Part 19 (2/2)
”Papa andrelieved by the change of scene and topic, began to talk and said he regretted all his life havingSir Walter Scott, Dr Arnold and Lord Melbourne He told us a favourite story of his He said:
”'An association of ladies wrote and asked me to send them a feords on that unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots In the penury ofestiht I would write to Bishop Stubbs All he replied was, ”Mary is looking up”'
”After this I drove hi Street in e I told hie of people's brains if they were very slow
”MR GLADSTONE: ”I wish, then, that you had had the privilege of knowing Mr Cobden; he was at once the slowest and quite one of the cleverest e of brains than character; perhaps it is because in my line of life motives are very hard to fathoence and cultivation leads to a fair toleration and criticism of all sorts and conditions of ht and Chamberlain and Lord Dalhousie,[Footnote: The late Earl of Dalhousie] who, he said, was one of the best and most conscientiousthe time he had been Prireat office in the State, including the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and this not by hly respectable men, sometimes even his friends He said that Goschen's critical poas sound and subtle, but that he spoilt his speeches by a touch of bitterness Mr Parnell, he said, was a s He had power, decision and reserve; he saw things as they were and had confidence in himself
(Ten days after this drive, Mr Gladstone reat speech on Irish Ho him how Lord Kimberley told me that, one day in Dublin, when he was Viceroy, he had received a letter which began:
”'My Lord, To-morroe intend to kill you at the corner of Kildare Street; but ould like you to know there is nothing personal in it!'
”He talked all the way down Piccadilly about the Irish character, its wit, charence I nearly landed ratitude and want of purpose of the Irish; but he said that in the noblest of races the spirit of self-defence had bred eneration were born in Ireland with their blood discoloured by hatred of the English Governments
”'Tories have no hope, no faith,' he continued, 'and the best of them have class-interest and the spirit of antiquity, but the last has been forgotten, and only class-interest rerievesin Randolph Churchill as his successor, for he has none of the genius, patience or insight which Dizzy had in no s a dinner to the Liberal party that night, and he added:
”'If Hartington is in a good humour, I intend to say to him, ”Don't move a vote of want of confidence in me after dinner, or you will very likely carry it”'
”'He laughed at this, and told hted with the idea
”He strongly advised me to read a little book by one Miss Tollet, called Country Conversations, which had been privately printed, and deplored the vast amount of poor literature that was circulated, 'when an adot by the most ardent admirers now the authoress is dead'” (In parenthesis, I often wish I had been able to tell Mr Gladstone that Jowett left me this little book and his Shakespeare in his will)
”We drove through the Green Park and I pulled up on the Horse Guards Parade at the garden-gate of 10 Downing Street He got out of the phaeton, unlocked the gate and, turning round, stood with his hat off and his grey hair blowing about his forehead, holding a dark, horace that he had enjoyed his drive iain and that I had a way of saying things and a tone of voice that would always remind him of my sister Laura His dear old face looked furroith care and the outline of it was sharp as a profile I said good-bye to hi sun, or the wind, or perhaps so else, butwithstory:
”During the Coe of the Ho in a very thin House, seated by the side of Mr Gladstone on the Treasury Bench, of which ere the sole occupants His eyes were half-closed, and he see the course of a dreary discussion on the suprereat animation and said, in his liest man in the party opposite?
”MR ASQUITH: 'Certainly; it is without doubt X' (nalo-Indian states X is no doubt an ugly fellow, but aa Queen's Counsel of those days)
”MR ASQUITH: 'Why should you give him the preference?'
”MR GLADSTONE: 'Apply a very sinified on a colossal scale X's ugliness would then begin to look dignified and even ied Y the meaner he would become'”
I have known seven Prime Ministers--Gladstone, Salisbury, Rosebery, Cae--every one of them as different from the others as possible I asked Arthur Balfour once if there was much difference between him and his uncle I said:
”Lord Salisbury does not care fanatically about culture or literature He may like Jane Austen, Scott or Sainte-Beuve, for all I know, BUT HE IS NOT A SCHOLAR; he does not care for Plato, Horeat classics He has a wonderful sense of humour and is a beautiful writer, of fine style; but I should say he is above everything a man of science and a Churchman All this can be said equally well of you”
To which he replied:
”There is a difference My uncle is a Tory and I ahted in the late Lord Salisbury, both in his speaking and in his conversation I had a kind of feeling that he could always score off ood humour and wit that I would never discover it He asked , to which I answered:
”I will not tell you, because you don't know anything aboutabout our House of Commons either, Lord Salisbury; only the other day you said in public that you had never even seen Parnell”