to Spain at the hand of President Hayes; to prove, perhaps, that the allegation of his muse, "That statesmanship is just a way To dodge the primal curse, and make it pay," has its honorable exceptions. In further justice to Mr. Lowell it deserves to be recorded that he had a very respectable precedent for lending his name and reputation to bolster the administration of the only spurious President in our annals. In an old life of Charles James Fox I have read the following written entry: "1781, June 20. Sold by auction, the library of Charles James Fox, which had been taken in execution. Amongst the books was Mr. Gibbon's first volume of Roman history, which appeared, by the title-page, to have been given by the author to Mr. Fox, who had written in it the following anecdote: "The author (Gibbon), at Brooke's, said there was no salvation for this country till six heads of the principal persons in the administration were laid on the table. Eleven days after, this gentleman accepted the place of Lord of Trade under those very ministers, and has acted with them ever since."" If fame for its own sake, if to live long in the memory of man, be an end in itself worth toiling for, Tilden was to be congratulated upon the decision of the Electoral Commission, for it was the means of conferring upon him an historic prominence which the most successful administration of the presidential office could not have assured him. The poet Martial tells us that the name of Mucius Scævola, who thrust his right arm in the fire to punish it for having taken the life of another by mistake for that of the royal invader of his country, would have found its way to the "wallet in which Time carries, on his back, alms for oblivion," had the avenging dagger reached the heart of King Porsenna, for whom it was intended. So the action of the Electoral Commission has conferred upon Mr. Tilden the unique distinction of being the firstlet us hope the last - President-elect of the United States feloniously excluded from the chief magistracy; a distinction which, like the banishment of Aristides, the assassinations of Cæsar, of Henry IV. of France, of Lincoln, and of Carnot, makes it one of the conspicuous and indestructible landmarks of history. 1 Greater the glory and eke the fame Of Scævola's hand deceived, Had it not missed its patriot aim, The less had it achieved." CHAPTER IV Revisits Europe - Blarney Castle - St. Patrick's Cathedral - Tom Moore's -- birthplace The cabman's criticism- Lord Houghton's story- - General Grant's reception in London Elected an honorary member of the Cobden Club-Visits the home of his ancestry Arrives in Paris Attends the funeral of Thiers - Talk with Gambetta - Louis Blanc's account of his visit to Louis Napoleon when a prisoner at Ham, and of the loss and recovery of his voice in London - The story of General Cavaignac's brother and mother-Tilden's exposure in recrossing the channel - Returns to the United States - The "Indian Corn Speech." DURING the spring of '77 Mr. Tilden began to feel serious concern about his health. The continued strain to which his energies had been subjected for five or six years, and especially during the preceding six or eight months, had told severely upon his constitution. Arthritic symptoms had begun to manifest themselves to such an extent as to deprive him almost entirely of the use of his left hand, and already slight indications were exhibited of the paralysis agitans, popularly known as numb palsy, which was destined to afflict him increasingly for the remainder of his days. His medical advisers counselled abstinence from all serious cares, with rest and recreation. As it was practically impossible to secure either of these advantages in his own country, after much deliberation he decided to try the efficacy of a sea-voyage and a few months' sojourn in Europe. He made it one of the conditions of his going that I should accompany him. We sailed in the steamer "Scythia" on Wednesday, the 18th of July, landed at Queenstown on the morning of the 27th, and slept that night at the Imperial Hotel in Cork, but not until we had visited the castle and groves of Blarney. The following day we left for Killarney. On our way we passed near to what, for Ireland, was something of a mountain, the top of which was capped with a cloud or mist, apropos of which a young Scotchman, riding in the same car with us, quoted the following lines which he said were current in his country: "On Tinto's top there is a mist, And in that mist there is a kist, And in that kist there is a drap, And every one must taste of that." "Tinto" was the name of a mountain; "kist," of a chest ; drap," a tear-drop, a sorrow. The moral that we extracted from these lines, in which Tilden might have found some consolation, was that there is no position in this world so exalted as to be exempt from tribulation and sorrow, and the higher the elevation the greater was apt to be the tribulation. We reached Killarney about noon. After lunch we started for Dunlo gap and the lakes. As we approached the gap we were obliged to do homage to a saucy creature who claimed to be a granddaughter of the famous Kate Kearney, whose charms were sung so sweetly by Tom Moore. Whatever had been the charms of the original Kate, it was very clear that none of them had descended to the granddaughter. Our carriage was equipped with a guide, whom they called a "bugler." Soon after entering the pass he got down and played two or three airs to awaken the echoes in which Moore found the presage in "The answering future" of his own enduring fame. ""Twas one of those dreams that by music are brought, Like a bright summer haze, o'er the poet's warm thought. "He listened while high o'er the eagle's rude nest It seemed as if every sweet note that died here “Oh, forgive, if, while list'ning to music whose breath He should feel a proud spirit within him proclaim, "Even so, tho' thy mem'ry should now die away, Through the answering future, thy name and thy song.'" It was while passing through the pass of Dunlo that our attention was directed to a lake about one hundred and fifty yards long, into which, we were assured by our bugler (as I suppose thousands had been assured before), St. Patrick had drowned all the snakes in Ireland, and did his work so thoroughly, that "divil a snake had been seen in the country since." We were left to infer that the water-snake had not been evolved in St. Patrick's time, for there is no tradition, I believe, of a water-snake being drowned. We passed two other points which Moore's verse has made familiar and famous. One was "The meeting of the waters," where for a hundred feet or so the water falls from one lake into another, through a narrow channel beautifully shaded, and deep enough to admit of the passage of a large boat. The other was "The fairy isle of Innisfallen." We arrived in Dublin in the afternoon of Monday, the 30th of July. On the following morning we sallied forth at an early |
