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ANGLO-AMERICAN MEMORIES
ANGLO-AMERICAN MEMORIES
BY GEORGE W. SMALLEY, M.A. AUTHOR OF "STUDIES OF MEN," "LIFE OF SIR SYDNEY WATERLOW," ETC. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1911 Copyright, 1911 BY GEORGE W. SMALLEY The Knickerbocker Press, New York PREFACE These Memories were written in the first instance for Americans and have appeared week by week each Sunday in the New York Tribune . This may be evident enough from the way in which some subjects are dealt with. But they must stand in great part as they were wr
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CHAPTER I NEW ENGLAND IN 1850—DANIEL WEBSTER
CHAPTER I NEW ENGLAND IN 1850—DANIEL WEBSTER
My memories begin with that New England of fifty years ago and more which has pretty well passed out of existence. I knew all or nearly all the men who made that generation famous: Everett; Charles Sumner, "the whitest soul I ever knew," said Emerson; Wendell Phillips; Garrison; Andrew, the greatest of the great "War Governors"; Emerson; Wendell Holmes; Theodore Parker; Lowell, and many more; and of all I shall presently have something to say. Earlier than any of them comes the Reverend Dr. Emmo
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CHAPTER II MASSACHUSETTS PURITANISM—THE YALE CLASS OF 1853
CHAPTER II MASSACHUSETTS PURITANISM—THE YALE CLASS OF 1853
Massachusetts was in those days, that is, in the middle of the last century, in the bonds of that inherited and unrelaxing Puritanism which was her strength and her weakness. Darwin had not spoken. The effort to reconcile science and theology—not religion—had only begun. Agassiz's was still the voice most trusted, and he, with all his scientific genius and knowledge, was on the side of the angels. The demand for evidence had not yet overcome the assertion of ecclesiastical authority in matters o
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CHAPTER III YALE PROFESSORS—HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
CHAPTER III YALE PROFESSORS—HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
The three Yale professors whose names after all these years stand out most clearly to me are Thacher, Hadley, and Porter. Professor Thacher taught Latin. They used to say he knew Tacitus by heart—perhaps only a boyish emphasis upon his knowledge of the language and literature. He was, at any rate, a good Latinist, and a good teacher. What was perhaps more rare, he was a genial companion, to whom the distance between professor and pupil was not impassable. He won our sympathies because he gave us
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CHAPTER IV HOW MASSACHUSETTS IN 1854 SURRENDERED THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ANTHONY BURNS
CHAPTER IV HOW MASSACHUSETTS IN 1854 SURRENDERED THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ANTHONY BURNS
It was in May, 1854, that Anthony Burns of Virginia was arrested in Boston as a fugitive slave and brought before Judge Loring, United States Commissioner under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. I am not going to re-tell the familiar story of his so-called trial and of the surrender of Burns to Colonel Suttle, also of Virginia. The actual military rank held by Suttle I do not know, but I call him Colonel on general principles; or on the principle announced by the late Max O'Rell in his book on Ame
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CHAPTER V THE AMERICAN DEFOE, RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
CHAPTER V THE AMERICAN DEFOE, RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., to whose intervention in the Burns case we owe it that Judge Loring was compelled to grant Burns something in the nature of a trial, was a man whom Massachusetts may well be content to remember as one of her representatives for all time. By descent, and in himself, he was a chosen son of that chosen people. His father, Richard Henry, his grandfather, Francis, his great-grandfather, Richard, were all jurists, all patriots, all men of letters. Take one step more, and you c
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CHAPTER VI A VISIT TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON
CHAPTER VI A VISIT TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Among the students at Harvard Law School in 1855 was William Emerson, from Staten Island, New York, nephew of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He asked me one day if I would like to know his uncle. I answered that his uncle was the one man whom I most wished to meet, and, with a word of surprise at my fervour, he offered to arrange it. In these days his surprise may not readily be understood. Emerson has long since taken his place among the Immortals. But at that time his place was still uncertain. The numb
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CHAPTER VII EMERSON IN ENGLAND—ENGLISH TRAITS—EMERSON AND MATTHEW ARNOLD
CHAPTER VII EMERSON IN ENGLAND—ENGLISH TRAITS—EMERSON AND MATTHEW ARNOLD
Emerson's last visit to England was made in 1873, after his health had failed. He had been in Egypt and on the Continent, hoping to recover the freshness of his mental powers; but that was not to be. In London he and his daughter Ellen, who gave to her father a loving devotion without limits, lived in apartments in Down Street, Piccadilly. It was only too evident that, even after ten months of rest and travel, he was an invalid in mind. He could not recollect names—a failing common in advanced a
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CHAPTER VIII A GROUP OF BOSTON LAWYERS—MR. OLNEY AND VENEZUELA
CHAPTER VIII A GROUP OF BOSTON LAWYERS—MR. OLNEY AND VENEZUELA
A name still remembered in Massachusetts is that of Judge Thomas of the Supreme Court, the court of highest jurisdiction in that State, and one of the few State courts whose decisions have always been cited with respect in the Supreme Court of the United States. It was recruited largely from the Suffolk Bar. The Boston Bar was known as the Suffolk Bar, the name of the county. But, of course, other parts of the State supplied judges, and Worcester County was one. Judge Thomas lived and practised
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CHAPTER IX WENDELL PHILLIPS
CHAPTER IX WENDELL PHILLIPS
It was in the winter of 1860-61 that the Massachusetts allies of the Southern Slave Power made their last effort. Spite of Webster's death, with whom died the brains of the party and its vital force, these men were still powerful in Boston. The surrender of Anthony Burns in May, 1854, the birth of the Republican Party at Worcester in July of the same year, the election of Mr. Henry Wilson as Governor, the cowardly assault in the United States Senate on Charles Sumner by Mr. Preston Brooks, of So
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CHAPTER X WENDELL PHILLIPS AND THE BOSTON MOBS
CHAPTER X WENDELL PHILLIPS AND THE BOSTON MOBS
Phillips's speech had been all through one to stir deep resentment. The atmosphere of the Music Hall was seething with fierce passion, and it seemed likely enough there would be a rush for the platform when he had finished. If it had come it would have been met. The little band of armed men who concerned themselves about his safety never left his side. But there was no rush. The plans of the enemy were of a different kind. The audience passed quietly out of the hall. A police officer came to tel
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CHAPTER XI WENDELL PHILLIPS—GOVERNOR ANDREW—PHILLIPS'S CONVERSION
CHAPTER XI WENDELL PHILLIPS—GOVERNOR ANDREW—PHILLIPS'S CONVERSION
There was one clear reason for the deadly hatred of the pro-slavery faction in Boston to Phillips. He was the real leader of the Anti-Slavery Party. If he could be silenced, the voices of the rest mattered little. During twenty years Garrison's influence had been declining, and Phillips had come steadily to the front. For the last ten years he had stood alone. It was his voice which rang through the land. His were the counsels which governed the Abolitionist band. His speeches were something mor
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CHAPTER XII WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON—A CRITICAL VIEW
CHAPTER XII WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON—A CRITICAL VIEW
In explaining why Wendell Phillips was the target for every shot in the winter of 1860-1, I said it was because he was the real leader of the anti-slavery party during all the later and more critical years of the long struggle for freedom. No doubt, Garrison at one time held the first place among the Abolitionists. He was the first of them in time, or one of the first. He had had the good fortune to be mobbed and led through the streets of Boston with a rope about his body. He had founded a week
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CHAPTER XIII CHARLES SUMNER—A PRIVATE VIEW
CHAPTER XIII CHARLES SUMNER—A PRIVATE VIEW
The anti-slavery leaders who emerged about the same time from the groups of mediocrities enveloping them were Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner. So essentially was Sumner an idealist that he might naturally have cast in his lot with those who preferred ideals to party politics, but other influences finally prevailed and he embarked on that career which, in due time, made him the leader of the anti-slavery forces to whom freedom seemed possible by political methods. On the whole, even among tha
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CHAPTER XIV EXPERIENCES AS JOURNALIST DURING THE CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER XIV EXPERIENCES AS JOURNALIST DURING THE CIVIL WAR
My obligations to Wendell Phillips are mixed, and one of them was an introduction to The Tribune . In the autumn of 1861 I wanted two things: a holiday, and a chance to see something of the war and the negro question at short range. At that time, Mr. Charles A. Dana was managing editor of The Tribune , with Mr. Sydney Howard Gay as his first lieutenant. Phillips gave me a letter to Mr. Gay, the result of which was that Mr. Dana asked me to go to South Carolina for The Tribune . A word about Mr.
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CHAPTER XV CIVIL WAR—GENERAL McCLELLAN—GENERAL HOOKER
CHAPTER XV CIVIL WAR—GENERAL McCLELLAN—GENERAL HOOKER
The failure of Pope's campaign and his retreat upon the Capital demoralized his army and demoralized Washington to an extent which few remember. The degree of the demoralization may, however, be measured by the reappointment of General McClellan to the command of the Army of the Potomac and of Virginia. In the absence of any general whose name inspired confidence, General McClellan was thought a synonym of safety, or, at any rate, of caution, and he had not wholly lost the confidence of his men.
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CHAPTER XVI CIVIL WAR—PERSONAL INCIDENTS AT ANTIETAM
CHAPTER XVI CIVIL WAR—PERSONAL INCIDENTS AT ANTIETAM
General Hooker was about the first man in the saddle. The pickets had begun sniping long before dawn. My bivouac was within sight of his tent. "The old man," said one of his staff, "would have liked to be with the pickets." No doubt. He would have liked to be anywhere in the field where the chance of a bullet coming his way was greatest. Kinglake has a passage which might have been written for Hooker. That accomplished historian of war remarks that the reasons against fighting a battle are alway
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CHAPTER XVII A FRAGMENT OF UNWRITTEN MILITARY HISTORY
CHAPTER XVII A FRAGMENT OF UNWRITTEN MILITARY HISTORY
By this time—September, 1862—Mr. Dana had retired from The Tribune and Mr. Sydney Howard Gay had become managing editor in Mr. Dana's place. The natural gift of command which belonged to Mr. Dana had not descended upon Mr. Gay; it never does descend; but he was capable of a quick decision, and when, having returned that morning from Antietam, I saw him in the afternoon, he was in a managing-editor state of mind. With much firm kindness of manner he suggested that I should start that evening to r
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CHAPTER XVIII THE NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS IN 1863—NOTES ON JOURNALISM
CHAPTER XVIII THE NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS IN 1863—NOTES ON JOURNALISM
One more battle I saw, known as the Draft Riots of 1863. I arrived in New York on the Monday evening, and journeyed south through the city by the light of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum in flames; a stray negro or two hanging to a lamp-post here and there. This was the flank movement of the Rebellion; an attempt not only to prevent the enforcement of the draft, which President Lincoln had too long delayed, but to compel the Unionist forces to return northward for the defence of their homes. A
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CHAPTER XIX HOW THE PRUSSIANS AFTER SADOWA CAME HOME TO BERLIN
CHAPTER XIX HOW THE PRUSSIANS AFTER SADOWA CAME HOME TO BERLIN
There is much more to say on this subject of cabling which I touched on, perhaps prematurely, in the last chapter, but it can wait till certain incidents in Berlin have been described. Ever memorable to me was this visit to Berlin in 1866, and for two things. I saw something of the two greatest forces in Prussia, or two of the three greatest: the Prussian army and Count Bismarck. The third, whom I saw, but only saw, was the King; whom his grandson has since rechristened William the Great. The Se
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CHAPTER XX A TALK WITH COUNT BISMARCK IN 1866
CHAPTER XX A TALK WITH COUNT BISMARCK IN 1866
I By one of those pieces of good fortune which descend only upon the undeserving, I came to know Count Bismarck before I left Berlin. I was advised to present my letter at the Landtag, and as the Count was said to be in the House, I sent it in. He came out to the ante-chamber where I was waiting, and there for the first time I looked into the pale blue eyes whence had flashed the lightnings that had riven the power of Austria on the field of Sadowa. Now they had a kindly and welcoming look in th
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CHAPTER XXI AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER XXI AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN ENGLAND
I The Ministers and Ambassadors who have represented the United States in England have an interest individually and as a body. So long a line of men, mostly distinguished, is almost a dynasty. Some of them are totally forgotten. Some are remembered faintly. Some have left a lasting impression. I have known a round dozen of them. The public memory is short. If I say that to Mr. Charles Francis Adams it was permitted to do a greater service to his country abroad than to any American since Franklin
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CHAPTER XXII TWO UNACCREDITED AMBASSADORS
CHAPTER XXII TWO UNACCREDITED AMBASSADORS
They were both from Boston. In the days when they first became known in England and began their work of conciliation as between England and the United States, Boston was still Boston, and New York had only begun to be New York. The latter statement may be challenged, but the very men who take most pride in the New York of to-day ought to be the first to accept it. For Manhattan was not then the magnet, as London has always been, which drew to itself whatever was best from other parts of the land
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CHAPTER XXIII SOME ACCOUNT OF A REVOLUTION IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM
CHAPTER XXIII SOME ACCOUNT OF A REVOLUTION IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM
I Returning to New York in the early autumn of 1866 and spending the winter in The Tribune office, I was again sent abroad the following year, this time under an agreement to remain till 1870. I was to go as the exponent of a new theory of American journalism in Europe, a theory based on the belief that the cable had altered all the conditions of international news gathering and that a new system had to be created. I had been long enough in London and on the Continent to be convinced that London
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CHAPTER XXIV HOLT WHITE'S STORY OF SEDAN AND HOW IT REACHED THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE
CHAPTER XXIV HOLT WHITE'S STORY OF SEDAN AND HOW IT REACHED THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE
I pass over the interval between Worth and Sedan, crowded as it was with events, stopping only to remark that The Tribune was indebted to an American writer on The Daily News for its account of Gravelotte, but not to The Daily News except for the opportunity of buying that account, at a high price. There was an entangling alliance which forbade The Daily News to hand it over to The Tribune , but did not prevent the correspondent of that paper from selling it. I am not sure whether the name of th
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CHAPTER XXV GREAT EXAMPLES OF WAR CORRESPONDENCE
CHAPTER XXV GREAT EXAMPLES OF WAR CORRESPONDENCE
But Sedan from the Prussian point of view was one thing; from the French it might be, and must be, quite another. M. Méjanel, had things gone otherwise, might have been expected to give us the French version, but since he was with the French headquarters in Sedan he was presumably a prisoner of war, and nothing was to be hoped for from him. Mr. Holt White, fresh from the field, thought there was little or no chance. No one except Mr. White had got through from either army. The English papers of
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CHAPTER XXVI A PARENTHESIS
CHAPTER XXVI A PARENTHESIS
To what I have said of journalism I need not add much. I remained in London as the representative of The New York Tribune , and in charge of its European affairs from 1867 to 1895; returning then to New York and Washington for The Times , till 1905. When The Tribune began publishing a Sunday edition, one other innovation upon the established practice followed. I sent each week, by cable, a column containing a summary view of what seemed most important during the week. It was not a summary of new
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CHAPTER XXVII "CIVIL WAR?"—INCIDENTS IN THE 'EIGHTIES—SIR GEORGE TREVELYAN—LORD BARRYMORE
CHAPTER XXVII "CIVIL WAR?"—INCIDENTS IN THE 'EIGHTIES—SIR GEORGE TREVELYAN—LORD BARRYMORE
The streets of London were red one day in November, 1909, with placards proclaiming: "The Lords declare Civil War!" I suppose the Radicals thought it paid to force the note. Mr. Winston Churchill was their bandmaster for the moment. There is no more effective political rhetorician, provided you accept that fallacy about the folly of the people against which the warning of Mr. Lincoln passes unheeded. But there was, at least on one side, a state of feeling in the country comparable to nothing I c
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CHAPTER XXVIII SIR WILFRID LAURIER AND THE ALASKA BOUNDARY
CHAPTER XXVIII SIR WILFRID LAURIER AND THE ALASKA BOUNDARY
I The name of Empire-builder is used freely of late, perhaps too freely. It is so great a name that it ought to be kept for the great men, for the real builders and creators; for Clive, for Rhodes, and their like. There is another class, somewhat more numerous, but not much, who keep together the great Imperial patrimony which others have handed down to them. They might perhaps be called Wardens of Empire, of whom Sir Wilfred Laurier may stand for an example. My memories of Sir Wilfrid Laurier g
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CHAPTER XXIX ANNEXING CANADA—LADY ABERDEEN—LADY MINTO
CHAPTER XXIX ANNEXING CANADA—LADY ABERDEEN—LADY MINTO
The first person from whom I heard of the American immigration into Canada was Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He told me it had begun quietly, a few American farmers drifting across the border in search of better and cheaper land than could be had at home. There was no sound of drum or trumpet. These men had nothing to do with the talk of annexation. They had no political object. Their object was agricultural; only that and nothing more. It is possible enough that the reputed riches of the North-west prov
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CHAPTER XXX TWO GOVERNORS-GENERAL—LORD MINTO AND LORD GREY
CHAPTER XXX TWO GOVERNORS-GENERAL—LORD MINTO AND LORD GREY
Lord Minto has now passed from the great post of Governor-General of the Dominion to the still greater Viceroyalty of India. But I apprehend it will be long before his reign in Canada is forgotten. Possibly the Canadians might not use, and may not like, the word reign. They are a susceptible as well as a great people. They are jealous of their liberties, which are in no danger, and of the word American, to which they have some claim, over-shadowed though it be by their greater neighbour on the S
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CHAPTER XXXI LORD KITCHENER—PERSONAL TRAITS AND INCIDENTS
CHAPTER XXXI LORD KITCHENER—PERSONAL TRAITS AND INCIDENTS
It does not appear that Lord Kitchener's refusal to accept the Mediterranean post to which he was assigned has impaired his popularity or diminished the general confidence in him. Possibly even official confidence survives, in a degree. The tone of the Prime Minister's replies to questions about the refusal may denote resentment but hardly censure. So I think I may still venture to reprint sundry personal reminiscences which were written before this collision between the great soldier and the Pr
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CHAPTER XXXII SIR GEORGE LEWIS—KING'S SOLICITOR AND FRIEND A SOCIAL FORCE
CHAPTER XXXII SIR GEORGE LEWIS—KING'S SOLICITOR AND FRIEND A SOCIAL FORCE
Lord Russel said of him: "What is most remarkable in Lewis is not his knowledge of the law, which is very great, nor his skill in the conduct of difficult causes, in which he is unrivalled, nor his tact, nor his genius for compromise. It is his courage." That was said not long after the Parnell trial, in which Lord Russell—then Sir Charles Russell and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England—who had long been at the head of the English Bar of his own time, proved himself the equal of any advocat
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CHAPTER XXXIII MR. MILLS—A PERSONAL APPRECIATION AND A FEW ANECDOTES
CHAPTER XXXIII MR. MILLS—A PERSONAL APPRECIATION AND A FEW ANECDOTES
I recross the Atlantic for a moment. There died lately in California a man known on both sides of the ocean, known in more worlds than two, one of the strongest and certainly one of the most amiable figures in the world of business, Mr. Darius Ogden Mills. Of late years, since Mr. Reid has been Ambassador, Mr. Mills had become a figure in London. He interested Englishmen because he was a new type, or, rather, because he was individual; because he was Mr. Mills. Type implies a plurality; and not
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CHAPTER XXXIV LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL—BEING MOSTLY PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS
CHAPTER XXXIV LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL—BEING MOSTLY PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS
I I venture on an anecdote or two, which I have told elsewhere but imperfectly, those whom it concerns being now dead or retired. They were three; Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Randolph Churchill, and Mr. Archibald Forbes; all at that moment in the splendour, the blinding splendour, of their gifts and powers. It was after luncheon. The ladies had gone. Lord Randolph had been Secretary of State for India, and Forbes, like Lord Randolph, had lately been in India, and the talk turned upon India. All three
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CHAPTER XXXV LORD GLENESK AND "THE MORNING POST"
CHAPTER XXXV LORD GLENESK AND "THE MORNING POST"
The owning or leasing of several houses is an English habit which is no longer confined to great landowners who have inherited their possessions. Many men whose success in life is their own adopt the custom. Among many instances I will take one, for other reasons than house-owning, the late Lord Glenesk, who had at one time a lease of Invercauld, the fine place belonging to the Farquharson family. There, as later at Glenmuich, he liked to gather friends about him and there was each year a succes
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CHAPTER XXXVI QUEEN VICTORIA AT BALMORAL—KING EDWARD AT DUNROBIN—ADMIRAL SIR HEDWORTH LAMBTON—OTHER ANECDOTES
CHAPTER XXXVI QUEEN VICTORIA AT BALMORAL—KING EDWARD AT DUNROBIN—ADMIRAL SIR HEDWORTH LAMBTON—OTHER ANECDOTES
Invercauld, of which Lord Glenesk was long tenant, lies near Balmoral; a name famous the world over as the Highland home of Queen Victoria and then of the late King. A castle on which the very German taste of the very German husband of the great Queen has left its mark. It is no more a fine castle than Buckingham Palace is a fine palace. It stands, however, in a beautiful country and some of the best drives within easy reach are those on the Invercauld property. They are private but all gates sw
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CHAPTER XXXVII FAMOUS ENGLISHMEN NOT IN POLITICS
CHAPTER XXXVII FAMOUS ENGLISHMEN NOT IN POLITICS
I There are, perhaps, a few names of to-day which it is possible to mention without becoming involved in the politics of to-day. The English, it is true, draw a broader line between what is purely political and what is personal than we do. They can give and take hard knocks, whether in Parliament or on the platform or even in the Press, without animosity or resentment. But since in America it seems to be supposed that any reference to these encounters may have its danger side I avoid them for th
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CHAPTER XXXVIII LORD ST. HELIER—AMERICAN AND ENGLISH METHODS—MR. BENJAMIN
CHAPTER XXXVIII LORD ST. HELIER—AMERICAN AND ENGLISH METHODS—MR. BENJAMIN
If you care for a clear view of English life and of Englishmen you need not always go to the mountain tops in search of it. If you can find a man who stands for what is typical, who is in the front rank, but not among the very foremost, who has, in a high degree, the qualities by which the average Englishman, having them in a much less degree, succeeds, he is as well worth studying for this purpose as the most illustrious of them all. I could name many such men. I will take one whom I knew well
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CHAPTER XXXIX MRS. JEUNE, LADY JEUNE, AND LADY ST. HELIER
CHAPTER XXXIX MRS. JEUNE, LADY JEUNE, AND LADY ST. HELIER
The interesting people are the exceptional people; not those cast in a mould common to others, not those whose lives run in a groove but those who fashion their own lives in obedience to the dictates of a nature which is their own. Among the women of London it would be easy to choose those of higher rank or greater position than Lady St. Helier, but I choose her because she is Lady St. Helier. Whether the marriage of Mrs. Stanley to Mr. Francis Jeune, in 1881, was or was not considered a social
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CHAPTER XL LORD AND LADY ARTHUR RUSSELL AND THE "SALON" IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER XL LORD AND LADY ARTHUR RUSSELL AND THE "SALON" IN ENGLAND
The recent death of Lady Arthur Russell diminished by one the number of accomplished women of this generation who were distinguished in the last generation also. And it closed one of the few drawing-rooms in London which have been salon as well as drawing-room. I suppose Lady Arthur herself might have said as she looked about her and looked back, " Tout passe ." The French phrase would have come naturally to her tongue, for she was French: daughter of that Vicomte de Peyronnet who was Minister t
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CHAPTER XLI THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY—QUEEN ALEXANDRA
CHAPTER XLI THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY—QUEEN ALEXANDRA
When the Radical rages against the House of Lords he commonly selects as the most deserving object of his wrath the Lords Spiritual. Wicked as the Lords Temporal are, their episcopal comrades are more wicked still. This is, or was, more peculiarly the Nonconformist point of view. A Dissenter exists in order to hate a Bishop. He hates him as a rival in religion; a successful rival. He hates him as the visible sign of that social ascendancy of the Church which is to the Dissenter not less odious t
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CHAPTER XLII A SCOTTISH LEGEND
CHAPTER XLII A SCOTTISH LEGEND
Among the recollections of Scotland which come thronging on from other days, the supernatural always plays a part. I admit they are not easy to deal with. If you believe in ghosts or in legends, a great majority of your readers do not believe in you. If you are a sceptic, the credulous pass you by with an air of pained superiority. If you neither believe nor disbelieve, you are set down as an agnostic; and there are great numbers of excellent people to whom the word agnostic implies reproach. An
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CHAPTER XLIII A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE OF THE LATE EMPEROR FREDERICK
CHAPTER XLIII A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE OF THE LATE EMPEROR FREDERICK
It used to be said that English sympathies were given to Austria and not to Prussia in the war of 1866 because the Austrian railway officials were so much more polite than the Prussian. Of the fact that the English wished Austria and not Prussia to win there is no doubt. The railway reason was perhaps a reason, if not the reason. The organization of Prussia was at that time, as the organization of Germany, civil and military, now is, the finest in the world. But flexibility is not one of its mer
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CHAPTER XLIV I EDWARD THE SEVENTH AS PRINCE OF WALES—PERSONAL INCIDENTS
CHAPTER XLIV I EDWARD THE SEVENTH AS PRINCE OF WALES—PERSONAL INCIDENTS
Everything, or almost everything, has been said about King Edward the Seventh, every tribute paid him from every quarter of the world; and the mourning of his people is the best tribute of all. I should like to add an estimate from a different point of view and a tribute, but I suppose they would have no proper place in these papers, and I confine myself therefore to memories. I will go back to the period when he was Prince of Wales, and to the place where he put off most of the splendours belon
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