Review of Ecvicus, 1/12J13. 



NOTABLE BOOKS. 



1013 



his Chief into sending hmi to make a 

 report on some local subject to the town 

 to which they had retired. /\nother time 

 he was sent to Boston to look after 

 some Irish Patriots. He lost all his 

 money, and, penniless, slept out on the 

 common, but in the morning was 

 hungry, entered a restaurant and ordered 

 a meal, wondering if his coat would be 

 taken in pledge for it. The waiters con- 

 tinued to stare at him, and — 



At last one of them approached me and 

 said, " I beg- your pardon, sir, are vou the 

 patriot Meagher ?■■ Now, this patriot was a 

 g-entlcman who had aided Smith O'Brien in 

 his Irish rising:, had been sent to Australia, 

 and escaped thence to the United States. It 

 was my business to look after patriots, so I 

 put my fingers before my lips, and said. 

 " Hush,-' while I cast up mv eves to the 

 ceiling- as thoug-h I saw visions of Erin 

 beckoning to me. It was felt at once that I 

 was Meagher. The choicest viands were 

 placed before me, and most excellent wine. 

 W hen I had done justice to all the good 

 things, I approached the bar and asked 

 boldly for my bill. The proprietor, also an 

 Irishman, said: " From a man like vou, who 

 has suffered in the good cause, I ran take 

 no money : allow a brother patriot to shake 

 you by the hand." I allowed him. I further 

 allowed all the waiters to shake hands with 

 me, and stalked forth with the stern, re- 

 solved, but somewhat condescendingly dis- 

 mal air which I have seen assumed by 

 patriots in exile. 



During the time Labouchere stayed 

 at Washington he seems to ha\e been 

 on the whole an assiduous worker, and 

 to this the number of despatches ni his 

 own handwriting preser\ed in the 

 archives of the Record Office bear wit- 

 ness. 



In later life one of his few ambitions 

 was to have been Ambassador at Wash- 

 ington. That such work was congenial 

 to him the score or so of pages in Mr. 

 Thorold's book which are devoted to his 

 diplomatic career well show. They are 

 replete with amazing anecdotes — as, for 

 instance, when starting on a holiday and 

 finding at the Chancellerie a letter from 

 his Chief awaiting him, he suspected 

 that it would delay his holiday, and 

 therefore calmly put it in his coat-tail 

 pocket. Later he wrote a nice letter of 

 apology, beginning, "Your letter has 

 followed me here," which was, after all, 

 the simple truth. 



He was transferred first to Munich 

 and then to .St. Petersburg, where a story 

 is told of how he got at the .secrets 



of the Russian Government. His laun- 

 dress was a handsome woman, and, hav- 

 ing made friends with her on other than 

 professional grounds, she happened to 

 mention that her husband was a com- 

 positor in the Government printing 

 office. Labouchere found it quite easy 

 to persuade her to pack copies of various 

 French despatches amongst his shirts 

 and collars, and was absolutely 

 astonished when Lord John Russell dis- 

 approved of this way of obtaining in 

 formation, saying, when he told the 

 story : " For what reason, I wonder, did 

 Russell imagine diplomacy w^as in- 

 vented?" Anecdotes abound in this sec- 

 tion of the book ; of them all, perhaps 

 the story of his duel when at Stockholm 

 is the funniest. 



Lord John Russell appointed him 

 Secretary of Legation of the Republic 

 of Parana. Says Mr. Labouchere : " I 

 had never heard of this Republic. After 

 diligent inquiry I learned that it was a 

 sort of Federal Town on the River 

 Plate, which a short time before had 

 shared the fate of the Kilkenny Cats, 

 so I remained in Italy, and comfortably 

 drew my salary. A year later came a 

 despatch, couched in language more re- 

 markable for its strength than its 

 civility, asking me what I meant by not 

 proceeding to my post. I replied that 

 I had passed the twelve months in mak- 

 ing diligent inquiries respecting the 

 whereabouts of the Republic of Parana, 

 hitherto without success, but if his Lord- 

 ship would kindly inform me where it 

 was I need hardly say that I would 

 hasten there." Small wonder is it that 

 his diplomatic career came to an end 

 after another of these practical jokes. 



His next venture was in journalism, 

 and he took shares in the Daily A'ezc's. 

 Proceeding to Paris, he arrived there 

 just before the siege, and as the Daily 

 Nezus correspondent, Mr. Crawford, had 

 his wife with him, Mr. Labouchere in- 

 sisted upon their leaving Paris and al- 

 lowing him to remain there to report for 

 the Daily News, and so became the 

 author of the celebrated " Diary of a 

 Besieged Resident," the substance of 

 which Mr. Thorold gives us in this 

 volume. 



