BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2950, 9 December 1916, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

■ PORTRAITS OF THE SEVENTIES. . ■ 1 : 1 think I have read'ovory one of the !!wany books of personal reminiscences 'of Victorian, statesmen, politicians, and 'literary and social celebrities whioh havo come from tho peii of that pro.Mc but'- always entertaining writer, /tho IU. Hon. G. W. B. Russell. Somo of them, particularly the' well-known "Collections and Recolleotions, by ■One Who Has Kept a Diary," may bo had in cheap editions. They are all .worth reading for the interesting sidelights they so often throw on tho charactor of famous English men and women. Mr. Russell's latest book, •'.'Portraits of the Seventies," judging by tho reviews I havo read in tho Home papers, appears to bo just as lull of good stories as were its many 'predecessors. Disraeli looms up prom- . anently in Mr. .Russell's latest volume, tlio author giving readers a good miuiy intimate studies of the great Victorian statesman which are not to be found iii Mr. Moneypemiy's: 'official -.and ■ more formal biography, the fourth volume of which appeared a few months ago. 4 Here, for . instance, is a story of tho great man'which Mr. Russell had from tho lato Lord Randolph Churchill: —When ho was beginning . to take politics seriously, ho thought it would be a good move to ask ( Lord •Beaconsfield to dinner. When the ladies left the dining-room,' he placed himself, where Lady Randolph had s>eert sitting, by the great man's side. "Will you havo some more claret, Lord Beaconsfield?" "No, thank you, my dear friend. .It is admirable wine— 'truei Falernian—but the gout holds me ill its horrid clutch." . When tho guests wero gone, and the host and hostess were talking over the events of the evening; Lord Randolph said, "I think the old gentleman enjoyed himself , and 1 know he.' liked ' the claret." 1 "Claret?, He didn't touch it 1, He drank brandy and water all dinner-time 1"' .

. As we all know, Disraeli, by that tiino Lord Beaconsfield, played a very prominent part at the famous Congress of Berlin, which succeeded tho ItussoTurkish War. ' Mr. llussell saysHe •arrived, on the day before tho Congress opened, and slept at tho British Embassy.. My cousin, Lord Odo llusselj, ■afterwards Lord Ampthill, ' was then ■ our, Ambassador; and ill the evening. Lord Beaconsfield's private secre-, . itaries came to him with anxious faces. •.•"We arc in a great scrape," they said; '"the Chief has determined to" open the proceedings to-niorrow in French; ;and his pronunciation is so grotesque ■••that we shall be the laughing-stock of Europe. Of course, we daro not tell him so. Can you help us?" Lord Odo replied, "It is a .delicate mission, .but I like delicate missions,, and will 'sea what I can do." So he repaired the state bedroom, where the :Pre-:niier-Plenipotentiary'- of Great Britain was being dismantled for the night. "My dear Lord, a dreadful rumour reached us. : We are told that you are going ,to open the proceedings tomorrow in French. Of course, no one is • more -competent to do so than |you; but, after -all, 'speaking- Frenchis a commonplace accomplishment;..but •you will bo the only man in Congress who could make an oration ia English. Then the Plenipotentiaries'of all the 'countries Lave come to Berlin expectiig_ the greatest intellectual treat of .their lives—a speech by the greatest living master ( of the English, language. 'Now,.will'you disappoint them?" Lord Beaconsfield fixed his monocle, gazed earnestly at his host, and said-lie ! ■would consider the point. Next' day •he opened the proceedings in English. .The question has always been whether ,he perceived the hint, or swallowed the flattery.

My final extract sliall be Mr. Russell's reference to a rather ill-natured' story told by Bernal Osbornoj who had a spmewhat bitter tongue, . and, like the late Lord'Herbrooke, better known to the last generation as ''Bobby ■ .Loire'," never lost a chance of jibing a? "Dizzy." Mr. Russell writes:—One night I'was at a political party, and I heard Lord_ AVolvorton, who . had'been Liberal Whip, say to a great lady on the Liberal side, "Old Dizzy is very ill," to which .she replied, with, a wink of triumphant intelligence, "Oh, yes! I know—dying?" ' Tlie illness was protracted and that mordant critic, Bernal Osborne, was reported to have said, "Overdoing it—as he always overdid everything." . England's Hanoverian Dynasty. Some refreshingly outspoken criticisms of British sovereigns since George the First are to be found in 1 Mr. Shane Leslie's autobiography, "The End of a Chapter." Mr. Leslie,, who, though coming of an old Irish Protestant family, 'verted to Rome, soon after leaving the university, dissects the characters of the Hanoverian Kings of England even more mercilessly than did Thackeray in his "Four Georges." He writes: The dynasty of Hanover was German, and tlie Teutonic guttural- has never quito left the throats of its descendants. For constitutional ,or Imperial purposesthe dynasty proved admirable. Yet both George I and George II wero. aliens who had achieved nothing besides making Hanover "a coarse Versailles." Summoned to England tliey, initiated with eome reluctance that lons epoch of comfort not without glpry from which tlie Empire " really dates. If their house seemed a stupid parody of the Antoniiues, their Empire exceeded the bounds and prosperity of the Roman. The .Georges changed climate, but not manjiers. They consented good-naturedly to ■wallow in tho golden trough provided by their English destiny. Thackeray could not be received at court for describing the nature of their, wallowing. Nevertheless, their mediocrity satisfied England. George I was only a stopgap— a periwigged scarepope. George ll.had some dapper bravery, though his horse bolted with him on the field of battle. George 111 watched with dull piety his kingdom swell into Empire of the world. Yet "Farmer" Georgo saw her through heT death struggle with Napoleon before he died of imbecility and old age. Georgo TV was a pure scamp, and William IV a noodle. -

Ho has a certain admiration ■ for Queen Victoria, but is sovero upon the curious favour she showed to her old and faithful John Brown:

"She was unspoiled and unimaginative, with a genuino gentleness which in the eyes of tho pooplo assumed tho aspect of a halo, and with touches of prejudice and severity which similarly passed for wisdom. Her etiquetto was pedantic. She. kept ber mother standing in her presence, and dismissed a venerable lord-in-waiting for slumbering on duty. Her era was moral. Her own family were awestruck of her, but she showed herself big-hearted to fallen sovereigns aDd old servants. .... To .a Scotch gilly, John Brown, sho extended real favour, and even consulted him on public affairs. He was a rough-grained fellow, complaisant when sober and rude when drank. JIo becaroo the aversion of the Royal family and Ministers of State. It was no sad day for them when they could Toaliso that - 'John Brown' 6

body lies a-mouldering in the" grave'— though' the Queen mourned."

However, ho continues, sho wrote an epitaph , for his memory which even surpassed. what she had written for Disraeli. Her favourite Prime Minister was "a dear and honoured memory," but John Brown was "God's own gift."

Of tho lato King Edward, Mr. Leslie writes that "he was a go-between rather than a statesman, a conversationalist more than a. man of letters." ' His literary taste,;or want of it, was well exemplified by , his enthusiastic admiration for Mario Corelli's "Barabbas," which, by the way, ho greatly astonished Mr • Gladstone by recommending its perusal to the G.O.M. "He had," says. Mr. Leslie, "a keener perception for ,men than books. It is history how lie tacitly dropped tho absurd 'divine right of Kings with all its sentimental superstition and practical limitations. He preferred to wear the unassailable mantle of a modern president. He was certainly a better Republican than many of tho Americans who thronged his court. He lived like an Epicurean and died like a Stoic. ' Neither' devil nor doctor could affright him much. His sudden death left a pang of regret such as no world ruler had left since the Emperor Titus." Of King Georgo V wo are told: "Ho caused no anxiety to Protestants. Above Teproacli he filled the' requisition, form of an English sovereign. He proved a sedative in feverish times. Ho had none of his father's ambition to rearrange Europe. Ho /collected postage stamps in preference to racing cups, and drew a keener eye on pheasants than on women. The middle classes welcomed, him, and the lower ones, had no apprehensions. The upper class, who were (beginning to play at decadence, emitad at liifj domestic virtues. 'IV> many, a moral king is always a subject for satire.. A king who tries to do his duty never raises that sentiment which accrues to selfish brilliance and even gallantry. Henry. VIII remains! tho most. populalr of English . mionarchs. Fate has • not been kind to George V. For the sake of the dynasty ho endeavoured to win the Derby, but all the King's horses were unavailing. He went to the Army and Navy boxing in-' stead of the. first production of 'Parsifal,' since 'Parsifal' was said to shock tho Nonconformists. He tried to be a constitutional monarch, but only produced' an outburst in the House. A well-inten-tioned effort to settle the Irish question led to: a deadlock. Civil war threatened,' and was only prevented by universal war; The conflict of Armageddon eddied round his throne, and he uttered wellchoson words and performed appropriate actions, though he saw the Guards off to annihilation in France wearing a frock-coat and top-hat. He became a (teetotaler, but his subjects left . him stranded .'dry.'' Throughout: his reign ■ ho has shown himself the type intended by tho settlement—a patriot King under Whig domination."

• At the same time Mr. Shane Leslie is forced to admit that King George has qualities which are of great value in this hour of national danger, qualities which could not be expected from a more brilliant sovereign—the qualities of stolid \ patience and imperturbablo, phlegm. And he finds comfort that a most "English type of Englishman" sits upon the throne in these unstable days.