MR. BRODRICK'S "MEMORIES AND IMPRESSIONS."*

MR. BRODRICK'S first chapter, describing his early home life (at Castle Rising and Bath) and his not very happy experi- ences of various private tutors, are sufficiently interesting, but may be passed over without notice. His second chapter he gives to Eton, where be spent the five years 1843-48. Of this, too, little need be said. The Eton of the " forties " is in some respects a thing of the past, though the circum- stances of the school are such as to make its essential characteristics permanent. The most severe criticism which Mr. Brodrick makes on his old school is one which might be applied with equal force in other quarters. Briefly put, it is this : that the average public-school boy learns nothing even of the subjects to which his whole time has been devoted. "Most of these boys have been under instruction in Latin and Greek for ten years at least; they have been taught very little else methodically; and yet what acquaintance have they with Latin and Greek?" If they have to pass, say, Responsions at Oxford, they have commonly to be coached by a private tutor, who, if he knows his business, does in two months for £30 what Eton has not done in five years for £1,000. And what is the remedy ? We will leave Mr. Brodrick to speak for himself : —" I am satisfied that nothing will keep the rank-and-file up to a fair standard of industry and proficiency except a stern enforcement of the examination test, coupled with a far more effective tutorial supervision,—not in play-hours, but in hours reserved for study." Mr. Brodrick goes on to say some weighty words on the yet graver subject of morals. In his ethical as in his intellectual condition, the schoolboy too faithfully reflects the home. If he is careless of duty, as he is careless of knowledge, it is because he has never seen either treated with respect. One Eton story, cynical as it is, is too amusing to be omitted. Mr. Cookesley, an Eton Master (some of our older readers may remember his edition of Pindar), said to a stupid boy :—" I tell you what it is, Sir ; if you ever show me up a copy of your own verses again, I will put you in the bill. Why, a great strong fellow like you can have no difficulty in getting a decent copy of verses written for him, and if you ever again bring me up one of your own concoctions, I'll have you flogged."

Oxford followed Eton after a delay imposed for reasons of health. Mr. Brodrick was fortunate in his College, for he entered at Balliol. It is not too much to say that whereas now there is a wide choice of Colleges where a student will get all the help that he needs, in those days the chances of finding a really efficient tutor were but small. The writer of this review was not worse off than his contemporaries, but he never had a word of what Mr. Brodrick says was freely

* Memories and Impressions, 18.51.1900. By the Hon. GeorgeCherlee Brodriot.. London Nisbet and Co. [16s.]

given him by the Balliol tutors, " good advice about the choice of books, the method of reading, and the management of his powers." Mr. Brodrick has a good deal to say about the Oxford of fifty years ago and the Oxford of to-day, but it would take us too far to examine it in detail. Here, again, one good story must content us. It is one of many of which Dr. Jenkyns, the Master of that time, ie the hero. The Doctor hated Romanisers, and he despised the Blundell foundationers (sent up from Tiverton School, and sometimes below the Balliol standard). A former Master was under dis-

cussion. Some one asked, What were his faults ? "The Master promptly replied, firing right and left, He was sus-

pected of Romanising tendencies, Mr. Ward; he was a Blundell Fellow, Mr. Jenkins."

Some interesting recollections of contemporaries appear in this and the following chapter. Here we have Mr. Goschen

as a debater at the Union. Few, says Mr. Brodrick, would care to reprint their early speeches. " But," he goes on— "One contemporary of my own, Mr. Goschen, would pro- bably be able to adopt most of his early utterances, bar- ring such exuberances of rhetoric as few of us could wish to be raked up in later years. For he was always a member of the Left Centre, vigorously exchanging thrusts with Tories and ultra-Radicals on either side, and certainly no one of my old friends has changed less during fifty years in opinion and character, than which no better proof of a strong individuality can be given."

This testimony to an early maturity of thought is curiously corroborated by what Mark Pattison, who examined Mr. Goschen for his degree, once said to the writer of this review, to the effect that his papers, besides being nearly double any others in length, were so finished that they might have been printed as they stood.

After a brief experience of the Bar Mr. Brodrick devoted himself to journalism, and was for many years a leader-writer in the Times, to whose columns he contri- buted sixteen hundred articles. He gives us a quite

amazing list of subjects handled by him. Perhaps it will be better to say that it would amaze any one who did not

know how these things are managed. " See, my son," said some venerable teacher, " with how small a joke the ancients were amused," an aphorism which might be parodied by " See with how little knowledge the public may be instructed." "I contend that moat journalists ought to be all round' writers, and prepared to grapple with almost everything that comes to hand." So Mr. Brodrick, and doubtless he is

right. If we wait till the expert comes along the opportunity is gone. How is the wise man to be found in time with the newspaper train starting inexorably at 3.30 a.m.? And happily, in twelve hours everything, be it good or bad, is forgotten. " One event," as the preacher says, "happeneth to them all."

To this period and to the following years belong the story of various attempts to enter Parliament (two contests at Woodstock and one in Monmouthshire, then undivided), and many recollections of society and of more or less eminent personages, political and other. Everywhere we find the same kindly and equitable temper. There are not many good stories, there is little brilliancy of description or vigour

of characterisation. But we see a shrewd observer, who bears no malice and speaks of every man as he finds him. In 1881 Mr. Brodrick found an appropriate sedes senectac in the Wardenship of Merton College, where he bad been a Fellow

for some seven years. It was no sinecure that he accepted. The universal opinion of all who are well informed will bear him out when he says that "no Oxford Head would be respected who did not take an active part in all College busi- ness, financial, disciplinary, or general." But the work is not overwhelming, and it will be the individual's own fault if it is not less troubled or harassing than most human employments.

One somewhat agitating experience, quite apart from the course of academical life, Mr. Brodrick has had. In address- ing a society called the " Oxford University Unionist League " he satirised the passion for the eccentric which characterises a certain part of modern Oxford. An association for abolish- ing the sun and moon would find, he said, many supporters, and went on to say: " We have also already had visits from Mr. H. George, Mr. Hyndtuan, Mr. Davitt, Mr. Dillon, and Mr

Healy, and my impression is that if the Whitechapel murderer could- be identified he would be invited to lecture by an Oxford

club which I could name, if I thought proper." It was perhaps a little clumsy, but only a desperate need of making a diversion and putting adversaries in the wrong could have suggested to the counsel for Mr. Parnell and his friends to treat this utterance as a "contempt of Court." Lord Bram- well, whose letter is quoted at length, thought it "prepos- terous." "So far from saying that the Home Rulers are murderers, you by implication say that they are not;" and he goes on to remark that " Hannen ought to have severely denounced the whole proceeding." Mr. Brodrick after all did not fare very badly in having been accused by Sir R. T. Reid, and acquitted by Lord Bramwell.