Sir W. Scott notes: “This letter from Lord Halifax, the celebrated and
almost professed patron of learning, is a curiosity in its way, being a
perfect model of a courtier’s correspondence with a man of
letters—condescending, obliging, and probably utterly unmeaning. Dr.
Swift wrote thus on the back of the letter: ‘_I kept this letter as a
true original of courtiers and court promises;_’ and, on the first leaf
of a small printed book, entitled _Poésies Chrétiennes de Mons.
Jollivet_, he wrote these words: ‘Given me by my Lord Halifax, May 3,
1709. I begged it of him, and desired him to remember it was the only
_favour_ I ever received from him or his party.’” Dr. South, it should
be added, survived until 1716, and then died, aged 83.
Diplomatic Handwriting has been a point of some moment with ministers,
but has been tested in some strange varieties. Lord Palmerston, who was
so long Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was very particular as
to hand-writing, and the style in use in the Foreign-office is
attributable chiefly to him, but partly to Mr. Canning, who laid down
the rule that not more than ten lines should be put into a page of
foolscap. The handwriting of the Foreign-office is peculiar: the letters
are to be formed in a particular way, the writing to be large and
upright, and the words well apart, so as to be easily legible; it is not
what a writing-master would teach as a good hand, and a clerk has to
acquire it in the Office. The Foreign-office has been able to boast of
the best handwriting in the public service; but it is not so good as it
was formerly, owing to the great pressure for quick writing in order to
prepare papers that come down in the afternoon to go abroad the same
evening. A question put by Mr. Layard implied that he had heard of
despatches received from some of our ministers abroad so ill-written
that the originals could not be sent to her Majesty, and copies had to
be made for the purpose. Mr. Hammond, of the Foreign office, states that
this could certainly not have occurred of late years; but he has known
two ambassadors of ours whose handwriting was the most difficult to read
that it is possible to conceive.
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