New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-19
LORD GRANVILLE.
AS ARIsTooRAT, AS LORD WARDEN, AS
POLITICIAN, AS PUSSY" AS HOST,
AS SPEAKER, IND AS LORD
GRANVILLE

said that he leaves no successor. llme was, GU
least in England, when generation succeeded 70
generation ana the new was not unlike the Old
There was spiritual heirship which never Jailed
The line Of descent was not interrupted The
Amurath Of to-day was the lineal offspring and
true eoov df the Amurath who went before him.
There was no break, no real interruption, nothing
like the arrival OF new breed, or the develop
ment of q different spe6es. But who and where
are the men otoday who stand to those OF yester-
day In the same relation which those OF yesterday
bore to these Of the day before? They do not
exist The new .c3ners are excellent in their
way; they have considerable qualities; they VIII
get ON in the world and leave great names, per-
haps but they none the less belong 30 class
apart They nay even, If sou insist upon it, De
better; never The same. j 90 over again the
familiar list Of real celebrities; men OF real dis
tinction of the last fifty Or sixty years, whether
here in England or In America-Kinglase, Hay
ward, Hourbton, Browning, Charles Sumner,
Emerson, and many more-and ask again, who
is there like thenP They were the product OF
time which has passed away.
Lord Granville; who is just dead, was one Of
the best Of this group, and one of the last DO
not think less well Of him If say that he was
the outgrowth Of an aristocratic society," and that
in no other society would he have been possible.
speak Of him both in his private and his pub
lic capacity; as person and "a politician or
statesman. The new Democracy of Great Britain
will do many things some Of them useful perhaps
even great One thing which it will not do
is to bring forth men like Lord Granville, or like
any Of those who were of his type. The condi-
tons Of production are not the same; the product
will not be the same. The patrician is passing
out of politics; if indeed he be not, as class,
already out. He survives in the person of Lord
Salisbury, and in other persons. The individual
1S,f4 ho alacc m
which he sprang has lost its grip There is
book, less well-known than it might be, on The
Governing Families of England. Its title is
descriptive of state of things which exists no
longer. The governing families do not govern
They do not even reign
Lord Granville. to be sure hardly belonged
TO these great families, except by virtue OF his
descent ON the mothers side. She was the sec
ond daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonsbire,
and so Some Of the blood Of the Cavendshes
flowed in Lord Grapvilles veins But from his
youth upward he enjoyed those advantages OF
position which in this country are reckoned TO
give a man who has them some twenty-five
years start Of man who has them not. He
began life at twenty as attoche to the Brit
ish Embassy in Paris, where his father
was Ambassador. Five years later, at twenty
five, he was Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
The present Under Secretary, Sir James Ferguson,
Is ffty-nine years old. Lord Granville has been
something ever since that time; has been in ofice.
that is whenever the Liberal party, its present
successor the Gladstonah party, has been in office.
1t is forty years since he first became Foreign
Minister, at the not too mature age of thirtysix.
Perhaps among the many Offices and dignites he
held, that which seemed least suitable to him was
the Lord Wardenship of the Cirque Ports. Long
fellows fine poem has indissolubly associated that
post with the great Duke of Wellington, who held
it nearly quarter Of century. 1t might be
hard 70 name two men between whom in many
essential traits Of character the contrast was
stronger than between Lord Granville and the
Duke of Wellington Between them came Lord
Dalhouse and Lord Palmerston, yet still the
transition seems violent. The great soldier, the
great Viceroy Of India, the great Prime Minister
the pre-eminent Englishman of his tme-what
was there in common between them and the
smooth diplomatist who. ever since 1865, has kept
watch and ward at the gateway of England?
1t sounds simpler TO say he has been tenant of
Walmer Castle. But they lad, all of these men,
this one thing at least in common. They all be-
longed to that Aristocracy which the Democracy
is now turning out Of doors.
He has, of late years, led that little minority
Of the House OF Lords which now calls itself the
Opposition 1t was almost as weak when the
Liberals were in power as it is now, and to lead
this forlorn hope against Lord Salisbury's big
naJtAlions required something better than mere
courage. BATTLE said Wellington in Spain, is
the last resource Of q good general On that
maxim Lord Granville acted He avoided general
engagements, and so kept his little squad together
He was an antagonist well suited TO Lord Sails
bury, whom it would be difficult to surpass or to
equal in his own manner. What Lord Granville
did to meet him in another manner; less
authority. lie was adroit good humored, and
excelled in handling grave matters with freedom
of mind and with certain jauntiness which at
least gave his followers the impression that no
great disaster was TO be feared.
Sometimes hint toward mans character
may be had from the nickname which his friends.
or perhaps his enemies bestOw on him. Sometimes
but not always; perhaps not often; those
nioknames most current in London Of recent years
would prove Lord Granville's was Pussy,
and in his il was, to some extent descriptive
IL was in common use at the Foreign Office. That
office is not usually supposed TO be in too great
hurry about the transaction of business
nor to be consumed with zeal But Lord Gran
Vile took things easily that even the Foreign
Office was sometimes disturbed. There used Ia
be 1900 dispatches year. Now there are
10000 Lord Granville, says of his eulogsts
could deal with the former number the latter was
too much for him. The increase seems TO have
occurred between his first and his last tenure OF
the post If he dealt with the 1900, he dealt
with them at his leisure: at his own time and moi
10 suit somebody's else impatienoe In this re
spect he followed with fidelity the habits of the
interesting animal who lent him her name. Pus
sy is much too dignifed TO hurry and when she il
indolent. knows how to be incident So did Lore
Granville. He carried it too far at times. but TN
knowledge is invaluable. However, I suppos'
It was the softness and flexible grace Of his NATURE
and perhaps his sinuous method Of proceeding
toward his aim, to which he owed his sobrique'
OF course I use sinuous in no i'll sense.
/ once saw Lord Granville do an act which
slight in itself, Thought very Characteristic 0
him. 1t was when he was Foreign Minister, an