. 377
Grimthorp^i' .tird, i. 61
Grisi, i. 95, A9
Grosvenor, Eichard, ii. 238, 260
Grosvenor, Lord Eobert, i. 252,
322, 327
Guizot, M., ii. 225
GuU, Sir WiUiam, 1. 304, 357,
370
Gunning, Miss, ii. 45
Gurdon, W. B., i. 333, 334 ; ii.
28, 61
Gurney, S., i. 288
Guthrie, Charles, ii. 272

Hadfield, Mr., i. 64
Hading, Jane, ii. 227
Haggart, Colonel, ii. 145
Halifax, Lady, ii. 2C7
HaUfax, Lord, i. 296, 297; ii.
84, 201 (see also Wood, Sir
Charles)
Halifax, Marquis of, i. 248
Hall, Captain, i. 204, 207, 209
Hall, Major, i. 1B3
Hall, Sir Benjamin, i. 124
Hall, Miss Brownlow, ii. 150
Hallam (the historian), i. 86;
ii. 236
Hallam, Arthur, ii. 21
Hambro, C, ii. 65, 251. 253

524

EECOLLECTIONS

Hambro, Everard, ii. 155
Hamilton, Duke of, ii. 45
Hamilton,. Sir Edward, i. 341 ;
ii. 41, 130, 176, 205, 253, 269,
288
Hammond, Mr. (Under-Secre
tary of the Foreign Office), i.
347, 360, 367
Hampden, Lord, ii. 31, 224,
227
Hampton, Lord, ii. 87
Handel, i. 302
Harcourt, Lady, ii. 267
Harcourt, Sir William, i. 368 ;
ii. 46, 151, 162, 163, '205, 207,
230, 251, 259, 261, 265, 277
Hardinge, Colonel, i. 163, 172
Hardinge, Lord, i. 62
Hardinge, Miss, i. 32
Hardinge, Sir Arthur, i. 34
Hardinge, Lady Emily, i. 34
Hardinge, Kir Henry, i. 33, 34
Harman, Colonel, ii. 229
Harrowby, Lord, i. 65, 116
Hart, Sir Eobert, ii. 179
Hartington, Lord, i. 278 ; ii. 41,
71, 103, 149, 151, 179, 210,
237, 259, 274, 275
Harvey, Eev. — (Eector of
Ewelme), ii. 16
Hastings, Lord, i. 26
Hatherton, Lord, i. 253
Havelock, Sir Henry, i. 291
Hawker, Eev. Eobert, ii. 73, 74
Hay, Colonel, ii. 33
Hay, Eobert, i. 170, 175
Hayter, Lady, ii. 71
Hayter, Arthur, ii. 252
Hayter, Sir WiUiam, i. 70, 252
Hayward, Abraham, i. 89, 108 ;
ii. 181, 203, 256
Healy, Father, ii. 121, 122
Helps, Sir Arthur, i. 888, 339
Henderson, Colonel, ii. 264
Henley, Mr., i. 278 ; ii. 2£2
Henley, Captain, i. 163
Henley Lady, i. 54

Henley, Lord, i. 43
Henley, Eev. Eobert, i. 53, 57
Herbert, George, i. 356
Herbert, Sir Eobert, i. 52 ; ii. 31
Herbert, Sidney, i. 87, 245, 292 ;
ii. '288, 289 ¦
Herries, Sir Charles, ii. 48, 49,-
78, 80, 104, 126, 129, 134-0,
177
HerscheU, Sir Farrer, ii. 192,
251, 290
Hichens, Andrew, ii. 189, 247
Hicks-Beach, Sir M., ii. 241-3,
246, 258, 261, 262, 281, 284
Higgins, Mr. (' Jacob Omnium '),
i. 241, 242
Higginson, Colonel, i. 130
Hill, Frank, ii. 252
Hill, Mrs. Seymour (a dwarf), i.
199
Hobhouse, Stewart, i. 75, 96
Hodgson, Ejrkman, i. 64, 325,
326
Hogg, Sir James, i. 290
HoUand, Lady, i.' 238
HoUand, Lord, i. 260
Hood, Thomas, i. 49
Hooker, Mr. (Director of Kew
Gardens), ii. 14
Hope, Miss Agnes, ii. 102
Hope, Lady Mildred Beresford,
i. 21
Hope, Mr. Philip Beresford, i. 10
Hope, Mrs. Thomas, i. 10
Houghton, Lord, i. 42, 68, 87 ;
ii. 29, 47
Howard, Cardinal, i. 75
Howard, Harry, i. 263 ; ii. 251,
253
Howard, Stafford, ii. 253
Howick, Lord, see Grey, Lord
Hudson (the ' Eailway King '),
i. 117
Hudson, Sir James, i. 49
Hughes, Mr. (of the English
Embassy, Paris), i. 140
Hughes, Tom, ii. 47

INDEX

325

Hume, Joseph, i. 49
Hunt, Holman, i. 99
Hunt, Mr. Ward, i. 56, 63 ; ii.
208
Huskisson, Mr., i. 23 ; ii. 224

Iddesleigh, Lord, ii. 238 not/',
248, 249, 256, 284, 288 (see
also Northcote, Sir Stafford)
Inglis, Colonel, i. 241
Inverness, Duchess of, i. 275
Irvine, i. 139
Irving, Sir Henry, i. 360
Ives, Miss, i. 181
James, G. P. E., i. 84
James, Sir Henry, ii. 2, 8, 253-5,
274
James, Sir Walter, ii. 181
.Tardins, M. des, ii. 42
JekyU, Joseph, i. 90
Jenner, Captain, i. 224
Jephson, Mr., ii. 114, 120
Jesse, John Heneage, i. 72, 73,
170 •
Jocelyn, Lord, i. 123, 177
Johnson, Dr., ii. 26, 305
JoUiffe, Headworth, i. 179,
182-4
Jordan, Mrs., i. 275
JuUien, i. 104

Kaye, Sir John, i. 313
Kean, Charles, i. 248
Kelly, Sir Fitzroy, i. 13, 14
Kenneth, Miss, i. 151, 152
Keppel, Ladv, i. 8, 59
Keppel, Sir Henry, i. 8, 73, 181,
286 ; ii. 158, 159, 176
Keppel, Colin, ii. 229, 230, 283
Kimberley, Lord, i. 53, 54, 195 ;
n. 211
Kinglake, A. W., i. 83
Kingsdown, Lord, i. 12
Kingsley, Charles, i. 280 ; ii. 65

Kinloch, Mr., i. 179, 180, 182-4
Kinsman, Eev. — , ii. 72
KnoUys, Miss, ii. 172
Knowles, Mr. (of the 'Nineteenth
Century'), ii. 235
Koenig, i. 104

Lablache, i. 95
Labouchere, Mr. Henry, i. 52
Lamb, Charles, i. 213, 314
Lambert, Sir John, ii. 189, 191
Lane-Fox, Mrs., i. 198, 199
Lane-Fox, Charles, i. 92
Lanerton, Lord, i. 260 ; ii. 93
Lansdowne, Lord, i. 76, 86, 11;!,
232, 299 (see also Petty, Lord
Henry)
Law, W., n. 56
Lawrence, Sir John (afterwards
Lord), i. 287, 291, 295, 296 ;
ii. 83
Layard, Mr., ii. 46
Lee, Admiral, i. 85
Leigh, Mr. Pemberton, i. 12
Leslie, John, i. 281
Leslie, Mrs. J( hn, i. 299
Lesseps, ii. 1£9
Leven, Lord, ii. 42
Leveson, George, ii. 200
Leveson-Gower, Frederick, i.
855, 370 ; ii. 227, 258
Levy, Edward, i. 2 ; ii. 255
Lewis, George, ii. 255
Lewis, Sir George Cornewall,
i. 55, 90 ; ii. 25, 188
Lewis, Lady Theresa, i. 90
Lind, Jenny, i. 95, 249 ; ii. 247
Lindsay, Bob, see Wantage,
Lord
Lingen, Lord, ii. 31, 87, 90, 91,
138, 243
Lisgar, Lord, ii. 55
Lister, Miss, i. 91
Liverpool, Lord, ii. 226
Lloyd, Clifford, u. 112
Loch, Henry, i. 252

526

EECOLLECTIONS

Locker, Frederick, i. 71
Long, Mr., 310
Long, Lady Catherine, i. 28
Long, Mr. Henry, i. 28
Lome, Lord, ii. 194
Lothian, Lord, i. 52, 64, 65
Louis Napoleon, i. 83
Louis of Hesse, Prince, ii. 68
Louis Philippe, i. 57
Lowe, Eobert, i. 53, 104, 316,
317, 878 ; ii. 3, 84, 38, 46, 55,
60, 82, 97, 125, 193 (see also
Sherbrooke, Lord)
LoweU, ii. 194, 228
Lowndes, Selby, i. 376
Lowther, Sir John, i. 36
Lowther, William, ii. 251
Lubbock, Sir John, i. 52
Lucan, Lord, i. 229
Lucy, of Charlecote, Mr., i. 64
Lumley, Augustus, i. 75, 78
Lumsden, Sir Peter, ii. 243
Luttrell, Henry, i. 82, 90, 238
I,yall, Sir Alfred, i. 52
Lymington, Lord, ii. 184
Lyndhurst, Lord, i. 231, 279;
ii. 167
Lyons,Captain(ofthe ' Miranda'),
i. 161, 162
Lyons, Lord, i. 323 ; ii. 184
Lyons, Sir Edmund, i. 119, 162,
194
Lyttelton, Lady, ii. 68
Lyttelton, Lord, i. 6, 7 ; ii. 75
Lyttelton, Alfred, ii. 238, 290
Lyttelton, Mrs. Alfired, ii. 251,
273
Lyttelton, Arthur, ii. 160, 161,
170
Lyttelton, Mrs. Neville, ii. 41,
77
Lyttelton, Spencer, ii, 181, 199,
'206, 252
Lytton, Lord (Viceroy of India),
ii. 83, 232
Lytton, Sir E., i. 104 ; n. 178,
206

Macan, Dr., i. 72, 73, 246
Macaulay, Lord, i. 4, 86, 103,
104 ; ii. 24, 35, 73, 74, 86,
134, 236
Macdonald, Sir Archibald, i. 300
Macdonald, Jem, i. 239
Mahon, Lord, i. 38
Malmesbury, Lord, i. 112, 113 ;
ii. 209
Manners, Lord John, ii. 193,
210, 214
Manning, Cardinal, ii. 248, 308
Mannings, The, i. 43
Mario, i. 95, 249
Marjoribanks, Edward, ii. 272,
277, 282, 292
Marjoribanks, Lady Fanny, ii.
264, 272, 292
Marochetti, i. 281
Marriott, Mr., ii. 197
Marsham, Eobert, i. 2
Marwood (the executioner), i.
338
Mary, Queen, ii. 303
Maryborough, Lord (afterwards
Lord Mornington), i. 85
Mason, Mrs., ii. 143
Mathews, Charles, ii. 228
Matthews, Et. Hon. Henry, ii.
254
Maule, Mr. Justice, ii. 193
Mauley, Lord de, i. 265
May, Sir Erskine, i. 373 ; ii. 62,
149, 189, 192, 232, 239, 273,
274, 289
Mazzini, ii. 182
Meade, 'Bobsy,' i. 336-8, 355,
364, 366 ; ii. 16, 53, 102,
235
Melbourne, Lord, i. 11, 12, 15,
46, 237, 289 ; ii. 93
MelviU, Sir William, ii. 107,
128
MelviUe, MTiyte, i. 376, 377
Merivale, Herman, i. 333
Meynell-Ingrams, The, i. 37
Milbank, Mrs., ii. 78

IXDEX

32

o.^t

Mildmay, Bingham, ii. 246
MUdmay, Frank, ii. 272
Mildmay, Frederick, ii. 253
Mill, John Stuart, i. 813, 321,
327
MiUais, Sir John, i. 300 ; ii. 47,
48
MiUs, Mrs., i. 93
MiUs, Arthur, ii. 235
MiUs, Sir Charles, i. 288, 289
Milne, Admiral, i. 74
Milnes, Mr. Monckton, see
Houghton, Lord
Mirabeau, ii. 84
Mitford, Bertie, i. 53
Molesworth, Lady, i. 89
Monk-Bretton, Lord, i. 53
Monmouth, Duchess of, i. 326
Montgomery, Alfred, i. 66, 67,
74, 328 ; ii. 46, 48, 139, 140-
143
Montgomery, Sir Eobert, i. '288
Montresor, Colonel, i. 173
Moore, Mr. A. u. 302
Moore, George, i. 125, 126
Moore, Captain John, i. 269,
270
Moore, Thomas, i. 250
More-Molyneux, Mr., ii. 186
Morgan, Mr. J. S., ii. 133, 143,
145, 203, 250
Morier, Eobert, i. 24, 139 ; ii. 46
Morley, Lady, i. 19, 230
Morley, Lord, ii. 65
Morley, Arnold, ii. 258, 260, 269,
279, 282, 283, 311
Morley, Mr. John, ii. 26, 31 note,
150; 181, 18'J, 278, 292, 809-
311
Morton, Lord, ii. 177
Motley, Mr., i. 83, 87 ; u. 47
Muneaster, Lord, i. 356
MundeUa, Mr., li. 239
Munster, Count, ii. 229
Murphy, Serjeant, i. 96, 97
Murray, Captain (of the
' Cuckoo '), i. 224

Murray, Grenville, i. 151
Murray, Herbert, i. 65
Murray, Mr. John, ii. 74, 86
Musurus, Madame, i. 323

Napier, Sir Charles, i. 114,
115, 291
Napoleon I., ii. 145, 236
Napoleon IIL, i. 67, 78, 86, 228,
254
Neate, Mr., ii. 177
Neeld, Lady Caroline, i. 290
NevUl, Mr., i. 28
NeviU, Lady Dorothy, i. 12, 28,
88
Newcastle, Duke of, i. 87, 109,
230 ; ii. 21, 23, 77
Newman, Sir E., i. 127, 135
Ney, Edgar, i. 59
Nightingale, Miss, i. 181
Nolan, Captain, i. 120
Norman, Sir Henry, ii. 266
Normanby, Lord, i. 102
North, Colonel, i. 95
Northbrook, The first Lord, i. 12
Northbrook, The present Lord,
i. 194, 252, 277, 285, 286, 370 ;
ii. 9, 124, 138, 179, 202, 234,
266, 277
Northcote, Henry, ii. 88
Northcote, Sir Stafford, ii. 30,
87, 96, 107, 125, 138, 154, 155,
158, 182, 210, 215, 217, 240,
241, 303 (see also Iddesleigh,
Lord)
Northcote, Walter, ii. 81, 197,
214-16, 219, 228, 238 note,
239, 240 (see also St. Cyres,
Lord)
Norton, Mrs., i. 87, 88, 96, 245 ;
ii. 10

O'Connell, Daniel, i. 68 ; ii.
84, 255
O'ConneU, Morgan, i. 227

328

EECOLLECTIONS

O'Dowd, Mr., i. 107
Oldfield, Anne, i. 3
Oliphant, Laurence, ii. 48
Omar Pasha, i. 148, 160
Oom, Mr., i. 25
Oppenheim, Mr., ii. 254
Orford, Earl of, i. 3
Orford,Lord (the author'sgrand-
father), i. 3
Orford, Lord (theauthor'suncle),
i. 25-28
Orsay, Count d', i. 67, 74, 78,
237
Osborne, Bernal, i. 70, 89, 90,
255, 317 ; ii. 14, 193
Outram, Sir James, i. 290, 291
Overend and Gurney, i. 307, 358
Oveistone, Lord, ii. 235

Paget, Augustus, i. 23
Paget, Clarence, i. 270
Paget, Lady Florence, i. 253
Paget, George, i. 184, 282, 252
Paget, Sir James, i. 305
Pakington, Sir John, i. 268, 321
Palgrave, ii. 46
Palmer (the poisoner), i. 230
Palmerston, Lady, i. 77, 88
Palmerston, Lord, i. 2, 11, 13,
23, 24, 68, 86, 89, 96, 101,
102, 109, 113, 114, 193, 231,
251, 254, 279, 280, 298, 301,
300; ii. 23, 25, 196, 199,
255
Panizzi (of the British Museum),
i. 354 ; ii. 181
Panmure, Lord, i. 192, 197
Parke, Lady, i. 123
Parnell, Charles S., ii. 110, 111,
207, 255, 267, 280, 310
Paul, Mrs., i. 99
Paul, Strahan, & Bates, Messrs.,
i. 229
Paulton, Mr., ii. 278
Paxton, Sir Joseph, i. 92
Pearson, Dick, i. 162

Peel, Mr. (candidate for Accring-
ton), i. 63
Peel, General, i. 320
Peel, Viscount, i. 51, 62 ; ii. 31
Peel, Sir Frederick, i. 62
Peel, George, ii. 224
Peel, Sir Eobert (1), i. 46-49,
60-62, 197, 198, 245, 332; iL
22, 83, 84, 178, 188, 224, 305
Peel, Sir Eobert (2), i. 62
Peel, Sir WiUiam, i. 62
Pelham, Captain, i. 208
PeU, Mr., n. 223
Pennington, Mr., ii. 251
Percy, Lord, ii. 251, 252
Petty, Ijord Henry, i. 85, 299 ;
ii. 72 (see also Lansdowne,
Lord)
Peyton, Eev. Algernon, i. 7
Pevton, Sir Henry, i. 61
Phillips, H., ii. 46
Phipps, Colonel, i. 242
Pickering, Edward, i. 50
Pitt, WiUiam, i. 2, 69, 320 ; li.
26, 40, 155, 204, 298
Playfair, Sir Lyon, ii. 197
Pleurae, Vicomte de, ii. 51
Plunket, Lord, i. 236
PoUington, Lady, i. 12, 28
PoUington, Lord, i. 28
Ponsonby, Mrs., i. 259
Ponsonby, Ashley, i. 179, 180,
182-4
Ponsonby, Edward, ii. 232
Ponsonby, Gerald, i. 74, 105
Ponsonby, Henry, ii. 261, 312
Ponsonby-Fane, G.C.B., Sir
Spencer, i. 23, 24
Portarlington, Lord, i. 93
Porter, Major, i. 157
Portland, Duke of, ii. 13
Portman, WUlie, i. 870
Poste, Mr., ii. '251
Pratt (of Pratt's Club), i. 250
Pressley, Sir Charles, ii. 284
Price, Tom, ii. 5
Prout, Father, i. 319, 320

INDEX

329

Quain, Dr., ii. 13
Quin, Dr., i. 90

Eachel (the actress), i. 248, 249 ;
ii. 47
Eaglan, Lord, i. 35, 119, 120,
162, 192, 194
Eaikes, Mr. (' Times ' correspon
dent), i. 202
EaUi, P., ii. 203
Ealston, Mr., ii. 314
Eamsden, Mrs., ii. 311
Eamsden, Sir James, ii. 161
Eathbone, Mr., ii. 197
Eawson, Mr., i. 303
Eeeve, Mr. (editor of the ' Edin
burgh Eeview '), i. 339
Eenaud, M. (French Consul at
Belgrade), i. 143, 144
Eeschid Pasha, i. 183
Eibblesdale, Lady, ii. 252, 273,
290, 313
Eibblesdale, Lord, ii. 313
Eichmond, Duke of, i.116 ; u. 201
Eidley, Sir M., ii. 251
Eipoii, Lady, ii. 52, 102, 124, 237
Eipon, Lord, i. 350 ; ii. 108, 124,
179, 265, 267
Eistori, i. 249
Elvers, Lord, i. 302
Eoberts, Mr. (Inland Eevenue
Commissioner), ii. 48
Eoberts, Lord, i. 52
Eobespierre, i. 325
Eobson (the actor), i. 247
' Eochford, Johnnie,' i. 53, 54
Eoebuck, J. A., i. 64 ; ii. 256
Eogers, Sir Frederick, i. 43
Eogers, Samuel, i. 82 ; ii. 198
Eokeby, Lady, i. 322
Eokeby, Lord. i. 105, 181, 182, 322
Eolfe, Baron, i. 11
Eomer, Mr., ii. 197
Eomilly, Colonel, i. 44
Eos, Miss de, i. 32
Eosati, i. 95, 249

Eose, Lady, ii.l8, 69, 133, 143, 145
Eose, Sir John, ii. 12, 13, l.'U
sqq., 143, 145, 159, 281
Eosebery, Lady, ii. 96, 268
Eosebery, Lord, ii. 81 note, 37,
40, 201, 204, 233, 263
Eoss, Sir WiUiam, i. 258
Eossa, O'Donovan, i. 362
Eosslyn, Lord, i. 266
Eothschild, Baron, i. 255, 376 ;
ii. 318
Eous, Admiral, i. 16, 74
EowseU, Mr., n. 56
Eubini, i. 95
Eush (the murderer'), i. 11, 12
Euskin, Mr., ii. 46, 194, 195
Eussell, Countess, i. 276
EusseU, Lord Arthur, i. 75,
139, 217 ; n. 46, 246
Eussell, Lord Charles, i. 356
Eussell, George, i. 75
EusseU, Hastings, i. 91, 92
Eussell, Lord John (afterwards
Earl), i. 11, 13, 15, 86, 91, 101,
102, 109, 113, 114, 125, 191,
193, 232, 255, 277, 278, 301,
307, 315, 318 ; ii. 24
Eussell, Odo, i. 75, 139 (see also
Ampthill, Lord)
Eussell, Eachel, Lady, ii. 149
Eussell, Lady WiUiam, i. 91
Eussell, Lord WiUiam, i. 41, 42
Eyan, Sir Charles, i. 53

Sackville, Lord, i. 34 note 2
Safli, ii. 182
Said Pasha, i. 154, 150
St. Albans, Duchess of, i. 276
St. Albans, Duke of, i. 324
St. Arnaud, Marshal, i. 119
St. Cyr, General, i. 107 and«of(-
St. Cyres, Lord, ii. 249, 251, 256,
257, 276, 284, 285
St. Maur, Lady Hermione (after
wards wife of Sir Frederick
Graham), i. 112

EECOLLECTIONS

Salisbury, Lord, i. 32, 34, 51,
63, 306 ; ii. 83, 154, 211, 218,
258, 285, 287, 302, 303
Saltoun, Lord, n, 158, 159
Salvini, i. 249
Sandhurst, Lord, ii. 252
Sandwich, Lady, i. 232
Sandwich, Lord, i. 232
Sandwith, Dr., ii. 69
Sardinia, King of, i. 200, 201
Sarell, Mr. (a dragoman of the
English Embassy, Constanti
nople), i. 151, 158
Sayer, Captain, i. 229
Scarlett, General, i. 170, 171
Scarlett, Sir James, ii. 11, 12
Scarlett, Willie, i. 170, 171
Schiller, ii. 303
Scott, Lady, i. 11
Scott, Hope, ii. 21
Scott, Sir Walter, ii. 76, 77, 86
Secoombe, Mr., i. 312
Seeley, Mr., i. 300
Selwyn, Colonel, i. 264
Seymour, Admiral, i. 204
Seymour, Lady, i. 15, 227
Seymour, Lord, i. 15
Seymour, Alfred, i. 322
Seymour, Francis, i. 209
Shafte<?bury, Lady, i. 252
Shaftesbury, Lord, i. 289
Shafto, Mr., i. 328
Shah of Persia, ii. 52
Shaw-Lefevre, George, i. 51 ; ii.
29, 233, 252
ShefBeld, George, ii. 184
SheUey, Lady, i. 17
SheUe'y, Sir John, i. 126
Sherbrooke, Lord, ii. 185, 213
(see also Lowe, Eobert)
Sheridan, Charles, i. 72
Sheridan, Frank, i. 72
Sheridan, Eichard Brinsley, i.
110, 111, 226
Shrewsbury, Lord, i. 253
Sibthorp, Colonel, i. 103
Simpson, General, i. 192

Smith, Albert, i. 97, 98
Smith, Mrs. Albert, i. 98
Smith, Mr. Bosworth, i. 290
Smith, Jervoise, i. 75, 163-5
176, 201, 202, 221, 223, 286
ii. 169, 202
Smith, Mr. John Abel, i. 288
Smith, Madeleine, i. 255
Smith, Sydney, i. 37, 90, 257; ii. 1 5
Smith, Vernon, i. 255
Smith, Mr. W. H., i. 32, 861, 377 ;
ii. 143, 258
Smythe, George, i. 44
Sneyd, Mr. Frank, i. 4, 5
Solar, Felix, i. 319, 320
Somerset, Duchess of, i. 87, 111 ;
u. 207
Somerset, Duke of, i. 269
Somerset, Lord Fitzroy, i. 35
Somerton, Lady, i. 243, 371
Somerton, Lord, i. 242, 243, 371
Somerville, Mrs., i. 10
Sontag, i. 95, 249
Sotheby, Henry, i. 246, 276, 319
Southampton, Lord, ii. 148, 149
Spalding, Augustus, i. 70
Spedding, Mr., ii. 46
Spencer, Lady, ii. 288
Spencer, Lord, i. 251 ; ii. 149,
150, 205, 207, 259, 269, 271,
288
Spencer, Lord Eobert, i. 260
Spencer, Lady Sarah, ii. 194
Spring-Eioe, Charles, i. 23
Stanhope, Lord, i. 33 ; ii. 77, 78
Stanhope, Lady Evelyn, i. 239,
240
Stanley, Lord, i. 295 ; ii. 82
Stanley, Miss, i. 181, 183
Stanley, Mr., ii. 65
Stansfeld, Mr. James, i. 286, 322
Steele, Tom, i. 162, 175
Steele, Sir Thomas, ii. 112
Stephen, Mr. (afterwards Lord
Mount Stephen), ii. 131
Stephenson, General Sir Frede
rick, i. 92

INDEX

Stephenson, Mrs., ii. 175
f-!t3phenson, Ben, i. 176
Stephenson, Charles, ii. 65
Stephenson, Sir William, i. 61,
62, 245 ; ii. 48, 49, 61, 78, 138
Stewart, General, ii, 229, 230
Stirbey, Prince, i. 151, 152
Stirling-Maxwell, ii. 46
Stonor, Frank, i. 75
Storks, Sir Henry, ii. 57 and
note, 58
Strafford, Lord, i. 246, 258
Strangford, Lord, i. 35
Stratford, Lady, i. 181, 182
Stratford, Lord, i. 182
Stratheden, Lady, i. 12
Strathmore, Lady, i. 243, 244
Strathmore, Lord, i. 243, 244
Strathnairn, Lord, ii. 185
Streletzky, Count, i. 866
Stuart-Wortley, Mrs., n. 41, 77
Stuart-Wortley, Mr. James, i.
366
Sturgis, Harry, ii. 251
Sturt, Napier, ii. 267
Suffolk, Lord, ii. 208
Sussex, Duke of, i. 274, 275
Swinburne, Mr. Algernon, i. 52
Sydney, Lady, i. 81, 226, 264,
265
Sydney, Lord, i. 238, 239, 264,
265, 293
Szechenyi, Stephan, i. 145

Taglioni, i. 95, 249
Talbot, Colonel (Dublin Police),
ii. Ill
Talfourd, Tom, i. 65, 243
TaUeyrand, ii. 35, 54, 55
Tamberlik, i. 249
Taunton, Lord, i. 195
Tawell (the murderer), i. 14
Taylor, Mr. and Mrs., i. 224
Taylor, Brydges, i. 23
Taylor, Sir Henry, i. 86, 262, 271
Taylor, Tom, ii. 47

Tedesco, Madame, i. 139
Temple, Marion (eldest sister of
Lord Cobham, and wife of the
Venerable Archdeacon \\'est),
i. 2
Tennant, Lady, ii. 208
Tennant, Miss Laura; ii. 160,
164-6, 169, 170, 174, 202, 238
Tennant, Sir Charles, ii. 208, 251
Tenniel, Mr., ii. 194, 196
Tennyson, Lord, i. 298 ; ii. 48,
86, 160, 164 sqq., 172, 173, 199
Tennyson, HaUam, ii. 160, 199
Tenterden, Lord, i. 250
Thackeray, i. 31, 85, 86, 94,
97, 99, 100, 299, 328 ; ii. 45,
48
Thiers, M., i. 86, 107, 108, 281 ;
n. 4, 50, 51
Thistlewood, i. 116, 117
Thomas, Mr. (landscape gar
dener), ii. 65, 66
Thompson (of Trinity CoUege),
Dr., i. 63
Thompson, Lieutenant-Gover
nor, i. 52
Thompson, Yates, ii. 150
Thorwaldsen, i. 222
Todleben, i. 120
Townley, Mr., i. 61
Townshend, Lord, i. 264
Tree, Mrs. Beerbohm, ii. 217,
227, 313
Trevelyan, Sir Charles, i. 312,
313 ; ii. 209
Trevelyan, Sir George, ii. 56, 74,
75, 152, 239, 269, 271
TroUope, Anthony, ii. 47
Troubridge, Sir 'Thomas, i. 228
Tryon, Admiral Sir George, i. 52
Tuckett, Captain, i. 48

Vane, Dolly, i. 170
Venables, ii. 46
Verger (phrenologist), ii. 78
Vesci, Lord de, ii. 267

EECOLLECTIONS

Victoria, Queen, i. 35, 41, 46, 59,
200, 228, 236, 237, 264, 275,
280, 298, 329 ; ii. 14, 28, 51,
112, 183, 223
Villiers, Charles, i. 103, 199, 339 ;
ii. 185, 222, '223, 225, 226, 255
Villiers, Mrs. Jack, i. 377
Vincent, Admiral, i. 35
Vivian, Mrs., ii. 172
Vivian, C, ii. 169
Vivian, Hussey, i. 106
Voltaire, ii. 314
Vyner, Clare, i. 350
Yyner, Freddy, i. 356

Waldegeave, Lady, i. 89
Wales, Prince of, i. 47, 84, 368 ;
ii. 5, 6, 9, 68, 141
Wales, Princess of, i. 297, 801 :
ii. 9, 141, 171-3
Walewska, Madame, i. 117
Walpole, Colonel, i. 22, 277
Walpole, the Misses, i. 3, 364
Walpole, Lady Charlotte, i. 7,
28
Walpole, Miss Fanny Lambert,
i. 7
Walpole, Fred., i. 182, 183
Walpole, Horace, i. 326
Walpole, Lady Mary, i. 3
Walpole, Sir Eobert, i. 3, 234,
264, 340
Walpole, Spencer (1), i. 278, 318,
319
Walpole, Spencer (2), i. 5
Walrond, Mr. Theodore, ii. 31
Wantage, Lord, i. 93, 118, 119,
1'27, 168
Warburton, Eliot, i, 83
Ward, I;ord, ii. 30
Y'aterfield, Henry, i. 284, 285
Waterford, Lady, i. 264
Waterford, Lord, i. 72
Waterton (the naturalist), i. 37-
39
Watney, Mr., iic 107

Watson, WiUiam (the poet), i.
347
Watts, G. F., ii. 46
Webb, Godfrey, ii. 197
Webster, Cla.ra, i. 248
Welby, Lord, i. 52, 69, 355 : ii.
14, 81, 49, 50, 63, 65, 88, 102,
159, 201, 236, 243, 288, 292,
309, 310
Wellesley, Captain, i. 208, 212,
213
Wellesley, Lord, i. 67, 329
WeUesley, Gerald, ii. 21
WeUesley, Eichard, i. 22
Wellington, Duke of, i. 30, 31,
32, 48, 59, 60, 91, 93, 106, 107,
116, 380, 344; ii. 159, 160,
202, 226
Wensleydale, Lord, i. 231
West, the Venerable Archdeacon,
i. 2
West, Augustus William, i. 319 ;
ii. 9
West, Balchen, i. 2
West, Miss' Constance, ii. 9, 12,
93, 105, 184 ; ii. 208, 268, 283
West, Gilbert (1), i. 6, 7 ; ii. 155
West, GUbert (2), i. 6
West, Gilbert Eichard, i. 298,
299 ; ii. 248
West, Q.C., M.P., Henry, i. 7, 17,
53 ; ii. 252, 267
West, Horace, i. 277, 280j 297,
320 ; ii. 9, 65 sqq., 76, 97, 108,
109, 149, 151, 282, 290, 311
^\'est, Lionel, see Sackville, Lord
West, Martin John (father of
Sir Algernon West), i. 2, 3, 14,
17, 30, 36, 286, 319, 368, 864
West, Eeginald Jervoise, i. 286 ;
ii. 97, '248
West, Eev. Eichard, i. 7, 31, 50,
58, 60, 286, 366 ; ii. 204
West, Vioe-Admiral Temple, i. 2
Westbury, Lord, i, 303-805,
859 ; ii. 55, 186
Westmorland, Lady, i. 139, 140

INDEX

Westmorland, Lord, i. 139, 140
Whitbread, Sam., i. 270 ; ii. 108,
1.58, 259, 275
White, Eev. H., ii. 40
Whymper, Mr., i. 58
Wigan, Alfred, i. 247 ; ii. 47
Wilberforce, Bishop, i. 56 ; ii.
82 (see also Winchester,
Bishop of)
WiUiam IV., i. 30, 33, '227, 275 ;
ii. 22
Williams, Montagu, i. 98
Wilson (the Netherby fisher
man), i. Ill, 112
Wilson, Sir Charles, ii. 230, 233
WUson, Mr. James, ii. 209
Wilson, Sir E., i. 228
Wilson, Sir Elvers, i. 53
Winchester, Bishop of, ii. 53-
55 (see also Wilberforce,
Bishop)
Winchilsea, Lord, i. 3C6
Windsor, Dean of, i. 369
Wodehouse, Lord, i. '286
Wolff, Drummond , ii. 85

Wolseley, Lord, ii. 204, 227
Wolverton, Lady, ii. 283
Wolverton, Lord, i. 354, 376 ; ii.
100, 104, 201, 251, 253, 258,
260, 263, 269-72, 281, 309
(see also Glyn, George)
Wombwell, Sir George, i. 52,
74
AVood, S'r Charles, i. 35, 108,
193 sqq., 252, 262, 263, 271,
283 sqq., 287-9, 294, 295,
306 sqq., 313; ii. 19, 13.S
(see also Halifax, Lord)
Wood, Sir E\-elyn, ii. 175
Wood, John (Chairman of the
Board of Inland Eevenue), ii.
284
Wood, Lady Mary, i. 262, 310

York, Archbishop of, ii. 122, 12.'!
Young, Lord, ii. 38
Young, Mr. (Secretary to the
Board of Inland Eevenue), ii.
104-106, 137, 143, 283, 285

THE END

PniNTED r.T
BrOn-.-BWOODK AXD CO.. M;\Y Ji'J'REE'r SQU.\UIt
l.o.\uyx

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