New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-08-04
GRANT IN LONDON.
WITH SOME "REMINISCENCES OF HIS VISIT
TO ENGLAND.

| WITH SOME REMlNlSCENCES Of Ills WISH
TO ENGLAND.
IvRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, July "a.
Much is said in this mornings papers Of General
Grant, and most of it is said very well. The tone
| is one of admring friendliness throughout. Long
biographies are published; copious kilograms from
| New-York give minute details Of his death, and
there is in every paper elaborate editorial esti-
mate of his character and genius. 1t may be said
of General Grant that he was almost as we'll known
In London as in New-York English interest in his
| fate, though necessarily less keen than our
Own is sincere and general. When he
| was i'll, the circumstantial accounts Of his
symptoms, medical particulars included, appeared
as regularly here at home. They were less
abundant but they were sufficient. And to-day
the Englishman may read and docs read very full
narratives of all that the great soldier achieved
the battle fields Of the war for tho Union. IL
Engshmen have not wholly recovered from their
exaggerated opinion of the late General Lee, they
have at least learned to do something like justice to
the soldier who vanquished Lee, broke the military
power of the Confederacy, and restored the Union.
And they render full justice to the heroism with
which he has borne his sufferngs, to the dignity
and delicate sense of honor that marked his sab
mission to adversely.
The present interest of EDgishmen in General
Grant Is not due in any great degree to his visit
to this country. 1t is due to his greatness and his
great career. They were glad to see him when
he came, shOwered attention and honors on him
and made him welcome in public and private But to
the last Grant remained puzzle to most of thOsewith
whom he was brought in contact. Nevertheless. Gen.
eral Grants London visit success, and the I'M
preston he left was on the whole, good i'm
preston. When he appeared in public he was
T.. t., afad for
the pleasure of receiving him. He was tho lion
OF the season. A distinguished diner-Out said
toward the close of these festivities that
there had hardly been night for weeks
when he had not been asked to meet Gen.
eral Grant. The Queen and the Prince OF
Wales did not perhaps set the example, but they
followed 1t. The whole family asked to
Windsor / need say nothing of the public cere-
monies which attended General Grants stay IN
London and which were fully described at the
time. The most brilliant of all the civic honors
bestowed upon him was the presentation OF the
freedom Of the City of London, when the Guildhali
was crowded and the citizen made one OF his few
speeches Nay. if recollect rightly, he made three
that same day. Enough and more than enough has
been written about all this, and Mr.. Russell Young
has put it ali on record in the book which he de-
voted to General Grants tour round the world.
said in those June days of 1877 was a distinct con-
trIbution to the then rapidly increasing stock OF
English goodwill to the United States. suppose
nothing astonished the Englishmen more than to
discover that General Grant could talk. lie had
acquired a reputation for silence equal to General
Moltke's-ony not in seven tongues Tie con-
tinued to deserve it, at times, IN London, but at
times also he conversed freely often on other than
military topics. | once sat by while he dlscoursed
to an English Minister on his own administration.
Ii was not thought here that General
Grants politics his strong point.
but he certainly convinced his English hearers that
he knew what he was talking about. English SOL
diers soon discovered that Grant was master of
his profession and could discuss technicaities with
the best of them. The foolish saying, foolishy
attributed to General Moltke, that nothing was to
be learned from the campaigns of the Civil War,
had long passed for gospel in sections of Eng
hsh society," General Grants sodierly and scien-
tifc criticism of battles and seges was of itself
sufficient answer to q remark which had never
been uttered.
Carlyle was one of those who were most
fond of contemptuous phrases about American
warfare | recall an incident which will indicate
well enough what he thought. and what in 1865
most Englishmcn still thought about the subject.
My letter OF introduction to hin mentioned my hay-
ing been a correspondent with the Northern armies
The old man looked up from the letter which he
was re-readlng, and said Ah then you were 90
ing up and down with those fighting parties"
Even the success of the fighting parties could
not soften Carlyles scorn; and the
scorn survived less bitterly with many
Englishmen long after the Rebellion. Grants
Visit, believe senced all further expression of it.
The staff had studied his campaigns with respect,
aud though Grant not man TO sound MS own
praises it was Idle to say that his terse summaries
of battles could come from any but a great COM
mander They were not literary, they had not |
touch of the amateur, they bore no likeness to the
plausible ceverncsS of a military historian such as
Theirs. He talked as he fought, a single line. |
and he was admirable In his dIrectness aud clear
ness of speech whenever it turned on war;
G. W. s.