LORD NORTHBROOK.*

MR. BERNARD MALLET, the author of this extremely pleasant biography, is to be congratulated on several things. The book is well proportioned (a rare quality in modern biographies), it is written with unerring taste, it is graceful, and, above all, it succeeds in giving a clear picture of its subject. The late Lord Northbrook was a true Whig; he had the moderate, "Left-Centre" habit of mind, and this, brought to bear on many Imperial problems at home and abroad, invariably resulted in steadiness and temperateness of judgment. This frame of mind is so much a matter of temperament that one is inclined to think that to have it one must be born 'with it. That is not exactly what Mr. Gladstone meant when be said that to be a.Whig one must be born a Whig; he meant that one must be born a member of one of the great Whig families in which. Whiggism was a tradition and a point of family pride. Recognising that Whiggism in these families was one of the accidents and privileges of birth, Thackeray exclaimed: "I am not a Whig, but, oh, how I should like to be one !" But to be born with the right temperament is quite as important as to be born with the name of Cavendish, Campbell, Russell, or Leveson-Gower. The %rings had the Whig temperament and great riches (not a point to be for- gotten by any means in Whig traditions); and if they have not been so long rooted in the English soil as other Whig families, they nevertheless rooted themselves with remarkable quickness and firmness. Their migration to England was not only much to their own advantage, but to the advantage of Great Britain, which so many of them have since served with great honour and distinction.

The Barings, of whom it has been said that on whatever road you meet them they are distinguished from the crowd, came from Bremen. There Dr. Franz Baring, the great-great- great-grandfather of the late Lord Northbrook, was a pastor. His son, Johann Baring, was the father of Sir Francis Baring, " the first merchant in Europe." Johann Baring settled at Exeter, where he became a prosperous cloth manufacturer, and his son Francis moved thence to London, where, after some slight vicissitudes, he set up a counting-house of his own. At first he worked the counting-house alone without any clerk ; but be made £100 before twelve months were past, and after that he earned the confidence and respect of the

• Thomas George, Earl of Northbrook, G.C.S.I. a Memoir. By Bernard Meilet. With Portraits and other Illustrations. London: Longman' and Co. [15s. net.]

great business firms with wonderful rapidity. Sir Francis Baring, as he became, lived from 1740 to 1810, and founded the great financial house of Barings. He was great-grand- father of the late Lord Northbrook. He bought the estate of Stratton, in Hampshire, from the Duke of Bedford in 1800, and there this branch of the Baring family have since been established. We cannot resist quoting from a delightful description which Mr. J. L. Mallet, the biographer's grand- father, wrote of an architectural rivalry between Stratton and another house. We need not suppose that the Inigo Jones house which was refaced, or rather defaced, in the manner described below had the beauty of the banqueting- hall in Whitehall ; but this sham classical ebullition was surely typical of many of the outrages in Georgian times which are still to be found all over the country :—

" When Stratton was built Sir Francis Baring's portico which is a commonplace sort of thing, very well for a gentleman's house, became a great subject of conversation among the resident gentry, and the praises bestowed upon its classical proportions having roused the ire and contempt of Mr. Henry Drummond, then pro- prietor of The Grange, he determined, collte que codte, to show the country a real portico. His house had been built by Inigo Jones and was of red brick and some four or five stories high, so he made his architect betake himself to pull down two of the stories and to fill up the basement story, and to case the remaining part of the premises in a Grecian Temple built upon the model of the Temple of Erectheus at Athens; perfect and beautiful in all its proportions and with a Doric portico such as is not to be seen anywhere else in England. The cost of this elegant fancy was about Thirty Thousand Pounds, and the effect of it was to turn a good family house into a very bad one, and to feast the eyes of men of taste with a model of chaste Grecian architecture surrounded by terraces and tufted groves. Mr. Drummond is not a man who loves anything long, Lady Emily excepted ; and before many years had elapsed The Grange was to be sold, and the portico which was to shame the taste of the City merchant became the property of the second son of Sir Francis Baring, and probably went for one-tenth of its value in the estimation of the estate. Mr. Drummond has however entailed a great expense upon the present possessor by leaving him a Temple instead of a house for habitation."

Thomas George Baring, the late Lord Northbrook, had one of those minds which mature rather late. He did not distinguish himself much at Oxford, but he was sensible and right-minded in every way. He could not easily have been

otherwise with such a father as he had. Before he went down from Oxford his father wrote to him :—

" Have you ever asked yourself the question what you intend to do with yourself in life ? One portion of the question is

answered for you Your position is fixed—that of an English country gentleman ; and it will be your business in life to do your duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call you Have the English country gentlemen, then, any business ? To my mind no one more. All men are not fitted for the performance of all these duties, but it is in the discharge of some that men of property in this country do their duty to their God, benefit their country, and contribute to their own happiness. For happiness any labour is better than idleness, but

labour in the line of duty is the sweetest It is for you a little to think over what your inclination and talents lead you to in the different branches of your own condition of life. You may look to public life if your feelings turn that way, or you may lead a quieter life and still be a very useful and good man."

The obligation of public service was, in fact, already strong in the Barings. " Young Tom" chose " public life," and in

1848 we find him Under-Secretary for War, and beginning his fruitful co-operation with Cardwell in the great Army reforms which will always be associated with Cardwell's name. Of course the reforms were disliked by society, which then, as now, was very conservative, and by most Army officers ; but Lord Northbrook cared nothing for public or " influential " opinion. He was a true. Whig in this, that he was indifferent to clamour. The late Duke of Devonshire could not have been less conscious of the growling chorus around him. We do not say that to be " born a Whig" is the whole secret of wise administration, but it at all events gives the initial advantage of a kind of proud self-sufficiency. It is better to despise popular anger than to fear it.

As Viceroy in India Lord Northbrook's steadiness proved itself fully for the first time. He was not brilliant in tongue ; he was not engaging in manner (at least, till one knew him well enough to admire his staunch fidelity to his friends); he was not a man of attractive ideas; and yet he was the very man for India, because India could dispense with super- ficial attractions very well if she was not tormented with the experiments of a " viewy" personality. Perhaps Lord North- brook did not always see very far ahead; but there was no

need for him to do so; it was enough that he should decide problems on their merits as they. oecurred. His cousin, Major Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer, was his private secretary, and some of the most interesting parts of this book are information and criticism supplied to Mr. Mallet in Lord Cromer's own words. Lord Northbrook, much helped, one may be sure, by Major Baring, re-established the Indian finances, and showed a handsome surplus every year. No doubt he disallowed some new laws which he thought good in themselves because he knew that the people of India would judge them solely by the fact that they meant new taxes. He saw the danger of legislating too fast. We disagree with his judgment absolutely in his refusal to retain the Income-tax ; but he was an orthodox Free-trade economist at heart, and if

ever he seemed to decline from sound principles, as in his refusal to abolish the tax on Manchester cotton, it was because he conceived political considerations justified him.

Lord Northbrook turned the difficult question of Baroda to good account by reasserting and stereotyping the principle of non-annexation by Great Britain, in which some native potentates were inclined to disbelieve. As for his method of consulting local opinion and experience in India, we cannot do better than quote Lord Cromer's words :—

" 'There can be no doubt that Lord Salisbury's idea was to conduct the government of India to a very large extent by private correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Viceroy. He was disposed to neglect and, I also think, to underrate the value of the views of the Anglo-Indian

officials This idea inevitably tended to bring the Viceroy into the same relation to the Secretary of State for India as that in which an Ambassador or Minister at a foreign court stands to

the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lord North- brook's general view was the exact opposite of all this, and I am

strongly convinced that he was quite right He recognised the subordinate position of the Viceroy, but he held that Parlia- ment had conferred certain rights not only on the Viceroy but on his Council which differentiated them in a very notable degree from subordinate officials such as those in the diplomatic service.'—He remarked, I may note, in one of his letters to a friend: do not look upon myself as a departmental officer, and must judge for myself.'—' Lord Northbrook,' continues Lord Cromer, 'regarded the form of government in India as a very wise combination which enabled both purely English and Anglo- Indian experience to be brought to bear on the treatment of Indian questions.'"

Again, Lord Cromer says

" He positively ordered me to tell him whenever I thought he was making a mistake, whether in great things or small. I may indeed go so far as to say that the point to which I am now alluding constituted the main lesson which I derived from my association with Lord Northbrook in public affairs. In subsequent years when I was myself in a position of greater responsibility I invariably adopted Lord Northbrook's practice, and I may add that I profited enormously by doing so."

In face of the Afghan difficulties Lord Northbrook never wavered in his policy of restraint. If his policy had been continued by Lord Lytton, and a " scientific " frontier had never been heard of, there would almost certainly have been no Afghan War.

We must refer the reader to the book for the story of Lord Northbrook's later career, which was less notable than at one time seemed likely. He split with Mr. Gladstone on Home-rule, and this accounted a good deal for his partial eclipse. At the end of his life we find him, to his own satisfaction, as Mr. Mallet thinks, voting Liberal again on the Free-trade question. His chief defect as an adminis- trator was that he was a faulty judge of men. This failing was probably only a particular expression of his remarkable simplicity. Publicity and ceremony he loathed, and he endured them only because they were inevitable in the public service which he so devotedly rendered. In India he compared himself to a goldfish in a bowl without a piece of mud or weed to hide himself under. He did not ask for credit ; he asked for labour. This is an inspiring book as well as a pleasant one. We advise every one who is interested in English public life to read it.