a

up a proper memorial. They had begun to appreciation, but the words were heard with feel still more aggrieved at the action of the difficulty, or were not heard at all by lisprotectorate. Two despatches, written by the teners at a distance. lord high commissioner Sir John Young, It is recorded by a writer who was in the had been published in the Daily News. These house on that occasion, that the sentence that recommended the abandonment of all the reached him was “the popular yah! is like islands except Corfu, which might be made the grah! it cries 'yah! yah!' but like the a military station or fortress. It was then grah! it never returns.” The speaker was not that the legislative assembly (on the 27th of only deaf, but suffered from defective articulaJanuary, 1859) proposed the annexation of tion, the result, perhaps, partly of impediment the republic to Greece. When Mr. Gladstone and partly of the remains of a former fashionreceived the report or petition of the com- able drawl. By the time Sir Edward had mittee he despatched to the queen the intelli- reached the end of a sentence his voice had gence that the simple and unanimous will as it were dropped under the table, and its of the Ionian people was for their union with sounds had become almost inarticulate except the Kingdom of Greece. The petition was to those within a few feet of it. But at this not at once granted, however. Sir Henry time Lytton had determined to add to his Storks was sent out as lord high commis- achievements that of a parliamentary success, sioner, and Mr. Gladstone returned to Eng- and this he accomplished in spite of physiland. But the agitation among the people cal disqualifications, and, it may be added, continued, and at length (in 1864), after the without having professed or adopted any proGreeks had got rid of King Otho, and a nounced political creed. He had, as we have Danish prince had accepted the Hellenic already noted, begun life somewhat as Disraeli throne, the islands were formally handed over did, as a sentimental Radical, and indeed it was as a part of the kingdom, and the British he who had introduced Disraeli and O'Connell. protectorate came to a peaceful end.

Before the passing of the Reform Bill he Sir Edward Lytton was not long enough in represented St. Ives, afterwards he sat for office to prove his practical statesmanship, but Lincoln till 1841, when he was defeated and he had given evidences of his ability to settle remained out of parliament till July, 1852. down to earnest work in an office requiring It was well, perhaps, that he had these ten assiduous attention, and he had succeeded in years to devote to literature, or, at all events sustaining his reputation, or rather in adding thousands of readers all over Europe and in to a literary reputation which was already America may well have thought so, for with world-wide, the claim to be an orator and an almost unbounded industry he had produced able politician. Strictly speaking he was some of his most striking novels during that neither one nor the other. He had for some period. His fame had already been estabtime past been taking a forward part in parlia- lished, but it was not consolidated until after ment, and it was pretty well known that on the early days, when, in common with many of the accession of the Derby party to power he the young aspirants of his time, he was equally would have some office in the government. noted as a dandy and an author.

At oneHis speech on the Reform Bill was, as we and-twenty (in 1826) he had left Cambridge, have seen, a great success, and even moved whither he had gone without any of the interthe admiration of Disraeli-nay, it was re- mediate rough discipline of a public school. ceived by the house with a tempest of ap- The appearauce that year of a volume of plause, and the cheering was twice renewed. poems entitled Weeds and Wild Flowers meant Doubtless the speech was admirable in con- very little; his first novel, Falkland, which struction and illustration, and the declaration was published anonymously in 1827, caused

the popular voice is like the grave: it cries some curiosity; and when in 1828 Pelham *give, give,' but like the grave it never returns appeared, it at once established the author's what it receives," was hailed with enthusiastic success. That was a remarkable year in which

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.

301

Pelham and Vivian Gray both appeared to who wears the stays"—the lion “who shakes mark the first important step in the lives a mane en papillotes.” But these sarcasms did of two young men who were afterwards to not obliterate the appreciation of Lytton's occupy such prominent places in the story of genius; nor had his contemporaries forgotten political and intellectual progress. But Dis- the ringing lines in which, in 1846, in the raeli made politics his career, while Bulwer, same poem, he had referred to Lord Stanley. after several years in which parliamentary

“The brilliant chief irregularly great, duties were not allowed to prevent his advance

Frank, haughty, rash--the Rupert of debate. in the world of letters, was in 1844 removed Nor gout nor toil his freshness can destroy, from the necessity of becoming a politician by

And time still leaves all Eton in the boy.

First in the class, and keenest in the ring, profession, in consequence of his succession to

He saps like Gladstone, and he fights like Spring." the Knebworth estates by the death of his mother. He had been created a baronet by Spring was, of course, the famous "Tom Lord Melbourne in 1835, and his social rank Spring," a well-known champion light-weight no less than his attainments had marked him boxer, of gentlemanly manners, who for some for the honour. Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer time kept a famous coaching tavern on Holwas the son of General William Earle Bulwer born Hill, and was something of a dandy. of Heydon Hall, Norfolk, and his mother It is curious to note that “The Rupert of was the only daughter and heiress of Richard Debate” afterwards became a common exWarburton Lytton of Knebworth in Hert- pression as applied to the Earl of Derby, fordshire, so that on his succeeding to that more remarkable still, that the term was really property, which was worth about £12,000 a originated by Disraeli, who, in 1844 (nearly two year, he took the maternal name, and became years before The New Timon was published), known as Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton; a

in the discussion which followed the charges change which provoked a good deal of jesting brought against Sir James Graham by Mr. in Punch and other humorous publications. Ferrand, had said of Lord Stanley: “The Sir Edward must have been pretty well ac

noble lord in this case, as in so many others, customed to the comic satirists, however, for first destroys his opponent, and then destroys his name was continually in their mouths for his own position afterwards. The noble lord the period between 1845 and 1860. Certain is the Prince Rupert of parliamentary discusreferences to the “truthful” and the “ beauti- sion; his charge is resistless; but when he ful,”and several ratherinflated modes of expres- returns from the pursuit he always finds his sion in some of his works, were considered fair camp in the possession of the enemy.” Dissubjects for burlesque, and his personal pecu- raeli said few better things than this. But liarities of dress and manner did not escape Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer Lytton, for that laughing criticism, while his own satirical was his full denomination, had outlived much writings, including the polished and brilliant and achieved much, before he again returned verses of St. Stephen's and the later hits of to parliament in 1852. Not that he had altoThe New Timon provoked repeated attacks gether outlived remarkable peculiarities which and reprisals.

at one period seemed likely to be developed Thackeray in the Yellowplush Papers in- into mental extravagances if not aberrations, troduces Sir Wedwad-Lytton-Bullwig as one but he had succeeded in establishing a second of the guests at the dinner where the literary reputation. His romantic novels, and especifootman waited at table; and it will be long ally Ernest Maltravers, The Pilgrims of the before Tennyson's vigorous retort upon the Rhine, and The Last Days of Pompeii, had author of The New Timon for an attack been read and translated all over the world. upon him will be forgotten by those who read His dramas of The Lady of Lyons and Money it at the time of its publication, and noted the were to keep the stage and to be popular bitter scornful references to the assumption of through repeated revivals. He had long left the name of the rugged satirist by “the man sentimental Radicalism behind, and had

success.

a

new

developed into a Conservative so moderate Year Round, will, amidst the peculiar fascinathat he might have passed into office with the tion of the narrative, detect an element which Whigs, since he concurred with the general will indirectly serve to illustrate the mental policy of Lord Derby, would have readjusted condition referred to. An anecdote related by the income-tax, mitigated the duties on malt, | Mr. Serjeant Ballantine in his recent Remintea, and soap, had given up “the ballot” be- iscences refers to Lytton's peculiar temperacause of its alleged inefficiency in France and ment, though the instinctive antipathy to America, supported education on a religious which it relates is one of a class of comparabasis, and would vote for a repeal of the tively common experiences, not easily to be Maynooth grant.

explained, but by no means to be classified We have said he had achieved a second with superstitions. Mr. Ballantine says :In 1850 he entered on

“Lord Lytton was very fond of whist, and literary career by the publication of The he and I both belonged to the well-known Caxtons, and in that and one or two succeed- Portland Club, in which were to be found ing works will be found those vivid pictures many of the celebrated players of the day. of contemporary life and manners with which He never showed the slightest disposition of a his later reputation came to be chiefly identi- gambler. He played the game well, and withfied. At the time of the Derby administra- out excitement or temper, and apparently his tion of 1859 he had also lost much that was whole attention was concentrated upon it; but singular in his appearance, though he could it was curious to see that at every interval that never lose that strange eager plaintive look occurred in the rubbers, he would rush off to that bespoke a highly strung organization, a writing table, and with equally concentrated nor the worn expression, which, with his attention proceed with some literary work meagre frame, told of poor health and per- until called again to take his place at the haps of an overwrought imagination. But whist table. There was a member of the there were other anxieties. Like Lord Mel

club, a very harmless, inoffensive man, of the bourne he was not altogether happy in his name of Townend, for whom Lord Lytton marriage. Between him and Lady Lytton, entertained a mortal antipathy, and would who was the daughter of Mr. Francis Massey never play whist whilst that gentleman was in Wheeler, of Lizzard Connel, Limerick, there the room. He firmly believed that he brought had arisen differences, which he accounted for him bad luck. I was witness to what must on the ground of his wife's mental aberration. be termed an odd coincidence. One afternoon They were at all events sufficient to lead to a when Lord Lytton was playing, and had enseparation, and it was no light addition to the joyed an uninterrupted run of luck, it sudtroubles of weak health, increased deafness, denly turned, upon which he exclaimed, 'I and nervous disorder, that Lady Lytton was am sure that Mr. Townend has come into the the most merciless and denunciatory of all his club. Some three minutes after, just time critics, and assailed him in novels and sketches enough to ascend the stairs, in walked this with persistent invective.

unlucky personage. Lord Lytton, as soon as It may easily be supposed, however, that the rubber was over, left the table and did Lord Lytton himself was often “incompat- not renew the play.” ible," and those who knew him could trace in From the same book we learn that Lytton his temperament, just that peculiar sensitive- was extremely interested in criminal investiness which might easily lead to extreme ner- gations. “I could always obtain his attenvous irritability. His imagination, also, showed tion,” says Mr. Ballantine, “when I related occasional sigus of an irregularity, which, with any of those in which I had myself been enhis tendency to dwell on the preternatural, was gaged, and in novels that he had written prelikely to degenerate into occasional supersti- vious to my acquaintance with him he had tions. Readers of “Zanoni” or of “A Strange used the records of crime in their construcStory," which appeared in Dickens' All the tion. The history of a person named Wain

SIR H. CAIRNS-MR. ROBERT LOWE.

303

a

wright had furnished incidents very

similar any rate, his tall commanding figure, added to those related in the novel of Lucretia. to great tact and command of language and

He told me himself that the charac- gesture, gave effect to what, in a less accomter of the banker in The Disowned was sug- plished speaker, would have failed to arrest gested by Fauntleroy.”

so much attention, and Sir Hugh M‘Calmont The Wainwright here referred to was the Cairns was regarded not only as a man on the famous “ Janus Weathercock," who poisoned road to great honours, but as the strength of friends and relatives in order to procure the

the Conservative government. money for which he had induced them to insure their lives, the policies having been The name of Mr. Robert Lowe' has already made over to himself.

been mentioned, and it had became familiar But Lord Lytton's scholarship and his best to commercial politicians in connection with literary faculty were still in the ascendant the resolution introduced by Mr. Collier and during the time that we are now considering. passed in 1854, pledging parliament to a modiHe had been elected Lord Rector of the Glas- fication of the law of partnership, which would gow University in 1856, and, as we have said, enable persons to embark in commercial enhad then (in his fiftieth year) entered into a terprise without assuming a liability for an second career of fame and of influence in the amount larger than their interest in the undomain of thought if not in the arena of dertaking. This resolution and its result in politics.

the bill which was passed on the 14th of

August, 1855, limiting the liabilities of shareSir Hugh M‘Calmont Cairns, whose support holders in joint-stock companies, changed the of the Derby Reform Bill had been mentioned entire aspect of a large number of important with such deep appreciation by Disraeli, had enterprises, and found a powerful friend and already so distinguished himself, that his advocate in Mr. Lowe, who, though he had appointment to the office of solicitor-general warned Lord Derby that he would not be under the Conservative administration had able “to stem the tide of democracy,” had been generally expected. He represented

He represented not distinctly attached himself to either party Belfast, which had returned him in 1852, so in the house. He had held no place in the minthat his parliamentary distinction was rapid, istry, but it was evident that he would soon and was afterwards completed by his be- occupy a prominent position in parliament, coning attorney-general in 1866, a peer and where he had taken office almost immediately lord-justice in 1867, lord high-chancellor in after his election for Kidderminster in 1852. Disraeli's first administration in 1868 and Mr. Lowe was a man who was sure to be again in 1874, and an earl in 1878. It need marked for official life, for he had come—with scarcely be said that his eloquence was already a reputation already made—from Australia, famous in the house before his appoint- | where he had successfully practised as a barment to the solicitor-generalship in 1858, for rister, and sat in the council of the colony at about that time Bulwer wrote of him in from 1843 to 1850. But he had been known metaphor sufficiently stilted

as a scholar long before he left Oxford to go

to the Antipodes. His father was the Rev. “Still when Cairns rises, tho' at break of day, Robert Lowe, rector of Ringham in NottingThe sleepers wake and feel rejoiced to stay, As his clear reasonings in light strength arise,

hamshire, and he was educated for Oxford, Like Doric shafts admitting lucent skies." where he graduated in high honours in 1833

when he was twenty-two years of age. In Sir Hugh Cairns possessed the eminently 1835 he was elected a fellow of his college desirable faculty of stating a case with re- and became a private tutor, but was called markable clearness and accuracy, and his to the bar in 1842, and at once set out for knowledge of the law was believed by his friends to be profound and extensive. At

I Now Lord Sherbrooke.

Australia. From December 1852 to January of Sutherland, and this union, of the heredi1855 he was one of the joint secretaries of tary master of the royal household in Scotthe Board of Control, after which he occupied land with the daughter of the beautiful the position of vice-president of the Board of Duchess of Sutherland, mistress of the robes, Trade and paymaster-general, retiring from may naturally have brought the family of the which in 1858 he became vice-president of Campbells into that intimate domestic relathe Education Board in 1859, when he had tion to the children of the

queen,

which resulted exchanged the representation of Wiltshire for in the alliance of the Princess Louise and the that of Colne. He was then coming more Marquis of Lorne. This, however, belongs decidedly into the active political life of par- to a later date, and is mentioned here chiefly liament, and we shall presently hear of him, because it has been believed that the peculiar and of the eccentric course which he more position occupied by the Duke of Argyle has than once pursued in relation to prominent necessarily, or at least properly, acted in requestions.

straint of his taking so prominent a place in

the political arena as he might otherwise have The Duke of Argyle, who had held the assumed. office of postmaster-general from 1855 to 1858 and now as lord privy-seal took his place in There were three Campbells in the field the ministry of Lord Palmerston, had been in 1859, for the venerable lord chief-justice more distinguished in the world of letters was still living, and the young law student than in that of practical politics; but his in- of Lincoln's Inn—who, in the year 1800, had tellectual training and a certain faculty for helped out his small allowance by reporting incisive criticism well fitted him for taking a for the Daily Chronicle, was now lord-chanprominent part in the consideration of some cellor at eighty years of age, with an untarimportant questions which were occupying nished reputation for clear judgment and exattention. He had been Chancellor of the traordinary acuteness, and a passion for work University of St. Andrews in 1851 and Rector which had enabled him to devote his brief of Glasgow University in 1854, and before leisure to the production of two remarkable the earlier of these dates had published an books, The Lives of the Chief Justices and The able essay on “The Ecclesiastical History of Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Lord Campbell Scotland since the Reformation,” which was was still vigorous, and intellectually capable followed by several other pamphlets on reli- of taking one of the highest and most regious or ecclesiastical subjects. It is needless sponsible offices in the realm. His only rivals, to say that the position held in the country both in vigour and intensity at an advanced by George John Douglas Campbell repre- age, were the venerable Lord Lyndhurst, who sented a wide social influence, if not a strong was still full of fire, though he had to lean on political following. The time had perhaps the back of the seat in front of him when he gone by when the descendant of Diarmid and rose to speak in the House of Lords:-and MacCallum More was powerful, because he Lord Brougham, who was yet to be seen walkwas the chief of a great clan; but to be the ing across the lobby, not to the House of hereditary head of a large and influential Commons but to the Lords, with his looselyfamily, of historical rank and distinction, was hanging, ill-fitting clothes, his hat pulled

, still sufficient to command an important place tight down over his great prominent forehead. in the state, especially when the holder of the Old he certainly looked, for he had passed his title had given proofs of remarkable ability eighty-first year, but to the friend on whose for taking his part in the council of the arm he hung he talked volubly enough. nation.

He still had the wonderful faculty not In 1844 his grace married the charming only of knowing something about everything, and accomplished Lady Elizabeth Georgiana but of being able to talk about anything, and Leveson Gower, eldest daughter of the Duke he still possessed the power of sleeping at will,

a