New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-06-16
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY.
HIS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

|
IRON TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.l
LONDON, June 1.-Our countryman, Mr. Motley,
| died from second stroke of paralysis on Wednes-
day, May 80 in Dorsetshire at the house of his
| in-law, Mr.. Agernon Sheridan He will be buried
on Monday. in Kensal-Grcen Cemetery, by the side
Of his wife. You will have expressed your own
opinion about Mr.. Motley long before this but l
trust may not be too late to say a word about his
life III England, and what was thought of him here.
| II is some twenty years since Mr.. Motley became
| well known in London-about the time of the pub
LEGATION of his History of the Rise of the Dutch Re
public, The book which his fame as an historian
| will ultimately rest. From that day down to the
| death of his wife in 1875 his acquaintance with
| Englishmen of fhe best class steadily widened.
Long before he became Minister here long before he
| became Minister at Vienna he was well and inti-
mately known in English society. After his success
in the Austrian capital, and during the brief dpo-
| matte career at the Court of St. James, which
ended by fit of political ill-temper in Gen. Grant,
Mr.. Motley was perhapsmore generally known to the
English public. But his place in the esteem and af-
fecilon of the best people in England was quite in
dependent of his diplomatic distinction. He had
gained it by his brilliant literary tnumphs and by
his fine personal qualities. II was by those he kept
it, and lacking those no amount of merely official
celebrity would have secured him social rank a
moment beyond the end OF his official life
The use he made of his position here was such as
to entite him to the lasting gratitude of his coun
trymen. lie was first, last and before all things an
American. The criticism at one time made on him
in England that he was too American. His pat
riotism was of no languid, scholastic pattern. He
all aglow with it, and he never hesitated to say
or do at any moment, in any company, the word or
thing he thought most for the interest of his coun-
try. In the days when English friends were
fewer in number than now, Mr. Motley was just as
outSpoken as before and after. When Society was
all for the Confederacy, when you could not sit
down at an English dnner-table without hearing
bitter dislike 30 the Union and eager praise of
Lee and Jackson, when advocates of the Union in
the House of Commons could not be reck
oned up to a score, Mr. Motley Tisked
social relations and personal friendships by the ex-
ceedng plainness of his speech. OF his visits to
London while Minister to Vienna, not few anec-
dotes current q which this will serve rs speci-
men. An eminent writer. who afterward became
one of his warmcst friends, told me that entering
the AthenTum Club one afternoon, he found an ex-
cited crowd surrounding a man whom he did not
then know. This stranger was yehemcntly pleading
the cause Of the Union. The phenomenon was most
unusual. He was talking clearly and strongly. and
even eloquently and not only defending his own
pathies of his audience and of the English upper
classes in general 1t was done III good taste. aud
without violence, but with great vigOr. The speaker
was Mr. Motley, and said my English friend. don't
think there was another man in London at the mo-
mcnt who would have done it, or who would have
been listened to if he had tried
In later years, it the same. English dislike TO
the Republic as a form of government had in great
measure passed away, and there was no longer
Confederacy to sympathze with. But there has
never vet been time when English criticism on
American matters was not pretty free-as free as
ours on English affairs, for instance-nor when the
current events of political life III the United States
were not strangely misunderstood Nhie MI
Adams was Minister, he was much consulted 10y
EngIishmen who cared about America. After Mr.
Adanls's return we had no Minister, Mr. Motley eX-
cepted, whose opinion valued But during all
the perod SUBSEQUENT to Mr.. Adamss term, whoever
might be Envoy in NAME Mr.. Motley was beyond
comparison the most useful representative we had IN
England. He knew everybody, went everywhere
and was liked, consulted, and trusted. lie was the
best representative we have had OF what there Is
best ia America. Mr.. Gladstone Earl Russell, the
Duke of ARGYLL, the Duke of Westminster Lord
IIoughton. Mr. Hughes, Mr.. Carlyle, Dean Stanley,
Lady Walleraye, were among his intimate friends
| could mention a score of Others, and hundreds OF
Others among the first men IN England with whom
he was on familiar terms may say there was
nobody worth knowing whom he did not know.
And rcpeat that to one and all lie held the same
tone about his country, tone of genuine PRIDE iii
his own people, and in republican institutions a
pride which found voice i'll strenuous vindlcatloh 0i
them against ignorant or malicious criticism.
There is nobody TO replace him i'll that capacity;
nobody who has or can readily acquire bis social p0-
stIon his wide influence or the respect ana affection
of the many. many friends by whom lac had 50 long
been surrounded. Nobody has led quite the same
life or had quite the opportunities. These OPP
portunites and his natural gifts went slnSulaiiy
well together. lie had many OF the best traits OF an
Aforementioned independence, devotion to hgh
ideas confidence in himself and his country a pro-
found conviction that, whatever supenoritIes El-
ropc may still possess the future is with us ;-thl''
as Emerson says, play the game Wlth immense
advantage lie had all the fresh energy winch
American birth bcstows; and with il the opcnneSs
of mind which is, perhaps, less frequently an Amer
lean characteristic TO this he owed his rapid as
s,ilation of Europcan culture ardaccOmplis
I do NOT know that Europe has any better society
than can be found ia Boston or even New-lo rA.
Rut there is more of it, and the American VINO
makes his way here comes in contact with vastly
greater variety Of types than he can possibly see AT
nome The mere etiquette OF courts hiG salons Is
soon learned but the number Oh people really worth
talking with seems inexhaustbc. Mr. Motley
knew every capital in Europe, and was at home IN
all of them His renown in Literature opened all
doors 10 him. His Accomplishments, his singular
distinction of manner, his high qualities, made MN
. fayorite everywhere. His PERSONAL beauty counted
for something More than once | lave heard 1t re-
marked on aud more than once | have heard In
elishmen say that in a roomiui OF celebrities incud
ing half the pce,age and all the diplomatic corls'
there was nobody TO compare with Mr.. Motley lie