Memoirs and correspondence of Lyon Playfair, First Lord Playfair of St. Andrews

Chapter I. Introductory

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St. Andrews Seventy Years ago — Its Primacy among Scottish Seats of Learning — A Home for Retired Officers and Officials — The Record of Scotsmen in Indian Administration— Principal Playfair and His Four Sons — George Playfair, Father of Lyon — Lyon's Connection with St. Andrews — Characteristics — His Autobiography — His Life Penetrated by Patriotism — A Pioneer of Sanitary and Educational Reform — As Political Economist — As Politician— As Man t

Chapter II

AUTOBIOGRAPHY. — I. MY RELATIONS.

The Playfairs : Professor Playfair and the Commander-in-Chief: Principal Playfair : Mrs Macdonald and Her Doubts : Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair : James Playfair and His Romance : Praying for My Conversion : A " Token " : The Sin of Walking on Sundays : I introduce Myself to My Father : Dr Macvicar and His Definition of Water : My Brothers. Playfair's Earliest Extant Letter — Mrs Macdonald on His Disposition as a Child . . . . . . . .12

Chapter III

AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — II. MY EDUCATION.

My Governesses : At School : Holidays at Glamis Castle : Entering St. Andrews University : Beginning a Business Career : Discomfiting Nocturnal Marauders : Studying Medicine: Friendship with Andrew Ramsay, the Geologist : A Chance Meeting with Sir Charles Lyell : Studying Chemistry : Friendship with David Livingstone : James Young, Founder of the Paraffin Oil Industry : Studying at Edinburgh University : A Voyage to India : In a Calcutta Office : Home again : Studying under Liebig at Giessen : " Doctor of Philosophy " : Appointed Chemical Manager

Vlll CON TENTS.

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of Print Works : Punctuality Handsomely Rewarded : Among the Philosophers of Berlin. Correspondence with Liebig — Chemists and Chemistry 28

Chapter IV

AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. III. MY LIFE IN LANCASHIRE.

Settled at Clitheroe : Parleying with Labour Rioters : A Lesson in Ventilation : Lecturing at the Manchester Royal Institution : Anecdote of Dalton : An Offer from Faraday : Sir Robert Peel : An Inquiry into Charcoal Iron Furnaces: A Mishap to Bunsen : Edwin Chadwick and His Argument from Satan : Appointed a Member of the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns : Researches into Agricultural Chemistry : Earl Spencer (Lord Althorp) : Dean Buckland : Through England and Scotland : Mr Crosse and the Wood-louse : Appointed Chemist to the Geological Survey : An Evening with Stephenson : Recollections of Joule : Impressions of Manchester. Dean Buckland and Sir H. de la Beche urge Peel to give Playfair an Appointment— Peel's Esteem for Playfair — Letters from Liebig . 53

Chapter V

AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — IV. BEGINNING OF MY LONDON LIFE.

Settled in London: A Call from Sir James Clark : Sir Henry de la Beche : Distinguished Colleagues : Inquiring into the Sanitary Condition of Buckingham Palace : Reporting upon the Best Coals for Steam Navigation : Mining Accidents : The Potato Famine in Ireland : Effect of Emigration upon Potato Production : Marriage : Oersted : A Letter which led to the Foundation of the Petroleum Industry : Inquiring into the Cholera : The Duke of Wellington and the Chartist Demonstration : Sworn a Special Constable : In Paris during the Revolution of 1848 : Louis Blanc and Louis Napoleon .... 91

Chapter VI. The Great Exhibition

Becoming a Publicist — Playfair's Work as a Special Commissioner of the 1851 Exhibition. Autobiography: Introduced to the Prince Consort by Sir Robert Peel: Sir Henry Cole : Preparing a New Classification for the Exhibition : A Tour through the Manufacturing Districts: Sir Joseph Paxton : The Exhibition opened : Superintending the Awards of the Juries : The Exhibitor and the Queen : The

CONTENTS. IX

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Commissioners received by Louis Napoleon : Appointed a C.B. and a Gentleman Usher to Prince Albert : The Crystal Palace : An Episcopal Objection to Undraped Statues. Correspondence with the Prince Consort — Investing the Exhibition Surplus — Playfair's Part in the Negotiations — The Scheme described — Appointed Secretary of the Science and Art Department — Organising the Royal College of Science — A Member of the Athenaeum . 109

Chapter VII. Educational Reform

Attending the Royal Children at the Exhibition — Arranging for the Prince Consort's Visit to Birmingham. Autobiography : Lecturing for the Society of Arts : Inquiring into Technical Education on the Continent : Organising the "Food Collection" for the South Kensington Museum: Establishing a National Museum in Edinburgh : Dr George Wilson and his dying Epigram : Crusading in the Cause of Technical Education : The Duke of Wellington's Funeral : Sir Charles Wheatstone : Reading Ciphers in the 'Times': Acquaintance with Babbage : Lord and Lady Ashburton : Mrs Norton : Lord Granville : Lord Palmerston and the Cipher: Inventing Shells: Lord Dundonald's Scheme for Reducing Fortresses : Appointed a Commissioner of the International Exhibition of 1855 : Acquaintance with French Savants : Missing the Mastership of the Mint : Second Marriage. Faraday on the New Lucifer Matches — Playfair's Contempt for Misplaced Humanitarianism in War — Liebig on Scientific Agriculture 145

Chapter VIII. Life In Edinburgh

Playfair "the Man Behind the Scenes" — Scientific Honours — Place in Society — His Passion for Scientific Research — Appointed Professor of Chemistry in Edinburgh University — Resigning his Post as Gentleman Usher. Autobiography : Chemical Theories and their Exponents in Edinburgh University : Sir Robert Christison : Sir James Simpson and Experiments in Anaesthesia : Reforming the University : Declining the Office of Principal : Giving the Prince of Wales Lessons : Royal Students at the University: Death of the Prince Consort: President of the Royal Commission on the Herring Fishery: Appointing the Jurors for the International Exhibition of 1862: Lord Stratford de Redcliffe : Honours from Foreign Princes : A Member of the Royal Commission on the Cattle Plague : Anecdote of the Princess Alice : A Visit to Coburg : Dr John Brown : the Marquis of Tweeddale : Lady Ruthven : Leaving Edinburgh. Playfair's Professorial Zeal — His Work for the Exhibition of 1862 — The Prince of Wales and the

X CONTENTS.

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Cauldron of Boiling Lead — Playfair and the Edinburgh Memorial of the Prince Consort — His Unpopularity in Connection with the Cattle Plague Report . . -171

Chapter IX. In Parliament

Beginning a Political Career — Member for Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities — Political Convictions — Appointed one of the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition. Autobiography : Liberal Member for a Conservative Constituency : Maiden Speech : Appointment of a Liberal Leader in the House of Commons : President of the Midland Institute : The Prince Consort's Superiority to Jealousy : Opposing the Cry of " Over-Education " : Supporting a Bill for opening Trinity College, Dublin, to Roman Catholics : Attitude towards the Irish University Bill : Mr Gladstone's Magnanimity : Appointed Postmaster- General : President of the Civil Service Commission : Opposing the Anti-Vivisectionists : Reforming the Scottish Universities. Playfair the Introducer of the Halfpenny Post-Card — Reception of his Pamphlet on "Teaching Universities and Examining Boards " — His Popularity at the Post Office— The Tichborne Case — The Election of Liberal Leader in the Commons — Averting a Disastrous Schism 205

Chapter X. Parliamentary Work

Playfair's Domestic Affections — Death of His Second Wife. Autobiography : The Dundonald Case : The Victory Won at Last : A Visit to the States : Emerson and Longfellow : Chicago : A " Typical American " from Paisley : Adopting a Young Lady : At Washington : A Visit to the Lunatic Asylum : Attacking the Indian Salt Tax : Presiding over the Manchester Water Supply Committee : The International Exhibition of 1878 : Another Visit to America : Reception at Montreal : Curious Experiences in a Rough District : Dining with the Canadian Cabinet : A Talk with Lord Dufferin. Playfair's Relations with the United States — His Letters from America and Elsewhere— His Correspondence with Miss Russell and Her Family prior to His Marriage- — His Social Charm — His Passion for Public Work . . . 234

Chapter XI. Chairman And Deputv-speakkk

Playfair's Liberalism becoming More Pronounced — His Seat in Danger— Letters from Edinburgh. Autobiography: Appointed Chairman and Deputy-Speaker : Irish Obstruc-

CONTENTS. XI

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tion : Suspending the Obstructionists : Resignation : Letters from Mr Gladstone, the Speaker, and Sir Stafford Northcote : A Reaction : Made a Knight Commander of the Bath : In Defence of Vivisection and Vaccination : Grand Committees. Why Playfair refused the Office of Chief Whip — His Suspension of Irish Obstructionists — A Correspondence with Mr Chaplin — The Absorbing Character of His Duties as Chairman — His Loyalty as an Independent Member — His Personal Popularity with the Irish Members — Securing a Knighthood for Professor Owen . . . 285

Chapter XII. Vice-president Of The Council

Playfair's Ties with America — Why he never became a Cabinet Minister — His Acceptance of Home Rule — Appointed Honorary Secretary of the Commission for the 1851 Exhibition — His Views on the Functions of a Minister for Scotland — Decides to retire from the Representation of Edinburgh University — His Candidature for South Leeds — The Constituency described — His Brilliant Victory — His Connection with the " Hawarden Kite" — Appointed Vice- President of the Council. Autobiography : Celebration of the Tercentenary of Edinburgh University : With the British Association at Montreal and at Aberdeen : At Glamis Castle again : Reform of the Medical Profession : Re-election for South Leeds 330

Chapter XIII. The Queen's Jubilee And International Arbitration

Autobiography: The Jubilee Service in Westminster Abbey : Progress of the Nation during the Queen's Reign : Foreign Royalties : Representing England at the Centenary of the Declaration of American Independence : A Memorial to President Cleveland in favour of Arbitration : Opposing "Fair Trade": A Plea for Technical Education: The future Fiscal Policy of the United States. Legalising the Sale of Margarine 354

Chapter XIV

A Touching Incident. Autobiography : Opening of the Glasgow Exhibition : Mistaken for a State Prisoner : Death of the Emperor Frederick of Germany : The Widowed Empress and Prince Bismarck: Resigning the Honorary Secretaryship of the Exhibition Commission : A Presentation : Supporting a Royal Grant : The General Election of 1892: Raised to the Peerage: Farewell to South Leeds. The South Leeds Election — An Interesting Colloquy — xii CONTENTS.

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Appointed a Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen — Letters from Windsor Castle — Work on the Aged Poor Commission — Grand Cross of the Bath — In Canada .... 373

Chapter XV. Playfair And The United States

Playfair's Sojourn at Nahant — Almost a Citizen of the United States — Letters to Lady Playfair's Family — The Venezuelan Crisis — Negotiating Peace — Correspondence with Mr Chamberlain and Mr Bayard — Playfair's Share in the Settlement of the Dispute 405

Chapter XVI. Services To Science And Education

Scientific Appreciation of Playfair by Professor Crum-Brown— Sir Edward Frankland on his Investigations into the Best Coal for the Royal Navy — Playfair on Health and Disease — On Vivisection — On the Applications of Science to Commerce — On the Connection between Man's Necessities and the Industrial Arts — Playfair's Work as an Exhibition Commissioner — The National Buildings at South Kensington His Monument — Initiator of " The Victoria and Albert Museum" 427

Chapter XVII. The End

Adjudicating in the ' Statist ' Competition — Speech at the Jubilee Banquet of the Cobden Club — Failing Health — Residence at Torquay — Death — Letters of Condolence to Lady Playfair — Burial at St. Andrews . . . .457

Memoirs and Correspondence

OF

Lyon Playfair.

Chapter I. Introductory

St. Andrews Seventy Years ago — Its Primacy among Scottish Seats of Learning— A Home for Retired Officers and Officials — The Record of Scotsmen in Indian Administration — Principal Playfair and His Four Sons — George Playfair, Father of Lyon — Lyon's Connection with St. Andrews — Characteristics — His Autobiography — His Life penetrated by Patriotism — A Pioneer of Sanitary and Educational Reform— As Political Economist — As Politician — As Man.

The grey old city of St. Andrews, with the ruins of its great cathedral facing the waters of the German Ocean, its ancient university buildings and its historic golf links, has become in recent times familiar to a large proportion of the inhabitants of Great Britain. It is now a fashionable watering-place, crowded for three months every year by visitors from all parts of the country ; whilst the game of golf, which has been played at St. Andrews without intermission for centuries, draws every summer to the city an increasing number of the votaries of that most healthful and enjoyable recreation. But in the days when golf was almost unknown beyond the breezy Fifeshire links, and when the railway system had not yet annihilated distances, St. Andrews was altogether different from the gay and bustling city of the end of the century. Seventy years ago it was probably the sleepiest little town in Great Britain.

B

?','; : : /. .MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR.

In many respects it was little better than a fishing village. For a few months every year a scanty muster of redgowned students gave passing animation to the scene ; but as a rule its wide streets were silent and grass-grown, and the only sound that indicated the existence of any form of human activity was the whirr of the loom or the sharp crash of the shuttle as it caught the ear of the wayfarer when he passed the cottage of some busy weaver.

Yet even then, in its period of decay and desertion, St, Andrews had certain claims upon the respect of the outer world. Although its university had vigorous rivals at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, it took precedence of any of them, and as the most ancient seat of learning in North Britain, its children claimed for St. Andrews the name of the Scots Oxford. It was not its academic fame, however, which was its only title to special distinction. Living and house rent were both cheap in the old city. It was free from the more aggressive intrusions of modern trade. Its university gave the little town a microscopic social circle of cultivated people, some of whom had reputations that were national rather than local. Its keen health-giving air and its delightful golf links added to its attractiveness. In short, it combined the advantages ot Oxford and Leamington, and, as was not unnatural, it became, in consequence, a favourite place of residence for retired officers of the army and navy, and for a class not less important, retired East Indian officials. During the first half of the century, indeed, those whom the world at that time designated as "nabobs " were a common feature in the life of St. Andrews.

It has been the good fortune of the Scottish people of the cultured classes for many generations to furnish a liberal supply of recruits to these three branches of the public service, and more particularly to the last named. Students of Indian history know how the names of Scotsmen abound in every department of the administration of India during the last hundred years. And Scotland has no reason to feel ashamed of the record which these sons of hers have left behind them. Somehow or other they seem to have possessed in a peculiar degree the qualities which are of greatest value in the man who undertakes the duties of the public service. Caution combined with enthusiasm, shrewdness of judgment allied to steadfastness of purpose, great powers of work, simplicity of life, a natural frugality, and above all an unassailable devotion and loyalty — these seem to be the qualities which may be confidently looked for in that order of Scotsmen to whom the service of our country has owed so much. Many of the men who, in the early years of the nineteenth century, settled down in the quiet streets of St. Andrews to pass their closing days on its links and in its simply furnished drawing-rooms, were men who, in distant lands, had done great deeds for Britain in days when the newspaper had not yet become the trumpeter of contemporary fame.

Among the many families in St. Andrews connected by various links with our ever-growing empire in the East, there was none better known than that of the Playfairs. The name was one that had long been familiar in the annals of the ancient city. If one does not find Playfairs taking part in those stormy scenes which once gave St. Andrews a place of importance in the political and ecclesiastical affairs of Great Britain — if no Playfair, for example, is to be found in the company of Cardinal Beaton, John Knox, Andrew Melville, or Archbishop Sharpe — the name rises into notice almost as soon as the days of storm have passed, and St. Andrews, after the long strife of contending kirks and rival dynasties, has turned itself to the occupations of peace. In 1738 a certain James Playfair was born at Bendochy, in the county of Forfar. In 1773 he married one Margaret Lyon, a kinswoman of the family of the Earls of Strathmore ; and in 1799, having won distinction as a writer of historical and geographical works, he became Principal of the United Colleges of St. Leonards and St. Salvator. The reader will learn more of Principal Playfair and of his pedigree by and by. Here it is only necessary to say that just a hundred years ago this worthy man, as Principal of the University of St. Andrews, was at the head of the society of the city, and the father of a numerous family, all of whom played a useful and honourable part in life, and one of whom became the father of the subject of this memoir. Three of Principal Playfair's four sons had careers in the public service. The eldest, George, was a surgeon in the employment of the East India Company ; the second, William, and the third, Hugh, were officers in the Indian army. Only one son, the youngest, took to a commercial life, and became a merchant at Glasgow. The Playfairs consequently furnished a striking example of those Scotsmen of culture and social position who devote themselves to the public service, finding in the duties and the honours of that service a more satisfying compensation than that which attends the mere pursuit of wealth. Like all their order, they turned with instinctive affection from the distant lands in which they did their life's work to the grey old city which had been the cradle of their race. George Playfair sent his children, of whom Lyon was the second, from the dangers of childhood in India to spend their youth in St. Andrews. The other sons of the Principal themselves came back to their native place to end their days, and one of them, Sir Hugh, commonly known as "the Provost," became, about the middle of the present century, the benevolent despot and ruling power in the city. Lyon Playfair, though born at Chunar, in the province of Bengal, passed his youth at St. Andrews. At St.

Andrews he first tasted the joys of learning, and at St. Andrews, at the close of his long and busy life, his remains were laid to rest in the burial-ground that surrounds the ruins of the old cathedral. If one desired to find a typical example of that class of Scotsmen of which I have spoken, it would not be easy to find one more striking than that afforded by Lyon Playfair. The man, the story of whose life is to be told in these pages, never rose to that dazzling eminence which justifies the world in describing a human being as supremely "great." He did not pretend to the genius which lifts a few men high above their fellows. It cannot be affirmed that he was one of the great figures of his generation. Yet his life, though it was lived without ostentation and without parade, was undoubtedly one of the fullest and most useful lives of his time. It was emphatically a life of work, and of work not for the accumulation of wealth or the achievement of fame, but for the acquiring of truth and for the service of his fellow-men. That he won what the world regards as a brilliant personal success is not to be denied. He, the son of a surgeon on the Bengal establishment, beginning life as a student of science, and compelled to look almost entirely to his own exertions for his advancement, rose to be one of the acknowledged counsellors of successive Governments upon questions that affected the most important interests of the people, one of the most influential leaders and teachers in the education of the nation, and one of the most active of those men who, "behind the scenes," exercise so great a control over public affairs. That he won for himself honours varied and distinguished need not be told. Their record will appear in due time. But his most conspicuous success was not in the winning of stars and titles, but in the actual accomplishment of work which has not only benefited his own generation, but must benefit many generations to come.

We have to tell here the story of how the young Scotch student, who had hardly emerged from his boyhood when he began to feel the passion for public service, worked in that service throughout a long and laborious life, and achieved in it triumphs that the world will not lightly forget. It is, most fortunately for his biographer, a story that is told partly in Lyon Playfair's own words. The chapters of autobiography of which this memoir will in part consist were not prepared for publication. In the first instance they were jotted down at irregular intervals for the benefit of his family. They were never revised by their writer, and as they advance they lose something of continuity. At the best, they are a plain, unvarnished record, in which many incidents of interest in the life with which they deal are either omitted altogether or passed over hurriedly. They consequently require not a few additions in order to make the narrative complete ; whilst here and there the meaning of a particular passage needs elucidation. But wherever it has been possible I have left Lyon Playfair to tell the story of his life in his own way. All that I ask of the reader at the outset is to remember that this is emphatically a story not of adventure, but of work. The character of the man whose life it tells will be gathered in part from the tasks he accomplished, in part from his own letters and from the reminiscences of his friends, and in part from a knowledge of that side of the Scotch character which is specially noticeable among the men of the class to which he belonged. I have thought it right to touch upon this last subject at the outset of my task ; for rightly to understand the character and the life of Lyon Playfair one must understand something of the spirit which has led so many young Scotsmen to devote themselves to the service of their country in the arts of peace with a patriotic fervour as intense as that which ever inspired one of the heroes of arms. To Lyon Play fair the good of his country was a thing to be pursued not merely in the Senate, or on contested fields, but in the laboratory and the council room, in social intercourse, and in the humdrum round of daily life. It was a thing never to be lost sight of, no matter how incongruous with public work the scene or the circumstances might be. It was something calling not so much for isolated deeds of heroism as for a patient and unremitting care, extending even to the most trivial tasks and incidents. The reader will see how conscientiously he gave effect to this conviction as the story of his life is unfolded in these pages.

In one respect Playfair was exceptionally fortunate. That was in the period over which his life's work extended. Born when his country was slowly beginning to recover from the severe exhaustion of the Napoleonic wars, and when the extension of personal freedom and constitutional rights engaged the attention of the great majority of the population, he began his own public work after the excitement of the struggle for Parliamentary reform had died away, and at a time when questions affecting the social and economic condition of the people were coming to the front. He may be said with accuracy to have been present at the birth of sanitary reform, not only in this country, but in modern Europe. The very first office which he held in the service of the State was in connection with that Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Health of Towns which laid the foundations of sanitary science, as we now know it, and which was the first step in the revolution that has changed the conditions of urban life throughout the civilised world. The reader will learn later on something of the conditions which prevailed in our towns before Playfair and his colleagues began their labours, and something also of the marvellous benefits which those labours have conferred upon mankind. It was Playfair's great happiness to be enlisted in this work of sanitary reform in its very earliest stages. He threw himself into the battle against dirt and disease with as great an ardour as that which any soldier ever displayed upon the field of battle ; and to the end of his days he remained what he had been in his youth, the most earnest and most energetic of sanitary reformers.

Even more fortunate was he in the fact that almost simultaneously with this new effort on behalf of the health of the people, there arose in England the great educational movement which has been one of the chief national glories of the nineteenth century. A student, with a student's devotion to science, Playfair was naturally attracted to the scientific or technical side of the educational problem, and, most fortunately for his country, he was enlisted almost at the outset in that great national undertaking out of which was destined to spring the whole system of scientific and technical instruction which, before the century reached its close, had been brought into existence. No wise man will lay much stress upon luck — the mere chances of fortune — in judging of any human life. But it is impossible to ignore the chapter of accidents, and in writing of Playfair one cannot but recognise the fortunate character of that accident which placed such a man, with his special intellectual sympathies and aptitudes, in close communication with Prince Albert at the time when that illustrious Prince was taking the first steps towards introducing an efficient system of art and science training into the country of his adoption. No better instrument could have fallen into the hands of the Prince, and no task more perfectly suited to Playfair's special sympathies and talents than that entrusted to him by his eminent patron, could possibly have been found. It was, indeed, a rare stroke of good fortune for Playfair himself— and, as I think, for his country also — that he was thus introduced in his early youth to two such fields of labour as those connected with the health and the education of the community. When the historian comes to deal with the story of Great Britain during the latter half of the nineteenth century, he will have more to say of the great social and intellectual advancement in the condition of the people which that term has witnessed, than of the struggles of contending parties in Parliament, or even of our armies on foreign soil. In the chapter which history devotes to the social progress of our century, Pla3rfair's name must always hold a place of honour.

He was fortunate again in beginning his public career at the moment when steam, as applied more particularly to ocean travel, was being pressed into the service of mankind. In his early youth Great Britain was indeed an island, isolated in many important respects from the rest of the world. He lived to see its insularity destroyed, and the ocean, which once separated it from the rest of the world, converted into the highway which unites it with every other portion of the globe. He lived to see the whole earth converted into one huge market and emporium, and the food supplies of the working-men of London brought to their doors from the plains of Northwestern Canada, the fields of India, and the spurs of the Andes. A close student of that branch of science which deals with the economic conditions of life, Playfair was a watchful and intelligent observer of the startling developments which these conditions underwent. To the new order of things he sought to apply the old economic truths. In those truths he believed as firmly as he believed in the accuracy of the multiplication table. He was, indeed, unswerving and inflexible in his adherence to the political economy which lie had learned as a youth. As time passed, new schools arose in political economy as in other branches of intellectual study, and men who thought that even the multiplication table was open to reform, girded at the older students who, like Playfair, recognised the fact that in economics as in mathematics there are certain axioms which cannot be called in question. It was Play fair's good fortune to be able to draw the true economic lessons from the new conditions of human life with which, in the process of the suns, he was brought in contact. Few men of our time have done more than he did to show the bearing of new industrial facts and of fresh scientific discoveries upon the old laws of supply and demand, the old axioms upon the observance of which depends the wealth of nations and the prosperity of communities.

But while he was thus devoting his best energies throughout a prolonged life to the service of his fellow-men in fields which lay apart from the contentions of political parties, he was not without his record in purely political affairs. The story of his career in the House of Commons will be duly set forth in these pages. He was always more of a philosopher among politicians than of a politician among philosophers. Yet he achieved one or two rare successes even as a politician, and to him must ever be ascribed the honour of having been one of the two or three men who, at a moment when the two branches of our English race seemed to be drifting towards an inevitable and ruinous collision, were able to intervene in the cause of peace, and to avert a disaster that would have wrecked the cause of human liberty.