No More Learning

It would not be easy to find any
written rule or declaration of constitutional law pronouncing deci-
sively that either was in the wrong. But in our day we should
believe that the constitutional freedom of England was outraged,
or at least put in the extremest danger, if a sovereign were
dismiss a ministry at mere pleasure, or to retain it in despite of
the expressed wish of the House of Commons. Virtually there-
fore there was still personal government in the reign of William
IV. With his death the long chapter of its history came to an
end. We find it difficult now to believe that it was a living
principle, openly at work among us, if not openly acknowledged,
so lately as in the reign of King William.
The closing scenes of King William's life were undoubtedly
characterized by some personal dignity. As a rule, sovereigns
show that they know how to die. Perhaps the necessary conse-
quence of their training, by virtue of which they come to regard
themselves always as the central figures in great State pageantry,
is to make them assume a manner of dignity on all occasions
when the eyes of their subjects may be supposed to be on
them, even if dignity of bearing is not the free gift of nature.
The manners of William IV. had been, like those of most of his
brothers, somewhat rough and overbearing. He had been an
unmanageable naval officer. He had again and again disregarded
or disobeyed orders; and at last it had been found convenient to
withdraw him from active service altogether, and allow him to
rise through the successive ranks of his profession by a merely
formal and technical process of ascent. In his more private
capacity he had, when younger, indulged more than once in un-
seemly and insufferable freaks of temper. He had made himself
unpopular, while Duke of Clarence, by his strenuous opposition
to some of the measures which were especially desired by all the
enlightenment of the country. He was, for example, a deter-
mined opponent of the measures for the abolition of the slave
trade. He had wrangled publicly in open debate with some of
his brothers in the House of Lords; and words had been inter-


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JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9443
changed among the royal princes which could not be heard in
our day even in the hottest debates of the more turbulent House
of Commons. But William seems to have been one of the men
whom increased responsibility improves. He was far better as a
king than as a prince. He proved that he was able at least to
understand that first duty of a constitutional sovereign, which to
the last day of his active life his father, George III. , never could
be brought to comprehend,- that the personal predilections and
prejudices of the king must sometimes give way to the public
interest.
Nothing perhaps in life became him like the leaving of it.
His closing days were marked by gentleness and kindly consid-
eration for the feelings of those around him. When he awoke
on June 18th he remembered that it was the anniversary of the
Battle of Waterloo. He expressed a strong, pathetic wish to live.
over that day, even if he were never to see another sunset. He
called for the flag which the Duke of Wellington always sent him.
on that anniversary; and he laid his hand upon the eagle which
adorned it, and said he felt revived by the touch. He had him-
self attended since his accession the Waterloo banquet; but this
time the Duke of Wellington thought it would perhaps be more
seemly to have the dinner put off, and sent accordingly to take
the wishes of his Majesty. The King declared that the dinner
must go on as usual; and sent to the Duke a friendly, simple
message, expressing his hope that the guests might have a pleas-
ant day. He talked in his homely way to those about him, his
direct language seeming to acquire a sort of tragic dignity from
the approach of the death that was so near.
He had prayers
read to him again and again, and called those near him to wit-
ness that he had always been a faithful believer in the truths of
religion. He had his dispatch-boxes brought to him, and tried
to get through some business with his private secretary.
It was
remarked with some interest that the last official act he ever
performed was to sign with his trembling hand the pardon of a
condemned criminal. Even a far nobler reign than his would
have received new dignity if it closed with a deed of mercy.
When some of those around him endeavored to encourage him
with the idea that he might recover and live many years yet, he
declared with a simplicity which had something oddly pathetic in
it that he would be willing to live ten years yet for the sake of
the country.
The poor King was evidently under the sincere


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9444
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
conviction that England could hardly get on without him. His
consideration for his country, whatever whimsical thoughts it
may suggest, is entitled to some at least of the respect which
we give to the dying groan of a Pitt or a Mirabeau, who fears
with too much reason that he leaves a blank not easily to be
filled. "Young royal tarry-breeks," William had been jocularly
called by Robert Burns fifty years before, when there was yet a
popular belief that he would come all right and do brilliant and
gallant things, and become a stout sailor in whom a seafaring
nation might feel pride. He disappointed all such expectations;
but it must be owned that when responsibility came upon him
he disappointed expectation anew in a different way, and was a
better sovereign, more deserving of the complimentary title of
patriot-king, than even his friends would have ventured to antici-
pate.
There were eulogies pronounced upon him after his death,
in both Houses of Parliament, as a matter of course. It is not
necessary, however, to set down to mere court homage or parlia
mentary form some of the praises that were bestowed upon the
dead King by Lord Melbourne and Lord Brougham and Lord
Grey. A certain tone of sincerity, not quite free perhaps from
surprise, appears to run through some of these expressions of
admiration. They seem to say that the speakers were at one
time or another considerably surprised to find that after all, Will-
iam really was able and willing on grave occasions to subordi-
nate his personal likings and dislikings to considerations of State
policy, and to what was shown to him to be for the good of the
nation. In this sense at least he may be called a patriot-king.
We have advanced a good deal since that time, and we require
somewhat higher and more positive qualities in a sovereign now
to excite our political wonder. But we must judge William by
the reigns that went before, and not the reign that came after
him; and with that consideration borne in mind, we may accept
the panegyric of Lord Melbourne and of Lord Grey, and admit
that on the whole he was better than his education, his early
opportunities, and his early promise.
William IV. (third son of George III. ) had left no children
who could have succeeded to the throne; and the crown passed
therefore to the daughter of his brother (fourth son of George),
the Duke of Kent. This was the Princess Alexandrina Victoria,
who was born at Kensington Palace on May 24th, 1819. The


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JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9445
princess was therefore at this time little more than eighteen years
of age.
The Duke of Kent died a few months after the birth of
his daughter, and the child was brought up under the care of
his widow. She was well brought up: both as regards her intel-
lect and her character her training was excellent. She was taught
to be self-reliant, brave, and systematical. Prudence and economy
were inculcated on her as though she had been born to be poor.
One is not generally inclined to attach much importance to what
historians tell us of the education of contemporary princes or
princesses; but it cannot be doubted that the Princess Victoria.
was trained for intelligence and goodness.
"The death of the King of England has everywhere caused the
greatest sensation. . . . Cousin Victoria is said to have shown
astonishing self-possession. She undertakes a heavy responsi-
bility, especially at the present moment, when parties are so
excited, and all rest their hopes on her. " These words are an
extract from a letter written on July 4th, 1837, by the late Prince
Albert, the Prince Consort of so many happy years. The letter
was written to the Prince's father, from Bonn. The young Queen
had indeed behaved with remarkable self-possession. There is a
pretty description, which has been often quoted, but will bear
citing once more, given by Miss Wynn, of the manner in which
the young sovereign received the news of her accession to a
throne. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and the
Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, left Windsor for
Kensington Palace, where the Princess Victoria had been resid-
ing, to inform her of the King's death. It was two hours after
midnight when they started, and they did not reach Kensington
until five o'clock in the morning. "They knocked, they rang,
they thumped for a considerable time before they could rouse the
porter at the gate; they were again kept waiting in the court-
yard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed
forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, and desired that
the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform
her Royal Highness that they requested an audience on busi-
ness of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to
inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned, who stated that
the princess was in such a sweet sleep that she could not venture
to disturb her. Then they said, 'We are come on business of
State to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that. '
It did; and to prove that she did not keep them waiting, in a


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9446
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
few minutes she came into the room in a loose white nightgown
and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her
shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly
collected and dignified. " The Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne,
was presently sent for, and a meeting of the Privy Council sum-
moned for eleven o'clock; when the Lord Chancellor administered
the usual oaths to the Queen, and Her Majesty received in re-
turn the oaths of allegiance of the Cabinet ministers and other
privy councillors present. Mr. Greville, who was usually as little
disposed to record any enthusiastic admiration of royalty and
royal personages as Humboldt or Varnhagen von Ense could have
been, has described the scene in words well worthy of quotation.
"The King died at twenty minutes after two yesterday morning,
and the young Queen met the Council at Kensington Palace at
eleven. Never was anything like the first impression she produced,
or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her
manner and behavior, and certainly not without justice.
It was
very extraordinary, and something far beyond what was looked for.
Her extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world
concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she
would act on this trying occasion, and there was a considerable
assemblage at the palace, notwithstanding the short notice which
was given. The first thing to be done was to teach her her lesson,
which, for this purpose, Melbourne had himself to learn. . . . She
bowed to the lords, took her seat, and then read her speech in a
clear, distinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of fear
or embarrassment. She was quite plainly dressed, and in mourning.
After she had read her speech, and taken and signed the oath for
the security of the Church of Scotland, the privy councillors were
sworn, the two royal dukes first by themselves; and as these two
old men, her uncles, knelt before her, swearing allegiance and kissing
her hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast
between their civil and their natural relations,—and this was the only
sign of emotion which she evinced. Her manner to them was very
graceful and engaging; she kissed them both, and rose from her
chair and moved towards the Duke of Sussex, who was farthest from
her, and too infirm to reach her. She seemed rather bewildered
at the multitude of men who were sworn, and who came, one after
another, to kiss her hand, but she did not speak to anybody, nor did
she make the slightest difference in her manner, or show any in
her countenance, to any individual of any rank, station, or party. I
particularly watched her when Melbourne and the ministers, and the


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JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9447
She went through
Duke of Wellington and Peel, approached her.
the whole ceremony, occasionally looking at Melbourne for instruction
when she had any doubt what to do,-which hardly ever occurred,—
and with perfect calmness and self-possession, but at the same time
with a graceful modesty and propriety particularly interesting and
ingratiating. "
Sir Robert Peel told Mr. Greville that he was amazed "at her
manner and behavior, at her apparent deep sense of her situa-
tion, and at the same time her firmness. " The Duke of Welling-
ton said in his blunt way that if she had been his own daughter
he could not have desired to see her perform her part better.
"At twelve," says Mr. Greville, "she held a Council, at which
she presided with as much ease as if she had been doing nothing
else all her life; and though Lord Lansdowne and my colleague
had contrived between them to make some confusion with the
Council papers, she was not put out by it. She looked very well;
and though so small in stature, and without much pretension to
beauty, the gracefulness of her manner and the good expression
of her countenance give her on the whole a very agreeable ap-
pearance, and with her youth inspire an excessive interest in all
who approach her, and which I can't help feeling myself.
•
In short, she appears to act with every sort of good taste and
good feeling, as well as good sense; and as far as it has gone,
nothing can be more favorable than the impression she has
made, and nothing can promise better than her manner and con-
duct do; though," Mr. Greville somewhat superfluously adds, “it
would be rash to count too confidently upon her judgment and
discretion in more weighty matters. "
The interest or curiosity with which the demeanor of the
young Queen was watched was all the keener because the world
in general knew so little about her. Not merely was the world
in general thus ignorant, but even the statesmen and officials in
closest communication with court circles were in almost absolute
ignorance. According to Mr. Greville (whose authority, however,
is not to be taken too implicitly except as to matters which he
actually saw), the young Queen had been previously kept in such
seclusion by her mother-"never," he says, "having slept out
of her bedroom, nor been alone with anybody but herself and
the Baroness Lehzen "-that "not one of her acquaintances, none
of the attendants at Kensington, not even the Duchess of North-
umberland, her governess, have any idea what she is or what


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9448
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
she promises to be. " There was enough in the court of the two
sovereigns who went before Queen Victoria to justify any strict-
ness of seclusion which the Duchess of Kent might desire for
her daughter. George IV. was a Charles II. without the edu-
cation or the talents; William IV. was a Frederick William of
Prussia without the genius. The ordinary manners of the society
at the court of either had a full flavor, to put it in the softest
way, such as a decent tap-room would hardly exhibit in a time
like the present. No one
can read even the most favorable
descriptions given by contemporaries of the manners of those
two courts, without feeling grateful to the Duchess of Kent for
resolving that her daughter should see as little as possible of
their ways and their company.
It was remarked with some interest that the Queen sub-
scribed herself simply "Victoria," and not, as had been expected,
"Alexandrina Victoria. " Mr. Greville mentions in his diary of
December 24th, 1819, that "the Duke of Kent gave the name
of Alexandrina to his daughter in compliment to the Emperor of
Russia. She was to have had the name of Georgiana, but the
duke insisted upon Alexandrina being her first name. The Regent
sent for Lieven [the Russian ambassador, husband of the famous
Princess de Lieven], and made him a great many compliments,
en le persiflant, on the Emperor's being godfather; but informed
him that the name of Georgiana could be second to no other in
this country, and therefore she could not bear it at all. " It was
a very wise choice to employ simply the name Victoria, around
which no ungenial associations of any kind hung at that time,
and which can have only grateful associations in the history of
this country for the future.
It is not necessary to go into any formal description of the
various ceremonials and pageantries which celebrated the acces-
sion of the new sovereign. The proclamation of the Queen,
her appearance for the first time on the throne in the House of
Lords when she prorogued Parliament in person, and even the
gorgeous festival of her coronation,— which took place on June
28th, in the following year, 1838,—may be passed over with a
mere word of record. It is worth mentioning, however, that at
the coronation procession one of the most conspicuous figures
was that of Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, the opponent of
Moore and Wellington in the Peninsula, the commander of the
Old Guard at Lützen, and one of the strong arms of Napoleon at


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JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9449
Waterloo. Soult had been sent as ambassador extraordinary to
represent the French government and people at the coronation
of Queen Victoria; and nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with
which he was received by the crowds in the streets of London
on that day. The white-haired soldier was cheered wherever a
glimpse of his face or figure could be caught. He appeared in
the procession in a carriage the frame of which had been used
on occasions of state by some of the princes of the House of
Condé, and which Soult had had splendidly decorated for the
ceremony of the coronation. Even the Austrian ambassador,
says an eye-witness, attracted less attention than Soult, although
the dress of the Austrian, Prince Esterhazy, "down to his very
boot-heels sparkled with diamonds. " The comparison savors now
of the ridiculous, but is remarkably expressive and effective.
Prince Esterhazy's name in those days suggested nothing but
diamonds. His diamonds may be said to glitter through all the
light literature of the time. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
wanted a comparison with which to illustrate excessive splendor
and brightness, she found it in "Mr. Pitt's diamonds. " Prince
Esterhazy's served the same purpose for the writers of the early
years of the present reign. It was therefore, perhaps, no very
poor tribute to the stout old moustache of the Republic and the
Empire to say that at a London pageant his war-worn face drew
attention away from Prince Esterhazy's diamonds. Soult himself
felt very warmly the genuine kindness of the reception given to
him. Years after, in a debate in the French Chamber, when M.
Guizot was accused of too much partiality for the English alliance,
Marshal Soult declared himself a warm champion of that alliance.
"I fought the English down to Toulouse," he said, "when I
fired the last cannon in defense of the national independence:
in the mean time I have been in London; and France knows
the reception which I had there. The English themselves cried
'Vive Soult! '-they cried, 'Soult forever! ' I had learned to
estimate the English on the field of battle; I have learned to esti-
mate them in peace: and I repeat that I am a warm partisan of
the English alliance. " History is not exclusively made by cab-
inets and professional diplomatists. It is highly probable that
the cheers of a London crowd on the day of the Queen's corona-
tion did something genuine and substantial to restore the good
feeling between this country and France, and efface the bitter
memories of Waterloo.


## p. 9450 (#474) ###########################################

9450
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
It is a fact well worthy of note, amid whatever records of
court ceremonial and of political change, that a few days after
the accession of the Queen, Mr. Montefiore was elected Sheriff
of London (the first Jew who had ever been chosen for that
office), and that he received knighthood at the hands of her
Majesty when she visited the City on the following Lord Mayor's
day. He was the first Jew whom royalty had honored in this
country since the good old times when royalty was pleased to
borrow the Jew's money, or order instead the extraction of his
teeth. The expansion of the principle of religious liberty and
equality, which has been one of the most remarkable characteris-
tics of the reign of Queen Victoria, could hardly have been more
becomingly inaugurated than by the compliment which sovereign
and city paid to Sir Moses Montefiore.
A MODERN ENGLISH STATESMAN
From A History of Our Own Times'
"UN
N-ARM, Eros: the long day's task is done, and we must
sleep! " A long, very long day's task was nearly done.
A marvelous career was fast drawing to its close. Down
in Hertfordshire Lord Palmerston was dying. As Mirabeau said
of himself, so Palmerston might have said: he could already hear
the preparations for the funeral of Achilles. He had enjoyed life
to the last as fully as ever Churchill did, although in a different
sense. Long as his life was, if counted by mere years, it seems
much longer still when we consider what it had compassed, and
how active it had been from the earliest to the very end. Many
men were older than Lord Palmerston; he left more than one
senior behind him. But they were for the most part men whose
work had long been done,-men who had been consigned to the
arm-chair of complete inactivity. Palmerston was a hard-working
statesman until within a very few days of his death. He had
been a member of Parliament for nearly sixty years. He entered
Parliament for the first time in the year when Byron, like him-
self a Harrow boy, published his first poems. He had been in
the House of Commons for thirty years when the Queen came to
the throne. He used to play chess with the unfortunate Caroline
of Brunswick, wife of the Prince Regent, when she lived at


## p. 9451 (#475) ###########################################

JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9451
Kensington as Princess of Wales. In 1808, being then one of
the Lords of the Admiralty, he had defended the Copenhagen
expedition of the year before, and insisted that it was a stroke
indispensable to the defeat of the designs of Napoleon. During
all his political career he was only out of office for rare and brief
seasons. To be a private member of Parliament was a short
occasional episode in his successful life. In the words of Sadi,
the Persian poet, he had obtained an ear of corn from every
harvest. .
No man since the death of the Duke of Wellington had filled
so conspicuous a place in the public mind. No man had enjoyed
anything like the same amount of popularity. He died at the
moment when that popularity had reached its very zenith. It
had become the fashion of the day to praise all he said and all
he did. It was the settled canon of the ordinary Englishman's
faith, that what Palmerston said England must feel.
Privately, he can hardly have had any enemies.
He had a
kindly heart, which won on all people who came near him. He
had no enduring enmities or capricious dislikes; and it was there-
fore very hard for ill-feeling to live in his beaming, friendly
presence. He never disliked men merely because he had often to
encounter them in political war. He tried his best to give them
as good as they brought, and he bore no malice. There were
some men whom he disliked, as we have already mentioned in
these volumes; but they were men who for one reason or another
stood persistently in his way, and who, he fancied he had reason
to believe, had acted treacherously towards him. He liked a man
to be "English," and he liked him to be what he considered a
gentleman; but he did not restrict his definition of the word.
"gentleman" to the mere qualifications of birth or social rank.
His manners were frank and genial rather than polished; and his
is one of the rare instances in which a man contrived always
to keep up his personal dignity without any stateliness of bearing
and tone. He was a model combatant: when the combat was
over, he was ready to sit down by his antagonist's side and be
his friend, and talk over their experiences and exploits. He was
absolutely free from affectation. This very fact gave sometimes
an air almost of roughness to his manners, he could be so plain-
spoken and downright when suddenly called on to express his
mind. He was not, in the highest sense of the word, a truthful
man; that is to say, there were episodes of his career in which


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9452
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
for purposes of statecraft he allowed the House of Commons and
the country to become the dupes of an erroneous impression.
Personally truthful and honorable of course it would be super-
fluous to pronounce him. A man of Palmerston's bringing-up is
as certain to be personally truthful as he is to be brave, and to
be fond of open-air exercise and the cold bath. But Palmerston
was too often willing to distinguish between the personal and the
political integrity of a statesman. The distinction is common to
the majority of statesmen: so much the worse for statesmanship.
But the gravest errors of this kind which Palmerston had com-
mitted were committed for an earlier generation.
His greatest praise with Englishmen must be that he loved
England with a sincere love that never abated. He had no pre-
dilection, no prejudice, that did not give way where the welfare
of England was concerned. He ought to have gone one step
higher in the path of public duty: he ought to have loved justice
and right even more than he loved England.
He ought to have
felt more tranquilly convinced that the cause of justice and of
right must be the best thing which an English minister could
advance even for England's sake in the end. Lord Palmerston
was not a statesman who took any lofty view of a minister's
duties. His statesmanship never stood on any high moral eleva-
tion. He sometimes did things in the cause of England which
we may well believe he would not have done for any considera-
tion in any cause of his own. His policy was necessarily shift-
ing, uncertain, and inconsistent; for he molded it always on the
supposed interests of England as they showed themselves to his
eyes at the time. His sympathies with liberty were capricious
guides. Sympathies with liberty must be so always where there
is no clear principle defining objects and guiding conduct. Lord
Palmerston was not prevented by his liberal sympathies from
sustaining the policy of the Coup d'État; nor did his hatred of
slavery, one of his few strong and genuine emotions apart from
English interests, inspire him with any repugnance for the cause
of the Southern slaveholders. But it cannot be doubted that his
very defects were a main cause of his popularity and his success.
He was able always with a good conscience to assure the English
people that they were the greatest and the best-the only good
and great-people in the world, because he had long taught him-
self to believe this, and had come to believe it. He was always
popular, because his speeches invariably conveyed this impression


## p. 9453 (#477) ###########################################

JUSTIN MCCARTHY
9453
It
to the English crowd whom he addressed in or out of Parliament.
Other public men spoke for the most part to tell English peo-
ple of something they ought to do which they were not doing,
something which they had done and ought not to have done.
is not in the nature of things that such men should be as popular
as those who told England that whatever she did must be right.
Nor did Palmerston lay on his praise with coarse and palpable
artifice. He had no artifice in the matter. He believed what he
said; and his very sincerity made it the more captivating and the
more dangerous.
A phrase sprang up in Palmerston's days which was employed
to stigmatize certain political conduct beyond all ordinary re-
proach. It was meant to stamp such conduct as outside the
pale of reasonable argument or patriotic consideration. That was
the word "un-English. " It was enough with certain classes to
say that anything was "un-English" in order to put it utterly
out of court. No matter to what principles, higher, more uni-
versal, and more abiding than those that are merely English, it
might happen to appeal, the one word of condemnation was held
to be enough for it. Some of the noblest and the wisest men
of our day were denounced as "un-English. " A stranger might
have asked in wonder, at one time, whether it was un-English
to be just, to be merciful, to have consideration for the claims
and the rights of others, to admit that there was any higher
object in a nation's life than a diplomatic success. All that
would have made a man odious and insufferable in private life
was apparently held up as belonging to the virtues of the Eng-
lish nation. Rude self-assertion, blunt disregard for the feelings
and the claims of others, a self-sufficiency which would regard
all earth's interests as made for England's special use alone,-
the yet more outrageous form of egotism which would fancy that
the moral code as it applies to others does not apply to us,- all
this seemed to be considered the becoming national character-
istic of the English people. It would be almost superfluous to
say that this did not show its worst in Lord Palmerston himself.
As in art, so in politics, we never see how bad some peculiar
defect is until we see it in the imitators of a great man's style.
A school of Palmerstons, had it been powerful and lasting, would
have made England a nuisance to other nations.
have no hesitation in saying that Lord Palmerston's statesman-
ship on the whole lowered the moral tone of English politics for
We


## p. 9454 (#478) ###########################################

9454
JUSTIN MCCARTHY
a time. This consideration alone, if there were nothing else, for-
bids us to regard him as a statesman whose deeds were equal to
his opportunities and to his genius. To serve the purpose of the
hour was his policy. To succeed in serving it was his triumph.
It is not thus that a great fame is built up, unless indeed where
the genius of the man is like that of some Cæsar or Napoleon,
which can convert its very ruins into monumental records. Lord
Palmerston is hardly to be called a great man. Perhaps he may
be called a great "man of the time. "


## p. 9455 (#479) ###########################################

9455
GEORGE MACDONALD
(1824-)
EORGE MACDONALD has been characterized as a "cross between
a poet and a spiritual teacher. " His powers as a novelist,
however, are not taken into account by this description.
Added to his genuine poetical feeling, and to his refined moral sense,
are the qualities of a good story-teller. He knows how to handle an
elaborate plot; he understands the dramatic values of situations; he
can put life into his characters. Yet the dominant impression left
by his novels is their essential moral nobility. The ideal which Mr.
Macdonald sets before himself as a writer
of fiction is summed up in this passage
from Sir Gibbie': -

"But whatever the demand of the age, I
insist that that which ought to be presented to
its beholding is the common good, uncommonly
developed: and that not because of its rarity, but
because it is truer to humanity. It is the noble,
not the failure from the noble, that is the true
human: and if I must show the failure, let it
ever be with an eye to the final possible, yea,
imperative success. But in our day a man who
will accept any oddity of idiosyncratic develop-
ment in manners, tastes, and habits, will refuse
not only as improbable, but as inconsistent with
human nature, the representation of a man trying to be merely as noble as is
absolutely essential to his being. »
GEORGE MACDONALD
This quaint realism of Mr. Macdonald's in a literary age, when
many believe that only the evil in man's nature is real, dominates
his novels, from 'David Elginbrod' to 'The Elect Lady. ' They are
wholesome stories of pure men and women. The author is at his
strongest when drawing a character like that of Sir Gibbie, com-
pelled forever to follow the highest law of his nature. With villains
and with mean folk, Mr. Macdonald can do nothing. He cannot un-
derstand them, neither can he understand complexity of character.
He is too dogmatic ever to see the "shadowy third" between the
one and one. He is too much of a preacher to be altogether a
novelist.


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9456
GEORGE MACDONALD
His training has increased his dogmatic faculty. Born at Huntly,
Aberdeenshire, in 1824, he was graduated at King's College, Aber-
deen, and then entered upon the study of theology at the Independ
ent College, Highbury, London. He was for a time a preacher in
the Scottish Congregational Church, but afterwards became a layman
in the Church of England. He then assumed the principalship of a
seminary in London. His novels witness to his Scotch origin and
training. The scenes of many of them are laid in Scotland, and not
a few of the characters speak the North-Scottish dialect. But the
spirit which informs them is even more Scotch than their setting.
The strong moral convictions of George Macdonald infuse them with
the sermonizing element. The novelist is of the spiritual kindred of
the Covenanters. Yet they are full of a kindly humanity, and where
the moralist is merged in the writer of fiction they attain a high
degree of charm.
The pure and tender spirit of Mr. Macdonald makes him peculiarly
fitted to understand children and child life. "Gibbie had never been
kissed," he writes; "and how is any child to thrive without kisses? »
His stories for children, 'At the Back of the North Wind' and 'The
Princess and Curdie,' are full of beauty in their fine sympathy for
the moods of a child.
Mr. Macdonald has written a great number of novels. They in-
clude 'David Elginbrod,' 'Alec Forbes of How Glen,' 'Annals of a
Quiet Neighborhood,' 'The Seaboard Parish' (sequel to the foregoing),
'Robert Falconer,' 'Wilfrid Cumbermede,' 'Malcolm,' The Marquis
of Lossie,' 'St. George and St. Michael,' 'Sir Gibbie,' 'What's Mine's
Mine, The Elect Lady,' and such fanciful stories as his well-known
'Phantastes. ' He has also published 'Miracles of Our Lord' and 'Un-
spoken Sermons. ' Mr. Macdonald's sermons, as might be expected, are
vigorous, and exhibit his peculiar sensitiveness to the moral and spir-
itual elements in man's existence. This same sensitiveness pervades
his verse; which, while not of the first order, gives evidence - espe-
cially in the lyrics — of the true poetic instinct.
THE FLOOD
From Sir Gibbie'
TILL the rain fell and the wind blew; the torrents came tear-
ing down from the hills, and shot madly into the rivers; the
rivers ran into the valleys, and deepened the lakes that filled
them. On every side of the Mains, from the foot of Glashgar to
Gormdhu, all was one yellow and red sea, with roaring currents


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GEORGE MACDONALD
9457
and vortices numberless. It burrowed holes, it opened long-
deserted channels and water-courses; here it deposited inches of
rich mold, there yards of sand and gravel; here it was carrying
away fertile ground, leaving behind only bare rock or shingle
where the corn had been waving; there it was scooping out the
bed of a new lake. Many a thick soft lawn of loveliest grass,
dotted with fragrant shrubs and rare trees, vanished, and nothing
was there when the waters subsided but a stony waste, or a grav-
elly precipice. Woods and copses were undermined, and trees and
soil together swept into the vast; sometimes the very place was
hardly there to say it knew its children no more. Houses were
torn to pieces; and their contents, as from broken boxes, sent
wandering on the brown waste through the gray air to the dis-
colored sea, whose saltness for a long way out had vanished with
its hue. Hay-mows were buried to the very top in sand; others
went sailing bodily down the mighty stream some of them fol-
lowed or surrounded, like big ducks, by a great brood of ricks for
their ducklings. Huge trees went past as if shot down an Alpine
slide - cottages and bridges of stone giving way before them.
Wooden mills, thatched roofs, great mill-wheels, went dipping
and swaying and hobbling down. From the upper windows of
the Mains, looking towards the chief current, they saw a drift of
everything belonging to farms and dwelling-houses that would
float. Chairs and tables, chests, carts, saddles, chests of drawers,
tubs of linen, beds and blankets, work-benches, harrows, girnels,
planes, cheeses, churns, spinning-wheels, cradles, iron pots, wheel-
barrows all these and many other things hurried past as th
gazed. Everybody was looking, and for a time all had been
silent.
――――
·
-
Just as Mr. Duff entered the stable from the nearer end, the
opposite gable fell out with a great splash, letting in the wide
level vision of turbidly raging waters, fading into the obscurity
of the wind-driven rain. While he stared aghast, a great tree
struck the wall like a battering-ram, so that the stable shook.
The horses, which had been for some time moving uneasily, were
now quite scared. There was not a moment to be lost. Duff
shouted for his men; one or two came running; and in less
than a minute more, those in the house heard the iron-shod feet
splashing and stamping through the water, as one after another
the horses were brought across the yard to the door of the house.
Mr. Duff led by the halter his favorite Snowball, who was a good
XVI-592


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9458
GEORGE MACDONALD
deal excited, plunging and rearing so that it was all he could do
to hold him. He had ordered the men to take the others first,
thinking he would follow more quietly. But the moment Snow-
ball heard the first thundering of hoofs on the stair, he went out
of his senses with terror, broke from his master, and went plun-
ging back to the stable. Duff started after him, but was only in
time to see him rush from the further end into the swift cur-
rent, where he was at once out of his depth, and was instantly
caught and hurried, rolling over and over, from his master's
sight. He ran back into the house, and up to the highest win-
dow. From that he caught sight of him a long way down,
swimming. Once or twice he saw him turned heels over head—
only to get his neck up again presently, and swim as well as
before. But alas! it was in the direction of the Daur, which
would soon, his master did not doubt, sweep his carcass into the
North Sea. With troubled heart he strained his sight after him
as long as he could distinguish his lessening head, but it got
amongst some wreck; and, unable to tell any more whether he
saw it or not, he returned to his men with his eyes full of tears.
Gibbie woke with the first of the dawn. The rain still fell-
descending in spoonfuls rather than drops; the wind kept shaping
itself into long hopeless howls, rising to shrill yells that went
drifting away over the land; and then the howling rose again.
Nature seemed in despair. There must be more for Gibbie to
do! He must go again to the foot of the mountain, and see if
there was anybody to help. They might even be in trouble at
the Mains: who could tell!
Gibbie sped down the hill through a worse rain than ever.
The morning was close, and the vapors that filled it were like
smoke burned to the hue of the flames whence it issued. Many
a man that morning believed another great deluge begun, and all
measures relating to things of this world lost labor. Going down.
his own side of the Glashburn, the nearest path to the valley,
the gamekeeper's cottage was the first dwelling on his way. It
stood a little distance from the bank of the burn, opposite the
bridge and gate, while such things were.
It had been with great difficulty- for even Angus did not
know the mountain so well as Gibbie-that the gamekeeper
reached it with the housekeeper the night before. It was within
two gun-shots of the house of Glashruach, yet to get to it they


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GEORGE MACDONALD
9459
had to walk miles up and down Glashgar. A mountain in storm
is as hard to cross as a sea. Arrived, they did not therefore
feel safe. The tendency of the Glashburn was indeed away from
the cottage, as the grounds of Glashruach sadly witnessed; but
a torrent is double-edged, and who could tell? The yielding of
one stone in its channel might send it to them. All night Angus
watched, peering out ever again into the darkness, but seeing
nothing save three lights that burned above the water-one of
them, he thought, at the Mains. The other two went out in the
darkness, but that only in the dawn. When the morning came,
there was the Glashburn meeting the Lorrie in his garden. But
the cottage was well built, and fit to stand a good siege, while
any moment the waters might have reached their height. By
breakfast-time, however, they were round it from behind. There
is nothing like a flood for revealing the variations of surface, the
dips and swells of a country. In a few minutes they were iso-
lated, with the current of the Glashburn on one side and that
of the Lorrie in front. When he saw the water come in at front
and back doors at once, Angus ordered his family up the stair:
the cottage had a large attic, with dormer windows, where they
slept. He himself remained below for some time longer, in that
end of the house where he kept his guns and fishing-tackle; there
he sat on a table, preparing nets for the fish that would be left
in the pools; and not until he found himself afloat did he take
his work to the attic.
There the room was hot, and they had the window open.
Mistress MacPholp stood at it, looking out on the awful prospect,
with her youngest child, a sickly boy, in her arms. He had in
his a little terrier pup, greatly valued of the gamekeeper.
In a
sudden outbreak of peevish willfulness, he threw the creature out
of the window. It fell on the sloping roof, and before it could
recover itself, being too young to have the full command of four
legs, rolled off.
"Eh! the doggie's i' the watter! " cried Mistress MacPholp in
dismay.
Angus threw down everything with an ugly oath,- for he had
given strict orders not one of the children should handle the
whelp,-jumped up, and got out on the roof. From there he
might have managed to reach it, so high now was the water, had
the little thing remained where it fell; but already it had swum
a yard or two from the house. Angus, who was a fair swimmer


## p. 9460 (#484) ###########################################

9460
GEORGE MACDONALD
and an angry man, threw off his coat, and plunging after it,
greatly to the delight of the little one, caught the pup with his
teeth by the back of the neck, and turned to make for the house.
Just then a shrub swept from the hill caught him in the face,
and so bewildered him that before he got rid of it he had blun-
dered into the edge of the current, which seized and bore him
rapidly away.
He dropped the pup and struck out for home
with all his strength. But he soon found the most he could do
was to keep his head above water, and gave himself up for lost.
His wife screamed in agony. Gibbie heard her as he came down
the hill, and ran at full speed towards the cottage.
About a hundred yards from the house, the current bore
Angus straight into a large elder-tree. He got into the middle
of it, and there remained trembling, the weak branches break-
ing with every motion he made, while the stream worked at the
roots, and the wind laid hold of him with fierce leverage. In
terror, seeming still to sink as he sat, he watched the trees dart
by like battering-rams in the swiftest of the current; the least of
them diverging would tear the elder-tree with it. Brave enough
in dealing with poachers, Angus was not the man to gaze with
composure in the face of a sure slow death, against which no
assault could be made. Many a man is courageous because he
has not conscience enough to make a coward of him, but Angus
had not quite reached that condition; and from the branches of
the elder-tree showed a pale, terror-stricken visage. Amidst the
many objects in the face of the water, Gibbie, however, did not
distinguish it; and plunging in, swam round to the front of the
cottage to learn what was the matter. There the wife's gesticu-
lations directed his eyes to her drowning husband.
But what was he to do? He could swim to the tree well
enough, and, he thought, back again; but how was that to be
made of service to Angus? He could not save him by main
force: there was not enough of that between them. If he had
a line- and there must be plenty of lines in the cottage — he
could carry him the end of it to haul upon: that would do. If
he could send it to him, that would be better still; for then he
could help at the other end, and would be in the right position
up-stream to help further if necessary, for down the current
alone was the path of communication open. He caught hold of
the eaves and scrambled on to the roof. But in the folly and
faithlessness of her despair, the woman would not let him enter.


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GEORGE MACDONALD
9461
With a curse caught from her husband, she struck him from the
window, crying —
"Ye s' no come in here, an' my man droonin' yon'er! Gang
till 'im, ye cooard! "
Never had poor Gibbie so much missed the use of speech.
On the slope of the roof he could do little to force an entrance,
therefore threw himself off it to seek another, and betook him-
self to the windows below. Through that of Angus's room, he
caught sight of a floating anker cask. It was the very thing! -
and there on the walls hung a quantity of nets and cordage!
But how to get in? It was a sash window, and of course swol-
len with the wet, and therefore not to be opened; and there was
not a square in it large enough to let him through. He swam
to the other side, and crept softly on to the roof and over the
ridge. But a broken slate betrayed him. The woman saw him,
rushed to the fireplace, caught up the poker, and darted back to
defend the window.
"Ye s' no come in here, I tell ye," she screeched, "an' my
man stickin' i' yon boortree buss! "
Gibbie advanced. She made a blow at him with the poker.
He caught it, wrenched it from her grasp, and threw himself
from the roof. The next moment they heard the poker at work
smashing the window.
"He'll be in an' murder 's a'! " cried the mother, and ran to
the stair, while the children screamed and danced with terror.
But the water was far too deep for her. She returned to the
attic, barricaded the door, and went again to the window to
watch her drowning husband.
Gibbie was inside in a moment; and seizing the cask, pro-
ceeded to attach to it a strong line. He broke a bit from a
fishing-rod, secured the line round the middle of it with a notch,
put the stick through the bunghole in the bilge, and corked up
the whole with a net-float. Happily he had a knife in his pocket.
He then joined strong lines together until he thought he had
length enough, secured the last end to a bar of the grate, and
knocked out both sashes of the window with an axe. A passage
thus cleared, he floated out first a chair, then a creepie, and one
thing after another, to learn from what part to start the bar-
rel. Seeing and recognizing them from above, Mistress MacPholp
raised a terrible outcry. In the very presence of her drowning
husband, such a wanton dissipation of her property roused her to


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GEORGE MACDONALD
fiercest wrath; for she imagined Gibbie was emptying her house
with leisurely revenge. Satisfied at length, he floated out his
barrel, and followed with the line in his hand, to aid its direction
if necessary.