New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-13
LORD ,LYTTON.
HIS AaIABLE, POLISHED MANNERS AND
DISLIKE OF CONvENTIONALITY.

Paris. November 20.
The death Of Lord Lytton was an event OF no
small Importance, whether regarded from diplo-
matte social standpoint ] consider it
great loss TO Paris and to the Government oil
Lord Salisbury, who never find any other
English nobleman so much in touch with French
authors, artists and statesmen, cultiyating liter
allure at once rs q pastime and a means OF excell-
ing in Oratory, as the late Earl Lytton. His
grace Of manner, thorough amiability, manysided
and brilliant nature; his easy good-nature. keen
wit and facility in bright repartee, were qualities
which went home TO cultivated French men and
women. Indeed, he was more approximately
judged in Paris than in London. where Disraeli,
his fathers great friend, and Lord Salisbury, his
fathers neghbor, were among the few who valued
him as he deserved. Most English people who
were acquainted with him and knew OF him
through his writings looked upon him as clever
and slightly eccentric person. They failed to Sc
that he had serious qualities OF very high order.
1t does not do in England for public man TO
differ greatly in the forms in which his mind WORKS
from his neighbors. / often heard Lord Lytten
spoken Of in London by persons Of wide social
experience as mountebank and a bohemian lie
was one Of the most genuine persons ever Knew
and could not help living out his own lie. Az
the same time his intense originality was kept In
culture which is obtained both through scholar
ship and the habit OF mixing on terms of eq'ia1ty
with the greatest people in the world and in most
Of the worlds capitals All Europe, America
and India contributed to this part of his educa-
tion he having on leaving school entered diplom-
acy and made rapid round of the different CAPT
tails attache, and then two other rounds a.
Secretary Of Embassy and Minister Pienipo-
Tertiary. His nature being strangely receptive,
though as strangely original, he took splendid
polish in the course Of his diplomatic peregrnatons.
and, while remaining good Englishnan, became
citizen Of the world, as well as OF the republic
of letters, to distinguish himself in which was the
prime object Of his life What was so charming
was the survival Of so much Of the child in him up
to the age of sixty, at which he died lie had the
ease, the amiable love of appreciation, the inn
pressionableness, the keen perception and the
capacity of childhood to find happiness in small
teeting joys. His tongue could be keen as
lancet and always was so when he smarted under
an offence
Nobody had more insight into character OF
saw more quickly the absurd effects of vanity on
behavior. Yet he was. on the whole, good-natured
in his judgments Of human beings. A more
hospitable person never lived and he had the
virtue of liking people entirely for themselves
His mind was very fine one The capacious
brain, which was lodged in high arched Uranium
covered with dark brown curly hair of silky
texture, had with it body which might be
igurativey described as being all nervous ganglia.
A man of his singular organization could not be
otherwise than intuitive, emotional and im-
pressonabe. lie got in England the credit Tor
discredt- Of being disspated sensualist. No
estimate could be more erroneous. The things
Of the mind were to him an object of passionate
interest. lie took a still greater interest
in the spiritual side Of human nature
and the upper world to which he felt
he was tending These passions crowded out
vices. He smoked all day long, ] admit, tiny
cigarettes, and he used to take morphine after
its properties were discovered, but soon left OIL
doing so. One can hardly wonder at his doing
so. There was no rest all the time he was in
diplomacy for his nerves His heart very
unruly organ, and recorded in it's palpitatons the
smallest emotion. How his manner could be so
quietly easy with such heart was always 10 me an
interesting problem that l never was able to solve.
lie was the first Ambassador of Great Britain
in this country who invited the actors and
actresses Of the Francois TO his table This
shocked conservative English and French
aristocrats and mddle-cass people. He also shocked
persons of these classes at garden party, after
he had taken Madame Carnot and Madame
cessively for the same purpose first TO lady
journalist Of whom he fond, she being clever
woman and trustworthy friend, and next to a
singer-Madame Nevada-then TO a marchoness.
and lastly to q Baroness Rothschild. lie pro-
fessed great admiration for Madame Floquet, and
said that it would be vast gain for France
were she perpetual Prime Minister.
Nobody was more favorable TO womens rights than
Lord Lytton. lie thought women superior
in many respects to men, and as members Of civil
LIED communities, in most other respects, their
equals. In the solution of the womsns rights
question he often thought would be found safety
from the barbarOus elements which underlie modern
democracies. Women higbstrune.
could be more heroic and certainly they had truer
intuitions than men. That they should be allowed
great liberty appeared to E1im social necessity.
Under what other condition could their evolution
be felicitous? A woman whose mind
rowed by forced obedience TO conventionaltics
and by semi-oriental sccusion always gave him,
pain and always caused him repugnance
Lord LyttOn was an amiabe husband and father.
His wife worshipped him. Nothing panied ner.
more than to feel that he moderated by his
cOuntrymen.