MRS. CRAVEN'S REMINISCENCES.*
IT would be hard for the most ardent Conservative to deny that our French neighbours have improved in one respect of late years. They have wider sympathies, and England has a large share in their interest. Excellent analyses of our manners, our laws, and our religious peculiarities have been made by French pens,—of course, more or less guided by the advice and opinion of English friends. Yet the best alien accounts of us are liable to occasional lapse into "travellers' tales," and few, if any, foreign visitors can judge truly where the national shoes pinch, nor can they enter into hereditary feelings as diverse from those of other nations as the leaves of an oak from those of all other trees. Yet a fair sketch of ourselves as " ithers see us" makes good reading, and when it is given by Mrs. Craven there will be more than truth,—there will be in it the charm of art and practised perception of what is beautiful.
* Mrs. Augustus Craven. Reminisc,ences. Souvenirs de France Cl crItalie. Paris: Didier at Cie. 1879. The daughter of that Comte de la Ferronnays who so long re- presented France and the Bourbon dynasty at St. Petersburg, and the wife of an English diplomatist, Mrs. Craven has had intimate experience of many European Courts, and has gained the cosmopolitanism of judgment which governs her estimates of England, where for some time Mr. Craven was on the per- sonal staff of Lord Palmerston, and a man of fashion, when fashion meant more than it does now. And in her description of Broadlands, as she knew it during Lord Palmerston's later career, brightened as it is by the incisive remarks noted at the time in her diary, Mrs. Craven gives us sonic of the essence of English history and manners,—she lets the reader understand some of the secret both of Lord Palmerston's successes and his failures. His imperturbable temper and simplicity struck her not less than his versatility as "chef de parti ;" she could appreciate his love of justice, though he insisted that it should be of the English pattern, and his assertion of English rights, though at some cost to those of other nations ; but her friendship did not lessen her surprise at his ignorance of foreign thought, and his extraordinary prejudices on some subjects. His few words to her on the coup d'etat of 1851, which he thought averted civil war, and his opinion that the Neapolitan prison scandals were probable in any country, if there were no public opinion to check them, remain as hints of his rather cynical opinion of human tend- encies. At Broadlands were to be met, of course, the leading diplomatists of the day ; and among them Mrs. Craven came across M. de Persigny, who surprised her by the frankness with which he asserted, " Ce qui affaiblit l'Empire, voyez vous, c'est de n'etre pas soutenu par lea Legitimistes."
The High-Church movement which has done so much to transform Whig England had little interest for Lord Palmer- ston, and however bitter his antipathy to Catholic doctrines, he remained indifferent to the leaven which was working in the greatest of British institutions. Only once had Mrs. Craven the chance to hear or speak of religion in her experience of the Palmerstonian Broadlands, and then it was from Mr. Charles Greville, who one day begged a special interview with her, in which he spoke with sadness of his doubts and of his craving for faith. " Oh !" he exclaimed, "que ceux qui ont une foi veritable sont heureux ! Si elle pouvait s'acheter h prix d'or, que no la payerait-on pas !" It is hardly necessary to say, as many of our readers are probably acquainted with that blossom of devout faith, Le Rixit d'une &cur, that Mrs. Craven's deepest sympathies are with the religious impulses of her epoch ; so, heartily as she enjoyed the wit and wisdom of Broadlands, as she knew it first, she dwells more affectionately on its later hospitalities. As a preliminary to her sketch of the "spiritual retreat" held there in 1875, she draws for us a picture in which, as in the Leonardo da Vinci of the Sciarra palace, two ladies, of differing charm, are side by side. In one, Mrs. Cowper- Temple, it is enough to say that Mrs. Craven saw one of Francia's Madonnas ; of the other, Lady Harriet Cowper, she concludes her description by a quotation from S. Francis of Sales,—that "if we would be good angels, we must not forget to be good men and good women," or forget that "the trivial round, the common task, would furnish all we ought to ask" of oppor- tunities for piety.
The scene at Broadlands in the summer of 1875 would have certainly amazed Lord Palmerston, who would have as little comprehended the humility with which Roman Catholic prayers were invoked for its success, as the selection of the Americans, Mr. and Mrs. Pearsall Smith, to guide the devotions of the two hundred who, without distinction of rank, were received by Mr. and Mrs. Cowper-Temple for common prayer and encourage- ment in a "yet more excellent way." Comprehensive and optimistic good-will governed the meeting, of which the example was set by host and hostess, who welcomed with large hospitality persons of very different thought. The drawing-rooms were cleared of superfluous ornament, the dining-room was made as like the refectory of a convent as was convenient, and the orangery, furnished with two hundred and fifty seats, formed a place for general meeting. Fine weather was, fortunately, a factor towards spiritual enlightenment, and the charm of smooth lawns, trim gardens, and fine timber helped devotional feeling, and the impressions more or less efficient for good which were received. We certainly are not offended that Mrs. Craven takes occasion to note the different prudence of the older Churches, which desire from their children formal and vigorous acts of will for good, rather than indulgence in psychical emotion as an end. But in this manifestation of that longing for more and fuller knowledge, which is a favourable sign of our troubled times, Mrs. Craven, with her large trust in the final triumph of Christianity, does not fail to see cause for gladness, and quotes approvingly one of those present who said, "On every side there is a religious movement rising like a great wave, which brings to each of us such spiritual graces as our disposition fits us to receive." The article on Bridgewater House is not so interesting, though its kindly apology for Mr. Charles Greville's literary indiscretions, its hints of London fashion in the days of Almack's, its sketches of the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Henry Greville, whose parties were said to be "cream in a Sevres ewer," are touched with the grace and truth of personal knowledge and refined perception. The portrait of Miss Greville, who as Lady Francis Leveson-Gower, and afterwards Lady Ellesmere, was a repre- sentative Englishwoman, is as charming and characteristic as one of Gainsborough's best studies. The contrast between Mrs. Craven and her English friend probably added to their mutual regard, but even now Mrs. Craven records with renewed amusement Lady Ellesmere's proceedings ou a Drawing-room day, when they drove up from Hatchford in a pony-carriage, and in twenty minutes the great lady had assumed the head-dress, feathers, diamonds, and accessories complete, which, "all in one piece," could be put on and taken off like a hat.
Whether her husband's translations of Faust and Hernani had dissatisfied Lady Ellesmere or not, she had the courage to wish that verse could be reduced to prose ; but she was keenly alive to the poetry of English landscape, and the higher poetry of a life spent chiefly, as was hers and her husband's, in the improvement of the great Bridgewater estates inherited by him, and in the creation of Worsley. Mrs. Craven's account of a journey made in a quick barge on the Bridgewater Canal makes us, for the first time, envy the happy people who slide along unconscious of locomotive jerks, smoke, and screeches, which are, as Mrs. Craven thinks, only fit for a witch-sabbat. But then she travelled with the tutelary deities of the canal, for whom it was doubtless duly sweetened and prepared. Again, in her account of Bridgewater House, Mrs. Craven dwells with sympathetic comprehension on the religious growths in English society during her long experience of it, though she does not hide her perception of certain illogical expressions of Anglican- ism, and certain inconsistencies between its confessed aims and the ritual and architectural developments which certainly do not tend to secure them.
From England, Mrs. Craven takes her readers to Italy. It is very characteristic of her that her first consideration, when she sums up her experience of people, is how far they have attained happiness. She supports, in a passage of eloquent praise, M. de Montalembert's assertion that England is one of the brightest countries of Europe, and of the happiest aspect ; yet her enthusiasm is frankly roused by the Italian landscape, by the majesty of Rome, the triumphant meaning of St. Peter's, by the pious and sedate village life, and by the charities of Naples. As in England, Mrs. Craven's remarks on things are given special interest by the notes of her personal friendships ; and, for instance, what she writes of Italian politics is made still more interesting by her account of the wrong-headed, but liberal Count of Syracuse, the uncle of the ex-King of Naples. His death, alone and misdoctored, at Pisa, where his body lay for recognition on the public dining-table of the hotel, is well told, and the pity of the elderly governess makes a solitary ray in a gloom deep as that which fell on "great Villiers." But there is little gloom and no pessimism in these reminiscences, and every page of them reflects a hope and trust that cannot be quenched even when the writer's theme is of death and revo- lution,—and of Naples ! The severest of her criticisms is perhaps contained in a passage which describes a crowd at St. Peter's, but it also makes us understand the serenity of her attitude :—
"L'air eat tout vibrant d'harmonie et de priere' tandis qne sons cette vofite immense chacun passe son chemin. Comme dans la vie, lea nns savent pourqnoi us y sent, ce qu'ils y cherchent, ce Tells sent assures de tronver; lea autres, insouciants, distrait's, coudoient ceux-la sans lea comprendre, sans penser A. lea suivre on a lea interroger, et ne songent qu'a lea rendre responsables du desordre, dont ceux qui s'en plaignent sent eux-memes la cause principale."
Mrs. Craven says nothing harsher than this of the antagonist forces to her Church, for her faith, ardent and reverent, is still the handmaid of charity ; and when her heart expands, as during Holy Week, in devout joy, it most yearns for the reconciliation of those who have not her spiritual happiness. The perfume of the book is indeed its affectionateness, and its recognition of the part that the higher emotions should play in life. In a time when many are-discouraged and indifferent, and many actually deny the central Love, this book comes like violets in spring, that tell the secret of the brown earth, and its capacities of producing beautiful life.
The last portrait in it is devoted to the Duchess Ravaschieri Fieschi, whose courage and energy during the cholera of 1873 were known to Europe. As a young woman, not very strong in health, she shared the impressions of Rome in 1858, which in- spire many pages of this volume. Next year sorrow came to her, in the long illness and death of her only child, a charming little girl, whose best title, however, to our praise was in the effect of her loss on her mother. Hers is the ever-renewed story of the Christian gain by loss, the answer of faith to pessimism, and an illustration of the law by which sacrifice ensures rewards appar- ently out of all proportion to its extent, though in exact relation to its motive. The expressed wish of the child, Lina, turned her mother's attention to the Neapolitan charities, and she secured the revival of many old works of mercy that had been founded in medieval times, and had languished of late. The Duchess Ravas- chieri added and adds the intelligence and experience of her century to the elder beneficence. Her public kitchens, her efforts to im- prove the houses of the poor, as well as the hospitals and asylums to which she gives her care, continue the labours of charity of which, in the year 1500, the Polish Ambassador wrote that he "could not have believed the great number of them, if he had not seen with the same eyes that then guided his pen what he proceeds to describe."
The spirit of kindliness which distinguishes these Remin- iscences may well dispose the readers of them to a like good-will, and though Mrs. Craven may not sufficiently comprehend the antagonism of excellent and wise men to her Church, yet many will sympathise with her evident conviction that all who are not against Christianity are, in a more or less efficient way, in favour of its influences.
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