and queens, he was
fully alive to the changes in the Europe of the nineteenth century,
where, along with courts and cabinets, other more unruly forces were at
work. His visit to Paris in 1848 showed his early interest in popular
movements, and he maintained a catholic width of view in later life. He
knew men of all sorts and kept himself acquainted with unofficial
currents of opinion. He could talk freely to journalists or to
merchants, could put them at their ease and get the information which he
wanted. His comprehensiveness was remarkable. The strife of politicians
in the foreground did not blur the distant landscape. In Russia, behind
Balkan intrigues and Black Sea troubles he could see the cloud of danger
overhanging the Pamirs. In Spain or Portugal he was watching and
forecasting the possibilities of the white races in Africa. So his
dispatches, varied and vivacious as they were, proved of the greatest
value to Foreign Secretaries at home, and furnish excellent reading
to-day.

In these dispatches a few Gallicisms occur; and in writing to an old
friend like Sir William White he uses a free mixture of French and
English with other ingredients for seasoning. But in general the
literary style is admirable. He has a rare command of language, a most
inventive use of metaphor, a felicitous touch in sketching a character
or an incident. Towards those working under him he was exacting, setting
up a high standard of industry, but he was generous in his praise and
very ready to take up the cudgels for them when they needed support. In
commending one of them, he selects for special praise 'his old-fashioned
conscientiousness about public work and his subordination of private
comfort'. He inherited this tradition from his own family and his
faithfulness to it cost him his life.

Above all, we feel in reading these letters and memoranda that here is a
man whose aim is truth rather than effect--not thinking of commending a
programme to thousands of half-informed readers or hearers, in order to
win their votes, but giving counsel to his peers, Odo Russell or Sir
William White, Lord Granville or Lord Salisbury, on events and
tendencies which affect the grave issues of peace and war and the lives
of thousands of his fellow-countrymen. This generation has learnt how
unsafe it is to treat these in a parliamentary atmosphere where men
force themselves to believe what they wish and close their eyes to what
is uncomfortable. While hu