LORD DUFFERIN.*
MB. BLACK'S Life of Lord Dufferin is an industrious piece of journalism. It is padded out with many observations which have but a remote relation to the subject of the book. But no doubt it is a difficult enterprise to make bricks without straw, and as the official Life of Lord Dufferin is still to be written, Mr. Black was forced to do what he could with poor materials. His book, therefore, can only bridge over an interval of curiosity, and recall to us the attainments and services of a distinguished diplomatist.
Lord Dufferin was born under a fortunate star. He in- herited something of the gaiety and intelligence which dis- tinguished his grandfather Sheridan. But he added thereto a capacity for serious affairs which made him one of the most successful statesmen of his time. He succeeded to his title early, and no sooner had he left Oxford than he was marked out for official preferment. But it was not until 1855, when he accompanied Lord John Russell to Vienna, that he had his first experience of the diplomacy which was to be the business of his life. At Vienna, too, he had small chance of making his mark, but five years later his opportunity came, for in 1860 he was sent to Syria to represent England in the settlement of an Eastern question. There had been a massacre of Christians by the Druses, and the affair was complicated, not merely by French ambitions, but by the deplorable behavonr of the Christians, who, in the knowledge of all, had given the Druses wanton provoca- tion. However, Lord Dufferin displayed an admirable tact in the settlement of the dispute, and earned the profound gratitude of his Government. Henceforth he was assured of a brilliant career, and when in 1872 he was sent to Canada as Governor-General he took with him the confidence of the country. That he succeeded in harmonising many conflicting interests is now a matter of history, and his task was by no means so easy as it appears to-day. Not only was he called upon to settle the rebellion of Louis Riel, and to free the Canadian Pacific Railway from scandal, but he was asked to listen to much disloyal talk concerning separation. But, with excellent moderation, he found the right word for every occasion, and he left Canada the loyal province which we know to-day:- 'No act or word of mine," he boasted in his last year of office, "has had a tendency to damp your personal devotion to the Crown, to discourage your attachment to the Empire, or to discredit the system of constitutional government under which you live. I found you a loyal people, and I leave you the truest-hearted subjects of her Majesty's dominions. I found you proud of your descent, and anxious to maintain your connection with the Mother Country; I leave you more convinced than ever of the solicitude of Great Britain to reciprocate your affection, of her dependence on your fidelity in every emergency."
The speech was not only just, but prophetic, as the late war has shown ; and Lord Granville's statement that "Lord • The Marquess of Deerin and diva. By C. E. D. Black. London t Iiutchin• aon and Co. [16r
Dufferin had created the Dominion of Canada" was some- thing more than a piece of idle flattery.
Lord Dufferin returned from Canada with his reputation immeasurably increased, and in 1879 he was sent to St. Peters- burg as her Majesty's Ambassador. The choice was a high compliment to Lord Dufferin's capacity. The relations between England and Russia were almost unfriendly. Russia
had not yet condoned the injustice, as she thought it, of the Berlin Congress. In the moment of victory she had been robbed, as she believed, of its fruits, and the new Ambassa- dor's task was not a, light one. However, he discharged it with the utmost skill, and two years later he was transferred to Constantinople, where a wise head and a strong hand were imperatively needed. Here he was called upon to find a solu- tion of the Egyptian difficulty, and it cannot be said that he succeeded. His determination was unequal to his fore- sight. The habit of irony and the gift of writing brilliant despatches were too strong in him to be overcome. As Lord Milner once wrote, "he said enough to save his own reputation for clear-sightedness, but not enough to impart to those whom it concerned the full knowledge which he himself possessed." He gave the warning, it is true ; but he gave it so unobtru- sively that it escaped the others.
However, he left Turkey to assume the Viceroyalty of India to a general chorus of praise ; and in India, as in Russia, he faced a difficult situation. The inheritance which Lord Ripon left him was heavy to bear. It is true Lord Ripon had conciliated the Indian population; but he had alienated the British colony, and had left behind him many jealousies, which clamoured for arrangement But Lord Dufferin could only attack the work of reform with deliberation. He at once rejected Lord Ripon's example in delivering popular addresses, whose "liberal ring irritated the Anglo-Indians." And he gradually got a firmer hold upon affairs; he taught the Baboos that their extravagant hopes of a free government were groundless; and thus he won back the esteem both of the Anglo-Indians and of the Mahommedans. His tenure of office was chiefly distinguished by his policy in Afghanistan. He received Abdurrahman at Rawul Pindi, and proved him- self in the Amir's eyes "such a statesman, that a wiser and more clever ruler than he has never ruled in India." He treated the difficulty at Penjdeh with considerable delicacy; he brought a conflict with Burmah to a successful issne; he displayed a proper interest in the question of Army reform; and when in 1888 he left India, he left it with a reputation unimpaired, and with a consciousness of much good work wisely performed.
Yet Lord Dufferin was neither bluff enough nor serious enough to make a diplomatist of the highest rank. There was in him a vein of irony, as we have said, which sometimes spoilt his best efforts. He was, moreover, a man of letters and a wit; he saw the humour of a difficult situation perhaps too keenly, and thought that the form of a despatch was equal to its substance. These gifts are so rare that we would not condemn them for the world, and especially we value the gift of irony, which he proved early, and never lost. In the first speech which he ever made this talent showed itself conspicuously. He was replying after dinner for the landlords of Ireland, and thus he described the class to which he belonged :—
" An Irish landlord," said he, " is an individual who does not get rent—a well - dressed gentleman who may be shot with impunity, the legitimate target of the immediate neighbourhood —a superficial index by which to mark the geographical direction of the undercurrent of assassination—a cause of bewilderment to Coroners and of vague verdicts to distracted juries—a subject for newspaper paragraphs, and a startling text for leading articles."
And referring in the same speech to his agent, he nad no hesitation in saying, " and I do not care who contradicts me, that I think it would be almost a pity to shoot that gentle- man." It is this same spirit which marks Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes out from among the common books of travel, and for good or evil it inspired him unto the end. He would doubtless have been a better statesman without his whimsical talent. But we like him better as he was, and if his speeches and despatches are remembered here- after, it will be because he could put into them something more than bare fads.
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