GEORGE WYNDHAM.•
IP we were asked to name the quality common to the largest number of men of genius, we should answer Opulence. When we consider • Gouge Wenflha.-12e”gn:Cg. fly Chalks 1. catty, Loudon; Joins Marrity. [7s. ed. act.] Scott or Dickens or Shakespeare, or Mozart or Turner, or Napoleon or Caesar, we think not only how groat they were, but how much of them there was ; we are astonished at the quantity of their work as well as at its quality. With the lesser men we want to see more before we decide. Meyerbeer's laborious economy of material weighs heavily against his chance of being reckoned:amongst the immortals. and our hesitation about the ultimate standing of Edward FitzGerald, or Arnie], or Sir John Moore is due to our doubts as to whether there is quite enough of them to justify their eminence. George Wyndham would have been the last even to think of himself as a man of genius ; but on the personal side, which is disclosed in the present volume, he passes this test triumphantly. His personality overflowed in every direction. He spent himself lavishly on politics, literature, sport, archaeology, and art ; his time, brains, and purse wore at the disposal of friends, colleagues, and often mere acquaintances. We can pay no higher tribute to him than to say that in the frank and genial variety of his character he reminds us continually of Sir Walter Scott. We recognize in him the same cordial hospitality of nature ; the same genuine abundant welcome to every guest that sought Ida roof; the same tactful sympathy with the lonely, the awkward, and the shy ; the same inherent courtesy and thoughtfulness ; the same instant recognition of a common humanity with all classes of society which so endeared " the Sheriff " to his humbler neighbours at Abbotaford. Yet Wyndham was anything but a bustling man of affairs.. " I wish," he once wrote, " that people would think and feel and dream more, and fuss and scold less" and again, " When one is alone, all the other lonely people begin to talk. The Psalmist, shouting out against his enemies in the night, becomes a pal. And everything that lies been said well becomes a masonic grip of secret fraternity." He was a true book-lover ; he wrote of books with the epicurean gusto of Haditt as if they were materially good— good to eat.
As a statesmen and politician he will be remembered best by the Irish Land Aot of 1903, the wisest and most daring piece of legisla- tion, perhaps, that was ever drafted for Ireland, and that only justified its audacity by its success. His conduct of it through the House of Commons was marked by judicious firmness in essentials and conciliatory readiness to receive suggestions in detail, and above all by a sparkling lucidity in his exposition of its moat complicated provisions. Exposition, indeed, was his forte a-
" The Chief," says his private secretary, " once observed to me, a propos of another successful defence he had made in the House, 'Tho best defence is always to tell the story if you can make it clear ; because in the first place, the Government does not really act like a set of idiots, and when it is thought to do so, it is usually because people do not know all the facts ' • and in the second place, if you get your audience interested in the story they forget to be angry.' "
Although George Wyndham was incapable of deliberately wound. Mg any one's feelings, there was a limit to his forbearance, and he could deal effectively on occasion with bores a- " He told me once about some visitor who had come to the house and insisted on reading out loud sensational paragraphs from the newspapers about disasters that had occurred in venous pasta of the country. My plan of campaign,' Ile said, was to 'subscribe j to a disreputable journal that kept up its circulation solely on horrors. Armed with this I no longer dreaded the startling announce- ment at breakfast that a lady had fallen over the cliff at Bans- borough, for I was able to cap it at once with the burning of a hun- dred Sunday-school children us the State of Illinois. In this way it gradually dawned upon my guest that a few mineral trucks off the line at Doncaater was no use at all, when I was ready on the spot with an entire excursion train precipitated from a suspension bridge in Kansas.' " A spice of the same gentle malice and friendly humour is often to be found in his letters, but we can only make room for one more extract. It describes the scene in St. Patrick's Hall during King Edward VII.'s visit to Ireland s- " I stood on the steps and presented each of the eighty-two de-
Cputations. They were to present addressee. But they did anything ut that ; shook the King's hand and marched off with address under arm ; wore retrieved and address extracted. The last touch came when the spokesman of the Land Surveyors touched the tip of the King's fingers, shot the address into the waste-paper basket (into which I threw the cards after calling the names), and bolted at five miles an hotu. Tho Queen was very naughty, and did her beet to make me laugh, so that my next was delivered in quavering tones. Yet the Queen did this in ouch a way as to make every one, including the culprit, feel comfortable and witty. I cannot ade- quately express the kindness and coolness of the King. He coached them in a fat easy whisper, Hand me the address,' and then accepted it with an air and gracious bow, as if gratified at finding such adopts in Court ceremonial."
Mr. Getty: s volume was intended originally for private circulation, and we regret that it wee not thoroughly revised before issue, as its form and tone are not adapted to a wider public. It is, however, the work of an intimate friend of one who had a genius for friendship, and it conveys to the reader not a little flavour of his charm of manner and versatility of mind.
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