1871 LETTER FROM SIR M. E. GRANT DUFF 381 



great masses of men. I do not think that your father, if he had 

 entered the House of Commons and thrown himself entirely into 

 political life, would have been much behind Gladstone as a 

 debater, or Bright as an orator. Whether he had the stamina 

 which are required not only to reach but to retain a foremost 

 place in politics, is another question. The admirers of Prince 

 Bismarck would say that the daily prayer of the statesman 

 should be for " une bonne digestion et un mauvais coeur." " Le 

 mauvais coeur " does not appear to be " de toute necessite," but, 

 assuredly, the " bonne digestion " is. Given an adequate and 

 equal amount of ability in two men who enter the House of 

 Commons together, it is the man of strong digestion, drawing 

 with it, as it usually does, good temper and power of continuous 

 application, who will go furthest. Gladstone, who was inferior 

 to your father in intellect, might have " given points " to the 

 Dragon of Wantley who devoured church steeples. Your father 

 could certainly not have done so, and in that respect was less 

 well equipped for a life-long parliamentary struggle. 



I should like to have seen these two pitted against each 

 other with that " substantial piece of furniture " between them 

 behind which Mr. Disraeli was glad to shelter himself. I should 

 hke to have heard them discussing some subject which they 

 both thoroughly understood. When they did cross swords the 

 contest was like nothing that has happened in our times save 

 the struggle at Omdurman. It was not so much a battle as a 

 massacre, for Gladstone had nothing but a bundle of antiquated 

 prejudices wherewith to encounter your father's luminous 

 thought and exact knowledge. 



You know, I daresay, that Mr. William Rathbone, then M.P. 

 for Liverpool, once proposed to your father to be the com- 

 panion of my first Indian journey in 1874-5, he, William Rath- 

 bone, paying all your father's expenses.* Mr. Rathbone made 

 this proposal when he found that Lubbock, with whom I trav- 

 elled a great deal at that period of my life, was unable to go 

 with me to India. How I wish your father had said " Yes." 

 My journey, as it was, turned out most instructive and de- 

 lightful; but to have lived five months with a man of his ex- 



* Of this, Dr. Tyndall wrote to Mrs. Huxley :— " I want to tell you 

 a pleasant conversation I had last night with Jodrell. He and a 

 couple more want to send Hal with Grant Duff to India, taking 

 charge of his duties here and of all necessities ghostly and bodily 

 there ! " 



