New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-04-12

traits In six volumes. vols anu
VI DID, 500, Sl6 Charles Scribners sons
These two volumes complete the per-
sonal record Of the experiences and 90
servatfons Of an Englishman who was
useful and distinguished in public life
and by his friends much beloved, and
they maintain the interest Of the pre-
ceding volumes, reviewed some time ago
in these columns. Hobhouse's diaries
began for us in 1909. when the youth
went on his travels with his closest IL
innate, Lord Byron; they end in looZ'
when, long past middle age and the pos
SCISSOR Of peerage, he resigned his Can
met office and retired into scholarly leis-
IRE. His "reminiscences reveal him as
shrewd but not unkindly judge of men
and Of their political divagations II his
daughter In transcribing these records
has made omissions they have not i'm
paired the value Of his contribution TO
the history OF England in the nineteenth
century. We need not traverse his conf
ments on public affairs; Of more immedi-
ate interest TO the general reader are the
personal appropriations, descriptions and
anecdotes with which these pages are
sown.
There are interesting glimpses here of
Queen Victoria, whose trusted adviser
and friend Hobhouse was for many years,
beginning with the day when the young
girl, in her plain mourning gown under
her crown Of fair braids, presided over
her first council. We see her as an
earnest and hard working sovereign,
lust, fair, reasonable, candid, welcoming
truth. as Lord John Russell described
her The common sense that distln-
ellished her as an old woman IVES
marked in her early youth. Hobhouse
remembers her officious German gov
erness adjuring her before the death OF
King William to act more like the heir
presumptive to the throne. mo" said
the girl "there is no saying what may
happen; I may be what I am all my life.
1t is better to make a mistake on that
side than on the other" Anecdotes of
the Queens predecessors are few in these
volumes; we may quote one told to Hob
house by the Duke of Somerset: Sir
John Pringle resigned the chair Of the
Royal Society in consequence of re-
mark Of George III. The King was talk
ing to him Of Franklin's discovery that
the attraction of a pointed body is
greater than that of a level or circular
surface, and his majesty expressed Il
wish to have it contradicted. Sir said
Pringle I cannot alter the laws Ct
nature Then replied the King, you
are not fit to be president of the Royal
Society,""
There are many passages devoted to
that idol Of the 30s and 40s, the Duke
of Wellington; some particularly enter
tanning ones recount Hobhouse's talks
with the dukes son, Lord Douro. The
young man complained that it wasn't
easy for him to be a public man with
such a father, who, although he had no
prejudice against persons, had the
strongest attachment to old systems, and
thought everything new must be bad"
This most conservative Of old command
ers, his son continued, thought barrack
the perfection of all dwelling places and
the discipline of a soldier the beau ideal
of human institutions. Courage In this
great man was so instructive that It is
doubtful whether he deserved praise for
1t. my father" said Douro, does not
think OF danger or know anything Of it.
He was accustomed to talk about indif-
ferent matters and cut jokes in the heat
of battle" This man of iron however,
was not withoutssoftness. It is recorded
that when the Wellington memorial
committee waited upon him to ask him
TO sit for the statue tears filled his eyes
and he faltered in answering He was
hardy in personal habit. When an old
man ne told Hobhouse that he never
wore a great coat and never caught cold
He slept soundly and never turned in his
bed-he used to say that when a man
turns round It is time for him to turn
out"
OF another famous Englishman, Lord
Nelson. our diarist has remembered some
anecdotes, not forgetting Lord Minto's
description Of the little sailor-that he
looked like goose in gait and manner
He was so devoted to his profession that
he thought Of little else, and in other
matters was inferior to ordinary men.
When busy in talk or action with sea
affairs he was like one inspired-"he saw
and foresaw and arranged and COM
manded in a way that showed he was
above all around him" Hobhouse men
toned what his father had heard Nelson
say at dinner-that II the French ma
tion had but one neck he would cut it
off as he would the fowls before him;
and Mimic capped this with what he had
himself heard Nelson say of the French:
Damn them, I hate them ALL" This
ferocity was for the enemy. His tender
ness for his own men was such that It
awakened generous response in them;
Mimic remembered that nothing was
thought too hard or too perilous for
them TO execute under his command.
Unlike other officers Of his day he hated
nogging in the navy and refused to hear
or see it. Mimic also remembered that
when the queer little man passed
through Vienna after the battle Of the
Nile he was looked upon as something
more than human, and people in the
streets ran after him to touch his
clothes.
Disraeli appears in these pages as Il
melancholy looking man. without much
reading. quoting commonplace and de-
claring that the summit OF heavens
bliss was TO be possessed of $500 year
and live retired life amongst books"
He even wished for an earthquake or a