Part 9 (2/2)

CHAPTER XI

VISITS TO THE CONTINENT

Politics in Paris in 1877--An Oration by Ga--The Republic Saved--Gambetta's Funeral--A Meht of Turpentine and Soda--The ”Press Gang” at the Reforustus Sala and Sir John Robinson--Disraeli's Triumph in 1878--A European Tour

In the autumn of 1877 I went over to Paris, in order to watch the General Election of that year It was a fateful moment in the history of France

The Royalists, and the whole of the anti-Republican forces, were bent upon overthrowing the Republic, and they looked upon President Macmahon as their tool Thiers, the natural leader of the Republican party, had died, after a brief illness, within a feeeks of the election; and Gambetta, who had stepped into his place, was not only under prosecution for his famous _”Ou se souarded by a large section of moderate men as a wild man, a _fou furieux_, indeed, who could not be trusted with the fortunes of the party Everythe Parisians awoke to wonder whether the expected _coup d'etat_ had taken place during the night The draht it well to witness the _denouehton, on learning my intention, sentmen in Paris They included the Comte de Paris himself, M Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, the bosom friend of M Thiers, and M Blowitz, of the _Times_ I did not see a revolution, because none took place; but I had an excellent opportunity of watching Paris pass through a political crisis, and of witnessing the triumph of the Republic over its numerous and formidable enemies That year (1877) was indeed the best year in the history of the Republic It still had the support of the great ave it all their aid, and the combination of Thiers and Gambetta had made the Left and Left Centre parties is of the clerical reaction, beginnings which found their outward expression in the propagation of the cult of the Sacred Heart All Paris was singing in those days, either in the original or in a parody, the hymn with the refrain, ”Heaven save poor France in the name of the Sacred Heart” On the whole, the parodists were in a majority, and their parodies were just as blaspheh M Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, a typical French statesman of the philosophical cast, I secured an invitation to the solitarywhich Gambetta, as candidate for Belleville, was permitted to hold prior to the actual election He was, as I have said, under reht to silence his voice in the Cha this one speech to his constituents, for the law gave hireat ie circus which was crowded to excess He was received with great enthusiasm, but before his speech was over he had wound up his audience to a still higher pitch of passionate fervour He struck reatest of all the orators I had ever heard He had that indispensable qualification of the orator, a voice at once clear, powerful, and estures in which he indulged so freely, and which enabled him to conceal the infirmity from which he suffered--blindness of one eye--whilst at the sa eye fixed on the crowd before hireat speech, for, unlike any English orator I ever heard, he did not war care toin a ht of passionate and tempestuous eloquence from which it seemed inevitable that he must quickly fall to an anti-climax

But no anticlimax came For more than an hour he continued to pour forth a torrent of burning words that seemed to keep the vast multitude before hierated

Never before and never since have I witnessed such an effect as this produced by an orator, and though he lacked the stately and sonorous delivery of John Bright, and had no pretension to the intellectual persuasiveness of Mr Gladstone, I have always felt, since hearing that speech, that Gareatest orator to whom I ever listened

It was ru, and he himself believed this rumour to be true Yet this did not cause him to moderate his defiance of the Governreat oration ords to the following effect: ”I said in the Chao, 'Clericalism, that is the enemy' I predict now that when this election is over, I shall say, 'Clericalism, that is the vanquished'” I was introduced to hireen roo himself furiously with his pocket-handkerchief, whilst one of his friends adne He talked to , but seemed absolutely confident as to the future The Government made no attempt, however, to interfere with hi power in France

The day on which the first ballot was taken was, according to French custom, a Sunday This was the day on which the quidnuncs had fixed as the probable date of the _coup d'etat_ The Conservatives, on the other hand, pretended to believe that it would witness a fresh Co, of which Belleville was to be the centre It was a beautiful September day, and the excitement which possessed the whole French people was visibly reflected in the streets of Paris I spent the whole day in driving fro station to another, accompanied by a friend who had resided for ood order that was everywhereThere was nothing like the tueneral election in England It was obvious, too, that much less care was taken to preserve the secrecy of the ballot than is customary in this country

As a newspaper correspondent I was freely ad station It was not until two o'clock in the afternoon that I reached Belleville, the reputed storerous to venture into that district in the handsoe provided forto the polling station where the Maire presided, I found everything perfectly quiet On entering the ballot-room, however, I was received in a somewhat curious fashi+on by the Maire ”So you have come at last to poor calumniated Belleville,” he said ”You are the first journalist who has been here to-day, and yet for a week past every journal in Paris has declared that ere going to break out into a revolution If they really believed it, why did they not come and see hoe behaved ourselves? I call it infaht that I, at least, had not been guilty of staying away But one could sy which the wildest stories were current in the Parisian Press, dulness reigned supre station itself was as sole house

It was different at night, when the first news of the result of the election poured into Paris from the provinces, and it was seen that Gambetta had been a true prophet, after all, and that Clericalism, and all the other reactionary forces, had indeed been vanquished Between ten o'clock andline of the boulevards was croith the gayest multitude of men, women, and children that I everfor joy The Republic had triu Never did I see a s would have been different if that historic election had resulted otherwise Paris was delighted and good-hureat victory for Gaain in Paris on a cold January day All the toas once ladness on the faces of the people who crowded the Place de la Concorde and the long avenue of the Rue de Rivoli They had gathered together to witness the funeral of the hero of the fight of 1877 Gan none can tell, by his dearest friend, had died at the very zenith of his fae to one of her greatest sons

His body lay in state in the palace of the Chah to findat the foot of the coffin at the sarandchildren clinging to his hands, and as he stood there, explaining to the children so of Ga that there was a fine opening for a historical painter

Ga else for the profusion of the display of flowers Every department, every town and hamlet in France, had sent a deputation to swell the soleht a colossal funeral wreath It was the first week in January, yet the air was heavy with the perfume of violets, lilies, and white lilac It was computed at the time that twenty thousand pounds was expended on the flowers borne by the erated Yet the funeral itself was extre dress impressed nobody It was only when the picked troops went by in their glittering unifor crowd For the rest, all our attention and adiven to the colossal wreaths and crowns and chaplets of which there was so barbaric a profusion, and the poor coffin itself passed almost unnoticed

It was different a week later, when the stateseois_ of Provence, had agreed to allow this mock funeral to take place in Paris on condition that his son's body was subsequently given to hi his own people at Nice I was present also at this second funeral There were no flowers and there was but little display; but behind the coffin in which the body of the ill-starred political leader lay walked his father, bare-headed, his white hair strea in the breeze; and the women around me cried as he passed, ”Ah, le pauvre papa!” and wiped the furtive tear froreater horror for the pomp of a public funeral, it would have been the contrast presented by this sieous spectacle of a few days before in Paris

In the spring of 1878 I became aclique in the club, and nobody could be absolutely certain of election; butwhom William Black was foremost--worked hard on my behalf, and secured my election in spite of the fact that I had a considerable nuoes further than anything else in securing admission to a club like the Reform It is a mistake to trust to the mere eminence of a man's proposer and seconder; unless he has some personal friend who is a popular member of the club, and ill take the trouble to exert himself on the day of the election, the mere eminence of his proposer and seconder will not save hie Augustus Sala When that well-knoriter was proposed for election, the taint of Bohe to him, and it was very doubtful whether he would pass the ordeal of the ballot Thackeray, hom Sala had been associated in the early days of the _Cornhill Magazine_, believed that election to a club like the Reforer man; and on the day when the ballot took place he remained in the saloon at the head of the steps for fourevery member as he entered to vote for Sala as a personal favour to hi clique, and secured Sala's adraver type than that to which he had heretofore been accustomed

Even in 1878 I was not unversed in London clubs I had been a member of the Arundel, where the draeneration ont to assemble; of the Thatched House, which in those days had an admirable _chef_; of the Savile, the home of cultured authorshi+p; and of the Devonshi+re, founded after the Liberal defeat in 1874 as a kind of Junior Refored to several more or less Bohemian clubs, of which the Century, in Pall Mall Place, is perhaps the only one that demands notice The Century was founded on the model of the Cosmopolitan The s Tobacco, spirits, and aerated waters were provided out of the club funds The members sat in a seether without waiting for the formality of an introduction The rules, in short, were the same as at the familiar ”Cos,” and for a time the club was very successful But it seems almost inevitable that clubs of this description should drift, sooner or later, into the hands of a clique The saht, and you had to listen to the same platitudes, or the sa at the Century was enlivened by soht, for example, Henry Fawcett, the blind politician and statesman, came into the club room after an absence of some months He ared absence He explained himself ”I like to come here,” he said, ”but I can't stand Tom Potter He talks too much” The identical Tom Potter, the well-known honorary secretary of the Cobden Club, was sitting in his favourite corner at the moment, and it need not be said that after Fawcett's remark the conversation of the little party was somewhat constrained

But Tom Potter did not suffer so ht in 1877 or 1878 I got there late, after dining with Sir George Grove at his house at Sydenham I was hot and thirsty, and Williaested to estion As the foalass was handed to me, it occurred to me that the Century Club must have been recently painted; but I was too thirsty to stop to make any ree hich I had been supplied Directly I had done so, I knew that I had been poisoned

Whatever I had sed, it certainly was not whisky I suppose I turned ghastly pale, for I felt a terrible nausea suddenly overco me Black and my other friends in a state of consternation examined the bottle froh it bore the label of a well-known brand of whisky, it contained turpentine I confess I was relieved when I heard this, as I feared it h as a beverage, and I do not think I ever spent a more uncomfortable four-and-twenty hours than that which followed this misadventure There was no doctor present, but Black undertook to supply his place ”There is only one thing for you to do, et drunk directly” I declared, with reason, that I had drunk too much already, and crept away to my bed, which happily was close at hand For at least two days after that incident I srateful to the careless dog of a servant for not having served me up oxalic acid or vitriol in place of the turpentine After that affair I do not think I ever went back to the Century Club It was bad enough to be bored by the irrepressible Club Jorkinses, but to be poisoned also was more than flesh and blood could stand

The Reform, as I soon discovered, differed in many respects froed In those days, it was really the headquarters of a great political party, and a statesmen of the day It contained, too, not a few men of letters, andinto the club saw these distinguished persons at lunch, or dinner, or taking their ease in s acquainted with them unless he had some friend by whom he could be introduced Fortunately for me, I already knew er to introduce me to his own friends in the club On the very first day on which I dined there as a member I was formally admitted to the little coterie the members of which lunched at the sae coffee roo,” and were the objects, I have always iled hatred and envy of their fellow-members They were hated because of their exclusiveness, and envied owing to the fact that there was ether

It was Jahter He had hihed incessantly

Again and again, when his ringing peal sounded through the room andthe scandalised faces of our fellow-st us would reh that speaks the vacant hed the more loudly, and co back upon the years which I was destined to spend in constant association with that htful and lovable of men, I sadly realise the fact that since his death I have never laughed as I did in those happy days The other members of the luncheon-table party at that tiustus Sala, Sir John Robinson of the _Daily News_, E D J Wilson of the _Times_, and J C Parkinson There were others who caular frequenters of the table The real bond of union between us was Payn; but, as was only natural, the ties of friendshi+p which united all became very close To-day (1904) Parkinson and o

Payn, Black, Robinson, and Sala are dead, and Wilson has sought the ust society of the Athenaeum The luncheon table is still maintained, and we have found one or two recruits to fill the empty chairs; but I think it is with pity, rather than with envy, that we survivors of the original party are now regarded by our fellow-ard it as one of the great privileges of my life that for more than twenty years I was a member of this little society of friends, ht differ widely in ability, were at least alike in the keenness of their enjoyment of the humorous side of life Many a time since Payn's death I have been asked to repeat soht understand the fascination that he had for his friends Iof the skylark It was not in theand delighting his companions was to be found He hated puns and verbal trickery of every kind, but he saw more quickly than any other man I have ever known the humorous side of any question or any incident, and he had a knack ofthat humorous side perceptible to others which toyears I have sat with hi an at It was a wit that was never cruel, never coarse, never anything but kindly and huood-natured, like that of Lord Houghton himself

I have spoken already of William Black He and I had becoreatest adenius, and a profound love for his pure and chivalrous character; but, like myself, he was a listener at the table at which Payn sat He could say good things occasionally, but, as a rule, his conversation did not approach the excellence of his writing Payn, on the other hand, was infinitely better in talk than in writing He has written some essays which will hold their own side by side with sohtful fascination that, to the very last, attached to his conversation Sala talked almost as much as Payn, but in a very different fashi+on He was an encyclopaedia of out-of-the-way knowledge, and had a story or an illustration for every topic that cropped up at the luncheon table So; but I have heard innuood stories admirably told by him Of Parkinson I must not speak, for he is happily still left to the luncheon table and to me Robinson, from experiences which were as varied as they were abundant, was able to contribute s of old, whilst he shared to the full in the affectionate adarded Payn