THE LATE CARDINAL MANNING.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"]
SIR,—Having read Lord Forester's letter in the Times, in which he relates sundry conversations held between Cardinal Manning, when a very young man, and my aunt, the late Mrs. Mortimer, it occurs to me that the following anecdote, which my father (the late Mr. R. C. L. Bevan) was very fond of telling, may not be without interest to your readers.
My father and Cardinal Manning were at Harrow together, and great school-friends. The latter was a very ambitious boy, and at the age of eighteen used to give my father advice as to how to get on in society. On one occasion, Manning remarked to him :—" My motto is, Aut Caesar, aut nullus. For instance, when I go out to dinner, and the conversation after dinner turns on subjects upon which I am unable to speak with effect, I sit still and say nothing. Then people ask one another : Who is that clever-looking young man who sits at the end of the table and says nothing ?' Then I am Caesar ! "—I am, Sir, &c., E.
[In other words, Cardinal Manning was a clever lad. All clever lads of his day were like that, ready to command the Channel Fleet. Nowadays they all say : " I know nothing, and can do nothing ; so many cleverer than me, don't you know "—En. Spectator.]
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