Part 1 (1/2)

Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885

by Stuart J Reid, ed

INTRODUCTION

The sense of personal loss occasioned by my brother's death is still so keen and vivid that if I am to write at all about him--and my duty in that respect is clear--it must be out of the fulness of in when I was a child and he was a bright, self-reliant lad in the home at Newcastle, the characteristics of which are with artless realises of this book It is the sirew up in an atmosphere of love and duty Our father was arich in the possession of a library of dry works on theology which his children never read, and a which they searched in vain for the fairy books and stories, or even the poetry, dear to the youthful heart He was a faithful, rather than a gifted preacher, and I have always thought that his power--it was real and far-reaching--lay in hissympathy which kept him on a perpetual round of visits to the sick and sorrowful, year in, year out He had a quiet sense of humour, and was never so happy as when he could steal a day off from the insistent claims of pastoral work for a ramble in the country with his boys

Always a public-spirited man, and keenly interested in political affairs, he talked to us freely about the events of the time, and made us feel that the little affairs of our own home and immediate environment could never be seen in their true perspective until they were set against the larger life of the town, and, in a sense, of the nation When any great event occurred he used to tell us all about it; when any great nificance of his life and the loss it meant to the country, it was not his fault He was a quiet, rather reserved ht, and with a touch of sternness about hi years, and long before old age crept quietly upon hi note of his character was charity He had been in early life associated to some extent with the Press, and later had written one or two books, so that ink was in my brother's blood

Our mother was almost his opposite in character She was quick, almost imperious in temper, vivacious and witty of speech, full of sense and sensibility, in revolt--I see it now--against the narrow conditions of her lot, and yet bravely determined to do her best, not merely for her husband and children, but for the rather austere little coure There was a charm about her to which all sorts and sizes of people surrendered at discretion, and she loved books y volumes on my father's shelves She had received, as more rare then than now, a liberal education, and, besides es, had at least a allantly in the dim, half-educated society of her husband's chapel, but reserved her friendshi+ps--sometimes with a touch of wilfulness--for those who represented whatever there was of sweetness and light in the wider society of the town In one respect she was absolutely in harmony with my father, and that was in her sympathy with the poor and in quiet, unparaded deterht it

She had iood-will I think my brother inherited from her his alertness of mind and not a little of his quickness of apprehension

I can reloith his prizes, and I can recall, as if it were but yesterday, his audacious speeches, and the new books hich, as soon as he earned a shi+lling, he began to leaven the dull old library, much to the delectation of the other children I can recall a rough cartoon in one of the local journals which was greeted with huge merriment in the family circle, because it represented Tom as ”Ye Press of Newcastle”--afor dear life at the foot of a platfor the tyranny of the existing Government He must then have been about seventeen, certainly not more, and he was even at that tiy Then he developed a passion for the collection of autographs, and used to write theletters to celebrities, and astound my modest father by the replies--they were invariably written as to a man of mature life and public importance--which he had elicited from eminent people in politics and the world of letters He, a mere youth, invited a well-known Arctic explorer to Newcastle to lecture on his perils in the frozen North, and o to the railway station to ht his pathetic relics of Franklin to our house, where he stayed as guest The great rin when he found that a lad scarcely out of short jackets had invited hiht, and in the subsequent reception of the good townsfolk Then my brother conceived the ambitious scheetic and persistent begging carried the project out, and with a high hand

Suddenly, when he was still a young reporter, a great calamity befell the locality The Hartley Colliery catastrophe plunged all Tyneside in glooest reporter on the local Press, but his account of the long-drawn agony of that terrible time, when two hundred brave fellows lost their lives, was the ht hi pamphlet, after it had done duty in the _Newcastle Journal_, and to his credit he gave, though as poor as a church mouse, the whole of the proceeds--a sum of 40, I think--to the Relief Fund It was a characteristic act which was not belied by the subsequent generosity of his life All too soon--for he brought as a young reporter a breezy, new atmosphere into the family circle--he went to Preston, on the principle of promotion by merit Then Leeds claimed him, and next he settled in London, in the short-lived happiness of his earlyto Yorkshi+re--this ti his career as editor of the _Leeds Mercury_ I saw coh in different ways; but we kept up, then and always, a brisk correspondence, and his letters, all of them brimful of public interest and family affection, are before me now The world is a different place to me now, but ” can rob me of its sweetness

There is scarcely an incident recorded in these pages which he did not tell me at the time in familiar talk There is much, also, that he has not set down here, all of it honourable to himself, which I could recount about those early days in Newcastle, and to a certain extent also in Leeds, where I was again and again his guest; but, as he has chosen to be silent, it is not for h, I never in my life heard him deliver a political speech, nor do I think he excelled in that direction But he was admirable as a lecturer on literary subjects, and I have seen hie audience spellbound when his subject was Charlotte or Elish Newspaper, the Character of General Gordon, or some other theme which appealed to him He spoke rapidly and clearly, and between the years 1882 and 1886 gave his services without stint in this direction to the people of Leeds, Bradford, and other of the Yorkshi+re towns The manuscripts of these lectures are before me as I write; they are all in his own hand, and they must have taken from an hour to an hour and a half in delivery Yet one of the most important of them--it runs to between sixty and seventy closely written es, and bears no marks of haste--was, as a note in his own hand at the outset shows, begun one day and finished the next--a proof, if any were needed, of his rapidity in work Hepeople of the North by these deliverances

The last twenty years of my brother's life are outside the present narrative Two of the newspaper work, and the rehteen in London, under circumstances he has himself described in another volume, which, for political reasons, is for the present withheld It will appear eventually, and personally I feel no doubt whatever that it will take its place, quite apart from its self-revelation, as one of the most important and authentic records, in the political sense, of the later decades of Queen Victoria's reign My brother's knowledge of the secret history of the Liberal party in thehis historic battle for Ho the subsequent Premiershi+p of Lord Rosebery, was exceptional He was the trusted friend of both statesmen, and probably no other journalist was so absolutely in the confidence of the leaders of the Liberal party--a circumstance which was due quite as much to his character as to his capacity It is not my intention to anticipate the story, as he himself tells it, either of the ”Hawarden Kite” or the Home Rule split, much less to disclose his opinions--they are emphatic and deliberate--of the men who made mischief at that crisis I leave also untouched the plain, unvarnished account he gives, on unimpeachable authority, of a subsequent and not less discreditable phase in the annals of the Liberal party There are reasons, obvious to everyone who gives the ht, that render it inadvisable in the interests of the political cause hich my brother all his life was identified, and for which he suffered more than is commonly known, to yield to the very natural temptation to throw reticence to the winds

To one point only will I pernificant allusion, for I cannot allow this book to go forth to the world with the knowledge that the publication of the coh force of circumstances--for the present postponed, without at least a passing reference to what in the authoritative biography of Mr Gladstone is called the ”barren controversy” which arose in 1892, as to whether the present Duke of Devonshi+re, in 1880, tried to form a Government That controversy was assuredly ”barren” to ood conscience He was assailed by almost the whole Press of the country for the part which he played in it, and not least mercilessly by journalists of his own party As he said to me himself at the time, ”If I had been Mr Parnell, fresh from the revelations of the Divorce Court, I could not have been treated with greater contu on the possession of which he prided himself in life more than another, it was loyalty, and seldom was political loyalty subjected to a more cruel strain He held his peace with all the materials for his own vindication in his hand, rather than ereat political crisis

The letters on which he based his statements are in existence I wished to print them, without note or comment of mine, in an Appendix to the present volume, but permission has been withheld They cannot remain for ever in ambush, and when they are published, with nanireatly he was h for the present to say that Mr Gladstone himself admitted in a note under his own hand that the interpretation which my brother put upon the facts submitted to him _absolutely and entirely justified_ the course which he took in that controversy Mr

Gladstone, as Mr Morley soraphy, ”reckoned on a proper stoicism in the victiarded as thin-skinned, but a iven a measure of sensitiveness when his honour is iratitude of the action of Lord Russell of Killowen at that period He heard the gossip of the clubs, and was not content, like the majority of men, either to believe it or to disht my brother out at his own house, heard the whole story froent process of cross-examination--drew his own conclusions, and did more than anyone else to turn the tide of misrepresentation Lord Russell never rested until Wehty Club, a distinction shared by only two or three persons, and one which did not a little to bring about, in the Liberal party at least, a quick reversal of public opinion The chivalrous action of Lord Russell was all the htly acquainted Other honours came to my brother within the next two years

The University of St Andrews in 1893 conferred upon hihted ”for services to Letters and Politics”

It is a pleasure to hark back to the literary interests which grew around the later years of my brother in London He went thither in 1887 to take control of the business of Messrs Cassell & Company--a position of wide influence and hard hich he retained to the last day of his life He used to telloffice hours, but he stuck manfully to his post, and his presence at the desk there lent a lustre even to the traditions of a great publishi+ng house I betray no confidences when I say that at first he found his new duties soenial He had won his spurs as a journalist, he was fond of the cut and thrust of party politics, he missed the rush of public life, and he felt that perhaps he had been ill-advised in quitting the editorial saddle But this feeling of depression quickly wore off when he set hiy, to h to the last he often cast longing glances backwards to the years in which he inspired the policy of a great daily newspaper

Before he left Leeds--and here I may say that he did not leave without substantial proof of the esteem in which he was held--he accepted two literary commissions, either of which would have satisfied ies for a term of years

One was the preparation of an authoritative biography of Mr Forster, the other a similar work--less political and hton He was, of course, in a position to speak froe of both men, and in each case all their private letters and papers were placed at his discretion He found relief froenial tasks, if such a term is applicable to what in reality were labours of love Both were big books, and the marvel is hoith all that he had in hand at the time, he contrived to write them But the passion for as the zest of his life, and it was never turned to more adht Hon W E Forster” was published in 1888, and ”The Life, Letters, and Friendshi+ps of Lord Houghton” in 1890, and both met with a reception which it is hardly within h to say that they widened his reputation, added ht him many new and powerful friends

Al the second of these books, at the instance of Mr Bryce (hom his relations were always most close and cordial) and other well-known men in the Liberal party, he, in conjunction with Sir John Brunner, founded the _Speaker_, a weekly journal which was started on similar lines to the _Spectator_, but devoted to the advocacy of the Home Rule cause, and broadly of the policy of Mr Gladstone The first number was published on January 4th, 1890, and from that time until October, 1899, he alone was responsible for its editorial control He gathered around hily to say that he was over-weighted by theave them too free a hand

Contest others by Mr Morley, Mr

Bryce, Mr J A Spender, and Mr Herbert Paul Literary criticism, economic questions, and other phases of public affairs, were handled by Sir Alfred Lyall, Mr Birrell, Mr Frederic Harrison, Mr James Payn, Mr

Henry James, Mr JM Barrie, Mr Quiller-Couch, Mr Sidney Webb, Mr L

F Austin, Mr A B Walkley, and a score of young writers; whilst men like the late Lord Acton and Principal Fairbairn, and occasionally Mr

Gladstone hies No one worked harder in those days for the _Speaker_ than my brother's ever loyal assistant in its direction, Mr Barry O'Brien, whose intie of the trend in Irish politics was invaluable I shall not anticipate by any coenial pen-and-ink pictures which are given of the chief members of the _Speaker_ staff in that part of the Memoirs which yet remains unprinted

I prefer to fall back in this connection on a little bit of reminiscence, printed in one of the daily papers on the morrow of my brother's death

It ritten by Mr L F Austin, who alas! has so quickly followed hi himself under sentence of death, Sir We his Memoirs 'Here is a chapter thata roll of manuscript It did interest me very much, and when it comes to be published it will be read with no little eular staff of the _Speaker_ under Sir Wemyss Reid's editorshi+p He deals with us all in turn in a spirit of the kindliest rees, I felt they were his farewell to soood reason to think of him as the staunchest of friends” I was in very close association withthe whole of the ten years in which he retained control of the _Speaker_, and took my full share of the work They were for hi toil, but he used to say that there were few greater rewards for a man of his temperament than to be in the thick of the political hters He adopted as his motto in life ”Onwards”--the ord of his old school at Newcastle, emblazoned on the back of the prizes which he took in far-off days; and from first to last he lived up to it Brusque he sometimes was, decisive always; perhaps he was too easily ruffled in little affairs, but he was reat After quitting, under circumstances entirely honourable to himself, the editorial chair of the _Speaker_, my brother, who for years previously had been an occasional contributor to the pages of the _Nineteenth Century_, contributed regularly to that review a political survey of the month