THE HANDWRITING OF GREAT MEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 26 March 1891, Page 4

THE HANDWRITING OF GREAT MEN.

1 The Duke of Wellin£tMs large and forcible, wit'h'ouf attempt at decoration. During the last ten years of his life, however, his writing was indifferent and often illegible. N~dne r but a'compositoir in a newspaper oflice, accustomed to all sorts of hieroglyphics, could possibly decipher the characters. A letter of his to a minister in Lord Derby's- Cabinet has not to this day been unravelled. Nine out of every ten of the duke's letters treasured by autograph hunters were written by his sectary, Mr. Greville, wfio wrotfefchandnrew. much like that of the duke ifiChSKllays/ Lord Brougham's hand betrayed much unconquerable restlessness of impulse. Qis manuscript was a mass 'of/hJMOglyphics, and according to Dr. Blenlrinb6n>in a&Mr. Clowes's extensive printing establishments in London there was only one man competent to grapple with it, and he often gave St up in despair. , ' '. ', ■ J h V i The bold and careless freedom of Byron's handwriting, compared to the eloquent xrettiness of Tom Moore's, reveals very clearly the peculiar qualities of the two poets. The eloquent precision of Mrs. Heman's .penmanship, and the free, but"£l4*£ intelligent abandon of L. E. Landon's, were equally characteristic of their mental peculiarities. The Royal Family of England have generally written good, clear.,;, and: free hands. William IV. wrote a remarkably jplain and legible hand, and that of h>s brother George was showy 1 and; fluent. iQueen Victoria has an elegant signature. ' ' Locke says the faster a mAQ.^rites the slower others read what he has written. Napoleon could write fourteen pages a n mute ; unfortunately, however, each page consisted of eight blots and a splutter. Some of his lines to Maria-L^u^ apjpr as if scattered over the paper by the ex plosion of a bomb shell. r v The manuscript of Horace^Greely, the American statesman, was very illegible. A fcag once observed that the sentence, £' Virtue is its own reward," written by Mr. |*reely, was rendered by, th«) compositor tato " Washing soap^ii wholly absurd."