who was present, understood the people, d-n them, but I Lord Hartington's temerity. wouldn't educate them, blast The Queen and he, he writes in his Impressions,' "got on very well together. Though Lord Hartington, like Peel and the Duke of Wellington, had neither small talk nor manners" -Lord Ribbesdale himself had them both by the gift of nature, yet he seemed to me less shy with the Queen than with his neighbours. This may be accounted for, perhaps, by their both being absolutely natural, and their both being in no sort of doubt about their positions." That quality, in truth, was common to the Whigs they had no sort of doubt about their positions. Their leaders in the House of Lords were The always sensitive about the privileges of their order. members of the great families might espouse the cause of the people when the politics of the moment demanded it, and always with a kind of patronage or even a hint of protest. But their order was impregnable. Lord Ribblesdale has an anecdote which well illustrates this attitude of the Whigs. "Mr Gladstone," he says, "used to tell and enjoy a story of an Admiral Wemyss, who stood for Fife at the time when better education for the people at large became a political question. Admiral Wemyss was told that he might strike something sympathetic in that line on the hustings. He agreed and promised to do so. This is what he said: 'I'm all for them.' The Admiral, said Mr 66 man were actually under sentence of dissolution, if not of death. The Party newspapers disapproved of them, so did Sir William Harcourt and most of our most trusty leaders.' Lord Rosebery, writing to congratulate him on his appointment, addressed him as moriturus. Mr Gladstone alone of the leaders Fawkes was but a celebrated deer of the time, whose name or aspect had caught and held Mr Gladstone's fancy. It protested against any change. over, he was distracted or "Your foes are alive again, solaced by the thing called a wrote Gladstone to Lord Ribbles- heart, of which the hard men dale, when a series of awkward of the Regency would have questions had been asked about been ashamed. He possessed the Buckhounds; and the old a quick intelligence, which pergentleman could not help ask- mitted him to taste, as a coning in a postscript: "How is noisseur, the fineness of literaGuy Fawkes?" Now Guy ture. His interest in the other arts was at once wise and sincere, so that it was inevitable his dandyism should be rather the hobby of a varied life than what it was to Brummel, his whole existence. was the perfect concentration of Brummel that gave him his superiority. In the common pursuits of life he did not compete with his fellows. knew himself supreme when he looked at his varnished boots, at his exquisite cravat, at his well-balanced head, which for him was not a receptacle of intelligence, but a block to sustain the perfect hat." For his own happiness, Lord Ribblesdale had the best of it. If he never touched the height of Brummel's genius, he achieved a success in many fields, and lived out a varied and dignified life, which could never have been his, had he aimed at the solitary grandeur of the complete dandy. The last of the Whigs might have been also the last of the dandies had he lived in an age and atmosphere still congenial to dandyism. Lord Ribblesdale had in him the making of a Brummel. Lady Wilson says quite truthfully of him that he had "a strong feeling for form in all thingsin literature, in art, in dress, and manners." None of his contemporaries rivalled him in the art of decorative adornment. If he did not equal, at least he came near to, Brummel the management of his cravat. But he lacked the concentration which should belong to the dandy of the first class. His discursiveness was too wide, his accomplishments too many, to permit a genuine rivalry with Brummel. More He INDEX TO VOL. CCXXII. : A. G. C. THE BUTCHER OF BERINNIS, "À LA DAUMONT," 840. 'Action Française,' the Vatican's 569. AFRICAN SCORPION, THE, 812. BALLOONS, KITE, WITH THE FLEET, BARBADOS, 528. BARTIMEUS": LETTERS FROM THE I. BARBADOS, 528. BENIGHTED ON THE MOOR OF RAN- CLOGHMOR, THE ROLLERS Of, 239. CRAWFORD, L. I.: THE SLIPPERS OF "DAUMONT, À LA,” 840. DAVSON, CYRIL W.: THE ELUSIVE DE JOHNSTONE, THE CHEVALIER, 57. BERINNIS, THE BUTCHER of, 31. BLAND, J. O. P.: CHASSEURS OF Bolshevik plottings, 133-the Arcos "BOMBARDIER : THE ARROW THAT BRANDS, W. J.: LINKING UP IN BREAKING TRAIL IN THE SUB-AROTIO BROWNE, DOUGLAS G.: UNOLE WIL- BRUMBIES, THE GOONDAWINDI, 678. CHASSEURS OF PROVENCE, 835. VOL. CCXXII.-NO. MCCCXLVI. TIONS, 793. SOME RECOLLEC- E. P. Y. : GENERAL DYER--SOME RE EAGLES, DELKATLA'S, 204. English language in danger, 281 et seq. ET DONA FERENTES, 260. Evolution, the banning of, in America, EZRA AND THE KING, 684. FESTIVAL TIME IN THE MALAYAN RUB- FIGHTING, KINGS WERE, 86. FLEET, KITE BALLOONS WITH THE, 43. 2 I SQUARING ACCOUNTS, 476. 8.8. 'SUNNING," THE EPIC OF THE, WHIBLEY, LEONARD: WILLIAM MASON, WHITE POISON, 71. State trials, 571-the ill fate of Mary WILDRIDGE, OSWALD: A TRANSFER OF Queen of Scots, 573. STRAITS AND ARCHES, THE, 105. TALES OF A PILOT SERVICE: I. At the TASMANIA'S WILD WEST, A PROSPECT- PASSENGERS, 366. WILES, BUSRAWI OF MANY, 766. Wines of France, the, 426-the art and WINES, BURGUNDY AND ITS, 668. WOOLLEY, C. LEONARD: BUSRAWI OF Printed in Great Britain by WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS LTD. |