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biographical study of a. w. kinglake-第18章

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a bore to him if he had been contumacious against the  Holy Father。

Kinglake was strongly attracted by W。 E。 Forster; a 〃rough  diamond;〃 spoken of at one time as a possible Prime Minister。   Beginning life; he said; as a Quaker; with narrow opinions; his  vigour of character and brain…power shook them off。  Powerful;  robust; and perfectly honest; yet his honesty inflicted on him a  doubleness of view which caused him to be described as engaging his  two hands in two different pursuits。  His estimate of Sir R。 Morier  would have gladdened Jowett's heart; he loved him as a private  friend; eulogized his public qualities; rejoiced over his  appointment as Ambassador at St。 Petersburg; seeing in him a  diplomatist with not only a keen intellect and large views; but  vibrating with the warmth; animation; friendliness; that are  charmingly UN…diplomatic。  Of Carlyle; his life…long; though not  always congenial intimate; he used to speak as having great graphic  power; but being essentially a humourist; a man who; with those he  could trust; never pretended to be in earnest; but used to roar  with glorious laughter over the fun of his own jeremiads; 〃so far  from being a prophet he is a bad Scotch joker; and knows himself to  be a wind…bag。〃  He blamed Froude's revelations of Carlyle in 〃The  Reminiscences;〃 as injurious and offensive。  Froude himself he  often likened to Carlyle; the thoughts of both; he said; ran in the  same direction; but of the two; Froude was by far the more  intellectual man。

Staunch friend to the few; polite; though never effusive; to the  many; he also nourished strong antipathies。  The appearance in  Madame Novikoff's rooms of a certain Scotch bishop invariably drove  him out of them; 〃Peter Paul; Bishop of Claridge's;〃 he called him。   To Von Beust (the Austrian Chancellor); who spoke English in a  rapid half…intelligible falsetto; he gave the name of MIRLITON  (penny trumpet)。  His allusions to Mirliton and to the Bishop  frequently mystified Madame Novikoff's guests。  For he loved to  talk in cypher。  Canon Warburton; kindly searching on my behalf his  brother Eliot's journals; tells me that he and Kinglake; meeting  almost daily; lived in a cryptic world of jokes; confidences;  colloquialisms; inexplicable to all but their two selves。

He cordially disliked 〃The Times〃 newspaper; alleging instances of  the unfairness with which its columns had been used to spite and  injure persons who had offended it; chuckling over Hayward's  compact anathema; … 〃'The Times;' which as usual of late supplied  its lack of argument and proof by assumption; misrepresentation;  and personality。〃  He thought that its attacks upon himself had  helped his popularity。  〃One of the main causes;〃 he said in 1875;  〃of the interest which people here were good enough to take in my  book was the fight between 'The Times' and me。  In 1863 it raged;  in 1867 it was renewed with great violence; and now I suppose the  flame kindles once more; though probably with diminished strength。   In 1863 the storm of opinion generally waxed fierce against me; but  now; as I hear; 'The Times' is alone; journals of all politics  being loud in my praise。  But I never look at any comment on my  volumes till long afterwards; and I never in my life wrote to a  newspaper。〃  Once; when Chenery; the editor; came to join the table  at the Athenaeum where he and Mr。 Cartwright were dining; Kinglake  rose; and removed to another part of the room。  〃The Times〃 had  inserted a statement that Madame Novikoff was ordered to leave  England; and he thus publicly resented it。  〃So unlike me;〃 he  said; relating the story; 〃but somehow a savagery as of youth came  over me in my ancient days; it was like being twenty years old  again。〃  It came out; however; that 〃our indiscreet friend Froude〃  had written something which justified the paragraph; and Kinglake  sent his AMENDE to Chenery; with whom ordinarily he was on most  friendly terms。

He disliked Irishmen 〃in the lump;〃 saying that human nature is the  same everywhere except in Ireland。  Parnell he personally admired;  though hating Home Rule; and stigmatized as gross hypocrisy the  desertion of him by Liberals after the divorce trial。  He was wont  to speak irreverently of Lord Beaconsfield; whom he had known well  at Lady Blessington's in early days。  He would have found himself  in accord with Huxley; who used to thank God; his friend Mr。 Fiske  tells us; that he had never bowed the knee either to Louis Napoleon  or Benjamin Disraeli。  He poured scorn on the Treaty of Berlin。   Russia; he said; defeating the Turks in war; has defeated  Beaconsfield in diplomacy。  If Englishmen understood such things  they would see that the Congress was a comedy; anyone who will  satisfy himself as to what Russia was really anxious to obtain; and  then look at the Salisbury…Schouvaloff treaty; will see that;  thanks to Beaconsfield's imbecility; Schouvaloff obtained one of  the most signal diplomatic triumphs that was ever won。 (27)  A  sound ENTENTE between Russia and England he thought both possible  and desirable; but conceived it to be rendered difficult by the  want of steadiness and capacity which; for international purposes;  were the real faults of Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury。  He  repeated with much amusement the current anecdote of Lord  Beaconsfield's conquest of Mrs。 Gladstone。  Meeting her in society;  he was said to have inquired with tenderness after Mr。 Gladstone's  health; and then after receiving the loving wife's report of her  William; to have rejoined in his most dulcet tones; 〃Ah! take care  of him; for he is very VERY precious。〃  He always attributed  Dizzy's popularity to the feeling of Englishmen that he had 〃shown  them sport;〃 an instinct; he thought; supreme in all departments of  the English mind。

Towards his old schoolfellow Gladstone he never felt quite  cordially; believing; rightly or wrongly; that the great statesman  nourished enmity towards himself。  He called him; as has been said;  〃a good man in the worst sense of the term; conscientious with a  diseased conscience。〃  He watched with much amusement; as  illustrating the moral twist in Gladstone's temperament; the  〃Colliery explosion;〃 as it was called; when Sir R。 Collier; the  Attorney…General; was appointed to a Puisne Judgeship; which he  held only for a day or two; in order to qualify him for a seat on a  new Court of Appeal; together with a very similar trick; by which  Ewelme Rectory; tenable only by an Oxonian; was given to a  Cambridge man。  The responsibility was divided between Gladstone  and Lord Hatherley the Chancellor; with the mutual idea apparently  that each of the two became thereby individually innocent。  But Sir  F。 Pollock; in his amusing 〃Reminiscences;〃 recalls the amicable  halving of a wicked word between the Abbess of Andouillet and the  Novice Margarita in 〃Tristram Shandy。〃  It answered in neither 

case。  〃'They do not understand us;' cried Margarita。  'BUT THE  DEVIL DOES;' said the Abbess of Andouillet。〃  〃The Collier scandal  narrowly escaped by two votes in the Lords; twenty…seven in the  Commons; a Parliamentary vote of censure; and gave unquestionably a  downward push to the Gladstone Administration。  Mr。 Gladstone; on  the other hand; cordially admired Kinglake's speeches; saying that  few of those he had heard in Parliament could bear so well as his  the test of publication。

To the great Prime Minister's absolute fearlessness he did full  justice; as one of the finest features in his character; and loved  to quote an epigram by Lord Houghton; to whom Gladstone had  complained in a moment of weariness that he led the life of a dog。   〃Yes;〃 said Houghton; 〃but of a St。 Bernard dog; ever busied in  saving life。〃  He loved to contrast the twofold biographical  paradox in the careers of the two famous rivals; Gladstone and  Disraeli; the dreaming Tory mystic; incarnation of Oxford  exclusiveness and Puseyite reserve; passing into the Radical  iconoclast; the Jew clerk in a city lawyer's office; 〃bad specimen  of an inferior dandy;〃 coming to rule the proudest aristocracy and  lead the most fastidious assembly in the world。

He was not above broad farce when the fancy seized him。  At the  time when a certain kind of nonsense verse was popular; he; with  Sir Noel Paton and others; added not a few facetious sonnets to  Edward Lear's book; which lay on Madame Novikoff's table。  His  authorship is betrayed by the introduction of familiar  Somersetshire names; Taunton; Wellington; Curry Rivel; Creech;  Trull; Wilton:


〃There was a young lady of Wilton; Who read all the poems of Milton: And; when she had done; She said; 'What bad fun!' This prosaic young lady of Wilton。〃


There were many more; but this will perhaps suffice; EX UNGUE  LEONEM。  They were addressed to the 〃Fair Lady of Claridge's;〃  Madame Novikoff's hotel when in London; and were signed 〃Peter  Paul; Bishop of Claridge's。〃


〃There is a fair lady at Claridge's; Whose smile is more charming to me; Than the rapture of ninety…nine marriages Could possibly; possibly; be; … 〃


is the final dedicatory stanza。  It is the gracious fooling of a  philosopher who understood his company。  〃There are folks;〃 says  Mr。 Counse
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