SIR MOUNTSTITART GRANT DUFF'S DIA.RY.* "I HAVE carefully eliminated from
these pages," says the diarist, "almost all reference to the working part of my life." That part has been, as we all know, full enough. Sir Mount- stuart sat in Parliament for twenty-four years, and was in office for nearly a third of that time. Few of his con- temporaries have rivalled him in the knowledge of England's foreign politics ; his lucid expositions of current history, delivered year by year to a remote Northern eonstituency, but eagerly read throughout the Empire, were things sui generis, so shrewd was the observation of men and events, so philo- sophic the judgment of causes and motives which they showed. But of these things we hear little or nothing. Sometimes the diarist introduces us to the House of Commons, but it is to give us a glimpse of the humours of the place rather than to speak of its graver interests, as when, for instance, we see a legislator falling off his seat in the weariness of an all-night sitting, and hear him complain "And to think that I should have paid 0,000 for this !" The ambition most prominently displayed in these pages is to have a com- plete collection of English plants. Whatever the interest of the place, the time, or the company, Sir Mountstuart does not forget his botanising enthusiasm. He delights to light upon a rarity, he laments when a well-known habitat is found empty. No one can help sympathising with his enthusiasm; but the unlearned will lament that he disdains to give the vulgar names, if indeed there are vulgar names, to creatures so uncommon.
But how are we to give to our readers any idea of these two volumes ? They are not unlike, in plan or want of plan, other reminiscences, of which, indeed, there have been an abundance, to gay the least, of late years, only that we are introduced to bigger and more famous people, and hear a quite extraordinary number of good things from them or about them. The difficulty is to know where to begin any process of sampling, or how to choose. Perhaps, though we are not told anything about politics, we may make a commencement with politicians. Peel is, of course, far outside the limit of time—he died in 1850—but we hear with surprise from a friend and colleague (Cardwell) that, of "all the men eminent in political life that he had known, Peel was far the hottest alike in temper and in his affections." Yet his frigid manners were a serious drawback. Here is a somewhat unexpected estimate of Palmerston. Milner Gibson gives a Cabinet ex- perience :—" Gladstone was exceedingly clever, argued very well and clearly, but he was not suggestive. The two who were suggestive were Palmerston and Lord Russell—the two old mummies, as Bright called them." That he should have asked Sir Arthur Helps "to show him where the places were," after having accepted the office of Colonial Secretary, is not surprising. We have had Colonial Secretaries who did not take so much trouble. Lord Derby (of course the penultimate) spoke in the House of the "island of Demerara." Cobden appears in the unusual character of a dramatic aspirant. When be went to engage Covent Garden Theatre for one of the great Anti-Corn-law meetings, he said,—" I have never been here since I came to offer a play to the management, which was refused." It is a curious confirmation of the thesis, which the diarist tells us he once heard maintained, that every one, at some time or other of his life, has written a tragedy. A tragedy it probably was, for humour was scarcely one of Cobden's gifts. On one occasion he was making a great Free-trade speech, so great that Peel, who was not wont to be prodigal of praise, remarked to Gladstone, "What a consummate speech he is making." But he got into trouble. To explain some point, he said : "Now I will give an illustration of what I mean. Here is my honour- able friend the Member for Durham sitting by me. He is a, spinner of long yarns of a low quality." The House screamed with laughter, but Cobden could not see why. Mr. Gladstone appears, of course, pretty frequently. A leader of the Dutch Liberals, Eappeyne van de Coppello, thinks "the Church of England may well be alarmed; he has got to the stage of • Notes from a Diary, 1473 1881. By the Bight Hon. Hountetnart B. Grant Duff. 2 rola London : John Murray. [1.8e.} defending her." With politics in full blast we bear of him cross-examining Huxley on the horse and mule, "which, in their Homeric setting, occupy the mind of the great man very much at present." There was a rumour that Garibaldi was to marry the old Duchess of Sutherland. " Impossible !" says some one, "he has a wife already."—" Oh," replies some one else, "we will put up Gladstone to explain her away." An amusing scene is Gladstone and Bright telling stories against each other about the extortions of co-n doctors, and Chevallier listening with all his ears under the idea that they are talking about the Corn-laws.
Foreign politics naturally are more in evidence than home. The diarist saw Emile 011ivier in 1874, and gives his account of the diplomacy which ended in the Franco-Prussian War. The final decision, he declared, had been made without him. He named Granier de Cassagnac and Jerome David as responsible, and two others who are left in blank. It is interesting to be reminded, in view of what has often been re- peated, that in this war, according to the testimony of hostile witnesses, the invading troops behaved admirably. But our French neighbours have a fixed idea that they may steal horses, though no one else has the right to look over a hedge. Not inappropriate is the story of Lord Houghton and the French Ambassador at a ball. The latter moved towards the supper-room saying, " Je vais prendre quelque chose." —" C'est l'habitnde de votre nation, Monsieur," said Lord H. The story of the great charge of the German cavalry at Mars-la-Tour we must quote at length :—
" It became necessary at a particueir moment to save the army at any sacrifice, by gaining time until more troops could come up. 'The General in command directed Bunsen's informant [George Bunsen told the story] to ride up to two regiments and give to their commanding officers the order to advance. These two were the crack regiments of the Prussian service -the regiments into which the young men of family and position were most anxious to get. Obedient to ordet., and himself fully convinced of the wisdom of the command, be rode up to Auerswald, the senior officer of the two commanders, and told him to advance against the French. You are not serious,' the latter replied. You do not mean me to attack the whole French army.'—' I am serious,'
was the rejoinder. bring you positive orders to do so.' Auerswald bowed, and sending for the young prince of Hohen- zollern, who was one of his subalterns, ordered him immediately to ride off the field. The young man said, I have done nothing to deserve this,' and burst into tears. Auerswald replied, Your family has suffered quite enough. I order you as a soldier to do your duty and obey your commanding officer.' lie then directed his men to advance, first at a foot's pace, then at a trot, then at a gallop. They did au, and were of course almost all destroyed. When the survivors had broken through the French, Auerswald ordered the bugles to sound the assembly. Slov ly and gradually some sixty-seven were mustered. 1uerswald said := Soldiers, I thank you ; you have done your duty. Long live the King ! ' and fell from his horse mortally wounded. He recovered con- sciousness and died the next day. About three hundred only of the two regiments remained alive, but the army was saved."
From the same source comes the characteristic story of the private in a Saxon regiment, who, while waiting at Pont it Mousson with his comrades to receive his billet, asked a staring peasant in a blouse, "Monsieur, est-ce qu'il y a ici par hasard un bon libraire."
And now for some general samples of Sir Mountstuart's very various and attractive wares. It is possibly a chestnut, but will bear serving up again, that Tom Sheridan, reading Euclid with his tutor and finding it tedious, asked, "Was Euclid a good man P" The tutor did not know. "Was he an honourable, truthful man ? "—" We know -iothing to the con- trary."—" Then don't you think we might take his word for all this ? " Here are two Irish specimens. Hearing some stories of a very oppressive landlord, a tourist remarked, "You Irish have the reputation of being given to agrarian murder ; how is it that these men can live in the country F" Oh! sir, you know what's everybody's business is not nobody's business." One is reminded of the South American President, who, not having been shot at for a fortnight, remarked,—" This want r f interest in public affairs is the curse of our country !"— "An English gentleman was staying with an Irish friend. As they drove home in the dusk, a bullet flew past them just as they Passed the lodge gates. Good God ! what is that ? ' said the stranger......' Oh!' answered the Irishman, ' it's only the lodge- ke.eper.'—' Lodge-keeper ? ' said his friend, that gun was loaded with ball.'—' Of course,' was the rejoinder.—' Had we not better send for the police immediately, and have the ruffian arrested ? ' said his friend.—' Heaven forbid,' was the reply, ' he is the worst shot I ever bad !'"
Here is a story of Serjeant Merewether :—" He got into a railway carriage with Lord Campbell, who was then Chan- cellor, and tried to enter into conversation. Campbell, how- ever, was as cross and uncivil as possible, saying at last, 'Why, Merewetber, you get worse and worse; you are as fat as a porpoise.'—' Fit company, my Lord,' said his companion,
for the Great Seal.'" This was neat, but we can give another more brilliant, for Merewether himself was not always in the humour for talking in a railway carriage. A fellow- traveller had been boring him all the way up from Swindon. When they came to Hanwell, "Looks well from the rail," said the bore.—"And how does the rail look from Hanwell?" replied the Serjea.nt. An M.P. yawned during his own speech. Some one observed, "This man is not without taste, but he usurps our province." Of a dilatory bookbinder : "Ah! yes, a good, careful man ; he has got a great many of my books which I never expect to see again." "I have found not a little difficulty in bringing myself to say that you are sober," said an employer to his drunken butler.—" Don't you think," replied the man, "as you have gone so far, that you might say frequently sober' F" Bad cooking is "le dernier mot de la toxicologie." Truth "a new World, but not a better." It would not be easy to find an English mistranslation better than "Tanta erat ems audacia,"—" Sa tante etait une femme terrible." Robert Lowe was described as a "Whitehead Torpedo." But that must have been before he migrated to the cave of the Anti-Reformers. "As we were going through the grounds [at Knebworth] Bagehot said to me Ah ! they have got the Church in the grounds. I like that. It is well that the tenants should not be quite sure that the landlord's power stops with this world." May we remark, by the way, that some of the parodies of Scripture might have been omitted ? It is a cheap kind of wit. Wordsworth's "phantom of delight" was not Lady Mary Lowther (chap. 1, p. 511), but, unless we are mistaken, The Highland Girl. The poet utilised the romance in writing afterwards about his own wife.
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