THE IDEAL PRIVATE SECRETARY.*
THE papers of a private secretary may furnish the world with light on many curious and hidden things, but the odds are that they will not. The better the secretary the more complete his discretion, and Sir Herbert Taylor was one of the most -perfect private secretaries that Royalty was ever blessed with. He left instructions to his executors to destroy most of his official memoranda after his death, and the memoirs which he began to write were never completed. In the present volume we have these memoirs as far as they go, and a large number of letters written to Sir Herbert by every type of correspondent, from Austrian adventurers to British Prime Ministers. Taken together, they present an interesting picture -of a busy and effective personality, who played a large, if inconspicuous, part in the life of his generation. But in- matiy of the letters are dull and scarce worthy to be reprinted, and we think the editor would have been wiser if he had made the collection half its size. Documents there are of great historic and social interest, but to reach them a great deal of heavy wading has to be done through obscure communications on private affairs.
Taylor spent most of his life as a Court official, but his tastes were always for the life of a soldier, and some of his best work was done at the Horse Guards. The acquaintance which his father, a Kentish " squarson," struck up with Lord Camelford at Rome in 1791 procured the boy of sixteen a clerk- ship in the Foreign Office. His knowledge of foreign languages made him very useful, and presently he was sent with Sir James Murray on his mission to Frankfort, and was enabled to satisfy his military interest by seeing something of the campaign of 1793. Next year be was assistant secretary to the Duke of York, and left the Foreign Office on obtaining a cornetcy in the 2nd Dragoon Guards. On the Duke of York's return to England as Commander-in-Chief he continued with
• The Taylor Papers being a Record of Certain Reminiscences in the Life of Lieut.-General Sir Herbert Taylor, G.C.B. Arranged by Ernest Taylor. London: Lcugmans and Co. [15s. net.)
him, and, though he bad various chances of foreign service, be found it impossible to get away. He was probably too valuable a man for any office to dispense with. In 1801 he attained his majority in his regiment, and next year changed into the Coldstream Guards as lieutenant-colonel. In 1805 the King's eyes bad become very troublesome, and it was necessary that he should have a secretary ; so Taylor, on Pitt's recommendation, received the post—probably the first Royal private secretaryship in British history. He was now a highly important personage, for all communications with Ministers passed through his hands, and be was constantly asked to advise his master on delicate matters. It speaks volumes for his tact that be seems to have earned golden opinions from all parties. By 1810 George III. was losing more than his eight.
"It is said that, not long before the soundness of the King's mind finally gave way, a certain high appointment had to be filled up, and Ministers had repeatedly—though in vain—endeavoured to obtain his Majesty's signature. One morning, however, Taylor again urged upon him the importance of settling the matter. 'Oh ! give it to the D—1 ! ' said the King. His Secretary paused a moment, and then remarked very quietly : 'And would your Majesty desire that the appointment should be drawn up in the usual manner—to our right trusty and well-beloved cousin?' The current of his thoughts being thus turned to comedy, the King, who was by no means deficient in humour, changed his mood."
An early essay by the King is printed, which is full of sagacious remarks on civil government. Here is the last sentence : "These are the best governments where the best men govern; and the difference is not so great in the forms of the magistracy as in the persons of the magistrates."
The King's madness altered the nature of Taylor's duties. He was made one of the trustees of the King's private property, and soon after private secretary to Queen Charlotte. He was alse given the chance of seeing a little active service, and had command of two brigades in Holland under Sir Thomas Graham, where he won high commendation from that general. On Queen Charlotte's death, he was one of the executors of her will, and after the death of George III. he was prevailed upon by the new King to enter Parliament for Windsor, while at the same time he filled the post of Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief. He held his seat for two years till he accepted the command of the 85th Regiment. When Wellington succeeded the Duke of York at the Horse Guards, Taylor served under him, declined the post of Commander-in-Chief in India, and had presently a new office created for him—that of first and principal aide- de-camp to the King. He would have been private secretary, but Ministers would not allow Isis Majesty to have one. In 1829 be became Adjutant-General, and we are given a selection of his correspondence with officers in every quarter of the globe. There is a curious account of a trip taken in that year by steam-carriage along the high road to Bath and the indignation of the townspeople at Melksham. When the question of the Greek Regency arose, one sporting officer proposed himself as Court gamekeeper, and undertook b stock the Peninsula with pheasants and partridges. There are some interesting letters from David Urquhart, afterwards the well-known authority on Turkey, on the state of affairs in the Near East. The chief value of the volume, however, is to be found in the account given of Taylor's work as private secretary to William IV. The whole correspondence dealing with the passing of the First Reform Bill is a real con- tribution to history. Taylor had a most responsible post. The King rarely wrote a letter, and his secretary had to conduct the most confidential correspondence from verbal instructions. It was a situation demanding the nicest tact, and Taylor was equal to the occasion. We are given in these pages a full account of every step in the negotiations between the King, the Ministers, and the Opposition peers. The King's- attitude is defined in a sentence of a letter to Lord Grey :—
" His Majesty repeats, his opposition was not to the Reform Bill, its essential provisions or principles ; it was to the proposed creation of Peers. But he did not persist in that opposition ; he yielded, rather than risk the continuance of agitation in the country, and the change of men and measures, both, in his opinion. alike injurious to its interests. He consented to an addition to the House of Lords, subject to his Majesty's consideration as to the nature and the extent of the addition."
Two days later the King gays to Grey and Brougham a
general permission, in writing, for the creation of such a- number of peers as would make the Bill safe. The next step- was to acquaint the Opposition with this decision, and Taylor. .accordingly wrote to the chief Opposition peers. This sufficed to procure the famous abstention which enabled the Bill to pass. Taylor, as we learn from Brougham, was much ,criticised for his action, but he only took steps to give the King's decision the effect which it was meant to have. It is ,interesting to know from these letters that William IV. saw nothing to object to in the Bill.
With the accession of Queen Victoria Taylor's long career as Royal private secretary came to an end. He had been +offered a peerage, but had declined it, and he welcomed the 'change of a little rest. Melbourne himself acted as the ,Queen's secretary, but Taylor retained the post of principal Aide - de- camp. The later correspondence deals almost wholly with private and family affairs. There is one excel- lent letter from a soldier in South Africa, who spent a year 'wandering through Namaqualand, and expresses the pious lope that his expedition "will extend our knowledge of this mysterious continent, will extend commerce, civilization, and our holy religion." He had pack-oxen and rode on ox-back in the heat of the day ! As soon as he was released from work 'Taylor s(4. off on .a long Continental tour, of which he has left full and entertaining notes. He was a shrewd observer, and his 'great experience of high politics makes his comments on French affairs of considerable value. Following Lord Brougham's example, he resolved to settle at Cannes, where lie built a villa. The following year he went southwards to Italy, and saw Metternich at Cadenabbia. At Rome he -wrote a reply to Brougham's article in the Edinburgh Review, in which that perverse statesman attacked the character of recent sovereigns. Taylor claimed far greater qualities of lead and heart for George IV. than are generally granted lim, and, as his knowledge and candour are unquestionable, Lie view is worth attention. Brougham replied, paying a high tribute indirectly to his antagonist, "whose nature is as utterly incapable of sycophancy as it is of dishonour." Early in the following year Taylor died at Rome, the city to which he owed his first start in his career. He was a fine type of public servant, who in many diverse capacities did well by his country. To him it was largely due that the Reform agitation passed without leaving any disastrous marks on the Con- stitution. Sir James Hudson paid him a deserved tribute when he wrote, "Nothing ever fell from his lips behind the back a any living being that might not be repeated before their lace."
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