Part 8 (1/2)

Other people could afford to laugh at a young man's blunders, but to him the best part of life was throay if he learned such a lesson wrong Henry Jaht the world to read a volulass turned on alternate sides of the saical study was still silish character was never subtile

Surely no one would believe that complexity was the trait that confused the student of Palht human nature will always appear complex and full of contradictions, but the British states the least coentleht, by contrast, be called complex, but Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone deceived only by their si man because his conduct seemed most statesmanlike Every act of Russell, from April, 1861, to November, 1862, showed the clearest determination to break up the Union The only point in Russell's character about which the student thought no doubt to be possible was its want of good faith It was thoroughly dishonest, but strong

Habitually Russell said one thing and did another He seemed unconscious of his own contradictions even when his opponents pointed theest language As the student watched him deal with the Civil War in America, Russell alone showed persistence, even obstinacy, in a definite determination, which he supported, as was necessary, by the usual definite falsehoods The young man did not complain of the falsehoods; on the contrary, he was vain of his own insight in detecting them; but he holly upset by the idea that Russell should think hiht Earl Russell a statesman of the old school, clear about his objects and unscrupulous in hisRussell ardently asserted that he had no objects, and that though he ht be weak he was above all else honest Minister Adaht him true, but officially, in practice, treated him as false Punch, before 1862, co lies, and afterwards as prematurely senile, at seventy Education stopped there No one, either in or out of England, ever offered a rational explanation of Earl Russell

Palether--but scarcely ht him positive, decided, reckless; the record proved hi Minister Adanacious and quarrelsome; the ”Lives” of Russell, Gladstone, and Granville show hi quarrels He surprised the Minister by refusing to pursue his attack on General Butler He tried to check Russell He scolded Gladstone He discouraged Napoleon Except Disraeli none of the English states of America Palmerston told no falsehoods; made no professions; concealed no opinions; was detected in no double-dealing Theeducation was that, after forty years of confirmed dislike, distrust, and detraction of Lord Paled at last to admit himself in error, and to consent in spirit--for by that ti his pardon

Gladstone was quite another story, but with him a student's difficulties were less because they were shared by all the world including Gladstone hihest education could reach, in this analysis, only a reduction to the absurd, but no absurdity that a young man could reach in 1862 would have approached the level that Mr Gladstone admitted, avowed, proclaiht all reason and all hope of education to a still-stand:--

I have yet to record an undoubted error, the ular and palpable, I may add the least excusable of them all, especially since it was committed so late as in the year 1862 when I had outlived half a centuryI declared in the heat of the Ale that Jefferson Davis had e to say, this declaration, most unwarrantable to be made by a Minister of the Croith no authority other than his oas not due to any feeling of partisanshi+p for the South or hostility to the North I really, though ely, believed that it was an act of friendliness to all Ale was virtually at an end

That my opinion was founded upon a false estimate of the facts was the very least part of ross impropriety of such an utterance froe, and bound to loyal neutrality; the case being further exaggerated by the fact that ere already, so to speak, under indict strictly enforced the laws of neutrality in the matter of the cruisers My offence was indeed only a rossness, and with such consequences of offence and alar to perceive them justly exposed me to very severe blame It illustrates vividly that incapacity whichretained, and perhaps still exhibits, an incapacity of viewing subjects all round

Long and patiently--more than patiently--sympathetically, did the private secretary, forty years afterwards in the twilight of a life of study, read and re-read and reflect upon this confession Then, it see correctly at the tiic and connection in the affairs of rossness” He felt no rancor, for he had won the gaave, since hesubjects all round” which had so nearly cost hi even to believe He noted, without irritation, that Mr Gladstone, in his confession, had not alluded to the understanding between Russell, Palmerston, and himself; had even wholly left out his most ”incredible” act, his ardent support of Napoleon's policy, a policy which even Palmerston and Russell had supported feebly, with only half a heart All this was indifferent

Granting, in spite of evidence, that Gladstone had no set plan of breaking up the Union; that he was party to no conspiracy; that he saw none of the results of his acts which were clear to every one else; granting in short what the English themselves seemed at last to conclude--that Gladstone was not quite sane; that Russell was verging on senility; and that Palmerston had lost his nerve--what sort of education should have been the result of it? How should it have affected one's future opinions and acts?

Politics cannot stop to study psychology Its her still All this knowledge would not have affected either the Minister or his son in 1862 The su le will or intention--bent on breaking up the Union ”as a dierous power” The Minister would still have found his interest in thinking Russell friendly and Palmerston hostile

The individual would still have been identical with the mass The problem would have been the same; the answer equally obscure Every student would, like the private secretary, answer for himself alone

CHAPTER XI

THE BATTLE OF THE RAMS (1863)

MINISTER ADAMS troubled himself little about what he did not see of an ene too much Minister Adams played his hand as it caence than his own Earl Russell suited him; perhaps a certain personal sympathy united the amused by his droll likeness to John Quincy Adams Apart from this shadowy personal relation, no doubt the Minister was diploain by n Secretary, and whether Russell were true or false ation could act only as though he were false Had the Minister known Russell's determined effort to betray and ruin hier expressions than he did in 1863 Russell reatly annoyed by Sir Robert Collier's hint of collusion with the rebel agents in the Alabama Case, but he hardened himself to hear the saation As tih slowly, to treat the Aly, for the nullity or fatuity of the Washi+ngton Government was his idee fixe; but after the failure of his last effort for joint intervention on November 12, 1862, only one week elapsed before he received a note froes about the Alabae for redress Perhaps Russell's mind was naturally slow to understand the force of sudden attack, or perhaps age had affected it; this was one of the points that greatly interested a student, but youngtheir elders as senile, which was only in part warranted in this instance by observing that Russell's generation were ot beyond 1815 Both Palenital, like Gladstone's Oxford training and High Church illusions, which caused wild eccentricities in his judgment Russell could not conceive that he had ed Minister Adams from the start, and when after November 12 he found hier tone, he showed mere confusion and helplessness

Thus, whatever the theory, the action of diploed to imply collusion between Russell and the rebels He could not even stop at crience If, by an access of courtesy, the Minister were civil enough to admit that the escape of the Alabaence, he could ard to the ironclad ra; for no one could be so simple as to believe that two armored shi+ps-of-war could be built publicly, under the eyes of the Governo to sea like the Alabaer Earl Russell kept on his norance, the more violently in the end, the Minister would have to tear it off Whatever Mr Adareatest possible diplomatic liberties with hi of 1863 drew on, the vast field cleared itself for action A ca the --has not often unrolled itself for study, fro a position Very slowly, indeed, after two years of solitude, one began to feel the first faint flush of new and imperial life One enty-five years old, and quite ready to assert it; so stars on their collars; so kind At an to drea uno, for an instant, and passed, leaving the brain a little dazed, doubtful, shy With an intensity more painful than that of any Shakespearean drama, men's eyes were fastened on the armies in the field Little by little, at first only as a shadowy chance of what an to feel that, so shape; that it was uided as it had not been before Men seemed to have learned their business--at a cost that ruined--and perhaps too late A private secretary knew better thanin London, and aln had to wait for the n to lead The student could only study

Life never could know le such climax In that foran to fall, one curled up in bed in the silence of night, to listen with incredulous hope As the huge masses struck, one after another, with the precision ofmass, the world shi+vered Such developnificent resistance and the return shocks heightened the suspense During the July days Londoners were stupid with unbelief They were learning froht

An Aland, for one'swith the acceleration of the lishmen were not quick to see their blunders One had ample tiloat over the repay reached London one Sunday afternoon, and it happened that Henry Ada to some small reception at the house of Monckton Milnes He went early in order to exchange a word or two of congratulation before the roo he found only the ladies in the drawing-roo over their wine Presently they came in, and, as luck would have it, Delane of the Ti American friend, with a whoop of triumph he rushed to throw both arms about his neck and kiss him on both cheeks Men of later birth who knew too little to realize the passions of 1863--backed by those of 1813--and reenforced by those of 1763--ht conceive that such publicity embarrassed a private secretary who ca, for the first ti of hiht his, at the arded it as a piece of Milnes's foolery; he had never heard of young Ada ridiculed in the Ti in the mind of the American Minister's son, for the British mind is the slowest of all minds, as the files of the Ti had not yet penetrated Delane's thick cortex of fixed ideas

Even if he had read Adaht, he would have felt for it only the usual aht at school It needed a whole generation for the Times to reach Milnes's standpoint

Had the Minister's son carried out the thought, he would surely have sought an introduction to Delane on the spot, and assured hiarded his own personal score as cleared off--sufficiently settled, then and there--because his father had assu to deal with Mr Delane hi For nearly a year the private secretary had watched the board arranging itself for the collision between the Legation and Delane who stood behind the Palthened and reenforced frole The situation had changed since the Trent Affair The as efficiently done; the organization was fairly coation itself was still as weakly ations of Guateress was always jealous of its diplon Relations was not likely to press assistance on the Minister to England For the Legation not an additional clerk was offered or asked The Secretary, the assistant Secretary, and the private secretary did all the work that the Minister did not do A clerk at five dollars a ould have done the work as well or better, but the Minister could trust no clerk; without express authority he could adation; he strained a point already by adress and its coes of as best for the public service, and if the arrangeood to them, it was satisfactory to a private secretary who profited by it reat staff would have suppressed hiation was a sort of improvised, volunteer service, and he was a volunteer with the rest He was rather better off than the rest, because he was invisible and unknown Better or worse, he did his ith the others, and if the secretaries ress, they made no complaints, and knew that none would have received a ress, they were satisfied with Secretary Seward Without appropriations for the regular service, he had done great things for its support If the Minister had no secretaries, he had a staff of active consuls; he had a well-organized press; efficient legal support; and a swar all classes All he needed was a victory in the field, and Secretary Stanton undertook that part of diplo cleared the board, and, at the end of July, 1863, Minister Adams was ready to deal with Earl Russell or Lord Palmerston or Mr Gladstone or Mr Delane, or any one else who stood in his way; and by the necessity of the case, was obliged to deal with all of the and Gettysburg, the Minister had been coin his attack; but this was history, and had nothing to do with education The private secretary copied the notes into his private books, and that was all the share he had in the matter, except to talk in private

No more volunteer services were needed; the volunteers were in a manner sent to the rear; theAll that a secretary could hope to gain froe of politics He had a chance to measure the motive forces of ht; their tenacity of purpose

In the Legation no great confidence was felt in stopping the rams Whatever the reason, Russell seemed immovable Had his efforts for intervention in Septeation in September, 1863 the Minister must surely have admitted that Russell had, from the first, ues Every separate step since April, 1861, led to this final coercion Although Russell's hostile activity of 1862 was still secret--and remained secret for some five-and-twenty years--his animus seemed to be made clear by his steady refusal to stop the rebel armaments Little by little, Minister Ada of tone, until at last, after stripping Russell of every rag of defence and excuse, he closed by leaving him loaded with connivance in the rebel armaments, and ended by the famous sentence: ”It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordshi+p that this is war!”

What the Minister meant by this remark was his own affair; what the private secretary understood by it, was a part of his education Had his father ordered hirasped it, he would have continued thus:--

”It would be superfluous: 1st Because Earl Russell not only knows it already, but has ical and necessary consequence of his unvarying action 3d

Because Mr Ada out to hi it out to the world, to complete the record”