my friend Henry Sotheby, who told me that he was dozing over the fire before dinner at a house in Northamptonshire, when the door opened; Mrs. Anson came into the room where he was sitting, in her dressing-gown, with her beautiful hair hanging over her shoulders, and told him what had happened. He had the presence of mind in these horrible circumstances to do the right thing by going into the dining-room and giving her mustard and water to drink; but the drowsiness could not be overcome, and notwithstanding all their efforts she died that night.

On November 6, 1859, our dear boy Horace was born, and was christened, in the chapel at Kensington, Horace Charles George, General Grey and T. G. Baring being his godfathers, and Lady Durham and Lady Emily Cavendish his godmothers.

In December, Colonel Walpole, my uncle, who was wounded at Quatre-Bras, died, and was buried in Kensal Green. He had been a brilliant young man in the Guards; had run through his fortune, and, as was often done in those days, had been appointed Minister to Chili, from which post he had retired, and had come back thoroughly worn out to end his days in London.

My mother was always trying to devise some means to amuse him, and one day she thought he would like to drive down to the old house where they had lived as children at the West End. He constantly yawned. "Tired, John ?" she said. "Tired? no-bored," he replied, which was hardly kind.

All the year of 1859 our hearts were full of hope that Italy was about to be rescued from the hateful rule of Austria, and that Cavour's dream was about to be realized; but at home Disraeli was proposing a Reform Bill, full of all kinds of fancy franchises, which are now forgotten. Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley would have none

1861 MR. GLADSTONE'S BUDGET

of the Bill, and resigned. Mr. Walpole had not that plastic mind which is now so common among politicians; he frankly stated that had such a Bill been proposed by Lord Palmerston or Lord John Russell, it would have been resisted by the whole Tory party. Mr. Disraeli's time had not come, and his proposals were defeated by a majority of thirty-nine. A dissolution followed. The different sections of the Liberal party were united and the result was pretty clear. Lord Hartington, being the son of the Duke of Devonshire, was put up to move a vote of want of confidence, which was carried in the new Parliament by a majority of thirteen.

Lord Derby resigned and Lord Granville was invited to form a Ministry; Lord John Russell declined to serve under him, and Lord Palmerston was charged with the task, and immediately formed a strong government, offering office to Cobden, who declined to accept it.

In 1860 Mr. Gladstone introduced his great Budget, reducing the Customs tariff, ratifying the French treaty, and repealing the paper duties. Lord Lyndhurst, now in his eighty-ninth year, made the Lords throw it out with a majority of eighty-nine. There was a counterproposal that the tea duties should be repealed.

While the debate was proceeding in the House of Commons, Lord Derby wrote a note to Lord Palmerston, saying, "Is it to be tea and turn out ?" Lord Palmerston wrote back: "No; paper and stationary." The Lords' action only delayed the repeal for a year.

Lord Palmerston was always fond of a joke. Thus when a deputation waited on him urging him to provide a proper gallery for the pictures of the Chantrey bequest, and the principal speaker said that at present they were hidden away in a cellar: "Ah," said Lord Palmerston, "I will do what I can, but you must recollect the

old saying, 'Ars est celare artem." And the deputation left him, I believe, in high good humor.

In 1860 the Queen paid a visit to my wife at Kensington to see her and our boy Horace, who paid her Majesty a return visit shortly afterwards at Windsor, and in the following year her Majesty had a beautiful miniature painted of him by Miss Dickinson, which she gave to my wife.

In June of that year there was a great review of Volunteers in Hyde Park by the Queen, who remarked as they passed what a stuffy smell there was. "Esprit de corps, ma'am," replied Lord Palmerston, who was standing by her. Poodle Byng, who was a great personage in London society, marched past as a private Volunteer at a great age; indeed, all the town was Volunteer mad.

In the autumn we were paying a visit to Mr. Charles Grenfell in the new house he had built at Taplow, and met Charles Kingsley. Though he stammered, oddly enough he was fluent in the pulpit. We went out with the Queen's buckhounds, and he apostrophized everything and everybody, and each five-barred gate he came. to he expressed a burning desire to jump, but he never gratified his wish.

Marochetti, whom I often met at John Leslie's house at dinner, was a Piedmontese who married a French lady, heiress to the Château de Vaux, near Paris. As a young man he was devoted to modelling, and made a very fine statue, which is now in Turin, of Prince Eugène of Savoy sheathing his sword. Thiers, who was then Prime Minister, was so struck with his talent that he helped him on greatly with government commissions. Then came the Revolution of 1848, and Marochetti decided to live in London, where he made hosts of friends, and at the Great Exhibition of 1851 exhibited his "Richard Cour de Lion," which was afterwards bought by the govern

1861 THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT

ment. It now stands in Palace Yard, near the entrance to the House of Lords. In my opinion it is the finest statue we have in London. His model for the Duke of Wellington's tomb was good, but was unfortunately rejected in favor of the one which is now in St. Paul's.

In February, 1861, I was, like others, bitten with the Volunteer mania, and Lord Elcho, who was one of the most spirited leaders of the movement, succeeded in persuading me to become Captain Commandant of the Kensington Volunteers-an endless source of trouble and annoyance from beginning to end.

CHAPTER VIII

1861-1867

Appointed Private Secretary to Sir Charles Wood at the India Office-Wembley Orchard-Sir Charles Wood as an Official— Distinguished Anglo-Indians: Sir John Lawrence and Sir John Montgomery-The Decline of Swearing-Sir James Hogg, and Sir James Outram, the "Bayard of India "-Deaths of the Prince Consort, Sidney Herbert, Sir James Graham, and Lord and Lady Canning-The Story of Sir John Lawrence's Appointment-Marriage of the Princess of Wales-My son Gilbert: his Short but Distinguished Career-Deaths of Lord Lansdowne and Thackeray-The Garibaldi Mania—Visits to Latimer and RushmoreMove to Hill House, Stanmore-Disraeli on Cobden-Resignation of Lord Westbury: His Wit and Sharp Sayings-Death of Lord Palmerston: Conspicuous Absentees at his Funeral — Troubled Times in 1866-Sir Charles Wood's Hunting Accident and Resignation-Regret at the India Office-Tribute of the Times-I am Appointed Deputy-Director of the Indian Military Funds Relations with Mr. Seccombe, Sir Charles Trevelyan, and Sir John Kaye-My Book on Sir Charles Wood's Administration of India-Charles Lamb at the India Office-Mr. Goschen's Promotion to Cabinet Rank-the Cave of Adullam-Defeat of the Reform Bill-Mr. Lowe in Opposition and OfficeLatin Quotations in the House-Close of Lord John Russell's Career-His Attitude to Peel-The Hyde Park Riots-Father Prout-Disraeli's Ten Minutes Bill-The Derby of 1867-Visits to Hazelwood and Westbrook-Lord Stratford de RedcliffeVisit of the Sultan-The Clerkenwell Explosion-Marriage of the Duke of St. Albans.

ON June 10, 1861, to our immense delight, I got a letter from Sir Charles Wood, then Secretary of State for India, offering me his private secretaryship.