The New York herald., 1879-08-26
LORD LYTTON.
Career Of Owen Meredith, Poet
and Statesman.
vICEROY OF INDIA.
His Resignation in Favor of Canada's Late
Governor General.
LONDON. August II. 1879.


After three years. tenure of Office Lord Lytton ia
rcsigning his high functions as'viceroy of India.
The reading public still knows him best as owen
Meredith the dreamer of 'Luce," the cynic of
!Fables in Song" As q statesman he has long
been signing for the laurels that he won poet.
and the Afghan war being over he now feels himself
atliberty to accept the earldom profiered by Lord
Bcaconsield and. shaking off the cares of admins
tration which dwarfed and confined his intellect.
to return to the midst of European society in which
he was figure apart. There many candidates
Tor his office. The Duke of Buckingham now Gov
ernor of Madras has always been considered his
natural successor. but it is highly probable that
vindicating to the end the policy OF 'vivian Grey.
Lord Beaconsfeld will set aside the pretensons of
this utterly commonplace nobleman in favor of one
who has already gained the highest distinction as
Governor General Of Canada II the Bulwers are
destined to give place to the Blackwoods the ap-
pointment of Lord Dufferin will unquestionaby be
less Of dramatic surprise than was the appoint
ment of Lord Lytton in 1876. The English settlers
in India could scarcely believe the intelligence OF
that event. Lord Northbrook the retiring viceroy,
had certainly been somewhat ploddng; his rule had
been prosac and uneventfu; the gorgeous aspect Of
Eastern life, which warmed tho Imagination Of
Burke and Macaulay. had possessed few charms for
him. and he had not borne with much liberality the
Durueu Oh sovereign SpltuuOf, out at ledSb he naQ
known their ways. had respected their traditions.
had humored the Weaknesses of administration
which the wags called ga government of office boxes.
tempered by occasional loss of the key" And who
was Lord Lytton? His father. the inimitable Bull
wer. had written novels and plays. His mother. an
irish girl. had composed certain Grabbed essays,
thorny with classical quotations, in the manner Of
Lord Bacon, called "Shells from the Sands OF
Time" He himself had been guilty Of verse, and
many schoolgirl had wept over the of Lucille.
The worthy Anglo-Indians, gossiping in their hill
stations, took personal aront this appointment
of poetical viceroy. who knew nothing of their
scale of social precedence and might take collec-
tors wife in to dinner in advance of the Commits
sioner's. They were prejudiced against him from
the first.
FASHIONABLE BOHEMIA.
Yet Robert Lytton, then forty-fve years old, had
been king of q society which would hove closed its
doors to the tattling oicialdom of India. 1t was
society worthy to be anayzed connected with letters
md art at once by feeling and by birth. kind Of
fashionable freemasonry, not very numerous thinly
difused over the continent Of Europe belonging to
all parties if not to all classes and. in fact special
section of the world recruited from ali its four
ners. America contributed mean clement to its
composition. Its members were men of complex
apttudes with afnities for several things at
btateslneu Oh Will
touch of originality; clever and profound art con-
noisseurs: musical composers who wrote dainty lit
tie pieces; poets, diplomatsts andpublic placed
the head of immense enterprises. II Owen Meredith
had not belonged to it by right of conquest hewould
have belonged to it by right of BIRTH He had genius
by inheritance. His training in public affairs had
been very much more thorough than that OF his
accomplished father who had been content with a
Secretaryship of State during one of Lord Derby q
administrations His labors subordinate ranks
of diplomacy in many European capitals had gained
him high reputation for tact and judgment. He
1T took the lead of the coterie of cosmopotes,
to form part of which it was necessary to be some
body. and on which. long before he appeared, his
written with letters of gold. Every body
knew him to be whom. though he never pa
raded his knowledge, you could not quit without
learning something fresh; on whose honor there
had been the least speck of discredit; !;
who carried his polish simply and at all
times avoided stiffness, and who would forgive
everything but vulgarity. One might be anything
in his company rather than vulgar. He had mar
red. in 1864. Miss Edith Villiers, daughter of the
late Hon. Edward Vlliers and niece of the late Earl
of Clarendon, who had become the natural leader of
the ladies of the coterie-women combining fortune
with BIRTH having an innate elegance which freed
them from coquetry, ana, while they were the con-
stant friends OF the of their world sho wing at
the same time much frankness in their relations
as.to exclude those oouryeoiste hypocrisies where
amorous intrigue DISCUSSES itself under the respect
able mask of friendship. They were as many sided
the men. writing and painting singing and play
ing; for woman with beauty without grace, or with
elegance without esprit. by simply being incomplete
would never have belonged to this society.
DIPLOMACY.
It's headquarters III the Avenue Bosquet, at
Paris Here. In Lord Lyttons beautifully furnished
villa. its members gathered. Round them. on all
sides. were memorials OF Owen Mercdith's career.
In the library the prizes ho had won at Harrow.
aud tones of heavy German philosophers that he
had carried off from the University of Bonn. OPP
posite the book shelf hung photograph of the
Capitol at Washington, where he had taken his first
lessons IN diplomacy when little more than boy
and Ind mixed with society that has long since
passed away. The terra Gotta statuette, modelled
after Michael Angelo's David" recalled the days
when he loungcd as attnche beside the Arno; the
crypt the wall brought memories Of his mission 10
The Hague; the bear skin trophy OF st. Peters
burg. On the piano in the drawing room were
waItzes OF 1859. with the autograph Johann strauss
Vienna. The hookah on tho table was from Bel
grade; the gold mounted cigar case was given him
Ut Copenhagen hy the Princess Alexandra whom she
sailed to her new home in England; tho sweet, oval
face looking downdrom painting was that of a
maid of Athens, whom he met soon after. The half
finished volume among his fathers works showed
that he succeeded TO the title in 1873. In short.
the house was full OF interesting mementoes,
md its atmosphere was so genial and
A0istic that the haughtiest people felt IL
privilege TO enter It, On great occasions Lord Lyt-
ton eiAced himself, leaving the first place to the
mistress of the house. who shone with the unob-
trusive grace that generally distinguishes English
women OF her rank From time To time, when tho
rigorous Paris climate drove all birds OF passage to
sunny shores, he would remain alone and though,
In the eyes OF many, the Driiiancy OF his saloons
was dimmcd. to the few their attractions
hanced. His less habitual guests then understood
his supremacy. lie broached dry subjects aud
social problems with accomplished ease. and few
were found that he had not mastered When he did
not express himself as man who knew he showed
himself who wished to know. In 1875 he
made English Minister ut Lisbon, and the charming
house was first closed and thon dsmantlcd. But
his friends convinced that mis- appointment
only halting place to something higher.
'Ever since the Prince of Wales journey to lnuia."
said one of them at the time ever since We have
read those Arabian Nightlke descriptions, we have
thought that Lord Lytton the man TO ut that
Oriental frsme-a type both of strength and o SYM
pathy, at once sumptuous and sober, who would
carry to India the determination to make his will
felt would console himself Tor necessary privaions
by stealing from the East the of her harmo-
ncs and would bring back TO Lytton bronzed.
with two volumes OF new poems in his pocket and
whole world in his head"
BLACK WHITE.
The Anglo-lndans viewed him differently. They
considered him an intruder n the sacred ground of
Indian politics aud watched anxously for his first
lsaiai ull,.,o