SIR HENRY COLE'S PUBLIC WORK.* "LIFE," says Emerson, writing on

Surface, and perhaps also writing down to the level of his subject, " is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy." The reader is tempted to think it must be so, after he has worked his way through these two volumes, with their queer and confusing amalgam of autobiography and biography, memoranda., extracts from Fifty Years of Public 1Vork of Sir Hem Cote, K.C.R., Accounted for in Ms Deeds, Speeches, and Writings. 2 vols. London : George Bell and Sons. 1884.

Hansard and Punch, illustrations for children, and carica- tures for adults. They look for all the world like the litter of a busy public man's study or "office," the despair of weak, and the horror of methodical minds. Yet you have but to look at the portrait, or, to speak more accurately, the statue, of Sir Henry Cole, which is given in the first of these volumes, to understand both the secret and the character of the success which he attained. It does not suggest " intellectual " or " critical " capacity, but it cer- tainly suggests "sturdiness," and the self-confidence that comes of "sturdiness." He must indeed have been a sturdy man, who could truly say of the Public Records Commission, the Penny Postage, Railway Reforms, the Great Exhibition, and of all that is comprehensively known as South Kensington, magna, if not maxima, pars fui ; and who could write of one of the most important enterprises, and certainly most valuable speculations of his life in this fashion : —" Daring this period (between 1840 and 1850), my young children becoming numerous, their wants induced me to publish a rather long series of books, which constituted • Summerly's Home Treasury." There is no evidence in these two volumes that Sir Henry Cole, when a young man, sketched out an elaborate plan for a career, and worked it out. He left the Blue-Coat School in 1823 for the office of Mr. (subsequently Sir) Francis Palgrase, in King's Bench Walk, and then drifted into his various public employ- ments, one after another. Sir Henry Cole's personal success as a "public worker" is, perhaps, therefore, a proof that the Duke of Wellington's theory of military battles might be applied to the battles of life. The Duke was quite willing to admit that the plans of the French Generals he beat were better than his own ; but he thought he had the knack of readjusting his arrange. ments to new circumstances more quickly than they, for the very reason that his original plan was not so perfect as theirs. " You can knot broken rope." he said, " more easily than leather harness." At all events, Sir Henry Cole's theory would seem to prove that an Englishman bent on entering the public service may do worse than translate Sydney Smith's doctrine of " short views " into the Duke of Wellington's practice of " knotted ropes."

It is a matter for regret that Sir Henry Cole had not begun his account of his various enterprises before he entered his seventy-fourth year; or that his son and daughter, who have edited these volumes, had not introduced some method into them. They wonld, in particular, have produced a far more readable book had they—instead of filling up a second volume with old reports, speeches, and skits in periodicals —introduced selections from them at the proper places into the narrative chiefly given in the first volume. Thus, how much more effective would the humorous and able speech of Charles Buller on the Public Records question have seemed had the best of it been given in a note to that portion of the auto- biography which treats of this matter ! Similarly, the work Sir Henry Cole did as Felix Summerly for the " Home Treasury " was, in many respects, excellent ; and the illustrations he obtained from the Linnells, Horsley, Mulready, and others, were, as the examples here given of them show, truly beautiful. But we have far too many of them. Altogether, we are bound to say that, whether the fault is Sir Henry Cole's or that of his family, the opportunity for producing a very entertaining, and in some respects stimulating, biography, has been lost. These volumes are indeed enjoyable, but in spite of themselves.

In the beginning of the first volume, Sir Henry Cole enumer- ates the various public enterprises with which he was associated in this order :—" The reform of the system of preserving the in- estimable Public Records of this country, dating from the time of the Norman conquest, and unrivalled in Europe ; my work in ex- pediting the successful introduction of Rowland Hill's Penny Post- age ; the administration of railways ; the application of fine art to children's books and then to manufactures, which led to the transfer of my daties to the Board of Trade ; the Great Exhibi- tion of 1857 and its successors ; the Reform of the Patent Laws ; the establishment of the schools of art and science classes throughout the United Kingdom ; the South Kensington Museum ; drill in public elementary schools as the basis of a national army ; national training-schools for music and for cookery ; the society of arts, and public health." The first part of this story is the most interesting by far ; the last—the South Kensington history, &c.—is the most confused, although it may be observed that Sir Henry disclaims any responsibility for the famone, or infamous, building at South Kensington. His liana-

tive, however, of his labours in connection with the Public Records Commission, the Penny Postage, and the Exhibition of 1851, is thoroughly readable. Sir Henry Cole was then in the full vigour of his powers, eupeptic, indefatigable, thoroughly—if it were worth while to show it, amusingly—self-confident. These volumes show how when working up a national movement Cole spared uo pains, and no machinery of platform, pamphlet, and press to inform—we had almost said to create—a public opinion. The elder Dumas used to talk about writing-up a revolution ; Cole had the art of writing-up—in a perfectly fair way, however—public feeling in favour of any movement in which he had an interest. It is rather curious to find that when it was thought necessary to agitate in favour the Penny Post, Carlyle, who was in favour of it, should have been sounded as to whether lie would deliver lectures on the subject.

Carlyle hesitated before declining, which is perhaps more sur- prising still. It is in regard to what he terms " the administra- tion of railways "—docks might be added—that Cole's powers as an effective "influence" on public opinion were shown to most advantage.

Sir Henry Cole's connection with the Prince Consort was the event of his life. It began iu 1812, when the Prince, " a very

modest and sensible man, with a mild and tender expreseion,"

visited Carlton Ride, which contained the Public Records, then in Mr. Cole's charge. Five years later the Prince and Cole were brought into closer contact, in consequence of the Art manu- facture movement into which Cole, in pursuance of his Felix Summerly mission, had thrown himself. In 1848, Cole approached the Prince by means of a letter to Colonel Phipps,

suggesting and enclosing a draft scheme of a National Exhibition.

The Prince at first was not favourable to the idea, but in 1849, chiefly owing to a conversation with Cole, fell in with it. The Prince and he settled two important points between them :-

" 1 asked the Prince if be had considered if the Exhibition should be a National or an International Exhibition. The French had dis. cussed if their own Exhibition should be International, and had pre- ferred that it should he National only. The Prince reflected for a minute, and then said, 'It must embrace foreign productions,' to use his own words, and added, emphatically, International, cer- tainly?—Upon which I said, 'Do you think, Sir, Leicester Square would be large enough F'—He replied, ' Certainly not for the works of all nations. Where do you think it should be P— I replied, ' In Hyde Park.' "

All that Sir Henry Cole has to say about the Prince Con- sort is calculated to enhance the high opinion entertained of him before, and still more since his death, by the people of this country.

Sir Henry Cole kept a diary of the Exhibition proceedings, and quotations are made front it, some of which are very prosaic, it must be admitted. Here is one of a different sort :—

" 2nd June.—The Queen came with the Duchess of Kent and the two Princes. The Duchess got separated from the Queen's party,' and was told by a policeman to stand back, and 'she would see the Queen pass!' " Again,— " Iflth July.—The Queen and Prince came. In the Glass Collection in the North Gallery, an exhibitor, with much agitation, courted her Majesty's attention to an engraving of an 'eye' in time heavens, looking upon the Prince of Wales, and explained that 'it was the satisfaction' of the Almighty at the coining of the Prinee of Wales to the throne."

Finally,—

" ith October, 185L-109,000 visitors were in the building this day. When at its fullest, 93,000 present, the Duke of Wellington came, and, although cautioned by the police, he would walk np the nave, in the midst of the crowd. He wus soon recognised and cheered. The distant crowds were alarmed, and raised the cry that the building was falling.' There was a rash. Fortunately six policemen had. followed the Duke, and literally carried him off, pale and indignant, • by the side passages, as I saw them when coming out from my office. The crowds upset a stand of French Palissy ware, and the first persons to get out of the building were the sentries. Nothing worse happened, and it was the only accident during the Exhibition.'

The desertion of the sentries has, even now, an ominous look, however.