MEN OF THE DAY. No. 83.

SIR GARNET J. WOLSELEY, BART., K.C.B.

A SOLDIER who has seen much service, who is young and able, who has been successful, and who has been rewarded in full proportion to his achievements, is a phenomenon in the British Army. Yet such a one is Sir Garnet Wolseley. And what is more remarkable is that he owes his advancement and his rewards, not to any family influence or any backstairs prompting, but to himself alone. Like all successful men, he has gained much from Fortune; yet he owes it not to her, for what help he has had from her has been by himself boldly taken, not borrowed or given while he slept. For indeed he has never slept since he began life. Most men might be or might do something did they but seize one chance in ten of those they have, but this is a man who has never missed a single chance. From the time when, a lad of eighteen, he entered the Army, he has adventuréd himself and spent himself wholly in every direction that offered. Before he was twenty he had led a storming party in Burmah, and received a desperate wound and an honourable mention in despatches. The next year he was in the Crimea, where he was wounded again, and would indeed have been left for dead had he not himself loudly asserted his vitality. Hurried off immediately after to India, he was in most of the great battles of the Mutiny, including that which relieved Lucknow. He was in the China War too, and by that time he had already made his value felt to so good a purpose that he had become a Lieutenant-Colonel at the very early age of twenty-seven. A little later he was in Canada, where he soon became almost idolised, and where, after much playing at hide and seek with the Fenian invaders, he established a reputation as an independent expeditionary general by going up the country and back again without the loss or drunkenness of a man. Being looked upon thenceforth as a coming General of promise, he was put at a desk in the Horse Guards as Assistant-Adjutant-General; but even here his restless activity asserted itself in various ways, and by the use of the pen he kept still before the world the man who for the moment was divorced from the sword. Equally at home in the personal economy of the soldier, and the more extended problems of high politics, Sir Garnet (as he now already was) wrote upon both with equal shrewdness and success, as he would have written upon any subject in or out of creation rather than do nothing. A quick, eager man, with a feeling of power, he could not rest, but must ever be asserting his existence, pressing between other men's shoulders, and pushing to the front with the confidence of one persuaded that he shall play a worthy part there. At last his great opportunity came. The violence and lawlessness of the Government had brought about a war on the Gold Coast, Sir Garnet had written some very excellent papers on it, and he seemed marked out in every way as the man who could deal with the difficulty. The Ministry sent him out therefore in the belief that he would organise native levies and make Peace. But Sir Garnet knew better than that, and before he had been a fortnight on the coast he wrote home for British troops and made war. As there was just then nothing in the newspapers, all the editors with one accord clamoured for the immediate despatch of regiments and special correspondents. It was felt that here was a great opportunity for England and the Penny Papers. The country had lost reputation in Europe by falsely betraying France, by submitting to a gross violation of public faith on the part of Russia, and by making a fraudulent bargain to pay tribute to

America. Here was an opportunity to regain all the lost position by fighting a mob of Ashantees armed with seven-and-sixpenny muskets. So the troops were sent and the papers thenceforth were filled with more print than ten Waterloos would have produced. The English prestige has been, as was anticipated, entirely regained by it; and it is now patent to all the world that having burnt Coomassie, we can when we will burn also St. Petersburg or Berlin.

Of Sir Garnet's share in this business there is only to be said that he did the work he undertook to do right well. Heart and soul he threw himself into it, as is his wont. To the Ashantees he was known as "the man who won't stop," and having with him a few splendid troops and a certain splendid officer, he met and conquered not only the enemy, which was little, but the climate, the country, the distance and the time, which were the greatest elements in the problem he had to solve. He has shown himself a great General on a small scale, he has earned thoroughly well the rewards he has gained and to those who cavil at their amount it may be answered that he has received them as an advanced payment for the services which all men look to him to render if ever a really serious occasion should arise.

Sir Garnet is of genial and engaging commerce, modest in private life and popular, of handsome face, of the slight spare build that denotes the hard-worker, and of the small stature that Nature commonly gives to great men. One day he too will be a great man should an opportunity ever be afforded him more real than one created by journalistic famine. For he has greater qualities in him than are yet suspected, or than he has yet had occasion to show. He has time before him, for he is yet but forty-one. Although born in Ireland he comes of an old Staffordshire family, and it is not one of his least claims to judgment that he has brought into this country as his wife one of the prettiest and most charming Canadian young ladies ever imported.

America. Here was an opportunity to regain all the lost position by fighting a mob of Ashantees armed with seven-and-sixpenny muskets. So the troops were sent and the papers thenceforth were filled with more print than ten Waterloos would have produced. The English prestige has been, as was anticipated, entirely regained by it; and it is now patent to all the world that having burnt Coomassie, we can when we will burn also St. Petersburgh or Berlin.

Sir Garnet is of genial and engaging commerce, modest in private life and popular. of handsome face, of the slight spare build that denotes the hard-worker, and of the small stature that Nature commonly gives to great men. One day he too will be a great man should an opportunity ever be afforded him more real than one created by journalistic famine. For he has greater qualities in him than are yet suspected, or than he has yet had occasion to show. He has time before him, for he is yet but forty-one. Although born in Ireland he comes of an old Staffordshire family, and it is not one of his least claims to judgment that he has brought into this country as his wife one of the prettiest and most charming Canadian young ladies ever imported.

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(These charts are for monitor calibration only)

20L

Yale Center for British Art, 2013