The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-27

desperate struggle st Liverpool. He prob.
ably knew better than anybody else that
it was forlorn hope, bu' he never showed
a sign of wavering. He fought the
election tooth and nail, and as lar as
money could be legitimately used, he spent
it without stint. Every voter that could
by any possibly be got to support Glad
stonian candidate was brought to the poll.
But all in vain. Sir Thomas Brassey, as
he then was, had to bear the humiliation
of defeat in the town where his FANNY
had for fifty years been held in the highest
honor, and which was bound to him by
the strongest ties of gratitude. He had,
moreover, to submit to exclusion from the
house of commons after an unbroken
membership of twenty-One years, ana az
the very moment when his prospects OF
taking great place there were brightest.
But he never complained. On the
contrary, he gloried in having made
a gallant fight and got a large vote
in Liverpool for the Gladstonite causes.
and he has made light of his personal sac
rifices, as a matter not worth speaking OF.
There was no hope OF getting MIN scar
elsewhere, for the result OF the general
election was a crushing blow to the dlad-
ministry resigned Immediately, and the
Conservatives came into power for SIX
years. The rule, however, is for retiring
prime minister to recommend whom hes
will to the sovereign for honors, and
among those whom Mr.. Gladstone named
for the peerage was the faithful follower
who had dung himself into the
breach at Liverpool. That is how
he became Lord Brassey, and, though
there is good deal of sarcasm
about the navvy's son wearing coronet,
no one could seriously object to his eleva-
ton. 1t is by the constant addition of
such strong men of the people that the
80 l., L.. - - Ir,r
ing SO many centuries and bids fair to re-
sist all the attacks of demagogues and lev
elers.
The atmosphere of the aristocracy has
had its usual and natural effect on Lord
Brassey. Though still supporter of Mr..
Gladstone, he takes his politics very
mildly now, and never INDUCES in agrees
sive liberalism. But for fidelity to his old
chief, he would probably become a good
Conservative. Early in life, he married
lady belonging to the middle class. who
suffered from terrible infirmity. But
he was as staunch to her as if their
life had been path of roses. She died
of fever on board the Sunbeam, off the.
coast Of New Guinea, and two years ago
Lord Brassey made second marriage
suitable to his present rank. His wife was
a daughter of the late Viscount Maiden
and granddaughter of the venerable Earl
of Essex. His only son by his first mar
riage. moreover, married the daughter of
the Marquis of Abergavenny, and his Sec
ond daughter has recently married Wis.,
count Cantelupe, heir of Earl of Delaware.
The alliances connect the Brasseys with
the very cream of the old nobility, and in
the next generation will place them
among the foremost families of England.
Nothing, however, can make Lord
Brassey an arlstocrat in appearance or
manners. He Is stocky, red-faced, rough
looking man, with reddish gray hair and
side whiskers, very much of the type of
sea captains, that was commoner twenty
years ago than it is now. Seafaring dress
suits him exactly, but in fashionable
clothes he looks like fish out of water.
He is a kind-hearted, considerate man,
but externally he seems bluff and bearish,
while the life of untiring activity and high
pressure which he has led must ever pre-
vent his assuming that air of languid leis-
ure so peculiarly characteristic of the
hereditary British Swell" He is still in
the prime of life, with any amount of 60
left in him, and if at the next general cleo
ton the fortunes of the Liberal party
should be restored under the leadership
of their grand old man. there is no reason
why Lord Brassey should not be the ruler
of the queens navee."
EDWARD WAKEFIELD.