412 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES -III 



roan Parliament, and Lord Acton (since professor of his 

 tory at the University of Cambridge), all interesting men, 

 but the latter peculiarly so: the nearest approach to 

 omniscience I have ever seen, with the possible exception 

 of Theodore Parker. Another person who especially at 

 tracted me was Sir Charles Murray, formerly British 

 minister at Lisbon and Dresden. His first wife was an 

 American, Miss Wadsworth of Geneseo, and he had 

 traveled much in America once through the Adiron- 

 dacks with Governor Seymour of New York, of whom 

 he spoke most kindly. Discussing the Eastern Question, 

 he said that any nation, except Russia, might have Con 

 stantinople; he gave reminiscences of old King John of 

 Saxony, who was very scholarly, but the last man in the 

 world to be a king. Most charming of all were his remi 

 niscences of Talleyrand. The best things during my stay 

 were my walks and talks with Lord Acton, who was full 

 of information at first hand regarding Gladstone and 

 other leaders both in England and on the Continent. Al 

 though a Eoman Catholic, he spoke highly of Eraser, late 

 Anglican Bishop of Manchester. As to Americans, he 

 had known Charles Sumner in America, but had not 

 formed a high opinion of him, evidently thinking that the 

 senator orated too much; he had with him a large col 

 lection of books, selected, doubtless, from his two large 

 libraries, in London and in the Tyrol, and with this he 

 astonished one as does a juggler who, from a single small 

 bottle, pours out any kind of wine demanded. For ex 

 ample, one day, Bunsen, Bryce, and myself being with 

 him, the first-named said something regarding a curious 

 philological tract by Bernays, put forth when Bunsen 

 was a student at Gottingen, but now entirely out of print. 

 At this Lord Acton went to one of his shelves, took down 

 this rare tract, and handed it to us. So, too, during 

 one of our walks, the talk happening to fall upon one of 

 my heroes, Era Paolo Sarpi, I asked how it was that, 

 while in the old church on the Lagoon at Venice I had 

 at three different visits sought Sarpi s grave in vain, I 



