" Mr. Sydney Holland " In Black. and White. By
Viscount Knutsford. (Arnold: 21s. net.) Loan KxL'TSFOaD is no philosopher. Cursed with the physical courage of forty tigers and moral courage more ferocious than decent, he has never cultivated the seemliness of a balanced moderation. Everyday affairs that superior people can view with equanimity, such as injustice, oppression, suffering, curable pain, arouse his ungovernable passions. If you suggested to him that a suitable motto for the London Hospital would be Clough's eminently reasonable Sixth Commandment :—
Thou shaft not kill : but need'st not strive Officiously to keep alive, so little does an aurea Inediocritas appeal to him that he would certainly lay you flat with a rude blow. It is very sad. But Lord Knutsford is not. He has plunged into writing a stout book of Memoirs, and will have answer for the mis- spending of numberless guineas which might have gone to some good object, and it is a book so difficult for anyone to stop reading who rashly begins, that we foresee an infinite number of hours diverted from slumber or other worthy objects. Lord Knutsford begins by dedicating the book to " The man I have known longest and loved most—Myself." We can pass over the claim to have known himself longer than his twin, but his whole life denies the claim of superlative self- love. Again on the very first page he writes that the success of his career is due to his never " being found out." As an excuse for success this is pretty cool effrontery from the most transparent man alive. He even pretends that his desire to prevent pain or cure suffering in others is from self-protective instinct because, like the squeamish coachman in Punch who excused himself from helping to put a worm on a hook, " I 'eaves at anythink." • '
Why rail at an incorrigible sinner ? We may as well Weakly admit that there never was a more chivalrous Christian knight to tilt at the dragons of suffering or such a Don Quixote endowed with a hard head; and turn to his book. There is a good deal of family history in it going back to Sydney Smith on his mother's side and to Cranford charac- ters on his father's. There are the suave, fashionable doctor, the first Sir Henry Holland, and the first Lord Knutsford, a man of outward charm, sterling character, and a refine- ment that made the political arena a weary place for him in spite of his successful public service. As Secretary of State for the Colonies he made a great success of the first Colonial Conference of 1887, and its fruits remain to-day. There is printed here a letter which he received from Lord Salisbury at the time on the subject of the New Hebrides. It illustrates equally the Prime Minister's alarming frankness and penetrating _ political insight, and confirms curiously what we have lately written of Imperial relations since the Treaties. of Lamm°. . The danger of Great Britain involving the Dominions in war is not the only risk to be watched.
We see Wellington under Archbishop Benson,, who made an Unfavourable impression ; perhaps it is overdrawn order to improve the story of the old, boy who called at Lambeth and Was startled by:the, appearance at tbe..d9or.of the sa. me butler who had often admitted .him to be flogged .at school.. The
butler, observing the painful recollections aroused, offered this comfort: " You need not fear anything. We are much better tempered now." Then came Trinity Hall and Ben Latham and • the beginnings of many lifelong friendships. ,Then life in London, and the Bar. Few men trained in the law have so often violated its theories by " taking it into his own hands." Deafness hindered practice at the Parliamentary Bar. Lord Knutsford makes much of coincidence and the guidance of chance or Providence, and he one day casually attended a dock company meeting. This led to his becoming one of the most important of dock directors up to the formation of the Port of London Authority. It also plunged him into the great dock strike. He gives a surprising account of Cardinal Manning's intervention. This is first hand, of course, but very different from the usually accepted view. Work at the Docks (always with intervals of sport in England, Scotland and Norway) and a chance visit to the old unreformed Poplar Hospital led to his first hospital Chairmanship. Though he bad been elected to the " London " Committee, he represents the Chairmanship as coming in the most casual manner through a suggestion made by Mr. Douro Hoare while they were bicycling on the Embankment. If that were all to be said about it, the " London " should at least gratefully adorn itself with a statue of Mr. Hoare. We cannot summarize the vast work at the hospital. Other chapters describe shooting visits to Sandringham and the author's devotion to Queen Alexandra and her work for hospitals and nurses ; visits to Denmark in connexion with the export of bacon or at Queen Alexandra's invitation to see Dr. Finsen's inventions ; interests happily shared with his family ; his War work including the Special Hospitals for Officers. All through good stories crop up, sometimes exciting, as when he began a single-handed fight with three poachers, or amusing. His own wit is not quite so light as Sydney Smith's, but extraordinarily ready. For.instance, when at a public hospital meeting his Committee was challenged with having sampled some sherry sent to the hospital by King Edward, he answered : " Yes, Sir, it is true, and do you suppose for a moment that we would give to. the patients what we would not drink ourselves " Lord Knutsford is seldom profound. here and we hope he will perpetuate some of the real wisdom he has learned. He says truly that the best trained nursing machine is of little use, a nurse " must nurse because the thought of service appeals to her." A short treatise from Lord Knutsford on that subject would be of great value to women to-day. Of course he is, like all who really work for the poor, an advocate of a voluntary against a State system of hospitals. He barely touches on this question here (and mars what he says by slighting references to the C.O.S.). On this he might well write seriously and at length. Another subject is penal reform. He has many curious acquaintances among criminals and tells a. grim and pathetic story of a convici's_ tame mouse. The present writer has heard Lord Knutsford tell that story (better than he writes it here) and enlarge upon theories of penology which would be worth giving .to the public. His hook tempts usto encourage him in a senile cacoethes scribendi. It is meant as a eoinpliment.
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