Sir Spencer Walpole was an excellent historian and industrious writer.
His first important work, entitled "The History of England from 1815,"
was published at intervals from 1878 to 1886; the first installment
appeared when he was thirty-nine years old. This in six volumes carried
the history to 1858 in an interesting, accurate, and impartial
narrative. Four of the five chapters of the first volume are entitled
"The Material Condition of England in 1815," "Society in England,"
"Opinion in 1815," "The Last of the Ebb Tide," and they are masterly in
their description and relation. During the Napoleonic wars business was
good. The development of English manufactures, due largely to the
introduction of steam as a motive power, was marked. "Twenty years of
war," he wrote, "had concentrated the trade of the world in the British
Empire." Wheat was dear; in consequence the country gentlemen received
high rents. The clergy, being largely dependent on tithes,--the tenth of
the produce,--found their incomes increased as the price of corn
advanced. But the laboring classes, both those engaged in manufactures
and agriculture, did not share in the general prosperity. Either their
wages did not rise at all or did not advance commensurately with the
increase of the cost of living and the decline in the value of the
currency. Walpole's detailed and thorough treatment of this subject is
historic work of high value.
In the third volume I was much impressed with his account of the Reform
Act of 1832. We all have read that wonderful story over and over again,
but I doubt whether its salient points have been better combined and
presented than in Walpole's chapter. I had not remembered the reason of
the selection of Lord John Russell to present the bill in the House of
Commons when he was only Paymaster of the Forces, without a seat in the
Cabinet. It will, of course, be recalled that Lord Grey, the Prime
Minister, was in the House of Lords, and, not so readily I think, that
Althorp was Chancellor of the Exchequer and the leader of the House of
Commons. On Althorp, under ordinary circumstances, it would have been
incumbent to take charge of this highly important measure, which had
been agreed upon by the Cabinet after counsel with the King. Russell was
the youngest son of the Duke of Bedford; and the Duke was one of the
large territorial magnates and a proprietor of rotten boroughs. "A bill
recommended by his son's authority," wrote Walpole, "was likely to
reassure timid or wavering politicians." "Russell," Walpole continued,
"told his tale in the plainest language. But the tale which he had to
tell required no extraordinary language to adorn it. The Radicals had
not dared to expect, the Tories, in their wildest fears, had not
apprehended, so complete a measure. Enthusiasm was visible on one side
of the House; consternation and dismay on the other. At last, when
Russell read the list of boroughs which were doomed to extinction, the
Tories hoped that the completeness of the measure would insure its
defeat. Forgetting their fears, they began to be amused and burst into
peals of derisive laughter" (III, 208).
Walpole's next book was the "Life of Lord John Russell," two volumes
published in 1889. This was undertaken at the request of Lady Russell,
who placed at his disposal a mass of private and official papers and
"diaries and letters of a much more private nature." She also acceded to
his request that she was not to see the biography until it was ready
for publication, so that the whole responsibility of it would be
Walpole's alone. The Queen gave him access to three bound volumes of
Russell's letters to herself, and sanctioned the publication of certain
letters of King William IV. Walpole wrote the biography in about two
years and a half; and this, considering that at the time he held an
active office, displayed unusual industry. If I may judge the work by a
careful study of the chapter on "The American Civil War," it is a
valuable contribution to political history.
Passing over three minor publications, we come to Walpole's "History of
Twenty-five Years," two volumes of which were published in 1904. A brief
extract from his preface is noteworthy, written as it is by a man of
keen intelligence, with great power of investigation and continuous
labor, and possessed of a sound judgment. After a reference to his
"History of England from 1815," he said: "The time has consequently
arrived when it ought to be as possible to write the History of England
from 1857 to 1880, as it was twenty years ago to bring down the
narrative of that History to 1856 or 1857.... So far as I am able to
judge, most of the material which is likely to be available for British
history in the period with which these two volumes are concerned
[1856-1870] is already accessible. It is not probable that much which is
wholly new remains unavailable." I read carefully these two volumes when
they first appeared, and found them exceedingly fascinating. Palmerston
and Russell, Gladstone and Disraeli, are made so real that we follow
their contests as if we ourselves had a hand in them. A half dozen or
more years ago an Englishman told me that Palmerston and Russell were no
longer considered of account in England. But I do not believe one can
rise from reading these volumes without being glad of a knowledge of
these two men whose patriotism was of a high order. Walpole's several
characterizations, in a summing up of Palmerston, display his knowledge
of men. "Men pronounced Lord Melbourne indifferent," he wrote, "Sir
Robert Peel cold, Lord John Russell uncertain, Lord Aberdeen weak, Lord
Derby haughty, Mr. Gladstone subtle, Lord Beaconsfield unscrupulous. But
they had no such epithet for Lord Palmerston. He was as earnest as Lord
Melbourne was indifferent, as strong as Lord Aberdeen was weak, as
honest as Lord Beaconsfield was unscrupulous. Sir Robert Peel repelled
men by his temper; Lord John Russell, by his coldness; Lord Derby
offended them by his pride; Mr. Gladstone distracted them by his
subtlety. But Lord Palmerston drew both friends and foes together by the
warmth of his manners and the excellence of his heart" (I, 525).
Walpole's knowledge of continental politics was apparently thorough. At
all events, any one who desires two entrancing tales, should read the
chapter on "The Union of Italy," of which Cavour and Napoleon III are
the heroes; and the two chapters entitled "The Growth of Prussia and the
Decline of France" and "The Fall of the Second Empire." In these two
chapters Napoleon III again appears, but Bismarck is the hero. Walpole's
chapter on "The American Civil War" is the writing of a broad-minded,
intelligent man, who could look on two sides.
Of Walpole's last book, "Studies in Biography," published in 1907, I
have left myself no time to speak. Those who are interested in it should
read the review of it in the _Nation_ early this year, which awards it
high and unusual commendation.
The readers of Walpole's histories may easily detect in them a treatment
not possible from a mere closet student of books and manuscripts. A
knowledge of the science of government and of practical politics is
there. For Walpole was of a political family. He was of the same house
as the great Whig Prime Minister, Sir Robert; and his father was Home
Secretary in the Lord Derby ministry of 1858, and again in 1866, when he
had to deal with the famous Hyde Park meeting of July 23. On his
mother's side he was a grandson of Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister
who in 1812 was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons.
Walpole's earliest publication was a biography of Perceval.
And Spencer Walpole himself was a man of affairs. A clerk in the War
Office in 1858, private secretary to his father in 1866, next year
Inspector of Fisheries, later Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man,
and from 1893 to 1899 Secretary to the Post-office. In spite of all this
administrative work his books show that he was a wide, general reader,
apart from his special historical studies. He wrote in an agreeable
literary style, with Macaulay undoubtedly as his model, although he was
by no means a slavish imitator. His "History of Twenty-five Years" seems
to me to be written with a freer hand than the earlier history. He is
here animated by the spirit rather than the letter of Macaulay. I no
longer noticed certain tricks of expression which one catches so easily
in a study of the great historian, and which seem so well to suit
Macaulay's own work, but nobody else's.
An article by Walpole on my first four volumes, in the _Edinburgh
Review_ of January, 1901, led to a correspondence which resulted in my
receiving an invitation last May to pass Sunday with him at Hartfield
Grove, his Sussex country place. We were to meet at Victoria station and
take an early morning train. Seeing Mr. Frederic Harrison the day
previous, I asked for a personal description of his friend Walpole in
order that I might easily recognize him. "Well," says Harrison, "perhaps
I can guide you. A while ago I sat next to a lady during a dinner who
took me for Walpole and never discovered her mistake until, when she
addressed me as Sir Spencer, I undeceived her just as the ladies were
retiring from the table. Now I am the elder by eight years and I don't
think I look like Walpole, but that good lady had another opinion."
Walpole and Harrison met that Saturday evening at the Academy dinner,
and Walpole obtained a personal description of myself. This caution on
both our parts was unnecessary. We were the only historians traveling
down on the train and could not possibly have missed one another. I
found him a thoroughly genial man, and after fifteen minutes in the
railway carriage we were well acquainted. The preface to his "History of
Twenty-five Years" told that the two volumes were the work of five
years. I asked him how he was getting on with the succeeding volumes. He
replied that he had done a good deal of work on them, and now that he
was no longer in an administrative position he could concentrate his
efforts, and he expected to have the work finished before long. I
inquired if the prominence of his family in politics hampered him at all
in writing so nearly contemporary history, and he said, "Not a bit." An
hour of the railroad and a half-hour's drive brought us to his home. It
was not an ancestral place, but a purchase not many years back. An old
house had been remodeled with modern improvements, and comfort and ease
were the predominant aspects. Sir Spencer proposed a "turn" before
luncheon, which meant a short walk, and after luncheon we had a real
walk. I am aware that the English mile and our own are alike 5280 feet,
but I am always impressed with the fact that the English mile seems
longer, and so I was on this Sunday. For after a good two hours'
exertion over hills and meadows my host told me that we had gone only
five miles. Only by direct question did I elicit the fact that had he
been alone he would have done seven miles in the same time.
There were no other guests, and Lady Walpole, Sir Spencer, and I had all
of the conversation at luncheon and dinner and during the evening. We
talked about history and literature, English and American politics, and
public men. He was singularly well informed about our country, although
he had only made one brief visit and then in an official capacity.
English expressions of friendship are now so common that I will not
quote even one of the many scattered through his volumes, but he
displayed everywhere a candid appreciation of our good traits and
creditable doings. I was struck with his knowledge and love of lyric
poetry. Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Longfellow, and Lowell were
thoroughly familiar to him. He would repeat some favorite passage of
Keats, and at once turn to a discussion of the administrative details of
his work in the post-office. Of course the day and evening passed very
quickly,--it was one of the days to be marked with a white stone,--and
when I bade Walpole good-by on the Monday morning I felt as if I were
parting from a warm friend. I found him broad-minded, intelligent,
sympathetic, affable, and he seemed as strong physically as he was sound
intellectually. His death on Sunday, July 7, of cerebral hemorrhage was
alike a shock and a grief.