New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-31

estimating the influence of his life. For
one reason or another he has lived in
,be glare Of limelight; as II on the
stage: or almost as il he were Sir Her
bert Tree himself. 1t would be easy TO
draw a contrast between him and al
most any man who owes more 10 him.
self than TO his birth. and TO being
what Mr.. Lloyd George elegantly called
'the first of the litter" But contrasts
and parallels are perhaps little out OF
fashion. Let us take him as he was;
on his own merits; on his own posi-
ton; more or less the product OF CIR
cumstances or of environment. sup
pose may take it for granted that the
main facts about him are known even
IN America, where we do not oVermuoh
concern ourselves about Dukes. we
neither bow down before them, as does
a certain class OF Briton, nor revile
them, as does the eminent Minister
above mentioned. We do not think a
man necessarily good because he Is n
Duke. nor, as does the Chancellor Oh
the Excheauer. who can never let them
alone, inevitably bad. We judge them,
II at all. by the use they make of their
opportunities.
When the name of the Duke or
Argyll is uttered we in America can
not but think first of him who was our
friend in the Civil War; one Of a few
in his position or in any position like
his. He was OF that select company
which included Mr.. Bright-whom the
United States Senate insulted on his
death: Mr. W. L. Forster. the Prince
Consort and the Queen: and Mr.. Dis
raeK. that Tory leader who rendered us
a service greater than almost any
other. while Liberals like Mr.. Gladstone
and Lord John Russell sided with our
enemies. Those of US who knew OF
these things as they happened cannot
forget them, and l hope those who
know them only as matters OF history
do not forget them, either.
Nor can forget that l heard from
that Duke of Argyll one Of the greatest
speeches which I or anybody else ever
listened to. When the late Lord Lytton
came back from India 10 give an ac-
count of his ice-royalty and of that
meddesome and mschievous Afghan
policy which wellnigh brought disaster
TO English rule in India and elsewhere,
/ heard his apologize in the House OF
Lords: a very ingenious, very rhetorical
and altogether perfidious version of his
policy. The Duke of Argyll answered
him, and when the Duke sat down, at
the end Of an hour, Lord Lytton as a
political force had ceased to exist.
There was a scene at the Albert Hall
in which memories of father and son
blend: and of the sons wife. II was the
wonderful opening ceremony in 1871,
when the Queen and one of the most
splendid companies ever assembled
dedicated the building to public uses.
Three days before, the Princess Louise,
fourth daughter Of Queen Victoria, had
been married to the then Marques of
Lorne, eldest son of the eighth Duke
of Argyll. From the entrance of the
hall to the stage had been built over
the arena a broad causeway, along
which advanced the procession of Roy
alties, the Queen at the head The
Prince of Wales was with his mother;
others of the family in their due or
der: the Princess Louise with her
brothers and sisters next TO the Queen,
but husbandless.
The procession was so long that the
Queen and the royal family had passed
on the stage before the end Of it had
entered the hall. And at the end, in the
last rank but two, unnoticed and to
the eyes Of the vast audience regarding
the Queen, invisible, amid a throng Of
ords-in-waiting and equerries, came
Lord Lorne. In the stage box on the
right of the grand circle sat, with Mr..
Gladstone and other ministers, Lord
LOrne's father. the Duke of Argyll. one
of the proudest men in Great Britain.
and almost the first of the great mobiles
of Scotland, looking down at this singu-
lar spectacle in which his son played
so humble a part. / thought / saw on
the Dukes face the look of anger and
perhaps humiliation which you would
expect TO see. Yet when he gave his
assent TO the marriage he we'll knew
the gulf which lay between his son ard
the royal family into which he entered
knew that he would be in it, but not
of il.
Very unlike were father and son. The
father was a man vino so bore him.
self that YOU always thought of him as
the Highland Chieftain. lie was not in
height among the giants but of a moral
stature and pride of port which made
him their equal. He carried himself
with dignity which at moments was
almost arrogant. The head was power
full. eagle-featured, with a plume Of
sandy hair floating above it, and eyes
which at first challenged everybody
on whom they looked: then softened
and grew kindly. At one of Mr.. Cyrus
Fields breakfasts in London sat op-
posite the Duke and could study him:
but his was face which told its story
at a glance. He had way of tossing
his head impatiently as he talked which
set the sandy plume waving till YOU